Managing Your Money After Christmas
Managing your money after Christmas can be daunting. Christmas is an expensive time for most of us. Once Christmas is over the financial headaches begin. What can one do to ease the More »
Bands Outlive Solo Acts in More Ways Than One?
When considering the stereotypical rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle, it may not be surprising to learn that rock stars are statistically more likely to die early than the general population. What may be More »
Norovirus – Concerns Grow as Cases Increases
It’s cutting its way through the country at an alarming rate and it still doesn’t show any signs that it will be coming to an end soon – norovirus is the buzzword More »
Aerobic Exercise Found to Make People Smarter
It’s beginning to look as though you have very few reasons not to carry out aerobic exercise regularly now, as the amount of research going into its benefits pile in. It’s should More »
DNA Testing – Trace Your Roots
You might think that it’s something that only happens on Jeremy Kyle and on the Maury show, but DNA testing is a very real thing which happens every day around the country. More »
Managing Your Money After Christmas
Managing your money after Christmas can be daunting. Christmas is an expensive time for most of us. Once Christmas is over the financial headaches begin. What can one do to ease the financial pain? Many people go into overdraft at this time of year and others rely heavily on credit cards.
The important thing to do once the festive season is over is to get one’s finances back in order as quickly as possible. One of the most expensive forms of loan is a bank overdraft. One should make it a priority to get any overdraft paid off as quickly as possible. Next, shop around to see if you qualify for zero interest rate on credit card transfers. Some new cards could offer six months interest free payments on transferred balances. This will take some of the sting out of the Christmas expenditure.
One could also consider a consolidation loan covering all the Christmas expenses and putting it under one roof at a lower interest rate. This will allow one to clear an overdraft and credit cards which charge a much higher interest rate than a normal loan. Ideally, now Christmas is over, one should set aside some more expendable cash to paying off cards and loans.
One of the biggest expenses of Christmas is the interest you’ll be charged on the things you purchased using either an overdraft or credit cards. The quicker one can get these balances down, the quicker one will get back on top of their finances.
Bands Outlive Solo Acts in More Ways Than One?
When considering the stereotypical rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle, it may not be surprising to learn that rock stars are statistically more likely to die early than the general population. What may be a revelation, however, is that solo stars are twice as likely to die early as those in bands.
These are the findings of an academic study carried out recently. The study looked at 1,489 rock and pop stars over a 50 year period, and found that not only was there a higher level of mortality when compared to the general population, but also when comparing solo stars to band members.
Researchers found that the causes of death in more than half of the cases in the study were alcohol or drug related, suicide or as a result of violence. Among other causes noted in the study were heart disease and cancer.
It is not unusual for rock stars to succumb to drugs and alcohol, often due to the pressures of fame, media intrusion and constant touring. It has been suggested that one reason that solo stars appear to have a higher mortality rate than band members, could simply be down to isolation. Although bands will be subject to the same pressures as a solo star, they will be with a group of peers who are going through the same experience. In many cases, band members are close friends, so the support found within the band itself may be invaluable.
The study also found that it isn’t purely the rock ’n’ roll lifestyle that may lead to the increased risk. Those who had bad childhood experiences were found to be more likely to die from substance abuse, and artistic frustration can also be a contributing factor causing self-destructive behaviour.
Norovirus – Concerns Grow as Cases Increases
It’s cutting its way through the country at an alarming rate and it still doesn’t show any signs that it will be coming to an end soon – norovirus is the buzzword of the end of the year. It’s a condition which can lead to intense sickness, with vomiting and diarrhoea common symptoms that it was entered into a person’s system. The Health Protection Agency (HPA) have identified that as many as 750,000 could have been hit with the disease – with over 2,600 confirmed earlier in the month and a further 300 or so which are likely to have been afflicted by it, but won’t have reported it. As those figures stand, it’s extremely alarming to think that so many people are being affected by it. Over this season, the number of instances has increased by 72%.
A spokesperson from the Health Protection Agency said: “Laboratory confirmed reports represent only a small proportion of the actual amount of norovirus activity in the community, because the vast majority of affected people do not access health care services as a result of their illness.” It shows that for those who don’t already have adequate health care, it makes them far more likely to become infected by a contagious disease such as this one, as has been seen in a specific incident.
This follows the news that a P&O cruise had to be drawn to an early close, as a bug began to infect those onboard. With 1,843 passengers on board a liner in the Baltic, the Oriana had to return early from its 10-day voyage, after 300 or so became infected. As the disease spread through the passengers, people were forced to confine themselves in their cabins – to prevent it from becoming a bigger problem than it had already become.
A spokesperson from the firm explained to the Daily Telegraph:”The safety and comfort of passengers and crew is always our number one priority. As is currently standard procedure across our fleet, all the ship’s passengers were provided with a precautionary health notice advising of widespread norovirus activity and the health measures to avoid contraction and spread, both on board and whilst ashore.”
Aerobic Exercise Found to Make People Smarter
It’s beginning to look as though you have very few reasons not to carry out aerobic exercise regularly now, as the amount of research going into its benefits pile in. It’s should be common sense by now, but there are still some doubters out there. For those who still feel in denial that it is able to improve many aspects of health, other than for the body, you’re going to have to change your viewpoint. Thanks to some new research out at the University of Otago in New Zealand, they’ve found that by carrying out some physical activity on a regular basis could actually be the cause of some people being smarter than others. Hayley Guiney and Liana Machado from the New Zealand university found that aerobic activity has the ability to assist in cognitive function.
As you age, many will know that the responsiveness of the brain is gradually less and less immediate. However, it’s been found that the advancement of these mental issues can be slowed down by carrying out physical activity on a regular basis. It means that despite the fact that certain tasks should be more troublesome to carry out as time goes on, you’re able to multi-task far more effectively, retain working memory and your selective attention, far more than someone who doesn’t choose to exercise as much as they could do.
The tests involved in the study included a course of exercise for some individuals, while the others would go without aerobic exercise and conducted a course of toning and stretching exercises instead. They found that those who had exercised were far better at retaining any information thrown at them. In Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, they were able to publish their findings, which does nothing but add more fuel to convince people that they should carry out some form of aerobic exercise as often as they’re able to. If they choose not to, as well as potentially having physical implications, they could find themselves wasting a chance to improve on their brainpower. Clearly, everyone wants to maximise on the potential of their mental ability, so it wouldn’t be to any benefit to avoid this form of physical activity.
DNA Testing – Trace Your Roots
You might think that it’s something that only happens on Jeremy Kyle and on the Maury show, but DNA testing is a very real thing which happens every day around the country. It’s a method of testing the identity of a variety of things, although it tends to be used mainly in forensic scenarios and when determining the immediate family of an individual. It’s worth taking note that it goes beyond that though and people have the ability to also find out the history of their family – such as their ethnic makeup of their genes – in order to give them a profile of their background. Many people aren’t aware of how varied their background actually is. Many of them may think that it’s only as diverse as the past couple of generations, but there’s a chance that you could be surprised by the results they come up with.
23andMe are leading the way for innovation in this’ industry. While we might get the impression that the science world has little interest in getting creative with their ideas, they’ve shown that they’re paying attention to popular internet culture and are adapting to what’s trendy at the moment in their research. In the root-tracing tests that they carry out, they now present their findings in an infographic. It gives you the chance to digest the information much more easily, so you really understand how significant the makeup of your DNA is.
Many of the most prominent companies in this field use DNA testing primarily as a method of determining a child’s paternal parent or during any forensic testing, but this shows that there are far many uses for it and that you’re able to get much more out of it than you might initially anticipate. It’s also interesting because it shows that the benefits of these types of tests aren’t just in the criminal world and in domestic situations; absolutely everyone is able to use it for their benefit and find out even more about their back history, even if they thought they had all the knowledge in the world about their ancestors.
