"And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt." --Sylvia Plath
The Duke University Medical Center conducted a study on children and peanut allergies and found that doses of peanuts introduced in a controlled and increasing manner over time allowed the child's immune system to accept the once rejected food. Children who could not tolerate 1/6th of a peanut were eating 20 peanuts in a time period of six months. This is amazing considering that of the most common food allergies (shelled fish, fish, wheat, cows milk, eggs, soy, tree nuts), 60% cannot tolerate peanuts. Allergies are more common among children because often the reaction is due to the fact that their GI tracts are still developing and they don't have the enzymes to break down the proteins. When this happens, the body thinks that the food item is actually harmful to the body and responds in a matter to fight it off. Especially with peanuts, the response can even lead the victim into anaphylactic shock. This is ground breaking research because it means that we can use the very thing that hurts us to actually help us, if it is introduced in a manner that allows your body to build up a tolerance for it. As a friendly warning, I caution you to not repeat this study on your own! Just because you slowly introduce Reese's pieces to your diet doesn't mean that it will get rid of your allergy-- At Duke medical center they had doctors on hand to help respond to the subjects whom received PRECISE and calculated dosages. Plus I don't want to be liable or have to drive your puffy ass to the ER!
Some of the best advice I have ever received is to just sleep. If it's at night and I feel distraught, anxious or sad and feel the need to "fix" whatever is bothering me by making a decision or confronting someone, I go to sleep. Sometimes the best thing you can do for yourself is to just turn off and see if you still feel that way in the morning. Chances are you will feel the need to handle the situation in a different manner, or having gone through with it, you will want to apologize or take back choice words.
At night there is a tendency to be more reactive to events that you usually wouldn't respond to in the same manner if you had been well rested. It's just harder to regulate your emotions and keep composure when you're exhausted. So put down your phone, stop the dramatic text messages and stalking people on face book.
This all goes to show you how important getting adequate sleep is, and the effect it can have on your life-- Even if nothing dramatic is going on, SLEEP helps you be the best person you can be. Your mood is better. You feel refreshed. You can face the new day with a more positive outlook and studies have shown that you perform better.
I found this AWESOME site. Eureka alert is an online, global news service operated by AAAS, the science society. EurekAlert! provides a central place through which universities, medical centers, journals, government agencies, corporations and other organizations engaged in research can bring their news to the media. EurekAlert! also offers its news and resources to the public. The site features news and resources focused on all areas of science, medicine and technology.
Basically I find it frustrating that men seem to shed pounds without even trying... Or maybe, they ARE trying and we are too busy distracting ourselves with exhausting cardio workouts, obsessing over nutritional labels and feeling bad about eating chocolate. Maybe hitting the big weights and drinking those protein shakes aren't just to impress us in the gym. Guys also allow themselves to eat "bad" when they want to and express their anger/emotions through physical activity while women are more likely to turn to ice cream therapy. I think us girls could learn a little something from men so eat a giant steak, put down your barbie weights, and READ THIS.
The Futurist Magazine unveiled their top ten predictions for 2010. Here are my interpretations:
1. Your phone will tell you when you’re in love. Apparently there will be applications which share your profile information with possible love matches and suggest you communicate with them. Not only that, but it will tell you if they are nearby. I don't know about this one... I already have an application that tells me the whereabouts of local sex offenders and I think that's the only information I feel comfortable receiving on my phone. Also, what if you were standing in line at the gas station and your phone notifies you that you happen to share a love of cocker spaniels with the creepy guy at the register, and that he is an ideal love match. BING! you both get an alert on your cell phone... that's awkward...
2. In the design economy of the future, people will download and print their own products, including auto parts, jewelry, and even the kitchen sink. THIS SOUNDS AWESOME!!! also, it would eliminate the guilt felt during the period where you pay and wait for the shipment of an online order. OH! and just imagine the FOOD DELIVERY possibilities...
3. The era of brain-to-brain telepathy dawns. This eliminates the tried and true excuse of "I can't read your mind" during future fights between couples.
4. Tomorrow’s inventors will spend their days writing descriptions of the problems they want to solve, and then letting computers find the solutions. This just sounds nerdy, and lazy... also, I can't help but sympathize for Vince the creepy Shamwow guy and the possibility of him becoming unemployed...and retaliating by chopping us all into tiny pieces with his slap chop, excuse me, slap chopS because it's 2 for the price of one. You know he would get away with the murders too, those shamwow blankets could soak up all the evidence in a millisecond.
5. Micronations built on artificial islands will dramatically shift the face of global politics. Damn Micrys.
6. Young people will read more, and the old will play more video games. "Grandpa.. can you read to me please?" "You shut your mouth boy, can't you see I'm play wii-fit!?"
"allright. th-th-the boy threw the b-b-b-basketball."
I guess this would allow old people to become more physically active and the younger populations literacy levels would rise. sounds like a win-win to me.
7. Ammonia may become the fuel of choice for cars by 2020. So instead of gas stations you just hook up a urinal to the side of you car?
8. Algae may become the new oil. Wouldn't want to be involved in a fuel spill of this kind on the highway. BUT, I WOULD LOVE TO BE A WHALE! Can you imagine if a fuel ship spilled? NOM NOM NOM
9. Radical methods of altering the planet may be the only way to prevent the worst effects of climate change. no shit.
10. The existence of extraterrestrial life will be confirmed or conclusively denied within a generation. I personally believe that there is life out there.. they may not be green little men floating around in space ships but I do think that in the vast expanse that is the Universe, there has to be some living organism, even if they are microscopic.
A professor at Purdue university has done some interesting research on the psychological and physiological effects of ostracism.
He created a experiment which featured a computer program where a randomly selected subject would virtually engage in a game of throwing and catching a ball with two other people. The subject could control who they threw the ball to, but had no say who passed the ball to them. (see above picture for screen shot of the program)
Without their knowledge, the subject was filmed playing the game in a separate room. They believed they were interacting with two other real people but really it was just them against the computer program. In the beginning of the session, the two other ball throwers would pass the ball equally to the subject, but as the game progressed, the subject no longer was involved in the play and the ball stopped being passed to them. In footage taken during the experiment, the emotional response of the subject transformed from happy facial expressions to ones reflecting anger, sadness and pain as they were progressively excluded. This videois footage of an actual subject, a student at Purdue,who participated, and it is hilarious watching him become increasingly distressed.
Following the game, subjects reported high emotional distress and lower levels of self esteem. Some even said the experiment made their lives seem less meaningful. Furthermore, it didn't matter if they knew the people they were interacting with, or even if they appeared as people they would want to be associated with-- all pain from social rejection was equally intense, regardless of who they were excluded from.
In another study, it was found that ostracism generates powerful emotional responses, and has been shown to activate the same areas of the brain as physical pain.
This all goes to show you how much rejection can hurt.. so be inclusive! Let someone sit with you at lunch and be mindful when you 'defriend' on face book.
For more information on the cyberball experiment go to the following link:
I am currently taking a class about Interpersonal Relationships, so I am especially interested in news articles related to the subject.
While I found this article hilarious, at the same time I was also disappointed with the low standards of the NCU female students.
As for a man’s cheating, “that’s a thing that girls let slide, because you have to,” said Emily , a junior at North Carolina. “If you don’t let it slide, you don’t have a boyfriend.”
Higher Ratio of women to men+college campus+ booze= casual hookups and lower commitment levels. BIG surprise there.
Praise the lord that of UT's student body, 51.93% is female.
**disclaimer- while this ratio provides better odds of becoming involved in a committed relationship, it does not guarantee that, hypothetically speaking, if you surprise your significant other with a breakfast burrito one morning, you will not find another girl in his bed. Needless to say, I am not currently dating a UT boy. no offense.
