A video of NBC late-night show host Jimmy Fallon and First Lady Michelle Obama competing in a potato-sack race.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You may like this:
Joanna Krupa strips down for PETA | Custom Fit Jeans | Women Are the More Sensitive Sex |
Polar Bear Plunge | Sexual addiction? | The Celebrity Moms and Modelling |
WebMD Baby (free on Apple) and Baby Connect ($5 on Apple and Android). Given WebMD Baby’s pedigree, it’s little surprise that the app offers a deep well of medically related information.
For Apple owners who want medical information that will see their baby through adolescence, though, a very good option awaits. The Portable Pediatrician ($10 on iTunes) is based on the popular book by the medical specialists William Sears, Martha Sears, Robert Sears, James Sears and Peter Sears.
The app is generally well designed. You can enter keywords and phrases like “canker sores” or “asthma symptoms,” and the app returns the relevant information. You can also scroll through a long list of topics that are presented alphabetically.
There are a lot of approaches to getting rid of wall-warts, those blocky power transformers that let you plug your low-voltage, battery-powered USB products into the wall to charge.
But this one is a little more elegant than most.
Newer Technology has designed a two receptacle in-wall outlet called “Power2U” that also has two USB receptacles arranged so you can use all four simultaneously.
It’s an easy do-it-yourself installation for anyone who knows how to turn off a circuit and use a screwdriver. Just remove the existing outlet from the wall, switch out the two leads, and screw it back into place.
Several companies sell compact portable scanners that could almost fit inside the cardboard tube from a paper-towel roll: foot-long skinny gadgets with a slot that pulls in photos and papers and spits them out the back. The scan quality is surprisingly good, and the speed is decent (about two seconds a page). The huge drawback is that you can’t scan books, magazines or anything else that won’t slide through that slot.
If you can live with that limitation, you might consider the new, straightforwardly named Xerox Mobile Scanner ($250). It’s battery-powered, so you can scan anywhere (up to 300 scans on a charge). The scans can go directly to a flash drive you’ve plugged into the back, or onto a camera memory card, or over a USB cable to your computer.
But the Mobile Scanner’s truly useful twist is that it can be completely wireless. Not just no power cord, but no cable to your computer, either. It can fling your scanned photos or documents through the ether to almost anywhere: your iPhone or Android phone, for example. Your iPad or Android tablet. A laptop. Or even a Web site, where other people can immediately see and download the results.
I’ll wait here while you let that sink in. This means you: students, researchers, lawyers, real estate types, inspectors, genealogists, artists and business card collectors of all stripes. Now you can whip this foot-long scanner out of your bag, feed in a photo or page (from 2 by 2 inches up to 8.5 by 11.7 inches), and then marvel as it shows up on your phone, ready to forward to anyone in the world. Or onto your iPad, safely copied from the original, ready for instant retrieval. Score one for portability.
If you’re a true-blue technoholic, you might recognize certain themes of this story. You might have heard of the Eye-Fi card: a traditional SD memory card for cameras that, somehow, also contains Wi-Fi wireless circuitry. Pop this thing into any camera model, and it suddenly becomes a Wi-Fi camera, capable of transmitting your photos to your computer, phone or a photo gallery Web site like Flickr.
In creating its Mobile Scanner, Xerox didn’t bother reinventing the wireless wheel. Instead, it worked with the Eye-Fi people to develop a customized version of their magic little card. The chief enhancement: The Xerox version of the Eye-Fi card is capable of transmitting PDF documents wirelessly, not just photos. (It’s worth noting that it’s otherwise a standard Eye-Fi card. When you’re not scanning, you can pop it into your camera and transmit photos wirelessly from it.)
When you unpack the silver plastic Mobile Scanner (it comes with an attractive black carrying case), the only setup is inserting the Eye-Fi card — a 4-gigabyte model — into a slot on the back and charging up the scanner’s built-in battery, either from a wall outlet or from your computer’s USB jack.
There are only two buttons: Power and Mode, which lets you choose which kind of scan you want: a color photo, a black-and-white PDF document or a color PDF document.
Once you’ve made your selection, you feed your photo or paper into the front slot. The scanner gives you a couple of seconds to get the thing straight, and then slurps the sheet in with satisfying speed, grip and confidence.
If you’re in one of the PDF modes, the scanner gives you 10 seconds to feed it the next sheet of a multipage document. The result is a single PDF document with multiple pages. Nice.
The scans are clean, straight and sharp. You’d have a hard time telling them apart from the work of a big-footprint desktop flatbed home scanner.
Except that this time, they’re appearing on the screen of your phone, tablet or laptop — wirelessly.
In other words, Xerox has done a beautiful job of making its machine solid, simple and competent.
LAS VEGAS — At the International Consumer Electronics Show, the helmet camera makers GoPro and Contour have both demonstrated products that can put all of your plummeting, hurtling and rocketing adventures on the air live through a Wi-Fi connection.
GoPro demonstrated the Wi-Fi BacPack, which snaps on the back of a $300 GoPro HD Hero2 camera to connect it to a Wi-Fi network. Once on the network, a wrist-worn remote control can toggle between and turn on and off up to 50 cameras, making it possible to watch, record or photograph different views of a live event on a remote computer. Or the Wi-Fi can connect to a phone to stream the video live to the Internet. The Wi-Fi BacPack and Wi-Fi Remote should be in stores in March. The BacPack and Remote are sold in a combo kit for $100.
Contour has joined with a Japanese company, Cerevo, which makes LiveShell, a device that connects to a $500 Contour Plus or $300 ContourGPS camera with a cable to give it live Wi-Fi streaming. As with the GoPro, when you are hang-gliding out of range of your office router, you can connect to a phone to post live video. When close to a router, LiveShell, which will list for $300 and becomes available Feb. 1, connects directly to the Web site Ustream to simplify live broadcasting. LiveShell can also link to a router by wire for a more reliable connection, although that is not a great option for extreme sports.
Chandra Bahadur Dangi says he is 1 foot, 10 inches tall, which would make him the shortest adult human ever recorded.
A 72-year-old man in Nepal claims to be the world's shortest man, and he may prove to be the shortest adult human in Guinness World Records' history.
Chandra Bahadur Dangi says he is 1 foot, 10 inches tall, which would make him 1.6 inches shorter than the current official record holder, Junrey Balawing of the Philippines, and one centimeter shorter than any adult human ever documented.
Guinness officials will travel to Dangi's village to verify his claim. Guinness posted video of Dangi on its YouTube channel.
The shortest adult human ever, according to Guinness, was Gul Mohammed, who was 1 foot, 10.4 inches tall. He died in 1997 at the age of 40.
"We intend to travel to Mr. Dangi's village in Nepal to officially measure him and are currently making provisions for medical professionals to assist us in the verification," a statement on the Guinness World Records website says.
Dangi has reportedly already become somewhat of a celebrity in southern Nepal, and the Guinness honor would almost certainly add to his notoriety. A previous record-holder, He Pingping of Mongolia, made a celebrated trip to New York City in 2008.
Love and its frequent companion, sex. People spend countless hours pursuing these two heights of human experience. But is the rush of positive emotions and the physical pleasure worth all the drama? Or are romantic pursuits, like Valentine’s Day, over-hyped?
When it comes to your health, that swooning in your stomach and aching in your loins offer an undeniable boon of benefits that are supported by reams of research. Whether you’re a hopeless romantic or a hardened cynic, whether you’re growing weary of the search to find love or are wondering where the heat in your relationship has gone, here are the top 10 health reasons to keep seeking that emotional and physical connection with another person.
#1 Less stress
You know a good roll in the hay can take your mind off your worries. Researchers have documented this link and theorize that it is due in part to the release of oxytocin, the hormone that helps us feel bonded to others and triggers feelings of comfort and relaxation. A 2007 study found that middle-aged women who reported having sex one day enjoyed a better mood and less stress on the following day. Even better, this improved mental state predicted more affectionate touching and sexual activity with a partner on the day after that — creating a self-perpetuating upward spiral of satisfaction.
And it’s not just sex that has a calming effect: A 2009 Japanese study found that subjects who were shown romantic films experienced a change in heart rate variability (which measures how quickly the heart rate recovers from a stressful event) that only comes when the parasympathetic nervous system is activated — the portion of the central nervous system that triggers the relaxation response. And in a University of Zurich study of women about to undergo a stressful event, such as a speaking engagement, those who received a neck and shoulder rub from their partner had significantly lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol and less intense stress-related spikes in heart rate.
#2 Longer life
Contrary to the messages we get that high levels of sexual activity are somehow dangerous — either through exposure to potentially life-threatening STDs or by fostering an appetite for risky behavior — there is plenty of research to promote the opposite view: More sex leads to longer life. A Welsh study that followed 918 men aged 45 to 59 for 10 years found that those who had two or more orgasms per week had 50 percent fewer instances of mortality than those who had low or no incidence of sexual activity. A similar study followed 252 people in North Carolina for 25 years; at follow-up, men who reported having frequent intercourse lived significantly longer than those who didn’t. Sorry, ladies, the researchers didn’t find the same correlation in women. However, they did find that women who reported enjoying their sexual encounters over the years lived longer than women who didn’t.
#3 More youthful appearance
Forget painful Botox appointments and expensive skin creams. If you want to look younger than your years, have more sex. In a fascinating study, a panel of judges observed 3,500 participants — a group of men and women from Europe and America — through a one-way mirror with the directive to guess the age of each subject. The people who were perceived to be seven to 12 years younger than their actual age were found to have sex an average of three times per week (as opposed to the control group, which had sex an average of twice per week).
#4 Stronger muscles for men and women
French researchers may have figured out why King Kong was so unstoppable when in pursuit of his beloved. An even mix of male and female participants in a 2009 study were shown a series of pictures that were chosen for their ability to elicit either a negative, neutral or positive state of arousal. After looking at each picture, they performed a feat of physical strength in hopes of winning a monetary reward. The subjects produced more force — and reported feeling the least amount of physical effort — after being shown photographs that were rated the most arousing.
#5 Clearer thinking
You may think that being in love overrides logic, but a 2006 Swiss study begs to differ. Women in love performed much better on a cognitive task when they were subliminally exposed to a beloved’s name. And a 2006 Columbia University study found that experiencing powerful emotions enhanced memory: Both men and women performed better on tests of long-term (in this instance, one week) memory recall after being shown emotionally arousing images.
#6 Improved heart health
Although sex may not qualify as an intense cardio workout, it does offer a demonstrable benefit to the old ticker: A study that followed Welsh men for 10 years found that those who had sex at least twice a week had half the incidences of fatal coronaries than men who had sex only once a month. A 2009 study of American men found a similar result: Those who had sex at least twice a week had a significantly lower risk of developing cardiovascular disease than men who had sex once a month or less.
Sex can also be beneficial for your blood pressure. In a 2006 Scottish study, people who had engaged in vaginal intercourse in the previous two weeks had lower blood pressure after giving a speech to an unfriendly audience than those who had not engaged in any sexual behavior, or had masturbated, or who had sexual activity that did not include intercourse.
#7 Stronger relationships
Relationship satisfaction is strengthened when both partners are sexually satisfied: In a 2008 Finnish study, researchers found that in couples aged 33 to 43, relationship satisfaction was highest in those couples who had sexual intercourse and sessions of kissing and petting as often as they hoped. In fact, a mutually satisfying sex life can even compensate for less than ideal communication in a relationship, according to 2005 study by researchers at the University of Tennessee.
#8 Pain relief
Sufferers of chronic pain, take note: Orgasm has been shown to raise the pain threshold. “We know that orgasm releases neurotransmitters into the spinal fluid that have a very strong pain-blocking effect,” says Beverly Whipple, PhD, a prominent researcher on women’s sexuality, professor emerita at Rutgers University, and the author of The G Spot and Other Discoveries About Human Sexuality. “We’ve shown in the lab that these neurotransmitters elevate pain thresholds by 80 percent. For women with chronic pain from conditions such as arthritis and whiplash, orgasm can help the pain disappear. Others have reported that it can help headaches go away.” Indeed, research has found that having an orgasm resolves migraines in nearly half of study participants. (There is also a reported phenomenon of orgasm-induced migraines, and 5 percent of study participants reported those happening.)
#9 Stronger immunity
A 2004 study interviewed students at Wilkes University in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, and found that those who had sexual activity one to two times per week had higher levels of immunoglobulin A — a vital component of the immune system — in their saliva than students who reported having infrequent (less than once a week) sexual encounters. Interestingly, those students who claimed to be having sex more than three times a week had IgA levels similar to those who had infrequent sex, suggesting that perhaps there is such a thing as too much of a good thing.
#10 Reduced risk of some cancersA 2003 Australian study interviewed 2,000 men in their fifties and sixties. Those who claimed to have had four or more ejaculations per week (from intercourse and masturbation) during their twenties, thirties and forties had one-third the risk of developing prostate cancer of those men who had three or fewer ejaculations during the same decades. Similarly, a 2004 U.S. study that interviewed 50,000 middle-aged men found that the more ejaculations the men had each week during the course of their lives, the less likely they were to develop prostate cancer.
Erin Heatherton is the latest beauty to catch Leonardo DiCaprio's eye since he dated 'Gossip Girl' star Blake Lively.
Leonardo DiCaprio didn’t appear upset by his Academy Award snub this week when he was spotted on vacation with his latest model fling.
The “J. Edgar” star is currently soaking up the sun in Mexico with Victoria’s Secret bombshell Erin Heatherton, who he’s been dating for the past month.
By the looks of it, the new couple may be taking a lengthy stay south of the border. They were pictured grabbing their bags from the back of an SUV filled to the brim with designer luggage.
Although DiCaprio, 37, appears to be going strong with his latest leggy gal pal, Heatherton may have some competition.
DiCaprio, who has dated actress Blake Lively and models Gisele Bundchen and Bar Refaeli, recently said any girlfriend of his will have a lot to live up to because he compares them to his mother, Irmelin.
"My mother is the centre of my life," the actor told the Daily Express. "To have a woman like that in your life, who is strong, who'll be honest with you about who you are … that's something I treasure. And it's something I look for in a woman."
Wendylee Perez and Hector Santana are suing celebrity wedding planner David Tutera for, among other things, neglecting to provide invitations, flowers and a wedding cake.
A New York couple sued its celebrity wedding planner for saying, “I don’t” to his duties on their big day.
Reality show star David Tutera, after breaking his vows to Hector Santana and Wendylee Perez, also tripled the cost of their reception, the pair charged in a Manhattan lawsuit.
The star of “My Fair Wedding” was more party pooper than planner in November 2010 when Brooklyn-born Perez and her beloved tied the knot in the Dominican Republic, the suit charged.
“Due to the defendant’s arrogant and heartless actions, plaintiffs have been harmed personally and financially,” the now happily-married couple said in their lawsuit.
After bumping the Punta Cana wedding bill from $10,000 to more than $30,000, the toothy Tutera — whose client roster includes Elton John and Jennifer Lopez — didn’t even provide the invitations, the flowers or a DJ.
His biggest whiff on their prenuptial agreement: Tutera never delivered the wedding cake, leaving the jilted couple waiting at the altar with no dessert, the lawsuit charged.
The egotistical planner even two-timed the bride, jetting cross-country for a taping of his reality show when he was supposed to be working on the wedding, the couple claimed.
It was hardly the affair promised on Tutera’s website: “Turning every bride’s fantasy into a reality. . . . We believe every bride deserves to be treated like a celebrity.”
Tutera claimed he had to tend to a sick relative when he blew off the nervous couple shortly before their Nov. 6, 2010, wedding.
Tutera’s publicist Eda Kalkay, in an email, said the planner was “not interested in commenting at this time” on the marital discord.
But the newlyweds’ relatives expressed distress: “The wedding was not what we expected,” said the bride’s mom, Ercilla Perez. “He didn’t appear. We trusted him so much.”
“He noted the day before he was not coming,” she said. “He said someone was in the hospital but we don’t know.”
Earlier this year, a bitter legal brawl between Tutera and a Boston “Bridezilla” over her $300,000 Singapore wedding was quietly resolved.
Mohammad Shafia, right, Tooba Yahya, center, and their son Hamed Mohammed Shafia, left, are escorted into the Frontenac County courthouse in Kingston, Ontario, Canada on Thursday, Jan. 26.
Three members of an immigrant Afghan family were found guilty of first-degree murder on Sunday in what is thought to be Canada's first "honor killing" trial.
Mohammad Shafia, 58, and his wife Tooba Mohammad Yahya were convicted, along with their 21-year-old son Hamed, of drowning their three daughters and Shafia's first wife, according to The Associated Press.
They reportedly stashed the dead bodies in the family car, which they pushed into a canal near Kingston, Ontario to make the deaths look like an accident, jurors at the Ontario court ruled.
The bodies of sisters Zainab, 19, Sahar 17, and Geeti, 13, as well as Shafia's first wife Rona Amir Mohammad, 52, were found in the submerged car on June 30, 2009.
Wiretaps played during the trial caught Shafia on tape calling his daughters "filthy" and "whores" for "betraying" his family by dating boys and wearing revealing clothing.
Prosecutors argued that Shafia believed Mohammad backed the girls' westernized lifestyle and wanted to divorce him.
During one recording, Shafia called for the devil to defecate on his daughters' graves, the AP reported.
"It is difficult to conceive of a more despicable, more heinous crime," Ontario Superior Judge Robert Maranger said while handing down the ruling.
"The apparent reason behind these cold-blooded, shameful murders was that the four completely innocent victims offended your completely twisted concept of honor."
Shafia and his family had been living in Canada since 2007.
He married Yahya, 42, because Mohammad could not have children, but kept them both as his wives, according to the AP.
School officials, teachers and other witnesses testified during the trial that the girls were terrified of their father and feared for their lives.
The oldest, Zainab, fled to a shelter in desperation at one point, witnesses said.
Defense lawyers argued the deaths were an accident after Zainab took her sisters and Mohammad for a late-night joyride while the family was staying at a hotel during a trip to Niagara Falls.
After the trial, Mohammad Shafia, called the ruling "unjust."
"We are not criminal, we are not murderer, we didn't commit the murder," he said through a translator.
His sobbing wife Tooba, said, "I am not a murderer, and I am a mother, a mother."
A website shilling goods and services for five dollars may have the answer to your social media prayers - a beautiful blonde willing to be “in a relationship” with you on Facebook.
The website Fiverr.com has a new ad out that is as creative as it is creepy. The pitch, from seller cathy01, states matter-of-factly “I'll be your girlfriend on Facebook for 10 days.” And who could resist with these qualifications:
“I'm Cathy, a 23-year-old student and I live in New York City,” the ad reads.
For the commitment phobic, Cathy offers another option - she'll write on your Facebook wall to aid in the ladies-man image sought by many-a Facebook friend.
“There's a second option, by the way: If you want a few messages (3 max.) on your profile to make someone jealous that's also possible,” Cathy says. “Just send me the message(s) and the Facebook-link!”
Unlike the struggling startup Cloud Girlfriend that allows users to design their own paramour and have her write their Facebook walls, Cathy asserts to be a real person.
President Obama :with the help of a few household items and a Republican-friendly idea — promised Saturday to make the federal government more pro-business.
The President displayed a padlock, a pair of boots, a candle and a pair of socks — items all made in the United States — and vowed to stem the tide of American business owners outsourcing their jobs.
“I’ll make sure you’ve got a government that does everything in its power to help you succeed,” Obama said in his weekly address.
The President pledged that he would soon unveil a new tax code that would give incentives for companies that bring jobs back from overseas — and eliminate breaks for those that do not.
Obama was vague on the details of the tax reform — saying they would be revealed in the coming weeks — but recent remarks from administration officials indicate that it could be a sweeping change of the nation’s tax code.
That move appears lifted from the Republican playbook, and could provide Obama with a winning election year issue, his advisors hope.
The swipe at businesses who sent jobs overseas has also been interpreted as a subtle jab at Obama’s would-be White House rival Mitt Romney, who oversaw the outsourcing of thousands of jobs during his time in the private sector.
The President also touted his commitment to a more business-friendly government by urging Congress to support his plan to merge a half-dozen federal agencies.
On Friday, Obama said he wanted to merge six trade agencies and eliminate the Commerce Department — a popular target of Republicans on the campaign trail.
But the President’s idea was met with indifference by the Republican leadership, who once again used their weekly response to call for the construction of a controversial oil pipeline.
Senator John Hoeven (R-N.D.) called for Obama to sign off on the $7 billion transcontinental Keystone XL pipeline, which is supported by pro-business groups but opposed by environmental activists.
Obama has yet to make a decision on the hot-button issue, which Hoeven said was indicative of a government bogged down by too much red tape.
“We must empower private investment and create sustainable jobs through private enterprise to lift up our country,” Hoeven said.
A luxury cruise ship ran aground off the coast of Tuscany, sending water pouring in through a 160-foot (50-meter) gash in the hull and forcing the evacuation of some 4,200 people from the listing vessel early Saturday, the Italian coast guard said.
Three bodies were recovered from the sea, said Coast Guard Cmdr. Francesco Paolillo. There were reports that three other people had died after the accident late Friday night near the tiny Tuscan island of Giglio, but those reports were not yet confirmed, he said.
Helicopters plucked to safety some 50 people who were trapped on the Costa Concordia after the liner listed so badly they couldn't launch lifeboats, Paolillo told The Associated Press in Rome by telephone from his command in the Tuscan port city of Livorno.
"We were having dinner aboard when we heard a loud noise, like that of the keel being dragged over something," passenger Luciano Castro, who is a journalist, told Italian state radio early Saturday. The lights went out "and there were scenes of panic, glasses falling to the floor," Castro said.
Another passenger on what was be an eight-day pleasure cruise around Mediterranean ports, Mara Parmegiani, also a journalist, told the ANSA news agency that "it was like a scene from the Titanic."
Survivor Christine Hammer, from Bonn, Germany, shivered near the harbor of Porto Santo Stefano, on the mainland, after stepping off a ferry from Giglio. She was wearing elegant dinner clothes — a cashmere sweater, a silk scarf — along with a large pair of hiking boots, which a kind islander gave her after she lost her shoes in the scramble to escape, along with her passport, credit cards and phone.
Hammer, 65, told The Associated Press that she was eating her first course, an appetizer of squid, on her first night aboard her first-ever cruise, which was a gift to her and her husband, Gert, from her local church where she volunteers.
Suddenly, "we heard a crash. Glasses and plates fell down and we went out of the dining room and we were told it wasn't anything dangerous," she said.
The passengers were instructed to put on life jackets and take to the life rafts but, Hammer said, they couldn't get into the boats, because the cruise liner was tilting so much the boats couldn't be lowered into the cold, night sea. The passengers were eventually rescued by one of several boats in the area that came to their aid.
JUPITER is the ruler of Sagittarius, and is known as the planet of abundance and expansion, and often referred to as the lucky planet.
Jupiter is in Taurus till June 12, 2012: With Jupiter in Taurus, everything is deliberate. Jupiter will stretch the mind, but Taurus will make sure it is for real rather than fleeting or fantasy. The Jupiter Taurus vibration helps you strive for the future in a way that pleases your heart; it encourages you to keep life in prospective while striving to be the best you can be. It encourages art, real estate and possessions that have an investment value - this is a fortunate and positive placement.
Jupiter moves in to Gemini on June 12th 2012 and stays in this position till June 27th 2013, when it moves into Cancer. In Gemini, the grasp of detail and vision is heightened, particularly with creative ventures. It is also the position of media,
No comments:
Post a Comment