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Rooting Lucky Bamboo

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 04:25:00 -0800

Lucky bamboo can be rooted bare, or you can use a rooting hormone. Under normal circumstances, rooting hormone shouldn't be necessary because the plant readily roots. However, if you have several failed attempts, a rooting hormone might increase your chances.

• Rooting lucky bamboo in water. This is the preferred method. Take trimmings that include at least one leaf joint and put them into distilled water. New, slightly reddish roots should emerge from the bottom of the stalk. Keep the water clean. Once the roots have emerged, you can either put the plant in a vase with decorative pebbles or pot it up in regular soil. Usually it might take upto 60 days for the roots to grow, so be patient while you care for it.

• Rooting lucky bamboo in soil. Lucky bamboo will also readily root in soil. To root a new plant, gently push the trimmed stalk down into fresh potting soil, making sure that at least one root node is beneath the soil level. Keep the plant moist and warm until new growth begins to emerge.

When rooting lucky bamboo, however, remember that the new plant will not have the same distinctive stalks and growth habit of the parent. It'll still be a pretty and resilient houseplant, with narrow green leaves and straight stems, but it won't look like a professionally shaped and grown lucky bamboo.

Useful Links

Lucky Bamboo Plant Arrangement

How To Care For Lucky Bamboo ?

Cutting Lucky Bamboo

Quartz Crystal in Feng Shui

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Quartz Crystal in Feng Shui

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 01:11:00 -0800

" Its clarity and transparency give it a mirror quality through which things can be seen clearly. The natural quartz crystal symbolizes white light energy. "

The clear quartz crystals is one of the most sacred stones of ancient cultures. Its clarity and transparency give it a mirror quality through which things can be seen clearly. The natural quartz crystal symbolizes white light energy.

The power of the crystal can be found in its structure - growing and reaching up toward light from the deepest parts of earth. It is a conductor of energy - both as a receiver and a transmitter. It is important to keep your crystal clean in order to protect it from outside negative vibrations. Your personal crystals will attune themselves to your vibrations, as you will attune to the natural vibrations of the crystal. Choose crystals that seem to speak to you or that you feel attracted to for best results.

Clear quartz crystals have been used for centuries in healing. Egyptians used them in pyramids to attract the power contained in light. Their triangular shapes held mystical appeal. American Indians have long revered the crystal as a sacred symbol of light. Crystals have been used to cut a newborn's cord, and are often buried with the dead in addition to use in many ceremonies and rituals. In the Tibetan culture, crystals are considered sacred objects that are empowered with the elements. Many cultures carry them in pouches for protection from negativity.

Crystals have been used for healing the body, transforming the spirit, inspiring intuitive insight, guarding against negative vibrations, and smoothing the energy flows of spirit and body.

Useful Links

Lucky Bamboo Plant Arrangement

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Memes Emoticons

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 02:56:00 -0800

About

Emoticons are pictorial representations of facial expressions made with a mix of punctuation marks and letters. They can be used to depict the mood of the author or to influence how the reader interprets the surrounding text.

Emoticons have evolved from from the simple smiley faces (denoted as :-) ) to ones that contain characters from other languages, complex compositions to depict action, and even small graphical images.

Origin

The Word

The word emoticon is a blending of the words “emotion” and “icon.” It was added to Urban Dictionary for the first time on October 1, 2002. It has since been defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary and was added to the Oxford English Dictionary as of the June 2001 edition. They note that one of the earliest uses of the word in print was in the New York Times on January 28th, 1990. However, words are used colloquially long before they make it to print.

Pre-Internet

Using shorthand to express emotion dates back the 19th century and Morse code. The National Telegraphic Review and Operators Guide, published in 1857, stated that sending the number 73 meant “love and kisses.” In a 1904 edition of Dodge’s Manual, 73 had evolved into “best regards” and “love and kisses” was now represented by 88.

Also in the 19th century, American journalist Ambrose Bierce wrote of a way to “improve punctuation” by using a \_/ to “represent a smiling mouth.”

Puck, a humor magazine from the 1800s, published the following instruction on creating faces from typography in 1881:

Smiley Face :-)

Trying to turn letters into pictures (ASCII Art) has been around since as early as 1966. However, trying to convey a comment’s subtext wasn’t recorded until thirteen years later. On April 12th, 1979, ARPANET user Kevin MacKenzie suggested to the MsgGroup mailing list that participants use a “-)” to suggest that a sentence was tongue-in-cheek.

The smiley was first recorded on September 19th, 1982. It was posted by Scott Fahlman to the Carnegie Mellon University computer science general board:

I propose that the following character sequence for joke markers:

:-)

Read it sideways. Actually, it is probably more economical to mark
things that are NOT jokes, given current trends. For this, use

:-(

Fahlman took credit for inventing the :-) and :-( emoticons on his website and did an interview with Bloomberg BusinessWeek about it on April 23rd, 2001. In this interview, Fahlman stated that he created them to better understand his peers:

Many in the newsgroup, he found, had caustic senses of humor, but without the benefit of facial expressions or vocal cues to indicate irony, their sarcasm was sometimes mistaken for spite.

Between 1992 and 1994, James Marshall set out to compile a definitive list of smilies. Scoured from Usenet newsgroups and other websites, he hosted the dictionary at his personal website. As of 2008, he had collected 2231 different smileys.

Graphical Smilies

As use of emoticons grew, email and messaging services began to replace typographical smileys with small graphic renderings. AOL introduced a base set of 16 smileys in the 2000s.

By 2007, Yahoo! Messenger had released additional smileys that AOL did not support including rolling on the floor, applause, “talk to the hand,” and nailbiting.

Japanese Smileys

While Western emoticons require the reader to tilt their head sideways, Japanese influenced smileys are read horizontally. These are often referred to as Kaomoji. (~_~) appeared first, dating back to May 1985.Between May and July 1988, a Hokkaido University student saw a Master Koala (^O^) while browsing fj.jokes, inspiring him to create the following:

(^.^) – laughing
(;.;) – crying
(-.-) – sleeping, shocked
; – sweat mark, eg (^.^;)

However, no archived posts exist until January 13th, 1988. On that day, a Usenet member posted a series of Master Koalas to fj.questions.misc.
These evolved as well, mixing with Western alphanumeric characters, yielding emoticons such as T_T and >_<; From there, users on sits like 2chan and 4chan began mixing in characters with accents (õ_o) or characters from languages that do not use the Latin alphabet (囧 and ಠ_ಠ). A collection of these types of textual smileys can be found at Evoticon.

While it is hard to pin down when Japanese picture emoticons, or Emoji, started becoming popular, they were added to Gmail messages on April 29th, 2009. Unicode added Emoji symbols in version 6.0, which came out in October 2010. Many smartphones also now have apps to unlock Emoji keyboards.

Links

Emoticons of Facebook

List of Emoticons

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Emoticons of Facebook

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 02:40:00 -0800

Here is the list of all Emoticons of Facebook and their shortcuts:

	Emoticon	Name	Shortcut
		smile	:-) :) :] =)
		tongue	:-P :P :-p :p =P
		wink	;-) ;)
		grin	:-D :D =D
		curly lips	:3
		kiss	:-* :*
		grumpy	>:( >:-(
		glasses	8-) 8) B-) B)
		sunglasses	8-\| 8\| B-\| B\|
		upset	>:O >:-O >:o >:-o
		confused	o.O O.o
		shark	(^^^)
		gasp	:-O :O :-o :o
		pacman	:v
		squint	-_-
		devil	3:) 3:-)
		unsure	:/ :-/ :\ :-\
		frown	:-( :( :[ =(
		cry	:'(
		Chris Putnam	:putnam:
		robot	:\|]
		heart	<3
		angel	O:) O:-)
		kiki	^_^
		penguin	<(“)

Also you can save the picture below to your computer for future reference:

Links

List of Emoticons

Memes Emoticons

What are Emoticons

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List of Emoticons

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 02:37:00 -0800

Emoticon	Key Combination	Description

	`:)`	happy
	`:(`	sad
	`;)`	winking
	`:D`	big grin
	`;;)`	batting eyelashes
	`>:D<`	big hug
	`:-/`	confused
	`:x`	love struck
	`:">`	blushing
	`:P`	tongue
	`:-*`	kiss
	`=((`	broken heart
	`:-O`	surprise
	`X(`	angry
	`:>`	smug
	`B-)`	cool
	`:-S`	worried
	`#:-S`	whew!
	`>:)`	devil
	`:((`	crying
	`:))`	laughing
	`:\|`	straight face
	`/:)`	raised eyebrows
	`=))`	rolling on the floor
	`O:-)`	angel
	`:-B`	nerd
	`=;`	talk to the hand
	`:-c`	call me


Emoticon	Key Combination	Description
	`:)]`	on the phone
	`~X(`	at wits' end
	`:-h`	wave
	`:-t`	time out
	`8->`	day dreaming
	`I-)`	sleepy
	`8-\|`	rolling eyes
	`L-)`	loser
	`:-&`	sick
	`:-$`	don't tell anyone
	`[-(`	no talking
	`:O)`	clown
	`8-}`	silly
	`<:-P`	party
	`(:\|`	yawn
	`=P~`	drooling
	`:-?`	thinking
	`#-o`	d'oh
	`=D>`	applause
	`:-SS`	nail biting
	`@-)`	hypnotised
	`:^o`	liar
	`:-w`	waiting
	`:-<`	sigh
	`>:P`	phbbbbt
	`<):)`	cowboy
	`X_X`	I don't want to see
	`:!!`	hurry up!


Emoticon	Key Combination	Description
	`\m/`	rock on!
	`:-q`	thumbs down
	`:-bd`	thumbs up
	`^#(^`	it wasn't me
	`:ar!`	pirate*
	`o\|:-)`	catch
	`~^o^~`	cheer
	`'+_+`	cold
	`[]---`	cook
	`'@^@\|\|\|`	dizzy
	`%*-{`	down on luck
	`^O^\|\|3`	eat
	`[]==[]`	exercise
	`:(fight)`	fight
	`&[]`	gift
	`:-(\|\|>`	give up
	`:-)/\:-)`	high five
	`:::^^:::`	hot
	`o\|^_^\|o`	music
	`:(game)`	gaming
	`:puke!`	puke
	`'@-@`	search me
	`o\|\~`	sing
	`:->~~`	spooky
	`?@_@?`	studying
	`:(tv)`	tv
	`%\|\|:-{`	unlucky

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What are Emoticons ?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 02:28:00 -0800

An emoticon is a pictorial representation of a facial expression using punctuation marks and letters, usually written to express a person's mood. Emoticons are often used to alert a responder to the tenor or temper of a statement, and can change and improve interpretation of plain text. The word is a portmanteau word of the English words emotion and icon. In web forums, instant messengers and online games, text emoticons are often automatically replaced with small corresponding images, which came to be called emoticons as well. Certain complex character combinations can only be accomplished in a double-byte language, giving rise to especially complex forms, sometimes known by their romanized Japanese name of kaomoji.

The use of emoticons can be traced back to the 19th century, and they were commonly used in casual and/or humorous writing. Digital forms of emoticons on the Internet were included in a proposal by Scott Fahlman of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in a message on 19 September 1982.

Links

List of Emoticons

Memes Emoticons

Emoticons of Facebook

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Cutting Lucky Bamboo

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 23:35:00 -0800

Cutting your Lucky Bamboo is not tricky as it seems to be. You just need to know where to cut it.

The First step is to take a clean Knife or the knife can be cleaned by dipping it in antiseptic for a few minutes and wiping it with a dry cloth.

Make sure that you don't cut the mother plant, as it is observed that the mother plant does not root after cutting it. Therefore cut the just below the node of the stalks that have grown on the mother plant. Because that is where the roots will start growing at. It doesn't matter how you cut, straight, or slanted. Then place it back into your vase. You should see some results within a month's time.

Well a node is the part of the stem of a plant from which a leaf, branch, or aerial root grows; each plant has many nodes. Take a look at your plants, where you see a leaf growing right below it is the node. You want to cut right beneath the node.

If you have any problem in understanding then watch this detailed video Cutting Lucky Bamboo.

I usually take cuttings after I've trimmed the mother plant. Make sure the cuttings have at least one leaf joint, and preferably more. Trim excess leaves away to expose the growth node.

If your some parts of your lucky bamboo has turned yellow. Then just cut the yellow part and throw it, as now it is difficult to get back the yellow part back. So just cut the yellow part and put one end of the green parts and it will soon root within a months time.

If you have problem in understanding please watch the detailed video Cutting Lucky Bamboo.

More Video Links

Lucky Bamboo For Beginners

Links

Bamboo Lucky

Lucky Bamboo Plant Arrangement

How To Care For Lucky Bamboo

Lucky Bamboo Plant

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Is Your Lucky Bamboo Turning Yellow ?...here's how to save it

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 23:52:00 -0800

When I had first bought my lucky bamboo, I was advised by the shopkeeper to just water it once in a week. And thereafter I happily watered it with Tap water, as I believed tap water will help the plant grow. And to my despair I just watched it turn yellow and finally Die. Thereafter I have learned to grow the plant and have made this post, for all my Friends and Lucky Bamboo Lovers.

Later I had bought another plant and its growing happily obviously due to proper care...

Here I have tried and answered most of your curious questions related to "Lucky Bamboo Turning Yellow" which would come to ones mind, but if you still have any questions please fell free to write to me, it would be helpful if you can attach some pictures of your plant.

Normally the reasons when Lucky Bamboo stalks turn yellow, it is an indication of something in the water, or a sign that the plant has been overfed. If the plant is exposed to too much sun even once in it's life time it will turn yellow. During the winter if it is kept in extremely cold water it will turn yellow. If it is infected it will turn yellow.

Yellow parts in Lucky Bamboo represent the dead cells of the plant or we can say that the plant is dying, and needs your love and care.

If you are using too salty or heavily-fluoridated tap water to feed your lucky bamboo then it can be prevented by leaving tap water exposed to the air for a day before plant use. Salty or softened water can also cause this. The water should be bottled water, soft tap water with very little fluoride, or even water from a filtered, established aquarium. You can also change the water to filter water and see the improvements.

Also another reason is due to strong light.

Lucky Bamboo grow well in indirect sunlight. It does best in bright, indirect lighting and temperatures from 15 to 25 °C (59 to 77 °F)

This type of Bamboo cannot grow outdoors. It burns easily under direct sun light. The leaves will turn yellow and eventually die. Remember to always keep the plant indoors only. It is advised to change the lighting conditions by moving the Lucky Bamboo to a shaded area with more indirect sun light or to favorable conditions as mentioned above. My only other suggestion is to place the bamboo in a dark room for a few days and then bring it back out into the light to see if it perks up at all.

If your leaves are turning yellow then we recommend plucking them off with your fingers. This way you avoid the brown cut marks made by the interaction between the plant and the metal from the scissor blade. Yellow leaves should be plucked off as soon as possible.

Also it is common in plants that the leaves turn yellow, as the plant has to shed its old leaves for the new leaves to grow. So don't worry much and just pluck it off with your fingers and soon new leaves will grow back.

If your plant is getting infected due to pests then it is advised to soak it in some diluted anti-septic for a few hours, as it will help the plant keep clean and obviously avoid the pests.

Reviving Lucky Bamboo

However, if the stalk is yellowing and/or soft to the touch, cut the yellow part from the rest of the plant as soon as possible and put the green part in water and it will grow back again. If you cannot save it then replace with a new stalk.

You can revive the bamboo if it is wrinkling. Wrinkling happens when a healthy plant doesn't receive enough water through it's roots. If this happens, place it in a tall glass or pitcher of water for about 3-4 days. Make sure that as much as possible is submerged without having the leaves under water.

Lucky Bamboo Plant Arrangement

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 00:08:00 -0800

If you are shopping at a plant nursery, garden center, or at Walmart, Home Depot, or any of the other zillion retailers carrying Lucky Bamboo these days, be sure to choose an arrangement with a bright green color and healthy leaves. Check to make sure the container is at least half-full of water, and try to see if there are some roots showing. Yellow or brown leaf tips, yellow stalks, bruising, or any sign of insect infestation indicates a less-than-healthy plant. If there’s soil in the pot, it should be moist -- not soaking wet or completely dried out. If you order or receive a Lucky Bamboo arrangement through the mail and it doesn’t look healthy when it arrives, contact the retailer immediately and arrange to exchange it.

Most Lucky Bamboo arrangements are grown hydroponically (in water), with small stones or marbles added to the pot for stability. The multiple stalks are often tied together with gold or red ribbon for additional good fortune. (If you find an arrangement you like that doesn’t have any ribbon, you can easily add some yourself when you get it home. Just be sure not to tie it too tightly, as that may damage the stalks.)

Curly stalks are more expensive because they have to be grown into those curves; some people believe them to have stronger luck, probably because they cost more! You can train your straight Lucky Bamboo stalks into curls with proper conditions and a lot of patience.

Water-grown Lucky Bamboo arrangements come in a ceramic or glass vase. The advantage of glass is you can see the rocks and water (and keep an eye on water level and quality more easily). The disadvantage is that if your arrangement will be getting more than minimal light it may trigger algae growth in the water. Algae need light to grown, so an opaque container is less likely to have this problem.

You may find Lucky Bamboo stalks for sale individually or in packets, unplanted, which means you can pick out your own container and stones (or marbles) and create your own arrangement. It also means you’ll have to root the stalks yourself, so unless you’ve successfully rooted and planted-up cuttings in the past you’re probably better off getting an arrangement already potted up.

More Helpful Links

Lucky Bamboo Turning Yellow

Rooting Lucky Bamboo

How To Care For Lucky Bamboo ?

Cutting Lucky Bamboo

Bamboo Lucky

Lucky Bamboo Plant

If you still having problem understanding please write to me with subject "LUCKY BAMBOO". I will try my best and answer your queries.

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How To Care For Lucky Bamboo ?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 23:47:00 -0800

Learn the proper care of lucky bamboo in this article.

How should you take care of lucky bamboo?

In the natural world it grows in dense shade under the thick rainforest canopy of equatorial Africa.

Like any other plant, Lucky Bamboo needs light, water, and nutrients to survive. It will do better with little attention than if you fuss over it:

Here are some guidelines to help you give it the best care:

LIGHT: Lucky Bamboo will do best with moderate levels of indirect light. Direct light such as a sunny windowsill is too strong for it. Lucky Bamboo will tolerate little light more easily than too much light. You can even keep Lucky Bamboo in rooms with no natural light; just move it to a brighter (but not in direct light!) location for three or four days every few weeks. If you want your Lucky Bamboo to grow, however, it will need to be at the higher end of its light-range. It may survive very low light, but it won’t put out new leaves or get any taller.

Tip: Avoid Direct Sunlight

WATER: Lucky Bamboo grows very well in water, but it doesn’t like the chemicals – chlorine and fluoride, to name just two – present in most tap water. Filtered water or rain water will keep your Lucky Bamboo healthy longer. If you don’t have a water filtration system, plan ahead and run tap water into a container the day before you water your Lucky Bamboo plants, and let it sit out, uncovered, at least overnight or for 24 hours to allow the chemicals to disperse.

Keep an eye on the water level in your Lucky Bamboo container, and add a little more as it gets down to about half-full; how often will depend on the size of your arrangement and the humidity in your home. Every week or so, pour all the water out and refill the container with fresh water.

If you happen to have an aquarium in your home, save some of the dirty aquarium water when you clean it, and use that to water your Lucky Bamboo. Your fish may be sensitive to all the microscopic stuff that builds up in the water, but your Lucky Bamboo will love it!

Lucky Bamboo grown in soil should be kept slightly moist, not soaking wet. Don’t allow it to dry out completely. And don’t go by whether or not the surface is dry – often the soil will still be damp a half-inch or so below the surface. Stick your finger in the soil: if it feels dry a full inch down, then it’s all right to water.

Tip: The Roots Should Be Completely Immersed In Water

NUTRIENTS: Lucky Bamboo is pretty hardy, and often grows happily for years just in pure water, but it may need some kind of food eventually. If your plant gets spindly and pale after you’ve had it for a while, try moving it a little closer to a light source and give it some very diluted plant food. However, if it turns yellow shortly after you bring it home that’s usually a sign it was over-fertilized before you purchased it. Change the water immediately, and don’t fertilize at all for several months.

The best time to feed your Lucky Bamboo is when you change the water. Just add a couple of drops of aquarium plant food to the water you use to refill the container. You can also use a very dilute solution of a standard plant food like Miracle Gro. For water-grown plants, that means using 1/10th the recommended strength (i.e., if it says 10 drops per gallon, use only 1 drop per gallon for your Lucky Bamboo). If your Lucky Bamboo is growing in soil, you can use a stronger solution.

Don’t feed every time you change the water! Every 2 months—or longer-- is often enough. Water-grown plants do not need to be fed as frequently as soil-grown plants, and feeding too much or too frequently is more harmful to plants than not feeding enough! Lucky Bamboo is naturally a very slow-growing plant, so don’t assume it needs to be fed just because it doesn’t seem to be growing.

Tip: Use Filtered Water Or Mineral Water

Video Links

Lucky Bamboo For Beginners

External Links

How To Care For Your Gemstone and Jewellery ?

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Bamboo Lucky

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 06:56:00 -0800

while making this post I had two questions in mind, one I have already written while the other one is why is the Lucky Bamboo Called Lucky Bamboo ?

and I will be answering both the questions here...

Bamboo is a symbol of luck and success because of its rapid growth, strength and fortitude. One reason Lucky Bamboo is so popular is its reputation for being low-maintenance and pretty much “idiot-proof”: in other words, it’s the perfect plant for people who know nothing about plants or who don’t have the time or inclination to care for them. Its hardiness also means Lucky Bamboo is well-suited for spaces with little or no natural light.

And, in spite of its reputation for being virtually care free, Lucky Bamboo is not indestructible. I know this because the first one I had turned “toes up” alarmingly quickly! After my “Unlucky Bamboo” experience, I decided I should learn what I was doing before getting a new plant. I’ve done my homework since then (and haven’t killed any more Lucky Bamboo!), and thought I would share what I’ve learned with you to ensure that your Lucky Bamboo continues to bring you good fortune for a very long time.

Over the past few years “Lucky Bamboo” has become one of the most popular feng shui accessories on the market. If you don’t yet have a Lucky Bamboo plant, once your friends and family find out that you are interested in feng shui you’ll probably receive one as a gift someday soon. In fact, Lucky Bamboo is said to be luckiest when it is received as a gift. That doesn’t mean you can’t buy one for yourself if you want to, though; just think of it as a gift from you to your home or office.

According to Feng Shui It can be used to add yang energy anywhere you need to activate stagnant chi.

If you truly believe that you have no luck with plants, and don’t want to risk bringing a Lucky Bamboo arrangement into your home (in fear that it may soon perish), keep in mind that they make excellent gifts for any occasion, and are considered especially fortunate for a house-warming or business grand-opening celebration. You can have the pleasure of picking out an especially lovely arrangement, then give it to your friend who just bought a new house and let some of that “good luck” chi rub off on you.

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Lucky Bamboo Plant

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 06:41:00 -0800

Hi Friends...

Its been long time since I have talked to you through my posts.
To start with this is my first post ever on Lucky Bamboo. I recently bought this plant and just fell in love with it and its been really lucky for me.

This is just the introduction post to start with and the remaining posts shall follow up:: Gud Day

What Is Lucky Bamboo ?

First of all as the name says Lucky Bamboo is not actually a Bamboo.

It is instead the Sanderiana species of the Dracaena Plant.

Further as the wikipedia says it to be:

Dracaena sanderiana is a species of the genus Dracaena. The species was named after the German-English gardener Henry Frederick Conrad Sander (1847-1920). It is also known as Dracaena braunii, Ribbon Dracaena, Lucky Bamboo, Belgian Evergreen or sometimes Ribbon Plant.

D. sanderiana is one of a group of small, shrubby species with slender stems and flexible strap-shaped leaves that grow as understorey plants in rainforests. It is native to Cameroon in tropical west Africa. It is an upright shrub growing to 1.5 metres (5 ft) tall, with leaves 15-25 cm (6-10 in) long and 1.5-4 cm (1-2 in) broad at the base.

It is marketed in the developed world as a Chinese decorative plant "Lucky Bamboo" (although unrelated to Bamboo and not native to Asia), propagated from short cuttings, usually in water.

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Top 10: Crazy Theories About The Universe That Were Proved True

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 00:12:00 -0700

No.10 - Round Earth
This is an idea that is fully accepted by most people, but it was not always held with such certainty. While it is a misconception to think that most people believed in a flat earth well into the early modern period, it was certainly a commonly held belief in early Chinese thought, and it was not until the great Greek mathematicians that Europeans started to accept the spherical earth theory. Pythagoras is the man most commonly associated with the idea, but it was really only in the Renaissance, and the beginning of voyages that circumnavigated the earth, that his ideas became proved beyond all doubt.

No.9 - Perturbation theory and the existence of Neptune
Sir Isaac Newton’s laws on gravity allowed him to calculate the orbital paths of the planets of our solar system. We won’t try to explain the math; it's way over our heads, but when Newton’s theory was tested, the orbit for Uranus was inaccurate. It was proposed in 1843 that an invisible planet was causing this disturbance -- or perturbation -- of Uranus’s orbit. Only in 1846 was Neptune finally recognized, within one degree of the mathematical predictions for its location. To suggest an extra planet which no one had ever noticed before may have seemed far-fetched, but turned out to be remarkably precise.

No.8 - Comets being a celestial phenomenon
For centuries, comets were seen as dire predictions of things to come. Halley’s Comet appeared before the Battle of Hastings in 1066. But what they actually were was again the work of Aristotle, who suggested that they were spontaneous combustions of gas in the upper atmosphere. While this view was popular among many, the Roman writer Seneca the Younger was the first to challenge this view, suggesting that they were a celestial phenomenon. It was Tycho Brahe, the preeminent observational astronomer, who proved that they must in fact exist way beyond the moon, in space.

No.7 - The expanding universe
The size of the universe is one question that, as of yet, has no answer. It was suggested by no less a figure than Albert Einstein that the universe was of fixed dimensions, and became known as the Cosmological Constant. In 1929, a man named Edwin Hubble (you may have heard of him) observed that the universe was expanding, due to the fact that objects moving away from earth appeared in the red part of the electromagnetic spectrum. Hubble’s Law, as it became known, transformed the perception of the universe as being static, and blew the question of its size wide open.

No.6 - Atoms
The word atom derives from a Greek term meaning something that cannot be divided, and therefore reckoned to be the smallest particle possible. It was undoubtedly strange, going against the widely accepted notion that all things were made up of the four elements -- earth, wind, water, and fire. The likes of Leucippus and Democritus held that all things had the same building blocks, which were simply rearranged to form different objects. While it took centuries for the scientific community to prove the idea, it is now a cornerstone of scientific thought.

No.5 - Quarks
If the idea of an atom seemed crazy -- being so minute it was undetectable for centuries -- imagine how it would seem to then talk about an even smaller, subatomic particle. Described as an “elementary particle,” quarks are believed to be constituent parts of atomic particles (i.e., protons, neutrons and electrons). When the idea was introduced in the 1960s, it was seen by some as merely an abstract concept to help explain things we didn’t understand. Over the following decade, further research and mounting evidence supported the quark model, finally convincing people of its validity.

No.4 - Tycho Brahe and the "stella nova"
Since antiquity, men believed that the universe beyond the moon was fixed and unchangeable (a theory known as celestial immutability). In 1572, a very bright star suddenly appeared in the sky. Because of this notion of celestial immutability, it was believed by many observers to be something happening in the atmosphere, or somewhere between the earth and the moon. Tycho Brahe went against the accepted wisdom of his age, believing it to be a new star. We now know that what he witnessed was a supernova, and his assertion that the universe was in fact mutable is now beyond doubt.

No.3 - Black holes
Imagine being the first person to hear the idea that in space there were these objects that were so dense and had such a strong gravitational pull, that nothing could escape from them, not even light. The idea was first proposed in 1783, by a geologist no less, which made it seem even less plausible. Over the years, the mathematics gradually reached a point where the idea of black holes is widely accepted. Astronomical observation has also added weight to the argument, with phenomena such as gravitational lensing and gamma ray bursts seeming to indicate their presence.

No.2 - Heloicentric solar system
Narrowly missing out on the top spot, the idea that the earth revolved around the sun, rather than vice versa, was one of the most controversial astronomical theories ever. First espoused by Nicolas Copernicus, who knew how controversial the idea was, it was echoed by Galileo Galilei, who spent 10 years under house arrest because of his beliefs. Seen as heretical and “contrary to scripture” the heliocentric solar system went against the geocentric view that held sway at the time. Only in the 18th century were texts in support of heliocentricism finally removed from the church list of banned books.

No.1 - The Big Bang
Appropriately, the biggest question of all, the birth of the universe, claims the top spot. No one knows for certain how the universe started, but this theory built upon the expanding universe idea, which suggested that at some point everything was much closer together. It is now supported by the majority of scientists, and there is a huge body of evidence to support it.

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Think Before Selecting Toys For Your Kids

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 11:21:00 -0700

What is the most dangerous non-edible consumer product in Europe today? Look in your child's playroom. According to a 2007 European Commission report, the number of notifications for 'toys' were more than double that for 'motor vehicles' or 'electrical appliances'.

Toys can be risky because some of them contain toxic chemicals like lead and have unsafe design and bad finishing, like sharp edges. Most of these come from China - the largest global producer of toys.

In January, Newsweek reported China and India as the world's leading economies. However, both countries face compelling systemic problems when it comes to product quality.

China was also involved in a contaminated milk case. Around the same time, the US Food and Drug Administration decided to ban import of over 30 medicines produced by Ranbaxy India.

The reason: unsafe manufacturing conditions. How is it that Indian inespectors can never find any fault with such products? Perhaps we need to accept that emerging economies like China and India cannot adopt the standards of advanced economies overnight.

So, while Japan could refuse Chinese food imports and the US could reject drugs manufactured in India, what can India do about Chinese toy imports? Ban them? India did exactly that on January 23. But the six-month ban wilted under China's threat to drag India to the World Trade Organisation.

As a countermeasure, India has put in place international safeguards. Now toys entering India will require certification from accredited laboratories.

As a macroeconomic measure, this is fine. This will help China to conform to international standards.

However, this tactic is of limited strategic use. China's true competitive advantage lies in producing toys cheap (it has 70 per cent share of the global toy market).

India must consider microeconomic countermeasures, firm by firm. A positive engagement with Chinese toy manufacturers will be the most mutually beneficial.

Indian businessmen should start diversifying their toys suppliers within China. Competition among them will generate better quality.

Then, an association of Indian toy importers could take charge of the supply chain by forming joint ventures or starting toy factories in China. This way, India could help China grow and also ensure the health of our children.

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The Best Pet for Your Sign

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 3 Apr 2009 07:51:00 -0700

With spring in bloom, it's a great time to get that special pet with whom to forge a unique bond. All astrological signs get along with most pets, but if you want to find the ideal pet that suits your sign the best, read on.

Aries
These bold and energetic ones of the Zodiac need a pet that can keep up with them through all their adrenaline-pumping activities. An Irish Terrier fits the bill perfectly. They are courageous and active dogs, affectionately referred to as "the daredevils of the dog world" by fanciers of the breed. Serving as messengers and sentinels during World War I, these dogs will fearlessly accompany an Aries on adventurous treks.

Taurus
Aesthetically aware and highly tactile, Taureans will enjoy a pet that is cute and oh-so-cuddly. Pomeranian dogs are sure to delight. Their soft, fluffy coats need regular brushing and grooming, something a Taurus, who appreciates beautiful hair, will enjoy. Poms are highly intelligent, easily trained, and very friendly - all traits that will appeal to a sensible Taurus. Poms will get attached to their owners and may follow them everywhere, which suits steadfast Taurus.

Gemini
What better companion for these chatty intellects than a pet with cognitive abilities that can chatter? An African Grey Parrot is sure to inspire the Gemini mind. These birds belong to one of the most intelligent parrot species and possess the ability to develop a large vocabulary and communicate efficiently with their owner. They become easily bored and thrive in a stimulating, interactive environment. Geminians will find no lack of intellectual stimulation with these clever birds.

Cancer
Cancers feel their way through life and, for emotional gratification, prefer a small pet they can hold, caress, and care for. Hamsters are cute, clean, and a joy to take care of. Like a Cancer, a hamster is happiest in a comfy, spacious home. Hamsters eat a variety of foods, and Cancers will have no trouble feeding them from their well-stocked kitchen. A litter of baby hamsters will satisfy a Cancer's maternal and nurturing instincts.

Leo
A superb yet playful pet would melt the heart of a Leo because Leos are regal at heart and lovers of extravagant beauty. Siamese cats are sleek, lively, and entertaining, which allows them to capture the interest of a Leo easily. Ownership of a Siamese cat was restricted to the members of the royal family in ancient times, making the cats quite fitting for Leos today. Above all, they are loving cats who like to be at the center of attention. A Leo will never become bored with one of these magnificent pets.

Virgo
Virgos, who are very clean and often picky perfectionists, demand the best. The Bernese Mountain Dog satisfies all of a Virgo's high standards. These dogs are remarkably clean and are bred to be friendly and obedient servants. They are very easy to train and want to please as much as possible. This dog will gladly accompany a Virgo who donates time and services to a worthy cause and happily pitch in. Virgos will love working side-by-side with these diligent, loving dogs.

Libra
Charming and poised, Librans with their refined tastes are happiest surrounded by exquisite beauty and harmony. The Peach-faced Lovebirds would make a lovely addition to a Libran home. The name "Lovebird" stems from these parrots' strong, monogamous pair-bonding, which Libra will appreciate. They are very social birds and are sure to be a hit at the many parties thrown by a Libra. With lots of love and attention, Lovebirds can become cherished companions, often snuggling up to or preening their owners, thus keeping Libra enamored.

Scorpio
Intense and inquisitive, Scorpios are fascinated by the darker side of life and often prefer quiet companionship from a pet. Spiders are a pet sure to thrill. Since a spider is a relatively low-maintenance pet, a Scorpio owner can spend hours enthralled watching the interesting existence of a spider. Spiders require little to no socialization, which suits typically introverted Scorpio just fine. A sensual spider housed in a stimulating terrarium will provide a striking scene in a Scorpio's life.

Sagittarius
Sagittarians are warm, enthusiastic, and vigorous, and they are looking for similar traits in a large, noble pet. Great Danes hit the mark with flying colors. The Great Dane's substantial and imposing appearance belies its friendly nature, and the dog is often referred to as a gentle giant. As pets, they are full of energy and need regular walking, which fits in well with the sporty lifestyle of Sagittarius. Robust, alert, and agile, a Great Dane will keep a Sagittarius owner active and in high spirits.

Capricorn
Ambitious and practical, Capricorns thrive with a pet that is a disciplined over-achiever. The German Shepherd's strength, intelligence, and obedience will allow it easily to meet Capricorn's goals. With a willingness to learn and an eagerness to have a purpose, the German Shepherd will flourish in the training of Capricorn's firm hand. Self-assuredness and loyalty are traits that will solidify its stature in a Capricorn's life.

Aquarius
With a unconventional, cool, and detached nature, Aquarians want a pet that is unique and not too demanding. Iguanas are right up their alley. They're stunning to view, show distinct personalities, eat greens (which are generally easier to provide than live food), and are very popular. A well-handled iguana is friendly and can keep itself amused for hours with plenty of sun and areas to climb. An iguana and an Aquarius will be best mates for years to come.

Pisces
Pisceans are often looking to escape the daily grind of life with a magical and captivating experience. Tropical, colorful fish in a scenic aquarium are the pets to provide Pisces with such an encounter. Tropical fish come in an assortment of bizarre shapes and colors that are sure to enchant the treasured space of a Pisces. The bubbling water, luminous colors, and swimming fish all combine to give a Pisces a wonderful getaway within the home.

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Why We Celebrate Republic Day

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 22:24:00 -0800

We know that we celebrate Republic Day on January 26. But sometimes, we may forget why.

It is the birthday of the supreme law of our nation, the Constitution of India, which was passed by the Constituent Assembly on January 26, 1949, and came into effect on January 26, 1950. It contains our self-image, our worldview and our intentions towards one another and non-Indian people.

It's profoundly moving to read the Preamble and the Articles that detail our fundamental rights and duties and the directive principles of our nationhood. Though salted by now in scripture, I find that my heart leaps with a special thrill each time I happen to read something in the Constitution.

I truly rate it as all the scripture we ever need, for leading our lives with goodwill and a sound work ethic. Essentially, the Constitution seems to be about space and responsibility.

We are meant to give each other plenty of space and ensure a fair availability of skillsets and life-enabling facilities. Beyond that, there has to be room for individual merit.

The Constitution says we're to have physical, intellectual, emotional and spiritual space, by which we are empowered to take a fair shot at making our lives happen. If I had to pick a mudra or coded handsign to represent the Constitution, I'd do a Namaste.

A Namaste, says, "I salute the Me in You, which both spring from the One." We're acknowledging our connectedness as human beings and also our space in the vaster scheme of things.

The old ones sensed a greater Energy everywhere and in themselves, but couldn't get a fix on it. "Neti, neti, neti" (Not this, Not this, Not this,") they said in a process of elimination.

So what was 'It'? The Constitution does a good job of trying to answer that question. It gathers up much that is good and worth keeping in the history of thought and tells us what our lives as modern Indians should be like.

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Happy New Year!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 05:50:00 -0800

Happy New Year! Thanks to supporters like you, 2008 was a very successful year for us. We were able to exceed our goals and expand our services to our visitors. [You may wish back in the comments box.] Thank you so much!

We wish you a new year filled with peace, joy, and meaning.

With Regards
From Our Team

Today’s Question: Can Men Breastfeed?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 3 Dec 2008 21:39:00 -0800

Question: Can Men Breastfeed?

Answer: Odd as it seems, men can lactate. In their 1896 book, Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine, Dr. George Gould and Dr. Walter Pyle recount several occurrences of men breastfeeding their young. The stories include a sailor who put his son to his breast to quiet him and started producing milk; a South American peasant who sustained his child with his own breast milk during his wife’s illness; and a Chippewa man who put his infant to his breast following the death of his wife and produced enough milk to rear the child.
The phenomenon hasn’t stopped. In 2002, a Sri Lankan man named B. Wijeratne lost his wife and was left to care for their 18-month-old daughter. When the child refused powdered milk, Wijeratne tried something different. “Unable to see her cry, I offered my breast,” Wijeratne told a Sri Lankan newspaper. “That’s when I discovered I could breastfeed.”
Wijeratne isn’t alone. All men can breastfeed, because they possess the two most vital components for lactating—mammary glands and pituitary glands. Mammary glands, which produce milk, are present in all mammals. In fact, they’re one of our defining characteristics. In some cases, such as with mice, the mammary glands of the males are too underdeveloped to function. In humans, however, they’re fully formed in both sexes, complete with breastfeeding ducts and nipples.
Of course, for a human to actually breastfeed, those mammary glands have to be activated somehow. In women, this usually happens during pregnancy, when the brain’s pituitary gland starts releasing large amounts of a hormone called prolactin, which prepares the breasts to produce milk.

All men produce small amounts of prolactin during their lifetimes. It’s released after orgasms, for example, and may be responsible for the associated feelings of satisfaction and relaxation. But typically, it’s never present in large enough quantities for men to breastfeed. Under the appropriate psychological circumstances, however, the mind can demand that the body produce more of the hormone. This often happens to mothers who adopt children and suddenly find they can nurse. And as Dr. Gould and Dr. Pyle have documented, there’s a long history of it happening in men, too.

This article was written by Shea Serrano and originally appeared in the September-October issue of mental_floss magazine.

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7 Historic (and Seriously Unhealthy) Beauty Practices

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 3 Dec 2008 21:37:00 -0800

While our modern beauty regimens certainly don’t lack weird ingredients, by tradition our good looks have often been achieved at the cost of good taste and health. What deadly and disgusting things have people used to stay young and pretty? Here are a few of the truly disturbing used throughout history.

1. Bathing in Crocodile Excrement

For some reason, the ancient Greeks thought crocodile excrement had restorative and beautifying properties. It was mixed into natural mud holes or baths full of warmed mud, and Grecian lovelies hung about in it until they felt restored and beautiful (I’m guessing that took quite a while.) We don’t know how they collected it (or why they decided it was a good idea in the first place) but it was all the rage in the wealthy and youth-seeking circles. Thankfully, bathing with water was also in vogue and there are no official reports of reptile-poo poisoning.

2. Sticking Bird Droppings Up Your Nose

In the early days of the geisha, Japanese women used a whitening paste on their faces made mostly of rice flour and bird droppings. It was applied over the entire face, including the ears, inside the nostrils, on the eyelids and lips.

3. Dyeing Hair With Cow’s Blood

Hair dye has long been a staple of modern women, but ancient Iranian women also enjoyed a good dye-job. They compounded a nasty mix of henna, tadpoles, and the blood of black cows, which they applied liberally to darken and condition their hair. It was thought that the blood gave the cows their dark coloring and would do the same for human hair. Although henna is used as a natural dye to this day, the inclusion of tadpoles still confounds me.

4. Wearing Wigs That Caused Nosebleeds

The women of England have been famous throughout history for their elaborate and strange beauty routines. In the era of Queen Elizabeth, when red hair was in fashion, women used a powder made of sulfur and safflower petals to color their hair and wigs. The blend caused headaches, nausea, and frequent nosebleeds.

5. Wearing Poisonous Eye Makeup

When it comes to heavy metal poisoning, no one trumps the ancient Egyptians. Men and women painted their eyes almost daily with a mixture called mesdemet, made from a dark gray lead, among other things. Also, a green paint called udju was used, made from a copper ore. Although neither product could be considered healthy, the eyepaint that Egyptians wore is credited with repelling insects and preventing infections due to the high antimicrobial activity of copper ore.

6. Liberally Applying Arsenic Powder

In a medieval version of today’s CoverGirl compact, European women used a powder (pressed into cakes or small jars) to whiten their skin. The fashionable pallor was created by using white lead ore and arsenic, among other unhealthy-but-white ingredients.

7. Gargling With (Portuguese) Urine

Dental care was a little lax throughout most of history, but Romans in the time of Jupiter appreciated white teeth nearly as much as we do today. To improve the color of their teeth and freshen their breath, Romans imported Portuguese urine (believed to be stronger than their own) to rinse their mouths. While obviously unpleasant, urine contains several compounds like ammonia and urea that actually kill germs and help fight the gum disease gingivitis.

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The Surprisingly Cool History of Ice

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 3 Dec 2008 21:35:00 -0800

Until two centuries ago, ice was just an unfortunate side effect of winter. But in the early 1800s, one man saw dollar signs in frozen ponds. Frederic Tudor not only introduced the world to cold glasses of water on hot summer days, he created a thirst people never realized they had.
In 1805, two wealthy brothers from Boston were at a family picnic, enjoying the rare luxuries of cold beverages and ice cream. They joked about how their chilled refreshments would be the envy of all the colonists sweating in the West Indies. It was a passing remark, but it stuck with one of the brothers. His name was Frederic Tudor, and 30 years later, he would ship nearly 200 tons of ice halfway around the globe to become the “Ice King.”

Ice Man Cometh

Nothing in Tudor’s early years indicated that he would invent an industry. He had the pedigree to attend Harvard but dropped out of school at the age of 13. After loafing for a few years, he retired to his family’s country estate to hunt, fish, and play at farming. When his brother, William, quipped that they should harvest ice from the estate’s pond and sell it in the West Indies, Frederic took the notion seriously. After all, he had little else to do.

Frederic convinced William to join him in a scheme to ship ice from New England to the Caribbean. Tudor reasoned that once people tried it, they’d never want to live without it. During the next six months, the brothers pooled their money and laid out plans to ship their product to the French island of Martinique, where they hoped to create a monopoly on ice.
No one believed the idea would work. In fact, no ship in Boston would agree to transport the unusual cargo, so Frederic spent nearly $5,000 (a big chunk of the seed money) buying a ship of his own. On February 10, 1806, The Boston Gazette reported, “No joke. A vessel with a cargo of 80 tons of ice has cleared out from this port for Martinique. We hope this will not prove to be a slippery speculation.”
It did. Although the ice arrived in Martinique in perfect condition, no one wanted to buy it. Tudor desperately explained how the cold blocks of ice could be used in the stifling Caribbean heat, but islanders weren’t convinced.
After an inauspicious start, William pulled out of the partnership. The following winter, Frederic was on his own. Remarkably, he drummed up enough money to send another shipment of ice to the Indies. But when a trade embargo left much of the Caribbean off limits for two years, Frederic was left twiddling his thumbs. Meanwhile, the Tudor family fortune had dwindled in a shady real estate deal in South Boston.
Despite financial woes, Frederic persisted, and his ice business finally turned a profit in 1810. But a series of circumstances—including war, weather, and relatives needing bailouts—kept him from staying in the black for too long. Between 1809 and 1813, he landed in debtors’ prison three times and spent the rest of the time hiding from the sheriff.

Breaking the Ice

Perhaps it was his Yankee entrepreneurial spirit, or perhaps monomania, but Tudor was obsessed with the idea that ice would make him rich. During the next decade, he developed clever new techniques to convince people that they actually needed ice, including a “first one’s free” pitch. While living in a South Carolina boarding house in 1819, Tudor made a habit of bringing a cooler of chilled beverages to the dinner table. His fellow boarders always scoffed at the sight, but after a sip or two, they’d inevitably fall in love with his ice. Tudor traveled around the country and convinced barkeeps to offer chilled drinks at the same price as regular drinks—to see which would become more popular. He also taught restaurants how to make ice cream, and reached out to doctors and hospitals to convince them that ice was the perfect way to cool feverish patients. The truth is that people never knew they needed ice until Tudor made them try it. Once they did, they couldn’t live without it.
By 1821, Tudor’s business was strengthening. He’d created real demand for his product in Savannah, Charleston, New Orleans, and even Havana. But he still needed to refine his operation. Enter Nathaniel Wyeth, an innovator who became Tudor’s foreman in 1826. By using a horse-drawn plow to cut the ice into large grids, Wyeth invented a much faster harvesting method. He also put an assembly process into place. Laborers sawed the blocks apart and plunked them into canals to float them downstream. Then a conveyor belt would hoist the blocks from the water and carry them up to icehouses, where they’d be stacked up to 80 feet high.
Still, only one-tenth of the ice harvested made it to sale. What’s worse, the whole operation was incredibly unsafe. In addition to those towering stacks of ice, numb hands, sharp instruments, and frigid waters made the process dangerous. The 300-lb. blocks of ice could slide easily, knocking down men and breaking their limbs. Ice harvesters often developed “ice man’s knees,” which were bruised and bloody from days of shoving solid ice.
Despite these drawbacks, Wyeth’s ingenious methods were a major improvement on prior harvesting practices. With the inventor by his side, Tudor asserted his long-fomenting monopoly and became known as the “Ice King.” Tudor’s reputation solidified in 1833 when he shipped 180 tons of ice halfway across the world to British colonists in Calcutta. The venture was so successful that it reopened trade routes between India and Boston.
Back at home, Tudor continued to dominate the scene. By 1847, nearly 52,000 tons of ice traveled by ship or train to 28 cities across the United States. Nearly half the ice came from Boston, and most of that was Tudor’s. He also maintained ice-harvesting rights to key ponds throughout Massachusetts. Even Henry David Thoreau watched Tudor’s workers harvest Walden Pond and waxed philosophic about the scene in his diary: “The pure Walden water is mingled with the sacred water of the Ganges.”

The End of the Ice Age

Frederic Tudor died in 1864, finally rich again. By that time, everyone with access to a frozen body of water was in on the action. Ice boomtowns sprouted along the Kennebec River in Maine, where farmers found year-round employment. The 1860s became the peak competitive period of American ice harvesting, and Tudor’s company prospered. Even during the Civil War, when the South was cut off from ice supplies in the North, the ice industry continued to grow in New England and in the Midwest.
As American society grew more accustomed to fresh meats, milk, and fruit, the ice industry expanded into one of the most powerful industries in the nation. At the turn of the 20th century, nearly every family, grocer, and barkeep in America had an icebox. But ironically, America’s dependence on ice created the very technology that would lead to the decline of the ice empire—electric freezers and refrigerators. During the early 1900s, these appliances became more reliable, and by 1940, 5 million units had been sold. With freezers allowing people to make ice at home, there was little need to ship massive quantities across the country.
Today, the ice industry pulls in $2.5 billion a year, but it’s nowhere near as dominant as it used to be. Most of the business is from pre-packaged, direct-to-consumer ice (the stuff you buy for your beer cooler). Still, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be grateful. The next time you put your lips to a slushie, or an iced tea, or a chilled martini, or a cold beer on a hot day, take a moment to thank the crazy Yankee who had the vision to turn water into money.

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You think, therefore you are

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 06:42:00 -0800

In this day and age we have many tools and techniques that enable us to become the happy, healthy, joyful and prosperous person that we are meant to be.

Creative Visualisation is a powerful concept that, once understood and used on a daily basis, can assist us to realise our true potential. It is a marvellous technique that once mastered can bring about many wonderful results. It is the technique of using your imagination to create what you need in your life and to bring it into existence. This is something you are doing anyway. So, why not use it consciously and with a purpose in mind?

We are all doing it everyday but usually on an unconscious level. We have a lot of "stuff" in our subconscious and this tends to influence our conscious thoughts, feelings and eventually our actions. If, due to our negative concepts we believe in "lack" then this is what we will create for ourselves, mostly in an unconscious way. You can learn to use your natural abilities to create (with your imagination) what you truly want in life.

In Creative Visualisation you use your mind to imagine a picture of what it is you want. Whether it's satisfying relationships, fulfilling work, inner peace, joy, good health, prosperity or whatever your heart desires. Then create a clear image of what you want and see it as actually happening! Then continue to focus on it on a daily basis (if you can't see the picture then focus on the idea) giving it only a positive feeling that it has already manifested and become a reality.

Create your own reality

Relax prior to the technique. Take a few deep breaths, close your eyes and focus on the breath. Make them deep breaths at first and sighing any tension out on the out breath. Once you have relaxed then breathe normally and begin to imagine your goals. Don't try to do anything but let the pictures form. Remember it is what you feel that will create the manifestation. So, keep it positive.

Your goal may focus on any level Â— physically, emotionally, mentally, or spiritually. You may be looking for a new relationship, new home, new job or maybe are searching for calmness and serenity, improving your mind or resolving problems. With experience you will find the techniques that assist you most beneficially.

For this technique to work it does not need you to believe in any particular philosophy, religion or idea. The only thing that you need is the desire to gain further knowledge and experience in helping you attain a better way of life. Have an open mind to be willing to try something new in a positive way. It allows you to understand the spiritual laws of the universe Â— the natural laws that govern the other world. Learn to use these principles to become a happier, healthy, joyful, prosperous "human being." One of my most memorable manifestations is living in a house on the beach on an island. I imagined for myself a very peaceful lifestyle and created it accordingly.

Understanding how

Energy is constantly flowing in the universe and this creates change. There is an abundance on this planet to meet everyone's needs. It just needs to be shared around. When we realise that receiving and giving create more abundance, we will keep the flow going. As we begin to allow ourselves to receive more good then we begin to appreciate what life has to offer, we will want to share this manifestation with others. This is when life naturally evolves. It becomes fun. Remember to give to oneself but also to others.

One of the main reasons why we fail to receive is because we are unable to understand the process of creative visualisation. When you take the viewpoint that the universe is abundant there is really no reason to maintain a program of "lack".

The writer specialises in Emotional Freedom Technique, Meditation/Creative Visualisation and Relaxation

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Handwriting Indicates Your Personality

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 03:32:00 -0700

“Good handwriting is the symbol of literacy”, said Mahatma Gandhi.

Do you feel embarrass when you are not able to read your own handwriting or if some one points you for bad handwriting. No doubts it’s a modern era and now we are using PC’s and laptops for our work but sometimes it happens that in several meetings you have to use chalk or pen to write something. We all have a temptation of writing better but unfortunately, some of us could not do it. Some of us even think that by using costly pen, we can write well. However, this has nothing to do with reality. A pen or pencil is not magical. It is your hand and fingers only that roll on a paper and do the magic. Now you do not need to look at your friend’s writing with tempted eyes. You can also improve it.

If you want to improve your handwriting you’re probably hoping a fountain pen will do the trick -- maybe a friend told you it would. A fountain pen may make your writing look a bit better, but if your writing looks as if frenzied chickens got loose on the page, chances are this won’t be enough. Most likely, you’ll need to retrain your arm and hand.

Tips for improving handwriting
It will take time to re-train muscles and learn new habits. Finger-writing isn’t fatal, but it is slow and often painful (if you have to write much). The first thing you must have is patience and gentleness with yourself. The second requirement is determination. If you finger-write, that is the first, most important thing you must un-learn: Do not draw your letters! Do not write with your fingers! Put up signs everywhere to remind you. Pleasant handwriting comes naturally to some people where as some of them get it by hard effort. Many people just keep struggling however, could not make it. In fact they do try but not in the stipulated or disciplined manner. You can go about improving your handwriting in several ways. It is not a heritage, one gets as a property of one’s ancestor. It is the outcome of the regular practice done in a well-planned way.

Most of us hold the pen between the thumb and index finger, resting the barrel on the middle finger. This works better than holding it between the thumb and the index and middle fingers, with the whole assembly resting on the ring finger. If you do it the first way, you’re off to a good start. If the second, you’ll be okay. In both, the remaining fingers are curled under the hand. Do remember, no one can bring sudden changes in your hands; it is an ongoing process, which needs rigorous practice.

Some facts to know

Set a target before you. Select a piece of handwriting you like most and try to copy it.

Choose a pen or pencil and buy a rule notebook, you are comfortable with, no matter it is wide or long.

Start with that sentence which you like most at the top of your first practice page. And keep on repeating the same sentence on a new page every week to judge your progress.

Start with letters and practice writing at least one letter in the complete page per day. Focus on the letter formation, how it begins, how it ends, what is its size etc.

Do not jump on writing words until you make it all the way through every letter. Once you move on to writing words, pay attention towards character spacing, letters flow from one into the next, and the spacing you give between two words.

Have an attitude of “never giving up”, keep your practice on until your handwriting looks as you wish it to.

As we all know practice makes the man perfect. So keep practicing and have patience if you really want to improve your handwriting. After some time you will find a dramatic change in your handwriting.

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Hollywood Fun

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 07:10:00 -0700

Great Founders Of...

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 07:10:00 -0700

ARYABHATT (476 CE)

MASTER ASTRONOMER AND MATHEMATICIAN

Born in 476 CE in Kusumpur ( Bihar ), Aryabhatt's intellectual brilliance remapped the boundaries of mathematics and astronomy. In 499 CE, at the age of 23, he wrote a text on astronomy and an unparallel treatise on mathematics called "Aryabhatiyam." He formulated the process of calculating the motion of planets and the time of eclipses. Aryabhatt was the first to proclaim that the earth is round, it rotates on its axis, orbits the sun and is suspended in space - 1000 years before Copernicus published his heliocentric theory. He is also acknowledged for calculating p (Pi) to four decimal places: 3.1416 and the sine table in trigonometry. Centuries later, in 825 CE, the Arab mathematician, Mohammed Ibna Musa credited the value of Pi to the Indians, "This value has been given by the Hindus." And above all, his most spectacular contribution was the concept of zero without which modern computer technology would have been non-existent. Aryabhatt was a colossus in the field of mathematics.

BHASKARACHARYA II (1114-1183 CE)

GENIUS IN ALGEBRA
Born in the obscure village of Vijjadit (Jalgaon) in Maharastra, Bhaskaracharya's work in Algebra, Arithmetic and Geometry catapulted him to fame and immortality. His renowned mathematical works called "Lilavati" and "Bijaganita" are considered to be unparalled and a memorial to his profound intelligence. Its translation in several languages of the world bear testimony to its eminence. In his treatise " Siddhant Shiromani " he writes on planetary positions, eclipses, cosmography, mathematical techniques and astronomical equipment. In the " Surya Siddhant " he makes a note on the force of gravity: "Objects fall on earth due to a force of attraction by the earth. Therefore, the earth, planets, constellations, moon, and sun are held in orbit due to this attraction." Bhaskaracharya was the first to discover gravity, 500 years before Sir Isaac Newton . He was the champion among mathematicians of ancient and medieval India . His works fired the imagination of Persian and European scholars, who through research on his works earned fame and popularity.

ACHARYA KANAD (600 BCE)

FOUNDER OF ATOMIC THEORY
As the founder of " Vaisheshik Darshan "- one of six principal philosophies of India - Acharya Kanad was a genius in philosophy. He is believed to have been born in Prabhas Kshetra near Dwarika in Gujarat . He was the pioneer expounder of realism, law of causation and the atomic theory. He has classified all the objects of creation into nine elements, namely: earth, water, light, wind, ether, time, space, mind and soul. He says, "Every object of creation is made of atoms which in turn connect with each other to form molecules." His statement ushered in the Atomic Theory for the first time ever in the world, nearly 2500 years before John Dalton . Kanad has also described the dimension and motion of atoms and their chemical reactions with each other. The eminent historian, T.N. Colebrook , has said, "Compared to the scientists of Europe , Kanad and other Indian scientists were the global masters of this field."

NAGARJUNA (100 CE)

WIZARD OF CHEMICAL SCIENCE
He was an extraordinary wizard of science born in the nondescript village of Baluka in Madhya Pradesh . His dedicated research for twelve years produced maiden discoveries and inventions in the faculties of chemistry and metallurgy. Textual masterpieces like " Ras Ratnakar ," "Rashrudaya" and "Rasendramangal" are his renowned contributions to the science of chemistry. Where the medieval alchemists of England failed, Nagarjuna had discovered the alchemy of transmuting base metals into gold. As the author of medical books like "Arogyamanjari" and "Yogasar," he also made significant contributions to the field of curative medicine. Because of his profound scholarliness and versatile knowledge, he was appointed as Chancellor of the famous University of Nalanda . Nagarjuna's milestone discoveries impress and astonish the scientists of today.

ACHARYA CHARAK (600 BCE)

FATHER OF MEDICINE
Acharya Charak has been crowned as the Father of Medicine. His renowned work, the " Charak Samhita ", is considered as an encyclopedia of Ayurveda. His principles, diagoneses, and cures retain their potency and truth even after a couple of millennia. When the science of anatomy was confused with different theories in Europe , Acharya Charak revealed through his innate genius and enquiries the facts on human anatomy, embryology, pharmacology, blood circulation and diseases like diabetes, tuberculosis, heart disease, etc. In the " Charak Samhita " he has described the medicinal qualities and functions of 100,000 herbal plants. He has emphasized the influence of diet and activity on mind and body. He has proved the correlation of spirituality and physical health contributed greatly to diagnostic and curative sciences. He has also prescribed and ethical charter for medical practitioners two centuries prior to the Hippocratic oath. Through his genius and intuition, Acharya Charak made landmark contributions to Ayurvedal. He forever remains etched in the annals of history as one of the greatest and noblest of rishi-scientists.

ACHARYA SUSHRUT (600 BCE)

FATHER OF PLASTIC SURGERY
A genius who has been glowingly recognized in the annals of medical science. Born to sage Vishwamitra, Acharya Sudhrut details the first ever surgery procedures in " Sushrut Samhita ," a unique encyclopedia of surgery. He is venerated as the father of plastic surgery and the science of anesthesia. When surgery was in its infancy in Europe , Sushrut was performing Rhinoplasty (restoration of a damaged nose) and other challenging operations. In the " Sushrut Samhita ," he prescribes treatment for twelve types of fractures and six types of dislocations. His details on human embryology are simply amazing. Sushrut used 125 types of surgical instruments including scalpels, lancets, needles, Cathers and rectal speculums; mostly designed from the jaws of animals and birds. He has also described a number of stitching methods; the use of horse's hair as thread and fibers of bark. In the " Sushrut Samhita ," and fibers of bark. In the " Sushrut Samhita ," he details 300 types of operations. The ancient Indians were the pioneers in amputation, caesarian and cranial surgeries. Acharya Sushrut was a giant in the arena of medical science.

VARAHAMIHIR (499-587 CE)

EMINENT ASTROLOGER AND ASTRONOMERA
Renowned astrologer and astronomer who was honored with a special decoration and status as one of the nine gems in the court of King Vikramaditya in Avanti ( Ujjain ). Varahamihir's book "panchsiddhant" holds a prominent place in the realm of astronomy. He notes that the moon and planets are lustrous not because of their own light but due to sunlight. In the " Bruhad Samhita " and " Bruhad Jatak ," he has revealed his discoveries in the domains of geography, constellation, science, botany and animal science. In his treatise on botanical science, Varamihir presents cures for various diseases afflicting plants and trees. The rishi-scientist survives through his unique contributions to the science of astrology and astronomy.

ACHARYA PATANJALI (200 BCE)

FATHER OF YOGA
The Science of Yoga is one of several unique contributions of India to the world. It seeks to discover and realize the ultimate Reality through yogic practices. Acharya Patanjali , the founder, hailed from the district of Gonda (Ganara) in Uttar Pradesh . He prescribed the control of prana (life breath) as the means to control the body, mind and soul. This subsequently rewards one with good health and inner happiness. Acharya Patanjali 's 84 yogic postures effectively enhance the efficiency of the respiratory, circulatory, nervous, digestive and endocrine systems and many other organs of the body. Yoga has eight limbs where Acharya Patanjali shows the attainment of the ultimate bliss of God in samadhi through the disciplines of: yam, niyam, asan, pranayam, pratyahar, dhyan and dharna. The Science of Yoga has gained popularity because of its scientific approach and benefits. Yoga also holds the honored place as one of six philosophies in the Indian philosophical system. Acharya Patanjali will forever be remembered and revered as a pioneer in the science of self-discipline, happiness and self-realization.

ACHARYA BHARADWAJ (800 BCE)

PIONEER OF AVIATION TECHNOLOGY
Acharya Bharadwaj had a hermitage in the holy city of Prayag and was an ordent apostle of Ayurveda and mechanical sciences. He authored the " Yantra Sarvasva " which includes astonishing and outstanding discoveries in aviation science, space science and flying machines. He has described three categories of flying machines: 1.) One that flies on earth from one place to another. 2.) One that travels from one planet to another. 3.) And One that travels from one universe to another. His designs and descriptions have impressed and amazed aviation engineers of today. His brilliance in aviation technology is further reflected through techniques described by him:
1.) Profound Secret: The technique to make a flying machine invisible through the application of sunlight and wind force.
2.) Living Secret: The technique to make an invisible space machine visible through the application of electrical force.
3.) Secret of Eavesdropping: The technique to listen to a conversation in another plane.
4.) Visual Secrets: The technique to see what's happening inside another plane.
Through his innovative and brilliant discoveries, Acharya Bharadwaj has been recognized as the pioneer of aviation technology.

ACHARYA KAPIL (3000 BCE)

FATHER OF COSMOLOGY
Celebrated as the founder of Sankhya philosophy, Acharya Kapil is believed to have been born in 3000 BCE to the illustrious sage Kardam and Devhuti. He gifted the world with the Sankhya School of Thought. His pioneering work threw light on the nature and principles of the ultimate Soul (Purusha), primal matter (Prakruti) and creation. His concept of transformation of energy and profound commentaries on atma, non-atma and the subtle elements of the cosmos places him in an elite class of master achievers - incomparable to the discoveries of other cosmologists. On his assertion that Prakruti, with the inspiration of Purusha, is the mother of cosmic creation and all energies, he contributed a new chapter in the science of cosmology. Because of his extrasensory observations and revelations on the secrets of creation, he is recognized and saluted as the Father of Cosmology.

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Funny Pictures

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 9 Aug 2008 10:07:00 -0700

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