The brave, new online world offers many ways to reconnect with friends and make new ones with social networking sites. Sites like MySpace and Facebook continue to skyrocket in popularity, and many newer sites are just under the radar.
In the past, dating has long been limited to who you could meet at school, work, or through friends. Online profiles offer pictures, personal information, and user-posted blogs, so site browsers can seek out ideal candidates for dating based on both their looks and their personality. Messaging, comments and other site-based interactions give people a chance to get to know each other online before meeting in the real world.
Photos give users a chance to share their new styles as well as pictures of their friends and big life events with everyone in their online social circle. The user’s friends can then make picture comments, feeding an ever-increasing appetite for attention among young users. Some sites allow users to make their profiles or pictures private, so only other members on their friend list can view them. This is often automatically enforced for members under 18 years old for their protection.
Video sharing is also available. Members can post funny or entertaining videos they have taken themselves, or even videos they find elsewhere on the web, to amuse their friends.
Blogging is the new megaphone for those with something to say. Personal experiences, gripes, commentary, or creative writing can be showcased on a member’s profile. Other users comment on the entries and subscribe to their friends’ blogs, allowing them to be notified when the friend posts a new blog.
Bored at school or work? Many sites offer quizzes and surveys to pass the time. Take the surveys and pass them onto friends to share personal trivia. Some sites post popular quizzes every day.
When members list their interests on their profile, it is inevitable music will show up 9 times out of ten. Music labels work with bands and artists on social networking sites to expand marketing. Bands can post new music, videos, and let their fans know when they will be touring.
Most social networking sites on the internet have all these same basic offerings. So what makes one more popular than another? Different sites have caught fire around the world at different times, and it seems that the main influence is social mobilization. Are your friends doing it?
Some new sites like SocialSplash are now offering incentives and free gifts to get new recruits. This is one way to pull members from the major sites where the bigger social networking atmospheres are too crowded. With smaller sites, members feel that the network is more personalized and less overpopulated.
More specialty sites are being created than ever before, aiming at both younger and older audiences. As more social networking sites continue to appear, it will be interesting to see how the change the nature of everyday communication. Will Myspace replace the phone? Probably not. But with technology serving a much bigger role in society than ever before, social networking sites are sure to be a big part of twenty-first century life.

Dario Ringach an assistant professor at UCLA, who has conducted laboratory research using animals has been assaulted at his home by animal rights activists. Apparently they threw fire crackers at his house, yelled over a megaphone, and planted Molotov cocktails at other faculty houses, threatening to burn the houses to the ground.

How come the craziest, psychotic rights activists are fighting for animals? Why aren?t they fighting against the Bush administration, or big corporate tycoons? You don?t hear much about the crazy civil rights activists threatening to burn congressman?s houses down. What is it with animals that makes them go nuts?

Ringach succumbed to the threats and stated, ?Effectively immediately, I am no longer doing animal research,” he finally wrote in an e-mail to his persecutors, pleading to be left alone. “Please don’t bother my family anymore. ” It is believed that the activists are now going after that guy Farmer John.

The activists are now using the internet to spread their word to others unlike the old days when meetings had to be called and motivation had to be conducted through spoken word. They now even have how-to lists explaining the most effective ways to fight against animal abusers. Jerry Vlasik, the former vivisector turned spokesman for the North American Animal Liberation Press Office. Vlasik has repeatedly advocated for using “whatever force against animal research scientists necessary. ”

“If killing them is the only way to stop them,” he said in a telephone interview, “then I said killing them would certainly be justified. ” They?re really serious about these fucking animals.

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By Emily Woods

A hot topic that comes up again and again in the church is the issue of Christians dating, or wanting to date, non-Christians. So here, we are going to expose the 6 most common reasons (ahem, excuses) Christians give for going out with unbelievers. Get ready ‘cos it’s time to buckle up and get real about dating God’s way.

1. ?Who I go out with is my business and no-one can tell me what to do. ? Wrong. If you are a Christian, your life is no longer your own; you were bought with a price and now belong to Jesus. It’s far more than just having God as your best mate; it means following Jesus Christ as your Lord and Master and living for His glory and purposes. And that changes everything. We no longer go with the flow of the culture, but have new standards to live by: God’s Word. His ways are higher and better than ours and He always gives us grace and help to live by them. And don’t forget that we don’t obey God to make Him love us ? we do it because He loved us first.

2. ?Dating is just harmless fun ? what does it matter who I go out with?? Romance is definitely fun, but romance and dating were not created simply for our own selfish pleasure; they were designed for one purpose ? marriage. And are you really going to marry a non-Christian? Didn’t think so. Or if you are, it clearly shows that your priority in life is that person and not God. Now some may think that this is a bit extreme, but that’s because we’ve let the world dictate too much on how dating should be, instead of looking to God’s standards. And He doesn’t want us running around playing married with every guy/girl we fancy; He wants us to seriously look for a potential marriage partner. It’s plain common sense that dating around is not ?harmless fun?; it implicates our heart and our emotions and can have painful, damaging consequences when it doesn’t work out.

3. ?I love the way they make me feel, and how I feel is what really matters. ? Your feelings may be important but they are not the be-all and end-all of your life. As a Christian, was truly matters is not your happiness or self-esteem (surprisingly enough) but your spiritual growth. And nothing compares to the joy that comes from walking closely with God, trust me!

4. ?I’m in love with a non-Christian, therefore doesn’t that mean I should be with them?? Here’s something everyone in our generation needs to hear, blasted through a megaphone, and repeated about ten times: love is not a feeling! You’re shocked, I’m sure. But it really isn’t. What we call ?in love? is just a romantic feeling, but real love ? robust, biblical love ? is an action. If love was just a feeling, then no relationship or marriage would be safe; I mean, what would happen if your spouse woke up one day and didn’t feel in love with you but felt in love with someone else? The bottom line: feelings are misleading and you can’t always trust them, and so we should never go solely by our them when deciding on who to date, but be looking at character and spiritual maturity. So just because you are ?in love? with an unbeliever in no way means you’re meant to be with them.

5. ?I’m trying to evangelise to them. If I date them, they might come to know Jesus. ? Oh really? That’s your true, sole reason for dating (or wanting to date) a non-Christian? Come off it. I’ve heard this excuse so many times to justify this kind of relationship, when really the motive behind it all is just selfish pleasure. I know because I’ve used it before! For those of you, however, who are a little more sincere, take my advice: seriously, dating evangelism just doesn’t work. ?Oh but I know a guy who became a Christian because he went out with a Christian girl,? you’ll tell me. Yes, and I know of a legally blind man in the USA who was issued a gun permit; does that mean we should go round giving blind people guns? Of course not. The moral of the story: don’t turn an exception into a rule. If you really want that girl or guy to become a Christian, then pray for them, bring them to church, serve them, talk to them about God ? but for goodness sake, don’t go getting all romantically involved. What version of Christianity are you portraying to them if you are compromising God’s standards and disobeying His Word? Just think about it.

6. ?God doesn’t actually say that I shouldn’t date a non-Christian, does He?? Actually, He does. If you look at 2 Corinthians 6:14-16, you will see that it commands us not to be ?unequally yoked to unbelievers?. Quite simply, this means don’t create romantic ties with non-Christians.

So there you have it, plain and simple. Dating must be brought under God’s standards because He loves you and has the best for you, and because you have given your very life to Him when you chose to follow Jesus. And this means going out with someone who truly loves Jesus and is following Him hard like you.

About the author

Emily Woods is a contributing editor for STREETBRAND, the Christian youth culture magazine available at www. streetbrand. com

Sahara-One Motion Pictures’ Mumbai Cutting? A City unfolds is a film directed by 11 Indian directors who are known to weave magic on Indian celluloid, is already making waves internationally with the IFFLA Fest selection. The directors have flown to IFFLA at Los Angeles currently with th Sahara One Motion Pictures’ team.

The film unfolds various facets of this metro that is known for absorbing newer cultures and merging them into its own. 11 top directors, Sudhir Mishra, Rahul Dholakia, Revati, Rituparno Ghosh, Kundan Shah, Anurag Kashyap, Shashanka Ghosh, Ruchi Narain, Jahnu Barua, Manish Jha, Ayush Raina weild the megaphone in the films that star Soha Ali Khan, Jimmy Shergill, Sonali Kulkarni, Ranvir Shorey, Vinay Pathak, Sushant Singh, Tara Sharma, Tejaswini Kolhapure, Raima Sen, Palash Sen, Shruti Seth, Rahul Dev, Deepak Dobriyal, Dipannita Sharma, Kavita Kaushik, Samrin, Sanjay Narvekar, Mahek Chel among others.

The music also lends diverse flavours from Euphoria, Indian Ocean, Ali Azmat, Fuzon, Sanjeev Shrivastav, Jeet Ganguly, Amartya and Papon, with vocals by Shreya Goshal, Shafquat Amanat Ali Khan, Sunidhi Chauhan, Nachiketa, Papon and Ali Azmat.

“Sahara-One Motion Pictures looks at promoting Indian talent globally with cutting edge concepts in cinema. Mumbai Cutting is simple one step in that direction,” says Seemanto Roy, Head, Sahara One Media And Entertainment. “We are looking at soon creating more magic on celluloid individually with these talented award-winning directors. Mumbai Cutting, in association with White Clouds, is a move towards forging our relationships with them. “

With the interesting concept already making waves internationally even among the Indian diaspora, Mumbai Cutting looks forward to the showcasing at the IFFLA. Sahara-One Motion Pictures looks at flying down the 11 director-team that has made this movie happen at the fest. Here is a first look of the film that is made in association with White Cloud. .

Sahara-One Motion Pictures’ Mumbai Cutting? A City unfolds is a film directed by 11 Indian directors who are known to weave magic on Indian celluloid, is already making waves internationally with the IFFLA Fest selection. The directors have flown to IFFLA at Los Angeles currently with th Sahara One Motion Pictures’ team.

The film unfolds various facets of this metro that is known for absorbing newer cultures and merging them into its own. 11 top directors, Sudhir Mishra, Rahul Dholakia, Revati, Rituparno Ghosh, Kundan Shah, Anurag Kashyap, Shashanka Ghosh, Ruchi Narain, Jahnu Barua, Manish Jha, Ayush Raina weild the megaphone in the films that star Soha Ali Khan, Jimmy Shergill, Sonali Kulkarni, Ranvir Shorey, Vinay Pathak, Sushant Singh, Tara Sharma, Tejaswini Kolhapure, Raima Sen, Palash Sen, Shruti Seth, Rahul Dev, Deepak Dobriyal, Dipannita Sharma, Kavita Kaushik, Samrin, Sanjay Narvekar, Mahek Chel among others.

The music also lends diverse flavours from Euphoria, Indian Ocean, Ali Azmat, Fuzon, Sanjeev Shrivastav, Jeet Ganguly, Amartya and Papon, with vocals by Shreya Goshal, Shafquat Amanat Ali Khan, Sunidhi Chauhan, Nachiketa, Papon and Ali Azmat.

“Sahara-One Motion Pictures looks at promoting Indian talent globally with cutting edge concepts in cinema. Mumbai Cutting is simple one step in that direction,” says Seemanto Roy, Head, Sahara One Media And Entertainment. “We are looking at soon creating more magic on celluloid individually with these talented award-winning directors. Mumbai Cutting, in association with White Clouds, is a move towards forging our relationships with them. “

With the interesting concept already making waves internationally even among the Indian diaspora, Mumbai Cutting looks forward to the showcasing at the IFFLA. Sahara-One Motion Pictures looks at flying down the 11 director-team that has made this movie happen at the fest. Here is a first look of the film that is made in association with White Cloud. .

Sahara-One Motion Pictures’ Mumbai Cutting? A City unfolds is a film directed by 11 Indian directors who are known to weave magic on Indian celluloid, is already making waves internationally with the IFFLA Fest selection. The directors have flown to IFFLA at Los Angeles currently with th Sahara One Motion Pictures’ team.

The film unfolds various facets of this metro that is known for absorbing newer cultures and merging them into its own. 11 top directors, Sudhir Mishra, Rahul Dholakia, Revati, Rituparno Ghosh, Kundan Shah, Anurag Kashyap, Shashanka Ghosh, Ruchi Narain, Jahnu Barua, Manish Jha, Ayush Raina weild the megaphone in the films that star Soha Ali Khan, Jimmy Shergill, Sonali Kulkarni, Ranvir Shorey, Vinay Pathak, Sushant Singh, Tara Sharma, Tejaswini Kolhapure, Raima Sen, Palash Sen, Shruti Seth, Rahul Dev, Deepak Dobriyal, Dipannita Sharma, Kavita Kaushik, Samrin, Sanjay Narvekar, Mahek Chel among others.

The music also lends diverse flavours from Euphoria, Indian Ocean, Ali Azmat, Fuzon, Sanjeev Shrivastav, Jeet Ganguly, Amartya and Papon, with vocals by Shreya Goshal, Shafquat Amanat Ali Khan, Sunidhi Chauhan, Nachiketa, Papon and Ali Azmat.

“Sahara-One Motion Pictures looks at promoting Indian talent globally with cutting edge concepts in cinema. Mumbai Cutting is simple one step in that direction,” says Seemanto Roy, Head, Sahara One Media And Entertainment. “We are looking at soon creating more magic on celluloid individually with these talented award-winning directors. Mumbai Cutting, in association with White Clouds, is a move towards forging our relationships with them. “

With the interesting concept already making waves internationally even among the Indian diaspora, Mumbai Cutting looks forward to the showcasing at the IFFLA. Sahara-One Motion Pictures looks at flying down the 11 director-team that has made this movie happen at the fest. Here is a first look of the film that is made in association with White Cloud. .

Sahara-One Motion Pictures’ Mumbai Cutting? A City unfolds is a film directed by 11 Indian directors who are known to weave magic on Indian celluloid, is already making waves internationally with the IFFLA Fest selection. The directors have flown to IFFLA at Los Angeles currently with th Sahara One Motion Pictures’ team.

The film unfolds various facets of this metro that is known for absorbing newer cultures and merging them into its own. 11 top directors, Sudhir Mishra, Rahul Dholakia, Revati, Rituparno Ghosh, Kundan Shah, Anurag Kashyap, Shashanka Ghosh, Ruchi Narain, Jahnu Barua, Manish Jha, Ayush Raina weild the megaphone in the films that star Soha Ali Khan, Jimmy Shergill, Sonali Kulkarni, Ranvir Shorey, Vinay Pathak, Sushant Singh, Tara Sharma, Tejaswini Kolhapure, Raima Sen, Palash Sen, Shruti Seth, Rahul Dev, Deepak Dobriyal, Dipannita Sharma, Kavita Kaushik, Samrin, Sanjay Narvekar, Mahek Chel among others.

The music also lends diverse flavours from Euphoria, Indian Ocean, Ali Azmat, Fuzon, Sanjeev Shrivastav, Jeet Ganguly, Amartya and Papon, with vocals by Shreya Goshal, Shafquat Amanat Ali Khan, Sunidhi Chauhan, Nachiketa, Papon and Ali Azmat.

“Sahara-One Motion Pictures looks at promoting Indian talent globally with cutting edge concepts in cinema. Mumbai Cutting is simple one step in that direction,” says Seemanto Roy, Head, Sahara One Media And Entertainment. “We are looking at soon creating more magic on celluloid individually with these talented award-winning directors. Mumbai Cutting, in association with White Clouds, is a move towards forging our relationships with them. “

With the interesting concept already making waves internationally even among the Indian diaspora, Mumbai Cutting looks forward to the showcasing at the IFFLA. Sahara-One Motion Pictures looks at flying down the 11 director-team that has made this movie happen at the fest. Here is a first look of the film that is made in association with White Cloud. .

Sahara-One Motion Pictures’ Mumbai Cutting? A City unfolds is a film directed by 11 Indian directors who are known to weave magic on Indian celluloid, is already making waves internationally with the IFFLA Fest selection. The directors have flown to IFFLA at Los Angeles currently with th Sahara One Motion Pictures’ team.

The film unfolds various facets of this metro that is known for absorbing newer cultures and merging them into its own. 11 top directors, Sudhir Mishra, Rahul Dholakia, Revati, Rituparno Ghosh, Kundan Shah, Anurag Kashyap, Shashanka Ghosh, Ruchi Narain, Jahnu Barua, Manish Jha, Ayush Raina weild the megaphone in the films that star Soha Ali Khan, Jimmy Shergill, Sonali Kulkarni, Ranvir Shorey, Vinay Pathak, Sushant Singh, Tara Sharma, Tejaswini Kolhapure, Raima Sen, Palash Sen, Shruti Seth, Rahul Dev, Deepak Dobriyal, Dipannita Sharma, Kavita Kaushik, Samrin, Sanjay Narvekar, Mahek Chel among others.

The music also lends diverse flavours from Euphoria, Indian Ocean, Ali Azmat, Fuzon, Sanjeev Shrivastav, Jeet Ganguly, Amartya and Papon, with vocals by Shreya Goshal, Shafquat Amanat Ali Khan, Sunidhi Chauhan, Nachiketa, Papon and Ali Azmat.

“Sahara-One Motion Pictures looks at promoting Indian talent globally with cutting edge concepts in cinema. Mumbai Cutting is simple one step in that direction,” says Seemanto Roy, Head, Sahara One Media And Entertainment. “We are looking at soon creating more magic on celluloid individually with these talented award-winning directors. Mumbai Cutting, in association with White Clouds, is a move towards forging our relationships with them. “

With the interesting concept already making waves internationally even among the Indian diaspora, Mumbai Cutting looks forward to the showcasing at the IFFLA. Sahara-One Motion Pictures looks at flying down the 11 director-team that has made this movie happen at the fest. Here is a first look of the film that is made in association with White Cloud. .

As effective as they are for marketing your brand, promotional products can also be used for internal branding. According to the Promotional Products Association International (PPAI), Employee Relations and Events, take up approximately 8. 39% of promotional products sales. This general category covers morale and motivation, corporate / employee events, employee orientation, organizational commitment / corporate identity, corporate communications, employee training (other than safety) and employee referral programs. Meanwhile, Internal Promotions ? which covers sales incentives, TQM / quality programs, productivity, inventory reduction, error reduction and attendance improvement ? take up about 4. 31% of sales. Promotional items used for Employee Safety Education / Incentives are about 3. 05% of total product sales. Finally, the PPAI survey also indicates that Employee Service Awards (including anniversary recognition, service awards, etc) comprise about 5. 45% of sales.

In total, 21. 2% of promotional products are geared towards employees. This shows that most employers recognize that motivated employees are an asset to increasing the bottom line. If you haven’t taken advantage of promotional products for this purpose yet, now is the right time. Here are some ways for you to use promotional products in the corporate world:

Recruitment and Retention

Use promotional products for recruitment like you would trade show tchotchke. Hand them out to job fair attendees to increase traffic to your booth. You can also set aside special gifts to be given out to qualified applicants to encourage them to pursue their application.

Once you’ve gathered the best personnel, you would naturally want to keep them within your organization. As such, you can begin by making them feel welcome with simple gifts. When packaging your orientation or welcome kit, you can include the following:

- Branded office supplies like pens, sticky notes and other desktop accessories

- Personal items usable in the office like mugs, food items, etc.

Long-term plans for improving retention could also include structuring a loyalty program. Reward employees who have spent a considerable amount of time with the company with:

- Premium gift items such as watches are perfect for employees who have been with the company for over ten years.

- Smaller and less expensive gift items can also be given to employees on the anniversary of their hire date. Folios, tumblers and lapel pins are good gifts for this purpose.

Motivation and Morale Boosting

Recognizing and rewarding achievements is one way to motivate employees and boost their morale. This, in turn, can greatly increase your company’s productivity level. A rewards program is one way to go about this. The first thing you have to do is to set a clear criteria for qualification. Let your employees know that the goals you set for them are practical and achievable. Then, conduct surveys to find out what your employees want as part of the program.

- Plaques and awards are best given out when you’re honoring specific achievements. For instance, in sales, you can use an engraved award to recognize the employee who has garnered the highest margin or the top sales volume.

- Premium gift items can be part of your rewards program. Try to keep your selection as diverse as possible. Have some thing for both men and women. Get unisex gifts as well. Especially for rewards that require points in exchange for items, it is recommended that you get a little bit of everything into the mix.

Building Team Spirit and Office Camaraderie

A fun way to use promotional items in the corporate arena is for building team spirit. Sports events and company picnics are a great venue for distribution. Ideal items would include:

- Color-coded caps, shirts or jerseys to separate employees into teams during sport events

- Cheer gear like megaphones and giant foam hands for games

- Golf gear (golf shirts, bags, memorabilia) for office tournaments

Funds are as important to a non profit making organisation as it is to a profit making one. To keep an establishment afloat most non profit organizations arrange for fund raising campaigns. As it is extremely difficult to have a good fund raising idea to generate bulk of the fund and implement it for years, most organization prefer to raise funds in a variety of ways running throughout the year. However to keep the interest alive and ensure an uninterrupted flow of money, organizations need to come up with new, innovative and catchy ideas. Organizing a non profit fundraising event involves a lot of hard work in the right direction. With perfect fund raiser ideas backed by a well organized plan, fundraising for an organization can be a big success. The first and foremost requirement for successful fundraising is establishing good connections with contributors who have a local set up and private establishments. A good rapport enables you win their trust to the extent that you may not even need to explain the fundraising idea t them. Apart from helping you with funds in a short notice they can also assist you with new fundraiser ideas. Events related to fund raiser ideas should always be highlighted. To create awareness about the non profit fundraising event it is imperative that you put up posters at least a fortnight before the schedule. This needs to be supplemented by well written ads in the newspaper. This not only catches the attention of one and all but inspires them to think about the cause. To ensure a perfect launch you can ask a celebrity to preside over the event and share his experiences. It is through them that you can explain to people how your organization is committed to bring about a change and how important it is for them to help it. Once they empathize with your cause you can be assured of donations as well a mouth to mouth spread of the organizations intent. Thus you always stand to gain on two counts. An easy and interesting way to raise funds is by selling products of interest. There are plenty of fundraising product which can be sold to raise funds. In fact, the choices are so varied and plenty that you can well spot an odd item which when exposed and highlighted can create a demand in a community. Once you create a demand you can expect non stop flow of funds. You can have your pick from pom-poms, stadium seats and megaphones to a variety of food items and even assorted fundraising products like bulbs for the garden, gift wrap, candles, scented pencils, teddy bears and other fancy items. Certain campaigns that create bonhomie and teamwork and thereby bring in cash for the organization are also considered as great fundraiser ideas. Members can partake in car washes and bake sales and help earn revenues as well as spread awareness. Another good fun fundraiser idea is to organize some very interesting contests with some alluring prizes for the winners. These contests help add the required fizz to an otherwise overused cause.