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Learn How To Get Creative With Creative Writing

I used to write a lot on big squared notebooks. It was mainly about teenage angst. Then I stopped writing (not enough time, a life to live... you name it). Now I write sometimes, when there is something to tell, nothing to watch (just listen to music) and everything is quiet. I long for those times.

Writing needs discipline and sitting down everyday by the corner to write.

Writing And The World

As technology progressed, it seems that the world of creative writing has been left waning in the winds. Even the website known as Wired stated that 40% of Americans read at least one book a year. This does not mean writing has lesser opportunities in the world of today. We all love watching movies and playing video games, but guess what? That great story you’re enjoying required a talented writer. There are still many of us who love taking people in a mental journey with our words. We love to paint vivid pictures with a sweet symphony of words, and the next thing you know, a tingle runs down the spine of your reader. That is when you know you have touched your reader’s soul.

Revealing The Secret Of Writing

There is a secret to becoming a great writer. That secret is to just write! It may seem tough when you open that writing program on your computer or you’re writing on paper, all of a sudden you have a white void staring back at you. You must not write with your mind. You must live in the now when you write and let your feelings just bleed out onto that canvas. Then when you proofread your writing that is when you use your head. The next thing you know you have painted a Mona Lisa with your words. Writing is tough at first, but as you keep doing it, you will become a Da Vinci of text in no time. You can only learn how to write if you know how to read. Listening to another writer’s voice can help you find your own voice. This also allows you to learn from masters directly. Writing requires listening to your soul, and when you read, you are reading another person’s soul.

Painting It By Words

There are lots of tips that can enhance your writing, even if you are already a talented writer. One of the things that helps make a talented writer is their ability to paint a picture with their words. The best way to do this is with descriptions. The website known as Essortment has some very good exercises for this. They said that you should take a broad word like “beautiful” and try to write out things that mean the same but invokes a different feeling. It is all about choosing the right words to spice up your masterpiece. But be aware that there is such a thing as too much of a good thing, having too many words can overload the reader’s mind. Sometimes broad words work just as well. It is up to you to decide when to use these words. That kind of calibration only comes with experience.

References:

http://www.essortment.com/all/howtoimprovew_rgka.htm

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2008/01/steve-jobs-peop/

December 19, 2010 Posted by | Miscellaneous, New, Opinion | , , , , , | Leave a Comment

Success Comes To Those Who Work For It

This photo was taken on June 30, 2008 and belongs to lumaxart's photostream.

Success comes to those who get lucky by working hard.

Creating Your Own Income

In this struggling economic system, everyone is trying to find ways to get additional income. Some people work overtime and some take double jobs to extend their working hours. And some people make a fortune in business and become immensely rich. However, entrepreneurship is not for everyone. It’s like saying not everyone can be a boss. You don’t go out there and start a business just for ego boost and for you to be called a “business man”. It is for people who have an equal sense of balance to seize an opportunity and knows how to calculate risks.

The Loopholes Of Business

Business is the fastest way to earn incredible income. But why do some people fall into a pit of debts after getting into business? Business is a set of risks and responsibilities. When you start a business that means you have to shove your ass to generate initial outlay. Big business requires enormous investments and promises huge returns too, while small business requires small capital and smaller profits as well. How much risk is enough to make a successful business? Small or big your chances of failing will be the same if you don’t have skills in running a business. Best advice is to risk only the amount that you can afford to lose. Second, is never get into a business that you don’t know. How can you convince someone to buy a floor polisher if you don’t even know how it works? Master your product, know your customer, and compete in the market.

A Businessman Works Harder

A businessman once told me that you will never get rich if you’re always living in your comfort zone. So, if you’re a businessman, you don’t treat it like a 9-5 job. The time maybe flexible but your working hours will be more than that. Once you’re already home, your mind will start to think about what your people are doing behind your back, or maybe you will think of ways of creating a better system so your working hours are much longer. Some people try to convince you to start a business because it is a “get rich quick system”. Business is definitely not for lazy people, it requires hard work and perseverance, so if you hear someone say that, get rid of it because that is most likely a scam. You’re business is bound to fail, if you expect things to grow by itself. Never rely on your people to care for your business, bottom line is that whether you succeed or not, they are always paid and you are left in bankruptcy. In principle, you work hard and if you succeed, your business pays for you.

References:

http://www.squidoo.com/whywefail

http://www.afroarticles.com/article-dashboard/Article/The-Benefits-of-Owning-Your-Own-Business/47109

December 19, 2010 Posted by | Business, New | , , , , , , | Leave a Comment

Wikileaks On ‘Red’ Notice

Wikileaks is doing some of the most important work in the world today. Exposing the idiocy of governments, and showing the truth of corporate and government actions to the world. This photo was taken on August 27, 2010 and belongs to R_SH’s photostream.

Wikileaks founder, editor-in-chief, spokesperson and Internet activist, Julian Assange, has been issued a red notice by Interpol on November 30, 2010.

WikiLeaks on ‘Red’ Notice

Whistleblower website WikiLeaks is on ‘red’ notice. Also, its founder, editor-in-chief, and spokesperson, Australian Internet activist, Julian Assange is wanted for two women’s alleged molestation and rape in Sweden. Interpol has issued him a ‘red notice’, the closest thing to an international warrant arrest. WikiLeaks, of which Assange is editor-in-chief, released on November 28, 2010 251, 287 information leaks on United States’ embassy cables, 15,652 of which are classified as ‘Secret’. The leaks point the spotlight on world leaders and United States’ diplomatic concerns. The site has been under cyber attack, being plummeted with distributed denial of service (DDOS), to prevent user accessibility of the site.

WikiLeaks Profile

International, non-profit, media organization Wikileaks was launched in 2006 and made its first Internet appearance on January 2007, when it announced its plans of releasing 1.2 million documents. The site cites its frontline interest in exposing regime oppression in Asia, Middle East, Sub-Saharan Africa, and the former Soviet bloc and to assist people in revealing corporation and government unethical conduct. It seeks to protect journalists and whistleblowers from prison for sending through electronic mail classified information. It has around 1,200 registered volunteers in June 2009. Its advisory board consists of Julian Assange, Ben Laurice, C.J. Hinke, Chico Whitaker, Phillip Adams, Tashi Namgyal Khamsitsang, Wang Dan, Wang Youcai, and Xiang Qiang. It currently has five full-time workers and eight hundred part-time workers, who all work for free. The organization has no official headquarters. Its central server is located in Sweden, where no administrative authority has the right to inquire about the sources of any newspaper. It uses military-grade encryption to secure confidential information and sources.

WikiLeaks Online Publishing Protocol

Originally, WikiLeaks online publishing protocol says contributors can post documents and files ‘anonymously and untraceably’. Public discussion and analysis of information’s context, credibility, and truthfulness are encouraged. Collective publication, contextual interpretations, and comprehensive explanations of leaks are allowed for both reader and writer users of the site. However, to prevent spamming and unscrupulous publication of confidential information, anonymous WikiLeaks’s reviewers reject documents deviating from its editorial policy ‘of political, diplomatic, historical, or ethical interest.’ Five reviewers study a contributor’s background, whose identity is known. These five reviewers are masters of fields in language or computer programming. Julian Assange has the final say regarding a document’s assessment. As of 2010, users are no longer allowed to post comments on leaks.

WikiLeaks Previous Online Published Classified Documents

WikiLeaks online published classified documents began with Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys signed document planning the assassination of government official in December 2006. It leaked information to British newspaper ‘The Guardian’ in 2007 about former Kenyan leader’s Daniel arap Moi’s family’s corruption. United States’ Army’s 2004 edition of Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp’s manual protocol was publicized in December 3, 2007. Its previous publication of the U.S. army’s 2003 Gitmo protocol revealed some Gitmo detainee’s unavailability to the International Committee of the Red Cross, which the United State’s military has several timed denied. During the 2008 campaigns for the presidential elections, Sarah Palin, who was then running for vice-presidency, was revealed to have used Yahoo’s private email account to send work-related electronic messages against public record policies. The site published in 2009 more than six hundred United Nations reports, of which sixty were classified as ‘strictly confidential and six thousand and seven hundred and eighty Congressional Research Service reports; eight-six telephone recordings of Peru’s businessmen and politicians related to the Petrogate Oil Scandal; and the ‘Minton Report, about toxic waste dumping in the Ivory Coast – United Nations report 108,000 people have been affected by the dumping of toxic wastage, some of which could cause harm at a distance, from which burns to the eyes, lungs, and skin, loss of consciousness, and death were among the results from ‘a significant release of hydrogen sulphide gas’.

WikiLeaks 2010 Online Published Classified Documents

WikiLeaks released a classified United States’ Department of Defense Counterintelligence Anaylysis report dating from March of 2008. It details America’s security concerns, plans of weeding out whistleblowers, and human rights violation in Gitmo. It released on April 2010 a secret video footage, titled ‘Collateral Murder’, of a United States’ helicopter attack in Baghdad, which led to twelve casualties. The helicopter pilots thought the men, whom they fired at and killed, carried weapons. Bradley Manning’s arrest, alleged to have leaked the ‘Collateral Murder’ video, followed the release of ‘Collateral Murder’. In July WikiLeaks published what Assange compared to ‘The Pentagon Papers’ – the Afghan War Diary. It also released the more than 92,000 documents to ‘The Guardian’, ‘The New York Times’, and ‘Der Speigel’. The Afghan War Diary is a compilation of documents on the war in Afghanistan from 2004 until 2009, including civilian deaths. 15,000 of the 92,000 war documents are still being extensively reviewed by WikiLeaks, to protect informants whose lives will be put at risk. WikiLeaks has also contacted the White House, before the war documents were released in July, to sift out whose names might cause any violation of the law of war. The White House was silent about it and did not respond. A spokesman of Taliban said the group has formed a commission to go over the war documents and find out who, among the 1,800 Afghans in their ‘Wanted List’, are in the documents WikiLeaks released.

WikiLeaks Released United States’ Classified Diplomatic Cables

WikiLeaks released on November 28, 2010 United States’ classified diplomatic cables. The cables show world leaders’ security interests and personalities. The leak consists of 251,287 documents from communications between 274 embassies worldwide, 15,652 of which are classified as ‘secret’. The leaks revealed United States’ machinations, employing pressure on Afghanistan hot spots; United States’, Saudi Arabia’s, and Israel’s growing fears of Iran’s nuclear program; United States’ concerns regarding Pakistan’s atomic weaponry; and United States’ stand on a united Korea to solve the aggression in North Korea. King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia prodded the United States to launch an attack on Iran to destroy its nuclear program and discourage the Middle East country’s nuclear ambitions. Leaders of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates considered Iran, evil. Bahrain’s and Jordan’s officials support any means that will put a permanent lid on Iran’s nuclear program. Furthermore, the documents reveal United States’ and South Korea’s discussion of North Korea’s collapse from economic troubles; United States’ measures of urging Pakistani officials to remove from its reactor highly enriched uranium; United States’ asking Slovenia to take America’s Gitmo detainees if its leader wants to meet President Barrack Obama; several million dollar offers to the Pacific Island of Kiribati to accept Gitmo detainees; a memo instructing United States’ diplomats to obtain United Nations officials’ credit card numbers, frequent flyer numbers, and passwords to the Internet. Two days before the diplomatic cables were released, Julian Assange sent a letter through his lawyer to the United States’ Department of State, to protect people who might be put at harm by the cables. Legal Adviser of the Department of State, Harold Koh retaliated, saying United States will not be involved in any negotiation on the distribution of United States’ classified documents, which were illegally obtained.

References:

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/wikileaks-claims-website-is-under-cyber-attack-ahead-of-document-dump/story-e6frf7jx-1225962471762

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5h15iHgSN_1Wh5wXeqZPwTXbZMr2A?docId=6b51fb022dd04c22a744b1fefef3b90f

December 19, 2010 Posted by | Legal, New, News, Ready, Society | , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment

The Illegal Trafficking Of Bear Gallbladders

This photo (1,944 × 2,592 pixels, file size: 1.86 MB, MIME type: image/jpeg) was taken on November 30, 2007.

One of Asia’s five Bear Subspecies – the Asiatic Black Bear. Its gallbladder is harvested to procure bile acid tauro ursodeoxycholic acid or UDCA. Bears are the only mammals known to produce great amounts of the bile acid especially used in traditional Chinese medicine. Chinese medical sources recommend Asiatic Black Bear’s bile.

Bear Gallbladders

Bear gallbladders are coveted for its bile acid. Tauro Ursodeoxycholic Acid or UDCA is the acid found in seven bear subspecies’ gallbladders. The Giant Panda is the only exception, for it does not produce UDCA. UDCA is used for the treatment of different types of cancer, general kinds of pain, asthma, burns, sinusitis, and liver damage. It is because of these that bears are hunted down, raised in farms, and eventually slaughtered to harvest its gallbladders, which bile are needed to supply the black-market.

Illegal Trafficking of Bear Gallbladders

Illegal trafficking of bear gallbladders exist. One hundred tons of UDCA are consumed by China, Japan, and South Korea annually. This comprises more than half of the global consumption of UDCA. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) bans from international commercial trade the Asiatic Black Bear, Brown Bear, Sloth Bear, and the Sun Bear. However, bear bile is widely produced and publicly sold in China, Macau, and the Sino-Russian Border. Some Hong Kong stores sell bear gallbladder without a license, which the country has required for the importation, exportation, sale, and possession of bear gallbladder and bile acid since January 1994. Most stores in Seoul, South Korea are familiar with bear gallbladder and bile acid trade, although their stocks are kept hidden and locked. The importation, exportation, display, and sale of bear gallbladders is prohibited in Taiwan. Only American Black Bear parts and derivatives are allowed with government approval to enter trade. Bear bile is worth $400-600 in domestic markets, shooting thirty times more than that in Asian drugstores, where it is available in powdered form. Its liquid form sells for $25 per teaspoon.

Bear Gallbladder Uses

Bear gallbladder has life-saving uses. Its bile acid is milked and used to treat terminal illnesses and minor ailments or discomforts, ranging from cancer to pain. It is also used for the treatment of gallstones, poor eyesight, and rheumatism. In China, ten thousand kilograms of bile are being milked annually from bears in its farms intended for the harvesting of bile acid. Bear Bile has been listed in the first official drug handbook or manual in China around 659 A.D., as a medicine. The Asiatic Black Bear and the Brown Bear are especially patronized and recommended in Chinese medicinal sources. East Asia, being the place where bear bile is widely demanded, is the world’s ‘red-light district’ for mass bear slaughters. Thus, East Asia’s bears are in danger of extinction from the commercial demand of their bile, hunting, and the destruction of their habitats.

References:

http://allaboutnews.net/bear-gallbladder-uses/2228/

http://timesofindia.hotklix.com/link/News/World/Black-Bear-Gall-Bladder-Uses

December 19, 2010 Posted by | Animals & Pets, Business, Health, Legal, New, News, Ready, Society | , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment

Telomerase Might Be The Fountain Of Youth

This photo was taken on March 5, 2009 and belongs to janwillemsen’s photostream.

“In me she has drowned a young girl, and in me an old woman/ Rises toward her day after day, like a terrible fish.” – Mirror, Sylvia Plath

Telomerase Study

A recent study on telomerase found breakthrough results on aging. The study found the enzyme telomerase or 4-0HT could rejuvenate aged telomeres, which has since ceased to function. Telomeres are the repetitive deoxyribonucleic acid components, which serve to guard chromosomes from damage. Each cell division causes telomeres to shorten. Shortening telomeres result in the inability of cells to divide and eventually result in cell death.

Telomerase Might be the Fountain of Youth

Telomerase might be the fountain of youth. Harvard Medical School’s Cancer Geneticist Robert DePinho led a study on the age-reversal effects of the enzyme telomerase or 4-OHT. First discovered in the 1980’s, telomerase has since piqued scientists’ and researchers’ interest. The recent study done by Doctor Robert DePinho and published in ‘Nature’ reveals telomerase reverses aging in mice, by causing the reactivation of telomeres, which aging prompts to decrease in size and eventually die. Telomeres protect cells from damage and are necessary for cell division. The mice, which telomerase were removed, aged prematurely. Upon replacement of their telomerase, the premature aging subsided and reversed. Once more, they radiated youthful energy and vitality. Brain enlargement was noted, and fertility, which the mice lost from lack of telomerase, was given them back. Their intestines, liver, and spleen recovered from their aged states, too.

Telomerase Pill Might Soon Be Available

Telomerase pill might soon be available. Robert DePinho said a pill, which contains the enzyme telomerase, would be made available to humans. The pill ought to reverse aging in humans and restore the beauty, health, spark, and energy young people enjoy. It wouldn’t just slow down aging, it would in fact reverse it, just like the fountain of youth was said to do. Furthermore, it would help people afflicted with age-related illnesses like brain degeneration, diabetes mellitus, and osteoporosis. Us, humans, will be given longer better quality life spans because telomerase pills would make us young and vital most of our lives. Except, telomerase has a downside. It has been linked to cancer by fostering the growth of tumors. If measures could be discovered to prevent this, telomerase would be very useful, out in the market, and out of pharmacies, as people would be coming in droves to partake of the ‘pill of youth’. DePinho notes telomerase would in fact prevent cells from becoming cancerous because it prevents deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) damage. A lot of people hope so, too.

References:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20101129/hl_ac/7298562_harvard_university_doctor_turns_back_time_on_aging_will_an_antiaging_pill_be_available_soon;_

ylt=Ah2PhxLs4jiPo.zGSvxtXL1zfNdF

http://www.nature.com/news/2010/101128/full/news.2010.635.html

December 19, 2010 Posted by | Fashion, Health, New, News, Ready, Science & Technology | , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment

   

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