The Good Will Times: April 2013

Sunday, April 28, 2013

LIFESTYLE AND NEWS - New cycle tracks in Dubai: RTA planning cycling routes for 11 neighbourhoods - UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

Dh40 million project to be completed by 2016

Dubai: Cycling enthusiasts in Dubai are in for a treat as projects to build new tracks across 11 locations in the city have been launched, the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) has announced.

The announcement from RTA comes close on the heels of opening a 75-km long Dubai Cycling Course in Seih Assalam, part of a cycling master plan that includes a 25km track in Jumeirah as well as smaller tracks near Mall of the Emirates, Al Mamzar Park and Al Mizhar Park.

Apart from these tracks, RTA is currently constructing a 4.5-km-long track in the central district of Bur Dubai, and has completed the designs of four tracks linking Jumeirah Road with four Metro stations on Shaikh Zayed Road. Additionally, the authority has completed the construction of 1,400 bike racks around all Metro stations.

Following the successful implementation of the first phase of the cycling master plan, RTA has now approved construction of cycling tracks in 11 residential areas stretching 52km at a cost of Dh40 million.

“The construction of the cycling tracks is part of a master plan developed by RTA to provide dedicated cycling spaces across the entire Dubai emirate in a bid to encourage the use of bikes as an environment-friendly transit means, as well as for the benefit of cycling enthusiasts,” said Mattar Al Tayer, Chairman of the Board and Executive Director of RTA.

Work on the new cycling tracks will begin this year and will be completed by 2016.

Residential areas like Al Barsha, Al Khawaneej, Al Warqa, Al Quoz, Al Safouh Road, Al Mamzar Park, Mushrif Park, Hor Al Anz East, and Mirdif, have been selected for the project.

Al Tayer said the areas were selected based on various parameters including their popularity with tourists and their aesthetic nature. The areas are also frequented by cyclists and serve the Metro and public transport stations.

“The design of the tracks has been tailored to ensure the security and safety of bikers and the locations have been selected keeping in mind the convenience of residents and visitors to the areas, suitability of the site, traffic safety, and the appeal to pedestrians,” added Al Tayer.

Al Tayer said that since 2008 RTA has developed a Cycling Master Plan that included charting routes for bikes within the rights-of-way as well as separate lanes.

The Plan detailed the specifications and standards of separating cycling tracks from pedestrian pathways, and addressed the intersection points with cycling tracks, provision of biking racks in general and at the public transport stations in particular, cycling lanes in entertainment areas, materials to be used in the construction of cycling tracks, and signage for bikes and tracks.

So far the biggest of the cycling projects constructed by the RTA has been the 75-km-long Dubai Cycling Course. The first part of this course stretching 18km alongside Al Qudra Road North was opened in January. The second part of the course, which was opened in March, stretches about 49km, starting from the front of Bab Al Shams Hotel up to Al Qudra Road roundabout, then turns southward alongside the road leading to Seih Assalam.

The course includes public utilities and shops for hiring bikes, gear and accessories in addition to a medical clinic.

TRAVEL AND RELAX - Grand stretch in the evening - IRELAND

Campfires are the only light around, and the pounding sound is the Pacific surf breaking on the shore. This is literally the end of the road

Yoga by the seashore in Costa Rica. Photograph: Getty

On the first evening, I wear hiking boots to dinner. It gets dark soon after six this close to the equator and the path from the main house to the kitchen isn’t lit. I’m carrying my torch and watching out for snakes. Apparently they like to snooze in the leaves around the trunks of trees. The fer-de-lance is the most dangerous: if you don’t get anti-venom quickly you won’t die, but you might lose a leg . . . Unknown creatures scurry into the undergrowth as I pass by, but I make it safely. And then feel pretty silly: everyone else gathered around the big communal table is in flip-flops, or barefoot.

The Yoga Farm is on the edge of the forest in the far south of Costa Rica, a full day’s journey from the capital San José. The bus from Golfito takes three hours to cover the last 60 kilometres, most of it unpaved. Narrow wooden bridges cross rivers, full, we’re told, of crocodiles. It arrives just after sunset. Campfires are the only light around, and the pounding sound is the Pacific surf breaking on the shore. This is literally the end of the road. It’s another 40 kilometres or so to Panama, but you would need a horse or a boat to get there.

When the old American school bus stops, the last remaining passengers – Guaymi Indians in colourful clothes, who are among the last of Costa Rica’s surviving indigenous tribes – melt into the forest with their bundles. For visitors to the yoga farm it’s a steep 15-minute climb up a dirt track with a backpack and a torch.

In the rainy season, parts of it are regularly washed away. Christy, who runs The Yoga Farm with her partner Patrick, says everyone has a similar look on their face when they finally make it, what she calls their “what the hell am I doing here face.”

The Celeste Waterfalls in Costa Rica (Catarata Celeste).

The Yoga Farm is an intentional community, dedicated to a yogic lifestyle in harmony with the environment, but its message is gentle and gradual. Every day our teacher Dana sets an intention for our practice – gratitude, care for others, care for the earth. Class is on a beautiful wooden deck with a view of the sea. Food is mainly vegan/vegetarian and alcohol in moderation is fine, away from the main house. The people here are a mix of volunteers and guests, mainly Americans and Canadians, but with a smattering of Europeans. Once a week Christy teaches yoga in Spanish for the local community.

SCIENCE AND HEALTH - Forced exercise can reduce anxiety and depression - INDIA / USA

WASHINGTON: Being forced to exercise can reduce anxiety and depression just as much as voluntary exercise does, according to new research.

Past studies have shown that people who exercise are more protected against stress-related disorders. And scientists know that the perception of control can benefit a person's mental health.

However, it has been an open question whether a person who feels forced to exercise, eliminating the perception of control, would still reap the anxiety-fighting benefits of the exercise.

People who may feel forced to exercise could include high school, college and professional athletes, members of the military or those who have been prescribed an exercise regimen by their doctors, said Benjamin Greenwood, an assistant research professor in the University of Colorado Boulder's Department of Integrative Physiology.

"If exercise is forced, will it still produce mental health benefits? It's obvious that forced exercise will still produce peripheral physiological benefits. But will it produce benefits to anxiety and depression?" Greenwood said.

To seek an answer to the question Greenwood and his colleagues, including Monika Fleshner, a professor in the same department, designed a lab experiment using rats. During a six-week period, some rats remained sedentary, while others exercised by running on a wheel.

The rats that exercised were divided into two groups that ran a roughly equal amount of time. One group ran whenever it chose to, while the other group ran on mechanised wheels that rotated according to a predetermined schedule.

For the study, the motorised wheels turned on at speeds and for periods of time that mimicked the average pattern of exercise chosen by the rats that voluntarily exercised.

After six weeks, the rats were exposed to a laboratory stressor before testing their anxiety levels the following day.

The anxiety was quantified by measuring how long the rats froze, a phenomenon similar to a deer in the headlights, when they were put in an environment they had been conditioned to fear.

The longer the freezing time, the greater the residual anxiety from being stressed the previous day. For comparison, some rats were also tested for anxiety without being stressed the day before.

"Regardless of whether the rats chose to run or were forced to run they were protected against stress and anxiety," said Greenwood, lead author of the study appearing in the European Journal of Neuroscience.

The sedentary rats froze for longer periods of time than any of the active rats.

"The implications are that humans who perceive exercise as being forced - perhaps including those who feel like they have to exercise for health reasons - are maybe still going to get the benefits in terms of reducing anxiety and depression," he said.

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

APRIL 15TH - NEXT "WORLD GOOD THINKING DAY" - SHARE AND ENJOY!

THIS MONDAY APRIL 15TH IS THE NEW AND NEXT “GOOD THINKING DAY”

ONCE AGAIN WE ENCOURAGE ALL THE PEOPLE ALL OVER THE WORLD TO SPEND FIVE MINUTES OF THAT DA, THINKING OR MEDITATIING ABOUT SOMETHING GOOD FOR YOURSELF, FOR THE HUMANITY AND / OR TO THE WORLD. POSITIVNESS !!!

TO AVOID THE MESSAGES GIVEN BY TV, MAGAZINES AND AL MEDIA NEWS, WE WILL THINK ABOUT A POSITIVE THING TO SHARE WITH THE ENTIRE WORLD.

IT CAN BE JUST MEDITATING , THINKING POSITEIVELY, WHISHING GODNESS TO YOU, TO YOU CLOSER PEOPLE, AND EVERYTHING YOU WOULD LIKE TO.

A MESSAGE OF PECE NOT FOR THE WORLD, BUT PEACE THAT IS LOCATED INSIDE OUR BODY AND OUR SOULS, JOINING FORECES TO MAKE OURSELVES BETTER AND TOGETHER GENERATE A WORLD WIDE GOOD THINKING DAY, IN ORDER TO SHOW AND DEMOSTRATWE THAT WE ARE READY TO ENJOY THE LIFE AS IT IS GIVEN TO US AND WILL BE GRATFULL FOR THE LIFE WE WERE GIVEN

REMEMBER JUST FIVE MINUTES, YOUR FIVE MINUTES TO BE CONCIOUS THAT WE ARE HERE, AND WE ARE ALL FOR ONE REASON, LIVE IN PEACE WITH OURSELVES, ENJOY EACH AND SINGLE MINUTE OF OUR LIVES AND WISH THE BEST TO EVERY SINGLE HUMAN AND NOT HUMAN LIVING CREATURE OF THIS PLANET

ENJOY! JOIN! SHARTE!

THE GOOD WILL TIMES