What is a Ciser Pillow?

Don’t yet sleep on this pillow; it is meant as a back brace. If you look at the picture here, you will realize it as fitness equipment that is meant to ease out the pain on the neck, especially at the joint of neck and the spinal cord.

I was advised to buy this and use it as you see in the picture for a minimum of 20 minutes a day. I am suffering from acute neck pain. It is an occupational hazard that teachers encounter due to long hours at the white board.

This “Soothe-A-Ciser Pillow” is available for sale for $44.96 at Allegromedical.com, the largest and most technologically advanced independently owned online retailers of health care products in the United States.

Scorpions won't commit suicide.

While most of the snakes are not carrying venom in theirs tongs, all the known (1300 ) species of scorpion are said to be poisonous.

Isn't it strange?

We are afraid of anything that slithers in front of us or when we notice the slithering movement out of the corner of our eyes. Somehow our eyes catch the movement of snakes or any reptiles for that matter.

Scorpion's venom is invariably not lethal but their sting can cause spasms. Victims scream with pain and it is a sad sight. Scorpions are mostly seen in villages where houses have no pucca roof; they either have thatched roof or tiled roof where scorpions hide.

There is a particular scorpion (see picture) whose sting is believed to cause death. We call it 'Karunthel' in Tamil, meaning 'black scorpion'.

There is a mystic belief that scorpion sting themselves to commit suicide. It is wrong! Their venom on their own body is ineffective.

Out of the world designs and images.

Isn't this photograph stunning? Obviously, there has been a professional work involved than just clicking the camera. You should see it enlarged to feel the entire beauty of this image. Probably, you will feel it when you view the original source.

And when you click above to view the source, you won't move away from it as it contains several photos, all of them are just gorgeous.

I thank the artist Al-Jazeera for giving me immense pleasure viewing all of his work.

Amusing facts about Friday the 13th.

Man created time, days of the week to work and to take rest. Now the same man is afraid of what he has created. Man is paranoid.

Look at how he dreads whenever the date 13th falls on a Friday! Man is so psychotic that he doesn't do the following:
* Hospitals have no rooms that are numbered 13.
*High rise buildings don't have floor #13
* Invites a stranger as the 14th guest if the guest roll has only 13 people.

There may be more but I know only this many.

Is there a reason to be so superstitious? Can it be said Bible is the cause? The 13th guest said to have betrayed Jesus at the last supper.

From then on, there are several incidents that said to have taken place on a Friday the 13th.
* Fidel Castro was born on Friday, Aug. 13, and Butch Cassidy, notorious American train and bank robber, was also born on Friday, April 13.
* The British Navy ship named Friday the 13th left the shores for the first time on a Friday the 13th, and was never heard from again.

Now, a famous joke cracked by Mark Twain.
When he was asked to leave a dinner party because he was the 13th man, he told this: "May they have food only for 12 persons".

Man made floating islands.

Man made islands that float on water.

Location: Lake Titicaca in Bolivia and Peru. It is situated at 3,812 m above sea level.
Inhabitants: The pre-Columbian tribe, the Uros.
What it is made of: A kind of reed.
How it is held on the water: By its roots fixed at the bottom of the lake.
How large it is: With 30 meter in diameter, 10 families live in.
How many such floating islands: 40 plus
How do they cook: They the Uros build fires on piles of stones.
Modern comforts: Yes! They have solar panels to run television and some electronic appliances.
Strange beliefs: They believe they have black blood as they never feel the cold.

Source: The world as we know it.

Truth about men on horse statue.

In almost every major cities across the world, we can spot statues of men on horse. Of course there will be a plaque beneath the statue bearing the information on who is atop the horse and his period.

Have you wondered why a statue of a man was erected on a horse statue? My friend Dr. Nirmala has given some amazing and very interesting details on this subject.



"If a statue of a person in the park on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle.
If the horse has one front leg in the air, the person died as a result of wounds received in battle.
If the horse has a all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes."

Very interesting really!

Image courtesy: Google images

Your garden tells you the time.

Do you know that your garden can tell you the time of the day?

This reminds me of a technique that my husband taught me to know the approximate time of the day. (yes, not the night). By using a ruling scale against the sun cast shadows, he will, guess the approximate time.

Now, regarding the garden as your clock, it was discovered by a genius naturalist from Sweden, Carolus Linnaeus ( looks a bit a Roman-right?) He observed that some plants' flowers open and close at a particular time of the day.

This called as photoperiodism by contemporary scientists.

Carolus noticed one early morning in 1749. that a wild flower called hawk's beard opened its flower at 6.30 AM while a similar flower that also belong to family called hawkbit opened at 7.00 AM.

He then painfully cataloged 41 different species of flowers and recorded their flowering time. This flower clock revealed that Uppasla flower bloomed at 3.00 AM regularly and the ice plant at 11.00 AM only. (very lazy!)

Carolus Linnaeus must have been unpopular among Swedish watch makers!
Ice Plant image by Google.