Kuwait Ministry of Health Online booking websites

Kuwait Ministry of Health Online booking: 

English: 

https://eservices.moh.gov.kw/SPCMS/AppointmentsRequestenTest.aspx

Arabic: 

https://eservices.moh.gov.kw/SPCMS/AppointmentsRequestarTest.aspx

macOS Catalina... repeated iCloud login "Accept" request

Issues with macOS Catalina... repeated iCloud login "Accept" request. 

• Step-1: Go to Settings
• Step-2: Tap on first iCloud account
• Step-3: Scroll down 
• Step-4: See if there are any pending Accept link.
• Step-5: Accept. 

Note: 

• If you have multiple iCloud accounts, then click on the account and do steps 3 to 5. 

Steps for Admission to Colleges under Pune University, India

University of Pune - Admission procedures and documents / information requirements for BBA (as of 2015)

Website: https://intcent.unipune.ac.in/adm_landing

Click on Login / Register 

NOTE: Items marked in asterisks (*) are mandatory 

Step 0 – Profile Details 
• Category: * Children of Indians working in the Gulf 
• Student’s Full Name: *
• Father’s Name: *
• Surname: 
• Date of Birth (YYYY-MM-DD) *
• Gender: *
• Marital Status: *
• Blood Group: *
• Email: *
• Student Mobile Number: *
• Nationality: *
• Permanent Address of Sponsor Parent
  o Address: *
  o City: *
  o ZIP/Postal Code: 
  o State/Province/Region: *
  o Country: *
• Current Address (Place of Stay)
  o Address: *
  o City: *
  o ZIP/Postal Code: 
  o State/Province/Region: *
  o Country: *
• Student Passport No:
• Student Passport Issue Place:
• Student Passport Issue Date: 
• Student Passport Expiry Date:
• Parent Passport No: *
• Parent Passport Issue Place: *
• Parent Passport Issue Date: *
• Parent Passport Expiry Date: *
• Student’s Hobbies: *
• Student’s Sports of Interest: *
• Parent’s E-mail: *
• Parent’s Mobile: *
• Parent’s Occupation: *

Instructions for Step 0 
1. Please enter correct information so that it can be matched exactly with soft copies and hard copies during review.
2. Please provide valid and working E­mail address and contact number.
3. If student's category is Gulf or South East Asia, then parent's passport details should be entered.


Step 1 – Education Details 
• 12th Board / School / College / University *
• 12th Year of Passing *
• 12th Final Grade / (CGPA) / Marks / Percentage *
• English Marks *
• Subject 1 Details
• Subject 2 Details
• Subject 3 Details

Instructions for Step 1
1. In subject fields, if you have grades (GCE, IB, SAT etc.), please convert them into marks.


Step 2 – College / Department / Institute Preference
• 1st Preference *
• 2nd Preference
• 3rd to 10th Preference

Instructions for Step 2
1. Please select your centres preferences carefully.
2. Website of the selected centre will be displayed if available.


Step 3 – Document Upload
• Student Photo (JPG) *
• 12th Marksheet (PDF) *
• Birth Certificate (PDF) *
• Parent Passport (PDF) *
• Parent Visa (PDF) *
• Parent NRI Certificate from Indian Embassy (PDF) *
• Parent Sponsorship Letter (PDF) *
• Parent Work Permit (PDF) *
• Parent Employment Letter (PDF) *
• Parent Residence Proof (PDF) *
• Parent Bank Statement for Last 6 Months (PDF) *
• Passing Certificate
• Parent Residence Permit (PDF)
• Candidate Passport
• Migration Certificate
• GAP Certificate

Instructions for Step 3
1. SCAN AND UPLOAD ALL DOCUMENTS AS PDF FILE ONLY.
2. Please upload a formal, passport size photo only.
3. All soft copies (scanned copies) should be of the original document only. In case any fraud of documents is detected, the candidate shall face legal action in the court of law.
4. All original hard copies of the soft copies uploaded now should be made available for verification at the time of booking the seat at International Centre, Pune university.
5. In case the candidate is unable to produce original hard copies of the uploaded soft copies during verification, candidate’s application will be rejected.
6. All documents should be in English only
7. All documents of sponsor parent should be of the same parent.
8. All documents should be uploaded in PDF format (Except photo which should be in jpeg format).
9. Do not upload scanned photograph. Upload a photo taken from a digital camera.
10. Marksheet of all foreign nationals must be attested from Ministry of Education or Indian Embassy in his/her country or his/her consulate in India.
11. If applying for post graduate course, please upload bachelor's degree marksheet of all years.


Step 4 – Payment
NOTE: Before downloading the challan for offline payment or proceeding with online payment, recheck all the details given by you. Once challan is downloaded or online payment is done, the fields in form cannot be edited.
• Payment Mode *
• Payment State *
• Amount (INR) * INR 1700
• Offline Payment Challan * [DOWNLOAD]
• Stamped Offline Payment Challan (Upload PDF) *

Instructions for Step 4
1. Select your payment method and continue.
2. In case of online payment, you will be redirected to a payment gateway. If the payment is successful, you will receive payment receipt and your application will be forwarded to the staff for review.
3. In case of offline payment, you have to download and print the challan and pay the application fee at the bank. After the payment confirmation is received, you have to scan and upload stamped copy of the challan to continue to the next step.
4. Students are advised to prefer online mode of payment so that application can be processed faster.


Step 5 - Letter of Provisional Eligibility and Admission
• Application State *
• Provisional Admission Letter *

Instructions for Step 5
1. In this step your application details and documents will be verified by the staff.
2. If your application is approved after review, you will receive provisional certificate for admission on your registered e-mail address. You can then initiate the Visa process with your embassy.

Step 6 - Visa Document Upload

Instructions for Step 6 (not required)
1. Please scan and upload your Visa document for review.
2. Children of Indians Working in Gulf and South East Asia can continue without uploading any document.


Step 7 - Original Documents Verification at International Centre, SPPU, Pune

Instructions for Step 7
1. In this step you have to get your original documents verified at International Centre, SPPU, Pune.
2. Original documents verification will start from 1 July 2015. Between 10:30 AM & 1:00 PM (IST) only
3. Please download and carry a print out of the application form mentioned here.
4. Affix a passport size photo to the printed form and sign the declaration in the form.
5. Please carry all the required original documents and photocopy of all original documents along with the printed application form.
6. After your original documents are verified as valid, you will be allotted a seat. You will have to pay the necessary fees offline at the University to confirm your admission.
7. Please download Self Affidavit. It must be typed on 100 Rupees Stamp Paper with notary stamp, notarized and registered from the court.


Step 8 - Seat Allocation & Fee Payment 

Instructions for Step 8
1. Please proceed to the International Centre and confirm seat allotted to you by paying the fee.
2. After you pay the fee upload stamped copy of challan and continue.

NOTE: There are  three fee payments (as of 2015 for BBA):
(1) Entrance Fee: USD 825/- 
(2) Medical Checkup: USD 80/-
(3) Medical Insurance: USD 75/-


Step 9 - Fee Verification and Confirmation Letter (after payment, University assigns letter for admission to College… a copy of the same letter is send to the Principal of the college as well)

Instructions for Step 9
• In this step staff at the International Centre will verify stamped copy of the challans you have upload.
• After your challan copy is verified as valid, your seat will be confirmed
• Please produce the original stamped copy of challans at the International Centre for verification


Step 10 - Medical Details

Instructions for Step 10
• Please provide your medical details.
• Please fill only details only after your medical checkup.


Step 11 - Final Letter of admission.

Greiner's Model of Organizational Growth

Understanding the Theory

Greiner's Growth Model describes phases that organizations go through as they grow. All kinds of organizations from design shops to manufacturers, construction companies to professional service firms experience these. Each growth phase is made up of a period of relatively stable growth, followed by a "crisis" when major organizational change is needed if the company is to carry on growing.




Dictionaries define the word "crisis" as a "turning point", but for many of us it has a negative meaning to do with panic. While companies certainly have to change at each of these points, if they properly plan for there is no need for panic and so we will call them "transitions".

Larry E. Greiner originally proposed this model in 1972 with five phases of growth. In 1998, he added a sixth phase in an updated version of his original article. The six growth phases are described below:


Phase 1: Growth Through Creativity

Here, the entrepreneurs who founded the firm are busy creating products and opening up markets. There aren't many staff, so informal communication works fine, and rewards for long hours are probably through profit share or stock options. However, as more staff join, production expands and capital is injected, there's a need for more formal communication.

This phase ends with a Leadership Crisis, where professional management is needed. The founders may change their style and take on this role, but often someone new will be brought in.


Phase 2: Growth Through Direction

Growth continues in an environment of more formal communications, budgets and focus on separate activities like marketing and production. Incentive schemes replace stock as a financial reward.

However, there comes a point when the products and processes become so numerous that there are not enough hours in the day for one person to manage them all, and he or she can't possibly know as much about all these products or services as those lower down the hierarchy.

This phase ends with an Autonomy Crisis: New structures based on delegation are called for.


Phase 3: Growth Through Delegation

With mid-level managers freed up to react fast to opportunities for new products or in new markets, the organization continues to grow, with top management just monitoring and dealing with the big issues (perhaps starting to look at merger or acquisition opportunities). Many businesses flounder at this stage, as the manager whose directive approach solved the problems at the end of Phase 1 finds it hard to let go, yet the mid-level managers struggle with their new roles as leaders.

This phase ends with a Control Crisis: A much more sophisticated head office function is required, and the separate parts of the business need to work together.


Phase 4: Growth Through Coordination and Monitoring

Growth continues with the previously isolated business units re-organized into product groups or service practices. Investment finance is allocated centrally and managed according to Return on Investment (ROI) and not just profits. Incentives are shared through company-wide profit share schemes aligned to corporate goals. Eventually, though, work becomes submerged under increasing amounts of bureaucracy, and growth may become stifled.

This phase ends on a Red-Tape Crisis: A new culture and structure must be introduced.


Phase 5: Growth Through Collaboration

The formal controls of phases 2-4 are replaced by professional good sense as staff group and re-group flexibly in teams to deliver projects in a matrix structure supported by sophisticated information systems and team-based financial rewards.

This phase ends with a crisis of Internal Growth: Further growth can only come by developing partnerships with complementary organizations.


Phase 6: Growth Through Extra-Organizational Solutions

Greiner's recently added sixth phase suggests that growth may continue through merger, outsourcing, networks and other solutions involving other companies.

Growth rates will vary between and even within phases. The duration of each phase depends almost totally on the rate of growth of the market in which the organization operates. The longer a phase lasts, though, the harder it will be to implement a transition.

Source: https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_87.htm

Origins of Superstitions

Origins of Superstitions

Black Cat crossing. Back in the days of witchcraft and witches, people believed that black cats contained the soul of Satan. So it was feared that if you come across a black cat in your path it meant that the devil was watching. Eerie.

Opening umbrellas indoors. Ancient Egyptian umbrellas were often crafted to help block out the sun. Opening these indoors was considered an insult to the sun God and therefore quickly became a strict no-no. But you shouldn’t do it anyway as you’ll probably ruin the umbrella or potentially take someone’s eye out.

Broken mirrors give you seven years of bad luck. Ancient Roman physicians and mystics believed that it took seven years for a human body to completely renew itself. When diagnosing patients, they would fill mirrored glass with water and observe the reflection of his patient. If distorted, they were ill. If the glass cracked they said the patient would be sick for seven years. But, no, it doesn’t give you bad luck

Unlucky 13. Twelve is accepted as being the “perfect” number. Everything had been split 12 ways, from the disciples to the months of the year. The world’s first legal document unintentionally omitted the 13th law, hence creating the “unluckiness” of the number. Historically, any 13th member was considered bad luck and leading to a form of discomfort or evil. In the US today, 80+% of skyscrapers do not acknowledge the 13th floor.

Knocking on wood. An ancient pagan belief was that good spirits lived in the barks of trees. In order to make a successful wish, one had to whisper it to a tree and knock twice in order to awaken the spirit to accept the wish. Nowadays, instinctively used to ward off evil that may cause a wish to not come true.

Itchy palms mean money. As the tale goes, an itch in your right palm means you could be expecting money coming in. Alternatively, an itchy left palm means money is going to leave your possession. Based on science, an itchy right palm is usually associated with energy moving through your body. It is said that rubbing wood gets rid of it, in essence, transferring it out your body. It could also just be an adverse reaction to something you touched.

Spilling salt equals bad luck. Initially used as a way to curb the wastage of salt, a relatively expensive commodity back in the day, it found its way into Christian belief. Throwing salt over your left shoulder was used to undo the work of the devil, believed to sit atop your left shoulder waiting for an opportunity to invade. The last supper depicts Judas spilling the salt.

Source: Various (2016)

What is Advent

History

The word “Advent” is derived from the Latin word adventus, meaning “coming,” which is a translation of the Greek word parousia. Scholars believe that during the 4th and 5th centuries in Spain and Gaul, Advent was a season of preparation for the baptism of new Christians at the January feast of Epiphany, the celebration of God’s incarnation represented by the visit of the Magi to the baby Jesus (Matthew 2:1), his baptism in the Jordan River by John the Baptist (John 1:29), and his first miracle at Cana (John 2:1). During this season of preparation, Christians would spend 40 days in penance, prayer, and fasting to prepare for this celebration; originally, there was little connection between Advent and Christmas.

By the 6th century, however, Roman Christians had tied Advent to the coming of Christ. But the “coming” they had in mind was not Christ’s first coming in the manger in Bethlehem, but his second coming in the clouds as the judge of the world. It was not until the Middle Ages that the Advent season was explicitly linked to Christ’s first coming at Christmas.

Current Practice

Today, the Advent season lasts for four Sundays leading up to Christmas. At that time, the new Christian year begins with the twelve-day celebration of Christmastide, which lasts from Christmas Eve until Epiphany on January 6. (Advent begins on the Sunday that falls between November 27th and December 3rd each year.) 

Advent symbolizes the present situation of the church in these “last days” (Acts 2:17, Hebrews 1:2), as God’s people wait for the return of Christ in glory to consummate his eternal kingdom. The church is in a similar situation to Israel at the end of the Old Testament: in exile, waiting and hoping in prayerful expectation for the coming of the Messiah. Israel looked back to God’s past gracious actions on their behalf in leading them out of Egypt in the Exodus, and on this basis they called for God once again to act for them. In the same way, the church, during Advent, looks back upon Christ’s coming in celebration while at the same time looking forward in eager anticipation to the coming of Christ’s kingdom when he returns for his people. In this light, the Advent hymn “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” perfectly represents the church’s cry during the Advent season:

O come, O come, Emmanuel,

And ransom captive Israel,

That mourns in lonely exile here

Until the Son of God appears.

Rejoice! Rejoice!

Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.

While Israel would have sung the song in expectation of Christ’s first coming, the church now sings the song in commemoration of that first coming and in expectation of the second coming in the future.

Advent Liturgy and Practice                                  

To balance the two elements of remembrance and anticipation, the first two Sundays in Advent (through December 16th) look forward to Christ’s second coming, and the last two Sundays (December 17th – 24th) look backward to remember Christ’s first coming. Over the course of the four weeks, Scripture readings move from passages about Christ’s return in judgment, to Old Testament passages about the expectation of the coming Messiah, to New Testament passages about the announcements of Christ’s arrival by John the Baptist and the Angels.

While it is difficult to keep in mind in the midst of holiday celebrations, shopping, lights and decorations, and joyful carols, Advent is intended to be a season of fasting, much like Lent, and there are a variety of ways that this time of mourning works itself out in the season. Reflection on the violence and evil in the world cause us to cry out to God to make things right—to put death’s dark shadows to flight. Our exile in the present makes us look forward to our future Exodus. And our own sinfulness and need for grace leads us to pray for the Holy Spirit to renew his work in conforming us into the image of Christ.

One catechism describes Advent spirituality beautifully: “When the Church celebrates the liturgy of Advent each year, she makes present this ancient expectancy of the Messiah, for by sharing in the long preparation for the Savior’s first coming, the faithful renew their ardent desire for his second coming. By celebrating the precursor’s birth and martyrdom, the Church unites herself to his desire: ‘He must increase, but I must decrease.’”

Advent and the Christian Life                                

While Advent is certainly a time of celebration and anticipation of Christ’s birth, it is more than that. It is only in the shadow of Advent that the miracle of Christmas can be fully understood and appreciated; and it is only in the light of Christmas that the Christian life makes any sense. It is between the fulfilled promise of Christ’s first coming and the  yet-to-be-fulfilled promise of his second coming that Karl Barth penned these words: “Unfulfilled and fulfilled promise are related to each other, as are dawn and sunrise. Both are promise and in fact the same promise. If anywhere at all, then it is precisely in the light of the coming of Christ that faith has become Advent faith, the expectation of future revelation. But faith knows for whom and for what it is waiting. It is fulfilled faith because it lays hold on the fulfilled promise.” The promise for Israel and the promise for the church is Jesus Christ; he has come, and he will come again. This is the essence of Advent.

Source: http://m.christianity.com/christian-life/christmas/what-is-advent.html

The Origin of Cyber Monday

For many, Cyber Monday provides the perfect shopping solution: all the holiday deals with none of the holiday crowds. But where did this term come from? The term Cyber Monday was first used in 2005 by Shop.org to encourage people to shop online; it refers to the Monday following Black Friday. Black Friday is, of course, the day after Thanksgiving and one of the busiest shopping days of the year.

Until the advent of the internet, cyber was used in the formation of words relating to computers, computer networks, or virtual reality. This usage can be traced to the word cybernetics, which was ushered into English in the 1940s by the scientist Norbert Wiener. Cybernetics refers to the study of mechanical and electronic systems designed to replace human systems. It comes from the Greek term kybernḗtēs meaning “helmsman” or “steersman.” The first instance on record of cyber as a combining form is from 1961 in the Wall Street Journal: “A major difference between the Cybertron and conventional computers…is the ability of the Cybertron to make use of raw data and signals.” In 1966 fans of the popular sci-fi show Doctor Who heard another cyber combining form: cybermen. These deathly cyborgs have popped up over 20 times throughout the show’s run.

In current usage, cyber is largely used in terms relating to the internet. One notable coinage in the evolution of this term is the word cyberspace by novelist William Gibson. He used it first in his 1982 story “Burning Chrome.” He used it again in his 1984 novel Neuromancer in a passage that many believe captures the sense of wonder that permeated the introduction of the internet to mainstream culture:

 ”Cyberspace. A consensual hallucination experienced daily by billions of legitimate operators, in every nation, by children being taught mathematical concepts… A graphic representation of data abstracted from the banks of every computer in the human system. Unthinkable complexity. Lines of light ranged in the nonspace of the mind, clusters and constellations of data. Like city lights, receding…”

Source: dictionary.com