Gossiping Is Good For Us

A psychologist has revealed that gossiping is actually good for us.
Gossip helps us distinguish friend from foe, therefore protecting us from harm.
"We use gossip as a way of bonding," the Daily Mail quoted psychologist Dr Linda Papadopoulos as saying.
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"Who we like, who we don't like - it's a form of "you and me together," she added.
"In fact, the best way to get people to bond is to get them to decide who they dislike. It's like having a secret - you both know you're doing something bad, so you have a connection. It's a form of sisterhood," she explained.

Higher Education In India

Education is becoming dearer on the home grounds; cost of higher education is likely to increase every three years. A 10% hike in the fees every three years is on cards as the chancellors of state and central universities recommend this as a measure to meet the financial needs of the universities. In the national council meeting organized by the University Grants Commission (UGC) and the ministry of Human resource development. Vice Chancellors were of an opinion that the universities at the central and state level are required to revise the fee structure once in three years. Recommendations given at the conference are yet to be approved by the ministry of HRD in case of central universities and state government in case of state universities respectively. A similar recommendation was given to raise the fees in the IIT's and it was rejected by HRD minister Kapil Sibal. On the education reforms they were of the opinion to introduce semester system across all universities with credit based system. With respect to retaining quality faculty in the universities, incentive based programs ought to be introduced particularly in the state and in the remote areas. In order to prevent the concept of brain drain, universities are encouraged to have tie ups with foreign universities, student exchange programmes etc. Just two weeks back we witnessed the news about private engineering colleges in Karnataka asking to hike up the fees for the engineering courses. Added to that, this comes in as another surprise to the students though the plans are not materialized however it comes as a shock to the student community. Higher education is an important stage in every student's life. It is a phase where the student focuses and adds quality to one self. The quality of educations offered by the universities is a question for debate. With the stake holders of the higher education concerned about the quality of education against the backdrop of declining funds it is the need of the hour to look at options having the socio economic scenario in mind? With the increase in fees for higher education, would the policy makers guarantee quality education? With these recommendations there are two questions that arises in the minds of common man, with the rising cost of living in our country, if higher education becomes dearer will it be accessible for all the sections of the society?? Would the levels of people who want to pursue higher education drop thus creating a bigger problem?

New content control rules

Netizens Sore Control Rules In the age of internet-fuelled information explosion, the government's new rule allowing telecom companies and blogging sites, among others, to remove 'objectionable' content from the web without informing users is a violation of the right to freedom of speech, say netizens and cyber law experts. The Information Technology (Due Diligence Observed by Intermediaries Guidelines) Rules, 2011, say that intermediaries - which include telecommunication companies, internet service providers (ISP), blogging sites, search engines, as well as cyber cafes - can remove 'objectionable' content without notifying the user. The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology announced the rules last month. Pavan Duggal, cyber law expert and Supreme Court advocate, said: 'It (the new rules) is in direct violation to the freedom of speech, which is a fundamental right and mentioned in article 19 of the constitution.' 'The new rules say that intermediaries should remove such kind of objectionable items within 36 hours without informing the users. They have the right to remove any post on a blog or site, work with the user to correct the post or disable access to their services altogether,' Duggal told IANS. According to InternetWorldStat.com, India stands fourth in the world in internet surfing with 8.5 percent of the country's population using the internet. Nishant Shah, director (research) of the Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore, said the government should recognise blogging as the right of the people and that the new rule is 'against the fundamental right of freedom of speech'. Pushkar Raj, general secretary of the People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), plans to knock the door of the Supreme Court in a week's time on the issue. 'The biggest problem of this rule is that it gives a lot of power to lower-ranking police officials without any kind of supervision. In this era of information flow, it is very hard to define the term 'intermediaries',' Raj told IANS. The rules also say that the intermediaries will preserve such kind of information and maintain records for at least 90 days for investigation purposes. Taha Sahil, a management student in Amity University, said the internet was the only weapon to spread the truth and these rules would curb that. 'It's like snatching away our freedom of speech. We all know that the media is biased and blogs and other web portals are the only unbiased source through which people can write and spread the truth. Moreover, this rule does not give any opportunity to the user to defend his work or even appeal,' Sahil said. The new IT rule specifies that the intermediaries should not display, upload, modify or publish any information that is 'harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, blasphemous, defamatory, pornographic, libellous, invasive of another's privacy, hateful, disparaging, racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable, relating to money laundering or gambling'. Bloggers say the new rule is too tedious and will discourage them from blogging. Shivam Vij, a Delhi-based journalist and blogger, said: 'This rule is so vast that it causes confusion and annoyance. Who defines that the content is objectionable and how?' The new rule also gives the government easier access to content from the intermediaries. The intermediaries will be required to provide information to authorised government agencies for investigation and cyber security. Ghulam Muhammed, a Mumbai-based blogger, is one of the net users who partly agreed with the reasons behind the government's initiative. 'The government's control on internet is in essence a draconian measure. But on the good side, it will control things like the spread of pornography,' Muhammad said. Internet service providers argue that the rules are transparent enough and it was high time such legislation was put in place as people had suffered in the past because of malicious content being posted against them. 'There are sets of words defined and most of them are illegal under the law, though there are a few loose words which need to be taken care of,' said Subho Ray, president, Internet and Mobile Association of India. 'If the user has a problem with his content being removed, he can move court and if the court agrees to his appeal his content can be put back again,' he added.

Opportunities For IT Sector

Apex software industry body Nasscom today said that 80 per cent of the fresh opportunities for India''s IT and ITeS sector this decade (2011-2020) are going to come from new geographies, verticals and customer segments. Nasscom (National Association of Software & Services Companies) President Som Mittal said that growth has come back to India''s IT and ITeS industry and "the growth is going to be very different from the growth that we had in the past". "...as per our analysis, in the coming decade (2011-2020), 80 per cent of the new opportunities are going to be from new areas such as new geographies, new verticals, new customer segments," he said. "So I think we need different focused approaches for the next decade. I think we have a sound foundation that is there," Mittal told reporters at the inauguration of an international conference on software engineering, organised by the Computer Society of India. There are huge opportunities ahead of us, Mittal said. He said the US would continue to be a large market for India''s IT companies, noting that revenues from here grew faster than the industry average last year. "There is still a lot more to be tapped within the same country, within the same customers". Mittal said Nasscom is working with automotive and textile clusters to encourage adoption of IT by small and medium enterprises. "With cloud (computing services) coming in, it''s possible to offer IT at a very reasonable cost". Cloud computing services would throw up a new breed of entrepreneurs and drive complancency out of the big players, he said. On scams dominating the political and media landscape, Mittal said that it would have no impact on the IT industry, saying customers are actually happy that these scandals are not being brushed away and indeed are being addressed.

World Sportsman of the Year

Tennis ace Rafael Nadal''s remarkable run in the season gone by helped him pip star footballers Lionel Messi and Andres Iniesta for the ''World Sportsman of the Year'' honour, while the World Cup winning Spanish football side walked away with the ''World Team of the Year'' trophy at the Laureus World Sports Awards here today. The ''World Sportswoman of the Year'' award went to American alpine skiier Lindsey Vonn, who beat off competition from Belgian tennis ace Kim Clijsters, who won a second straight US Open and four other events last year, Serena Williams, and world number one tennis player Caroline Wozniacki among others. Vonn had secured her third straight skiing World Cup and the Olympic Downhill gold medal last year. World number one Nadal -- who completed a career slam last year by clinching the US Open, French Open and the Wimbledon to go with his 2009 Australian Open triumph -- walked away with the top honours by pipping pre-awards favourites Messi and Iniesta. It was Nadal''s second after the Laureus Breakthrough Award in 2006. "Thank you very much for this," said the star who received the trophy from German tennis legend Boris Becker. The Spanish celebrations did not end at that as their World Cup winning football side clinched the ''Team of the Year'' honour ahead of Europe''s Ryder Cup-winning team and the Italian football club Inter Milan -- which had won the treble of Champions League, Serie A and Coppa Italia last year -- among others. The Spanish team, however, could not make it to the awards ceremony because of training engagements for an international match. French football legend Zinedine Zidane was presented the ''Lifetime Achievement'' award "in recognition of his remarkable career. The ace midfielder walked in to a standing ovation from the gathering and received the trophy from legendary Moroccan athlete Nawal El Moutawakel and English football legend Sir Bobby Charlton. "Thank you to all those who voted for me. I have to thank (former France teammate) Marseille Desailly for all that he did for me. Today is February 7 and it has been 20 years since I got married, it''s a special day for me," Zidane said in French, insisting speaking in English would be "too difficult" for him. American Kelly Slater was presented with the ''Laureus Action Sports Award'' for the third time, after winning a record 10th World Surfing Championship. .

Passion For Life

Is a venture of partnerships into projects and opportunities that excite the team. Harnessing people's desires, technology and a passion for life we strive to build local and international projects that give us freedom to move, inspire and change the world as we would like it... We are committed to building relationships, effective working platforms and our dreams. We are presently working in several different sectors including; dating, smart networking, social media, product representation, mobile applications and event management. * passion for networking - Sydney's Leading Networking Coach * passion for dating - Get Hitched, Gary Goodbloke Club and Attraction Master Class Tour * passion for mobi - iPhone applications that instantly connect people * passion for concepts - import and export of complementary products More information about our ventures can be found below and in the above tabs. Event management for ticketed events The experienced team of event managers at passion for life have setup, managed and hosted the most cost effective ticketed events, seminars and workshops across Australia. Providing speakers, organisations and companies with either a specific services to meet their need or a complete package of event management services to run their next event. The passion for life team have run events from 20 people in board rooms, to over 200 theater style, to over 750 people at ANZ Stadium. The passion for life team services include: * setup of a low cost ticketing system, with affiliate and discount codes * sourcing a suitable venue to meet your budget * organising speakers, entertainment and/or catering * Whether your need 1 or 10 speakers - we know the best across all fields * invite event partners and create joint ventures to maximise sales * attract sponsors to build your event budget * outline your event marketing and promotion options within budget * event pr and press to our media list * development of your social media platforms * filming and editing of your video and video promotions * event evaluation forms and entry * full website development from under $900 Passion for life is not about running expensive events. we know how to run events within a budget – no matter how small the budget "the team at passion for life really helped us run our first event with our small budget and lack of experience, they worked with us by taking a share of the ticketing price and delivered a first class operation so we all made money." our focus is on providing professional support, advice and contacts that ensure your events generate profit, results and leads. Attend our Coming Events * 9 Day Social Media Challenge * Turning Small Business into BIG Business * Networking Series * Attraction Master Class Tour Our clients and partners include * Sydney Leading Networking Coach - we actively run seminars and workshops for Networking Coach * NSW Government, Sydney Small Business Month - we run over 20 seminars with leading experts * Business Speakers and Workshops * passion for life expo - we ran 10 speakers on dating over 1 day, with 30 exhibitors * Attraction Master Class Tour - only men's event in Australia with 10 International Speakers * Get Hitched and Gary Goodbloke Club - build the websites, forum and source joint venture partners The passion for life team also supports these up coming events * First Thursday – Sydney Premier Networking Event * Video Marketing Course * Live It Now

The Disney World

7 Wonderful Activities At The Disney World Resort

There are a lot of water activities you can do at the Disney World Resort. Some of these include a ferry excursion across the Seven Seas Lagoon, a river adventure at Epcot or a flash flood at Disney MGM studios.
If you want to get more than your feet wet, here are some other water activities you should try.
1. You can try surfing at Disney's Typhoon Lagoon water park. It has a 2.75 million gallon wave pool that provides waves every 90 seconds that can reach six feet high. Those who want to learn how to surf can learn from Craig Carroll's Cocoa Beach Surf School which is open from 6:30 am until 9:00am.
2. If you are a certified scuba diver, you can borrow some dive gear and head out in The Living Seas pavilion at Epcot. This is considered to be one of the world's largest aquariums that houses thousands of creatures from fish to giant sea turtles.
3. Guests who prefer to stay on the surface will have no a problem because they too can have some fun snorkeling at Shark Reef at Disney's Typhoon Lagoon water park.
4. For those who want to get wet, you can borrow a Sea Racer watercraft which is a mini-powerboat. You can rent one of these from the marina. There is also the WaterMouse, sailboat, pontoon boat, canopy boat, pedal boat, rowboat or canoe for rent. Another interesting ride is the fireworks cruise where guests hop on board a yacht and watch the fireworks show which happens nightly.
5. Extreme sports enthusiasts will be happy to know that you can do some water skiing at Sammy Duvall's Water Sports Centre. They have slalom, kneeboarding and wakeboarding that can be done by the waters of Bay Lake near Magic Kingdom.
6. For those who love to fish, you can do some Bass fishing by the lakes and canals close to Cinderella's castle.
7. Two things you shouldn't forget to do at the Disney World Resort are to swim in the pool or the beach. Unlike other pools you have seen, this one occupies a land area of 3 acres making it a mini-water park. It has pirate shipwrecks as well as sand bottom pools. If you want to cool off, stand right below the five story waterfall on the side of a Mayan pyramid at Disney's Coronado Springs Resort.