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I see you

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 17 Mar 2016 04:02:00 -0700

Healing Powers of Parents

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 16 Mar 2016 06:27:00 -0700

Lemuel's mother and I have long been divorced. Her second marriage had an impact on his decision to join the Air Force so quickly. But the important thing is his mother, Renee. Renee and I fashioned a lot of ourselves into our son. He is the only son we have together, and this child had a profound impact on us. She couldn't look in his eyes without falling to pieces inside so it was my task to discipline in his first years. On the other hand he frightened me. Here was a little baby boy with a little talley wacker, a little penis who had the potential to become a man, I was star struck, in a manner of speaking, at this. His beauty was layered with as many meanings as lay surprises within him.

Before he was talking Renee somehow got Lemuel to describe and draw his dreams to paper. When I came home from work she would translate his drawings to me thus pulling me into his world. After the birth ceremonies I did for him, as I did for all my children, this exercise bound the three of us for lifetimes, and ripples to this day within us, and in all of the worlds we touch. His mother planted and instilled her touch of the world in Lemuel tuning her ear to his ears listening to things we, as his parents, could not access. It was Renee that recognized how Lemuel discerned death in animals, and how he grieved witnessing Death dance Life out of a pigeon soon after he learned to walk. Thus began a process of development for our son’s destiny we had no control over. Our job was to be parents, husband and wife to each other and our children. That dance moves with his medicine as an adult, a warrior, and a father (which will come one day).

A mother’s power is beyond words, from other worlds. ~ Gregory E. Woods, father of four

10 things to let go of if you want a happy life

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 1 Mar 2016 09:21:00 -0800

1. ‘If I’m good, eventually I’ll get the life I deserve.’ Newsflash, you are already good enough. As we all know, success does not only come to those who deserve it.

2. ‘Some day my prince will come.’ Maybe he will, maybe he won’t. But don’t waste your precious, lovely life waiting. The frog prince is the world’s most popular romantic metaphor for a reason – it happens every day.

3. ‘I’ll save those for a special occasion.’ No, you won’t. Whether it’s a gorgeous party dress or vintage Royal Doulton china, it’s pretty much guaranteed that said items will languish in the back of a cupboard. Use them today. To quote author Loretta LaRoche: ‘Life is short, wear your party pants.’

4. ‘When I achieve X, “they” will finally tell me they love me.’ Trouble is, they probably won’t. If someone doesn’t approve of you today, let go of trying to change their opinion tomorrow. And for heaven’s sake don’t make major life choices in the hopes of winning them over.

5. ‘If only I lost 10lbs, I’d feel happy with myself.’ OK, so you might feel better, but only for about five minutes and the novelty will wear off. And in any case, you’re unlikely to ever lose weight starting from a place of self-loathing. Make peace with the way you look now and change is more likely to happen.

6. ‘It’s all their fault...’ When life hits a U-bend, it’s tempting to blame other people, be it an unsupportive parent, toxic partner or mean boss. You may well be right, circumstances may be down to them. But blaming them is keeping you stuck and giving them power they don’t deserve. Success is the best revenge.

7. ‘I’ll pay off my credit card bills when I get a large chunk of money.’ From where, the tooth fairy? While it’s comforting to fantasise about the lottery win/billionaire husband you haven’t met yet, the banks are laughing all the way to the, er, bank, with those interest charges. Three words, zero balance transfer.

8. ‘Hey, the kid can sing...’ Somewhere deep in all of our hearts is a fantasy about our talents being fully seen by another person, usually a person with the power to offer us, if not an international recording contract, then at least gold-plated permission to do the thing we dream of doing. The good news is this – the only person who can really give you permission is you. Ask her, she’s not going to say no.

9. ‘I’ll do it tomorrow...’ Why is it that we imagine that we will magically feel more in the mood for getting out of our comfort zone the day after today? Any daunting task, be it doing your accounts or getting down to that screenplay/exercise regime, is not going to get easier tomorrow, because you’ll have a much heavier burden of expectation on yourself. It’s far better to do five minutes of a task right now, than promise five hours tomorrow.

10. ‘I can’t believe they let me down like that, this relationship is over.’ Looking to one person, be it a romantic partner or best friend, to meet too many of our needs is a recipe for disappointment. Everyone has their limitations and you may be expecting more from a particular person than they’re capable of giving. American coach Cheryl Richardson has a useful maxim: ‘Don’t go to the hardware store for milk.’ In other words, don’t call your recently divorced friend if you want someone to listen to you swoon over your new love interest.

Boost your natural 'feelgood' chemicals

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 1 Mar 2016 09:17:00 -0800

I’m used to linking ‘happy highs’ to external things, but academic Loretta Breuning, author of Meet Your Happy Chemicals, says there’s a basic non-intellectual neurochemistry in us all behind these feelings, which is their driving force. Simply put, ‘your brain spurts happy chemicals which reward you with good feelings when you do something it perceives as good for your survival’. We have two different brain systems – the limbic system and the cortex – which keep us alive and protect our DNA. The limbic system produces the neurochemicals that tell your body what’s good or bad for you. It’s a survival mechanism: in the presence of something good, the brain releases four main ‘feelgood’ chemicals – endorphin, oxytocin, serotonin, and dopamine – and in the presence of danger, the ‘bad feeling’ chemical – cortisol – comes in. As humans, we have a large cortex, which means we can override ‘animal’ impulses, but the limbic system will keep tripping. ‘When we’re having a happy experience, the chemicals are metabolised; then the bad feelings come back and unhappy chemicals spread to fill that space, so then we want to trigger more happy chemicals,’ says Breuning. So, we’re locked into happiness-chasing because these chemical surges mean we constantly need to find new ways to get a fix. This isn’t down to individual ‘weakness’, adds Breuning: ‘This hedonistic treadmill is entirely natural and not something we’re doing wrong.’ So, how do you boost them?

1. Trust and belonging: oxytocin Oxytocin is the ‘bonding’ chemical. If your trust has been betrayed, you’ll hold back, which can leave you feeling like you don’t belong. Build more trust by:

Being trustworthy. If others know they can trust you, you’re more likely to feel you can trust them.
Finding a proxy. Trust takes time to build, so you could get a pet that will be loyal, join a group where you won’t be judged, or play a sport where you can share ups and downs.
Having a massage. Taking time to apply body lotion or face cream can also make a difference to feelings of wellbeing. As touch stimulates oxytocin, be more ‘cuddly’ with your partner, friends or family, too.
Counting your change. Verify your trust. This helps you to become able to build trust with strangers rather than staying with who you know.

2. Euphoria and determination: endorphin Endorphin is nature’s pain relief – it’s stimulated by pain. It evolved for survival; we need it to switch on and off so we don’t end up walking on a broken leg, for example. Find the right amount to push you through pain and promote wellbeing.

Laugh. A true belly laugh will ‘shake up’ your insides in a good way. Genuine laughing (which makes your face ache) is thought to release fear.
Cry. Holding back tears can build up tension, whereas if you let it go when you need to, it’s a physical relief from tension generally in the body, and especially in the diaphragm.
Exercise. But change it around, as working the same muscles leads to wear and tear or injury. Feeling uncoordinated is the point – ‘new’ movement is how you get the endorphin rush. Make it fun, so that you laugh at the same time.
Stretch. It’s a great way to boost circulation. Try a yoga or Pilates class, which will go even deeper. The idea is to stretch those muscles you never even knew you had.

3. Motivation: dopamine Dopamine helps us release the energy we need to get the rewards we want. In survival terms that usually means food and water, but we can benefit from it in other ways:

Take baby steps. The idea of breaking down a tough task you have to get done makes it feel more do-able. Your brain will reward you with dopamine each time, helping you achieve the goal.
Do a victory dance. Congratulating yourself on any little achievement will make you feel good. It might not give you the huge surge a marathon runner gets crossing the finishing line, but it feels much better than one-upmanship.
Raise the bar slowly. No matter how much you want to, it’s hard to go from not cooking to often hosting a big dinner party. Make your goal realistic to begin with, and build from there.
Act. Set aside 10 minutes a day to work on concrete actions and dopamine will help you generate the energy to do so.

4. Safety and respect: seratonin In a mammal, seratonin is released when it sees it’s bigger or stronger than another; having the advantage creates a feeling of safety. Social recognition can be fleeting and unpredictable, but you can find good routes to self-respect:

Enjoy where you are. It’s not always best to be in the driving seat, so know when to be happy to be the passenger. Status goes up and down.
Notice your influence. Without being controlling or arrogant, you can see when people have taken your lead. Don’t expect credit, just take time to appreciate your good effect on others.
Surrender control. Much of the time we can’t control what’s happening and that can be a big source of frustration. Choose one control ‘habit’ you have and try to let it go. So, no checking the weather or looking at the clock.
Take pride. Make up your mind to say ‘look what I’ve done’ without being too tied up with the reaction – accept that it may not always be the one you want.

Tamil in Australian Aboriginal Languages

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 27 Feb 2016 20:47:00 -0800

Lingustic Evidence for Tamil in Australian Aboriginal Languages
AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINAL LANGUAGES: CONSONANT-SALIENT PHONOLOGIES AND
THE ‘PLACE-OF-ARTICULATION IMPERATIVE’
Department of Speech Pathology & Audiology, School of Medicine
Flinders University, Adelaide
And
Research Centre for Linguistic Typology

La Trobe University, Melbourne
Ref Page 18 & 19

A hypothesis that the phonetics and phonology of a language have been shaped by the hearing status of the speakers is not easily falsifiable, but we can at least identify two major types of prima facie counter-evidence that would be a problem for such a hypothesis: firstly, evidence that the cause of the hearing impairment had not existed in the population for long enough for it to have had the postulated effect and secondly, evidence that there are other languages with ‘long flat’ phonologies whose speakers do not show a high prevalence of COM and/or populations with a high prevalence of COM whose languages do not have ‘long flat phonologies. As to the first point, it is probably a reasonable assumption that the kinds of atypical phonological characteristics we are dealing with here would take longer than 200 years

As to the second point, there are very few languages elsewhere in the world with a system of contrasts anything like those found in Australia. Whilst the consonant systems of New Guinea and Polynesian languages typically lack a voicing distinction (and in some cases a fricative series), the number of places of articulation is invariably restricted to /p t k/(with the occasional /?/) and almost all of these languages have at least five vowels. Eskimo-Aleut languages, such as Inuktitut, typically have four places of articulation, no voicing contrast and only three vowels (although they do have fricatives). On the other side of the Arctic, Chukokto-Kamchatkan languages, such as Chukchee, arguably have five or six places of articulation, no voicing distinction and a minimal fricative contrast (but six or seven vowels). Perhaps most similar to Australian languages are the Dravidian languages of southern India. Tamil, for example, has five places of articulation in a single series of stops, paralleled by a series of nasals, and no fricatives (thus approaching the Australian proportion of sonorants to obstruents of 70% to 30%). Approaching the question from the opposite direction: according to the latest WHO data on the prevalence of chronic otitis media (Acuin 2004:14ff), Aboriginal Australians have the highest prevalence in the world – 10-54%, according to Coates & al (2002), up to 36% with perforations of the eardrum. They are followed – at some distance – by the Tamil of southern India (7.8%, down from previous estimates of 16-34%) to develop.

- Andrew Butcher

Genetic Evidence for Australian Aboriginals were Dravidians
The experiments were regarding the early coastal migration of human beings to Australia . Because, according to our theory, the first time man migrated from Africa was to Australia . India proved a critical turning point for us as genetic testing of isolated Indian populations produces a key genetic marker [one of the genetic changes] linking India as a crossroad for the journey of man to both Australia and Central Asia. So we were looking in the south of India because most Indian scientists said that the oldest population in India stayed in south India . And we found out in our experiments that these people were Dravidians.
Spencer Wells, Phd

National Geographic Science

Google Online Security Blog: Google Security Rewards - 2015 Year in Review

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 31 Jan 2016 05:35:00 -0800

This is an interesting post I saw in Google's blog. Read it. Its amazing. I learned many things from Google. From this post I learned it's not about how much you earn, it's all about how generous you are. You can also Gmail for your business (your_name@your_company.com) Click here

What makes you irresistible? Zodiac dos and don’ts for love

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 29 Jan 2016 22:37:00 -0800

It takes more than a nice bouquet to be irresistible for Valentine's Day. Take advantage of your Zodiac sign to make all the right moves work.

Aries: You’re a power house and you know it, Aries. People are drawn to your fiery energy and may be envious of your physical prowess. Comfortable in your body, you know how to use it. That positive vibe and proactive approach to life are irresistible! Do be romantic; use that talent to charm; when you feel good about yourself, you can sweep anyone off their feet. Don’t expect your lover to be prince charming or lose interest if she has a bad hair day. Do use your personal drive to help support your partner; don’t focus too much on yourself.

Taurus: An earthy strength and sensuality make you famously irresistible, Taurus. You know how to communicate without words, and can make your partner feel like he or she is the center of the Universe. Others feel naturally secure in your presence. Naturally generous, you want to shower all the gifts of the Earth on your beloved. Do pamper your loved one; great food, back-rubs, a touch of luxury goes a long way. Don’t be too stubborn. Make your point but stay open. Do use your strength to nurture your partner. Don’t indulge your temper at their expense.

Gemini: The Twins’ combination of brilliance, humor, buoyant spirit and zest for life makes you pretty irresistible, Gemini. Your whimsical charm blends unique personal style with expressive talents and can be positively captivating. Mysterious, funny, unpredictable and open to new experiences, you are never a boring companion! Do prioritize mental compatibility; that’s what will keep you interested. Don’t flake out; if you say you’ll call, follow through. Do use your enthusiasm to help your partner through difficult moments; your ability to uplift can be magical. Don’t indulge in deception; if you cannot commit, say so.

Cancer: An innate sensitivity enables you to know exactly what others feel, which inspires real devotion, Cancer. You nurture, protect and are fiercely loyal to your loved one. A deeply shared understanding in your close relationships makes people cherish their bond with you. Add to all this your charming sense of humor make you truly irresistible! Do open up and let your sweetheart know how you feel. Don’t let irrational fears cause you to withdraw. Do dare to trust and show your silly side; it’s lovable. Don’t let your moods run your life; it’s not fair to your partner.

Leo: You’re hot and you know how to work it, Leo. With a regal, commanding presence and dramatic flair, you literally light up the room. That lion-hearted generosity and natural leadership cannot help but draw people into your orbit. Romantic, passionate, creative and up-beat, you are impossible to resist! Do share your enthusiasm; theatre, parties, creative projects – get your honey on board, they’ll love you for it. Don’t be too bossy. Lead but don’t dictate. Do be supportive; your encouragement can make all the difference. Don’t let your vanity run away with you. Learn to laugh at yourself.

Virgo: Classy, gentle refinement and obvious intelligence make you stand out, Virgo. Compassionate, giving and acutely perceptive, you’re so much more special than you realize. You have a thoroughbred quality, and inspire respect for your skills and ability to heal and soothe almost any situation. Your discriminating taste makes your loved one incredibly lucky; you really are irresistible! Do be supportive - you have a magic touch. Don’t be too critical; remember we’re all works in progress. Do lighten up and have fun with your sweetie; all work and no play is no way to live. Don’t worry so much! Stress is contagious.

Libra: Libras are famously charming, and it’s your genuine appreciation for others and natural impulse to share that makes you so. Instinctively fair-minded with a refined, artistic sensibility, you exude an aura of grace that works like a magic spell. That beautiful smile and friendly manner, with always a kind word, make people want to be around you. You’re built for romance, Libra, and you’re irresistible! Do share social activities with your partner. Don’t make pleasing others your profession. Do take time alone to find inner balance. Don’t Let your partner make all the decisions.

Scorpio: Yes, you exude sex appeal and your powerful presence has a smoldering mystery that you can turn on at will to put anyone under your spell. What makes you irresistible, Scorpio, is the depth of your sensitivity; the ability to see beneath the surface and communicate soul to soul. When you open your heart and look straight into your lover’s eyes, you open a door to forever. Do Use your strength to support your partner. Don’t shut down in remote silence. Do risk expressing how you really feel. Don’t Let a dark mood or anger get the best of you.

Sagittarius: A special blend of spiritual wisdom, animal magnetism, humor and fiery appetite for life makes you positively irresistible, Sagittarius! You are adventurous, on a quest for truth and justice, and your enthusiastic energy makes you a truly exciting companion. At home in your body, you enjoy the physical world, which is incredibly attractive. Do take your partner along for the ride! Love makes the journey worthwhile. Don’t be insensitive; honesty doesn’t mean thoughtlessness. Do be upfront about your need for freedom. Don’t be afraid of commitment; it can be the wildest adventure of all.

Capricorn: Always a class act, Capricorn, with an earthy sexuality and unmistakable personal power, you do what it takes to become successful. That, in itself, is irresistible! You take excellent care of your loved ones; those protective instincts and sense of responsibility inspire loyalty and devotion. Naturally authoritative, your expertise, discipline and underlying sensitivity are extremely attractive. Do be supportive; your strength helps your partner more than you know. Don’t be too controlling, your sweetheart needs room to breathe. Do be generous; that’s what love is about. Don’t withdraw and go cold - it can ruin a relationship.

Aquarius: Uniquely individual and with a brilliant mind, you radiate an inner light that cannot be ignored. Your genuine kindness and gentle demeanor, fierce will and disregard for convention make you fascinating and irresistible. Friendship forms the basis for your romantic relationships, and whoever is fortunate to join your special world wins a ticket to Wonderland. Do spend alone time with your sweetheart; let them know they’re special. Don’t go cold and silent in withdrawal. Do share your interests with your partner; that’s where you shine. Don’t let your need for independence ruin a good thing; balance togetherness with time for yourself.

Pisces: You exude mystery, Pisces, with a soulful wisdom and sensitivity that inspire others to share their innermost selves with you. Creativity, talent and natural healing ability -not to mention magnetic sexual appeal - make you truly irresistible! Famously romantic, your eyes have an almost hypnotic power; once someone falls into their depths, they never fully recover. Do let your sweetheart know how committed you are; flirting is fun but be smart. Don’t take on your partner’s problems as your own; help out but stay grounded. Do give yourself time to reconnect with your spirit. Don’t let over sensitivity spiral out of control.

The Do's And Don'ts For All Zodiac Signs

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 29 Jan 2016 22:29:00 -0800

Aries (Mar 21 - Apr 19)

DO'S

Aries are naturally active and vibrant people and they tend to like such people too. You will have to increase your pace to be in step with them. They like and appreciate frank and straightforward persons. With them you can be your true self (but don't try your luck being over frank-they are volatile). If you are in love with an Arian, then you have to show your enthusiasm in all their activities (you can always yawn later!).

DON'TS

Do not tell an Aries that s/he may be wrong. Any such statement may stir a storm in a teacup. Aries are very faithful and passionate lovers. Do not give air to the smoldering fire within them by making them jealous. No flirtation or fooling around with others in their presence unless of course you wish to write your death wish (you will be granted!).

Taurus (Apr 20 - May 20)

DO'S

Stability and dependability characterize Taurus. They like people who can blend and grow with them. If you have a Taurus partner you should appreciate all things bright and beautiful. They have an inherent artistic sense and are fond of color and music. Judge life with them from a purely materialistic point of view. Enjoy everything luxurious that money can provide. Enjoy good food (better if you can cook to please them) and good drinks with them.

DON'TS

Taurus do not loose their temper easily (in fact you may spend the whole life with them and still no spark) but you should not push your luck too much. Being unreasonable or aggressive with them may get you into trouble. Do not press him/her into a corner, and if you do, be prepared for a violent rage. Taurus is capable of violent outbursts though such an event is is very rare occasions. They can be suffocating when they are possessive about you.

Gemini (May 21 - June 21)

DO'S

Gemini is a highly intellectual and versatile person. If you have a Gemini partner you have to match your wits with his/her wits to keep the zing in the relationship. They want to be mentally stimulated so you have to be good at conversing. Your sense of humor will get you a permanent residence in the heart of a Gemini. Be more communicative with them, and if you are good at this, you will never know how hours pass by holding each other's hand.

DON'TS

Gemini's like to do many things at the same time, so if unfortunately you are the type who is looking for stability you may get disappointed. Do not hold back a Gemini or you may lose him/her, as they are restless and need change in life constantly. You should try to adopt yourself with the ever-changing Gemini. Orthodox or conservative old fashion ideas are no-no in their dictionary. Change with the ever-changing Gemini and do not flow against the current.

Cancer (Jun22 - July 22)

DO'S

Try to adapt yourself with the changing moods of the Cancer. At one moment they may be laughing and enjoying and in another they may sulk. You may have to adjust with the moody and sensitive Cancer. They are like the tides in the ocean, always fluctuating. Cancerians love food, so if you know how to cook and can be poetic and romantic (added Bonus) then you know the way to their heart.

DON'TS

Cancerians are very sensitive people and can get easily hurt. So do not play with their emotions and sentiments. They are like tides that can sweep you along. They form emotional bonds with even inanimate things, so do not ask them to discard old caps or souvenirs. Such things hold special meaning to them. You have to realize that the crabs have a soft heart and are vulnerable. Do not contradict their tested line of thought and action, it would only lead to confusion.

Leo (July 23 - Aug 22)

DO'S

If you have Leo partner respect him and his majestic manners. Accept the advice of Leo, the lion, as he is the king of the jungle. It is the sign of a showman, so if your partner does everything in grand style enjoy it. They fall easily for flattery and want to be center of attraction of all eyes (sometimes they can be quiet theatrical too). >

DON'TS

Never ever hurt the ego of a Leo. Pride, ego and vanity are some of the bags Leo's always carry with them. Do not touch these bags. An authoritative Leo is even more difficult to handle in such circumstances. Leo is a sunny sign so they do not like people who are gloomy or depressed. Even if you are crying at heart keep a sunny smile on your lips and then let the lion take charge and remove all worries from your life.

Virgo (Aug 23 - Sept22)

DO'S

Virgo's are very methodical and have a great sense of duty. However, they are blind to their own faults. So, if you have a Virgo partner, emphasize more on their qualities. Take keen interest in what they are doing and you will realize that they will go out of their way to help you. Do rely and appreciate their mental powers rather than their physical powers. They can turn even an unsuccessful venture into a success.

DON'TS

Do not push a Virgo into limelight or on the center stage unless of course they do so on their own. They are shy and reserved by nature and do not like to be the cynosure of all eyes. Virgo's have secrets that they would not like to bring out in the open. So, even if you have the key to their secret skeleton-closet, hide it; do not even admit that you know anything about it. Virgo, the virgins, does not want to tarnish their public image.

Libra (Sep 22 - Oct 23)

DO'S

Librans need peace and harmony in all their relationships, so help them maintain that. Venus, the ruling planet, gives them beauty and they have weakness for people who can compliment them about their beauty (you will not have to make an effort to do that anyway). You can help Libra seek union and partnership in life. If you have a Libra partner you can be sure to share beautiful and pleasurable moments together.

DON'TS

Libra is kind and gentle soul but very argumentative. Hence, do not start an argument or discussion unless, of course, you are free and do not know how to pass your time. They hate to lose and most probably during an argument may change sides too (remember scales can tilt) and still continue arguing from the other side. Do not push your Libra partner into making decisions. They will keep weighing pros and cons and may still not be able to come to any decision. Have patience!

Scorpio (Oct 23 - Nov 21)

DO'S

Scorpio's are full of passion and zest for life. They have tremendous drive that can involve you too. Tune in to their wavelength and you can enjoy the harmony and music of life with them. Scorpio's are loyal and never forget a kind deed done by you. If you want to enjoy life with your Scorpio lover, share their passion and intensity and you will be fascinated by how beautiful life can be with them.

DON'TS

Scorpio's are very passionate and intense but they are also fiercely possessive and would like to possess your mind, body and soul. Do not let seeds of jealousy grow in them because then you may have to suffer agonies of jealousy and discontentment in life. Scorpio's have explosive tempers be careful how you handle them. They never let anyone know what is going on in their mind till they strike and you may be caught unaware. Do not flirt around in the presence of your Scorpio lover.

Sagittarius (Nov 22 - Dec 21)

DO'S

Sagittarius is basically a happy go lucky kind. You can enjoy with them their zest and enthusiasm for life. They bubble with excitement. And if you share the same interests and hobbies, life can be great fun together. They are frank and straightforward so if you want some truthful opinion about anything or anyone go to them. Be optimistic as they are and view life as glass half full.

DON'TS

Sagittarius is fiercely independent and cannot tolerate restriction. Hence, do not try to hold them back in life. Let them enjoy their freedom because if you hold any special place in their heart they will always come back for you. Do not feel irritated by the exaggeration in their speech. They may go on and on, talking about ce> rtain things that may not even interest you, but its their way of trying to communicate with you. They are basically frank and outspoken (to the point of being rude), so do not feel offended by their talks.

Capricorn (Dec 22 - Jan 20)

DO'S

Capricornians are strong and dependable. Hence, if you want to put your money on anyone it is of course this zodiac sign. They are practical and conservative in their outlook and they expect you to blend in their color. They set certain standards for themselves in their life and they will always try to maintain those standards. For them social status and image is very important in life.

DON'TS

Do not expect a Capricorn mate to open his/her heart and pour everything to you. They are very secretive and reserved people. They are very thorough in all their affairs and hate any kind of sloppiness. People born under this zodiac are very tight-fisted and economical. Do not expect lavish gifts from them and if they do give you any gift (that is very rare) it will have some practical use (no romance please) but that does not mean you will be deprived of anything; on the contrary you will be well provided.

Aquarius (Jan 21 - Feb 21)

DO'S

Aquarius are friendly and fascinating people. They have in-depth knowledge about various subjects and you can converse with them for hours without getting bored. They are capable of giving a lot of love that can be amazing. They have a very broad outlook of life and you can relax in their presence. They will always welcome your ideas and actions about humanitarian causes. To keep an Aquarius lover interested you must possess that mysterious and intriguing quality. Once hooked they will always be very faithful to you.

DON'TS

Do not expect or plan a normal, simple and predictable life with an Aquarius partner. Aquarians are totally unpredictable. They can go to any direction without giving any advance notice. They are basically very restless and get bored easily. Though they are very friendly, do not expect them to reveal their inner most feelings to you (they never will). They can be detached and impersonal, which may seem strange to others.

Pisces (Feb 22 - Mar 21)

DO'S

Pisceans are sensitive and charming. If you are looking for someone who is understanding and can understand your feelings then you have met the right person. You should appreciate their feelings too, as in your time of need they are sure to help you. Pisces have a keenly developed sixth sense and have great intuitive powers. Their hunches may usually be right on mark. But they can exhaust their physical and mental energies. They are born dreamers and you can build palaces with your dream lover (only in real life it may become a little difficult preposition).

DON'TS

Pisces are dreamers and you should not expect them to have worldly ambitions. They are not materialistic in nature. It is not that they like living below the poverty line but they have no earnest desire to accumulate wealth. They are very sensitive and you have to be always careful about their feelings. The fishes are capable of drowning you in their tears (even men born under this sign).

9 Things Managers Do That Make Good Employees Quit

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 24 Jan 2016 12:58:00 -0800

It’s pretty incredible how often you hear managers complaining about their best employees leaving, and they really do have something to complain about—few things are as costly and disruptive as good people walking out the door.

Managers tend to blame their turnover problems on everything under the sun, while ignoring the crux of the matter: people don’t leave jobs; they leave managers.

The sad thing is that this can easily be avoided. All that’s required is a new perspective and some extra effort on the manager’s part.

First, we need to understand the nine worst things that managers do that send good people packing.

Related: The 9 Worst Mistakes You Can Ever Make at Work

They overwork people

Nothing burns good employees out quite like overworking them. It’s so tempting to work your best people hard that managers frequently fall into this trap. Overworking good employees is perplexing; it makes them feel as if they’re being punished for great performance.

Overworking employees is also counterproductive. New research from Stanford shows that productivity per hour declines sharply when the workweek exceeds 50 hours, and productivity drops off so much after 55 hours that you don’t get anything out of working more. If you must increase how much work your talented employees are doing, you’d better increase their status as well. Talented employees will take on a bigger workload, but they won’t stay if their job suffocates them in the process. Raises, promotions, and title-changes are all acceptable ways to increase workload. If you simply increase workload because people are talented, without changing a thing, they will seek another job that gives them what they deserve.

They don’t recognize contributions and reward good work

It’s easy to underestimate the power of a pat on the back, especially with top performers who are intrinsically motivated. Everyone likes kudos, none more so than those who work hard and give their all. Managers need to communicate with their people to find out what makes them feel good (for some, it’s a raise; for others, it’s public recognition) and then to reward them for a job well done. With top performers, this will happen often if you’re doing it right.

They don’t care about their employees

More than half of people who leave their jobs do so because of their relationship with their boss. Smart companies make certain their managers know how to balance being professional with being human. These are the bosses who celebrate an employee’s success, empathize with those going through hard times, and challenge people, even when it hurts. Bosses who fail to really care will always have high turnover rates. It’s impossible to work for someone eight-plus hours a day when they aren’t personally involved and don’t care about anything other than your production yield.

They don’t honor their commitments

Making promises to people places you on the fine line that lies between making them very happy and watching them walk out the door. When you uphold a commitment, you grow in the eyes of your employees because you prove yourself to be trustworthy and honorable (two very important qualities in a boss). But when you disregard your commitment, you come across as slimy, uncaring, and disrespectful. After all, if the boss doesn’t honor his or her commitments, why should everyone else?

They hire and promote the wrong people

Good, hard-working employees want to work with like-minded professionals. When managers don’t do the hard work of hiring good people, it’s a major demotivator for those stuck working alongside them. Promoting the wrong people is even worse. When you work your tail off only to get passed over for a promotion that’s given to someone who glad-handed their way to the top, it’s a massive insult. No wonder it makes good people leave. Related: How Successful People Overcome Toxic Bosses

They don’t let people pursue their passions

Talented employees are passionate. Providing opportunities for them to pursue their passions improves their productivity and job satisfaction. But many managers want people to work within a little box. These managers fear that productivity will decline if they let people expand their focus and pursue their passions. This fear is unfounded. Studies show that people who are able to pursue their passions at work experience flow, a euphoric state of mind that is five times more productive than the norm.

They fail to develop people’s skills

When managers are asked about their inattention to employees, they try to excuse themselves, using words such as “trust,” “autonomy,” and “empowerment.” This is complete nonsense. Good managers manage, no matter how talented the employee. They pay attention and are constantly listening and giving feedback. Management may have a beginning, but it certainly has no end. When you have a talented employee, it’s up to you to keep finding areas in which they can improve to expand their skill set. The most talented employees want feedback—more so than the less talented ones—and it’s your job to keep it coming. If you don’t, your best people will grow bored and complacent.

They fail to engage their creativity

The most talented employees seek to improve everything they touch. If you take away their ability to change and improve things because you’re only comfortable with the status quo, this makes them hate their jobs. Caging up this innate desire to create not only limits them, it limits you.

They fail to challenge people intellectually

Great bosses challenge their employees to accomplish things that seem inconceivable at first. Instead of setting mundane, incremental goals, they set lofty goals that push people out of their comfort zones. Then, good managers do everything in their power to help them succeed. When talented and intelligent people find themselves doing things that are too easy or boring, they seek other jobs that will challenge their intellects.

Bringing it all together
If you want your best people to stay, you need to think carefully about how you treat them. While good employees are as tough as nails, their talent gives them an abundance of options. You need to make them want to work for you.

A version of this article first appeared at TalentSmart.com and was inspired by a piece authored by Mike Myatt.

Here's Why Bill Gates Was So Much Richer Than Steve Jobs

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 24 Jan 2016 12:39:00 -0800

Steve Jobs and Bill Gates were born in the same year.

Both dropped out of college.

Both started companies with good friends: Gates founded Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) with Paul Allen in April 1975, while Jobs founded Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) with Steve Wozniak exactly one year later.

And both got rich -- extremely rich.

But it's here where things diverge, because at the time of Jobs' untimely death in 2011, his $11 billion net worth was a fraction of Gates' $66 billion. This discrepancy may strike you as odd, given that Apple's market capitalization at the time was $132 billion greater than Microsoft's.

So how do you explain this?

If you're familiar with Jobs' story, then you already know the answer: He sold all but one of his original Apple shares in 1985, the year he was ousted from the company by then-CEO John Sculley and its board.

Jobs' 11% stake in Apple was worth somewhere in the neighborhood of $130 million at the time. And, for the record, this was considerably smaller than the 26% stake he emerged with after the first serious round of fundraising in 1977.

At today's price, those stakes would be worth more than $69 billion and $162 billion, respectively. In other words, had he not sold shares along the way, Jobs would have been the world's richest person by leaps and bounds, as Gates' current net worth is estimated at $79 billion.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not trying to be critical -- far from it, in fact.

In the first case, Jobs had no reason to feel optimistic about Apple in 1985, given the circumstances of his ouster -- not to mention the fact that Apple may have gone the way of the dodo bird without Jobs' eventual return.

Moreover, there's every reason to believe that, had Jobs not left when he did, we wouldn't have Pixar, which he purchased from Lucasfilm in 1986 for $10 million. He revitalized it with money and technology, and then sold it to Disney in 2005 for $7.4 billion of the House of Mouse's stock -- thereby becoming the entertainment company's largest individual shareholder.

What I am trying to do is demonstrate the power of buy and hold investing.

Sure, I would love to be as rich as Steve Jobs was -- or even to have a fraction of his net worth. But Jobs had contemporaries who, like Gates, wanted more. And when it comes to building wealth, as Gates' experience illustrates, there are few better tools than time and compounding returns -- both of which, by the way, are equally accessible to us mere mortals.

Of equal importance are brilliant ideas that are identified in their infancy.

Countless investors have become millionaires virtually overnight by riding the wave of technology driven by the likes of Gates and Jobs. In the process, these investors' lives have been radically transformed. Making money is no longer their objective; their challenge now is spending it on a lifestyle once thought unimaginable.

The key to these investors' success isn't the ability to recognize promising trends; all of us can do that. The key instead is the courage and conviction to put money on the line when you inevitably encounter a transformative idea.

The next billion-dollar iSecret
The world's biggest tech company forgot to show you something at its recent event, but a few Wall Street analysts and the Fool didn't miss a beat: There's a small company that's powering their brand-new gadgets and the coming revolution in technology. And we think its stock price has nearly unlimited room to run for early-in-the-know investors! To be one of them, just click here.

3 Companies Poised to Explode When Cable Dies
Television is on its way out and the “death of TV” means the $2.2 trillion entertainment industry is ripe for anybody’s picking. And these three innovative companies are poised to scoop it right up. But guess what -- none of them is Netflix or Hulu.

The Worst CEOs of 2015

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 24 Jan 2016 12:30:00 -0800

After consulting with Santa, I’ve determined which CEOs of public U.S. companies were naughty this year, and you know what that means. It’s time for my annual worst CEOs list. These are the chief executives who I think should have gotten lumps of coal in lieu of lofty compensation packages in 2015.

Before we dive in, a couple of caveats. Don Mattrick was ousted from Zynga too early in the year (April) to make the list. While Tony Hsieh has certainly made a mess of things at Zappos, the online retailer is a subsidiary of Amazon, so he too fails to qualify. And if Theranos were a public company, CEO Elizabeth Holmes would definitely have made the cut.

With that out of the way, let’s dive right into the land of dysfunctional executives, plunging share prices and bloody red ink, counting down from …

No. 7: Marcelo Claure, CEO, Sprint

Claure definitely inherited a mess from chief boondoggle officer Dan Hesse. But he still managed a boneheaded move right out of the gate, paying about a dozen consultants $25 million for five months of work in the midst of a multibillion dollar cost-cutting effort. And the lead advisor was hismentor and former customer, Sol Trujillo, which smacks of cronyism, if you ask me. Chairman Masayoshi Son stepped in and put a stop to it. The stock has lost a third of its value since he hired Claure.

No. 6: Brian Kelley, CEO, Keurig Green Mountain

The K-Cup brewing company couldn’t have had a worse year. Already facing a saturated market, its Keurig 2.0 machine was plagued by scathing reviews and a major recall. Then the former Coca-Cola executive launched a new Kold brewing system that, at $300, was too expensive for mainstream adoption. The stock was one of the worst performers in the S&P 500 until JAB Holding Company bailed shareholders out with a $14 billion cash deal.

No. 5: John Mackey and Walter Robb, co-CEOs, Whole Foods

After pioneering the natural and organic foods market back in 1980 and masterfully scaling that concept into a nationwide chain of supermarkets, Whole Foods is now besieged on all sides by competitors and suffering from a negative brand image of being overpriced. Mackey and Robb have lost the recipe to satisfy customers. Shareholders too. The stock is trading near a five-year low. Time for a change, maybe.

No. 4: Eddie Lampert, Chairman and CEO, Sears Holdings

Some CEOs are such perennial train wrecks that nobody even bothers to talk about them anymore. Well, I just can’t let this one go. In a record three consecutive years on the list, the man who engineered the disastrous merger between Sears and Kmart continues to unravel not one but two formerly great American brands. The company is still shrinking, piling up record losses and disappointing investors. The stock is down 35% this year and trading near all-time lows.

No. 3: Marissa Mayer, CEO, Yahoo

Faced with a core Internet business that investors valued at less than zero, Yahoo made the only sane choice: spin off its enormous stake in Alibaba, allowing both entities to flourish. Except the IRS wouldn’t bless the tax-free transaction so, after two years of this “how to unlock shareholder value” nonsense, Yahoo did a 180 and is now planning a complex “reverse spin.” Translation: Verizon or TPG please buy this mess and put us out of our misery. Shares lost about a third of their value in 2015 and investors have lost complete confidence in Mayer’s three-year turnaround effort.

No. 2: Doug McMillon, CEO, Wal-Mart

The Dow’s worst performer in 2015, Wal-Mart is essentially getting crushed by Amazon, Costco, Target, ... pretty much everyone. As a value proposition for customers, low prices just ain’t what they used to be. Growth has stalled, profits are down and expenses are up. Not a great combination. And as I see it, McMillon’s plan to spend billions to compete with Amazon and other online retailers will only make matters worse.

No. 1: Meg Whitman, CEO, HP Enterprise and Chairman, HP Inc.

There’s a new definition of a successful turnaround, folks. Here’s what it looks like: Four straight years of revenue declines, nearly $20 billion in write-offs and a staggering 85,000 announced layoffs. Meg Whitman calls that a turnaround. I call it a bloodbath.

And with no avenues left to placate investors, Whitman fell back on the politically expedient tactic of splitting the company in two, thus ending the 76-year saga of a Silicon Valley icon that once stood for innovation. But it’s really just window dressing for Wall Street, in my opinion.

All the write-offs, layoffs and spin-offs in the world won’t fix HP’s core problem, that its businesses are undifferentiated relative to market leaders in enterprise services, personal computing and printers. That’s why the combined market cap of both companies is a paltry $47 billion, less than half of their combined annual revenues.

Meanwhile, by selling this bill of goods to stakeholders, the former eBay boss and candidate for Governor of California didn’t just get to keep her job, but somehow managed to end up with two jobs. She’s now chief executive of HP Enterprise and chairman of HP Inc. Now that’s quite an accomplishment.

20 qualities that all great salespeople share

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 19 Jan 2016 06:57:00 -0800

Justin Sullivan / Getty

Steve Jobs was a master salesman.

To succeed in life and in business, you have to be a great salesperson, whether it's selling yourself, your ideas, or your product.

"Great salespeople are literally the engine of every economy in the world," says Grant Cardone, a sales expert and the author of "Sell or Be Sold: How to Get Your Way in Business and in Life".

So how does one become great? We caught up with Cardone, who shared the 20 qualities that he thinks set great salespeople apart from everyone else.

This is an update of an article originally written by Vivian Giang.

See 20 qualities that all great salespeople share >>

How Seniors Can Risk-Proof Their Homes with Today’s Technology

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 2 Jan 2016 07:20:00 -0800

As we get older the challenges of living alone in our homes grows. Different medical conditions, limited mobility, hearing and vision issues are some among many factors that can contribute to making independent lives complicated or even impossible. Seniors often prefer to stay in their own home, where they have spent all their lives and where they are surrounded with all the beautiful memories, as opposed to moving to a nursing home or assisted-living facilities.

Even though seniors who are over 65 did not grow up with technology, today’s smart home gadgets can make a huge difference in their lives. Technology has reached peak levels that made amazing things possible. Medical monitoring and alert services have become popular in the last decade, due to the fact that these technologies allow seniors to keep living in their own homes as they grow old. These technologies help seniors live fully functional and independent lives while maintaining a considerable level of safety.

Let us check out some of the neat options for risk-proofing your home or home of your loved ones:

Medical Alert Services
Medical alert systems are designed with seniors in mind as the main target group. These systems usually consist of a base station unit, which is a device that the user needs to place in a central location in their home, and a wearable help button. The base station uses either landline or cellular network to make connection with the monitoring center. When the user presses the help button, the base station initiates a two-way voice connection with a monitoring center where trained operators provide assistance. The idea is to allow seniors to get quick and professional help if anything goes wrong.

Dialing 911, or just reaching a phone when emergency strikes is often just not possible. Medical alert systems on the other hand have this neat help button that is easy to activate. Some of the systems also come with a help button that can detect falls and automatically call for help even if the person is unconscious.

When trained agents at the monitoring center get on the line, they will speak with the person in need and try to assess the situation. Then, they take necessary measures depending on the nature of the emergency. The actions range from only comforting the person in need, to calling family members, neighbors or even dispatching local emergency services. Call center agents have all the necessary information about the person in need displayed right on their screen, as soon as the call is made. This makes dispatching local emergency services quick and so much more efficient. We all know that there is a “golden hour”, a time slot during which people who receive help, will have most chances of successful recovery. Medical alert systems come with the range of options. Systems can be designed for in-home use only, or present fully mobile solutions which seniors can take with them anywhere they go.

Fire, CO2, Smoke and Other Sensors
Lots of companies nowadays offer different range of sensors. Installing fire or smoke detectors can be a good move towards ensuring safety of your elderly loved ones. There are also other types of sensors out there that can detect flooding or certain actions in the home, such as opening of windows or for example opening fridge doors. Some companies offer integration of these smart sensors with medical alert services for increased protection and wellness monitoring.

Vital Signs Monitoring
This is one of the latest technologies making its move into consumers’ homes. Similar to medical alert service, today it is possible to acquire technology that allows for vital signs monitoring. Vital signs data is sent via modem that is located in the home of the user, to the monitoring center where professionals monitor the data regularly. This makes it possible to have a full insight into protected person’s health, as well as to notice any possible signs of health deterioration early on, making hospital bills lower and recovery more likely.

Remote Video Monitoring
Remote video is all around us. Seniors usually all know how to use services like Facetime or Skype to communicate with their family. These software solutions are great, but what if a person needs 24/7 video monitoring? Family members or care takers can purchase remove video cameras that can provide this functionality. These cameras make it easy for family members to keep an eye on their loved ones, even when they are not around. These cameras often provide two-way voice communication and various advanced features, such as movement detection. Remote video can be accessed from anywhere by authorized users (often family or dedicated caretakers) using a computer, a smartphone or a tablet device.

Risk-proofing homes of seniors can make a huge impact on the quality of their lives. Seniors can keep living alone in their own homes, keeping their dignity and independence while not sacrificing safety in any way. Technology makes it possible nowadays to call for help with a push of a button, to get help from doctors who remotely monitor vital signs and to stay in touch with loved ones via 24/7 remote video feeds. What is great is that this technology is very user-friendly and it is fully adapted to be operated by seniors. This means that seniors can easily adopt this technology and live happy lives while being protected and having a safety layer all around.

A cosmologist says he's found possible signs of a parallel universe

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 1 Jan 2016 10:22:00 -0800

Are we bumping into another universe?

Sandy MacKenzie/Shutterstock.com

The idea of a multitude of parallel universes existing alongside our own is not new, but trying to find evidence of this phenomenon is proving about as tricky as you might expect. But one cosmologist thinks he might have found evidence of a parallel universe brushing against our own as far back at the beginning of time.

To appreciate what Ranga-Ram Chary from the California Institute of Technology has found, it's important to first understand how our own Universe came into being. For hundreds of thousands of years after the Big Bang, the particles that existed were too hot and energetic to form into atoms: the point at which this started happening, some 300,000 years after the Big Bang, is known as recombination. It also marks the time when cosmic background radiation (CMB) started spreading through the Universe - a signal scientists use to look back into time and formulate their theories.

What Chary has spotted is a bump or a 'bruise' in this cosmic background radiation - and that could mean a collision with a parallel universe. Cosmologists believe that the 'bubbles' of separate universes could be colliding with each other, depositing some material along the way, just like normal soap bubbles bumping into each other would.

So can we start plotting a course to this brand new universe right away? Well, not exactly. Interpreting CMB signals is notoriously difficult, and Chary himself believes there's a 30 percent chance that what he's found is just background noise and not a tell-tale sign of a neighbouring universe at all. It could also be a large spot of space dust.

"I suspect that it would be worth looking into alternative possibilities," David Spergel from Princeton University told Joshua Sokol at New Scientist. "The dust properties are more complicated than we have been assuming, and I think that this is a more plausible explanation."

"Joseph Silk of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, is even more pessimistic, calling claims of an alternate universe 'completely implausible'," adds Sokol. "While he thinks the paper is a good analysis of anomalies in Planck data, Silk also believes something is getting in the way. 'My view is that they are almost certainly due to foregrounds.'"

The data used by Chary was taken from the European Space Agency's powerful Planck telescope. By subtracting CMB models from Planck's picture of the Universe, he discovered patches of signals some 4,500 times brighter than they should have been, based on the number of protons and electrons scientists believe existed in the very early universe.

At this stage, it's just an hypothesis, and looking billions of years back into the past isn't at all straightforward, but progress is being made all the time. Chary told Jennifer Ouellette at Gizmodo that he hopes to have more comprehensive results within a couple of years, though his ideas might not be proved one way or the other until the next generation of space scanning technology comes online (estimated at 15 to 20 years).

"Unusual claims like evidence for alternate universes require a very high burden of proof," he writes in his report, published online at arXiv.org. "Searching for these alternate universes is a challenge."

As far as challenges go, Chary sure has a big one on his hands.

Neurologists have found a scientific explanation for your lack of motivation

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 1 Jan 2016 10:18:00 -0800

It's not (completely) your fault.

1000 Words/Shutterstock.com

If you often struggle to get yourself motivated - or you have friends who seem stuck in a permanent state of apathy - new research might help to explain your slacker tendencies. Scientists have discovered a collection of inefficient connections in certain parts of the brain, and these weak links could be making things more difficult for some of us to rouse ourselves into action.

The researchers gave questionnaires to 40 young people to determine their general level of motivation. They were then asked to work through a simple game while undergoing an MRI scan to monitor brain activity. The game involved a series of offers that required varying levels of effort to respond to, that the participants could choose to accept or refuse.

Not surprisingly, offers that required low levels of effort were more likely to be accepted, but the team noticed something unusual: in the premotor cortex region of the brain, activity was higher rather than lower in those apparently 'apathetic' people who struggled to make decisions and accept the 'high-effort' offers. This suggests that inefficient processes within the brain rather than a lack of brain activity is behind our apathetic tendencies.

"We expected to see less activity because [the more apathetic volunteers] were less likely to accept effortful choices but we found the opposite," explained one of the team, neurologist Masud Husain from the University of Oxford in the UK. "We thought that this might be because their brain structure is less efficient, so it's more of an effort for apathetic people to turn decisions into actions."

"Using our brain scanning techniques we found that connections in the front part of the brains of apathetic people are less effective," he added. "The brain uses around a fifth of the energy you're burning each day. If it takes more energy to plan an action, it becomes more costly for apathetic people to make actions. Their brains have to make more effort."

The research goes beyond finding excuses for us to lie in bed all day: the team is hoping that the new information will help in the treatment of strokes and Alzheimer's disease, where sufferers often lack the mental strength to do something, even though they might have the physical capability.

While they point out that this isn't an explanation for all kinds of apathy in everyone affected by it, the research could provide biological clues as to why some apparently healthy people become so demotivated - just as brain structure could also be to blame for an inability to turn up on time. And the next time you're tempted to label other people lazy, think twice: their brains might be working much harder than yours is.

Let Go Of Your Emotional Clutter

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 1 Jan 2016 08:09:00 -0800

There is nothing helpful nor healthy about clutter. Clutter is restrictive and heavy. It is well known for effecting one or many areas of your life – day in day out.

The burden of clutter becomes screamingly obvious when you physically sell, give away or throw it out. You then realize just how emotionally or physically draining and life interfering all your clutter has been.

The flip side of course – clearing clutter is one of the greatest ways to boost your energy, get yourself out of a rut, feel lighter, improve your health, remove obstacles and create space for the new to arrive. Clearing clutter is a proven therapy for creating change in your life. Now is always the perfect time for a focused clutter busting session.

Simplify your living space and feel the difference:

To help reveal the many sneaky disguises of clutter I have shared with you 10 common forms of emotional clutter that may be lurking unknowingly in your home. Some will speak loudly to you whilst others will not. Some will be a total surprise and others will just act as a reminder. Either way they are intended to give you an extra nudge in supporting you release stuck, thick heavy energy lingering unhelpfully in your home or office.

Start simply with one kitchen draw or your hallway cupboard. If you find clearing clutter a burden then make it a game, pretend you are about to move overseas (I use this method often), simply repeat a mantra “I am happy to let go of my clutter sooner, rather than later” .

Remember clutter is anything unwanted, unloved, broken, unused, doesn’t work, expired or doesn’t fit. It is both healthy and helpful to regularly simplify your work and living space by clearing clutter.

The 10 most common types of emotional clutter:

1. Emotional guilt clutter:
Presents and gifts hiding around your house that are not lot loved nor used can be classified as clutter. You simply feel obliged to keep them. If you threw them out you would feel guilty.

Shift your thinking to “conscious sharing” or “re-gifting”. Start this year by “re-giving” your unwanted, unloved gifts to those who really would value and appreciate them and release the emotional guilt energy from your home once and for all.

2. Fear of “lack” clutter:
You keep all kinds of stuff just in case. Just in case you might need it some day, just in case you couldn’t afford to buy another one in the future, just in case you might read it some time soon, just in case you lose weight or just in case for no particular reason. The fact that you haven’t used it in 2, 3 or 5 years generally means its once useful purpose has expired.

To create flow in your life things must be constantly be coming in and going out. You must let go when no longer needed and receive when necessary. Once you block stuff going out of your life ( by holding onto your clutter with scarcity and fear of lack) you stop the flow of abundance.

3. Unhappy relationship clutter:
Keeping stuff from past unhappy relationships keeps a part of you tied to that relationship and tied to the past.

There is absolutely nothing healthy or advantageous from hanging onto memorabilia or gifts from a past unhappy relationship. Be strong, be honest and ask yourself, what is the benefit for holding onto these things.

If in doubt as to your attachment and the draining effect then try the “energy up, energy down” exercise.

4. Depression clutter:
People with depression tend to have a lot of things stored on the floor. Stuff on the ground pulls your energies down and encourages you to withdraw from the world emotionally.

If your floor surfaces are covered with lots of stuff make an effort each day to start moving things up from off the floor. I guarantee it won’t be long until you start noticing a difference in your moods and how your home feels.

5. Addiction clutter:
Compulsive buying for the sake of it and addicted to sales and bargains without any thought simply adds to the congestion and confusion already filling your home and life.

Take an honest look at your stuff and see if you have any addiction clutter floating around. Better still never go shopping without a list, consciously choose what you intend to bring into your home and for every new item purchased throw out at least two. Keep the energy flowing.

6. Need to impress clutter:
You feel your sense of self worth is reflected by the appearance (or value) of the stuff in your living space. You generally don’t like many of your possessions but have them because they are the latest trend, most impressive or even most expensive.

Filling your home stuff to impress your ego or others, simply means you are out of alignment with your life and the energy in your home. This can be as obvious as a bookcase full of books that you never look at or even care about. It simply gives the impression you are well read and knowledgeable.

7. Unhappiness clutter:
Buying stuff to make you feel happy again is a quick fix solution. It does not bring deep long lasting satisfaction to your life and the item you bought only brings happiness momentarily. Unhappiness clutter can then turn into guilt clutter when you realize a few days later you don’t really need it and feel guilty for buying it.

8. Emotional hiding behind your clutter:
Overfilling your rooms, cupboards and home with stuff is often used to hide from the outside world or your true self. It keeps the attention away from you and focused more on the hundreds of nick knacks you have everywhere.

9. Denial clutter:
If you are scared of change then you will have denial clutter. You have a sense that your world may fall apart if you start removing serious amounts of clutter from your home. You may be consistent in throwing out surface clutter but when it comes to a serious clutter busting session to invite wonderful change you consistently tell yourself this item or that possession is not clutter.

Do you really need all those plates and salad bowls in your kitchen or clothes in your wardrobe?

10. Other peoples clutter:
When you look after stuff for other people get clear with how long you are minding it for. Short term is generally fine as you are being helpful. If however their stuff turns into annoyance or frustration then your act of kindness has evolved into energy draining clutter that’s not even yours. Your friends or family need to find other arrangements or put it in storage.

12 Great Ways To Strengthen Your Aura

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 1 Jan 2016 08:04:00 -0800

“Every cell in my body is loved and healthy”

Your aura is simply an extension of you. When strong it acts as a protective shield. When fragile or damaged it can leave you drained, unwell and feeling disconnected from yourself.

Think of your aura as your own personal body guard (in the form of a giant bubble) that simply “flicks off” anything stressful, disturbing or potentially draining that you may be sensitive too.

I’m a firm believer in cleansing and nurturing the aura for the overall integrity of our health and well being. Particularly, when many ancient cultures from around the world believe, that illness first starts with a weakness in our auric field.

Years ago I completed a crystal healing practitioner course, and discovered how effective crystals are in cleansing, repairing and strengthen the aura. Black tourmaline would have to be my favourite as it can draw off and then transmute negative energies we may have knowingly or unknowingly been exposed too.

If crystals are not your “thing” then I have shared with you below, a collection of aura cleansing and strengthening remedies that I have gathered and used (at some stage) over the past 20 years.

Please feel free to share your own aura strengthening remedies that you have successfully used the past, I’d love to hear them.

12 great ways to strengthen your aura:

1: Yogic cleansing bath:

This recipe helps removes chemicals from your physical body and negativity from your aura. Soak for 20 minutes each day and repeat for 7 days.

If you start to feel dizzy or a little weird leave bath immediately as you have successfully loosened and removed enough toxins and negativity for one day.

1 lb Baking soda
1 cup Sea salt

2: Sage smudge stick:

The smoke from white sage is known by the North American Indians to be very cleansing. I love white sage and have used it successfully for over 20 years to remove negative vibes that I sense in my home or around me.

Sage emits negative ions which is the good stuff you find in the air just after a storm or at the ocean.

To cleanse your aura, simply light your sage smudge stick and use your hand to direct the smoke over your head, face, front/sides of your body, under your feet, around your hands and arms, and as much of your back as you can reach.

3: Let the sun feed your aura:

Lots of lovely sunshine is known to feed and expand the aura. Spending time outside amongst nature is incredibly healthy for your body, mind and soul.

The sun fuels you with energy, optimism and loads of vitamin D whilst nature nourishes your senses and grounds you.

4: Sea salt:

Swimming in the ocean or soaking in a salt water bath greatly helps to cleanse the aura and draw out stress.

The sun expands and feeds your aura whilst the sea carries away the negativity.

If you don’t have a bath, and not near the ocean, simply give your body a sea salt scrub before taking a shower. Grab a handful of sea salt and rub it all over your skin before showering. It helps remove dead skin cells, refreshes your aura and draws out toxins.

5: Cold shower:

Cold showers have the ability to clear away negativity in your auric field, remove toxins, improve circulation and draw out tension from your body.

I have personally put the cold shower theory to the test for a whole 3 months (over summer a few years ago). The results were amazing.

My thoughts were clearer, I felt lighter, more energy and things which normally bothered me and hung around my thoughts for days – came and went with ease. I didn’t hold onto negative stuff like I had done before. It helped me greatly through a very difficult time in my life.

6: Sound medicine:

Sound is recognized by many ancient cultures as a healing tool. The sound from Tibetan singing bowls and crystal bowls are well known for their ability to dissolve negativity and clean your energies. Listening to their sounds before going to sleep is an easy way to support your overall well-being.

Alternately chanting the sound “Om” is an incredibly fast and efficient way to shift stuck, stagnant or negativity energy from your aura and physical body.

7: Labradorite (crystal) :

This crystal is worth a special mention.

Labradorite has been shown by Kirilian photography to heal tears in the auric field by preventing leakage. Holding a labradorite crystal for 20 minutes will last for about 12 hours after the stone is no longer worn.

It is dubbed the “healers” stone and is widely used as protection by body workers, teachers, childcare workers and nurses. It’s a great crystal to wear as a bracelet.

8: Reduce your exposure to electrical stuff:

The radiation and frequencies which are emitted from electrical gadgets, I believe, can interfere with our bodies own natural rhythms, cycles and well-being. Spending too long, at close range, to these man made frequencies can build up static in your auric field and can cause disturbances.

Make your bedroom a priority to be as electrical free as possible. Charge all your gadgets away from your bedroom or at the very least away from your head when sleeping.

Lepidolite is a fabulous crystal to have as a protective field of energy between you and your electrical gadgets. At home I place piece near our TV, beside the beds and near the computer. You will notice over time, the lepidolite eventually becomes paper thin as it absorbs the radiation. It’s quite amazing.

9: Vetiver (an essential oil):

A few drops applied to your belly button at night with help you from taking on too much of other people’s junk. Vetiver is very grounding, and particularly balancing when feeling spacey after long sessions in front of a screen.

It’s excellent essential oil for calming and grounding and one of my favourite essential oils to use at home.

Vetiver also has a special relationship with your chakras and helps to bring them into alignment. Your chakra’s are directly connected to your aura.

10: Black Tourmaline (crystal):

Great for deflecting radiation and is well known for transmuting negative energy from the aura. It’s a protective stone that can also help you with negative thinking. Its the perfect crystal to carry in your handbag.

Crystals have been used for thousands of years for healing and protection. Smoky quartz on your desk or near the phone will protect you from other people’s stresses and negativity. Amber is an excellent stone to help strengthen your aura. Kunzite will detach unpleasant thoughts.

I can highly recommend wearing an ametrine (amethyst and citrine) bracelet for around 3 – 6 months to heal tears and holes in your auric field that may have appeared from surgery, child birth or extreme stress.

11: Flower essences: Fringed violet and Angelsword:

Angelsword repairs and Fringed violet helps heal damaged or distressed auric fields. Take orally or dab 7 drops of each onto your solar plexus (just below your belly button) before going to bed.

Both these flower essences come from the Australian Bush Flower essence range. If you don’t live in Australia I recommend buying the equivalent flower essences from your own country.

12: Be mindful of people and places that zap your energy:

Notice which places, people or situations leave you consistently feeling zapped or drained. Limit yourself to these situations or at the very least wear a protective crystal to prevent your energy being leached.

Labrodrite would be a good crystal to start with.

10 Ways to Strengthen and Protect Your Spiritual Magnetism

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 1 Jan 2016 08:00:00 -0800

We affect others by our magnetism and they affect us with theirs. It is vitally important to understand the principles of magnetism, how they can be used for our own and others’ benefit, and how to protect ourselves against harmful magnetism. Below are a few ways to strengthen your own magnetism and avoid taking on others’ negative magnetism.

If negative influences come to you unsolicited, remember: They may have been sent to help you grow stronger in yourself. A hothouse plant grows larger and more luxuriant than its cousins out of doors, exposed as they are to wind, rain, and cold, but it has less stamina. What I am saying about magnetism, then, mustn’t make you cowardly. Take it only as a reminder to be prudent.

1. Have a satsang. Satsang (good company) is almost as important on the path as meditation itself. Mix more with spiritually minded people. Tune in consciously to their vibrations. As you draw from others, so give love and appreciation in return.

Satsang is important for another reason also: When spiritually inclined people get together, especially for meditation, they increase the magnetism of everyone involved. Yogananda called this phenomenon “the law of invisible vibratory exchange.”

2. Meditate. If you know you are going to be exposed to tamasic [darkening, heavy] vibrations, take the time to meditate beforehand. Then harmonize the vibrations of your heart. Next, consciously emanate peaceful vibrations outward from your heart center to your environment. For human energy has two modes of expression; one of them is giving, the other, receiving or absorbing. If you can consciously enter the giving mode, you will find yourself much less affected by outside influences, whether good or bad.

3. Chant. Mentally chant, according to the sincere call of your heart: for example, “I am Thine. Be Thou mine,” or, less personally, “I am light. I am love. I am a fountain of unending peace!”

Send the heart’s energy upward to the point between the eyebrows. Feel yourself surrounded and embraced by the divine light.

4. Chant AUM TAT SAT. In the privacy of your meditation room, place your arms down at your side. Then, mentally chanting AUM, bring them upward, straight out to the side, with your palms up, until you join the palms high above the head. Mentally create an aura of upward-moving light around your body.

Extend your arms before you, your palms touching. Then move them out and around your body in a broad circle until the palms or fingers touch once again behind your back.

Mentally, while repeating this process, chant, “AUM-TAT-SAT.” (The as in TAT-SAT are pronounced short, with an “uh” sound: “TUT-SUT.”) [This mantra is the Hindu equivalent of the Christian Trinity: AUM means the Cosmic Sound or Holy Ghost; TAT, the Kutastha Chaitanya or Christ Consciousness; and SAT, the Father aspect of God, the Spirit beyond all vibration.] Repeat this process at least three times. After you’ve finished it, feel yourself surrounded by that protective vibration.

5. Withdraw your energy. Try not to look into the eyes of, or shake hands with, people whose vibrations are negative. This avoidance may prove a little socially awkward at times so I don’t insist on it, but I should state that these are two of the strongest ways by which magnetism is exchanged between people. (This is one little-known reason for the palms-folded greeting, the namaskar, which Indians customarily use in place of the handshake.)

6. Bring a spiritual bodyguard. When you find that you must enter a disharmonious environment, keep a spiritual “bodyguard” with you: someone who is on the same spiritual wavelength as you, to help keep your magnetism strong.

7. Block their energy. If you feel yourself under psychic attack from anyone, use your thumb to place a cross of blue light mentally on the attacker. Do it with sufficient will power, and harmful energy will be unable to reach you, but will return to its sender.

Direct good energy along with the blocking energy, that your attacker be cured of his anger. A mantra to repeat in such circumstances is “AUM hreeng kleeng Krishnaya namaha.” (The first a in Krishnaya is pronounced as in our “ah.” The other as are pronounced as in “uh.”)

8. Listen to uplifting music. One of the best ways of surrounding yourself with good vibrations is to listen to or play uplifting music.

9. Spend time with saints. Most important of all, try to keep the company of saints. They will help you, even from a distance, by their subtle magnetic influence. If you know no such people, read their lives; visit places where they have lived; mix with those who knew them. If possible, listen to recordings of their voices.

10. Develop your own magnetism. Be conscious, above all, of your own developing magnetism. Feel it surrounding you as you walk, flowing through you as you converse with others. Expand it to the people in your vicinity; include them in your aura.

The more you act as a channel of blessing to others, the more you yourself will be blessed. Your magnetism will be enhanced, and your efforts to reach God greatly accelerated.

Meditation Exercise

yogananda-shrine-gaze-smSet the photograph of some great saint or master before you. Not a painting, merely: a photograph. Gaze intently into his or her eyes. Attune yourself to the magnetism you feel there.

After some time, close your eyes in meditation and try to feel a response in your heart. Feel yourself bathed and uplifted by that person’s superconsciousness.

Then pray deeply: “Draw me closer to God.”

Now Ilayathalapathy Vijay Creates new Record in Chennai Flood Donations

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 1 Jan 2016 04:47:00 -0800

Chennai: Kollywood super star Vijay creates new record in Chennai flood donations and as per reports he will be donating Rs. 5 Cr to Chennai Floods relief operations

Chennai was in news for last couple of weeks and major portion of Chennai city and few districts in the state was badly hitted by heavy floods. Everyone all over India responded on this situation and made huge number of contributions to Chennai flood victims.

Already large amount of money and food relief packages have been sent to Chennai and CM relief fund from various number of places all over India to help those who are brutally affected and lost everything in Chennai rains. As per latest updates, Ilayathalapathy Vijay, who is famous and popular star in Tamil Nadu, has donated a whopping amount of Rs. 5 Cr towards the restoration and relief operations of Chennai Floods victims.

Already few celebrities from Tollywood and Kollywood have contributed huge number of amount to CM relief fund and now Vijay joined in the list of top donors for Chennai floods donations. Vijay has a kind heart and he quickly responds on social issues. He himself participated in many social services through his fans associations.

However, after made an argument with CM Jayalalithaa, we exactly don’t know, whether he will be contributing this massive amount through Tamil Nadu CM relief fund or through some other organizations.

Surprisingly all his fans, Tamil people and some media houses have been speculated this news but actor Vijay or his manager not yet confirmed it officially. If it is true definitely it would be appreciable by all for his kind heart towards Chennai people. Already Vijay announced to use his Shoba Kalyana Mandapam in Saligramam and he sheltered thousands of people in that. He also supplying food for those from last couple of days.

Products Made With Nanoparticles Dramatically Affect Iron Absorption

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 1 Jan 2016 03:50:00 -0800

Nanoparticles are everywhere. From cosmetics and clothes, to soda and snacks. But as versatile as they are, nanoparticles also have a downside, say researchers at Binghamton University and Cornell University in a recent paper published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology. These tiny particles, even in low doses, could have a big impact on our long-term health.

Nanotechnology deals with structures smaller than one micrometer (less than 1/30th the width of a human hair), and involves developing materials or devices within that size. To put the size of a nanometer in perspective, it is 100,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair.

Patricia Dolez of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, at the Ecole de technologie superieure, in Montreal and colleagues point out that skin is not an impervious membrane. This is the reason that protective clothing and gloves, in addition to respirators, are often an essential and common sight in the chemical industry. However, they wonder if standard protection against chemical risks is enough for workers who are handling nanomaterials. Yet the public is not equipped with any protective equipment against the diversity of nanomaterials now available all over the world.

According to lead author of the article, Gretchen Mahler, assistant professor of bioengineering at Binghamton University, much of the existing research on the safety of nanoparticles has been on the direct health effects. But what Mahler, Michael L. Shuler of Cornell University and a team of researchers really wanted to know was what happens when someone gets constant exposure in small doses -- the kind you'd get if you were taken a drug or supplement that included nanoparticles in some form.
"We thought that the best way to measure the more subtle effects of this kind of intake was to monitor the reaction of intestinal cells," said Mahler. "And we did this in two ways: in vitro, through human intestinal-lining cells that we had cultured in the lab; and in vivo, through the intestinal linings of live chickens. Both sets of results pointed to the same thing -- that exposure to nanoparticles influences the absorption of nutrients into the bloodstream."
The uptake of iron, an essential nutrient, was of particular interest due to the way it is absorbed and processed through the intestines. The way Mahler and the team tested this was to use polystyrene nanoparticles because of its easily traceable fluorescent properties.

"What we found was that for brief exposures, iron absorption dropped by about 50 percent," said Mahler. "But when we extended that period of time, absorption actually increased by about 200 percent. It was very clear -- nanoparticles definitely affects iron uptake and transport."

While acute oral exposure caused disruptions to intestinal iron transport, chronic exposure caused a remodeling of the intestinal villi -- the tiny, finger-like projections that are vital to the intestine's ability to absorb nutrients -- making them larger and broader, thus allowing iron to enter the bloodstream much faster.
"The intestinal cells are a gateway that ingested nanoparticles must go through to get to the body," said Mahler. "We monitored iron absorption both in vivo and in vitro and found that the polystyrene nanoparticles affected the absorption process and caused a physiological response."

The next step for Mahler and the team is to take a look at whether similar disruptions in nutrient absorption could be possible in other inorganic elements such as calcium, copper and zinc. Also on the research agenda is the reaction of other nutrients such as fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E and K. And chickens and their intestines will definitely be part of this next phase of the study.
"The gastrointestinal tract of a chicken has very similar features to that of a human," said Mahler. "We can learn a great deal from the way chicken tissue works which means we can make better predictions about how humans will react."

And humans certainly consume enough nanoparticles -- about 100 trillion of them every day. Their ultra-small size and amazing qualities makes them increasingly common in food and pharmaceutical products. Although the impact of chronic exposure remains somewhat unknown, the ingestion of dietary particles is thought to promote a range of diseases, including Crohn's disease. With so many nanomaterials under development and with so much yet to be learned about nanoparticle toxicity and potential human tissue reactivity, Mahler and the team are hoping that their work, particularly the in vitro model, will provide an effective low-cost screening tool.

BPA Leaches From Polycarbonate Drinking Bottles

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 1 Jan 2016 03:42:00 -0800

A new study from Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) researchers found that participants who drank for a week from polycarbonate bottles, the popular, hard-plastic drinking bottles and baby bottles, showed a two-thirds increase in their urine of the chemical bisphenol A (BPA).

Exposure to BPA, used in the manufacture of polycarbonate and other plastics, has been shown to interfere with reproductive development in animals and has been linked with cardiovascular disease and diabetes in humans. The study is the first to show that drinking from polycarbonate bottles increased the level of urinary BPA, and thus suggests that drinking containers made with BPA release the chemical into the liquid that people drink in sufficient amounts to increase the level of BPA excreted in human urine.

The study appears on the website of the journal Environmental Health Perspectives and is freely available at http://www.ehponline.org/members/2009/0900604/0900604.pdf.

In addition to polycarbonate bottles, which are refillable and a popular container among students, campers and others and are also used as baby bottles, BPA is also found in dentistry composites and sealants and in the lining of aluminum food and beverage cans. (In bottles, polycarbonate can be identified by the recycling number 7.) Numerous studies have shown that it acts as an endocrine-disruptor in animals, including early onset of sexual maturation, altered development and tissue organization of the mammary gland and decreased sperm production in offspring. It may be most harmful in the stages of early development.

"We found that drinking cold liquids from polycarbonate bottles for just one week increased urinary BPA levels by more than two-thirds. If you heat those bottles, as is the case with baby bottles, we would expect the levels to be considerably higher. This would be of concern since infants may be particularly susceptible to BPA's endocrine-disrupting potential," said Karin B. Michels, associate professor of epidemiology at HSPH and Harvard Medical School and senior author of the study.

The researchers, led by first author Jenny Carwile, a doctoral student in the department of epidemiology at HSPH, and Michels, recruited Harvard College students for the study in April 2008. The 77 participants began the study with a seven-day "washout" phase in which they drank all cold beverages from stainless steel bottles in order to minimize BPA exposure. Participants provided urine samples during the washout period. They were then given two polycarbonate bottles and asked to drink all cold beverages from the bottles during the next week; urine samples were also provided during that time.

The results showed that the participants' urinary BPA concentrations increased 69% after drinking from the polycarbonate bottles. (The study authors noted that BPA concentrations in the college population were similar to those reported for the U.S. general population.) Previous studies had found that BPA could leach from polycarbonate bottles into their contents; this study is the first to show a corresponding increase in urinary BPA concentrations in humans.

One of the study's strengths, the authors note, is that the students drank from the bottles in a normal use setting. Additionally, the students did not wash their bottles in dishwashers nor put hot liquids in them; heating has been shown to increase the leaching of BPA from polycarbonate, so BPA levels might have been higher had students drunk hot liquids from the bottles.

Canada banned the use of BPA in polycarbonate baby bottles in 2008 and some polycarbonate bottle manufacturers have voluntarily eliminated BPA from their products. With increasing evidence of the potential harmful effects of BPA in humans, the authors believe further research is needed on the effect of BPA on infants and on reproductive disorders and on breast cancer in adults.

"This study is coming at an important time because many states are deciding whether to ban the use of BPA in baby bottles and sippy cups. While previous studies have demonstrated that BPA is linked to adverse health effects, this study fills in a missing piece of the puzzle—whether or not polycarbonate plastic bottles are an important contributor to the amount of BPA in the body," said Carwile.

Your Stomach And Digestive Tract Can Collect Significant Amounts of Wax and Chemicals By Using These Daily

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 1 Jan 2016 03:40:00 -0800

There are definite standards to follow while manufacturing these disposable paper cups. This ensures that paper cups do not become toxic when soaked in water or hot liquids. However, some unscrupulous traders and small workshop manufacturers do not follow these guidelines. In order to reduce the cost of paper cups production, they can use industrial wax and harmful waste plastic, which again may not meet the standards of manufacturing. And so, use of these paper cups can definitely effect your health in long term.

The wax material and chemicals in low quality disposable paper cups can indeed melt and get into your digestive tract. In the long run, this can lead to gastrointestinal disorders and other health issues.

Consider hot coffee poured into a polystyrene cup. What happens? “The migration of styrene from a polystyrene cup into the beverage it contains has been observed to be as high as 0.025% for a single use. That may seem like a rather low number, until you work it this way: If you drink beverages from polystyrene cups four times a day for three years, you may have consumed about one foam cup's worth of styrene along with your beverages.”

Polystyrene nanoparticles also affect the absorption process and cause a physiological response.

It’s difficult (and sickening) to imagine eating Styrene plastic in any quantity.

But the problem doesn’t stop with container chemistry. Fat products in food as well as acidic products can leach more polystyrene out of the plastic than water does. Long-term exposure to small quantities of styrene is also suspected of causing:

* Low platelet counts or hemoglobin values;
* Chromosomal and lymphatic abnormalities;
* Neurotoxic effects due to accumulation of styrene in the tissues of the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nerves, resulting in fatigue, nervousness, difficulty sleeping, and other acute or chronic health problems associated with the nervous system.

There are measurable levels of styrene in both unprocessed and processed foods

Note how foods higher in fats leach more styrene out of the plastic, and this list is far from being all inclusive! There are the plastics that microwave food is packaged in. There is still a toxin threat even if they heat those items up in a conventional oven instead of using a microwave.

There are measurable levels of styrene in both unprocessed and processed foods as shown below:

UNPROCESSED FOOD	STYRENE LEVEL (ppb)
Cinnamon	170 - 39,000
Beef	5.3 - 6.4
Black currants	2 - 6
Coffee Beans	1.6 - 6.4
Peanuts	1 - 2.2
Strawberries	0.37 - 3.1
Wheat	0.4 - 2

PROCESSED FOOD	STYRENE LEVEL (ppb)
Cream	134
Beer	32
Yogurt	26
Desserts	22
Soft Cheese	16

Also, these paper, styrofoam and plastic cups also have harmful effects on the environment. Most disposable products do not decompose in a landfill, or may release dangerous gases like methane if decomposed anaerobically. The polyethylene that is used in preparing many brands of cups is made from petroleum or natural gas. It is not biodegradable without special treatment, and therefore accumulates. Moreover, this plastic resin prevents recycling of paper cups, which in turn demands more paper, harming the environment again, in the form of deforestation.

The solution? Use your own glass container or thermos of which there are no many on the market. Some are stainless steel glass bottles are also being made where the lining is glass and the outside steel shell prevents breaking.

Sources:
ejnet.org
grinningplanet.com
ntp.niehs.nih.gov

Mae Chan holds degrees in both physiology and nutritional sciences. She is also blogger and and technology enthusiast with a passion for disseminating information about health.

Bisphenol S: A Toxic BPA Substitute Found in BPA-Free Products

How Music Affects Productivity

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 1 Jan 2016 03:33:00 -0800

It was my freshman year of college and I feel that I’m coming to the realization I may not be able to study while jamming out. This was devastating on account I listened to music almost every waking hour of my day. I noticed I wasn’t comprehending my textbooks as well while enjoying some tunes and when writing my writers block seemed to come up much more often.

Luckily, after a few more years of college, I did find out how to make a symbiotic relationship between my music and studies. It started when I begun to exercise, or was feeling gloomy. I would put on music that fit that mood or pace. I applied that to my studies. When I’m reading or writing: a faster beat with no songs with lyrics allowed. Doing math involved complete silence (although I kept my earbuds in so not be disturbed). For my creative, communicative or thinking type of classes I would put on some pop or rock I’ve listened to for years.

Finding out what type of music applied to what type of studying habit was vital for me. I hope today’s infographic can help you find yours.