A steady diet of moral science classes, with its emphasis on the spirit of 'Giving' had created in me a need to be the Good Samaritan. But in my nine to five job I was so caught up in pushing files that the cold professional took over and mercilessly stamped out all charitable intentions. Even so, once in a while my conscience would made a dent in this professional facade. This would result in marathon telephone sessions where I would made inquiries about the various charitable institutions in the city. And then another file with its various anomalies would come along and yet again bid adieu to my good intentions. And so this comical thrust and parry went on.
And then one cold and blustery morning the mail bought in an invitation to an intellectual forum convened to discuss how an individual could help the lesser blessed. I accepted the invitation with unseemly alacrity hoping thereby to end finally the rumblings of my ill-tempered, oft-neglected conscience. So I togged up in my cotton attire hoping to absorb all the charitable vibes with the porosity of the garment.
At the appointed time I made my enthusiastic way to the venue of the Forum and found myself gawking at the Grecian portico of a palatial house. With great trepidation I walked into a room full of expensively dressed men and women partaking of drinks and savouries. I faltered thinking I had gate crashed into the wrong gathering and would have turned back but was carried forward on a stream of social pleasantries. I was introduced to a motley gathering which included not only scions from industrial houses and the media but also a sprinkling of bureaucrats. The important thing I was told, was that all those gathered without exception, had been commended for 'social' work and were agents for internationally renowned charitable organizations. Snatches of conversation seem to give a lie to the introduction since they were solely about business, parties, clothes and contacts.
After a while the meeting was called to order and the speaker of the forum was introduced . He was,we were told the head of a newspaper group in the city who dabbled in various charitable projects. To my utter dismay the desultory talk of the gentleman spreaker seemed entrapped in the mire of 'I' 'ME', 'MINE'. His talk was peppered with well-known names from various fields which were invariably prefixed by a nonchalant "My Friend......". Then with Pope-like brevity on the subject of the talk he opined "Money is power" and exhorted all to contribute financial aid to good causes. What about people like us I wailed whose pay packets do not allow for such largesse. But my tinny voice was submerged in a din of applause, quite at variance though, with the quality of the talk.
Then began the interaction session where suggestions of an ostensibly charitable nature came thick and fast. "The city dwellers should be given paper bags to keep the environs clean" opined a gentleman striking a match to his pipe. "Sweets and fruits should be distributed to natives of the adopted village on festivals" stated a lady and in a practiced manner made a sign of victory as a photographer clicked her for posterity. "Cultural exchange programs must be given a fillip so that techniques for social-economic improvement used in the United States or in Europe could be applied to India" piped in another gentleman volunteering to lead an experimental group to New York. And so it went on.
What school, I wondered had given them a concept of charity so different and so much more comfortable than my own. Well!! even a conscience a could be sealed and gagged by greenbacks. To each his own, I thought as I bade a reluctant good-bye to my awakening charitable spirit and pledged to myself to the more individualized concept of "charity begins at home".
Contributed by: Rachy Singh
I Don't Even Have a Roof!
I would like to begin by saying that I am a relatively healthy human being. As I child I went through a stretch of illness, but from my high school years through my mid 20's I have, thankfully, endured little more that a head cold. Now that I have set the scene, I'll tell you about the rash.
For over a week I had been waking up in the middle of the night with severe itching fits. This only seemed to happen while I was asleep, which is unfortunate because when I am in that state I will do anything to alleviate discomfort, as long as it doesn't involve to getting out of bed. Since I was dealing with an itch my recovery options were to scratch it violently or smear it with the lotion I keep on my nightstand (Don't ask). My wife and I explored possible causes of my ailment, and the two most plausible were an allergic reaction to something in the sheets or bed mites. The sad fact is that both of those situations could be remedied by simply washing my bed linens, but sloth led me to explore other possible causes rather than just completing the simple chore.
Over time a rash began to spread across the left side of my chest. At first I passed it off as simple irritation from my abuse, but the redness soon gave way to raised bumps, which in turn morphed into oozing pustules. I asked my wife for her diagnosis, and after an examination she opined, "It looks like poison ivy. Have you come into contact with any poison ivy lately?" My wife is extremely intelligent, and while I trust her judgment in most matters there were two major flaws in her assessment. First, I live in a very urban section of Queens, NY. Everything, even the trees, are made of concrete and brick. The only green I see on a regular basis is the money passed during the morning crack deal. Second, I have an odd body shape. My narrow shoulders give way to a broad chest, scrawny arms, a delightful beer gut, and thick legs. I am the equivalent of God's Mr. Potato head. This has left me too ashamed to remove my shirt in the shower, let alone a forest.
I continued to ignore it. After all, what you don't know can't hurt you. Early the next morning I was at work performing my daily ritual of shirking responsibility. On this particular occasion I was leafing through the NY Daily News. On my way to the crossword puzzle I read a headline that instantly caught my attention. Generally, any glimpse of an actual news story would leave me glassy eyed, but this article sent a chill down my spine. It told the story of a 19-year-old woman who recently passed away due to complications from flesh-eating bacteria. The piece said this virus began as a rash, and progressed to include body pain, temporary blindness, and rectal bleeding. I tore upstairs to the restroom to examine my rectum, and each time I bumped into something in my frenzy I convinced myself it was do to temporary blindness.
As I sat waiting for the doctor I made a mental list of which I wanted to give my eulogy and whether or not I should be buried with my CD collection. The door creaked open and a beautiful young woman entered the room. She introduced herself as the nurse and conducted a preliminary interview. I realized as I sat there how old I have become. When did the girls I used to check out at the mall become nurses? I must admit, even though I am happily married, there was a certain part of my brain that still wanted to impress her. I had no control over it. For example, in order to get an idea about my immune system she inquired how many sexual partners I was involved with. Without even thinking I replied, "What did you have in mind".
She left, and a few minutes later the door swung open and the doctor made his grand entrance. He was an overweight man in his early fifties who walked with a cane and conducted himself with an overt sense of conceit. I felt as though he was trying to rip off the style of FOX television's "House". He assuredly announced that he had already made his diagnosis, but merely needed a peek at the infection to verify it. Who the hell was this guy, and why was he wasting his obvious supernatural ability at an urgent care facility in Queens? Before I even finished removing my shirt he told me not to bother. He had seen enough, and indeed, his worst fears were true.
He told me I had shingles. I tried to explain to him that given my fear of heights and the fact that I live in an apartment building made this impossible to contract such a thing. Could I have caught it from someone? Was my wife cheating on me with a contractor? Apparently the disease has nothing to do with roofing. Basically it is like grown up chicken pox. When I contracted chicken pox as a child, I never fully shed the disease it just went dormant. Now it had resurfaced and wanted revenge. The thing that really blew my mind was when the doctor informed me that shingles is a form of the herpes virus. Herpes? I'm not saying there's anything wrong with people who have herpes, but I if I have to have it at least I feel like I should have the enjoyment of catching it.
The doctor prescribed Valtrex, which is primarily issued to herpes sufferers. As I stood in line at Walgreen's I became overcome with embarrassment. I felt the need to proclaim loudly that it was shingles that I suffered from, not herpes. That's when I learned the painful lesson that no one wants to hang out with a shingles patient either.
Time has passed and the rash has subsided, but though my skin will be restored to its original form, my emotional scars may never heal. I have already been forced to defend my honour to two nosy guests who discovered Valtrex in my medicine cabinet. If there is any advice I can pass on to the youth of today it would be to be safe, never have unprotected sex with poultry or construction workers. At least, I think that's how it goes.
Contributed by: Brian Mollica
For over a week I had been waking up in the middle of the night with severe itching fits. This only seemed to happen while I was asleep, which is unfortunate because when I am in that state I will do anything to alleviate discomfort, as long as it doesn't involve to getting out of bed. Since I was dealing with an itch my recovery options were to scratch it violently or smear it with the lotion I keep on my nightstand (Don't ask). My wife and I explored possible causes of my ailment, and the two most plausible were an allergic reaction to something in the sheets or bed mites. The sad fact is that both of those situations could be remedied by simply washing my bed linens, but sloth led me to explore other possible causes rather than just completing the simple chore.
Over time a rash began to spread across the left side of my chest. At first I passed it off as simple irritation from my abuse, but the redness soon gave way to raised bumps, which in turn morphed into oozing pustules. I asked my wife for her diagnosis, and after an examination she opined, "It looks like poison ivy. Have you come into contact with any poison ivy lately?" My wife is extremely intelligent, and while I trust her judgment in most matters there were two major flaws in her assessment. First, I live in a very urban section of Queens, NY. Everything, even the trees, are made of concrete and brick. The only green I see on a regular basis is the money passed during the morning crack deal. Second, I have an odd body shape. My narrow shoulders give way to a broad chest, scrawny arms, a delightful beer gut, and thick legs. I am the equivalent of God's Mr. Potato head. This has left me too ashamed to remove my shirt in the shower, let alone a forest.
I continued to ignore it. After all, what you don't know can't hurt you. Early the next morning I was at work performing my daily ritual of shirking responsibility. On this particular occasion I was leafing through the NY Daily News. On my way to the crossword puzzle I read a headline that instantly caught my attention. Generally, any glimpse of an actual news story would leave me glassy eyed, but this article sent a chill down my spine. It told the story of a 19-year-old woman who recently passed away due to complications from flesh-eating bacteria. The piece said this virus began as a rash, and progressed to include body pain, temporary blindness, and rectal bleeding. I tore upstairs to the restroom to examine my rectum, and each time I bumped into something in my frenzy I convinced myself it was do to temporary blindness.
As I sat waiting for the doctor I made a mental list of which I wanted to give my eulogy and whether or not I should be buried with my CD collection. The door creaked open and a beautiful young woman entered the room. She introduced herself as the nurse and conducted a preliminary interview. I realized as I sat there how old I have become. When did the girls I used to check out at the mall become nurses? I must admit, even though I am happily married, there was a certain part of my brain that still wanted to impress her. I had no control over it. For example, in order to get an idea about my immune system she inquired how many sexual partners I was involved with. Without even thinking I replied, "What did you have in mind".
She left, and a few minutes later the door swung open and the doctor made his grand entrance. He was an overweight man in his early fifties who walked with a cane and conducted himself with an overt sense of conceit. I felt as though he was trying to rip off the style of FOX television's "House". He assuredly announced that he had already made his diagnosis, but merely needed a peek at the infection to verify it. Who the hell was this guy, and why was he wasting his obvious supernatural ability at an urgent care facility in Queens? Before I even finished removing my shirt he told me not to bother. He had seen enough, and indeed, his worst fears were true.
He told me I had shingles. I tried to explain to him that given my fear of heights and the fact that I live in an apartment building made this impossible to contract such a thing. Could I have caught it from someone? Was my wife cheating on me with a contractor? Apparently the disease has nothing to do with roofing. Basically it is like grown up chicken pox. When I contracted chicken pox as a child, I never fully shed the disease it just went dormant. Now it had resurfaced and wanted revenge. The thing that really blew my mind was when the doctor informed me that shingles is a form of the herpes virus. Herpes? I'm not saying there's anything wrong with people who have herpes, but I if I have to have it at least I feel like I should have the enjoyment of catching it.
The doctor prescribed Valtrex, which is primarily issued to herpes sufferers. As I stood in line at Walgreen's I became overcome with embarrassment. I felt the need to proclaim loudly that it was shingles that I suffered from, not herpes. That's when I learned the painful lesson that no one wants to hang out with a shingles patient either.
Time has passed and the rash has subsided, but though my skin will be restored to its original form, my emotional scars may never heal. I have already been forced to defend my honour to two nosy guests who discovered Valtrex in my medicine cabinet. If there is any advice I can pass on to the youth of today it would be to be safe, never have unprotected sex with poultry or construction workers. At least, I think that's how it goes.
Contributed by: Brian Mollica
ChristmaChess
"what's for lunch this Christmas?'
"gloop"
"I thought we were having gloop for dinner"
"that is glosh"
"oh, what's the difference?"
"gloop is glosh before it becomes glud"
"and the substance we had for breakfast"
"Oh, that was glug"
"Can I stir the glug as it becomes gloop? I do not want you to forget it and let it become glud"
"mmm. No"
"can I add salt"
"no"
"can I arrange the table"
"no"
"what can I do"
"arrange the chess board"
"choose a color"
"pink"
"(gulp) this is good gloop"
"yeah, make your move"
"why cant we both move at the same time"
"move"
"would this pawn mind being the first to move"
"let the carnage begin"
"don't pawns have rights"
"make the move"
"half the board is full of them, they should be a union by now"
"don't forget to eat your gloop before it cools and becomes gloo"
"if they had a union they would all be queens instead of being pawns"
"make the move"
"why should there be only one piece in a square"
"either because square was empty or because the piece in it just got killed"
"are you sure it is not illegal to kill in a game"
"good move"
"I feel sorry for your pawn"
"this game has been played for centuries this way"
"can my horse just share the square with your pawn"
"kill it"
"it is so mean to use a horse to displace a pawn"
"make your move my queen is waiting to get your king"
"really , that is so sweet, tell her my king is taken but he might be generous if she is nice to him"
"my queen wants to kill your king"
"is it really legal to play this game, I mean there is more a king and queen can do without killing each other, plus it's Christmas"
"eat your gloop"
"think of all the things our pieces could do together"
"your turn to move"
"instead of killing each other why don't we form an alliance and do something constructive"
"check"
"ah, there you go again"
"check again"
"chrismas or no Chrismas, I am sure it illegal to be bouncing so many checks"
"my queen is gonna get your king mated"
"your queen wants to kill my king and calls it getting mated"
"check mate"
"you have no idea what mating is all about"
"the game is over"
"can i continue moving the pieces"
"go ahead, if it makes you happy but just remember that the game is over"
"I love the way the horse moves"
"you would have won the game if you had moved it earlier"
"I did not want to win"
"you played like a loser"
"losing is not the only option to not being the winner"
"if you had made those moves before my queen mated your king, you would have won pawns down"
"I did not lose, I am still moving my pieces"
"the game is over, I won"
"would'nt it be nicer to be able to say We Won"
"We played chess not nice"
"that is not nice of you"
"what is that you are doing putting your bishop on that rook"
"that is my bisrook"
"what is a bishrook"
"a bishop teaming up with the rook"
"what on the chess board for"
"to be more powerful than a bishop or a rook is an any given time"
"now what is that horse doing on the rook... Lemme guess, it is horook"
"how did you find out"
"I am smarter than you"
"together we can be smarter than you and me are as individuals"
Merry Christmas
"gloop"
"I thought we were having gloop for dinner"
"that is glosh"
"oh, what's the difference?"
"gloop is glosh before it becomes glud"
"and the substance we had for breakfast"
"Oh, that was glug"
"Can I stir the glug as it becomes gloop? I do not want you to forget it and let it become glud"
"mmm. No"
"can I add salt"
"no"
"can I arrange the table"
"no"
"what can I do"
"arrange the chess board"
"choose a color"
"pink"
"(gulp) this is good gloop"
"yeah, make your move"
"why cant we both move at the same time"
"move"
"would this pawn mind being the first to move"
"let the carnage begin"
"don't pawns have rights"
"make the move"
"half the board is full of them, they should be a union by now"
"don't forget to eat your gloop before it cools and becomes gloo"
"if they had a union they would all be queens instead of being pawns"
"make the move"
"why should there be only one piece in a square"
"either because square was empty or because the piece in it just got killed"
"are you sure it is not illegal to kill in a game"
"good move"
"I feel sorry for your pawn"
"this game has been played for centuries this way"
"can my horse just share the square with your pawn"
"kill it"
"it is so mean to use a horse to displace a pawn"
"make your move my queen is waiting to get your king"
"really , that is so sweet, tell her my king is taken but he might be generous if she is nice to him"
"my queen wants to kill your king"
"is it really legal to play this game, I mean there is more a king and queen can do without killing each other, plus it's Christmas"
"eat your gloop"
"think of all the things our pieces could do together"
"your turn to move"
"instead of killing each other why don't we form an alliance and do something constructive"
"check"
"ah, there you go again"
"check again"
"chrismas or no Chrismas, I am sure it illegal to be bouncing so many checks"
"my queen is gonna get your king mated"
"your queen wants to kill my king and calls it getting mated"
"check mate"
"you have no idea what mating is all about"
"the game is over"
"can i continue moving the pieces"
"go ahead, if it makes you happy but just remember that the game is over"
"I love the way the horse moves"
"you would have won the game if you had moved it earlier"
"I did not want to win"
"you played like a loser"
"losing is not the only option to not being the winner"
"if you had made those moves before my queen mated your king, you would have won pawns down"
"I did not lose, I am still moving my pieces"
"the game is over, I won"
"would'nt it be nicer to be able to say We Won"
"We played chess not nice"
"that is not nice of you"
"what is that you are doing putting your bishop on that rook"
"that is my bisrook"
"what is a bishrook"
"a bishop teaming up with the rook"
"what on the chess board for"
"to be more powerful than a bishop or a rook is an any given time"
"now what is that horse doing on the rook... Lemme guess, it is horook"
"how did you find out"
"I am smarter than you"
"together we can be smarter than you and me are as individuals"
Merry Christmas
A Fly on the wall
Would you like to be a 'fly in the ointment' ? A 'bee in the bonnet'? A 'snake in the grass'? A 'wolf in sheep's clothing'? I'm sure not. Neither have I ever desired to join the animal ilk.
But of late I am being driven by an unknown compulsion to be a fly on the wall. Hang on ! It has nothing to do with being an animal-o-phile in general or a fly-o-phile in particular. Nor does it have anything to do with a 'karma' dependent human -animal reincarnation. Hold on ! It also has nothing to do with any Freudian voyeuristic compulsions. Why then was a happy human suddenly gripped by a desire to be a fly on the wall.
Well it all started like this. In the last month or so I was working busy as a bee in the office, in the happy expectation of being promoted on account of good work done.But one fine day as I entered my office 'bright-eyed and bushy-tailed', I was told that a junior colleague had been promoted in my stead. How had this unhappy state of affairs come about, I anxiously inquired.I was told that ameeting had been held by the board constituting the who's who of our organization and the decision taken. Something had gone wrong! But how ? And where ? Was it my work? Or was it a consideration extraneous to the official set-up?How could I find out? Simple. By being a fly on the wall.
With the passage of time the compulsion slowly faded but only to raise its insistent head at important times in my life.When my beloved jade glass went missing. When my interview for a coveted job was being rated. When my doctors put their heads together in the examination room to diagnose a small lump in my back as I waited outside and slowly climbed the walls in my anxiety. When my seven month-old son was hurt and was being operated under general anesthesia . Oh how I wished at times like these that I was a fly on the wall and privy to all that was happening inside closed doors.
However, many of my friends feel that being privy to existential. Secrets would take the zing out of life. That it is the inaccessibility of the shadowy depths of the world that add excitement and interest to life. And to be a fly on the wall would take away that extra something from life. Yes I suppose secret goings-on not only titillate human interest but also set the adrenalin pumping
Contributed by: Rachy Singh
But of late I am being driven by an unknown compulsion to be a fly on the wall. Hang on ! It has nothing to do with being an animal-o-phile in general or a fly-o-phile in particular. Nor does it have anything to do with a 'karma' dependent human -animal reincarnation. Hold on ! It also has nothing to do with any Freudian voyeuristic compulsions. Why then was a happy human suddenly gripped by a desire to be a fly on the wall.
Well it all started like this. In the last month or so I was working busy as a bee in the office, in the happy expectation of being promoted on account of good work done.But one fine day as I entered my office 'bright-eyed and bushy-tailed', I was told that a junior colleague had been promoted in my stead. How had this unhappy state of affairs come about, I anxiously inquired.I was told that ameeting had been held by the board constituting the who's who of our organization and the decision taken. Something had gone wrong! But how ? And where ? Was it my work? Or was it a consideration extraneous to the official set-up?How could I find out? Simple. By being a fly on the wall.
With the passage of time the compulsion slowly faded but only to raise its insistent head at important times in my life.When my beloved jade glass went missing. When my interview for a coveted job was being rated. When my doctors put their heads together in the examination room to diagnose a small lump in my back as I waited outside and slowly climbed the walls in my anxiety. When my seven month-old son was hurt and was being operated under general anesthesia . Oh how I wished at times like these that I was a fly on the wall and privy to all that was happening inside closed doors.
However, many of my friends feel that being privy to existential. Secrets would take the zing out of life. That it is the inaccessibility of the shadowy depths of the world that add excitement and interest to life. And to be a fly on the wall would take away that extra something from life. Yes I suppose secret goings-on not only titillate human interest but also set the adrenalin pumping
Contributed by: Rachy Singh
Hypocrisy
I have often wondered at the etymology and semantic content of the word 'hypocrisy'. After hunting in vain for its Latin, French, Lativian(?) origins , I finally realized that the word had about it almost a kind of onomatopoeic quality. The word actually sounded its meaning. For it assimilated within its alphabetic confines all the qualities that define a hypocrite.
The 'root' of the word itself is 'hypo' or 'hippo' ,hinting at the 'hide'-like opacity of the animal which acts as a barrier ,discouraging access to the inner 'persona'. Simply put, it means a dissonance between the outer and the inner self. To use an analogy, ,when a person bowing to his schizophrenic tendencies ,attempts to play 'Jekyll and Hyde' , in modern day parlance he can be dubbed as a hypocrite.
The 'genus' of the hypocrite family has several species and sub-species.For one, there is the 'Dolly -Clone' whose gentle sheep-like behaviour or one-time friskiness makes the people around him confide and trust his 'sheep-like eyes'till they find to their shock and disbelief that he is a 'tiger -in -sheep's-clothing'and not the sure-footed Taurian goat they could trust.
Then come the 'money changers'who are true in that they talk as well as think about nothing but money. But the dissonance lies in that they talk about financial contentment and absence of desire for more money. But in actual fact they crave money, expect monetary benefits at every turn and if thwarted turn their malicious fangs upon those who dare to come between them and their desire for money.
There are then the spiritual 'Houidinis' who with the magic and charisma of their personalities project a spiritual aura . They talk about upliftment of the spirit, about rising above the worldly 'greed'call of material acquisitions, about achieving a sense of utter contentment.But the truth is stranger than fiction for their claim on worldly goods and their desperate craving for it breaks legal as well as human barriers.
There are also the 'sychophant 'hypocrites, a species , that is found in the office environs. This species is characterized by a fawning behaviour pattern which emerges in the presence of the boss. Their ballet-like movements around the boss are a sight for sore eyes. They may hate and despise their bosses but all their energies are focussed towards keeping the boss happy by any means-be it flattery, be it gifts or be it by getting odd jobs done.
Then there are the 'Gemini contenders'. These species are outwardly positive, progressive and god-fearing but are actually negative and regressive ,belonging to the ilk of the damned. They are characterized by hyperbole in their projections, be it work-related or a projection of their alleged compassion for the 'children of the lesser god' or a projection of their attainment of god-like bliss.In the hypocrite crime gallery , they are 'Jack-the-rippers' who rip away the faith, trust,illusions and sensibilities of people around them brutally , accompanied with a psychopathic glee.
And finally , there is the Hydra-headed Hypocrite whose hypocrisies are many and varied , whose moral corruption is so great that as a good samaritan ,if you lop off one of his numerous heads, another grows in its stead to create havoc. There is no escaping the wretchedness of this hypocrite whose talk of greatness is mired in the slush of corruption, whose projection of love and compassion has the roots of selfish opportunism, whose Machiavellian manipulations go beyond the descriptive decorum of a word and who like Mephistopheles has sold his soul to the devil for material advancement.
Hypocrisy in today's world has become a by-word for success for it hints at a society which belies transparency and thrives on half-truths.
Hypocrisy is dead !
Long Live Hypocrisy!!
Long Live Hypocrisy !!!
The 'root' of the word itself is 'hypo' or 'hippo' ,hinting at the 'hide'-like opacity of the animal which acts as a barrier ,discouraging access to the inner 'persona'. Simply put, it means a dissonance between the outer and the inner self. To use an analogy, ,when a person bowing to his schizophrenic tendencies ,attempts to play 'Jekyll and Hyde' , in modern day parlance he can be dubbed as a hypocrite.
The 'genus' of the hypocrite family has several species and sub-species.For one, there is the 'Dolly -Clone' whose gentle sheep-like behaviour or one-time friskiness makes the people around him confide and trust his 'sheep-like eyes'till they find to their shock and disbelief that he is a 'tiger -in -sheep's-clothing'and not the sure-footed Taurian goat they could trust.
Then come the 'money changers'who are true in that they talk as well as think about nothing but money. But the dissonance lies in that they talk about financial contentment and absence of desire for more money. But in actual fact they crave money, expect monetary benefits at every turn and if thwarted turn their malicious fangs upon those who dare to come between them and their desire for money.
There are then the spiritual 'Houidinis' who with the magic and charisma of their personalities project a spiritual aura . They talk about upliftment of the spirit, about rising above the worldly 'greed'call of material acquisitions, about achieving a sense of utter contentment.But the truth is stranger than fiction for their claim on worldly goods and their desperate craving for it breaks legal as well as human barriers.
There are also the 'sychophant 'hypocrites, a species , that is found in the office environs. This species is characterized by a fawning behaviour pattern which emerges in the presence of the boss. Their ballet-like movements around the boss are a sight for sore eyes. They may hate and despise their bosses but all their energies are focussed towards keeping the boss happy by any means-be it flattery, be it gifts or be it by getting odd jobs done.
Then there are the 'Gemini contenders'. These species are outwardly positive, progressive and god-fearing but are actually negative and regressive ,belonging to the ilk of the damned. They are characterized by hyperbole in their projections, be it work-related or a projection of their alleged compassion for the 'children of the lesser god' or a projection of their attainment of god-like bliss.In the hypocrite crime gallery , they are 'Jack-the-rippers' who rip away the faith, trust,illusions and sensibilities of people around them brutally , accompanied with a psychopathic glee.
And finally , there is the Hydra-headed Hypocrite whose hypocrisies are many and varied , whose moral corruption is so great that as a good samaritan ,if you lop off one of his numerous heads, another grows in its stead to create havoc. There is no escaping the wretchedness of this hypocrite whose talk of greatness is mired in the slush of corruption, whose projection of love and compassion has the roots of selfish opportunism, whose Machiavellian manipulations go beyond the descriptive decorum of a word and who like Mephistopheles has sold his soul to the devil for material advancement.
Hypocrisy in today's world has become a by-word for success for it hints at a society which belies transparency and thrives on half-truths.
Hypocrisy is dead !
Long Live Hypocrisy!!
Long Live Hypocrisy !!!
Are you Left, Right or Middle?
To dispel any suggestions to the contrary, this article is not about politics. Your brain can see this incorrect identification: but which one?
Most individuals have a difficult time performing a task from the opposite lobe than their personality dictates. The left brained like my wife are simply ecstatic about figures, numbers and mathematics. Why am I the one who handles the chequebook and tax returns when that is where she gets her jollies? Women have a way of massaging your brain to make you think left is right and right is left. Directing our attention to their sensual, soft, curvy parts makes a nose ring merely figurative. My reaction of such dedication to math runs from "ho hum," to "I got to stop pulling my own hair out before I go bald and the woman takes up with a hairy accountant." The rest of us who are right brain people have sensitivity and are inclined towards the arts.
Roger Perry a Nobel Prize winner conducted split-brain experiments (not to be confused with split pea experimentation often performed by 3 year olds: sneaking the awful tasting vegetable into the nearest napkin, to shuffle them into the closest toilet at the earliest opportunity). Perry determined that "there appear to be two modes of thinking, represented rather separately in left and right hemispheres." He further suggested that
"Our education system, as well as science in general, tends to neglect one side over the other. What it comes down to is that modern society discriminates against the right hemisphere." Aha! I knew it! I know I am not simply an oddball, black sheep with idiosyncratic peculiarities that are out of the norm. I am actually being "kept down by the man!" I am practically an endangered species. Now I understand why the toilet seat must be down in the bathroom. It is not a guy versus girl issue. It is a left-brain versus right brain one!
Basically the truth of the matter is that we all use both sides of our brain even though observing rush hour traffic would suggest that we seem more like a bunch of brainless zombies from Night of the Living Dead Goes to the Demolition Derby. It is just that the left-brain thinks it knows everything! I keep telling my wife this but all I ever get out of it is a comfortable sleeping spot on a hot couch.
The left takes over like Mr. Spock and dispenses with the genteel right side's irrational images and inspiration. You could almost see a devil sitting on one shoulder and an angel on the other, and we know who usually wins that skirmish. It is as if a brutish dictator rode into town and removed the pleasant easygoing right side and sent it to the dungeon. The carnage is worse than a bunch of 1950's housewives let loose at a 75% off white sale at 'Macy's'.
Here are some of the findings of brain function: The left-brain is responsible for logic, details, facts, math, science, comprehension, perception, reality, strategy, and practicality. The highlight of the right brain is the ability to drool. "Talk about painting a one sided picture!" Everybody knows there is quite a story to a wet spot. Now I face the prospect that, when my daughter wakes up in the morning with a wet mark on her pillow I will know she is right brained and destined for a rough life. Actually, 'righties' use feelings, pictures, imagination, symbols, images, philosophy, fantasy, and religion (which in some circles is the same thing as fantasy).
Then there are the 'middle brainers'. You would think that they'd be a combination of left and right. Maybe they should be capable of swinging from one side to the other. They tend to be genius.' Albert Einstein, apart from formulating the theory of relativity, E=MC2 , was a big middle brain user but more importantly he had cool hair for an old dude. He even came up with a little known universal brain formula. L+R=P (Left brain + Right brain = Politics). Now that makes sense. The left wants to control your life, the right is brainless and needs to be in the dungeon and the middle is the diplomatic bridge between the two. Okay I was wrong this is all about politics. I guess my brain is not functioning properly. It's leaning toward the middle and that can be scary. I do not know if I can stand being sensitive, thoughtful and a genius too!
Contributed by: Giosue' Santarelli
Most individuals have a difficult time performing a task from the opposite lobe than their personality dictates. The left brained like my wife are simply ecstatic about figures, numbers and mathematics. Why am I the one who handles the chequebook and tax returns when that is where she gets her jollies? Women have a way of massaging your brain to make you think left is right and right is left. Directing our attention to their sensual, soft, curvy parts makes a nose ring merely figurative. My reaction of such dedication to math runs from "ho hum," to "I got to stop pulling my own hair out before I go bald and the woman takes up with a hairy accountant." The rest of us who are right brain people have sensitivity and are inclined towards the arts.
Roger Perry a Nobel Prize winner conducted split-brain experiments (not to be confused with split pea experimentation often performed by 3 year olds: sneaking the awful tasting vegetable into the nearest napkin, to shuffle them into the closest toilet at the earliest opportunity). Perry determined that "there appear to be two modes of thinking, represented rather separately in left and right hemispheres." He further suggested that
"Our education system, as well as science in general, tends to neglect one side over the other. What it comes down to is that modern society discriminates against the right hemisphere." Aha! I knew it! I know I am not simply an oddball, black sheep with idiosyncratic peculiarities that are out of the norm. I am actually being "kept down by the man!" I am practically an endangered species. Now I understand why the toilet seat must be down in the bathroom. It is not a guy versus girl issue. It is a left-brain versus right brain one!
Basically the truth of the matter is that we all use both sides of our brain even though observing rush hour traffic would suggest that we seem more like a bunch of brainless zombies from Night of the Living Dead Goes to the Demolition Derby. It is just that the left-brain thinks it knows everything! I keep telling my wife this but all I ever get out of it is a comfortable sleeping spot on a hot couch.
The left takes over like Mr. Spock and dispenses with the genteel right side's irrational images and inspiration. You could almost see a devil sitting on one shoulder and an angel on the other, and we know who usually wins that skirmish. It is as if a brutish dictator rode into town and removed the pleasant easygoing right side and sent it to the dungeon. The carnage is worse than a bunch of 1950's housewives let loose at a 75% off white sale at 'Macy's'.
Here are some of the findings of brain function: The left-brain is responsible for logic, details, facts, math, science, comprehension, perception, reality, strategy, and practicality. The highlight of the right brain is the ability to drool. "Talk about painting a one sided picture!" Everybody knows there is quite a story to a wet spot. Now I face the prospect that, when my daughter wakes up in the morning with a wet mark on her pillow I will know she is right brained and destined for a rough life. Actually, 'righties' use feelings, pictures, imagination, symbols, images, philosophy, fantasy, and religion (which in some circles is the same thing as fantasy).
Then there are the 'middle brainers'. You would think that they'd be a combination of left and right. Maybe they should be capable of swinging from one side to the other. They tend to be genius.' Albert Einstein, apart from formulating the theory of relativity, E=MC2 , was a big middle brain user but more importantly he had cool hair for an old dude. He even came up with a little known universal brain formula. L+R=P (Left brain + Right brain = Politics). Now that makes sense. The left wants to control your life, the right is brainless and needs to be in the dungeon and the middle is the diplomatic bridge between the two. Okay I was wrong this is all about politics. I guess my brain is not functioning properly. It's leaning toward the middle and that can be scary. I do not know if I can stand being sensitive, thoughtful and a genius too!
Contributed by: Giosue' Santarelli
The Invisible Web
I have been working on the net for last several years. I always thought that when I needed to find anything on the net I could use Google, Altavista, Hotbot, Yahoo, Excite, Snap, About, AOL, MSN, Looksmart, Web crawler, Ask Jeeves, Northern Light and covered almost the entire gamut of the Internet for my searches. It was one day when going through a job advertisement on Web Researcher, in qualifications column, I saw ...."knowledge of Invisible web required....". Now what was that..Invisible Web...? I had never heard of it before. Research on the topic produced startling information which I share with you.
What exactly is Invisible web: A vast majority of information available on the Internet does not reside directly on the World Wide Web. It is found in hidden databases that cannot be seen or searched by common Internet search engines. There are many many such databases This vast Ocean of databases is commonly referred to as the "The Invisible Web". It is called Invisible as it is not searched through commonly used search engines. It is also called "Hidden Web" as this part of the Internet hides inside the Data Base. Some People call it the "Deeper Web" because most of the search Engines only search (spider/crawl) the surface of the Internet.
Why is this part of the Internet Hidden/Invisible: To understand this we must understand how search engines work. Search engines visit (crawl, spider) the web servers registering the addresses of Web pages they discover. When they come across a database, they read and index the home page of a database. They do not go inside that database to find out what is stored therein. Thus search engines don't distinguish between the index page of a huge data base and a simple Web page. Although information is there in the Database it is invisible to the search engine because of its technology. Another reason is that the HTML pages we normally post on the Internet are fixed or static pages. Pages of the databases are more active and offer content that is put together from many parts of the database. These are called dynamic pages. Commonly used Search Engines cannot index dynamic pages and so the databases remain hidden.What is the extent of the Invisible web: The Google Search Engine mentions indexing 28.0547 billion pages. This at the moment is considered to be one of the biggest indexing of Web pages. Bright Planet a company which has brought out a white paper on the subject estimates this to be 800 billion to 950 billion web pages. This translates to up to 500 times of the visible web. The Invisible Web contains 7,500 terabytes of information, compared to 19 terabytes of information in the commonly searched Web. There are an estimated 1,00,000 Invisible web sites and growing.
What is the significance of this concept to Web Masters: As web masters especially those working with the data bases it is very essential to know that a conventional search engine will not index their site/ web page. More likely it will only index the Index page of the entire data base once. There is, as yet, no solution to this problem of data base not being found through a conventional search engine.
Why is Invisible Web important: Most of the Invisible Web contains information that can be publicly accessed and available for free. This information is extremely relevant for domain names, market research,and is commercially relevant information.
Gateways to Invisible web: Now the question arises how to search the Invisible web. One way is through gateways, which are the interfaces giving direct access to the thousands of searchable databases on the Web that the major search engines ignore. Some of these are Alpha Search, The Big Hub, WebData.com, Digital Librarian etc.
How to search the Invisible Web: Besides gateways there are specific search engines which search the Invisible web. Most significant amongst these are Lexibot, Infomine, InvisibleWeb
contributed by:Kainaat creations
What exactly is Invisible web: A vast majority of information available on the Internet does not reside directly on the World Wide Web. It is found in hidden databases that cannot be seen or searched by common Internet search engines. There are many many such databases This vast Ocean of databases is commonly referred to as the "The Invisible Web". It is called Invisible as it is not searched through commonly used search engines. It is also called "Hidden Web" as this part of the Internet hides inside the Data Base. Some People call it the "Deeper Web" because most of the search Engines only search (spider/crawl) the surface of the Internet.
Why is this part of the Internet Hidden/Invisible: To understand this we must understand how search engines work. Search engines visit (crawl, spider) the web servers registering the addresses of Web pages they discover. When they come across a database, they read and index the home page of a database. They do not go inside that database to find out what is stored therein. Thus search engines don't distinguish between the index page of a huge data base and a simple Web page. Although information is there in the Database it is invisible to the search engine because of its technology. Another reason is that the HTML pages we normally post on the Internet are fixed or static pages. Pages of the databases are more active and offer content that is put together from many parts of the database. These are called dynamic pages. Commonly used Search Engines cannot index dynamic pages and so the databases remain hidden.What is the extent of the Invisible web: The Google Search Engine mentions indexing 28.0547 billion pages. This at the moment is considered to be one of the biggest indexing of Web pages. Bright Planet a company which has brought out a white paper on the subject estimates this to be 800 billion to 950 billion web pages. This translates to up to 500 times of the visible web. The Invisible Web contains 7,500 terabytes of information, compared to 19 terabytes of information in the commonly searched Web. There are an estimated 1,00,000 Invisible web sites and growing.
What is the significance of this concept to Web Masters: As web masters especially those working with the data bases it is very essential to know that a conventional search engine will not index their site/ web page. More likely it will only index the Index page of the entire data base once. There is, as yet, no solution to this problem of data base not being found through a conventional search engine.
Why is Invisible Web important: Most of the Invisible Web contains information that can be publicly accessed and available for free. This information is extremely relevant for domain names, market research,and is commercially relevant information.
Gateways to Invisible web: Now the question arises how to search the Invisible web. One way is through gateways, which are the interfaces giving direct access to the thousands of searchable databases on the Web that the major search engines ignore. Some of these are Alpha Search, The Big Hub, WebData.com, Digital Librarian etc.
How to search the Invisible Web: Besides gateways there are specific search engines which search the Invisible web. Most significant amongst these are Lexibot, Infomine, InvisibleWeb
contributed by:Kainaat creations
Boolean Operators in Internet Searching
We all search the Internet frequently for specific information.Supposing you are looking for the topic: Cinematic techniques used by James Joyce in his novels. The first and the obvious way to search for the topic is to type the word James Joyce in the search box of the search engine. This would yield a large number of pages of sites related to James Joyce as also all James and all the Joyce pages. Opening all these pages and browsing them for specific topic of cinematic techniques is a very tedious job. Are there any short cuts ?
Well yes there are short cuts and these are called Boolean operators based on the Boolean logic (after George Boole,18th cent.Mathematician). Boolean operators are used to combine search concepts in a more precise way than is possible with word searching.
The few important ones are discussed below:
AND:
The AND operator narrows a search to include only those web pages that contain both keywords. The search syntax for our above query would be; james AND joyce AND cinematic AND techniques. AND operators are a great way of limiting the numbers of search results because they link two subjects to create a new query subject for the engine.Thus the engine will only search for web pages on the Internet that will include all the four subjects.
OR:
The OR operator broadens searches to include web pages/ web sites that contain any keywords of the search. The search query in our case could be; joyce OR joycean OR joyces. OR operators can be useful when searching for alternative spellings,or searching for synonyms e.g.in our case; techniques OR concepts OR methods
NOT:
The NOT operator narrows a search to exclude certain keywords. Say searching for james joyce cinematic techniques we don't want the search engine to open web sites relating to James Joyce Foundation, James Joyce Society etc. The query will then be; james AND joyce NOT foundation
NEAR:
NEAR operators work similarly to AND operators, retrieving only those web pages that contain both keywords, but NEAR operators further limit the search results by requiring that the keywords be within ten words of each other. This is especially important in our case of a proper name search because when we look for james and joyce the engine will also open pages of james dean, james hill, james watt, james smith etc. and similarly of richard joyce and william joyce etc. Use of NEAR operator will open only pages of james joyce. The query will thus be james NEAR joyce.
IMPORTANT:
It is very important to note the in all the discussion above the operators have been mentioned in uppercase and the searched words in lowercase. This is essential, because if operators are mentioned in lower case the search engines will ignore them as these are the most commonly occurring words in any web page.
The major search engines all permit Boolean searching, but they vary in the syntax they require. Learning the fine points of a particular search engine will greatly improve the precision of your queries. This fine tuning to the major engines like Google, Altavista, Excite, Northern Light, Hotbot, Lycos, Yahoo, Web crawler, Infoseek etc. will be discussed in another article.
Well yes there are short cuts and these are called Boolean operators based on the Boolean logic (after George Boole,18th cent.Mathematician). Boolean operators are used to combine search concepts in a more precise way than is possible with word searching.
The few important ones are discussed below:
AND:
The AND operator narrows a search to include only those web pages that contain both keywords. The search syntax for our above query would be; james AND joyce AND cinematic AND techniques. AND operators are a great way of limiting the numbers of search results because they link two subjects to create a new query subject for the engine.Thus the engine will only search for web pages on the Internet that will include all the four subjects.
OR:
The OR operator broadens searches to include web pages/ web sites that contain any keywords of the search. The search query in our case could be; joyce OR joycean OR joyces. OR operators can be useful when searching for alternative spellings,or searching for synonyms e.g.in our case; techniques OR concepts OR methods
NOT:
The NOT operator narrows a search to exclude certain keywords. Say searching for james joyce cinematic techniques we don't want the search engine to open web sites relating to James Joyce Foundation, James Joyce Society etc. The query will then be; james AND joyce NOT foundation
NEAR:
NEAR operators work similarly to AND operators, retrieving only those web pages that contain both keywords, but NEAR operators further limit the search results by requiring that the keywords be within ten words of each other. This is especially important in our case of a proper name search because when we look for james and joyce the engine will also open pages of james dean, james hill, james watt, james smith etc. and similarly of richard joyce and william joyce etc. Use of NEAR operator will open only pages of james joyce. The query will thus be james NEAR joyce.
IMPORTANT:
It is very important to note the in all the discussion above the operators have been mentioned in uppercase and the searched words in lowercase. This is essential, because if operators are mentioned in lower case the search engines will ignore them as these are the most commonly occurring words in any web page.
The major search engines all permit Boolean searching, but they vary in the syntax they require. Learning the fine points of a particular search engine will greatly improve the precision of your queries. This fine tuning to the major engines like Google, Altavista, Excite, Northern Light, Hotbot, Lycos, Yahoo, Web crawler, Infoseek etc. will be discussed in another article.
Search strategy to Search that elusive Web page
We all have had times on the internet when we don't find the thing that we are looking for on the net.It is not only time consuming but also very frustrating. With the web growing every minute the number of pages is increasing to incredible levels. From 54,000 odd pages in 1994 to about 1.347 billion pages in 2001 to 8.058 billion pages in 2005 the growth has been phenomenal. How often we wished that someone could have classified things for us like our office secretary and kept them in small filing cabinet, subject wise so that without wasting time we could reach for it straightway.
Directories: Search engines crawl the net and store information about every site they visit. They don't categorise or differentiate. Humans all along have been making the effort to simplify and classify the information available on the Internet. This classifications have been called directories.
How are directories created: The Directory researchers work constantly to examine new web pages one-at-a-time. They classify all the pages they find to categories. These start with one main category and then keep going down to sub categories and sub-sub categories .e.g. The Home page of An American Museum of Contemporary Art may thus be classified as :
ARTS & ARCHITECTURE > ARTS > CONTEMPORARY ART > AMERICAN > MUSEUMS
The people working on the directory projects browse the new pages, make value judgements concerning the appropriateness of each page for listing, find a suitable category for listing, and exclude inappropriate content. This whole process is very much like what a librarian does when he selects, acquires, catalogs, and weeds books.
What is an open search: The most common way of searching the Internet is by using keywords. Type the keywords for the topic you are looking for in the search box of the search engine and see the relevant search results. e.g. searching for biography of Robert Ludlum you may type biography, Robert Ludlum. This type of search is called open search. (here we are not discussing the results of this search)
What is a directory search: In directory search we go form one main category to a category to a sub-category to a sub-sub category of the search directory, till we reach the desired level of the topic we searched e.g. searching for the same biography the path would be;
Arts > Literature > Authors > biography > (alphabet) L > Ludlum > topic
When to use open search:
1. When you want to quickly reach to relevant web pages and you have the keywords
2.When searching for all the freshly published content.
3.When you want all the pages on the topic without excluding anything.
When to use Directory Search:
1.When you dont have the keywords.
2.When keywords are not yielding the results.
3.When the open search is giving too many results.
4.When seeking for quality article/ web site on a specific subject.
5.When you want to exclude all junky pages from the search.
What are the top of the line directory projects: Compiling a directory is a time consuming job. Not every web site or Search Engine owner starts a simultaneous project of creating a directory. Looksmart was one of the early pioneers in this field and it subsequently tied with Altavista. Now they together claim to have the Largest directory on the Internet with 350 million indexed web pages. AOL.com is another big player which has a Human compiled directory. DMOZ is also in the field and attempting to create one of the largest open directories on the net. Wikipedia is the latest entrant and going very rapidly everyday.
We can only say in the end that search engines are essential but Directories are also important.Because the search engines will search and search and create chaos, it is only the humans who will bring sanity to this data.
Directories: Search engines crawl the net and store information about every site they visit. They don't categorise or differentiate. Humans all along have been making the effort to simplify and classify the information available on the Internet. This classifications have been called directories.
How are directories created: The Directory researchers work constantly to examine new web pages one-at-a-time. They classify all the pages they find to categories. These start with one main category and then keep going down to sub categories and sub-sub categories .e.g. The Home page of An American Museum of Contemporary Art may thus be classified as :
ARTS & ARCHITECTURE > ARTS > CONTEMPORARY ART > AMERICAN > MUSEUMS
The people working on the directory projects browse the new pages, make value judgements concerning the appropriateness of each page for listing, find a suitable category for listing, and exclude inappropriate content. This whole process is very much like what a librarian does when he selects, acquires, catalogs, and weeds books.
What is an open search: The most common way of searching the Internet is by using keywords. Type the keywords for the topic you are looking for in the search box of the search engine and see the relevant search results. e.g. searching for biography of Robert Ludlum you may type biography, Robert Ludlum. This type of search is called open search. (here we are not discussing the results of this search)
What is a directory search: In directory search we go form one main category to a category to a sub-category to a sub-sub category of the search directory, till we reach the desired level of the topic we searched e.g. searching for the same biography the path would be;
Arts > Literature > Authors > biography > (alphabet) L > Ludlum > topic
When to use open search:
1. When you want to quickly reach to relevant web pages and you have the keywords
2.When searching for all the freshly published content.
3.When you want all the pages on the topic without excluding anything.
When to use Directory Search:
1.When you dont have the keywords.
2.When keywords are not yielding the results.
3.When the open search is giving too many results.
4.When seeking for quality article/ web site on a specific subject.
5.When you want to exclude all junky pages from the search.
What are the top of the line directory projects: Compiling a directory is a time consuming job. Not every web site or Search Engine owner starts a simultaneous project of creating a directory. Looksmart was one of the early pioneers in this field and it subsequently tied with Altavista. Now they together claim to have the Largest directory on the Internet with 350 million indexed web pages. AOL.com is another big player which has a Human compiled directory. DMOZ is also in the field and attempting to create one of the largest open directories on the net. Wikipedia is the latest entrant and going very rapidly everyday.
We can only say in the end that search engines are essential but Directories are also important.Because the search engines will search and search and create chaos, it is only the humans who will bring sanity to this data.
Significance of Meta tags and Key words
How do search engines relate Description, Keywords ,Title and Content in the Body of web page:
Search engines are continuously 'spidering' crawling the web. When they visit a web site they note the URL (universal resource locator) of the web page, Title of the web page, Description Meta tags, Keywords Meta tags, as also Keywords in the text or the body portion of the web page When we submit a search query to the engine The job of a search engine is to find the content which most suitably fits the search query, the engine links up these words with what it has stored in its memory. Depending upon the occurrence of these words in the web pages already spidered by it the results are displayed. It is very essential to understand that different search engines respond differently to the Meta tags. Some use only the Title tag, others use description tag and few others the keywords. So all three tags are important and also all three must have similar content.
Pitfalls of using unrelated Keywords in Meta tags :
It is a common belief that if a Web master has the right keywords his page would figure in the top 10 of a search engine. Meta tags are important as they do help in search engine listing but they are like a double edged sword.Most search engine look at the Keywords, Title and Description of the web page and then they try and relate these to the Actual Content of the page. It is vital that the Title, the Description and the Keywords are in unison with each other as also with what is appearing on the web page. Having a too long description (it wont fit in the description window of the search engine), Keywords should not be repeated. If there are to many Keywords and unrelated to the content on the page the search engine will classify it as spam and put the page out of its listings.
And one final word-please, please don't steal keywords from a popular web site, it is Illegal..
Search engines are continuously 'spidering' crawling the web. When they visit a web site they note the URL (universal resource locator) of the web page, Title of the web page, Description Meta tags, Keywords Meta tags, as also Keywords in the text or the body portion of the web page When we submit a search query to the engine The job of a search engine is to find the content which most suitably fits the search query, the engine links up these words with what it has stored in its memory. Depending upon the occurrence of these words in the web pages already spidered by it the results are displayed. It is very essential to understand that different search engines respond differently to the Meta tags. Some use only the Title tag, others use description tag and few others the keywords. So all three tags are important and also all three must have similar content.
Pitfalls of using unrelated Keywords in Meta tags :
It is a common belief that if a Web master has the right keywords his page would figure in the top 10 of a search engine. Meta tags are important as they do help in search engine listing but they are like a double edged sword.Most search engine look at the Keywords, Title and Description of the web page and then they try and relate these to the Actual Content of the page. It is vital that the Title, the Description and the Keywords are in unison with each other as also with what is appearing on the web page. Having a too long description (it wont fit in the description window of the search engine), Keywords should not be repeated. If there are to many Keywords and unrelated to the content on the page the search engine will classify it as spam and put the page out of its listings.
And one final word-please, please don't steal keywords from a popular web site, it is Illegal..
Significance of Meta tags and Key words
What are Meta tags:
Meta tags are a code used in the web page programming (both HTML & JAVA). They are not visible when a web page is being viewed by a browser. However the search engines use the Meta tags to categorise and classify the content of the web page. Web masters use Meta tags for better placement of their pages on the search engines.
What are commonly used Meta tags:
1. Keywords: This Meta Taget of keywords (with a comma after each keyword)
2 Description: Meta Tag gives description of web page's highlights .
3. Title: Defines the title of the web page. (some authors don't consider this as a Meta tag.)
Other less significant metatags:
4. Author: This tag defines who wrote the web page.
5. Generator: This tag defines the program used to create the web page.
6. Robot: This allows a page to be indexed or not to be indexed by search engine..
Where should be the Meta tags located on the Web page:
Any HTML document (web page) consists of a Header portion and a Body section. The information located in the Header is used by search engines. So meta tags should be located in the and the portion.This has t be included for all pages. For framed pages include META TAGS on all individual framed pages and NOT merely on frame set page.
How to use Title, Description and Keywords in the Meta tags:
The Title tag must accurately define the content on the web page. The description tag must in 1-2 short sentences give the gist of your page. The Keyword tag in about 8-15 'key'words should highlight the most significant aspects of the page. If we were to define the Meta tags for this article they would be;
Meta tags are a code used in the web page programming (both HTML & JAVA). They are not visible when a web page is being viewed by a browser. However the search engines use the Meta tags to categorise and classify the content of the web page. Web masters use Meta tags for better placement of their pages on the search engines.
What are commonly used Meta tags:
1. Keywords: This Meta Taget of keywords (with a comma after each keyword)
2 Description: Meta Tag gives description of web page's highlights .
3. Title: Defines the title of the web page. (some authors don't consider this as a Meta tag.)
Other less significant metatags:
4. Author: This tag defines who wrote the web page.
5. Generator: This tag defines the program used to create the web page.
6. Robot: This allows a page to be indexed or not to be indexed by search engine..
Where should be the Meta tags located on the Web page:
Any HTML document (web page) consists of a Header portion and a Body section. The information located in the Header is used by search engines. So meta tags should be located in the and the portion.This has t be included for all pages. For framed pages include META TAGS on all individual framed pages and NOT merely on frame set page.
How to use Title, Description and Keywords in the Meta tags:
The Title tag must accurately define the content on the web page. The description tag must in 1-2 short sentences give the gist of your page. The Keyword tag in about 8-15 'key'words should highlight the most significant aspects of the page. If we were to define the Meta tags for this article they would be;
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
