A gift to remember

The above picture has been taken from the Tata Museum in Jamshedpur, India. It is a painting that was gifted to the steel tycoon JRD Tata on his birthday by a street artist. For quite sometime no one could figure out what the painting was about. Some said it was abstract art. Others claimed it was a bad effort by an equally bad artist. Nobody was able to understand this particular work. The painting was given to JRD personally and the artist had promised to reveal the secret shortly. However, JRD passed away before the secret was revelaed. And what was the secret?


When a steel rod is placed at the circle in the painting, a sketched image of JRD Tata reflects on the rod. This shows that just because one does not understand something, it does not mean it has no any significance. » Continue reading

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Aten HDMI Switch VS-481 for home theater integration

Aten International's VS481 4-port HDMI switch for home theaters allows users to share their HDMI display device with up to four high-definition multimedia interface (HDMI) input sources such as HD DVD players, satellite systems, digital camcorders or video game consoles.

HDMI combines audio and video signals in one cable and provides content protection. Previously, users had to alternately unplug and plug in the differnet devices, whereas VS481 connects up to four different HDMI devices to one HDMI display device.

The VS481 allows users to conveniently switch between the connected digital devices by selecting the desired input source via the IR remote control unit or the front panel pushbuttons. VS481 features a user-friendly design with one of the four HDMI input ports located on the front panel. Thus, users can easily access devices, such as digital camcorders, without always having to move around the HDMI switch for connection. In addtiion, the HDMI switch provides LEDs to indicate the video source channels. Thanks to the plug and play function, the setup of VS481 is very fast and easy -- no software installation required.

Furthermore, it supports HDTV resolution of 480p, 720p, 1080i and 1080p and computer resolutions of VGA, SVGA, SXGA (1280 x 1024) and UXGA (1600 x1200). » Continue reading

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Welcome to the New Age

Life as we know will change dramatically over the next five years. This is what 'IBM's research' results say especially in the areas of communication, with predictive mobiles that will, read the user's mind.

Unveiled to shape the future, the 'IBM Next Five in Five' may sound a distant future, yet they are real-life innovators -- a list of innovations that have the potential to change the way people will work, live and play over the next five years. The list is based on market and societal trends expected to transform our lives, as well as emerging technologies from IBM's Labs around the world that could make these innovations possible.

"Our researchers are focused on the application of technologies in ways that matter to people, business and society," said Dr. Daniel Dias, Director -- India Research Laboratory IBM. "Open collaborative research and real-world innovations are going to shape the future. In the next five years, our lives will change through technology innovations in the following ways," said Dr. Dias.


Access healthcare remotely

Millions of people with chronic health problems such as diabetes, heart kidney or circulatory problems will be able to have their conditions automatically monitors as they go about their daily lives. Device makers and health care professionals will take a proactive approach to ongoing, remote monitoring of patients, delivered through sensors in the home, worn on the person or in devices and packaging. These advances will also allow patients to better monitor their own health and help clinicians provide the on-going preventive acre, regardless of a person's location. Hardware and software advances in the field of remote-control healthcare will be a major source of consumer and enterprise innovation by 2012.

Mobile phones to read minds

Advanced 'presence' technology will give mobile phones and PDAs the ability to automatically learn about their users' whereabouts and preferences as they commute, work and travel. Presence technology - used in instant messaging - already makes it possible to locate and identify a user as soon as the user connects to the network.

In five years, all sorts of mobile devices will have the ability to continually learn about, and adapt to your preferences and needs. Your phone will know when you're in class or in a meeting and divert automatically to voice mail. Your favorite pizza joint will know when you're on your way home after a late night and ping you with a special-price, take-home meal just for you.

Real-time speech translation

The movement toward globalization needs to take into account basic human elements such as differences in language, For example, IBM speech innovations are already allowing media companies to monitor Chinese and Arabic news broadcasts over the Web in English, travelers using PDAs to translate menu in Japanese, and doctors to communicate with patients in Spanish. Real-time translation technologies and services will be embedded into mobile phones, handheld devices and cars. These services will pervade every part of business and society, eliminating the language barrier in the global economy and social interaction.

3D Internet

The popular online immersive destinations, such as Second Life and the World of Warcraft, will evolve into the 3D Internet, much like the early workb y the like of Darpa, AOL and Prodigy evolved into the World Wide Web. In this immersive online world, you will walk the aisles of supermarkets, bookstores and DVD shops, where you'll encounter experts you'd rarely find in your local store. The 3D Internet will enable new kinds of education, remote medicine and consumer experiences, transforming how we interact with our friends, family, doctors, teachers, favorite stores and more.

New technologies to address environmental importance

Government and companies are increasingly looking to improve environmental stewardship and working to secure reliable and cost-effective resources like water, energy, etc. Information technology, material science, and physics will help meet environmental needs. Nanotechnology - the ability to manipulate individual atoms and molecules to form tiny new structures - has already had a major impact on microprocessors, making electronic products like PCs and mobile phones small, better and cheaper, In coming years, nanotechnology will likely be used for water filtration. This could advance ecology and conservation, helping to address the growing worldwide shortage of potable water supplies. Other areas where IT, physics, and material science will have a big impact are advanced water modeling and improved solar power systems. » Continue reading

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Do big meals cause crazy dreams?

Don't blame dinner -- food can't make you dream more. It just seems that way because digesting a heavy meal can disrupt your slumber, waking you during your nightly phase of intense, or REM, dreaming. Other factors that fragment sleep are anxiety, caffeine, alcohol, and sleeping pills (many can't get you through a full eight hours). » Continue reading

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Gardening for bones!

Hours spent in the garden pay off with more than baskets of blooms. A recent American study found that garden work can ward off osteoporosis. In a survey of 3310 women ages 50 and over, gardening -- pushing a mower, pulling weeds, lifting bags of fertilizer - was the most popular pastime and the activity most closely linked to healthy bones. "People ask me, 'What's the best exercise for bone health?'" says Lori Turner, the health-science professor who led the study. "I say, the one you'll do. People like gardening." » Continue reading

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Loo legacy

The Tokyo Police are flummoxed by the envelopes of 10,000 yen ($82) bills popping up in toilets in government offices.

The bills are individually wrapped in traditional Japanese "washi" paper with the word "remuneration" scribbled in ink. Each packet has a formal handwritten letter which says that the giver hopes that the money will be "used for your pursuit of knowledge". Since April, over $32,720 has been found in such envelopes. The police wonder -- is it an elderly man nearing death or just a prankster. » Continue reading

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In defence of clutter

Feel guilty about the Everest like mounds of paper on your desk? Don't. They're an essential part of the human thought process, according to one research team. In a series of studies across many occupations, social scientists Abigail Sellen and Richard Harper, co-authors of The Myth of the Paperless Office, observed that when people read at work, they use annotating, cross-referencing and paper-sorting to tackle complex problems. When only electronic files were used, or when papers were filed away, workers weren't as effective. Piles of paper, they say, serve as "temporary holding patters" for ideas in progress. "People with messy desks don't have messy heads," says Harper. "Quite the contrary -- they've taken the mess out of their heads and piled it on their desks." So the next time someone comments on your state of disarray, tell them you're a stacker, not a slacker. » Continue reading

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Donkey Diaper

Donkey owners in Limuru, Kenya are enraged after officials ordered their animals to wear nappies, The local council said that the idea was to keep the town's streets clean. Water trader Simon Kamau, who uses donkeys to transport water, says, "The problem is that donkeys kick. I was once kicked by one and it broke my leg. Perhaps the council could come and show us how to tie the nappies on the donkeys." Last heard, the mayor, who was not interested in giving a demonstration, is shelving the idea. » Continue reading

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Are humans the only animals that can recognize their own reflection?

No. A landmark study in 1970 at Tulane University in New Orleans, USA, showed conclusively that chimpanzees recognize their own reflections.

Under sedation, a blob of non-toxic paint was applied to the chimps' faces. When they woke they were given mirrors and, seeing the paint, the chimps touched it and cleaned it off, demonstrating that thhey realized the image in the mirror was their own.

Similar studies have suggested that orangutans can also recognize their own reflections. » Continue reading

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We talk of First and Third World countries. What or where is the Second World?

The term "Second World" was coined during the Cold War to describe Communist-bloc states. Their capitalist rivals in the West were known as the First World while the largely neutral states of Latin America, Africa and Asia became the Third World.

With the collapse of the Eastern bloc, the Second World all but ceased to exist. Today, the UN calls countries "developed" or "developing." » Continue reading

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Why are horseshoes considered lucky?

The belief comes from a sixteenth century idea that iron horse-shoes were a protection against witches and evil.

Antiquarian John Aubrey wrote in his 1696 book Miscellanies that the reasoning was that Mars (the Roman god of war and associated with the metal iron) was the enemy of Saturn (ruler of the witches).

A less pagan interpretation of the superstition is that a horseshoe held on its side makes a "C" for Christ. » Continue reading

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What causes the jerking sensation sometimes felt while falling asleep?

As the brain gradually slips into unconsciousness it loses control over the muscles, says Dr John Shneerson, director of The Sleep Centre at Papworth Hospital in Cambridge, England.

In this relaxed state, muscles spasm in reaction to thoughts passing through the mind. These sometimes take the form of loud noises or a feeling of falling that can seem very real and may even wake you up. But "sleep starts," as the spasms are often called, are completely harmless. » Continue reading

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Walk your way to health at work

A sedentary lifestyle coupled with erratic eating habits has resulted in an increasing amount of obese professionals. This is why two researchers in the Mayo Clinic in the US have devised a 'vertical workstation'. This is a desk fitted over a standard treadmill. And you can work out while you work.

The researchers -- James Levine and Jennifer Miller -- persuaded 15 obese people to work at the treadmill-desk and measured how many calories they burned. If an overweight office worker used this vertical workstation all day, every day for a year, he or she could lose up to 66 pounds, the researchers reported in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. On average, the overweight volunteers burned 100 calories more every hour while walkinig slowly, at 1 mile per hour, than while sitting in a chair.

The researchers said their desk costs approximately $1,600. Fancy buying one for your office? » Continue reading

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Think smart, work smart and rest smart

Once there was a group of men, chopping down timber in a jungle. The group comprised a young hot-blooded man and a number of older folks. This young chap was very hard working. He always worked through his break time and complained that the older folks were wasting time, taking breaks four times a day to drink and chat.

As times went by, this young guy noticed that even though he worked through his break time and harldy took rest, the older folks were chopping the same amount of trees as he was. In fact, there were times when they cut more trees than he did. It was almost as if these people were working through the break time as he did. So he decided to work harder the next day. Unfortunately, the results were even worse.


One day, one of the older folks invited him for a drink during their break time. The young man refused and said he had no extra time to waste! Then the old man smiled to him and said, "It is just a waste of effort to keep chopping trees without re-sharpening your knife. Sooner or later you will give up or be very exhausted as you have spent too much energy."

Suddenly the young man realized that actually during their tea breaks, while those old folks were having a chat, they were also resharpening their knives at the same time! And that's how they could chop faster than him spending lesser time in the bargain!

The old man then said, "What we need is efficiency by making use of our skill and ability intelligently. Only then can we have a lot more time to do other things."

The morale of the story:

Taking a short break during work makes you feel fresher, helps you think well and work better after the break. Unless you are simply finding an excuse to take a break!

Taking a break does not mean stopping work. It means that you just take some time to rest and re-think your strategy or go about it from another angle. » Continue reading

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Games women and men play

Next time a woman says she can't leave her computer it may be because it's her turn to deal. Women have edged out men when it comes to playing online games -- 50.4% vs 49.6%, according to a study by PC Data Online. While Nielsen NetRatings says men like sites that feature action games, women favour tamer dotcom fare at the following free internet game sites:

• Bingo.com: Players vie for prizes.
  
• JigZone.com: Features hundreds of jigsaw puzzles.
  
• Boxerjam.com: Compete on inetractive game shows.

» Continue reading

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How are old black and white films converted into colour?

The film is transferred to digital tape. Then, the first time each shade of grey appears, it is coloured manually on a graphics computer and given an identification code. Every time the grey reappears the computer colours it automatically. The process was first used in 1985 on the James Cagney classic Yankee Doodle Dandy. Though the technique was successful for video, the results were not good enough for big-screen projection. Today's advanced film scanners and recorders mean this is now possible, but colorization has largely died out following film industry complaints that the process distorts the original intentions of filmmakers. » Continue reading

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The formula for Happiness

Surely life would be easier if an equation for happiness existed. UK psychologists say they've found it: P + (5 x E) + (3 x H). Clear? Substitute P for "personal characteristics" (eg, outlook, adaptability), E for "existence" (health, money, friends) and H for "higher order" (self-esteem, ambitions, sense of humour).

Researchers interviewed some 1000 people to arrive at the formula. Each participant received a rating out of 100 by answering a questionnaire -- the higher the score, the happier the individual. » Continue reading

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Spirited blighters

Here's an instance of human bestiality: A gang of revellers in Varanasi made a stray goat drink liquor. Over time, the goat became regular at the party, were it is also served meat. The goat, by now almost addicted to booze, attacks its 'glass' mates if it is denied its large share. » Continue reading

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Clothing a dream

Fame comes in different forms. For some, even in the form of a 'salwar kameez'! P.S. Vijayan, a tailor in Thrissur (Kerala), India, stitched a 47 ft long 'salwar kameez'. The apparel took 77 metres of cloth to complete and cost Vijayan Rs 35,000. The 'salwar' alone was 30 ft long. Vijayan hopes that his feat will get him into the Guinness Book of World Records. » Continue reading

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How to be a Champion Conversationalist

Whether it's a barbecue, a business lunch or a formal dinner, mixing with other guests is a done deal. Etiquette expert Patsy Rowe offers these handy hints:

Have a great ice-breaker. "Where are you from?" is the all-round best. To discover that someone grew up in a small town, or has just returned from a Greek holiday, will pave the way for a whole host of secondary questions.

No-nos. In-house talk, photos of your kids, your worm-breeding hobby and your latest diet are conversational killers. Avoid gossip, details of your medical problems and personal money matters.

Curly questions. If someone asks you an embarrassing question about your age, your income or your marriage(s), smile and ask, "Why do you want to know?"

Don't be a bore. If your fellow guest's interest is waning while you waffle, stop talking about yourself and ask them a question immediately. » Continue reading

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Max the Micro!

To use your microwave oven even more effectively:

• Cook in round vessels. Rectangular one are less effective because they come closer to the power source (on the oven's side) as the dish rotates, and may heat food unevenly, even burn some portions.
  
• Microwaves are more evenly distributed on a flat plate, and therefore cooking time is reduced.
  
• Use several smaller containers, instead of one large one, to speed up the cooking process. This way, you can also simultaneously hand out a number of small servings to family or guests.

» Continue reading

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Perfect Pitch

It won't change the world, but it will change your voice. Canda-based IVL Technologies' On-Key Karaoke Hand Held Player looks like a simple microphone, but as you warble into it, a microprocessor "corrects" your pitch.

The idea came to IVL's president Phil Scott in 1983 when he took up the flute. Frustrated by his own tin ear, he conceived an instrument-pitch detector that transformed musical notes into digital format. It didn't sell well, but it spurred Scott to search for other applications, including pitch detectors and harmonizers for commercial karaoke systems.

"Karaoke's the modern equivalent of the family singing around the piano," says Scott. » Continue reading

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Prevent Painful Hangovers

Everyone has his own hangover cure: caffeine, exercise, greasy food, Bloody Marys -- even the pills and potions sold in by chemists. But none have been proven to cure hangovers, says Jeff Wiese, an American associate professor of medicine who has spent several years studying the condition. Caused mainly by dehydration, hangovers are best treated by drinking water and taking paracetamol, which is easy on the stomach. (Heavy drinkers, who are at risk for liver disease, shouldn't take paracetamol without a doctor's okay.)

Luckily, recent research indicates you can prevent post-drinking pain. Try these tricks before your next night on the town:

Bet on B. Swallow a daily multivitamin that contains B-6. It speeds the elimination of alcohol from the blood, leading to faster recovery.

Have an H₂O chaser. Alcohol is a diuretic. It impairs the kidneys' ability to retain water, resulting in dizziness and nausea. The fix: Down a glass of water after each drink, and another before bed.

Cut down on congeners. These impurities from the fermentation process inflame your body's tissues, much like a virus does. Choose top-shelf brands, or clear drinks, like vodka, which have fewer congeners than darker booze, like whisky. » Continue reading

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Good deeds do you good

Kindness not only makes life sweeter, it may make it longer, according to American researchers. Stephanie Brown, PhD, asked 423 older couples if they had helped a friend or neighbour just once in the previous year. Five years later, those who had were 50% more likely to outlive those who hadn't.

"Research has show that social contact is good for us, but we always assumed the benefits came from being on the receiving end," says Brown. "It turns out that the benefits may actually be roted in the contributions we make." We're not talking about donating a kidney here -- simply giving a friend a life could offer the life-lengthening benefits. » Continue reading

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Leave an Ethical Will

Your family knows your habits and moods, but do they know your core values? An ethical will would tell them. Ethical wills aren't new -- they're in the Bible -- but they're catching on as those now in their 50s yearn to preserve their parent's wisdom and pass on their own. "We want to leave a legacy beyond our assests," says Dr Barry Baines, author of Ethical Wills: Put in Your Values on Paper. Wills can be any length and shared any time. They're as different as the individuals writing them: Baines tells his kids the importance of religion and respect. Retired lawyer Michael Greenspan, 61, wrote 18 life rules, including "hold on to true friends" and "dance like no ones watching."

Remember, these wills are not legal documents. Ethicalwill.com has tips. » Continue reading

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Spamming won't get the answer

If you really want to know something, don't email your question to hordes of people. Researchers have found that the more people you email, the more likely each recipient is to ignore it.

Greg Barron and Eldad Yechiam emailed 240 colleages at Technion Israel Technology Institute -- individually or in a group -- to find out response rates. Posing as a female student, they asked people if the institute had a biology faculty.

Replies ranged from "very helpful" (with extra information) to plain brusque "Look on the web page!". Others simply tried to chat "her" up.

Only half of group recipents responded, compared with 64 percent of those with just their own name in the "To" box. Single recipients were also twice as likely to be "very helpful".

"Like bystanders at a crime scene, people assume that someone else will help," says Barron. "So if you want a volunteer to bring a cake to Monday's meeting, sending an email to lots of people might not be the way to go." » Continue reading

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Pets are at risk outside too

If you suspect your cat or dog has eaten one of these toxic plants, call your vet right away.

Oleander: Symptoms include upset stomach, hypothermia (cool paws, ears and stomach).

Azalea: Vomiting, diarrhoea, weakness.

Lilies: In cats, vomiting, lethargy, loss of appetitie.

Sago palm: Vomiting, diarrhoea, seizures. » Continue reading

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Exercise your ears

We all know that loud noise can damage your hearing - but it seems not enough noise can also impair it. Consequently, people in cities have better hearing than those in quiet villages.

Researchers at the Universtity of Giessen in Germany spent over a decade testing the hearing of some 10,000 people. As expected, people exposed to very loud noises as part of their jobs, such as construction workers, had poor hearing. But those living in quiet rural areas had hearing not much better. And people, including airline pilots or orchestral musicians, who encoutner constant noise at work, could hear very well. Firefighters, whose lives can depened on sounds, had exceptional hearing.

The team concluded that continual exposure actually "trains" the ear to tolerate it; it is sudden, extreme noise that does the damage. Which would explain why Asian villagers, whose quiet lives are punctuated by occasional firework celebrations, have the worst hearing of all. » Continue reading

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NoFollow No More

UPDATE: Since Google does not allow author link in Blogger comments anymore, HashOut does not support nofollow free author links anymore.

I felt that the people commenting on this blog were not really getting their due. The NoFollow attribute which comes by default with the Blogger templates just stifles the incentive to comment. I've thus decided to remove NoFollow from the comments section. And since my comments are moderated, I have no worries about spam as I can decide what goes live.

Hope that will entice you to comment more and actively participate in the discussions.

For those of you who are interested in removing the NoFollow attribute from the anchor tags in the comments section of your blog but do not know how, here is a simple guide to remove NoFollow from Blogger layouts (only for the new Blogger Layout templates). » Continue reading

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Time Management at Work

Tricks to get more done in less time, from the clients of US career coach Terry Kozlowski:

Don't overdo overtime. One study found that worker productivity sharply declines after 50 hours a week. Make evening plans to avoid lingering. "When I know I have to leave for a 6:30 gym session, I don't say, "I'll just do that later during the day," says a consulting firm executive.

Schedule even the small stuff. Looming little tasks can add up and distract you, says a website producer. "But when a call is set for 3pm, I forget it and focus on the project at hand."

Take a vacation. The former CEO of an engineering firm, required his staff to use all days off. "They'd return with a fresh perspective -- and ideas."

Master the meeting drain. Use time between meetings for jobs you can finish. "I can't force the concentration for big things," says one business manager. But 15 minutes is perfect for answering email. » Continue reading

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Breakfast for Dessert?

Looking for an after-dinner snack? Try cereal -- it may help you lose weight, say American scientists. Of 58 overweight nighttime snackers, half ate a 150-calories bowl of cereal and low-fat milk at least 90 minutes after dinner; the others ate as usual. After four weeks, the cereal eaters had lost one kilo, and ate 140 calories less than usual after dinner. The others ate 85 calories more. The study was funded by the Kellogg Company, but the researchers say the type of cereal doesn't matter. What does: sticking to the serving size. » Continue reading

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Peanuts for preventing nut allergy

An increasing number of children are allergic to some kind of nut, with potentially fatal consequences. About 20% seem to "grow out of" their allergy in time, though there is a chance the allergy may come back. Now scientists have found this chance can be lowered -- by eating peanuts.

Studying 68 children who had outgrown a peanut allergy, researchers at Johns Hopkins Children's Center in Maryland, USA, found none of those who regularly ate peanut products redeveloped an allergy, whereas those who did have a recurrence had seldom eaten peanuts. This suggests children who've outgrown an allergy should eat peanuts at least once a month, but consult your doctor first. » Continue reading

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Placing AdSense Ads in the middle of Blogger posts

Hackman has an interesting hack to place AdSense ads right in the middle of your blogger posts. In this hack, Hackman places a HTML comment at the desired location in the post body while composing the post. Then using JavaScript he moves the contents before the HTML comment to a blank <div> tag before the AdSense code.

Hackman's hack is meant to work with the classic templates of Blogger. I have tweaked it a little to make it work for the new Blogger (layout) template. Here you go...

Find the <data:post.body/> tag in your new Blogger (layout) template and replace it with (Use copy-paste as some text below might be out of view):

<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == "item"'>

<div expr:id='"adsensical" + data:post.id + "start"'></div>

<div style="margin:5px 0 -5px 10px">
<!--PLACE YOUR AD CODE HERE-->
</div>

&lt;div id="adsensical<data:post.id/>end">
&lt;div id="adsensical<data:post.id/>body">
</b:if>
<data:post.body/>
<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == "item"'>
&lt;/div>
&lt;/div>

<script language="JavaScript">&lt;!--
//AdSensical Place Ads in Middle of Blogger Posts
//By hackman_3vilGuy http://adsensical-adsense.blogspot.com
//hackman {AT}caller {DOT}me {DOT}uk
//Modified for New Blogger (Layout) Template by Aziz (http://hashout.blogspot.com/)
topbit=document.getElementById("adsensical<data:post.id/>start");
bottombit=document.getElementById("adsensical<data:post.id/>end");
s=document.getElementById("adsensical<data:post.id/>body").innerHTML;
var regexIndex=s.search(/&lt;!--adsense-->/igm);
if(regexIndex>0) {topbit.innerHTML=s.substr(0,regexIndex);bottombit.innerHTML=s.substr(regexIndex+14);}
//-->
</script>
</b:if>

Now just replace <!--PLACE YOUR AD CODE HERE--> with your AdSense JavaScript code which you got from AdSense Setup and place <!--adsense--> anywhere within your post where you want the ad to appear (Make sure you insert it in Edit HTML mode).

The above code displays ads only on item (post) pages. If you want to display the ads on main or archive pages also, just remove the <b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == "item"'> and </b:if> tags. AdSense will automatically display only the first three ads on the page (in order of its appearance in the HTML) including the ones outside the posts section.

If you do not insert the HTML comment into your post content (HTML), then the ads will appear before the post body, but after the post title.

If you would like to see it working live before you begin implementing it on your blog, take a look here.

Related posts:

• How to place google adsense code on web pages
  
• How to insert Google Adsense ads before or after each post in the new Blogger (Layout) template

» Continue reading

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More reasons to drink tea

Scientists can't stop finding health benefits for tea. Tests at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, suggest that tea, and particularly green tea, may improve your memory and slow the onset of Alzheimer's.

A previous study in Chicago of people prone to tension headaches found that caffeine alone gave as much pain relief as ibuprofen. And a team in Illinois have found that polyphenols in black tea stop plaque forming on your teeth, and reduce the level of cavity-forming acids. » Continue reading

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Is your computer data safe?

Shielding your home computer from online threats is easier than you think. Try these simple defensive steps:

Update your OS. Whether you use the Windows or Mac operating system (OS), it must be updated regularly to shore up your computer's defenses. On a PC, go to "Windows Update" under the Start icon and click to install all security-related updates. On a Mac, go to "Software Update" in your system Preferences (OS X) or under Control Panels (OS 9). Set the feature to update automatically each week.

Install a firewall. Hackers can enter your computer if you don't have a firewall in place, such as ZoneAlarm (free), which can warn you each time your computer accesses the Web.

Install antivirus software. You need the most up-to-date anti-virus programs to ensure your hard drive and e-mail are uninfected. Two popular brands are Symentec's Norton AntiVirus and McAfee's Internet Security Suite. Run the software weekly.

Fight spyware. Spyware enters your computer when you're online, and reports your activities to companies that then try to sell you products. To remove spyware, download an anti-spyware program such as Ad-Aware (free). Run the program daily.

Change web browsers. Viruses that enter your PC via Internet Explorer can do serious damage. Consider trying a free alternative such as Mozilla Firefox. » Continue reading

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Mighty 'Clay'

Acme Brick is celebrating its 116th year with a surprise. In fact the surprise weighs 2,722 kg. It is 'Baby Clay' -- the world's largest brick. This 'Baby' is 116 inches long -- one inch for every year that Acme has been in business. This giant brick, which will compete for an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records, is 39 inches tall and 39 inches wide.

The brick was made with clay from each of Acme's 23 brick plants and took 13 months to be completed. » Continue reading

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