You light up my brain

When you're in love, your eyes light up, your face lights up -- and apparently, so do four tiny bits of your brain. "It is the common denominator of romantic love," says Andreas Bartels, a research fellow at University College London.

Bartels used functional MRI scanning to examine eleven women and six men who said they were truly in love -- statements backed up by psychological tests. When the subjects were shown photographs of their sweethearts, different areas of the brain scan lit up -- indicating higher blood flow -- than when they were shown pictures of friends. Theses "love spots" were near, but not the same as, sections that become active when someone is feeling simple lust. Looking at pictures of their dearest also reduced activity in three larger areas of the brain known to be active when people are upset or depressed. » Continue reading

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20 Essential Firefox Add-ons for Web Shoppers

Online shopping can sometimes get really confusing especially during the Christmas season when you have a whole bunch of gifts to buy. It takes a lot of effort to first find the items you want and then to compare the price across various online merchants. Wouldn't you be glad if you could just highlight an item on a web page and your browser could list out the sites selling it along with their prices and user reviews?


Christina Laun has put together a wonderful list of 20 Essential Firefox Add-ons for Frugal Web Shoppers which does just that and much more! These Add-ons make online shopping experience a breeze.

Out of the twenty the ones which caught my fancy were:

1. Woot Watcher


2. Chartlet - Wouldn't that be helpful for recording and tracking stock prices too!


3. Send Tab URLs - Do you have to shift from working on one computer to another (Example: shuttling between work and home)? This Add-on can be useful to email the URLs you were working on before shifting so that you can open the same on the other computer without having to remember the long URLs or retyping them.

Do let me know what was your favorite. Do you know other cool Firefox Add-ons for web shoppers? » Continue reading

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Many Tongues Help Kids

You think it may be confusing for children to grow up with more than one language? Wrong. Research shows it benefits kids in many ways -- they learn languages in general better, and develop problem solving skills earlier. "Multilingual children have a sense of perspective that makes them very language aware and able to block out irrelevant information," says Professor Ellen Bialystok of Toronto.

What's your view, opinion or experience? » Continue reading

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When d'ya need water?

If drinking eight glasses of water a day has you wearing a path to the bathroom, set down your cup and relax. Drinking water can be a good substitute for high-calorie beverages. But there's no proof we all need to drink those eight glasses of water each day, according to physiologist Heinz Valtin.

"Proponents of the 'eight glasses theory' say that every one of us, including couch potatoes, should drink that much," says Valtin. "And it's just not true." We have a finely tuned system for regulating water flow, including an antidiuretic hormone that tells the kidneys when to keep water in the body, and thirst, which normally kicks in well before we dehydrate. Juice works as well as water, and caffeinated drinks count too. Nearly one-half of the body's water needs are derived from food. Some people do need more water, including patients with kidney stones, people who exercise hard, and those in hot climates. For most, drinking more won't hurt, but trust your body. "If you drink when you're thirsty," says Valtin, "you should be safe." » Continue reading

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Slate fillet & amber sauce

Looks appetizing enough? Take a bite, and you might howl. Not that the cooking is bad, Hsu Chun-I's 'feast' of 52 dishes is assembled from stones and minerals. The stones are not carved or dyed. Hsu selects only those that bear an extreme resemblance to the dishes. The most expensive exhibit is 'Pig's Trotters and Eggs Stewed in Dark Soya Souce', valued at $85,000. » Continue reading

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Messy swig

How would you feel if someone told you that for five months you have been drinking treated sewage water meant for watering lawns?

Vinay Jain in Cary, North Carolina found this truth when workers shut off a treated-water pipe in their area. His neighbors had tap water but their sprinklers were dry; it was the opposite for the Jains. So much for speeches on lack of potable water in developing countries. » Continue reading

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Feet Cold? Wear a Hat

Although your head and neck take up only 10% of your body surface, you can lose more than 30% of your body heat through your head (kids lose up to 60%). Unlike other blood vessels, the arteries in your head and neck don't constrict in the cold air (they need to get blood to your brain). As warm blood rushes through, heat easily escapes. Bundling up keeps the heat in, where it can be transfered to other parts of the body -- like your frozen toes. » Continue reading

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