A cloudy day at Bellary Fort

Situated 300 km from Bangalore is the spectacular and historic Bellary Fort, which sits atop Ballari Gudda, otherwise known as the Fort Hill. During the Vijayanagara era this fort was built by Hanumappa Nayaka. In 1769, Hyder Ali of Mysore stormed the fort and occupied it.  The fort was then renovated by a French engineer who, according to legend, was executed because he miscalculated its height, making it visible from a hill called Kumbara Gudda, and thus compromised its military location. The French engineer's grave can still be found at the east gate of the fort. The Bellary Fort is home to an Upper Fort or Fort Hill (constructed by Nayak) and a Lower Fort or Face Hill (constructed by Ali), symbolizing the two rulers. The only way to get to the Upper Fort is to navigate a rocky, winding path over boulders. This polygonal walled site has no garrison room.  On the other hand, the lower fort is easily accessible from two gates from the western and eastern sides respectively.  A Hanuman temple, the Kote Anjaneya Temple, is located at the eastern side of the fort. The lower fort housed barracks and arsenals.  The British added their own structures in the Lower Fort including stores, a post office, a church, an orphanage and private homes. Today, one can find a number of public buildings and other institutions.

 

    

  

   

  

How Eating Less Can Change Your Life

Have you ever wondered about the advantages of eating less beyond the realm of losing weight?

Yes, eating lesser can change your life in many ways besides making you look better. This includes:

Eat Less to Remain Younger

Dietary choices that include less calorie intake are beneficial for our hormones. This is particularly applicable to easting less of fried and cholesterol-laden foods that tend to impact the sexual and reproductive hormones. Many of these hormones are responsible for providing us vigor and vitality, enhancing our youthful appearance. With lesser energy resources directed towards digesting food and removing toxins, the cells have more time to carry-out essential repair work. This means the skin can be protected against aging caused by free radicals. This also works towards faster regeneration of new, tighter tissues and slower aging of the skin. Thus, by eating less you have a greater chance towards looking younger for a longer time.

Counterpoint: Eat more to gain less

Eat Less to Become More Energetic

Eating lesser food means that your body is supplied with limited calorie intake. The body needs to carefully process every bit of morsel that you consume. The digestion is directed at maximizing nutrient absorption and minimal storage of unwanted calories as fat. Thus, along with lesser fat deposition, your entire metabolic rate is raised. This is reflected in your quality of daily life. You are bound to feel more energetic throughout the day, be more alert, able to think clearer and have a renewed zeal towards completing the day’s chores.

Eat Less to Become Smarter

Medical researchers across the world have repeatedly proven a direct relation between eating lesser and improving the brain’s performance. This includes the cognitive abilities and overall IQ. In fact,limited dietary intake to sharpen the mind has been practiced in many cultures that existed thousands of years ago. This concept still holds true. It has been established that eating smaller portions and at regular intervals rather than having heavy meals is more likely to raise your ability to learn and memorize with ease.

Slideshow: How Indian spices contribute to a healthy life

Eat Less to Stay Disease-free

You might not realize this but a lot of diseases are the result of inflammations within the body. This means they are caused without an external cause like an infection. This happens when the body is unable to get rid of the toxins found in food. This kind of toxin retention is more likely to happen when we eat more. The digestive system functions like a systematic process that includes passage of food through the gastrointestinal tract and participation of many organs. When this system is stressed, the movement of digested food is fastened. This doesn’t allow the body to properly filter-out the toxins. This is how toxins are released back into the bloodstream, inducing diseases. This is adirect threat to our body’s immune power and makes us more susceptible to developing diseases without any discernible cause.

Eat Less to Become a Progressive Citizen

From a lifestyle perspective, eating less has innumerable advantages. Firstly, by eating lesser you are essentially making daily savings. Just think about the amount of money you spend upon eating outdoors and the rising cost of daily foods, including common vegetables and fruits. Secondly, eating less means you are directly contributing towards reducing your carbon footprints. This refers to your green quotient or how eco-friendly you are. By eating lesser, you are reducing your dependency on the environment to feed you. This is the most genuine way of becoming a global green citizen. 

10 car innovations in widespread use today.

ur cars are faster, smarter and most importantly, safer, thanks to these 10 innovations.

ABS brakes

1. Anti-lock Braking System (ABS)
Found in almost all but the cheapest cars, ABS is a simple “anti-lock” system that gives drivers the capability to steer around danger under hard braking by preventing the wheels from locking up. The modern evolution of the ABS sees it being paired up with Electronic Brakeforce Distribution (EBD), a system which can vary the amount of braking force applied to each wheel.



2. Electronic Stability Program (ESP)

Once reserved for the upper price bracket, ESP technology has been slowly trickling down to the mid-class segment. Fitted with sensors that monitor the car's behaviour, an ESP-equipped car is able to minimize the loss of control in slippery situations. ESP works in unison with several systems which include ABS and traction control.



3. Entertainment systems

There was once a time when the only entertainment on the road was a basic cassette player and/or a radio. Today's entertainment systems go beyond music, playing video and audio files from a plethora of sources such as USB drives and mobile phones. Some of the latest factory audio systems even include GPS navigation with real-time traffic updates. If you are fortunate to waft through life from the back seat, internet connectivity comes standard with the system.

Parking sensors

4. Parking assists

Where would we be today without the ever faithful parking sensors in the back? When it was first introduced, these sensors were godsend to those who had a problem in judging distances and made parallel parking a breeze. The most sophisticated parking systems today don't just include a barrage of sensors – they come with cameras and radar detection. Some even will do the job of parking the car for you!

Daytime running lights

5. Daytime Running Lights (DRL)

It was a new ruling in Europe Union, and it sparked off a huge trend in Singapore. DRL's are forward-facing lights that are automatically activated when the vehicle is moving. Premium marques or higher-spec'ed cars come with factory LED-equipped DRL systems that emit a bright white light. Since its introduction here, sales for aftermarket DRL kits have taken off too. They work well to varying extent, with results from attention-grabbing to blindingly-annoying.

Keyless system

6. Keyless entry

As it's name suggests, it allows you to enter a car and drive off without having to fumble for the key. The car senses for the presence of a “smart” key fob near it, and only unlocks the doors when you reach for the door handles. Locking is achieved with a slide of a finger on the handles. You can do so much more now with the key fob today, such as starting the engine, opening the boot-lid, windows or even lowering the roof.

Radar technology

7. Radar technology

The police have used it for years to bust speeding drivers, but the same technology has been adapted to make the task of driving easier. Radar technology has already been applied in reverse sensors, but as you go higher up the price chart, you'll find that radar sensors are located in almost all corners of the car, including mirrors so that they can feed information to a blind spot detection system. Even more advanced radar systems can be found in adaptive cruise controls, to make sure there is a safe distance between you and the car in front. They also automatically apply the brakes when it detects an impending collision.

Direct injection engines

8. Direct Injection engines

This new breed of engines sprays fuel directly into the combustion chamber instead of injecting it through the air intake port. Compared to the previous method of port injection, direct injection engines burn fuel more cleanly. With more power, you get tighter emission controls and improved fuel efficiency. It's perfect for the current sky-rocketing fuel prices and to meet stricter emissions legislations.

Turbocharger

9. Forced induction engines

Once limited to exotic supercars of lore, forced induction technology is the signature of owning a highly-tuned car, and has gained widespread use in many cars today.  Carried out by means of turbochargers, superchargers, or a combination of both to force more air in, forced induction engines can produce similar levels of power as a traditional engine of a larger capacity, at the same time, keeping the emissions in check.

10. Start-Stop technology

A start-stop system is designed to cut the time that an engine spends idling as much as possible, to save fuel. Perfect – if you're often caught at the traffic lights or stuck in jams. First seen in petrol-electric hybrid vehicles, it has seen an increasing application in normal petrol vehicles. Don't think that one can achieve the same results by manual intervention – stuff which traditionally runs off the engine such as air conditioners won't work. A start-stop equipped car can continue to operate as normal, thanks to an electric motor.

The 10 safest small cars

The laws of physics always favor a larger car in a collision. That's why it's critical to choose a small car that gets top crash-test ratings and offers an extensive assortment of safety features.

The good news is that traffic fatalities are at historic lows, thanks in large part to increasingly sophisticated auto designs, advanced safety features and stricter seatbelt and DUI laws. The bad news is auto crashes still accounted for 32,788 deaths in 2010, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which means a vehicle-related fatality occurs an average of once every 16 minutes. Motor vehicle collisions remain the leading cause of death for individuals between the ages of three and 34.

Choosing the safest auto available is particularly important when shopping for a small car, where every advantage is essential. That’s because the laws of physics dictate that, all else being equal, a smaller and lighter vehicle will tend to fare worse in a crash than will a larger and heavier model. 

We started out by consulting the 2012 model-year list of "Top Safety Picks" from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), a non-profit organization funded by the insurance industry. These included a record 31 mid-priced and luxury small cars. "For the second year running a record number of models qualify as Top Safety Picks," says IIHS president Adrian Lund. "It’s tough to win, and we commend auto manufacturers for making safety a top priority."

To qualify, a car must garner top scores across the board for performance in front, side, rollover, and rear-end crashes based on ratings determined by the IIHS’ evaluations. Vehicles are rated in each category on a basis of "good," "acceptable," "marginal" or "poor" performance.

We further winnowed down the number of choices to the 10 models on our Safest Small Cars list by identifying the models that offer the most safety features to both help protect their occupants in a crash and help their drivers steer clear of collisions in the first place.

Audi A3

Like all the vehicles in our "Safest Small Cars" list, this racy compact luxury wagon-like four-door hatchback is a 2012 "Top Safety Pick" according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, and includes a full range of passive and active safety features, including front, front-side and side-curtain airbags, antilock brakes and electronic stability control. In addition, the A3 offers seat-mounted side-impact airbags for rear passengers and all-wheel drive for enhanced wet-road traction as optional equipment. 

Buick Verano

This luxury-oriented adaptation of the compact Chevrolet Cruze sedan packs no less than 10 airbags, including knee-height airbags for the driver and front passenger and seat-mounted airbags for rear riders. Also standard is General Motors’ OnStar safety/communications system that automatically engages to seek assistance if a crash occurs.


Chevrolet Cruze

Feeling more upscale than most compact cars, the Cruze is a solid choice for those who want to downsize their rides. In addition to the basics, the Cruze includes 10 standard airbags, including rear seat-mounted and front knee-height airbags. Also included is the OnStar communications/safety system that features automatic crash notification.


Chevrolet Sonic

All new for 2012 the Chevy Sonic is a sophisticated and engaging subcompact car. Like the larger Cruze with which it shares powertrains and other components it comes with 10 airbags, including rear seat-mounted and front knee-height airbags, along with the OnStar communications/safety system that automatically calls for assistance in the event of a collision.



Chevrolet Volt

Though at over $39,000 it's costly for what amounts to a compact car, the Volt is an "extended range electric vehicle" that can run for around 40 miles on a charge before a small gas engine takes over to run a generator. It’s officially rated at a combined gas/electric 94 mpg, Knee-height airbags for the driver and front passenger are included, along with the OnStar safety/communications system that affords automatic crash notification.

Lexus CT 200h

This compact gas/electric four-door hybrid hatchback gets the best fuel economy in the luxury class and offers a wealth of advanced features. Knee-height airbags for the driver and front passenger are included, as is Toyota’s On-Star-like Safety Connect telematics system with automatic crash notification. An optional Pre-Collision System tightens the front seat belts and primes the brakes for full stopping power if sensors determine a crash is imminent. 

Mazda Mazda3

This engaging compact sedan and four-door hatchback offer sportier than average driving dynamics, with active front headrests to help reduce whiplash injuries in a rear-end collision standard. A blind spot monitoring system to warn of cars or obstructions the driver might not otherwise see and active headlights the pivot slightly to help light the way through turns are optional.

Scion tC

This sporty compact coupe delivers plenty of driving enjoyment at a budget price. Adaptive front headrests to protect against whiplash, and knee-height airbags for the driver and front passenger to help prevent leg injuries are included for added safety.



Subaru Impreza

This amenable compact sedan/four-door hatchback is a practical and solid performer; the IIHS recommends the base versions, but not the "fast and furious" WRX
 model. All-wheel drive, a knee-height airbag on the driver’s side and front active headrests are all standard. 




Toyota Prius

Toyota’s best-selling gas/electric hybrid car offers a Lexus-like assortment of safety features, including a driver's knee-height airbag and active front headrests as standard equipment. Optional systems include a head-up display that projects vehicle speed and other information onto the windshield in the driver’s line of sight so eyes can remain on the road. Also available is a Lane Departure Warning system and a Pre-Collision System; the latter retracts the front seatbelts and can even apply the brakes in certain conditions should it conclude a crash is unavoidable. Toyota’s OnStar-like Safety Connect telematics system, which includes automatic collision notification, is also available.

What's hot and not in home styles this year

This year's designated New American Home is being featured as part of the International Builder's Show.

Modern gets the thumbs up.

Spa-like and eco-sensitive, the  “New American Home 2012” being unveiled in Orlando this week by the National Association of Home Builders in conjunction with the International Builders’ Show, is a warmer take on the classic “White Box” of mid-20th century modern design.

“A lot of people want a spa feeling and a spa look that’s very analogous to modern,” said Luis Juaregui, aTexas-based American Institute of Architects accredited architect. The 4,200 square foot, $3.5 million gray stone and glass home has free flowing entertaining spaces,  floor to ceiling sliding glass doors, a stone staircase with open risers, clear glass balustrades and clean geometric lines, tempered by dark wood cabinets, area rugs and soft furnishings.


Still, to fit into more traditional looking neighborhoods, architects are increasingly going hybrid, mixing distinctly modern, techno-savvy interiors with colonial details, Tudor-style roofs or Craftsman-inspired touches on the exterior.

A home to call one’s own has long been part of the American Dream. But as tastes, technologies and regional preferences change, propelled by demographics and the socio-economic climate, the style, scale and comforts of that coveted real estate evolve.

During the bigger- is-better 1980s and 1990s, homes ballooned in size.  Compact single story ranch and cape cod styles gave way to ever grander two-story neo-colonials. When the economic bubble burst, they retrenched. These days, downsizing is cool; supersized McMansions towering over smaller homes are not.



Stephen Melman, director of economic services at the National Association of Home Builders said that houses shrank about 10 percent from their 2,500 square foot peak in 2007, and are expected “to get smaller and more efficient” with open floor plans, master bedrooms on the first floor and dining rooms distinguished only by a chandelier or architectural detail.

One-story ranch homes, post World War II suburbia’s signature easy style, are slowly regaining favor, thanks to first time buyers with tiny tots and aging baby boomers seeking accessibility.

Craftsman style homes, popular before World War II, are also enjoying a revival, said Gary D. Cannella, an architect in Bohemia, N.Y.  “It’s the style not the size.” Adaptable to sizable abodes or small bungalows, these one or one and a half story homes boast  low-pitched rooflines, tapered columns, oversized eaves, gables and the front porches “that everyone wants and no one sits on.”

The split level, a hallmark of suburbia in the Brady Bunch era, is nearly obsolete. Despite the aerobic benefits of tri-level living, “all you do is walk up and down stairs all day long,” Cannella says. “You can’t go anywhere without steps.”

Here are the hot and not-so-hot home styles for 2012:

What's Hot in 2012

Style: Modern
Price: $399,000 to $29 million

The New American Home in Winter Park, FL looks ready for entertaining.

Description: Aligned with the mid 20th-century counter classic design movement, modern is characterized by no fuss floor plans with combined dining, relaxing and entertaining spaces,  clean, geometric lines, low slung roofs, and technologically advanced materials like concrete, steel and glass.

Why They Are Appealing:  Easy, functional and bright, with walls of glass and open spaces, today’s modern is eco-sensitive and forward thinking, with state of the art kitchens and “smart house” technologies, though developers often prefer modern interiors with more traditional skins. 

Where You’ll Find Them: Nationwide, with striking examples in the Hamptons, Santa Monica and other tony beach environs.

Style: Neo-Mediterranean
Price: $300,000 to $6 million-plus

Neo-Mediterranean home styles are becoming the Sun Belt standard. Photo: Jauregui Architect

Description: Red tile roofs, stucco walls, archways, towers and heavy wooden doors with a Spanish or Tuscan flavor.


Why It’s Appealing: The Southern European style and materials work well in warmer climates and match the landscape. 


Where You’ll Find It: California, Florida, Texas, Southwest


The Flip Side: While northern European style homes are vanishing from the Sun Belt, in chillier climates such as the Northeast, two story center hall colonials still reign.

Style: Craftsman
Price: $249,000 to $2.8 million

Craftsman-style homes have become an American classic.

Description: Often referred to as Arts and Crafts bungalows, Craftsman-style homes have low-pitched roof lines, overhanging eaves supported by decorative brackets, gables, front porches with tapered square columns,  exposed roof rafters, handcrafted wood and stone flourishes.

Why They are Appealing: This one to one and a half story style shouts cozy. With an emphasis on natural materials and decorative details, it works well for larger homes and small bungalows.

Where You’ll Find Them: coast to coast

What's Not So Hot in 2012


Style: McMansions
Price: $350,000 to $10 million +


McMansion's were a sign of success before the bubble burst.

Description:  Sometimes called colonials on steroids or oversized neo-eclectic houses, these super-sized jumbles of   styles and decorative details from colonial to Victorian, have  brick, stone,  vinyl or composite veneers.  A product of the  latter part of the 20th century and the knock-down era of the bubble before the burst, they often replaced smaller homes on lots  not suited to their hulking size.



Why they are not appealing: Pretentious, over-sized energy guzzlers, overshadow surrounding homes and out of sync with the economic climate’s downsizing trend. 


The Flip Side: Well-designed mansions on properly sized lots and in appropriate settings such as golf course or lakefront communities are still hot.





Style: Split Levels
Price: $91,900 to $2,850,000

Split-level homes, with many steps, have lost market appeal.


Description: A Ranch style house divided into at least three parts by short flights of stairs leading up on one side, down on another, dividing entertaining spaces  from private areas such as bedrooms and separating formal rooms from more casual playrooms and dens. 



Why they are not appealing: This darling of the 1950s, 60s and 70s is outdated and complicated to maneuver with steps at nearly every turn.

Where You’ll Find Them: 1950s/60s/70s suburban subdivisions nationwide.





Style: Victorian
Price: $299,000 to $2,850,000

Victorian homes are charming, but almost no one builds them like this anymore.


Description:  Turrets and towers, wraparound  or granny porches and gingerbread trim with Queen Anne, Gothic or  Italianate flourishes  are the hallmark of these turn- of-the-20th-century two and three story homes with plenty of nooks and crannies.