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Saturday, 31 August 2013

Here are 5 ways to make your Brain unbeleivably Bad Ass awesome !!

Brain is considered to be the most important and complex organ. Its functioning has been a nightmare to many for the past, ummm too many to count years. According to our history, the brain is just an unsolved mystery.

However, studies have found that it is easier to just fool the brain than to fight with it. 

Various techniques to hoodwink the grey matter are:

1. Making it think like you got a good night’s sleep after only 2 hours of actual sleep



 
The Uberman Sleep Schedule allows you to have a maximum of essential sleep without wasting precious hours just lying on the bed. Stump the brain by taking six, half an hour naps, every four hours a day. The getting used to this schedule will take some time and you might even want to pull your hair in the end, but when you realize that you can play Wii badminton wee bit longer than everyone else, it’s worth it!!

A normal healthy human being sleeps for 8 hours a day. Over these 8 hours of sleep, the body moves through 5 distinct stages of sleep, out of which the 5th stage- REM sleep is the part which provides you with the actual sleep. 

The trick is to skip all the other four stages and directly enter the REM stage. This is achieved by taking six (6) twenty (20) to thirty (30) minute naps in a day. A common approach to achieve to incorporate this schedule is to indulge in an intense long term project. Jump right in, play/work for five (5) hours, take a nap for thirty (30) minutes and so on for the next few days. It is easier said than done, but the benefits are countless.

The Uberman Sleep Schedule involves establishing a customized sleep pattern

2. Be sane with insanity!!!


 Close your eyes, think of your favorite thing to do and do it with the person you want!!
YUP!! Being insane by hallucinating helps you block most of the signals that go to your brain. Be high with your own dose of delirium and enjoy the Ganzfeld effect.


The technique provides ‘unstructured’ sensations to a person. It is achieved by placing half cut Table Tennis balls over the eyes, the purpose of which is to diffuse the light (usually red) coming through and side by side exposing the participant to white noise through headphones.


 The Ganzfeld effect, which means “complete field” in German, otherwise known as Perceptual Deprivation, is an occurrence of sensitivity caused by exposure to a shapeless (diffused white light), unchanging stimulus (White Noise). The result of it is Hallucinations. The trick is to block out signals reaching your brain. After some time (30 minutes or so), the sensory signals of the light coming from ping pong balls and the white noise are ignored by the brain. To compensate for the lost signals, brain has to create its own; this is where the participant will experience hallucinations.

This phenomenon is known to be naturally experienced by miners stuck in pitch black mines; Arctic explorers who would only see bland expanse of white noise for a long time.

3. Go to your own fool’s paradise


 Wish peter pan actually existed?? Or you could see Santa and his reindeer's with your own eyes? Wish you could ask the tooth fairy to leave more than 1 dollar the next time your tooth breaks?

All this is possible when you add imagination with the supernatural powers of belief, with a tinge of sleep to mix it all property. In a dream state, your mind mostly loses the ability to criticize anything that's happening because dreaming just doesn't involve the critical part of your brain.

How to have a clear cut dreams of who, what, where, how and why?  Keep dream journals to write your own lucid dreams and go into your own movie of “INCEPTION”. The moment you wake up from a dream, jot down every detail that you can remember from your dream, however irrelevant it may sound, just note it down. The brain will recognize patterns embedded in your dreams. It is easier for your brain to recall something that is on paper. Tell your brain that you are serious about remembering your dreams.

4. Become smarter while sleeping [HAVE YOU LOST IT (OR FOUND IT?????)]


 Ever heard the expression “SLEEP ON IT”? Well, scientists have found that you remember more when you learn 24 hours before and then sleep. (Seems like my mother was bang on about this) The ability of your brain to retain information and consolidate it occurs while you are asleep. The brain processes all the things that have happened to you since the morning and create permanent blocks that can be brought back whenever you need it.

Retention of any information by the human brain comprises of three (3) stages- attainment, consolidation and recollection. While rest of the body is asleep, the brain is constantly processing information gathered; this is when the consolidation of information occurs. Think of it in this way- A Software will take longer to install when there are many applications running in the background, while it would take a lot less time when all other applications are down. 

5. Bamboozle!!!


 Trick your brain into believing anything is possible. Use your memory to distinguish the real memories from the fake ones that have been told to you since you were young. Accentuate the memories that you actually need from the garbage fed to you by everyone around.

The Brain processes so much information that the memory becomes distorted. The brain tends to keep a blend of memories. The memories consists of general lessons learnt and the important facts and figures. All this information is a part of an assortment, the information can be gathered from an experience or from something you read, saw, heard etc. The trick lies in confusing your mind by constructing scenarios using your memories and believing in it.

Friday, 30 August 2013

Celebs Hit the Red Carpet at the 2013 VMAs !!



Miley Cyrus arrives at the 2013 MTV VMA Awards red carpet at the Barclay's Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., on Aug. 25, 2013.


Taylor Swift


Lady Gaga 
 

Selena Gomez


Katy Perry


Ciara


Rita Ora


From left: Shailene Woodley and Miles Teller


Nicole 'Snooki' Polizzi


Jennifer Hudson


Iggy Azalea


Ellie Goulding



Naya Rivera



Rapper Lil' Kim poses on arrival at the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards.


Model Erin Wasson



From left: Robin Thicke and his wife, actress Paula Patton


Sarah Hyland



Macklemore and Ryan Lewis attend the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards.


One Direction arrives at the 2013 MTV VMA Awards red carpet at the Barclay's Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., on Aug. 25, 2013.


Darren Criss
 
 
Drake
 
 
From left: Willow Smith and Jaden Smith
 
 
Richard Simmons


Adam Lambert
 
 
Joseph Gordon
 
 
Model Coco Rocha
 
 
Chanel Iman
 
 
Model Joan Smalls
 
 
Alexandra Daddario
 
 
Holland Roden
 
 
Jimmy Fallon  


Shaun White
 
 
Kendrick Lamar
 
 
Will Smith  


Ashanti

Google’s Nexus 4 Smartphone Gets $100 Cheaper Amid Low-Cost iPhone Rumors



Google’s Nexus 4 made a splash last fall simply because it was well-built and inexpensive, and yet it didn’t require a two-year contract with a wireless carrier. Now, it’s even cheaper.

The Nexus 4 now costs $200 for the 8 GB model and $250 for the 16 GB model–a $100 price reduction from before. Those prices aren’t incredible if you’re used to buying your phones through major wireless carriers at subsidized prices, but compared to most unlocked phones, the Nexus 4 is cheap. And it’s a decent phone, running the latest version of Google’s Android operating system.
Buying the phone unlocked means you can bring it to certain wireless carriers in the United States and save a lot of money on service. For example, with T-Mobile you can pay as little as $50 per month if you bring your own phone. Or, you can get a SIM card from Straight Talk and pay $45 per month for service. An unlocked phone also allows you to travel overseas and take advantage of lower service prices from local carriers.


The only major drawback to the Nexus 4 is that it doesn’t support 4G LTE data speeds, which can sometimes rival the speeds of home Internet service. Most smartphones sold in the United States now support 4G LTE, so this is one area where the Nexus 4 seems seriously outdated. Still, at $200, the slower data speeds are more palatable, especially for new smartphone adopters that are willing to sacrifice performance for a lower monthly bill.


Rumor has it that a new Nexus phone, dubbed the Nexus 5, is coming soon. It’s unknown whether this phone will be as cheap as the Nexus 4 was when it launched last year.
But with lower prices on the Nexus 4, Google seems to be girding itself for the arrival of a cheaper iPhone, supposedly called the “iPhone 5C.” Like the Nexus 4, Apple’s phone could be aimed at customers who want an unlocked, off-contract handset without spending gobs of cash. I’ll be surprised if the Nexus 4 doesn’t stick around to do battle with Apple, even after the Nexus 5 comes into existence.

Thursday, 29 August 2013

13 steps to improve your Memory...



1. Organize your life
 
2. Exercise your brain (puzzles etc.)

 
3. Exercise daily (walk for 30min)

 
4. Redice stress & take naps

 
5. Eat well & eat right (fruit, veggies, fish)


6. Sleep well (also nap in afternoon)


7. Give yourself time to form a memory


8. Memorize in parts not a whole


9. Categorize information; dont be random


10. Continually repeat what you've memorized


11. Participate in group discussions


12. Build your memorization techniques


13. Venture out and learn from your mistakes

Happy birthday, Michael Jackson



He may no longer be with us, but so long as people still love his music, he'll never be gone!
Had the King of Pop not passed in 2009, today Michael Jackson would have celebrated his 55th birthday. We imagine he would've spent the today in the warmth of his family, particularly his children.
But rather than mourn his passing, we'd like to celebrate his life, today of all days. We'd like to think of the vibrant, brilliant artist, who not only created a catalogue of insanely incredible music, but influenced generations of artists that are making music today.
That is his true legacy!




Wednesday, 28 August 2013

New York Times hack linked to Australian internet company, Syrian Electronic Army fingered



The New York Times, Twitter and the Huffington Post lost control of some of their websites after hackers supporting the Syrian government breached the Australian internet company that manages many major website addresses.
A "malicious external attack" on the reseller of internet company Melbourne IT saw the New York Times website go down for the second time in less than a month.
Melbourne IT, the New York Times' domain name registrar, was used early on Wednesday morning to access and modify the details of the newspaper's website. A domain name registrar is a company that manages internet domain names.
The New York Times said the registrar itself was attacked, with many pointing the finger at the hacker network Syrian Electronic Army.
But Melbourne IT said credentials of one of its resellers (the username and password) were used to access a reseller account on Melbourne IT's systems. The company had acted to fix the problem and change the reseller's credentials once they were aware of the attack. Resellers are the middleman between registrar and companies purchasing internet domains. They are responsible for updating and renewing clients' web records.
Melbourne IT chief executive Theo Hnarakis, who announced on Tuesday he would step down by the end of the year, told Fairfax Media he wasn't prepared to name the reseller but said it was based in the US.
"We're currently working with them to work out where the vulnerability is," he said. "We don't know if it happened through our systems or the reseller's systems."
He said he recommended as a standard practice that clients turn on registry "locks" for a small fee to prevent something similar from occurring. Locks are sold by domain registrars as an added security measure.
"We're talking about nickles and dimes compared to the value of the site," he said in terms of the cost.
"We are currently reviewing our logs to see if we can obtain information on the identity of the party that has used the reseller credentials," Melbourne IT spokesman Tony Smith told Fairfax. "We will share this information with the reseller and any relevant law enforcement bodies."

"We will also review additional layers of security that we can add to our reseller accounts," he added.
To prevent similar attacks, AusRegistry, another domain name registrar, recently launched a $1000-a-year service that locks down domain names so that their technical information cannot be changed. Called .AULockdown, it allows domain owners to bar automated changes to their domain at registrar level.
The hacking incident follows a previous hacking incident at the Melbourne firm in July 2012 and a privacy bungle in December 2011.
The 2012 hacking incident saw customer data from one of the servers it hosted for telco AAPT stolen by hacking group Anonymous and published online, while the breach resulted in it accidentally emailing 28,000 customers the details of other customers.
In addition to the New York Times, Melbourne IT has a number of other large clients, including Microsoft, Twitter, Yahoo! and the AFL, which recently chose Melbourne IT to look after its application for owning the ".afl" domain suffix.
New York Times' chief information officer Marc Frons said the website outage was "the result of a malicious external attack by the Syrian Electronic Army, or someone trying very hard to be them". He also called for employees to be careful with their email communication during the attack.
A spokeswoman for the newspaper, Eileen Murphy, tweeted earlier that the "issue is most likely the result of a malicious external attack", based on an initial assessment.


re: http://t.co/BQE1fJ3uLx - initial assessment - issue is most likely result of malicious external attack. working to fix
— Eileen Murphy (@NYTeileen) August 27, 2013


Users started complaining of the website's outage about 3pm on Tuesday, US eastern time (5am Wednesday AEST).
About an hour later, the newspaper's main Twitter account said the website "is experiencing technical difficulties" but that news was still being published via Twitter and other links.


The New York Times Web site is experiencing technical difficulties. We are working on fully restoring the site.
— The New York Times (@nytimes) August 27, 2013


Security researcher Matt Johansen of WhiteHat Security said in a tweet that the technical aspects of the website during the outage were pointing to Syrian Electronic Army, which has attacked several media organisations.


NYTimes DNS is compromised. Pointing to Syrian Electronic Army domain. http://t.co/wfJugHQ155 pic.twitter.com/Vhf35kuQAP
— Matt Johansen (@mattjay) August 27, 2013


Darien Kindlund, manager of threat intelligence for cyber security firm FireEye, said the identity of the hackers could not be immediately confirmed but that the Syrian Electronic Army (SEA) was a likely suspect.
"However, it would not surprise us if it were the SEA – this would fit their motives," Kindlund said
"The Times is the most popular news website in America – with 30 million unique visitors each month – so downing it could be a propaganda coup for SEA," Kenneth Geers, senior global threat analyst for FireEye, said.
Identifying the culprits behind internet attacks is often difficult because of the relative ease with which they can hide their address by routing traffic through a web of networks.
Tuesday's outage was intermittent, with some users not having any troubles accessing the website. That sort of disparity is sometimes associated with a distributed denial-of-service attack, in which a hacker uses virus-infected computers to overwhelm a website with visits. As the website tries to handle the huge demand, it denies some visitors immediate access.
Cyber security firms have long found that denial-of-service attacks are a show of power on the internet. Though relatively simple to execute, they remain difficult to defend against.
The attack on the Times' website comes two weeks after it went offline for several hours on August 14 due to what the newspaper described as an internal server problem.
Global hacking group Anonymous also tweeted on Wednesday morning that the Huffington Post's British website had been hacked by the Syrian Electronic Army.


#BREAKING ::: http://t.co/uYakSYi98J Hacked by #SEA | #SYRIA
— Anonymous Operations (@Anon_Central) August 27, 2013


The Syrian Electronic Army also claimed responsibility for hacking into Twitter's domain name registry records early on Wednesday, claiming that they now "owned" Twitter's domain. Melbourne IT is also the domain name registrar for Twitter.


Hi @Twitter, look at your domain, its owned by #SEA :) http://t.co/ZMfpo1t3oG pic.twitter.com/ck7brWtUhK
— SyrianElectronicArmy (@Official_SEA16) August 27, 2013


According to Whois.com, the Syrian Electronic Army was listed on the entries for Twitter's administrative name, technical name and email address.
"It seems that their message is redirecting people back to their own website for news about the SEA or about Syria," said Jaeson Schultz, a Cisco systems researcher. "They don't seem to be interested in infecting end users, which is a good thing."
Hackers who successfully break into Melbourne IT's systems could potentially redirect and intercept emails sent to addresses under certain domains, security researchers said. Users of sites that don't begin with "https" could have been fooled into entering passwords that could have been captured, said Jaime Balsco, a researcher with security firm AlienVault.
Because Melbourne IT serves as the registrar for some of the best known domain names on the internet, including Microsoft.com and Yahoo.com, the breach could have had potentially catastrophic consequences.
"This could've been one of the biggest attacks we've ever seen, if they were more subtle and more efficient about it," said HD Moore, chief research officer at cyber security firm Rapid7. "They changed just a few sites, but if they had actually gone all out, they could've had most of the Internet watching them run the show."
Media companies, which were largely ignored by hackers until 2011, have been increasingly targeted by hackers.
"As long as media organisations play a critical role as influencers and critics, they will continue to be targets of cyber attacks," said Michael Fey, chief technology officer at Intel's McAfee security division.
Earlier this month, hackers promoting the Syrian Electronic Army – a group that backs embattled President Bashar al-Assad – simultaneously targeted websites belonging to CNN, Time and the Washington Post by breaching a third party service used by those sites.
The Times said in January that hackers stole its corporate passwords and accessed the personal computers of 53 employees after the newspaper published a report on the family fortune of China's Premier Wen Jiabao.
Dow Jones chief executive Lex Fenwick tweeted that Times rival The Wall Street Journal would temporarily remove its paywall and the website would be "free to all for a few hours".