Long sitting can be dangerous

Experts are warning prolonged sitting could be as bad for you as smoking, and say fitness and a healthy diet are no replacement for regular breaks.

The average Australian spends up to 14 hours a day sitting, on the couch, in the car and at work.

"[Smoking] is one of the leading causes of death in the world, sitting is very similar," Dr Andrew Timbs from the Chiropractors' Association said.

"The rate of obesity is about the third leading killer in the world."

When we sit the rate at which the body's enzymes break down fat, drops by 90 per cent.

"You don't actually fire your muscles like you should do and that has adverse effects for metabolism and regulation of weight [it] partially increases the risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease," Dr Timbs said.

Sixty-three per cent of Australians are either overweight or obese and that figure is still rising.

Experts say technology is one of the biggest contributing factors.

There are gadgets to keep your feet moving at work, but Dr Timbs says regular breaks are the way to go.

He recommends going for a walk for a meeting rather than sitting at a desk, or promoting fitness at lunch time.

Source[7News]

Engineers invent 'Anti-rape' underwear

Anti-rape underwear which delivers a 3,800 kilovolt shock to any would-be attacker has been created by a team of students.

After disabling the assailant, the undergarment has been designed to automatically send a text message to police or family members containing the GPS location of the attempted crime.

Pressure sensors on the garment, sewn in around the bust area, detect unwanted force and trigger the powerful shock. It can deliver up to 82 electric shocks, more than enough to disable any attacker.

Manisha Mohan, who helped develop the product, told: 'The lingerie with global positioning system, global system for mobile communications and also pressure sensors is capable of sending shock waves of 3,800 kV as well as alerts to parents and police. 

'A person trying to molest a girl will get the shock of his life the moment pressure sensors get activated, and the GPS and GSM modules would send an SMS as well as to parents of the girl'.

Details of the device, which were published on the Indian technology website Techpedia, show how the electric shock circuit board, is 'placed near the bosom' after a survey found that attackers usually grab a woman in that area as they initiate a rape attack.

Ms Mohan added: 'Studying in a convent girls school, we were always taught to be good to everyone around and bear a cheerful smile.

'After stepping into the real, cruel world we realized that our smile could not last for long as the threat to our purity and integrity always lingered on.

'Since the law makers take ages to come up with just laws and even after that, women are unsafe. Hence, we have initiated the idea of self‐defense which protects the women from domestic, social and workplace harassment.'

India has seen a spate of rapes in recent months including the gang rape and beating of a 23-year-old physiotherapy student who later died.

That case sparked huge protests and widespread condemnation of the government and judiciary for their failure to protect women.

Last month a Swiss Woman was attacked and a British tourist told how she was forced to jump out of her hotel window when a man attempted to attack her.

The surge in violence against women is believed to be having a serious effect on the country's tourism industry.

A recent study found that in the last three months, the number of foreigners travelling to India has fallen by 25 per cent with the number of female tourists down by 35 per cent.

Source[http://arabia.msn.com/news/offbeat]

Cloud seeding in Dubai

If you were among the thousands caught by surprise — minus umbrella — in the unseasonal downpours last fortnight wondering what is going on with the weather, you are not alone.

From the beginning of April till now, more than 47 cloud seeding operations — manmade interference to enhance rainfall — have taken place in the UAE. The most concentrated of these, 85 per cent, according to sources Khaleej Times spoke to at the National Centre for Meteorology and Seismology (NCMS),  have taken place in the last two weeks of April — in an effort to bolster water supplies. And already in 2013, cloud seeding occurrences are 30 per cent more than the entire previous year.

What is cloud seeding?

To understand in detail exactly how cloud seeding works, a familiarity with science and geography is helpful. But simply put, cloud seeding is the injection of salt crystals into puffy (cumulus) clouds to create more rain. And once clouds are injected — by planes which go up to the clouds and launch salt flares into them — and the droplets grow bigger, a collision of droplets happens. This is called coalescence. When the droplets become too big and moisture can no longer be retained, the droplets come down as rain. The ground only receives rain 20 minutes after each seeding event. And how heavily it rains, how heavy a downpour we experience, depends not just on the size of the cloud but crucially also on air pressure.

Now for all of these 47 operations that took place in April, the stage was already set. It was cloudy to begin with. And unstable weather conditions that lead to cloud cover are a major prerequisite to conduct any cloud seeding operation.

The presence of clouds makes it possible for planes to go up into the sky and launch iodine into fluffy cumulus clouds, as flat clouds do not work. As against some popular misconceptions, cloud seeding is not the creation of rain which is not in the control of the meteorological department. It’s actually the enhancement of rainfall, for which cloud cover must naturally exist.

The distinction is crucial to understand the effects of weather manipulation. And while the increased rainfall is not solely due to cloud seeding, Abu Dhabi – Al Guha, 100 kilometres south of Al Ain – had 136 millimetres of rain in April, itself unusual for this time of the year. According to experts at the NCMS, the arid country, which has a restricted water supply, is suffering from a dearth of water resources, which is why the government is anxious to increase cloud seeding operations so more water can be collected.

The jury is still out on how much of that rain is due to cloud seeding, while the cost of these operations is allegedly not for public consumption.

A Brief History

Cloud seeding in the UAE began 10 years ago when the government, together with the National Center of the Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in the USA and the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa, started a programme to introduce cloud seeding technology. And thus began what is called rainfall enhancement via hygroscopic seeding. So far, in terms of seeding events, as they are called, this year has been the busiest.

To cloud seed, as explained by a meteorologist at the NCMS: “You need clouds that have bumpiness”. Bumpiness in the clouds is good, he says, adding that’s what they look for. It’s like an instinct before embarking on an operation.

“A good updraft will cause bumpiness.” So when you’re in flight and you experience turbulence mid-air, those conditions (called ‘clean air turbulence’) can be favourable to seeding.

The crystals injected into clouds are potassium chloride and sodium chloride. The phenomenon is akin to leaving table salt on your kitchen counter overnight and a day more. If you pay attention, you will see the salt left on the counter will turn dark and wet, because of the accumulated moisture and dirt from the kitchen air. The moisture is attracted to salt, and the principle works the same way for the fluffy clouds.

To conduct these operations, four planes are currently used to fire flares into the clouds and disperse tiny crystals that will pull moisture to them and cause puddles on the ground.

Most people are curious about the concept of cloud seeding but there is little clarity regarding what exactly the concept is, says a climate change official at the NCMS.

The coming days are not seen as reason to worry. As in summer months evidently, as many as four days a week are forecasted to have “frequent formations of clouds, and this is good news for us as it encourages seeding operations,” especially along The Hajar mountains in northeastern Oman and eastern areas of the UAE.

Source [Khaleej Times]