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As we might have believed, retail therapy is not a myth five or so years ago, since it has been scientifically proven that women (and some men too) take comfort in the act of shopping, because it helps them deal with emotions, being used as some sort of safety net. That is not to say though that shopping doesn’t come with the obligatory guilt trip as well, as a new study shows most women feel remorse right after splashing out on something new, as the Daily Mail can confirm.

Numbers speak louder than words: eight of ten women feel remorse after a shopping spree, when, right after the initial sensation of exhilaration and good mood they are overcome with shame and guilt. Three quarters of them start feeling this way while they’re still in the shop – however, not one woman lets the guilt trip ruin her shopping spree, all of them choosing to deal with the consequences of their act at a later time. Even more, about seven percent of them shop even more to make sure the feeling of guilt is pushed back as much as possible.

“Life at the moment is full of stresses with money being right up there, but it’s difficult to break the habit of a lifetime. Going shopping now comes with more baggage so women are trying to find creative ways to justify their spree.” a spokesperson for Skinny Cow, the dessert brand that commissioned the survey, tells the Mail about the findings. Attributing to shopping an emotional value it did not have before would also explain why recession has failed to alter women’s shopping patterns in any way, except to make them splash even more money on clothes and accessories.

A group of experts confirmed the existence of an exoplanet that was formed outside the Milky Way, but which was brought into our galaxy as its star was engulfed during a galactic merger. The finding has tremendous implications for the field of astronomy. The announcement was made on Thursday, November 18. The astronomers behind the discovery say that the parent star for the newly-found planet was most likely formed in a nearby galaxy billions of years ago, and that it made its way here after the Milky Way engulfed the other galaxy.

This process may have taken place anytime between 6 and 9 billion years ago, scientists now believe, and it was only chance that brought the planet within the range of astronomical observatories, Space reports. Until now, no one has been able to confirm the existence of exoplanets around stars in other galaxies, mostly due to the distances involved. This is what makes the new finding all the more precious. A body born elsewhere in the Universe has been brought fortuitously right in our backyard.

As soon as the planet was discovered, astronomers realized that this particular body could change their theories about how planets form, and about how much beating they can take from their star before they are destroyed. This particular exoplanet, which has been dubbed HIP 13044b, resides around a star that is extremely old, and also metal-poor, which means it features only negligible amounts of chemical elements heavier than hydrogen and helium. (more…)

If you’re trying to learn a new word, you may want to sleep on it, a new study suggests. Researchers taught volunteers new words in the evening and then immediately tested their recall of the words. The volunteers slept in the laboratory while their brain activity was recorded. Tests conducted the next morning showed that the participants could remember and recognize more words than they did immediately after learning them.

This improvement was not seen in another group of participants who learned new words and were tested in the morning and re-tested in the evening, with no sleep in between tests. The brain activity data collected from the volunteers in the sleep group showed that deep sleep (slow-wave sleep) helped strengthen their memories of new words.

The researchers also found that a type of brain activity called sleep spindles played a role in the ability to remember new words. Sleep spindles are brief but intense bursts of activity that indicate information transfer between two different memory storage areas, the hippocampus and the neocortex. The more sleep spindles a person experienced during sleep, the more successful they were in using new words in their vocabulary.

The day of our monthsary went by. But, we had a great time. Wifey and I agreed to have a good time with my brother who is new to the place. Even if it is our special day, we decided to tag him along. It is better that way at least he can also enjoy while staying in our place.

More than four hours of walking and picture taking saps all our energy. All of us were drained when we went home. It feels like we can no longer manage to do anything at home. That is why I did not do any of my pending tasks. I think it’s much better to stay out of it first and just surf the web for anything interesting like the DePuy Hip Recall. I just remember to search that.

On August 26, 2010 DePuy Orthopaedics, Inc. announced a recall of 93,000 hip replacement systems due to higher than expected number of people experiencing pain and swelling so severe that a second hip replacement surgery became necessary. If by any chance you need a DePuy Hip Recall lawyer, then the O’Hanlon, McCollum & Demerath law office can greatly help. Their attorneys understand that your hip injuries may not be your fault – instead, possibly due a defective DePuy Hip Implant. Their expertise and experience, combined with their highly trained staff, make them uniquely well-equipped to handle even the most complex products liability claims.

I’ve long used baking soda and white vinegar to keep my kitchen and bathroom drains clear and fresh smelling. I just put a teaspoon or less of baking soda into the drain and then pour in about a tablespoon of vinegar. I must admit that I am the kind of cook who rarely measures anything, and the same is true for these proportions, so feel free to experiment to find what works best in your sinks. Start small, though the combination of baking soda and vinegar causes an active fizzling and bubbling. In fact, that bubbling process is how you can tell if the box of baking soda you’ve had around forever is still good. Just follow the directions above. Your soda is still good if it bubbles away merrily.

Speaking of drains, if your drain is clogged, you can try using a lot more baking soda. One recipe is to pour a cup of baking soda down the drain, then a cup of vinegar. Wait a few minutes, or longer, and then run the hot water tap and see if you have cleared the drain. It could take overnight.

Another well-known use of baking soda is to keep an open box in the refrigerator to neutralize odors. Because baking soda cuts smells, it can also be put in the bottom tray of an oven-type electric toaster, to reduce burnt smells. Another smell-removing cleaning tip is to put baking soda into bottles or jars that milk has left a smell in.

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If scientists are right in their predictions of how research in the field of love evolves, poetic ramblings and incurable romantics will soon become a matter of the past. One behavioral psychologist, for instance, strongly believes science is one step closer to unlocking the “love drug” and thus pave the way towards creating the much coveted love potion. Professor Larry Young, of Emory University in Atlanta, US, explains, writing in the journal “Nature,” that coming across the exact scientific formula behind love, or that triggers the falling in love part, could be of extremely beneficial use in terms of artificially enhancing love and thus marital happiness.

Oxytocin, also known as “the cuddle hormone,” has been proved to alter human interaction for the better, being involved in the attraction between partners, boosting confidence and trust, and helping make almost all feelings of fear disappear. Apparently, a certain nasal spray containing oxytocin already exists, having been used in a previous study to determine the relation between the oxytocin levels and one’s ability to recognize faces.

Other factors, such as genetics (since, for instance, the inability to commit to a relationship in men has been showed to be genetically inherited) and one’s own body have to be taken into account before pronouncing oxytocin as the key to all problems. The conclusion is optimistic, for Professor Young at least. “Either way, recent advances in the biology of pair bonding mean it won’t be long before an unscrupulous suitor could slip a ‘love potion’ in our drink. And if they did, would we care? After all, love is insanity.” he said, more or less jokingly.

In the course of the very first panic attack, the shock of having one can leave a very lasting experience on the person. In fact, it can be so traumatizing that the person will associate the panic attack with the activity or place and start to AVOID that situation. Needless to say, panic attack never does go away and the person continues to re-live the experience again and again.

They avoid things that trigger their attack. They avoid places that trigger their attack. Eventually, the “avoid list” grows larger and larger until they avoid going out altogether. Even then, does the panic attack goes away? Well, this is the main problem – avoiding the problem. Ask yourself this question, why do you avoid panic attack? Because you FEAR it will happen again. Panic attack strikes due to this FEAR. If you do not fear it, panic attack cannot happen. Avoidance stems from fear. When you are fearful of something, you avoid it.

• You fear getting burned, you avoid playing with fire.
• You fear getting cut, you avoid playing with knives.
• You fear getting bitten by a dog, you avoid going near it.
• You fear dealing during a panic attack, you avoid triggering it. WRONG!

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Health experts never cease to warn sun-lovers of the many dangers inherent in too much exposure, even when protected by sun lotions and sunscreens. Tanning, both on the beach and with tanning beds, is the number one cause for developing skin cancer, we have been told so far. Not so much, says a new study, coming to show that, while over-exposure is recommended against, it’s not the sun that gets us skin cancer but our very genes, as the Times Online can also confirm.

Conducted by an international team of researchers, hailing from Queensland, Australia, Montreal, Canada and Philadelphia, America, the research identified two genes responsible – to a yet to be determined extent – to the appearance of skin cancer. “The number of moles you have is one of the strongest risk factors for melanoma – stronger than sunshine. This paper shows that we found two important genes that control the number of moles you have. Those genes also give you an extra risk of melanoma.” Tim Spector, professor of genetic epidemiology at King’s College London, where the research took place, explains. (more…)

Earlier it was believed that reading, extensive schooling and computer work were the main factors that contributed to the ever-increasing rate of myopia in children. While these three causes have not been eliminated completely from the equation, a new study performed by Australian researchers has showed that the main trigger could actually be not spending enough time outdoors. Strong evidence has brought the fact that children should spend an average of 2-3 hours outdoors on a daily basis, in order to reduce the risks of becoming short-sighted later in life almost by half.

The study involved a comparative analysis of the vision and habits of children aged six and seven from Singapore and Australia, undertaken by researchers from the Australian government. They found that 30 percent of the children in Singapore were suffering from myopia, which translated into ten times the rate in those from Australia.

Further investigation showed that the considerable difference in the rates of myopia could not be explained by genetic factors. Moreover, both study groups spent almost the same amount of time reading, in front of the computer and watching TV. What the Australian children did, though, that the Singaporean ones did not, was to play outdoors longer, about 90 minutes per day more. (more…)

It’s not unusual that we wake up and just know that “today’s going to be a bad day.” At times, we may even feel as if the entire universe has conjured against us to deliver us a blow that we may not recover from for the entire day, which means there’s nothing we can do to shake off the feeling. Not really so, LifeHacker says after going through all the trouble of looking up recent studies on how we perceive reality on these days and how to alter our perception of them to make them go away.

“Reflect on the negative feeling you have right now. Is it stress? Anxiety? Frustration? What caused it? Try to label it in one to three words, but no more! For instance, it might be ‘frustration with clients’ or ‘anger from [clients].’ You know, something like that. Once you’ve labeled it, do not think about the feeling or events anymore. Move on and only refer back to the label if necessary. Matthew Lieberman, an associate professor at UCLA, has shown that the simple act of putting our feelings into a word or two can dramatically reduce the effect of those feelings. When you’re angry, simply attaching the word ‘anger’ to your feeling makes you less angry,” LifeHacker writes for the first step in the process.

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