The success of every parent they say lie in comprehending the talents of their children and doing all they can to help establish themselves in the fields they choose to. So, if you want to be a successful parent, you would be required to observe your children and find out their interests. You need to be proactive enough to look for the best places that you can buy art supplies for your children at the best rates. These art supplies might include and range from anything to easels and paint brushes and colors and chart papers to anything that your child might require. As a parent, one has to be well informed about the kids’ art supplies and the places where these can found at low costs without any compromise on the quality. Kids art supplies can be gifted to children at the time of their birthdays and these can be delightful to them. Quality easels should be chosen as the height of the easels and the degree in which it slants matter when kids are using this kind of art supplies. When parents purchase kids art supplies for their children, the children will feel that parents think they mean the world to them and strive to excel in their arts.
Archive for November, 2008
Color your fantasies
Thursday, November 27th, 2008Why K Alliance the best in online learning
Thursday, November 27th, 2008K Alliance is a US based premier computer based video training program development company, which has created its place through innovation and consistent exploration. K Alliance training modules are designed to deal with the new technologies and each of the training programs belong to a class of its own. The company is adept in making variable formats on elearning, streaming video learning and blending learning for corporate as well as k-12 learning, secondary and tertiary education.
K Alliance has designed complete range of elearning and development solutions that are available in formats, on either CDs, Intranet and video presentation. K Alliance training programs are designed for every kind of leaning to happen in any kind of environment. The self-tutored programs are rich enough to enhance the learning of an individual belonging to different industries and domains.
Whether it is IT, Desktop Publishing; Soft Training Skills; software development, K Alliance training is tailored to meet the needs and demands of every body. The best part of these self tutored and self-paced elearning programs are their user-friendliness and high scale of interactivity. Every learner finds unique experience in learning. And being self-paced, the learner can simply adjust the learning as per his/her mental framework. Moreover, you don’t need physical presence of any tutor for learning to happen.
All You Need Is Your Computer
Wednesday, November 26th, 2008When you just want to be trained, I have to advise you that all you will need for this course it just a computer so it can help you with what you want to learn. Today, we have the computer training videos to pull you through with anything that you want to learn. You can instantly have an access to the various online computer-training videos so you will not end up paying more for the costs of the training if it were to be hosted by a personal trainer. Yes, these videos are something that you would really want to have in order for you to be on the line and in order for you to get it in the comfort of your own house for that matter. In this case, you will be well equipped with nothing to loose and you will even have a very conducive place for learning because it will be you who will be the determinant factor to face almost all the things that you want to be stuck in your mind and body of knowledge. So, get it now to save not only time but money and energy as well.
Nepal Prez invited to visit India
Wednesday, November 26th, 2008President Pratibha Patil has extended an invitation to her Nepalese counterpart Ram Baran Yadav to visit India. A letter in this regard was handed over to Yadav by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee when he called on Nepal’s first President at his office ‘Sheetal Niwas’ at Maharajgunj last evening.
Yadav is yet to undertake a foreign trip since assuming office in July. The President was invited to the inaugural ceremony of the Beijing Olympics but could not attend due to political developments in the country.
U2, Coldplay, Killers help launch digital magazine
Wednesday, November 26th, 2008Some of the biggest names in music are contributing exclusive songs to RED(WIRE), a digital music magazine that launches on World AIDS Day (December 1).
U2, Coldplay, the Killers, the Dixie Chicks, John Legend, R.E.M. and Bob Dylan are on board for the initiative, which is an outgrowth of the Bono-reared activist organization called (RED). All proceeds from subscriptions will benefit HIV-infected people in Africa; MSN.com will host a kickoff party December 1.
For $5, users will receive a new issue of RED(WIRE) every Wednesday, featuring an exclusive song from a major musician, a song from a performer who (RED) aims to showcase, a multimedia piece that could encompass video or photography and a look at how proceeds are benefiting Africans in need. The materials will be downloaded to a custom player and automatically loaded into iTunes.
Users can send two free issues to friends, and will be rewarded if they join RED(WIRE).
“Artists are already saying, ‘I want to give you a track for those people who brought friends in,’” (RED)WIRE founder Don MacKinnon told Billboard.com. “That’s the biggest idea: using social networking to actually change the world in a unique way.”
U2’s track was recorded just last Wednesday, while the Killers, Elton John and the Pet Shop Boys’ Neil Tennant teamed up for the Christmas song “Joseph, Better You Than Me,” which MacKinnon describes as “like a power ballad.” This is the third year in a row that the Killers have penned a holiday song and donated proceeds to (RED).
Meanwhile, John Legend’s take on Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song” finds him eschewing piano for a stripped-down arrangement with guitar, bass and backing vocalists, according to MacKinnon.
Also on tap is the first new Dixie Chicks song since the group’s Grammy sweep in 2007, “Lucky One,” and Elvis Costello and the Police jamming on “Watching the Detectives” and “Walking on the Moon,” taped during Costello’s new Sundance Channel show, “Spectacle.” Additional (RED)WIRE offerings will be announced in the coming weeks.
MacKinnon is particularly enthused about the creative directions open to (RED)WIRE, especially with such high-profile artist participation.
“I had a meeting with Jay-Z, and he wants to talk about artists to be featured in that spotlight slot,” he said. “Big artists may curate an issue. The whole goal was to create a creative platform. When somebody says, ‘I do all this photography and I want to put it in as an extra,’ that’s when I go, this is going to be really cool.”
Chinese GP likely to stay after 2010: Organisers
Wednesday, November 26th, 2008The Chinese Grand Prix is likely to continue in Shanghai beyond 2010 as the city continues its drive to become one of the great sporting hubs of the world, according to the organisers of the Formula One race.
Reported comments by the deputy director of the Shanghai sports ministry, Qiu Weichang, that the city might give up its right to a five-year extension on the Grand Prix after 2010 were lost in translation, said Leon Sun of organisers Juss Events.
Reported comments by the deputy director of the Shanghai sports ministry, Qiu Weichang, that the city might give up its right to a five-year extension on the Grand Prix after 2010 were lost in translation, said Leon Sun of organisers Juss Events.“I’ve spoken to Mr Qiu and he never said the Grand Prix was going to leave China,” the general manager of event management at the municipality-owned company told agency in a telephone interview.
“I think it’s probably some misunderstanding in translation. I would say it’s likely it will stay after 2010. Formula One has only been here for five years. To build a spectator base is not easy, it’s a long term operation.”
“We think Formula One is a very good product, a very good event for Shanghai city so at least from our company’s point of view we want to continue promoting and building the event.”
“Research shows there are more and more race fans in China, so I don’t think we will say no to the Formula One Grand Prix.”
Formula One rights holder Bernie Ecclestone said at this October’s Grand Prix that he thought the race had a secure long-term future.
Sun, who took over running the grand prix this year, said there would be more “internal discussions” before negotiations over extending the contract beyond 2010 began.
The home of the Grand Prix is the stunning $350 million circuit on the outskirts of Shanghai, which can seat 200,000 fans but has rarely come anywhere close to accommodating that number.
Sun said around 80,000 spectators had turned up on race-day last month, conceding that at least some of those people had received their tickets as a result of a “trade off with business partners”.
“But we consider those sales because you move your costs down and you have more promotional materials,” he said.
Long run
Briton Lewis Hamilton had the chance to clinch the drivers’ championship in Shanghai for the last two years but the race has been shifted to April in the 2009 calendar, a move Sun believed would work out well in the long run.
“In the first half of the year, there are not many international events in Shanghai, the Autumn is very busy,” he said. “The first year will always be tough when you change an event but in the long-term view, I think it’s a good move.” China’s financial capital has lost a round of the motorcycling world championship, the Asian Open golf tournament and the season finale of men’s tennis, the ATP Masters Cup, from next year’s calendar.
In place of the Masters Cup, however, the impressive Qizhong tennis complex will host a new Masters Series tournament from next October.
Juss has signed up Swiss watch company Rolex as “presenting sponsor” of the event and Sun is confident that, despite the global economic downturn, the city will continue to attract big international events.
“I think for sure there will be more events coming to Shanghai, the only thing we don’t know is when and how,” said Sun, who will be co-tournament director of the new Shanghai Masters 1000.
Nigeria to launch mass polio immunization drive
Wednesday, November 26th, 2008Nigeria will launch a new campaign to vaccinate millions of children against polio Wednesday in an attempt to curb the spread of the disease that has crippled hundreds this year, the World Health Organization said.
Africa’s most populous country, which accounts for more than 50 percent of new polio cases in the world, has struggled to tame the contagious disease since some states in the mainly Muslim north imposed a year-long vaccine ban in mid-2003.
New polio infections in Nigeria have climbed 225 percent to 751 this year from the same period last year because many children in the north missed several rounds of immunization toward the end of 2007, health officials said.
The immunization drive runs until November 30 in 17 northern states and from December 10-12 for the rest of the country.
“The challenge is now for all stakeholders to ensure that all eligible children in Nigeria are indeed taken to the vaccination posts … to receive these vaccines and supplements,” WHO said in a notice.
Children need multiple doses of the oral vaccine to develop full immunity to the incurable infection.
The Nigerian government has set up a presidential task force to bolster the national immunization effort.
Only four countries — Nigeria, India, Pakistan and Afghanistan — remain endemic for the disease that spreads through poor hygiene.
Nigeria has come under pressure to boost immunization since May when neighboring Benin reported its first infection in four years. The virus had first spread to Nigeria’s northern neighbors Chad and Niger, WHO said.
Polio, which can cause permanent paralysis in children, can be prevented with vaccines that have eliminated the virus as a public health threat in most parts of the world.
The global polio eradication initiative, run by WHO, UNICEF, Rotary International and the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has spent more than $6 billion to fight the scourge in the remaining affected countries.
One major setback was the suspension of immunization in northern Nigeria in 2003, when Muslim leaders told parents that the vaccines could endanger their children.
Boy George goes on trial for false imprisonment, EU
Tuesday, November 25th, 2008A Norwegian escort told a court Monday that Boy George manacled him to a bedroom wall and beat him with a metal chain after accusing him of hacking into his computer. The former Culture Club singer is on trial for the false imprisonment of 29-year-old Audun Carlsen.
The 47-year-old singer, who is standing trial under his real name, George O’Dowd, denies the charge. Carlsen told London’s Snaresbrook Crown Court that he met the singer through a Web site and went to his London home for a naked photo shoot.
After the encounter Boy George sent a series e-mails accusing Carlsen of hacking into his computer, but Carlsen nonetheless agreed to return for a second photo session several weeks later in April 2007. Carlsen told the jury that when he arrived Boy George and another man held him down and beat him before the singer handcuffed him to a hook in the bedroom wall.
“George was slapping me and beating me and punching me and screaming things,” Carlsen said. Carlsen said he was able to escape by unscrewing the hook and running for the door.
“I took a bit of time getting the door open and he had a metal chain that he was hitting me with,” Carlsen said. Carlsen said he ran into the street clad only in his underwear.
The court was shown photographs of red welts on Carlsen’s head and injuries to his arm which he said had been inflicted during the attack. Boy George’s androgynous image and powerful voice made him an 80s icon, and gave Culture Club hits including “Karma Chameleon” and “Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?” But the singer struggled for years with drug problems.
In 2006 he was ordered to do community service with New York City’s Department of Sanitation after pleading guilty to false reporting of an incident. He called police with a false report of a burglary at his lower Manhattan apartment, and the responding officers found cocaine inside.
Credit crunch hurts India’s wealthiest, too
Tuesday, November 25th, 2008These are painful times for India’s tycoons, the Forbes Asia Rich List said recently.
A falling stock market, a weak rupee and slowing economic growth have shaved about 60 percent off the wealth of India’s 40 richest people, it said in its annual compilation, with their net worth plunging to $139 billion from $351 billion a year ago.
No small change that, and it’s got to hurt.
“They’re definitely feeling the pain,” said Sonu Bhasin, president of retail finance at Axis Bank, and head of the bank’s private banking and wealth management divisions, which have nevertheless continued to add new clients in recent months.
“Everyone’s hurting, everyone’s in a panic, but the wealthy get noticed more and their concerns get addressed,” she said.
An economy that grew at about 9 percent in the last three years and a six-year bull run on the stock market helped mint new millionaires in Asia’s third-largest economy, a rich class who splashed out on luxury cars, yachts and sprawling vacation homes.
India had 123,000 millionaires in 2007 and showed the fastest pace of expansion, a Merrill Lynch/Capgemini report said.
But a stock market rout has meant local investors have “notionally lost almost a year’s GDP”, Credit Suisse said.
Bhasin’s clients, who are high net-worth individuals, are seeking more professional advice now, and also favouring more traditional investment options such as bank deposits, she said.
“They are seeking safety: fixed deposits are making a huge comeback, and there is also some interest in gold,” Bhasin said.
“We’ve always told clients making money is a boring exercise. Now they’re being more realistic and willing to be bored.”
BILLIONAIRE NO MORE
The reality is harsh for steel baron Lakshmi Mittal, chief of Arcelor Mittal, the world’s top steelmaker, who gave up his No. 1 position on the Forbes list because of crashing prices.
The new No. 1, Mukesh Ambani, chief of India’s top private company Reliance Industries, has a net worth of about $21 billion, Forbes estimates, down 58 percent from last year.
That does not seem to have hit construction of his $1 billion home on Mumbai’s Altamount Road, among the most expensive stretches of residential real estate in the world, even though other luxury apartments in the city are finding few takers.
“In the home segment of more than 100 million rupees ($2 million), demand is very weak because it is linked to big bonuses and stock market returns, which have taken a hit,” said Abhisheck Lodha, a director at developer Lodha Group in Mumbai.
Real estate tycoons such as top realtor DLF’s KP Singh have seen the biggest wealth erosion this year, Forbes noted, while windmill maker Suzlon’s founders have lost their billionaire status and flamboyant liquor baron Vijay Mallya, head of the UB Group, has dropped off the Forbes list on losses to his airline.
“Business founders were the worst hit as the largest shareholders,” said the Credit Suisse report, which estimated the top 20 business groups in India have lost about 71 percent of the value of their listed investments, or $226 billion, this year.
ART, CARS, WINE
But while the notional value of their wealth has taken a hit, India’s billionaires still have plenty of loose change for luxury cars, art and wines.
Sales of cars priced at more than 2 million rupees have remained strong, bucking the slump in overall car sales.
Car sales fell nearly 7 percent from a year ago in October, but Mercedes-Benz has already met its full-year target with a 47 percent increase, while BMW’s sales have more than doubled.
Perhaps the wealthy will drive their new cars to the upcoming Osian’s auction of modern and contemporary Indian art and craft.
Chairman Neville Tuli is confident there will be bidders for at least half the collection even “in a worst-case scenario”, compared to auctions in New York recently, where sales were less than half what they were a year ago and a majority of works were offered at prices far below their presale estimates.
“The Indian economy is stronger than the economies of Europe and the United States, so our art market’s stronger,” Tuli said, noting there were several new guests at the recent preview.
“The art market’s really dependent on collectors who, irrespective of what is happening in the rest of the world, will still allocate resources to art. That’s their first priority.”
As for premium spirits, demand is strong, said Vishal Kadakia at importer Wine Park and de facto head of the Bombay Wine Club.
“The alcohol industry is probably the most recession-proof.”
“When times are bad, everyone wants a drink,” he said.
Merkel warns 2009 will be ‘year of bad news’ for economy
Tuesday, November 25th, 2008Chancellor Angela Merkel warned that 2009 will be “a year of bad news” for the economy, while a German regional bank announced it had secured today up to 30 billion euros in state loan guarantees. 
“We must expect that next year will be a year of bad news, at least in the first months,” Merkel was quoted as saying in an interview to be published in the Welt am Sonntag newspaper on Sunday.
She said it was harder than before to predict the progress of the international and German economic situations.
“We have stabilised the financial markets thanks to a series of measures for the banks, but confidence still has to be found again and the interbanking market must become functional again,” Merkel said.
Berlin’s Financial Markets Stabilisation Fund offers up to 400 billion euros in guarantees to get the interbank lending market functioning again, and up to 80 billion euros in direct cash infusions to bolster banks’ balance sheets.
Merkel’s comments came as HSH Nordbank announced it had obtained up to 30 billion euros (USD 38.5 billion) in loan guarantees, the largest chunk yet allocated from the special fund which was set up last month.
Based in the port of Hamburg and the state of Schleswig-Holstein, the regional public bank had requested government aid earlier this month.
“We are working on a series of concrete measures that will allow us to advance the future strategy of HSH Nordbank,” interim chief executive officer Dirk Jens Nonnenmacher said after the deal was agreed late on Friday.