Connectors: Notes on Session 11 of TED2024
1 week ago
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Saturday, July 19, 2008
World Golf Rankings Explained- How the System Works
(From January 1 2007)
The Official World Golf Ranking, which is endorsed by the four Major Championships and the six professional tours which make up the International Federation of PGA Tours, is issued every Monday, following the completion of the previous week’s tournaments from around the world.
The official events from the six professional tours together with the Canadian, Nationwide and European Challenge Tours are all taken into account and “Ranking Points” are awarded according to the players’ finishing positions and are generally related to the strength of the field based on the number and ranking of the Top-200 World Ranked players and the Top-30 of the Home Tour players in the respective tournaments (Event “Rating Values”). However, the four Major Championships are rated separately to reflect the higher quality of the events together with the Players Championship in the United States. In addition, the BMW PGA Championship in Europe, the Australian, Japan and South African Open Championships and the Flagship events on the Asian and Nationwide Tours are allocated higher minimum points levels to reflect their status.
The World Ranking Points for each player are accumulated over a two year “rolling” period with the points awarded for each event maintained for a 13-week period to place additional emphasis on recent performances – ranking points will then be reduced in equal decrements for the remaining 91 weeks of the two year Ranking period. Each player is then ranked according to his average points per tournament, which is determined by dividing his total number of points by the tournaments he has played over that two-year period. There is a minimum divisor of 40 tournaments over the two year ranking period.
The winners of the Masters Tournament, the US Open Championship, the Open Championship and the PGA Championship are awarded 100 points (60 points for 2nd place, 40 for 3rd, 30 for 4th down to 1.50 points for a player completing the final round), and the winner of the Players Championship is awarded 80 points (points are awarded down to 1.20 points for 60th place and ties). The BMW PGA Championship has a minimum 64 points for the winner (points to 56th place). Minimum points levels for the winners of official Tour events have been set at 6 points for the Canadian Tour (points to 6th place), 12 points for the European Challenge Tour (points to 14th place), 14 points for the Asian, Sunshine and Nationwide Tours (points to 17th place), 16 points for Australasian and Japanese Tours (points to 19th place) and 24 points for European and the United States Tours (points to 27th place). In addition the Open Championships of Australia, Japan and South Africa have a minimum of 32 points for the winner (points to 37th place) and the Flagship events on the Asian and Nationwide Tours have a minimum of 20 points for the winner (points to 22nd place). In the cases of co-sanctioned Tour events, the minimum points levels are determined using the “average” of the minimum Tour ranking points from each Tour (rounded up to nearest whole number).
Points are reduced by 25% for tournaments curtailed to 36 holes because of inclement weather or other reasons.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Monday, July 14, 2008
Magna Carta
A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg
Magna carta
PRONUNCIATION:(MAG-nuh KAHR-tuh)
MEANING:noun: A document or a law recognizing basic rights and privileges.
ETYMOLOGY:From Latin magna carta (great charter). After Magna Carta, a charter of political and civil liberties that King John of England was forced to sign on June 15, 1215. It was revised several times over the years, and it became an important symbol, establishing for future generations that there were limits to the royal powers.
USAGE:"A magna carta for industry development recognizing that 'small and medium enterprises are the dominant constituent of the industry' is an absolute necessity."
Integrated Approach Needed For Construction Industry; The Island (Colombo, Sri Lanka); Jun 18, 2008.
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:Invention requires an excited mind; execution, a calm one. -Johann Peter Eckermann, poet (1792-1854)
The Obama Effect- Will it bring peace to the Middle East?
As one listens to McCain publicly expound his plans for America, one can't help to feel a weary, tired and dog eared undertone lacing the 'straight talk' delivering. Do the American voters feel it too? and what about the rest of the world? do they feel it? does that then explain the 'hurried' flurry of activity behind the scenes from various nations east, west, south and north that have been affected somewhat by the US of A on both the friendly and foe sides of the rail track? the slow realisation that something called change that has been busy behind the scenes is about to rear its head, the inevitability of a dawning change in focus of the US of A's foreign policy after the presidential elections, perhaps the endless question marks posed by the young relatively inexperienced junior senator from Illinois's seeming ascension to the US presidency and his ideas of what the world should be.
Perhaps the sudden importance of the re-emergence of an ultra-confident Putin Russia on the scene with far much potential wealth in natural resources and future world power, the emergence of powers from unlikely billion plus populated nations like China and India whose basic approaches to life in general by applying the cheapest possible technologies after reverse engineering have materialised by leaps and bounds, perhaps by the weakening of the Western economies with no end in immediate sight and the slow grind of high oil prices bringing the west and world to their respective knees. Little Zimbabwe on the other end shows its pride by saying punish us if you may, starve us if you may but the land is ours and the worst that can happen to us is poverty while it tries to pretend away violent elections, the western fear: will this catch on in the minion nations of the rest of the world, this national pride above all.
It was easier in olden times, the then so called empires would simply send an 'explorer' to charm the pants of a weak foreign chief or simply militarily invade someones rich in natural resource land, either way the empires of the west would cart home every raw material of their fancy including humans with little cost to themselves...., those days are long gone as we witness the world effectively ignoring powers such as the US, as we witness the weakening of information gathering by the west on the world impacting on their decision making, we note growing global boldness in world condemnation of old empire style military invasions such as the Bush/Blair Iraq invasion, we see the ease of information gathering by the outside world by manipulating (hacking) online data storage's of the main players while someone sits on a simple computer thousands of miles away, the spread of hitherto privileged technology around the world and the labeling of nations such as Iran and North Korea as being part of the 'axis of evil' due to their possession of this hidden craft of the powers- nuclear technology.
All the time the shifting sands carry us along with them, the inevitability of change looms as it always has, that inevitability that weakened the Inca empire, the Pharaohs of Egypt and such powers of the distant past that did not adapt fast enough to the changes of the world. Change is manifested in Sarkozy in France as he takes over the leadership of Middle East peace initiative through the EU (ref: Mediterranean Union Launches Amid Hopes for Peace Europe ...) , Assad of Syria, Iran, the bold freedom fighters now still 'terrorist' bodies in Palestine and Lebanon, the emerging powerful nation bloc in South America that has successfully eased Cuba out of the US sanctions, the people powers of China and India, the new Oil powers around the world, the inevitable change that is troubling the Brown government, a good man caught up in a 'doable' job at the wrong time, and of course the possibility of Obama becoming the president of the US.
Times are changing and the wise old men and intelligentsia are adapting to it behind the scenes at a frantic pace, all you need to see is the new posturing of Israel, a fundamental player within the Mideast peace, the voting patterns in the United States, the changing of the guard around the world- the new leaders of Latin America ( Colombia's Uribe, Chavez, Lula in Brazil etceteras), the world still has hope after all, peace may come sooner that we anticipate, we live in exciting times, the redistribution of wealth currently taking place is phenomenal, India is riding on a wave of merchantable high IQ's- business world mercenaries as it were cheaper to hire for good quality results, the middle east is swimming in oil money, China's success is built on a dizzying mixture of an empowered law of large numbers, hard work, ambition, control etc, Africa in the meanwhile glows in a new sense of pride and realisation that we are much more than slaves attitude characterised by Tanzania's Kikwete.
The world is changing and its a darn lot harder for the bigger more established brothers to change direction, as per Newtons first law of motion, an object continues to move in the same direction and at the same speed unless compelled by an external force to act otherwise. That external force that's forcing the change in foreign policy in the main powers of the west is that the rest of the world is moving along without them, and how do you rein in a huge ship that no longer depends on you? re-energise unity in the UN? invite more emerging powers to the G8? spread the global love before a massive growing bloc isolates the West? In the meanwhile a surprised and unprepared Ban Kyi Moon struggles at the helm of the United Nations caught in at the vortex of the shifting sands, changing times call for great men, will he rise to the occasion?
We live in exciting times and we are in the midst of an unprecedented changing of the guard in the whole world, a new breed of leadership representative of the current population's thinking, standing still wont save you from the new world order, neither will burying your head in the sand or ignoring the situation, ironically only changing intelligently and with purpose to accommodate the massive changes within us will determine your greatness or smallness. What are you going to do about it?
- By Zagwazatha Kapito
All things must change to something new, to something strange. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow US poet (1807 - 1882).
Wednesday, July 09, 2008
Malawi Radio Online (Capital Radio Malawi 102.5) - Link below
http://www.capitalradiomalawi.com/daybreak.htm
Daybreak Malawi - An early morning radio prog in Malawi with a complete range of the latest news, views and interviews from across the country. You can now listen to daily recordings of Daybreak Malawi Online and keep abreast with what is going on in Malawi.
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