Jet lagged after your latest long distance flight? Read on...

A study being conducted about people who suffer Jet Lag is seeking volunteers so that effective ways and means of combating jet lag can be discovered. As a token of appreciation participating volunteers will receive Free Instruction in a Rapid Jet Lag Prevention Method.

Before deciding about participating or volunteering Jet lag sufferers can take an online survey is aimed at assessing the effectiveness of a new way of combating jet lag. Interested volunteers should read a brief booklet to participate. Apart from reading this booklet there is nothing else that a volunteer needs to do, no taking of drugs or mechanisms or schedule changes are suggested.

Preliminary research by Dr. Patricia Carrington, Ph.D., Associate Clinical Professor at UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in Piscataway, NJ (USA) has revealed that by using a modern version of the ancient Chinese art of acupressure, one can drastically cut down jet lag, sometimes it can be elimiated too.

Daimon Sweeney who studied Chinese acupressure and evolved this method comments: "Individual travelers who have used this method are very pleased with how rapidly and easily they adapt to time zone changes, sometimes with no jet lag symptoms at all."

According to Sweeney the method works, very well and requires only small adjustments in the user's 'personal time zone settings' during the flight, so by the time a flier lands they are in tune with local time at the destination.

Dr. Carrington believes that evolution of a reliable non-drug method to relieve jet lag would benefit travel professionals, vacationers, business travelers, flight crews, military personnel, athletes, performers and others who cross multiple time zones frequently. And since this procedure is short and can be performed inflight. Moreover it takes only a few minutes of reading to prepare for the flight it would be easy.

Individuals who experience jet lag and would like to be part of this study are invited to get more information and take a short qualifying survey at http://www.MasteringEFT.com.

So if you are one of those who end up feeling miserable after a long flight, just log on and take the survey. You never know what benefits might accrue due to this investment of few minutes of your time.

A Website full of Travel Videos

Are you the kind of a discerning traveller who does loads of research before embarking on a holiday? Do you study brochures and books, view videos, ask friends before deciding on your holiday destination? Well if you are one such traveller, here is a website catered to your specific needs.

Welcome to http://www.travercial.com/, a unique travel website which brings together the best streaming travel videos from all over the internet onto one platform. Currently the site has videos of destinations from 80 different countries, from Antarctica to Wales and covering all seven continents.

The site doesn't limit itself in just compiling videos but goes a step further, it features a well researched Top-10 list of destinations in a particular country. The "Editor's Pick" section gives the flavor of the country. Web browsers can scroll across the panel to view the different videos available on the site. Videos feature cities, activities, natural beauty, and even eccentric activities available.

The "Real People" video streams at the end of the list are personal videos from travellers like yoiu and me. The site also features provides to national tourism websites of different countries. In addition to the 80 detailed countries, additional countries are covered by selected videos in the "Other Countries" pages for each continent. This section features 60 countries, thus the site total adds up to 140 countries. Just imagine videos detailing the various destinations of 140 countries. You can choose the country and the region inside to watch the video and then decide whether you want to go there or elsewhere. Promoted by Baraness Ventures, Travercial features over 2,500 travel videos.

Check out the site and the videos there on here.

You can also read one of the book reviews I wrote recently about Eleven Minutes

Views of Austin and surroundings

I have covered more or less my experiences at Austin, the capital city of Texas in my previous post when I wrote about attending the 'Empowering Women Entrepreneurs' conference. Here are some pictures I took during my short stay at Austin.



The Capitol building where the senators and governors of state of Texas do their business of legislation, audit, expenses, taxation etc. This is one huge building with a 60 ft 4 level basement. The interiors are exceptionally modern and expansive. The wooden door frames and window frames of the building have a striking Indian art influence. I wonder why. I mean the frames have a three level round fresco, much akin to the Kalasha which is installed atop most Hindu temples.

We took part in a tour (free) of the building and I made it a point to the guide about the door frames and wood work. Unfortunately he wasn't aware of the same and said he could give me the name of the architect who designed the building. But by the end of the tour I forgot to follow him and get the name so I have to do some more research on google and find out the origin of the design.

Later in the evening we visited the The Oasis restaurant to meet Catherine and her family. The restaurant designed to give it a wild west look has several interesting metal sculptures installed in its courtyard. The vast and beautiful Lake Travis on whose banks the restaurant has been built is actually a dam built across river Colorado. Here are some views of the sculptures and the Dam or the Lake Travis whatever you prefer to call it.

Lake Travis Views
Visiting the Texas Military Forces Museum

A new eco-friendly holiday resort

How would you like to live in a tree house sited contiguous to a turtle sanctuary and participate in hands-on community living. This is what the Playa Viva offers for discerning tourists who are particular about sustainability and conscious about the food they eat, the cars they drive, and the clothes they wear.

Playa Viva is one of the latest resort and residence community to be promoted on the Pacific Coast of Mexico. The community offers western families the opportunity to continue their purpose-driven lifestyles while away from home, without sacrificing comfort or style. These eco-friendly and environmentally sustainable vacations are aimed at providing a mind and body rejuvenative experience, while simultaneously regenerating the land.

"Every day we make choices about how we live our lives, raise our children, and better connect with the world around us, and travel should be no different. Sustainability principles and features at Playa Viva help create long-lasting connections to family, friends, and the environment that enrich our lives," says David Leventhal, founder of the project who along with his wife Sandra Kahn was instrumental in promoting Rainforest2Reef, a preserve in Mexico's Yucatan peninsula protecting over 350,000 acres of jaguar habitat.

Playa Viva is sited on 200 acres of ocean-front property on the Pacific Coast of Mexico and a mere 30 minutes drive from the Zihuatanejo/Ixtapa International Airport.

By being near the airport, the environment of Playa Viva doesn't look one bit commercial. In fact the landscape, once a coastal forest was cleared to make way for coconut plantations. But now the plantation has been abandoned and the land rapidly regenerating into a forest. The Playa Viva community's efforts in bringing seeds from local native forests and over 7,000 trees have been planted to speed up restoration work. The existing palm trees are being relocated to the beach to stabilize dunes and serve as living piers for the project's casitas or tree house suites. The Playa Viva is one resort where over 80 percent of land has been protected, and only 20 percent developed to house resort accommodations and facilities. All aspects of Playa Viva's operations are designed to be low-impact and restorative to the land and natural systems.

Activities at Playa Viva range from releasing turtles into the ocean to planting trees to playing in the waves. For further information visit the company website http://www.playaviva.com/.

Pictures from the resort website

One more biker rides into oblivion

I recently read about the death of 69-year-old Robert Craig aka Evel Knievel, a daredevil Motorcyclist in New York Times. It is sad to hear of the death of a dare devil biker as Knievel. According to the newsreport his last days were marked by suffering as he ailed from pulmonary fibrosis, an incurable lung condition.


It is said that bikers don't die, they just ride into oblivion. This is exactly what happened to Knievel.

Knievel's first brush with fame was on December 31, 1971 when he vaulted his bike 151 ft over the fountains of Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. Though the vault was glorious, his landing was not so glamourous, he crashed and broke several bones in his body. But the accident didn't deter him, he vroomed on performing one death-defying stunt after another and garnered fame and fortune.

Every performance of his would attract thousands of bike enthusiasts who would virtually worship him as their hero. His popular stunts included flying over 10, 15 or 20 cars parked side by side. Another disastrous jump undertaken by Knievel was an attempt to jump across an Idaho canyon on a rocket-powered motorcyle in 1974.


Performing stunts hundreds of times, Knievel's actions were self destructive. He broke his bones several times and crashed his bikes. He retired in 1980 on advise by medical specialists. As he retired his famous quote about himself was that he was “nothing but scar tissue and surgical steel.”

Knievel was born in a small town and started his career as a petty thief stealing motorcycles and hub caps of cars. But transformed himself after a few jail terms and following his idol Joie Chitwood, an acclaimed stunt-car driver, he began performing dangerous motorcycle stunts.

Knievel has undergone over 15 major operations to relieve severe trauma and repair broken bones. Bone all over his body were broken from the skull to pelvis to ribs, collarbone, shoulders and hips. He had a titanium hip and aluminum plates in his arms and a great many pins holding other bones and joints together. He was in so many accidents that he occasionally broke some of his metal parts, too.

Bikers, especially those who find thrill in racing and performing dare devil stunts need to read more about Knievel and learn a lesson or two so that they will not repeat his mistakes and end up with a skeleton held together by nuts and bolts.


Pictures from NYT, The Age and EvelKnievel.com