Where will you be when the lights go out? Earth Hour 2010 will take place on Saturday, March 27 at 8:30 pm local time. Even though it will spark a tirade of controversy just asking folks to turn off their lights for one hour, let’s see who would rather fight than turn off a switch. In 2009 hundreds of millions of people around the world showed their support and Earth Hour 2010 will continue to be a global call to action to every individual, every business and every community. A call to stand up, to show leadership and be responsible for our future. Do you have what it takes to make such a simple gesture?

Earth Hour started in 2007 in Sydney, Australia when 2.2 million homes and businesses turned their lights off for one hour to make their stand against climate change. A year later Earth Hour had become such a global force that more than 50 million people in 35 countries showed their support by switch off for a simple 60 minutes. Icons stood in dark silence as Sydney Harbour Bridge, The CN Tower in Toronto, The Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, and Rome’s Colosseum, all did their part as symbols of hope for the future.

This year China’s Forbidden City heads up a list of some of the world’s most iconic landmarks that have confirmed their participation in Earth Hour – including The Great Pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx. They will be joined by Italy’s Trevi Fountain in Rome and Leaning Tower of Pisa, Big Ben and Houses of Parliament in London, Edinburgh Castle in Scotland, India Gate and Red Fort in Delhi, Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe, Bosphorous Bridge in Istanbul, Hohensalzburg Castle in Salzburg, and Independence Angel in Mexico City. They join a comprehensive list of the world’s great man-made marvels and natural wonders, including the Eiffel Tower, Brandenburg Gate, Hiroshima Peace Memorial, Empire State Building, London Eye, Table Mountain, Christ the Redeemer statue, Sydney Opera House and the world’s tallest building, Burj Khalifa, which will plunge into darkness for Earth Hour

Before you say “Why bother?” or “My contribution won’t make a difference.”, then think on this… Earth Hour has truly managed to raise our awareness of climate change issues. But there’s more to it than switching off your lights for one hour once a year. It’s all about giving people a voice on the future of our planet and working together. Even if you’d rather fight than flick the switch… you are participating. Whether you are an individual, a business, a school or a city, you can show your support for Earth Hour by turning off your lights at 8.30 pm on March 27 wherever you are on the planet. No one is saying you can’t use your computer or watch television. Bake a pizza and eat it by candlelight with your family! All it takes is the guts to show you understand and care enough to take action.

Do you have what it takes to flip the switch?

Source: Universe Today

The term quality of life is used to evaluate the common well-being of a person’s and societies. Quality of life should not be confused with the concept of standard of living, which means how much money one has in his pockets. Instead, it means the quality of life a person is leading, which not only includes wealth and employment but also the environment, physical and mental health, education, creativity and leisure time and social interaction.

In today’s world people are just judged by their money value and their standard. In order to achieve the desired standard set by the society many of us tend to run in the rat race of getting successful. Getting successful never means that you forget about the life, it never includes that you forget how your life is shaping up. In order to get successful people tend to lose or avoid many of the beautiful moments in their lives, especially with family and friends.

In the process of achieving better quality of life one should concentrate on his physical and mental health. One should go out for morning walk or yoga that can be very beneficial it helps in relaxation of mind and body. If the mind is fresh a person can work much better all day long. For mental health one should always try to think positive even in difficult situations it helps to find a right solution to every problem. A person can also plan a holiday or a weekend with family it can help making a strong bond. Sharing few beautiful moments with your loved ones can make a huge difference in improving quality of life. It not only removes stress but a new energy is pumped in the body.

Every step or every way you adopt can make your life worth living. It not only improves your quality of life but also improves your way of looking at things. In addition, with the above things you need to have patience, because it takes time to get the desired result. One should also be determined and follow the things that lead to quality life.

The first mantra of wellness is to eat healthy to stay healthy. The foods available around us can diminish our hunger but the same could be unhealthy and can have an ill effect on our body. So, to stay away from unhealthiness the foremost and important thing is to know what you’re eating and does it really suits your body, does the food you eat has any contain that can affect your body in negative aspect.

While shopping for the food items, or if you are having a meal in a restaurant than you certainly have to ask and look for the food labels. A food label tells us many things about what we are eating and having. For instance, %daily values, calorie information, nutrition facts on a food label tell us about how much fat, unsaturated fat, cholesterol, etc., are content in the food we are eating or buying. This information is helpful in many aspects.

Our body requires calories, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins and proteins for the proper growth and also for functioning properly. Absence or excessive of some of the requirements of food ingredients can lead to  so many problems, such as, diabetes, obesity, weakness, etc. Our body requires a balance and healthy diet in order to stay healthy and to keep functioning properly.

Determine how much calories your body requires.

The calculation of calorie requirements varies from a person to a person. It depends on the body characteristics such as, gender, height, age and activity levels. With the help of this accurate formula, you can calculate your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR).

English BMR Formula
Men: BMR = 66 + ( 6.23 x weight in pounds ) + ( 12.7 x height in inches ) – ( 6.8 x age in year )
Women: BMR = 655 + ( 4.35 x weight in pounds ) + ( 4.7 x height in inches ) – ( 4.7 x age in years )

Metric BMR Formula
Men: BMR = 66 + ( 13.7 x weight in kilos ) + ( 5 x height in cm ) – ( 6.8 x age in years )
Women: BMR = 655 + ( 9.6 x weight in kilos ) + ( 1.8 x height in cm ) – ( 4.7 x age in years )

Where:  W = Weight, H = Height, Age = Years

The above equations will help you to figure out how much calories is required at an ideal state but for daily activities you need to multiply your BMR by an activity factor that more closely fits with your lifestyle.

• None or very little activity = BMR x 1.2
• Average or light activity for about 2 days in a week = BMR x 1.375
• Moderate activities 4 days in a week = BMR x 1.5
• Higher activities, exercises and sports more that 6 days in a week = BMR x 1.7
• Higher level of activities = up to 2 x BMR

Saving money is a goal of every person, but very few of them really succeed. Saving money requires a skill, smartness and wise decisions, and one should stick to the plan. We all have heard preparing a budget is the best way to save money. No doubt it is the best to save good amount money after evaluating the expenses and the household earning.

There are other ways too which more or less sounds like a miscellaneous expense but can make a big difference. Many of us do not bother on spending couple of dollars here and there to fulfill our needs. However, have you thought a dollar or a couple of dollars saved by the control on miscellaneous expenses; this can make a big difference.

Calculate an average expense on coffee, sandwich, snacks and other food items we do every day. For instance, take a sandwich, a wise friend of mine told me that a homemade sandwich stuffed with cheese, lettuce and turkey will cost around $1.20, and  at shops we buy the same sandwich of around $2.50. And if we can save $1.30 on each sandwich then you can calculate how much we can save in a month or in a couple of years. Not just the sandwich we can make these types of savings in many other things, like preparing your own breakfast, cooking food at home, taking food at your workplace.

You can also save money if you will spend your money smartly on all the essential things; cloths, groceries, traveling, electrical and phone bill. For instance, you can get a cheap price for the winter wears in summer seasons, as they want to clear the stocks. Another example is buying groceries in bulk can reduce your daily expenses on trip to grocery shop, you can also save money on traveling, if you take local transports such as, trams, metro trains, etc. for your traveling purpose. Using electric appliances wisely can also save you a good amount of money.

These all miscellaneous expenses may look very small, but if you will calculate the figure then you definitely will see that it can make the much better difference. And you can make a better future of such savings either by investing or securing these savings for future.

Technology basically deals with the development of new and improved devices, which helps to make work easier for us. It can be defined as the application of knowledge to the practical aims of human life, or to change and manipulating the human environment. Technology includes the use of material, tools techniques, and sources of power to make life much easier or more pleasant and work more productive. Technology is closely related to science, which deals with the human’s understanding of the real world about them the inherent properties of space, matter, energy and their interactions.

With the help of technologies, we are progressing towards the most efficient and pleasant life. The concept of human living is totally changed from the ancient times. Earlier people lived their life to earn the food, clothes and shelter but human of present time lives to improve the quality and standard of their life. Humans are getting more and more time to think and become more creative in all aspects. The thoughts that were impossible in earlier times are now in action. Now thousands of miles take only couple of hours to cover. With one click, you can get the news of any corner of the world and communicate with any person without spending a penny. Computers, internet, medical equipments, spacecrafts, airplanes, ships, cars, bike, television, cinema halls, etc. take any of it; they all are best examples of the technologies.

Take any field, medical or agriculture or communication, technology had done wonders in all of them. We were provided with the best out of the best. For instance, computers; the time when the first computer was made, it has the size of a room, but now the computer is transformed into the palm top, you can carry it anywhere with the utmost comfort. At first internet was all about wire/cables but now Wi-Fi is available to replace those wire/cables. A pen drive, iPod is available to carry a data (music videos, songs or any data). We can’t deny the fact the technology has become the essential part of our life.

The technology has given the whole new meaning to the human life. More development is on the course to make human life better than ever before. We can now use all our time in creativity and enhance the quality of life.