What Caught My Eye Today

India - The largest democracy on Earth has itself a new toy. India joined an elite club of six nations last week with the launch of its own nuclear-powered submarine. INS Arihant (Destroyer of Enemies) begins trials this week with its builders slating 2015 as the date for the commissioning of the 6,000-tonne vessel with a 85-megawatt nuclear reactor. The Arihant is a key part of a highly ambitious military modernization program by India, which hiked its military budget in the current financial year by 24% to 28.4 billion dollars. While Pakistan was the first to react, many analysts feel development of the Arihant is aimed more at countering the threat from the region's undisputed naval power, China. Okay, let's take this one point at a time. First off, the other five nations is this little fraternity are: United States, United Kingdom, Russia, France and China. Next, "Destroyer of Enemies"--that's a little provocative for the name of a nuclear-armed submarine, don't you think? Commissioning in 2015? I don't know a lot about nuclear submarines, but that seems like an awfully long time to be tested a sub isn't exactly new (India bought an existing sub from Russia and basically modified it). And lastly, I don't see why Pakistan is all bent out of shape over this. India launching a sub that might be seaworthy in 6 years hardly seems like the most pressing issue that Pakistani government needs to worry about right now.

Economy - This just in. The global economic meltdown shows little signs of recovery, and the queen is wants some answers. Seriously. A group of eminent economists have apologized to Queen Elizabeth II for failing to predict the financial crisis after she demanded, during a visit to the London School of Economics last November, to know why nobody had anticipated the credit crunch. the letter says that says "financial wizards" who believed that their plans to manage risky debts and protect the financial system were infallible were guilty of "wishful thinking combined with hubris." Huh? Maybe the rest of the letter makes more sense. "In summary, your majesty, the failure to foresee the timing, extent and severity of the crisis and to head it off, while it had many causes, was principally a failure of the collective imagination of many bright people, both in this country and internationally, to understand the risks to the system as a whole." Buckingham Palace declined to comment on the correspondence. I can see why. It hardly seems worth it to respond to a 3 page letter that basically says, "I don't know". Still, I challenge anyone to say that the Queen of England doesn't wield at least some measure of power in this day and age. I bet you, she was just wondering out loud about the failure to predict this mess, and look what she got in response. That's pretty impressive in my book. A complete waste of time, but impressive, nonetheless.

Cricket - I want to give a shout out my main man Rod for attempting to explain some of the finer points of this most fascinating sport. I still don't really get it, but that isn't Rod fault. At any rate, I'm pretty sure that the third Test of the biennial Ashes competition between England and Australia got underway today, and if I'm not mistaken, Australia opened up a can of whoop-ass on the English squad. Australia made a confident start in the third Ashes Test against England leading 126 for 1 on a rain-disrupted first day. Australia is looking to level the series following their 115-run defeat in the last Test. Sounds like a whoop-assing to me. Rod--if you are out there--can I get a ruling on this?

Cycling - Yes, yes. I'm painfully aware that the Tour de France ended this past Sunday, but I have the sneaking suspicion that most folks reading this may not be the avid grand cycling tour fan that I am, so this will probably be new to you anyway. Astana rider Alberto Contador won the Tour de France in convincing fashion by more than 4 minutes over his closest rival. My boy, Lance Armstrong took third place almost 5 and a half minutes behind his teammate. Of course the real news (sadly) was the snick that these guys got into after the race was concluded. Armstrong also announced that he was launching a team US-based team sponsored by RadioShack and that he will be riding for RadioShack in the 2010 Tour de France. Shockingly, no invitation was extended by Armstrong to Contador to join the new team. And that concludes this year's coverage of the Tour de France. Next up, the Vuelta de Espana in September. I can barely contain my excitement.