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What We Believe In
Responsible Citizens
Blood Wellness
Women's Health Profile
We are committed to positively impact the lives of our patients through innovation and leadership in the field of healthcare diagnostics.
At AEON, we advance cutting-edge healthcare technologies to continuously improve our processes and bring significant improvements in the lives of our patients. The use of the latest in laboratory technology and automated processes allows us to be a leading industry player in quality assurance and reporting accuracy. From our fast turnaround times to our clear and comprehensive reporting, our highly trained team of professionals offer outstanding customer service.
Diagnostic test results, including blood tests, influence more than 70% of medical decisions. About 50% of the information in the average medical chart comes from laboratory data. 1It is imperative for patients to receive the highest level of service and accurate results.
AEON’s innovative testing solutions and methodologies make us a leading player in the market. Our test menu is an important first step in the overall treatment decisions rendered by medical professionals.
According to the CDC, the crisis of Opioid addiction is a growing epidemic with 115 Americans dying every day from an opioid overdose.
Recent studies have revolutionized our understanding of the genomic underpinnings of cancer development and progression.
About 82% of American adults take at least one medication while 29% take five or more.
According to the World Health Organization, two of the most common cancers affecting women are breast and cervical cancers.
1 The Essentials of Diagnostics Whitepaper. DX Insights. January 2012.
At AEON, we believe in helping people lead healthier and improved lives. We innovate to provide you information that helps you manage your health.
2225 Centennial Drive Gainesville, GA 30504
FOLLOW AEON
AEON Global Health Recognized as Leaders in Cancer Genomics andReceive GHP Award for Excellence in Toxicology Diagnostics
GAINESVILLE, GA – March 08 , 2019 – AEON Global Health Corp. (OTC QB: AGHC), a leading healthcare companywas recognized as “Leaders in Cancer Genomics Diagnostics 2019” and received the “GHP Award for Excellence in Toxicology Diagnostics” as announced by the UK-based GHP Magazine.
Aeon Global Health Awarded Joint Commission Accreditation
Company Earns “Gold Seal of Approval” after on-site Facility Inspection.
Authentidate Announces Name Change To Aeon Global Health Corp
Authentidate Holding Corp. (OTCQB: ADAT), announced today that it has completed its previously announced corporate name change to Aeon Global Health Corp.
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info@francepropertyangels.com
Search Alps
Search South of France
Mezzanine Apartment in Petit Chatel
Portes du Soleil - Chatel Valley , Haute-Savoie
Number of reception rooms 1
Number of bedrooms 2
Number of bath/shower rooms 1
Habitable Area 45 m²
Taxe Fonciere €650;
Number of “Lots” in copropriété 68
Ski Storage Yes
Storage Yes
County Haute-Savoie
Postcode 74390
300m from Barbossine
Petit Chatel
Third and top floor
Far reaching views
Cellar and ski locker
Covered parking.
A top floor 2 "plus" bedroomed mezzanine apartment, just 300m from the pistes. The apartment includes coin montagne bunk area, open plan living/dining area with equipped kitchenette and fireplace, access to balcony with good views, and 2 bedrooms on the mezzanine level. The property comes with a cellar, ski locker and covered parking place.
Located in Petit Chatel, just 300m from the Barbossine chair lifts, on the third floor of a residence built in 1981. Châtel remains a classic alpine village with attractive shops and restaurants lining the narrow streets at the centre of the village.
The apartment consists of an entrance hall with coin montagne bunk area, open plan living/dining area with equipped kitchenette and fireplace, access to balcony with good views, separate WC. The upper level has 2 bedrooms and bathroom.
Offered with furniture, cellar, ski locker and covered parking.
Sales Details
Partner Agent Mandate - Delegation. This property is part of 2 buildings that include 68 lots. Charges to follow. Energy Rating (DPE): To follow
France Property Angels - English Speaking Estate Agent and Professional Property Finders. Contact our commercial agent Tim Smith - tim.smith@francepropertyangels.com +33(0) 623 094 917
Chatel is an original farming village nestled in the French Alps. Steeped in history, Chatel takes as much pride in its history (dating back to Roman times) as it does in its future.
This website shows just a selection of properties for sale. Please contact us for details of others that might suit you.
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"Thank you both so much. You have been brilliant. Can't wait to get out there and start enjoying our new home. See you soon and hope you have a great Christmas."
Jon and Abi Keene, December 2018
"Many thanks Kate for everything. We very much appreciate the time you spent with us to get to this day. I can only echo what Clare has said in thanking you for all your help, patience and good humour in helping us with this purchase - it genuinely has been a pleasure working with you!"
Clare and Nick Allen
"Sincere apologies from Heather and me for being so late in thanking you for your assistance in purchasing our new property. We are truly grateful to you for facilitating the process and have already pointed friends in your direction."
Stuart Exell
Chatel is an original farming village nestled in the French Alps. Steeped in history, Chatel takes as much pride in its history (dating back to Roman times) as it does in its future. With picture postcard chalets tucked away amongst incredible mountains, Châtel offers a truly authentic alpine experience but with a modern infrastructure and easy accessibility.
Chatel is located at the top end of the Abondance valley in the heart of the Portes du Soleil. Situated between Lake Geneva and Mont Blanc, Chatel is just 20 minutes from the Swiss motorways, 30 minutes from Aigle train station, 1. 25 hours from Geneva International airport and 45 minutes from Thonon train station. Chatel is one of 14 resorts of the "Portes du Soleil" which includes Morgins, Les Gets, Morzine and Avoriaz, making up one of the largest skiing areas in the world.
Chatel has a history dating back to roman times and was established by a colony of monks in the 5th century. Its first parish was built in 1643 when it was primarily a farming community. At the end of World War II the first ski lifts were introduced and Châtel’s transformation to ski resort began. Chatel has maintained its agricultural character and there are still hundreds of cows and 100 year old working farms producing the famous Abondance cheese.
As with all the villages in the Abondance Valley, properties in Chatel are particularly beautiful. The resort has been careful to retain the traditional style and large high-rise structures have been avoided. Chalets showcase the skill of local tradesmen, from the pretty balconies with their decorative balusters to the century old chalets and farmhouses that were built to cope with the changing seasons and the terrain. Properties for sale sit naturally in the beauty of the valley offering views, history and a very modern level of accessibility and amenities. Chatel and its neighbouring villages in the Abondance Valley bring much to the table when considering a property purchase.
Access to slopes
Chatel gives you a lot of options where skiing is concerned. Chatel village itself has its own ski slopes varying between two mountain ranges - Super-Chatel / Barbossine and Linga / Pre La Joux. There are 46 ski slopes - 6 black, 14 red, 17 blue and 19 green with a total length of 83 km. The inclusive Chatel ski pass is also valid throughout the Swiss resort of Torgon, in the Corbeau sector of the Swiss resort of Morgins and the La Braitaz sector at La Chapelle d’Abondance (including the Panthiaz gondola lift). So you can use 56 ski lifts and 69 pistes totalling some 130 km (80 miles). There is a special bus service between Chevenoz and Chatel called colombus which stops in every village of the abondance valley. There are free shuttle buses running through the village should you decide you don't want to walk to the slopes. And Châtel is also connected to the gigantic Portes du Soleil which, with 650 kilometers of pistes, is considered one of the largest ski areas in the world.
Chatel also claims one of the best snow records in the whole of Europe due to its unique microclimate close to Lake Geneva!
Chatel offers year round activities, from the snow sports of winter to the strong summer season. In recent years it has become a destination for mountain biking and many of the 650km ski trails have adjoining mountain bike courses. There is also an abundance of walks, hikes, lake swims, paragliding, the fantasticable (a zip-line extending between two mountain peaks) as well as cultural and music events in the town. And a new aquatic centre recently opened, the Forme d’o with an indoor/outdoor pool, a spa and a fitness area.
Chatel has everything you could need. From doctors, physiotherapists and dentists, to supermarket, specialists food stores, and ski shops. There are well qualified tradespeople, a pharmacy, butchers, bakers, bread shops, arts and crafts, hairdressers, bowling, two cinemas and outdoor and covered car parks.
With a lively village centre, perfectly preserved mountain architecture, skiing in the vast unspoiled spaces of the Portes du Soleil, Chatel offers modern facilities in a traditional setting with a working village proud of its heritage.
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© Copyright Campion (UK) Ltd 2017.
FRANCE PROPERTY SALES SARL C.P. No CPI 7401 2016 000 004 662
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Car Reviews September 5, 2012
Get Three to a dressup, says BMW
BMW and their M Sport packages are synonymous with quality and it’s now available for the 3 series sedan. Already a sweet looking car with a great ride, the package adds a 10 mm lower…
Saab reborn……sort of…
It’s been confirmed that Saab, the recently bankrupted Swedish car maker, will relaunch in 2014, with the Chinese/Japanese companies that bought the beleaguered icon backing the new model, an electric car for the Chinese market,…
Suzuki gets SX4er
Suzuki has released an update for its SX4 and not before time. Barely changing a model for five years and still being successful is a rarity (just ask Holden….) and in this case it’s a…
Proud to announce…
Hey friends, check out V8 Action Illustrated edition three (in Australia, sadly for my overseas friends) with my article about the Holden Dealer Team inside!
Car Reviews August 29, 2012
Dirty Luxury with the Freelander 2
LandRover’s Freelander 2 is a much improved version of the original model. Although British Bulldog tough in the looks department, it had some serious flaws which, to their credit, Land Rover paid attention to with…
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ArtRoger Store
Have a pleasant read.
Are We All Joyceans Here, Then?
Are We All Joyceans Here, Then? (Yes, we are now!)
By Frankie Thomas June 14, 2018
Arts & Culture from The Paris Review.
Detail from the Penguin Modern Classics cover of Ulysses.
“Are we all Joyceans here, then?” the young professor asked, poking his head into the classroom doorway.
We looked back at him uncertainly. Yes, we were all here for the Ulysses seminar that met at six thirty P.M. on Tuesdays and Thursdays. But to call us “Joyceans” seemed like a stretch. Today—Thursday, January 29, 2015—was only the first day. And besides, this was City College.
No article about City College is complete without the obligatory phrase “the Harvard of the proletariat,” which was supposedly both our school’s nickname and its reputation in the mid twentieth century. By 2015, however, no one could deny that our beautiful Harlem campus was in decline. Governor Cuomo had recently slashed the budget for the entire CUNY system, with City College bearing the brunt of the cuts, and the disastrousness of this decision is difficult to convey without resorting to sodomitic imagery. That year, classrooms were so overcrowded that latecomers had to sit on the floor. One of my professors entered his office on the first day to find that his entire desk had been stolen. The humanities building still used old-fashioned blackboards, but the budget didn’t provide for chalk, so professors hoarded and traded it like prison cigarettes. Most bathroom stalls didn’t lock, and for several weeks, the entire campus collectively ran out of toilet paper—I’ll never forget the Great Toilet Paper Crisis of 2015 and the generosity it inspired in my fellow students, who shared their own toilet paper from home and never stooped to charging for it.
It was in this context that the English department decided to offer its first-ever Ulysses seminar, though they offered it as you might offer someone a home-cooked meal that you’re secretly pretty sure contains broken glass. “NB: This is a highly demanding course with a heavy reading load,” the course catalogue warned in bold italics, “more like a graduate seminar than a 400-level college class.” I don’t think it actually said “DON’T TAKE THIS CLASS,” but that was the obvious implication. I have since learned that our idealistic young professor was met with departmental resistance when he suggested a Ulysses seminar, and I now suspect that the department was half hoping no one would register for it at all.
Anna Livia Plurabelle by Roger Cummiskey. Oil on canvas.
But the department hadn’t counted on the sheer belligerence of City College students. I took one look at that warning and immediately decided, thanks to the same knee-jerk rebelliousness that had led me to avoid college until the age of twenty-seven, that I had to take this class. I wasn’t the only one: there were thirty students in the Ulysses seminar. (This is what passes for a small discussion class at City College.)
Were we all Joyceans here, then? Taking our silence as a yes, our professor stepped into the crowded classroom.
“Why read Ulysses?” he began. “Well, not a lot of people have read it, even among those who study literature for a living. It’s quite long and extremely difficult. To have read Ulysses imparts a certain cachet. It will open doors for you.”
We gazed upon him in awe. Not so much because of his words—City College students are long inured to all forms of door-opening rhetoric—but because he uttered them in an English accent.
According to our school website, City College students hail from more than a hundred fifty nations, but England, as far as I could ever tell, is not one of them. An English accent was a true novelty around these parts. And let’s be real here: America has such unresolved daddy issues about England, it’s embarrassing to behold. You could feel the air change in our windowless little classroom with the sudden collective snap to attention, the straightening of spines, the performative scribbling of notes, the solemn vow in every heart: I will be his favorite.
Mr Bloom by Roger Cummiskey. Watercolour sketch.
Once we actually began to read Ulysses, a novel that is largely about the need to break free of the British empire and everything it stands for, the irony of all this was not lost on us. “History is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake,” Stephen Dedalus says in the second chapter—the second episode, as we learned to call them—and we were chastened to realize that we were still happily dreaming away. But by then it was too late. You cannot traverse Ulysses without an experienced guide, and if we met ours with a level of mind-body-soul eros that is rarely experienced outside of the mother-infant bond and hardcore BDSM scenes … well, you weren’t there. This was a matter of survival.
Our professor had not been kidding about the length and the difficulty: it took hours to read a single episode, and we had to read an entire episode in advance of every class, which essentially meant that we were reading Ulysses every moment of our lives that we weren’t in class discussing it.
We couldn’t skim it or CliffsNotes it because our professor opened each class with a fiendishly tricky little quiz that you could pass only if you’d done your own close reading. What does Bloom read on the toilet? (A newspaper called Titbits, and he wipes his ass with it too.) What does Bloom order for lunch? (A gorgonzola-and-mustard sandwich and a glass of burgundy because he wants something vegetarian and the culinary landscape of Dublin in 1904 is bleak beyond belief.) What does Bloom do during the final lines of “Sirens”? (He farts.) Never knowing what would appear on the next quiz, we studied the text with a maniacal attention to crammable detail: Number 7 Eccles Street. Storm petrels. Banbury cakes. Garryowen the dog. Bella the whoremistress. Metempsychosis. Pflaap.
Ecce Puer by Roger Cummiskey. Print.
Sometimes, as a surprise, our professor would divide us into teams and host a game of Ulysses Jeopardy, with a Toblerone bar as the prize for the winning team, and we all hurled ourselves over our desks screaming, “Where is Dlugacz! Who is Mina Purefoy! What is a sexologist!” in mad pursuit of chocolate and professorial approval.
As a commuter school, City College is not designed to foster intimate friendships among its students, most of whom have jobs and families and homes in the outer boroughs. But gradually, through Jeopardy games and shared notes and heated debates on the bangability of Stephen Dedalus, we in the Ulysses seminar got to know each other.
There was the star student who wept with rage whenever she lost at Jeopardy; she’d been in college for ten years and still hadn’t declared a major. There was the guy who liked to show up to class drunk and the one in recovery who always sat near him. There was the young single mother who sometimes showed up to class with her toddler daughter, a remarkably well-behaved child whom we affectionately dubbed “the littlest Joycean.” There were sex workers and social activists and this one girl who went by the nickname “Dragon Killer”—and there was me, initially embarrassed to be a twenty-eight-year-old college student but quickly coming to understand that no one ends up at City College without a backstory to rival Ulysses itself.
Good puzzle would be to cross Dublin without passing a pub by Roger Cummiskey.
Week after week, we trudged up six flights of broken escalators (I have never once witnessed City College’s escalators in motion) to the windowless little room on the sixth floor. We wrote our midterm papers and tormented our automatic spellcheckers with words like bullockbefriending, strongmembered, elbowdeep, and Mrkrgnao. Winter turned to spring; the windowless classroom went from uncomfortably cold to unbearably hot. One sweltering day, we asked our professor if we could have class outside instead; he agreed, and we discussed the “Ithaca” episode on the graveled roof of the building, shouting over the wind as it fluttered our books and shuffled our notes and the sun set violently pink over the Hudson. What a wreck the campus was; how happy we all were.
Every evening, after class, I speed walked downhill toward the 137th Street 1 train, wired and vibrating with a distinct kind of joy that I’d never felt before and have never felt since. It was the joy of knowing—knowing with bone-deep certainty—that everything I’d ever heard about college was a lie, that the Ivy League was a scam, that nothing at Harvard could ever hold a candle to what was happening here in the Ulysses seminar at the crumbling City College of New York.
On the final day of class, our professor took us out to a local pizza restaurant and awarded each of us a Ulysses completion certificate. “Congratulations!” it read. “You have hereby completed a thorough and noteworthy reading of Ulysses by James Joyce. This certificate entitles you to bragging rights as well as the ability to lead discussions, stimulating or otherwise, on this great novel.” We hugged; some of us cried. And then, just like that, it was all over. We had read Ulysses. For the rest of our lives, we would be people who had read Ulysses.
Bloomsday in Dublin outside the Gravediggers Pub.
As a person who has read Ulysses (and who takes full advantage of said bragging rights), I am occasionally asked, “Frankie, should I read Ulysses?” I don’t know how to answer the question. First of all, Ulysses is not really a novel that one reads. It sounds pompous to say that it’s a novel that one experiences; I will say instead that it’s a novel to be wrestled with as the biblical Jacob wrestled with that mysterious angel, except that wrestling match took up only one night of Jacob’s life whereas Ulysses will take you multiple months at the very least, and I cannot in good conscience endorse that as a productive use of your precious free time.
But I can tell you this: we in the Ulysses seminar are still in touch. Some of us have become very dear friends. Recently, I ran into one of my classmates in a Barnes & Noble on the Upper East Side; though we’d never talked much to each other, we recognized each other instantly and embraced like long-lost sisters.
An astonishing number of us have gone on to study literature in graduate school—including that hypercompetitive woman who took a decade to declare a major. Others have become psychologists, teachers, novelists; still, every year on Bloomsday, we remember with pride that we’re all Joyceans here.
Molly in Gibraltar by Roger Cummiskey. Watercolour and ink.
As for me, I still display my certificate on my refrigerator—and I just found out that my final paper for the seminar, “Unspeakable ‘Circe’: Sexual Perversion and the Lacanian Detour in Ulysses,” is forthcoming in James Joyce Quarterly. I’m not a career academic, so when I received this news, the first thing I did was laugh. The second thing I did was email my former professor—perhaps now I’d be his favorite! And the third thing I did was send the journal my contributor bio, which says simply, “She received her undergraduate degree from the City College of New York.”
Frankie Thomas is the author of “The Showrunner,” which received special mention in the 2013 Pushcart Prize Anthology. Her writing has also appeared in The Toast, The Hairpin, and Vol. 1 Brooklyn. She is currently studying fiction at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. She received her undergraduate degree from the City Colle
James Joyce the Pluralist, Paris. Watercolour by Roger Cummiskey.
City College of New York
Joyceans
https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2018/06/14/are-we-all-joyceans-here-then/
Dr Sebi - What to eat
Article sources: http://wakeup-world.com/2015/08/28/dr-sebi-the-man-who-cures-aids-cancer-diabetes-and-more/ http://soulspottv.com/blog/man-found-cures-for-all-diseases-and-has-the-supreme-court-ruling-to-prove-it/http://www.drsebiscellfood.com/pages/dr-sebis-methodologyhttp://sebihealingvillage.blogspot.comhttp://planet.infowars.com/health/dr-sebi-medical-prodigyhttp://www.drsebiscellfood.com/pages/nutritional-guidehttp://www.naturallifeenergy.com/alkaline-producing-mucus-reducing-nutrional-guide/ 28th August 2015
Watch this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=2704&v=skjFFV1caHE
Clear the body of mucus.
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Cleanse the bowel of the mucus. Fixes everything.
Cuaco, Concansa, Sassaparilla, Mussels, Mushrooms, Oyster mushrooms, Quinoa, Spelt, Amaranth, sea salt, Almond milk,
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Irish Literature: What Makes Irish Writers So Good?
James Joyce by Roger Cummiskey.
When we think of Ireland, we think of a country that has a rich cultural heritage. A place which seems to be bursting at the seams with poets, novelists and playwrights, who all seem to have been gifted with an incredible innate sense of storytelling and drama. If you were to check the list of Nobel Prize winners since it’s inception, you’d find that Ireland ranks eighth in terms of how many it has produced over the years. Just what is it that makes the Irish so good at writing and the creative process? The first Irish foray into literature Culturally speaking, Ireland lays claim to the fact that it has one of the oldest forms of vernacular literature in the world, with only Greek or Latin able to match it. The Irish peoples were literate from the very earliest centuries, utilising a simple writing system called “Ogham” which was a way of communicating via inscriptions on little stone tablets. One of the very first proper written Irish works of literatu…
Celebrate Bloomsday 2018 on the Costa del Sol.
Note to circulate to Joyceans.
Photographs from the Beach 2018.
Bloomsday 2018 in Spain
Talk Radio, Europe - tre - report and interviews by Ger Sweeney, Live on Eire, Monday 18 June 2018.
The piece can be replayed here. Talk_Radio_Europe_in_Spain_2018-06-18_18-00-00.mp3
Listen from 43 to 53 minutes or the complete show is one hour.
I also enclose a copy of photos that were taken on the day on the beach. https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1LDpDyCJ3kqM0kVjIDvnFtu1uWVL8WDlg
A little story from The Paris Review from 2018.
http://artrogersstore.blogspot.com/2018/06/are-we-all-joyceans-here-then.html
Great piece by Ger Sweeney; lovely photos by Dolores, as usual; excellent story in the Paris Review; lovely morning with friends on the Bloomsday beach. It doesn't get much better. Thanks for enriching our lives, Roger. Regards Colman. http://colmanrushe.wordpress.com/
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Tag Archives: distraction
1law4all > distraction
11 Tactics Used By The Mainstream Media to Manufacture Consent For The Oligarchy
brainwashing, distraction, lies, media, triviality Media 5
The mainstream media is aging and collapsing under the weight of its own hubris and arrogance.
Now entirely formulaic in presentation and predictable in substance, the ‘major’ outlets of news, which are monopolized under only a small handful of corporations, serve the purpose of misleading the public on important issues and manufacturing consent for government and the oligarchs.
The public is still largely numb to this reality, and in a wicked catch-22 for modern man, many people are still addicted to the very media that serves as the primary weapon of social control against them.
The tide is turning, however, and to help break the spell we bring you this comprehensive list of 11 tactics used against the public by the mainstream media to coerce consensus, divide, conquer, ridicule and stifle truthful or meaningful conversation about the state of our world.
1. Lying by Omission – What is not on the nightly news?
This is the most important question to ask when consuming mainstream media.
The average hour long broadcast consists of 48 minutes or less of actual news programming, minus, of course, the chit-chatting, the expensive motion graphics and the bumpers, highlights and story recaps.
With a formula like this, full of pomp and grandstanding, the impression given is that if does not make it on the nightly news, the it is not of significance.
The most obvious way in which the mainstream media manufactures consent for policy makers and advertisers is by omitting from the news reel those stories and perspectives which may compromise the broadcasters agenda, whatever that may be.
2. Controlling the Debate
Who is arguing, and for what cause?
News programs are businesses just like anything else, and as such news executives keep a go-to list of contacts to fulfill any necessary role in a program or segment.
If the government needs credibility, they roll out an ex-president and remind you that he has ‘gravitas.’ If the military industrial complex needs a voice, then they roll out a familiar think-tanker to interject in a debate with a common-sense perspective in favor of national security.
If something is too complicated for public consumption, then they open the rolodex to the ‘experts’ page and shuffle some know-it-all in front of the camera.
The media is laden with groomed pundits, so-called opinion leaders, and commentators, and each one has a definite reputation, each one resonates with a specific target audience, and each one fills a predictable role in a conversation.
Program guests are very well vetted, and news is a science, a very lucrative science that excels in giving the impression of a diversity in ideas while keeping the debate sequestered in a very well constructed box. The characters in this box make all the difference.
3. Selecting the Right Anchors, Casters and Presenters
Our lives have been pegged to the dollar, and as such, a ‘good job’ is valued above many genuine virtues.
People like to keep their jobs, as do news anchors and news casters, and since news is, again, a business, the voices and faces on news programs are hired to perform a role, a job description, a task. They are not employed to pursue morally driven journalism for the benefit of society.
If they perform as they are required, they advance and gain more exposure. If they rock the boat, there are a thousand other hungry job-seekers chomping at the bit to replace them and do exactly they are hired to do.
News anchoring is a job like anything else, and those at the forefront are the best at playing the role.
4. Scripting and Synchronizing News
One of the creepier and more blatant efforts to homogenize thought and manufacture consent is to script the news at high level, then distribute these scripts to many different locales and anchors to read verbatim, while they feign authenticity.
This is partially a result of the business decision to save money by employing as few actual news gatherers as possible, but is also a key part of the strategy to achieve conformity amongst people of different backgrounds and interests.
The government has also been known to interject itself into the chain of command for selecting which news scripts are to be disseminated to the public.
This is the most fundamental characteristic of propaganda, and is rather embarrassing to witness once you realize just how disingenuous your local news presenters are and just how easily duped most people are.
5. Politicizing Everything
Language is the greatest weapon of social control, and with mainstream media, powerfully debilitating language is pushed into every corner of our consciousness.
Conservative vs. Liberal. Democrat vs. Republican. Right-winger vs. Left-winger. Good vs. Bad. Left vs. Right. Right vs. Wrong. White vs. Black.
And so on. Ad nauseam.
The truth is that ideas and opinions are as vastly different as grains of sand on a beach, yet the media intentionally frames every issue in terms of a phoney left-right paradigm that has been constructed to pigeon hole complex ideas and interests into a cheapened thought prison.
No unorthodox idea or point of view can reach critical mass because everything is automatically framed in a ‘with us or against us’ mindset, turning people against each other for no reason other than to appeal to our desire to be on the winning team.
The mainstream media is the chief party responsible for creating the constructs of ‘left’ and ‘right,’ which have been tightly integrated into our social consciousness as a means of achieving divisiveness and disagreement among the populace.
This is the chief tactic of divide and conquer, and when people are compelled on any issue to ‘pick a team’ and fight the rivalry to it’s bitter end, many opportunities for true progress are lost and the populace is easily goaded into a position favorable to the elite.
6. Using the Language of Separation and Labels
Sometime in the 1990’s, the mainstream media stopped referring to people as ‘people’ or even as ‘citizens’ and began calling everyone ‘consumers.’
Once again, language is important to shaping reality, and as ‘consumers’ our role in the affairs of business and state are reduced to hapless bystanders whose job it is to choose and reject, not interject and affect.
We’ve all heard the label ‘conspiracy theorist,’ which is the most popular label used when an idea or story is unfavorable to the mainstream media and the interests that back them up.
You are a ‘conspiracy theorist’ if you ask questions, assimilate facts in a logical manner, or pursue justice outside of the main flow of public discourse on a popular issue.
This type of language is also part of the process of politicizing everything, and by also labeling people in accordance with their country of origin, religion, skin color, economic class, or whatever else, more wedges of division are driven into the populace, deflating our inherent power in numbers.
7. Asking the Wrong Questions
Press access to ‘important’ people in our society is tightly regulated, and the powers that be don’t like to be confronted with unexpected and hard questions.
For this, the mainstream media dutifully uses its access to people in high places to ask softball, trivial, nonsensical, ignorant questions about irrelevant and superfluous issues.
Independent media is winning the long race against corporate/fascist propagandized media because people are naturally inclined to resonate with common sense and truth, which is not at all what corporate mainline media is involved with.
White house correspondents shouldn’t waste our time and insult our intelligence by asking a war time president about his pet dog or a recent golfing trip. But they do, all the time.
8. Closing the Book Too Soon
Moving an important or complicated issue from the front page as quickly as possible is a common strategy to remove touchy subjects from the public conversation.
Sadly, our national attention span is at an all time low, mostly because we’ve been trained to move from issue to issue with lightening speed, never soaking up any one thing for too long.
With such a short term memory, it is easy to protect a politician, forget a genocide, ignore the long-term effects of a bank bailout, and so on, just by moving onto to something new.
Once the media has signaled that a story has been resolved or adequately discussed, then any after thought, individual investigation, or further inquiry is labeled as extremist and ignored.
9. Triviality and Distraction
With all of the important decisions being made daily by powerful people, decisions that genuinely affect quality of life for many people, the news outlets are steadfastly devoted to engaging in gossip, entertainment, murders and acts of violence, car accidents, disasters and other pablum.
The body politic is kept confused by celebrity happenings, endless sports contests and other such pageantry, and the media uses these many forms of distractions to fill time and brain space so that important issues are seen as a drag or as a downer, and never given proper reflection.
This is so ubiquitous in our society nowadays that there really is no escape.
10. Outright Lying
When all else fails, just lie, make it up as you go along, sell your air time to the highest bidder, and never look back.
In the internet age, people are pretty keen on fact checking, rebutting, arguing, and gathering stats, and there are enough facts available to prove any side to any story.
In fact, this has become an art form for major media, and the ability to gather facts in accordance with an agenda is a profitable skill for the mainstream media.
Lying has always worked, and the bigger the lie, the more likely it is to be believed.
11. Bonus – Eye Candy and Mind Melting
This one is a bonus and part of the new era of network news. Rather than employ virtuous gumshoes and hardcore reporters of truth, mainstream media instead invests in graphic artists to make each frame of the broadcast an over-designed motion collage of brain-melting info overload.
Staying focused on what the anchor or guest is actually saying is impossible.
By design, the news is presented in a mad shotgun blast of competing signals, and your attention is split in ten directions with tickers, bubbles, stock footage, gyrating lights and special effects.
The point here is to exhaust the mind with over-stimulation so that the brain cannot function methodically and cannot process an issue beyond the shallow surface. This is also known as hypnotism, or mind-control.
News is a commodity just like everything else these days, and although many still believe the point of news is to inform, it is important to accept the hard truth that the purpose of the news is really just to sell something, be it a product, an idea, a candidate, a public image, a war, or whatever.
For this, the mainstream media is focused on first deciding which issues are to be discussed in the public forum, then by using a bagful of tricks to shape people’s perceptions of an issue, the media divides us and pits us against each other while leading us into consent for an underlying and hidden agenda.
Source: WorldTruth.TV
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APOLLO4X
We Answer Some Questions For SpaceSector.com
As part of an article SpaceSector.com is working on about Apollo4X, they asked us a few questions about the game, our vision, and goals.
After we got done writing the reply, we thought it was worth replying publicly — because it’s the best explanation we’ve ever given for what it’s all about. So, here we go:
Q: Apollo4X focuses primarily on economic gameplay, what goals and type of play experience is Apollo4X trying to bring to the player? What are you trying to achieve with the game?
A: 4X is stuck in a rut. All these games rely on the Civilization 1 economic model. We’ve had 20 years of it now. “Food, Industry, Science” which leads to “population, build queues, and a tech tree.” There are some really good “MOO-Too” games out there, but nothing that has an economy that considers supply and demand economic forces in a way that satisfies us.
With Apollo4X, we targeted the amazingly under-serviced market for people who like a little “tycoon” in their strategy game. And those tycoon genre games are a pretty narrow selection as well, being mainly theme park, airport business, and city manager type games. Nobody has done this in space until now. Instead of laying down buildings and trying to attract customers, we have the player building trade ports on colony worlds, dictating import demands that they profit from shipping around the galaxy, and leaning on politicians with their money and influence to influence politics in their favor. We’re not into minutiae management here, it’s very top-level delegatory “make this happen, now!” CEO stuff – the player isn’t designing products or stocking shelves.
Apollo4X is all about “It takes money to make money” in that you’re investing in colonial economies and market bending bribery to maximize your income from your shipping business. This is all inspired historically by the East India Company, and its interactions with Imperial colonies and the government, eventually becoming the government because the officials in power were utterly inept. In our fiction, Apollo has about a dozen nations that are all squabbling and unable to unite, the infrastructure is in total decay, and the economy is in shambles. Meanwhile, the equivalent of a Mongol horde is spreading across the galaxy and the Apollo Trading Company decides “Alright, someone has to assume leadership of this rabble and save our bacon.” You need troops, but those cost money. The tools at your disposal are capital gained by trade, political approval earned by resolving colonial demands, and corporate clout that comes from building infrastructure to unite the colonies.
At no time are you worrying about build queues or what to research next and how many tens of turns down the road you’ll see the fruit of it. Apollo4X is played in business quarter length turns, and you’re dealing with commodities that already exist in the market space, which fluctuate in availability based on economic forces you are subject to, but not in complete control of. If you can afford it, it’s yours.
Essentially, you create demand for goods, then deliver those goods at a profit. To make that more profitable and sustainable, you invest in the standard of living of the colonists. Then you take their approval of you and knock the politicians in line to give you more abilities. Eventually you’ve reunited the factions into a global government, rebuilt the interstellar data network, stabilized the banking system, and held back or utterly destroyed the invading savages.
Q: Since Apollo4X seems to walk on the less beaten path, can you tell us what games or works of science fiction inspired the setting and the gameplay for Apollo4X?
A: In Sci-Fi fiction there are obvious influences like Dune and Starship Troopers. In gaming, there are more terrestrial inspirations like Port Royale, Patrician, Merchants of Venice and Paradox’s various historical political sims that we love. Also, Capitalism and The Corporate Machine. But we wanted to abstract away all the micromanagement and keep the game simple yet deep. Those other games are really an intimidating personal investment to approach. We don’t want that barrier to entry, but we do want maximum replayability and an adjustable challenge that will keep players interested for a long time. A very complex riddle for us to solve.
The #1 inspiration for our game is the historical saga of the East India Company. Science Fiction is best used to liberate an interesting situation from surrounding context so you can focus on specific facets of the story by re-framing it. This is what we’ve done here. Allow me to indulge in a bit of history: https://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/southasia/History/British/EAco.html and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_India_Company
In 1600, the merchants forming the East India Company were handed a trade monopoly with the East Indies colonies. They pushed out the competing traders, and built ports all along the coast thus investing in colonial infrastructure and creating entirely new demand for products. In the 1700s they had become a military power, assumed political power in the colonies, and maintained private armies. By means of this power, they absorbed and united the various factions of India and forged a unified state which then passed into British rule. During their 184 year monopolistic reign on economics of the region, they used wealth and influence to dictate enough domestic and foreign political agenda in Britain that they were eventually attacked and dismantled for it.
If you were the president of the East India Company, and Genghis Khan was rumored to be on his way to burn England to the ground — that would be our situation of inspiration right there.
Q: Can you elaborate more on where you got the inspiration or how you came up with the idea for the combat in the game?
A: Combat is heavily inspired by Games Workshop’s “Warhammer” series. We wanted something that had the depth of chess, but looked approachable like checkers. There’s a lot involved in creating a tactical electronic board game where they player moves little tanks and soldiers around on a map and that was frankly beyond the scope of this game, and would be a distraction from our economic simulation goals. So, we adopted a familiar looking card combat mechanic that just about everyone is immediately familiar with conceptually. However, unlike contemporary card games there aren’t a huge number of different units, but each unit can be given orders that make it behave in completely different ways.
There are units that are good for scouting what the enemy strategy is. There are units that heal or protect friendly forces, or inflict debuffs on the enemy. Orbital strikers have freedom to choose what targets they will engage, and can bombard, disrupt, or support other units. Marines can hunker down defensively, assault directly, or attempt to place a flanking debuff on the enemy that makes other marine attacks much more effective. One political faction grants a special Praetorian unit that exists primarily to assassinate enemy champion units, which are otherwise rather difficult to kill with standard troopers.
Finally, we also model battlefield morale, which you aren’t going to find in any other card combat game. Fighting a giant alien monstrosity tends to be a psychological contest as much as one of attack and defense. You’d better kill it fast with concentrated fire, or your troops are going to break and run. Historically, so much of warfare is more about making your enemies unable to continue the fight rather than killing them to the last man. We simulate that with battlefield-wide morale calculations.
Q: Can you tell us what sort of challenge you expect to bring to the player in the economic layer and with the combat system?
A: Traditional 4X titles are subject to a variety of pitfalls specifically because they attempt to provide AI simulacra that play the same game as the player, via peer opponents. That opens a door to observations of ignorant AI behavior, which is frustrating. We prefer to provide the player with a very strong AI opponent in the tactical card game, where it is merited and in a scope where an AI can engage smartly. For the planetary economics and trade portion, consider golf. You may have other players on the course with you, but the struggle internal. You’re trying to better your performance, not measure it competitively against another player.
Given the historical metaphor of a true trade monopoly, there is no direct peer competition. This is a conflict of player vs nature (in the form of the market) instead of player vs player. But remember that nature isn’t kind, and there is a horde of bloodthirsty “force of nature” spreading like a countdown to your doom – and that should serve to quicken your pace a bit.
We didn’t want anything to be a “build it and forget it” system, so the desired imports of your colonies shift constantly and force you to reconsider the optimal trade route pathing every single turn. The bigger your empire becomes, the more intense and interesting that puzzle gets. However, city-spam is curbed by the socio-economic impact of introducing more needy colonies, because it drives up your obligations and overexpansion can lead to unserviceable expectations and political or financial bankruptcy – which is a game ender. So, the player will learn the fine balance of vertical vs horizontal expansion and the value of investment in existing infrastructure while considering diminishing returns on investment which promote expansion into new territory.
You’re going to learn a lot of economic theory without directly realizing that we were teaching it. We’re a bit economics obsessed, and want to share and inspire that educationally without explicitly stating it as such – because frankly that sounds dry and dreadfully boring. You’ll integrate the understanding of it naturally, because it’s a sandbox for experimentation and observation of your theories, without being a preachy classroom experience. Goal #1 is “be a fun, easily engaged and long term interesting game”, and if you suddenly realize how economic forces work then it’s a win-win situation.
This entry was posted on 2014-12-05. It was filed under Dev Update.
http://apollo4x.com/answer-questions-spacesector-com/">
Copyright © 2014. All rights Reserved -- Apollo4X
Select Month February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014
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Brittany was diagnosed with Autism at an early age and regularly received a variety of therapies including occupational, speech, and physical. She began playing tennis at the age of 16 and was drawn to the sport as a result of watching her brother, A.J., compete.
Brittany has the competitive heart of a champion and the desire that burns within all world-class athletes to achieve their goals. These character traits serve her well as she refuses to allow her autism and its physical, mental, and communicative manifestations to keep her from pursuing her dream of becoming a World Champion Tennis Player.
Height: 5’1” (154.9 cm)
Weight: 103 lbs. (46 kg)
Plays: Left-handed
Training Schedule:
On-court training 5-6 days/week (4-5 hours)
Off-court training 3 days/week (1-hour)
OTHER ACCOLADES
ESPN Feature Story – Brittany Tagliareni, a Role Model for all Athletes
ABC Documentary on ESPY Award
Orlando Sentinel – Front Page of the Sports Section – Special Olympian makes history!
Unraveling Athena Inspirational Video
Unity Sports Press Conference in Greece with Michelle Kwan, Dikembe Mutombo, and Kevin Farr
Special Olympics International 2012 Fund-raising Campaign
Publix Special Olympics Be-A-Fan Campaign
TD Bank 2013 Be-A-Fan Campaign
Lake Mary Life Magazine
Sanford Herald
Central Florida Channel 13 News
Fox 35 News
HMatW Newsletter
CNN Turning Points Documentary
Volunteers at Dogs Unlimited
Knee-boarding
ATHLETIC ACHIEVEMENTS
2019 Xperience Special Olympics Invitational Tennis Tournament – 1st place in Top Division playing against all males – Brittany is the first female to ever win this tournament.
2019 Special Olympics Florida State Games – 1st place in Top Division playing against all males.
2019 Special Olympics World Games Abu Dhabi – Silver medal in top division women’s singles and silver medal in top division mixed doubles.
2018 USTA National Tennis Adaptive Championship in Unified Doubles – 1st place
2018 Special Olympics World Tennis Invitational in Santo Domingo – 1st Place in Women’s High Performance Singles
2018 Special Olympics USA National Games – 1st Place in Women’s High Performance Singles and 1st Place in High Performance Mixed Doubles
2017 ESPY Honorary Award
2017: Xperience Special Olympics Invitational Tennis Tournament – 3rd Place in Men’s Singles Division
2016: FTT Tennis Tour – 1st Place in an Open Division Doubles Tournament.
2016: INAS World Tennis Championships in Sea Colony, Delaware – Third Place in Women’s Singles Division and Third Place in Women’s Doubles Division.
2016: Xperience Special Olympics Invitational Tennis Tournament – 1st Place in Men’s Singles Division
2015: Global INAS Games in Guayaquil, Ecuador – 2nd Place in Women’s Singles Division, 2nd Place in Women’s Doubles Division.
2015: Special Olympics Florida State Championship – 1st Place Winner in Men’s Singles Division
2015: INAS World Tennis Championships in Mont de Marsan, France – First Place in Women’s Singles Division, First Place in Women’s Doubles Division, and Third Place in Mixed Doubles Division.
INAS International World Number 1 Ranked Women’s Tennis Player 2014
Australian Tennis Championships 2014 in Melbourne, Australia – Third Place in
Women’s Singles Division and Third Place in Women’s Doubles
The Xperience Special Olympics Invitational Tennis Tournament Bronze Medal Winner for Men’s/Women’s Mixed Singles Division 2011, Gold Medal Winner for Men’s/Women’s Mixed Singles Division 2012, Bronze Medal Winner for Men’s/Women’s Mixed Singles Division 2013, Bronze Medal Winner for Men’s/Women’s Mixed Singles Division 2014, Silver Medal Winner for Men’s/Women’s Mixed Singles Division 2015, Gold Medal Winner for Men’s/Women’s Mixed Singles Division 2016, Gold Medal Winner for Men’s/Women’s Mixed Singles Division 2017, Bronze Medal Winner for Men’s/Women’s Mixed Singles Division 2018.
Special Olympics Florida State Championship Gold Medal Winner for Women’s Singles 2007 – 2014, Gold Medal Winner in 2015 in the Men’s Division, Silver Medal Winner in 2016 in the Men’s Division, Silver Medal Winner in 2017 in the Men’s Division, Gold Medal Winner in 2018 in the Men’s Division.
Special Olympics World Summer Games in Greece – Silver Medal for Women’s Singles and Bronze Medal for Mixed Doubles 2011
Hilton Head Special Olympics National Tennis Championships Gold Medal Winner for Women’s Singles 2009, Gold Medal Winner for Men’s/Women’s Mixed Singles Division 2010 – 2011, Silver Medal Winner for Men’s/Women’s Mixed Singles Division 2012.
Special Pops Fall Classic Adaptive Tennis Tournament Gold Medal Winner for Women’s Singles and Silver Medal Winner for Mixed Doubles 2010
Colorado National Public Parks Tennis Championships Adaptive Division Silver Medal Winner for Unified Mixed Doubles 2012
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Strong Coffee, & a Lot of Random Thoughts...
A strong coffee makes you stay awake and think random thoughts. Or so a friend believes. There was a hint of self-disapproval in the way it was stated, almost as if it was something to be ashamed of, as if it was a sign of weakness or mental aberration that people would make fun of. It set me wondering.
I believe increasingly that we are in a world that places a premium on action. We seem to be a society of doers. Working, hanging, chilling, travelling, watching, commenting. Thinking seems to be a lesser activity. Not many people want to think. Most just want to move forward to capture the next available gap that they see in front of them. There’s something about survival and perpetuation which is deeply ingrained in the human DNA. Thinking directed towards improvements in these is respected. Thinking for its own sake is not.
I struggle to remember, but obviously can’t, as to how I used to think when I was a baby. It’s particularly difficult to remember how I used to think without language. And now it’s become impossible for me to think without language. My thinking is bound by the languages I know. Why this is important is because over a period of time we allow constraints to bind our thinking. Language is the first one.
And slowly, we train ourselves as to what we should think about. We do it by stifling the so-called random thoughts, by blocking them out of our mind repeatedly over a period of time till we are no longer conscious about them. There’s a contradiction here. All the thoughts that we think are originating from within us. Then where’s the question of some being random and some being not? It’s only that our brain has introduced some sort of filtering device, some sort of self-censorship mechanism which tells us what is right to think about and what is not.
And that’s the reason why random thoughts that manage to sneak through are scary and difficult to handle. Like death, we are unsure of where they will take us, because we are all grown-ups. And the essence of all “growing-up” is learning to define our own bounds. What we “can” do and what we “cannot” do.
People talk of self-acceptance as being important in the path to self-realization. I believe that one of the primary aspects of such acceptance is the acceptance of one’s thoughts. We tend to question our thoughts, in particular things such as “Why am I thinking about this” or “How could I think something like this” That doesn’t allow the completion of the thought to take place, because it is discarded beforehand.
One of the fascinating aspects about being a writer is the ability (or need, depending on which way you look at it) of being able to view yourself as a third person. When you are both the observer and the participant. That enables the evaluation of thoughts with detached, almost scientific, interest. A realization that the thought doesn’t reflect on our character or our mental state, but is intrinsically a part of us, to be duly considered and put in its rightful place.
This realization is what enables us to overcome the fear of vulnerability. We feel vulnerable with our random thoughts. But that’s the trade-off in all aspects of life, always: Safety versus the Richness of the Experience. Where we draw the line, is what we have to decide.
Posted by Akshat Kumar at 7:55 AM
The Old Lady of Bori Bunder...
I saw her standing in a dark corner, in one of the bylanes close to CST.
"Hi. You look familiar" I remarked cheerily.
She gave a strange smile, as if she knew more about me than I myself did. "Do I, really?" she asked.
"Yes, well at least I think so, though you look a bit different" I continued.
"Bit?" she questioned, as she stepped forward into the light.
I stood aghast, shocked by the transformation that I saw in front of me. Her face seemed completely hidden behind a veil of garish make-up, which was in absurd contrast to her age. Her dress, ill-fitting and gaudy, seemed almost obscene. Her demeanour seemed seductive, pre-calibrated to elicit a favourable response, instead of adapting to the person at the other end.
She smiled mockingly and asked "Am I not a pretty picture?"
"Who did this to you?" I managed to stammer out.
"You did" she said, very matter of fact, as if I should have known it all along.
"I? How could I have? You were always my conscience!" I protested.
"Your conscience?" She asked, the derision unmistakable in her voice. "And, did you consider what happens to conscience? What is its end?"
I remained silent.
She continued. "Conscience has only two possible ends. It either withers, or is brokered away."
She paused to look at me, then said "And you allowed me to be brokered. You allowed those fingers to crawl over me, fingers that knew what they were searching for, fingers, swiftly moving, as they went about their purpose..."
"No!!" I shook my head in denial. "I cared for you!!"
"Don't care for me!" She shouted. "Use me, as the rest of them do. Ravage me. Enjoy me. Don't care for me. I cannot bear it. Care is temporary. Care is unstable. One push, and care is destroyed. Submission is the equilibrium. Submission is permanent. Never questioning, never caring. Just flowing along."
She kept speaking. "You must learn to flow. You think, feel & question. Thats an unsustainable combination. You will become insane. You must give in. Learn to act, learn to rush, learn to grab the vacant space. Survive. Adapt. It's your only chance"
"Only chance to what?" I shot back. "To end up like you?"
A coquettish ripple of laughter burst forth from her. It was ludicrous and painful at the same time.
"Someday, you will use me" she said, and vanished into the dark recesses whence she had emerged.
Insanity takes various forms.
One form is when a person increasingly thinks he alone can best decide for others & controls their fate; He tries to control, repress & subjugate those around him; Most people experience this occassionally; For many it becomes a way of life. A national leader who is a tyrant is an extreme example of this; But we see many other examples scattered throughout our lives - pushy Bosses, mean Relatives & insolent Children. Such insanity is harsh, uncompromising & more often than not, unconscious.
Another form is when a person over a period of time finds it increasingly difficult to fall in line with the ways of the world. He dances to the tune playing in his mind. He doesn't seek to manipulate the world; Only that the world allows him to do what he wants.Try as he might, he is unable to transplant what he sees to the rest of the world, though occassionally people understand those glimpses. Such understanding is rare and occurs at the intersection of their mutual insanities. This is the kind of insanity a true artist displays. He understands his insanity and is at peace with it.
Morning. The pure white sky streaked with soft hues of pink. She smiled & nodded, as I sought permission, not to go forth, but to remain where I was.
The Dirty Picture...
An unused garbage dump in Lower Parel...
The Travails of Printers...
Pause. Think. Reflect. What makes a really serious difference to your quality of life? Pollution? Roads? Home Cooked Food?
You are all wrong.
The only thing that truly matters is Printers.
Printers are a driving force for much of our adult life. The predicament starts (or at least used to start, earlier) when one enters college. Parents watch their children with a mixture of pride and trepidation thinking "Wow! My child is now old enough to take printouts. May God guide the connecting cable" Students feel powerful, bold, ready to take on the world.
And then reality sinks in. One printer. One printer! One printer??? One miserable little dot matrix, for a class of 60 students??? "That's because this is an A Grade college" quips the Lab Attendant. "In the B Grade colleges, they have to get all printouts taken from outside. In the C Grades, they write the programs by hand" Ouch!
And then we learn what life is all about. Backstabbing, double dealing, groups, politics. You form coalitions, frame codes, making sure one of your groupies is always there in the Queue for printing. You also form secret agreements with other groups without telling your friends, "just in case..." You make sure there's at least one local language speaking person in the group to beg borrow and plead with the watchmen & lab attendants if needed, when you need to get the lab opened at 6 AM in the morning because the submission is at 8:30 AM. You quickly learn to speak "Urgent submission. Please help us, O most Venerable One" in the local language. Also helps if you have got girls in the group; You don't even need the words, the look alone does the trick.
Of course, the printers have an infallibly accurate track record of failing EXACTLY when most needed. The computer's print command doesn't register, the papers get stuck, the ink runs out - everything happens. Right when time is at a premium and beads of sweat are clamouring on your brow. Then you invoke the spirit of the Printer Baba with a fervour that would put even the most ardent devotees to shame. Printer Baba, people mention in hushed, awed tones, is the spirit of a lonesome student who ages ago died of a heart attack because He couldn't take printouts in time for his submissions. With His dying breath, He swore He would help all those who believed in Him. (Additionally, Printer Baba being a male engineering student responds much faster to the feminine touch; I swear the printers worked better when girls handled them!)
Some poor miserable souls try to work around the system. They buy a printer from their hard earned pocket money keeping it guarded in their rooms or at their homes. Woe betide you if you every try this. Your room will be invaded at all odd times by rapacious souls salivating for the elusive printout. And there's nothing more pitiable watching the printer owner helplessly pleading with them ("Guys I wont have ink left to take my own printouts!") and watching the swarm exhaust every last drop of CMYK left.
And if you think things get better when you enter the corporate world and start working, you are in for a rude shock. Printers are THE most jealously guarded resources in a company. They are almost instruments of State Policy. Hello, don't go around touting your bonus and your top performer rating - You haven't arrived in the company till you have access to a colour printer! After years of praying and yearning, you might get access to one. But before that its an uphill task. Consider the following scenario:
You spend all night working on that knockout presentation for your Boss, who has to discuss stuff with his boss. Being an MBA from a premier Indian institute, if nothing else, you make sure it at least has the jazziest, most colourful graphs and diagrams ever to grace Microsoft Powerpoint. At 3 AM in the night you send a mail to your Boss (Yay; He knows I have been working all night) and in the morning you pay him a visit.
"Sir, I sent you the presentation"
"Yes I saw the mail. Can you give me a printout please? A little quickly, I have to leave in 10 minutes"
"Sir, I thought, since I had sent the e-mail..." and you stop.
He gives you The Look. The "E-mails are for sissies. Real Men take printouts" Look
"Is it a problem?"
"No Sir, of course not, I will get it..."
And you come out of the cabin, your heart racing faster than Michael Schumacher on full throttle. Words come out of your colleagues' mouth, but they don't seem to be making any sense.
You look around frantically. Everyone has an Agony Aunt / Uncle usually - the one who gives you pearls of wisdom on "The way we do things here" Your eyes pierce the cubicles till you manage to locate him. You rush like theres no tomorrow, panting and breathless and blurt it out "Bossneedsaprintoutin10minutesidonthavecolourprinteraccess"
He looks at you, adjusts his horn rimmed spectacles, and says "Calm down. Tell me whats the problem"
You go staccato.
"Boss. He. Needs. A. Printout. I. Don't. Have. Access. Please. Its. Urgent."You see him firming up, preparing himself with steely resolve. You wait with bated breath.
"This is going to be difficult. Very, very difficult"
"There's only one option. The Cleaning Services Audit department." And he gives you a look of grim understanding.
Cleaning Services Audit? We have a department to audit that??? And why on earth do they have a colour printer!!!
"Make it quick. The clerk there knows me - we take the same train back home. Tell him I sent you"
While you eyes are about to brim with tears of gratefulness, he pauses, looks around to make sure no ones looking and then says "And while you are there, can you take a couple of printouts for me? I need it for my daughter's homework assignment. I will give you the file in a flash drive"And you rush there at top speed, looking around for the clerk. You finally locate him based on the Agony Uncle's subtle description (wears earrings; Doesn't shave)
You explain the gravity of the situation. He nods his head in patient understanding and says "But what to do; Saahib will be angry if he knew other people are taking printouts"You plead, beg, anything to make him agree...
Please, please, you tell him. You must have also faced this situation sometime. Didnt you have to take a printout in an emergency ever???
The statement triggers a chain reaction of thoughts in his mind. His eyes moisten and he says "I will help you" and gets up to switch on the contraption in front.
You insert the flash drive, locating the files at lightning speed, praying they open (they do). The printer's connected, you check the preview, and with an invocation to the Almighty, click on "Print"
Nothing happens.
"C'mon, c'mon, for the love of Heaven, by the grace of everything thats good in this world - work, you damn thing, work!"
You see with a look of horror that your Boss is stepping out of his cabin, asking his secy "I had asked for some printouts, where are they..."
You stand glum, in abject surrender, your faith in machinity about to be destroyed...
And then on cue, with the finesse of Amrish Puri in DDLJ's climax scene ("Jaa Simran Jaa, Jee Lay Apni Zindagi), the machine splutters, gasps, and out come the most beautiful sheets of paper you have ever seen.
Is this what Nirvana feels like, you wonder. They are not bad, really, Printers...
Creaking News: KingFissure to use Gobar Gas, Ethanol blend to control costs...
With ATF prices shooting through the roof, beleaguered air carrier KingFissure has decided to use a blend of Gobar Gas & Ethanol as fuel for its aircraft. This has been made possible by breakthrough research conducted at KingFissure's own internal research centres, where a stray cow accidentally got drunk. The resulting discharge was found to be suitable for powering planes.
Commenting on the breakthrough, the Chairman said : "This discovery has brought a ray of hope. Not only will this reduce costs for us significantly, it will also help us in appearing more socially responsible. It will help us in integrating and expanding our target market to include the bovine population of India. To popularize this, we are also planning to launch the KingFissure Cow Calendar 2012, which will feature 12 of the hottest and most gobar-acious cows in India"
Well known animal rights activist Womaneka Chandi has protested this move "It is shameful. Each cow has the right to use her discarded waste as she deems fit. The poor cows will get exploited"
An irate recent passenger of KingFissure commented "As long as they operate flights on time, I dont give a shit what whether they use shit in powering their planes!"
Apple to Target Footwear Market, Designs New Throwing Shoe
Apple Inc, known for its innovative technology products, has now come out with iThrow - shoes, designed specifically for throwing at people.
With celebrity targets such as George Bush, Mahmoud Ahmedinejad and Arvind Kejriwal, Shoe Throwing has evolved to become an activity which unites people across the globe.
Mr Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, said "Given recent events, it has been a period of great soul searching for us. Our search for the soul, led us to the sole. Our motto has been simple - often the customer doesn't know what he wants, till you place it in his hands. We believe shoes designed for throwing are the next big opportunity. It's not a shoe we are selling. Its hope and experience"
A leading Tech Commentator stated "The shoe's advanced design allows seamless removal and ejection using Apple's proprietary iTouch system. Astonishingly, the shoe functions completely by touch - right down to putting it on and tying laces"
The shoe, named iThrow, will be the most software intensive shoe over. There is already a library of over 10000 apps, including apps which take a snapshot of the target just before hittng it as well as apps which help you decide the best angle to throw the shoe from. There's also an app which instantly updates your Facebook status once the shoe reaches its target.
Apple is rumoured to have included an 8 megapixel camera which films the entire throwing sequence automatically in HD. The shoe can also be synced with your iPod to play the right kind of tense / pulsating music during the throwing, to suit the atmosphere.
"Our new Siri technology will also be integrated with the shoe" Mr Cook said. "While its still experimental, some of the capabilities are truly mind boggling. For instance, you can train Siri to abuse the target on your behalf. You can also give voice commands to make the shoe change its target midway"
Nirdosh Kumar, a self-confessed Apple addict, said hes very excited about this new offering. "I have no idea why I need it, or how I will use it. But those things can be figured out later once I buy it"
Surprisingly, the shoe is not walking / running compatible.
"Human locomotion as a use for shoes is outdated" Mr Cook declared "As an innovative company, it is our duty to design products which challenge existing mindsets and paradigms and expand technology into the realm of the unknown. We made FM outdated with the iPod. I don't see why we cant do the same with Walking and iThrow"
Ladies & Gentlemen of the Class of 2011:
Have Green Tea.
If I could offer you only one piece of advice for the future, Green Tea would be it.
Green Tea is low in caffeine and has antioxidants which reduce the risk of a wide variety of diseases, from cancer to schizophrenia to hip-hop music & hypochondria.
My other advice has no such benefits, and may seem self-indulgent, grotesque and completely incomprehensible.
You rush too much for your own good. What seems like a journey to nowhere now will seem like a great idea later on. Or at least it won’t seem like a bad idea. At some point of time, you will realize that the journey was the destination. Or at least it’s more comforting to think that way.
Don’t be so serious.
No one is judging you. Heck, 99% of the time people don’t even have time to think about what you are doing, much less to evaluate you. There’s only one person who thinks you are important and that you matter, and that’s yourself. Or your kids, till they turn about 5 years old. After that, the roles reverse.
Don’t Undo.
If there’s one function I could banish from the realm of technology, it would be Ctrl Z. Ctrl Z is a sneaky little thing, designed to lull us into a false sense of security into thinking that things in life can be reversed all the time. Don’t be fooled. Make mistakes, knowing they won’t get reversed. Creation has given you the license to fail.
Read Spam.
I love reading spam mails. If you ever needed proof that not everything in life makes sense, spam is it.
De-Systemize
Be afraid of technology. Not from the fear that it will replace you or challenge you, but from the fear that it will make you forget how to live. Watch The Terminator, knowing that it’s a work of fantasy which will never happen. Watch Wall-E, dreading that we could be heading there soon.
Don’t outsource your life to technology.
Accept that Relationships fluctuate.
People aren’t always around. They all have their tracks to run on. Don’t take it personally. It’s better to understand and be misunderstood, than to misunderstand and be understood.
Nope, that didn't make sense to me either. But it sounded right.
That's how relationships also are.
Love your Parents.
It’s selfish. And it’s important. We all have our 2 AM friends. Sometimes, however, the 2 AM friend is the problem. Parents work 24/7. Thank God.
Experience. And Share It.
Be appalled. Be happy. Be sad. Be enthralled. Don’t jump to the endpoint. Don’t conclude in advance. When your friend tells you about the new movie he saw, listen to him. Don’t Google the review. He’s sharing an experience. He’s doing it because he wants to tell YOU about it.
Facts are not important. Conversations are. Otherwise, everyone knows everything anyway.
Free yourself.
From the pressure of optimizing. Of perfecting your choices. You are not an algorithm. You won’t always get the best fit. Sometimes, it’s fine to just have a good fit. Most times, in fact. Optimization isn’t what it’s cracked up to be.
Don’t Pre-Live.
Don’t live life, before you have lived it. Wait for it to pan out, to flow. Your time will come. Welcome it.
No one’s important enough to be hated. Everyone is insignificant enough to be loved.
Follow my advice. Or don’t follow it. Advice is more necessary for the giver than the taker, because he wants to be sure of what it is that he thinks he really knows.
Which isn’t much anyway and could be wrong.
But trust me on the Green Tea.
She smiled derisively and said "So there you are"
I acquiesced.
"Thats the problem with you. You are everywhere"
I shifted uncomfortably. "I am with you, too"
"Ohh yes, you are with me, but you are not for me. You belong to everyone. Don't you see how flawed that is?"
"I didn't quite..."
"Understand? Of course you didn't"
"I love..."
"Hah! Was there ever a thought that was in love?"
I waited, uncertain
"You just don't get it do you? A thought, that's what you have reduced yourself to. You have no Self. You, who allowed your fears to starve and your aspirations to wither! Where are your jealousies, your insecurities? You thought, you worthless piece of thought!"
I protested. "While I may have no Self, at least you have one. Can a thought not love a Self?"
She shook her head pityingly. "It is true, I am a Self. But a thought cannot comprehend a Self. It can only comprehend other thoughts. What it comprehends of the Self will be only a thought"
"But then..."
"No. I know what you will ask next. Even thoughts can't fall in love with one another. Thoughts are abstractions. Abstractions crash against one another, as do the waves against the rocks on the sea shore, as the wind rustles the leaves and grass; touching each other, but never staying on..."
“Don’t you see what a terrible thing it was to have sacrificed your Self thus? Did you not realize that thoughts have no form unless they possess a Self?
“It was to...”
“Better yourself? You believe this is better, that you have no burdens, and no control either? That anyone may allow you to enter, grow and then be discarded as they deem fit?”
I grew sadder “At least, I am pure. Unbiased. I am not weak. I drive the Self”
“Thats the mistake you are making. You don’t drive the Self; The Self allows itself to be driven by you. You have worth only if the Self allows, only as long as it allows”
I stood shaking, trembling, defeated. “Is there then no hope for me?”
She was smiling again “No, I don’t say that. Though you may not love, you may still be loved by others”
“But this is a price too terrible to pay; Condemned, to being loved by others without the ability to love them! What would I not give for the reverse, to love others without being loved by them, for there I am doing that which is within my reach!”
She sighed. “So it must be, for remember, you chose. You chose perfection over foible, you chose strength over weakness, you chose nothingness over form, you chose peace over insecurity. So also, you ended up choosing to not love over love. But don’t grieve, for when a Self truly loves you, you may become a part of it; then you may regain that which you have lost”
And as I looked in wonder, she departed, a terrifying promise, a sobering question...
What Technology Still Can't Do (And Might Do At Some Point In The Future)
I wonder if there's a term for the set of experiences that are not shared, but that we know exist because we have experienced them ourselves. How do we know that another person experiences something called hunger? Because a) He tells us so & b) We have experienced it ourselves. Otherwise there is no proof of hunger.
There are so many of these experiences - dreams, pain, emotions, hunger, thirst, thoughts etc. Our understanding of these has been shaped by thousands of years of shared experiences. And yet we have never (in the literal sense) experienced someone else's pain or dreams or thoughts. We believe it when a person says hes in pain because we trust him. The level of trust will vary with, among other things, his physical condition. A wounded person for example, who says hes in pain is more likely to be trusted than a person who appears to be completely fine. But it still hinges essentially on our trust & judgement.
That's one real tough nut for technology to crack. Can it synthesize, and improve our sense of trust & judgement? Can you have a pain monitor to check how much pain a person is experiencing? Not in its current state.
Language is a beautiful thing. It has its set of rules, but if we so choose those rules can be modified to various degrees. Look at how much of material must have been written in English using jut 26 letters! Trillions of words! And increasingly, the written word is becoming automated. Search engines have become intelligent. You can have essay & story generators. These are all becoming increasingly sophisticated with greater processing power and software development.
However, technology still cannot generate essays ab-initio. The program needs repositories of words, it needs to be taught grammatical rules & syntax. But dont we humans learn the same way? I guess not. The base for computers was mathematics, and not language. The evolution of computers started with the diode and binary logic and Boolean algebra. Over the years, this is the paradigm which has been worked upon and developed. Thus, all computing technology based upon this will face inherent limitations because deep down, beneath all the advanced circuitry and LCD screens, it all still a series of zeros and ones. Its like a human being trying to learn English using Mathematics. Only the quantitative part remains, the qualitative gets missed out.
And this is true, not only for language, but for all art. Computing technology cannot synthesize art beyond a point so long as it is based on logic. I wonder what would have happened if the computer had been developed by the Medicine or Literature profession, instead of the Mathematicians, Physicists & Engineers. Medicine, Arts & Social Sciences are used to dealing with imprecision and subjectivity in their research and analysis to a far greater degree. What if the computer was not based on zeros and ones but on some other paradigm completely? Say a computer which would behave like a human, throw tantrums when overworked, respond with greater enthusiasm at times and so on.
Artificial intelligence will remain artificial because it is an abstraction, an oversimplification of human intelligence into only the quantitative part. Human intelligence is both quantitative and qualitative. (Diversion - to ensure your job is not made redundant by technology, try to work in an area which makes use of qualitative human intelligence) This explains, among other things, the failure of models to predict the 2008-09 Economic Crisis, even as some people were able to predict it.
To make artificial intelligence natural, it is necessary to rework from the grassroots. One can't synthesize the qualitative from the quantitative; A new technological paradigm from the ground up is needed - one which is free from the restrictions of binary logic. We need a system which incorporates qualitative-ness. And for doing that, the core computing technology will need to incorporate inputs from all spheres of human activity in its design. And who knows, perhaps, the next Siri will tell you what you dreamt of last night and help you in composing a blog on it...
I was walking along the promenade. The lights of the Queen's Necklace visible in the distance. The sea waves gently crashing on the shore.
Words kept flitting in and out of my mind - Inflation, Corruption, Rating Downgrade, Crash, Double Dip, Eurozone, Unemployment, Unusually Uncertain...Facts & Figures, Graphs, Pictures...
Then I saw him.
There was something eerie about him. Dirty, unkempt, mangy. His clothes torn, his hair dishevelled. And yet his face seemed oddly familiar.
He saw me. His fingers were clasping a piece of paper tightly. His hands were quivering.
He spoke to me, as one does with someone known but unfamiliar.
"The Design. The Design. I have figured out the Design"
His eyes had a strange gleam. His face had a suppressed smile, as if he was trying hard to restrain his excitement.
"Can you see? Can you see the Design?"
He pointed to the piece of paper. It was blank.
I stood, struggling to make sense.
"This is the Design. Why don't you see? This is the Design!"
I shook my head sadly. "Sir, that paper is blank" I said
The man could no longer contain himself. He burst out laughing.
"You don't see. You just don't see."
I got irritated. "There's nothing to see!" I retorted.
"Exactly" he said, and walked away; While I was left standing...
Main...
Pakadkay jisay chalna seekha tunay, Woh ungli main hoon
Sisak-sisak roya tha tu jispay, Woh kandha main hoon
Hamesha judi thi jo tujhsay, Woh umeed main hoon
Bimaar dekh tujhay jo uthti, Woh bechaini main hoon
Bheed mein tujhay jo dhoondti, Woh nazar main hoon
Niraasha mein sambhaala jisnay, Woh aashwaasan main hoon
Soch ko teri banaaya jisnay, Woh protsaahan main hoon
Sudhaara galtiyon ko teri jisnay, Woh tamaacha main hoon
Panapnay diya vyaktitva ko jisnay, Woh prerna main hoon
Meri kamiyaan dikhaai jisnay, Woh aaina main hoon
Chuppi saadhay hai tu jinsay, Woh armaan main hoon
Jawaab bhool raha hai tu jinkay, Woh sawaal main hoon
Mooh pher raha hai tu jissay, Woh niraasha main hoon
Pehchaannay se inkar hai jisko, Woh darr main hoon
Andekha kar raha hai tu jisay, Woh saakshaat main hoon
Jo tera bhavishya hoga kabhi, Woh vartmaan main hoon...
FBpath...
(With sincere apologies to Dr HRB)
FBpath, FBpath, FBpath
Friends hon online bhalay
Hon chat pay present teray
Ek status like bhi
Maang mat, maang mat, maang mat
FBpath FBpath FBpath
Tu na log-off hoga kabhi
Tu na offline rahega kabhi
Tu na sign-out karega kabhi
Kar shapath, kar shapath, kar shapath
Yeh mahaan screenshot hai
Browse kar raha manushya hai
Spam-virus-apps say
Lathpath, lathpath, lathpath
A Letter to the Prime Minister
Dear Prime Minister Sir, Dr Manmohan Singhji:
For the last 15 years or so, I have been reading and hearing about the impending miracle that India is. It first started with the Prophecies of Nostradamus, who supposedly predicted more than 400 years ago that India would one day rise to become a global superpower. Slowly the idea took shape, in the media, in magazines, books, the TV, people all around started talking about it. And the talk only grew with time. By 2004, your leading opposition party had even made "India Shining" its poll slogan, albeit one which resulted in abject defeat for it.
I grew up with an air of quiet confidence, and I saw change all around me. I didn't carry the baggage of our previous generation, which was used to a very different kind of India, which was restricted, which bound people. I grew up reading about the brain drain, about value conscious, money saving Indians who shunned ostentation, about engineering and medicine being the only possible career options (or else, elders would thunder - you are resigned to cutting grass). But I also remember sensing a tiny voice inside my head, telling me that this doesn't seem to be correct. What I was seeing was at odds with what I was told was the truth. I remember reading something vaguely about a payment crisis, about "liberalization", a word which I struggled to pronounce.
And then, more than 7 years ago, I remember that you became the Prime Minister.
I remember hope. About a decent man who would be at the helm of affairs in running the country. I shrugged aside the cynicism, the malicious remarks about "family retainers" and "seat warming"
I remember pride. In forwarding your exceptionally distinguished CV to everyone I could think of, with the "Can you guess who this person is" tagline
I remember confidence. In the quote of Victor Hugo which you used while commending the Budget to Parliament on that fateful day in July 1991.
I remember euphoria. When your party won an overwhelming majority and stock markets rallied by 20% in one day.
Thats how big a game changer it was. I rejoiced. No longer would you need to grovel before the ungrateful Left or the Ammas & Didis of the world.
You were always a decent man in an indecent time. I commiserated with you for the set of people you had to work with. Men and women of a far lesser standing, I reasoned.
But now, I am unable to comprehend anything.
I do not comprehend the deterioration in internal security that has taken place with alarming proportions.
I do not comprehend the corruption scandals which tumble out one after the other with numbing alacrity.
And worst of all, I do not comprehend the helpless look on your face. I do not comprehend your loss of dignity.
The Mahabharata states that Yudhishtira alone of all men, was truth personified. His chariot used to float above the ground, in honour of that status. But one small half-truth changed everything, and his chariot from then on always touched the ground.
I see your chariot doing the same. All those mediocre people who surround you, look at what they have reduced you to - from a great statesman to an ordinary politican. It is painful to watch.
True, you head an elected Government. India can remove you at the end of your 5 year term. But India is changing too fast. India cannot wait for 5 years to seek change. In fact the need of the hour is to introduce a rule which makes the Government seek a popular referendum at least mid-term to continue in office.
I would love to believe you. I would love to believe that things will be all right. I would love to give hope another chance. But somehow I am not able to do it.
Yours Sorrowfully,
An ordinary Indian
Identity Hierarchy & Religious Leaders...
A person can define his identity in innumerable ways. It can be on the basis of nationality, religion, education and so on. These identities will usually follow some hierarchy. For me, for example, species comes at the top. I think of myself as a human being first. When its a question of nationality and religion, I am somewhat confused. I believe the Indian ethos of secularism allows us to choose our hierarchy as to nationality and religion. I am not suggesting that nationality is subservient to religion or vice-versa. I am only saying that to some extent, India allows its citizens to define their identity by their religion first and their nationality second if they so choose. There is an apparent contradiction here, for to have this freedom of hierarchy, one will need to be an Indian. However, Indian nationality needs to be one of the levels of the hierarchy, not necessarily the topmost in all circumstances. The clearest illustration of what I am saying lies in the fact that we don't have a common civil code.
Throughout history, "religious heads" (no matter which religion) have always tried to increase their importance by declaring such things to be un-religious as which undermine their power; By restricting the flow of knowledge, ensuring economic backwardness and maintaining ignorance, they maintain their hold; What a religious leader says, is not the word of God; It is his interpretation of it; And it is more often than not, twisted and restricted to suit his ulterior motives
I still remember an episode of (of all things) Jonny Quest. One of the protagonists, named Race Bannon is being given some false mumbo-jumbo by a person who claims he can talk to spirits. When Race argues, the person says "You must not question the spirits, Mr Bannon". Race snaps back "It's not the spirits I am questioning. It's you". Bingo.
Imam Bukhari's statement I don't deem important enough to comment on. Hopefully he's becoming more irrelevant over time; The greatest enemy for such people is lack of attention and publicity and I hope it will increase to the point where people are not bothered about what he says anymore.
Indian Muslims would be as or more aggrieved by corruption in India as any other community They can and should protest accordingly; They need not be part of Anna Hazare's movement for that. Anna Hazare's movement is just one part of the battle against corruption.
However, if saying "Vande Mataram" is against the tenets of Islam (which according to me is a matter of context and interpretation but I leave it at that), then why don't we come up with an Islam compliant slogan, which can also suitably convey the feelings of Indian Muslims for India? This idea is in consonance with the thoughts that I have expressed in the first paragraph and retains the spirit of Indian secularism as to the freedom in identity hierarchy. Rather than imposing a nationality-first ideology, it allows space for Indian Muslims to reconcile any conflicts they may face in pursuing their faith and their nationality.
Bond in the USA...
(With apologies to The Boss)
Got issued in an unwind spree
The first yield I got was when I hit the screen
You end up like a short that's been down too much
Till you spend half your cash just covering up...
Bond in the USA, I was bond in the USA
I was bond in the USA, Bond in the USA...
Got in a little ceiling jam
So they put a downgrade on my band
Sent me off to a foreign land
To go and woo the yellow man
Came back home to Wall Street
Goldie Man said Son if it was up to me
Went down to see my Federal man
He said Son, don't you understand
I had an auction at Hong Kong
Fighting off the Spec Longs
They're still there, that's all gone
It had a bank who bet money a lot
I got the news of its failing just now
Down in the floor of the Assembly
Out by the terminals of the Treasury
I'm ten years maturing down the road
Nowhere to default got nowhere to go
Bond in the USA, I was bond in the USA,
Bond in the USA, I'm a Gone Long Asset in the USA
Bond in the USA, Bond in the USA,
Bond in the USA, I'm a Cool Rocking Asset in the USA...
On Independence Day, 50 Reasons To Be Happy & Hopeful...
1) The soon to happen overtaking of Japan. The 3rd largest economy in the world.
2) The 2011 Cricket World Cup. It was a high. Admit it.
3) The media. Rambunctious. Misguided. But free.
4) Over 700 million mobile connections. India is always calling.
5) The Supreme Court
6) No censorship in Google searches
7) The 1 auto rickshaw driver out of 100 who takes you where you want, cheerfully, at the first attempt
8) Secularism. Imperfect, but existing. Aren't we all?
9) Ads. The HDFC Standard Life Insurance ad. Two fathers, very seriously & positively discussing the futures of their daughters. Alternatively, the SBI ad where two old ladies visit their brother. Always brought tears to my eyes.
10) Food. Was there ever such an amazing variety! Tandoori Chicken, Dosas, Pav Bhaji & Rasgullas, never ends!
11) Festivals. Don't we love them all? The myriad colours, the ceremonies, the celebrations?
12) Nimbu Paani. Nothing's more refreshing
13) CAG
14) Modern Airports. If anyone had told me 10 years back that there would be spas in our departure lounges, I would have died laughing.
15) The Delhi Metro.
16) The Super-strong Family System. With you. For you. Always. (With apologies to Delhi Police)
17) Traditional Weddings. Elaborate. Outsized. Required.
18) Musical Instruments. The mournful strains of the Shehnai, the captivating melody of the Flute, the mellifluous tingling of the Santoor, the rhythmic resonance of the Sitar...Bliss
19) Monsoons. The longing. The oneness.
20) IT. Yes, its something we are good at.
21) Education. And its ethos. So much respect.
22) Historical monuments. Thousands of them. Each one tells a story.
23) The saints and reformers. Who spread the message of equality, peace, compassion and harmony.
24) 845 spoken dialects
25) 0
26) The Armed Forces. Protecting our borders. Keeping peace in far flung foreign lands.
27) Mythology. Every conceivable topic under the sun. So rich, so complex, so mesmerizing.
28) Freedom fighters. So brave. To die for hope, for the unseen.
29) Hill stations. Up above the world so high.
30) Jugaad. Can do. Will figure out.
31) Beaches. Who's to question what the sea-shells say?
32) Movies. The drama. The song & dance routines. The immortal lines.
33) Yoga. The perfect union of mind and body.
34) Classical dances. Far beyond the material plane.
35) Sand dunes in the deserts. Challenging. Inspiring.
36) Literature. Too vast to even begin describing.
37) Election Commission. A 120 crore strong democracy. Not an easy task.
38) ISRO. Don't underestimate all the satellites.
39) Television. 200+ channels. Spoilt for choice.
40) Folk Dances. Bhangda. Laavni. Daandiya. Really get you in the groove.
41) Sportsmen. P Gopichand, Saina Nehwal, Leander Paes, Karnam Malleswari, Rajyavardhan Rathore, Vijender Kumar. Against all odds.
42) Fauna. The majestic tigers. The magnificent elephants. The stunning peacocks. Mind-blowing.
43) Theatre. Powerful narratives. Tell it like it is.
44) RTI. Have you tried it yet?
45) Online transactions. Banking, Ticketing, E-Filing of Returns. So much time saved.
46) Progress in health standards. Live better. Live longer.
47) Demographic dividend. The biggest challenge. The biggest opportunity.
48) Aadhar. It will work.
49) Artists. Singers, Actors, Musicians, Painters. So much talent.
50) Possibility. Its difficult, but its possible. It's India.
Blurred...
I draw on the canvas a form indistinct
The rains lash across; A blur remains
Your tears were your own to cry
No one, you said, had the right to pry
Was I wrong not to wipe them all off?
Was I wrong not to give myself away?
You said you found peace in the darkness
How could I then take you to the light?
Was I wrong to watch you, helpless?
Was I wrong because I was right?
There was & is only nothingness, you say
But that was choice, and also was fate
A cruel pair that held us in its sway
Why does hope now make you shy away?
I stand inert, the blankness is the same
How blurred my canvas, how empty my frame...
Mumbai's Auto Waalas - Cheats, Thieves, Blackmailers and Robbers...
There was a period of time when auto rickshaw drivers in Mumbai were very professional and ethical people (Yes I have experienced it!!!)
Over the years, and since the last one year in particular, when the fares were increased by 30% in June 2010, they have become far ruder, lazier and more unethical on an average. Almost all meters are manipulated to the extent of at least 10%-15%.
Hailing an auto has become a nightmare for most of us. These people simply do not want to go anywhere. The problem post the fare increase is that they are able to make a living with fewer trips and hence do not give a damn about where commuters want to go since they manage to find enough people anyway.Traffic policemen are too busy harassing hapless commuters to fulfill their official and unofficial fine collection targets, to be disciplining them.
They have no civic or traffic sense. They spit all over the place, have no lane or signal discipline and park where they please.
One of the worst places to hail an auto from is the Airport. It is a complete nightmare. I start dreading that part of it months before I am taking any flight.
Now they have a list of demands: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/Transport-chief-meets-auto-union-over-demands/articleshow/9401613.cms
Firstly, even if they go on strike, I don't think it will affect too many of us. We don't get an auto most of the time anyway.
Secondly, why should they be allowed in the city limits? Aren't the suburbs a shining example of how bad things become with them? The modicum of sanity that prevails in the city will be lost. Imagine places like Marine Drive with autos crawling all over it. Ugly.
Thirdly, just a year back fares were increased by 30% without any increase in fuel prices. What cost of living index are they talking about? Its just plain greed because they think they can make more money.
Fourthly, what do the commuters get in return even if the demands are agreed to? Things will only become worse. With the additional city area for them to ply in, they will only agree for long distances, the way taxis do now. It will be a nightmare.
Fifthly, what assurance can they give about their rude behaviour and refusals to ply? None. They are just out to make a fast buck. And they are increasingly trying to bias it in their favour and make it worse.
I think refusing a commuter should be made a non-bailable criminal offence. Then there may be some deterrent. Let that be a counter demand from the commuters' side.
I wonder how stupid those one lakh people who signed on the petition supporting the auto drivers are. They don't realise they have signed their own death warrant. Forgive them Father, for they know not what they do.
The problem is that their demands will be met in some form, increasing the horrors for most of us. If there was a strong Commuter's Union, it could co-ordinate effectively and make sure that commuters grievances were taken into account. We are too scattered and disenfranchised for that. In that kind of a situation, we can't depend on the system to take care. We have to fall back on the old maxim of jugaad.
Aaj mainay kuch pannay paltay
Kuch yaadein jholi mein bikhar gayi
Yaadein jo beetay kal ki umeedein thi
Yaadein jinki ab umeed hai nahi
Kitna kuch tha tab jo ab nahi hai
Kitna kuch nahi tha tab jo ab hai
Kuch qaid hai lekin pannon mein ab bhi
Jo mujh say wohi sawaal poochta hai
Aakhir yoon na hota to kaisa hota?
Fir un pannon ka aakar kaisa hota?
Lekin umeed pannon ki fitrat mein nahi
Fir pannon ko kya kosna, palatna kya
Umeed to kal par aaj ki parchhai hai
Woh kal to apni marzi se hi aayega
Us kal se hi to umeedein saji hain
Us kal se hi to naye pannay banengay...
Bollywood has long been derided for producing and promoting escapist cinema. The antics of lead characters, action sequences, song and dance routines, melodramatic finales and the underdog triumphing against all odds - these were the hallmark of Bollywood films for a long time. For an economy which operated under an autarkic, insular mentality for nearly 5 decades after Independence, cinema, apart from cricket, was the one ray of light. It provided much needed succour to the ordinary Indian, buried under corruption, scarcity and underdevelopment.
This was Escapism 1.0 - the escapism of a country that wasn't quite sure where it stood, the escapism of a country which had so much of reality in reality that it desired no more in cinema (In many ways, Dabangg last year was a tribute to Escapism 1.0, while Bollywood Calling was one of the most masterful depictions of it)
With time, film-making has changed and evolved (evolution is not necessarily a positive term by the way - it is just a fact). One can suppose that a near-total consensus exists that on an average, the films being made now are more realistic than before. The use of the word realistic however, is open to interpretation and highly subjective. Delhi Belly is realistic (arguably) in many elements such as the conversational styles between characters, their professions, living standards and so on. But is it more realistic in the core plot? How many of us are expecting to be the target of a diamond-smuggling gang tonight? What then is "realistic" cinema? A truly realistic film based on the lives of many of us would show the lead character working from say 9 AM to 7 PM every weekday, going home, facing hordes of insurmountable traffic on the way, watching TV, going out on weekends and so on. It sounds mad when put that way, but that is what our reality is! In that sense, Delhi Bellhy definitely is not "realistic" cinema. In fact, no movie would then come under that category.
Reality is routine. Reality is continuous. Reality is boring unless we are constantly engaged in processes that stimulate us and we take up tasks that we enjoy doing. And that simply is not possible most of the time. In fact more many of us, its the exception rather than the rule.
With time India has changed and is changing. I can't claim to be an expert on it, but I can feel it everywhere. Surveys now highlight how brand conscious Indians have become, vis-a-vis surveys 10 years back which used to harp on how value conscious Indian consumers were. Indians have become richer on an average and are spending more. We are more conscious of what's happening in the world and are more confident about ourselves. Growth has changed India.
At the same time, growth has not been uniform. I remember an article in my English textbook, which had the following line about India: "India is like a snake, with its head in the 21st century and its tail in the 17th century" The same holds true today. In particular, while many people have become richer than before, institutional and infrastructural growth has not kept pace. That is why the same city where a bungalow is sold for 270 crores has its phone lines jammed after a bomb blast.
This leave many of us confused and irritated. Many of us now earn well, work hard and party harder. But the eyesores do not go away. We yearn for a controlled atmosphere, a system. We yearn for someone to take these irritants and drags of traffic, slums, bomb blasts and pesky auto rickshaw drivers away. If done, it would leave us free to concentrate on our core ambitions. Its no longer about having a secure job and getting Munni married. It's all about dreams, ambitions and personal fulfilment now. We are still bored in our daily lives. We crave for exaltation of a different kind. We desire a system in which we are free to pursue what we want, without encumbrances.
Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara exemplifies this. Everything is very nice, almost utopic. There are no murders, robberies or safety problems. Everyone is reasonably to very well-to-do. It's a film which not only sells well-toned bodies, captivating poetry and breathtaking locales; it also sells a controlled atmosphere.
Taking all the drags out of the picture leaves the films of today to focus on what perhaps many of us today want to see - smart dialogues and punch lines, good performances, interplay between characters, emotions, personal struggles and how they are ovecome. Its not about sacrificing oneself for the country or saving the world. The focus is on individuals. Its more about self-actualization for the confused soul. We have the physiological basics in place. Or rather, the "we seem to have everything, but something's missing" mentality. Cinema now depicts people finding that missing piece.
Welcome, then, to Escapism 2.0!
Tears of joy. For the absolute good. The good not asked for or striven for. The good that just is.
Tears of rage. For violations. Transgressions. The subservience of morality to indulgence.
Tears of fear. For hunger not satiated. For protection not available. For vulnerability.
Tears of innocence. For purity to be nurtured. For it to not get ravaged.
Tears of grief. For the mockingbird not saved. For possibility denied. For the choice that couldn't be.
Tears of reason. For the willful neglect of logic. By family. Friends. Colleagues. Strangers.
Tears of loneliness. For emptiness. For the mind tethered and left by itself.
Tears of hope. For that which may. For the slim chance. For the ray of light.
Tears of fulfillment. When the outcome long foreseen happens. When the illusion of control is foregone. When peace is attained.
The body of Shelock Holmes' literature created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, is replete with a rich assortment of quotable quotes. Though they occur in the context of his narratives of Holmes as an investigator, they are applicable to all walks of life. I find that a lot of them apply to business management and financial markets. Below are some of my favourites:
1) "...when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth..."
This is one of the recurring statements; It is mentioned in multiple stories with slight variations. Simple as it sounds, it's one of the cornerstones of any logical analysis.
2) "It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts."
We all do this so many times. We have our own views, hypotheses, prejudices and biases. Once those are framed, we obstinately cling to them even when the evidence suggests otherwise. Many financial market traders make this mistake in particular.
3) "You see, but you do not observe. The distinction is clear"
4) "There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact."
This happens in financial markets all the time. When everyone "knows" something and takes it for granted, the markets end up moving the other way!!!
5) "The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observes."
6) "It is of the highest importance in the art of detection to be able to recognize, out of a number of facts, which are incidental and which vital. Otherwise your energy and attention must be dissipated instead of being concentrated."
80/20 at its best. Humans tend to use inductive rationality to make decisions for the future, which is necessary. They cannot process all the information that is available, nor is it necessary. Merely processing additional information does not add to the quality of the decision that gets taken.
7) "We balance probabilities and choose the most likely. It is the scientific use of the imagination."
This is THE requirement of decision making. It is a mistake to construct only one scenario as a possible future outcome. There are multiple scenarios possible, each with differing probabilities.Construct, and then choose.
8) "It is impossible as I state it, and therefore I must in some respect have stated it wrong."
Many a times I have noticed, seemingly, one arrives at the same view or possible outcome, even in differing scenarios. For example, if inflation is higher, equities will react negatively, so buy USD-INR. If inflation is lower, interest rate differentials will narrow, so buy USD-INR. Clearly, we are missing out on what factors are really driving USD-INR.
9) "Education never ends Watson. It is a series of lessons with the greatest for the last."
Truly instructive on how important continual learning is!
10) "We must look for consistency. Where there is a want of it we must suspect deception."
While forming views, often people become subservient to it and try to manipulate opinions accordingly.There has to be consistency in what assumptions one makes. Assumptions are made in two areas: 1) What will happen, and 2) What will be its effect. We may mistakes in either or both at times.
11) "The more outré and grotesque an incident is the more carefully it deserves to be examined, and the very point which appears to complicate a case is, when duly considered and scientifically handled, the one which is most likely to elucidate it."
Beauty of a statement. Many a times we observe that market movements are contrary to the kind of correlations which we expect. Further examination and thought reveals that they actually make complete sense.
12) "I cannot agree with those who rank modesty among the virtues. To the logician all things should be seen exactly as they are, and to underestimate one's self is as much a departure from truth as to exaggerate one's own powers."
You may not understand my bad habits. Understand the good ones.
You may not understand the times when I was not there. Understand the times when I was.
You may not understand the times I did not praise. Understand the times when I did not criticize.
You may not understand what I spoke. Understand what I left unspoken.
You may not understand why I didn't do what you told me to. Understand why I did what you did not tell me to.
You may not understand the lies I spread. Understand the truth I hid.
You may not understand my dreams. Understand my passion for them.
You may not understand what I am thinking. Understand what I am feeling.
You may not understand how important I am to you. Understand how important you are to me.
You may not understand me. Understand yourself.
In what is being dubbed as the first ever transaction of its kind, Al-Qaeda, the world's leading discretionary terror dissemination MNC, has decided to raise funds for expanding its activities through an IPO.
A spokesman for Al-Qaeda said "We believe investors worldwide are looking for newer avenues to put money in. We believe we have the right fundamentalists to attract investments. In the long term, we aim to be present across all components of the terror value chain, with best in class services. People are our biggest assets, with most of them being current assets"
Dim O'Meal, Head of Research of Goldie Gold Investment Bank, has a bullish view on the stock. "Our proprietary Stockwise Holistically Integrated Technicals (S.H.I.T) model suggests that the stock is a good defensive play to hedge downside risks for investors. The stock acts as a leading indicator of downturns in economic activity, for obvious reasons"
Chiina has already expressed support for the IPO. "It is a natural hedge for us to diversify out of our huge base of worthless US dollars. Between monetary terrorism and people terrorism, we have always preferred the latter"
Al-Qaeda is also considering issuing a convertible bond. The spokesman remarked "The structure of the convertible bond is quite simple. At the end of the maturity period, the investor either converts or gets redeemed..."
First Salaries...
I see a lot of fresh, enthusiastic minds from the 2011 batch of XLRI putting up status updates on Facebook about the ecstasies and raptures of them receiving their first salaries.
It's a powerful, heady feeling. The ultimate coming of age event. A voice rings withing you saying "Hereupon, I cease to be a dependant monetarily. Henceforth, I take responsibility for fulfilling my needs and those of others connected with me, whether now or in future"
I recollect Mr Narayan Murthy's statement in a TV show: "Money bestows upon you tremendous power. The power to give"
No no, don't get me wrong, I am not advocating donating it all to charity or something (though a small percentage towards that end will certainly not be harmful!)
But there's still a lot that could be done.
The classical Hindi film hero would get a sari for his Mom after 25 years of her wearing the same sari.
Or if you are Salman Khan, you would slug it out with Mohnish Behl and his baddies in rain and slush before you could take the money home to convince your beloved's father to let her marry you.
One time-tested technique is to remember all those who really, really matter to you and who made a difference to your life. There must be at least some of those. You could get something for them. Nice, thoughtful and personalized.
Like that beautiful song from the movie Papa Kahte Hain: "Yeh jo thode se hain paise; Kharch tum par karun kaise..."
Or that touching lesson in the old Hindi textbook about a little boy who works hard to buy a pair of pincers for his mother so that she doesn't have to pick up the rotis from the hot stove by hand.
Particularly when buying for elders, what works well is identifying something that you believe they need, but which they will never in a million years buy for themselves. I had bought a cellphone for my grandmother with my first salary. She looked at me, with all the accumulated unease of 77 years and said "Beta, what will I do with this?" I could only smile in reply. Happily, she's used it quite regularly since then.
Those People...
There are those people.
Why do you have to struggle so much with them at times? Why don't they understand your silence?
Why do they forget the times when you pandered to their whims? Why don't they understand what's important to you and let you make mistakes accordingly?
Why are they so binding? Why can't they trust your intentions and set you free? Why is there a need to prove your loyalty every time?
Why do they tell you that there's a problem and then not tell you what it is? Why do they want to watch you helplessly seeing them wither away?
Yep, there are those people...
MGRP takes cue from Bipasha Basu, to launch instructional video on goondaism...
An old post which didn't get posted; I had actually submitted it to a well known site which publishes such news; It got rejected by them as they felt they had published too many articles on the same theme already. A conversation with a friend reminded me of it today and I thought what the heck - why not post it now!!!
MGRP takes cue from Bipasha Basu, to launch instructional video on goondaism
After Bipasha Basu launched her sensational new video on fitness and exercise, the Maharashtra Goonda Raj Party is all set to launch its own instructional video on its core competency – goondaism.
An MGRP spokesman, who wished to remain unnamed, confirmed that the project was already underway and would soon be completed pending Supremo approval. Though the title is not finalised, our analysts expected it to be named “Mee, Mumbai Darr” (I, Mumbai Get Scared)
The publicity for the video is to be carried out through word-of-mouth on YourTube & FaeceBook as well as outdoor billboards. The concept draft for the campaign depicts a moustached man in a saffron kurta-pyjama with the tagline “Gheun Taak” (Roughly translated as “Take’em Apart”).
Though they remained tight-lipped about the content, our sources suggest that it will have a comprehensive coverage of goondaism in Maharashtra, with live demonstrations by an assortment of subject matter experts. Among other things, the video is expected to have sections on vandalism in cinema halls, road blockages, issuing threats to celebrities & shutting down offices. Special sections will include disruption of Valentine’s Day celebrations & intimidation of migrants.
Rahul Mahajan and Rakhi Savant have been roped in as Brand Ambassadors. Ramesh Todmarodkar, the publicity manager for the video, said “Rahul & Rakhi represent a young, vibrant & spunky Maharashtra, which inspite of facing deep-rooted issues and problems, is able to came out on top eventually.” The trailer for the video will depict Rahul & Rakhi slapping a Bihari auto-rickshaw driver for not speaking in Marathi & forcibly getting a romancing couple married.
A senior MGRP functionary said “The video shall take our ideology and physiology to the masses. It was a long cherished dream of Saaheb to ensure the spread of our philosophy to the common man. The dream is finally becoming a reality.”
So, mark the date in your calendar – “Mee, Mumbai Darr” releases, Feb 14th, 2010...
Mumbai Minute
He stared at the shattered headlight and the bus driver in front. As he started to get out of the car, she placed a restraining hand on his shoulder "Honey, please..."
He glanced at the urchin with sympathetic disdain "Boss, yeh fusht class hai. Pecial dabba hai.Niklo nahi to police pakadega..."
Chhotu was running along with the car barely holding on to the fast closing window shouting "Saahab, ek to lelo..."
The fruit seller was pleading "Mhaaster, ye baar chhod do.Ghar pe bachha bimaar hai"
"Haay haay kya jodi hai re. Raju ko dekho, ekdum saarukh khan dikhta hai. Itna chikna hai. De na! Arre kuch to de na!" The couple got embarassed and started to walk furiously...
The old gentleman was pushing past everyone on the narrow footpath. An irate young man retorted "Unkil! Kya karta hai?" The gent replied "Kya karun beta, humaara company mein seth log bahut shtreek hai..."
"Andheri east?" "Gas nahi hai miyaan. Gaadi dene ka bhi time hogaya hai" the driver said, moving the cab forward. Another passenger got into it.
Loud music blared from the speakers surrounding the huge idol on the truck, as men with saffron headbands danced around it. "Sanskruticha paalan karaavay laagtay"they told the protesting motorists...
"License jama karna padega. 15 din lagega. Aur 500 rupaye ka phaain. Abi bolo kya karneka hai?" The cop told him, looking at the 100 rupee note he was clasping nervously...
"Main bolta hain na teko,public ko akal nahi hai gaadi chalaaneka" he said, as he lowered the window and spat outside.
"Aai, baba kashaala oradtaat? Hi ghaanerdi vaas kashaachi?" she asked, as her mother held her tightly, suppressing her tears. He continued his slurred profanities.
The ambulance's siren was blaring behind her. She looked desperately for space around to give way to it but there was none.
"Dhakka kyun deta hai? Pehli baar train mein jaa raha hai kya?" He fumed on the school student behind him, who stared meekly.
"I will give you a sea facing flat." The broker grinned, displaying a line of betel-stained teeth. "Sea-facing? In Borivali?" "Yes, just wait for the rains..."
Pursuing passions...
I don't know if its just me. Perhaps, as usual, I am thinking too much. But the more I discuss and interact with people particularly in my age group, I am convinced that life crises are likely to occur amongst people much sooner these days. And its not easy to understand why, because when measured on traditional yardsticks, nothing really seems wrong.
The generation of our parents was truly a transformational generation. When they were our age, they did not inherit a comfortable support system. There was little time to think about job satisfaction and career progression. There were several priorities which demanded their time and attention. They had to set up things from scratch. They focused on having a steady job, a steady income, a decent place to live, education for kids, so on and so forth ad infinitum. With assiduous efforts, at the end of a period of 25-30 years, they were able to build a self-sustaining system. That system is what our generation has inherited.
Many of us started out with our first jobs knowing that they were an extra, an indulgence in the sense that there was no pressure on us to support the family. Yet somehow, our inherited values and the education system juxtaposed in a way which has ensured that we are still continuing to look at careers with the same scarcity mentality & steady income approach with which our parents used to. In their case, it was a necessity, and hats off to them for all their hard work. For many of us though, this was not the case. Yet, we have continued to value those sort of careers and degrees where cash flows are seen as most regular, instead of focusing on those possible avenues which we would enjoy pursuing and perform best in.
I am not saying that we are all doing things we hate doing. Many of us are probably fine with the things that we are pursuing. We may be good at them too. But are they tasks which we really enjoy? Have we made enough efforts to even understand what it is that excites and motivates us the most? I don't think so. Many of us have ended up where we have much the way the "case default" mode works in computer programming languages. Unless one takes the trouble of actively evaluating and then zeroing in on what he/she truly wants to do, one will end up doing what everyone does "by default". So, at different points of time, as the "defaults" kept changing - government service, medicine, engineering, IT, management; so did our career choices.
With the result that many people today are simply stuck in a rut. They are all doing things, one step to the next. The next promotion, the next "right" job switch, the marriage. Ticking off things on a checklist which they haven't made themselves, but which is the default template available in God's version of Word. No one is customizing the checklist.
Most of us know that we are stuck, with varying degrees of awareness. We acknowledge it. We even recognize what steps are needed to break away. And yet we are unable to proceed. One doesn't need to compulsorily make sudden disruptive changes and go hungry and foolish overnight. Some steps in the right direction over a period of time can definitely help in achieving a satisfactory equilibrium. The problem is we focus too much on the end result and too little on the process. It is like the man who loses his ring in a dark corner of the road but searches for it under the streetlight, because thats easier to do. The man forgets that he's far better off searching for it in the darkness where there's at least some chance of him finding it. We make the same mistakes. We stick to the comfort of a known path which we know has no chance of taking us to our destination, instead of the unknown path which has some chances.
I find it difficult to believe that one can be content with defining goals solely in terms of milestones and destinations. Goals must also include the processes. They must include what will transpire between the milestones. The journey. If life has to be lived through, surely thinking only of milestones is not enough because they will comprise less than 1% of the time that we spend. More than 99% of our time will be the things we do. In fact the most powerful way of goal setting is to let the milestone get derived as a logical consequence of the journey. Don't say you want to be the most famous actor in the world. Say that you love acting and really enjoy it and are passionate about it. Then say that you would be happy if in the process of acting, you end up becoming a famous actor. It's much more powerful when you state it in this manner, because your happiness is tied to the process of you acting and is not contingent on and limited to the moment when you become a famous actor.
Of course its difficult. Recognizing what one wants to do is not easy. But one needs to keep trying. I remember a course on personality development I had undertaken long back. The trainer told us a simple technique to try and identify our passions in life. He said: ponder, reflect and think - What is the one thing which you are prepared to do all your life, even if you don't get paid, even if other people don't take any interest in it? That's your passion. The desire to pursue it stays no matter how many the hardships. Its the thing you always manage to find time for. The thing you have energy to pursue at the fag end of a tiring day when you think you would drop off to sleep any moment, but you still end up doing.
It needs dedication and sustained efforts to achieve any sort of results. Breaking the inertia is very difficult. But if not done, it is certain that a time will come when one way or the other you are forced to drop everything and wonder what you are doing in life. Let that not be a forced outcome. Let it be a conscious choice.
Beggars Are Also Choosers...
Life''s little moments never cease to amaze me in their capacity to remind and instruct. What follows is a tale of three beggars with whom I interacted today.
As is my wont these days, I left from my office just after 5 PM. My cab stopped at the CST signal. Several times, an old lady is present there (the same old lady mentioned in my previous note), seeking alms from those willing to give.
I have developed a habit of carrying some small packets of Parle G biscuits. I prefer to give those to anyone on the streets in need, whom I encounter. I have come across the CST lady quite a few times earlier as well. Since she doesn't have fingers, I usually tear the packet and give it to her. I did the same today, and the lady was simply delighted. A smile of sublime radiance spread across her face and she exclaimed "Thanks! Thanks! I will have this with tea" I noted with great satisfaction how the lady chose to gracefully accept and be happy with what came her way. That is the kind of choice even a beggar can exercise.
The next beggar I encountered was at the National College signal in Bandra. Another old lady. She was scanning the vehicles and their passengers, looking for open windows. All of a sudden she caught my eye, and started moving towards my cab. I took out a packet and gave it to her. She took it, observed it for a moment, placed it on the window and walked away.
For a fleeting moment - the kind of moment which feels much longer than would be measured by a watch - I was shocked. A beggar refused what came her way. How can a beggar refuse? But then it dawned upon me that that was the whole point - even if beggars can't choose what comes their way, they can choose whether to accept or reject what does come.
Which brings me to the third beggar. Myself. Wasn't I also a beggar? Wasn't I begging for the intoxication of giving, the heady realization of being placed in a position to help others in need? Once I realized that, I knew what I had to do with the packet. I opened it, and ate all the biscuits.
It was my arrogance which sought to make me humble. I accepted what even the rejected had rejected. Purely symbolic, no doubt. But a reminder that not only are all beggars choosers, but that all choosers are also beggars...
A decision
A decision is not that which is simple. Its not the shirt you choose to wear to work. Its not the packet of biscuits you hand over to the old desitute lady at the CST signal.
A decision is the one that rips your innards part. It is what leaves you with sleepless nights, as your mind gives form to the outcomes of various choices, conjuring up multiple scenarios with amazing alacrity. You reach out to those forms but they fade away like wisps of smoke.
A decision is that which makes you give up what you are for what you think you can be. That's why its so damn difficult. You have to choose a possibility over an existing state. And the possibility is your expectation of it. It's not a given. You stand naked before your judgment.
A decision is between multiple rights. Multiple points of view. There is a lot of chatter, a lot of noise. You have to cut out the noise, and synchronize with the tune playing in your mind. Let it play. Louder and louder.
A decision is that which confuses you. Between what you want should happen, and what you think will happen.
A decision has serious stakes. Dead earnest, serious, stakes. It's consequences are hard-coded. There is no undo.
A decision does not always make you happy or sad. It's always grey. There are always mixed feelings.
A decision is always taken under incomplete information. With complete information, there is no need for a decision. You have to connect the dots. Fill in the blanks. It will always make you wonder if you have missed out on something. That typical feeling when you leave home, wondering if there's something you forgot to carry along.
A decision is not always between choices that you want. It is between the choices that you have. Or perceive that you have.
A decision is not deterministic. There are no answers at the back of the textbook. There can't be an answer, because there never was a question.
A decision cannot be taken by a machine. Because it involves constructing visions.
A decision, is what makes you human...
Star Wars & Different Professions
A rehash of the immortal "May the Force be with you" line from Star Wars, applied to various professions. With apologies to Messrs Kanobi, Yoda & Skywalker
May the Course be with you
Valuations / Accounting / Risk Management
May the Close be with you
Equity Investors
May the Bourse be with you
Interbank Traders
May the Flows be with you
Buyers (of anything)
May the Lows be with you
May the Bows be with you
May the Dose be with you
May the Hose be with you
Music Aficionado
May the Bose be with you
May the Hoes be with you
May the Foes be with you
ENT Specialists
May the Nose be with you
May the Pose be with you
May the Rose be with you
Pedicurists
May the Toes be with you
May the Woes be with you
Cricketers, Adopt a Sport...
I admire the Indian cricket team for winning the 2011 World Cup. They managed to make even stubborn cricket recluses like me sit for over 8 hours after many many years, during the final. Justifiably, the entire nation is eager to shower its praise and appreciation on them. We already have had announcements of several crores of rupees by various corporations, governments, sports bodies and so on being awarded to them.
Of course, many people will feel that it's too much and is unjustified. I don't believe its unjustified as such, but I do think cricket's share of the pie is disproportionately large. And that has been the case for a long time. Even as a child I remember reading essays, articles and debates on this topic.
It's a typical problem that happens in many areas. The popular thing keeps on increasing in popularity while the others languish. I have observed this, for example, in search engines. The more popular a page is, the more chances it gets shown in search results. This further increases its popularity and its chances, and so on.
If India has to truly develop sports and become a great sporting nation, other sports need to enter this virtuous cycle of popularity. There are many issues with that, but I think cricketers themselves can take a solid step in this regard. They are very well known, and have tremendous visibility as well as resources. Think about it - Sachin Tendulkar promoting badminton, Dhoni endorsing archery, Yuvraj pitching for football. If they can sell shampoos and hair oils, they can definitely sell sports. In any family, the weaker ones need support till they can stand on their own. Cricket can support the rest of the sports.
This is not going to work as a one off thing (I vaguely remember that some cricketers had appeared in ads for the PHL but can't recollect anything after that) It needs concerted efforts over a period of time. Perhaps every Indian cricket team player can be asked to contribute a certain number of hours towards the development of a sport of his choice. The respective sports associations for each sport can have one cricketer as a brand ambassador for that sport. Given the amount of money that cricketers make, I don't think its too much to ask for. And it might actually work!
I, like many Indians and Pakistanis, am looking forward to a great match tomorrow. May the best team win. May we avoid the cynicism of match fixing and staged excitement. May we all indulge in healthy banter which befits a sporting rivalry that goes much beyond cricket.
Most of all, may we not stop with the game tomorrow.
May we remember that India is facing a country tomorrow that is being roiled by violence and anarchic incidents and is in real danger of becoming a failed state. May we remember that on certain indicators, India doesn't seem too far either.
(Those who wish to refresh their memory can take a look here: http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/countries/pakistan/database/majorincidents.htm)
May we realise that ultimately India will not prosper unless Pakistan is stable.
It is not about Aman ki Asha and cross-border bonding. We may not love, but let us not hate.
I remember as a child, listening to the quarrels that would take place in a neighbour's house. The screams, the sounds of glass breaking. Ugly. And terrifying. No family can be completely happy if its neighbours are not peaceful.
I refuse to believe that the common Pakistani seeks violence and terrorism. I believe most of them desire a stable livelihood, freedom, justice and equality. The principles are common everywhere.But the greatest dangers come from within.
May we remember that the real match is not India versus Pakistan. It is India & Pakistan versus India & Pakistan...
The Princess & The Servant
"Be off, thou vagabond; See no one the Princess shall"
The Guard thundered; The Servant humbly bowed
"O mighty warrior; Meet her if I could but once;
Though sadden her heart beyond reckoning it will;
For painful tidings I bring to her this hour
Of him who was the breath of her life"
"Thou shall meet her then, for a minute or two
But not a moment longer, for I detest thy looks"
Saying so, the Guard threw open the door
The Servant stepped forth & gazed in horror
Sorrow abounded in the closed chamber
With the figure motionless seated in the centre
She turned at the sound of the door
"Is it ye, my faithful, my ardent, my incorruptible?
Long gone ye were, what news do ye bring?"
"Shower not such commendations, Princess
On this minion unworthy and inept
Set out I hath with thy message in hand
Alas, for fate seeps like hourglass and sand
Thy precious message I could deliver not
It transpired what Providence hath wrought"
The Princess rose, her face deathly pale
"I am but a canoe, cast by the gale
I knew it would transpire, but was in disbelief
Thy tiding now musters a morbid relief"
"Ah Princess, not kindness; thy cruelty I seek
Am I condemned to be pardoned by thee?"
"Grieve not O lackey; Rejoice we may yet
Tell me about him for whom my heart wept"
"His glory blinded the eye, O Princess
As he stepped forth to claim his bride
All the folk present stood in awe of him
His nobility shone through each stride"
"Speak ye now, about her that left me lorn
The one whose unfeeling finger his ring now adorns"
"Seek thy forgiveness, I do, O Princess
For in falsehood I may not dwell
Words will do her scarce justice
For her beauty is beyond compare
The sight of her purifies the wickedest
So many have narrated oft in legend"
"Fie, for now ye have saddened my heart
Is there no redemption, no promise of a start?
Must I look ahead into mere nothingness
Will I not feel once more his sweet caress?"
Saying so, the Princess covered her face
Her mourning could not pierce her gaze
The Servant watched with fists tight
He called out to her with all his might
"Thy despair I cannot bear; I jest no more
Look now Princess, who stands at your door"
At this the Servant stood, and removed his mask
And lo! the Prince was revealed standing at last!
We were meant to journey together
Hand in hand, the apple of my eye
You said you were always by my side
While I tried to pluck the clouds from the sky
Hush, why has your look now changed
Did their insolent touch rob your innocence?
No don't give me that seductive smile
Bear it I cannot; Nor that look of cunning
I was dancing to the tune that you were playing
Was I wrong to think it held everything?
You were the one with me night and day
Why do I get up and fight you everyday?
I sought comfort in your embrace
Now I shudder at your angry gaze
For I am nowhere, a seed not sown
Will you not awaken and call me your own?
GMD Redux!
I decided that I am bored of the "Gaaon Mein Sabun" line from GMD.
Also, its partial to the people working in the FMCG sector.
So I though of a few alternatives:
Tier 2 Consultant: Sunday ko ppt bana raha hai, jhooth hai uska hasna
Corporate Finance: Documentation sambhaal raha hai, jhooth hai uska hasna
Corporate Banking: SME appraisal kar raha hai, jhooth hai uska hasna
Risk Management: Arbit model bana raha hai, jhooth hai uska hasna
Bank Treasury Sales: Client ke peechhe pada hua hai, jhooth hai uska hasna
Mutual Fund Sales: Client ke double peechhe pada hua hai, jhooth hai uska hasna
Business Analyst: Google pe search maar raha hai, jhooth hai uska hasna
IT Consultant: Design nahi coding kar raha hai, jhooth hai uska hasna
Executive Assistant: Secretary ka kaam kar raha hai, jhooth hai uska hasna
Conglomerate: Yahaan se wahaan toss ho raha hai, jhooth hai uska hasna
Equity Research: Faaltu ke view de raha hai, jhooth hai uska hasna
Financial Markets Trader: Andhere mein teer maar raha hai, jhooth hai uska hasna
HR: Baithke frax maar raha hai, sach hai uska hasna...
I wait for thee, my beloved
With longing unrestrained
The darkness grows beyond bearing
I yearn for thy sweet embrace
When thy cold lips kiss my forehead
Alone shall I know peace
Delay no longer, I beseech thee
For now regret I have none
A moment if allowed to escape
Will snatch the rays of the sun
'Tis an irony, a jest I hate
That men control naught of fate
The one holding must let go
And the one letting go holds
So I seek thee, my darling
Release me from this void
This ordeal, this abject surrender
This continuum of consciousness
My tired eyes can bear no more
Arise, I pray & liberate me...
Valentine's Day...
"Where are you off to?" He asked.
"Umm...No where in particular, Dada. Just going to meet a friend" She replied
"What's her name? Where does she stay?"
"She stays close by. Near New Market."
"Come back soon. I told you I don't want you loitering outside today. It's a big day for our party. Workers will be active all over the state. I don't want you to get hurt"
"What nonsense. I will just tell them my brother works for the Party. Then they won't harm me right?"
"Aarti, you know very well that a mob doesn't listen"
"Dada, I really don't agree with what you all are doing anyway. What's the problem with celebrating the day? It's just one more occasion for happiness. A day to express your love for everyone. Not just the boyfriend-girlfriend thing"
"It's not in our culture Aarti. People just take the name of that Christian saint and use it to corrupt the youth. Have you read up on the history of this day? Do you know what things people do under the garb of celebrating? So many innocent girls get trapped. We have to end this nonsense once and for all. At whatever cost."
"Ohh, so spreading love is not in our culture, but beating people and molesting women is? I don't agree, Dada. You want to know where I am going? I am going to get a present for my Valentine"
"Aarti! How dare you? I will skin you alive? Who's that b------?"
"What language! That too in front of your younger sister? He's a guy I have known and loved since childhood. And I won't let you stop me"
"Aarti, stop I say!"
He ran after her but she was too fast for him.
"Just you come back, girl. I wont leave you alive"
He came back into the room and plonked himself on the sofa.
The hours passed. He was getting updates practically every minute on the news channels.
"In Mangalore today, some girls and boys partying in a pub..."
"...and then were made to tie rakhis despite protesting their innocence"
"...Commissioner has assured that law and order will be upheld..."
"Women must learn to behave decently in public..."
"....against our culture..."
"...being ruined by westernization"
"...is used as a guise for conversions..."
Suddenly, while flipping, one of the channels caught his attention. He quickly switched back to that channel.
"In a shocking incident, a young girl was set on fire by an angry mob allegedly belonging to the --- in Amravati. The party is known to be amongst the most virulent protesters against..."
He switched off the TV and dialled a number. No response.
"Ho, Saaheb. Mee TV var baghitlo. Ti mulgi Goverment hospital madhe aahe. Mee baghun yeto" (Yes Sir, I saw in on TV. The girl is in the Government hospital. I will go and check). He hurried outside.
Beads of cold sweat were forming on his forehead as he headed near the ICU of the hospital. A ward boy tried to stop him, but he brushed him aside.
His mind had not prepared for the sight beyond. A burnt figure, swathed in bandages lay on the bed. The figure looked at him with a questioning glance. There as a gleam of recognition in it's eyes. Murmuring something which he didn't hear, the figure breathed its last.
His fingers were trembling. He saw a charred paper in the corpse's hands and pulled it out. It was a greeting card. On it was written
"My sweetest Dada,
I dedicate this day to you, my Valentine, the person I admire and love the most. The world is too small and life is too short for us to spread hatred and violence. Let us all learn to live in peace and harmony.
Your loving sister,
Aarti"
The ward boy was knocking frantically on the superintendent's door.
"Sir, please come outside; There's a man in the ICU who's not responding at all. He's just sitting still like a stone..."
Outside, cries of victory could be heard
"Videshi tyohaar baaher kara, Maharashtrechi laaj vaachva" (Discard foreign festivals, preserve Maharashtra's modesty)
"Jai Maharashtra!"
Creaking News: KingFissure to use Gobar Gas, Ethan...
On Independence Day, 50 Reasons To Be Happy & Hope...
MGRP takes cue from Bipasha Basu, to launch instru...
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IT&Software
World Media
Which Note 9 color do you like best?
by Randall Martin
in IT&Software
— Aug 15, 2018
Feras bin Abdullah Al Sheikh, Director of Consumer Sales at Ooredoo said, "The new Samsung Galaxy Note 9 comes with great features and together with our Shahry plans, customers will be able to enjoy the internet more than ever".
All modern mobile devices, including new support for memory cards with a capacity up to 2 TB, however, to meet these in the sale not possible, because no one manufacturer has failed to create them.
Koh added the Galaxy Note 9 will sell better than the Galaxy Note 8 as well on the back of its top-notch specifications, including the improved stylus.
People rely on their smartphones for nearly everything they do - all-day, every day.
More news: Akshay Kumar's Film Reviewed By Virender Sehwag: 'Sold On Gold'
To do this, simply fill out the ODR 50 € to the following address after you have bought your Samsung Galaxy A7 (2017) at Rue du commerce, just here. Samsung is packing 6GB of RAM with 128GB of storage or 8GB of RAM and 512GB of storage inside the Galaxy Note 9, which really makes it a spec powerhouse, especially with the Snapdragon 845 chipset inside.
But only time will tell if the CEO's expectations are justified or if users are losing interest in the Note-series or in the premium smartphone segment in general. Oreo stands out like a sore thumb on such a high-end phone, and in all likelihood, the Note 9 won't get Pie until after the Galaxy S10, more than six months from now.
App developers will also have the ability to integrate the S Pen's functionality into their apps. The best part? Samsung hasn't raised the price for the base model compared to the Galaxy Note 8, making it an excellent deal for everything the phone offers.
Samsung's new smartphone illustrates the limits of innovation at a time when hardware advances have slowed. With Auto Scene Recognition, it can detect up to twenty unique scenes and automatically optimize the photo, depending on the conditions. The result is a stunning, lifelike image with bold colors and dynamic definition. Samsung has set up a promotion with the popular Fortnite game that lets users download a special mobile version. An immediate notification will appear if the image is blurry, the subject blinked, there is a smudge on the lens, or there's backlight impacting the quality of the image. Yes, smartphone batteries do explode and catch fire, but Samsung has long fixed the design errors it made when rushing the Note 7 to market two years ago. Not to mention the fact that it does have that 6.4-inch Quad HD+ display here.
More news: Erdogan says Turkey to 'boycott' USA electronic goods
There's no denying that the Galaxy Home is a striking device.
The Galaxy Note 9 is also not running on Android 9 Pie. Users can work on presentations, edit photos, and watch their favorite show all powered by their phone. It is reasonable for Samsung not to carry 5G on S10. When connected to a monitor, Galaxy Note9 can power a virtualized desktop and even serve as a fully-functional second screen. It's never been easier to be more productive. This may translate to a standard Galaxy S10, Galaxy S10 Plus and some sort of Galaxy S10 Lite.
The company also announced a partnership with streaming music service Spotify to allow "streamless listening" across all Samsung devices, including phones, tablets and smart TVs, as well as the Galaxy Home. And hey, it wasn't Brown after all - it's Metallic Copper!
More news: Asian stock markets recover from the escalating financial crisis in Turkey
Rooney inspires DC United to last-gasp win
Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis Supports President Trump’s ‘Space Force’ Proposal
U.S. compound boy 'died in ritual ceremony'
Gears 5 is the 'largest Gears to date', according to The Coalition 7/19/2019
An Avalanche of Discounted Games with Xbox Super Game Sale 7/18/2019
Google Maps brings real-time bikeshare information to more cities 7/18/2019
Borderlands 3 will support cross-play but not at launch 7/18/2019
Tetris Effect is coming to PC as an Epic Games Store exclusive 7/18/2019
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate DLC 'Hero' to drop this Summer 7/18/2019
Google takes down seven stalkerware apps from the Play Store 7/18/2019
LG Pay Makes Late Arrival To U.S. Mobile Market 7/18/2019
New inclusive emojis are coming but still no trans flag 7/18/2019
Google walkout leader Meredith Whittaker leaves company 7/18/2019
Bayer shares slump after $289M Monsanto Roundup verdict
He applied large volumes of the herbicide to school grounds, sometimes winding up covered in the product due to heavy winds. In response to the verdict, Bayer's stocks have fallen by 12 percent today (August 13) in Frankfurt, reports Bloomberg .
China rejects allegations of detaining 1 million Uighurs in camps in Xinjiang
Maintaining peace and stability in the region is the core interest of people both in Xinjiang and all of China", it states.
Newcastle United vs Tottenham Hotspur English Premier League Live Streaming
I think with all the circumstance it was a massive effort. "You could feel fans had the belief we could do something", the Spaniard said.
United Kingdom jobs and wage data for April to June 2018
Excluding bonuses, pay growth fell to 2.7 percent, well below the 4 percent rate typical before the financial crisis a decade ago. Total annual wage growth slowed to a nine-month low of 2.4 percent, below forecasts for it to hold at 2.5 percent.
Catholic priests abused 'thousands of children' in Pennsylvania
Last month, Catholic priest John Sweeney of Greensburg pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a 10-year-old boy in the early 1990s. The report is the result of an 18-month investigation spearheaded by Shapiro that examined six of the state's eight dioceses.
Schoolboys filmed laughing during Yemen trip moments before airstrike
US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Sunday he has dispatched a three-star general to Riyadh to "look into what happened". Houthi officials have labelled the raid a "crime by America and its allies against the children of Yemen".
Celtic crash out of Champions League after losing to AEK Athens
Speaking on BT Sport during the closing stages of the match, Sutton said: " Celtic have stockpiled this money". I thought a lot of our build-up play was worth something from the game but you can't defend that softly.
Maryland takes responsibility for mistakes in player death
Results from the investigation into McNair's death are expected by mid-September and an attorney for the family, William H. Loh said. "No vital signs were taken, other safeguard actions that should have been taken were not.
Boy among 26 dead as bridge collapses in Genoa
More than 400 people were evacuated from 11 buildings located near or below the still-standing of the bridge, the city said.
Polls close in Vermont for slate of primaries
Bernie Sanders is seeking the Democratic nomination, although he plans to run for reelection as an independent come November. Phil Scott is the current governor of Vermont, and she will face him in the November general election.
Movie Director’s Pregnant Daughter Found Dead in NYC
She is mostly known for producing and appearing in her best friend EJ Johnson's reality series, EJNYC , back in 2016. Investigators are waiting on the city medical examiner's report to determine an official cause of death.
Vimeo scrubs Alex Jones from streaming service
Jones was also sued for defamation by the parents of two children who died in the 2012 Sandy Hook school massacre in CT in April. In July, YouTube slapped Jones" channel with a "community strike, ' blocking him from broadcasting live on the site for 90 days.
Local Fisherman And Tourist Killed In Kenya Hippo Attacks
In addition, another tourist was injured in an attack by a Hippo and was treated for minor bruises at the district hospital. Several people have questioned the rationale of killing the hippo, which they say was provoked in "its natural habitat".
Saudi cuts oil output as OPEC points to 2019 surplus
Meanwhile, Opec raised production in July, with increases in output from Kuwait, Nigeria and the United Arab Emirates. Brent crude , the global benchmark, climbed 1.1% to $73.41 a barrel.
Demi Lovato to Remain in Rehab for 'Several Months' in Extensive Program
The awful night took the darkest turn after Demi smoked the Oxycodone laced with fentanyl and went to bed. That realization came after she began to "grasp the severity of what happened and that she nearly died".
Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz HD Officially Announced for PS47/17/2019
Gold-plated Redmi K20 and K20 Pro are coming tomorrow7/17/2019
Monster Hunter World Dev Diary Introduces Subspecies Monsters Coming in Iceborne7/17/2019
German Amazon workers strike as platform prepares for big Prime Day sale7/17/2019
Amazon Developing Alexa-Powered Mobile Home Robot7/17/2019
Waze could tell you the toll price in the future7/17/2019
WhatsApp, Telegram photos, audio files at risk: What should users do7/17/2019
Nitendo Switch Lite: Is Nintendo Positioning It To Replace The Aging 3DS?7/16/2019
Fortnite's Save the World mode might finally go free-to-play7/18/2019
Ubisoft reveals full Uplay+ games lineup7/18/2019
Samsung to Roll out One UI 2.0 with Android Q Update7/18/2019
Honor 9X Pro Listed On Vmall, To Feature Kirin 810 SoC7/18/2019
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College of Sciences and Mathematics Homepage
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COSAM » News » Articles » 2019 » March » COSAM Student Plans to Serve Small Communities through Health Care
COSAM Student Plans to Serve Small Communities through Health Care
By: Carla Nelson
Auburn University student Carly Westmoreland is hoping through her studies in the Rural Medicine Program, she can provide needed family healthcare to small communities like the one in which she was raised.
Originally from Addison, Alabama, Carly said she saw how important a doctor was to a small community and how many services one doctor could provide.
“I knew I wanted to provide that type of care for people,” she said. “I would love to provide all-around health care for a small town in Alabama. In a small town like that, you’re such a necessity.”
Carly is currently a senior studying Biomedical Sciences with a Pre-Med concentration in the College of Sciences and Mathematics (COSAM). The summer after her sophomore year she participated in the Huntsville Rural Pre-Medial Internship, which solidified her desire to be part of the Rural Medicine Program. The Rural Medicine Program is a jointly sponsored program between the University of Alabama School of Medicine and COSAM. The program is designed to increase the number of family-practice physicians serving rural Alabama.
“It’s a perfect fit for me,” Carly said of the program.
While growing up, Carly was an Alabama football fan and said she originally planned to attend the University of Alabama.
“Then I stepped onto Auburn’s campus one time and got that feeling of ‘this is home,’ she said. “There’s more opportunities here. From what I learned from my tours, the staff is better, too. There’s also more options available to prepare me for medical school.”
During time away from school, Carly also tutors Honors Organic Chemistry, plays intramural volleyball and officiates volleyball for the Alabama High School Athletic Association. Carly said she acquired a love for the sport while playing in high school and enjoys officiating at regional high schools.
“I’ve enjoyed that because it keeps me involved in volleyball, but it’s also allowed me to experience different parts of Alabama,” she said.
Throughout her time at Auburn, Carly has volunteered at the Auburn United Methodist Church Food Pantry, Storybook Farms, and the Little H.A.P.I.E. Tree Preschool program at Auburn Early Education Center. In May she will graduate as an Honors College graduate.
Carly will begin medical school at the University of Alabama School of Medicine at UAB in the fall and said she feels well-prepared.
“There’s nowhere else that I could have learned what I’ve learned in COSAM,” she said, adding that she would advise current COSAM students to push themselves. “Branch out and take the harder professors and classes and put in the work now. It’s just going to make you better for the future.”
COSAM student Carly Westmoreland.
Auburn Physics Faculty Participate in the European Physical Society Meeting
Students Study Abroad and Gain Experience with First Responders
Vincent Ortiz Named a Fellow of the American Chemical Society
Message from Dean Giordano – July 2019
Chemistry Graduate Student Receives Women's Chemist Committee/Eli-Lilly Travel Award
Select a year below.
Donald E. Davis Arboretum
Museum of Natural History
Inclusion, Equity and Diversity
Current Building Projects
315 Roosevelt Concourse
Auburn, Alabama 36849
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Carlyn Greenwald
by Liz Parker | Feb 12, 2019 | Mentors | 0 comments
@CarlynGreenwald
Kathleen Nishimoto/WME
YA Thriller/Suspense and Dark Fantasy
On Submission with a dual-timeline YA Thriller
MENTORING GENRES
MENTORING STYLE
IDEAL MENTEE
MSWL/Anti-MSWL
Carlyn Greenwald is a Manhattan Beach, CA native who can’t handle the sun for more than 3 hours, a recent graduate of University of Southern California who doesn’t understand football, and a lover of books, TV/film, celebrity culture, history, dogs, and occasionally obscure indie films. Besides writing novels, she’s also a screenwriter, most recently a semifinalist in the CBS Writers Mentoring Program, and works in development/production in Hollywood.
PUBLISHING BACKGROUND
I technically started writing terrible, wacky crime novels at age 13, but things really started getting serious when I was accepted into Pitch Wars ’16 with a YA heist novel set at Comic Con. I worked with Rachel Lynn Solomon and Kit Frick to revise the novel, and both learned depth to the craft I’d never known of before as well as cemented a path towards traditional publication. I queried out my Pitch Wars novel, ultimately gathered up 100+ rejections, and had to move on. I drafted a couple more novels, including a YA Thriller in late 2017 that called back to the wacky, dark novels I wrote as a teen. I submitted it in AMM R4 in early 2018, and was accepted by Rebecca Barrow. After revising together, I participated in DVpit, and ultimately found my agent through it. After signing in late May (and graduating college — it was a hectic week), my agent and I went through 3 developmental and 1 series of line edits on the manuscript. By early February 2019, it’s on sub. Fingers crossed!
I’ve been in the beta reading/CP world since the days of fictionpress.com as a young teen, and have since been working to give feedback local and developmental for a multitude of different writer friends, including several now represented by awesome agents. I’ve also been a mentee in Pitch Wars and AMM, and have tons of experience making query letters clear and snappy.
On the education front, I have a degree in English/Film from USC, where I took classes both in the general workshop structure as well as editing classes. So, I can help with improving the story and fixing your grammar at a collegiate level. On top of that, I have degrees in criminology and screenwriting, so if you need someone to confirm if that substance could contain DNA or want to work with more experimental structure for your novels, I got you. (And I have an honorary history minor as well.)
I’ve worked for several literary agents, and have otherwise spent the past five years working grunt jobs at Hollywood production companies and talent management companies. I’m currently a (supposedly beloved) script reader for an established production/management company in LA.
After being mentored in two different but wonderful contests across three mentors, I can without a doubt say that I wouldn’t be nearly where I am in terms of how good my craft is or how wise to the industry without my mentors. I consider each of my mentors a good friend and we continue to CP each other’s work. With that, I feel as though I’ve accumulated enough knowledge about craft, genre conventions, and marketability to both identify stories with potential and work to make those stories as great as they can possibly be. It feels like it’s time to pay it forward for future upcoming writers, and more than anything, I’d love to find a writer, nurture their talent, and become friends along the way.
Overall, I’m here for dark, dark, dark. Bring me your mysteries, thrillers, and suspense novels. Contemporary, historical, or set in a different world, it’s all good to me. Bring me morally ambiguous casts of characters (particularly females), villain protagonists (and regular ole villains), crimes galore, survival stories, and stories that would be described as “unputdownable” or cause people “stress” while reading. I’m also really into infusing humor, so if your book is super dark and could make me cry, but still makes me laugh, I’ll be in love. Contemporary suspense novels are my lifeblood, but I also adore dark fantasies of all sorts. Basically, if someone gets murdered, I’m here for it. If multiple people are murdered, even better. If your protagonist causes these murders, you’ve got me. I’d also love to work with #ownvoices authors, and can help with any Jewish and OCD rep.
I love all sorts of crime novels — murder mysteries, fugitive stories, heist novels, revenge stories. If your protagonist is a criminal, I love them already. I have a particular affinity for mob stories, “gentleman” thieves, hitmen, forgers, arsonists….okay like seriously, any type of criminal (except rapists, duh). I’m down for the range of settings, from gritty realism to murders at the private school to over the top heists a la Ocean’s Eight. I love love love female criminals — mixed gender gangs or all female gangs galore.
I have a particular love for survival thrillers. I’m talking a good old fashioned “we wanted to go camping in the woods but something went wrong.” Woods, frozen tundra, desert, etc. If you happen to also have a mysterious serial killer in that survival story, that’s a gold mine for me.
I also love unconventional structure! Advertisements, script writing, emails, letters, etc within the text, when done well, is incredible. I’m also super into unconventional POV choices and timelines, especially short timelines. Contained setting stories are also very cool.
With fantasy, I’m a sucker for history-based or history-adjacent worlds. I’m more here for magic users over elves/talking animals/fae/etc. Legends and magic, including stories where monsters might just be more than legends. Basically, as long as someone is dying, whether from court intrigue or because the main character is a serial killer in a fantasy world, I’m down. Villain love interests are my weakness. Thinking Darkling, Cardan, Kylo Ren (does he even count?), the Phantom, those early seasons of ATLA Zuko. Additionally, if your protagonist/LI starts out a pure cinnamon roll and gets corrupted, also amazing. I’m also a sucker for anything involving circuses and the arts.
A few tropes I LOVE: unlikable female protagonist; enemies to lovers; villain love interest; small town mystery; found family; glamorous heist/group of thieves; hero-to-villain arcs; girl who will kill you and the soft boy willing to murder right beside her
I WILL PROVIDE:
Edit Letter (Big Picture developmental feedback)
Line edit (dropping notes into a Word Document)
Freestyle in chat
WORKING STYLE
I plan to start with developmental edits, where I’ll give a long list of everything I love about the manuscript and then go through what big picture things can be done. This can include beefing up characters, developing arcs, developing romantic relationships, tightening the plot, pacing, and developing the world/setting. After that, the mentee will revise and I’ll then go through a line edit. This will include all those funny little reaction comments (ask anyone who knows me; these can actually be quite entertaining) and spots where I’d want more description, emotion, etc to improve the prose to top shininess. Every step along the way, my DMs/phone will be open for on-the-spot brainstorming sessions, cheerleading, and memes about your characters. Once the manuscript is in its top tier/whenever the mentee wants to, we can also start working on the query letter. It sometimes helps in the developmental edit stage to write out a query to see if stakes/character arcs are there.
Overall, I’m best with developing characters and establishing tension and pacing, and am a whiz with dialogue on a line edit level. I wouldn’t be the best fit for making your prose beautiful (can someone teach me?) or try to form a plot/stakes with a contemporary/character driven story. I’m pumped to refine a plot and make it as twisty as possible, but I can’t conjure them from too little.
My ideal mentee would be someone who wants to take this mentoring experience seriously, and both use their strengths in writing to max as well as pick up new skills to improve their manuscript. Someone’s who’s hard working and has great attention to detail would be amazing; I’m a sucker for adding more and more details to my book as revisions go on, and I love developing them with people. Someone who shares my passion for darker literature and pushing boundaries in YA would be incredible, and have an irreverent and dark sense of humor would only add to it. In an ideal world, I’m here to potentially meet lifelong friends and CPs, so if you’re willing to learn, are serious about this publishing game, and our tastes align, it’d be a dream. Bonus points if you want to write fanfiction about your own book because half your ideas are just funny and don’t add to the plot.
a contemporary heist novel with a rat pack as close as the Dregs
female criminals
something set in the world of the lowest rung workers in Hollywood
anything set in LA
SURVIVAL THRILLERS — camping stories gone wrong! expeditions gone wrong! you just got lost in the woods?
heroes who turn into villains by the end
fantasy criminals
unreliable narrators
enemies to lovers (but like “we’re both trying to kill each other” enemies)
disabled characters who kick ass with, even because of, their disabilities a la Kaz Brekker
Bonnie and Clyde type duos
magic systems that end up making its wielders waaaay better killers than otherwise
anything that makes you go “is this too much for YA” (both in terms of violence and sex)
And I suppose it goes without saying, but diversity! I have a soft spot for Jewish characters, as well as everything on the LGBTQA spectrum, racially diverse, disabilities, mental illness, minority religions, etc.
And a short list of random things: twins, forbidden romance, snow, emo/punk music, sex positivity, theme parks.
DO NOT SEND ME:
vague feudal English-based fantasy (pick a more specific time! even other European countries are less mined in fantasy than England!)
Urban Fantasy/Contemporary Fantasy (other mentors want it so much more!)
rape as a plot device
graphic animal violence (killing to survive is the exception)
Contemporary without suspense elements
books that exclusively feature allocishet white people
Sadie by Courtney Summers
Grishaverse by Leigh Bardugo (favorite: Six of Crows)
When I Am Through with You by Stephanie Kuehn
Monday’s Not Coming by Tiffany D. Jackson
Forbidden by Tabitha Suzuma
My Favorite Thing is Monsters by Emil Farris
STAR WARS! TLJ IS A MASTERPIECE!
Musicals:
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YOURLS Blog
YOURLS — Your Own URL Shortener
YOURLS stands for Your Own URL Shortener. It’s a self-hosted, open source URL shortener, like bit.ly, except you manage and own the thing and the data. It’s:
Great for branding
Great for being independant and in control
Nice for ego
Simply fun if you’re a geek
YOURLS is maintained by Ozh, findable mostly on his blog planetOzh and on Twitter.
Learn more about YOURLS on the main site.
Note: this page is NOT meant to file support requests.
Short URL to this post: http://yourls.org/4
Sanjay on December 10, 2012 at 1:06 pm said:
Just started using Yourls…have a query about the reports that I am getting? I can account for the referral traffic however the direct traffic source is not clear…can you help?
Ozh on December 10, 2012 at 8:17 pm said:
Direct is when there’s no referrer data (loaded from bookmarks, from a mobile device, or from a client with no referrer)
allan on December 12, 2012 at 7:34 am said:
Im trying to switch to the yourls script but im having a difficulty and ive been messing with it for hours and finally decided to ask for help:)
Where at in the script does it do the final step in redirecting, I want to add a “http://anonym.to/?” to the beginning of it. Ive tried adding code all over the script and have gotten mixed results with the api, so instead of trying to add it to the actual short links i just want to place the call at the final step and anonym the link.
Any help please?
Ozh on December 12, 2012 at 9:41 am said:
See wiki page PossibleWithAPlugin on the project site
Daniel on January 17, 2013 at 10:48 pm said:
What’s “(we have hacked this title)” appearing in my title. I’m perfectly happy to honor TOS, but I recall the terms of service were ‘Do whatever the hell you want with it!’ No? Do I need a fresh install to purge this message. Please tell me this is a built-in function and not more vandalism.
Ozh on January 18, 2013 at 6:55 am said:
You activated the sample demonstration plugin…. Congratulations…………
snme on February 19, 2013 at 4:42 am said:
Hi! Thanks for an awesomely awesome php app – YourLS 1.5 has been working flawlessly for me since Feb 2011! I very much appreciate the ability to host my own shortener/redirector and track clicks without relying on a 3rd party or giving them all my info. So big thanks again for making YourLS available!
Couple questions though:
1) Say I have a shortened URL that points to a download, and then a few days later I Edit the yourls URL in the admin system and make it point to a new download. My users still end up getting the old download instead of the new one unless I tell them to clear their browser cache and try again. Is there any way to get the redirector to force a refresh and not be cached by their browser so the Edited link will point to the new file without clearing their browser cache?
2) Is there any compelling reason to upgrade from 1.5 since all is working well, and I’m hesitant to break my database and hundred of links we are using?
Ozh on February 19, 2013 at 7:07 am said:
1) share your link with a randomish query string, such as http://sho.rt/blah?v2, http://sho.rt/blah?v3, etc… everytime you change the link target. Using a plugin to send “302 redirect” headers instead of the default 301 would help, too.
2) See the changelog. Nothing will break, there is no DB structure change. You should *always* update (and you should should always backup regularly and before an update)
Vadim (@VadimReprax) on April 11, 2013 at 6:01 pm said:
Hi! Thank you very much for your project, which I’m finding pretty fascinating.
I guess I’ve been lucky enough to become one of the first guys in Russia to see your yourls.org project. However, I have a little problem. I have tested YOURLS 1.5.1 Released and the result was great, although it did take a bit of effort for me to add Cyrillic. However, I cannot dig much information myself due to the language barrier, that’s why I’m asking you for help. How can I limit URL by IP address? Can I do that at all? To be exact, what I want to do is restrict the number of URLs created by new users, so that, for instance, only 3 URLs per day from a particular IP are allowed.
If that is not too much trouble for you, please, help me!
Ozh on April 11, 2013 at 7:07 pm said:
That would be possible with a plugin. See wiki page http://yourls.org/withplugin
Geraldo Luis on August 16, 2013 at 12:54 am said:
First of all I want to said thank you for making this awesome script I been looking for something like this for a while. Now I got a question I want to make the short URL a ramdon latter and number url for ex:www.domain.com/Gtd3 and not http://www.domain.com/1 not increase number. It is possible??
Ozh on August 16, 2013 at 6:04 am said:
Geraldo: http://yourls.org/#Plugins
http://url.djtisho.com on September 2, 2013 at 12:33 pm said:
Hi Ozh,
I’ve made little hack for Yourls for Antispam in the frontend.
In index.php, just before “submit” button add:
You are Bot or Human ?
in /includes/functions.php after the <?php in the top, add:
if ( isset($_POST['check']) && $_POST['check'] != user ) { exit('Antispam check Failed !'); }
I hope this will helps. Spread please this little Antispam hack in Yourls.org website.
Tihomir Hristov
Ozh on September 2, 2013 at 1:12 pm said:
Thanks. 2 comments :
– you’re doing it wrong. Modifying core files is *always* a bad idea, there’s a plugin API to add features without modifying core files
– there’s absolutely no difficulty for spammers to automate an extra field in the POST request
Daniel on December 2, 2013 at 9:58 pm said:
True, but they’d have to find your site,examine the underlying form code, and then write fresh exploit code to do the job. I’ve found it much more satisfying to simply change the spam entries to point to my own marketing sites (any sites that aren’t my own are spam). Then, the spammers work for me, hurrying to spread MY links everywhere, thinking they are their own.
Ozh on December 3, 2013 at 8:08 pm said:
That’s hilariously delightful :) Are those links actually spread? Did you check? I suspect most spammers just add links for the sake of doing it and hoping that you will spread them, but they’re not using it.
Christopher Simmons on November 26, 2013 at 6:03 pm said:
Heads up — the YOURLS site no longer works with IE11 on Win7; tabs don’t work; likely some change in CSS/Java; works fine with Chrome. But, threw me the other day when I went back to look at plugins post update. Trying to sort out why I get whole bunch of “array” data on the stat referrer screen in our install; likely due to a weird character from a site with tracking … but was looking at plugins. Love the product. Thanks! :-)
Idilio Moncivais on December 2, 2013 at 6:19 pm said:
One way to remove spam links when you use the same YOURLS database in several domain names is to run a cron job against the MySql database (I run it every two minutes) that deletes entries coming from IP addresses that are not allowed by you. Here is the crontable entry (the command can also be run manually from phpMyAdmin):
*/2 * * * * /usr/bin/mysql -hlocalhost -u -p -e “DELETE FROM yourls_url WHERE ip NOT in (”, ”, ”, ”);”
Replace text between with your own values.
Idilio
That’s horribly overkill. You’d be much much better with a plugin that whitelists your IP addresses instead.
Idilio Moncivais on December 14, 2013 at 8:57 pm said:
Thanks for the suggestion. I tired that but it was high maintenance as I use the same DB instance for 9 different domain names using separate YoURLs frontends. So running one cron job instead of updating the pluggin in nine places was easier. Cheers!
Matt Fraser on January 4, 2016 at 5:22 pm said:
Where can I find such a Whitelist IP Address plugin? (I’ve searched the plugin repository)
dprakash2013 on March 4, 2014 at 8:20 am said:
Hello Webmaster,
I am webmaster of Supercoder.com and we are doing link clean up for our site. We analyzed and found your site is having bad search reputation. Hence we request you to remove our link on below given pages.
(Add links from site as given in sheet if specific link is not available than given only domain name, Be careful email without mentioning domain name will not be of any use.)
Please note if you did not remove the links we will submit your site to disavow tools which will give search engine a negative signal about your site and your site will get further penalty.
Please let me know once link is removed or you have any query
Ozh on April 22, 2014 at 6:14 am said:
ROFL. Poor dude.
Warren Contreras on April 21, 2014 at 10:11 pm said:
I have installed private YOURLS a couple of times using Softalicious and it can’t be accessed until I change the permissions. I did a mass update to set all files to 755, but not sure that is the best way. Any hints?
Sorry, I don’t know Softalicious. It’s not recommended to chmod everything 755 anyway. You would be better chmoding dirs 755 and files 644, except config.php chmoded 400 or 440 depending your host. Test and see if that works.
Also: please don’t use this page for support requests. If you want to add up to your comment, open an issue on Github and give as much details as you can.
gauri87 on July 26, 2014 at 4:01 am said:
Hello, I want to use your API to track Conversions on these urls. Can you guide me How to do this? or you have any service to impliment this for me?
sohilhunani007 on July 26, 2014 at 4:16 am said:
david on August 28, 2014 at 2:09 pm said:
Can you please update the yourls application in parallels plesk because they still have the old Yourls v1.5 version
Eddie on January 5, 2015 at 2:50 pm said:
is it possible to force a separate page to open every time someone clicks on the link ?
Ozh on January 5, 2015 at 6:58 pm said:
Amin on March 28, 2015 at 3:35 pm said:
Hi. I wanted to post this to your blog about translating the YOURLS. But the comments are closed in there. The POT file you have provided cannot be recognized in POEDIT. So, I guess you have to fix it. Thanks.
Ozh on March 28, 2015 at 6:08 pm said:
Provided where? Did you get it on github? There have been numerous translations done since we last modified that file, so I think any problem is on your side.
fdiengdoh on April 18, 2015 at 7:54 pm said:
Thanks for YOURLS, been trying to do from scratch but its too much work. Been using it on my site with minor changes to the front page at ldn.pw and fdh.pw
Chandan on August 20, 2015 at 4:19 am said:
How do I change my public homepage?
soren holmegaard on April 13, 2016 at 1:20 pm said:
Hi – I have just installed Yourls 1.7.1, and everuthing is working great in Chrome and Firefox. But when I try to click a shortened URL in IE11, I get a runtime error saying – Server Error in ‘/’ Application.
How do I get this to work in IE11??
kerry on April 17, 2016 at 9:59 am said:
Nice code ! Can you give me any tips on customising the user url shortening page. Basically i want just a form with no css or formatting so I can build on it. Tried to find where the css and formatting is – but cant – many thanks
Sravan on July 9, 2016 at 10:02 am said:
Thanks for great Application!
Just wanted to know if there is a better way to import / export bulk URLs from CSV. We tried the plugins available but the problem is they export every URL. I would want to export only those URLs which have a particular date or tag or campaignID. I would have loved to write a plugin but I dont know PHP :(
johny on October 18, 2016 at 1:31 am said:
hi, thx for yourls! is there a place to post support requests?
Jagjeet Singh on October 28, 2016 at 3:44 pm said:
I have installed Multi-user plugin. Everything is working well except the stats. I can only open the stats, if I am login as admin in the browser. I need your help. Thanks.
MKash on December 14, 2016 at 12:19 pm said:
Thank you for the great tool.
I have a question regarding the traffic stats that come with it.
We implemented a tracking code into our web pages to get an overview of the website performance. The numbers I get here are much lower than those in the tool. For example: a page for which we used yourls got 52 visits (according to the standard tracking) but the yourls stats say that there had been 1.536 clicks. That’s quite a difference. Do you have any idea where this comes from or is there any additional information to your stats?
Jean-Philippe on February 19, 2017 at 10:16 am said:
How much time will a redirect url created with yourls be good for?
Will a redirect created still be good, 6 months from now even if it’s not clicked on?
Shury on March 10, 2017 at 5:04 pm said:
I am using phurl and I would like to use your nice tools. Is there an easy way to import data from phurl data base into my new yourls installation ?
Timothy on April 19, 2017 at 8:42 pm said:
Can YOURLS be used to redirect to an eMail address in your default eMail client?
We are interested in list a short link that can be updated to the correct eMail address should it ever need updating.
http://yourls.org/email
atul kumar on April 26, 2017 at 8:31 pm said:
make url what % secure
any idea
and how to make deeplink~~|??~
XX on May 2, 2017 at 8:57 am said:
Is there a way to remove bot traffic from existing data? I know there’s plugin to not logging new bot traffic but i need to clean up legacy data.
Game8 on May 18, 2017 at 12:26 am said:
Just want to say thank you for YOURLS! I’m using it for my YouTube channel to shorten URLs in the video description. Works perfect :)
Brut on July 4, 2017 at 10:14 am said:
Hello, dunno where to write this question, so I try here. How to setup yourls to work in a subdirectory, but with its own domain. Like In my hosting where BRUT.me is the index page in root directory i created a subdirectory with yourls to which I want to use a completely another domain (fetuj.sk).
best regards Brut
Dr Tom Nichols on August 23, 2017 at 4:51 pm said:
Really excited to install and use this software, but I can’t find in the wiki or FAQ the key question I want the answer to – when I have created a shortened URL, I can edit later to which long URL it points to can’t I??
Sandeep Gupta on October 31, 2017 at 5:27 pm said:
Very useful app, using it for a while.
However Ia m not sure how does it track hits? We have a short url which shows nearly 20k hits yourl app but less than 5k pageviews in Google Analytics. I expect some drop off but it seems huge.
Any pointers?
Ozh on November 2, 2017 at 12:05 pm said:
http://yourls.org/#FAQ#stats
Jim Bale on December 29, 2017 at 8:02 am said:
You always give many people with valuable contribution, I hope God will bless your life forever…Thank you
Tim on December 29, 2017 at 9:25 pm said:
I have come across a bug where a short url consists of a hyphen as the last character. When this short url is sent within a text message to an iPhone, the short url works fine. When the short url is sent within a text message to an Android device, the hyphen is displayed, but is excluded from the link. Is there a way to tell Yourls to exclude hyphens from short urls?
Ozh on December 29, 2017 at 11:24 pm said:
Issues on Github please. Also, https://github.com/YOURLS/YOURLS/issues/1729
Drew on July 24, 2018 at 5:21 pm said:
Trying to find a plugin to use to allow individuals to check their own stats not sure if there is a plugin for this or just a way to set it up in the script itself. If a plugin is needed please advise or if there is a way to do it directly in the script can anyone explain how to set this up.
peso on July 30, 2018 at 8:00 pm said:
Looking at making YOURLS scalable. Any tips on how to make that happen?
If I use a seperate DB and have multiple YOURLS instances accessing the same DB, will that work?
Tony on September 19, 2018 at 7:38 pm said:
I originally had a simple url shortener “brevi” with the TL DN “.tk”. (free!)
When I decided to switch it to .ca I opted for yourls, which is a bit more complicated than mine.
Just one question: How can I delete a string of urls? Occasionally some spammer will use the YOURLS to set up a whole list of urls, obvoiusly all pointing to the same site. I just noticed I have a Russian one now with 30+ entries, and I would like to delete them all in one shot. Could I list the whole table in phpmyadmin? which field would I use?
Ozh on September 19, 2018 at 9:14 pm said:
See plugins. Any time you have a question about YOURLS, start with the wiki, everything you have to know or want to know is there.
Debbie Ingle on December 25, 2018 at 3:53 am said:
It’s a shame you don’t have a donate button! I’d certainly donate to this superb blog! I suppose for now i’ll settle for bookmarking and adding your RSS feed to my Google account. I look forward to brand new updates and will share this website with my Facebook group. Talk soon!
Imran on January 2, 2019 at 11:00 am said:
Hi Buddy just installed YOURLS yesterday however I am facing a strange issue. whenever I try to activate a plugin in manage plugin section it shows the message “Plugin has been activated” however the plugins is not getting activated. I tried reinstalling YOURLS but no success so far. I am using Yourls on a shared hosting.
Installed it through Softaculous.
Hope you would help.
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NASA video shows Hurricane Florence from space as it makes landfall
- Two more deaths have been confirmed in North Carolina due to Florence.
The Piedmont Triad has been on high alert since Hurricane Florence made landfall on the North Carolina coast Friday morning.
Firefighters pray at an operation to remove a tree that fell on a house injuring resident during Hurricane Florence in Wilmington, North Carolina on September 14, 2018.
According to a study in June, hurricanes and typhoons, on average, appear to be slowing down in part because of human-caused climate change.
Rescue workers in North Carolina meanwhile were scrambling to save people stranded in their homes.
In the town of New Bern, 30,000 residents stayed behind in spite of mandatory evacuation orders.
In New Bern, where rescuers removed more than 100 people from rising waters, Sarah Risty-Davis is one of the residents who made a decision to ignore a mandatory evacuation order issued three days ago.
"Currently ~150 awaiting rescue in New Bern", City Hall said on Twitter.
NBC News is reporting five deaths as a result of the storm.
The Latest Celtic Jabari Bird taking time off amid charges
The team said it "will be working with both the league and local authorities to assist in their ongoing investigations". On Thursday, Bird appeared in court to be arraigned, and we got a few more details as to what transpired last Friday.
Finance Minister, Kemi Adeosun resigns
Her main policy was a bid to improve tax collection and crack down on mismanagement by government agencies. President oversees the most corrupt administration in the history of our nation?"
Zlatan Ibrahimovic scores to reach 500 goals for club and country
Since then, the former Swedish global has scored 17 goals for the MLS side in 22 appearances. Ibrahimovic's 500th goal was one of his most spectacular.
In its 1200 GMT advisory, the centre said Florence was packing winds of 90 miles per hour (150 kph) and moving northwest at six miles per hour (10 kilometres per hour).
In addition, the threat of storm surges looms for areas in the path of the storm, meaning life-threatening inundation from rising water moving inland is possible. The sheriff said all three victims were in cars that were swept away.
Roy Cooper described Hurricane Florence, which slammed into his state early Friday, as "an uninvited brute who doesn't want to leave". "Catastrophic effects will be felt".
Hurricane Hunter aircraft measured Florence's sustained winds at 75 miles per hour, keeping the storm as a very weak Category 1 hurricane as of 1 p.m.
North Carolina alone is forecast to get 9.6 trillion gallons, enough to cover the Tar Heel state to a depth of about 10 inches (25 centimeters).
Wilmington Police Chief Ralph Evangelous agreed, telling ABC News' David Muir, "I see a biblical proportion flood event that's going to occur". An estimated 1.5 million people live in the areas now under mandatory evacuation orders by state authorities.
Myrtle Beach, a SC beach resort, was deserted with empty streets, boarded up storefronts and very little traffic.
Officials in several states have declared states of emergency, including in the Carolinas, Georgia, Virginia and Maryland, where coastal areas are still recovering from summer storms.
North Carolina Army National Guard soldiers were sent to a home along the 100 block of El Nora Lane in Otway, North Carolina, on Friday in reference to two deaths there.
Man killed in MA shark attack, first since 1936
Hurricane Florence Charleston: Latest Track & Forecast
Razer Phone 2 gets ready to make an October 10 debut
Tracking Hurricane Florence as it bears down on U.S. East Coast
First Warn meteorologist Chris Mulcahy expects anywhere from 4-10 inches across the Charlotte area, depending on your location. A hurricane warning is in effect for South Santee River, SC, north to Duck, NC, and the Albemarle and Pamlico Sounds.
Kenya's Gladys Cherono retains Berlin Marathon
The Kenyan defended his 2017 title in the German capital, pulling ahead of other runners early on amid flawless conditions. Race organisers initially timed Kipchoge a second slower, but later corrected the time.
Apple kills off the headphone jack by removing four older iPhones
That means both the Xs and Xs Max should be able to blitz through iOS 12 and tackle the latest and greatest games easily . Apple has done something unusual this year, entirely killing off the 2017 iPhone X in favor of new and shinier models.
Why Manchester United Must Make A Move For Juventus Star
Argentina global Dybala has become one of Europe's most-coveted players since joining the Italian champions from Palermo in the summer of 2015.
Photos and videos show the destruction and power of Florence
Florence's intensity has diminished since it roared ashore along the US mid-Atlantic coast on Friday as a hurricane. Sutton Power Station outside Wilmington and that contaminated runoff likely flowed into the plant's cooling pond.
Disgruntled ex-employee blamed for sewing needles found in strawberries
Investigators have also now confirmed a fourth contamination incident as having occurred in a punnet of strawberries. Contaminated punnets have been reported in supermarkets in the states of New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria .
Hurricane Florence looms over East Coast — WHAT'S HAPPENING
Overall, unsafe storm surge is possible all the way from Edisto Beach, South Carolina, to the North Carolina/Virginia border. A man runs past a mandatory evacuation sign before Hurricane Florence comes ashore in Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina.
Hurricane Florence Dumps 'Epic Amounts of Rainfall' On US States
Around 50 stranded people were airlifted by helicopter in North Carolina, said Petty Officer Michael Himes of the US Coast Guard. Florence's intensity has diminished since it roared ashore along the US mid-Atlantic coast on Friday as a hurricane.
Chelsea go top after Hazard's hat-trick sees off Cardiff
However, Sarri believes Hazard can be even more prolific if he preserves his energy more to make the difference in the final third.
How the Waffle House is archaic to resolve a typhoon's fury
Waffle House is used as an example of how quickly a business, and therefore a community, may recover from a storm. If the diner is only serving a limited menu , it tells FEMA there may be supply or power issues in an area.
Roberto Firmino provides update after horrific eye poke
Kelly Cates was joined by Jamie Redknapp, Robbie Keane and Graeme Souness to discuss Liverpool's 2-1 victory over Tottenham on Saturday.
Volkswagen's iconic Beetle comes to the end of the road
More than 21.5 million original Beetles were manufactured worldwide until the last one that was produced in Mexico in 2003. The iconic Volkswagen Beetle , possibly the most recognisable shape in the history of the automobile has come to an end.
OPEC ups production as prices rise, supply declines
The report provides further indication of the rapid oil demand that helped OPEC and allies get rid of a supply glut will moderate in 2019.
The only thing I don't like about Smalling is his hair - Mourinho
Jose Mourinho now believes that Pogba is happy at Manchester United since he has not told him of any plan to leave the Premier League club.
Hurricance Florence: Watch the storm close in from space
It was downgraded to a Category 1 hurricane before coming ashore near Wrightsville Beach close to Wilmington, North Carolina. Mr Trump, who spoke with state and local officials last Friday, is planning a visit to the region this week.
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Texts Notes Verse List Exact Search
Results 1 - 20 of 3011 for land (0.000 seconds)
Jump to page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next Last
(1.00) Jer 22:29
O land of Judah, land of Judah, land of Judah! 1 Listen to what the Lord has to say!
(0.92) Gen 43:1
Now the famine was severe in the land. 1
(0.87) Lev 25:24
In all your landed property 1 you must provide for the right of redemption of the land. 2
(0.87) Num 21:31
So the Israelites 1 lived in the land of the Amorites.
(0.87) Isa 36:17
until I come and take you to a land just like your own – a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards.
They returned from investigating the land after forty days.
for the people who were in the land before you have done all these abominations, 1 and the land has become unclean.
(0.83) Deu 11:11
Instead, the land you are crossing the Jordan to occupy 1 is one of hills and valleys, a land that drinks in water from the rains, 2
(0.83) Jdg 11:15
and said to him, “This is what Jephthah says, ‘Israel did not steal 1 the land of Moab and the land of the Ammonites.
(0.83) Mat 4:15
“Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, the way by the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles –
(0.82) Jos 21:14
Jattir, Eshtemoa,
(0.81) Gen 35:12
The land I gave 1 to Abraham and Isaac I will give to you. To your descendants 2 I will also give this land.”
But Jacob lived in the land where his father had stayed, 1 in the land of Canaan. 2
You must dispossess the inhabitants of the land and live in it, for I have given you the land to possess it.
(0.81) Deu 26:9
Then he brought us to this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey.
and all of Naphtali, the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the distant 1 sea,
(0.81) 2Sa 17:26
The army of Israel 1 and Absalom camped in the land of Gilead.
(0.81) 1Ki 9:18
Baalath, Tadmor in the wilderness, 1
(0.81) Psa 37:29
The godly will possess the land and will dwell in it permanently.
(0.81) Psa 116:9
I will serve 1 the Lord in the land 2 of the living.
TIP #07: Use the Discovery Box to further explore word(s) and verse(s). [ALL]
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