Pre Raphaelites Painting

The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (later known as the Pre-Raphaelites) was a group of English painters, poets, and critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais and Dante Gabriel Rossetti. The three founders were joined by William Michael Rossetti, James Collinson, Frederic George Stephens and Thomas Woolner to form the seven-member "brotherhood".
The group's intention was to reform art by rejecting what it considered the mechanistic approach first adopted by Mannerist artists who succeeded Raphael and Michelangelo. Its members believed the Classical poses and elegant compositions of Raphael in particular had been a corrupting influence on the academic teaching of art, hence the name "Pre-Raphaelite". In particular, the group objected to the influence of Sir Joshua Reynolds, founder of the English Royal Academy of Arts, whom they called "Sir Sloshua". To the Pre-Raphaelites, according to William Michael Rossetti, "sloshy" meant "anything lax or scamped in the process of painting ... and hence ... any thing or person of a commonplace or conventional kind". In contrast, the brotherhood wanted a return to the abundant detail, intense colours and complex compositions of Quattrocento Italian art. The group associated their work with John Ruskin, an English artist whose influences were driven by his religious background.

A new proposal for the office of the future

Dutch architects have a new proposal for the office of the future - you can stand, sit, lean, lie, and crouch wherever you like. 

The research is clear - we need to stop sitting down so much because it’s slowly killing us all. Right now, we’ve got two choices to mitigate the damage - getting up and walking around at regular intervals, or investing in a standing desk.

But what if you could change the entire office environment to reflect how far the science of standing and sitting has come? Or, as architect Ronald Rietveld from the design firm, RAAAF, told Margaret Rhodes at Wired, "What if we had an environment without chairs and tables, and we don’t think in these archetypes, but in terms of activities?”Teaming up with Dutch artist Barbara Visser, staff at RAAAF are right now constructing “The End of Sitting” -  a new live installation in the Looiersgracht 60 exhibit space in Amsterdam. 

The idea sprang from an initiative launched by the Chief Government Architect of the Netherlands to get local designers thinking about how to design the shared office space with everything we now know about how our existing ones are affecting our health. “I think he didn’t expect[ed] the plans we came up with,” Rietveld told Rhodes. “We are really focusing on a longer-term vision.”

"We are not actually focusing on rocks taking over the world or something,” he added to Adele Peters at Fast Company. "It's a thinking model. That's the way we work as a studio - we try to work on the border of architecture, art, and science, to come up with new ways of thinking rather than solving all of the world's problems."

According to Wired, the RAAAF team studied a range of body poses and movements to figure out which were most comfortable. It’s not enough to assume that leaning back on a well-positioned, stanty wall for an hour is going to be comfortable, the designers had to figure out how to support the feet so that new healthy posture doesn’t become an unnecessary work-out.

One of the team’s main focusses was to improve the existing standing desk. While they’re infinitely better than the classic seated option, standing desks as we know them are certainly not perfect. For one, they’re reportedly giving devotees ‘cankles’ - fat ankles because of so much blood pooling down there all day. They can cause leg and back pain that impact on work. It can foster bad posture habits.
Supported standing, on the other hand, can lesson these negative health effects while cashing in on the good ones. It "can engage the muscles - hopefully enough to prevent the drop in fat-burning enzymes that occurs during long periods of sitting - without tiring out the employee’s legs and lower back quite so much,” says Rhodes at Wired. "The maze-like series of angled and tapered frames [in “The End of Sitting”] create an infinite number of leaning spots, for workers of any height. There are no fixed desks, so employees might find it natural to roam around and be active."
The team has now opened up the conversation to the public, asking them to come in and try out their new office space and leave feedback about their experience. They want to figure out which positions were most comfortable, how long it takes to get sore or fatigued, and what practical concerns they might have. Where even does my coffee cup go? They’ve teamed up with researchers from the Netherlands’ University of Groningen, who will publish the findings next year.
“What seems to be a result is that after a day of working, people are more active in their head, but more tired in their body. And that's actually what it's all about - the main goal is to actually put more pressure on your legs during the day, and take different positions,”  Rietveld told Peters at Fast Company. "That's what sitting is not doing."

Thanks http://www.sciencealert.com

Clay refrigerator

Mansukh Prajapati, a potter, came up with this terrific idea of a building a clay refrigerator for people who cannot afford refrigerators. Called as the Mitti Cool fridge, the contraption measuring 18.5 inch in height and 11 inch in width has two water tanks – one each at the top and the bottom. The working of the fridge is similar to that of clay pots used in rural areas,ones that keep water cool in the summers. It requires neither electricity nor any artificial form of energy so reducing recurring costs to zero. Miticool’s total costs in around Rs. 2000/- , which is almost 80% lesser than conventional refrigerator.

Mitti Cool's top tank can store about 20 liter of water, while the center cabinet has space for storing fruits,vegetables and milk. The natural cooling process inside the refrigerator keeps the vegetables and fruits fresh for up to seven days, while milk can be preserved for three days. The fridge keeps the temperature down in the 5 to 8 Degree Celsius range.

Mansukh didn't stop here. Now his company ‘Mitticool Clay Creation' makes 10+ products made up of pure clay, affordable enough to satisfy poor person’s needs.

Mansukh’s efforts are recorded by Forbes Magazine and listed him in list of seven most powerful rural Indian entrepreneurs, whose “inventions are changing lives” of the people across the country. He is also awarded by Honorable president of India.

‘Gita my basis for counselling Hindus in U.S. military’ Pratima Dharm

Indian-American Pratima Dharm speaks of her deep links with India, and shares her thoughts on Hindus in the U.S. military and the kind of leader she hopes Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be.

Indian-American Pratima Dharm has been a pioneer on multiple counts – last month she was appointed as the first ever Hindu chaplain of a U.S. university and in 2011 she made history after the Pentagon named her as its first Hindu and inter-faith chaplain.

She served in the U.S. military through some of the hardest times faced by its soldiers in the battlefields of Iraq, and she counselled many of them afflicted by PTSD, steering them away from suicide, and helping them reclaim their familial relationships. She also participated in humanitarian aid missions into the Kurdish regions of northern Iraq, an experience that left her with a lasting ties to the people there.

In a conversation with Narayan Lakshman Ms. Dharm spoke of her deep links with India and the principles of Hinduism that she associates with her upbringing in the country, and also shared her thoughts on Hindus in the U.S. military and the kind of leader she hopes Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be.

Your appointments as a Hindu chaplain at a major U.S. university, and before that as an inter-faith chaplain in the U.S. army were unprecedented, and made headlines in India. By way of background could you tell us about how you came to take up these roles, and what links you have with India?

I grew up in northern India, primarily Maharashtra and some parts of Gujarat and I ended up doing some parts of my schooling and my college education in Mumbai. So I still have ties with India because I have family members from both from my side and my husband’s side in India. My husband’s family is in Bangalore and Chennai. We visit India so that our children remain connected to all their family in India.

My appointment in the U.S. army came about with my years of training as a chaplain, studying for it in the U.S. I have a master’s degree in psychology from India and in the U.S. I have a master’s degree in theology and years of training to become a chaplain.

I am hoping that many others could follow [the path of inter-faith chaplaincy in the U.S. military] because I have always believed that there should be a freedom to choose whichever religion a person wishes to follow as a path to god, or to understanding their lives or understanding themselves.

There were scores and scores of South Asians that practiced Hinduism [in the U.S. military] even before I became a Hindu chaplain. But becoming a Hindu chaplain facilitates that mood and practice of their faith by the celebration of various Hindu festivals, Hindu sacraments and the Hindu way of life, which is very new here in the U.S.

As I transition out of active duty I have just accepted an offer to get into Georgetown University, which I believe is the first [U.S.] university to have hired a Hindu chaplain.

Could you tell me more about the scores of Hindus in the U.S. army?

There is absolutely a growing number of Hindus, not just from India, but from Trinidad, Guyana, Fiji, Surinam, and the West Indies. There are so many Hindus that come from all over the world and they part of the U.S. military – not just the army but the Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, and the Public Health services.

All of them have a growing number of Hindus and there is that level or feeling of comfort that it is ok to practice your faith openly.

Do you think that before you came on board or some years ago, it was harder for them to practice their religion freely and if so is that changing now?

What I am referring to is a psychology or state of mind where you can practice your faith but when you live in a majority surrounding that does not understand your faith, most people tend to keep it to themselves.

For example they may celebrate Diwali at home or in temples but definitely not think of doing that in the military, in the sense that they would not be understood.

Since I came on board, I admit that it has been a struggle for me, at least for the first three or four years, just to get that educational piece out, so that [the non-Hindus in the military] could be educated about Hinduism.

All they knew about Hinduism was yoga, which comes from swamijis, gurujis and various sampradayas [religious tradition]. But Hinduism is really deep and is a way of life. It is very different from most Western religions. It does not have the same set of boundaries in that one Hindu may practice differently from the other.

It is really common that your sampradaya may be different or your family social history may be different, and that determines how you practice your Hinduism. That is absolutely alright, because there is so much variation in Hinduism because it is one of the oldest religions and over time it was shaped and it has also taken in a lot.

The tendency in Hinduism has actually been to absorb over time – it has taken in a lot of elements and yet there is room enough for every kind of thought to float and exist at the same time, which is very new for Western religions.

Do you think that Hinduism is gaining more acceptance and is becoming more widely understood in the U.S., or in the military as you’ve seen it?

To answer you very honestly it will be years before it is understood more fully. There are a lot of perception [issues] and my work is to work on the perception part of it and it can be a struggle because sometimes you can feel frustrated that it is a big task. But I feel a call – that it has to be done. I feel it is a natural place for me to do that and I felt no regrets doing it. I pray that that would create the space for many more Hindus to practice their faith and not feel conscious about it. That has been the idea behind it.

Was there an option for you to continue this work or did you choose to leave active service and move into a university setting?

I joined the army during the war and during a war you owe them a minimum of eight years of service, which I have done.

You are referring specifically to which war or year?

The present war, which has been going on since 2001, in Afghanistan, and [more broadly] the war on terror since 9/11.

Where were you deployed to?

I was deployed to Iraq, for a year.

Were you directly exposed to the pressures of combat operations there? If so, what did you experience, and what was your role in that context, as an inter-faith chaplain?

Absolutely, yes. My role was exactly to take care of my soldiers, my command and all the soldiers that fell under it, which is almost 5,000 soldiers. It was also to take care of my soldiers who were spread out throughout the battlefield, and the battlefield was really huge – it was spread throughout Iraq.

So I would go either by road or by flight to reach out to the soldiers, to take care of them. There was a lot of combat stress that you deal with in a war zone and when you take care of your soldiers you work with them on many, many issues.

Suicide prevention is one of the highest areas of concentrated education and training, especially within the army, because it has such a high rate of suicide particularly due to the effects of this war, which has been very long.

It has taken its toll, physical and emotional, on the soldiers, and on their families as well. As a chaplain I do a lot of individual counselling as well as counselling for families. Trying to save marriages was honestly the bottom line because we wanted to make sure the soldiers were happy, peaceful, in a fulfilling relationship so that when it comes to the mission, they are mission-ready, emotionally, physically, and spiritually.

That is our job. So we come up with different programmes to enhance that, because the battlefield breaks you down, a lot.

We also do worship services. I did a lot of humanitarian foreign aid missions for the Kurdish people, almost 12 of them, to provide them with medical supplies, toys, musical instruments, clothes, shoes, books, school supplies and a gamut of things we took to them. It was very well received.

Given your faith and background rooted in Hinduism, how do you help people deal with the fallout of war that you mentioned?

I was trying to make sense of the war within my faith condition. War is not untoward even though India particularly has not gone to war for thousands of years against any country.

Really you have the start [of India engaging in warfare] with the Mahabharata and the Ramayana – so we did have wars and we have a historical basis for that.

It is also very much part of the Bhagwat Gita – how we make sense of war and what is your duty towards that. We do have a lot support for that from the Hindu tradition, to make sense of war. For me, that was my basis, to go to war and to be able to offer the best of myself.

In terms of the Bhagwat Gita, [the basis for war] is explained by the words of Shri Krishna to Arjuna trying to bolster him and try to see the real from the unreal. Hinduism gives us that basis to live in this world.

You have the four pillars of Hinduism – dharma, artha, kama, and moksha – those are the pillars on which the entire faith stands. It is a guide to us [about] how we live in this world – we are called to do our duty, we are called to find a purpose in this world.

We are also called, in our daily duties, as we perform our dharma, to always remember where we come from, and that is the only reality that we meditate upon, the ultimate truth, the Brahman.

That is our strength, to always be mindful of that. When we forget, we have conflict and there is an unsteadiness as to how we respond to the current situation.

War, similarly, is very much a part of this world. Hinduism, like other religions, teaches that there is no war beyond that, other than the reference that we see in the puranic scriptures to the battle between the devas fighting with the demons.

But really, the guiding principle is to live in this world as if things are temporary. This too shall pass and we are here to do our duty.

That basis is so much present in the words of Lord Shri Krishna. I am from the Vaishnava tradition and the words of Lord Shri Krishna are so meaningful to me.

That’s what I gave to the soldiers, and yes, I did counsel Hindus during the war in Iraq. My basis was the Bhagwat Gita.

Iraq was obviously an important part of your life and work earlier. What do you make of the situation there now, for example the rise of Islamic State (IS) and the turmoil that Iraq and Syria have been plunged into?

It is really sad, because that is a chapter that we closed when we came back. War is not something that stops when you have left the war zone. You continue on with what you take away from the war. And you always take away [something] from the war.

It’s something like divorce. Divorce is like a war and a lot of my soldiers faced that. But even when the judge and the couple have signed those papers the war is not over, or the marriage is not totally over emotionally, for both sides. People tend to struggle with the remnants of divorce and its aftereffects for years to come.

Similarly with war soldiers continue to carry a part of that [with them after they have left the battlefield]. With me too it is normal to carry a part of that, and in my case it was the area that IS is in right now, where I did a lot of humanitarian aid missions – the Kurdish region of northern Iraq.

My experience was the different faith groups there existed very peacefully and most of them had an acceptance of each other’s differences – Muslims, Christians and so-called pagans, who are actually quite similar in their beliefs to a lot of sampradayas, even Hinduism.

So it is not sad from the religious point of view but the human perspective. That is, not so much that a person of a similar religion is being affected, but that another human being is getting hurt and they’re not able to live based on what they believe in.

I was very well received [in the Kurdish region] and they have a very positive view of Indian people. I was very surprised to be invited into their homes – they just opened their hearts and homes to me.

That was actually a very beautiful part of my war memories – that I was able to have those connections. The sadness is even more that I am not there [now] as a lot of the work that was done then has been undone. My heart and my prayers go out to the people, that they would be safe. It is quite heart-wrenching to see that.

Looking now at India, what do you think the recent election of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the rise of the BJP means for Hinduism broadly? Do you have any thoughts on the state of Hinduism as it is in India today, both as a religious concept or as a political concept, increasingly?

I am very happy that Narendra Modi is [the Prime Minister], not because he is a Hindu or that he represents Hinduism, but in terms of his righteousness. I pray, given what little I do know of him, that he is indeed righteous.

Hinduism has had a lot of leaders in the past. Historically, our books are really about the righteous leader and the one who is not righteous should not be on the throne.

That is what I carry forward with me – the righteousness that I learnt from within my faith tradition, the sanatan dharma. That is the strength of Hinduism. If that righteousness is carried forward, that will be wonderful, not only because of the righteousness itself but because Hinduism can co-exist with so many different religions.

I pray and my hope is that it will continue, because that is the greatness of India – that it has accommodated so many religions and that is the beauty, the heart and the greatness of Hindus and Hinduism.

That is my war and fight here as well, and the struggle, that Hindus need to be accepted for who they are, without changing and shaping their Hinduism for anyone; or that if Hindus became the majority anyone else had to shape themselves. Really, we have to coexist.

So first, I stick to the fact that I pray that Narendra Modi proves himself and he has so far, and he continues to prove himself on the grounds of being a righteous leader who fights for truth and stands for truth, honesty and integrity.

My grandfather was a Gandhian and we have made a lot of sacrifices. The same thoughts and the values continue with us even in the U.S., that we stand for integrity and honesty. These are also principles given to me from the sanatan dharma, but do I say every Hindu is like that? No. Is every Christian like that? No, but it is a choice that you make, even as a Hindu, to be righteous.

I pray that Narendra Modi would make that as a daily choice, which it seems like he does, and that India would be able to follow true as a nation and be righteous as well. Our scriptures tell us that all the time as a reminder, and people forget in a wave of passion but really, every leader will come and go. Why do we remember Ram today? It is because he was righteous.

It is a very, very difficult place to be in, even Bhishma failed, because he took sides. The beauty of Hinduism is that it teaches us not to take sides. It is such a beautiful religion and way of life that it says ‘You always pick the righteous, you always pick the right path, you always do the right thing. There is no other way but that.’

source: the hindu

SIGNS IN MEDICINE ::

1. Aaron’s sign :: seen in appendicitis. On firm pressure over the McBurney’s point the patient with appendicitis will feel distress in the epigastrium or precordial region.

2. Ball’s sign- is seen in fetal death .There will be hyperflexion of the spine.

3. Banana sign –the frontal lobes will be concave .This is due to neural tube defects

4. Chvostek’s sign -The facial nerve is tapped at its exit from the stylomastoid foramen. This leads to brief twitching of the facial muscles, ala of the nose and the blinking of the eyelids. .Elevation of the corner of mouth may b e seen.

5. Comby’s sign-is seen in measles. In early stages thin whitish patches are seen on the gums and buccal mucous membranes.

6. Cullen sign-A bluish discoloration seen around the umbilicus in patients with acute hemorrhagic pancreatitis.

7. Dance sign- in intussusception. The right lower quadrant may feel empty to palpation in intussusception.

8. Dimple sign- Cart-Wheel pattern of fibroblast seen in Dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans.

9. Faget’s sign- is seen in yellow fever. Relative bradycardia is present from the second day of the illness.

10. Flag sign- Flag sign may be seen in Kwashiorkor. The hair will be alternately normal and depigmented. The hair in cases of severe malnutrition will be hypopigmented. As the nutrition improves the pigmentation of the hair will be normal. Hence the hair will be alternately normally pigmented and hypopigmented, giving the appearance of a flag

11. Kernig’s sign-The patient lies supine .The hip is flexed and the knee is extended passively. In patients with meningitis there will be pain and spasm of hamstrings.
It is positive in meningeal irritation and sub arachnoid haemorrhage. It is relatively less important in infancy and early childhood as it may be negative in spite of meningeal involvement. However, it is a very useful sign in older children.

இவரை பற்றி உங்களுக்குத் தெரியுமா?

STORY OF PRAMEELA WOMAN WARRIORS OF BHARATAM ( QUEEN PRAMILA!!!)

STATUS OF WOMEN IN ANCIENT BHARATVARSH

In Hindu Vedic society : The women occupied a very important position, in the ancient Bharat Varse,In fact far superior position to the men of the that time. "Shakti" a feminine term means "power" and "strength".

APPROX 3100BCE .... It is said that Goddess Parvati had cursed the land to be such that the women folk remain devoid of male partners, which was then decreed to be freed of the curse only when Arjun would arrive in pursuit of the sacred horse of the Aswamedha yagya /

STORY OF PRAMEELA : Prameela, a woman-queen of unparalleled beauty, valour, wisdom and spirituality, a misogamist who ultimately weds Arjuna (Pandava hero). She is said to have ruled the region that is now Kerala (then Seemanthini Nagara) which sort of explains the matrilineal society still prevalent in Kerala.

The story begins where Dharmaraja (post-Mahabharata victory) is advised to hold ‘Ashwamedha Yagna’ (horse sacrifice) to re-establish the Pandava sovereignity. A white handsome horse is let loose across all the kingdoms and whoever holds the horse captive is considered to question the supremacy of the Pandava king and would therefore have to battle the king or his representative who is accompanying the horse.

Queen Prameela does exactly this. Meanwhile, Arjuna’s ego, which had taken a beating at the Mahabharata war front with Krishna’s Gitopadesha (sermon), re-surfaces, questioning the need for Krishna’s presence in accompanying a mere horse! Kamala Kumari was able to explicitly bring out the human tendency to bloat with self-conceit at victory and challenge the Divine (Krishna) due to one’s own egoistic blindness. The ban on entry of any male into Prameela’s kingdom confounds Arjuna who is forced to humble himself and seek Krsishna’s intervention time and again till he wins the queen’s hand.

This echoes Devi-Mahatmiyam prayer:

By you this universe is borne, by you this world is created; By you it is protected, By you it is consumed at the end, O Devi! You are the Supreme Knowledge, as well as intellect and contemplation...

Women were held in higher respect in India than in other ancient countries, and the Epics and old literature of India assign a higher position to them than the epics and literature of other religions. Hindu women enjoyed rights of property from the Vedic Age, took a share in social and religious rites, and were sometimes distinguished by their learning. There was no seclusion of women in India in ancient times.