Quotes that make you act

Here is a bunch of quotes that I have collected during the past few years that make me think about my life and motivate me to take action!

Hopefully they have the same effect on you.

“If you’re going through hell, keep going.”
Winston Churchill

“It isn’t what the book costs. It’s what it will cost you if you don’t read it.”
Jim Rohn

“Every problem has in it the seeds of its own solution. If you don’t have any problems, you don’t get any seeds.”
Norman Vincent Peale

“Formal education will make you a living. Self education will make you a fortune.”
Jim Rohn

“History will be kind to me, for I intend to write it.”
Winston Churchill

“Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.”
Albert Einstein

“Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.”
Henry David Thoreau

“When you help someone up a steep hill, you get nearer the top yourself.”
Anonymous

“Do, or do not. There is no ‘Try’”
Yoda

“The goal is not to be better than the other man, but to be better than your previous self.”
Hindu proverb

“Time is a created thing. To say ‘I don’t have time,’ is like saying, ‘I don’t want to.’ ”
Lao Tzu

“A quitter never wins and a winner never quits.”
Napoleon Hill

“Whether You Think You Can or Can’t - You’re Right”
Henry Ford

“Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm”
Winston Churchill

“Entrepreneurship is living a few years of your life like most people won’t, so that you can spend the rest of your life like most people can’t.”
Anonymous

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover”
Mark Twain

“Genius is 1% inspiration, and 99% perspiration.”
Thomas Edison

“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.”
Chinese Proverb

“Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.”
Abraham Lincoln

“Be like a postage stamp. Stick to it until you get there.”
Harvey Mackay

“Success is not hitting the top - success is how you bounce when you hit the bottom.”
George Patton

“I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over again in my life, and that is why I succeed.”
Michael Jordan

“The shortest answer is doing.”
Lord Herbert

“He who has a why can deal with any what or how.”
Stephen Covey

“You are never given a wish without being given the power to make it true. You may have to work for it, however.”
Richard Bach

“It’s only called work, when you’d rather be doing something else.”
Anonymous

“To hell with circumstances; I create opportunities.”
Bruce Lee

“A leader takes people where they want to go. A great leader takes people where they don’t necessarily want to go, but ought to be.”
Rosalynn Carter

“The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me.”
Ayn Rand

“Wealth is the product of man’s capacity to think.”
Ayn Rand

“Pain is temporary, glory is forever.”
Anonymous

“No matter what techniques and what disciplines you go through, I think there is one factor more intangible and that is the motivation to pick yourself off the ground when you’ve been totally bloodied and smashed and say, ‘Let’s fight some more.’”
Jerome Hines

“Luck is a dividend of sweat. The more you sweat, the luckier you get.”
Ray Kroc

“What would you do, if you knew for sure, that it is impossible to fail?”
Anonymous

“Speak when you are angry and you will make the best speech you will ever regret.”
Ambrose Bierce

“Always listen to the experts. They’ll tell you what can’t be done and why. Then do it.”
Robert Heinlein

“Nothing interferes with my concentration. You could put an orgy in my office and I wouldn’t look up. Well, maybe once.”
Isaac Asimov

“Yesterday is the past and tomorrow is the future. Today is a gift - that’s why they call it the present.”
Bill Keane

“It takes years to become an overnight success.”
Anonymous

“If you want someone to listen more closely, whisper.”
Anonymous

“The bad news is time flies. The good news is you’re the pilot.”
Michael Althsuler

„What you do is create a vision of who you want to be, and then live into that picture as if it were already true.“
Arnold Schwarzenegger

“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”
Thomas Edison

“The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary.”
Vidal Sassoon

“If you learn from defeat, you haven’t really lost.”
Zig Ziglar

“Statistics suggest that when customers complain, business owners and managers ought to get excited about it. The complaining customer represents a huge opportunity for more business.”
Zig Ziglar

“Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal.”
Henry Ford

“One half of knowing what you want is knowing what you must give up before you get it.”
Sidney Howard

“Success isn’t a result of spontaneous combustion. You must set yourself on fire.”
Arnold H. Glasow

“Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending.”
Carl Bard

“Don’t say you don’t have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michaelangelo, Mother Teresea, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein.”
H. Jackson Brown

“The best angle from which to approach any problem is the try-angle.”
Anonymous

“You must have long-range goals to keep you from being frustrated by short-range failures.”
Charles C. Noble

“It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop. ”
Confucius
http://www.facebook.com/ayurvedastreet

India ranks third in rape cases

India stands third, leaving behind countries like Sri Lanka, Jordan and Argentina, when it comes to rape cases, latest data of the home ministry suggests.

Ahead of India are only the United States and South Africa.

According to the data, 18,359 rape cases were registered in India in the first three quarters of this year while in the US, 93,934 and in South Africa 54,926 rape cases were registered respectively.

The lowest number of rape cases were registered in Jordan (78), Latvia (260), Bulgaria (403) and Finland (596).

Some of the other countries where a large number of rape cases were reported include Germany (8,133), Thailand (5,060), Sweden (3,787) and Argentian (3,447).

Altogether 44,159 cases of different sex offences were registered across India in the said period. In such cases too, India stands third after England and Germany where 62,100 and 47,070 cases were registered respectively.

Four other countries where the numbers of sex offences were high include Canada (26,044), Australia (17,516), Sweden (7,924) and Argentina (3,473).

According to the data, the incidence of various crime per one lakh population in India are -- murder (3), sex offences (4), rape (1.7), serious assault (24.6) robbery and violent theft (2.1), breaking and entering (8.2) and theft of motor cars (7.8).

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/India_ranks_third_in_rape_cases/articleshow/3813759.cms

14 people commit suicide every hour in India

Fourteen people commit suicide every hour in India due to various reasons, ranging from failure in relationships, bankruptcy, illness and social disrepute.
One among every three suicide victims is a youth and one among five is a house wife.

These are some of the the findings of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) which came out with the latest figures on accidents and suicides in the country.

According to the 'Accidental Deaths and Suicide in India -- 2007' report, the country witnessed an increase of 3.8% in the incidents of suicide with 1,22,637 people ending their lives last year. The number of women was 43,342.

Maharashtra has reported the highest number of suicides with 15,184 cases accounting for 12.4 per cent of such incidents followed by Andhra Pradesh with 14,882 (12.1 per cent).

The report said 264 deaths came under common pact of mass or family suicides consisting 118 men and 146 women.

The highest number of such cases were reported from Kerala (39), followed by Andhra Pradesh (34) and Madhya Pradesh (12).

Family problems and illness were another causes for suicide, accounting for 23.8 per cent and 22.3 per cent respectively. Failure in relationships (2.8%), bankruptcy (2.7) and dowry dispute (2.6) were other major factors.

Ending life due to ideological affiliations and hero worship, a disturbing trend witnessed in the late 1970s and early '80s, claimed 261 lives.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/14_people_end_lives_every_hour_in_India/articleshow/3787363.cms

How to Get Kissable Lips

The most kissable lips are smooth and sweet, not dry, chapped and tense. These guidelines will help both men and women make their lips look more attractive and inviting.

Steps

1. Exfoliate with sugar. This will not only soften your lips, but it'll also clean them and leave a lingering sweetness behind.

- Put a pinch of sugar in the palm of your hand.

- Soak the fingertips of the opposite hand with water.

- Mix a few droplets of water with the sugar until it is pasty.

- Apply in a circular motion to lips to exfoliate. Use your index finger and move in gentle small circles, then all the way around the lips.

2. Polish your lips. Apply a lip balm or petroleum jelly immediately after exfoliating, at bedtime and throughout the day to keep your lips hydrated. If you don't follow up the exfoliating treatment with lip balm, your lips will get dry and look worse than ever.

- Lip balm with a sheen can make it look like you just licked your lips, which is something people often do before and during kissing (and which you should try not to do outside of those circumstances, because saliva dries out your lips).

- Try to use a lip treatment with an SPF to avoid sun damage. Frequent exposure to sunlight can increase the likelihood of lip cancer, especially when combined with alcohol or tobacco use.[1][2] If you have a lip sore or lump that won't go away, get it checked out.

3. Relax your lip muscles. You might have some tension in your lips that is making them look clenched or tight, and this makes your lips look less kiss-worthy.[3] One way to make sure your lips are relaxed is to open them slightly, so that there's a tiny sliver between your lips through which air can flow; not only will this relax your lips, but it'll also make them look bigger because they're subtly parted. If you look at pictures of models, you'll notice that many of them have their lips at least slightly parted.
4. Frame the shape of your lips. What matters more than the fullness of your lips is symmetry, which is the universal beacon of attractiveness.

For feminine lips: Smooth out any imperfections with lip liner, then fill in with a tinted lip gloss. Wax any hair around your lips (especially if you have dark hair and light skin) so that the contrast between your skin and lips is increased, making your lips "pop".
*
For masculine lips, facial hair can hide imperfections. Stubble seems to strike a good balance because it signals masculinity (the ability to grow facial hair) while still maintaining a youthful appearance.[5]
* If you smoke, you'll eventually get "smoker's lines", which are fine lines and wrinkles above your top lip. These will make your lips look less attractive; they can only be prevented by not smoking, and they can only be hidden by makeup or facial hair.
5.
Smile seductively. A big, genuine smile is attractive, but you don't smile like that all the time. When you make eye contact, whether it's in a conversation or from across the room, curling the corners of your lips upwards can capture the essence of a smile while still showing off your kissable lips.


Tips

* If you don't have sugar, use a soft toothbrush or baby tooth brush to exfoliate your lips gently.
* Avoid lipsticks that are longwearing as they are often very drying. Some lipsticks and glosses have fragrances but can also dry your lips over time. Try mixing your favorite color with a hearty lip treatment. Reuse the tubes and carry them with you. You'll need to apply more often than usual.
* If you have ignored your lips for a long time it may take a few weeks to start noticing changes.
* Lip plumping and lip treatments containing silicone may make your lips look fuller, but they are temporary, more expensive solutions.
* Play a brass instrument (e.g., the trumpet). The constant vibration required to produce sound causes your lips to swell slightly, naturally making them fuller.


Warnings

* Avoid scrubbing (tearing or small cuts could occur).
* Serious lip conditions may require a visit to a dermatologist or physician.
* Try new products on a small area to test for sensitivity. Don't apply to your entire lip area until you are sure it is safe for your skin. Irritated lips can be caused by many ingredients found in lip treatments, lip sticks, fragrances, etc. Try something hypoallergenic if you have problems with your lips becoming inflamed or irritated. Many SPFs can cause irritation. If you are allergic to a specific ingredient and it bothers your eyes or another part of your face, it may also irritate your lips.

http://www.wikihow.com/Get-Kissable-Lips

10 Facts Every Westerner Should Know About the Middle East

10 Facts Every Westerner Should Know About the Middle East
middle_east

Most Westerners know very little about the Middle East and the people that live there. This lack of knowledge hurts our ability to understand, and engage in intelligent discussion about, current events.

For example, frighteningly few know the difference between Sunni and Shia Muslims, and most think the words “Arab” and “Muslim” are pretty much interchangeable. They aren’t. So here’s a very brief primer aimed at raising the level of knowledge about the region to an absolute minimum.
Basics

1.

Arabs are part of an ethnic group, not a religion. Arabs were around long before Islam, and there have been (and still are) Arab Christians and Arab Jews. In general, you’re an Arab if you 1) are of Arab descent (blood), or 2) speak the main Arab language (Arabic).
2.

Not all Arabs are Muslim. There are significant populations of Arab Christians throughout the world, including in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Northern Africa and Palestine/Israel.
3.

Islam is a religion. A Muslim (roughly pronounced MOOSE-lihm) is someone who follows the religion. So you wouldn’t say someone follows Muslim or is an Islam, just as you wouldn’t say someone follows Christian or is a Christianity.
4.

Shia Muslims are similar to Roman Catholics in Christianity. They have a strong clerical presence via Imams and promote the idea of going through them to practice the religion correctly. Sunni Muslims are more like Protestant Christians. They don’t really focus on Imams and believe in maintaining a more direct line to God than the Shia.
5.

People from Iran are also known as Persians, and they are not Arabs.
6.

Arabs are Semites. We’ve all heard the term anti-Semitism being used — often to describe Arabs. While antisemitism does specifically indicate hatred for Jews, the word “Semite” comes from the Bible and referred originally to anyone who spoke one of the Semitic Languages.
7.

According to the Bible, Jews and Arabs are related [Genesis 25]. Jews descended from Abraham’s son Isaac, and Arabs descended from Abraham’s son Ishmael. So not only are both groups Semitic, but they’re also family.
8.

Sunni Muslims make up most of the Muslim world (roughly 90%). 1
9.

The country with the world’s largest Muslim population is Indonesia. 2
10.

The rift between the Shia and Sunni started right after Muhammad’s death and originally reduced to a power struggle regarding who was going to become the authoritative group for continuing the faith.

The Shia believed Muhammad’s second cousin Ali should have taken over (the family/cleric model). The Sunni believed that the best person for the job should be chosen by the followers (the merit model) and that’s how the first Caliph, Abu Bakr, was appointed.

Although the conflict began as a political struggle it now mostly considered a religious and class conflict, with political conflict emanating from those rifts.

Sunni vs. Shia | Arab vs. Non-Arab

Here’s how the various Middle Eastern countries break down in terms of Sunni vs. Shia and whether or not they are predominantly Arab. Keep in mind that these are generalizations; significant diversity exists in many of the countries listed.

*

Iraq Mostly Shia (roughly 60%), but under Saddam the Shia were oppressed and the Sunni were in power despite being only 20% of the population. Arab.
*

Iran Shia. NOT Arab.
*

Palestine Sunni. Arab.
*

Egypt Sunni. Arab.
*

Saudi Arabia Sunni. Arab.
*

Syria Sunni. Arab.
*

Jordan Sunni. Arab.
*

Gulf States Sunni. Arab.

Conclusion

What’s depressing is the fact that this only took me 30 minutes to write, and you 2 minutes to read. Yet most people in the West (and especially in the United States) lack even this cursory level of knowledge about the region.:
References

1The CIA World Fact Book | Field Listing - Religions

2The CIA World Fact Book | Field Listing - Indonesia

Wikipedia | Sunni Muslims

Wikipedia | Shia Muslims

Wikipedia | Arabs

FACTBOX - Highs and lows in Pakistan-India ties

Tension is running high between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan after militants attacked Mumbai.
India says it has proof of a Pakistani link to the Mumbai attacks that killed nearly 200 people, raising the prospect of renewed confrontation between the countries.
Pakistan condemned the assault, denied any state agency was involved and assured India of full cooperation in investigations.
Following are some of the highs and lows in relations between the neighbours:
1947 - Britain divides its Indian empire into secular but mainly Hindu India and Muslim Pakistan, triggering one of the greatest and bloodiest migrations of modern history.
1947/48 - India and Pakistan go to their first war over the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir. The war ended with a U.N.-ordered ceasefire and resolution seeking a plebiscite for the people of Jammu and Kashmir to decide whether to become part of India or Pakistan.
1965 - India and Pakistan go to war over Kashmir. Fighting ends after United Nations calls for ceasefire.
1971 - Pakistan and India go to war a third time over East Pakistan, which became independent Bangladesh.
1972 - Pakistani Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi sign agreement in Indian town of Simla to lay principles meant to govern relations.
1974 - India detonates its first nuclear device.
1990 - Indian army opens fire in Kashmir's summer capital Srinagar during protest against crackdown on separatism, killing 38 and spurring a revolt. India accuses Pakistan of arming and sending Islamist militants into Indian Kashmir. Pakistan denies that, saying it gives political, moral and diplomatic support to what it calls a Kashmiri freedom movement.
1998, May - India carries out five underground nuclear tests and announces plans to build a nuclear arsenal. Pakistan conducts six tests of its own in response.
1999
Feb - Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee makes a historic bus ride to Pakistan for summit with Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif.
May - The two countries stand on the brink of their fourth war after India launches major counter-strike against Pakistani intruders dug in on mountains in Kargil in Indian Kashmir.
2000
July - Summit between Pakistani leader and army chief General Pervez Musharraf and Vajpayee in the Indian city of Agra ends in failure.
2001
Dec - Militants attack Indian parliament. Fourteen people, including the five assailants, are killed. India blames Pakistan-based Kashmiri separatist groups Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad and demands action against them. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers confront each other on the border.
2003 - Pakistan announces ceasefire along the Line of Control, the de facto border in Kashmir. India welcomes the move.
2004 - The two countries launch a peace process that brings an improvement in diplomatic, sporting and trade links but no progress on Kashmir. Peace process comes under strain from occasional bomb attacks in India.
2008
July - India says Pakistan's ISI intelligence agency was behind a bomb attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul that killed 58 people.
Nov - Mumbai attacks bring tension to its highest level since since the weeks following the December 2001 attack on India's parliament.
http://in.news.yahoo.com/137/20081130/742/tnl-factbox-highs-and-lows-in-pakistan-i.html

15 Steps to Cultivate Lifelong Learning

“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new lands, but in seeing with new eyes.” - Marcel Proust“I don’t think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday.” - Abraham Lincoln

“I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.” - Mark Twain

Assuming the public school system hasn’t crushed your soul, learning is a great activity. It expands your viewpoint. It gives you new knowledge you can use to improve your life. Even if you discount the worldly benefits, the act of learning can be a source of enjoyment.

But in a busy world, it can often be hard to fit in time to learn anything that isn’t essential. The only things learned are those that need to be. Everything beyond that is considered frivolous. Even those who do appreciate the practice of lifelong learning, can find it difficult to make the effort.

Here are some tips for installing the habit of lifelong learning:


1) Always have a book.

It doesn’t matter if it takes you a year or a week to read a book. Always strive to have a book that you are reading through, and take it with you so you can read it when you have time. Just by shaving off a few minutes in-between activities in my day I can read about a book per week. That’s at least fifty each year.

2) Keep a “To-Learn” List

We all have to-do lists. These are the tasks we need to accomplish. Try to also have a “to-learn” list. On it you can write ideas for new areas of study. Maybe you would like to take up a new language, learn a skill or read the collective works of Shakespeare. Whatever motivates you, write it down.

3) Get More Intellectual Friends

Start spending more time with people who think. Not just people who are smart. But people who actually invest much of their time in learning new skills. Their habits will rub off on you. Even better, they will probably share some of their knowledge with you.

4) Guided Thinking

Albert Einstein once said, “Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking.” Simply studying the wisdom of others isn’t enough, you have to think through ideas yourself. Spend time journaling, meditating or contemplating over ideas you have learned.

5) Put it Into Practice

Skill based learning is useless if it isn’t applied. Reading a book on C++ isn’t the same thing as writing a program. Studying painting isn’t the same as picking up a brush. If your knowledge can be applied, put it into practice.

6) Teach Others

You learn what you teach. If you have an outlet of communicating ideas to others, you are more likely to solidify that learning. Start a blog, mentor someone or even discuss ideas with a friend.

7) Clean Your Input

Some forms of learning are easy to digest, but often lack substance. I make a point of regularly cleaning out my feed reader for blogs I subscribe to. Great blogs can be a powerful source of new ideas. But every few months I realize I’m collecting posts from blogs that I am simply skimming. Every few months, purify your input to save time and focus on what counts.

8 ) Learn in Groups

Lifelong learning doesn’t mean condemning yourself to a stack of dusty textbooks. Join organizations that teach skills. Workshops and group learning events can make educating yourself a fun, social experience.

9) Unlearn Assumptions

You can’t add water to a full cup. I always try to maintain a distance away from any idea. Too many convictions simply mean too few paths for new ideas. Actively seek out information that contradicts your worldview.

10) Find Jobs that Encourage Learning

Pick a career that encourages continual learning. If you are in a job that doesn’t have much intellectual freedom, consider switching to one that does. Don’t spend forty hours of your week in a job that doesn’t challenge you.

11) Start a Project

Set out to do something you don’t know how. Forced learning in this way can be fun and challenging. If you don’t know anything about computers, try building one. If you consider yourself a horrible artist, try a painting.

12) Follow Your Intuition

Lifelong learning is like wandering through the wilderness. You can’t be sure what to expect and there isn’t always an end goal in mind. Letting your intuition guide you can make self-education more enjoyable. Most of our lives have been broken down to completely logical decisions, that making choices on a whim has been stamped out.

13) The Morning Fifteen

Use the first fifteen minutes of your morning as a period for education. If you find yourself too groggy, you might want to wait a short time. Just don’t put it off later in the day where urgent activities will push it out of the way.

14) Reap the Rewards

Learn information you can use. Understanding the basics of programming allows me to handle projects that other people would require outside help. Meeting a situation that makes use of your educational efforts can be a source of pride.

15) Make it a Priority

Few external forces are going to persuade you to learn. The desire has to come from within. Once you decide you want to make lifelong learning a habit, it is up to you to make it a priority in your life.

http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifestyle/15-steps-to-cultivate-lifelong-learning.html

Obama makes history, elected US president

Democrat Barack Obama captured the White House on Tuesday after an extraordinary two-year campaign, defeating Republican John McCain to make history as the first black to be elected US president.

Obama will be sworn in as the 44th US president on January 20, 2009, television networks said. He will face a crush of immediate challenges, from tackling an economic crisis to ending the war in Iraq and striking a compromise on overhauling the health care system.

McCain saw his hopes for victory evaporate with losses in a string of key battleground states led by Ohio, the state that narrowly clinched President George W. Bush's re-election in 2004, and Virginia, a state that had not backed a Democrat since 1964.

Obama led a Democratic electoral landslide that also expanded the party's majorities in both chambers of Congress and firmly repudiated eight years of Republican President George W. Bush's leadership.

The win by Obama, son of a black father from Kenya and white mother from Kansas, marked a milestone in U.S. history. It came 45 years after the height of the civil rights movement led by Martin Luther King.

In a campaign dominated at the end by a flood of bad news on the economy, Obama's leadership and proposals on how to handle the crisis tipped the race in his favor. Exit polls showed six of every 10 voters listed the economy as the top issue.

Tens of thousands of Obama supporters gathered in Chicago's Grant Park for an election night rally that had the air of a celebratory concert, cheering results that showed his victories in key states.

McCain, a 72-year-old Arizona senator and former Vietnam War prisoner, had hoped to become the oldest president to begin a first term in the White House and see his running mate Sarah Palin become the first female U.S. vice president.

Ten Rules for Being Human

Ten Rules for Being Human


1. You will receive a body. You may like it or hate it, but it's yours to keep for the entire period.
2. You will learn lessons. You are enrolled in a full-time informal school called, "life."
3. There are no mistakes, only lessons. Growth is a process of trial, error, and experimentation. The "failed" experiments are as much a part of the process as the experiments that ultimately "work."
4. Lessons are repeated until they are learned. A lesson will be presented to you in various forms until you have learned it. When you have learned it, you can go on to the next lesson.
5. Learning lessons does not end. There's no part of life that doesn't contain its lessons. If you're alive, that means there are still lessons to be learned.
6. "There" is no better a place than "here." When your "there" has become a "here", you will simply obtain another "there" that will again look better than "here."
7. Other people are merely mirrors of you. You cannot love or hate something about another person unless it reflects to you something you love or hate about yourself.
8. What you make of your life is up to you. You have all the tools and resources you need. What you do with them is up to you. The choice is yours.
9. Your answers lie within you. The answers to life's questions lie within you. All you need to do is look, listen, and trust.
10. You will forget all this.

Ten Tips for Killer Eye Contact

Until then, here are ten tips to focus on.

1. When you make eye contact with a woman you don’t know, let her look away first. Practice holding eye contact with people longer. Start with your friends. Then start giving more eye contact to strangers. If you meet eyes with a woman, try to let her look way before you do.

2. When you break eye contact, don’t look back for a fraction of a second. People with low-confidence tend to look at a person, look away, and then look back again momentarily. This is a “checking” motion. It shows neediness because you are checking to see what the other person is doing rather than being confident in yourself.

3. Relax and have a pleasant look on your face. When you do make eye contact with someone lighten up your face. Put on a hint of a smile or at least relax your face as much as possible. You want it to look warm, inviting and pleasant, perhaps how it would look if you were talking to a friend. If women are getting creeped out, it’s likely you are either too intense or too scared.

4. Give as much eye contact as possible when in conversation. When you are in a conversation and the other person is talking, look them in the eye 100% of the time. It’s okay to look away a bit more if you’re talking. When you are talking, look the other person in the eye 70-100% of the time. It’s also okay to look away when you are joking around with her or teasing her.

5. When in a group, always look at whom ever is speaking. You don’t always have to be the center of attention. It’s okay to give other people the spotlight. But you want to make sure that you look at whom ever is speaking at the time. If you are looking elsewhere, you come across as reclusive.

6. Getting eye contact is about what you do with your whole body. How much eye contact you get from women will have more to do with your body language than the way you move your eyes. If you are walking with a confident swagger, you will get more eye contact. Women notice you from a mile away, probably before you even notice them. And what they see is how you move. They see how you carry yourself.

I like to visualize that I own the place, that I’m walking around making sure everyone is having fun. I also sometimes visualize that I’m a police officer, that I own the road and I’m looking past all these civilians for something important. Basically the idea is that you are a very important person.

7. Get Comfortable Being Seen. Eye contact is dependent more on how you react to people when they look at you, rather than how you look at other people. Confident guys are normally the leaders of their group. Everyone in the group is looking to them to see what’s going to happen next. The confident guys absorbs the gaze of those around him. He enjoys it. You can practice getting comfortable being seen by taking up a lot of space.

When walking I like to visualize is that I’m not letting people get past me on the sidewalk. How would you walk if you didn’t want people to pass you? You would make yourself bigger. When I walk into a room, I walk through the center of it, even if it’s empty. If I’m sitting with a group of people, I opt for the middle of the group.

8. Keep your eyes at the horizon level or above as opposed to looking down. Looking down is associated with shame and deference to a superior. Picture children when they get in trouble and an adult is yelling at them. They hang their head in shame and look down. You want to do the opposite of this. When you break eye contact with people, don’t look down, look to the either side.

9. When approaching a woman, don’t stare at her. When walking over to a woman to talk to her, try not to focus too much on her. This is simply because it’s intimidating. She can feel you staring at her. When I do it, I act pretty as if I were looking around for where I’m going and am about to ask her for directions. Even if she’s not looking at you she can feel someone’s eyes boring down into her. It will freak her out. You definitely want to give her eye contact when you get to her. But try looking away before you get to her.

10. Do not wait for eye contact to approach. If I waited for eye contact before I approached, I would never approach anyone. I was never good at the eye contact game and I approached and dated many many women. I began to get a lot more eye contact after I started approaching. The approaching made me confident and women could sense that. They were attracted to that. Learn as much as you can about eye contact but don’t rely on it. If you are still learning the signals you will still need to approach to find out if you are reading the signals correctly.

There are really no hard and fast rules when it comes to eye contact. Try some different things and see what works for you. Every person is different.

Top 10 Websites to Download your Music legally for Free

If you’re a big fan of downloading tracks from the internet then check out the following websites that will provide you free downloads for your favorite song.

1. Jamendo

Jamendo is your one stop to unlimited and legal downloads. You can find music by artist’s name, song name or album name.  Currently there are 12541 published albums along with 67398 album reviews and around 417100 members.  Join Now

2.  Artist Server

Artist Server has the tools and services to help you promote, distribute and track your music online. You can even have your own blog, radio station, favorites list, Website friends list and more.

3. GarageBand

GarageBand covers a wide range of genres and offers a large number of tunes for download. The majority of artists will be unknown to most people, due to the nature of the site, but the review and rating system makes it easy to pinpoint and listen to the most popular tracks.

4.  Live Music Archive

Live music archive contains a  large collection of live recordings from a wide range of artists. Please note that the site runs a policy which does not adhere to any particular set of laws, and states so in its Terms and Conditions, and makes the user responsible for making sure that the content is legal in their own country.

5.Epitonic

Epitonic also has a large number of online radio stations based on several genres and subgenres that are worth a listen. The site is a little confusing at first, but once you work out where the genre and artist lists are, its fairly simple from there

6.  Download.com

I’m pretty sure we are all familiar with Download.com already. The music is generally from unknown and unsigned artists, but the range and quantity of material here is staggering. Currently it’s offering more than 80,000 free MP3s!

7. Freemp3Mail

FreeMp3Mail is a Free legal download system in which the user creates an account by giving the site an email address and a password. It is a great source for free music downloads. The best part about it is that all of the music is 100% legal and yours to keep.

8.  AltSonunds

AltSounds is an  alternative online music community. It gives listeners a place to find the best new music available in an environment that works for them and with them. Like the sites I’ve mentioned above it also offers free legal streaming and downloads.

9.  SoundClick

Soundclick is one of my personal favorite websites. I’ve been using it for a long long time now. Not only you get to download your favorite track but there are so many versions available for most of these songs created by other users. You can even buy or sell music there.

10.  Amazon

Last but not the least Amazon is one of the biggest websites out there that offers free music downloads for it’s users. The popular one-stop-shop has a small selection of tracks available for download for free. These are changed regularly, but are often by known artists.

http://techcityinc.com/2008/10/14/top-10-websites-to-download-your-music-legally-for-free/

Indian author Aravind Adiga wins Man Booker Prize 2008

Aravind Adiga poses for photographers after winning the Man Booker Prize 2008 in London. (Reuters Photo)

India's first time novelist Aravind Adiga on Wednesday won the 50,000 pounds ($87,000) Man Booker Prize 2008 for his novel, The White Tiger. (Watch ) 

Young Indian writer Aravind Adiga is one of the two first-time novelists on the 2008 Man Booker's shortlist of six. The other is Australia's Steve Toltz. 

Only two other debut novelists have achieved this in the past - D B C Pierre in 2003 for his novel Vernon God Little and India's Arundhati Roy in 1997 for The God of Small Things . 

33-year-old Adiga, who wanted to be a novelist since he was a boy, was born in Chennai and now lives in Mumbai. 

The White Tiger is a "compelling, angry and darkly humorous" novel about a man's journey from Indian village life to entrepreneurial success. It was described by reviewers as an "unadorned portrait" of Indian scene "from the bottom of the heap". 

Adiga is the fourth Indian born-author to win the prize, joining compatriots Salman Rushdie, Arundhati Roy and Kiran Desai who won the prize in 1981, 1997 and 2006 respectively. 

A fifth winner, V S Naipaul is of Indian ancestry. Adiga's The White Tiger is the ninth winning novel to take its inspiration from India or Indian identity. 

Today's win is a first for publisher Atlantic; although they had books shortlisted for the prize in 2003 with The Good Doctor by Damon Gaigut and in 2004 withBitter Fruit by Achmat Dangor. 

Peter Clarke, Chief Executive of Man Group PLC, presented a cheque of 50,000 pounds to Adiga at a gala dinner in the Guildhall here. 

Michael Portillo, Chair of the judges, said "The judges found the decision difficult because the shortlist contained such strong candidates. In the end, The White Tiger prevailed because the judges felt that it shocked and entertained in equal manner. 

"The novel undertakes the extraordinarily difficult task of gaining and holding the reader's sympathy...dealing with pressing social issues and significant global developments with astonishing humour." 

Each of the six shortlisted authors, including the winner, receives 2,500 pounds (USD 4,357) and a designer-bound edition of their book. 

The judging panel for the 2008 Man Booker Prize for Fiction comprised: former MP and Cabinet minister Michael Portillo, editor of Granta Alex Clark; novelists Louise Doughty, founder of Ottakar's bookshops James Heneage and Hardeep Singh Kohli, a TV and radio broadcaster. 

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Aravind_Adiga_wins_Man_Booker_Prize_for_White_Tiger/articleshow/3596800.cms

27 Reasons to Visit Spain

Practicing your Spanish is a great reason for visiting Spain, but who wants to do that?
Oh, that’s right, you do and I do.
But in addition to that, there are other great reasons. I’ll let the following pictures take the place of about 27,000 words.

1

They really light up the Agbar Tower at Glòries in Barcelona.

2

The entrance to Gaudi’s Güell Park in Barcelona, looks like an enchanted place. This is one of about 70 municipal parks in the city.

3

If you’re tired of the parks, take a stroll on Barcelona’s beaches.

4

You might also like the beaches of Cádiz.

5

The Aran Valley in Catalonia looks like a really inviting place.

6

The Mosque or Mezquita in Córdoba has some really colorful pillars and arches.

7

You get to fly into one of the most colorful airports I’ve seen. This is the Barajas International in Madrid.

8

La Peñalara is the highest peak in the mountain chain Sierra de Guadarrama.

9

The Metrópolis building, on Gran Vía.

10

The Puerta Alcalá at the entrance to a park called El Retiro.

11

The Alcazaba, an 8th centruy Moorish fortification stands over a Roman theater in Málaga.

12

The Castillo Gibralfaro, on a hill next to the Alcazaba in Málaga.

13

The harbor at Málaga.

14

A Roman theater in Mérida.

15

The Pyrenees.

16

Roman aqueduct in Segovia.

17

The Puente Alamillo in Sevilla.

18

The Romans sure built a lot of aqueducts and theaters in the Iberian Peninsula. This one’s in Sevilla.

19

City Hall behind a fountain in Valencia.

20

This rounded glass building known as L’Hemisfèric is an Imax theater, Planetarium and Laserium in the Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias in Valencia.

21

La Lonja de la seda, known affectionatly as La Lonja, was built as an oil market and was later used as a silk exchange.

22

A typical narrow street in the old part of town, Valencia.

23

The Aljafería, an 11th century Moorish palace and castle in Zaragoza.

24

La Puerta del Carmen, Zaragoza. Wouldn’t it be interesting to drive down a modern thoroughfare and drive by this?

25

The River Ebro running through Zaragoza. Looks like the setting for a Harry Potter book.

26

A snowy afternoon at Pilar’s square, Zaragoza.

27

Plaza de las catedrales, in Zaragoza.
Picture credit goes to Wikipedia and the volunteers who create it. You can find these pictures by starting at the article about Spain and following links to other articles.

http://www.facebook.com/ayurvedastreet

Free group SMSes from Google soon

After SMS-based search, Google Labs in India has launched Google SMS channel – a platform to send free group SMS. Currently, in a pilot phase, Google is testing the product in India and intends to launch it to global audiences later. It supports English, Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada languages. No commercial date for the launch has been announced.
The SMS channel was fully conceptualised by Google India Labs. Prasad Ram, head (R&D), Google India, says, “The SMS channel is in line with our endeavour to connect the 250-million mobile subscribers who have no access to information.”
Unlike other group SMS providers, Google’s SMS channel does not add any advertisement on the message footer, so group publishers get full 160 character messages to post. But Prasad is not ruling out monetary opportunity from embedded advertisements during the commercial launch. “Banner advertisement and contextual marketing can be among many ways to monetise this channel.”
At present, Google allows publishers to create individual channels and publish content that other users can subscribe to after registering with valid mobile numbers. Google expects non-governmental organisations (NGOs), corporates and schools among others to create groups over SMS for communication and regular updates.
Ram says, “Google foresees a large uptake for similar mobile services and will continue to work from our India labs to deliver such products for both international and domestic markets.”
As of now, one can subscribe to a maximum of 30 channels and by default receive a maximum of 10 SMSes per day, which can be changed later. Subscribers can even define the time slot for receiving SMS. A content publisher doesn’t need a mobile phone to send an SMS to his group as there’s an option in Google SMS channel that lets him compose and send SMS via the web itself.
The Google service looks like an improved version of existing group messaging services such as Zook, SMSgupshup and Mytoday. Zook had recently announced an alert service that enables users to track local shopping deals or movie and content updates such as events, weather, traffic, cricket news among others. Google’s SMS channel can work great for publishers as they get a dedicated marketing hook to keep users engaged, which none of the other services offer. For instance, a neighbourhood bookstore on SMS channel can inform subscribers about new titles and special offers.

http://business-standard.com/india/storypage.php?autono=336583

Random Photos Worth Looking At

Random Photos Worth Looking At