Category: Lifestyle

Is the Mona Lisa Really Smiling?

Everyone knows that the Mona Lisa’s smile is incredibly mysterious and that this mystery is one of the things that makes the painting so famous. Is she smiling? Not smiling? New research from the University of California, San Francisco may have some answers.

They have found that our emotions actually alter how we see a neutral face. Dr. Erika Siegel and her colleagues have studied how emotions change our perception of the world. We all have one dominant eye and one that is more passive. Dr. Siegel and her colleagues showed 43 people two sets of flashing images at the same time so that the dominant eye would see and register the neutral expressions and the non-dominant eye would see flashes of neutral, unhappy or smiling faces that would register only at the subconscious level. Then, after people saw the flashing faces, they were shown options of faces and asked to pick out which ones they had seen.


And the results? When their non-dominant eye saw a happy face, they were more likely to think the neutral faces had been smiling. The same was true with grimaces and with neutral expressions. As Dr. Siegel then explained, that “if you see the Mona Lisa after you have just had a screaming fight with your husband, you’re going to see [the painting] differently.” She continued, “But if you’re having the time of your life at the Louvre, you’re going to see the enigmatic smile.”

The Smallest Town in America

Talk about getting away from the rat race. Elsie Eiler, 84, is the only resident of her hometown in Monowi, Nebraska. There used to be two of them, but that was before her husband passed away in 2004. She is the town’s mayor, village clerk, treasurer and librarian. The only business in town is the Monowi Tavern, which she owns and operates. She runs the town’s library as well. The town is technically the smallest town in the entire country; many shrinking areas have decided to unincorporate – but not Elsei, who files the required paperwork to keep Monowi designated as a village.

She actually completes a road plan for the municipality each year to secure funding from the state. She applies for her liquor and tobacco license each year for the restaurant and sends the paperwork to the secretary of the village for approval – who is Elsie. As she explained to the BBC,

“So, I get them as the secretary, sign them as the clerk and give them to myself as the bar owner.”

 

Oldest Message in a Bottle Discovered

So this is a really cool story. A Woman in Australia has found the oldest known message in a bottle in the world. Tonya Illman was on a beach in Western Australia, just north of Wedge Island when she discovered something sticking out of the sand. She picked up what looked like a “lovely old bottle” and then when a friend went to tip the sand out of the bottle, they discovered the note.

The message was dated June 12, 1886 and was thrown into the Indian Ocean from a German sailing boat which was going to Cardiff, Wales. There were thousands of such bottles thrown into oceans as part of a German experiment on global currents to help them find faster shipping routes, according to the Western Australia Museum. The Illmans brought the bottle to the museum and the finding was compared to the ship captain’s journal notes indicating they had thrown a bottle overboard. So far, 663 message slips have been recovered from that experiment but only one bottle – the one the Illmans brought in.

Serena Williams Helping Pregnant Women

It is inspiring to see how Serena Williams is working to help moms-to-be around the world. After giving birth to her daughter, Williams experienced a great deal of medical trauma and she wants to prevent other women from having a similar experience. Williams had a c-section after her daughter’s heart rate plummeted. Soon after giving birth, Williams had trouble breathing and a scan revealed that she had blood clots in her lungs. After many complications, doctors saved her life and had to be on bed rest for six weeks.

As Williams recently wrote in an op-ed for CNN, “If it weren’t for their professional care, I wouldn’t be here today. Every mother, everywhere, regardless of race or background deserves to have a healthy pregnancy and birth. And you can help make this a reality.”  She urges readers to donate to UNICEF or to write to governments. It’s certainly inspiring to see someone as well known as Williams putting her energy towards helping others.

 

 

 

Amazing Tea Time

If you’re thinking of going to Ireland anytime soon, you simply have to enjoy tea at the Merrion Hotel in Dublin, Ireland.They actually reproduce great works of art in their cakes and other delicacies and it’s an amazing sight to see! Enjoy the video below to get a glimpse at the beauty they offer.

Become Straw Free and Help the World

Most people don’t realize this but American throw away as many as 500 million plastic straws a day. As Adrian Grenier of the non-profit Lonely Whale points out, “Conservatively, you can guess that Americans will use on average two plastic straws a day, so 500 million is an accurate estimate. But I challenge you to start paying attention to the straws you get in your iced coffee, smoothies, soda, and cocktails. When I’m in New York or LA the number of plastic straws I receive is often closer to 10 a day.”

A number of people and organizations are starting to care, and they are making a difference. Milo Cress started a movement in 2011 called Be Straw Free that encourages restaurants and hotels to only offer straws when people ask for them. Grenier has a Strawless in Seattle campaign which has, so far, helped Seattle to save 2.3 million plastic straws in only three months. They are asking restaurants and businesses to change to biodegradable straws and it’s making all the difference.


It’s certainly a cause worth thinking about and a change that could make all the difference.