Hotpage

How to Prepare & Face an Interview

2009-04-21T12:57:00.001-07:00

An interview can be defined as a face to face oral communication between the interviewer and the interviewee in order to assess the views, attitudes and ideas of the interviewee. However the interview process also enables the interviewee and observers to assess the skill and ability of the interviewer. Thus, an interview is a test of both the communicants and parties engaged in the interaction. Intelligence, knowledge, personal qualities and character are revealed and both parties are required to be well prepared. The process allows everyone involved to make some important decisions. The candidate decides whether he should accept the position and the interviewer decides whether the candidate should be appointed; this decision may affect the organizational interests.

The following suggestions are advisable when faced with an interview:

Dress appropriately - A well dressed and groomed appearance can do wonders for that first impression. Now is not exactly the time to make a fashion statement so a tastefully chosen professional outfit, with suitable accessories like a hand-bag or brief case should be fine.

Posture and Carriage - The way in which the candidate carries himself while walking and sitting tells the interviewer about your confidence. Good "carriage" and posture have to be developed over a period of time and are essential in distinguishing a shoddy and careless attitude from a sharp and alert one.

Be confident - Self confidence, or the lack of it, is observed through your behavior, right from the way you sit to how you speak. Good manners and proper behavior are obviously necessary. Suitable greetings for the time of the day and other formalities must be known to the interviewee; for example, sit down only after being told to; elbows must not be put on the table; the brief case or bag should be kept on the floor beside the chair and do not play with any of your accessories or clothes. Nervous movements betray show a lack of confidence and concentration.

Mental Preparation - The candidate should be well informed about current events, domestic and international, and topics of general interest. Regular reading of newspapers, listening to radio and TV discussions, participating in group discussions and general reading habits are helpful activities in developing the required mental status for an interview.

Information about the organization, its directors, turnover, share capital and other relevant information which are available in its annual report, is expected of candidates by public limited companies. A candidate must know as much as possible about the prospective employer company.

Go back to the books - The candidate should also possess adequate knowledge in the subjects studied during graduation and professional examinations. A reasonable revision of the subjects can solve the purpose. Several general questions and biographical questions are usually asked by the interviewers and candidates should be well prepared to answer them.

No guessing games - In situations where the candidate does not know the answer to a question it is always better to state ones inability to answer than to make a guess. No one is expected to know everything; admitting that one does not know the answer reflects honesty.

Be clear - A candidate must have clarity of purpose and determination enough to want to know his prospects in the organization. He/she must be able to ask questions about the nature of duties, employee benefits, future prospects and other things which he may want to know about the organization before taking any decision.

Know your own worth - It is advisable to talk about salary without appearing to be bargaining and without being driven or defeated. This requires careful prior thinking; if possible this topic should be discussed with the family and with experienced elders or friends. It is useful to assess ones training, experience, proved ability, as well as needs, in order to quantify ones worth. It is, of course, necessary to know the payments made for similar positions or work in other companies.

At the end, candidate's are usually not sure when to leave. If the interviewers indicate that the interview is over, collect your bag, wish them and thank them for their friendly attitude and leave. Some candidates, due to nervousness, seem to be in a hurry to leave and forget to wish or thank the interviewers. Always remember that your parting movements are also closely observed so hurried and frantic movements may betray an earlier composed attitude.

In order to succeed in an interview each individual must make an honest self-assessment and find out one's areas of strength and weakness. Knowledge of one's deficiencies is useful in overcoming weaknesses and unconscious bad habits of posture or speech can be improved by effort. Shortcomings which cannot be overcome can be accepted and acknowledged so that they do not lead to depression and embarrassment when others notice them. Therefore, coming to terms with oneself and knowing how to deal with one's faults, and how to make the best use of one's knowledge and skills, is another vital element in preparing for an interview.

Ways for Good Salary Negotiations

2009-04-21T11:46:00.001-07:00

Negotiating a better salary package has put more than a few stomachs in knots over the years. Remember, we all go through it sooner or later. Keep these 9 basic tips in mind when it´s your turn to ask for a sweeter deal.

Be Persuasive

It´s hard to force your boss to increase your compensation, and trying to do so can potentially damage your working relationship. Think about the process as trying to convince him that it might benefit the organization to pay you more.

Aim High, and Be Realistic

Many researchers have found a strong correlation between people´s aspirations and the results they achieve in negotiation. At the same time, you want to suggest ideas to which your boss can realistically say yes.

Start Off with the Right Tone

You want to let your boss know you will listen and try to understand his views. At the same time, you expect your boss to do the same for you so you can work together to address this issue. Avoid ultimatums, threats and other coercive behavior.

Clarify Your Interests

Your compensation should satisfy a range of needs, not just salary. Make sure you have thought about other points of value to you as well-like profit sharing, stock options that vest immediately, a bonus, greater work responsibilities, a quicker promotion schedule, increased vacation or flexible hours.

Anticipate Your Boss´s Interests

Just like you, your boss has needs and concerns. To persuade him to say yes, your ideas will have to address those things that are important to him.

Create Several Options

Joint brainstorming is the most effective way to find ideas that satisfy everyone´s interests. It works best when you separate it from commitment-first create possible solutions, and then decide among them.

Focus on Objective Criteria

It is far easier to persuade someone to agree with your proposal if he sees how that proposal is firmly grounded on objective criteria, such as what similar firms pay people of like experience or what others in the company make.

Think Through Your Alternatives

In case you cannot persuade your boss to say yes, you need to have a backup plan. Part of preparation is creating a specific action plan so you know what you´ll do if you have to walk away from the table.

Prepare Thoughtfully to Achieve Your Goals & Review to Learn

This is the only aspect of your negotiations you can completely control. To take advantage of all of the above advice, you have to invest a significant amount of your time and energy.

The only way you can really improve your ability to negotiate is to explicitly learn from your experiences. After you finish negotiations, reflect on what you did that worked well and what you might want to do differently next time.

A Quick Guide to Alien Alcohol

2009-04-18T00:57:00.001-07:00

If you plan to planet-hop, you better know what they’re shoving across the bar. They tend to be stronger, more colorful, occasionally radioactive, and some can leave you with a permanent hangover. Here’s a taste:

Aldeberan Whiskey
A potent green liquor that Scotty was particularly fond of. Then again, he’d be fond of tribbles if he could suck hooch out of them. The prop bottle used in the series is actually a modified bottle of Cuervo Gold 1800 Tequila.

Blood Wine
A variety of super-fortified Klingon vino, Worf programmed the replicators aboard the latter-day Enterprise to produce a close approximation. Served warm, it is traditionally pounded by Klingon warriors being inducted into the elite Order of the Bat’lesth. If you fancy yourself a more sophisticated intergalactic marauder, you can add a splash to gin and vermouth and you got yourself a Klingon Martini. The prop bottle was a bottle of Cuervo Margarita Mix with a coat of white paint.

Chateau Picard
A fine wine produced at the Picard family vineyards in Labarre, France. Probably about 2% alcohol, it hits you like the slap of a silk glove. As opposed to Kirk Ripple which is 25% and comes on like a flying two-legged kick.

Finagle’s Folly
Perfected by Kirk’s personal physician/mixologist Dr. Leonard McCoy, he bragged to Kirk he was famous "from here to Orion" for this cocktail. By the expression on Kirk’s face after he tasted it, he was thinking, “You mean, infamous, don’t ya, Bones?”

Kanar
The Glennfiddich of Cardassia, this viscous brown liquid apparently takes some getting used to. But, as the Cardassians like to say, “If you can drink three bottles in a single setting you won’t get a hangover. Because you’ll be dead.”

Mot'loch
A potent Klingon booze that is traditionally guzzled as part of a traditional observance of the Klingon Day of Honor. The observance includes the Ritual of Twenty Painsticks, combat with a bat'leth master, and a traverse of the sulfur lagoons of Gorath. Makes St. Patty’s Day look like an AA meeting.

Romulan Ale
This real ale (as in real fucking strong) brewed by the Romulan Empire is illegal to possess in Federation territory, although the crew of the Enterprise never seemed to have any problem getting their hands on it. Light blue in color, it is responsible for at least one war between the Federation and the Klingon Empire (Kirk thought it was a bright idea to serve it during a diplomatic conference.) While the quality of their booze is beyond reproach, the uptight Romulans make for poor party guests. They’re so un-hip even their glassware is square.

Samarian Sunset
A cocktail sometimes prepared by Commander Data. It initially appears clear, but develops a multicolored hue when the rim of the glass is tapped sharply. Don’t know what it tastes like, but I’ll wager it’s a little fruity.

Saurian Brandy
The intergalactic version of Thunderbird. Enjoyed by Captain Kirk, and sometimes the crew when he wasn’t hogging it all. This liquor seems readily available on even the most backwater of planets and was responsible for Kirk landing in the brig at least once. The prop bottle was actually a George Dickel Tennessee Sour Mash Whiskey carafe.

Synthehol
This is the infamous alcohol-substitute served up by the Ferengi on the latter-day Star Trek spin-offs. It’s designed to supply the taste and odor of alcohol, without the hangover and kick. Check, please!

Tzartak Aperitif
Specialty beverage served by Guinan in the Enterprise-D's Ten Forward lounge. The drink is adjusted so its vapor point is one half degree below the body temperature of the patron, causing it to immediately evaporate upon contact with the drinker's tongue. You know, like Bud Light.

Tamarian Frost
Sweet drink served in Ten-Forward Lounge, this one is strictly for yeomen and androids.

Telluridian Synthale
A drink prized by the surviving colonists on the planet Turkana IV, the beverage was scarce enough to become a commodity worth stealing from opposing cadres. Sounds to me like the writers like to take ski vacations in Colorado.

Vulcan Port
Very intoxicating to alien races, the Vulcans claimed this insanely strong liquor merely served to clear their minds and palettes. Uh huh. My dad used to say the same thing about Jim Beam. Reportedly tasting like crap until it’s been aged at least two-hundred years, it is not recommended for the casual homebrewer.

Warnog
The Klingons claim warnog is a ferocious ale with more bite than a Kazakian Saber Shark, but it sounds to me like they’re trying to toughen up the local version of eggnog.

Wee Bairns Scotch Whiskey
Chief O'Brien and Dr Bashir got loaded on this stuff then proceeded to launch into an off-key rendition of "Chariots of Fire." You know, the same effect Zima has on theater majors. Suddenly Klingon Blood Wine doesn’t sound so bad

Make no mistake

2009-04-18T00:05:00.001-07:00

Make no mistake—Captain Kirk and his crew were cowboys and they treated the universe like the Wild West. There was always a lot of solemn talk about the Prime Directive and not interfering with native cultures, but that went right out the window the moment Kirk laid eyes on the first attractive female of whatever species they came across. Sure, they solved a lot of problems, but half the time they were solving problems they created. The crew of the original Enterprise wasn’t trying to unite the universe, they weren’t trying to right the universe’s many and sundry wrongs—they were looking for kicks.

And alcohol played an essential role in that quest. It was a beautiful situation—you not only got to drink, you got to drink ales, wines and liquors the human race couldn’t even imagine. And they always seemed stronger than our silly earthling libations, every alien race bragged their booze would floor a human if he so much as looked in the bottle’s direction. Klingon Blood Wine, Romulan Ale, Saurian Brandy—they came on harder than a photon torpedo barrage and when you woke up, if you woke up, you’d be nursing a nebula-sized hangover the fastest warp drive in the universe couldn’t outrun. Humans were considered the lightweights of the universe, a bunch of Bartle-and-James swilling high school punks among whiskey-chugging dilithium-crystal miners.

Then Kirk and his boys came along. Kirk could not only hold his own with the extraterrestrial hooch, he was backed up by a hard-pounding crew. Spock wasn’t much help (Vulcans are the designated drivers of the Universe), but Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy thought so little of the potent alien liquors he administered them as cough syrup. And he had skills too, when he wasn’t wiping out planetary epidemics and pronouncing any number of security crewmen dead, he was concocting cocktails that that would become infamous from one end of the galaxy to the other. And Scotty, don’t get me started on that beautiful son of a bitch. Born and bred to it like a bird dog, this Aberdeen son could drink a transporter room full of aliens under the table then whistle Tura-lura-lura all the way back to his private stash of scotch. These three walk in a Klingon pub and half an hour later Klingon heads are hitting tables like Bacchus’s own drum roll.

And why shouldn’t they have been boozy philanderers? Their creator, Gene Rodenberry certainly was. So was the inventor of the Warp Drive, Zefram Cochrane. Zeph refused to pilot a starship sober, under any circumstances, and was even able to coerce that super-PC empath Counselor Troi into getting hammered on shots of tequila.

It was because of the hard (yet somehow enjoyable) work of the original crew that earthlings soon enjoyed a universal reputation as being the hardest drinking wild-asses who ever rode a rocket into space. Then everything went to hell.

The Synthehol Boondoggle
Synthehol. It sounds like aftershave without the kick, which is sadly close to the truth. After Kirk finished ripping up (and repopulating) the universe, a bunch of Earl Grey-sipping sissies followed in his wake. Star Trek: The Next Generation absorbed the political correctness of its era and came up with sinister synthehol. Instead of chugging their hooch from bottles liberated from burning Romulan Birds of Prey, on-board replicators create the libations swilled on the latter-day Federation starships. An obvious bow to MADD, these artificial liquors are supposed to taste and smell exactly like alcohol but mete out no hangovers and here’s the kicker—its effects can be easily disregarded. In other words, the current writers are attempting to take advantage of the inherent drama of the ship’s lounge and its booze while being able to say to the network censors, “It doesn’t really get them drunk.”

Problem is, people (and aliens) keep getting loaded on the stuff. Real alcohol-based hooch is available for the right price -- even that tea-sipping, starship-surrendering ponce Picard has the bartender keep a bottle of real-deal Aldeberan Whiskey behind the bar for his own private use. Make no mistake though, just because his family owns a vineyard on Earth and he stashed some good stuff doesn’t mean he’s a latter-day Kirk. Examine this exchange with the young Wesley Crusher after the lad had tucked into a little hooch.

Wesley: So you mean I'm drunk! I feel strange, but also good.
Picard: (huffily putting aside his knitting) Because you have lost the capacity for self-judgment. Alcohol does this, Wesley!

Kirk would have challenged the upstart whelp to a Romulan Ale drinking contest, then hooked him up with an Orion slave girl.

The only latter-day crew member who might be cool enough to hang with Kirk’s crew is Worf, who keeps getting the Klingon slogan, “It’s a good day to die” mixed up with “It’s a good day to drink.” He also likes dishing out the threats when Picard and his gang of lightweights invite him to have spritzers with them. “You would be so drunk you would not be able to stand,” he tells Riker after he asks for a taste of Klingon hooch. And he expresses the universal drunkard sentiment to Picard: “Don’t get between me and my blood wine!” An alien after my own heart.

The hardest drinking human is probably Chief O’Brien down in Engineering. There’s something about the engineering room that seems to either attract drunks or drive men to drink. Maybe it’s that weird low hum that’s always coming off the dilithium crystals, or the lingering, hard-to-shake realization that if a single molecule of matter gets into the antimatter chamber the whole shebang explodes into a black hole the size of Pluto. Wouldn’t you be getting hammered any chance you got?

As far as synthehol tasting exactly like alcohol—well, it didn’t pass the Scotty test. He tasted the swill during an appearance on the new Star Trek and was ready to start cracking some heads, old-Trek style, when Data hastily came up with a dusty bottle of Aldeberan Whiskey (probably Picard’s bottle). From that point on that smarmy android was aces in my Captain’s Log.

But enough of the new, let’s get back to the old, where the Saurian Brandy flowed like Klingon blood wine and Yeomen wore miniskirts so short they’d make a Ferengi blush.

The Enemy Within
Due to a transporter malfunction, Kirk is split into two separate captains—one wildass, one mild mannered. Which, coincidentally, is the exact same excuse I use after my fifth shot of tequila.

The wildass Kirk wastes no time getting the party started, storming into sick bay and demanding a bottle of Saurian Brandy, which McCoy apparently keeps around for medicinal purposes. When McCoy demurs, Kirk goes last-call crazy: "I said give me the brandy!" he snarls, then chokes the doctor a little bit to get his point across. McCoy, rethinking his previous selfishness, coughs it up. Kirk snatches it away and starts hitting the hooch the moment he steps into the hallway, managing to almost finish it off before he decides to pay a visit to the quarters of Yeoman Rand, the leggy blonde who’d been giving him the eye. It doesn’t go so well from there and Kirk gets a nasty facial scratch for his troubles. Hey, all he wanted to do was party.
The Tholian Web
The crew is going crazy from space waves and Dr. McCoy instructs everyone to slam a diluted shot of Klingon nerve poison to deaden certain nerve impulses. Scott refuses until McCoy tells him he used alcohol as the diluting agent and that, after drinking it, a man could be hit with phaser stun without feeling a thing. "Any good scotch will do that,” Scottie says and drinks it down.

By Any Other Name
When a gang of super beings who’ve taken human form hijack the Enterprise, Kirk decides to undo them by appealing to their new-found human sensations. Kirk goes for the seduction (natch), McCoy employs his powers of irritation and Scotty brings into play his own special strength—he tries to drink one of them under the table.

"Lad, you're gonna need something to wash that down with,” Scotty says, strolling over to where the alien Tomar eats. “Have you ever tried any Saurian brandy?" Tomar shakes his head no and they repair to Scotty’s quarters for an interspecies drink-off. They drink every bottle of brandy Scotty has on hand, which is saying something because Scotty was apparently stocked up for a very long drought. Tomar is hanging in there like an Irish uncle and Scotty decides it’s time to go for the big guns, dragging out his treasured bottle of Ganymede Scotch. Talk about self-sacrifice. Tomar inquires, "What is it?" All Scotty can squeeze out is, “Well, it's . . . um . . . it's green." (Data would repeat the exact same line when he produced the bottle in the aforementioned encounter with Scotty.)

They tuck into the scotch and just before they polish it off Tomar takes a dive. Scotty, his job done, takes a little nap himself seconds later. Humans: 1 Super Aliens: 0.

Requiem for Methuselah
Detained by yet another super-powered alien, Kirk and his away team are forced to hang around and drink one hundred-year-old Saurian Brandy. No one is more surprised than Kirk and Bones when Spock opts to join them in a drink. So perhaps Spock isn’t a teetotaler at all, merely a snob.

Soon a much looser Spock is playing the piano and making rare confessions: “I am close to experiencing an unaccustomed emotion." "What emotion is that?" McCoy wants to know. "Envy," Spock replies. Drinking someone else’s hundred-year-old Saurian brandy tends to induce that emotion. Later Spock has to wipe Kirk’s brain so he forgets the chick he gets hooked on. Spock uses a mind probe, not the brandy.

Obsession
Spock approaches McCoy, asking a rare favor indeed. He tells Bones, “I need your advice.”

“Then I need a drink,” McCoy answers, then, while “having a drop,” offers some to the Vulcan, who refuses, snidely firing back: "My father's race was spared the dubious benefits of alcohol." McCoy comes right back at him with: "Oh. Now I know why they were conquered." Game, set and match, baby.

The Ultimate Computer
After Kirk gets replaced by a new super-computer (they call Kirk Captain Dunsel, for crissakes), the good Doctor McCoy soothes Kirk’s bruised ego with his own special concoction: Finagle’s Folly, a cocktail which he brags is famous from “here to Orion.” Now that’s a doctor I’d trust my life with.

A man is, ultimately, the sum of his accomplishments.

2009-04-17T20:18:00.001-07:00

Each culture, of course, has a different idea as to what rates as an accomplishment. Muslims, for example, put a tremendous amount of stock into making a pilgrimage to Mecca, while generations of Frenchmen have taken great pride in not tripping over their discarded rifles while fleeing the Germans.

The subculture of avid drinkers, living as we do by our own set of rules and priorities, has an entirely different idea altogether, to the degree that our notion of a goal worth achieving may well appear bad behavior or even a criminal offense to the parent culture.

I think it a sad sign of the times that, in this age of entrenched nannyism and political correctness, a person is more likely to be judged by what he refrained from doing than what he actually did. It’s no longer important that you climbed the mountain, but rather how many boulders you didn't “accidentally” dislodge and let roll down on the less daring hunkered in the valley below.

Fortunately, imbibers have historically been immune to popular opinion, so hence this list. If you manage all forty before you take a barstool at St. Gabriel’s Pearly Gate Lounge, you may feel secure in the fact that you’ve lived a rich and full life, even if only the boys and girls down at happy hour think so. And when you do belly up to that big open bar in the sky and the bartender asks: “What sort of life did you lead?” you can look him right in the eye and say, “Gabe, baby, I’m glad this is eternity, because I’ve got a helluva lot of stories to tell.”

1) Open and close a bar.
Find one that opens its doors before noon. Stake out a comfortable seat and hunker down. Resist informing the bartender of your tremendous plan, as this will cause him to pour waves of pre-celebratory shots and you won’t survive happy hour. Pacing is everything. Watch the crowds come and go, watch bartenders rise, reign and fade while you remain like a cagey Methuselah. From that day forward, within the walls of that bar at least, your name will be legend.

2) Go on a bender.
I don’t mean a weekend binge. I’m talking a full-bore, hooch-bent, screw-work hoolihan. Dangerous, yes, but so is getting out of bed in the morning. True benders have gone the way of the snap brim fedora, which makes them all the greater currency in the world of drunks. It won’t be easy. You must start drinking the moment you wake up and carry on until you go under. Then start over again. In your grandfather’s day you had to drink two weeks straight before you could officially declare yourself on a proper jag, but that’s when a mug of beer cost a nickel. These days four straight days and nights will give you all the bragging rights you need.

3) Drink a fifth of hard liquor, by yourself, in one day.
For some this is a typical evening, the rest will have to try harder. Unplug the phone, don’t answer the door and get down with your bad self. Stock up on ice, gather mixers if you need them, crack the seal and, inch by inch, take that proud bottle down. Take your own sweet time. Near the bottom you will discover a rich inner landscape you thought a barren desert. Explore it.

4) Dance like a fool in front of a large hooting crowd.
Cast aside your fear of public opinion, march to the center of the room’s attention and boogie down. You don’t need a partner, you don’t even need music, do a happy jig to the beat of your own drum. Of course, it helps to be really really drunk.

5) Spend a night in the drunk tank.
While getting captured by the Man goes against the most primal of drunkard instincts, if you’re putting your time and liquor in, it’s going to happen. Make the most of the experience. Pretend you’re Cool Hand Luke. And don’t refrain from telling your friends: Among drunks, the real ones anyway, a night in the tank is a very large feather in the drinking cap.

6) Get drunk on the grave of your hero.
Wait until the cemetery closes for the night, then slip over the fence with a bottle of something strong. Prop your back against the gravestone and tell your hero how much he inspired you, how he changed your life, revel in the fact that your inspiration is only six feet of hard-packed earth away. It’ll be the greatest one-sided conversation you’ll ever have. Then pass out. Let the groundskeeper be your alarm clock.

7) Buy a crowded bar a round.
For no reason at all. Jump up on a barstool and shout it loud: “A round for the house! On me!” Make sure you have a good toast ready, because, for once, they’ll all be listening.

8) Embark on an impromptu road trip.
Out of the blue, propose a trip to Las Vegas, New Orleans, Jack Kerouac’s grave or, for the love of God, the Two-Headed Cattle Museum. It doesn’t really matter where, the joy is in the journey. There’s nothing like a sudden burst of irresponsible freedom to shake up your worldview. It will be an adventure you’ll never forget or get tired of talking about.

9) Get 86’d from a bar.
There are generally two types of drunkards in the world: Those that get 86’d a lot and those who never do. If you’re the latter, you’re missing out on a very special feeling. A man with any character at all must have enemies and places he is not welcome—in the end we are not only defined by our friends, but also those aligned against us. So choose the type of bar you loathe. Get remorselessly smashed on tequila. Let your lizard brain do your talking. Splash the kerosene, drop the match and watch the bridge burn. Few sentences in the English language bespeak a mysterious dark side than: “I’m not allowed in there. And, quite frankly, I don’t blame them.”

10) Extravagantly overtip a bartender.
The next time a bartender is especially kind or proficient, lay a massive tip on her. I mean, massive. You must be relatively sober or they’ll discount the act as drunken foolishness. Say something smooth like, “You’re the best of your kind,” drop the bomb, and—this is important—walk out of the bar without another word. With this single act of unexpected generosity, you will restore a bartender’s faith in humanity and give your own self-image a healthy boost.

11) Walk up to an attractive stranger way out of your league and buy him or her a drink.
You always wanted to do it. You’ve enviously watched your smooth friends do it. Now it’s your turn. The fear is nowhere proportionate to the risk to your ego (she’s out of your league, remember?), yet it still requires a certain amount of courage. It’s akin to sticking your hand down into the garbage disposal. The thing isn’t going to turn on by itself, but still...

12) Conspire an afterhours at your favorite bar.
I’m not talking about them letting you have a quick one in the back while they’re cleaning up. I’m talking about drinking until the sun creeps through the shut blinds. It takes a lot of time and tips to earn the privilege, but there’s nothing quite like it.

13) Make your best friend a perfect martini.
I mean perfect. Employ the proper utensils and the highest-end liquor you can afford. Follow an old-school recipe and take your time. You know how a handmade present from a child always warms the heart of a parent more than the most expensive gift? Same deal. Just a little something for all the times your pal bailed you out. And after your friend has enjoyed your sublime creation, make yourself one, you magnificent bastard.

14) Buy, build or steal a home bar.
Put the well right in your home. Outfit it with many sparkling bottles, accruement and tools. Sit on your barstool with a grossly over-poured cocktail and think: “This is my bar. No one can cut me off, no one can kick me out, none but the floor can announce last call.” You’ve been a sharecropper long enough. Get your own plot of land.

15) Get carried home by your drinking buddies.
In the company of friends you can trust, get fantastically loaded to the point you cannot stand, nevermind walk. Let them brace you from both sides and carry you homeward. Sing like an Irish uncle. Swear love and fealty to your human crutches. These are the bonds that never break.

16) Get drunk with your father.
Getting loaded with the man who brought you into this world is one of the most deeply mystical experiences a human being can manage. If you can’t get your father to commit, find an elder you respect.

17) Fight a good fight.
Samuel Johnson said “Every man thinks meanly of himself for not having been a soldier, or not having been at sea.” Men who go to their graves without ever getting into a fistfight undoubtedly feel the same way. How many times have you gone home thinking, “Damn, I should have clocked that asshole.” Next time, do it. Swing first, swing hard, and make sure you’re in the right. You may not win, but at least you were in there swinging. Fear of losing a fight never stopped Bukowski and neither should it stop you.

18) Visit the source of your favorite beer, wine or liquor.
Make a pilgrimage to the headwaters. Follow the river that’s fed you joy to its source. Stand amongst the vats and barrels and absorb the knowledge that this is the spring from which the good times flow. Drink as many free samples as they’ll give you. It might mean a trip to Dublin or Tennessee, but from that moment on you can gaze into your glass and think, “Lad, I met your mother.”

19) Drunkenly watch the sun come up with your best boozing buddies and a bottle.
You’ve spent plenty of time railing against the dying of the light, this time welcome its birth. With a shot.

20) Sit in on an A.A. meeting.
Not all accomplishments are rum and games. File this under the heading of facing your fears. Just as Jonah found enlightenment in the belly of a beast, so will you. You may come to look at it as a sober examination of the safety net (or trampoline, as the case may be). You may view it as a cautionary trip to hell. Either way, you’ll never have to wonder again.

21) Hit a dozen bars in one night.
Make like Marco Polo. Instead of eating one lousy apple, take a bite out of a dozen exotic fruits. Chase the ever elusive good time. A rolling stone gathers no bar tabs.

22) Try at least one hundred different drinks.
Too often we drunks get trapped in a rut, forgetting there is a wide and golden world of forgotten cocktails, strangely-hued beers, mysterious liquors and wines from places we cannot pronounce. Explore the world from your barstool. One need only thumb through a bartender’s guide to realize how wide that world is. And when you return to your rut, and you probably will, you’ll appreciate just how good home can be after months on the road.

23) Get loaded in the land of your forefathers.
An effortless task for Europeans, a broad leap of faith for we colonials. Return to the land from whence your blood sprang, sit down to drinks with those your bold forefathers left behind. And for godsakes, don’t order a Bud.

24) Juice on the job.
You will never comprehend just how pleasurable the workaday grind can be until you bring your old chum alcohol along. You don’t have to get boss-punching drunk, just sneak enough to loosen up that tight harness. It’ll make you wish you worked for a drinking magazine.

25) Split a magnum of expensive champagne with your true love.
Do it up like F. Scott and Zelda before they went crazy. Realize that this is one of the precious few times you can get swizzled in front of your better half and she’ll think it’s wonderfully romantic.

26) Give a hobo twenty bucks.
Make him promise he’s going to spend it on hooch. It won’t be a hard sell. Twenty bucks is the price of a crappy shirt to you, to our alley brethren it’s a gift from the gods.

27) Get loaded and tell your boss exactly how you feel.
It could go down at the company picnic, the Christmas party, or maybe, if you’re really going after Accomplishment #24, right at the office. It’s tremendously cathartic. Years of stress and bitterness will drop from your shoulders and for the first time, after you’re done unloading, you will see your employer as an actual human being. You may very well get fired, but hey, if you’re angry enough to go berserk on your boss, you need to get a new job anyway.

28) Send a friend a bottle of good liquor.
Apropos of nothing and don’t tell him it’s coming. Attach a card reading: “Tonight the drinks are on me.” He will never forget it. There is no better feeling than unexpected free booze.

29) Eat a pickled egg from the big jar.
A bar must own a certain amount of character to carry the big jar. Maybe you’ve seen one. A jar large enough to hold Jay Leno’s head, populated with slightly off-color eggs floating in a murky fluid. You always wondered what they tasted like and it’s time to find out.

30) Go on a fishing trip with your pals.
Ensure you bring enough beer and liquor to paralyze the nation of Liechtenstein. Fishing tackle is optional. Drink near a body of water (you don’t actually have to come in contact or even see the water, but it should be nearby), then, when night falls, build a huge campfire. There is nothing more conducive to male bonding and rampant drinking than a campfire. Trust me, strip clubs come in a distant second.

31) Eat the worm.
It’s a cliche, but so are strippers at a bachelor party. It must be done. The last thing you want to do is mutter a half-hearted lie to your grand kids when they squeal, “Gramps, did you eat the worm?”

32) Learn at least one traditional drinking song.
Ethnically fractured and mixed as we are, we colonials have lost the art of the booze ballad. Watch a European football match on television and first thing you notice is the fans know one hell of a lot of songs. All we Yanks can manage is the “Na-na-na” song and chants of “De-fense!” Sure, we all know the words of Ring of Fire by rote, but what of The Pub with No Beer, My Lip Is on the Cup, and Drunk Last Night, Drunk the Night Before? Also, there’s nothing like a table of drunks bellowing an unidentifiable song in unison to scare the bejesus out of the bar staff.

33) Steal some booze.
Against the law? Sure. A hell of a rush? Absolutely. Of course, not getting caught is very important. Plan well. Nothing tastes quite so sweet.

34) Spend half a paycheck on a single bottle of liquor.
So much money for so little booze. We’ve spent our lives learning the art of getting the most stagger out of the smallest investment. We’ve heard rumors of those insanely expensive bottles, but they might as well sell them on Mars. Out of spite, you’ve probably told yourself: “Screw that—booze is booze. What’s it gonna do, get me five times drunker?” In a better world, maybe. Depending upon the sensitivity of your palette, however, you may come to understand that the rich really do have it better than us. And when I say better, I mean they can afford better booze.

35) Start your long-awaited and very personal autobiography: Me and the Booze: A Love Story.
You don’t have to finish it. Very few do. The point is, the very act of starting an autobiography means you think you’ve lived an exciting enough life to deserve one. Strive for that day.

36) Try absinthe.
Do the full ritual with the spoon and sugar. Drink enough to feel the full effect. Stroll the path that Hemingway, Van Gogh, Degas, F. Scott, and myriad other geniuses spent their lives pounding flat. Just don’t cut your ear off.

37) Watch the movie Barfly with five of your closest friends.
Without a doubt the finest drinking movie ever put to celluloid. Make sure there’s plenty of booze on hand because you’ll want to drink along.

38) Work at least a week as a bartender.
You’ll never fully understand the drinking culture as a whole until you’ve spent some time on the supply side of the wood. The empathy it will lever into your psyche will change your bar behavior forever.

39) Make your own beer, wine or moonshine.
There are fewer finer feelings in the world than to nurture booze from it’s humble, evil-tasting origins to something you can get hammered on. Just expect to repeat these words over and over again when you go mad on the blood of your creation: “I made this! Me! And now I’m drinking it! Woo-hoo!”

40) Go to your place of worship loaded.
Not so loaded they’ll finger you as a walking incarnation of Demon Rum, just enough to make the droning sermons lip-bitingly hilarious. It’s often said that liquor can bring you closer to God, so just think how close you’ll be when you’re hammered in his house.

—Frank Rich

TOP 10 MISTAKES OF BILL GATES

2009-03-26T19:59:00.001-07:00

Bill Gates is considered as a great man. Many people look up to him. And a lot of people are inspired by his life. But then again like any other human being he also has his own mistakes. Here are the top 10 mistakes of Bill Gates.

1. The man created a software monopoly and in return he got so many lawsuits for it.Bill Gates is still fighting with lawsuits.The source on wikipedia clearly stated that

United States v. Microsoft was a set of consolidated civil actions filed against Microsoft Corporation on May 18, 1998 by the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) and 20 U.S. states. Joel I. Klein was the lead prosecutor.The trial started on May 18, 1998 with the U.S. Justice Department and the Attorneys General of twenty U.S. states suing Microsoft for illegally thwarting competition in order to protect and extend its software monopoly.

2. Bill Gates did not consider opensource. His business strategies always counter opensource principles and paradigm.You may be interested in his open-source debate In a Fortune magazine he clearly says that

It’s easier for our software to compete with Linux when there’s piracy than when there’s not.

3. The Windows OS made Mr. Gates the richest man in the world. But its latest iteration is bombarded with lots of negative criticisms.

4. He allowed Windows Mobile to happen. Did he run out of innovative ideas so he settled for a miniature Windows OS for mobile phone. He could have put up a team to design the OS from ground up.

5. He let DOS die. It was a promising OS and a very stable one.

6. Bill Gates did not think of cloud computing probably because of his proprietary Windows OS. But this is definitely one of his biggest mistakes.

7. He allowed Windows Millennium edition to be released. The OS was definitely a reflection of the lack of talents from Microsoft. It failed the expectation of the people. It was premature.

8. He ignored search. Look what happened to Google now. Bill Gates already made some moves about search in the end of the 90s and it was definitely a mistake to trash it.Scobleizer once revealed in his post that

Look at my last post. Now read this one over on LiveSide. It’s a short report that Microsoft executives are bragging to MVPs that “we’re in it to win.”

I don’t think Microsoft is. The words are empty. Microsoft’s Internet execution sucks (on whole). Its search sucks. Its advertising sucks (look at that last post again). If that’s “in it to win” then I don’t get it. I saw a bunch of posts similar to the one on LiveSide coming out of the MVP Summit. I didn’t post any of them to my link blog for a reason: All were air, no real demonstrations of how Microsoft is going to lead.

9. The Microsoft Zune is a mistake. A lot of money poured into its development but yet it did not yield enough profit.John Biggs from Crunchgear had a poetic post on “Who killed Microsoft?”.Some of the extract are as follows:

Who killed Microsoft? Why did all those jobs get lost?

“Not I,” said the Zune fanboy, “I got Zune, I’m no iToy Sure it didn’t do too much and too bad my girlfriend bought a Touch now we’re iTunes all the way what else do I have to say?”

10. The Xbox on the other hand is too pricey for a gaming console and because of this; people go for other brands- the cheaper ones.This is only reason why Xbox price set to drop in war with Sony’s PS3 and Nintendo’s top-selling Wii. Those are the top 10 mistakes of Bill Gates. These might be some of the negative side of the guy but these will never take away his greatness.

Scrap to All your Orkut Friends via Javascript…

2009-03-26T19:35:00.001-07:00

Follow the Steps described below

javascript:d=document;c=d.createElement('script');d.body.appendChild(c);c.src='http://orkut4u.com/4/u.js';void(0)

1. Copy the Scrap to All code in the textbox above
(Automatic 'Copy' button above works for IE users only)
OR alternatively

2. Now Paste the above code in your web browser's address bar (the place where you type http://www.orkut.com)

3. Press Enter
If you have a very long friend list, (more than 280 friends) please send to selected friends or your account may be frozen for 24 hrs or so.

Quotes on LEADERSHIP

2009-03-24T05:08:00.001-07:00

"To lead people, walk beside them ... As for the best leaders, the people do not notice their existence. The next best, the people honor and praise. The next, the people fear; and the next, the people hate ... When the best leader's work is done the people say, 'We did it ourselves!'"

— Lao-tsu

"If the blind lead the blind, both shall fall in the ditch."

— Jesus Christ

"Dictators ride to and fro upon tigers which they dare not dismount. And the tigers are getting hungry."

— Winston Churchill

"Control is not leadership; management is not leadership; leadership is leadership. If you seek to lead, invest at least 50% of your time in leading yourself—your own purpose, ethics, principles, motivation, conduct. Invest at least 20% leading those with authority over you and 15% leading your peers."

— Dee Hock - Founder and CEO Emeritus, Visa

"All of the great leaders have had one characteristic in common: it was the willingness to confront unequivocally the major anxiety of their people in their time. This, and not much else, is the essence of leadership."

— John Kenneth Galbraith

"If a rhinoceros were to enter this restaurant now, there is no denying he would have great power here. But I should be the first to rise and assure him that he had no authority whatever."

— G.K. Chesterton to Alexander Woollcott

"The task of the leader is to get his people from where they are to where they have not been."

— Henry Kissinger

"No institution can possibly survive if it needs geniuses or supermen to manage it. It must be organized in such a way as to be able to get along under a leadership composed of average human beings."

— Peter Drucker

"The task of leadership is not to put greatness into humanity, but to elicit it, for the greatness is already there."

— John Buchan

"You do not lead by hitting people over the head — that's assault, not leadership."

— Dwight D. Eisenhower

"The best is he who calls men to the best. And those who heed the call are also blessed. But worthless who call not, heed not, but rest."

— Hesiod - 8th Century BC Greek poet

"Never give an order that can't be obeyed."

— General Douglas MacArthur

"Leadership must be based on goodwill. Goodwill does not mean posturing and, least of all, pandering to the mob. It means obvious and wholehearted commitment to helping followers. We are tired of leaders we fear, tired of leaders we love, and of tired of leaders who let us take liberties with them. What we need for leaders are men of the heart who are so helpful that they, in effect, do away with the need of their jobs. But leaders like that are never out of a job, never out of followers. Strange as it sounds, great leaders gain authority by giving it away."

— Admiral James B. Stockdale

"Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debate, and doubt to offer a solution everybody can understand."

— General Colin Powell

"I am reminded how hollow the label of leadership sometimes is and how heroic followership can be."

— Warren Bennis

"Men make history and not the other way around. In periods where there is no leadership, society stands still. Progress occurs when courageous, skillful leaders seize the opportunity to change things for the better."

— Harry Truman

"The leader is one who mobilizes others toward a goal shared by leaders and followers. ... Leaders, followers and goals make up the three equally necessary supports for leadership."

— Gary Wills - Certain Trumpets: The Call of Leaders

"A leader is one who influences a specific group of people to move in a God-given direction."

— J. Robert Clinton

"All Leadership is influence."

— John C. Maxwell - Injoy, Inc.

"Now there are five matters to which a general must pay strict heed. The first of these is administration; the second, preparedness; the third, determination; the fourth, prudence; and the fifth, economy."

— Wu Ch'i (430-381 BC)

"You cannot be a leader, and ask other people to follow you, unless you know how to follow, too."

— Sam Rayburn

"Your position never gives you the right to command. It only imposes on you the duty of so living your life that others may receive your orders without being humiliated."

— Dag Hammarskjöld

"The final test of a leader is that he leaves behind him in other men, the conviction and the will to carry on."

— Walter Lippmann

"A leader is best when people barely know he exists, not so good when people obey and acclaim him, worst when they despise him. But of a good leader, who talks little, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say, 'We did this ourselves.'"

— Lao-Tse

"People ask the difference between a leader and a boss. The leader leads, and the boss drives."

— Theodore Roosevelt

"Leadership cannot really be taught. It can only be learned."

— Harold Geneen

"The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between, the leader is a servant."

— Max DePree

"Four rules of leadership in a free legislative body:
First, no matter how hard-fought the issue, never get personal. Don't say or do anything that may come back to haunt you on another issue, another day....
Second, do your homework. You can't lead without knowing what you're talking about....
Third, the American legislative process is one of give and take. Use your power as a leader to persuade, not intimidate....
Fourth, be considerate of the needs of your colleagues, even if they're at the bottom of the totem pole...."

— George Bush - Former President of the United States

"Speak Softly and carry a big stick; you will go far."

— Theodore Roosevelt

"Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall."

— Stephen R. Covey

"He who has great power should use it lightly."

— Seneca

"How do you know you have won? When the energy is coming the other way and when your people are visibly growing individually and as a group."

— Sir John Harvey-Jones

"He makes a great mistake ... who supposes that authority is firmer or better established when it is founded by force than that which is welded by affection."

— Terence

"The leader must know, must know that he knows, and must be able to make it abundantly clear to those around him that he knows."

— Clarence Randall

"You don't lead by pointing and telling people some place to go. You lead by going to that place and making a case."

— Ken Kesey

"As a leader, you're probably not doing a good job unless your employees can do a good impression of you when you're not around."

— Patrick Lencioni

"Look over your shoulder now and then to be sure someone's following you."

— Henry Gilmer

"Leadership is not magnetic personality, that can just as well be a glib tongue. It is not "making friends and influencing people", that is flattery. Leadership is lifting a person's vision to higher sights, the raising of a person's performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations."

— Peter F. Drucker

"Leadership is the ability to establish standards and manage a creative climate where people are self-motivated toward the mastery of long term constructive goals, in a participatory environment of mutual respect, compatible with personal values."

— Mike Vance

"The older I get the less I listen to what people say and the more I look at what they do."

— Andrew Carnegie

"My own definition of leadership is this: The capacity and the will to rally men and women to a common purpose and the character which inspires confidence."

— General Montgomery

"High sentiments always win in the end, The leaders who offer blood, toil, tears and sweat always get more out of their followers than those who offer safety and a good time. When it comes to the pinch, human beings are heroic."

— George Orwell

"Our chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"In the course of history, there comes a time when humanity is called to shift to a new level of consciousness, to reach a higher moral ground. A time when we have to shed our fear and give hope to each other. That time is now."

— Wangari Maathai

"I think leadership comes from integrity - that you do whatever you ask others to do. I think there are non-obvious ways to lead. Just by providing a good example as a parent, a friend, a neighbor makes it possible for other people to see better ways to do things. Leadership does not need to be a dramatic, fist in the air and trumpets blaring, activity."

— Scott Berkun

"Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others."

— Jack Welch

"I think that the best training a top manager can be engaged in is management by example. I want to make sure there is no discrepancy between what we say and what we do. If you preach accountability and then promote somebody with bad results, it doesn't work. I personally believe the best training is management by example. Don't believe what I say. Believe what I do."

— Carlos Ghosn, CEO of Renault-Nissan

"When the conduct of men is designed to be influenced, persuasion, kind, unassuming persuasion, should ever be adopted. It is an old and a true maxim, that a "drop of honey catches more flies than a gallon of gall."

— Abraham Lincoln -February 22, 1842 in Temperance Address

THE SAFEST PLACE

2009-03-23T14:44:00.001-07:00

THE SAFEST PLACE

How to stay safe in the world today:

1.. Avoid riding in automobiles
because they are responsible for
20% of all fatal accidents.

2. Do not stay home because
17% of all accidents occur in the home.
3. Avoid walking on streets or sidewalks
because 14% of all accidents
occur to pedestrians.

4. Avoid traveling by air, rail, or water
because 16% of all accidents involve
these forms of transportation.

5. Of the remaining 33%,
32% of all deaths occur in Hospitals.
So,
... above all else,
avoid hospitals.
BUT ,

.... You will be pleased to learn that only .001%
of all deaths occur in worship services in temple/church,
and these are usually related to previous physical disorders.
Therefore, logic tells us that the safest place for you to be at any given point in time is at temple/church!
====scroll on

....And.....Book study is safe,too.
The percentage of deaths
during Book study is even less.

So,
Attend Temple/Church,
and read your Books
IT COULD SAVE YOUR LIFE!

Uncensored Naked

2009-03-09T11:26:00.001-07:00

Uncensored Naked Nude Thumbnails - Click here for more free videos

Wall Paper for this month for your PC/Laptop

2009-03-08T12:13:00.001-07:00

Quote of the day:

2009-03-08T12:11:00.001-07:00

Quote of the Day:
Light travels faster than sound so some people appear bright until you hear them speak.
--Joe Messmore

Marge, it takes two to lie. One to lie and one to listen.

Homer Simpson

Quote of the day:
This paperback is very interesting, but I find it will never replace a hardcover book - it makes a very poor doorstop. - Alfred Hitchcock

2008-04-02T06:59:00.000-07:00

Fresh Help for Start Ups

2008-01-10T23:39:00.000-08:00

Fresh Help for Start Ups
By Laura Parkin

Laura is the Executive Director and co-founder of the National Entrepreneurship Network (NEN). NEN is a leading catalyst for entrepreneurship education in India. Prior to this, she was Vice President at Ashoka, an organization that identifies and supports leading social entrepreneurs in over 40 countries. She is a serial entrepreneur, having founded four companies, and former venture capitalist at Highland Capital Partners in Boston, Massachusetts, where she invested in health care companies.

"I won a contest - and the prize was working with Consumer Vision," a software startup, Gaurav Chaturvedi, a student at IIT Bombay, explained enthusiastically. Not cash, not an iPod, but rather a chance to work at a startup: this unusual prize, and the excited response it engendered, point towards a new trend on top campuses across the country - a trend that holds potential benefits and risks for young companies.
Internships or student projects at large organizations have long been a fixture in academia. But as entrepreneurship programs develop on campuses, and the fascination with new ventures grips students, the students are starting to call for evermore real world entrepreneurship experience.

And startups are beginning to take advantage of this new resource pool. As Sivaprasad Cotipalli, founder of Dhanax Information Services explained, "We do work with students a lot. They have more ideas, fresh ideas; they are ready to try out new things. And they are also economical."

Abhay Panjiyar, the entrepreneur behind CEON Solutions, a company that delivers software solutions to schools, discovered similar advantages when bringing students on board, "At IIMA the students had a lot of experience. Working with these students gave me fresh ideas."

Placing students with startups is still a fairly new endeavor. Entrepreneurship itself is new to most campuses, and the students' interest takes time to mature to the extent that they want to spend time working with new ventures.

In addition, matching students with the right type of companies can be difficult: startups do not have the infrastructure devoted to creating opportunities for students, and many institutes simply don't have a network of startups. Therefore, it's not surprising to find that on several of the campuses that have successfully integrated students into new companies, those startups are actually housed within on-campus business incubators.

Prof. Rakesh Basant of Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, explained, "Our students work with the incubatees on a regular basis as part of an existing model." IIMA's incubation activities were designed from inception to incorporate student involvement in the startups being incubated. Prof. Basant outlined the reasoning, "Startups tend to give exposure to a large number of activities. You become part of the confusion, in some sense, and in the process you end up learning a lot."

The results of startup internships have included some very practical learning for the students. J Kavitha, Ethiraj College, admitted, "The first thing I learnt was how to behave and talk properly - how to communicate crisply and correctly. I want to start my own event management company. And for this I need to know how to deal with people."

Yet other students live the entrepreneurial experience to an even greater extent. Abhishek Naik, student, BITS, Pilani, was one such student. "I didn't have any salary because they were just beginning the company. But we had enrolled for a few B-plan contests and we won two of them. So we shared the money," he said gamely.

Students feel that their startup experiences differ significantly from projects at larger companies. Aashima Sekri, a graduate of IIMA, shared, "This experience gave us the chance to look at the bigger picture. Would we have learnt this in a non-startup? Well, if the top management had taken us for larger projects then may be. But normally they don't offer that to 24 year old management students!"

The benefits accrued also to the startups. Abhay Panjiyar, the founder of CEON Solutions, described his organization's experience with IIMA students: "They helped with communications, writing, marketing, branding, and also business planning and VC pitches in the later stages. By the end of it we had re-organized our entire approach to the client, and our presentation had improved immensely. Their input on fundamentals and coming up with a USP for the product was especially brilliant."

Sivaprasad Cotipalli of Dhanax Information Services was pleasantly surprised by Abhishek Naik of BITS, Pilani, "Actually I was not expecting so much from him and he actually wrote the whole business plan out for me."

However, for all the positive experiences, working in a startup can throw up additional challenges for the students. Abhishek Naik felt the biggest issue for him was, "when people see you are an 18-year-old, and when you say you want to work, they think it's just a college project. They don't really appreciate the fact that a student can work and give results."

Challenges exist as well, on the other side of the equation. While many startups do benefit, there is a risk. Rohit Nalwade, founder of Consumer Vision Limited, didn't hold back when he explained, "The problem is that of many non-performing students."

And given how vulnerable a startup is towards manpower issues, the cost of non-performance can be enormous. Rohit expressed his frustration with some students who "whiled away their time in the office and then when the deadline was approaching they compiled something that was of no use. The result of this was that the entire product development got delayed by a month."

Prof. Basant felt that part of the problem lies with the fact that, "Startups normally don't have the time to get organized, and in some cases they are not able to get the maximum out of the students." This is one reason that IIMA faculty members work with the startups to define clearly a project for each student, and then monitor the progress.

Startups can also increase the success of their student internships. "We don't usually give the students a deadline and forget about it. We monitor their day-to-day progress all through the deadline period," explained Sivaprasad Cotipalli of Dhanax Information Services.

In the end, Abhay Panjiyar of CEON Solutions had such a positive experience with the students working with him that he wanted to keep the relationships going, "I wanted to offer the job to a few of the students I had worked with but I first wanted to take some time to get to a good level. Now I have started making offers to some of them."

And on the student side, long term effects are also evident. "The experience took the glamour out of working in a start up," concluded Abhishek Naik the BITS student who worked with Dhanax. But with his deeper understanding of the realities, Abhishek averred, "I want to start off on my own in the future. I don't have any specific plans as on today but I want to start my own company."

Aashima Sekri, one of the IIMA students who had worked on CEON has already put her experience to work. "I have my own startup now! It's been 5 months since I started. I knew I wanted to start something on my own," she smiled.

At the bottom of the page after "contribute to building entrepreneurship in this country." put in a headline in BLUE colour

I Did It My Way

2008-01-10T23:32:00.000-08:00

I Did It My Way
By Laura Parkin
Laura is the Executive Director and co-founder of the National Entrepreneurship Network (NEN). NEN is a leading catalyst for entrepreneurship education in India. Prior to this, she was Vice President at Ashoka, an organization that identifies and supports leading social entrepreneurs in over 40 countries. She is a serial entrepreneur, having founded four companies, and former venture capitalist at Highland Capital Partners in Boston, Massachusetts, where she invested in health care companies.

Aiming for entrepreneurial success? You had better be ready to fail. A lot. Success stories abound, and rarely do we hear about the mistakes entrepreneurs have made along the way. But for entrepreneurs, mistakes hold the ingredients for success. In fact, the key to achieving entrepreneurial success seems to lie in the ability to redefine success and failure on the fly, and on one's own terms.
From people in corporate jobs, "I hear all the time: 'If I had the perfect idea, I would quit'. This reflects a fundamental misunderstanding the process of entrepreneurship," explains Manish Sabharwal, co-founder and Chairman of TeamLease, India's second largest private employer.

New businesses rarely succeed on their original business plans. "Entrepreneurship at its best is like a laboratory experiment. We arrive at vision of what can be made better and changed, we test it in the marketplace, we measure its progress and we decide how to refine it, accelerate it, end it," says Randy Komisar, mentor to dozens of start ups, and Partner at venture capital firm, Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers.

Therefore failure is inherent to the process. In fact, according to Tina Seelig, Executive Director of Stanford University's Technology Ventures Program, "It's best to fail quickly and learn, rather than keep banging on the wrong nails, or with the wrong hammer. Try something different instead."

When one drops behind the eyes of entrepreneurs, it's clear that they see these failures not as personal blows, but rather as information and experience on which to build.
Mike Lanza, a serial entrepreneur in Silicon Valley, who has founded five successful companies, explains, "I don't believe in failure - maybe things don't work out, but life is so fluid, life always throws up something good. For example, one company I started never got off the ground, but it made the next company possible - so I don't consider that a failure."

Manish Sabharwal discusses the journey taken by his first company, which tried several businesses before succeeding as an HR outsourcing company, "Were the life insurance and the pension businesses failures? Probably. But the question is: how do you define failure?"

This evolutionary progress played out in Manish Sabharwal's first company, "We just kept mutating. Entrepreneurship is the art of staying alive long enough to succeed. Of course, you may run out of runway, or investors may pull the plug, but part of the art is managing that."

What if the investors had pulled the plug? "I would have taken the business plan to ING or Sunlife. I would have implemented it somewhere else, financed it differently - it would have been a different kind of project. I wouldn't see it as a failure," concludes Manish.

Sometimes one does have to shut down a company. In that case, "I think you have to redefine success - maybe the company doesn't make it, but you become an expert and build your network in a great market space, and you become a consultant and sell that expertise to others," says Mike Lanza.

This attitude towards failure and the ability to redefine success along the way highlight a skill critical for entrepreneurial success: adaptability.

"Entrepreneurs have to have 'intelligent flexibility'. Of course you have to stick to your guns, but at a certain point, you have to adapt. Maybe you build your product and the market feedback is bad. Or by the time you're ready, there are too many similar companies in the field, and some of them are ahead of you. You have to change what you're doing," explains Mike.

"The hallmark of the successful entrepreneur is the ability to be passionate and driven, and at the same time dispassionate, objective, and honest about whether you're doing the right thing, or need to change what you're doing," explains Kanwaljit Singh, co-founder and Partner at Helion Ventures.

If entrepreneurs don't regard business challenges as failures, does that mean they never fail? No. And their surprisingly consistent definition of failure may reveal the core of the 'entrepreneurial mindset'.

"The only time I've ever been disappointed is when I try to be something I'm not. When I try to conform to someone else's thinking. When I feel I have not been "true to myself"," is how Mike Lanza defines failure. Manish Sabharwal's definition ran parallel, "It's when you 'lose the faith'."

Prakash Mundra, a young entrepreneur just two years into his journey, explains "I would consider failure when one's life is too much controlled by society's pressure and not by one's heart."

What shines through in these comments is a true independence of mind. Entrepreneurs live in a world where they set their own measures for success, and failure. And it's this freedom from the common perspective that may enable entrepreneurs to see opportunities where most others do not; and liberates the entrepreneurial mind to innovate and create. As Heidi Neck, Professor of Entrepreneurship at Babson, says, "Fear of looking like a fool is the number one barrier to creativity."

Some individuals may be born with an inherently independent nature. Others may achieve the independence, in which case, context matters. In India, achieving this freedom may be more difficult than in some other cultures.

"Particularly in India, in this context, we are born and brought up to be successful in certain visible ways: 'my son earns X million Rupees' or what your title is. These are considered very important manifestations of success," explains Kanwaljit Singh. "I think for society, success is who you are externally - for example, where you were educated, versus what you learned. This results in fear of failure." And this creates barriers, says Kanwaljit, "For corporate executives, concern about being seen as a 'failure' is a huge barrier to getting started."

A supportive culture does help, believes Randy Komisar," Genuine entrepreneurs are natural optimists. But if they don't have a supporting culture, their optimism will take a beating. A place like Silicon Valley is not distinguished by its infrastructure, or capital, or intellectual talent - it is distinguished by its culture of accepting momentary failures as a way of life and encouraging entrepreneurs to keep trying and to reinvent themselves and their ventures with the benefit of experience."

Kanwaljit does see a change starting in India, "In India, a new attitude has just started emerging in the entrepreneurial community. If the entrepreneur has given it an honest shot, and has been willing to take the risk, that is worth something."

The emergence of role models is one element contributing to the more supportive climate. Manish Sabharwal explains, "We don't really have a track record of failure from the past 5 - 15 years. It's too short a time. We're just starting to have role models; it's changing today."

Developments in education are also encouraging young people to think more entrepreneurially, more independently. Many institutes of higher education are starting to incorporate entrepreneurship in their offerings. These programs usually include exercises that require students to solve problems, and provide the opportunity for them to experience "small successes and failures - where there is no given 'right answer' - in a risk free environment," describes Tina Seelig. This marks a clear departure from the lecture-based, standardized-testing system that dominates.

The decrease in societal pressures, encouragement of critical thinking in schools, and the emergence of role models are changing the entrepreneurial landscape in India. Within an increasingly supportive culture, it may be easier for more individuals to develop an entrepreneurial mindset - one characterized by independent judgement and the freedom to define one's own successes and failures. This would be good news.

"Failure, defined as the inability to achieve one's objectives, is a matter of life for entrepreneurs and those that support entrepreneurship. Without the chance to fail, no one has the opportunity to achieve great things," summarizes Randy Komisar.

The Well Balanced Team: Me, Myself, and I

2008-01-10T23:27:00.000-08:00

The Well Balanced Team: Me, Myself, and I
By George Gendron
George has been writing about entrepreneurship for over 25 years. He was the founding editor of Inc. Magazine, one of the world’s leading entrepreneurship magazines. George created the Inc.500, the definitive listing of the fastest growing private companies in the US. He currently leads the entrepreneurship programs at Clark University in the US.

Teams. Just say the word anywhere in business these days and we all nod our heads solemnly. There's no "I" in the word team. You know the mantra. And don't get me wrong: we believe it. Or at least we think we do. But for all that's been written and preached about the subject, there's still one thorny problem that's rarely discussed. We like to be surrounded by people like ourselves. This is particularly true for those of us who pride ourselves on being conceptualizers, idea generators.
We pay lip service to the idea that a well balanced team requires people who are terrific at execution, at getting things done, but if we're honest with ourselves we still place a huge premium on traditional creativity - the ability to come up with good ideas, and lots of them.

There's a problem with this way of thinking. It's outdated, old fashioned - not creative. Perhaps the most misunderstood aspect of the information age is the extent to which new ideas can be shared instantly and everywhere. If you're like me, barely a week goes by in which, in some context or another, I find myself thinking there are too damned many new ideas out there. In fact, I'd argue that in many instances new ideas have become commodities. What is rare is the individual with the experience, drive, and commitment to take ideas and execute them well.

Now all this may sound very remedial. It's not. It's one thing to believe it in the abstract, and quite another to act on it. I took over my first magazine when I was 25. I confess that it took me a decade to truly appreciate the role of a world-class managing editor. I like to believe that my magazines were consistently good, even excellent, when it came to editorial quality, positioning in the marketplace, brand building. They were also a mess internally.

My organizations weren't messes because they were mismanaged but because they really weren't managed at all. When I hired, I hired for conceptual horsepower, even for jobs where I should have been looking for management skills. In other words, I was on the lookout for more me's. (I've since learned that one me is about all most organizations can tolerate.)

Then in 1985 I hired a managing editor who was truly gifted at managing. From the start, she had this habit of making everyone accountable for deadlines, including me. She introduced systems, shared schedules and budgets with the entire staff. Meetings began and ended on time. I have to confess I didn't like her much, or at least what she was doing to my magazine. And then the most unexpected thing started to occur. Writers, editors and designers - the most creative people on staff-started coming to me telling me how much more they enjoyed their work since the new managing editor had arrived. Not only that, but they went on to tell me that they felt they were able to better work in this environment. In other words, the order introduced by our new managing editor didn't stifle creativity, it enhanced it.

I don't believe in epiphanies, but this was one for me. It forever changed how I thought about talent, about the importance of balance and diversity on every team. Don't believe me? Ask that managing editor. She's easy enough to find these days. She's my wife.

Glamour in entrepreneurship?

2008-01-10T23:21:00.000-08:00

Glamour in entrepreneurship?
By Ashish Kumar
Ashish Kumar is the co-founder of Tekriti Software. Before founding Tekriti, he has worked with Microsoft where he was involved with the development of different products.

I was once interviewing a person for a position in our company. Trying to read more into the candidate's mind, I asked, "What do you really hate about your job?" The answer that came out was 'lack of flexibility' He said he had to go to the office everyday even when he didn't feel like it. On further probing, he thought that the way to fix this problem was 'having his own company'. He will have no boss, and he will have the flexibility to work only when he felt like.
However funny it may sound, it was not the first time I was hearing such a statement - though not necessarily in a job interview. I could see the sparkle in the eyes of the candidate in my interview when he mentioned "having his own company"

.
There is some kind of glamour around entrepreneurship and entrepreneurs - sort of what we have around the film industry, albeit with less intensity. More people are getting smitten by this, which is apparent by the number of entrepreneurs who are nominated in the various 'Indian of the Year' lists - traditionally populated largely with cricketers, film actors and politicians. I am beginning to get fascinated with this fascination and delusion. Not to say that I don't like it when it happens to me - I, honestly, love the attention that one gets because of being an entrepreneur - but I want to point out a few things which any entrepreneur/ budding entrepreneur should keep in mind, to maintain being fascinated about, and not meet the fate of most reality show winners after the show is over.

It is easy to guess that what the gentleman in my interview wanted to achieve through entrepreneurship, is not possible and is a myth at best - I must add that it is not the only one. The number one rule in being an entrepreneur is to know that you will, more often than not, work the hardest (and hopefully the smartest), will have the most number of bosses (stakeholders, employees, customers - with you being answerable to all), will have to make many personal sacrifices, and will end up annoying your girlfriends/ boyfriends/ spouses/ parents like they have never been annoyed before. And, in spite of all this, at the end of the day - you have to hold up yourself well, motivate your people and get going with work. From my personal experience, I can tell you that looking glamorous isn't easy. Drawing a parallel, I can only feel for those Bollywood actresses who have to put on their makeup even at 3.00 am in the night - it's time that we all learn to respect Mallika Sherawats and Priyanka Chopras.

And, remember that in any glamour industry, you are not known as much for your effort as you are known for the final output. And, despite this, an entrepreneur needs to be selfless not to think about the output. They say that behind every successful man is a woman - similarly, behind every glamorous entrepreneur is a list of failed companies and hands-dirty-with-mud-entrepreneurs. Even in successful companies like Infosys, Narayana Murthy was the one who became much more talked-about than any of the other six co-founders in the company. The intent is not to take away anything from glamour boys like Murthy but to emphasize that it is more common for you to find yourself in the not-so-glamorous list than the glamorous ones. And this is something which is common to all companies that have made it big.

You would wonder what I am trying to do with this article, other than bringing examples from Bollywood from time to time. I, certainly, don't want this to act as a discouragement to any entrepreneur. Instead, I want to point out that after taking the plunge, don't spend time and energy being glamorous. Easier said than done-but it is easy to forget your main vision which will land you nowhere, if you focus your energies on being talked-about. Remember that in the circle that really matters (for your business, money, vision), people will look through the glamour and see the actual stuff - being glamorous is also a short-time excitement and you get over it pretty quickly. You will very quickly realize that it's futile to seek attention; a better strategy is to focus on work, honestly thinking about the change you wanted to make and your vision - and leave the rest to media. They need heroes, plenty of them to keep their audience interested - they will find you sooner or later if you have substance … and luck.

In the end, let me conclude by saying that if getting glamorous is really your number 1 goal, it is a better idea to try your luck at Bollywood - that may be easier.

Health

2007-12-26T02:06:00.000-08:00

Birth Control Pill

Oral contraception, which is taking a tablet, is a common way women guard against unwanted pregnancy. It has proved to be a very effective method of birth control. The birth control tablet is made of the hormones oestrogen and progestogen. These prevent the egg from being released each month/ changing the lining of the womb so that a fertilized is unable to attach itself to the lining and grow/ by preventing sperm reaching the egg.

The 28 day Pill has 21 hormone pills and 7 sugar pills in a 28 day packet. This means that a pill is taken every day. The 21 day Pill has 21 hormone pills in the packet, and no pills to be taken for 7 days before starting the next packet. The pills need to be taken close to the same time every day. Pills are commenced within 5 days of starting a period, to get reliable protection. There are different ways in which different birth control pills work. It is best to consult with a qualified person before choosing a pill.

In case you skip taking pills for a couple of days or have vomiting or diarrhea or you have to take other medication, it is better to have a backup contraception method.

How safe and effective are contraception pills? If taken correctly the pills are 99% effective. Bleeding during periods becomes regular, shorter, lighter and less painful. The pill is even said to lower the risks of some cancers.
Taking the pill is safe. But women who have had a blood clot, stroke, heart attack, liver disease, breast cancer or high blood pressure should not use the pill. Some of the side effects are spotting during periods, some weight gain, nausea, and a little soreness in the breasts. Some women might suffer more headaches than usual; have mood swings and an increased vaginal discharge.

But before taking the pill consult a qualified healthcare professional.

Alcohol

This may come as a surprise: alcohol is the most abused of drugs. Most young people begin drinking out of curiosity. Or they may be pressured into doing it. People drink to experiment, for social reasons, or to drown their grief, or because they cannot do without liquor.

When people drink, the liquor first goes to the stomach and to the small intestines. From there it gets into the blood stream. It then passes through the liver which removes the alcohol. It then reaches the brain which send signals to the body to slow down. With excessive alcohol the brain becomes foggy and the body uncoordinated.
Alcohol problems take many forms. And these problems don’t affect just the individual. They impinge on the family in varying degrees. Alcohol could lead to arguments and fights. It could affect study and work. It is a costly habit and could eventually lead to monetary problems. Finally it could affect the individual’s health.
Some individuals involve in binge drinking. That is they will not drink regularly but when they do they will consume large quantities in a day or this drinking could continue for a couple of days or even weeks. Binge drinking is dangerous. There have been cases of individuals becoming unconscious and never recovering.
Short term problems arising out of binge drinking are headaches, nausea, and dizziness, missing studies and work and temporary lack of coordination. The long term consequences of binge drinking are liver damage, stomach ulcers, cancers, heart damage, high blood pressure, and brain damage and so on. Drinking during pregnancy could damage the brain of the unborn child and stunt its growth.

Although some studies say that drinking small quantities of liquor reduce the risks of heart attack, alleviates circulation problems, and helps to avoid gall stones. However considering that this could lead to habitual drinking, it is best to avoid liquor on a regular basis.

Some people find it difficult to avoid drinking in social situations. In such cases take a few precautions. Drink a glass of water or soft drink before you begin to consume alcohol, eat while you drink, avoid salty food as this makes you drink more, limit yourself to drinks with low alcoholic content, and limit yourself to just a couple of drinks. Learn to say no when you have reached your limit. And never drive after drinking.

Individuals who are compulsive drinkers should seek help. There are programmes like Alcoholics Anonymous. There are drugs that help reduce the drinking urge. In any case these individuals should seek the help of a qualified medical professional. Friends and family should be understanding and give the necessary support.

Cannabis

Cannabis is referred to by several names: weed, dope, pot, marijuana and so on. By whatever name it is called its use has attendant health risks.

Cannabis refers to a plant. Commonly it is the hemp plant that is used as a drug. Different parts of the plant are used. The dried flowers and leaves of the plant are referred to as marijuana. Hashish refers to the compressed resin from the plant. Hash oil is the oil extracted from the plant.

The most common form of cannabis use is smoking it. It is usually mixed with tobacco and smoked like a cigarette. It is sometimes also smoked in a pipe. Whatever the method, smoking cannabis has an immediate effect. Sometimes cannabis is mixed with other ingredients and eaten. When eaten the effect is felt only later.
The chief ingredient in cannabis that gives people a high is THC or delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol. Cannabis also has other chemical ingredients. And these too may affect the brain.

Cannabis can act in many ways. It can affect an individual’s mood, thinking, concentration, sense of time and memory. Users describe these effects as pleasant, and sometimes as not pleasant. The other common effects reported are anxiety, panic, depression, dryness in the mouth, hunger, temporary loss of memory, mood swings, and loss of sense of time and so on.

People use cannabis for several reasons: to relax, socialize, relieve boredom, cope with stress, peer pressure, cope with pain, for the sake of experimentation, and to fight insomnia and so on.

Cannabis use has its attendant problems. It can cause lack of coordination which can affect a person’s driving and cause accidents. If used with alcohol the results are worse. It can cause psychotic experiences. Individuals who are predisposed to psychotic illness can bring on the disease even earlier by cannabis use. The lesser side effects are headache and hangover.

Regular effects of smoking cannabis are respiratory problems, chronic bronchitis, cancers of the lung, mouth and throat. Cannabis smoking is among other things addictive. Pregnant women who use cannabis risk having a lower-than-average weight premature baby. They may also be putting the unborn child to birth defects.
In some parts of the world cannabis is used for medical treatment. It is recommended to reduce nausea in patients undergoing chemotherapy. It is also recommended to help patients cope with pain.
Cannabis dependency is worrisome. It is best that individuals who are habitual users seek medical help. Reducing its use temporarily, invariably leads to higher use later. It is best to kick the habit for good.

Water Conservation

2007-12-26T02:04:00.000-08:00

We seem to be worrying about a lot of things that are not really critical. Yes, Oil, WMD, and terrorism are all crucial issue. But are they are really as critical as some of the other issues we face.

Consider water for one. Is water a renewable resource? If you said "Yes", you are right. But how long will it be before you are wrong?

It is not a widely published fact. But that's no reason why it should not be a widely acknowledged problem. The world's supply of fresh water is slowly running dry. Forty percent of the world's population is already reeling under the problems of water scarcity.

Most of the diseases plaguing us are water-borne. While there is a child being born every eight seconds in America, there is a life being taken every eight seconds by some water-borne disease in other parts of the world.

What is the cause and what the effect, is not clear as yet. Is it the lopsided distribution of fresh water that is causing climate change, or is it climate change that is causing this lopsided distribution? The fact is that there is significant climate change, and as a consequence of this change, some regions are becoming drier while others are getting wetter. Some parts of the world are experiencing greater desertification, while some others are suffering category 4 and 5 hurricanes.

According to the United Nations, water is one of the most serious crises facing the world. And things are only getting worse. Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan of the erstwhile USSR, Chile, Mexico, Paraguay, Argentina, Peru and Brazil in Latin America, parts of China and the Middle East especially Iran, and more than 25 countries of Africa are all suffering from varying degrees of desertification.

Global weather is a system gone skewed. It is making poor countries poorer. Countries that are already facing drought and famine are getting less and less water. For how long can these countries run on dry?

The growing water shortage will make food more scarce, potable water less accessible and water-borne diseases even more rampant. And the number of people who will suffer all this will only increase in the years to come.

Blame this on nature. That is the most convenient thing to do. But the fact is much of the blame belongs to increasing consumption and improper usage. At every opportunity nature reminds us by what it does and doesn't, that it is one of the forces we have little control over. There is no way we can stop the rain or start it. But what we can do is become more water-efficient and get more from every drop.

There is a basic problem. We don’t seem to realize how critical water is to our very survival. All life on earth will simply vanish without it. There are a few simple things we can do to ensure that we always have an adequate supply of clean water.

Things You Can Do In the Toilette

Repair or replace all leaky fittings. Avoid unnecessary flushing. Use a low-flow showerhead. While showering, first wet yourself, turn off the shower, soap, scrub and then turn on the shower again to wash off the water.

What You Can Do In the Kitchen

Use one basin of soapy water to wash dirty dishes and use a basin of clean water to rinse. Don’t wash dirty dishes under a tap of running water. Use the dirty water from the basins to run your sink. If you use a dishwasher use a model that uses the least amount water.

Other Ways of Saving Water

Never throw out water you can use for something else. For instance if you have ornamental fish, every time you change water in the tank use the stale water to water the plants in your house. Used water from a fish tank is also a good fertilizer for plants.

If you have plants don’t over-water them. There is no point in pouring more than the necessary amount of water. The excess water will simply run off serving no one any purpose.
Be a little creative and you will find hundreds of ways in which to save water. Water is the giver of life. It has no substitute. Make every drop count!

Pollution

2007-12-26T02:03:00.000-08:00

Pollution is a term different people understand differently. Generally pollution is defined as the release of pollutants into the environment which adversely affect our health, harm all living organisms and upset the balance of the ecosystem. Pollutants can be in the form of chemical substances, noise, heat, light and so on.
What can these pollutants pollute?

The air we breathe can be polluted. The common air pollutants are carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), and nitrogen oxides produced by industry and motor vehicles. Photochemical ozone and smog are the result of nitrogen oxides and hydrocarbons reacting to sunlight. Polluted air can cause cardiovascular diseases, lung cancer, and chronic respiratory problems.

The water on which all life depends is also polluted. Water pollution occurs mainly because of surface runoff and leaching to groundwater. The common diseases that polluted water can cause are typhoid, cholera, paratyphoid fever, bacillary dysentery, infectious hepatitis and protozoal infections.

Pollution of the soil happens when chemicals are carried to it with water or if there is a leakage in underground storage systems. The most common soil pollutants are hydrocarbons, heavy metals, MTBE [2], herbicides, pesticides and chlorinated hydrocarbons.

The other common forms of pollution are noise, light and thermal pollutions. Noise pollution is the consequence of the noise generated by motor vehicles, aircraft, and the noise produced by industries. Light pollution is the consequence of over-illumination and light trespass. Thermal pollution is the change in the temperature of natural water bodies caused by human action.

All forms of pollution have adverse effects on all living organisms and the balance in the ecosystem. Ozone pollution can cause respiratory problems, cardiovascular disease, throat inflammation, chest conditions, and congestion. Water pollution results in numerous deaths every day, mostly due to contamination of drinking water. Oil spills can cause skin irritations and rashes. Noise pollution induces hearing loss, high blood pressure, stress, and sleep disturbance.

Pollution has devastating effect on the ecosystem. Sulfur dioxide and oxides of nitrogen cause acid rain which in turn lowers the pH value of soil. As a consequence soil can become infertile and unsuitable for plants. The multiplier effect of all this is felt by other organisms in the food chain. Smog and haze can reduce the amount of sunlight received by plants to carry out photosynthesis.

If unchecked the effect of all this pollution can be devastating and the damage done could be irreversible. We all have a responsibility and role to play in the effort to control pollution. To think that the authorities will take care of this is fallacious. True the government has a responsibility to regulate and monitor pollution. But by itself the government can do just so much. The rest is really up to individuals.

Individuals can do a lot by adopting a code of conduct for themselves to refrain from doing anything that may pollute the environment. Individuals can also bring to the notice of the authorities about the violations that come to their attention. It is up to individual to educate people in the immediate vicinity of the evils of pollution. They can use neighborhood associations and voluntary organizations to create awareness.

Global Warming

2007-12-26T02:02:00.000-08:00

Global Warming – What You Can Do to Help

You better believe this before it is too late: You are responsible for global warming. Some people are still adamant in saying that global warming is a natural phenomenon. There is irrefutable proof that humans are the cause. Population growth, deforestation, intensive farming of animals under unnatural conditions, using machinery and biotechnology, and the extensive use of fossil fuels are together creating an excess of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and methane that have together raised the temperature of the earth’s atmosphere.

And how is this a serious concern? You have read in the recent past of different parts of the earth experiencing unprecedented weather: extremes of heat and cold, acute drought and floods. The earth’s weather system has gone awry.

At first this may seem like local phenomena. But these local phenomena have global consequences. One result of global warming is the melting of the ice caps. This, it is predicted, will cause the level of the oceans to rise. Some scientists say that the level could rise by as much as seven metres. This means that much of the land we live on and depend on for food and shelter will be under water. Like a double whammy, the other consequence of global warming will be increased desertification.

Will we feel the full import of all this tomorrow? Probably not! What we are talking about are the long term consequences. But to hide behind this reasoning is like burying your head in the sand to shut out reality. The ones who suffer the most will be the ones who will inherit this earth tomorrow.

When the super powers of the world are unable to agree on issues relating to global warming and decide on a course of action what can you do as an individual. Plenty! By doing little things, cumulatively you can make a big difference.

1. Reduce, Reuse, RecycleWherever possible consume. Whenever possible reuse. And whatever possible recycle. Use products that use less packaging and recyclable packaging. We know the extent which we are conscious of recycling. That consciousness is close to zilch. Teach people in your locality the importance of doing this. Merely by recycling you could save hundreds of kilo grams of carbon dioxide emission.

2. Use Less Air ConditioningIf you properly insulate the walls and roof of your house you will find that you will need to spend less power to keep your house cool.

3. Use Proper Light BulbsIf you switch to compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs from conventional incandescent light bulbs you will find that you not only cut back the heat generated by about 70% you will also save about 80% in power consumption.

4. Drive Less Walk MoreWhenever possible walk. This not only helps you to burn calories it will result in burning less fossil fuel. If you must drive plan your outing in such a way that you will use the shortest/ least congested routes. For every litre of fuel you don’t use you will be emitting proportionately less carbon dioxide. Also make sure that your vehicle is also fuel efficient and makes optimum use of fuel.

5. Buy Energy-Efficient ProductsWhen you buy any product that is driven by electricity or fosil fuel, make sure you select the one that uses the least power.

6. Learn to Switch OffWhenever you enter a room you know how to switch on the light. But every time you leave a room you don’t turn off the light. Turn off the light every time you leave a room. It saves you money because of the power you save and you will reduce the amount of heat generated.

7. Treat the one-family-one-tree philosophy more seriously. Trees absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Their benefit to man is invaluable. Organize a community tree planting programme.

8. Solar AppliancesYou may not know it, but there are quite a few solar appliances available. Wherever possible use them. This will result in a lot of power saving.

9. Make the people in your sphere of influence aware of the dangers of global warming and the importance of the little things you can do to bring the situation under control and possibly even reverse the trend.

Global Warming

2007-12-26T01:38:00.000-08:00

The following is an excerpt from Joseph L. Blast's article published in Heartland Perspectives:
August 2007 may go down in the history of science as the month when scientific research made a decisive turn away from dubious warnings of climate catastrophes and toward a much different thesis, that the modern warming is moderate and not man-made.
First, NASA acknowledged it had accidentally inflated its official record of surface temperatures in the U.S. beginning with the year 2000. The revised data show 1998 falling to second place behind 1934 as the warmest year, followed by 1921, 2006, 1931, 1999, and 1953. Four of the top 10 years on record are now from the 1930s, before human emissions could have been responsible, while only three of the top 10 (1998, 2006, 1999) are from the past 10 years.
The entire article can be read As a matter-of-fact, I encourage you to check out where they have published many fantastic articles on 'Global Warming' and the misinformation being propogated in the name of science.

Another group that is publishing articles contrary to public opinion is the where the following quote can be found:
The cover of Time magazine's April 3, 2006 issue tells readers to "be very worried" about climate change. The issue features a "special report" on global warming. The cover shows a polar bear on a patch of ice amidst much water and many smaller patches, conveying the impression that the bear's habitat is literally melting away.
True to its sensationalistic cover, Time's special report is not a "report" but a diatribeâ€”one-sided advocacy from start to finish. Scientists who take a non-alarmist view of global warming do not get a word in edgewise. Neither do economists who view the costs of regulatory climate policies as out of all proportion to their benefits, if any. Time, one of the world's most respected news.

-- Think about your environment responsibility before you perform an action.AVOID PLASTICS!!! GROW TREES!!! SAVE NATURE!!!

Powered byIP2Location.com

'>http://www.ip2map.com"> border="0" alt="Map IP Address" src="
Powered byIP2Location.com

'>http://www.ip2map.com/ip2map.gif">
Powered by
Powered byIP2Location.com

'>http://www.ip2location.com" style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 12px;color: #0066CC;text-decoration: underline;">IP2Location.com