Vettel hails 'incredible year'!

Sebastian Vettel stopped short of conceding what he has achieved this season is magical, but under the lights of Singapore he was certainly dazzling.

Vettel produced another stunning drive to claim his ninth win this year, 19th of his career, and 15th from pole - the latter statistic drawing him level alongside the legendary Jim Clark. The 24-year-old led every single lap of the race to leave him one point shy of becoming the youngest back-to-back and double world champion in Formula One history.

Asked if this season was a magical one, Vettel said: "Magic? I don't know, maybe for some people. It has been an incredible year for us, an incredible record for both of us (team-mate Mark Webber) in terms of reliability."

He added: "We have had no problems with the car, the engine has been perfect from start to finish, so touch wood, nothing has gone wrong so far this year.

"It does need a lot of small things to come together to make sure you have an incredible season like we have had so far.

"It's been very enjoyable. Everyone has been extremely disciplined in a way, target-orientated and we've all enjoyed it.

"Those things sum it up pretty well, but of course we hope to carry on like that, carry the momentum into the next races, and into next season as well."

Not even a safety car for a crash involving seven-times champion Michael Schumacher in his Mercedes, at a time when Vettel held a 19-second cushion over Jenson Button on lap 30, halted his charge.

Come the end, Button finished just 1.7secs adrift, although Vettel insisted he was "in control" of the situation.

Behind the leading duo Red Bull's Mark Webber was third, Fernando Alonso fourth, whilst Lewis Hamilton was fifth after yet another incident involving Felipe Massa.

7aum Arivu rights

Suriya starrer 7aum Arivu’s Kerala rights have been sold for 2.50 crores. Tamil films are immensely popular in Kerala and are doing good business at the Kerala box office. Mankatha, Endhiran etc found good response in Kerala and now 7aum Arivu is all set to join the bandwagon.

7aum Arivu is directed by AR Murugadoss and produced by Udayanidhi Stalin. The film is slated to be released on October 26^th for Diwali. The audio of 7aum Arivu was launched recently and the songs are turning out to be chartbusters.

Tendulkar's suggestion for ODIs is worth experimenting: Dravid!

Sachin Tendulkar's suggestion to revamp the ODIs by splitting the format into four innings of 25 overs each may have been rejected by the ICC, however, Rahul Dravid has shown his support to the idea. "It is interesting (suggestion). I don't know why the ICC has rejected it (Tendulkar's suggestion via a letter to ICC), but it's a good idea that Sachin has given and is worth experimenting," Dravid said on Wednesday.

"It has been tried out in Australia (in domestic cricket) and the plus and minus points should be looked into," he added. Tendulkar had written a letter to the ICC to change the format of the ODIs from two innings of 50 overs to four of 25 overs like a Test match but the world council's Chief Executive Haroon Lorgat had rejected it.

First impressions: Blackberry Torch 9860!

Out of sheer curiosity and boredom, rather than the need, I picked up the new BlackBerry Torch 9860 yesterday. I was feeling the Blackberry withdrawal symptoms especially since the Bold 9900 was such a disappointment and I hadn’t owned the berry since.

Instant impressions were great however I don't understand why RIM chose to name this device 'Torch' especially since it clearly follows the 'Storm' format. Just like the 9900 I was quite happy with the hardware build quality. The buttons on front are a welcome change from the recessed 'soft' touch ones we've gotten in the past. The back was curved and the phone felt great to hold. The phone was quite responsive too, in fact this is what the original 'Storm' should have been, the on-screen keyboard was the best I've ever used on any BlackBerry handheld, but I still would rate the Windows Phone 7 keyboard higher.

The phone comes loaded with the hyped OS7. But if you’re excited about this platform, you will be irritated by the lack of OS7 applications available on the Appstore. Even if you use the apps meant for an older platform, for some strange reason many of them will cause issues with the device.

The screen is great but it gets nowhere near the quality of the iPhone 4. It has all the other standard features/options that a BlackBerry has to offer. Although it is a great device, the price-point (Rs28,490/-) at which its sold puts it into direct competition with the likes of iPhone 4 and flagship Android phones like Optimus 3D and EVO 3D. Unfortunately, that makes the phone look rather lackluster and hence ends up being disappointing. I honestly feel RIM should get its act together (and fast) because being a BlackBerry loyalist over 6 years now the PlayBook, Bold 9900 and now the Torch 9860 have been huge disappointments.

First impressions: Blackberry Torch 9860!

Out of sheer curiosity and boredom, rather than the need, I picked up the new BlackBerry Torch 9860 yesterday. I was feeling the Blackberry withdrawal symptoms especially since the Bold 9900 was such a disappointment and I hadn’t owned the berry since.

Instant impressions were great however I don't understand why RIM chose to name this device 'Torch' especially since it clearly follows the 'Storm' format. Just like the 9900 I was quite happy with the hardware build quality. The buttons on front are a welcome change from the recessed 'soft' touch ones we've gotten in the past. The back was curved and the phone felt great to hold. The phone was quite responsive too, in fact this is what the original 'Storm' should have been, the on-screen keyboard was the best I've ever used on any BlackBerry handheld, but I still would rate the Windows Phone 7 keyboard higher.

The phone comes loaded with the hyped OS7. But if you’re excited about this platform, you will be irritated by the lack of OS7 applications available on the Appstore. Even if you use the apps meant for an older platform, for some strange reason many of them will cause issues with the device.

The screen is great but it gets nowhere near the quality of the iPhone 4. It has all the other standard features/options that a BlackBerry has to offer. Although it is a great device, the price-point (Rs28,490/-) at which its sold puts it into direct competition with the likes of iPhone 4 and flagship Android phones like Optimus 3D and EVO 3D. Unfortunately, that makes the phone look rather lackluster and hence ends up being disappointing. I honestly feel RIM should get its act together (and fast) because being a BlackBerry loyalist over 6 years now the PlayBook, Bold 9900 and now the Torch 9860 have been huge disappointments.

Wanna know about pearls?

Pearls are formed when an irritant, such as a bit of food, grain of sand, bacteria or even a piece of the mollusk's mantle becomes trapped in the mollusk. To protect itself, the mollusk secretes the substances aragonite (a mineral) and conchiolin (a protein) in layers, which results in a pearl. Depending on how the aragonite is arranged, the pearl may have a high luster (nacre, or mother-of-pearl) or a more porcelain-like surface.

Pearls may be a variety of colors, including white, pink and black. Any mollusk can form a pearl, although they are more common in some animals than in others. There are animals known as pearl oysters, which includes species in the genus Pinctada. The species Pinctada maxima (called the gold-lipped pearl oyster or silver-lipped pearl oyster) lives in the Indian Ocean and the Pacific from Japan to Australia and produce pearls known as South Sea Pearls. Other pearl-producing animals include abalones, conchs, pen shells,and whelks.

Pearls may also be found and cultured in freshwater mollusks and are often produced by species collectively called "pearl mussels." Some pearls are cultured - they do not form by chance in the wild, but are helped by humans, who insert a piece of shell, glass or mantle into a mollusk and wait for pearls to form. You can read more about this process here.

These are the parts of an oyster inside the shell:

• Mouth (palps)
• Stomach
• Heart
• Intestines
• Gills
• Anus
• Abductor muscle
• Mantle

As the oyster grows in size, its shell must also grow. The mantle is an organ that produces the oyster's shell, using minerals from the oyster's food. The material created by the mantle is called nacre. Nacre lines the inside of the shell.

Go Vegetarian or Vegan!

Is to go vegetarian or vegan, but doing so isn’t just about greening the planet and saving animals — it improves your life as well.

This is a pretty controversial one. But when it comes to going green, going vegetarian or going vegan may be the biggest thing you can do, so it would be a crime not to list it.

The good thing is, there are a lot of reasons why going vegetarian or vegan is good for you, not only for the planet and the animals whose lives you save.

Health and Happiness Benefits of Going Vegetarian

A new study shows that vegetarians are happier! Not a bad reason to go vegetarian. Who doesn’t want to be happier?

Vegetarians also live longer, studies have shown, and the American Dietetic Association (ADA) now recommends a vegetarian diet for its health benefits. So, if you’re interested in living a healthier life & living longer, this is one potential way you can do so.

If you’re still not convinced that it is healthier, check out some of the top athletes and fit celebrities who are (or were) vegetarian or vegan, including:

Carl Lewis (“Athlete of the Century” last century)

Elle Macpherson (“The Body”)

Andre 3000

Billie Jean King (tennis great)

Ricky Williams (yes, the star football running back)

Hank Aaron

Shania Twain

Christain Bale

Josh Hartnett

Orlando Bloom

Kristin Bell

ok, maybe not the most fit, but hard to leave him out — Albert Einstein

many more…

Also, if you missed the news this week, studies have found babies growing breasts due to the growth hormones they put in cows these days (and those hormones making it into babies’ infant formulas).

How Much Greener is Going Vegetarian or Vegan?

Want some facts on how going vegetarian or vegan equates to going green? Here are a few:

eating meat is essentially the third largest net contributor to global warming pollution in the world (behind using motor vehicles and burning household biofuels — mostly wood and animal dung), according to NASA;

a few years ago the United Nations found livestock production to be responsible for 18% of global warming pollution, but more recently the World Watch Institute has found it to be responsible for as much as 51% of global warming pollution;

the energy needed to produce meat and dairy is tremendously more than for most fruits and vegetables (graphs and charts here)

the amount of water needed for meat and dairy production is also much greater.

So, if you’re interested in going green (and possibly even being healthier and happier), go vegetarian or vegan. For a little help on doing so, check out a post I wrote last year on how to go vegetarian or check out the eating vegan series on Eat.Drink..Better.