The C.M. said that during the two year long period of the
government, the law and order had registered a marked improvement, but
much still required to be done in this connection. She said that all the units
had been asked to submit their progress report. She said that the
performance of STF and ATS was up to the mark. She said that all other
units should also improve and give better results.

Ms. Mayawati said that if these units showed no improvement in their
functioning in the monthly review meetings, then the officers would not be
given another chance and stringent action would be taken against them
after fixing their responsibility. She warned that the officers of the units
which were lagging behind should improve their performance immediately.
She said that officers would have to perform their duties with full honesty
and dedication.

During the four and a half hour long meeting, effective pursuance of
the criminal cases was seriously discussed. Different organisations were
directed to submit their action plan for taking action against those
officers/employees who indulged in corruption within a week. The
maximum limit for the sanctioning of prosecution by the Anti Corruption,
Economic Offence Wing and Vigilance has been set up at two months, so
that such officers/employees could be brought to book. The expansion of
the works of various investigative agencies was also discussed and
directives were given to improve the quality of investigation. Orders were
given to ensure the conviction of the criminals and responsibility was also
fixed for the success of prosecution. It was also decided at the meeting
that the Principal Secretary Home would discuss the problems of various
units with their heads in the next week and ensure their solution.

The Cabinet Secretary Mr. Shashank Shekhar Singh, Chief Secretary
Mr. Atul Kumar Gupta, Additional Cabinet Secretary Mr. Vijay Shankar
Pandey, Principal Secretary Home Kunwar Fateh Bahadur, DGP Mr. Vikram
Singh, Principal Secretaries to CM, Mr. Shailesh Krishna and Mr. Ravindra
Singh and senior officers of various police units were present at the
meeting.

******
BSP to go it alone in Maharashtra

 Staff Reporter

Mumbai: Seeking to identify itself as the third alternative, the
Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has decided to go it alone in Maharashtra and
contest all the 288 Assembly seats.

At a recent meeting of top BSP leaders and party chief Mayawati in
Lucknow, the party decided to focus on the polls in Maharashtra and
Haryana, a press release said.

The BSP has decided to “go before the people with self-respect and not to form an alliance with anyone,” the note reads.

Maharashtra is therefore likely to see a number of rallies of the
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister. In addition, to attract the north-Indian
vote, a team comprising Naseemuddin Siddiqui, Babu Singh Kushwaha and
Indrajit Saroj will be in Mumbai during the elections, slated for
October.

The Lucknow meeting has set an aim to bag at least 25 seats.

According to the party, this will help it grab the reins of power in the likelihood of a hung Assembly.

Conscious of the Dalit vote and the coming together of the
Republican Party of India (United) and the Left Front under the banner
of Third Front, the BSP contended that the alliance was only a grouping
of parties having a narrow reach. The BSP was therefore the sole third
alternative.

In the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, the BSP polled up to 5 per cent votes in the State.

ALMOST EVERY FRAUD
involves VICTIM
sending “CASH” money to a
Fraudster/Scammer.
ABSOLUTELY DO NOT send any money
using Western
Union / Moneygram. 
Always deal ONLY locally by meeting
the seller/buyer in person.
READ and UNDERSTAND the methods used
by Fraudsters in the link above.

A Facebook user edits his privacy settings in Ottawa, Canada.

BANGALORE: Sharing has never been this easy. Today your Internet
surfing patterns are linked to your social networking profiles, and
your social media applications are very much part of your online
avatar. So when did blogs and social networking sites make that
transition from being platforms to publish or interact to supporting a
flurry of web activities?

The growth of the Web 2.0 is inextricably linked to a trend: an
increase in the open web APIs (application programming interface).
Using the API, developers could build applications surrounding existing
services. This, in turn, enabled services such as Facebook, Google, or
Twitter to go places far beyond their imagination.

Twitter, for example, started with a simple service asking a simpler
question, “What are you doing?” to be answered in just 140 characters.
Its open API took it from being a micro-blog to a marketing tool, to a
news service, to now being a popular vehicle of information
dissemination. Because API was available, Twitter clients such as
Tweetdeck or Twhirl also sprang up around it.

Similarly Facebook (FB), which released its open stream API in
April, saw tremendous application development with 3,50,000
applications created and 15,000 websites using FB Connect.

For instance, each story/link published to FB generates 0.5 to 2
clicks back to the publishing site, points out Vishu Gupta, an engineer
at Facebook. “Connect improves user experience, and the site benefits
greatly, as it reaches out to more people and can be used to understand
user demographics,” Mr. Gupta explains.

However, services that provide APIs today walk a one-way street —
that is, while a user can publish his blog on FB, the converse is not
possible.

“This has to change to take this success story forward,” says
Kishore Bhargava, president of the Indian Linux Users Group, Delhi.
“Though API is very much part of the Open Source philosophy, today APIs
only enhance the product as envisioned by the developer. Why, for
example, can I not use the same service and share data seamlessly
across my phone, laptop and PDAs,” he asks.

The next big step is to look at open standards, so that portability
of data between hardware and websites or services is possible.

Even as more APIs are opened up — to the benefit of users,
developers, and portal owners — seamless data portability continues to
be an issue.

In the larger context of the web, these applications fragment user
data and the value they derive from it. For instance, if your social
networking site were to wind up or migrate to a different privacy
model, would you have the option of extracting your contacts, data, or
media and moving on?

Currently your postings, pictures or wall musings are all on a
one-way trip to the site that locks in your data, and denies you any
control, except for deleting it.

As more services move online, open data and interoperability across applications are the larger issues.

The debate on the openness of social networks and the need to define
or protect users’ rights to web data has been hotting up. The Data
Portability movement, and formats such as OpenID, OAuth and OpenSocial
attempt to create non-proprietary, open and interoperable blocks to
liberate the social web space, so you don’t have to reinvent yourself
every time you discover a new network.

 Earlier this week, the first rehabilitation centre for
‘Internet addicts’ was opened in the United States. De-addiction camps
in China were in the news recently for the death of a teenager because
of the brutal methods used there to cure ‘Internet addiction.’

‘Internet addiction’ for now is a catch-all term that not only
stands for addiction to specific activities such as gambling or gaming
but also refers to longer hours devoted to the computer network at the
expense of other activities.

Though the Internet is only a medium of communication and
information transmission like the printed book or television,
‘addiction’ is being used in this case with concern because of a
fundamental dialectic: ‘quantity becomes quality.’

“A whole new world is just a click away with the Internet. It is a
medium just like books and TV, but the amount of interaction it makes
possible with others, sometimes replacing the need for real world
interaction, makes it vastly different,” says E.S. Krishnamoorthy,
consultant neuropsychiatrist, Voluntary Health Services, Chennai.

Though chemical changes may not be induced by the broadly repetitive
action involved in gaming and general ‘Internet addiction,’ social
behavioural modifications do take place, including sleep deprivation
and aggression towards the depriver of access to the Internet, he says.

“It is somewhat between Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and
addiction due to substance abuse. Substance abuse-led addiction
focusses on gratification which this form of attachment provides,
though there is no chemical ingestion. At the same time, the
behavioural modifications are similar to those with OCD. It is almost
like the ‘rush’ gamblers get out of a purely gratification-oriented
repetitive action,” Dr. Krishnamoorthy adds.

Generational gap

Sunil Abraham, director-policy, Centre for Internet and Society,
Bangalore, says what constitutes ‘Internet addiction’ is sometimes
misunderstood because of a generational gap between those who grew up
immersed in technology and those who adopted technology later in their
lives.

Can a teenager’s extensive use of social networking be categorised
as ‘addiction’? Not necessarily. Social networking could lead to
forging new relationships which could be beneficial.

For now, such activities may not be the norm, but it could be the way our society is configured in the future, says Mr. Abraham.

The Internet itself offers solutions to balance your real and
virtual activities. For instance, ‘Freedom’ is an application that
disables networking on an Apple computer for up to eight hours at a
time. In the settings of Google mail, you can enable ‘Email addict’ (a
Google Labs feature) that disables your screen and makes you invisible
on chat for 15 minutes. There are many such timer software that let you
set a period for which a certain activity would be banned.

Dr. Krishnamoorthy advocates counselling and concerted effort to
increase real world social interactions for “treating” Internet
addiction. He warns that the problem is larger in that we are creating
an “inward-looking society.”

“There is a big problem on hand if many people replace the real
world with the Internet instead of using it as a device to enhance
interactions,” he says.

Mr. Abraham says controls should come from a more open and informed
discussion, of which even children are a part. Dubbing an activity not
fully understood an “addiction” and imposing old-fashioned controls are
not the right approach, he adds.

Wealth
is lost nothing is lost

Common Name : Tulsi
Plant Parts Used : Leaves, Seeds
and Root

Description of OCIMUM
SANCTUM :
Tulsi plant, is a shrub reaching a height of 0.5 to 1.5 m. The leaves are 2-4
cms in length. There are several varieties of the plant. However, commonly used
one is with dark leaves.The inflorescence is a long spike with tiny purple
flowers.

Characteristics and Constituents :
The leaves contain an essential oil which has been studied with gas
chromatography. The oil contains eugenol, eugenal, carvacrol, methyl-chavicol,
limatrol and caryophylline. The seeds contain an oil composed of fatty acids
and sitosterol. The mucilage is compared of sugars - xylose and polysaccharides.

Actions and Uses of OCIMUM
SANCTUM :
Antimicrobial activity of the essential oil has been shown against M.
tuberculosis and Staph aureus in vitro and other bacteria and fungi. Eugenol
and methyleugenol showed a positive activity. Adaptogenic (antistress) activity
has been found in mice and rats. The plant increased the physical endurance and
prevented stress-induced ulcers. In general pharmacology the aqueous extract
showed hypotensive activity and inhibited the smooth muscle contraction induced
by acetylcholine, carbachol and histamine. It also potentiated the
hexobarbitone sleeping time. Protective action against histamine-induced
bronchospasm has been shown in animals.

A tea prepared with the leaves of Tulsi is commonly used in cough,cold,mild
indigestion, diminished appetite and malaise.The solid extract of Tulsi, in a
dose of 500 mg x 3 for one week, significantly relieved the breathlessness in
20 patients with tropical eosinophilia. There was however no reduction in the
eosinophil count in peripheral blood. It is commonly used with black pepper in
bronchial asthma. An oil exlacted from Tulsi is used as drops in ear
infections. Fungal and bacterial infections of skin are treated with Tulsi juice.
The seeds are used as a general tonic.

The fresh leaves are taken as prasad by millions of Indians for many years. The
powdered leaves, 5-27 g per day were taken by 120 patients for 3 months. The
only side effect was constipation. In animals, with large dose of an extract,
antispermatogenic activity has been shown.

A tea
prepared with the leaves of Tulsi is commonly used in cough,cold,mild
indigestion, diminished appetite and malaise

A BLUE PRINT FOR LIFE

ON MAINTAINING GOOD HEALTH

THE WAY OF MEDICINE

To cure
illness, medicinal scince emphasizes cures

Involving food and drink, physics, chemistry, psychology,

environment, climate, and medicine. Buddhism does not only

incorporates normal medical science but also emphasizes the

elimination of   the three poisons of greed, anger, and

ignorance. Diseases of the mind require medicines for the

mind. Harmonizing the health of body and mind is the only

way to true health. This includes the above mentioned:
eating

and drinking moderately, paying homage and repenting,

chanting mantras and Buddha’s name, practicing

meditation, being mindful of breathing to achieve the state

of stoping delusion and seeing truth, making progress

optimistically, freeing the mind from cares and being at
ease

and calming oneself.

Health is lost something is lost

ZEN AWAKENMENT IN A NUTSHELL

“Late one night a female Zen adept was carrying water
in an old wooden bucket when she happened to glance across the surface of the
water and saw the reflection of the moon. As she walked the bucket began to
come apart and the bottom of the pail broke through, with the water suddenly
disappearing into the soil beneath her feet and the moon’s reflection
disappearing along with it. In that instant the young woman realized that the
moon she had been looking at was just a reflection of the real thing…just as
her whole life had been. She turned to look at the moon in all it’s silent
glory, her mind was ripe, and that was it…Awakenment.”

CHIYONO– NO MOON, NO WATER

FREE
ONLINE
TRAINING ON BUDDHISM FOR CHILDREN -26

The Fawn Who Played Dead
[Attendance]

Once upon a time, there was a herd of forest
deer. In this herd was a wise and respected teacher, cunning in the ways of
deer. He taught the tricks and strategies of survival to the young fawns.

One day, his younger sister brought her son to
him, to be taught what is so important for deer. She said, “Oh brother
teacher, this is my son. Please teach him the tricks and strategies of
deer.” The teacher said to the fawn, “Very well, you can come at this
time tomorrow for your first lesson.”

The young deer came to the lessons as he was
supposed to. When others cut classes to spend all day playing, he remained and
paid attention to the good teacher. He was well-liked by the other young bucks
and does, but he only played when his class work was complete. Being curious to
learn, he was always on time for the lessons. He was also patient with the
other students, knowing that some learn more quickly than others. He respected
the teacher deer for his knowledge, and was grateful for his willingness to
share it.

One day, the fawn stepped in a trap in the
forest and was captured. He cried out in great pain. This frightened the other
fawns, who ran back to the herd and told his mother. She was terrified, and ran
to her brother the teacher. Trembling with fear, crying big tears, she said to him,
“Oh my dear brother, have you heard the news that my son has been trapped
by a hunter’s snare? How can I save my little child’s life? Did he study well
in your presence?”

Her brother said, “My sister, don’t be
afraid. I have no doubt he will be safe. He studied hard and always did his
very best. He never missed a class and always paid attention. Therefore, there
is no need to have doubt or pain in your heart. He will not be hurt by any
human being. Don’t worry. I am confident he will return to you and make you
happy again. He has learned all the tricks and strategies used by deer to cheat
the hunters. So be patient. He will return!”

Meanwhile, the trapped fawn was thinking,
“All my friends were afraid and ran away. There is no one to help me get
out of this deadly trap. Now I must use the tricks and strategies I learned
from the wise teacher who taught so well.”

The deer strategy he decided to use was the
one called, “playing dead.” First, he used his hoofs to dig up the
dirt and grass, to make it look like he had tried very
hard to escape. Then he relieved his bowels and released his urine, because
this is what happens when a deer is caught in a trap and dies in very great
fear. Next, he covered his body with his own saliva.

Lying stretched out on his side, he held his
body rigidly and stiffened his legs out straight. He turned up his eyes, and
let his tongue hang out of the side of his mouth. He filled his lungs with air
and puffed out his belly. Finally, with his head leaning on one side, he
breathed through the nostril next to the ground, not through the upper one.

Lying motionless, he looked so much like a
stiff corpse that flies flew around him, attracted by the awful smells. Crows
stood nearby waiting to eat his flesh.

Before long it was early morning and the
hunter came to inspect his traps. Finding the fawn who was playing dead, he
slapped the puffed up belly and found it stiff. Seeing the flies and the mess
he thought, “Ah, it has already started to stiffen. He must have been
trapped much earlier this morning. No doubt the tender meat is already starting
to spoil. I will skin and butcher the carcass right here, and carry the meat
home.”

Since he completely believed the deer was dead, he removed and cleaned the
trap, and began spreading leaves to make a place to do the butchering.
Realizing he was free, the fawn suddenly sprang to his feet. He ran like a
little cloud blown by a swift wind, back to the comfort and safety of his
mother. The whole herd celebrated his survival, thanks to learning so well from
the wise teacher.

The moral is: Well-learned lessons bring great rewards.

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