Sunday, September 23, 2012

Chocolate can create same high as opium

Chocolate can create same high as opium


LONDON: Are you a chocoholic? Then you may be suffering from a craving similar to drug addiction.

Chocolate has an effect on the brain similar to opium, according to a study by the University of Michigan that found comparisons between obese people and drug addicts.



A natural brain chemical called enkephalin - an endorphin with similar properties to opium - surged as rats began to eat chocolates, the Daily Mail reported.



When a drug was used to stimulate the dorsal neostriatum - part of the brain that releases the chemical - the number of chocolates eaten more than doubled.



Study leader Alexandra DiFeliceantonio said the findings showed comparisons between drug addicts and obese people. "The same brain area tested is active when obese people see foods and when drug addicts see drug scenes. It seems likely that our enkephalin findings in rats mean that this neurotransmitter may drive some forms of overconsumption and addiction in people."

The Summer Cave is an awesome Italian restaurant

The Summer Cave is an awesome Italian restaurant!!



Questo è veramente spettacolare or.. this is really, really stunning. A cozy natural limestone grotto in Southern Italy has been transformed into a jaw dropping restaurant called The Summer Cavewhich is probably one of the most awesome restaurants in the world right now. Located in Polignano A Mare, this restaurant is part of the Grotta Palasezze hotel and it’s open only during summer months. The restaurant is outfitted only with things made from natural materials to blend in with its unique surroundings and sits just below the hotel, offering breathtaking views to any guests that will eat here.
Apparently The Summer Cave has been already voted one of the most romantic restaurants in the world and, after looking at any of these photos, you’ll surely understand why. If I’ll ever have the chance to visit that part of Italy, I’ll definitely go here.






1.8 kg hair removed from girl's stomach in Indore


Indore: A team of doctors on Tuesday removed about 1.8 kg hair from the stomach of a 19-year-old girl after an open surgery at the government hospital in Indore.
Dr Parvinder Singh Lubana of Maharaja Yeshwantrao Hospital in Indore, led a team of gastro-surgeons in conducting the operation.
Lubana claimed that it was a rare case in which such a heavy chunk of hair wrapped around a chalk or stone kind of matter was stuck in between the stomach and duodenum (part of the small intestine).
The girl, from Rajgarh in Madhya Pradesh, apparently had the habit of eating her hair and chalk in the class room.

However, the ball of hair was removed successfully, he added.
The girl, from Rajgarh in Madhya Pradesh, apparently had the habit of eating her hair and chalk in the class room, and developed intestine obstruction leading to no intake of food and water for the last couple of days, said Dr Amit Agarwal, one of the surgeons in the team.

The 10 Americans Who Lost The Most Money This Year

Forbes released its annual list of the 400 richest Americans today, and while there are familiar faces at the top, some billionaires had better years than others.
We combed the list to see which billionaires on this year's list had the biggest gains and losses since September 2011.
Biggest Losers:

  1. Mark Zuckerberg ( -$8.1 billion ) The Facebook founder and CEO saw his initial IPO fail, causing a massive loss in his fortune.
  2. John Paulson ( -$4.5 billion ) Double-digit losses at his firm has caused his hedge fund to lose a whopping $14 billion in assets.
  3. George Soros ( -$3 billion ) The hedge fund magnate saw a slight dip in production, but his charitable donations account for a majority of the drop-off.
  4. Harold Simmons ( -$2.2 billion ) His Valhi holdings company dropped 30 percent in value over the last year, costing him dearly.
  5. Anne Cox Chambers ( -$1.3 billion ) The media empress saw her net worth decline in part because of a decline in her public competitors.
  6. Mark Pincus ( -$1.24 billion ) The CEO of Zynga fell completely out of the Forbes 400 because of the decline of his company's games and the Facebook IPO flop.
  7. Philip Falcone ( -$1.1 billion ) The CEO of Harbinger Capital dropped out of the Forbes 400 in part due to an SEC investigation into his company.
  8. Robert Stiller ( -$1.05 billion ) The innovator behind Green Mountain Coffee was forced to liquidate many of his shares in the company, reducing his net worth to roughly $250 million.
  9. Sheldon Adelson ( -$1 billion ) Shares in his Las Vegas Sands casino decreased, causing the billion dollar loss.
  10. Sam Zell ( -$900 million ) A lowered estimate of the value of Zell's Equity International stake caused the decrease in estimated net worth.

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Working more than 8hrs a day ups heart risk

Working more than 8hrs a day ups heart risk


Working more than eight hours a day raises the risk of heart disease by up to 80 per cent, a new study has revealed.

Researchers said that long working hours could be condemning thousands of employees to heart attacks and strokes.

The warning follows analysis of 12 studies dating back as far as 1958, involving a total of 22,000 people from around the world.

The analysis, by scientists at the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, found that those whose working days that were longer than the traditional eight hours had a 40 to 80 per cent greater chance of heart disease.

The size of the increase varied depending on how each study was carried out.

The effects were more pronounced when participants were asked how long they worked for - but when researchers closely monitored working hours, the increased risk of heart disease was closer to 40 per cent.

Lead researcher Dr Marianna Virtanen said the effects could be due to "prolonged exposure to stress."

Other triggers could be poor eating habits and lack of exercise due to restricted leisure time.

Middle-aged workers putting in 55 hours or more a week had poorer brain function than those clocking up no more than 40 hours, with lower scores on tests to measure intelligence, short-term memory and word recall.

Britons work some of the longest hours in Europe, with full-time employees averaging 42.7 a week.

Those in Germany typically work for 42 hours, while Danes do 39.1.

It estimated that more than five million people a year in Britain work unpaid extra hours to hang on to their jobs.

But the long-term toll on workers' health could be devastating, the new research suggests.

"There are several potential mechanisms that may underlie the association between long working hours and heart disease," the Daily Mail quoted Dr Virtanen as saying in a report on the findings.

In addition to prolonged exposure to psychological stress, she said other triggers could be raised levels of the stress hormone cortisol, poor eating habits and lack of physical activity due to restricted leisure time

Thursday, September 13, 2012

Known logos, unknown stories

Photo 1 of 10
How many times have you recognized a car by the four intermittently woven rings on its grille? Or preferred a bold ‘tick mark' while shopping to assure the quality of the product?

Company logos are critical to a brand and its success as consumers associate the brand's value to the image, sometimes more than to the product.

Here are some interesting insights into the corporate logos of some of the most successful brands.



Photo 2 of 10
Mercedes-Benz

One look at the three-point star perched atop the grille or the bonnet and you know it's a Merc. But that wasn't always so.

Gottlieb Daimler, one of the founders of Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft (DMG) which originally owned the Mercedes brand, sent his wife a post card in the 1870s, marking his residence with a three-point star.

"One day, this star will shine over our triumphant factories," he wrote. Prophetic? This stuck with his sons—Paul and Adolf Daimler—who suggested the star logo to the DMG board after the brand's success in the 1900s.

While the company registered both the three- and four-point stars in June 1909, it has only used the three-point star as its logo, which has seen various makeovers in its lifetime, especially after the merger with Benz.



Photo 3 of 10
Apple

The famous tech company founded by Steve Jobs has a partially-eaten apple as its logo in monochrome. But not many know that its first logo, designed by Ron Wayne, depicted Sir Isaac Newton siting under an apple tree.

However, almost immediately, it was replaced by Rob Janoff's design—a partially-eaten apple, except in a rainbow-coloured silhouette. Later, when Janoff presented Jobs several different monochromatic themes for the ‘bitten' logo, the legendary founder of Apple instantly liked the logo since it seemed to “humanize” the company. The bite was designed to differentiate the logo from the fruit. The coloured theme was finally discontinued in 1998.



Photo 4 of 10
Nike

Nike's logo, very effective in all its simplicity, is the most powerful weapon of the US sports apparel company. Nike is the Greek goddess of victory, and the company's logo is derived from her wing, ‘Swoosh'. According to Greek mythology, the Swoosh motivates and gives warriors immense power and strength. Also, the logo stands out in the simple inscription of Nike in dull orange.



Photo 5 of 10
Nestle

The Nestlé logo was launched by Henri Nestlé in 1868 based on the meaning of his name in German, little nest, and of his family emblem.

In 1938, the traditional nest design was incorporated with the Nestlé name. In the later years, the worm in the mother bird's beak was removed and the fledglings became two instead of three to reportedly depict an average modern family of two children.



Photo 6 of 10
Toyota

Toyota began as Toyoda, the founder's family name. In 1936, it held a contest for a new logo to represent speed, and received 27,000 entries, from which one was finally selected. This also led to a change in the company's name to ‘Toyota' since it sounded better in Japanese. The eight-stroke count in the new name is reportedly associated with wealth and good fortune. The original logo is no longer found on the vehicles it manufactures, but remains the corporate emblem used in Japan.

In 1989, to commemorate its 50th year, Toyota introduced the logo that it is using until today—the three ovals in the new logo that combine to form the letter T, which stands for Toyota.

The overlapping of the two perpendicular ovals inside the larger oval represents the symbiotic relationship between the customer and the company, while the larger oval represents the “global expansion of Toyota's technology and unlimited potential for the future”.



Photo 7 of 10
Android

The Android robot is a prime example of a playful logo made of fairly simple shapes. The logo was designed by California-based graphic designer Irina Blok, while the Android word mark was created along with the Droid font family by the Chicago-based type foundry Ascender Corporation.

‘Android Green', the colour of the Android Robot that depicts the Android-operating system, stands for growth, freshness and prosperity.



Photo 8 of 10
Ferrari

Ferrari's logo is inspired by the character of Count Francesco Baracca, the star of Italian Air Force during World War I. The designer of the logo painted the ‘prancing horse' on his plane. After Baracca's demise, the company—founded by Enzo Ferrari—decided to use the horse emblem.




Photo 9 of 10
BMW

The circular blue and white logo, or roundel, evolved from the Rapp Motorenwerke logo, from which Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, or the BMW company, grew, combined with the blue and white colors of the flag of Bavaria.

The logo portrays a moving aircraft propeller with white blades cutting through a blue sky, first used in a BMW advertisement in 1929, 12 years after the roundel was created.



Photo 10 of 10
Audi

Audi, which means ‘to listen' in Latin, was formed after its founder August Horch was forced out of his former auto company—Horch—which in German means ‘hark' or ‘hear'. In 1932, Audi merged with Horch, DKW, and Wanderer, to form Auto Union, which used the four interlinked rings that make up the Audi badge today. While it was earlier used only on Auto Union racing cars in the World War II period, it later became the official emblem.

India has highest child mortality rate, says UN report

New Delhi: With almost 19,000 children under five years of age dying every day across the world, India tops the list of countries with the highest number of 16.55 lakh such deaths in 2011, according to a UN agency.

The 'Child Mortality Estimates Report 2012' released by Unicef in New York has said that in 2011, around 50 per cent of global under-five deaths occurred in just five countries of India, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Pakistan and China.

Incidentally, India's toll is higher than the deaths in Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo and Pakistan put together.

While there have been 7.56 lakh deaths in Nigeria during the last year, Democratic Republic of the Congo accounts for 4.65 lakh deaths and Pakistan 3.52 lakh deaths of under-five children during 2011.

China reported 2.49 lakh deaths of under-5 kids last year, followed by 1.94 lakh by Ethiopia and 1.34 lakh each by Indonesia and Bangladesh. Uganda with 1.31 lakh such deaths and Afghanistan with 1.28 lakh deaths held the ninth and 10th position in the list of 10 top countries reporting under-five children deaths.

Singapore with a mortality rate of 2.6 has the lowest under-five deaths, while Slovenia and Sweden followed it with a mortality of 2.8.

The Unicef report also states that globally Pneumonia is the leading killer of children under five, causing 18 per cent of all under-five deaths worldwide - a loss of roughly 1.3 million lives in 2011, the bulk of which occur in just two regions, sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

Globally, the five leading causes of deaths among children under five include pneumonia (18 per cent); pre-term birth complications (14 per cent); diarrhoea (11 per cent); intrapartum-related complications (9 per cent) and malaria (7 per cent).

Besides, more than a third of child deaths are attributable to undernutrition globally, the report states.

Thursday, September 6, 2012

Insane World Records-2

World's Longest FIngernails
We're shuddering just looking at the picture above and simply dying to ask this woman--Chris "The Duchess" Walton--how she engages in regular day-to-day activities necessary for survival with claws like that but we'll refrain. In stead, here are the facts.

As of September 14th, 2011, this woman's nails measure 10 feet, 2 inches on her left hand and 9 feet 7 inches on her right hand. She's been growing them for 18 years. Of course, this still doesn't hold a candle to 68-yeard-old Lee Redmond who started growing her nails in 1979 and grew them to a whopping 28 feet, 4.5 inch length. She 'tragically' lost her curling claws in a car accident in 2008 however.

Longest Ear Hair
And here's one more of our country men doing us proud in the Guiness Book of World Records yet again…we think. Indian citizen, Anthony Victor, holds the record of the longest ear hair. Though we’re not quite sure how proud one should be about this hirsute phenomenon on one's ears, Victor has hair measuring up to 7.12 inches sprouting from the center of his outer ears.

Our heartiest congratulations Victor!

Longest Maggot Bath
Of all the hair-brained ideas we've seen on this list, this has to be the absolute worst! It's well beyond our comprehension why anyone might even want to do this but a British woman, Christine Martin, sat in a maggot bath for a whole hour and 30 minutes on some day in 2002.

Unsurprisingly, no one has ever contested her record and we sincerely doubt anyone will in the future either. This record's yours for the keeping Christine! Hope the maggots were worth it.

Farthest Nasal Ejection Of Spaghetti
This one's a classic example of taking the childhood fascination of stuffing noodles up one's nose and turning it into something useful. Well, kind of anyway. 

Kevin Cole of New Mexico, USA, holds the record for blowing the longest spaghetti strand out f a nostril in a single blow. It seems Cole started out small, spraying Ramon noodles out of his nose first and only then progressed to the heavier stuff--spaghetti! This epic achievement of his was recorded in 1998 and his spaghetti strand measured around 7.5 inches.


Insane World Records-1

Longest Underwater Kiss
We thought we'd start off a little light seeing as to how this is actually cuter than it is insane. Still, it gets points in both the insanity and strangeness department for the sheer idea behind it. Anyway, enough rambling and down to the facts.

Italian free divers Mike Maric and Ilaria Bonin kissed underwater for a whole three minutes and eight seconds in an attempt to set a world record for the same. They conducted their rather watery but romantic quest in an oceanic tank at the Gardaland Sea Life Aquarium in Castelnuovo del Garda, Northern Italy.

Largest Gathering Of People Dressed As Mahatma Gandhi
This is the second Indian record on this list! Four hundred and eighty-five children took part in this peace march which required them to dress up as Mahatma Gandhi in an attempt to create a record for the largest gathering of people dressed up like the Father of Our Nation. 

They were children of the Training Resource and Care For Kids, a charity for single mothers and children living without support at railway stations. Well, even if the record is a bit strange, it's nice to know their heart was in the right place at least!

Largest Gathering Of People Throwing Chef Hats
On January 9th of this year, it seems the people of Brussels decided there weren't too many records that hadn't been broken and hence came up with this idea. 617 participants threw their chef hats into the air and successfully broke the record too according to organizers. Though considering there never was a record for this in the first place, we're not really sure saying it was 'broken' is apt.

Most Number Of Spoons On Human Body
Meet Etibar Elchiyev of Tbilisi. He is after all a Guiness World Record Holder and the title is pretty self-explanatory in that part. The picture above depicts him posing with 50 silver spoons magnetized to his body and with that, a fresh record was set.

Heaviest Plane Pulled By People In Wheel Chairs
This may not be the first method to come to mind when you're thinking of how to move a C130 Cargo aircraft that weighs 67 tons across 100 metres of an airport stretch but it definitely works! It all went down at the Melsbroek military airport near Brussels when 84 people in wheelchairs set this new Guiness World Record for heaviest plane pulled over 100 metros by a swarm of people in wheelchairs!

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Fun Facts Of Life


  • A person cannot fold a piece of paper in half more than 8 times.
  • There are just over 300 million cell phones used daily in the United States alone.
  • A shrimp's heart is in its head.
  • Natural pearls will melt in vinegar.
  • An olive tree can live up to 1500 years.
  • Cleopatra married two of her brothers.
  • Ants can't shut their eyes.
  • On a Canadian two dollar bill, the flag flying over the Parliament Building looks like an American flag.
  • Men's shirts have the buttons on the right, while women shirts have the buttons on the left.
  • Chewing gum will help reduce tears when cutting an onion.
  • The day after thanksgiving is the busiest day for plumbers in the U.S.
  • Coffee beans are not beans at all, rather fruit pits.
  • Fortune cookies were invented in America in 1918, by Charles Jung.
  • Scuba divers cannot pass gas at depth deeper than 33 feet.
  • The Mona Lisa has no eyebrows. It was the fashion then, to shave them off.
  • The average American consumes enough caffeine in one year to kill a horse.
  • A giraffe can clean its ears with its 50 cm (20 in) tongue
  • The pig is rated the fourth most intelligent animal but are mentioned only twice in Bible
  • Sharks are immune to all known diseases
  • The majority of suicides occur on a Monday.- It is a fact, everyone HATES Mondays.
  • The most children born to one woman was 69, she was a peasant who lived a 40 year life, in which she had 16 twins, 7 triplets, and 4 quadruplets - now that's a lot of babies!
  • If you keep a goldfish in the dark, it will eventually turn white.
  • On average, people who use their right hand live 9 years longer than people who use their left.
  • The ant can lift 50 times its own weight, can pull 30 times its own weight and always falls over on its right side when intoxicated.
  • It is physically impossible for you to **** your elbow.
  • Walt Disney was afraid of mice.
  • A snail can sleep for three years.

E-cigarettes Can Damage Lungs Too

Source-ANI: Electronic cigarettes are being marketed as a potentially safer alternative to normal cigarettes, but new research has shown that they are still causing harm to the lungs.

Electronic cigarettes are devices that deliver nicotine through a vapour, rather than smoke. There is no combustion involved but the nicotine in the device is still derived from tobacco.

A recent research result conducted by University of Athens, Greece showed that for all people included in the study, the e-cigarette caused an immediate increase in airway resistance, lasting for 10 minutes. In healthy subjects (never smokers) there was a statistically significant increase in airway resistance from a mean average of 182 percent to 206 percent.

McDonald's opens vegetarian-only restaurant !!

The standard-bearer of the hamburger, McDonald's, is bowing to local demand and is opening a meat-free restaurant in India.
The global chain, whose best-known product is the Big Mac burger in a bun, says it will be its first vegetarian outlet.

McDonald's, the world's second biggest food outlet after Subway, increasingly adapts its range to local demand.

Both India's Hindu majority and Muslims can eat the same meat-free dishes.

Religiously observant Hindus see cows as sacred and avoid beef, while Muslims view pigs as unclean and avoid pork.

According to the AFP news agency, McDonald's will open the outlet in the middle of next year, near the Golden Temple in the Sikh holy city of Amritsar in northern India.


Religious authorities forbid consumption of meat at the shrine.


A spokesman for McDonald's in northern India, Rajesh Kumar Maini, told the news agency: "There is a big opportunity for vegetarian restaurants as many Indians are vegetarian.

"At the moment, India is still a very small market - we just have 271 restaurants in India, and across the world, we have nearly 33,000." 
The chain plans to open another vegetarian outlet in north-western India, near the Vaishno Devi cave shrine in Kashmir, which is a Hindu pilgrimage site that attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors a year.

McDonald's has moved to provide more salads and other healthier foods with less sugar, salt and fat in them, in response to public concerns about diet.


In India, its menu is typically 50% vegetarian. 

Its signature dish in the country is the McAloo Tikki burger, which uses a spiced potato-based filling. It accounts for 25% of total sales.

Globally, the company plans to open around 1,300 new stores this year.
 

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

98-year-old message in bottle sets world record

London: It was scooped up from the sea after 98 years, and now officials say a message in a bottle discovered in Scotland has set a world record.

Fisherman Andrew Leaper found the bottle - released in 1914 - in his nets in April while sailing east of the Shetland Islands, which lie off Scotland's northern coast.

Guinness World Records confirmed on Thursday the find is the oldest message in a bottle ever recovered, beating a previous record by five years.

It was released in a batch of 1,890 bottles in a government experiment to map the undercurrents of the seas around Scotland.

Inside each bottle, a postcard asks the finder to record details of the discovery and promises a reward of a sixpence. Unfortunately for Mr Leaper, the coin no longer exists.