What was God's Purpose in Creating Humanity?

Why Did God Create Human Beings
Into a Universe Already Heavily Contaminated With Sin?

Why did God create the human race? The answer often given by Christians is that God "wanted friends." But God had millions and millions of "friends" when He created the angels. Why did He create an entirely different order of being: humanity?

And why did God create humanity into a universe already heavily contaminated with sin?

The human race is not responsible for sin. Sin was ALREADY present in the universe when God created Adam and Eve. Satan and his evil angels had been sinning for some period of time, maybe a very long time, before Adam and Eve were created.

Why didn't God solve the SIN problem with the angels? After all, that's where the sin problem started. Why was the human race drawn into this mess? We didn't ask to be here. Not a single one of us asked to be born. And we certainly didn't ask to be born sinners. I don't mean that babies are born sinning, I just mean that, as the Bible says, "ALL have sinned. . ." Romans 3:23.

Why did God create Adam and Eve perfect and then put Satan right in their neighborhood?

If God really didn't want Adam and Eve to sin, why did God place the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil right in their "living room" where they had to pass by it every day?

Also, why did God create a single tree that contained the knowledge of BOTH good and evil? In other words, why did God combine "good" and "evil" in the same tree?

Before Adam and Eve sinned, is there any Biblical record that they ever praised God? The answer is "No."

Before they sinned, did Adam and Eve understand what a magnificent garden God had given them for their home? How could they, they had never experienced anything else.

Before they sinned, did Adam and Eve understand what good health was? How could they, they had never been sick! They had never seen disease nor death in anything-not in humanity, not in animals, nor in plants.

Adam and Eve could not appreciate any of these things because they had never known anything other than perfection.

The fact is, it is impossible to know what good health is unless you've been sick or you have seen sickness in someone else. It's impossible to be appropriately grateful for all you have if you have never been without. It's impossible to know "good" unless you have known the opposite: "evil."

The only way we change is by going through difficult times. If everything is going well, we'll just keep right on doing what we're doing. The ONLY reason we change course, and begin to grow in maturity and spirituality, the ONLY way we build character, is by going through trials.

Jesus came to this earth for at least three reasons: a) to reveal the true character of God, b) to show His great love for us by dying on the Cross and, c) to do away with sin. The Bible says that "the Lamb was slain from the foundation of the world" Revelation 13:8.

The Plan of Salvation obviously was in place BEFORE the earth was created. Something had to be done to provide salvation for sinners or all would have been lost. Satan and the evil angels were already sinners before any human being was created.

Again, why didn't God solve the "sin problem" with the angels, who were obviously the first sinners? Mankind, Adam and Eve, were initially novices in the "sin" business which had been going on for some time in the heavenly realms before their creation on earth.

God's plan was for Jesus to come as a "man" and die for the sins of the world. Why couldn't Jesus have come as an angel and died for the sinning angels? Why did God instead have to create the human race, the majority of whom would go through hell on earth, then die, only to be resurrected, judged and then annihilated or "burned," either forever, or "as long as they deserve"?

In order for Jesus to come in the form of an angel, to die for the sins of the evil angels, angels would have to be capable of dying.

Do Angels Die?

Jesus gives the answer Himself in Luke 20:36, when the Sadducees were telling Jesus the story of the woman who married a man who subsequently died. She then married each of his six brothers, one after another, as each of the brothers died. The Sadducees asked Jesus whose wife she would be in heaven.

This is Jesus' response, in His own words:

"The children of this world marry and are given in marriage, but they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage;

"Neither can they die any more; for they are equal unto the angels. . ." Luke 20:36.

Jesus said it Himself. Angels don't die! Notice that Jesus did not say, "Good angels don't die." He said, "Angels (in general) don't die." If angels don't die then Jesus could NOT have come as an angel to die for the sins of the evil angels.

This created a major problem in the thinking of the righteous angels. Since sin entered the universe when Satan sinned, how could sin ever be eliminated from the universe if angels don't die?

A question we must ourselves ponder, is: If angels don't die, as Jesus Himself has told us, then how can the evil angels be "destroyed" from the earth and from the universe at the end?

And if they cannot be destroyed, then sin will remain in the universe for eternity!

Yet Jesus came to "do away with sin!" John 1:29.

So how does this all work out?

God created a new race of individuals, humanity, individuals with flesh and blood, individuals who were capable of dying, a necessity for the plan of salvation since Jesus' plan was to come in human form and DIE for the sins of the world. But human beings would be capable of dying ONLY if they sinned. Before sin there was no death, neither in Adam and Eve, nor in all of Creation. Even Satan and the evil angels had been sinning for a long time, yet they showed no signs of deterioration in their stamina. The same is true today. Satan and his evil angels are going strong! They have no flesh and blood, which is what deteriorates as a result of sin.

If neither Adam and Eve, nor their offspring, had sinned, there would be no death. In that case, there would be no need for Jesus to die for us, since no human being would have sinned. Adam and Eve still would have been as innocent as little children. They would not have known the difference between good and evil. They would have been incapable of purposely choosing God for His goodness because they knew nothing else. It would have been impossible for them to glory in God's fabulous creation because they had no opportunity to know anything else. It would have been impossible for Adam to Eve to appreciate God's boundless love for His children, whether perfect or sinful, because Adam and Eve knew nothing of sin, calamity or utter wickedness.

It was necessary for them to know evil in order for them eventually to choose "good," intelligently and willingly.

Therefore, sin was a necessary part of the plan of salvation. Without sin, there would be no death. Without sin, Adam and Eve would never have experienced the opposite of "good," which would allow them eventually to understand and abhor evil. Every human being had to be "dipped" in sin to be able to understand first hand the ruinous consequences of sin, to understand that sin leads to death. Sin was imperative because it introduced death to the human race, a prerequisite necessary for Jesus to come in human form and DIE to redeem mankind.

It is impossible to know good without knowing evil; it is impossible to learn right without understanding what is wrong, and that often takes personal experience in wrong-doing. It is impossible to build character without having trials and tribulations. The only way we change is by having trouble. If everything is going along fine, we will NEVER change. It takes troubles, catastrophes, illness, financial upsets, severe loneliness, heartbreak, to force us to change our direction, to turn us to God!

We now see that sin was a necessary part of the plan of salvation. That means that the lead sinner, Satan, had and still has, a specific purpose. His purpose was, and still is, to be the opponent, the antagonist, the Adversary against God. In fact, the name Satan actually means Adversary. God, Himself, provides opposition to truth in order to bring attention to truth, to clarify truth and to magnify the difference between truth and lies, between good and evil. That is still happening today.

Satan was designated to be the Adversary against Christ, just as Judas was designated to be the betrayer of Christ. After all, SOMEONE had to do it! John 17:12

"The troubles of the universe originated among the celestials, among the angels, long before man was created. Humanity was an entirely separate creation, made in the image and likeness of God to be the form in which God's own Son could come to give up His life for the universe, and remedy what had gone wrong in that higher sphere.

"Thus humanity is made the vehicle through which the reconciling of the universe is to be effected, even though all efforts of humanity itself are in vain and come to nothing, and it is left to God to provide, in the person of His Son, the one effectual means by which this reconciliation is to be accomplished." The Place of Humanity in God's Purpose, J.H.Essex, pg 45

"The real reason for the creation of humanity was that it would provide a form in which it would be possible for our Lord to come and give His life for the universe. That is why man was made in the image and likeness of God-that Jesus could come in human guise and still be recognized as the Son of God." Ibid pg 67.

The Lamb was slain "from the foundation of the world" Revelation 13:8. God's purpose in every facet and detail was planned from the outset, and in no sense whatever is any part of it an improvisation to meet an emergency. He is the One Who tells "from the beginning the hereafter, and from aforetime, what has not yet been done, saying, All My counsel shall be confirmed, and all My desire will I do" Isaiah 46:10. He is "the One Who is operating ALL in accord with the counsel of His own will" Ephesians 1:11, and Who has purposed "to head up all in the Christ, both in the heavens and that on earth," and "through Him, to reconcile ALL to Him. . . whether those on the earth or those in the heavens" Ephesians 1:10, Colossians 1:20.

"When the reconciliation of all is complete, the joy of the universe will be full. When the purpose of the All-sufficient God has reached its consummation, and He is All in all (1 Corinthians 15:28), every heart will be filled with the true laughter which accompanies the praise and adoration of Him Who is Supreme and Whose name is Love." Ibid pg 72.

God has not created one more person than required
for the completion of the Plan of Salvation.

God does NOT waste anything! When Jesus fed the 5,000 men plus women and children, with 5 loaves and 2 fish, there were scraps of bread left over, according to Matthew 14:13-21. Jesus instructed His disciples to gather up the fragments of bread that resulted in the collection of twelve baskets. The extra pieces of bread apparently were then taken home by members of the crowd. The scraps of bread were NOT thrown away. They were NOT wasted.

God does NOT waste anything! In nature, matter is never lost! The flowers die and return to the earth, but matter is not lost.

God does NOT waste anything! He knows every sparrow that falls but tells us that we're much more important than the sparrows. (Matthew 10:31)

So how could God throw away (permanently destroy or annihilate) billions of His children whom He has created? They are far more important than scraps of bread. We must learn about God's character from nature, from God's fabulous creation. Nature proves to us that God never throws anything away, even His errant children.

But He doesn't leave us in our sinful wretchedness. God tells us in His own words how He treats His erring children, including the evil angels who "don't die." Jesus says, "Behold, I make ALL NEW!" (Revelation 21:5) "I came not to destroy men's lives, but to SAVE them" Luke 9:56. "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, WILL draw ALL unto Me" John 12:32.

God has a specific purpose for your life, a purpose that no one else can fulfill. But first He must draw you to Him through the trials and tribulations that we bring on ourselves-including disease! It's all for a specific purpose. Serious illness should turn us to the Great Physician who promises to "forgive all our sins and (THEN) heal ALL our diseases" Psalm 103:3. Through this experience He wants to change your life.

What a wonderful God we have. Who would want to struggle through life without Him!

So the question remains, does one have to be a Christian in order to get well? And if so, then why do so many "Christians" die of disease?

A true follower of Christ, a true Christian, will allow Jesus to make ALL of his or her decisions. When that happens, that Christian will no longer be sick. He will have given his mind and heart and body fully to Christ. You don't become well just by calling yourself a Christian. You must learn to trust Jesus completely, to go to Him with every problem and NOT to man.

This entire health plan is an exercise in obedience.

Simply put, the process of getting well is the process of getting to know God!

The process of getting well is the process of learning to trust God completely and depend on Him for everything

Technorati : God's Humanity

How to Become Wise

Some folks are wise and some otherwise
Judging by what we see on TV, our choice of soft drink, underarm deodorant, or shampoo is among the most important of life's questions. Isn't world peace more important than a clean head of hair? Why is it that none of the many talk shows discuss the value of wisdom? Take war and peace, for example, if we are stupid enough to hate one another, won't we end up killing one another? To live in harmony, we need to love our neighbor. Love, then, is more important than wisdom, and those who understand this are on the path to wisdom.

The need for wisdom increases each day. Unless tempered by wisdom, the dizzying speed of our technological development places man at risk. It is not only our immediate environment, but our very own planet that is in peril. Yet, in any global, national, local, or personal crisis there is always the opportunity to discover wisdom. During the cold war, for example, we found the wisdom not to destroy ourselves.

How do we become wise? According to Confucius, "By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest." Now we are learning from bitter experience that our water supply is contaminated and our food supply is laced with pollutants. But if we reflect on our mistakes and learn from them, we gain wisdom and protect life. Technology or science organizes knowledge. Wisdom organizes life. And when we are sufficiently enlightened, we will avoid situations where wisdom is needed.

Wisdom is a precious gem with a thousand sparkling facets. Each facet reflects a ray of light which helps to illuminate our path through life. Six of the rays are explained in the following paragraphs.

The ray of satisfaction. A wise man doesn't remain on a treadmill, chasing an endless stream of possessions. He gets off the treadmill and takes time to enjoy what he already has. He seeks only those possessions that are necessary to sustain and fulfill him. How will those who are surrounded by countless goods find the time to enjoy and reconnect with nature? Those who are not enlightened are dissatisfied and complain to everyone. Those who are a little more spiritually aware complain just to themselves. But those who are wise are satisfied and complain to no one.

The ray of Learning. "Who is wise? One who learns from all." (The Talmud) How do we learn from all? By listening. As Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote, "It is the province of knowledge to speak, and it is the privilege of wisdom to listen." And when we do speak, we ask questions. For curiosity and questions lead to wisdom. The wise man who knows a thousand things, will ask the man who knows one. We may not always like what we hear. But better to learn from criticism than to be deceived by praise. Although the wise welcome criticism, they avoid offering it to others because they realize that profiting from good advice needs more wisdom than giving it. Proper listening, doesn't imply that we ignore skepticism or doubt. For to accept everything we hear is gullibility, not wisdom. That's why the Chinese proverb says, "Deep doubts, deep wisdom; small doubts, little wisdom."

The ray of action. People of wisdom are people of action. For of what value is knowledge that is not understood and used? Don't commit knowledge to memory, commit it to life. Read how Ralph Waldo Emerson describes the link between action and wisdom: "Raphael paints wisdom; Handel sings it, Phidias carves it, Shakespeare writes it, Wren builds it, Columbus sails it, Luther preaches it, Washington arms it, Watt mechanizes it." Wisdom is knowing what to do next and doing it. Wisdom is not about doing EVERYTHING, but about doing what is best. Lin Yu-t'ang (1895-1976) explains: "Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of nonessentials."

The ray of living in the present. Consider the profound words of this ancient Sanskrit poem. "Look to this day, for it is life! The very life of Life. In its brief course lie all the realities and truths of existence: the joy of growth, the splendor of action, the glory of power. For yesterday is but a memory, And tomorrow is only a vision; but today well lived makes every yesterday a memory of happiness and every tomorrow a vision of hope. Look well, therefore, to this day!"

The ray of awareness. Immediately on awakening, we should be aware of the unlimited potential that greets us. Anything is possible. We can make new friends, overcome problems, and perform new tasks. That the day is full of potential is something we can be certain of, so let's embrace it and anticipate the joy it will bring. It is also helpful to be aware of what we are. And what is that? We are shadows that will quickly pass. If we keep this image in our awareness, it will help us understand how absurd it is to hold grudges, harbor resentment, or take offense at the actions of others. For they too are shadows. In the big picture, there is no room for petty thinking, trivial concerns, or inconsequential musings. Focus on the real and ignore the ramblings and idle chatter of an overworking imagination.

The ray of open-mindedness. Prejudice, unwillingness to learn, and preconceptions slam shut the doors of the mind, preventing the growth of wisdom. Understanding that there are other points of view is the beginning of wisdom. For as Cullen Hightower says, "Wisdom is what's left after we've run out of personal opinions."

According to Dr. William Menninger, wisdom is one of the six essential ingredients of happiness (the other five are sincerity, integrity, humility, courtesy, and charity). That is reason enough to pursue it. Another reason is our children. For if we don't have wisdom, all we can teach them is ignorance, so let the voice of wisdom be our own. Parents, when dealing with our children, let's recall the advice of William James, "The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook." And let us also remember to speak to everyone we meet with tender words; after all, later we may have to eat them!

Technorati : Wise

Be conscious in winter season

Winter Health and Safety Tips for Cold Months Ahead

Exposure to cold can cause injury or serious illness such as frostbite or hypothermia. The likelihood of injury or illness depends on factors such as physical activity, clothing, wind, humidity, working and living conditions and a person's age and state of health. Follow these tips to stay safe in cold weather:

Dress appropriately before going outdoors. The air temperature does not have to be below freezing for someone to experience cold emergencies such as hypothermia and frostbite. Wind speed can create dangerously cold conditions even when the temperature is not that low.
Dress in layers so you can adjust to changing conditions. Avoid overdressing or overexertion that can lead to heat illness.
Most of your body heat is lost through your head so wear a hat, preferably one that covers your ears.
Mittens provide more warmth to your hands than gloves.
Wear waterproof, insulated boots to help avoid hypothermia or frostbite by keeping your feet warm and dry and to maintain your footing in ice and snow.
Get out of wet clothes immediately and warm the core body temperature with a blanket or warm fluids like hot cider or soup. Avoid drinking caffeine or alcohol if you expect you or someone you are trying to help has hypothermia or frostbite.

Recognize the symptoms of hypothermia that can be a serious medical condition: confusion, dizziness, exhaustion and severe shivering. Seek medical attention immediately if you have these symptoms.
Recognize frostbite warning signs: gray, white or yellow skin discoloration, numbness, waxy feeling skin. Seek medical attention immediately if you have these symptoms.
To learn more about signals of and how to care for cold- or heat-related problems, take a Community First Aid and Safety course from your local Red Cross chapter.

Holiday traveling and winter can also be a dangerous combination. Allow extra time when traveling. Monitor weather conditions carefully and adhere to travel advisories.
Keep a winter storm survival kit in your car. This should include blankets, food, flares, chains, gloves and first aid supplies. Visit Red Cross Disaster Services for more information on disaster supplies kits.
Additionally, weather-related illnesses also afflict millions during the winter months. From the common cold to influenza, many sicknesses spread from person to person when an infected individual coughs or sneezes, and simple precautions can help stop the spread of those germs.

Cover your mouth and nose when you sneeze or cough
Clean your hands often.
Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth.
Stay home from work when you are sick and check with a health care provider when needed.
Practice other good health habits, such as getting plenty of rest, managing your stress level and drinking plenty of fluids.

Technorati : conscious, season, winter

Bangladesh : A Country of Natural Beauty

-Kuakata

kaptai

bandorban

sent martin

Hanging Bride, Rangamati

Rangamati

If you don't visit Rangamati you will not discover a big portion of natural beauties of Bangladesh. From Chittagong a 77 km. road amidst green fields and winding hills will take you to Rangamati. It is also connected by waterway from Kaptai.

This is the only place to visit through out the year. Rangamati expresses her full beauty in rainy season. Trees becoming greener, waterfalls are in full tide, the river Karnaphuli in her full wave in this season. If you already visited Rangamati in winter, we advice to go there again in monsoon; you will feel the difference of nature yourself.

Parjatan holiday complex is the best place to stay in Rangamati. There are other hotels in Rangamati where you can stay. Boating is the prime attraction in Rangamati. You can go to Kaptai and also by Karnaphuli River you can go deep in side the hill areas where on the way you will find lots of natural waterfalls. If you wish you can take shower in the waterfall or you can swim in the river. By boat you can visit the tribal villages, King Chakma's (tribal) Palace that is called Chakma Rajbari, Rajbonbihar pagoda, Tribal museum etc. You can also enjoy the tribal handmaid crafts if you go for shopping in the local market.

Khagrachori Waterfall

Khagrachhari is the natural wild beauty of Bangladesh. Here you can visit the tribal lifestyle of Chakmas' in Khagrachari. You can also visit Alutila hill. Approximately 100 meters long a very dark Cave is the mysterious beauty of Alutila hill.

Technorati : Bangladesh, Beauty, Country, Natural

Bangladesh : A Country of Natural Beauty

-Kuakata

kaptai

bandorban

sent martin

Hanging Bride, Rangamati

Rangamati

If you don't visit Rangamati you will not discover a big portion of natural beauties of Bangladesh. From Chittagong a 77 km. road amidst green fields and winding hills will take you to Rangamati. It is also connected by waterway from Kaptai.

This is the only place to visit through out the year. Rangamati expresses her full beauty in rainy season. Trees becoming greener, waterfalls are in full tide, the river Karnaphuli in her full wave in this season. If you already visited Rangamati in winter, we advice to go there again in monsoon; you will feel the difference of nature yourself.

Parjatan holiday complex is the best place to stay in Rangamati. There are other hotels in Rangamati where you can stay. Boating is the prime attraction in Rangamati. You can go to Kaptai and also by Karnaphuli River you can go deep in side the hill areas where on the way you will find lots of natural waterfalls. If you wish you can take shower in the waterfall or you can swim in the river. By boat you can visit the tribal villages, King Chakma's (tribal) Palace that is called Chakma Rajbari, Rajbonbihar pagoda, Tribal museum etc. You can also enjoy the tribal handmaid crafts if you go for shopping in the local market.

Khagrachori Waterfall

Khagrachhari is the natural wild beauty of Bangladesh. Here you can visit the tribal lifestyle of Chakmas' in Khagrachari. You can also visit Alutila hill. Approximately 100 meters long a very dark Cave is the mysterious beauty of Alutila hill.

Technorati : Bangladesh, Beauty, Country, Natural

Lots of Options for People Who Want to Make a Fortune on the Internet

Spending Money: Experts Say You Can Make Money Online

Fifteen billion smackers: That's the value Microsoft recently slapped on Facebook when the computer giant invested $240 million for a 1.6% stake in Mark Zuckerberg's online social-networking site.

You could seethe with envy -- or you could chase your own fortune on the Web.

Some online businesses require only a few hundred dollars in equipment, while others demand significant hardware and perhaps even a warehouse. Some might make you rich; others might just cover beer money. And all involve various levels of time, capital and technological skill.

Click here to see eight ways to make money online at our partner site, Forbes.com.

"Some people have dreamed about owning their own business and have not followed through because of the investment in resources," says Jim Griffith, head of eBay University, for those aiming to set up shop selling goods at the online auctioneer's site. "The Internet allows people to at least try without making a large initial investment."

Army veteran Brandi Ramos of Springfield, Ill., did it. As a single mom in need of extra income, she started her online retail career peddling "big and tall" men's clothing on eBay.

Three years later, Ramos, 32, makes a good living working online out of her 600-square-foot basement packed with hanging displays and baker's racks piled with tupperware containing underwear and belts. Ramos aims to offer quick service, answering all e-mails within four to six hours. She claims to net $25,000 on $100,000 sales a year, and even earns a few bucks per order on shipping.

If managing inventory seems too big a chore, play virtual landlord and charge other retailers monthly fees (or per-transaction fees) for the opportunity to market their products on your site. Amazon.com nabbed 28% of its revenues this way in 2006.

Craigslist is another take on this model: The 25-person company, worth a reported $2 billion, charges businesses to post help wanted ads in San Francisco, New York and L.A.; it also collects fees for apartment listings in New York City. Total page views per month: about 5 billion.

Technorati : Fortune, Internet, People

Barbara Walters Explores the Meaning of Heaven and Afterlife

Heaven -- Where Is It? How Do We Get There?

Nearly nine out of 10 people in the United States say they believe in heaven, according to a recent ABC News poll. But what exactly do people think of when they think of an afterlife and what do they believe is required to get there?

Barbara Walters travels to India, Israel and throughout the United States, interviewing religious leaders, scientists, believers and non-believers alike to get a range of perspectives on heaven and the afterlife.

From Valhalla to Nirvana
Every culture has wrestled with the question of an afterlife, and most have come to a similar conclusion: The bad end up in Hell, the good go to Heaven.

If you were a Viking who died in battle, fierce goddess warriors known as the Valkyries would carry you to Viking Heaven, Valhalla, where you would join an eternal feast. The Romans thought they became immortal and were spirited off to Paradise on a fiery four-horse chariot.

The early Christians and Jews believed that man was not pure enough to enter the Kingdom of Heaven as flesh and blood. They believed all people were transformed into spiritual beings, filling Heaven with angels.

That belief has changed over the centuries, but angels still have an important connection with heaven. In cities all over the world, angels can be seen in watchful poses. "We believe that they are the ones who take care of us. They are the messengers of God. They are the ones who are God's very special friends and his servants," said Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, archbishop of Washington, D.C., and chancellor of Catholic University.

"I always think of heaven as being a place where we won't have any troubles anymore. Heaven is a place where there will be peace and tranquility," McCarrick said. As a Catholic, McCarrick believes heaven is more than a spiritual place. Catholics, he explained, believe the body is resurrected. "I'm looking forward to meeting my mom and dad and the rest of my family," he added.

The Rev. Dr. Calvin Butts, pastor of New York's famed Abyssinian Baptist Church, tells Walters he has had many visions of heaven over the years. He describes heaven as "no tears, no mourning, no suffering. It's eternal joy and happiness because you are at one with God."

Butts says he's certain of heaven's existence, but says it's in an indescribable dimension. "Heaven is in another dimension. So you don't necessarily have to look up but you can look out and see heaven. Heaven is a fourth dimension if you will," he tells Walters.

Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, founder of the American Society for Muslim Advancement, tells Walters he believes heaven is indeed a physical place, but getting there depends on your behavior in this life. "The real life is the next life … and based upon how we live this life, it determines where we shall be in the next. We are told we will be in comfortable homes, reclining on silk couches … so we're given the delights of sex, the delights of wine, the delights of food with all of their positive things without their negative aspects."

The promise of heaven plays a central role in the life of Pastor Ted Haggard, president of the National Association of Evangelicals, and his congregation. As an evangelical, Haggard believes if you are not a born again Christian, you have no assurance of going to heaven. But if you are "born again" in the belief that Jesus Christ is your personal savior, you are assured a place in Heaven. He also believes that this life is a sort of weigh station on the way to an eternal home. "Jesus Christ guarantees eternal life to anybody that'll follow him. … The purpose of life is to glorify God and go to heaven … 'cause heaven is our home."

Rabbi Neil Gillman, a professor of philosophy at New York's Jewish Theological Seminary, expressed Judaism's perspective on the afterlife. "For the past 2,000 years, most Jews believed that at death the body and the soul separate, the body is interred and disintegrates in the Earth, the soul goes off to be with God," he tells Walters. But that's not the end of the story. "At the end of days, God will resurrect bodies, will reunite body and soul, and the individual will come before God to account for his or her life," Gillman said.

Walters also traveled to India where she met with the Dalai Lama, considered by Buddhists to be the reincarnated Buddha. The Dalai Lama says that the purpose of life is to be happy, and that you can accomplish that by "warm-heartedness." He tells Walters heaven "is [the] best place to further develop the spiritual practice … for Buddhist the final goal is not just to reach there, but to become Buddha. [It's] not the end."

As a Buddhist he believes in reincarnation and tells Walters that people can have second lives as animals. "If someone do[es] very bad, badly … kill or steal … [he] could be born in an animal body." Walters also talks to actor Richard Gere, a longtime follower of Buddhism. Gere tells Walters, "I don't think necessarily heaven and hell happen in some other life. I think it's right now."

The Skeptics and Non-Believers
Walters also speaks with scientists, who say they're beginning to understand why so many people believe in heaven. Still, they have yet to come up with the proof that it exists.

For most people, proof of Heaven's existence is not necessary. Faith is all they need. Dr. Dean Hamer, a geneticist at the National Institutes of Health, thinks he has figured out why this faith comes easily to some, but eludes others. "Whether a person is spiritual or not is not necessarily a matter of their will. It may be something innate about their personality," Hamer tells Walters.

Hamer suspects spirituality might be a personality trait encoded in our genes. He began his research by asking more than 1,000 people to answer a series of questions about faith and spirituality. He then tested DNA from the study participants and found that those who scored highest on his survey had a mutation of at least one gene that seemed to affect their level of spirituality. He named it "the God gene."

"It's a gene that's called VMAT2 and we can isolate it, and we can study it in detail. … This particular gene controls certain chemicals in the brain. And those chemicals affect how consciousness works. They affect the way that our feelings react to the events around us," he tells Walters.

Hamer also notes that researchers have been able to detect changes in the brain when people are in the midst of intense prayer or meditation.

Dr. Andrew Newberg, a neuroradiologist at the University of Pennsylvania, is one of those researchers. Newberg says his research shows a marked increase in brain activity in the frontal regions of the brain. "At the same time," he adds, "the parts of the brain that monitor our sense of time and space became less active."

Newberg says this contributes to an individual's feeling of "losing that sense of self." The feeling, he said, is "attributed to God, for example. And then they feel that God is providing them that energy, that feeling."

But for Ellen Johnson, president of the American Atheists, science or no science, heaven is a myth.

"Heaven doesn't exist, hell doesn't exist. We weren't alive before we were born and we're not going to exist after we die. I'm not happy about the fact that that's the end of life, but I can accept that and make my life more fulfilling now, because this is the only chance I have," she tells Walters.

'Death Trips' to Heaven
Walters also talks with people who feel certain of heaven's existence, apart from their faith, because they believe they've had a glimpse of it in near-death experiences.

A U.S. News & World Report from the late 1990s says as many as 18 million Americans believe they have had near-death experiences that gave them a glimpse of the afterlife.

Dianne Morrissey tells Walters she felt the "white light of God" when she was electrocuted. "My near-death experience changed everything about me. … There is not a single experience on Earth that could ever be as good as being dead," she said.

British psychologist Susan Blackmore has spent decades searching for a scientific explanation: "When the oxygen levels fall in the brain … you get massive over-activity in the brain. … I think there is a true transformation, but not because you've been to heaven."

Family, Children and Heaven
Walters talks with California's first lady, Maria Shriver, whose early experiences with loss as a member of the Kennedy family prompted her to write a book about heaven for children. "I had, growing up, a lot of questions about these deaths that occurred in my family with no person to really talk to them about it," she tells Walters.

"My daughter, who was about 6 or 7 at the time, started asking me a lot of the same questions that I had had as a child, really basic questions: 'Why do you put somebody in a coffin? Where does she go now? Is she scared in the box? Can she breathe in the box?' And what was interesting, Barbara, was that she started answering the questions for herself. So I started writing down her answers," she said.

Walters also talks with Mitch Albom, author of "The Five People You Meet in Heaven," to get his personal take on the afterlife.

Albom tells Walters, "There's one thing I would say about heaven. If you believe that there's a heaven, your life here on Earth here is different. You may believe that you're gonna see your loved ones again. So the grief that you had after they're gone isn't as strong. You may believe that you'll have to answer for your actions. So the way you behave here on Earth is changed. So in a certain way, just believing in the idea of heaven is heavenly in and of itself," he said.

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How to keep candles burning longer

Also, for expensive candles, burn them a little until they make a small deep groove in it. Then set a tea-light into it, making sure it cannot be seen. The heat of the tea-light will also give off the smell of scented candles. Tea-lights are extremely inexpensive and can easily be replaced but your large expensive candles are saved.

Store them in the freezer-this will add hours of additional burn time.

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Ancient Egyptian Hairstyles

For ancient Egyptians, appearance was an important issue. Appearance indicated a persons status, role in a society or political significance. Egyptian hairstyles and our hairstyles today have many things in common. Like modern hairstyles Egyptian hairstyles varied with age, gender and social status.

Children had unique hairstyles in ancient Egypt. Their hair was shaved off or cut short except for a long lock of hair left on the side of the head, the so-called side-lock of youth. This s-shaped lock was depicted by the hieroglyphic symbol of a child or youth. Both girls and boys wore this style until the onset of puberty. Young boys often shaved their heads, while young girls wore their hair in plaits or sometimes did up their hair in a ponytail style, hanging down the center of the back. Young girl dancers used to wear long thick braided ponytails. The edge of the tail was either naturally curled or was enhanced to do so. If the ponytail was not curled at the end, it was weighted down by adornments or metal discs.

Egyptian men typically wore their hair short, leaving their ears visible. Men often kept these hairstyles until their hair began to thin with advancing age. Another hairstyle for men was distinctive short curls covering the ears shaping a bend from temple to nape. It is doubtful that this hairstyle was natural. It was more likely a result of a process of hair curling that was done occasionally.

Women's hairstyles were more unique than those of men. Women generally preferred a smooth, close coiffure, a natural wave and long curl. Women in the Old Kingdom preferred to have short cuts or chin length bobs. However, women in the New Kingdom wore their hair long or touted a wig. Women tied and decorated their hair with flowers and linen ribbons. A stylized lotus blossom was the preferred adornment for the head. This developed into using coronets and diadems. Diadems made of gold, turquoise, garnet, and malachite beads were discovered on an ancient Egyptian body dating to 3200 BC. Poorer people used more simple and inexpensive ornaments of petals and berries to hold their hair at the back. Children decorated their hair with amulets of small fish, presumably to protect from the dangers of the Nile. Children sometimes used hair-rings or clasps. Egyptians wore headbands around their heads or held their hair in place with ivory and metal hairpins. Beads might be used to attach wigs or hair extensions in place.

Egyptians threaded gold tubes on each tress, or strung inlaid gold rosettes between vertical ribs of small beads to form full head covers. The also used combs, tweezers, shavers and hair curlers. Combs were either single or double sided combs and made from wood or bone. Some of them were very finely made with a long grip. Combs were found from early tomb goods, even from predynastic times. Egyptians shaved with a stone blade at first, later with a copper, and during the Middle Kingdom with a bronze razor.

Slaves and servants were not able to dress the same as Egyptian nobility. The way that they adorned their hair was quite different. Commonly, they tied their hair at the back of the head into a kind of loop. Another type of hairstyle was to tie it in eight or nine long plaits at the back of the head and to dangled them together at one side of the neck and face.

In ancient Egypt, men and women used to shave their heads bald replacing their natural hair with wigs. Egyptian women did not walk around showing their bald heads, they always wore the wigs. Head shaving had a number of benefits. First, removing their hair made it much more comfortable in the hot Egyptian climate. Second, it was easy to maintain a high degree of cleanliness avoiding danger of lice infestation. In addition, people wore wigs when their natural hair was gone due to old age. However, even though the Egyptians shaved their heads, they did not think the bald look was preferable to having hair.

Priests were required to keep their entire bodies cleanly shaved. They shaved every third day because they needed to avoid the danger of lice or any other uncleanness to conduct rituals. This is the reason why priests are illustrated bald-headed with no eyebrows or lashes.

There is evidence of influence from other cultures on Egyptian hairstyles. One example is the cultural union of the Roman Empire and the Egyptian empire. There is evidence of a female mummy wearing a typically Roman hairstyle yet the iconography on her death mask was plainly Egyptian. At Tell el-Daba in Egypt, there was a statue portrayed wearing a mushroom hairstyle that was typical of Asiatic males. There is a statue of young woman in the Ptolemaic periods exhibiting a typical Nubian hairstyle consisting of five small clumps of hair.

Wigs were very popular and worn by men, women and children. They were adorned both inside and outside of the house. Egyptians put on a new wig each day and wigs were greatly varied in styles. The primary function of the wig was as a headdress for special occasions, such as ceremonies and banquets.

Wigs were curled or sometimes made with a succession of plaits. Only queens or noble ladies could wear wigs of long hair separated into three parts, the so-called goddress. However, they were worn by commoners in later times. During the Old and Middle Kingdom, there were basically two kinds of wig styles; wigs made of short or long hair. The former was made of small curls arranged in horizontal lines lapping over each other resembling roof tiles. The forehead was partially visible and the ears and back of the neck were fully covered. Those small curls were either triangular or square. The hair could be cut straight across the forehead or cut rounded.

On the contrary, the hair from a long-haired wig hung down heavily from the top of the head to the shoulders forming a frame for the face. The hair was slightly waved and occasionally tresses were twisted into spirals. In the New Kingdom, people preferred wigs with several long tassel-ended tails, while shorter and simpler wigs became popular in the Amarna period.

Wigs were very expensive. People who could not afford to buy wigs had to use the cheaper hair extensions. Hair extensions were often preferred because they could be tied up in the back. Egyptians considered thicker hair as ideal, so hair extensions were also attached to the wigs to enhance ones appearance.

Wigs were meticulously cared for using emollients and oils made from vegetables or animal fats. Those wigs that were properly cared for lasted longer than those without proper care. Although Egyptians preferred to wear wigs and took care of them, they also did take care of their natural hair. Washing their hair regularly was a routine for Egyptians. However, it is not known how frequently Egyptians washed their hair. Wigs were scented with petals or piece of wood chips such as cinnamon. When wigs were not used, they were kept in special boxes on a stand or in special chests. When it was needed, it could be worn without tiresome combing. Wig boxes were found in tombs and the remnants of ancient wig factories have been located. Since it is believed that wigs were also needed for the afterlife, the dead were buried in the tombs with their wigs.

Wigs were usually made from human hair, sheep's wool or vegetable fibers. The more it looked like real hair, the more expensive it was and the more it was sought after. Wigs of high quality were made only from human hair, while wigs for the middle class were made with a mix of human hair and vegetable fibers. The cheapest wigs were made fully from vegetable fibers. Both wig making specialists and barbers made the wigs and wig making was considered to be a respectable profession. It was one of the jobs available to women. People cut or shaved their hair by themselves or went to the barbers. A barbershop scene is depicted in the tomb of Userhet at Sheikh Abd el-Qurna, where young men are forming a waiting line, sitting on the folding chairs and tripods while the barber is working.

Egyptians used a material called henna (used for nails and lips, too) to dye their hair red. Scientific studies show that people used henna to conceal their gray hair from as early as 3400 BC. Henna is still used today. There is a body of evidence from paintings that depict the existence of people with red hair, such as the 18th Dynasty Hunutmehet. She had distinctive red hair mentioned by Grafton Smith.

Like today, ancient Egyptians were also facing the same problem of hair loss, and they wanted to maintain their youthful appearance as long as possible. There were many kinds of suggested remedies targeting primarily men. In 1150 BC, Egyptian men applied fats from ibex, lions, crocodiles, serpents, geese, and hippopotami to their scalps. The fat of cats and goats was also recommended. Chopped lettuce patches were used to smear the bald spots to encourage hair growth..

Ancient Egyptians also made use of something similar to modern aromatherapy. Fir oil, rosemary oil, (sweet) almond oil and castor oil were often used to stimulate hair growth. The seeds of fenugreek, that plant herbalists and pharmacologists still use today, was another remedy.

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Resolutions for Happy and Positive life

We all want to be happy and live a positive life. Here below are something you should remember as resolutions in your life.

If you try to buy happiness with money, it may not be long-lasting or hurt you. So, let happiness develop automatically in you. Have good relation with your friends, family members, help others and ask for help with others as well in your trouble, do what you are doing with positive mentality, then happiness will develop itself in you.

Always remember that time is the greatest thing. Do not be hopeless, depressed if you are in trouble today. Hope for the best because life goes continuously until your heart stops beating. Tomorrow definitely will bring good moments, joy and happiness for you.

Never judge a person from his/her outer appearance, physical structure, wealth, situation today s/he is in. Try to read and understand what is written in their inner heart.

Say Hi, Hello or shake hand with your friends or relatives when you meet them. Even if you can't do these things give them your good smile. Make your relatives and friends feel that you LOVE them.

Try to control your words while speaking. People may forget what you did them physically, but they never will forget how you made them feel either in positive or negative way.

Do not boasts of yourself too much being selfish and egocentric person and make other let down.

Give too much time for improving yourself. So that you will not have time to criticise others.

Always look at the positive part of everything and be confident with your decisions and what you are doing.

Never let your mind be vacant. Learn something you are interested. Your vacant mind will be attacked by dangerous ghost called Alzheimer's. This does not mean you think negative things to keep your mind occupied.

Take care of your health. If it is good, maintain it forever. If it is not good and unstable, take a immediate action without a delay of second to improve.

more......

• How to be successful in life?


• Important tips on how to build your confidence


• Lessons from Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay Sherpa


• Made mistake but don't know what to do?


• What is your aim in life?

...All days in my Life are special because...

....All you need is Love but who knows what it is

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How to Be a Tech Hero...And Incredibly Popular

When something goes wrong with your girlfriend's computer, you're the one she calls. So here's how to impress her and have some fun doing it.
Lincoln Spector

You want to be nice. When friends or family call you with computer trouble, you try to help them. But no matter how much you know about PCs, correcting a problem can be a challenge when you're talking to someone who doesn't know a task bar from a USB port. So sometimes, you need help to be helpful.

First, I'll tell you how to help local loved ones--those who live close enough for you to sit down at their PCs. Then I'll offer advice for long-distance support over the phone and via the Internet. Finally, I'll suggest a few articles you should encourage your tech dependents to read so they won't have to depend on you so much in the future.

Local Hero
First, you don't know everything. If you can't figure out the problem, say so. It's better not to help than to make things worse.

Second, you have a life. You're not obliged to drop everything you're doing to help figure out why Auntie Vivian's antivirus conflicts with Final Catastrophe IV: Attack of the Dentists. Let people know when it's not a good time.

When you sit down at someone's computer, start by checking the basics. Are the security programs up to date? Check msconfig to find out what programs are loading with every boot. If there's a working Internet connection, run a free, online malware scanner, such as this one at Kaspersky Lab and this one at Trend Micro. Put shortcuts to your favorite scanners on a flash drive so you can take them to different computers.

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Gifts that Give Back

Tis the season to remember, it's better to give than receive. And giving the holiday gift that also gives back to a good cause is better still.

Scout troops, sports teams, co-workers and classrooms can make significant contributions when they work together, adopting a local charity for the holidays. But every little bit helps. Individuals can make a difference by simply putting their purchasing power to a good cause, patronizing companies who give back to the community or donating directly to charities.

Many non-profits make it easy to help with special opportunities for holiday giving. For example, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital is in the fourth year of its Thanks and Giving holiday campaign, asking consumers to shop at 50 participating retailers displaying the St. Jude magnifying glass logo, where they can add a donation at the checkout or purchase specially-marked items that benefit the hospital. Visit www.stjude.org or call
1-800-4STJUDE for more information about participating retailers, to view the Thanks and Giving Look Book online catalog or to make a donation.

There are of hundreds of items to choose from in the "Look Book" catalog, including luggage, teddy bears, clothing, jewelry, candles, gourmet nuts and chocolates, pet items and treats, house wares and so much more.

Founded by the late Danny Thomas and America's third-largest health care charity, St. Jude is a unique pediatric treatment and research facility where doctors from all over the world send their toughest cases. Certainly a worthy cause, Memphis-based St. Jude is totally funded by private donations and no one pays for treatment beyond what is covered by insurance. Those without insurance are never asked to pay. Discoveries made at St. Jude have changed how the world treats children with cancer and other catastrophic diseases.

With donations from special products offered by retailers like Target and hundreds of items available online, St. Jude gives the gift of hope to children facing childhood diseases. Some of the items offered this holiday season at Target stores include special gift card holders and charitable chocolates, holiday cards and ornaments. Young patients and their family members staying at Target House - where long-term housing is provided to families of children receiving life-saving treatment at St. Jude - had a hand in designing them.

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Grateful attitude good for health, happiness

In the midst of end-of-the-semester madness and with finals just around the corner, many can already taste the turkey and hotly anticipate Thanksgiving break next week.

But aside from near-toxic levels of tryptophan and football frenzy, there might be a few more reasons to be thankful this holiday season.

Dr. Jo-Ann Tsang, assistant professor of psychology and neuroscience, has done extensive research on gratitude and found grateful people are more forgiving, positive, have higher life satisfaction, and exhibit lower levels of anxiety, depression and envy.

"A number of experiments have shown that after writing about gratitude, individuals feel more mentally healthy," she said. "Individuals who engaged in a gratitude exercise showed significant increases in their experiences of positive emotion."

That effect was strongest, she said, in individuals who were instructed to think about another individual for whom they were grateful. Tsang also said research suggests writing down things which one is grateful for increases psychological and possibly even physical health.

People who experience gratitude more often tend to pray, read Scripture and attend religious activities more often than those who do not.

They also report having a closer relationship to God, Tsang said, but gratitude is not confined to any specific culture, religion or denomination.

"Every human being, regardless of their faith, can feel gratitude and thanks for what they have, no matter who they're giving thanks to," Dallas senior Hoda Said said.

Said is a Muslim, but she said her family always celebrates Thanksgiving the traditional way.

In fact, she said her family's celebration is probably closer to an original Thanksgiving because there's always a mix of American and Arabic foods like the meal the pilgrims shared with the Native Americans.

"(My family) never gets to spend quality time together, so Thanksgiving is really important to us," she said.

On the other hand, Said explained that for Muslims, gratitude is something to be expressed daily, a part of the five daily prayers known as Al-Fatiha.

The beginning words to this prayer mean "all thanks be to God."

"Everything we have is a gift from God. Thanking God (daily) is a part of worshipping," she said.

Krupali Patel didn't grow up celebrating Thanksgiving. She's from Ndola, Zambia, and she is Hindu. She said in her religion, Diwali, or the Festival of Lights, is the closest thing to Thanksgiving.

Diwali, she said, is a celebration of the victory of good over evil, light over darkness, and also marks the new year.

"In modern terms, it's more of lighting the lamp within yourself, and thanking God for destroying the evil within us," Patel said.

Since coming to Baylor to study, Patel said she has celebrated Thanksgiving in different ways with friends, but mostly it is a time for her to rest and catch up with school work.

"The international students are getting together, and even though I don't celebrate it, it's nice to come together," she said.

Said said she thinks the cross-cultural appeal of Thanksgiving comes from the fact that America has so many different groups represented within the population.

"I feel like it's so easily adaptable in every culture," Said said.

Although now usually celebrated with people's family, originally Thanksgiving was a community celebration.

From the earliest examples, Thanksgiving was time when people came together from different backgrounds to celebrate and give thanks for one another and for God's blessings.

"It's a beautiful thing when you can forget about differences and come together as a community," Said said.

Columbus junior Erin Schneider said her family usually travels to Louisiana to visit family during the holiday, but this year they plan to stay home.

"(We're having) a traditional Thanksgiving dinner, just appreciating each other's sense of humor and growing and being healthy throughout the year," she said.

Schneider, a Christian, said Thanksgiving is also a reminder of the great things she has in her life.

"So many times I just get caught up in life and school, and I forget that I have these great things in my life," she said. "God plays such a huge role in the families that we are born into and the things we have to be thankful for."

And Schneider said she agreed Thanksgiving can be a time for people to find common ground.

"We should be thankful for the support we have in the community, and that we are able to have these celebrations so freely.

Best spots you've never heard of

Ever gone on vacation and come across the most ideal spot that you had never previously heard of?

Users of travel Web site IgoUgo.com have come up with a list of the top 10 "Best Places You've Never Heard Of" based on their experiences, with reader comments for each place:

1. Amarante, Portugal - a magnificent little city

"During my first time in Amarante, I found it such a nice town to visit, a pleasant 'discovery,' the only thing I could complain about was the weather... The lovely city is bathed by River Tamega and Amarante's beautiful architecture by its margins and green streets reflect on its water."

2. Sigulda, Latvia - a beautiful little town

"As the Gauja National Park gateway town closest to Riga, only 50 km southwest, Sigulda attracts its fair share of tourists, and deservedly so because it is one of the nicest small towns in Latvia. It is located on the banks of the Gauja river that winds through the forested hills."

3. Avebury, England - a Stonehenge alternative

"Avebury may be a lesser-known henge sibling to the massive stones of Stonehenge in the south, but it is certainly no less impressive. "Although Stonehenge's stones are so much bigger, the scale of the circle here at Avebury leaves the former well and truly in the shade."

4. Sorata, Bolivia - a mythical Shangri-La

"Bolivians mention Sorata (a small village of 2,000 people) as one of the most beautiful places in their country. They compare it to a mythical Shangri-La, placed in a narrow, faraway - almost lost - valley in the mountains. "

5. Camargue, France - for a Spanish/Gypsy flavor

"It's an unusual corner of France with many Spanish and Gypsy influences, worth a day or two for those who enjoy outdoor activities or a touch of the exotic ... The Camargue is a national and regional nature park of marshes and wetlands encompassing the Rhone River delta, just south of Arles."

6. Victoria, Argentina - the "City of the Seven Hills"

"Victoria is known as the "City of the Seven Hills" and the whole landscape is beautiful. The Parana Delta starts here, and goes all the way down to Buenos Aires."

7. Budva, Montenegro - on a dramatic coastline

"Budva is a 2,500-year-old seaside settlement about halfway along the dramatic Montenegrin coastline. The immaculately cared-for old town juts out into the Adriatic Sea on a small peninsula and is surrounded by tall stone walls."

8. Bohol, Philippines - one of Philippines' secrets

"Bohol has numerous natural treasures that lure visitors to its shores. Although people usually go to its highly urbanized neighboring island Cebu, Bohol holds a charm of its own makes it distinct from other Visayan islands."

9.Cuyutlan, Mexico - black sand, green waves, sea turtles

"The beach is the reason to come to Cuyutlan. It is long and wide with black sand and rolling waves ... the seafood is fresh, abundant, and inexpensive."

10. Perthshire, Scotland - in the heart of highlands

"Blair Castle, the ancient seat of the dukes and earls of Atholl, has been awarded five stars as a visitor attraction by the Scottish tourist agency, its highest award. The castle enjoys one of Scotland's finest settings."

Bill Gates

William Henry Gates III, KBE, (born October 28, 1955), commonly known as Bill Gates, is the co-founder and current Chairman and Chief Software Architect of Microsoft. According to Forbes magazine in 2004, Gates is the wealthiest person in the world, a position he has held steadily for many years.
Bill Gates was born in Seattle, Washington to William H. Gates, Sr., a corporate lawyer, and Mary Maxwell Gates, board member of First Interstate Bank, Pacific Northwest Bell and the national board of United Way. Gates went to Lakeside School, Seattle's most exclusive prep school, and later on went to study at Harvard University, but dropped out without graduating.

While he was a student at Harvard, he co-authored with Paul Allen the original Altair BASIC interpreter for the Altair 8800 (the first commercially successful personal computer) in the mid 1970s. It was inspired by BASIC, an easy-to-learn programming language developed at Dartmouth College for teaching purposes.

Gates married Melinda French on January 1, 1994. They have three children, Jennifer Katharine Gates (1996), Rory John Gates (1999) and Phoebe Adele Gates (2002). They live in a very large earth-sheltered home in the side of a hill overlooking Lake Washington. It is a very modern 21st century house in the "Pacific lodge" style, with advanced electrical and electronic systems everywhere. In one respect though it is more like an 18th or 19th century mansion: It has a large private library with a domed reading room.Also in 1994, he acquired the Codex Leicester, a collection of writings by Leonardo da Vinci; as of 2003 it was on display at the Seattle Art Museum.In 1997, Gates was the victim of a bizarre extortion plot by Chicago resident Adam Quinn Pletcher. Gates testified at the subsequent trial. Pletcher was convicted and sentenced in July 1998 to six years in prison.

n 1975, Gates and Allen co-founded Microsoft Corporation to market their version of BASIC, called Microsoft BASIC. It was the primary interpreted computer language of the MS-DOS operating system, and was key to Microsoft's early commercial success.

In February 1976, Gates wrote the Open Letter to Hobbyists, which shocked the computer hobbyist community by asserting that a commercial market existed for computer software. Gates stated in the letter that software should not be copied without the publisher's permission, which he equated to piracy. While legally correct, Gates's proposal was unprecedented in a community that was influenced by its ham radio legacy and hacker ethic, in which innovations and knowledge were freely shared in the community. Nevertheless, Gates was right about the market prospects and his efforts paid off: Microsoft Corporation became one of the world's most successful commercial enterprises, and a key player in the creation of a retail software industry.

Microsoft's key moment came when in the late 1970s, IBM was planning to enter the personal computer market with its IBM Personal Computer (PC), which was released in 1981. Gates licensed MS-DOS to IBM, which it had acquired from a local computer manufacturer. The story of how Microsoft acquired the original system (QDOS) has inspired much folklore, which often portrays Gates pouncing on a trivial mistake by Digital Research and stealing that company's lead in microcomputer operating systems. It is frequently cited by those who accuse Gates of unethical business practices. By marketing MS-DOS aggressively to manufacturers of IBM-PC clones, Microsoft gained unprecedented visibility in the microcomputer industry, even rivalling IBM.

Sir Alexander Fleming

Sir Alexander Fleming (August 6, 1881 - March 11, 1955) is famous as the discoverer of the antibiotic substance lysozyme and for isolating the antibiotic substance penicillin from the fungus Penicillium notatum.
Fleming was born in Ayrshire, Scotland. He later attended St. Mary's medical school in London until World War I broke out. He participated in a battlefield hospital with many of his colleagues in the fronts of France. Being exposed to the horrid medical infections by the dying soldiers, he returned to St. Mary's after the war with renewed energy in searching for an improved antiseptic.

Both of Fleming's discoveries happened entirely by accident during the 1920s. The first, lysozyme, was discovered after mucus from his nose dropped into a bacterium laced petri dish (he sneezed). A few days later, it was noted that bacteria where the mucus had fallen had been destroyed.

Fleming's labs were usually in disarray, which led to be to his advantage. In September 1928, he was sorting through the many idle experiments strewn about his lab. He inspected each specimen before discarding it and noticed an interesting fungal colony had grown as a contaminant on one of the agar plates streaked with the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus. Fleming inspected the petri dish further and found that the bacterial colonies around the fungus were transparent because their cells were lysing. Lysis is the breakdown of cells, and in this case, potentially harmful bacteria. The importance was immediately recognized, however the discovery was still underestimated, initially used to clean his glassware. Fleming issued a publication about penicillin in the British Journal of Experimental Pathology in 1929.

Fleming died in 1955 of a heart attack. He was buried as a national hero in the crypt of St. Paul's Cathedral in London. His discovery of penicillin had changed the world of modern medicines by introducing the age of useful antibiotics.

Babies as young as six months can distinguish between good and bad people

Babies can tell good people from bad

Babies as young as six months can distinguish between good and bad people, according to a study in which babies observed characters being helpful or unhelpful.

Scientists had thought that social judgments developed with language at about 18 months to two years old. But the results suggest that the ability to make moral judgments has innate foundations and is not just learned from parents.

"Here we have one component of what a sophisticated system of moral judgment requires," said Professor Karen Wynn, a psychologist at Yale University in Connecticut, part of the team which carried out the study.

The team studied the reactions of six and 10-month-old babies to scenarios involving a climber trying to scale a hill. The character - a circular blob with eyes - was helped or hindered by two different shaped blobs. The triangle helped push the climber up while an unhelpful square blocked the climber's ascent. The babies were offered the choice of holding the triangle or the square. Fourteen of the 16 10-month-olds and all 12 of the six-month-olds chose the triangle. The research is reported today in the journal Nature.

Wynn said that an innate sense of who plays by the social rules and who does not would be a great evolutionary advantage and important for the development of human sociality. But it was surprising that such young babies could make those judgments

Three Ways to Boost Your Investment Returns

you read Part One and Part Two of our series on boosting your income, you may be making and hanging on to more money. The next step is growing the money you've got.

Kicking up your returns by a percentage point or two can brighten your financial outlook, big-time. For example, let's say you invest $500 per month in a 401(k), with a 3% employer match. If your investments generate a 7% average annual return, you'll have $882,049 in 30 years. Juice your returns to 9%, and you'll end up with $1,285,785 -- an increase of more than $400,000.

The extra money could make an enormous difference in your retirement income. A $1.29 million nest egg would allow $51,000 in inflation-adjusted annual withdrawals, assuming you take financial advisers' standard advice and withdraw 4% of your retirement savings each year. (Myriad studies have found that a 4% maximum withdrawal rate gives retirement savings the best chance of lasting at least 30 years.)

By comparison, the $882,000 portfolio would allow annual withdrawals of just $35,000. (You can run your own calculations here.)

"You often hear how a dollar saved today can make a big difference tomorrow," says Rick Shapiro, a managing member of Investment and Financial Counselors in West Hartford, Conn. "That's true for every dollar your portfolio earns, too."

Here's how to maximize your investment returns:

Cut ExpensesEvery dollar spent managing your money is a dollar missed, not just from today's balance but from tomorrow's growth -- so cutting costs can have a major impact on your returns.

Say you invest $20,000 in an actively managed, no-load stock fund that earns the stock-market average of 11% per year for 10 years. A 1.5% expense ratio would force you to forgo nearly $8,000 in fees and lost earnings, leaving your investment worth $48,823 after a decade. Lower your expense ratio to 0.25% -- for example, by investing through an index fund -- and your costs would shrink to about $1,400, boosting the value of your investment in 10 years to $55,385.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has a calculator that enables you to compare funds and see how their expense ratios might affect your portfolio over time.

Spice Up Your Portfolio In general, the more risk you're willing to take, the higher your returns will be over the long run. Goosing your stock allocation even a bit might help you amass a good deal more money over time.

Babies Can Tell Friend From Foe

Babies Can Tell Friend From Foe
Researchers say infants make distinctions based on behaviors.
"I think it is the first study that demonstrated that very young infants show some understanding of social cooperation," said Tracy Dennis, an expert on child development and assistant professor of psychology at Hunter College in New York City. "This is an important study."

Previous studies had showed that babies prefer physically attractive people, but there has been no data on whether babies judge people based on how they behave.

"We know babies evaluate others based on outside stuff, not necessarily inside stuff," said study author Kiley Hamlin, a doctoral candidate in development psychology at Yale University in New Haven, Conn. "We wanted to see whether or not babies, like adults, have evaluative mechanisms for other people based on behavior."

Kiley and her co-authors (also her advisers) conducted a series of simple experiments to gauge whether 6- and 10-month-old infants preferred social individuals ("helpers") or anti-social individuals ("hinderers").

In one experiment, the infant watched a "climber" (basically a wood puppet with large eyes glued on to it) repeatedly try to climb a hill. On the third try, the climber was either given help or was pushed back down by a puppet.

The babies were then given the chance to choose (reach out and grasp) either the helper or hinderer puppet.

"Basically, we found very high rates of choosing of the helping character," Hamlin said.

One question is whether the babies are learning the behavior, or if it's something innate. The authors argue for the latter.
"Our results suggest that infants have a pretty advanced evaluating system that doesn't need much outside input to develop. It develops at a very early age, by 6 months," Hamlin said. "They are learning lots of stuff by 6 months, however, we know that it's incredibly unlikely that parents are explicitly teaching them anything about this. The fact that they can pick up on it by 6 months suggests that it's an important skill."

In fact, being able to distinguish between friend or foe could be an important survival skill. "It's important to tell who is going to be helpful, who is going to be threatening," Hamlin noted.

But that's the evolutionary argument, and not one everyone would agree with it, Dennis pointed out.

"Even though these authors make a good argument that very young infants don't have a lot of time to learn, even some basic observation of people cooperating might be enough to make some learning take place," Dennis said. "It's important, but it's a study that people are going to debate about."


journal Nature.
The infants watched a googly-eyed wooden toy trying to climb roller-coaster hills and then another googly-eyed toy come by and either help it over the mountain or push it backward. They then were presented with the toys to see which they would play with.
Nearly every baby picked the helpful toy over the bad one.
The babies also chose neutral toys _ ones that didn't help or hinder _ over the naughty ones. And the babies chose the helping toys over the neutral ones.
«It's incredibly impressive that babies can do this,» said study lead author Kiley Hamlin, a Yale psychology researcher. «It shows that we have these essential social skills occurring without much explicit teaching.
There was no difference in reaction between boys and girls, but when the researchers took away the large eyes that made the toys somewhat lifelike, the babies didn't show the same social judging skills, Hamlin said.
The choice of nice over naughty follows a school of thought that humans have some innate social abilities, not just those learned from their parents.
«We know that they're very, very social beings from very, very early on,» Hamlin said.
A study last year in Germany showed that babies as young as 18 months old overwhelmingly helped out when they could, such as by picking up toys that researchers dropped.
David Lewkowicz, a psychology professor at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton who wasn't part of the study, said the Yale research was intriguing. But he doesn't buy into the natural ability part. He said the behavior was learned, and that the new research doesn't prove otherwise.
«Infants acquire a great deal of social experience between birth and 6 months of age and thus the assumption that this kind of capacity does not require experience is simply unwarranted,» Lewkowicz told The Associated Press in an e-mail.
But the Yale team has other preliminary research that shows similar responses even in 3-month-olds.
Researchers also want to know if the behavior is limited to human infants. The Yale team is starting tests with monkeys, but has no results yet.

The Love Of God

he most well known verse in the Bible says, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16). Many people look at the state of the world today with its disease, famine, war and extreme poverty, and ask if there really is a God. "If there is", they say, "then He can't be a loving God."

If we start from the beginning of creation, Genesis 1:31 tells us that when God created the heavens and the earth, "it was very good." There was no death at all, His creation was "very good." God gave Adam and Eve just one command and that was not to eat from the 'tree of the knowledge of good and evil' otherwise they would die (Genesis 2:16-17). Adam rebelled against God and this sin brought death into the world. God cursed the world because of man's sin (Genesis 3:14-19) and the continuing sins of mankind bring the disease, the famine, the wars and the extreme poverty which we blame God for. Man is his own worst enemy.

Sin separated the first man and woman from God and today it still separates mankind from Him. Isaiah 59:2 says, "your iniquities have separated you from God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear." Habbakuk 1:13 says that God's "eyes are too pure to look on evil." God hates the evil of sin which all mankind is guilty of. "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" says Romans 3:23 and Romans 6:23 says that "the wages of sin is death." God's law says that sin must be punished by death.

In His love for us, God has provided a way to escape His Judgment. He sent Jesus to take the punishment for our sins by dying the death we deserve. Now if anyone repents of their sins and trusts in Jesus Christ for forgiveness then they no longer face the death penalty (hell) but are cleansed of sin and receive the gift of eternal life. However, if anyone refuses God's only offer of forgiveness, then they must take their own punishment. To understand how to be saved, please click here.

God's love is not a warm, fuzzy feeling that fades away after a honeymoon period. His love is endlessly deep and unchanging. Before Creation He planned to send Christ to die for us. 1 Peter 1:20 says about Jesus, "He was chosen before the creation of the world." This of course means that God knew that when He created man with a free will, man would rebel against Him.


Consider the love of God:

He created rebels like you and I and then sent His only Son to die in order that we may live ... that is love.
On the way to the cross Jesus was in such anguish that while praying, "his sweat was like drops of blood" (Luke 22:44). This is a known medical condition that can occur with extreme trauma. Despite His trauma, Isaiah 50:7 says that 'He set His face like flint' in His determination to face the cross and save you and I from hell ... that is love.
On the cross, in extreme agony, He forgave a thief being crucified beside Him (Luke 23:43) ... that is love.
Regarding his executioners, He said, "Father, forgive them." (Luke 23:34) ... that is love.
Dying on the cross He asked a disciple to care for His mother (John 19:26-27) ... that is love.
Isaiah 53:10 says that it pleased God to allow His Son to suffer for you and I ... that is love.
We sinned against God and Jesus, God in the flesh, paid the price for our sin ... THAT is love beyond measure.

Jesus said, "Greater love has no one that this, that he lay down his life for his friends."
God loves you - never doubt it!

If you would like to know how to be saved from God's wrath, please go to How To Be Saved.
If you are not sure of your salvation, please go to Are You A Saved Or An Unsaved Believer?
For an understanding of what it means to be saved, please go to Saved - How Do We Know?