It was known long ago that people could kill with their eyes.
Expert on anomalous phenomena and author of many books about miracles Igor Vinokurov tells a story he learnt from an acquaintance of his, a retired police colonel. The head of one of the key departments in a Moscow research institute suddenly died. The man was known for his trouble-making nature and lack of respect towards colleagues and subordinates. One day, the boss advanced some harsh and insulting remark in the address of a subordinate. The latter said nothing but his glance was so sinister that the boss suddenly dropped the head on the desk and began to rattle. When doctors arrived they had to verify death of the man but could not explain the reason why the healthy man died so suddenly.
A pathologist who performed the autopsy said that the heart of the dead man had been stopped by some force the way a human hand may stop a pendulum from swinging. Investigators of the sudden death supposed that the subordinate offended by the boss was probably the force that killed the man. Indeed, his sinister and gloomy glance gave police officers creeps.
It was known long ago that people may have murderous glances. A really sensational story occurred in the beginning of the past century in Paris. Opera singer Massol known by the manner to frown all the time and having gloomy nature was incredibly popular at the Italian Imperial Opera at that time. Once he was singing the Damnation aria in an opera by Halevy with the eyes upraised. At that very moment a technician shifting scenery above the scene fell down and died in an instant. Next time the singer stopped his glance on a bandmaster. The man felt immediately unwell and died of an unusual nervous attack in a couple of days. Massol was told to look at an empty box where nobody was expected to seat at the theatre while singing next time. But later it turned out that a merchant from Marseilles had a ticket to the box but for some reason took the seat only when the performance already began. The merchant died next day after the performance. After so many tragic deaths caused by the gloomy glance of the singer, the opera was excluded from the repertoire once and for all. Singer Massol quitted the scene soon.
Indian yogis and Tibetan magus indulge in long training and get the gift known as Vashitva that helps them tame and even kill wild animals. Consummate animal trainers say they can stop animals with a glance only and pronounce no words at that.
A well-known Russian extrasensory Rosa Kuleshova can see objects at a distance of three meters and read enveloped letters with her eyes closed. This phenomenon proves that the human glance can be penetrative, when humans can look through opaque objects.
Historians say that Russian writer Leo Tolstoy X-rayed people when talking to them. The glance of Joseph Stalin could paralyze people's will and made them lower their gaze. Some people may even have an impact on photographic films. In presence of a special committee, an American man named as Ted Sirius fixed his eyes on a picture to memorize its every detail and then shifted the eyes to a photographic plate. When the film was developed the committee found a vague picture resembling the original one. Later, experts registered similar phenomena with people suffering from strong visual hallucinations.
To know the secret of putting an evil eye upon others, Igor Vinokurov decided to find out more details from a real witch. He met an old woman named Tamara in a god-forsaken village in Russia's Vladimir Region who was rumored to be capable of putting an evil eye on people. Contrary to the general idea of a witch Vinokurov saw a woman that looked like a good fair with a round face, turned-up nose and blue eyes.
The woman said it was easy to bedevil someone. “Just imagine someone whom you dislike being ill or dead, and make the fancy particularly vivid. Then closely watch the object of dislike when coming across him and curse him in your mind,” the woman confessed.
Researchers wanted to see how the recommendation works in the laboratory environment. Doctor of physical sciences, a bioenergetics therapist Oleg Dubov affected a portion of distilled water in a sealed ampoule with the force of his mind. When physical characteristics of the water were measured the researcher was surprised to know that the water molecule mobility and the water conductivity increased.
In old times when people believed that putting an evil eye on somebody was a really strong weapon in the hands of people known as witches there was a list of diseases that could probably be caused by basilisk glances. Such glances were believed to be so strong that they made adults suffer from leanness, tumors, paralysis, convulsions, blindness, gluttony or impotence. Evil-eyed people suffer from insomnia, nausea, headache and epilepsy. The bedeviled people feel instinctual fear before the above-mentioned symptoms begin to show. Then, a curse reveals itself it yellowish or grayish complexion, stomachache and continuous vomit.
Director of the Wave Information Technologies Institute, Vladimir Hokkanen, says that a glance can be really murderous or at least health-destructive. Indeed, numerous experiments proved that the human glance is a source of a strong biological impulse. Eyes emit emanation of high frequency and thus can affect other people. This explains why many of us can sense an intent look of a person following us.
A member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Doctor of Biology Grant Demirchoglyan, says that like any unique optoelectronic system the human eye both receives and emits signals. The return radiation going from the eye is the short-wave one and thus can be as penetrating as X-rays or a laser. It may influence the central nervous system, the brain and the whole body in general. If experts tentatively prove that the power of human eyes is of the same nature as that of a laser, we will have to believe that fictitious characters able to burn a human being to ashes actually exist
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Why I/we Don’t Innovate at Work ?
“Why I Don’t Innovate at Work”
“I could guess from his joyful confidence that he has transcended a barrier that prevents a whole lot of people, myself included, from creating or doing anything really exceptional: the fear of others’ opinions.
We relentlessly work to avoid “image risks,” to borrow a term from business researchers Feirong Yuan of the University of Kansas and Richard W. Woodman of Texas A&M. They use the phrase in their study of employees’ fear of making “unfavorable social impressions” on coworkers. In an analysis of responses from 425 employees in a variety of U.S. businesses, Yuan and Woodman found that worries about image risk significantly diminish employees’ innovativeness.
“I could guess from his joyful confidence that he has transcended a barrier that prevents a whole lot of people, myself included, from creating or doing anything really exceptional: the fear of others’ opinions.
We relentlessly work to avoid “image risks,” to borrow a term from business researchers Feirong Yuan of the University of Kansas and Richard W. Woodman of Texas A&M. They use the phrase in their study of employees’ fear of making “unfavorable social impressions” on coworkers. In an analysis of responses from 425 employees in a variety of U.S. businesses, Yuan and Woodman found that worries about image risk significantly diminish employees’ innovativeness.
Sant Singh Chatwal
NRI hotelier Sant Singh Chatwal was sailing in the Caribbean on his yacht - having flown there in his private plane - when Sunday Times reached him for an interview on the raging controversy over the Padma Bhushan award to him. The feisty sardar says he never sought the award, there are no criminal cases against him, and his ties with entire Indian political spectrum are intact. Excerpts from his conversation with Chidanand Rajghatta :
Let’s deal first with the question of bank defaults that you’ve been accused of. Have you ever defaulted to banks?
There is a great deal of misunderstanding about this. In 1989-90, there was a big economic downturn and a real estate collapse. Most of my business was real estate. When this happens in America, there is attempt to restructure loans, there is a re-evaluation of assets. I went through it in a court-ordered procedure... there was nothing fraudulent.
Were Indian banks among your lenders?
I dealt with 16 or 17 banks and there were three Indian banks among them. They lent me about 7-8% of my borrowing.
So, why are there these persistent reports of fraud?
This happens because many people don’t understand how the business and entrepreneurial system works in America. I have never borrowed a rupee from banks in India and there is no question of fraud. If there was the slightest whiff of fraud, do you think Presidents, ministers, and secretaries would walk into my home?
Why would presidents and political leaders come to you? What is the secret of your political connections?
My father was a Partition-era refugee from Rawalpindi who settled in Faridkot. We were eight children and the best thing he did, even though he was a trader, was to give us a good education. I loved flying and got into the Naval Flying School in Cochin and then moved to Ethiopia. I moved to America when the government there was overthrown and everything was nationalized.
So where did the politics kick in?
Stephen Solarz, who was a Congressman, used to come to my restaurant in New York. Those days we had a buffet for $5.95. He liked us, he was fond of India, and we became friends. Once we had a fund-raiser for him and we raised some $2,000-$3,000. He was a little disappointed. I asked my manager in Punjabi to cut post-dated cheques for $5,000 and to make sure it would not bounce. Solarz caught on to the word “bounce” and asked what was the problem. I explained that I was not rich but I wanted to help him because he was a friend of India. He hugged me and said he had found an honest friend.
How did the Indian political connections start?
Once Mrs (Indira) Gandhi came to New York and we did the catering for her when she went to Montreal where I had my first restaurant. Then in 1978-79, I went with Solarz to India and we got an appointment with Mrs Gandhi. Gopi Arora was her PS, Romesh Bhandari was foreign secretary, and doctor saab (Manmohan Singh) was finance secretary. I have known them all from those days. In 1985, I arranged a meeting of 20 Sikh leaders with Rajiv Gandhi in New York.
This was after Operation Bluestar and Mrs Gandhi’s assassination?
Yes. Many Sikhs accused me of being a Congress agent. There was a lot of anger about the Golden Temple incident. But I said I was working for India.
So how did the connections with the Clintons, whose friendship with you is best-known, happen?
Well, Solarz arranged a meeting with Bill Clinton when he was running for president. No one thought he had a chance to win but I cut him post-dated cheques for $25,000, saying he should cash them slowly. He laughed and said, “Looks like you need the money more than I do.” Bill and Hillary have never forgotten my friendship. When he became President, my family was the first they invited to White House for dinner.
How much money have you contributed to the US political system? What is in it for you?
May be $10 million or more. Look, honestly, I have no agenda other than to help India. Of course, I like power and access. But I never ask them for any position and I am not affiliated to any party. I worked tirelessly for India during the BJP (NDA) government and again during the Congress government.
How does that happen? Most people go one way or the other.
You know how it works in the restaurant business - people come to eat and drink in my restaurants in New York and Washington. Vajpayee saab was very fond of food...I packed fish for him even when he went to visit his family in Connecticut. I have known Gujral saab since he was an MP. Even Narasimha Rao and VP Singh. Doctor saab (Manmohan Singh) used to come to the World Bank/IMF very close to my restaurant and used to drop by.
So why are so many officials, including ambassadors, opposed to giving you the Padma award?
I have got along well with many ambassadors, but sometimes it becomes an ego thing. Ambassadors want me to report everything through them, but sometimes it is not possible. I cannot tell them what Hillary tells me in private. One ambassador was very upset that I took Clinton to Lucknow for Amar Singh’s function, but I had to tell him that I am not a party person. I do not work for the Congress Party. Sometimes, officials get upset when ministers contact me directly or come to my home, but you have to understand that these are relationships I have had for many, many years...
How did the Padma Bhushan come about? Did you seek it?
See, never in my life have I asked for any award. I am a proud man. I can make millions of dollars if I spend the same time on business as I do on politics. I made 48 trips to Washington for the nuclear deal, going to Capitol Hill to lobby with Senators and Congressman. I did it for India without expectation.
Let’s deal first with the question of bank defaults that you’ve been accused of. Have you ever defaulted to banks?
There is a great deal of misunderstanding about this. In 1989-90, there was a big economic downturn and a real estate collapse. Most of my business was real estate. When this happens in America, there is attempt to restructure loans, there is a re-evaluation of assets. I went through it in a court-ordered procedure... there was nothing fraudulent.
Were Indian banks among your lenders?
I dealt with 16 or 17 banks and there were three Indian banks among them. They lent me about 7-8% of my borrowing.
So, why are there these persistent reports of fraud?
This happens because many people don’t understand how the business and entrepreneurial system works in America. I have never borrowed a rupee from banks in India and there is no question of fraud. If there was the slightest whiff of fraud, do you think Presidents, ministers, and secretaries would walk into my home?
Why would presidents and political leaders come to you? What is the secret of your political connections?
My father was a Partition-era refugee from Rawalpindi who settled in Faridkot. We were eight children and the best thing he did, even though he was a trader, was to give us a good education. I loved flying and got into the Naval Flying School in Cochin and then moved to Ethiopia. I moved to America when the government there was overthrown and everything was nationalized.
So where did the politics kick in?
Stephen Solarz, who was a Congressman, used to come to my restaurant in New York. Those days we had a buffet for $5.95. He liked us, he was fond of India, and we became friends. Once we had a fund-raiser for him and we raised some $2,000-$3,000. He was a little disappointed. I asked my manager in Punjabi to cut post-dated cheques for $5,000 and to make sure it would not bounce. Solarz caught on to the word “bounce” and asked what was the problem. I explained that I was not rich but I wanted to help him because he was a friend of India. He hugged me and said he had found an honest friend.
How did the Indian political connections start?
Once Mrs (Indira) Gandhi came to New York and we did the catering for her when she went to Montreal where I had my first restaurant. Then in 1978-79, I went with Solarz to India and we got an appointment with Mrs Gandhi. Gopi Arora was her PS, Romesh Bhandari was foreign secretary, and doctor saab (Manmohan Singh) was finance secretary. I have known them all from those days. In 1985, I arranged a meeting of 20 Sikh leaders with Rajiv Gandhi in New York.
This was after Operation Bluestar and Mrs Gandhi’s assassination?
Yes. Many Sikhs accused me of being a Congress agent. There was a lot of anger about the Golden Temple incident. But I said I was working for India.
So how did the connections with the Clintons, whose friendship with you is best-known, happen?
Well, Solarz arranged a meeting with Bill Clinton when he was running for president. No one thought he had a chance to win but I cut him post-dated cheques for $25,000, saying he should cash them slowly. He laughed and said, “Looks like you need the money more than I do.” Bill and Hillary have never forgotten my friendship. When he became President, my family was the first they invited to White House for dinner.
How much money have you contributed to the US political system? What is in it for you?
May be $10 million or more. Look, honestly, I have no agenda other than to help India. Of course, I like power and access. But I never ask them for any position and I am not affiliated to any party. I worked tirelessly for India during the BJP (NDA) government and again during the Congress government.
How does that happen? Most people go one way or the other.
You know how it works in the restaurant business - people come to eat and drink in my restaurants in New York and Washington. Vajpayee saab was very fond of food...I packed fish for him even when he went to visit his family in Connecticut. I have known Gujral saab since he was an MP. Even Narasimha Rao and VP Singh. Doctor saab (Manmohan Singh) used to come to the World Bank/IMF very close to my restaurant and used to drop by.
So why are so many officials, including ambassadors, opposed to giving you the Padma award?
I have got along well with many ambassadors, but sometimes it becomes an ego thing. Ambassadors want me to report everything through them, but sometimes it is not possible. I cannot tell them what Hillary tells me in private. One ambassador was very upset that I took Clinton to Lucknow for Amar Singh’s function, but I had to tell him that I am not a party person. I do not work for the Congress Party. Sometimes, officials get upset when ministers contact me directly or come to my home, but you have to understand that these are relationships I have had for many, many years...
How did the Padma Bhushan come about? Did you seek it?
See, never in my life have I asked for any award. I am a proud man. I can make millions of dollars if I spend the same time on business as I do on politics. I made 48 trips to Washington for the nuclear deal, going to Capitol Hill to lobby with Senators and Congressman. I did it for India without expectation.
64 kind of art which a person should know
The following are the arts to be studied,
1. Singing
2. Playing on musical instruments
3. Dancing
4. Union of dancing, singing, and playing instrumental music
5. Writing and drawing
6. Tattooing
7. Arraying and adorning an idol with rice and flowers
8. Spreading and arranging beds or couches of flowers, or flowers upon the ground
9. Colouring the teeth, garments, hair, nails and bodies, i.e. staining, dyeing, colouring and painting the same
10. Fixing stained glass into a floor
11. The art of making beds, and spreading out carpets and cushions for reclining
12. Playing on musical glasses filled with water
13. Storing and accumulating water in aqueducts, cisterns and reservoirs
14. Picture making, trimming and decorating
15. Stringing of rosaries, necklaces, garlands and wreaths
16. Binding of turbans and chaplets, and making crests and top-knots of flowers
17. Scenic representations, stage playing
18. Art of making ear ornaments
19. Art of preparing perfumes and odours
20. Proper disposition of jewels and decorations, and adornment in dress
21. Magic or sorcery
22. Quickness of hand or manual skill
23. Culinary art, i.e. cooking and cookery
24. Making lemonades, sherbets, acidulated drinks, and spirituous extracts with proper flavour and colour
25. Tailor’s work and sewing
26. Making parrots, flowers, tufts, tassels, bunches, bosses, knobs, etc., out of yarn or thread 27. Solution of riddles, enigmas, covert speeches, verbal puzzles and enigmatical questions
28. A game, which consisted in repeating verses, and as one person finished, another person had to commence at once, repeating another verse, beginning with the same letter with which the last speaker’s verse ended, whoever failed to repeat was considered to have lost, and to be subject to pay a forfeit or stake of some kind
29. The art of mimicry or imitation
30. Reading, including chanting and intoning
31. Study of sentences difficult to pronounce. It is played as a game chiefly by women, and children and consists of a difficult sentence being given, and when repeated quickly, the words are often transposed or badly pronounced
32. Practice with sword, single stick, quarter staff and bow and arrow
33. Drawing inferences, reasoning or inferring
34. Carpentry, or the work of a carpenter
35. Architecture, or the art of building
36. Knowledge about gold and silver coins, and jewels and gems
37. Chemistry and mineralogy
38. Colouring jewels, gems and beads
39. Knowledge of mines and quarries
40. Gardening; knowledge of treating the diseases of trees and plants, of nourishing them, and determining their ages
41. Art of cock fighting, quail fighting and ram fighting
42. Art of teaching parrots and starlings to speak
43. Art of applying perfumed ointments to the body, and of dressing the hair with unguents and perfumes and braiding it
44. The art of understanding writing in cypher, and the writing of words in a peculiar way
45. The art of speaking by changing the forms of words. It is of various kinds. Some speak by changing the beginning and end of words, others by adding unnecessary letters between every syllable of a word, and so on
46. Knowledge of language and of the vernacular dialects
47. Art of making flower carriages
48. Art of framing mystical diagrams, of addressing spells and charms, and binding armlets
49. Mental exercises, such as completing stanzas or verses on receiving a part of them; or supplying one, two or three lines when the remaining lines are given indiscriminately from different verses, so as to make the whole an entire verse with regard to its meaning; or arranging the words of a verse written irregularly by separating the vowels from the consonants, or leaving them out altogether; or putting into verse or prose sentences represented by signs or symbols. There are many other such exercises.
50. Composing poems
51. Knowledge of dictionaries and vocabularies
52. Knowledge of ways of changing and disguising the appearance of persons
53. Knowledge of the art of changing the appearance of things, such as making cotton to appear as silk, coarse and common things to appear as fine and good
54. Various ways of gambling
55. Art of obtaining possession of the property of others by means of mantras or incantations
56. Skill in youthful sports
57. Knowledge of the rules of society, and of how to pay respect and compliments to others
58. Knowledge of the art of war, of arms, of armies, etc.
59. Knowledge of gymnastics
60. Art of knowing the character of a man from his features
61. Knowledge of scanning or constructing verses
62. Arithmetical recreations
63. Making artificial flowers
64. Making figures and images in clay
1. Singing
2. Playing on musical instruments
3. Dancing
4. Union of dancing, singing, and playing instrumental music
5. Writing and drawing
6. Tattooing
7. Arraying and adorning an idol with rice and flowers
8. Spreading and arranging beds or couches of flowers, or flowers upon the ground
9. Colouring the teeth, garments, hair, nails and bodies, i.e. staining, dyeing, colouring and painting the same
10. Fixing stained glass into a floor
11. The art of making beds, and spreading out carpets and cushions for reclining
12. Playing on musical glasses filled with water
13. Storing and accumulating water in aqueducts, cisterns and reservoirs
14. Picture making, trimming and decorating
15. Stringing of rosaries, necklaces, garlands and wreaths
16. Binding of turbans and chaplets, and making crests and top-knots of flowers
17. Scenic representations, stage playing
18. Art of making ear ornaments
19. Art of preparing perfumes and odours
20. Proper disposition of jewels and decorations, and adornment in dress
21. Magic or sorcery
22. Quickness of hand or manual skill
23. Culinary art, i.e. cooking and cookery
24. Making lemonades, sherbets, acidulated drinks, and spirituous extracts with proper flavour and colour
25. Tailor’s work and sewing
26. Making parrots, flowers, tufts, tassels, bunches, bosses, knobs, etc., out of yarn or thread 27. Solution of riddles, enigmas, covert speeches, verbal puzzles and enigmatical questions
28. A game, which consisted in repeating verses, and as one person finished, another person had to commence at once, repeating another verse, beginning with the same letter with which the last speaker’s verse ended, whoever failed to repeat was considered to have lost, and to be subject to pay a forfeit or stake of some kind
29. The art of mimicry or imitation
30. Reading, including chanting and intoning
31. Study of sentences difficult to pronounce. It is played as a game chiefly by women, and children and consists of a difficult sentence being given, and when repeated quickly, the words are often transposed or badly pronounced
32. Practice with sword, single stick, quarter staff and bow and arrow
33. Drawing inferences, reasoning or inferring
34. Carpentry, or the work of a carpenter
35. Architecture, or the art of building
36. Knowledge about gold and silver coins, and jewels and gems
37. Chemistry and mineralogy
38. Colouring jewels, gems and beads
39. Knowledge of mines and quarries
40. Gardening; knowledge of treating the diseases of trees and plants, of nourishing them, and determining their ages
41. Art of cock fighting, quail fighting and ram fighting
42. Art of teaching parrots and starlings to speak
43. Art of applying perfumed ointments to the body, and of dressing the hair with unguents and perfumes and braiding it
44. The art of understanding writing in cypher, and the writing of words in a peculiar way
45. The art of speaking by changing the forms of words. It is of various kinds. Some speak by changing the beginning and end of words, others by adding unnecessary letters between every syllable of a word, and so on
46. Knowledge of language and of the vernacular dialects
47. Art of making flower carriages
48. Art of framing mystical diagrams, of addressing spells and charms, and binding armlets
49. Mental exercises, such as completing stanzas or verses on receiving a part of them; or supplying one, two or three lines when the remaining lines are given indiscriminately from different verses, so as to make the whole an entire verse with regard to its meaning; or arranging the words of a verse written irregularly by separating the vowels from the consonants, or leaving them out altogether; or putting into verse or prose sentences represented by signs or symbols. There are many other such exercises.
50. Composing poems
51. Knowledge of dictionaries and vocabularies
52. Knowledge of ways of changing and disguising the appearance of persons
53. Knowledge of the art of changing the appearance of things, such as making cotton to appear as silk, coarse and common things to appear as fine and good
54. Various ways of gambling
55. Art of obtaining possession of the property of others by means of mantras or incantations
56. Skill in youthful sports
57. Knowledge of the rules of society, and of how to pay respect and compliments to others
58. Knowledge of the art of war, of arms, of armies, etc.
59. Knowledge of gymnastics
60. Art of knowing the character of a man from his features
61. Knowledge of scanning or constructing verses
62. Arithmetical recreations
63. Making artificial flowers
64. Making figures and images in clay
make friend these persons to get money
The following kinds of men may be taken up with, simply for the purpose of getting their money:
Men of independent income
Young men Men who are free from any ties
Men who hold places of authority under the king
Men who have secured their means of livelihood without difficulty
Men possessed of unfailing sources of income
Men who consider themselves handsome
Men who are always praising themselves
One who is a eunuch, but wishes to be thought a man
One who hates his equals
One who is naturally liberal
One who has influence with the king or his ministers
One who is always fortunate
One who is proud of his wealth
One who disobeys the orders of his elders
One upon whom the members of his caste keep an eye
An only son whose father is wealthy
An ascetic who is internally troubled with desire
A brave man
A physician of the king
Previous acquaintances
Men of independent income
Young men Men who are free from any ties
Men who hold places of authority under the king
Men who have secured their means of livelihood without difficulty
Men possessed of unfailing sources of income
Men who consider themselves handsome
Men who are always praising themselves
One who is a eunuch, but wishes to be thought a man
One who hates his equals
One who is naturally liberal
One who has influence with the king or his ministers
One who is always fortunate
One who is proud of his wealth
One who disobeys the orders of his elders
One upon whom the members of his caste keep an eye
An only son whose father is wealthy
An ascetic who is internally troubled with desire
A brave man
A physician of the king
Previous acquaintances
GUT
GUT stands for Grand Unified Theory - the theory of everything science wants to discover - and it's gut as in gut instinct, the feelings that lead us on much more than we like to admit.
Written on the body
Written on the body is a secret code only visible in certain lights: the accumulations of a lifetime gather there. In places the palimpsest is so heavily worked that the letters feel like Braille. I like to keep my body rolled up away from prying eyes, never unfold too much, or tell the whole story.
Children
Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
Friday, February 12, 2010
Dan Buettner is the author of "The Blue Zones: Lessons for Living Longer from the People Who've Lived the Longest."
In the same way organisms select for characteristics that favor the survival and well-being of its species over successive generations, so too do cultures. With organisms, we call this process evolution and it represents a sort of accumulated wisdom. There is no word for this process in cultures, but there is one for the result. And that word is tradition.
For that past eight years, my team of scientists and National Geographic researchers have explored five parts of the world -- "Blue Zones" -- where people live measurably longer lives.
Compared to American averages, we found a bronze-age culture in Sardinia's interior that produces about 10 times more male centenarians; a remote peninsula in Costa Rica where 50 year-olds have a three-fold better chance or reaching age 90; a Greek island completely free of Alzheimer's (about 50 percent of Americans over age 90 suffer from dementia); and islands in southern Japan where people suffer one-sixth the rate of heart disease. How do they do it?
The Danish Twin Studies established that only about 20 percent of average lifespan (within certain biological limits) is dictated by genes. Lifestyle explains most of the rest of the longevity formula.
We found that all five Blue Zones possessed the same nine lifestyle characteristics. Among them: a low-meat, plant-based diet (all of them ate a lot of beans) and a ritual of "downshifting" each day. They experience the same stresses we do -- kids, health, finances -- but they managed it through daily prayer, meditation, ancestor veneration or city-wide happy hours (like the Sardinians).
The secret to longevity, as I see it, has less to do with diet, or even exercise, and more to do with the environment in which a person lives: social and physical. What do I mean by this? They live rewardingly inconvenient lives. They walk to the store and to their friends' homes and they live in houses set up with opportunities to move mindlessly. They do their own yard work, hand-knead their own bread dough, and, in the case of Okinawa, get up and down off the floor several dozen times a day.
They live in strong families that keep them motivated to support loved ones. Centenarians are still living near their children and feel loved and the expectation to love. Instead of being mere recipients of care, they are contributors to the lives of their families. They grow gardens to contribute vegetables, they continue to cook and clean. This has a powerful two-fold effect: Children and grandchildren in these families benefit from their grandparents' wisdom and care while the centenarians feel the motivation to stay active, to get out of bed in the morning, and live for a purpose.
They live in cities where it is easy to walk to their friends' houses, to the store or to church. So, we figured they get about 105 minutes of physical activity everyday -- and no health club membership!
We know from the Framingham studies that happiness, smoking and obesity are all "contagious." If your three best friends are obese, there's a 70 percent better chance that you'll be overweight. People in the Blue Zones either proactively surround themselves with people who practice the right behaviors or are born into communities of people who do -- or people whose idea of fun is gardening, or bocce ball or swimming; people who eat meat sparingly, who have faith, who are trusting and trust-worthy. Why is this so important?
No supplement, hormone, antioxidant or pill of any sort has been shown to reverse, stop or even slow aging. The problem is two-fold: to do the study properly, you'd need to follow two groups of people for life: one who takes the pill, the other that doesn't. Then you'd have to control for all other factors and compare the average age of death for each group. No such study has ever been done on a "longevity" supplement.
The second problem is adherence. People in general just don't stick to doing anything for very long. Are you taking supplements? How long have you been taking them? I'll bet not more than a few years.
Science (and hucksters) have offered us countless diets but research done by the University of Minnesota's Dr. Robert W. Jeffrey has shown that fewer than 2 percent of people adhere to diets for more than two years. For anything to really impact your life expectancy positively, you need to do it for most of your life. Friends, unlike pills or diets, are much more likely to be much longer-term undertakings.
The secret to solving much of America's health care crisis and battle with chronic diseases lies in emulating the environment in Blue Zones. Is it possible?
Last year, my partners and I made Blue Zones-inspired changes to the environment of an entire American town -- Albert Lea, Minnesota, (see AARP Magazine article). We made the town more walkable and bikeable, dug public gardens, made it easier for kids to walk to school and people to expand their face-to-face social networks to include more people motivated to change their health habits. The results were astounding.
If the trends continue, life expectancy for the average participant would rise about three years and health care costs for city workers would decrease by 48 percent.
The wisdom of the world's Blue Zones represents centuries or even millennia of observed human experience. As Democrats and Republicans argue over how to solve the health care crisis, perhaps they should take a moment to consider the wisdom of their grandmothers
For that past eight years, my team of scientists and National Geographic researchers have explored five parts of the world -- "Blue Zones" -- where people live measurably longer lives.
Compared to American averages, we found a bronze-age culture in Sardinia's interior that produces about 10 times more male centenarians; a remote peninsula in Costa Rica where 50 year-olds have a three-fold better chance or reaching age 90; a Greek island completely free of Alzheimer's (about 50 percent of Americans over age 90 suffer from dementia); and islands in southern Japan where people suffer one-sixth the rate of heart disease. How do they do it?
The Danish Twin Studies established that only about 20 percent of average lifespan (within certain biological limits) is dictated by genes. Lifestyle explains most of the rest of the longevity formula.
We found that all five Blue Zones possessed the same nine lifestyle characteristics. Among them: a low-meat, plant-based diet (all of them ate a lot of beans) and a ritual of "downshifting" each day. They experience the same stresses we do -- kids, health, finances -- but they managed it through daily prayer, meditation, ancestor veneration or city-wide happy hours (like the Sardinians).
The secret to longevity, as I see it, has less to do with diet, or even exercise, and more to do with the environment in which a person lives: social and physical. What do I mean by this? They live rewardingly inconvenient lives. They walk to the store and to their friends' homes and they live in houses set up with opportunities to move mindlessly. They do their own yard work, hand-knead their own bread dough, and, in the case of Okinawa, get up and down off the floor several dozen times a day.
They live in strong families that keep them motivated to support loved ones. Centenarians are still living near their children and feel loved and the expectation to love. Instead of being mere recipients of care, they are contributors to the lives of their families. They grow gardens to contribute vegetables, they continue to cook and clean. This has a powerful two-fold effect: Children and grandchildren in these families benefit from their grandparents' wisdom and care while the centenarians feel the motivation to stay active, to get out of bed in the morning, and live for a purpose.
They live in cities where it is easy to walk to their friends' houses, to the store or to church. So, we figured they get about 105 minutes of physical activity everyday -- and no health club membership!
We know from the Framingham studies that happiness, smoking and obesity are all "contagious." If your three best friends are obese, there's a 70 percent better chance that you'll be overweight. People in the Blue Zones either proactively surround themselves with people who practice the right behaviors or are born into communities of people who do -- or people whose idea of fun is gardening, or bocce ball or swimming; people who eat meat sparingly, who have faith, who are trusting and trust-worthy. Why is this so important?
No supplement, hormone, antioxidant or pill of any sort has been shown to reverse, stop or even slow aging. The problem is two-fold: to do the study properly, you'd need to follow two groups of people for life: one who takes the pill, the other that doesn't. Then you'd have to control for all other factors and compare the average age of death for each group. No such study has ever been done on a "longevity" supplement.
The second problem is adherence. People in general just don't stick to doing anything for very long. Are you taking supplements? How long have you been taking them? I'll bet not more than a few years.
Science (and hucksters) have offered us countless diets but research done by the University of Minnesota's Dr. Robert W. Jeffrey has shown that fewer than 2 percent of people adhere to diets for more than two years. For anything to really impact your life expectancy positively, you need to do it for most of your life. Friends, unlike pills or diets, are much more likely to be much longer-term undertakings.
The secret to solving much of America's health care crisis and battle with chronic diseases lies in emulating the environment in Blue Zones. Is it possible?
Last year, my partners and I made Blue Zones-inspired changes to the environment of an entire American town -- Albert Lea, Minnesota, (see AARP Magazine article). We made the town more walkable and bikeable, dug public gardens, made it easier for kids to walk to school and people to expand their face-to-face social networks to include more people motivated to change their health habits. The results were astounding.
If the trends continue, life expectancy for the average participant would rise about three years and health care costs for city workers would decrease by 48 percent.
The wisdom of the world's Blue Zones represents centuries or even millennia of observed human experience. As Democrats and Republicans argue over how to solve the health care crisis, perhaps they should take a moment to consider the wisdom of their grandmothers
Importance of NO
“Hitler may have lost the war on the battlefield, but he ended up winning something,” says M. Halter. “Because in the 20th century, men created the concentration camp, resuscitated torture, and taught their fellow men that it is possible to close one’s eyes to the misfortunes of others.”
The most important words in any language are small words. “Yes,” for example. Love. God. These are words that are easy to utter, and they fill in empty spaces in our world.
However, there is one word – also a small one – that we find difficult to say:
“No”.
And we see ourselves as generous, understanding, and polite. Because “no” is considered to be cursed, egoistic, not at all spiritual.
We have to be careful here. There are moments when we say “yes” to others and in fact are saying “no” to ourselves.
All the great men and women in the world have been people who, rather than say “yes”, said a very big NO to everything that did not fit their ideal of solidarity and growth.
The most important words in any language are small words. “Yes,” for example. Love. God. These are words that are easy to utter, and they fill in empty spaces in our world.
However, there is one word – also a small one – that we find difficult to say:
“No”.
And we see ourselves as generous, understanding, and polite. Because “no” is considered to be cursed, egoistic, not at all spiritual.
We have to be careful here. There are moments when we say “yes” to others and in fact are saying “no” to ourselves.
All the great men and women in the world have been people who, rather than say “yes”, said a very big NO to everything that did not fit their ideal of solidarity and growth.
Retain women for higher profitability (Keeping valuable female employees from leaving)
A new study shows how financially valuable women are to the workplace. So, how can employers keep them from leaving the company?
Most experts say the biggest thing for women is flexibility at work.
"They value workplace flexibility more than anything because they often do two jobs: one at the workplace and the other at home," says Lavanya Mahate with the Salt Lake Chamber's Women's Business Center.
"It's a fairly new trend, but we need to see more and more employers and companies offer this and more communication," she says.
Mahate says women also need to feel valued and challenged at work, and feel like their needs are met.
The Harvard Business Review found that companies with higher numbers of female mangers in particular have higher returns on investments and are coming through the financial crisis much better than others.
Most experts say the biggest thing for women is flexibility at work.
"They value workplace flexibility more than anything because they often do two jobs: one at the workplace and the other at home," says Lavanya Mahate with the Salt Lake Chamber's Women's Business Center.
"It's a fairly new trend, but we need to see more and more employers and companies offer this and more communication," she says.
Mahate says women also need to feel valued and challenged at work, and feel like their needs are met.
The Harvard Business Review found that companies with higher numbers of female mangers in particular have higher returns on investments and are coming through the financial crisis much better than others.
essence of the stock market
"There is nothing new in Wall Street. There can't be because speculation is as old as the hills. Whatever happens in the stock market today has happened before and will happen again."
Thus one will find that one has to just conquer oneself and one will be on the way of becoming a multi millionaire as market is same every day but it is the own emotions which one has to fight to make money from the market.
Thus one will find that one has to just conquer oneself and one will be on the way of becoming a multi millionaire as market is same every day but it is the own emotions which one has to fight to make money from the market.
The accommodating point
According to the magical practices of the witchdoctors in the North of Mexico, there is always an event in our lives that is responsible for our having stopped making progress. A trauma, a particularly bitter defeat, disappointment in love, even a victory that we fail to quite understand, ends up making us act cowardly and incapable of moving ahead. The witchdoctor finds and gets rid of this “accommodating point”. To do so, he has to review our life and discover where this point lies.
Why?
Because, according to the story that we were told, at a certain moment in our lives “we reach our limit”. There are no more changes to be made. We won’t grow any more. Both professionally and in love, we have reached the ideal point, and it’s best to leave things as they are. But the truth is that we can always go further. Love more, live more, risk more.
Why?
Because, according to the story that we were told, at a certain moment in our lives “we reach our limit”. There are no more changes to be made. We won’t grow any more. Both professionally and in love, we have reached the ideal point, and it’s best to leave things as they are. But the truth is that we can always go further. Love more, live more, risk more.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
US Government Will Go Bankrupt But Before That We Will Have High Inflation
“Maximum within 10 years time more than 35% of tax revenues will have to be used to pay the interest on the government debt and then you are in trouble – because then there will be not enough money out of the budget to pay for other stuff. I’m convinced the US government will go bankrupt, but not tomorrow. And before they go bankrupt, they’ll print money, and then you get high inflation rates, you have a depression and eventually they’ll go to war.”
Commodity Prices Are Going To Shoot Up
“Commodity prices are going to shoot up. The challenge is that people are eating more foods these days. But the supply of food products is coming down. Food supply is going to remain down since we have serious production problems. At the same time people are eating more and we are burning some of our foods as fuels."
President Obama And The Risks To The US Economy
“President Obama again demonstrated his poor understanding of the fundamental problems that confront our nation. By following the advice of the same people who helped guide our economy to the precipice of total collapse, Obama now threatens to push it over the edge.”
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