Indian marathon boy grounded

He runs seven hours at a stretch, sometimes as much as 48km (30 miles). On a daily basis.

And Budhia Singh is just three and a half years old.

The Indian wonder boy who ran 65km will not be allowed to participate in more races after doctors discovered he had severely damaged his health.

Police and state welfare authorities in the eastern state of Orissa took the boy, Budhia Singh, for medical tests on Friday after India's human rights watchdog ordered an inquiry into the case.

A team of doctors who conducted medical tests on the boy found he was undernourished, anaemic and under cardiological stress.

This is an icredible story. First when his father died his mother sold him to a person for Rs800(USD 20), because she could not provide for her four children.

But the young boy came to the attention of Biranchi Das, a judo coach (seen in the pix with the boy) and the secretary of the local judo association.

Mr Das said he noticed Budhia's talent when scolding him for being a bully.

"Once, after he had done some mischief, I asked him to keep running till I came back," Mr Das told the BBC.

"I got busy in some work. When I came back after five hours, I was stunned to find him still running."

This is unaccepable behavior from a professional coach and it shows the alarming abuse of children.

Hopefully good sense will prevail to stop abusing children.

Want to succeed? Fail first

If you want to increase your success rate, double your failure rate.' Thomas Watson, founder of IBM, uttered these famous words.

As you try to leave an impressive mark at work, a failure can bring unexpected twists and turns. How you deal with failure is what will ultimately help you succeed.

The question is: are you smart enough to learn from your mistakes?

The answer is we are all unique, gifted and smart. We are all capable of success but we need to set long term goals and commit ourselves to achieving them. It requires dedication, focus and the flexibilty to make changes when necessary.

For some pointers read this article.

New US Alligator Killings Feared

The bodies of two more women have been found in Florida having suffered apparent attacks by alligators.
The finds follow a fatal attack last week, only the 18th confirmed alligator killing in Florida since 1948.

In the latest cases, a 23-year-old woman was pronounced dead after being pulled from the jaws of an alligator in the Lake George area.

The body of another woman who had apparently suffered alligator bites was found in a canal near St Petersburg.

Residents have been warned not to swim in vegetated areas or walk pets near water, particularly at night.

Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission spokesman Willie Puz said increasing temperatures meant alligators were more active in searching for food and mates.

But why are alligators attacking humans? Perhaps we have encroached on to their living habitats depriving them of their normal feeding habits and instead we now find the gators attacking anything that comes by including humans.

Here is what experts advice: Keep your distance from alligators, they are dangerous and unpredictable. They do not choose what is on their menu. They just pick whatever comes their way.

Zidane Blasts Perez For Creating Disunity

France World Cup winner Zinedine Zidane blamed the policies of former president Florentino Perez for the demise of Spanish giants Real Madrid in an outburst on Saturday.

Zidane said that Perez’s "Zidanes and Pavons" policy, that of buying the world’s top stars and mixing them with the club’s young players, had divided the dressing-room.

"What was a shame was saying that: the "Zidanes and Pavons", because within a group like ours, that divided us. That was clear," Zidane told television channel Antena 3.

"Those who spoke of the ’galacticos’ are those who created problems within the camp.

"Our problems stemmed from the number of different personalities in the group.

"Players with big personalities and possibly a lack of communication."

Real Madrid have had to settle for a third straight season without any silverware, something that helped convince midfield talisman and French legend Zidane to retire from football after the World Cup in Germany.

"There are five or six titles every year and you can’t win them all, but to win none, that hurts. It’s better to quit," he said.

Zidane will play his final game in a Real Madrid shirt on Tuesday against Sevilla, after which he will be the second of the generation of galacticos to leave the club.

It is such a shame that Real Madrid, the richest club in the world, could not build the team-spirit among the supremely gifted palyers, thus going without a single trophy for three years. To see great players like Zidane leave in disappointment is frustrating to say the least.

Using Knowledge For Public Good

Traditionally, economics has been dealing with only two factors of production: labor and capital. This is now changing. Information and knowledge are replacing capital and energy as the primary wealth-creating assets, just as the latter two replaced land and labor 200 years ago. In addition, technological developments in the 20th century have transformed the majority of wealth-creating work from physically-based to "knowledge-based.". Technology and knowledge are now the key factors of production.

Knowledge is a product which is difficult to price on a regular market. Knowledge is usually found in the form of an intermediate good, rather than the final good. It is essential in the development, production, distribution, and sales of products.

A public good is when consumption of it by one party does not prevent consumption of it by other parties. Some examples of public good are public parks, roads, and bridges. Yet these can become private good if a person or group of persons makes excessive use of it and deprive other people the benefits of using such facilities.

The third wave of human socio-economic development is described by Charles Savage in "Fifth Generation Management". The first wave was the Agricultural Age with wealth defined as ownership of land. In the second wave, the Industrial Age, wealth was based on ownership of Capital, i.e. factories. In the Knowledge Age, wealth is based upon the ownership of knowledge and the ability to use that knowledge to create or improve goods and services. Product improvements include cost, durability, suitability, timeliness of delivery, and security.
In the Knowledge Age, 2% of the working population will work on the land, 10% will work in Industry and the rest will be Knowledge Workers (Ann Andrews).

Given the scope and reach of knowledge work, there is enormous potential for using knowledge for public good.

An Amazing Act Of Courage

Noraini Othman, the victim of an attempted murder and rape last Tuesday, is alive today because she played dead.

The 16-year-old, from Kampung Gual Kulim, Malaysia pretended to be dead after her assailant hit her on the head in an attempt to rape her in a wooden shed in Jalan Senggora.

The ruse worked as he stopped beating her, but her ordeal was not over as the man, who was her brother’s friend, wrapped her in a mat that he found in the shed.

He then placed pieces of wood on her prone body in an attempt to make a funeral pyre for the Sekolah Perempuan Pasir Mas student.

The assailant then started a fire using her textbooks.

"After he started the fire, I waited several minutes just to be sure that he was gone," Noraini said from her hospital bed where she is now recovering.

I salute the strength of a cool head in a horrible situation and wish her well.

Can Home Advantage Win World Cup For Germany?

Some Psychologists think that having a massive, roaring crowd can inspire tired home players, intimidate opposition goalies -- and cow the match officials, too.

For the record:
Of the 17 World Cup finals so far, six have been won by the host nation -- Uruguay in 1930, Italy in 1934, England in 1966, Germany in 1974, Argentina in 1978 and France in 1998.

Two hosts (Brazil in 1950 and Sweden in 1958) finished runner-up, and three made it to the semi-final stage: Chile in 1962, Italy in 1990 and South Korea, co-organiser with Japan, in 2002.

But this extraordinary home success is not exclusive to the World Cup.

According to a FIFA study of more than 6,500 top-level international matches, almost exactly half were won by the home side, and only a quarter were won by the away side. The rest were draws.

But what creates the home-side benefit?

Psychologists and sociologists agree that the big factor is crowd support, although how this works is poorly understand and in some circumstances may even work against a home team.

Whatever the reasons behind the home advantage, we know that the world cup will be an exciting contest and may the best team win. That's my head talking, but the heart goes for Brazil, for the beauty of samba and smooth flowing soccer.

A Betrayal Of Trust

"I was betrayed by someone I had no reason to distrust, especially after all the favors I had done for him," said Ruzana in a telephone interview from Sydney airport before boarding a plane for Kuala Lumpur.

"Because of him, 13 months of my life is gone. I could have achieved so much during that time. Now I have to start from scratch.

"The 36-year-old's outburst was targeted at an Iranian, identified only as Haj, whom she had befriended in Kuala Lumpur three months before she left for Sydney and carried a package for him at his request.

Although trust is one of the highest value that binds human relationships Ruzana should never have accepeted a package and carried it to another country without checking its contents. She is naive and unsuspecting and clearly has been trapped by a crooked individual whose intention is only to make money by illegal means. She has paid a price and hopefully there will be a lesson for many others in this unfortunate incident.

Civilization Exists By Gelogoical Consent...

Paul Saffo writes a thought provoking piece on the topic here.

Cities and societies that live in them seem to follow a pattern of construction and destruction, for reasons which are hard to explain and beyond the cotrol of mortal beings.

The 1906 San Francisco Earthquake left many legacies for California, including anticipation of the next, inevitable, great quake. Our 100th Anniversary Earthquake Conference will bring together earthquake professionals from around the world – scientists, engineers and preparedness experts – in San Francisco on April 18, 2006, to commemorate the 1906 Earthquake, review what we have learned, and discuss what we can do to further preparedness.

Reading through Paul's piece I get the impression, that we are in the same loop after 100 years, certainly with much more sophistication in building methods and earth quake prediction capabalities, but the eventual destructive forces emerge the same nevertheless.

Words Of Wisdom From Bill Gates

Bill Gates delivers a speech at Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan, June 28, 2005. He received an honorary science doctorate from the university in recognition of the major contributions he has made to the university.
Photograph: Unko Kimura/Getty Images.


Bill Gates always has something interesting to say and here are some.

• "Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can't lose."
• "If you think your teacher is tough, wait until you get a boss. He doesn't have tenure.
• "Life is not fair; get used to it."
• The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something before you feel good about yourself.
• "My success, part of it certainly, is that I have focused in on a few things."
• "I like my job because it involves learning. I like being around smart people who are trying to figure out new things. I like the fact that if people really try they can figure out how to invent things that actually have an impact."
• Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a different word for burger flipping - they called it opportunity.
• Television is not real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.
• "Sometimes we do get taken by surprise. For example, when the Internet came along, we had it as a fifth or sixth priority."
• "As I look forward, I'm very optimistic about the things I see ahead. As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others."
• "In this business, by the time you realise you're in trouble, it's too late to save yourself. Unless you're running scared all the time, you're gone."
  
  

THE PERSON WHO IS HONEST ONLY FOR A "PRICE" SHOULD BE RATED AS DISHONEST.

There are no degrees of honesty. There are only absolutes. Either you are honest or you are not. Honesty does not come for a price; honesty is its own reward. It’s also the most efficient form of human behavior. Honest persons never have to worry about which lie they have told to whom, and they never have to worry about getting caught. Thus, they are free to focus all their energies on more productive things. Make it a habit to be honest in all your dealings. If you can’t be truthful in what you say, don’t say anything at all. Remember, small lies start out innocently enough but soon assume lives of their own. A small lie requires a larger one to conceal it, and soon more, even larger lies are required. Don’t tell that first lie or take a single thing that doesn’t belong to you, and you’ll never have to worry.


This positive message is brought to you by the Napoleon Hill Foundation. Visit us at http://www.naphill.org.

Henry Wants England To Win World Cup

French international Thierry Henry, who will spearhead his country’s assault on the World Cup finals, fervently hopes that England will one day add to their lone world title triumph of 1966.

Henry was speaking after receiving the Football Writers’ Association Footballer of the Year Award on Thursday.

"I really hope that you can have another 1966 happen to you. I see the passion you have here for your national team and how much you want them to win," said the Arsenal striker.

"You are a nation who loves sport and football and I hope you win the World Cup again because you deserve it. People like you deserve to win it."

Casual Online Gaming Is The New Trend

While hard-core video games remain multi-billion-dollar cash cows, there is an untapped mother lode in games as simple as puzzles, experts said on Thursday at the world's premier trade show.

As thousands of cultish gamers jammed exhibition halls crammed with the latest action games for Sony, Microsoft or Nintendo consoles, a panel of analysts said the surging sector of the market was "casual games".

"There is a huge untapped market of people who haven't been bitten by the video-game-playing bug," said Anita Frazier, an entertainment industry analyst with NPD Group in the United States.

Sales of console-based video games peaked in Japan in 2001 and have trailed downward ever since, according to Hiroshi Kamide, an analyst at KBC Securities in that country.

"The key message from Japan is that if you don't have casual content you don't have outlook for growth at all," Kamide said.

"You need casual games, not splashy, but interesting and different. Then, you will do pretty well."

The second-hand and rental game gear markets that allied with poor economic conditions to undermine the console video game market in Japan were likely to spill west to the United States, warned Kamide.

At least one Japanese video game company was "cleaning up" by getting children and their parents to play "brain games" with low development costs and high profit margins, Kamide said.

Many casual gaming sites are being developed on the premise people can play for free as long as they wish, but pay nominal fees to "jazz up" a game by customizing characters or adding features or levels of play, Kamide said.

"People are very happy to try them," Kamide said of the simple, free games.

Increasingly common "micro payment" software allows players to buy features for small change, essentially "recreating those days when you would go to an arcade with a bag of quarters," one mobile game maker said.

Micro payment systems have given rise to online virtual worlds in which players buy land, work jobs, invest and more in a synthesized cash economy.

The Creative Individual

Creative People tend to be bright rather than brilliant.

Extraordinarily high intelligence is not required to be creative, but creative people are good at generating many different ideas in a short period of time.

Creative people are imaginative in their thinking.

LEFT and RIGHT BRAIN

The left hemisphere of the brain controls analytical and logical tasks, such as that used in programming a computer.

The right hemisphere of the brain controls intuition. It specializes in detecting patterns and meanings rather than breaking things down into analytical bits.

An individual with the characteristics and brain makeup of a creative person will inevitably bring forth creative solutions to problems.

Triggering creativity from a individual requires the right interaction between that person and the environment.

Indians switching to green tea

Indians, the world’s largest consumers of tea, are developing a taste for a new brand of drink — Chinese green tea, attracted by its medicinal properties.

Chinese tea, which is taken without sugar or milk, is now on top of the menu at plush restaurants where health-conscious Indians riding an economic boom dine.

“When we introduced Chinese green tea in our menu earlier this year, we did not know how popular it would become,” said Bipul Roy, food and beverages manager at the Kenilworth Hotel in Kolkata, the hub of India’s tea trade.

Regular consumption of green tea could help to protect brain cells from conditions such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease, says a study in Japan published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Infosys Chairman Murthy is the most admired biz leader

Infosys Chairman and Chief Mentor N R Narayana Murthy has emerged as India's most admired business leader, for the fifth consecutive year, in the 5th Annual B-School Study conducted by Brand-comm, a leading brand consulting, advertising and PR firm headquartered in Bangalore .

About 545 students from 13 leading management institutes across the country participated in the survey.


B-school students admire Narayana Murthy for being a socially responsible individual. He is looked up to as a leader who is honest and passionate about his work. The clarity and consistency in Murthy's personal branding and positioning seem to have been highly effective for the last five years.

"Video games: The rock-and-roll of the millennial generation

The Video Gamer generation is reshaping business across the United States and gamers swear that it is good for the soul.

Video games are transforming technology, education and the US economy, a trade leader proclaimed on Wednesday at the world's largest computer games show.

Entertainment Software Association President Doug Lowenstein backed his claim with a new study that concluded the multi-billion dollar industry was growing fast and stimulating innovation in areas ranging from medicine to anti-terrorism technology.

"The video game industry is playing a pivotal role in shaping the economy of tomorrow," Lowenstein said at a press conference at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3). "Clearly, this is an industry that is much more than just fun and games."

The tendency for political and business leaders to trivialise and marginalise video game playing would likely wane as the generational divide narrowed, Lowenstein predicted.

Fusion of Hollywood films and video games at premier trade show

Hollywood glamour and video game thrills united to entrance the thousands of hard-core gamers that crammed the world's premier computer trade show in Los Angeles on Wednesday.

Games based on major films and game titles with blockbuster status in their own right, complete with movie-like action scenes, played out on screens both colossal and small in the cavernous venue.

A game titled "Strangle Hold" crafted by film director John Woo featured a virtual Chow Yun-Fat hero.

There were games based on the "Superman" and "Pirates of the Caribbean" films slated for release later this year.

Games were imbued with characters and plots from movies as recent as "The Da Vinci Code" and "Mission Impossible III" and as classic as "The Godfather" and "Scarface."

Much of the talk at behind-the-scenes workshops at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) centered not on game technology, but on story lines and character development.

E3 is in its 12th year, and with the gaming business booming, the event has turned into a important meeting place for industry movers and shakers.

Gaming business merchants streamed into pavilions representing peers in Britain, Korea, Australia, Canada, Singapore and other countries.

Singapore Towards A Creative City

Museums and culture can play creative roles in putting a city on the world map.

But that may not always be the case as some developments may not necessarily add to the creative process of the city.

This is the view of Charles Landry, the founder of Europe's leading cultural planning consultancy.

He was speaking at a lecture at the Singapore Arts Museum. A good city is one that is alive, adaptable and edgy. It is also one that responds to human desires and constantly pushes the boundaries.

Mr Landry said that building a creative city goes beyond land use planning, architecture and engineering. It is also about integrating arts and culture and creating "inclusive spaces" where people can interact.

A Fitting Farewell To Keane

Roy Keane returned to a hero's welcome at a heaving Old Trafford last night but refused to confirm whether his Manchester United testimonial might also be his Celtic farewell.

A staggering 69,591 and brought in around £2m in receipts for what is likely to be Roy Keane's last appearance last appearance at the Theatre of Dreams.

After 12 largely success-filled years with the club, there were plenty of United fans in the crowd but the near 23,000-strong Celtic contingent showed how much Keane is revered in Glasgow, even though he has only been at Parkhead for five months and will now go on a short holiday with his family before deciding whether to extend his career by one more year.

As predicted, Keane, who made his entrance through a guard of honour from both sides accompanied by his five children, played 45 minutes for each side.

By far the 34-year-old's most productive work came during the second period, when he was wearing the red shirt of United.

In fact, it was almost like turning the clock back a few years as Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Gary Neville lined up alongside the man they shared so many glory days with.