Personality Descriptions of the Zodiac Signs

Personality is the collection of qualities and traits that are observed as in character or behavior distinguishing one person from another.

Understanding our own personality helps us to discover our purpose in life, helps to bring out our suppressed desires and wishes and also we learn our strengths and weaknesses. It also helps in knowing the better side our partners and friends and find out the reasons why they behave so differently to a given situation.

At Ask-Oracle.com we offer a resource to the personality traits of the zodiac signs, These personality descriptions are based on sun signs. Your sun sign is determined on the basis of your date of birth. There are twelve zodiac signs you can see below. To know yours or someone else’s personality description of zodiac sign just choose the sun sign below.

Aries Personality

Aries is representative of verve and energy and while many may associate a ‘me first’ attitude with Ariens, the truth is quite different from this. The ‘me first’ refers primarily to their competitiveness and their desire to be at the top of the world. Of course, the selfish aspect of their personality is true to some extent, but it can be controlled. They are known to be highly simple and straight-forward in their dealings. This is the secret behind the amazing clarity that they seem to possess regarding everyday life.

In their childhood, Ariens are characteristically hungry for success. They generally wanna be good in sports, studies and almost everything they get involved in, though there might be the odd case of an Ariean almost deliberately messing up their grades, just cause they don’t care. This attitude just gets stronger with age. In their profession, they will do all they can to get to the top. And to many, this might mean that the personal life suffers, but not to Ariens. Ariens are really attached to their family. They also make excellent partners, in a sexual as well as emotional sense. They are intent on enjoying their sex life to the fullest, which is great for their partners. This comes from the fact that they are very passionate and fervent, but they also have certain selfish tendencies which can make things sour.

Ariens frequently develop headaches because of the stresses they experience in life. Also, in their hustle and bustle, they might get careless and cause physical harm to themselves in the form of cuts and bruises. It would be advisable for Ariens to be careful while handling fire and metal objects.

Overall, Ariens are energetic, passionate beings with a knack of achieving great laurels in their field of work. They also have a pioneering side which they can seldom suppress.

Aries Qualities and Characteristics

You are aggressive, the kind of person who takes problems by the headlocks. You are as fearless as the Gods and enthusiastic and fervent to the extreme. Your sex drive is very strong and you are quite aptly, extrovert. But the drawback is in terms of your egotism. Even though you are the leader in your peer group, you lack the wisdom required in a leader.

You might also show attributes of blunt and roguish behavior and lack of pragmatism while dealing with people. However, having strong emotions and being courageous and forceful, you forge your way ahead in precarious situations. So when a new endeavor is to be undertaken, you will be the crucial person. Your approach with opposite sex is altogether aggressive and straight-on, like your approach towards life itself. You have an exceptional exuberance and stamina, and this probably originates from your quality of being your own master, but this also leads to the lack of style and grace.

You don’t talk a lot or try to justify, you just assert your supremacy and work. Now you can decide for yourself how good this can be for your leadership. You are not very social, but you are quite helpful and even gullible. May be that is why people try to take undue advantage of you and even become successful.

Qualities that make you lucky are daring, full of life, impulsive, and plain philosophy. Qualities that hinder your success are intolerance, self-seeking, envy, and inflexibility.

Aries Friendship Compatibility

Nurturing healthy and productive friendships requires not only going out and meeting new people, but more importantly, the ability to influence the other person and encourage common interests – and this comes naturally to you Ariens. You will take them to your favourite movies and sports events, show them your favourite TV shows, books and magazines, and actually stir up their interest in them even if they hardly any to start with. Energy and enthusiasm are infectious, and they are exactly what you pass on to your mates.

But there is this small problem in such matters, Aries naturally happen to be selfish (this is not always such a negative thing, let me remind you). So, when the other guy or girl makes a plan, Aries might always find something more interesting or more fun to go to. So you will definitely be tempted to cancel the previous commitment. As is the norm in such cases, you will come up with the prettiest excuses (I am sure of that) and given your forceful and vigorous nature, the other person will definitely accept it. But your friend will be hurt nonetheless, and when the same thing happens again and again, he/she will start seeing through the charm and shine.

All this is being said, not to point out your blemishes, but to encourage you to introduce all the warmth and charm in your friendships, but in the right way. Sometimes, being a good friend means being patient, irrespective of how wrong you might think your friend is. And the truth is that some day your friend will be grateful to you for that. Some might need a helping hand, while some might just need a shoulder to cry on. Whatever the case, they will not ask for something you can’t give them. When you will be in the dumps and need them, they will always be there for you. So this is a way of returning their favor before they actually do you one. After all, is this not what friendship is all about?

Aries Career and Money

The creative energy and talent of an Arien needs sufficient expression in his/her professional life as well. So an Arien needs a job that is demanding and challenging. The challenge might be of a physical kind, but most often an Arien is not content without a job with intellectual hurdles to be overcome and competition to be out-maneuvered. Ariens enjoy it especially if they get to go into uncharted territories, to explore and try out new possibilities for themselves and to pioneer some new technique or philosophy of doing things. One important thing to note about them is that they definitely go after money, but money is not everything for them. They will not be happy with a good salary, they need good, challenging work.

As might be expected of people with so much verve and energy, they will hardly consent to work in a quiet and dull atmosphere. They would want to be in some place bustling and happening, even if it produces a lot of noise and interruption. These guys are perfectly suited for fieldwork. They are for the front-end jobs – if they are in a law firm they should be fight legal battles in the court of law, if they work for a manufacturing or retailing unit, they must be showing customers around and selling them stuff. Ariens are meant for action, of whatever kind it might be. They will not sit down and work on routines and details. If you make them do that, they will cut corners and turn out to be horrible failures.

As much as Ariens like to be on the field, they also like to be in the midst of competition. The fiercer the competition, the harder they work and produce results. This is the basic reason why Ariens have a reputation for rising up to the occasion – they are comfortable only when they are fighting for every breath; normal slow life is not for them.

Taurus Personality

Of all the twelve sun-signs, Taurus is the one most in need of order, security and self-assurance. Taurus are not friendly to indecision and chaos at all. They work hard at bringing security – social and economical, in their and their loved ones’ lives. They will find it very hard to risk it for something in the air, no matter how great and majestic it might be. These are really patient people that will never throw in the towel and keep fighting for what they value and what they believe in. They can settle for very few accomplishments, or long lean periods, but they need to know that certain changes are inevitable, and certain things will come to you only when they have to, no matter how hard and long you try. Quite a contrast from the patient plodder, huh?

This is why onlookers would feel that Taurus are too slow or too dull – the truth is they are in a world of their own, where everything has its own pace, and nothing needs to be hurried. Emotional security is just as important for them as economic. They make really stable relationships, and hold on to them with all their moral strength. But as we have said, they are afraid of change, and afraid of letting things go. Thus they might get really possessive at times, to the inconvenience of the companion.

However, Taurus are known to be the most attractive looking of all the twelve signs. And they happen to be very passionate, even though some might find them to be a little on the slow side. They can’t help it – they don’t like rude shocks, and always like to know the result of something before leaping into it. So in short, they are beautiful, sensual people who have great taste for the grander and more subtle things in life.

Taurus Qualities and Characteristics

Taurus is the sign of manhood, strength, stamina, perseverance and potency. You are quite calm and serene, but when bothered, you will turn wicked and dangerous. You also like your life to be stable and not perturbed with sudden changes.

You have an air of reliability and sensibility about that makes you quite valuable. You have an inherent urge to create and build stuff that is why you are impeccable when it comes to managing money, men and tasks. You are quite attracted by the luxuries that come with money and are ready to work for them. You also have a hospitable, and a epicurean side to your personality and have a tremendous urge for physical pleasure.

You are consistent with whatever they do or say, as you don’t have a tendency to change opinion; your temper is also quite distinctive – short burst with no prior caution. Even Taureans are quite moody, and like to keep themselves immersed in their work. You are the ones who get restless and mischievous when idle. You do care a lot about your family and friends. There is a double world within you, a normal world and another spiritual and enigmatic to the extreme.

Qualities that make you lucky are realistic, reliable, openhanded, and arty. Qualities that hinder your success are possessiveness, stubbornness, lethargy, and self-indulgence.

Taurus Friendship Compatibility

In friendship, Taurus are consistent and reliable. You will do your best for a friend in need, and be there for him through thick and thin. You are also honest, which means that if you are swamped at the moment and can’t help someone, you will tell him so and still make earnest suggestions that could help him. You are not one to go for new friends; you’d prefer an old and time-tested friend on any day. And that’s simply because you yourself are like that. So you are a little slow at making friends, and never rush it. But this can also be viewed as reluctance.

However, the real problem with such an approach is that when you go to a new place, and come in contact with new people, it will be long before you can form a rapport and start feeling comfortable. It’s not that you don’t like new people – it’s just that you can’t just throw your trust without making sure.

So you will definitely observe that you are slower than people you come into contact with. But you won’t really accept this fully until you have enough bitter experiences in life to make you feel that accepting it will only help you adjust better with life as it comes to you. For some people, it might not be so important to share common interests with your friends, but for you, this is not acceptable at all. You have certain subjects and activities that fascinated since you were a kid, and you need to have at least one of those interests in common with your friends. This is probably what makes you so choosy.

Your greatest strength in friendships is your readiness to help those in need. On a certain occasion, you might give a friend a shoulder to cry on, and on some other, you might do daily outdoor chores for a friend who is in great stress.

Taurus Career and Money

Taurus are very hardworking people who don’t mind giving some project endless hours without the smallest glimpse of returns or results. They are not the resilient sturdy kind who likes to work under stress with a huge load and deadlines to be met; and neither do they like working in a disturbing and noisy atmosphere. They need to choose a career wherein they are not forced to give immediate results and take sudden action, they like taking life the easy yet serious way.

Another issue with them is their tendency to put on weight. No matter how hard they work or how little they eat, they just don’t seem to be able to burn those extra calories! And this takes a toll on their work – after the afternoon lunch, they are hardly in a position to keep the drowsiness away and concentrate on their work. Not a big problem if they are able to make up for it in the morning.

Another very important issue for the Taurus while choosing a career is the security. They cannot get into a job which makes demands at their ingenuity and imagination every single moment. If they are told to constantly improve the techniques of the company, and keep finding new ways of cutting the costs, they will just not like it. They cannot life with the fact that demands of this kind on their physical and mental reserves will be kept being made for all their lives.

They’d be much happier working in the outlines drawn by others, giving their know-how and wisdom wherever necessary. So they are not made for leading a company, but for playing a supporting role – fair enough; how many do we have these days even to do that!

That being said, Taurus can make great progress in fields which require long hours of patient study. For example, drawing the detailed architectural plans of a new building based on ideas and specifications already given by others might sound a very unimaginative and tedious job. But not everyone can do it – it needs long hours of terrible concentration.

Gemini Personality

For all the people you see in your workplace, pegging along at a slow pace, working on things that are too linear to test any kind of ability or intelligence of any person and taking care of the same mundane tasks every single day with the sole objective of making a living, there is one thing you can be pretty damn sure of – they are definitely not Geminians.

Of all the great tragedies and maladies of the world, nothing terrorizes the Geminian more than boredom. They are, since birth, used to multitasking. They just can’t go about life one issue at a time. Parents might find this amusing, but they should nonetheless try not to encourage it. Doing too many things at once from a young age spoils their sense of style and brings about a trait that is most common in Geminians – superficiality. For them, after a point, all that looks good is good enough. They become a jack of all trades and start concentrating only on the packaging. In some professions such as ones relating to media, however, that is exactly what you need from a person – a little knowledge of almost everything, but not too much. So its not such a bad thing after all. In the workplace, it is important that they have as many projects as they can, so that they may work on whichever they have the mood to work on at that moment.

Alas, this multitasking capability is too innate to your nature – you start exhibiting this characteristic even in your love life. That does not bring a lot of happiness for your partner. This does not always raise issues relating to guilt, although normally it should (otherwise one should think something’s wrong). In such tricky situations, what helps the Geminian more than anything else is his/her great ability to talk his/her way out.
On a professional and even personal level, the characteristic of a Geminian is vigor. He/she happens to be restless and energetic to the extreme – that’s what gives him/her the resources for all that multitasking. But this can take a toll on the person. The Geminian can never completely let go of things and relax, and this will be the cause of mental troubles.

Gemini Qualities and Characteristics

Gemini signifies the dual edged nature that you possess. You have a great mind that does a lot more than calculate and judge. You are inquisitive and new and unique ideas come to you quite naturally, and these do not lack any of the style and elegance.

Your twin edge makes you are quite determined and stationary but capricious from time to time, you are sincere in your relationship with your sweetheart but at the same time have a tendency to flirt with other women. So, you are quite swift and take command over the situation in no time, but its difficult for you to stay on top, or maintain the lead. You also have a tendency to reach out to people; this is why you cannot live without communicating.

You are quite astute and opportunistic and don’t miss a chance to make fast money. Corresponding to this, you also spend with quite ease. You are quite smart and funny and this attracts people to you all the more, but you need to be more objective and focused towards your goal. You seem to be quite susceptible to changes in your mood, and this will only lead to greater loss of the sense of purpose. Try to gain control of yourself.

Qualities that make you lucky are wittiness, brilliancy, cheery, and gay. Qualities that hinder your success are messy, happy-go-lucky, cruelty, and incompatible.

Johnny Depp, Steffi Graf, Elizabeth Hurley, Anna Kournikova, Prince William; We know them as famous people with sun in Gemini.

Gemini Friendship Compatibility

Gemini definitely have the most diverse group of friends of all the sun signs. Gemini make friends from all age groups, all places and cultures, and all walks of life. You need the variety so that you can be able to be with the right kind of people according to the mood. You are a natural sceptic, but still you take people for what they are; which means you generally see people in good light. As a result, it is not very hard to call someone your friend. Your doors are always open – it’s not really hard for you to make a friend; neither is it hard for the other person to be called your friend and have your confidence. But, as is the problem with such groups, there is hardly one who can be depended on and called for help when you need it.

You are enthusiastic about your hobbies and almost anything you do, and this spreads on to your circle of friends. This in turn encourages you to pursue your endeavors more vigorously. This is exactly what empowers you to relentless make efforts on projects and see deals through to their completion. Having intelligent and informed peers in that group helps you a lot. How? You normally like to make sweeping statements to entertain your audience, but a smart person with a good presence of mind can question you and pose a challange for you. You will not get away that easily with those thought-provoking comments now because someone is really provoked. Thus, your skills and quality of conversation will improve greatly.

You will enjoy the company of the young and youthful more, as they share your vigor and enthusiasm, and radical outlook. However, you do not mind an interesting conversation even if it comes from the older friends of yours. You will need to do a little rethinking once in a while about the extent to which you can give liberty to these friends of yours.

Gemini Career and Money

Geminians possess a level of genius generally not witnessed in people, but in quite many ways, it creates problems for people they work with. They find it difficult to run on the much trodden path, and on many an occasion want to find a way of their own. No matter what their colleagues might think or say, I think they should continue with it, because it works excellently well for them. Moving along, Geminians are good at keeping pace with the latest developments of their trade. And it’s not just for the sake of keeping in touch, they enjoy it and learn from it. They like working in some kind of a pattern where they know, more or less, what they will be dealing with the next day, and be prepared for it. But they definitely can’t bare a mundane job where there is no skill or dexterity involved and an employee has to do the same thing in the same way day in and day out. However, even in such cases, they will try to find out new ways, introduce new concepts and throw new light on tasks that people would find too routine and boring to even think about. If not anything else, they will try to lighten the atmosphere with some kind of comic act. Geminians are definitely good at amusing seniors and coworkers.

All of the observations I have made, actually, boil down to one need that all Geminians possess – the need to communicate with people. In the professional sphere, it might translate to interacting with people they work with and trying to find out their needs and issues, meeting superiors, discuss philosophies and methodologies of working in the organization and suggesting new ideas, and if possible talking to the people who benefit from their work and taking appreciation and criticism for their output. They can’t just do something they are told to do, give the output and then just forget about it; they are too attached to their work to be that cold.

In the long run, Geminians can only sustain a job in which they have sufficient freedom to exercise their ingenuity, and be able to do things their way without any restrictions. They want to be known as skilled craftsmen in their profession, and take pride in the different approach they have towards tasks. They might survive a long while in an unsatisfying job, but it’s not good for their emotional and intellectual fulfillment.

Cancer Personality

Cancerians are very defensive creatures – defensive of themselves, their friends and family. They have a very strong and formidable defensive fort in his psyche. He is not intimidated that easily and can sometimes take an aggressive stand in order to protect himself emotionally from transgresses of others. Anyone who intentionally or unintentionally jeopardizes their or their close ones’ dignity or self-respect, you will feel fended off or even pinned down. But if you persevere and gain their trust with time (which you most definitely will if your intensions are honest), you will see the soft, caring and considerate inner self – because now you are one of the protected.

Their family is very important for them, and comes at the top in the list of priorities. They make excellent parents, but are not so good at letting go of their children when the situation requires it which again tells us about their protective self. They also happen to be very emotional and often fall into the depths of nostalgia. No wonder they have an excellent memory – they hardly miss a piece of detail about their past. Cancerian children start out being extremely sensitive and emotionally fragile, but with time they develop their protective and affectionate self. So if you see your Cancerian kid taking care of a younger brother or sister or the family pet, be sure that your kid is growing up.

To their loved ones, Cancerians present their most soft and mellow self. So they may overreact to incidents and tend to be very moody at times. But they are very sensual and can be the best of companions. They can get hurt by their companions very easily, but are in no way weak. They can strike back with equal force and venom.

Cancer Qualities and Characteristics

Cancerians are considered to be quite unsophisticated from the inside and prone to move around in search of the right opportunity. It is also a widely accepted notion that they are sensitive and protective. They don’t find it difficult to blend in the environment, and at the same time, are also quite attached to their family.

But there are quite many other facets to your personality. You have special love for the spotlight, and the desire to be admired and loved is very dominant in your character. You are very touchy, and get emotional a lot more often than others. You sense of purpose for everything you do, and you are ready to endure anything if you feel the end result is worth it.

You will move in all directions to reach you destination, and this makes things possible for you that no other person around you can manage to pull off. This also increases your money making opportunities, and you might well make your way into large money-making firms. You have an innate feeling of insecurity and timidity, and this prevents you from taking risks and thereby inhibits your growth.

You have strong likes and dislikes and preconceived notions. Talking about your sex drive, you clearly exhibit your intrinsic craving for proximity. You need intimacy from your mate, failing which you develop a wall between you and your mate. To top it all, you have a fascination for money and all the luxuries that it can bring to your feet.

Qualities that make you lucky are understanding, imaginative, desire to success, and trustworthiness. Qualities that hinder your success are moodiness, pride, pessimism, and tendency to get hurt easily.

Pamela Anderson, Tom Cruise, Tom Hanks, Princess Diana, Sylvester Stallone; We know them as famous Cancerians.

Cancer Friendship Compatibility

Cancerians make very good friends. They sure as hell don’t make a lot of friends – most potential candidates are fended of because of a faux pas they commit at some point. But the few chosen ones form a part of the inner circle and make for a very firm and deeply meaningful friendship.

If you are a young Cancerian, you would be very willing to take your friends home and introduce them to your family, and if you are a parent, then you might want your children to bring their friends home and familiarize them to the family. This shows a strong family circle and also the fact that Cancerians do not quite differentiate friends from family. This is because they do not rush into friendships. They take some time with the other person, see if you make a good rapport with him/her, and only then allow him/her into their circle. This comes naturally to them.

The risky part here is that if the friend here is a little younger than the Cancerian, that the latter may start to behave like a parent – he/she might start acting in a very protective fashion, and treating him/her as a child. Since the friend is just a little younger than you and a friend, by definition, he/she will resent it. But the Cancerian can’t help it – it comes naturally to you.

You can’t just sit down and see a younger friend make the same mistakes that you did a few years ago and suffer in the same fashion. He/she will just have to curb his/her natural tendencies.

However, Cancerians have the ability and the habit of turning a close group of friends into a kind of family. They are also very good at patching things up with their friends, or even between two friends. People will love them for that and remember them for ever.

Cancer Career and Money

Cancerians are good at getting used to conditions and fitting into almost any kind of working conditions. We talked about their psychological protective mechanism – this helps them from getting bouyed down from distressing conditions brought about by colleagues or the natural state of the workspace.

The problem with them, however, is that they tend to get a little too attached with petty issues, and thus end up worrying about their career more than necessary. Now their careers are important for them, so they have to worry about it; it comes naturally to them. So they can’t just stop worrying just because you tell them to do so. What they need to do is to get used to the daily routine. They have these ups and downs in their mood, like the waves of an ocean. Getting used to these changes in their psyche, making sufficient changes in their style of work in a reciprocal manner, and if possible trying to like these changes will make them that much stronger at facing issues related to them. So what they need to fight is within them, nothing outside their psyche can cause any harm to them.

Cancerians should take up jobs that have an element of doing good to the community because they have that protective streak within them. They will make good teachers preparing their pupils to face the world, good captains fulfilling every need of their ship crew and passengers and good chefs preparing excellent dishes for their customers. The will probably make the best doctors and nurses.

An issue worth noting for Cancerian mothers is that they will make excellent moms, but that will mean giving up their careers, at least for a while, in order to take care of children after birth. Not all Cancerian moms will do this, but it’s are very prominent trait; in fact they do not take it as an obstruction, but rather as a privilege. But if such mothers wish to get back into the trade, it would be advisable for them to keep in touch with the changes taking place in their professional sphere.

Leo Personality

All Leos of the world can be described using one metaphor – the sun. They want to be a sun giving out light and warmth to the whole world, and to see everyone in their circles thriving in or at least benefitting from their radiance. One other important thing needs to understand is that Leo is the sign of extremities.

People of this Leo sun sign innately want to lead and be a master, but for those they adore and revere, they are ready to become slaves. They are very well organized and do things just the way they ought to be done, but it is also true that they are much better at organizing and systematizing others’ lives than their own. This trait of theirs sometimes borders on bossiness. But all this effort to improve another person’s life comes with an unnatural amount of warmth, kindly encouragement and a promise for help without having to ask, whenever it is needed.

The other thing about Leos is their creative streak – they possess some talent that hardly anyone around them is good at. But they can also be influenced very easily, and are prone to losing out against nagging criticism. They therefore have a great need to be encouraged and shown the right way. In friendships, Leos are very generous and caring, but may also get a little carried away and shower their affections on the wrong person. The same happens in case of love interests, but if the other person is the right one, he/she will find no derth of kindness and generosity.

Leos are very passionate and very faithful partners, but the problem is their extremely sensitive nature. And this sensitivity is on most occasions eclipsed by their influential and bossy exteriors. So it’s quite possible that their partner may have hurt them in something he/she says without his/her even realizing it. That’s why living with a Leo takes some getting used to.

Leo Qualities and Characteristics

Lion is considered the ruler of the jungle, so also you are the leader of your own world; you exhibit impeccable bravery, superiority and sovereignty. You are expected to achieve extraordinary feats. You have the strength of character to take command of any situation and your presence commands respect and attention. And just like a king, you have a big heart, you are generous and sensitive to others’ feelings.

But again, you are quite egotistical and it’s quite easy to flatter and take advantage of you. At the same time, you tend to be quite self-congratulatory and boastful and at the same time dominating, courting resentment from your peers. Leo is all about ambition and compassion; and at the same time headstrong and a little corrupted by power. But it equally characteristic of you to be contemplative and moody, especially when you are with yourself.

You can get into deep depressions, but the only answer to this problem is self-control, hard work and paying heed to others’ counsel. You show your ambitious and sensitive character with your relationships with the opposite sex. And you are also in quite a bit of luck, but being a little imprudent, it would be ill-advised for you to try your hand at speculation.

Qualities that make you lucky are bighearted, forceful, aristocratic, and affectionate. Qualities that hinder your success are aggressiveness, boastful, haughty, and pride.

Ben Affleck, Sandra Bullock, Jennifer Lopez, Madonna, George Bernard Shaw; We know them as famous Leon.

Leo Friendship Compatibility

Leos have a very wide circle of acquaintances and friends and mutual friends. But most of them are just part of their circle of influence, they will deal with them only if a need arises on either side, and even though they are helpful and dependable and all that, they do not take these as their ‘friends’. That takes a lot of time – they form a rapport first, find out the likes and dislikes and more importantly the character of the other person, and only then decide if the other person is right for them. And once they have given him/her that status, the friendship is for a lifetime. They will stop at very little in making sure that friend of theirs is not in any kind of distress.

Even if they have lost touch with their friend for a long time, they do not find it difficult to resume from where they left it. This is because friendship means too much to them. They would themselves not want someone to call them a friend just after a brief acquaintance. They of course like meeting new people, making contacts, enjoying their company and being of use to them whenever need by. But the title of ‘friend’ is too sanctimonious for them to be conferred to too many people.

Once they make a friend, they wanna do a lot for them. For example, if the friend has some talent that he/she wants to show or some project that he/she wants to work on, there can be no one better than the Leo at encouraging and helping out the other person in his/her endeavors. When they become adults, Leos show their generosity by giving away generous presents to their friends children, and taking them to fancy restaurants for dinner. Now, such things may turn on their head and the friends may start thinking that our guy is splashing money at them. Thus, there is always a fine line that should never be crossed. Too bad for the Leo because there is no joy for him/her greater than that of knowing that others derive pleasure from things that he/she gifted them with his/her hard earned money. That is the way of the world, the misers can’t keep everything in and the generous can’t give everything out.

Leo Career and Money

Leos need a profession where they can express themselves fully, shine in a way that all can see, and show of their talent. Even if they have hardly any opportunity to show their talent, they will be happy to just show their work, and be appreciated and noticed for it. A backend job with hardly any responsibilities and total isolation is not their cup of tea. They do not mind if they are made to work in a library or a department store, or made a receptionist at a desk, they want a job where they feel someone is directly benefitting from their services, and also receive accolades and admiration from him for the work they have done.

So their basic objective is to make life a little easier for atleast a few people. And even with all the need for appreciation and commendation, they have this personal yardstick of doing well, and they have to cross that minimum. If not, they will suffer from depression and restlessness. Of course, these bouts keep coming in their lives, when they feel everything is just falling apart and that they are of no use to the society, but there’s no one better at coming out of such states than them. And when they’re out, they will be alive and kicking as ever, and they will go out and make things happen.

Another remarkable characteristic of a Leo is his/her insistence on doing things properly and without flaw. Leos hate amateurs and strive hard at achieving high standards in their output. Whatever their career might be, they show this quality to the fullest and their superiors take notice of this. They soon rise in influence and then boss around people working under them to show perfection and professionalism. They do not want to do things properly, they need to do things properly so that people may take notice. Leos would love nothing more than to stand out as an example. Leos, however, do not shine in time-consuming jobs that they find unnecessary and annoying. And if their superior is, according to them, stupid and incompetant, and demands being sucked up to, then the Leo will be the first to give it to him in the face, without caring about the job. They need appreciation and opportunity, but not at the cost of their honour!

Virgo Personality

Of all the twelve signs, you will find these Virgo guys the busiest. And here’s the funny part – it’s not that they take up the most responsibility or the toughest job, or that they are so polite that they do all their coworkers’ work. It’s just that they end up the most swamped – might be because they are not that well-organized, or for some other reason, but they just can’t seem to be getting enough time.

Another very important characteristic, probably their most prominent, is their desire to serve people. They can literally become slaves for the ones they love; pleasing them is all they wish to do! In doing so, they can get tricked or let down once in a while, but they do make very good friends.

Virgoans are very versatile and have a great number of talents, but most remarkable of them is their excellent judging and critical capability. They can size up things, form an opinion, and express it in a very diplomatic and constructive way. This is what makes them such good critiques, teachers and diplomats. But they do this with a very honest humility, and just the way they are critical about everything, so also they are critical and judgmental about their own ability and talent. And this is horrible for their future prospects. Their friends should be there to support and encourage them at such moments; after all, that’s what friends are for, aren’t they?

And this attitude is not that great for their relationships either. This tendency continues into the married life even with all the devotion and love and care. They start getting judgmental about the partner’s habits and attitude, and at some point, either the partner gets irritated because of the constant nagging and pointing out, or the Virgo gets irritated with the partner’s habits which is, of course, magnified by his/her critical way of thinking.

This brings out another trait in the Virgos – they seem to worry a lot. So they surely are tender and talented, but they need to mend a thing or two if they wish to make the best of their life and love.

Virgo Qualities and Characteristics

You are thought of as quite shy and introvert, and even quite naive. Your personality and composure is virginal in the sense that you are passive and still don’t let your personality and approach get affected by others. The positives are that you are very organized, meticulous and systematic and don’t like cluttering and irregularity.

You perform your tasks with a machine like planning and accuracy and this might get on others’ nerves. You are very down to earth and are acknowledged for your ability of making people feel comfortable and at home in your company. This is in close association with the fact that you possess an ant-like sincerity and solemnity, and at the same time don’t bother about who gets the credit or the spotlight.

You might also possess that nervousness and apprehension that is quite characteristic to people who work hard and want their results too bad. You are not that reserved against sex but take it in a very pure sense. You fancy yourself for being too wise in terms of managing money and making friends, that is the reason why you tend to be a little stingy and at the same time, a bit too analytical and judgmental of the people around you, even your close friends and family.

Qualities that make you lucky are systematic, rational, communicative, and discriminating. Qualities that hinder your success are unbending, indifference and argumentative.

Virgo Friendship Compatibility

   Virgo value friendship greatly and are ready to put great amounts of effort – not just to keep their friends happy, but also to be of use to him/her in every possible way. That means Virgo will leave no stone unturned in providing their friends with every single comfort they can ask for, and do every single chore for them, just so they wouldn’t have to stress themselves.

That’s so very sweet of you Virgo, but there is a problem with this. It’s not about being used; you are not so stupid as to be taken for a ride. The thing is that when you are busy making life better for your friend, you miss out on him – the person. People say friendship is all about being there for the other person when he needs you most, but if you have spent absolutely no time with the other person, there is no concept of friend, and with friend there is no friendship. So no doubt you are appreciated by your friends – who does not like to be taken care of?

So the message is simple – don’t think that when it comes to your problems, you can take care of them on your own; involve others in your life just as you involve yourselves in others. Once that is figured out, you have this other trait of making comments. I know you have an excellent sense of humor and most of your comments are absolutely spot on, but to tell you the truth, these critiques don’t have a lot many friends. So try to make your comments more humorous than critical, constructive, and as few as possible.

Other than this, you have the ability to keep your friendship going for long, which is great. Also, it is very important for you to have a lot of really intriguing hobbies, and you are really passionate about them. So you make it easier for your friend to embrace on of them and make headway in it.

Virgo Career and Money

The first thing one would notice in Virgos, career-wise, is their great love for outdoor activities. There might be the odd ones working in closed, congested cubicles and slogging days and nights to make it to the top of the ladder. But most of them would give anything to have a career in a field such as farming, fishing or surveying. They also like to nurture things and see them growing – that can explain their great affinity for agriculture.

Also as I have pointed out on amply, they have a tremendous urge to serve others and take care of them. That is why I would say the best profession for them could only be in the field of medicine, or teaching, or the like. Probably nothing can satisfy you more than helping a patient recover from an illness and reducing his pain. Teaching, again, involves taking care of raw talents, nurturing them and seeing them grow into matured, capable individuals.

Other than this, you have an immense need to communicate. So the career of a critique or a journalist can also be very rewarding. The way you look at things, and the unique way in which you are able to present them will be your main plus points. Virgos also have a variety of natural talents which they bring literally from their mother’s womb. So if you have a strong enough impulse, I would even recommend a career in art for you.

There are however a few weak points – Virgos are not born leaders. So early on in their career, no matter how strong you might be in it, if you are given a huge responsibility, you might fumble and spoil the task, and lose what little confidence you have. You are just not comfortable with stations of power, or the spotlight. So you should not take up positions just for the money and status that come with them – there might be other more enticing opportunities for you.

Libra Personality

Librans are known most for their laziness. But there is really a lot more to it than meets the eye. Librans actually know how to cool down, and how to relax and just let things go. That’s why, even when they hustle, they seem to have a lot of time for petty things like dressing up and making coffee. They even have time to just lie around and take a time out, with all the work of the world piled up, much to the chagrin of friends. If you look through their eyes, you’d feel people are too impatient to take pleasure in the small things in life.

As you might expect from people with such a bend, Librans are very romantic. They always long for a long-lasting, committing, all-in kind of relationship. And as long as they don’t have it, they will always feel like something is missing within them. So they are definitely marriage material, but this comes with a glitch. Their inherent need for intimacy makes them rush into relationships without even taking the situation into account – in some cases, they are so young that they don’t even understand what a relationship means.

Libran children tend to be good students. They eventually become their teachers’ pet because of their charming and well-mannered demeanor. But as I have already said, they tend to feel incomplete with maturity. This feeling is removed only when they get into a relationship. Librans have an extremely soft and sacrificing nature. This is good in the sense that if the Libran has to give up a better job opportunity for the family, he/she can do so quite easily. But the negative side is that he/she tends to avoid or escape from situations where one needs to be tough. This is the reason why at some point the Libran starts to feel that he/she is being played by his/her kids.

Libra Qualities and Characteristics

You, being a Libran, have a characteristic balance in your personality, work and also strive for this equality and harmony in your personal and professional equations. You tend to compare and analyze to make the choice in almost every sort of situation. This also shows that you are apt for giving justice, whatever that might mean to you. These are the symbolic attributes; other than these, you have many other qualities that are not as highlighted.

You are intelligent and your strife and tussle is in the inner direction; you challenge yourself and try to achieve whatever you want, so any intellectual feet is expected more from you than from anyone else. But the balancing and comparing attitude of yours keeps you aloof from Quality Company; you might lose even the few friends you make in due course. You can be quite influential and tactful in your interactions with people but at the same time indecisive and yielding.

You don’t possess the power to say ‘no’ and this may lead to some pretty unnerving and awkward situations for you. You are good too many things and find it difficult to stick to one and do it for a long time. You would prefer a job where you are in contact with people rather than a desk job, and even at that you are quite easygoing and don’t want to sweat out.
Qualities that make you lucky are charismatic, intellectual, awareness, and evenhanded. Qualities that hinder your success are easygoing, insecure, lazy, and self-centered.

Eminem, Avril Lavigne, Alicia Silverstone, Kate Winslet, Catherine Zeta-Jones; We know them as famous Librans.

Libra Friendship Compatibility

If you are Libran, you will definitely make a very good friend. You respond to others’ suggestions with a great amount of enthusiasm. But when it comes to taking decisions about where to go and what to do, you never have say. Even if you oppose your friends, they would surely want you to give an idea once in a while. This lack of involvement is sometimes taken for disinterest, thus creating barriers in your friendship. But don’t think for one moment that all this makes you a loner – you are not! You have a variety of interests that you share with your friends and show great verve and enthusiasm in. You enjoy organizing and taking part in activities with your friends. It’s just that you like to have a relaxed and stress-free atmosphere when with friends.

An issue with your style of friendship is that you find it very hard to forgive someone who wrongs you. Once you have broken a friendship, it is very hardfor you to make up  and mend broken roads. It might do you a little good to remember that people are not as demonic as you might them out to be when you are cross with them – they are the same as the ones that you made friends with. What you should also understand is that others do not show their gratitude and respect as emphatically as you do – that’s the way they are. So, at some level, you are not as reasonable as you might wanna be. So give that little smile or nod after a quarrel to tell the other person that everything is fine.

You are not as involving as others, but a lot more aggressive and energetic in the friendship. So sometimes, for the less cozy kind, the Libran might seem to be a little too forthcoming or overwhelming, just as they might seem too cold and lonely to the Libran. Friendship is all about making allowances for the other person and learning not to force the friend to make allowances. You know that better than anyone.

Libra Career and Money

As such, there is no walk of life that a Libran can’t make headway in, but some are naturally more suited than others. One of the most important things that matter is the work atmosphere. As we have discussed, Librans thrive in a relaxed and stress free atmosphere. If he/she is made to work in a cluttered, noisy kind of workspace, he/she might be successful, but not especially happy. Over many years, this might lead to a breakdown.

Other than this, in a lower position, the person has good company and not so much of a responsibility; so he/she can work happily. But when taking up the top post, one must understand that tension and stress are bound to plague him/her. So, Librans making to the top spot need trustworthy and faithful assistants. Decision making does not come naturally to them, so they need all the information and technical support they can get to make up for it. You see, this is why Librans make such good architects – they like to share their responsibility with others, and work in tandem with colleagues whom they can trust and rely on for advice and help.

Also, with files piling up on desks every day and deadlines that have to be met at any cost, the Libran is bound to feel suffocated. In such cases, one of two things may happen – they will either break down, give up and find a different way of life to sustain themselves, or if they are the stronger kind, they will learn fast, catch up with the speed of work, and bring balance to themselves and to others working with them.

Librans also have the great quality of giving importance to others and listening to them. So, they can make great progress in the personnel or human resource department of a firm. Other than that, this trait also brings with it an exceptional skill at diplomacy. So professions of this kind are meant especially for Librans.

Scorpio Personality

The first thing you will notice about a Scorpio is his/her forceful and vigorous nature. So if you cut open a Scorpio, I mean metaphorically, you will find a very intense source of energy. It will be like looking at the sun – you can’t look straight at it, or get too close. This source is what drives the Scorpio, and he/she uses this energy in whatever way he/she finds most satisfying. Now, as it is said, with great power comes great responsibility. There is a great need to channelize this energy in the right direction. Otherwise, things are bound to get disastrous.

This high-energy state is also of an emotional nature. People who are in this state tend to get overly aggressive. That is why half the books written on Astrology have special chapters allotted for explaining the Scorpio’s sex drive. This is a great asset as well as a great liability. Not many can keep up the vigor and enthusiasm in their sex lives the way Scorpios can. But as I have said, there is the destructive side. And one of the first signs of this side taking over is denial and withdrawal. The Scorpio stops taking active interest in things, and grieves inside. The usual intense and vivacious expression is replaced by an introvert, brooding-within-oneself one. When inquired, the Scorpio will be the quickest at denying about having any sort of issue, before resuming to the same old routine.

This is where the role of friends and parents is so very important. Another issue at the core of the Scorpio is his/her secretive nature. A Scorpio will find it the hardest to share his/her problems and sorrows with anyone. So if you are the Scorpio’s friend, it is most important that he/she takes you into confident. Otherwise, your friend will not divulge anything and keep going in the wrong path. Parents should take good care of their Scorpio child and make sure that all that energy is put into something worthwhile and productive.

Scorpio Qualities and Characteristics

Being a Scorpio, you are quite shrewd and astute and even intensely revengeful in cases, you are not the right person to cross. You are the symbol of courage and power, and this is certainly accompanied by foresight, intelligence and power, along the freedom that this power provides.

Your vision gives you the power to see farther than your comrades and opponents. And this provides you with the power to strike down those you oppose you, figuratively. Adventure lures and you and finds you wherever you are, and this intrinsically makes you a leader, as you dare to tread where no one else dares to go. You have a great stamina, and as I talked about, you are a deadly adversary.

You expect total loyalty and sincerity from your friends, as you give the same to them and you are not that easily deceived, because of your superior vision. You are brilliant and tactical in your business, but run the risk of appearing, and even being deceitful and surreptitious. You are quite dedicated and sensible, but still in some known or unknown way, you tend to yourself in jeopardy. But still, you will succeed a lot in life, and also make a lot many enemies in the process, but they are innocuous and only cause anxiety. You receive cooperation from your coworkers and subordinates and satisfaction from your family.

Qualities that make you lucky are will power, positive, political, and courageous. Qualities that hinder your success are possessiveness, dominating, jealous, and cold-blooded.

Leonardo DiCaprio, Bill Gates, Prince Charles, Meg Ryan, Julia Roberts; We know them as famous Scorpions.

Scorpio Friendship Compatibility

As a Scorpio, you will hold on to your friends with the maximum possible diligence and effort. You sure like entertaining people, so you will go to great lengths to make sure the friends are never bored or out of things to do. You will make great efforts in arranging new events and community activities where all the people you know can mingle with each other and have fun. You are not the kind of guy/gal who would want to sit in front of the TV and watch sitcoms, or enjoy a delicacy or a new kind of wine all alone. You have an enormous appetite for collective enjoyment, and you will leave no stone unturned in satisfying this need to live life to the fullest. And what’s more, you will make your friends indulge in such activities all the more.

But with the Scorpio’s energy comes it’s violent sting. They tend to get irritated when others don’t share their enthusiasm and eagerness. And they show fits of anger, sometimes in the most sensitive of moments. Other than that, you might experience pangs of jealousy when you see two of your friends getting along without including in their fun. Quite a few things to handle, but you have to! These are not at all healthy for friendships that you wish to last long.

So you might wanna sit back and let things be as they are once in a while. Accepting things as they come to you is not as bad as you think, because the issue is that in other people’s perspective, you tend to overreact to situations. If you are too involved in the friendship, and sometimes put too much effort into it, then your friends are not responsible for not being just as into it! And that surely does not give you the right to offend them. So it might do you a little goo to tame yourself, and be considerate of others’ feelings as much as you can. You have a great heart and everyone knows it, but make the most of it.

Scorpio Career and Money

By now I am sure you get the kind of atmosphere in which the Scorpio makes it big and gives his best.

They need to be given every sort of challenge that can be thrown their way, not just because they like being busy, but because they need to be stretched beyond the limit. They get easily bored with a job that they think is not good enough or hard enough for them. These heavy demands urge them to achieve new heights, and even if they don’t, at the end of the day, then can go to bed with a sense of having made progress. The kind of challenge they face can be physical, intellectual, or just emotional.

The problem on this front is that it is hard for them to switch their brains off once they are done for that day. This is especially a problem if the work is of an intellectual kind. In such a situation, it will not only be hard for them to devote their attention and energy to personal and domestic issues, but also to rest and make the most of opportunities that may come their way the next day. So this all immersed kind of devotion to work is quite good, but it should not allow one to take one day’s problems on to the next.

So Scorpios are good at coping with routine, mundane jobs that place heavy demands on you on a daily basis. They give high importance to discipline and precision. But this can also bring a sort of routine in their work, thus making it difficult for them to find adventures in their lives, even though they are quite welcome to the idea. So when it seems that the Scorpio is getting into a rut, the colleagues and superiors must help him get into something daring and adventurous, just for a change, so that he/she can maintain that vitality. Power is very important for the Scorpio, and they are extremely comfortable with it. They might misuse it on occasions, if just for the fun, but when they are serious and firm, they can be the most efficient.

Sagittarius Personality

The first thing one would observe about a Sagittarius is his/her amazing frankness and practicality. Generally people who call themselves practical tend to be polite in the more diplomatic sense, but for these guys, the practicality seems to stem from the frankness. Actually, if you cut open a Sagittarius (I mean psychologically), you’d find that what drives them most is their broad outlook, and their quick, positive grasping power of almost any kind of problem. But mind you, the one inclined to get the whole larger picture is liable to miss out on the minor details. They always thirst for challenges in life, and most of the time are restlessly looking for one. Another thing that makes them restless is the endless pursuit of something better. One moment, they might be completely happy with what they’ve got for themselves and the very next moment, they wish they could have had better.

Sagittarians are very caring and lively towards their loved ones, and have a great tendency of understanding their mistakes and learning from them. One very important thing the partner needs to understand here is that they love their freedom too much. Here the word freedom is used in a very different sense. The freedom does not refer to individuality or not wanting to change one’s way of life, it refers to the way in which a person wishes to express his/her love for his/her partner. And another aspect of this need for freedom is fear of closed spaces, in the psychological sense. Excessive possessiveness may take it’s toll on the Sagittarius.

Children of this sign happen to be a little prankish and need to be tamed. Otherwise, they are very brilliant and take their studies very seriously. The only thing is that at an early age, there should be a balance of studies and outdoor activities for proper development of the individual. The parents have the responsibility of ensuring this.

Sagittarius Qualities and Characteristics

The centaur that depicts your zodiac symbol represents the partial animal nature in you, and also your spiritual and philosophical craving for the all important truths of life. You are thought of as brave, enterprising and foresighted individuals. But still, you have an uncivilized taint to your personality and somehow tend to get into fights and arguments.
Your adventurous character is backed by a great inner enthusiasm and optimism which shows in your interactions and work. You tend to be a little irresponsible in your dealings and interactions and don’t apply your farsightedness to the repercussions of your own behavior. You have an impeccable honesty and this only instills in you a feeling that you are not answerable to anyone, and need not be afraid of anyone; this tends to make you a little outspoken too.

You have a huge self-respect that works in a inward sense and makes you quite independent and straight-forward. You also have a generous and nature-loving side to yourself that is not quite noticed. Your idealistic nature makes you very frank and fearless, but it also makes you tactless, unsophisticated and inconsistent in your work. Also, your impatience and boastful aggression help the situation. Perhaps a little more patience and sensibility will help you in your professional and domestic spheres.

Qualities that make you lucky are fearlessness, self-governing, sharpness, and gutsy. Qualities that hinder your success are aggressiveness, full of yourself, over-confidence, and contradictory.

Christina Aguilera, Ludwig van Beethoven, Walt Disney, Brad Pitt, Britney Spears; We know them as famous Sagittarius.

Sagittarius Friendship Compatibility

As a friend, the Sagittarian’s greatest gift is his/her liveliness. Sagittarius are very enthusiastic and diligent, and for this reason, they can very easily encourage their friends to keep trying and making the most out of their opportunities. They love to see their friends fighting with all the spirit and verve, and derive strength from their strength. That’s why they say enthusiasm is a very infectious thing.

But if you are in the Sagittarian’s position, the enthusiasm will sometimes come in your way of trying to listen to your friends.The thing is sometimes, you just don’t need to lift up their spirits or anything, you just need to lend them an ear. You, out of all, will find that hard to understand, and learn only with time. Instead of listening, you give your friends ideas and tell them what they already know, and they think you are playing ‘Mr. Fix It’. Of course it’s hard for them to appreciate it all the time! Another problem that arises from this facet of yours is your inability to share your problems with others. Burying them will seem to help for some time, as you maintain your ‘giver of light and hope’ kind of image; but at some point, you just need to let go of your ego and lighten up, spit it out.

Another thing about the Sagittarius is that he/she loves challenges and cannot stand the sight of a talent being wasted. So, they need friends who are hustling and bustling and busy all the time; people who take their lives easy, and do things half-heartedly are not for them. They hate half-hearted! But as you may see, given a friend group, there will always be the ‘laid back Jim’. Besides, it’s not always about the friends living up to your expectations – it’s about you measuring up and adjusting to your circle of friends that you picked with your own hands. So, Sagittarius need to learn to keep boredom and restlessness out of their demeanor – these things will only bring frustration to the them and their peers, and lead to no constructive activity.

Sagittarius Career and Money

When it comes to career issues, the Sagittarius set of needs is very generic – constant change, constant challenge and the freedom to express one’s ingenuity. In addition, they are also known for having a great variety of talent and potential. So like all other sun-signs, you will find people of this sun-sign in many walks of life. This last need for freedom of expression is particularly strong in them. They hardly have a problem with tense situations and deadlines, but they definitely need a free hand in carrying out their duties in a manner of their choosing. If this doesn’t happen, if they find their bosses sticking their noses into what they consider to be none of their business, and especially if they consider their bosses imbeciles with power, they will find it very hard to reach the pinnacles of their capability.

The characteristic liveliness of Sagittarius can be expressed in two different ways – in terms of physical vigor and enthusiasm or in terms of intellectual and imaginative stretch. Sometimes the two can be seen in the same person, if only in different points in his life. He might start out as a physically capable person putting in a lot of energy in meeting up to challenges, and the learning with experience to become a strategic player who tackles the intellectual side of problems. This brings us to another aspect – the wonderful thirst to learn throughout one’s life. Sagittarians seem to be full of it – they have this eternal student inside them on whom not even a single lesson of life goes waste. They look at their job and career as a continuous flurry of opportunities to learn and perfect themselves, rather than breaks for greater achievement or accumulation of wealth. For them, it’s a process. And for this very reason, they are not just ready for challenges but they actually turn everything into challenge.

Here, the Sagittarius can be seen as someone who is versatile and at the same time restless. As a result, they want change, but sometimes the change might just be for the sake of it. In such situations, they need to ask themselves if the change is actually warranted, and if they are changing things just to add to their versatility, then have they got a good enough grip on the job that they are presently in to add anything to their versatility?

Capricorn Personality

There is a divide right in the middle where personality is concerned, in case of Capricorn. There is the never-give-up always fighting, always moving, always gaining altitude kind of person and there is also the confined person with self-imposed restrictions, who likes to stay at one place and work for what he values the most. But these two kinds of personalities have some common traits, the most notable of them being that of complaining and grumbling.

Capricorn brings about a trait of not being contented with prevelant conditions, which is good in a way because it spurs people to do something about it, but it also brings about this other not so congenial and understanding side. Capricorns are very committed to their cause and are really good at getting what they want. There is a negative side to this too – they become successful and privileged and find that there are not a lot many people up there and it is not really possible to be friends with people who are not there – so they feel quite lonely. They are really good at coping up with this, but now this not something that can be completely taken out of the system, is it?

Capricorns are people who seem to be a little formal, a little out of place with their fun-loving background, but that is because they actually like to have the right thing in the right place. They like to climb the social and professional ladders and are not left behind in trying to impress their superiors and even loved ones. They have a different kind of sense of humor which is rather refreshing in a gathering or party.

In matters of love, even though they might seem a little too suited-up and unromantic, they make very good partners and very faithful spouses. The problem with them is that they might be a little too strict and formal even with their children. They might never wanna deviate from the formal methods, and expose their hard self a little too often. So, accordingly, the children might learn not to take them seriously, and this might be a serious cause of heartache for them. There is no doubt a lot of satisfaction to be had from professional and domestic spheres for them, but things can get a lot better if they learn to take things easy, and deviate from the norms.

Capricorn Qualities and Characteristics

Being a Capricornian, you tend to quite introvert and reserved, and at the same time hard and sturdy in terms your personality. You make your way to your destination with slow and steady pace. You have a strength of character and your ambition is something that you wont be willing to part at any cost.

You are quite systematic and have a tremendous verve that you exhibit in everything you do. Your narcissistic approach towards life can get really unnerving for your mate and friends. You might also be restricted and misfortunes may come your way at various points, but this will make all the more strong and patient. You also tend to become orthodox and conventional at times, losing your broad-mindedness. While negotiating, you just cant believe someone until you have scrutinized the situation thoroughly, and you tend to lose out on a lot of effort and fun in this process.

You are symbolic of authority and industriousness and these qualities are bound to increase your earnings greatly. But refrain from getting into the rat-race for money and power, lest you lose out on the more important things in life. Your unemotional and too professional approach and your reticence towards your colleagues at gatherings will not help your fortune.

Qualities that make you lucky are common sense, steadfast, cooperative, and hardworking. Qualities that hinder your success are distrust, selfish, pessimistic, and conventional philosophy.

Jim Carrey, Mel Gibson, Tiger Woods, Dido Armstrong, Nicolas Cage; we know them as famous people with sun in Capricorn.

Capricorn Friendship Compatibility

If you are a Capricorn, you will make really loyal and warm friends, who will be really happy for their friends’ successes and endeavors, even encouraging and helping them in their paths. Your friendships will be timeless ones in more than one way.

Firstly and more importantly, you will be able maintain the same warmth and closeness with friends even after losing touch for a long period. Once you have come to a level of closeness with a friend, you will never lose ground. But the other aspect of this timelessness is that you do not need to be of the same age as another person in order to make a connection and get close with him/her. You have the unthinkable power of appearing contemporary and striking up a conversation with anyone you find interesting. This goes a long way in making you popular.

You will be viewed at as a very valuable friend for your unparalleled loyalty and reliability. But as I have mentioned, you have a strong urge for telling your story. As soon as you feel they have come close enough, you will start letting things out. You will tell them how your life has been ruined by all sorts of people, how rotten the world is from inside, and how void of human dignity and honesty people are out in that world. But all this a result of your urge to share all you have inside you, whether good or bad, with those that you feel are close to you in your personal or professional sphere. If you have some good news, you will turn it into an occasion and celebrate it with your spouse or friends.

None of this means that you are not emotionally strong, you are probably more resilient than anyone else. You just need someone to laugh and cry with you, a shoulder to cry on, an ear to listen to your … you know! But what keeps you going in your friendships in spite of all this for years altogether is your easy accessibility and your affectionate side. Your friends will find it easy to empathize with you and give you handy advise at the right time.

Capricorn Career and Money

What appeals most to a Capricorn is to do one’s duty to the best of his/her capabilities irrespective of the circumstances. That might on some occasions mean giving up familial joy for an improvement in position or social status in the professional sphere (which is again indirectly aimed at the betterment of the family), and on other occasions mean letting go of career opportunities in order to be there for the family.

Capricorns are really loyal to their cause and have great respect for norms and traditions. This might sometimes make them lay low, when the world might think they have lost focus, but they will make that move according to plan nonetheless. They do not fear compromises and lean periods, they are accustomed to them; what they can’t bear is a feeling of having lost ground and having been unfulfilled on the long run – after all, that’s what they always strive for.

Professions such as surveying, farming and politics might interest them, as might professions related to geology and local governance. They are especially capable of making it to the top position of whatever trade they are in, and staying there in perfect harmony with the emotional demands and the internal forces of the organizations. They are actually made for the top job – they are not insecure, they are practical enough to take any kind of tough decision, they are disciplined enough to be in line and bring their subordinates in line, and they are faithful enough to the norms of the trade to work without many objections.Their only problem is that they might tend to get a little to predictable and bookish in their goings about at times; every job in every field requires some level of imagination.

Capricorns sometimes have a different kind of talent, very distinct from their line of work, or their pursued career. For example, a Capricorn may be good at playing an instrument and once in a while have a real impulse take it up as more than a hobby. In such cases, they need to be encouraged – this is what artists are made of.

Aquarius Personality

Aquarians are probably the most individualistic and strong kind of people. Now you can read that as pigheaded and rebellious, but that’s your wish (that’s not to say that being either of these is always a wrong thing). And as is the way of the world, the distinctive and strong in character are the ones followed by one and all; so this is what leaders are made of. Now things are not all rosy and jolly for Aquarians. If I had to describe an Aquarian in the least possible number of words, I won’t classify him as a leader or pioneer, I’d call him a walking bag of contradictions – coz that’s what he most definitely is. They do pioneering work, they go against the tide and try to change how the society thinks about something, yet they themselves find it very hard to change their mind on something once they have made up a notion.

So this difficulty in modifying oneself and one’s beliefs becomes more and more noticeable and prominent with maturity; an Aquarian might need a lot of help and encouragement in coming up to prevalent times and practices. However, another important thing that makes them such good leaders is their cool temperament and emotional control – you could not find a person better at taking affirmative action in practically testing circumstances. Also, these guys are really understanding and do not find it very difficult to suffer contravenes of fellows. That is why they make such good friends.

Another enigmatic aspect of their persona is their glamorous yet distant kind of vibe in relationships. They like their freedom and are not very welcoming to change, at least in this department. So, an Aquarian might face a lot many conflicts in his love life, even though he/she might be a terribly romantic person. Aquarian children may seem to be a little too introvert and aloof of the world, but that’s normal, in fact, that’s their thing! Physically, Aquarians may often suffer from circulation-related health issues, so it is really important for them to keep warm in cold weather.

Aquarius Qualities and Characteristics

Your zodiac sign is symbolized by the bearer of the jug of water, you provide the spiritual and intellectual health drink to the society and people around you. And the water has a tendency to flow ahead, so that you are forward looking, and optimistic, and think only in terms of growing inward and outward possession.

You dispense knowledge, advice and even material possessions to those around you, who solicit your help and emotional support. You are the sign of brilliance and creativity, but these are not without the sufferings and sacrifices. You have distinctive, in fact a peculiar character – you are knowledgeable and intelligent yet hesitant to take important decisions or to give your opinion where it counts most. You are quite philanthropist, at least in thought, and have a great sense of humor.

You are tolerant and don’t mind others poking fun at you. You are valuable to the world as you are a giver rather than a taker, you give hope and inspiration. Aquarians are amiable, charming and intuitive, but can get eccentric and unruly at times. They are also slow and shaky starters, taking their own time, but half way through, they might change their mind, irritating those with them. In your love life, you will have really good experiences, but some setback will keep piercing your heart at all times.

Qualities that make you lucky are honesty, truthfulness, innovative, and insightful. Qualities that hinder your success are inconsistency, unusual, rebellious, and cautious.

Aquarius Friendship Compatibility

The individuality of an Aquarian might lead you think that they do not make such good friends. But the reality is far from that. Many astrologers will attest to the fact that Aquarians are the best kind of material for making a best friend. They really understand you and have an excellent listening ability. And their best quality is their willingness to help you for simply nothing in return. They don’t help people out of affection, or respect, or pity – it just comes naturally to them, helping someone just seems to be the right thing to do. They have a strong helping, humanitarian character, and most of them actively participate in community service and charity work. A psychoanalyst will tell you that they satisfy their need for self importance by helping others, and being of use to the society.

And some of them might go out of their way in doing that. For example, they might help other parents out by taking care of their children. They might teach poor kids and do some kind of community service by joining NGOs. So they make very resourceful, understanding and faithful friends capable of keeping the ties intact for many years. They also have the ability of resuming relationships after a long period of separation, with almost as much warmth.

Aquarians are also known for being assertive and speaking out their mind without any qualms. They suggest ways of making things better and take decisive action in that direction, to the benefit of most friends. This makes them very good members of societies, clubs and associations. They will do a great deal for the group, simply because the impulse of enjoying the camaraderie of people you share a common interest with is too great within you. They will make great presidents and chairmen, and will be looked up to for their impartial and impersonal judgment. They will also make up quite well with the politics and drama of groups, because of their coolheaded nature and impersonal judgment.

The problem that most Aquarians face in friendships is due to their individualism and need for fresh air. They do like to have their freedom jeopardized to any extent, and most of their friends are aware of that fact. For the friends, the best thing to do is to remain at a certain distance until allowed in, and the best thing for the Aquarian to do is to curb such tendencies.

Aquarius Career and Money

The individuality I keep saying the Aquarians try to protect in personal and professional spheres is not for nothing; actually it reflects a very lovely trait of theirs. They are known for their distinctive mark – the originality and difference they bring about to their work. These people first make sure they know what is expected from them in any task before actually taking up that task. Then they go about their work in a distinctive way. It’s not that they have no respect for the rules; they just wanna do things their way, without any intervention. So the superiors need to stay away from their area and not worry about the quality of output, because it will be assuredly top notch. They are very reliable and will give each task their most, unless you stick your head in and tell them it’s not the way to do it.

Generally speaking, Aquarians are not too involved in petty organizational politics and quarrels. If they are ill-treated, they rise above personal battle and try to resolve issues with their flair and ability. If they have a promotion or increment coming their way, they accept it with poise and the confidence that they can take up the added responsibility. So whatever might be a situation, they have the ability of not get distracted and go about their work in a simple and straightforward fashion. To add to this, they have a great amount of resilience. They can practically work all day. The only thing is that they will prefer taking a coffee break or doing nothing at all in stead of doing something that they consider to be a waste of time, a petty formality.

All these qualities make Aquarians stand out in a crowd – their dedication, their concentration, and above all their different and sometimes peculiar way of working. These things come very naturally to them, so they get noticed by superiors without actually realizing it.

Pisces Personality

Pisceans are characterised by their emotional depth. They have such a vast reservoir of positive creative energy that they don’t even come close to realizing their true potential. They are too modest to admit their talent, and often underestimate themselves. No one has the ability to express true human emotions such as happiness, love, anger and forgiveness in his art as much as the Piscean. So he/she no doubt has talent, but there is a tremendous need for encouragement. Pisceans give their friends unconditional support when needed. They believe in the notion that a friend in need is a friend indeed. But this works both ways. They also need to be understood and helped when in need.

Pisceans are also susceptible to developing habits and then acting as if they will show themselves out. Eventually, it becomes so late that things go out of control, and the habits take a heavy toll on their personal and professional lives. Again, it is almost impossible for the Piscean to get out of such a quicksand and restore normalcy in life without the support and affection of close and loved ones. Friends and family might find this a little difficult than they might think because Pisceans tend to be a little deceptive, thinking that it is for everyone’s good. So the picture I paint is not a very rosy one – it would seem that it’s hard for the Piscean to even live normally without help. But it’s not like that. Pisceans have so much stuffed up inside them that it is hard for them to stay balanced. That’s the only reason why they need help.

In love, Pisceans fall very easily and quickly, but tend to make mistakes. And sometimes, the result is the worst. Thus, they can be summed up in one word – passionate – in life, in work, in love and everything else. Their kind and gentle side sprouts from this very passion.

Pisces Qualities and Characteristics

Pisceans have a tendency to get pulled in two opposite directions. This inhibits their decision taking capability. They are quite open-minded towards their work and personal life, and demonstrate an immaculate insight and vision in material, technical and spiritual aspects.

You have a particular artistic sophistication, which means that you have creativity with a polished edge. Your special characteristic is your love for beautiful things in life, and also a particular day-dreaming and inconsistent trait. You are too soft hearted and willingly help anyone in distress; this might also lead to problems to you because of your inability to say ‘no’. Even with the introspective and intuitive edge, you are moody and restless at times.

Some depressions and dissatisfactions might lead you to pity yourself and escape from the distresses in life through drug addiction or drinking. You have a great inner strength, you only need to exhume it. You share your resources with others, even money, and think that others should do the same. The boundaries of possession are sometimes invisible or altogether meaningless to Pisceans, thus turning some into forgers and embezzlers.

Qualities that make you lucky are caring, progressive, benevolent, and imaginative. Qualities that hinder your success are undecided, casual, not practical, and easygoing.

Pisces Friendship Compatibility

If you are a piscean, you will be a friend cherished and loved by all your friends. Not only are you ready to put a great deal of energy and time into the friendship, but you are also ready to listen and give a shoulder to cry on to your friends. You are always willing to make sacrifices for the sake of your friends. You make their problems your problems. So the good friends will appreciate all you do, and reciprocate in full measure, but there will always be the other ones looking out and trying to take advantage. And unfortunately, you are one of the gullible kind – you find it really hard to make out the honest kind of friends from the opportunists.

Now there is this creative and artistic side of yours we talked about. This means that you like being encouraged by your friends. This works the other way around too – you find it easier to make friends with those who can take interest and sympathise with your interests, emotions and impulses. All and all, you naturally are inclined to get closer to someone who is one the same ground as you. In the whole broader picture, you are helping yourself gain in confidence and achieve whatever it is you want in life. There is the negative side to this too – you need friends who have interests similar to yours. So they might sometimes tend to feign interest in things that they couldn’t care less about – this might lead to awkward or heartbreaking moments.

Pisces, however need to make a conscious effort to get their personal life straight. You tend to be late on appointments, and then appear flustered and embarrased when you arrive. You are of course an excellent friend, one to be treasured, but your mistakes may get a little too irritating for your friends for them to be able to forgive you. A little discipline here would not go amiss. You are a great friend, but you also need to make it easy for your friends to go along with you.

Pisces Career and Money

Pisceans have a very characteristic set of needs and motivating factors, which seems quite different from those of other sun-signs. So, they need to take special care in choosing their field of work so that they can work towards the fulfillment of these needs, and making the most out of their professional lives. Pisceans have a strong sense of vocation, then need to put their heart and soul into their work. And when they work with this sort of dedication, they can be terribly let down by any sort of obstruction. They can work with very little pay, as long as they are allowed to derive the most from their job.

Another very important aspect of the Piscean way of life is believing in something, and making sacrifices for it. I have said that the Piscean can give up his/her career in order to look after the children, but now I say that the Piscean is also capable of sacrificing his/her hopes of getting married and raising a family for an important social cause, or a career in some form of art that he/she might be dedicated to. All the Piscean kindness and warmth is seen in their work.

This of course is a very noble and ideal way of life, but some Pisceans sometimes get caught up in the rat-race of life. They start doing what everyone else does, running after money and power and pelf like everyone else. But as and when they do it, they will surely realize that this way of life is not for their benefit. The hustle and bustle, and the noisy, tense atmosphere of a typical workplace is not the ideal hunting ground for them. They need to be left on their own, with no demands or deadlines to be met, and they will come up with the best, not with an aim of impressing anyone or accumulating anything, but just for the common good. So works the Piscean mind, and this ought to be understood most of all by the bosses, who tend to force things on everyone.

A special note on the great creative potential of the Piscean – most often it is wasted, unless backed by a very strong impulse. But even when there is the impulse, the talent needs to be nurtured and encouraged, lest it be lost in due course.

The Influence of Commercialisation on theProfeesionalisation of Sport

Abstract

More sports are turning professional with athletes being able to live off the money generated by sponsorship, endorsements, contracts and prize money. These are all provided by popularity within the sport industry due to a large global audience. Modern sport is now an industry where sportsmen are paid greater then film and entertainment celebrities and use corporate logos of commercial companies. The modern sport society has evolved with technology, government, management, media and different perceptions on gender in sport all shaping the face of  professionalisation in modern sport. Commercialisation has changed the face of sport in everyway possible to take advantage of the phenomenon that was once just known as leisure time.

Introduction

The sports industry was worth $194 billion in 2001 ahead of electronics and food (Schaaf, 2004)and one of the main factors in this is commercialisation. In the last three decades sport hasimproved in huge amounts and moved on from being played and run by a bunch of amateurs to ahuge money making industry run by professionals. In fact sport has now become more business run and adapted to becoming more market orientated with consumers, professionally hired management teams are now in place to set goals and targets using new and improved strategies to exploit the growing industry that is sport. Athletes are now paid to train while sports management such as directors are now instrumental in running sport. The dissemination of sport professionalism has heralded a new era of strategies that are now put in place to exploit the consumer and maximize profit. The modern athlete can now make more income from sponsorship then their basic wage and the enigma surrounding the individuals or sports personality will endeavour to sell products to you.

Over the last three decades sport has afforded athletes to turn professional due to the modern re-structuring sport has endured. Sport is a big business and big businesses are heavily involved in sport. Athletes are marketing commodities, broadcast rights cost huge amounts, sponsors fight it out for exclusive rights to events and more sports find themselves with the capacity to turn from amateur to professional every year due to large businesses expanding their sporting influence. Professional sport only started to exist in the early 19

Th century with lack of organizations hampering its progress. Organisation in sport requires rapid transportation (trains, planes), mass production, technology and industrialisation. Sport was played locally but there was no organised commercial sports industry (Slack, 2005). The means to a professional sports club requires large numbers of people living in close proximity who have time to spectate and money to afford to do so and there must also be other clubs with the same means to compete against. To organise this event of two professional clubs takes organisation 

and communication and newspapers were the earliest form of commercialism. The internet, radio and television are the modern updates of commercialism and reach out to larger audiences. Only in the last three decades has the internet been available and it has provided an advanced way of communicating

Government

With sport now becoming a major industry the government has implemented commercialization strategies on sport to capitalise on the growing potential the industry has. There are more investments on grassroots, coaching and managerial aspects of sport to encourage participation increase and expand the professional sector. The British sports ministers announced in 2002 that£459 million was being invested in school sports to promote sport participation(www.culture.gov.uk). With this strategy in place it increases sales on sporting goods such as equipment, supplements and television broadcasts. The sporting sector also generates income through facilities, education and sports events such as the Olympics.

Professionalisation of sports management is now a pivotal influence in modern sport. A trend in good management practice being the key to organisational survival is evident in the modern day culture, where performance is measured and management techniques and marketing plans areimplemented to improve practice in all areas within sport. It can be argued there is more demandfor management teams to be implemented within clubs to ensure survival, with the belief organisation within a club can be a key factor to success. In 2003 sports minister RichardCaborn stated “

there are over 400 governing bodies and only 120 odd sports

”, this was to reflect on the fact that there are too many voices and opinions in sport that can be more damaging then helpful.

Commercialisation has also had drawbacks on professional sports, with so much money now generated from the huge success of sportathletes are now put under more pressure to perform. The public demand more and constantly want to see extraordinary performances such as records  broken, trophies won and new heights reached. The pressures of success encourage athletes to use deviance in sport, taking drugs and cheating any way they can to feed public demand. The effect this can have on professionalism is very influential and can have a profound impact on youngsters. Some youngsters feel discouraged from a sport that is corrupt and choose other  careers, others choose to follow suite and believe being deviant is natural and this can be negative to any professionalism with many abandoning a sport or individual who chooses to distance themselves from the true meanings of participating.

Conclusion Commercialisation has had an exuberant influence within professionalisation in sport. Money from sponsors, media and the government has improved the organisation of sport and made it more entertaining. Sponsorship revenue in Britain alone rose from £2.5 million in 1971 to £200 million by 1988 (Polley, 1998). There are also obstacles that need overcoming in professional sport. Events that took place in February 2005, when the National Ice Hockey (NHL) players stalled over wage negotiations have shown impediments caused by commercialisation. This led to the first sport in history to lose a whole season due to employee disputes. Commercialisation has given professionals more supremacy over their rights and enabled them to persevere when negotiating, use of agents and managers have also influenced this. The effect of this can be detrimental to the popularity of a sport with fans becoming detached from athletes losing touch with gamesmanship and loyalty. Sponsors look elsewhere to maximise their profit and reach their short term goals with the strategies they’ve implemented.

We hear and read of elite sports people every day
For to watch them in action people big money pay
They are paid huge sums of money and they know great fame
And some of their fans their children in their honour name.

Sport has become big business and many a young person's dream
Is becoming a famed individual sports star or part of a great winning team
A dream through their teenage years that some do pursue
But as we know for a few only such dreams do come true.

For their millions the super star sports people need not thank me
I seldom even watch them in action on the t v
By far and away out of them too much is made
They are treated as small gods and grossly over paid.

Though not every sports person becomes a millionaire
The super rich athletes are no longer rare
And though I don't envy them their wealth and the fame they enjoy
A ticket to watch them I never would buy. 

The Explosion of the Business of Sports in the United States

Hunter Howard 
Nike Seminar: Draft 
Spring 1998

The Business of Sports is a multi-billion dollar global industry propelled by enormous consumer demand. In the U.S., it is the 14th largest grossing industry sector; larger than the steel and railroad industries.1 The growth in sports closely follows entertainment's explosion, in terms of their importance to our culture and economic implications. Sports role in our entertainment driven culture presents a skewed view to many as the dollars, attention, and conflicts of interest appear to spin out of control. Nike's recent sponsorship of the University of North Carolina athletic department has generated significant controversy on campus and around the world. This paper hopes to put the explosion of the business of spo rts in better perspective to help us better understand one important aspect of this intricate relationship.

My views on the escalation of the economic impact in sports are fairly capitalistic as I have spent the past five years negotiating sponsorships and developing marketing programs leveraging these relationships for McDonald's, FedEx, Kodak, Visa, United , True Value and other corporations. From my perspective, the properties, both amateur and professional, approach corporations, or their agents, on a daily basis to help fund their efforts. These relationships must be mutually agreeable before they are completed with signed contracts, whereby both parties see the relationship as important and valuable. There is very little opportunity to take advantage of the other party.

I have worked on many cause-related marketing programs, however the end goal, whether through public relations efforts or incremental sales of goods and services, was to generate a return on investment (ROI) of at least 4 or 5 to 1, with the betterment of society as a tertiary goal. If these returns were not possible, we would look for other opportunities to maximize our limited marketing budgets. As Charlie Adams stated, these relationships are negotiated in advance with every contractual detail spe lled out. Contracts often take months to finalize, and while there are frequent amendments or concessions, the University or Property knows in advance how far they are willing to bend and are thus responsible once the names are signed on the dotted lines. The sponsor has no more opportunity to take advantage of the University than the University has to take advantage of the sponsor. This is only possible if you believe that those negotiating on your behalf are not equal to those across the table from th em.

Historical Context (also see History of Corporate Sponsorship appendix)

For centuries, man's search to answer the unknown has spurred the erection of marvelous architectural feats. These churches, synagogues and temples have been built as monuments to the almighty and to provide a place of worship. Taxpayers and church m embers funded these constructions that now help define cities (Notre Dame/Paris, St Paul's/Rome, Taj Mahal/India, Blue Mosque/Istanbul, Pyramids/Cairo). These religious monuments are being replaced by stadiums/arenas, where essentially, we "worship" the "deified" members of our community (i.e., Michael Jordan, Madonna, Dean Smith and Garth Brooks). In fact, the most distinguishing feature of many cities' skylines are their stadiums. The only past civilization that might compare is the decadent Roman Em pire, where thousands would pack the Coliseum to watch gladiators or chariot races.

Centuries from now, when archaeologists analyze the late 20th century, they may uncover the United Center in Chicago and find a luxurious 20,000+ seat arena where only the wealthiest citizens were able to enter. They may discover this stadiu m was a prestigious place of social gathering where attendees paid excessive sums to "worship" the unworldly talents of the gods of this society. They will uncover a statue of "man" that appears to reflect his ability to fly through the air. Further res earch may show that tens of millions would view this "god's" performance in their homes and that corporations would pay up to $700,000 to advertise messages to these people for :30 seconds of commercial time.

Passion of Sports

To many, sports harkens the pure competition of their youth. Many people vividly remember their emotions when Bobby Thompson hit his famous home run, Kerri Strug landed her miraculous vault or when the top seeded Tar Heels lost to Utah in the 1998 Fin al Four. This incredible emotional tie to the success of people we have never met is the impetus behind the surge in sports and entertainment.

Whether you are a sports fan or not, and whether or not you agree with the incredible cost/price in entertainment you must recognize that our culture is the driving force both demanding and funding the economic boom in the business of sports. In our c apitalistic society, entertainment demand curves are continually shifting up (evidenced by larger stadiums, greater television viewership, higher ticket prices and greater demand for seats), and consequently supply also shifts up and out driving prices hi gher. With significant barriers to entry (start-up costs, television contracts/partners, intangibles such as historic allegiances) it is difficult to create rivals to the existing sports leagues, evidenced by many defunct start-up leagues including the U SFL, ABA, AFL, etc. Because of these monopolistic situations (Baseball has even been granted an exemption from anti-trust regulation) the leagues and team owners are able to set prices and margins at their discretion.

Since 1970, with the historic Curt Flood ruling2, free agency has altered the playing field between player contract negotiations. Flood sued Major League Baseball (officially suing Commissioner Bowie Kuhn) in federal court, claiming that by trading him to the Philadelphia Phillies, without his knowledge or approval, the St Louis Cardinals, a team with which he starred for over 10 seasons, had violated the antitrust law.

The Supreme Court had already ruled in 1922 and 1959 that baseball was exempt from anti-trust laws.3 While the anti-trust laws were not overturned, the Players Union established the first chink in the armor of professional team owners by r eceiving rights to free agency (offer their services to each team in am open market with the option to sign with the highest bidder) and soon thereafter the rights to have their contracts arbitrated by independent council.

Owners no longer hold all of the cards, as more options are available for players seeking reasonable compensation for their services. As a result, player salaries have skyrocketed. Don't go crying for the owners because they seem more than willing to meet these rising costs. Consequently, the cost curve shifts up again as the owners respond by driving their cost curve higher.

The cost curve shift resulting from free agency has had the big impact on the sports business. Owners and leagues have since been forced to find creative ways to squeeze more dollars out of fans and now more than ever . . . . . corporate sponsors.

Creative Loopholes - Squeezing dollars out of Media and Sponsorships

While the NBA and NFL divide their enormous television contracts equally among each team, MLB takes a different approach. Baseball games are primarily broadcast on a local level with each team retaining the revenues from their contract. Local televis ion contracts are negotiated by estimating advertising revenues from the 162 game schedule. Obviously this creates a tremendous disparity between small market cities (Milwaukee, Minnesota) and bigger market cities (New York, LA, Chicago). Because the la rge market teams gain so much more money from their television contracts, they are able to allocate significantly more money to their roster, therefore outbidding smaller market teams for the most desirable talent.

The recent trend in developing new stadiums has been a direct effect of owners seeking new ways to generate money. While the NFL and NBA adds the gate (ticket) receipts for each team together and then distributes this money evenly, ticket sales from l uxury suites are the sole possession of each team. Therefore, new stadiums are being built to generate additional luxury box revenues for owners. Art Modell claimed the Cleveland Browns could not compete without additional luxury boxes. When the city wo uld not approve a new stadium he moved the team to Baltimore. The next NFL expansion will place a team in Cleveland, however, the city will now build a new football stadium with additional luxury boxes. When Jerry Reinsdorf built the new Chicago Stadium , he actually reduced the number of regular tickets and increased the number of luxury boxes from 4 to 228. 4

An additional revenue generator, at the expense of fans, is the Personal Seat License (PSL). Team owners basically had three ways to fund the building of stadiums: ask the local government for money, borrow money, or use their own money. Now, the own ers have created a fourth option by using their fan's money to help build their stadium. The owners offer fans the "opportunity" to purchase a PSL where basically the fans has only paid for the right to purchase a season ticket at a later time. This sea son ticket is saved for the fan, however, this ticket must still be paid for at full cost. This PSL money will not even buy a snow cone at a ball game let alone a nose bleed seat.

The Role/Growth of Television

When NBC provided the first live network coverage of the World Series in 1949, fewer than 12 percent of U.S. households had television sets. By 1953, fifteen of the sixteen MLB teams had local contracts, and ABC introduced their Game of the Week forma t. The share of U.S. households (a Nielsen point equals 990,000 households/HH, reached) with televisions grew rapidly throughout the 1950s, reaching 67 percent (34.9 million HH) in 1955 and 87 percent (45.8 HH) in 1960. Today over 98 percent of U.S. HH, or 92 million, own at least one television set. 5

When the New York Yankees signed the first local television contract for $75,000 in 1946, radio and television revenues contributed only 3 percent of MLB's revenues. 6 This figure rose t o16.8 percent by 1956, and continues to increase to day where the television contract represents over half of all revenues. In 1993, local television, radio and cable deals generated $350 million for MLB. The New York Yankees deal alone brings in over $40 million annually in their 12 year deal with the M adison Square Garden Network and WPIX. 7

Follow the Money

There are six primary focuses within the sports marketing business:

• Properties (teams/leagues/events/athletes/universities)
• Corporate Participants (advertisers/sponsors)
• Venues (arenas/stadiums)
• Media (radio/print/TV)
• Merchandising (sporting goods/logoed apparel/merchandise/memorabilia)
• Agencies (sports marketing focused on properties/ sports marketing focused on sponsors/ sales promotion/advertising agencies)

Each of these areas represents significant slices of the sports revenue pie and they are all intertwined. In fact, the first five areas have a significant impact on the Nike example discussed in class (the sixth area, agencies, are primarily used by t he other five areas to help them better use sports as a marketing tool).

Let's use the collegiate sports as our example to illustrate each area's influence. The following constituencies represent some of the players in this business.

Properties are represented by any entity that can sell their rights, name, likeness or indicia for commercial purposes. Primary examples are teams (team owners) and leagues but athletes and personalities are also included in this category.

Corporations are the sponsors that use sports as a marketing tool to reach targeted demographic and psychographic groups. Corporations will sponsor properties, venues and media while using agencies to help them in these areas. You can consider Corporations and fans the universal donors in this equation and the properties the universal receivers.

Venues are the arenas/playing fields for games. Jerry Jones, owner of the Dallas Cowboys, has creatively used his venue, Texas Stadium, in his personal war with the NFL. While teams are restricted against signing sponsorships with non-league s ponsors, the venues do not have the same restrictions and Texas Stadium now has major relationships with American Express and Nike instead of NFL sponsors Visa and Reebok.

Media and Corporations, along with fans, are the primary money generators in this equation.

Merchandising/licensing is the fastest growing component of this equation. A company that produces a $1.50 t-shirt in Vietnam receives a licensing agreement from a property (UNC, NFL, etc) and now their $1.50 t-shirt sells for $18.00 because it has a logo on it.

Agencies are becoming larger and larger players as the money pot gets larger. Much like the power brokers in Hollywood, Mark McCormack and David Falk on the player side, Jim Millman on the corporate side, and Dick Ebersol on the media side are the men that control the flow of dollars in this business. Their advice, expertise and relationships allow them important seats at the negotiating tables as they advice their clients on how to generate/or save money in the business of sports.

Corporate Sponsor Objectives - "Corporations use of Sports as a Marketing Tool"

Corporations typically use sponsorship for three reasons: reach consumers (generate awareness/sales), reach the trade (incentivize middlemen) and reach their own employees/sales force (motivation/"feel good"). For this paper we will focus on corporati ons use of sports to reach consumers to sell incremental product.

Today, sports and television coexist in a high-priced equation. The leagues sell the right to broadcast games for millions of dollars each season. The network in turn sells advertising in :30 second increments to sponsors/advertisers on a national, r egional and local level. A driving force behind the advertising spending of these sponsors is their ability to reach the extremely desirable 18-49 male demographic segment. This demographic segment is considered important because of their spending power as well as the fact that these men are the most difficult demographic group for advertisers to reach. This predominantly working class male, with a high disposable income, traditionally has more time constraints than other demographic segments. However , sports offer the one channel to consistently reach him. Advertisers pay for Cost Per Thousand (CPM) reached among their target audience. While the price to advertise on NFL games is expensive, it is the best way to reach these men, and if your product is Gillette, Budweiser or GM, these ads are worth the price because of the relatively low CPM.

In fact, sponsors are willing to pay excessive amounts for billboards that might be seen on the sidelines during sporting events. Media companies will watch sporting events with a stop watch and time the amount of in-focus exposure that a corporate lo go receives. This time is then divided into :30 second increments and equated to advertising dollars.

If an ad during the Indy 500 costs $400,000, and the FedEx logo is shown for a total of 3 minutes 15 seconds during the event, FedEx will be considered to have received $1,300,000 worth of exposure. Companies typically discount this by as much as 75% as commercial's strategic messages are more effective in selling/discussing product/services attributes.

With the increased clutter in today's society many believe lifestyle advertising is the best way to reach consumers. This is another reason for the increased flow of dollars into sports marketing. Marketers believe that they can more effectively rea ch consumers in their lifestyle when their guards are down and they do not realize they are being marketed to. This is the reason for the increasing sponsorship of events and stadiums, i.e. Ericsson Stadium, 3COM Park, Bud Light Beach Volleyball tour, Nu veen Senior Tennis Tour, Discover Card Smithsonian Institute National Tour, etc. Here Sponsors have an opportunity to integrate themselves into the lexicon of the event/arena as well as subtly integrate their product benefits and messaging into the event communications/look/feel.

Under different time constraints, I believe it would be worthwhile to undertake a cost-benefit analysis of the UNC / Nike deal. What are the actual costs being defrayed by the contract? What opportunities does the University now have with a significa ntly less burdened athletic department budget? Should we be upset with Dick Baddour and Michael Hooker for sacrificing up the "integrity" of the school? What are we really giving up? Is this relationship any less egregious than the McColl building, Kenan Stadium or the Friday Center or should I assume that this money was given with only the best interest of all parties in mind and no selfish motives? Or maybe the ends actually justify the means, does the richest sponsorship in the history of collegiate athletics, merely for the cost a wearing a swoosh on their uniforms allow the Universiy unprecedented opportunities? Chancellor Hooker did state that only Reebok and Nike were capable of meeting the demands of the entire UNC sports program from a uniform and sneaker standpoint and the Nike proposal was not even the most lucrative opportunity. The Athletic Department and Dean Smith chose to select the relationship that was best for the school.

I do not have any question that the relationship is good for the school. My only question is whether or not we got appropriate value. We definitely got market value, as the contract represents the largest in the history of collegiate sports. On the other hand, I believe the relationship is worth far more to Nike than what they are currently paying. To understand this we must understand how Nike values the relationship, primarily from exposure, licensing, image building and relationship building.

Nike's exposure in the deal can be quantified by analyzing swoosh exposure. How much time is the swoosh exposed on television and to attendees. Licensing is the golden goose of the relationship. Nike/UNC jerseys, hats, t-shirts and shorts alone may pay for the cost of the sponsorship. Image building, an important factor in the sneaker wars. Nike pays pro athletes millions of dollars to wear their shoes. If one player is worth a few million dollars, what are 12 basketball players and the rest of U NC athletes worth to Nike? And relationship building. If Nike, Reebok and Adidas are attempting to develop relationships with high school athletes with professional potential that might be the next professional stars, than collegiate players who are clo ser to realizing these dreams are even more valuable. I believe that under careful analysis, we would find this relationships is worth for more to Nike than they are currently paying.

History of Corporate Sponsorships

Early 60's - Mid 60's

Athlete Visibility/popularity via television

Utilizing athletes as overall corporate image building program (e.g., Mark McCormack/Arnold Palmer/Jack Nicklaus)

Late 60's - Early 70's

FCC ruling disallowed cigarettes and most alcohol from advertising on TV

Tobacco and liquor companies forced to find other, less traditional ways to reach consumers (sponsorship of races, rodeos, etc.)

1984 LA Olympics

Beginning of the modern era of sports marketing. Sponsorships became an integral part of marketing mix for many companies to reach overall marketing objectives, not just traditional industries

Recognition that impacting consumers "within their lifestyle" versus advertising will help reach objectives

1990's - Ambush Marketing in Atlanta

With the rising costs of sponsorship ($40 million + for an Olympic sponsorship) many companies feel these price tags are out of line. Instead, companies will ambush the games by making consumers believe that they are the sponsor when they are not. Ex: McDonald's was an Olympic sponsor, but every time you turned the television on you saw Dave Thomas discussing "Go for the Gold" with a famous Olympian touting Wendy's. Wendy's was not legally allowed to use the 5 rings logo or terms Olympics, Atla nta Summer Games, etc., however they cleverly drew a correlation with games and saw a sales spike during the Olympic fortnight. McDonald's prefers to call this parasitic marketing and increased curbs are being put in place by event media partners to avoi d similar situations in the future.

1990's - Complete Integration/Ownership

Sponsors now attempt to create more significant presence at events to maximize consumer impressions. This includes naming rights to stadiums, naming rights sponsorships to events, sponsorships of Universities, logos on uniforms, advertisements dur ing event commercials, consumer promotions to create in-store linkage to sponsorships, in-store appearances, etc.

Because of the increasing clutter in advertising, specifically in professional sports, sponsors seek more "bang for their buck" through sponsorship of entities with fewer sponsors. Additionally, the NBA and NFL are becoming global brands by their own right and the leagues will only allow sponsors so much exposure at their events. Consequently, sponsors are turning to grass roots sports, extreme sports and collegiate sports in increasing rates to reach more targeted audiences in less cluttered environ ments.

Out of time

Alan Ayckbourn's latest play enters a confusing new dimension, says JOHN PETER

R

eader: You look preoccupied again. Bewitched, bothered and bewildered, or words to that effect. Having a

hard time?

Critic: Not at all. I'm having a very interesting time. I have just seen Alan Ayckbourn's new play.

Reader: Ayckbourn? Don't tell me. The usual bag of tricks. A three-act farce, each act set in a different Westminster committee room where three different ministers explain why they are covering up documents that they didn't have time to read.

Critic: Well, no, actually, Ayckbourn isn't all that interested in ministers. It's quite an interesting point that Ayckbourn, the most precise cartographer of British middle-class life working in the theatre today, is completely apolitical. Apolitical, that is, in the sense of parties, programmes, slogans or public affairs. His settings are almost invariably domestic. I certainly can't see him going off to a police station, let alone a party HQ, to research a play. Home is where the fight is. Ayckbourn's world is social and psychological: cheery failures, grim winners, sad neurotic fantasists, insensitive dimwits, upwardly mobile businessmen with downwardly mobile moralities, married couples in a state of permanent guerrilla warfare, weak-kneed adulterers, tyrannical parents, crooks, louche wheeler-dealers. Not quite Westminster, is it?

No, if Ayckbourn is a political dramatist, it is in the sense that Ibsen is: private conflicts are public conflicts writ small. The politics of snobbery and private greed, attachment and semi-detachment. Then, every now and again, he comes out with an oddball play.

Reader: Ah, so that's what you're brooding about. This is the new play. Communicating Doors, isn't it?

Critic: Yes. just opened in Scarborough, at the Stephen Joseph Theatre in the Round. It is in two acts, set in a posh London hotel, and the action veers to and fro between 1974. 1994, 2014.

Reader: You mean it's not a realistic play?

Critic: It's not as simple as that. What is "realistic" anyway? It's a pretty relative notion. One of Ayckbourn's earlier plays. Henceforward .... takes place in the future, but this future is presented with a meticulous sense of logic, as if it were today. In another play. Woman In Mind, a middle-aged woman creates an imaginary family for herself. Time Of My Life moves backward in time, rather like Harold - Pinter's Betrayal. And it so happens that, apart from a couple of short political plays. Betrayal is Pinter's most explicitly "moral" work.

Reader: You seem bothered by this "moral" thing.

Critic: Not bothered, no. But plays that deal with time as their subject  tend to be more openly moralizing

than most others. Think of Priestley's time plays: they say to you, look, this is what could happen to you in the future: can you do something to prevent it? Death concentrates the mind wonderfully, and the passing of time reminds you of the end, and you wonder if you could undo some of your past and/or prevent some of your future

Basically, you want a second chance.

Reader: Is this what Communicating Doors is about?

.

.

Called to witness: Adie Alien, left, with Richard Buruen

Critic: Yes, sort of. There's a sinister old man called Reece (John Hudson), twice married, who is about to die. He is in his hotel room; he has written a confession, and a young S & M call-girl (Adie Allen) arrives to witness it for him.

Reader: Seems an odd choice.

Critic: Yes. it is, especially as Reece has an equally sinister business partner and henchman called Julian (with heavy irony) Goodman, played by Richard Durden. Why doesn't he do it? But then it turns out that the confession includes the murder of both Reece's wives, with which Julian may well have been connected. So Julian is not a suitable witness; indeed, he wants to destroy the confession, along with, he hopes, the call-girl. She tries to escape and finds herself in another time.

 Reader: Sounds clear enough to me.

Critic: Told like this, yes, maybe. The problem is that the play keeps shifting between three different hotel rooms, and three different dates, with 20 years between them. If you concentrate very hard, you can just about work out which room you are in, and on which date, and why characters can move in one time- direction but not in another; but frankly, it is a little too much for the audience to do. Working out how the mechanism of the plot functions gets in the way of what it does.

Reader: How do you mean, "what it does"? What does a plot "do"?

Critic: Right. Think of a play's plot as a tool. A playwright has something to say: he needs to work out how to present it. His raw material consists in his observations and his ideas. For example, in Michael Meyer's biography of Ibsen, you will find a short sketch of A Doll's House. Here. Ibsen jotted down what he wanted to say and roughly

the sort of characters through whom he wanted to say it. Then he went on to mould this material into shape by devising a plot: what will happen, to whom, how and why. What the plot "does" is to shape the story.

Ayckbourn is writing about the fantasy of The Second Chance. If only we could go back in time, could we make things happen differently?

It is a kind of moral wishful thinking in which most people indulge at one time or another. But it is tricky material for a plot. In Priestley's Time And The Conways, you move forward in time in Act 2, and back again in Act 3. In Communicating Doors, you shift back and forth all the time.

Reader: Doesn't it help if you know who everyone is?

Critic: Yes, but you don't get to know them at all well. Ayckbourn has written a metaphysical farce. Comedy has characters; farce has types. I rather think Ayckbourn had set out to write a time-comedy, but it became too complicated. The characters are never in focus long enough to be anything but types.

You see, I enjoyed the play, and it is an exciting experience, when you know a playwright's work well, to see a new play where he departs from his usual form. What now? Where is he going? It keeps you on your toes. Also, with Ayckbourn himself directing as usual, the acting is excellent. But as the play went on. I became more and more aware of the nuts and bolts of'it. It is more a moral entertainment than a play. Reader: And the ending? Does anybody get a second chance? Critic: I won't give it away; but I do think that Ayckbourn is too realistic a writer to be much of an optimist. This is his great paradox: at the heart of his comedies, which aie among the finest in the language, there is a sense of shrewd, even-handed pessimism. Without it, such writing is simply soft.

Reader: Do you think this one will enter the theatre repertory? Critic: Who knows? We will see. Let's meet again 20 years ago. □

№1

"Some Books Are To Be Tasted, Others To Be Swallowed, And Some Few To Be Chewed And Digested"

This quotation belongs to a famous English philosopher Francis Bacon ( 1561-1626). He himself expands on it further: "that is, some books are to be read only in Parts; others to be read but not Curiously; and some few to be read wholly, and with Diligence and Attention." One can't but admire the exactness and universal wisdom of the idea. In fact it is a hundred per cent true.

Actually long before the invention of printing people valued books as precious treasure troves of the human knowledge and experience. Hand-written manuscripts took months of writing and were collected and kept in monasteries with utmost care.

A rough calculation shows that there are more books on our planet than men alive. Most of them originated as written records of historical events. Then they began reflecting not only intellectual, but also moral experience of their creators. As science progressed books began to involve observations, conclusions and theoretical thinking. The books of today reflect such a large scope of information that it's practically impossible to mention all types of them... Approximately we can define different kinds of books as fiction and non-fiction, science fiction; biographies, books about political, social and economic subjects; travel books; romances; thrillers, adventure and love stories, detective stories; fairy tales and fantasies; ghost stories and mysteries, animal stories and family stories.

But let's go back to our quotation. To my mind all books are to be tasted. A modern, well-educated person should be able to use not textbooks only but reference books, dictionaries, encyclopedias, vocabularies and all sorts of informational publications. These books serve the purpose of learning, teaching and instructing. One really has to spend some time to learn how to find the necessary telephone number or the address in the telephone book. For this you have to study the instructions in the preface.

In fact you have to taste all other books as well as to know what suits your personal interests and inclinations. If a book has a gripping plot and takes in religious fanatics, bear attacks, resurrected lovers and obsessions we can read it in a gulp. A well-written novel usually mixes adventure and romance with great flair. Everybody likes books where fictional characters are loosely based on real Beverly Hills people. Some of my friends are hooked on tales where Cinderella meets a megaster, usually a womanizer, who falls for her. Sometimes a villain or a villainess comes into her happiness. Murder and mayhem follow. Such improbable tale is just the thing for a lazy holiday reading. Most of mysteries and horror books are called escapist books. They take you away from everyday problems into the land of witchcraft, spooks, ghosts and miracles. Some of them are highly enjoyable nail-biters with fast-paced plot and a hero that verges on a superhero. As a rule people seldom reread a detective story or a fast-moving thriller that's full of intrigue. I admit that it may be highly entertaining, but hence the investigation is over and the criminal is found you sigh with relief and forget it. These are the books to be swallowed.

However, there is another type of books that is top be chewed and digested. These are the works by brilliant minds of mankind. Most of them have great oneliners like: " all families are happy in the same way’’ in Tolstoy's "Anna Karenina" or " Bolivar can't carry both" from O' Henry. One needs certain intelligence and experience, persistence and perseverance to digest them. Pretty often our comprehension of the plot and messages of these literary works ch anges as we grow up. One really must be in love to understand Tatiana from "Eugene Onegin". Sometimes a scholar has to "chew" ( to study) some additional literature or autobiographical books to understand the author's motivation or even consult the critics, who will help him understand the meaning of exquisite metaphors, epithets or tricky connotations. Very often it is not needed. We can't but admire how brilliantly Walter Scott captures the splendor and the savagery of mediaeval times, making his novels a superb, exciting reading. A talented writer can plot tautly without losing descriptive quality, which adds to the entertainment. The reader then finds himself  lunged into a new life and a strange life. S.Maugham used to say that a real masterpiece makes you share the feelings and emotions of the people who used to live hundreds of  ears ago, thousands miles away. In conclusion I'd like to prolong Francis Bacon's quotation and advise the readers to eat as many books as possible, no matter whetheryou have to swallow, chew or digest them. The only thing he has to remember is that a happy eater never becomes a gourmet.

Notes

Beverly Hills people - famous, well-to-do people of a residential city, which is a part of Greater Los Angeles, California. It is known as the home of Hollywood film stars.

 Megastar - A very famous pop-star.

Escapism - a teaching how to escape from daily reality or routine by indulging in daydreaming, fantasy or entertainment.

Witchcraft — a magical, irresistible influence, attraction or charm.

Spook - something in the air that makes one frightened or nervous, suggestive of ghosts that easily startles.

Mayhem - an extremely confused situation in which people are very frightened or excited.

 Connotation - a feeling or an idea that a word makes you think of that is not its actual meaning.

Gourment - someone who knows a lot about food and wine and who enjoys good food and wine

№2

READING DETECTIVE STORIES IN BED

I find this delightful at home and even more delightful when I am away from home, a lost man. The fuss of the day is done with; you are snugly installed in bed, in a little lighted place of your own; and now to make the mind as cosy as the body! But why detective stories? Why not some good literature? Because, with a few happy exceptions — and there are far too few of them — good literature, which challenges and excites the mind, will not do. In my view, it should be read away from the bedroom.

But why not some dull solemn stuff, [..] memoirs, faded works of travel [...]? Here I can speak only for myself. But if my bedbook is too dull then I begin to think about my own work and then sleep is banished for hours. No, the detective story is the thing, and its own peculiar virtues have not been sufficiently appreciated. [... ] We enthusiasts are not fascinated by violence or the crime element in these narratives. Often, like myself, we deplore the blood-and-bone atmosphere and wish the detective novelists were not so conventional about offering us murder all the time. (A superb detective story could be written — and I have half a mind to write it— about people who were not involved in any form of crime. About disappearance or double life, for example.) Please remember that most serious fiction now has ceased to appeal to our taste for narrative. The novelist may be a social critic, a philosopher, a poet, or a madman, but he is no longer primarily a story-teller. And there are times when we do not want anybody's social criticism or deep psychological insight or prose poetry or vision of the world: we want a narrative, an artfully contrived tale. But not any kind of tale, no fragrant romances and the like. What we want — or at least what I want, late at night; you can please yourself — is a tale that is in its own way a picture of life but yet has an entertaining puzzle element in it. And this the detective story offers me. It is of course highly conventional and stylized — think of all those final meetings in the library, or those little dinners in Soho^[1] [...] paid for out of a Scotland Yard^[2] salary — but its limitations are part of its charm. It opposes to the vast mournful muddle of real world its own tidy problem and neat solution. As thoughtful citizens we are hemmed in now by gigantic problems that appear as insoluble as they are menacing, so how pleasant it is to take an hour or two off to consider only the problem of the body that locked itself in its study and then used the telephone. (We know now that Sir Rufus must have died not later than ten o'clock, and yet we know too that he apparently telephoned to Lady Bridget at ten-forty-five — eh, Travers?) This is easy and sensible compared with the problem of remaining a sane citizen in the middle of the twentieth century. After the newspaper headlines, it is refreshing to enter this well-ordered microcosm, like finding one's way into a garden after wandering for days in a jungle. I like to approach sleep by way of these neat simplifications, most of them as soundly ethical as Socrates himself. It is true that I may burn my bedlight too long, just because I must know how the dead Sir Robert managed to telephone; yet, one problem having been settled for me, I feel I sleep all the sounder for this hour or two's of indulgence. And what a delight it is to switch off the day's long chaos, stretch legs that have begun to ache a little, turn on the right side, and then once more find the eccentric private detective moodily playing his violin or tending his orchids, or discover again the grumpy inspector doodling in his office, and know that a still more astonishing puzzle is on its way to him and to me!

Why Read the Classics

Italo Calvino

1. The classics are the books of which we usually hear people say, "I am rereading . . . " and never "I am reading . . . "
2. We use the words "classics" for books that are treasured by those who have read and loved them; but they are treasured no less by those who have the luck to read them for the first time in the best conditions to enjoy them
3. The classics are books that exert a peculiar influence, both when they refuse to be eradicated from the mind and when they conceal themselves in the folds of memory, camouflaging themselves as the collective or individual unconscious.
4. Every rereading of a classic is as much a voyage of discovery as the first reading.
5. Every reading of a classic is in fact a rereading.
6. A classic is a book that has never finished saying what it has to say.
7. The classics are the books that come down to us bearing the traces of readings previous to ours, and bringing in their wake the traces they themselves have left on the culture or cultures they have passed through (or, more simply, on language and customs).
8. A classic does not necessarily teach us anything we did not know before. In a classic we sometimes discover something we have always known (or thought we knew), but without knowing that this author said it first, or at least is associated with it in a special way. And this, too, is a surprise that gives much pleasure, such as we always gain from the discovery of an origin, a relationship, an affinity.
9. The classics are books which, upon reading, we find even fresher, more unexpected, and more marvelous than we had thought from hearing about them.
10. We use the word "classic" of a book that takes the form of an equivalent to the universe, on a level with the ancient talismans. With this definition we are approaching the idea of the "total book," as Mallarmé conceived of it.
11. Your classic author is the one you cannot feel indifferent to, who helps you to define yourself in relation to him, even in dispute with him.
12. A classic is a book that comes before other classics; but anyone who has read the others first, and then reads this one, instantly recognizes its place in the family tree.
13. A classic is something that tends to relegate the concerns of the moment to the status of background noise, but at the same time this background noise is something we cannot do without.
14. A classic is something that persists as a background noise even when the most incompatible momentary concerns are in control of the situation.

Othello (motion picture), adaptation of the play by William Shakespeare about a mighty warrior corrupted by jealousy. Released in 1965, this version of the often-filmed play stars Laurence Olivier as Othello, the dark-skinned Moor of Venice. Othello falls in love and marries Desdemona (played by Maggie Smith), but his evil lieutenant Iago conspires against his happiness and plants seeds of suspicion about Desdemona and Othello’s new friend Cassio. The powerful man’s blind suspicions leads to his inevitable downfall. This production is a filmed version of the National Theater of Great Britain’s stage play. Other notable motion picture versions of this play include an adaptation directed by Orson Welles in 1952, and a 1995 production starring Laurence Fishburne and Kenneth Branagh.

Oliver Twist, British motion-picture adaptation of the Charles Dickens novel of the same name. Released in 1948, the film chronicles the adventures of Oliver Twist (played by John Howard Davies), an orphan in 19th century England who runs away from a workhouse and joins a band of youthful pickpockets. A sinister character named Fagin (Alec Guinness) houses the gang of boys and manages their criminal activity. When Twist gets caught stealing from a wealthy man (Henry Stephenson), the man discovers that Twist is his nephew. He takes Twist away from the life of crime, but Twist’s underworld pals come looking for him, hoping to cash in on his good fortune.

Romeo and Juliet (motion picture), adaptation of the play by William Shakespeare about two teenage children from warring families who fall in love. Released in 1968, this Academy Award-winning British and Italian joint production was directed by Franco Zeffirelli. Teenage actors Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting star as the star-crossed lovers Romeo and Juliet. Convinced that their families will never allow their marriage, the two lovers attempt to conceal their affair. When the families learn of their affair and a murder results, Romeo is banished from the city. The lovers develop a wild scheme to feign death and elope. This oft-filmed stage play was notably produced in 1936, 1954, and 1996.

 Quotes 

Mercutio (upon his death due to feuding): “A plague o' both your houses! They have made worms' meat of me.”

Juliet (to Romeo): “Goodnight, goodnight! Parting is such sweet sorrow that I shall say goodnight till it be morrow.”

^[3]

One of the most celebrated novels in the English language, the powerfully written and psychologically penetrating Jane Eyre (1847) is partially based on English novelist Charlotte Brontл’s own experiences. Jane Eyre, the heroine, was orphaned as a young child and sent to live with an uncaring aunt who eventually placed her in a strict religious boarding school. After enduring this miserable childhood, Jane landed a job as governess to a young French-born girl named Adиle, who spoke mostly  French and some English. In this passage, Jane and her employer, Edward Fairfax Rochester, begin a quirky conversion that reveals the strength of the two characters and their immediate affinity.^[4]

War and Peace (motion picture), motion-picture adaptation of the novel War and Peace (1865-1869) by Leo Tolstoy,which is about the lives of four aristocratic Russian families before, during, and after the Napoleonic Wars (1799-1815). Released in 1968, this Academy Award-winning Soviet version of this oft-filmed novel was directed by Sergey Bondarchuk. Natasha Rostova grows from a spirited young adolescent to a serious matron as the era progresses in this film, which features lavish recreations of her family’s aristocratic opulence as well as the massive, painful battle scenes. This version was edited down from its original four-part format: Voina I Mir: Andrei Bolkonsky (1965), Voina I Mir: Natasha Rostova (1966), Voina I Mir: 1812 god (1967), and Voina I Mir: Pierre Bezukhov (1967).

Anna Karenina, motion picture based on the novel by Leo Tolstoy, released in 1935. This award-winning film stars Greta Garbo as Anna, who becomes infatuated with Vronsky, a dashing soldier for whom she gives up her husband, fortune and custody of her son. Director Clarence Brown takes some liberties with the plot in this version of the Tolstoy novel and places more focus on Kitty, Anna’s long-suffering sister-in-law. However, the famous tale remains essentially intact as a vehicle for Garbo. This film was a remake of Love (1927).^[5]

My Fair Lady, motion-picture musical about a linguist who wagers that he can transform the diction of a Cockney-accented flower seller to that of an upper-class lady, based on a musical by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe from the play Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw. Released in 1964, this film won eight Academy Awards. Rex Harrison stars as Professor Henry Higgins, who works with Eliza Doolittle (played by Audrey Hepburn) and her father to gentrify her speech patterns. Soon Eliza, via an array of songs and diction techniques, masters the language as presented by Higgins and even fools the upper class into thinking she is one of them. Higgins wins his wager, and while he and Eliza’s father gloat and ignore Eliza’s own contribution to her education in eloquence, she runs off angrily. Higgins, a confirmed bachelor, has secretly fallen in love with Eliza, and she with him. She heads off to the man’s mother’s house to seek her advice on how to woo him. This film features the songs “I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face,” “The Rain in Spain,” and “Wouldn’t it be Loverly,” among others.

 Quote 

Higgins (to Eliza, regarding her strenuous language tutoring): “I know your head aches. I know you're tired. I know your nerves are as raw as meat in a butcher's window. But think what you're trying to accomplish. Think what you're dealing with. The majesty and grandeur of the English language, it's the greatest possession we have. The noblest thoughts that ever flowed through the hearts of men are contained in its extraordinary, imaginative, and musical mixtures of sounds. And that's what you've set yourself out to conquer, Eliza. And conquer it you will.”

^[6]

A magnificent world of fairy-tales

How often we need to feel a fascinated atmosphere of childhood, and everybody sometimes wants to approach sleep with mother’s long fairy-tale again.

Long before there was a written language, stories and legends are handed down orally, and children often spent long winter evenings in a lighted corner of house around old story-teller, who knew a lot of tales, about love and friendship, evil and good, but always interesting and gripping.

Every culture of the world has its own treasure trove of fairy-tales and legends, but most of them are like each other, because they tell us about beautiful unreal world, where animals talk to humans, where old trees are very kind, where evil sorcerer turns young maidens into swans, and where love and good always win, but every tale has an educational element in it.

Since ancient times fairy-tales have been primarily an entertaining for children, but sometimes when adult men become tired of mournful muddle of real world, and gigantic problems that appear as insoluble as they area menacing, they open fairy-tale book in a secret from other people and find a vast delightful in entering this beauty microcosm, and switch off a chaos of real world by the way of escaping into a land of miracles and witchcrafts… And how often after this stories they think with tiers about time when they were little boys and girls, when everything in the world seemed so interesting, and when mother’s quiet voice, late at night, banished all day’s problems, and always helped to sleep all the sounder…  

10 Tips to Help Teenagers Pick Clothing Trends

There are a variety of teenager clothing trends ranging from trendy, traditional, gothic, urban clothing, punk, nerdy, and many others. Wearing the latest clothing trend is extremely important for many especially in their teen years, don't let the clothing choices stress you out, have fun.

Express your personalty through the clothing trends you choose to wear. It can take a while to find the right look for you, but trying out different clothing styles is what makes being a teen fun. Read 10 tips below to help you decide what clothing trends you want to make as a teenager and make a great first impression.

1.Read teen magazines such as ELLEgirl, Teen Vogue, CosmoGirl, Seventeen and Twist to find out the latests trends. Think about what clothing choices teens have picked in the past, such as the 1980s which is back in again. Teens often recycle and refresh trends of the past.

2.Check out teen stores such as Wet Seal, Abercrombie & Fitch, Forever 21 and Guess for all the hottest styles. Window shop and shop online to gain ideas at stores like Alloy.com or delias.com.

3.Watch teenagers on the street for unique clothing trends. Spot teens that stand out in the crowd who make their own clothing or sport garments ahead of the trends.

4.Look at the friends you want to hang out with are wearing, because that determines what clothing you will choose to wear. Choosing clothing trends is also based on what hobbies teens enjoy, such as punk music, surfing, hip hop music, or sports.

5.Check out what the pop singers and movie stars are wearing. Notice any fads that will influence teen clothing trends.

6.Visit teen fashion forums or blogs to find the up and coming clothing trends, such as teenfashion.about.com. Ask your friends where they like to go shopping.

7.Learn to sew and make old clothing new and trendy again. Start a new trend with a unique design made by you.

8.Respect you parents if they tell you not to wear something, there is usally a good reason that you cannot see right now. Remember that after you are 18 years old you can wear whatever you desire, so love your parents a little more, they will not be around forever.

9.Buy clothing that says or makes a statment that you believe in. Realize that you can express yourself and your beliefs with the clothing you choose.

10.Have fun sporting new trends and styles. Be confident and happy no matter what you wear. Wearing a big smile is always important and helps you look your best.

Teen fashion trends

There are many articles dedicated to fashion trends: trends for men or women, trends for kids and even for dogs. What about teens?

Try to do a web search and you will see that finding nice guidelines about teen fashion trends is not as easy as it may seem. Why is it this way? The reason for this lack of information is teen fashion being more complicated than any other. Teenagers are fighting against society; they put a lot of effort to be different, but they also invent new trends and fashion styles.

The latest trend is EMO (emotional) style. EMO style is definitely for those who adore bright colors. Green, pink, red, yellow matched with black will undoubtedly make you noticeable. If you are into this style, you must have an appropriate hairdo: Zelda hairdo for girls and jet black mop top for boys. Pencil or at least cigarette-shaped jeans with studded belt is also a must-have. Rules for top are not that strict, you may choose anything you want, just be sure it's close-fitting and bright colored. You must wear large amounts jewelry and it's even better if you pierce your face (small lip ring would do perfectly). EMO style is perfect for those who wear glasses - it's a great accent and EMOs love nerdy ones.

Hip hop never goes out of fashion. Music that speaks street language is definitely for young rebellious souls. Hip-hop style for teen boys and girls is rather different. Boys are usually wearing baggy pants and t-shirt, while girls chose sexy outfits. Cap is a must for both. When it comes to colors - choose anything you want. Boys usually prefer blue jeans and white-colored top while girls are totally unpredictable. Girls wear big rounded earrings and boys must wear at least one ring.

What fashion designers have come up to this season is gothic youth. Although this fashion has existed for a number of years and has been discussed in various ways, it is the first time it is fashionable. Dressing all-black, coloring your hair black, using only black makeup means or even whitening your face to make everything else look even blacker is a hot trend. Choose big shoes with chunky heels; go for metal details all over your clothing and accessories and you're a perfect goth. No matter if you are wearing a short or a long skirt, a close fitting top or a loose one - it's ok as long as it's black.

Bohemian style is also fashionable among teenagers. Loose light colored clothes, wraps and wooden, stone or amber accessories will make you look like a real bohemian girl or boy. People who prefer this style are usually interested in art and books, therefore your bag may have prints made of some famous artist work.

Choosing a style for a teen is usually an easy task. The main factors when making a decision are friends influence and various ideologies that come together with some certain style. No matter what you choose - try to express yourself as best as you can and be original. Being different from the rest of the crowd is the most important thing, just don't get too far, because it is easy to make a mistake and mix things that do not match together.

What Our Clothes Tell About Us

Clothing can tell quite a lot about the person, sometimes more than we would like to reveal. Those who dress without thinking much about it and therefore believe that they do not send any messages by what they wear are not safe, either. Their clothes will still speak, albeit silently.

Clean, neat clothes say that the person has both self-respect and respect for other people; they are well organized and disciplined. Even the simplest, casual clothes can convey this impression while expensive yet wrinkled outfit will betray your sloppy side. There is a reason for army uniforms, and there is a reason why those in the military are required to keep their uniforms neat.

Two other big tellers are color and style. They reflect your character, priorities, and social standing (to some extent). Classic style shows a more serious and traditionally-inclined personality while bright, extravagant outfits speak of being non-conventional, perhaps artistic. Many actors and musicians are known for unusual, flashy clothes meant to draw attention and show their exclusiveness, their being different from the rest. The word "vanity" comes to mind as well.

Careful color coordination speaks of taste, looking like a rainbow shows lack of it. Black trousers, light-colored shirt or blouse, and brown shoes will relay that their wearer either A) Cannot afford to buy black shoes at the moment; B) Does not know that black doesn't go with brown; C) Does not care. Further observation will usually reveal which one of the three is correct.

Someone dressed according to the latest fashion although this particular style is not very flattering to their figure reveals lack of individuality and / or personal taste. On the contrary, someone who wears an impeccable outfit that perfectly suits them and yet is not the latest trend demonstrates being able to rise above the crowd and scorn peer pressure.

You can actually make a statement by what you wear, especially if you break social standards by dressing differently than what is usually expected for a certain occasion. One of my crazy dreams, for example, is to put on a pair of torn faded jeans and some weird T-shirt, color my hair purple, and show up for a corporate job interview - just for the heck of it. Something tells me that I would not get the job, but seeing the look on the interviewer's face would have been a memorable experience (provided I get past security).

Fashion is something we deal with everyday. Even people who say they don't care what they wear choose clothes every morning that say a lot about them and how they feel that day.

One certain thing in the fashion world is change. We are constantly being bombarded with new fashion ideas from music, videos, books, and television. Movies also have a big impact on what people wear. Ray-Ban sold more sunglasses after the movie Men In Black. Sometimes a trend is world-wide. Back in the 1950s, teenagers everywhere dressed like Elvis Presley.

Who dictates fashion?

Musicians and other cultural icons have always influenced what we're wearing, but so have political figures and royalty. Newspapers and magazines report on what Hillary Clinton wears. The recent death of Diana, the Princess of Wales, was a severe blow to the high fashion world, where her clothes were daily news.

Even folks in the 1700s pored over fashion magazines to see the latest styles. Women and dressmakers outside the French court relied on sketches to see what was going on. The famous French King Louis XIV said that fashion is a mirror. Louis himself was renowned for his style, which tended towards extravagant laces and velvets.

Clothes separate people into groups.

Fashion is revealing. Clothes reveal what groups people are in. In high school, groups have names: "goths, skaters, preps, herbs." Styles show who you are, but they also create stereotypes and distance between groups. For instance, a businessman might look at a boy with green hair and multiple piercings as a freak and outsider. But to another person, the boy is a strict conformist. He dresses a certain way to deliver the message of rebellion and separation, but within that group, the look is uniform. Acceptance or rejection of a style is a reaction to the society we live in.

Fashion is a language which tells a story about the person who wears it. "Clothes create a wordless means of communication that we all understand," according to Katherine Hamnett, a top British fashion designer. Hamnett became popular when her t-shirts with large messages like "Choose Life" were worn by several rock bands.

"A little of what you call frippery is very necessary towards looking like the rest of the world."

-Abigail Adams, letter to John Adams, May 1, 1780

There are many reasons we wear what we wear.

Protection from cold, rain and snow: mountain climbers wear high-tech outerwear to avoid frostbite and over-exposure.

Physical attraction: many styles are worn to inspire "chemistry."

Emotions: we dress "up" when we're happy and "down" when we're upset.

Religious expression: Orthodox Jewish men wear long black suits and Islamic women cover every part of their body except their eyes.

Identification and tradition: judges wear robes, people in the military wear uniforms, brides wear long white dresses.

Fashion is big business. More people are involved in the buying, selling and production of clothing than any other business in the world. Everyday, millions of workers design, sew, glue, dye, and transport clothing to stores. Ads on buses, billboards and magazines give us ideas about what to wear, consciously, or subconsciously.

Clothing can be used as a political weapon. In nineteenth century England, laws prohibited people from wearing clothes produced in France. During twentieth century communist revolutions, uniforms were used to abolish class and race distinctions.

Fashion is an endless popularity contest.

High fashion is the style of a small group of men and women with a certain taste and authority in the fashion world. People of wealth and position, buyers for major department stores, editors and writers for fashion magazines are all part of Haute Couture ("High Fashion" in French). Some of these expensive and often artistic fashions may triumph and become the fashion for the larger majority. Most stay on the runway.

Popular fashions are close to impossible to trace. No one can tell how the short skirts and boots worn by teenagers in England in 1960 made it to the runways of Paris, or how blue jeans became so popular in the U.S., or how hip-hop made it from the streets of the Bronx to the Haute Couture fashion shows of London and Milan.

It's easy to see what's popular by watching sit-coms on television: the bare mid-riffs and athletic clothes of 90210, the baggy pants of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. But the direction of fashion relies on "plugged-in" individuals to react to events, and trends in music, art and books.

"In the perspective of costume history, it is plain that the dress of any given period is exactly suited to the actual climate of the time." according to James Laver, a noted English costume historian. How did bell-bottom jeans fade into the designer jeans and boots look of the 1980s into the baggy look of the 1990s? Nobody really knows.

Once identified, fashions begin to change.

Fashion shows display looks

created by professional designers.

"The apparel oft proclaims the man."

-Shakespeare, Hamlet

International Fashion Editor Cynthia Durcanin

What is fashion?

Fashion is a state of mind. A spirit, an extension of one's self. Fashion talks, it can be an understated whisper, a high-energy scream or an all knowing wink and a smile. Most of all fashion is about being comfortable with yourself, translating self-esteem into a personal style.

Why is it important?

Fashion is a means of self-expression that allows people to try on many roles in life. Whether you prefer hip-hop or Chanel-chic, fashion accommodates the chameleon in all of us. It's a way of celebrating the diversity and variety of the world in which we live. Fashion is about change which is necessary to keep life interesting. It's also a mirror of sorts on society. It's a way of measuring a mood that can be useful in many aspects, culturally, socially even psychologically. At the same time, fashion shouldn't be taken too seriously or you lose the fun of it.

How do you know what will be hot in the future?

The collections in Paris, New York and Milan, and now London, typically set the stage for the industry one year in advance. Though, I think the street is the real barometer of style. More and more designers are drawing their inspiration from life on the street. So once again, there is a link to personal style and fashion. A teenager can throw something together without thinking about it and it can trigger a new trend.

How do you choose what to wear in the morning?

It depends on my day, mood and what's clean. If I have an important meeting or presentation, I put more thought into what I will wear. But on my most days, I dress to my mood which can range from funky to retro to classical. Then again, there are days when my laundry basket dictates what I ultimately wear.

Benefits of team sports

At a glance

• Team sports provide kids with important lessons on personal values.
• Children who play team sports are less likely to feel isolated.
• Team sports can encourage parents to become active with their kids.
• Team sports help kids deal with winning and losing.
• Team sports can help kids overcome shyness.

If you want your child to grow up to be a confident and well-adjusted adult, then team sports may well be the answer.

"When you play a team sport you learn that it doesn't just come down to the best player," says Ross Morrison, a sports expert with the NSW Department of Education and Communities.

"It comes down to working as a team, accepting decisions and understanding that people have different abilities."

Learning about values

Playing a team sport provides kids with important lessons in personal values, Ross says. "Kids learn that things aren't going to go their way all the time, and that they need to respect their peers as well as referees and sports officials."

These experiences can influence them throughout their lives such as when it comes to working for a boss, or respecting the police or other authority figures.

Kids learn that things aren't going to go their way all the time, and that they need to respect their peers.Ross MorrisonNSW Department of Education and Communities

Team sports can also be good for a child's mental health. Children who play team sports learn how to be more resilient when presented with a setback, and are less likely to feel isolated, Ross says.

"Society puts a lot of pressure on kids to be more academic," he says. 

"But there is evidence to suggest that physical activity might increase numeracy and literacy. It's like that old adage, ‘a healthy body, a healthy mind'."

When your kids take part in team sports they develop:

• friendship and camaraderie
• cooperation and teamwork skills
• leadership skills
• appreciation of different abilities
• respect for team mates/ opponents/officials
• a sense of belonging/team membership
• social interaction skills
• physical skills
• self-esteem and self concept
• team goal-setting skills
• self-discipline, patience and persistence
• resilience through sharing positive and negative experiences.

Getting active (together)

With so much research emphasising the benefits of getting more exercise rather than being a couch potato, knowing their child is involved in team sports can put a parent's mind at ease.

"It's satisfying for parents to know that your kids are getting fit and healthy instead of just playing electronic games or watching television," says David Haggart, head teacher of PDHPE at South Sydney High School.

"But as well as the social side of standing around with other parents and making friendships, there can be a spin off too," he says. 

"Sometimes parents look at their kids running around and think, ‘Maybe we can get together and do something like that, too'."    

Teams sports give kids the opportunity to:

• be less selfish and to think of other people
• deal with losing as well as winning. They learn that things are not going to go their way, or the team's way, all the time
• overcome shyness by putting them into situations where they need to communicate with others
• become more sociable in different environments. They have to deal with different people, who may or may not be their friends.

Team Sports vs. Individual Sports

Two sports drive the calendar for young Michaela Staats of Upper St. Clair. She plays either basketball or soccer. She's a team player as an aggressive point guard in basketball and a hustling forward in soccer.

Competitive and talented, she has opted for team-oriented sports as opposed to more individual sports such as golf, swimming or tennis. She tried karate, briefly, several years ago, but conflicting soccer schedules eventually forced a decision and she chose soccer.

"She just has not found any sport that is an individual sport that peaks her interest," said Michaela's father, Ted. "Plus, she really enjoys basketball and soccer. Those are her favorites."

All young athletes make choices about how they want to compete, either individually or as part of a team, and their decisions inevitably prompt comparisons or conclusions about them as athletes—and even as people.

Still, some experts insist any debate about the pros and cons of individual and team sports boils down to a discussion about personal comfort levels. Those experts believe there may be more similarities than differences in what youth sports mean for those who play either individually or on a team.

"In terms of selecting a sport, kids will gravitate toward the need to be in a team or they'll want to be more self-focused," said Paul Friday, chief of clinical psychology at UPMC Shadyside. "All kids are different, and parents obviously play a huge role in what sports children select.

"When you're talking about the benefits or impact of a sport, you also have to keep in mind all the other factors. Everything from the number of siblings they have to the pressure to perform and even the social atmosphere of an activity shape a sport's impact. In the end, the overriding factor for any sport should be that the athlete has fun."

Individual and team sports do differ somewhat in what they offer young athletes.

Notably, and perhaps obviously, individual sports provide a greater chance to focus on the development of individual skills and even on self-esteem.

"In an individual sport, it's easier to connect with your own mastery," said Doug Coatsworth, as assistant professor of human development at Penn State. "You're valuing yourself based on your performance against someone else. It's a very direct comparison."

Individual sports such as golf, swimming and track allow competitors to measure themselves against other competitors as well as themselves. They can lower their golf score from one round to the next or shave seconds off their time from one competition to another.

For young athletes, those forms of tangible success mean a lot. Novices at individual sports often see that improvement with regularity as they gain experience. Such success makes the sport enjoyable and valuable.

In team sports, "self" and "me" mean less. Team success, or at least the development of a team-oriented mindset, often trumps any focus on individual standouts.

"The issue of team sports is what you learn, that you're a cog in the wheel," Friday added. "Good life lessons can come from that, but that does not mean individual sports cannot provide a grounds to examine those same lessons."

Many sports blur the line between individual and team. While young athletes may compete individually in bowling, track, swimming or wrestling, their efforts often serve as one of many performances that comprise a team result.

Other sports—baseball, basketball, football, hockey and softball among them—rely on individual efforts as part of a team performance and constitute what people typically consider team sports. They offer lessons such as "win as a team, lose as a team," which focus on overcoming individual mistakes or spinning one person's standout performance as just part of a team effort.

"There's a greater sense of belonging and connectedness in a team sport," Coatsworth said. "Good coaches are able to create that context where the team is more important than the individual, and that's a lesson many people believe is valuable."

Those positive lessons sometimes may be offset by a group mentality and peer pressure in team sports, though. According to Coatsworth, some evidence indicates participants in team sports may drink more than their counterparts in individual sports.

Overall, individual and team sports face some of the same challenges while teaching many similar lessons. For the most part, the choice between an individual or team sport seems to amount to a different means to the same end.

For example, youth hockey coach Jeff Hulbert sees hockey as a "community" that welcomes young athletes.

"Joining a team allows kids to get involved, to feel like a part of something," Hulbert said. He's the father of two daughters who take dance classes. He thinks they would be interested in playing ice hockey, but they have not expressed an interest in ice skating.

"My girls are more team-sports kids," Hulbert continued. "They'd probably play ice hockey if they could, but their mother and I have differing opinions on ice hockey for girls."

Proponents of individual sports would cite the ease of involvement for young athletes in their activities, too. While there might not be a whole team that forms a "community," a young athlete can just as easily adapt and make friends in an individual sport as in a team sport.

Once established in a sport, growth provides one area where the pros and cons of individual and team sports seem a bit more distinct.

In a team sport, a young athlete may move into or out of a specific role on the team as their skills develop or diminish in relation to their peers. When that happens, the athlete must learn to adapt to that different role. They remain a member of the team, though, and the culture of team sports encourages the athlete and his or her teammates to accept and make the most of those changes.

In an individual sport, when an athlete faces a similar challenge in terms of lack of development or increased skill among his or her opponents, the change clearly impacts only them.

"If the issue is building your own sense of competency, then it's easier to think you're less good or you're a failure because you're not beating those other people," Coatsworth said. "Once you reach a certain point, it becomes a lot harder for coaches, parents and even the athletes just to focus on individual mastery and their own skill development."

Some young athletes stick with only individual or team sports while others try both types of sports. Both Coatsworth and Friday believe a variety of experiences might best serve the young athlete's development as a person.

They think overexposure to either approach can come with costs and they stress that a young athlete's development as a person does not rely exclusively on sports.

"I don't ever want to be friends with (tennis legend) John McEnroe," Friday said. "I don't want to go to dinner with Terrell Owens either. I don't think it's an individual or group thing that makes you a jerk or not.

"The variables are unending, and it's not an individual sport or a team sport that makes you a good person or a bad person."

5 Benefits of Individual Sports

Oftentimes, when sports parents, coaches and league administrators talk about “youth sports” they are referring to team sports like baseball, football, soccer, basketball, lacrosse and so forth. Obviously one of the biggest benefits of being involved in a team sport is that a youth athlete learns how to be part of a team. They learn when to lead and when to follow, how to work well with others and function as a group. Some sports parents and coaches might argue that those benefits are lost if a child gets involved in individual sports (karate, tennis, golf, swimming, etc). But if your child is more interested in an individual sport than a team sport, don’t despair!

Here are 5 positive benefits of individual sports:

1. Youth athletes in individual sports learn to be self reliant. Their success is entirely dependent on their own efforts. If they want to win, they can’t count on someone else carrying them through the competition. If they lose a match, individual sport athletes can’t blame anyone else for their failure. This teaches them to be responsible for their own action and decisions.

2. Individual sports can teach players how to be comfortable in the spotlight. All eyes are on them during play and they can’t hide out in a crowded field. Being comfortable performing solo in front of a crowd can come in hand for school and work presentations later in life.

3. Even individual sports have “teams.” For instance, each member of a gymnastics squad competes as an individual, but their individual scores feed into the overall score for the whole team. Their efforts still affect the success of their team, even if they are competing on their own.

4. Individual sports teach players how to motivate themselves. There is no team pressuring them to improve, the drive has to come from within. This kind of intrinsic motivation is oftentimes much more powerful than external motivation.

5. Individual sports allow athletes to compete at their own pace. For instance, if your 12 year old decides they want to start playing football, they’ll be competing against other 12-14 year olds, some who have been playing football since they were 6. However, if your 12 year old decides they want to start karate, they’ll be practicing/competing with people of a similar skill level. There isn’t as much pressure to “catch up” with the other players.

The Advantages Of Individual Sports Over Team Sports

Everyone raves about the benefits of team sports for children. They develop teamwork. They develop social skills and networks of friends and so on. But team sports may pale in comparison to individual performance sports when it comes to things like independent thought, leadership, and self reliance.

Self reliance is a skill undoubtedly developed in individual sports. As a sole performer, you've got no one to rely on but yourself. Training for that event you may have several friends and training partners helping you, but you know that it's up to you on performance day. Whereas in group sports most athletes have the knowledge that success and failure both are a team effort, and no matter how well or how poorly one performs, it's up to the team as a whole to work together and win. One may argue this develops dependence rather than independence. 

In team sports, there may be a team captain whose real job is to boost moral and lead the team with confidence and focus. But the rest of the team is just that, part of a team. They are expected to perform their functions on that team to the best of their ability, and follow the team structure set up by the coach. They are trained to follow. Individual performance sports however, do not teach this skill as such. Trainees are still taught to follow and trust the coach, but the act of standing alone under pressure and following your own plan is what translates more closely to those skills of a leader. 

Individual performance sports like martial arts, gymnastics, and various track and field events force the trainee to stand alone, to fight alone, and to perform alone. Decisions must be made by you and only you in the moment. If you fail, it is on your shoulders, and if you succeed, that too is your success alone. This creates a deep sense of self confidence and self reliance. It instills the knowledge that one is capable of acting alone against challenging circumstances. This is one of the most important things to learn in adult life. 

So while team sports offer a lot of benefits to athletes in terms of social networking, team work and sportsmanship, individual performance sports should not be overlooked as great development tools for a strong, capable and confident adult, and one who is capable of standing and acting alone in accordance with their values and beliefs.

Things That Affect Children in Their Upbringing

A child is a precursor of the future adult, and its upbringing should ensure it develops physically, intellectually, socially and spiritually. As a parent, you have to ensure that your child gets this holistic upbringing. Such responsibility calls for dedication of time and resources to ensure your child gets to develop in the best way possible.

Home Environment

Your child’s environment, especially at home, directly influences growth. According to Garry Evans, a researcher at Cornell University, a negative home environment can slow a child’s ability to learn basic skills such as reading and communication. Children from a happy and quiet home are often cheerful and calm, whereas children who grow up in a noisy, overcrowded and violent home tend to become violent and aggressive, according to Evans. He further explains that such an environment can lead to anxiety at a young age.

Communication

Spending time with your children to explain life helps them understand their surroundings. Additionally, thinking aloud with children helps them think and speak. They also learn to express themselves articulately; this can happen by engaging children in family discussions, which builds their self-confidence and helps nurture a sense of responsibility. For example, if you're planning outdoor activities as a family, involving children helps you choose activities everyone will enjoy and participate in willingly.

Discipline

The disciplinary measures you take on your child affects his upbringing. Child expert Gwen Dewar advises setting strict boundaries and providing guidance in the process, according to Parentingscience.com. The boundaries teach children that actions have consequences while guidance helps them make the right choices independently. Strict disciplinary measures can instill fear in your children, which affects their ability to communicate. However, being too lenient might foster a lack of discipline and affect the child’s performance in school.

Parenting

Your parenting style plays a significant role in a child’s upbringing and has a strong influence on them. Spending time with them boosts their confidence and gives them a sense of belonging. By spending time together as family, children learn to value relationships and are able to socialize and share with other people. Additionally, children learn how to behave in society and to respond to circumstances by observing you.

upbringing

Synonyms for upbringing

noun childhood

• nurturestar
• trainingstar

More words related to upbringing

background

noun. experience or circumstances

• accomplishments
• acquirement
• actions
• atmosphere
• attainment
• aura

• backdrop
• breeding
• capacity
• credentials
• cultivation
• culture

• deeds
• education
• environment
• framework
• grounding
• history

• practice
• preparation
• qualification
• rearing
• seasoning
• tradition

• training
• upbringing

breeding

noun. cultivation of person

• ancestry
• civility
• conduct
• courtesy

• culture
• development
• gentility
• grace

• lineage
• manners
• nurture
• polish

• raising
• rearing
• refinement
• schooling

• training
• upbringing
• urbanity

nurture

noun. development, nourishment

• breeding
• care
• diet
• discipline

• edibles
• education
• feed
• food

• instruction
• nutriment
• provender
• provisions

• rearing
• subsistence
• sustenance
• training

• upbringing
• viands
• victuals

training

noun. preparation

• background
• basics
• buildup
• chalk talk
• coaching
• cultivation
• discipline

• domestication
• drill
• education
• exercise
• foundation
• grounding
• groundwork

• guidance
• indoctrination
• instruction
• practice
• preliminaries
• principles
• readying

• schooling
• seasoning
• sharpening
• teaching
• tuition
• tune-up
• tutelage

• upbringing
• warm-up
• workout

encourage

Synonyms for encourage

verb stimulate spiritually

verb stimulate spiritually

• booststar
• buoystar
• emboldenstar
• heartenstar
• inspirestar
• reassurestar
• restorestar
• spurstar
• strengthenstar

• animatestar
• applaudstar
• brightenstar
• cheerstar
• comfortstar
• consolestar
• energizestar
• enlivenstar
• excitestar

• exhilaratestar
• fortifystar
• galvanizestar
• gladdenstar
• goadstar
• incitestar
• inspiritstar
• instigatestar
• praisestar

• prickstar
• pushstar
• rallystar
• refreshstar
• revitalizestar
• revivifystar
• rousestar
• steelstar
• stirstar

• swaystar
• buck upstar
• cheer upstar
• enheartenstar
• give shot in armstar
• prop upstar
• psych upstar

Antonyms for encourage

• discourage
• dishearten
• dissuade
• hurt
• agitate

• annoy
• bore
• calm
• deaden
• depress

• deter
• dull
• leave alone
• repress
• sadden

• tire
• trouble
• upset
• weaken
• block

• confuse
• dampen
• deject
• dispirit
• uninspire

More words related to encourage

abet

verb. assist, help in wrongdoing

• advocate
• back
• condone
• egg on

• encourage
• endorse
• goad
• incite

• instigate
• prod
• promote
• provoke

• sanction
• spur
• support
• urge

advance

verb. promote or propose an idea

• adduce
• allege
• ballyhoo
• beat the drum for
• benefit
• boost
• cite

• encourage
• foster
• further
• get ink for
• hype
• introduce
• lay forward

• make a pitch for
• offer
• plug
• present
• proffer
• puff
• push

• put forward
• put on the map
• serve
• set forth
• splash
• spot
• submit

• suggest
• throw spotlight on
• urge

advise

verb. offer recommendation

• admonish
• advocate
• caution
• charge
• commend
• counsel
• direct

• dissuade
• encourage
• enjoin
• exhort
• forewarn
• give a pointer
• give a tip

• guide
• instruct
• kibitz
• level with
• move
• opine
• point out

• preach
• prepare
• prescribe
• prompt
• put bug in ear
• put in two cents
• recommend

• steer
• suggest
• tout
• update
• urge
• warn

advocate

verb. support idea or cause publicly

• advance
• advise
• argue for
• back
• be in corner
• bless
• bolster
• boost
• brace up
• build up

• campaign for
• champion
• countenance
• defend
• encourage
• favor
• further
• get on bandwagon
• give a leg up
• give a lift

• go for
• go to bat for
• go with
• hold with
• justify
• plead for
• plug
• plump for
• press for
• promote

• propose
• push
• recommend
• ride shotgun for
• root for
• run interference for
• say so
• side
• speak for
• spread around

• stump for
• support
• tout
• uphold
• urge
• vindicate

aid

verb. help, support

• abet
• alleviate
• assist
• bail out
• befriend

• benefact
• encourage
• favor
• go to bat for
• go with

• lend a hand
• lighten
• mitigate
• open doors for
• promote

• relieve
• serve
• stick up for
• straighten out
• subsidize

• sustain

animate

verb. bring to life

• activate
• arouse
• cheer
• embolden
• encourage
• energize
• enliven

• exalt
• excite
• fire
• gladden
• hearten
• impel
• incite

• inform
• inspire
• inspirit
• instigate
• invigorate
• kindle
• liven

• make alive
• move
• quicken
• revive
• revivify
• rouse
• spark

• spur
• stimulate
• stir
• urge
• vitalize
• vivify

How Do You Find Trustworthy Sources?

Research is conducted to get at the truth of a subject. As simple as that sounds, you will soon learn that the truth is often very difficult to find!

As a researcher, you will find that every question can have many possible answers and every event will be described differently by witnesses, partly because events are clouded by opinions and viewpoints. You can see evidence of this if you browse through your television news programming.

Look through your news shows and you will find programs with names like "Reliable Sources" and TV channels who make claims to be "Fair and Balanced or "The Most Trusted Name in News." You will also see that any two news organizations will report the very same event in two very different ways.

So where do you find the truth?

You have to develop a critical eye and ferret out the facts for yourself!

A person who has developed critical thinking skills will be able to discern facts from opinions and pick up on small clues that help to determine trustworthiness of sources.

Can You Trust the Source?

It can be helpful to put the topic of trustworthy sources into perspective with an exercise.

Imagine that you are walking down a neighborhood street and you come upon a disturbing scene. A man is lying on the ground with a leg wound and several paramedics and police officers are buzzing around him. A small spectator crowd has gathered, so you approach one of the bystanders to ask what happened.

"This guy was jogging down the street and a big dog came running out and attacked him."

You take a few steps and approach a woman. You ask her what happened.

"This man was trying to rob that house and a dog bit him."

Now you don't know what to believe!

Two different people have given different accounts of an event. To get closer to the truth, you have to find out if either person is connected to the event in any way. You soon discover that the man is a friend of the bite victim. You also realize that the woman is the dog's owner. Now what do you believe? It's probably time to find a third source of information-and one who is not a stakeholder in this scene.

What Is a Stakeholder?

In the scene described above, both the man and the woman providing the reports have a big stake in the outcome of this event. If the police determine that an innocent jogger was attacked by a dog, the dog's owner is subject to fines and further legal trouble.

If the police determine that the apparent jogger was actually involved in illegal and dangerous pursuits at the time he was bitten, the wounded man faces penalty--and the woman is off the hook.

If you were a news reporter, you would have to determine whom to trust by digging deeper and making an assessment about every source of information. You would have to collect details and determine if your many sources were trustworthy, or if they were clouded by distortion. And distortion can stem from many causes:

• Stakeholders' ambitions
• Preconceived beliefs
• Political designs
• Prejudice
• Sloppy research

So What Is a Reliable Source?

It is nearly impossible, after an event has occurred, to determine the exactness of every detail. Every recounting of an event involves points of view and opinion to some degree. The best sources will provide a consensus view and identify all information providers. The following statements should help you determine the trustworthiness of your sources:

• Every writer, lecturer, reporter, and teacher has an opinion.
• The most reliable sources are straightforward about how and why they are reporting.
• An Internet article that provides news but does not provide a list of sources is not very trustworthy. (The article you are reading supplies advice as opposed to news.)
• Anybody can publish on the Internet.
• Internet publishers can be dishonest about their identity.
• An Internet article that provides a list of sources for a newsy article is more trustworthy.
• An Internet article that is published by a reputable research organization or a respected professor at a reputable university and provides sources is even more trustworthy.
• Any source is more trustworthy if the author and the publisher are easily identifiable and it is clear that the author and the publisher are not driven by profit.
• Books are generally considered more trustworthy than the Internet because books are stable and unchanging. An online article can be edited at any given moment, while a book is published as a whole at a specific, identifiable time and date.
• Books are generally considered more trustworthy because the author and publisher are clearly stated and they are held responsible. When a book publisher publishes a book, that publisher takes responsibility for its truthfulness.
• News organizations are businesses.
• Cable news, radio shows, and other media sources must make a profit. If you use these as sources, you must consider their many stakeholders and political slants.
• Fiction is made up-so fiction is not a good source of information.
• Movies are fiction. Even movies based on real events are fiction.
• Memoirs and autobiographies are nonfiction-but they contain a single person's point of view and opinions. If you use an autobiography as a source, you must acknowledge that the information is one-sided!
• A nonfiction book that provides a bibliography of sources is more trustworthy than a book that does not.
• A book published by a profit-making company has a stake in the success and the popularity of the book. This profit-making potential can cause a book to be more scandalous and more sensational--and less truthful.
• An article that is published in a scholarly journal is usually scrutinized for accuracy by the publisher. A publisher-especially a university press--has a reputation to protect.
• Some sources are "peer reviewed." These books and articles go before a panel of non-stakeholding professionals for review and assessment. This body of professionals act as a small jury to determine truthfulness. Peer-reviewed articles are very trustworthy.
• 
  
   

Scholarly research is a quest for truth. Your job as a researcher is to use the most trustworthy sources to find the most accurate information. Your job also involves using a variety of sources, to reduce the chances that you are relying on tainted, opinion-filled evidence.

Internet Research Tips

t can be frustrating to conduct online research, because online sources can be quite unreliable. If you find an online article that provides relevant information for yourresearch topic, you should take care to investigate the source to make sure it is valid and reliable. This is an essential step in maintaining sound research ethics.

It is your responsibility as a researcher to find and use the trustworthy sources.

There are several ways to investigate your source.

Investigate the Author

In most cases, you should stay away from internet information that doesn't provide the name of an author. While the information contained in the article may be true, it is more difficult to validate information if you don't know the credentials of the author.

If the author is named, you will want to find his/her web page to:

• Verify educational credits
• Discover if the writer is either published in a scholarly journal
• Discover if the writer has published a book from a university press
• Verify that the writer is employed by a research institution or university

Observe the URL

If the information is linked to an organization, try to determine the reliability of the sponsoring organization. One tip is the url ending. If the site name ends with .edu, it is most likely an educational institution. Even so, you should be aware of political bias.

If a site ends in .gov, it is most likely a reliable government web site. Government sites are usually good sources for statistics and objective reports.

Sites that end in .org are usually non-profit organizations. They can be very good sources or very poor sources, so you'll have to take care to research their possible agendas or political biases, if they exist.

For instance, collegeboard.org is the organization that provides the SAT and other tests. You can find valuable information, statistics, and advice on that site. PBS.org is a non-profit organization that provides educational public broadcasts. It provides a wealth of quality articles on its site.

Other sites with the .org ending are advocacy groups that are highly political in nature. While it is entirely possible to find reliable information from a site like this, as always, you should be mindful of the political slant and acknowledge this in your work.

Online Journals and Magazines

A reputable journal or magazine should contain a bibliography for every article. The list of sources within that bibliography should be pretty extensive, and it should include scholarly, non-Internet sources.

Check for statistics and data within the article to back up the claims made by the author. Does the writer provide evidence to back up his statements?

News Sources

Every television and print news source has a web site. To some extent, you can rely on the most trusted news sources, but you should not rely on them exclusively. After all, network and cable news stations are involved in entertainment. Think of them as a stepping stone to more reliable sources.

Newspaper Names Most Trustworthy News Sites

There’s apparently a city called Enumclaw, Washington, and it has a newspaper that has given a list of the most trustworthy news sites of 2012. And you’re not gonna believe their list. The Worldnutdaily is actually number two on the list. Number one is Drudge. Yes, Drudge.

With a continual commitment to the truth and top-notch journalistic practices, World Net Daily has time and again exposed corruption in the media and politics while maintaining good journalistic practices.

WND clearly differentiates when they’re reporting news and providing commentary or opinion.

Holy shit. What website are they reading? And here’s their #4 site,Breitbart.com:

Founded by the late Andrew Breitbart, Breitbart news has become a trusted resource by many for current events. With a central focus on political issues, Breitbart maintains a worthy news source by continually reporting stories and facts many news sites elect to omit.

And here’s their criteria:

Each news source is carefully considered and ranked by the following criteria:

Reliability: Consistent, regularly updated delivery of news.
Accuracy: Well-rounded stories which focus upon facts rather than gossip or hearsay.
Quality: Favors informative, well-written pieces over sheer quantity.
Balance: Stories are selected and reported aside from bias or agenda.
Reach: Strong authority and readership across the web.

New Hope for Trustworthy News

Sometimes I say that "trust is the new black"; more recently, I like the notion that "a trustworthy press is the immune system of democracy."

However, it looks like news media has generally lost the trust of the American public:

• "Trust in Mass Media Returns to All-Time Low"
• "No One Trusts Advertising or Media"

This might have to do with major failures in mass news media:

• Dean Starkman shows us that the press fully knew that the economy was a mess during the last decade, but never told the American public about it. (This appears to be an ongoing problem.)
• There was a fake IRS scandal, where the press was alerted to the problem byCitizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), but this received little or no coverage.
• Six billion in cash was "lost" in Iraq, but the only real coverage was in Vanity Fair(I've asked, they tell me that article is fully fact checked).
• There's what Jon Stewart calls the "CNN leaves it there" problem, where a news outlet knowingly airs clear-cut lying and then repeats it.
• danah boyd gets to the point in "First: Do No Harm" when she asks,

But since when did the practice of journalism allow for uncritically making shit up? ::shaking head:: Where's the fine line between poor journalism and fabrication?

I'm only a news consumer, though people in the news business have shown me how the sausage is made, and I've seen a lot of ugly stuff. However, I'd like to focus on moving forward.

I've seen it in the form of the Trust Project with the additional suggestion by Jeff Jarvis.

The gist of this effort is to develop signals of trust for news outlets and individual articles. For example, a news outlet would commit to a serious code of ethics/trust and also diversity, and some means wherein the news outlet could be held accountable to that code.

In essence, an article would say "trust me" and back it up.

The ethics code work of the Society of Professional Journalists and that of the Online News Association are really good places to start.

So, the gist of the Trust Project is that:

1. A news outlet promises to be trustworthy, indicating that via standard signals in publication.
2. Articles from that outlet could be ranked higher, in places like Google News and the Facebook feed, than articles from sources that don't promise trustworthiness.

This is NOT about any news aggregator picking and choosing what's trustworthy; making such a claim would itself be untrustworthy.

Yes, this isn't easy, since a fake news outlet could claim to be trustworthy. We need some trusted network to test challenges to trustworthiness, maybe inspired by Wikipedia.

However, I've looked around, and I can't find any effort that provides any hope to get to a broadly trustworthy press.

Help us, folks, you're our only hope.

This post is part of a series commemorating The Huffington Post's 10 Year Anniversary through expert opinions looking forward to the next decade in their respective fields. To see all of the posts in the series, read here.

Eight Ways to Tell if a Website is Reliable

The Internet can be a wonderful reporting tool for journalists. Data that once was only found in paper documents can now often be accessed with the click of a mouse, and research that once took hours or days can be done in minutes.

But for every reputable website there are probably 100 that are full of information that's inaccurate, unreliable or worse. Here are eight ways to tell if a website is reliable.

1. Look for Sites from Established Institutions

The web is full of websites that were started five minutes ago. What you want are sites associated with trusted institutions that have been around for awhile and have a proven track record of reliability and integrity.

2. Look for Sites With Expertise

You wouldn't go to an auto mechanic if you broke your leg, and you wouldn't go to the hospital to have your car repaired. I'm making an obvious point: Look for websites that specialize in the kind of information you're seeking. So if you're writing a story on a flu outbreak, check out medical websites, and so on.

3. Steer Clear of Commercial Sites

Sites run by companies and business - their websites usually end in .com - are more often than not trying to sell you something. And if they're trying to sell you something, chances are whatever information they're presenting will be tilted in favor of their product.

4. Beware Bias

Reporters write a lot about politics, and there are plenty of political websites out there.

But many of them are run by groups that have a bias in favor of one political party or philosophy. A conservative website isn't likely to report objectively on a liberal politician, and vice versa. Steer clear of sites with a political ax to grind and instead look for ones that are non-partisan.

5. Check the Date

As a reporter you need for the most up-to-date information available, so if a website seems old, it's probably best to steer clear. One way to check - look for a "last updated" date on the page or site.

6. Look at the Site's Look

If a site looks poorly designed and amateurish, chances are it was created by amateurs. Steer clear. But be careful - just because a website is professionally designed doesn't mean it's reliable.

7. Avoid Anonymous Authors

Articles or studies whose authors are named are often - though not always - more reliable than works produced anonymously. It makes sense: If someone is willing to put their name on something they've written, chance are they stand by the information it contains. And if you have the name of the author, you can always Google him or her to check their credentials.

8. Check the Links

Reputable websites often link to each other. See which sites the website you're on links to. Then go to Google and enter this in the search field:

link: http://www.yourwebsite.com

This will show you which sites link to the one you're on. If lots of sites are linking to your site, and of those sites seem reputable, then that's a good sign.

Are online comments trustworthy?

The "wisdom of crowds" has become a mantra of the Internet age. Need to choose a new vacuum cleaner? Check out the reviews on Amazon. Is that restaurant any good? See what Yelp has to say.

But a new study suggests that such online scores don't always reveal the best choice. A massive controlled experiment of Web users finds that such ratings are highly susceptible to irrational "herd behavior" -- and that the herd can be manipulated.

Sometimes the crowd really is wiser than you. The classic examples are guessing the weight of a bull or the number of gumballs in a jar. Your guess is probably going to be far from the mark, whereas the average of many people's choices is remarkably close to the true number.

But what happens when the goal is to judge something less tangible, such as the quality or worth of a product? According to one theory, the wisdom of the crowd still holds -- measuring the aggregate of people's opinions produces a stable, reliable value. Skeptics, however, argue that people's opinions are easily swayed by those of others. So nudging a crowd early on by presenting contrary opinions -- for example, exposing them to some very good or very bad attitudes -- will steer the crowd in a different direction. To test which hypothesis is true, you would need to manipulate huge numbers of people, exposing them to false information and determining how it affects their opinions.

A team led by Sinan Aral, a network scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, did exactly that. Aral has been secretly working with a popular website that aggregates news stories. (He says it is similar to Reddit, but he's keeping the identity confidential because he has another experiment under way with the same site and doesn't want it to be "tainted" by media exposure.) The website allows users to make comments about news stories and vote each other's comments up or down. The vote tallies are visible as a number next to each comment, and the position of the comments is chronological. (Stories on the site get an average of about 10 comments and about three votes per comment.) It's a follow-up to his experiment using people's ratings of movies to measure how much individual people influence each other online (answer: a lot). This time, he wanted to know how much the crowd influences the individual, and whether it can be controlled from outside.

For five months, every comment submitted by a user randomly received an "up" vote (positive); a "down" vote (negative); or as a control, no vote at all. The team then observed how users rated those comments. The users generated more than 100,000 comments that were viewed more than 10 million times and rated more than 300,000 times by other users.

At least when it comes to comments on news sites, the crowd is more herdlike than wise. Comments that received fake positive votes from the researchers were 32% more likely to receive more positive votes compared with a control, the team reported online last week in Science. And those comments were no more likely than the control to be down-voted by the next viewer to see them. By the end of the study, positively manipulated comments got an overall boost of about 25%. However, the same did not hold true for negative manipulation. The ratings of comments that got a fake down vote were usually negated by an up vote by the next user to see them.

"Our experiment does not reveal the psychology behind people's decisions," Aral says, "but an intuitive explanation is that people are more skeptical of negative social influence. They're more willing to go along with positive opinions from other people."

Duncan Watts, a network scientist at Microsoft Research in New York, agrees with that conclusion. "[But] one question is whether the positive [herding] bias is specific to this site" or true in general, Watts says. He points out that the category of the news items in the experiment had a strong effect on how much people could be manipulated. "I would have thought that 'business' is pretty similar to 'economics,' yet they find a much stronger effect (almost 50% stronger) for the former than the latter. What explains this difference? If we're going to apply these findings in the real world, we'll need to know the answers."

Will companies be able to boost their products by manipulating online ratings on a massive scale? "That is easier said than done," Watts says. If people detect -- or learn -- that comments on a website are being manipulated, the herd may spook and leave entirely.

Is the internet a waste of time? Do you think the internet in general is a complete waste of time? Why or why not?

  Best Answer:  2.5 billion current users don't think it is a waste of time. That is about 35% of the World's population.

Comment

Asker's rating 

• The web is a waste of time, sure. But the Internet as a whole? Considering the entire developed world relies on it as the basis of their communication infrastructure I would say no. 
  
  Remember: The Internet is a lot more than just websites.
• It all comes down to if you have something better to do. If I have a project to be finished and I have to hand it in tomorrow and I'm surfing the internet, then yes, it's a waste of time, PRECIOUS time in fact. But if I have nothing better to do, and I'm bored and I'm sitting here when the internet is available of use, then no, it’s not a waste of time. But, there are always better things to be doen than sitting at home and using the internet all day. So, it all comes down to perspective.
• Yes but because the Progressives have been herding us into using it for social networking and the *cloud* where software you no longer own but rent. 
  
  
• I suppose that if all you use the web for is social networking, then yes, it's a total waste of time. But if you use it like I do, for it's unbelievable wealth of information and  knowledge, then no, it's one of the most wonderful ways to increase your personal knowledge.

The internet is a massive waste of time

Over the last couple of decades the internet has revolutionized how we work, how we shop, how we communicate, and how we consume media. In most regards it has made life quicker and easier, but it has also brought challenges and side-effects. Technology may have made many tasks simpler, but it has also increased distractions and shepherded in more ways to procrastinate. You've probably noticed that while you can get many things done faster than ever, you spend a great deal of time doing nothing of worth.

In fact, rather than saving money, the widespread adoption of technology could be costing business dearly. Research shows that nearly two-thirds of employees spend work hours browsing sites unrelated to work -- a surprising 3 percent of them spending more than 10 hours a week actively avoiding work online. All of these wasted man hours add up, resulting in an average cost of almost $3,000 for employee each year.

But it's not just websites that are a distraction. Research found that just 14 percent of emails are crucial to work, and 62 percent of people found that dealing with unnecessary messages was one of the down sides of using email as a means of communication. A surprising finding is that, on average, workers spend 4 hours -- or half the working day -- handling emails.

The Net Is a Waste of Time

I COINED THE WORD "CYBERSPACE" IN 1981 IN ONE OF MY first science fiction stories and subsequently used it to describe something that people insist on seeing as a sort of literary forerunner of the Internet. This being so, some think it remarkable that I do not use E-mail. In all truth, I have avoided it because I am lazy and enjoy staring blankly into space (which is also the space where novels come from) and because unanswered mail, E- or otherwise, is a source of discomfort.

But I have recently become an avid browser of the World Wide Web. Some people find this odd. My wife finds it positively perverse. I, however, scent big changes afoot, possibilities that were never quite as manifest in earlier incarnations of the Net.

I was born in 1948. I can't recall a world before television, but I know I must have experienced one. I do, dimly, recall the arrival of a piece of brown wooden furniture with sturdy Bakelite knobs and a screen no larger than the screen on this Powerbook.

Initially there was nothing on it but "snow," and then the nightly advent of a targetlike device called "the test pattern," which people actually gathered to watch.

Today I think about the test pattern as I surf the Web. I imagine that the World Wide Web and its modest wonders are no more than the test pattern for whatever the 21st century will regard as its equivalent medium. Not that I can even remotely imagine what that medium might actually be.

In the age of wooden television in the South where I grew up, leisure involved sitting on screened porches, smoking cigarettes, drinking iced tea, engaging in conversation and staring into space. It might also involve fishing.

Sometimes the Web does remind me of fishing. It never reminds me of conversation, although it can feel a lot like staring into space. "Surfing the Web" (as dubious a metaphor as "the information highway") is, as a friend of mind has it, "like reading magazines with the pages stuck together." My wife shakes her head in dismay as I patiently await the downloading of some Japanese Beatles fan's personal catalogue of bootlegs. "But it's from Japan!" She isn't moved. She goes out to enjoy the flowers in her garden.

I stay in. Hooked. Is this leisure -- this browsing, randomly linking my way through these small patches of virtual real-estate -- or do I somehow imagine that I am performing some more dynamic function? The content of the Web aspires to absolute variety. One might find anything there. It is like rummaging in the forefront of the collective global mind. Somewhere, surely, there is a site that contains . . . everything we have lost?

The finest and most secret pleasure afforded new users of the Web rests in submitting to the search engine of Alta Vista the names of people we may not have spoken aloud in years. Will she be here? Has he survived unto this age? (She isn't there. Someone with his name has recently posted to a news group concerned with gossip about soap stars.) What is this casting of the nets of identity? Do we engage here in something of a tragic seriousness?

In the age of wooden television, media were there to entertain, to sell an advertiser's product, perhaps to inform. Watching television, then, could indeed be considered a leisure activity. In our hypermediated age, we have come to suspect that watching television constitutes a species of work. Post-industrial creatures of an information economy, we increasingly sense that accessing media is what we do. We have become terminally self-conscious. There is no such thing as simple entertainment. We watch ourselves watching. We watch ourselves watching Beavis and Butt-head, who are watching rock videos. Simply to watch, without the buffer of irony in place, might reveal a fatal naivete.

But that is our response to aging media like film and television, survivors from the age of wood. The Web is new, and our response to it has not yet hardened. That is a large part of its appeal. It is something half-formed, growing. Larval. It is not what it was six months ago; in another six months it will be something else again. It was not planned; it simply happened, is happening. It is happening the way cities happened. It is a city.

Toward the end of the age of wooden televisions the futurists of the Sunday supplements announced the advent of the "leisure society." Technology would leave us less and less to do in the Marxian sense of yanking the levers of production. The challenge, then, would be to fill our days with meaningful, healthful, satisfying activity. As with most products of an earlier era's futurism, we find it difficult today to imagine the exact coordinates from which this vision came. In any case, our world does not offer us a surplus of leisure. The word itself has grown somehow suspect, as quaint and vaguely melancholy as the battered leather valise in a Ralph Lauren window display. Only the very old or the economically disadvantaged (provided they are not chained to the schedules of their environment's more demanding addictions) have a great deal of time on their hands. To be successful, apparently, is to be chronically busy. As new technologies search out and lace over every interstice in the net of global communication, we find ourselves with increasingly less excuse for . . . slack.

And that, I would argue, is what the World Wide Web, the test pattern for whatever will become the dominant global medium, offers us. Today, in its clumsy, larval, curiously innocent way, it offers us the opportunity to waste time, to wander aimlessly, to daydream about the countless other lives, the other people, on the far sides of however many monitors in that postgeographical meta-country we increasingly call home. It will probably evolve into something considerably less random, and less fun -- we seem to have a knack for that -- but in the meantime, in its gloriously unsorted Global Ham Television Postcard Universes phase, surfing the Web is a procrastinator's dream. And people who see you doing it might even imagine you're working.

Why the Internet Is a Waste of Time

Analyzing: The Net is a Waste of Time

 In William Gibson’s persuasive essay “The Net is a Waste of Time,” he often uses figurative language to portrait his point of view and most of the time talks to the audience as a first person. He is trying to convince the reader that, in an inadvertent way the World Wide Web (The Net) is just wasting our time. The purpose of his essay is to make the reader re-think the fact that the net isn’t what everyone expects; instead of thinking that we are using our time productively we spend most of it in unnecessary situations.

Gibson’s essay makes the audience question themselves whether most of modern technology is time useless, or if it’s time worthy like society influences us to think. The fact that William mentions his early life experiences about the involvement of wasting time reflects that today we don’t even have time to waste time. Indeed, the net is the medium to our social intercourse; making the people unable to socialize among each other. We as a society over value the World Wide Web and give it a bad usage making us depend on it. Unfortunately, we as people are close minded that we can’t see beyond needing something or wanting something.

In my point of view the author allows the audience in an abstract form to analyze the meaning

Is the Internet a Waste of Time for Teens?

Parents often fear that their kids are wasting their time clicking around the web. But a new study on teen use of online media commissioned by the MacArthur Foundation found that “America’s youth are developing important social and technical skills online – often in ways adults do not understand or value.”

The most extensive U.S. study on teens and their use of digital media was conducted over a three-year period by 28 researchers and collaborators at the University of Southern California and the University of California, Berkeley. They interviewed over 800 young people and their parents, both one-on-one and in focus groups; spent over 5000 hours observing teens on sites such as MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, and other networked communities; and conducted diary studies to document how, and to what end, young people engage with digital media.
“It might surprise parents to learn that it is not a waste of time for their teens to hang out online,” said Mizuko Ito, University of California, Irvine researcher and the report’s lead author. “There are myths about kids spending time online – that it is dangerous or making them lazy. But we found that spending time online is essential for young people to pick up the social and technical skills they need to be competent citizens in the digital age.” 
The study found that there were two primary categories of online activity, “friendship-driven” and “interest-driven.” “While friendship-driven participation centered on ‘hanging out’ with existing friends, interest-driven participation involved accessing online information and communities that may not be present in the local peer group….Youth are navigating complex social and technical worlds by participating online.” But, the study concluded, they are not taking full advantage of opportunities to go beyond their known social connections to reach out to new contacts and educational opportunities.
I agree that these skills are important. But I worry that we are ignoring some other skills children and teens also need. No matter how wired we become, in-person social interaction (call it analog if you must), from polite conversation to thank-you notes, will always be indispensable skills, as will research that can only be conducted off-line and the ability to write complete and grammatical sentences. The online world is an important one, but so is RL.

Researchers are throwing around  lot of numbers concerning the amount of time that gets “wasted” online. Headlines scream that billions of dollars are lost by companies each year due to employees spending time doing non-work activity while in the office. But it is not so easy to measure. It’s actually the belief that it is measurable that makes it a problematic discussion. Consider that every employee spends some of his day talking to family on the phone, talking to co-workers in the hall and while getting coffee, taking breaks to smoke, etc. That time can’t really be measured. At best, researchers rely on employees to self-report the time they spend at work, not working and it is unlikely to be accurate. But wait. Is it right to call all time in the office that is not spent completing work-related tasks as wasted time? No! We are not robots who can or should be engaged in producing output 9 hours/day. No one can do that consistently day after day and remain alert, productive, creative or even feeling well. We need interaction, collaboration diversity and frequent breaks. So where does the Internet come into pay in all of this waste or non-waste? Does it actually become a time saver when instead of taking a call from a friend during the work day, an employee simply posts on his friend’s Facebook wall to make plans for the evening? Does it perhaps increase productivity when a worker takes a break from an intense research project to read mindless gossip online? And what about the Internet as a time saving work tool — reducing the need to travel, making research easier, cheaper advertising opportunities — it’s an endless list. The answer is — we have no idea. The Internet has a real and powerful impact on our lives. It is changing how we do things, when we do things, how often we do things. It is changing how we work, socialize and learn. It’s big. Really big. And it is going to take years before we get any grasp on the effect it has had on this generation and the world we live in. I suggest that it is not useful to run those sensational headlines  –  that the Internet is the biggest time drain on productivity ever, that Facebook and Twitter are destroying our children’s study skills. etc. All we can do right now it to do our best to each act responsibly in how we use the Internet. It’s really just common sense. If you keep Facebook open on your work computer and update your status repeatedly through the day, well then maybe your employer really does have something to worry about. If you look at pornography at work then yes – you are wasting time at work.  And if you log in to your HMO during the day to set your next doctor’s appointment, then that is more than a reasonable use of your digital access. For every billion lost in wasted time online, a billion is probably gained. Using the Internet with accountability is where the emphasis should be.

Is The Internet A Waste Of Time?

In my personal opinion, the internet is an invaluable source. For myself it is definitely not a waste of time! I believe that it has many advantages but then again it also had a few disadvantages. I find it extremely helpful for research, social networking and even aids in my school work. If the internet was unavailable I would have to spend more time researching in the library which would result in less time on school work. Statistics show that around a third of the world’s population make use of the internet. The advantages are great – it is quick, efficient and communication worldwide is made easy; Also, users may find this hard to believe that many trees are saved as a result of using less paper as everything can be safely stored on the computer’s hard drive. Could you live without the internet? 

The internet has advanced at a great speed, it is now accessible on many mobile devices. These include – phones; tablets and even notebooks (mini computers). In today’s modern world users can practically surf the web wherever they are due to WI-FI and 3G readily available! The internet is good for the growth of the world economy, travel has become easier as people can check out their destination before booking. We may argue that the internet makes us lazy, however online shopping is a great aid for people with mobility problems. Anything can be purchased online from your grocery shopping to sending a birthday card. Most items are available to be delivered for a small fee or even free on occasions. 

Even though I am all for the internet it does have certain disadvantages. Violation of privacy is a major issue amongst users as is fraud. The internet can become addictive to certain people, also there is the explicit content. Even though online banking has proven very popular many users have experienced problems when using this service due to fraud scams and hackers. Overall, if you use the internet sensibly it can become...

The internet is a waste of time

The Internet is one of the most impactful innovations in the recent past. The technology not only fulfils the desire for networking and information sharing but has also empowers people, while also strengthening democratic processes and systems. I feel the integration of the Internet with other communication technologies (such as mobile phones) has brought even more and different kinds, of value. We have already seen how the Internet has impacted people’s political movements in Yemen and other countries. I think the time has come for us deploy this technology in the service of larger problems like poverty and hunger. A lot has yet to be done to deploy this technology for the good of mankind.

At the same time, I think we should also take account of the hidden costs or company losses that search have created. With increased productivity there also comes the opportunity for increased personal searching, and the workplace time lost on social networks has clearly created some tough rules at organizations that are now banning such sites. Even further, I would say that too much choice is sometimes a bad thing. The early days of the Internet had a limited number of high-quality content sources. Although we have indeed moved to some sites with even higher-quality content, this has been countered to some extent by a deluge of low-quality, distracting sites that hamper effective, rapid search results. Sometimes I find it faster to search with images than words, as I can more quickly find interesting approaches to problems this way.

The quality of material returned by Internet search remains an issue. Not only does relevance rapidly fall off beyond page two or three, but the first-page results also raise quality issues for non-IT professional knowledge work, in terms of the information’s reliability: they should be concerned with the potential overreliance on external, unverified information. As the drive for greater efficiency and lower costs arguably reduces the ratio of experienced to inexperienced staff, and a new generation accustomed to “Googling” knowledge dominates the workplace, this problem will become acute. In many more traditional industries, I think there is also an imbalance between consumers of knowledge and producers of knowledge. Outside IT, many sectors are experiencing a shortfall in technical knowledge; yes, organizations can benefit hugely from search, but in more traditional industries I feel the content is lagging behind, in a potentially misleading way, and at the moment should be treated with caution.

15 Ways You’re Using The Internet That Are A Total Waste Of Your Time

The Internet is trying to kill us. It connects us to any information we could possibly want. You can learn [or at least get a theoretical understanding of] anything in the entire world. Interested in the history of other fiat currencies? Want to learn how to code? DONE! Magic, it’s magic.

There is a dark side for every light side, though. The Force could enable an unstable Anakin as easily as it could, “These are not the droids you’re looking for.”

The Internet allows idiots to make money by lying to bigger idiots about money. The Internet allows people to cluster into groups, convincing themselves of ever more ridiculous theories (theological, political, and more). The Internet is a powerful tool that transforms you into a superhuman or subhuman, depending on how you use it. The following is an incomplete list of terrible things I do online almost every day — a list of things to avoid:

1. Use it to pique my status anxiety.

I go online and see that I’m being beat on every front. The Internet is full of people who have their sh*t together — or at least pretend to, virtually. Sometimes it’s inspiring and sometimes it’s not.

2. Go past four pages on Reddit.

Nobody needs that. After page three, it’s not fun anymore. It gets a little sad. Reddit images and headlines literally shoot little fixes of hormones into your body that make you feel good. By page four, I’m not experimenting with the drug; I’m addicted to it. I haven’t quite admitted that I have a problem (that comes around page eight) but the returns on joy (not to mention, time) certainly diminish.

4. Check email more than twice a day.

I sit with a Gmail tab open waiting for things to come in. I might as well be screaming, “I don’t have any respect for my own work, so please ask me to do something!” It’s dumb — just closed my email tab and I feel like a free man.

5. Believe unbelievable headlines.

The content rarely matters. Likely, only five percent of the people who clicked on the link to this article are still reading. If that’s you, congratulations, you’re not a complete click-crack-rat. You stuck around for the actual content!

McDonald’s has a scientific formula for how much salt and fat to inject into food so you’ll be addicted. Content creators (and curators) have a similar formula for your brain. We know what makes you click, we know how to make articles so you can skim them and click the next one. It’s sick —stop clicking  headlines.

6. Read more than two list articles a day.

The listicle format gets you your quick fix. It allows you to feel like you can jump online and get the information you need in a couple minutes. Maybe all you need is a bolded headline — a reminder to be optimistic, to have a goal, to dream big, or whatever. I love some lists. But nothing good happens after repeating the same list. You fall into content consumption mode and the chance of you taking action on anything falls to zero.

7. Discover terrible things about humanity.

I’ve seen images of the eldery and of the youth beaten. I’ve seen images of beheadings. I know that this sh*t is out there but still, I don’t want to be reminded.

9. Have 51 tabs open.

Certainly, there is a lack of prioritization somewhere.

10. Witness my friends being idiots.

I’ve seen so many people do stupid things online. Maybe it was repulsive and maybe it wasn’t on purpose. But, I’ve probably done it, too.

11. Look at inspiring quotes.

They’re supposed to lift you up and put a fire under you They make you want more. Another addiction, “Oh yeah, that’s it, inspire me harder. More, more!” Until you collapse under the weight of a thousand conflicting aphorisms.

12. Arguments on Facebook.

Nobody has ever learned anything or settled anything from arguing online. I know this from experience. You’re not open to new points in public discussion; you’re just there to ram ideas down throats.

13. Spend time reading posts by crappy bloggers.

We have access to the best minds, yet we choose to consume something written by angry fourteen-year-olds. Or, by people who are obsessed with the idea of success, but who have never tasted it themselves. They push their ideas on us, so we have to push back and take in goods.

14. Show the world our drunkenness.

You have a platform to tell everybody everything… even your most  stupid thoughts.

15. Take the Internet everywhere.

Thanks to smartphones, we can do all these stupid things wherever we want! In line at Starbucks, walking across a street or …

Respect your attention.

It is the thing for which everyone’s competing. Quit looking for the immediate answer. Stop running to cheap entertainment instead of doing what you know you should. Get the Internet on your team.