The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.

Today's Inspirational Story

Resolutions That Stick
To follow through with the goals you set for yourself this New Year, you must change your attitude and behavior.
By M.J. Ryan

"This year, I’m going to stop worrying so much."

"I will get in shape, once and for all."

"I’ll stop spending beyond my means."

"I’ll get along better with my family."

"I’ll start that business I’ve always dreamed about."

Have you made a resolution similar to one of these? Some of us want to lose weight, become more organized, or quit smoking. Others want to find a sense of purpose, more work/life balance, the courage to leave an unfulfilling career and start over. Whether it’s New Year’s Day, an important birthday, or just because we’re fed up, at some point we vow to make that one leap or give up the thing that plagues us. But by the time the rosy blush of good intentions wears off, the resolution gets pushed aside. Not because we don’t still long to have what we want, but because we just don’t know how to change.

We say we’re going to change, we may even do it for a little while, but soon we find ourselves back to our old habits. Depending on what survey you’ve paying attention to, approximately 45 percent of us make New Year’s resolutions, but only 8 percent succeed. Ninety percent of heart patients don’t stick to the lifestyle changes they need to live longer and healthier lives. Even faced with the dramatic choice to change or die, they can’t do it. I don’t believe they want to die. They just don’t know how to make the choice for life.

Part of the problem is that we’re flooded by bad advice. Right now, I’m staring at a women’s magazine. It’s the November 28th issue and the headline blares: YOU, 43 LBS SLIMMER By Christmas! I’m sorry but you, no matter who you are, are not going to be 43 pounds slimmer in 28 days using their diet or anyone else’s. Such irresponsible "advice" does a great deal of harm. Because it creates unrealistic expectations, it increases the probability we’ll give up before we get where we want to go.

You and I can change. Not just superficially, or temporarily. We can stop doing the things that hold us back or cause us suffering and create a life filled with meaning and happiness. But it’s not easy, as anyone who has tried to change a habit or do something new knows.

To bring new behavior into being takes work. Our brains have enormous "plasticity," meaning they can create new cells and pathways. But our brains create strong tendencies to do the same thing over and over. Here’s why: our neurons (brain cells) that fire together wire together. Meaning, they have a strong tendency to run the same program the next time. That’s why lasting change takes lots of practice; you’ve got to create a pathway to the new options. (Six to nine months, say many brain scientists--so much for those seven-day wonder programs.) The process is not about getting rid of bad habits—the pathway to your current behavior is there for life, baby—but building new, more positive ones. Even stopping doing something, like smoking, is really about creating a good new habit, nonsmoking.

Our brain structure is also why you’ve got to put external reminders in place, at least in the beginning. Unless we have a trigger from the outside—a note, a email reminder, a friend who shows up at the door to go to the gym with you--it’s very likely you’ll keep defaulting to the old behavior because it’s automatic. That’s also why it’s so important to be willing to start over no matter how often you blow it or get discouraged.

Do you keep hoping that a magic fairy will appear to make your dreams come true? That if you just read enough issues of Shape those thunder thighs will disappear? You’re not alone. Most of us are also not concrete enough about what we want and unrealistic about what we can reasonably ask ourselves to learn.

Here’s what a new client of mine said he wanted to learn in three months: "to be less nit picky and fearful; to be more optimistic, to be more responsible and empathetic; to be more creative; to be more productive; to live a healthier life and to take better care of myself." "How about create world peace while you’re at it?" I replied. "And what does `more’ mean anyway? Even if it were possible to focus on all of this in that time frame, how will you know if you are more of any of these things?"

As this client so touchingly demonstrated, we expect too much of ourselves and we expect to change overnight. When that doesn’t happen, we resign ourselves to staying the same, convinced that we are hopeless, weak, or unmotivated. Which makes us even more stuck. As another of my clients, eager to lose weight, puts it, "Once I eat the first cookie, I figure I might as well go through the whole box."

Top Ten Resolution Pitfalls

1. Being vague about what you want

2. Not making a serious commitment

3. Procrastinating and excuse-making—no time, wrong time, dog ate homework

4. Unwilling to go through the awkward phase

5. Not setting up a tracking and reminder system

6. Expecting perfection, falling into guilt, shame, regret

7. Trying to go it alone

8. Telling yourself self-limiting rut stories

9. Not having backup plans

10. Turning slip-ups to give-ups

To truly change requires three things: desire, intent, and persistence. You have to identify what you desire enough to be willing to stick to, make specific, measurable, achievable goals ("stop yelling at my kids" rather than "having more patience," and avoid the common pitfalls (see above).

Armed with these attitudes and behaviors, you can cultivate any new habit or behavior. When you have this invaluable tool in your arsenal, you’re not just getting fit, becoming more patient, or writing that novel. You’ve become empowered to experience greater satisfaction and fulfillment in your life because you can now bring anything you want into being. You’ve become the master of your fate rather than the victim of old choices. How’s that for a Happy New Year?

BUDDHIST WISDOM

There are two kinds of suffering: the suffering that leads to more suffering and the suffering that leads to the end of suffering. If you are not willing to face the second kind of suffering, you will surely continue to experience the first.


-Ajahn Chah, "Still Forest Pool"

Some expected developments for 2007

Chaos deepens for Iraq in 2007

By John Simpson
BBC World Affairs Editor

A year ago, when I gave some online predictions for 2006, I said forecasting was a mug's game.

On Iraq, the momentum towards all-out civil war will grow, and US forces (even if reinforced from home) will fail to contain it

I proved it by suggesting that Ariel Sharon would do all sorts of interesting things in Israel. A few days into the New Year, he was felled by a massive stroke.

I also suggested patriotically that England might win the World Cup. So you can see how good a prophet I am.

In fact I suspect that last year will be remembered for two disputes, which were effectively settled, and for two vital new perceptions.

Firstly, it was the year when the world at large accepted the scientific arguments that global warming was the most serious threat faced by our planet. It was accepted that far from being a cyclical phenomenon, it had been created by our own reckless industrialisation.

There are still one or two oppositionists who question it. But privately, even in the White House, the Indian Government and (I suspect) the Chinese Government - who between them constitute the three strongest nay-sayers and control the three greatest polluting nations - there are those who accept that global warming is a very serious problem indeed.

The second dispute is over Iraq. President George W Bush himself still appears to believe that the "complete victory" that he has been promising for nearly two years may still be possible.

But the famous "tipping-point" was passed early in 2006, and now most of the Republican Party, virtually all of the senior US generals involved, and an overwhelming majority of ordinary Americans, accept that the enterprise has been a failure.

On global warming, perhaps progress to a slightly stronger version of the Kyoto Agreement, though it will still be too feeble

And the altered perceptions?

The first is that, as a result of its failures in Iraq, the United States is no longer regarded as the all-powerful arbiter in the Middle East.

Some Arab countries, like Saudi Arabia, are building up a relationship with China. Others, long used to looking to the US for guidance, are now realising they could be increasingly on their own.

After its disastrous war against Hezbollah in July and August, Israel too has been weakened in the perceptions of its Arab neighbours. When an isolated country's enemies no longer fear its strength, that opens the road to dangerous times.

So what will 2007 bring us?

Iran and Iraq

On global warming, perhaps progress to a slightly stronger version of the Kyoto Agreement, though it will still be too feeble.

Mr Bush will... feel an increasing urge to bomb Iran's nuclear facilities

On Iraq, the momentum towards all-out civil war will grow, and US forces (even if reinforced from home) will fail to contain it.

The Shia majority of the country will rejoice at Saddam Hussein's hanging, while the 20% or so who are Sunni Arabs will be more alienated and angry than ever.

The Kurdish north-east will slip further and further away from Baghdad's control, and the calls for Iraq to be partitioned will grow - especially from those who know little and care less about it.

As the US and British soldiers begin to withdraw, it will become harder and harder to find out what is really happening in the country. By the end of the year it will be a problem to get much serious news out of Iraq at all.

President Bush will not invade Iran with ground troops. His secretary of defence has made it clear he does not approve, and the US military does not have the capacity to do it.

Mr Bush will, however, feel an increasing urge to bomb Iran's nuclear facilities, since he is still being informed that this will bring about an uprising against the elected government of President Ahmadinejad. There will be no uprising, especially if Iran is attacked.

Strange and worrying

Ehud Olmert of Israel will make strenuous efforts to reach some kind of agreement with the Palestinian leadership. But since civil strife in Palestine looks increasingly likely, these efforts will be heavily threatened.

Watch Hungary. Strange and rather worrying things are starting to happen there

Israel may be tempted to get involved in Lebanon again, if fighting breaks out there too.

France, which has been in slow decline for the past few years, will elect a new president - I suspect it will be Nicolas Sarkozy, since Segolene Royal is inexperienced and prone to making gaffes.

But this will not lift it out of its malaise, nor revivify Europe itself.

Nor will the emergence of Gordon Brown as prime minister of Britain, though both countries will at first feel better for having got rid of the Old Guard.

The new year is unlikely to be peaceful or easy, therefore.

But since we should always expect the unexpected, here is a long-odds racing tip: watch Hungary. Strange and rather worrying things are starting to happen there.

ASHTAVAKRA GITA

When the Self is known,
All illusions vanish.
The veil falls,
And you see clearly.
Your sorrows are dispelled.
For the Self is free
And lives forever.
Everything else is imagination,
Nothing more!
Because he understands this,
The master acts like a child.

-Ashtavakra Gita 18:6-7

HOW PEOPLE CAN TURN TRAITORS TO THEIR OWN COUNTRY

Manmohan Singh has Chosen to be Enemy No. 1 of Hindus

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh continues to insist that the minorities, particularly the Muslims, "must have the first claim on resources." As the top executive of the Congress-led UPA Government, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has freely chosen to become the Enemy No. 1 of all the Hindus of India by declaring that the minorities "must have the first claim on resources."



The treacherous pseudo-secular leaders will never ask the Muslims to give up polygamy and have smaller families, for tackling their poverty, which the Hindus are compelled to do through the family planning programs. Why is family planning ONLY for Hindus who are forced in different ways to have smaller families? The pseudo-secular traitors like Manmohan Singh, Sonia Gandhi, Arjun Singh and Ramvilas Paswan, never dare to give the same advice to the Muslims to have smaller families. Such traitors allow the Muslims to perform their religious duty to proliferate and to expand their community through polygamy and large families.



How will more women be provided to the Muslims who practise polygamy? Can we be sure we can stop the traitors from providing Hindu women to Muslims who want 4 wives each? One day, will they not encourage more and more poor Hindu Dalit women to marry Muslims who practise polygamy? Ramvilas Paswan should answer this question, as the Dalit leader, who is a Minister in the UPA Government, had recently organized the International Conference on Dalits and Minorities inaugurated by Manmohan Singh.


Through the massive expansion of minorities, coercive conversions of Hindus and secession, the Hindu majority characteristic of India is sought to be destroyed. The pseudo-secular traitors want to divide India among Muslims, Christians, Maoists, Naxalites and other communists. All the Hindus shall now seek to take massive revenge by destroying the Congress Party and the UPA candidates in all the future elections in India. If the Hindu voters could defeat the NDA government of Atal Behari Vajpayee because of his pro-Muslim utterances, will the same Hindu voters not massively defeat the UPA Government of mad Manmohan Singh for his anti-Hindu policies?



UPA Thugs are Looting the Poor



Our treacherous leaders are hell-bent on impoverishing the majority of more than a billion Indians for the sake of the selfish interests of their own and those of their cronies among the rich industrialists and business tycoons. Through massive inflation caused by foreign speculative investments, the UPA government has allowed the foreigners and a few rich Indians to loot the poor. The UPA Government has allowed the selling of all types of national assets to the foreigners.



Even the complete ruination of the poor people of India does not prick the conscience of such ruthless political economists of India. The poor farmers are unable to repay their loans as they are deprived of facilities to sell their produce at reasonable prices. Many ruined farmers have been driven to commit suicide in many states. The farmers are also being forcibly evicted from their lands, which are then given to big industrialists at throwaway prices to be developed as special economic zones (SEZs). Most of the evicted farmers become desperate because they cannot do any work other than cultivation.



Manmohan Singh wants to Score Goals against India!



It is not surprising that mad Manmohan Singh has become a stooge of USA as proved by his determination to accept the one-sided Indo-US nuclear deal. This puppet of the Italian Christian Sonia Gandhi had the courage to boast that he would never allow the shifting of the goalposts of the proposed Indo-US nuclear deal! The Americans have done something much worse than shifting the goalposts. USA has allowed the Manmohan Singh government only the option of facing the Indian goalpost to score goals against his own country! He is free to kick the ball only in India's goalpost. As the stooge of USA, MAD Manmohan Singh has secretly agreed to score all the goals against India.

India will never be able to hide any of its nuclear programs because there will be many American spies in every nuclear plant in India. India's defence will he highly compromised. India will no longer be able to test nuclear weapons while Pakistan will be free to do so. Pakistan is already known to be building a massive nuclear reactor which can produce 40 to 50 nuclear bombs every year. China has also promised to give a number of nuclear reactors to Pakistan.

Why are President George Bush and the majority of American Congressmen so overwhelmingly eager in providing nuclear reactors and nuclear fuel to India? We should remember the case of Enron which led to the electricity rates rising from less than Re 1 to more than Rs 5 per unit in India. Most of the nuclear power plants will be at the mercy of American suppliers of nuclear reactors and nuclear fuel. USA can make electricity rates go up to more than Rs 20 or even Rs 30 per unit in India. USA will earn billions and even trillions of dollars over a period of time. The Indo-US nuclear deal will lead to the enslavement of India. India will become an economic and political colony of USA due to the massive dependence on Americans for the supply of nuclear fuel.

The very high costs of energy produced from the expensive nuclear fuel to be supplied by USA will cause a massive spiralling effect on the prices of all commodities.

The UPA Government of traitors has openly decided to score self-goals against their own country. The UPA Government is allowing the complete takeover of India by Multi-National Companies (MNCs), because it no longer matters to the traitor Manmohan Singh whether India remains a sovereign country. The UPA Government, controlled by the Italian usurper and interloper Sonia Gandhi, has decided to mortgage India's economy, security and sovereignty to USA and other foreign powers for some massive secret benefits to the UPA ministers, the leaders of the Congress Party and their henchmen in the bureaucracy.

Will the dissatisfied and cheated voters of India not cause a massive defeat of the UPA Government of the extremely mad Manmohan Singh in future elections for his anti-poor, anti-farmer and anti-people policies and actions?


Ashok T. Jaisinghani.
Editor & Publisher:
www.Nutritionist-No-1.com
www.Wonder-Cures.com

www.SindhiKalakar.com

E-mail: AshokJai@Sancharnet.in

Ashok@Wonder-Cures.com

atsingha@vsnl.com

WANT SOME HUMOUR FOR 2007

cHere are some home treatments for you experts

Home Remedies:

1. If you are choking on an ice cube, don't panic. Simply pour a cup of
boiling water down your throat to clear the blockage instantly.

2. Clumsy? Avoid cutting yourself while slicing vegetables by getting
someone else to hold them while you chop away.

3. Avoid arguments with the Mrs. about lifting the toilet seat by simply
using the sink.

4. High blood pressure sufferers: simply cut yourself and bleed for
awhile, thus reducing the pressure in your veins.

5. A mouse trap, placed on top of your alarm clock, will prevent you
from rolling over back to sleep once you hit the snooze button.

6. If you have a bad cough, take a large dose of laxatives, then you
will be afraid to cough.

7. Have a bad tooth ache? Hit your thumb with a hammer, then you will
forget about the tooth ache.

Sometimes we just need to remember what "The Rules of Life" really are:

1. You need only two tools: WD-40 and duct tape. If it doesn't move and it
should, use WD-40. If it moves and shouldn't, use the duct tape.

2. Never, under any circumstances, take a sleeping pill and a laxative on
the same night.

3. There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness".

4. Never lick a steak knife.

5. When life hands you lemons, grab the tequila and the salt!

6. The most destructive force in the universe is gossip.

7. A person, who is nice to you, but rude to a waiter, is not a nice person.

8. Be really good to your family and friends. You never know when you are
going to need them to empty your bedpan.

KOH-I-NOOR, the diamond favorable to women but a curse to man

ndia stakes claim over Koh-I-Noor even as UK says no to Pak.

London, Dec. 29 (PTI): Maintaining that it has a "legitimate claim" over the Koh-I-Noor, India has sought the return of the precious jewel from Britain, gifted to Queen Victoria by nine-year-old Duleep Singh, the last Sikh ruler of Punjab.

While the issue figured several times in Indian Parliament with veteran journalist Kuldip Nayyar spearheading the demand for return of the jewel, a spokesman for the Indian High Commission here today said, "The Indian Government has a legitimate claim. We hope to resolve the issue as soon as possible."

According to secret government papers written 30 years ago and released today at the National Archives in Kew, west London, Britain had firmly rebutted a claim made by Pakistan for the jewel in 1976.

The demand for the restoration of the diamond came from then Pakistani Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, in a letter to his British counterpart, James Callaghan.

Dated August 13, 1976, the letter read: "I am writing to you shortly before our annual Independence Day. This occasion never fails to bring to mind Pakistan's historic grievances about the disposition of territories and assets to which we were entitled upon the termination of British rule."

Evoking the "immense sentimental value" of the jewel to Pakistan, Bhutto continued: "It's return to Pakistan would be a convincing demonstration of the spirit that moved Britain voluntarily to shed its imperial encumbrances and lead the process of de-colonization."

But a memo from one senior civil servant made it clear that Britain considered the possession to be nine-tenths of the law.

It read: "The stark facts are these: i) We have the Koh-I-Noor diamond, whether or not our possession of it is legally justified, ii) We have made it clear that we are keeping the diamond, adducing the best arguments to support our contention."

According to a report in the Independent today, the final response was expressed in more diplomatic language and made use of the fact that, such is the allure and mystique of the diamond, at least a dozen emperors, maharajahs, sultans and governments had been prepared to indulge in rare savagery and deceit to obtain it.

Advisors to James Callaghan pointed out that the 1849 Treaty of Lahore, drawn up by Lord Dalhousie to formalize British rule in Punjab, contained a clause formally surrendering the Koh-I-Noor to "The Queen of England".

They also suggested that its passage over the centuries through owners from the Delhi sultanate to the Persian Shah meant there would be competing claims for ownership from Iran, Pakistan and India.

In reply to Bhutto, Callaghan said: "I need not remind you of the various hands through which the stone has passed over the past two centuries, nor that explicit provision for its transfer to the British Crown was made in the peace treaty with the Maharajah of Lahore which concluded the war of 1849.

"I could not advise Her Majesty the Queen that it should be surrendered."

The Koh-I-Noor was mined in India at around 1100 AD and originated from Golconda in the southern region of Andhra Pradesh. With the shape and size of a small hen's egg, the diamond attained a sinister mystique.

It is probably not entirely coincidental that the Koh-I-Noor is reserved for use in crowns used by a female member of the British Royal Family.

A Hindu text from the time of the jewels' first authenticated appearance in 1306 states that the stone carried a curse lethal to male owners.

It read: "Only God or a woman can wear it with impunity."

By 16th century, the stone had fallen into the hands of the first Mughal emperor, Babur, whose son was the first to fall prey to "curse" by being driven from his kingdom into exile.

The late Mughal ruler, Shah Jahan, who built the Taj Mahal, had the diamond placed into the famous Peacock throne of the dynasty but spent his last days watching its reflection through a barred window after being imprisoned by his son, Aurangzeb.

It was only after the mughals had been deposed and control of the diamond passed to the Persians that the jewel received its present day name.

The story has it that Nadir Shah, who defeated mughals, was preparing to return home after sacking Delhi in 1736 when he realized the diamond was missing from his booty.

He was supposedly tipped off by a disenchanted member of the Mughal emperor's harem that his enemy kept it hidden in his turban.

Using an old war custom, Nadir Shah proposed an exchange of turbans. As the gem fell to the ground from the unfurling cloth and caught the light, he is said to have proclaimed: "Koh I Noor."

After Nadir Shah's assassination, the diamond passed to his successors, each dethroned and ritually blinded, until it was passed in return for sanctuary to Ranjit Singh, the Lion of Lahore, self-declared ruler of Punjab and father of Duleep Singh.

Within 40 years, the stone had passed into the possession of Lord Dalhousie after a military campaign every bit as ruthless and blood-soaked as those which had previously been fought for possession of the Noor.

After Prince Albert had it trimmed it was mounted in a tiara, while Prince Duleep was made a ward of the British Crown complete with an annual stipend of 50,000 pounds.

He converted to Christianity and became a member of the racy circle of the young Edward VII, but died in poverty in Paris in 1893.

The precious jewel is now kept in the Tower of London as part of the Crown Jewels collection which is worth an estimated 13 billion pounds.

But despite Callaghan's rebuttal to Pakistan 30 years ago, the attraction of the diamond remains undimmed.

The Indian High Commissioner to London accused Britain of "flaunting" the riches of empire when the Queen Mother's 1937 Coronation Crown was carried atop her coffin in 2002.

HARAPPA AND MOHENJODARO

Harappa was like any other metro: US prof

Author: Anjali Joseph
Publication: The Times of India
Dated: December 21, 2006

A great trading city teeming with different communities that existed together and enjoyed civic infrastructure like a water supply and drains; a manufacturing centre where textiles that were exported around the world were made. It's not a description of 19th century Mumbai, but of cities like Harappa and Mohenjo Daro in the Indus valley as early as 4th millennium BC, said Jonathan Mark Kenoyer, associate professor in anthropology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, at a lecture in the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vaastu Sangrahalaya on Tuesday.

Kenoyer has been working on excavations in the Indus Valley, particularly in Harappa, since 1974. Drawing on recent discoveries at Harappa, Kenoyer explained the inferences made by archaeologists and anthropologists about life in the Indus valley, which is now believed to have extended in the area surrounding not only the Indus, but also the now-dried up Saraswati river. Kenoyer said modern archaeological findings do not support the idea of an Aryan 'invasion,' but show that Vedic people were among those who lived in cities such as Mohenjo Daro in Sindh and Harappa in Punjab towards the end of the Indus civilisation, which stretched between 7,000 BC and 1,900 BC. "These were sophisticated cities with wide roads, gates designed to keep intruders out and where those coming in or going out of the city with goods could be taxed. There was a water supply and proper drains. It was only when the Saraswati dried up and Mohenjo Daro and Harappa became overpopulated because other cities lost their water supply that the cities declined,'' said Kenoyer, comparing that period with the fate of cities such as Amritsar and Lahore at the time of Partition. As many as 50,000 people may have lived in Harappa at certain periods and the people of the Indus civilisation formed ethnic groups, said Kenoyer, citing figurines showing seals with symbols such as the buffalo or unicorn to represent different ethnic groups. The unicorn symbol was invented by the Indus people, and spread to Europe centuries later via Mesopotamia and Near East, he said.

"There was no single ruler in these cities. We've found no palace. Instead, there seems to have been a republic in which a group of elders ruled," said Kenoyer.

What was earlier believed by archaeologists to be a grain store in Harappa now seems likely to have been a textile weaving centre, and fine cloth from the area was exported far away, he said.

APPEAL BY DEVENDRA SINGH TO HELP RAJNIKANT PARIKH,

I wish to make a special and very important request for the Bhartiya community
residing in the United States. Rajnikant Parikh was badly beaten by a
racially motivated police man in Edison a few months ago and is currently
lodged in a jail meant to keep deadly criminals. A brave community
leader,Shri Devendra Makkar is doing his best to get Rajnikant out of jail.
But,Rajnikant needs help from all of us in order to breathe fresh air
outside the jail.

Please read a plea below from Julie Patel who is standing firm to get her
husband out of jail. I see a Savitri in Julie and am confident that with our
help her husband will join her soon. Paul Brickfield,a high profile
attorney,has agreed to take the case of Rajnikant but we must raise $15,000
in less than a week in order to retain him. This is the time to stick
together to help a fellow Hindu in need. A jewish community does not have
these kinds of problem because they are bonded together. We must also show
our Hindu spirit to help get Rajnikant out of jail. It will be a shameful
thing if Rajnikant does not get justice because of lack of our support.

These lists have at least a few thousand members. Even if 100 members decide
to donate $150 for this noble cause,we can raise the required money in a few
days. Please make checks payable to Paul Brickfield and mail to c/o Devendra
Makkar,568 Ashwood Road,Springfield,NJ 07081

I will be mailing my check tomorrow and request all of you to do that.
Please e-mail me after you send your check for the accounting purpose.
Please act fast as the time is of essence. A newspaper report on this case
is also attached.

Regards

Devendra

leak.doc
28K View as HTML Download

From: Julie Patel

Hello. My name is Julie Patel, the spouse of Rajnikant Parikh. I got your
contact information from Mr. Devendra Makkar. I am writing to you to ask
for
assistance in the funding of my husband's legal matters.

I would like to recap for you what has happened thus far. On July 4, 2006,
Raj
was involved in a case of police brutality. That officer was involved in a
similar incident less than one year prior to this incident also. We asked
that
the officer no longer work on the force, especially not in the area where
the
incidences occurred. About one month later, on August 2, 2006, with the
help of
the community and supporters, we held a peaceful protest in front of the
municipal complex. However, Raj was taken in for questioning by two
Immigration
and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. Unfortunately, since then, Raj has
been
detained at a county correctional facility.

Raj initially came to the US in 1995 and was held and released be ICE, but
before his hearing date, he went back to India in early 1996 due to health
problems. He came back in 1999 with an H1-B visa. We got married in
November
2003 and in April 2005, we went in for our interview for adjustment of his
immigration status and since then, it has been pending. We made an appeal
to
open his initial case from 1995, but it was dismissed because the attorney
failed to attach "Forms of Relief," twice. Also, the attorney had been
indicted
and is now in jail for ethical wrong-doing.

We have now retained another attorney for Raj's immigration matters, but we
still need help for the municipal case. The lawyer we have spoken to is a
very
reputable attorney and he is asking for a $15,000 retainer fee. As you
know,
Raj is detained and I am still a student. So far, the community is trying
to
help, but they are not standing up against their political affiliations and
those that are helping do not have the funds themselves to take all the
burden
of the legal funding. Therefore, I ask you now if you can help in any of
the
funding for my husband's legal matters. We are doing our best and so far,
God
willing, we have held our head high, but as it is now evident that there was
a
conspiracy with the local and federal government agencies, we have an even
better chance of succeeding in our legal cases. It would be a shame is we
lost
due to insufficient funding or inadequate representation.

Again, I urge you to help with the funding as much as you can. It will be
very
greatly appreciated.

Thank you,Julie Patel

P.S. - We do not want the funds for ourselves. Checks can be made payable
to
Paul Brickfield of Brickfield & Donahue Attorneys. He can be contacted at
(201) 488-7709 or (201)
488-9559 (fax) and his email address is pbrickfield@bricdonlaw.com.

__________________________________________________________

Grandmother's love

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'All the Quarters in the World'
A grandmother's love gives a severely burned child the will to heal.
By Melodie Lynn Tilander

It was October 1962, and we just experienced in the Northwest what would later be called, "The Columbus Day Storm." A severe ice storm with pounding winds damaged homes and trees alike. The area was a mess. The wind was finally silent but still freezing in the air. We had no power, which meant no heat, and our house was ice cold with its bare wood floors.

I huddled in my new cotton nightgown next to my brothers and sisters while we waited for Dad to light a fire in the fireplace. He added extra wood to help the house heat quickly. As he walked away from the hearth, we all ran to find our place standing directly in front of the crackling fire to get warm as quickly as possible.

I had just finished warming my front side, stretching out my hands to feel how hot the fire had become, then turned to warm by backside. Standing there in comfort, I relaxed for the first time on that cold morning. Shutting my eyes basking in contentment of the fire, I was abruptly brought back to reality. In only a second, one singular spark flying from the fireplace caught my nightgown. Flames instantly ignited the cotton and the smell of my flesh burning singed the air.

At the hospital my mom was told I had third degree burns and extensive deep tissue damage on the backside of my left leg. After months of treatment and daily bandage changes that were the most painful thing I had ever endured, the doctor grafted skin off my bottom to my left leg. Due to the severity and depth of the burn he predicted, "Melodie will likely have a stiff leg after her skin graft heals. At the very best, she'll walk with a limp." My mother cried.

Oh, the agony of healing. Any movement brought tremendous pain and walking was out of the question. My pain threshold could not bear it. I lay on the couch day after day trying not to disturb my throbbing leg. Any movement was torture, so I became an expert at laying still.

My grandma lived in town and drove daily to our house in the country to visit me, then back every night, never missing a day. My Grandmother was poor- based on government tallies of incomes, actually extremely poor, I later learned. Yet she afforded the gas to come to be with me everyday.

Grandma never accepted the thought of me walking with a limp or a stiff leg. She was diligent in her faith and encouraged me daily, coaxing me to move it. I loved her so much that I wanted to please her. I would move my leg with tears in my eyes, barely handling the pain. Day after day she came. Then came a day when the pain was too great to bear, even to please Grandma. I didn't want to try to walk any more, period. It just hurt too much. I just stopped trying.

One day after my long siege of, "No, I am not going to try any more," Grandma came with all kinds of quarters. I don't mean a few. I don't mean a handful. I mean a bunch of quarters that filled up her lap. A quarter in 1962 was a lot of money to a child. Penny candy existed back then. She wore a housedress, or what she called a "moo-moo," and placed all those shiny quarters right there on her lap next to me. Lying on the couch I could see them. I had never seen that amount of money ever. It made me excited. She said, "If you stand up I will give you a quarter." I wanted a quarter, so, disregarding the pain I stood up. Grandma smiled so big and placed a shiny new quarter in the palm of my hand. I quickly sat down, the pain throbbing in my leg. She looked right into my eyes and said, "There's more where that came from. Do it again, honey, stand up."

I did it again and she repeated the reward - another shiny quarter in my hand. This went on day after day for months with Grandma. She was faithful and so determined I would not have a stiff leg and would walk without a limp. One day I asked her, "What if you run out of quarters, Grandma?"

She said, "Don't worry about Grandma running out of quarters honey. I got all the quarters in the world for you."

I missed my entire third grade of school. It had been almost a full year since the fire when I went back. I sauntered in the door, walking perfectly. No stiff leg. No limp. The doctor said, "In all my years of treating burns I have never seen a leg heal so completely."

There was an extra bonus - only a slight minor surface scar instead of the common deeper skin graft type. Again, the doctor was amazed. He had me come back many times to the hospital to show my leg and demonstrate its use to other doctors.

It wasn't until after my Grandma died and I was much older that I realized the gift she had given me. My mother said, "Your grandmother could not bear the thought of you limping or walking with a stiff leg. She willed that leg well and God heard her."

"And she willed me to walk," I said. Then I had to ask, "Where did Grandma get all those quarters, Mom?"

My mother replied, "I suppose she went without."

In all the years, I had never considered that. Only then did I realize the selfless act of love my Grandma had given me so joyfully. Her daily gifts to me were actually her sacrifice and her faith all rolled up inside those silver coins.

PREDICTING EARTHQUAKES IN CHINA

Head-banging snakes to predict China quakesAdd to Clippings
[ 28 Dec, 2006 1206hrs ISTAFP ]
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BEIJING: China has come up with an earthquake prediction system which relies on the behaviour of snakes, state media said on Thursday, two days after two quakes struck off neighbouring Taiwan.

The earthquake bureau in Nanning, capital of the Guangxi autonomous region in southern China, had developed its system using a combination of natural instinct and modern technology, the China Daily newspaper said.

Experts at the bureau monitor snakes at local snake farms via video cameras linked to a broadband Internet connection. The video feed runs 24 hours per day.

"Of all the creatures on Earth, snakes are perhaps the most sensitive to earthquakes," bureau director Jiang Weisong was quoted as saying.

Jiang said snakes, a popular restaurant dish in the south in the winter, could sense an earthquake from 120 km (70 miles) away, three to five days before it happens. They respond by behaving strangely.

"When an earthquake is about to occur, snakes will move out of their nests, even in the cold of winter," Jiang was quoted as saying.

"If the earthquake is a big one, the snakes will even smash into walls while trying to escape."

China is struck by frequent earthquakes, with most hitting remote rural areas.

Two people were killed and 42 injured on Tuesday when three buildings collapsed in earthquakes that shook southern Taiwan.

While a tsunami warning came to nothing, the quake damaged undersea telecommunication cables, affecting users across Asia.

E DIL

E dil tu dhadkna

band kar de,

jab-jab tu dhadkata han

unki yaad aati han,

wo to khush han

apni duniya me,

jaan to pal-pal

humari jaati han. ...

NOTHING ULTIMATELY REAL....

Subhuti asked: "How does a person practice all the perfections?"

The Buddha replied: "By not perceiving any duality. Through understanding this nonduality he teaches reality to all beings. With physical energy, he travels widely to teach. With mental energy, he guards against the arising of such ideas as "permanence or impermanence," "good or evil," and so on. With the perfection of wisdom, he does not consider anything ultimately real but serves all beings with loving attention so that energy, patience, and meditation will be aroused in them. but even though he attends to the minutest detail of whatever must be done, he never grasps it or tries to make ultimate sense of it, because he knows it has no enduring substance of its own."

-Prajnaparmita

WHAT A BEAUTY AU PYARE DOSTI NIBHANA

Kitna hasin chehra...

Kitna hasin chehra,

kitni pyari aankhe,

aankho se jhalakta pyar,

kudrat ne banaya hoga,

furssat se tujhe mere Yaar… ...


Dost bana ke...

Batein karke rula na dijiyega…

Yuh chup rehke

sajaa na dijiyega…

Na de sake Khushi,

toh Gham hi sahi,

par Dost bana ke

bhula na dijiyega…! ...

HAMSE DOSTI KAROGE

Dosti karte hain...
Ek mulaqat karo humse

inayat samajh kar,

sara hisab denge

qayamat samajh kar,

meri dosti pe shak mat karna,

hum dosti bhi karte hai

ibadat samajh kar… ...

WANT TO LIVE OR EVEN SURVIVE - DON'T WIN BIG!

Mega Millions winner dies at 43

By GINA DAMRON
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

December 26, 2006

Ralph Stebbins and his wife, Mary, had big plans for the $208-million Mega Millions lottery jackpot they won in April 2005.

Buy a farm. Buy a cow.

But after less than a year of incredible wealth -- taking home a $124.7-million lump-sum payment -- Ralph Stebbins has died at age 43.

Robert Kolt, a spokesman for the family, said Tuesday that Stebbins died Saturday of heart failure at his home -- the location of which he would not reveal to protect the family's privacy. Kolt said that, to his knowledge, Stebbins did not have a history of heart problems and hadn't been ill.

"He seemed healthy and he was a very active guy," Kolt said. "I think everybody was surprised."

Stebbins -- who before becoming a multimillionaire had worked for a well-digging company in the Port Huron area, -- found himself in legal trouble earlier this month when he was arrested after a confrontation with the boyfriend of his daughter Karin, Kolt said.

The charges are domestic, but the details are unclear.

"Ralph loved his kids," Kolt said. "He was a very protective father."

The Stebbinses were married 23 years. They have three children -- Candice, 22, Karin, 19, and Todd, 17.

Kolt said the Stebbinses used their fortune to help family members.
They also got the farm they had wanted.

But they never bought that cow.

SHILPA SHETTY AND THE BIG BROTHER

Shilpa Shetty says yes to Big Brother
IndiaFM |
At the end of the month Shilpa Shetty leaves for an undisclosed part of UK to be part of the biggest reality show Big Brother UK. Though the actress has been forbidden from talking about it, it's most reliably learnt that Shilpa has been paid the equivalent of a whopping Rs 3 crores to be the only Bollywood participant on the show. Shilpa joins Big Brother from Jan 1 and spends the next 25 days on the show.

Says the source, "When Shilpa was approached she was taken completely by surprise. She had made no overtures to Endemol (the company that produces Big Brother internationally) to let them know she was interested in their show at all. But Big Brother made inquiries. They wanted their first Bollywood entry into the show and they needed someone with a smart, sexy look and attitude, someone who could converse fluently in English. Asians make up about 80 percent of viewers on the show."

Shilpa who had other plans for Christmas and the New Years has quickly cancelled them all to accommodate the month-long stint away from home.

Says a very close friend of the actress, "Shilpa is basically a home bird and she's dreading this long stay with strangers. But she's also excited because it's a huge honour to be on Big Brother… Not like its Indian counterpart Bigg Boss where any and every wannabe was a contestant. Big Brother UK has the biggest celebrities in the world."

Before signing the super-lucrative contract Shilpa found out how voyeuristic the show is expected to be. There will be no cameras in the bathroom and the celebrities on the show won't be required to act sleazy at all.

THE FAT GUY GETTING THE CREDIT!

Working on Christmas?

Why is getting Christmas presents for your kids just like a day at the office?

You do all the work and the fat guy in the suit gets all the credit.

why cancer kills so often

Key to why cancer kills so often
Scientists have pinpointed a possible reason why pancreatic cancer is such an aggressive disease.

A University of Liverpool team found a family of proteins involved in controlling cell movement could be key.

The study, which appears in the journal Gut, could offer a new lead on a disease which is hard to treat.

There are around 7,000 cases of pancreatic cancer in the UK each year. It can be hard to spot as the pancreas is located deep inside the body.


PANCREATIC CANCER SYMPTOMS
Abdominal pain
Weight loss over a period of months
Nausea
Loss of appetite
Weakness
Pale, bulky and greasy stools
Jaundice

As a result, although surgery can potentially cure the disease, only 9% of patients go under the knife.

The Liverpool team were able to track the proteins, called CapG and Gelsolin, in tissue samples from normal and cancerous cells.

They found abnormally high concentrations of both proteins in the tumour tissue.

As both CapG and Gelsolin are known to have roles in regulating cell movement, the study suggests they may facilitate the spread of pancreatic cancer cells to other areas of the body

Spread curbed

The researchers reduced the amounts of CapG and Gelsolin in pancreatic cancer cells in the laboratory - and found this limited the cells' ability to spread.

They also found pancreatic cancer patients had better prospects when the level of Gelsolin protein was low or undetectable.

The research also showed the amount of CapG found in the nucleus of the cancerous cells was proportional to the size of the tumour.

This could mean that this protein is closely linked to aggressive tumour growth as well as spread.

Lead researcher Dr Eithne Costello said: "These proteins may play a fundamental role in the aggressive spread and growth of pancreatic tumours.

"We now have a good idea about CapG's and Gelsolin's involvement in tumour spread, but we need to find out their precise contributions to provide us with important leads for new approaches to treatment."

Dr Lesley Walker, of the charity Cancer Research UK, said: "Pancreatic cancer is often detected at an advanced stage, and there is an urgent need for effective treatment.

"More research is needed on the basic science, and this work should provide some important leads for new approaches."

The study was funded by Cancer Research UK, the Medical Research Council, and the North West Cancer Research Fund.

LONGEVITY GENE KEEPS MIND SHARP also

'Longevity gene keeps mind sharp'
A gene variation that helps people live to a ripe old age also appears to preserve memory and thinking power, US work suggests.

The "longevity" gene alters the size of fatty cholesterol particles in the blood, making them bigger than normal.

This stops them causing the fatty build up in blood vessels that is linked with brain impairment, and deadly strokes and heart attacks, Neurology reports.

The study involved nearly 300 Ashkenazi Jews in their 70s, 80s and 90s.

In studying these centenarians, we hope to learn what factors lessen their risk for diseases
Lead researcher Nir Barzilia

The nonagenarians who possessed the longevity gene were twice as likely to have good brain function than those who did not have the gene variant.

Their performance on tests of memory and concentration was far superior.

Also, those who had reached a century were three times more likely to have the longevity gene variation than their 70-year-old counterparts.

Lead researcher Nir Barzilia, director of the Institute for Aging Research at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, said the same gene variation might also protect against Alzheimer's dementia.

He said: "In studying these centenarians, we hope to learn what factors lessen their risk for diseases that affect the general population at a much younger age."

He said as well as the gene having a favorable effect on the vascular integrity of the aging brain, it could also have a positive action on the brain tissue itself.

The brain relies on a good blood supply to keep its functions and processes in top order.

Long life

About one person in every 10,000 reaches the age of 100.

Researchers have known that genes play a role because longevity often runs in families.

Scientists are working to develop drugs that can mimic the effect of the gene CETP.

An American woman is officially recognised as the world's oldest person, dying at the age of 116 earlier this month.

She assumed the title of world's oldest person following the death of Esther de Capovilla of Ecuador in August - also at the age of 116.

Her successor looks set to be Emiliano Mercado del Toro of Puerto Rico, who is 115, according to Robert Young, adviser to Guinness World Records.

SEWA BHARATI DOING AN EXCELLENT JOB

You may like to have a look at the various activities being carried out by SEWA BHARATI in India and abroad and may consider making a contribution for the great cause. Try the following sites:

http://www.sewausa.org/contribute.html

SEWA INTERNATIONAL USA
tAX id nO. 20-0638718

They would be glad to pass on your contribution to us while at the same time availing you of the US tax exemption. Provided you mention that your contribution should be delivered to Seva Bharathi Western Andhra Pradesh.


Thanking you and in Anticipation of making a difference to the needy.

I am glad that you are doing such an excellent work for the downtrodden, completely neglected and most needy children among others. (SHER SINGH AGRAWAL)


www.sevabharathi.org

For latest updates on sewa karyas:::
http://pkblogs.com/sevabharathi
http://www.sevabharathi.blogspot.com/
http://vandemataramfoundation.blogspot.com/
http://www.manonethra.blogspot.com/

HOW TO CUT CALORIES ALL THE TIME

10 ways to cut calories this festive season
Brinda Sapat

December 22, 2006

It's the festive season and you are on a weight loss programme? While you don't want to go all out and ruin the hard work you've put in so far, missing out on the yummy food is a big dampener.

Here are a few ways to cut down the calories and yet enjoy all that glorious food.

Tuck in at home

Eat something at home before you leave for a party. Opt for something wholesome and nutritious, like a wholegrain sandwich or idlis or a bowl of fruits tossed with low fat yoghurt and nuts.

Red, red wine

Make red wine your poison. A glass a day is good for your body. Sip on it slowly through the evening.

Snack pack

Snack wisely. Most snacks and pass-arounds are fried. Give them a miss and opt for raw veggies, nuts, steamed and stir fried options instead.

Think before you eat

Take the time to think before filling up your plate in any course. You want to eat foods that are not fried or rich, but light and fresh.

The salad spread

Take a large helping of salad. Start your meal with one good helping of salad. Go easy on the dressing. Add the bare minimum you require.

The main course

Turkey, chicken, fish that is grilled, roasted or stir-fried is perfect for non-vegetarians. Vegetables, pastas and breads are good for vegetarians. These can serve as good accompaniments for non-vegetarians too.

And the gravy...

Skip the gravies Avoid any foods that have rich gravies and sauces. These are low in nutrional value and high in fats.

Take your time

Eat slowly -- chew food properly. This prevents you from overeating and gives you a chance to relish the festive food.

The sweet fruit of patience

You might not want to miss dessert on these special occasions, so go ahead -- serve yourself just ONE portion and eat it ever so slowly.

Enjoy!

Being careful about what you are eating is important if you are in the middle of a 'Watch Your Weight' programme. But don't go overboard and restrict yourself only to salads; you'll miss out on all the delicious foods and flavours.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

The infamous moslem painter hussain

SHekhar GUPTA: • But, if you were a painter working in Paris or New York, or even London, you would not have faced what you are facing right now in India?
Husain - What am I facing? Nothing! The cases and all are just minor things. After all, we are a democratic country. And whatever I have depicted is not realistic, I have painted in the idiom of modern art, the contemporary way! So that’s very difficult to understand. Where there is a figure of a woman I paint, it is nude but that figure is not realistic. I am not painting every part of the body in detail. Which is even there in our temples. The nudity is a metaphor for purity and strength!

& on the other, when asked if he would paint the Prophet :-

SG • No wonder you have grown up to be such a symbol of composite syncretic culture! So, the question that people would like to throw at you is — if you can paint Hindu gods and godesses like this, why don’t you paint the Prophet?
Husain - I don’t want to say anything!

YOGA CLASSES

2. Army Reservist Teaching Yoga in Baghdad's "Green Zone."

www.armytimes.com

BAGHDAD, IRAQ, December 22, 2006: Just after the Muslim evening call to prayers wafts through Baghdad, Maj. Michele Spencer and her students add their own chorus: Om. Spencer, a medic training officer with the multinational security transition command in Iraq, teaches about 20 soldiers to channel their energy in her yoga class. "I believe that I teach with more conscious intention [in Iraq] to create peace and share a space where people can come and 'be one with their breath' -- away from the cacophony of war," Spencer said by e-mail. "With all that focused intention, I believe the energy synergistically creates healing for all." Two years ago, Spencer began teaching yoga as a personal trainer from her home after studying Ashtanga Yoga, and then Power Vinyasa Flow yoga. Six months ago, when the reservist went to the Green Zone in Iraq with the 9th Brigade, 108th Division out of Charlotte, N.C. , she decided the class could provide a calming effect for soldiers facing daily battles with stress. She said at least one other yoga instructor teaches at the embassy. She started teaching four students during her off time. Now, she said, she instructs yoga veterans and newcomers three days a week. Visit Spencer's web page here.

CONGRESS CASHING IN ON MOSLEM VOTE AND HINDUS THEIR OWN WORST ENE......

Power hungry congress leaders doing a lot of harm to Bharat

Bharatiya Congress want to transfer national resources to Muslims

Man Mohan Singh is characterized as a 21st century Dhimmi. Not
only that, he is also known as a career stooge for hire. He will serve
anyone-- be it the World, Bank, the PVN Government, Sonia Gandhi, the
Americans (on nuclear deal) and even Musharraf as he did in Havana.

Man Mohan is nothing but the handmaiden of Sonia Gandhi in her desperate
Muslim appeasement frenzy that
has gone beyond appeasement. She is terrified of Muslims. You need no more
proof of it beyond the fact that
there is not a single Muslim among the security personnel protecting her and
her family. (Courtesy OUTLOOK)
She is keeping Muslims at bay by appeasing them, but does not trust them.
The UPA policies-- from increasing Haj subsidies to 'First claim for Muslims
on national resources' are nothing but Jazia by the backdoor . Sonia should
be renamed Jezia Begum.
This raises a question: why this frenzy of bending over backwards to U.S.
pressure? She and her family used to be Russian (and KGB) favorites until
recently.
N.S. Rajaram's guess is: Sonia is looking for a safe haven outside India
once this Government ends its ignoble term. A man must be judged in
totality. Not in bits. A murderer is a murderer may be he may have done some
good deeds.

As far as Hindus defending terrorists, there's money to be made. Money talks
and it is the most powerful weapon on earth. Hindu arms dealer was caught in
the USA trying to sell shoulder propelled Grenade launchers to terrorists.
There are Hindu lawyers, trying to defend rights of terrorists. College
professors getting large grants from Islamic foundations to promote only the
positive side of Islam, not the negatives. Politicians, Journalists,
Activists, etc. are receiving money from Pan Islamic groups to remain silent
as they spread their net across India. It's more about money than principle.
Friends, what can you do under these circumstances? How about revolution
.......by Hindus

Hindus should not expect any independence or leadership from Man Mohan
Singh.

The weak and power hungry congress leaders may do a lot of harm to India,
like Nehru did, in the case of
Kashmir, by taking issue to UN. The national opposition parties MUST watch
their all actions and report to media, and let all people of Bharat know
what present government was doing to our country and our borders.



After centuries of Muslim, British and other rule, very few true Hindus are
left, and even the remaining true Hindus are not united. One can only hope
whatever seed of Hindutva is left will soon sprout into a giant tree.

Hindus are not minority in India, but they are disintegrated and not as
united as Muslims are.
The Hindu community needs a uniting glue, otherwise we all will suffer as
we Hindus have suffered in past.
If right kinds of information are given to Hindus then Hindus will fight for
their rights as Hindu community has fire and zeal to fight. The Great Sikh,
Maratha and Rajputs are also brave warrior sons of Hindus, one good Hindu
candle can illuminate the whole community, and Hindus direly need a
motivated leader like Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel and Netaji, Subas Chandar
Bose, Veer Savarkar and more such leaders.
All Hindu Devi Devtas are equipped with arms. So can all Hindu men and
women be armed. Kashmiri Pundits must be given arms ammunition and ration by
rich Hindus so that they can defend themselves and their homes. Ahinsa is
not a Hindus idea because Hindus were great warriors and defended themselves
and their lands by wars. This practice has to be discontinued. All Hindus
must support each in the war for their protection of Matribhumi and their
rights. We Hindus do not attack on others first, but if some one attacks
Hindus then we should destroy him. This is our Ahinsa.
Hindu leaders like Nehru, were bleeders of Hindu community, and in
Bharat, we see a lot like him in Bharat, now, in search of kursi and power,
but constructive message to Hindu community is dead , till we all awake
from our deep sleep, before the Muslim mess in India take over the charge
of Bharat, so called Hindustan.
It's real easy to understand. True Hindus are a minority in Bharat --
there are perhaps less than 40 million.

These days, it has become fashionable among Phony-Liberal Hindus, to blame
every problem, on the concept of Hinduism and Hindutva. Actually these
Phony-Liberals and political leaders are not particularly bright. These have
no inkling of what Hinduism is, and who their real enemies are.

Regular dose of pseudo-secularism

This is the coward teaching and which has made Hindus impotent and refugees
in their own country and as a result we have lost one third of the territory
to Muslims who are converting us to Islam and being minority terrorizing us
all.
Prthviraj Chauhan followed this teaching as a result we became slave for
1200 years and now a days we are slave of one white woman. This is a
disgrace on people who advocate such argument in favour of pseudo-secularism
in the face of danger. Hindus should think like a brave man and come out of
slave and servant mentality



Congress Party wants Massive Rapid Expansion of Indian

Muslims to make them Majority Community in 20 years!



At the National Development Council meeting held on December 9, 2006
Prime Minister Man Mohan Singh openly declared that the minorities,
particularly the Muslims, "must have the first claim on resources." The
Congress Party under the traitor and stooge Madman Singh is bent on
subsidizing the rapid growth, expansion, education and employment of the
Indian Muslims at the cost of the Hindus and other communities. The Congress
Party wants to bring about a massive rapid expansion of Muslims in India in
the next 20 years through infiltration from Bangladesh and Pakistan and very
high reproductive rate. Instead of becoming a majority community in about 50
years, as previously predicted by many experts, the Muslims can now surely
get a majority in about 20 years due to the "first claim on resources"
announced by mad Man Mohan Singh.



Why are Muslims more backward than the other communities? It is commonly
known to all people that the Muslims are backward because everyone of them
must have a large family, consisting of 6 or more children, due to the
dictates of their fanatical mullahs and other Muslim leaders. The majority
of Muslim parents in India cannot bring up so many of their children
properly and give them modern education. So there is more unemployment among
Muslims due to the lack of proper training and skills. With the
subsidization of the rapid expansion of the Muslim community due to their
"first claim on resources," as announced by mad Man Mohan Singh, each Muslim
family can soon afford to have 12 or more children instead of only about 6
now.



Why do the Congress leaders like Man Mohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi want
to make the Muslims a majority community in India? Feroze Gandhi, the father
of late Rajiv Gandhi and grandfather of Rahul Gandhi, was reportedly a son
of a Muslim father, as claimed by some historians and other writers. When
the Muslims become a majority community in about 20 years with the help of
the Congress Party, the members of the ruling Gandhi family, and
particularly Rahul Gandhi, can easily revert to their original religion by
converting to Islam. Rahul can then easily become an Emperor of India to
start a new Muslim dynasty of rulers. The Indian Muslims can gratefully
accept Rahul Gandhi as a Muslim Emperor of India. The descendants of mad Man
Mohan Singh can also hereditarily claim the post of Prime Minister in such
an Islamic Indian empire.



The worst enemies of the Hindus are the traitors and spies in the Hindu
community itself. Because they forgive easily, the Hindus have never learnt
how to deal with the traitors and spies in their own community. For their
own selfish reasons, the hypocritical Hindu leaders readily forgive the
traitors and spies. Under such circumstances, the Hindus can only be losers
while dealing with the other communities.

GAYATRI MANTRA

OM BHURBHAVAH SWAH;

TATSVITURVARENYAM

BHARGO DEVASYA DHIMAHI

DHIYO YONAH PRACHODAYAT

HPI

KAUAI, HAWAII, December 24, 2006: An issue came up at the Hindu Mission of Canada in Quebec regarding the chanting of the famed Gayatri Mantra by the ordinary devotees. Some brahmins held the position that the mantra should chanted by everyone only when a priest is leading the chant. The chairman of the mission, Dharam Pal Verman, asked Hinduism Today to research the issue. We, in turn, asked our Delhi correspondent, Rajiv Malik, to consult with experts in India. He reported the following points:

1. The chanting of Gayatri Mantra collectively in large groups is something very common place in the temples and Arya Samajas all over India. It takes place everyday. No one ever objects to non-brahmins joining the priests and other brahmins in this chanting of the Gayatri Mantra.

2. In an earlier interview with Hinduism Today, the Shankaracharya of Puri said that mantras need to be chanted by common people in an extremely careful manner so th at they do not get harmed by the high level of energy generated in the process of chanting them.

3. In consultation with Swami Pragyanand of Delhi, who is a big promoter of Gayatri Mantra, Swami said:

a. "Gayatri mantra is for everybody. Why I say this is because every mantra has a devata and in the case of Gayatri Mantra, the devata or God is the Sun God. Now the Sun God is for every creature in this world. therefore gayatri is also for everybody in this world. Gayatri is also known as mother and again mother is for everyone and therefore Gayatri is for every child of God. Anything which is created by God is for everybody, whereas if a man creates something it may be used for the benefit of some people only.

b. "In Bhagavad Gita lord Krishna said that among mantras I am myself the Gayatri Mantra. So how can anybody be deprived of chanting the Gayatri Mantra?

c. "The essence of Gayatri Mantra is that God may grant wisdom to all. Now wisdom is not a monopoly of any one person, state, religion or sect. Therefore as wisdom is for everybody, Gayatri Mantra is also for everybody.

d. "When I went to Surinam in South America for the first time, in some of the temples they did not allow chanting of Gayatri Mantra. But when I explained the meaning and essence of Gayatri Mantra to the people there, they got convinced and the things changed. Today, a few radio stations have a round-the-clock recitation of Gayatri Mantra."

e. Asked about the point of view of the Puri Shankaracharya, Swami said that as the Shankaracharya was of orthodox views therefore he held this kind of opinion on this matter. In an earlier case, the Puri Shankaracharya objected to women chanting the Vedas.

Others who wish to comment on this issue may e-mail ar@hindu.org.

THE ELEPHANT STARTS DANCING

2. "The Elephant Starts To Dance"

www.mercurynewsphoto.com

INDIA, December 23, 2006: This interesting site offers an audio slide show based on several recent articles about India published in the Mercury News. It's not religious in content, but the presentation is slick and the information useful. The "elephant" is India itself.

The subjects are Venture capitalists--Investing in India's Future, Infosys--tens of thousands of employees work at the 80 acre Infosys campus in Bangalore, American Indian Foundation--providing assistance in education, livelihood and HIV/Aids for India's poor, and Unlimited Food for Life--feeding 460,000 children a day on 18 cents per child. There is also a separate slide show, India Today, showing street scenes around India. You can view the audio slide shows and connect to the published newspaper articles.

PROPOSAL TO HAVE GITA, YOGA AND MEDITATION BOOKS IN ALL HOTELS WORLD OVER

I propose to request the Hotel, Motel associations to
put Gita, Yoga and Meditation books in all Motels and
Hotels all over the World. Most of the Motels are
owned by our Gujarati community and 90% and they can
and should do it immediately.

My Proposal is seconded by Vijay Ashar as well.

I had compiled a concised versions of Gita and Vedas
and prepared a surya namaskar chart of Yoga and some
basic Medidation brochures. I can supply these.

If you all can recommend to the Hotel and Motel
associations in all countries we can make this happen.

Dr.Arun Inala

PROHINDU-OWNER@yahoogroups.com

GO HOME....

Today's Quote

What can you do to promote world peace? Go home and love your family.

-Mother Teresa

THODI THODI PIYO AUR JIYO

Drink 'cuts brain injury damage'
Having low levels of alcohol in the blood may protect the brain from the effects of a head injury, a study says.

The University of Toronto team found head injury patients who had drunk low amounts were 24% less likely to die than those who had not had any alcohol.

They said alcohol might one day be used as part of emergency treatment for some head injury patients.

But they said the study, which appears in the journal Archives of Surgery, should not encourage people to drink.

Overall, people are still at much greater risk of dying if they drive while intoxicated
University of Toronto

When the brain suffers a severe injury, it is not just the immediate damage caused by the accident that can cause problems.

Over the next few hours, the body launches a natural defence mechanism which can lead to swelling, inflammation and further destruction of brain cells.

In some cases it is this reaction, called "secondary brain injury", which can kill or leave the victim with severe disabilities.

The researchers believe that alcohol, in small doses, could lessen its impact.

Survival rate

They looked at the records of 1,158 head injury patients treated at local hospitals.

Of these, 418 had alcohol in their bloodstream. When similar types of injury were matched, they found that those with a low or moderate level of alcohol were 24% less likely to die in the hospital compared with those who had not been drinking.

Heavy drinking increased the risk of death substantially - those with high levels of alcohol in their blood were 73% more likely to die than those with no alcohol.

The results were strengthened when the research team carried out a similar survey on patients arriving with chest or abdominal injuries, and could find no relationship between alcohol levels and death.

The findings echo studies in animals which suggested a similar, protective effect, for alcohol.

However, the study authors cautioned that this should not be interpreted as an invitation to drink for the good of your health.

"Overall, people are still at much greater risk of dying if they drive while intoxicated," they wrote.

They suggested that there might be a role for putting severe head injury patients on an alcohol-based drip during resuscitation to improve their chances of recovery.

Spot the difference

Dr Will Townend, a consultant in emergency medicine at Hull Royal Infirmary, said that the "vast majority" of people attending his department had alcohol in their bloodstream.

"Often the problem that we face is that people who are intoxicated, but have only a minor head injury, can appear exactly the same as those who do have a severe injury that needs an urgent operation.

"The level of consciousness is one of the only measures of head injury severity that we have, and it is a challenge to compare the outcomes of those who have been drinking alcohol, and those who haven't.

"A patient who has been drinking may seem to have an equally severe injury to another patient because of the effects of alcohol, but make a better recovery."

Dr Tony Shenton, A&E consultant at Bradford Royal Infirmary, said that it was important the public did not see the study as an invitation to drink alcohol for health reasons.

"There's plenty of evidence that the more alcohol you drink, the more likely you are to be in an accident, and that the accident will be more serious."

INDIAN PART OF KASHMIR AND OCCUPIED PART BY PAKISTAN - REPORTS

ttp://www.dailypioneer.com/indexn12.asp?main_variable=OPED&file_name=opd1%2Etxt&counter_img=1
Honeymoon is over - DR Ahuja

Global human rights groups, which mollycoddled Pakistan all along, are now singing a different tune

The international community is finally calling Pakistan's bluff on Jammu & Kashmir. There is growing realisation that the Indian part of Kashmir and the so-called "Azad Kashmir" are poles apart in terms of the social, political and economic freedoms. While Pakistan continues to blabber on the same old UN resolutions and manufactures "atrocities" by Indians in Jammu & Kashmir, the world community is increasingly seeing through the haze thrown by Pakistan.


Let us look at two different reports released by highly independent international institutions. The first in the series is the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) which has devoted substantial sections to the J&K issue. It was released in September this year. The second is the EU draft report, Kashmir: Present Situation and Future Prospects, released in November 2006.

The EU draft report on Jammu & Kashmir has rattled Pakistan. Islamabad has since mobilised all its PR might to counter the report and is known to be seeking amendments using diplomatic backchannels. To understand the reasons why the report has shaken General Pervez Musharraf, and others in the pecking order, we need to take a closer look at its contents.

The report is divided under six headings which includes 44 paragraphs: A preamble, an introduction, "Impact of last year's earthquake in Kashmir", "Political situation in the region", and finally, "Response (of Pakistan and India) to the earthquake and Confidence Building Measures between the two countries". For a moment, let's just ignore the subjective parts in the report and consider the facts mentioned therein. By nature, facts are facts and therefore can only be refuted for their veracity, never from the standpoint of whether they are pro-India or pro-Pakistan.

In its preamble, the report says: "The people of J&K, in particular Azad Kashmir, suffer from extreme poverty and neglect... lack of democratic structures and major deficiencies in the rule of law and justice." Can Pakistan digest the report which says, "Relations between two countries involve a dimension of international terrorism." Of course, Islamabad only admits to providing only "moral support" to jihadis.


In para 2, the report says: "India is the world's largest democracy and has a functioning democracy at the local level, whereas Pakistan still has to show that it is respecting democratic principles in a great many areas." It is anybody's guess that the military-ruled country would willingly admit that there are hardly any democratic institutions in Pakistan, leave alone the "free" (azad) part of Kashmir.

Pakistan can possibly argue that it is not entirely impossible for a military-ruled country to respect democratic institutions. The closest that Pakistan comes to being a democracy is hosting a debate which is now raging in the country on Gen Musharraf's duty to shed his uniform to fight elections. The obvious response to that is the citing of the historic precedent: No dictator has been known to shed his uniforms - be it Kim Jong Il of North Korea or Saddam Hussein of Iraq.

On the political aspiration of the Kashmiri people, the report expressed its regret (para 17) that Pakistan has consistently failed to fulfil its obligations to introduce meaningful and representative democratic structures in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir PoK). Can this be denied?

The report list facts such as "Continuing absence of Kashmiri representation in the Pakistan National Assembly; the fact that PoK is governed through the Ministry of Kashmir Affairs in Islamabad; that Pakistan officials dominate the Kashmir Council and that the Chief Secretary, the Inspector-General of Police, the Accountant-General and the Finance Secretary are all from Pakistan.


The report abhors the provision in the 1974 Interim Constitution which forbids any political activity that is not in accordance with the doctrine of Jammu & Kashmir as part of Pakistan and obliges any candidate for a parliamentary seat in PoK to sign a declaration of loyalty to that effect. There is concern expressed over the fact that the Gilgit-Baltistan region enjoys no form of democratic representation whatsoever. None of the above facts are deniable.

The report is more candid on the role played by the trio of jihadis-ISI-military in quake relief. It says, "Initially hesitant reaction to the disaster by the Pakistani military created a needs vacuum in the immediate aftermath, which was exploited by militant organisations on the ground, such as the Jamaat-i-Islami and Jamaat-ud-Dawa, the renamed Lakshar-e-Tayyeba (declared a terrorist organisation and, as such, banned by the Musharraf Government in 2002), who swiftly became de facto providers of food, lodging, schooling for children and welfare for widows.

Finally, concern was expressed over the fact that terrorism has bolstered the credibility of such polarising groups in the eyes of the people, "further undermining any potential for genuine democratic representation".

The EU report was preceded by a 156-page report on the human rights situation in J&K, Everyone Lives in Fear - Patterns of Impunity in Jammu & Kashmir. The New York-based HRW said, "There is considerable evidence that over many years Pakistan has provided Kashmiri militants with training, weapons, funding and sanctuary."

It said, "Under pressure from the US after 9/11, Pakistan banned several militant groups including Jaish-e-Mohommed and Lashkar-e-Tayyeba. But these groups continue to operate after changing their names. Pakistan remains accountable for abuses committed by militants that it has armed and trained".

The 71-page report by HRW on PoK, With Friends Like These: Human Rights Violations in Azad Kashmir, quotes a Muzaffarabad resident, Mir Afzal Suleri, as saying: "Pakistan says they are our friends and India is our enemy. I agree India is our enemy, but with friends like these, who needs enemies"? It said: " Though the level of infiltration had decreased substantially since 2004, there have been no indications that the Pakistani military or terror groups had decided to abandon infiltration as policy."

Last year's devastating earthquake in the region was used as "an opportunity to craft a new image for the terror groups rather than as an opportunity to disband them". Charities linked to terror groups took a high profile in relief work after the devastating earthquake that killed more than 73,000 people in October 2005. Huge funds received from donor countries were diverted to terror groups like LeT, JeM and Hizbul Mujahideen.


(The writer is a former Chief of Bureau, The Tribune)
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FINDING ENLIGHTENMENT

Subhuti asked: "How can the practitioner who wishes to help all beings find enlightenment awaken to the complete and perfect wisdom?"

The Buddha said: "This most subtle awakening comes about through moment-to-moment attentiveness. By way of attentiveness, there is attunement to the ways in which things manifest, such as form and consciousness. The practitioner awakens to perfect wisdom by becoming blissfully free from obsessions with habits, names, sense experiences, personal feelings, and with dread of dying and all the despair that goes with it."

-Prajnaparamita

MAIN HOON NAA - HOLD MY HAND FOR INSTANT RELIEF

Stressed Out? Grab Hubby's Hand
In happy marriages, hand-holding calms nerves, study finds

By Kathleen Doheny
HealthDay Reporter

FRIDAY, Dec. 22 (HealthDay News) -- If you're a woman stressed out from work, holiday shopping, the kids or even too much traffic, grab your husband's hand for instant relief.

And if you're spouse-less? Holding any male's hand is better than none.

That's the conclusion of a study published in the December issue of the journal Psychological Science.

"Hand-holding is second nature for kids" when they're under stress, said James A. Coan, assistant professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of Virginia, who led the study. "This can also work for adults."

The happier the marriage, the greater the stress-reducing benefit, Coan found. But even a stranger's hand can help reduce stress, he said.

For the study, Coan recruited 16 married women who scored high on his marriage satisfaction quiz and gave them magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans of their brain when confronted with stress. He subjected them to a very mild electric shock in three situations: by themselves not holding anyone's hand; holding their husband's hand; and holding the hand of a male stranger.

"First, we wanted to know what the brain is doing when the women were completely alone," he said. "We got a baseline of how the brain responds to stress."

Then, the researchers looked at the MRI images of the brain when the women held their husband's hand or the stranger's hand. "When your brain is under stress, it has to work hard, it has all these different problems to solve," Coan said.

"We found when you are holding a hand, any hand, the parts of your brain responsible for mobilizing your body into action calm down," Coan said. "It doesn't matter whose hand it is. "

But a husband's hand provided the greatest benefits. "Both hands calmed the bodily reaction to stress," Coan said, "but only the spousal hand can calm the mind, only a husband's hand calmed down the region of the brain that keeps your emotions in check."

And the happier the marriage, the greater the benefits. Among couples in the study who scored the highest on marital satisfaction -- pairs that Coan termed "super couples" -- the women got even more benefit from spousal hand-holding than did the other women.

Coan found that the region of the brain thought to be associated with experience of pain quieted down even more in those women. "If you are in a 'super couple,' hand-holding serves as a kind of analgesic," he said.

Whatever the amount of benefit, Coan said he believes "the brain works a lot less hard when there is someone else helping us cope. One of my students said, 'It's like the brain is contracting out some of the work,' keeping our brain less stressed."

Dr. Charles Goodstein, a psychoanalyst at New York University Medical Center and a clinical professor of psychiatry at New York University School of Medicine, said the study gives scientific credence to long-time observations. "Interaction between members of a species can have a momentous impact on emotion, and emotion can have a profound impact on bodily functioning," he said.

Often, Goodstein noted, medications are used to provide relief from anxiety and anticipated anxiety. "This study shows that there is a better way."

More information

To learn more about social support and its health effects, visit the American Psychological Association.

CONSTANT EFFORTS

Through constant efforts over many lifetimes, a person becomes purified of all selfish desires and attains the supreme goal of life.

-Bhagavad Gita 6:45

APPETITE FOR ADVENTURE OVER LOVE OF EASE

Youth means a temperamental predominance of courage over timidity; of the appetite for adventure over love of ease. This often exists in a man of sixty more than in a boy of twenty. Swami Bua, age 115

ANT AND THE GRASSHOPPER

Congress Party wants Massive Rapid Expansion of Indian

Muslims to make them Majority Community in 20 years!



At the National Development Council meeting held on December 9, 2006 Prime Minister Man Mohan Singh openly declared that the minorities, particularly the Muslims, "must have the first claim on resources." The Congress Party under the traitor and stooge Madman Singh is bent on subsidizing the rapid growth, expansion, education and employment of the Indian Muslims at the cost of the Hindus and other communities. The Congress Party wants to bring about a massive rapid expansion of Muslims in India in the next 20 years through infiltration from Bangladesh and Pakistan and very high reproductive rate. Instead of becoming a majority community in about 50 years, as previously predicted by many experts, the Muslims can now surely get a majority in about 20 years due to the "first claim on resources" announced by mad Man Mohan Singh.



Why are Muslims more backward than the other communities? It is commonly known to all people that the Muslims are backward because everyone of them must have a large family, consisting of 6 or more children, due to the dictates of their fanatical mullahs and other Muslim leaders. The majority of Muslim parents in India cannot bring up so many of their children properly and give them modern education. So there is more unemployment among Muslims due to the lack of proper training and skills. With the subsidization of the rapid expansion of the Muslim community due to their "first claim on resources," as announced by mad Man Mohan Singh, each Muslim family can soon afford to have 12 or more children instead of only about 6 now.



Why do the Congress leaders like Man Mohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi want to make the Muslims a majority community in India? Feroze Gandhi, the father of late Rajiv Gandhi and grandfather of Rahul Gandhi, was reportedly a son of a Muslim father, as claimed by some historians and other writers. When the Muslims become a majority community in about 20 years with the help of the Congress Party, the members of the ruling Gandhi family, and particularly Rahul Gandhi, can easily revert to their original religion by converting to Islam. Rahul can then easily become an Emperor of India to start a new Muslim dynasty of rulers. The Indian Muslims can gratefully accept Rahul Gandhi as a Muslim Emperor of India. The descendants of mad Man Mohan Singh can also hereditarily claim the post of Prime Minister in such an Islamic Indian empire.



The worst enemies of the Hindus are the traitors and spies in the Hindu community itself. Because they forgive easily, the Hindus have never learnt how to deal with the traitors and spies in their own community. For their own selfish reasons, the hypocritical Hindu leaders readily forgive the traitors and spies. Under such circumstances, the Hindus can only be losers while dealing with the other communities.



Ashok T. Jaisinghani. Editor & Publisher: www.Nutritionist-No-1.com, www.Wonder-Cures.com

www.SindhiKalakar.com , E-mail: AshokJai@Sancharnet.in , Ashok@Wonder-Cures.com, atsingha@vsnl.com



The time is long past for pathetic appeasement of minorities in Bharat and a vile regime of Congress party must be destroyed. What is needed is an escalated offense to bury this congress party, Ahinsa, secularism and let Bharat become a truly free and respectable Hindu nation.

A parable for our times.....

ANT & THE GRASSHOPPER

OLD VERSION.....



The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks the ant's a fool and laughs & dances & plays the summer away. Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed. The grasshopper has no food or shelter so he dies
out in the cold.
MODERN VERSION

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks the ant's a fool and laughs & dances & plays the summer away. Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why
the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving.
NDTV, BBC, CNN show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food. The World is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can this be that this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?
Arundhati Roy stages a demonstration in front of the ant's house.

Medha Patkar goes on a fast along with other grasshoppers demanding that grasshoppers be relocated to warmer climates during winter.
Amnesty International and Koffi Annan criticize the Indian Government for not upholding the fundamental rights of the grasshopper.
The Internet is flooded with online petitions seeking support to the grasshopper (many promising Heaven and Everlasting Peace for prompt support as against the wrath of God for non-compliance).
Opposition MP's stage a walkout.

Left parties call for "Bharat Bandh" in West Bengal and Kerala demanding a Judicial Enquiry. CPM in Kerala immediately passes a law preventing Ants from working hard in the heat so as to bring about equality of poverty among ants and grasshoppers.

Lalu Prasad allocates one free coach to Grasshoppers on all Indian Railway Trains aptly named as the 'Grasshopper Rath'. Finally, the Judicial Committee drafts the Prevention of Terrorism Against Grasshoppers Act [POTAGA]", with effect from the beginning of the winter.

The ant is fined for failing to comply with POTAGA and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the Government and handed over to the grasshopper in a ceremony covered by NDTV.
Arundhati Roy calls it "a triumph of justice". Lalu calls it 'Socialistic Justice'. CPM calls it the 'revolutionary resurgence of the downtrodden'
Koffi Annan invites the grasshopper to address the UN General Assembly.
*****************************************************
Many years later...
The ant has since migrated to the US and set up a multi billion
dollar company in Silicon Valley.
100s of grasshoppers die of starvation somewhere in India...

==========

OLIVE OIL MAY HELP YOU FROM CONTRACTING.....

Olive oil 'can cut cancer risk'
Adding plenty of olive oil to a diet could help protect against cell damage that can lead to cancer, experts say.

A study of 182 European men found those who had 25 millilitres of olive oil per day had reduced levels of a substance which indicates cell damage.

The Danish team said it may explain why many cancer rates are higher in northern Europe than the south, where olive oil is a major part of the diet.

The study is in the Federation American Societies for Experimental Biology.

By-products

The Copenhagen University Hospital researchers looked at 182 healthy men aged between 20 and 60 from five European countries.

These data provide evidence that olive oil consumption explains the difference in cancer incidence between north and southern Europe
Dr Henrik Poulsen
Copenhagen University Hospital

The scientists added either virgin, common or refined olive oil to their diets over two weeks.

At the end of study, scientists measured levels of the substance which indicates oxidative damage to cells, called 8oxodG, in the men's urine.

Oxidative damage is a process whereby the metabolic balance of a cell is disrupted by exposure to substances that result in the accumulation of free-radicals, which can then damage the cell.

The men were found to have around 13% less 8oxodG compared with their levels at the beginning of the study.

At the beginning of the study, men from northern Europe had higher levels of 8oxodG than those from southern Europe, supporting the idea that olive oil had a reductive effect.

North-south difference

Olive oil contains a number of compounds, called phenols, which are believed to act as powerful antioxidants.

More long-term research is needed to confirm these effects
Dr Anthea Martin, Cancer Research UK

But the Danish researchers said the men in the study used the three different oils, which had different levels of phenols, so that was unlikely to explain the protective effect.

They said that, instead, the monounsaturated fats in olive oil were probably behind the effect.

The scientists, led by Dr Henrik Poulsen, wrote in the FASEB journal: "These data provide evidence that olive oil consumption explains the difference in cancer incidence between north and southern Europe."

Dr Anthea Martin, science information officer at Cancer Research UK, said: "The effect of diet on cancer risk is very complex because of the many different components of the food we eat.

"Although this study suggests that olive oil can reduce DNA damage that could lead to the development of cancer, more long-term research is needed to confirm these effects."

She added: "We do know that a healthy, balanced diet, including plenty of vegetables and fruit and limited amounts of red and processed meat, can help reduce the risk of cancer."

best piece of mathematics - solution of POINCARE CONJECTURE

Maths solution tops science class
By Paul Rincon
Science reporter, BBC News

A solution to one of the most difficult problems in mathematics was the most important advance of 2006, according to the prestigious journal Science.

Grigory Perelman's proof of the century-old Poincare Conjecture has caused a sensation, and not just because of the brilliance of the work.

In August, the Russian became the first person to turn down a Fields Medal, the highest honour in mathematics.

He also seems likely to turn down a $1m prize offered by a US maths institute.

Dr Perelman is said to despise self-promotion and describes himself as isolated from the rest of the mathematical community.

The best piece of mathematics we have seen in the last 10 years
Terence Tao, UCLA
But his work has set the field alight with excitement - and controversy.

Terence Tao, professor of mathematics at the University of California, Los Angeles, called Perelman's result "the best piece of mathematics we have seen in the last 10 years".

Timofey Shilkin, a former colleague of Perelman at the Steklov Mathematics Institute in St Petersburg, Russia, told BBC News: "He definitely deserves the Fields Medal - that is my personal opinion. I am completely sure he is a genius."

'Excellent mathematician'

He added: "I'm afraid he is quite a self-enclosed person. We know about him approximately the same as you know - not too much.

"I met him when he was a member of our group and our contacts were about once a week, but we had only short discussions.

"I know nothing about his personal life; I know only that he is an excellent mathematician."

The reclusive Dr Perelman left the Steklov Institute in January, and was last said to be unemployed and living with his mother in her apartment in St Petersburg.

For several years he worked, for the most part, alone on the Poincare Conjecture. Then, in 2002, he posted on the internet the first of three papers outlining a proof of the problem.

The Poincare is a central question in topology, the study of the geometrical properties of objects that do not change when they are stretched, distorted or shrunk.

The surface of the Earth is what topology describes as a two-dimensional sphere. If one were to encircle it with a lasso of string, it could be pulled tight to a point.

On the surface of a doughnut, however, a lasso passing through the hole in the centre cannot be shrunk to a point without cutting through the surface.

Checking the work

Since the 19th Century, mathematicians have known that the sphere is the only enclosed two-dimensional space with this property; but they were uncertain about objects with more dimensions.

The Poincare Conjecture says that a three-dimensional sphere is the only enclosed three-dimensional space with no holes.

Proof of the Conjecture eluded mathematicians until Perelman posted his work on the website arXiv.org.

This is a so-called pre-print server, where researchers upload study papers for informal feedback before they submit them to a peer-reviewed journal.

Feuding within the mathematical community now threatens to overshadow Dr Perelman's achievement.

The Russian had detailed a way to kick down the roadblock that had stymied a solution to the problem. It was then up to others to check his proof.

It was at this stage of the process - when mathematicians pored over Perelman's work to assess its accuracy - that much bad feeling started to rise to the surface.

'Complete proof'

In 2005, a Chinese team consisting of Huai-Dong Cao of Lehigh University and Xi-Ping Zhu of Zhongshan University published what they claimed was "the first written account of a complete proof of the Poincare Conjecture".

Cao and Zhu took on the task of checking Perelman's proof at the behest of their mentor Shing-Tung Yau, a Chinese-born professor of mathematics at Harvard University, US.

Shortly after the Cao-Zhu paper was published, Professor Yau gave a speech in which he was reported as having said: "In Perelman's work, many key ideas of proofs are sketched or outlined, but complete details of the proofs are often missing."

This drew the ire of others in the field, who said that Yau's promotion of his proteges' work went too far.

In a rare interview, Perelman told the New Yorker magazine: "It is not clear to me what new contribution did they make."

However, speaking to the New York Times newspaper in October, Professor Yau denied having said there were gaps in Dr Perelman's work.

Science magazine also named its "breakdown" of the year: the scandal involving South Korean cloning pioneer Hwang Woo-suk, whose report of the production of stem cells from a cloned human embryo was found to have been faked.

Science magazine's breakthroughs of 2006

* 1. The Poincare Conjecture . Reclusive Russian mathematician Grigory Perelman apparently solved the venerable mathematical problem.
* 2. Digging out fossil DNA . Researchers used new techniques to sequence more than one million bases of nuclear DNA from a Neanderthal.
* 3. Shrinking Ice . Glaciologists discovered that the world's two great ice sheets were indeed losing water to the oceans - at an accelerating pace.
* 4. From sea to land . Details emerged of a 375-million-year-old fish that fills an evolutionary gap between sea creatures and land animals.
* 5. The Ultimate Camouflage . A British-American team built a "metamaterials" cloaking device, that rendered an object invisible to microwaves.
* 6. Ray of Hope . Clinical trials show the drug ranizumab improved the vision of about one-third of patients with an age-related condition that causes degeneration in vision.
* 7. The road to speciation . Studies on the fruit fly and on butterflies aided our understanding of how species arise.
* 8. Beyond the light barrier . New microscopy techniques allowed biologists to get a clearer view of the fine structure of cells and proteins.
* 9. The Persistence of Memory . Neuroscientists provided insights into how the brain records new memories.
* 10. Small molecules . Researchers reported a new class of small RNA molecules that shut down gene expression.