Keen

Practicing tai chi helps older people improve their balance and avoid falls, a review of studies has found. Tai chi is a form of Chinese martial arts now practiced as exercise. It involves a specific program of graceful movements, accompanied by deep breathing and mental focus, that slowly move the center of balance from one leg to the other. Researchers found 10 randomized trials analyzing the effect of tai chi on the incidence of falls or the time until an elderly person first has a fall. All studies compared tai chi to usual care or other treatments like physical therapy, stretching or exercise. The analysis, in the Journal of the American Geriatric Society, found that tai chi reduced the incidence of falls by 43 percent in those followed for less than a year and by 13 percent in those followed longer. There was no effect of tai chi on time to first fall, and there was some weak evidence that the practice reduced the number of falls that resulted in injury. Falls are a le...

In this "green car" competition, the Smart Electric Drive has two big things going for it. The first big thing is that it's all electric. The second big thing is that, actually, it's really little. That makes it easy on energy. The Smart ED gets an amazing 107 MPGe, or Miles Per Gallon Equivalent. That's a measure of how efficiently a car uses power from any source other than gasoline. By comparison, a Tesla Model S, a much bigger, roomier car, gets 89 MPGe. The American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy recently put out its annual list of the "Greenest Cars" and the Smart ED was named number one. The list is based on fuel efficiency and emissions and, yes, the group does admit that, if you live in an area where your electricity comes from coal-powered plants, driving an electric car like this might not be the best thing you could do for the planet. By the way, you won't find the Tesla Mode S in this gallery. Due to its size, which the...

Smile for your MasterCard authentication selfie! MasterCard wants to ditch the old-fashioned password and use selfies to approve online purchases. The company announced it is launching new mobile technologies that will allow customers to authenticate their online purchases using selfies or fingerprints. The technology will be rolled out by big banks in the U.S., Canada, the U.K. and some European countries over the next few months. People from around the world will be regularly using this authentication technology within five years, said Ajay Bhalla, president of enterprise security solutions at MasterCard (MA). Bhalla said that using facial and fingerprint scans for purchases is safer than typed passwords since many customers foolishly use easy-to-guess codes. Customers who want to try selfie authentication will have to download a special MasterCard app that will allow them to take a photo each time they make an online purchase. Their face (or fingerprint)...

Once a group of 50 people was attending a seminar. Suddenly the speaker stopped and started giving each person a balloon. Each one was asked to write his/her name on it using a marker pen. Then all the balloons were collected and put in another room. Now these delegates were let in that room and asked to find the balloon which had their name written, within 5 minutes. Everyone was frantically searching for their name, pushing, colliding with each other, and there was utter chaos. At the end of 5 minutes, no one could find their own balloon. Now each one was asked to randomly collect a balloon and give it to the person whose name was written on it. Within minutes everyone had their own balloon. The speaker began: This is exactly happening in our lives. Everyone is frantically looking for happiness all around, not knowing where it is. Our happiness lies in the happiness of other people. Give them their happiness, you will get your own happiness. And this is the purpos...