How do you make bath time more fun and less stressful?
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If you can't stop gazing into your new sweetheart's eyes, or if a smouldering look leaves you weak in the knees, there's a scientific reason for it-and it might not be what you'd expect.
A recent study by researchers at the University of California at Irvine, published in the journal "Evolutionary Psychology," found that the darker your limbal ring-the border between the colored part of your eye (the iris) and the white part (the sclera)-the more attractive you are to others.
The researchers showed volunteers 80 pairs of male and female faces, each of which were the same except for the eyes; one face had very dark limbal rings, and the other had none. The participants had to choose which faces were more attractive and by how much. The results? "For male and female observers, both male and female faces with a dark and distinct limbal ring are rated as more attractive than otherwise identical faces with no limbal ring," the researchers wrote. The results were the same regardless of
Who is that little girl frowning during the big kiss? Read on. (AP Photo)Why didn't Prince William watch his bride walk down the aisle? Who was that little girl covering her ears and frowning while the newlyweds kissed on the balcony? Where can I get those gorgeous earrings Kate wore to her wedding? The last remaining mysteries of the royal wedding are solved, right here at Shine.
Who was that adorable little girl frowning and covering her ears on the balcony during the big kiss? That's Prince William's goddaughter, 3-year-old Grace van Cutsem, who was one of the official bridesmaids (there are no "flower girl" roles in traditional British weddings, so children are often included as bridesmaids or pages). She is the daughter of Lady Rose Astor and Hugh van Cutsem, and great-great-great-granddaughter of William Waldorf Astor, a New York-born lawyer and politician who later became a member of the British Aristocracy. (The Waldorf Hotel was one of his pet projects.) Little Grace was also pouting for part of the carriage ride; apparently, the crowd of adoring
While we're focusing on our flower beds and on spring cleaning our homes, our cars are just sitting out there, crusty with dirt (and, for some of us, kid-related detritus). Chicago Healers practitioner Andie Pearson suggests that instead of just spring cleaning your car, you can feng shui it to reduce your stress levels while you're on the road. Here are some of her tips:
Donald Trump speaks to the media at Pease International Trade Port in Portsmouth, N.H., on April 27, 2011. (Photo: Matthew Cavanaugh/Getty Images)With some polls showing him ahead of other possible GOP candidates and with his supporters continuing to rally, it's time we asked ourselves: Could Donald Trump really win the White House?
With the release of Obama's long-form birth certificate today, the White House has shown that they're taking Trump seriously, whether they meant to or not. "If there is a politician who understands less how conservative politics have operated in this country over the past three decades than Barack Obama, I can't imagine who that might be," says Charles P. Pierce, author of "Idiot America: How Stupidity Became a Virtue in the Land of the Free." "Donald Trump now has been legitimized as a candidate. What was a political freak show has now become a legitimate political issue."
A poll by the conservative news site Newsmax.com has Trump far outpacing other possible republican contenders with a whopping 55 percent of the vote in a field shared with Mike Huckabee, Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich, Tim Pawlenty,
President Obama's long-form birth certificateToday, President Barack Obama offered up for the nation's consideration the controversial long-form of his birth certificate. (Click here to see it as a PDF)
"Over the last two and a half years I have watched with bemusement, I've been puzzled at the degree to which this thing just kept on going," Obama said during a press conference today.
He said that he decided to request the long-form of his birth certificate and make it public because the controversy-which gained new traction thanks to Donald Trump's private investigation and a renewed focus on Sarah Palin's last pregnancy-has been drawing attention away from more important issues.
While debating the budget, discussing the deficit, and working to prevent a government shutdown earlier this month, "during that entire week the dominant news story wasn't about these huge, monumental choices that we're going to have to make as a nation," the president pointed out. "It was about my birth certificate."
"We've got some enormous
We've all been there: You're having a so-so day (or worse) and someone bounds up to you with a cheerful, "Hi! How are you?" And you're stuck. Do you tell a little white lie? Or do you tell them the whole sordid story?
"Usually, the answer to this old standby is short and sweet," says image consultant Marla Tomazin. "In fact, we generally expect a reply along the lines of, 'Very well, thank you.'" And when someone starts in with a rant as their response, things can get awkward for everyone involved.
"What most people fail to realize is that your answer to this very simple question will either draw people in or scare them away," Tomazin points out. So, how can you keep it real and honest without turning into Debbie Downer?
"Use that conversation as an opportunity to further a connection rather than as a chance to dump your own personal problems on someone else," suggests Tomazin. Keep in mind that "How are you?" is a casual question, not necessarily an invitation for a heart-to-heart.
It's no secret that sleep deprivation does bad things to your brain and your body. But how many Zzzz's do we really need to get by-and how much more would we require in order to be at our best every day?
A recent study by David Dinges, the head of the Sleep and Chronobiology Laboratory at the Hospital at the University of Pennsylvania, says that the magic number is eight. Test subjects who logged a solid eight hours of sleep per night had very few any attention lapses and no cognitive declines over the course of Dinges' two-week study, but subjects who got just six hours of slumber "were as impaired as those who, in another Dinges study, had been sleep-deprived for 24 hours straight - the cognitive equivalent of being legally drunk," The New York Times reported.
With plenty of stimulation (coffee, anyone?) we do cope, of course. And even Dignes acknowledges that not every sleeper is the same; about 5 percent of the population, he estimates, are fine with five or fewer hours of sleep
In the United States, the fight against childhood obesity has focused mainly on kids' diet and exercise levels. But a new international study is delving deeper, and has found that moms who minimize their carbohydrate intake during the early part of their pregnancies are more likely to have kids who become obese.
Researcher think that the developing baby may adjust its DNA in order to adapt to the environment into which it will be born. A lack of carbohydrates (sugars and starches) early on in its development may signal a need to be able to store energy in the form of fat before adolescence.
"We have shown for the first time that susceptibility to obesity cannot simply be attributed to the combination of our genes and our lifestyle, but can be triggered by influences on a baby's development in the womb, including what the mother ate," the study's leader, University of Southampton professor Keith Godfrey, said in a statement. "A mother's nutrition while pregnant can cause important
