Few Facts of Human Body

1 - Scientists say the higher your I.Q. The more you dream. 2 - The largest cell in the human body is the female egg and the smallest is the male sperm. 3 - You use 200 muscles to take one step. 4 - The average woman is 5 inches shorter than the average man. 5 - Your big toes have two bones each while the rest have three. 6 - A pair of human feet contains 250,000 sweat glands. 7 - A full bladder is roughly the size of a soft ball. 8 - The acid in your stomach is strong enough to dissolve razor blades. 9 - The human brain cell can hold 5 times as much information as the Encyclopedia Britannica. 10 - It takes the food seven seconds to get from your mouth to your stomach. 11 - The average human dream lasts 2-3 seconds. 12 - Men without hair on their chests are more likely to get cirrhosis of the liver than men with hair. 13 - At the moment of conception, you spent about half an hour as a single cell. 14 - There are about one trillion bacteria on each of your feet. 15 - Your body gives off enough heat in 30 minutes to bring half a gallon of water to a boil. 16 - The enamel in your teeth is the hardest substance in your body. 17 - Your teeth start growing 6 months before you are born. 18 - When you are looking at someone you love, your pupils dilate, and they do the same when you are looking at someone you hate. 19 - Your thumb is the same length of your nose. At this very moment I know well you are putting this last fact to the test... ...now remove your thumb from your nose and pass this on to the friends you think might be interested in comparing their thumbs to their noses as well. :)

English Proverbs

A chain is only as strong as its weakest link
A change is as good as a rest
A fool and his money are soon parted
A friend in need is a friend indeed
A good beginning makes a good ending
A good man is hard to find
A house divided against itself cannot stand
A house is not a home
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step
A leopard cannot change its spots
A little knowledge is a dangerous thing
A little of what you fancy does you good
A miss is as good as a mile
A new broom sweeps clean
A nod's as good as a wink to a blind horse
A penny saved is a penny earned
A person is known by the company he keeps
A picture paints a thousand words
A place for everything and everything in its place
A problem shared is a problem halved
A prophet is not recognized in his own land
A rolling stone gathers no moss
A stitch in time saves nine
A thing of beauty is a joy forever
A volunteer is worth twenty pressed men
A watched pot never boils
A woman's place is in the home
A woman's work is never done
Absolute power corrupts absolutely
Actions speak louder than words
All good things come to he who waits
All that glisters is not gold
All the world loves a lover
All things must pass
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy
All you need is love
All's fair in love and war
An Englishman's home is his castle
An apple a day keeps the doctor away
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure
As you sow so shall you reap
Ask no questions and hear no lies
Attack is the best form of defence
Barking dogs seldom bite
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder
Beauty is only skin deep
Beggars can't be choosers
Behind every great man there's a great woman
Better late than never
Better safe than sorry
Better the Devil you know than the Devil you don't
Better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all
Better to remain silent and be thought a fool that to speak and remove all doubt
Beware of Greeks bearing gifts
Birds of a feather flock together
Blood is thicker than water
Boys will be boys
Charity begins at home
Cleanliness is next to godliness
Cold hands, warm heart
Comparisons are odious
Count you blessings
Cut your coat to suit your cloth
Discretion is the better part of valour
Do as you would be done by
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you
Don't bite the hand that feeds you
Don't burn your bridges behind you
Don't change horses in midstream
Don't count your chickens before they are hatched
Don't cross the bridge till you come to it
Don't keep a dog and bark yourself
Don't let the bastards grind you down
Don't look a gift horse in the mouth
Don't put all your eggs in one basket
Don't put new wine into old bottles
Don't rock the boat
Don't spoil the ship for a ha'pworth of tar
Don't try to teach your Grandma to suck eggs
Don't try to walk before you can crawl
Don't upset the apple-cart
Doubt is the beginning not the end of wisdom
Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy wealthy and wise
Easy come, easy go
Empty vessels make the most noise
Enough is as good as a feast
Enough is enough
Every dark cloud has a silver lining
Every dog has his day
Every man has his price
Every stick has two ends
Everybody wants to go to heaven but nobody wants to die
Failing to plan is planning to fail
Faint heart never won fair lady
Faith will move mountains
Familiarity breeds contempt
Finders keepers, losers weepers
First things first
Fish and guests smell after three days
Flattery will get you nowhere
Fools rush in where angels fear to tread
Forewarned is forearmed
Fortune favours the brave
God helps those who help themselves
Good fences make good neighbours
Good talk saves the food
Good things come to those who wait
Great minds think alike
Half a loaf is better than no bread
Handsome is as handsome does
Hard work never did anyone any harm
Haste makes waste
He who hesitates is lost
He who laughs last laughs longest
He who lives by the sword shall die by the sword
He who pays the piper calls the tune
Hindsight is always twenty-twenty
History repeats itself
Home is where the heart is
If God had meant us to fly he'd have given us wings
If a job is worth doing it is worth doing well
If at first you don't succeed try, try and try again
If ifs and ands were pots and pans there'd be no work for tinkers
If life deals you lemons, make lemonade
If the mountain won't come to Mohammed, Mohammed must go to the mountain
If wishes were horses beggars would ride
If you can't be good, be careful.
If you can't beat em, join em
If you can't stand the heat get out of the kitchen
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery
In the kingdom of the blind the one eyed man is king
In the midst of life we are in death
Into every life a little rain must fall
It goes without saying
It never rains but it pours
It takes a thief to catch a thief
It takes one to know one
It's all grist to the mill
It's an ill wind that blows no one any good
It's better to give than to receive
It's better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all
It's better to light a candle than curse the darkness
It's better to travel hopefully than to arrive
It's never too late
It's no use locking the stable door after the horse has bolted
It's not worth crying over spilt milk
It's the early bird that gets the worm
It's the empty can that makes the most noise
It's the squeaky wheel that gets the grease
Jack of all trades, master of none
Keep your chin up
Keep your powder dry
Laugh and the world laughs with you, weep and, you weep alone
Laughter is the best medicine
Let bygones be bygones
Let not the sun go down on your wrath
Let sleeping dogs lie
Let the punishment fit the crime
Life begins at forty
Life is what you make it
Life's not all beer and skittles
Lightening never strikes twice in the same place
Like father, like son
Little pitchers have big ears
Live for today for tomorrow never comes
Look before you leap
Love is blind
Make love not war
Man does not live by bread alone
Many a little makes a mickle
Marry in haste, repent at leisure
Mighty oaks from little acorns grow
Misery loves company
Money doesn't grow on trees
Money makes the world go round
Money talks
More haste, less speed
Music has charms to soothe the savage breast
Nature abhors a vacuum
Necessity is the mother of invention
Never judge a book by its cover
Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today
No man is an island
No one can make you feel inferior without your consent
No rest for the wicked
Nothing is certain but death and taxes
Oil and water don't mix
Old soldiers never die, they just fade away
One good turn deserves another
Only fools and horses work
Opportunity only knocks once
Out of sight, out of mind
Pearls of wisdom
People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones
Possession is nine tenths of the law
Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely
Practice makes perfect
Pride comes before a fall
Procrastination is the thief of time
Put your best foot forward
Red sky at night shepherds delight; red sky in the morning, shepherds warning
Revenge is a dish best served cold
Rome wasn't built in a day
Spare the rod and spoil the child
Speak softly and carry a big stick
Still waters run deep
Stupid is as stupid does
Talk is cheap
That which does not kill us makes us stronger
The Devil finds work for idle hands to do
The best defence is a good offence
The boy is father to the man
The cobbler always wears the worst shoes
The darkest hour is just before the dawn
The early bird catches the worm
The ends justify the means
The exception which proves the rule
The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world
The longest journey starts with a single step
The more things change, the more they stay the same
The pen is mightier than sword
The proof of the pudding is in the eating
The way to a man's heart is through his stomach
There are none so blind as those, that will not see
There but for the grace of God, go I
There's always more fish in the sea
There's many a slip twixt cup and lip
There's more than one way to skin a cat
There's no fool like an old fool
There's no place like home
There's no smoke without fire
There's no such thing as a free lunch
There's no such thing as bad publicity
There's no time like the present
There's none so deaf as they that will not hear
There's one born every minute
Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it
Those who sleep with dogs will rise with fleas
Time and tide wait for no man
Time is a great healer
To err is human, to forgive divine
To the victor go the spoils
To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive
Tomorrow never comes
Too many cooks spoil the broth
Truth is stranger than fiction
Two heads are better then one
Two wrongs don't make a right
Walk softly but carry a big stick
Waste not want not
When the cat's away the mice will play
Where there's a will there's a way
Worrying never did anyone any good
You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink
You can't get blood out of a stone
You can't make a silk purse from a sow's ear
You can't make an omelette without breaking eggs
You can't make bricks without straw
You can't teach an old dog new tricks
You can't tell a book by looking at its cover
You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar
Youth is wasted on the young

Tips for Memory Enhancement

What is memory?

Memory is the mental activity of recalling information that you have learned or experienced. That simple definition, though, covers a complex process that involves many different parts of the brain and serves us in disparate ways.

Two types of Memory:

There are two types of Memory. Memory can be short-term or long-term.

Short-term Memory:

In short-term memory, your mind stores information for a few seconds or a few minutes: the time it takes you to dial a phone number you just looked up or to compare the prices of several items in a store. Such memory is fragile, and it's meant to be; your brain would soon read "disk full" if you retained every phone number you called, every dish you ordered in a restaurant, and the subject of every ad you watched on TV. Your brain is also meant to hold an average of seven items, which is why you can usually remember a new phone number for a few minutes but need your credit card in front of you when you're buying something online.

Long-Term Memory

Long-term memory involves the information you make an effort (conscious or unconscious) to retain, because it's personally meaningful to you (for example, data about family and friends); you need it (such as job procedures or material you're studying for a test); or it made an emotional impression (a movie that had you riveted, the first time you ever caught a fish, the day your uncle died).

Some information that you store in long-term memory requires a conscious effort to recall: episodic memories, which are personal memories about experiences you've had at specific times; and semantic memories (factual data not bound to time or place), which can be everything from the names of the planets to the color of your child's hair. Another type of long-term memory is procedural memory, which involves skills and routines you perform so often that they don't require conscious recall.

Tips for Memory Enhancement

Do you feel that you have a poor memory? 


You may just have some less-than-effective habits when it comes to taking in and processing information. Barring disease, disorder, or injury, you can improve your ability to learn and retain information.

Brain exercises

Memory, like muscular strength, is a "use it or lose it" proposition. The more you work out your brain, the better you'll be able to process and remember information.Novelty and sensory stimulation are the foundation of brain exercise. If you break your routine in a challenging way, you're using brain pathways you weren't using before. This can involve something as simple as brushing your teeth with your nondominant hand, which activates little-used connections on the nondominant side of your brain.

Or try a "neurotic" exercise – an aerobic exercise for your brain – that forces you to use your faculties in unusual ways, like showering and getting dressed with your eyes closed. Take a course in a subject you don't know much about, learn a new game of strategy, or cook up some recipes in an unfamiliar cuisine. That's the most effective way to keep your synapses firing.

General guidelines to improve memory

In addition to exercising your brain, there are some basic things you can do to improve your ability to retain and retrieve memories:

1. Pay attention. You can't remember something if you never learned it, and you can't learn something — that is, encode it into your brain — if you don't pay enough attention to it. It takes about eight seconds of intent focus to process a piece of information through your hippocampus and into the appropriate memory center. So, no multitasking when you need to concentrate! If you distract easily, try to receive information in a quiet place where you won't be interrupted.

2. Tailor information acquisition to your learning style. Most people are visual learners; they learn best by reading or otherwise seeing what it is they have to know. But some are auditory learners who learn better by listening. They might benefit by recording information they need and listening to it until they remember it.

3. Involve as many senses as possible. Even if you're a visual learner, read out loud what you want to remember. If you can recite it rhythmically, even better. Try to relate information to colors, textures, smells and tastes. The physical act of rewriting information can help imprint it onto your brain.

4. Relate information to what you already know. Connect new data to information you already remember, whether it's new material that builds on previous knowledge, or something as simple as an address of someone who lives on a street where you already know someone.

5. Organize information. Write things down in address books and datebooks and on calendars; take notes on more complex material and reorganize the notes into categories later. Use both words and pictures in learning information.

6. Understand and be able to interpret complex material. For more complex material, focus on understanding basic ideas rather than memorizing isolated details. Be able to explain it to someone else in your own words.

7. Rehearse information frequently and "over-learn". Review what you've learned the same day you learn it, and at intervals thereafter. What researchers call "spaced rehearsal" is more effective than "cramming." If you're able to "over-learn" information so that recalling it becomes second nature, so much the better.

8. Be motivated and keep a positive attitude.

Tell yourself that you want to learn what you need to remember, and that you can learn and remember it.
Telling yourself you have a bad memory actually hampers the ability of your brain to remember, while positive mental feedback sets up an expectation of success.

Healthy habits to improve memory

• Feed your mind and body with good food and enough rest. Fat from fishes containing DHA and omega 3 essential fatty acids is said to be helpful in brain functioning. Follow a diet which Includes vitamin rich foods. Fishes (salmon, tuna etc.), magnesium rich foods, eggs, nuts such as cashew nuts and almonds are helpful in enhancing the brainpower.

Folic acid can also help your memory
Folic acid (also known as folate) seems to have a direct effect on memory.

Some of the best foods for folic acid include fortified whole-grain breakfast cereals, lentils, black-eyed peas, soybeans, spinach, green peas, artichokes, broccoli, wheat germ, beets and oranges.

• Your brain needs a work out just like your body to keep itself fresh. There are quite a few puzzle games available online. Puzzle games such as cross word puzzle, strengthen your focus and sharpen your concentration.


• Avoid mood enhancers like alcohol, cigarettes, and caffeine if you want to attain better memory. Caffeine and nicotine keep you awake for a while but they damage your brain functioning in the end.
• Never skip a breakfast. Breakfast gives your body and mind the energy to perform at their best.

• Learn and practice meditation. Meditation allows you to relax and stay cool by reducing your stress level. Stress is the real culprit. If you can reduce it, you would naturally attain more concentration and memory.

• The busy schedules have left no time for us to sleep. Most people sleep late in night and get up early in the morning for work. This improper timetable of sleep disrupts your concentration in a big way. Have a proper sleep of at least eight hours.

• You have to be very attentive to the events happening before your eyes. Try to build interest in activities that are assigned to you. This makes your brain, work more efficiently.

• Yoga helps to improve the memory power and concentration. It helps you to control the flickering mind. Yoga has worldwide followers because nothing can match its ability to condition the mind.

Mnemonic devices to improve memory

Mnemonics (the initial "m" is silent) are clues of any kind that help us remember something, usually by causing us to associate the information we want to remember with a visual image, a sentence, or a word.
Common types of mnemonic devices include:

1. Visual images

A microphone to remember the name "Mike," a rose for "Rosie." Use positive, pleasant images, because the brain often blocks out unpleasant ones, and make them vivid, colorful, and three-dimensional — they'll be easier to remember.

2. Sentences in which the first letter of each word is part of or represents the initial of what you want to remember.

Millions of musicians, for example, first memorized the lines of the treble staff with the sentence "Every good boy does fine" (or "deserves favor"), representing the notes E, G, B, D, and F. Medical students often learn groups of nerves, bones, and other anatomical features using nonsense sentences.

3. Acronyms, which are initials that creates pronounceable words.

The spaces between the lines on the treble staff, for example, are F, A, C, and E: FACE.

4. Rhymes and alliteration:

Remember learning "30 days hath September, April, June, and November"? A hefty guy named Robert can be remembered as "Big Bob" (though it might be best to keep such names to yourself).

5. Jokes or even off-color associations using facts, figures, and names you need to recall, because funny or peculiar things are easier to remember than mundane images.

6."Chunking" information

That is, arranging a long list in smaller units or categories that are easier to remember. If you can reel off your Social Security number without looking at it, that's probably because it's arranged in groups of 3, 2, and 4 digits, not a string of 9.

7. "Method of loci":

This is an ancient and effective way of remembering a lot of material, such as a speech. You associate each part of what you have to remember with a landmark in a route you know well, such as your commute to work.

10 Steps for Maintaining a Positive Attitude in the Workplace

Every workplace is different, and accordingly, each has unique challenges. Simple solutions do not apply to every business, especially if managers and employees are constrained by rigid labor agreements or ill-conceived business models. Nevertheless, the following time-tested principles should serve as a checklist designed to assist leader/managers in the never-ending challenge of maintaining a positive overall attitude in the workplace.

1. The leader/manager should, first and foremost, demonstrate a commitment to the organization through hard work and responsible behavior.

"Nothing is so infectious as example."La Rochefoucauld
"Example is the school of humankind, and they will learn at no other."Edmund Burke
"Any team can be a miracle team, but you have to go out and work for your miracles."Pat Riley

2. The leader must be competent and worthy of leadership.

"Leadership comes from competence. Leadership is by example, not talk."Bill Walsh

"Authority without wisdom is like a heavy axe without an edge, better to bruise than to polish."Anne Bradstreet

"He who wishes to be obeyed must know how to command."Machiavell i

3. The leader should have a clear vision of the goals of the organization; the leader should clearly communicate those goals to the appropriate parties.

"Nobody wants to follow somebody who doesn't know where he's going."Joe Namath

"If you don't know where you're going, be careful. You might get there."yogi Berra

"The true leader inspires in others self-trust, guiding their eyes to the spirit of the goal."Bronson Alcott

4. The leader should translate the organization' s goals into clearly definable work.

"One of the most important factors, not only in military matters but in life as a whole, is the ability to direct one's whole energies towards the fulfillment of a particular task."Erwin Rommel

"The best plan is only a plan, that is, good intentions, unless it degenerates into work."Peter F. Drucker

"Inspiration comes from working every day."Charles Baudelaire

5. The leader should establish clear expectations and provide frequent feedback so that employees will know when they have been successful in their work and when they have failed.

"Drive thy business or thy business will drive thee."Ben Franklin

"Issuing order is worth about 10 percent. The remaining 90 percent consists in assuring proper and vigorous execution of the order."General George S. Patton

"As I grow older, I pay less attention to what men say. I just watch what they do." Andrew Carnegie

6. The leader should create an atmosphere of success, one in which employees confidently believe that they can be successful if they apply themselves.

"The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him his own."Benjamin Disraeli

"Confidence imparts a wonderful inspiration to its possessor."John Milton

"Act as if it were impossible to fail."Dorthea Brand

7. The leader should reward success and praise behavior that meets or exceeds expectations while dealing forthrightly with behavior that fails to meet expectations.

"The deepest principle of human nature is the craving to be appreciated. "William James

"Outstanding leaders go out of their way to boost the self-esteem of their personnel. If people believe in themselves, it's amazing what they can accomplish." Sam Walton

"Praise loudly. Criticize softly.."Lou Holtz

8. The leader should demonstrate appropriate respect for his or her employees.

"We awaken in others the same attitude of mind we hold toward them."Elbert Hubbard

"We have committed the Golden Rule to memory; let us now commit it to life."
Edwin Markham
"When you respect the other person, you respect yourself."Clint Eastwood

9. The manager should understand that attitudes are contagious and that a manager's outlook, either positive or negative, will play a major role in the overall attitude of the workplace.

"The real secret of success is enthusiasm. Yes, more than enthusiasm, I would say excitement. When people get excited, they make a success of their lives."Walter Chrysler

"People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed and redeemed and redeemed and redeemed.."Audrey Hepburn

"Passion persuades."Anita Roddick

10.. The leader must understand that chronically negative individuals will, inevitably, have a profound negative impact on the morale of the workplace.

Achieve Your Dreams: Six Steps to Accomplish Your Goals and Resolutions

• You need to deeply desire the goal or resolution. Napoleon Hill, in his landmark book, Think and Grow Rich, had it right. "The starting point of all achievement is desire. Keep this constantly in mind. Weak desires bring weak results, just as a small amount of fire makes a small amount of heat." So, your first step in goal setting and achieving your dreams is that you've got to really, really want to achieve the goal.

• Visualize yourself achieving the goal. Lee Iacocca said, "The greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind." What will your achievement feel like? How will your life unfold differently as a result? If the goal is a thing, some gurus of goal setting recommend that you keep a picture of the item where you see and are reminded of it every day. If you can’t picture yourself achieving the goal, chances are – you won’t.

• Make a plan for the path you need to follow to accomplish the goal. Create action steps to follow. Identify a critical path. The critical path defines the key accomplish-ments along the way, the most important steps that must happen for the goal to become a reality. Stephen Covey said, "All things are created twice. There's a mental or first creation, and a physical or second creation of all things. You have to make sure that the blueprint, the first creation, is really what you want, that you've thought everything through. Then you put it into bricks and mortar. Each day you go to the construction shed and pull out the blueprint to get marching orders for the day. You begin with the end in mind." He's right.

• Commit to achieving the goal by writing down the goal. Lee Iacocca said, "The discipline of writing something down is the first step toward making it happen." I agree completely. Write down the plan, the action steps and the critical path. Somehow, writing down the goal, the plan and a timeline sets events in motion that may not have happened otherwise. In my own life, it is as if I am making a deeper commitment to goal accomplishment. I can’t fool myself later. The written objective really was the goal.

• Establish times for checking your progress in your calendar system, whatever it is: a day planner, a PDA, a PDA phone or a hand written list. If you’re not making progress or feel stymied, don't let your optimism keep you from accomplishing your goals. No matter how positively you are thinking, you need to assess your lack of progress. Adopt a pessimist’s viewpoint; something will and probably is, going to go wrong. Take a look at all of the factors that are keeping you from accomplishing your goal and develop a plan to overcome them. Add these plan steps to your calendar system as part of your goal achievement plan.

• Review your overall progress regularly. Make sure you are making progress. If you are not making progress, hire a coach, tap into the support of loved ones, analyze why the goal is not being met. Don’t allow the goal to just fade away. Figure out what you need to do to accomplish it. Check the prior five steps starting with an assessment of how deeply you actually want to achieve the goal.

This six step goal setting and achieving system seems simple, but it is the most powerful system you will ever find for achieving your goals and living your resolutions. You just need to do it.

Best wishes and good luck.

10 Tips for a Positive Life

1.

Take a morning walk without fail. It will create a fertile mind ready for success.

2. Transform adversity into success by deciding that change is not your enemy but your friend.

3. Make a difference to the lives of others.

4. Don't waste your precious energy on gossip, issues of the past, negative thoughts or things you cannot control. Instead invest your energy in the positive present moment.

5. Live with the 3 E's. Energy, Enthusiasm, Empathy.

6. Remember there’s no substitute for hard work.

7. Instead of complaining focus on solutions. It’s the key to innovation.

8. Read more books.

9. Smile and laugh more. They are natural anti-depressants.

10. Enjoy the ride. You only have one ride through life so make the most of it and enjoy it.

World's Biggest Hindu Temple - 2009 edition of the Guinness World Records

BAPS Swaminarayan Akshardham

BAPS Swaminarayan Akshardham is a 100-acre Hindu temple complex in New Delhi, India. It aims to showcase Hinduism's ancient art, culture and spiritual heritage.

Since its opening in November 2005, Swaminarayan Akshardham has become a popular landmark of India's cultural and religious landscape, attracting more than five million visitors a year. It featured in the 2009 edition of the Guinness World Records book for being the largest Hindu temple in the world.

Lotus garden

Over 60 acres of the complex comprise various forms of landscaping. One part is the Lotus Garden, a lotus-shaped sunken garden with messages from great world thinkers sharing their faith in God and humanity.

Largest Hindu temple in the world

The central feature of the complex is the ornately hand-carved stone temple, ormandir. Built according to ancient Vedic texts, and measuring 356 ft (109 m) long, 316 ft (96 m) wide and 141 ft (43 m) high, it is the world's largest comprehensive Hindu temple.

It was built within five years by 11,000 artisans and volunteers of BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha, an international socio-religious organisation. ..

Exterior carvings

The outer wall of the temple is profusely covered with 200 stone figures of India's sages and intricate depictions of nature.

Temple sanctum

Enshrined in the temple's inner sanctum is an 11 ft.-high gilded murti (sacred image) of Bhagwan Swaminarayan, the deity to whom the temple and complex are dedicated. Other images include those of popular Hindu deities and spiritual leaders of the Swaminarayan tradition.

Interior carvings

The temple is a fusion of pink sandstone on the outside and white marble on the inside, but with no structural steel used anywhere. The interior is filled with 234 ornately carved pillars, 9 ornate domes, and intricately designed ceilings. In total, there are more than 20,000 carved figures.

Elephant plinth

The temple stands on a 1,070 ft..-long plinth of 148 full-sized elephants carved entirely from stone. Together, they weigh 3,000 tonnes.

Stone colonnade

The temple and its surrounding area are garlanded by a 3,000 ft (214 m)-long two-tiered stone colonnade. It features 1,152 pillars, 145 windows and 154 cupolas.

10 healthy computing tips

Neck or shoulder pain? Try these 10 healthy computing tips:

1. Take a 3-minute break every 30 minutes.
   During your break, breathe deeply from your abdomen. Relax your arms in your lap, and then stand up and stretch your neck and shoulders. You can set a recurring reminder in your e-mail or scheduling program to help you remember to take a break. Try these workstation stretches recommended by the National Institute of Health.

2. Customize your chair.
   First, adjust your chair height so your feet are firmly supported by the floor (or a foot rest) and your thighs are parallel to the ground. Next, adjust the backrest so that it supports your lower back. The backrest (not your arms) should support your torso weight.

   

3. Rearrange your workspace.
   Set your work surface to elbow height. A desk that's too high can give you shoulder fatigue. If you use a fixed-height work surface, try installing a keyboard and mouse tray that you can adjust.

   

   Place any devices you use frequently, such as your mouse and keyboard, within easy reach.

   

4. Reposition your monitor.
   Place your monitor at arm's length and make sure the top of your screen is eye level when sitting up straight. (Bifocal users might need a lower monitor.) Center your monitor and keyboard in front of you so you don't twist your neck while typing. If you refer to documents while typing, consider using a document stand to position documents near eye level.

   

5. Alternate your hands.
   Throughout the day, try moving the mouse to alternate sides of the keyboard. Switching hands will help balance the load between your arms. This can be particularly helpful if your shoulder or neck hurts on one side only. You can use a symmetrical mouse to make left-and right-hand pointing more comfortable. Check out the ergonomic symmetrical mouse devices designed by Microsoft.

6. Get a headset for your phone.
   Never hold the phone between your head and shoulder. If you use the phone frequently, use a headset to reduce the strain on your neck.

7. Use a forearm rest.
   A forearm rest can reduce the load on your shoulders by supporting your forearms (not your wrists or elbows) when using the computer. Several ergonomic forearm rest styles are available online. Choose one that doesn't lock you into a single posture. If you're using the arm rests on your chair arm but are experiencing discomfort, try removing the arm rests. They can sometimes place your arms in an awkward position or put pressure on the nerves in your elbows. Make sure to support only your arm weight on the forearm rest, and not your full upper body weight.

8. Dock your notebook.
   When using a notebook computer over long periods of time, attach it to a docking station and use an external keyboard and mouse. If you don't have a docking station, you can raise the height of your notebook screen to eye level and then plug in a USB keyboard and mouse. When you're away from your desk, consider using a notebook mouse instead of the mouse built into your notebook. Check out the wired and wireless notebook mouse devices designed by Microsoft.

9. Use a sit/stand workstation.
   Try using an adjustable sit/stand desk that supports neutral postures. It lets you adjust the height of your work station to accommodate both sitting and standing positions.

10. Seek medical attention for recurring discomfort or pain.
    These tips aren't intended to replace medical treatment. If you have consistent neck or shoulder pain, consult a healthcare provider.

From Microsoft at Home & at Work