The 5 Smallest Countries in the World.

1. Vatican City

Size: 0.17 sq. mi. (0.44 km²)
Population: 783 (2005 census)
Location: Rome, Italy
The size of a golf course, the Vatican City [wiki | official website] is the smallest country in the world. It’s basically a walled enclave inside of Rome, Italy. It’s so small that the entire country does not have a single street address.
The Vatican City may be small, but it is very powerful. It is the sovereign territory of the Holy See, or the seat of the Catholic Church (basically its central government), which has over 1 billion people (about 1 in 6 people on the planet) as constituents.
The Vatican City was created in 1929 by the Lateran Treaty (which was signed by one of history’s most repressive dictators, Benito Mussolini) and is ruled by the Pope, basically a non-hereditary, elected monarch who rules with absolute authority (he’s the legislative, executive and judiciary all rolled into one) – indeed, the Pope is the only absolute monarch in Europe.
Another unique thing about the smallest country in the world is that it has no permanent citizens. Citizenship of the Vatican City is conferred upon those who work at the Vatican (as well as their spouses and children) and is revoked when they stop working there.
The Vatican City is guarded by the smallest and oldest regular army in the world, the Swiss Guard [wiki]. It was originally made up of Swiss mercenaries in 1506, now the army (also personal bodyguards of the Pope) number 100, all of which are Catholic unmarried male Swiss citizens. The Swiss Guard’s Renaissance-style uniform was commonly attributed as to have been designed by Michelangelo – this was actually incorrect: the large "skirt" pants were a common style during the Renaissance. Only their uniforms seem antiquated: most of the Swiss Guards carry pistols and submachine-guns.
The official languages of the Vatican City are Latin and Italian. In fact, its ATMs are the only ones in the world that offer services in Latin! And here you thought that Latin is a dead language…
For a country that has no street address, the Vatican City has a very efficient post office: an international mail dropped in the Vatican will get there faster than one dropped in Italy just a few hundred yard away – in fact, there is more mail sent annually per inhabitant from this country (7,200 mails per person) than anywhere else in the world.
The Vatican City has a country code top level domain of .va – currently there are only9 publicly known .va domains [wiki]. It also has a radio broadcasting service, called Vatican Radio [wiki], which was set up by Guglielmo Marconi (the Father of Radio) himself!
The country’s economy is unique: it is the only non-commercial economy in the world. Instead, the Vatican City is supported financially by contributions of Catholics worldwide (called Peter’s Pence – hey, even the Pope accepts credit cards!), the sale of postage stamps and publications, and tourism.
Lastly, as an ecclesiastical paradise, the Vatican City has no taxes.

2. Monaco

Size: 0.8 sq. mi. (1.96 km²)
Population: 35,657 (2006 estimate)
Location: French Riviera on the Mediterranean
Monaco [wiki | official website] is the second smallest country on Earth (it’s roughly the size of New York’s Central Park), yet it’s the most densely populated (23,660 people per km²). Actually, Monaco used to be much smaller than it is now – about 100 acres were reclaimed from the sea and added to its land size. At the narrowest, Monaco is only 382 yards wide!
The Principality of Monaco, its formal name, means that the territory is ruled by a prince. For the last seven centuries, Monaco was ruled by princes of the Grimaldi family from Genoa. (The whole thing started one night in 1297 when François Grimaldi disguised himself as a monk and led a small army to conquer the fortress guarding the Rock of Monaco. The coat of arms of the Grimaldi bears the image of monks with swords!) Now, the Prince shares legislative authority with a National Council.
In 1861, Monaco relinquished half of its territory to France in exchange for cash and independence. When the reigning prince realized that most of Monaco’s natural resources were on the land that got bartered away, he decided to bet the whole economy on … what else, gambling (see, casinos aren’t only for American Indians, it’s a time-tested, universal solution!)
And so began Monte Carlo [wiki], a region of Monaco well known for its glamorous casinos (a setting for Ian Fleming’s first James Bond Novel Casino Royale [wiki]) and its Formula One Grand Prix.
In 1918, Monaco entered a treaty with France for military protection – the treaty, however, also stipulated that Monaco would lose its independence (and become French) should the reigning Grimaldi prince died without leaving a male heir! When Prince Rainier III took over, he was a bachelor and most Monegasques (that means people of Monaco) were gloomy about the country’s future. However, he ended up marrying Hollywood actress Grace Kelly[wiki] – the marriage not only produced a male heir, it also helped burnish Monaco’s image as a glamorous place to be for the wealthy. (Monaco can rest easy now, a new treaty with France stated that the Principality will remain independent even without a male heir).
For a long time, Monaco had no income taxes and was a tax haven for wealthy foreigners and international corporations. This caused a unique thing about Monaco’s population: most of its residents are not native – in fact, only about 1 in 5 people are native Monegasques. After a long dispute with France, Monaco started to impose income taxes on all of its residents who are not born there. Its natural citizens are forbidden from entering casinos, but to make up for it, they do not have to pay any income taxes.

3. Nauru

Size: 8 sq. mi (21 km²)
Population: 13,005 (2005 estimate)
Location: Western Pacific Ocean
Nauru [wiki] is the world’s smallest island nation, the smallest independent republic, and the only republic in the world without an official capital.
Nauru only has one significant source of income: phosphates from thousands of years’ worth of guano or bird droppings. This proved to be both a boon and a bane for Nauruans – for a long time, its residents enjoyed a relatively high level of income as the country exported its phosphate like there’s no tomorrow.
The government employed 95% of Nauruans, and lavished free medical care and schooling for its citizens. Most didn’t take advantage of this offer: only one-third of children went on to secondary school. The adults didn’t really work, either – office hours were flexible and the most popular pastime was drinking beer and driving the 20-minute circuit around the island. For a while, Nauru was a paradise – for a brief moment in 1970s, Nauruans were even amongst the richest people on the planet.
Nothing lasts forever and sure enough, Nauru’s phosphate reserves soon dried up and left 90% of the island as a barren, jagged mining wasteland. Wasteful investments (like buying hotels only to leave them to rot) and gross incompetence by the government (former presidents used to commandeer Air Nauru’s planes for holidays, leaving paying customers stranded on the tarmac!) didn’t help either.
As if that’s not bad enough, Nauru is also beset by obesity problem. Decades of leisurely lifestyle and high consumption of alcohol and fatty foods have left as many as 9 out of 10 people overweight! Nauru also has the world’s highest level of type 2 diabetes – over 40% of its population is affected.
So now, Nauruans are poverty-stricken and fat – but they are trying to turn things around. With no natural resource left, in the 1990s, Nauru decided to become a tax haven and offered passports to foreign nationals for a fee. This attracted the wrong kind of money (but a lot of it): the Russian mafia funneled over $70 billion to the tiny island nation. Things got so bad that most big banks refused to handle transactions involving Nauru because of money laundering problems.
This led Nauru to another extraordinary money-making scheme: it became a detention camp for people applying for asylum to Australia!

4. Tuvalu

Size: 9 sq. mi. (26 km²)
Population: 10,441 (2005 estimate)
Location: South Pacific
Tuvalu [wiki] is basically a chain of low-lying coral islands, with its highest elevation being 16 feet or 5 meters above seal level. With total land area of just 9 square miles, Tuvalu is not only a teeny tiny island in the Pacific Ocean, it may not even exist in the next 50 years if sea level continue to rise (a controversial claim, nonetheless there were evacuation plans to New Zealand and other Pacific Islands). Even if the sea level does not rise, other problems such as population growth and coastal erosion still make Tuvalu a very vulnerable country.
During World War II, thousands of American troops were stationed on the islands of Tuvalu and the island became an Allied base. Airfields were quickly constructed and after the war, abandoned. In fact, today rusting wrecks can be found on the islands, a constant reminder of its role in the War.
Today, Tuvalu also derives income from renting out its Internet country code top-leveldomain .tv, as it is the abbreviation of the word ‘television’. This scheme got off to a rocky start (the original company who tried to do it failed to raise the necessary funds), but finally proved to be the largest source of income for the country.

5. San Marino

Size: 24 sq. mi. (61 km²)
Population: 28,117 (2005 estimate)
Location: North-central Italy near the Adriatic coast.
With the formal name of The Most Serene Republic of San Marino [wiki], it’s not surprising that San Marino has got lots of charms. Founded in AD 301 by a Christian stonecutter named (what else) Marino (or Marinus, depending on who you ask), who along with a small group of Christians, was seeking escape from religious persecution, San Marino is the world’s oldest republic.
Its history belies its simple motto: "Liberty." Indeed, San Marino was such a good neighbor that it was hardly ever conquered by larger enemies (it was briefly conquered in the 1500s and the 1700s, for like a month each). Even when Napoleon gobbled most of Europe, he left San Marino alone, saying it was a model republic!
San Marino takes its government seriously: for such a tiny country, San Marino has a very complex government structure, based on a constitution written in 1600. The country is ruled by an elected Council of 60, who appoints 2 captain regents (from opposing political parties, no less) to administer governmental affairs for six-month term. Talk about preserving liberties through division of authority!
Before World War II, San Marino was amongst the poorest countries in Europe. Today, with more than 3 million tourists visiting every year (half of San Marino’s income is derived from tourism), the people of San Marino are amongst the world’s richest people.

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Processor Chip that thinks like a Human Brain.

Its not very often with Science that we create a technology equivalent of what humans are capable of doing. Brain has especially been the most mysterious and hardest to mimic part of the humans.

Although with AI (Artificial Intelligence), computers can learn, they are not smart enough to make independent decisions, they don’t think beyond what they are told and even this artificial thinking can be slow at times when its a cpu intensive operation. For instance, Face recognition is something human brain can do much faster than a household computer, but, when compared to mathematical operations, computers beat humans collectively. Its a challenge when we try training a computer to behave like a human brain.

Researchers at IBM have made a key step towards Cognitive computing, a methodology that let computer think like humans. IBM has built two chips that process data more like how humans. Its a new CPU architecture, that surpasses the current Intels and AMD (von Neumann architecture).

These chips, like human brain, are extremely efficient, to prove the point, these chips run at 10Hz and still beat most modern computers. 10Hz is roughly the same as the frequency of human brain.

The chips represent a significant milestone in a six-year-long project that has involved 100 researchers and some $41 million in funding from the government’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA. IBM has also committed an undisclosed amount of money.

No Neurons or Bio-parts inside, yet
These are no biological chips but silicon chips inspired by human brain. They work as a human brain would. As IBM calls it, they are “neurobiology to make up what is referred to as a ‘neurosynaptic core’ with integrated memory (replicated synapses), computation (replicated neurons), and communication (replicated axons)”.

IBM demoed steering a simulated car through a maze, playing Pong using these chips. The chips’ ability to adapt to types of information that it wasn’t specifically programmed to expect is a key feature.

Dharmendra Modha, project leader for IBM Research, said the new chips have parts that behave like digital “neurons” and “synapses” that make them different than other chips. Each “core,” or processing engine, has computing, communication and memory functions.

“You have to throw out virtually everything we know about how these chips are designed. The key, key, key difference really is the memory and the processor are very closely brought together. There’s a massive, massive amount of parallelism.”

The project is part of the same research that led to IBM‘s announcement in 2009 that it had simulated a cat’s cerebral cortex, the thinking part of the brain, using a massive supercomputer. Using progressively bigger supercomputers, IBM had previously simulated 40 percent of a mouse’s brain in 2006, a rat’s full brain in 2007, and 1 percent of a human’s cerebral cortex in 2009. A computer with the power of the human brain is not yet near.

Worlds Smallest Petrol Engine fits your watch, runs for years.

If you thought batteries are greener Technology for tomorrow, let us raise the curtain over a Internal combustion engine that runs on Petrol and is more efficient that any other electrical equivalent.

Scientists have built the world’s  smallest petrol engine that is tiny enough to power a Watch.

The mini-combustion engine can run for two years on a single dose of a light fuel.

To give you an estimate of the power, it produces 700 times more energy than a conventional battery despite having a size less than a centimetre long . If the technology continues to innovate with the same pace, it could be used to power laptops and mobile phones for months.

Energy evangelists believe that this new mini-motor can make batteries look conventional and even phase them out in half decade.

The engine has been produced by engineers at the University of Birmingham.

“We are looking at an industrial revolution happening in peoples’ pockets. The breakthrough is an enormous step forward. Devices which need re- charging or new batteries are a problem but in six years will be a thing of the past.”

These tiny engines would find applications in other fields such as medical, military gadgets, and future robots.

Today, charging an ordinary battery to deliver one unit of energy involves putting 2,000 units into it. This is due to the fact that energy is wated at several steps before it is effectively stored. On the contrary this engine produces energy locally,  and hence  is far more efficient.

Micro engines have been produced several times in the past, but all of them failed at dissipating heat to surroundings, and burned themselves over a small period of operation. The Birmingham team overcame this by using heat-resistant materials such as ceramic and silicon carbide. They brought together all the engineering disciplines, both materials, chemical engineering, civil engineering, and mechanical engineering.

LG Touchscreen 3G Watch-Phone Calling Soon

LG Electronics recently announced that they will debut a 3G wristwatch phone at January’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, which will be a fully-functional handset wristset? complete with touchscreen and video calling capabilities.

The LG-GD910 will support 3G and HSDPA for high-speed internet access and incorporate an MP3 player, putting two of the most common take-everywhere gadgets – the phone and personal media player – right on your wrist. Video calls can be made via a small camera located above the top right corner of the display.

It would seem LG have made a real effort to make this device usable, from the touchscreen that obviates the need for tiny buttons to the built-in text-to-speech that provides an intuitive alternative to typing.

Despite everything they have packed into this watch-phone, the thickness has been kept to a minimum – coming in at only 0.56-inches (13.9mm). It will feature a 1.43-inch (3.63cm) display, Bluetooth connectivity and is expected to launch in Europe later next year.

There’s no word on pricing, but you can count on it being many times more than a relatively basic view-screen spy watch.

Mobile Phones don't Cause Cancer

Mobile phones do not increase the risk of cancer, according to a large study involving more than 350,000 people by Danish researchers published Friday.

The results, released on the British Medical Journal's website, chime with a series of other studies that have reached similar conclusions.

Scientists from the Institute of Cancer Epidemiology in Copenhagen looked at people aged at least 30 who subscribed to mobile phone contracts and compared their rates of brain tumors with non-subscribers between 1990 and 2007.

Outside experts said the large scale of the trial was impressive.

"This paper supports most other reports which do not find any detrimental effects of phone use under normal exposures," said Malcolm Sperrin, director of Medical Physics at Britain's Royal Berkshire Hospital and Fellow of the Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine.

At the end of May, the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer decided cellphone use should be classified as "possibly carcinogenic to humans," putting then in the same category as lead, chloroform and coffee.

But just over a month later the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection's committee on epidemiology said the scientific evidence increasingly pointed away from a link between mobile phone use and brain tumors.

The number of mobile phones has risen hugely since the early 1980s, with nearly 5 billion handsets in use today, prompting lengthy debate about their potential link to the main types of brain tumor, glioma and meningioma.

Sharp to bring world’s thinnest 12.1 MP CMOS camera

The race to pack as many megapixels into the most pocket-friendly products has been heating up for awhile. While camera manufacturers have their work cut out for them, the smartphone industry has also taken notice. Picture quality has become important to smartphone users, which makes sense given that the iPhone 4 is one of the most popular cameras on Flickr.

And now Sharp has fueled the fire with the announcement that it has developed the world’s thinnest 12.1-megapixel CMOS camera module. The RJ63YC100 measures in at 11x11x5.47 millimeters and packs image-stabilization, a backlit sensor, standard AF, and full 1080p HD video capture.

The best part is we don’t have to wait: this isn’t some product that Sharp is testing and is simply showing off. Mass production of 100,000 units a month will begin in January.

One of the largest hardware pieces in smartphones is the camera module, and if Sharp’s product is as capable as it sounds, we could easily be seeing thinner phones in the near future. According to some new rumors, Apple and Sharp could be striking a business relationship for manufacturing parts. While this speculation was specific to the fabled iTV, it could spill over into iPhone camera parts.

LG to unveil 84-Inch 3D TV at CES 2012

LG Electronics appears poised to make a major push at the Consumer Electronics Show. The company has been offering a slew of announcements this week, with the latest being an 84-inch 3D Smart TV with ultra definition display technology.

Havis Kwon, president and CEO of the LG Electronics Home Entertainment Co., said LG is pushing the limits of home entertainment innovation with this 3D UD TV, on display at CES in Las Vegas Jan. 10-13.

"We are bringing together all our Smart TV and 3D knowledge in the 3D UD TV in order to demonstrate to the CES audience that LG is committed to being the world's leading brand for immersive home entertainment in 2012 and beyond," Kwon said.

High Resolution Advances:
LG's 3D UD TV, at 3740x2160, offers 8 million pixels. That's four times the resolution clarity of existing full HD TV panels. The new model offers a slim, narrow bezel design, 3D depth control to let viewers customize their viewing experience by controlling the 3D effect, and 3D Sound Zooming to offer 3D sound a la home theater systems.

With the new model, consumers access LG's Smart TV ecosystem, which offers more than 1,200 apps and gives users access to a growing range of premium content services. At the 3D Zone, for example, viewers can select from a wealth of 3D movies.

LG said the embedded 2D to 3D conversion engine expands the availability of 3D content. Users can browse and navigate the Smart TV ecosystem using LG's new, ergonomically designed Magic Remote, which recognizes four types of command input: Voice Recognition, Wheel, Magic Gesture and Point.

Cinema TV and 3D Glasses:
In other innovations, LG plans to introduce the LW6500, a Cinema 3D TV, at CES. The new model doesn't require shutter glasses, so images displayed on the set are free from flicker. Without the flicker, 3D viewing is more comfortable and less likely to cause a viewer's eyes to get tired.

For models that need 3G glasses, LG is rolling out a new collection, including a pair designed by eyewear designer Alain Mikli. LG said the new collection is lighter and more comfortable to wear and offers upgraded features like curved lenses and a clean frame structure.

"Compared to active shutter glasses, LG's 3D glasses are far more comfortable to wear and much more affordable, making it possible for large groups and entire families to watch 3D programs and movies together," Kwon said. "LG is addressing two of the biggest barriers to 3D acceptance head-on and we're confident consumers will react favorably to our strategy in the coming year."

RBI considering Internet Payment Options

Almost two years back, TimesofMoney, a Times of India group owned company had introduced Wallet365.com. RBI is now believed to be considering the regularization of internet payment options. An approach paper on the subject is under consideration by the RBI.

As per the Payment and Settlement Systems Act all non financial institutions have to obtain a RBI clearance for operating pre paid payment instruments. The KNC (Know Your Consumer) initiative by the RBI specifies limits for financial transactions beyond which it is necessary to obtain all information regarding clients.

If the RBI gives the green signal for internet based cash cards and pre paid payment options, it will spawn a fresh competition in the financial sector. An Indian version of PayPal may soon become a reality.

Very much on the lines of PayPal, Wallet365.com allows you to make secure electronic payments easily and instantly. Signing Up with Wallet365.com is free and all that is required is a valid email id.

By signing up with Wallet365.com, one can send money to anyone, receive money from anyone, or make payments to businesses. With Wallet365.com, users can store money electronically which is much like a checking account. Wallet365.com is safe and secure for its users. It is 128 bit encrypted and is VeriSign certified.

Google Search through SMS

The Internet Search Giant, Google has made it possible to search the Internet on your mobile phone even if it is not web enabled. Google has introduced this service with all the major GSM and CDMA operators in India.

The usage of the service is very simple. The user just sends a normal text SMS to 9-77-33-00000. You could be searching anything like cricket scores, stock updates, Indian Railways train schedules, PNR status, horoscopes, movie show-times etc. The search engine will fetch the data and send you an SMS. The service also acts as yellow pages and runs applications like the calculator and currency converter. Local search is one of the main utilities.

“No longer do you need to remember complicated strings to put before your query, you can search as if you are searching on Google web search – we will do all the hard work to understand your query and give you the best results on SMS”, a spokesperson for Google India affirms.

Here is how users can use this service:-
To receive latest cricket score, just type cri or cricket or cricket India and send it to 9773300000.
For PNR enquiries in Indian Railways, send the PNR number.
Likewise stock quotes from BSE can be received by sending “company name quote”, for example “Tata Steel stocks”.
To know horoscope just sms your Sunsign.
Similarly, weather info can be found by sending “weather city”, eg “Weather Kolkata”.
Also available are calculations and conversions. Like “65000 INR in USD”, “13 Kg in Pound”, “Population of Delhi”, “Current GDP of India”, etc.

The cost of the service will be normal SMS charges.

5 Ways to Get Free Cricket Scores Via SMS

If you have GPRS connection you can try Free apps to get live scores. If not don’t worry, here are some free services to get cricket scores via SMS. So, you can get score updates even on basic handsets.

Zipdial

Dial 080 300 500 55 (toll-free number) from you mobile phone (Call will get disconnected after a ring) and you will automatically be subscribed to cricket alerts. You will get SMS confirmation after some time.

• Get live score updates and fixtures.
• Call the number during every match for hourly score updates.

Alertrix

Send a text sms as CRI to 56070 subscribe for cricket updates.

• Sending SMS to 56070 will cost you up to Rs. 3 based on your operator as a one time charge after that it is free.
• Register via alertrix.com for free to subscribe and verify the code sent to your phone.
• Unsubscribe to stop receiving SMS alerts.

Txtweb

SMS @cricbuzz to 9243342000 to receive live cricket scores.

• Also send @cricbuzz score to get detailed scores and @cricbuzz schedule for schedules.
• This is Karnataka number, so it will cost you national SMS charges if you live outside the state.
• These are not auto updates, so you need to send SMS each time to know scores.

Via Facebook

Like Facebook.com/CSU.in and subscribe for SMS updates on their page.

• You need to register your mobile on Facebook to subscribe and receive SMS.
• They update their wall often with scores and match updates during live matches.

Via Twitter (For Airtel Users)

Follow @cricket_country on twitter and subscribe for SMS updates.

• You need to register your mobile on Twitter to subscribe and receive SMS.

Alertrix is good among these. Since zipdial is a toll-free number it is busy most of the time.

5 Ways to Check Indian Railways PNR Status on your Mobile.

There are many ways to check Indian Railways PNR status using mobile phone. Here are the 5 best and simplest methods mentioned.

Checking PNR using 3 Digit SMS Short Code:

This service is officially provided by IRCTC but the only downside of using it (3 Digit short code) is, you will end up paying premium SMS charges

• Send an SMS with the text PNR followed by the PNR number (without any spaces) to 139
  For ex.: “PNR2528794587” to 139
• Alternatively, you can use other short code of Indian railways – 5676747
  Send an SMS “PNR” to 5676747
  For ex.: “PNR 2528794587” to 5676747

Checking PNR by SMS using 10 digit regular mobile number:

If you happen to check your PNR status for about 3-4 times a day at a specific time interval, then you may find the previous tip quite useless, as you will be billed at premium rates for sending SMS to the mentioned 3 digit short codes. Here is another service by Google that lets you check PNR by sending an SMS to a regular 10 digit Indian mobile number:

• Send an SMS with just the PNR number to “9773300000”
  For ex. SMS: “2528794587” to 9773300000

Checking PNR status using your GPRS enabled phone:

If you have a data plan enabled on your mobile, then just point your mobile browser to www.indianrail.gov.in and put your PNR status on the “Check PNR” field.

Checking PNR by Calling Indian Railways Helpline:

In case you prefer calls over SMS and GPRS, then you have another option. Just call the Indian railways helpline at 139 and follow the IVRS (Interactive Voice Response) to know your PNR/booked ticket’s status.

Diet Tips

6 Top Diet Tips

When it comes to losing weight, there are very few fad diets that will take the pounds off and keep them off. You'll usually get them off quickly, but they won't stay gone for long.

The best way to shed the pounds and keep them off is to eat less and exercise more. Although this sounds simple enough, it's not exactly that easy for most people. Real life has demands and this means you have to find a way to increase your exercise while you also keep up with your day-to-day responsibilities.

However, there are a few tips that you can use to lose weight and keep the weight off. Here are six of the top diet tips.

1. Drink Water

Hunger is often confused with thirst. Sometimes your body tells you you're hungry when you're really dehydrated. If you're not big on water, first try a nice and clean bottled water and if you still don't like it add a splash of juice or flavor packet with no or very few calories.

2. Think About What You Should Add instead of Take Away

Instead of focusing on the foods you shouldn't eat. Think about how you can add 5-9 servings of fruits and vegetables to your daily meals.

3. Are you Really Hungry?

Hunger is the way your body tells you that you need food. Cravings are not hunger and can't be satisfied. Keep your portions reasonable and if you really think you're still hungry it may be emotional. You can also try drinking a glass of water and see if you're really thirsty and not hungry.

4. Choose Nighttime Snacks Smartly Many people get into the habit of having sweets right after dinner or late at night while watching television. If this is your case, then consider a low-calorie snack instead of a bag of cookies. For instance, you could have apple wedges with peanut butter. Or you could have a 100 calorie pack of some cookies or rice cakes.

5. Keep Enjoying Your Favorite Foods

Just because you're trying to lose weight doesn't mean you shouldn't eat your favorite foods. Trying to force yourself not to eat certain foods often leads to rebound overeating. Instead of doing this, consider buying smaller portions of foods so that you're more likely to savor them and enjoy them in moderation.

6. Eat Mini-Meals

Instead of eating one large meal at lunch and dinner, be sure to get breakfast in there. It is even better if you can have 4-5 small meals a day and cut down on the sizes of your three main meals. This keeps your metabolism working for you and your body doesn't think it's starving.

Improve Your Mental Health

Ten Tips for Mental Health:-

Build Confidence- Identify your abilities and weaknesses together, accept them, build on them and do the best with what you have.

Accept Compliments - Many of us have difficulty accepting kindness from others but we all need to remember the positive strokes when times gets tough.

Make Time for Family and Friends - These relationships need to be nurtured; if taken for granted they will not be there to share life's joys and sorrows.

Give and Accept Support - Friends and family relationships thrive when they are "put to the test".

Create a Meaningful Budget - Financial problems cause stress. Over-spending on our "wants" instead of our "needs" is often the culprit.

Volunteer - Being involved in community gives a sense of purpose and satisfaction that paid work cannot.

Manage Stress - We all have stressors in our lives but learning how to deal with them when they threaten to overwhelm us will maintain our mental health.

Find Strength in Numbers - Sharing a problem with others who have had similar experiences may help you find a solution and will make you feel less isolated.

Identify and Deal with Moods - We all need to find safe and constructive ways to express our feelings of anger, sadness, joy and fear.

Learn To Be At Peace with Yourself - Get to know who you are, what makes you really happy, and learn to balance what you can and cannot change about yourself.

Social media more addictive than alcohol: Study

WASHINGTON: Cannot resist your urge to tweet or check emails? Don't get surprised, as a new study has found that checking email and social media is more addictive than cigarettes and alcohol.

US researchers who carried out an experiment to test the will power of 205 people, aged 18 to 85, in the German city of Wurtzburg found that most of them were more likely to give in to urge to tweet or check email than other cravings like drinking or smoking.

"Desires for media may be comparatively harder to resist because of their high availability and also because it feels like it does not 'cost much' to engage in these activities, even though one wants to resist," said lead researcher Wilhelm Hofmann at Chicago University's Booth Business School.

In the experiment using BlackBerry devices, participants were asked seven times a day over the course of a week to identify desires they were experiencing and the strength of said desires.

The team sifted through thousands of responses and came up with some telling results. Thankfully, the study showed we're all not slaves to vice and distraction, as the need for sleep and leisure topped the list.

However, next on the list of "self-control failure rates" was checking in with social media, email and work -- ahead of the urge to have a Camel Light, while sipping on that glass of 12-year single malt scotch.

"With cigarettes and alcohol there are more costs -- long-term as well as monetary -- and the opportunity may not always be the right one," the Discovery News quoted Hofmann as telling the Guardian.

"So, even though giving in to media desires is certainly less consequential, the frequent use may still 'steal' a lot of people's time," Hofmann added.

The results of the study are to be published soon in the journal Psychological Science.

Youngest Female Sarpanch Makes Her Village IT-Enabled

It's a story that's actually many stories.

A village named Soda didn't have water. So the young sarpanch, Chhavi Rajawat (incidentally a young, female MBA graduate) got inquisitive about the funds allocated to the village. Since more had been spent than allocated, she raised funds on her own.

Money came from family and friends - 20 lakh rupees wasn't enough for the Rs 3.5 crore that the reservoir needed.

So Chhavi Rajawat got more even inquisitive about the funds sanctioned to her village. Files at the district headquarters in Tonk revealed a calculation error. Chavi decided to get proactive about the lack of transparency and accountability. Soda thus became India's first IT-enabled village, after tying up with a German software vendor to set up an internet and intranet portal. along with a technology education lab.

The portal allows Soda's 10,000 strong population 24x7 access to the funds sanctioned for the village.

There's also online postings of birth and death certificates, besides posting land records online.

"A fire in Tonk had destroyed land records of many villages," says Rajawat. "This ERP (enterprise resource planning) application will have an electronic database, and store all land records in servers."

Rajawat recently represented India at a recent UN poverty summit.

"Most youth in the village are unemployed, as they don't have higher education due to absence of a college. We want to change that with e-education," says she.

There's even a website, www.soda-india.in where Chavi posts info about funds allocated for projects such as a village bank, community centre for weddings and cataract surgery for the needy.

Theres even plans to link Soda's portal with the state government's websites.This will make Soda the first fully computerized Panchayat in India. While there has been a sanction by the Central government (Rs 4,500 crore) for the e-panchayat project, matters of fund allocation and project monitoring are not clearly mentioned.

26th January Republic Day Facts You Should Know

The Republic day celebrations in our country is quite a grand affair and is a firm part of our history.

Watching the Republic day celebration on TV is a ritual for most people on 26th January which is a national holiday. However, not many people know much about why it is celebrated or the significance of the day. Republic is not 'just' another holiday and there lies a lot of significance behind the celebrations.

Here are 7 Republic day facts you must know.

7. The date 26 January, as everyone knows, was when the Constitution of India came into force. This date was, later on, chosen to honour the memory of the “Declaration of Independence of 1930” from the British Rule.

6. The Prime Minister places a wreath at Amar Jawan Jyoti as a mark of respect to the thousands of soldiers of the country who had died fighting for the Indian Independence.

5. The 21 gun salute is the firing of arms and canons as a naval and military mark of honour. The salute is given while the President of India unfurls the National flag.

4. Republic day is chosen as the day to give away bravery awards to deserving candidates. The awards that are given away are Veer Chakra, Maha Veer Chakra, Param Veer Chakra, Kirti Chakra and Ashoka Chakra.

3. The 'Beating Retreat' held on 29th January, marks the end of all Republic day celebrations in the country. The ceremony is held Vijay Chowk where bands of the Indian Army, Indian Air Force and Indian Navy perform.

2. The ceremonial performance of bands of the defense forces was started in the early 1950s by a certain Major Roberts of the Indian Army.

1. One of the most popular tune that is played at the Republic day functions is 'Abide with me', a Christian hymn, which was said to be Mahatma Gandhi's favourite.

5 Reasons Why You Should Stay Single..

If you spent December and the better part of what has passed of January attending weddings,sangeet parties and engagements then you’d understand how cumbersome weddings can get. If the ceremony itself can be so tiring, one can only imagine how tiresome and exacting a marriage can be. Marriage, though one of the longest surviving institutions in the world, is not everyone’s cup of tea. We totally comprehend that and so here we present you with 5 reasons to stay single.

1. No sharing

One of the biggest advantages of being single is that you can have your bedroom all to yourself. For life. No sharing of cupboards, no long hair strands crawling on your bed, no sharing your toothpaste holder with someone, no worrying about putting the toilet seat down. Privacy all the way!

2. Life is one big bachelor party!

Staying uncommitted and single gives you the opportunity to treat life like one never-ending bachelor party. Just imagine George Clooney (with a generous dash of Hugh Hefner) at this point and you’ll know exactly what we’re hinting at.

3. No nagging

Most husbands complain of having near death experiences caused by the consistent nagging their wives subject them to. If you love your life, then you would want to avoid such deathly experiences at all costs. After all, saving your life is more important than getting married!

4. No need to stock up on unnecessary information

Any committed man is expected to have passable information and knowledge about hair products, make-up, skin care products, women’s clothes / shoes / accessories, soulful music, Oprah, SATC, and the list is never-ending. If you are not interested in knowing about any or all of the above, then we’d suggest you stay single.

5. Not being answerable

‘Where you went?’, ‘With whom?’, ‘Why?’, ‘Why didn’t you call me?’, ‘Why didn’t you text me?’, ‘Do you love me?’ If you don’t want your life to turn into a never-ending pit of absolutely unnecessary and repetitive questions, we’d suggest you to avoid tying the knot at all and any cost.

Next time someone asks you why you don’t want to get married, just give them one or all of the reasons mentioned above. They will immediately see the point you’re trying to make and will not ask you this question ever again.

How to Say No to a Girl

It happens quite often that when a girl approaches you to buy tickets for a movie, for which you had stood in the queue for over an hour, you realize you can't say no her because she's a 'girl'.

Girls are inherently soft spoken and you obviously cannot afford to offend them. However, you tend to get carried away by their benign colloquial words only to find yourself in a predicament more than often.

Saying no to a girl can be a tedious task. You must acknowledge that irrespective of commitments to work and family, there are moments when you go to great lengths to help her because you cannot say no to her.

Listen to Her First

First and foremost it is vital to listen to her request carefully. One has the habit of saying 'yes' even before her question gets over. It is advisable not to mollycoddle in a bid to win her charm. One has to adhere to myriad ways to deny a girl without offending her.

Try Diplomacy

This is easier said than done. If you have a girl asking for a favor then you could reciprocate, “I would have loved to help you, but I've have certain prior appointments to cater”. This is an excuse which can help you buy just about enough time to delude the question.

Feign Ignorance

Sometimes, a phrase like, “I don't much about it” can work like backdoor from such situations as you would no longer be obligated to take up her problem. Such problems help in abating the question because of lack of knowledge.

Be Straightforward

If the former two excuses don't work and the girl remains adamant, then it is critical to be firm. A subtle straightforward denial can help quelling her persistence. However, it is advisable not to wrangle or remain choleric to her insistence.

Speak the Truth

Last but not the least, speak the truth. An excuse is after all a sugar coated lie. If your lie ever surfaces then it will you with a virulent mark in the relationship. It is advisable to speak the truth and nothing but the pure truth. If the girl is understanding then She will understand your dilemma and shall help move on with her problem.

Tips to Lose Weight Naturally

Weight loss remains a major health issue for many of us despite the onslaught of weight loss tips and medical aids that surround us.

Most of the contemporary solutions border on providing unrealistic weight loss solutions or are too time-consuming. Drastic dieting is never recommended since it can leave you malnourished and damage your body in an unredeemable manner. In order to lose weight naturally, i.e. without using any magic pill or gymming like a maniac, use the following tips:

Consider Whole Grains As Your Friends

Try to eat a larger concentration of foods made from whole grains (rotis, whole wheat breads, cookies and oatmeal) rather than refined or processed foods. Whole grains are more complex for the body to metabolize, taking a longer digestion route. This keeps the body busy for a longer period, ensuring that energy is released throughout the day. This helps to decrease the frequency and intensity of hunger pangs, particularly the sugar cravings.

Psychological Preparedness

Don’t be shy about your weight loss goals. In fact, use the people around you to your advantage. Announce it amongst your friends and family that they should thwart you every time you are headed for a bit piece of creamy cake or a cheese-loaded pizza.

Know Your Food

You need to be more alert when picking up packaged food items. Remember that non-saturated fats and essential fatty acids are the good kind of fats that your body needs for its basic functions. Food items bearing labels of low-fat or low-sugar might not necessarily contain lesser calories. Instead, try to make smarter substitutions. For instance, you can choose eggless baked items and juices without sugar.

Use Water As A Weight Loss Tool

Try to drink water every time you get hungry or you are about to have a meal, i.e. just before a major meal like a lunch or dinner. This is a simple and effective way of instantly quenching your hunger to a certain extent. More water also raises the metabolic rate or the rate at which the body uses calories, meaning you are losing more calories per hour.

Manipulate Yourself To Reduce Food Intake

Try to eat slowly, breaking your food into more bites. This will ensure that you derive more pleasure out of each bite, allowing each morsel to provide more satiety, ensuring your calorie intake at the dining table remain limited. Rather than taking single, big servings, try to take numerous small servings. This helps to establish the perception that you have been serving yourself repeatedly and also makes you more conscious about the amount of food you are about to consume.

Use Fiber To Your Advantage

Try to include more fiber in your diet. This should include soluble and insoluble fiber for ensuring that the digested food in your intestines absorbs more water. This in turn ensures that the feeling of being full is achieved quicker. Insoluble fiber is found in leafy salads that also help you limit your food intake naturally. This is because the raw state of most salad ingredients means that you need to chew a lot more. The extra chewing and salivating that accompanies it helps to control the hunger pangs for a few hours.

Overcome Your Snacking Habits

Snacking is perhaps the biggest sin a dieter can commit. To ensure that you stay away from the urge to bite into a chocolate or cookie, keep your mouth busy with sugar-free chewing gum. Try to sip iced or hot herbal teas prepared with minimal amount of sugar throughout the day. These are low cal aids that help to establish the feeling of feeding yourself without consuming too many calories, preventing the urge to snack.

Keep Away From Salt

Salt is responsible for retention of water within the large intestine. Further, salt tends to keep our blood pressure high, making us more prone to sweating. These factors raise our thirst and the tendency to consume beverages, including teas and colas, which contain sugar.

Burn Your Sugars

If you cannot do without your daily intake of sweet or sugar-concentrated items, try to snack upon them during the morning hours. This ensures that the body will be using the calories extracted from your favorite milkshake throughout the day, reducing the number of calories stored as fat.

Exercise Easily

You don’t need to take upon heavy gym routines to exercise your problem areas. For instance, climbing up and down the stairs is one of the easiest, most accessible types of cardiovascular exercise that works-out your hips, legs and thighs beautifully. Combine this with undemanding calorie-burners like brisk walks, walking to the nearby market, walking when talking on your mobile and taking upon more household chores.

Weight Loss Precautions You Shouldn’t Ignore

Maintaining your body frame is vital at the time of losing weight. Weight loss often causes loss of vital protein, weakening the muscles that are necessary to maintain the elasticity of our tissues. To ensure that you don’t lose too much of your lean muscle mass, ensure you consume egg whites on a daily basis. Avoid the yolk since it contains a high amount of cholesterol.

The Ranking Web of World Hospitals

Top Asia

Hospitals 1 to 100 of 100
CONTINENT RANK	HOSPITAL	COUNTRY	WORLD RANK
1	Buddhist Tzu Chi General Hospital		4
2	Taipei Veterans General Hospital *		6
3	Faculty of Medicine Siriraj Hospital		21
4	Hospital Authority		26
5	Tokyo Women's Medical University Hospital		32
6	Chang Gung Memorial Hospital		33
7	Maharaj Nakorn Chiang Mai Hospital & Faculty of Medicine		34
8	National Cancer Center Hospital		36
9	Asan Medical Center Seoul		40
10	National Hospital Organization		43
11	Mckay Memorial Hospital		48
12	National Taiwan University Hospital		54
13	Tabriz University Hospitals		67
14	Institute of Medical Science University of Tokyo *		71
15	Chi Mei Medical Center		76
16	Hallym University Medical Center		76
17	Changhua Christian Hospital Changhua City		87
18	Nara Prefectural University Hospital		92
19	Fukushima Medical University Hospital		95
20	Asahikawa Medical College Hospital		99
21	China Medical University Hospital		102
22	Kyoto University Hospital		103
23	Taipei City Hospital		108
24	Kyushu University Hospital		109
25	Chung Ho Memorial Hospital Kaohsiung Medical University		110
26	Tri Service General Hospital		112
27	Shin Kong Wu Ho Su Memorial Hospital		117
28	Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital		121
29	Samsung Medical Center		132
30	Taichung Hospital		133
31	Xinqiao Hospital Third Military Medical University Hospital Newbridge		140
32	Cathay General Hospital		143
33	National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry		149
34	King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital Faculty of Medicine Chulalongkorn University		150
35	Rui Jin Hospital Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine		152
36	Far Eastern Memorial Hospital		153
37	National Cheng Kung University Hospital		167
38	Kaohsiung Municipal Hsiaokang Hospital		173
39	Chung Shan Medical University Hospital		177
40	Taichung Veterans General Hospital		179
41	Korea University Medical Center		181
42	Hamedan University of Medical Science Hospitals		191
43	Chia-Yi Christian Hospital		193
44	Dokkyo Medical University Hospital		195
45	Kyoto Prefectural Medical University Hospital		199
46	University of Tokyo Hospital		208
47	Bma Medical College and Vajira Hospital		220
48	Guangdong Provincial Disease Prevention and Control Centre		227
49	Singhealth		233
50	Faculty of Medicine Ramathibodi Hospital		239
51	Cha General Hospital		241
52	Seoul National University Hospital		244
53	Gachon University Gil Medical Center		251
54	Tianjin Medical University Hospital		256
55	First People's Hospital of Foshan		263
56	Taipei Medical University Wan Fang Hospital		268
57	Chonnam National University Hospital		269
58	National Taiwan University Hospital Yun Lin Branch		280
59	Cardinal Tien Hospital		281
60	Guilan University Hospitals		304
61	St. Martin de Porres Hospital		316
62	Kyung Hee University Medical Center		322
63	Kuang Tien General Hospital		324
64	National Center for AIDS/STD Control and Prevention China CDC		328
65	Taipei Medical University Hospital		330
66	Singapore General Hospital		331
67	Zhongshan Hospital Fudan University		334
68	National Center for Child Health and Development National Children's Medical Center Research Institute		354
69	Hospital Attached to Aeromedicine Institute of P.L.A.		358
70	National Cancer Center		363
71	Osaka National Hospital		367
72	Anhui Provincial Hospital		368
73	Beijing University People's Hospital		374
74	Ajou University Medical Center		375
75	E Da Hospital / I Shou University		376
76	Guangdong Provincial People's Hospital *		377
77	Cancer Institute & Hospital Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences		379
78	Queen Sirikit National Institute of Child Health		397
79	Inje University Paik Hospital		404
80	Phyathai Hospital Phya Thai's One Stop Center		417
81	Cheng Hsin Rehabilitation Medical Center		428
82	China Japan Friendship Hospital		432
83	Landseed International Medical Group/Li Shin Hospital		434
84	Tungs' Taichung Metroharbor Hospital		435
85	Foshan First People's Hospital		438
86	Sun Yat-sen University First Affiliated Hospital		438
87	Hsin Chu General Hospital		442
88	Taiwan Adventist Hospital		452
89	Inha University Hospital Incheon under Hangin Group		454
90	Laparoscopy Hospital		455
91	University Hospital Kumamoto University		467
92	Keelung Hospital		469
93	Shizuoka Cancer Center Research Institute		472
94	Beijing Tong Ren Hospital Capital Medical University		477
95	Mennonite Christian Hospital		487
96	Bumrungrad Internacional Hospital		490
97	Severance Hospital		494
98	Seoul St. Mary's Hospital The Catholic University of Korea		497
99	Dongsan Medical Center Keimyung University Hospital		499
100	Armed Police General Hospital		500
Hospitals 1 to 100 of 100