Tuesday, November 30, 2010

In Haryana, get a bride for Rs 1,000 from Bihar

CHANDIGARH: Haryana, reeling under a skewed sex ratio, is faced with yet another startling fact – an NGO has found that girls are being "bought" and brought to Haryana from 20 states across the country. The state's sex ratio stands at 837 in the 0-6 years age group, its lowest in the last five years and second only to Punjab.

In one case, the family of a girl from Bihar was paid just Rs 1,000.

In its report released in Pune on Saturday, the NGO, Drishti Stree Adhyayan Prabodhan Kendra, has found that most of the girls were brought from West Bengal, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh and Assam. It's findings also indicate that girls were bought within the state too.

The NGO surveyed 10,190 households in Haryana and found 318 women who were bought and married off to men in Haryana. The NGO has shared the findings with the Haryana government.

Among these 318 women, 145 are from different parts of Haryana, followed by West Bengal (43), Bihar (27), Andhra Pradesh (17), Assam (15), Uttar Pradesh (14), Himachal Pradesh (11) and Rajasthan (10). Women have been brought from other states too, including even prosperous states like Gujarat.

The NGO has covered a population of 56,520 in 92 villages of five districts -- Sonipat, Karnal, Mahendragarh, Sirsa and Mewat. The study was conducted to ascertain whether the brides came from other states and if a price was paid to get them to Haryana.

The NGO found that in number of cases, men had to buy their wives despite the fact that dowry system is prevalent in Jatland.

The report says whenever respondents were asked about money being paid for brides, the women chose to be silent. Only 15 women out of 318 reported that money was paid to their families. The amount varied between Rs 10,000 and Rs 1.5 lakh.

"This may not be a big amount but these girls come from poor families and this could be luring parents to give away their daughters, despite the girls going to faraway lands and having to adjust into alien culture," the report said.
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Monday, November 15, 2010

How to Make A Woman Fall in Love - 3 Tips That You Want to Be Aware Of

One of the hardest things that guys have to try and figure out is, how can you make a woman fall in love? See, we get sold this idea that in order to really make a woman feel that way, then we have to be some kind of dashing Prince Charming that always says the right thing, is always there for her at every moment of the day, and will drop anything that you are doing just to spend some time with her. As we all know from experience, that usually does not make her fall for you, it makes her think of you as a really good guy friend.

Here are 3 tips that you want to be aware of if you want to make a woman fall in love:
1. You don't want to be her friend, not at the start, you want to be her boyfriend.
You have to admit this to yourself if you want to make a woman love you. Trying to be her friend is not just the wrong move, it can end up being exhausting for you. Most of the time when a guy lands in the friend zone, it's because he was trying to be her friend because that is what he thought was the right thing to do. You don't want to be the one that does this to yourself. Admit that you want to be more than a friend to her.

2. She needs to feel comfortable enough to let you into her world, but on edge enough to feel excited by you.
This is a balance that you need to have. If she is always on edge around you, chances are it will just turn out to be an infatuation on her part. And if she gets to be way too comfortable around you, you can count out the intimate stuff from ever happening. It's not easy to have a balance here, but it is necessary if you want a woman to really end up feeling like she is in love with YOU.

3. You have to give her the time to "miss you" when you are not around.
Guys mess this one up all of the time. They do all of the right things to make a woman fall hard for them and when they realize that this is what is happening, they suddenly become attached to a woman. They are always there. Problem is, she HAS to feel what it is like to miss you from time to time if you are going to make her really feel as though she wants more than just friendship with you.

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Thursday, November 11, 2010

Extreme Global Warming in the Ancient Past

Understanding the relationship between the Earth's climate and atmospheric carbon dioxide in the geological past can provide insight into the extent of future global warming expected to result from carbon dioxide emission caused by the activities of humans," said Dr Steven Bohaty of the University of Southampton's School of Ocean and Earth Science (SOES) based at the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton.

It has been known for some time that the long-term warmth of the Eocene (~56 to 34 million years ago) was associated with relatively high atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. However, scientists were previously unable to demonstrate tight-coupling between variations in atmospheric carbon dioxide and shorter-term changes in global climate.

To fill this gap in knowledge, the authors of the new study focused on one of the hottest episodes of Earth's climate history -- the Middle Eocene Climatic Optimum (MECO), which occurred around 40 million years ago.

Algae use photosynthesis to harvest the energy of the sun, converting carbon dioxide and water into the organic molecules required for growth. Different isotopes of carbon are incorporated into these molecules depending on the environmental conditions under which algae grow. Ancient climate can therefore be reconstructed by analysing the carbon isotope ratios of molecules preserved in fossilised algae.

The researchers took this approach to reconstruct variations in carbon dioxide levels across the MECO warming event, using fossilised algae preserved in sediment cores extracted from the seafloor near Tasmania, Australia, by the Ocean Drilling Program. They refined their estimates of carbon dioxide levels using information on the past marine ecosystem derived from studying changes in the abundance of different groups of fossil plankton.

Their analyses indicate that MECO carbon dioxide levels must have at least doubled over a period of around 400,000 years. In conjunction with these findings, analyses using two independent molecular proxies for sea surface temperature show that the climate warmed by between 4 and 6 degrees Celsius over the same period.

"We found a close correspondence between carbon dioxide levels and sea surface temperature over the whole period, suggesting that increased amounts of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere played a major role in global warming during the MECO," said Bohaty.

The researchers consider it likely that elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide levels during the MECO resulted in increased global temperatures, rather than vice versa, arguing that the increase in carbon dioxide played the lead role.

"The change in carbon dioxide 40 million years ago was too large to have been the result of temperature change and associated feedbacks," said co-lead author Peter Bijl of Utrecht University. "Such a large change in carbon dioxide certainly provides a plausible explanation for the changes in Earth's temperature."

The researchers point out that the large increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide indicated by their analysis would have required a natural carbon source capable of injecting vast amounts of carbon into the atmosphere.

The rapid increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels around 40 million years ago approximately coincides with the rise of the Himalayas and may be related to the disappearance of an ocean between India and Asia as a result of plate tectonics -- the large scale movements of the Earth's rocky shell (lithosphere). But, as explained by Professor Paul Pearson of Cardiff University in a perspective article accompanying the Science paper, the hunt is now on to discover the exact cause.

The researchers are Peter Bijl, Alexander Houben, Appy Sluijs, Henk Brinkhuis, Gert-Jan Reichart (Utrecht University), Jaap Sinninghe Damsté and Stefan Schouten (NIOZ Royal Netherlands Institute of Sea Research) and Steven Bohaty (SOES). The research was funded by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research Utrecht University and Statoil, and used samples and data provided by the Ocean Drilling Program (ODP).
Collected from- http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/11/101110101313.htm

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Thai soldiers race to help flooded southern city

Thailand rushed soldiers and its only aircraft carrier to rescue residents in a key southern city submerged by the latest flooding that peaked as high as rooftops, after 107 people died from deluges in the northeast last month.
The southern commercial hub of Hat Yai was transformed into a murky waterway with roads completely inaccessible by cars. Trains to the city were canceled.
Floodwaters were as high as rooftops in some areas of Hat Yai on Tuesday, but the water had receded by half on Wednesday to about 4 feet (just over 1 meter), said Vijit Thammasaro from the province's disaster prevention office.
A tropical depression that dumped constant rain on the area Sunday and Monday triggered the flooding, which forced the closure for a second day of the airport on Samui island, a popular tourist getaway in the Gulf of Thailand.
Thailand's meteorological department said the storm was moving west, away from Thailand, but warned of 13-foot (4-meter) waves in some coastal areas and the possibility of landslides and flash floods for residents in low-lying areas.
"I'm confident the situation has started to resolve," Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said Wednesday, a day after calling the flooding "one of the worst natural calamities" to hit the country.
Thailand's only aircraft carrier, which rarely leaves its berth, was deployed to help out and was expected to reach the coastal waters off Hat Yai by midday Wednesday. It carried helicopters, marine amphibious landing craft and thousands of meals to distribute to residents.
Abhisit said that relief efforts had been complicated by rapid currents in flooded areas that prevented the use of regular motorboats, but boats with bigger engines had been mobilized to reach the troubled areas.
Abhisit was asked if reports were accurate that 100,000 people were trapped in Hat Yai, and he replied, "not that many."
Defense Minister Prawit Wongsuwan said the army, navy and air force had deployed thousands of soldiers for the rescue effort.
The deluge in Thailand's south — along a peninsula it shares with Malaysia — follows two weeks of heavy floods in October, mostly in central and northeastern Thailand, that killed 107 people. Nearly 6 million residents of 38 provinces were affected by October's floods, according to the government's Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department.
Abhisit said earlier that the floods were caused by heavy rains that dumped larger-than-normal amounts of water into dams and reservoirs and aggressive housing and business development that has affected natural drainage channels.
The new flooding has caused a dilemma of whether to evacuate people or try to bring supplies to where they are stranded.
this article taken form- http://asiancorrespondent.com/breakingnews/thai-soldiers-race-to-help-flooded-.htm

Winning the Hearts and Minds of Donors

Winning the Hearts and Minds of Donors | onPhilanthropy: "From Russ Reid consultants, the Heart of the Donor Survey report looks at key motivators for the top givers, especially the boomers and seniors who populate those ranks. Does your nonprofit explain its mission well, describe how it gets results, and account carefully for its expenditures on overhead?"
With nonprofits looking at the crucial giving season in the last quarter of a very difficult year, fundraisers are keenly appraising what motivates donors, especially that top of the pyramid group responsible for 80% of the gifts. Several recent studies may be helpful in peering into the crystal ball.
From Russ Reid consultants, the Heart of the Donor Survey report looks at key motivators for the top givers, especially the boomers and seniors who populate those ranks. Does your nonprofit explain its mission well, describe how it gets results, and account carefully for its expenditures on overhead?
For more info- http://onphilanthropy.com/2010/winning-the-hearts-and-minds-of-donors/