Felipe Massa led a Ferrari one-two to win the French Grand Prix on Sunday and take the lead in the Formula One championship for the first time.

Massa's third victory of the season, and eighth of his career, made the 27-year-old Sao Paulo driver the first Brazilian to lead the standings since the late triple champion Ayrton Senna in 1993.

Team mate Kimi Raikkonen, the world champion who won at Magny-Cours last year, led from pole but was overtaken by Massa just after the halfway mark when his Ferrari slowed with a suspected exhaust problem.

Massa took the chequered flag 17.9 seconds clear of Raikkonen on an overcast and damp afternoon at the circuit in the heart of rural France.

Italy's Jarno Trulli gave Toyota, mourning the death of former team principal Ove Andersson, their first podium finish since the Australian Grand Prix of April, 2006, after holding off McLaren's Heikki Kovalainen in a thrilling chase to the line.

The two cars came close to banging wheels on the penultimate lap as Kovalainen tried in vain to pass.

Poland's Robert Kubica, the championship leader for BMW-Sauber before Sunday's race after winning in Canada, finished fifth with Red Bull's Australian Mark Webber sixth.

Renault's Brazilian rookie Nelson Piquet finally took his first point in Formula One, at the eighth attempt, with seventh place ahead of team mate and double world champion Fernando Alonso in eighth.

Massa, becoming the fourth driver to lead the championship in the space of eight races, now has 48 points to Kubica's 46 with Raikkonen ending a two-race barren run to move up to third place with 43.

McLaren's Lewis Hamilton, who had been level with Massa in second place, finished 10th after starting 13th due to a 10-place penalty on the grid incurred for colliding with Raikkonen in the Canadian Gp pit lane.

The 23-year-old Briton suffered a further blow when he picked up a drive-through penalty after 13 laps that dropped him from ninth to 16th place.

Honda's Briton Jenson Button was the only driver to retire from the race.

How oil prices are wrecking the economy ??

I liked this one coz everytime there's a hike media ( Aaj Tak, Star Zee news) & Left parties raise hue & cry..


Speculative trading
Traders bet on future prices of oil through commodity exchanges. If there is a natural calamity, or if a country's president or the boss of a global oil company makes a statement which could be linked to oil, the traders at the exchanges bet on a higher price in the future.

The record high price of nearly $140 per barrel is the July futures price of oil in the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Geo-political tensions, leading to supply disruptions
Caused by war, terrorist attacks or military warfare in oil rich countries, which could affect oil supply. The US sanctions on Libya, Iran and the war in Iraq have all affected oil prices

Blame it on shining India...
...and China and West Asia, where rising demand (at around 8 per cent from around 7 per cent a couple of years ago) is creating inequities between supply and demand

Controlled production by OPEC

The cartel of the world's largest oil exporters called the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, accounts for two-thirds of the world's oil reserves but only 40 per cent of world production. OPEC does not want the market to be oversupplied as it would bring down prices. High prices suit the oil producing countries

The dollar dunnit

That's right, as the dollar weakens and other currencies harden, crude oil prices, which are traded in dollar terms, move to compensate changes in dollar value.

India guzzles... 3.01 million barrels per day of crude oil 2.58 million barrels of petroleum products

But produces only

700,000 barrels of crude oil per day (23 per cent of its consumption). Demand for crude oil is rising by 7 per cent, while imports are rising by over 9 per cent. With rising prices, the import bill is ballooning, leading to a strain on government finances

Now you know the score

But will oil prices come down any time soon?

You're living in a fool's paradise if you believe that!

Russian company Gazprom, which supplies a quarter of Europe's natural gas, predicts oil prices, currently already very steep at $135 per barrel ($76 per barrel in 2006-07), will be $250 per barrel in 2009
Goldman Sachs has projected that oil prices could rise to $200 per barrel by the end of 2009 In fact, Morgan Stanley sees oil prices at $150 per barrel in the next three weeks
And closer home, the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation says three-digit oil prices are here to stay, so you might as well get used to emptying out your wallet at the gas station

Source: rediff.com

Indian History : Supposedly written by a schoolboy with all original spellings The original inhabitants of ancient India were called Adidases, who lived in two cities called Hariappa and Mujhe-na-Daro. These cities had the best drain system in the world and so there was no brain drain from them Ancient India was full of myths which have been handed down from son to father. A myth is a female moth. A collection of myths is called mythology, which means stories with female caricatures. One myth says that people in olden times worshipped monkeys because they were our incestors.

In olden times there were two big families in India. One was called the Pandava and the other was called the Karova. They fought amongst themselves in a battle called Mahabharat, after which India came to be known as MeraBharat Mahan.

In midevil times India was ruled by the Slave Dienasty. So named because they all died a nasty death. Then came the Tughlaqs who shifted their capital from Delhi because of its pollution. They were followed by the Mowglis. The greatest Mowgli was Akbar because he extinguished himself on the battlefield of Panipat which is in Hurryana. But his son Jehangir was peace loving; he married one Hindu wife and kept 300 porcupines. Then came Shahajahan who had 14 sons. Family planning had not been invented at that time. He also built the Taj Mahal hotel for his wife who now sleeps there. The king sent all his sons away to distant parts of India because they started quarrelling. Dara Seiko was sent to UP, Shaikh Bhakhtiyar was sent to J & K, while Orangezip came to Bombay to fight Shivaji. However,after that they changed its name to Mumbai because Shivaji's sena did not like it. They also do not like New Delhi, so they are calling it Door Darshan.

After the Mowglis came Vasco the Gama. He was an exploder who was circumcising India with a 100 foot clipper. Then came the British. They brought with them many inventions such as cricket, tramtarts and steamed railways. They were followed by the French who brought in French fries, pizzazz and laundry. But Robert Clive drove them out when he deafened Duplex who was out membered since the British had the queen on their side.

Eventually, the British came to overrule India because there was too much diversity in our unity. The British overruled India for a long period.They were great expotents and impotents. They started expoting salt from India and impoting cloth. This was not liked by Mahatma Gandhi who wanted to produce his own salt. This was called the Swedish moment. During this moment, many people burnt their lion cloths in the street and refused to wear anything else. The British became very angry at this and stopped the production of Indian testiles.

In 1920, Mahatma Gandhi was married to one wife. Soon after he became the father of the nation. In 1942 he started the Quiet India moment, so named because the British were quietly lootoing our country. In 1947, India became free and its people became freely loving. This increased our population. Its government became a limited mockery, which means people are allowed to take the law in their own hands with the help of the police. Our constipation is the best in the world because it says that no man can be hanged twice for the same crime. It also says you cannot be put in prison if you have not paid your taxis. Another important thing about our constipation is that it can be changed. This is not possible with the British constipation because it is not written on paper. The Indian parlemint consists of two houses which are called lower and higher. This is because one Mr Honest Abe said that two houses divided against itself cannot withstand. So Pandit Nehru asked the British for freedom at midnight since the British were afraid of the dark. At midnight, on August 15, there was a tryst in parlemint in which many participated by wearing khaki and hosting the flag. Recently in India, there have been a large number of scams and a plaque,it can be dangerous because many people died of this plaque in Surat. Scams are all over India. One of these was in Bihar where holy cows were not given anything to eat by their elected leader. The other scam was in Bofor which is a small town in Switzerland.In this, a lot of Indian money was given to buy a gun which can shoot a coot.

Presently India has a coalishun government made up of many parties, left,right and centre. It has started to library the economy. This means that there is now no need for a licence as the economy will be driven by itself.

India is also trying to become an Asian tiger because its own tigers are being poached. Another important event this year was the Shark meeting at Malas Dive. At this place, shark leaders agreed to share their poverty, pollution and population.

Have you heard the story of " The Washer man and the Foolish Donkey" ?

To refresh your memory, and for the benefit of those who have not grown up listening to this moral story, it goes like this…

There was once a washer man who had a donkey and a dog. One night when the whole world was sleeping, a thief broke into the house, the washer man was fast asleep but the donkey and the dog were awake. The dog decided not to bark since the master did not take good care of him and wanted to teach him a lesson. The donkey got worried and said to the dog that if he doesn't bark, the donkey will have to do something himself. The dog did not change his mind and the donkey started braying loudly. Hearing the donkey bray, the thief ran away, the master woke up and started beating the donkey for braying in the middle of the night for no reason.

Moral of the story " One must not engage in duties other than his own"

Now take a new look at the same story…

The washer man was a well educated man from a premier management institute. He had the fundas of looking at the bigger picture and thinking out of the box. He was convinced that there must be some reason for the donkey to bray in the night. He walked outside a little and did some fact finding, applied a bottom up approach, figured out from the ground realities that there was a thief who broke in and the donkey only wanted to alert him about it. Looking at the donkey's extra initiative and going beyond the call of the duty, he rewarded him with lot of hay and other perks and became his favorite pet. The dog's life didn't change much, except that now the donkey was more motivated in doing the dogs duties as well. In the annual appraisal the dog managed a " meets requirement" . Soon the dog realized that the donkey is taking care of his duties and he can enjoy his life sleeping and lazing around. The donkey was rated as " star performer". The donkey had to live up to his already high performance standards. Soon he was over burdened with work and always under pressure and now is looking for a job rotation… \

A guy woke up at home with a huge hangover. He forced himself to open his eyes, and the first thing he saw is a couple of aspirins and a glass of water on the table. He sat down and saw his clothing in front of him, all clean and pressed.

He looked around the room and saw that it was in perfect order, spotless, clean. So was the rest of the house. He took the aspirins and saw a note on the table. "Honey, breakfast is on the stove, I left early to go shopping. Love You!"

He goes to the kitchen and sure enough there is a hot breakfast and the morning newspaper. His son is also at the table, eating. He asks, "Son, what happened last night?"

His son says, "Well, you came home around 3 a.m. , drunk and delirious.
Broke some furniture, puked in the hallway, and gave yourself a black eye when you stumbled into the door".
The man asks, "So, why is everything in order and so clean, and breakfast is on the table waiting for me? I should expect a big quarrel with her!"

His son replies, "Mom dragged you to the bedroom, and when she tried to take your clothes and shoes off, you said, "hey! leave me alone! I'm married!"

Moral of the story :-

Breakfast -- Rs. 100.00

Self-induced hangover -- Rs. 2000.00

Broken furniture -- Rs. 20,000.00

Saying The Right Thing While Drunk - PRICELESS!

One of the fwds which I got yest...Hope U N'Joy !!

Mom comes to visit her son Kumar for dinner.....who lives with a girl roommate Sunita. During the course of the meal, his mother couldn't help but notice how pretty Kumar's roommate was. She had long been suspicious of a relationship between the two, and this had only made her more curious.
Over the course of the evening, while watching the two interact, she started to wonder if there was more between Kumar and his roommate than met the eye.

Reading his mom's thoughts, Kumar volunteered, "I know what you must be thinking, but I assure you, Sunita and I are just roommates." About a week later, Sunita came to Kumar saying, "Ever since your mother came to dinner, I've been unable to find the silver plate. You don't suppose she took it, do you?" Kumar said ,"Well, I doubt it, but I'll email her, jjust to be sure."
    So he sat down and wrote :
Dear Mother:

I'm not saying that you 'did' take the silver plate from my house, I'm not saying that you 'did not' take the silver plate.. But the fact remains that it has been missing ever since you were here for dinner.

Love, Kumar

Several days later, Kumar received an email from his Mother which read
_______________________________
_______________________________
____
Dear Son:

I'm not saying that you 'do' sleep with Sunita, and I'm not saying that you 'do not' sleep with Sunita. But the fact remains that if she was sleeping in her OWN bed, she would have found the silver plate by now under the pillow...

Love,

Mom.

Lesson of the day:

Don't Lie to Your Mother...........especially if she is an Indian !

Today must be a red letter day in the history of MS. We have this renowned writer with ID as "atulvohra2005" writing more than 35 reviews that too only on 1 product.... NOKIA. Does this guy think that all the members are senseless & cant distinguish between an original & fake review.

These ppl should be taught a lessson & Admin must block his ID at the earliest before he bombards the space with rubbish stuff.

Also all his rvws should be immediately removed !!

Cheers !!
Gurpreet