Content Marketing is Branding ! NO??

It took the major CPG brands some convincing that content offered solutions to consumer reach and engagement that neither display advertising nor search could, and these are the companies with “exploratory” budgets for new strategies and ideas.  Where does that leave SMBs who lack that luxury in the content marketing landscape?

Ironically, content marketing has become something of an equalizer for SMBs competing for consumers’ attention.  As the cost of Adwords skyrocket, the old dictum that you get what you spend is no longer the case.  When it comes to search in fact the opposite is true.  Increasing bids on keywords is a losing a strategy for many SMBs because a bigger brand who can afford to spend more in the cost-per-click market is always lurking around the corner.  Direct competition over an asset like a keyword poses a serious challenge to sustainability.

What makes content so attractive is that it’s truly ownable.  Creating, commissioning, or otherwise earning content provides SMBs the opportunity to extend their branding in a more meaningful way to consumers.  Content creates value for consumers where other forms of digital advertising like display seek to extract value with direct-response cues that consumers have now been trained to ignore, a likely explanation for why display has hit a wall in recent years…

A blog is a perfectly simple way to engage consumers with content they find interesting, educational, or entertaining.  Rather than sell them on what a product can do for them, SMBs should consider what they as a company –and member of the digital community—can offer consumers.  What is their subject matter expertise?  What is the source of inspiration behind their company?  What makes them laugh?  Bringing a smile to someone’s face may not directly result in a sale, but it can increase that person’s affinity for the brand or create a share on Facebook that extends reach to a new audience.

Previously, SMBs seemed unaware that this kind of engaging content could produce lasting, positive results for their business.  Understandably, content marketing requires a shift in mindset from “how can I get customers to buy this?” to “how can I engage this customer today?” but it’s one that can and should occur organically.  We are all consumers, after all.  SMBs should ask themselves “As a consumer, what would I want to click on?  What would interest me?”  An honest answer probably wouldn’t involve a display ad.

Nowhere is this empathetic approach more needed than in the Quality department.  Content is an experience and should be as engaging, immersive and pleasurable as possible.  Skimping on design may not diminish the impact of the content’s substance, but it can diminish the impact of the experience, and that could be the difference in repeat visits, brand recall and social sharing.  Including multimedia assets like video, pictures and illustrations when possible can go a long way at a minimum cost in projecting sophistication, which can help SMBs distinguish themselves from their competition.

In addition to owned media, earned media is a valuable component to any content marketing strategy.  News coverage, press mentions or products reviews from third parties can go a long way in educating consumers without a brand’s direct involvement—which is to say consumers often trust earned media more than branded content.  Look no further than the holiday season to see the role of earned media in consumer spending.

With the price of paid traffic getting steeper and the returns diminishing, SMBs should take comfort in the fact that increased organic traffic is well within reach thanks to content marketing.  The popular SEO practice of link-building is at the mercy of Google’s algorithms, which continue to evolve in the direction of more natural, human results.  Consistently producing great content that actual human beings interact with and share, on the other hand, creates quality traffic opportunities, including social, search, and viral.  The greater the content footprint, the stronger the SEO.

Unlike other CPC platforms (where the bigger the budget, the higher the bid and the greater the number of impressions) you should foremost try about helping people find interesting content recommending SMBs’ content to engage audiences on premium publisher sites (e.g. CNN, Mashable, Slate) for as little as $10 a day..  For SMBs, that means the more clicks they drive—purely through the interesting nature of their content—the more their content is served across our network, leading to lower CPCs over time.  Furthermore our content recommendations are personalized; we’re pretty good at getting the right content in front of the users who want to read or watch it.  The content is exposed in the top tier publisher space and produces high quality traffic at a cost SMBs control (see how some businesses have used their articles, video and third party reviews to double their traffic, time spent on site and save with lower CPCs than other ad platforms here.

Finally, it’s worth noting that Sunday, December 9, was Small Business Sunday, a day devoted to supporting small, local businesses between breaths for Black Friday and Cyber Monday.  The mere existence of this “holiday” speaks volumes about the way consumers prefer to interact with brands: if they deem you part of their community, they want to support you.  What better way to foster community than content that adds value to their lives rather than extracting it.

Best & Top 5 Antivirus in 2012 - Global Computer Technologies

In today’s world computer system’s and the data inside is prone to viruses and all kinds of malware. I think it’s safe to say that antivirus software is pretty much required in order to protect your computer. There’s literally a handful of completely free antivirus software from reliable and trusted brands that you can easily download for your Windows computer.

Here’s a list of the top 5 best free antivirus software for 2012 which are best for the protection of your computer system and your precious data provides by GLOBAL COMPUTER TECHNOLOGIES :-

1) Norton internet security :

The Norton internet security belongs to company named as Symantec. This company claims that it stops viruses, spyware, and other online identity theft . Its other features include includes a personal firewall, email spam filtering , and phishing protection .The Norton internet security provides the industry’s most powerful protection . Four different layers of smart protection proactively detect and eliminate threats before they reach your computer. Identifies and stops new threats faster than other less sophisticated security software.

Some of the main features of Norton internet security are as follows :-

• Norton has Easy and user-friendly interface .

• It has Identity Theft Protection .

• One-click scanning

• Personalized AntiVirus scans

• Anti-Rootkit

• Anti-Spam

• Automatic Updates

• It provides Email Protection

• Firewall

• The software developers provides you Phone Support

2) Avast 7 :

Avast is an antivirus computer program developed by AVAST Software a.s. (formerly known as ALWIL Software a.s.), a company headquartered in Prague, Czech Republic . Avast is being named among best anti viruses on the list. Avast comes with suitable security protection for your computer and you can always upgrade to Avast! 7 Pro Antivirus for extra protection and more features

The avast antivirus comes in two version for its users 1) Avast! Free Antivirus is the freeware version of the Avast! antivirus software available to Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X and Linux users, while Avast! Pro Antivirus is offered to businesses and users who want additional features that can be useful for their business purposes. Priority updates are delivered automatically using PUSH update technology in Avast! Pro Antivirus. Avast! Pro Antivirus also has a command line scanner and a script blocker; however, as of version 6 of the Avast, the script blocker is available also to users of the free version .

The Avast! 7 Free Antivirus has a typical clean tabbed interface, making it very easy for its user to monitor the tools you can use to eliminate malware. Security protection from Avast! 7 Free Antivirus includes some features like Real-Time Shields, Firewall and advanced Browser Protection to help you to take control and remove malware infecting your PC. You can also choose to install Avast! Free in “compatible mode” to avoid conflicts with another antivirus program that is already being installed on your computer systems.

One of the unique feature of Avast 7 is The “AutoSandbox” tool which will automatically run any program labled as “suspicious” through the Avast! Sandbox to prevent serious damage to your computer and your precious data .

3) AVG Anti-Virus Free ( Edition 2012) :

AVG know as Anti-Virus Guard (AVG) is a family of anti-virus and Internet security software for the Microsoft Windows, Linux ,Mac OS X, and FreeBSD computing platforms, developed by AVG Technologies, a publicly traded Czech company formerly known as Grisoft .

AVG features most of the common functions available in modern anti-virus and Internet security programs, including periodic scans, scans of sent and received emails (including adding footers to the emails indicating this), the ability to “repair” some virus-infected files, and a quarantine area: “virus vault/chest” in which infected files are held.

AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition 2012 is probably the most popular free antivirus software for Windows and is used by over 100 million of people around the world. AVG dominated the free antivirus software game by offering top-notch free protection and a powerful security scan to eliminate all types of malware infecting your computer. AVG has become trusted by millions of people by frequently updating their software and providing reliable security protection that really works for free to its users .

4) Microsoft Security Essentials :

Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) is an antivirus software (AV) is developed by Microsoft. Their software product provides protection against different types of malware such as computer viruses, spyware, rootkits and Trojan horses. It runs on Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7, but not on Windows 8, which has a built-in AV component. Microsoft Security Essentials is a completely free security suite that offers free “real-time” protection for Windows computer systems . Anytime Microsoft Security Essentials detects a malware or any other threat, it will notify you via a popup on the taskbar with all information on the threat. You can then choose to remove or ignore o the threat, giving you full control over any malicious threats as soon as they enter your system.

5) Bit defender Antivirus Plus 2012 :

Bit defender is an antivirus software suite developed by Romania-based software company Softwin. Bit defender was launched in November 2001. The Bit defender internet security 2012 makes a convincing pitch as an easy Windows security option. It has enormous selection of features , but the best one you will never see another security notification again unless you get infected . The Bit defender’s product range includes antivirus products for home users and businesses. Home editions support Microsoft Windows, Symbian OS, Windows Mobile and Mac OS X ; business editions support Microsoft Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris and Mac OS X. The current version of the Home/Home Office security suite includes antivirus, anti-spyware, firewall, e-mail spam filtering, backup, tune-up and parental control components. A free basic online scan is offered via the Bit defender website.

The Bit defender products feature antivirus and antispyware, personal firewall, privacy control, user control and backup for corporate and home users. PC Tune up and Performance Optimizer are available in the Total Security Suite . The Bit defender total security offers all the usual components , plus online back up with 2 GB of the storage , parental controls , file encryption , identity protection and even a duplicate file finder. There’s a more basic internet security package too , but this fully loaded edition costs no more than many competing suites. Bit defender provides one click scanning to the user as well as personalized anti virus scans . the Bit defender also provides Email support.

Global Computer Technologies is helpful to you for all these products :) Wishes and be Safe !

OBAMA WINS ROMNEY

OBAMA WINS ROMNEY 

What ought to pain Republicans most about Barack Obama’s victory is that 2012 was entirely winnable for them. In European elections over the past few years, voters have thrown out leaders who were in charge during the worst of the financial crisis, whether those leaders deserved the blame or not. Economic indicators in the United States, where an unemployment rate of 8 percent is highly correlated with defeat for the incumbent party, pointed in the same direction. Obama himself had proven a disappointment to many of his former supporters, going from a beloved symbol of generational and social change in 2008 to a detached and remote figure, with limited ability to touch an emotional chord in the electorate.

That Mitt Romney lost nonetheless is in part a tribute to his own weaknesses as a candidate. The Obama campaign put Romney on the defensive early about his work at Bain Capital, and left him there. The Republican nominee made any number of horrendous gaffes. He ran a disastrous GOP convention. He never found a way to talk about himself or his agenda in a way that middle class voters could relate to.

But even a clumsy candidate might have beaten Obama if not for a simple factor that could not be overcome: the GOP’s growing extremism. The Republican strategy of making the election a referendum on the president’s handling of the economy was perfectly sound. The problem was that the Republican Party couldn’t pass the credibility test itself. For many voters disenchanted with Obama, it still was not safe to vote for his opponent.

This failure began with the spectacle of the extended primary season, which was dominated by candidates with views far outside the political mainstream. Rick Santorum rejected the separation of church and state. Newt Gingrich challenged the notion of judicial supremacy. Michele Bachmann claimed the government had been infiltrated by radical Muslims. Donald Trump refused to recognize the validity of Obama’s birth certificate. Rick Perry wanted to take down more parts of the federal government than he could successfully name. In the debates, the country saw the GOP talking to itself and sounding like a bizarre fringe party, not a responsible governing one.

Romney is not a right-wing extremist. To win the nomination, though, he had to feign being one, recasting himself as “severely conservative” and eschewing the reasonableness that made him a successful, moderate governor of the country’s most liberal state. He had to pass muster with his party’s right-wing base on taxes, immigration, climate change, abortion, and gay rights. Many of his statements on these issues were patently insincere, but that was hardly reassuring. Romney’s very insincerity and flexibility made it improbable that he would stand up to the GOP’s hyper-partisan congressional wing once elected any more than he had during the primaries.

Romney’s pandering to the base made it possible for the Obama campaign to portray him as a right-wing radical from the start of the campaign. Fear that he didn’t have the base locked down kept Romney from moving smoothly to the center once he had secured the nomination. It further encouraged his choice of Paul Ryan, a popular figure with the Tea Party. And when Romney tried, much too late, to move closer to the center, Republican Senate candidates, like Todd Akin in Missouri and Richard Mourdock in Indiana, kept popping up with disgusting reminders of the GOP’s retrograde views on gender issues. For women, Latinos, and young voters tempted to abandon Obama, the old Romney might have been a plausible alternative. The new Romney, fettered by a feverish GOP, was too risky a choice.  According to exit poll results, Romney won men as expected, but lost among women by 11 points—too large a gender gap to be overcome.

Demographic change and better economic circumstances stand to make the Republican road back to the White House an even steeper climb in future years. Simply put, the party has to present a more conciliatory and reasonable face to sell itself to swing voters. To do that, it must elevate its own moderate voices, cut loose its theocrats, and liberate itself from the domination of Tea Party know-nothings. 

So let the season of Republican recriminations begin. The GOP now faces the challenge of self-examination and internal reform that Democrats began to undertake after losing twice to Ronald Reagan. It desperately needs the kind of centrist reform movement that was led on the other side by the Democratic Leadership Council, which paved the way for the election of a centrist Democrat named Bill Clinton. Without that sort of renewal movement, the 2012 election may come to be seen less as a fluke than a harbinger.

India is not for Sale

At a time when inflation is high, when the relentlessly increasing prices of food items like rice, wheat, sugar, edible oils, pulses, vegetables, are reflected in a high food inflation rate of 17 per cent, the Government of India has dealt a cruel blow to the people by raising the prices of petrol, diesel, cooking gas and kerosene which will further push up prices of essential commodities and have an all round cascading impact on inflation rates. No Government with even an iota of sensitivity for the suffering of the people because of price rise can take such an anti- people step. The deregulation of prices means leaving the people to the mercy of a market controlled by big MNCs and domestic corporate. 

The reasons being given by the Government for this price hike are totally wrong and misleading. The Prime Minister has justified it saying it is in the interests of the country. The country of the 77 per cent who do not have more than 20 rupees to spend each day or the country of the super rich? He said that these reforms should  have been done even earlier. This is an admission that it is only because of the weak opposition of the ruling parties on price of petroleum products. They are happy to indulge in dramas of abstaining from attending the cabinet meeting! This is a strange way of protesting—staying away instead of opposing and fighting! The truth is that these parties are also agreeable to this anti-people policy. 

The editor of the Congress magazine has said that only Sonia Gandhi can stop this wrong policy. But even a child knows  that the Prime Minister would not be able to take such a decision without her approval. The entire Congress party and its top leadership is responsible for this – they talk of the "aam aadmi" and follow policies for the "khas aadmi". 

The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Government of India has given an advertisement in the News Papers soliciting support of the people for the price hike of Petrol, Diesel, LPG and Kerosene.  It is a document of deceit and deception  published with public money to befool the people.  It gives the various so-called reasons for the price hike.

International prices

The Government says that 80 per cent of the country’s requirement for petrol products is met by imports. Since prices change in the international market this makes a direct impact on India leading to the reason to hike prices. In other words, the price hike is due to international price rises. 

How much has the increase in international prices been? Since May 2010 the international price has increased by just 70 paisa per litre of crude oil. In May 2010, international crude price was 70 dollar per barrel i.e. Rs. 21.43 per liter (1 dollar = Rs.49). Today it is 77 dollar per barrel which means Rs. 22.13 per liter (1dollar = Rs.46.22).  One barrel roughly is 160 litres. So the international crude price has risen by 70 paisa per litre.  But the Government has raised the prices many times more!  In the last six months, the price hike by Government is of Rs. 6.44 per litre on petrol, Rs.4.55 per liter on diesel within last four months, and Rs.3 per liter on Kerosene and Rs 35 on Domestic LPG now. Secondly, in the last three months there has been no increase at all in the international prices, so why  this hike now? Obviously the international price has nothing to do with the price hike of petroleum products since the last budget in February 2010.   

The Government advertisement  says India imports petroleum products. India imports crude oil,  it does not import petroleum products, Crude oil is refined in the refineries in India to produce petroleum products like petrol, diesel cooking gas, kerosene etc. before marketing. India imports 75 to 80 per cent of its crude oil requirements. However India is more than self sufficient in oil refining and produces more petroleum  products than the domestic requirements.  In the year  2009 – 2010 (April-December) it has exported 28 million tonnes petroleum products against an import of 10 million tonnes.  

“The government has acted in the larger national interest of saving PSU oil companies, which are Navaratnas and Maharatnas, from bankruptcy and safeguarding consumer interests.” Is it so?  Are the oil companies on the verge of bankruptcy? We are not Fools nor are you either !(IOC posted net profit of Rs. 2,950 crore on an unprecedented turnover  of Rs. 2,85,337)

In  1976 Indira Gandhi nationalised all the big foreign companies like Burma Shell, Caltex, Esso which were looting India. Before nationalization, these foreign companies used to charge Indian consumers at the international price of petroleum products making huge profits. This was known as  import parity pricing system. Everyone knows that it is the big multi-national oil companies and cartels that together control the world’s oil markets and manipulate prices to increase their profits. In addition, the multi-national financial companies further push up prices through massive 

speculation. In 1976 import pricing system was stopped. The then Government set in place a mechanism called the Administrative Pricing Mechanism (APM). The effort was to increase the domestic refining capacity and to end dependence on imports of petroleum products from foreign companies. As per APM instead of the international price of petroleum products being the basis, the actual cost of crude and refining cost of crude were assessed and a reasonable profit margin was ensured to the companies before fixing the price of products.  

It is an insult to self reliance  achieved in the petroleum sector, when the government advertisement tries to compare the prices of LPG and Kerosene selectively with other countries like Nepal and Bangladesh.  Instead it should compare the taxing pattern of petrol and diesel with some of the developing countries.

The Ministry has forgotten its arithmetic. The fact is that the Government is earning huge amounts by putting burdens on the people. During 2009-2010 the contribution to Central Government. Exchequer by the Petroleum Sector  in the form of taxes, duties, dividend etc. is more than Rs. 90,000 crore. During the year 2010-2011, after the increase in taxes, the contribution  is going to be more than Rs. 1,20,000 crore. Who is subsidizing whom?  And then where is this figure  of Rs. 53,000 core in the budget? Where from this figure has been  invented? Is it also a case of globalised arithmetic like under  recovery which does not find a place in budget or balance sheet? 

“A free-market regime will create competition between the public and private sectors.  This will improve service and could also lead to a price war.”   

These are the naked truths behind the lies of the Government! Bhrashtamev Jayate !

“Bhrashtamev Jayate”

Talking about social media today in India, I think it’s important to start off with some global basics. The first is of course is that the freedom of expression is fundamental. That’s my belief and commitment as a citizen, and as somebody who uses all media, social and otherwise — social and anti-social!

Freedom of expression is the mortar that binds together the bricks of our freedom and it’s also the open window embedded in those bricks. We need freedom of expression to guarantee all of our other acts. In this country we are all entitled to receive and send information thorough electronic networks, to share information, whether through the newspaper, the TV screen or online websites and to do so without censorship and restriction. This is fundamental to the kind of world which we all live in.

As a common man ( Indian citizen), I am conscious how fortunate we are to live in a country that guarantees us that right. People in some developing countries have to contend with the argument that development and freedom of expression are incompatible – that the media, for instance, must serve the ends of development as defined by the government, or operate only within the boundaries of what the social and religious authorities define as permissible.  The developing world is full of writers, artists and journalists who have to function in societies which do not grant them this freedom.  For them freedom of expression is the oxygen of their own survival, and that of their society, but they are stifled.  In countries where truth is what the government or the religious establishment says is true, freedom of expression is essential to depict alternative truths which the society needs to accommodate in order to survive.

And yet it is all too often absent, because in many countries, there are those who question the value of freedom of speech in their societies, those who argue that it threatens stability and endangers progress, those who still consider freedom of speech a Western import, an imposition from abroad and not the indigenous expression of every people’s demand for freedom. What has always struck me about this argument is that it is never made by the people, but by governments, never by the powerless but by the powerful, never by the voiceless, but by those whose voices are all that can be heard.  Let us put this argument once and for all to the only test that matters :- the choice of every people, to know more or know less, to be heard or be silenced, to stand up or kneel down. Only freedom of expression will allow the world’s oppressed and underprivileged a way out of the darkness that shrouds their voices, and their hopes.  The Internet has been giving them this choice as never before.

But then beyond that, and beyond the way in which social media reflects our freedom of expression, we have to go into how the information society of the 21st century provides citizens with full information to allow democratic participation at all levels in determining their own future.

Technology has become the biggest asset for those who seek to promote and protect freedom of expression around the world. The exciting thing about social media is that the new digital technology offers great possibilities for enhancing traditional media and combining them with new media.

The Internet has been made possible by advances in technology that have also transformed the traditional media. Traditional media, and especially radio and television, remain the sole form of access to the information society for much of the world’s population, including the very poor and the illiterate. The poorest, and the illiterate, have not yet been able to use social media and the internet. But even the rest of us rely on traditional media, we can’t wish them away. There is increasing convergence between television and the internet and soon we can try and see how we can marry modern technologies to actually make serious progress in the world.

Today, however, our focus is on social media. Look at the extraordinary transformation that is happening. Just a day after he was sworn in as our President, Pranab Mukherjee announced that he would be opening a Facebook account to receive and respond to the queries from the public. In fact, his fellow Bengali, Mamata Banerjee, has beaten him to it, with a popular and widely read website that the media mines daily for new stories about her views. Just three years ago, when there was a toll on social media, it was fashionable for Indian politicians to sneer at the use of social media. Today our own President made it clear that these are essential tools for clear, accountable and credible political leadership. The governments of the world or the big institutions of power have become more vulnerable today because of the fact that the new media technology has exposed them to the uncontrolled impact of instant news. And so the fact is that when we speak about the social media, we can’t get away from understanding the impact of new technology on the way the world is working.

Technology is such that everybody has a mobile phone in there pocket and you can do far more than when you could have first acquired a mobile phone. Now, you can take pictures, you can take videos, you can transmit them and go on the internet. Something like 5 billion people worldwide, including 84% of Americans, more than 70% of Chinese and at least 60% of Indians, today use mobile phones. You can all get your messages out more rapidly. The strength of this is that you can enable ordinary people to issue and disseminate even raw footage or compellingly authentic images before the mainstream media or the government can actually do so. So you can open up a social media space even not being a professional media person. 

“Bhrashtamev Jayate” The immoral relationships are always harmful for a house hold. Fight against internet censorship and website Ban for our own development !

Man and Wife or a Marriage Contract !

Gone are the times when you had a pet name and there were rhythm divine Valium allies in your arms all the time as they are getting married nowadays ! I have found that marriage is just a way of saying that a person has found the one they love and want no other. Marriage has changed over the years, as we have become dishonest with ourselves. We have used marriage over the years as a tool for control, power or wealth, while being dishonest with the ones we marry. Society has also deemed that we must be with one person, so we lie and live as society tells us hiding the fact that some are not the one lover type. 

There is nothing wrong with marriage, as long as you are honest and truly believe that you have found the one you want to spend the rest of your life with. Its all about honesty, if you do not want marriage then do not get into it, if you want multiple partners then tell them that. Be honest and do what you feel is right, no piece of paper will ever make a difference with the person whom you love.

Most of the time there is a lot of societal expectation or pressure to marry. There is still a stigma to having an illegitimate child. There are few women on this planet outside of Earth where women will be content living with their partner and raising children with no expectation of marriage - as they put it "getting married let me know you were serious about making this work".

And they are right - getting married changed their thought process a lot - he wanted to be with her but his brain kept thinking in terms of "my plans" instead of "our plans" before getting married because it's the socially expected thing to do after you've been together for a while. Marriage adds a low pass filters in the relationship, i.e., stabilizes it. Marriage makes it procedurally harder to leave each other and often degrades your BATNA (Best Alternative to Negotiated Agreement) because it brings you out of the dating game (Most marriages entail socially accepted exclusivity).

The subconscious fear of "Who will cry when I die" drives us to find and live with a life long partner. We then "marry" to "inform" , the society, about the bond . And the reason behind informing the society is to create for ourselves, a "threat of social rejection/ridicule" thus an attempt to  ensure that "There will be someone who will cry when I die".

Now coming to the point why am i so worried about all this. I have no obvious, rational reason to get married. I come from a very liberal family, and no one would care if my girlfriend and I just continue to live together. Both of us is religious and so are our parents. We keep separate bank accounts. I am a financial imbecile, so though I've heard there are "tax implications," I've never paid attention to them.

I have friends that have been together without getting married. Some have been coupled longer than I have. As far as I'm concerned, they are just as "married" as I am not.

And yet getting married is no way tremendously important to me. I am very glad that I have not done it, and a large part of my identity is to be a ripe and soulfully spoilt "husband." 

So our mothers will stop nagging us to get married and start nagging us to have children.

Partly, this is due to conditioning. Liberal as they were, my parents were married. My grandparents were married. When I was a kid, all my friends had parents who were married. Thankfully, I never thought getting married as "what one had to do." I will never marry someone whom I wasn't devoted to. But I did think that if I ever find a real partner, I would marry her.

Mostly, it has to do with making a commitment. Marriage, to me, is an arbitrary ceremony. (And a fun one, though as of now I have never got to taste my own damn groom cake!) There are other ways of committing, but, from my point of view, there is no problem with using the traditional one. It had the advantage of being tied to my symbolism and my emotions, due to years of conditioning: looking at my parents' wedding album, watching Hollywood movies, etc.

 

What it comes down to a promise and so did my girlfriend that's what marriage is to me: a promise. Some people make promises all the time. Some people break promises all the time. But I rarely break promises. I also rarely make promises. So for me to make one ... it's a pretty big deal.

A lot of people are profoundly affected by the spoken word, and I'm no exception. A marriage vow is an example of performative language, which, at its most absurd, is a kind of magical thinking: like when superstitious people think it's going to rain because someone said, "I hope it doesn't rain."

I'm truly not an atheist but is a materialist but not a skeptic, so I don't believe in magic words. Still, words do have an emotional effect on me. And, after all, what is a promise??? My promise -- to stay with my girlfriend until deal -- doesn't exist, except as neuronal patterns in my brain and hers. So, I suppose, the magic words are sort of ways to start a mental program running. And continually thinking of myself as her husband are ways to keep the program running. Now thats the view of a computer engineer with weeds cells implanted in my brain.  

 

Marriage is never a "thing" that needs to be scored on a check box. And I don't think it wrong in any way if someone wants to "explore the untouched word" in one word its called "curiosity". I do agree that still in many parts of this country marriage is a gate pass for sex. But before that I seriously want to ask "Is having sex a wrong deed? You are in a matured age ofcourse you should have. And why not tie up together in a better acceptable bond so that no one can raise a hand." After marriage people do not have sex ONLY. How can we forget the guys/girls who gets married because they want to, not because of having sex, because they want to experience responsibilities, at that age they want someone to share their time and space.
 

You want to marry someone with whom you want to grow old, someone whose happiness will mean the world to you. Whose sagging body will never affect you from loving him. Whose pain will hurt you as much as your own. Whose happiness will fill you with joy.

At last, why do you marry because you have to. What is important is life-long companionship and undying affection. Marriage is a not about hanging around and having fun. Nor is it something that must be done under pressure. Marriage comes with a lot of responsibility. Acceptance, love, forgiveness, patience, affection, and mutual understanding can actually make a marriage successful as a result of the grandest, covetous and bona fide love, which actually builds over a period of time between the two. But, it's sure-fire that people don't marry for merely meeting their satyr or nymphomania. There are numerous 'pleasure houses' everywhere in every country be it India, which are easily accessible by every lecher. Marriage by and large renders the ultimate stability to our life along with joiê-de-vivrê, and a hope for wholesome senescence.

So here is the contract if you are ready to do it :-  "I, ____, take you, ____, to be my lawfully wedded(husband/wife), to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part."

 

Change is inevitable ! But you must not lose yourself .

A hundred years ago, people didn't talk about changing the world — not in the way we speak of it today. In 1912, there weren't movements for the eradication of poverty or disease, or even an understanding of their scale. Then came Woodrow Wilson's dream of the League of Nations, Eleanor Roosevelt, and the formation of the United Nations. From there, Gandhi, the civil rights movement, and speeches by President and Robert Kennedy that declared, "We need men who dream of things that never were," and that spoke of "a new world society." There was Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech, delivered at the age of 34, and Neil Armstrong walking on the surface of the moon at the age of 38. Their youth brought a feeling of youthfulness to humanity itself, and gave people the sense that nothing is impossible.

This moment in the long arc of history launched a change-the-world movement that never existed before, including change-the-world vocations on a major scale — from the Peace Corps to an explosion in the growth of opportunities in the nonprofit sector, which employs more than 10 million people today. And in the last decade or so, the genre has become even more refined: social enterprise, social entrepreneurship, L3C low-profit corporations, B corporations, the charitable endurance event industry, and more. New infrastructures have arisen to support it, from the Stanford Social Innovation Review, TED and Good, to the Social Enterprise Program at Harvard. Most major universities now have nonprofit management programs that didn't exist ten years ago. And courses on philanthropy are now even taught at the undergraduate level at many Universities, and many other colleges.

With the growth of these structures and opportunities has come an emphasis on doing, often to the exclusion of being. The competition to be the one who changes the world can be as cut-throat, if not more, than the competition among fast-food chains, or cosmetics companies, or movie studios. Lost in this new era is the notion that one can still make a difference in business, even absent any corporate social responsibility program. How would the charities trying to change the world operate without the manufacturers that make the equipment for their medical clinics, or without General Electric providing them with light bulbs? How would a "social enterprise" like PlanetTran, the hybrid car service, operate without Toyota, who makes the Prius, which constitutes their fleet? And in the absence of industrial farmers and national grocery chains, we would find ourselves in need of a great deal more charity, and a lot further away from the goal of changing the world, to boot.

Paradoxically, this new era of limitlessness often serves to limit the imaginations of the young people it attracts. It can obscure their real and natural passions. If you want to change the world, you have to go into the change-the-world sector, the times say. And so a young girl, whose calling — and whose value to the world — may really be to dance, or to build an industry, is hypnotized into becoming the fundraising director for an NGO. Imagine if someone had held up Gandhi to a young Frank Lloyd Wright, as Gandhi is held up to our young people today, and the incredible architect decided to go run a nonprofit soup kitchen as a result. What a tragedy. And what a setback that would have been for architecture and design.

Individual economic futures are at risk, as well. While we may envision a new world, the donating public and nonprofit sector are still stuck philosophically in Puritan times, demanding that nonprofit employees work for sacrificial wages, as a sign that their hearts are in the right place. And in another paradox, they ask the people who would dream a new dream for the world to abandon the economic dreams they have for themselves.

These are complicated times for making a true difference. Perhaps much more than they were for Amelia Earhart, Rosa Parks, and Henry Ford. So, what difference does being (as opposed to doing) make? Presence? Listening? What difference does passion make? Peace of mind? A slow pace? Excellence? What difference does industry make, when it creates new products and jobs that make life better for others? All of these things exist independent of the change-the-world sector. And, the change-the-world industry itself cannot possibly change the world if forced to play by a set of Puritan economic rules than fundamentally work against it — low wages, no charity stock market, disdain for advertising and marketing, and the expectation of immediate results.

I get e-mails all the time from people who are grappling with these issues — many from clients and executives wondering whether they should go into the for-profit sector or the nonprofit sector, or asking how they can reconcile their dreams of a better world with the economic dreams they have for themselves. Others are from corporate executives feeling a dearth of purpose, and asking for career advice. Still others are from nonprofit leaders frustrated by a system that works against the dreams that brought them into the sector in the first place. People are suffering from a crisis of meaning, and not in small part because the definitions of meaning have been re-engineered by a culture confused about it itself. The feedback I get has inspired me to delve more deeply into these issues as part of the work that my company does with a specific curriculum called Change Course, which explores the intersection of money and meaning.

Somehow the dream of changing the world ended up changing the quality of our dreams. It's not natural. When this era of profound human potential combines with authentic human passions, unlimited by artificial categories and boxes, then the world can really change, into something including — but far more profound than — the world without human suffering we have begun to imagine.

"The Alcohol"

The Alcohol was discovered and named by an Arabian scientist, and that its name is really Cohol, the Al part just means "The" in Arabic. So while Alcohol = The Cohol, the English-speaking world still says "The Alcohol" like a boss! :)

Here's another gem: "Chai" just means "Tea" in Arabic, yet in English it's not crazy to say "Chai tea", because saying "Tea tea" makes a whole lot of sense :)

I was told by a French friend Sandra Fagnoni that English 'Admiral' comes from French "Amiral" which in turn comes from Medieval Latin "Admiralis" (or admirallus) which then in turn comes from Arabic "Amir Al", which means "Commander of The", the Arabic rank apparently was "Amir Al-Bahr" which literally means "Commander of The Sea". Once again, looks like being called "Commander of The" makes sense to you people!! The mere thought of someone saying Admiral of the fleet out loud makes me want to cry!

And let's not forget Mūsā al-Khwārizmī, the inventor of the Algorithm, to whom many of us owe our livelihood. [Wikipedia Link to The inventor of Algorithm]

Apparently the same is true for Al+Gebra and Al+Kali.  Al+cohol is from the 1500's and was far enough back that it came to English through medieval Latin.  Cohol didn't even mean "fermented" or "drink", it originally was a type of powdered makeup. Since that powder was melted and cooled, it came to mean "distilled" on the street, and much later "alcohol of wine" meant taking fermented wine and distilling it to make the super-alcohol people some people are familiar with today versus the kind they talk about in scripture (which is just fermented from sitting out for a year, but not re-compounded on itself.) For More, Wiki - Distilled_beverage

So it's perhaps not safe, although it would be ironic to say that Islam brought us booze.  More likely Islam brought the world "cohol/kohl/kuhl" and the world bastardized it into ever clear all on its own!  ;)

What are some things that money can't buy?

Most beautiful and awesome things in the world that matters the most for long-term cannot be bought by money.

1. Money can't buy Love - True companionship is not about the bauble. It involves emotional availability, real interest in someone else, some personal introspection, a sense of humor, kindness, empathy for others and an ability to listen, reveal and share. They cost nothing financially, but do require real emotional energy. It might not come easily to you if you have a naturally glib nature, but those are the things that will really draw someone to you.

2. Money can't buy Happiness - Respect really matters. According to a new study, feeling one is respected and admired ranks over having money when it comes to what makes people feel a greater sense of happiness and well-being. One of the reasons why money doesn't buy happiness is that people quickly adapt to the new level of income or wealth. Lottery winners, for example, are initially happy but then return to their original level of happiness quickly. Being respected, having influence, and being socially integrated just never gets old. 

3. Money can't buy Health - We can’t buy good health, no matter how much money we have. We can buy profound medical treatments but actual good health is not for sale. Good health is vitality, vigor, high energy, emotional equilibrium, mental clarity and physical endurance. If you have your health you have more wealth than all the riches in the world. A healthy mind, heart, reserves of stamina and an abundance of vreative energy to draw on, will have the world literally lying at your feet – with good health you have it all. 

4. Money can't buy Peace - Think of the amount of money that governments have spent over the years in the name of “peace.” Has it worked? Nope. Peace isn’t something you buy. Peace only comes from acting fairly, humanely, and treating others (people and countries) as we would want to be treated. And even then, it might not be possible. But for sure money won’t buy it. 

5. Money can't buy stable Marriage - You can buy cars and houses, boats and vacations, jewelry and jets. But you can't buy a really good marriage. And the more that material things matter to you, the poorer your marriage is likely to be, according to new research from BYU and William Paterson University. Couples who care less passionately about money and possessions tend to be happier.

6. Money can't buy Respect - Money, whether in the form of cash or products and services, does not promote the growth of respect in one person towards another. Instead it promotes the growth of greed, denial, and subterfuge. Respect can only be earned. Both through hard work and honest deeds. People who try to do the right thing and strive to bring the best out in others is slowly building up respect, for the people who receive benefits from a person's actions directly, or others who observe such noble behavior.

7. Money can't buy Conscience - Lot of people would want to purchase the ability to clean their conscience, but as we all know, this can only be done through the character-building exercises of apologizing, making things right, and setting the record straight. But money cannot.

8. Money can't buy Empathy - When we imagine ourselves in someone else's shoes, for just a moment, we gain a better sense of what life looks like to them and what challenges, issues, and joys they have in their day-to-day. Again, money cannot buy you Empathy.

9. Money can't buy Dreams - Dreams are, of course, free, and no one can buy better dreams. 

10. Money can't buy Good Ideas - Ditto. If you're looking for good ideas, you'll have to come up with them yourself. The flip side of this is that if you yourself have a good idea, patent it, and bring it to the marketplace, you may be able to receive money for your good idea.

11. Money can't buy Talent - Self-explanatory. Someone can take lessons or tutoring to improve natural talent, but you either have this or you don't.

12. Money can't buy Time - Money cannot buy time. Each second it passes and no amount of money will buy a second back.

Money can't buy Priceless moments -

A First Kiss from Someone Special  
The Feeling of Self-Accomplishment  
Surprise Encounters with Long-Lost Friends 
An Unexpected Compliment  
The sweet voice of our children calling out to us ‘Mom!' or 'Dad'!
Seeing our children smiling!
Watching our children receive Award! at school.
Time with family
Baby smiles and bonding.
The way a daughter makes her 99-year-old great-grandfather smile when nothing else can.
Son looking across the table one morning and saying, ‘You know Mom, you are really beautiful.’
An infant’s firm grasp of your finger
When our children look at you like you’re the only person in the world.
The look on our childrens face when they’ve accomplished something meaningful and felt proud of themselves.
The Sound of Raindrops Outside  
Randomly Hearing Your Favorite Song 
Amazing Talents You Are Born With 
Exercising Your 5 Senses – Sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch. 
Sharing a Good Laugh with Friends and Family  
Watching the Sunrise and Sunset with Your Beloved 
The ‘Pump’ After a Great Workout  
When an Unlikely Someone Remembers Your Birthday  
When Your Pet Snuggles Up Next to You 
A Long Hug from a Loved One 
Cuddling a Newborn Baby 
Sitting Around a Bonfire with Your Friends 


Money can buy -

Medicine, but not health
It brings you food, but not appetite
Acquaintances, but not friends
Servants, but not loyalty
A house, but not a home
Days of joy, but no peace nor happiness.