Social Networking

                Social Networking can be really challenging. We aren’t super tech savvy and when we were finally able to get on Linked In, Ed wasn’t sure what to do next. He thought he was only inviting just a few new colleagues and work contacts but what he actually did was inadvertently invite EVERYONE we had ever sent an email to, including Deb’s 88-year-old mother.

                We only knew this had happened when we started to receive hundreds of ‘accepts’ from everyone you can dream of, including three people Ed used to know but, due to difficult circumstances, he no longer had anything to do with. In Buddhist terms these people are simply known as the enemy – anyone you had a hard time with or who is having a difficult time with you.

Our friend Kiri roared with laughter when we told her. She said it also happen to her and happens more often than we may realize. “What many of us fail to realize is that with a simple click of the mouse our worlds open up far and wide and, along with long lost friends, people we have consciously chosen to close out of our lives come tumbling back in. Suddenly we are faced with having to reject them again or to open up and accept their online offerings of friendship.”

              

Read more: http://www.care2.com/greenliving/how-social-networking-taught-us-a-new-type-of-forgiveness.html#ixzz1GCiKkbyu

Facts about India (You may not know)

• 71% or 770 million people are below 35 years of age. Indians are young.

• Information Technology, Software or I.T. is the only exception, possibly due to 50,000 or more private I.T. training centers spread across the country.
•  1.7% of the entire population, viz. 18 million people work for the Central & State Government; another 9 million work in the ‘private organized sector‘, a total of 2.6% of the population.  
• Islam is India's and the world's second largest religion.
• There are 300,000 active mosques in India, more than in any other country, including the Muslim world.
•  Martial Arts were first created in India, and later spread to Asia by Buddhist missionaries. 
• The name 'India' is derived from the River Indus, the valleys around which were the home of the early settlers. The Aryan worshippers referred to the river Indus as the Sindhu.  
• India is one of only three countries that makes supercomputers (the US and Japan are the other two).
• India is one of six countries that launches satellites.
• The Bombay stock exchange lists more than 6,600 companies. Only the NYSE has more.
• Eight Indian companies are listed on the NYSE; three on the NASDAQ.
• By volume of pills produced, the Indian pharmaceutical industry is the world’s second largest after China.
• India has the second largest community of software developers, after the U.S.
• India has the second largest network of paved highways, after the U.S.
• India is the world’s largest producer of milk, and among the top five producers of sugar, cotton, tea, coffee, spices, rubber, silk, and fish.
• 100 of the Fortune 500 companies have R&D facilities in India.
• Two million people of Indian origin live in the U.S.
• Indian-born Americans are among the most affluent and best educated of the recent immigrant groups in the U.S.
• Thirty percent of the R&D researchers in American pharmaceutical companies are Indian Americans.
• Nearly 49% of the high-tech startups in silicon Valley and Washington, D.C. are owned by Indians or Indian-Americans.
• India sends more students to U.S. colleges than any country in the world. In 2004-2005, over 80,000 Indian students entered the U.S. China sent only 65,000 students during the same time.
• In a case decided by the U.S. Supreme Court, an Indian-American woman scientist, Dr. Ananda Chakrabaty, won the argument that persons may be granted patents for useful manufacture of living organisms. She defeated the U.S. Patent Office, that argued that living things may not be patented, thus establishing the legal foundation for the biotech industry, (Diamond vs. Chakrabaty, 1980). Dr. Chakrabaty invented a microbe that eats oil spills.
• India has one of the world’s highest rates of abortion.
•  Only 5% of Indians can speak fluent English
• In India, grasping one’s ears signifies repentance or sincerity.
  
  

HIV/AIDS: Myths and Facts

            This fact sheet presents several prevalent facts and myths about AIDS that can be worked into HIV/AIDS programming. Item number 3 in this package presents some of these facts and myths in a game show format, and serves as one example of the many possible ways to present this information.

FACT

HIV is spread only in the following ways:

* By having unprotected vaginal, anal or oral sex with an HIV positive person.
* By sharing needles or syringes with an HIV positive person.
* During pregnancy, birth or breast-feeding from an infected mother to her baby.
* Through transfusion of blood from an HIV positive person.

FACT

Body fluids of an infected person that spread HIV are:

* Semen
* Vaginal fluid
* Blood
* Breast milk

REMEMBER

* HIV is the virus that causes AIDS.
* AIDS is the result of HIV infection.
* HIV infection can be prevented.
* HIV is not spread through casual social contact.

Statement Myth or Fact

* HIV is the virus that causes AIDS. Fact
* You can get HIV by drinking from a glass used by someone who has HIV. Myth
* HIV is spread by kissing. Myth
* You can get HIV from giving blood. Myth
* Someone who has HIV, but looks and feels healthy can still infect
other people. Fact
* You can tell by looking at someone if they have HIV/AIDS. Myth
* Drinking alcohol can increase the risk of getting HIV. Fact
* Sharing needles to inject drugs can spread HIV. Fact
* Using a latex condom during sex can reduce the risk of getting HIV. Fact

* Taking birth control pills can protect a woman from getting HIV. Myth
* You can get HIV from a toilet seat. Myth
* Most people who get infected with HIV become seriously ill
within three years. Myth

* People with HIV/AIDS should be sent away from the community. Myth
(In fact, people living with HIV/AIDS need love, support and proper health care from their families and others.)
* Vaccination can protect people from HIV infection. Myth
* AIDS is a syndrome that has no cure. Fact

To stop HIV/AIDS from spreading, people must:

* Have safe sex using a condom.
* Always practise safe sex.
* Have one sex partner only.
* Make sure their partner is not having sex with anyone else.

Acknowledgements

* Adapted from the "Uniformed Services HIV/AIDS Peer Leadership Guide"