ex-wife belly-dancing

 
A New York City woman who was getting $850 a month in alimony because she was supposedly disabled and unable to work had her payments slashed after her ex-husband spotted online photos of her belly dancing.

Brian McGurk went to court after discovering a blog that showed his 43-year-old ex-wife dancing at a gallery.

In other internet postings, she wrote about dancing vigorously for several hours every day. Dorothy McGurk told the court that the dancing was physical therapy for injuries she suffered in a car accident in the mid-1990s. A county judge didn't buy it — and reduced her payments to $400 per month. The judge also ordered her to pay her ex-husband's legal fees and 60 percent from the sale of their home. "I wasn't really belly-dancing in them," Dorothy McGurk, 43, told the  News on Saturday. "I was posing. In some of them I was moving a veil around with my arms, but I wasn't belly-dancing."


 


























I wish I could be a professional belly dancer," she said, "but it's just not possible." She said the photos showed her and another woman, but that only the other woman was dancing. "My girlfriend in front of me was belly-dancing with a sword," she said, refusing to provide the photos. "I was just standing behind her waving a veil."

"The only thing I do are gentle exercises," she said.

world not free to express

A majority of people across the world feel they are not completely free to express unpopular opinion in their countries, says a survey released on the United Nations International Day of Democracy on Tuesday.

Most people answered in the positive for "freedom of expression" and "democracy" when they were asked how important it is to express political views without fear of being harassed and how important it is to live in a country that is governed democratically, the worldwide poll said.

The survey was carried out in 24 countries including China, India, the United States, Indonesia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Russia and South Africa, and represented 64 per cent of the world's population.

It asked questions such as -- "How important do you think it is for people to express unpopular political views without fear of being harassed or punished?" and "How important it is for you to live in a country that is governed democratically?" For both questions, the majority of people answered positively for freedom of expression and democracy.

"The notion of the importance of democracy and the notion of accepting diversity, expression of diverse political views are very integrally related," said Steven Kull, Director of WorldPublicOpinion.org, a consortium of research centres around the globe that conducted the poll.

Anda Filip, a top official of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) that sponsored the poll said one of the major challenges to democracy continues to be lack of political tolerance.

"It (political tolerance) is the very foundation of democratic dialogue and political pluralism, and yet it continues to elude us in so many societies around the world," Filip told reporters at the UN.

Established in 1889, the IPU is an international organisation for the parliaments of 143 sovereign states.

Despite the enthusiasm for political tolerance and democracy, most of the polled persons said they could not express their views freely.

"There was actually not a single country where majority said that people are completely free," said Kull.

The poll also revealed that people did not think that ethnic minorities were well represented in legislative bodies.

They also felt that opposition parties did not get a fair chance to express their views, and that legislators have limited freedom to differ from their political party.

"We see this marked discrepancy between the global demand for democratic governance and its supply," said UN Assistant-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Oscar Fernandez-Taranco.

"Despite such massive public support in favour of democracy and pluralism, we continue to be confronted with the problem of lack of political tolerance virtually everywhere," he added.

Fernandez-Taranco also said elections should not be the sole focus of the international community in their assessment of democracy, especially in post-conflict scenarios.

"The UN support in many of these electoral processes is usually accompanied by efforts to promote good governance and fundamental freedom," he said.

Meanwhile, Filip said the IPU would be studying how Members of Parliament did not feel comfortable in expressing their views that differ from political parties.

"It is a very worrying phenomenon that we are witnessing in very many regions of the world of how MPs are losing their seat for not observing certain political party discipline," she said.

In 2007, the General Assembly had designated September 15 as International Democracy Day to reflect on the achievements and setbacks of the democratic process.

The Universal Declaration on Democracy states, "While democracy is imperfect it is the only political system that has the capacity for self correction."

It's a long, long way down

The Yucatan peninsula in Mexico is estimated to have 6,400 cenotes, or sinkholes, and although they are hardly recommended for amateurs, they make for perfect diving pools for the likes of Orlando Duque.

The Colombian is one of the best cliff-divers in the world, and following his 27m-high jump into the freshwater pool at the bottom of Ik Kil – which is 60m wide and known as the Sacred Blue Cenote – he currently tops the rankings for this year's Red Bull Cliff Diving Series. The British diver Gary Hunt, meanwhile, lies in second place. The divers can reach speeds of up to 40mph during their falls.

Pools such as the one at the bottom of Ik Kil, near the Mayan archaeological site of Chichen Itza, exist because the land is made of porous limestone, which means that water can dissolve and erode the rock easily and collects underground rather than in rivers or lakes on the surface.

my life style usa

Meat production is environmentally problematic. The emissions are worse than your car. The ethical issues are worse than those in any Ed Norton film.

Oh, the resources. Meat is so packed with protein and fats that a stomachful is much more than you need. And there's the fact that making meat requires vast amounts of food and cleared land. Problems abound – but so does the demand for meat, despite it being patently clear that we need to eat less of it.

According to the New York Times, the world's total meat supply in 2007 was 284 million tons. Since Americans eat an average of 8 ounces of meat every day – or over 180 pounds a year – this means that if the entire population of the world switched to American meat-eating habits, it would require around 550 million tons a year. Put another way – we'd need two planet Earths to produce enough meat to feed everyone.



Asking the calorie needs of the average human being is a little like asking how long a piece of string is – but as a broad, shot-in-the-dark figure that neglects to account for fitness, exercise, metabolism and a host of other factors, the average human male needs around 2,500 calories and the average woman about 2,000. That's what we need to function. Any extra gets stored away by our bodies for a rainy day.


Americans are not efficient eaters. The calories consumed per day by the average American in 2008 was 3,750 (in a population of 303 million), according to the World Resources Institute. Compare this with the 2,500-calorie average in India (population – 1,147 million). Put thus, the food consumed by Americans could feed 39% of India's population – even though America contains a quarter of the people.


Right now, world hunger is a pressing issue. Some people aren't even getting the minimum they need to survive. In 2006, world salt production was an estimated 240 million tons. Of this, around 17% goes towards making edible salt. If the entire world switched to eating 12g of salt a day, that would be around 30 million tons of salt, or just 12.5% of total world production levels. There's the worry – it could happen. (The reason is that world salt production is higher than ever – in fact it appears to have tripled since 1960′s estimated 85 million tonnes).

significant discovery of god

Physicists at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory are planning to announce they have found a suspicious bump in their data that could be evidence of a new elementary particle or even, some say, a new force of nature.
    The results,if they holdup,couldbe a spectacular last hurrah for Fermilab's Tevatron, once the world's most powerful particle accelerator and now slated to go dark forever in September or earlier, whenever Fermilab runs out of money to operate it.
    "Nobody knows what this is," said Christopher Hill, a theorist at Fermilabwhowas not partof theteam. "Ifitis real, it would be the most significant discovery in physics in half a century."
    One possible explanation for this mysterious bump, scientists say, is that it is evidence of a new and unexpected version of the long-sought Higgs boson. This is a hypothetical elementary particle that, according to the reigning theory known asthe StandardModel,is responsible for endowing other elementary particles with mass.
   
Another explanation might be that it is evidence of a new force of nature — in addition to gravity, electromagnetism, and the strong and weak nuclear forces we already know — that would manifest itself only at very short distances like thosethat ruleinsidethe atomic nucleus.
    Either could shake what has passed for conventional wisdom in physics for the last few decades. Or it could be there is something they do not understand about so-called regular physics.
    The Tevatron has been colliding beams of protons and their opposites, antiprotons, accelerated to energies of 1 trillion electron volts, for over two decades looking for new forces and particles. The bump showed up in an analysis of some 10,000 of those collisions collected by the Collider Detector atFermilab.
    They found that in about 250 more cases than they expected, what came out of the collision were two jets of lightweight particles, like electrons, and a heavy-force-carrying particle called the W boson were produced. The team foundthatin about250times more cases than expected, the total energy of the jets clustered around a value of about 144 billion electron volts, as if they were the decay products of a hitherto unsuspected particle with that mass-energy. For comparison, a proton weighs about one billion electron volts.
    This could not be Standard Model Higgs, Punzi and his colleagues concluded, as the Higgs is predicted to decay into much heavier particles, namely quarks. Moreover,the rate atwhichthese mystery particles were being produced was 300 times greater than Higgsbosonswouldbe produced.If real,itwassomething totally new,Punzisaid.

we are friends.

Tuesday night they surfed the internet together, from 8 pm to 10 pm. On Wednesday, around 5.30 am, they walked along a railway track holding hands, then allegedly committed suicide by jumping before a speeding train, possibly the Howrah Express.
    PU students M Suhas and S Srinivas, aged 18, and residents of Mariyappana Palya, Rajajinagar 1st Block, ended their lives mysteriously. The public on Wednesday morning informed Malleswaram traffic police officials that two mangled bodies were lying on the railway track near Milk Colony, a few furlongs from Malleswaram railway station. The news was flashed by a vernacular TV news channel and family members, who had by now discovered that the two boys had gone missing, rushed to the spot and recognised them. But the reason behind this extreme step is not clear, as no suicide note was recovered. 

 
    

Suhas and Srinivas were studying in PUC II in different colleges in Mandya. While Suhas had joined a college run by the Adichunchanagiri Education Institution, Suhas was studying in a government college, railway police said. They had returned home after finishing their PU exams. Yogesh Kumar, landlord of the house where Suhas lived, recalled how the two boys were very attached to each other. "Suhas and Srinivas were good friends from their school days. Not wanting to be separated from his friend, Srinivas decided to study in Mandya after Suhas got a seat there," family sources said. "They went out together around 8 pm on Tuesday. They were seen in a browsing centre near Devaiah Park. From there, they disappeared," Yogesh said. 

    Meanwhile, an auto driver said he saw the two boys walking on the railway track around 5am. "I thought they were joggers. Later, passengers told me about the tragedy. I recognised the bodies immediately. But I did not know their names or addresses," he said.

water purification / world war water

"Water, water, everywhere," is the motto by which Ayyappa Mahadevappa Masagi lives. When it's believed that the next world war will be fought over water, at a micro level in Bangalore, people working for the water utility are roughed up by consumers who haven't seen a drop of water trickle from their taps in days. Says Masagi, "Who said there's a water crisis? We have plenty of water, even in Bangalore. It's just that we haven't been looking at the available, easy solutions."

Masagi isn't trained scientifically. He's just an ordinary man who uses native intelligence to solve water woes. This 54-year old `Water Gandhi' from rural Karnataka uses over 100 tried-and-tested techniques to end water poverty. His success stories now run into many books and states across India.

WATERMAN'S WAYS - He injects life even into dried and dead borewells and ensures that not a single rain droplet escapes your house unused, not even the grey water from your bathrooms and kitchens. A farmer's son, Masagi trusts in non-irrigation agricultural practices and in industrial development co-existing with ecology.

Today, he has found easy water solutions for at least 200 apartments and over a thousand independent houses in Bangalore. The impressive list includes 41 industries and 17 ongoing projects.

Masagi asserts that he can harvest a whopping 3 crore litres of water along every km of Metro track per year, with a one-time investment of just Rs 20 lakh. "I can do it right now, if they can trust me," he says.

His solutions for houses promise a minimum 1.2 lakh litre annual rain harvest for a house on a 30x40 sqft site with just a 1sqm roof. This entails a one-time investment of Rs 10,000 with no maintenance. His own house in Sahakarnagar, North Bangalore, is a prime example. The three-storeyed building with five houses on a small 23 x 33 sqft site has survived on just a 68-ft borewell for the past 26 years and without any complaints.

Thus started his success with the `recharge shaft' method of water harvesting where he builds a sub-soil charging system in and around the borewell area that's connected to a rainwater harvesting unit and filtered grey water stock. The borewell depths are restricted to only 100-150 feet.

His client, Kennametal on Tumkur Road, once spent Rs 1.5 lakh every month buying water from 10km away. Today, it records an impressive Rs 25 lakh annual savings only from water conservation, thanks to the system set up in 2005 on Masagi's principle. Over the years, their water consumption has also reduced by 15%.

"Awareness to conserve water among people is increasing, but this awareness translating into action on the ground is very slow. April-June is the right season to start. The next season, you can reap a good rain harvest," assures this water warrior. His next target is to work on successful water conservation solutions for hotels.

THE DRY START

Masagi hails from drought-hit Nagaral village of Gadag district in Karnataka. He started thinking seriously about water when just a child of 6 years. "My mother woke me up every day at 3am to fetch water from a `devil pit' in a village that was 2 km away. During summer, it used to get very dry and only children like me could help bring water from it. From there, I started thinking seriously about water," he says.

Initially, his obsession for water was also ridiculed by his own near-and- dear ones, including his wife. Acute poverty kept him off serious science studies. His first success with water experimentation was recharging his two dry borewells on his 6-acre village farm during the drought in 2003.

Today, he has a team of 18 water warriors and 100 indirect labourers. In 2009, he bagged the National Award for application of science and technology in rural development (2009). He is now heading to South Africa to help an industry there with water conservation.

SOME SUCCESS STORIES

* Akshaya Patra mega kitchen in Rayapur now saves Rs 2.5 lakh per annum on water and harvests its 1.3 crore litre requirement from an average 1,000 mm rainfall annually

* An old-age home in Basavananagar had its hard water changed to soft and sweet within a month and low-yielding borewells rejuvenated

gm milk. human breast milk

The scientists have successfully introduced human genes into 300 dairy cows to produce milk with the same properties as human breast milk.

Human milk contains high quantities of key nutrients that can help to boost the immune system of babies and reduce the risk of infections.

The scientists behind the research believe milk from herds of genetically modified cows could provide an alternative to human breast milk and formula milk for babies, which is often criticised as being an inferior substitute.

They hope genetically modified dairy products from herds of similar cows could be sold in supermarkets. The research has the backing of a major biotechnology company.

The work is likely to inflame opposition to GM foods. Critics of the technology and animal welfare groups reacted angrily to the research, questioning the safety of milk from genetically modified animals and its effect on the cattle's health.

But Professor Ning Li, the scientist who led the research and director of the State Key Laboratories for AgroBiotechnology at the China Agricultural University insisted that the GM milk would be as safe to drink as milk from ordinary dairy cows.
He said: "The milk tastes stronger than normal milk.
"We aim to commercialize some research in this area in coming three years. For the "human-like milk", 10 years or maybe more time will be required to finally pour this enhanced milk into the consumer's cup."
China is now leading the way in research on genetically modified food and the rules on the technology are more relaxed than those in place in Europe.
The researchers used cloning technology to introduce human genes into the DNA of Holstein dairy cows before the genetically modified embryos were implanted into surrogate cows.


Writing in the scientific peer-reviewed journal Public Library of Science One, the researchers said they were able to create cows that produced milk containing a human protein called lysozyme,
Lysozyme is an antimicrobial protein naturally found in large quantities in human breast milk. It helps to protect infants from bacterial infections during their early days of life.
They created cows that produce another protein from human milk called lactoferrin, which helps to boost the numbers of immune cells in babies. A third human milk protein called alpha-lactalbumin was also produced by the cows.
The scientists also revealed at an exhibition at the China Agricultural University that they have boosted milk fat content by around 20 per cent and have also changed the levels of milk solids, making it closer to the composition of human milk as well as having the same immune-boosting properties.
Professor Li and his colleagues, who have been working with the Beijing GenProtein Biotechnology Company, said their work has shown it was possible to "humanise" cows milk.
In all, the scientists said they have produced a herd of around 300 cows that are able to produce human-like milk.


The transgenic animals are physically identical to ordinary cows.
Writing in the journal, Professor Li said: "Our study describes transgenic cattle whose milk offers the similar nutritional benefits as human milk.
"The modified bovine milk is a possible substitute for human milk. It fulfilled the conception of humanising the bovine milk."
Speaking to The Sunday Telegraph, he added the "human-like milk" would provide "much higher nutritional content". He said they had managed to produce three generations of GM cows but for commercial production there would need to be large numbers of cows produced.
He said: "Human milk contains the 'just right' proportions of protein, carbohydrates, fats, minerals, and vitamins for an infant's optimal growth and development.
"As our daily food, the cow's milk provided us the basic source of nutrition. But the digestion and absorption problems made it not the perfect food for human being."
The researchers also insist having antimicrobial proteins in the cows milk can also be good for the animals by helping to reduce infections of their udders.
Genetically modified food has become a highly controversial subject and currently they can only be sold in the UK and Europe if they have passed extensive safety testing.
The consumer response to GM food has also been highly negative, resulting in many supermarkets seeking to source products that are GM free.
Campaigners claim GM technology poses a threat to the environment as genes from modified plants can get into wild plant populations and weeds, while they also believe there are doubts about the safety of such foods.

Scientists insist genetically modified foods are unlikely to pose a threat to food safety and in the United States consumers have been eating genetically modified foods for more decades.
However, during two experiments by the Chinese researchers, which resulted in 42 transgenic calves being born, just 26 of the animals survived after ten died shortly after birth, most with gastrointestinal disease, and a further six died within six months of birth.
Researchers accept that the cloning technology used in genetic modification can affect the development and survival of cloned animals, although the reason why is not well understood.
A spokesman for the Royal Society for the Protection of Animals said the organisation was "extremely concerned" about how the GM cows had been produced.
She said: "Offspring of cloned animals often suffer health and welfare problems, so this would be a grave concern.
"Why do we need this milk – what is it giving us that we haven't already got."
Helen Wallace, director of biotechnology monitoring group GeneWatch UK, said: "We have major concerns about this research to genetically modify cows with human genes.

"There are major welfare issues with genetically modified animals as you get high numbers of still births.
"There is a question about whether milk from these cows is going to be safe from humans and it is really hard to tell that unless you do large clinical trials like you would a drug, so there will be uncertainty about whether it could be harmful to some people.
"Ethically there are issues about mass producing animals in this way."
Professor Keith Campbell, a biologist at the University of Nottingham works with transgenic animals, said: "Genetically modified animals and plants are not going to be harmful unless you deliberately put in a gene that is going to be poisonous. Why would anyone do that in a food?
"Genetically modified food, if done correctly, can provide huge benefit for consumers in terms of producing better products."

drill down to Earth’s mantle

It may not quite be Journey To The Centre Of The Earth, but it's the closest we've come yet.
A team of British-led researchers are to drill down to Earth's mantle for the first time and bring back samples.

The incredible feat would involve tunnelling through five miles of solid rock on the sea bed in temperatures as high as 570F (298C).Once there, the pressure on the equipment would be a staggering four million pounds per square inch - 285,000 times that of normal gravity.
The scientists hope to take samples and get them back up to the surface so we can learn more about the origins of the planet.
The bold plan mimics the classic 1959 sci-fi film Journey To The Centre Of The Earth, in which Pat Boone leads a group of adventurers who venture down an Icelandic volcano to the bowels of our world.

The real-life version would not go as far and would stop at the mantle, the 2,000mile thick layer between the crust and the molten core, but would nonetheless be a first for science.
It was announced by Dr Damon Teagle of the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton and Dr Benoit Ildefonse from Montpellier University in France.
Experts likened the significance to that of 'moon rocks' from our moon in terms of what they could tell us about our past.
It would also tell us about the Moho layer which sits at the base of the crust and may explain how and why earthquakes happen.
Dr Teagle explained that the best place to drill to the mantle would be in the ocean as the crust is thinner there.


The technical challenges would be enormous and the drill would have to function without a riser, a common safety feature where double pipes are used to vent gasses.

Instead, seawater would have to be pumped into the hole with enough pressure to force samples being dug up back up to the surface.

There have been previous attempts to drill to the mantle but Project Mohole in the 1960s failed due to poor organisation and cost overruns.

Samples of rock from the mantle have also found their way to the surface but they have been spouted out by volcanoes.

Dr Teagle and his team are now searching for a suitable site somewhere in the Pacific and hope to have the expertise, technology and funding in place by 2018.

medically induced coma

Only ten days after giving birth, Stevie Caffrey collapsed. With her heart and kidneys failing, doctors put her into a medically induced coma – and saved her life.
But when she came round four weeks later, she couldn't remember that she had a daughter.

Miss Caffrey, 20, had short-term memory loss as a result of being pumped full  of drugs, and has had to learn to walk again.
As she came to, a nurse said her father would be in shortly with her baby Maisie. Miss Caffrey recalled yesterday: 'I said, "I haven't got a baby''.'
Her boyfriend Andy Stafford – who she had also forgotten – and father Lyndon Caffrey desperately tried to jog her memory.
After two days she remembered the baby girl, but the details of her pregnancy and the birth were just a haze.
It was another three months before she could finally return home and begin  to bond with Maisie, who is now four months old.

She said: 'The last two months were horrible. I just wanted to come home. I was upset because I had not seen her for a long time.'
Maisie was born on November 5 last year but after just three days Lyndon, who works for Delta Taxis, and Andy became worried when Stevie started being sick.
When she collapsed at 2.30am on November 15, paramedics took her to Fazakerley Hospital.
After a blood test, she was rushed to Liverpool Women's hospital at 5am.
Andy said: 'They thought her appendix was ruptured. But then I was told to go out of the room because her heart had stopped. It did not seem real.'
Stevie was resuscitated, rushed to the Royal Liverpool Hospital and taken straight to the operating theatre.

Andy said he watched in disbelief as her body swelled up.
He said: 'She had eyes like a gecko. I almost broke down crying.'

Doctors referred Stevie to specialists at Wythenshawe Hospital, in Manchester, and she was taken there by a police escort.
Surgeons operated on her heart and put her on the list for a transplant, but unable to risk the wait, they put a ventricular assist system into the left side of her heart instead to help it function.
Stevie woke up in mid-December but it was another three months before she could return home to Maisie, who was being looked after by Andy's mum and Stevie's grandmother and aunt.

Stevie said: 'I was upset because I had not seen her for a long time.'
'Knowing other people were looking after her, I thought she was going to call Andy's mum Mummy.
'She is my baby - how was I going to feel if she called anyone else Mummy?'
Stevie finally left hospital three weeks ago. Doctors gave her a portable monitor that measures her heart rhythm and are hopeful she will remain stable and will not need a heart transplant for some time.
Andy said: 'It is up to her from now on. The doctors have done the most they could.'
The new mother, who is due to start a dance course at college, said: 'The last two months were horrible. I just wanted to come home. I did not think I would be here.'

allow trees to grow /tree catalogs

Tree islands are patches of relatively high and dry ground that dot the marshes of the Everglades. Typically a meter (3.3 feet) or so high, many of them are elevated enough to allow trees to grow. They provide a nesting site for alligators and a refuge for birds, panthers, and other wildlife.
Scientists have thought for many years that the so-called fixed tree islands (a larger type of tree island frequently found in the Everglades' main channel, Shark River Slough) developed on protrusions from the rocky layer of a mineral called carbonate that sits beneath the marsh. Now, new research indicates that the real trigger for island development might have been middens, or trash piles left behind from human settlements that date to about 5,000 years ago.
These middens, a mixture of bones, food discards, charcoal, and human artifacts (such as clay pots and shell tools), would have provided an elevated area, drier than the surrounding marsh, allowing trees and other vegetation to grow. Bones also leaked phosphorus, a nutrient for plants that is otherwise scarce in the Everglades.
"This goes to show that human disturbance in the environment doesn't always have a negative consequence," says Gail Chmura, a paleoecologist at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, and one of the authors of the study.

Chmura will be presenting her research on March 22, at the American Geophysical Union's Chapman Conference on Climates, Past Landscapes, and Civilizations.
In a previous scientific investigation of tree islands, Margo Schwadron, an archeologist with the National Park Service, cut through the elevated bedrock at the base of two islands and discovered that it was actually a so-called "perched carbonate layer," because there was more soil and a midden below. Later, a team including Chmura's graduate student Maria-Theresia Graf performed additional excavations in South Florida and found more of the perched carbonate layers.
Chemical analysis of samples of these curious perched layers revealed that they are made up partially of carbonates that had dissolved from the bedrock below, Chmura says. The layer also contains phosphorus from dissolved bones, she adds. Her team concluded that trees are key to the formation of this layer: During South Florida's dry season, their roots draw in large quantities of ground water but allow the phosphates and carbonates dissolved in it to seep out and coalesce into the stone-like layer.
The perched carbonate plays a key role in letting tree islands rebound after fires: because it does not burn, it protects the underlying soil, and it maintains the islands' elevation, allowing vegetation to regrow after the fire. Humans are now threatening the existence of tree islands, by cutting down trees (whose roots keep the perched layer in place) and artificially maintaining high water levels year-round in some water control systems, which could cause the layer to dissolve.
Chmura's team now wants to explore exactly when trees started growing on the tree islands.

organic farming in Himachal Pradesh

Spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar advocated the use of organic farming in the hill state of Himachal Pradesh, where, he said, farm practices were still saved from the menace of pesticides.

The founder of Art of Living Foundation sent out a strong message to use spirituality to remove the growing lack of trust among people and also root out social evils.

"Dhayan and pranayam can be effective tools to bring us closer to each other," he said. He also made an appeal, particularly to doctors, to take a pledge to put an end to female foeticide and effectively contribute to empowerment of women. Citing the example of southern states where alcohol is not served at weddings, Sri Sri said this needs to be propagated in Himachal as well where drinking is common at such occasions.

He also underlined the need to curb corruption, especially at the grass root level and said people at large can play an active role in achieving this objective. Sri Sri, who always teaches spirituality that enhances human values such as love, compassion and enthusiasm and is not limited to any one religion or culture, kicked off his week long tour of Himachal from Solan and would be holding teaching sessions in Shimla, Sundernagar and Dharamshala in the coming days. He asked Solan residents to take out at least two hours every week to keep their city clean and doing their bit to save the environment.


There was a huge crowd of devotees not only from all over India. Many foreigners also participated in the 'mahasatsang'. Excitement was quite evident among the devotees to have a one glance of the saint. "It feels great after meeting Guruji. We came so far just to meet him. After meeting him its feels that life is complete now", said Dr Kavita Maria, devotee from Chandigarh. A song recital by HP folk singers with more than 100 musicians, directed by veteran local singer, K L Sehgal was also held. On Tuesday, over 500 village women, accompanied by 800 musicians will perform 'faag' as part of the event.

dog lost its eye

Sandra said: 'We were both devastated and cried buckets on the night they told us they were going to remove his first eye.

After six years of loyal service, Graham Waspe was devastated when his guide dog Edward was left blind after developing cataracts.
But his devastation turned to joy when his replacement Opal turned out to be a real gem.

Mr Waspe's new dog is not just aiding his owner to carry out everyday tasks, but also helping Edward to get around.

Mr Waspe, of Stowmarket, Suffolk, received his new dog last November after Edward developed the inoperable problem which resulted in him needing both eyes removed.
And the two-year-old bitch has stepped in where Edward left off as they tour their old haunts together.
While Edward is well know across the schools and community groups of Suffolk, Opal is now building his own reputation as their owners give talks about the Guide Dogs charity, training for such special dogs and the incredible ways they help their owners.

Graham said: 'Opal's been great for both of us. I don't know what we'd do without her.'
And his wife Sandra, 58, said that despite the loss of his eyes, Edward still loved nothing more than to be around children, have his tummy tickled and receive lots of attention.
The eight-year-old has been retired for four months but the loss of his eyesight has shown no sign of slowing him down.
'Graham said then "do you think he will ever be happy again?" and then they said they would have to remove the second eye.'
She added: 'He is still very popular - just as much, if not more than before.

'People ask lots of questions about how he copes and he is probably more famous now because even more people stop to talk to him.'
Sandra said Opal had arrived shortly after Edward retired and the two dogs got along fine.
'Opal arrived far quicker than expected because, sadly, a couple of people in the Stowmarket area with fairly young guide dogs had died,' she said. 
'We got Opal on November 12 and she started training with Graham on the 16th and they were qualified in early December.'
Mr Waspe has limited vision in only one of his eyes following two separate incidents earlier in his life and coped without a guide dog until 2004.

As well as carrying out their school visits to raise awareness, the Waspes also do vital fundraising and run a local group.

legacy of Indian solder

  "I was manning the light machine gun (LMG) as our group was returning from an ambush near Jammu when it suddenly felt like acid being thrown on me. It was a barrage of 12 bullets from an AK-47, which hit my stomach. Writhing in pain I thought it was all over," says Sipahi Kuldeep Gautam of 17 Mahar Regiment who survived. As the crowd at Kasturchand Park applauded the performers at the 'know your army fair' inaugurated on Friday, Gautam was among the 20-odd waiting in the sun as they were being handed over the keys of scooters specially designed for the disabled.

With the weariness seen on their faces, they were soldiers crippled in action as they seemed like forgotten heroes in an otherwise bustling fair. The group included young soldiers who were injured in anti-terrorist operations as well as veterans of the 1965 Indo-Pak war.

The 31-year- old Gautam seemed to be the luckiest of all. The bullets have permanently damaged his gall bladder, intestine and the right kidney leaving him with a fracture in the spine. He had to remain in the military hospital for one and a half years. The incident that took place in September 2003, rendered Gautam disabled for life.

It was a counter-ambush by the militants who targeted him first as he had the LMG, the most lethal weapon of the group. Gautam who had lost all hopes of surviving was lucky as coincidentally the general-officer-commanding s(GoC) was on a visit to his unit and had arrived by a helicopter. Gautam was quickly evacuated. "It's only because of the GoC's chopper that I'm here to receive the scooter today," he says.

Gautam, a resident of Mathura, has continued with his service and is now posted in Pune where he is also undergoing a computer course. He will retire in 2015 after which he plans to set up a computer training institute.

On whether he regrets joining the army, Gautam says, "Not at all. In my earlier encounters, there were casualties in the enemy camp. It's all a matter of chance," he says.

Vasant Kolhe of the Maratha regiment is a veteran of the 1965 Indo-Pak war. He lost a leg in a mine blast. Settled as a farmer in Pandharpur, he calls himself a happy man. "Our troops had captured the area close to the Sialkot town of Pakistan. The blast occurred when I was clearing a minefield. It happened in a fraction of a second. When I regained consciousness in the hospital, I realised I had lost a leg," he laughs.In 1966, Himmat Sawant lost his toes while he was being rescued. 

psychology professor allowed a couple have se+

 Northwestern University's president said on Thursday that he is "troubled and disappointed" that a psychology professor allowed a couple to engage in a sex act involving a motorized sex toy in front of dozens of students, and is calling for an investigation.

Hours after accounts of the February 21 class appeared in local newspapers, including the university's defense of Professor John Michael Bailey's decision to allow students to witness the act, Northwestern President Morton Schapiro strongly criticised the lecturer.

"I feel it represented extremely poor judgment on the part of our faculty member," Schapiro said a statement issued by the Evanston university.

A guest lecturer had been discussing bondage and sexual fetishes during Bailey's human sexuality class. According to published reports, a couple at the lecture decided that a video the students were watching on the female orgasm was not realistic and gave a live presentation involving the sex toy. Schapiro said it did not matter that the incident occurred after the class was over, that attendance was voluntarily and that the students were warned of the explicit nature of what they were about to see.

"I have recently learned of the after-class activity associated with Prof Michael Bailey's Human Sexuality class, and I am troubled and disappointed by what occurred," he said.

"I simply do not believe this was appropriate, necessary or in keeping with Northwestern University's academic mission," he said.

Evanston police say it will be up to the school to determine if the demonstration violated any local ordinances. The guest lecturer asked the students if they were "ready for a live sex show," student Justin Smith told the Chicago Tribune.

At that point, Faith Kroll took off her clothes and she and Jim Marcus climbed on the stage and, as about 100 students looked on, the pair demonstrated the use of a motorized device with a phallic object attached to it. The lecturer, Ken Melvoin-Berg, told the newspaper that the students were told about issues such as safety and consent.

Siberia found alien talking to him

Air traffic controllers in Siberia claim to have been buzzed by a high-speed UFO with a female sounding alien speaking to them in an unintelligible cat-like language.
The object had suddenly burst onto flight monitors over the remote Russian diamond capital of Yakutsk, and it was shown flying at a speed of slightly over 6000 mph, and rapidly changing direction.
The UFO was logged at a height of 64, 895 feet above sea level and appeared to interfere with aviation frequencies.
A YouTube footage showed an air traffic controller trying to make contact with the UFO, while a radar showed the UFO moving rapidly through the skies surrounded by planes that were travelling at a much slower pace.
"I kept hearing some female voice, as if a woman was saying mioaw-mioaw all the time," the Daily Mail quoted the air traffic controller as telling the pilot of a passing Aeroflot flight.
The air traffic control monitor automatically designated the UFO as "00000" because it did not have a flight number.
At one point the UFO is shown moving away from Yakutsk at great speed before turning and heading back towards the city.

Holi and light bonfire in England

Hindus will celebrate colorful Holi festival on Clacton beach in England this year.
Clacton-On-Sea Shree Ram Mandir (Hindu Cultural and Heritage Centre) is organizing this event.
It will include lighting the bonfire and devotees gathering around it and sharing Holi legends.
Meanwhile, distinguished Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada (USA) today, applauded efforts of Mandir leaders and Clacton and surrounding area community for keeping the ancient traditions of Hinduism alive.

Rajan Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, further said that it was important to pass on Hindu spirituality, concepts and traditions to coming generations amidst so many distractions in the consumerist society. Zed stressed that instead of running after materialism; we should focus on inner search and realization of self and work towards achieving moksh (liberation), which was the goal of Hinduism.
Shree Ram Mandir, a registered charity launched in 1979, is a vibrant spiritual and cultural organization. It is thinking to expand and a Temple and Community Project is being planned. It is run by Dhirajlal Harjivandas Karia and Sushila Dhirajlal Karia. Daily activities at this Mandir start at 5-30 am and include washing-dressing-adorning of the statues, offering of midday prasadam followed by nuts-fruits-Indian sweets at four pm to deities, offering of another prasadam in the evening and offering sleep to deities around ten pm after arti.

Clacton-on-Sea in Essex in United Kingdom, founded in 1871 (while Great Clacton is said to have founded by the Celts in 100 BCE), is a seaside resort. Alan Goggin is the chairman of Tendring District Council.
Joie de vivre festival of Holi welcomes the beginning of spring and starts about ten days before the full moon of Phalguna. The ceremonies include the lighting of the bonfires, during which all evils are symbolically burnt. Holi also commemorates the frolics of youthful Krishna, celebrates the death of demoness Putana, burning of demoness Holika, and destruction of Kama by Shiva. Hinduism is the oldest and third largest religion of the world

any thing worth £3,000 trillion

Earth is worth £3,000 trillion, according to an astrophysicist who claims to have created a formula to calculate the value of a planet.

The astrophysicist, Greg Laughlin, came up with the figure by calculating the sum of the planet's age, size, temperature , mass and other vital statistics – and Earth came out as the most expensive.

"The formula makes you realize just how precious Earth is and I hope it will help us as a society safeguard what we have," he said.

Earth is worth £3,000 trillion, according to an astrophysicist who claims to have created a formula to calculate the value of a planet.

The astrophysicist, Greg Laughlin, came up with the figure by calculating the sum of the planet's age, size, temperature , mass and other vital statistics – and Earth came out as the most expensive.

"The formula makes you realize just how precious Earth is and I hope it will help us as a society safeguard what we have," he said.

Mars was only valued at £10,000, while Venus is said to be worth less than a penny. There are about 1,235 other planets in the universe, most of which weren't given a high price tag because of their inhospitable climates.

Millionaire Gives Up Entire Fortune To Be Happy

Millionaire Gives Up Entire Fortune To Be Happy

An Austrian tycoon is giving away every penny of his £3 million ($5.3 million) fortune, having realised that

being rich made him unhappy.

Karl Rabeder, 47, a businessman from Telfs, near Innsbruck, is selling his villa with lake, sauna and

spectacular mountain views over the Alps, valued at £1.4 million. Also for sale is his old stone farmhouse in

Provence, on the market for £613,000. Already gone is his collection of six gliders valued at £350,000. Mr

Rabeder has also sold the interior furnishings and accessories business - from vases to artificial flowers - that

made his fortune.

"My idea is to have nothing left. Absolutely nothing. Money is counter-productive - it prevents happiness."

He will move out of his Alpine retreat into a small wooden hut in the mountains or a simple bedsit in

Innsbruck, surviving on £800 a month while the proceeds go to a charity he set up in Latin America. He will

draw no salary from it.p

"For a long time I believed that more wealth and luxury automatically meant more happiness. I come from a

very poor family where the rules were to work more to achieve more material things, and I applied this for

many years."

being rich made him unhappy.

But over time a conflicting feeling developed. "More and more I heard the words: 'Stop what you are doing

now – all this luxury and consumerism – and start your real life'," he said. "I had the feeling I was working as

slave for things that I did not wish for or need. I have the feeling that there are lot of people doing the same

thing." For many years, he said, he was not brave enough to give up his comforts. The tipping point came

during a three-week holiday with his wife in Hawaii.

"It was the biggest shock in my life when I realised how horrible, soulless and without feeling the five-star

lifestyle is."

"In those three weeks we spent all the money you could possibly spend. But in all that time we had the feeling

we hadn't met a single real person - that we were all just actors. The staff played the role of being friendly and

the guests played the role of being important, and nobody was real."

Mr Rabeder decided to raffle his Alpine home, selling 21,999 tickets at £87 each. The Provence house, in the

village of Cruis, is on sale at the local estate agent.

All the money will go into his microcredit charity, which offers small loans and advice to self-employed people

in El Salvador, Honduras, Bolivia, Peru, Argentina and Chile.

Since deciding to sell up, Mr Rabeder said he had felt "free, the opposite of heavy". But he did not judge

those who chose to keep their wealth. "I do not have the right to give any other person advice.

 

he would ever sing on stage again

"It all started off as a joke. Someone remarked in class — Mr Clark, he might speak up if you agree to shave your head.

"That led to the Tae Woong Project, which was launched about three to four months back," Clark told Gulf News.

"We distributed flyers to the whole school explaining the challenge. If Tae sang in front of a crowd, I would let him shave my head," he continued.

Every week, on Thursday, a 500-strong crowd including pupils and parents of primary classes gather for the school assembly.

"Every Thursday, we would ask Tae if he is up to the challenge yet."

He wouldn't respond.

Finally, at the assembly two days ago Tae made it. He sang the Korean national anthem.

"There was not a dry eye in the audience. It was the most moving experience I have had."

The teacher admitted that it was not an easy feat for him either, especially since he had inhibitions about revealing his psoriasis affected scalp.

For facing his fear, Tae will be an inspiration to all other pupils, Clark added.

"I was a bit scared and nervous," Tae said.

Asked if he would ever sing on stage again he said he's not sure.

Getting rid of his hair certainly wasn't one thing William Clark signed up for when he decided to become a teacher.
But today, he's happy that he went bald for a cause — putting an end to his 10-year-old pupil's grave fear of public speaking.
The daring teacher and his Korean pupil, Tae Woong-jeong, are part of the GEMS World Academy, located in Al Barsha.
At the beginning of this academic year, Clark got fifth grader Tae as his pupil. Initially, when Tae refused to speak up during group activities or present his ideas in front of his class, Clark assumed it might be due to language difficulties.
However, once Clark read through Tae's written work and saw how well he interacted with his friends, the teacher realised the real problem — intense fear of public speaking.
Tae had been with the school for two years. By then, most teachers had given up on getting him to speak, although their curriculum places much significance on the skill.