Friday, April 30, 2010



NARA'S NOTEPAD


VOLUME 6


MAY 2010


NUMBER 5


SUPPORTED BY

READERS

LIKE YOU


BE A LIFE LONG


LEARNER

MEMO FROM NARA...


“When you have money to buy a bicycle, you walk; when you have money to buy a scooter, you buy a bicycle; when you have money to buy a car, you buy a scooter” were the golden words of one of my Professors Dr. Kanakaraj David who taught me Entomology (Study of Insects) when I was a graduate student fifty years ago. I still remember those golden words which are stored in my brain. I repeatedly told this valuable advice to many of my students, friends and family members. Some of them really appreciated and some others were not heedful. However, I used to think over Dr. David’s suggestion many times. I found it more practical and more useful suggestion for everyone’s life. The moral of the statement is, simple and economic life can make one happy. In today’s world, no one wants to wait and get things, because loans are easily available to all. Thus there is plenty of money for buying a car straight away without using the legs to walk and riding a bicycle. Probably, Dr. David’s suggestion may not suit the present day set up of life. As you know that the advice is 50-year-old.

I know fully well that the loan business is an invention of the capitalists who are hungry for huge money. If we think of the interest we pay for the loans we take from nationalized or private banks, we really lose lot of money slowly and steadily. The loss of money on interest satisfies our greed to posses a car at once. The culture of walking and bicycling has disappeared from the minds of many middle-class and lower middle-class people. In fact, walking and bicycling are the best exercises to keep our body healthy. In addition, they are the cheapest exercises help to save the energy – petrol, electricity etc. Moreover, saving money for more urgent and needy things in life is a good habit. Because of saving we do not incline to buy unwanted things and accumulate as junks in our house. We all know how many such things are stored in every house without using them for decades or even for many decades. No one buys these junks paying the price we paid for them. Hence we give them for charity to get some mental peace. All those hard earned money is wasted? Is it really wasted? Or used for instant living?

JUST TO LAUGH...


Charles was getting annoyed and shouted to his wife," Hurry up or we'll be late."
"Oh, be quiet," replied his wife. "Haven't I been telling you for the last hour that I'll be ready in a minute?"

At an auction in Manchester a wealthy American announced that he had lost his wallet containing £10,000 and would give a reward of £100 to the person who found it. From the back of the hall a Scottish voice shouted, "I'll give £150!"

Two Americans are talking. One asks: "What's the difference between capitalism and communism?"
"That's easy" says the other one. "In capitalism man exploits man! In communism it is the other way around!"

What is the longest word in the English language?
"Smiles". Because there is a mile between its first and last letters!

IMPROVE YOUR BRAIN...


1. Convince yourself that you do have a good memory that will improve. Too many people get stuck here and convince themselves that their memory is bad, that they are just not good with names, that numbers just slip out of their minds for some reason. Erase those thoughts and vow to improve your memory. Commit yourself to the task and bask in your achievements — it's hard to keep motivated if you beat yourself down every time you make a little bit of progress.

2. Keep your brain active. The brain is not a muscle, but regularly “exercising” the brain actually does keep it growing and spurs the development of new nerve connections that can help improve memory. By developing new mental skills—especially complex ones such as learning a new language or learning to play a new musical instrument—and challenging your brain with puzzles and games you can keep your brain active and improve its physiological functioning.

3. Exercise daily. Regular aerobic exercise improves circulation and efficiency throughout the body, including in the brain, and can help ward off the memory loss that comes with aging. Exercise also makes you more alert and relaxed, and can thereby improve your memory uptake, allowing you to take better mental “pictures”

4. Reduce stress. Chronic stress, although it does not physically damage the brain, can make remembering much more difficult. Even temporary stresses can make it more difficult to effectively focus on concepts and observe things. Try to relax, regularly practice yoga or other stretching exercises, and see a doctor if you have severe chronic stress. -Pankaj Sharma

STUPID QUESTIONS...


You know that indestructible black box that is used on airplanes? Why don/t they make the whole plane out of that stuff?

If flying is so safe, why do they call the airport the terminal?

Why are they called apartments when they are all stuck together?

Why is ‘abbreviated’ such a long word?

PESSIMISM


Optimists are cheerful, accept challenges, believe that they can win and inspire others to succeed against all odds. However pessimism is not as bad as it is usually perceived. But at times, they over estimate their abilities and overlook / underestimate potential obstacles, and end with major failures. Realists on the other hand, take a more pragmatic approach. They focus on both positive and negative aspects. They pay reasonable attention to potential obstacles and rely on strengths to overcome them. Pessimists are closer to realists. They focus primarily on the negative possibilities and short falls. Their tendency to think this way, take their attention to those areas where their counterparts cannot reach. For example, a realist can anticipate problems that are logical or based on past experience. But a pessimist can take cues from various factors and relate them to the situation to conclude how they can affect it. However, to reach the right conclusion he should have good experience and knowledge. Though perceived as annoying, the value pessimists add to their team’s efforts is indispensable, especially if it is dealing with disaster control, risk assessment and the like.

CHALLENGES FOR 21st CENTURY...


1. Make solar energy economical.
2. Provide energy from fusion.
3. Develop carbon sequestration methods.
4. Manage nitrogen cycle.
5. Provide access to clean water.
6. Restore and improve urban infrastructure.
7. Advance healthcare informatics.
8. Engineer better medicines.
9. Reverse – engineer the brain.
10. Prevent nuclear terror.
11. Secure cyberspace.
12. Enhance vital reality.
13. Advance personalized learning.
14. Engineer the tools of scientific discovery.

Basically, there are four grand challenges: (i) of energy, environment, global warming, sustainability; (ii) improve medicine and healthcare delivery; (iii) reduce vulnerability to human and natural threats; (iv) expand and enhance human capability and joy. Meeting these challenges requires vision, science, imagination, boldness, priorities, policy, markets and perseverance.

· Where there is light, there is also darkness.
· Everybody’s life is a reality show.
· Everyone is a controversial person.
· Being fit translates to being slim, which translates to looking good.
· No one wants to grow old anymore.
· Looking and feeling good are the major goals of everyone.
· Big spending has become fashionable.
· Adversity is a fine incentive to write.
· Each successive government of Pakistan will be worse than its predecessor.
· One is not merely what one thinks and feels one is.
· Everything brings with it hope and joy.
· Make sure to always give credit where due.
· Principles should govern politics.
. In the mad race for numbers, quality takes a back seat.
. Harmony and non-violence are not just empty words; they are the fabric of many real lives.

LINES I LIKED...


    "To succeed, we must first believe that we can." --Michael Korda

    "Your belief determines your action and your action determines your results, but first you have to believe." --Mark Victor Hansen

    "Don't limit yourself. Many people limit themselves to what they think they can do. You can go as far as your mind lets you. What you believe, remember, you can achieve." --Mary Kay Ash

    "You have to believe in yourself." --Sun Tzu

    "Believe that you will succeed, and you will." --Dale Carnegie

    "Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, he can achieve." --Napoleon Hill

    “If you are a perfectionist, you are guaranteed to be a loser in whatever you do”. – David Burns

CRYOGENIC TECHNOLOGY


Cryogenic technology involves the use of rocket propellants at extremely low temperatures. The combination of liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen offers the highest energy efficiency for rocket engines that need to produce large amounts of thrust. But oxygen remains a liquid only at temperatures below minus 183oC and hydrogen at below minus 253oC. Building a rocket stage with an engine that runs on such propellants means overcoming engineering challenges. The

U. S. was the first country to develop cryogenic rocket engines. The Centaur upper stage, with RL-10 engines registered its first successful flight in 1963 and is still used on the Atlas V rocket. America’s early mastery of the technology paved the way for the J-2 engine, which powered the upper stages of the immensely powerful. Saturn V rocket that sent humans to the Moon. – N. Gopal Raj

DISPLAY



Patience,
Humility,
Forgiveness,
Kindness,
Good manners,
Generosity of spirit –
Giving to others more than seeking to receive,
Refusal to be provoked into anger,
Perseverance in difficult times,
Belief and hope for the best,
Putting up with difficult people
Genuine appreciation for the accomplishments of others.

Exercise is a job you have to do for your body and mind.
Meet you next month – JUNE 2010
Prof. A. Narayanan, Ph. D., FISPP
# 19, Phase 5, Maharani Avenue, Vadavalli, Coimbatore – 641 041, Telephone: 0422 – 2423017 Mobile: 98422 42301
E-mail: arumugakannu@gmail.com
http://www.nara.tumblr.com/ (NARA’S DIGEST),
http://www.nara1.vox.com/ (NARA’S POSTCARD),
http://www.nara2007.blogspot.com/ (NARA’S NOTEPAD),
http://www.nsdigest.blogspot.com/ (NARA’S SCIENCE DIGEST)

Thursday, April 1, 2010



NARA'S NOTEPAD


VOLUME 6


APRIL 2010


NUMBER 4

SUPPORTED BY

READERS LIKE YOU...


DO MORE WITH LESS...

MEMO FROM NARA...


Sometimes we are pushed back in life for a short or long period of time. It is quite normal, according to me, because life cannot be without stumbling blocks. Generally, we are pushed back by other individuals when we compete with them. On those occasions we feel sad and try to think how to improve our talents to compete again and succeed. We may be pushed back by ill-health events too. Even though we feel we are healthy, at times we fall sick due to minor or major diseases. It is certainly a set-back in life. People may say that it’s due to ill-omens. ‘The time is bad.’ ‘It’s Saturn’s influence.’ etc. All these utterances are just to make us patient and wait for the cure to come. It may come soon in some cases and in others it may take a bit of long time. Therefore, we have to relax and take appropriate steps to come out of calamities such as these. The ‘push back’ may to go for a long time at some instances. In such situations patience is the proper medicine in addition to appropriate treatments. There are many instances we see among our friends and relatives that patience could solve most of the problems. In fact, we see them happy after long periods of suffering. ‘If there is a will, there is a way’ – we all know fully well. Hence I feel life can not be always rosy, at times it will enter dark phases and we have to wait for the light to come. Is it not true that, if winter comes, can spring be far behind?

JUST TO LAUGH...

For 25 years Morris, a cutter in an East side garment factory, had never been late for work. One morning, however, instead of checking in at nine, he arrived at ten. His face was crisscrossed with plaster and his right arm was in a sling. When Mr. Bob, his boss, demanded to know why he was late, Morris explained, “I leaned out a window after breakfast and fell three stories.” Mr. Bob shrugged, “That takes an hour?”

The Russian writer, Maxim Gorky, once stayed at an inn in southern Italy. On the second morning there the landlady asked him how he had slept. “Not too good,” said Gorky. “The bugs kept me awake.” “Bugs in my inn!” exclaimed the lady, indignantly, “You won’t find a single bedbug here!”
“I agree” said Gorky. “None of them are single. They’re all married and have large families.”

An old lady who suffered constipation went to see her doctor. The doctor listened patiently to her problem and asked, “Have you done anything about it?” “Oh, yes,” the lady replied, “I sit in the bathroom for a good half hour in the morning and again at night.” The doctor shook his head, “No, I mean do you take anything?” “Of course,” she nodded sagely, “I take a magazine.”

GRATITUDE


We need to develop an attitude of gratitude, an appreciation for the gift of life. One of America's most influential Protestant spokesmen of the nineteenth century, Henry Ward Beecher, said, "If one should give me a dish of sand, and tell me there were particles of iron in it, I might look for them with my eyes, and search for them with my clumsy fingers, and be unable to detect them; but let me take a magnet and sweep through it and how would it draw to itself the almost invisible particles by the mere power of attraction. The unthankful heart, like my finger in the sand, discovers no mercies; but let the thankful heart sweep through the day, and as the magnet finds the iron, so it will find, in every hour, some heavenly blessing. Only the iron in God's sand is gold!"
The grateful heart is a magnet that attracts more blessings. How is this possible? Well, the blessings were always there; we just didn't see them. Gratitude clears the haze that obscures the gifts surrounding us. To be enlightened is to live a life of gratitude. Or, as Johannes A. Gaertner wrote, "To speak gratitude is courteous and pleasant, to enact gratitude is generous and noble, but to live gratitude is to touch Heaven."
Are you living in a garden of abundance and joy or in a barren wilderness? Whatever your situation, Sarah Ban Breathnach explains why it is as it is: "Both abundance and lack exist simultaneously in our lives, as parallel realities. It is always our conscious choice which secret garden we will tend.. when we choose not to focus on what is missing from our lives but are grateful for the abundance that's present -- love, health, family, friends, work, the joys of nature and personal pursuits that bring us pleasure -- the wasteland of illusion falls away and we experience Heaven on earth."
-Chuck Gallozzi

TO LIFT YOUR MOOD...


If you would be rich, be grateful, for gratitude is riches and ingratitude is poverty. Rather than complain about what you lack, be grateful for what you have. Charles Dickens agrees, for he wrote, "Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has plenty; not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some." To energize your day, start it by counting your blessings. You will find that "Appreciation is yeast, lifting ordinary to extraordinary" (Mary-Ann Petro). And when life gets hectic and you're feeling run down, pause a moment and reflect on your blessings. This practice will lift your mood.

RELAXATION


To relax, you first need to reprogram your mind by practicing mindfulness, which is simply focusing your attention on the present moment. As you learn to calm your mind, your muscles will relax. Allowing your mind to be renewed through meditation will help you to get rid of distortional thinking that causes tension.

You can combine mindfulness with specific techniques to further enhance the relaxation response. These techniques include deep breathing and progressive muscle relaxation. Various forms of massage therapy and other relaxation techniques can be explored, which are like icing on the cake of relaxation.

The good news for stressed out people is that it is possible to move from a state of frustration and anxiety to a relaxed state fairly quickly. Even more importantly, it is possible to live continually in a much more relaxed state.

DOs AND DON'Ts OF SELF-COMPASSION


Do treat yourself and everyone else with respect.
Don’t ridicule yourself or anyone.

Do listen to your heart and choose in your short and long-term best interests.
Don’t ignore inner longings.

Do appreciate your uniqueness and that of others.
Don’t compare people.

Do appreciate deeper commonalities with all people.
Don’t look to exclude yourself or others from essential humanity.

Do listen to others.
Don’t interrupt.

Do reflect.
Don’t react.

Do talk.
Don’t yell, scream, or lecture.

THEY SAID...


It’s better to lose your ego to the one you love than to lose the one you love because of ego. - John Keats.

When I do good, I feel good; when I do bad, I feel bad, and that is my religion. –
Abraham Lincoln.

Imagination is the beginning of creation. –
George Bernard Shaw

Imagination is everything; it is the preview of life’s forthcoming attraction. –
Albert Einstein

Mastery is not perfection, it is journey, and the true master must be willing to try and fail and try again. –
George Leonard

If your actions inspire others to do more, to learn more, to dream more or to become more, you are a leader – John Quincy Adams

MOTIVATION AND INSPIRATION...


Usually, motivation requires a kick in the butt from self or another, in order to reach a stated goal. But how often are these goals actually attained? How effective is motivation along the road to manifestation?

In politics, motivation is enforced by law. If you don't pay your traffic ticket, your driver’s license is suspended. Failure to pay your taxes results in a judgment against you, fines, and even jail. A cursory look at our society shows us that motivation by punishment doesn't really prevent law breaking. And that is because such motivation is fear based, and very low on the emotional scale. The higher, universal law of 'like attracts like' assures us that such "solutions" will just create more problems, which then need more laws, which then result in more problems... we soon reach a point where there are so many laws, and so many new laws passed, that Congress doesn't even have time to read them! (In fact that is what occurs. Congress never reads the laws it passes).

Self-motivation is a little better, because it involves more free choice. If you are tired of being overweight, then more exercise and a better diet is a positive step in the right direction. What usually happens with self-motivation is that we begin with good intentions, and lose interest before very long.

Inspiration is a completely different animal, however. Inspiration is entirely self-generated, and comes from within. It results in a feeling of excitement and well being, and a desire to get into action immediately. When I wrote Dialogues: Conversations with my Higher Self, for example, I'd wake up every morning fired up. I couldn't wait to come home from work and get in front of the keyboard. I'd sit and write well past midnight because I just didn't want to stop! -Kenneth James Michael MacLean

REGULAR EXERCISING...


Regular exercising is exercise that is done in moderate amounts on a regular basis for a prolonged period of time. Even ten minutes a day of exercise has been shown to have beneficial effects on both the body and mind. Longer periods of exercise done regularly and in moderation have been shown to decrease appetite, decrease body fat, build muscle and bone, stimulate the immune system, and improve a person’s mental and emotional well-being. Regular exercise enhances neurotransmitter production, leading to an increase of both serotonin and dopamine (which also relieves symptoms of anxiety and depression). Raising the levels of neurotransmitters to normal levels also helps lower cortisol levels.

THREE THINGS IN LIFE...


Three things in life that, once gone, never come back:
1.Time, 2.Words, 3.Opportunity
Three things in life that can destroy a person:
1.Anger, 2.Pride, 3.Unforgiveness
Three things in life that you should never lose:
1.Hope, 2.Peace, 3.Honesty
Three things in life that are most valuable:
1.Love, 2.Family, 3.Kindness
All human progress begins with a new decision!
Meet you next month – May 2010
Prof. A. Narayanan, Ph. D., FISPP
# 19, Phase 5, Maharani Avenue, Vadavalli,
Coimbatore – 641 041,
Telephone: 0422 – 2423017 Mobile: 98422 42301
E-mail: arumugakannu@gmail.com
http://www.nara.tumblr.com/ (NARA’S DIGEST),
http://www.nara1.vox.com/ (NARA’S POSTCARD),
http://www.nara2007.blogspot.com/
(NARA’S SCIENCE DIGEST)