Ramanisblog

Tag: Weblogs

  • Mahabharata, The Gita and Blog Posts

    I have missed hardly a day from Posting a Blog since August 2009.

    But I had not posted any Blog since 10th September. 2013 till this day.

    I was busy in moving to our new Home in Bangalore and i had to attend a function in Chennai for a couple of days.

    In fact the actual posting of blogs was on 7th September when I scheduled the posts.

    Another curious reason is that smack in the city of Bangalore, Whitefield, which is emerging as a hub of its own with IT companies , quite busy,where Sai Baba’s Ashram is situated, none of the Internet Service Providers. be it BSNL,Airtel,Tata Docomo,Vodafone and others do not seem to know whether the area is serviced by them!

    And I am uncomfortable with the Data Card as I am uncomfortable with its speed(?)

    In the mean while, I received some emails asking me(  I browsed them in my  Mobile) as to what happened to my posts .

    And a reader sent me an email asking me politely as to what happened to approving the comments ( I normally approve them as and when I receive the notification), expressing concern about my health.

    I would like to thank all these queries and I am fine, health-wise as befits one of 63; in fact by the Grace of God, I have no ailments like BP, Sugar excepting that I had an Heart-attack in 2009.( That I ceased taking medicine for that because of my conviction that these medicines actually complicate the health, I have a post under this filed under ‘Health)

    This short break provided me some extra time to catch up with my reading the Sanskrit  originals of the Mahabharata and The commentary of Adi Shankaracharya on the Bhagavad Gita.

    Here I want to say that certain things/events in Life seem to have a purpose.

    I have been performing Puja at Home at home, though not regularly,I do them when I fell like and at times like these I do for about 2 hours at a stretch; most of the days I do nor perform at all!

    I recite Pancha Suktas, Rudra, Chamaka,Bhoomi Sukta, Neela Sukta, Medhini Sukta,Bhagya Sukta and my routine mantras from the Soundarya Lahari,Mooka Panchasati,Kandhar Anubhuthi and Abirami Andhadi.

    As i firmly believe that there is no difference between Lord Siva and Vishnu,I do Pujas for both the deities.

    I am a Smartha, who is expected to worship Lor Shiva.

    My childhood friend of 50 years, who is staunch orthodox Vaishnava, gave me a the Nalayira Divya Prabhandham the Scared Book of the Vaishnavities of Tamil Nadu about four years back telling me that he had only only one copy of the rare book(compiled by Velukkudi Krishna Iyengar, father of Velukkudi Krishnan) and that he is giving this to me without knowing why!

    I laughed it off and took the book.

    While organizing  the Books in the process of shifting to the new house,i got hold of this Book and thought why should I not recite at least one chapter Day while doing Puja and started.

    I also got hold of two books , The Mahabharata in original with commentaries in Tamil by Ramanujaachariar and Ganapathi Ganapadigal( the Purvasrama Guru of Kanchi Maha Periyavar and the commentary of Adi Shankaracharya  on the Bhagavad Gita.

    These books were purchased by me in 2009 and I just glanced at them till now.

    How and why I should these books appeal to me after all these years and why  I should decide to read them now , I am unable to explain.

    As I read these in the originals in Sanskrit, I am literally moved into tears and ashamed at the same time.

    Moved because of the realization that I belong to a Culture  where Human values and Philosophy are so rarefied beyond imagination.

    Ashamed because I have failed to read these for nearly 40 years of Life!

    I plan to post some interesting aspects from these to share the gems of Indian Thoughts and to dispel some of the misconceptions about Hinduism by the others and by the Hindus themselves on some Purana stories where they have and are being misinterpreted, misquoted and in some cases  have no basis in the Purana at all.

     

     

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  • How To Be Affiliate Amazon, Earn By Blogs

    Amazon Online portal
    Amazon Online portal for Shopping.

    I have been writing for nearly four years now, with about 5,500 posts,1300 Subscribers ,3200 comments and 117 categories.

    The site traffic is around 50,000 a Month.

    As I mentioned earlier,I started writing  because I wanted to write and be heard.

    I write to inform and be informed.

    I have the fortune of knowledgeable readers who have enriched my knowledge base by corrections to posts , either by comments on the site or by personal emails.

    Somewhere during this journey people have been asking me to monetize.

    My refrain has been that if I start monetizing my writing style in the form of content may be compromised and I still retain that view,if I accept some advertisements of my own.

    At the same time, many of my references are Books which are normally difficult to buy in the market.

    In such cases .many of my readers suggested I recommend where to buy the Book or provide Links Online.

    I thought it would be better if I could provide them with an opportunity to buy at the best price and have a wide selection.

    As I do not know much about Monetizing I wrote to WordPress,the platform in which I write and received a reply that they have advertising opportunities with WordAds and apart from that I can be an Amazon Affiliate and so long as the site is not wholly oriented towards Amazon Only, it is all right.

    How to become an Affiliate/Associate of Amazon.com?

    Log on to http://www.amazon.com,.

    The instructions are simple.

    Enter your email ID and proceed as instructed in the site.

    Once you enter the details you get a notification in the site where you list  your Phone Number, to confirm.

    Once you do that, you receive a Call immediately(Really immediate), follow instructions on the phone.I

    If your information is correct you receive a notification from Amazon to your email ID that your application has been received and that they will get back to you  in a couple of days.

    Sometimes it is faster, I received the communication in about 12 hours.

    Now you can stat your account with Amazon.

    They have detailed information as to how to Link with Amazon.

    You can start earning immediately by visiting their Promotions Hub, start earning by referrals for New Earning Opportunity with Amazon Prime 30-Day Free Trials ─ Get your visitors to sign-up for free trials and be eligible to earn $2 for each trial. See program details.

    https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/gp/associates/network/main.html

    Join Amazon Prime – Watch Over 40,000 Movies & TV Shows Anytime – Start Free Trial Now

     

     

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  • Check Plagiarism, News Blogs Instantly

    I came across an interesting article in the Atlantic on Journalism being turned out to be churnalism.

    Blogs.
    Blogs.

    With access to Internet, people can have easy and immediate access to information.

    How to find out if it is plagiarized?

    Story:

    We live in an age of information, it is said again and again. But that doesn’t mean we live in an age of good information, as last week seemed intent on bearing out. In fact, quite the opposite. Countless times each day, we have to weigh the credibility of a piece of information, and decide whether to put our faith in it.

    It’s not really feasible for each of us to track each piece of information to its source (nor would it be efficient), so, instead, we use clues — who wrote this, where is this published, does this square with other information we know. But the trouble is that these clues aren’t perfect indicators, at least in part because even credible publications and professional journalists sometimes regurgitate information without giving it a careful vetting, a process often referred to as churnalism (just as gross as it sounds).

    Today, the Sunlight Foundation has unveiled a tool that will help us all with this work. “The tool is, essentially, an open-source plagiarism detection engine,” web developer Kaitlin Devine explained to me. It will scan any text (a news article, e.g.) and compare it with a corpus of press releases and Wikipedia entries. If it finds similar language, you’ll get a notification of a detected “churn” and you’ll be able to take a look at the two sources side by side. You can also use it to check Wikipedia entries for information that may have come from corporate press releases. The tool is based on a similar project released in the United Kingdom two years ago, which the Sunlight Foundation supported with a grant to make it open source. Churnalism will be available both on the website and as a browser extension. Its database of press releases includes those from EurekaAlert! in addition to PR Newswire, PR News Web, Fortune 500 companies, and government sources.

    http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/04/is-it-journalism-or-just-a-repackaged-press-release/275206/

    What one is to do is to submit either a url or Text to find out if it is Plagiarized.

    And hit ‘Submit’

    You get the results immediately.

    My son has often said that I comment on News Stories , Articles and I have a Blog.

    So, his contention is that my Readership and Ranking in India and in Alexa is actually not correct.

    My reply was and is that a News or an event has to be reported first .

    Then for the second writer this material becomes ‘plagiarized”

    That means that there can be no News or Report appearing more than once,

    So, the content may be elsewhere but your views and perspectives have to be unique.

    This was my reply to him

    I wanted to test this with this soft ware( I tested with another Software and the result was ‘No Matches, that is ‘original)

    Testing software at:

    http://churnalism.sunlightfoundation.com/

    I submitted two articles, one containing information from sources on KGB paid Rrajiv Gandhi( Is ubmitted the url)

    The result.

    ‘TEXT MATCHED
    No Matches

    and another The Text from my url http://ramanisblog.in/2013/04/24/directing-the-mind-yoga-sutra-1-12/

    “Explaining that the modifications of the Chithi,Yoga delves further into describing the tool that can make the Modifications extinct and enable the Individual to return to his original Self or His Natural Identity..

    The modifications of the Chitha starts from and due to the Mind and its activities.

    Can we control The Mind be controlled and make us do our bidding?

    Yoga confirms we can.

    But it is difficult.

    We are aware how difficult it is to reign in the Mind.

    The more one tries to control the Mind, more it would become uncontrollable and roam, than it would have been, had we kept quiet.

    This is not a disqualification for practicing Yoga nor is this unique to you, of us , the fickle minded.

    Arjuna,who mastered the art of Concentration, for he was the one, when asked by his Guru to hit a bird,after felling it , said later, that he could see nothing else but the bird only, found it difficult to control the Mind and confesses to lord Krishna in The Bhagavad Gita.(6.34)

    The Result.

    TEXT MATCHED
    No Matches

     

    TEXT SUBMITTEDSomething Wrong With The Text? Flag It Now.Photo Essay on the killing of Tamerlan, the suspect involved in Boston Marathon bombing, who was killed in Watertown shoot out. The Tsarnaev brothers take cover. Multiple police vehicles. Kitzenberg says you can see the suspects firing at police officers. Kitzenberg’s zoomed-in photo, highlighting a pressure cooker bomb. A blast mark from the explosion. After shooting had stopped my roommate found a bullet hole that penetrated his west-facing wall and continued to pierce through his desk chair. Watertown Shootout From Kitzenberg’s blog: Body of Tamerlan, Boston Bomber. Watertown Shootout Timeline. UPDATE 3:20PM 4/23/2013: I have decided to take down the photos during the ongoing investigation. On Thursday night [Friday morning] at 12:45am EST. I was in my living room working on my computer when I heard multiple “pops” coming from outside. At that point, I had no idea that I was about to become an eye witness to the biggest news story in the country. When I looked outside my window, I could clearly see two people (the Tsarnaev brothers) taking cover behind an SUV and engaging in gunfire. After witnessing shots being fired I promptly ran up the stairs to my 3rd floor bedroom to distance myself a little further away from the gunfire. As I ran into my room, overwhelmed by shock, adrenaline, and curiosity, I jumped onto my bed to stay below the windows but also have a clear view at the shooters and photograph the event. As soon as I was laying safely on my bed I started taking pictures with my iPhone 5 and captured the following images that documented the terrifying shootout with the Tsarnaev brothers, which then led to an overnight citywide manhunt. Here are the two brothers taking cover behind the black Mercedes SUV and shooting towards Watertown Police officers. (Taken at 12:46:11AM) http://urbangrounds.com/2013/04/tamerlan-tsarnaev-radical-islam/ Images Ack.Huffpost. Like this: Like Loading.”

    The Result.

    TEXT MATCHED
    No Matches

    2 url submitted:

    .http://ramanisblog.in/2011/02/16/kgb-paid-money-to-sonia-rahul-rajiv-gandhi/

    Result.

    TEXT MATCHED
    No Matches

    Essential Rule of Blogging that,

    ‘you can quote, provide Links, Sources, Credits and make sure your views are original’

            is proved.

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  • Blogs Influential Than Tweets, Study-Naturally

    A Study reveals that Blogs are more influential tha Tweets and Social Media.

     

    I understand that.

     

    I am of the view that blogs are more detailed, reasoned and informative than Tweets.

     

    Tweets are generally your opinion or impressions to a story or News.

     

    Here you do not the luxury of reasoning out your views.

     

    Tweets and Social media Communications are essentially a communication between a Group or Groups, while blogs target a larger audience.

     

    In Social Media like Facebook, you first express your interest, likes to make people find you.

     

    In Blogs, you leave the material and let the Reader take find you.

     

    Being better reasoned out pieces Blogs tend to have better credibility.

     

    Attention Span is more for a Blog.

     

    I have assumed, in this exercise that Tweets,Social Media Messages, to be good ones.

     

     

    Surprising that in the story WordPress which ,

     

    “WordPress.com users produce about 49.3 million new postsand 50.7 million new comments each month and

     

    Over 378 million people view more than 4.0 Milliarden pages each month.”

     

    doesn’t get mentioned in The Story!

     

    Story:

    Reading the mainstream media you would think the social web started solely comprised of Twitter, and people’s 140 character messages. Any brand not taking part is surely doomed.

    Not so, as new research shows that not only do blogs still have tremendous influence, they actually drive more sales than other forms of social media.

    We saw some evidence of that last week with news that Tumblr now hosts more than 100 million blogs.

    Confirmation comes in the Technocrati 2013 digital influence report. It show that blogs were one of the most trusted forms of online media, with 31% of respondents being influenced to purchase via blogs, the third highest after retail sites (56%) and brand sites (34%). I may be biased, but I’d suggest this rather shows the value of marketers and the brands they represent engaging with relevant high profile bloggers in their field.

    As you can see from the graphics below, Pinterest, Twitter and Instagram, for all the hype around them, rank among the lowest influencers of purchases.

    Online Purchases likely to Influence.
    Online Purchases likely to Influence.

    MediaBistro’s All Twitter blog rightly points out that there is a discrepancy between influence, and what brands spend on social and digital marketing:

    “Budget-wise, brands are spending only 10% on social, more than half of which goes to Facebook (57%). YouTube and Twitter each get 13% of the brand digital budget, while about 6% is spent on influencers and 5% advertising on blogs.”

    While it’s understandable that a bulk of money goes on Facebook, which is still influential, quite clearly some more of that digital marketing budget needs to start swing the way of bloggers and influences – only 11% does so far, despite the clear trust that consumers have for blogs. Brands are spending money to drive likes, and consumers are sharing content, but they are turning to blogs they trust to guide making purchases.

    Customers like to ‘follow’ and ‘like’ brands to keep up to date with them, they very rarely use them to make purchases:

    Why consumers Follow Brands.
    Why consumers Follow Brands.

     

    http://wallblog.co.uk/2013/04/02/blogs-still-more-influential-than-twitter-says-study/

    http://en.wordpress.com/stats/

     

     

     

     

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  • Beware of Confused Teachers and Teachings on the Net.

    Higher detail image of Swami_Vivekananda.jpg S...
    Image via Wikipedia

    I just had a Link forwarded to me by my son.

    The link is provided at the end of the blog.

    What was shocking is the confusion of thoughts masquerading as Teachings which will confuse the already confused ones who happen to come across pieces like this.

    Kindly read what you see but check out facts with authoritative sources before attempting to follow them.
    This applies to my writings as well, not that I teach.

    If God were to be in everything we see and because God is in my Mind, how is it that ‘Nothing I see means anything’?
    What is ‘attack thought’?
    What do you want to see differently if what ‘Nothing I see means anything’
    What is a ‘neutral thought?
    If You are invulnerable how does your ‘attack thoughts ‘attack your invulnerability?
    Seems to me a confusion of Ayn Rand,Kierkegaard,Jean Pal Sartre and Indian Philosophy thrown in haphazardly.
    Mind is an organ just like other organs like eyes etc.
    It receives information as a store house.
    It does not discriminate.
    Discrimination is the function of the intellect which ascribes values to thoughts.
    The world is what it is .
    At the same time it ceases its relevance when you realize your SELF-you can substitute it with God now, considering the thoughts you have.
    Mind, World etc. are the Attributes of God/Reality.
    Then why do we experience pleasure,pain,inconsistencies in the world?
    The answer is Nescience or Avidya at the individual level and Maya at the Universal level.
    The world of things always ‘is’
    The delusion is due to the interplay of senses with the finer matter called ‘Thanmaathras’.
    I recommend Swami Vivekananda‘s Works for the beginner and a little later essentials of Hinduism by Professor Hiriyanna,Six Systems of Indian Philosophy by Prof.Das Gupta.
    Reference may be taken to Srimad Bhagavad Gita under the guidance of one who knows Indian philosophy.

    Also The Bible without commentary,The Koran without reference to interpretations -straight.

    These Great Books are available in Google Books.

    May I suggest that original sources of Masters or justification for teachings(?) be incorporated in the blog as people under pressure may not be depressed further by a confused Mind.

    I  can write a detailed reply but I can not because of space constraints.

    If queries are posted I will be happy to assist.

    Story:

    Today we are continuing to develop the theme of cause and effect. You are not the victim of the world you see because you invented it. You can give it up as easily as you made it up. You will see it or not see it, as you wish. While you want it you will see it; when you no longer want it, it will not be there for you to see.

    The world you see is your invention. You have made up everything you see and you sustain the world through your thoughts about it. Every idea you have about what you see is simply wrong. The reason is:

    1. Nothing I see means anything
    2. I have given what I see all the meaning it has for me
    3. I do not understand anything I see
    4. These thoughts do not mean anything
    5. I am never upset for the reason I think
    6. I am upset because I see what is not there
    7. I see only the past
    8. My mind is preoccupied with past thoughts
    9. I see nothing as it is now
    10. My thoughts do not mean anything
    11. My meaningless thoughts are showing me a meaningless world.
    12. I am upset because I see a meaningless world
    13. A meaningless world engenders fear
    14. God did not create a meaningless world
    15. My thoughts are images that I have made
    16. I have no neutral thoughts
    17. I see no neutral things
    18. I am not alone in experiencing the effects of my seeing
    19. I am not alone in experiencing the effects of my thoughts
    20. I am determined to see
    21. I am determined to see things differently
    22. What I see is a form of vengeance
    23. I can escape from this world by giving up attack thoughts.
    24. I do not perceive my own best interest
    25. I do not know what anything is for
    26. My attack thoughts are attacking my invulnerability
    27. Above all else I want to see
    28. Above all else I want to see differently
    29. God is in everything I see
    30. God is in everything I see because God is in my mind
    31. I am not the victim of the world I see
    32. I have invented the world I see.

    http://thelighthascome.wordpress.com/2010/02/01/i-have-invented-the-world-i-see/