VENOM by VeNoM

I always loved watching Discovery n NGC and especially the 'Wild' and 'Built for the Kill' when it comes to the category of Animal science , however I like the other shows aired as well.. But lemme not get into them , instead this post is all about 'VenoM' . The other day I was trying to find out the top 10 Venomous Snakes of the planet and our search engine(I hope you like Google Search :) ) threw me a huge list of sites bearing the Top 10. But then I was confused coz each site showed a different list of top 10 with some similarities as well , there was no branded so called official top 10 list. I tried to figure out but as usual lost interest after a while :D and I ended up listing out the Venomous Snakes of the 7 continents.
I now feel that its a pretty good find and so here comes the list. I dont think so that I would satisfy the 'Venom experts or rather the Herpetologists' but I can atleast hope for the best ^_^

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Asia

To start with Asia is one of the richest habitat for the most poisonous snakes.
Almost instantly u say Cobra if you are an Asian when asked about venomous snakes. The deadly venom which it carries makes it the formidable Snake.

King Cobra- found in South and South-East Asian parts , its the longest venomous snake on the planet. Its named King since it feeds on other snakes and on its own species at times.
A lethal strike can kill the human within no time.

Indian Cobra-found in the Southern Asia( India,Pakistan,Bangladesh,Srilanka,Nepal,Bhutan) it accounts for most snakebite casualties in these parts.
The Spectacle marks which it displays to warn off predators is the striking feature of this snake.Its often worshiped and is treated sacred in the Southern India. It's categorized as the Big Four of India.

Russell's Viper-found in South East Asia, China ,Taiwan and Indian Sub-continent, its most dangerous viperid snake. This deep yellow,tan brownish snake covers a huge part of Asia and is responsible for almost all the snakebites on the region. Its the common viper and is extremely camouflaged

Krait-found on Indian Soil as well as the South East Asia , it carries a venom 15times more potent than the Cobra . Comes in different varieties such as Banded Krait, Common Krait etc. These are Nocturnal Creatures mostly feeding on rats , frogs and lizards

Pit Vipers- they are the poisonous vipers found all over Asia.

Malayan Krait (Bungarus candidus )- Southeast Asia and Indonesia. 50% of the bites from this snake are fatal even with the use of antivenom treatment.

Africa

Black Mamba-the World's second largest poisonous snake lives in Africa. Growing upto 4 mts , these black-mouthed snakes are the most feared and dangerous snakes on Africa. They are found in Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Botswana, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Angola, Namibia, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa and the Congo. These can hunt prey both in day and night making it one of the successful predators.
Their Cousins Green Mambas are also dangerous but only carry 1/10th of the toxic content of their former species.

Boomslang-Its an exception of the Colubridae family, and carries a highly dangerous venom. Its a small snake and lives in Saharan Africa.

Puff Adder- is a venomous viper species found in Savannah and grasslands from Morocco and western Arabia throughout Africa except for the Sahara and rain forest regions.

Bush Viper- This triangle headed green snake lives on the tree perches feeding on lizards and birds and known to carry a lethal venom. Its found in sub sharan Africa

Egyptian Cobra and Gaboon Viper are the other poisonous snakes of the continent

Europe

Common Adder-Not recognized as highly dangerous these are wide-spread snakes of Europe.

Long Nosed Viper-Its the most dangerous viper of Europe.The most distinctive characteristic is a single "horn" on the snout, just above the rostral scale. It consists of 9-17 scales arranged in 2 (rarely 2 or 4) transverse rows

Ursinis' Viper - a venomous viper and a very widespread species, found from southeastern France all the way to China (Xinjiang)

North America

American Copperhead- a venomous pitviper species found in North America. Its not known to inflict lethal doses of venom, this snake is an ambush hunter like the most vipers

Cottonmouth is a venomous pitviper species found in the eastern United States. Adults are large and capable of delivering a painful and potentially fatal bite, but their reputation for aggression is largely undeserved. This is the world's only semi aquatic viper, usually being found in or near water, particularly in slow-moving and shallow lakes and streams.

Coral Snake- the smallest, yet one of the most poisonous snakes lives in southern parts of North America. The notable feature of these snakes are the colorful bands on their skins.New World coral snakes possess the second most potent venom of any North American snake, behind some rattlesnake species.

Rattlesnake-Diamondback Rattlesnakes are the largest of all North American Venomous Reptiles and is in the family Crotalidae. These impressive snakes are not only deadly, but incredibly beautiful as well.Around 8,000 people are bitten by venomous snakes in the United States each year.

South America

Bushmaster- The Bushmaster, lachesis muta muta is the largest Pit Viper in the world with a nasty reputation as a "cruel dude". The Bushmaster is a huge, thick-bodied and highly venomous snake with a triangularly shaped head, one of nature's warning signs that a snake is poisonous and potentially deadly.

Tropical Rattlesnake is a venomous pitviper species found in South America. The most widely distributed member of its genus, this species poses a serious medical problem in many parts of its range.

Jumping Viper is a venomous pitviper species found in Mexico and Central America.

Others are Mojave Pit Viper, Eyelash Viper, fer-de-lance

Australia

When it comes to Australia you'll find a great number of venomous snakes. Infact four of the top 10 venomous snakes hail from Aus.

Inland Taipan-also known as the Small Scaled Snake and Fierce Snake, is native to Australia and is the most venomous snake in the world. Maximum yield recorded (for one bite) is 110mg. That would probably be enough to kill over 100 people or 250,000 mice. These rare snakes are virtually unknown in collections outside of Australia.

Taipan - Australia. The venom delivered in a single Taipan bite is enough to kill up to 12,000 guinea pigs.

Tiger snake- a type of venomous serpent found in southern regions of Australia, including its coastal islands and Tasmania. These snakes are highly variable in their color, often banded like those on a tiger, and forms in their regional occurrences.Tiger snakes possess a potent neurotoxin (notexin), coagulants, haemolysins and myotoxins, and rank amongst the deadliest snakes in the world.

Death Adder is a genus of highly venomous elapid snakes. Commonly called death adders, they are native to Australia, New Guinea and nearby islands, and are among the most venomous snakes in the world.
Death adders inject on average 40 – 100 mg of extremely toxic venom with a bite. This makes an untreated death adder bite one of the most dangerous in the world.Death adder venom is completely neurotoxic, containing neither haemotoxins or myotoxins, unlike most venomous snakes.

Australian Brown Snake-The King Brown or Mulga snake is a venomous snake found in Australia. It is the second largest venomous snake in Australia (after the Taipan) and the third largest venomous snake in the world and produces large amounts of venom. Although the name implies it is a brown snake, it is in fact part of the black snake genus.

Australian Copperhead is a genus of venomous elapid snakes native to the relatively fertile temperate southern and eastern part of the Australian continent.

Oceania

Almost all the sea snakes are venomous and infact the deadliest snake on the planet lives in ocean!

Beaked seasnake- also known as the hook-nosed sea snake, the common sea snake, is a species of sea snake.
It is found in the Arabian Sea and Persian Gulf (off Oman), south of the Seychelles and Madagascar, the seas off South Asia (Pakistan, India and Bangladesh), Southeast Asia (Myanmar (formerly Burma), Thailand, Vietnam), and Australia (Northern Territory and Queensland) and New Guinea.

Yellowbelly Sea Snake- or Pelagic Sea Snake is a species of sea snake found in tropical oceanic waters around the world.

Banded Sea Snake-Sea Snakes are highly venomous marine reptiles inhabiting the warm tropical waters of the world.

Snakes are most beautiful reptiles. Protect them and also their habitat.

I hope you like the post..
As usual I expect some replies.. so do drop them.

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Join the War against Terrorism

Fighting terrorism is like being a goalkeeper. You can make a hundred brilliant saves but the only shot that people remember is the one that gets past you. -PAUL WILKINSON

November 26 2008 - this is the day the Mumbai people, the whole of India and perhaps the world will never forget. On this day at around 9:00 PM, a group of 10-15 unidentified (who the f*** is caring about their identity) terrorists stormed into the Chatrapathi Shivaji Terminal (Popularly Known as VT Station) and Colaba hospital, inhumanly killing scores of innocent people and causing havoc. They then spread themselves into groups, snatched a car and went straight to the Taj Hotel, Oberoi-Trident Hotel and Nariman House (house of Israeli Nationals) asking for British and American Passports. The attacks have been dubbed by media as "India's 9/11", an apparent reference to the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

They were basically a series of ten coordinated attacks committed by Islamic militants, which began across Mumbai, India's financial capital and largest city, on 26 November 2008 and ended on 29 November 2008 when Indian security forces finally regained control of all attack sites. The Operation lasted more than 60 hours. Casual

A previously unknown organization identifying itself as the Deccan Mujahideen claimed responsibility by email sent to news organizations. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said the attacks probably had "external linkages", believing that the attack could not have occurred without help. Well whatever might be the organisation, whether it may be the Lashkar-e-Taiba or Al-Qaeda or any other new born one, I wondered what is the motive behind these attacks.

Possibilities being

1) They will get huge international publicity as so many media channels have been providing non-stop live coverage of the incident.

2) They wanted to frighten the foreign nationals who visit India.

3) And as claimed by one terrorist (who has been caught by the NSG - National Security Gaurd) that their aim was to blast the Historic and Iconic Taj Hotel just as they did with 'JW Mariott' Hotel in Islamabad.

Coming to the fundamental aspects of these senseless organisations:

A Mujahid is a Muslim involved in a jihad, who is fighting in a war or involved in any other struggle. The plural is Mujahideen. The word is from the same Arabic triliteral as jihad ("struggle").

What is the meaning of Jihad?

Literally, jihad means doing one’s utmost to realize a goal. It is not the equivalent of war, for which Arabic and the Qur’an use qital. Jihad has a wider connotation and embraces every kind of striving in God’s cause. A mujahid is devoted to his or her cause; uses all physical, intellectual, and spiritual capacities to serve it.

Jihad’s related principle, that of amr bi al-ma‘ruf wa nahy ‘an al-munkar (enjoining good and forbidding evil), seeks to convey the benefits of Islam to everyone and to convince them to abandon all of their evil practices. The Qur’an calls Muslims the model community, one required to communicate the Prophet’s message to humanity and to live Islam, just as the Prophet did: Thus, We have made you a community justly balanced, that you might be witnesses for all humanity, and the Messenger may be a witness for you
Please try to refer this important website about more information.

These senseless terrorist groups doesn't recognize the importance of this holy war and at the back of it they keep on terrorising innocent people with numerous blasts and gun-firing. Moreover they degrade the name of almighty "Allah" by saying "jihad in the name of Allah" and do such evil deeds themselves.

Now comes the most important and the main aim of this article>>>I request the people who are reading this post to 'Join the War against Terrorism'. By saying this i doesn't mean that each and every person should enroll themselves in the army and flush out the terrorists. Beat them indirectly in every possible way each one can afford to. I myself tried to find out some possibilities:

1) Counsel the terrorists and change their minds (probably the most difficult one but definitely not impossible).

2) Do not politicise the Security Forces. Give them maximum permissions while dealing with terrorists.

3) People should feel responsible in informing police about any untoward incident.

4) Do not differentiate people based on caste, creed, race and religion which indirectly induces these evil deeds.

5) Recognise People who stand up against terror.

6) Be calm and stubborn during such attacks. Indomitable Spirit is the need of the hour.

7) Create voluntary groups which will co-ordinate the efforts of the government and the civil society and which will educate people about terrorism and how to stand up against it… Giving information to security agencies…For a Voluntary community-based self-policing movement to emerge, people have to break free of the prisons of individualism and 'what is in it for me?' thinking.

Elinor Ostrom's path-breaking book, Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action (1990), offers dozens of examples of community self-policing from around the world that succeeded, even in the absence of a corollary state enforcement machinery. The logic of these cases is simple: people can find solutions to their own problems, provided they are aware of their inherent strengths as a community.

8) Create terror laws which will give out stringent punishment to people indulging in acts of terror within a short period of time. It will make it a deterrent for people to indulge in terror activities.

9) Finally select the right leaders after all they are the seeds of democracy.


I seriously request you to please give your valuable suggestions as this is not a war by single person, it is the war of humanity against evil. This is the perfect 'Jihad' as communicated by the Almighty "Allah".

Last but not the least (rather this is the start of your required inspiration) i would like to SALUTE those brave and dynamic soldiers who tried until their last breath in saving us from these terrorist attacks. May their soul rest in peace. This is the perfect answer to the people who raise questions when these soldiers are given a mere 1000 bucks more in return for their precious lives.

Who Dares, Wins. Who Sweats, Wins. Who Plans, Wins. - British SAS

Jai Jawan!!! ( Hats Off Soldier!!!)

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Minima Dark extremely customizable

So here comes yet another addition to the Minima Dark Template Family. This Minima Dark edited by Usuário Compulsivo and named Minima Dark Compulsivo is a 3 column, simple and extremely customizable one.

I stumbled upon this the other day and just instantly I applied it to one of my blogs. U can check it here.

Since its the basic template and as this carries no images hence it loads faster though its adapted to 3 column. Lemme list some of its striking features.

• Its a 3 column
• Its simple and hence loads faster and carries no images
• Widget Friendly which can accommodate 300*300 as well as 150*150 columns in its sidebar. Widgets at the bottom giving it a refreshing web-site look.
• Top tab and Feed Buttons.
• Comes equipped with Technorati and Social Bookmarking at the end of each post.
• Content expand option available.
• Column spacing at the bottom of posts.
• Tabber Tab
• with Related Articles and Comment form beneath every post

Steps to configure your template.

1. As advised back up your previous template.
2. Upload the xml file
3. Now get to the Dashboard-Layout-page Elements

i) Edit the Top Link List which u can observe over there to your links.
ii) To customize your Tabber tab ,create three Feeds or your widgets



Now save them and navigate to edit html portion and try to find these widgets. Suppose you have saved a widget viz. Wallpapers as a feed so try to search wallpapers(ctrl+f mzilla) and cut the entire widget
it should be something like this.
< b:widget id=xxx type='feed' / >

Now cut this comple widget to widget and place it just below the tabber. The image tells you everything.



Once you are done with it save it.

Now check the include widget option.

iii) Now find "RSS Feed" and give your feed link.

iv) Now find Ur_BlogName or credits and replace them with your Blog title and so on.!

v) Donot remove the Footer Credits!

vi) Now try to search "form" you'll find a Google Search Form enclosed in the div section. Replace the form with your Search form. This is a must!



viii) Now find the "Bookmarks" and you can find four social book marking options over there and if u need more just add them over there..!

Q) How to embed Ads Within posts?
A) Get to Edit Html section , Expand Widgets and now try to search " data:post body ".

The image is self-explanatory! Click to have a full-view of the image.

ScreenShots


Demo | Download

Thats it about this template. It was originally in Portugese and I just added the Bookmarking and Technorati options and converted it into English.
Thats it for now.. Hope you like the template..
More to follow....

Tags: 3 Column Blogger templates, Blogger templates, Layouts, Templates, Blogger, Blogs, Adsense, Minima Black

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History's Greatest Speeches

Handle them carefully, for words have more power than atom bombs.
--Pearl Strachan

Words, from the time memorial have influenced the masses, grabbed the attention of people in so many revolutionary movements, has been a powerful tool in motivating, influencing, persuading, informing, translating, or simply entertaining the huge number of fans.

They made heroes overnight, brought down the greatest of empires and brought up equally resounding governments, catapulted simplest of human beings into fame and glory-etching their names in the history as the most powerful, legendary and evergreen souls.

Leaders from Adolf Hitler to Martin Luther King, Jr. and or even modern political figures such as President-elect Barack Obama are effective orators who used oratory to have a significant impact on society. The speeches of politicians are often widely analysed by both theirs fans and detractors.

In this post i will try to present some of the outstanding, spirited, emotional and controversial speeches of the contemporary world. At first i thought of naming this post as "Top 10 Greatest Speeches of History", but when i read/listened them not a single one deserved partiality. Every speech is a Master Piece in it's own way, having a specific purpose, directed towards achieving the goals of the PEOPLE or rather a NATION to whom the speech was delivered.

There is no true orator who is not a hero.- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Sermon on the Mount - Jesus Christ

In the Gospel of St. Matthew, the Sermon on the Mount is a compilation of Jesus' sayings, epitomizing his moral teaching. Jesus of Nazareth gave this sermon (estimated around AD 30) on a mountainside to his disciples and a large crowd. Matthew groups Jesus' teachings into five discourses, of which the Sermon on the Mount is the first. The others concern instructions for the disciples, parables of the Kingdom, instructions for the Church, and a harsh denunciation of scribes and pharisees. [Read More] [Listen].


Galileo Affair

The Galileo affair, in which Galileo Galilei came into conflict with the Catholic Church over his support of Copernican astronomy, is often considered a defining moment in the history of the relationship between religion and science. [Read More] [Listen: Part-1, Part-2].


Give me Liberty or give me Death - Patrick Henry

"Give me Liberty, or give me Death!" is a famous quotation attributed to Patrick Henry from a speech made to the Virginia Convention. It was given March 23, 1775, at St. John's Church in Richmond, Virginia, and is credited with having swung the balance in convincing the Virginia House of Burgesses to pass a resolution delivering the Virginia troops to the Revolutionary War. Supposedly in attendance were Thomas Jefferson and George Washington. Reportedly, the crowd, upon hearing the speech, shouted, "To arms! To arms!" [Read More] [Listen].


The Declaration of Independence - Thomas Jefferson

Written primarily by Thomas Jefferson, the Declaration is a formal explanation of why Congress had voted on July 2 to declare independence from Great Britain, more than a year after the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War. The birthday of the United States of America—Independence Day—is celebrated on July 4, the day the wording of the Declaration was approved by Congress. [Read More] [Listen].


Blood and Iron - Otto Von Bismarck

Blood and Iron (German: Blut und Eisen) is the title of a famous speech by German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck given in 1862 about the unification of the German territories. It is also a famous transposed phrase that Bismarck uttered near the end of the speech that has become one of his most famous quotations. Although Bismarck was an outstanding diplomat, the phrase "blood and iron" has become a popular description of his foreign policy partly because he did on occasion resort to war in a highly effective manner to aid in the unification of Germany and the expansion of its continental power. [Read More] [Listen].


The Gettysburg Address - Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln's carefully crafted address, secondary to other presentations that day, came to be regarded as one of the greatest speeches in American history. In just over two minutes, Lincoln invoked the principles of human equality espoused by the Declaration of Independence and redefined the Civil War as a struggle not merely for the Union, but as "a new birth of freedom" that would bring true equality to all of its citizens, and that would also create a unified nation in which states' rights were no longer dominant. [Read More] [Listen].


This was their finest hour - Winston Churchill

This was their finest hour speech was delivered by Sir Winston Churchill to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom on 18 June 1940. It was given shortly after he took over as Prime Minister of Britain on 10 May, in the first year of World War II.

It was the third of three speeches which he gave during the period of the Battle of France. These speeches (the other two being the "Blood, toil, tears, and sweat" speech of 13 May, and the "We shall fight on the beaches" speech of 4 June) were a great inspiration to the embattled United Kingdom as it entered what was probably the most dangerous phase of the entire war. [Read More] [Listen].

The Infamy/Pearl Harbor Speech - Franklin Roosevelt

The Infamy Speech was delivered on December 8, 1941, by United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt, one day after the Empire of Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor Naval Base, Hawaii. The address is regarded as one of the most famous American political speeches of the 20th century. [Read More] [Listen].


The Quit India Speech - Mahatma Gandhi

The Quit India speech is a speech made by Mahatma Gandhi on August 8th 1942, on the eve of the Quit India movement. He called for determined, but passive resistance that signified the certitude that Gandhi foresaw for the movement is best described by his call to Do or Die. His speech was issued at the Gowalia Tank Maidan in Bombay, since re-named August Kranti Maidan (August Revolution Ground). However, almost the entire Congress leadership, and not merely at the national level, was put into confinement less than twenty-four hours after Gandhi's speech, and the greater number of the Congress leaders were to spend the rest of the war in jail.
[Read More].


Tryst With Destiny - Jawaharlal Nehru

Tryst with Destiny was a speech made by Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of independent India. The speech was made to the Indian Constituent Assembly, on the eve of India's independence, towards midnight on August 14, 1947. It focuses on the aspects that transcend India's history. It is considered in modern India to be a landmark oration that captures the essence of the triumphant culmination of the hundred-year Indian freedom struggle against the British Empire in India. [Read More] [Listen].


History Will Absolve Me - Fidel Castro

History Will Absolve Me (Spanish:"La historia me absolverá") is the concluding sentence and subsequent title of a four-hour speech made by Fidel Castro on 16 October 1953. Castro made the speech in his own defense in court against the charges brought against him after leading an attack on the Moncada Barracks. Though no record of Castro's words was kept, he reconstructed them later for publication in what was to become the manifesto of his 26th of July Movement. The trial helped propel Castro into the public consciousness as a leading figure in the resistance to the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista. [Read More]


We will bury you - Nikita Khrushchev

Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev famously used an expression generally translated into English as "We will bury you!" ("Мы вас похороним!", transliterated as My vas pokhoronim!) while addressing Western ambassadors at a reception at the Polish embassy in Moscow on November 18, 1956.Full translation of the quote reads: "Whether you like it or not, history is on our side. We will dig you in" (Нравится вам или нет, но история на нашей стороне. Мы вас закопаем). [Read More]


There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom - Richard Feynman

There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom is the title of a famous lecture given by physicist Richard Feynman at an American Physical Society meeting at Caltech on December 29, 1959. Feynman considered the possibility of direct manipulation of individual atoms as a more powerful form of synthetic chemistry than those used at the time. [Read More]


Ask not what your country can do for you - John F Kennedy

U.S. President John F. Kennedy delivered his first and only inaugural address on Friday, January 20, 1961, immediately after taking the presidential oath of office administered by Chief Justice Earl Warren.

The address is 1364 words and took 13 minutes and 59 seconds to deliver, from the first word to the last word, not including applause at the end, making it the fourth-shortest inaugural address ever delivered. It is widely considered to be among the best presidential inauguration speeches in American history. [Read More] [Listen].


I am Prepared to Die - Nelson Mandela

'I am prepared to die' were the closing words from Mandela’s statement from the dock at the commencement of the defence case in the Rivonia Trial at the Pretoria Supreme Court in April 1964. His speech has been widely reproduced in many forms.

Mandela’s powerful statement revealed his moral integrity and strength of conviction in the struggle for equality for all South Africans.His words garnered support from individuals and organisations across the world, creating a momentum for change which ultimately brought about an end to apartheid in South Africa. [Read More].

I have a Dream - Martin Luther King Jr.

"I Have A Dream" is the popular name given to the historic public speech by Martin Luther King, Jr., when he spoke of his desire for a future where blacks and whites among others would coexist harmoniously as equals. King's delivery of the speech on August 28, 1963, from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, was a defining moment of the American Civil Rights Movement.

Delivered to over 250,000 civil rights supporters, the speech is often considered to be one of the greatest and most notable speeches in history and was ranked the top American speech of the 20th century by a 1999 poll of scholars of public address. [Read More] [Listen].

Tear Down This Wall - Ronald Reagen

"Tear down this wall!" was the famous challenge from United States President Ronald Reagan to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to destroy the Berlin Wall.

In a speech at the Brandenburg Gate commemorating the 750th anniversary of Berlin, by the Berlin Wall on June 12, 1987, Reagan challenged Gorbachev, then the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, to tear it down as a symbol of Reagan's desire for increasing freedom in the Eastern Bloc. [Read More] [Listen].

Sermon on the Mound - Margaret Thatcher

The Sermon on the Mound is the name given by the Scottish press to an address made by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland on 21 May 1988. In the address, Thatcher offered a theological justification for her ideas on capitalism and the market economy. She claimed "Christianity is about spiritual redemption, not social reform" and she quoted St Paul by saying "If a man will not work he shall not eat". [Read More]


Gazimestan Speech - Slobodan Milošević

The Gazimestan speech was a speech given on 28 June 1989 by Slobodan Milošević, then President of Serbia. It was the centrepiece of a day-long event to mark the 600th anniversary of the Battle of Kosovo, in which the medieval Serbian kingdom had been defeated by the Ottoman Empire. The speech was delivered to a huge crowd gathered at the place where the battle had been fought, Gazimestan in the Central Kosovo. It came against a backdrop of intense ethnic tension between ethnic Serbs and Albanians in Kosovo and increasing political tensions between Serbia and the other constituent republics of the then Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. [Read More] [Listen].

A More Perfect Union - Barack Obama

"A More Perfect Union" is the name of a speech delivered by United States President-elect Barack Obama on March 18, 2008 in the course of the contest for the 2008 Democratic Party presidential nomination. Speaking before an audience at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on March 18 of that year, Obama was responding to a spike in the attention paid to controversial remarks made by the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, his former pastor and, until shortly before the speech, a participant in his campaign. Obama directed to the broader issue of race in the United States.

On March 27, 2008, the Pew Research Center called the speech "arguably the biggest political event of the campaign so far," noting that 85 percent of Americans said they had heard at least a little about the speech and that 54 percent said they heard a lot about it. Eventually, The New Yorker opined that the speech helped elect Obama as the President of the United States. [Read More] [Listen].

Your Comments and Suggestions on these 20 greatest speeches are most welcome.

Speech Summary Source: Wikipedia

Tagged Under: speeches, history, oratory, oration

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Mystery Bonanza : e-books

Agatha Christie 67 Novels

Arguably, she is one of the world's most famous writer of mystery novels. With her outstanding and gripping compilation she caught the attention of every mystery enthusiast. She wrote many short stories, novels, plays which entertained the people of early and mid 20th century. Her works, particularly featuring detectives Hercule Poirot or Miss Jane Marple, have given her the title the 'Queen of Crime' and made her one of the most important and innovative writers in the development of the genre.

Christie has been called—by the Guinness Book of World Records, among others — the best-selling writer of books of all time and the best-selling writer of any kind, along with William Shakespeare. Only the Bible is known to have outsold her collected sales of roughly four billion copies of novels. Here is a collection of her 67 novels in PDF format(e-books) i found on the internet.

Download Link:

• Rapidshare

John Grisham 18 novels



John Grisham is one of the most prolific and beloved mystery writers today, still reaching the top of the bestseller lists with books like The Testament (1999) and King of Torts (2003). In recent times, he has also experimented with different genres, such as A Painted House (2001), a semi-autobiographical work, and Skipping Christmas (2001), a holiday narrative. He is identified primarily with legal thrillers. A Collection of 18 of his novels for you:

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• Rapidshare

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle : Sherlock Holmes



....Sherlock Holmes>>>well he is the most popular and brilliant detective on the earth. His name is known every where and is synonymous with "detective reasoning and astute observation". He is so popular that he even overwhelmed his creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Many people think that he is a real life detective who actually lived in London solving many difficult cases with ease. Even now in the eastern part of the world people believe that all those novels were written by him as an autobiography. I call it as a self-plagiarism by Conon Doyle (lol).

His works are considered a major innovation in the field of crime fiction. He was a prolific writer whose other works include science fiction stories, historical novels, plays and romances, poetry, and non-fiction. Conan Doyle wrote four novels and fifty-six short stories that featured Holmes. All but four stories are narrated by Holmes's friend and biographer, Dr. John H. Watson; two are narrated by Sherlock Holmes himself, and two others are written in the third person.

Fact: In Microsoft Windows, Dr. Watson is an application debugger included with the operating system. It is usually named drwatson.exe, drwtsn32.exe or dwwin.exe depending on the version of Windows. It is named after Dr. John H. Watson of Sherlock Holmes fame, with the idea being that it would collect error information (symptoms) following the problem.

A collcetion of his novels. Download, Read and Njoyyy!!!

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• Rapidshare
• MIHD

Stephen King 100 novels



Stephen dubbed as the 'Horror King" is an American author of over 200 stories including over 50 bestselling horror and fantasy novels. King was the 2003 recipient of The National Book Foundation's Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters.

King evinces a thorough knowledge of the horror genre, as shown in his nonfiction book Danse Macabre, which chronicles several decades of notable works in both literature and cinema. He has also written stories outside the horror genre, including the novella collection Different Seasons, The Green Mile, The Eyes of the Dragon, Hearts in Atlantis and his magnum opus, The Dark Tower series. In the past, Stephen King has written under the pen names Richard Bachman and (once) John Swithen. A Collection of his 100 novels here:

Download Link:

• Rapidshare-100 novels
• Rapidshare-130 novels

Sidney Sheldon 16 novels



As a legendary storyteller, novelist, and screenwriter, Sidney Sheldon remains one of the world's top bestselling authors and is the only writer to have won an Oscar, a Tony, and an Edgar. All eighteen of Sheldon's novels reigned at the top of the New York Times bestseller list. His second, The Other Side of Midnight, held the Times's then-record of fifty-two weeks on the list.

Sheldon was the creator of TV's classic hit programs The Patty Duke Show, I Dream of Jeannie, and Hart to Hart. Additionally, he won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer starring Cary Grant and Myrna Loy. The Guinness World Records 2004 heralded him as the most translated author in the world. A collection of his 16 novels:

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Dan Brown 4 novels



Dan Brown is an American author of thriller fiction, best known for the 2003 bestselling novel, The Da Vinci Code and the 2000 bestselling novel, Angels & Demons.

Brown is interested in cryptography, keys, and codes, which are a recurring theme in his stories. Currently his novels have been translated into more than 40 languages.

Although many perceive Brown's books as anti-Christian, Brown states on his website that he is a Christian and says of his book The Da Vinci Code that it is simply "an entertaining story that promotes spiritual discussion and debate" and suggests that the book may be used "as a positive catalyst for introspection and exploration of our faith". A collection of his 4 novels here:

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I personally love this collection, but i want comments from u on this and ur suggestions on other books are most welcome.

Books Source: FreeBookSpot

Tagged Under: mystery, horror, suspense, thriller, books, pdf, sherlock+holmes, agatha+christie, Stephen+king, dan+brown, sidney+sheldon, john+grisham

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Denim and Denim all the way!

So.. What makes denim the most famous fabric?? I always wondered if there was any garment denim less! Well tell you what there are denim themes and a blogger template too.....! I was on a shopping spree recently and couldn't resist with yet another denim for myself though I'm not blessed with an excellent physic.. :D!

One of the oldest and yet most versatile fabric on the planet has always been on the desks of any garment counter!
It has evolved over the years from the early cowboy stuff of 1930's to the denim necklace blended with diamonds! Its the hottest selling item at any given point in any country. The craze it carries with an equally experimentation that its subjected to makes this garment one of the greatest inventions of the Fashion industry!


Marketed by almost all the famous firms, Levis Strauss n Co. leads the pack with Lee, Wrangler,Pepe Jeans, Trigger, Live in, Disel etc.. to follow.

When it comes the history.. lemme put an incident which triggered the Jeans!

In 1853, the California gold rush was in full swing, and everyday items were in short supply. Levi Strauss, a 24-year-old German immigrant, left New York for San Francisco with a small supply of dry goods with the intention of opening a branch of his brother's New York dry goods business. Shortly after his arrival, a prospector wanted to know what Mr. Strauss was selling. When Strauss told him he had rough canvas to use for tents and wagon covers, the prospector said, "You should have brought pants!," saying he couldn’t find a pair of pants strong enough to last.

Denim Blue Jeans

Levi Strauss had the canvas made into waist overalls. Miners liked the pants, but complained that they tended to chafe. Levi Strauss substituted a twilled cotton cloth from France called "serge de Nimes." The fabric later became known as denim and the pants were nicknamed.



Here comes the Time-Line of Denim..

1800’s: American gold miners wanted clothes that were strong and did not tear easily. To meet this demand, Leob Strauss started a wholesale business, supplying clothes. Strauss later changed his name from the rather plain Leob to the extremely recognizable Levi.

1930's: Cowboys - who often wore jeans in the movies - became very popular, which lead to an increased interest in the rugged trousers.

1940's: Fewer jeans were made during World War 2, but American soldiers did introduce them to the world by wearing them when they were off duty. After the war, rival companies, like Wrangler and Lee, began to compete with Levi's for a share of the international market.

1950's: Denim became very popular with young people in the 1950's. It was the symbol of the teenage rebellion in TV programmes and movies - think James Dean in the 1955 film Rebel Without a Cause! Some schools in the US went so far as to ban students from wearing denim.

1960-70's: Manufacturers started to make different styles of jeans to match the 60's fashions: embroidered jeans, painted jeans, psychedelic jeans... In many non-western countries, jeans became a symbol of ' western decadence' and were very hard to get.

1980's: In the 1980's jeans became high fashion clothing. Famous fashion designers like Gucci started making jeans, with their own labels on them, and jean sales started to rocket.

1990's: Although denim is never completely out of style, it certainly goes out of "fashion" from time to time. The 1990's youth market wasn’t particularly interested in 501s and other traditional jeans styles, mainly because their parents: the "generation born in blue" were still wearing them. No teenager in their right mind would be caught dead in anything their parents are wearing, so the 1990's youth turned to other fabrics and styles like cargo pants, khakis and branded sportswear.

Denim was still in vogue, but it had to be in different finishes, new cuts, shapes, styles, or in the form of aged, authentic, vintage jeans, discovered in markets, and second-hand stores, not conventional jeans stores. Levi Strauss & Co., the No.1producer of jeans closed 11 factories in the 1990's.

2000: Jeans made a come back on the catwalk with big name designers Chanel, Dior, Chloe and Versace adding them to their summer ’99 collections.

Time-line credit goes to nzgirl

Before you can start following up, lemme also include some pictures ....!


I would luv to expand this but I'l do it some time time later...
Hope you like my Denim Saga..!!
As always love hearing from you.....

Tags: Jeans, Denim, Fashion, Denim Trousers, Denim Pants, Blue Jeans

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Rare and Legendary Photos of the Computer World

1) Tim Berners Lee -- Founder of the World Wide Web



2) Picture taken when microsoft was started



3) Steve Woznaik(sitting) and Steve Jobs of APPLE Computers.
He was three months late in filing a name for the business because he didn't get any better name for his new company.
So one day he told to the staff: " If I'll not get better name by 5 o'clcok today, our company's name will be anything he likes..."
so at 5 o'clcok nobody cameup with better name, and he was eating APPLE that time...
so he kept the name of the company 'Apple Computers'




4) Bill Hewlett(L) and Dave Packard® of HP.
Behind them in the picture is the famous HP Garage.
Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard tossed a coin to decide whether the company they founded would be called Hewlett-Packard or Packard-Hewlett.
And the winner was NOT Bill... the winner was Dave.


5) Ken Thompson (L)and Dennis Ritchie® ,creators of UNIX.
Dennis Ritchie improved on the B programming language and called it 'New B'.
B was created by Ken Thompson as a revision of the Bon programming language (named after his wife Bonnie)
He later called it C.



6) Larry Page(L) and Sergey Brin®, founders of Google.
Google was originally named 'Googol'.
After founders (Stanford graduates) Sergey Brin and Larry Page presented their project to an angel investor...
they received a cheque made out to 'Google' !...
So they kept name as GOOGLE



7) Gordon Moore(L) and Bob Noyce® ,founders of Intel.
Bob Noyce and Gordon Moore wanted to name their new company 'Moore Noyce'.
But that was already trademarked by a hotel chain...
So they had to settle for an acronym of INTegrated ELectronics... INTEL




8 Andreas Bechtolsheim , Bill Joy, Scott Mc Nealy and Vinod Khosla of SUN(StanfordUniversity Network) MicroSystems.
Founded by four StanfordUniversity buddies.
Andreas Bechtolsheim built a microcomputer;
Vinod Khosla recruited him;
Scott McNealy to manufacture computers based on it;
and Bill Joy to develop a UNIX-based OS for the computer...
SUN is the acronym for Stanford University Network .



9) Linus Torvalds of Linux Operating System Linus Torvalds originally used the Minix OS on his system which he replaced by his OS.
Hence the working name was Linux (Linus' Minix).
He thought the name to be too egotistical and planned to name it Freax (free + freak + x).
His friend Ari Lemmk encouraged Linus to upload it to a network so it could be easily downloaded.
Ari gave Linus a directory called linux on his FTP server, as he did not like the name Freax.
Linus like that directory name and he kept the name of his new OS to LINUX...

__________________________________________________ _________


10) Yahoo! began as a student hobby and evolved into a global brand that has changed the way people communicate with each other, find and access information and purchase things. The two founders of Yahoo!, David Filo and Jerry Yang, Ph.D. candidates in Electrical Engineering at Stanford University, started their guide in a campus trailer in February 1994 as a way to keep track of their personal interests on the Internet. Before long they were spending more time on their home-brewed lists of favorite links than on their doctoral dissertations. Eventually, Jerry and David's lists became too long and unwieldy, and they broke them out into categories. When the categories became too full, they developed subcategories ... and the core concept behind Yahoo! was born.

The Web site started out as "Jerry and David's Guide to the World Wide Web" but eventually received a new moniker with the help of a dictionary. The name Yahoo! is an acronym for "Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle," but Filo and Yang insist they selected the name because they liked the general definition of a yahoo: "rude, unsophisticated, uncouth." Yahoo! itself first resided on Yang's student workstation, "Akebono," while the software was lodged on Filo's computer, "Konishiki" - both named after legendary sumo wrestlers.

Tagged Under: computer, photos, rare

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Notable Inventions of 20th century - Timeline and Top 10 Gadgets of the year 2008

From the dawn of 20th century man has been able to develop some most important, outstanding and ground-breaking technologies that served the purpose of many > making life easy and happy.

The 20th century was a golden age of engineering producing breathtaking succession of innovations. There was this 'relativistic theory' in 1905 to start with, which made Einstein 'the person of the century'.

Followed by (some notable inventions) :-

Aspirin, Blood Groups, Radio, Air Conditioner, Airplane, Marconi's Wireless, Motion Pictures in early 1900's.

Liquid-Fuel Rocket, Radio Remote Control, Toaster, Stainless Steel between 1910 and 1919.

Band-Aid, Hair Dryer, Traffic Light, Bubble Gum, Television, Penicillin, Sun Glasses, Antibiotics, Robot, Insulin between 1920 and 1929.

Ballpoint Pen, Trampoline, Multiplane Camera, Shopping Cart, Electron Microscope, Helicopter between 1930 and 1939.

Blood Bank, Turing Machine, Nuclear Reaction, Bouncing Putty, Microwave Oven, Atomic Bomb, Tupperware, Bikini Swim Suit, ENIAC computer, Transistor, SCRABBLE between 1940 and 1949.

Peanuts, Random Access Memory, Computer Compiler, Play-Doh, TV Remote Control, Integrated Circuit, Laser, Video Game, Barbie Doll, DNA, Credit Card, McDonalds between 1950 and 1959.

Balloon, Holography, Smiley Face, Hand-held Calculator, Dynamic RAM, Computer Mouse, Microprocessor, Speakers, Heart Transplant between 1960 and 1969.

eBooks, Karaoke Machine, Ethernet, Internet, Post-it Notes, Personal Computer, PC Modem, Dyson Vaccum Cleaner, Walkman between 1970 and 1979.

Computer Gaming, IBM-PC, MS-DOS, Mobile Phone, Windows, Macintosh between 1980 and 1989.

World Wide Web, Light Emmiting Diodes, Water Disinfection System, Pentium Processor, JAVA, Viagra, Google between 1990 and 1999

Now in this post we are going to take on some brilliant gadgets developed across the globe this year. Just the rankings have been taken from Popular Mechanics, but the rest of the description work has been done by us.


1. Microsoft Photosynth


You can share or relive a vacation destination or explore a distant museum or landmark. With nothing more than a digital camera and some inspiration, you can use Photosynth to transform regular digital photos into a three-dimensional, 360-degree experience. Anybody who sees your synth is put right in your shoes, sharing in your experience, with detail, clarity and scope impossible to achieve in conventional photos or videos.

Synths constitute an entirely new visual medium. Photosynth analyzes each photo for similarities to the others, and uses that data to build a model of where the photos were taken. It then re-creates the environment and uses that as a canvas on which to display the photos.

Imagine yourself beneath the Eiffel Tower or in the heart of Times Square. Now imagine being able to see that exact scene in an amazing new way. With Photosynth, you can look up or down, pan from left to right, zoom in, or pull back to reveal the full sense of where you were. Photosynth provides incredibly realistic close-up detail of a place as seen in the collaboration with National Geographic. Exclusive synths of some of the world’s most renowned locations, such as Machu Picchu and the Parthenon, were created using photographs taken by National Geographic.

Go here photosynth.com


2. Spore


Spore is Will Wright's (Sim City, The Sims) new masterpiece. Spore starts a player out as a single-cell organism swimming around in a primordial soup. As Will Wright explains it, this stage of the game is essentially like Pac-Man, and you basically devour microbes smaller than you while avoiding those that are larger. You can upgrade your cell by adding cilia, flagella, and other defense mechanisms in order to gain any advantage possible for a single cell. From there you'll move on to the "water world" phase of evolution. Your single-cell organism becomes a multi-cell organism. At this point, the gameplay switches from 2d to 3d but is still essentially the same: devouring the less fortunate and avoiding the bullies.Economical

Spore is a revolution in gaming; a modern day coloring book, if you will. It's not a game about trigger happy reflexes, if it's a "game" by traditional standards at all. More closely, it resembles a tool to create: in this case, your own creatures and civilizations. And, of course, Spore is a whole galaxy to explore full of other player's creations and content. Never before has a normal computer gamer been given so much control to create what his heart desires!

Go here spore.com


3. Amazon Kindle


Excellent high-contrast screen does a great job of simulating a printed page; large library of tens of thousands of e-books, newspapers, magazines, and blogs via Amazon's familiar online store; built-in free wireless "Whispernet" data network--no PC needed; built-in keyboard for notes; SD card expansion slot; compatible with Windows and Mac machines.

With its free built-in wireless capabilities and PC-free operation, Amazon's Kindle holds a distinct advantage over Sony's Reader and is a promising evolution of the electronic book--but Amazon needs to bring down the pricing for both the device and the content to attract a wider audience.

Go here for more amazon.com>>>kindle


4. Livescribe Pulse SmartPen



Livescribe has just launched its Pulse Smartpen - what looks like an ordinary writing instrument is actually a computer. Housed within a pen-shape case, this nifty little device is capable of digitally capturing handwriting in addition to recording audio simultaneously, synchronizing it to the writing. As I suspected, it isn’t compatible with any paper (now that would definitely make it sell like super hot cakes all over the world), but instead relies on a special Dot Paper Notebook. Whether you are a student, a professional or just an ordinary bloke who often gets involved in note taking situations, the Livescribe Pulse Smartpen sounds like what the doctor ordered.

Go here livescribe.com>>>SmartPen


5. Craftsman Nextec Multi-Saw


A new breed of saw doesn’t come along very often. The Craftsman Nextec Multi-Saw qualifies—it’s a 12-volt hybrid of a jigsaw and reciprocating saw that hits a new level of versatility. The tool is small enough to get into tight spots, powers through tough jobs and can operate at up to 2000 strokes per minute. $150 (in a kit with a drill, two batteries, a charger, two blades, a drill bit and a work light).


6. Potenco PCG1 Power Generator


The Potenco PCG1 pull-cord generator creates electricity for portable gadgets with far greater efficiency than hand-cranked devices. The PCG1 is the geek-chic version of a generator for the developing world. It weighs 14 ounces, has both an internal NiMh battery and a mini-USB output jack and can convert 2 minutes of effort into 40 minutes of cellphone talk time.


7. Nissan Around View Monitor


Using 4 separate cameras, the monitor displays an image of the vehicle from above. This helps the driver to visually confirm the vehicle's relation to the lines around the parking space. With this, the driver can position the vehicle for parallel parking or park the car in a smart way with ease.

The birds-eye view makes it easy for the driver to position the vehicle for parallel parking. The front/rear view enables the driver to simultaneously confirm the front or rear of the vehicle.
Information of the sonars, equipped on the vehicle corners for camera assistance, are shown on the display in an easy-to-understand way. By displaying the rear view and front-side view simultaneously, the driver can easily confirm the two most worrisome areas; the rear and front assist side of the vehicle.


8. M-Spector Digital Inspection Camera


With advanced digital imaging technology and a 2.4" high-resolution color LCD display, the Digital Inspection Camera provides a crystal clear picture of tough to reach places such as inside pipes, drains and equipment and behind walls. Optimal image quality and control is achieved via an exclusive Image Zoom (2x) feature and LED brightness control. Equipped with a durable, detachable, 3' water-tight flexible cable and a small camera head, the Digital Inspection Camera fits through holes as small a 3/4" and gets into, under and around tight spaces. An ergonomic handle, comfortable in any orientation, features up-front power and image controls for true one-handed operation. A power saving, auto shut-off feature preserves battery life.


9. Intel Atom Processor


Intel's smallest and lowest power processor, the Intel® Atom™ processor enables the latest Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs), and another new category of devices for the internet called netbooks and nettops.

Intel® Atom™ processorNewly designed from the ground up, 45nm Intel® Atom™ processors pack an astounding 47 million transistors on a single chip measuring less than 26mm², making them Intel's smallest and lowest power processors. All this while delivering the power and performance you need for full Internet capabilities.

Go here intel.com>>>Atom


10. Caroma Profile Smart Dual Flush Toilet


Inventive, conservation-minded DIY plumbers have rigged gray-water systems to their toilets for years, reusing water from the sink for flushing. Caroma’s Profile Smart designs the concept right into the fixture, by providing a sink and faucet atop the water-storage tank.

Tagged Under: Gadgets, Electronica, Mobiles, Computers, Accessories

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