Health Benefits of Yoga

Yoga has quickly become a fad form of fitness. Yoga mats are seen everywhere, including Whole Foods Grocery Store and hip (and expensive) brands such as Lululemon sell high end yoga clothes that committed yogis are willing to shell out the big bucks for. The craze is seen very heavily in my city of Austin, Texas and amazingly the Black Swan Yoga Studio is able to run soley on donations. While my mother was urging me to do yoga ages ago, it is now my prefered form of exercise. Actually, aside from a semester of intense ballet which is long over and the occiasional run, it is my only form of exercise, but this infographic makes it seem worth it.

Todays infographic highlights the many health benefits of practicing yoga. Yoga is a great form of stress relief, aids in cicrulation, reduces the risk of cancer and lowers the risk of heart disease, among many other benefits. It is so important to live a happy and healthy life and yoga helps you get there. Do you practice yoga? Can you feel the physical, mental and health benefits? [ Via]

Top 10 Facts Surrounding Comet Elenin

One of the biggest viral news stories of 2011 was the discovery of Comet Elenin (C/2010 X1). For a wide variety of reasons, people began to think the comet posed a threat to Earth. Articles were written that examined Elenin. People were intrigued by the comet and its close approach to the Earth in October, 2011. Some predicted Comet Elenin was a sign that the Maya prophecy was valid. In response to the attention, NASA was forced to give a collection of statements. They said the comet posed no threat to the Earth. On August 19, 2011, the story burst into flames and quickly disappeared. Here are ten interesting facts about Comet Elenin.

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What is a Comet?

In ancient history, comets were traditionally considered to be bad omens. They are small Solar System bodies (SSSB) that will display a visible coma (a thin, fuzzy, temporary atmosphere) when close to the Sun. The main difference between an asteroid and a comet is that a comet shows a coma. Asteroids are also thought to have a different origin from comets, having formed inside the orbit of Jupiter rather than in the outer Solar System. This gives the orbital history of comets more importance.

The coma of a comet is formed when it passes by the Sun. The coma is generally made of ice and dust, and can grow to be incredibly large. In October 2007, comet 17P/Holmes briefly had a tenuous dust atmosphere larger than the Sun. It has been estimated that roughly one comet is discovered each year that is visible to the human eye. In some rare cases, a Great Comet can form which is brighter than any star in the sky. It has been estimated that one Great Comet will appear every decade.

The requirements for a Great Comet include a large and active nucleus, a close approach to the Sun, and a close approach to the Earth. In 1996, Comet Hyakutake, which had a similar sized nucleus as Comet Elenin, made an extremely close approach to Earth. The Ulysses spacecraft crossed the Hyakutake’s tail at a distance of more than 500 million kilometers (3.3 AU or 3×108 mi) from the nucleus, showing that Hyakutake had the longest tail known for a comet.

hunting

Animal Couples Photography

 

Indian Government Ordered to Block 104 Musical Sites

The Indian Music Industry (IMI), an industry consortium of 142 music Companies, has obtained orders from the Calcutta High Court directing all Internet Service Providers (387 ISPs) to block 104 music sites. Court orders were obtained on 27th of January, 6th February, and the 1st and 2nd of March 2012.

ISPs have been directed by the court to block all 104 sites within 36 hours. It essentially has the order against Songs.pk as a sample. Apurv Nagpal, CEO of Saregama, told MediaNama that the first order was against songs.pk, and subsequent court orders covered the rest of the sites. The IMI made a case against each website, he added, with proof of piracy of content from labels by each site.

Indian content businesses have increasingly been taking the legal route to combat piracy: T-Series filed lawsuits against several major companies like YouTube (which was later settled), MySpace, Yahoo and Ibibo, and even got the founders of Guruji.com arrested. Reliance BIG Pictures began getting generic “John Doe” orders trying to force filesharing sites to prevent movie uploads, and getting some of them blocked. This is by far the biggest anti-piracy initiative till date.

How They Will Block?

Top 10 Recent Interesting Natural Phenomena And Hazards

Every year, various human activities and natural phenomena cause environmental disasters and substantial economic losses throughout the world.  Despite this dark side, there’s something fascinating about the power of nature and its impact.

Don’t expect to find the very popular Aurora Borealis or red tides listed here.  The goal of this list is to present some of the most interesting natural phenomena / hazards that occurred in 2011 and 2012, ones that are less known to the general public.

Criteria such as rarity and uniqueness were fundamental in determining the structure of this Top 10 list.  Everybody heard about the 8.9 magnitude earthquake that struck Japan on March 11, 2011, or about the East African drought, so here are other very interesting phenomena (from as many different countries as possible):

10.  Steaming Black Sea – Romania

Copyright Dan Cristian Mihailescu; Source: Facebook Profile of Mr. Dan Cristian Mihailescu

Sun-warmed, humid soil can steam, so may a lake, sea or ocean if the air above it is sufficiently cold. “In the latter case, the phenomenon is commonly termed steam fog (if it occurs over fresh water) or sea smoke (if it occurs over saline water)”, according to P. M. Saunders from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

This spectacular picture was taken some months ago in Romania, and captures the incredibly beautiful sea smoke over the Black Sea.  How Dan Cristian Mihailescu always happens to be in the right place at the right time with his camera amazes me.

World’s First Solar Plant That Generates Power at Night Opens in Spain

The new Gemasolar Power Plant near Seville in southern Spain is the world’s first solar plant to have the capacity to generate electricity even at night. More than 2600 concentrically arranged mirrors spread across 185 hectares of rural land concentrate solar energy towards a centrally located molten nitrate salt tank. As the rays converge, they super-heat the salt to over 900C, causing water around the tank to boil and drive steam turbines. In addition, any superfluous heat generated during the day is stored within the liquefied salt. It acts like a giant thermal battery for driving the turbines at night and during overcast days up to 15 hours at a time with no sunlight. But Seville, being one of the sunniest areas in Europe, this doesn’t happen very often.

Awesome Photos Of The Solar Eclipse

Strawberry farm pond ...... Sa Kaew

Awesome Bridge Photos