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The secret to high returns in stock investing

2010-07-17T23:59:00.000+05:30

The secret to high returns in stock investing: " Investment criteria that have worked exceptionally well in the past

Over the years of my investing experience, I have had my share of successes and failures - both have inevitably offered valuable learning (in hindsight of course). A popular saying in investor circle goes – give your money to the market and you are bound to get a lesson or two in “return” (pun intended). May be this is why the secret to investment excellence is – “time in the market” rather than “timing the market”. In this article, I have decided to share some of the investment selection criteria and characteristics that paid out handsome returns in the past. What I find quite amazing is that most of my really successful investments have had at least one, and, more frequently, several of the simple investment characteristics, which are described below.

Low Price compared to Earnings: Stocks bought at low price-to-earnings ratio (i.e. price per share divided by net profit of the company per share) are cheaper than stocks bought at higher ratios of price-to-earnings. Almost all of my multi-baggers (stocks that multiplied in value) were purchased at a price/ earnings ratio of less than 15. Paying a low price for a stock in relation to its earnings, means you don’t overpay for growth in earnings of the company. So when growth does happen, it leads to a non-linear increase in the share price. This is particularly true when low price-to-earnings is accompanied by ‘high dividend yield’ and ‘low price-to-cash flow’.

Low Price compared to Book Value: Stocks priced at less than book-value can often be purchased on the assumption that, in time, their market price will reflect at least their stated book value (value of all assets in the balance sheet minus all liabilities). During a few rare occasions, I have also been able to find stocks selling at discounts to their current assets minus liabilities (i.e., cash and other assets which can be turned into cash within one year, minus liabilities) - a measure of the minimum liquidation value of the business. This was a stock selection technique successfully employed by the founder of the Value Investing concept - Benjamin Graham (the guru of Warren Buffett)

Significant purchases by Insiders: Managers, directors and promoters (referred to as Insiders) often buy their own company’s stock when it is depressed in relation to the estimated intrinsic value of the company. Insiders usually have special “insight” about the company and the industry, which they believe will result in an increase in the underlying value of the company. Often such insider buying happens in companies, whose stock is available at low price-to-earnings or at low price-to-book value. Using knowledge of insider purchases (available in exchange filings) along with fundamental stock evaluation criteria makes a powerful combination that’s hard to beat.

Significant decline in share price: A severe decline in share price is often accompanied by a decline in earnings of the company or earnings that failed to meet expectations. What most market participants fail to understand or anticipate - is the possibility of the company’s performance reverting to mean. More often than not, companies with a strong balance sheet (and promoter track record) but whose recent performance has been poor, tend to perk up and improve, generating tremendous returns to the contrarian investor who was bottom fishing.

Small market-capitalization: Most publicly traded companies are small in terms of their market capitalization (total number of shares multiplied by share price). In fact if you remove the top 100 firms (by size) from the stock market, the combined market capitalization of the others contributes only to a third of the overall market capitalization of all listed firms in the exchange. Small and mid-cap companies, if selected prudently, often display higher rates of growth and may be more easily acquired by larger corporations – providing a double benefit for shareholders who buy cheap.

Each of the above characteristic is loosely connected to the other. A confluence of all the above characteristics is a strong pointer to an undervalued stock that has potential to yield high returns.

Checking in on Saturn

2010-05-25T12:20:00.000+05:30

Checking in on Saturn: "

While we humans carry on with our daily lives down here on Earth, perhaps stuck in traffic or reading blogs, or just enjoying a Springtime stroll, a school-bus-sized spacecraft called Cassini continues to gather data and images for us - 1.4 billion kilometers (870 million miles) away. Over the past months, NASA's Cassini spacecraft has made several close flybys of Saturn's moons, caught the Sun's reflection glinting off a lake on Titan, and has brought us even more tantalizing images of ongoing cryovolcanism on Enceladus. Collected here are a handful of recent images from the Saturnian system. (30 photos total)

In orbit around Saturn, NASA's Cassini spacecraft captured this image of Saturn's moon Tethys with its prominent Odysseus Crater slipping behind Saturn's largest moon Titan. Tethys (1,062 km, or 660 mi across) is more than twice as far from Cassini than Titan (5,150 km, or 3,200 mi across). Tethys is 2.2 million km (1.4 million mi) from Cassini, where Titan is only about 1 million km (621,000 mi) away. This image was obtained with the a narrow-angle camera on November 26, 2009. Image scale is 6 km (4 mi) per pixel on Titan and 13 km (8 mi) per pixel on Tethys. (NASA/JPL/SSI)

NASA - Saturn - Cassini - Cassiniâ€“Huygens - Titan"

Unpublished, Unseen 2010

2010-05-14T16:27:00.000+05:30

Unpublished, Unseen 2010: "

Varanasi, India, 2010

Over the past thirty years, I have taken nearly a million pictures. Many of them have been published in my books, in magazines, and seen in my exhibitions, but a majority have never been seen. Here are a few of those unseen pictures that I have taken in the past few months.

India, 2010

Mandalay, Burma, 2010

Burma, 2010

Mandalay, Burma, February, 2010

Burma, 2010

Chiang Mai, Thailand, 2010

Volcanic Ash Blankets Europe

2010-04-19T11:14:00.000+05:30

Volcanic Ash Blankets Europe: "

LONDON (AP) -- Thick drifts of volcanic ash blanketed parts of rural Iceland on Friday as a vast, invisible plume of grit drifted over Europe, emptying the skies of planes and sending hundreds of thousands in search of hotel rooms, train tickets or rental cars.

'The skies are totally empty over northern Europe,' said Brian Flynn, deputy head of Eurocontrol, adding 'there will be some significant disruption of European air traffic tomorrow.' The agency said about 16,000 of Europe's usual 28,000 daily flights were canceled Friday -- twice as many as were canceled a day earlier. U.S. airlines canceled 280 of the more than 330 trans-Atlantic flights of a normal day, and about 60 flights between Asia and Europe were canceled.

Southern Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull (ay-yah-FYAH'-plah-yer-kuh-duhl) glacier began erupting for the second time in a month on Wednesday, sending ash several miles into the air. Winds pushed the plume south and east across Britain, Ireland, Scandinavia and into the heart of Europe. The air traffic agency Eurocontrol said almost two-thirds of Europe's flights were canceled Friday, as air space remained largely closed in Britain and across large chunks of north and central Europe. (21 images)

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The volcano in southern Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull glacier sends ash into the air just prior to sunset on Friday, April 16. Thick drifts of volcanic ash blanketed parts of rural Iceland on Friday as a vast, invisible plume of grit drifted over Europe, emptying the skies of planes. AP / Brynjar Gauti

MORE IMAGES

Smoke billows from a volcano in Eyjafjallajokull on April 16. Iceland's second volcano eruption in less than a month has sent plumes of ash and smoke billowing more than 20,000 feet (6,000 metres) into the sky. The massive ash cloud is gradually sweeping across Europe and forcing the continent's biggest air travel shutdown since World War II. AFP / Getty Images / Halldor Klobeins

A car is seen driving through the ash from the volcano eruption under the Eyjafjallajokull glacier in Iceland, Friday. The volcano erupted for the second time in less than a month, melting ice, shooting smoke and steam into the air. AP / mar skarsson

Volcanic scientists collect samples of ash to send to labs to analyze its content, in eastern Iceland on April 15. A cloud of ash from the Eyjafjallajˆkull volcano in Iceland, which erupted on the morning of April 14. AFP / Getty Images / Omar Oskarsson

Footprints in volcanic ash fallen to ground Friday April 16, near Myrdalssandur, some 220km east of the capital Rejkavik, Iceland. AP / Brynjar Gauti

A woman wears a mask and goggles to protect herself from ash caused by volcanic activity Friday April 16, some 120km east of the capital Rejkavik, Iceland. Authorities told people in the area with respiratory problems to stay indoors, and advised everyone to wear masks and protective goggles outside. AP / Brynjar Gauti

A computer enhanced image provided by the German Aerospace Center, DLR, on Friday, April 16, shows a photo of the volcano under the Eyjafjallajokull glacier on Iceland taken by the TerraSAR-X satellite on Thursday evening, April 15. AP / TerraSAR-X

A landscape flattened by floodwaters caused by volcanic activity on the Markarfljot river bank Friday, April 16, some 120km east of the capital Reykjavik, Iceland. AP / Brynjar Gauti

Ice chunks carried downstream by floodwaters caused by volcanic activity lie on the Markarfljot river bank Friday April 16, some 120km east of the capital Rejkavik, Iceland. AP / Brynjar Gauti

Ground staff secure a plastic protective cover on the engines of an aircraft at Belfast City Airport in Northern Ireland, on April 16. AFP / Getty Images / Peter Muhly

Passengers look out from the windows of Krakow airport, Poland, Friday, April 16. A cloud of volcanic ash from an Iceland volcanic eruption caused cancellation of flights across Europe putting at risk the burial ceremony of late Polish president Lech Kaczynski and his wife, killed in a plane crash. The ceremony is planned to take place at the Wawel castle in Krakow, on Sunday, April 18. AP / Petr David Josek

Travelers wait at the closed international Airport in Duesseldorf, Germany, Friday, April 16. Most countries in northern Europe suspended their air traffic due to ash clouds from the volcanic eruption in Iceland. AP / Martin Meissner

Italian tourists rest in the departure hall of Prague's Ruzyne airport on April 16, as flights were cancelled due to ash from a volcano eruption in Iceland. AFP / Getty Images / Michal Cizek

Passengers gather in front of flight information screens at Roissy Charles de Gaulle Airport, as hundreds of commercial flights across northern Europe are canceled by a drifting plume of volcanic ash originating from Iceland, outside Paris, Friday, April 16. AP / Christophe Ena

Passengers rest at Roissy Charles de Gaulle Airport, as hundreds of commercial flights across northern Europe are canceled by a drifting plume of volcanic ash originating from a volcanic eruption in Iceland, Friday, April 16. AP / Christophe Ena

Passengers use camp beds as they wait for the resumption of air travel on April 16, at the airport in at Frankfurt airport, the biggest in Germany. AFP / Getty Images / Torten Silz

Passengers sleep as they waits for the resumption of air travel on April 16, at the airport in Frankfurt, Germany. AFP / Getty Images / Torstan Silz

In this photo released by the Icelandic Coastguard on Friday, April 16, officers in a coastguard plane monitor the activity of the volcano under the Eyjafjallajokull glacier in Iceland. AP / Icelandic Coastguard

The crater of the volcano under the Eyjafjallajokull glacier in Iceland, is shown in this photo released by the Icelandic Coastguard on Friday, April 16. AP / Icelandic Coastguard

This image provided by NOAA shows the volcanic plume, from Wednesday's eruption of a volcano beneath Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull glacier. Using sulfur dioxide concentration data from the NASA Aura/ OMI satellite sensor, it shows smoke, ash, and other components that can cause aircraft jet engines to fail. The OMI sensor can distinguish the differences between cloud, smoke, dust, ozone and other aerosols, and is important in Earth observations for aviation safety. AP / NOAA

A combo of 3 pictures taken on April 15, by EUMETSAT shows a dark cloud of volcanic ash spreading from Iceland. A volcanic eruption in Iceland fired ash across northern Europe forcing the closure of huge swathes of international airspace which grounded hundreds of flights. The eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in southeast Iceland had already melted part of a surrounded glacier causing severe floods. More than 700 people were evacuated from their homes. AFP / Getty Images / Fabrice Coffrini

The World’s Most Beautiful Bridges

2010-03-25T10:13:00.000+05:30

The World’s Most Beautiful Bridges: "

Today’s bridges not only symbolize our world’s advancement in design but its advancement in technology as well.

Consequently, architects and engineers have been able to merge design and technology together in order to create bridges that are bigger, better, and more spectacular than ever before.

Several of these are simply stunning – a true marvel of classic engineering capabilities and the outstanding achievements of modern engineering.

We’ve compiled a list of 50 of the world’s most amazing bridges, both young and old. If we’ve missed and of your favorites, please feel free to add them in the comments area below… Enjoy!

Akashi-Kaikyō Bridge (Kobe, Japan)

Bixby Creek Bridge (Big Sur, California, USA)

Bosphorus Bridge (Istanbul, Turkey)

The Bridge of Aspiration (Covent Garden, London, UK)

Bridge of Sighs (Venice, Italy)

Brooklyn Bridge (Brooklyn, New York, USA)

Chengyang Bridge (Sanjiang of Guangxi Province, China)

Chesapeake Bay Bridge (Chesapeake Bay, Maryland, USA)

The Iron Bridge (Coalbrookdale, UK)

Confederation Bridge (New Brunswick, Canada)

Coronado Bridge (San Diego, California, USA)

Donghai Bridge (Shanghai, China)

Erasmus Bridge (Rotterdam, Netherlands)

Fehmarn Belt Bridge (Hamburg, Germany to Copenhagen, Denmark)

Forth Railway Bridge (Fife, Scotland)

Gateshead Millennium Bridge (Gateshead to Newcastle, UK)

Golden Gate Bridge (San Franciso, California, USA)

The Half-Bridge of Hope (Russia)

Hangzhou Bay Bridge (Hangzhou Bay, China)

Humber Bridge (Kingston upon Hull, England)

Hussaini Bridge (Passu, Pakistan)

Jadukata Bridge (Ranikor, India)

Kawazu (Kawazu-cho, Japan)

Khaju Bridge (Isfahan, Iran)

Kintaikyo Bridge (Iwakuni City, Japan)

If you find an exclusive RSS freebie on this feed or on the live WDD website, please use the following code to download it: C6Dn0u

50 Unusual Examples of Concept Art

2010-03-22T14:55:00.000+05:30

50 Unusual Examples of Concept Art: "

By Aquil Akhter

Today we are going to explore some of the unique concepts in the form of Concept Art which has become the most enviable form of art over the internet these days. Concept art is basically the visual depiction of a design or an idea with the help of illustrations. The challenge of Concept art is to create a visual representation of a design that does not exist yet, and it is mostly achieved by Photoshop or by traditional means like oil paints, pencils and others.

In this showcase we present a list of 50 astonishing and compelling examples of concept art that will surely get your imagination flowing freely. Hope you’ll like this collection.

Concept Art

Guild Wars

Concept art Guardian

Injured Protoss Zealot

Ryan Church concept design for futuristic city

RAEVONA – Docking Towers

Mazinger

Terminator V

Female mecha

Resistance Concept Ships

Shafer Hellgate Toppled Skyscraper

Gallente Heavy Fighter Concept

Creature of the Oasis

Generator Room

Rooftops Full

Ice Vehicle design concep

Desnoyers-Ville

God of the forest, Hong Kuang (2D)

The Tower of Eternity

Bold Visions – City Docks

City of Atlantis

The remains which live

Beautiful Photo-Mosaic Posters of Steve Jobs

2010-03-22T13:04:00.000+05:30

Beautiful Photo-Mosaic Posters of Steve Jobs: "

If you enjoy using Apple products or are a huge fan of Steve Jobs, you’ll absolutely love these photo-mosaic posters.

The posters are a work of Charis Tsevis, a visual designer who is based in Greece. All Charis has used are icons of various Apple hardware and software product to create such wonderful portraits of the iconic Steve Jobs.

Charis says that he uses a combination of Adobe Photoshop and Studio Artist (Mac only) to create these photo-mosaics. He has also shared some of his brilliant work on Flickr under a CC license so you can use them for non-commercial purposes.

35 Hot-Shot Photos With Perfect Timing

2010-03-17T18:57:00.000+05:30

35 Hot-Shot Photos With Perfect Timing: "

The most hilarious and off-the-wall images are taken at the right time and right angle. But capturing these bizarre moments is not a piece of cake for many. Many times you have to wait hours to just take that perfect shot and only once in a while you get lucky enough to get your right shot actually right.

Today we present some of the beautiful photos shot at exactly the right moment.

35 Hot-Shot Photos With Perfect Timing

Funny Wedding Photo

Right Place Right Time

Get a Room

tender and sweet little kiss

The Halo Effect

That Must Have Been Some Kiss!

Oh how come she is more beautiful?

Pogo needs to go to rehab

WEDDING white heat BRIDE

It’s a miracle

Egg Thieves beware

Lord, can you hear me now?

Quite a funny joke

Cheeeeese

I’m The Urban Spaceman

Suicidal Slug

Valued exposure: Top dog

Going Nowhere Fast

Lara

35 Incredible 3D Renders

2010-03-15T18:07:00.000+05:30

35 Incredible 3D Renders: "

Unbelievable, magical, miraculous… one can go on using adjectives, but nothing can come close to describing what 3D renders can to. It can transform your imagination into stunning pictures in a way such that it becomes difficult to distinguish between the real photo and the virtual one.

Applications like 3D Max, Blender, Cellular Imaging, CAD provide powerful instruments for 3D designers and architects. Today we have hand picked 35 Incredible 3D Renders to showcase the beauty of 3D.

Incredible 3D Renders

CG painting

BMW C1: Urban Trespasser

Insane High-Resolution Creature Renderings #2

Ornaments

‘Naoshima – Cherry Blossom

Mickey Mouse’s Workshop

Michael Kutsche

2010-03-15T15:15:00.000+05:30

Michael Kutsche: "Concept Art by Michael Kutsche.

http://www.mistermk.de/

Photo

2010-03-15T15:09:00.000+05:30

Photo: "

"

40 Outstanding Photo Manipulation Tutorials

2010-03-12T11:54:00.000+05:30

Photo manipulation is an art that requires lots of patience along with the expertise in Photoshop and other photo editing tools. With your creativity and imagination, you can manipulate any photograph the way you want! Now it’s all about your imagination and using Photoshop’s effects and other tools cleverly.

You simply have to experiment with different effects to see what feeling they give you as having expertise in Photoshop can help you greatly in producing amazing results. Here we’ve compiled a list of 40 great photo manipulation tutorials that would astonish you!

Photo Manipulation Tutorials

How to Create Glass Transparency in a Cute Photo Manipulation
In this tutorial you’ll learn how to incorporate glass into your work. We’ll learn a good technique for incorporating glass transparency into photo manipulations, while placing a cute, pirate hamster on the high seas. Let’s start!

Design a Surreal Desert Scene in Photoshop
In this tutorial artist is going to show you how to create a surreal time-themed photomanipulation using Photoshop. The name of this photomanipulation is “Time Guardian” and it was originally created by Mariusz Karasiewicz

How to Make a Melting Camera Scene
In this tutorial, we’ll use the Layer Mask Tool and Liquify filter to “melt” the camera. Artist recommends you work with a tablet for this one (it makes your work easier), but if you don’t have one it is also possible to go through this tutorial. Let’s start!

Blend a Planet Transparently into a Photo Manipulation
In this tutorial Artist will show you how to use different blending modes to blend flying hairs easily and to make semi-transparent planet. He will also show you different techniques of adjustment to get the most realistic results in your photo manipulations!

Making of the Imaginary Paint Dancers
Artist came across the amazing set of Paint Tossing freebies from Media Militia the other day and thought that he must create some artwork with them. So he visited my favorite Mjranum’s stock gallery again and done up this tutorial. Hope you will like it.

Robot Woman Photo Manipulation
If you want to take your photo manipulation skills to the next level, then we have an awesome tutorial for you. Learn more at the jump!

Alien Invasion
A step by step and detailed tutorial, you will find it very useful and interesting.

How to Create a Steampunk Style Illustration in Photoshop
Go simultaneously backward and forward in time with this Steampunk tutorial. The main focus, aside from the style of course, is fusing elements from different sources together to create a cohesive whole. There are many tricks to this end and we shall be looking at light sources, shadows, and image grading.

Create a Cyborg With Photoshop
In this tutorial you’ll discover how to incorporate mundane, everyday objects into a photoshop cyborg manipulation. Combining household objects with 3D renders is a technique that can and does have interesting results.

How to Create a Mythical Creature Photo Manipulation
If you want to take your photo manipulation skills to the next level, then we have an awesome tutorial for you. Learn more at the jump!

How to Create a Chilling Photo Manipulation in Photoshop
In this tutorial artist will show you how he created a fantasy photo manipulation called “You Can Not Frost The Time” with using several Photoshop tools such as Color Range, different blending modes, and more. Let’s get started!

How to Create a Fantasy Landscape Photo Manipulation
In this tutorial, you will learn how to create a fantasy landscape using some simple and easy techniques. Everyone with basic Photoshop skills can succeed to recreate this simple image using the most important thing in this kind of photo manipulation – the right stock. So let’s go!

How to Create a Fallen Angel on Fire Photo Manipulation
If you want to take your photo manipulation work to the next level, then we have an exciting tutorial for you. We’ll work with fire and other images to create this fantasy scene. Learn more at the jump!

How to Create a Dark Emotional Photo Manipulation
This is a tutorial with a simple idea: to create an emotional photo manipulation. Following this tutorial, you will learn how to blend different images to make a dark atmospheric background, modify the dress of the model, apply makeup, paint hair, blend different objects in the background, and more – all to create a moody illustration. So, let’s start!

How to Create a Surreal Photo Manipulation with Twisting Water
In this tutorial, we’re going to create a fantasy photo manipulation mixing different images and learning to use and modify the stock images in a creative way. The idea is to get a compact image that looks absolutely real, and at the same time, absolutely impossible!

Photo Manipulate a Falling Angel
Learn how to combine several photos to create a dramatic ‘fallen angel’ scene.

Animal King Photo Manipulation
In this photoshop tutorial, you’ll learn how to mash up a series of photos in a highly creative poster based on a famous painting from the 1800’s. Let’s get started!

Design an Epic Fantasy Scene with Photoshop
In this tutorial we are going to create a photo manipulation inspired by Valhalla.

Create an Explosive Cover with Precise Photo Manipulation Techniques
In this tutorial, we’re going to make a creative illustration in a style meant for a video game cover or sci-fi book cover. We’ll create this with mostly photo manipulation techniques. With some cool Photoshop options you can turn all the photos you chose, into one stunning looking explosive cover.

Design a Dramatic and Surreal Rainy Scene with Photoshop
Learn all about how to manipulate images and combine them to create surreal scenes, in this case a rainy scene. Also, numerous details are covered in this tutorial such as adding highlights, shading, excellent photo-manipulation techniques, and more. Learn all about it at the jump!

The Making of Mystic
In this tutorial Nik Ainley walks us through the process of making a spectacular image. This tutorial focuses on the big picture steps taken to create this image. You’ll learn some incredible techniques in this tutorial, and get a view into how Nik creates beautiful photo-manipulation based images. Let’s check it out.

Fantastic Disintegration Effect inspired by Watchmen in Photoshop
In this tutorial artist will show you how to create the disintegration effect using brushes and the blur filter. It’s really simple and you will be able to create nice designs using this sort of trendy style of effect.

Making of the Magical Heroes
In this tutorial We will be creating a game poster with magical theme. This tutorial shows how to draw a sword from scratch and also introducing some of the latest high quality brushes on the internet.

Create amazing water-drenched photomontages
Nik Ainley shows you how to make a splash, blending two very different images to create this amazing underwater effect, complete with a dissolving figure of a man.

Torture a Man and Stitch himup
Transform a man into a torture victim with a couple tricks and some basic tools.

Creating a Glowing Sphere in An Inverted Image
Learn how you can create an interesting image by adding in some simple Photoshop effects and by inverting its colors! Inverting an image can sometimes produce unexpected results, and in this tutorial, you’ll learn and practice Filters – Liquify, Blur and Lens Flare tools to create additional effects and elements to make it more stunning.

How to Create a Mystery Photo Manipulation in Photoshop
In this tutorial artist will show you how to create a mystery photo manipulation using Photoshop brushes, different blend modes, and more. Let’s get started!

How To Create A Ripping And Tearing Poster Effect
In this tutorial we are going to turn a flat, artificial poster into something that looks as if it’s been hanging around on the wall for a long time.The initial poster was created using techniques that we have covered in previews tutorials. As you can see, it’s a brash image that looks nothing like a real poster.

Mysterious Hollow Dark landscape
A step by step and detailed tutorial, you will find it very useful and interesting.

How to Create a Photo Manipulation of a Flooded City Scene
In this tutorial, we will learn how to manipulate a simple photo into a flooding torrent of a scene. We’ll use some relatively simple techniques to give this image a semi-realistic, stylized feel. Let’s get started!

Scared Photomanipulation Tutorial
This tutorial will be a little different than all the other tutorials. Here artist will teach you some basic things about Photomanipulation.

How to Create a Slice of Nature Photo Manipulation
Today artist is going to show you how to put together a complex tree illustration. The idea for this tutorial is to show a workflow from concept to finish, not just so you can copy this illustration, but so that you can take the ideas behind it and use them for any design you have. It’s not just the finished design but the process we are after.

Self-initiated abstract art
In this tutorial artist will show you how – with a little time on your side – you can overcome the common myth of low budget work, creating an impressive piece of abstract work using Photoshop.

Dreamy photo effect
In this tutorial we will take a photo and use different color adjustments and something like pattern floral brushes to make it better or to make a different mood to our picture. So let’s go.

Dazzling Dance Photo Manipulation
In this detailed and lengthy Photoshop tutorial, you will learn how to combine photos and add special effects to turn a normal photograph into a stunning artwork. You will also learn several tricks to reduce your Photoshop document file size and number of layers and layer styles.

How to Create a Fantasy Scene with Death
In this detailed tutorial you will learn how to create a fantasy scene with death.

How To Create a Futuristic Sci-Fi Scene
In this tutorial, artist will guide you through the steps to create a futuristic sci-fi scene. We will transform original pictures using Photoshop tools that will help to give the image a more spectacular look.

Create a Colorful Woodpecker and Tree Scenery
This tutorial is intended for everyone who is beginning at digital drawing/painting, if you like drawing and Photoshop then you are the perfect candidate to follow this tutorial.

Create a Beautiful Lonely Fantasy Fairy
This tutorial will explain how to make a beautiful fairy from a single source image. We’ll go over each step on how to make the feathers, the hat, the background, the grass and the mountains.

How to Create a Severed Arm in Photoshop
In this tutorial we will be learning how to create a severed arm with fleshy stumps and strings of sinew. This will be created by using some basic Brushes and Layer Masks. Let’s get started!

20 Most Popular Open Source Software Ever

2010-03-12T11:39:00.000+05:30

20 Most Popular Open Source Software Ever These days, you can quite easily buy a brand-spanking-new computer and install all the software you need for free, using applications offered under the Open Software License. You can get a free image editor, a free sound editor, a free word processor, media player, file archiver, PDF creator… the list goes on and on and on. While some of these free apps do not offer quite the same level of polished functionality as their commercial rivals, others far exceed the capabilities of everything else on the market. Below, we take a close look at the cream of the crop: 20 invaluable and indispensable open source applications that you really should be using, if you’re not already. The vast majority of them are cross-platform and absolutely 100% free! You’re bound to find several that are perfectly suited to your needs.

1. WordPress

WordPress is the world’s most popular blogging platform, used by a staggering 202 million websites. As simple or as complex as you want it to be, WordPress is supported by a wide array of plugins which can be used to transform a standard blog into anything you could possibly desire. Besides blogs, WordPress can be used as a straightforward content management system to power anything from an e-commerce site to a social network.

2. Magento

Magento, used by 30,000 merchants, including Samsung, Nespresso and The North Face, is the world’s fastest growing e-commerce platform. Magento Community Edition is offered for free under the Open Software License. The Enterprise Edition, for which you have to pay, offers features like multi-store capability, store credits and gift cards, out-of-the-box.

3. Mozilla Firefox

Firefox currently accounts for 24.43% of the recorded usage share of web browsers, but this figure is on the rise. Already the browser of choice for most web professionals, Firefox’s popularity is growing thanks to its vast selection of third party add-ons, which let users tailor their browsing environment down to the finest detail.

4. Mozilla Thunderbird

With its speedy searches, built-in RSS feeds, strong security and superb add-ons, Thunderbird has to be the best, free email application available. If you’re prepared to spend some time tailoring your email environment with add-ons, you’ll absolutely love it, but it’s probably not ideal for complete novices.

5. FileZilla

FileZilla is a hugely successful, cross-platform FTP client. It’s also available as a server, for Windows only. Created in January 2001 by Tim Klosse as a class project, FileZilla has gone on to become the 5th most popular download of all time from SourceForge.net.

6. GnuCash

GnuCash provides a great, free alternative to paid-for accounting software. Designed for personal and small business use, it offers bank account, stock, income and expense tracking, in addition to double-entry accounting.

7. Audacity

Music software like Cubase and Logic Pro can be incredibly expensive, which is why an increasing number of people are turning to Audacity, a free, cross-platform sound editor. Users can record and edit live audio; cut, copy, splice and mix sounds; and convert ageing tapes and records into digital format.

8. GIMP

Just like sound editors, industry standard image editing software is prohibitively expensive for a lot of people, but GIMP provides a free alternative. It performs every major function you could desire, except for, vitally, CMYK separation functionality necessary for prepress work.

9. OpenOffice

With the ability to create text documents, spreadsheets, presentations and databases, OpenOffice is an accomplished rival to Microsoft Office, which clearly influenced OpenOffice’s design. Microsoft Office users will feel completely at home and find that OpenOffice performs just as well, if not better.

10. VLC

At last count, VLC media player had been downloaded 300 million times. Unlike some paid-for alternatives, VLC supports practically every audio/video codec and file format. The most recent VLC release also offers live recording of streaming video, frame-by-frame advancement and superb speed controls.

11. Handbrake

Handbrake rips/converts DVDs to MPEG-4 for playing back on your iPod or archiving. It doesn’t have the ability to decode DVDs, but can do so if you have VLC, which includes a DVD encoder, installed on your computer.

12. Pidgin

Pidgin is the ultimate, free instant messaging tool. It provides you with one window through which you can simultaneously interact with different people, whichever instant messaging platform they’re using.

13. Freemind

Freemind is a terrific mind-mapping tool, which lets you get all your thoughts down as quickly as possible with the use of icons, shapes and colors. Besides the ordinary nodes and links, you can add hyperlinks and even documents to your maps.

14. Notepad++

Reliable, customizable, intuitive and free, Notepad++ is the most popular Windows-based CSS editor around. It offers everything: syntax highlighting; folding and auto-completion for CSS, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, SQL, HTML, XML and PHP; multi-file viewing; tabbed editing; zoom in/out; and bookmarks.

15. 7-Zip

7-Zip is an extremely popular file archiver for Windows, which, although free, outperforms Winzip. It can unpack the vast majority of archive formats and can create TAR and GZ archives, commonly used on Unix and Linux systems, as well as its own 7z format, which easily outshrinks ZIP files.

16. Blender

Blender is a 3D content creation suite which can be used for everything from modeling to skinning, particle simulation, animating and texturing. Unlike some other free apps in this list, Blender has not been designed to “imitate” other 3D graphics software, which means it takes a bit of getting used to, but once you’ve familiarized yourself with all the shortcuts, you’ll be hooked.

17. PDFCreator

Windows users can consider PDFCreator a credible rival to Adobe Acrobat. Creating PDFs is as easy as printing, literally, as once installed, you can select PDFCreator as your printer, letting you create PDFs from practically any application.

18. Calibre

According to Calibre, it’s the “one stop solution to all your e-book needs”. I’m inclined to agree. Besides letting you catalogue and manage your e-book collection, sorting, tagging and commenting on them as you please, you can download content from the internet and convert it into e-book form.

19. TrueCrypt

TrueCrypt really is the best free encryption program around for anyone worried about their security. It offers 11 algorithms for encrypting your files, as well as a comprehensive help manual, which gives advice on complex password creation, hidden volumes and erasing encryption giveaways.

20. Ubuntu

Named after an African philosophy of community, sharing and generosity, Ubuntu is a free operating system for Linux that’s quick and easy to use. Recent figures suggest that around 50% of Linux users have Ubuntu installed. With its focus on usability, Ubuntu comes with OpenOffice, Firefox Empathy, Pidgin, GIMP and other tools pre-installed.

Brain Damage Habits

2010-03-12T11:05:00.000+05:30

1. No Breakfast
People who do not take breakfast are going to have a lower blood sugar level.
This leads to an insufficient supply of nutrients to the brain causing brain degeneration.

2. Overeating
It causes hardening of the brain arteries, leading to a decrease in mental power.

3. Smoking
It causes multiple brain shrinkage and may lead to Alzheimer disease.

4. High Sugar consumption
Too much sugar will interrupt the absorption of proteins and nutrients causing malnutrition and may interfere with brain development.

5. Air Pollution
The brain is the largest oxygen consumer in our body. Inhaling polluted air decreases the supply of oxygen to the brain, bringing about a decrease in brain efficiency.

6. Sleep Deprivation
Sleep allows our brain to rest. Long term deprivation from sleep will accelerate the death of brain cells.

7. Head covered while sleeping
Sleeping with the head covered, increases the concentration of carbon dioxide and decrease concentration of oxygen that may lead to brain damaging effects.

8. Working your brain during illness
Working hard or studying with sickness may lead to a decrease in effectiveness of the brain as well as damage the brain.

9. Lacking in stimulating thoughts
Thinking is the best way to train our brain, lacking in brain stimulation thoughts may cause brain shrinkage.

10. Talking rarely
Intellectual conversations will promote the efficiency of the brain

Underwater Engagement Photos + Save the Date!

2010-03-10T11:52:00.000+05:30

Underwater Engagement Photos + Save the Date!: "Kelty from Steep Street sent me the coolest Save the Dates she photographed. They feature an underwater engagement session! From Kelty, Jeff and Stacey are dear friends that I've known since childhood and (being the crazy iron man triathletes they are) they were game for an underwater engagement shoot, replete with wedding ensembles, underwater kisses, dancing, and diving. They've been all over the world together but had a distinct vision for their engagement shoot and save the date cards, choosing the pool their grew up swimming in. I then created an accordion Save the Date Invite using their engagement photos.

Thanks Kelty! Steep Street is located in Portland, Oregon. You can see more of Kelty's work on her blog.

10 Amazing Life Lessons You Can Learn From Albert Einstein

2010-03-10T11:41:00.000+05:30

Albert Einstein has long been considered a genius by the masses. He was a theoretical physicist, philosopher, author, and is perhaps the most influential scientists to ever live.

Einstein has made great contributions to the scientific world, including the theory of relativity, the founding of relativistic cosmology, the prediction of the deflection of light by gravity, the quantum theory of atomic motion in solids, the zero-point energy concept, and the quantum theory of a monatomic gas which predicted Bose–Einstein condensation, to name a few of his scientific contributions.

Einstein received the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics “for his services to Theoretical Physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect.”

He’s published more than 300 scientific works and over 150 non-scientific works. Einstein is considered the father of modern physics and is probably the most successful scientist there ever was.

10 Amazing Lessons from Albert Einstein:

Follow Your Curiosity

“I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.”

What piques your curiosity? I am curious as to what causes one person to succeed while another person fails; this is why I’ve spent years studying success. What are you most curious about? The pursuit of your curiosity is the secret to your success.

Perseverance is Priceless

“It's not that I'm so smart; it's just that I stay with problems longer.”

Through perseverance the turtle reached the ark. Are you willing to persevere until you get to your intended destination? They say the entire value of the postage stamp consist in its ability to stick to something until it gets there. Be like the postage stamp; finish the race that you’ve started!

Focus on the Present

“Any man who can drive safely while kissing a pretty girl is simply not giving the kiss the attention it deserves.”

My father always says you cannot ride two horses at the same time. I like to say, you can do anything, but not everything. Learn to be present where you are; give your all to whatever you’re currently doing.

Focused energy is power, and it’s the difference between success and failure.

The Imagination is Powerful

“Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life's coming attractions. Imagination is more important than knowledge.”

Are you using your imagination daily? Einstein said the imagination is more important than knowledge! Your imagination pre-plays your future. Einstein went on to say, “The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge, but imagination.” Are you exercising your “imagination muscles” daily, don’t let something as powerful as your imagination lie dormant.

Make Mistakes

“A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.”

Never be afraid of making a mistake. A mistake is not a failure. Mistakes can make you better, smarter and faster, if you utilize them properly. Discover the power of making mistakes. I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again, if you want to succeed, triple the amount of mistakes that you make.

Live in the Moment

“I never think of the future - it comes soon enough.”

The only way to properly address your future is to be as present as possible “in the present.”

You cannot “presently” change yesterday or tomorrow, so it’s of supreme importance that you dedicate all of your efforts to “right now.” It’s the only time that matters, it’s the only time there is.

Create Value

“Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.'

Don’t waste your time trying to be successful, spend your time creating value. If you’re valuable, then you will attract success.

Discover the talents and gifts that you possess, learn how to offer those talents and gifts in a way that most benefits others.

Labor to be valuable and success will chase you down.

Don’t Expect Different Results

“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

You can’t keep doing the same thing everyday and expect different results. In other words, you can’t keep doing the same workout routine and expect to look differently. In order for your life to change, you must change, to the degree that you change your actions and your thinking is to the degree that your life will change.

Knowledge Comes From Experience

“Information is not knowledge. The only source of knowledge is experience.”

Knowledge comes from experience. You can discuss a task, but discussion will only give you a philosophical understanding of it; you must experience the task first hand to “know it.” What’s the lesson? Get experience! Don’t spend your time hiding behind speculative information, go out there and do it, and you will have gained priceless knowledge.

Learn the Rules and Then Play Better

“You have to learn the rules of the game. And then you have to play better than anyone else.”

To put it all in simple terms, there are two things that you must do. The first thing you must do is to learn the rules of the game that you’re playing. It doesn’t sound exciting, but it’s vital. Secondly, you must commit to play the game better than anyone else. If you can do these two things, success will be yours!

Thank you for reading and be sure to pass this article along!
"

The Secret Origin of Windows

2010-03-09T18:17:00.000+05:30

The Secret Origin of Windows: "

Few people understand Microsoft better than Tandy Trower, who worked at the company from 1981-2009. Trower was the product manager who ultimately shipped Windows 1.0, an endeavor that some advised him was a path toward a ruined career. Four product managers had already tried and failed to ship Windows before him, and he initially thought that he was being assigned an impossible task. In this follow-up to yesterday’s story on the future of Windows, Trower recounts the inside story of his experience in transforming Windows from vaporware into a product that has left an unmistakable imprint on the world, 25 years after it was first released.

Thanks to GUIdebook for letting us borrow many of the Windows images in this story.

–David Worthington

Microsoft staffers talk MS-DOS 2.0 with the editors of PC World in late 1982 or early 1983. Windows 1.0 wouldn’t ship for almost another two years. From left: Microsoft’s Chris Larson, PC World’s Steve Cook, Bill Gates, Tandy Trower, and founding PC World editor Andrew Fluegelman.

In the late fall of 1984, I was just past three years in my employment with Microsoft. Considering the revolving doors in Silicon Valley at that time, I already had met or exceeded the typical time of employment with a high-tech company. Over that time I already had established a good track record, having started with product management of Microsoft’s flagship product, BASIC, and successfully introduced many versions including the so-called GW-BASIC which was licensed to PC clone vendors, various BASIC compilers, and a BASIC interpreter and compiler for the Apple Macintosh. As a result I had been given the overall responsibility for managingMicrosoft’s programming languages, which included FORTRAN, Pascal, COBOL, 8086 Macro Assembler, and its first C compiler for MS-DOS. It was at this point that things took a significant turn.

I had just gone through one of those infamous grueling project reviews with Bill Gates, who was known for his ability to cover all details related to product strategy, not only those on the technical side. Borland’s Turbo Pascal had just come out, seemed to be taking the market by storm, and looked like a possible competitor to Microsoft BASIC as the language that was shipped with every PC. While Microsoft had its own version of Pascal, it had been groomed as a professional developer’s tool, and in fact was the core language Microsoft wrote many of its own software products in before it was displaced by C.

Bill Gates made it quite clear that he was not happy.

At $50 for the Borland product vs. the Microsoft $400 compiler, it was a bit like comparing a VW to a Porsche. But while Turbo Pascal was lighter weight for serious development, it was almost as quick for programming and debugging as Microsoft’s BASIC interpreters. And Pascal was the programming language that most computer science students most typically studied. The new Borland product would require serious strategy revisions to the existing plans to port Microsoft Pascal to a new compiler architecture. But it also required thinking about how to address this with our BASIC products. Could a Turbo BASIC be on the horizon? In any case, Gates made it quite clear that he was not happy .

Returning to my office I was somewhat devastated. In the days that followed, as I tried to come up with a revised strategy, I was uncertain about whether I should even continue in this role. I had come to Microsoft from a consumer computer company where I had primarily managed a variety of entertainment and education software. Even in my early career at Microsoft I had managed its early PC games like Flight Simulator, Decathlon, and Typing Tutor. And I had loved managing BASIC, not just because it was the product the company was best known for, but because BASIC helped me get my own start in the PC business, and I believed it allowed a wide audience to tap into the power of PCs. Now my job had evolved to where I was managing a family of products mostly for a highly technical audience. So, I spoke with Steve Ballmer, then my direct manager and head of Microsoft’s product marketing group, and suggested that perhaps I was the wrong person for this job.

A couple of weeks later, Ballmer called me in and proposed that I transfer over to manage Windows. Sounds like a plum job right? Well, that wasn’t so obvious at the time. Windows had been announced the previous year with much fanfare and support from most of the existing PC vendors. However, by the time of my discussion with Steve, Windows still had not shipped within the promised timeframe and was starting to earn the reputation of being “vaporware”. In fact Ballmer had just returned from what we internally referred to as the “mea culpa” tour to personally apologize to analysts and press for the product not having shipped on time and to reinforce Microsoft’s definite plans to complete it soon.

Windows was developing a reputation for career death.

Further, Microsoft’s strategy to get IBM to license Windows had failed. IBM had rejected Windows in favor of its own character-based DOS application windowing product called TopView. With IBM still the dominant PC seller, Microsoft would have to market Windows directly to IBM PC users. It would be the first time the company sold an OS level product directly to end-users (unless you count the Apple SoftCard, a hardware card that enabled Apple II users to run CPM-80 applications on their Apple IIs, which I had also previously managed). Since I had been the product manager that had the most experience with marketing technically oriented products through retail channels (rather licensed to PC vendors), Ballmer thought the job might be a good fit. In addition, he pointed out that since Windows was intended to expand the appeal of PC through its easier-to-use graphical user interface, it should appeal to my more end-user product experience and interests.

At that point Windows was no longer considered the company’s star project, as it had become a bit of an embarrassment. Even internally there were doubts among some in the company that Windows would ever ship. Also, because Ballmer had already burned though four product managers to try to get there–people who now had been either reassigned or were no longer at Microsoft–the product was developing a reputation for career death. Apparently prior to offering the job to me, Ballmer had tried to persuade Rob Glaser, already recognized as a bright, up-and coming talent, to take the position. But Glaser turned him down. When Glaser heard that I was offered the position, he even stopped by to counsel might that it would be a bad career move.

This made me think that perhaps the offer to me was a ploy by Gates and Ballmer to fire me because of their disappointment in dealing with Turbo Pascal and my suggestion that perhaps my assignment to managing programming languages was a poor choice on their part. It seemed clever: give me a task that no one else had succeeded with, let me fail as well, and they would have not only a scapegoat, but easy grounds to terminate me. So, I confronted Gates and Ballmer about my theory. After their somewhat raucous laughter they regained their composure and assured me that the offer was sincere and that they had confidence in my potential success.

So, in January of 1985 I transitioned over the Windows team, but even as I assumed my new role, I discovered that the Windows development architect and manager, Scott McGregor, a former Xerox PARC engineer, has just resigned. Ballmer himself took up McGregor’s role as the development lead in addition to his other responsibilities.

Shaping Up Windows

My first task was to assess of what was done and what was left to be done as well as come up with a marketing strategy of how to sell an OS add-on to end users, a task that was a significant challenge because no Windows applications existed at that time. How to sell a new application interface without any applications?

I discovered that while the three core functional components of Windows (Kernel–memory management, User–windowing and controls, and GDI–device rendering) were mostly in place there was still a substantial amount of work to be done, and Ballmer had given me only six months to finalize the product and get out the door. This didn’t bother too much since I had currently held the record for getting a product from definition to market in the shortest time.

Windows needed to be finished, not further tweaked in anyway that jeopardized getting it out that summer without further embarrassment.

There wasn’t much time to make changes. Ballmer was emphatic not to redefine what was already done, even though McGregor had changed Windows from its original overlapping windows design to a tiled windows model and every windowing system out there or under development featured overlapping windows. There also was not enough time to change the Windows system font displayed in title bars and control labels from a fixed width typeface to a proportional typeface, which made the overall look a bit clunky, especially in comparison to the newly announced Macintosh interface. Steve’s promise was that in the next release I would get creative freedom to make any significant changes to the product’s interface. I could add some functionality to make it more appealing to end-users, but overall the product needed to be finished, not further tweaked in anyway that jeopardized getting it out that summer without further embarrassment.

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Why The Chile Earthquake Deformed The Earth And Shortened Our Days [Mad Geophysics]

2010-03-08T16:16:00.000+05:30

Why The Chile Earthquake Deformed The Earth And Shortened Our Days [Mad Geophysics]: "

The devastating 8.8 quake that hit Chile last week was a rare 'megathrust' earthquake, among the most powerful known, and it affected the very shape of the planet. How did it do that, and will you notice the difference?

A megathrust earthquake is caused when one one tectonic plate is shoved violently underneath another in a process called subduction. These earthquakes are very rare; they tend to be 7.5 magnitude or higher, and there are only about 14 in recorded history (including the 2004 Indonesian quake that caused huge tsunamis).

In Chile, the Nazca plate was pushed against the South American Plate (see below). These two plates have a history of smashing together alarmingly: The Andes mountain range was created by their subduction action, and 3 of the 5 megathrust quakes recorded in the last century centered on Chile.

Megathrust quakes like Chile's are so huge, and cause such a giant release of energy, that they change the shape of the Earth. In the case of Chile's subduction quake, the planet became slightly denser and more compact. Mass was pulled closer to the Earth's center as one plate was thrust under the other. And that affected the Earth's spin. It made the planet spin slightly faster, to be precise, and shortened the length of the Earth day.

Geophysicist Richard Gross told the Los Angeles Times that he estimated each day from now on will be 1.26 millionth of a second shorter. Why? Gross said, '[The planet] got a bit more compact. Just like a spinning skater brings her arms in closer to her body to rotate faster.'

The Indonesian quake shortened our days by 2.68 microseconds, according to NASA scientists.

Where might the next megathrust quake hit? Scientists believe it could be in a subduction zone off the Pacific coast of the Northern US and Canada, where the Juan de Fuca plate meets the North American plate. Geophysicists have used computer modeling to show what such a quake would look like, based in part on data they've reconstructed about a 9 magnitude quake there in 1700. The researchers estimate that megathrust quakes hit the region about every 400-500 years, so we're about due for another.

Additional research by Cayman Unterborn.

The Man Who Was Allergic to Radio Waves

2010-03-08T15:41:00.000+05:30

The Man Who Was Allergic to Radio Waves: "Your cellphone does not in itself cause cancer. But in the daily sea of radiation we all travel, there may be subtler dangers at work, and science is only just beginning to understand how they can come to affect people like Per Segerbäck so intensely

Per Segerbäck lives in a modest cottage in a nature reserve some 75 miles northeast of Stockholm. Wolves, moose and brown bears roam freely past his front door. He keeps limited human company, because human technology makes him physically ill. How ill? On a walk last summer, he ran into one of his few neighbors, a man who lives in a cottage about 100 yards away. During their chat, the man's cellphone rang, and Segerbäck, 54, was overcome by nausea. Within seconds, he was unconscious.

Segerbäck suffers from electro-hypersensitivity (EHS), which means he has severe physical reactions to the electromagnetic radiation produced by common consumer technologies, such as computers, televisions and cellphones. Symptoms range from burning or tingling sensations on the skin to dizziness, nausea, headaches, sleep disturbance and memory loss. In extreme cases like Segerbäck's, breathing problems, heart palpitations and loss of consciousness can result.

A cellphone has to be in use -- either making or receiving a call, or searching for a signal, when radiation levels are highest -- for it to have this kind of effect on Segerbäck. Phones that are on but neither sending nor receiving usually don't produce enough radiation to be noticeable. But it's not the sound of the phone that sets him off. Once, while on a sailboat with friends, he recalls, he was on the front deck when, unknown to him, someone made a call belowdecks. Headache, nausea, unconsciousness. When Segerbäck is within range of an active cellphone (safe distances vary because different makes and models produce different radiation levels), he experiences the feeling that there is 'not enough room in my skull for my brain.'

Sweden is the only country in the world to recognize EHS as a functional impairment, and Segerbäck's experience has been important in creating policy to address the condition. Swedish EHS sufferers -- about 3 percent of the population, or some 250,000 people, according to government statistics -- are entitled to similar rights and social services as those given to people who are blind or deaf. Today, local governments will pay to have the home of someone diagnosed with EHS electronically 'sanitized,' if necessary, through the installation of metal shielding.

SEA OF RADIATION

Electromagnetic fields (EMFs) are inescapable. We are constantly exposed to them, mostly in the form of either extremely low-frequency (ELF) radiation from things like domestic appliances and power lines or radio-frequency (RF) radiation from things like cellular and cordless phones, telecom antennas, and TV and radio transmission towers. Our bodies even produce faint EMFs of their own, from the electrical activity in the brain and heart.

	Cell Phone Radiation Reverses Alzheimer's and Boosts Memory in Mice
	Animals in Alignment
	For that Healthy Glow, Drink Radiation!

Tags

Science, Feature, cancer, cell phones, cellphone radiation, EHS, electromagnetic radiation, EMF, ericsson, extreme low-frequency radiation, March 2010, melatonin, national cancer institute, radiation, radio, radio waves

Ionizing radiation -- the kind produced by x-rays, CT scans and nuclear bombs -- can do terrible damage to the body. It is classified as a carcinogen. But ELF and RF are types of non-ionizing radiation, which is thought to be nearly harmless. Non-ionizing radiation isn't powerful enough to break molecular bonds, so it cannot directly cause the cellular damage that leads to disease. This type of radiation is everywhere. 'We are bathed in a sea of non-ionizing radiation,' says John Boice, a professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and scientific director of the International Epidemiology Institute, a biomedical research firm in Rockville, Maryland.

This sea, most scientists agree, is harmless. Cellphones are safe and conditions like EHS cannot exist, they argue, because the EMFs involved are too weak to have any health effect. The non-ionizing radiation from cellphones has almost no known influence on the human body. In fact, the only universally recognized effect of non-ionizing radiation is a very minor heating of nearby tissue. The Federal Communications Commission sets EMF limits for cellphones -- measured as 'specific absorption rates' (SARs) -- below which significant heating does not occur. Segerbäck's symptoms and those of other EHS sufferers, according to many researchers, may be either misdiagnosed or imaginary. Some experts suggest that people like Segerbäck perhaps suffer from a psychological disorder, or that their cases may illustrate the 'nocebo' effect, in which the expectation that something will make you sick actually does make you sick. A review published last year in the journal Bioelectromagnetics found no evidence that hypersensitive individuals had an improved ability to detect EMFs, and the study found evidence of the nocebo effect in those same people.

The cellphone industry's position on the subject is clear. 'The peer-reviewed scientific evidence has overwhelmingly indicated that wireless devices do not pose a public-health risk,' says John Walls, vice president of public affairs at CTIA -- The Wireless Association, the international industry body. 'In addition, there is no known mechanism for [EMFs] within the limits established by the FCC to cause any adverse health effects.' A host of major institutions -- including the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP), the American Cancer Society and the World Health Organization -- agree with this assessment. (Although the ICNIRP says scientific assessment of the health aspects of wireless devices should continue as the technology becomes more widespread.)

Boice points out that data from cancer registries, such as the National Cancer Institute's SEER program, shows that brain-cancer rates haven't gone up since the early 1990s. The trends are also relatively flat from the mid-1970s to the early 2000s in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, where cellphones have been in use longer than in the U.S. If cellphones were causing brain cancer, an obvious uptick in reported cases would be expected. 'If you look at the totality of biological and experimental studies,' Boice says, 'the vast amount of evidence is that there is no association between cellphones and malignancies.'

Signal Strength: Cellphones are one of a number of household items that give off electromagnetic radiation Davvi.com

Your cellphone gives off radiation largely through the antenna when you make and receive calls and when it searches for a signal.

Cellphones operate in the radio-frequency range of the spectrum, along with radar and FM radio broadcasts.

Daily life exposes us to radiation from many sources, and electromagnetic fields vary [the circled number is the median field strength]. The combined effect is difficult to determine.

Warning Label: Jonathan Worth

WHAT IT FEELS LIKE

Segerbäck was once an elite telecommunications engineer. He worked for Ellemtel, a division of the Swedish telecom giant Ericsson, for more than 20 years, leading an engineering group that designed advanced integrated circuits for prototype telecommunication systems. He used the newest and most advanced computer and telecom equipment available, the kind of stuff only Ericsson and the Swedish military had access to. He was, as a result, up to his eyeballs in a non-ionizing radiation bath, from computers, fluorescent lights and the telecom antenna located right outside his window.

He noticed his first symptoms -- dizziness, nausea, headaches, burning sensations and red blotches on his skin -- in the late 1980s, a decade into his telecommunications research work. All but two of the 20 or so other members of his group reported similar symptoms, he says, although his were by far the most severe. His EHS worsened and now, he says, even radar from low-flying aircraft can set it off. Segerbäck is convinced that the perfect storm of EMFs in his office, combined with potentially toxic fumes from his brand-new computer, were responsible for his condition. 'The company doctors didn't understand what was going on,' he says.

Agne Fredriksson, who managed Segerbäck's group at Ellemtel and retired from Ericsson in 2006, says a commonly reported symptom was 'a feeling of heat in the face,' which everyone attributed to the new computer workstations. When members of Segerbäck's group started calling in sick and people from other departments began reporting similar symptoms, Fredriksson recalls, 'that's when we started to look into what could be done about it. There was a lot of worry from the groups in which people reported the most symptoms.'

A new office space was created for the worst-affected employees; about half a dozen people shared this fully shielded room. Others switched to different computer workstations, while others managed by spending less time in front of their screens. No one had ever encountered anything like it before. 'Why are we so special?' Fredriksson remembers wondering. He later learned that other companies faced similar situations at the time, although that information remained internal.

Ericsson went to great lengths to keep Segerbäck, a key member of the firm's design team, on the job. In the early 1990s, the company installed metal shields around his bedroom and study at home so he could sleep and work without radiation exposure. To enable him to go outside, medical authorities gave Segerbäck an EMF-resistant suit like the ones worn by engineers working in close proximity to live telecom towers and high-voltage power lines. The firm even modified a Volvo so he could travel safely to and from work. His commutes ended when cellphone towers began to spring up around Stockholm in the mid-1990s, eventually forcing his retreat to the woods.

In 1993 Ericsson produced a report, 'Hypersensitivity in the Workplace,' about what happened at Segerbäck's lab. In the foreword, Ellemtel's vice president Örjan Mattsson and administrative chief Torbjörn Johnson wrote: 'A new problem in the work environment has appeared: hypersensitivity. When dealing with traditional occupational injury, as a rule you can establish a cause and effect relationship. Not so with regard to hypersensitivity. When the first serious cases occurred at Ellemtel at the end of the 1980s, we were not prepared. Soon, we came to look upon hypersensitivity as a serious threat to the company business. . . . We started wondering if we were faced with a modern-day scourge.'

EMF-Resistant Suit: Segerbäck's employers installed shielding in his home, and medical authorities issued him this EMF-resistant suit. Jonathan Worth

Ulrika Aberg, a Swedish physician specializing in EHS who treated Segerbäck in the early days of his condition, has worked with more than 800 hypersensitive patients. She says she's seen a sliding scale of symptoms, from sleep disturbance and dizziness on one end to the more severe effects experienced by Segerbäck on the other. 'There is electrical activity going on in all cells all the time, so it's no wonder the whole body [of an EHS patient] is affected,' she says.

For those reporting milder symptoms, Aberg suggests removing any wireless electronics from the home, including cell and cordless phones and wireless Internet connections. But that still leaves people exposed to the wireless devices of others. There are several hundred EHS 'refugees' in Sweden, she says, people who have had to move, some more than once, to escape the effects of EMFs. She describes one hypersensitive couple that lives in a mobile home so they can quickly relocate if their symptoms worsen. 'EHS is a controversial diagnosis, and many people don't know or care about it,' Aberg says. 'But many [EHS sufferers] can't feel safe where they live. We shouldn't produce more and more EMFs without taking account of how people react to them.'

WHAT WE KNOW

The main source of EMFs from cellphones is the antenna, located inside the handset. When sending signals and held against the side of the head, the phone produces radiation that can penetrate into the brain. The precise depth depends on the frequency of the EMFs; the higher the frequency, the lower the depth of penetration. Cellphones typically operate in a range of frequencies between 800 and 2,200 megahertz. Radios and TVs operate at slightly lower frequencies, and microwave ovens and radar operate at higher frequencies.

Research into the health effects of EMFs started in the 1950s, when scientists began studying medical applications and radar. As microwave ovens started appearing in kitchens in the 1960s, EMF research entered the mainstream, and with the proliferation of computer display terminals in the 1970s and cellphones in the 1980s, the research really took off. 'With every new device, people worry,' says Michael Repacholi, the former coordinator of the World Health Organization's Radiation and Environmental Health Unit and now a visiting professor at the University of Rome. Repacholi launched the WHO's International EMF Project in 1996 in response to growing public concern. That group's conclusion: There is no evidence to indicate any health effects from cellphone EMFs. There was a clutch of lawsuits in the mid-1990s alleging that cellphones had caused brain cancer in specific individuals; none succeeded.

The Interphone project, a collaboration among 13 countries that carried out studies between 2000 and 2005 coordinated by the WHO's International Agency for Research on Cancer, was set up to settle the matter of whether cellphones cause brain cancer. It, however, has been plagued by controversy over methodology, bias and contradictory results. Interphone spans a period during which cellphones and their use have changed greatly. Children were not included in the study, for instance, because cellphone use by kids was low when it began in 2000.

Bias is a concern for all studies of this type, says the head of the Interphone study, Elisabeth Cardis of the Centre for Research in Environmental Epidemiology in Barcelona, Spain. 'We have from the beginning made efforts to minimize bias as much as possible, to identify and quantify any remaining bias, and to try and take it into account in the most scientific way,' she says.

The results are inconclusive. A Danish Interphone study of 106 cases of acoustic neuroma, a kind of brain tumor, showed no elevated risk from long-term cellphone use, although only two cases were long-term users. A Swedish Interphone study of 148 cases found a slightly elevated risk.

When the Interphone results are finally released, after years of closed-door debate, they are not expected to settle anything. In the end, Cardis says, 'further studies will be needed to confirm the Interphone results, particularly with regard to the use of phones by children.'

Cause Vs. Promoter: Jonathan Worth

CAUSE VS. PROMOTER

Let's be clear: Cellphones are not like cigarettes. There is a proven mechanism by which cigarettes cause cancer, even if you live an otherwise healthy life. There is as yet no proven mechanism by which cellphones do the same. Most experts say there is no such mechanism. 'There is no dramatic evidence of a health effect,' says Michael Kundi of the Institute of Environmental Health at the Medical University of Vienna. 'Otherwise, we all would be terribly sick.' But, he says, there is another crucial distinction to understand. Even though EMFs are in all likelihood not cancer initiators -- they don't cause cancer the way that tobacco does -- the radiation might well be a cancer promoter, allowing precancerous cells time to grow and metastasize, especially in concert with other factors.

While most of the rest of the scientific community argue that cellphones pose no health risks at all, Kundi and others suspect that radiation from prolonged cellphone use may indeed lead to an increased risk of brain cancer. As to electro-hypersensitivity, among the limited studies of EHS sufferers (who are reluctant to subject themselves to hours in an electronics-laden facility), some have shown that cellphone-frequency EMFs do produce physiological effects in some people, both those who report EHS symptoms and those who do not (although the EHS patients performed no better than chance when asked whether they were being exposed).

A growing number of studies show that we may not understand the effects of EMFs at all, especially the ones that emanate from cellphones. We may have been asking the wrong question. Research is beginning to shift from asking, 'Do cellphones cause cancer?' to asking, 'What mechanism, if any, could cause an adverse health effect?'

In 2001, doctors diagnosed Catherine Woollams, a 22-year-old Briton, with a glioblastoma, a brain tumor of the type studied in connection with EMF radiation. Her father, Christopher, had studied biochemistry at Oxford, specializing in viruses and cancer, before going into advertising. In the early 1990s, he helped develop the launch campaign for Mercury One-2-One, one of the first digital cellphone services in Great Britain. After Catherine's diagnosis, he founded CANCERactive, a charity that provides information on cancer treatments. Catherine died in 2004.

Per Segerbäck: Jonathan Worth

He argues that research should not focus solely on brain cancer. 'It is very, very hard to prove a direct link,' he says. 'The evidence is tenuous at best.' Woollams believes researchers should also pursue the possible mechanisms by which EMFs might impair the body's overall defenses. He suggests that the daily sea of EMFs -- combined with other environmental factors, such as toxic chemicals and poor nutrition -- may have a collective influence on our health. 'I am far, far more worried about how [cellphones] could lead to a diminution of the immune system,' he says. 'Mobile phones add to the problems that bring about brain tumors. Phones should carry a warning, the same as cigarettes.'

Investigating the relation between cellphones and health risks remains terribly difficult and inconclusive. Brain-cancer studies are particularly hard to conduct -- the tumors are rare and can take decades to develop -- but they do exist. Most studies have addressed either malignant tumors such as glioma or benign tumors such as meningioma or acoustic neuroma. Some studies have also focused on salivary gland tumors. The majority have found no link between cellphones and these types of cancer. But a few have. Lennart Hardell of the department of oncology at University Hospital in Örebro, Sweden, found increased risk for glioma and acoustic neuroma after 10 or more years of regular cellphone use. He concluded that current radiation limits for cellphones are unsafe.

Other developments are also unsettling. According to a 2004 report from the U.K. Office of National Statistics, the rate of childhood brain and spinal-cord tumors in Britain rose from just under 20 per million in the early 1970s to just under 30 per million in the late 1990s. Citing concern over 'continuing uncertainties about possible health risks' of EMFs, the European Parliament has suggested an awareness-raising campaign geared toward young people between the ages of 10 and 20; the French Ministry of Health, Youth and Sports has warned against 'excessive' cellphone use among youngsters; and U.S. senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, who survived a brain tumor, has held Senate hearings on the issue. State legislators in Maine are debating whether cellphones sold there should display warnings about brain cancer, and the municipal government in San Francisco is considering requiring information about radiation levels on cellphone packaging.

Study results are invariably criticized for methodological failings, such as insufficient sample size (many people need to be studied to get a meaningful result) or recall bias (people often incorrectly remember their past cellphone use). A recent review of 23 cellphone/cancer papers found that studies the authors rated as of the highest methodological quality (mostly by Hardell) reported an increased risk of tumors in long-term cellphone users, whereas in studies the authors rated as of lower methodological quality the results actually showed a decreased risk among cellphone users. Yet a different review singled out Hardell's results as most likely the result of poor methodology.

POSSIBLE THREATS

What, then, should we study? Kundi points out that according to current research, cellphone radiation does have 'non-thermal effects' -- biological effects beyond the mere heating of tissue -- that could influence human health. Identify the mechanisms behind these effects, he urges, and design phones that don't produce them. There are three main lines of investigation into non-thermal effects: the potential influence on melatonin production, gene expression and intracellular signaling.

Melatonin

Melatonin is mostly known as an antidote to jet lag. Produced in the pineal gland of the brain, the hormone regulates much of our sleep-wake cycle. But it also has a crucial role as an antioxidant, protecting against the DNA damage that can lead to cancer and the neurological damage that can lead to diseases like Alzheimer's. EMFs have been shown to suppress melatonin production in rats. If suppression also occurs in humans, one of the body's defenses would be weakened.

Epidemiological studies have found an increased risk of leukemia in people living near high-voltage power lines. The IARC now classifies extremely low-frequency EMFs (such as those from power lines) as a possible human carcinogen. Denis L. Henshaw, a physicist at the University of Bristol in England, cites evidence that power-line EMFs disrupt melatonin production, thereby impairing the immune system's ability to prevent and repair genetic damage.

Power lines operate at lower frequencies (around 50 hertz) than cellphones. But cellphones produce regular pulses that fall in the extremely low-frequency range of 1 to 300 hertz. It is therefore possible, according to Henshaw, Kundi and others, that cellphone EMFs could also have an effect on human cells and, potentially, on melatonin production.

While acknowledging that some researchers have found alterations in melatonin levels, former WHO coordinator Repacholi says, 'It must be something else, because [power-line EMFs] hardly penetrate into the body. There is no mechanism by which the fields could cause melatonin change.' Counters Henshaw, 'There are thousands of papers documenting the effect of power-line EMFs. We don't know yet if this is true for cellphones, but for power-line EMFs there clearly are non-thermal effects.'

Electro-Magnetic Model: Electro-magnetic waves from the phone's antenna penetrate the brain several centimeters deep. Paul Wootton

Gene Expression

Stress response does indeed cause changes in gene expression; however, says Repacholi, 'lots of experiments can find effects, but that doesn't translate into the whole organism, because the whole organism compensates. The gap between a biological effect and an adverse health effect is a big one.'

Intracellular Signaling

Rony Seger of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, has found that EMFs in the 900-megahertz range also influence intracellular signaling pathways -- how cells talk to each other. Working with rat cells, Seger and his colleagues found that cellphone radiation changes the activity of certain enzymes, prompting them to start producing free radicals. Free radicals are rogue atoms that can cause damage when they interact with DNA and other crucial cellular components.

Seger emphasizes that the effect 'produces a small amount of free radicals, which in themselves are not harmful.' But he also says that intracellular signaling could be part of a more general cancer-inducing mechanism that is not yet understood. 'It is possible that this system could cause the activation of another system,' he says, which could in turn create a cascade of intracellular events whose cumulative effect could be harmful. He cautions, though, 'The amplification [of the free radicals] has to be much stronger in order to induce these adverse effects.' Boice points out that free radicals are produced all the time as a by-product of our metabolism. 'The body has processes that take care of them,' he says. 'You can't extrapolate from a petri dish to humans.'

WHAT WE DON'T KNOW

Henshaw, Belyaev and Seger do not argue that their work proves that EMFs either initiate or promote cancer. They do insist, however, that these non-thermal effects cannot be dismissed and that they merit further study. 'We need to decide now if there is a risk,' Kundi says. 'If we know the mechanism, then we can design phones not related to increased risk.'

The Disconnected Life: Jonathan Worth

Another study, the International Cohort Study of Mobile Phone Users (COSMOS), might help determine what, if any, future research is needed. COSMOS will be monitoring some 250,000 Europeans over the next 20 to 30 years, looking at potential links between cellphones and brain tumors as well as EHS-like symptoms such as headaches, sleep disorders, and neurological and cerebro-vascular diseases. But results are not due until 2029 at the earliest, and between now and then, the technology will change and proliferate in ways we cannot predict. A study under way at the IIT Research Institute in Chicago, examining the effects of EMF exposure on rats and mice over several generations, should also provide important evidence. A similar experiment, in which mice were exposed to cellphone EMFs 24/7 across four generations, found no harmful effects on the animals' fertility or development. 'If [the IIT Research Institute in Chicago study] doesn't find an effect, then we're unlikely to find anything at all,' Repacholi predicts.

In a recent report on EMFs and health effects, the ICNIRP concluded, 'Whilst it is in principle impossible to disprove the possible existence of non-thermal interactions, the plausibility of the non-thermal mechanisms . . . is very low.' Still, Seger says, 'there are more and more indications that [non-thermal effects] must be real. What is the mechanism? No one knows. If there is an effect, the mechanism is absolutely new to science. We have to start thinking about it in a different way.'

THE DISCONNECTED LIFE

Segerbäck is convinced that cellphones are dangerous. 'I'm an engineer, and even I don't know how to design a phone that doesn't affect health,' he says. Radiation limits 'are all based on thermal effects, and that's wrong.' In the early stages of his condition, Segerbäck was still able to lead a fairly normal life. His daughter, Anna, was just a child when he became ill. She used to run ahead of him at home switching off all the lights in every room before he entered. It is everyday family life that Segerbäck misses the most, something as simple as the chat and laughter on the morning drive to school.

Today he cooks all his meals on a wood-burning stove. The fireplace is his only source of heat. He has electric lights, a phone and a computer, but their power source -- a 12-volt battery -- is buried in an underground cellar about 30 yards from his house, far enough away that the EMFs can't reach him. His computer and his mouse are both surrounded by metal plates so no radiation escapes. His neighbors all know about his condition and (with occasional, painful exceptions) know not to carry cellphones near his house.

Segerbäck is surprisingly sanguine about his situation. 'Of course it's a very sad thing that happened to me,' he says, 'but it can only be regarded as an accident. I am a positive person, from a line of very stubborn people able to survive under tough conditions.' He is determined, in his affable, soft-spoken way, to gain greater recognition and greater credibility for EHS. Not by banning cellphones -- he's still too much a telecom engineer for that -- but by somehow making cellphones safer. In fact, he even takes some responsibility for being part of an industry that designed devices he now believes are hazardous to people's health. 'Guys like me were so far ahead of society,' he says. 'We didn't know medicine. We didn't think what we were developing could harm anyone. It's hard to admit we've been wrong for so long.'

How about the researchers? Do the people who study cellphone radiation use their phones with caution? On the next page.

CELLPHONE HABITS OF THE EXPERTS

Rony Seger

Weizmann Institute of Science

'I try not to exceed a half hour or an hour a day,' Seger says of his cellphone use. 'Everything is a matter of dosage.' He suggests keeping cellphones at least 12 inches from the body and using the speakerphone.

Christopher Woollams

Founder and CEO of CANCERactive

Woollams uses his cell sparingly and puts it on speakerphone. His older kids -- aged 14, 23 and 26 -- 'are encouraged to only text at most. I don't want them to carry the phone on their bodies when they are on.'

Michael Repacholi

Former coordinator of the WHO's Radiation and Environmental Health Unit

Repacholi owns two cellphones and says he has no concerns about using them. For those who do, he recommends using a hands-free kit, which can reduce exposure levels by a factor of between 10 and 100.

John Boice

Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and the International Epidemiology Institute

Boice makes approximately five cellphone calls a day. He uses a wired earpiece -- not for fear of EMFs but because 'I'm getting older and don't hear so well anymore,' he says.

Ulrika Aberg

Electro-hypersensitivity specialist

Aberg removes her phone's battery when she visits patients. She advises against wireless phones and wireless computer connections at home because, she says, 'you are exposed to EMFs all day and all night.'

Elisabeth Cardis

Centre for Research in Environmental Epidemiology and head of Interphone

Cardis is not a heavy talker ('I have little time!') but says, 'If consumers are worried about a possible risk, the use of hands-free kits or earpieces is a very good way to reduce exposure.'

Michael Kundi

Institute of Environmental Health, Medical University of Vienna

Kundi dials on a landline whenever available and suggests not using cellphones where reception is weak, because they boost their signal to maintain connectivity, thus increasing EMF exposure.

aaaahhhh!!!!

2010-03-08T13:18:00.000+05:30

aaaahhhh!!!!: "

Orangutan Hacks Snack Machine [Image Cache]

2010-03-08T11:58:00.001+05:30

Sent to you by Shailesh via Google Reader:

Orangutan Hacks Snack Machine [Image Cache]

via Gizmodo by Mark Wilson on 3/5/10

At the Hanover zoo, an orangutan must pull a succession of strings before being rewarded with a nut. Sometimes, the experience gets a bit frustrating:

We've all been there, buddy. We've all been there. [Telegraph via Animals don't think...][Image by Rex Features]

Things you can do from here:

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Transforming Nissyoku Solar Eclipse Lamp Powered By LED, Not Fusion [Lamps]

2010-03-08T11:39:00.001+05:30

Sent to you by Shailesh via Google Reader:

Transforming Nissyoku Solar Eclipse Lamp Powered By LED, Not Fusion [Lamps]

via Gizmodo by Jack Loftus on 3/7/10

Things I thought of while viewing the solar eclipse-inspired Nissyoku lamp: GLaDOS, a glowing tennis ball and, oh yeah, a solar eclipse:

The designer says that unlike those fleeting solar eclipses we see in the sky, this lamp lasts for up to 10 years.

It's also capable of morphing from one simple shape to the next, and can be suspended from the ceiling, a la a chandelier, or placed on a table, where it will neither burn out your eyes nor damage your table.

The light source, sadly, is not fusion or even fission, but a 5W LED in each of the two panels. [Igendesign via Design Blog]

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Hey Sendtoshailesh.Onemomentplease, I forgot to mention...

2010-01-20T13:33:00.001+05:30

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Optimistic or ..........

2009-12-15T14:59:00.000+05:30

I have been giving some thought lately to optimism and pessimism. Basically, these are attitudes — attitudes that shape and formulate our entire existence. I mean, have you ever met a happy pessimist? Of course not.

In short, our optimism or pessimism is this:

The way we interpret the past
The way we experience and view the present
The way we imagine the future

Have you given much thought about how your attitude, whether you are an optimist or a pessimist, affects you business, organization or school? Have you thought about how it affects you personally? And what about the team you are a part of?

What is optimism? It is the belief that things in our past were good for us, even if that means they were hard and taught us lessons. It is also the belief that things will be better in the future.

Here are some contrasts between optimism and pessimism and how they affect us:

Optimism breathes life into you each day.
Pessimism drains you.

Optimism helps you to take needed risks.
Pessimism plays it safe and never accomplishes much.

Optimism improves those around you.
Pessimism drags them down.

Optimism inspires people to great heights.
Pessimism deflates people to new lows.

There is only one way that optimism and pessimism are the same, and that is that they are both self-fulfilling. If you are an optimist, you will generally find that good things happen to you. And if you are a pessimist, you will find yourself in the not-so-good situations more often than not.

So can a person just become an optimist? Yes! We can choose to look at the world any way we want to. We can choose to look at the world and think the worst, or we can tell ourselves the good things about each situation. As you find yourself looking at your enterprise, begin to view it through the eyes of an optimist, and you will reap the rewards listed above, and so will the people around you.

There are tremendous benefits to being an optimist, as stated above. But there are some pessimists out there who will say, But that isn't realistic. I say, Who cares? If things go awry, at least I have spent my time beforehand enjoying life and not worrying about it. And, being an optimist, I would view the negative situation as an opportunity to grow and learn. So I can even look forward to my failures because they will be steppingstones and learning tools to be applied to my future success.

Have you ever met a successful pessimist? Become an optimist, and see your world change before your eyes!

Have a blessed day!

Let's make the uncommon knowledge common

Dear Sendtoshailesh.Onemomentplease, If you can't find it in google try JUSTDIAL.COM

2009-11-30T19:10:00.001+05:30

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one moment please...

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WHAT IT FEELS LIKE

WHAT WE KNOW

CAUSE VS. PROMOTER

POSSIBLE THREATS