Water Therapy - Benefits of Water Therapy

Water Therapy has magical effects in curing diseases. Everybody has experienced a positive change in their health after implementing water therapy in their daily routine. You can never believe it before practicing.

How to do Water Therapy?
Man Drinking Water

Early morning, after you get up from bed, (without even brushing your teeth) drink 1.50 liters of water i.e. 5 to 6 glasses. You may wash your face thereafter. This is called water therapy.

Here it is very essential to note that nothing else, neither drinks nor solid food of any sort should be taken within 1 hour before and after drinking these 1.5 liters of water. It is also to be strictly observed that no alcoholic drinks shall be taken the previous night.

If required, boiled and filtered water may be used for this purpose. Is it possible to drink 1.50 liters of water at one time? To begin with, one may find it difficult to drink 1.50 liters of water at one time, but one will get used to it gradually.

Initially, while practicing you may drink four glasses first and then the balance two glasses after a gap of 2 minutes. Initially you may find the necessity to urinate 2-3 times within an hour, but it will become normal after quite some time.

Benefits of Water Therapy

Relief from stress, weight loss, glowing skin, feeling fresh and energetic throughout the day and good digestion are some of the major benefits of water therapy. Have a look at some of the comments below made by people after trying water therapy.

1. Ever since I started this water therapy, I have noticed a glow on my skin, my eyes sparkle, and I feel so clean and so beautiful. I noticed that I always have a bowel movement after my water therapy and my constipation is gone.

2. Water therapy is just amazing! Though I have to urinate a lot of times in an hour but it makes sense. It makes me feel so good and so good. Thanks to this water therapy! Thank GOD for giving us the water to drink.

3. Water therapy is really wonderfully beneficial. So much that people who have not practiced this can't even imagine. It makes your body thoroughly clean and pure from inside and outside. I recommend that everybody should start practicing water therapy to keep tremendously fit and disease free.

About Water Therapy

It is popular in Japan and India today to drink water immediately after waking up every morning. Furthermore, scientific tests have proven its value.

They publish below a description of use of water in water therapy for their readers. For old and serious diseases as well as modern illnesses, the water therapy treatment had been found successful by a Japanese medical society as a hundred percent cure for the following diseases

* Headache
* Body Ache
* Heart System
* Arthritis
* Fast Heart Beat
* Epilepsy
* Excess
* Fatness
* Bronchitis
* Asthma
* TB
* Meningtitis
* Kidney and Urine diseases
* Vomiting gastritis
* Diarrhea
* Piles
* Diabetes
* Constipation
* All Eye Diseases
* Menstrual Disorders
* Ear Nose
* Throat Diseases

Water Therapy - Method of Treatment

1. As you wake up in the morning before brushing teeth, drink 4-6 glasses of water each of 160 ml.
2. Brush and clean the mouth but do not eat or drink anything for 45 minutes.
3. After 45 minutes you may eat and drink as normal.
4. After 15 minutes of breakfast, lunch and dinner do not eat or drink anything for two hours.
5. Those who are old or sick and are unable to drink four glasses of water at the beginning may commence by taking little water and gradually increase it to four glasses per day.
6. The above method of treatment will cure diseases of the sick and others can enjoy a healthy life.

The following list gives the number of days of treatment required to cure main diseases:

1. High Blood Pressure - 30 days
2. Gastric - 10 days
3. Diabetes - 30 days
4. Constipation - 10 days
5. TB - 90 days

Arthritis patients should follow the above treatment for only 3 days in the first week to be followed by daily treatment. This treatment method has no side effects, however at the commencement of treatment you may have to urinate a few times.

How does pure water help the body?

Consuming ordinary drinking water by the right method purifies human body. It renders the colon more effective by forming new fresh blood, known in medical terms as Haematopaises. That the mucousal folds of the colon and intestines are activated by this method, is an undisputed fact, just as the theory that new fresh blood is produced by the mucousal fold. If the colon is cleansed then the nutrients of the food taken several times a day will be absorbed and by the action of the mucousal folds they are turned into fresh blood. The blood is all-important in curing ailments and restoring health and for this water should be consumed in a regular pattern. This is why water therapy is recommended to be added to your daily routine.

Related Information on Water Therapy

* The Miracles of Water to Cure Diseases
* Drinking Water to cure internal /external infections
* Could Drinking Water Cure Your Ailments?
* Treating Cancer and Disease by Drinking Water
* The Water Cure Recipe

Important: Please note there are no scientific evidences of this theory to be true. I am just sharing what was shared with me. I've searched on the web for the Japanese medical society who claimed this water theory to be true but was unable to find any clue. If you have any clue, please post it as the comment.

Good Health to all of you with Water Therapy!

Mobile Phone Risk During Storms

Next time you find yourself talking on your mobile phone in the middle of a thunderstorm you may want to cut the conversation short.

UK doctors have warned of the danger of lightning strikes when using mobile phones outdoors during stormy weather. In the British Medical Journal, they highlight the case of a teenager left with severe injuries after being struck by lightning when talking on her phone. The metal in the phone directs the current into the body, they say.

A 15-year-old girl was struck by lightning while talking on her phone in a large park in London during stormy weather. She has no recollection of the incident but suffered a cardiac arrest and had to be resuscitated.

A year later, she has to use a wheelchair and has severe physical difficulties as well as brain damage which has led to emotional and cognitive problems. In the ear where she was holding the phone, she has a burst eardrum and persistent hearing loss.

When a person is hit by lightning, the high resistance of human skin causes the lightning charge to flow over the body - often known as an 'external flashover'. But some of the current can flow through the body. The more that flows through, the more internal damage it causes. Conductive materials in direct contact with the skin such as liquid or metal objects increase the risk that the current will flow through the body and therefore cause internal injury.

Rare occurrence

The doctors at Northwick Park Hospital in London who treated the girl's hearing injuries found three other cases of people being hit by lightning while talking on a mobile phone - all of whom died of their injuries - in China, Korea and Malaysia.

They said although cases were rare it was a public health issue and people needed to understand the risks. Swinda Esprit, a doctor in the ear, nose and throat department said: "It is obvious really but we all carry mobile phones and we don't think about it.

"If you're struck by lightning on its own it will flash over your body but if you're holding a phone it will internalise and cause much worse injuries."

"Children particularly won't realise the risk."

"In Australia they have guidelines, and one of the things they say is not to hold mobile phones outside during storms."

Dr Esprit said mobile phone manufacturers should warn consumers of the dangers. Paul Taylor, a scientist at the Met Office said it could also be dangerous to carry a mobile in your pocket during a storm.

"It is well known within the thunderstorm detection community that wearing or carrying metallic objects can increase the likelihood of injury."

"It certainly adds to the intensity of the skin damage and the article certainly amplifies that here."

"I would treat a mobile phone as yet another piece of metal that people tend to carry on their persons like coins and rings"

LIGHTNING FACTS

* There are, on average, about 1,800 thunderstorms in progress at any one time around the world with 100 lightning strikes every second.
* A lightning bolt travels at about 14,000mph and heats up the air around it to 30,000°C - five times hotter than the surface of the sun.
* The chance of being hit by lightning is about one in three million.

Exercise Melts Body Fat

If you want to reduce your body fat, focus on increasing the amount of exercise you get rather than decreasing your food intake. A recent national study was done using two groups of sedentary men, one group in their 20's and the other over age 65. A lot was learned from this accumulated data and it is interesting to note that there was a significant relationship between lack of physical activity and fat. Not surprisingly, the most sedentary men had the most body fat.

These studies have also indicated that the governments current recomended daily allowance for calories does not correlate with the body's actual energy needs. For example, although 2400 calories have been calculated for older men, they in fact burned an average of 2800 calories daily.

The leading experts now recommend that people who want to lose weight start increasing their physical activity. Just being more active in general (such as climbing the stairs instead of taking the elevator, moving around instead of sitting still, sitting up instead of lying down as well as showing some excitement and enthusiasm instead of boredom), are things that more effectively burns calories and reduces body fat. Everyone seems to have lost sight of the value of being active. Consider this, a half-hour aerobic workout accounts for far less energy expenditure than our minute-to-minute movement in the office or at home.

Millions of Americans are trying to lose weight, spending approximately $30 billion a year on diet programs and products, often they do lose some weight. But, if you check with the same people five years later, you will find that nearly all have regained whatever weight they lost. A national panel recently sought data to determine if any commercial diet program could prove long-term success. Not a single program could do so.

Being seriously overweight and particularly obesity predisposes individuals to a number of diseases and serious health problems, and it's now a known fact that when caloric intake is excessive, some of the excess frequently is saturated fat.

People who diet without exercising often get fatter with time. Although your weight may initially drop while dieting, such weight loss consists mostly of water and muscle. When the weight returns, it comes back as fat. To avoid getting fatter over time, increase your metabolism by exercising regularly.

Walking is one of the best exercises for strengthening bones, controlling weight, toning the leg muscles, maintaining good posture and improving positive self-concept.

To lose weight, it's more important to walk for time than speed.

Walking at a moderate pace yields longer workouts with less soreness - leading t more miles and more fat worked off on a regular basis. High intensity walks on alternate days help condition one's system. But in a walking, weight-loss program, you are not requried to walk an hour every day as some people would have you believe.

When it comes to good health and weight loss, exercise and diet are inter-related. Exercising without maintainin

Disadvantages of Smoking

The ingredients of tobacco smoke are chemically active. They can start dramatic and fatal changes in the body. There are over 4,000 chemicals, which can be damaging to the smoker's body. They include tar, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, hydrogen cyanide, metals, ammonia, and radioactive compounds.

Smoking causes Lung CancerScientists and doctors know so much more about the effects of smoking today than ever before. They know smoking causes immediate effects on the smoker's body. It constricts the airways of the lungs. It increases the smoker's heart rate. It elevates the smoker's blood pressure. The carbon monoxide in tobacco smoke deprives the tissues of the smoker's body of much-needed oxygen. All of these are dangerous short-term effects.

There are more serious long-term effects as well. Smoked tobacco in the forms of cigarettes, pipes, and cigars causes lung cancers, emphysema, and other respiratory diseases. In fact, smoking causes ninety percent of all lung cancer cases. Twenty percent of heavy smokers get the chronic lung disease called emphysema, which causes the narrowing, and clogging of the airway passages in the lungs. This disease is seldom seen in nonsmokers. Smokers are also at least four times more likely to develop oral and laryngeal cancer than nonsmokers.

Smoking contributes to heart disease. It increases the risk of stroke by nearly 40% among men and 60% among women. Smoking is an addiction. Tobacco smoke contains nicotine, a drug that is addictive and can make it very hard, but not impossible, to quit. More than 400,000 deaths in the U.S. each year are from smoking-related illnesses. Smoking greatly increases your risks for lung cancer and many other cancers.

Smoking harms not just the smoker, but also family members, coworkers and others who breathe the smoker's cigarette smoke, called secondhand smoke.

Among infants to 18 months of age, secondhand smoke is associated with as many as 300,000 cases of bronchitis and pneumonia each year. Secondhand smoke from a parent's cigarette increases a child's chances for middle ear problems, causes coughing and wheezing, and worsens asthma conditions.

If both parents smoke, a teenager is more than twice as likely to smoke as a young person whose parents are both non-smokers. In households where only one parent smokes, young people are also more likely to start smoking.

Pregnant women who smoke are more likely to deliver babies whose weights are too low for the baby's good health. If all women quit smoking during pregnancy, about 4,000 new babies would not die each year.

Drink Water to your Health

Seventy percent of our body is water. Dehydration occurs when the level of water in the body drops drastically affecting normal bodily functions.

1. Drink plenty of fluids, specially in the summer months. Water is the best choice.

2. Ensure your intake of fluids is larger than the amounts you may lose through vomiting, diarrhea or sweating.

3. Preferably consume water at room temperature. It allows for quicker hydration than water taken at any other temperature.

4. The best way to assess the water needs of the body is by checking the colour of urine. Darker the colour, greater are the body?s fluid needs. Urine should be clear to pale yellow.

5. Avoid drinking large quantities of tea, coffee, alcohol and sugar since they increase the fluid losses of the body causing dehydration. Have an extra glass of water each time you have one of these.

6. Large losses of body fluids cause an electrolyte imbalance. Maintain your electrolytes by adding sugar and a pinch of salt to your glass of fruit juice or water.

7. Patients with dietary restrictions - salt, sugar, water or fluids, must check with their consultant or seek professional help to make suitable modifications.

Be Good to Your Liver !!!

The main causes of liver damage are:

1.
Sleeping too late and waking up too late are the main cause.
2.
Not urinating in the morning.
3.
Too much eating.
4.
Skipping breakfast.
5.
Consuming too much medication.
6.
Consuming too much preservatives, additives, food coloring, and artificial sweetener.
7.
Consuming unhealthy cooking oil. As much as possible reduce cooking oil use when frying, which includes even the best cooking oils like olive oil. Do not consume fried foods when you are tired, except if the body is very fit.
8.
Consuming overly done foods also add to the burden of liver. Veggies should be eaten raw or cooked 3-5 parts. Fried veggies should be finished in one sitting, do not store.

We should prevent this without necessarily spending more. We just have to adopt a good daily lifestyle and eating habits.

Maintaining good eating habits and time condition are very important for our bodies to absorb and get rid of unnecessary chemicals according to "schedule."

Because:

Evening at 9 - 11pm : is the time for eliminating unnecessary toxic chemicals (de-toxification) from the antibody system (lymph nodes).This time duration should be spent by relaxing or listening to music. If during this time one is still in an unrelaxed state such as socializing, drinking, eating out, this will have a negative impact on health.

Evening at 11pm - 1am : is the de-toxification process in the liver,and ideally should be done in a deep sleep state.

Early morning 1 - 3am : de-toxification process in the gall, also ideally done in a deep sleep state.

Early morning 3 - 5am : de-toxification in the lungs. Therefore there will sometimes be a severe cough for cough sufferers during this time. Since the de-toxification process had reached the respiratory tract, there is no need to take cough medicine so as not to interfere with toxin removal process.

Morning 5 - 7am : de-toxification in the colon, you should empty your bowel.

Morning 7 - 9am : absorption of nutrients in the small intestine, you should be having breakfast at this time. Breakfast should be earlier, before 6:30am, for those who are sick. Breakfast before 7:30am is very beneficial to those wanting to stay fit. Those who always skip breakfast, they should change their habits, and it is still better to eat breakfast late until 9 -10am rather than no meal at all.

Sleeping so late and waking up too late will disrupt the process of removing unnecessary chemicals.

Aside from that, midnight to 4am is the time when the bone marrow produces blood . Therefore, have a good sleep and don't sleep late.

Identify your headache - Detect the type of headache

Headaches are irritants that could spoil your day. They could take away your efficiency by almost 50 per cent. Often we neglect headaches and try to get on with the daily chores till finally 3-4 hours later the headache becomes unbearable. After hours of this slow torture, finally we pop in a tablet to relieve the pain. If you do a quick analysis, you'll realise that from the moment the headache began to the time you took the tablet, you may have lost many hours of productive time. So the next time you feel the headache coming, first of all try to identify what kind of headache it might be and then go for the cure. Headaches occur for many reasons. They come due to tension or inflammation of the sinus. Sometimes headaches come when the eyes are under strain.

Tension headache: The most common type of headache, immortalised in TV commercials where a harried woman is hounded by a demanding husband, bratty children and a tyrannical boss.

*
Symptom: Feels like a tight band around your head.
*
Cause: Tight muscles in the face, neck and scalp, usually caused by stress.

Migraine: A headache has to be pretty nasty to earn the name migraine, which means "half a head" in French.

*
Symptom: A throbbing pain, usually on one side of the head. Usually accompanied by nausea, vomiting and sensitivity to light and sound.
*
Cause: Uneven levels of the brain chemical serotonin, which causes the blood vessels in the head to constrict, then expand, putting pressure on surrounding nerves. Can be aggravated by the hormonal changes of the menstrual cycle.
*
Prewarning: Most migraines are preceded by what's called an aura - flickering points of light or jagged lines that distort your vision.

Sinus headache: Pain around the bridge of your nose, jaws and ears. Sometimes pain moves down into the gums. Usually starts in the morning and gets worse throughout the day.

*
Cause: When you have a sinus infection, trapped air and pus press against the swollen, tender lining of your sinuses.
*
Hard fact: Sinus infections are common but sinus headaches are actually quite rare.

Cluster headache: The most excruciating of all headaches.

* Symptom: A piercing, throbbing, burning pain that bores into one side of the head, around or behind the eyes. Can occur several times each day for weeks or months at a time.

Ten Bad Sleeping Habits

Curling up: Did you know that sleeping all curled up is not good for your back? This could result in back pain. The best way to fall asleep is on your back, flat out, with maybe a pillow under your knees to flex your lower back.

Having pets sleep in your bed: Animal hair can trigger off asthma and other allergy attacks, so it is advisable to keep your furry friends out of your bed. Even children's stuffed toys can be carriers of dust mites. And that is something you need to watch out for.

Sleeping face down: Sleeping face down can wake you up in just a little while because of the disrupted nocturnal breathing that this can result in. You will not be able to breathe properly when sleeping face down and this will wake you up.

Dropping off in your make up: Apart from producing dark circles around your eyes, eye make up can irritate your eyes while you sleep. Besides having make up on for long periods of time can produce dermatitis. So before you hit the hay, even if you are bone tired, take a couple of minutes to completely remove all traces of make up from your face and neck.

Sleeping in a cold room: With the air conditioner on full blast and you feeling absolutely cold, you could curl up in a bad posture while sleeping. And this is bad for your spine. So sleep in a comfortable temperature, and set the timer on in your air conditioner before it gets too cold for you.

Putting flowers in your bedroom: Fresh flowers and their sweet scents are great to have in your room. But not while you sleep and in your bed room. Flowers have pollen that could trigger off an allergy attack in allergy-prone folks. Sunflowers are the worst offenders. If you still insist on flowers, have some low fragrance types that can minimize allergy attacks.

Sleeping with a bedside lamp on: Deep sleep can come only when you are sleeping in total darkness. So it might be a good idea to stop being afraid of the boogie man lurking in the shadows and sleep well. But if you are used to sleeping with the light on, gradually dim it or your sleep can get completely disrupted!

Cleaning your bedroom: Many disinfectants have chemicals that can irritate your skin, nose, throat and lungs when you sleep. So avoid cleaning your room in the evening, but clean it & give it a make-over in the morning.

Staying in a freshly painted room: Paints and varnishes also have chemicals that can irritate the system. So, if your have got your room painted, sleep somewhere else for about 3 weeks and then come in to inhabit the place after all the dust and chemicals have settled.

Lying in: We all love to sleep and given the chance we will sleep a lot longer than we need to and this can leave you feeling groggy and tired and not at your best. So, get just your required number of hours of sleep and wake up bright and alert to face the challenges of a new day. And did you know that a woman needs 15 minutes more sleep than a man does? So, now you know what to tell him when he asks for coffee or breakfast in bed!

25 Things You Didn't Know About Your Body and Health

Health.com presents its list of 25 random things you might not know about the human body, nutrition and exercise, sex, sickness, and health. Go ahead: Pass it on to your friends.

1. Rinsing your nose with salt water can help keep you healthy and ward off allergy symptoms. Nasal irrigation is a cheap and easy way to find relief if you have spring allergies, nasal congestion, stuffy noses or post-nasal drip, says Dr. Melissa Pynnonen, co-director of the Michigan Sinus Center and an assistant professor in the University of Michigan's department of otolaryngology.

2. Dogs can smell cancer and low blood sugar. The Pine Street Foundation, a cancer-education and research center in San Anselmo, California, published a study showing it was possible to train dogs to identify, based on breath samples, which patients had lung and breast cancer. Now the organization is recruiting ovarian cancer patients and dogs for a new study. In diabetics, the presence of ketones - substances made by the body during the metabolic process - can be smelled in urine and on the breath when blood sugars are high. Dogs can pick up on other smells that humans can’t when glucose levels drop.

3. Researchers at Cornell University found that people who pass through an entryway near the kitchen tend to eat 15 percent more than those who use the front door.

4. You're more likely to have a heart attack on a Monday, or up to three days after you've been diagnosed with the flu or a respiratory tract infection. The risk of dying from a heart attack increases by a third during outbreaks of the flu and related respiratory diseases, found researchers at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. The study authors estimate that 90,000 coronary deaths could be prevented a year in the United States if more heart patients simply got a flu shot.

5. You can't get a tan from your computer screen. The Computer Tan Web site was created as a hoax to raise awareness about skin cancer.

6. Obese people spend approximately $485 more on clothing, $828 on extra plane seats, and $36 more on gas each year than their thinner counterparts. Researchers say an overweight driver burns about 18 additional gallons of gas a year. Plus-sized clothing costs 10 percent to 15 percent more than smaller-sized clothes. When it comes to jet fuel, a recent issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicineestimated that the extra weight of obese Americans caused airlines to spend $275 million to burn 350 million more gallons of fuel.

7. Smokers are four times as likely to report feeling unrested after a night's sleep than nonsmokers. Smokers often experience withdrawal symptoms at night, thus causing periods of restlessness and waking. Smokers were also 1.69 times more likely to develop hearing loss than non-smokers, as smoking may affect antioxidative mechanisms or the blood vessels that feed the auditory system.

8. Eating fruits and vegetables may help the human body make its own aspirin. Findings from the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry indicate that study participants who received benzoic acid, a natural substance in fruits and vegetables, could make their own salicylic acid, the key component that gives aspirin its anti-inflammatory and pain-relieving properties.

9. A 20-minute nap can improve your overall alertness, boost your mood, and increase productivity. William Anthony, co-author of The Art of Napping at Work (Larson Publications, 1999), says the post-nap boost can last for several hours. In addition, your heart may reap benefits from napping. In a six-year study of Greek adults, researchers found that those men who took naps at least three times a week had a 37 percent lower risk of heart-related death.

10. Your kitchen sink is dirtier than your bathroom: There are typically more than 500,000 bacteria per square inch in its drain. The faucet, basin, and sponge are crawling with germs as well. Bacteria colonies with a total population exceeding 50 million can live on a single dirty sponge. And just think - that's what you use to wipe down countertops, forks and drinking glasses.

11. Four out of five doctors in the UK don't work out enough. Heavy workloads, lack of time and poor motivation contributed to the lack of exercise.

12. Baking soda can whiten teeth, garlic can help treat athlete's foot, and honey can soothe a hangover.

13. Using a food diary can double a person's weight-loss efforts. Your food diary makes you accountable to yourself and provides you with clues on where the extra calories are sneaking in.

14. Regular exercise can lower a woman's cancer risk - but only if she's getting enough sleep. The National Cancer Institute followed 5,968 women for almost 10 years, during which 604 of them developed some form of cancer. Women in the top half of physical activity levels showed an approximate 20 percent reduction in cancer risk compared to those who exercised less. For a segment of those women, sleeping less than seven hours per night had a decreased benefit to exercise. Their cancer risk was greater than those who exercised but slept more - but still lower than those who exercised the least.

15. Watching yourself run in a mirror can make a treadmill workout go by faster and feel easier.

16. Third-hand smoke - the particles that cling to smokers' hair and clothing and linger in a room long after they've left - is a cancer risk to young children (and pets).

17. Walking against the wind, in the water, or while wearing a backpack burns about 50 more calories per hour than walking with no resistance. People who wear pedometers also tend to burn more calories and lose more weight.

18. Trained sexologists can infer a woman's orgasm history by observing the way she walks. In other research news, men find women who wear red sexier than those who wear "cool" colors such as blue and green.

19. Foreign accent syndrome and exploding head syndrome are real (but very rare) medical conditions. The American Sleep Association explains that a person with exploding head syndrome experiences a loud, indecipherable noise that seems to originate from inside the head.

20. Vitamins don't seem to help older women guard against cancer or heart disease.

21. Some men experience pain, headaches, or sneezing as a result of ejaculation. The increased activity in the nervous system during orgasm may be the culprit in triggering headaches.

22. Germ-killing wipes can spread bacteria from one spot to another if you reuse them. Researchers at the Welsh School of Pharmacy at Cardiff University in Wales issued their concern on the use of the wipes in hospitals and the importance of a routine surveillance program in reducing risks of infection to patients.

23. Oatmeal, citrus fruits, and honey can boost your sex drive and improve fertility. Oats produce a chemical that releases testosterone into the blood supply, increasing sex drive and orgasm strength. Vitamin C found in citrus fruits improves sperm count and motility, while vitamin B from honey helps the body use estrogen, a key factor in blood flow and arousal.

24. Twenty-nine percent of Americans say they have skipped filling a prescription due to the cost, and 23 percent use pill splitting as a way to save money.

25. Facebook may be good for your health: Studies show that staying in touch with family and friends can ward off memory loss and help you live longer.

Go ahead: Pass it on to your friends.

Learning How to Sail - Port and Starboard

When learning how to sail, it is important to take on board (sorry about the pun) the correct terms for each side of the boat. Port refers to the left-hand side of the boat when you are looking forward towards the bow. Starboard is the opposite, referring to the right-hand side of the boat.

Beginner sailors often think that it would be easier to use 'left' and 'right', but these could refer to something else whilst out on the water and become confusing. When you consider looking forwards on a boat, Port is on your left-hand side, when you are looking to the stern of the boat Port is on your right-hand side, therefore the Port side of a boat is fixed, we naturally determine Left and right as we look at it!

It is important to know these two terms because many sailing rules regarding the rights of way that oncoming boats have refer to them. One common way to remember them is that 'port' has the same amount of letters as 'left', but they will soon roll off the tongue easily.

When undertaking a mooring or docking manoeuvre Port or Starboard play a key role in commands from the skipper for setting fenders on the side of your yacht, attaching mooring or docking lines on approach to a jetty or mooring buoy. When assisting the skipper with directional information it is too important to relay that information as port and starboard and not left and right.

When your yacht is under sail the terms Port or Starboard come in to play on your points of sail, if the wind is approach your yacht from the Port side you are sailing on a Port Tack and vice versa for a Starboard Tack. When to two converge your yacht is sailing on a run.

So the points of sail are; Close Hauled, Port or Starboard Tack.

Close Reach, Port or Starboard Tack.

Beam Reach, Port or Starboard Tack.

Broad Reach, Port or Starboard Tack.

Running.

The basic rules to be followed while sailing or racing at sea are those set by International Regulations for Avoiding Collisions at Sea.

The rules are extensive but with relation to Port and Starboard some useful terms to remember are;

If two yachts are approaching each other with the wind approaching on different sides of the yacht, the yacht sailing on a Port Tack should give way to the yacht sailing on the Starboard Tack.

If two yachts are approaching each other with the wind on the same side, which could happen when you are close Hauled sailing, the windward yacht should give way to the leeward yacht. Windward side refers to a yacht sailing in the direction of the wind, while leeward side refers to a yacht sailing against direction of the wind. This could be for example, a yacht sailing close hauled (leeward yacht) approaching a yacht sailing broad reach (windward yacht) both yachts having the wind over their Port Side.

Bangalore to Ooty - Road trip

When travelling from bangalore to ooty by road, there are quite a few
things to do on the way.
The road from bangalore to ooty pases through ramnagara, channapatna,
maddur, mandya, srirangapatna, mysore, najungad, gundelpet, bandipur,
mudumalai to ooty.

Bangalore to Mysore
Bangalore to mysore road is real good right from rajarajeshwari temple
arch and 4 lane trafic capable of doing 100 kmph and excess. Be careful
of sudden traffic diversions due to bridge and road painting works.
Also of pedestrians.
Take a break at 24 hour cafe coffee day (after channapatna - 70km from
bangalore) or kamat (after ramnagaram - 50km from bangalore). You may
try amaravathi before Mandya or Maddur Tiffanys. Other restaurants are
not worth their salt (or sugar)

After Channapatna you may want to stop at Dodda Malur Krishna temple, a
very old temple with a deity of lord baby krishna. Many people believe
that your prayers for a baby come true at this temple.

Srirangapatna has few spots of tourist interest like fort, river view,
nearby ranganathitu bird sanctuary.

If you dig pizzas, you can stop at pizza corner, mysore which is on the
way to ooty road.

Mysore to Ooty
Nanjungad to Gundelpet is straight and smooth road with no traffic.
Easy to maintain excess of 100 KMPH. Beware of sudden speed breakers
and bumpy bridges.
Nanjungad has a very old and famous shiva temple with lot of statues of
gods.

At gundelpet, take the road to ooty.
Gundelpet to Bandipur is very bad stretch of raod. Bandipur to
TamilNadu border is also bad stretch.
Drive slowly (30 to 40 kmph) as you have chance of seeing the animals
grazing on the road side during the evenings. If you see elephants on
the road side, stop at a distance and observe them carefully. No
honking or bright lights. (easiset way to irritate the elephants) By
their movements, it is easy to findout if they are just grazing or
trying to cross the road. If elephants are in group, no problems.
Beware of single elephant (especially tusker - male elephants).They
tend to easily get irritated as this is their mating season. Other
animals like deer, mongoose, peacocks are harmless. Dont feed the
monkeys as they tend to jump inside the car. Monkey scratches and bites
need anti rabies vaccine. Just before the TN-Kar border checkposts,
many people have seen tigers near the roads but I have been unlucky in
seeing a tiger so far.

From the TN border (police tend to leave off family cars - guys driven
vehicles are checked for liquor and other illegal stuff, there is a
toll gate on TN side), the roads are good but maintain just 30 to 40
kmph.
At the theppakadu junction, (mudumalai forest office) you have 2
choices to go to ooty. The right takes you to ooty through Gudalur,
naduvattam, Pykarra falls, seventh mile to ooty. The left takes you
through Masinagudi, kallahatty water falls to ooty. Both routes are
scenic and have great views. The gudalur road is easy to drive and
heavy vehicles prefer this road. The masinagudi road needs a power
steering as there are 35 hairpin bends in a 15 km stretch and the road
is very steep. Your vehicle needs to be in perfect condition to tackle
this road. Just after Masinagudi there is a point where a leopard
crosses the road.

What to do at wildlife sanctuary
Both at Bandipur and Mudumalai wildlife sanctuary, the forest department organises van
and jeep safari inside the forest to see wild animals. The timings are
Morning 6 to 9 AM and evening 4 to 6 PM. In Bandipur, Jeep safaris are
available. You need to book in advance dring season time as the rush is
heavy. The crowds mill around like a mall in bangalore.

Jungle Home - Gudalur - Ooty Route
Take the right turn at Theppakadu junction and follow the road upto the
edge of the forest.
A nice place to relax here would be Jungle Home, a cottage attached to
the forest. For details please check the website.
The section between Theppakadu and Thorapalli is crucial elephant
habitat zone and is very easy to sight the wild elephants on the road
side. Becareful about the wild tuskers which are always single and easy
to irritate.
The road goes to Gudalur, Naduvattam, ooty. On the way you can see
pykarra falls (not advisable to bathe), 7th mile (where many film
shootings happen - sing a duet with your beau) and proceed to ooty.
Stop at the approved view points only.
Park at the side of the road. Dont obstruct traffic.
Drive carefuly and sensibly.
Beware of irresponsible drivers and buses

How to reach Jungle Home
At Theppakadu Junction take right, pass through the forest border, at
the RTO checkpost (Thorrapalli village) take left, (the small tar road
opposite hotel haridagiri), follow the tar road, after the BSNL cell
phone tower, you find the green gates of Jungle home (green building)

Route Map:
Bangalore - Mysore - Take ooty road
Mysore - Nanjungad - Gundelpet - Take Ooty road
Gundelpet - Bandipur Forest Office - Karnataka Tamilnadu Border -
Theppakadu (Mudumalai forest office) Junction

The top ten online scams

Amir Orad, the executive vice-president and chief marketing officer of the online security specialist Actimize, is a leading expert on financial crime, cyber security, payments and authentication.

Here, he shares his expertise and describes ten common scams that have cheated people out of millions of pounds worldwide.

“Criminals and fraudsters tend to thrive in financial crises, and from our experience with the largest banks in Europe and the rest of the world, recent activity has simply reinforced this conviction.

“As Actimize provides anti-fraud and financial crime solutions for banks and financial institutions, we have witnessed a wide variety of scams, ranging from the simple and obvious to the complex and astounding.

“Here are the top ten scams that are currently trying to relieve unsuspecting consumers of their hard-earned money. These have been categorised into two groups. The first five are those that try and fool people into sending money directly to the bad guys – pretending to be in trouble, a job offer, a favour etc known as 419 or advance fee fraud.

“The second five detail scams whose purpose is to steal personal credentials and computer data to convince the bank to send money. Here, at least, most banks will return the lost funds to consumers unless the bank can prove they were reckless.”

1. Social Networking scams
Fraudsters hack a social networking account, such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, or Bebo, and then contact friends and family of claiming that they are in trouble and need money to be sent immediately to a specified address.

2. Prediction scams
This scam arrives in the form of an e-mail that provides the results of a football game taking place the following day, at no cost. The next day the receiver discovers that the prediction is true. Over the next couple of weeks further e-mails are sent providing results that also turn out to be correct.

Following a number of e-mails, another one is sent offering the recipient the chance to buy the results of future games for a hefty sum. The trick is that most of the people who received e-mails would have had a wrong result and so fallen out of the process. But statistically, a small proportion of all the people involved would have received e-mails with the correct results each time.

3. Economy-related scams
Prying on those in financial trouble, these scams can be performed via internet, telephone or post and include a range of financial help and offers such as loan and debt consolidation, fix-your-credit-rating, repossession assistance, phoney advance loans and mortgage foreclosure rescue schemes.

4. "It’s me" scam
This is a scam that has been prevalent in Asia but is now being seen in the West. The fraudster calls an elderly person declaring that their granddaughter has been in a road accident. Cries for help are screamed down the phone line and the fraudster informs the person that money needs to be sent immediately to cover the medical costs.

5. The "offer you can’t refuse"
This involves the sale of a product for which the fraudster provides an overpayment in the form of a cashier’s cheque, usually stolen, and asks for the excess to be transferred back. This can also occur when targets are offered a job, for example, to earn 20% commission. They receive a £10,000 cheque and are then asked to deposit it and return £8,000. The cheque later bounces, by which time the £8,000 is already in the hands of the bad guys.

6. Unauthorised billing group
Many technologies and industries are exploited by this scam, whereby a fraudulent company or service continues to charge an account without the owner’s consent. This also includes online suggestions for limited trials or “verification only” of cards and then charging more than mentioned at the beginning. Most banks, however, will return the money to the account.

7. "Man-in-the-phone" scams
Man-in-the-phone scams use deception and trickery during a telephone conversation to persuade an individual to divulge information. The fraudster phones someone and informs them that there has been a security risk on their account. The fraudster then conference calls in the real bank, whose representative asks for the secret information. Since it’s the real bank with the real account information, the individual often answers the security questions, then provides all bank details, while the fraudster eavesdrops in the background.

8. E-mails containing Trojans
Another e-mail scam is promotional offers, especially ones for anti-spyware solutions. These can include links or attachments infected with Trojans that record keyboard strokes and attempt to steal sensitive details such as passwords etc.

9. Fake escrow services
This is a scam that is growing more common on eBay and other online auctions. Legitimate escrow services act as a third-party go-between: buyers send money to the escrow company, which holds the funds until the seller delivers the merchandise. However, fraudsters are commonly setting up fake ones to con buyers as well as sellers.

10. Phishing scams
This is probably the most common form of fraud and it is still as common and as successful as when it was introduced. Masquerading as a legitimate organisation, usually in the form of an e-mail announcing a bank account or PayPal security breach, the fraudster attempts to acquire bank details, passwords, or login details, often via a spoof website.

Robotics is a challenge and guys have taken it on them to get theingenuity of the bots to interpret the world of social networking tous. Clubbing a robot to get some mechanical touch to the wordy messageswe read across our Twitter profile, a developer has got the GuardianRobot to our desks. The cute little fellow standing on your tabledoesn’t reply to your tweets, however, it is a great companion whounderstands the happy and sad emotions of your friend’s tweets and thenreading them through a specially designed program, responds back.

Therobot raises its head and arm in triumph, in case of a happy messageand waits for a high-5 from you, which is possible by pushing theswitch in its raised hand. The robot, however, lowers its head indespair when the message it reads is sad and only cheers up with a hugfrom you. Video after the jump.

Connected to the Arduino board which is connectedto a computer via USB, the robot is made using a servo to rotate thearm, with another to lower the head. The bot’s belly has a microswitchto detect hugs and another on the hand to detect high-5s. Aninteresting concept indeed, the bot can be programmed further for someother routines, including replying to the tweets, that’ll make theentire social scenario more mechanically exciting.