Turn Your Seasonal Outfits Into a Comfy Place To Crash

Why waste closet space storing seasonal outfits you're not going to wear until it gets cold or warm again when you can repurpose them as the most comfortable place to sit? The upper half of this soft storage chair from Mimish is your standard beanbag that will conform and smoosh to however you awkwardly want to sit on it. But below that in its base you'll find a giant cavernous space that's large enough for even storing winter coats and the like.

Since you're not sitting directly on your clothing it's not getting unnecessary wear and tear, and you don't even have to go the clothing option if you don't want. It could just as easily hide toys, extra towels, or even double as a snack bar in your living room. Depending on the color/type of fabric finish you choose the Storage Beanbag ranges in price from $149 to $169, and if you've ever tried plunking down on a Rubbermaid storage container to watch a movie, you'll realize why these are worth every penny.

[Mimish via Fancy]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/turn-your-seasonal-outfits-into-a-comfy-place-to-crash-514357956

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Bizarre supernova completely normal in every way, find astronomers

A nearby white dwarf went supernova in 2011, giving scientists an unprecedented look at a rare Type Ia supernova. They discovered that it's remarkably, stunningly, perfectly 'normal.'

By Liz Fuller-Wright,?Correspondent / June 19, 2013

Supernova 2011fe was discovered just hours after it exploded in the Pinwheel Galaxy in the Big Dipper. Studies by the Nearby Supernova Factory of its spectrum as it evolved over time have produced a benchmark atlas of data by which to measure all future Type Ia supernovae.

B. J. Fulton / Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network

Enlarge

Astronomers have weird names for things. Blame it on the fact that they started naming stars and planets a long, long time ago, back when they thought the sun went around the Earth. "Planet" means wanderer, even though planetary orbits are completely regular and predictable. A "planetary nebula" has nothing whatsoever to do with planets. And a Type II (aka Type 2, but astronomers insist on Roman numerals) supernova is common, but a Type Ia (1a) supernova is rare, with a bizarre origin story.?

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Rare, but useful. (We'll get to that.)

A group of astronomers just announced that they've found the perfect Type Ia supernova. The Platonic ideal of Type Ia supernovae: 2011fe.

What makes 2011fe so perfect? For one thing, the supernova spotters (known as the Nearby Supernova Factory) found it almost right away in August, 2011, when the supernova was less than 12 hours old.

?We?d never before seen a Type Ia supernova this early,? said Greg Aldering of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in a press release. For another, it's right in our galactic backyard ? just 21 million light years away ? so we got a crystal-clear view. Amateur astronomers could see it through binoculars.

Most of the Type Ia supernovae we've spotted before were far enough away that the light was distorted by interstellar dust. Astronomers can "correct" for those distortions, but in doing so, they have to make a lot of assumptions. That makes the data somewhat less trustworthy. This time, we got an undistorted view, giving us a gold standard against which to measure all future Type Ia supernovae. It's also "remarkably normal," the astronomers found ? the light curve fell right in the heart of normal distributions from past Type Ia observations, with no "peculiar" outliers to explain away.

Rollin Thomas, a member of the research team, remembers that as new data arrived from the telescope each night, he would think, ?Please don?t be peculiar, please don?t be peculiar.? His wish was granted: ?Our measurements showed how remarkably normal 2011fe is," says Aldering.

The researchers?began watching the supernova just hours after it began. Two weeks later, it reached its peak brightness, but they kept watching it, off and on, for another three months, as the light faded away. In the June (current) issue of Astronomy and Astrophysics, the Nearby Supernova Factory is releasing their 32 nights of data on 2011fe. They even made a movie of it.

Remind me: What's a supernova?

Nearly all supernovae are explosions caused by super-giant stars exploding. After a super-giant's core stops fusing, it begins to collapse on itself. As more and more mass falls inward, the atoms are forced to fuse together, resulting in a thermonuclear explosion. Think Nagasaki, but instead of something the size of a softball, it's a star 10 to 70 times bigger than our sun.

That's a Type II supernova.

But there are a few oddballs, known as Type Ia supernovae. Type Ias are also double explosions ? where the first explosion causes the fusion that leads to the second, much larger explosion ? but they're not caused by the sheer enormousness of the exploding star. In fact, Type Ia supernovae are kicked off by tiny white dwarfs.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/science/~3/9-9CeVlDCwE/Bizarre-supernova-completely-normal-in-every-way-find-astronomers

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Parenting and home environment influence children's exercise and eating habits

June 18, 2013 ? Kids whose moms encourage them to exercise and eat well, and model those healthy behaviors themselves, are more likely to be active and healthy eaters, according to researchers at Duke Medicine.

Their findings, published online in the International Journal of Obesity on June 18, 2013, remind parents that they are role models for their children, and underscore the importance of parental policies promoting physical activity and healthy eating.

Exercise and healthy diets are critical in fighting childhood obesity, a considerable problem in the United States, where over a quarter of kids ages two to five are already overweight or obese.

"Obesity is a complex phenomenon, which is influenced by individual biological factors and behaviors," said study author Truls ?stbye, M.D., PhD, professor of community and family medicine at Duke. "But there are variations in obesity from one society to another and from one environment to another, so there is clearly something in the environment that strongly influences the obesity epidemic."

The home environment and parenting can influence a child's health by shaping dietary and physical behaviors, such as providing access to fruits and vegetables or encouraging kids to play outside.

"The 'obesiogenic' environment is broad and multi-faceted, including the physical neighborhood environment, media and advertising, and food tax policies, but we feel that the home environment is critical, particularly among children. However, we didn't have a lot of evidence as to how important this was," ?stbye said.

In this study, ?stbye and his colleagues examined the relationship between the home environment and behaviors related to obesity -- dietary and exercise habits -- among preschoolers.

The researchers studied data from 190 kids, ages two to five, whose mothers were overweight or obese. They collected information on the children's food intake over the past week, with foods rated as junk food or healthy food. To gauge their levels of physical activity, the children wore accelerometers for a week, which measured moderate to vigorous physical activity as well as sedentary time.

The mothers reported information about their children's environments, including family policies around food and physical activity, accessibility of healthy versus junk foods, availability of physical activity equipment, and whether they model healthy eating or exercise for their kids.

When they analyzed the data, the researchers found significant associations between these environmental measures and the preschoolers' physical activity and healthy versus junk food intake. They concluded that to promote healthy behaviors in children, a healthy home environment and parental role modeling are important.

For example, limiting access to junk foods at home and parental policies supporting family meals increased the amount of healthy foods kids ate. Overall, the home environment had more influence on the children's dietary habits than on their physical activity levels.

This study reminds parents that their children are watching and learning from observing their behaviors, both good and bad.

"It's hard for parents to change their behaviors, but not only is this important for you and your own health; it is also important for your children because you are a role model for them," said Marissa Stroo, a co-investigator on the study. "This might be common sense, but now we have some evidence to support this."

The researchers also looked at socioeconomic factors of the mothers, including their education levels and whether they worked, to see if this had an effect on the children's behaviors. The mother's socioeconomic factors did not affect their kids' physical activity, but had mixed results when it came to their dietary habits.

Further research is needed to better understand how a mother's socioeconomic factors influence her child's health, but it is possible that different strategies may be needed to prevent obesity in children depending on a mother's education and work status. More research is also necessary to see if the influence of the home environment changes as children get older, and if parenting strategies should adapt accordingly.

In addition to ?stbye and Stroo, study authors at Duke include Bernard Fuemmeler in the Department of Community and Family Medicine, Rebecca Brouwer at Duke Global Health Institute, and Nancy Zucker in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. Rahul Malhotra of the Duke-National University of Singapore Graduate Medical School and Cheryl Lovelady of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro also contributed to this research.

The study was supported by funding from the National Institutes of Health (R01-DK-07549, 1-K23-MH-070-418-01 and 1-K07-CA-124-905-01).

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/living_well/~3/lp2z-IcpGMg/130618113652.htm

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'Quiet epidemic' of UK male cancer

17 June 2013 Last updated at 21:08 ET By Helen Briggs BBC News

Action is needed to fight a "quiet epidemic" of oesophageal cancer, which is on the rise in the UK, particularly among men, cancer experts say.

Men are almost three times more likely than women to get the cancer - one of the biggest gender divides in cancer rates, according to new figures.

Early diagnosis is the key to saving lives, says a Cancer Research UK team.

Scientists are working on ways to detect symptoms earlier and to decipher the genetic code of the cancer.

Poor outcomes

Oesophageal cancer - cancer of the gullet or food pipe - is the ninth most common cancer in the UK.

It is one of the most difficult cancers to detect and treat, with only about one in 10 patients surviving for 10 years or more.

Continue reading the main story

?Start Quote

Food getting stuck when you swallow and persistent heart burn are not normal?

End Quote Tim Underwood Oesophageal cancer

Latest figures show 5,600 UK men (almost 15 out of every 100,000) developed the disease in 2010, compared with 2,800 UK women (about five out of every 100,000).

This equates to a lifetime risk of one in 56 for men and one in 110 for women.

There are two types of oesophageal cancer:

• squamous cell carcinoma - linked to smoking, drinking and a low fruit intake
• adenocarcinoma - linked to obesity, smoking and persistent acid reflux

Researchers believe a steady rise in the number of adenocarcinomas in men is behind the gender gap.

Tim Underwood, an oesophageal surgeon and researcher at the University of Southampton, said many questions remained unanswered about the cancer, but urgent action was needed.

"We need a game changer," he told a news conference.

"And we need a game changer relatively urgently. There is an epidemic of this disease and outcomes are poor."

Continue reading the main story

A survivor's story

Ian Barclay, 65, from Salisbury, was diagnosed with oesophageal cancer in 2009 when he was rushed to hospital bleeding internally.

"I was two and a half hours from dying," he says. "I was lucky to get through that. If you feel something's not right, go and get it checked, and you could save your own life."

Mr Underwood, who is running the New York Marathon to raise money for research, said diagnosing the disease earlier was key to improving the chances of survival.

"Food getting stuck when you swallow and persistent heart burn are not normal," he said.

"If this is happening to you, you need to see your GP.

"The vast majority of people won't have anything seriously wrong with them, but it's important to get checked out.

"If left untreated acid reflux - often called heartburn - can damage cells of the oesophagus leading to a condition called Barrett's oesophagus which in turn can be a precursor of oesophageal cancer."

Lifestyle link

Dr Harpal Kumar, chief executive of Cancer Research UK, said the factors behind the rise in oesophageal cancer were unclear.

"We think it may be linked to some changes that we've seen in people's lifestyles, for example increasing levels of obesity," he told BBC News.

"There is a lot more that we need to do to try and understand this disease better, but at this point in time the most important thing is to increase awareness of it and get people to go and see their doctor if they have the symptoms."

Research projects are under way in the UK to understand oesophageal cancer better and develop techniques for earlier diagnosis.

A "sponge-on-a-string" device to collect cells from the gullet for diagnosis could be available on the NHS in five years, said Prof Rebecca Fitzgerald, of the Medical Research Council's Cancer Cell Unit in Cambridge.

The cytosponge test is designed to be swallowed and retrieved to detect pre-cancerous cells.

Clinical trials suggest the test shows promise as a safer and cheaper alternative to endoscopy, a procedure where the inside of the body is examined internally using a long, flexible tube.

"For the patient, this is a five-minute test - it will make your eyes water for two seconds but it is an awful lot simpler, less invasive, safer and cheaper than an endoscopy," said Prof Fitzgerald.

"We're hopeful that in the future this will really transform early diagnosis by making it something much more patient-friendly and affordable."

Prof Fitzgerald said work to decode all of the genes in 500 oesophageal cancer samples, looking for genetic mistakes, was in progress, with about 100 samples completed.

The long-term goal was to develop better drugs for the condition, she said.

Current treatment relies on chemotherapy and radiotherapy, with surgery as an option if the cancer is detected early enough.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-22940088#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa

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Bombs and battles hit northern Iraq, 70 dead

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Insurgents struck cities across Iraq on Monday with car bombs, suicide attacks and gun battles, killing more than 70 people in worsening sectarian violence.

No group claimed responsibility for the day-long attacks, most of them in northern Iraq, but officials blame much of the violence that has killed nearly 2,000 people since April on Sunni Islamist insurgents linked to al Qaeda's local wing.

The bloodshed has accompanied rising political tensions between Iraq's majority Shi'ite leaders and the Sunni community, who believe they have been marginalized since the fall of Saddam Hussein after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

Monday's attacks earlier targeted markets in two northern Iraqi towns. But later insurgents hit at security forces, including an assault involving suicide bombers and rockets on police headquarters in the northern city of Mosul that killed 24, many of them police and soldiers.

The recent monthly death tolls have been the worst since inter-communal bloodletting five years ago that killed tens of thousands, partitioned Baghdad into districts based on religious sect and drove Iraq to the edge of wide scale civil war.

The increasingly sectarian conflict in neighboring Syria, where Shi'ite Iran and the region's Sunni Gulf powers are backing opposing sides, has also put pressure on Iraq's own fragile inter-communal and ethnic balance.

Invigorated by Syria's mostly Sunni revolt and Iraqi Sunni discontent, al Qaeda's local wing, Islamic State of Iraq, is recruiting and regaining ground lost during its war with U.S. troops who left Iraq in December 2011.

(Reporting by Reuters correspondents in Baquba and Mosul, Gazwan Hassan and Mustafa Mahmoud, Suadad al-Salhy and Ahmed Rasheed in Baghdad; Writing by Patrick Markey; Editing by Mike Collett-White)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/bombs-strike-iraqi-market-killing-least-13-071003458.html

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Taliban beheads two boys, ages 10 and 16

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Taliban fighters beheaded two boys aged 10 and 16 as a warning to villagers not to cooperate with the Afghan government, local officials said.

The boys, named Khan and Hameedullah, had travelled to Afghan army and police checkpoints near their home in the southern province of Kandahar, scrounging for leftover food to bring to their families, the officials said.

"The boys were on their way back ... when they were stopped by Taliban insurgents who beheaded them," the chief of Zhari district, Jamal Agha, told Reuters. "Both of them were innocent children and had nothing to do with government or foreigners."

The militants have beheaded dozens of people in the last two years, accusing them of aiding the government and its foreign backers led by the United States.

A Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, said the group was not involved in the boys' killings.

The Kandahar governor's spokesman, Javid Faisal, said the incident occurred on Sunday. Several hours later their bodies and severed heads were left in their village, he said.

Kandahar is the birthplace of the Taliban and one of Afghanistan's most restive provinces.

In July last year in the same district, a 16-year-old boy accused by the Taliban of spying for the government was beheaded and skinned. The next month, a girl aged six and a boy of 12 were kidnapped and beheaded in separate incidents in Kandahar and the east of the country.

Such incidents highlight the difficulty that Taliban leaders have in enforcing discipline across an estimated 20,000 fighters spread from Afghanistan to Pakistan.

The leadership is trying to improve the group's image in case it wants to push forward tentative reconciliation steps and perhaps even enter mainstream politics. But some militant units have proved hard to control, roaming the countryside and killing or maiming those they deem immoral.

The beheading occurred the day before seven Taliban insurgents including suicide bombers attacked country's international airport in the capital, Kabul.

Also on Monday, six insurgents with suicide vests and heavy guns attacked a government compound in the provincial center of Zabul, wounding at least 18 people.

Concerns are mounting over how the 352,000-strong Afghan security forces will cope with an intensifying Taliban insurgency once most foreign troops leave by the end of next year.

(Reporting by Ismail Sameem and Sarwar Amani, writing by Mirwais Harooni, editing by Dylan Welch and Mark Trevelyan)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/taliban-beheads-two-boys-southern-afghanistan-150548483.html

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Understand this one thing and you will never diet again

?It?s not you, it?s me? I have heard that statement before in my life. I?ve gotten over it. However I wish there were a few people that would use that phrase more often, like government or banks. In fact, I wish that the diet industry would use it more often. Unfortunately they use the other form; ?Its not me its you?

Have you ever wondered why you regain the weight back so quickly? You see, diets won?t take the blame. I think it?s time that they did. Here?s why!

Diets set you up for weight regain- here?s the science to back it up.

Friends, I want you to be sure, if you grasp this one philosophy, you will never want to diet again. You will finally find out why it is truly hopeless until you change the way you approach health and fitness. You need to reach your goal without dieting but by making small changes in a few key behaviours.

Here are the facts! Typically the metabolism is reduced when someone is losing weight, predisposing the dieting subject to weight regain once they are done the diet. So in 1997 a group of researchers decided to see if they could do something about it. They took obese dieting subjects and separated them into three groups, a weight-training group, an aerobic training group, and a diet alone group. Their hypothesis was that the weight-training group would stimulate muscle growth and as a result preserve the metabolism as they were losing weight.

What they discovered is something that is rarely discussed in diet centers. Weight training did not prevent the decline in the metabolism.

Lets bring this research to a practical level.

This means that an obese dieting individual will not be able to prevent the drop in metabolism even with weight-training! (because we cannot keep up with the muscle loss due to the fact that we don?t need it anymore to move us around, see blog x).

Here is the truth. This means that after I diet my metabolism will be lower and there is nothing I can do about that. This is where dieting is very dangerous.

Case study:

Lets take Steve as an example. Steve is 300 lbs. and has a resting metabolism of 2400 calories per day (meaning he burns 2400 calories per day if he were to just lay in bed all day; definition of metabolism). Steve is tired of his weight and just wants it off. He wants it off as quickly as possible. So he signs up for a program that will guarantee him weight loss.

It?s a diet that requires him to take a supplement. He?s quite ecstatic about it because it?s easy and he doesn?t even have to think about it. He just has the shake instead of his regular lunch and then at dinner consumes vegetables and protein. This type of process is very typical for a high protein low carbohydrate diet. It?s perfect; he has too much on his plate to have to think about what to eat!

Fast forward a couple months and Steve is down 50 lbs. He finally reached his goal. The diet stated that he would actually boost his metabolism because it was a high protein diet (I won?t get started on that one). So unbeknownst to Steve his metabolism has actually gone from 2400 calories a day to 1900. That drop represents a 500-calorie drop per day, equivalent to a 45 min run. This is why exercise is such a great weight manager.

Now Steve decides to go off the supplements and start eating normally. He re-enters his old habits with a lower metabolism. What a perfect storm to regain all of his weight back.

Fast forward again and Steve has regained all of his weight back. The good thing is that because his body needs to support the extra mass his muscle starts to grow again and as a result his metabolism increases. Picture Steve again at 300 lbs. He is back to his old habits, has gained his weight back and is wearing his old clothes again.

The only change is that his metabolism is slightly lower. He now has a 2350-calorie metabolism (slightly lower than when he started the diet). As Steve wonders why he can?t keep the weight off he decides to go on a different diet. One that will work! Maybe the injections will help. So he re-enters the weight loss weight regain cycle.

Below is a visual representation of this cycle.

There is hope! In my next blog I will be discussing what Steve can do to stop this viscous cycle. Remember this, this pattern is normal. Don?t beat yourself up. Diets love this cycle. You will always need them; unless of course they do everything they can to help you avoid this.

At Fitmetabolism, we want you to avoid this cycle. We have done everything to assist you in this. This is why we don?t sell supplements, or meal replacements, or have you cut out something just to put it back into your diet. We work very hard to help people lose the weight and keep it off for good.

Do me a favor. I want you stand for justice. Share this blog with anyone who is caught in this cycle. Let them be aware, this is a science thing. We need to start breaking this cycle to see global change. Thanks Fm?ers for standing for the scientific truth.

Source: http://fitmetabolism.com/understand-this-one-thing-and-you-will-never-diet-again/

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