Women are better multi-taskers than men

Multi-tasking, or doing more than one activity at a time, is a way of life for everyone these days. Between work, family and social life, people are finding themselves busier than ever. But the results of a recent global online survey conducted by Nokia indicated that women are better at multitasking than men with 60 percent of respondents, both men and women. Only six percent of women believe that men are better at doing more than one thing at a time.

From the total of more than 5,000 respondents, 79 percent consider themselves multitaskers, with 50% describing themselves 'productive' and 31% 'busy'. The majority of men and women in the Scandinavian countries of Denmark and Norway indicated they can do several things at once. The most relaxed were the Finnish people at 74 percent.

An overwhelming 80 percent of respondents believe that having a mobile phone makes them better at multitasking.

According to the survey, mobile phones are helping people be more productive. Sixty-two percent of respondents do two or three activities while talking on their mobile phone, including internet browsing and shopping. Seventy-five percent of women said they prepare food and 50 percent put on makeup while using their mobile phone.

Although the majority of respondents claimed they do more than one thing at a time while on their mobile phone, 48 percent indicated the call was their main focus. When asked what was the most fun activity to do while on their mobile phone, most said "being in bed," although no more specifics were given.

Multitasking while on your mobile phone can certainly lead to amusing situations. Forty-seven percent of respondents to the Nokia survey indicated that they have sent a romantic or controversial text message to the wrong person and 56 percent of women did that. » Continue reading

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Help for pudgy pooches

Even for our pets, losing weight isn't easy. To slim down a plus-size puppy, you must do away with table scraps and significantly increase her running or walking time. But more help is on the way: The [US] FDA recently approved Slentrol, the first canine diet drug. The prescription drops are administered once a day, either directly into the mouth or with food, and work by suppressing appetite and fat absorption.

It's no quick fix, however: Dogs typically have to take the drug for six to ten months, and follow a diet and exercise program, to see results. Weight loss will differ form pooch to pooch. Slentrol is recommended for dogs that are at least 20% over their ideal weight. (And don't try it yourself or give it to a fat cat.)

Fancis A. Kallfelz, a professor of veterinary nutrition, is taking a wait-and-see approach with the drug but says initial data look promising. Slentrol will be available soon. Meanwhile, it's not too early to cut the treats, grab the leash and get moving -- it'll do you both good. » Continue reading

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ATM ...cash machine or a Magic Machine

Mohammad Jamshed Khan replaced the ATM card in his wallet and counted the crisp new notes he'd just withdrawn from the cash machine. Rs.6000? This can't be right! thought the young Mumbai civil contractor. He counted again. It was indeed Rs.6000.

"All I'd asked for was Rs.1200," Khan told his friend Faisal Mukhi who was standing nearby.

"You pressed the wrong buttons, silly," said Mukhi.

"No way!" exclaimed Khan as he pushed his card back in again, keyed in his numeric password and asked for Rs.1000. Beep, click.... whirrr, beeeep! Out popped Rs.5000 -- and a little transaction slip that read: WITHDRAWAL Rs.1000. "Let's try again," said Khan. Card, password, 2-0-0-0...beeeep! But he got Rs.10,000. By now it seemed certain that the ATM was giving away 500-rupee notes instead of hundreds.

"May be something's wrong with your card," Mukhi told Khan, "let me try mine." Mukhi's balance was low -- only Rs.1,300. He pushed his card in and asked for Rs.1000. The machine spat out 5000.

ATMs (short for automated teller machines) are extremely secure and among the hardiest of machines. Look up the Encyclopedia Britannica for "ATMs" and you'll find - entered only under "Locks" - it's virtually impossible to fool an ATM. And the probability of an ATM overpaying is virtually nil. But here they were, two buddies with Rs.26,000 between them - Rs.20,800 of it free money.

There were no other customers in sight on that warm July afternoon. And they could have kept on going. Instead, Khan and Mukhi went outside the ATM's enclosure and summoned the guard on duty. "The machine's all mixed up," they told him. The two men then gave the guard a demo: "Look here," said Khan as he inserted his card one last time and hit the buttons, "I'm with drawing Rs.500... but here's 2500!"

"Don't let anybody near this place," they told the guard as they hopped into an autorickshaw and sped off with all the money.

It looked like daylight robbery -- in reverse. For they drove two kilometres, to the nearest branch of the bank that owned the ATM, placed the cash -- Rs.28,500 -- on the bank manager's desk and complained about their faulty machine.

"We could have lost a real lot that day," says the manager. "This is the kind of honesty we can only dream about. A human error made while loading cash in the ATM had caused the problem. Although we could have traced the customers, it might have meant a lot of trouble for us, had they kept our money."

But did either Mohammad Khan or Faisal Mukhi ever think of keeping the money during their moment with the magic machine? "Not once," says Khan. Adds Mukhi: "Never."

This article appeared in Reader's Digest India Edition. » Continue reading

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Bean-anza

As you make your way through the salad line at the cafeteria, do your heart a favour and ladle an extra scoop of beans onto your plate.

Using data from more than 9000 people who were followed for 20 years, US researchers found that people who ate beans or peas four or more times a week were 20 percent less likely to suffer coronary heart disease than people who ate legumes less than once a week. Beans and peas -- canned, fresh or dried, rajma (pinto bean), soya, black or any other type -- are rich in soluble fibre, potassium, calcium, magnesium and folate, all of which have been associated with lower cholesterol and heart-healthy eating. » Continue reading

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Romantic stories of the vikings

Having been brought up listening to stories of a tall, blonde and handsome prince rescuing a fair and beautiful princess, historical romance novels have taken up a major portion of my book shelf. Johanna Lindsey's The Fires of Winter, one of the oldest in my collection, is a favourite.

The novel portrays the strong character of Lady Brenna who is captured by viking Garrick Haardrad's father and given to Garrick as a slave. Her love for Garrick inspite of the sexual abuse is absolutely fascinating. What's more interesting is that Johanna Lindsey has portrayed Lady Brenna's character in a rather contemporary light as a smart, athletic and courageous woman with sword skills and a fighting spirit. The story takes a very emotional turn when Garrick who is in love with Brenna refuses to believe Brenna's story of her kidnap after she tries to escape from Garrick due to his abusive behaviour. She goes to live alone with a broken heart. Garrick's heart, however, softens when Brenna gives birth to their prematured baby and learns about the truth of Brenna's kidnap. At the end of the story they are happily married, ever after.

These days it has become difficult to find historical romance novels at book stores and new titles are rarely published in hardcover. Authors are switiching to the contemporary romance genre. However, if you are looking for historical Romance Novels, you could check out Mills & Boon website and order them online. » Continue reading

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RupeeMail ...is it here to stay?

RupeeMail launched by Hcitek Software Pvt Ltd, a Bangalore based start-up, is a recent addition to the "Get paid to read email" service, similar to that of Hits4Pay.

The service is still under public-beta and there is a lot more to improve. For example their website does not clearly mention any restriction on how many accounts can be opened using a single computer or mailing address. Even though their system does not allow registering multiple accounts from the same IP address, subscribers with a dynamic IP address can disconnect and reconnect to get a new IP address. Cookies too would be ineffective as the cache or temporary folders can easily be cleared. This could lead to subscribers opening multiple accounts using different email addresses.

Also there is no system in place to check if the subscriber has viewed the message for a stipulated amount of time. Subscribers could just click the link in the email received and close the resulting pop-up window immediately.

RupeeMail has also been a topic of discussion in the Indian blogosphere. There have been debates about the subscriber base not being the target market for advertisers. Ashish from pluggd.in points out that 35% of the subscriber base of mGinger, a "Get paid to receive SMS" service for Indian mobile subscribers, comprises of students who are just looking forward to make some quick pocket money. Such students have no intention to either read the advertiser's message or buy the product.

On the other hand, supporters of the email service say that it is much better than its SMS counterpart since the subscribers just have to click on a link to visit the advertisers website from where they can get more information and contact the advertiser. Whereas with the SMS service, subscribers either need to call the advertiser or visit the website of the advertiser by entering the URL in the browser manually. Even if the advertisers were to include a URL hyperlink to their website in the SMS, not many would have Internet access on their mobile phone and even if they had, the view of the advertiser's website would be limited.

Another argument in favour of the email service, and against the SMS service, is that subscribers can check emails at their convenience whereas SMS would be more of an intrusion in the subscribers privacy. However, mGinger has an option where in you can select a time window within which you want to receive those paid texts.

There has also been a wide misconception that the paid SMS or email service helps fight spam, but as Anil Lakhwara, the 62-year-old chief executive officer of Hcitek, says “RupeeMail is not an answer to spam. It is to reach the targeted advertiser.” Spammers would still be able to and will continue to send unsolicited emails and messages.

Another popular misconception is that these services are "Get rich quick" schemes. It should be noted that, in reality, such services can at the max be able to generate a decent amount of pocket money only to pay up your mobile bills. As told by most of the service providers, such services cannot help one make a living. However, the service providers say that their service helps subscribers save money by receiving special offers and deals from advertisers.

» Continue reading

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The curious world of ...ADOLESCENTS

Adolescents? ...'Scream foul play' was the first thing that came to my mind. It's difficult enough being one of three with siblings who seem permanently stuck in adolescence without having to explain and analyze their next to inexplicable behaviour. Still, I decided to actually try and understand what exactly makes an adolescent tick; after all it wasn't long ago that I was one myself.

I spoke to a couple of befuddled parents of this 'breed'. The love for their offspring was not lost, a tad diluted maybe, but still there. It is the growing up years from childhood to adulthood that make them different. Most of them become extra rebellious during this period, in fact, relatively shy and timid kids seemed to acquire unexpected gumption. "To me it looks like my daughter will be an adolescent for ever!" sighs the mother of a particularly vociferous going-to-be adult. Doors slam, reason is thrown out of the window, captured by the wind and pushed some place where it cannot be found. Another mother of a son this time, says her 16-year-old toes the line. Pretty much. "He knows who lays down the rules, and respects that," this lucky mother smiles.

Psychologists have different theories to this. To most popular one: "This is the 'in-between phase' where you don't really understand if you are grown up or you're still a kid. If you do something wrong then you are chided for 'acting like a kid' and if you act too grown up then they think you 'know' too much and are going above yourself." In fact it as at this stage that in a desperate attempt to gain acceptance from adults, society as well as their peers that a crack occurs. It's cool to party late nights but it ain't cool to come back late! Often this conflict of interest results in them being so rebellious. "I don't know how to handle it sometimes. My friends and my parents have opposite interests but I try to always have a meeting point between the two even if what I'm doing is not very morally correct though by myself I would do things differently," says Arjun.

There are two sides to every coin. Adolescents now days are taking things in their stride by learning to deal with a great many aspects of their lives. Right form peer pressure, to social and moral responsibilities and their parents. Speaking to one parent Mrs. Krithika "I give my son full freedom and don't really restrict him unless it involves his safety and he completely understands that. They just want to be able to make their decisions and we don't question him unless it's truly not the right one. The best way to ensure they don't do the wrong things is allow them to make their decisions after explaining the consequences." The way to understand them is to accept them, sooner rather than later they'll grow out of it; but it should be kept in mind that acceptance is not the same as negligence. While peer pressure and social acceptance is necessary and important for the adolescent, they should be well aware of the consequences of undesirable activities. » Continue reading

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