Look to this day!

For it is life, the very life of life.

In its brief course

Lie all the verities and realities

of your existence.

The bliss of growth

The glory of action

The splendour of beauty,

For yesterday is but a dream

And tomorrow is only a vision,

But today well-lived makes every yesterday a dream of happiness

And every tomorrow a vision of hope.

Look well, therefore, to this day!

Such is the salutation to the dawn.

Kalidasa.

YOGA AND HEALTH

“Yoga is the most practical and curative medicine to control the ailments of modern life. The practice of Yoga prevents the sorrows which are yet to come.”

Originally emerging some 4,000 years ago in the Indian subcontinent, yoga began as a philosophy. The word yoga means “oneness” in Sanskrit (to develop deeper mediation.)
While mediation is still an important element of the practice today, the role of asanas and poses, has increased over time to enable the unification of body and mind through a combination of breathing, stretching and mental focus.

The practices of asanas and pranyamas are very helpful to preserve the health and connectivity of our body. Yoga is unique in that it recuperates the system. The practice of asana and pranayama, helps clean and massages the internal organ and also in the efficient removal of toxins from the body.

When practitioners perform yogangas (postures) like Asana, Pranayama, Bandha, Mudra, blood circulation improves to optimum level. It also improves the lung capacity and helps to eradicates all the diseases.

For the cells to grow and survive stretching is important. When the cells are stretched they are able to grow better, adapt and survive. Yogis are said to have had long lives. This was because of the kind of exercise they did on a long term basis. Yogic practices improve the optimum growth of cells. The technique of stretching and contracting in yoga help in the precise positioning of the muscles. Hence the muscles do not get exhausted and are thus trained to remain healthy throughout the life.

“The person who has practiced in yoga should not bother about disease, old age or death, he will be able to overcome.”

Best Time for Yoga

The best time for yoga practice is either in the early morning or late in the evening.

A well ventilated and clean room should be selected for the practice of yoga.

Using a mat or a thick blanket is a must.

Open places like garden, ground etc should not selected for the practice of yoga.

Asanas should be done on empty stomach. Allowing at least 3 hours after a meal, 1 hour after refreshment and 1/2 hour after light drink such as milk is essential.

Wear loose and comfortable cloths, which felicitate free movement of limbs.

It is better to take bath before practicing yoga. One should not take bath immediately after the practices. After 1/2 an hour one can take bath.

Before starting practice of yoga, the bladder should be emptied, bowels evacuated and mouth should be cleaned.

After completing practice of asanas and pranayama always lie down in shavasana for at least 10 minutes.

There should not be any type of forceful bending and other movements. One can try only to the extent, he can perform.

One should sit facing east or west or north and not to south.

Women should not practice asanas during menstrual period. One should stop practicing asanas after the fifth month of pregnancy up to three or four months after the confinement except under expert guidance.

After the yoga practice, one should feel fresh and relaxed, never tired, exhausted or sweating.

Asanas and physical exercises should not be combined.

One should practice with full concentration and awareness. There should be co-herence of the body and mind

The qualities demanded from a aspirant are discipline, faith, tenacity and perseverance to practice regularly without interruption.

Yoga practices Should Do under the Guidance of a Learned Teacher or guru, and no one should not practice Yoga by seeing book, TV, etc.

“Balance under both external environmental variations such as cold or heat and internal environmental variations joy or distress is yoga says Bhagavadgita.”

HOW DID SLANG BEGIN?

Slang is a variation of or addition to standard speech. If you stop to think of it, you will realize how many forms of slang there are.

For example, slang may be formed by compounding words (“low-down”)

Or by clipping words ( “pro,” “mike,” “pix” ) or abbreviation ( “O.K.” “snafu,” “q.t.” ), or onomatopoeia ( “boom,” “whiz,” “bang” ), or borrowing from foreign languages

( “pronto,” “savvy” ), or by analogy ( “Park your hat,” “He got pickled” ).

These various forms of slang arise for many reasons and under many different conditions. One of the most common ways is among people who belong to the same group. It might be the same trade, profession, hobby, age or social position. For example, students have their “lab” and their “gym.” Second-hand car dealers have their “creampuffs” (good cars) and their “dogs” (bad cars.) A waitress will say, “Drop two on,” when she orders poached eggs on toast.

But the same slang word in one group may mean something else to another group. In the underworld, “cat” doesn’t mean the same thing it does in the jazz world. Some social conditions tend to produce slang more easily. If there excitement, crowding or people have been suddenly assembled for a particular purpose (as in time of war), then a large number of slang words are formed. “Blitz,” “doodlebug,” and walkie-talkie” were slang expressions created in the last world war.

Sometimes one clever person may launch a new slang expression and it is picked up by a lot of people. In many cases, new expressions that were once considered slang have been accepted into the dictionary in time.

Among these are “bet,” “shabby,” “chap,” “cab,” and “kidnap.” Some words have lasted as slang for hundreds of years, as, for example, the word “booze.”

the microsoft file

By WENDY GOLDMAN ROHM

THE SECRET CASE AGAINST BILL GATES

AN INTIMATE ACCOUNT OF THE BIGGEST BUSINESS STORY OF THE DECADE.

Case Closed meets Barbarians at the Gate in this definitive account of the biggest business story of the decade: the case against Microsoft. Award-winning investigative reporter Wendy Rohm, who has been on the Gates case for over a decade, has created a brilliant inside look at the world's most powerful corporate leader.

The Microsoft File is an extraordinary fly-on-the-wall account of Microsoft’s intent to monopolize the computer industry. Wendy Goldman Rohm takes you to the inner sanctum of Microsoft, has you sit in on meetings between Microsoft and important customers and competitors, and looks at the struggles of the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice as they try to develop a strategy to counter one of the most serious charges of market manipulation since John D. Rockefeller and Standard Oil.

The Microsoft File is based on information from not one but many "Deep Throats," as well as internal documents that tell a story of:

• How Microsoft’s predatory marketing and pricing behavior belies its claims of fair competition.
• How Microsoft killed the market for a competitor’s operating system, a system that could have challenged MS-DOS.
• How bugging devices were found in the hotel room of a supposed business partner of Microsoft’s the day before a critical meeting with Microsoft.
• How Microsoft inserted hidden code in the beta version of Windows 3.1, creating fear in the marketplace that competing products would crash and adding a byte in the final version that was marketed so the hidden code wouldn’t appear on the screen.
• How close Apple came to discarding the Macintosh operating system for Windows, and the real reason why Bill Gates decided to invest some $250 million in Apple.
• How Microsoft, despite nondisclosure agreements, obtained and used technological secrets from competitors.
• How the biggest mergers in the software industry unfolded, blow-by-blow, as Microsoft’s competitors tried to survive the increasing power of the Gates juggernaut. Is Microsoft’s rise as the world's most powerful and successful company a classic example of the free market, as many Microsoft apologists contend?

Is its success, and the failure of other companies, the result of the creative destruction that makes capitalism so strong? The Microsoft File suggests that other forces were at work.

INSIDE THE MICROSOFT FILE

Three bugs
In the detectives upturned palm were three bugs. The man took out the bottle with black powder and a little brush. He dusted the three detectives carefully. No fingerprints were found

A Remarkable Turnaround
In little more than a year, [The German computer manufacturer] Vobis had been turned around from selling no MS-DOS and 100 percent DR-DOS to selling no DR-DOS and more than 90 percent of its computers with MS-DOS.

A False Diagnosis
“What the guy is supposed to do is feel uncomfortable and when he has bugs, suspect the problem is DR-DOS and then go out to buy MS-DOS or decide not to take the risk for the other machines in the office.”

Smile and Shoot
“If you are going to kill someone, there isn’t much reason to get all that work up about it and angry. You just pull the trigger. Angry discussions beforehand are a waste of time. We need to smile with Novell while we pull the trigger.”

Pearly Gates and His Sidekick
Noorda liked to refer the Microsoft chairman as Pearly Gates and [senior VP Steve] Ballmer as Em-Ballmer. That was because “one promises you heaven and the other prepares you for the grave.”

Being Like Mike
It’s no wonder that [other CEOs] were comparing doing business with Bill Gates to having a date with Mike Tyson.

Pocket Change for a Billionaire
[Attorney General Janet] Reno’s proposed fine of $1 million a day … was a joke to him. “Every two and a half hours 1 make a million!” Gates bragged.

BOYZONE

Boyzone are an Irish boy band who had popular mainstream success during the 1990s.

Formation

Boyzone was formed in 1993 through an advertisement calling for auditions to form a new all-male 'boy band' vocal group: 'the Irish Take That'. About 300 singers tried out and initially, seven were selected. They made their first appearance, only a day after being formed, on Ireland's top-rated Late Late Show dancing to a backing track before a somewhat bemused audience in a TV moment which has often been re-played to the embarrassment of the band members who later found fame.

Breakthrough

With some of the original members fading away and others being brought into the group, it took some time before Boyzone settled down into its most recognisable five-member line-up of Ronan 'Assmaster' Keating, Stephen Gately, Mikey Graham, Keith Duffy and Shane Lynch. David McKeever, one of the original band members, left the band citing musical differnces with Ronan Keating but it is believed that he was kicked out of the band in late 1993 after a bust up with Mikey Graham which is alleged to have involved two pool cues, a bag of oranges and 6 litres of homemade whiskey. They played through 1993 and in the early parts of 1994 all over Northern Ireland, mainly in pubs and clubs, before Polygram signed them up in 1994 and released the cover version of the Four Seasons' hit "Working My Way Back to You", featuring Graham and Gately on lead vocals. It reached No. 3 in the Irish Charts.

The release of their cover version of the classic Osmonds' hit, Love Me for a Reason, broke the British charts. The song hit No. 2 in the UK and was included in their 1995 hit debut album "Said and Done". The album reached the No. 1 spot in Ireland and the UK.

"A Different Beat"

The band's second album - A Different Beat - was released in 1996 and contained their first UK number one single, a cover of the Bee Gees' hit "Words". The album also contained the hit singles A Different Beat, "Isn't It a Wonder". Ronan Keating - who by now had emerged as the band's lead singer and front-man - won the Ivor Novello award for songwriting in 1997 for "Picture of You".

"Where We Belong"

Their third studio album, Where We Belong, was released in 1998 and featured Boyzone's writing abilities. It contained the hit singles "All That I Need" (which stayed for six weeks in the MTV Asia charts), "Baby Can I Hold You" (Tracy Chapman cover)and "No Matter What". Originally written for the Andrew Lloyd Webber stage musical Whistle Down the Wind, "No Matter What" was the group's best ever selling single and was voted Song of the Year, 1998. Since the song was also recorded by Meat Loaf the band shared stage with him to perform the song during his 1998 live concert in Dublin.

Ask Baba Ali

He wanted to try something new and different: A Muslim Comedy.
The goal isn’t just to make his audience smile but more importantly get a message across by using the tool of humor.


http://www.askbabaali.com/

Confusing... :S

“Your intellect may be confused, but your emotions will never lie to you.”