Blissful Life

Blog

Notice: after planning it for years, I moved this blog out of blogger/blogspot (which google has abandoned long ago) to wordpress on a fine evening in Dec 2024. This notice will stay here to warn that things might be broken. Let me know if you find anything.

  • The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2008

    This years Nobel Prize for medicine is shared by three European scientists who discovered viruses that cause cervical cancer and AIDS.
    Harald zur Hausen (b. 1936) (Tel.: (06221) 42 – 28 50), a German virologist, who discovered the human papilloma viruses (H.P.V.), thus leading to the development of vaccines (Gardasil and Cervarix) against cervical cancer – the second most common cancer among women after breast cancer – will recieve half the award (5 000 000 Swedish kronor = 32.9111834 million Indian rupees).

    Françoise Barré-Sinoussi (b. 1947) and Luc Montagnier (b. 1932), both from France, will share the other half of the award (2 500 000 Swedish kronor = 16.4555917 million Indian rupees) but will get full medals and certificates for their discovery of human immunodeficiency virus, which needs no introduction.

    Sources :
    1) NobelPrize.org
    2) The New York Times

    Similar Posts

  • Proofs for the existence of God

    Those who are true believers needn’t see this because your beliefs are going to be smashed around.
    Those who are in between believing and not, do read
    Those who are non-believers read and laugh your heart out
    100’s of reasons why God exists

  • Xenophobia

    OK. You’ve heard that term too many times. But still doesn’t know the meaning quite exact, right?

    Now here it is
    Xenophobia is an intense and/or irrational dislike and sometimes fear of people from other countries. It comes from the Greek words ξένος (xenos), meaning “foreigner,” “stranger,” and φόβος (phobos), meaning “fear.” The term is typically used to describe a fear or dislike of foreigners or of people significantly different from oneself.

  • Samuel Goldwyn

    “When someone does something good, applaud! You will make two people happy.”

  • Wiki Sisters – the unfamiliar ones

    All of us know well about wikipedia. But how many of us actually know its sisters, and its parent?
    Wikipedia was developed by Wiki Media Foundation and it has many projects under it other than the very popular wikipedia. Let me list each of them with a small description.

    • Wiktionary : multilingual free content dictionary in every language
    • Wikiquote : quotations taken from famous people, books, speeches, films or any intellectually interesting materials. Proverbs, mnemonics or slogans are also included in Wikiquote
    • Wikibooks : collection of free e-book resources, including textbooks, language courses, manuals, and annotated public domain books
    • Wikisource : collection of texts that could be distributed as free and open content
    • Wikispecies : species database for taxonomy
    • Wikinews : news on a wide variety of subjects
    • Wikiversity : learning materials and learning communities, as well as research
    • Wikimedia Commons : repository for free photographs, diagrams, maps, videos, animations, music, sounds, spoken texts, and other free media

  • AIDS spreading in new ways

    FROM Arvind Khamitkar , I.A.S, Director of Medical & Research Div, Chennai
    Dear Friends,
    A few weeks ago, in a movie theatre, a person felt something poking from her seat. When she got up to see what it was, she found a Needle sticking out of the seat with a note attached saying
    ‘You have just been infected by HIV’.
    The Disease Control Center (in Paris ) reports many similar events in many other cities recently. All tested needles were HIV Positive. The Center also reports that needles have been found in cash dispensers at public banking machines. We ask everyone to use extreme caution when faced with this kind of situation. All public chairs/seats should be inspected with vigilance and caution before use. A careful visual inspection should be enough. In addition, they ask that each of you pass this message along to all members of your family and your friends of the potential danger.
    Recently, one doctor has narrated a somewhat similar instance that happened to one of his patients at the Priya Cinema in Delhi … A young girl, engaged and about to be married in a couple of months, was pricked while the movie was going on. The tag with the needle had the message ‘Welcome to the World of HIV family’.
    Though the doctors told her family that it takes about 6 Months before the virus grows strong enough to start Damaging the system and a healthy victim could survive about 5-6 years,the girl died in 4 months, perhaps more because of the ‘Shock thought’. We all have to be careful at public places, rest God help! Just think about saving a life by forwarding this message. Please, take a few seconds of your time to pass along.
    With Regards, Arvind Khamitkar, I.A.S, Director of Medical & Research Div, Chennai.
    Kindly pass this to every one. Probably your mail can help some save his/her life

  • Nuclear Deal to come soon

    Nuclear deal is on the footsteps of Indian doors. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told a press conference after talks with External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee that the bill concerning the Indo-US Nuclear Deal has been passed by the US Congress and will be signed by the President, soon, thereby making it a law. After this process, the deal can be signed mutually. Rice assured that US will not deter from its commitments to India.
    More from : indiatimes, zeenews

  • What I believe about God

    God.
    He is omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent and omnibenevolent.

    The above one is the best definition I could find for ‘God’.
    The concept of God is so self-consistent that there is no way to disprove it to a believer.
    But to a non-believer, the same ideas seems to be the most rubbish ideas that can be found in this universe (they call it ‘crap’, isn’t it?)

    Now, let me put in my views.
    God is an abstract idea. There is no such place called Heaven where He lives.

    God is the practical application of the most intelligently created concept of a power which can decide what happens around us (and which can be called in the simplest terms as ‘will power’).
    God is a base upon which the tired ones can rest. God is a vast resource from which we can draw infinitely large amount of inspiration. God is an ocean of ideas. God is a nice feeling. God is a pioneer. God is a light. God is a vision. God is a dream. God is a creditor. God is a care-taker.
    God is a reliance.

    God is mind.

    Yes. This is the secret. God lies in everyone’s mind. God is our mind. It is our mind which helps us in whatever ways we want it to. It is the mind that we mean by God.
    And, our ancestors thought… there would be people who are not confident about themselves… they won’t trust their mind or its power either… then what is the way to make them confident?
    And they found the answer. They found that if they substituted mind with God (who is omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent) whom anyone would easily trust upon, they could make the less confident ones more confident, because now they are not relying upon their minds but on the omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent God.
    Thus, our ‘great’ great-grandfathers engineered a brilliant idea to exploit the talent hidden in people – God.

    This belief of God got stronger with the many myths that surrounds divinity. Classics and epics were written to glorify God. These were meant as guidelines for people to follow for leading a better life. Then the people who forged the thought died. Their friends died. The whole generation died. Everyone who knew how the concept got visualised died.

    Years passed. Then decades. Then centuries. By now, the belief had been so strongly nailed upon human minds and hearts that no one thought to question it.

    Then comes the 20th and21st century. By now, people have started losing faith. They have begun to ask questions. They have found their way back to the situations that made their ancestors create the idea. They have come to know that they needn’t believe in God if they can believe upon themselves. There is nothing to cover the truth.

    Now they know – God didn’t create man, it was man who created God.

    There are people who still can’t think beyond what they were made to believe from their birth onwards (or even earlier through genes). They shouldn’t be forced to accept the truth. And there is no need to. When everyone realises the truth, when everyone -good and bad – realises the truth, the world might become an unstable one. The world may explode.
    So better let it as it is. Let those who know, know, and those who don’t, don’t.
    That God is you.

  • How India can make the best out of the current global economic depression

    India and China were the two main powers of the world economy when trade flourished through the silk route.
    China gradually pulled away from world trade by 15th century. Then India was the greatest economy on earth. But at the same time India was gradually being brought under colonialisation.

    With the help of India (or rather by exploiting Indian wealth), Britain gained a great position in the then world economy. (18th century, 19th century)

    Then came the world wars. Most of the demand for loans and agricultural products was met by USA which gave them the benefit of being and international creditor. This made almost all other countries of the world debted to USA, except the mighty USSR which could manage by itself. But the USSR disintegrated wothout seeing the next century.

    That was how USA became the richest country in the world.

    Now, in 2008, USA is going through one of its toughest financial times. Many banks have gone bankrupt. They are desperate to recover. And it is this need of money that we must exploit. We have got a huge concentration of wealth in our banks and in some industialists’ pockets. If we use this wealth to recover those falling banks, then the world economy will gradually be in our pockets too.

    This is what I understood reading an article in DNAindia
    Click here to read it

  • QuickSplit

    The tool can help you easy to split the big file, maybe it’s your best choice!
    You can choice the size of splited file and split path! When you want to unite the splited file, you only need to run the BAT file.

    Download(107k), Donate!