Bicycle Thief

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It’s cooler than four-wheels, easier to get around;
Enjoying sun and the cold, everything that’s around;
It’s pleasant activity, an exercise, panting and paddling;
Goodbye to motion-sickness, I would rather prefer biking.

Needed to chill out tonight, steering about in London;
Stunned outside the garage, indecisive of my vision;
Rub my eyes and looked again, oh man, forever it’s gone;
Observed for a while, certainly stolen by a disturbed spawn.
*******************************************************

Damn, I had it locked securely to the frame, and it was there three days back. The garage “was” very much protected. Gates are always securely locked and accessible only with keyless remote-control entry fobs which are provided to tenants only. The 24/7 guard, CCTV cameras, were there and I can’t wait for Monday to call them and inquire about it. In fact, with so much useless security, the garage isn’t safe anymore!!!

Who would want to steal that ugly bicycle dressed in mild rust? Apparently, some sssh0le did. Nevertheless, I hope it does him some good. The worst thing is that I haven’t ridden it in more than a week. Now that it’s gone, I want to ride it even more. I’m glad I didn’t put more money to decorate my lost friend. Goodbye bikey!

Image taken from here.

Why do moths fly towards bright light?

.Sitting at my study table, focusing on comprehensive reading;

Surrounded by utter silence, only noise was the keys stroking;
Something caught my attention, so unexpected and surprising;
Sensing a touch on my neck, the reflex was a bit alarming.

It happened so fast, I jolted forward and fingertips observing;
I jumped out of the chair, little moth went for the light hanging;
It crashes on the bulb and falls, not conscious to avoid hurting;
Doing that for a lifetime, lights off, I showed it out for light-hunting.
************************************************************

One any given night, you would see many flies and other insects continuously crashing in or making endless circles around lights in your living room or even on the streets. The little disturbance caused by a moth tonight, I wanted to find out why they fly towards or around bright lights and surprisingly found many theories. However, none of them seems to be based on concrete scientific evidence.

Insects that attract to light, and that doesn’t are described by a phenomenon called ‘phototaxis’. Earthworms and cockroaches are repelled by exposure to too much light and are known to have negative ‘phototaxis’ while insects like flies and moths are naturally attracted to light and have positive ‘phototaxis’. One theory states that certain insects use light from the moon as a navigational beacon and flies, keeping the moon on its right side. This would work well because the moon is very much distant from the insect. But, if the insect takes artificial light as a beacon, such as a bulb which is much closer than moon, it would be flying around the bulb in an endless circle trying to keep the light on its side.
Another theory about the same so-called light-compass states that, as the light coming from distant is a straight line, the insect flies towards the moon, and speed of its wings is based on the strength of light on each eye. But, when it flies towards an artificial light, the strength of light on one eye differs from the other causing one wing to beat stronger. As a result, the moth flight becomes unbalanced causing it to crash into the light.

The other theory is the idea that flies are attracted to darkness and are nocturnal. Lights at short distance, they see the immediate area around it as the darkest space. They fly in to this ‘darkness’, and as the light is so close they get confused and end up flying around the light. There is debate going on about why insects are attracted to artificial light while natural light is still there. Some believe that it is, because of this dark space they see around artificial lights.

Unfortunately, there is no right answer to this question leaving us to make personal preferences on the most debated theories.

Which theory do you believe in?


Cheers!
Hammett

Image taken from here

A stubborn mind's invasion

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Twisting and turning, on my warm and comfy bed;
Wandering and wondering, in vague thoughts, outspread;
Wanting and needing, in desperate wait for its return;
Sleepless and helpless, in invasion of a mind so stubborn.

Tired and exhausted, yet troubled with a slight headache;
Worried and scared, uncertain of what’s keeping me awake;
Reading and writing, lot to be done in just two weeks;
Sleeping and resting, without which I can’t reach the peak.
******************************************************

Cheers!
Hammett

Image taken from here

MALDIVES – Highest divorce rate throughout the world

It’s a fact that Maldives has the highest divorce rate in the world, and lot of Maldivians talk about as well. Alarmingly, the figure is way higher than the rate of any other country. The figure speaks for itself. But, what could be the factors “contributing” to this world record?

Actually, I’m rather new to the concept of marriage/divorce :S. Maybe you guys could help me understand what could causing this. Few things that come to mind are:

1- Lack of awareness and higher education in the country.

2- Marriage to please parents
It happens a quite a lot in Maldives, and usually doesn’t last long.

3- Women are underrepresented in the workforce.

Maldives has a long history of women growing up to be just only housewives. Though it has changed a bit over the years, it is still seen and practice that way – maybe not as much in Male’, but definitely in the outer islands.

4- Ease of getting a divorce.

In Islamic Sharia pronouncement of a few words can settle a divorce. In a community where “divorce” is no different from quitting a job – the way it is seen socially – in many instances these words might be used unwisely. I believe the regulation of divorce has changed a bit.

5- Trust, respect and loyalty are unvalued.
Hoo-ha… this is a huge topic!

6- Marriage at YOUNG AGE

Don't get me started. Look around you; friends, family, co-workers - its true! Few guys in mid 20s are mature and/or grown up to be heading a family. It usually ends with a pregnant lady or a little kid or two - whom, most of the time, have to find a way to bringing up a family on her own while the proud dad flies around looking for "exposed nectar". Is that outrageous? :|

7- …and etc!! Don’t hunt me down

There’s a lot more, but I got to run. Interesting topic, isn’t it?


What have you got to say?


Cheers!

If you have never failed, you have never lived!

Hiya,

Today, somehow, I ended up digging up about failures. Maybe I was looking for something inspirational. I'm like a random crawler jumping from subject to subject and never focus on one thing :P

We are social animals. We aren't perfect, but we are very intelligent. Every single moment in your life has an effect on the point in life where you are today. We all make mistakes, not one, but too many. Don't let the bad experiences, embarrassment, guilt or whatever get in the way of becoming the person whom you dream to be; to succeed in life.

A failure is a man who has blundered but is not capable of cashing in on the experience. -Elbert Hubbard-

Don't take failure as a negative thing. Learn from it, and think it a a stepping stone to success. Who hasn't failed? I have failed, but that doesn't stop me from trying again and again. :)

Success is failure turned inside out.

Thought I'd share these interesting clips. Get inspired and start turning your failures inside out. Who knows what you might discover.

FAMOUS FAILURES

GREAT FAILURES OF THE EXTREMELY SUCCESSFUL

THE DON'T QUIT POEM!

Cheers!
-Hammett-

Attorney General’s Office Website – Do Not Visit / Browse

The Attorney General's Office website has been listed as a suspicious website, which might infect your computer with malicious software. This malicious software includes 45 scripting exploits and 5 Trojans. When you enter the website, malicious software might be downloaded and installed without your knowledge.

I was searching for some information and happened to go to this website. But, luckily, I got warned by the antivirus software.

Although malicious software is not hosted on this website itself, it is hosted on 47 other domains and 6 domains are functioning as intermediaries for distributing these malware to visitors of AG Office Website. Successful infection might result in an average of 3 more processes on your computer. Here is the link from Google Safe Browsing Tool which gives more detail of the activity.

The rather strange thing is, the website has been listed as suspicious for 90 days (3 months) and still contains malicious code. Most of the desktop antivirus applications would show some kind of warning. I wonder why the website still contains these codes. It is possible that the IT staffs are not aware of the problem.

Government websites are virtual gateways for netizens to access the government. While establishment of e-Government is taking place in Maldives, incidents like these are setbacks which will have an effect on netizens accepting and/or trusting the e-services.

Hope to see the site cleaned soon. I really need to get some data from there. :)

-Hammett-

A Study - Potential E-crime Threats on e-Government of Maldives

ABSTRACT

E-Government initiative of Maldives has undoubtedly invited new forms of crimes against the government agencies. The legal system which does not cover electronic crimes is a major bottleneck in circumventing these crimes. This paper would discuss current and future potential e-crimes on the e-government of Maldives, and highlight on technical and legislative countermeasures.

1- Introduction

Maldives, as any other Nation, has been working hard to close gaps in emerging technology and to engage Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in providing fast, reliable, and resilient government services. The rapid growth of ICT was boosted by the government’s commitment to achieve the targets of United National Millennium Declaration (United Nations Resident Coordinator, 2006).

In the UN Global E-Government Survey 2003, Maldives scored highest in the South-central Asian countries, with an E-Government readiness index of 0.410, taking 79^th place worldwide (United Nations, 2003). In the following years, this development has taken fast pace and some E-Government services have been further improved.

Although, advancement of ICT in the country is moving forward, this change is not seen in the legal system yet. There are no legislations for computer crime or electronic data protection. The current level of e-crime in the country is significantly low. However, it could be a bottleneck in the legal system, if such crimes are to emerge heavily and increase unexpectedly.

The following sections in this paper would highlight on the E-Government initiative in Maldives, including its structure, current and future potential e-crime threats, and would recommend technical and legislative measures to reduce and circumvent the discussed problems.

READ THE FULL DOCUMENT HERE

Awards & Recognition for the poem 'Caught in Loneliness'

How long has it been since my last post. Hehe. I'm lagging behind. Don't worry about that, as I am here with some good news today.

Some of you might have read a poem I wrote last year titled 'Caught in Loneliness'. Well, a few days after posting it here, I submitted it to a contest on poetry.com. I did not anticipate anything. I didn't get any feedback for that for a long time.

They took their time and surprised me last week. I got few impressive e-mails, and to add on to that, few mails waiting at my previous address which I didn't care to pick up till last week. Yeah! Keep in mind that I'm careless. I still haven't given my new address to the phone company and some other places... Hehe..

Anyway, I got a few awards and some more recognitions for that poem.

Editor's Choice Award - Presented by Poetry.com and International Library of Poets.

Immortal Verses - It's to be featured on this anthology, deluxe hardbound edition, coming out soon! You could order it online at poetry.com Hehe..

The Sound of Poetry - It has been selected to be recorded in this 33 track, three-CD set, with 1 track for each poem. These 33 poems are selected from all the poems that had won Editor's Choice Award.

Noble House Poet Fellowship Award 2007 - Not only a certificate; includes a gold pin (24-karat) wow!

The best poems and poets of 2007 - It's a new book, to be published soon, with 1 page for each of the selected 200 poets. I've been asked to write a new poem for that ;)

Distinguished Member - Nominated by the Board of directors and advisory committee of the International Society of Poets.


By the way, that poem is in 'Poets Choice - Rate my Poem' contest now. You could go and vote here.

I don't find that poem so great and it's been a while since I lost interest in writing poems. What the heck! Maybe I should give another try.

Cheers!
Hammett

P.S. Hope you wouldn't mind typos and grammatical errors. I'm in a rush :)

Reincarnation - possible?

Hello guys........

I apoligise for disappearing from my e-life. I know it's been a while. Battling through an arcade of stress and puzzles about life, I landed in Male' about a month back. As much as I wanted to surprise friends and family, some how to 'my surprise' most of them were expecting me. Information disclosure; that won't happen next time... Hehe..

I had a great time there. It was so good to be back home though it wasn't after that long. You know how it feels like, don't you? I was on vacation and didn't get much time to get to work (updating blog and all). You know what! Actually, my timing was great as if I was planning to attend Rockstorm Chapter 2, which I wasn't. Hehe... It was an amazing show performed by selected few bands from last year and the stunning Malaysian band, not to mention Fasylive.

After 2 weeks of homely food, coffee hopping and teasing close friends (;P) I'm back here again and got busy and then got busy with other things. Now that I've figured out most part of the 'Puzzle of Life', I'm reconstructing it wisely. I have been through reincarnation. Is that scary?

I would try to keep updating this space as much as I could and would be back soon with more stuff. Actually, I got a lot of things to write here. However, I don't want to write too much today and bore you guys. Keep coming back for more. :)

Cheers!

LIFE is a PUZZLE

I went shopping day before yesterday, and ended up in a bookshop for several hours, reading almost every book there. Yep, I did it,;just the cover though. ;) . I bought a few novels. One of that is 24 Declassified – Vanishing Point by Marc Cerasini. I didn’t know about the novel before, but it’s a series of books based on the TV show 24; the hit FOX series. It's the fourth book in the series, the first one is Operation Hell Gate. Eight books already in the stores and the author is still busy writing more.

I came home with something else, that I haven’t bought in a very long time; a 500 piece jigsaw puzzle. Actually, I wanted to buy a 1000 piece puzzle, but the finished-size of that is so big that it won’t fit on my table. I started working on it that night, and finished in 30 minutes. Wow, can I really do that! No, I cannot!. I sat at my table constructing this interesting and colourful thing and it took me almost 3 hours to just complete the outline alone. The pieces are very small and the picture itself is complicated. I still haven’t finished it because I got busy with some personal stuff today and I won’t be able to touch it for the next 2 days. Now that I’m here talking to you guys, that’s alright. :). I really like this one, you know, because it represents re-creating that past to me (reconstructing something you already know). No wonder why it intrigued me to write this article.

Anyway, what I’m trying to say is that life itself is not different from a jigsaw puzzle, except that we don’t see the clear picture of how the finished-piece would look like. Every day we move several pieces of this enormous puzzle consciously or subconsciously; every thought, every decision and we breath we take is all about solving it. It’s sovery intricate and obscure. Things we do, that may seem insignificant to us, would have an effect on this jigsaw.

When you are constructing a puzzle, you would misplace pieces and it might seem perfect there then. But, as you go along, you’d realize the mistakes and you definitely have the chance to change it accordingly. Is it the same in life? Why not? You misplaced a piece today, yesterday, or 10 years back. You could always change it (If not all the time, most of the time) and move it to where it belongs. Some of your actions in the past that you believed as the right thing then, might not be worth that much now. As time goes, you’d get a better understanding of it and you would figure out things that need to be changed. Even if it is a piece that seemed right for a decade, isn’t it? Then why should we regret some things, if not all, in the past.

Embrace and appreciate everything you have done, everything that has happened in your life. Most of the time, we live it up so fast, without taking time to appreciate little things that shaped the life we live today, and the person we are today. Some of us are too busy with work or studies, jumping on the staircase of life. Stand still, just for a moment, turn around and grasp the picture you created. Acknowledge it and don’t ever forget to criticise. You would see a lot of boo-boos; nobody is perfect. You gotta be more worried if it's "perfect". In such a case, I might hire a private investigator :)

Don’t sit back and cry, put an effort to reconstruct it. You picture doesn’t have to look beautiful to others, though yours, mine and everyone else's pictures are connected somehow. It doesn’t mean that you have to totally sacrifice the happiness and beauty of your life for others. It's just me thinking out loud. Maybe it'll be good for you to think about this as well and I do welcome criticism. 

Good luck with your zillion piece puzzle. :)

I would be unavailable for about a day or two at the most. You guys have a great time here; I’d be back soon... Cheers!!

Hammett

Image taken from here.

Mind Tortures the Innocent Body

Laying there lost in sensation,

Heart following music’s pulsation;

Locked in thoughts of uncertainty,

Will it be the same for eternity?

Mind would not rest at all, ever,

The exhausted body sometimes quiver.

All it need is a few hours of sleep!

Does it hear the sensations deep?

Cheers!!

Hammett

Image taken from here.

Stressed is Desserts spelled backwards!!

Exam stress huh! Why am I talking about it here? It’s crystal clear; that’s exactly what I’m going through right now. I hope I’ll be alright. I always tend to show too much stress when it comes to exams. Oh man, there’s a lot to talk if you want to listen to that! Maybe this is not the right time though.

Actually, having exam stress to a certain extent is a good thing. They say it helps sharpen concentration and performance and help to create the additional energy and momentum required to keep studying when we would be doing something else. Indeed! It would make you drive the extra mile, rather than becoming complacent. Too much stress, however, can be overwhelming and stop us from being able to study and get on with life.

For the last 3 days, I was studying in the library with my friends. I get really stressed and find myself completely lost sometimes. The little-white-thing-that-I-puff-away didn’t seem to help much though ;). When I’m questioned on certain topics, I know that I’ve read it but I can’t recall it. I didn’t realize what really was going on till yesterday.

Library is not the perfect environment for me to study. It’s a huge place, and supposed to be silent. You see people talking and moving around. In the library, you’ll always get distracted. Since yesterday, I’ve being studying in my room. It’s remarkable how much I have crammed in a day. I shouldn't have gone to the library at all. Yes, actually I do. Remember, no REGRETS! That’s a new lesson for me.

To study, I need to be alone.

Things I do, I do better on my own.

It helps to have some music on.

And coffee turns the machine on.

Studying long hours at a stretch, doesn’t help at all. It’s important to do something else after about an hour of studying. I haven’t being around this place much, lately. Still, I find time to peep in once in a while. It helps, you know! Sometimes you have to find a way to totally forget about studies. Then when you get on back to it, your mind would be more fresh and you wouldn’t be in a place where you keep on thinking that you’re pushing yourself too hard and you know... Am I right?

I reckon you would be thinking why I’m writing about exam stress, since I want to forget about it and concentrate on studying. Talking about it helps. I’m feeling much better now. Thanks guys for reading my e-thoughts. I got to get back to more cramming. Wednesday is the bitter-sweet day. :)

Time for some desserts... chocolate chip cookies!!

Cheers!!

Hammett

Image taken from here.

Never Touch a Butterfly's Wing With Your finger!!!

This question came up while I was talking to a friend the other day, and out of my intense curiosity I ended up doing some research on it this subject. Thought I would to share my findings with you guys.

When you touch a butterfly, you get dust on your hands. Ever wondered what it really is? I did, but never thought much about it, before. Butterflies and moths belonging to the genus Lepidoptera, meaning scale-wing, are named referring to the scale cell structures on its wings.

Butterfly has four wings; a pair of forewings and a pair of hind-wings. These wings are composed of two very fine membrane layers (chitonous) which are supported and nourished by tubular veins (also functions in breathing). Tiny sockets in these membranes hold each individual scale, providing further support to the delicate wing. The scales are arranged in such a pattern, overlapping each other like shingles on a roof. Butterfly wings will not be structurally sound and strong if you remove a bunch of them, thus harming the small insect. Ridges of our fingerprint, or oil on our skin, is more than enough to pry these wing scales loose, even with the slightest (caring) touch. The dust that comes off, when you touch a butterfly is its wing scales. Be careful next time you wish to touch it! You could endanger it’s life without meaning to harm at all.

The hindwing contains scent scales, which are modified wing scales, that release pheromones. This chemical, called androconia, attract opposite sex of the "same species". There are often ultraviolet coloured patterns on the wings that are only visible to other butterflies.

Lovely patterns on butterfly wings are not only beautiful, but wonderful. Fluorescent patches on the wings functions similar to Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) which are found in everything from computer and television screens to traffic light. A LED developed at MIT uses two-dimensional photonic crystals with layered structures for controlling of emission direction. This was a huge step up in performance, compared to previous standards of LED. Researchers have shown that butterflies use an identical method for communicating to each other over long distance.

The beautifully coloured wings of butterflies manipulate light using engineering tricks similar to those found in digital displays. The wing scales which work like photonic crystals, absorb ultraviolet light and re-emit it. The re-emitted light interacts with fluorescent pigments to produce beautiful colours.

There's so much science behind the beauty of butterfly.

Dedicated to those of you who adore butterfly!!!

Cheers!!

@Hammettz

Image taken from here.

Addressing the damages of COFFEE

I wrote an article on Sunday about how we benefit from coffee, mostly emphasizing on health. For you guys, who haven’t read it, here’s the link. My dear friend, Sarey, after reading that article, sensed bias in it. That’s true actually. I was totally ignoring the bad effects of that. He wrote an article highlighting on how caffeine could kill you, with reference to past cases as well. Here’s the link for his article. Sarey, I’m honoured to have a friend like you, and thank you for taking time to address it. I would highlight on some other bad effects of coffee, not mentioned in his article.

Everyone knows that coffee is a stimulator. It gives adrenals a kick, causing in production of more adrenalin (handles stress) and more cortisol (which is also known as the stress hormone) resulting in a short-term benefit of heightened awareness. The quantity required to boost this get higher and higher making you want to drink more and more to get the required effect. It could get very addictive and ultimately could result in adrenalin exhaustion. The raised level of cortisol results in constriction of blood vessels, harder pumping of the heart and higher blood pressure.

Caffeine and some other substances produced by high heat of roasting (creosote, pymdine, tars and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons). These substances are acknowledged carcinogens (cancer-causing substance or agent). However, coffee has never been conclusively linked to cancer. At least, not yet.

Coffee contributes to dental caries which is an infectious disease damaging the structure of teeth, and causes tooth decay or cavities. It causes more frequent urination and subsequent loss of various vitamins and minerals such as B, C, calcium, iron and zinc. It also hampers the absorption of essential minerals and vitamins such as magnesium, zinc, iron and B’s.

Caffeine in coffee may aggravate osteoporosis by leaching calcium from bones, may also increase intraocular pressure in people with glaucoma, and aggravates stress in people who drink it every day. Many of the chemicals in coffee (including decaf) irritate the lining of stomach causing an increase of stomach acid leading to digestive disorders.

Coffee been the most heavily pesticide sprayed crop, also affects quality of sleep. It’s not an exhaustive list of bad things, but quite a bit huh! Still, it’s widely believed and proved that it is far healthier than the damages.

DO NOT drink coffee if you’re pregnant, if you have high blood pressure, heart disease, gall stone, high cholesterol, or a tendency for blood clots or stroke. Try to avoid coffee at all, if you have mental illness, insomnia, or anxiety.

For those of you who doesn’t have any of those problems and drink coffee daily, you could consider taking a good vitamin or mineral supplement to replace lost electrolytes, minerals and vitamins due to diuretic effects. Don’t forget to drink PLENTY of WATER.

After reading about benefits of coffee, most of you guys felt good that you drink coffee. There were some good comments. You’ve the right to know the damages it causes as well. Hope this was informative although coffee drinkers certainly wouldn’t enjoy reading it.

Cheers!!

Hammett

Image taken from here.

FACEBOOK – Application Requests – Could it be considered spam?

I’ve being away from Facebook for about 2 days or less. Not because I got fed up with that, I’m a bit busy with assignments and exams these days, so trying to disallow it from distracting me. I’m very distraction-prone. :-S.

Anyway, I logged-in to Facebook to see what’s going on there. To my surprise, I had more than 80 invitations for different applications built on Facebook, of course, from my friends, and more than 100 notifications. That’s all within 36 hours or less. I’m mostly have Facebook open, and do whatever I do with requests as soon as I get it.

I don’t add or join most of these applications. There are several thousand applications on Facebook platform. How can one person possibly have all those applications? I don’t want to keep these requests unattended and have to go through the hassle of clicking ‘ignore... ignore... ignore...’ every time. For a single application, there could be requests from 10, 20 or more friends and each would be separate. Couldn’t Facebook, group all requests for each application, so that it would be convenient for the user to either add or ignore the requests with one click. How much time could we save?

Recently, they have grouped the application requests shown on the home page; 5 facelift request, 100 kick-my-a** requests, 1000 other requests. It’s a good improvement. Prior to that, there’d be a long list of requests on the right- sidebar of your home page.

Could it be considered SPAM? Some of the applications wouldn’t allow you to use it unless you invite at least 20 of your friends. “You did not invite enough friends. You must invite 17 more friends”. What the heck!! They are forcing you to invite. They are pushing you to send spam. Some of the applications have a ‘skip’ button in the invitations page, that’s a good thing. I don’t know. Maybe I’m exaggerating. I was clearing up the requests and maybe the irritating ‘right-clicks’ made me write about this.

Is there a better way Facebook could handle this? There are quite lot privacy settings for most of the applications, and the default settings would allow these applications to access your data. These settings can be restricted, but average user won’t be aware of it. Is this a concern? I have got too many questions today, isn’t it? Seriously, we should be aware of Facebook and what's really going on behind it. It's growing rapidly, with hundreds of thousand of new users daily. A lot could happen there. Consider this one of the few warnings!!

Well I’m so busy these days. I’ve being working on an assignment lately; due this week. And got 2 exams coming up next week and I haven’t started reading for that yet. So, doesn’t get much time to do anything else. I might be a little less frequent in updating this, and visiting all of your blogs. Sorry about that! I would be hosting a BIG party here on this blog after my exams... :P

Cheers!

Hammett

Image taken from here.

Coffee Is More Beneficial Than The Damages It Cause

Don’t disagree with me yet!! First have a look at what I have to say. I drink a lot of coffee every day. So does most of you. It’s hard to start the day without a coffee. Coffee is both healthy and unhealthy at the same time and we know it. It has been proved that coffee keeps you healthier than the damages it cause. So why not drink 6 cups a day?

I’m not going to elaborate on the unhealthy part. ;). University of Scranton revealed that coffee is America’s no.1 source of antioxidants, an important compound that protects your body from many diseases; mostly chronic diseases. Antioxidants help stave off cancer, heart diseases, diabetes, coronary heart disease, stroke, and also lessen premature aging. This study ranked black tea as the second source of antioxidant and banana as third. Their advice for coffee drinkers is to spread coffee throughout the day. :)

Caffeine, the main ingredient of coffee, is used to for the treatment of Somnolence (drowsiness), migraine, and fatigue. It is also used to boost the action of pain relievers. It lowers your risk of Parkinson’s disease, diabetes, and colon cancer. Having 3 cups a day reduces diabetes by a single digit, while 6 cups a day reduce it by 54%. Research has shown that men who take 4 to 5 cups of coffee (caffeinated) cuts the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease nearly in half compared to men who takes little or no caffeine daily. Caffeine enhances physical endurance, and protects against cirrhosis of liver (a disease causing damage and scarring of liver tissue and progressive decrease of liver functions). People who smoke tend to drink coffee more, and are at less risk to heart disease and liver damage than people who drink less. The more you drink the better it is. What’s that look? You don’t believe me? Google it!!! It’s not me who’s saying all this. More than 19,000 studies have been done on coffee and there’s lot of information available out there.

Coffee also contains substances responsible for giving anti-adhesive and anti-bacterial properties which help prevent dental cavities from forming. I wish it could make my teeth whiter :). It also helps in treating asthma and headaches. If you are an asthma patient, and you run out of medicine maybe at midnight, try drinking some coffee. One or two cups, maybe. They say it helps.

Coffee drinking kids perform better at school and it has been proved. It’s not because their mental ability gets better than others, but they stay more focused and awake in classes and exams. And no research has shown that coffee is harmful to children. A recent study from Brazil shows that children who drink coffee with milk each day are less likely to have depression than other kids.

Coffee could be very harmful to pregnant women. It is harmful to the central nervous system stimulation of the baby inside the womb and also affects birth weight. Heart patients are advised not to drink caffeinated coffee. Doesn’t mean they can’t drink coffee. Decaf is everywhere!!! But, if you are pregnant it’s wise to totally avoid coffee.

Bottom-line is if you drink coffee a lot, don’t feel guilty about it. Keep drinking more. Coffee is far more beneficial than it is harmful. We drink it to stay awake, to be more active and not to feel the fatigue of overworking; and it does a lot more than that. Go and have a Lavazza, Melitta, Boncafe’ or whatever you prefer. Let’s go for a coffee!!!

Cheers!

Hammett

Image taken from here.

How Much Does Music Affect You?

It’s not only me, or you, who dance to the music or tap our feet to the beat. Our heart, muscles, brain, lung, and every cell for that matter, dances to the music. It could be you listening to something on your iPod, music playing on your computer while reading this post, background music at restaurants and shops, or sound of Aima band playing a musical while erecting a new building right next door.  Music has a significant effect on your mood.

Music does so many things to our body like equalizing brainwaves, affecting blood pressure, heartbeat, respiration, pulse rate, body temperature, and masking unpleasant sounds. It changes our perception of time and space, strengthens learning and memory, and stimulates digestion. Music affects our body in such a large way, though we aren’t aware of it, or maybe some of us know and don’t really appreciate. It enhances your romance and sexuality, fosters endurance, and generates a sense of well-being. It affects kids a lot. While the baby is growing in the womb, music can help. I found an interesting article about that.

Our brain has 4 kind of waves; Beta waves (14-20 Hz), Alpha waves (9-13 Hz), Theta waves (4-7 Hz), and Delta waves (0.5-3 Hz). Beta waves occur when we focus on daily activities or have strong emotions. Alpha waves occur when we’re calm and are in a state of heightened awareness. When we’re sleeping, meditating or in an inspiring mood, that’s when Theta waves occur. That’s the state when we can do creative things. In DEEP sleep or DEEP meditation, Delta waves occur. I wonder what happens when I sleep. I don’t sleep - hibernate instead. What waves would my brain produce then?

Many professors have done research and published findings about this. They say that, the slower the brain waves, the more relaxed, contended and peaceful we feel. Different type of music alerts different waves, and it depends on the person as well. Mozart could help, if you’re in a daydreaming, unfocused or emotional mood. We breathe to a rhythm and it does change depending on the music we’re listening to. When you breathe deep and slow, you have better control of emotions, think deeply, and it even does speed up metabolism. When you listen to fast paced music (eg, heavy metal), you breath is short and fast, and you’ve a tendency to make mistakes while banging your head. But that depends on how you react to heavy metal. I don’t have a problem studying while listening to that.

Our heart picks up frequency, tempo and volume of sounds and reacts to it. It changes pace accordingly and effects pulse rate. This is subtle. Yet it reacts to music. As a result of all these minor changes, the body temperature varies accordingly. Vibrations caused by earthquakes create tsunami. Music produces the same kind of vibrations; much lower than that though.

I was listening to Megadeth for continuous 3 days, about 2 weeks back. Then I changed to Metallica. After 4 days, I started listening to a country radio, and for the past few days, I have being listening to James Blunt. I could never stay on the same pace for long.

I have this assignment due next week. I wrote a few pages about 3 weeks back and this week I couldn’t focus on it at all. Whenever I open the document and start thinking, I find myself doing something else. And last night I was wondering; what’s going on with me? I wrote like 1500 words in 3 days before. Why can’t I do it now? Suddenly I thought of changing music. Resuming  Joe Satriani’s musicals, which I listen to most of the time, I found myself writing again.

I have a strange taste of music. I listen to everything, now and then. But mostly, I listen to Satriani, Steve Vai or Metallica. I listen to heavy metal, DJ, electronic and other stuff with fast beats, when I’m on-the-go. I enjoy iWalking to the beat. You should try it, if you already don’t. 

I can’t stay alone without music. It seems as if the silence would entangle and harm me in some way. I know, it's stupid!! Does that happen to you guys? Appreciate music. Listen to different kinds of music and see how much wonders it can do. It’s the ‘International Language’. You might not understand the words, but, definitely, you can dance (doesn’t matter how) to the tune. What are you listening to now? I was listening to Mozart while writing this article. Mozart, huh?! It’s time for some more Satriani. :)

Cheers!!
Hammett

Image taken from here.

Predicting 2008 - Forthcoming Technologies

Many new technologies have exploded throughout that year 2007, including Facebook, iPhone, Nintendo Wii. A recent technology from NeuroSky which translates brainwaves to commands, making it possible for any electronic appliance to be controlled by just concentration, is a major breakthrough in 2007. It’s hopefully going to be on the market this year. You can read more about it on Neo’s Blog. Using nano-technology to boost battery power for laptops, iPods, mobile phones or other devices that use lithium batteries, is a notable technology demonstrated in 2007. This technology is s not on the market yet. I came across this interesting article about technology prediction for 2008 in BBC website. Here's the link to the article.

This year is going to be remarkable in the development of technology. BBC has predicted 5 major technologies that could be BIG this year: the web to go, Ultra Mobile PCs, IPTV, WiMax, and Mobile VoIP. Technologies that could blur the online and offline world have been announced in 2007. Google announced Gear which would enable online web content to be taken and used offline. Adobe’s Air used an EBay desktop application built using Air that could do much of the legwork required to setup an auction offline making the content to be posted automatically when the user connects to the Internet. Microsoft Silverlight has the ability to run desktop applications in a web browser. Zoho, creator of free online office package and other applications, use Google Gear to enable users to use these applications quite similar to desktop applications. Still these technologies are not used much, but BBC predicts that many more applications that use these tools will come out this year. A lot more is to come yet!!!

Ultra Mobile PCs (UMPCs) has not taken off yet. One of the most talked about UMPCs is ASUS EEE, a sub-£200 laptop about the size of a hardback book, weighing less than 1Kg. The laptop runs Open Source Linux and uses 4GB of flash memory instead of hard drive. The manufacturer predicts to sell 5 million in 2008. Samsung has shown off chips that could be used to make 120GB memory cards. We could see more laptops coming out with flash memory instead of hard drives this year.

IPTV has not been used much because of the internet bandwidth. Internet bandwidth is presumed to improve this year and IPTV is predicted to capture the market soon. BBC is also has a product coming out, iPlayer, which allows people to catch up BBC’s output over the internet. WiMax, a technology that delivers high speed broadband over long distances, is used quite widely in United States. Although it has not been used much in many other countries, BBC predicts WiMax growth to be notable in 2008. Voice over IP (VoIP) is becoming quite famous for making calls over the internet. Some mobile phones are VoIP enabled with services like Skype. More mobile phones manufactures are introducing VoIP enabled phones and it could grow rapidly this year.

What other technologies can we expect this year? It’s quite unpredictable, what they could come up with. Narrowing the divide between online and offline world, and NeuroSky’s recent technology that translates brainwaves could be the most notable. Don’t you wish just thinking what you’ve to write in this blog, instead of actually having to typing everything? I do!! How much time could you save? My dream is to use the PC/laptop, lying on the bed, wearing a glass with NeuroSky's technology. So that I dont' have to use the mouse, type, sit here looking at the LCD/TFT. How cool could that be? :P There is so much to come. It’s going to be a big year for techno geeks making it much harder to keep up with new technologies that it has ever been. I’m still lagging behind trying to keep up with last year’s developments. Don’t expect any less!!!

Cheers!!

Hamemtt

Picture taken from guardian.co.uk

Fireworks Delineate End of 2007 and Beginning of 2008

I’m not a person who celebrate events like New Years, Eids, birthdays and any other days you could add to it. I could say that, because I usually don't do that, and I don't have the urge for celebration as most people do. However, New Year’s Eve turned out to be one of the greatest nights ever. The night started with pizza and some drinks at a friend’s place. Afterwards, we went to a huge pub in Victoria called The Albert. The place was damn full and entrance closed, forcing us to find another pub nearby. The Slug and Lettuce turned out to be pretty cool hangout. The place was decorated nicely for New Year’s Eve; a fantastic venue with the right ambience for the evening. It was so enjoyable; happy faces, everyone laughing with the party spirit, enjoying the few hours before ending a long year.

Everyone was dancing like crazy. I’m not much of a dancer (not at all), moving slowly to the beat. Danie made me dance; I couldn’t resist. She thought me few steps and I was good. J Thanks to her, she was dancing up a storm. We planned to go and see the fireworks at zero hour. However, due to unplanned setback we couldn’t see the first minute. The amazing firework lasted for about 10 minutes. London eye was so colorful and sometimes not visible because of the fireworks going on the foreground. It was a stunning scene, lighting up London, streets were so packed and people stood everywhere staring at the impressive display. The darkness awakened by impressive lights invading the sky as Big Ben strikes 12. Just WOW… Happy New Year 2008!!! It’s good to start a new year with excitement. Thanks to Brigitte for organizing it.

After watching fireworks, we walked through Westminster to a pub in Leicester Square called O’Neil’s. It was a cold and drizzly night. Police presence was high. There were mobilized first aid units helping those in need. The pub was awash with people. You can’t standstill when you hear beats like that. Great music! I enjoyed stone-cold sober, every bit. It was about four in the morning, when we were ready to go home. I was so tired and sleepy, but I had a fabulous time nevertheless. And guess what…… London underground was free after midnight. Saved a bit!! Hehe.. J I reached home at about 5. Tried to sleep, but my brain wouldn’t shutdown. I was running back and forth between bed and this chair till about 10a.m, when I fell asleep.

It's a new year now. Is it ??? I don't see any difference in my routine. I don't have resolution, which isn't my thing. Probably I should make a resolution and add 'more reading' to it. I don't know. I read all of your blogs, that's a lot. Isn't it?

Anyways, a glorious New Year to you guys. If you have resolution, try to stick to it till the last digit on todays date changes to 9. Hope you guys had a great time!! Obviously I did!! It would be nice to hear about your New Year’s Eve.

Cheers!!
Hammett