Welcome to the Most Depressing Day of the Year

Mondays are considered to be the most depressing day of the week as people return to work; however, January 17 is said to be even worse. 

The third Monday in January is considered to be the most depressing day of the year.

Dubbed "Blue Monday" by a professor at the University of Cardiff in Wales, it takes into account things like weather, Christmas debt and how we feel after the holidays. 

About 20 per cent of Canadians will feel a touch of depression between November and March, while some feel seasonal effective disorder.

Experts said that the best way to deal with Mondays is to relax, try not to do anything too stressful and possibly treat yourself.

Daily Dose: Ra Ra Riot - Oh, La

7 Question Screening Could Spot Depression in Students

Among students who go to university health centers for a physical ailment, between one-fifth and one-quarter are depressed, but the condition often goes undiagnosed because most university health centers don't screen for depression, a new study reports.

The researchers also found that 2 to 3 percent of these depressed students have had suicidal thoughts or are considering suicide.

"Depression screening is easy to do, we know it works, and it can save lives. It should be done for every student who walks into a health center," lead author Dr. Michael Fleming, a professor of family and community medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, said in a university news release.

Fleming and his colleagues surveyed 1,622 students who went to health centers at the University of Wisconsin, the University of Washington and the University of British Columbia. The study findings are published in the January issue of theAmerican Journal of Orthopsychiatry.

Screening for depression is simple, Fleming said. While sitting in the health center waiting area, students can answer seven questions about depression that can be immediately entered into his or her electronic health record. During the appointment, the health care provider can address any issues about sadness or depression.

The consequences of not identifying and treating students with depression can be serious and even deadly.

"These kids might drop out of school because they are so sad, or hurt or kill themselves by drinking too much or taking drugs," Fleming said.

He noted that university students face many challenges, and events such as a low grade or problems with a boyfriend or girlfriend can trigger depression.

"If you don't take the opportunity to screen at every [health center] visit, you are going to miss these kids," Fleming said.

Article Found at: http://www.businessweek.com/lifestyle/content/healthday/648773.html

Amazing What You Can Do With 300 SqFt

Daily Dose: Low vs Diamond - Don't Forget Sister

Feng Shui & Color

One of the easiest ways of creating harmony and balance in your apartment is by adding color. This is also one of the most rewarding Feng Shui adjustments you can make.

White

Blends all the colors of light and represents truth, harmony, purity and the way to higher spiritual knowledge.

Black

Associated with mystery and the unknown. When used carefully it can be considered powerful and dramatic but in excess it soaks up energy and vitality.

Red

Denotes vitality and energy and is associated with joy, strength, love and motivation.

Pink

Offers a sense of spiritual completeness and contentment and promotes healing.

Orange

A happy color that inspires hope, confidence and enthusiasm. It also stimulates creativity and nurtures ambition.

Yellow

A mood-lifter, stimulating joy, optimism and a sense of well-being.

Green

An abundance of nature and is both restful and energising.

Blue

Generates harmony, hope, calm and stimulates creativity, communication and spiritual understanding.

Purple

Associated with intuition, dignity and wisdom. Purple is also considered very soothing and calming and can create the perfect atmosphere for meditation.

Feng shui

Feng Shui practitioners believe that all colours can affect Ch'i energy differently as the energy in the colour ‘speaks’ and helps to connect the mind, body and spirit.

Feng Shui inspire you to decorate your dining room, living and kitchen areas in warm colours from the red/yellow side of the spectrum and neutrals are preferred for hall and entryways. The cool colours from the blue/violet side are used in the bedrooms and bathrooms.

Get Organized

How to Maximize Your Apartment Space

Daily Dose: Tokyo Police Club - Nature of the Experiment

Student Dont Get Science

Researchers from Michigan State University say most college students in the United States don't understand scientific basics. The report comes from the January issue of Bio-Science. It looked at more than 500 students from 13 US colleges and tested their knowledge on courses ranging from biology to ecology.

Most students in the study didn't know the basics of weight loss, climate change or how plants gather energy. The researchers say high school and college level instructors need to do a better job teaching science fundamentals.

Article Found at: http://www.wlns.com/Global/story.asp?S=13802530

Cheesy But Interesting Tips for Moving

Daily Dose: Beautiful Small Machines - Counting Back To 1

Simple Ways to Save Cash In College

1. Calculate What You Need
Estimating the amount of money you need can lead to more deliberate decisions when applying for aid or filling out scholarship applications. A simple way to calculate what you will need is to subtract your expected family contribution from the cost of attendance. The difference is the amount you will need in financial aid.


2. Fill out the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid)
The FAFSA is the only way to be eligible for federal financial aid, and it is available January 1 of your senior year of high school. If you haven't filed this year's taxes, you can estimate based on last year's tax information and any differences in income from the past year. Depending on when you submit the FAFSA, you'll generally receive your financial aid award letters from colleges indicating how much aid you will receive by March or April.


3. Find Free Information on Scholarships
You will undoubtedly come across many opportunities to pay for information about scholarships. Whether the offer comes from a college admissions consultant or an online ad, there is absolutely no need to pay for scholarship information that is already free and readily available. Some suggested online scholarship sites that are free and easy to navigate are Cappex.com, MeritAid.com and Fastweb.com.


4. Look Beyond Dollar Amounts
While skimming over hundreds of scholarships, be mindful not to disregard scholarships that look small in dollar amount but are actually renewable. Certain scholarships can be renewed each college year, often depending on maintaining a minimum GPA or studying within a certain major. So while a $2,500 scholarship may seem miniscule, it could potentially be $10,000 of your total tuition.


5. Pursue Merit Scholarships from Colleges
Many colleges offer merit aid scholarships that can put higher-priced schools within your reach. Often, merit aid scholarships can be renewed, reducing your overall college cost by 50 percent or more. Interested now? These scholarships are easy to find using websites like MeritAid.com or Cappex.com which will allow you to search through thousands of merit aid scholarships offered by colleges.


Full Article: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2011/01/10/prweb8053980.DTL

Daily Dose: Dr. Dog - Heart It Races

Do You Value Self-Esteem Over Sex?

Sex, favorite foods, alcohol, a visit with a best friend and a paycheck – a self-esteem boost trumps them all for most college students, according to two new studies that asked students to rate the pleasant activities they most desired.

"These are college students, look at this list of activities," said Brad Bushman, lead study researcher and a professor of communication and psychology at The Ohio State University.

"College students love sex, they love to eat — any place there is free food, they are there," Bushman told LiveScience, continuing through the list. "And yet they love self-esteem more."

When the results of the two studies were broken down by gender, however, self-esteem didn't trump everything. Male students preferred it to all other activities, but among women, self-esteem boosts, such as those linked with getting a good grade or a compliment, rated neck-and-neck with money and friends.

In the first study, Bushman's team asked 130 University of Michigan students, who received course credit, to think about their favorite food, sexual activity and self-esteem building experiences. Then they had to rate on a scale from 1 to 5 how much they liked it – "How pleasant would it be to eat it (food), do it (sex), or have that experience (self-esteem)?" – and how much they wanted it – "How much do you want to eat it (food), do it (sex), or have that experience (self-esteem)?"

n the second study, the 152 students rated how much they wanted and liked the same pleasurable experiences described in the first study as well as receiving a paycheck, seeing a best friend and drinking alcohol.

Overall, the participants liked all the activities more than they wanted, or needed, them, which is healthy, the researchers said. But the difference between liking and wanting was the smallest for self-esteem building experiences. This is significant, because addiction research suggests that addicts tend to "want" the object of their addiction more than they actually "like" it, according to Bushman.

"Notice for self-esteem the gap is the smallest, so if people are addicted to anything, they are addicted to self-esteem," he said, cautioning that the study results don't indicate any kind of addiction.

Read the full article: http://www.foxnews.com/health/2011/01/10/college-students-value-self-esteem-sex/

Only on Etsy...

"Are you a dog lover? Well what a great way to tell the world. This is a soft soft caftan decorated with more than a dozen beautiful dogs. The neck is bound to prevent any sort of stretching and the seams are completely finished to insure that the inside of your garment is as lovely as the outside. It is made of anti-pill fleece and sized to fit everyone up to a 5X. It is machine washable and can be machine dried or dried on a hanger."

And it's SOLD!! Be on the lookout for someone wearing this one of a kind piece.

Daily Dose: Arctic Monkeys - Fluorescent Adolescent

9 Reasons Why 2011 Will Cost YOU more

Health Care
"EBRI says that there's really no way to avoid saving for added health care costs, given the economic terrain now and in the future 'because employers are continuing to scale back retiree health benefits." They also estimated that both men and women would need a nest egg anywhere between $111,000 to $406,000 to cover their future health care expenses. 


Deflation
Three economists, one psychic and a Coke Bottle app can't be wrong: Deflation's going to have a huge impact on consumer spending and saving next year.


"Retailers will remain reluctant to raise prices," says Mark Lieberman, a private economic consultant and former senior economist for Fox Business Network. Consumers will also likely be reluctant to invest in long-term commitments like mortgages or personal loans.


Consumer Price Index
Jeanine Skowronski reported back in November, "falling prices can actually hurt an already shaky economy by actually discouraging spending as consumers wait for prices to fall even lower." That's a recipe for a toxic cocktail of massive layoffs, company cutbacks and a possible double-dip recession.


Mortgage Rates
If interest rates shoot up the way economists and market experts expect them to, mortgage shoppers won't be pleased. As Jeff Brown wrote earlier this month, the current "rates are still so low there's a better chance they'll go up than down," and "while [home shoppers] might get a cheaper mortgage today than in six or eight months, the housing market is still pretty risky. Prices are continuing to fall … so a home bought today could be worth less later."


Checking
Bank of America  dropped its free checking this year and thanks to financial reform, more big banks could follow suit. To avoid the extra charges but still receive solid service, follow Brian O'Connell's tips to survive the demise of free checking.


Home Prices
No one was surprised by October 2010's news that home prices had weakened, but fears of a double-dip recession remain palpable. Experts predict another drop in U.S. home prices, while some are speculating that the market won't regain its footing until 2014.


Auto Loans
Lenders might be loosening their tight grip on cash for auto loans, but that doesn't mean those loans will cost any less in 2011. Interest rates are set to rise and with that comes larger fees down the line. Now might be the time to consider refinancing if you already have a loan.


Gas Prices
The high cost of gas didn't deter Americans from their annual holiday shopping spree, but next year it might. As reported on our sister site, TheStreet.com, "Over the course of the calendar year the price has increased a relatively modest 13%; however, some analysts are concerned that prices have jumped almost 30% since September which could fuel inflation and impede further global economic growth." [See 'The Craziest Thing I Did to Save Money']


Travel
The airlines will hate us for this, but it's true. Until a sweeping package of consumer rights is passed, there's just no getting around the stupid baggage, peanut, leg room, headphone, blanket, carry-on and coach fees they love to charge.


Read the full article: http://finance.yahoo.com/family-home/article/111716/9-reasons-2011-will-cost-more;_ylt=AtOl2h7KXoNSz1765g3tPqy7YWsA;_ylu=X3oDMTFhNGQxajI3BHBvcwMzBHNlYwNwZXJzb25hbEZpbmFuY2UEc2xrAzlyZWFzb25zMjAxMQ--

Daily Dose: Faded Paper Figures - Invent It All Again

Cornell Medical College: Vaccine May Break Cocaine Habit

Researchers have developed a vaccine that could help drug addicts to both break and reverse their costly habit.

The U.S team produced a lasting anti-cocaine immunity in mice by giving them a jab that combined part of the common cold virus with a particle that mimics cocaine.

Study leader, Dr Ronald Crystal, of Weill Cornell Medical College, said: 'Our very dramatic data shows that we can protect mice against the effects of cocaine, and we think this approach could be very promising in fighting addiction in humans.'

He said the antibody immune response produced in lab mice by the vaccine binds to, cocaine molecules before the drug reached the brains of the animals - preventing any  cocaine-related hyperactivity.

The scientist writing in the online edition of Molecular Therapy, said the vaccine effect lasted for at least 13 weeks, the longest time point evaluated.

Dr Crystal said: 'While other attempts at producing immunity against cocaine have been tried, this is the first that will likely not require multiple, expensive infusions, and that can move quickly into human trials.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1344705/Cocaine-addicts-vaccine-makes-immune-drug-intruder.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

So Awkward

Daily Dose: Kate Nash - Pumpkin Soup

4 Students Expelled After Posting Placenta Photo on Facebook

Four college students were expelled from school after posting a picture of a human placenta on Facebook, the Kansas City Star reported.

One of the students, Doyle Byrnes, is suing Johnson County Community College in Kansas, stating that she asked her instructor, Amber Delphia, if they could pose with the placenta and then post it to the social networking site.

According to the lawsuit, the instructor responded with a noncommittal response, saying, “Oh, you girls.”

In the photograph, the four students were posing with the organ, which had no identification linking it to a particular woman. Byrnes’ photo showed her smiling broadly, wearing a lab coat and surgical gloves, and leaning over the placenta in a tray, Star cited.

However, once the photo was posted, the instructor called Byrnes and told her to remove it, which she did immediately. When asked if she was in trouble, her instructor said no, according to the lawsuit.

The next day, the four women were expelled for their “lack of professional behavior” and are now fighting the charge.

"They're not giggly teenagers," Clifford Cohen, Byrnes’ lawyer, said. "They all impress me as serious, career-minded women who are utterly stunned at what's happened to them."

Her lawyer added that the two were disciplined too harshly and that they only wanted to share their experience with their friends.

On Dec. 16, Clarissa Craig, the dean of the health and wellness program, affirmed Byrnes’ dismissal from the nursing school.

In a letter sent to Byrnes’ home, she called the action a reasonable step in “a lesson hard learned.”

How Cats Manipulate You....

Yes, your cat really is the boss.


Household cats exercise control of their humans with a particular high-pitched, hard-to-ignore meow, a new study suggests.


A cat's purr normally says, "I'm happy." But researchers at the University of Sussex say some purrs send cat owners a much different message: "Feed me!"


Researchers found that purrs of hungry cats included a higher-pitched sound, somewhat like a cry or meow. They played recordings of these purrs from 10 cats to 50 human volunteers. Even people who'd never owned a cat found them to be more urgent and less pleasant than contented purrs from the same animals.


These food-seeking purrs may exploit the way humans naturally respond to a baby's cry, the researchers suggest.


"The embedding of a cry within a call that we normally associate with contentment is quite a subtle means of eliciting a response," said Karen McComb of the University of Sussex, as reported by LiveScience. "Solicitation purring is probably more acceptable to humans than overt meowing, which is likely to get cats ejected from the bedroom."


Not all cats use this strategy, but some apparently learn to turn it on when they see it's effective in getting a human to feed them, Karen McComb of the University of Sussex in England said in a statement.


Article Found at: New York Daily News

Daily Dose: Lissy Trullie - Ready For The Floor

GoDaddy Offers $10,000 Scholarships

Web host Go Daddy (www.godaddy.com) announced on Tuesday that beginning January 10, US college students can apply for one of ten Go Daddy .ME Scholarships, worth $10,000 each.


Applicants must be pursuing an undergraduate degree in fall 2011, have a minimum 3.0 GPA and have scored higher than 860 on the SAT or 18 on the ACT.


"I believe everyone should have the chance to get a higher education," said Go Daddy CEO and Founder Bob Parsons. "By providing Go Daddy dotME scholarships, we can make a difference for some who might not have been able to afford to go to college."


According to The College Board, in-state undergraduate tuition and fees cost the average four-year college student more than $7,600 a year, without considering the additional costs of books, supplies, transportation, food and board.


Applicants must submit two letters of recommendation, and write a 500-word essay on how the Internet or Internet technology has helped them with their studies, and how they forsee benefiting from the Internet in the future.


The deadline for applying for the Go Daddy .ME Scholarship is March 31, 2011. The scholarship recipients will be announced at the end of April.


To apply for a .ME scholarship, fill out the application form available January 10 on Go Daddy's website

Can a Sock Puppet Help You?

The web has a growing number of free resources that can help students and parents fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, which is the form that qualifies college students for grants, scholarships, and low-priced student loans.


Unfortunately, like everything else on the web, there's plenty of misleading and boring FAFSA videos, too. A YouTube search for FAFSA videos, for example, turns up several "webinars" that are really sales come-ons for high-priced private consultants.


I've searched the web for free FAFSA videos that appear to be accurate, helpful, and somewhat fun to watch. Here's a list (in alphabetical order):


For beginners:


Fastweb has posted a fun five-minute introduction to the FAFSA.


Fresno Pacific University's video about a sock puppet asking for financial aid is um, socko, though the information is very specific to that university. (Students not attending FPU should not use the FAFSA address listed in the video. They can access the FAFSA at www.fafsa.ed.gov.)


The Williamsburg Charter High School in Brooklyn, N.Y. made a catchy rap video about the FAFSA.


More FAFSA details:


EducationQuest, a Nebraska-based nonprofit, has posted several financial aid podcasts and videos. A good introduction for students is the "The FAFSA Made Easy" 10-minute video.


Mark Kantrowitz, founder of Finaid.org and Fastweb.com, shares some of his encyclopedic financial aid knowledge.


Read More..http://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/college-cash-101/2011/01/04/fafsa-web-videos-are-fun-helpful.html

Daily Dose: Jurassic 5 - Quality Control

Beware of Financial Aid Scams

Education advocates are urging college students and parents to beware of scams that give the impression of being related to financial aid forms.


Many students currently are filling out college financial aid applications for the coming academic year.


“The Free Application for Federal Student Aid, known as the FAFSA, is the first step toward acquiring financial aid for college. The application is just what it says — FREE. Several companies are luring students to their Web site with official-sounding Web addresses and then charging a fee for completion of the FAFSA,” said Ann Hendrick, director of College Planning for Education Services Foundation, a Mississippi non-profit dedicated to helping students get to college.


ESF helped more than 1,300 students and parents complete and submit the FAFSA during 2010 and will be in high schools across the state during the coming months to help with the FAFSA and the Mississippi Financial Aid application.


The foundation is urging students to avoid companies that guarantee financial aid or charge a fee to assist with completing applications.


“The FAFSA has numerous questions that may be confusing to the student or parent,” Hendrick said. “ESF will be happy to assist in completing the FAFSA or answering questions about it at no charge.”


The official Website for online FAFSA completion and submittal is www.fafsa.gov


http://www.clarionledger.com/article/20110103/NEWS/110103021/Students+warned+of+financial+aid+scams

Gotta Love Conan