Instead of envying the thin people around you, try to act like they do. If you follow their habits, you may find the pounds peeling off and a figure that looks a lot like theirs... Thin people favor bulky foods... Thin people don't skip meals... Thin people don't skip breakfast... Thin people watch portion sizes... Thin people don't sit still.

Permalink| Posted @ 12:01 AM | Comments: 0

Nearly three-quarters of Americans questioned last week — 74 percent — said they encounter profanity in public frequently or occasionally, according to an Associated Press-Ipsos poll. Two-thirds said they think people swear more than they did 20 years ago. And as for, well, the gold standard of foul words, a healthy 64 percent said they use the F-word — ranging from several times a day (8 percent) to a few times a year (15 percent).

Permalink| Posted @ 12:04 AM | Comments: 0

An article in the NYT Styles section details the latest Los Angeles must-have: the life coach. It seems that while therapists are hardly a thing of the past, a life coach focuses less on old wounds and more on the here and now demands of self-improvement, time-management, and writer's block.

Permalink| Posted @ 12:14 AM | Comments: 0

In 2004, the latest data available, 29.1 percent of the nation's 4 million births were by Caesarean. That's the highest rate ever recorded, a 40 percent rise since 1996... even among first-time mothers considered at very low risk for childbirth problems, the Caesarean rate is rising among every age group from 21 percent of low-risk women under age 30, to 47 percent of those over age 40... How many were pre-planned solely at the mother's request? The government figures can't say. A handful of recent studies that examined birth certificates and insurance claims estimate that roughly 80,000 women a year have elective C-sections.

Permalink| Posted @ 12:30 PM | Comments: 0

With the rapid merging of fashion and technology, future brands of haute couture will probably owe more to Cisco Systems than Coco Chanel... Recently, hip, Los Angeles-based denim designer Serfontaine Jeans started using DuPont's Lycra T400, which is made from multicomponent yarns, to create stretch jeans that don't lose their elasticity, thereby virtually eliminating the need for a belt... But we're not just talking about clothes made with cool fabrics that retain their shapes or better resist stains -- what's known as "smart clothing." We're also talking about clothing with new technology incorporated into its design, aka "wearable technology."... [khakis that] will be able to keep your legs warm with heating coils built into the lining... [with] a small amount of heat, a nitinol-based long-sleeve shirt can become short-sleeved in seconds, while still being able to revert back to its original shape... a "spray-on dress" made from a chemical formula that allows you to create a temporary dress from virtually nothing. The chemical is sprayed directly onto the skin to form a cloud of non-woven cloth, which can be styled as desired.

Permalink| Posted @ 12:01 AM | Comments: 0

Ireland: 1.99, France: 1.90, Norway: 1.81, Sweden 1.75, UK: 1.74, Netherlands: 1.73, Germany: 1.37, Italy: 1.33, Spain: 1.32, Greece: 1.29

I don't know what the average is in the USA, but I wonder if the reasons given in Europe would also apply here. Those numbers suggest a declining and older population.

Permalink| Posted @ 4:16 PM | Comments: 0

"Fear of Flying," [Erica Jong's] feminist manifesto, sold 18 million copies worldwide. And she had a way with men: four husbands and dalliances with other women's husbands. (Martha Stewart is allegedly still ticked.) Back then, Jong has boasted, she smelled of sex... As Jong, who turns 64 today, sees it, this is a blessing: "There's something nice about the freedom of getting older," she says.

Permalink| Posted @ 12:01 AM | Comments: 0

Belisa Vranich, a psychologist and editor at Men's Health magazine, said that women in their 40s were more confident. "You learn how to love beautiful parts of your body and not worry about the others. In their 20s, women just want perfection."

Perhaps that's why a slew of older women have bared it all on-screen and onstage. Actress Kathleen Turner disrobed as Mrs. Robinson for the U.K. theater production of "The Graduate." At 57, Diane Keaton was caught in the nude by the skirt-chasing perennial bachelor played by Jack Nicholson in the film "Something's Gotta Give." And last year, model and actress Lauren Hutton posed naked for the magazine Big... "I want them [women] not to be ashamed of who they are when they're in bed. Society has told us to be ashamed."

Permalink| Posted @ 11:51 AM | Comments: 0

Louise Arnold can suffer a panic attack at the mere mention of peas. She flees restaurants if she sees peas on a plate, and avoids the frozen veg section in the supermarket. The list of officially-recognised phobias is long and often bizarre... An estimated 13% of the adult population will develop a phobia at some point in their life, according to one study. But why do people develop phobias?

Permalink| Posted @ 12:01 AM | Comments: 0

"Women may say they want a sensitive man but they don't always love one," said Harvey Mansfield, professor of political philosophy at Harvard and author of "Manliness." "They are sometimes much more attracted to a manly man... In his controversial book, Mansfield argues that manliness has been hijacked by feminism and advocates of gender-neutral society... Whether or not they want macho, more modern women may be yearning for old-fashioned roles. In a recent survey of nearly 5,000 couples, the happiest wives said their men support them financially and emotionally.

Permalink| Posted @ 12:10 AM | Comments: 0

Mr. Mitchell... is not averse to a spritz of citrus or musk now and then. But neither is he shy or furtive about misting himself with essence of jasmine or tuberose... Mr. Mitchell is a member of a small but influential... clan, fragrance lovers — youthful, sophisticated, affluent and, increasingly, male — who thumb a nose at artificial gender distinctions. They are men bored by the industry's conventional interpretation of manhood as a blast of lime, leather or musk. They are women who prowl men's fragrance counters when shopping for a scent, heading without bias where their noses lead them. Increasingly they gravitate to scents and brands that are blended, positioned and marketed without regard to sex... Today industry insiders recognize that to more and more customers, buying fragrance by gender is a notion as quaint as gaiters.

Permalink| Posted @ 12:01 AM | Comments: 0

Smoking may increase a man's risk of impotence by almost 40 percent. The correlation shows up in men who smoke more than a pack a day. Smoking up to 20
cigarettes a day correlated with a 24 increase in impotence. Theory: Nicotine and other related chemicals "diminish blood flow to the penis and blood pressure in it."

Permalink| Posted @ 3:13 PM | Comments: 0

Most Girl Scouts earn their badges by crafting tchotchkes and taking hikes. But the girls of Troop 1500, in Austin, Texas, face the kinds of challenges most Scouts could hardly imagine: They all have mothers in prison... the girls of Troop 1500 are unseen victims of America's prison boom. Statistics estimate that 2.4 million children now have a parent behind bars; women are being incarcerated at higher rates than ever before, and eight out of 10 female prisoners are mothers. Damaged by loss and born into crime, children with a parent in prison are six times more likely to land in the juvenile justice system themselves.

Permalink| Posted @ 12:01 AM | Comments: 1

Between 1999 and 2003 there was an almost 17 percent jump in the number of babies born to unmarried women between ages 30 and 44 in America, according to the National Center for Human Statistics, while the number born to unmarried women between 15 and 24 actually decreased by nearly 6 percent. Single Mothers by Choice, a 25-year-old support group, took in nearly double the number of new members in 2005 as it did 10 years ago.

Permalink| Posted @ 12:04 AM | Comments: 0

Although the nation's law schools for years have been graduating classes that are almost evenly split between men and women, and although firms are absorbing new associates in numbers that largely reflect that balance, something unusual happens to most women after they begin to climb into the upper tiers of law firms. They disappear.

According to the National Association for Law Placement, a trade group that provides career counseling to lawyers and law students, only about 17 percent of the partners at major law firms nationwide were women in 2005, a figure that has risen only slightly since 1995, when about 13 percent of partners were women.

Permalink| Posted @ 12:03 AM | Comments: 0

High housing costs are only part of the reason young adults are staying home in greater numbers than ever before. Since 1970, the percentage of people ages 18 to 34 who live at home with their family increased 48%, from 12.5 million to 18.6 million, the Census Bureau says... "We're moving back in the direction where it's acceptable to stay home."... A report published last month in London... found that eight in 10 Italian men ages 18 to 30 live with their parents, compared with one in five in Great Britain and one in four in the USA.

Permalink| Posted @ 12:38 AM | Comments: 0

Sure, he was a critical jackass by the light of day, but by the warm glow of a small yellow pill and a single malt scotch, he was a gallant suitor, a crooner of sweet nothings, my accessible, chatty fiancé-to-be. He would call every weeknight around 11 p.m. and it was just like it was in the heady beginning of our romance. He would embarrass me with compliments... About six months into the relationship we spent a winter weekend at his uncle's house in Connecticut, where he virtually ignored me until the blessed hour when he could slip himself a Mickey. Then he would sidle into bed, cuddle and -- the ultimate aphrodisiac -- talk... And then we would have the sweetest, nuzzliest sex... Until the next day, when he would suggest I wear lower heels and we would have angry, argument-fueled sex... Let me be clear -- Sam was never abusive, he was often funny, and he was unfailingly smart. But he was not a warm guy, unless aided by the chemical collision of zolpidem and booze... I didn't know that Ambien was the wellspring of his devotion.

Permalink| Posted @ 12:22 AM | Comments: 0

Isaac Hayes talking about "South Park" creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker just last December...: "One thing about Matt and Trey, they lampoon everybody, and if you take that shit serious, then I'll sell you the Brooklyn Bridge for $2.

Permalink| Posted @ 4:28 PM | Comments: 0

The Technorati Web site [is] the Internet equivalent of TV’s Nielsen ratings. According to the site, the top three subjects the blogosphere was buzzing about were “Tammy,” “ Tammy Download” and “Nyp Tammy.”... “Tammy” was a 17-year-old Singapore student who filmed herself having sex with her boyfriend on her videophone. The phone was lost — then found — by people who released the video onto the Internet... “I have done nothing wrong,” "Tammy” [said]... “I don’t know why people are making such a big fuss about it. Everyone does it [films video clips of themselves], even my friends.”

Permalink| Posted @ 12:01 AM | Comments: 0

To play, you need you need to activate the Bluetooth facility available on your mobile phone, which will then show a list of people within a few yards who are also active. Then write a message and press send... Massimo Maruccia explains the technology to beginners. Taking out a phone belonging to one of his waitresses -- "Pantera" -- he tracks down two other toothers in the room -- "Cinghiale," and "Nokia 7700 Alberto." A third, "Diabolik" sends Pantera a message. The first note, Maruccia says, is usually just an invitation to chat... "It's cooled off from the early days, when we'd easily have 30, 40 people in the room sending messages.

Permalink| Posted @ 12:01 AM | Comments: 1

It's true that cybersex is not for everybody, and it can be emotionally dangerous... But it still irks me that it's such a shock when I explain that having sex online does not mean it's your last resort. It could just mean you'd rather engage and relate than zombie-out in front of the television... Cybersex is a woman's world, didn't you know? A man who not only respects that but enjoys it is a man who will not lack for online sexual partners... Not everyone uses a webcam during chat, while others -- especially couples -- connect their home video cameras to their computers and provide the highest quality video... "It's really nice when the couples are on cam together," says Kirk. "When they start playing, when you see actual sex, that's when it's the best. Much better than porno movies because it's real people."... Kirk can't believe how many men -- still -- expect instant gratification. "They say 'hey I like your cam, you wanna go private?' and it just doesn't work that way," he says. "It's the equivalent of walking up to a stranger in a bar and saying 'hey, wanna fuck'? I've never found that to work."

Permalink| Posted @ 12:01 AM | Comments: 0

Girls have been stereotyped as catty and occasionally mean, but that no longer seems to be all: A growing number of teenage girls seem to be engaging in more extreme not-so-nice behavior, including violence. Teenage boys used to be the typical troublemakers, but statistics, and legal and school officials suggest young girls are narrowing the gap — with disturbing consequences... Nationwide, arrests for aggravated assault by girls rose by 68 percent from 1987 to 2003.

In his book, "See Jane Hit," Dr. James Garbarino said cultural changes in entertainment and sports have stripped away girls' inhibitions. "You used to be able to say to girls, 'Don't hit,' and have the culture back that up," he said. "Now that is no longer true." Girls no longer seem to worry if they're being "like the boys."

Permalink| Posted @ 1:09 PM | Comments: 1

Drinking to excess has always been a tradition and a problem among college men. But now college women are a growing concern. They're binge drinking in alarming numbers — and not just on spring break. They're out in public, staggering in the streets, falling down drunk, and becoming easy targets for sexual assault. "They are not only drinking more than their male peers, but they are now more likely to drink more heavily than their male peers".

There are nearly 1,400 alcohol-related deaths on college campuses each year, and there's growing concern about the binge-drinking habits of young women.

Permalink| Posted @ 7:25 PM | Comments: 0

We created TeamDating.com because we thought that using mathematical algorithms, personality profile tests, and other scientific methods is not how you meet new people, let alone find that special someone to spend the rest of your life with. You should meet new people online the same way people have been meeting other people offline for thousands of years…through your friends and current social networks. Therefore, now we have brought to the online world what it was missing, a dating website that allows 2, 3, or 4 friends to search out and meet with other groups of friends.

Permalink| Posted @ 12:02 AM | Comments: 1