America and China More Peaceful than India

The world has become more peaceful for the first time since 2009, says the 2012 Global Peace Index, a study conducted by Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP). India's rank slipped to 142 in comparison with 137 last year. Unites States of America was ranked 88 while China was ranked 89 in the GPI.

 
The Global Peace Index for 158 countries composed of 23 indicators, ranging from measures of civil unrest and crime to military spending, involvement in armed conflict and ties with neighbors. The survey gauged three broad themes, namely the level of safety and security in society, the extent of domestic or international conflict and the degree of militarization.

 
Iceland is the most peaceful country in the world, followed by Denmark and New Zealand. Canada takes the fourth position on the Global Peace Index list while Japan takes the fifth. Somalia remains the world’s least peaceful nation. Afghanistan, Sudan, Iraq and Democratic Republic of Congo round up the bottom five. Israel and Pakistan were also ranked among one of the least peaceful nations.

 
The study also noted that Saarc nations like Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh are more peaceful than India. The survey founder Steve Killelea, an Australian entrepreneur said that in the past 12 months India's relation with its neighbors has improved. He added that "We expect this to continue for betterment of the entire region," as reported by TOI.

As per regions, Asia Pacific has an overall score improved by the largest extent from last year and included three of the top five risers. Sub-Saharan Africa is not the least peaceful region for the first time and has steadily increased levels of peacefulness since 2007. Middle East and North Africa were noted to be the least peaceful region, reflecting the upheaval and instability caused by the Arab Spring.

 
Western Europe remains noticeably the most peaceful region with the majority of its countries in the top 20 for the sixth consecutive year. North America showed a slight improvement, continuing a trend since 2007. While Latin America experienced overall gain with 16 of the 23 countries seeing improvements to their GPI score. All regions excluding the Middle East and North Africa saw an improvement in levels of overall peacefulness.

 
The top 5 fallers were noted to be Syria, Egypt, Tunisia, Oman and Malawi. Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, Bhutan, Guyana and the Philippines were the top 5 risers on the Global Peace index list.

 
There has been a change for the indicators as well. The top three largest improvements were noted for the political terror scale, terrorist acts and military expenditure as a percent of GDP. Improvements were seen in the military sphere, including a decline in military expenditure as a percentage of GDP in 2011, as many countries hit by economic headwinds moved to reduce budget deficits. Six of the world’s top military spenders: Brazil, France, Germany, India, the UK and the U.S., cut their defence budgets in 2011.

11 Homeless People Who Became Rich And Famous

Oscar winner Halle Berry once stayed in a homeless shelter in her early twenties

 

When she first moved to Chicago to become an actress, Berry ran out of money and her mother decided the best thing would not be to send her daughter money.

During these struggling times, the actress admits to staying in a homeless shelter.

In an interview with Star Pulse, the actress said:

"It taught me how to take care of myself and that I could live through any situation, even if it meant going to a shelter for a small stint, or living within my means, which were meager. I became a person who knows that I will always make my own way."

 

Jim Carrey once lived out of a VW camper van and in a tent on his sister's front lawn

cinemafestival / Shutterstock.com

Carrey said it was during these tough financial times growing up when he developed a sense of humor.

Yahoo! reported that the comedian dropped out of high school and lived in a VW bus with his family parked in different places throughout Canada. They eventually moved into a tent on his older sister's lawn and parked the van in the driveway.

 

The co-founder of Canada's largest specialty chain of coffee shops was once homeless because of a drinking problem

 

While he was in his early 20s, Frank O'Dea was panhandling and living on the streets, according to John Demont at The Chronicle Herald.

That was, until he and his business partner opened Second Cup, which is the largest specialty coffee chain in Canada today with 360 locations.

Personal finance guru Suze Orman is now worth approximately $25 million, but she lived out of her van for four months in 1973

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When she first moved to Berkeley, California, Orman couldn't afford to move out of her van — today she owns about $7 million worth in real estate, reported msn.com

The well-known Emmy-winning financial advisor has also published numerous New York Times bestsellers.

After being fired, Jewel was homeless for about a month and almost died in a parking lot

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Before becoming the multi-platinum singer Jewel, she lived on the streets after losing her job. In an interview with Adam on Showbizspy, the singer said:

“I ended up homeless because my boss propositioned me and when I wouldn’t sleep with him he didn’t give me my paycheck,” she said.

“I got kicked out of where I was living and my rent was due that next day.

“I thought ‘Well, I’ll live in my car for a minute… get back on my feet,’ but I had bad kidneys and I never could hold down another job because I got sick so often. I didn’t have insurance and ended up almost dying in the parking lot of an emergency room because they wouldn’t admit me because I didn’t have insurance.

“I ended up homeless for about a month and I went back to singing.”

Daniel Craig, or "James Bond," once had to sleep on park benches in London

 

He's now got several critically-acclaimed movies on his resume, but Hollyscoop reported that the "007" actor used to sleep on park benches as a struggling actor.

Chris Gardner inspired the movie "The Pursuit of Happyness" and was homeless with a young son while he was in a finance training program

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Aside from a movie based on his life starring Will Smith, Gardner also has two New York Times bestselling books under his belt: his autobiography "The Pursuit of Happyness" and "Start Where You Are: Life Lessons in Getting from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be."

But before his story was shared with the world, Gardner was living on the streets with his young son. At the time, he was trying to pursue a career in finance despite not having any experience in it, or even a college degree. He received a spot on the Dean Witter Reynolds training program, but couldn't afford to live off of the small salary, and his wife eventually left.

He is also a motivational speaker and CEO of Gardner Rich LLC with offices in New York, Chicago, and San Francisco.

According to his Web site, Gardner's childhood was "marked by poverty, domestic violence, alcoholism, sexual abuse and family illiteracy."

Michael Oher's story of homelessness and struggle in 'The Blind Side' was inspirational to the world

Wikipedia

During his childhood and teenaged years, Oher was living on the streets while his crack-addicted mother lived in public housing, reported NPR. 

He was eventually taken in to live with a wealthy family, played college football at the University of Mississippi and drafted into the NFL in 2009 for the Baltimore Ravens.

His inspirational story was turned into Michael Lewis's 2006 book "The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game" and the movie "The Blind Side."

Singer Ella Fitzgerald was abused, had mafia ties and was homeless before becoming the 'Queen of Jazz'

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She would go on to sing for President Ronald Reagan in 1981, but before becoming "arguably the finest female jazz singer of all time," Fitzgerald was abused by her stepfather when her mother died at a young age, according to PoemHunter.com. 

She worked with the mafia for some time before the police put her in a school for girls.

Fitzgerald ran away from there and was homeless until debuting at the Apollo Theater in 1934. Her voice quickly won her fame and throughout her career, she won 13 Grammy Awards and received medals from both President Reagan and George H. W. Bush.

She died in 1996, but her face appeared on a United States postal stamp in 2007.

 

Before becoming the greatest magician, Harry Houdini ran away from home at the age of 12 and begged on the streets for coins

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At a young age, Houdini knew he wanted to be a magician and ran away from home by hopping a freight car, according to Appleton Public Library.

He ended up in Missouri.

A few years later, he moved to New York City with his father, but they were so poor Houdini continued to panhandle on the streets.

He began his professional career at 17.

Before the age of 10, Charlie Chaplin had to figure out how to make a living on the streets of London

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After the early death of his father, Chaplin's mother was put in a mental hospital and the young boy and his brother had to try to make a living by themselves, according to his Web site. 

As both his parents were in show business, Chaplin and his brother decided to follow suit. Today, he's known as one of the greatest actors during the silent film era.

India to take steps to protect cyber infrastructure

India is set to take steps to protect itscyber infrastructure and designate agencies for carrying out offensive cyber attacks on other countries. The move comes at a time when proof shows countries launching cyber attacks - not only for intelligence gathering - and many nations describing the attacks as an act of war.

According to sources, the National Security Council(NSC) headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singhwould soon approve the comprehensive plan and designate the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) and National Technical Research Organization (NTRO) as agencies for carrying out offensive cyber operations, if necessary. All other intelligence agencies would be authorized to carry out intelligence gathering abroad, but not offensive operations, sources said.

The detailed policy for national cyber infrastructure protection is presently before the NSC awaiting its approval. The policy would identify all government agencies that would have a role in the protection of Indian cyber infrastructure and define their roles.

The move to not just define defensive mechanism but also designate agencies for offensive operations comes as New Delhi tackles repeated waves of cyber intrusions, though all of them are aimed at gathering information from critical networks. But the next stage, of an adversary carrying out offensive cyber attack, of bringing down a power grid, stalling air traffic control systems, or manipulating controls of a dam are now believed to be a real possibility.

Stuxnet, the cyber worm created by US's National Security Agency and Israeli military and specifically targeted at Iran's nuclear enrichment center at Natanz, was found to have infected Indian systems. "It was probably unintentional, but an intentional attack on India's critical infrastructure cannot be ruled out," says a senior official. "We haven't yet seen a cyber attack, but only intelligence gathering. An attack that can debilitate our infrastructure is what we must be prepared for," he said.

CERT-IN (Computer Emergency Response Team India) would be responsible for protection of most of the cyber space, while NTRO would be tasked to protect the critical infrastructure such as important government networks. NTRO would be tasked to create the National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre (NCIPC), which would be a command-and-control centre for monitoring the critical infrastructure. It would be a round-the-clock centre, providing real time response to cyber security breaches.

The proposal before NSC also envisages creation of sectoral CERTs in order to respond quickly to protect power distribution networks, Air Traffic Controls, traffic networks and other areas that heavily dependent on networked systems, and thus are susceptible to attacks.

The policy suggests that the defence forces would be responsible for their own networks' protection.

NTRO and Intelligence Bureau (IB) would primarily be responsible for security of various government networks. While NTRO would operate through NCIPC, IB would be mainly looking at the physical security of networks. State polices, CBI, NIA etc would be tasked to do follow up action, if any intrusions are detected.

Flame Virus! A Powerful Cyber Weapon Discovered

Bangalore:  A prominent Russian based internet security firm revealed that it had discovered a new and powerful virus that has extraordinary destructive potential, which is being utilized as a "cyberweapon" against several countries.
Kaspersky Lab, producers of largest anti-virus software said that their team of experts has discovered the virus known as “Flame” during an investigation process under the guidance of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). The firm said that countries like in Iran and others in the Middle East have been attacked using this spyware virus.
Flame is a data stealing virus that has creeped into thousands of computers across the Middle East for almost five years as part of a sophisticated cyber warfare campaign.
Comments by Israel’s vice premier have hinted that the awful Flame spyware is a product of Israel, as a defensive strategy against Iran's nuclear program which sees it as a mortal Threat reports Economic Times.
Moshe Yaalon told Army Radio on Tuesday, "Whoever sees the Iranian threat as a significant threat is likely to take various steps, including these, to hobble it."
He added, "Israel is blessed with high technology, and we boast tools that open all sorts of opportunities for us."
Roel Schouwenberg, security senior researcher at Kaspersky Lab said that "If Flame went on undiscovered for five years, the only logical conclusion is that there are other operations ongoing that we don't know about."
Researchers at Kaspersky said that they are still not very familiar with Flame and are in the process of understanding how the virus works because of its complex features. Moreover, they have also mentioned that the full significance will not be known until other cyber security firms obtain samples of Flame.
Kaspersky Lab’s research shows that Iran is the most affected country with largest number of infected machines, followed by the Israel/Palestine region, then Sudan and Syria.

8 Mind Games Interviewers Play in the Job Interview

1. They will stop their conversation for a while just to hear you talking: 

 

Many times during the job interview it is seen that Interviewers suddenly pause for an awkward silence creating some discomfort for the interviewee, this is because they want you to be in a high stress situation and plead for things in order to feel normal. Mark suggests the interviewers, that in such kind of a scenario where the interviewee feels uncomfortable, he/she is most likely to reveal the facts which you are looking for.2. To get you in the honesty mode, they will ask you questions about your preceding boss: 

 

Keep in mind that if the hiring manager is asking questions specifically about your ex boss, suggests that he/she is trying to psychologically turn you to honesty mode. Moreover, they can ask you to spell your boss’ name at the beginning of the interview to check your honesty. Mark in his book advises the recruiter that asking about the former boss make the interviewee more alert as they tend to think that their former boss will be contacted by the hiring manager so they are most likely to be in a position to spell out the truth.

3. To see that how you will finish the answers they will leave out parts of questions

 
Remember that if the job interviewer asks you to describe a difficult situation which you have faced in your lifetime without specifically asking you what you did in order to fix it, means that they are trying to find out from your answer that whether you are a problem solver or a problem bringer. This kind of question is generally framed to judge the candidate’s real attitude, so if you are a problem solver you will definitely answer the things that you have done to fix the problem, without the interviewers asking. Whereas, on the other hand if you are a problem bringer you will answer the question as it is.

4. Your pronoun usage is judged by the interviewer

 
Most interviewers today evaluate a candidate with his/her pronoun usage.  According to the survey conducted by leadership IQ, good performers in the interview answered in the first person which is 60 percent more than the candidates who declined to perform well.  The survey results demonstrates that low performers answered in the second person using you, your, which is 400 percent more than the high performers.

5. Interviewers tend to check the candidates adverb usage

 

Based on the survey it is seen that low performers are more likely to use adverbs, which is 40 percent more than the high performers. According to Mark the answers that are usually delivered by the high performers are direct, personal, and factual and in the past tense. Whereas, low performers might use adverbs to rise up their answers as the facts do not speak well enough on their own. Moreover, low performers answer the questions 90 percent with negative emotions than higher performers.

6. When you answer a question they will listen to your past tense:

 
The survey highlights that high performers respond more often in the past tense which is 40 percent more than the low performers. Whereas, on the other hand, low performers used the present tense 120 percent more frequently than high performers.

7. They will carefully observe whether you converse in active voice or not

 
People trying to sound smarter often use passive voice , which in turn sound more awkward  than the active voice. So job interviewers prefer hiring people who are more likely to use active voice in their sentences.

8. Usage of words like “ always” and “never” are observed by the interviewers

 
Job interviewers see that how often a candidate use words like “ always” and “never” in his/her sentences as this kind of words are generally used by low performers, which is 100 percent more often than high performers.

World's top 10 Online Pirate Nations

The U.S. government released America’s official piracy radar of 2012, a highest priority watch list of countries with highest piracy.

 
Many countries including India made it to the top 10 of the priority watch list, which said, “Online piracy is rapidly supplanting physical piracy in many markets around the world.” The list hopes to shame governments into cracking down on piracy and counterfeiting and updating their copyright laws.

 
Here are the high priority Pirate countries.

 
Russia

 
Russia is a hotbed of piracy where no copyright laws are followed. As an entertainment industry expert states it, “They’ll pirate everything in Russia.” It was Russia's 16th straight year on the list. But recently, due to the hard pressure from the entertainment industry, Russia had started to crack down on infringement.

 
 
Pakistan

 
Illegal audio and video copying is flourishing in Pakistan despite global efforts against it. Widespread counterfeiting and piracy, particularly book and optical disc remains the reason to put country in the watch list. According to the IFPI, Pakistani replication facilities are producing in excess of 230 million copies a year.

 Israel

 
Israel remains on the priority watch list. In additional to online piracy, the Cable piracy rate is high in Israel. Very high penetration rates of broadband Internet favor the digital pirates that make the latest movies, music and TV series nearly immediately available. At one time, the piracy levels of Israel had reached 50 percent. Insufficient local legislation and enforcement were poor in fighting increasing Internet piracy in Israel.

 
 
 Indonesia

 
Indonesia is one country which consistently tops the world rankings for piracy on the Web. The report says, “While Indonesia has smade positive efforts in 2011 to strengthen (intellectual property rights) protections, the United States was still “concerned that Indonesia’s enforcement efforts have not been effective in addressing challenges such as growing piracy over the Internet and the widespread availability of counterfeit pharmaceutical products.

 India

 
India remains on the Priority Watch List in 2012. The report says India’s legal framework and enforcement system remain weak.  The challenge of piracy over the Internet continues to grow and the Copyright (Amendment) Bill, which India had passed in 2010 appears to have stalled.

 
 China

 
Even though China remains under Government’s Big Wall of protection, the piracy rate in the country is high. 99% of all music downloads in China are illegal. The country has been on the priority watch list for eight years and subject to a special monitoring program. A wide range of rights holders reports serious obstacles to effective protection and enforcement of all forms of Intellectual Property rights in China, including patents, trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets, and protection of pharmaceutical test data.

Chile

 
Chile continues to rank high as one of the countries with the worst rates of copyright and Internet piracy offenders. Additional to the internet piracy, the film industry is most suffering from pirates in Chile. In 2009, Chilean piracy caused filmmakers losses of US$15 million.

 
 
 Canada

 
Canada remains on the Priority Watch List in 2012. The piracy watchdogs are forcing Canada to enact the long awaited copyright legislation, which will help the country to control piracy to some extend. According to the report, Canada's place on the list was "subject to review" if it enacts the legislation. Recently, the Government of Canada has given priority to the legislation.

 Argentina

 
Eventhough Argentina progress in taking action against the unauthorized distribution of pirated content over the Internet, the judicial system of the country remains inefficient to control the widespread availability of pirated and counterfeit goods.

 
 Algeria

 
Algeria remains on the Priority Watch List in 2012. The country had a low which bans the import of many products to favor the manufacture of local products. There is no protection against the unfair commercial use, as well as unauthorized disclosure of data, in the country.