A Thought for Today-111: October 13, 2007

Good and Evil have an equal share in moulding character, and in some instances, misery is a great teacher than happiness - Swami Vivekananda

A Thought for Today-110: October 12, 2007

Both pleasure and pain are great teachers and man learns as much from evil as from good.... The result of these combined impressions is what is called man's character - Swami Vivekananda

A Thought for Today-109: October 11, 2007

All the great systems of ethics preach ABSOLUTE UNSELFISHNESS as the goal - Swami Vivekananda.

'Self-Improvement-2: "Why We All Need a Personality Prop' by J.J.Dorairaj in The Mirror

Various are the methods adopted by human beings to infuse pep into their personality. Some adorn the walls of their dwellings with choice quotations taken from the holy scriptures or lines composed by their pet poets. Looking at these from time to time, their falling spirits have a chance to renew their strength.

This technique is by no means a novel one. In fact, it is followed by almost all religious people in the world. Through this, countless people have obtained victory in their lives.

Every great man has had his own favourite formula, motto or prop to help him rise higher up on the ladder of life.

Gladstone was the son of a merchant. He steadily rose to the position of the Prime Minister of England. His activities were so many and of such a varied nature that the people wondered how he could possibly cope with them. The secret was in his bed-room. There, on the wall right against his eyes as he lay on his bed, were found framed the following words: "underneath are the everlasting arms of God". During his strenuous career, he often went to bed in the small hours of the night, but as his eyes closed in slumber, he did not fail to read these memorable words, and as he awoke in the morning, they were the first words that he noticed. And this gave him the courage and the confidence to live another day.

One of the protestant leaders of England, John Wesley, began his career as a staunch Church of England man. After his conversion on May 24th 1730, he became an ardent evangelist. He traveled on horseback throughout the length and breadth of England, and stirred the people to a type of religion founded on real sincerity and not upon cant and hypocrisy. He is said to have traveled a total distance of 850,000 miles and preached more than 40,000 sermons!

At the same time, his literary output was prodigious. To guide him throughout his days, John Wesley kept a fly-leaf in his Bible which he never failed to read. On this fly-leaf were written the simple words. "Live today"; this inspired him to make every day a perfect day.

Mahatma Gandhi kept in his study room three porcelain dolls representing three monkeys in action. They reminded him to be ever careful of what he saw, heard and spoke.

The society that is responsible for redeeming addicts from alcohol asks its clients to keep on their office desk, dressing table or window sill some choice sentence to remind them of the evils of drink, chosen for them from famous writers. Perhaps we are not addicted to drink, but still we need personality props. Have you chosen the right one for yourself?

Excerpt from ‘WHY WE ALL NEED A PERSONALITY PROP’ by J.J.Dorairaj published in January 1974 issue of The Mirror.

Grateful thanks to Mr J J Dorairaj and The Mirror.

Facts and Figures-10: New Gandhiji Stamps, The Week, Oct.14, 2007

Four new 5-rupee stamps commemorating Mahatma Gandhi was released on October 2, 2007, his 138th birthday.

Courtesy: The Week, October 14, 2007.

Grateful thanks to The Week.

A Thought for Today-108: October 11, 2007

If you start judging people, you will not have time to love them - Mother Teresa

A Thought for Today-107: October 10, 2007

Never break four things in your life: TRUST, PROMISE, RELATIONSHIP and HEART. Because when they break, they don't make any noise but pain a lot - Unknown

A Thought for Today-106: October 9, 2007

If someone feels that they had never done any mistake in their life, then it means they had never tried anything new in their life - Albert Einstein

A Thought for Today-105: October 8, 2007

Believing nobody is dangerous; believing everybody is very dangerous - Abraham Lincoln

A Thought for Today-104: October 7, 2007

Everyone thinks of changing the world but nobody thinks of changing himself - Leo Tolstoy

A Thought for Today-103: October 6, 2007

I will not say I failed 1000 times; I will say that I discovered that there are 1000 ways that can cause failure - Thomas Alva Edison

A Thought for Today-102: October 5, 2007

Winning does not always mean being first; winning means you are doing better than you have done before - Bonnie Blair

A Thought for Today-101: October 4, 2007

If we cannot love the person whom we see, how can we love god whom we can't see - Mother Teresa

A Thought for Today-100: October 3, 2007

Don't compare yourself with anyone in this world. If you do so, you are insulting yourself - Allen Strike

A Thought for Today-99: October 2, 2007

The hands that serve are holier than the lips that pray - Mahatma Gandhi

A Thought for Today-98: October 1, 2007

Three sentences for getting success: (1) Know more than the other; (2) Work more than the other; and (3) Expect less than the other - William Shakespeare

A Thought for Today-97: September 30, 2007

In a day, when you don't come across any problem, you can be sure that you are travelling on a wrong path - Swami Vivekananda

Eyecatchers-39 : Solar Cells 200 Hundred Times Thinner than Hair - AFP

Scientists have developed solar cells 200 hundred times thinner than a human hair that they believe will power the nanoscale gadgetry of tomorrow.

From customer devices to bioterrorism monitors to in-body diagnostics, this ultra-microscopic technology is poised to take centre stage in less than a decade from now. But finding the sources to power it has become a headache.

Charles Leiber and colleagues at Harvard University said silicon nanowire they devised that can convert light into electrical energy. Virtually invisible to the naked eye, a single strand can crank out up to 200 picowatts.

Two hundred billionth of a watt may not seem much, but at nanoscale it is enough to provide a steady output of electricity to run ultralow power electronics, including some that could be worn on, or even inside the body. It is also clean, highly efficient and renewable.

"An individual nanoelectronic device will indeed consume very little power, but to do something interesting will require many interconnected devices and thus the power requirement, even for nanosystems, can be a challenge," Leiber explained in an email.

Monitoring bioterrorism threats, for example, would require an entire array of nanosensors, nanoprocessors to analyse the signals received, and nano-transmitters to relay information to a centralised facility, he said.

Conventional sources, he added are "bulky, non-renewable and expensive" by comparison - AFP

Courtesy: The New Indian Express, Madurai, Oct.18, 2007.

Grateful thanks to AFP and The New Indian Express.

Eyecatchers-38 : Biggest Black Hole

Astronomers have found the biggest stellar black hole so far, a monster with a mass 15.65 times that of our sun, lurking in a nearby spiral-shaped galaxy.

The find, located in a galaxy called Messier 33, has an even bigger companion - a close-orbiting star that is 70 times the mass of the sun, according to an investigation led by Jerome Orosz of San Diego University, California, USA - Agencies

Courtesy: 'World Vignettes', The New Indian Express, Madurai, Oct.18, 2007.

Grateful thanks to The New Indian Express.

Eyecatchers-37 : Anne Enright Wins Man Booker Prize

Rank outsider, Irish author, Anne Enright has won the 50,000 pounds Mann Booker Prize for what the judges called a "powerful, uncomfortable and even at times angry book", The Gathering - PTI.

Courtesy: The New Indian Express, Madurai, Oct.18, 2007.

Grateful thanks to PTI and The New Indian Express.