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Dog Died? No Problem. PetMatch Has a Replacement for You

If Muffy, your beloved dog, as just died and you’re mourning her loss, there might be another solution. PetMatch, a new app, will help you to find a near replica and to adopt a new dog. Using images of either an old pet or an animal that belongs to a friend, they can help you to find a similar dog nearby.

The app searches for animals that are up for adoption in your local area.

Launched by Californian start-up Superfish, which has a specialty in image search algorithm, they will help you find a local match. Using their patented image recognition technology, they perform geometric analysis.

Users can then browse a list of potential matches and then click through to a profile that they want to see. They can get the contact information for the adoption center where the specific animal is.

The service is only in the US and is only for cats and dogs.

As the developers explained, “PetMatch is a faster, more intuitive way to bring you closer to finding exactly what you’re looking for. Behind the scenes, PetMatch uses Superfish’s patented image recognition technology to find similar adoptable pets in your area [and] gives you all the information you need to connect with the adoption agency.”

The company also has an app called Window Shopping that can help shoppers to find clothing that is similar to something they already have, or that they’ve seen in a shop.

Get to Work Early, Says Recent Study

In a fascinating and potentially important bit of research, the University of Washington found that flextime isn’t necessarily all it’s cracked up to be. Bosses in the study, led by Christopher Barnes of the University of Washington, showed an “early bias” that favored employees who arrived early.

Many international companies allow for flextime. Google lets its employees set their own hours; Microsoft allows many employees to do so as well as long as they come in between 9 and 11 am. At KPMG, 70% of the employees work flexible hours.

As Mr. Barnes found, “People seem to have a tendency to celebrate early-risers. Witness the enduring popularity of aphorisms like Ben Franklin’s ‘early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise’ or, in China, ‘a day’s planning should be done in the morning.”

He explained, “The field study we conducted tested the hypothesis that supervisor ratings of conscientiousness and performance would be associated with the timing of an employee’s work day.” The hypothesis was supported.

The researchers found that supervisors rated employees who came to work early as more conscientious. They received higher ratings than did those employees who came to work later.

They then created a lab experiment to test their theory that supported this early bird theory.

As the researchers concluded, “One way or another, team leaders must come to accept that the people who use flextime to start their day late are not necessarily lazier than their early-bird colleagues.

Otherwise, flextime policies that could serve both employees and employers well will become known, and avoided, as routes to dead-end careers.”

Tapping to Weight Loss

Certainly, there are oodles of fad diets on the market today, and it’s up to readers to decide if this is yet another one. The Tapping for Weight Loss book by author Jessica Ortner says that your diet success starts with your fingertips.

The key here is to tap acupressure points on the face and body to make your cravings disappear. This is also called the Emotional Freedom Technique and is a scientifically backed method that was developed in the Seventies by psychologists who found that it can reduce stress and anxiety.

Medical Research

According to a Harvard Medical School study, when you stimulate these points it decreases the activity in the amygdala which is the area of the brain that controls production of the stress hormone cortisol. This is linked to increased appetite, sugar cravings and levels of abdominal fat.

A recent clinical study with 89 women actually showed that the women who tapped for 15 minutes a day lost approximately 16 pounds in eight weeks without even following a strict diet plan or exercise regime. And they had still kept the weight off six months later.

Get Tapping

So how should you tap? First, you need to identify what is bothering you. Are you upset that you looked fat in a recent picture? Are you frustrated with something at work? Then, you should give a score to the thing that is bothering you from 0 to 10. The ten would mean you are incredibly distressed and the 0 would mean you feel nothing. Tap with two fingers on the “karate chop point” which is the soft part of the hand under the little finger and say a positive statement to yourself three times.

The idea with the tapping is to run through the eight points of the tapping sequence while repeating a phrase to yourself that reminds you about your anger and how to overcome it. The eight points are: the eyebrow, the side of the eye, under the eye, under the nose, the chin, the collarbone, under the arm and the crown of the head. Here is a video that can help you to see the tapping process more. Tap each seven times and spend enough time at each point so that the reminder phrase has time to sink in. Try to tap for at least 15 minutes a day in a quiet location.

When you finish tapping, you should ask yourself if your issues have shifted, if certain thoughts came up while tapping and how you feel now on the scale of 0 to 10.

Watch Out for Your Child’s Nightmares, Says New Study

Recently presented at a Pediatric Academics Societies meeting in Vancouver, Canada was a study that found that nightmares might be tied to bullying. The British-led study from researchers at the University of Warwick followed 6,438 children from birth to age 12. When they were 8-10, they were interviewed about bullying and were then interviewed about nightmares at age 12.

As co-author Dieter Wolke explained, “Our findings indicate that being bullied is a significant stress/trauma that leads to increased risk of sleep arousal problems, such as nightmares or night terrors.”

“It is an easily identifiable indicator that something scary is being processed during the night. Parents should be aware that this may be related to experiences of being bullied by peers, and it provides them with an opportunity to talk with their child about it.”

Researchers found that by the age of 12, 24% of the kids had nightmares and 9% had night terrors.

When adjusting for many factors, the researchers concluded that children who were victims of abuse and bullying were more likely to manifest their distress, anxiety and depression in sleep-related issues.

The Naked Cowboy Sports New Undies Today

Certainly, there isn’t much bigger news than this to report at the moment. The Naked Cowboy, one of Time Squares most well known figures, will soon have a new uniform. But don’t worry – it won’t involve putting on extra clothes.

Keeping on his cowboy hat and boots, he’ll now be wearing Fruit of the Loom boxer briefs with a tapered leg when he strums and amuses around Times Square. The Fruit of the Loom’s marketing team explains that Robert Burck (aka The Naked Cowboy) was simply the obvious choice to sport their new line.

As Melissa Burgess-Taylor, vice-president of marketing , told the AP, “His primary wardrobe is so important to his daily job, we thought why not showcase him in our new boxer briefs.”

While the Naked Cowboy performs in his new briefs today, Fruit of the Looms will be on hand to hand out free samples. He’ll also appear high above Times Square in a marketing campaign with the slogan “Even the Naked Cowboy has changed his underwear.”

While you might not look as good in yours as the Naked Cowboy will, you can buy these briefs at Wal-Mart, Kmart and Target for $13.99 for a five pack soon.

Sleep Apnea Device Could Make a Difference

Sleep apnea causes the breathing passage to collapse or become blocked during sleep. This causes the person with the sleep apnea to wake up many times a night, causing exhaustion during the day and placing stress on the heart with each time they awaken. Complications with this issue can include heart disease and increased risk for accidents and death.

Now, those with sleep apnea have a new avenue for help. US regulators have approved a first-of-its-kind implant that can help to keep moderate to severe sleep apnea at bay. Called The Inspire Upper Airway Stimulation therapy, it is designed for patients for whom other therapies have not worked.

The device works with a small neurostimulation generator that is surgically put into the chest. It has a lead that stimulates a nerve that goes from the ear to the jaw and another one that goes to the chest. Once its implanted, it can be activated before bedtime with a remote control. It gives a mild shock to a neck nerve that will then keep the air passages open at night.

The device is not yet available but should be available to consumers later this year. Research that was published earlier this year in the New England Journal of Medicine found that it resulted in a 68 percent reduction in apnea events and significant improvements in daytime function.

“This therapy represents a major advance in sleep apnea treatment for some patients,” said Meir Kryger, professor at the Yale School of Medicine.