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2nd Amendment Buyback
By: Gabriel Walker Land
Tags: United States, Gun Violence, Gun Control, Politics, America

“From my cold dead hands,” the NRA slogan shouts.

Image by Ryan McGuire from Pixabay

The right to bear arms is intrinsic to the American identity, and it won’t go anywhere anytime soon.

Hitler said “the most foolish mistake we could possibly make would be to allow the subject races to possess arms.”

In Israel, “Issuing a firearms license for private use to other persons requires proof of the existence of a cause that justifies the license. In addition to specific training and mental health requirements, applicants must prove that possession of a firearm is needed based on the location of their residence or employment, the type of occupation they are engaged in, or service in elite Israel Defense Force (IDF) reserve units.”

It would be easy to pull a semantic switcheroo on those two pieces of dialogue.

America’s problem is not so much guns, though the geekification of the 2nd amendment is certainly bullshit, with the endless aftermarket upgrades, add-ons, and tinkering customization of the AR-15 —wait, is this a gun or a computer?!

No, America more has a socio-psychological and class demographic problem, and the internet has brought it out into the open.

Until everyone takes off the masks and goes outside to conduct cultural outreach, the tension will continue to bubble behind the closed doors and the shuttered windows of American’s private homes.

As far as a buy back program, an ideal one would be to offer people an alternative, rather than just cash.

Why not swap AR-15’s for the Mossberg MVP rifle, which takes the same ammunition and magazines but requires the shooter to cock a bolt action between each shot instead of just squeezing a trigger willy nilly like in a video game?

Really choosing shots takes skill and intellect, and challenges the human mind to calm down, focus, and relax.

Semi-automatic AR-15 style gunplay and semi-auto pistol shooting as well is anxiety inducing and wasteful.

These tactical exercises are endlessly and residually loud, dangerous, and not to mention the waste of resources in the form of brass and potassium nitrate as shooters go bigger and harder to get better and better.

Somewhere along the line, carrying a gun became something for the uptight, rather than the calm and confident — and uptight has an itchy trigger finger.

America can put a clamp down on these horrendous mass shootings as soon as it starts not only a buy back program but a swap program too, exchanging simple and trustworthy hunting rifles for the mechanically complex semi-automatic war machines.

Not only that, but the federal government should offer free rifle courses to all of its citizens.

Now that’s how you build a community.
The Second Amendment
By: Vasanthavel Jeeva Kumararaja
Tags: Firearms, Constitution, Second Amendment, Gun Control

The United States is the only developed country in the entire world that has the constitutional rights of its citizens to keep and bear arms. Throughout the years we hear ongoing debates and discussion on one of our basic human rights which is the 2nd amendment. But we must understand what exactly our second amendment is. The second amendment of the United States Constitution states, “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

We as a country hear this and form different interpretations of what this means. Some argue that our second amendment rights are limited and point to the text “A well regulated militia.” They say that the government may regulate the sale of firearms and ammunition and that citizens can’t have the freedoms and leisure to own whatever guns or weapons they want such as fully automatic weapons or even nuclear weapons. They argue that at the time when the Constitution was being written, the guns that were used were less sophisticated and deadly as the guns and weapons we have today in response to the text, “shall not be infringed.” However others believe that the second amendment is clear and precise in its meaning which is “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” They argue that the founders who were writing our Constitution fought off tyranny from the British government in order to gain their independence and understood the importance of their citizens to keep and bear arms.

They believe that the American people are the “militia” and “well regulated” meant well-run or prepared for duty in context of the American Revolution. It is tempting to believe one way or the other on the second amendment especially when it comes to the discussion of gun violence and firearm related shootings that plague our country. However with this discussion we must go forward understanding what our second amendment is and what are its implications of protecting our civil rights to keep and bear arms.

Please share your thoughts on the future of the 2nd amendment in this fast-transforming world.
Some thoughts in the hope of dissuading your husband:
By: Harvey Utech
Tags: Gun Control

Some thoughts in the hope of dissuading your husband:

Why exactly would someone want to do your husband harm? To steal his car? Let them. Doesn’t he have insurance? To steal his cash? Let his assailant have it; just make it a point to carry a minimum or none (after all, credit/debit cards can be used for virtually everything these days). To steal his credit card? Give it and report the theft right away. A random shooting? Does he really think he’ll have time to draw his gun and shoot first under such circumstances? And will he be then able to explain his actions credibly in court?

Does he plan to display his gun in the hope it acts as a deterrent? Doesn’t that just open him up to having someone jump him unawares to try to steal it and perhaps use it on him? And doesn’t he fear he might overreact to an innocent situation and injure/kill someone who meant him no harm? It has happened.

Using a gun to injure or kill is both a crime and a violation of the Sixth Commandment. Not to mention how bad the perpetrator of such an act would feel after he took the life of someone’s spouse, sibling, child, parent or other loved one?

To summarize, there is little upside and lots of downside to carrying a gun for self-protection. I hope for your husband’s sake that he can see it that way.
The Advantages and Benefits of Outsourcing Asset Enhancement Services | Procboost
Tags: Video Editing Services, Business Process Services, Outsourcing, Businessprocessmanagement, Photo Editing Services

In this contemporary world of digitalization and social media, there is a tremendous rise in the asset enhancement services. Photo and video marketing are growing rapidly, as the high-tech devices have become customers, that can be reached at any time of the day and anywhere across the globe.

Images and Videos have become an integral part of the marketing campaigns. Be it small businesses or large businesses, they need high quality images and videos to promote their products. As competition has become stiffer than ever, many businesses have also begun to outsource their requirements.

It is crucial for you to know the various benefits of outsourcing image and video editing services to professionals. Outsourcing asset enhancement services have enormous Monetary benefits as well as Potential Strategic Advantages.

Here is a list of benefits of Outsourcing Services:

1) Access to Myriad of Professionals: There is a substantial increase in the demand for impeccable expertise, in the field of image and video editing, in order to have the best images and footages to impress your clients. By outsourcing, you will have a set of professionals who will deliver flawless edited images and videos and in the given time frame.

2) Reduced In-house Costs: Image or video editing is an expensive business, as it needs license of high-tech softwares and a high-end infrastructure with a pool of expertise. Along with this, there would be a drastic reduce in manpower costs, such as recruitment costs, direct salary costs, occupancy costs and other inter-related costs.

As said an hour spent unproductively, is an hour lost to revenue generation, hence outsourcing is the best option.

3) Focus on Core Businesses: Outsourcing work to a team of experts will allow you to concentrate on core business activities such as customers, markets, trends and competitors. A noticeable increase in quality, productivity and performance metrics will be observed.

4) Flexibility: When you choose to outsource the asset, enhancement services you have the flexibility to choose a suitable provider who can align with company’s goals and objectives.

5) Improved and Maintained Quality Service: The benefits of outsourcing such as cutting-edge technologies, customized solutions, and several quality check standards will result in efficient project execution & deliveries.

Give your Image and Video editing a boost, by choosing Procboost

Procboost is one of the most flexible, responsive, and delivers high quality asset management services. It is a pioneer in digital media, as they provide services to top leading global stock content providers. We offer diversified services such as technical and metadata compliance of stock photos, reviewing all types of video content, post-processing of all types of images such as vectors, illustrations, and editorial images and an in-house of legal, editorial and commercial compliance experts for over 150+ countries.
How To Get The Best Outcome From Your IT Service Provider
By: Farzana Afrin Tisha
Tags: Software Outsourcing, Bangladesh, Outsourcing, It Outsourcing, It Consultant

There are valid reasons why IT outsourcers can fail you as a customer. Today I’d like to shed some light on why IT outsourcing service providers may fail their clients and how you as a client can make sure that failure doesn’t happen in your business.

My article focuses on the frustrations of 30% of our clients, who are now working with Brain Station 23, and the lessons they’ve learned upon outsourcing service availing with a desire that their team would get an excellent IT service before Brain Station 23.

<Brain Station 23: Software Development company with 300+ developers & 8 global partners operating over 13+ countries.>

Hence, I’m sharing the insights from our collective experience of almost 14 years serving as a global IT outsourcing company. We have dealt with more than few hundreds of different types of business since 2006 and we have recognized that pain, on the whole, IT outsourcers let their clients down in the following ways…

Outsourcing service providers often fail to deliver basic end-user support

They fail to provide strategic advice in line with specific business goals

Most of the outsources fail to help you get the best return on every penny you spend on IT developments.

So how do you take precautions before such failure can take place in your business?

It is really simple. By following a few rules you can ensure that you are getting excellent quality of services from your IT service provider.

Number 1: Make sure your people & work culture matches with your IT service providers’ people & culture.

Since every business works differently, it’s really crucial for the service provider to take the time to understand your business processes and team objectives. And most of the providers ever audit client’s systems and thus miss out on team objectives.

Number 2: Make sure your IT service provider takes full ownership of your team’s productivity

Number 3: Make sure there are transparent & clear communications between both parties and communications take place heavily.

So, you can easily avoid IT Outsourcing failure. Just remember these three-pointers and try to choose an IT Outsourcing Service Providing with a good track record.

Get in touch with me, tisha@brainstation-23.com if you want to know more about this matter or you need any expert opinion.

Cheers!
The Best OCR Data Capture Methods — Slashdot
By: Induja Karthikeyan
Tags: Outsourcing, Datacapture, Data Entry Services

indu_216 writes: This automated information seize process helps companies across diverse enterprise sectors like manufacturing, financial services, healthcare, etc. To streamline their processes through automation, improve records accuracy, and reduce the fees considerably. OCR has a series of benefits, but the lack of knowledge of OCR statistics seize features, great practices, and OCR method workflow might result in numerous errors. Therefore, groups want to apprehend how OCR works and different benefits of the usage of OCR statistics seize. To make things clean we have listed some of the first-rate practices for OCR-based automated records seize -

1. Start from the Basics

Data access teams want to analyze every element of the facts inside the non-digital form. Right from the paper satisfactory and language to the layout and font, everything that might affect the quality of the automated records seize ought to be analyzed. This data will permit the records entry group to determine whether the statistics seize process could be smooth or not.

2. Define the Project Goals

All the specific desires of the OCR task should be in reality defined. Depending on the assignment requirements, the facts access crew might also want to set their targets in conjunction with tentative timelines to finish the data capture method. Post-OCR process the captured images can also need further processing based totally at the accuracy required within the challenge.

3. Have a Well Planned Workflow

A streamlined OCR statistics capture technique may not determine whether the task can be an achievement or a failure. However, the information entry crew ought to make certain that a well-deliberate OCR procedure workflow is in location to make certain that the records capture assignment succeeds as in keeping with the expectations.

4. Perform Quality Check Processes

A successful OCR-primarily based information capture process requires a thorough pleasant checking (QC) manner in the area. The QC program will make sure that the challenge is on track, maybe completed on time, and all of the objectives might be achieved. Depending on the budget, your facts entry crew can also select to either cross for an entire project review or just a sectional overview.

5. Be Adjustable to Changes in Project Scale and Costs

The demands related to the OCR venture may additionally range with time and from challenge to challenge. There can be some changes that happen all through the project, and the records entry group should be prepared to be bendy and be geared up to conform accordingly. Scale changes can also affect the mission schedules and pricing and this could require suitable making plans to address the changes.
Why APNA HR?
By: Team Management Services
Tags: Payroll, Outsourcing, Hr Solutions, Hr Services, HR

As we all know performing the HR Operations in an organization is very important for its survival and its growth, but at the same time performing them seems to be a little overwhelming. Apna HR is a platform that serves startups, small size business, mid-sized businesses and large organizations with these essential HR services. Apna HR is a division of one of the top most HR consultancy in Mumbai, Team Management Services. This new division is to provide the companies the services in a new style. Apna HR has been a talking point in HR industry currently because of the uniqueness of the HR model. We have created a Service to help our clients to ensure smooth functioning of their HR Operations and to design the best People Strategy. Apna HR is one of the most innovative solution from which we can design the best people strategy for your organization. Apna HR believes customer satisfaction being the top most level of measuring the service quality. We make sure that we are very well updated about the latest technological means through which we can provide our clients with top quality services. Not just in the technical field, we also look forward to maintain better relationship management.

The HR Services includes Employee onboarding, Employee lifecycle management, Statutory Compliance, Expense and benefits and other HR services. We provide 30+ HR services. We also help the organizations in setting up their whole HR department for free. We at Apna HR have a team full of HR professionals who are supremely talented and have expertise in HR field. The team looks after all the services that has to be provided with full dedication and sincerity and makes sure the timely delivery of the same. Whether it be monthly attendance or payroll activities, timely payments are made so that the client does not have to suffer any consequences regarding the delay. In today’s competitive world it is not easy to control an organizations expense and it adds on when the company has to provide these mandatory services. We at Apna HR promises to provide these services at very affordable price so that no organization feel HR activities as a burden that has to be followed by them. We look forward to serve our client in the best possible manner keeping in mind the variance in the business requirements and with the best service quality being assured.
HOW HR CAN CONTRIBUTE TO BUSINESS GROWTH
By: Tkay David
Tags: Human Resource, Alternative Solutions, Outsourcing

Growth is very good for business. A bolstering company will always be very concerned with increasing sales and strengthening its position in the market. Nonetheless, growth is not something we can strictly define. There is so much to talk about when we think of growth. However, in this short article, we’ll be looking at the importance of growth, and How Human Resource(HR) can contribute to business growth.

What is business growth?

Measuring growth could be quite tricky. It is easier to use some common data points to show a company’s growth state. These could include:

Revenue

Sales

Company Value

Profits

Number of Employees

Number of Customers

Growth could occur in some of these metrics but not in others or vice versa.

Why is business growth important

Growth “is crucial to the long-term survival of a business,” notes nibusinessinfo.co.uk, pointing to these clear-cut benefits:

Easier to add resources

Locate and identify new sales opportunities

Expand the range of products or services

Acquire new customers

Also, growth can “boost your business’ credibility, allowing you to broaden your supply base and increase stability and profits.”

All compelling benefits gained by the pursuit of business growth!

https://youtu.be/bn5RNNbcIlA

How Human Resource (HR) can contribute to business growth

Considering what we’ve analyzed about business growth, one could arguably say, what takes a company to the next level, is People.

When it comes to people, the one department that is focused on your team is Human Resources. Let’s look at how jobmonkey.com sees company growth through HR:

Build Your Brand And Culture — Brand and culture are key components for every successful business. HR can dedicate the time and energy into building the brand and culture that works for you and your team. Plan For Growth — By actively anticipating your future growth, HR can help you create a strategy to recruit top talent in a timely manner. Hire The Right People — HR is trained to analyze and assess job candidates. They know how to make hiring decisions that will help you get ahead. Invest In Your Team — HR will give your team the training and tools they need to be successful at their jobs. Develop Talent — HR knows how to hire for personality over experience. This allows you to mold job candidates into superstar employees.

There is so much more to be gained from using a very good HR team, be it an in-house or outsourced team. The company also frees itself of guesswork when it comes to the right employee.

Need to know more on how Human Resource works?

Contact us here: https://alternativesolutions-group.com/
A Comprehensive Guide To Hiring BPO Services
By: Unity Communications
Tags: Outsourcing Services, Outsourcing, Bpo

Hiring Business Process Outsourcing Services can hit some nerves. You don’t get to know how much the outside party is capable of handling. You do get afraid of losing or giving your data to the wrong hands. At such a point, how to determine that you’ve chosen the right BPO service? Well, we have a solution. We’d guide you on how to hire one. Let’s get started.

Steps To Hire A BPO Service

Define Requirement First: You need to put everything at the front to know if the entire work gets addressed by the service provider.

You need to put everything at the front to know if the entire work gets addressed by the service provider. Ask Questions: Upon contacting a BPO service, ask relevant questions about their experience, area of specialization, and working hours specified.

Upon contacting a BPO service, ask relevant questions about their experience, area of specialization, and working hours specified. Negotiate: Make sure you reach an agreement where there are no hidden rules upon negotiation. Do it freely and professionally.

Make sure you reach an agreement where there are no hidden rules upon negotiation. Do it freely and professionally. Ask for Security: Ask for any agreement that specified your work is in no way getting leaked or ported to some other party or portal.

Ask for any agreement that specified your work is in no way getting leaked or ported to some other party or portal. Seal the Deal: If you get all of these, hire the team.

It works both ways. You keep your duties, payments and work on point, and get timely services provided.
One Thing that Significantly Improved My Quality of Life
By: Michał Stawicki
Tags: Success Story, Success, Habits, Life Stories, Mindset

I embraced The Slight Edge philosophy, based on teachings of Jim Rohn:

Success is nothing more than a few simple disciplines, practiced every day.

Failure is simply a few errors in judgment, repeated every day.

In a nutshell, I developed dozens of new habits. Old bad habits had to give in, since I only had as much time and energy. Busy with my new habits, I couldn’t dedicate time to old habits.

And, accordingly, to The Slight Edge, my life changed for the better.

2012

I was going nowhere. No surprise, because I had no plans. I was living day by day crossing my fingers and hoping everything will going to be all right. Usually, it wasn’t.

Our financial situation was stable. Both I and my wife had jobs. We paid our bills and credits on time and I was even able to save about 4.5% of our income. So, it took about two years to save one salary. It didn’t look like the best formula for getting wealthy.

My wife dreamed about a house, but we had just several thousand dollars on savings account and no perspectives for a significant change in our income.

I was frustrated, because I was not stupid. No matter how much I anesthetized myself with entertainment I realized, that my life is going nowhere. It was a constant struggle to keep our expenses at bay. We couldn’t afford good vacations, we couldn’t afford renovation of our apartment, and we couldn’t afford a new car.

My wife had more ambition and dreams than me and that caused some tension between us. I felt I was doing all in my power to sustain our lifestyle and she put more and more pressure on me to realize her wishes. That was not fair!

2019

After several years of my online hustle, it finally became real.

Almost every month, I get money from several sources: my Amazon book sales, my eBook sales from Draft2Digital, audiobook sales, coaching, affiliate sales and my book advertising business.

My personal income grew by 140%. I stacked away about $15K in my peace-of-mind fund (aka ‘rainy days fund’ for most of the world). My wife quit her job. She already spent on house renovation about $20k (yes, we bought a house).

I downsized my day job to 10 hours a week. We were on a vacation trip to Crete (without kids!) in September.

I paid off early about 3.3% of our mortgage in 2019.

Our recurrent payments fund is fully stacked up. We have a year’s worth of recurring bills for water and waste. We have funds prepared for car insurance, textbooks for kids, unexpected car repairs, or replacement of white goods.

Consistency brings growth and results. I had been showing up for a long period of time in my authors’ group, and that created networking opportunities.

It worked for me as good as, or even better than, setting big goals and pursuing them. For two years, I tried in vain to grow my email list to 1,000 people. I quadrupled my email list size since 2016.

I had set goals of selling hundreds and thousands of books in the past, and I didn’t reach those numbers. This year, I never went below 1,000 sales a month.
#10YearsofCollective — Hinge Health: Where are they at now?
By: Cmdn Collective
Tags: Success Story, Business Support, Health, Coworking, Mentor

Daniel Perez and Gabriel Mecklenburg originally started Marblar, a company focused on the commercialisation of unused patents gathering dust on universities shelves. While they raised seed funding and gained some early momentum, the business model ultimately didn’t line up:

“From there, we pivoted our original passion to healthcare: We both experienced significant injuries in the past, involving constructive surgeries and a 9+ month rehab journey. This gave us a passion for helping others deal with chronic back and joint pain conditions. Marblar was rolled up into a new company, Hinge Health, which focused on using technology to deliver education, physical therapy, and behavioural coaching.”

They focus on partnering with companies, providing its services as a benefit to employees who often struggle with back and other chronic pain. It is said that its users have 60% fewer surgeries and that, on average, they have reported that their pain is reduced by 15% after 12 weeks!

…So how did Collective support them at the beginning of their journey?

“Collective was a great help for us in the early days of Marblar, when the free and flexible office space was invaluable and helped us quickly expand, while conserving precious capital. Collective also surrounded us with an energising community of entrepreneurs to network and learn from.”

Since they were with us at Collective, Hinge Health has moved to San Francisco and gone on to grow to 140 people, raising more than $500m in funding…an incredible success story to come out of Collective!

They will now be taking Hinge Health to the next level of providing digital care for chronic musculoskeletal conditions — such as knee arthritis or low back pain.

“We’ve helped tens of thousands of patients overcome chronic pain, avoid invasive surgeries, get off painkillers, and just plain enjoy their life again, whether it’s dancing with their spouse, playing with their kids, or hiking with their friends.”

Find out more about Hinge Health:

Twitter: @HingeHealth

Instagram: @hingehealth

Website: https://www.hingehealth.com/
Why Career is important???
Tags: Life Success Stories, Success Story, Career Opportunities, Motivational Quotes, Career Advice

Why Career is important???

Career is an important aspect of any person’s life. It leads the lifestyle of any human being which determines his/her position in the society. While everyone dreams of a good life, not everyone is able to build a strong career that ensures a good lifestyle. Career is usually associated with the professional aspect of a person’s life. Choosing a career is a big decision and the irony is that we are not ready to take such big decisions when we need to take such decisions. We are in our school life right now where we have to choose between Science, Commerce and Humanities stream which mainly affects our later career path.

Be it a boy or a girl, these days career is given a lot of importance in the life of every person. From the very beginning we are asked to focus on our studies and score well in the examinations. The aim of doing this is to build a strong base and fetch good grades which will help you to make a lucrative career.

The first thing you should do while choosing a career is assess yourself. Try to understand what interests you. However, simply being interested in a particular field is not enough. Apart from this you should also check if you are well suited for that particular business. It would be fair to say that if you have the necessary skills and abilities to perform well in your field of interest then you should try to do so.

Motivational Quotes Career Opportunities Motivate UX Career Advice
It’s Never Too Late!
By: Arjun Agarwal
Tags: Success Story, Hollywood, Success, Celebrities News

Our society has a way of inculcating the thought that there is a perfect age for doing particular things. Although it is not wrong to believe that it is never too late to start from scratch. In India, we have a way of keeping celebrities on a pedestal, be it any kind of a celebrity and we tend to follow their way of life, thought process. There are however a few celebrities who proves that age is just a number and it is indeed never late to start anything that the heart wishes for and it wouldn’t actually be wrong to follow their path more often. A few of them are;

Oprah Winfrey

Oprah Winfrey didn’t become the Oprah we know now until she was 32 when The Oprah Winfrey Show debuted. The media mogul is a firm reminder that not all your success should have happened by the time you’re 30.

Jay Z

Jay Z is an inspiration for all of those twenty somethings who worry that they haven’t made their mark yet. The Brooklyn rapper was 26 when his first album Reasonable Doubt dropped and blew up after years of grinding.

Samuel L. Jackson

Samuel L. Jackson first appeared on our radars in Jungle Fever at the age of 43. Jackson, one of the world’s highest paid actors, didn’t score his breakout role in Pulp Fiction until 1994 at the age of 46. Since then he’s appeared in over 100 films.

Morgan Freeman

It may seem like he’s always been around but the truth is that we weren’t really introduced to Morgan Freeman until he was 52 and starring in 1989’s Glory as Sergeant Major Rawlins.

Viola Davis

Viola Davis was an extremely accomplished actress prior to her role of Professor Annalise Keating in How to Get Away With Murder. However, it is this role that has made her a household name and the first African American to win a Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series at 49.

Regina Hall

Following the death of her father during the first year of college, Regina Hall decided to make sure she chased her dreams. In 1997 she booked her first commercial at the age of 26, two years later at 29 we were introduced to the young star when she played Candy in The Best Man.
Top Tourist Places - Nashik-India
By: Arti Jha
Tags: Travel, Mythology, Temple, Tourism

Trimbakeshwar Temple

Trimbakeshwar Temple

Nashik city is the holy city in Maharashtra. It is a holy place of Hindu religion. From this city the bank of Godavari river is started. Nashik is a Hindu pilgrimage site.This is the place of Lord Ram, Lord Sita, Lord Shiv, Lord Hanuman and Sai Baba.

This place is also famous for kumbhmela which is occurred in every 12 months. Nashik is also having one jyotriling among twelve jyotirling Trimbak. This is the 12th jyotirling with many blessings of Lord Shiva.

Trimbakeshwar Temple

Trimbakeshwar temple is located in Trimbak village having three faces of Lord Shiva, Lord Brahma, and Lord Vishnu.

Trimbakeshwar was reconstructed by third Peshwa Balaji Bajirao (1740–1760) on the site of old temple which was destroyed by Aurangzeb.

There is a Hindu belief that those who visit Trimbakeshwar Temple will be the part of Moksha. Godavari originates from the Brahmagiri Hills. It is also a belief that this is the birth place of Lord Ganesha.

Brahmagiri Hills

To reach Trimbakeshwar Temple
10th Avatar of Lord Vishnu | Kalki Avatar
By: Hoovu Fresh
Tags: Spirituality, Mythology, Kalyug

Kalki Avatar will be the 10th and last avatar of Lord Vishnu. He will arrive on the 12th day of a bright fortnight which is also known as Shukla Paksha. The name Kalki is derived from Kal which means “Time”. According to Puranas Lord Kalki will be depicted with four arms, holding a conch, a mace, a discus, and a lotus. It is also predicted that a man named Visnu Yasa and his wife Sumati will give birth to Kalki.

PURPOSE OF KALKI AVATAR:

In Puranas, it’s described that Kalki avatar rejuvenates existence by ending the darkest and destructive period to remove dharma in the Satya Yuga. In Kalki Purana, Vishnu avatar Kalki marries Princess Padmavati, the daughter of Brhadratha of Simhala. Also, it’s mentioned that he will fight against all the evils and many wars. Then he will return to Sambhala, inaugurate a new Yuga for the good and then go to heaven.

Lord Vishnu 9th avatar…

|| Yada yada hi dharmasya glanir bhavati bharata

Abhyutthanam adharmasya tadatmanam srjamy aham

Paritranaya sadhunam vinasaya ca duskritam

Dharma-samsthapanarthaya sambhavami yuge yuge ||
9th Avatar of Lord Vishnu | Story of Gautam Buddha
By: Hoovu Fresh
Tags: Spirituality, Mythology

Gautam Buddha

It is believed that the 9th Avatar of Lord Vishnu was Gautam Buddha. If we compare, Gautam Buddha doesn’t have any power as the rest of the Vishnu avatar’s had. He was a complete human who expounded the four noble truths (Arya Satya) conceiving suffering, its cause, its destruction and the way to the elimination of sorrow.

In southern tradition, the 9th Avatar of Lord Vishnu is considered as Balarama, brother of Lord Krishna. But in northern tradition Balaram is replaced by Buddha. According to Puranas, Lord Vishnu was born as Gautam Buddha to mislead those who deny the Vedic knowledge.

In the 13th century poet, Jayadna defines Vishnu incarnation as Buddha to end the animal slaughter in Vedic sacrifices. And in contemporary Hinduism, Buddha is revered by Hindus who usually consider “Buddhism to be another form of Hinduism”.

Read more…

|| Yada yada hi dharmasya glanir bhavati bharata

Abhyutthanam adharmasya tadatmanam srjamy aham

Paritranaya sadhunam vinasaya ca duskritam

Dharma-samsthapanarthaya sambhavami yuge yuge ||
Harrappa- Curse of the Blood River: A Book Review
By: Nupur Bhise
Tags: Fiction, Book Recommendations, Hinduism, Politics, Mythology

I think as readers and adults we owe it to the society to not just take literature at face value and see it for what it really is. Books like these have a fun, fast paced and a gripping plot line, but they also blur the lines between what is real and what isn’t. The tone of the book plays an important role in how we perceive the story line. And the tone of this book tries to convince you to identify one religion’s triumph over the other.

In today’s political climate, where democracy is on the verge of breaking down in the largest democratic country of the world, it is our responsibility to look beyond what is written and try and understand the usage of words and how they might impact our thinking. Using phrases like “bholenath- another loving name for Lord Shiva” is acceptable only if its counterpart in promoting another religion like this will not face backlash too.

My problem is not with people expressing their opinions about their love and devotion to their own religion. My problem is with their lack of tolerance for opinions opposite to theirs. And in this current atmosphere of political intolerance, books like these subtly push the narrative of Hinduism being the “greater” or “better” religion which is unfair to people of other religions who face backlash for similar expressions of opinions about their religion.

Though, I would say, the book is fast paced, adventurous and fun to read. It reminded me a little bit of the Shiva trilogy because of how similar the writing and narration is but overall, it is a good read if you’re travelling or in a hurry in general. I personally am looking forward to reading the second part when I need a breather from the other heavier books that I generally tend to read.
How lord Shiva came into existence ?
By: Harshit Singh Yadav
Tags: Storytelling, Shiva, Hinduism, Mythology, Stories

Many of us know that hindu mythology is one of the complex and most entangled mythology in the world. Be it Vedas , upanishads or purans , it’s all been serving the same purpose but with a different storyline and a whole new concept altogether. Different sages tried to convey the message of what Hindu Dharma or Sanatana Dharma stood for in their own way. That’s why there are several stories associated with several Gods.

One such story is about the origin of Lord Shiva which can be found in Shivpurana. According to shivapurana when there was nothing but vast darkness and loneliness in the entire cosmos , Lord Vishnu came into existence and he wandered for thousands of years in search of another being but found no one untill one day Lord Brahma appeared. Brahma was sitting on a lotus and the end of that lotus was tied to Vishnu’s navel( like that of a new born baby). Vishnu was happy to finally see someone with whom he can talk and explore this vastness of the cosmos. He greeted with Brahma saying “Finally after thousands of years of loneliness you are created from me”.

Brahma denied this fact and said “No, you are the one who is created by me". They both kept arguing about who created whom .An argument for the recognisation as the first god developed between the two. All of a sudden there appeared a vast , humangous , never ending Lingam. Vishnu and Brahma both were shocked seeing this Lingam. A voice came from that linga saying “ That who will find the end of this linga first will be recognised as the superior. Both agreed to this and started their journey. Brahma moved towards the upper end of the linga while Vishnu moved towards the lower end. Both kept moving miles and miles for years without finding any end. Vishnu acknowledged that this lingam has no end. It is like knowledge, the more you try to gain the more you find out that what you know is just a drop of the vast ocean and thus gave up his quest to find the end while Brahma played a trick and thought that he will lie about finding the end and thus will be rewarded as the superior god. He told both of them that he found the upper end. After hearing this lingam got really angry and from the middle part of that lingam appeared a bodily form among both of them and said angrily “ Stop lying Brahma. You want to win this race so eagerly that you forgot what is the right path and what is not. You shall no longer be worshiped by anyone. He also told Vishnu and Brahma that they both originated from the lingam. It’s the lingam which was there everytime in that entire darkness. That’s how Shiva or Mahadev came into existence.

The word Shi-va means 'that which is not’. It’s not here but it is here. It is not good nor bad. It doesn’t have any starting or ending. It doesn’t exist but it exists everywhere.
Mediocre UX for lots of cookies
By: René Porth
Tags: Design, Privacy, UX, User Experience, Gdpr

Almost three years ago, on May 25, 2018, the GDPR, the General Data Protection Regulation, came into force. This had only one obvious consequence: pretty much all websites in the EU area now have a more or less ugly cookie notice asking visitors to agree to the tracking of their surfing behavior, for example to continuously improve the digital offering they visit.

Dear user, I would like to look over your shoulder at neuralgic points of my website, because if I see that you and many others here are not getting along, I will make the website better for you.

Yeah. Riiiiight…!

Certainly, to a certain extent, it’s about user experience. But let’s not kid ourselves. It’s much more about targeting, retargeting, programmatic advertising, marketing automation and so on.

Viewed through rose-tinted marketing glasses, it’s all about providing users with relevant content, information, or products to maximize your own success. At best, this is a win-win situation. I find my new favorite shoe in seconds and the online retailer is happy about my purchase.

In fact, however, this is pure capitalism, and user experience in this context is more of a dirty word. Funnel optimization is not about giving the user the best possible shopping experience. It’s about maximizing the likelihood of a purchase. At best, that’s fun for the user, too. But we should stop calling it user experience.

What’s user experience again?

The user experience (UX or UE) is how a user interacts with and experiences a product, system or service. It includes a person’s perceptions of utility, ease of use, and efficiency. Improving user experience is important to most companies, designers, and creators when creating and refining products because negative user experience can diminish the use of the product and, therefore, any desired positive impacts; conversely, designing toward profitability often conflicts with ethical user experience objectives and even causes harm. User experience is subjective. However, the attributes that make up the user experience are objective.

Source: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_Experience

I first wrote this article in German. In the German Wiki, a DIN standard is referenced here; interestingly, the English explanation explicitly preempts me here.

But, dear marketing friends, now let’s all pull up a chair, sit in that circle of trust, look deep into each other’s eyes, and consider whether we really want to improve the user experience when it comes to UX optimizations.

I think UX is dead.

We say UX and mean CP — Closure Probability. The probability of closure. We want to optimize that. The fact that the user might have more fun along the way is perhaps the vehicle. But not our goal. We don’t want to lead the user to his goal, but to ours.

And I can prove it by looking at your cookie notices.

A random selection of automotive manufacturer websites in Germany reveals a very clear trend.
Important things to know about GDPR in a risky world!
By: Mahesha N
Tags: Workplace, Gdpr, Employee Engagement

Is anyone protecting our data? We are sharing our data with many companies and many people for different reasons. It’s better to have someone protect our personal data and letting us know the purpose for which our data is being used.

GDPR Does.

What is General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)?

It’s a set of rules created by the European Union that needs to be strictly followed by anyone collecting and processing personal data from European continent countries.

GDPR sets forth fines of up to 10 million euros, or, in the case of an undertaking, up to 2% of its entire global turnover of the preceding fiscal year — whichever is higher — for violations.

Other than personal data, GDPR imposes strict laws on Genetic data, Children’s data, etc.

GDPR gives individuals freedom-

· to obtain information from the companies/individuals regarding the processing of your personal data

· to inform company/companies to erase your data

· to know how long the companies would store your data

· to know to whom the data of yours have been shared with

There are four key terms in GDPR: Controller, Processor, Data Subject, Supervisor Authority.

Controller: The one (company, individual etc) who collects the data directly from the data subject. Ex: Bank

Processor: The one who follows instructions given by the controller to process data shared by the controller. Ex: IT Company maintaining Bank data.

Data Subject: An individual who owns the data, Ex: Bank Customers.

Supervisor Authority: Established by European member states to oversee the administrative work of the GDPR.

From 25 May 2018, European continent countries started to follow GDPR. It is not only applicable to the European continent but also for companies outside of Europe working for European continent countries.

Before any data that is shared from countries outside of the European Union, the European Union will take a call based on whether the recipient county provides an adequate level of protection or not.

So far European Union have a list of countries who have promised adequate level of protection, they are Andorra, Argentina, Canada (commercial organisations), Faroe Islands, Guernsey, Israel, Isle of Man, Japan, Jersey, New Zealand, Switzerland, Uruguay and the United States of America (limited to the Privacy Shield framework).

Hoping India will soon be among the trusted countries list.
Ask the experts: Should the US have a data privacy law similar to GDPR?
By: Synopsys Software Integrity
Tags: Privacy, Privacy Law, Data Protection, Data Privacy, Gdpr

U.S. data privacy law is a mishmash of federal, state, and industry regulation. Should we enact a single universal federal data privacy law like GDPR? We asked some experts.

US has done the legwork, should take the next step

Yes, oui, ja!

GDPR is a massive step forward for the data protection of European residents, and we would love to see our friends in America similarly defended. The truth is that many U.S.-based companies have already had to do much of the work needed to be GDPR-compliant because they have European customers, and so it makes enormous sense for any U.S. legislation to closely mirror GDPR rather than having a different set of data protection regulations for U.S. consumers.

— Graham Cluley, former longtime editor of the Sophos Naked Security blog, host of the Smashing Security podcast, researcher, blogger, and speaker

Privacy rights stem from core American principles

The US should absolutely have a comprehensive, baseline federal privacy law. While such a law could take many forms, it should provide many of the same core rights and protections enjoyed in the EU — many of which stem from core American principles (especially, the 1973 Fair Information Practices), including the right to access, delete, or correct one’s own information, and to object to certain types of processing.

— Stacey Gray, senior counsel, Future of Privacy Forum

Should the U.S. have a version of GDPR? Read more expert opinions.
Rights of the data subject under GDPR
By: Patrick Smith
Tags: Gdpr Compliance, Gdpr

GDPR grants new rights to data subjects. These include:

Right of access: data subjects must be able to access any data that has been collected, or obtain copies of the data from the controller and/or processor. Right of rectification: should the data subject find inaccuracies in the data, they retain the right to correct any of the data. Right to object: after data collection, data subjects can object to how their data is being handled and halt further action. Right to restrict processing: data subjects can request that their data is not processed in a certain way or prevent further processing. Right to erasure: data subjects can ask that their data is deleted by the processor at the earliest possibility. Right to data portability: data subjects have the right to access their data in a digital format compatible with a variety of devices. Right to complain: if they are dissatisfied with how their data is being handled, or feel that their rights are not respected, data subjects have the right to complain to a supervisory authority. Right to be represented: when lodging complaints, data subjects have the right to representation by an independent, not-for-profit body.