Twitter Starts Offering Personalized Suggestions of Users to Follow

Twitter is in the midst of rolling out a new feature called “Suggestions for You” that offers up personalized recommendations of users that you might want to follow on the microblogging service. You’ll find the new feature under the “Find People” link in the header of Twitter.com.

According to Twitter, “the suggestions are based on several factors, including people you follow and the people they follow.” The company also notes that you’ll start to see recommendations when looking at other users’ profiles. It will also be making the feature available to developers so the functionality can be included in third-party apps.

The move highlights an increased push by Twitter toward user discovery. Earlier this month, the service starteddisplaying people results next to keyword search results in an effort to help users discover more people to follow; after all, Twitter is more interesting if you actually have some tweets showing up in your stream.

Previously, Twitter offered a hand-curated “Suggested User List” to new users, though that has since been retired in favor of a slew of follow options by area of interest. Overall, today’s addition marks yet another step the company needs to take to keep new users engaged on the service. It would also be a logical spot for Twitter to insert its rumored feature that would let users pay for more followers — stay tuned.

Out-of-hours births ’are riskier

ISLAMABAD: Babies born at night or at the weekend are at a greater risk of dying than those born within normal working hours, a study suggests.

The analysis of more than one million births in Scotland over two decades found the risk of death for babies born out of hours, while small, was a third higher than for those born in the day.

Night staffing and access to facilities were possible explanations, Glasgow and Cambridge universities suggested.

Most babies died from lack of oxygen.

Those born between 0900 and 1700 on Monday to Friday were classified as being within normal working hours, all others as out-of-hours, the British Medical Journal reported.

In all, there were 539 deaths.

The team adjusted for a wide range of factors and excluded babies born via planned caesarean, who are usually delivered during the day.

The team argued that as the risk of death for these babies was so much lower than for those born vaginally, their inclusion could overstate the risks of out-of-hours birth.

’Improving care’

But even with these exclusions, the difference persisted.

For mothers giving birth during the normal working week, the risk of their baby dying was 4.2 per 10,000, and 5.6 per 10,000 at all other times.

One in four deaths through oxygen deprivation was directly associated with the risk of being born out of hours, they calculated.

Improving the level of clinical care for women delivering out of normal hours might reduce the overall rates of perinatal death, the research team, led by obstetrician Professor Gordon Smith, suggested.

They acknowledged that the expenditure required to save only a few lives might be seen as out of proportion, but they noted that they only looked at deaths: much money is spent on long-term developmental problems caused by oxygen deprivation at birth.

"Any interventions that improved outcomes out-of-hours would therefore be likely to have a greater effect than merely reducing the number of neonatal deaths," they wrote.

In an accompanying editorial, David Field, professor of neonatal medicine at Leicester University, agreed it was important that more experienced clinicians were immediately available.

But he also stressed that there was increasing momentum towards giving women more choice over where they gave birth, including at home, in hospital, or in a midwife-led unit.

"These different facilities will not be the same in terms of ethos, the services they offer, or the risks associated with delivery, and these differences should be transparent," he said.

"This would allow women to make a genuine choice of site for delivery in consultation with their midwifery and medical advisers."

Leadership Qualities: Self-Discipline Part-1

Mischa Elman, one of the greatest violinists of the twentieth century, was walking through the

streets of New York City one afternoon when a tourist approached him. “Excuse me, sir,” the

stranger began, “could you tell me how to get to Carnegie Hall?” Elman sighed deeply and

replied, “Practice, practice, practice.”1

Gary Player, one of the most successful international golfers of all time, lost count of how many

times someone said to him, “I’d give anything if I could hit a golf ball like you.” After one

particularly grueling day on the links, Player couldn’t resist correcting the person, “No, you

wouldn’t. You’d give anything to hit a golf ball like me, if it were easy.” Player then listed the

things one would have to do in order to achieve his level of play: “You’ve got to get up at five

o’clock in the morning, go out and hit a thousand golf balls, walk up to the club house to put a

bandage on your hand where it started bleeding, then go and hit another thousand golf balls.

That’s what it takes to hit a golf ball like me.”2

Another professional golfer, Chi Chi Rodriguez, put it this way. He said, “Preparation through

steady practice is the only honest avenue to achieving your potential.” Octavia Butler, in an

essay for aspiring writers, says, “First forget inspiration. Habit is more dependable. Habit will

sustain you, whether you’re inspired or not…. Habit is persistence in practice.”3

Whether in the concert hall, the playing field or the classroom, the steadiness of practice is

crucial for realized potential. It is an even more critical issue when it comes to living the

spiritual life. We achieve great things by training ourselves. Through proper training, we form

proper habits; we can intentionally choose those habits that are desirable for the formation of

character. Habits and practice seem obvious, ordinary, pedestrian; there aren’t many books that

deal with this positively. But without proper habits, we will never build forward momentum as

we strain toward the goal of the high calling of Christ. This momentum is built through a steady

obedience – as Eugene Peterson calls it, “a long obedience in the same direction.”4

Inspiration and talent will only carry you so far. The habits you form will sustain you. One fall,

in the panhandle of Texas, the local high school football team was enduring a terribly

embarrassing season. Week after week, the hometown would show up and cheer to no avail; it

was abysmal. Finally, a wealthy oil man could take it no longer. The week before the

homecoming game against their arch-rivals, he asked to address the team. “Boys,” he began,

“when I wore the green and gold, we won nearly every single game. Now look at you. You’ve

become a joke! You need some motivation. So here’s my proposition. You win this one game,

and I will personally buy each of you a brand new pickup truck.”

Those student-athletes began to think and dream about how fine they would look driving around

in their new trucks. They obsessed over which girls they would ride in them and whether or not

they would get bumper stickers. They were so excited about the prospect of driving a truck with

2

that “new car” smell. They hung a big poster of a truck in the locker room. And they went out

and lost the game 38-0.

keep visiting fore next part...

Does Your Job Title Get the Job Done?

Nobody does a better job than The Economist at skewering the excesses and absurdities of organizational life. In a recent issue, the magazine's Schumpeter columnist took aim at the rampant inflation of job titles in companies and governments around the world.
The winner, by a mile, was North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il, who, according to The Economist, has 1,200 official titles, "including roughly translated, guardian deity of the planet, ever-victorious general, and lodestar of the 21st century." Memo to President Obama: "Leader of the Free World" seems downright lame compared with "supreme commander at the forefront of the struggle against imperialism and the United States" — not to mention my personal favorite, "greatest man who ever lived."
Kim Jong Il can add King of Job-Title Inflation to his ever-increasing list of titles, but, according to The Economist, he's just a world-class master of a worldwide phenomenon. CB Richard Ellis, the real-estate giant, has not one but four different CEOs. The c-suite in general is getting bigger and bigger, as Chief Information Officers welcome in Chief Knowledge Officers and (at Kodak) a Chief Listening Officer as well as (at SAP) a Chief Sustainability Officer. Even lower-ranking employees are getting loftier-sounding titles, from "sandwich artists" at Subway to cleaning companies who employ "sanitation consultants."
It's hard not to laugh along with the magazine — but it's also possible to overlook the serious side of why it matters how people describe what they do and how organizations describe what gets done. Indeed, as I read the magazine column, I immediately thought back to the early days of Fast Company, and what was by far the most popular recurring feature in the magazine — two small nuggets in every issue that had the most passionate following of anything we published. The feature was called "Job Titles of the Future," in which we found ordinary people doing real work with official titles that were decidedly out-of-the-ordinary.
For example, Ernst & Young, the accounting giant, employed a 20-something consultant in the role of Minister of Comedy. His job was to prepare videos and presentations for big client meetings that made the firm's dry-as-dust work easier to swallow. One fast-growing telecom company chose to call the receptionist at headquarters its Director of First Impressions, to reinforce how seriously this tech-driven outfit was about the quality of its emotional and psychological to customers, suppliers. One videogame developer looked to its Chief Acceleration Officer to search for ways to slash development times and turn the organization into a, well, faster company.
It's easy to make fun of these titles, but when we talked to the people who held them, you could feel their sense of ownership of, engagement with, and excitement about their jobs — and the offbeat titles that described their jobs. Their work truly mattered to them, and how their work got described to the world mattered as well.
That's why I'm not quite so cynical about the proliferation of slightly offbeat (and even sometimes inflationary) job titles. People do their best work when they do work they love — which means it's work that somehow connects with their unique skills, talents, and passions. Well, if the best jobs are the ones that aren't cookie-cutter roles in plain-vanilla organizations, what's wrong with breaking the mold when it comes to job titles? Would you rather be director of process improvement at a fast-growing software company, or, in the words of one job title of the future, Minster of Progress?
A few years back, when I wrote Mavericks at Work, I spent a lot time at a fabulous company called Cranium, which designed and sold some of the most popular board games in history. This outfit was obsessed with how it designed its products and how its creative vocabulary and its values-based culture connected with customers. The acronym behind everything it did was CHIFF: Clever, High Quality, Innovative, Friendly, Fun. So it made sense that one of the most important leaders at the company held the title CHIFF Champion — her job was to make sure that every element of the product-design process embraced the CHIFF sensibility. Another critical title at the company was that of "Keeper of the Flame" — an executive who looked after the strategy and the culture to make sure that as Cranium grew, it remained true to the values on which its success was built.
So the next time you meet someone with a slightly offbeat job title, feel free to raise an eyebrow. But then take a moment to look deeper. Maybe that unique title does a good job of capturing something special about the company this person works for or the job he or she does. And think about your own title: Does it get the job done in terms of describing what you do and how you want to be known?
Indeed, maybe it's time to create your own Job Title of the Future. Just don't go with "greatest man who ever lived." I'm hoping to license North American rights from Kim Jung Il.

Reducing Uric Acid with Low Uric Acid Diet

To prevent gout, it is essential to maintain good eating habits and have proper medication. To reduce the uric acid levels in blood, you may need to limit intake of alcohol and reduce purine rich foods. Digestion of purine leads to the formation of uric acid. 

If uric acid is not eliminated normally which is seen in gout sufferers, it can build up in the blood stream leading to joint inflammation and pain.

Uric acid diet Measures for how to reduce uric acid in diet And Uric Acid Foods that help reducing uric acid levels:

• Tofu which is made from soybean is a good choice than animal foods. Tofu can alter the plasma protein concentration and increase uric acid clearance and excretion.
• Uric acid level in the body can be reduced by cutting down the foods that contain high amount of purines. Foods with high purine content include anchovies, broth, roe, sardines, yeast, sweetbread and mincemeat. 

• Avoid these foods totally. Some foods have moderate purine content like fish, lentils, asparagus, mushrooms, spinach and shellfish. One serving of meat, fish or fowl or one serving of vegetable is allowed daily. Foods low in purine are fruits, olive, vinegar, cereal and cereal products, vinegar and rice. These foods can be consumed daily.
• Have foods that are relatively high in carbohydrates, moderate in protein and low in fat. Complex carbohydrates like whole grain cereals, fruits and vegetables contain fiber that can help in proper digestion of the foods and assimilation of the nutrients. Fiber can avoid excessive build up of the uric acid.
• Reduce the intake of protein rich foods to 15 percent. Prefer soybean that has been defatted, lean meat and sprouts  that provide good quality protein but low fat content.
• Fresh fruits like apples, bananas, oranges and lime are beneficial. Cherries are considered to be beneficial in reducing uric acid levels. 
• • You can have juice of black cherry which is also called as sour cherry. Cherries contain certain natural chemicals that can lower uric acid levels and reduce inflammation.
  • Excess of alcohol can increase the uric acid production. Preferably avoid the consumption of alcohol.
  • Drink plenty of water or fluids (3 liters/day) like fresh juices or soups that can help in excretion of uric acid.
  
  Certain guidelines that can be helpful in reducing uric acid levels are:
  
  
  • Maintain an ideal body weight. Gradual weight loss is beneficial rather than drastic loss weight. You can reduce your body weight by dietary modifications and exercise.
  • You can consult a doctor who can help you in reducing uric acid levels. Get the uric acid levels checked regularly.

China renews Google's operating license

BEIJING -- China confirmed Sunday it has renewed Google's license to operate in the world's most populous country, ending a monthslong standoff over Internet censorship.
An official with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, which regulates Internet operations in China, said the government had approved the license for Beijing Guxiang Information Technology Co. Ltd., the operator of Google's China website, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.
Officials at Google's U.S.-based headquarters announced Friday that the company had received approval for another year.
China's decision to allow Google to continue operations has resolved a monthslong dispute that had threatened the company's future in the country.
The conflict arose in January when Google decided to end its four-year practice of omitting search results that the Chinese government considers subversive or pornographic. Google made the decision after blaming Chinese computer hackers for an attack it said was aimed at stealing the company's technology and e-mail information from human rights activists.
The ministry official, who was not identified, said Guxiang had agreed to "abide by Chinese law" and "ensure the company provides no lawbreaking content," Xinhua said.
The government website listed Guxiang among some 200 companies whose licenses had been renewed until 2012.
"After our assessment, we decided that Guxiang had basically met the requirements," the official was quoted as saying.
Guxiang also agreed that all content it provides is subject to the supervision of government regulators, the official said.
The Chinese government operates the world's most extensive system of Web monitoring and filtering, blocking pornographic sites as well as those seen as subversive to Communist rule.
Google won permission after bowing to pressure to eliminate an automatic detour around the country's online censorship requirements.
Since March, Google had been automatically rerouting search requests from the mainland to its Hong Kong service. But search requests at Google.cn from within mainland China now require an extra click that then takes the user to the Hong Kong site, which isn't subject to Beijing's censorship rules.
That small concession was enough to persuade China's regulators to renew the license, the company said.
China is not yet a big moneymaker for Google, accounting for an estimated $250 million to $600 million of the company's projected $28 billion in revenue this year. But the number of Internet users in China is estimated at 384 million, more than the nearly 200 million in the United States.