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Messages - Zaki Rezwan

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166
Ethics in Cyber Security and Cyber Law / Essential facebook etiquette
« on: July 08, 2016, 10:06:21 AM »
You can read this fine article about Facebook as well as social media etiquette from here: http://xtra.newagebd.net/2025/essential-facebook-etiquette/

167
Books / 20 Best Websites To Download Free EBooks
« on: July 07, 2016, 09:02:52 AM »
Dear all,

Sources given in this link can be very useful for you study: http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/20-best-websites-to-download-free-e-books/

168
Books / The Routledge Dictionary of Literary Terms
« on: July 07, 2016, 09:01:03 AM »
You can download this book from the attachment

169
Failure is not the alternative to success. It’s something to be avoided, but it’s also only a temporary setback on a bigger, more significant course. Everybody encounters failure at one point or another. What truly matters is how you react to and learn from that failure.

Take the stories of these six entrepreneurs. Their stories end in massive success, but all of them are rooted in failure. They’re perfect examples of why failure should never stop you from following your vision.

1. Arianna Huffington got rejected by 36 publishers.
It’s hard to believe that one of the most recognizable names in online publications was once rejected by three dozen major publishers. Huffington’s second book, which she tried to publish long before she created the now ubiquitously recognizable Huffington Post empire, was rejected 36 times before it was eventually accepted for publication.

Related: Barbara Corcoran: Failure Is My Specialty

Even Huffington Post itself wasn’t a success right away. In fact, when it launched, there were dozens of highly negative reviews about its quality and its potential. Obviously, Huffington overcame those initial bouts of failure and has cemented her name as one of the most successful outlets on the web.



2. Bill Gates watched his first company crumble.
Bill Gates is now one of the world’s wealthiest individuals, but he didn’t earn his fortune in a straight line to success. Gates entered the entrepreneurial scene with a company called Traf-O-Data, which aimed to process and analyze the data from traffic tapes (think of it like an early version of big data).

He tried to sell the idea alongside his business partner, Paul Allen, but the product barely even worked. It was a complete disaster. However, the failure did not hold Gates back from exploring new opportunities, and a few years later, he created his first Microsoft product, and forged a new path to success.

3. George Steinbrenner bankrupted a team.
Before Steinbrenner made a name for himself when he acquired ownership of the New York Yankees, he owned a small basketball team called the Cleveland Pipers back in 1960. By 1962, as a result of Steinbrenner’s direction, the entire franchise went bankrupt.

That stretch of failure seemed to follow Steinbrenner when he took over the Yankees in the 1970s, as the team struggled with a number of setbacks and losses throughout the 1980s and 1990s. However, despite public fear and criticism of Steinbrenner’s controversial decisions, eventually he led the team to an amazing comeback, with six World Series entries between 1996 and 2003, and a record as one of the most profitable teams in Major League Baseball.

Related: To Manage Innovation, Manage Failure Better

4. Walt Disney was told he lacked creativity.
One of the most creative geniuses of the 20th century was once fired from a newspaper because he was told he lacked creativity. Trying to persevere, Disney formed his first animation company, which was called Laugh-O-Gram Films. He raised $15,000 for the company but eventually was forced to close Laugh-O-Gram, following the close of an important distributor partner.

Desperate and out of money, Disney found his way to Hollywood and faced even more criticism and failure until finally, his first few classic films started to skyrocket in popularity.

5. Steve Jobs was booted from his own company.
Steve Jobs is an impressive entrepreneur because of his boundless innovations, but also because of his emphatic comeback from an almost irrecoverable failure. Jobs found success in his 20s when Apple became a massive empire, but when he was 30, Apple’s board of directors decided to fire him.

Undaunted by the failure, Jobs founded a new company, NeXT, which was eventually acquired by Apple. Once back at Apple, Jobs proved his capacity for greatness by reinventing the company’s image and taking the Apple brand to new heights.

6. Milton Hershey started three candy companies before Hershey's.
Everyone knows Hershey’s chocolate, but when Milton Hershey first started his candy production career, he was a nobody. After being fired from an apprenticeship with a printer, Hershey started three separate candy-related ventures, and was forced to watch all of them fail.

In one last attempt, Hershey founded the Lancaster Caramel Company, and started seeing enormous results. Believing in his vision for milk chocolate for the masses, he eventually founded the Hershey Company and became one of the most well-known names in the industry.

Draw inspiration from these stories the next time you experience failure, no matter the scale. In the moment, some failure might seem like the end of the road, but remember, there are countless successful men and women in the world today who are only enjoying success because they decided to push past the inevitable bleakness of failure.

Learn from your mistakes, reflect and accept the failure, but revisit your passion and keep pursuing your goals no matter what.

Reference: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/240492

170
Born on the 19th of August 1967; the media shy – Satya Narayana Nadella better known as Satya Nadella is the India-born newly appointed CEO of the Microsoft.

With a salary package of $17.5 million currently has been creating buzz in the tech world, the Silicon Valley and the Indian media, since a year before Sundar Pichai become the CEO of Google.

Satya has succeeded Steve Ballmer to become the CEO of Microsoft on 4th of February 2014. He is known to be one of the very few in the company who have seen a range of promotions and that too since his joining.

Apart from being married to his high school love Anupama, he has also been married to Microsoft since 22+ years. Satya lives with his wife and three children (a son and two daughters) in Bellevue, Washington.

He simply loves reading and cricket. His preference includes American and Indian poetry. On the other hand, cricket has been his interest since his school days and was also a part of his school team. He often says that the game has thought him leadership and teamwork skills.
Lastly, just like every successful person on this planet, he too is passionate about knowledge, and signing up something or the other to learn something new.

Short Story Of His Early Life…
Satya was born into a family that was based in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh which is now known as Telangana. Bukkapuram Nadella Yugandher his father was a Civil Servant of the Indian Administrative Service.
Satya, after completing his schooling at the Hyderabad Public School went on to complete his Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from the Manipal Institute of Technology in 1988.
Now Satya was very clear in the head that he wanted to build things in life, but didn’t really know how to go about it. Yes, he did know that computer science was what he wanted to take up, but since the course didn’t hold that much importance at Manipal University, he decided to go with Electrical Engineering, which became a great way for him to discover his true passion.
Later, he decided to more the US, where he pursued his Masters degree in Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee in 1990. A couple of years down the line, he also completed his Masters in Business Administration (MBA), but more on that later.
After completing his CS, Satya began his career with ‘Sun Microsystems’ as a member of their technology staff.
And this is where it all began!

The Journey At Microsoft…!
He always wanted to do something that empowered the people and brought world changing impact, and he for fact knew that Microsoft was so swiftly making that happen.

The Beginning….
Many companies aim and hope to change the world one day, but it remains the fact that very few, of those few in true sense, hold all the elements (talent, resources and perseverance) that are required, to bring about that change.
Whereas, Microsoft had the potential of all three! Microsoft as a product was empowering the people to do magical things and at the same time was making the world a better place.
Hence, after a short stint with Sun, Satya decided to quit the company and led himself to a journey which would change his life forever. In 1992, Satya joined Microsoft.

Satya Nadella Microsoft
Soon after he did so, Satya began to gain a name within the company, of a leader who could spread technology and businesses of the company to transform some of Microsoft’s biggest product offerings.
Now at Microsoft, Satya has managed to successfully lead a range of major projects which also include the Microsoft’s shift to cloud computing and also the development of one of world’s largest cloud infrastructures.
But it all began with working on the development of Windows NT. Not most of us know, but NT was an operating system that was aimed primarily at business users.
While he was at it, Satya being a multi-tasker was also pursuing his Masters degree. Normally, in such situations a person chooses either of the ones, but Satya decided to do both simultaneously. He used to fly out from Redmond on Friday nights for classes at the University of Chicago and then come back. And believe it or not, following this routine, Satya managed to complete his Masters in Business Administration in just two and a half years.

The Rise…
To begin with; Satya is one of the very few who has seen almost every end, every brick, and every genre the company is into.
In his working stint of 22 years with Microsoft; from President of the Server & Tools Division, Senior Vice-President of Research and Development for the Online Services Division, Vice-President of the Business Division, Corporate Vice-President of Business Solutions and Search & Advertising Platform Group, to being the Executive Vice-President of Cloud and Enterprise group, he has been through various positions and seen the company through different verticals.
Now similar to his present, his rise too was equally quicker as the company itself. He rapidly grew from where he was to the ranks of Microsoft’s management.
By 1999, Satya had become the Vice President of the ‘Microsoft bCentral’ small-business service, and had also become the General Manager for company’s Commerce Platforms group.
Other than that, even though he wasn’t officially given a position but he was widely considered to be responsible for leading the growth of the Microsoft Office Small Business, Microsoft BizTalk Server, Microsoft Commerce Server, and Microsoft Dynamics ERP and CRM products as well.
He had also played a very important role in smoothly pushing the company into the fields of advanced technologies like Digital Rights Management (DRM) and Interactive Television (ITV).

Satya Nadella
Since then, in the next one decade the man got promoted thrice. This started with Corporate Vice President of Microsoft Business Solutions, and at the same time also being promoted as the Senior Vice-President of Research and Development for the Online Services Division in 2007, and lastly, as the President of Microsoft’s $19 billion Server and Tools Business.
TRIVIA: – During this period, Satya used to draw a salary of around $700,000 plus stock bonuses of approximately $7.6 million.
Lastly, prior to becoming the CEO of the company, the last position that he held was that of Executive Vice President for Microsoft’s Cloud and Enterprise group.
Mainly, this department was responsible providing infrastructure for Microsoft’s online search engine Bing, the Xbox Live broadband gaming network, and the Office 365 subscription-based services.
During this stint, not only did Satya managed to transform the company from being a company with business and technology culture of client services to cloud infrastructure and services, but he also successfully helped grow the Bing search engine.
This was known to be one of the fastest-growing and most profitable businesses at Microsoft. This is also because most business customers prefer to rent applications and other programs in far-off data centers than running Softwares themselves.
Now not many know that, for years Microsoft never used to pay attention to how the cloud was growing and was beginning to attract the creativity of a new-age developers. So when he took over the department, he made sure to change that outlook. He did so, by meeting with start-ups and understanding their needs from Microsoft.
Under his leadership, the revenue the company earned from Cloud Services jumped straight from $16.6 billion (2011) to $20.3 billion (2013). He was also responsible for bringing Microsoft’s database, Windows Server and developer tools to its Azure cloud.
His star at Microsoft had risen greatly and considerably, and it was pretty clear what this was leading to!

The Promotion…
To begin with; around August of 2014, Steve Ballmer (Ex-CEO) announced his retirement from Microsoft, and gave the world, the biggest buzz of that year. Everyone went into deep assumptions and speculations as to who would be the new Chief Executive Officer.
Additionally, the company was in preparations to transform from a software giant into a devices and services company. This was a move that was understood by the acquisition of Nokia’s mobile division, which was first announced in June 2012, along with the development of Surface tablet range. So they were looking for a candidate that would be on similar lines for long term, to guide the company.
Satya, even though was a relatively less famous name for the world, but he had spent 22 years with Microsoft and was being reported as a strong candidate for the role.

Wondering why?
Well, among the products that Satya was heading or had led included Windows Server, Windows Azure, System Center, SQL Server, etc., but most importantly he was also responsible for the software-development tools that Microsoft had started their business with as well.
Quite frankly, there was no reason why consumers had to know this, but the fact that the company had booked strong quarterly results despite the Computer industry’s struggles and Windows Phone’s failure, not to forget Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS, was the reason why Satya could be the ideal candidate for the position.
So with the amount of experience he held, Satya seemed to be the perfect man for the envisioned role for the new CEO of Microsoft.

After a lot of buzz around the topic, on the 4th of February 2014, it was finally disclosed that Satya Nadella would be the 3rd Chief Executive, succeeding Steve Ballmer. On the same day, John W. Thompson took on the role of Chairman, while Bill Gates stepped down from that position.
In his first public speech as CEO, Satya declared that Microsoft intended to play a bigger role in the intersection of mobile and cloud technologies.
One of Satya’s first major tasks was to complete the $7.2 billion acquisition of Nokia Corp.’s mobile-device business, which closed in April 2014. Soon after that, the man also went on to lay-off 18,000 employees majority of which were from Nokia. This was also known to be the largest lay-off in the history of Microsoft.
He also managed to bring back the Founder as a Technical Advisor to the company. This was mainly to guide him tackle the radical shift from PCs and software to mobile and the cloud.
By the end of the year, the company had acquired the video game development company Mojang for $2.5 billion (maker of Minecraft).
Additionally, under Satya’s CEO’ship; the company which stood at a market capitalization of $314 Billion and the 8th largest company in the world by market capitalization in January 2014, Microsoft’s, had grown on to overtake Exxon Mobil to become the 2nd most valuable company by market capitalization ($410 Billion) by the year end.
This only got better in 2015, when Reuters reported that Microsoft had reached to earnings of $76.4 Billion from the foreign market.

Reference: http://www.yosuccess.com/success-stories/satya-nadella-microsoft/

171
Let me distract you for a moment and tell you four short stories.

These are old stories – familiar stories.  The people and the circumstances differ slightly for everyone who tells them, but the core lessons remain the same.

I hope the twist we’ve put on them here inspires you to think differently…
Enter your email to get new articles like this delivered for free.

Every Sunday morning I take a light jog around a park near my home.  There’s a lake located in one corner of the park.  Each time I jog by this lake, I see the same elderly woman sitting at the water’s edge with a small metal cage sitting beside her.

This past Sunday my curiosity got the best of me, so I stopped jogging and walked over to her.  As I got closer, I realized that the metal cage was in fact a small trap.  There were three turtles, unharmed, slowly walking around the base of the trap.  She had a fourth turtle in her lap that she was carefully scrubbing with a spongy brush.

“Hello,” I said.  “I see you here every Sunday morning.  If you don’t mind my nosiness, I’d love to know what you’re doing with these turtles.”

She smiled.  “I’m cleaning off their shells,” she replied.  “Anything on a turtle’s shell, like algae or scum, reduces the turtle’s ability to absorb heat and impedes its ability to swim.  It can also corrode and weaken the shell over time.”

“Wow!  That’s really nice of you!” I exclaimed.

She went on: “I spend a couple of hours each Sunday morning, relaxing by this lake and helping these little guys out.  It’s my own strange way of making a difference.”

“But don’t most freshwater turtles live their whole lives with algae and scum hanging from their shells?” I asked.

“Yep, sadly, they do,” she replied.

I scratched my head.  “Well then, don’t you think your time could be better spent?  I mean, I think your efforts are kind and all, but there are fresh water turtles living in lakes all around the world.  And 99% of these turtles don’t have kind people like you to help them clean off their shells.  So, no offense… but how exactly are your localized efforts here truly making a difference?”

The woman giggled aloud.  She then looked down at the turtle in her lap, scrubbed off the last piece of algae from its shell, and said, “Sweetie, if this little guy could talk, he’d tell you I just made all the difference in the world.”

The moral:  You can change the world – maybe not all at once, but one person, one animal, and one good deed at a time.  Wake up every morning and pretend like what you do makes a difference.  It does.  (Read 29 Gifts.)

Story #2:  The Weight of the Glass

Once upon a time a psychology professor walked around on a stage while teaching stress management principles to an auditorium filled with students.  As she raised a glass of water, everyone expected they’d be asked the typical “glass half empty or glass half full” question.  Instead, with a smile on her face, the professor asked, “How heavy is this glass of water I’m holding?”

Students shouted out answers ranging from eight ounces to a couple pounds.

She replied, “From my perspective, the absolute weight of this glass doesn’t matter.  It all depends on how long I hold it.  If I hold it for a minute or two, it’s fairly light.  If I hold it for an hour straight, its weight might make my arm ache a little.  If I hold it for a day straight, my arm will likely cramp up and feel completely numb and paralyzed, forcing me to drop the glass to the floor.  In each case, the weight of the glass doesn’t change, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it feels to me.”

As the class shook their heads in agreement, she continued, “Your stresses and worries in life are very much like this glass of water.  Think about them for a while and nothing happens.  Think about them a bit longer and you begin to ache a little.  Think about them all day long, and you will feel completely numb and paralyzed – incapable of doing anything else until you drop them.”

The moral:  It’s important to remember to let go of your stresses and worries.  No matter what happens during the day, as early in the evening as you can, put all your burdens down.  Don’t carry them through the night and into the next day with you.  If you still feel the weight of yesterday’s stress, it’s a strong sign that it’s time to put the glass down.  (Angel and I discuss this process of letting go in the Adversity and Self-Love chapters of 1,000 Little Things Happy, Successful People Do Differently.)

Story #3:  Shark Bait

During a research experiment a marine biologist placed a shark into a large holding tank and then released several small bait fish into the tank.

As you would expect, the shark quickly swam around the tank, attacked and ate the smaller fish.

The marine biologist then inserted a strong piece of clear fiberglass into the tank, creating two separate partitions. She then put the shark on one side of the fiberglass and a new set of bait fish on the other.

Again, the shark quickly attacked.  This time, however, the shark slammed into the fiberglass divider and bounced off.  Undeterred, the shark kept repeating this behavior every few minutes to no avail.  Meanwhile, the bait fish swam around unharmed in the second partition.  Eventually, about an hour into the experiment, the shark gave up.

This experiment was repeated several dozen times over the next few weeks.  Each time, the shark got less aggressive and made fewer attempts to attack the bait fish, until eventually the shark got tired of hitting the fiberglass divider and simply stopped attacking altogether.

The marine biologist then removed the fiberglass divider, but the shark didn’t attack.  The shark was trained to believe a barrier existed between it and the bait fish, so the bait fish swam wherever they wished, free from harm.

The moral:  Many of us, after experiencing setbacks and failures, emotionally give up and stop trying. Like the shark in the story, we believe that because we were unsuccessful in the past, we will always be unsuccessful. In other words, we continue to see a barrier in our heads, even when no ‘real’ barrier exists between where we are and where we want to go.  (Read The Road Less Traveled.)

Story #4:  Being and Breathing

One warm evening many years ago…

After spending nearly every waking minute with Angel for eight straight days, I knew that I had to tell her just one thing.  So late at night, just before she fell asleep, I whispered it in her ear.  She smiled – the kind of smile that makes me smile back –and she said, “When I’m seventy-five and I think about my life and what it was like to be young, I hope that I can remember this very moment.”

A few seconds later she closed her eyes and fell asleep.  The room was peaceful – almost silent.  All I could hear was the soft purr of her breathing.  I stayed awake thinking about the time we’d spent together and all the choices in our lives that made this moment possible.  And at some point, I realized that it didn’t matter what we’d done or where we’d gone.  Nor did the future hold any significance.

All that mattered was the serenity of the moment.

Just being with her and breathing with her.

The moral:  We must not allow the clock, the calendar, and external pressures to rule our lives and blind us to the fact that each individual moment of our lives is a beautiful mystery and a miracle – especially those moments we spend in the presence of a loved one.

Your turn…

How do you think differently today than you once did?  What life experience or realization brought on a significant change in your way of thinking?  Please leave a comment below and share your story with us.

Reference: http://www.marcandangel.com/2013/05/21/4-short-stories-change-the-way-you-think/

172
1. “Engineers like to solve problems. If there are no problems handily available, they will create their own problems.”
― Scott Adams

2. “One man’s “magic” is another man’s engineering. “Supernatural” is a null word.”
― Robert A. Heinlein

3. “But remember this, Japanese boy... airplanes are not tools for war. They are not for making money. Airplanes are beautiful dreams. Engineers turn dreams into reality.”
― Hayao Miyazaki

4. “All we know about the new economic world tells us that nations which train engineers will prevail over those which train lawyers. No nation has ever sued its way to greatness.”
― Richard Lamm

5. “I was originally supposed to become an engineer but the thought of having to expend my creative energy on things that make practical everyday life even more refined, with a loathsome capital gain as the goal, was unbearable to me.”
― Albert Einstein

6. “The problem in this business isn’t to keep people from stealing your ideas; it's making them steal your ideas!”
― Howard Aiken

7. “The fewer moving parts, the better." "Exactly. No truer words were ever spoken in the context of engineering.”
― Christian Cantrell

8. “Engineering is not only study of 45 subjects but it is moral studies of intellectual life.”
― Prakhar Srivastav

9. “Are engineers better at business than business people? It’s debatable. Business people certainly seems to have bigger houses, drive fancier cars, wear nicer clothes and have better looking mates. Engineers lack the time management skills to spend that kind of money. They waste all their time inventing ways to make the most money in the quickest, most efficient way possible. And then when they figure it out, they optimize the process.”
― Raul Perez

10. “It is exciting to discover electrons and figure out the equations that govern their movement; it is boring to use those principles to design electric can openers. From here on out, it's all can openers.”
― Neal Stephenson

11. “Math is my Passion. Engineering is my Profession.”
― Wilfred James Dolor

12 “Great triumphs of engineering genius—the locomotive, the truss bridge, the steel rail— ... are rather invention than engineering proper.”
― Arthur Mellen Wellington

13. “It is hardly surprising that the malodorous field of garbology has not attained the popularity of rocket science, oil exploration, or brain surgery.”
― Hans Y. Tammemagi

14. “First rule of engineering; beware prototypes. Along with, avoid anything made by an engineer who doesn't have all his own fingers.”
― Simon R. Green

15. “The trick to having good ideas is not to sit around in glorious isolation and try to think big thoughts. The trick is to get more parts on the table.”
― Steven Johnson

16. “[John] Kobak explained, 'The way you learn anything is that something fails, and you figure out how not to have it fail again.”
― Robert S. Arrighi

17. “There’s nothing I believe in more strongly than getting young people interested in science and engineering, for a better tomorrow, for all humankind.”
― Bill Nye

18. “Engineering stimulates the mind. Kids get bored easily. They have got to get out and get their hands dirty: make things, dismantle things, fix things. When the schools can offer that, you’ll have an engineer for life.”
― Bruce Dickinson

19. “Projects we have completed demonstrate what we know - future projects decide what we will learn.”
― Dr Mohsin Tiwana

20. “I don’t spend my time pontificating about high-concept things; I spend my time solving engineering and manufacturing problems.”
― Elon Musk

21. “A good scientist is a person with original ideas. A good engineer is a person who makes a design that works with as few ideas as possible. There are no prima donnas in engineering.”
― Freeman Dyson

22. “To the optimist, the glass is half full. To the pessimist, the glass is half empty. To the engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.
― Unknown

23. “Manufacturing is more than just putting parts together. It’s coming up with ideas, testing principles and perfecting the engineering as well as final assembly."
― James Dyson

24. “The human foot is a masterpiece of engineering and a work of art.”
― Leonardo da Vinci

25. “What we usually consider as impossible are simply engineering problems… there’s no law of physics preventing them.”
― Michio Kaku

26. “ When you want to know how things really work, study them when they’re coming apart.”
― William Gibson

27. “The most important thing is to keep the most important thing the most important thing.”
― Donald P Coduto

28. “A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.”
― Douglas Adams

29. “Aeroplanes are not designed by science, but by art in spite of some pretence and humbug to the contrary. I do not mean to suggest that engineering can do without science, on the contrary, it stands on scientific foundations, but there is a big gap between scientific research and the engineering product which has to be bridged by the art of the engineer.”
― British Engineer to the Royal Aeronautical Society, 1922.

30. “ A great bridge is a great monument which should serve to make known the splendour and genius of a nation; one should not occupy oneself with efforts to perfect it architecturally, for taste is always susceptible to change, but to conserve always in its form and decoration the character of solidity which is proper.”
― Jean Peronnet

31. “An engineer is someone who is good with figures, but doesn't have the personality of an accountant.”
- An Arts graduate's view of engineers

32. “ Architects and engineers are among the most fortunate of men since they build their own monuments with public consent, public approval and often public money.”
― John Prebble

33. “Engineering is the art of modelling materials we do not wholly understand, into shapes we cannot precisely analyse so as to withstand forces we cannot properly assess, in such a way that the public has no reason to suspect the extent of our ignorance.”
― Dr AR Dykes

34. “Engineering problems are under-defined, there are many solutions, good, bad and indifferent. The art is to arrive at a good solution. This is a creative activity, involving imagination, intuition and deliberate choice.”
― Ove Arup

35. “Engineering refers to the practice of organizing the design and construction [and, I would add operation] of any artifice which transforms the physical world around us to meet some recognized need.”
― GFC Rogers

36. “Engineering ... to define rudely but not inaptly, is the art of doing that well with one dollar, which any bungler can do with two after a fashion.”
― Arthur Mellen Wellington

37. “Engineers ... are not mere technicians and should not approve or lend their name to any project that does not promise to be beneficent to man and the advancement of civilization.”
― John Fowler

38. “Engineers ... are not superhuman. They make mistakes in their assumptions, in their calculations, in their conclusions. That they make mistakes is forgivable; that they catch them is imperative. Thus it is the essence of modern engineering not only to be able to check one's own work but also to have one's work checked and to be able to check the work of others.”
― Henry Petroski

39. “I take the vision which comes from dreams and apply the magic of science and mathematics, adding the heritage of my profession and my knowledge of nature's materials to create a design.

I organise the efforts and skills of my fellow workers employing the capital of the thrifty and the products of many industries, and together we work toward our goal undaunted by hazards and obstacles.
And when we have completed our task all can see that the dreams and plans have materialised for the comfort and welfare of all.
I am an Engineer, I serve mankind, by making dreams come true.”
― Anon (supposedly found pinned to a site hut during the construction of the Konkan railway)

40. “Experience serves not only to confirm theory, but differs from it without disturbing it, it leads to new truths which theory only has not been able to reach.”
― Dalembert

41. “From the laying out of a line of a tunnel to its final completion, the work may be either a series of experiments made at the expense of the proprietors of the project, or a series of judicious applications of the results of previous experience.”
― HS Drinker

42. “Go for civil engineering, because civil engineering is the branch of engineering which teaches you the most about managing people. Managing people is a skill which is very, very useful and applies almost regardless of what you do.”
― Sir John Harvey Jones

43. “I am an old man now, and when I die and go to Heaven there are two matters on which I hope for enlightenment. One is quantum electrodynamics and the other is the turbulent motion of fluids. And about the former I am rather more optimistic.”
― Sir Horace Lamb

44. “[I am] opposed to the laying down of rules or conditions to be observed in the construction of bridges lest the progress of improvement tomorrow might be embarrassed or shackled by recording or registering as law the prejudices or errors of today.”
― Isambard Kingdom Brunel

45. “It is a great profession. There is the satisfaction of watching a figment of the imagination emerge through the aid of science to a plan on paper. Then it moves to realization in stone or metal or energy. Then it brings jobs and homes to men. Then it elevates the standards of living and adds to the comforts of life. That is the engineer's high privilege.”
― Herbert Hoover

46. “No doubt as years go by people forget which engineer did it, even if they ever knew. Or some politician puts his name on it. Or they credit it to some promoter who used other peoples money with which to finance it. But the engineer himself looks back at the unending stream of goodness that flows from his successes with satisfactions that few professions may know. And the verdict of his fellow professionals is all the accolade he wants.”
― Herbert Hoover

47. “Let him not be grasping nor have his mind preoccupied with ... receiving perquisites, but let him with dignity keep up his position by establishing a good reputation. No work can be rightly done without honesty and incorruptibility.”
― Vitruvius

48. “One has to watch out for engineers - they begin with the sewing machine and end up with the atomic bomb.”
― Marcel Pagnol, Critiques des Critiques

49. “The history of engineering is really the history of breakages, and of learning from those breakages. I was taught at college 'the engineer learns most on the scrapheap'.”
― CA Claremont, Spanning Space

50. “The major difference between a thing that might go wrong and a thing that cannot possibly go wrong is that when a thing that cannot possibly go wrong goes wrong, it usually turns out to be impossible to get at and repair.”
― Douglas Adams

51. “The well being of the world largely depends upon the work of the engineer. There is a great future and unlimited scope for the profession; new works of all kinds are and will be required in every country, and for a young man of imagination and keenness I cannot conceive a more attractive profession. Imagination is necessary as well as scientific knowledge.”
― Sir William Halcrow

52. “There can be little doubt that in many ways the story of bridge building is the story of civilisation. By it we can readily measure an important part of a people's progress.”
― Franklin D Roosevelt

53. “We shape our buildings, thereafter they shape us.”
― Winston Churchill

54. “When engineers and quantity surveyors discuss aesthetics and architects study what cranes do we are on the right road.”
― Ove Arup

55. “The life work of the engineer consists in the systematic application of natural forces and the systematic development of natural resources in the service of man.”
― Harry Walter Tyler

56. “The scientist discovers a new type of material or energy and the engineer discovers a new use for it.”
― Gordon Lindsay Glegg

57. “Can one think that because we are engineers, beauty does not preoccupy us or that we do not try to build beautiful, as well as solid and long-lasting, structures? Aren’t the genuine functions of strength always in keeping with unwritten conditions of harmony?”
― Gustave Eiffel

58. A scientist can discover a new star but he cannot make one. He would have to ask an engineer to do it for him.”
― Gordon Lindsay Glegg

59. “Engineering is not merely knowing and being knowledgeable, like a walking encyclopedia; engineering is not merely analysis; engineering is not merely the possession of the capacity to get elegant solutions to non-existent engineering problems; engineering is practicing the art of the organising forces of technological change… Engineers operate at the interface between science and society.”
― Gordon Stanley Brown

60. “Engineering is quite different from science. Scientists try to understand nature. Engineers try to make things that do not exist in nature. Engineers stress invention.”
― Yuan-Cheng Fung

61. “Engineering is the art of directing the great sources of power in nature for the use and convenience of man.”
― Thomas Tredgold

62. “Engineering is the professional and systematic application of science to the efficient utilisation of natural resources to produce wealth."
― Theodore Jesse Hoover

63. “Engineering or technology is the making of things that did not previously exist, whereas science is the discovering of things that have long existed."
― David Billington

64. “I’ve never seen a job being done by a five-hundred-person engineering team that couldn’t be done better by fifty people.”
― C Gordon Bell

65. “No one wants to learn by mistakes,  but we cannot learn enough from successes to go beyond the state of the art.”
― Henry Petroski

66. “Science can amuse and fascinate us all, but it is engineering that changes the world.”
― Isaac Asimov

67. “Scientists study the world as it is, engineers create the world that never has been.”
― Theodore von Karman

68. “The story of civilisation is, in a sense, the story of engineering - that long and arduous struggle to make the forces of nature work for man’s good.”
― Lyon Sprague DeCamp

69. “Manufacturing, science and engineering are…incredibly creative. I’d venture to say more so than creative advertising agencies and things that are known as the creative industries.”
― Sir James Dyson

70. “Men build bridges and throw railroads across deserts, and yet they contend successfully that the job of sewing on a button is beyond them.”
― Heywood Broun

71. “The ideal engineer is a composite… He is not a scientist, he is not a mathematician, he is not a sociologist or a writer, but he may use the knowledge and techniques of any or all of these disciplines in solving engineering problems.”
― NW Dougherty

72. “Engineering is the science of economy, of conserving energy, kinetic and potential, provided and stored up by nature for the use of man. It is the business of engineering to utilise this energy to the best advantage, so that there may be the least possible waste.”
― William A Smith

73. “The goal of science and engineering is to build better mousetraps. The goal of nature is to build better mice.”
― Unknown

74. “Strive for perfection in everything you do. Take the best that exists and make it better. When it does not exist, design it.”
― Sir Henry Royce

75. “The engineer has been, and is, a maker of history.”
― James Kip Finch

76. “You see, my ambition was not to confound the engineering world but simply to create a beautiful piece of art.”
― Kit Williams

77. “A good engineer thinks in reverse and asks himself about the stylistic consequences of the components and systems he proposes.”
― Helmut Jahn

78. “Normal people believe that if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Engineers believe that if it ain’t broke, it doesn’t have enough features yet.”
― Scott Adams

79. “An engineer is someone who washes his hands before going to the toilet.”
― Anon

80. “A theory may be so rich in descriptive possibilities that it can be made to fit any data.”
― Phillip Johnson-Laird

81. “Improvement makes strait roads: but the crooked roads without improvement are roads of genius.”
― William Blake

82. “Knowing there is a structure, hidden or felt, to the random gives pleasure.”
― Cecil Balmond

83. “The engineer’s first problem in any design situation is to discover what the problem really is.”
― Unknown

84. “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”
― Buckminster Fuller

85. “Gradually people come to you to buy surprise, and the thing that’s nicest about it is that when people come to buy surprise, I have no idea of what I’m going to give them either.”
― Peter Rice

86. “Any idiot can build a bridge that stands, but it takes an engineer to build a bridge that barely stands.”
― Unknown

87. “Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell ‘em ‘Certainly I can!’ Then get busy and find out how to do it.”
― Theodore Roosevelt

88. “Engineers have more words for screwing up than the Inuit have words for snow.”
― Pierce Nichols

89. “At that time (1909) the chief engineer was almost always the chief test pilot as well. That had the fortunate result of eliminating poor engineering early in aviation.”
― Igor Sikorsky

90. “I guess the question I'm asked the most often is: "When you were sitting in that capsule listening to the count-down, how did you feel?" Well, the answer to that one is easy. I felt exactly how you would feel if you were getting ready to launch and knew you were sitting on top of two million parts -- all built by the lowest bidder on a government contract.”
― John Glenn

91. “We, the unwilling, led by the unknowing, are doing the impossible for the ungrateful. We have done so much, for so long, with so little, we are now qualified to do anything with nothing."
― Unknown

92. “Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupery

93. “I have not failed, but found 1000 ways to not make a light bulb.”
― Thomas Edison

94. “If not for the compulsions of engineers, mankind would never have seen the wheel, settling instead for the trapezoid because some Neanderthal in marketing convinced everybody it had great braking ability.”
― Scott Adams

95. “The engineer is a mediator between the philosopher and the working mechanic and, like an interpreter between two foreigners must understand the language of both, hence the absolute necessity of possessing both practical and theoretical knowledge.”
― Henry Palmer

96. “When I am working on a problem, I never think about beauty but when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong.”
― R Buckminster Fuller

97. “I am, and ever will be, a white-socks, pocket-protector, nerdy engineer, born under the second law of thermodynamics, steeped in steam tables, in love with free-body diagrams, transformed by Laplace and propelled by compressible flow.”
― Neil Armstrong

98. "Thirty spokes share the wheel's hub; it is the center hole that makes it useful.
Shape clay into a vessel; it is the space within that makes it useful.
Cut doors and windows for a room; it is the holes which make it useful.
Therefore benefit comes from what is there; usefulness comes from what is not."
― Excerpt from the Tao Te Ching

99. "The scientific man does not aim at an immediate result. He does not expect that his advanced ideas will be readily taken up. His work is like that of the planter - for the future. His duty is to lay the foundation for those who are to come, and point the way. He lives and labors and hopes.”
― Nikola Tesla

100. “There is no demand for women engineers, as such, as there are for women doctors; but there’s always a demand for anyone who can do a good piece of work.”
― Edith Clarke

101. “The world would be a better place if more engineers, like me, hated technology. The stuff I design, if I’m successful, nobody will ever notice. Things will just work, and be self-managing.”
― Radia Pearlman

173
Inspiring Quotes / Few Motivational Quotes for Engineers
« on: July 06, 2016, 08:10:38 AM »
Silicon Valley has evolved a critical mass of engineers and venture capitalists and all the support structure - the law firms, the real estate, all that - that are all actually geared toward being accepting of startups.
- Elon Musk

Scientists dream about doing great things. Engineers do them.
- James A. Michener

More than ever, the world needs good engineers. However, the pool of talent is shrinking not growing.
- Dean Kamen

People say writing is really hard. That's very unfair to those who are doing real jobs. People who work in the fields or fix roofs, engineers, or car mechanics. I think lying on your back working under an oily car, that's a job.
- Paul Theroux

Beaver do better work than the Corps of Engineers.
- Mike Todd

I'm a good communicator, and I'm a good translator. I can talk to engineers; I can talk to people for whom technology is not remotely interesting or even maybe scary - things like that.
- Mitchell Baker

174
During a Reddit "Ask Me Anything" session earlier this year, Microsoft founder and prolific philanthropist Bill Gates said his biggest regret in life is that he speaks only English. Not exactly what one would expect to hear from the billionaire founder of one of the largest tech corporations in the world. Gates's insightful admission comes on the heels of Mark Zuckerberg’s impressive demonstration of semi-fluent Chinese during a Q&A with Tsinghua University students in Beijing last October. By learning Chinese, Zuckerberg clearly demonstrated that mastering a local language is a key step toward developing deeper business relationships and winning the hearts and minds of target markets -- and he's right.

Here, the languages global-minded CEOs should be learning.

1. Spanish
Of all the languages in the world, Spanish is the language our online translation agency works with the most, reflecting an enormous market the world over. Aside from the huge potential of almost all of South and Central America with emerging economic powerhouses such as Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Peru, Colombia and Venezuela -- not to mention the significant market in Spain itself -- learning Spanish is worth it if only to reach the Hispanic speaking community in the U.S., whose purchasing power is already more than a trillion dollars and growing.

As opposed to its spoken dialects, Spanish written forms are more uniform than other languages which makes them simpler to learn. As a Romance language, with the same letters and roots as English, you’ll probably twist your tongue a lot less than when learning Chinese.

2. Portuguese
Portuguese has already become the fourth most-translated language at our company, reflecting an exponential rise in recent years. It’s obviously not Portugal we’ve got our eyes on here, but rather Brazil, which is quickly transforming from emerging market to one of the world’s richest nations. With a huge population, tons of natural resources and a growing tech community, learning Portuguese will go a long way to penetrating the intricacies of the local business culture. Plus, imagine the fun speaking the local tongue come Carnival time.

3. Chinese
There are dozens of different languages and dialects spoken in China, and while Mandarin is by far the most widely spoken -- in fact, it’s the most prevalent language in the world with 1.1 billion native speakers -- other Chinese dialects are spoken by hundreds of millions of people.

Wu, for example, used in the financial hub of Shanghai, is spoken by more than 80 million people -- that’s a potential market the size of Germany! Depending on what area of China you're targeting and the fact that written dialects in the country are basically uniform, learning Wu, Jin, Min or Yue will certainly be worth the effort.

Related: How I Built a Startup While Traveling to 20 Countries

4. Russian
Russia has a market nearly 150 million strong, seemingly endless natural resources and a burgeoning IT sector. Plus, the language is also spoken to varying degrees in post-Soviet states (for almost 300 million speakers in all) -- many important emerging economies themselves -- making it number nine on our most-translated list. Knowing Russian will go a long way toward winning the trust of local business leaders. And you can read Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky in the original.

5. Arabic
Hundreds of millions of people around the world speak Arabic -- the fifth most-spoken language in the world -- so it comes as no surprise that Arabic is number 10 on our list. The Arab world, with a growing online culture, doesn’t have its own Amazon or Alibaba, making it a market with huge potential, not to mention the deep petro-economies of the region. Executives who speak their language are going to have a leg up in this cross-continental market. The drawback? With dozens of distinct varieties of spoken Arabic, choosing the right one will be a daunting process. 

6. German
German is the second most-translated language at our agency, reflecting the country’s status as Europe’s largest economy and one of strongest economies in the world. Enough said.

Learning a foreign language may be a major investment of time and energy, but speaking even a rudimentary level of a country’s native tongue goes a long way to breaking down walls.

P.S. English is must. This lists reflects the most preferred language after English.

Reference: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/244233

175
(CNN)In 2002, a self-taught programmer named Cory Arcangel hacked the code of a Nintendo Super Mario cartridge, stripping away all the graphics except for the fluffy pixelized clouds.

Two years later, his artwork "Super Mario Clouds v2k3" made Arcangel one of the 2004 Whitney Biennial's breakthrough stars. Yet many of his new fans, Arcangel once told me, did not really understand what he had done: they thought they were watching a digital video, not hacked software.

A decade later, many people make the same misassumption about the young artist Ian Cheng's "infinite duration" work, in which his cinematic algorithms live-render richly detailed worlds filled with complex landscapes and animated creatures, "shot" with swooping cameras. Cheng uses radically better software, but it's the same disconnect...

For decades, art and tech have done an awkward, fitful dance, never fully committing to each other. Things started well, 50 years ago: In 1966, Billy Klüver, an engineer at Bell Labs (which later became AT&T) spearheaded Experiments in Art and Technology (EAT), putting Bell's cutting-edge equipment into the hands of artists such as Robert Rauschenberg, Merce Cunningham, John Cage and Jasper Johns.

As computers became more sophisticated and widely available, a small group of artists used them in making their work. Yet long after EAT's experiments, digital art remained an outlier in mainstream museums and galleries, generally sequestered at festivals such as Austria's Ars Electronica.

For the core of the artworld, most digital art seemed overly enamored with its own technology, and often felt conceptually lightweight.
On the flip side, the digerati dismissed the pieces that the artworld embraced as facile stuff, barely pushing past the basics of the Photoshop toolbox. As someone who loves both art and technology, I despaired for 20 years at the succession of stillborn children that their interactions produced.

Finally, my wait has ended: Today the digital work coming out of artists' studios -- often just their laptops - shows a clear shift, dissolving the boundaries between "the art world" and "digital art".

Why? First, because these young artists are digital natives, who grew up with broadband at their fingertips, and the virtual never far from the physical in their life. (The curators Hans-Ulrich Obrist and Simon Castets label this the "89plus" generation -- because 1989 marked the introduction of the World Wide Web.)

Just as importantly, contemporary artists are working with technologies that make it as easy to create digital works as it is to paint or sculpt. That's not hyperbole: Artists using Tiltbrush technology at the Google Cultural Institute in Paris can sculpt spectacular 3-D volumes in real time by moving their bodies through space, creating a result that looks more organic than digital.

That said, many artists are making work deeply steeped in code. Britain's Ed Atkins, for example, uses a mix of motion-capture and CGI to create tightly paced videos run through with anomie. Drawing on the dreams and nightmares of the digital age, Atkins unleashes a mix of hooligans, human organs, effluvia and nods to pop culture.

Likewise, the Canadian artist Jon Rafman has become known for his dense VR works. At the Berlin Biennial that opened last week, visitors strapped into an Oculus Rift headset to experience his new piece "View of Pariser Platz." At first, looking down onto Pariserplatz, the viewer saw nothing different. Suddenly (spoiler alert) reality shifted violently, unleashing visions of billowing smoke, flying bodies, beasts swallowing each other. Then you went into freefall, landing among an army of androids. I watched one woman struggle for balance and contort her hands into tight knots as the digital hallucinations hit her.

Beyond coding
But you don't need programmers to make digital art today, because social media offers a platform perfect for social engineering.
Amalia Ulman's controversial "Excellences and Perfections" performance, for example, took place entirely on Instagram over the course of four months in 2014. The Argentine artist created a trajectory in which "she" went from good country girl to urban escort to perfect-lifestyle blogger.

As she spiraled downwards, many of Ulman's nearly 90,000 followers took the 475 posts at face value and grew increasingly worried for her sanity. (Not that surprising a misunderstanding, really, since on Instagram people's "real" channels tend to be carefully constructed narratives.)

Thinking more broadly, technology has also redefined the audience for which artists now create. Camille Henrot's entrancing 2013 Venice Biennale piece 'Grosse Fatigue,' for example, was technically possible long ago.

Yet its cascading screens of wildly different videos would have overwhelmed viewers not already accustomed to simultaneously scanning multiple feeds on their phone, tablet, TV, and laptop.

Just as importantly, our ever-more digital society redefines how art is made. Geography becomes less relevant by the day: Artists collaborate with a rotating cast of sparring partners all over the globe, not only other artists, but also writers, coders, fashion designers, electronica musicians, etc.

Much of the content is not created from scratch but rather generated through a voracious sampling, scraping and repurposing of the memes, images and clips that swirl around in the ether.

Copyright seems a tangential issue here. In Berlin last week, I ran into the New Zealand artist Simon Denny standing by his biennial piece -- a series of trade-show booths for Blockchain companies.
"Artists make work about the world we live in," he says. "And in our society, nearly everything involves private companies -- even individuals act like brands. So if we want art about the contemporary world and brands are protective of usage and copyright, then how are you supposed to make art today?"

Art market disruption? Not yet
Interestingly enough, especially for someone in my position, there's one area where technology has had relatively little impact: the art market. At least not in comparison to the way that Uber has totally disrupted the taxi business or that social media forced fashion to radically reconsider the role of runway shows.

The biggest influence on the market so far? Instagram, perfectly designed to make a gallery's pieces go viral, but not a sales platform per se.

The Julia Stoschek Collection has unveiled a new post-internet art exhibition in Berlin
What's the most contemporary form of art today?

Obviously, the art-market killer app may still come. For now, though, what's striking about the digital natives is how differently they relate to the market. Because technology allows them to source endless amounts of material, work across time zones, achieve stunning results without any capital, and promote their work directly to their own generation's curators and collectors.
Can galleries still contribute to the careers of these artists? Absolutely. But many artists choose to dip into and out of the traditional system -- or live entirely on its periphery -- while focusing less on originality, objects and ownership than on new modes of producing and experiencing art. Finally, the future is now.

Reference: http://edition.cnn.com/2016/06/13/arts/marc-spiegler-cnn-style-guest-editor/

176
Food Habit / 6 Steps to Changing Bad Eating Habits
« on: July 06, 2016, 07:21:39 AM »
How to overcome unhealthy habits that are keeping you from losing weight and getting fit.

Most of us are creatures of habit. We buy the same foods from the same grocery store, prepare the same recipes over and over, and live within our own familiar routines. But if you're serious about eating healthier and losing weight, you need to shake it up, change those bad eating habits, and start thinking differently about your diet and lifestyle.

The problem is that we get so comfortable in our ways that it's hard to give up those old habits.

"Many people are skeptical about changing their diets because they have grown accustomed to eating or drinking the same foods, and there is a fear of the unknown or trying something new," says John Foreyt, PhD, director of the Baylor College of Medicine Behavioral Medicine Research Center.

Even when you want to change, old habits die hard.

"Over time, habits become automatic, learned behaviors, and these are stronger than new habits you are trying to incorporate into your life," says Foreyt.

Even those who manage to change their bad eating habits can easily fall back on their old ways during times of stress. When you're feeling weak or vulnerable, automatic responses often override good intentions.

"Everything can be going along just fine until you hit a rough patch and feelings of boredom, loneliness, depression, or ... any kind of stress," says Foreyt.

Foreyt says tackling bad eating and exercise habits requires a three-pronged approach:

Being aware of the bad habits you want to fix.
Figuring out why these habits exist.
Figuring out how you'll slowly change your bad eating and exercise habits into healthier new ones.
Another expert notes that you're much more likely to be successful at changing your habits if you take things one step at a time. "Try to gradually incorporate new habits over time, and before you know it, you will be eating more healthfully and losing weight," says Keri Gans, MS, RD, American Dietetic Association spokesperson and a nutritionist in private practice in New York.

Eating a healthier diet may be intimidating at first. But once you see for yourself how good it makes you feel -- and how good healthy food can taste -- you have a better chance of succeeding. Over time, your preferences will change and cravings for bad-for-you foods will fade away.

6 Steps to Fix Bad Eating Habits
Here are 6 steps to help you get rid of your old, unhealthy habits and create healthier ones:

1. Take Baby Steps. Making small changes in your diet and lifestyle can improve your health as well as trim your waistline. Some suggestions from the experts:

Start each day with a nutritious breakfast.
Get 8 hours of sleep each night, as fatigue can lead to overeating.
Eat your meals seated at a table, without distractions.
Eat more meals with your partner or family.
Teach yourself to eat when you're really hungry and stop when you're comfortably full.
Reduce your portion sizes by 20%, or give up second helpings.
Try lower-fat dairy products.
Make sandwiches with whole-grain bread and spread them with mustard instead of mayo.
Switch to cafe au lait, using strong coffee and hot skim milk instead of cream.
Eat a nutritious meal or snack every few hours.
Use nonstick pans and cooking spray instead of oil to reduce the fat in recipes.
Try different cooking methods, such as grilling, roasting, baking, or poaching.
Drink more water and fewer sugary drinks.
Eat smaller portions of calorie-dense foods (like casseroles and pizza) and larger portions of water-rich foods (like broth-based soups, salads, and veggies).
Flavor your foods with herbs, vinegars, mustards, or lemon instead of fatty sauces.
Limit alcohol to 1-2 drinks per day.
2. Become More Mindful. One of the first steps toward conquering bad eating habits is paying more attention to what you're eating and drinking. "Read food labels, become familiar with lists of ingredients, and start to take notice of everything you put into your mouth," says Gans. Once you become more aware of what you're eating, you'll start to realize how you need to improve your diet. Some people benefit by keeping food diaries.

3. Make a Plan; Be Specific. How are you going to start eating more fruit, having breakfast every day, or getting to the gym more often? Spell out your options. For example: Plan to take a piece of fruit to work every day for snacks, stock up on cereal and fruit for quick breakfasts, and go to the gym on the way to work three times a week. "To say 'I am going to work out more,' won't help you," says Gans. "What will help is thinking about when and how you can fit it into your lifestyle."

4. Tackle a New Mini-Goal Each Week. These mini-steps will eventually add up to major change. For example, if your goal is to eat more vegetables, tell yourself you'll try one new veggie each week until you find some you really enjoy. Or look for easy ways to add one more serving of vegetables to your diet each week until you reach your goal. Try topping your lunch sandwich with slices of cucumbers; adding shredded carrots to the muffins you have for breakfast; or topping your dinnertime pizza with sun-dried tomatoes and mushrooms.

5. Be Realistic. Don't expect too much from yourself too soon. It takes about a month for any new action to become habit. Slow and steady wins the race -- along with a dose of vigilance.

6. Practice Stress Management. "Focus on dealing with stress through exercise, relaxation, meditation, or whatever works for you, so you don't fall back into those bad habits during periods of stress or use food to help you cope with the situation," advises Foreyt.

Reference: http://www.webmd.com/diet/obesity/6-steps-to-changing-bad-eating-habits?page=1

177
Ears / Why you shouldn't clean your ears with a cotton swab
« on: July 06, 2016, 07:19:23 AM »
Editor's note: This article was originally posted on April 4, 2011. Due to its overwhelming popularity, we've updated it to republish today. Check out our companion article, where we discuss things you CAN do with cotton swabs!

There are some people that swear by sticking a cotton swab (Q-Tip) into their ears to remove excess wax and debris. Anyone in the medical field can tell you, they have seen many catastrophes resulting from using cotton swabs. From punctured eardrums to super impacted wax, there are many negative consequences associated with "do-it-yourself" ear cleaning.

There are a number of items that people use to clean their ears. Some of the most interesting seen in the doctor’s office:


Many people do not realize you shouldn't clean your ears with cotton swabs. This could lead to hearing loss, damage or more. Cotton swabs (Q-Tips) Hair pins Tweezers Pens and pencils Straws Paper clips Toys While this is only a partial list, it's important to realize nothing should be placed inside the ear to remove dirt and debris. This is dangerous and could cause hearing loss or a damaged ear canal.

The ear canal has specialized cells that produce cerumen, commonly known as ear wax. For some people, ear wax accumulates much faster than others. This can lead to wax build-up that causes decreased ability to hear and in some instances, pain. As an easy way to avoid seeing a medical professional, many folks resort to using swabs to remove the excess wax. While this may seem like an excellent alternative to spending countless minutes waiting in a doctor’s office waiting room, using a cotton swab may do more harm than good.

The eardrum is easily reached with a swab. Because the eardrum is so delicate, it can be easily ruptured by using even the gentlest of pressure when using a swab. Ask anyone who has experienced a punctured eardrum - it isn’t a pleasant experience. The pain is quite severe and the ear may also leak a clear fluid. While a punctured eardrum will heal, it typically takes awhile and can even lead to conductive hearing loss.

So this leaves us with the question, do we really need to clean out our ears? The answer is a little confusing, as both a “yes” and a “no,” are appropriate. The outer ear that can be seen does need a good cleaning every now and then. This can be accomplished with a little soap, water and a washcloth.

In most cases, the ear canal does not need to be cleaned. During hair washing or showers, enough water enters into the ear canal to loosen the wax that has accumulated. Additionally, the skin in your ear canal naturally grows in an outward, spiral pattern. As it sloughs off, ear wax goes with it. Most of the time the wax will loosen and fall out on its own while you are asleep. The need for a cotton swab isn’t really necessary.

For those that have heavy wax build-up, a trip to the doctor may be needed. Doctors can easily remove ear wax with a little peroxide mixed with water and injected into the ear. The process is virtually painless and is very effective in removing impacted wax. If this frequently becomes a problem, patients can ask their physicians for directions to do the procedure at home.

If you are experiencing wax or dirt build-up in your ears, contact your medical care professional for instructions on how to safely clean your ears. Never stick anything into your ear canal, including your own fingers. This could further impact the wax or damage the eardrum. As a good rule of thumb, if you aren’t sure if what you are doing is safe, contact a hearing health professional or a physician.

Taken from http://www.healthyhearing.com/report/47773-Swab-hearing-loss

178
English / A documentary about Kamlapur
« on: July 02, 2016, 08:00:29 AM »
Here's a documentary produced by the students of MCT department last year as an assignment of their ENG II course with me. You may find it visually and conceptually pleasing.

https://www.facebook.com/sslab2015/videos/509056715919914/?autoplay_reason=gatekeeper&video_container_type=0&video_creator_product_type=2&app_id=2392950137

179
English / Top 250 Greatest Movies of All Time
« on: July 02, 2016, 07:52:49 AM »
Dear colleagues,

I found a list of top 250 greatest movies all time ranked by IMDB users here in this link: http://www.imdb.com/chart/top

This list includes many critically acclaimed movies as well as widely popular movies too. If you're planning to watch few good movies during this vacation, I think this list will help you a lot. Thank you!

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