An increasing number of women are earning more than men. Although men still make more money overall and hold more management positions, a Pew Research Center report stated 22% of women made more money than their husbands in 2007. In 1970 it was only 4%. There's also been a shift in education. According to the 2010 census, 60% of students with advanced degrees were women. As a result, new studies show women are increasingly marrying men with less education and income than they have. The "Cinderella complex" - women unconsciously waiting to marry a rich man - is becoming a fairy tale.
When women are more attractive than their husbands, marriages are happier. A study published in the Journal of Family Psychology consisted of 82 young couples who'd been together nearly 3 years and had been married within the previous 6 months. Each couple was videotaped for 10 minutes while discussing personal problems. Because men are more interested in beauty and women are more interested in having a supportive husband, the most positive marriages occurred when the women were more attractive. Considering this, I wonder if Cinderella and Prince Charming really did live happily ever after.
Women whose husbands are much older or younger have shorter life expectancies. According to a study published in the journal Demography, the mortality rate for men who marry wives 7-9 years younger decreases 11%; but the mortality rate for women who marry men 7-9 years younger increases 20%. In fact, the greater women's age differences are - older or younger - the lower their life expectancy. For men the younger their wife, the longer their life expectancy. Generally speaking, however, married people continue to live longer than unmarried people - or maybe it just seems that way.
Nevertheless, richer or poorer, more attractive or less, older or younger - approximately 50% of marriages still end in divorce. What's changing is who's divorcing. According to the author of the marriage guide "For Better", 23% of college graduates who married in the 1970's divorced within 10 years. In the 1990's it was only 16%. University of Pennsylvania research found in the 1980's that 81% of college graduates marrying at age 26 or older were married 20 years later. Under 26, only 65% were. However, only 49% of those who married young without a college degree lasted 20 years. Marriage must be easier to handle by degrees.
Outdoor exercise is "green exercise" and it improves mental health. A study in the journal Environmental Science & Technology examined data from 1,252 people of different ages and mental health status - data taken from 10 previous British studies. This study also analyzed green exercises like walking, cycling, gardening and fishing. Although the biggest mental health changes occurred in the young and the mentally ill, everyone benefited. The most positive effect on self-esteem came from 5 minutes of green exercise, but exercising in green areas near water was the most beneficial - giving new meaning to "water power".
Food also affects mood. According to nutritional experts, produce like asparagus, broccoli and spinach are rich in the vitamin folate, which relieves depression. Mackerel and salmon, high in omega-3 fats, relieve both depression and anxiety. Skinless breast of chicken and turkey, sirloin and flank steak, as well as fish are proteins high in dopamine and norepinephrine, brain chemicals that increase alertness, energy and concentration. Finally, carbohydrates like high-fiber whole grains, beans, corn and potato are excellent sources of serotonin, the feel-good chemical that produces a positive outlook. Eating foods that improve our mood is a "natural high".
However, eating too much salt causes high blood pressure and increased risk of heart attack and stroke. In 2010 the average American ate almost 50% more salt than recommended. Approximately 6% came from salt shakers, but more than 75% came from packaged foods. Because the increased levels of sodium in packaged foods over the previous few decades caused a "cultural addiction" to salt, the Food and Drug Administration wants manufacturers to gradually reduce sodium in their products, allowing consumers to develop a heightened sensitivity to salt and thus require less. It seems even food should be taken - with a grain of salt.
Dreams, however, should be taken as a source of practical advice. Dreams come from intuitive, feeling-based, visual thinking that occurs when we're asleep. Although symbols and events can mean different things to different people, some dreams have common meanings. According to dream experts, not being prepared for an exam represents anxiety about being judged or uncertainty about how to handle a situation. Dreams about being naked in public represent feelings of social inadequacy and nightmares confront us with what we fear the most. Supposedly, dreams will respond to questions we ask before going to sleep - allowing us to "dream up" answers.
Chinese scientists want to recycle cigarette butts. When cigarette butts were put in water, nicotine and 8 other toxic, chemical extracts were identified. When these extracts were applied to N80 - a type of steel used in oil pipes - they protected the steel from rusting. On one hand, the oil industry spends millions of dollars every year repairing and replacing rusted, steel pipes. On the other hand, approximately 4.5 trillion cigarette butts become part of the environment every year. It seems this would be a perfect recycling match - if no one "butts in".
Hair booms are recycled nylon stockings that are stuffed with human hair and trimmed animal hair. Because oil adheres to hair, booms are used along beaches after oil spills. As the waves pass through, oil sticks to the hair and waves retreat cleaner. After the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, "Matter of Trust" - a non-profit, environmental organization in San Francisco - collected approximately 450,000 pounds of hair from salons and groomers and sent hair booms to more than a dozen sites along the Gulf Coast. Matter of Trust has been dealing with "hair-raising" experiences for 10 years.
In the year 2010 Pittsburgh was the most livable city in the U.S. That's according to Forbes, which ranked the 200 largest Metropolitan Statistical Areas by unemployment, crime, income growth, cost of living and artistic/cultural opportunities. Pittsburgh was #1 because of its art scene, job prospects, safety and affordability. Ogden, Utah was #2 because of its below average unemployment and incomes increasing 3.4% over 5 years. Having the highest 5-year income growth of 5.2% ranked Provo, Utah #3. Universities were a key factor in making cities livable because they employ a lot of people and provide educated populations of consumers. Maybe livability is a learning experience.
For supertasters livability means dealing with 10-100 times more taste buds than normal, making them acutely sensitive to tastes. For example, coffee, tomatoes and strawberries are unpalatable. The good news for supertasters is avoiding sugars, salts and fats makes them low risk for heart disease and obesity. The bad news is avoiding bitter tasting green vegetables means avoiding cancer-fighting flavanoids. Supertasting is a genetic condition affecting 25% of the U.S. population - primarily women. However, another 25% of the population are non-tasters. The good news for them is they can't be accused of having all their taste in their mouth.
Mothers' physical nurturing causes the brain to release oxytocin, the hormone which promotes attachment and suppresses stress. In a study at Wisconsin University/Madison 61 girls, ages 7-12, had their stress levels measured after public speaking. Then they were divided into 3 groups. One group received physical and verbal comfort from their mothers, one group received verbal comfort only via telephone and one group received no comfort. The study showed receiving verbal comfort provided children with the same amount of stress reduction as physical and verbal comfort combined - giving new meaning to the phrase "mother tongue".
Forty-eight percent of mothers and fathers "friend" their children on Facebook. A Retrevo survey of approximately 1,000 U.S. adults found that parents want to know more about their children through technology and have definite opinions how technology should be used. For example, 12% of parents banned social networking as a punishment. Twenty-nine percent banned using mobile phones or texting at the table - 36% if the children were teenagers. In fact, 92% thought children under 12 shouldn't have Facebook accounts - which means 8% of parents could face it.
Unfortunately, many parents don't face the fact that television time negatively affects children. In a study published in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, researchers followed 1,300 children for 7 years, measuring how much television they watched and questioning their parents and teachers. Each additional hour of television at age two-and-a-half resulted in 7% decrease in classroom attention, 6% decrease in math achievement and 10% increase in bullying by peers. Each additional hour also resulted in 9% decrease in physical activity, 9% increase in soda, 10% increase in snacks and 5% increase in body mass index. It seems television can turn children into couch potato - puffs.
Couch potato puffs can become overweight children and overweight children - even those with strong social and scholastic skills - are bullied. A study in the journal Pediatrics included 800 children from 10 cities. When the children were in third, fifth and sixth grades, researchers surveyed the teachers, mothers and children about being bullied. The adults were also surveyed about the children's social skills. After comparing the responses to the children's body mass index, overweight children were 13% likelier to be bullied and obese children were 65% likelier. Some children are bullied because of being poor or scholastically challenged, but overweight children are "weighed down" by bullying.
Chicken manure is a solution for the energy crisis. Every year 9 billion chickens are raised for food in the U.S. Because their phosphorous-containing poop is environmentally toxic, a Mississippi chicken farmer/conservationist developed the first chicken poop digester. Every day 4 tons of chicken manure are put into the $500,000 digester, heated and mixed with bacteria, which produces the methane gas that is converted into energy. The month before using the digester the farmer's power bill was approximately $8,000, the next month it was $200 and the next month he got a check from the power company that definitely wasn't "chicken feed".
Body dryers are a solution for theme park rides designed to soak riders from head to squishy shoes. Walk-in, full-body dryers equipped with heat lamps and hot-air blowers have been popular in Europe for 10 years; but before 2010 there were only 30 in the U.S. The dryers hold up to 5 people and cost $5 for 4 minutes. The average, t-shirt-and-shorts-wearing visitor will get 95% dry. Although people in Europe are less shy about their bodies and take off most of their clothes to dry them separately, most Americans would not give that idea a "dry run".
Prison inmates are a solution for the University of Florida's West Florida Research and Education Center. When the 650-acre research farm experienced state budget cuts in 2009, inmates from a nearby, low-risk prison camp started farming the land 5 days a week. The crops grown for research are now food for Northwest Florida's correctional facilities. They have replaced the primarily canned and frozen produce, saving the state $60,000 in the first quarter of 2010. Plans to turn this experience into a certified program will show future employers that inmates can raise cabbage and corn instead of "raising Cain".
Pets for Vets is a solution for veterans who are having difficulty re-entering civilian life. Clarissa Black, 27-year-old founder of the Los-Angeles-based organization, is a certified animal trainer with a degree in Animal Sciences from Cornell. After volunteering at a VA animal therapy program and with the help of a few volunteers and donations, Black trains dogs to be companion animals. For example, she trains them to recognize panic attacks and to respond with a gentle nudge or kiss. Black has matched 8 dogs with vets in less than a year; and considering they are shelter dogs, the mutual healing is "matchless".
Is spanking good or bad for children? In a study published in the journal Pediatrics, researchers examined data from an earlier study in which mothers from 20 large, U.S. cities were interviewed when their children were 3 and 5 years old. Of the approximately 2,500 children, those spanked more than twice at age 3 were twice as likely to be highly aggressive at age 5. Even after accounting for variables such as baseline aggressiveness, psychological maltreatment, maternal depression and drug abuse, the risk remained high. Considering studies show 90% of parents are spankers, parents need time for time-outs too.
In the 21st century parental time-outs are increasingly being provided by smartphones. Smartphones entertain bored children. In November 2009 50% of the top 100-selling apps in the iTunes Apps Store were for preschool or elementary-aged children and the market continues to grow rapidly. According to a 2007 study, 93% of 6 to 9-year-olds had access to a cell phone in their home. Even apps that aren't educational can teach these children hand-eye coordination and comfort with technology. Obviously, comfort is learned quickly. The 2007 study also showed that more than 30% of 6 to 9-year-olds owned their own phone.
Toys also entertain bored children; but Santa Clara County, California was the first U.S. county to fight childhood obesity by restricting toys in children's fast-food meals. In April 2010 the county supervisors voted 3-2 to allow toys only in children's meals with less than 485 calories, less than 600 milligrams of sodium, less than 35% of total calories from fat and less than 10% from added sugar. Single food items could include a toy if they were less than 200 calories and had less than 400 milligrams of sodium. Hopefully, this restriction will stop fast-food restaurants from "toying" with children's health.
When children become teenagers, exercise fights the effects of the "fatso gene". FTO is an obesity-related gene when present in variant form. In a European study 752 teenagers had their blood tested for this gene variant and wore activity monitors for a week. When the teens predisposed to obesity exercised aerobically 1 hour daily, their waist measurements, body mass index and body fat averaged the same as teenagers with regular genes - and the results were the same for both sexes. Sixty-three percent of the teens had 1 or 2 copies of this gene - and that's not a "teeny" number.
We can make ourselves healthier by eating mild peppers. Research presented at the 2010 Experimental Biology conference showed that DCT - a chemical in a mild strain of chili pepper - increases metabolism. Researchers studied the before and after body weight and fat of 34 people on a low-calorie diet. After meals one third of them received placebos, one-third received 3 milligrams of DCT and one-third received 9 milligrams. Those receiving 9 milligrams experienced increased heat production and fat burning - increasing metabolism enough to help an average-sized woman burn 100 calories a day. DCT burns calories - not mouths.
Another way to make ourselves healthier is to laugh. In research also presented at the Experimental Biology conference, 14 volunteers had blood pressure and blood samples taken before and after 20 minutes of a violent movie and 20 minutes of a comedy. After the comedy - like after exercise - the hormones leptin (appetite-repressing) and ghrelin (appetite inducing) balanced. After 15 minutes of laughter - like after exercise - blood vessel diameter increased, increasing blood flow. Kids laugh as much as 300 times a day; adults laugh about 30 times. Because pretend laughter has identical benefits, we should "kid ourselves" more.
Many married couples make themselves healthier by talking to their pets. According to a 2010 Associated Press-Petside poll of 1,112 pet owners nationwide, 33% of married women said their pets are better listeners than their husbands. As for husbands, 18% said their pets listen better than their wives. When the poll was broken down into dog owners and cat owners, 25% of dog owners thought their canines were better listeners, while 14% of cat owners thought their felines listened better. It seems we should talk to our pets if we're feeling pettish, petty or petulant.
Finally, we can stay healthier by not moving to California. More than 50% of the U.S. population lives in air-polluted cities where it's unhealthy to breathe. According to the American Lung Association's "State of the Air 2010" report, California tops the most-polluted cities list. The report rates cities on ozone, short-term particle spikes and long-term particle averages. However, Pittsburgh tied with Bakersfield and Fresno, California for most particle pollution spikes; and Phoenix tied with Bakersfield and Los Angeles, California for average particulates. Although at least 20 of the most polluted cities improved last year, several California cities got worse - which is "breathtaking" information.
The bigger the dating pool, the likelier people are to base choices on looks. An English study analyzed records from 84 speed dating events in which 1,879 men and 1,868 women participated. In speed dating people have 3-5 minutes to talk to potential mates and decide if they want to see them again. At bigger events with 24 or more potential mates, both sexes based choices on looks. At smaller events with 15-23 potential mates, both sexes focused more on specifics - like education and occupation. With less choice the emphasis changed from good looks to closer looks.
Closer looks at the workforce show approximately three-quarters of Americans go to work sick a year. In a Thomson Reuter survey of approximately 3,000 people, 20% said they weren't sick enough to stay home and 25% didn't want to lose pay. When divided by income, 55% of those making less than $25,000 didn't want to lose pay. Only six percent of those making more than $100,000 didn't want to lose pay. Twenty-eight percent attributed going to work to not being sick enough to stay home, 25% to "work ethic" and 24% to "workload". It seems 49% were workaholics.
Chocoholics are likely to be depressed. In a study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, 931 people - not taking antidepressants - were asked how much chocolate they ate and had their moods accessed by a commonly used depression scale. The participants who weren't depressed averaged 5.4 servings of chocolate a month, those who were depressed averaged 8.4 servings and those with major depression averaged 11.8 servings. Studies are needed to determine if chocolate causes depression or if it's a self-treatment for it - especially because it's depressing to know a serving of chocolate is only 1 ounce.
Having one bad habit can be depressing. Having 4 can age you 12 years. In another study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, 4,886 adults were questioned about lifestyle habits and tracked 20 years. Of the 314 participants with all 4 bad habits, 29% died during the study. Of the 387 with none, 8% died. The 4 bad habits were smoking, having more than 3 drinks a day for men and 2 for women, not getting 2 hours of physical activity a week and not having 3 servings of fruits and vegetables a day. Obviously, an apple a day doesn't keep the doctor away anymore.
Going green is good for business. Hanes makes eco-friendly underwear. Frito-Lay puts its Sun Chips into biodegradable bags. Target has recycling bins for its customers. Wal-Mart is building more energy-efficient stores, using more alternative fuels in its trucks and reducing packaging. P&G has not only come out with green products like Tide Cold Water detergent, it's also finding uses for its byproducts and leftovers that previously went into landfills. For example, Clairol hair color ingredients make tires shine and materials in Pampers diapers and Always maxi pads absorb industrial leaks and spills. Even the earnings of green companies are greener.
Zero Motorcycles is another company that's going green. The combination of small, high-powered, military torpedo motors and lithium batteries made the 2010 Zero S possible. It's an electric, freeway-legal motorcycle than can go 67 mph as is. Because these cycles weigh two-thirds as much as conventional gasoline motorcycles, they are easier to handle. A Zero S costs $10,000, but driving it costs about a penny a mile and it can be recharged using conventional electric outlets. What it doesn't have is the conventional, deafening roar. The silent electric motor fights air pollution, as well as noise pollution.
PACT, a company in Berkeley, California isn't going green. It started green. PACT makes underwear that's available in many styles. Each pair is designed by an artist to reflect a specific social or environmental organization and 10% of the profit from each pair sold goes to that organization. The underwear is made in Turkey, where sustainability is possible. Everything from growing the organic cotton to completion of the product is done within a 100-mile radius. The company's motto is "Change starts with your underwear". Obviously, this company believes in going green "from the bottom up".
Unfortunately, clean air seems to be less green. Although the Environmental Protection Agency has said air pollution dramatically decreased between 1990 and 2010, science writer Eli Kintisch believes that clean air increases global warming. Greenhouse gases - like CO2 - warm the planet by absorbing heat reflected up from the ground. However, aerosols - like oven cleaner - cool the planet by making clouds more reflective, thus blocking sunlight. Because breathing aerosols is unhealthy and because they dirty the environment, we need a healthy, clean aerosol that can be put into the upper atmosphere. We need green technology - not pollutants - that will "take our breath away".
