Money is a Powerful Painkiller

What can relieve pain better than drugs? Scientists believe it is money. Experiments have shown that money amazingly acts on the body. And it’s not that money relieves “headache” from women.


Specialists from Minnesota found that there is an indirect link between money and happiness, and a direct link between money and pain.
Recounting banknotes contributes to the generation of endorphins, which are powerful natural analgesic in the body.

Let’s recall that earlier, scientists at the University of Warwick in UK found that money can bring happiness in only one case: if a person is richer than his/her friends and relatives. And experts from Princeton University found that there is a link between the level of life satisfaction and wages. The more a person earns, the less he/she is disturbed by problems.
Thus, the happiest are those Americans who earn 75,000 dollars a year.

Christie’s to Auction the World’s Most Expensive Barbie Doll

The world’s most expensive Barbie doll, an estimate of about half a million dollars will be auctioned. A blonde in a black cocktail dress adorned with the most original diamonds from designer Stefano Canturi, whose work is worn by many Hollywood and show business stars – for example, Nicole Kidman and Linda Evangelista.


One “toy” necklace with a pink diamond is worth at least $300,000. That is the price set by collectors for each carat of colored faceted diamonds.

The auction will be held on October 20 in New York and proceeds from it will go directly to Breast Cancer Research Foundation.
Canturi received an order to produce the most expensive Barbie in the world during last year’s celebrations that marked the 50th anniversary of the most famous doll in the world.

The first Barbie was sold for just three dollars. However, already in 2004, the beauty blonde born in 1959 was sold on eBay for $3,552. Two years later, the price jumped to $17000 at Christie’s auction in England. Until now, it was a record price for Barbie doll.

Taiwanese Woman Marries Herself

Taiwan has witnessed one of the most unusual weddings in history. 29-year-old Chen Wei-yi “married” herself. During the ceremony, Chen solemnly put on a wedding ring, and treated her guests with a wedding cake at a banquet in honor of the wedding.


Chen held this wedding ceremony as a protest against the exerted pressure in Taiwan on women to marry. As in Western countries, Taiwanese women are increasingly marrying at an older age because they want to first get an education and find good job.

Despite this, many prospective husbands and their parents continue to believe that career and education for women are not as important as family and children.
Chen Wei-yi decided to resist this pressure. “If I’m marrying myself, it means that I promise to love only myself” – she said.

Some Taiwanese have criticized Chen Wei-yi for this move, claiming that the ceremony was arranged for wedding gifts. Nevertheless, many women from around the world have supported Chen Wei-yi’s protest.
Meanwhile, the Taiwanese government concerned about low birth rates are leading a campaign to promote marriage.

Breast Implants as a Gift?

A 20-year-old woman from Germany underwent a breast enlargement surgery last year – an acquisition which partly belongs to her former boyfriend, as it turns out, and now he wants his share back!


As German Bild newspaper reports, the woman, known by the name of Anastasia, paid to have breast implants in 2009 with a financial assistance from her boyfriend to the sum of 4,379 euros ($5,865). The man named Carsten agreed to cough up the loan on the condition that they remain together for a year, and when the year has expired she wouldn’t owe him a cent.

So, when the couple broke up before the stipulated date, the trouble started… Carsten clamored for a refund, threatening to bring thе police and repossessors in.
The situation improved some last week after the woman reimbursed him 3,000 euros – will it be enough to shelve the talk of re-possession for a while?

Women Are Taking Over Home DIY Tasks

A recent survey informs that women in Britain have gotten into doing odd DIY jobs (Do-it-yourself jobs) about the house quite seriously and beginning to like it!


A poll of over 1,000 people commissioned by Bosch yielded high percentage results of women’s activity in homes, with 48 per cent of women find DIY tasks pleasantly challenging in terms of style and interior design abilities.

And while 69% are ready to nail up a shelf or fix on a handle to take it off the contractor’s bill, 78% have grown to experience enjoyment when handling a hammer or a screwdriver.
In odd news, almost three quarters of the people polled find women more than passable DIYers, to be credited with more patience and diligence. Can we take it that men agree with the tendency and let their women take over?

Summing up that gender doesn’t mean that much now in the field of home DIY tasks, a spokesperson for Bosch pointed out that women “are using DIY as a way to express creativity in the home” as compared with males who considered it as a way to assert themselves.
And now, as the Chritmas is just around the corner, what do you think of expressing creativity in gifts by creating DIY Christmas gifts?

10 Reasons Why People Buy Useless Things

We all know the feeling when something looked good in the store but started to look out of place once we got it home. It’s just one of those things, we say and don’t give it another thought – until we learn of the results of a recent survey that reveal that the average Brit sends over £49,000 down the drain because he or she made a hurried purchase.


Researchers working for Kodak Inkjet printers calculated that Britishers fork out £68.44 every month buying goods that later turn out to be unnecessary or just not liked any more.

So, to-be-regretted purchases run to a yearly expense of £821.28 and £49,687 and more for a person in their adult life. Now you can calculate the total cost of useless purchases lying around your house – and probably open up a second-hand store.

A poll of 3,000 people showed that 32% of them regretted buying some items of clothing, while 18% were tempted by an unnecessary gadget and 14% made a blunder when buying shoes.
For Brits the main reasons behind an unlucky purchase include:

1. buying things in a hurry,
2. depressed frame of mind,
3. sales,
4. tempted by a discount voucher,
5. items seen in store promotions,
6. not giving enough attention to the item bought because of other things on the mind,
7. inveigled into buying by a pushy shop assistant,
8. when angered or irritated,
9. under pressure from family members,
10. buying things intended to impress.

It seems men are more susceptible to these situations, for it turns out that they throw away £968 every year while women get useless stuff for £649 only, showing women as more prudent and sagacious once they step into a store.
Buying something for yourself is regarded as a treat, said a Kodak Inkjet printers spokesperson, “but that feeling can soon turn sour when your bank statement or credit card bills come through”. The current economic situation requires that people pay better attention when shopping and thus avoid wasting money.

10 Best Christmas Movies

Watching a Christmas movie is regarded by many as one of the pleasures of the season; which one will it be this time? Buffalo Technology was interested enough to commission a poll for the best-loved Xmas picture and came up with Home Alone as the disparate classic of the past two decades.


At the time when families get together the film about an 8-year-old boy left completely alone in the house and having to fend for himself collected the majority of voices from 3,000 voters.
Here are other films which many people would like to see over the season:

10 Greastest Christmas Movies

1. Home Alone
2. It’s a Wonderful Life
3. The Snowman
4. Miracle on 34th Street (1994)
5. White Christmas
6. A Christmas Carol
7. Love Actually
8. Santa Claus: The Movie
9. Elf
10. The Wizard of Oz

Home Alone 2 is also there, but significantly further back on the list, occupying the 19th place. Other movies fans opted for include The Muppets Christmas Carol (11th), Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas (15th) and even Mary Poppins (12th).
A spokesman for Buffalo Technology remarked: “Classic Christmas movies get everyone in the mood for the festive season,” and almost a quarter of the people polled said that ensconcing themselves for a good film is certainly a welcome relaxation.

20 Most Prompt Christmas Arguments

While preparations draw on into Christmas Day, family scraps are piling up for a variety of reasons – the most frequent of them is the possession of the TV remote control, it has been found.


“Christmas Day can be stressful,” commented Buffalo LinkStation that commissioned a poll of 2,000 people trying to learn what makes families fight over the holiday.

The ability to choose what channel to watch is valued so high in modern families that most rows flare up over that, leaving behind as lesser reasons mother being stressed out over too much kitchen work or children stuffing themselves with chocolate before dinner-time.

Presents provide some reasons for wrangling while family members decide when they should open them and, finally, when no-one thinks of cleaning up after the event.
And now the dinner’s over… Hey, who is going to wash up?
It’s a great holiday, so the squabble list is fairly large!
MAIN REASONS FOR CHRISTMAS ARGUMENTS

1. Who controls the remote control
2. Festive dinner proving too much for Mum
3. Mum is left alone to cope with work
4. Everybody refuses to wash up
5. Somebody is caught out cheating in a board game
6. The best time to open presents
7. Kids go for chocolate heavily before dinner
8. Too many opinions as to what film to watch
9. Cleaning up the litter after the presents have been opened
10. Kids fumbling with their cell phones or laptops during the meals
11. Dad gets irritated at having to watch soaps Christmas specials
12. Kids complain of the presents they got
13. Old arguments sparkle up anew
14. The temperature inside
15. Dad gets soaked before dinner
16. Kids keep checking out social networking sites
17. Kids insist on playing the DVD’s they want
18. Where to put up visiting relatives
19. Entertainment expenses
20. Mum gets soaked before dinner

A spokesperson for Buffalo LinkStation expressed hope that, argument reasons being superficial, they won’t end up in serious fights during the festive season.

Christmas Gifts Re-Gifted

This Christmas may arrive to find the practice of re-gifting presents growing while people are attempting to save money during the expensive festive season. So the gifts we are going to receive have a higher chance to have been someone else’s present – even re-wrapped in gaily-colored paper that was used to wrap our gifts last year.


More people may try to keep in mind to go softly with the wrapping paper when unwrapping their Christmas gifts knowing that they will need it again… Such are the findings of a survey embracing 1,000 people awaiting the coming of Christmas conducted by AnyJunk.

Almost three quarters of the shoppers polled admitted to giving away their unwanted presents from last year; more than half say they have last year’s festive paper stored away for using it this Christmas time.
Nearly a quarter of the people send Xmas cards no more, the survey showed.

“It was a surprise to learn,” was the comment from AnyJunk’s spokesperson. The recycling campaign that people obviously take hints from was hardly meant to include times like Yuletide, was it?

Most Expensive Christmas Tree

It is not official yet, but the Emirates Palace Hotel in UAE’s capitol Abu Dhabi is going to apply to the Guinness Book of World Records to verify their claim of setting up the most expensive Christmas tree ever. Worth over $11 million, it may well end up in the Book.


The applicant, an artificial evergreen standing 40 foot, is installed in the gold leaf-patterned rotunda of the hotel. It is traditionally decorated with bright balls, gold and silver arcs and illuminated by small white lights, but the bulk of the $11 million is in its jewelry decorations furnished by the Style Gallery. According to general manager of Emirates Palace Hans Olbertz, the tree (worth around $10,000) bears jewels valued at a little under $11.5 million.

The precious decorations are 181 gems, including diamonds, sapphires, emeralds, and pearls. Numerous necklaces, bracelets and watches hanging from the branches may not provide the customary yuletide atmosphere but they certainly give distinction.

 The jewel-studded Christmas tree is a crowning touch of the seven-star hotel luxury facilities policy. The Emirates Palace is known for a gold dispensing machine, the second in the world. Its this year’s new seven-day package worth $1 million may also be the most expensive in the world.

How Do You Know – Movie Disasters

These days box office news turn out to be mighty disappointing even for some of the most illustrious of movie stars, as RadarOnline informs.


A breathtaking team of Owen Wilson, Reese Witherspoon, Jack Nicholson and Paul Rudd couldn’t save How Do You Know that threatens to become the biggest 2010 flop financially. With the $120 million production costs (what about fat paychecks for the star team!), the opening weekend bringing in a meager $7.6 million looks extremely weak.

Another one that is on its way to drop out of sight is The Tourist, featuring Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie, that slumped to place 5 over the weekend with only $8.7 million in the box office.
TRON: Legacy 3D has been announced as the ticket sales winner; it is reported to have brought in something like $43.6 million.

Thriller Black Swan with Natalie Portman is going strong for its third consequent week, having already overreached its production cost of $13 million. This weekend this movie theater hit made a pile of $8.3 million in fewer than 1000 theaters.

What Men Like Most in Women

Women around the world are working hard to ensure that the look is mysterious, skin is glowing, and hair is gorgeous. We can not say that all those efforts are pointless. However, there is one very small detail that really attracts men‘s attention. What is it?


Scientists from the University of Manchester used special software to study what attracts men’s attention the most. During the study men were meeting women and the software was recording the first ten seconds of those meetings. It even was detecting the area of women’s body to which men paid most attention. On average, they spent almost half of the time gazing at the women’s mouths. They gazed longer at red lips in particular.

The scientists concluded that women made the right choice to use red lipstick for generations now. Indeed, red lips attract men. Women in Ancient Egypt were the first ones to start using products similar to the modern lipstick. Generations later, the trick still works without a hitch.
So, ladies, make a conclusion! If a woman wants the man to keep his eyes on her longer, wants him to want her, she needs to buy a good red lipstick.

What People Love Most in Champagne

Today is the day when innumerable bottles of champagne or other sparkling wines will pop open sending streams of white foam splashing freely and bringing along merry mood both through its cheerful fountaineering and exquisite taste.


Well, we all know what it is all about, but some of the boffins had been too engrossed to know until recently, when a study conducted by French scientists was published proving beyond any doubt that it takes good bubbles to make good champagne.

The study that appeared in the American Chemical Society Journal affirms that bubbles, as the most important aspect of sparkling wines, are a perfect agent transferring the texture, taste and aroma of the wine.
Therefore you should do well, when opening a bottle, to try and avoid letting too many bubbles escape.
In order to enjoy the bubblest of your champagne chill the bottle to 39-40 degrees before drinking. Pour the wine down the side of the glass slowly… and have a good drink and a merry celebration!

How Much Time Do Women Spend on Beauty?

How much time do you usually spend to look good? It is not as hard to calculate it as it may seem. For example, if you daily spend around 30-35 minutes on beauty, then you are spending almost four hours every week! How much time did your mother or grandmothers use to spend on beauty care?


A study was published in Wall Street Journal, which states that modern women progressively spend less time on beauty. For example, in 1965 women used to spend 10.1 hours per week, while modern women spend only 8.2 hours to look good.

So, what has changed over those forty years? Experts note that overall things have stayed the way they used to be. But, the methods and tools have become more effective. This helps women save time, which is so precious those days. Hair dryers dry faster, hair products keep our hair look perfect the whole day, makeup is long-lasting, and day and night creams and serums make masks and compresses less necessary. Moreover, the salon industry obviously exists to help us in this regard as well.

How to Make People Behave Better

People’s behavior undergoes a drastic change when they know that somebody is keeping an eye on them. Even a picture of an eye is enough to do the trick, as scientists have proved.


A research team from Newcastle University conducted an experiment hanging up two different posters in a café. The posters told the customers to clear up their tables before they leave. One poster showed some flowers, while the other had a pair of staring eyes.

When the boffins compared the results it turned out that twice the number of people complied with the request on the poster depicting eyes as compared to those who read the writing on the poster with flowers.
This experiment confirmed the findings of the team’s previous research aiming to show that people are more cooperative in the presence of images of staring eyes.

“We care what other people think about us, and hence we behave better when we feel we are being observed,” said lead researcher Dr. Bateson commenting on the new experiment that proves that an eye image also works in this case.

Also the eye poster has been found to have made a stronger impact during the periods when it was quiet in the café.
Now there are posters all over Newcastle University reminding the students to hand in their dissertations, all bearing pictures of staring eyes.

Top 10 New Year Women’s Resolutions

All of us make wishes on the New Year‘s Eve regardless of whether we believe in it or not. We also usually make New Year’s resolutions by promising to ourselves to change our lives: to quit smoking, start working out, take better care of our parents, etc… Can you guess some popular New Year’s resolutions among women?

1. Lose Weight
Losing weight takes the first spot on our list. Women around the world are dissatisfied with their weight. American women in particular are not happy with their figures, since over 66% of people in US suffer from obesity! We can only wish you the best in achieving this resolution and hope you will have a realistic goal in mind and will progressively move toward it.

2. Spend More Time with Family
Modern women across the globe work a lot, and in some cases they work even more intensively then men. Moreover, Internet and other modern hobbies and interests take a lot of our time. Indeed, those days, families are in desperate need of our attention.

3. Give up Smoking
This is a great resolution. The fact that this resolution is on our top-ten New Year’s resolution list means that modern women smoke a lot. It’s about time we think about it, set goals, and finally do it – quit smoking!

4. Learn Time Management
How good are you at planning your time and sticking to the plan? A great idea is to start an organizer (paper or electronic). It doesn’t matter what your profession is – you can be a manager, a nanny, or a sales person, because we all have a lot of things to do every day and it is important to plan them ahead of time and know which ones are more urgent and important than others.

5. Give up Drinking Alcohol
It is hard to realize this resolution during the holidays, but we can start figuring out and planning on how to give up drinking around January 3rd.

6. Find a New Hobby
Isn’t it refreshing and exciting to learn something new, get new skills, join new clubs and classes? It is a great idea to find time for those activities too.

7. Help Others
Many of us have this goal in mind, but most of us defer it for later due to the busy and hectic modern lifestyle. Yet, in reality such good deeds as donating blood or helping organizations that help children do not take that much time.

8. Become More Physically Active
While the most common resolution is weight loss, not all of us associate it with additional physical activity. Many of us rely on diets and dietary supplements. Therefore, sport and fitness arrives only at the spot number eight on our list. Many of us wish to take up working out, so why should something stand in our way?

9. Start Putting Aside Money
Next resolution is to start putting money aside. We often start saving money to buy something important, but rarely end up saving enough to actually buy it. Maybe this year you will manage to do it!

10. Find out more about Health
Regular visits to our dentist or gynecologist are very important. We also need to regularly check our blood sugar, blood pressure, and pulse. Overall, we should aim to learn more about our own health.

Are you ready to share your New Year’s resolutions with us? By the way, statistics show that women tend to be more successful at achieving their goals if they share their plans and get support from their friends and acquaintances.

World’s Best and Worst Lovers

The worst that women could do is get themselves a lover from Germany, it has been found. The majority of women believe German men to be the most unpleasant bed companions, with English men following closely on the 2nd worst place.


These are the results of a survey conducted by OnePoll, a global research site that got interested in how ladies find gents of different nationalities in terms of their bed prowess. 15,000 women from 20 countries were involved. They were also asked to explain their preferences.

While most of the women polled opted for Spanish men as the best lovers a girl could wish, and praised Brazilians and Italians for their male skills, the way Germans smell was said to interfere seriously with their performance.

Englishmen, who take the last line but one, are supposed to be too lazy to take good care of their woman, and men from Sweden are apt to end the session too early.
OnePoll’s spokesperson referred to the results of the survey as “an eye-opener” and said that women travelers should take them into consideration when choosing a lover.
THE WORST LOVERS LIST

1. Germany (should get a new deodorant)
2. England (should perk up and be more active)
3. Sweden (should learn to prolong the enjoyment)
4. Holland (should go easy on domination)
5. America (should be gentler and softer)
6. Greece (shouldn’t be so mushy)
7. Wales (should be more considerate)
8. Scotland (should be quieter)
9. Turkey (should keep a towel at the bedside)
10. Russia (should consider having depilation)

And here come the winners worthy of a lady’s attention. Congratulations, men!
THE BEST LOVERS LIST

1. Spain
2. Brazil
3. Italy
4. France
5. Ireland
6. South Africa
7. Australia
8. New Zealand
9. Denmark
10. Canada

Bird Rain – Apocalypsis?

The world is swept in a welter of news from all parts of the globe all informing of sudden mass demise of winged creatures and sea-dwellers. Days around the New Year have been marked by countless corpses of various species of birds and fishes, their death as unexpected as it is inexplicable.


While local inhabitants are worried over the out-of-the-blue holocaust, scientists are shrugging. So far there is virtually nothing to account for those casualties in the animal world.

The mystery of the agency dealing this terrible mass deathblow to the world fauna has given rise to a wide range of theories including the changing of the magnetic poles and aliens’ nefarious activities. Conspirologists are raving about newly-hatched governmental plots.

An American news site even started a poll on a probable cause of deaths. Its readers opted for lightning, New Year fireworks, hail, or something they called “stress” as the most likely ones.
In some places like the town of Bebe in Arkansas festive fireworks might have caused the carnage… But none of conspiracy or eschatology experts is satisfied with anything short of the hand of doom suspended over the world.

They may have something in that, for these tragic occurrences cannot have a common cause, having struck simultaneously in places as different and far apart as the south of Sweden in the north and Brazil and New Zealand in the south.

It is strangely evocative of an episode in the TV series ‘FlashForward’ with Joseph Fiennes that depicts a flock of birds pelting down on the Somalia desert.
Hopefully these are not the first signs of the horrible omens for the year 2012, and we can still enjoy global catastrophe movies without fearing anything like that happening in reality.

34E Boob Job for £4

Online auctions have their uses, at least the one on the British millibid site proved extremely beneficial for a 20-year-old would-be model Danielle Sheehan. Her participation in the auction ended with her winning a boob job for a ridiculous amount of £3.90.


Sheehan, who works in health care, bid at the site for an “ultimate ¬makeover” and was astonished to come up as winner! Having always wanted to possess larger size breasts, she opted to have a boob job that is normally worth in the vicinity of £4,000.

The lucky winner went to a private clinic in Norwich where an outstanding cosmetic surgeon did a great job of increasing her bust size from 34C to 34E, giving her new curves that she is only too happy to display.
Sheehan, who never expected her expensive dream to come true, claims her breasts are now “so much better than the ones God gave me.”

They were painful for some time after the operation, she further says, but they are no longer now. Her mom and her boyfriend are also delighted with her new looks.
The young woman hopes that she will be getting more modeling work after the op that cost her less than a push-up bra.

She received her congratulation from a spokesperson for millibid who were auctioning a MacBook at half a pound, 46″ HD TV at £2.29, and a new Audi TT at £11.73.

How to Calm a Man Down

This is a scientifically proved fact: looking at cooked red meat will make your man feel relaxed and tranquil.


Actually, this is not quite what Canadian scientists had expected to get… Researchers from McGill University, when they embarked upon a survey of 82 men, had acted on a presumption that at the sight of meat the historical hunting past of men will take over and whip up competitive aggression.

Lead researcher Frank Kachanoff commented that he was interested in the reactions roused in people by different stimuli in the modern environment that are supposed to stir up “an innate predisposition” – like feeling aggression well up when looking at a gun.

Strangely enough, the results proved the exact opposite: standard assessing techniques showed that the level of aggression dropped down considerably when men found themselves around cooked meat.

Trying to explain away the unexpected calming effect, Kachanoff reasoned that the image of meat can primarily associate not with the situation of hunting, but with that of a meal-time in a family circle, where pristine men felt out of danger and ready to enjoy their plateful.