Chance to Donate to America's Second Harvest

Here is a free chance to donate $1 to America's second harvest.

Here is how , its very simple:

Visit the website below

www.celebritypastalovers.com

The page will be redirected to www.barillaus.com

On the bottom right corner you will see

>>Click here

to download the celebrity pasta lovers cookbook & Barilla will donate $1 on your behalf to America's Second Harvest.

Most of us don't have the time & heart to donate to the needy. Here you are not donating a penny from your pocket but Barilla will do it on your behalf and you get a great pasta cookbook.

So click on the link and you will have to provide your first name, last name and email address and you are ready to download.

For each download Barilla will donate $1.

Thanks for supporting a good cause and enjoy some good pasta.

Best Regards,

Sucharitha.

Thought for the Day - Eat for Your Health

The foods you eat every day can have a tremendous effect on your health. Decades of research have produced study after study showing links between diet and serious illness. A healthy diet has the power to prevent heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, gastrointestinal disorders, some forms of cancer, blindness, and birth defects.

It does matter whether your breakfast is a doughnut or a bowl of oatmeal, whether your sandwich is ham and cheese or hummus and tomato, and whether dinner is steak or salmon. Dozens of other food choices you make can affect how long — and how well — you live. The influence of diet on heart disease and some forms of cancer is well-known. But determining which foods have the greatest effects has not been easy.

The search for the diet-heart connection has been fruitful, but attempts to establish links between cancer and diet have had less success. For example, pooling of data from the Nurses’ Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study showed that a diet high in fruits and vegetables has strong benefits for the heart but no significant benefits for cancer prevention. This doesn’t mean that certain nutrients, vitamins, or types of food don’t have an effect, but rather that the specifics have been more difficult to pin down than expected.

Courtesy - Health magazine.

Weight Loss - Part 4

Treatment

The good news is that losing even modest amounts of weight can lower your blood pressure, reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease and stroke, improve glucose control in diabetes, improve signs and symptoms of osteoarthritis and sleep apnea, and lower your risk of cancer.
The amount of weight you need to lose to improve your health may be much less than what you feel you need to lose. The first goal in dealing with obesity is to achieve and maintain a healthier weight.

That usually requires reducing your weight by approximately 5 percent to 10 percent. That means that if you weigh 200 pounds and are obese by BMI standards, you would need to lose at least 10 to 20 pounds. That doesn't mean you should stop there. But it's a place to start. Slow and steady weight loss of 1 or 2 pounds a week is considered the safest way to lose weight and the best way to keep it off.

In many cases, losing weight can be accomplished by committing to eating a healthier diet, exercising and changing behaviors. Other treatments for obesity include prescription medications and surgery.

Over Weight - Part 3

Complications:

If you're obese, you're more likely to develop a number of potentially serious health problems. These may include:

High blood pressure. As you put on weight, you gain mostly fatty tissue. Just like other parts of the body, this tissue relies on oxygen and nutrients in your blood to survive. As demand for oxygen and nutrients increases, the amount of blood circulating through your body also increases. More blood traveling through your arteries means added pressure on your artery walls.

Weight gain also typically increases the level of insulin, a blood-sugar-controlling hormone, in your blood. The increase in insulin is associated with retention of sodium and water, which increases blood volume. In addition, excess weight often is associated with an increase in your heart rate and a reduction in the capacity of your blood vessels to transport blood. All of these factors can increase blood pressure.

Diabetes. Obesity is a leading cause of type 2 diabetes. Excess fat makes your body resistant to insulin, the hormone that helps your body maintain a proper level of a sugar (glucose) in your blood. If your body is resistant to insulin, your blood sugar is high — which isn't good — and leads to negative health effects. Abnormal blood fats. A diet high in saturated fats — red meat and fried foods, for example — can lead to obesity as well as elevated levels of low-density lipoprotein ("bad") cholesterol. Obesity is also associated with low levels of high-density lipoprotein ("good") cholesterol and high levels of triglycerides. Triglycerides are the form in which most fat exists in food as well as in your body. Over time, abnormal blood fats can contribute to atherosclerosis — the buildup of fatty deposits in arteries throughout your body.

Atherosclerosis puts you at risk of coronary artery disease and stroke. Coronary artery disease. This is a form of cardiovascular disease. It results from the buildup of fatty deposits in arteries that supply your heart. Over time these deposits can narrow your heart's arteries, so less blood flows to your heart. Diminished blood flow to your heart can cause chest pain (angina). Complete blockage can lead to a heart attack. Stroke. Obesity is associated with atherosclerosis — the buildup of fatty deposits in arteries throughout your body, including arteries in your brain. If a blood clot forms in a narrowed artery in your brain, it can block blood flow to an area of your brain. The result is a stroke. Being obese raises your risk of a stroke.

Osteoarthritis. This joint disorder most often affects the knees, hips and lower back. Excess weight puts extra pressure on these joints and wears away the cartilage that protects them, resulting in joint pain and stiffness. Sleep apnea. This serious condition causes a person to stop breathing for short periods during sleep and to snore heavily. The upper airway is blocked during sleep, which results in frequent awakening at night and subsequent drowsiness during the day.

Most people with sleep apnea are overweight, which contributes to a large neck and narrowed airways. Cancer. Many types of cancer are associated with being overweight. In women, these include cancers of the breast, uterus, cervix, ovaries and gallbladder. Overweight men have a particularly higher risk of cancers of the colon, rectum and the prostate.

Fatty liver disease. When you're obese, fats can build up in your liver. This fatty accumulation can lead to inflammation and scarring of the liver. Such scarring can cause cirrhosis of the liver, even if you're not a heavy alcohol drinker.

Gallbladder disease. Because overweight people may produce more cholesterol, which can be deposited in the gallbladder, the risk of gallstones is higher in obese people. Fast weight loss — more than 3 pounds a week — also can increase the risk of gallstones. Obesity can also contribute to gout, a joint disorder.

Do you weigh more than you should - Part 2

When to seek medical advice:

How do you know whether you need to lose weight for medical reasons? These evaluations can help provide the answer:
Body mass index (BMI). The BMI is a formula that uses weight and height to estimate body fat and health risks. If your BMI is between 19 and 24, you're considered in a healthy weight range for your height. If your BMI is between 25 and 29, you're considered overweight. And, if the figure is 30 or greater, you're considered obese and should talk to your doctor about losing weight for your health. Waist circumference. If you carry most of your fat around your waist or upper body, you may be referred to as apple shaped. If you carry most of your fat around your hips and thighs or lower body, you may be referred to as pear shaped. Generally, when it comes to your health, it's better to have the shape of a pear than the shape of an apple. If you have an apple shape — a potbelly or spare tire — you carry more fat in and around your abdominal organs. Abdominal fat increases your risk of many of the serious conditions associated with obesity. Women's waist measurements should be less than 35 inches. Men's should be less than 40 inches. If you have a large waist circumference, talk to your doctor about weight loss. Talking to your doctor openly and honestly about your weight is one of the best things you can do for your health. The more your weight increases, the more medical problems you may face.
Also, talk to your doctor if you have weight-related medical conditions, such as high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol, diabetes and arthritis. These health conditions may improve if you're able to lose weight.

Screening and diagnosis:

Your doctor can help you determine whether you need to lose weight and, if so, how much.
In addition to evaluating your BMI and waist circumference, your doctor can review your medical history, which helps reveal how dangerous excess fat is to your health. Do you smoke, drink alcohol or live with a high level of stress? In combination with these behaviors, excess weight can have even greater health implications.

Your doctor can also assess your current health. You may have a health problem that would improve if you lost weight or that requires treatment beyond weight loss.

India's 1994 Miss World

I am most amazed to know that Aishwarya Rai is the most popular star searched on the internet

Aishwarya Rai's striking beauty might make her seem an obvious fit as a model, but the truth is that India's 1994 Miss World winner originally took up modeling as a part-time job to get her through school. She was studying to be an architect, but due to her obvious talent on-stage and in front of the camera, -- most notably in a wildly popular Pepsi campaign -- the starlet began accepting the movie offers that had been pouring in. Rai began her reign as Bollywood's favorite leading lady in the film Iruvar, following it up that same year with ...Aur Pyaar Ho Gaya. They both earned her critical praise and the latter brought her a Best Female Debutante Award. More awards would follow, including Best Actress by Filmfare and Zee Cine for 2000s Straight from the Heart. As the actress put more and more films under her belt, her position as India's darling cemented. Her role in 2002's Devdas was especially auspicious; the movie was the most successful in Bollywood history and received a special screening at the Cannes Film Festival -- the first Bollywood film to receive such an honor. The next year found Rai making still more headway for Bollywood when she became the first Indian member of the grand jury at Cannes.

By 2004, Rai had appeared in well over 20 films in just seven years, and it was finally time for her to star in her first English-language film. The Hollywood/Bollywood crossover hit Bride and Prejudice reworked Jane Austen's classic love story Pride and Prejudice with the Bollywood film style, bringing together Eastern and Western actors, as well as themes. The film proved to be yet another successful example in Rai's history of helping to bring India's culture and film into the world spotlight, delighting fans all over the globe. Having sampled Hollywood, Rai was now ready to make a serious foray into American films. She signed on to star with Colin Firth and Ben Kingsley in 2007's historical epic The Last Legion as well as French director Coline Serreau's remake of her 2001 film Chaos, which would cast Rai alongside Meryl Streep. The actress had no intention of abandoning the cinema of her heritage, however, and simultaneously jumped on board with Indian movies like the The Heart of India and the historical romance Jodha-Akbar -- in which she would play the title role of Mungal king Emperor Akbar's Hindu wife and queen.

By this time, Rai's success as an actress unwilling to compromise her love and devotion to her national background had made her the highest paid actress in Bollywood history. Her fame had also buffered her image as the face of India, helping bring the art of her home country into the world-consciousness through countless magazine covers in multiple countries, a listing in Time Magazine's "100 Most Influential People in the World Today," as well as Hello Magazine's "Most Attractive Women in the World" and Rolling Stone's "Hot List." Rai even joined actresses Catherine Deneuve and Andie MacDowell as a member of L'Oréal Cosmetics' Dream Team, acting as an ambassador around the world. ~ Cammila Albertson, All Movie Guide

Born: on 11/01/1973 Milestones2005 Made her U.S. film debut in Gurinder Chadha's "Bride and Prejudice" a Bollywood update of Jane Austen's classic tale

AishwaryaWorld.com - Official site of the Bollywood star Aishwarya Rai, with pictures, wallpapers, news, personal information, filmography, and more.

Aishwariya Rai Fan Site - Offers wallpapers and picture gallery.

Aishwarya Rai Forever - Fan site dedicated to Indian actress Aishwarya Rai features an extensive photo gallery, news, multimedia, and more.

Aishwarya Rai Site - Fan page, includes biography, films, and photo galleries. Aishwarya Rai's Ultimate Website - Includes profile, filmography, and downloads.

Aishwarya Rai's World - Features filmography, news, wallpapers, screen savers, music, picture gallery, and more.

Aishwarya Rai: Beauty Incarnate - Offers biography and image galleries.

Aishwarya.info - Fan site for the Indian actor Aishwarya Rai includes biography, filmography, and pictures.

ApunKaChoice.Com: Aishwarya Rai - Profile of the Indian actress Aishwarya Rai, with a filmography, news updates, and pictures.

AskMen.com: Aishwarya Rai - Profile of the Indian actress Aishwarya Rai, with a commentary and ratings on her personality, sexiness, natural beauty, and style.

CBS News: The World's Most Beautiful Woman? - Article about how Indian actress Aishwarya Rai is considered by many to be the most beautiful woman in the world. Features a video clip of an Aishwarya interview with the TV news program 60 Minutes.

ChooseIndia: Aishwarya Rai - Features portfolio and image gallery.

Go 4 Wallpapers: Aishwarya Rai - Offers a picture gallery of Aishwarya Rai wallpapers for windows desktop, and mobile phones.

IMDb: Aishwarya Rai - Offers pictures, biography, and filmography of the Bollywood star Aishwarya Rai.

ThePlaCe.ru: Aishwarya Rai Photos - Over 50 high-resolution pictures of the Bollywood star Aishwarya Rai that can be used as desktop wallpapers.

To See some Aishwarya Pictures go the website below:

http://picasaweb.google.com/sucharithat/AishwaryaRai

What is the Apple iPhone?

Image courtesy Apple/ ©2006 Apple Computer, Inc. All rights reserved.

Iphone as soon as the iphone release talk came to the media...Japan probably laughed ...phones with similar and/or better enhanced features were available in Japan a while ago...but inspite that we who live in the US believe and think that technology has taken birth in the US and we get all excited when we hear about products that are almost a decade old in Japan--->Sucharitha.
Read along for what the media and Apple have to say about this New Apple iphone...

For several years, Apple enthusiasts have been asking each other the question, "Does it exist? Is Apple really making a cell phone?" Rumors came and went, but Apple, a company known for its secrecy about products in development, said nothing. In the last six months, those rumors began to take on a life of their own as industry analysts joined the blogosphere in predicting that Apple would produce a phone sometime in the first half of 2007. In mid-November, news broke that Apple had placed an order with Hon Hai Precision Industry, Co., a longtime Taiwanese manufacturing partner, for 12 million units of a new device believed to be the fabled "iPhone" [Forbes]. That news sent the rumor mill into overdrive, but Apple and Steve Jobs, the company's chief executive officer, again said nothing. Analysts began issuing predictions of cost, features and when the phone would be available, with many of them claiming to have inside information. Given Apple's extraordinary track record with the iPod and its recent innovations in desktop and laptop design, expectations were very high, perhaps impossibly so. On January 9, at Apple's annual product showcase, Macworld Expo, Jobs finally revealed the already legendary phone, and it's beyond what anyone expected. Jobs briefly tricked his audience during his Macworld Expo keynote address, announcing three new Apple products: a widescreen iPod, a cell phone and an "Internet communicator." Each announcement drew thunderous applause from the crowd, but what Jobs then revealed was that these three products were actually all part of one device -- the Apple iPhone.

Touted as a "revolutionary mobile phone," the iPhone can make calls, play music, navigate the Web, edit photos, play movies and text message, among many other capabilities. Although many of the iPhone's functions can be found in other devices, the iPhone appears to be unique in that it seamlessly blends these abilities together, while also throwing a bevy of innovations into the mix.

Jobs demonstrated many of the iPhone's features for the audience. One sequence began with a call from Phil Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. Jobs answered the call on his iPhone, added Schiller to his address book, and when Schiller asked for a photo, Jobs emailed it to him -- all while continuing the call. Later Jobs showed off the phone's ability to integrate multiple applications by using the integrated Google maps application, which knew his location, and typing in a search for Starbucks. Every Starbucks location in San Francisco showed up on screen. Jobs chose one and in a few minutes he was on the phone with Starbucks, ordering 4,000 lattes before abruptly hanging up.

In order to seamlessly integrate Web, phone, media and messaging features, the iPhone employs remarkable, groundbreaking technology. Unlike traditional smartphones that have small, finger-cramping keyboards, the iPhone has only one button for "home." Instead, its 3.5-inch high resolution, color screen, which occupies most of the phone's face, doubles as a "multi-touch" display. The display shows different controls based on what you're doing. If you're typing a text message or e-mail, a keyboard appears at the bottom of the screen, and you can easily type a message and send it to someone from your address book. The multi-touch technology also has an auto-corrective feature that accounts for unintentional taps and corrects misspellings. For music and video, volume and playback controls appear on the screen, and so on for other applications.

The iPhone's multi-touch interface also allows the opportunity for innovative uses of the touch display. When viewing a photo or surfing the Web, simply perform a pinching motion with two fingers, and the photo or Web page zooms in. Spread two fingers apart, and the display zooms out. Scrolling in any application is done by just brushing a finger up or down on the screen.

An intriguing innovation in the phone is what Apple calls visual voicemail. No longer will you have to listen to all of your voicemails if you don't want to. Instead, they will appear in a list, much like an e-mail inbox, and you can simply point to the voicemail you want to play.

Apple has also integrated three sensors into its phone. One is an accelerometer, and it senses when you turn the phone on its side, automatically shifting the display to a landscape mode. This feature is incredibly useful for viewing panoramic pictures, videos or shuffling through your albums, which you view by their cover art. A second sensor detects ambient light and adjusts the screen's brightness accordingly in order to save power. The third sensor deactivates the screen when you bring the phone towards your face, so you won't be dialing with your cheek while talking on the device.

Like many of Apple's products, iPhone syncs easily with a Mac or PC. The phone runs a version of Apple's reliable OSX operating system, and its programs and iPod connector (located on the bottom of the phone) will be familiar to many Mac users. Use the iPod connector or a docking station to connect the phone to your computer, the iPhone will automatically sync your address book, photos, movies, music and bookmarks between the computer and the phone.

Now, all of this may sound great, but there are a few catches. First, the iPhone isn't available until June -- Apple needs to get FCC approval before the iPhone can start using a radio band. Second, Apple has an exclusive contract with Cingular through 2009, so if you want a iPhone, you'll have to be a Cingular customer. And third, it's not cheap. A 4 GB iPhone will set you back $499 with a two year service plan, while an 8 GB iPhone will cost $599 with a two year plan. Still, when compared to other high end smartphones, you're getting a lot. This is essentially a small, powerful computer in the palm of your hand, and of course it has Apple's famous sleek, stylish, minimalist design.

Here's a quick rundown of some of the iPhone's other features:
802.11 b/g WiFi and Bluetooth 2.0 wireless capabilities Quad-band GSM and Cingular EDGE network 3.5-inch high resolution screen with 160 ppi (pixels per inch) 2.0 megapixel digital camera Battery life: 5 hours talk/video/browsing, 16 hours audio playback 11.6 mm thin, 4.8 ounces IMAP and POP email support, with integrated Yahoo! e-mail client Text messages are displayed like instant message conversations, making keeping track of many messages much easier Speaker and standard headphone jack

So will the iPhone change the cell phone industry forever? That depends on who you ask. Keep in mind that very few people have even used the iPhone.( hahahhha you know thats not true...Sucharitha) But given Jobs' impressive demonstration and Apple's recent track record -- over 100 million iPods and 3 billion songs sold -- it's difficult to doubt that this is an extraordinary and important product. Apple's stock surged 7 percent on the day of Jobs' announcement and appears headed for record prices.

In other news, Cisco has filed suit against Apple for infringing on Cisco's trademarked "iPhone" name. Apparently, Apple and Cisco were in talks to negotiate the licensing of the name "iPhone" for Apple's product, but they had not yet reached an agreement when Jobs announced the product at CES.

Stay tuned to my blog for a full article on How iPhone Works closer to its June release date.

For more information on iPhone and related topics, check out the following links:

Apple iPhone Engadget: Macworld

CNET: Cisco sues Apple over iPhone name - Jan. 10, 2007

Sources
Grossman, Lev. "Apple's New Calling: The iPhone." Time Magazine. Jan. 10, 2007. Markoff, John. "Apple Introduces Innovative Cell Phone." The New York Times. Jan. 10, 2007. Thomas, Owen. "Apple's Steve Jobs unveils new iPhone." CNNMoney.com. Jan. 9, 2007. "Taiwan's Hon Hai wins Apple orders for mobile handsets, notebook PCs." Forbes.com. Nov. 14, 2006. "Apple - iPhone - High Technology - Tech Specs." "MacWorld San Francisco 2007 Keynote Live Coverage."