What every woman needs to have in her diet

Technically, I am pro-vitamin. So, I will start off by saying that you should really be taking more than what is listed below in one form or another (like Vitamin D and B complex). Contact your doctor for that because I don't want to be responsible for overdoses.

BUT, below are a few foods that are beneficial for us the unfortunate.

Seaweed : It's main ingredient is Wakame which has tons of iron and calcium. Both are essential for women. Just imagine these plants growing in the oceans absorbing all of those nutrients and fish poop.

Seaweeds are known as the most nutritionally dense plants with 8-10x more calcium than milk and beef. Bonus: Seaweeds helps reduce cellulite and boost weight loss as natural iodine works on the thyroid gland and breaks down food fuel before it turns into fat.


Buckwheat: Although most carbs like rice and bread remind me of food shortage, such carbs are the highest in magnesium. Most women don't get enough of magnesium. Probably because we are too busy caring about our diets to eat carbs. Who eats buckwheat anyway? Oh, I know one person, my grandma! Love you grandma.

In all seriousness, *serious face*, magnesium protects against heart disease, anxiety, migraines, high blood pressure and diabetes.
Women's multivitamins do not provide enough magnesium as you need about 320mg.

Caviar: Who would have known that the Russians got something right? Hey! I'm Russian so I am allowed to make that joke.

Caviar is super high in vitamin B12 which every woman absolutely needs. B12 helps with PMS (haha your boyfran can't use that excuse anymore!) and general mood swings, anemia, fatigue and depression. Yes, it will wake you the hell up. If you are taking B in its pill form, then take it before noon.


Cranberries: UTI, nuff' said.
Yogurt: Prevents a certain type of infection. You know what I mean. Make sure the label says "live and active cultures" and the yogurt is PLAIN for it to work for that purpose.

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What men and women want

I don't want to break your heart but there is no recipe for a good relationship, just like there isn't a recipe for the perfect pie. Everybody probably has their own idea for that one. My grandma especially likes organic apple pie.

But don't lose all faith. Despite all the women running around blabbing about their boyfriend's money situation and all the men running around complaining about their girlfriends' recent weight gain, there are many many happy couples. Wait. Rewind. If you are one of those two examples you should start a charity because you are SHALLOW.

So who am I to talk on this topic? Let's just say that I am an expert with a phD in love-ology and leave it at that. I had my fair share with some very very bad relationships but as you may know through work and school, relationships require as much learning and as many compromises. Once I did my learning, the road was as smooth as a baby's ass.

So, my findings are simple. Approaches to a relationship vary between genders. Both men and women want love equally because that is a basic human need. However, partners often don't understand that they differ in their needs FROM the relationship.

Men
These creatures want trust. However, you either trust him or you don't. You can't trust every man you meet but the one you can trust, doesn't feel like much work. Trust me. No pun intended.
In addition, you should trust that work to him is a lot of the times super duper important, because without his job he doesn't feel like a man. So stop the whining and get a hobby.

Women
These creatures want attention. A compliment a day keeps the drama away and don't you dare blame it on PMS. Men make the common mistake of thinking a nice paycheck or a vacation at the end of the month shows everything they worked for. What they don't understand it that flowers (how cliche) are worth as much as that "honey, we are going on vacation!" moment to the woman.

Anyway, these things should be given and received from both sides. It takes two to make babies.

Other good points: Watch less TV, focus on putting value into yourself and don't forget LOVE at the end of the day.

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Editorial: The demise of RIM

I bet that looks familiar to you. I bet you've owned / used a BlackBerry at least once in your life.

Remember the glorious days when having a BlackBerry drew instant respect towards you? Yes, RIM was a dominant force in the mobile world once upon a time, believe it or not. Heck it was the king, alongside Nokia of course (though the latter was ruling European market), and it seemed that there was no stopping the Canadian Waterloo-based giant.

Fast forward to late 2011.

You're right, RIM is still hanging in there but for every new quarter result it continues to plunge down drastically. Moreover, these charts (doesn't matter which source) continue to extinguish any proof of what was once a true powerhouse.

So what went wrong? Or should we ask, what went terribly wrong for Research In Motion?

When dissecting a company's downfall it's usually unjust to point fingers as it often speaks of everyone's contribution in one way or another, however for the sake of this editorial it's crystal clear who the elephant in the room was: RIM's leadership. More precisely Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis, the two former co-CEO's of Research In Motion.

While it is unfair to single out these two individuals as being solely responsible for the downfall of the popular BlackBerry brand, you're not missing the target too far off either. After all, you're a CEO for a reason.

Leadership. What does that word mean to you? To me it means to take initiative to drive something forward. In RIM's case, the force was drawing to a halt. A jockey that hit a little too many errors.

However what was the "it" factor? What caused a now possible demise of RIM? The answer is quiet simple: competition.

With the rise of Apple's immensely popular iPhone and a bit later on Google's Android, RIM's BlackBerry was bound to get a few pushes from the other boys. In fact, it was supposed to be a good idea for RIM to get pushed around by competitors because it would turn their attention to something they never exceed upon once iPhones and Androids came knocking on the door: innovation.

While Google and Apple continued to rain on RIM's parade with releasing high-end innovative mobile devices that pushed average consumer's interest to a new level, BlackBerry remained mainly the same. Same design, same software, same hardware, same focus on what was popular "back when they were on top" kind of mentality. This carried on and on resulting in an outdated mobile OS, hardware, design, lack of apps, yesteryear specs, and so forth.

Somewhere along the line of struggling to keep up with the sudden boom of the iPhone and the surprising storm of green bot army Android, as well as failing to define what it meant to keep its consumers craving at an all time high, RIM lost the battle. Lost it in a big way.

Nowadays, lack of leadership from Research In Motion can be seen on just about any of the moves that the Canadian company makes. Where do we even begin? The underwhelming OS 7, the continuously delayed QNX phones that are supposed to stop the bleeding, complete failure to excite the consumer market with the company's first tablet 'PlayBook', truly outdated phones in nearly all parameters, a purported bid from Microsoft, Nokia, and Amazon, constant drop in consumer interest and market share (especially usage), and boy do we need to go on? That sounds bad enough.

Of course, if we know anything about RIM it's the company's success in the government market due to BlackBerry's high security and manageability. One thing you could never take away from the BlackBerry brand, no matter how rocky the road got for RIM, was its top of the line security. This was always the reason most government officials used BlackBerry handsets since RIM's beginning up to...well 2012 really. However, sadly this is also changing into a negative for the folks in Waterloo, Ontario. It seems that even the federal government is making a shift to Apple and Google naturally dragging alone most of the big tech companies since the phones offered from RIM's rivals are offering on-par security (well....Android got some work to do in that department let's be honest here). Don't believe me? See it from Washington Post for a further read.

So you ask, is this the end for RIM and in turn the curtain call for BlackBerry?

Absolutely not. However, its shaky future depends solely on its leadership. If there's a way to explain it more easily, let's just say for RIM it's simply now or never.

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Do you have a case of a bad relationship?

According to Psychology Journal 2011 (affiliation: University of Southern Maine), hypercompetitiveness affects more than romantic relationships.

As you may have guessed, "hyper" refers to something of the extreme. The psychology term for the lovely big word is the need to compete and succeed at "all costs." Symptoms of H-C typically include aggressive tendency to want to dominate through manipulation and exploitation of others. The goal is to boost one's self-worth.

H-C is destructing and backwards, as it typically goes in hand with low self-esteem and unhealthy arrogance. Individuals with H-C are less psychologically healthy.

In romantic relationships, H-C results in low levels of trust, jealousy, little emotional support, in need for domination and in conflicts.

However, H-C partners do not show lesser levels of satisfaction with their relationships or out-of-the-ordinary commitment issues comparing to non H-C partners.

A 2011 study on undergraduate men and women shows that men are naturally more hypercompetitive than women. Men also voice to have "greater" problems with family and friends, having less close relationships with these groups than women.

Finally, hypercompetitiveness could be blamed on the nature of American life and American "win-at-all-cost" attitude. THIS IS SPARTA!


Written from Hypercompetitiveness and Relationships: Further Implications for Romantic, Family, and Peer Relationships. Psychology 2011. Vol.2, No.4.

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(Almost) everything you need to know about white wine

Whether you like aromatic whites or rich whites, I am sure you often find yourself strolling around the liquor store wondering how good your wine knowledge really is. At least I do, and I spent two years pouring and serving wine at a bar. I didn't learn much. Anyway, since wine is no longer just for old folks (younglings like it just as much), I have compiled a simple list to help you get around all sorts of major white wines.

Lingo:
Dry vs. Sweet: self explanatory

Low Acidity vs High Acidity: grapes from warmer climates result in high sugar and low acidity, cooler climates result in low sugar and high acidity. Basically, if the wine is sour and fresh to the taste, it is high in acidity and if it is flat, it is low in acidity. Common fruit with acids: apple, grapefruit, grape, lemon, etc.

Unoaked vs. Oaked: Fermented in stainless steel vessels versus traditional French oak barrels. When unaoked, wine has light and citrus-y nature of its grapes without the overpowering aromas of oak barrels.

1. Aromatic White
- Riesling, Pinot Grigio and Gewürztraminer with fruity and floral aromas.
- Usually low in levels of alcohol and light in taste
- Can be dry (Pinot) or very sweet (Riesling/Gewürztraminer)
- Can be aged (Pinot, 5 years) or young (Riesling/Gewürztraminer)
- Can be high in acidity (Riesling) or low (Pinot)
- Good with seafood, chicken, curry dishes, salads, cheese, egg

2. Crisp White
- Unaoked Sauvignon Blanc, Dry Riesling, Unaoked Chardonnay with crisp citrus aromas
- Can be very dry to dry and usually high in acidity
- Usually not aged for that fresh taste, except for Dry Riesling
- Best paired with seafood, fried/spicy chicken, thai dishes, heavier salads with cream sauce, light seafood pasta

3. Rich White
- Oaked Chardonnay, Oaked Sauvignon Blanc, Viognier, etc., with rich flavours like citrus and tropical fruit, as well as honey, spice, nut and vanilla aromas from oak barreling.
- Dry in taste
- Full in body and with low (Viognier) or medium acidity (Sauvignon and Chardonnay)
- Usually not aged for long
- Best paired with heavier seafood, pasta with cream sauce, turkey, veal, risotto, sushi

Hope that helps.
PS: I am not favouring white over red. I will write on red a bit later cause I would rather not bore you to death.

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People care about the weirdest things

Apparently someone named Beyonce and Jay-Z gave birth to some baby today. OMGICANTBELIEVEITSOAMAZINGICANTWAITTOSEEPICTURES!

Settle down honey badgers. Beyonce is (likely) completely unrelated to you, so you are not having a brother or a sister. Why didn't the world care when I was born? Time to write an emo note.

*cries for an hour*

Here is the trending topic of the day on twitter. Warning: you might feel a sudden outburst of excitement and will want to figure out the meaning behind a random child's name. It is very authentic and will make you want to become the next Sigmund Freud. I think 2012 really is true.



Anyway, I have compiled a list of historical events that also happened on this day. But you probably won't go crazy over them, cause they are insignificant comparing to Beyonce.

1642 - Astronomer Galileo Galilei died in Arcetri, Italy.

1918 - U.S. President Woodrow Wilson announced his Fourteen Points as the basis for peace upon the end of World War I.

1998 - Scientists announced that they had discovered that galaxies were accelerating and moving apart and at faster speeds.

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A must-have on your 'classics' shelf

You want to see something good? You want to see something really, really damn good?

Even after years have gone by, some movies deserve to be in your collection forever, whether on your shelf or in your iPad, PC, cloud storage, e-reader, or wherever it is you keep your hidden stash in. If that sounded wrong, don't worry, you've just won extra points for having a wide imagination.

To the point, if you haven't seen "21" then you are missing something tasty in your life. Really, it is a great, great movie and it will get you watching it again and again in the future. Also, it features one of the most beautiful cities I've ever been to: Boston (ohhh nostalgia...).

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