Six Branches of Yoga

Yoga is an ancient tradition from the eastern world, and these oldest practitioners tended to look at yoga as a tree with six branches. What all six have in common are the asanas (the physical positions and movements), Pranayama (the structured breathing or breath control), meditation and a strong moral code.

1. Hatha Yoga

In Indian, "ha" means sun and "tha" means moon. Hatha yoga refers to these twin energy channels in the body. Its goal is to prepare the body for the more pure state of meditation to come in the 2nd branch. Hatha yoga was brought to us by an Indian yogi attempting to purify the body to make it fit for higher meditation. Western yoga is almost completely the Hatha yoga branch, and Westerners find mental and physical comfort in the first branch alone.

2. raja Yoga

raja and Hatha Yoga are highly interrelated. raja means "royal" in Indian, and in the royal tradition, this branch of yoga has eight included branches as follows:

- niyama - self discipline - asana - positions - pranayama - breath control - pratyahara - sensory deprivation - dharana - meditation - samadhi - ecstasy

raja yoga is often practiced by religious leaders and monastery dwellers. However, anyone can find benefits in the practice of raja yoga.

3. Karma Yoga

The basic teaching of karma yoga is that what we do and how we behave today will influence our happiness and fulfilment in the future, or a future lifetime. Understanding this cosmic principle helps us to create our current environment with love and positivity in order to forestall negativity in our future. Practitioners of karma yoga lead a life of selfless devotion and service to those less fortunate.

4. bhakti Yoga

bhakti is a Sanskrit term meaning love of God and mankind. practice of bhakti involves controlling and channeling emotions and having tolerance for all who come into our lives.

5. Jnana Yoga

Jnana yoga is the branch of the intellect. Practitioners pursue scholarly paths, usually those of yoga masters or other spiritual traditions. In our Western religious culture, the Jnana yoga practitioner may be likened to the Jesuit priest, the Kabala scholars or Benedictine monks.

6. tantra Yoga

tantra yoga prioritizes ritual as the best way to experience the divine. The Sanskrit word tantra translates to weave or loom. Rituals in everyday life lead to a recognition of the divine in everyday life which leads, in turn, to a reverent attitude in everyday actions.

tantra yoga is the most misunderstood of the six branches. The ancient book, "The Kama Sutra" is a well-known example of this misunderstanding of the real goal of tantra yoga. It is a book of sexual positions and techniques, and in Westernized yoga tradition, tantra yoga has become associated almost exclusively with these published sexual practices. Worldwide, however, most schools teaching this branch of yoga recommend celibacy.

When finally understood by Westerners, tantra's ritualizations of everyday events appeal to them. Western civilizations tend to make rituals of everyday events anyway - births, deaths, weddings, going to church, forming clubs, and all the many various ceremonies and celebrations commonly held are all tightly related to tantra yoga rituals.

One of the best things about the six branches of yoga is that you are not limited to just one, or to a series. You can pick and choose what you want to practice when. Follow your own path using yoga as your toolbox.

Michael russell Your Independent guide to Yoga

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Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks Preview for the Playstation 2 (PS2) and the XBox

mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks is still a month away, but we got our hands on the demo and thought we would share. We were always taught that it was better to share than to play unreleased games and keep it to ourselves.

First off, lets have a little history lesson. mortal Kombat was a fighting game that was a good alternative to Street Fighter. What made it stand out was its combo system, its different graphics, and oh yeah, the gore. MK made a couple treks into the 3D fighting arena with varying degrees of success. But they also made a couple of mediocre action titles, namely mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub Zero and mortal Kombat: Special Forces. Well enough of the history lesson, you want to know if Shaolin Monks is any good. Well in a word, yes.

It took Midway a couple of tries, but they got the 3D fighting genre down with mortal Kombat: Deception. And well I guess it took a couple of tries to get the action genre right, but now they have. Shaolin Monks has all the gore and speed you would expect from a MK game. But now its in the form of an action game.

The version we played started off just after Shang Tsungs defeat. Raiden tells Kung Lao and Lui Kang that even though the defeated the evil sorcerer they now need to escape his island before it sinks or falls apart or something like that. Well basically you fight your way out stating at Goros lair. You have your quick punch, your hard punch, a throw and your jump to start off with. You can also play single or co-op.

The levels were split up into small areas with a couple various beasts attacking you at once. The good news is you can quickly attack in all directions so its not a big deal if you get surrounded. After a little bit you get your characters signature moves which you preform by holding the R button and pressing an attack button. Then you get your fatalities. To use your fatalities you need to fill up the fatality meter by preforming combos. Then once youre full you press the appropriate button and input the fatal sequence to end your enemy's worthless life.

The graphics are very good. The textures are realistic, and the world has a lived-in feel. My major gripe about the game is that there is a load time in-between each individual area. But its the trade off to keep the graphics on par with mortal Kombat: Deceptions.

mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks is coming along nicely, and is already pretty fun. Hopefully the final version has enough game, and extras, to keep us playing, and remember, watch out for the flaming monks.

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XBOX 360 vs. PS3: an in Depth Look

All gamers are awaiting the release of the Xbox 360 and the ps3. This article takes an in depth look at how the two systems compare.

Graphics:

Everyone has seen an Xbox and a ps2 in action and we are all waiting to see which of the two next generation consoles for the two systems will have the edge when it comes to graphics. We have all seen the screenshots of the games on the two systems but what about actual gameplay graphics. Despite the hot debate, when you look at the numbers the two systems use a different but equally effective method of delivering graphics processing power. The XBOX uses a custom ATI processor with 48 graphics pipelines and the ps2 has a custom NVIDA graphics processor with an estimated 24 pipelines. The numbers are misleading because the ps2 piplines are more powerful than the XBOX pipelines. In the end the two different graphics processors will deliver about the same amount of power, we can expect to see impressive results from both sides.

Games:

Both systems have several franchise titles such as Halo2 for the XBOX and Gran Tourismo for the ps2 that you will see in the next generation systems, but what other games can you expect to see. If you are a fan of genres such as role playing that are dominated by Japanese and other foreign developers such as Square, you should look forward to the ps3. There is no indication that the XBOX 360 is going to gain much more support from foreign developers and buyers than the original XBOX. An article on GameSpot.com reports that only two percent of Japanese gamers are interested in buying an XBOX 360, with sixty percent looking forward to the ps3 and eight percent to the nintendo Revolution. Overall you can expect to see more games on the ps3 than the XBOX 360, reflecting the selection for the current generation systems. only time will which console will have the quality of games which all of us are been expecting

Media Type:

Will the media storage type be a factor in the quality of the games? Since ps3 is owned by Sony and BLUray is Sonys next high definition storage medium, the ps3 games will be stored on the BLUray discs which hold approximately 54 gigs. The Xbox 360 games will be stored on Double Layer DVDs which store 9 gigs. Obviously the BLUray discs can store a lot more data, but at the current stage of game development, any game developed will fit just as well on the 9 gig DVDs, so this is not a major factor but one that may come into play later on.

Processing Power:

How do the two systems compare when looking at brute processing power? The ps3 uses a cell processor with a PowerPC-based core with seven synergistic processing units while the Xbox comes with a Custom IBM PowerPC CPU with three dual-threaded cores that can handle six total threads at a time. An important comparison to look at is the number of dot product calculations per second the systems can perform. The reason this number is important is because it is used extensively during gameplay in 3d math to calculate various things such as vector lengths, projections, transformations, and more. Both systems are clocked at 3.2 Ghz. The ps3 can handle 51-billion dot product operations per second and the Xbox can handle 33.6. There is a debate over which system has more brute processing power and these numbers can be confusing to the average person, but overall it seems that the ps3 has an edge over the Xbox when it comes to overall processing power.

Media Type:

Since ps3 is owned by Sony and BLUray is Sonys next high definition storage medium, the ps3 games will be stored on the BLUray discs which hold approximately 54 gigs. The Xbox 360 games will be stored on Double Layer DVDs which store 9 gigs. Obviously the BLUray discs can store a lot more data, but at the current stage of game development, any game developed will fit just as well on the 9 gig DVDs, so this is not a major factor but one that may come into play later on.

Games:

When considering games, you have to look at the XBOX and the ps2. The XBOX is very popular in the US and has a few great franchise games such as halo, but the ps2 has an international reach and several popular game franchises such as Gran Tourismo that the XBOX has yet to beat. The XBOX 360 will need to appeal to foreign game developers and consumers to compete with the ps3. only time will which console will have the quality of games which all of us are been expecting

Controllers:

The controllers on the two systems retain the basic shape from the original systems with some modifications. The ps3 controller has the most dramatic change; it has a streamline shape that looks more like a stealth airplane than a game controller. The XBOX controller is basically the same shape as the previous system with a different color scheme. From the pictures released, it seems the XBOX controller will be more comfortable and natural to use. The ps3 controller looks like it would just slip out of your hand but we will not know how the controllers feel during actual gameplay until we get our hands on them.

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A1 Grand Prix

What is A1 Grand Prix?
A1 Grand Prix is the first opportunity in motorsport for nations to compete on a level playing field. The technology is deliberately equalised so performance is determined by human bravery and skill. Team and driver combine to represent their country and compete against other countries.

A1 Grand Prix is a new sport -- The world Cup of motorsport. Putting driver up against driver and country up against country for the first time ever, A1 Grand Prix (a.k.a. The world Cup of Motorsport), will bring together 25 nations representing 80 per cent of the world's population to compete on a level playing field.

Started as a business venture by Sheikh Maktoum together with some partners, it's turned out to be a mild success so far. Obviously he's hoping for a much better season this year, 2007.
A1 Grand Prix has created a new way for national and international brands to promote themselves to a global market. through The world Cup of motorsport they can join forces with their national teams to be part of this unique and brand new sporting event.

What does 'A1' mean? The name 'A1' encapsulates the two key aspects of the world Cup of motorsport, unity and excellence.

In most languages, 'A1' is a term used to describe the very best and this is what A1 Grand Prix is all about: the pinnacle of driver skill and national pride combined.

The first ever race was held on the 25th September at Brands Hatch in England, for pictures and the race review click here

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Wireless Network Security: How to Use Kismet

Kismet is a wireless network detector / sniffer which can give you a vast amount of information about wireless networks. Wireless network security flaws are well documented but often very hard for the common person to understand. I will be showing you how to use kismet with out even having to install Linux, or compile kismet.

First you need to proceed to remote-exploit.org and download and burn their Auditor CD. (IF you dont know how to burn an iso image, go to Google). This version of Linux doesnt install or modify your hard drive; it will boot from the CD and use a Ram Drive (On your Memory).

Auditor is not only a great tool for testing wireless network security with kismet but it also has many other computer security tools on it as well.

Client Window

Next, to start Kismet proceed to the Linux version of the start menu, and press Auditor. now proceed to the wireless /scanning/kismet tools/kismet.

Once you click on Kismet it will ask you for a default location to place the Kismet log files for analyzing later, just press the desktop or temp file.

now I will show you how to use Kismet. When kismet initially opens you will see a greenish box with numbers and network names (If any are near you) clicking away dont be overwhelmed. (Also I cant show you how to use kismet if you dont have the correct wireless adapter, get an ORINICO gold Classic card off EBAY.) The Orninco gold classic card will be automaticly detected by auditor linux.

The Kismet columns will show the wireless networks SSID (Name), Type of device (Access point, gateway) encryption or no encryption, an IP range and number of packets. Kismet will pick up hidden networks with SSID broadcast Disabled also, Netstumbler will not.

now Press H, to bring up the Help Menu. This will give the nuts and bolts on how to use kismet. If you tab down to the network you are auditing and press C, Kismet will show you all the computers that are using that wireless access point / gateway. This Kismet screen will show you the clients mac address, Manufacture of Wireless adapter, IP address range and traffic.

Kismet: Help Menue

now to get out of that screen press Q. Tab Down on the Main Kismet Screen to another SSID and press I. This Kismet window will show detailed information about the wireless network. The Kismet detail screen will show the type of network (Infrastructrure / Adhoc), signal strength, channel, encryption type, and much more.

Kismet will also give you sound alerts when new wireless networks are discovered or security alerts or suspicious clients are in range. Suspicious clients would be people like you who are using Kismet or Networkstumbler. Unlike you these could be Wardrivers looking for venerable networks to hack into.

Kismet Alert page

You can prevent War drivers from discovering your wireless network by performing a proper site survey which will help limit signal bleed off to unneeded areas. You should write down the suspicious mac address and keep an eye on your access logs. If the War drivers are really stupid just look out your window and look for cars with weird antennas.HA HA HA.

Kismet is more than just a tool to discover wireless networks; it can be used in conjunction with other tools to crack WEP/WPA. Many websites will claim that WEP can be cracked in less that five minutes. This is only half the truth because it could take many hours,days,months to gather enough packets to crack. Good luck and have fun learning the more advanced applications of kismet.

Keep your wireless network simple and secure. Join the most popular wireless networking newsletter on the internet http://www.wirelessninja.com

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External Hard Drives

The trend with technology seems to be going small and mobile. You would probably think that is where the manufacturers got the idea of making external hard drives. These are hard disk drives (HDD) that are literally placed outside of the computer case. An external HDD does not only give you more space, but it provides you with mobility. With the option to remove this hdd, you are able to take all your data with you.

There are external hdd that are built to be external, meaning the hdd has built-in cables that allow you to interface with your computer. Older connectors would use SCSI or SATA cables that connect to a type of hdd connector inside your computer. Newer versions of external hdd uses a simpler method by simply connecting via the usb or the FireWire. Some external hdd provide you with the ability to backup the data from your computer. Although an external hdd gives you the mobility, they tend to be more expensive as compared to the internal versions with the same capacity.

As an alternative to these external hdd, manufacturers have developed an hdd casing that allows you to convert your internal hdd, whether it is a 3.5 drive or a 2.5 drive, to external hdd. You would have to purchase this casing separately, but the advantage is that with this type of casing, you can easily upgrade your hdd without hassle. What differentiates an external 3.5 drive from a 2.5 drive is that normally, the larger device would need an extra power source, while the 2.5 can be supported by the power coming from the usb or FireWire.

A more corporate version of an external hdd is a Network access Storage (NAS). This device is connected directly to you network so you do not need to have a host computer to access the data in it. NAS also allows multiple users to access the data concurrently without using the resources of a host computer.

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