Life without Gasoline!

Even with the vast resources of natural gas and petrol available under the seabed’s and untapped quantities in vast land belts of Siberia, Americas, Australia and Africa, a majority of the world population living in Asia are worried about the day in their life without gasoline – without the gas to cook and the petrol to travel. While the governments of the West woke up to this realization long back and started exploiting the desert belts of the Middle East for this liquid gold, the big guzzling economies of China and India are caught in the red trying to source this from all possible places in the world to keep fires in their homes going! Not withstanding ideologies and conveniences it would be prudent for these economies to start rationing of these products at the earliest so that their people don’t see that day in their Life without Gasoline!

Marketing the new style!

As long as the demand is more than the supply marketing as no meaning – the job is only distribution – but where the supply exceeds the demand the great art of Marketing is to be created. No painting or art piece is the same as other – so one marketing technique is not the same as other – everything is unique in some way or the other – well that’s what a marketing man will tell you to sell his stuff! Like the Maggie advertisement –“it’s different!” There is no marketing guru – with changing trends everyday all the erstwhile gurus learn new things from their students! What they did then may not deliver now! Finally a potential customer has to accept your offer and buy the product – that’s the objective and that’s your style!

Stress

Stress related illnesses are on the rise. More and more patients frequent their doctors seeking relief from stress related disorders. While some display only milder indications of stress like headaches, body aches, loss of sleep, giddiness and nausea, and the others, like exhibit much more serious symptoms like high blood pressure, palpitations, heart problems and diabetes. If left unchecked the initial symptoms could mature into full-blown diseases and disorders.

What could be the reason for this new-age malady? Why is stress playing such havoc in people’s lives?

Stress could either be due to psychological or physical causes. Defined as any interference that disturbs a person’s health, mental and physical well being, stress generally occurs due to angst and when the body is required to perform beyond its normal range of capabilities. The term stress often used to denote tension or anxiety.

People’s expectations and values have undergone a sea change over a period of time. Overweening ambitions, ever-growing desires and a tendency to become more and more materialistic has become the order of the day. We all want to be rich and successful and for that we struggle very hard and that takes a toll on our health and consequently increases stress.

In the highly competitive world of today, the word “failure” has become a taboo. We set targets that are sometimes wholly unrealistic and then try to achieve them. When we are unable to do so, we become extremely frustrated and stressful.
Stress can also result from situational factors over which an individual has no control, such as an accident or death in the family, illness, altercation with a neighbour, unexpected financial loss, and the like.

If people were to seriously imbibe the age-old virtues such as simplicity, love, and contentment, and shun the evils of greed, avarice, vice and immortality, mankind might have finally found a lasting cure to malady called stress

The Great Cinema!

All over the world people are drawn towards cinema. The Indian cinema industry grew technologically at pace with world cinema – what was improved in the West saw the Indian industry within years. Today due high tech communication methods the changeover has been faster – new improvements are introduced within few months. With the advent of computer graphics and animation, today at some stages the West is using the talents of East in technology improvement or what is developed by East is bought by West for their productions. In a short time the whole world will be one studio where a film with a Japanese storyline will be shot in the studios of Hollywood, the dances will be choreographed in Bollywood, with music composed in Kollywood, the film edited in a Russian studio and premiered at the world over on the same day in all languages!

How did NEW YORK get its name?

An Englishman, Henry Hudson, employed by Holland, was one of the many explorers who tried to find a route to the Indies via America. Although he sailed far up the river which later bore his name, he did not succeeding discovering a route. Nevertheless, the Dutch claimed all the land on either side of the Hudson despite the fact that it drove a wedge through English possessions. In 1626 they bought Manhattan Island from the Indians, built a settlement there and called it New Amsterdam. A governor was appointed, a onelegged Dutchman called peter Stuyvesant. This was too much provocation for the English settlers. A fleet sent by James, duke of York, sailed from England and anchored off New Amsterdam. The town gave it without firing a shot although the governor did all he could to make his men fight. Later its name was changed from ‘new Amsterdam’ to ‘New York’ to honour the royal duke who financed the invasion.

DOG which cannot Bark?

The Dingo is one of the very few dogs in the world that is unable to bark. It is not silent dong, however, as it makes up for not barking by howling and whining very loudly indeed. Dingoes are a very ancient breed wild dog from Australia. They are probably quite closely related to primitive dogs from which our domestic dogs of today evolved. Dingoes must have arrived in Australia with the first aborigines to settle there from Asia. They soon went wild although the aborigines of today still rear pups and train them for hunting. Dingoes are considered a pest in Australia because of the large number of sheep and cattle they kill every year.

Crime and Movies

Most people feel that the prevalence and rise of crime in the world is to a very great extent to be blamed on the excessive violence and abuse of all kind shown in films. Yet most films end with a message that “crime never pays”. Why then there is so much of real crime in the world? Are movies really to be blamed, or are there other reasons as well?

Let us consider issues other than films. Social scientists generally believe that the crime rate in society is largely linked to the socio—economic factors affecting different sections of the people. People who belong to the least privileged sections of the society are more vulnerable to crime. To understand the issue more clearly, we will have to broadly classify the varied forms of crime. In the first category, we may include such forms of relatively lesser crimes as petty theft, larceny, pick pocketing and the like. These are generally confined to the lower strata of the society. Due to the absence of any moderating influence at home or outside, such individuals are easily motivated and inspired by scenes depicting crime in movies.

In the second category, we may include the more serious crimes like dacoity, kidnapping, extortion, murder, and sexual abuse. While the first three in this category are usually carried out by organized gangs or hardened criminals, the last two are usually related to personal or social factors.

From the above discussion, it would appear that while films may have some role in the proliferation of certain forms of crime, they cannot be said to be the sole or even the main cause. Otherwise every other person who comes out of cinema hall would forthwith turn a criminal. At worst, some films may be said to expert a negative influence on those who are already vulnerable and inclined to wrongdoing.

First explorer of Sahara

In 1822, Hugh Clapperton, a young naval lieutenant, agreed to go with Walter Oudney and Dixon Denham to try and discover the source of the River NIGER in North Africa. They journeyed south across the Sahara from Tripoli to Lake Chad, the first white men to visit the region. Oudney died at Murner, and the other two separated, clapperton going on alone to Kano, a great trading city west of Lake Chad. He then traveled to Sokoto, where he became friendly with the sultan who ruled the vast area, returning to meet up with Denham again in Kuka. Having established that none of the rivers flowing into Lake Chad was associated with the NIGER, clapperton returned to England and wrote a book of his adventures. In order to solve the problem of the Niger he returned to Africa in 1825, and set out on another journey starting from the Bight of Benin. Nine months later clapperton arrived in Sokoto, where his detention by the sultan, added to the hardships of the journey, so affected his health that he died soon afterwards, at the age of thirty-nine, and was buried outside the walls of Sokoto.

Tea-Bone Stakes

British women who drank one or more cups of tea a day had denser bones than women who drank no tea at all. Some of the women had one cup of tea a day and others had more than six, but drinking more than one cup didn’t give any extra protection. The study’s authors conclude that plant compounds called flavonoids, which are present in tea, may be the reason for the positive effect-and that drinking this venerable beverage may protect against osteoporosis.

Dangerous Duo

A new study suggests that alcohol boosts smoking’s harm. Smokers who drink regularly are nearly twice as likely to have certain type of genetic mutation associated with lung cancer as are smokers who don’t drink. The researchers suspect that alcohol interferes with the body’s ability to convert carcinogenic chemicals in smoke into more benign substances that it can then eliminate. Alcohol may also disrupt the body’s ability to repair DNA that’s been damaged by carcinogens.