How to force those notoriously stubborn calves to grow and add serious size to your lower legs 

It seems like a genetic lottery. Some people are born with big, shapely calves while others are forced to live much of their lives with twig-like lower legs. Frustratingly for many, the calves are one of the body’s muscles that are most resistant to growth. Think about it, every time you even take a step your calf muscles are activated, as they are lumbered with job of supporting your bodyweight all day. As a result of this you need to hit the calves extremely hard to activate them enough to see an increase in size. Normal training won’t do you much good when it comes to getting bigger calves. Try deploying the five tips below to build calves that’ll look great in shorts.

The United States is falling far behind other countries in regulating harmful chemicals. We must join our voices to demand state, national and international laws that protect health and spur the development of safer chemicals.  

At the same time, we can encourage companies to adopt good chemical policies that eliminate the use of hazardous chemicals and promote green chemistry and safer alternatives. Some company leaders are already taking action to protect our healthby working in coalitions to advance safer chemicals — to find out more, visit the BizNGO network, the Investor Environmental Health Network, and American Sustainable Business Council.

We can also use our power as consumers to reject toxic chemicals and support companies that are doing the right thing to protect our health. Below are resources to help you find safer products for your family, home, school, and more. You can also visit our resources section for more information about chemicals of concern and ways to get involved.

Babies

Healthy Child Healthy World has created a Healthy Nursery Toolkit with tips formaking the safest spaces and finding the safest products for little ones. 

Building materials

The PharosProject.net database offers an extensive library for building products, chemicals and building materials, including certification and scoring for finding safer building products.

Cars, phones, furniture, children’s products, pet products, and more

With test results for over 5,000 products, HealthyStuff.org ranks consumer products for hazardous chemicals of concern.

Cleaning products

Learn about safe cleaning products and products to avoid from the Safe Cleaning Products Campaign. Help your favorite school switch to healthy cleaning practices with the Cleaning for Healthy Schools Toolkit.

Cosmetics and personal care products

For information about toxic cosmetics and safer alternatives, visit the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics and get involved. To find out if your favorite products are safe, visit the Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep database.

Electronics
For tips on choosing safer electronics and holding companies accountable, visit the Electronic Takeback Coalition. The Greenpeace Guide to Greener Electronics ranks computers for toxicity and identifies the safest alternatives.

Food

Find factsheets and health information about pesticides at Beyond Pesticides’ Gateway on Pesticide Hazards. To protect children’s health, Pesticide Action Network offers these tips: Top 10 Ways to Protect Children from Pesticides.

Healthcare

An overview of toxic materials used in hospitals and how to find safer options: Health Care Without Harm. For resources to help your hospital switch to safer products and practices, join Practice Greenhealth.

Personal care, food, household items and more

The Good Guide ranks thousands of name-brand products for their impacts on health, the environment and society.

Schools

CHEJ has compiled useful resources to find alternatives to PVC plastic and phthalates in school building materials and school supplies. For information about many other chemicals of concerns used in schools, visit the Healthy Schools Network.

Source : safemarkets

Generosity for the win: Focusing on what she craves in the sack also increases your arousal, says research in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science.

Researchers studied “sexual communal strength”—the willingness to meet a partner’s sexual needs—in long-term couples. Both parties filled out daily sex surveys for 3 weeks. Four months later, generous lovers  reported higher levels of daily arousal AND more desire for their partner than the less-generous couples.

Try these tips to unleash your power where it matters the most—in bed! Check out The Men's Health Big Book of Sex.

"There's a lot of research out there that suggests giving to others is good for the self," says lead study author Amy Muise, Ph.D., of the University of Toronto, and that effect is even stronger with a romantic partner. Plus, Muise says, knowing you can satisfy your partner's needs is a major confidence booster.

But zeroing in on her desires at the exclusion of your own won't deliver the same outcome, says Muise. The solution: Aim for compromise. If you usually perform oral sex on her because she loves to incorporate it into foreplay, see if she's up for something you want, like shower sex or a morning quickie before work. That way you'll both feel accounted for, Muise says.

Source : menshealth

In a perfect world we'd all share a blissful night's sleep with our significant other. But between your tossing and turning and his snoring, the struggle is real -- leading about 25 percent of couples to sleep in separate rooms.

While this can be an effective solution, you also run the risk of decreased intimacy, says Michael Breus, Ph.D., clinical psychologist and sleep specialist. Don't lose any more sleep over it though with these five solutions to common blockers for getting your much needed zzzs.

1. A chronic snorer. You love him, but it seems like his snoring gets louder and louder as the night progresses. And no matter how much you push and prod, five minutes later he's back at it again. There are many contributing factors that cause a person to snore: congestion, late night drinking, sleeping on your back, or sleep apnea to name a few. Breus suggests diminishing the noise by surrounding your ears with a wall of pillows. "The sound will bounce back in the other direction, reducing the noise enough so you're more likely to drift off," he says.

2. Some like it hot. Others cold. Ah, the room temperature debate. You like to be warm and toasty, but he prefers a cooler temp. What to do? Luckily this is a pretty easy problem to compromise on. Choose a temperature that's in the middle -- that way you can add an extra blanket and he can sleep on the outside of the covers.

3. Different bedtimes. Maybe one of you likes to stay up late watching SNL, while the other hits the pillows at a more reasonable hour. Breus suggests making a deal that the later-to-bed partner is extra quiet and doesn't do anything to wake the other (read: headphones are a must) and the early riser reciprocates. This means no hitting the snooze button for the next 30 minutes.

4. You're a cuddler, he's not. It's completely normal for partners to have different sleep styles and just because you like your space, he should know that doesn't mean your relationship is doomed or that you have intimacy issues. A good compromise: "Agree to cuddle until the snuggler drifts off, at which point the other person can retreat to their side of the bed and sleep solo for the rest of the night," says Janet Kennedy, PhD, clinical psychologist and sleep specialist in New York City.

5. The blanket hog. There's nothing worse than waking up in the middle of the night, freezing cold only to realize that all of the blanket is around your partner. A good option is to have two sets of covers -- one blanket for you and another for your significant other. Because no one can take two covers, right?

By Ravelle Worthington

The Czech city of Plzeň, or Pilsen, is one of two 2015 European Capitals of Culture (the other being Mons, Belgium). To kick off the yearlong Plzen 2015 calendar of cultural activities, special exhibits, and visual and performing arts events, the city is hosting a colossal opening ceremony on January 17. Join one of five celebratory processions into the old town’s Republic Square, where you can watch performances by Swiss tightrope walker David Dimitri and other acrobats and see medieval buildings transformed by high-powered projection and cutting-edge audiovisual effects into canvases of light and sound. You’ll also hear the four bells of the Gothic St. Bartholomew’s Cathedral ring for the first time since World War II, when the original bells were melted down by occupying Nazi forces. The opening ceremony marks the beginning of Pilsen’s circus season (January-November), when world-class circus performances are staged in tents erected throughout the city.

How to Get Around: The closest international airport is in Prague, located about 58 miles northeast of Pilsen. Ride the Airport Express (AE) shuttle bus to the Prague Main train station (35 minutes). Trains depart regularly from the station for the 90-minute trip to Pilsen. Walk and use public transportation (tram, trolleybus, and bus) to get around the city. Maps are available at the Tourist Information Center in the old town.

Where to Stay: Located opposite the Pilsner Urquell brewery and a short walk from the historic core and central train station, Hotel Angelo is a convenient, contemporary choice. The 132 rooms and 12 suites are styled in a bold red, black, and white color scheme. Executive rooms (fourth floor) include free Internet access, early check in, and late checkout.

What to Eat: Pilsen is best known for its signature pale lager, Pilsner Urquell, first brewed here in 1842. At Na Parkánu, located next door to the Brewery Museum, try an original Pilsner Urquell—unfiltered, unpasteurized, and naturally conditioned in a barrel that’s delivered from the brewery via horse-drawn cart. The pub fare includes hearty Czech dishes, including goulash, cubed pork shoulder roasted in black beer, and duck confit served with cabbage, onions, and dumplings.

What to Buy: Visit the bustling weekend outdoor market in Republic Square to shop for traditional Pilsen crafts such as Pilsner glasses and ceramics. Local artisans and retailers both set up tents on the square, so look carefully to distinguish between handmade and mass-produced items.

What to Read Before You Go: The Unbearable Lightness of Being (Harper Perennial Modern Classics, reprint edition, 2005) is Milan Kundera’s classic novel of love and politics during the Soviet occupation of the former Czechoslovakia.

Cultural Tip: Locals tend to dress conservatively, so wearing brightly colored or wildly patterned winter garb is a sure way to stand out as a tourist.

Helpful Links: Plzen 2015 and City of Pilsen Mobile Travel Guide

Fun Fact: Otevřete si Plzeň!, the overarching theme of Pilsen’s 2015 European Capital of Culture celebration, can be translated both as “Pilsen, open up!” (as in expanding creativity and diversity) and “Open your Pilsner!" (as in the city’s signature beer).

For centuries, the indigenous Sami people have traveled with their herds of reindeer across the Sápmi region (commonly referred to as Lapland), which comprises the northernmost regions of Finland, Norway, Sweden, and the Russian Kola Peninsula. Here, above the Arctic Circle, snow can last for 200 days, making reindeer sled, snowmobile, and skis the preferred modes of transportation. Experience the frosty thrill of gliding through the snow-covered forest in a reindeer-drawn sleigh at northern Finland’s Jaakkola Reindeer Farm. Located near Luosto in the Finnish province of Lapland, the family-owned farm offers a variety of reindeer safaris and tours led by English-speaking guides. Many tours include opportunities to feed the reindeer, learn about reindeer husbandry, and warm up with coffee and pastries (or cook sausage over an open fire) in a kota, or herder’s hut. November to February, the farm’s four-hour evening sleigh-ride excursion for two (adults only) includes the possibility of an enchanting bonus: the watercolor glow of the northern lights illuminating the sky, ice, and snow.

What to Eat: Ravintola Kerttuli in Luosto looks like a traditional timber Lapp house (octagonal shape and vaulted ceilings) and serves several Lappish dishes. The menu changes seasonally, but you’re guaranteed to have a reindeer option, such as sautéed reindeer with mashed potatoes or reindeer pepper steak. Start with a cup of creamy porcini mushroom soup served with flat bread. Reservations suggested.

What to Buy: Light purple to dark violet amethyst extracted from the nearby Lampivaara Amethyst Mine (in Pyhä-Luosto National Park) are sold as gemstones and jewelry at Luosto’s Little Mine Shop. Buy tickets there for mine tours, including transportation via the Amethyst Pendolino snow train.

 A sky-high balloon ride will soon be able to take you to the top of the atmosphere.

Starting next year, you can put the balloonists of old to shame by traveling via helium-filled balloon 100,000 feet up, to the top of the atmosphere (as seen in these renderings). Simply hand over $75,000 to Tucson, Ariz.-based World View, and let the 4.5-ton 19-by-12-by-9-foot luxury passenger capsule whisk you away. The five- to six-hour flight includes light refreshments, a bar and an in-capsule lavatory for its eight passengers and crew. Testing, which falls under the purview of the FAA Of...

Editor’s note: Luis Buenaventura is a co-founder and head of product at Rebit.ph, a bitcoin remittance startup wholly owned and operated by Satoshi Citadel Industries in the Philippines.

There’s a lot of rhetoric about bitcoin and its impact on the $430 billion international remittance industry. One of the cryptocurrency’s most obvious uses is, after all, sending money across the planet with roughly the same effort as sending an email.

The potential effect on emerging markets — savings in aggregate that are larger than most countries’ education budgets — cannot be overstated. But beyond all the pontificating there is still the practical implementation that has yet to be sorted out.

The numbers

Our startup is a homespun company operating out of the Philippines, which is the third-largest receiver of remittances in the world. The numbers are compelling: $26 billion received in 2013, an estimated $27.5 billion in 2014, and consistent growth of about $1 billion to $2 billion annually. Mexico is right behind with $23 billion received in 2013, although it has been declining in volume since the US housing market crash several years ago.

Although similar in volume, Mexico and the Philippines couldn’t be more different from a remittance standpoint. The United States is the single-largest source of remittances for both countries, but for Mexico it accounts for 98 percent of the total volume, whereas with the Philippines it accounts for a little over 30 percent.

A closer inspection also seems to indicate that the nearly US$10 billion in volume from the Philippines being attributed to the U.S. isn’t coming from the U.S. at all. In reality, a significant (although hitherto unknown) amount is simply funds being routed via nostro bank accounts from the Middle East, which hosts over 2.5 million Filipinos. Additionally, there are 40 other countries currently hosting at least 10,000 Filipinos respectively, an international pageantry which also includes Canada, Malaysia, Australia, Japan and the United Kingdom.

It’s accurate to say then that Mexico relies on a singular remittance corridor with the United States, while the Philippines is dependent upon multiple corridors with multiple countries, a circumstance which more closely echoes the two largest remittance countries, India and China ($71 billion and $64 billion, respectively).

The context

Let’s preface this rest of this discussion with the statement that it is simply not possible for a small bitcoin startup to singlehandedly overthrow Western Union, MoneyGram or even, Remitly, at this stage. It is however possible to provide a very compelling alternative to a small subsection of their customers. “Narrow your focus to the smallest possible problem you can solve,” as the oft-quoted startup saying goes.

Additionally, let’s accept the fact that bitcoin as a currency is pretty terrible at the moment (Bitreserve notwithstanding), and focus instead on what it’s good at: instant settlement. Also, let’s assume that your average startup doesn’t have the resources to open overseas offices in multiple countries or to obtain all the necessary legal and regulatory requirements for operating in those countries.

Lastly, let’s also make the very reasonable assumption that most migrant workers (i.e. the most consistent remitters) don’t care about cryptocurrency or the blockchain or the coming financial revolution, but will naturally go to a service if it saves them money.

Given those parameters, what kind of bitcoin remittance business can we build?

The recipe

We like to refer to services like Rebit in the Philippines, ArtaBit in Indonesia, and BitPesa in Africa as “last-mile” bitcoin remittance services. These services accept bitcoin from overseas, convert it into pesos, dinars or shillings, then deliver those funds to the final beneficiary via a variety of domestic transfer methods. The beneficiary doesn’t need to know that those funds were ever transmitted via bitcoin, they only know that the sender had to spend a little less money while doing so. There’s no volatility risk as the recipient never touches bitcoin; all risk is managed by the service.

By specializing on just the last mile, there’s an invitation for other bitcoin entrepreneurs from other countries to form informal corridors. A customer in Hong Kong needs to convert their HKD into BTC before sending it to the last-mile service, and one could make a reasonably profitable business out of performing that service for them.

Indeed, this is already happening organically. The “on-ramp” company (Bitspark in Hong Kong and Align Commerce in the U.S. as early examples) accepts local fiat currency at the till, and converts that cash into bitcoin on the back-end before transmitting the funds to the off-ramps in the Philippines, Indonesia, or elsewhere.

On the surface, it doesn’t seem like a very exciting premise for a “financial revolution,” but let’s think about what’s actually happening here. Small businesses that have no formal partnerships, binding contracts, or even lines of credit between them, are settling cross-border payments in real-time on behalf of their customers. This has never been possible before without a centralized intermediary (traditionally: ACH, SWIFT, or PayPal sort of).

When you describe it that way, the process seems straightforward. Most traditional bankers immediately understand the concept of “HKD -> BTC -> PHP,” because currently the standard workflow is “HKD -> USD -> PHP.” On paper, we’ve really just replaced the dollar with its more nimble, modern counterpart.

In practice, however, there’s a lot more to it than that.

The mechanics

At their core, all bitcoin remittance startups are brokerages.

Operating as on-ramps, they must have access to large amounts of bitcoin that they can purchase in real time. Buying bitcoin on-demand is the only way to reduce volatility risk, as holding the cryptocurrency has not proven to be a financially sound strategy over these past 12 months.

Access to an exchange with locally available pay-in methods and low trading fees is key here. In the U.S., Coinbase and Circle are at the top of the list. In Europe, Bitstamp and Kraken. In Australia, Coinjar and Independent Reserve. In Singapore, Itbit. In the Middle East, Igot. The list goes on.

Operating as off-ramps, the startups need to have enough buyers for the bitcoin they receive in order to raise sufficient fiat to make payouts to their customers’ beneficiaries. If bitcoin’s price were trending upwards, this would be a simple game of buying low and selling high, but the movement over the past year has been in the other direction.

With remittance volumes in the low hundred BTCs daily, a single broker with good connections can often sell over-the-counter quickly enough to turn a small profit, or at least break even. As the service volume grows however, automation in the form of trading bots that interact with the international exchanges will be necessary to keep ahead of volatility.

It’s a lot harder to be the off-ramp, in most cases. It’s basic migration theory all over again: on-ramps tend to exist in countries with better banking infrastructure and deeper bitcoin liquidity, while off-ramps tend to be in countries where the bitcoin community is in its infancy. This isn’t a problem so much as a massive opportunity, and if one has the stomach for it, operating as a last-mile remittance service is where the largest growth spurts will be observed. It’s only natural. Between the two of them, the Philippines and Indonesia receive remittances from over 50 different jurisdictions. As each new inward corridor comes online, the incoming bitcoin volume spikes.

Additionally, the off-ramps need to be connected to the various domestic remittance methods in their respective countries. In the Philippines, there are more pawnshops than ATMs, and as such, pawnshops are more frequently used as cash-out methods than banks. In Indonesia, a combination of banks and the post office appear to be the preferred strategies.

In India, the extremely popular (and completely informal) money transfer system of hawala implies that your cash pickup point could be anything from a jewelry store to a travel agency. It’ll be interesting to observe whether fledgling bitcoin remittance businesses in India choose to model their approach after the hawala brokers or use the formal routes provided by the banks and the post office.

The law

In most countries, a business engaging in remittance activities will be categorised as a “Money Transfer Operator” and required to obtain a license as such. The costs of these licenses tend to vary wildly from country to country. In the US, hardly any bitcoin companies have ever managed to obtain licensing that covers all 50 states; it’s prohibitive enough (anecdotally, in the low millions of dollars) that startups like CoinX mention their license status very prominently on their website. Around the world, the range is from tens of thousand dollars in some ASEAN countries, all the way up to $1-2 million in the Middle East.

Every country has a slightly different approach to Anti-Money Laundering (AML) policies and Know-Your-Customer (KYC) requirements, and the costs of complying with these laws will have an impact on end-user pricing. A handful of companies provide KYC-as-a-service at fairly reasonable costs (IdentityMind is one that focuses on bitcoin startups), which alleviates that overhead somewhat. Some countries have stricter KYC requirements than others however, so it will be necessary to verify a startup’s compliance with the local AML council.

The dream

We’re currently at the starting line of a marathon that includes $42 billion in global savings at its end.

Imagine if every country had one of these loosely coupled but fully interoperable bitcoin remittance brokerages, each one acting as both an on-ramp and an off-ramp onto the global network. It’s hawala, writ large and thoroughly rebooted.

No centralized intermediary needs to exist in order to make this happen; each business is autonomous and settles all debts with bitcoin in real time. It may not be enough to overthrow Western Union, but I wager it’ll be enough to get its attention.

Scientists are proving you can judge a “book” without ever cracking open the cover.

And by book, we mean a 2,000-year-old scroll buried after the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius.

Over 260 years ago, archaeologists discovered hundreds of ancient scrolls left behind in an ancient library in Herculaneum, which was covered in volcanic material after the infamous eruption in 79 A.D. Unfortunately, these charred scrolls are next to impossible to open without destroying them, leaving their contents largely a mystery. But a new imaging technique allows researchers to see what’s written inside, without ever opening the delicate artifacts.

In the 18^th Century, Charles the Bourbon King of Naples sent an archeological team to Pompeii and Herculaneum to dig up artifacts after scattered discoveries by well diggers and treasure hunters. In 1752, this team discovered their first scrolls, and by 1754 they had discovered an entire library filled with scrolls inside an ancient villa.

Finding the scrolls was well and good, but, of course, people wanted to know what was written. Over the centuries, various techniques were devised to unroll the scrolls, but they usually ended up destroying the brittle papyrus. So, archaeologists gave up on opening the texts to spare the culturally important artifacts. That is, until now.

For years, researchers have used X-ray technology to get a deeper look at anything from molecules to ancient tombs. Basically, you blast an object with X-rays, and different elements in the object reflect those X-ray beams back at different patterns. However, the Herculaneum scrolls presented a unique challenge: The scrolls were scorched and sealed, and the text was written with black, carbon-based ink. The current X-ray techniques weren’t enough detect the pattern variations between the ink and the papyrus, so researchers tried something new.

Their new approach, called X-ray phase-contrast tomography (XPCT), builds a higher-definition image by detecting the slight relief between the letters and the papyrus. The letters rise just one hundred microns above the papyrus, but that’s enough to build a clearer picture than any other technique.

We’re sorry, but it’s still going to be a while before the scrolls are completely interpreted. However, researchers’ new technique is an encouraging start. Using XPCT, researchers examined two scrolls and could clearly see letters that formed short phrases such as “would fall” or “to deny,” but not much more.

The scrolls’ small sizes and numerous folds make it difficult to focus on every letter or gauge the letter’s orientation. But what’s important is that researchers proved that you could peek inside these ancient scrolls without destroying them. They published their findings this week in the journal Nature Communications.

Researchers have their work cut out for them if they want to get a complete read on the rest of the scrolls, but at least they have the right tool to do it.

  

Source : discovermagazine.com

What to Buy: Shop for Quebec-grown and -produced items such as farm cheeses, chocolates, and artisanal baked goods, including natas (Portuguese egg tarts), blueberry muffins, and macaroons at the historic Jean-Talon Market, opened in 1933 and considered one the largest farmers markets in North America. Quebec eco-luxury brand Harricana by Mariouche specializes in sustainable outerwear, clothing, scarves, hats, and other accessories made from recycled fur (including beaver, otter, fox, and raccoon) and silk. Tour the Fashion Design Economuseum at the Harricana flagship store on Saint-Antoine Street West to see how old furs are restored and repurposed to limit consumption and promote wildlife conservation.

Using computerized tomography (CT) scans of his mummified body, scientists have conducted a “virtual autopsy” of Tutankhamen, the boy king who ruled Egypt some 3,300 years ago. It shows that he suffered from numerous deformities and ailments, caused in part by rampant inbreeding within his family. The results of the research will be fully revealed in an upcoming television documentary. 

Very little is known about Tutankhamen’s life, other than that he took power around 1332 B.C. between the ages of 8 and 10, and that he ruled until his death a decade later around age 19. His likely father, the so-called heretic king Akhenaten, had purportedly instituted a number of chaotic religious reforms based on the belief that the sun god Aten should be worshipped above other deities, including moving the capital from Thebes to the new city of Amarna. But Tut, the 12th or so pharaoh of the 18th Egyptian dynasty, reversed these changes early in his reign. In order to promote stability, he even changed his name from Tutankhaten, meaning the “living image of Aten,” to Tutankhamen, meaning the “living image of [the creator god] Amun.” Producing no living offspring, he was succeeded on the throne by his close advisor Ay.

From that point on, King Tut wallowed in obscurity until 1922, when British archaeologist Howard Carter discovered his tomb in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings. Thieves had long ago looted other tombs in the area. But his remained virtually intact, complete with a now-famous gold burial mask, statues, jewelry, chariots, toys, perfumes, walking sticks, shrines and weapons, among other invaluable treasures. A stone sarcophagus with Tut’s solid-gold coffin also lay inside, as did two little coffins with his presumed stillborn daughters. “He comes from an age when they had the very finest artists working with the very finest materials,” said Gayle Gibson, an Egyptologist who teaches at the Royal Ontario Museum in Canada.

Over the years, a number of hypotheses have been put forth regarding Tut’s cause of death. Originally, many experts believed he had been brutally murdered or had fallen from his chariot while hunting. That line of thinking fell somewhat out of fashion, however, after tests determined that the damage to his skull occurred during either the mummification process or Carter’s excavation. More recent conjecture centers on everything from epilepsy to sickle-cell anemia to a hormone imbalance disorder called gynecomastia. One professor has even speculated that a hippopotamus did him in.

The latest entry to the field comes courtesy of the BBC, which on Sunday will air “Tutankhamen: The Truth Uncovered,” a documentary promising a “revolutionary new theory to explain Tut’s sudden and unexpected death.” It relies on a study completed in 2006, for which scientists obtained about 2,000 CT scan images of the pharaoh’s mummified body, which still resides in the Valley of the Kings. As part of the study, the scientists concluded that he had developed a potentially deadly infection in his left leg after fracturing it. Scientists then performed a DNA analysis of Tutankhamen, finding traces of malaria and Kohler disease (a rare and painful bone disorder), along with evidence that his parents were siblings, a common practice among ancient Egyptian royalty. In fact, Tut himself apparently married his half-sister.

For the documentary, scientists used the CT scan data, the DNA analysis and some newer material to conduct what they described as a “virtual autopsy.” A related life-like image of Tutankhamen —some artistic license is required—shows off his club foot, overbite and womanly hips. He couldn’t even walk unaided due to his foot and Kohler disease, the scientists claim, and therefore could not have died from a chariot fall. “We have to give up the idea that he was a healthy young prince riding across the desert in his chariot, or that he was at war and killed by an enemy,” said Gibson, who served as a consultant on the documentary. “What we’re looking at is a young man who was not in good health and had a pretty sad life in a lot of respects.”

Not everyone, however, is convinced by the results. Bob Brier, an Egyptologist at Long Island University in Brookville, New York, widely known as Mr. Mummy, explained that he would first like to see them replicated by an independent lab. “It’s a very difficult thing to get DNA out of ancient bodies,” he said, adding that it had never before been done with an Egyptian mummy. “Most of us in the field are a little hesitant to say this is right.”

Source : history.com

Find out how to boost your levels of testosterone to build muscle, burn fat, improve endurance and increase sex drive

Testosterone is the hormone every man wants, so it's no surprise that we get a lot of questions from readers asking how to boost their levels. It’s vital for building muscle, healthy levels help you burn off body fat and a timely surge of ‘T’ can spike your libido for increased sexual satisfaction. But levels tend to decline after you’re 30, with symptoms ranging from fatigue and depression to loss of sex drive and erectile dysfunction. Nothing good, basically.

You don’t need to turn to the black market for vials of man-mojo, though – instead, you can start by taking a good look at your diet. ‘Food plays a big part in hormonal dysfunction,’ says rehabilitation therapist Claud Serjeant (movethreesixty.com). ‘Eating the wrong things can increase oestrogen and decrease testosterone.’

So what should you be eating and drinking? ‘Full-fat milk is a good one,’ Serjeant says. ‘The nutrients in milk help raise testosterone and many of them are fat-soluble, so full-fat is much better than skimmed. And it’s far preferable to soya milk, which has been shown to raise oestrogen. Other foods to eat include wild-caught salmon, which is particularly rich in T-boosting omega 3, and leafy vegetables high in zinc, such as chard and spinach. Avoid processed meats and fizzy drinks, which contain ingredients that cause testosterone to fall.

Here are 15 more ways you can boost your testosterone levels.

Testosterone levels are at their highest 48 hours after lifting weights according to a study at Baylor University in the US. And the harder you train, the more you increase your natural levels of testosterone, so base your training around compound exercises such as squats, bench presses and seated rows using heavy weights.

Men who watch their favourite sports team compete experience a similar testosterone surge to the players, say researchers at the University of Utah. They found that a fan’s testosterone levels increased by 20% when his team won but fell 20% when they lost. So avoid watching England games and you should be fine.

By ‘good’ fats we mean the monounsaturated and omega 3 type – found in avocados, peanuts and oily fish – that help your body preserve protein. A study in the Journal Of Applied Physiology found that men who ate recommended amounts of these foods had the highest testosterone levels.

Eggs improve levels of healthy HDL or ‘good’ cholesterol, an important building block needed for your body to manufacture testosterone. They are also loaded with protein and have plenty of testosterone-boosting zinc. Plus Paul Newman looked pretty manly when he ate 50 of ’em in Cool Hand Luke.

Excessive exercising increases cortisol, a stress hormone that competes with testosterone and breaks down muscle. Researchers at the University of North Carolina found that overtraining can lower your testosterone levels by as much as 40%. Resting isn’t slacking off – make sure you take time out.

Poor sleep quality and having less than seven hours a night can slash your testosterone levels by more than 30% and dampen growth hormones, restricting your muscle-building potential.

Cabbage is rammed with indole-3-carbinol (IC3), a phytochemical that increases your testosterone according to a study at the Rockefeller University Hospital in New York. The study also found that when men were given IC3, their levels of the female hormone oestrogen reduced by 50 per cent – roughly the amount that would accumulate if you're 'forced' watch the Sex And The City movie.

Happy hour can wreak havoc on your manly hormones. Numerous studies have found that alcohol consumption reduces testosterone levels for up to 24 hours. It also increases cortisol and lowers growth hormone levels.

You may feel like you’re munching bird food, but seeds are full of vitamin E and zinc, which send your testosterone levels soaring. They’re also bursting with protein and monounsaturated fat.

Exposing the skin to sunlight for just 15-20 minutes can raise your testosterone levels by 120%, says a report from Boston State Hospital in the US. The research also found that the hormone increased by a whopping 200% when genital skin was exposed to the sun. Stick to the privacy of your own garden though – we don’t want any arrests.

Does running marathons make you more manly? Certainly not if judge that by your testosterone levels after the race. Researchers at the Universidade Federal de Sao Paulo monitored the levels of 20 healthy men from the age of 25 to 42 before and after a marathon and discovered that their testosterone levels dropped by half after running the 42km. OK, so it turns out the drop is only temporary, with the subjects' levels returning to almost normal after a day, but you're certainly less manly straight after a long distance race – even if you do feel damn proud of yourself of getting through it.

So how should you train, given that steady state plodding pounds the manliness right out of you? Go hard, go fast, according to a study in the Journal of Endocrinal Investigation. They got 15 endurance trained men to do two different workout sessions – a 45min high-intensity one consisting of 90sec running at 100-110% of their VO2max with 90sec recovery at 40% of their VO2max. On another day they did a 45min run at 60-65% VO2max with the results showing higher testosterone levels after the first session. So use your lunch hour wisely if you want up your T – forget the jog around the park and hit the gym hard for some tough but effective tabata rows.

Testosterone is temporarily reduced when your blood sugar levels spike, which happens when you consume fast-acting carbs. One study found that men suffered a 25% decrease in testosterone after ingesting a sugary drink, for example. Levels remained low for two hours and nearly 80% of the men had levels so low as to be classified clinically deficient. If your blood sugar is elevated over and over again, your entire hormonal cascade will be thrown off and you’ll soon find you suffer from chronically low testosterone.

Focus on high-quality protein, healthy fats and low-glycaemic carbohydrates such as vegetables.

The relationship between zinc, testosterone and reproductive health is well known. One study found that young men with normal testosterone status who avoided zinc in their diets for five months experienced a drop in total testosterone of more than 50%. Maintaining adequate zinc levels allows for a more robust release of testosterone and the related anabolic hormones, growth hormone and insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1).

You can get zinc from red meat, but phytates in vegetables and grains prevent their zinc content from being absorbed. If you’re worried you have low levels, get a red blood cell zinc test (ask your GP). Don’t take zinc supplements frequently unless you’re chronically low in the mineral, because too much can be toxic.

Magnesium improves the body’s antioxidant capacity and reduces inflammation, which allows for a robust release of testosterone and IGF-1. A recent study found that giving taekwondo athletes 750mg magnesium daily for four weeks raised their testosterone levels by 26% and by 18% after a shuttle running test. It's found in nuts. You can also take 500mg a day in a high-quality supplement to support hormone levels and athletic performance. Moderate doses of supplements don’t pose a health risk.

Men who have testosterone levels below the norm may be able to lose their excess belly flab if they are treated with testosterone. ‘Most of the studies show there's a reduction of abdominal obesity in men who are given testosterone,’ says Adrian Dobs, MD, a professor of medicine and oncology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore. However, due to the long-term effects of testosterone therapy not being that well studied, this is generally only recommended in men who have below-normal testosterone levels and dehabilitating symptoms that include fatigue, sexual dysfunction or the loss of bone/muscle mass.

This is by far the most worrying of our surprising testosterone facts, in fact, it couldn’t get much worse! Men who consume steroid hormones such as testosterone as a form of performance booster can experience ball shrinkage and breast growth. Yes, breasts. It can also cause aggression, mood swings and acne. Don’t worry too much though as men working with an experienced doctor in order to treat low testosterone levels are unlikely to overdose under medical supervision.

Clinically obese men tend to have far lower testosterone than slimmer guys. ‘It's not clear why this is the case, although one possible reason is that obesity promotes a state of widespread inflammation in the body,’ says Dobs. ‘Fat cells promote inflamation and it's these inflammatory factors that are associated with suppression of testosterone synthesis.’

A lot of men find they are diagnosed with low testosterone levels after just one single test. This is a big problem according to Neil Goodman, MD, an endocrinologist and professor of medicine at the University of Miami School of Medicine. ‘If I take blood from a guy and I send it to three labs, I'm going to get three different levels,’ says Goodman. ‘Efforts are underway to standardise blood tests. In the meantime, testosterone should be checked more than once and done in the morning when testosterone is highest.’

Men who suffer from sleep apnea are far more likely to have lower levels of testosterone, and treating sleep apnea is a way to ensure that levels return to normal.

But if a man suffering from sleep apnea is diagnosed with low testosterone alone, taking the hormone as a supplement can often worsen sleep apnea. That's why, according to Dr. Goodman, it's crucial for men with low testosterone to get checked out by an endocrinologist so any underlying conditions that can cause low testosterone, such as sleep apnea or pituitary-gland tumors, don't go undiagnosed.