Formula One to amend safety car rules

Formula One's governing body has moved to amend the sport's safety car rules after Michael Schumacher was penalised for an overtaking move at last weekend's Monaco Grand Prix.

The International Automobile Federation (FIA) said in a statement on Thursday that there was "a lack of clarity" in the application of a rule prohibiting overtaking when the safety car was deployed on the last lap of a race.

"Adjustments to the regulations are necessary to clarify the procedure that cars must meet when the last lap is controlled by the safety car whilst also ensuring that the signaling for teams and drivers is made more clear," it added.

"The Formula One Commission, upon a proposal of the F1 Sporting Working Group will submit an amendment to the sporting regulations to address this issue."

The FIA said the amendments would be considered by its World Motor Sport Council at a meeting in Geneva on June 23.

Seven times world champion Schumacher overtook Ferrari's Fernando Alonso for sixth place at the final corner of the race moments after the safety car had turned into the pit lane.

The Mercedes driver, making a comeback this season at the age of 41, was then handed a 20 second penalty which demoted him to 12th.

Mercedes had planned to appeal the penalty but said on Tuesday they had decided not to in the best interests of the sport.

The team argued that while the rules state that no overtaking is allowed if a race finishes under safety car conditions, that was not apparent in Monaco with marshals waving green flags while race control sent messages declaring the track to be clear.

'Wow' Aluminium bats hit Indian cricket

Get over mongoose and double blade bats as its time for eco-friendly 'Wow' aluminium bats to further revolutionise cricketing in India. Brain-child of an Indian IIT engineer, Wow aluminium bats are the latest innovations to hit tennis ball cricket and will be formally unveiled in the capital on May 21, while those to be used by leather ball cricket would be introduced three months later.

"Wow! Aluminium bats are made using aeronautical grade aluminium. Each machine-made bat is balanced so as to produce a perfect piece," said IIT Roorkee alumni Vivek Lakhotia, who is the designer and innovator of the bat.

Placed within the factory price range of Rs 500-800, Wow aluminium bats weighs less than the wooden bat and have a life which is at least five times more than a wooden cricket bat, Lakhotia said. These eco-friendly bats use recycled aluminium and will help save willow trees of Kashmir currently used in making of cricket bats, he added.

Lakhotia has also applied for four patents of the bat - cutting edge design, process, actual product and the innovation itself. "Patents, once granted will help in protecting the design and product from being copied by others", said Diljeet Titus, senior partner of law firm Titus and Co and general secretary of Policy Planning Group (PPP) under whose aegis the launch is being organised.

"It is a very good bat and all my wards have come up with good response to the bat. They said it doesn't feel like they are playing with an aluminium bat as they can play all their strokes easily with this latest bat," said Mansoor Baig, secretary of Rajasthan Tennis Ball cricket Association.

The Wow aluminium bat can also be used for training purposes by different age-groups as it provides the option of setting the bat at a preferable weight by putting extra grams. "Some players want to train with a light bat while some prefers heavy bats like Sachin Tendulkar. It can be used for both purposes as one can add extra weight to the bat and make its bottom heavy or light," Lakhotia said. Lakhotia has already given bats for testing to the various State Association.

"It is very good and the weight is also same as the wooden bat. I am very satisfied with it and I think it is a great concept. Since the boys have been using it for a few days now, I think within the next two months they would get more accustomed with the bat," said Mohd Latif, International co-ordinator of Tennis Ball Cricket Federation Of India.

Agrees Secretary of Delhi Tennis ball cricket Association, Usman Siddique. "It is a good creation and the first impression has been positive from the kids. We have a junior national camp here from May 25. I think the boys will get a better feel of the bat during the camp," said Siddique.

It was one-year ago that Lakhotia, who manages an aluminium company, had thought of this idea which can help young cricketers and lovers of the game to make a contribution to the environment.

"Around 25 crore children and adults in India play this game. There are 5000 tournaments of tennis ball in a year in India and if they continue to play with the wooden bat, it will lead to deforestation soon. I feel Aluminium bat will at least give everybody a chance to contribute to the environment by using an eco-friendly product," he said.

What are India’s greatest unsolved mysteries?

(1)That Aryans invaded India or not? Some believe that Dravids were the original inhabitants of India, which were then pushed to the South because of Aryan invasion. There is no proof to this theory. However some historians support it.

(2) There is evidence that Shah Jahan did not built Taj Mahal.Some say the Taj Mahal pre-dates Shah Jahan by several centuries and was originally built as a Hindu or Vedic temple/palace complex.
Shah Jahan merely acquired it from its previous owner, the Hindu King Jai Singh.

(3) The Adam's Bridge is also an unsolved mystery. NASA said it is nothing more than a long chain of sandbanks. However some believe it was built during Ramayana's era.

De-clutter your digital life

We've got multiple e-mail ids, social networks, blogs, e-calendars, phone contacts and online bills coming out of our ears and screen after screen after screen of computer stuff to back up, share and sync. "We're drowning in information," says Douglas C Merrill, former chief information officer for Google, a Ph.D in cognitive science and someone who helps people manage digital clutter.

Merrill, struggled with dyslexia as a kid, so de-cluttering - digital and otherwise - is a huge priority for him, so much that he has written a book on the subject with James Martin, Getting Organized in the Google Era. Merrill offers tips to declutter digital life.

Search, don't fileAbandon the notion of "filing" and "folders" as a way to alleviate anxiety over a messy computer desktop, Merrill says. Folders, the paper and digital kind, must be maintained, and your brain must remember what you have put in them. "The problem is we never find the information we've stored, so we wind up with folders and folders we don't know what to do with.

Search can set us free from the clutter of our imperfect minds by allowing us to get a little messy." No time is lost on meticulously filing and hunting for folders when well-defined searches are used. Simple tools such as Google Desktop or Spotlight allow you to search with the same ease you enjoy for the Web. Quicksilver is popular with geeks.

Some paper is okYou would think Mr Google would have no use for paper. Not true. "Paper's great for certain things," Merrill says. He plasters huge sheets on his walls when he's brainstorming a big idea. They're easy to move around as his thoughts firm up. "The idea of a paperless office has been bounced around for three decades. But paper is still very important," he concludes with a smile.

9 ways to declutter

Ban cables and clutter from your desktop


Automate your folder and file organisation


Clean up your contacts


Compact and manage social network alerts


Clean up your hard drive


Free up space in Gmail


Pack a more efficient laptop


Use dropbox - for almost everything


Build yourself Gmail filters

Reisman's Self-Portrait

NASA astronaut Garrett Reisman takes a self-portrait visor while participating in the first of three spacewalks scheduled for the Atlantis crew and their Expedition 23 hosts. Though three spacewalks will involve only three astronauts (two on each occasion) who actually leave the shirt-sleave environments of the two docked spacecraft, all twelve astronauts and cosmonauts have roles in supporting the work. Part of the space station and the blue and white Earth are among the objects seen in his visor. Fellow spacewalker Steve Bowen, mission specialist, is out of frame.