Wanna lose weight sleeping?

Here's a weight-loss strategy that you might find relaxing. A large study has found a link between amount of sleep and risk of obesity. Study subjects between the ages of 32 and 59 who slept four hours or less a night were 73 percent more likely to be obese than those who slept between seven and nine hours. People who got five hours of sleep had a 50 percent higher risk, and those who go six hours were 23 percent more likely to be obese.

"Sleeping less could serve as a trigger to the body to increase food intake and store fat," says the study's lead researcher James Gangwisch, a postdoctoral fellow in psychiatric epidemiology at Columbia University. » Continue reading

Read more on Health

Keeping a tab on music tabs

I was quite intrigued by the wide variety of tablatures available at tTabs.com. I found the selection of over 140,000 guitar, bass, and drum tabs to be quite useful.

Once a dedicated fan of the Online Guitar Archive (OLGA) prior to its legal battles, the discovery of tTabs was music to my eyes. If you have any interest in music tablature, be sure to check out tTabs.com.

An example of the quality tablature available on the site is this rendition of drum tabs for Evanescence's "Bring Me To Life". After trying out the tab last night, I found the trabscription to be quite accurate, though I suspect my neighbors might not have enjoyed my drum solos as much as I did. » Continue reading

Read more on Reviews

Nosebleed Alert

People typically get nosebleeds from things like dry weather, blowing or picking. But some times a nosebleed can be more serious. Here's when to seek medical attention, says Dr. Michael C. Fabian, an ear, nose and throat (ENT) specialist in Toronto:

• If the blood is still flowing after applying ten minutes of continuous pressure to the nose. Usually, pinching your nose should stop the bleeding within five to ten minutes.
  
• If you have frequent nosebleeds. These could result from a bleeding disorder or an abnormal lesion in the nose.
  
• If you're bleeding down the back of your throat, as well as your nostril, or if you're bleeding from both nostrils. That could mean a deeper bleed.
  
• If the bleeding is rapid and copious, and/or you feel week.
  
• If you get a nosebleed as a result of a head or facial injury.

» Continue reading

Read more on Health

Create a classy and vintage habitat

The Western cowboy theme is a great way to make your home fun, comfortable, and functional. One of the reasons people prefer the Western home decor over contemporary home decor is that it reminds them of a favorite trip to a place where nature abounds. It also brings to mind movies of old Westerns with tumbleweeds blowing around and rugged singing cowboys. A home filled with Western home furnishings is warm and inviting, with lots of visual interest. Its a wonderful way to welcome family and friends, and provides a relaxing retreat from the distractions of a challenging day.

Suitable advise from a professional home decorator is highly recommended before selecting the products and accessories. WesternCowboyHomeDecor.com has got online resources to help you design and decorate your Western home. Although very simple, the site offers loads of advice on transforming your home into a Western cowboy theme. They have detailed advice on Western lamps and lighting, cowboy bedding, cowboy baby bedding, dinnerware, cowboy fabric, cowboy curtains and cowboy figurines.

Sometimes, we may not realize it, but the furnishings and accessories we choose for our home are often a reflection of our interests and personalities. Taking the time to carefully find the right pieces will create the ideal home environment that we can enjoy and feel extremely proud of for many years to come. » Continue reading

Read more on Home, Reviews

Going Loco

If you visit Britain and fancy a trip through the countryside, one of the best ways is by train. These historic routes make a perfect weekend break.

North Yorkshire Moors Railway
Dating back over 150 years, this track runs through 29 kms of gorgeous landscape from Pickering to Grosmont, via forests, steep valleys and open moorland.

The Royal Scotsman
Ideal if you like history and outdoor activities, this luxury 2-day journey across the Highlands take in ancient castles and beautiful scenery.

Severn Valley Railway
This steam locomotive follows the course of the River Severn for most of its 26-km trip, crossing at the Victoria Bridge.

Snowdon Mountain Railway
For more than 110 years this train has been taking passengers across the highest peaks of Snowdon.

Bluebell Railway
Named after the bluebells that border it, the track runs from Lewes to East Grinstead.
» Continue reading

Read more on Travel and Holiday

Free shopping worth Rs.250 x the number of mobile phones in your household

Yes, it's true. You can do free shopping worth Rs.250 from a variety of online stores ...without any cheating. Here's how.

GiftMate, a new mobile payment service launched in India, is offering free trial vouchers worth Rs.250 if you fill up an online survey form.

Making payments through the mobile phone (not billed on your prepaid or postpaid mobile phone) is a relatively new concept in India and lot of people might be reluctant to try out something new. Hence they are offering a free trial voucher worth Rs.250 for the users to try out before they feel comfortable transacting with their mobile phone.

In the process they also collect your mobile number so that they may send you periodic offers and discounts from time to time. Hence a win-win situation for both, GiftMate and the user. Hope all your suspicion might have been cleared by now.

The benefit of making payment through your mobile phone is that you do not have to give your credit card details to the online merchants and hence feel safe. Also when mobile payments become common at brick-and-mortar stores, restaurants etc., you may not have to carry your credit card or wallet. Just make the payment using your mobile phone.

So here's how to go about claiming your free trial voucher. Believe me, it's really very simple.

1. Click here.
   
2. Fill up the form and click Get my free voucher.
   
3. You will receive an SMS on your mobile phone and an email on your email address containing a 4 digit PIN which will be used while redeeming your free voucher. Make a note of it.

You can now use this voucher at any of the 2500 online stores who have got a tie-up with GiftMate/Paymate. You can find a short list of these stores here. Remember to select Pay by mobile or Paymate / GiftMate while checking out and making the payment.

Futurebazaar.com is one of my favorites since it belongs to one of my favorite brick-and-mortar stores, BigBazaar. They have got a wide variety of goods on sale right from Rs.28 to Rs.2,25,900. They even have a 7 day delivery guarantee and a 15 day Unconditional No-Cost Return policy. Not only that, their user interface is very simple and user-friendly although I had experienced a slow down at times. Also I was automatically signed out and my shopping cart emptied automatically at the payment stage requiring me to repeat the whole process and reselect the items.

You can use Advanced Search on Futurebazaar.com to find items between a price range. Enter * in the Search input box to display all items.

Shopping for more than Rs.250

You can buy as many items as you may want within the Rs.250 limit in a single order. If you want to buy a single item worth more than Rs.250 or you want to buy several items worth more than Rs.250, you may have to top-up your GiftMate account using your credit card or net banking account. You can top-up your GiftMate account here. Just enter the same details for the Sender and the Recipient.

Alternatively, if you have more than one mobile number, you can register the other mobile numbers on GiftMate as above here. You can use the same email address for all the mobile numbers. Still you can only use one mobile number to pay for a single order. So you will need to transfer the balance from the other mobile numbers to one single mobile number which you can give while making the payment at the online stores. Here's how you can transfer the balance from one mobile number to another mobile number:

1. Click here.
   
2. In the Sender details enter the name, mobile number and email address of the mobile number account from which you want to transfer the balance.
   
3. In the Recipient details enter the name, mobile number and email address of the mobile number account to which you want to transfer the balance.
   
4. Select Voucher Value as Rs.250.
   
5. Select Payment Option as PayMate/GiftMate.
   
6. Check I Accept.
   
7. Click Accept.
   
8. You will now be asked to select Payment Mode and Mobile Number again. Select GiftMate as Payment Mode. In the Mobile Number box enter the mobile number from which you want to transfer the balance.
   
9. Click Submit.
   
10. You will now get an SMS on the Sender mobile phone asking you to confirm the payment. Reply to the SMS in the "Pay abc 1234" format. Once you send the SMS the browser screen will automatically show you that the payment has be completed successfully.

Now you can use the Recipient mobile number to shop for items worth Rs.500. You can repeat the above steps for as many mobile phones as you may have.

Also note that when you claim your trial voucher by filling up the survey form, you only get 7 days validity within which you have to use the voucher. But when you transfer the balance from one mobile number account to another mobile number account the validity of the transfered amount in the Recipient account would become 365 days.

You can check your GiftMate account balance and transaction details here. » Continue reading

Read more on Contests, Shopping

Sending gifts to South Africa?

Dos and don'ts

It's the season of gifting. However, if you are sending a present to someone in South Africa, make sure you comply with the following requirements:

• The gifts have to be sent from an individual abroad to an individual in South Africa.
  
• Any gifts sent from a company to an individual or an individual to a company will not qualify as a gift.
  
• All gifts are subject to Customs duties and VAT at their respective rates.
  
• All gifts have to be sent on a Demurrage and Duty Paid (Inter Station Billing) basis.
  
• The invoices have to be Commercial only and in English.
  
• Proforma and hand-written invoices are NOT allowed.
  
• Vague invoice descriptions such as "Gifts" are unacceptable.
  
• The individual commodities have to be spelt out with their respective quantity and unit prices.
  
• No PO Box addresses are allowed; only physical addresses and contact details are critical in order to ensure fast and effective clearance through Customs.
  
• No perishables are allowed as this will be stopped for Port Health to verify if it is fit for human consumption, with the risk of destruction.

» Continue reading

Read more on Gifts