Indian 'oldest man ever' says yoga, celibacy key to age

Yahoo – AFP, August 18, 2016

Indian monk Swami Sivananda (C), who claims to be 120 years old, is watched
by one of his followers while practicing yoga in Kolkata on August 2, 2016
(AFP Photo/Dibyangshu Sarkar)

Kolkata (AFP) - Looking remarkably unlined for his claimed 120 years, an Indian monk who says he is the oldest man to have ever lived puts his longevity down to no sex or spices, and daily yoga.

Hindu monk Swami Sivananda was born on August 8, 1896, according to his passport. If true, his life would have spanned three centuries, but despite his apparent age he remains strong enough to perform yoga for hours at a time.

He is now applying to Guinness World Records to verify his claim. It currently lists Japan's Jiroemon Kimura, who died in June 2013 aged 116 years and 54 days, as the oldest man to have ever lived.

Indian monk Swami Sivananda holds 

up his passport showing his date of 

birth in the house of one of his followers

 in Kolkata (AFP Photo/Dibyangshu

Sarkar)

India's passport authorities confirmed Sivananda's age from a temple register, the only record many Indians even decades younger have of their date of birth.

However it would be extremely difficult to independently verify his age.

Sivananda was featured by local media earlier this summer, with the Times of India noting he looked 50 years younger than his apparent age but taking his claims at face value.

Sivananda, from the holy city of Varanasi, grew up in extreme poverty and chose to become a monk, saying he owed his age to "yoga, discipline, and celibacy".

"I lead a simple and disciplined life. I eat very simply -- only boiled food without oil or spices, rice and boiled daal (lentil stew) with a couple of green chillies," he told AFP after a two-hour yoga session in Kolkata, the eastern Indian city where he had come for a short visit.

Standing 1.58 metres (five feet two inches) tall, Sivananda sleeps on a mat on the floor and uses a wooden slab as a pillow.

"I avoid taking milk or fruits because I think these are fancy foods. In my childhood I slept many days on an empty stomach," he said.

Sivananda said he had not previously come forward to claim the record because he did not seek publicity, but was eventually persuaded by his followers to apply.

Indian monk Swami Sivananda, who claims to be 120 years old, is applying

 to Guinness World Records to verify his claim to be oldest man to have ever lived 

(AFP Photo/Dibyangshu Sarkar)

The elderly man lost both parents before he was six and was given away by his relatives to a spiritual guru, whom he travelled with around India before settling in Varanasi.

Fit and without any medical complications, he lives independently and even travels alone on trains.

Sivananda, who was born in colonial-era India without electricity, cars or telephones, says he is not enthused by new technology and prefers being on his own.

"Earlier people were happy with fewer things. Nowadays people are unhappy, unhealthy and have become dishonest, which pains me a lot," he said.

"I just want people to be happy, healthy and peaceful."

-- This story accompanies a photo essay by Dibyangshu Sarkar --

Indian 'oldest man ever' says yoga, celibacy key to age https://t.co/fNSxPGOSA2 pic.twitter.com/z330yb2rZf

— AFP news agency (@AFP) August 23, 2016

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"Recalibration of Free Choice"–  Mar 3, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: (Old) Souls, Midpoint on 21-12-2012, Shift of Human Consciousness, Black & White vs. Color, 1 - Spirituality (Religions) shifting, Loose a Pope “soon”, 2 - Humans will change react to drama, 3 - Civilizations/Population on Earth,  4 - Alternate energy sources (Geothermal, Tidal (Paddle wheels), Wind), 5 – Financials Institutes/concepts will change (Integrity – Ethical) , 6 - News/Media/TV to change, 7 – Big Pharmaceutical company will collapse “soon”, (Keep people sick), (Integrity – Ethical)  8 – Wars will be over on Earth, Global Unity, … etc.) - (Text version)

“…  3 - Longer Life is Going to Happen, But…

Here is one that is a review. We keep bringing it up because Humans don't believe it. If you're going to start living longer, there are those who are frightened that there will be overpopulation. You've seen the way it is so far, and the geometric progression of mathematics is absolute and you cannot change it. So if you look at the population of the earth and how much it has shifted in the last two decades, it's frightening to you. What would change that progression?

The answer is simple, but requires a change in thinking. The answer is a civilization on the planet who understands a new survival scenario. Instead of a basic population who has been told to have a lot of children to enhance the race [old survival], they begin to understand the logic of a new scenario. The Akashic wisdom of the ages will start to creep in with a basic survival scenario shift. Not every single woman will look at herself and say, "The clock is ticking," but instead can say, "I have been a mother 14 times in a row. I'm going to sit this one out." It's a woman who understands that there is no loss or guilt in this, and actually feels that the new survival attribute is to keep the family small or not at all! Also, as we have said before, even those who are currently ignorant of population control will figure out what is causing babies to be born [Kryon joke].

Part of the new Africa will be education and healing, and eventually a zero population growth, just like some of the first-world nations currently have. Those who are currently tied to a spiritual doctrine will actually have that doctrine changed (watch for it) regarding Human birth. Then they will be able to make free choice that is appropriate even within the establishment of organized religion. You see, things are going to change where common sense will say, "Perhaps it would help the planet if I didn't have children or perhaps just one child." Then the obvious, "Perhaps I can exist economically better and be wiser with just one. It will help the one!" Watch for these changes. For those of you who are steeped in the tradition of the doctrines and would say that sounds outrageously impossible, I give you the new coming pope [Kryon smile]. For those of you who feel that uncontrolled procreation is inevitable, I encourage you to see statistics you haven't seen or didn't care to look at yet about what first-world countries have already accomplished on their own, without any mandates. It's already happening. That was number three.….”

Study: $90 wine tastes better than the same wine at $10

Cnet News, Posted by Stephen Shankland

In a study that could make marketing managers and salespeople rub their hands with glee, scientists have used brain-scanning technology to shed new light on the old adage, "You get what you pay for."

This graph shows the activity in the brain's pleasure center; there's more activity
with wine subjects think costs $90 a bottle (top line) than the same wine priced at $10.
The arrow shows the moment when the subjects started tasting the wine.

(Credit: CalTech, Stanford)

Researchers from the California Institute of Technology and Stanford's business school have directly seen that the sensation of pleasantness that people experience when tasting wine is linked directly to its price. And that's true even when, unbeknownst to the test subjects, it's exactly the same Cabernet Sauvignon with a dramatically different price tag.

Specifically, the researchers found that with the higher priced wines, more blood and oxygen is sent to a part of the brain called the medial orbitofrontal cortex, whose activity reflects pleasure. Brain scanning using a method called functional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI) showed evidence for the researchers' hypothesis that "changes in the price of a product can influence neural computations associated with experienced pleasantness," they said.

The study, by Hilke Plassmann, John O'Doherty, Baba Shiv, and Antonio Rangel, was published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

This chart shows that people ranked taste of a $45 wine higher
than the same wine priced at $5, and the same for a different wine marked $90 and $10.

(Credit: CalTech, Stanford)

The research, along with other studies the authors allude to, are putting a serious dent in economists' notions that experienced pleasantness of a product is based on its intrinsic qualities.

"Contrary to the basic assumptions of economics, several studies have provided behavioral evidence that marketing actions can successfully affect experienced pleasantness by manipulating nonintrinsic attributes of goods. For example, knowledge of a beer's ingredients and brand can affect reported taste quality, and the reported enjoyment of a film is influenced by expectations about its quality," the researchers said. "Even more intriguingly, changing the price at which an energy drink is purchased can influence the ability to solve puzzles."

Welcome to the 'Don't Divorce Me Club'

TOKYO, Japan (CNN) -- In the corner of a small Japanese restaurant, a dozen dark suited businessmen gathered at a large table.

A Japanese couple walk through a park
filled with cherry blossoms in Tokyo.

Smoke hovered over the dinner and beer disappeared as quickly as it was poured.

At first glance, it looked like a typical Friday night post-work scene played out all over Tokyo's taverns.

But then your eyes stop on a poster-sized sign propped up next to one of the middle-aged men.

It reads:

Three Golden Rules of Love:

• Thank you (say it without hesitation)
• I am sorry (say it without fear)
• I love you (say it without embarrassment)

All the men at the table stood up. Equally spaced out and still wearing their stiff black suits, they chanted in unison, "I can't win! I won't win! I don't want to win!"

The chant was followed by a deep bow, a straightening of the backs, big smiles and a burst of applause. The meeting of the "National Chauvinistic Husbands Association" was underway.

If you're confused at this point, don't fret. The group is called the National Chauvinistic Husbands Association because it's a club for bossy husbands who need help (a little lost in translation effect here).

So the title is appropriate for this group of men. In an abrupt about face from traditional Japanese relationships, the men are learning how to give their wives more respect.

More poster signs surrounded the men at the meeting:

Three Golden Rules of Renewing Family:

• Let's Listen
• Let's Write
• Let's Talk

Three Golden Rules for Extramarital Affairs:

• I don't do it
• I am not doing it
• I am not even thinking about it

And there's even a system of ranking your husbandry in the club:

Rank 1: Love your wife after three years of marriage
Rank 2: Help with the household work
Rank 3: No extramarital affairs, or at least keep it a secret from her
Rank 4: Ladies first
Rank 5: Hold hands with your wife in public
Rank 6: Listen to what your wife has to say carefully and seriously
Rank 7: Solve issues between your wife and your mother
Rank 8: Say thank you without hesitation
Rank 9: Say I'm sorry without fear
Rank 10: Say I love you without embarrassment

The meeting was jovial and there was laughter at times. But the undercurrent was serious and taken to heart by the 4,700 members of this Japanese club.

They're all acutely aware of a new law in Japan this year that entitles a wife filing for divorce to claim half her husband's company pension.

That change led to a spike in divorces in the country, as some Japanese women, tired of their long-absent salarymen, decided they're better off on their own.

But these men say they don't want to be alone so they'll change for their wives.

As the men talked in their support-group setting, you quickly became aware of how rare it is to see men, especially businessmen, so emotionally intimate.

One man confessed his typical Japanese workday (spanning 16 hours at times) was making his wife angry. The group leader warned he's on the highway to divorce and he needs to put his wife before work.

Another man said he's too Japanese and can't seem to put his wife first. The group leader warned he's too old-fashioned.

Another man, married 22 years, shared the fear that he'll be alone in old age because his wife complains about his snoring. Heads around the table nodded up and down in sympathy.

I couldn't help but ask, "As an American, it seems so easy to hold hands or say 'I love you.' What's so hard about your rules or rankings?"

The group leader looked at me and said what's hard about the seemingly simple rules is following them fully and changing your behavior. He said it's easy saying it or doing it, but changing who you are and really believing it is quite another.

He also pointed out to me that the divorce rate in America is over 50 percent. In Japan, the rate is still below 10 percent. Maybe, he suggested, some of the ways the Japanese approach love and marriage isn't so strange after all.

After the meeting, we followed a young man named Yohei Takayama home. He'd just been promoted to "Rank 4."

He admitted that "Rank 5," holding hands with his wife in public, was not going to be natural or easy. He and his wife have been married for two years. His wife said he's been a member of the club for a year and a half and it's changed their relationship dramatically.

Namely, she said, he helps more around the house, listens to her more, and understands she also has a career that exhausts her. What they're growing into, she said, is a partnership. They went grocery shopping, and I noticed he carried the bags and helped her decide what to buy.

As they left the store to go home, he took her hand in his. It didn't look like the most natural thing in the world for him, but he was trying. His wife smiled as they walked home.

Sex lessons for 'cranky' miners

BBC News

Australian coal miners are being given lessons in foreplay and the menopause in an attempt to boost productivity.

Managers at the Bulga pit, north of Sydney, say the so-called toolbox talks help workers to understand their wives, making them happier and healthier.

Mining firm Xstrata says the scheme has been so successful that it wants to extend it to other pits.

The briefings are on a different topic each month and have included advice on fatigue, nutrition and heart disease.

'Extremely attentive'

Company bosses say giving their predominantly male employees lessons on the menopause and foreplay gives them a healthy sex life, which in turn makes them happy, productive workers.

"We have to look at the lifestyles of our employees, making sure they are fit and healthy at work, but also fit, healthy and happy at home," Xstrata spokesman James Rickards told Reuters.

Course co-ordinator

"Sex is an important part of any relationship, and it's important to address sex for an individual that is going through menopause."

Course co-ordinator Tammy Farrell, from Core Health Consulting, told the BBC that she was trying to promote communication and make the miners more aware of their health.

She added that the miners were taking the classes seriously and sharing their own experiences.

"If one man is game enough to put up their hand, you'll slowly notice three or four nods in the room," she said.

"If we can get two people out of all that who can change their lives, then that's fantastic."

Earlier, she told the Sydney Morning Herald that the miners had been "extremely attentive" when she advised them to "start exploring their wives like they did when they were 18".

"They snapped up all the flyers after the talk so we've obviously got some cranky men with cranky wives out there who want some help," she told the paper.

Other classes have covered nutrition, heart disease, prostate cancer and fatigue management.

One in four Americans happy to skip love

Wed Oct 24, 2007 5:20pm EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) - Rather than looking for their perfect match, one in four Americans say the Internet can serve as a substitute for a significant other, according to a poll released on Wednesday.

A survey on the role the Internet plays in people's lives by Zogby International and communications consultancy 463 Communications found that 24 percent of Americans said the Internet could replace a partner for some period of time.

The percentage was highest among singles of whom 31 percent said the Internet could be a substitute -- with no difference among males and females.

Read whole story ....

Key to a good marriage? Share housework.

By DAVID CRARY, AP National Writer, Sun Jul 1, 6:54 AM ET

The percentage of Americans who consider children "very important" to a successful marriage has dropped sharply since 1990, and more now cite the sharing of household chores as pivotal, according to a sweeping new survey.

The Pew Research Center survey on marriage and parenting found that children had fallen to eighth out of nine on a list of factors that people associate with successful marriages — well behind "sharing household chores," "good housing," "adequate income," a "happy sexual relationship" and "faithfulness."

In a 1990 World Values Survey, children ranked third in importance among the same items, with 65 percent saying children were very important to a good marriage. Just 41 percent said so in the new Pew survey.

Chore-sharing was cited as very important by 62 percent of respondents, up from 47 percent in 1990.

The survey also found that, by a margin of nearly 3-to-1, Americans say the main purpose of marriage is the "mutual happiness and fulfillment" of adults rather than the "bearing and raising of children."

The survey's findings buttress concerns expressed by numerous scholars and family-policy experts, among them Barbara Dafoe Whitehead of Rutgers University's National Marriage Project.

"The popular culture is increasingly oriented to fulfilling the X-rated fantasies and desires of adults," she wrote in a recent report. "Child-rearing values — sacrifice, stability, dependability, maturity — seem stale and musty by comparison."

Virginia Rutter, a sociology professor at Framingham (Mass.) State College and board member of the Council on Contemporary Families, said the shifting views may be linked in part to America's relative lack of family-friendly workplace policies such as paid leave and subsidized child care.

"If we value families ... we need to change the circumstances they live in," she said, citing the challenges faced by young, two-earner couples as they ponder having children.

The Pew survey was conducted by telephone from mid-February through mid-March among a random, nationwide sample of 2,020 adults. Its margin of error is 3 percentage points.

Among the scores of questions in the survey, many touched on America's high rate of out-of-wedlock births and of cohabitation outside of marriage. The survey noted that 37 percent of U.S. births in 2005 were to unmarried women, up from 5 percent in 1960, and found that nearly half of all adults in their 30s and 40s had lived with a partner outside of marriage.

According to the survey, 71 percent of Americans say the growth in births to unwed mothers is a "big problem." About the same proportion — 69 percent — said a child needs both a mother and a father to grow up happily.

Breaking down the responses, the survey found some predictable patterns — Republicans and older people were more likely to give conservative answers that Democrats and younger adults. But the patterns in regard to race and ethnicity were more complex.

For example, census statistics show that blacks and Hispanic are more likely than whites to bear children out of wedlock. Yet according to the survey, these minority groups are more inclined than whites to place a high value on the importance of children to a successful marriage.

The survey found that more than 80 percent of white adults have been married, compared with about 70 percent of Hispanics and 54 percent of blacks. Yet blacks were more likely than whites and Hispanics to say that premarital sex is always or almost always morally wrong.

Among those who have ever been married, blacks (38 percent) and whites (34 percent) were more likely than Hispanics (23 percent) to have been divorced.

Delving into one of the nation's most divisive social issues, the survey found that 57 percent of public opposes allowing gays and lesbians to marry. However, opinion was almost evenly divided on support for civil unions that would give same-sex couples many of the same rights as married couples.

Asked about the trend of more same-sex couples raising children, 50 percent said this is bad for society, 11 percent said it is good, and 34 percent said it made little difference.