'Convincing' Proof of Monster?

'Convincing' Proof of Monster? - George Edwards, a Scottish skipper who spent decades searching for the beast said to inhabit Loch Ness, claims to have finally spotted his elusive quarry and gotten what he calls photographic proof of the monster.

On Nov. 2, 2011, Edwards photographed what appears to be a single hump in the water from the deck of his boat, "Nessie Hunter." Edwards said that "It was slowly moving up the loch towards Urquhart Castle and it was a dark grey color. It was quite a fair way from the boat, probably about half a mile away but it's difficult to tell in water," according to the Daily Mail, which has has posted Edwards photo. He watched the object for five to ten minutes before it slowly sank and did not resurface.

Edwards said he waited to release the photograph until after unnamed experts had examined it. Oddly, he is quoted in the Daily Mail as having had the photograph "independently verified by a team of US military monster experts." In fact, the United States military does not have a team of "monster experts" that it dispatches to investigate huge, unknown creatures around the world. Nor, for that matter, is it clear what "verifying" his photo would mean other than suggesting it was likely a real (i.e., not digitally faked) image of something in the water — though what that "something" might be is, of course, the relevant question. The shape could theoretically be anything from a fish to a floating log to a lake monster.

Edwards' description of his sighting raises more questions than it answers. For example, if he had the object in sight for five to 10 minutes, why is there (apparently) only one photograph of it? That's enough time to capture dozens or hundreds of photographs. And though the unknown object seems large, there's no way to determine its size since we don't know the exact distance to the object (though he's quoted as saying it was a half-mile away), and there's nothing of scale nearby to help judge. Depending on how close it is to the camera, it could be 5 feet long or 50 feet long.

A watery clue to the mystery?

There are many unknowns, but if Edwards' account is accurate, it may provide an important clue as to the "monster's" identity. Other mysterious objects floating in lakes have been known to behave exactly as Edwards described — for example, the most famous sighting of "Champ," the monster said to live in Vermont's Lake Champlain. A woman named Sandra Mansi sighted and photographed "Champ," resulting in what was called the "best photo" of the monster, and indeed of any lake monster anywhere.

That dark, humped "creature" was later revealed to almost certainly be a submerged tree trunk brought to the surface by buoyant gases created during decomposition. It rose to the surface, floated for about five to 10 minutes (during which time it looked exactly like a monstrous hump), then sank back down into the cold water never to be seen again. It is a well-established phenomenon that can — and has — created false lake monster sightings and photographs.

The floating log hypothesis also explains why these images are unusually good: Unlike an animal or wave that appears for mere seconds and creates blurry images, a log remains stationary for minutes, allowing for sharper, clearer photographs. Then they sink back down to the lake floor never to be seen again, having created a monstrous, mysterious "best ever" photograph.

The solution to one famous "best ever" lake monster sighting and photo does not necessarily solve another "best ever" sighting and photo, though Lake Champlain and Loch Ness have many similar characteristics (including wooded shorelines). The similarities are striking, and there's good reason to suspect the same natural hydrologic phenomenon was responsible for both monster photographs.

There is of course a strong economic incentive to promote monsters like Nessie: tourism. Loch Ness is the main tourist draw in the Scottish highlands, and Edwards makes his living guiding visitors who come from all over the world hoping for a glimpse of the famous monster. No one has suggested that Edwards faked the photo, but it's fair to point out that if an ambiguous shape is seen in the waters of Ness, the monster interpretation is far more likely to be accepted than a mundane explanation. If it's a fish or floating log, it's a non-story; if it's a possible "best evidence" of Nessie, it's international news.

The Loch Ness monster first jumped into international notoriety in the 1930s after a photo was widely published showing a serpentine head and neck. That image, taken by a London surgeon named Kenneth Wilson, was touted as the best evidence for Nessie — until it was admitted to be a hoax decades later.

Loch Ness itself has been repeatedly searched for over 70 years, using everything from miniature submarines to divers and cameras strapped on dolphins. In 2003 a team of researchers sponsored by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) undertook the largest and most comprehensive search of Loch Ness ever conducted. They scoured the lake using 600 separate sonar beams and satellite navigation. No large unknown creatures were found.

If, as seems likely, Edwards photographed a floating log, there will be no way to prove it one way or the other nine months later. Edwards' photograph may or may not be of the Loch Ness monster, but one thing is certain: It is not the first "best ever" photographic evidence, and it won't be the last. ( LiveScience.com )

Blog : The Time To Enjoy

Post : New Nessie Photo: 'Convincing' Proof of Monster?

READ MORE - 'Convincing' Proof of Monster?

Doctors couldn't believe it, either

Doctors couldn't believe it, either - The first images of the Florida teen who survived a spear shot into his head show the key factors that likely saved the teen's life, his doctors said.

Yasser Lopez, 16, was fishing with a friend at a Miami lake nearly two weeks ago when the spear gun they were using accidentally deployed and hit Lopez in the head, according to Miami-Dade police.

Lopez was rushed by paramedics to the University of Miami-Jackson Memorial Hospital where he arrived conscious but with 3 feet of the spear protruding from his forehead.

"The tip, it didn't penetrate the skin but you could feel underneath the skin on the back of his head so we knew that it went all the way through," said Dr. George Garcia, an assistant professor of surgery at the Army Trauma Training Center who treated Lopez.

Doctors credited the paramedics who treated Lopez with saving his life by not immediately pulling the spear out of the teen's head.

"The temptation if you don't have experience with these things is, 'Oh well, pull it out,'" said Dr. Ross Bullock, a neurosurgeon at Jackson Memorial. "If you do that, most of the time it's uniformly fatal."

Paramedics used a re-bar tool and pliers to stabilize the spear and a hydraulic cutter to clip the steel spear so the teen's head could fit inside a CT scanner.

The X-rays of Lopez's head showed the spear went all the way through his head at an angle and exited the other side but just missed his eye and dodged all major blood vessels in Lopez's brain. It also traveled through the right hemisphere of his brain, less than one inch above the central brain that controls the senses, heart rate and breathing.

"All of these are structures that, if this had happened to affect those, he would not have been likely to have survived to even get to the hospital," Bullock said. "If you had to have a spear go through there [the head], then this spear chose the right path to go with the least damage."

Doctors used the X-rays to plan the complex three-hour surgery in which they removed the spear from Lopez's head.

Lopez was moved out of the hospital's Intensive Care Unit Monday. Doctors say he is now sitting up and speaking a few words and that brain scans since his surgery show the spear caused relatively little damage to his brain.

The teen may have some lingering trouble with movement on the left side of his body, doctors say, but he is expected to make an otherwise full recovery.

"He's making pretty much a miraculous recovery," Bullock said. ( ABC News )

Blog : The Time To Enjoy
Post :

READ MORE - Doctors couldn't believe it, either

Scientists Watch Hot Spring Microbes Become Two Species

Scientists Watch Hot Spring Microbes Become Two Species - A Russian hot spring is gaining new inhabitants: The microbes that live within its acidic, near-boiling water appear to be in the process of splitting into two species, a new study indicates.

The researchers found that some hot-spring-dwelling microbes known as Sulfolobus islandicus appear to be separating into two groups that are exchanging less and less genetic information between themselves.

This is evidence they are speciating, or becoming separate species, the researchers argue.

"I think it's just showing species are real in microbes," said study researcher Rachel Whitaker, an assistant professor of microbiology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. "There has been a big debate as to whether or not there is such a thing as 'species' in microbes and whether or not it matters."

The concept of a species is not as straightforward as it sounds. Among organisms that reproduce sexually — that is, by exchanging genetic material to make babies with traits from both parents — a species is often defined by an organism's ability to mate to produce fertile offspring.

Microbes don't mate. Sulfolobus islandicus belongs to a group known as Archaea, one of three domains of life, and like other bacteria and archaea, Sulfolobus reproduces by cloning itself. However, there is an exchange of some genetic information, even though it's not as part of reproduction, according to Whitaker.

Whitaker and her colleagues knew that the population of Sulfolobus islandicus living within a single hot spring in Kamchatka, in far eastern Russia, showed more diversity than at similar hot springs, including those in Yellowstone National Park, so they decided to take a closer look.

Based on genetic markers, they selected 12 different strains of the microbe and sequenced their genomes. The results revealed a pattern of genetic sharing, in which members of two groups shared more information with members of their own group and less with members of the other group.

This led to another question: Were the two groups moving together or diverging into two species?

Using a technique developed by study researcher Xavier Didelot of the University of Oxford, they looked at the microbes' genetic history and determined the amount of shared genetic information had decreased over time – a sign the two groups were moving apart.

When they looked more closely, they found the differentiation between the two groups were concentrated in certain regions of the genome.

The researchers aren't sure what is driving the microbes apart, but based on growth patterns demonstrated in the lab, they speculate that the microbes inhabit slightly different niches within the hot spring.

"This is where the sense of scale for microbes becomes important. It is a small hot spring, but it is the world to these little guys," Whitaker said, pointing out that it's possible they might live in places with slightly different oxygen concentrations, for example. ( LiveScience.com )

READ MORE - Scientists Watch Hot Spring Microbes Become Two Species

Testicular zap 'may stop sperm'

Testicular zap 'may stop sperm' - A dose of ultrasound to the testicles can stop the production of sperm, according to researchers investigating a new form of contraception.

A study on rats published in Reproductive Biology and Endocrinology showed that sound waves could be used to reduce sperm counts to levels that would cause infertility in humans.

Researchers described ultrasound as a "promising candidate" in contraception.

However, far more tests are required before it could be used.

The concept was first proposed in the 1970s, but is now being pursued by researchers at the University of North Carolina who won a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Can ultrasound be used in male contraception?

They found that two, 15-minute doses "significantly reduced" the number of sperm-producing cells and sperm levels.

It was most effective when delivered two days apart and through warm salt water.

In humans, the researchers said men were considered to be "sub-fertile" when sperm counts dropped below 15 million sperm per millilitre.

The sperm count in rats dropped to below 10 million sperm per millilitre.

Lead researcher Dr James Tsuruta said: "Further studies are required to determine how long the contraceptive effect lasts and if it is safe to use multiple times."

The team needs to ensure that the ultrasound produces a reversible effect, contraception not sterilisation, as well as investigate whether there would be cumulative damage from repeated doses.

Dr Allan Pacey, senior lecturer in andrology at the University of Sheffield, said: "It's a nice idea, but a lot more work is needed."

He said that it was likely that there would be recovery of sperm production, but the "sperm might be damaged and any baby might be damaged" when sperm production resumed.

"The last thing we want is a lingering damage to sperm," he said. ( bbc.co.uk )

READ MORE - Testicular zap 'may stop sperm'

UN Soldiers Brought Deadly Superbug to Americas

UN Soldiers Brought Deadly Superbug to Americas - Compelling new scientific evidence suggests United Nations peacekeepers have carried a virulent strain of cholera -- a super bug -- into the Western Hemisphere for the first time.

The vicious form of cholera has already killed 7,000 people in Haiti, where it surfaced in a remote village in October 2010. Leading researchers from Harvard Medical School and elsewhere told ABC News that, despite UN denials, there is now a mountain of evidence suggesting the strain originated in Nepal, and was carried to Haiti by Nepalese soldiers who came to Haiti to serve as UN peacekeepers after the earthquake that ravaged the country on Jan. 12, 2010 -- two years ago today. Haiti had never seen a case of cholera until the arrival of the peacekeepers, who allegedly failed to maintain sanitary conditions at their base.

"What scares me is that the strain from South Asia has been recognized as more virulent, more capable of causing severe disease, and more transmissible," said John Mekalanos, who chairs the Department of Microbiology and Immunobiology at Harvard Medical School. "These strains are nasty. So far there has been no secondary outbreak. But Haiti now represents a foothold for a particularly dangerous variety of this deadly disease."

More than 500,000 Haitians have been infected, and Mekalanos said a handful of victims who contracted cholera in Haiti have now turned up in Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, and in Boston, Miami and New York, but only in isolated cases.

UN Soldiers Brought Deadly Superbug to Americas

How cholera landed in Haiti has been a politically charged topic for more than a year now, with the United Nations repeatedly refusing to acknowledge any role in the outbreak despite mounting evidence that international peacekeepers were the most likely culprits. The UN has already faced hostility from Haitians who believe peacekeeping troops have abused local residents without consequence. They now face legal action from relatives of victims who have petitioned the UN for restitution. And the cholera charge could further hamper the UN's ability to work effectively there, two years after the country was hobbled by the earthquake.

Over the summer, Assistant Secretary General Anthony Banbury told ABC News that the UN sincerely wanted to know if it played a part in the outbreak, but independent efforts to answer that question had not succeeded. He said the disease could have just as easily been carried by a backpacker or civilian aid worker.

Banbury said the UN, through both its peacekeeping mission and its civilian organizations "are working very hard ... to combat the spread of the disease and bring assistance to the people. And that's what's important now."

"The scientists say it can't be determined for certainty where it came from," Banbury said. "So we don't know if it was the U.N. troops or not. That's the bottom line."

A UN spokeswoman repeated the answer when asked again last week: "The [scientists] determined it was not possible to be conclusive about how cholera was introduced into Haiti," said the UN's Anayansi Lopez.

Scientists Trace Cholera Superbug to UN Peacekeepers

But ABC News has interviewed several top scientists involved in researching the origins of the cholera outbreak, and each expressed little doubt that the UN troop was responsible. The reason: A genetic analysis of the strain found in Haiti matches identically the one involved in an outbreak in Nepal in August and September of 2010; The Nepalese peacekeeping troops deployed for Haiti at precisely that time; Two weeks before the outbreak, Haitians had reported sanitary breakdowns at the Nepalese encampment set along a tributary to the Artibonite River, about 60 miles north of the capital Port Au Prince. The next month, the earliest cases of cholera surfaced in the same remote area, from Haitians who had been drinking and bathing in the river.

"The scientific debate on the origin of cholera in Haiti existed, but it has been resolved by the accumulation of evidence that unfortunately leave no doubt about the implication of the Nepalese contingent of the UN peacekeeping mission in Haiti," said French epidemiologist Renaud Piarroux, whose research on the outbreak was published by a U.S. Centers for Disease Control journal.

Mekalanos agreed, saying the single strongest piece of evidence came from the genetic analysis of the strain, which he said was virtually identical to strains that caused cholera in Nepal around the time that the troops shipped out. Taken in concert with sanitation problems at the Nepalese base, which was located near the epicenter of the outbreak, he said "almost any other explanation I can think of is well behind in confidence to the likelihood that that strain was introduced by UN troops," he said.

"It's outrageous for the UN to try to deny responsibility for bringing cholera to Haiti," said Mark Weisbrot, co-director of the Washington-based Center for Economic and Policy Research, whose group has been monitoring relief efforts in Haiti. "Was it gross negligence on their part? This is one of the questions they won't have to answer if they can sweep this whole thing under the rug."

Experts said understanding the origin of the outbreak is important. Louise C. Ivers, an infectious disease specialist and professor of global health and social medicine at Harvard Medical School, published a paper this week that traced spread of cholera back to the first victim, a mentally ill man who ingested contaminated river water. She witnessed firsthand the destruction it caused as hundreds of villagers started dying from an unfamiliar malady.

"It was overwhelming," she said. "There were no reported cases in Haiti before 2010, ever. Really people had no idea what was happening. To hear the fear and the suspicions and the lack of understanding about how this was happening is very, very sad. The outbreak put a huge stress on what was already a very fragile health system. I'm afraid it will be a problem for the foreseeable future."

She said what has made Haiti so vulnerable was a lack of latrines and clean potable water. She said there have been small outbreaks in the Dominican Republic, but nothing on the scale of what hit Haiti because conditions are more modern and sanitary.

Mekalanos said there are steps that the UN and other aid organizations can and should be taking if they are sending workers from an area where cholera is active into a region where it has long been absent. In the future, he said, the UN might consider giving troops a prophylactic dose of antibiotic before deploying. Or they could do more to insure proper sanitary conditions at UN encampments.

With the likelihood that cholera will be part of the landscape in Haiti for decades to come, though, Mekalanos said his hope is that the missteps that brought the ugly strain of the disease from Asia to the west will not repeat and lead to its further spread.

"Cholera is a disease of the impoverished," he said. "When the standards of living are already at the lowest levels, cholera is a killer of historic proportions. If it spreads to other parts of the world, in those kinds of settings, I fear there will be a very high rate of death."

UN officials said Banbury is currently in Haiti, "actively discussing with the Mission what more the UN can do to help Haiti deal with the outbreak." ( ABC News )

READ MORE - UN Soldiers Brought Deadly Superbug to Americas

Storing the Stuff of Dreams ( 1 )

Storing the Stuff of Dreams ( 1 ) - Storing the Stuff of Dreams - IT sounds like something out of a dime novel, or maybe a Nicolas Cage film. Behind the mute facade of a largely windowless neo-Gothic tower lies an ingenious system of steel vaults traveling on rails. Within those armored containers, which have been in continuous use since the Jazz Age, are stored some of New York City’s most precious objects and, presumably, a good number of its darkest secrets.

This building actually exists, and you will find it on an otherwise unremarkable stretch of Second Avenue, just north of the end of the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge. It is the Day & Meyer, Murray & Young warehouse, and since it opened in 1928 it has been the storage building of choice for many of New York’s wealthiest families, most prestigious art dealers and grandest museums.

The company’s early client list reads like a condensation of the New York Social Register, with names like Astor and Auchincloss, du Pont and Guggenheim, Havemeyer and Vanderbilt prominent. The press baron William Randolph Hearst stored entire rooms bought in Europe there during the construction of his castle at San Simeon, Calif.

Tracy Young, left, and her sister Robin, who is chief executive of Day & Meyer, Murray & Young. Right, a locked Portovault unit inside Day & Meyer, Murray & Young.

It was at Day & Meyer that the art dealers Joseph Duveen and Georges Wildenstein stored the Old Master and Impressionist paintings that became the foundations of many of America’s most important private and public collections.

Later, the warehouse safeguarded the personal effects of giants of midcentury industry, among them the movie producer Samuel Goldwyn, the CBS executive William S. Paley and the I.B.M. executive Thomas J. Watson Jr.

There were cultural figures, also. Marlene Dietrich and Walter Cronkite stored valuables at Day & Meyer, as did the writers Norman Mailer and Erich Maria Remarque. Mailer was so pleased with the company’s long years of service holding his archive that in 1995, he sent along a signed copy of his book “Oswald’s Tale: An American Mystery” in gratitude. “Thanks for safeguarding all my loot,” he wrote on the half title page.

Over the years, the building has served not just as a warehouse of physical goods, but also as a three-dimensional map of the city’s social life, tracking its shifting focus from grand families to corporate achievers to today’s culture of celebrity. These days, the most famous client at Day & Meyer is not an Astor or a Vanderbilt, but Whoopi Goldberg. “These are the only people I trust with my things,” she said in an e-mail message.

What has not changed is that people of means still need a place to store their belongings, and they are still doing so at that somewhat mysterious building on Second Avenue.

“IT’S interesting that so few people in the neighborhood know what it is,” said Robin Young, who is in the third generation of her family to serve as the company’s chief executive. “They stick their heads in the window and say what is this building? From the outside it looks very Gotham City.”

What they see inside is a formal lobby with a floor of tiled marble and a handsome table of carved wood dressed with an antique model ship. A grandfather clock stands sentinel to the side. It is a space more befitting the entry to a Wall Street banking house than a typical mini-storage warehouse.

“It has a sense of heritage to it,” Andrew S. Dolkart, an architectural historian at Columbia University, said. “It was going for the Park Avenue audience, so it wanted to be something people would feel comfortable storing their old art in.”

The company dates from the late 19th century, when it was founded as a white-glove specialist in the packing and shipping of furniture and fine art.

Then, as now, New Yorkers did not hold the moving business in particularly high esteem. Day & Meyer, however, made it a business to know how to deal with the valuables of the well-heeled, and to set those clients at ease.

Highly polished furniture was covered with wax paper, and then padded with burlap. China, glass and other fragile objects were packed in excelsior and placed in barrels and boxes. “Proper protection of each type of article must be understood,” advised a gold-embossed company brochure that was sent to a select list of the city’s best addresses.

Moving, not storage, was initially the firm’s primary revenue stream. When the city’s wealthiest needed to store things, they could do so in the basements or attics of their town houses, or in stables they owned or rented. Warehouses were primarily reserved for industry, though there were exceptions. The society architect Stanford White was all but bankrupted when a warehouse blaze destroyed his most valued possessions in 1905. ( nytimes.com )

READ MORE - Storing the Stuff of Dreams ( 1 )

Crop scientists now fret about heat not just water

Crop scientists now fret about heat not just water - Crop scientists in the United States, the world's largest food exporter, are pondering an odd question: could the danger of global warming really be the heat?

For years, as scientists have assembled data on climate change and pointed with concern at melting glaciers and other visible changes in the life-giving water cycle, the impact on seasonal rains and irrigation has worried crop watchers most.

What would breadbaskets like the U.S. Midwest, the Central Asian steppes, the north China Plain or Argentine and Brazilian crop lands be like without normal rains or water tables?

Those were seen as longer-term issues of climate change.

But scientists now wonder if a more immediate issue is an unusual rise in day-time and, especially, night-time summer temperatures being seen in crop belts around the world.

Interviews with crop researchers at American universities paint the same picture: high temperatures have already shrunken output of many crops and vegetables.

Haze from forest fires engulfs La Paz city, August 23, 2010. REUTERS/David Mercado

"We don't grow tomatoes in the deep South in the summer. Pollination fails," said Ken Boote, a crop scientist with the University of Florida.

The same goes for snap beans which can no longer be grown in Florida during the summer, he added.

"As temperatures rise we are going to have trouble maintaining the yields of crops that we already have," said Gerald Nelson, an economist with the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) who is leading a global project initially funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to identify new crop varieties adapted to climate change.

"When I go around the world, people are much less skeptical, much more concerned about climate change," said David Lobell, a Stanford University agricultural scientist.

Lobell was one of three authors of a much-discussed 2011 climate study of world corn, wheat, soybean and rice yields over the last three decades (1980-2008). It concluded that heat, not rainfall, was affecting yields the most.

"The magnitude of recent temperature trends is larger than those for precipitation in most situations," the study said.

"We took a pretty conservative approach and still found sizable impacts. They certainly are happening already and not just something that will or might happen in the future," Lobell told Reuters in an interview.

CONCERNS GROWING

Scientists at an annual meeting of U.S. agronomists last week in San Antonio said the focus was climate change.

"Its impact on agriculture systems, impacts on crops, mitigation strategies with soil management -- a whole range of questions was being asked about climate change," said Jerry Hatfield, Laboratory Director at the National Soil Tilth Laboratory in Ames, Iowa.

"The biggest thing is high night-time temperatures have a negative impact on yield," Hatfield added, noting that the heat affects evaporation and the life process of the crops.

"One of the consequences of rising temperatures ... is to compress the life cycle of that plant. The other key consequence is that when the atmosphere gets warmer the atmospheric demand for water increases," Hatfield said.

"These are simple things that can occur and have tremendous consequences on our ability to produce a stable supply of food or feed or fiber," he said.

Boote at the University of Florida found that rice and sorghum plants failed to produce grain, something he calls "pollen viability," when the average 24-hour temperature is 95 degrees Fahrenheit (35 Celsius). That equates to highs of 104 F during the day and 86 F at night, he said.

The global seed industry has set a high bar to boost crop yields by 2050 to feed a hungry world. Scientists said that the impact of heat on plant growth needs more focus and study.

"If you look at a lot of crop insurance claims, farmers say it is the lack of water that caused the plant to die," said Wolfram Schlenker, assistant professor at Columbia University.

"But I think it's basically different sides of the same coin because the water requirement of the plant increases tremendously if it's hot," he said.

"The private sector understands the threats coming from climate change and have significant research programs in regards to drought tolerance. They focus less on higher temperatures, but that's a tougher challenge," Nelson said.

"We are responding with a number of initatives...the primary one is focusing on drought tolerance," said John Soper, vice president in charge of global seed development for DuPont's Pioneer Hi-Bred, a top U.S. seed producer.

Pioneer launched a conventionally bred drought-tolerant corn hybrid seed in the western U.S. Corn Belt this spring, selected for its yield advantage over other varieties.

"We have some early results in from Texas that show that is exactly how they are behaving. They currently have a 6 percent advantage over normal products in those drought zones," Soper said.

Roy Steiner, deputy director for agricultural development for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, said the foundation is focused on current agricultural effects of climate change.

"It's amazing that there are still people who think that it's not changing. Everywhere we go we're seeing greater variability, the rains are changing and the timing of the rains is creating a lot more vulnerability," Steiner said.

"Agriculture is one of those things that needs long-term planning, and we are very short-cycled thinking," he said. "There are going to be some real shocks to the system. Climate is the biggest challenge. Demand is not going away." ( Reuters )

READ MORE - Crop scientists now fret about heat not just water

Side Effects of Omega-3 Supplements

Side Effects of Omega-3 Supplements - Omega-3 fatty acids play a crucial role in brain function and development. The best way to obtain these nutrients is through food, particularly marine-based foods such as salmon, halibut and tuna.


If seafood isn't a regular part of your diet, you can get your omega-3s from supplements. Though supplements are generally safe, they pose risks in rare cases. If you have any concerns, you should consult your health care professional before incorporating omega-3 supplements into your diet.

Side Effects of Omega-3 Supplements

Bleeding and Stroke

According to the Linus Pauling Institute website, Greenland Eskimos who take in 6.5 g per day of two omega-3 types called docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) have a higher incidence of hemorrhagic stroke and long bleeding times. However, this statistic may be attributable to factors other than the omega-3s. The Food and Drug Administration deems 3 g a day of the omega-3 fatty acids DHA and EPA to be Generally Regarded as Safe.


Immune System Effects

The Linus Pauling Institute website states that 0.9 g a day of EPA and 0.6 g a day of DHA suppress the functions of immune cells studied outside the body. However, scientists have not determined the effects of omega-3s on immune cells inside the body. If you suffer from an immune system disorder, consult your health care professional about omega-3 supplements.


Impact on Brain Aging

Though DHA is essential for brain development and cognitive function, father-son scientists David L. and Raymond C. Valentine published a study in 2010 demonstrating that, over time, the biochemical processes that lead to this beneficial effect will also lead to chemical breakdowns as the brain ages and contribute to loss of brain function. However, this should not deter you from taking omega-3s. This effect would never have been discovered without the increased life spans afforded by modern medical technology. ( livestrong.com )

READ MORE - Side Effects of Omega-3 Supplements

Sexual Confidence

Sexual Confidence - According to the American Psychological Association, 30-40% of women are somewhat unhappy with their appearance, while another 45% experience anxiety or depression due to dissatisfaction with their appearance. In other words, millions of women experience feelings of low self esteem and lack confidence about how they look -- and this has to affect how they feel about themselves sexually.

How can a woman feel empowered in her sexuality, attractive, and free to make good choices for herself if she feels unattractive, unappealing, and unworthy? Maybe a more constructive question is, How can we help women feel attractive and more confident about how they look?

First, don't compare yourselves to the women modeling in the glossy magazines or the starlets on the red carpet. These small, often underweight women are the exceptions, not the rule. (And I would guess that a fair amount of them experience disordered eating as a result of the pressure to be thin.)

Second, find one thing about yourself you do like and focus on that, dwell on it -- cherish that feature. Become more accustomed to those parts of yourself you do like. Write them down. Remind yourself of them. Affirm them every day.

Third, try to banish the negative behaviors that you turn to when you feel low or bad about yourself. Do you reach for food when you're feeling bad? Do you sit in front of the television with a bag of chips or a pint of ice cream? Now resist.

And fourth, when you next feel bad, make a choice to do something positive for yourself -- take a walk, read a book, call a friend. By resisting the bad choice and consciously acting on a good one, you will reinforce your self control. This builds confidence. ( lifestyle.yahoo.com )

And confidence, Ladies, is empowering -- and sexy.

READ MORE - Sexual Confidence

Ancient Cannibals Crafted Cups From Human Skulls

Ancient Cannibals Crafted Cups From Human Skulls - It seems as though ancient cannibals had a "waste not, want not" attitude, suggests the discovery of Ice Age cups made from human skulls — what may be the earliest ones known, scientists say.

Human skulls have been made into macabre cups and bowls for thousands of years. For instance, in the fifth century B.C., ancient Greek historian Herodotus portrayed the Scythians as people who drank from the skulls of their enemies, and similar traditions have been described by the ancient Chinese historian Sima Qian sometime in the first or second centuries B.C.

Still, archaeological evidence of how skull cups were made is extremely rare. Now scientists have discovered three skull cups in England that are roughly 14,700 years old, the earliest ones that researchers have confirmed ages for and the only ones known so far from the British Isles.

n a site known as Gough's Cave in Somerset, England, skull fragments from at least five people were found — a young child about 3 years old, two adolescents, an adult and an older adult. There were signs that their lower jaws had the marrow sucked out, suggesting cannibalism occurred.

Cut marks and dents on the bones suggest they were scalped and scrupulously scraped clean of skin and flesh with flint tools shortly after death. The crafters then removed the face bones and bases of the skulls from the adults and the 3-year-old, meticulously chipping at the broken edges of the resulting cups, possibly to straighten their rims.

"Possibly the most surprising thing is how skilled at manipulating human bodies these early humans were," researcher Silvia Bello, a paleontologist at the Natural History Museum in London, told LiveScience. "It was a very meticulous process that just proves how technologically advanced this population was. It also demonstrates a very complex funerary behavior."

"It's impossible to know how the skull cups were used back then," said researcher Chris Stringer, a paleoanthropologist at the Natural History Museum. "But in recent examples, they may hold blood, wine or food during rituals."

A precise cast of the skull cup from the adult individual will go on display at the Natural History Museum in London on March 1 for three months. ( foxnews.com )

READ MORE - Ancient Cannibals Crafted Cups From Human Skulls

How Half of Women over 55 Log on to Facebook

How Half of Women over 55 Log on to Facebook - They have traditionally been the preserve of teenagers, who go online to share pictures of wild nights out with friends. But social networking sites are a guilty pleasure shared by astonishingly high numbers of ‘silver surfers’, research has found.

Almost half of female internet users over 55 regularly log on to sites like Facebook and Twitter. Even grandparents are joining the forums and finding that they are often the best way to check up on their families, who can be too busy to actually meet up in person.

Almost a fifth of all Britons who visited social networks for the first time last month were aged over 55

Older singletons are using the sites as a way to find love. The study of 2,000 older internet users by researchers Mintel found that more than a third of men and women over 55 also visited sites like YouTube to watch videos for free.

Almost a fifth of all Britons who visited social networks for the first time last month were aged over 55, the figures show. It is estimated that nearly 100,000 older people have logged on to sites like Facebook for the first time in the past year.

Matt King, an analyst at Mintel, said: ‘Far more older women are using social networking sites than men. We found that women are going online for family orientated reasons.

‘It is a way for them to look at pictures to see what their children and grandchildren have been up to. It’s a way for them to keep in touch.’

An interest in finding out about family extended into the past, with almost a quarter of over-55s going online to research their family tree.

The study also found that five per cent of over-55s go online to use dating websites. But it is thought that many more are instead using social networking sites to find romance. ( The Daily Mail )

READ MORE - How Half of Women over 55 Log on to Facebook

How long can the Higgs boson keep hiding?

How long can the Higgs boson keep hiding? - For 50 years, physicists have been hunting for the missing piece in the puzzle of the universe. At last, says Graham Farmelo, a sighting may not be too far away .

How detecting the Higgs boson in the LHC would look. Finding the elusive last piece of the puzzle may not be far away, says Graham Farmelo

When will it show its face? Since the existence of the Higgs particle was first predicted almost half a century ago, thousands of physicists have spent many millions of pounds in an attempt to pin it down, as yet to no avail. Last week, the web was humming with rumours that experimenters at Fermilab, near Chicago, had observed the particle using their Tevatron atom-smasher. But the lab’s authorities moved quickly to quash the gossip, using its Twitter feed to dismiss the “rumours spread by one fame-seeking blogger”. If nature really has chosen to involve the Higgs in its grand scheme, it is doing an excellent job of keeping it secret.

At first glance, it seems odd that an obscure subatomic particle has attracted so much attention. It’s not just that it would be much too small for any human being to see – theorists predict that it will weigh billions of times less than a typical dust particle, and will have only the briefest of lives. After each one is born, death should follow about a hundred trillionths of a trillionth of a second later as it falls apart to produce other particles.

Yet physicists care deeply about the Higgs, because its putative existence follows from an elegant theoretical idea that helps explain why almost all of the most basic particles have mass. The Higgs theory, named after its co-author – a distinguished, now-retired theoretician at the University of Edinburgh – does a lot to explain why you and every material thing around you are not as insubstantial as light.

At a deeper level, what makes the Higgs particle so important is that it represents the one unconfirmed part of perhaps the greatest triumph of modern science – the theory of the fundamental particles and the main forces between them. Known by the stupefyingly dull name of the Standard Model, it is based on quantum theory and relativity, and gives an excellent account of virtually all subatomic experiments ever performed. If the existence of the Higgs particle (or quite possibly several of them) could be demonstrated, theoreticians would be much more confident that this part of the Model is correct, and not a convenient fiction.

These experts have used their equations to make plenty of specific predictions about how the Higgs should behave. The problem is that they have not been able to say precisely how heavy it is, making life difficult for the teams of experimenters searching for it. By the year 2000, it was possible to specify only that it was pretty heavy by subatomic standards, weighing at least 120 times as much as a proton.

The only machines with sufficient power to generate a particle this heavy are the Tevatron and the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Switzerland. As a result, their host laboratories – Fermilab and Cern – are the only places in the entire world that stand a chance of claiming the prize of being the first to see the Higgs. In public, the two labs say that it doesn’t matter who wins, but in private the competition is becoming more intense by the month.

If it is the LHC that finally locates it, it would be a triumph for the largest and most complex machine ever built. Sometimes called “the fastest racetrack on Earth”, its aim is to look in unprecedented detail at the subatomic world by smashing together protons that have been accelerated to within a whisker of the speed of light. About 600 million collisions take place every second inside several gigantic detectors, each of them a masterpiece of precision engineering. It is then up to scientists, aided by their global network of computers, to examine the shower of debris from each collision and shed light on the innermost workings of the universe.

Technology like this does not come cheap. The total cost of setting up the LHC was about £6 billion, with Britain paying the annual equivalent of a fancy cappuccino for every adult in the UK. For this, we get to be one of the leading players in this multinational project, and to benefit from its spin-offs.

After serious helium leaks forced it to be switched off only days after the extraordinary festival of publicity that heralded its completion in September 2008, the LHC is now in exquisite shape. Meanwhile, the Tevatron in Chicago was collecting data and is currently in the best position to catch first sight of the Higgs.

“I personally am very confident that if the Higgs particle is there, it will turn out to be around 140 times as heavy as the proton,” says Stefan Söldner-Rembold of the University of Manchester, a physicist working at the Tevatron. That would put it just about within range for the Tevatron to produce and observe.

At the moment, the LHC is running at half its projected maximum energy, with two of its colossal particle detectors focused on hunting for the Higgs. However, it is highly unlikely that the experimenters will be able to pin the particle down before the machine begins to run at full power, from around 2013. “It could well be that the Tevatron will see the first hints of the Higgs particle,” says British theoretician John Ellis at Cern, “but it will take the LHC to pin down it down with complete confidence.” So perhaps the prize for getting the Higgs to show its face clearly will be shared.

If experimenters can definitively prove the Higgs’s existence, the discovery will be a triumph for the whole enterprise of theoretical physics, and its effort, in Stephen Hawking’s enticing phrase, to “know the mind of God”. But what if it doesn’t exist? Even though the LHC was designed to investigate many other things, including antimatter, and could eventually discover the existence of dozens of new particles, to find out that its creators have been on a decades-long wild goose chase might be regarded as something of an embarrassment.

Certainly, the public will be surprised after all the media hoopla about the Higgs, and its allegedly divine importance (the Nobel-winning experimenter Leon Lederman once called it “the God particle”, but has never successfully explained why, beyond the need for a catchy title to sell a book).

Physicists are nothing if not inventive, and some already have explanations up their sleeves if the Higgs does not exist – some of the hottest new theories involve the existence of additional dimensions, beyond the usual ones of space and time.

But most believe in their bones that the Higgs is about to shed its shyness and show us its face. The leading theoretician Nima Arkani-Hamed, at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, is so convinced that he has bet a year’s salary on the Higgs being found, either at Fermilab or the Large Hadron Collider.

My own guess is that his money is safe, and that we’ll see the Higgs within the next five years as part of another, long-awaited golden age in particle physics. ( telegraph.co.uk )

READ MORE - How long can the Higgs boson keep hiding?

A Scientist Takes On Gravity

A Scientist Takes On Gravity. It’s hard to imagine a more fundamental and ubiquitous aspect of life on the Earth than gravity, from the moment you first took a step and fell on your diapered bottom to the slow terminal sagging of flesh and dreams.

AFLOAT The astrophysicist Stephen Hawking goes weightless in a special jet

But what if it’s all an illusion, a sort of cosmic frill, or a side effect of something else going on at deeper levels of reality?

So says Erik Verlinde, 48, a respected string theorist and professor of physics at the University of Amsterdam, whose contention that gravity is indeed an illusion has caused a continuing ruckus among physicists, or at least among those who profess to understand it. Reversing the logic of 300 years of science, he argued in a recent paper, titled “On the Origin of Gravity and the Laws of Newton,” that gravity is a consequence of the venerable laws of thermodynamics, which describe the behavior of heat and gases.

“For me gravity doesn’t exist,” said Dr. Verlinde, who was recently in the United States to explain himself. Not that he can’t fall down, but Dr. Verlinde is among a number of physicists who say that science has been looking at gravity the wrong way and that there is something more basic, from which gravity “emerges,” the way stock markets emerge from the collective behavior of individual investors or that elasticity emerges from the mechanics of atoms.

Looking at gravity from this angle, they say, could shed light on some of the vexing cosmic issues of the day, like the dark energy, a kind of anti-gravity that seems to be speeding up the expansion of the universe, or the dark matter that is supposedly needed to hold galaxies together.

Dr. Verlinde’s argument turns on something you could call the “bad hair day” theory of gravity.

It goes something like this: your hair frizzles in the heat and humidity, because there are more ways for your hair to be curled than to be straight, and nature likes options. So it takes a force to pull hair straight and eliminate nature’s options. Forget curved space or the spooky attraction at a distance described by Isaac Newton’s equations well enough to let us navigate the rings of Saturn, the force we call gravity is simply a byproduct of nature’s propensity to maximize disorder.

Some of the best physicists in the world say they don’t understand Dr. Verlinde’s paper, and many are outright skeptical. But some of those very same physicists say he has provided a fresh perspective on some of the deepest questions in science, namely why space, time and gravity exist at all — even if he has not yet answered them.

“Some people have said it can’t be right, others that it’s right and we already knew it — that it’s right and profound, right and trivial,” Andrew Strominger, a string theorist at Harvard said.

“What you have to say,” he went on, “is that it has inspired a lot of interesting discussions. It’s just a very interesting collection of ideas that touch on things we most profoundly do not understand about our universe. That’s why I liked it.”

Dr. Verlinde is not an obvious candidate to go off the deep end. He and his brother Herman, a Princeton professor, are celebrated twins known more for their mastery of the mathematics of hard-core string theory than for philosophic flights.

Born in Woudenberg, in the Netherlands, in 1962, the brothers got early inspiration from a pair of 1970s television shows about particle physics and black holes. “I was completely captured,” Dr. Verlinde recalled. He and his brother obtained Ph.D’s from the University of Utrecht together in 1988 and then went to Princeton, Erik to the Institute for Advanced Study and Herman to the university. After bouncing back and forth across the ocean, they got tenure at Princeton. And, they married and divorced sisters. Erik left Princeton for Amsterdam to be near his children.

He made his first big splash as a graduate student when he invented Verlinde Algebra and the Verlinde formula, which are important in string theory, the so-called theory of everything, which posits that the world is made of tiny wriggling strings.

You might wonder why a string theorist is interested in Newton’s equations. After all Newton was overturned a century ago by Einstein, who explained gravity as warps in the geometry of space-time, and who some theorists think could be overturned in turn by string theorists.

Over the last 30 years gravity has been “undressed,” in Dr. Verlinde’s words, as a fundamental force.

This disrobing began in the 1970s with the discovery by Jacob Bekenstein of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Stephen Hawking of Cambridge University, among others, of a mysterious connection between black holes and thermodynamics, culminating in Dr. Hawking’s discovery in 1974 that when quantum effects are taken into account black holes would glow and eventually explode.

In a provocative calculation in 1995, Ted Jacobson, a theorist from the University of Maryland, showed that given a few of these holographic ideas, Einstein’s equations of general relativity are just a another way of stating the laws of thermodynamics.

Those exploding black holes (at least in theory — none has ever been observed) lit up a new strangeness of nature. Black holes, in effect, are holograms — like the 3-D images you see on bank cards. All the information about what has been lost inside them is encoded on their surfaces. Physicists have been wondering ever since how this “holographic principle” — that we are all maybe just shadows on a distant wall — applies to the universe and where it came from.

In one striking example of a holographic universe, Juan Maldacena of the Institute for Advanced Study constructed a mathematical model of a “soup can” universe, where what happened inside the can, including gravity, is encoded in the label on the outside of the can, where there was no gravity, as well as one less spatial dimension. If dimensions don’t matter and gravity doesn’t matter, how real can they be?

Lee Smolin, a quantum gravity theorist at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, called Dr. Jacobson’s paper “one of the most important papers of the last 20 years.”

But it received little attention at first, said Thanu Padmanabhan of the Inter-University Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics in Pune, India, who has taken up the subject of “emergent gravity” in several papers over the last few years. Dr. Padmanabhan said that the connection to thermodynamics went deeper that just Einstein’s equations to other theories of gravity. “Gravity,” he said recently in a talk at the Perimeter Institute, “is the thermodynamic limit of the statistical mechanics of “atoms of space-time.”

Dr. Verlinde said he had read Dr. Jacobson’s paper many times over the years but that nobody seemed to have gotten the message. People were still talking about gravity as a fundamental force. “Clearly we have to take these analogies seriously, but somehow no one does,” he complained.

His paper, posted to the physics archive in January, resembles Dr. Jacobson’s in many ways, but Dr. Verlinde bristles when people say he has added nothing new to Dr. Jacobson’s analysis. What is new, he said, is the idea that differences in entropy can be the driving mechanism behind gravity, that gravity is, as he puts it an “entropic force.”

That inspiration came to him courtesy of a thief.

As he was about to go home from a vacation in the south of France last summer, a thief broke into his room and stole his laptop, his keys, his passport, everything. “I had to stay a week longer,” he said, “I got this idea.”

Up the beach, his brother got a series of e-mail messages first saying that he had to stay longer, then that he had a new idea and finally, on the third day, that he knew how to derive Newton’s laws from first principles, at which point Herman recalled thinking, “What’s going on here? What has he been drinking?”

When they talked the next day it all made more sense, at least to Herman. “It’s interesting,” Herman said, “how having to change plans can lead to different thoughts.”

Think of the universe as a box of scrabble letters. There is only one way to have the letters arranged to spell out the Gettysburg Address, but an astronomical number of ways to have them spell nonsense. Shake the box and it will tend toward nonsense, disorder will increase and information will be lost as the letters shuffle toward their most probable configurations. Could this be gravity?

As a metaphor for how this would work, Dr. Verlinde used the example of a polymer — a strand of DNA, say, a noodle or a hair — curling up.

“It took me two months to understand polymers,” he said.

The resulting paper, as Dr. Verlinde himself admits, is a little vague.

“This is not the basis of a theory,” Dr. Verlinde explained. “I don’t pretend this to be a theory. People should read the words I am saying opposed to the details of equations.”

Dr. Padmanabhan said that he could see little difference between Dr. Verlinde’s and Dr. Jacobson’s papers and that the new element of an entropic force lacked mathematical rigor. “I doubt whether these ideas will stand the test of time,” he wrote in an e-mail message from India. Dr. Jacobson said he couldn’t make sense of it.

John Schwarz of the California Institute of Technology, one of the fathers of string theory, said the paper was “very provocative.” Dr. Smolin called it, “very interesting and also very incomplete.”

At a workshop in Texas in the spring, Raphael Bousso of the University of California, Berkeley, was asked to lead a discussion on the paper.

“The end result was that everyone else didn’t understand it either, including people who initially thought that did make some sense to them,” he said in an e-mail message.

“In any case, Erik’s paper has drawn attention to what is genuinely a deep and important question, and that’s a good thing,” Dr. Bousso went on, “I just don’t think we know any better how this actually works after Erik’s paper. There are a lot of follow-up papers, but unlike Erik, they don’t even understand the problem.”

The Verlinde brothers are now trying to recast these ideas in more technical terms of string theory, and Erik has been on the road a bit, traveling in May to the Perimeter Institute and Stony Brook University on Long Island, stumping for the end of gravity. Michael Douglas, a professor at Stony Brook, described Dr. Verlinde’s work as “a set of ideas that resonates with the community, adding, “everyone is waiting to see if this can be made more precise.”

Until then the jury of Dr. Verlinde’s peers will still be out.

Over lunch in New York, Dr. Verlinde ruminated over his experiences of the last six months. He said he had simply surrendered to his intuition. “When this idea came to me, I was really excited and euphoric even,” Dr. Verlinde said. “It’s not often you get a chance to say something new about Newton’s laws. I don’t see immediately that I am wrong. That’s enough to go ahead.”

He said friends had encouraged him to stick his neck out and that he had no regrets. “If I am proven wrong, something has been learned anyway. Ignoring it would have been the worst thing.”

The next day Dr. Verlinde gave a more technical talk to a bunch of physicists in the city. He recalled that someone had told him the other day that the unfolding story of gravity was like the emperor’s new clothes.

“We’ve known for a long time gravity doesn’t exist,” Dr. Verlinde said, “It’s time to yell it.” ( nytimes.com )

READ MORE - A Scientist Takes On Gravity

Why can't I lose weight?

Why can't I lose weight?. According to a report by Mintel, at least one in six women is trying to lose weight. If you're losing the battle perhaps it's because of one of the reasons below:

1. Your upbringing Weight problems may be linked to whether you were breast or bottle-fed. According to German research, breastfed babies are less likely to be overweight as they get older.

This could be because they are fed on demand, establishing healthy eating habits, while bottle-fed babies tend to be fed when the mother decides it's time, so the baby may not actually be hungry.

'This could damage the baby's innate eating control ability,' says Dr Susan Jebb, head of nutrition health research at the Medical Research Council in Cambridge.

2. Lying about what you eat Research shows obese people under-report when asked to fill in a food diary. 'People who are overweight have a tendency to kid themselves that they don't eat more than anyone else,' says Dr Wendy Doyle of the British Dieticians Association.

She advises keeping a diary for a week, writing down everything you eat and drink. 'If you can force yourself to be honest, you will probably be surprised at the sheer quantity.'

If someone is obese, then they eat 2,500 calories per day just to stay at this weight. Once this amount is reduced, the weight should come off.

3. Insufficient sleep If you are not losing weight, it may simply be that you're exhausted. Rozalind Gruben, who runs health and nutrition company Health Unlimited, says: 'If you are feeling tired, the chances are you won't exercise, and will have little willpower to resist stimulating and fattening foods. In addition, an exhausted body is crippled in its ability to detoxify or release stored fat.' She advises that you listen to your body signals and try taking more rest.

4. A lack of muscle The more muscle you have, the higher your metabolic rate. Muscle burns 25-33pc more calories than fat.

The best way to increase your muscle mass is to do strength training. Beginners usually find it easiest to follow a course of exercises on machines in a gym. Later, you can follow a programme on your own at home using free weights or your own body weight for resistance. Ideally, you should strength train three times a week, targeting at least eight major muscle groups.

5. An underactive thyroid The job of the thyroid gland is to produce thyroxin, a hormone which can affect your metabolism.

The two most common types of problems that occur with the gland are overactive thyroids (hyperthyroidism) and underactive thyroids (hypothyroidism). It is the latter that can result in weight gain, as it decreases your metabolic rate by 5pc.

Other symptoms include a lack of energy, a slow heartbeat, dry thick skin and a puffy face. Once detected, it can be treated by a thyroid hormone drug which will restore your metabolism to its normal rate.

6. It's in your genes If you're worried that you are gradually growing into the figure of your mother, your fears may be justified.

According to James O. Hill, director of the Center for Human Nutrition at the University of Colorado in Denver: 'With genes, gender and hormones in common, mothers can often provide daughters with a fairly accurate map to their future shape.'

There are three main genetic body shapes or 'somatypes' - ectomorph (naturally long and lean), mesomorph (muscular frame) and endormorph (more rounded appearance).

'Genetically, everyone is dealt a pack of cards - but, ultimately, it's up to you how you play them,' explains nutritionist Penny Hunking. 'There is a lot you can do to counteract genetics - through sensible eating and exercise.'

7. You skip breakfast Studies show that people who eat breakfast are leaner than those who don't. Eating breakfast helps prevent high-fat snacking later in the day.

Penny Hunking recommends starting the day with some cereal and toast with low-fat spread and Marmite. Alternatively try mushrooms and tomatoes on toast, or yoghurt and fresh fruit.

'Eating a high-carbohydrate, low-fat breakfast will kick-start your metabolism and improve your concentration and performance later in the day,' says Hunking.

8. You have 'PCOS' Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) affects one in ten women. It gets its name from the tiny cysts that form on the ovaries. These are actually a symptom of the condition, not the cause, and are different to ovarian cysts.

Women with PCOS are often overweight and have problems losing weight, particularly around their middle. Other common symptoms include excess body hair, fatigue, period and fertility problems, breast pain and acne.

9. Worrying about weight Distress about being overweight can reduce your body's ability to shed unwanted pounds. Rozalind Gruben says long-term stress exhausts the adrenals. 'These glands produce cortisol and thyroxin, both of which are needed for the releasing of stored fat.'

10. Deficient in nutrients A lack of vital nutrients will result in less energy and, consequently, a greater predisposition to laying down fat. Essential vitamins and minerals for weight loss include B1, B2, B3, B6, C, iron, chromium, zinc and co-enzyme Q10.

'Ensuring that you have an adequate supply of these nutrients will increase the effectiveness of any weight loss programme,' says Patrick Holford, author of The Optimum Nutrition Bible. ( dailymail.co.uk )

READ MORE - Why can't I lose weight?

Rev up your sex life in winters

Rev up your sex life in winters. With the party season on full swing and the winter chill taking a toll on a couple's love life, finding new ways to spark up this lull is of utmost importance.

While it becomes hard for couples to keep up the pace of their sexual interaction, they often blame it on the frosty weather and fatigued minds and bodies as a justification for their 'not-tonight-honey' stand. But experts say blaming winter for poor libido is merely a myth, which couples need to break and enjoy their love life.

Dr. Rajan Bhonsle, an expert on sexual relations advocates, "Winters boost the level of sexual desire in most couples as they feel highly aroused. When partners' touch each other's warm bodies, it hypes up the sexual mood. This is not the case in summers, as bodies are perspiring and you don't feel like coming close too often."

One of the reasons for which couples relinquish their lovemaking time in winters could be attributed to the fact that they find it tough to cope up with the chill and thus find it uncomfortable to undress before slipping between the sheets.

Dr. Bhonsle elucidates, "Individuals usually cover up their bodies in winters to protect themselves from the biting cold. Thus it's not be too comfy to undress at one go. But if you are in the mood for some tenderness, you can always find ways to deal with the cold factor."

Establishing some medical instances, marriage and relationship counselor Dr. Kamal Khurana holds, "Winters are much more effective and relationship friendly. If couples make the most of the season, they can be more productive during sex. Besides, in winters, our digestive power increases as the body requires more carbohydrates. This results in a high intake of calorie-rich foods, like dry fruits, which are great aphrodisiacs making one more energised and attracted towards their partner."

Stating that weather can't play spoil sport in a couple's love life, Dr. Prakash Kothari, a sexologist and advisor for the World Association for Sexual Health reveals, "It's an individual choice that some couples get turned on in summers and others in winter season. Some odd couples may not feel comfortable to have sex in extreme cold, so they feel reluctant to make out, but we can't generalise and blame lack of sex on the weather. In fact, during winters when it's chilly outside, couples get an opportunity to spend more time inside the house and they can ideally spend some cosy moment with each other."

On a slightly different note, Geetanjali Sharma, a relationship counselor shares, "Seasons do affect our mind and body in different ways. Particularly in winters, 20 per cent of couples suffer from SAD – Seasonal Affect Disorder, which reduces their sex drive to a certain limit due to the depressive weather conditions. It's to do with the reduced day light during winters, which brings a change in our hormones and due to this there's a change in our sleep and waking patterns thus affecting our sex life. Also, since the days are shorter in winters, couples try and wind up more work in lesser time and thus feel stressed at the end of the day."

Furthermore, with social gatherings and parties happening frequently, couples tend to be more watchful about their eight hours of sound sleep and thus end up bargaining on their love-making time. Dealing with the situation, Dr. Khurana opines, "Firstly, couples must understand that sex doesn't require any time scheduling. Just like going out for parties, sexual activity is a basic need; a reflection of one's emotional compatibility. If they go by the formula of not having sex in the party season, then they won't come close to each other for nearly half of the year."

In the cold weather, modern couples still find themselves in a fix to schedule their intimate moments. It's often their work pressure, party hangovers or personal preferences that result in a dull and boring performance in bed. Here are some tips to add a punch to your sex life, during winters...

Here are some tips to pep up your sex life in winters...

Hot food for hot action :
Aphrodisiacs can do the trick during any season, but especially in winters, take special care of what you eat to enhance your sexual prowess. Opt for hot items like soups, grilled fish or dry fruits that can set the mood right for quality sex by adding more warmth to your body.

Build up the right aura :
In summers, you may opt for a spa setting or a chilled shower to evoke your senses. But in winters, let the ambiance be warmer and full of light. While lit-up candles and aroma oils add to the warmth of the room, cosy quilts and soft blankets can do the magic as you slip between the sheets.

Dress to undress :
Since you're already dressed skimpily during summers, there's barely any chance to get creative and play around with your partner's moan zones. The winter season gives you all the reasons to get dressed up as much as you can and then allow your lover to take the privilege to undress you gradually. Just guessing what lies under the layers of warm clothing adds to the curiosity levels and the mood of anticipation.

Set the midnight clock :
Don't have sex just for the sake of it or just because your partner wants it to happen. Communicate that you're tired on a particular night and then plan out another specific time, maybe after midnight, when you can get up half asleep yet fully charged up and enjoy some pleasurable moments with full passion.

A hot shower to freshen up : Whenever you come back tired from a late night party, feeling sleepy, don't let your worn-out souls act as a libido killer. Try something like a hot shower to feel rejuvenated again. Let your partner's tender touch be felt on your body for a while and as you progress towards the bedroom, let romance take over.

No stress, only sex :
Coping with work pressure and coming back home with a pre-occupied mind is a complete recipe for disaster in bed. So, willfully indulge in activities that help in relieving unnecessary anxiety. Laughing, going out, meeting people and remaining connected will make you feel fresh throughout the day and thus you can reserve a night which is full of love and romance.

Comfort with artificial heating :
If your partner is not at ease with the chilly weather and is not in a mood to undress, resort to options like artificial heating devices. With technological advancements, you can even set the room temperature in accordance with your bodies. Or opt for a quickie. It's short, quick and you don't necessarily need to undress.

Foreplay is important :
Foreplay is more exciting than the main act, so get adventurous and indulge in some prolonged foreplay, sans any 'sex'. Get creative in your approach. ( indiatimes.com )

READ MORE - Rev up your sex life in winters

Helicopter Parents on the Job Search

Helicopter Parents on the Job Search. If you are a parent of a young adult, you could be earning a nickname you've never heard of: "helicopter parent." These parents tend to "hover" over their Generation Y child's life more fully than any generation before.

As technology has evolved, cell phones and PDAs have enabled a far greater level of parental vigilance. University of Georgia professor Richard Mullendore has referred to the cell phone as "the world's longest umbilical cord."

And the impact is far-reaching. Employers are reporting instances where helicopter parents have been involved in their child's first job search. In some cases, hiring managers were shocked and surprised at how significantly the parent became involved in the process.

Helicopter parents overhead

Gwen Martin is the co-founder of NumberWorks LLC, an accounting and finance staffing firm based in Minneapolis. Martin says that about one in every six interactions she has regarding job openings is from a helicopter parent.

"We had one mother who called us to see what positions we had open and to talk about her son's educational background and job experience." Martin recalls. As a hiring manager, Martin would hope that the candidates make those calls on their own behalf. "Her son was finishing his last class before graduation and was too busy to make the call himself."

Eileen Habelow is a regional vice president and director for the staffing firm Randstad USA. She's also had some eye-opening experiences with the parents of young job seekers. Habelow remembers one candidate who seemed ideal in many ways -- except one.

"During the interview process, the candidate continuously referenced her parents, their roles in her search, their support in evaluating us as an employer and a financially stable company, and their advice on how she should negotiate the employment deal," Habelow recalls.

That level of parental involvement raised some red flags. "She was a very sharp candidate: polished, smart, well-educated and confident. However, the constant reference to mom and dad was a definite turnoff," Habelow states.

The company hired the candidate, but Habelow soon regretted that decision. "After three months she let us know that her parents agreed that maybe this was not the best fit after all. I will trust my instincts next time."

Working with helicopter parents

Some hiring professionals are beginning to embrace helicopter parents. "Basically, the helicopter parents are here and savvy companies are catering to them," says Lisa Orrell, author of "Millennials Incorporated" and consultant to companies that recruit and employ younger workers. "I tell clients they can scoff at this or deal with it. If a key factor to wooing the candidate is getting their parents' buy-in, then create ideas to woo the parents, too."

Orrell thinks that companies need to modify traditional approaches and ideas when it comes to recruiting Millennial, or "Gen Y," employees. "Companies really need to understand that Gen Y is very close to their parents and value their opinions when it comes to a job," she notes. "I know of companies who conduct family days, where Gen Y candidates can bring their parents to the company for a tour and to meet key personnel."

A balanced approach

Too much parental involvement can be a detriment to your child's job search. Recruiters and hiring managers can view "hovering" as a negative. They may believe that the candidate isn't independent or lacks initiative.

An ideal role for parents is that of mentor. You should share tips on workplace behavior, like dealing with office politics and accepting constructive criticism. But don't shadow your son or daughter through his or her search process. Since current trends indicate workers are changing jobs every few years, they will benefit more in the long run from learning sound job searching skills.

Here are some possible pitfalls where you may be tempted to act on your child's behalf, as well as alternate courses of action.

If you're tempted to write your child's résumé...

Plan of action: You can provide guidance by sharing your own résumé. There are also resources online, like CBResume.com, where job seekers can get help creating new résumés or review existing ones.

If you're tempted to organize your child's job search...

Plan of action: Guide your child to resources that can help her plan and organize her job search. She can register for a free account on CareerBuilder.com, upload a résumé and set up job alerts. Offer to give her ideas for searching, but allow her to seek out opportunities on her own.

If you're tempted to call the employer...

Plan of action: If your child is reluctant to make a follow-up call after an interview or résumé submission, find out why. If he feels unprepared, engage him in some brainstorming and help him identify possible responses to the questions he would most likely be asked.

If you're tempted to go on the interview...

Plan of action: Offer to be a chauffeur to the interview, so your son or daughter doesn't need to focus on parking or other logistics. Stage a mock interview prior to the real one and offer constructive feedback to your child's answers. Acknowledge their good instincts and work with them to identify areas for improvement.( msn.com )

READ MORE - Helicopter Parents on the Job Search

Ten Things that Scream, "Don't Hire Me!"

Ten Things that Scream, "Don't Hire Me!". You just don't get it. You've applied to numerous jobs, been to countless interviews and made several new contacts in your network -- yet here you are -- still sitting on the unemployment list. What gives?

Well ... have you ever stopped to consider that what gives might in fact be ... you?

It's a hard concept that most job seekers have trouble wrapping their heads around, but applicants frequently -- inadvertently -- raise red flags to hiring managers that immediately scream, "Don't hire me!" But, it might not be entirely your fault.

"Most companies don't give direct feedback about areas people are weak in while they are employed. They are enabling poor performance and lack of accountability," says Tom Gimbel, president and CEO of The LaSalle Network, an executive recruiting firm in Chicago. "The same mentality exists when people interview. They feel they did 'great' on the interview and never look at themselves for if they feel that the interviewer was looking for something different."

Not sure if you're unknowingly blowing your chances at scoring your dream job? Here are 10 red flags to be wary of during your next job hunt:

Red flag No. 1: You don't have any contact information on your résumé

When you're crafting your résumé, you should focus on highlighting relevant skills and accomplishments that are in line with the position for which you are applying. But what good is an impressive résumé if hiring managers have no way to get in touch with its owner? If they can't find you, they can't hire you. Always provide a home address, phone number or e-mail address so employers can get in touch with you easily.

Red flag No. 2: You have long gaps between jobs on your résumé

Even if your long departure from the work force is valid, extended lapses of unemployment might say to an employer, "Why weren't you wanted by anyone?" Gimbel says. Anytime you have more than a three-month gap of idleness on your résumé, legitimate or otherwise, be prepared to explain yourself.

Red flag No. 3: You aren't prepared for the interview

There are many ways to be unprepared for an interview: You haven't researched the company, you don't have any questions prepared, you didn't bring a copy of your résumé, etc. Plain and simple, do your homework before an interview. Explore the company online, prepare answers to questions and have someone give you a mock interview. The more prepared you are, the more employers will take you seriously.

Red flag No. 4: You didn't provide any references

By omitting references in your application, employers could infer that you don't know anyone who has any positive things to say about you -- when in fact, you just forgot to provide them with people who can vouch for you. No references also shows employers that you aren't prepared for people to call them, Gimbel says. Always make sure the hiring manager has at least one person to contact who can speak on your behalf.

Red flag No. 5: You only have negative things to say about previous employment

We know how tempting it is to want to tell anyone who will listen how much of a (insert expletive word here) your old boss was -- but a hiring manager for a coveted job is not that person.

There are hundreds of ways to turn negative things about an old job into positives. Thought your last job was a dead end? Spin it by saying, "I felt I had gone as far as I could go in that position. I'm looking for something with more opportunity for advancement." Couldn't get along with your co-workers? "I really need to work in an environment where I feel like I'm part of a team and my last position didn't allow for that kind of atmosphere."

Red flag No. 6: You've held seven different jobs -- in the past six months

Job hopping is a new trend in the working world. Workers are no longer staying in a job for 10-20 years; they stay for a couple and move on to the next one. While such a tactic can further your career, switching jobs too often will raise a prospective employer's antenna. Too many jobs in too little time tells employers that either you can't hold a job or you have no loyalty, Gimbel says. Pick and choose the jobs you include on your résumé or prepare to explain yourself.

Red flag No. 7: You give inconsistent answers in your interview

One tactic hiring managers use during the hiring process is to ask you the same question in several different ways. This is mostly to ensure that you're genuine with your answers and not just telling an employer what he or she wants to hear. Keep your responses sincere throughout the entire process and you should be good to go.

Red flag No. 8: You lack flexibility

Most people know what they want in a job as far as benefits, compensation, time-off, etc. If you're unable to be flexible with some of your (unrealistic?) expectations, however, you're going to have a difficult time finding a job. Have a bottom line in terms of what you want before you start the hiring process and be willing to bend a bit if necessary.

Red flag No. 9: Your application was, in a word -- lazy

Only doing the bare minimum of what's asked of you won't get very far -- in life or in your job search. Applying to jobs with the same résumé and the same cover letter (or none at all) is pure laziness. And as Gimbel points out, if you won't spend extra time on yourself and your application materials, you sure as heck won't do it for a client.

Red flag No. 10: You lack objective or ambition

If you have no long-term goals, then you really have no short-term goals either, Gimbel says. "Long-term goals may change, however you need to have some concept of where you want to go." Know where you want to go and how you plan to get there. Otherwise you seem unfocused and unmotivated, which are two big no-no's for an applicant. ( msn.com )

READ MORE - Ten Things that Scream, "Don't Hire Me!"