Tab Menu I

Translate

Monday 18 September 2017

The Worlds Fittest Grandmas

If you’re lacking the motivation to hit the gym or reach your health and fitness goals, look this



These grandmas is going to blow you away!

Age is nothing bu a number at most women at age 64-80 does not act or look like these..

80 Year young Ernestine shepard : https://www.instagram.com/ernestine.shepherd/

64 Year Young Wendy Ida : https://www.instagram.com/wendyidafitness/

Janice Lorraine is a 74-year-old former school counselor who recently retired and needed something to fill her days and give her purpose.




Sunday 27 August 2017

4 Good Fruits for Pregnant Mom


Feed intake into your body will be absorbed also by the Small in the womb. So you need balanced nutritious food for the fulfillment of fetal nutritional needs. In the third trimester, the fetus will grow larger.

A good fruit for pregnant women would be one of the important points that must be considered. Mother would think twice about eating any food. Because it will greatly affect the growth and development of the fetus.

All intake of food that goes into your body will be absorbed also by the Small in the womb. So you need balanced nutritious food for the fulfillment of fetal nutritional needs. In the third trimester, the fetus will grow larger. So the need for nutritional intake is increasing. Mothers should also consume a lot of balanced nutrition. Whether it's carbohydrates, fats, and minerals like iron. One of the foods that have the content of vitamins and minerals can certainly be obtained from fruits and vegetables. There are many types of fruit that is good for pregnant women who can be consumed you know. Well, what are you doing? Check out the following reviews.

Avocado
This fruit became one of the recommendations for the mother because it has a good content such as folic acid that is needed by pregnant women. In addition, avocado is also the only fruit that contains monounsaturated fatty acids. Of course, for pregnant women who need fat, it would be better if you eat foods that contain unsaturated fats. Mango

This seasonal fruit does have a sweet and fresh taste. However, not only delicious loh, this fruit also can help digestion process. In addition the content of vitamins A, C, E, potassium, and fiber contained in it and good for pregnant women.


Kiwi
Kiwis are ripe and tasty. They come with important nutrients like Vitamin C, E, A, Potassium, Phosporus, Magnesium, Folic Acid and dietary fiber. Kiwis are known to have healing effects on human respiratory system. You are less likely to be affected by cough, cold and wheezing if you eat kiwis every day. The fruit helps in lesser blood clotting because of its richness in phosphorus content. Kiwi also felicitates easy absorption of iron.

Orange
This fresh fruit is also beneficial to the health of pregnant women. The content of vitamin C and folic acid can help Mother maintain body health as well as optimize the growth of the baby in the womb.

Banana
Good fruit for pregnant women This one is very easy to find in Indonesia. Consumption of bananas is also appropriate for mothers who often experience constipation problems. The fruit of this one will greatly help overcome the problem. In addition, quoted from the book 378 Juices & Herbal Remedy: Tumpas Illness of Light to Weight , the content of folic acid in bananas will be easily absorbed by the fetus.

Saturday 26 August 2017

Google creates virtual reality voyage to Italy


Really awesome, Google started in January 1996 as a research project by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, now Google has recreated a mythical journey from 300 years ago, that takes armchair travellers through the jewels of Italia in a virtual reality version of “The Grand Tour of Italy.”

Art lovers and Italophiles can explore Italy without leaving home using Google’s VR Cardboard, a platform that creates immersive experiences through a simple, foldable and affordable, cardboard viewer.

The Grand Tour of Italy was a voyage undertaken by wealthy young, adventure-seeking men and women who were dispatched by their upper class families to explore the country’s art and culture and become sophisticated and learned citizens of the world.

Three hundred years later, the voyage is being democratised for the less affluent, through a VR experience that explores four cities — Venice, Palermo, Siena and Rome – in 25 videos, 21 Street View tours, 38 digital exhibitions and 1,300 ultra-high resolution images.

Partners include museums, art galleries, and theatres across the country.

Highlights include a street art tour in Rome, and the Redentore fireworks display in Venice.

Parts of the tour are also available on Google Arts and Culture.


GoogleGrandTour The Grand Tour of Italy


Sunday 13 August 2017

7 Technologies Where China Has the U.S. Beat

Earlier this week, the latest surprise came from energy secretary Steven Chu, who's been talking up China's green progress in an effort to boost Washington's resolve on clean tech policy.

In a talk at the National Press Club, with characteristic forceful clarity (PDF of slides), Chu illuminated the growing list of sectors where China's emerging leadership threatens U.S. players, and added leadership in supercomputing as the most recent Sino-superlative. China's success in these technologies represents a "Sputnik Moment" for the United States, Chu said.

"When it comes to innovation, Americans don't take a back seat to anyone -- and we certainly won't start now," said Secretary Chu at the event. "From wind power to nuclear reactors to high-speed rail, China and other countries are moving aggressively to capture the lead. Given that challenge, and given the enormous economic opportunities in clean energy, it's time for America to do what we do best: innovate."

China's ascent to the top of the list for supercomputing speed reveals a new front in this race. Last month China's Tianhe-1A, developed by Chinese defense researchers, became the world's fastest supercomputer, with a performance level of 2.57 petaflop/s (quadrillions of calculations per second, for all the geeks in our audience, based on a standard test), substantially eclipsing the U.S. DOE's Cray XT5 "Jaguar" system at Oak Ridge national labs in Tennessee, which runs at 1.75 petaflop/s. Third place is also held by a Chinese computer.

Supercomputers may seem long way from grid-competitive solar panels, long-range electric car batteries, or other cleantech gizmos, but advanced computational simulation is the keystone of most leading-edge scientific research, including nuclear energy, nanotech and materials science, proteomics and other advanced biotech applications. Basically, any very advanced science these days needs big computing horsepower. Leadership on the fastest-computer league tables has been traded off many times, between U.S., Japanese and European computing centers. China is a relative newcomer to the race, but is clearly the new elite.

Chu highlighted several crucial technologies -- mostly in the areas of power generation and  transportation -- where China is already outpacing U.S. efforts, adding the U.S. must innovate or risk falling far behind. The following is from the DOE:

High Voltage Transmission


China has deployed the world's first Ultra High Voltage AC and DC lines -- including one capable of delivering 6.4 gigawatts to Shanghai from a hydroelectric plant nearly 1300 miles away in southwestern China. These lines are more efficient and carry much more power over longer distances than those in the United States.

• High-Speed Rail.

In the span of six years, China has gone from importing this technology to exporting it, with the world's fastest train and the world's largest high-speed rail network, which will become larger than the rest of the world combined by the end of the decade. Some short distance plane routes have already been cancelled, and train travel from Beijing to Shanghai (roughly equivalent to New York to Chicago) has been cut from 11 hours to 4 hours.

• Advanced Coal Technologies. 
China is rapidly deploying supercritical and ultra-supercritical coal combustion plants, which have fewer emissions and are more efficient than conventional coal plants because they burn coal at much higher temperatures and pressures. Last month, Secretary Chu toured an ultra-supercritical plant in Shanghai which claims to be 45 to 48 percent efficient. The most efficient U.S. plants are about 40 percent efficient. China is also moving quickly to design and deploy technologies for Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) plants as well as Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS).

• Nuclear Power. 

China has more than 30 nuclear power plants under construction, more than any other country in the world, and is actively researching fourth generation nuclear power technologies.

• Alternative Energy Vehicles. 
China has developed a draft plan to invest $17 billion in central government funds in fuel economy, hybrids, plug-in hybrids, electric and fuel cell vehicles, with the goal of producing 5 million new energy vehicles and 15 million fuel-efficient conventional vehicles by 2020.

• Renewable Energy. 
China is installing wind power at a faster rate than any nation in the world, and manufactures 40 percent of the world's solar photovoltaic (PV) systems. It is home to three of the world's top ten wind turbine manufacturers and five of the top ten silicon-based PV manufacturers in the world.

• Supercomputing. 
Last month, the Tianhe-1A, developed by China's National University of Defense Technology, became the world's fastest supercomputer. While the United States -- and the Department of Energy in particular -- still has unrivalled expertise in the useful application of high performance computers to advance scientific research and develop technology, America must continue to improve the speed and capacity of our advanced supercomputers.

On a note of consolation, Chu identified two research areas in U.S. labs that have the potential to vault U.S. industries to the front of these fields. Both are both vehicle related:

• Revolutionary Electric Vehicle Batteries -- 500 Miles on a Single Charge. 
With the help of Recovery Act funding, Arizona-based Fluidic Energy is working with Arizona State University to develop a new generation of "metal-air" batteries that can store many times more energy than standard lithium-ion batteries. Metal-air batteries contain high energy metals and literally breathe oxygen from the air, giving them the ability to store extreme amounts of energy.

To date, the development of these batteries has been blocked by the limitations of using unstable water based solutions that break down and evaporate out of the battery as it breathes. Fluidic Energy's innovative approach involves ionic liquids -- extremely stable salts in liquid form -- using no water at all.

If successful, the effort could yield batteries that weigh less, cost less, and are capable of carrying a four passenger electric car 500 miles without recharging, at a cost competitive with internal combustion engines. A fact sheet on the project, which is part of DOE's Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E).

Converting Sunlight Into Usable Fuel.
Through a newly established Energy Innovation Hub led by the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), an interdisciplinary team of scientists and engineers are working to create an integrated system modeled after photosynthesis that can convert sunlight, carbon dioxide and water into usable fuels such as gasoline.

The goal is to create a system of artificial photosynthesis that is 10 times more efficient than traditional photosynthesis in converting sunlight into fuel -- paving the way for a major expansion of America's biofuel industry and reducing our dependence on oil.

Guide How To Use Effective Serum According To Experts


Serum is featured in many magazines and blogs or beauty forums for women. But did you really understand how to properly use serum effectively?


1. BASIC KNOWLEDGE ABOUT THE SERVER

COMPARED TO THE HISTORY OF THE BEAUTY INDUSTRY, THE CONCEPT OF SERUM (OR SERUM, ESSENCE) IS STILL FRESH, WAS BORN IN 1982 AND IS UNDERSTOOD AS A FORM OF CONCENTRATED ESSENCE WITH THE USE OF EXCESS. EXCELS IN CARING AND IMPROVING THE SKIN.

The texture of the serum is generally milder than a moisturizer , and is capable of being used as a stand-alone skin cream, suitable for dry, oily, or neutral skin types.

According to experts, serum is the essence of skin care to crystallize should be able to contain up to 70% of the essence, have the ability to penetrate the skin very well. Unlike other skin care products , just one drop of serum is enough for the entire face.


2. HOW TO USE SERUM PROPERLY

Dermatologist and well-known expert in the beauty industry in the world, Adam Geyer has directed the following: "Serum should be used to nourish the skin twice a day. This is the first step to the skin after cleansing and toning. Even day creams and lotions before bed are also used after this serum. How to use serum is quite simple: you just give a sufficient amount (peanut) to your heart clean hands, rub your hands and press firmly to create heat. Then apply your face and massage gently. The heat of the hands will make the serum more effective.


3. HOW TO CHOOSE SERUM?

A question is not simple because the serum in the market is extremely rich, diverse. Usually, women choose serum quite emotional, may be according to price, design or advertising. " But it's time to get to know the ingredients of the serum as a real expert. Just like other cosmetics, serums are divided into different categories with different uses. There are some types of moisturizing serum that are naturally white, with collagen-boosting and antioxidant types, and there are also deep skin types with unique extracts, "says expert Adam. Geyer said.

Here are tips on choosing the serum that corresponds to your target



A) MOISTURIZE SKIN AND REDUCE BROWN SPOTS

"Choose serum with antioxidant ingredients, especially Vitamin C, which deepens the skin, prevents damage from the outside, improves color uniformity and reduces wrinkles on the face."


B) SKIN FIRMING

According to Adam Geyer, you should choose " Serum contains peptides that promote collagen production and elastin to restore elasticity and firmness of the skin."



C) Lightening and regenerating skin

" L OAI serum is formulated ingredients chevoi retinol will help promote cell renewal process and lighten the skin while maintaining the skin smooth. But with this ingredient you should use it at a reasonable level, because overuse will irritate or injure the skin, "



D) REJUVENATE THE SKIN AT NIGHT

This is also a very common purpose when using serum. You should choose products rich in essential oils and fatty acids, Omega-3 to help deepen and regenerate the skin.


Saturday 15 July 2017

How To Make Money Online Without a Website


Typically, when you think of generating an income online, your mind naturally goes to setting up a blog or website and using those as platforms to earn.

While owning your own web property is certainly a favorable situation, it doesn’t have to be for you to profit from the resources already available on the internet.

Getting traffic to your website or blog is no easy task. And typically, you need traffic to make money.  If building and maintaining a website is a tough business for you, then you’re probably better off without one. That’s why so many people want to know how they can make money online without a website.


Revenue Share Sites


If you enjoyed writing. Revenue sharing sites is a easy way to start earning extra income.

Revenue sharing sites pay contributors a portion of revenue the site generate. Usually, this is from ad earnings but some sites offer the opportunity to make affiliate sales. The revenue you’ll earn likely depends on how many page views your content receives. It’s a good idea to promote your content on social media to get as many visitors as you can.

Some writers swear that popular platforms, like HubPages, offer consistent extra income, while others insist they earn a full time living on revenue sharing sites. If you’d like to try your hand at earning on these popular platforms, check out:

Hubpages
Examiner
Infobarrel

What’s great about revenue sharing  sites is the possibility to earn passive income. You write the article once and can get paid over and over again each month. Remember, when it comes to passive income, it takes some time to build up a decent stream of money. While you might not see immediate results, after a few months you should start to notice an increase in money earned from older posts.

For those with a lot to say needing a platform to share and earn, revenue share sites offer an easy-to-setup way to make money online without a website.

Facebook

You’re really just a few clicks away from creating your own Facebook page. It’s really that simple. And the folks who are big on these know just what to do and how often to post up content. Affiliate marketers who use their Facebook profiles or Facebook pages have an advantage over those who are beginning to start up – they have an audience already. So how did they do this?

You’re really just a few clicks away from creating your own Facebook page. It’s really that simple. And the folks who are big on these know just what to do and how often to post up content. Affiliate marketers who use their Facebook profiles or Facebook pages have an advantage over those who are beginning to start up – they have an audience already. So how did they do this?

Similarly to how you get traffic into your website, the best way to get people’s attention to your page is by doing a few things:

a. Create an ad or boost a post

This will help you target the audience types you’re looking for, as well as advertise multiple types of links to different types of audience profiles. Which means – each post or ad you do would be different, and you can set various goals or objectives to achieve from it.

Do this long enough, and you’ll soon be getting a following – though the benchmark for success depends on just how compelling or interesting you’ll be making your Facebook page about.

b. Create videos or pictures for content

Think outside the box and don’t do what everyone else is doing. Instead of just linking products, use this as an opportunity to connect with your audience by creating content they love – and things they can share more importantly.

By doing this, you’ll at least gain a few more eyeballs that target outside of your core audience – and if you strategically place your affiliate links in the descriptions, you’ll at least be getting some conversions.


YouTube
The top earners on YouTube in 2015 are all millionaires. How exactly are ordinary people making serious money online without a website? Simple. By uploading and monetizing YouTube videos.

YouTube Ads
Two popular ways to make money with YouTube videos include ads and sponsored videos. Ad revenue is as easy as connecting Google Adsense with YouTube. If you don’t have a Google Adsense account, you can sign up for one for free.  With Adsense, you’ll earn a set amount for each 1,000 views your videos receive.

As you grow your YouTube audience, you may be invited to join a Multi-channel Network and the YouTube Partner Program. This offers additional promotions and ad revenue opportunities that can turn into some serious money made without a website.

Don’t forget about the possibility of affiliate sales on YouTube. Channels that focus on product reviews are perfect platforms for affiliate marketing. In fact, some people make all of their online income through affiliate sales.

YouTube Channels that Earn
Intrigued by making money online without a website by using YouTube? Some popular channel ideas include:

Vlogging – Video blogging =Vlogging. It’s just like a traditional blog but you are making video entries instead of written ones. You can vlog about whatever you’d like — current events, musings, motherhood, personal finance, etc. Vlogging is the easiest way to get started since you don’t need anything more than a webcam and your own thoughts!

Product Reviews – As I mentioned, product review channels are easily monetized with ads and affiliate links. If you become popular enough, companies may even pay you to review their products in a sponsored video.

How-tos & Tutorials – Millions of viewers turn to YouTube each month to learn how to do everything from makeup contouring to installing a hot water heater. If you’re creative, handy, or a subject-matter expert you can make money with informational videos that share your knowledge with others.

Cooking – Do you have some serious culinary skills? Show them off on YouTube and get paid for doing something you enjoy. Cooking channels can be super niche like vegan paleo recipes or tackle cooking with specific instruments like grills or slow cookers.

Music – If you’ve got some singing chops or can play any instruments, consider launching your music career on YouTube (Justin Bieber was discovered this way).


Instagram

The picture sharing platform is a tough nut to crack for affiliate marketing, but when done right, can yield incredible results – simply because the content found there is incredibly easy to consume. We’ve seen the likes of super famous folks like Kendall Jenner and more, endorsing products on their feed, to low and mid-level popular Instagrammers posting up photos of them with products they love – or in this case – “love”.

Now it’s easy to get lost in this and not know what is genuine or not, but more often than not, the affiliate marketers who are serious with using this medium tend to stick to one or two themes, just to ensure any difference in product or brands do not derail their identity.

It’s important to set that tone for your followers, as no one likes to see what’s not relevant – and the everyday end user are a pretty smart bunch – they can smell hard-sell if you’re not careful.

From here, affiliate marketers place their affiliate links in their bio descriptions – and more often than not, most of them are pretty successful at converting their followers into customers for merchants.

Twitter

One would think that there’s only so much you can write in 140 characters, but the real trick to being successful at Twitter is constantly posting up tweets. You’ll want to turn it down a notch and not turn every tweet into an affiliate related one, simply because you’ll just end up losing your identity and no one will follow or retweet you thereafter.

When you’ve mastered shorthand witty lines, you’re ready to let some affiliate marketing slip in between those witty tweets. Good luck!

Snapchat

New to the game, we’ve not quite seen many who’ve taken advantage of Snapchat’s meteoric rise to social media, but if their stories are any indication to what’s to come, we’re pretty sure we’ll be seeing some interesting affiliate marketing tactics being displayed here.

Stories refer to short videos or pictures shared with followers, and they can have quite a profound effect if done correctly.

Saturday 10 June 2017

The Weirdest Foods

The Strangest Foods From Around The World.

Cobra Heart - Vietnam



Cobra heart dishes are pretty popular in Vietnam and is readily available in many restaurants. Vietnamese people consider that consuming a beating cobra heart enhances virility in males.




Balut – Philippines



The balut egg, the traditional Filipino hangover cure, is a poached fertilized duck embryo. Balut eggs, considered a delicacy, are fertilized eggs that contain partially developed duck embryos. A serving of balut contain 188 calories, including 14 grams each of protein and fat, 2 milligrams of iron and 116 milligrams of calcium.




Wasp Crackers – Japan



"Wasp crackers"  a combination of delicious Japanese rice cracker with wasps.




Fried Spider – Cambodia



The village, often referred to as “Spiderville,” is a top spot to try Cambodia's delicacy of fried spiders. The Cambodian delicacy of fried spider is something of an acquired taste. These little chaps are tarantulas.




Tuesday 6 June 2017

iPhone Keyboard Tips And Tricks You Need to Know


Most of the time, when one purchases a new device with a different technology, it can be very demanding and requires that you learn how to use it. However, sine not everyone is a technology genius, sometimes it is extremely difficult. Most especially when there aren’t many resources available to help you in the process like in the case of new releases-where every is still at the learning stage.

A typical example is with the new Apple iPhone. After purchase, one might very quickly jump start learning how to use the device by exploring all the new and various technologies that comes with it. And probably, after spending tons of time with your new Apple iPhone, you might become quite familiar with. However, some little tricks just aren’t learned by playing around with your phone. And in order to be able to use or master these tricks, you will have to learn most of them first. In this article, we are going to explore a couple of tricks concerning your iPhone keyboard.

The Apple iPhone has one of the most unique touch screen keyboards any other phone has or has ever had, with a well designed and advanced technology like never before. With such a unique touch screen keyboard, there are a hand-full of tricks that you must know so as to make your messaging experience a delight. These very simple tricks if followed accurately can enable you to type quicker and have error free messages, as well as making it possible to be able to type easier than ever before.

- The very first tip concerns actually typing letters into your iPhone. When entering a letter, you tap on it; however, the letter isn’t placed onto the screen until you lift your finger off of it.
Thus, if you accidentally touched the wrong key then you can simply fix this by sliding your finger to the correct letter. Then when you have found the right letter, you simply lift your finger as you would do normally and the letter right will be placed on the screen. This tip can help fix some errors, as well as safe you considerable time.

- The second tip is all about the auto-correction feature within the keyboard. Even though this feature seems to be a great way to keep your writing clear and easy. It also makes it very easy to accept wrong words that you never intended to type-in fact there is a whole website dedicated to “wrong words gaffs”. So if you want to stay away from wrong words gaffs, then you have to learn how to accept and reject suggested words. If you want to accept a suggested word that pops up as you start typing, then you will have to tap either return, space or a punctuation mark simply. However, if the suggested word is not the word you are looking for, and you want to reject a it, just simply continue typing and ignore the suggestion and once you have finished typing the word that you want, you can now tap the completed word.

-Also remember that if you actually spelled a word that is not available in the iPhone suggestion list more than twice, it automatically adds it to your words list. and also if you consecutively use a particular word, out of a given suggestion, that word is also added to your words list, more like your most used words. And the next time you start typing the same letters relative to the word, it will be at the top of the suggestion list. And even though it might take some time, say two or three weeks for your iPhone to store all these words, once it is done, your iPhone will be more faster when typing.

-For the last tip in this series, we are going to be looking at the capitalization of words. If you want make the first letter of a word a capital letter, you simply tap the shift key and then tap the letter you want capitalized. But what if you want to capitalize the entire word? This is very easy as well, and doesn’t require you to tap the shift key before each letter as we did with capitalizing a single letter. Instead go to settings and then tap general after that tap keyboard. From there tap and select “Enable Caps Lock,” from then hence forth, when you double tap the shift key it will light up blue, and you will be able to type in all caps.
Some of these tricks might appear to be very simple, and at times we may under look them and consider them to be irrelevant, but they can also at the same time completely change the way you look at and use your iPhone. So don’t hesitate to try them out if you have’t been using them already

Wednesday 29 March 2017

Leaving The European Union But Not Leaving Europe

“We are leaving the European Union, but we are not leaving Europe” - PM Theresa May



UK’s PM Theresa May is expected to make a statement to MPs later at 1130GMT and finally trigger Brexit Article 50. According to previous consensus, the statement should lean to the conciliatory tone, calling all Britons to unite ahead of this historical moment.

“We will negotiate as one United Kingdom”

“We will control immigration so it serves the best our interests”

“We will seek a bold and constructive free-trade agreement with the EU, a deal that gives both British and European business the best conditions to operate in both territories”

“We will make sure that we build free-trade agreements with other countries besides the EU”

“It is our right to deliver a smooth and orderly Brexit”

“We understand that there will be consequences for the UK leaving the EU” “It is in the interests of both the UK and the EU that there is as little disruption as possible”

“Leaving the EU doesn’t mean we don’t share the European values”

“We will continue to be reliable partners with the EU”


Theresa May will call on the British people to unite as she triggers article 50, beginning a two-year process that will see the UK leave the European Union and sever a political relationship that has lasted 44 years.



Sunday 19 March 2017

Crunchy Toast Could Give Your Cancer


Toasting your bread may cause DNA damage and raise your cancer risk, says new research.

Many people like to toast their bread to a crisp for their breakfast, but health experts warn that regularly overdoing it can increase the risk of cancer.

“The darker it is, the higher their acrylamide content,” explains food toxicologist Bernd Schaefer of the German Risk Assessment Institute, referring to a chemical compound suspected of being carcinogenic.

Research has proven the carcinogenic effects of acrylamide on animals, Schaefer notes, although no scientific studies have yet been carried out on humans.

Acrylamide is released when starchy foods that also contain the amino acid asparagine are heated to high temperatures.

The compound, which builds up when temperatures exceed about 120°C, is genotoxic, meaning it causes damage to a person’s DNA.

“We cannot establish a threshold below which it is safe,” Schaefer notes, admitting that experts don’t yet know exactly how dangerous it is.

If you eat dark toast once in a while, as an exception, you do not need to worry. “But if you regularly consume high quantities of acrylamide, there may be risks,” Schaefer explains.


It’s not just dark bread that could pose a health risk. Coffee may also contain varying amounts of acrylamide depending on the extent to which beans have been roasted. However, experts believe that other substances may counter that effect.

“We suspect that coffee also contains substances that provide some sort of protection against the effects of carcinogenic substances,” Schaefer said, citing a World Health Organization (WHO) study carried out last year.

Exactly how that works remains unclear, but research has so far spared coffee from any blame for cancer.

Friday 17 March 2017

Stimulating Baby's senses for Brain Development



Stimulus and movement help with the development of a baby’s brain, lays the architecture for all future development and sets a baby up for a healthy, happy and well-coordinated body.  It is never too soon to start developing a baby’s senses.

The first three years of your baby’s life are critical for him to develop both physically and mentally. To optimise brain development, he will need to be constantly stimulated.

In a newborn, about 1.8 million synaptic connections are develo-ping per second, and whether these connections survive or wither away depends on the nature of the stimulation the baby receives.

The stimulation of the baby’s brain occurs through his senses, namely, his sense of touch, smell, vision, hearing and taste. Since the different areas of the brain correspond to different senses, whenever you stimulate his senses, you are also stimulating his brain.

Seeing is believing

When trying to engage with your baby, eye contact is very important. Studies have shown that babies naturally gravitate to look at a face that is looking at them, so if you look at him, he will look back at you for a longer time (compared to if you are looking away from him).

Looking at him with an animated or exaggerated expression (e.g. smiling, making faces, etc) helps to capture his attention for a longer time.

The power of scents

Your baby can smell you. Newborns have a strong sense of smell and instinctively know the scent of breast milk. That is why your baby will turn his head to mummy when he is hungry.

Newborns are just like adults – they will turn toward nice smells and will shy away from disagree-able ones.

Your baby will be soothed by smells that are familiar, such as a favourite blanket or pillow. He may even hang on to it until he is much older, as the smell helps to relieve any stress he feels.

A study showed that babies exposed to familiar smells cry less after a painful heel-stick procedure, compared to babies exposed to unfamiliar smells or placed in odourless areas. Crying was also reduced when any of these babies was exposed to a familiar smell.


Importance of touch

Studies have shown how children who receive a lot of care and attention, in the form of physical contact with their parents, turn out to be more resilient to pressure, frustration and stress.

There is also a positive impact on their cognitive functions when they grow up, e.g. they tend to be more sociable and turn out to be more skilled individuals.

Newborn babies who receive a lot of parental touch in their care also handle pain better, e.g. they cry less or for shorter periods.

Hear this

Research shows that babies generally preferred listening to human voices, especially mummy’s voice. Newborns can usually recognise mummy’s voice and will connect her voice with her face.

Preterm infants in hospital benefit from more exposure to their parents, and even a simple action such as talking, reading or singing them a lullaby, will help their growth and development.

Another study using a computed tomography (CT) scan showed that there was brain activity in the linguistic processing area of a child’s brain; this was markedly higher when the child heard mummy’s voice, as opposed to a stranger’s voice, or even lower when listening to music.

So, what’s the verdict?

Don’t be shy to talk, read or sing to baby! It doesn’t matter that he may not understand what you are saying, what is important is that he hears your voice.


Tasting the world

Babies love exploring the world with every sense at their disposal, so it should come as no surprise when they put things in their mouth!

On your part, take extra care to ensure that toys are clean and safe for baby, i.e. no small parts that may be swallowed or toxic substances such as lead-based paint.

When it comes to complementary foods, take the necessary precautions to ensure that the taste and texture are suitable for his age. Be vigilant and never give him foods that can cause choking such as whole sausages, meat/cheese chunks, grapes, large chunks of raw veggies or fruits, nuts, popcorn, hard candy, peanut butter, marshmallows or chewing gum.

At the same time, babies should be exposed to different textures, not only blended or mashed food.


How can you engage baby’s senses?

The perfect chance for your baby to experience a full sensory experience is during bath time and when you are giving him a massage:


• Vision – mummy’s full attention is on baby and this gives the both of you plenty of opportunity for eye contact.

• Smell – while there may be many fragranced products on the shelves, babies are attracted to the smell of their mother the most, so get close when giving your baby a bath or massage.

• Touch – as mummy gives him a bath/massage, the skin-to-skin contact helps soothe and comfort him.

• Hearing – talk, read or sing to baby as often as you can. Don’t worry, he won’t get bored and will probably keep asking for more!

• Taste – be adventurous and talk to your baby about taste. For instance, when you go grocery shopping, you can describe the flavours, colour, texture or taste of the foods that are on sale. Do the same once you start him on complementary foods.

Keep in mind that your baby experiences the world differently from you, so what you may find boring may be something that interests him and vice-versa.

For instance, you can use bold and colourful designs for his nursery/play-area. This helps him identify objects by sight as his eyesight develops.

You can also play simple games with him such as doing high-fives or simple clapping songs or games. This helps develop his hand-eye coordination and depth perception.

First fluorescent frog found in Argentina


The first naturally fluorescent frog was discovered recently in Argentina, almost by chance, a member of the team of researchers.

Argentine and Brazilian scientists at the Bernardino Rivadaiva Natural Sciences Museum made the discovery while studying the metabolic origin of pigments in a tree-frog species common to South America.

Under normal light the frog’s translucent skin is a muted yellowish-brown color with red dots, but when the scientists shone an ultraviolet light on it, it turned a celestial green.

According to one of them, Carlos Taboada, the case is “the first scientific record of a fluorescent frog.”

“We were very excited,” said his fellow researcher Julian Faivovich. “It was quite disconcerting.”

He said the discovery “radically modifies what is known about fluorescence in terrestrial environments, allowing the discovery of new fluorescent compounds that may have scientific or technological applications.”

It also “generates new questions about visual communication in amphibians,” he said.

The team studied some 200 more examples to ensure the phenomenon was not due to the frog’s captivity, and detected the fluorescent properties in all the specimens.

Maria Lagorio – an independent researcher and expert in fluorescence, who the research team contacted after the discovery , told that the trait is common in aquatic species and seen in some insects, “but has never been scientifically reported in amphibians.

The finding was recently published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Tuesday 7 February 2017

Can Vaping Really Help You To Stop Smoking?


Quitting is the best thing you can do for yourself and the people you love. Smoking harms almost every tissue and organ in the body, including your heart and blood vessels. Smoking also harms nonsmokers who are exposed to second-hand smoke. If you smoke, you have good reason to worry about its effect on your health, your loved ones and others. Deciding to quit is a big step, and following through is just as important. Quitting smoking isn’t easy, but others have done it, and you can too.

Professor Robert West, the lead author of the study, commented “E-cigarettes appear to be helping a significant number of smokers to stop who would not have done otherwise – not as many as some e-cigarette enthusiasts claim, but a substantial number nonetheless.”


The Analysis – How They Came Up With the Estimate

Robert West and colleagues Lion Shahab and Jamie Brown used data from the Smoking Toolkit Study, basing the analysis on 2014 data because it’s the most recent year for which full statistics are available. The full paper gives a run-down of the various steps in the calculation – and is only short, if you’re interested in reading it – but basically involves using known statistics on the number of people who attempted to quit by vaping and on the success rates of e-cigs to come up with the figure.

First, they worked out the number of smokers who attempted to quit in 2014, which was 3.16 million. Of these, about 28 percent attempted to quit by vaping without using prescription medicines or behavioral support – equating to about 891,000 people. If they’d tried to quit cold turkey or using nicotine replacement therapy bought over the counter, about 5 percent of them would have been successful, but vaping increases quit-rates by about 50 percent, so the total quit-rate for these smokers would be about 7.5 percent. This means that 2.5 percent of them quit by vaping who wouldn’t have stopped otherwise, or about 22,000 people.

However, the rise in vaping has been accompanied by a decline in smokers using prescription medicines and behavioral support in their quit attempts. The authors note that the decline doesn’t perfectly match up to the rise in vaping, but if you assume that vaping is responsible for about 80 percent of the decrease, then the estimate can be updated to account for this. Using both counseling and medication is the best method of quitting, according to the evidence, so if vaping has taken some smokers away from this approach, then it would detract from the additional positive effect of vaping. With this taken into account, the number of extra quitters thanks to vaping reduces to 16,000.


Is 16,000 to 22,000 Too Low?

The authors note that the estimate of 16,000 to 22,000 is much lower than the estimate of 560,000 ex-smoking vapers in England, but present plenty of reasons for this difference. The calculated figure is only for quitters in the past year, so many of the additional ex-smoking vapers (who quit longer than a year ago) won’t be included, and about 9 percent of recent ex-smokers started vaping after quitting smoking (probably to avoid relapsing).

The biggest points that reduce the estimate are the fact that only about one-third of vapers who’ve quit smoking wouldn’t have been expected to quit cold turkey or using NRT, and finally, about 70 percent of recent ex-smoking vapers will relapse to smoking in future (this figure is based on existing knowledge about quitting smoking, not something specific to vaping). When these factors (and similar ones) are taken into account, the estimates are roughly in agreement with each other.

The assumptions do seem reasonable, although the idea that 70 percent of smokers to recently quit by vaping will return to smoking is questionable – after all, we’re still getting nicotine through a similar delivery mechanism, so you’d hope this would reduce that percentage a little.

In a blog post from the New Nicotine Alliance, they also point out that the success rates used as part of the study are probably (or at least hopefully) a bit of an underestimate compared to what would be expected with modern devices. They also point out that the decline in use of other quitting approaches could have been to do with something other than e-cigarettes, so in reality a larger proportion of the vapers might not have quit if it wasn’t for e-cigs.

These last few points are ultimately speculation, though, so they should be taken with a pinch of salt. In any case, an extra 20,000 or so quitters thanks to vaping is hardly something to balk at.

No matter how much or how long you’ve smoked, when you quit smoking, your risk of heart disease
and stroke starts to drop. In the year after you quit smoking, your excess risk of coronary heart disease drops by 50 percent. After 15 years, your risk is as low as someone who has never smoked. While you may crave a cigarette after quitting, most people feel that quitting is the most positive thing they’ve ever done for themselves.

Monday 30 January 2017

The Best Home Remedies for Asthma


Asthma is a chronic disease involving the airways in the lungs. There still might not be a final, perfect cure for asthma, but there are many ways to have relief from its symptoms. Your best bet is a combination of medicine and nutrition. I've always believed that asthma is something you don't mess around with.  As an asthma sufferer myself, I can tell you that no amount of herbal remedies can achieve immediate relief as powerfully as prescription medications. So as far as the medical approach goes, yes, you can buy Canadian Singulair and other medicines to bring asthma symptoms like wheezing, shortness of breath and chest tightness under control, or prevent them altogether.

I am also a firm believer in prevention. And there are many natural, organic foods that help with the long-term relief of these symptoms. In the following article we discuss a few such anti-asthma super foods that give great results when consumed.

1. Avocado
Avocados are rich in glutathione, which is known to detoxify any foreign substances like pollutants and also offers protection to cells against “free radical damage”.  Without the presence of glutathione, the other antioxidants won’t be able to function properly/efficiently.
Not only this, avocados are also a nice vitamin E source, especially for asthma sufferers whose condition is linked to one of the many nut allergies (since nuts happen to be one of the most popular/common vitamin E sources. However, if you have latex allergy, then you should be careful with avocados, especially ones that are not organically grown. The reason for this being simple: avocados may contain chitinases, substances which may cause an allergic reaction.

2. Broccoli Sprouts
Broccoli sprouts are full of valuable nutrition and make a great addition to your regular diet if you’re suffering from asthma. Studies show that eating broccoli for three days can increase antioxidant compounds in your body, which control the inflammation of the airway. So the more broccoli sprouts, the bigger the increase of these antioxidant compounds. You’ll find that broccoli sprouts are available at most grocery stores and health food stores. They also make a good addition to soups, salads, sandwiches, etc.

3. Apples
Research says that apples have some really extraordinary type properties that can help in fighting against asthma. One of the studies conducted discovered that pregnant women who added apples to their diet offered protection to the child against asthma. What’s more, it was also found that children who drink apple juice on a regular basis have a 50% lesser chance of developing wheezing.  So how do apples have these beneficial effects? It could be because of the fruit’s high concentration of vital bioflavonoids like quercetin, which is known to have
strong antioxidant, anti-histamine and other anti-inflammatory properties.  However, when purchasing apples, see to it that you buy organically grown fruit.

4.  Sweet Potatoes
Sweet potatoes are not only the oldest vegetables that we know of, but are also high in nutrition. It’s been noticed that sweet potatoes are the kind of food that has a very low chance of causing any allergic reaction. In addition to that, sweet potatoes are rich in potassium and vitamin C along with unique root-proteins which is known to have antioxidant properties that help in working against
asthma. The orange, yellow and pink varieties of sweet potato are also a good concentrated food source of important vitamin beta-carotene. The more strong the potato’s color, the more amount of beta-carotene.Again, the best treatment and prevention for asthma is a combination of prescription medication and healthy, nutritional living. The superfoods above make a good list to help you re-imagine you daily diet.

Thursday 26 January 2017

The Best Essential Oils For Sleep

Aromatherapy


Natural, essential oils have become essential allies on a daily basis, for health, hygiene, beauty and well-being. For a restful sleep, some essential oils are particularly indicated. Explanations.

As we know, essential oils have many virtues, but each oil has its properties and it is difficult to know them all. When seeking restful sleep, the latter can prove to be valuable allies..

Relax with lavender essential oil

Gold medal of the essential oils to favor when trying to improve the quality of its sleep: the lavender. It has the faculty to relax and relax. Lavender essential oil is particularly recommended when you can not fall asleep because of anxiety or stress.

Researchers found that lavender increased the amount of slow- and deep-wave sleep in participants. All participants reported feeling “higher vigor” the next morning.

Lavender oil can be added to the bathtub, some drops can be sprinkled on a pillow, or it can be used for a massage. It has relaxing properties and can also be mixed with a carrier oil and used over burns and cuts as it has antibacterial properties too.

Lavender oil not only heals the skin but also provides a scar-free healing! Lavender also helps in sinus problems, and this oil can be inhaled deeply to reduce congestion.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...

My Headlines