BREATHTAKING REFLECTIONS

Refresh your senses! Watch this slideshow!

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DESTINATION ANTARCTICA !

Antarctica is a popular destination for a chosen few. Travel plans to this continent is fast catching up. But, several are still not aware that they can go there for a vacation!
Dramatic scenery, abundant wildlife, towering majestic icebergs, the stillness will make you wonder if you are still on planet earth. You may also opt for a whale watching trip. Your life might change with such a wonderfully fantastic experience!
To update your information on Antarctica,travel or cruise, www.coolantarctica.com.
To know current weather conditions, http://antarctic-diary.blogspot.com/
which is a blog by a meteorologist at the United Kingdom's Halley research station in Antarctica.

GET YOUR VISUAL PROFILE!

About myself in pictures! Yes, a visual profile!

A very informative profile comes up on answering a few questions based on your personality and likes. Try it! It's fun and easy to create in minutes.
You can use this to enhance your website or blog profile.

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC PHOTOS 2006

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EXOTIC COLARADO

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WORLD'S BEAUTIFUL BEACHES

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BEAUTIFUL INDIA

Travelling to India? Take a peek below! An excellent slideshow of ancient Indian architecture-temples,palaces,forts.

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SNOW AND ICE

Amazing formations of ice and snow to mesmerize you!

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BLUE WATERS

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TAKE A FOREST WALK

A walk anywhere in the countryside relaxes you.But, an early morning or late evening walk in the forest certainly springs some surprises on you. You will come back refreshed and thoroughly rejuvenated.
Here is one exceptional slideshow that captivates you as you take your walk through!

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SEE BEFORE YOU DIE

Do you love to travel? You may have seen the best places in the world and enjoyed your holiday watching a different culture, landscape and savoured great food, but let's be honest. There are still several more beautiful places to see!!! Great beaches, locales and cultures, food.
SeeBeforeYouDie.net is a place for pictures and trip reviews from must see places around the world. The places are edited and ranked by Internet users who love to travel. This user community love to travel and share pictures from unique places around the world.

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Share your Travel Experience

WATCH EIFFEL TOWER LIVE NOW

Yes, now you are at liberty to watch the Eiffel tower in Paris being lit up every night, or how it appears at dawn or simply at anytime. As the world grows smaller because of the net, we can view many places on earth right from your computer or laptop, no matter where in the world you are.
How? Simple!!! Several webcams are placed in strategic locations in different parts of the world. And these relay pictures in real time. One such is a minicam at Eiffel tower in Paris. You can view it anytime getting to know also the temperature at that particular instant.
Happy Viewing!!! You can also tune into their radio stations and view TV channels.

THE WORLD IS BECOMING SMALLER

Communications have made our globe smaller. With the use of internet most interactions are done now online in real time. It is possible to conduct meetings and interviews online using webcam and webmeeting tools like Skype and Paltalk. These are free software which you have to download and using this tool you can call anyone in the world and talk for any amount of time for free. You can teach, play games, send files, watch a movie together, find businesses from the directory, or simply make friends with people of varied interests from different countries. You can choose and join Skypecasts where a topic is discussed and you can air your views. Alternately, you can also host Skypecasts on any topic of interest and get several people to join in.





I myself have been using Skype for about a year now and find it extremely useful.

HOW TO MAKE COOL VECTOR ART IN PPT

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Here are some pointers on using vector art to enhance your power point presentations.

HOW TO ADD VISUAL EFFECTS TO A PPT PRESENTATION

An excellent slideshow on using great visuals for a good presentation.

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INSPIRATIONAL QUOTES

A peaceful and prosperous life is what most people aspire for. Life comes with its share of conflicts and joys. As we traverse this adventure called life, we can choose to be guided by quotes from various famous personalities who made it big despite all odds.

Click the link above to a great site which shows famous quotes.

PUBLIC SPEAKING

Public speaking is an art to learn.
The slide presentation above enumerates how to be a public speaker, and a very good one too.

ANTARCTICA-IS IT INHABITED?

Antarctica being a vast icy continent, people tend to think that it is totally uninhabited.Only penguins and seals must be making it their home. But this is not true. Research stations from various countries have set up their bases here, the largest being McMurdo Station of the US. This is a three hour flight from the South Pole. Learn more about this station which has a vast community of about 1000 residents in summer and less than 200 in winter.There is a helipad, three harbours and over a 100 buildings. Also check out the research stations in Antarctica.



Time-lapse video filmed in Antarctica, in and around McMurdo Station and Scott Base.
Each year the sun is below the horizon for 4 months in the middle of winter, and above the horizon for 4 months in summer. During the couple of months in between we have more-or-less normal days.
Includes shots of auroras and the very rare polar stratospheric nacreous clouds, which form when ozone depleting gases crystallize in the upper atmosphere in the intense cold.
Summer population is about 1200 people, winter about 200.
This is just a small sample of an ongoing project to collect time-lapse imagery of Antarctica.
Anthony (Antz) whose video this is says,
I've been working in Antarctica as a seasonal contract worker since 1998 as a Satellite Comms Tech. Currently spending my 7th winter down here.
Been doing photography and time-lapse photography in my spare time, figuring out systems that work in the extreme cold that will last over long periods of time.

PRESENTATION SKILLS

A wonderful video on excellent presentation skills.

THE PENCIL PARABLE

Here is an excellent slide show.

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EXOTIC SLIDESHOW

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Relax watching these simply captivating photos.

Top 20 Northern Lights - Group History (2007-10-23) on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Top 20 Northern Lights - Group History (2007-10-23) on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

A group of photo enthusiasts who regularly follow auroras and click them have come together to upload their works on Flickr. So, happy viewing as you marvel the sightings! Some have been taken last week and you and I can enjoy them from any part of the world.How wonderful!

NORTHERN LIGHTS

Man is always in awe of certain phenomenon that occur on earth. Aurora Borealis and Aurora Australis are one such.
The celestial phenomenon of bands, curtains or streamers of coloured light that appear in the sky predominantly in the Arctic and Antarctic regions of the earth. In the Antarctic, the lights are called the Aurora Australis, or Southern Lights and in the Arctic, these are called Aurora Borealis,or Northern Lights.
The sun gives off high-energy charged particles (also called ions) that travel out into space at speeds of 300 to 1200 kilometres per second. A cloud of such particles is called a plasma. The stream of plasma coming from the sun is known as the solar wind. As the solar wind interacts with the edge of the earth's magnetic field, some of the particles are trapped by it and they follow the lines of magnetic force down into the ionosphere, the section of the earth's atmosphere that extends from about 60 to 600 kilometres above the earth's surface. When the particles collide with the gases in the ionosphere they start to glow, producing the spectacle that we know as the auroras, northern and southern. The array of colours consists of red, green, blue and violet.
The Northern Lights are constantly in motion because of the changing interaction between the solar wind and the earth's magnetic field. The solar wind commonly generates up to 1000,000 megawatts of electricity in an auroral display and this can cause interference with power lines, radio and television broadcasts and satellite communications. By studying the auroras, scientists can learn more about the solar wind, how it affects the earth's atmosphere and how the energy of the auroras might be exploited for useful purposes.
Source: http://virtual.finland.fi/finfo/English/aurora_borealis.html

STAY MOTIVATED

Motivation can come from different aspects of life. It can be a situation, a person(your teacher, parent, or just someone you meet). Life throws up many challenges. We cannot always be prepared for everything. But, what we make out of it, instead of just getting depressed and giving up on ourselves or our situation, is what makes us stronger.
The following Slideshow from slideshare.net illustrates just this. Enjoy it!!!

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V ISHWANATHAN ANAND

Excerpts from an Interview with Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand by www.latestchess.com after he won the 2007
Morelia-Linares Super Grandmaster Chess Tournament, Linares

At the 2007 Morelia-Linares Super Grandmaster Chess Tournament, Linares, Vishwanathan Anand,the Champion, took an early lead and hung onto it right upto a final draw with Vassily Ivanchuk, to not only take the Title at Linares for the first time since 1998 but also to take the FIDE World No.1 Ranking for the very first time ever!

Viswanathan Anand is an Indian chess grandmaster and former FIDE world champion. Anand is one of only four players in history to break the 2800 ELO mark in the FIDE rating list. He has been among the top three ranked players in classical time control chess in the world continuously since 1997.Since April 2007 according to FIDE rating list, Anand is ranked first in the world for the first time. He is only the sixth person to lead the rating list, the other five being Fischer, Karpov, Kasparov, Kramnik and Topalov.

To read the exclusive interview with Viswanathan Anand, where he tells us about the importance of daily physical exercise for the chess players, his views on modification of draw rules, cheating at high-level tournaments, about the playing style of the world's strongest chess players, computer chess programs, how children can manage the balance of both academics as well as chess, log on to www.latestchess.com

LatestChess:- Do you think daily physical exercise can help a chess player to increase brain's ability to concentrate, remember, focus, visualize, and plan ahead? Could you tell our readers about your views on importance of physical fitness + chess.

Viswanathan Anand:- In chess a small mistake can cost you the game. If you are tired then you make errors in calculations. I go to the gym everyday and it helps me concentrate longer. Especially when you play a tough tournament you need to conserve energy for the last rounds.

LatestChess:- In India, Many young chess players are ready to take a break in the education and they are fully focused on chess preparations, do you think it is a risky approach considering the risk of the failure possibility?

Viswanathan Anand:- A normal childhood is very important. It is healthy to have a lot of interests and go to school . It is not just academics but also the need to interact with other children . Children are very smart and they can very easily learn to balance both academics and chess.

On 30th September 2007, at the age of 37, Vishwanathan Anand became the World Chess Champion for the 2nd time at Mexico city. He won it the first time at Tehran in 2000. He gets a prize of 390,000 USD.

Vishy Anand as he is known has become one of India's greatest sporting heroes!

SOURCE:www.latestchess.com

MYSORE DASARA

The city of Mysore in South India is

famous all over the world for jasmine flowers, Mysore silk

sarees, fragrant sandalwood, delicious mysorepak and most

importantly Dasara procession.

Mysore is the second biggest city in the state of Karnataka. It lies 130 km's from the State capital, Bangalore. It is the erstwhile capital of the Mysore Maharajas, who ruled Mysore State from this royal City. Mysore Dasara is a Royal Festival Celebrating victory of Truth over Evil. Legend has it that the Goddess Chamundeeswari or Durga slew the demon Mahishasuran on Vijayadashami day. Dasara is a 10-day festival in the region culminating on Vijayadashami. In Karnataka, Dasara is observe as State festival - Nadahabba, because of the celebration of the festival is steered by the Royal Family of Mysore. The royal family of Mysore performs special Pooja on the occasion of Dasara. During Dasara, the entire City is decorated and illuminated. Cultural programmes by famous artists are arranged in the Palace along with Sports, Wrestling, Poet's meet, Food Festival, Film Festival witnessed by a large number of people. SOURCE: www.mysoredasara.com

ABSOLUTELY AMAZING WATERFALLS

Are you tired?Have you been at the computer all day?Or are you simply wanting to relax?

Just close your eyes and remind yourself of your last wonderful holiday with your family! Alternately, you could watch the following video!!!

One of the widest waterfalls of the world - Iguazu waterfalls on the border of Paraguay,Argentina,and Brazil is amazingly breathtaking!

The waterfall system consists of 275 falls along 2.7 kilometers (1.67 miles) of the Iguazu River. Some of the individual falls are up to 82 meters (269 feet) in height, though the majority are about 64 meters (210 feet). The or Devil's Throat , a U-shaped 150-meter-wide and 700-meter-long (490 by 2300 feet) cliff, is the most impressive of all, and marks the border between Argentina and Brazil. Most of the falls are within Argentine territory. About 900 meters of the 2.7-kilometer length does not have water flowing over it. The edge of the basalt cap recedes only 3 mm per year.

The water of the lower Iguazu collects in a canyon that drains into the Rio Parana and this is located in Argentina.

SUNITA WILLIAMS ON THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION

"One small step for a woman and a giant leap for all womankind."

Several women have gone up in space and returned, but the ones closest to our hearts are Kalpana Chawla who did not make it back to earth with her crew and remained a permanent star in the sky.Sunita Williams is an American Indian astronaut who has captured the hearts of everyone, especially school going children in India.
Having lived for a record six months at the ISS(International Space Station), ran a marathon in space(her sister ran the Boston Marathon on the earth along with her). She did several spacewalks and conducted many experiments. She even cut her waist length hair and preserved it to be given to a person recovering from disease.
In the following video, she talks just before she leaves the ISS to come back to Earth.

COFFEE ART

See how a cup of coffee can be served!!!

Latte art or coffee art refers to designs created on the tops of espresso based drinks by a barista. These designs are usually created in one of two ways and sometimes using a combination of both. Latte art is considered by many consumers of coffee to be the final, crowning touch on an exquisitely prepared espresso-based beverage. Because of its visual presentation to the customer and beverage drinker and the increasing importance latte art has in cafes around the world, there is concern that taste should never become secondary to the art.


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EXOTIC

When in the mood for some quiet contemplation, watch this slideshow. There are many more slideshows which you can view or have fun, making your own at slideshare.net.

Slideshare.net is the world' largest community for sharing presentations on the web.

THE WORLD IN FOUR MINUTES

CAN GANDHIJI INSPIRE TODAY'S YOUTH?

Why should Gandhi inspire only youth? What relevance does Gandhi Jayanti have today?

Being a National holiday,some schools and all political parties offer flowers/garlands to a portrait /statue of the Mahatma at their respective headquarters.The Congress Party also dons the Gandhi topi. The Raj Bhavan has a classical music programme in the evening.

But the most satisfying answer came from Sonia Gandhi who addressed the UN for the first time.

Mahatma Gandhi`s 138th birth anniversary is being commemorated as International Day of Non-Violence.

"It is not the relevance of Mahatma Gandhi that is in question today ... It is whether we have the courage to emulate his preachings and what he lived and died for," she said in an address to the United Nations General Assembly.

ST.MARK'S CATHEDRAL

Located at No.1, MG Road, Bangalore, is this famous landmark. Surrounded by a lush garden full of trees, a fountain with coloured lights in front, just outside the front porch, the St.Mark's cathedral is steeped in history.

It was the first church to be built in the city in 1808 by the British as a garrison church for Protestants.Its walls stand testimony to the many brass plaques which bear the names of many young British officers who died in battle. There are many unique features here, among them the massive pillars on either side of the central aisle, the high dome near the altar where the hymns sung by the choir seated on either side sounds magical. The most impressive of all is the old pipe organ which was recently restored. Enthralls one and all when played every Sunday morning.
Impressive , colorful stained glass images of Jesus Christ mesmerize you as you walk up to the altar as sunlight streams on it. Extremely enchanting stained glass portrayal of Christ is on the rear wall, can be seen as you walk towards the main door from the altar.

Yesterday, one-year anniversary celebrations were begun after a prayer by the Bishop, Karnataka Central Diocese. The church will complete 200 years of its existence in 2008.