Cinnamon and Honey

Great information!! Cinnamon and Honey...! Drug companies won't like this one getting around.This post is making the rounds in social media circles.

Facts on Honey and Cinnamon:

It is found that a mix of honey and cinnamon cures most diseases. Honey is produced in most of the countries of the world. Scientists of today also note honey as very effective medicine for all kinds of diseases. Honey can be used without side effects which is also a plus. Today's science says that even though honey is sweet, when it is taken in the right dosage as a medicine, it does not harm even diabetic patients. Researched by western scientists:

Heart Diseases : Make a paste of honey and cinnamon powder, put it on toast instead of jelly and jam and eat it regularly for breakfast. It reduces the cholesterol and could potentially save one from heart attack. Also, even if you have already had an attack studies show you could be kept miles away from the next attack. Regular use of cinnamon honey strengthens the heart beat.

In America and Canada, various nursing homes have treated patients successfully and have found that as one ages the arteries and veins lose their flexibility and get clogged; honey and cinnamon revitalize the arteries and the veins.

Arthritis: Arthritis patients can benefit by taking one cup of hot water with two tablespoons of honey and one small teaspoon of cinnamon powder. When taken daily even chronic arthritis can be cured.

In a recent research conducted at the Copenhagen University, it was found that when the doctors treated their patients with a mixture of one tablespoon Honey and half teaspoon Cinnamon powder before breakfast, they found that within a week (out of the 200 people so treated) practically 73 patients were totally relieved of pain -- and within a month, most all the patients who could not walk or move around because of arthritis now started walking without pain.

Bladder Infections: Take two tablespoons of cinnamon powder and one teaspoon of honey in a glass of lukewarm water and drink it. It destroys the germs in the bladder.

Cholesterol: Two tablespoons of honey and three teaspoons of Cinnamon Powder mixed in 16 ounces of tea water given to a cholesterol patient was found to reduce the level of cholesterol in the blood by 10 percent within two hours. As mentioned for arthritic patients, when taken three times a day, any chronic cholesterol-could be cured. According to information received in the said Journal, pure honey taken with food daily relieves complaints of cholesterol.

Colds: Those suffering from common or severe colds should take one tablespoon lukewarm honey with 1/4 spoon cinnamon powder daily for three days. This process will cure most chronic cough, cold, and, clear the sinuses, and it's delicious too!

Upset Stomach: Honey taken with cinnamon powder cures stomach ache and also is said to clear stomach ulcers from its root.

Gas: According to the studies done in India and Japan, it is revealed that when Honey is taken with cinnamon powder the stomach is relieved of gas.

Immune System: Daily use of honey and cinnamon powder strengthens the immune system and protects the body from bacterial and viral attacks. Scientists have found that honey has various vitamins and iron in large amounts. Constant use of Honey strengthens the white blood corpuscles (where DNA is contained) to fight bacterial and viral diseases.

Indigestion: Cinnamon powder sprinkled on two tablespoons of honey taken before food is eaten relieves acidity and digests the heaviest of meals

Influenza: A scientist in Spain has proved that honey contains a natural 'Ingredient' which kills the influenza germs and saves the patient from flu.

Longevity: Tea made with honey and cinnamon powder, when taken regularly, arrests the ravages of old age. Use four teaspoons of honey, one teaspoon of cinnamon powder, and three cups of boiling water to make a tea. Drink 1/4 cup, three to four times a day. It keeps the skin fresh and soft and arrests old age. Life spans increase and even a 100 year old will start performing the chores of a 20-year-old.

Raspy or sore throat : When throat has a tickle or is raspy, take one tablespoon of honey and sip until gone. Repeat every three hours until throat is without symptoms.

Pimples: Three tablespoons of honey and one teaspoon of cinnamon powder paste. Apply this paste on the pimples before sleeping and wash it off the next morning with warm water. When done daily for two weeks, it removes all pimples from the root.

Skin infections: Applying honey and cinnamon powder in equal parts on the affected parts cures eczema, ringworm and all types of skin Infections.

Weight loss: Daily in the morning one half hour before breakfast and on an empty stomach, and at night before sleeping, drink honey and cinnamon powder boiled in one cup of water. When taken regularly, it reduces the weight of even the most obese person. Also, drinking this mixture regularly does not allow the fat to accumulate in the body even though the person may eat a high calorie diet.

Fatigue: Recent studies have shown that the sugar content of honey is more helpful rather than being detrimental to the strength of the body. Senior citizens who take honey and cinnamon powder in equal parts are more alert and flexible. Dr. Milton, who has done research, says that a half tablespoon of honey taken in a glass of water and sprinkled with cinnamon powder, even when the vitality of the body starts to decrease, when taken daily after brushing and in the afternoon at about 3:00 P.M., the vitality of the body increases within a week.

Bad Breath : People of South America, gargle with one teaspoon of honey and cinnamon powder mixed in hot water first thing in the morning so their breath stays fresh throughout the day.

Hearing loss: Daily morning and night honey and cinnamon powder, taken in equal parts restores hearing.

Thanks: The Hans India

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The History of Chocolate

The History of Chocolate

        The first recorded evidence of chocolate as a food product goes back to Pre-Columbian Mexico. The Mayans and Aztecs were known to make a drink called "Xocoatll from the beans of the cocoa tree. In 1528, the conquering Spaniards returned to Spain with chocolate still consumed as a beverage. A similar chocolate drink was brought to a royal wedding in France in 1615, and England welcomed chocolate in 1662. To this point "chocolate" as we spell it today, had been spelled variously as "chocalatall, "jocolatte", "jacolatte", and "chockelet.11

        In 1847, Fry & Sons in England introduced the first "eating chocolate," but did not attract much attention due to its bitter taste. In 1874, Daniel Peter, a famed Swiss chocolateer, experimented with various mixtures in an effort to balance chocolates rough flavor, and eventually stumbled upon that abundant product -- milk. This changed everything and chocolate's acceptance after that was quick and enthusiastic.

GROWING COCOA BEANS

        Cocoa beans are usually grown on small plantations in suitable land areas 20 degrees north or south of the Equator. One mature cocoa tree can be expected to yield about five pounds of chocolate per year. These are planted in the shade of larger trees such as bananas or mangos, about 1000 trees per hectare (2,471 acres).

        Cocoa trees take five to eight years to mature. After harvesting from the trees, the pods (which contain the cocoa beans) are split open, beans removed, and the beans are put on trays covered with burlap for about a week until they brown. Then they are sun dried until the moisture content is below 7%. This normally takes another three days.

After cleaning, the beans are weighed, selected and blended before roasting at 250 degrees Fahrenheit for two hours. Then shells are removed leaving the "nib." Nibs are crushed to create a chocolate "mass." This is the base raw material from which all chocolate products are made.

KINDS OF CHOCOLATE

Milk Chocolate

This consists of at least 10% chocolate liquor ("raw" chocolate pressed from carob nibs) and 12% milk solids combined with sugar, cocoa butter (fat from nibs), and vanilla. Sweet and Semi-Sweet Chocolate Are made from 15-35% chocolate liquor, plus sugar, cocoa butter, and vanilla. Imprecision of the two terms causes them to commonly be called "dark" or "plain" chocolate. Dark chocolate has a large following among dessert makers, and for this reason is referred to as "baking" chocolate.

Bittersweet and Bitter Chocolate

Bittersweet usually contains 50% chocolate liguor and has a distinct "bite" to the taste. Bitter or unsweetened chocolate liquor also is used in baking and is also referred to as "bakers" chocolate.

Creams and Variations

Bite sized and chocolate covered. They are filled with caramels, nuts, creams, jellies, and so forth.

White Chocolate

Is not really chocolate as it contains no chocolate liquor, Carob This is a brown powder made from the pulverized fruit of a Mediterranean evergreen. It is used by some as a substitute for chocolate because it can be combined with vegetable fat and sugar, and made to approximately the color and consistency of chocolate.

HOW CHOCOLATES ARE MADE

 There are four basic methods of coating chocolate onto something such as caramel or a nut.

They are:

Enrobing

Least expensive method. Centers are carried by conveyer through a machine that showers them with chocolate.

Panning

Chocolate is sprayed on the centers as they rotate in revolving pans, then cool air is blown in pan to harden the chocolates.

Dipping

Generally done by hand by small scale producers. Shell Moldinq Most sophisticated method. Used for most sculptural chocolates. The process consists of many intricate steps, thus causing it to be more expensive than other methods.

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Easter

Easter, which celebrates Jesus Christ’s resurrection from the dead, is Christianity’s most important holiday. It has been called a moveable feast because it doesn’t fall on a set date every year, as most holidays do. Instead, Christian churches in the West celebrate Easter on the first Sunday following the full moon after the vernal equinox on March 21. Therefore, Easter is observed anywhere between March 22 and April 25 every year. Orthodox Christians use the Julian calendar to calculate when Easter will occur and typically celebrate the holiday a week or two after the Western churches, which follow the Gregorian calendar.
The exact origins of this religious feast day’s name are unknown. Some sources claim the word Easter is derived from Eostre, a Teutonic goddess of spring and fertility. Other accounts trace Easter to the Latin term hebdomada alba, or white week, an ancient reference to Easter week and the white clothing donned by people who were baptized during that time. Through a translation error, the term later appeared as esostarum in Old High German, which eventually became Easter in English. In Spanish, Easter is known as Pascua; in French, Paques. These words are derived from the Greek and Latin Pascha or Pasch, for Passover. Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection occurred after he went to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover (or Pesach in Hebrew), the Jewish festival commemorating the ancient Israelites’ exodus from slavery in Egypt. Pascha eventually came to mean Easter.

Thanks : www.history.com

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MICROSOFT NEW CEO SATYA NADELLA

Microsoft's board on Tuesday(04.02.2014) named Hyderabad-born Satya Nadella as chief executive of the legendary tech giant that has given the world products which have become household names like Windows, Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook Express. The announcement elevates Nadella, an offspring of the Indian system, to one of the highest-profile corporate jobs globally.

SATYA NADELLA

Nadella, 46, will be only the third CEO of Microsoft after founder Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer, the man he is succeeding.

The elevation of Nadella, a company insider for 22 years (he recently joked that he has also been married for 22 years), was expected once heavyweight outsiders like Ford's Alan Mulally and Nokia's Stephen Elop dropped out or were passed up. The names of Google's Sundar Pichai and Motorola's previous CEO Sanjay Jha also briefly made the rounds, serving to highlight the intensity of PIOs breaking the glass ceiling, something that began some two decades ago, but has become more pronounced now.

In picking Nadella, Microsoft directors selected both a company insider and an engineer. It has often been noted that Microsoft was more successful under the leadership of Gates, a programmer and its first chief executive, than it was under Ballmer, who had a background in sales.

Satya Nadella now finds himself the head of an icon of American business that has struggled for position in big growth markets like mobile and Internet search. The company has correctly anticipated many of the biggest changes in technology — the rise of smartphones and tablet computers, to use two examples — but it has often fumbled the execution of products developed to capitalize on those changes.

It remains to be seen whether Nadella's technical background, along with the closer involvement of Gates in product decisions, will give the company an edge it lacked during the Ballmer years. Microsoft said in a statement that Gates will "devote more time to the company, supporting Nadella in shaping technology and product direction."

Relinquishing his role as chairman will allow Gates to spend over a third of his time with product groups at Microsoft, "substantially increasing my time at the company," he said in a video made for the news of Nadella's selection. Gates said Nadella asked him to make the change in his duties at Microsoft.

Nadella is a contrast to Ballmer in other ways. Most recently the executive vice president of Microsoft's cloud and enterprise businesses, Nadella peppers his conversations and speeches with technical buzzwords that people outside the industry would most likely find impenetrable.

Nadella showed ambition early in his career. He received degrees in engineering and computer science, then earned an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business while working full time at Microsoft. He flew to Chicago from Seattle to attend classes on the weekend, according to Steven Kaplan, a professor at the school who taught Nadella in a course on entrepreneurial finance and private equity.

"He is take charge, smart, but in a likable way," Kaplan said, adding that Nadella received an A in the course.

While many executives within Microsoft tend to be polarizing figures, Nadella appears to be well liked in much of the company. Still, those who know him well say he is not a pushover as a boss.

Nadella's star at Microsoft rose considerably in the past several years as he took charge of the company's cloud computing efforts, a business considered vital as more business customers choose to rent applications and other programs in far-off data centers rather than run software themselves.

For years, Microsoft did not pay enough attention to how the cloud was attracting the creativity of a new generation of developers. When he got control of the division that included Microsoft's cloud initiatives, Nadella changed that. He began meeting with start-ups to hear more about what Microsoft needed to do to become more responsive to their needs.

"When you look at the most exciting things happening in tech, all the platform shifts happening and disruption — social, mobile, cloud — Microsoft has not even been part of the conversation until recently," said Brad Silverberg, a Seattle-area investor and a former Microsoft executive. "With Satya's leadership, Microsoft is doing interesting things in cloud."

 But Nadella has to grapple with a much broader set of challenges in markets in which he has little experience, like mobile devices. He inherits a deal to acquire Nokia's mobile handset business, along with 33,000 employees, and a wide-ranging reorganization plan devised by Ballmer and still in progress.

In an interview in July, Nadella was supportive of the reorganization plan, which he predicted would allow Microsoft to adapt to changes in the market more quickly than in the past. "It's not like our old structure didn't allow us to do some of this," he said. "The question is whether you can amplify."

In his statement on Tuesday, Nadella said: "The opportunity ahead for Microsoft is vast, but to seize it, we must focus clearly, move faster and continue to transform. A big part of my job is to accelerate our ability to bring innovative products to our customers more quickly."

Nadella was Microsoft's second-highest paid executive last year, earning $7.7 million in salary, bonus and stock grants. Only COO Kevin Turner made more. Microsoft has not yet announced his new package.

Nadella's elevation makes him the highest-ranked executive of Indian origin in the corporate world, ahead of such familiar names as Pepsico's Indra Nooyi and Mastercard's Ajay Banga. Microsoft's Windows still runs roughly nine out of every 10 desktop and laptop computers in the world, and its Office and Exchange programs are corporate mainstays. The company generated $27 billion in operating profit in the year ended June 30, and holds $84 billion in cash, making it a corporate powerhouse despite the relative decline in its fortune in recent years.


Thanks :Times of India & The Hindu

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Narasimha avatar of Lord Vishnu

Narasimha avatar of Lord Vishnu is the 4th incarnation among the 10 Dashavatars. Narasimha is also spelt as Nrusimha, Narasingh and Narasingha. In Narasimha avatar, Lord Vishnu is portrayed as a half-man half-lion, with a human-like torso and lower body, and a lion-like face and claws. One of the most popular deities of Hindus, Lord Narasimha is depicted in early epics, Puranas, Upanishads and other ancient religious texts of Hinduism. The story of Narasimha Avatar is related to Lord Vishnu’s incarnation as the boar or Varaha. This image of Lord Vishnu is worshiped in deity form by various number of Vaishnava groups, all over India.

Story of Narasimha Avatar of Vishnu

According to legends, Lord Vishnu incarnated as Nrusimha to slay the demon Hiranyakashipu (the brother of Hiranyaksha who was killed by the Varaha Avatar of Lord Vishnu). The twin brother of Hiranyaksha was Hiranyakashipu who wanted to take revenge on Mahavishnu. As he wanted to become the master of all the three worlds - Heaven, Earth and Pathala, he went to Mount Mandarachala and started doing penance which continued for years. His strength of penance madeLord Brahma to appear before Hiranyakashipu. The demon asked Lord Brahma for immortality as a reward for his years of penance. He asked his death would not be caused either by man or beast, nor devil, nor god, either by day or by night with steel or stone or wood, indoors or outdoors, or earth or in sky. Lord Brahma agreed and granted his wishes.

Meanwhile, Hiranyakashipu’s wife Kayadhu gave birth to Prahlad who grew up and became a keen devotee of Vishnu. But, the demon wanted his son to be a strong and cruel king like himself. He realized that Prahlad always prayed to Lord Vishnu and tried to train his son against the Lord Vishnu. However, all his efforts to influence Prahlad failed. His son remained devoted as ever to Lord Vishnu.

One day, Hiranyakashipu ordered his servants to kill Prahlad, if he refused to accept the primacy of his father. Prahlad was thrown down a mountain; he was even being drowned, poisoned, and burnt. But, all their attempts had failed because Lord Vishnu was protecting his devotee. King Hiranyakashipu who was very angry on hearing the failed attempts, challenged his son in the open court. He asked Prahlad whether Lord Vishnu is present everywhere. Prahlad replied yes which made Hiranyakashipu ferocious. After heating an iron pillar, the demon asked Prahlad to hug it, if Lord Vishnu is there. Without hesitating for a moment, Prahlad rushed towards the pillar and embraced it.  But, the heated iron did not burn him and the king in fury, hit the pillar with his mace.

From the pillar which cracked with a thundering sound, appeared Vishnu in the form of Narasimha. Half of his body was of a lion and the other half of a man. He had large moustaches on the face and terrible teeth in the mouth and his paws had terrible nails. When the demon king hit Narasimha with his mace, Narasimha took it away. During the twilight hour, Narasimha caught hold of the demon Hiranyakashipu, sat on the entrance of the court room and placed the body of the demon on his thighs. He pierced his nails into the body of the demon and broke open his stomach. The demon was killed on the spot. Lord Narasimha was soothed by Prahlad who touched his feet and also by Goddess Lakshmi. Then Prahlad was made the King by Lord Narasimha.

Narasimha Avatar Temples of Lord Vishnu

There are numerous Narasimha Avatar Temples in India. Popular among them include

Ahobhilam of Ahobalam Temple in Andhra Pradesh

Simhachalam Temple in Visakhapatnam

Sree Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy Temple in Thiruvananthapuram

Sree Yoga NarasimhaTemple in Mysore

Sri Laxmi Narasimha Temple in Pune

Narsinghji Ka Mandir in Ajmer

Sree Edappurathu Lakshmi Narasimha Moorthi Temple in Thrissur

Shri Marjaara Nrusimha Temple in Baragarh district of Orissa

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Swaminarayan Akshardham in New Delhi

Swaminarayan Akshardham in New Delhi epitomises 10,000 years of Indian culture in all its breathtaking grandeur, beauty, wisdom and bliss. It brilliantly showcases the essence of India’s ancient architecture, traditions and timeless spiritual messages. The Akshardham experience is an enlightening journey through India’s glorious art, values and contributions for the progress, happiness and harmony of mankind. 

The grand, ancient-styled Swaminarayan Akshardham complex was built in only five years through the blessings of HDH Pramukh Swami Maharaj of the Bochasanwasi Shri Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS) and the colossal devotional efforts of 11,000 artisans and BAPS volunteers. The complex was inaugurated on 6 November, 2005.

Akshardham means the eternal, divine abode of the supreme God, the abode of eternal values and virtues of Akshar as defined in the Vedas and Upanishads where divine bhakti, purity and peace forever pervades.

For the first time ever in the world witness the heritage of India in all its facets, insights and beauty at the Swaminarayan Akshardham through its mandir, exhibitions, verdant gardens and other attractions.

See the Wonderful Pics below 

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