5 Best Ways to Face Interview

 

Even the highly capable persons and big degree holders fail in the interviews. Facing interviews successfully is still one of the biggest challenge for youngsters to find jobs in big multinationals. Here I am going to give you 5 tips for facing an interview successfully.

1) Prepare Well: Prepare your folder well and arrange all the certificates properly. Usually you need: copies of your educational and experience certificates, bio-data, application (sent to the company) and avoid taking irrelevant documents.
2) Wear Proper Clothes: Wear a jacket, ride your bike and appear before the board like your favorite hero but you end up becoming a villain. You must wear clean & ironed formal dress to woo the board and do not forget to polish your shoes.
3) Control Your Nervousness: This is one of the biggest hurdle even highly talented people fail in the interviews because of nervousness. Nervousness is stored mental energy and you can use it in a positive manner:

1. Concentrate in preparing and forget every other thing,
2. Be well dressed, it will boost your confidence,
3. Eat light food because it will help you feel relaxed,
4. Pray to God for success,
5. Act confidently even if you feel lack of confidence,
6. Reach at the interview place 20-30 minutes before interview, it will help you feel confident,
7. Be brave and take it as a challenge which you have to achieve.

4) Speak Well: A candidate must have good command over language, correct pronunciation and grammar, good store of vocabulary and avoid answers in brief. Whenever you are asked to tell about yourself avoid telling your introduction in brief. You should always tell some important introductory lines about yourself like your name, age, qualification, experience, strengths, aim etc. Unless you are asked to give brief introduction don't introduce yourself briefly.
5) Never Show Cleverness: Many candidates try to act cleverly before interview board because every company needs sincere and hard-working employees. If you do not know the answer of any question just say I don't know. Never criticize anyone while speaking and always be polite and clear in your speaking. After finishing your interview always say the board 'thanking you very much' whether your interview has been good or bad.

Courtesy: rockysaggoo.hubpages.com

Email This BlogThis! Share to Twitter Share to Facebook

Read More

10 Facts About the Titanic That You Don't Know

You may already know that the Titanic hit an iceberg at 11:40 p.m. on the night of April 14, 1912 and sunk just over two-and-a-half hours later, but do you know the following ten facts about the Titanic?

1 Canceled Lifeboat Drill
Originally, a lifeboat drill was scheduled to take place on board the Titanic on April 14, 1912 - the day the Titanic hit the iceberg. However, for an unknown reason, Captain Smith canceled the drill. Many believe that had the drill taken place, more lives could have been saved.

2 Only Seconds
From the time the lookouts sounded the alert, the officers on the bridge had only 37 seconds to react before the Titanic hit the iceberg. In that time, First Officer Murdoch ordered "hard a-starboard" (which turned the ship to port -- left). He also ordered the engine room to put the engines in reverse. The Titanic did bank left, but it wasn't quite enough.

3 The Titanic's Newspaper
The Titanic seemed to have everything on board, including its own newspaper. The Atlantic Daily Bulletin was printed every day on board the Titanic. The newspaper included news, advertisements, stock prices, horse-racing results, society gossip, and the day's menu.

4 Lifeboats Not Full
Not only were there not enough lifeboats to save everyone on board, most of the lifeboats that were launched off the Titanic were not filled to capacity. For instance, the first lifeboat to launch, Lifeboat 7 from the starboard side) only carried 24 people, despite having a capacity of 65 (two additional people later transferred to Lifeboat 7 from Lifeboat 5). However, it was Lifeboat 1 that carried the fewest people - only seven crew and five passengers (a total of 12 people) despite having a capacity for 40.
5 Only Two Bathtubs
Although most passengers had to share bathrooms (only the two promenade suites in first class had private bathrooms), third class had it rough with only two bathtubs for more than 700 passengers.

6 Another Boat Was Closer for Rescue
When the Titanic began sending out distress signals, the Californian, rather than the Carpathia, was the closest ship; yet the Californian did not respond until it was much too late to help. At 12:45 a.m. on April 15, 1912, crew members on the Californian saw mysterious lights in the sky (the distress flares sent up from the Titanic) and woke up their captain to tell him about it. Unfortunately, the captain issued no orders. Since the ship's wireless operator had already gone to bed, the Californian was unaware of any distress signals from the Titanic until the morning, but by then the Carpathia had already picked up all the survivors. Many people believe that if the Californian had responded to the Titanic's pleas for help, many more lives could have been saved.

7 Two Dogs Rescued
With the order for women and children first into the lifeboats, plus the knowledge that there were not enough lifeboats for everyone on board the Titanic to be saved, it is a bit surprising that two dogs made it into the lifeboats. Of the nine dogs on board the Titanic, the two that were rescued were a Pomeranian and a Pekinese. 

8 The Fourth Funnel
In what is now an iconic image, the side view of the Titanic clearly shows four cream and black funnels. While three of these released the steam from the boilers, the fourth was just for show. The designers thought the ship would look more impressive with four funnels rather than three. 

9 A Royal Mail Ship
The R.M.S. Titanic was a Royal Mail Ship, a designation which meant the Titanic was officially responsible for delivering mail for the British postal service. On board the Titanic was a Sea Post Office with five mail clerks (two British and three American). These mail clerks were responsible for the 3,423 sacks of mail (seven million individual pieces of mail) on board the Titanic. Interestingly, although no mail has yet been recovered from the wreck of the Titanic, if it were, the U.S. Postal Service would still try to deliver it (the USPS because most of the mail was being sent to the U.S.).

10 Corpses Recovered
On April 17, 1912, the day before survivors of the Titanic disaster reached New York, the Mackay-Bennett was sent off from Halifax, Nova Scotia to search for bodies. On board the Mackay-Bennett were embalming supplies, 40 embalmers, tons of ice, and 100 coffins. Although the Mackay-Bennett found 306 bodies, 116 of these were too badly damaged to take all the way back to shore. Attempts were made to identify each body found. Additional ships were also sent out to look for bodies. In all, 328 bodies were found, but 119 of these were badly damaged and thus were buried at sea.

Courtesy: history1900s.about.com

Email This BlogThis! Share to Twitter Share to Facebook

Read More

Truth Of Atacama "Alien" Revealed: Specimen Is Human

 

His name is "Ata" - short for Atacama - and no, he's not an alien, report researchers from Stanford University in the film “Sirius.” Rather, the six-inch partially-mummified specimen was male and appears to have survived for as many as six to eight years after birth, despite his small size.

Theories that the body was an aborted fetus do not hold, researchers argue, based on studies measuring its bone density and epiphyseal plate.

“Obviously, it was breathing, it was eating it was metabolizing,” Garry Nolan, the director of stem biology at the university said.

And while he admits it “calls into question how big the thing might have been when it was born,” it appears to be nothing else but an “interesting mutation.”

The findings were first located near an abandoned church in the Chilean Atacama desert, from where it derives its name. According to a Chilean local newspaper, the small figure was wrapped in a white cloth upon discovery.

UFO enthusiasts were quick to assign the specimen’s origins as extraterrestrial, especially given several of its characteristics that have come to be associated with aliens, including an oversized head. The fact that the body was scaly and dark and boasted nine ribs didn’t help.
In fact, the skeleton was considered an important element in the documentary in which extraterrestrial activist Steven Greer proposes to prove not only that aliens are real, but that the government is working very hard to cover up their existence.

Greer, a physician himself, explained that the team “obtained excellent DNA material by surgically dissecting the distal ends of two right anterior ribs” from the specimen that “clearly contained bone marrow material.”

However, not everyone is convinced the specimen is not an alien – including Greer. As far as he is concerned, the fact that they were able to prove that it was once a living organism is a step in the right direction.

Courtesy: www.natureworldnews.com

Email This BlogThis! Share to Twitter Share to Facebook

Read More

Top 10 Famous Real Ghosts!

Winter is a wonderful time for a good ghost story. In the long hours of dark and the twinkling lights of the holiday season, it is all too easy to imagine more shadows than there ought to be. The most spine tingling stories, though, are the ones sworn to be true. The following list is of these sorts of ghosts: Specific apparitions, witnessed by several people at different times in the same place. The more witnesses, the more respected the witnesses, the better. Whether you believe in ghosts or not, these stories capture the imagination.


10 Kate Morgan Hotel del Coronado
The Hotel del Coronado is a stunning Victorian beachfront resort hotel in the very southern California city of Coronado, just south of San Diego. It was only four years open when a beautiful young woman named Kate Morgan checked in on November 24th, 1892. She was apparently very ill for the time she spent at the hotel, and it was later speculated she had taken a large dose of quinine in an effort to induce miscarriage of an unwanted child. That she was distraught there was little argument, so when she was found on the outside steps leading to the beach on November 29th, with a single bullet hole in her temple and a gun nearby, the death was quickly ruled a suicide. From that point on, strange phenomena have been reported at the hotel: strange noises, lights flickering on and off, and even the occasional ghostly woman in Victorian garb wandering the halls.

It is worth noting during my research on this story that the particular room number where most of the phenomena is witnessed varies from account to account. Whether because the accounts are second hand (and many of them are), or whether there is confusion due to the changing of the room number over the years as the hotel has expanded, I cannot say.
9 Ghosts of the Stanley Hotel
 

If you where staying at the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado and turned to channel 42 of your guest-room television, you would be watching one of my all-time favorite movies: The Shining. Doesn’t matter what time of day or night, or year for that matter, it is always on. That’s not supernatural, of course- merely a nod to their role as the inspiration for Stephen King’s novel. Employees report hearing the commotion of a great party in the grand ballroom when there is no one there. Children can be heard playing in the halls when there are no children at all, and many guests have reported seeing ghostly figures in their rooms at night, merely standing, watching. The fourth floor seems to be host to the most amount of activity, and there is one ghost in particular, purportedly Lord Dunraven, the previous owner of the land the property was built on, who can be seen standing over the bed or looking out the window of room 407. He is widely blamed for any jewelry or valuables that have gone missing in the hotel over the years.

8 The Brown Lady Raynham Hall
 

Raynham Hall in Norfolk, England, is home to the subject of one of the most famous ghost photos ever captured, the Brown Lady is named so because she appears in a rich brocade brown dress. She is widely believed to be Lady Dorothy Walpole, sister of Sir Robert Walpole, who married Charles, 2nd Viscount Townshend in 1713. She died under mysterious circumstances in 1726, and sightings of her began shortly after. Though reports of sightings have waned dramatically since the photo was taken in 1936, sightings before then had been reported by some fairly reputable sources. My favorite account is from a Major Loftus, who was staying at Raynham Hall in 1849. Retiring to bed one night, he and a friend named Hawkins observed a woman in brown brocade who vanished as Major Loftus approached her. Determined to confront the apparition, the next night he returned to she same spot and saw her again. He was horrified to see however, that when he looked into her face he saw only two black sockets where her eyes should have been. Unsettling to say the least!

7 Clifton Hall
If you have a spare £2.75 million laying around, you can be the proud owner of Clifton Hall in Nottinghamshire, England. The property was noted as far back as the 11th century, and was in the hands of the Clifton family from the 13th century until its sale in 1958. From there it became a school, then another school, then another school , then a planned set of luxury apartments, before finally settling as a private residence most recently belonging to a mister Anwar Rashid, his wife, and their four children. It boasts 17 bedrooms, 10 bathrooms, 10 reception rooms, a private gym and a cinema. Oh, and a few ghosts, of course. The Rashid family experienced unsettling phenomena their very first night in the home, in the form of a knocking sound and a man’s voice calling “Hello, is anyone there?” In one incident, Anwar’s wife, Nabila, went downstairs to prepare some milk for their 18 month old son at five o’clock in the morning and observed her eldest daughter sat in front of the television. When calling out to her gave no answer, Nabila got a strange feeling and went back upstairs to her daughter’s room, where the eldest was found still fast asleep in her bed. The Rashids fled the house after 8 months of putting up with the hauntings. Though their accounts are the most recent and easiest to find during research, there had been rumors and sightings on the property for as long as anyone could remember, including babies crying and a woman who could be seen through a window pacing in a room that had been bricked up and inaccessible.

6 The White Lady Balete Drive
 

Oh, the ghosts of the Philippines! A Lady in White is undoubtedly the most common type of ghost anywhere in the world, and joins a laundry list of spirits in the Philippines for this story. I will say in research I have come across two accounts from locals of Quezon City, Philippines that say this is just a hoax, but I will stick with the majority opinion that there is something there. Believers report a woman in white with long black hair and her face either completely blank or obscured by blood standing in the middle of the road on Balete Drive. It is said you should avoid driving there at night – but if you do, make sure your back seat is full of passengers. Apparently it is in empty back seats that the White Lady will hitch a ride, spotted by the unfortunate driver in their rear view after they experience a dreadful ominous feeling.

5 Chloe and The Myrtles Plantation

Legend has it Chloe was a slave in the house of the Myrtles Plantation in St. Francisville, Louisiana who had a bad habit of listening at keyholes to the goings on of the residents. Caught one day in the act by the Master of the house, he lopped off her ear as punishment, forcing her to wear a green scarf over her head to cover the wound. As punishment, she baked a cake with oleander leaves, a common plant in the south that is immensely poisonous. Though the master of the house was her target, her victims became his wife and two daughters, who died in agony a couple days after eating the cake. Chloe fled the house and was lynched by field slaves on the plantation for the wicked light she cast on the rest of them.

Fortunately or no, there is no historical evidence to back up this story, just an intriguing photo. True or not (probably not), there are certainly plenty of other ghosts to keep you company, including a young girl frequently spotted in a mirror on the stairs, and another young girl who chants voodoo over people who dare to sleep in her room. The Myrtles is currently a Bed and Breakfast that gives regular tours to those curious enough to want to see the house- just not alone after dark.

4 Resurrection Mary
 

Traveling northeast on Archer Lane between the Willowbrook Ballroom and Resurrection Cemetery in Justice, Illinois, young men might find themselves tempted to pick up a young woman hitchhiking on the side of the road. She has light blond hair and blue eyes, is wearing a white party dress, and has been dead since the 1930’s. If you pick her up, she will stop you in front of Resurrection cemetery and vanish from the car. She is a classic example of the vanishing hitchhiker legend, a type of ghost story that has been around for at least a few hundred years. What makes this one so distinctive is the consistency of the story- the girl looks the same, wears the same dress, disappears in the same spot. Also worth noting stories of this particular hitchhiker popped up suddenly in the mid thirties and have been going strong ever since, and not just for those in the know. An account from 1973 sees a cab driver inquiring at Chet’s Melody Lounge across the street from the cemetery about a girl who fled his cab without paying her fare. Only his description of her sounded mighty familiar to the customers: Resurrection Mary had struck again!

3 The Flying Dutchman
 It was 1641 when Captain Hendrik van der Decken swore he would round the Cape of Good Hope if it took him till doomsday. At his current rate, it probably will. The captain’s ship, known as The Flying Dutchman, has been seen frequently around the area, a phantom ship often so close the witnesses would swear it was on a crash course for their ship, only to see it vanish before them. It is always viewed as a bad omen to see the ship. Such a sighting was witnessed by the future King George V of England in 1881. He wrote: “At 4 a.m. the Flying Dutchman crossed our bows. A strange red light as of a phantom ship all aglow, in the midst of which light the masts, spars, and sails of a brig 200 yards distant stood out in strong relief as she came up on the port bow”. Later that morning, the sailor who originally spotted the vessel fell to his death.

2 Abraham Lincoln
 

Legend has it Lincoln saw his fate before he was assassinated. He reported a dream to his cabinet in which he wandered into a funeral at the white house, and when he inquired of one of the mourners who had died, the man responded “The President… he was killed by an assassin.”

Lincoln’s ghost has been spotted by many visitors and residents of the white house, among them First Lady Grace Coolidge, Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands, and even Winston Churchill, who of course had something clever to say on the occasion. He claimed to be fresh from the bath, in the nude (what an image!) walking into the bedroom when he saw Lincoln standing near the fireplace. He quipped “Good evening, Mr. President. You seem to have me at a disadvantage.”, after which Lincoln smiled softly and disappeared.

1 Anne Boleyn
 
Second Wife of Henry VIII and mother of a future Queen Elizabeth I, Anne Boleyn had three years as queen consort before Henry tired of her. Accused (most historians agree falsely) of adultery, incest and witchcraft, she faced an executioner’s sword with her head held high on May 19th, 1536. The executioner was reported to have said “Where is my sword?” before striking the single blow necessary, apparently in an effort to ease Anne’s anticipation by making her think she had a few moments more.

Her ghost has been spotted by several different people in several different locations: Hever Castle, Blickling Hall, Salle Church, Marwell Hall, and perhaps most famously the Tower of London. Though she is most often seen just as she was alive- a beautiful woman in a beautiful gown- some sightings are a bit more upsetting. More unlucky individuals will see her as she was just after death- headless, often with the head tucked under one arm. It has become such an iconic image it is often parodied in movies and television, and more elaborate Halloween costumes. One must not forget, however, what you would think if such a vision approached you in some dark corridor one night.

Courtesy: listverse.com

Email This BlogThis! Share to Twitter Share to Facebook

Read More

10 Top secrets about Bruce Lee!

 

1. Bruce Lee's Family Gave Him a Girl's Name: "Little Phoenix"
Bruce's family never called him "Bruce." They preferred to call him by his nickname "Sai Fon" or "Little Phoenix." It was a girl's name, deliberately chosen by his parents because they believed that evil spirits did not like boys in the family (their firstborn was a son who died in infancy). So, by giving Bruce a girl's name, they believed they could fool the demons into sparing his life!

Actually, "Bruce" was a name given by a nurse at the Jackson Street Hospital, San Francisco, where he was born (Bruce's father was traveling with an acting troupe at the time). The nurse thought that giving the baby an English name would help avoid any confusion with his American birth certificate (yes, Bruce was an American by birth - he never had any other citizenship).

2. Bruce Lee was Part German
Bruce wasn't pure Chinese - he was actually part German (his grandfather from his mother's side was half German).

3. Bruce Lee Never Lost a Fight

Well, actually he lost a fight only once in his life: when he was 13 years old. This loss actually prompted Bruce to learn martial arts from a Wing Chun master named Yip Man. After other students learned that Bruce wasn't pure Chinese, they refused to let him train in their class. Yip Man had to train him privately. (Image: Portland Kung Fu Club)

4. Bruce Lee was a Bad Student
Academics didn't interest Bruce in the least. After primary school, Bruce entered La Salle College, an English-speaking boys' secondary school in Kowloon, Hong Kong, where he often got into trouble. Bruce was expelled from La Salle for disruptive behavior.

Even after his parents moved him to a different school, Bruce kept on getting into street fights.

5. Bruce Lee was an Excellent Dancer and Boxer
Actually, Bruce studied dancing as hard as he studied martial arts: he was an excellent dancer who, at 18 years of age, won the 1958 Hong Kong Cha Cha Championship! Bruce was also a great boxer: he won the 1958 Boxing Championship - by knockout, of course.

6. Bruce Lee was a Philosophy Major
Bruce wasn't just all muscle and no brain. He attended the University of Washington, where he majored in philosophy with focus on the philosophical principles of martial art techniques. As you might imagine, Bruce supported himself in college by teaching martial arts. Later, Bruce dropped out of college to open his martial arts school.

7. Want to challenge Bruce Lee? Just tap your foot on the ground!
After he got famous, a lot of people thought they could beat Bruce - they would walk up to him, tap their foot on the ground (symbolizing a challenge) and then proceed to attack him! Well... maybe not that literal, but Bruce's popularity certainly attracted a lot nutcase trying to prove they're better than him.

One day, while filming Enter the Dragon, an extra taunted Bruce Lee and challenged him to fight. The whole thing went on like this:

"This kid was good. He was no punk. He was strong and fast, and he was really trying to punch Bruce's brains in. But Bruce just methodically took him apart."

"I mean Bruce kept moving so well, this kid couldn't touch him...Then all of a sudden, Bruce got him and rammed his ass into the wall and swept him, he proceeded to drop his knee into his opponent's chest, locked his arm out straight, and nailed him in the face repeatedly."

Typical of Bruce Lee, after the fight he didn't fire the extra - he actually gave his challenger lesson on how to improve!

8. Bruce Lee was Strong
In 1964, Bruce was invited to a karate championship in Long Beach, California. There he performed his famous "One Inch Punch," where he would deliver a devastating blow from only an inch away, sending his opponent flying back!


Bob Baker of Stockton, whom Bruce hit, said "I told Bruce not to do this type of demonstration again. When he punched me that last time, I had to stay home from work because the pain in my chest was unbearable."

... and Fast!
Most martial art films are sped up to make fighting scenes appear fast, but not Bruce Lee's. His moves were too fast to be captured on the regular 24 frames per second film - so they had to film him at 32 fps, and run the film slower so you can see his moves.

9. Bruce Lee vs. Chuck Norris, who would win?
Here's a clip of Bruce Lee fighting Chuck Norris in Return of the Dragon. You can see how fast Bruce Lee moved ... though it's obvious that Chuck Norris would be immune to the One Inch Punch as his one-inch chest hair would absorb the punch with ease!


And the most bizarre Bruce Lee fact is this:

10. Bruce Lee's Corpse Acted in his Final Movie!
Bruce Lee was filming Game of Death when he died unexpectedly. So what did the studio do? Well, they rewrote the script so Bruce's character faked his own death to escape the mafia. Then they took footage from Bruce's actual funeral - including close-ups shots of the open casket showing his embalmed face - and work that into the movie!

Courtesy: www.neatorama.com

Email This BlogThis! Share to Twitter Share to Facebook

Read More

8 Ways to Apologize Without Saying “I’m Sorry.”

The phrase “I’m sorry” is supposed to make its recipient feel better, but thanks to a lifetime of misuse, it rarely completes its mission.  Indeed, it often requires assistance to have an impact, such as repetition, further explanation, multiple exclamation points, or even…groveling.

Somewhere along the way of evolution, the words “I’m sorry” picked up a couple of permanent connotation hitchhikers:  assumption of guilt and admittance of wrongdoing.  So when you say the words to someone, there is an implication that you are in some way responsible for the situation.

And yet, the word “sorry” is employed for a laughably wide range of circumstances, even those for which we are not to blame…from condolences over a death (I’m so sorry for your loss) to asking a speaker to repeat a sentence (Sorry…what did you say?) to the absolutely brilliant application my cab driver shouted at someone who cut us off last week (Get your sorry ass out of my lane, you @#$*!).  

The upshot?  We’ve all become desensitized to the word “sorry.”  So, when you really ARE at fault for something, its use as an apology seems trite and unrepentant.  And when you’re NOT at fault for something, its presence in your response gently paints you with a brush of culpability.

How do you win this communication war against the word’s multiple personality issue?  Stop using it.  Find other, more meaningful ways to express your feelings, and put careful thought into the appropriate response for the situation at hand.  Here are eight different phrases you can employ that express either justified remorse or peripheral acknowledgement of a situation:

It’s unfortunate that…
How sad for you that (this) happened…
I sympathize with your situation/disappointment/frustration…
What a shame that…
Will you please forgive my insensitivity/error/indiscretion…
I am completely at fault here, and I apologize…
I am unhappy about (or I regret) the pain/inconvenience you’ve been caused
This situation has filled me with regret…

These options are merely a short list…there are many other ways you can craft a suitable response without actually using the phrase “I’m sorry.”  So the next time you’re about to use it, check back to this list to see if one of them applies, and if not, spend a few moments defining your expression’s true meaning.

As to the cab driver, we’ll leave his colorful use of the word “sorry” alone.  It’s all part of what makes a cab ride in NYC so memorably entertaining, and offers humorous inspiration for topics on www.redpointspeaks.com.  Yep, we’re selfish…sorry about that.

Courtesy: redpointspeaks.com

Email This BlogThis! Share to Twitter Share to Facebook

Read More

5 Ways to Handle Sexual Harassment

Yes, we know: This shouldn't be your responsibility. But these rules will help prevent an uncomfortable situation from getting worse.

As a woman and a 20-year Silicon Valley veteran, I'm intrigued by Ellen Pao's well-covered sexual harassment lawsuit against VC firm Kleiner Perkins. Everyone is innocent until proven guilty, including both Pao and KP, but certainly both sides of the case seem to have valid arguments.

Regardless of what happens, it's a reminder of just how male-dominated the business world remains in 2012--and why women who want to succeed in this world have to learn how to thrive in it. When it comes to dealing with unwanted attention or even all-out harassment, the challenge is how to take the incident seriously but manage it successfully, so that it doesn't stifle your business ambitions or sap your confidence. Here are a few takeaways that have helped me along the way.

Don't sweat the small stuff.

Part of working together every day with the same people includes joking around and, yes, even a bit of teasing. How many times have you heard a man give another man a hard time about his clothes or his habits, or even his work? It's how men often relate, and it's typically not personal. Men don't cry or shut down; they either roll their eyes or dish it back.  Learn to do the same. And if you get good and clever at dishing it back, you might be surprised at the additional respect you gain.

Draw a hard line.

Some joking and bantering is fun and tolerable; some isn't. When it isn't, call it out--immediately. Completely change your demeanor, be direct, make it very clear they've crossed a big line. It can be as simple as "OK, that wasn't funny" or as serious as "you are making me feel very uncomfortable right now, please stop." Even better if others are around to hear you. Trust me--no individual wants to be the accused in a harassment situation and if you treat it seriously, the other person probably will too.

Rise above the haters.

Sometimes it is personal and potentially damaging. My good friend Christine is VP of business development at a biotech firm. She is wicked smart, young, and beyond beautiful. She had spent months devising an M&A strategy for her company and was presenting for the first time to an all-male board. It was a risky recommendation to shift from forming partnerships to seeking acquirers and she anticipated some tough questions. An older male board member eyed her up and down obnoxiously, clearly not listening and attempting to throw her off her game. As she was speaking he interrupted and said to the CEO, "The first thing you need to do is get rid of the GIRL." Many would falter in this situation, which is what he wanted, but Christine thought "Oh, bring it on, Baldylocks." She stood a little taller, looking a bit more beautiful, looked him straight in the eyes, and shot back: "Well that's one option, or we can further examine the facts..." and went on to provide even more info for the board.

The meeting ended with near-unanimous support for her recommendations and a renewed respect for her from the rest of the board and her CEO. The board member was later removed due to his behavior in the meeting. She wins big, he loses. I know it's easier said than done, but in most cases you'll find that people don't want to see others harassed. Be confident in your intelligence and skills and rise above the jerks.

Put your business and pleasure mixture on ice. 

I can't say don't do it, or I'd be a hypocrite, but dating people you work with often leads to issues. One of Pao's claims is against a man with whom she says she had a consensual sexual relationship. I'm not saying he didn't harass her--maybe he did, and if so then it was wrong. But maybe he was someone she should have steered clear of in the first place? Think long and hard about whether or not a relationship at work is worth the risk. If it is, then keep your eyes open and be ready to handle the potential consequences.

Tell. Now.

If you're truly feeling harassed, document the situation immediately and report it. One of the biggest knocks against Ellen Pao is that supposedly she endured harassment for some time before officially reporting it. How can you get the support you need if no one knows what you're experiencing? If you're harassed by a co-worker or boss, talk to HR, as they are trained to deal with such matters with discreetness and in confidence.

The situation is obviously trickier if you're a female entrepreneur and the harassment comes from, say, a board member or potential investor. But remember: You never should have to endure harassment. Talk about the situation with someone you trust, perhaps another board member or investor and get their support. Then go directly to the harasser. Be clear and strong, and insist that the situation change--or you will make it change. It may seem extreme to think of removing one of your board members (or forgoing a much-needed investment), but it's really the only solution. You can't be an effective leader if you're more worried about your safety than your business--and your other board members and investors will surely agree.

Courtesy: www.inc.com

Email This BlogThis! Share to Twitter Share to Facebook

Read More

25 Secrets of Mona Lisa Revealed!

 

New images uncover 25 secrets about the Mona Lisa, including proof that Leonardo da Vinci gave her eyebrows, solving a long-held mystery.

The images are part of an exhibition, "Mona Lisa Secrets Revealed," which features new research by French engineer Pascal Cotte and debuts in the United States at the Metreon Center in San Francisco, where it will remain through the end of this year. The Mona Lisa showcase is part of a larger exhibition called "Da Vinci: An Exhibition of Genius."

Cotte, founder of Lumiere Technology, scanned the painting with a 240-megapixel Multi-spectral Imaging Camera he invented, which uses 13 wavelengths from ultraviolet light to infrared. The resulting images peel away centuries of varnish and other alterations, shedding light on how the artist brought the painted figure to life and how she appeared to da Vinci and his contemporaries.



"The face of Mona Lisa appears slightly wider and the smile is different and the eyes are different," Cotte said. "The smile is more accentuated I would say."

Mona Lisa mysteries

A zoomed-in image of Mona Lisa's left eye revealed a single brush stroke in the eyebrow region, Cotte said.

"I am an engineer and scientist, so for me all has to be logical. It was not logical that Mona Lisa does not have any eyebrows or eyelashes," Cotte told LiveScience. "I discovered one hair of the eyebrow."

Another conundrum had been the position of the subject's right arm, which lies across her stomach. This was the first time, Cotte said, that a painter had rendered a subject's arm and wrist in such a position. While other artists had never understood da Vinci's reasoning, they copied it nonetheless.

Cotte discovered the pigment just behind the right wrist matched up perfectly with that of the painted cover that drapes across Mona Lisa's knee. So it did make sense: The forearm and wrist held up one side of a blanket.

"The wrist of the right hand is up high on the stomach. But if you look deeply in the infrared you understand that she holds a cover with her wrist," Cotte said.

Behind a painting

The infrared images also revealed da Vinci's preparatory drawings that lie behind layers of varnish and paint, showing that the Renaissance man was also human.

"If you look at the left hand you see the first position of the finger, and he changed his mind for another position," Cotte said. "Even Leonardo da Vinci had hesitation."

Other revelations include:
Lace on Mona Lisa's dress
The transparency of the veil shows da Vinci first painted a landscape and then used transparency techniques to paint the veil atop it.
A change in the position of the left index and middle finger.
The elbow was repaired from damage due to a rock thrown at the painting in 1956.
The blanket covering Mona Lisa's knees also covers her stomach.
The left finger was not completely finished.
A blotch mark on the corner of the eye and chin are varnish accidents, countering claims that Mona Lisa was sick.
And the Mona Lisa was painted on uncut poplar board, contrary to speculations.

In the larger picture, Cotte said when he stands back and looks up at the enlarged infrared image of Mona Lisa, her beauty and mystique are apparent.

"If you are in front of this huge enlargement of Mona Lisa, you understand instantly why Mona Lisa is so famous," Cotte said. He added, it's something you have to see with your own eyes.

Courtesy: http://www.livescience.com

Email This BlogThis! Share to Twitter Share to Facebook

Read More

The world's thinnest watch made from a single piece of flexible steel

CHICAGO, USA -- The CST-01 watch, made by the Chicago-based firm Central Standard Timing, is thinner than a credit card - just 0.8mm thick - and shows the time on an electronic ink display; the world's thinnest watch has a 0.5mm flexible electronic component built-in and a Thinergy Micro-Energy Cell battery that can be charged in 10 minutes and has a lifetime of 15 years, setting the world record for the thinnest watch, according to the World Record Academy: www.worldrecordacademy.com/.

  Photo: The world's thinnest watch - just 0.8mm thick - has been designed using a single piece of bendy stainless steel. The CST-01 watch is thinner than a credit card and shows the time on an electronic ink display.

  The Guinness world record for the longest chain of watches consisted of 1,382 Swatches buckled together in Oeiras Parque, Lisbon, Portugal.

  Guinness World Records also recognized the world record for the smallest watch movement, sety by Cal.G720, developed and manufactured by Citizen Watch Co., Ltd. (Japan) in 2002, which measures 30 mm² (0.046 in²) in surface area and 73 mm³ (0.004 in³) in volume. Watch movement means machine parts of a watch except for exterior parts, such as a case, a dial and hands. Its full dimensions are 5.0 mm x 6.0 mm x 2.5 mm.

  According to Central Standard Timing, the patent-pending CST-01 is assembled by laminating thin, flexible components into a 0.5mm pocket etched into a single piece of flexible stainless steel.

  This is different from traditional digital watches, which typically use the same chassis used for analog watches.

  The CST-01 also uses an embedded Thinergy Micro-Energy Cell that charges in 10 minutes from an external dock and has a lifetime of 15 years. All CST-01 watches are planned to be assembled in the USA.

  The battery can be recharged 10,000 times and each charge will last about 30 days.

   Central Standard Timing was founded by engineers Dave Vondle and Jerry O'Leary, both formetly of successful design outfit IDEO

Courtesy: www.worldrecordacademy.com

Email This BlogThis! Share to Twitter Share to Facebook

Read More

10 Easy Ways You Can Save Money Tonight!

Frugality isn’t a handful of big things that you do every once in a while to save cash. It’s a steady routine of little steps that, over time, add up to a big difference. Best of all, those little steps are the ones you choose. You can skip over the ones that impact your particular life in an unwanted way, but stick to the ones that cut spending in areas that you care a little bit less about.

For me, it’s simply a way of going about my life. I spend as little as possible in the areas I find less important so that I can maintain financial stability throughout my life and spend in those areas I do find important. This whole idea is threaded throughout my day to day life. Want proof? Here are ten things you can do this evening to cut your spending a little. Do them tonight and you’ll save a little bit. Keep the ones that work and make them part of your routine and you’ll find yourself saving quite a lot over time.
1. Make Dinner at Home…
When you make a meal at home, you cut out the cost of paying someone else to prepare the food, paying for that building’s location and maintenance, and also chipping in for a bit of business profit. If you tip, you’re also tossing some cash at the wait staff or the delivery guy. Those costs really add up, even for one meal, and if you do it repeatedly, that’s a lot of cash. Make it at home instead and cut out all of those extra costs.

Sure, eating out is more convenient, and if you feel less than confident in your cooking abilities, you might want to choose a meal made by someone else. The catch is that the cost is almost always far more than what you can make at home and most homemade meals really aren’t that time consuming either, particularly if you use a slow cooker and prepare something to cook slowly while you’re at work. Start with a great “teaching” cookbook like How to Cook Everything or watch a Youtube video or two on how to prepare something that seems tasty to you and before you know it, you’ll be prepared to make every meal you can imagine.
2. … But Make a Triple or Quadruple Batch and Freeze the Rest

If you’re already making a meal, make plenty of extras. This can save money in a lot of ways. First, you can freeze the extras and bring them out for quick lunches or dinners whenever you need something simple. With casseroles, for example, you can often prepare the whole thing and simply bring them out and toss them in the oven when needed. Alternately, if you completely cook more than you can eat for dinner, you can simply use the extras for leftovers. Pack them up and take them to work the next day.

Doing this means you can afford to buy ingredients in bulk, which can save you money. If I make four pans of lasagna at once, I can buy the bulk noodles and actually use all of them, for example.
3. Go For a Walk Before Dark, and Turn Off All of the Lights Before You Go

A walk is one of the best things you can do in the evening. It’s light to moderate exercise, which is great for your health. It’s completely free. It gets you out in the community, seeing people, and learning what there is to do near where you live (or, if you live in the country, you get to see the beautiful countryside).

Better yet, it can save you money. Turn off all of your lights before you leave, as well as other energy-eating devices (like your television and your computer). If you save 1,000 watt-hours while you walk, you’ll save $0.15 or so, and that’s actually pretty easy to do. Ten light bulbs, a computer, a computer monitor can easily add up to 1,000 watts, and if you walk for an hour, you’ve made it.

Make an evening walk a routine. You’ll feel better. Your energy bill will drop by about $5 a month if you turn off the lights before you go. You’ll also be taking proactive action for your long-term health.
4. Read a Book After Dark

You’re at home. It’s dark out. You’re feeling a bit tired, but you’d like to relax for an hour or so before bed. Try something different and don’t turn on the television or the computer. Instead, leave those energy-eating devices off and open up a book. Books can entertain. Books can teach. They’re also available in abundance for free at your local library and they require very little home energy to enjoy–I can easily read by a two or three watt LED lamp.

“But I fall asleep when I read!” If that’s the case, then it means you’re tired and you need to go to bed anyway. A lot of people don’t get enough sleep and falling asleep when you read or watch television is a good sign that you just need to go to bed.
5. Turn Off Climate Control and Open the Windows
Where I live, the only time it actually makes sense to use climate control is during the evenings and night in the wintertime and during only the hottest days in the summer. The rest of the time, the temperature is constantly somewhere between 50 F and 80 F outside, so why run the air conditioning or the furnace? Just open the windows.

Climate control does a great job of keeping the indoor temperature right at a certain level, but if you simply accept a bit of variation in that temperature, opening the windows can mean a huge reduction in your energy bills.
6. Clean Out Your Pantry

Most of us (myself included) have pantries filled with items bought for specific recipes or picked up because they were on sale. These items are used once or twice, then find their way to the back of the pantry, largely forgotten.

Don’t forget them. Give your pantry a cleaning and figure out everything you have in there. Better yet, strive to use this stuff that you’ve already purchased. Use those items as foundations for recipes for the coming weeks.

In fact…
7. Assemble a Meal Plan for the Next Week and Make a Grocery List Based on That Plan
It’s pretty easy to do this. Just make a grid with seven rows–one for each day of the week–and three columns–for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Then, look through what you have on hand and what’s on sale in your grocery flyer and figure out some recipes using those things that you could easily prepare for meals. Fill those meals into the meal plan, then figure out what groceries you’d actually need to buy to fulfill those meals. There’s your grocery list for the week! Stick to it when you’re at the store and you’re going to find your grocery shopping to be much more financially efficient.

Remember, if you’ve frozen meals before, you can certainly use those to fill in some of the blanks on your meal plan, and any meal that uses up stuff you’ve already bought before it goes bad is a big positive.
8. Clean Out Your Closet

Most people have dozens of items stashed in their closet that they bought intending to use regularly but ended up not finding a way to squeeze it into their life. Those items are just money sitting there taking up space in your closet.

A good closet cleaning can not only earn you some pocket money from selling off the unwanted items on Craigslist, it can also clear up your living space. Suddenly, now you have someplace to put your vacuum instead of the corner of the kitchen, for example.
9. Walk Through Your Monthly Bills

This is a dull task, but it’s worth doing about once a year or so. Just take a copy of the most recent installment of each of your monthly bills and walk step-by-step through the statement. Do you understand what each of the charges are? Do you think that each of the charges are necessary? If your answer to either question is “no,” then a call to customer service is in order. Figure out what all of the items are on your bill and try to remove anything that you don’t want or need on your bill.

Even if you just remove a single one dollar charge from one bill, it’s worth it. That’s $12 a year. That’s $60 over the next five. Often, you’ll trim a lot more than that. Even if you don’t, you’ll have a much better understanding of what you’re paying, which can be useful when shopping around for something like a new cell contract.
10. Talk to Your Neighbors
This final tip might seem surprising, but it’s something so many people overlook. Talk to your neighbors. Get to know them a little bit. It pays off over and over again. If you know your neighbor and need a special kind of screwdriver, you can just ask to borrow one instead of dropping cash at a hardware store. The same is true if you need a bit of sugar or need a hand with something. A neighbor can prevent you from throwing money at those kinds of little things. A neighbor can also be a set of eyeballs on your door when you travel, keeping it safe and picking up packages or newspapers.

Not only that, a neighbor can sometimes turn into a friend, and friendships are invaluable. Spend a few minutes talking to your neighbors and you might find yourself building a relationship that’s far more valuable than you think, regardless of whether your neighbor remains merely an acquaintance or becomes a friend.

This evening, you have many opportunities to trim your spending a bit. What will you choose?

 Courtesy: lifehacker.com

Email This BlogThis! Share to Twitter Share to Facebook

Read More