Joke of the Day… ” You Must be 193 years old …”!!!

A lawyer died and arrived at the pearly gates. To his dismay, there were thousands of people ahead of him in line to see St. Peter. To his surprise, St. Peter left his desk at the gate and came down the long line to where the lawyer was, and greeted him warmly. Then St. Peter and one of his assistants took the lawyer by the hands and guided him up to the front of the line, and into a comfortable chair by his desk. The lawyer said, “I don’t mind all this attention, but what makes me so special?” St. Peter replied, “Well, I’ve added up all the hours for which you billed your clients, and by my calculation you must be about 193 years old!”    

source::::joke a day.com

natarajan

Walk the Work !!!

Desk jobs are slowly killing us. Perhaps even worse than dying early, our office-potato lives are making us moresusceptible to joint painfatigue, and illness. To fight off these modern diseases, Iuse a treadmill desk, which keeps me in motion all day long. Unfortunately, treadmill desks are pretty pricey, going for around $1,400 on Amazon.

 

Posted by Gregory Ferenstein  in techcrunch.com ..7 march 2014

 

 

Now, a new study has quantified the impacts of treadmill desks on workplace productivity and the results convincingly show why it’s worth it to a company’s bottom dollar to buy walking stations for the entire office.

The researchers conducted a year-long controlled experiment with employees in a financial firm. On average they found that supervisor ratings of employee productivity increased 10% (on a 1-10 scale) and energy expenditure per day shot up 70 calories. This generally confirms other evidence on walking desks, including one that found that doctors are 10% more accurate at diagnosing patients while on a walking workstation (actually, their diagnosis rate went from 88% to near perfect, 99%, while walking).

“The results suggest that the introduction of treadmill workstations, as hypothesized, has a significantly favorable impact on both physical activity and work performance,” the team concludes. “It seems that companies ought to consider making treadmill workstations available to their sedentary employees.”

With any rudimentary back-of-the napkin calculations, outfitting the entire office with walking stations is a penny saver. As long as the new equipment satisfies this the simpleProductivity Increase + Healthcare Savings > Cost of Treadmill Per Employee equation, it makes perfect sense.

A 10% bumb in satisfaction is huge. If the average employee is worth $50K/year, treadmill desks add an extra $5K worth of productivity. Indeed, if the actual productivity spike is anywhere near what other studies have found, it’s likely worth more than the $1,400 price tag. And, it’s not hard to see why treadmill desks are so beneficial: being tired at work causes a massive drain on resources. Being upright helps curb this — and even a slightly perkier workplace is worth a lot of money.

Then, you have to factor in healthcare. Many workplaces offer hundreds of dollars in savings for employee wellness programs, which can save the business itself in insurance costs, sick days, and worker comp. Sick days alone are worth a few hundred dollars per day per employee.

To be sure, office plans that only incentive gym memberships may be insufficient to optimize their employees health: sitting all day long can offset some of the beneficial effects of occasional exercise, which is probably why desk jobs are associated with cardiovascular disease.

I love my treadmill desk, and I walk around five hours a day (and that’s probably more than most will use it). One unit can easily be split by two or more employees. So, the actual cost of a treadmill desk is a maximum of $700 per employee.

In short, so long as the profitable increase in productivity and healthcare savings is more than $700, it’s worth employers to outfit the entire office with treadmill desks.

source:::: techcrunch.com

natarajan

Message for the Day…”Prayer is for the Mind just as Food for the Body …”

Prayer is for the mind, just as food is for the body. Wholesome food gives health and strength to the body. Prayer purifies your mind and strengthens your spirit. If bhajans are done in an ostentatious manner, ego gets bloated. Young people must proceed from tamas, the darkness of ignorance, to tapas, spiritual austerities. Be steadfast in pursuing whatever you choose. There is no point in doing meditation for two days and giving up on the third day. If you start practicing meditation, it must become an integral part of your life. You cannot assume you are meditating by merely closing your eyes. You must progress until you feel united with the God present within your heart. Along with meditation, you must acquire the knowledge and skills to lead your professional life. You must always maintain the same discipline and strength of character, wherever you are.

 Sathya Sai Baba

Human Body…Some Interesting Facts !!!

The Human Body is a treasure trove of mysteries, one that still confounds doctors and scientists about the details of its working. It’s not an overstatement to say that every part of your body is a miracle. Here are fifty facts about your body, some of which will leave you stunned… Or…

1. It’s possible for your body to survive without a surprisingly large fraction of its internal organs. Even if you lose your stomach, your spleen, 75% of your liver, 80% of your intestines, one kidney, one lung, and virtually every organ from your pelvic and groin area, you wouldn’t be very healthy, but you would live.

2. During your lifetime, you will produce enough saliva to fill two swimming pools. Actually, Saliva is more important than you realize. If your saliva cannot dissolve something, you cannot taste it.

3. The largest cell in the human body is the female egg and the smallest is the male sperm. The egg is actually the only cell in the body that is visible by the naked eye.

4. The strongest muscle in the human body is the tongue and the hardest bone is the jawbone.

5. Human feet have 52 bones, accounting for one quarter of all the human body’s bones.

6. Feet have 500,000 sweat glands and can produce more than a pint of sweat a day.

7. The acid in your stomach is strong enough to dissolve razor blades. The reason it doesn’t eat away at your stomach is that the cells of your stomach wall renew themselves so frequently that you get a new stomach lining every three to four days.

8. The human lungs contain approximately 2,400 kilometers (1,500 mi) of airways and 300 to 500 million hollow cavities, having a total surface area of about 70 square meters, roughly the same area as one side of a tennis court. Furthermore, if all of the capillaries that surround the lung cavities were unwound and laid end to end, they would extend for about 992 kilometers. Also, your left lung is smaller than your right lung to make room for your heart.

9. Sneezes regularly exceed 100 mph , while coughs clock in at about 60 mph.

10. Your body gives off enough heat in 30 minutes to bring half a gallon of water to a boil.

11. Your body has enough iron in it to make a nail 3 inches long.

12. Earwax production is necessary for good ear health It protects the delicate inner ear from bacteria, fungus, dirt and even insects. It also cleans and lubricates the ear canal.

13. Everyone has a unique smell, except for identical twins, who smell the same.

14. Your teeth start growing 6 months before you are born. This is why one out of every 2,000 newborn infants has a tooth when they are born

15. A baby’s head is one-quarter of its total length, but by the age of 25 will only be one-eighth of its total length. This is because people’s heads grow at a much slower rate than the rest of their bodies.

16. Babies are born with 300 bones, but by adulthood the number is reduced to 206. Some of the bones, like skull bones, get fused into each other, bringing down the total number.

17. It’s not possible to tickle yourself. This is because when you attempt to tickle yourself you are totally aware of the exact time and manner in which the tickling will occur, unlike when someone else tickles you.

18. Less than one third of the human race has 20-20 vision. This means that two out of three people cannot see perfectly.

19. Your nose can remember 50,000 different scents. But if you are a woman, you are a better smeller than men, and will remain a better smeller throughout your life.

20. The human body is estimated to have 60,000 miles of blood vessels.

21. The three things pregnant women dream most of during their first trimester are frogs, worms and potted plants. Scientists have no idea why this is so, but attribute it to the growing imbalance of hormones in the body during pregnancy.

22. The life span of a human hair is 3 to 7 years on average. Every day the average person loses 60-100 strands of hair. But don’t worry, you must lose over 50% of your scalp hairs before it is apparent to anyone.

23. The human brain cell can hold 5 times as much information as an encyclopedia. Your brain uses 20% of the oxygen that enters your bloodstream, and is itself made up of 80% water. Though it interprets pain signals from the rest of the body, the brain itself cannot feel pain.

24. The tooth is the only part of the human body that can’t repair itself.

25. Your eyes are always the same size from birth but your nose and ears never stop growing.

26. By 60 years of age, 60% of men and 40% of women will snore.

27. We are about 1 cm taller in the morning than in the evening, because during normal activities during the day, the cartilage in our knees and other areas slowly compress.

28. The brain operates on the same amount of power as 10-watt light bulb, even while you are sleeping. In fact, the brain is much more active at night than during the day.

29. Nerve impulses to and from the brain travel as fast as 170 miles per hour. Neurons continue to grow throughout human life. Information travels at different speeds within different types of neurons.

30. It is a fact that people who dream more often and more vividly, on an average have a higher Intelligence Quotient.

31. The fastest growing nail is on the middle finger.

32. Facial hair grows faster than any other hair on the body. This is true for men as well as women.

33. There are as many hairs per square inch on your body as a chimpanzee.

34. A human fetus acquires fingerprints at the age of three months.

35. By the age of 60, most people will have lost about half their taste buds.

36. About 32 million bacteria call every inch of your skin home. But don’t worry, a majority of these are harmless or even helpful bacteria.

37. The colder the room you sleep in, the higher the chances are that you’ll have a bad dream.

38. Human lips have a reddish color because of the great concentration of tiny capillaries just below the skin.

39. Three hundred million cells die in the human body every minute.

40. Like fingerprints, every individual has an unique tongue print that can be used for identification.

41. A human head remains conscious for about 15 to 20 seconds after it has been decapitated.

42. It takes 17 muscles to smile and 43 to frown.

43. Humans can make do longer without food than sleep . Provided there is water, the average human could survive a month to two months without food depending on their body fat and other factors. Sleep deprived people, however, start experiencing radical personality and psychological changes after only a few sleepless days. The longest recorded time anyone has ever gone without sleep is 11 days, at the end of which the experimenter was awake, but stumbled over words, hallucinated and frequently forgot what he was doing.

44. The most common blood type in the world is Type O. The rarest blood type, A-H or Bombay blood, due to the location of its discovery, has been found in less than hundred people since it was discovered

45. Every human spent about half an hour after being conceived, as a single cell. Shortly afterward, the cells begin rapidly dividing and begin forming the components of a tiny embryo.

46. Right-handed people live, on average, nine years longer than left-handed people do. This is largely due to the fact that a majority of the machines and tools we use on a daily basis are designed for those who are right handed, making them somewhat dangerous for lefties to use and resulting in thousands of accidents and deaths each year.

47. Your ears secrete more earwax when you are afraid than when you aren’t.

48. Koalas and primates are the only animals with unique fingerprints.

49. Humans are the only animals to produce emotional tears.

50. The human heart creates enough pressure to squirt blood 30 feet in the air.   

 

source::::input from a friend of mine 

natarajan

World”s Oldest Person… Secrets of Her Longevity !!!

Japan's Misao Okawa, pictured with her Guinness World Records certificate. Picture: AP

Japan’s Misao Okawa, pictured with her Guinness World Records certificate. Picture: AP Source: News Limited

THE world’s oldest person has revealed the secret behind her long and healthy life, but if you think it’s all down to diet and lots of exercise then think again.

As it turns out Misao Okawa, who turns 116 years old on Wednesday, reckons it’s down to two simple things: sushi and sleep.

The Japanese woman, whose life has spanned across three centuries, eats three meals a day and ensures she always gets eight hours rest a night.

 Misao Okawa celebrates her 115th birthday in Osaka, western Japan Tuesday, March 5, 2013. Okawa was formally recognized last...

Mrs Okawa pictured celebrating her 115th birthday in Osaka last year. Picture: AP Source: AP

Mrs Okawa, who has four grandchildren and six great-grandchildren, also credits oily fish such as mackerel for her longevity and only went into a care home 18 years ago at the age of 98.

“She insists that her favourite meal is sushi, particularly mackerel on vinegar-steamed rice, and she has it at least once every month, Tomohito Okada, the head of the Kurenai retirement home where she lives told The Telegraph .

The mother-of-three has been a widow since her husband Yukio passed away in 1931 and has an elderly son, 94, and daughter, 92 as well as four grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

Mrs Okawa became the world’s oldest person following the death of 116-year-old Japanese man Jiroemon Kimura on June 12, 2013.

In August last year, Bolivian indigenous farmer Carmelo Flores Laura who claimed he had just turned 123, attributed his longevity to the traditional Andean diet.

Bolivian Carmelo Flores Laura who according Bolivian authorities is 123 years old. Pictur

Bolivian Carmelo Flores Laura who according Bolivian authorities is 123 years old. Picture: EPA Source: Supplied

He credits a diet of quinoa, mushrooms and coca for keeping him alive so long as well as lots of walking and alcohol.

However, there was some difficulty obtaining proof of his birth as Bolivia only started issuing official birth certificates in 1940.

But he does have a baptism certificate which lists his birthday as July 16, 1890 and he has national identity documents based on the certificate.

Bolivia’s Civil Registry Office looked into the validity of the documents and has confirmed they are legitimate.

However, according to Guinness World Records Mrs Okawa is the oldest living person verified by original proof of birth.

But it seems healthy foods may not always be the answer to long life alone.

last year Texas woman Pearl Cantrell reckoned the secret to long life was bacon.

“I love bacon, I could eat it for every meal — and I do,” she told local TV station KRBC.

“I want other people to eat bacon, I tell them too. My kids all eat it.”

source::::news.com.au

natarajan

Message For The Day…” Thro Meditation Oneness with Divine is Achieved …”

Meditation is not merging the form in your mind. It is merging your mind with the Form, so that the mind doesn’t exist. There are three stages in this process – The Ooha (imagining the Form), Bhava(experiencing the Divine) and finally Sakshatkara (Realization). In the initial stages, the devotee imagines one’s favourite Divine Form, as they have seen before. Over time, the image vanishes in the mind and they begin experiencing the Form. This process takes longer and slowly, the devotee starts experiencing the Lord from the toe to the head. The impressions last longer and grow deeper and gradually, the image of the Lord that is firmly implanted becomes an inner reality. While the imagining stage gives only momentary joy, the experiencing stage results in complete identification of the seeker with the Lord. Thus, over time, awareness of the Divine results in oneness with the Divine (Brahmavid Brahmaiva Bhavathi).   

Sathya Sai Baba

Message For the Day…”Have Pure Thoughts…Get Your Body &Senses Purified…”

If you throw a pebble in a pond, a small ripple originates and spreads until the end of the river. You may or may not be able to see, but the ripple starts right at the point where the stone meets the water. Similarly, in the lake of your mind, when you throw a stone of thought, ripples of thought waves start spreading throughout your body. The same ripple reflects in your eyes, brain, ears, heart and also in your hands and legs. Hence you must be very careful with the kind of thoughts that you permit to pervade your personality. When you get pure thoughts, all your senses will be purified by it. However, if you get bad thoughts, your senses will be perverted and this will quickly spread to your eyes, heart, hand and brain. Always have pure thoughts. If you do so, your body, senses and actions will be purified.

 

Sathya Sai Baba

” வாடிய பயிரை பார்க்கும் போது வாடும் ஒரு மனிதர் …”

 

ஜோலார்பேட்டை ரயில் நிலையம் அருகில் வாணியம்பாடி செல்லும் சாலையோரத்தில் இருக்கிறது ஏலகிரி ஓட்டல். அங்குச் சாப்பிட்டுவிட்டுச் சிலர் பணம் கொடுக்காமல் வணக்கம் மட்டும் தெரிவித்து விட்டுச் செல்கின்றனர். கல்லாவில் இருந்தவரும் காசு கேட்பதில்லை. பணத்துக்குப் பதில் வணக்கம் செலுத்தினால் போதுமா? விசாரித்தபோதுதான் மேலே தொங்கிக்கொண்டிருந்த சிலேட்டுப் பலகைகளைக் காட்டினார். விஷயம் புரிந்தது.

‘முதியோர், ஊனமுற்றோர்களுக்கு காலை 8 முதல் 11 மணி வரை இலவச உணவு’ (100 பேர் வரை), ‘பால் வாங்கப் பணமில்லையென்றால் குழந்தைகளுக்கு இலவசமாகப் பால்’, ‘வாரம் 100 மாணவர்களுக்கு இலவசமாக பேனா அல்லது பென்சில்’, ‘1 முதல் 8ம் வகுப்பு வரையிலான மாணவர்களுக்கு காலை முதல் மாலை வரை பாதி விலையில் உணவு’ இந்த அறிவுப்புகள் சிலேட்டுப் பலகைகளில் சாக்பீஸால் எழுதப்பட்டிருந்தன.

ஆச்சரியத்துடன் கேட்டால், “பணத்துக்காக வாழ்றதில்லிங்க; வாழ்றதுக்குதாங்க பணம்” பெரிய தத்துவத்தை எளிதாகச் சொல்கிறார் இந்த ஓட்டலின் உரிமையாளர் நாகராஜ். அவர் இந்தச் சேவையை 25 ஆண்டுக்கும் மேலாகச் செய்துவருகிறார். ஒரு நாளைக்கு ஏறக்குறைய 100 பேர் வரை இந்த ஓட்டலை நம்பியே காலம் தள்ளுகின்றனர்.

ஜோலார்பேட்டை ரயில் நிலையம் வட மற்றும் தென் தமிழகம், கர்நாடகம் மற்றும் ஆந்திரத்தை இணைக்கும் முக்கியச் சந்திப்பு. இந்த நிலையத்தைக் கடந்ததுதான் அனைத்து ரயில்களும் பயணிக்கின்றன.

பயணத்தின்போது காலி தண்ணீர் பாட்டிலை ஜன்னல் வழியே வீசுவதைப்போல குடும்பத்தில் பாரமென கருதப்படும் மனிதர்களை ரயிலில் அழைத்து வந்து இங்கே இறக்கிவிட்டுச் சென்று விடுகின்றனர். அவர்கள் பெரும்பாலும் முதியவர்கள் மற்றும் மனநிலை பாதிக்கப்பட்டவர்கள். மாதந்தோறும் குறைந்தபட்சம் 15 பேராவது இப்படி அனாதைகளாகத் தனித்து விடப்படுகின்றனர்.

திக்குத் தெரியாமல் தவிக்கும் அவர்கள் ஜோலார்பேட்டையிலேயே சுற்றித்திரிகின்றனர். இவர்களுக்கு இந்த ஓட்டல் ஒரு அன்னச் சத்திரமாக இருக்கிறது. “பசி என்ற உணர்வு மட்டும்தான் சுயநினைவு இல்லாத வருக்குக்கூட உணவு நமக்கு தேவை என்பதை உணர்த்து கிறது” என்கிறார் நாகராஜ்.

இவர்கள் தவிர சுற்றுவட்டாரங்களில் வீடுகளில் கவனிக்க முடியாத நிலையில் இருக்கும் முதியவர்களுக்குத் தேவையான உணவை அவர்களது குடும்பத்தினர் வந்து இலவசமாக பார்சல் வாங்கிச் செல்லலாம். நாகராஜின் மனைவி சுஜாதாவும் தன் கணவரின் இந்தத் தொண்டுக்குப் பக்கபலமாக இருக்கிறார்.

மிகச் சின்ன வருமானத்தில் இதையெல்லா எப்படிச் சமாளிக்கிறீர்கள் என்ற கேள்விக்கு, “இவர்களுக் கென்று தனியாக உலை வைக்கப்போதில்லை. வழக்க மாக சமைக்கும் அளவோடு கொஞ்சம் கூடுதலாக சமைக்கிறேன். 5 கிலோ மாவு புரோட்டோ போட்டாலும் 10 கிலோ மாவு போட்டாலும் மாஸ்டருக்கு ஒரே கூலிதான். எரிபொருளும் ஏறக்குறைய ஒரே அளவில்தான் செலவா கிறது.

சில ஆயிரம் ரூபாய் வருவாய் இழப்புதான் என்றாலும் எனக்கு குடும்பம் நடத்தத் தேவையான லாபம் கிடைக்கிறது. மனதுக்கும் சந்தோஷமாக இருக்கிறது” என்கிறார் வாடிய பயிரைக் கண்டபோதெல்லாம் ‘வாடி நிற்கும்’ நாகராஜ்.

source:::::The Hindu….Tamil
natarajan

Message for the Day…” How to do Meditation …” ?

During meditation, care must be taken to keep the back straight and steady without bending forward or backward or sideward. If you bend or move, misdirection of highly potent energy (Kundalini) can occur resulting in mental derangement. Also wear loose clothes. Your eyes must concentrate on the tip of the nose. They must be half-open, so you are neither distracted nor falling asleep. Free your mind from bad thoughts and fill it with sacred ones. To achieve this, you must control your senses. Your ears must be trained to listen only to noble and elevating ideas, and to eschew evil speech and gossip. Your eyes must be tuned to see the Divine. The restless mind must be restrained by making it concentrate on inhalation and exhalation while incessantly repeating the Mantra‘So-Ham’ (I am He). Through these postures and activities, your life-breath is controlled and this will ensure that the great power of Yoga is revealed unto you.   

Sathya Sai Baba