A firm handshake not only shows confidence but it also certifies your hold on life.
Men and women blessed with a strong grip seem to outlive those whose handshakes feel limp or feeble, said scientists.
Similarly, the slowest walkers were almost three times more likely to die at any age than those who set the fastest pace, according to the British Medical Journal.
And those who struggled to get out of their chairs had almost twice the death rate at any given time as those who could stand up with ease.
Those who have good balance can walk briskly and can quit a chair easily tend to live longer.
In future, simple tests, such as evaluating a person’s ability to stand on one leg or squeeze a handle, could be used quickly to separate the frail from the strong.
The weaker could be prescribed weight training or other exercises to help keep them active for longer.
Researchers reached their conclusions after taking age, sex, and body size into account. The studies of the other ‘measures of physical capability’ focused on older people but came to similar conclusions.
Tell this to the American pastor who wants to burn a copy of the Koran tomorrow – September 11: A Paris imam has invented a mosque that Muslim’s can now carry with them everywhere. Yes, it is the world’s first portable mosque.
Imam Hassen Bounamcha , the portable mosque’s inventor, is based at the Aubervilliers Mosque outside Paris.
Named the Mirhbox, the 2-meter high structure when deployed takes the form of the mirhab – the niche in the wall of a mosque to indicate in which direction Mecca lies, and it is made of plywood, plastic, aluminum and cardboard. Inside it the faithful one will find a Turkish rug to kneel on during his prayers.
Right now the Mirhbox is available only in France, but the Imam has told the Paris media that he has had inquiries from all over the world and soon one would be able to buy it just about everywhere.
Its priced from 450 euros ($570) for a top-range model that includes a built-in loudspeaker, to 69 euros for a children's model.
I now have a question for the world’s airlines? Will they allow a passenger to board a plane carrying one? And will the air crew allow a passenger to set one up in the aisle?
Which brings me to another question. When will Christians become so devout again that they will walk around with portable cathedrals? And Jews with portable synagogues?
Maybe we have a lesson or two to learn from Muslims ...
You may not always have a Wi-Fi connection, but still want to be able to access your Gmail messages and attachments. This is where Gmail Offline comes into play. Google Gears lets Google cache your messages on your hard drive. You can simply launch your browser to www.gmail.com and view your messages in your inbox. Not only this, you can even write replies to these messages even without an internet connection. Gmail will sync as soon as a web connection is established and you can send and receive messages.
Learn more about it by taking a look at this video.
Dropbox
Since a netbook usually has limited storage capacity, it is a good idea to store data online. Dropbox lets you upload up to 2GB of files to the cloud and then access them through a web portal or from your desktop anywhere as long as there is an internet connection available. You can download this application to your netbook and create a folder where you can drag and drop files you want to store online. To access files in this folder from anywhere, you need to simply type in your username and password. Dropbox is available for Windows, Mac and Linux at www.dropbox.com.
Paint.NET
Due to the limited processing capabilities of a netbook, a heavy photo-editing application such as Adobe Photoshop cannot run satisfactorily. Paint.NET is a free application that can serve as a replacement for Photoshop for quite a few of the normal tasks that most of us use. And Paint.NET is quite light on resources and it also takes just about 10 Mb of hard disk space. It has an intuitive interface and supports features such as layers, noise removal and several editing tools.
Resizing and adjusting image attributes can be done easily. This application is also suitable for netbooks because it handles multiple files in a single window rather than using multiple windows, which is not suitable for the small screen of a netbook. You can download Paint.NET from www.paint.net.
360 Desktop
With a paltry resolution of just 1024 x 600, netbooks simply do not have adequate screen real estate to be able to use multiple windows at the same time. Desktop 360 is an application that lets you overcome this hindrance. Using this program, you can keep windows open side by side and scroll through them sideways 360 degrees as if your desktop is on an axis. A small widget at the top of your screen shows you a translucent map of your desktop and lets you go to any of the open windows you wish to go to. Also, the background image is replaced by a suitable wide panoramic image. 360 Desktop is available only for Windows and you can get it at www.360desktop.com.
Digsby
As we mentioned before, the low resolution screen of the netbook may not be adequate for handling multiple open windows. This puts restrictions on not just application windows, but even instant messaging programs. You may not want to use 360 Desktop as a solution in this case, as you would wish to be alerted to all the different instant messaging clients, so they all need to be visible at the same time.
Using unified instant messaging client Digsby, you can login and chat via Google Talk, Yahoo Messenger, Windows Live Messenger, Facebook Chat, ICQ and Jabber through one centralized interface in a single Window. The different IM networks appear in the form of different tabs, which you can cycle through easily by pressing Ctrl+Tab. You can also view your recent email messages associated with these IM services and social networking updated associated with Facebook, MySpace and Twitter through Digsby. You can get it from www.digsby.com.
With everyone trying to be glossy and slick when it comes to USB flash drives these days, the fun factor of carrying a storage device so small has been diluted. However, with new DataTraveler Mini Fun Generation 2 USB Flash drives, Kingston has decided to bring back the fun factor of carrying one around. The new DT Mini Fun G2 flash drive, which can be attached to your keychain or mobile phone, look like an accessory and style statement. DT Mini Fun G2 will come in 2GB, 4GB and 8GB storage capacities, with each capacity offering a different color combination.
Popular DataTraveler Mini Fun G2 USB drives come in a miniature design with great colors. These small USB drives are perfect to carry around. Packed in rugged silicon housing, the new Mini Fun G2 comes with a key loop to attach it to key ring, phone or a bag.
New DT Mini Fun G2 flash drives would be compatible with Windows 7, Vista, XP, 2000 (SP4), Mac OS X 10.5.0 or higher and Linux kernel 2.6.0 based GNU operating systems.
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Coming soon: A mind-reading machine!
An international team, led by Prof Bradley Greger of Utah University, has been able to translate brain signals into speech using sensors attached to the surface of the brain for the first time.
The experimental breakthrough, which is up to 90 percent accurate, offers a way to communicate for paralysed patients who cannot speak and could eventually lead to being able to read anyone thoughts.
The team achieved the experimental breakthrough when it attached two button sized grids of 16 tiny electrodes to the speech centres of the brain of an epileptic patient who had part of his skull removed for another operation to treat his condition.
Using the electrodes, the scientists recorded brain signals in a computer as the patient repeatedly read each of 10 words that might be useful to a paralysed person: yes, no, hot, cold, hungry, thirsty, hello, goodbye, more and less. Then they got him to repeat the words to the computer and it was able to match the brain signals for each word 76 percent to 90 percent of the time. The computer picked up the patient's brain waves as he talked and did not use any voice recognition software.
Because just thinking a word - and not saying it - is thought to produce the same brain signals, Prof Greger and his team believe that soon they will be able to have translation device and voice box that repeats the word you are thinking.
Yeh kavita padhne ke baad log kahe "yaar, tum right ho",
Aise apni Wife ho.
kaash yeh concept .0001 percent bhi right ho
agar aisi apni wife ho to kya hasin life ho
har kisi ki yahi farmaish ho
kudrat ki bhi aajmaish ho
khudah ke software mein bhi bug ki gunjaish ho
ay kaash, kahin to ek aisi paidaish ho
Aisi apni wife ho
*******
Money can buy happiness — but only up to $75,000
I found this article in newspaper today & i was astonished to find the statistics of the people who were happy cz of money....It really shook my belief "Money can't buy happiness."
WASHINGTON — They say money can't buy happiness. They're wrong.
At least up to a point.
People's emotional well-being — happiness — increases along with their income up to about $75,000, researchers report in Tuesday's edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
For folks making less than that, said Angus Deaton, an economist at the Center for Health and Wellbeing at Princeton University, "Stuff is so in your face it's hard to be happy. It interferes with your enjoyment."
Deaton and Daniel Kahneman reviewed surveys of 450,000 Americans conducted in 2008 and 2009 for the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index that included questions on people's day-to-day happiness and their overall life satisfaction.
Happiness got better as income rose but the effect leveled out at $75,000, Deaton said. On the other hand, their overall sense of success or well-being continued to rise as their earnings grew beyond that point.
"Giving people more income beyond 75K is not going to do much for their daily mood ... but it is going to make them feel they have a better life," Deaton said in an interview.
Not surprisingly, someone who moves from a $100,000-a-year job to one paying $200,000 realizes an improved sense of success. That doesn't necessarily mean they are happier day to day, Deaton said.
