Life Style

    Earthquakes, as with most natural disasters, have this uncanny ability to strike when you are most vulnerable and unprepared. It is not uncommon to see images of people running out of a building during a tremor, and it is a reason for many fatalities that could have been avoided. Here are some of the key elements to keep in mind for earthquake preparedness: Before an earthquake strikes, especially if you live in an earthquake zone: — Have a plan for yourself, family, neighbourhood, organisation, etc. — Assess your area (home, workplace, etc) Find a safe place that can provide shelter during an earthquake. The space can either permit you to crawl under it and take cover, or it can be the intersection of two sturdy walls (column). Fix items firmly that could come undone dur...

    The billionaire founder of Facebook has revealed plans to build a domestic robot capable of babysitting his infant daughter. Mark Zuckerberg wants to build a "simple artificial intelligence to run my home" by the end of the year. He announced this ambitious scheme in his annual New Year's Resolution Facebook post. Zuck said his "personal challenge" for the year would be to design a robot which can perform basic childcare and other tasks around the house. "I'll start teaching it to understand my voice to control everything in our home - music, lights, temperature and so on," he wrote. "I'll teach it to let friends in by looking at their faces when they ring the doorbell. "I'll teach it to let me know if anything is going on in Max's room that I need to check on when I'm not...

    From conveniently forgetting to take out the rubbish to disappearing when the washing up needs to be done, a household is a ripe setting from bringing out your partner’s most irritating habits. And figures suggest that infuriating niggles are the downfall for many marriages. Law firm JMW Solicitors, which deals with just over 300 divorces each year, has revealed that one in ten cases are linked to a partner’s habits. Such irritants included patronising attitudes, treating a spouse like a child and becoming lax with personal hygiene, The Telegraph reported. Other cases involved complainants accusing their partner of prioritising a pet’s needs over their own. But the firm believes that partners are often put off from citing their spouse’s difficult behaviour – including porn...

Choices The toughest decision you'll need to make is getting the right plant. The aptly named creepers have no sense of privacy and I don't advise getting one. Tubers show signs of growth underground, and are uninteresting without a see-through container. If you have pet birds, I suggest killing two with one stone by planting bird seeds. You don't have to buy bird seeds in the future if you cultivate it and you get to keep both pets. Money plants are a popular catch these days on the false premise it will bring you money. Cacti are trendy desktop buddies that have large watering cycles, but are very aggressive towards foreigners. Why can't the cactus be more socially and racially accepting? Fruits and vegetables take a lot of space and wouldn't be classified as pets but more of what cows a...

    With the rise of online symptom-checkers, it can sometimes be tricky to know when an unexpected condition warrants a trip to A&E. In response to the problem, Reddit users on the AskReddit area of the website were invited to flag symptoms which require immediate hospital treatment. Both doctors and patients shared their advice and personal experiences on the thread. We have sifted through the most popular comments to see whether the advice stands. Such behaviour could be a sign of a stroke: when the blood supply is cut to part of the brain. This condition requires immediate medical attention. In order to raise awarenss of the signs of a stroke the NHS advises members of the public to remember the acronym FAST: Face-Arms-Speech-Time. Face – the face may have dropped on o...

    I've already posted most of the advice below but scattered among five or six posts. I thought it would be useful to collect all of my happiness and success rules in a single place. Enjoy! 1. Assume people have good intentions. Since you can't read minds, you don't really know the "why" behind the "what" that people do. Imputing evil motives to other people's weird behaviours adds extra misery to life, while assuming good intentions leaves you open to reconciliation. 2. Avoid using negative words. Stop using negative phrases...such as "I can't," "It's impossible," or "This won't work." Stop using profanity, too. What comes out of your mouth programs your mind. When you talk trash, you're transforming your brain into trash. 3. Avoid spending time with stressed-out people...

    The world's most powerful cities ranked. There's fierce competition among the world's most powerful and influential cities, and there are a lot of questions: Are the megacities cropping up in the developing world displacing the western world's hubs? Does London or New York come out on top? Click through to see which cities come out on top. CityLab and the the Martin Prosperity Institute have teamed up to compile a ranking of the 25 most economically powerful cities in the world today. They've based it on four major factors: Overall economic clout, equity and quality of life, financial power and global competitiveness. There are some surprising cities pretty high up on in the ranks, and you can check where they all sat three years ago when the list was last made. Some have ...

    Time flies! And winter is here; wasn't it just the other day I was writing on winter skin issues? Here I go again… During this season both skin and hair need a fair bit of attention. Quite honestly for most of us having oily or combination skin, winter is gentler than most other seasons. The heat and humidity in summer lead to breakouts of pimples and acne; winter ushers in a relative relief from these woes. However, it is still important to keep your pores unclogged and breathing at all times. Twice a day, clean your skin using gel cleansers or neem soap. Lather in a circular motion to remove excess oil and dirt. The natural oil in the skin attracts dust from the surroundings and if left to settle on the surface of the skin, will create irritation and blockage leading to ...

    German Chancellor Angela Merkel is the most powerful woman in the world. Business Insider recently released a ranking of the 50 most powerful people in the world — the men and women who command the most influence and authority right now. We looked at more than 100 of the top leaders in business, politics, entertainment, and tech. We evaluated their influence based on metrics in four major areas: economic power, command, newsworthiness, and impact — a subjective measure that captures how important they are in their respective spheres. To spotlight the women who are breaking barriers and transforming industries, countries, and companies, we broke out a separate list of the world's most powerful women, including the nine women who made our top 50 as well as several near misse...