1. Piltdown Man

“Piltdown Man” is a very famous Anthropological hoax relating to the discovery of the remains of a then unknown early human. The complete story of this scientific hoax began in the year 1912 by Charles Dawson who affirmed the finding out of some interesting bones from a gravel quarry. Apalaeontologist, fossil scientist, put together all the bones and conceived that they constituted the “missing link” between humans & apes. This theory led scientists on a blind path in the belief that the human brain expanded in size before the jaw adapted to new types of food.

The originality of the specimen remained in the controversy until it was exposed in 1953 as a deliberate forgery, consisting of the lower jawbone of an orangutan that had been deliberately combined with the skull of a fully developed modern human.

Timeline:

1908: Dawson claimed discovery of 1st Piltdown fragments.

1912 February: Dawson contacted Woodward about his dicovery.

1912 June: Dawson, Woodward, and Teilhard formed further digging team.

1912 June: Team found elephant molar, skull fragments.

1912 June: Team also found right parietal skull bones and the jaw bone.

1912 November: News about the discovery broke out in the popular press.

1912 December: Team presented the official Piltdown man.

1914: Talgai (an Australia) man found, which was considered as confirmation to Piltdown.

1923: Weidenreich reported that Piltdown remains consisted of a human cranium and an orangutan jaw.

1925: Edmonds reported Piltdown geology error but his report was ignored.

1943: Fluorine content test was first proposed.

1948: Woodward published The Earliest Englishman.

1949: Fluorine content test established Piltdown man as relatively recent.

1953: Weiner, Le Gros Clark, and Oakley  together exposed the hoax.

2. Archaeoraptor

Again in search of finding the “missing link”, this time between the terrestrial theropod dinosaurs and birds, National Geographic in 1999 described a creature as the intermediate between Dinosaurs & Birds. This description was based on a fossil “Archaeoraptor” found in China. Later, through further scientific study, it was found out to be developed from rejiggered pieces of real fossils from different species. Zhou et al. found that the head and upper body actually belong to a specimen of the primitive fossil bird Yanornis. A 2002 study found that the tail belongs to a small winged dromaeosaur, Microraptor, named in 2000. The legs and feet belong to an as yet unknown animal.

The exposure of this “Archaeoraptor” scandal also exposed the illegal fossil deals conducted in China. It also played up the need for detailed scientific scrutiny of proposed “missing links” theory published in journals which are not peer-reviewed. Although “Archaeoraptor” was a hoax, many consistent examples of feathered dinosaurs have been found which demonstrate the evolutionary connection between birds and other terrestrial theropods.

3. El Chupacabra

The Chupacabra is a legendary cryptid bruited to inhabit parts of the Americas. In 1990′s, thegoats and chickens of Puerto Rico began turning up dead with blood all over and telltale neck wounds. The name, El Chupacabra, was coined from the animal’s reported habit of attacking and drinking the blood of livestock, especially goats. Chupar means “to suck” and cabra means “goat”, literally “goat sucker”. Physical descriptions of the creature had variance from mouth to mouth. Eyewitness sightings have been claimed as early as 1995 in Puerto Rico. And since the this goat-sucker-chicken-eater’s legends spread like a wild forest fire from Puerto Rico to Mexico, Chile, Brazil and even the United States. It is supposedly a heavy creature, the size of a small bear, with a row of spines reaching from the neck to the base of the tail.

This savage chicken-eater was actually found out to be just a hairless wolf and nothing more than a hoax.

4. Rabbit Mother

In 18th-century England, Mary Toft, an English woman from Godalming in Surrey, came under spot light when she hoaxed and/but convinced doctors that she had given birth to 16 rabbits.

Toft became pregnant in 1726 but miscarried. Later, seemingly entranced by a rabbit she had seen at work, she declared to have given birth to various animal parts. John Howard, a local surgeon, examined the patient and punctually notified other prominent physicians of the time. This hoax came to attention of Nathaniel St. André, surgeon to the Royal Household of King George I. St. André declared that Toft was true, but the king sent another surgeon Cyriacus Ahlers, to reexamine. He was skeptical. A Short Narrative of an Extraordinary Delivery of Rabbits was written by King George’s surgeon about her case. People stopped serving rabbit stew.

Mary Toft was a famous human by now. She was brought to London for detailed study where, under acute examination, she eventually confessed to her hoax and was subsequently imprisoned as a fraud or hoaxer. The resultant public mockery created panic within the medical profession. Several prominent surgeons’ careers were ruined, and many satirical works were produced, each scathingly critical of the affair criticizing the gullibility of the medical profession over this hoax. Toft was finally released without charge and returned home.

5. Fiji Mermaid

Mermaids had been flaunted at shows for centuries. This concept of presentation of mermaids was first devised and popularizedby circus great P.T. Barnum. He displayed Fiji Mermaid, a mummified body of a creature that was a half mammal and half fish, as all have heard in mermaid stories.  The original presentation was held in and around the United States in the year 1842, but was lost in the 1860s when Barnum’s museum caught fire. This Fiji Mermaid has been copied many times in several attractions since then, including the show of Robert Ripley.

Although there were several believers of mermaids, but the Fiji Mermaid was the torso and head of a baby monkey sewn together to the back half of a fish. This papier-mâché covered artifact in P.T. Barnum’s museum was a biggest hoax of that era.

6. The Turk

It was almost impossible to beat this chess-playing automaton of 1770. The Turk, an Automaton Chess Player was enthusiatically heralded as the next great venture into technology while it toured European countries beating the biggest of the Chess giants. It was constructed by Wolfgang von Kempelen in 1770 to impress the Empress Maria Theresa. This automatic machine exhibited the ability to play a rock solid game of chess against a human. It also had the ability to perform a knight’s tour*.

The Turk won almost all the games played against human opponents during its exhibitions around Europe and the America for nearly 84 years. It outplayed many challengers including statesmen such as Napoleon Bonaparte and Benjamin Franklin.

It was actually a fake chess playing machine that requires a human chess whiz to hide inside and operate the machine using hidden mechanical arms. Although many had suspected the hidden human operator, the hoax was initially revealed only in the 1820s by the Londoner Robert Willis.

* Knight’s tour is in the game of chess that requires the player to move a knight to occupy every square of a chessboard exactly once.

7. Alien Autopsy

In 1990′s, Ray Santilli, a London-based video entrepreneur, revealed a 17 minute blackand white film purporting to be footage of the autopsy of an alien, dating from 1947 from Roswell, New Mexico. This autopsy film was purchased by major television networks internationally and was broadcasted in more than 32 countries worldwide.

In 2006, Santilli himself confessed up to this hoax, saying that the alien autopsy  film was not entirely authentic. All the alien innards in the film were actually sheep brains, raspberry jam and chicken entrails. After this confession, Santilli’s film was largely considered as a hoax.

8. The Cake

In 1997, Brass Eye, UK television series of satirical spoof documentaries, carried an intense andelaborate “investigative report” warning against the dangers of a fictional Eastern European street drug called “Cake”. It was claimed to purportedly affect an area of the brain called “Shatner’s Bassoon” which results in altering one’s perception of time.

Members of the media lashed out against this Cake, and the UK government even took this serious matter to their Parliament. Whoops-a-Daisy!

It was a satirical hoax!

9. Disappearing Blonde Gene

As the generations are passing, an attention is always driven towards the belief that natural blondes will very soon diappear like a dinosaurs. This hoax has the first impression dating in 1865 and the recent version started in 2012. According to the World Health Organization, and/or few other experts, the people will become extinct by 2202, because of a misinterpretation of recessiveness in genetics.

This story was just a hoax, and the story about the reports from WHO in BBC & CNN was also a hoax. World Health Organization had never done such study and also the blond gene, or alleles for the trait cannot disappear by simple breeding.

10. Nacirema

The Nacirema were purportedly a tribe of individuals living in North America, as depictedbyHorace Miner in his anthropological paper, published in 1956. Miner described that the tribe had many odd and peculiar rituals. Some of these were  “scraping and lacerating the surface of the face with a sharp instrument” and “inserting a small bundle of hog hairs into the mouth, along with certain magical powders, and then moving the bundle in a highly formalized series of gestures.”

Various anthropologists and sociologists generally use this term Nacirema to study and research (with a degree/pretense of anthropological self-distancing) behavioural aspects of citizens of North America.

Nacirema isn’t actually a tribe, but a satire of everyday American life. “Nacirema” is “American” spelled backward.

No Recommended Reading.

This website was started in May 2009 as “Shishir Speaks” on a free web hosting server. Due to several limitations of those servers to handle increased website traffic, this website is now moved to a paid server.

Hope you enjoy a pleasant stay here.

T

1. The Twilight Saga Series

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1. The Apache Indians

According to the beliefs of the Apache Indians, there was nothing in the beginning, no earth, no sky, no sun, no moon and endless darkness was everywhere. Suddenly, from the darkness, emerged a thin disc, one side yellow and the other side white, appearing suspended in midair with a Man on it, The Creator. After awaking from his nap he looked up and light appeared, he looked down and a sea of light was created, to the east he created the streaks of dawn and to the west the colorful waves of dusk. He also created several clouds of different colours. After all this, he rubbed both the hands together with a downward thrust, a shining cloud upon which sat a little girl. He asked her where she was going and she did not answer. She asked him where he was from and he said from the east. She asked where the earth and sky were. He sang four times, the magic number to the Apache Indians, and flung his hand wide. The God appeared. He dropped hands back and a small boy appeared. All four Gods were now present. They all shook hands, mixed their sweat and then he sung about making the Earth again for four times. After rubbing his hands together, a brown ball appeared. He kicked it and it expanded, so did the girl, the sun God and the boy both played their turns and the ball continued to expand. He instructed Wind to expand the Ball. The Creator had created more Gods to look over things on Earth. He had created workers to help with the building of Earth. Once he work was done, then he disappeared leaving behind the workers to create the World’s population!

2. The Mayans

According to the Mayans, there were two people, Tepeu and Gucumatz. They used to sit around and think about several things and  those things would come to existence. They thought of the mountains, the earth, the oceans, the sky and the animals and all the things arrived to real world. They used clay to create people, which would fell apart in the rain, so finally they came up people made of wood. These people may cause trouble so the God created a flood to wipe them out. Tepeu and Gucumatz were allowed to start over. This is how our Earth was created and is present today!

3. The Scandinavians

Scandinavians believe that there were empty open realms which were supposed to be filled. There were two Gods, Muspell and Niflhiem. Muspell led the fiery realm and Niflhiem led the icy realm. They would plat in this vast open space everywhere. The air in the space grew mild enough to melt the ice. With this process, Ymir, an evil God was created. When Ymir slept, two males and a female frost giant came to life from his sweat. Time flew, more ice melted and a Cow was created. This Cow had much of milk to feed Ymir and would lick the ice blocks to nourish herself. After a few days of licking the ice, she revealed a man who had a son. This son married one of the frost giant’s daughters. The couple later had three sons, who killed Ymir. The blood that flowed from Ymir drowned all the frost giants but Berglimir and his wife who created Earth from the flesh & blood of Ymir. While walking along the Earth’s surface Odin, one of the sons of the frost giant, spotted two logs and gave them life, while one of the other brothers gave them brains and feelings and the other gave them hearing and sight. These logs became a woman & a man. And the life was created!

4. The Chinese

Earth and Heaven was a one unit in the beginning as per the Chinese belief. The universe was big black egg & Pan-Gu, the God was sleeping inside it since 18,000 years. After he woke up, he smashed the egg into several parts with a broad axe to come out. Lighter part became Heaven and the heavier ones became Earth. Pan-Gu stood in between with his head touching the heavens and his feet firmly planted on the Earth. All three would grow at a rate of ten feet per day. After next 18,000 years everything stopped growing and Pan-Gu passed away. His breathe became the wind and the clouds. His voice is the thunder and his eyes became the sun and moon. The mountains were formed from his body and limbs and the rivers and oceans are made of his blood. The fertile soil is from his muscles and the roads are his veins. The flowers and trees are from his skin and body hair, where the stars are from his beard and hair. Pearls and jade are made from his marrow and his sweat is the rain and dew.

5. The Australians

It is believed in Australia that the Earth was plain and bare to begin with. There was no light, life or death. The sun, moon, stars and eternal ancestors all slept beneath the Earth. When the ancestors arose, they would walk the earth in human form, animal form, plant form or a combination of the forms. There were two people that formed out of nothing and upon their walks across the Earth’s surface they would come upon some half finished plants, animals and humans. They would then carve heads, bodies and limbs from bundles of plants. This is how people were formed amongst the Earth’s surface. After the work of human creation was finished the ancestors went back to sleep. They either went back under the Earth or they stayed here in the form of plants and animals. They left sacred trails, which can be seen in the forms watering holes, rocks and trees.

No Recommended Reading.

This is a very curious question among the people who are used to other several social networking sites. In this new age of information technology, the social network user has became more keen to know who visited or viewed his online profile. After the Rise of Facebook over Orkut, the users look out for at least similar features in Facebook interface that they experienced in the age of Orkutting. One of all the features was the display of recent visitors of profile. And to the users’ disappointment this feature is completely missing in the Facebook.

However there are several applications like “Doorbell“, or “Who is Watching You” which claims to provide the feature to track who visits your Facebook profile. But the reality is other way around and truly speaking there is no application and no method till date to retrieve any kind of statistics relating to the profile views or about the people who just viewed your Facebook profile without the profile visitors’ consent.

Technical Panorama

Tracking the IP address of the visitor is technically possible, but to track specific people data is impossible and illegal if you want to stay within the Facebook’s Terms & Conditions. The Facebook public profile with all the visible applications are actually static and cached version of the actual application. The static content can’t run any type of code by default and hence there is no way to log and track the visitors. Even the images are the cached version of the actual uploaded images.

Applications which claims this feature also place the static banner of the profile and require the visitors to click the button or so to log their presence. The applications like this are, however, illegal to use. The founder of the site, Unfaced, which actually achieved the feature of tracking the visitors of your Facebook profile in a different way, is banned officially from the Facebook.

Notes are the only place where the HTML is allowed. Some application developers might consider the idea of having some Hit Counters installed there within the HTML, publish it as a Note and place it in the mini feed on the Facebook profile. However this can be possible but it will only display the hit count but not the visitors’ details.

Illegal, but is it Possible?

As a reader you might have a feeling that completely all the applications which claims to provide visitor tracking feature can not be wrong, then you should visit the Facebook Help Center’s Privacy settings and fundamentals section where Facebook has itself denied the existence of any such application that can provide these statistics without your consent.

The statement, “Applications CANNOT track profile visits for users who simply go to another person’s profile; Facebook has made this technically impossible.“, is clearly mentioned in the Facebook Help Center.

Further to clarify more, Help Center writes, “If an Application claims to provide this functionality, you can report an application for abuse by going to the application’s About page and clicking Report Application at the bottom of the page, or by clicking Report at the bottom of any canvas page within the application.“

Author’s Note

If you have been reading the article out of curiosity to find the method to track the visitors of the Facebook profile, you must be disappointed, and must be having a feeling of misguidance from the title of this article. I apologies to use this misguiding title. The use of this title was a damage limitation move as you are now aware and can not be tricked by the applications promising to track the visitors of your Facebook profile.

Facebook profiles are indexed by almost all the search engines and is easily searchable. If you don’t want search engines to display your profile then you can change your privacy settings by following steps.

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3. Does Entering the ATM PIN in Reverse really Calls the Police? The information in the email/sms claims that in case you...

“ATM USE: In the spite of armed robbery, here is something you may really need. WHEN A THIEF FORCES YOU TO TAKE MONEY FROM THE ATM, DO NOT ARGUE OR RESIST, YOU MIGHT NOT KNOW WHAT HE OR SHE MIGHT DO TO YOU. WHAT YOU SHOULD DO IS TO PUNCH YOUR PIN IN THE REVERSE, I.E IF YOUR PIN IS 1254, YOU PUNCH 4521. THE MOMENT YOU PUNCH IN THE REVERSE, THE MONEY WILL COME OUT BUT WILL BE STUCK INTO THE MACHINE HALF WAY OUT AND IT WILL ALERT POLICE WITHOUT THE NOTICE OF THE THIEF. EVERY ATM HAS IT, IT IS SPECIALLY MADE TO SIGNIFY DANGER AND HELP. NOT EVERYONE IS AWARE OF THIS. FORWARD THIS TO ALL YOUR FRIENDS AND THOSE YOU CARE FOR.”

Reality Cheque

The question stands still without any support. The technology behind this SOS call does prevail, but, however, till date, banks have not installed it in their ATMs. So the chances of arrival of Police at the crime scene by entering the PIN in reverse is out of question.

Credit History

Long back in 1994, Joseph Zingher from Chicago developed the idea as well as software which will secretly alert the police when PIN is entered in reverse, and he made many unsuccessful attempts to sell the idea to banks in United States of America. Few states considered this idea but never took initiative to implement it. In 2004, lawmakers of Illinois & Kansas state passed a bill requesting, making the installation of the technology purely voluntary, banks to install this safety feature in their ATM machines. The bill was watered down at the behest of the banking industry.

In 2009, one more bill was proposed to make this reverse-pin safety feature mandatory for all the ATMs. According to information published on the Illinois General Assembly website the bill was “Re-referred to Assignments” in March 2009.

Failure Mode and Effect Analysis

The idea PIN reversal may change the life completely and may drastically reduce the ATM crimebut results may be different when this idea gets implemented. First and foremost problem that can be suggested is the problem of handling the palindrome PINs i.e. same backward as it was forward. For example: PIN 1991 will either raise the secret alarm every time it is entered or never raise the alarm at all even during the crime as it will confuse the system. Same problem can exist for the PIN with all identical digits like 8888.

Although this idea, when implemented, will send the secret alarm to the police about the robbery taking place, the robber would likely have well fled the scene before the law enforcement reaches them. Moreover if this system is available, the customer as well as the criminal would be well aware of it and hence it would help very little to discourage the robbery. A panic-stricken victim of an armed robbery might face problem in entering the PIN in reverse and will end up displaying the error message on the screen without any cash dispensed. This will do nothing help but further provoking the voilent armed robber and risking the health of the victim.

Furthermore, people make mistakes frequently while entering their ATM PIN. This, in some cases, might raise a false alarm and waste the time of the police.

Final Print

The people and authorities are becoming more security conscious and banks may decide similar technology to make consumer more secure and satisfied, but this ATM PIN reversal technology is currently NOT IN USE. Entering the PIN in reverse WILL NOT CALL POLICE and only display “INCORRECT PIN” error message, which may further risk the victim’s health. Hence, the above mentioned email and sms contains dangerously incorrect information and SHOULD NOT be blindly forwarded. The bank will publicize it directly in first-hand whenever they implement this PIN reversal alarm technology at ATMs.

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Richard Starkey    was the real name of Ringo Starr. Ringo Starr was the first to actually leave the group, walking out in 1968 during the acrimonious White Album sessions. As a result, the remaining Beatles all took turns on the drums for some of the tracks. When Starr finally returned he found his drum kit covered in flowers.

1963    December 17, a DJ at WWDC in Washington, D.C., became the first person to broadcast a Beatles record on American airwaves. James Carroll played “I want to Hold your Hand“, which he had obtained from his stewardess girlfriend who brought the single back from Britain.

Over 2,200 Different Artists    covered the song “Yesterday“, which holds the record for “Most Recorded Song of all times“. Some of the artists who have covered it include Boyz II Men, Ray Charles, Marvin Gaye, Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, The Supremes, The Toys, Andy Williams, and Tammy Wynette.

First    song ever written by Lennon was called “Hello Little Girl“. McCartney’s first was “I Lost My Little Girl“.

10 Hours    is what took the Beatles to record their first album “Please Please Me” entirely.

“Na Na Na”    of Hey Jude fadout takes 4 minutes. The chorus is repeated 19 times.

John Lennon    is the only artist to place multiple songs in the top 10 as the member of The Beatles and as the solo artist. “Imagine” was number 3 among the 500 selections.

23    Beatles’ songs made into the rankings of “The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time” by Rolling Stones Magazine. They are the most represented musical act, followed by Rolling Stones (14), Bob Dylan (12) and Elvis Presley (11).

“Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”    was the first British rock album to have lyrics for every sing printed on the back cover. Two days after Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band released, Jimi Hendrix opened his set at London’s Saville Theatre with the title track, something McCartney considers his “single biggest tribute“.

“Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”    as a song title – the initials of each noun are LSD – was prompted by 4-year-old Julian Lennon’s description of a painting he brought home from school, not the drug, LSD. According to Beatles, one day in 1966 Lennon’s son, Julian came hom from nursery school with a drawing. He said it was of his classmate, Lucy O’Donnell, whome Julian drew with diamond-shaped eyes.

“Paul is Dead”    was an urban legend which came up in 1969 alleging that Paul McCartney from The Beatles died and was replaced by a look-alike and sound-alike. Life magazine later published an edition with the cover story saying “Paul is still with us“, but still some people believe in the legend.

Drop-T    icon The Beatles’s logo, based on impromptu sketch by designer Ivor Arbiter, made its debut in 1963.

Paul McCartney    wrote “Hey Jude” as “Hey Jules“, a song meant to comfort John Lennon’s 5-year-old son Julian as his parents were getting divorce. The change to “Jude” was inspired by the character “Jud” in musical Oklahoma.

“Penny Lane”    became a Beatles hit and the street sign for actual Penny Lane in Liverpool disappeared with such regularity (as they did on the real Abbey Road), that the town reverted to simply painting “Penny Lane” on the buildings rather than having the street signboards.

Impossible    as it may sound there are still Beatles songs unreleased. The most notable ones being Carnival of Light (an experimental piece recorded on 5 January 1967 for The Million Volt Light and Sound Rave) and a 27-minute jam of Helter Skelter. A John Lennon composition the three surviving Beatles worked on in the early ’90s prior to the Anthology release called Grow Old with Me also remains unreleased.

Number 9    has interesting connection with John Lennon. Lennon was born on 9 October 1940, his son Sean was also born 9 October, 1975. He wrote the songs #9 Dream (part of Lennon’s ninth solo album Walls and Bridges which was released in the ninth month of 1974 and peaked at number 9 in the US charts) and with the Beatles – One After 909 and Revolution 9. He lived in apartment number 72 on 72nd Street in New York and was killed in the evening of December 8 when it was already early morning of December 9 in his birthplace of Liverpool.

“The End”    is the final song in the album “Abbey Road“, is also the last song Beatles has recorded as a group.

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These questions have been haunting the world over a period of time. Year 2012 is a mysterious year. Nobody can predict for sure what will happen in year 2012. But, the year 2012 has been included in many prophecies and is very important spiritually. The major inclusion of this year is in Mayan Prophecies by Maya Civilization.

Who Were The Mayans? What is Maya Civilization? What is Mayan prophecy?

The Mayan civilization is a Mesoamerican civilization prevailed in Central and South America during the Pre-Classic period (c. 2000 BC to 250 AD), according to the Mesoamerican chronology, many Maya cities reached their highest state development during the Classic period (c. 250 AD to 900 AD), and continued throughout the Post-Classic period until the arrival of the Spanish. At its peak, it was one of the most densely populated and culturally dynamic societies in the world.

The Mayans are noted for the only known fully developed written language of the pre-Columbian Americas, as well as its art, architecture, and mathematical and astronomical systems. They had the first system of writing, called Hieroglyphics. They had developed a base 20 & base 5 mathematical system and were among the first people to use the number zero. This mathematical ability developed highly acurate astronomical observations including lunar and planetary orbits and thrie movements. Mayans had 2 calendars. One with 365 days!

The Mayan calender was one of their prophecies which based on their own astrological system. It predicts the end of an era in 2012 and our world civilization will  enter into the all new era of spiritual and collective conscious. However, contrary to the popular belief, it doesn’t predicts the End of the World; its just the change.

Their dynamic and intelligent culture survived for thousands of years but finally collapsed during an intense 200-year drought, not long before Christopher Columbus landed on America’s shores in the 15th century.

What Will Happen in 2012?  Why the date December 21, 2012?

December 21, 2012 is the end-date of a 5,125-year-long cycle in the Mayan Long Count calendar. The Long Count set its “zero date” at a point in the past marking the end of the previous world and the beginning of the current one, which corresponds to either 11 or 13 August 3114 BC in the Proleptic Gregorian calendar, depending on the formula used.

The Mayan Long Count calender followed and linear system instead of a cyclic peroidic 52-year being used by the mordern Maya. This long count calender kept time roughly in units of 20, so 20 days made a uinal, 18 uinals (360 days) made a tun, 20 tuns made a k’atun, and 20 k’atuns (144,000 days) made up a b’ak’tun.

Example:

The Mayan date of 8.3.2.10.15 represents 8 b’ak’tuns, 3 k’atuns, 2 tuns, 10 uinals and 15 days since creation.

Many Mayan inscriptions have the count shifting to a higher order after 13 b’ak’tuns, or roughly 5,125 years. Today, the most widely accepted correlation of the end of the thirteenth b’ak’tun, or Mayan date 13.0.0.0.0, with the Western calendar is December 21, 2012, with December 23 remaining another option.

What is Galactic Alignment?

The ancient Maya intended to tie the end of their calendar to the winter solstice in 2012, which falls on December 21. This date was in line with an idea he terms the galactic alignment. All the planets in the Solar System and the Sun share roughly the same plane of orbit, known as the plane of the ecliptic. The 12 constellations which line the ecliptic are known as the zodiac and, through the year, the Sun passes through each constellation in turn. Every year for the last 1000 years or so, on the winter solstice, the Earth, Sun and the galactic equator come into alignment, and every year, precession pushes the Sun’s position a little way further through the Milky Way’s band.

Maya based their calendar on observations of the Great Rift, a band of dark dust clouds in theMilky Way, which the Maya called the Xibalba be or “Black Road.” According to the hypothesis, the Sun precisely aligns with this intersection point at the winter solstice of 2012.

Astronomers argue that the galactic equator is an entirely arbitrary line, and can never be precisely determined because it is impossible to say exactly where the Milky Way begins or ends. Furthermore, the precessional alignment of the Sun with any single point is not exclusive to a specific year, but takes place over a 36-year period, corresponding to its diameter.

How 2012 theory got spread all over the World?

Daniel Pinchbeck, in the year 2006, has popularised New Age concepts about this date in his book 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl. He connected his book about crop circles, alien abduction, and personal revelations based on the use of entheogens and mediumship. In April 2010, Pinchbeck and several others released the documentary film 2012: Time for Change. In India, the guru Kalki Bhagavan has promoted 2012 as a “deadline” for human enlightenment since at least 1998. In United States, the association of December 21, 2012 with a “transformation of consciousness” has also received popular attention in The Lost Symbol (2009), a bestseller work of thriller fiction by Dan Brown, in which the date is associated with references to esoteric beliefs of Freemasonry and noetic theory. A far more apocalyptic view of the year 2012 has also spread in various media.

What is Geomagnetic reversal?

Several 2012 Doomsday theories have suggested one idea about Geomagnetic reviersal, which could be triggered by a huge solar flare, and it will be equivalent to the energy of 100 billiob atomic bombs. This theory is supposed to be backed by observances that the Earth’s magnetic field is weakening, which indicates an impending reversal of the north and south magnetic poles. Scientists believe the Earth is overdue for a geomagnetic reversal, and has been for a long time, even since the time of the Mayans, because the last reversal was 780,000 years ago. Also, the critics claim that, the geomagnetic reversal takes upto 5,000 years to complete, don’t start on particular date.

So, finally, what will happen in 2012?

The Mayan prediction is about a change in global consciousness; a maturing of minds. Few believe it may be sparked by a catastrophic event while others suggest it may be a cultural change. Others yet considers that the Mayan calendar had some fundamental flaws, because it’s an arbitrary date system that uses base 10. To this point a quantum physicist Brian Cox points out, What if then Mayans had 12 fingers?

“There is nothing in the Maya or Aztec or ancient Mesoamerican prophecy to suggest that they prophesied a sudden or major change of any sort in 2012,” says Mayanist scholar Mark Van Stone, “The notion of a “Great Cycle” coming to an end is completely a modern invention.”

So finally, one word answer to the above question will be: “Nothing“. It will be just an another day for everyone while some of us may have a ‘Bad Hair Day‘ on December 21st of 2012.

No Recommended Reading.

This incident may seem to be funny story but it has a darker side too. Websites like Facebook, Orkut, Twitter, Google Buzz and others have emerged to be seen as an essential part of life for millions of people. They enable users to share their lives with friends around the world, and get in touch with people with similar interests. With 120 million active users on Facebook alone, there is certainly a wide social networking world to discover. But for all those people for whom networking sites are a harmless time-waster, there are, as in all parts of society, some who use it for more malicious purposes.

I’m Active on Facebook! I was Waiting for it… -says Hacker

One of the most potential risk from Social Networking Sites is that it could give hackers a backdoor into corporate IT platforms and databases, putting businesses at risk for malicious cyber attacks as more adults access these sites from computers at work. And not only are the businesses in jeopardy, but many adults are putting themselves at risk for identity theft, too. Just as terroristslook for the most number of victims by accessing aggregation points, malware writers look for that same in, on the Internet. The numbers in the study point to behaviors that easily infect computers.

Our passwords and other secret information are very likely to be based somewhere on our lives. Normally passwords, PINs, security questions are some complex combination of birthdays of spouse/children/sibling/parents/self with some other x-y-z parameters. When you update “Yippie! its my b’day today..” on facebook then you never know somebody least expected is noting down these details of yours and planning to attack you when his notes are completed.

I’m Visiting Hawaii! Thank you for it… -says Burglar

Little while ago, a social experiment, PleaseRobMe, was launched, which displayed the aggregated real-time updates from the users who used the service’s social sharing feature to broadcast their updates publicly on Twitter. The experiment has been called off, but the point they were trying to convey is well conveyed among the users: Sharing your physical location on a public social network is dangerous.

The danger in publicly sharing your physical location is that it leaves everyone known that one place you’re definitely not is your home. So here you are; on one end you leave lights on when you’re going on a holiday, and on the other you’re telling everybody on the Internet you’re not home. It gets even worse if you have ‘friends’ who want to colonize your house.

I’m with friends at Pizza Hut! Return from Sick leave… -says Boss

Oh no! Your Boss just joined Facebook and what’s even worse, he wants to be your friend. More and more people are finding themselves in this situation today and unsure of what to do. Friending

the boss or other work colleagues opens up the details of your private life for the whole world to see – and you might not be entirely comfortable with that.

The problem with all the networking sites zeroes in to your definition of a friend. Ever since this age of networking has kicked up, the common goal, more or less, seems to be having more number of friends. This mindset has flooded over almost all social networks, including Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and Google Buzz, all of which publicly track and expose how many people follow you, an indication of popularity. And who doesn’t want to be popular?

All the friends may not be as trustworthy as your best friends. One should be very particular while accepting the friend requests from the various kinds of people. Its not advisable to befriend with a stranger unless you are very cautious in sharing your life publically.

I’m Smarter than ever! I’m Relaxed now… -says your relaxed Soul

The fears of being socially stalked have been spoken behind the curtains ever since these social networking sites were launched.There are certain ways to maintain some privacy when using services like these. Several social-networking-experts suggests ways to be safe: don’t share your current location, choose your friends wisely, check in after you have left and maintain privacy levels.

The best remedy to these situations, along with being active too, is to know and understand the hazards of Socail Networks which will make you foresee the risks. There is never a need to share private confidential information online.

Use social networks to share and promote ideas, not to share Privacy!

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Li’l Research

These facts may not be prominent enough to ‘smell’ the match-fixing, but they are solid enough to make one go suspicious of the IPL matches. If one throws a unbiased look at the results of all the matches of IPL he would notice that teams who are the favorites to win and go to semis suddenly start losing matches while teams that are written off as totally ineffectual start winning matches. There may not be any match-fixing for betting but the matches may be fixed for the welfare of the Indian Premier League.

n this season of IPL 2010 we witnessed Kings XI Punjab losing all the starting matches and then later trembling all the teams coming in opposition. Kolkata Knight Riders started off with the blast and lost the rythm in middle. Royal Challengers Bangalore had to rely on other teams in the end to make to the semis. To be noted that RCB were in semis before the drastic loss against MI in their last league match.

The Philosophy Behind

There is a very elementary philosophy to describe this. If all teams performed as per their initial forecastings then by the time tournament reaches the middle of the round robin league matches we will have clear winners and losers. Everyone can predicts who all are going to semifinals and who are not, leaving the high price eye-roller IPL uninteresting. Due to this the officials and franchises will be deprived from valuable revenues as people will start skipping the subsequent matches.

IPL will make more money from the high TRP matches. And the teams will generate more revenues from high TRP matches than from winning the IPL. So this philosophy of match fixing is just in the interest of IPL that matches will remain interesting and suspense-filled for the people and they have high TRPs. Winning and losing does not help or hurt teams much apart from a little loss of face which I think any able manager would know.

The History

This philosphy of mutual fixing is not new and have prevailed in the market from a long time in order to maintain the interests among the audiences. There are several reality shows which serves the scripted matter in the form of reality. Long back there was Indian version of ‘Who want to be a Millionaire’ called ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’ anchored by Big B which gained immense popularity in the beginning.

Sometime later the TRP started depleting. KBC started inviting celebrities to boost TRP and in that episode all went winning 50 Lakhs and donating to charity. Similar trend of boosting TRP in this manner has haunted several game shows and reality shows like Bigg Boss and Sach Ka Saamna where the audiences were forced to believe the scripted drama as reality.

Most significant match fixing trend to gain the popularity is present in World Wrestling Entertainment(WWE) which every adult is aware of, but every children fantasy about it as reality. WWE’s business focus is on professional wrestling, a simulated sport that consists of wrestling combined with acting and theatre. Earlier WWE was known as WWF, World Wrestling Federation, which is now promoted as World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE).

Clear Opinion

Now, the answer is very clear that IPL is just a money-making-machine where teams win and lose just to make the TRPs soar, which is very close to the processes of any ordinary reality show.

PS: The above content is not intended to provoke, in any form, the spirit of the game and television shows. It solely reflects the personal opinion of the author.

PPS: IPL matches are fun to watch than any form of Cricket.

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Overview

Prevention of Global Warming

1. Reuse, Recycle, Reduce.

2. Thermostat for Global Warming.

3. Bulb to Fluorescence

4. Drive of Smartness

5. Hybrid & Energy Efficiency

6. Less Hot Water Less Hot Weather

7. Switch Off

8. Plant a Tree

9. Energy Audit

10. Encourage

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