bigger. taller. richer?

On the radio #1.

In the states, women who are 5'7 make about 5k more a year than someone who is 5'2. Forbes article. A study in London (done by clothing line Long Tall Sally) with 1,461 women found that those who are 5'8 and taller earn up to 5,000 pounds more than those who are shorter.

Why?
The same study suggested body confidence as a reason. A quarter of the taller women did not want to change anything about themselves compared to 90% of the shorter women. Arianne Cohen, author of "The Tall Book" says this might be because a tall person might grow up naturally assuming the role of a leader since to their peers, they look older.

Hmmm. At 5'8, I feel that being tall is a big part of my identity. I don't feel dwarfed by much taller people, I can eat a lot more, and I can reach for stuff without asking for help.

Here's the 5'10  Nicole Kidman at premier of "Nine" with fellow co-stars Penelope Cruz and Fergie.

photo by axelle from bauergriffinonline.

froyo deliciousness

Confession: I drove with my knees today. I know! But how could I keep two hands on the wheel, when I had chocolate frozen yogurt sitting next to me, like this:

While I'm not so crazy about ice cream, I love frozen yogurt. I like the tanginess of that yogurt taste and the place right off campus has all these delicious toppings you can add, including mangos, berries, crushed chocolates, and gummy bears.

However, frozen yogurt is sadly not completely a guilt-free treat. While frozen yogurt often contains less calories than ice cream, it's smarter to stick to real yogurt. True, there is yogurt in frozen yogurt, but the major ingredients remain various forms of sugar. For comparison purposes, regular ice creams are usually about 16% fat. Compare to frozen yogurt from whole milk, 3-4%, and of course skim milk, 0% fat.

Verdict is: if you're craving ice cream, go for frozen yogurt instead. If not, try throwing the regular yogurts in the freezer. They remain tangy (don't freeze plain yogurt), but they are delicious and oh-so-good for you.

bored? there's a solution.

If you're in Houston and bored, check out: artshound.com. This website hosts the ultimate events calendar. There's different categories such as theater&comedy, music, kids&families. You can search by categories, dates, or key words. It's hosted by the Houston Arts Alliance, and it's a great resource. Favorite it!

daily vitacraves gummies.

So, I've been taking Centrum for as long as I remember and lately, I haven't been able to stand them. They taste too vanilla-ey, melt too fast in my mouth, become slippery, &etc etc. Anyway, taking vitamins every day became something I dreaded and I'd often skip out.

Couple of weeks ago when I went home, Umma(my mom) and I went shopping for new vitamins, and since we decided Flintstones are kind of ridiculous, I went for these gummy vitamins babies instead.

Let me tell you, these are delicious. You're supposed to take 2 a day, but I want to down the whole bottle! They're the right amount of gumminess, they taste like all sorts of fruits, and are somewhat nutritious.

These contain:
Vitamin A - 80%
Vitamin C - 100%
Vitamin D - 100%
Vitamin E - 133%
Vitamin B6 - 100%
Folic Acid - 100%
Vitamin B12 - 167%
Biotin - 50%
Pantothenic Acid - 100%
Iodine - 53%
Zinc - 33%


However, these get a big C as far as comparison with other supplements goes. First of all, 2 gummies amount to 10 calories (which come from glucose syrup-sucrose-gelatin), and second, Vitacraves simply don't have some of the components Centrum has such as Vitamin K, Thiamin, Riboflavin, Niacin, Calcium, Iron, Magnesium, Selenium, Copper, Manganese, Chromium, Molybdenum, Chloride, Potassium. 

As for me, I think it's better to take them daily though they may have less nutrients than not to take them at all. Besides, they're really delicious and I actually find myself looking forward to waking up and taking them!

craig venter, creator of life?

Craig Venter announced on May 20th (a day before my birthday!) that he succeeded in creating a synthetic cell. That's right. He created artificial life.

When the human genome was just beginning to be sequenced, Dr. Venter founded Celera and used the shotgun sequencing, which he believed to be a faster method than the clone-by-clone method. He planned on sequencing the human genome before the public efforts and making a profit from charging access to the database. Public Genome Project and Craig Venter's newly founded Celera essentially began a race to completion of sequencing the human genome, and in 2000, the complete genomic sequence of humans was completed (One of the five individuals was Venter himself).

He went on to found J. Craig Venter Institute, whose focus is on synthetic biology. Mycoplasma laboratorium, say "hello world".