The Force !

The IIPM Scheme

2009-07-03T09:29:00.003+05:30

IIPM - BEST ONLY IN CLAIMS?

A superior course, global exposure, international faculty and dollar salaries, so claims IIPM. Careers360 investigates

by B Mahesh Sarma

This started off as a normal investigation, into the malaise affecting the education system and the checks and balances that need to be brought in. After all, we all know that the government cannot be a sole participant in making the youth employable and the country a prosperous one.

Everyone that we spoke to was of the unanimous opinion - while a systemic overhaul is essential to improve the quality of many bad institutions in the country, the least we could do is to protect students and parents from being misguided and misled by willful wrong-doers. There are institutes where students walk in with their eyes open and know what to expect. And there are those where they walk in, blinded - misled, misguided and misinformed, by a campaign where media, regulatory agencies and academia become willing accomplices. While we can't do much about the informed decisions, we have to take up the cause of those who were cheated, an act that robs students of their career and in a way, their life.

As we scanned the ads, spoke to experts, affected parties and counselors, we realised that one name cropped up the most - IIPM. We decided to investigate. We sent mails to all those, that IIPM draws upon to validate its claims in its advertisements, namely - journalists, editors, foreign universities, employers. We spoke to current and former students and their parents. What our investigation unravelled left us cold. Here is an institution that enjoys all the privileges of an academic institution (according to IT authorities, it claimed exemptions citing Section 10(23C) (VI) of the Income Tax act, 1961) with zero responsibility and accountability. Here is an institution that brazenly uses its power and reach to make unsubstantiated claims that play with the lives of students and parents alike. We know we are opening a Pandora's Box, but are prepared for the repercussions, knowing fully well that you, our readers are with us. We were shocked by our findings, and what you are reading is just a part of it. We await your verdict.

BA/MBA degrees

IIPM CLAIMS to award PG/UG degrees from IMI Belgium. We checked with NVAO, the accreditation organization of Netherlands and Flanders(Belgium) about IMI Belgium. The response from them is given below. This implies that the degree that students earn would be useless for higher education or employment anywhere in the world, where formal degrees are required.

-----Original Message-----
From: XXXXXXXXX@nvao.net]
Sent: Thursday, March 19, 2009 8:14 PM
To: XXXXXXXX info@nvao.net
Subject: RE: Kind attn: XXXXXXXX,as per telecon yesterday
Dear XXXXXX
To answer your first question, I would refer to our official register of recognised institutions and degrees: http://www.highereducation.be . Please read two items in our section FAQ:- http://www.hogeronderwijsregister.be/faq/117/48 - http://www.hogeronderwijsregister.be/faq/117/49 IMI Belgium is not a recognised higher education institution (neither in the Dutch nor the French speaking part of Belgium). Since it is not recognised it cannot award recognised degrees.
In our position it is difficult to answer your second question. For us only registered institutions with accredited programmes are considered credible.

Best regards

·
Campus placement

· BASED ON some of the claims about MNC employers participating in the campus recruitments at IIPM, we checked with a few of them. We are listing a few responses, of employers, who have denied having recruited from the IIPM campus from the class of 2008, though IIPM claims otherwise. There have been a few more, who did not respond and we did not pursue, as we already got a sample of what is in store. Some gave us information but refused to come on record.

· STANDARD CHARTERED BANK, says

We have hired 9 students from IIPM this year, though this was not through the campus recruitment process. These are all freshers.

BARCLAYS, DUBAI

I have looked into the below and we at Barclays, UAE Dubai have not done any campus placement with this institute.

DEUTSCHE BANK ( sms response)

Deutsche bank has no association with IIPM in terms of campus placements. We may have one or two employees from IIPM at the junior level but that's about it

·
Un(en)viable International Placements

· ANY B-SCHOOL that claims to have the interest of students at heart should ensure that only companies that would treat students with respect, dignity and care would be allowed in the placement process. We are listing out some of the placements facilitated by IIPM. Look at the offer details and make your own judgement.

Saud Bahwan Group
Position: Senior sales officer
Salary: 275 Omani Rials or Rs.34,000 P.M plus 23 rials as food allowance
Job: It is a two year contract and not a job offer
Conditions: Passport to be surrendered and Termination at employer's discretion during probation with 48 hours notice.

Khimji Ramdas

Position: Section Sales.
Salary: 250 Omani Riyals or Rs.31,000 P.M or 3.7 lakhs P.A
Job: It is a two year contract
Conditions: If you leave before 24 months, you pay the company recruitment, visa, air ticket and other expenses. Even if you have to temporarily leave for an emergency, deposit the same amount with the employer.

Al Sharawi Group

Position: Executive Trainee
Salary: 2300 AED in the first year progressively reaching 3000 AED in the 4th year (27600 P.M in the first year going up to Rs.36000 P.M in the 4th year).
Conditions: If you resign during the contract, you can not take up employment in competing companies, and pay the company two months salary.

Frequency Advertising LLC
Position: Marketing Executive
Salary: 3500 AED(incl HRA) or Rs.42,000 P.M.or 5 lacs P.A Conditions: Office hours 8.30 am to 6.30 pm, 6 months probation, No leave entitlement during probation.

Ceramin FZC
Position: Management Trainee - Sales & Marketing
Salary: 3000 AED (incl HRA) or Rs.36,000 P.M or 4.4 lacs P.A
Conditions: 12 months training period, Valid Passport to be submitted at the time of joining.

Note: All the jobs excluding Frequency LLC provides single accomodation

· International collaborations

· IIPM claims to award a global certification in management for all its students from one of the leading universities of the world. Every advertisement carries the logo of institutions like Darden, Haas, Judge etc as partnering institutions. Some ads even say the certification is from one of these universities. We wrote to each of the institution to check the veracity of IIPM's Claims. Here is what they have to say.

· McCombs Business School, University of Austin,Texas
From: XXXXXXXX
To: XXXXXXXX
Cc:XXXXXXXX
Subject: RE: Query regarding your Institute's association with IIPM,Delhi

I'm sorry, but I am unaware of any association between the McCombs School of Business and IIPM. It is possible that they have a connection I am unaware of with a particular professor, but in any case they are not an official partner school.

I should caution that I am only responding for the McCombs School of Business. While McCombs is the only business school at the University of Texas at Austin, it is possible that they have a relationship with another college at UT-Austin. If that were the case I would not be aware of it.

Best regards,

David E. Platt, Ph.D., Director,CIBER, McCombs School of Business

· Judge B School, University of Cambridge

· Hello XXXXXX

Thanks for your enquiry about the programme Judge Business School is delivering to IIPM participants.

This is a five day non-degree executive education programme delivered in Cambridge by Judge Business School.

IIPM have engaged us to deliver and the first group will commence in July 2009. There are no university qualifications awarded from Cambridge University or Judge Business School. The only certificate is a certificate of attendance which is what we provide to participants on all our programmes.

Very best

Aislinn Ryan,Communications Manager, Judge Business School

· Darden B School, Univesity of Virginia

· Dear XXXXXXX

Thanks again for your e-mail. The University of Virginia's Darden School of Business has agreed to provide a series of week-long Executive Education programs (i.e., a contracted teaching arrangement) for IIPM. Darden has no partnership agreement or tie-up with IIPM.

Along with Cambridge (Judge) and UC Berkeley (Haas), Darden will host IIPM's Executive Education program participants and deliver to them a high-quality mix of general business class sessions. No course credits at Darden or UVA are associated with this program, as IIPM is not a partner school and their participants are not taking Darden courses.

Best regards,

Juliet Daum, Director of Communication, Darden School of Business, University of Virginia

For a few dollars more - The changing colours of UCB
Haas B School, University of California, Berkeley (UCB)

THE SLOWDOWN may have hit the revenues of the international B-schools! The desperation with which they are getting into arrangements with Indian B-Schools to lend their name as 'participating,' 'partner', 'affiliating' B -School - all to earn a few dollars more, while compromising on their ethics and professionalism left us flummoxed. And when no less than the University of Berkeley tries to wriggle out of a situation through three different mails, each a reaction to a correspondence by us and possibly IIPM as well, we are bewildered. The first said no connection what so ever, second acknowledged a client relationship and the third announced CEE sending faculty to IIPM programme (which programme?). We cannot understand what is the truth and why this progressive grovelling? (Read the mails below and form your own opinion).

Ist Response 27th February 2009

From: Pamela Tom [mailto:ptom@haas.berkeley.edu]
Sent: 27 February 2009 01:51
To: XXXX
Cc: UTE FREY
Subject: RE: query regarding your Institute's association with IIPM,Delhi
XXXXX UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business is in no way affiliated or connected with IIPM.I am told this institution has been known to claim associations with top universities without any basis. One of the ways they do this is that they invite faculty to do some executive education stint and then use the university name for ever. It is possible that some Haas faculty has done work for them but the Berkeley and/or Haas name should not be associated with IIPM.

Pamela Tom
Media Relations, Haas School of Business

2nd Response

XXXXX, On February 26, you wrote to verify the "association" between the Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM) and the University of California. While the statement that the two are not "affiliated" is accurate, at the time, we were unaware of a new client relationship between IIPM and the Haas School's Center for Executive Education. CEE and IIPM have a contract, the first program will begin in June and the agreement permits client institutions to say that they are "participating" with the Haas School of Business.

3rd Response

From: Pamela Tom [mailto:ptom@haas.berkeley.edu]
Sent: Thursday, May 21, 2009 4:45 AM
To: XXXXX
Subject: RE: In continuation of your correspondence with XXXXXX

In response to your inquiries about the Center for Executive Education's contract with the Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM): During the duration of the agreement, IIPM, the client, may represent itself as a business school "participating" with the Haas School of Business. Participation means IIPM has contracted with CEE to provide Haas faculty to teach courses in the IIPM program. A five-day program scheduled for January 2009 was cancelled. A five-day program is now scheduled for June 2009.

Pamela Tom

· First Person

· "IT IS VERY EASY FOR YOU TO ASK WHY I DON'T SPEAK UP"

· Sir, I have a mom, who is a heart patient, a father who is a teacher in a school, and a village which looks up to me. It is very easy for you to ask why I don't speak up. If I do, my people would come to know I did a degree which is useless, my company will sack me, and the bank would strangulate my dad for the loan instalment." says Ramesh*, a pass out from IIPM. Ramesh like most of us comes from one of the tier 3 towns of our country. He completed his BSc and sought salvation in an MBA. But he chose IIPM, thanks in no small measure to the full page multicolour advertisements he and his parents frequently saw, in publications they trusted for ages. He adds ruefully, "Sir, I got a good percentile in MAT (above 90 percentile), and had offers from the best colleges. At least I would have got a recognized degree."

"What did you learn?" I ask. "We are frequently taught by students who passed out from the last batch and work for Planman Consulting," said Ramesh. He fought bitterly and got placed through campus in a company based in south India. The institute promised him Delhi, the company told him that they had specifically informed the placement office of IIPM about their need for people in the south. So he was on his own again. Ramesh smiles at a thought. "I am much better off than some of my friends who got a campus placement in companies where you are paid Rs.200 as commission for every card you sell, and no salary at all." His bitterness creeps through. He goes on. "Sir, 10% of MBAs secure jobs, because we are well-groomed, speak good English, and are well-connected. 50% of us are not connected but have the rest of the qualities, and struggle a bit. The remaining 40% who has neither are already in s***. So the least they can do is to keep quiet."
Ramesh pays more than 2/3rd of his meagre salary to service his loans, lives in a cramped shanty, puts up a brave face to his doting parents, hopes for the best and keeps quiet. While relating events, the brave boy, briefly wavers and with a lump in his throat says. "Maine yeah soch ke ayaa, yeah ek formal interaction hai. Baat karthe karthe bahout kuch bol diya." (I came to meet you, telling myself it is a formal interaction. But as I got talking I spoke quite a lot). All of us look in different directions, and let that moment pass.

· * Name changed to protect identityrson

· "WE WERE TAKEN FOR A RIDE"

· "The IIPM had indulged in heavy advertising promising the sky and claiming to be the best management institute in the country. It was very clear in its advertisements that it will give MBA degrees from a University. We got lured by the fake ads coupled with newspaper news praising IIPM institute," says Shiv Prasad.*

"It is only after the UGC blacklisted it that the cat came out of the bag. Now it started giving advertisements that it prepares students for BBA and MBA degrees and does not give degrees by itself. This is a clear case of cheating as we have the copy of the earlier advertisements claiming that they give degrees. Parents from Bihar, MP, Rajasthan, Punjab, Himachal, Haryana and UP are still falling prey and the institute is flourishing!
The institute has never given full receipts for the amount we paid and if given, it was under a different head. Recognition was never a concern for us, because the ad blitz was so strong we got carried away and the UGC also acted very late. Most of the parents are still not aware about the UGC controversy as the matter appeared in Delhi newspapers only.
Regarding placements, this year (2009) all students have been clearly told that the institute does not guarantee placement. Students have to look for positions on their own. Many students with campus jobs could not join as HR divisions of companies are avoiding IIPM students. Most of the students are coming back with their useless training certificates. The institute has hardly any campus placements and it does not help students find jobs elsewhere as well. Having taken a bank loan between 4 lakhs to 10 lakhs, we are ruined, and actually don't know which way to turn." * Name changed to protect identity NOTE: Readers may look for the counter view of IIPM in the next issue, if received

[Source]

Remember The Time

2009-06-27T08:04:00.004+05:30

Bye Michael!, we will always love you.

He got kicked in the back
He say that he needed that
He hot willed in the face
Keep daring to motivate
He say one day you will see
His place in world history
He dares to be recognized
The fires deep in his eyes
How many victims must there be
Slaughtered in vain across the land
And how many struggles must there be
Before we choose to live the prophet's plan
Everybody sing...

Every day create your history
Every path you take you're leaving your legacy
Every soldier dies in his glory
Every legend tells of conquest and liberty

Don't let no one get you down
Keep movin' on higher ground
Keep flying until
You are the king of the hill
No force of nature can break
Your will to self motivate
She say this face that you see
Is destined for history

How many people have to cry
The song of pain and grief across the land
And how many children have to die
Before we stand to lend a healing hand
Everybody sing...

Every day create your history
Every path you take you're leaving your legacy
Every soldier dies in his glory
Every legend tells of conquest and liberty
Every day create your history
Every page you turn you're writing your legacy
Every hero dreams of chivalry
Every child should sing together in harmony

All nations sing
Let's harmonize all around the world

How many victims must there be
Slaughtered in vain across the land
And how many children must we see
Before we learn to live as brothers
And leave one family oh...

Every day create your history
Every path you take you're leaving your legacy
Every soldier dies in his glory
Every legend tells of conquest and liberty
Every day create your history
Every page you turn you're writing your legacy
Every hero dreams of chivalry
Every child should sing together in harmony

A soldier dies
A mother cries
The promised child shines in a baby's eyes
All nations sing
Let's harmonize all around the world

5 Ways to Happiness

2009-06-16T20:52:00.002+05:30

5...4...3...2...1... Ways to Maximize Happiness

... From a Harvard Survey

5: Go With the Flow Find a rewarding activity to achieve a flow state.

Think about the last activity you performed that gave you a true sense of satisfaction. It could be an adept showing on the tennis court, having a two-hour phone conversation with your best friend or a planting an herb garden. Whatever the pursuit, the main reason you may have felt so good afterward is that you had entered a state of flow. The concept of flow, coined by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihihalyi, refers to entering a state of becoming wholly absorbed in an activity [source:Lyubomirsky]. Flow states offer a balance of challenge and ease, which enhance their rewarding sensations.

Flow is more common among artists, athletes and religious devotees, but that doesn't exclude other people from finding a niche as well [source: Lloyd]. Engaging in something that correlates to your personal strength and offers room for improvement can set you up for flow. In short, find something that you enjoy and get lost in it.

4: Appreciate the Small Things Expressing gratitude is known to boost happiness.

Sometimes it's difficult to pay full attention to everything going on around us. During traffic-jammed commutes, it's often easier to zone out and listen to the radio rather than admire landscapes or reflect on the day's accomplishments. Yet, learning to stay mindful of the small gifts that come our way is a key to maximizing happiness. This can be as simple as learning to say "thank you," or even keeping a daily log of positive things that happened.

As trite as a thankfulness journal may sound, psychologists have found that people who keep one feel better for it. Psychologist Sonja Lyubomirsky had an experimental group jot down things they were grateful for once a week; a control group didn't keep a gratitude log. After six weeks, the experimental group showed a significant boost in happiness [source: Wallis et al].

Next time you're told to count your blessings, heed the wise advice.

3: Stay Present and Positive Aim for optimism and reap the benefits.

You can't simply wait around to get happy, just as you can't wish away boredom. Part of maximizing happiness is staying actively mindful of your circumstances and the power you have over your response to them. According to Daniel Gilbert, author of "Stumbling on Happiness," many people become bogged down in presentism, or the belief that current emotional states will persist into the future [source: Lambert]. In other words, people give up hoping for a silver lining or a bend in the road, when sometimes they just need to look a little harder for it.

Discovering the glass half-full can be challenging because not everyone is equipped with innate optimism. Martin Seligman, the pioneer of positive psychology (the branch of psychology devoted to figuring out happiness), maintains that people can actually learn the trait. Pessimists are more prone to overestimate the gravity of difficult situations and assume that its effects will echo indefinitely. Conversely, to practice learned optimism, people must train themselves to approach problems as temporary, solvable situations [source: Morris].

This kind of emotional resilience was also a common trait among the shining stars of the Harvard Grant Study. The men who could manage crises with a dash of hope and optimism fared better down the road.

2: Build a Community Buliding solid social networks works wonders for happiness.

In the Grant Study, researchers found that the single greatest predictor of happiness in old age was the depth and breadth of social networks [source: Shenk]. By and large, people who form the strongest bonds with others exhibit the most happiness. This holds true among younger people as well, according to a 2002 student survey at the University of Illinois. Students who reported the highest happiness levels all enjoyed solid friend and family connections and dedicated time to nurturing those relationships on a regular basis [source: Wallis et al].

Even if you aren't a social butterfly, it's important to connect with others in some way if you want to maximize happiness. Prominent psychologist Martin Seligman emphasizes the value of conscious acts of kindness. Time and again, whenever people volunteer, participate with a religious group or even hold a door open, they reap the happiness benefits. Like it or not, there's something powerful about helping others that fosters genuine joy.

1: Get Fit Even 20 minutes of walking can improve your mood.

One of the most common tips offered for boosting happiness it to sweat your way to a smile. The jury is still out on the exact relationship between exercise and happiness, but the general idea is that exercising reduces the amount of cortisol, a stress hormone, in the blood and pumps up the volume of endorphins. When endorphin hormones enter the brain, they block receptors normally reserved for pain, which is why we associate them with positive feelings.

A recent study from the University of Bristol concluded that participants who exercised before work or on a lunch break were indeed calmer and less stressed than those who didn't [source: Daily Mail]. Not only were the members of the active group in better moods, they also met deadline demands more efficiently and exhibited improved interpersonal skills. Interestingly, the active group designed its own workout routines, rather than following a prescribed regimen. Despite variations in intensity and duration, about three quarters of them felt better [source: Daily Mail]. Similarly, in 2008, the American Heart Association also published findings that just 20 to 30 minutes of walking two to three times per week can make you happier [source: USA Today].

In addition to cheerier outlook, exercise also lowers blood pressure and reduces your risk of diabetes and heart disease. It takes discipline to establish a regular exercise habit, but the payoff is manifold.

Lessons from The Wild

2009-06-16T02:02:00.001+05:30

What elephants can teach humans

Joanna Moorhead
Ten years ago, the conservationist Lawrence Anthony adopted seven wild elephants in South Africa. He says humans could learn much from them about family life.
Lawrence Anthony’s eyes mist over as he remembers the moment he met his ready-made family for the first time. “They were a difficult bunch, no question about it,” he says. “Delinquents every one. But I could see a lot of good in them too. They’d had a tough time and were all scared and yet they were looking after one another, trying to protect one another.”

From the way he talks, you might guess that he was talking about disadvantaged children; in fact, it’s a herd of elephants. And not just any herd of elephants either, but a notorious, wild herd that had wreaked havoc across swathes of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa, and were now threatened with being shot. “I was their only hope,” says Anthony, 59. “There were seven of them in all, including babies and a teenage son. But the previous owner had had it up to here with them — they’d smashed their way through every fence they’d ever come up against.”

Anthony knew his plan was risky — “angry elephants are very dangerous animals if they don’t like you. You can be hamburger meat in seconds” — but his children had grown up and left home and he and his French wife, Francoise, had space on their game reserve, Thula Thula. When they were approached by an elephant-welfare organisation, Anthony, a respected conservationist who made world headlines in 2003 when he flew into Baghdad to rescue the animals from Saddam Hussein’s zoo (an episode of the South African-born environmentalist’s life that is being made into a Hollywood movie), knew he couldn’t refuse.

Beyond wildest imagination
Today, 10 years on from the moment the herd arrived, he says — in another echo of many adoptive parents — that the difficulties of the job were beyond his wildest imagination.

“It’s been a hundred times harder than I’d thought,” he says. But he could not have foreseen how much a bunch of troublesome tuskers would teach him about family love and loyalty. “The care these elephants shower on one another is astounding,” he says.

From the start, Anthony — tall, bearded, tanned and clad in khaki — considered the elephants part of his family. “We called the matriarch Nana, because that’s what all the children in the Anthony family call my mum,” he says. “The second in command, another feisty mother, we called Frankie after Francoise.”

As with human adoptions, the early days were especially tough. Nana and her troupe weren’t called the most troublesome elephants in Africa for nothing: every morning they would try to break out of the compound where they were living. Every day, Anthony, in a gesture that many parents who have had to deal with difficult kids will recognise, would do his best to persuade them that they shouldn’t behave badly, but that whatever they did he loved them anyway, and that they could trust him. “I’d go down to the fence and I’d plead with Nana not to break it down,” he says. “I knew she didn’t understand English, but I hoped she’d understand by the tone of my voice and my body language what I was saying. And one morning, instead of trying to break the fence down, she just stood there. Then she put her trunk through the fence towards me. I knew she wanted to touch me — elephants are tremendously tactile, they use touch all the time to show concern and love. That was a turning point.”

Matriarchal
Elephants are matriarchal. Anthony’s herd consisted of a group of mothers and their pre-adolescent young. Within the group, the matriarch has absolute authority.

“Whatever she says goes. If she wants to turn left, they turn left. If she wants to walk for 100 km, they walk for 100 km. Watching her made me understand what family means — her behaviour taught me that wise leadership, selfless discipline and tough unconditional love is the core of the family unit. I learned how important one’s own flesh and blood actually is when the dice are loaded against you. Nana would do anything for the family she led: she expected to be obeyed, and she was, but she was very, very careful about where she led those she was responsible for.”

Her acceptance of Anthony meant that the other elephants followed suit, which was life-saving for both him and Francoise a few days later when they unwittingly came between Frankie and her babies. She charged — “and let me tell you, an elephant charge is the most magnificent, and also the most terrifying, experience life holds” — and only broke off when she was seconds from obliterating them. “If Nana hadn’t shown Frankie she could trust me and shouldn’t hurt me, we’d certainly have been crushed to death.”

Frankie’s defence of her young was typical: an elephant mother’s devotion to her children is, Anthony believes, unparalleled in the animal kingdom. He tells a heartbreaking story about how another of the herd, Nandi, gave birth to a daughter whose legs were deformed. Despite the danger of lions, and the heat, Nandi remained with her for two days, supported by Nana and Frankie, all three taking turns to shield the baby from the sun. Time after time, they tried to lift her with their trunks so she could stand. “Watching Nandi made me realise how much a real mother cares. She was prepared to stand over her deformed baby for days without food or water, trying right until the end to save her, refusing to surrender until the last breath had been gasped.”

Loyalty
There were many other lessons in family behaviour, too. Frankie, the feisty aunt, showed time and again what loyalty meant. “She’d have laid down her life for them in a blink, no question, and in return, the others gave her their absolute love and respect. And the way Frankie raised her young, Marula and Mabula, showed me first-hand what good parenting can achieve despite adverse circumstances. These beautiful, well-behaved children are what we in human terms would call “good citizens”. They saw how their mother and aunt treated me, and in return accorded me the respect one would give to a distinguished relative.”

Reciprocal exchanges
Today, the Anthonys are so close to their elephants that on occasion they have almost had to chase them out of the sitting room. Anthony’s guiding principle has always been that if he respected them, they would respect him. Exchanges between him and the elephants have often been reciprocal, most movingly when Nana’s son Mvula was born, and she ambled forward out of the bush, days after the birth, to show him off to the man she now regarded as a close kinsman. A few years later, after Anthony’s first grandchild, Ethan, was born, he repaid the gesture. “Mind you,” he says with a laugh, “my daughter-in-law didn’t talk to me for a long time afterwards. There I was, holding her tiny, days-old baby, walking towards a herd of wild elephants. She didn’t imagine I’d go so close — but I knew we were safe. The elephants were so excited — their trunks went straight up and they all edged closer, intensely focused on the little bundle in my arms, smelling the air to get the scent. I was trusting them with my baby, just as they had trusted me with theirs.”

Respect for the elderly
The elephants’ respect for the elderly herd members is something else human beings could learn from, says Anthony. “Old elephants tend to get dementia and are very slow. But the young treat them with the utmost respect and devotion — when an elderly relative can’t scrape the bark off branches to eat any more, his sons and nephews lead him to marshes or swamps where the leaves are softer. When he’s too weak to stand, they guard him to protect him from lions or hyenas.”

This week, Anthony flies home from London, where he has been promoting his new book, to South Africa and Thula Thula. He knows that Nana, Frankie, Nandi and the rest of the gang will be waiting for him at the gate — they always seem to sense when he’ll be back. These days, they are as much there for him as he is for them. Adopting a herd of wild elephants might have been the biggest risk he ever took in his life but, against the odds, it has paid off. The conservationist who welcomed a herd of badly behaved elephants into the heart of his family has had his brave and bold gesture returned in a way he couldn’t have dreamed of: these days, he is as much a part of their family as they are of his. — © Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2009

Want to Stop Cancer? You Can, Experts Say

2009-06-10T20:40:00.003+05:30

Although some believe that certain people are destined to get cancer and nothing can be done to change their fate, that's just not the case, experts say.

Even people who have genes that predispose them to certain types of cancer might be able to reduce their risk by living a healthy lifestyle, they say.

"Between 27 and 49 percent of people think preventing cancer is impossible or highly unlikely," said Karen Collins, a registered dietitian and a nutrition adviser for the American Institute for Cancer Research.

But, she said, the institute has identified three steps people could take to dramatically affect the chances of developing cancer:

Eat a mostly plant-based diet.
Maintain a healthy weight.
Exercise regularly.

"The data is pretty clear that we can make a significant drop in the cancer rate with these three changes," Collins said. "We can prevent about one-third of cancers with these changes. And if you add tobacco prevention, which reduces about 30 percent of cancers, over half of today's cancers could be prevented."

Dr. Virginia Kaklamani, an oncologist who specializes in breast cancer at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, added that "increased weight increases the risk of cancer, and physical activity, regardless of weight, decreases breast cancer risk."

The institute joined with the World Cancer Research Fund to release a report, Food, Nutrition, Physical Activity and the Prevention of Cancer: A Global Perspective, that was prepared by a team of international researchers who reviewed more than 7,000 studies on cancer.

Their recommendations included:

Weight: Maintain a body mass index (BMI) between 21 and 23 and avoid gaining weight during adulthood. Although a BMI of up to 24.9 is considered normal, the lower end of normal is better for cancer prevention, the report said.
Exercise: Participate in moderate activity -- brisk walking or something equivalent -- for at least 30 minutes a day. Ideally, though, people are advised to work up to 60 minutes of moderate exercise daily, or 30 minutes of vigorous exercise. The report also advised limiting sedentary activities, such as TV-watching.
Diet: Eat healthily. That means a diet that consists of mostly plant-based foods, such as fruits, vegetables and whole grains. The experts recommended avoiding sugary, processed foods and fast foods as much as possible and limiting red meat consumption to no more than 18 ounces a week. Salt consumption should also be restricted to no more than 2.4 grams of salt daily. And, the report advised, limit alcohol consumption to one drink a day for women and two drinks a day for men.
Supplements: Don't rely on them. The cancer-preventing benefits derived from nutrients are believed to come from foods, not from individual supplements. Authors of the report advised against taking supplements.
But Collins stressed that people need to realize that the recommendations weren't an "all or nothing" proposition.

"Some people feel, 'I'm so far away from a healthy weight that I'll never get there, so why try?' " she said. "But every drop toward a healthy weight is a good move, and it's worth it."

And, she said, each healthy change someone makes tends to support another one. "When you're active and at a healthy weight, eating choices become clear, because good foods tend to give you more energy to be physically active," she said.

Kaklamani said that she, too, encourages people to make healthy changes. But she cautioned that the 20 percent or so of women who have a family history of breast cancer might need to do a bit more.

It's vital that these women talk with their doctors about genetic counseling because, in addition to making healthy lifestyle changes, they might need to take more aggressive steps to prevent cancer.

In fact, experts emphasize that everyone with a family history of cancer, of any type, should make sure their doctor is aware of it and should ask whether tests are available to assess their risk of developing that type of cancer.

[Source]

Viva La Barca!

2009-05-31T06:55:00.004+05:30

Profits before People: 7 of the World's Most Irresponsible Companies

2009-05-09T06:22:00.003+05:30

This article originally appeared on EarthFirst.com.

Money isn’t everything – or is it? To most corporations, making a profit is goal number one – but some of those companies take it way too far, sacrificing the health of the planet and its inhabitants for a bigger bank balance. Far too many corporations turn a blind eye to the consequences of their destructive, exploitative practices. The worst of them are committing atrocities that go beyond the realm of objectionable into criminal, dumping toxic chemicals without regard to public health and employing child labor.

What makes these seven companies extra evil is the fact that they’ve committed crimes that are BOTH environmentally and socially irresponsible.

Nestle

Image via Blood in Your Coffee

More than 40% of the world’s chocolate comes from Côte d’Ivoire (the Ivory Coast) in Africa, where tens of thousands of children are estimated to be working in dangerous conditions on cocoa farms. Nestle uses cocoa harvested by slave labor, and only when Senator Thomas Harkin (D-Iowa) led an investigation and introduced legislation that would require chocolate sold in the US to be labeled “slave-free” did the company act. Nestle promised that by July 2005 they would find a way to certify chocolate as not having been produced by any underage, indentured, trafficked or coerced labor, but since then, they have achieved very little.

Nestle’s bottled water business is also a major cause for concern. Nestle controls one-third of the US market and sells 70 different brand names of bottled water including Arrowhead, Deer Park, Perrier and Poland Spring. The company buys up pristine springs in some of the most beautiful natural spaces in America and builds huge factories on the sites, releasing pollution into the air and drawing enormous amounts of water out of the springs.

And, while the company claims an environmentally friendly ethic, saying it would never harm an aquifer, that’s exactly what they have done in places like Mecosta County, Michigan, damaging the watershed with excessive withdrawals, reaping huge profits and leaving the locals to deal with the consequences.

Pfizer

Image via Daylife

Air and water pollution, disregard for safety standards and experimentation on Nigerian children: these are just a few of the environmental and human rights offenses perpetrated by the world’s largest pharmaceutical company. It’s hard to imagine how Pfizer officials can bear to look at themselves in the mirror every day after what they’ve done.

Pfizer is guilty of some of the most despicable price gouging in corporate history: it keeps its HIV/AIDS-related drugs out of the hands of the world’s poor, who need them the most. Pfizer has aggressively fought efforts to make these drugs more affordable, refusing to grant generic licenses for HIV/AIDS drugs to Brazil, South Africa and other countries in need of them.

In June 2008, Pfizer was forced to pay a $975,000 fine for violating the Clean Air Act at one of its manufacturing plants in Groton, Connecticut – a drop in the bucket for a company that makes upwards of $50 billion in profits every year. The Pfizer plant was emitting methanol, hydrogen chloride, methylene chloride, MTBE, hexane, toluene and other chemicals classified by the EPA as hazardous air pollutants. Pfizer had previously paid $430 million in 2004 to settle a large number of outstanding asbestos lawsuits from its acquisition of Quigley Company in 1968, which had sold contaminated insulation.

Worst of all, the company that has little regard for safety standards – having released a number of drugs that ended up being pulled off the market for unforeseen complications – decided to test one of its drugs on poor, critically ill Nigerian children. Masking the trial as a “humanitarian mission”, Pfizer tested an experimental antibiotic called Trovan on meningitis-infected Nigerian children without their knowledge or the knowledge of their families. 11 children died, and others developed brain damage and crippling arthritis.

Wal-Mart

Image via Brave New Films

“Save Money, Live Better”. That’s Wal-Mart’s slogan, but Wal-Mart workers themselves certainly wouldn’t say that they live better after beginning employment with the retail giant. A 2005 study found that Wal-Mart reduced the take-home pay of workers by an astounding $4.7 billion dollars annually, adding insult to injury considering that workers are often forced to work overtime for zero pay. Wal-Mart does everything it can to deny its workers basic rights, spending an enormous amount of time and money keeping unions out including $7,000 anti-union camera packages, $30,000 undercover spy vans, $100,000 24-hour anti-union hotlines and a $7,000,000 rapid response team with a corporate jet.

Furthermore, Wal-Mart pushes its suppliers to go lower and lower on their wholesale prices, until they’re so squeezed that they barely have two pennies to rub together at the end of the day. Thanks to its focus on low, low prices, the retailer has repeatedly turned a blind eye to child slave labor in its manufacturing facilities abroad, particularly in China and Bangladesh.

And, despite all of their claims about ‘going green’, Wal-Mart has broken one environmental law after the other. Wal-Mart became the first company to be fined for violating new standards for stormwater runoff in 2001, and had to pay $5.5 million. In 2004, the company faced fines for violations in 9 states. That same year, it agreed to pay $400,000 to the government to settle claims that Sam’s Club had violated air pollution regulations in 11 states.

Last year, the company admitted as much – but that hasn’t stopped them from continuing the PR effort. Former CEO Lee Scott admitted of the company’s greenwashing efforts, “It has been positive from a PR standpoint, but one of the things we learned is that we are not sophisticated enough to spin a story — ultimately, we’d get hammered. We are not out saying we’re a green company. We are not green. We have an extraordinary distance to go.”

ExxonMobil

Image via Greenpeace

The Exxon-Valdez oil spill is by far ExxonMobil’s most well-known environmental offense, but it’s certainly not the only one. The oil giant was ranked sixth on the Toxic 100 list of US corporate air polluters, and has been accused by Greenpeace of sabotaging efforts to deal with climate change, manipulating peer-reviewed studies and misleading the public with junk science. Indeed, though they have since cut off funding, ExxonMobil once financially supported a number of global warming denial organizations.

Though ExxonMobil trumpeted its investment in renewable energy sources in a series of advertisements over the past few years, the fact is that the company has invested just $300 million in renewable energy sources over the next 10 years compared to the $47 billion they spent between 2003 and 2006 alone on dirty energy sources like oil and gas.

In 2001, ExxonMobil was the target of a lawsuit by a human rights group that accused the company of actively abetting human rights abuses including torture, rape and killings in Indonesia. The suit alleged that ExxonMobil had hired a local army to protect its natural gas fields in the Aceh province, providing them with equipment to dig mass graves as well as building interrogation and torture centers. The company denied all of the charges, but a motion it filed to have the case dismissed was denied in 2006. The case is still pending.

Chevron

Image via Treehugger

Chevron has launched a huge multimedia advertising blitz about its supposed commitment to smart energy use and renewable energy sources – all while destroying pristine forests in places like Ecuador and Bangladesh, and causing myriad health problems right here in the U.S. thanks to the toxic waste at its refineries.

Texaco (which has since been taken over by Chevron) caused a toxic “Rainforest Chernobyl” in Ecuador from 1964 to 1992, cutting through the Amazon in search of oil and leaving behind dead rivers, polluted air, scarred forests and over 600 unlined oil pits. They also dumped 18 billion gallons of toxic production water into the rivers where locals bathe. Living in close proximity to the oil fields has resulted in health effects ranging from high miscarriage rates to cancer.

In Richmond, California, toxic pollutants from Chevron’s refinery in the city have infiltrated people’s homes. Air samples from inside and outside Richmond homes in 2006 were found to contain particulate matter known to come from oil refining that exceeded California’s air quality standards. Unsurprisingly, local residents are feeling the effects in the form of lupus, cancer, athsma and a number of other health problems.

Dow Chemical

Image via Greenpeace

Dow Chemical (along with Monsanto) will never escape the shadow of Agent Orange, the chemical used by the U.S. military during the Vietnam War during the ‘Herbicidal Warfare’ program, which lead to 400,000 deaths and disabilities and 500,000 children born with birth defects. But even with this evil legacy – and that of Napalm, which it also produced – Dow is not contrite. This corporation continues to pollute the earth without apology.

Two rivers downstream of Dow’s plant in Midland, Michigan are polluted with chlorinated furans and dioxins from the company’s past operations. Despite the fact that these chemicals are linked to cancer and other health issues, Dow maintains that the contamination is not a public health threat and has been fighting with the EPA over cleanup for years. Many people in the area aren’t even aware of the extent of the dioxin contamination, and Dow has refused to put up warning signs. Just last weekend, Dow Chemical sponsored a fishing event in a waterway it polluted with dioxin, never even acknowledging the contamination and its possible effects.

Furthermore, following the purchase of Union Carbide – the company responsible for the Bhopal gas disaster which left nearly 20,000 people dead and hundreds of thousands disabled – Dow has refused to take responsibility for the health and environmental effects of the incident.

Monsanto

Image via Flickr user skasuga

Despite the inroads that Dow Chemical has been making lately on the evil corporation front, Monsanto still reigns supreme. It’s hard to overstate just how socially and environmentally irresponsible this company really is. Monsanto has manufactured herbicides (which, during manufacturing, create dioxin as a by-product), Agent Orange, plastics, fuel additives, saccharin, industrial fluids, fertilizers, pesticides and anti-freeze in the past. Some years ago they chose to focus on ‘life sciences’ and are now the world’s largest seed company. They’re also the creators of Recombitant Bovine Growth Hormone (rGBH) and the world’s largest producer of genetically modified food.

Monsanto is responsible for more than 50 Superfund sites including Anniston, Alabama, one of America’s worst man-made environmental disasters. For over 40 years, Monsanto routinely dumped toxic waste into West Anniston Creek while producing now-banned industrial coolants called PCBs. They also dumped millions of pounds of PCBs into open-pit landfills – and proceeded to spend decades covering it up even after confirming that fish submerged in the creek turned belly-up within seconds.

Monsanto knew exactly how dangerous the PCBs were, but chose to keep it secret, altering documents and forcing changes to study results to keep the secret. Though they were forced to pay $700 million in fines in 2003, they have not apologized or taken responsibility.

On top of that, after polluting waterways all over the world, Monsanto proceeded to buy up said waterways, filter the water and sell it back to the public, making a double profit.

Among Monsanto’s worst acts is its attempt to completely monopolize the world’s seed supply. The company has spent over $8 billion in recent years buying up seed companies – including organic seed companies – and making it illegal for farmers to retain the seeds from their crop for the following year’s planting. That means farmers are forced to pay Monsanto for new seeds, again and again. Many of Monsanto’s genetically modified seeds produce plants that are reportedly dependent upon Monsanto herbicides, pesticides and fertilizers.

The people paying the biggest price for Monsanto’s greed are Indian farmers. Every day, at least three of them commit suicide by hanging themselves, drowning themselves in rivers or drinking Monsanto pesticides because they’ve hit rock bottom in desperation, hopelessness and debt. The death toll stands at thousands, with some estimates at over 16,000. The farmers had been promised unprecedented harvests and income if they switched to genetically modified Monsanto seeds in what was basically one big experiment on unwitting subjects. When the crops failed, the farmers felt they had no way out, and they certainly didn’t have money to buy more seeds.

Now, it’s been reported that Monsanto has found a way to profit from its own misdeeds once again. In the Southeast, a “superweed” known as Palmer amaranth pigweed is taking over soybean and cotton fields, often leaving them totally unfit for future cultivation. This particular strain of weed was created thanks to overuse of Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide and the attendant use of its patented Roundup-resistant GMOs. So, what will it take to wipe out this superweed? You guessed it – more Monsanto herbicides.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 7th, 2009 at 8:52 am.
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Share and Enjoy:

valerie said:

Regarding Wallmart…the urban sprawl that has developed because of them and chains like theirs is astounding. You can take a look on you tube to see the devastating effects they have had on some communities/local businesses.
May 7th, 2009 at 11:15 am
Katie said:

I’m surprised that you didn’t touch on the main reason I boycott Nestle.

They notoriously over-promote and push formula on women in third world countries. These women are told that formula is better for their babies and given free samples. Unfortunately, in the process they stop lactating and don’t have money to buy more formula. So they start thinning out the formula to make it stretch. Clean water is also hard to acquire, so they’re basically starving their own babies and feeding them dirty water instead. All because of Nestle’s formula push.

http://www.breastfeeding.com/advocacy/advocacy_boycott.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nestl%C3%A9_boycott
May 7th, 2009 at 11:39 pm

[Source]

Getting the Most Out of your Learning Ability

2009-05-08T20:39:00.005+05:30

"You cannot teach a man or woman anything; you can only help them to find it within themselves."

Galileo

"Just as eating against one's will is injurious to the health, so study without a liking for it spoils the memory, and it retains nothing it takes in."
Leonardo Da Vinci

The only way to make study work for you is to avoid BOREDOM - the worst enemy of learning.

From a very early age, we vary what we do to stop ourselves getting bored. We look for new tasks and seek new ways to do things. Sometimes even this fails and we fall into the boredom-trap. We cannot be bothered to find ways to cure our boredom because we are too bored.

Over time we develop a concentration-span - the time between starting a task to the time we find our minds wandering. This is because your brain deals with information in a very special way.

The brain receives information from our senses. This is then passed on to our short-term memory where it is stored for a short time. From then on the information in short-term memory must be passed on to long-term memory or we end up "forgetting" the information. Your brain's ability to do this depends on how you feel.

If you are bored, short term memory is lost very quickly and so can never be passed on. You may be surprised to learn that it is not lost forever - it is stored away often never to be remembered again.

The best way to learn is to limit study periods to the length of our concentration-span. This gives the brain the best chance to store what we are studying in long-term memory.

DETERMINING YOUR CONCENTRATION-SPAN

Go to your study area and get settled.

Read a large section of the text book belonging to your least favourite subject, preferably from part of the book which has not been covered before. Note the time you start.

Make an effort to LEARN and RECALL the information you read.

Note the time at which you find your mind beginning to wander, no matter how little. This will be your minimum concentration-span.

Repeat the task with your favourite subject. This will be your maximum concentration-span.

You will probably find that your concentration-span varies between ten and twenty minutes depending on the subject, how you feel, the amount of rest you have taken, and your eating habits.

Now that you know what your own brain can cope with you can sort out your reading and revision to suit.

NEVER study beyond your concentration-span. You may still be reading but your brain will be losing most of the information it takes in. This makes it pointless to go on. You may satisfy your need to feel as if you are working hard, but the amount you actually remember will get less and less.

MAXIMISING RECALL

After studying for the time you found was best, you must then take a rest for about five minutes. Do something else not connected with your work. Listen to music, have a snack, refresh yourself - but don't stop thinking about what you were reading.

This may be an unusual thing to do in the middle of a study session, but your brain needs that time to sort out the information in your short-term memory. At the end of the rest period, the information you were reading will be much clearer than it was to begin with.

Short-term memory lasts between 12 to 48 hours. If you stopped at this point you would be able to recall only about 10-20% of the information you read.

To get the information into long-term memory you must REVIEW.

REVIEWING YOUR CHOSEN
STUDY TOPIC

After your five-minute rest, read the same information again. Concentrate only on those points that are most important.

Then take another five-minute break and re-read once more, fitting all the bits of information together.

Both of these reviews would be made even better by note-taking in whatever way you find easy and helpful. Make sure that the notes you make are well organised!

ONE WEEKand TWO WEEKS later review the topic again using your notes. By now you should have found that there has been a huge improvement in your ability to remember, understand and use that information.

Finally, you must REVISE. This is simply a way of drawing loose ends together with the same study method but this time using your notes only.

If you use the above methods while you are still following a course of study, your final revision will be made much easier. Some students who have used these methods early find that very little final revision is necessary. They became so good at remembering the work during the course of the year that they didn't need to do any more!

The Read / Review / Review Graph

IMPROVING YOUR MEMORY

Study is like building a jigsaw :

Lay out the pieces

Sort out the edges

Build inwards towards the most difficult parts

Put in the final pieces

Stand back and appreciate!

In learning, the pieces of knowledge you have can be swapped between several jigsaws in your mind - but there is no pattern which you can follow.

By making patterns yourself all the pieces fall into place. Soon, that wonderful feeling of excitement hits you when you look down and see how the jigsaw fits together.

If you make patterns within your work then several pieces can be missing from the middle, but by looking at their neighbours a guess can be made as to what the missing pieces should be. In other words - you do not have to know everything!

By improving your reading and note-taking skills you can speed up the building of the jigsaw and increase your ability to remember the pattern.

BETTER READING
(THE "Q-S-R" TECHNIQUE)

Q: QUICKLY read the page or chapter you wish to study.

S: SCAN each page at a time noting key words or sections as you read through fairly quickly.

R: READ the page or chapter carefully and thoughtfully, making more notes as you go if you like. Concentrate on the key words or sections you highlighted, using them as trigger points for recall.

NOTE TAKING

The purpose of notes is not to copy out great chunks of information from books. They should only act as a trigger to help you remember what you have read. Key words are more easily remembered than long sentences!

Notes should be short, to the point, well-organised and easily read. The exact style is up to you and you only. Some tried and tested methods are given in the next section.

SUGGESTED METHODS OF NOTE TAKING

SERIAL NOTES

This is a simple note-making style and is best for making notes during lessons. Don't write everything you hear or read but select out the most important points. Concentrate only on those pointers that will help you recall the lesson content. Improve upon them later when time allows.

Use lots of headings, sub-headings, numbered points, "bullets", etc.

For example:

Heading

Sub-Heading 1
Note 1.1
Note 1.2
Sub-note 1
Sub-note 2
Sub-Heading 2
Note 2.1
Note 2.2

Or:

and so on…

MIND-MAPS^® (based on the work of Tony Buzan)

Useful for making short notes for revision. Stretch points outwards from a main point or key word. These are best drawn from notes made during lessons which have then been added to with further information from text books. Software is also available to make drawing and revising a Mind Map easy - go to www.mindmapper.com

KEY-WORD INDEXING

This requires the use of index cards which can be purchased at any stationers. As you revise notes write down key-words in two categories: HEADERS and LINKED WORDS.

Use the HEADERS as titles for the index cards, and beneath this write a list of the LINKED WORDS. When revising a topic have the index cards in front of you. With practice, just the thought of a HEADER word will trigger recall of most, if not all, of the rest.

For example:

BRAINSTORMING

Brainstorming is best used when revising in groups (but can be used by someone working alone) and combines all of the above techniques.

This is especially good for working out what to put in an essay or extended assignment. Think of everything you can to do with a topic, no matter how odd or unusual. Note down the words and/or ideas, discuss how important they are. From that discussion develop a pattern that makes sense of the things mentioned by getting rid of those that stray from the point.

[Source]

A Little Inspiration

2009-04-11T19:33:00.001+05:30

People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered;
Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;
Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies;
Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;
Be honest and frank anyway.
What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;
Build anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;
Be happy anyway.
The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;
Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough;
Give the world the best you've got anyway.
You see, in the final analysis, It is between you and God;
It never was between you and them anyway.

Author Unknown

[source]

[IF]

2009-04-05T19:11:00.001+05:30

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!

--Rudyard Kipling

[from Swarthmore]

How to Learn (Almost) Anything

2009-04-03T21:16:00.002+05:30

Based on the research we can see that:

The least effective way to learn something is to listen to a lecture on the topic or read information about it.
The most effective way to learn something is to teach others and use it in our own lives.

[taken from : Litemind]

Which Fantasy/Sci-Fi character are you?

2009-03-30T22:03:00.000+05:30

The Big NOMer !

2009-03-23T22:02:00.003+05:30

Omg! Please no, I dont want to be nomed again.

Oh God! Somebody Please Help me.

Ink Prices ?

2009-03-23T20:29:00.007+05:30

Exactly what do you infer from this ? (reply/comment please)

The Love Movie

2009-03-22T08:24:00.002+05:30

Commonly Misused English Words

2009-03-19T20:32:00.007+05:30

Let’s get right to the point. Misusing words makes you look less intelligent than you really are. If you misuse words in your writing, it can damage your credibility and diminish the point you’re trying to make. Even worse, it could completely change the meaning of the sentence.

What follows is a list of the most commonly misused words and phrases.

1. Accept/Except- Although these two words sound alike (they’re homophones), they have two completely different meanings. “Accept” means to willingly receive something (accept a present.) “Except” means to exclude something (I’ll take all of the books except the one with the red cover.)

2. Affect/Effect- The way you “affect” someone can have an “effect” on them. “Affect” is usually a verb and “Effect” is a noun.

3. Alright- If you use “alright,” go to the chalkboard and write “Alright is not a word” 100 times.

4. Capital/Capitol- “Capitol” generally refers to an official building. “Capital” can mean the city which serves as a seat of government or money or property owned by a company. “Capital” can also mean “punishable by death.”

5. Complement/Compliment- I often must compliment my wife on how her love for cooking perfectly complements my love for grocery shopping.

6. Comprise/Compose- The article I’m composing comprises 32 parts.

7. Could Of- Of the 32 mistakes on this list, this is the one that bothers me most. It’s “could have” not “could of.” When you hear people talking, they’re saying “could’ve.” Got it?

8. Desert/Dessert- A desert is a hot, dry patch of sand. Dessert, on the other hand, is the sweet, fatty substance you eat at the end of your meal.

9. Discreet/Discrete- We can break people into two discrete (separate) groups, the discreet (secretive) and indiscreet.

10. Emigrate/Immigrate- If I leave this country to move to Europe, the leaving is emigrating and the arriving is immigrating.

11. Elicit/Illicit- Some people post illicit things on message boards to elicit outrageous reactions from others.

12. Farther/Further- Farther is used for physical distance, whereas further means to a greater degree.

13. Fewer/Less- Use fewer when referring to something that can be counted one-by-one. Use less when it’s something that doesn’t lend itself to a simple numeric amount.

14. Flair/Flare- A flair is a talent, while a flare is a burst (of anger, fire, etc.)

15. i.e/e.g- I.e. is used to say “in other words.” E.g. is used in place of “for example.”

16. Inflammable- Don’t let the prefix confuse you, if something is inflammable it can catch on fire.

17. It’s/Its- It’s= it is. Its=a possessive pronoun meaning of it or belonging to. Whatever you do, please don’t use its’.

18. Imply/Infer- A reader infers what an author implies. In other words, when you imply something, you hint at it. When you infer something, you draw a conclusion based on clues.

19. Literally- If you say “His head literally exploded because he was so mad!” then we should see brains splattered on the ceiling.

20. Lose/Loose- If your pants are too loose you may lose them. That would be almost as embarrassing as misusing these two words.

21. Moral/Morale- Morals are something you want to teach your kids. If your team’s morale is low, you need to do something to boost their confidence.

22. Percent/Percentage- The word “percent” should only be used when a specific number is given. “Percentage” is more of a general term.

23. Stationary/Stationery- You are stationary when you aren’t moving. Stationery is something you write on.

24. Then/Than- “Then” is another word for “after.” Incidentally, the word “then” makes for boring writing. “Than” is a comparative word (e.g. I am smarter than you).

25. There/Their/They’re- There are few things as frustrating as when I look at my students’ writing and they’re misusing these words in their writing.

26. Unique- Something can’t be “kind of unique” or even “very unique.” It’s either one-of-a-kind or it isn’t. There is no in between when it comes to unique.

27. Your/You’re- If I had a nickel for every time I saw this one… yeah, you know the rest. “Your” shows ownership and you’re is a contraction meaning “you are.” Get it right.

28. To/Too/Two- Two is a number. “To” is used in instances such as, “I am going to the store.” If you are supposed to use the word “too,” try inserting the word “extra” or “also.” If one of those fits, you need to also add the extra “o” to make “too.”

29. Lie/Lay- After you lay the books on the table, go lie down on the couch.

30. Sit/Set- Set your drink on the table and sit in your chair. Got it?

31. Whose/Who’s- Whose is the possessive form of who. Who’s is a contraction meaning “who is.”

32. Allude/Elude- When someone alludes to something in conversation (indirectly references), if you aren’t paying attention the meaning may elude you (escape you).

33. Averse(to)/Adverse - I am averse to the habit of smoking in public which can adversely affect others' health.

34. Effluent/Affluent - Effluent means something that is flowing outward, affluence is a state of being wealthy.

Which misused words drive you crazy? Share them in the replies/comments.

[Ref: http://helptutorservices.com/blog/the-32-most-commonly-misused-words-and-phrases/]

Live the Euphony !

2009-03-18T22:53:00.006+05:30

Or someday you will wake up and realize you have let the music go by.

Birdsong Radio

2009-03-18T21:26:00.005+05:30

Birdsong Radio, Live Dawn Chorus Bird Song Station, Birdsong DAB Station, Increase productivity and relax!

Posted using ShareThis

Rang Barse !

2009-03-10T11:16:00.007+05:30

May Colors fill your Life !

How old are your (H)ears?

2009-03-09T07:49:00.001+05:30

Created by Train Horns

The Natural Herbivores

2009-03-09T01:55:00.000+05:30

Ok, we have already had enough with our animal rights, environmental and ethical aspects of eating meat. Seriously, it gets us nowhere. Let us talk in actual technical terms and get ourselves to understand from an anthropologist's view about this in detail.

According to biologists and anthropologists who study our anatomy and our evolutionary history, humans are herbivores who are not well suited to eating meat.

Unlike natural carnivores, we are physically and psychologically unable to rip animals limb from limb and eat and digest their raw flesh. Even cooked meat is likely to cause human beings, but not natural carnivores, to suffer from food poisoning, heart disease, and other ailments.

People who pride themselves on being part of the human hunter tradition should take a second look at the story of human evolution. Prehistoric evidence indicates that humans developed hunting skills relatively recently and that most of our short, meat-eating past was spent scavenging and eating almost anything in order to survive; even then, meat was a tiny part of our caloric intake.

Humans lack both the physical characteristics of carnivores and the instinct that drives them to kill animals and devour their raw carcasses. Ask yourself: When you see dead animals on the side of the road, are you tempted to stop for a snack? Does the sight of a dead bird make you salivate? Do you daydream about killing cows with your bare hands and eating them raw? If you answered "no" to all of these questions, congratulations—you're a normal human herbivore—like it or not. Humans were simply not designed to eat meat.

Not Convinced? Satisfy yourself [GoVeg.com]

HelloWorld

2009-03-08T18:48:00.000+05:30

Hi!, well..., this is for my first blog !

Just to say ...

Hi!

so, lets have a Hi! five.
Place your hand (that must be your left hand:) as on the image.

haha!

Will be Back!