Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

WMP plugin for Firefox.

Here is the  Windows Media Player ( WMP ) plugin site for Firefox.

http://port25.technet.com/pages/windows-media-player-firefox-plugin-download.aspx

Hello world!

Welcome to WordPress.com. This is your first post. Edit or delete it and start blogging!

An apple a day keeps dullness away

Eating apples and drinking apple juice could keep you mentally sharp despite ageing, researchers say. Researchers from the University of Massachusetts at Lowell found that there is something in apples and apple juice that protects brain cells in normal aging.

The study, which was published in the latest issue of the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, says apples have naturally high level of antioxidants that are responsible for these positive effects.

Researcher Thomas B. Shea evaluated adult and aged mice using a standard diet, a nutrient-deficient diet, and a nutrient-deficient diet supplemented with apple juice concentrate in drinking water.

e-Books no challenge to Books

NEW DELHI: Dismissing suggestions that interest in books is on the wane, the publishing industry has taken the ‘digital’ challenge in its stride and turned technology into an additional stream of revenue-generation.
 
“Books have been around for 600 years. You can’t expect it to be replaced with a decade old phenomena. Can you take a computer to bed,” asked Tejeshwar Singh, CEO of Sage India, which turns 25 this year.
     
“There are now books based on television and the Internet — from reality shows to beginners guide on how to use a computer.” Adds  Gautam Sen a former professor at LSE, who is widely published on political economy issues says, “Oprah promotes a book on TV  and it becomes a best-seller.”
      
Sen says that unconventional subjects like tigers, food, wine, health and coffee table books are doing well. Sage, a leading player in the educational book space expects books on health, entertainment, management and professional fields to drive the business. “We are creating greater space for contemporary issues like terrorism, fundamentalism and issues concerning the Islamic world.”
     
Samit Basu, author of The Simoqin Prophecies and The Manticore’s Secret says that technology “provides more marketing opportunities and greater visibility to books.”
     
Sen asserts that while technology will affect “small players” who have high fixed costs, “many players are already publishing books only after the order is placed and this makes it low risk and cost-efficient.”
 
Technology will make it possible to send “individual content or parts of whole,” Sen says. 
Recently, Oxford Bookstore realising the potential of the Internet medium, came up with the concept of an e-author, where budding authors are provided a platform to show-off their skills. “I think the e-mail is a great way to connect authors across the country and get them on a common platform,” says Mona Sengupta of Oxford.
However Sara Miller McCune, Chairperson of Sage, who has been in the business for over 40 years, asserts “the Internet is a great tool for research for academics and scholars, but books will always have a place. A lot of archival material is not available on the web.”
   
Technology will have a limited impact on the business of books. “Audio books are great for my grandchildren, perhaps even a fiction format,” she insists.
“Perhaps they are a useful aid for learning language. Audio books in India are not dramatised. They don’t quite hold the interest,” says Yogesh Sharma, GM of Penguin.
Even the concept of e-books and digital books has not caught on. “They are difficult to read,” says McCune. Adds Kapish Mehra, “People like to feel, hold and possess books.”
Sharma cites the lack of internet availability and access as a potential hurdle.
    
Singh cites the instance of Britannica “which hasn’t met with too much success for its digital version “people are still willing to pay a good price for a good book.”

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The Sikh spirit of seva

In India, seva or selfless service to others is a long-standing
tradition. In Sikhism particularly, it continues to be widely practiced
with great devotion. I was a witness to the Sikhs’ spirit of seva in
action.
 
On one wintry night, my wife and I were travelling by train from
Delhi to Amritsar. Once or twice when I woke up I found it was raining
heavily outside. At dawn, I found the train had stopped just before
Ludhiana station. The track ahead was submerged under water. I stood
near the door of the bogey to watch with worry the pounding rain and
rising water.
 
Then I saw three well-built Sikhs approaching my bogey. They held
umbrellas and a bucket each in their hands. One of them addressed me,
“Do you need some tea?” It was most welcome. “Yes, please,” I replied.
 
“Then bring your glass and take it. And if others in your bogey also need tea, tell them too to please come and get it.”
 
After getting two teas, I asked, “How much do I pay?”
 
They looked at me, amused, “Bauji, we are from the gurdwara,” one
of them said pointing to the gurdwara building not far from the railway
track. “It is a seva we are doing. When we saw your stranded train, we
thought you people would need tea. Now, if you’d excuse us, we have to
cover the rest of the train.”
 
I gave one glass of tea to my wife and told her the story. She
looked at the foul weather outside. She was impressed by the dedication
of the gurdwara staff. How steeped one must be in the seva philosophy
to brave rain and chilly weather to serve free hot tea to stranded
passengers! “Some seva,” she remarked.
 
Then a thought occurred to me. Those Sikhs had done their duty,
but had I done mine? When they came back after covering the entire
train, I gave them a little contribution for the gurdwara fund. They
were reluctant to accept it, but I said, “It is my seva for your
gurdwara.”
 

Ramesh Seth has made a documentary on the Golden Temple.

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Bharat, the world guru

Shining India! Sure. It is good to
feel proud that we are on the cusp of becoming an economic superpower
and have started getting the respect and recognition due to us.

But
history will tell you that any individual nation’s economic—or
military—power waxes and wanes. A better reason to feel proud would be
India’s spiritual core and its insights into human predicament and
destiny.

In the past century, which saw increasing interaction
between various cultures of the world, many foreign thinkers and our
own sages concluded that India’s true role is to be the guru of the
world. Said Mahatma Gandhi, “India’s mission is different from that of
others. India is fitted for the religious supremacy of the world.”

Why
so? Osho pointed out, “God has been talked about in every corner of the
world. Only India has established that God is within man. Aham
Brahmasmi is perhaps the boldest statement ever made.” This is not
theology, but the experiential reality of many people down the ages who
worked in their inner laboratories.

Indian civilisation
oriented its entire existence around the goal of God—or
Self-realisation. From music, dance, art and sculpture to architecture,
systems like ayurveda and astrology, transcendental paths like yoga and
meditation—all were devised as aids to attain that one goal. And since
we believe Divinity pervades all, everything is held sacred.

With
rising concerns about the environment and given the tumult caused by
technology, humanity is groping for direction. And India seems to have
some answers for future human evolution. India’s task, even duty, is to
spiritualise the world. But before that, we ourselves have to reclaim
and revitalise our heritage.

Gandhi’s realistic observation
and advice was, “India is in danger of losing her soul… She must not
lazily and helplessly say, ‘I cannot escape the onrush from the West.’
She must be strong enough to resist it for her own sake and that of the
world.” Our regained self-esteem is likely to ensure that.

Parveen Chopra

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An apple a day keeps dullness away

Eating apples and drinking apple juice could keep you mentally sharp
despite ageing, researchers say. Researchers from the University of
Massachusetts at Lowell found that there is something in apples and
apple juice that protects brain cells in normal aging.

The study, which was published in the latest issue of the Journal of
Alzheimer’s Disease, says apples have naturally high level of
antioxidants that are responsible for these positive effects.

Researcher Thomas B. Shea evaluated adult and aged mice using a
standard diet, a nutrient-deficient diet, and a nutrient-deficient diet
supplemented with apple juice concentrate in drinking water.

Humour is the spice of romance

Two recent studies have confirmed a
long-standing stereotype about flirting — women like men who make them
laugh, while men like women who laugh at their jokes.

Eric Bressler of Westfield State College, Massachusetts, and
colleague Sigal Balshine of McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario,
asked more than 200 male and female college students to examine photos
of members of the opposite sex, reports the online edition of the
science journal Nature.

Some had funny quotes pinned beneath them, such as: “My high school was so rough we had our own coroner”.

Others had bland ones: “I’d rather walk to school than take the
bus.” Women ranked the humorous men as better potential partners, and
as more friendly, fun and popular, the researchers found. Men’s view of
a woman, on the other hand, appeared to be uninfluenced by her wit,
according to the study published in Evolution & Human Behaviour

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Manisha is against Koirala in Nepal polls

KATHMANDU: Bollywood star Manisha Koirala is in Nepal to campaign for
the municipal polls on February 8 even though her granduncle and former
prime minister GP Koirala is at the forefront of opposition protests
against the elections.

The Nepali beauty, who has carved a
niche for herself in India’s film industry, plans to stay till the
February 8 elections and take part in the campaign.

Manisha is
the granddaughter of the late BP Koirala, Nepal’s first elected prime
minister, who in the 1960s bore the brunt of the then king Mahendra’s
attacks on parliamentary parties.

Mahendra’s son King Gyanendra
followed in his father’s footsteps last year, seizing absolute power
and jailing most opposition leaders. The king’s direct rule is being
opposed by B P Koirala’s Nepali Congress party under the leadership of
his younger brother G P Koirala.

Manisha, however, has chosen to
support the king. So does her father, Prakash Koirala, who last year
was made a minister by the king in his handpicked cabinet.

While
Nepali Congress is boycotting the polls, Prakash Koirala has formed a
new party, Nepali Congress (Nationalist), which is taking part in the
controversial exercise. “It is my duty to come to Nepal during
elections,” Manisha told the state-run Rising Nepal in an interview. “I
will help create an atmosphere for polls.”

Manisha came down
heavily on the opposition parties as well as the international
community for not supporting the polls.  “They did not say a word when
Bhutan’s king evicted 100,000 of his citizens of Nepali origin who have
been suffering,” she said.

She added King Gyanendra had seized
power last year to restore democracy. “His Majesty has asked for three
years, which is not a very long period.” “The king is democratic.”

The
actress said political parties should join the king to help resolve the
Maoist insurgency. “They should first pay attention to the current
national crisis and only then raise their political agenda.” Her
statements came even as her granduncle and three-time former prime
minister G P Koirala appealed to the UN and international community not
to recognise controversial local elections February 8.

The
octogenarian leader, who was released from house arrest on Sunday, said
the civic elections called by King Gyanendra have no “social,
political, legal or moral base”.

“I therefore appeal to the
international community, including the UN, to de-recognise it,” Koirala
said in a statement. Koirala’s Nepali Congress party is leading a
seven-party opposition alliance opposing Gyanendra’s power seizure by
force last year and is now actively campaigning for a boycott of the
polls.

Another former prime minister and senior leader of the
same party, Krishna Prasad Bhattarai, has also broken his virtual
political retirement and urged the king to put off the polls and begin
reconciliation with the opposition parties.

Bhattarai,
perceived as being close to the palace, said the king should end direct
rule, release all political detainees and ask the parties to dialogue
to form an all-party government.

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Jobs vs. Gates: Who's the Star?

Until recently, Bill Gates has been viewed as the villain of the tech world, while his archrival, Steve Jobs, enjoys an almost saintly reputation.

Gates is the cutthroat capitalist. A genius maybe, but one more interested in maximizing profits than perfecting technology. He’s the ultimate vengeful nerd. Ostracized at school, he gets the last laugh by bleeding us all dry.
On the other hand, Jobs has never seemed much concerned with business, though he’s been very successful at it of late. Instead, Jobs has been portrayed as a man of art and culture. He’s an aesthete, an artist; driven to make a dent in the universe.But these perceptions are wrong. In fact, the reality is reversed. It’s Gates who’s making a dent in the universe, and Jobs who’s taking on the role of single-minded capitalist, seemingly oblivious to the broader needs of society.

Gates is giving away his fortune with the same gusto he spent acquiring it, throwing billions of dollars at solving global health problems. He has also spoken out on major policy issues, for example, by opposing proposals to cut back the inheritance tax.

In contrast, Jobs does not appear on any charitable contribution lists of note. And Jobs has said nary a word on behalf of important social issues, reserving his talents of persuasion for selling Apple products.

According to Forbes, Jobs was recently worth $3.3 billion which puts him among the 194th richest in the world, and makes him the 67th richest American. But the standings were shuffled on Tuesday with Disney’s $7.4 billion acquisition of Pixar Animation — a deal that makes Jobs’ Pixar holdings alone worth some $3.7 billion.

But great wealth does not make a great man.

Giving USA Foundation, a philanthropy research group which publishes an annual charity survey, said Jobs does not appear on lists of gifts of $5 million or more over the last four years. Nor is his name on a list of gifts of $1 million or more compiled by Indiana University’s Center on Philanthropy.

Jobs’ wife is also absent from these philanthropic lists, although she has made dozens of political donations totaling tens of thousands of dollars to the Democrats, according to the Open Secrets database.

Of course, Jobs and his wife may be giving enormous sums of money to charity anonymously. If they are funneling cash to various causes in private, their names wouldn’t show up on any lists, regardless of the size of their gifts.

For a person as private as Jobs, who shuns any publicity about his family life, this seems credible. If so, however, this would make Jobs virtually unique among moguls. Richard Jolly, chairman of Giving USA Foundation, said not all billionaires give their money away, but a lot do, and most do not do it quietly.

“We see it over and over again,” he said. “Very wealthy individuals do support the organizations and institutions they believe in.”

That’s certainly true of Gates, who not only gives vast sums away, but also speaks up in support of the organizations and institutions he believes in.

This is not the case for Jobs. To the best of my knowledge, in the last decade or more, Jobs has not spoken up on any social or political issue he believes in — with the exception of admitting he’s a big Bob Dylan fan.

Rather, he uses social issues to support his own selfish business goals. In the Think Different campaign, Jobs used cultural figures he admired to sell computers — figures who stuck their necks out to fight racism, poverty, inequality or war.

Jobs once offered to be an advisor to Sen. John Kerry during the 2004 presidential election, and he invited President Clinton over for dinner when Bubba visited Silicon Valley in 1996 — hardly evidence of deep political convictions.

Jobs can’t even get behind causes that would seem to carry deep personal meaning, let alone lasting social importance. Like Lance Armstrong, he is a cancer survivor. But unlike Armstrong, Jobs has so far done little publicly to raise money or awareness for the disease.

Given Jobs’ social detachment, I’m confused by the adulation he enjoys. Yes, he has great charisma and his presentations are good theater. But his absence from public discourse makes him a cipher. People project their values onto him, and he skates away from the responsibilities that come with great wealth and power.

On the evidence, he’s nothing more than a greedy capitalist who’s amassed an obscene fortune. It’s shameful. In almost every way, Gates is much more deserving of Jobs’ rock star exaltation.

In the same way, I admire Bono over Mick Jagger, and John Lennon over Elvis, because they spoke up about things bigger than their own celebrity.

It’s time for Jobs to do the same.

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