2010年12月30日星期四

5 Surprising Kids Food Facts Revealed in 2010

FYI Living Kids’ Health has provided runescape gold readers with hundreds of articles this year giving parents powerful knowledge that they can apply to improve their children’s health and well-being. Here is a list of Five Surprising Food Facts we revealed in 2010:
1. Cartoon Characters on Food Labels Encourages Your Child to Eat More Junk
Any parent who grocery shops with their child knows that kids want foods packaged with their favorite characters’ names and faces. But in FYI Living’s article “SpongeBob Makes Junk Food Taste Better,” we shared two surprising facts: 1) kids believe high-calorie, low-nutrient food packaged with familiar characters actually tastes better than the same items in plain packaging, and 2) unfortunately, the placement of characters on non-junk food items (like carrots) doesn’t have the same effect.
2. Many Baby and Toddler Foods Contain Unhealthy Levels of Sodium and runescape money Sugar
“The Scary Truth Inside Baby Food,” revealed the details of a study which analyzed food products marketed for babies and toddlers. Of the 186 products analyzed in the study, more than 60% contained unacceptably high levels of sodium, sugar or both.Nutrition levels in baby foods are of paramount importance, as taste preferences formed in babies and toddlers have been shown to affect their food preferences as adults. Given the results of this study, parents of babies and toddlers might be surprised to discover that they need to be as vigilant about reading the labels on products they buy for the under two set as they are for products they buy for themselves.
3. Chocolate Milk is runescape accounts Better Than No Milk
As the chocolate milk debate raged at the start of the school year, FYI Living expert and Registered Dietitian Tamara Duker Freuman weighed in with a strong –- and perhaps surprising — vote for chocolate milk. While Freuman does not recommend introducing sweetened, flavored milks (or other drinks) to toddlers or preschool-aged children at home, many school-aged children are faced with the choice every day. Parents can rest easy, however, as Freuman believes that in the long run, “The bone-building benefits of milk’s calcium — even if it contains sugar — outweigh the drawbacks of its additional calories and sugar.” Read Freuman’s entire article here.
4. Fast Food Knowledge Is Power–and Health
Knowing the nutritional content of fast food won’t make it more nutritious for your family – but research has shown that this knowledge can lead to better choices. A study published in The Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics and covered in our “How Chain Restaurant Label Laws Help Children” article showed that ff14 gil when parents were aware of the nutritional content of fast food, they selected meals for their children that were an average of 102 fewer calories than the meals chosen by parents without access to nutritional information.
5. Sports Drinks are as Unhealthy as Sodas–But Many Teens Remain Uninformed
Recent media coverage has shined a light on sugary sports drinks as being just as unhealthy as soda – yet a study covered in FYI Living’s “The Sugary Truth Behind Sports Drinks and Teens” shows that even teens who eat well and exercise still mistakenly believe that sports drinks support their healthy lifestyles.Marketers advertise these drinks in a way that associates them with a healthy lifestyle, and unfortunately, teens are still buying into this marketing myth.
Creating healthy eating habits in children can be a daunting task in this age of heavy marketing to children and teens, and the convenience of fast food in the busy lives of many families. We hope these Top 5 Surprising Food Facts and FYI Living’s many other Kids Health articles will continue buy ffxiv gil to help readers make the best nutrition choices for their families.

2010年12月29日星期三

Why Online Learning is Hot Right Now

You’ve probably noticed the runescape accounts explosion in colleges that are offering degrees online. What’s driving this trend and is an online degree the best option for you?
Online learning makes getting a degree easy
School is not what it used to be. The development of the internet has led many universities to create degree programs that students can complete entirely from the comfort of their homes. Because you are not required to attend conventional classes, you can complete these degrees on your schedule, taking courses at the time and place of your choosing, including in the evening or on your lunch break.
Financial assistance and government grants make online degrees a bargain
Because you complete online degrees from home at your own pace, the cost of earning a degree is significantly less than what you might expect, and far less than a traditional university degree. Most runescape money people complete their online degree while working full time.
The recent Federal stimulus law also makes millions of dollars available to help reduce the costs of getting a degree online. In fact, the majority of the bill’s 70 billion dollar education budget is devoted to helping low-to-middle income Americans get college degrees. People who qualify can receive as much as $2,500 in education reimbursements each year.
Even if you don’t qualify for a grant, many online universities provide additional tuition assistance and can help you get financial aid to help offset the costs runescape gold of the program.
Online learning leads to higher pay and better jobs
While the overall economy is still mired in recession and unemployment rates are sky-high, the truth is, there are certain types of jobs that are in huge demand, and for which there is a severe shortage of skilled workers. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has identified a number of professions expected to experience above-average growth over the next decade. Most of these positions fall within the top 25 percent of earnings for workers overall, and most require a bachelor's degree or technical degree.
These in-demand jobs include medical information administrators and other skilled healthcare workers, Web programmers and designers, accountants and financial administrators, to name just a few. For many, thefastest and easiest way to qualify for these jobs is with the right degree.
Is there an online degree that makes sense for you?
Today, there are many, many options for getting an online degree, and ff14 gil the process of choosing the right program can be daunting. Fortunately, a new free service from a company called YourDegree.com has been designed to help you do just that.
YourDegree.com has created an easy to use website where you can quickly research a wide range of online degrees. They are an unbiased agency representing dozens of the best online learning programs in America. YourDegree.com gives you the facts about costs, degree offerings, job placement help, time commitments, academic faculty, and other important information you need before choosing the right program for you.
So, if your goal is find the best job in a tough economy, or give yourself the most earning potential in your existing position, perhaps you should take a serious look at an online degree. And, if you want to find the best options for you, YourDegree.com is ffxiv power leveling the place to start.

Why Online Learning is Hot Right Now

You’ve probably noticed the runescape accounts explosion in colleges that are offering degrees online. What’s driving this trend and is an online degree the best option for you?
Online learning makes getting a degree easy
School is not what it used to be. The development of the internet has led many universities to create degree programs that students can complete entirely from the comfort of their homes. Because you are not required to attend conventional classes, you can complete these degrees on your schedule, taking courses at the time and place of your choosing, including in the evening or on your lunch break.
Financial assistance and government grants make online degrees a bargain
Because you complete online degrees from home at your own pace, the cost of earning a degree is significantly less than what you might expect, and far less than a traditional university degree. Most runescape money people complete their online degree while working full time.
The recent Federal stimulus law also makes millions of dollars available to help reduce the costs of getting a degree online. In fact, the majority of the bill’s 70 billion dollar education budget is devoted to helping low-to-middle income Americans get college degrees. People who qualify can receive as much as $2,500 in education reimbursements each year.
Even if you don’t qualify for a grant, many online universities provide additional tuition assistance and can help you get financial aid to help offset the costs runescape gold of the program.
Online learning leads to higher pay and better jobs
While the overall economy is still mired in recession and unemployment rates are sky-high, the truth is, there are certain types of jobs that are in huge demand, and for which there is a severe shortage of skilled workers. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has identified a number of professions expected to experience above-average growth over the next decade. Most of these positions fall within the top 25 percent of earnings for workers overall, and most require a bachelor's degree or technical degree.
These in-demand jobs include medical information administrators and other skilled healthcare workers, Web programmers and designers, accountants and financial administrators, to name just a few. For many, thefastest and easiest way to qualify for these jobs is with the right degree.
Is there an online degree that makes sense for you?
Today, there are many, many options for getting an online degree, and ff14 gil the process of choosing the right program can be daunting. Fortunately, a new free service from a company called YourDegree.com has been designed to help you do just that.
YourDegree.com has created an easy to use website where you can quickly research a wide range of online degrees. They are an unbiased agency representing dozens of the best online learning programs in America. YourDegree.com gives you the facts about costs, degree offerings, job placement help, time commitments, academic faculty, and other important information you need before choosing the right program for you.
So, if your goal is find the best job in a tough economy, or give yourself the most earning potential in your existing position, perhaps you should take a serious look at an online degree. And, if you want to find the best options for you, YourDegree.com is ffxiv power leveling the place to start.

2010年12月28日星期二

Officials order new safety measures for 'Spider-Man'

The beleaguered "Spider-Man" musical runescape gold canceled its performance on Wednesday in order to put in place new safety measures for its complicated stage maneuvers, the show's publicists said.
The show was stopped after New York state safety inspectors and producer and director Julie Taymor agreed on Wednesday to additional safety measures after a leading stuntman was rushed to hospital when he fell from a high platform during a performance earlier this week.
It was the fourth injury to an actor in the $65 million musical, causing the inspectors to force new rules on the production that require a second stagehand and stage manager to back up all of the show's 38 stunts involving harnesses and ropes.
Much of the ambitious production's cost has been devoted to its hi-tech effects, unprecedented runescape money on Broadway, with actors flying through the air and at times over the audience.
"All of these accidents are a result of safety and health systems failures," Maureen Cox, Director of Safety and Health for the New York State Department of Labor, told reporters.
A spokesman for the show, whose full title is "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark" and which has music written by U2's Bono and The Edge, said the actors and crew were currently practicing the new measures. New performances were due to resume on Thursday and all ticket-holders runescape accounts for the canceled performance would receive refunds.
The cancellation of Wednesday's show was the latest setback for the musical whose official opening date has been delayed several times with a latest date of February 7. Early in development, the show was plagued by financial and technical issues, before finally making it into previews. Ticket sales nevertheless have been strong, so far.
The incident involving the stuntman, Christopher Tierney, occurred when the aerialist was performing as a stunt double for the masked "Spider-Man" character. He plunged off the platform during a tense moment in one of the final scenes seven minutes before the end of Monday buy ffxiv gil night's performance.
Audience members said they heard a thud while a fellow actress on stage appeared to scream and the audience went quiet while the stage was blacked out.
Cox said the investigation into why Tierney fell and whether the production had broken any safety codes was continuing, but the show and inspectors agreed in the meantime to the broader safety measures.
"At this point, we are satisfied that they have put in the appropriate controls," said Cox. "If they are not comfortable and haven't got everything in place, we have agreed that they wouldn't go, and so apparently ffxiv power leveling that is the position that they are in right now."

2010年12月27日星期一

Coffee Consumption Makes You Fat or Help You Burn Fat?

Coffee's a controversial subject in runescape gold health and fitness. Mostly because some people think you should never drink a drop and others think you should drop water for coffee. I'm in the middle. I like drinking coffee. I don't drink 5 cups a day, but I do take a strong cup or two in the morning. But let's assess the situation a little more to help you make an informed decision.
The Sides:
One side says Italians (among other populations) drink plenty of espresso and consume more fat, but are leaner than many other countries' population. Many on this side also say coffee contains 0 or near 0 calories, and according to the law of thermodynamics, gaining weight is a matter of calories. Additionally, a few studies do show that caffeine (especially prior to exercise) can accelerate fat loss.
Another side says that coffee indirectly causes weight gain through the hormonal changes it causes. The rise in cortisol/adrenaline stresses the adrenal glands to the point where high cortisol levels damage metabolism. The adrenals have a relationship with organs and glands, including the Thyroid. And since the Thyroid contributes to the control over your metabolism, the excessive rise in adrenal hormones may not be a good thing. There's a lot more to this side by the way.
Then there's the other people who just drink coffee, espresso and whatever else runescape money floats their boat because that's what people do.
The Studies:
The studies I've gone over all highlight the benefits of coffee consumption such as increased insulin sensitivity, decreased risk for cancers and death, decreased risk for Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, increased fat mobilization and so on.
But, most of the studies were done with moderate amounts of coffee. What does that mean?
That means if you're drinking 5-6 cups a day, I don't have any studies telling me whether that's bad or good. But from my own intuition, if you need coffee to stay awake or even just feel good, it might be time to take a break and focus on improving health. By improving health, you will increase energy and get a more restful sleep. That alone could fix your need for coffee.
I've gotten a little side-tract, so let's get to the runescape accounts point, does coffee help you burn fat or does it make you fat:
Ways Coffee Increases Fat loss:a
* Decreases appetite
* Increases focus and stimulation, taking mind off food
* Increases Adrenaline/Noradrenaline, which play a role in "Fat Burning" (really hate using that phrase sometimes)
* Increases energy, possibly improving likelihood for consumer to exercise
* Ways Coffee Makes You Fat:
* Some people feel the need to eat sweets with coffee
* If you drink coffee with virtually anything besides coffee in it, you're probably heading in the wrong direction, many of the holiday editions contain close to a hundred grams of sugar and 50 grams of fat.
* If coffee is just one of many stressors in your life, then yes, your adrenals will suffer, and consequently so might your Thyroid, metabolism, and other organs. But coffee isn't the main cause here.
* If your expensive coffee consumption is taking up money you could be putting towards purchasing healthy food
Focus in on that third point in ways coffee makes you fat: If you're getting littl ff14 gile to no sleep, consuming a diet filled with sugar and chemicals, doing chronic cardio instead of exercising intelligently, and excessively stressing emotionally/mentally, then you should probably drop coffee.
Or keep coffee, and use that energy to solve the other 4 MAJOR problems I just listed.
Summary: Moderate consumption of coffee has been shown to have many health benefits, including accelerated weight loss. Key word: moderate. If I was someone who had some of the stressors listed above, I would be making some major changes, including decreasing or eliminating coffee consumption.
Just a little disclosure, I drank coffee buy ffxiv gil before writing this post!

2010年12月26日星期日

Japan couples eye low-key Christmas dates

What's your idea of a romantic runescape accounts Christmas? For Japanese couples it's often dinner and a movie -- yet many will likely forego a big evening on the town this year in favor of a silent night at home, a survey showed.
That's a big change from the go-go days of Japan's bubble economy 20 years ago when couples preferred to splash cash on fancy dinners, go driving and even visit Tokyo Disneyland, according to the survey by Internet research firm Macromill.
Christmas Eve is traditionally a big couples night in Japan and seen as a key romantic event -- akin to Valentine's Day in some countries -- with many women expecting to be wined and dined by their partners in a lavish night on the town.
But Christmas, a mostly secular affair in Japan where businesses stay open as usual, has had a lower-key feel in recent years as couples seek out inexpensive date options in these thrifty economic times.
To compare dating rituals between the generations, Macromill asked single people in their runescape money 20s and 30s how they have spent Christmas in the past few years, and asked those over age 40 how they passed the holiday during the years 1986-1990.
Only 39 percent of those in their 20s and 30s have been out for a fancy Christmas dinner, down sharply from 67 percent in the late 1980s for the over-40 group, the survey showed.
Meanwhile, 32 percent in their runescape accounts 20s and 30s have had a "home date" -- cooking and watching a movie at home with their partner -- up from 22 percent in the late 1980s.
And 54 percent of those in their 20s cited staying at home as their ideal Christmas date, far outpacing going to a pricey restaurant (35 percent), shopping for presents (25 percent) and staying at a hotel (13 percent).
Regardless of the economic climate, however, some things never lose their romantic spark. About half of the 20- to 30- somethings have been on recent dates to see Christmas illuminations around town, unchanged from two decades ago.
Macromill conducted the poll in late November. It based the results on a sample of responses from 500 people from the greater Tokyo area in their 20s runescape money through their 50s.

2010年12月25日星期六

Ditch the Diet if You Want to Lose Weight

From the grapefruit diet to "The Master Cleanse," fad runescape gold diets have become quite popular in our Hollywood-influenced society. However, crash dieting is synonymous with food deprivation. Deprivation means never feeling satisfied after a meal, and no one can do that long-term.
As Americans, we eat larger portions than most other cultures, and much larger portions than our bodies actually need to feel satisfied. But what if you could actually train your brain to feel satisfied on smaller portions?
Enter Dr. Alan Hirsch, a renowned neurologist, whose lifelong specialty has been understanding how our senses, and in particular, smell and taste affect the brain's functioning. Dr. Hirsch noticed that many patients who had lost their sense of smell and taste due to illness or accident experienced rapid weight gain. Hirsh hypothesized that if loss of smell contributed to weight gain, then the opposite could be true; enhancing the smell of food could lead to weight loss.
Dr. Hirsch studied hundreds of runescape money compounds and after years of research developed a set of virtually odorless and tasteless food sprinkles, called “Tastants,” that enhance the experience of eating and trigger the body to feel fuller on smaller portions.
Then, in one of the largest clinical studies of a non-prescription weight-loss system, these Tastants were tested for effectiveness as a means of weight loss.
The results were significant. Over a 6 month period, 1,436 women and men sprinkled flavorless "Tastant" crystals on everything they ate, and lost an average of 30.5 pounds - nearly 15% of their total runescape accounts body weight. Participants achieved these results without adding exercise or changing their diet. Hirsh recently made these Tastants available to the public as the SENSA? Weight Loss System
"The reason SENSA? works, when diets don't, is because it lets you do what no diet can," says Dr. Hirsch. "It lets you lose weight while still eating the foods you love most without ever feeling hungry or deprived." So you eat what you want, you just eat less. Too good to be true?
How to try it free
Apparently the company anticipated a somewhat skeptical response from consumers so they have launched a “try it before you buy it” campaign.
They are so confident you will lose weight with SENSA that new customers get to use the product for 30 days so that they can see results before deciding if they runescape money want to pay for it or not.

2010年12月24日星期五

How To Have A Stree-Free Holiday

Let the gift shopping, wrapping and runescape accounts giving begin: the holidays are here! Soon everyone will be walking around, humming holiday tunes and acting jollier than usual. However, underneath it all, everyone will be STRESSING!
The holidays are notorious for adding a large amount of stress during an already stressful time. When can you shop for gifts when you have to finish a report before New Years? What do you buy your parents? Can you afford an expensive gift for your spouse in this economy?
Stress. Stress. Stress.
But it doesn’t have to be this way! Here are four tips that will help you stay stress-free this holiday season:
Spend more time with family, and less with work.
The countdown to the New Year has begun and you see your work deadlines creeping up on the calendar. It’s natural to want to finish your work responsibilities as soon as possible but don’t let it interrupt runescape money family time. Instead, try heading into the office earlier, rather than bring your work home with you. That way, you have more time at the end of the day for family and even holiday shopping.
Take a dip.
After working 10-hour-days (to make up for the extra vacation time) you can feel yourself physically and mentally start to break down; your body begins to ache and your brain hurts. Get rid of these pains and make yourself sit in your local gym’s spa or relax in your own hot tub.
Hot tubs and spas are a great way to escape from a hectic day – even if it’s just for a half an hour. You will feel refreshed both physically and mentally in minutes.
Turn your hobby into a habit.
Remember those days when you loved runescape gold playing golf on the weekends? Or going out with your girlfriends to get your nails done? Well, turn that distant memory into a date for next week. Spending time doing the things you love will be a nice break from shopping for gifts and decorating the house for the holidays.
Make time to exercise.
There are a number of reasons as to why you should stay healthy and fit: it will help you lose weight, add years to your life and prevent colds during flu season. More importantly, going to the gym this holiday season will keep you sane.
Aerobic exercise and weightlifting produce endorphins, the “happy” chemicals in your body. These chemicals are much needed during holiday season when the stress tries to take over. Don’t let it!
And don’t worry; you don’t have to run five miles to reach the “happy place.” Instead, sign up for a Yoga class to relieve stress. Kundalini Yoga is a great way to relieve stress naturally.
Remember, the holidays are a time to look forward to, not dread. Follow these four tips and you’ll be relaxed and ready to enjoy delicious food and time with family from the second you ffxiv power leveling clock out.

2010年12月23日星期四

Top 10 entertainment events of 2010

Showbiz will never stop runescape gold generating buzz as much as people will never stop gossiping. It may be a rumor, accident or scandal to hit the headlines, but when it involves a celebrity it soon becomes a hot topic. Here, in a chinadaily.com.cn special, we look back at the top 10 entertainment sensations in China in 2010.
Lightening marriage
The “lightening marriage” of Taiwan actress Barbie Hsu, 34, to her beau and restaurant heir Wang Xiaofei, 29, is a living example of “love at the first sight”, which dominated newspaper headlines, forums and micro blogs. Just 49 days after their first date the couple registered their marriage in Beijing on November 16. It was billed as romantic fairytale-meets-prank by various members of the public. The curiosity and controversy of their “true love” along with overcoming an age gap reflected the nation’s current mood on marriage. Although many online surveys seem pessimistic about their marriage, only time will truly tell.
Horrific explosion
A horrific explosion on the set of I Have A Date With Spring, in Shanghai, saw Selina Jen of the girl group S.H.E. and actor Yu Haoming suffer extensive burns. This tragic accident would be a turning point for the two promising young stars. Currently both of them are receiving medical therapy, which will reportedly take two years for them to fully recover. The accident was said to have been due to aged explosives, although an investigation is ongoing. Awareness about actors’ safety was greatly raised after this harsh lesson.Deadly plastic surgery
Pursuing external beauty through medical procedures is painstaking or in some cases runescape money deadly. Wang Bei, once a contestant in the popular talent show Super Girl, died on Nov 15 after a complication with anesthetic during plastic surgery. To improve her pop-star looks, Wang risked her life in this hazardous surgery and lost it. Her tragic death served as a wake-up call for the millions who crave artificial beauty in an often-unregulated environment.
Donation Gate
Philanthropy has proved to be rewarding and risky for some. Zhang Ziyi was first accused of donating only part of the claimed 1 million yuan to victims of the earthquake in Sichuan in 2008. It was later revealed that she had not raised anywhere close to this amount at the charity party she held in Cannes for the purpose. In an exclusive interview with China Daily, Zhang vehemently denied accusations that she committed fraud in the name of charity, but admitted to inexperience when organizing a donation drive for the relief of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake.
Secret marriage unveiled
In order to maintain their much-acclaimed image, celebrities tend to purposely veil their privacy. For most it is understandable, but for one former couple, it got on the public’s nerves. At a press briefing on March 27, Hong Kong actress Charlene Choi and singer Ronald Cheng announced their divorce putting their four-year marriage to an end, which immediately hit the headlines and ffxiv gil sparked widespread astonishment. The public was kept in the dark about their secret marriage, which even escaped the sharp radar of the paparazzi. This jaw-dropping news also provoked a credit crisis for Charlene who always impressed the public with her very girly image.
Top diva's comeback
Being away from the spotlight for six years, China’s top diva Faye Wong returned to the stage with 10 concerts in Beijing, Shanghai and other metropolises. Wong’s comeback injected exuberant vitality to the tepid pop concert market, even stirring widespread complaints among her fans for the scarcity of concert tickets. As the most famous singer on China's contemporary pop scene, Wong combines alternative styles, influenced by the Scottish group Cocteau Twins, with more traditional Chinese lyrical ballads. A prosperous box office and ticket demand revealed no sign of a decline in popularity, her iconic influence never faded in the capricious and constantly updating entertainment industry. Although her voice isn’t that clear as before, Wong’s legendary musical career would guarantee her name appears on the page of China’s pop music history.
Car model's sex photo
A Beijing car model known as "Shoushou" (The Beast) was embroiled in scandal after her ex-boyfriend released online a video of them having sex. Many accused the 23-year-old of exploiting the video to boost her career. Confronted with the accusation, Zhai (her real name) resolutely denied it during an interview with China Daily: "I believe there is not a woman in the world who would truly like to ruin her life-long reputation for commercial exploitation.” Undeniably this scandal made her better known, but Zhai had to taste the bitterness of fame.
Crosstalk performer's violence scandal
performer Guo Degang, popular across the nation for his standup comedy runescape accounts show that assails the vices of the times, landed in hot water after one of his apprentices beat up a TV reporter who was trying to interview the celebrity at his residence. This incident was a PR disaster for Guo, who was forced to cancel a number of performances and also raised the awareness for better protection for journalists' rights.
Love revenge
Award-winning film director Yan Po was brutally stabbed by premeditated attackers in a parking lot, resulting in bone fractures and a severed Achilles tendon. Yan’s girlfriend, actress Li Xiaoran, appeared at the Chaoyang district police station in Beijing and publicly admitted their relationship for the first time. Subsequently, eight of the suspects were caught by police and two alleged organizers surrendered themselves to police. They claimed to have arranged the attack to punish Yan for dating Li, former girlfriend of their friend.
Cohabit rumor
An explosive rumor that 29-year-old Fan Bingbing, a famous beauty, and 64-year-old Wang Xueqi, a award-winning veteran, were dating swirled around cyberspace, causing a big stir among the public. It turned out to be false and both of the thespians vehemently denied the gossip, initiating buy ffxiv gil legal proceedings against the rumormongers.

2010年12月22日星期三

5 most memorable Jack Nicholson performances

The thoroughly underwhelming runescape accounts romantic comedy "How Do You Know" in no way makes the best use of its starry cast — not Reese Witherspoon, Paul Rudd or Owen Wilson, and most certainly not Jack Nicholson.
But we're going to be glass-half-full around here and use this as an opportunity to look back at the best of Nicholson's work. Now, given that the man is prolific and we only get to choose five films, this isn't going to be comprehensive. We'll try our best, though, and you're welcome to respond with your choices. We CAN handle the truth:
? "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" (1975): The quintessential Nicholson role: He's charmingly subversive, a little volatile, perhaps a little dangerous, but usually smarter than everyone else in the room and always fascinating to watch. Nicholson won his first Academy Award for best actor — he'd win another for "As Good As It Gets" and a supporting-actor award for "Terms of Endearment" — for his role as the mental institution rebel R.P. McMurphy. Of course he's not really crazy, but the relationships he forges with his fellow patients reveal another side runescape money of Nicholson's persona: the loyal man's-man.
? "Chinatown" (1974): Nicholson is in every scene of Roman Polanski's L.A. noir, playing a type, yes — the hard-boiled private eye — but infusing the character with a sensitivity that lurks beneath the tough-guy exterior. Jake Gittes is the kind of role Humphrey Bogart would have played in his prime, but Nicholson never does an impression; he makes this classic, flawed figure his own. He's confident but also capable of vulnerability, as evidenced by the way he finds himself falling for the obviously troubled Evelyn Mulwray, played elegantly by Faye Dunaway. If you're looking for a perfect Nicholson performance ... forget it. It's "Chinatown."
? "The Shining" (1980): Nicholson is deeply unnerving in one of the most frightening films — if not THE most frightening — ever made. As Jack Torrance, he creates fear not just through the imposing nature of his physical presence, the threat of violence against his wife and child that's runescape gold hinted at early and builds to a crescendo. It's the idea of the percolating madness inside — the sense that this person is unreliable, both to himself and to others. Stanley Kubrick makes the Overlook Hotel seem frightening through all his trademark stylistic tricks, but nothing compares to the look on Nicholson's face at his most crazed.
? "Easy Rider" (1969): The performance that made him a star. In an iconic film in its own right, Nicholson burst out with his portrayal of the seemingly straight-laced but truly alcoholic lawyer George Hanson. The scene in which he smokes pot for the first time around a bonfire with Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda — "You mean marijuana? Lord have mercy, is that what that is?" — then shares his theories about UFOs is, of course, hilarious. But the image of him riding on the back of Fonda's motorcycle in a suit and a football helmet sums up the film's delightful contradictions and sense of adventure.
? "About Schmidt" (2002): More than 30 years after "Easy Rider," Nicholson is back on the road to self-discovery. This time, the terrain provides the path not for psychedelic revelations, but for sobering reality. As Warren Schmidt, a recently retired actuary from Omaha, Neb., Nicholson delivers one of the more understated performances of his career, but also one of the most powerful. Gone are the trademark wild hair, raised eyebrows and impish grin. He goes small in Alexander Payne's affectionate satire of middle America, and it ff14 gil produces big results, earning him his 12th Oscar nomination.

2010年12月21日星期二

Creating Your Own Second Childhood

Watching my niece playing in the runescape gold garden recently made me think about life from her point of view. There I was after a long day at work, downing a Red Bull in the hope of keeping my eyes open while my mind ran through what tasks I had achieved today and what needed to be done the following day.
In contrast my niece was simply “in the moment”. She was full of energy. She hadn’t a care in the world. She had no responsibilities to worry about. Nothing important to remember. She was just living in the now. What a wonderful perspective on life.
All this reminded me of just how great childhood (in a caring home) can be. It also made me wonder what we as adults – with all the responsibilities and practicalities that involves – can do to consciously move our everyday lives to a more relaxed, now-focused and child-like state.
Here are 8 Ways to start creating your second childhood today:
Consider going on vacation.
Certainly we like to take time off work. We like to sit in the sun and relax. But I think there’s more to why vacations are so popular than just these reasons. I think it has something to do with “switching off” from the everyday realities – of leaving our metaphorical baggage at home – and just enjoying ourselves without worrying about paying that bill or calling out the plumber to fix that leaking pipe.
Vacations give you an opportunity to be who you really would be if it weren’t for all the things we as adults have to do. To quote Homer Simpson “he minds me of me – before the weight of the world runescape money crushed my spirit”.
So what can we do to achieve a more childlike, hassle-free lifestyle? How do we reduce or eliminate baggage so we have more time to play and simply be present in the moment?
Here are just a few ideas I have come up with though I’m very interested in hearing your own thoughts and ideas in the comments section at the end of this post.
Focus On Fun
They say that when you underline everything, you underline nothing. Parts of your life need to stand out if you’re really going to make the most of them. Losing weight is far easier when you concentrate on it, plan your meals, organize your exercise regime and track your results than when you just carry on with life as normal hoping you can lose a few extra pounds.
So it is with fun. You need to draw the concept of fun to the forefront of your mind. Make it something to concentrate on – to strive for.
Make fun the first thing you think about when you wake up each morning. Plan fun things to do when you’re not working. Consider what you’d like to do but haven’t done yet. Consider how you’re going to include something fun in your day, everyday, even if you have to spend eight hours at work that day.
Reduce Your Responsibilities
One of the reasons why chidren can be so “in the moment” and can simply enjoy having fun is that they have far fewer responsibilities than adults. By it’s very nature many of these responsbilities are things we have promised to do for other people – whether that’s someone at work, a friend or family member.
Make a conscious effort *not* to automatically say yes runescape accounts to everything people ask you to do. Consider the responsibility that promise comes with and whether you would be better off without it. I’m not saying to never do anything for anyone else – what a sad life that would be – but to carefully cherry-pick them so you don’t drown in tasks you’re doing for other people while having no time to do things *you* want to do.
Automate Or Outsource Chores
Some mundane, everyday tasks have to be done. We have to pay our bills. We have to clean our homes and our clothes.
There’s no getting away from these so instead consider ways to lessen the blow, and there are a number of ways to achieve this.
For example you could consider getting a virtual assistant (VA) who can check your emails, remind you of forthcoming birthdays and social events, book hotels, dentist appointments and so on for you and all manner of other tasks.
Then there are cleaners and laundry services who will clean your home and clothes for you. Your VA could even find these and manage these services for you so you don’t have to worry about looking after them yourself.
Food shopping can be done online and delivered to your home at a prearranged time. Your VA can arrange this for you and simply email or call you to let you know when it will be arriving. You could even ask your cleaner to receive the shopping and put it all away for you so that you don’t even have to lift a finger.
Finances can be automated to a degree. Arrange to pay bills automatically out of your bank account so you don’t have to remember to pay them yourself. Set up a savings account that will automatically have a chunk of your income deposited into it. Set up internet banking to make it easy to check balances, transfer funds or pay bills without having to go to the bank and stand in a queue.
You could also consider blocking off some “practical time” each week to do these few small tasks. Put aside an hour or two each Saturday morning for example to check your bank balance, pay any bills ff14 gil necessary, speak to your VA, check your calendar for the next week and so on.
Then once that time is up and your tasks are done, put them away and enjoy guilt-free play. This is surely better than punctuating your play all week long with practical tasks as you think of them, or worrying about when you’ll be able to get round to them.
Live Within Your Means
Create a lifestyle that is easily covered by your income. Downsize and simplify if necessary. This way you will ensure you don’t worry about money and instead can just get on with enjoying yourself without worrying about that bill you know you need to pay but can’t afford.
Expand Your Social Circle
Get out there and meet new people. Make new friends with similar interests to yourself. All “children” need playmates and finding these people that you have so much in common with can make a real difference to your play-like state.
When you meet them aim for total honesty and transparency. Find people you can be yourself around.
Ignore Social Norms
Young children don’t understand peer pressure and social norms. They don’t appreciate what they are and aren’t meant to do in public. That’s why they scream and cry, or shout things they shouldn’t.
These rules certainly serve a purpose – I’m not suggesting *you* throw your toys out of the pram if you don’t get your own way – but rather to worry less about what other people think of you.
Expand your network of friends and be who you really are. Stop worrying about what you should wear based on how everyone else will be dressed and ffxiv gil instead just put something on that you like.
If you’re obsessed with Star Wars but everyone you know things you’re a nerd as a result, find some new friends who *do* like Star Wars so you can chat to them about it rather than trying to hide that part of your personality.
Lay yourself bare, be who you are and stop worrying so much about what other people think.
Learn To Let Go
My niece dropped her sandwich on the floor while playing. She started to cry. She really wanted that sandwich. So I gave her a bit of mine. Two minutes later she was as happy as could be again and had forgotten all about the sandwich she dropped.
As adults we sometimes spend far too long worrying about things or mulling over things that have gone wrong. Children seem to deal with the feelings then and there, then move on. They don’t let negative emotions haunt them over the long term.
So learn to let go of these feelings to free up “head space” and enable you to enjoy life more. When you leave work in the evening, aim to do it mentally as well as physically. If you fall out with someone, aim to start afresh the next time you see them. If someone annoys you, don’t let it get to you. Learn to buy ffxiv gil let go of these feelings and you’ll feel a lot better as a result.

2010年12月20日星期一

Box Office Preview: A US$60 million 'Tron' legacy

An especially robust runescape gold weekend is shaping up at the nation's theaters as fan boys bond with "Tron," families flock to "Yogi," boxing buffs bet on "The Fighter" and the date crowd asks "How Do You Know."
Disney's "Tron: Legacy" has the most going for it, including a great release date, cult appeal and of course the IMAX and 3-D components. So a No. 1 debut approaching an impressive $60 million is virtually assured for this long-awaited followup to the 1982 original. The highest December debut remains 2007's "I Am Legend" with $77.2 million, followed closely by 2009's "Avatar" at $77 million.
Next in the weekend pic-a-nic basket is a smarter-than-the-average-bear named Yogi, voiced by childhood fan Dan Aykroyd, as Warner Bros. gives the beloved Hanna-Barbera TV character a big-screen, 3-D makeover and a chance at an opening gross in the low $20 millions.
After its limited four-theater debut last weekend, Paramount's "The Fighter" was runescape money just warming up for an expected opening this weekend in the $15 million range as it expands to approximately 2,200 locations. Starring Mark Wahlberg, Christian Bale and Melissa Leo, this true story about a pair of pugilistic brothers is a shoo-in for multiple Oscar nominations and is the kind of crowd-pleasing film that could become a breakout hit in the weeks to come.
James L. Brooks directs the likely No. 4 film in the lineup — "How Do You Know," starring Reese Witherspoon, Owen Wilson, Paul Rudd and Jack Nicholson. Despite weak reviews, the all-star cast and Brooks' auteur reputation with such winners as "Terms of Endearment" and runescape accounts "Broadcast News" should draw the date crowd to the tune of around $12 million.
Fifth place should go to Fox's "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader," which opened last weekend in first place but now faces huge competition and will likely earn in the low teens.
Another Oscar contender goes into wider release this weekend as Fox Searchlight's twisted and audacious "Black Swan" waltzes into 950 theaters. A bravura performance by Natalie Portman and mounting awards momentum give the film a shot at a wide-release debut in the $8 million to $10 ff14 gil million range.

2010年12月19日星期日

U.S. researchers identify anti-cancer component in pomegranate juice

U.S. researchers have identified runescape accounts components in pomegranate juice that could stop cancer from spreading.
Researchers at the University of California, Riverside applied pomegranate juice on laboratory-cultured prostate cancer cells that were resistant to testosterone, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) said on its website.
The more resistant a cancer cell is to testosterone, the more prone it is to metastasizing, the report explained.
The researchers found that the pomegranate juice-treated tumor cells that had not died with the treatment showed increased cell adhesion (meaning fewer cells breaking away) and decreased cell migration.
Next, the researchers identified the following active groups of ingredients in pomegranate juice that had a molecular impact on cell adhesion and migration in metastatic prostate cancer cells: phenylpropanoids, hydrobenzoic runescape money acids, flavones and conjugated fatty acids.
"Having identified them, we can now modify cancer-inhibiting components in pomegranate juice to improve their functions and make them more effective in preventing prostate cancer metastasis, leading to more effective drug therapies," said lead researcher Manuela Martins-Green.
"Because the genes and proteins involved in the movement of prostate cancer cells are essentially the same as those involved in the movement of other runescape gold types of cancer cells, the same modified components of the juice could have a much broader impact in cancer treatment."
Martins-Green explained that an important protein produced in the bone marrow causes the cancer cells to move to the bone where they can then form new tumors.
"We show that pomegranate juice markedly inhibits the function of this protein, and thus this juice has the potential of preventing metastasis of the prostate cancer cells to the bone," she said.
The finding could lead to new drug therapies to fight cancer, the researchers said.
The researchers plan to do additional tests in an in vivo model for prostate cancer metastasis to determine whether the same cancer-inhibiting components that work in cultured cells can prevent metastasis without side effects, according to the report.
Prostate cancer is the second-leading cause of cancer-related deaths in men in the United States. To date, there runescape money is no cure for it.

2010年12月16日星期四

Nicole Richie, Joel Madden say "I Do!"

Nicole Richie and her boyfriend runescape gold of four years, Joel Madden, said "I do" in a winter-themed ceremony Saturday in Beverly Hills, UsMagazine.com has confirmed.
Held at the home of Nicole's father, Lionel, the black-tie evening event was attended by approximately 150 family members and friends, including Khloe Kardashian and Samantha Ronson. Richie's childhood pal Kardashian, 26, Tweeted from the bash: "I love weddings!"
Officiating the ceremony was none other than Run-DMC rapper and reality star Rev. Run, a wedding guest tells Us exclusively. The hip-hop pioneer (real name: Joseph Simmons), 46, is also an ordained minister. The couple "have looked up to Rev. Run, so they wanted him to officiate," the guest explains. (Read more about why they chose him as their officiant.)
One other guest: an elephant! Around 5:40 p.m., observers spotted an elephant arriving in the driveway; the animal was led into a white tent with other revelers.
The bride's BFF, Masha Gordon, served as maid of honor, while the couple's 2-year-old daughter, Harlow, was the flower girl. (The couple also have son Sparrow, 15 months.) In the wee hours on runescape money Sunday morning, Joel's brother, DJ Josh Madden, happily Tweeted of the nuptials: "The stuff of which memories are made."
Richie, 29, strived to get every detail right for her big day -- putting extra special thought into her gown. Just days before the wedding, Richie remained torn over two designs: Marchesa and a vintage Chanel. In fact, she jetted off to New York City Dec. 3 for a final fitting at Marchesa with her stylist, Simone Harouche. "A lot of thought went into her dress -- it was a priority for her," a source explains.
Why the winter theme?
"Nicole is obsessed with the season," a pal tells Us of the designer and author, who confirmed her engagement in February. (Her daughter's middle names are Winter Kate, also the title of her clothing line).
"[The fete is] less about Joel and Nicole getting married and more about having a party," another pal told Us of the soiree, planned by Mindy Weiss. "The spirit is runescape accounts that it's a celebration and it's very low-key."
Though the couple has finally made their union official, Richie and Madden say they've long felt like husband and wife.
"We're really focused on our family, and...we already feel kind of married, you know?" Madden, 31, told Larry King in 2009. "Our family system that we have down, we feel like this is a real family and marriage, one day it will come."
Richie's father, who walked his daughter down the aisle, is equally as taken by their love.
"My happiness for Nicole and Joel knows no boundaries," the "All Night Long" crooner says. "They have given me two beautiful grandchildren, Harlow and Sparrow, and have proven to be great parents. I am not sure who is luckier, Nicole and Joel to have each other, or me, to have both of them ff14 gil in my life."

2010年12月13日星期一

First underwater robot crossing Atlantic on display

The first underwater robotic vehicle that has runescape gold crossed an ocean basin is on display at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington.
The robotic glider, also known as RU27, can dive to depths of 200 meters to collect data such as temperature, salinity, currents and density. This helps scientists better understand how the ocean works and how the ocean and the climate are changing, processes that directly impact all life on Earth.
Scientists and students from Rutgers University launched the transatlantic glider, dubbed "the Scarlet Knight" in honor of the school's mascot, off the New Jersey coast in spring of last year.
They and their Spanish colleagues from Puertos Del Estado (the Spanish Port Authority) recovered the glider off the Spanish coast after seven months at sea and brought it ashore. One year later, it is laid as a centerpiece runescape money within the Sant Ocean Hall at the Smithsonian Museum.
Scott Glenn, professor of Marine & Coastal Sciences Institute, Rutgers University, who actually led the scientists of the transatlantic mission, told Xinhua that "just months before, the technology was used to help in the Deepwater Horizon BP response."
As part of the Deepwater Horizon BP oil spill response effort, a fleet of gliders equipped with sensors were deployed to help indicate the presence of oil. Although runescape accounts scientists must still confirm the oil through water sampling, the gliders narrowed the search zone for subsurface oil.
"We have some optical sensors on them, which give us signals that related to the oil," Glenn said.
"We can use the gliders to improve the circulation models and forecast where those unmown things are going. If we've found some oil today, we'll know where it is going to be tomorrow, and how to respond for that," he added.
"New technologies give us greater insight into how the ocean works. The transatlantic glider, in particular, helped reduce uncertainty in some of our climate models," Glenn said.
Glenn also told Xinhua that China has such a glider as well. "The glider which shares the concept of flying in the ocean and for the same purpose, but with a totally different technology, is owned by Tianjin buy runescape gold University of China, which is Rutgers' international partner."

2010年12月12日星期日

Marriage makes for nicer men, study says

Men tend to behave better when runescape gold they're married - both because marriage likely helps improve their behavior, and nicer men are more likely to be married in the first place, according to a United States study.
S. Alexandra Burt and colleagues at Michigan State University also found that men with fewer nasty qualities were more likely to eventually end up married.
Among men who did marry, some showed signs that bad behavior - specifically traits associated with antisocial personality disorder such as criminal behavior, lying, aggression and lack of remorse - decreased after they tied the knot.
Burt says that married men "are just not as antisocial to begin with. And when they get married, they get even less antisocial".
In the study, presented in the December Archives of General Psychiatry, Burt and her colleagues followed 289 pairs of male twins for 12 years, from age 17 to age 29. More than half of the twins were identical.
Men who married during the study period, about 60 percent of them, showed less antisocial behavior at ages 17 and 20, suggesting that men with more of these traits are less likely to get married in runescape money the first place.
By the age of 29, unmarried men had an average of 1.3 antisocial behaviors, compared with 0.8 among married men.
However, among identical twins in which one was married and one wasn't, the married twin had fewer antisocial behaviors after the union than the unmarried twin.
Given that identical twins, with similar genetics and childhood environments are likely to have the same antisocial tendencies, this indicates that marriage helped weed out those bad behaviors.
It's not clear why men's behavior might improve after marriage, says Ryan King at the University of Albany, State University of New York, who was not involved in the study.
Married men may spend more time runescape accounts with their spouses than their friends, and bad behavior such as delinquency and binge drinking tend to be group activities, he notes.
In addition, married men "have more to lose" if they're caught engaging in illegal activities, and may care what their spouses think.
"Not everyone is equally likely to enter the institution of marriage, but those that do enter into it get some benefit from it," King says.
The results help explain consistent findings from other studies that men who are married commit fewer crimes. One recent study, for example, showed marriage was associated with a 35 percent reduction in crime.
Studies have also found that married people as a group tend to be healthier than singles, though recent research suggests the health advantage of marriage may be fading. But married people tend to live longer, be less depressed and suffer less from heart runescape money disease and stroke.

2010年12月10日星期五

How to Lose 30 lbs in 6 Months Without Dieting

A new weight loss product is causing runescape gold quite a stir in the scientific community, not to mention media outlets across the country. Why? Because it’s proven to help you drop pounds without changes to your diet and without adding exercise.
The SENSA? Weight-Loss System uses flavorless food sprinkles called Tastants that prompt the brain to trigger a feeling of fullness, causing people to eat smaller portions.
In one of the largest clinical studies ever conducted on a non-pharmaceutical weight loss product, over 1,400 people were given Sensa and told not to diet or change their exercise routine. All they did was sprinkle, eat and lose weight. In fact, the average weight loss among the group was 30.5 lbs. The placebo group only lost an average of 2 lbs.
The man behind Sensa, Dr. Alan Hirsch, is a board-certified neurologist and the runescape money nation’s leading authority on the science of smell and taste. He has been featured on Extra, Dateline NBC, The Wall Street Journal and countless other shows and newspapers across the country.
The Link Between Sense of Smell and Weight Loss
It all began with observations made by Dr. Hirsch over the course of 25 years of clinical research. He noticed significant weight gain among patients who suffered severe head trauma and had lost their sense of smell.
He hypothesized that if losing one’s sense of smell resulted in weight gain, an enhanced sense of smell would result in weight loss.
“Contrary to what most people think, hunger is not controlled by your stomach - it's controlled by your brain, specifically the hypothalamus,” Dr. Hirsch explains. And based on findings from the clinical study, he concludes that “certain scents can help set in motion a process that triggers your hypothalamus to send signals telling your body you've had enough to eat.”
"What we've done is found a way to runescape accounts deliver the scents that can be added to food, in the form of flavorless crystals called Tastants, to prevent people from overeating."
Sprinkle Your Way to Thin
After experimenting with various scent combinations, Dr. Hirsch and his team have finally developed what may be the key to permanent weight loss--no stimulants, no drugs or harmful ingredients, no counting calories, and best of all, no change in lifestyle required.
The unique combination of scented, flavorless food sprinkles used in the study is now found in Sensa, the only weight loss system that contains the patent-pending technology.
The company behind Sensa is so confident you’ll see results, they’re allowing new customers a chance to try Sensa free for 30 days. See the weight loss results for yourself before runescape money you decide if you want to pay for it.

2010年12月9日星期四

Good looks may help land a job interview…for Men

While good-looking men find runescape gold it easier to land a job interview, attractive women may be at a disadvantage, a new study from Israel suggests. Resumes that included photos of handsome men were twice as likely to generate requests for an interview, the study found. But resumes from women that included photos were up to 30 percent less likely to get a response, whether or not the women were attractive.
That good-looking women were passed over for interviews “was surprising,” said study leader Bradley Ruffle, an economics researcher and lecturer at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. The finding contradicts a considerable body of research that shows that good-looking people are typically viewed as smarter, kinder and more talented than those who are less attractive, he said.
But Daniel S. Hamermesh, professor of economics at the University of Texas at Austin, “wasn’t totally surprised,” noting that other studies, including one of his own, have found beauty a liability in the workplace. “I call this the ‘Bimbo Effect,’” said Hamermesh, considered an authority on the association between beauty and the labor market.
The current study appears online on the Social Science Research Network.
In Israel, job hunters have the option of including a headshot with their resumes, whereas that is customary in many European countries but taboo in the United States, Ruffle said. That made runescape money Israel the ideal testing ground for his research, he said.
To determine whether a job candidate’s appearance affects the likelihood of landing an interview, Ruffle and a colleague mailed 5,312 virtually identical resumes, in pairs, in response to 2,656 advertised job openings in 10 different fields. One resume included a photo of an attractive man or woman or a plain man or woman; the other had no photo. Almost 400 employers (14.5 percent) responded.
The resumes of good-looking men received a 20 percent response rate, compared to a 14 percent response for men with no photo and 9 percent for resumes from plain-looking men, the study found. However, among women, resumes without photos got the highest response — 22 percent higher than those from plain women and 30 percent higher than those from attractive women.
The apparent bias against attractive women depended on the type of employer that reviewed the resumes, said Ruffle. Employment agencies called pretty women as often as plain ones, and only slightly less than women who didn’t include a photo. But when the resumes were screened directly by the company at which the candidate might work, those from attractive women received half the runescape accounts response of those from either plain women or women who didn’t include photos.
Hypothesizing that human resource departments are staffed mostly by women who feel jealous of attractive women in the workplace, the researchers called each company to speak to the person who had reviewed the resumes. In this post-study survey, they found that 24 out of 25 were women.
The researchers also learned that the resume-screeners tended to be young and single, “qualities that are more likely to be associated with jealousy,” said Ruffle.
Hamermesh wasn’t convinced of the hypothesis, noting that the women trying to fill the open position were unlikely to work in the same division as the applicant, attractive or not. “The researchers were not able to really test this. It was just an interesting hypothesis,” he said.
It’s true that in most previous studies of labor-market outcomes, attractive women have come out on top, he said. “But other studies have found evidence of the Bimbo Effect,” he said.
In a 1998 study, Hamermesh and co-author Jeff Biddle found that good looks enhanced the likelihood that a male attorney would make partner early, but reduced that likelihood for the most attractive women.
While attractive women received fewer callbacks, those who make it to the interview stage still might land the job, the study said. The resume-screener might not be the interviewer, and even if they are one and the same, the “pretty woman” bias might fade during a face-to-face interview.Still, “women are better runescape money off not including a photo with their resumes,” said Ruffle.

2010年12月8日星期三

Roman Polanski wins best European picture award

Roman Polanski's "The Ghost Writer," a story runescape accounts of a journalist hired to write the memoirs of a British prime minister, has won the prize for best film at the European Film Awards.
Polanski, who was awarded the Silver Bear for best director at the Berlin Film Festival, also took five other key prizes at the ceremony held in the Estonian capital, Tallinn, late Saturday.
Nominated in seven categories, the movie won the best director prize, best actor for Ewan McGregor, and best screenwriter went jointly to Robert Harris and Polanski.
"You have awarded a truly European venture. This is too much ... thank you very much," Polanski said in an acceptance speech through a Skype connection from an unknown location. "I wish to thank — before anything — this wonderful crew I had, a truly European crew."
It was not the first time that the Polish-born director has received recognition from the European Film Academy.
The 77-year-old Oscar winning director of movies like "Rosemary's Baby" and "Chinatown" was honored with a lifetime achievement award in 2006 in Warsaw, Poland.
In Tallinn, French composer Alexandre Desplat was awarded for best composer while his runescape money compatriot film editor Herve de Luze won the production designer prize for Polanski's movie, which was mainly shot in Germany.
"The Ghost Writer," about the memoirs of a politician, played by Pierce Brosnan, is loosely based on former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Its production was a tangled tale for Polanski.
As he was finishing the movie in September 2009 Polanski was taken into custody at Zurich airport by Swiss police at the request of U.S. authorities to face prosecution in a 1977 child sex case. He had to finish editing the film while in Swiss prison before being released on house arrest.
In July, Polanski was freed after the Swiss government declined to deport him to the United States. But he still faces an Interpol warrant in 188 countries. Most European nations, including Estonia, have an extradition treaty with the United States.
McGregor, who played the ghostwriter, said he had a "fantastic time" while making the film.
"More than any other part I've played I feel like runescape gold the director Roman Polanski had his hands really on my performance and is as worthy of this award as I am," McGregor told the audience through a video message from Thailand, where he is currently shooting a film.
Among other prizes at the academy's 23rd annual awards ceremony, Swiss actor Bruno Ganz was honored with a lifetime achievement prize handed out by German director Wim Wenders.
Ganz, 69, with a screen career that spans five decades with memorable performances in Wenders' "Wings of Desire" and "The American Friend," in which he costarred with Dennis Hopper. He is also remembered from his acclaimed performance as Adolf Hitler in the 2004 German drama "Downfall" that portrays the last days of the Third Reich.
French actress Juliette Binoche presented the European achievement in world cinema award to Lebanese composer and musician Gabriel Yared, who has written scores for "The English Patient" and "The Talented Mr. Ripley."
The prizes — the European equivalent of the U.S. Academy Awards — have been presented since 1988 by the European academy to celebrate the continent's film industry as a European runescape money counterweight to the Oscars.

2010年12月7日星期二

It's Harry Potter vs. Rapunzel

Look for a battle of the family runescape gold movies this weekend as audiences snack on box office leftovers during what is traditionally one of the lesser performing periods of the year.
For the average film, the typical post-Thanksgiving weekend drop is from 50 to 60 percent. So Warner Bros.' "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1" in its third weekend and Disney's "Tangled" in its second will find themselves fighting for the top slot with grosses in the mid to high $20 million range. This will also push total domestic receipts for "Potter" past the $250 million mark and "Tangled" should cross $100 million.
There will be a veritable logjam for third, fourth and fifth place this weekend. Cher and Christina Aguilera will certainly be in contention with the second weekend of Sony's "Burlesque," which has performed well runescape money midweek and should maintain a solid footing with a gross in the $7 million to $10 million range.
Of course, Will Ferrell and Brad Pitt have remained an intimidating force with Paramount/Dreamworks' "Megamind." In its fifth weekend of release, the 3-D animated film will remain a formidable factor in the top five with a gross of between $6 million and $8 million and a total domestic take of around $140 million by Sunday night.
Also bringing his "A game" is Denzel Washington in Fox's "Unstoppable," which has continued to impress and will be a top five contender in the mid $10 millions as it enters its fourth weekend of release. Offering summer-style action during the holiday period is a strategy that has paid off for the runaway cheap wow gold train tale and it's shown little sign of slowing since its release.
The only wide release debuting this weekend will be Relativity Media's action-fantasy "The Warrior's Way," featuring international superstar Dong-gun Jang. Jang has been called the George Clooney or Brad Pitt of South Korea and he stars alongside Kate Bosworth and Geoffrey Rush. Opening in about 1,600 theaters, expect a gross also in the mid $10 millions for the weekend, with an eventual solid run in the international marketplace.
And look out for the wild-card factor with the R-rated romantic comedy "Love and Other Drugs," starring Anne Hathaway and Jake Gyllenhaal, which debuted last weekend in sixth place but is showing midweek strength and therefore could sneak its way into the top five.
Paul Dergarabedian is president of the Box Office Division of Hollywood.com and a longtime runescape accounts box office analyst for The Associated Press.

2010年12月6日星期一

It's official: Cut the carbs for weight loss

A team of European researchers runescape gold confirms what many weight-loss gurus have claimed: Eating more protein and fewer refined carbohydrates helps to keep the pounds off. Among men and women who had lost at least 8 percent of their body weight on a low-calorie diet, those who spent the next six months following a maintenance diet high in protein and low in refined carbs were the least likely to regain any weight, and were also the least likely to drop out of the study.
So is this something you can try at home? Maybe. Participants were divided into groups eating varying amounts of protein, a moderate amount of fat, and different quantities of carbs categorized as either high or low on the glycemic index, a measure of how fast a food is converted to sugar in the blood.
Whether the study results "translate into different dietary advice for more broad use probably still has to be discovered because glycemic index is really not an easy and straightforward tool to use for most people", says Dr Thomas Meinert Larsen of the University of Copenhagen, one of the study's authors.
The glycemic index, GI for short, was originally developed for use by diabetics, and indicates how quickly blood glucose peaks after a person eats a particular food. High-GI foods, like white bread, produce a quick spike in blood glucose, while low GI foods, like whole grain breads, cause a slower increase in blood sugar that runescape money lasts for a longer period of time. Most food labels don't list a food's GI, nor is there adequate information on the GIs of different foods available on the Internet, according to Larsen.
In the new study, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, Larsen and his colleagues initially enrolled 773 men and women and their families in eight different western European countries. Families were randomly assigned to one of five different weight-maintenance diets for 26 weeks. None restricted calories, but four of the diets did dictate the proportion of proteins, fats and refined carbs that should make up daily food intake.
One group with no food restrictions served as a control, the rest were assigned to eat either a low-protein, low-GI diet; a low-protein, high-GI diet; high-protein and low-GI; or high-protein and high-GI. In the low-protein groups, people consumed 13 percent of calories as protein; in the high-protein groups, 25 percent of total energy consumed was protein. People in all of the groups could eat as much as they liked.
Seventy-one percent of the adults runescape accounts enrolled in the study completed it. While around 26 percent of people in the high-protein or low-GI groups dropped out of the study, 37 percent of people in the low-protein, high-GI group quit.
Nutritionists suggest people choose whole grain instead of white bread in their daily diets. Provided to China Daily
Among the 548 people who completed the study, only those who ate a low-protein, high-GI diet gained a significant amount of weight (1.67 kg, on average). When the researchers looked separately at people in the high-protein diet groups, they found these individuals gained about 1 kg less than those in the low-protein groups; the same was true for the low-GI versus high-GI groups.
Larsen points out that people should use common sense in applying the low-glycemic principle. The hazelnut-chocolate spread Nutella actually has a lower GI than boiled carrots, he notes, although it obviously isn't the healthier food; for this reason, he says, people should use the GI concept within food groups, for example choosing whole grain instead of white bread, or brown rice versus white.
While anyone can slash their calorie intake and lose weight short-term, the hard part is keeping it off, says Dr David Ludwig, the director of the Optimal Weight for Life Program at Children's Hospital Boston. The fact that people in the high-protein, low-GI diet were the most successful suggests wow gold that keeping weight off doesn't have to be a matter of sheer willpower, adds Ludwig, who co-authored an editorial accompanying the study.
"The nature of the diet and how that diet affects our underlying biology may have a lot to do with how likely we are to comply, to remain on the diet," Ludwig says. People on the high-protein, low-GI diets "appear to like this way of eating more, perhaps because they were feeling less hungry and more energetic ... or just noticing that they were doing better. There's nothing that succeeds like success when it comes to weight loss".
According to Ludwig, people can definitely try this at home. "Adding a serving of nuts and beans to the diet every day and cutting back on the refined grains will produce at least as much dietary change as they obtained in the study," he says.
If everyone could cut back on two servings of refined grains and substitute that with one serving of nuts and one serving of beans, the impact on public health would really be potentially enormous, and that's a change within runescape accounts everyone's reach, Ludwig adds.

2010年12月5日星期日

Michael Douglas on 'upward curve' from cancer

Michael Douglas is on an "upward buy wow gold curve" after cancer treatment, his wife said in remarks published Tuesday, while the veteran star said the experience gave him "a little perspective on mortality."
Douglas, who was diagnosed with throat cancer in August and has been out of the public light while undergoing chemotherapy, said he is already preparing for his next movie, in which he is due to play flamboyant entertainer Liberace.
"The level of chemo, the amount they're giving you, combined with radiation, was the max they could do in that period of time," he told The Hollywood Reporter industry daily, calling the treatment a "hellhole."
"It's amazing that they almost have to try and kill you to bring you back," he added, while the interviewer described Douglas as looking "surprisingly well, with his trademark thick hair all there on his head."
Douglas, 66, only revealed his diagnosis when he returned to the United States from a family holiday. In September, he said he was in stage four cancer but with an 80 percent chance of beating it.
British actress Catherine Zeta-Jones, who married Douglas in 2000, voiced anger at the time cheap wow gold that his chances of beating the cancer had been reduced because it was diagnosed relatively late.
In this latest interview, carried out in the couple's New York apartment, she said she didn't take any notice of tabloid newspaper reports suggesting her husband could be near death.
"I don't read any of that stuff, regardless of what it says," she said. "Where it does affect me, it's the fact that Michael is sequestered in the apartment.
"But he really is on the upward curve now," added the 41-year-old.
Asked how the disease had affected him, Douglas said: "I haven't really digested it yet, truth be told."
"As I looked through the stats, I didn't think runescape gold of this as life and death; I just saw it as an illness to get over. So I didn't dig into the bottom of my soul to see what I could see," he added.
"It certainly has put a little perspective on mortality, obviously."
Douglas's last film, the sequel to the 1987 box office hit "Wall Street," came out in September. Douglas was filmed in "The Money Never Sleeps" before the cancer diagnosis.
He is already preparing for his next role: the title part in Steven Soderbergh's Liberace biopic, which begins shooting in May.
"I've got a bunch of tapes of performances" of the pianist and entertainer, said Douglas. "I'm runescape money thinking; I'm a blank slate. Everything shows me he was a lovely man; I just want to reconfirm that."
Zeta-Jones added: "He?s an extremely strong person, and I love that strength of character, coupled with the reality that he's sensitive, he's humble, he doesn't take himself too seriously," she says.
"But predominantly, he's a very strong man. This has really helped through these last months. He has never lost that strength."
Douglas voiced gratitude to his wife, saying she gave him the space he needed to deal with his illness -- in October she travelled to China with their two young children, Dylan and Carys.
"I do think of myself as a bit of a loner, a bit of an independent. I'm one of those people who, when they're sick, like to curl up and remove myself. I don't like a lot of people around.
"There is nothing you can do to help. Catherine has runescape accounts been understanding, fortunately," he added.

2010年12月3日星期五

10 top ski resorts to visit this winter

Appi Kogen, Tohoku, runescape gold Japan
Appi Kogen, or just Appi to regulars, has 282 hectares of ski area and 21 ski trails with an average run of two kilometers, Japan’s longest average. Many of them are empty even during high season, and carpeted with fresh dry powder. Seasoned skiers can whiz down the ungroomed steep slopes on Mount Nishi Mori while the kids can stay on the gentle 5.5-kilometer Yamabato run.
Appi also offers plenty of off-piste options, including an on-site dairy farm that produces ice cream and cheeses, snowmobile and sledding courses, and onsens. Tots won’t want to leave the Spongebob Kids Park, which has mini ski areas for first timers.
Getting there: From Tokyo, take JR East’s Shinkansen line to Morioka. Once at Morioka station, take train "Hanawa" headed for Appi Kogen station. There is a free shuttle bus from Appi Kogen station to the resort. For more details click here.
Niseko, Hokkaido, Japan
Thanks to bouts of winter storms off Siberia, the Niseko resort area ranks among the snowiest resorts in the world. It’s also one of the few ski resorts in Japan with boisterous nightlife, which perhaps explains why it’s the most popular ski destination in Japan among Aussies.
Regulars rave about skiing into chest-deep dry powder without resistance. Niseko is also famous runescape money for off-piste and night skiing.
Niseko has four ski resorts, each with separate, but interlinked, ski areas. The terrain adds up to 2,191 acres and can be accessed with one ski pass.
Niseko Hirafu is the largest resort of the four and has a small town at its base, with two fun parks, snowmobiling courses, onsens, and massage facilities.
Getting there: There are JR trains operating to Niseko from Otaru, Sapporo, Hakodate and New Chitose Airport. Skiers can also drive there or take a bus from Sapporo and New Chitose Airport. Click here for details.
Rusutsu Ski Resort, Hokkaido, Japan
Rusutsu ski resort, a stone’s throw away from the Hokkaido capital of Sapporo, has some of Japan's thickest, driest powder. The 37 courses add up to 42 kilometers and stretches over three mountains. Its tree runs, set in a silver birch woodland, are one of its top attractions.
For those wanting a reprieve from the slopes, Rusutsu offers dog sledding, horseback riding, snow rafting and snow mobiling. The very young might want take a spin on the ice on their inflatable rubber “snow trains,” or stay indoors for the resort’s cookery and handicraft courses.
Getting there: Rusutsu Rsort is a 90-minute drive from Sapporo, New Chitose Airport, Tomakomai and Muroran. For detailed directions click here.
Alpensia Resort, Pyeongchang, South Korea
Seoul has been building ski venues to qualify as runescape accounts a host for the Winter Olympics for years but while they’re still trying, the public gets first dibs at spanking new world class venues like the Alpensia Resort in Pyeongchang.
The Alpensia Resort was completed in 2009 and covers 4.9 square kilometers of terrain. Alpensia's sports park is designed to meet Olympic standards and has cross country and biathlon ranges, as well as two international-standard jump slopes.
The 160-meter tall ski jump tower offers great views of Daegwallyeong at the top and can be reached by monorail for 2,000 won. The resort is close to the Odaesan National Park and the Samyang Ranch.
Getting there: Driving to Alpensia from Incheon International Airport takes approximately three hours and 30 minutes, click here for detailed directions.
Yongpyong Ski Resort is the oldest ski resort in South Korea and remains one of its most popular -- not only because of the superb skiing, but also because Winter Sonata, arguably the most beloved TV drama of the soap-obsessed country, was filmed there.
Yongpyong has 1,620 hecatares of ski terrain with 31 groomed slopes adding up to 25 kilometers. The 5.6-kilometer Rainbow Paradise is the resort’s longest run and can be accessed by a 3.7-kilometer gondola that takes visitors up from the base. There’s also a strong chance that skiers and snowboarders can find fresh powder at Yongpying.
Off the slopes, Yongpyong offers Winter Sonata tours for true soap opera junkies and a water park with hot springs.
Yongpyong is frequently chosen as the site for international tournaments, including the Asian Winter Olympics in 1999 and the Interski Congress in 2007.
Getting there: Yongpying is two and a half hours away from Seoul by car. For directions click here. Alternatively, there are resort shuttle buses operating from Seoul and Hwenggye, Gangnung daily. The shuttle runescape gold bus schedule can be accessed here.
Jisan Forest Resort is a mere 40 minute's drive from Seoul, meaning that city dwellers can possibly reach snow fields faster than they commute to work. Jisan’s terrain might be too tame for advanced skiers, but its 10 slopes should be enough to keep beginner and mid-level skiers happy. The resort’s longest run is 1.5 kilometers and is for intermediate level skiers.
Jisan Forest Resort also has two slopes that remain open after midnight from December 23 to February 12.
The resort is a stone's throw from the Hanteo Pony Farm, where tots can spend their day riding farm animals and planting crops. Those wanting to stay overnight can book condos at the resort.
Getting there: Jisan Forest Resort is a 40-minute drive away from Gangnam, south of Seoul. There are also buses operating from Incheon International Airport to the resort, the journey should take around an hour and a half. More details are available here.
In the 19th century Gulmarg was a hill station for British colonials to escape the summer heat. These days, it’s a world-class ski resort blanketed with fresh, light powder from the Himalayas, attracting ski bums tired of Alpine lift queues and fondues.
The resort's claim to fame is the Gulmarg Gondola, the highest ski lift in the world at a dizzying 3,979 meters. At the top station, skiers can take on challenging runs with Nanga Parbat, the world's ninth-highest peak, as a backdrop.
Gulmarg is intermittently plagued by cheap wow gold insurgency, resulting in security lock downs that can stretch on for months, but it has not deterred the 400,000 intrepid skiers who took the Gondola last year.
Getting there: Gulmarg is 35 miles away from state capital Srinagar. Visitors can take a taxi into Gulmarg from Srinagar airport, the journey takes around two hours and costs Rs 1,200-1,500 (US$26-33).
At the Alshan Alpine Ski resort, daily snowfall ensures that the slopes are constantly blanketed in thick powder.
Much of the resort is used by the Chinese national skiing team for training, but it also has milder slopes that are open to the public.
Non-professional alpine and cross country trails add up to 10 kilometers and cover 5.5 square kilometers. The resort straddles high mountains along the inner Mongolian border and is rimmed by primitive forests.
Getting there: From Beijing, catch a flight to Ulanhot. There are buses and trains bound for Alshan Alpine Resort from the Ulanhot airport.
Yubuli Ski Resort is China’s largest ski domain with ski slopes that add up to roughly 30 kilometers. And while it’s the main training venue for the Chinese national skiing teams, it also has plenty to offer adrenalin seekers.
Yabuli has 18 runs of different levels of difficulty. The 3-kilometer A1 is the longest intermediate ski trail in China and is nicknamed the "Trail to Happiness." Experienced skiers may want to have a go at the 2.7-kilometer A5, known as the "Road for Brave."
Kids will have a blast swishing down the 2.2-kilometer sled slide -- Asia’s longest -- complete with 48 twists and turns.
Yabuli is home to Club Med’s first resort in China. Club Med Yabuli opens to the public on November 27, 2010.
Getting there: Hop on a flight to Harbin from Beijing or to Mudanjiang. There are trains and resort shuttle buses to Yabuli from both cities. Another way to get there is to take an overnight train from Beijing to Yabuli. Click here for more details.
Nanshan Ski Village is a 30-minute drive away from Beijing and is a great option for those eager to leave the congestion of the capital behind. Nanshan covers 150,000 hectares of ground and has 21 trails. Most of them are beginner to intermediate level runs but the mogul field at the top has monstrous bumps for the intrepid skier.
The resort mostly relies on machine-made snow. Instructors are helpful and speak good English.
Getting there: From Beijing, get on the JingCheng Expressway, take Exit 16, Mi Yun and follow signs to Nanshan Ski Village. The drive shouldn't take more than 35 minutes. For detailed buy wow gold directions click here.

2010年12月2日星期四

Soyuz carrying Americans, Russian lands

A Soyuz spacecraft carrying runescape gold two Americans and a Russian from the International Space Station touched down Friday in Kazakhstan in a landing that the Russian space program's chief described as ideal.
The Russian capsule carrying cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin and astronauts Shannon Walker and Douglas Wheelock landed in the sprawling steppes of the Central Asian nation about 3 1/2 hours after separating from the space station. The landing was close to its target point, said Roscosmos head Anatoly Perminov.
In some Soyuz landings, the capsule hanging from parachutes drifts far from the target point, but Friday's landing was within 1.5 kilometers (1 mile).
"It was the ideal scenario," Perminov was quoted as saying by the ITAR-Tass news agency.
Video from the site showed the capsule, blackened by the intense heat of re-entry, lying runescape money on its side as the space fliers were extracted, still strapped into their seats. They appeared happy, but typically moved their hands slowly as they adjusted to gravity after five months of floating free in space.
"The condition of the crew runescape accounts is completely satisfactory — blood pressure, pulse, oxygen are all in the allowable limits," Vyacheslav Rogozhnikov of the Institute of Medical-Biological Problems said at Russian mission control just outside Moscow, according to ITAR-Tass.
The landing took place four days earlier than initially planned because Kazakh officials have requested air space be kept clear for the Dec. 1-2 summit by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
Three crew members remain on the space station — American Scott Kelly and Russians Alexander Kaleri and Oleg Skripochka. The blasted off in early October for a runescape money five-month mission.


2010年12月1日星期三

1 in 4 Overweight Women Don't Realize It

Despite the fact that obesity runescape gold rates are on the rise in the U.S., many women, in particular, often think their weight is healthy even when it's not.
And a new study out of the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston shows that such misperceptions about one's weight could be a deadly error, leading women to continue to eat poorly, gain more weight and eventually develop the complications of obesity, including diabetes and hypertension.
Researchers report that almost 25 percent of overweight women of child-bearing age don't believe they're overweight, or at least not to a degree that is dangerous. On the other hand, 16 percent of normal weight women also misperceive their body weight, often leading them to pursue dangerous and unnecessary dieting habits. The researchers' data is published in the December issue of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
"We were not surprised by the study results," corresponding author Dr. Mahbubur Rahman, assistant professor in the department of obstetrics and gynecology and Center for Interdiscliplinary Research in runescape money Women's Health, told AOL Health. That's in part because as the nation's obesity rate grows, it becomes more socially acceptable to be overweight and the truth can become more obscured.
Lead study author Dr. Abbey Berenson, professor in the department of obstetrics and gynecology agrees. "People compare themselves to those closest to them," she told AOL Health.
The study does show some cultural differences, however. While more than 80 percent of African American women and 75 percent of Hispanic American women meet the standards for being overweight or obese (meaning they have Body Mass Index ratings of 25 or more), women in these ethnic categories were less likely than Caucasian women to see themselves as overweight. "It is most likely a runescape accounts cultural difference," Berenson explains. "It's more acceptable in the media to be overweight if you're African American, for example."
Both Berenson and Rahman believe their study makes it clear that physicians need to be more proactive when talking to female patients about their weight and how it impacts their health. And the issue goes both ways: while overweight women who don't address their weight issues are putting themselves at risk of heart disease and diabetes, women of normal weight who think they are fat may be engaging in unhealthy behaviors such as smoking, binge eating, purging and crash dieting to curb weight gain.
One of the main problems, Berenson says, is that doctors are so busy they may not feel they have sufficent time during normal check-ups to talk to patients about weight. "And many physicians worry about offending their patients," Berenson adds. "It's important that we see this as a medical condition, not cheap wow gold an aesthetic one."

2010年11月27日星期六

10 science discoveries to be thankful for

As you bow your head in runescape gold gratitude, secretly hoping every aunt and uncle won't chime in with their laundry list of thanks, here's a nod to the most breathtaking - or plain necessary - advances in science.
1. The discovery of vaccines
They're a lightning rod for controversy these days, but there's no denying: Vaccines save lives. More than 1,000 years ago in China, Africa and Turkey, people inoculated themselves with smallpox pus to prevent the disease; the practice went viral, so to speak, in 1796 after English scientist Edward Jenner figured out that he could use pus from a milder bovine disease called cowpox to inoculate against smallpox.
In the ensuing centuries, researchers have developed vaccines for deadly disease like diphtheria, tetanus, typhoid, polio and measles. Today, we even have vaccines like Merck's Gardasil, which protects against the cancer-causing human papillomavirus. The next step is therapeutic vaccines, which are under investigation as a method of boosting the immune system in patients who are already sick with diseases like hepatitis, HIV and cancer.
2. Learning about what causes illness
During the 1800s, evidence began to mount that diseases weren't caused by foul air or spontaneous generation. Believe it or not, the idea that there might be some sort of contagion causing illness was controversial. This controversy came to a head in 1854, when a cholera outbreak hit the Soho neighborhood of London with deadly fury. In the first three days of the epidemic alone, 127 people in the neighborhood died, according to the University of runescape money California, Los Angeles, Department of Epidemiology.
Within weeks, the death toll reached 500. But physician John Snow was on the case, interviewing families and searching for a common thread. He found it in a contaminated water pump on the corner of Broad Street. Once the pump handle was removed so that residents could no longer pump the water, the epidemic stopped in its tracks. (It would take several more years for the scientific community to fully accept that diseases are caused by germs.)
Today, outbreaks like SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome), avian flu and the H1N1 flu have the potential to go global within hours. Debate may rage about the appropriate level of response to these threats, but we're thankful to have epidemiologists watching our backs.
3. Watching the brain in action
The skull is a tough nut to crack, which is why we're glad we can now peer inside without reaching for the circular saw. Neuroimaging, or bran scanning, is one of the newer technologies at researchers' and doctors' disposal. Researchers use computed tomography (CT or CAT scans) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to get a good look at soft tissue, including the brain. With the advent of functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI, in the 1990s researchers have been able to watch the brain in action, finding out what areas become more active during various mental tasks.
MRIs have been used to reveal everything from brain maturity to the effect of violent video games on teen brains. Brain scans have even been entered as evidence at murder trials.
4. The magic of microscopes
Even if microscopes weren't integral to the discovery of the cell - the building block of life as we know it - we'd put them on this list for sheer coolness. How else would we watch chromosomes replicate or marvel at the mosaic pattern of a mosquito eye?
Without microscopes, a staggering portion of our runescape accounts world would remain invisible. We've moved beyond (though not discarded) the optical microscopes that English scientist Robert Hooke used to discover the cell; these days, scientists can manipulate individual atoms to write words and draw pictures using scanning tunnel and atomic force microscopes.
5. Understanding ancient life
Our understanding of ancient life on Earth through fossilized remains goes back to the Greek natural historian Xenophanes, who, around 750 B.C., recognized that clam shells encased in rock in a mountainous region resembled clams from the sea. However, the field made little progress for a long period. In the 11th century, the Persian naturalist, Ibn Sina, proposed a theory of petrifying fluids. But it took a few more centuries before fossils and their relationship to past life was understood.
Now, thanks to the steady progress of science, we have what we know to be the remnants of undersea life 50 million years ago in the Burgess Shale, Hippo-like mammals basking in the once-toasty warm Arctic, and dinosaur fossils galore. Yes, ancient pudgy mammals - what's not to be thankful for?
6. The mighty Hubble
Orbiting 360 miles (579 kilometers) above Earth and weighing as much as two adult elephants, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope is a giant among giants. The telescope has completed about 93,500 trips around the planet, taking three-quarters of a million snapshots and probing 24,000 celestial objects and phenomena. Each cheap wow gold day the telescope sends back 3 to 4 gigabytes of data, or enough to fill six CDs.
Hubble has arguably changed our view of the universe and our place in it with achievements such as one of the first direct photos of an exoplanet. In its Deep Field Survey, the scope aimed its lens at an "empty patch" of the sky. With a million-second-long exposure, the survey revealed the first galaxies to emerge from the so-called "dark ages," the time shortly after the Big Bang when the first stars reheated the cold, dark universe. Since it's human nature to want to know "where we came from," Hubble gets a big pat on the tube.
7. A smashing time: the Large Hadron Collider
Super-high-speed crashes that release enormous amounts of energy and could reveal exotic particles and even recreate conditions in the universe only a trillionth of a second after the Big Bang. That's science any adrenaline junkie could latch onto.
The secrets of dark matter, the mysteries of the so-called God particle, and extra dimensions in the universe are just a few of the exotic discoveries scientists are hoping to make with the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a 17-mile (27-kilometer) circular tunnel running 300 feet (91 meters) underground near Geneva. Recent feat: creating little big bangs.
8. Communication through satellites
The first Soviet satellite to enter Earth orbit may have struck fear in some hearts back in 1957, but the 21st-century world is now addicted to its growing fleet of buy wow gold communication, navigation and remote sensing satellites. GPS satellites help drivers find their way to Black Friday sales, tell smartphone users where to find the nearest Starbucks, and guide the jetliners flying millions of people around the country for Thanksgiving - even if people sometimes rely upon GPS a little too much. People can also be thankful for satellite radio and satellite TV, even as they look forward to satellite Internet, satellite-guided smart cars, and 4G wireless mobile service for smartphones. Meanwhile, sensing satellites have given us perhaps some of the best views of Earth and its natural rhythms to date. Thanks, orbiting man-made Earth-viewers.
9. Learning what's out there
The search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) that officially kicked off 50 years ago has so far failed to turn up signals from little green men. But there's still much to be thankful for about the band of astronomers who listen for radio signals from star systems that could be home to aliens. Such an effort taps into a sense of trying to understand a universe that extends far beyond humanity and its existence on one rocky planet. It also forces us to consider the meaning behind our existence - are we unique, or has intelligent life stirred elsewhere? Some experts say that we wow gold won't find aliens for many centuries, and others predict finding them within 25 years, but the very idea of first contact excites ordinary people enough to want to see encounters at every turn. Just don't tell famed astrophysicist Stephen Hawking about wanting to shake hands with ET.
10. Sleeping late without guilt
In 1999, Charles Czeisler of Harvard University reported that humans' intrinsic clocks have an average day of 24 hours and 11 minutes. Of course, there is a lot of variation within the population: Some of us, with short-running clocks, rise early and are therefore called larks. Others are comfortable hummingbirds, and the rest are slower-clocked, late-rising owls. The owls among us are thankful for this explanation because it's proof that wanting to sleep late does not make us lazy. The problem, according to Till Roenneberg, a chronobiologist at Ludwig-Maximilian-University in Munich, Germany, is that in spite of our 24/7 expectations, our society still clings to the agrarian idea of 'the early bird gets the worm.' Here's to catching up on sleep over runescape accounts the long weekend!