Beneful takes play to new places with this inventive Dog Goldberg machine powered by dogs and their favorite toys.
Play. It’s good for you.
Source….www.youtube.com
Natarajan
communication
இந்த வாரக் கவிதை ….” பாதச் சுவடுகள் ” !!!
பாதச் சுவடுகள்
…………..
பல்லாயிரம் காலடி படும் பாதையில் …வடுவாய் பாதச்சுவடாய்
நல்லோர் சிலர் காலடி மட்டும் உருவாக்கும் ஒரு தனி வழிப்பாதையை !
காலத்தால் அழியாத நல் வழி காட்டும் பாதை அது !
பாதச் சுவடு பதித்த நல்லோர் பலர் வழி நடக்க விழையும் நாம்
பதிக்க வேண்டும் நம் காலடியையும் ஒரு சுவடாக !
விதைக்க வேண்டும் நல் அறநெறி நம் பிள்ளைகள் மனதில் ..நம்
பாதச் சுவடு ஒன்றொன்றும் சொல்ல வேண்டும் ஒரு நல் வழிப்பாடம் !
அது காட்ட வேண்டும் ஒரு தனி வழி ஒளிமிகு புதிய பாரதம் மலர !
மாறட்டும் நம் காலடி ஒன்றொன்றும் ஒரு பாதச் சுவடாக இன்றுமுதல்
அது தொடரட்டும் என்றென்றும் வழி வழியாக ! காலத்தால்
அழியாத நல்ல வழிகாட்டியாக !
Natarajan
14 March 2016
The Health Benefits of Olive Oil…….!!!
| Olive oil is widely thought of as being good for our health. In fact, in terms of its health benefits, olive oil is unrivaled. New research continues to reveal more benefits almost every day. Nevertheless, we are only beginning to understand the countless ways olive oil can boost our health and quality of life. What is it that makes olive oil so beneficial to our health?
Nutrient composition of extra virgin olive oil Olive oil contains modest amounts of Vitamins E and K, as well as a wealth of beneficial fatty acids. To start, let’s take a look at the nutritional facts of extra virgin olive oil: 100g of olive oil contains:
*RDA: Recommended Daily Allowance However, one of olive oil’s well-known benefits is its antioxidant content, which helps the body fight serious diseases. Olive oil’s main antioxidants protect the body from oxidation (more on this below) and against LDL (bad) cholesterol. With these facts in mind, let’s look at how olive oil can benefit the body: 10 Health Benefits of Olive Oil 1. It reduces the risk of Type 2 Diabetes A low-fat diet is typically recommended to prevent diseases such as heart disease and diabetes. In fact, studies have shown that high fat diets may increase the risk of certain diseases, such as cancer and diabetes. With that being said, it’s worth pointing out that it’s the type of fat intake rather than the amount that affects health most severely. Consequently, it has been found that a diet rich in monounsaturated fats (such as those found in olive oil, nuts and seeds) actually offers protection from many chronic diseases. Furthermore, according to a study published in the scientific journal Diabetes Care, it was shown that a Mediterranean-style diet rich in olive oil reduced the risk of Type II diabetes by almost 50% when compared to a low-fat diet. Type II diabetes is the most common and preventable form of diabetes. 2. Olive oil may help prevent a stroke According to a study from France, published in the online issue of Neurology, older individuals who consume olive oil daily may be able to protect themselves from stroke. The study gathered information from medical records of 7,625 individuals over the age of 65 from three cities in France – Bordeaux, Dijon and Montpellier – none of whom had a history of stroke. The individuals were then categorized into three groups, based on their olive oil consumption. After five years, 148 strokes were reported. The results showed that individuals who frequently consumed olive oil had a 41% lower risk of stroke, compared to those that did not consume olive oil at all. 3. It keeps the heart young and healthy As we grow older, our heart goes through a normal aging process. Artery function tends to decline with age, leading to a number of health problems. In a recent study, Spanish researchers discovered that a diet rich in olive oil or other monounsaturated fats could improve arterial function in elderly individuals.
4. It helps fight osteoporosis A disease predominantly characterized by a decrease in bone mass, osteoporosis causes the architecture of bone tissue to become fragile, increasing the possibility of fractures, making even the slightest of bumps or falls potentially fatal. However, olive oil supplementation was found to positively affect the thickness of bones. While olive oil is not the only solution, scientists have concluded that it is very promising for the development of future treatments of the disease. 5. Olive oil helps fight depression While olive oil has been found to be beneficial for a number of physical ailments, what about emotional health benefits? Spanish researchers from the University of Navarra and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, found that a diet rich in olive oil can protect from mental illness too. It was recently discovered that a higher intake of olive oil and polyunsaturated fats found in fatty fish and vegetable oils lowered the risk of depression. According to the findings, cardiovascular disease and depression share some common mechanisms related to diet. 6. Olive oil has been found to prevent skin cancer A recent study found that olive oil may contribute to the prevention of malignant melanoma (the most dangerous type of skin cancer). Nevertheless, the use of sunscreen remains the best way to prevent sunburn, however, consuming olive oil and other Mediterranean food could help counter the oxidizing effect of the sun. 7. It can reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease Numerous studies have been conducted on olive oil and how it may help reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease. One study published in the journal of Chemical Neuroscience showed that the oleocanthal (a type of natural phenolic compound found in extra-virgin olive oil) has the potential to reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease and the cognitive decline that comes with aging. Olive oil polyphenols are powerful antioxidants, which may help reverse oxidative damage that occurs due to the aging process.
8. It may potentially protect against breast cancer A diet rich in fats is directly related to a higher risk of cancer. However, the types of fats consumed can actually play a protective role against the development of tumors. Virgin olive oil is rich in oleic acid – a mono-unsaturated fatty acid, containing several bioactive compounds such as antioxidants. Research shows that a moderate and regular intake of olive oil reduces the risk of certain types of cancer, including breast cancer. 9. Olive oil has been found to reduce oxidative stress Studies suggest that olive oil can protect the liver from oxidative stress. To test this theory, scientists exposed rats to a moderately toxic herbicide known to deplete antioxidants and cause oxidative stress. The findings showed that rats fed a diet containing olive oil were partially protected from liver damage. 10. It contains anti-inflammatory substances Chronic inflammation is believed to be one of the leading causes of many diseases, including heart disease, cancer, metabolic syndrome, diabetes, Alzheimer’s and arthritis. However, one of the benefits of olive oil lies in its ability to fight inflammation. The oil’s anti-inflammatory effects seem to be mediated by the antioxidants in olive oil. One such antioxidant is oleocanthal – which has been shown to work like ibuprofen, an anti-inflammatory drug. In fact, it has been found that 50ml of extra virgin olive oil has an effect similar to 10% of the adult ibuprofen dosage for pain relief. Source……www.ba-bamail.com Natarajan
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Message for the Day….” Dharma and Adharma …”
In the world the progeny of Dharma and Adharma (Righteousness and Unrighteousness) are continually growing. Consider this lineage: Unrighteousness (Adharma) married delusion (Mithya). Mithya is neither truth nor untruth. This couple had two children, a son calledAhamkara (egoism) and a daughter called Moha (infatuation). As both are the children of Ignorance, with no capacity to judge what is right and wrong, the unholy alliance between them resulted in the birth ofLobha (avarice) and Vanchana (deceit) as son and daughter. From the wrongful union of these two, Irshya (jealousy) and Krodha (anger) were born. Out of their union, Bheeti (fear) and Mrityu (death) were born. This lineage is known as Adharma Santhathi (the progeny of unrighteousness). Following this lineage of Unrighteousness, every union is improper.
Your Next Must-Visit Destination in India: A Unique Garden Made of Threads in the Nilgiris…
Flowers that never wilt and leaves that don’t dry up, can only be found in a dimly lit greenhouse in the heart of Ooty. This evergreen artificial plant kingdom is the only one of its kind in the world. All the plants here are fabricated with thread and look so natural that they rival real ones in beauty.
One of the most fascinating tourist attractions of Ooty is the Thread Garden, located right opposite the Ooty Boat House. This magnificent display of flowers, plants and lawns is fabricated entirely from thread, with the help of canvas, wire and glue. This amazing garden is indeed a sight to behold.
A unique technique known as ‘four dimensional hand wound embroidery’ is used to make the plants in this garden.
Welcome to the unique garden.
Photo credit: Sonika Sharma
Mr Antony Joseph, the man who created this spectacular wonder, used to work as a lecturer in a private college. He gave up his job when his father passed away, to look after the family’s textile brushes and wooden accessories business. Production in this unit was mainly for Coats Vivella Group Companies, which helped him develop his relationship with Coats India.
Around this time, Antony started developing other items too because of his interest in handicrafts.
Antony Joseph making a bouquet of flowers.
Photo Credit: Thread Garden
“Handicrafts have always been a passion and my initial research was in designing caps, wigs and brushes using Coats threads. The success of these items, at an exhibition conducted by Coats Vivella India Ltd, prompted me to increase the scope of my research. This resulted in the innovative technique of ‘hand wound embroidery.’ The company encouraged me to continue my research for designing novel hand wound embroidery crafts, supplying me the main raw material – the embroidery threads,” adds the proud designer.
In 1988, he started a unique research and work centre with nine ladies, making plants and flowers using this technique. Canvas is cut in the shape of the leaf or the petal. Glue is applied and the thread is wound neatly onto the piece of canvas. No needles and no machinery are used to make these beautiful plants. This painstaking technique is done with only the nimble fingers of the artisan and hence it takes very long to complete a project. Grass and stems, as well as the stamen and filaments of the flowers, are made with a wire base and embroidery thread is wound on the wire to complete the pieces.
The various parts of the plant, once ready, are glued together in such a manner that they look extremely natural. When a bunch of flowers is placed in a flowering pot it is very difficult to differentiate it from a natural bouquet, since the design and the colours of the threads used are so perfect.
Keen concentration and patience are the hallmark of every one of the artisans. They have to make sure the winding is perfect, without any overlapping of threads, knots and gaps between the threads.
Bird of Paradise created with thread
Photo Credit: Sonika Sharma
In the initial years, Antony Joseph had several opportunities to display these spectacular works of art in many parts of the country.
“People really wondered at these novel creations and my experimental pieces sold easily anywhere they were exhibited. This helped me to run my work centre back home in Koratty, near Thrissur, in Kerala,” he says.
In 1993, Coats India accepted this newly developed craft technology and published an article with colour transparencies in its magazine Needle ‘N’ Embroidery. The Crafts Council of India sent him a special message congratulating him on his invention of hand-wound embroidery, without the use of needles or machinery.
He received appreciative messages from almost every part of the country and this encouraged him to continue his research and create new varieties of plants.
Beautiful white flowers made of thread.
Photo credit: Sonika Sharma
Antony wanted to establish a garden with many varieties of flowering and non-flowering plants using his unique embroidery technique. He was able to employ 50 women and train them in this craft. After 12 years of untiring work, they were able to successfully fabricate around 100 different plant species and were ready to set up a garden. He initially set up the Thread Garden in Mallampuzha, a popular dam site in Kerala. However, due to floods, he had to shift from there. In 2002, he chose the present location opposite the Ooty Boat House and ever since then this place, which looks so unassuming from the outside, has been on the tourist map of the Nilgiris.
For this amazing feat, Antony Joseph and his artificial garden have been mentioned in the following books of records – India Book of Records, Tamilnadu Book of Records, and Unique World Records – as the first thread garden in the world.
Plants in pots and water lilies in the water
Photo credit: Thread Garden
Antony Joseph hopes that this garden gets a mention in the Limca Book of Records as well as the Guinness Book of World Records. There are some criteria yet to be met to achieve these accolades, which he is striving for.
“Making artificial pieces of flora look natural is the real challenge! This Thread Garden is a success story of overcoming this formidable challenge. Creation of each piece of art is an imaginative expression of nature as it is. To achieve the ultimate goal a permutation and combination of forms, light, shades and patterns has been used” he emphasizes.
The one of its kind evergreen garden.
Photo credit: Thread Garden
The garden, as such, is complete and there is nothing more to be added to it. However, the artisans still work on making these flowers, back home in Kerala. Their products are encased in glass cases and sold at the sales counter in the garden premises. A list of instructions on how to take care of the flowers in the glass case are given to every buyer.
The sale of these glass encased flowers helps promote the craft.
Encased in glass, flowers sold at the sales counter.
Photo credit: Aparna Menon
Mr Antony Joseph can be reached on his mail id mail@threadgarden.com.
About the author: Aparna Menon is a freelance writer, writing for various newspapers for the past 10 years. Her main fields of interest are wildlife, heritage and history. A keen traveller, she loves to read and write and does a lot of art work too.
Source…..Aparna Menon in http://www.the betterindia.com
Natarajan
Message for the Day…” Let our life be dedicated to ideals…”
Do not feel proud about your cleverness or intelligence or about your ability to win laurels in studies. Good character and righteous thinking are more valuable than scholastic achievements, wealth, power or intellectual abilities. Utilise your intelligence and thoughts for achieving bliss which comes from leading a life of righteousness and goodness. Let your life be dedicated to ideals. The Lord is secured and bound only by the intensity of your devotion. The Ganges of true devotion must flow from your heart. Everything that is associated with Divinity has its origin in the heart. Hence the heart should be emptied of all evil and kept pure and unsullied by right action. It may not be possible to escape the consequences of one’s good and bad actions. But even a mountain of sin can be wiped out by winning the grace of the Divine. Hence one should strive to earn the love of God, which is all-embracing and all-powerful.
Joke for the Day…” Is there any cheaper way …” ? !!!
One day, a man walks into a dentist’s office and asks how much it will cost to extract wisdom teeth.
“Eighty dollars,” the dentist says.
“That’s a ridiculous amount,” the man says.
“Isn’t there a cheaper way?”
“Well,” the dentist says, “if you don’t use an anesthetic, I can knock the price down to $60.”
“That’s still too expensive,” replies the man.
“Okay,” says the dentist. “If I save on anesthesia and simply rip the teeth out with a pair of pliers, I can knock the price down to $20.”
“Nope,” moans the man, “it’s still too much.”
“Well,” says the dentist, scratching his head, “if I let one of my students do it, I suppose I can knock the price down to $10.
“Marvelous,” says the man. “Book my wife in for next Tuesday!”
Source…www.ba-bamail.com
Natarajan
Image of the Day… Lunar shadow across Earth..
Lunar shadow moves across Earth
This is way cool. Watch the moon’s shadow move across Earth during the March 9 total solar eclipse. A first ever animation from deep space.
March 9, 2016. Image credit: NASA
A camera aboard the DSCOVR satellite captured a unique view of this week’s solar eclipse. On March 9, 2016, residents of the Western Pacific looked up in the early morning hours to observe the only total solar eclipse of 2016, while DSCOVR looked down from a million miles away and captured the shadow of the moon crossing the planet.
In the animation above, the shadow of the new moon starts crossing the Indian Ocean and marches past Indonesia and Australia into the open waters and islands of Oceania (Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia) and the Pacific Ocean. Note how the shadow moves in the same direction as Earth rotates. The bright spot in the center of each disk is sunglint — the reflection of sunlight directly back at the satellite’s camera.
NOAA’s DSCOVR satellite is the Nation’s first operational satellite in deep space. DSCOVR hovers between the sun and Earth at all times, maintaining a constant view of the sun and sun-lit side of Earth.
Adam Szabo is NASA’s project scientist for DSCOVR. He said:
What is unique for us is that being near the sun-Earth line, we follow the complete passage of the lunar shadow from one edge of the Earth to the other. A geosynchronous satellite would have to be lucky to have the middle of an eclipse at noon local time for it. I am not aware of anybody ever capturing the full eclipse in one set of images or video.
The animation above was assembled from 13 images acquired on March 9, 2016, by NASA’s Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC), a four-megapixel charge-coupled device (CCD) and Cassegrain telescope on the DSCOVR satellite.
Japan’s Himawari-8 satellite also captured a series of images showing the procession of the shadow during this eclipse, which you can view here.
Bottom line: On March 9, 2016, a camera aboard the DSCOVR satellite captured the shadow of the moon crossing Earth from a million miles away during the only total solar eclipse of 2016.
Source…..www.earthsky.org
Natarajan
Message for the Day….”When the service to humanity truly becomes service to God….”
Many state that service to humanity (manava-seva) is service to God (Madhava-seva). It is true. Although the service of humanity is holy, unless it is merged in the bigger ideal of divinity in everyone, people won’t benefit, however huge the service. Quoting the slogan is useless if service is done with an eye on name and fame and the fruits of one’s action. Only when you constantly contemplate on the Lord, follow true and righteous means in execution, and work with faith in the essential divinity of people, then the service to humanity truly becomes service to God. Without thoughts of God how can service to God originate? All such talk is mere show. In fact those who are immersed in the uninterrupted contemplation of the Lord need not do any other task at all. The fruit of their prayer itself can make the world holy. However all can’t be thus engaged, so others must prepare for that stage by purifying their mind and diminishing their desires.
Joke of the Day…” Oh ….What was that ….” ?!!!
| A man was sitting quietly reading his paper one morning, peacefully enjoying himself, when his wife sneaks up behind him and whacks him on the back of his head with a huge frying pan.
Man: “Ow! What was that for?” Wife: “What was that piece of paper in your pants pocket with the name Marylou written on it?” Man: “Oh honey, remember two weeks ago when I went to the horse races? Marylou was the name of one of the horses I bet on.” The wife looked all satisfied, apologizes and begins to do work around the house. Three days later, he’s sitting in his chair again, reading the newspaper. She whacks him with the frying pan once again, this time even harder than she did before. Man: “OW!! What was that for this time?” “Your horse just called.” Source…….www.ba-bamail.com Natarajan |
Take off with Natarajan 