Man Vs Horse

Today I found a very interesting article on BBC about the race between human and horse.We have always heard of human competing against each other to prove their endurance and sprinting capabilities. But till now I have never heard of a race between human and an animal and we 'homo sapiens' trying and actually beating a beast like horse.
Man vs Horse marathon is in its 30th year where around 50 horses with their riders run besides hundered of runners.Horses are always better at running sprints but running a marathon is not only challenging for humans but for horse too.
It was only 2 times that humans have won over horse. It doesn't mean that we are faster than horse but rather there are couple of factors which can lead to human victory over the horse.

1. Humans beat horses on hilly or rough ground.
2. Horses overheat more easily , so a human is more likely to win on a hot day.
3. We suit distance running, while horse excel at sprint.

So before you plan to prove your running skills over a horse, challenge it for a marathon on a rough course rather than a sprint on a flat course.
Happy running... !

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The day u'll overcome fear of falling is the day, u'll learn to fly

"The day you will overcome the fear of falling is the day when you will learn to fly". I suppose similar words hen-eagle would tell her fledgling when she asks them to try flying. She knows that when they will jump out of their nest, after short free fall they will open up their wings and start flying.
But that's the case with birds because they have wings ... If we human being will ever be motivated to jump like that from a high rise building and try to fly (ofcourse without parachute), we would most certainly land up in a hospital bed or fly too high that we would never return from our flight ..!
We have heard similar statements numerous from great leaders, elders and may have read it somewhere. These sounds too inspirational but we usually don't understand their true nature until we experience it by ourselves.

My Experience of Falling and falling too hard.
Recently I experienced the full nature of this statement , when I came to know that how painful and embarrassing a fall can be at times. It was in Jan 2011 when i joined ice skating lessons in my town. I always have an urge to learn and do different things. I feel the more i experience different things more I will learn about myself and the life too. Few weeks ago when I did skiing for the first time , I was pretty happy with my performance as I completed 40 rounds on the beginner hill with 2-3 falls. Having enjoyed my time on the snow doing skiing, I was expecting the similar fun and easiness in learning ice skating.
Even before I walked few steps on ice , 1st thing that was taught to me was "how to fall". At that very moment I understood that learning ice skating is going to be a very painful . I just wished that I shouldn't fall and get hurt in my training program. But it doesn't happen the way you want it to happen. Even walking on ice was real tough challenge for me with fear of falling in my head everytime. My Coach Jenny taught me some exercises and asked me to practice those. I fell many times during my first class and among the whole class I was the only student who was falling now and then. Everytime I fall, my classmates used to come to me ask if I am ok and didn't get hurt myself. In their mind , they might be thinking that this poor fellow is not even able to balance his body weight on skating shoes. The fact is that I really wasn't. It was only because of my fear of falling that I used to bend forward to avoid falling backwards and vice versa. Bending didn't worked me because when upper body bent , my legs went in opposite direction resulting in a fall.
During my sessions, one time I was so afraid of falling that I thought of quitting the skating course. Somehow, I overcame that fear and managed to attend my classes.
I practiced walking, doing skating exercises including a little bit of gliding. Although my falling rate reduced from multiple falls in a class to 1 time every session, but I was still afraid of falling.
My training course was about to get finished and I was not able to skate on ice. Then I thought that there won't be any use if after attending a full beginner training course , I am unable to skate. I thought that I will try harder and prepared my mind to be ready to fall. I focused practicing which I improvised with Jenny's perfect guidance and help. I remember once I learnt the correct technique of gliding and overcame the fear of falling, I skated like never before. I was also able to do speed skating very confidently.
On that day, I learnt one more lesson from life via ice skating....!

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Brahma - The Creator of Universe

As per Hindu Vedas, Brahma is considered to be the creator of our universe.
Saptarishi - 7 great sages who helped brahma to create the universe. They are also called manas putra or mind sons or spirits as all these sons were born out of Brahma's mind rather than body. Brahma created 11 prajapatis who are considered to be the father of human race.

Creation of Brahma and Universe(Brahm- anda)

One Theory
As per Puranas, Brahma is self born in the lotus that grew from vishnu's navel at the beginning of the universe. For this reason , Brahma is also know as nabhija.

Another Theory
Brahma was born in water. In this he deposited a seed that later became the golden egg. From this golden egg, Brahma the creator was born hiranyagarbha. The remaining materials of the golden egg expanded into the Brahm -anda or Universe.

Brahma is also considered to be the son of Brahman and the female energy known as Prakrti or Maya.

In Brahma Purana, Brahma is regarded as a creator and not necessarily as God. Rather, he is regarded as a creation of god. Life span of Brahma is 100 Brahma Years and after a gap of 100 Brahma years, another Brahma or creator will begin the process of creation. This cycle is thought to repeat without end.

Brahma is not much worshiped by Hindus and there are only few temples dedicated to him.
Stories related to less worshiping of Brahma:
When Vishnu and Brahma decided to find the end and beginning of a huge shiva linga , vishnu(in form of boar) who started digging the earth gave up and bowed to shiva but brahma(in form of swan) asked ketaki flower to bear false witness about brahma's discovery of Shiva's beginning. Shiva all knowing was angered by brahma's ego. As per shiva purana, shiva cursed him that no being in three worlds will worship him.

It is also considered that a great sage Brahmarishi Bhrigu went to invite Brahma for a great fire sacrifice i.e yajna. Brahma was so immersed in music played by Saraswati that he could hardly hear Bhrigu's call. Bhrigu then cursed Brahma that no person on Earth would ever worship him.

Brahma's powers
Brahma is also considered to possess the knowledge of all four vedas and each head represents a veda.
Brahma's swan is considered to have a virtue called Neera Ksheera Viveka or ability to separate milk and water from a mixture of two.

Satyalok is considered to be home of brahma and vishnulok is above it.

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We are both spectators and actors in the great drama of existence..!!

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I'm the master of my fate, I'm the captain of my soul..

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Dead Sea: How can a sea be dead.. !!!!

Dead Sea

Shore of dead sea is the lowest dry point on earth(1300 ft below sea level). Dead sea is called so because of high salt content in its water due to which no organism other than microbes can survive in it.
Salt content : 28 to 35 percent i.e 4-5 times as compared to other oceans which have 3 to 6 % salt.

Reason for high Salt content: Dead lies in a valley surrounded by West Bank , Jordan and Israel and water coming from Jordon river is trapped in this valley. Water evaporates and leaves behind salt in the water.

Dying Dead Sea: Due to increase in salt content and evaporation of water, it is expected that by 2050 dead sea will be really dead i.e no water content would be present and will be left only with hard salt formations.

Saving Dead Sea: Two seas canal (180km) is a part of plan to channel some water from Red sea to Dead Sea.
Dead Seas highly saline water has the capability to cure some diseases like asthama and other skin problems.


Due to high density of dead sea water, people are able to float without any effort and can even read books. Tweet

Yuga

As per Hindu Mythology, Vedas tell that there are 4 yugas i.e Satya Yuga, Treta Yuga, dwapar yuga and kali yuga. Total of these yugas is 4.32 million years with kaliyuga (4,32,000 years), dwapar yuga ( 8,64,000 years), treta yugas (1,296,000 years) and satya yuga (1,728, 000 years). One cycle of these 4 yugas is called as maha yuga or divya yuga.

Satya Yuga + Treta Yuga + Dwapar Yuga + kaliyuga = 1 Maha Yuga or Divya Yuga

1000 MahaYuga = 1 day of Brahma or 4.32 billion earth years = 1 night of Brahma

1 day and night of Brahma = 2000 Maha yuga or 8.64 Billion Years

It is said that after a day cycle of brahma, life is destroyed in universe and new life is formed.

Life of Brahma = 36000 Brahma Years

(Click on Image on enlarge)

Brahma lives for 36000 Brahma days which equals to 40 billion Earth years. After the death of brahma, universe is again created for next 40 billion years. Then a new Brahma is born and the cycle starts itself again. Each yuga involves the changes that happens on the earth and on the mankind.

Explanation of time of Yugas

In the explanations of the measurements of time found therein, one cycle of the four yugas together is 12,000 years of the demigods, called divine years. Each of these years is composed of 360 days, and each of their days is equal to one human year. So Krita-yuga is 4000 divine years in length, Treta-yuga is 3000 divine years in length, Dvapara-yuga is 2000 divine years in length, and Kali-yuga is 1000 divine years long, with the addition of the conjoining portions of the Sandhya and Sandhyansa.

In this way, each yuga is preceded by a period called a Sandhya, which is as many hundred years in length as there are thousands of years in that particular yuga. Each yuga is also followed by a period of time known as a Sandhyansa, which is also as many hundreds of years in length as there are thousands of years in the yuga. In between these periods of time is the actual yuga. Therefore, we have:
Krita-yuga = 4000 divine years, Sandhya = 400 divine years, Sandhyansa = 400 divine years. Total = 4800 divine years x 360 days = 1,728,000 human years.

Treta-yuga = 3000 divine years, Sandhya = 300 divine years, Sandhyansa = 300 divine years. Total = 3600 divine years x 360 days = 1,296,000 human years.


Dvapara-yuga = 2000 divine years, Sandhya = 200 divine years, Sandhyansa = 200 divine years. Total = 2400 divine years x 360 days = 864,000 human years.


Kali-yuga = 1000 divine years, Sandhya = 100 divine years, Sandhyansa = 100 divine years. Total = 1200 divine years x 360 days = 432,000 human years.




Within these immense periods of time the human life span decreases from 100,000 years in the Satya-yuga (the Golden Age), to 10,000 years in the Treta-yuga (the Silver Age), 1,000 years in the Dwapura-yuga (the Bronze Age), and finally 100 years in the Kali-yuga (the Iron Age). All these numbers are multiples of 108, the number of beads in Eastern prayer necklaces. Rama lived in the Treta Yuga.


Satya Yuga is the " Yuga of Truth" when mankind is governed by gods.The average life expectancy of human being in this era is 100,000 years. Dharma Bull which symbolises morality, stood on all four legs during this period. Later in Treta yuga it would become three and two in the later dvapara yuga and in kaliyuga it stands on one leg.

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Trip to Chicago

Few days back I visited one of my friend in Chicago and got a chance to enjoy the architectural city Chicago. From Ohaire Airport I took a Metro heading towards downtown which was our destination. To get on to the train, one can get CTA ( Chicago Transit Authority) Cards which are easily available at vending machines at most of the transit centre. CTA Card can be recharged for different amounts upto 20$ which can be used over a period of time. This CTA Card can be used in the CTA Trains as well as buses and the fare for reach ride is 2.25$ which is independent of source and target destination. Good for those who want to enjoy a long ride but for those looking for a short ride it might be a bit costly.
Chicago Down Town is really a marvel in architecture field and that is realised by looking at its high rise and differently shaped buildings. No tower is identical in shape to other tower in downtown where it looks like that there is a fight going on between these towers to look taller than each other.

Chicago river flows through the middle of area dividing down town work area than the residential buildings. Boats and steamers filled with tourists for architectural tours can be seen floating in the river alongwith few people doing kayaking. People can also enjoy a walk along side the river watching the beautiful high rise buildings around.
Michigan street is very popular for the shopping freaks who can shop here till late night.

Lake Michigan , one of the largest fresh water lakes is a major tourist attraction in Chicago.

Going to chicago and missing a visit to Willis Tower would be a life time mistake. So how could I do that .! Among all the sky scrappers in Chicago down town there is a tower that goes even taller in the sky and make every other tower in the town to feel dwarf. Willis Tower , formerly known as Sears Tower is the tallest man made structure in america and 5th tallest building in the world. This building has 103 floors and has major corporate head offices besides restaurants, gyms and other recreational clubs. Tourists visits to 103rd floor of Willis tower is managed by Skydeck which operates lifts that directly take you to 103rd floor in flat 60 seconds. It is one of the fastest escalator in world.

Panormic view from the top floor is superb. One can have a look over the Chicago and can see adjoining places of Indiana and Wisconsin. Down town buildings looks like small chips kept standing on the ground and fun increases when one get to see helicopters flying at the same height or sometimes below the level you are standing.


Thrill to this fun is added by the glass boxes that are hanging outside the building. One can go in these boxes and look down to find the ground 103rd floors below. This is one of the breathtaking moment and is really enjoying too.
If you think you are having a real adventure then let me tell you that there was a french guy who climbed this building till top floor from outside bare handed. Yes you read it right.! My advice to you all is do not even think of trying this.

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Sun Dog

A sun dog or sundog (scientific name parhelion, plural parhelia, "beside the sun"; also called a mock sun) is an atmospheric phenomenon that creates bright spots of light in the sky, often on a luminous ring or halo on either side of the sun.




Sundogs may appear as a colored patch of light to the left or right of the sun, 22° distant and at the same distance above the horizon as the sun, and in ice halos. They can be seen anywhere in the world during any season, but they are not always obvious or bright. Sundogs are best seen and are most conspicuous when the sun is low.

Read more at : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_dog
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InformIT: Creating an SSL Keystore Using the Java Keytool Chaining and Establishing Identities

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Invictus movie

Recently I watched "Invictus", movie based on South African President Nelson Mandela's effort to unite South Africa after its control came in his hands. This story shows how president has effectively used the Rugby as a medium to decrease the divide between the African people. South Africa was facing a Black White divide for a very long time and black were deprived of many basic fundamental rights like voting,etc. It was the effort of leaders like Mandela and others which led to the overthrow of the then government and Mandela taking the charge of the country in his hands. Mandela himself spend 27 years in jail fighting for this cause.
Invictus shows that Mandela after getting the power could have made life very difficult for the whites but instead he forgave all those people who were responsible for his jail. Majority of Black community after gaining the political power wanted to change most of the organizational structures and other things which were either established by the Whites or followed by the whites. One of such things was a "Rugby" game. White South Africans like this game very much and Springbooks was the favorite team but the team was not performing well from a very long time. Blacks are ready to support any other team but Springbooks. Black community also decided to change the logo, anthem of the Springbooks team. It is then when President Mandela used his leadership skills to unite the country by forcing the black community to stop changing the logo and other things which were like by White Africans.
Mandela wanted African team to win Rugby world cup and to show world the unity of S.Africans over this game. He motivated and guided the Rugby team to perform well and outshining other good teams in world cup. His efforts resulted in SA winning Rugby World Cup in the end.

This movie is very inspirational and most of the dialogues and instances presented by Mandela are very motivational. Matt Damon has also played a very good role of Rugby Team Captain. Tweet

India Canada Civil Nuclear Deal

Today 28th June 2010, India has signed a civil nuclear deal with Canada. While signing this deal Canadian PM Stephen Harper said that we have to forget the past and can't live in the past of 1970s. During 1970s , India successfully did its first nuclear testing by using the Circus Nuclear Reactor that was provided to India by Canada. After that test, many bans were imposed on India by the international community. Since that ban has been lifted in 2008, many countries have joined hands with India for Civil Nuclear Deals. Recognizing India as a good future growth market developed countries like US, France and Russia were the first ones to sign nuclear pact with India.

This nuclear pact with Canada has again confirmed the firm position that India is marking in International community. Both the countries have to gain a lot from this pact. India will benefit from the uranium that is required for nuclear reactor and in the turn Canada will have a large nuclear market to invest. India's civil nuclear reactors will use the uranium fuels to meet the increasing demands of India Energy sector. These reactors will also be used by Research Organization like DRDO , BARC to develop latest technologies that were not possible till now without the avalability of fuels like uranium. Nuclear submarines, high speed supercomputers , lasers and many other similar advancements in field of science are now possible with India's accessibility to uranium.
Energy generated by these nuclear reactors will be able to meet the electricity demands of country. This would also lead to good industrial growth and in turn good civil life for the citizens.
These developments will push the development of India and will help it achieve a deciding role in the Global community. Tweet

Good Site for finding slide shows

www. slideshare.net Tweet

Music Composer of Jana Gana Mana

Author of Indian National Anthem - RabrindraNath Tagore
Music Composer - Ram Singh Thakur
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Useful links

Brain Games

http://www.proprofs.com/games/c/brain-training/

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Link for creating surverys

http://www.surveymonkey.com/ Tweet

Download NCERT books

http://ncertbooks.prashanthellina.com/10_SocialScience.html

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Fw: 2 states by Chetan Bhagat

We have grown up watching so many love stories in movies in which a Boy sees a girl and like her. He falls in love with her , proposes her. Girls accepts the proposal and then with a few romantic dates both of them get happily married..
But dear friends, Life is not a cakewalk especially when ur life is a complicated love story like our very own "Chetan Bhagat". In his lates novel, "2 state" writer has shared with us all the difficulties that he has faced and overcomed to get his love. It is a tale of a NorthIndian boy "Krish" and South Indian Girl "Ananya". Their friendship at IIMA turned into love but the family of both didn't like neither the couple nor their respective families.
Author is screwed up under the constant pressure from his mother to marry a rich punjabi girl and refusal from Ananya's family to accept him. Chetan Bhagat has drafted the story in a very simple and much easier way which seemed as if one is watching a Bollywood Flick.
Krish explained his struggle how he managed to win the heart of Ananya's south indian family by helping her dad in making presentations, tutoring her brother for IIT and making Ananya's mother to perform on stage with SP Balasubramaniam and Hariharan.
Families agreed to accept the boy and girl but they were not ready to accept each other's family. Here the writer has shown what prevails in current Indian Society where boy's side considers itself to be the most important and wants girl's family to take extra care of them.
Finally krish's father changed the story and made both the families to agree on the marriage. Krish got married in a south indian style and later had twins.
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Virus Attack

Last 2 days I have spent cleaning my desktop of viruses. It all started few months back, when my broadband stopped working out of a sudden. I reported the problem with my Service provider whose technical engineer told me that my modem is not working fine. So I had to get a new one.
But getting a new modem was accompanied by many other issues, I was not able to install the modem and had to call technician again. Later I found that the minimum RAM required is more than that available. Got a new RAM. After upgrading the RAM system did not boot up. Installed windows many times with different windows cd's but no success. Finally while installing one time I got an error "setupdd.sys can't be loaded".
Google Devta(God) helped me found out that RAM is not compatible with my PC Configuration. Again Ran to market to get the RAM replaced following which I installed the windows. Thinking that all my problems are resolved, I was happy. But something worse was waiting for me. After connecting to Internet my broadband got disconnected and did not connect until I restart the system. I was fed up with all these daily problems so decided to google out all the issues. In the backdrop of my mind I was thinking it to be a virus attack. Google proved me right.
Then the search for the virus and the prevention started. I used netstat and tasklist commands to check the status of my network and processes involved. To my surprise I found that virus was quite intelligent and had impacted my system badly.
1. As soon as I connect to Internet , virus opens simultaneous connections that lead to choking of my TCP / IP socket limits.
2. Using netstat and Tasklist I found the virus name as "unwise_.exe"
3. If I tried to go to any antivirus page, it stopped me from doing that and allowed to surf internet for other sites.
4. After sometime it stops my firewall and start accessing internet with many connection. It also add exception in my firewall setting even if I enable firewall again.
5. Sometimes, even if I try to start the Firewall I get "Access Denied" error.
Finally I googled about this virus and tried different soultions from editing the registry setting to updating group policies using gpedit.msc.

The only solution was to use an antivirus that can successfully remove this virus. I finally installed 2 antivirus solutions and scanned my system many times. Every time I got new location of the virus. Although I was able to delete most of the infected files but when it came to files in Windows directory I had to be a little cautious. I made a mistake and made few changes in registry that I shouldn't have. Now I was unable to access any of my drives by double clicking them. As I didn't took backup of registry setting so I can't even revert those changes. I decided to move forward and try to find solution for this. On rebooting the system I was shocked to see error message stating "boot.ini missing". I know that this is one of the most important file that is used at the tme of Windows booting. Soon my mind struck and I found that that file was quarantined by Antivirus. Finally I took the risk of un quarantining that file and later everything seemed to work fine. Now I am able to access my system as well as Internet easily.
Today I am quite happy as after so many months finally all the problem were resolved.. ! But I learnt so many things during this whole duration and troubleshooting. Tweet

Installing IIS and Configuring FTP Service on Windows

Installing Internet Information Services

Because FTP depends on Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS), you must first make sure that IIS is installed. To install IIS and the FTP service, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel.
2. In Control Panel, double-click Add/Remove Programs.
3. Select Add/Remove Windows Components.
4. In the Windows Components Wizard, select Internet Information Services (IIS), then click Details.
5. Select Common Files, Documentation, File Transfer Protocol (FTP) Server, and Internet Information Services Snap-In, and then click OK.
6. Click Next.
7. If you are prompted to configure Terminal Services, click Next.
8. If you are prompted for a path for a FTP root folder, type a suitable folder path. The default is C:\Inetpub\Ftproot. For additional security, an NTFS drive is preferred. Click OK to continue.
9. When you are prompted, insert the Windows 2000 CD or provide a path to the location of the files, and then click OK.
10. Click Finish.

IIS and the FTP service are now installed, but you must configure the FTP service before you can use it.

Configuring the FTP service

To configure the FTP service, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, click Programs, click Administrative Tools, and then click Internet Services Manager. (In Windows 2000 Professional, you can access Administrative Tools from Control Panel.)
2. Click the plus sign (+) next to the server name.
3. Right-click Default FTP Site, and then click Properties.
4. Click the Security Accounts tab.
5. Select Allow Anonymous Connections, and then select Allow Only Anonymous Connections.
   
   Note Set appropriate NTFS permissions for the Internet Guest Account. To reduce security issues, consider using Basic Authentication on the FTP site. To do this, clear the Allow Anonymous Connections check box. When you do this, users must log on by using a user name and password that correspond to a valid Windows user account.
6. Click the Home Directory tab.
7. Select Read and Log Visits, and clear Write.
8. Click OK to save these settings.

The server is now configured to accept incoming FTP requests. The files that you want to make available should now be copied into the folder for access. Tweet