Relaxing

 

20 Things You Need to Let Go of to Find Lasting Peace of Mind

 

There are some things in life not worth keeping. Letting go of negative qualities which dominate your ego will only lead to a greater sense of self and happiness. We hold on to so many things that cause us a great deal of pain, stress and suffering when we could otherwise let them go. We attach ourselves to their energy on a daily basis. Isn’t it time to reprogram ourselves and our lives? Isn’t it time to change our truth? Here are 20 things you need to let go of in order to find lasting peace of mind. 1. Your Need to Always Be Right There are so many of us who can’t stand the idea of being wrong — wanting to always be right — even at the risk of ending great relationships or causing a great deal of stress and pain, for us and for others. We love to right-fight. It’s just not worth it. Whenever you feel the ‘urgent’ need to jump into a fight over who is right and who is wrong, ask yourself this question, from Wayne Dyer: “Would I rather be right, or would I rather be kind?” What difference will that make? Is your ego really that big? Ultimately everybody has their own perspective. Yours is only one and it may be no more correct than another. 2. Your Need For Control Be willing to let go of your need to always control everything that happens to you and around you — situations, events, people, etc. Whether they are loved ones, coworkers, or just strangers you meet on the street — just allow them to be. Allow everything and everyone to be just as they are and you will see how much better will that make you feel. You can never control anybody but yourself. “By letting it go it all gets done. The world is won by those who let it go. But when you try and try. The world is beyond winning.” ~ Lao Tzu 3. Your Need to Blame Give up on your need to blame others for what you have or don’t have, for what you feel or don’t feel. Stop giving your powers away and start taking responsibility for your life. Blame is only self-judgement for things you could not accept in your own life. 4. Your Victim Perpetrator Mindset This is a difficult one because we have programmed the entire world into believing that there are actually victims and perpetrators. All you are seeing is perspective. The entire universe is created from projected frequencies which change the vibrational states of all things including people. There are only projections of these vibrational states and the receivers. The vibrational universe empowers you, because if you do not like your life the way it is, you can change how you think and feel about it, and the universe will respond. In a vibrational universe, there are no victims, only matching vibrations. Therefore, the victim of a crime is as much responsible as the perpetrator. This offensive and outrageous statement to many is fully supported by the laws of the universe. 5. Your Self-Defeating Self-Talk How many people are hurting themselves because of their negative, polluted and repetitive self-defeating mindset? Don’t believe everything that your mind is telling you — especially if it’s negative and self-defeating. You are better than that. You are divine and very powerful creator. Start recognizing that. “The mind is a superb instrument if used rightly. Used wrongly, however, it becomes very destructive.” ~ Eckhart Tolle 6. Your Limiting Beliefs About you can or cannot do, about what is possible or impossible. Don’t allow your limiting beliefs to keep you stuck in the wrong place. Spread your wings and fly!“A belief is not an idea held by the mind, it is an idea that holds the mind” ~ Elly Roselle 7. Your Concept of Truth Truth is 360 degrees. Everybody has their own version of the truth along that path and your version is no more correct than another. Your version of the truth is dictated by your path and learning experience which is completely defined by your vibrational state. That is why we are so unique and capable of creating our own realities. We are what we think. It is much wiser to agree to disagree than impose your truth on another person whose learning experience may be the polar opposite of your own, after all your truth is only YOUR TRUTH not anyone else’s. 8. Your Complaining Give up your constant need to complain about those many, many, many things — people, situations, events that make you unhappy, sad and depressed. Nobody can make you unhappy, no situation can make you sad or miserable unless you allow it to. It’s not the situation that triggers those feelings in you, but how you choose to look at it. IT is your perspective. Never underestimate the power of positive thinking. 9. Your Criticism Give up your need to criticize all things, events or people that are different than you. We are all different, yet we are all the same. We all want to be happy, we all want to love and to be loved, and we all want to be understood. We all want something, and something is wished by us all. When you criticize, you are again passing self-judgement for something lacking in your life that you refuse to let go of. 10. Your Guilt Guilt is a trick of the mind. It is a game your mind plays with you and it’s not very much fun. It brings your attention to ways in which you may be out of integrity, doing wrong and not honoring yourself, others or the universe at large. Accept responsibility for yourself, your life and your actions. You are response-able. You are an adult. You are account-able, meaning, with every action you take, you account for it. You chose to do it; you must accept the consequences of it and you did it all for a reason…to learn. If you continue to feel guilty, you stop learning. 11. Your Need To Impress Others Stop trying so hard to be something that you’re not just to make others like you. The moment you stop trying so hard to be something that you’re not, the moment you take off all your masks, the moment you accept and embrace the real you, you will find people will be drawn to you, effortlessly. Success may have nothing to do with how much money you have or how many cars you have, but how you choose to live a life of abundance which comes in many forms, many of which have nothing to do with material things. 12. Your Resistance to Change Change is good. Change will help you move from A to B. Change will help you make improvements in your life and also the lives of those around you. Follow your bliss, embrace change — don’t resist it. “Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors for you where there were only walls” ~ Joseph Campbell 13. Your Perceived Pain All pain is perceived and we all perceive it differently. It affects us all differently. You cannot interpret the pain of others unless you have experienced the same pain (i.e. losing a child). It allows us to grow and shatter barriers that would otherwise be impossible beyond the painful event. Without some semblance of pain in our lives, it is difficult to learn. When we let go of our pain, life changes and flows in ways we never dreamed possible. If you think you can’t get rid of your pain, you are only confirming your self-limiting beliefs and why the pain is there in the first place. 14. Your Labels Stop labeling those things, people or events that you don’t understand as being weird or different and try opening your mind, little by little. Minds only work when open. “The highest form of ignorance is when you reject something you don’t know anything about.” ~ Wayne Dyer 15. Your Fears Fear is just an illusion, it doesn’t exist — you created it. It’s all in your mind. Correct the inside and the outside will fall into place. Most of the limiting factors on this page stem from fear. Release your fear and everything will change in your life, almost simultaneously. Many successful people have achieved great heights only because they have let go of their fear of success. “The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself.” ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt 16. Your Excuses Send them packing and tell them they’re fired. You no longer need them. A lot of times we limit ourselves because of the many excuses we use. Instead of growing and working on improving ourselves and our lives, we get stuck, lying to ourselves, using all kind of excuses — excuses that most of the time are not even real. We sabotage ourselves beyond belief. If you find yourself making excuses, ask yourself why you are creating the excuse in the first place? 17. Your Past We often assume the past looked so much better than the present and the future looks so frightening, but you have to take into consideration the fact that the present moment is all you have and all you will ever have. The past you are now longing for — the past that you are now dreaming about — was ignored by you when it was present. Stop deluding yourself. Be present in everything you do and enjoy life. After all life is a journey not a destination. Have a clear vision for the future, prepare yourself, but always be present in the now. Work on this by practicing with simple tasks every day. For example, when you cut the grass, just think about the grass and nothing else. When you’re washing the dishes, immerse your full presence in dish washing. Eventually, your life will revolve around your day today, not yesterday. 18. Your Attachments This is a concept that, for most of us is so very difficult to grasp, but it’s not something impossible. You get better and better at with time and practice. The moment you detach yourself from all things, (and that doesn’t mean you give up your love for them — because love and attachment have nothing to do with one another, attachment comes from a place of fear, while love…well, real love is pure, kind, and selfless, where there is love there can’t be fear, and because of that, attachment and love cannot coexist) you become so peaceful, so tolerant, so kind, and so serene. You will get to a place where you will be able to understand all things without even trying. A state beyond words. 19. Your Resentment Let go of your internal resentment towards people, situations and events. If you hold a grudge, you only take power away from yourself and learning stops. Your resentment towards anything is a result of all of the limiting qualities on this page. Learn how to forgive. This is true strength. “The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.” ~ Mahatma Gandhi 20. Your Expectations of Yourself and Others Let go of any expectations of yourself that will limit your growth. If you hold high expectations for how others should behave, you will often be disappointed if they do not represent themselves in the manner you expected. It is only your expectations of people that cause you to judge them which ultimately is a judgement of yourself. Far too many people are living a life that is not theirs to live. They live their lives according to what others think is best for them, they live their lives according to what their parents think is best for them, to what their friends, their enemies and their teachers, their government and the media think is best for them. They ignore their inner voice, that inner calling. They are so busy with pleasing everybody, with living up to other people’s expectations, that they lose control over their lives. They forget what makes them happy, what they want, what they need…and eventually they forget about themselves. You have one life — this one right now — you must live it, own it, and especially don’t let other people’s opinions distract you from your path. www.wisdompills.com (source)

Educating the immune system to prevent allergies

 

Thu, 05/14/2015 Julie Robert, McGill University A research team at the Montreal Children’s Hospital from the Research Institute of the McGill University. Health Centre (RI-MUHC) is bringing them hope with a potential vaccine that nudges the immune response away from developing allergies. The findings published in Mucosal Immunology have major clinical implications since allergies and asthma are lifelong conditions that often start in childhood and for which there is presently no cure. "Our study, for the first time, offers a potential way of preventing allergies by using a molecule that redirects the immune response away from the allergic response," says lead author Dr. Christine McCusker, allergist at the Montreal Children’s Hospital and researcher at the RI-MUHC and associate professor in the Dept. of Pediatrics at McGill University. "This discovery is very promising since the molecule we developed can be administered by a drop into the nose as a spray." The reasons why allergies develop remain unexplained, but it is believed that all children are born with the potential to develop allergies. Children without allergies make a shift to the non-allergenic immune response when allergens are around. Those who do develop allergies have not shifted by the time they are exposed to the allergen. Dr. McCusker and her team from the Meakins-Christie Laboratories started to work on a specific molecule—called STAT6—which is important in the development of allergic response. They thought that if they could inhibit this molecule they would reduce the symptoms of allergic airways disease, such as asthma, in allergic animals. They also hoped to prevent the allergy from developing entirely. To do this, they developed an inhibitor peptide called STAT6-IP that was given to newborn mice by intranasal droplet.      "By giving the peptide STAT6-IP very early on, before allergies are present, we were able to teach the immune system. So when we tried to make the mice allergic later on, we couldn’t because the immune system had ‘learned’ to tolerate allergens," explains Dr. McCusker. "What’s beautiful about our approach is that you do not have to couple it with a specific allergen, you only use this peptide. It just redirects the immune system away from the allergic response and then it will not matter if the child is exposed to pollen, cats or dogs, because the immune system will not form an aggressive allergic reaction anymore," adds Dr. McCusker. "In subjects who have the propensity to develop allergies, their system has made the ‘wrong’ decision somewhere along the line," she says. "It is like educating the immune system to follow the path we want it to follow." Researchers are now studying the effect of this peptide to see in what other areas this type of immune education will prevent disease, such as with food allergies. They then hope to move this discovery to clinical trials in humans. Source: McGill University.

India to Launch First Homegrown Carrier

 

Zachary Keck May 14, 2015 India is set to launch its first indigenous aircraft carrier later this month, according to local media reports. On Thursday The Hindu reported that India’s first indigenous aircraft carrier, INS Vikrant, will be launched from Cochin Shipyard on May 28. “All major equipment has gone into the vessel, which has now acquired the shape of an aircraft carrier, with a finished hull. Barring a bit of ongoing work on the superstructure, structural work is all over and the internal compartments have all been welded in,” an official at shipyard was quoted as saying. The INS Vikrant will displace 40,000 tons and feature a short-take off but arrested recovery (STOBAR) system, rather than the catapult-assisted take-off but arrested recovery (CATOBAR) launch system used by current U.S. aircraft carriers. The ski-slope launch system will limit the INS Vikrant’s ability to launch heavy aircraft from its deck. However, the carrier will reportedly hold some 36 combat jets, which can launch at intervals between 2-3 minutes. The ship is expected to carry the Russian-made Mikoyan MiG 29 K fighter. India had previously launched the still uncompleted carrier back in 2013, after phase I of its construction was finished. The upcoming launch marks the completion of its structure. The carrier is set to undergo testing starting in 2017, and—if everything goes to plan—will be inducted into India’s navy sometime in 2018. India currently operates two aircraft carriers, both of which are foreign built. The first is the the INS Viraat, an ageing, 55-year-old former British carrier, which is set to be decommissioned next year. Besides the INS Viraat, India’s Navy also operates the the INS Vikramaditya, a refurbished carrier it purchased from Russia for $2.35 billion. The 44,400-ton INS Vikramaditya was commissioned in Russia in 2013, and formally inducted into the Indian Navy back in June of last year. Also this week, a senior Indian defense council has approved a budget for the country to build its second indigenous aircraft carrier. According to local media reports, the Defense Acquisition Council (DAC), which is chaired by India’s defense minister, Manohar Parrikar, approved a slew of deals this week, including allocating 30 crore (roughly $5 million) to build India’s second indigenous aircraft carrier. The reports said the funds will go to “commencement of preparatory work for construction of Indian Aircraft Carrier 2.” Earlier this year, India had said it will fast track production of the 65,000-ton carrier, dubbed the INS Vishal, under its indigenous aircraft carrier-II (IAC-II) project. The project is being accelerated partly to deal with China’s rapidly growing carrier fleet, as well as because of the INS Viraat’s looming decommissioning. The INS Vishal may be nuclear powered and boast the more advanced catapult-assisted take-off but arrested recovery (CATOBAR) launch systems. The United States has recently expressed an interest in sharing carrier technology with India. Zachary Keck is managing editor of The National Interest. You can find him on Twitter: @ZacharyKeck. Image: Indian Navy

3-D microbattery suitable for large-scale on-chip integration

 

Tue, 05/12/2015 - 8:18am Rick Kubetz, University. of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign   Image of the holographically patterned microbattery.By combining 3-D holographic lithography and 2-D photolithography, researchers from the Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have demonstrated a high-performance 3-D microbattery suitable for large-scale on-chip integration with microelectronic devices. "This 3-D microbattery has exceptional performance and scalability, and we think it will be of importance for many applications," explained Paul Braun, a professor of materials science and engineering at Illinois. "Micro-scale devices typically utilize power supplied off-chip because of difficulties in miniaturizing energy storage technologies. A miniaturized high-energy and high-power on-chip battery would be highly desirable for applications including autonomous microscale actuators, distributed wireless sensors and transmitters, monitors and portable and implantable medical devices." "Due to the complexity of 3-D electrodes, it is generally difficult to realize such batteries, let alone the possibility of on-chip integration and scaling. In this project, we developed an effective method to make high-performance 3-D lithium-ion microbatteries using processes that are highly compatible with the fabrication of microelectronics," stated Hailong Ning, a graduate student in the Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering and first author of the article appearing in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "We utilized 3-D holographic lithography to define the interior structure of electrodes and 2-D photolithography to create the desired electrode shape." Ning added. "This work merges important concepts in fabrication, characterization and modeling, showing that the energy and power of the microbattery are strongly related to the structural parameters of the electrodes such as size, shape, surface area, porosity and tortuosity. A significant strength of this new method is that these parameters can be easily controlled during lithography steps, which offers unique flexibility for designing next-generation on-chip energy storage devices." Enabled by a 3-D holographic patterning technique—where multiple optical beams interfere inside the photoresist creating a desirable 3-D structure—the battery possesses well-defined, periodically structured porous electrodes, that facilitates the fast transports of electrons and ions inside the battery, offering supercapacitor-like power. "Although accurate control on the interfering optical beams is required to construct 3-D holographic lithography, recent advances have significantly simplified the required optics, enabling creation of structures via a single incident beam and standard photoresist processing. This makes it highly scalable and compatible with microfabrication," stated John Rogers, a professor of materials science and engineering, who has worked with Braun and his team to develop the technology. "Micro-engineered battery architectures, combined with high energy material such as tin, offer exciting new battery features including high energy capacity and good cycle lives, which provide the ability to power practical devices," stated William King, a professor of mechanical science and engineering, who is a co-author of this work. Source: University. of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Poetic Silhouettes in Front of Magic Starry Sky

 

 

« A World Between Worlds » est une fantastique histoire racontée en images par l’artiste Kent Macdonald. Dans un monde parallèle où le ciel est empli d’étoiles, une mystérieuse silhouette grimpe une échelle, lune sous le bras, ou se laisse emporter par un ballon dans les airs. Un travail sublime à découvrir.

These 14 Photos Capture How Polluted China Has Become, And It’s Terrifying…

 

Apr 4, 2015

Amanda Froelich, True Activist

From the trash-strewn Great Wall of China to oil-filled lakes, this land and its people are suffering from the effects of unsustainable industrialized living.

In case you haven’t heard, China has declared war on pollution, as rates of environmental toxicity are beyond tolerable and are negatively affecting its population. As reported by NationalInterest, the first thing you notice when arriving in China is a cloud of smog that hugs its industrialized cities.

And that toxicity is the #1 source of social unrest for Chinese citizens. In fact, it’s so bad, individuals are forced to wear masks on their daily commute to work as pollution in cities like Beijing is 40 times higher than International Safety Standard.

But if statistics don’t speak loudly enough, the following photos certainly do. China may be the world’s leading supplier of goods, but the repercussions from its unsustainable industrial habits (which fuel the lives of many who are reading this piece) are having a devastating toll on the environment and health of its people.

 

Scroll through and see just how toxic some of China’s landscapes and cities have become.

#1 Fake Hong Kong Skyline For Tourists

#2 Woman Walks Through Smog in Beijing, Where Small-Particle Pollution Is 40 Times Over International Safety Standard

#3 Photo Capturing Beijing Surrounded By Smog

#4 Pollution From A Factory In Yutian, 100km East of Beijing

#5 Woman Collects Plastic Bottles Near A River Polluted By Reddish Dye

#6 A Man Walks By A Pipe Releasing Waste Water Into Yangtze River

#7 The Great Wall Of China – There Are No Words…

#8 A Child Jumping Over Trash At A Village in Jiaxing

#9 A Woman Stands On A Bridge Over A Polluted River In Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province

#10 Fishermen Collecting Fish In A Polluted Canal, Beijing

#11 Over 300 Pigs Fished Out Of Huangpu River

#12 Residents Look Over A Heavily Polluted River, Zhugao, Sichuan Province

#13 Morning Smog In Beijing

#14 And Finally, The ‘Great’ Wall Of China & Its Pollution

 

This originally appeared on trueactivist.com

Review: Basis Peak fitness and sleep tracker

 

Gizmag reviews the Basis Peak fitness tracker (Photo: Simon Crisp/Gizmag.com) The Basis Peak is a wrist-worn fitness tracker which is jam-packed with sensors to monitor an array of information about your body and activity. It also automatically detects whether you're walking, running, cycling or sleeping, and can deliver smartphone notifications to your wrist. Gizmag recently spent a bit of time with the fitness tracker to see how well it performs, and how useful all of that information really is. The Basis Peak fitness tracker is aimed squarely at people who want access to as much general activity information as a wrist-worn tracker can deliver, and who wouldn't mind getting a taste of smartwatch functionality at the same time. It tracks heart rate, steps, calories burned, sweat levels, skin temperature and sleep quality, while an update which landed earlier this year also means its big high contrast screen can be used to display smart notifications including SMS, e-mail, incoming calls, and events. All of this means the Basis Peak is, at least on paper, one of the most capable all-round fitness trackers on the market, and a considerable upgrade to the original Basis B1. As such, potential buyers are probably also going to be eyeing up the likes of the Fitbit Surge, Garmin Vivoactive, the Fitbit Charge HR and the Microsoft Band, along with more dedicated sports devices like the TomTom Runner Cardio and Garmin fēnix 3. In the box you'll find the waterproof Basis Peak along with a magnetic USB charging cradle. While promotional blurb states you should get four days of battery life out of a full charge, we found it was more like three days, and we actually preferred to charge it more frequently during periods of inactivity like sitting at a computer. The packaging clearly spells out what the Basis Peak is capable of, though you'll need to refer to the website to find out whether your Bluetooth Smart smartphone is compatible. While we've seen some people struggle to get up and running with the Basis Peak, our experience of installing and pairing was relatively straight forward. That said, it was lightly frustrating that firmware updates cannot be done through the USB charging cradle and need to be carried out via a paired smart-device running the Basis Peak app. For us this was primarily a Motorola G (2nd Gen), but we also tested the iOS version of the app on an iPad. It was only after starting to use the Basis Peak that we made a key observation: it looks a lot better than expected. Marketing shots do the tracker a disservice, and it's far from the Quasimodo of the fitness tracker world that you might be expecting. In real life it looks like a smart digital watch which will fit in whether you are wearing jeans and a t-shirt or a suit. Its only crime is that it isn't photogenic. The body is available in matte black (which we tried) or brushed metal, and interchangeable straps mean you can mix it up a bit. A large high contrast always-on touchscreen display on the Basis Peak makes it a very viable watch replacement, and means that information is considerably easier to see than on many other fitness trackers. Even in bright conditions and while running it's possible to see and read the screen which is made with Gorilla Glass 3. In the dark, an upwards swipe on the right of the display activates a backlight. Navigating menus and settings is simple using the touchscreen (there are no buttons) though it's not as responsive or consistent as the Garmin Vivosmart. Once you're wearing the Basis Peak, there's very little you need to do. Unlike most other fitness trackers, you don't need to tell it when you're going for a walk, run, or bike-ride, or when you're going to bed. Instead everything is logged automatically and your main interactions with the device are probably going to be to check the time or your notifications, and to keep an eye on your heart rate or daily activity totals. Whether this is a good thing or not is something we'll come to shortly. While a 3-axis accelerometer allows the Basis Peak to track your steps in the same way as most other trackers, that's only the tip of the iceberg. Sensors allow it to also constantly monitor heart rate, sweat levels, skin temperature and sleep quality, with a breakdown of periods of light, deep, and REM kip. All of this means the device has great potential, if the information is used correctly. The only things missing are GPS, and the fact that the Peak only logs steps and not distance, which is sure to irk some users. That said, the Peak can use Bluetooth to stream its info to apps which have GPS, to see distance and pace, along with other fitness data. In our experience automatic tracking was equally one of the most impressive and infuriating features of the Basis Peak. For someone as memory-challenged as myself it was liberating to know that I could head out on a run or bike ride without having to remember to manually start activity tracking. I've lost count of the number of half-tracked runs I've racked up recently with other devices. Automatic detection of walking, running and cycling was flawless with the Peak recognizing within seconds what I was doing when. That said, because all this Body IQ tagging of exercise is automatic, there's no way to do it manually. This is important because the Basis Peak only recognizes walking, running and cycling, if you are doing something else like weights or rowing, it will not show up in your activity feed. Yes, data from all those sensors is still being recorded and is accessible in the web and smartphone apps, or to export, but it doesn't make it easy to use. Similarly there's no way to manually log exercise completed when not wearing the Peak. Sleep tracking is another example of great function marred by the Peak's insistence of doing everything automatically. Giving much more information than most rival sleep trackers, it will identify periods of light, deep, and REM sleep, along with logging when you toss or turn in bed. However, a worrying number of periods of sleep were recorded whenever I sat down at a computer or to watch TV. Either I unknowingly suffer from narcolepsy, or the Peak struggles to distinguish between inactivity and sleep. What make this worse is the inability to correct false positives anywhere in the app or on the website, meaning overall sleep data is skewed. In terms of the tracked numbers, the Basis Peak was fairly consistent with other devices, for example a 30 minute run logged as 5,220 steps on the Peak compared to 5,006 on the Fitbit Charge HR and 5216 using the Tickr X. Average heart rates came in at 161, 162 and 162 bpm respectively with top heart rates or 181, 175 and 180 bpm. A comparison of heart rate charts showed very similar patterns across all results. The selection of information which can be displayed on the screen of the Basis Peak is more limited than some rival devices. On their wrist, users are limited to watch functionality (which annoyingly lacks an alarm or stopwatch/timer) checking their current heart rate, recent activity and daily totals. While all of this is incredibly easy to see and navigate, it's a shame the information isn't more usable. For example using the vibration function to notify users as they moved between heart rate zones, like on the TomTom Runner, would make the tracking more handy at the time of exercise. However, once you load up either the smartphone app or Basis website you suddenly have access to a selection of tracked data which few other fitness trackers can compete with. This is presented in a selection of charts, graphs and colorful patterns which all make the information very easy to access and identify patterns from. On the MyBasis website, information is broken down into My Habits, which shows progress towards reward badges, Insights, where you can check out daily breakdowns of key activity and sleep events, and Data, where you can explore all of the information collected by the Basis Peak. Within the smartphone app, this consists of a Dashboard overview, more detail on Habits, an Activity Feed, and a Chart View. While this, along with the ability to export tracked information, should be enough to keep even the most data-hungry exerciser happy, there's still the question of how usable and actionable this data is for the majority of people. On a more practical level, the Basis approach to jockeying you along is one of the most compelling we've experienced on a fitness tracker, and ideal if you don't want to dive head-first into your exercise data. You start off with a couple of basic Habits, targets for things like wearing the Basis Peak or walking a set number of steps each day. The more you complete these targets for the set number of times each week, the more points you get to add more habits – which can include things like increasing walking in a morning, getting a consistent bedtime, or running or cycling for so many minutes per day. We found this system more encouraging and engaging than those on rival devices, but it's a shame that you can only compete against yourself and there are no native social aspects to the Basis Peak. A recent update to the Basis Peak gave the device a basic selection of smartwatch-lite features, such as the ability to display information about incoming emails or SMS messages on the wrist, as well as incoming calls which can be declined without touching the phone. While this is nice to have, the implementation is not as smooth as with other fitness trackers with smartwatch aspirations. For example, while messages flashed up on the Garmin Vivosmart as the exact time as on paired phone, with the Peak there is a delay of around five seconds. This was just long enough to doubt notifications were coming through, and then reach for a phone just as it flashed up on the Peak's screen. The Basis Peak is a solid fitness tracker which gives you access to all the information you could wish for (with the exception of GPS). It's a smart-looking device which is packed with sensors and is ideal for people who want access to masses of data, and who aren't afraid to get their fingers dirty using that information. However, it's less geared to those who just want a quick overview of their activity, and it's arguably not quite as impressive as it should or could be. Seemingly basic features like a stopwatch and alarm are missing, as is a distance measurement. Equally, the insistence of doing everything automatically means users can feel like they are not in control. It feels like a series of firmware updates could easily transform the Basis Peak into one of the most impressive fitness trackers on the market, and given it has already gained notification abilities since it launched, that is a possibility. But for now buyers are getting a good fitness tracker, not the great one it could be. The Basis Peak is available for US$200 and come in black or silver options. Product page: Basis Peak

Health benefits of used coffee grounds

 

Wed, 05/13/2015 - 8:57am American Chemical Society Coffee has gone from dietary foe to friend in recent years, partly due to the revelation that it’s rich in antioxidants. Now even spent coffee-grounds are gaining attention for being chock-full of these compounds, which have potential health benefits. In the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, researchers explain how to extract antioxidants from the grounds. They then determined just how concentrated the antioxidants are. María-Paz de Peña and colleagues note that coffee—one of the most popular drinks in the world—is a rich source of a group of antioxidants called dietary phenolic compounds. Spent grounds, however, often end up in the trash. But recently, scientists have discovered that antioxidants aren’t just in the brewed coffee; they’re also in the used grounds. De Peña wanted to figure out the total phenolic content in extracts from these leftovers. The researchers used three different methods to release antioxidants from spent grounds and found high levels of phenols in the extracts—sometimes at higher levels than in brewed coffee. Thus, they have the potential to serve as additives to enhance the potential health effects of other food products, the scientists conclude. Source: American Chemical Society