Why You Need Sunscreen

005 ZORRO after the summer vacation by edart

It's summer, the weather's hot, the sun is bright, and people are a little lazier (or maybe just me). But just as I was slacking a bit from wearing sunscreen everyday, I came upon an article on The Body Odd showing a picture of a 69 year old truck driver's skin after 25 years of daily sun exposure.

You Are What You Read

It's been awhile since I've curled up with a good story book (I've been reading a lot of how-to and informational books lately), so I think summer's the perfect time to get started on a new novel. After all, isn't there a whole section of books called summer/beach reads (or am I getting the name mixed up)? Anyway, you've probably already theorized this, but never found much evidence to back it up, until now, which is: when you read a work of fiction, your thoughts and behavior can change to match those of your favorite character, according to a study published by the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (via an article I found from The Body Odd).

We'll be a legend tomorrow by pintameldia

Does Green Spark Creativity?

So I've been reading The Body Odd again and found an article that goes perfectly with Spring. It's a study that found that people who glanced at the color green for two seconds before starting a creative task performed more creatively than those who glanced at other colors.

Flower Photography by CarolynCochrane

In this study, published in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin journal, 69 men and women were given two minutes to write down as many uses as possible for a tin can. A coder then rated each idea for its creativity and cleverness.

Regrets at the End of Life

At some point in our lives, we begin looking back and thinking, if I were younger, I would have done this or that, spent more time on this or that. And as more time passes, what we think we should have spent more time on also changes. Well, I found this blog post by Bronnie Ware on Inspiration and Chai, who shares the top five regrets of the dying from her time working in palliative care with patients who spent the last weeks of their lives with her.

Courage by SilverHorsePhotos

1. "I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me."

How Pets See the World

I have been wanting to get a dog for the longest time, but it was never the right time or situation, until... soon :) I'm very excited to say that, in the next several months or so, I will be able to have the location and right situation to finally provide a dog of my own with a nice home! More on that later. I've also been searching Petfinder.com and have a few favorites, although they may not be around for adoption by the time I'm able to commit. Oh well. Check out this cool infographic I found on Yahoo.com about the way animals see the world.

Click above for the original image or head to Yahoo for the article.

How Do You Spend Your Time Online?

If you're like me (and possibly like most people who have the internet), you probably spend a lot of time on social media sites. With so many choices out there, ever wonder what people use the most? Here's an informative infographic from ZDNet that gives us a look into the amount of time people spend on the different networking sites out there!

via ZDNet

How Memory Works {infographic}

If you're having trouble remembering stuff or if you're just curious about how your memory works (and then possibly devise strategies for improving it), I found a great infographic that will explain it all to you in pictures and minimum number of words! Yay for less words (that's less to remember :)

via Online Colleges

Click above for the original poster-size image (that you can print out if you'd like) or click here for the original source.

Inspiring Mini Stories

Today, I discovered a site called Makes Me Think (MMT), where anyone can submit short, thought-provoking stories that have touched their lives in some way. Maybe many of you already know about it. I found the site though Marc and Angel Hack Life, which selected an exceptional list of very mini stories that touched my heart. I'm going to list a few of my favorites:

Let the Music Play, Guitar by ShadetreePhotography

"Today, it’s been ten years since my abusive ex-fiancé sold my favorite guitar. He sold it on the day I left him. When I went to claim my belongings, he was proud that he had sold it to a pawn shop. Luckily, I managed to track down the guy who bought it from the pawn shop. He was really sweet, and gave it back to me for free, on the condition that I accompany him on his front porch for an hour to play guitar with him. He grabbed a second guitar and we ended up sitting there on his porch for the rest of the afternoon playing music, talking, and smiling. He’s been my husband for nine years now. MMT"

Scarcity of Women = Men Spending More

Since Valentine's Day is coming up, how about an article about the ways men compete for women? I found this interesting (and funny) post on Science Daily, which reports that the perception of a scarcity of women causes men to become impulsive, save less, and increase borrowing.

Wall-E Anniversary Photo Art Print by CharlenePrecious

How to Predict the Weather

In the spirit of teaching our kids (and ourselves :) how to read the weather in the old-fashioned, non-electronic way, here's an extremely awesome educational poster! And you know what's even better? It's a super big image file so you can save it, print it out, and post it on a bedroom wall! Are you as excited about this as I am?? :) Just click on the image for the original size. Here's also a link to the original source. Enjoy!

A Homemaker's Value

I came across an article on Yahoo today that addressed something that's been in the back of my mind for awhile now. It's called "How Much Is A Homemaker Worth?" via Investopia.com. I think it's been often noted that homemakers are undervalued in a society (such as ours) where the idea of being a "superwoman" (i.e. someone who does it all) is generally admired, praised, and flaunted. There's also been somewhat of a backlash to the "superwoman" image due to the media's way of categorizing mothers and pitting them against one another in a battle of what is the best way to raise a family. I'm currently not a mother, but I am interested in the value of doing our chores, whether we're men or women. I believe everyone has a reason for choosing to do the things they do and to live the life they're living, in the uncontrolled circumstances that they're in. And let's not forget that one person's happiness might be another's nightmare.

Housewife's Year Book by ErnasGreatStuff

Bad Baby Names Can Ruin Lives

So we know that celebrities like to get creative with baby names. Some of them sound really cool and some are just downright strange. But did you know that bad baby names can ruin lives? Apparently so!

Humpty Dumpty Art Print by frighten

A study published in Social Psychological and Personality Science found that, out of nearly 12,000 adult participants, having a bad first name can not only ruin your self-esteem, but make you lonelier and dumber... that's pretty harsh. Not only that, but in various experiments testing name desirability on an European dating website, eDarling, the majority of (a different set of) 12,000 participants responded that they would rather remain single than enter a relationship with someone whose name they dislike.

11 Obvious Findings of 2011

One of our favorite things to do at the beginning of the year is to look back at highlights from the previous year. That's what The Body Odd did with this article, which I'm sharing/summarizing here. It's a list of obvious things we already know, except with scientific findings to back them up! Sometimes reality does follow logical reasoning :)

Unsafe sex is more likely after drinking: Who knew? Canadian researchers found that for 0.1 milligram-per-milliliter increase in participants' blood alcohol levels, the likelihood of having unprotected sex increased by 5%.

Red Wine Glass Gold Lighthouse by skyspirit8studios

5 Second Rule, yes or no?

I'm sure there were lots of food-dropping in the past month, especially as it's the season for stuffing oneself. There are always a few people who totally abide by the 5 second rule (and maybe since I'm not one of them, I think I'm in the majority, but I could be wrong). So how nice of The Body Odd to have an article that hopefully brings light to the controversial and long-debated rule.

Here's the video from the original article, if you'd prefer watching it.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Basically, Nadine Wimmer (of the KSL news program from Utah), left pacifiers and graham crackers on the ground of four locations for 5 seconds, then took them to a lab for testing.

Meat Keeps Holiday Guests Calm

If you haven't noticed in the past years of your entire life, everyone gets a little antsy during the holiday season. Whether it's finding parking, Christmas shopping, or grocery shopping for big holiday dinners, people are a little more nuts than usual. Sometimes I wonder why we can't all calm down a little, but I'm probably hypocritically plowing through an aisle of toys while wondering said thought. Thanks to researchers (or people who are eternally curious about other people) and just in time for the biggest dinner party coming up in a few weeks, research suggests that meat actually makes us less aggressive. (Sorry vegetarians! Be warned that there will be lots of pictures of meat).

5x7 English Bulldog Thanksgiving Card by snowy4052002

Craving Fatty Foods? Sleep More

Mr Fox and Mrs PB scoffing burgers by Emily Dyson

According to a small study (via The Body Odd), not getting enough ZZZs can make it harder for you (and me) to resist temptation. That makes sense. Whenever I'm tired at work, I end up drinking a coke and eating whatever candy I can find around my desk and/or the kitchen. I'm also more likely to eat junky food at lunch.

Sweet Tooth = Sweet Personality?

Just in time for Halloween, let us ponder whether having a sweet tooth equals having a sweet personality. After all, we do use taste-related words to describe others -- in fact, I just used "sweet" to describe a type of personality :) We use words like "honey," "sweetie pie," and "cupcake" to positively describe kind and caring people, and use words like "bitter" and "salty" to describe not-so-likeable people. Once again, I've been reading The Body Odd and they've found a couple of studies that claim individuals with a sweet spot also show sweet behaviors.

Halloween Ghost Brothers Cupcake Toppers by mimicafeunion

Are You Affected by the Weather?

I can't believe that it's September already! I love summer because I love the hot temperatures, sunshine, and longer days. Now it's all coming to an end as autumn slowly (or actually, rapidly) approaches. Just thinking about it makes me a little sad. I've noticed that my mood is directly affected by the weather and I think that's the case for many many people. Have you ever felt that your moods are tied to the weather as well?

What Summer Means To Me by Kristybee
Yes, I want to live the kind of charmed life evoked by these photos.

Thanks to studies done by psychologists (they never let me down), there is evidence that weather does indeed directly affect the moods of some of us. Now we can say we're not making this stuff up when we blame our crankiness on the rain (or the sun).

The Truth About 100% Orange Juice?

I was feeling a little sick today so I thought drinking some orange juice would help. I've always heard that Vitamin C and lots of liquids are good for recovering from colds (although I had a slight fever, so maybe that wouldn't have helped). Interestingly, I found this article, while browsing Yahoo, that states even "100% pure" orange juice is artificially flavored.

Orange Ginger Marmalade by BartonArtel

No wonder the typical "fresh-squeezed" orange juice from grocery stores never tasted like fresh oranges to me, which is why I never liked orange juice much. Apparently, in order to mass-produce orange juice, big name brands (like Tropicana, Minute Maid, Florida's Natural, etc) pasteurize fresh orange juice and take out all of the oxygen in order to preserve it without adding chemicals (the juice is then stored in million-gallon tanks for up to a year before shipping out to grocery stores). Once the oxygen has been removed, the juice no longer tastes much like oranges, so companies have their own blend of artificial flavoring to make the juice taste like oranges again and to make sure each carton is consistently flavored with the taste their juices are known for.

DIY Simple Skincare Recipes

I'm really into making my own facial scrubs and such, so I was delighted when I found this article on Yahoo recently with a bunch of super simple recipes that require only 2 to 3 ingredients.

Choice of Three Soap Bars by EldoradoSoap
No, I can't teach you how to make these, but you can get them on Etsy :)