Other uses of toothpaste

Somebody mentions toothpaste and you immediately picture a person brushing teeth. Truth is your toothpaste is not just a means of whitening teeth. It is time for you to put yours to better use with our list of benefits that your toothpaste provides.

Mobile Display Wipe

It is a well-known fact that smartphones that don’t have a protective cover on are prone to scratches. Your toothpaste can provide a fix by cleaning the display to make it look squeaky clean. Gently wipe the display with cotton cloth bearing some toothpaste. Keep another piece of cloth next to you so that you can use that to wipe it clean another time.

Sink Cleaner

Don’t we all accidentally drop small amounts of toothpaste in our sinks while brushing? Maybe not often, but it happens. Here’s a secret: let those globs of toothpaste dry out and use a soft piece of cloth bearing toothpaste to rub across the sink. Not only will this leave a shine in your sink but it will remove all odors that may have been left in the first place.

Chrome Shiner

I hope I speak for most people when I say the little smudges and water spots on the chrome faucets are annoying to look at. Guess what, your toothpaste will come to the rescue. Use only small traces of it on a soft piece of cloth and gently rub it on the faucets before rinsing it. Before you begin to get curious, yes this trick can be used for any chrome material. Just don’t try it too often as this can harm the finish.

Silver Polish

If you are so particular about keeping your faucets clean, you must be careful not to let your utensils lose their polish, right? Be it spoons or forks or any other ornaments, your toothpaste can bring their shine back. Simply use it on a soft piece of cloth and polish the silver. There is a tad bit more detail to cleaning crevices: polish them using a soft toothbrush before wiping them with a dry, clean piece of cloth.

Goggle Defogging Tool

Why spend those bucks on an expensive antifog coating when you can make your goggles fog-proof with the help of your toothpaste? Gently rub small traces of toothpaste on the goggle insides in circular motion. This will prevent scratches and smudges.

Iron Wipe

The soleplate on an iron can start to look awful with the passage of time. However, your toothpaste can revive its good looks. When the iron is unplugged, wipe the soleplate with a piece of cloth bearing toothpaste before wiping it clean with another dry cloth.

DVD Scratch Filter

When you bring home a DVD, scratches are the inevitable but your toothpaste can make them go away. Take a microfiber cloth bearing toothpaste and gently rub it on the disc from the inside outward. Make sure you use small amount of toothpaste or you will leave more scratches.

Shoe Shiner

Light colored shoes are prone to scuff marks. Your toothpaste is a great way to get rid of them whether you apply them to dress shoes or joggers. Just scrub these marks with your toothpaste and you are good to go.

Skin Freshener

Stinky foods leave odor in your skin that soap won’t remove. Your toothpaste can work wonders in this regard. Simply rub your hands with some toothpaste followed by lotion of your choice.

Stain Combatant

Your toothpaste is capable of removing the toughest of stains. Simply use some of it directly on the stain while vigorously rubbing it. Leave it in the washer after that.

How to live to up to 100 years

How to live to up to 100 years

By Nona Walia,  The times of India

Forget fad diets, crazy workouts and syrupy self-help cliches. Longevity expert Dan Buettner tells Nona Walia how a long life begins with making simple, common sense habits a natural part of your daily routine.Dan Buettner knows the secret to longevity.

His mantra: set up your life, home and social environments, as well as your workplace so that you are constantly nudged into behaviours that favour longevity. It's something the explorer, educator and author follows himself: he's the holder of three separate Guinness World Records for distance biking — a 15,500-mile ride from Alaska to Argentina in 1987 as a 27-year-old; a 12,888-mile journey across the Soviet Union in 1990; and a 12,172-mile jaunt through Africa completed in 1992! But it was his research on longevity first published in the National Geographic magazine that really established his expertise on the subject.

In his book, The Blue Zones: Lessons for Living Longer from the People Who've Lived the Longest, he reveals, "Adopt the right lifestyle; chances are you may live up to a decade longer..."Excerpts from an interview:

What attracted you to exploring the idea of living longer? 

 When I travelled around the world, I discovered that living longer has less to do with diet, or even exercise, and more to do with the environment you live in: social and physical. The world's oldest people live rewardingly inconvenient lives. They walk to the store and to their friends' homes and live in houses set up with opportunities to move mindlessly. So, that set me thinking. Along with a team of scientists, I explored five parts of the world — 'Blue Zones' where people live long lives. We found a bronze-age culture in Sardinia's interior where there are more male centenarians; a peninsula in Costa Rica where 50-year-olds have a higher chance of reaching 90; a Greek island completely free of Alzheimer's; and islands in southern Japan where people are prone to one-sixth the average risk of heart disease.

Which cultures have cracked the mystery of a long and happy life? 

 Okinawa, Japan; Sardinia, Italy; Nicoya, Costa Rica; Ikaria, Greece; and the Seventh Day Adventists in Loma Linda, California.

What are the secrets of healthy centenarians? 

 
 The secrets lie in everyday living. The people who live longest live in strong families that keep them motivated to support loved ones. Centenarians are still living near their children. Instead of being mere recipients of care, they contributors to the lives of their families. They grow vegetables, and continue to cook and clean. This has a powerful two-fold effect — their children and grandchildren benefit from their wisdom while the centenarians themselves feel the motivation to stay active, to get out of bed in the morning.

 We know from the Framingham studies that happiness, smoking and obesity are all 'contagious'. If three of your closest friends are obese, there's a 70 per cent chance that you'll be overweight. For this reason, centenarians proactively surround themselves with people who practise the right behaviours. These are people whose idea of fun is gardening or swimming, who eat meat sparingly, are trusting and trustworthy, and have faith.

How important is spirituality to a person's well-being? 

 Religious faith is the one element that most centenarians have in common. Even among the non-religious, those with spiritual beliefs are less depressed, have better immunity and lower rates of heart disease. They tend to have larger social networks, more social support and a greater sense of purpose.

What is the optimal diet for making it to a healthy 90? 

 Meat is more of a condiment than a staple diet. Moderate drinking has positive benefits. Most people who live longer eat plant-based diets, heavy on beans (fava, black beans, soy) and nuts. They do eat meat but usually as a celebratory food perhaps once or twice a week                           and in small portions (think the size of a deck of cards). Oddly, they don't eat much fish either. No one is "on a diet". They typically eat their largest meal at the beginning of the day while dinner is the smallest.
 The Okinawans specially practise eating until they are 80 per cent full, so they don't overeat. To aid this practice, make food look bigger, use smaller plates, make snacking a hassle, eat more slowly, and have a seat! Eat meals with your family — with the TV and computer switched off — if you want to consume fewer calories.

What is the key to living to 100? 

 The key lies in simple things. Get 105 minutes of mindless physical activity every day. Move mindlessly. Live in strong families that keep you motivated. And live out of a purpose.

What are the roadblocks? 

 People in general don't stick to doing anything for very long. After smoking, stress is probably the most harmful thing for your body. Chronic stress builds chronic inflammation, which leads to premature ageing.

 Drive down any street at 9 pm and you can see the greenish glow of the television or the computer in people's windows. This urban trend of isolation is a mistake. It shaves good years off your life.

 If you eat a perfect diet but are stressed out all day, you are not going to live longer or better. Socialising with the right people, having a sense of purpose, and a routine of downshifting are inextricably intertwined.

Nine secrets to a long life

​ :

​

Move: Find ways to stay active

Plan de vida: Discover your purpose in life

Downshift: Take a break

80% rule: Don't overeat

Plant power: Choose greens

Red wine: A glass a day

Belong: Stay social

Beliefs: Get ritualistic

Your tribe: Family matters

Central Park - My Snaps

Indian Cricket Team

A Matter of Degree: Wedding Website for IIT and IIM Graduates ( wsj.com)

Helping people find the right bride or groom is big business in India where most marriages are arranged.

Parents and relatives weigh a list of criteria from religion and caste to skin tone and height in looking for an acceptable spouse for Indians reaching marriage age. And that has spawned a horde of online matchmaking businesses that promise to make the search easier.

Now a new website, iitiimshaadi.com, says it can help people seeking partners with a degree from an appropriate alma mater.

The site takes its name from two of the country’s biggest brand names in higher education, the Indian Institute of Technology and the Indian Institute of Management. Shaadi means marriage in Hindi.

Membership isn’t limited to graduates of those two institutions, and the site sets a higher bar for educational attainment by men than women.

The site restricts male membership to “alumni of Indian and international premier institutions” in fields like engineering, medicine and law. Women are required to have a degree from school with a “country-wide” reputation.

The site has lower entry requirements for women to give “a larger pool of choice to the men,” said the site’s founder Ajay Gupta. “It is not a chauvinistic discrimination, but some highly-educated men, in terms of practicality, like women who also consider taking care of the home a task as good as a job.”

Mr. Gupta says he came up with the idea for the site after struggling to find brides for his nephews, who are business-school graduates. His search on matrimonial websites kept turning up profiles that fell short of the family’s expectations.

“They were looking for intellectual compatibility, but at the same time wanted women who would understand their hectic lives and dedicate more time to the house—while doing some part-time work,” Mr. Gupta said. “Someone with a half-day job would have also worked.”

That combination can be hard to find in modern India, Mr. Gupta said. “One of the nephews has settled with someone with a similar intellectual wave length and an equally demanding job,” Mr. Gupta said.

Priya Florence Shah, who runs an online magazine called Naaree.com that offers business and career advice to women, says men shouldn’t be dismissive of ambitious professional women. “Career-oriented wives are more understanding of their husband’s work issues,” she said.

In an ideal world, Ms. Florence Shah said, men should share the load of staying home, taking care of kids or working part-time instead of the onus falling only on women. “If someone wants to choose a woman who is going to take care of the kids, it’s their personal choice. But for me, women like me, we are hoping for a more equal world.”

Since the launch of iitiimshaadi.com in April, more than 500 people have applied for listing, but only 70 have been accepted. The others were rejected since the site only lists profiles for people who provide proof of education.

That pales in comparison to mega marriage websites like shaadi.com, which has over 20 million members.

But smaller might be better for Indians in the market for a spouse with a particular academic background. The narrower focus on education is better, “unlike the general focus on castes and religion on the other matrimonial websites like shaadi.com,” said Prachi Tiwary, a graduate of the Institute of Management Technology in Nagpur.

India’s top business schools are big marriage markets, where men and women often shop for future spouses, said Ms. Tiwary, who married one of her classmates. But men can have a hard time finding spouses on IIT and IIM campuses, where men outnumber women, she said. They might be earning a degree that has employers chomping at the bit to nab them, but they “have to look harder for girls,” Ms. Tiwary said.

Mr. Gupta is not the only person trying to connect people who want well-educated spouses. Another site, premiummatrimony.in, was set up in January by three IIM Bangalore graduates. The website says they were inspired by “the fact that many of our friends from IITs and IIMs face the difficulty of finding the right partner.”

While enrolment at iitiimshaadi remains small, Mr. Gupta is already beginning to see returns. He said his family has found a potential match for one of his nephews.

MUST READ ARTICLE .......

Hit the Reset Button in Your Brain ( from New York Times)

THIS month, many Americans will take time off from work to go on vacation, catch up on household projects and simply be with family and friends. And many of us will feel guilty for doing so. We will worry about all of the emails piling up at work, and in many cases continue to compulsively check email during our precious time off.

But beware the false break. Make sure you have a real one. The summer vacation is more than a quaint tradition. Along with family time, mealtime and weekends, it is an important way that we can make the most of our beautiful brains.

Every day we’re assaulted with facts, pseudofacts, news feeds and jibber-jabber, coming from all directions. According to a 2011 study, on a typical day, we take in the equivalent of about 174 newspapers’ worth of information, five times as much as we did in 1986. As the world’s 21,274 television stations produce some 85,000 hours of original programming every day (by 2003 figures), we watch an average of five hours of television per day. For every hour of YouTube video you watch, there are 5,999 hours of new video just posted!

If you’re feeling overwhelmed, there’s a reason: The processing capacity of the conscious mind is limited. This is a result of how the brain’s attentional system evolved. Our brains have two dominant modes of attention: the task-positive network and the task-negative network (they’re called networks because they comprise distributed networks of neurons, like electrical circuits within the brain). The task-positive network is active when you’re actively engaged in a task, focused on it, and undistracted; neuroscientists have taken to calling it the central executive. The task-negative network is active when your mind is wandering; this is the daydreaming mode. These two attentional networks operate like a seesaw in the brain: when one is active the other is not.

This two-part attentional system is one of the crowning achievements of the human brain, and the focus it enables allowed us to harness fire, build the pyramids, discover penicillin and decode the entire human genome. Those projects required some plain old-fashioned stick-to-itiveness.

But the insight that led to them probably came from the daydreaming mode. This brain state, marked by the flow of connections among disparate ideas and thoughts, is responsible for our moments of greatest creativity and insight, when we’re able to solve problems that previously seemed unsolvable. You might be going for a walk or grocery shopping or doing something that doesn’t require sustained attention and suddenly — boom — the answer to a problem that had been vexing you suddenly appears. This is the mind-wandering mode, making connections among things that we didn’t previously see as connected.

A third component of the attentional system, the attentional filter, helps to orient our attention, to tell us what to pay attention to and what we can safely ignore. This undoubtedly evolved to alert us to predators and other dangerous situations. The constant flow of information from Twitter, Facebook, Vine, Instagram, text messages and the like engages that system, and we find ourselves not sustaining attention on any one thing for very long — the curse of the information age. My collaborator Vinod Menon, a professor of neuroscience at Stanford, and I showed that the switch between daydreaming and attention is controlled in a part of the brain called the insula, an important structure about an inch or so beneath the surface of the top of your skull. Switching between two external objects involves the temporal-parietal junction. If the relationship between the central executive system and the mind-wandering system is like a seesaw, then the insula — the attentional switch — is like an adult holding one side down so that the other stays up in the air. The efficacy of this switch varies from person to person, in some functioning smoothly, in others rather rusty. But switch it does, and if it is called upon to switch too often, we feel tired and a bit dizzy, as though we were seesawing too rapidly.

Every status update you read on Facebook, every tweet or text message you get from a friend, is competing for resources in your brain with important things like whether to put your savings in stocks or bonds, where you left your passport or how best to reconcile with a close friend you just had an argument with.

If you want to be more productive and creative, and to have more energy, the science dictates that you should partition your day into project periods. Your social networking should be done during a designated time, not as constant interruptions to your day.

Email, too, should be done at designated times. An email that you know is sitting there, unread, may sap attentional resources as your brain keeps thinking about it, distracting you from what you’re doing. What might be in it? Who’s it from? Is it good news or bad news? It’s better to leave your email program off than to hear that constant ping and know that you’re ignoring messages.

Increasing creativity will happen naturally as we tame the multitasking and immerse ourselves in a single task for sustained periods of, say, 30 to 50 minutes. Several studies have shown that a walk in nature or listening to music can trigger the mind-wandering mode. This acts as a neural reset button, and provides much needed perspective on what you’re doing.

Daydreaming leads to creativity, and creative activities teach us agency, the ability to change the world, to mold it to our liking, to have a positive effect on our environment. Music, for example, turns out to be an effective method for improving attention, building up self-confidence, social skills and a sense of engagement.

This radical idea — that problem solving might take some time and doesn’t always have to be accomplished immediately — could have profound effects on decision making and even on our economy. Consider this: By some estimates, preventable medical error is the third leading cause of death in the United States, accounting for hundreds of thousands of deaths each year. You want your diagnostician to give the right answer, not always the quickest one. Zoning out is not always bad. You don’t want your airline pilot or air traffic controller to do it while they’re on the job, but you do want them to have opportunities to reset — this is why air traffic control and other high-attention jobs typically require frequent breaks. Several studies have shown that people who work overtime reach a point of diminishing returns.

Taking breaks is biologically restorative. Naps are even better. In several studies, a nap of even 10 minutes improved cognitive function and vigor, and decreased sleepiness and fatigue. If we can train ourselves to take regular vacations — true vacations without work — and to set aside time for naps and contemplation, we will be in a more powerful position to start solving some of the world’s big problems. And to be happier and well rested while we’re doing it.

Daniel J. Levitin is the director of the Laboratory for Music, Cognition and Expertise at McGill University and the author of “The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload.”

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