GeekSugar

New Seven Wonders Of The World Google/YouTube Mashup

GeekSugar — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 11:00:39 PDT

The new Seven Wonders Of The World were just announced in an official ceremony last week, but the Google mashups have begun!

Mibazaar has created a Google Maps View (along with video from YouTube) of the new wonders, which include India's Taj Mahal, Great Wall of China, Petra in Jordan, Brazil's statue of Christ the Redeemer, Peru's Machu Picchu, Mexico's Chichen Itza pyramid and The Colosseum in Rome. You can explore all the wonders without hopping on a plane (although I suggest you do that too!) by watching the videos accompanying each site.

The map and video mashup is particularly absorbing in the case of Machu Picchu and Chichen Itza because you can check out the surrounding areas and revel in their wild architecture and existence.

Buzz Time Machine: Matthew Morrison and Zooey Deschanel in Once Upon a Mattress

Maggie Pehanick — Fri, 25 May 2012 15:00:47 PDT

Seven years ago, before their starring roles on hit Fox series, in a land far, far away, Matthew Morrison and Zooey Deschanel were just two star-crossed lovers in Once Upon a Mattress. Disney's TV movie production may not have been what catapulted the two to fame toward Glee and New Girl, but we sure are glad this exists in the universe. I'm wondering if this song, "In a Little While," was on Morrison's audition tape for the part of Mr. Schuester.

How Not to Destroy Your Marriage

The Good Men Project — Fri, 18 May 2012 12:30:42 PDT

We're happy to present this story from one of our favorite sites, The Good Men Project. Today, Mark Tyrrell offers eight relationship tools to make your marriage work.

"All marriages are happy. It's the living together afterward that causes all the trouble." - Raymond Hull

So how do you make your marriage work? Or do you just blindly hope it'll take care of itself?

Think of a hot, successful date with someone you’re attracted to. You have fun, great conversation and more sexual chemistry than a warehouse full of pheromones. You don’t have to “work at” the date because it’s self sustaining. It runs as smoothly as the gliding hand of a classical guitar maestro and you can’t wait for another rendition.

Teenage Dating in a Twilight-Hunger Games World

But marriage, or any long term relationship; well that’s a whole other caboodle.

If we’re not careful, marriage can deteriorate into little more than a torturous assault course; littered with routine boredoms, frustrations and resentments. Couple all that with external pressures and sometimes marriage feels not worth the effort. But there are major benefits to being hitched or committed, other than just a beneficial tax regime.

Healthy marriage; healthy people.

Being happily married bestows heaps of health benefits. You might be forgiven for thinking that if you’re married you don’t live longer it just seems like it but, no, a good marriage really can help you clock up more years (1) and married people are happier (2) even though they don’t always look it from the outside.

But when marriage doesn’t work it can feel being manacled to a maniac, marooned with a misogynist or nailed to a nag. And I don’t care what the studies say, that’s not healthy. You may hear couples say stuff like: “We are making our marriage work!” but how do we do this?

Making it work.

We pay lip service to “working on the marriage” but what is the work we need to do? Marriage vows such as “to love and to cherish” and “forsaking all others, for better or for worse” don’t really tell us how to make it work, although they give us a clue.

Fortunately a ton of research has been done on what to do and not do to make your marriage, or any intimate relationship work. Follow the guidelines here to become “good at marriage."

Tip one: Be romantic but keep it real.

We are all (force?) fed romance in movies and novels. The handsome man gets the beautiful woman. But what I wonder is what happens after our romantic couple ride off into the sunset together? What do they do exactly? Bicker? Moan at one another? Start to ignore each other?

After all that romance, our beautiful couple is bound to have massive expectations of their life together. But when rose tinted expectations clash with day to reality, watch out!

Romance is vital in any relationship. Always seeing the best in your partner helps to keep things intimate and love should be expressed. But if you have been raised on Mills and Boon Romance novels or feel-good movies, then your own romantic expectations can work against the sustainability of your long term relationship.

When day to day life fails to live up to the giddy, heady lust-filled days of the pre-settled down romance people can become angry, even blame one another: “This wasn’t what I signed up for." They find it hard to take the rough with the smooth because they never really figured there would be any rough.

Expectations not diluted with at least a dash of realism can be a royal road to relationship ruin. Your partner may be an angel, but they have feet of clay. You must learn to love those feet or at least accept them a bit!

Get the rest after the jump!

An Everyday Athlete Is Still an Athlete

espnW — Fri, 18 May 2012 11:59:39 PDT

We are pumped to share one of our fave stories from espnW here on FitSugar!

By Risa Isard

On June 23, 1972, Title IX was signed into law, leveling the playing field for female athletes. To mark the 40th anniversary, espnW explore the impact of this landmark legislation.

You might not know me, but chances are you know someone like me. I'm that girl who grew up playing hoops in the driveway with my dad and brother every night after dinner. The one who played rec soccer for 10 years, starting out on a boys team. The one who persuaded her middle-school gym teacher to let her run the monthly timed mile against boys, then wrote her target time on her arm - in permanent marker. The one who took field day just a little too seriously.

The one who is thankful every day for Title IX.

Counting down the best of the past 40 years

Growing up, I wasn't an elite athlete, but I had passion to spare. I ran, jumped, threw, and kicked on a daily basis and eventually I found my calling in high school track and cross country. I was good (I earned seven varsity letters), but not good enough for the next level.

So when I arrived at Duke nearly four years ago, I found myself wondering something that had never crossed my mind before: was I still an athlete?

Answering that question was no easy task. As I read about various elite athletes, I recognized our shared pasts. Like gymnast Jordyn Wieber, I used to pull old cushions into the middle of the family room and do cartwheels, somersaults, and front handsprings. Like many WNBA stars, I was the only girl in neighborhood basketball games. I lacked their natural ability, but I came to realize that we are connected through dreams and experiences. We all began by thinking of ourselves as athletes and scheduling our lives around sports at a young age. That doesn't just go away.

Read on for more.

Avery Island, Part Deux: Boils, Bottles, Bloodies & Boudin

OnSugar Blog — Thu, 03 May 2012 05:45:45 PDT

If you're itching for a culinary adventure, there's no need to leave your home! Escape to Avery Island for a crawfish feast with Food Orleans.

This was my lunch. I ate it all.

Avery Island is a gorgeous place; it's surrounded by a long lace of bayous, has plenty of wildlife roaming around freely (deer, bears, raccoons, alligators), and houses the beautiful Jungle Gardens and Bird Sanctuary. You can spend a full day there soaking up the splendor, especially if you pack in a trip to the Tabasco factory.

We had a lovely, long ride down the bayou to the McIlhenny family's trapper's camp, just so we could get in some air boat rides (FUN!) and a little of this:

My favorite lunch in the world! These fellas were HUGE.

I'm only partly responsible for this amount of crawfish carnage. Let's just say that my tablemate, Cecil, is one fast picker.

Earlier that day, we had a tasting of all seven flavors of Tabasco sauce, led by CEO and Chairman of the Board Paul McIlhenny. His chief flavor developer, Charlie Chang, who has worked for the McIlhennys for over 30 years, was also present at the tasting. It was fascinating listening to the two describe how certain flavors were inspired, or how they were refined to become what they are today. I have to say, my new favorite hot sauce is Tabasco Habanero. It's Jamaican inspired and has a lot of fruit flavor to it, plus it packs a slow, intense heat that hits you at the end. For the tasting, we had saltine crackers and softened butter to help us tolerate the high amounts of heat in some of the sauces. I discovered that a saltine cracker spread with butter and topped with a little Habanero sauce is extremely delicious--like eating a wicked little butter cookie. I'm in love.

For more on this tasty adventure, plus a Tabasco-inspired mixology lesson, keep reading!

7 Strategies to Build an Emergency Fund

Kiplinger — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 00:15:32 PDT

Build up your emergency fund with these tips from Kiplinger.

You know you need an emergency fund - easily accessible cash to pay for unexpected expenses. Without one, you could find yourself looking around the house for valuables to pawn, racking up credit-card debt or maybe even considering a payday loan to cover the costs of an emergency.

But you may be wondering how you can find enough spare cash in your budget to set aside for a rainy day. If you’re living paycheck to paycheck, I’m sure the thought of saving up enough money to cover six months’ worth of expenses (as is usually recommended) is especially daunting. The good news is that you don’t have to stash that much cash at once.

The key is to start setting aside a little each month to build your emergency fund. And that doesn’t require a big salary. After all, saving is a function of discipline, not income.

Here are seven ways to find enough money - and motivation - to create an emergency fund.

Save - don’t spend - your tax refund. About 75% of taxpayers received a refund last year, and the average amount was $2,913. A refund of that size can get your emergency fund off to a great start. Open an interest-bearing savings account and have the money directly deposited into it so you won’t be tempted to use it.

Pay yourself first. Rather than wait until next year for another refund to stash in your emergency fund, adjust your tax withholding by filing a revised W-4 form with your employer (see How to Adjust Your Withholding). This will put more money in your paycheck each month, and you can set that amount aside in your savings account so it can earn interest and grow. (That money won’t be earning any interest during the year if you leave it with Uncle Sam.) If possible, have your employer deposit the designated amount directly into your savings account so you don’t see the money in your checking account and aren’t tempted to spend it.

Read on for more.

"My Long-Distance Boyfriend Doesn't Want Me to Visit"

Tres Community — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 03:05:01 PDT

This question is from a Group Therapy post in our TrèsSugar Community. Add your advice in the comments!

I live in Portugal, he lives in Belgium. We first met seven years ago while he was in Portugal for work for a couple of weeks. We dated innocently a few times until I saw his wedding ring. He said that he was unhappy in his marriage and thinking of separating, that he really liked me but I didn't want any kind of contact anymore. Last year he found me on Facebook. He had been divorced for four years and in a few months he convinced me to have a long distance relationship. He visited me twice last year and everything was great all year long, we spoke a lot over the phone, chatted, had video calls. At the beginning of this year he started a new job and very soon our relationship changed completely.

Keep reading for the rest of this dilemma.

7 Workouts to Help Achieve a Toned, Tight Tummy

Michele Foley — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 02:03:30 PDT

It's getting hot out there, which means many of you are busting out the bathing suits, crop tops, and waist-skimming bottoms. If you're not quite ready to bare your midriff, we've got just the thing for you! Here are seven ab-focused workouts that'll have your tummy tight and toned by the time Summer rolls around.

We are all about total-body workouts, but sometimes it's nice to give a little extra attention to the midsection. For those moments, turn to our comprehensive all-abs workout, where you'll find the best moves to tone your upper abs, obliques, and lower abs.
Pictures don't lie: Lady Gaga is definitely sporting a six-pack. To get results like Gaga's, follow this workout plan created by her trainer Harley Pasternak.
Just because it's quick doesn't mean it won't do wonders for your belly. All you need are four minutes to do our short, sweet, and complete ab video workout. It's the perfect way to spend a commercial break during your favorite show.
Yes, crunches are the go-to exercise for working your core, but they aren't so good for posture. Skip them altogether, while also giving your body a bigger challenge, by doing our favorite crunchless ab exercises.
Yoga not only relaxes the mind, but it also helps tone the tummy, something Jennifer Aniston knows all too well. In this short video, watch as celeb trainer Mandy Ingber takes us through three poses she uses to help sculpt Jen's midsection.
Another celeb with a set of drool-worthy abs is Minka Kelly (she was voted one of Esquire's sexiest, after all). Her trainer Gunnar Peterson shared one of the actress's fitness secrets with us: standing ab work! Grab a dumbbell and get set to follow along with this video workout highlighting Minka's ab routine.
Skip the Spanx and tone your way to a midsection you'll be dying to show off - even in that dreaded pooch area. To help work that lower ab section, Amy Dixon, group fitness manager at Equinox in Santa Monica, developed this workout to target the lower abdominal muscles. You'll work with a stability ball to challenge your core even more.

Nicole Kidman and Clive Owen Bring Their Onscreen Chemistry to the Pages of W

Lauren Turner — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 11:59:30 PDT

Nicole Kidman and Clive Owen strike a serious pose on the cover of W's May issue. They portray a married couple in HBO's Hemingway and Gellhorn, and translated their onscreen chemistry to the publication's pages in the sexy spread, which you can see more of when it hits newsstands April 24. Clive and Nicole spoke with the magazine about playing the historical duo, Ernest Hemingway and Martha Gellhorn, but also opened up about their own significant others. Clive even shared the moment he fell in love with wife Sarah-Jane Fenton, while Nicole got serious about her husband Keith Urban's recent throat surgery. Here's more from Nicole and Clive in W:

Clive on meeting his wife: "After drama school I did a seven-month tour of Europe performing in Romeo and Juliet. I played Romeo. I was at the first rehearsal, thinking, I wonder what Juliet is going to be like, and she came in. She had a corduroy jacket on and was carrying a pile of secondhand books, and her glasses were falling off. I kind of fell in love at that moment."
Nicole on being raw: "My husband says I’m raw. He thinks the world is not a great place for me because he fears that I’ll be hurt. He says, 'That’s my job: I’ll protect you.'"
Nicole on not being able to talk to Keith after his throat surgery: "All of those things make you closer. It was sort of profound: to go without his voice, and then to finally hear his voice. What if he sounded different? I was there for his first words, and then we cried. How many people experience their husband’s first words? If that doesn’t bring you closer, you’re not breathing."

The Truth About 5 Confusing Foods

Prevention — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 04:26:43 PDT

We are pumped to share one of our fave stories from Prevention here on FitSugar!

Even the most nutrition-savvy women can get lost in the headlines. Here's what you really need to know.

By Sharon Liao, Prevention

You heard that eggs can be high in cholesterol, so you dutifully switched to whole grains for breakfast. Next, you swapped out red meat for fish - only to later learn that fish can contain dangerous levels of mercury . . . and eggs may not harm your heart after all. "With all of the different reports and headlines, it’s no wonder that many people get confused," says Angela Ginn, RD, a spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and owner of Real Talk Real Food in Baltimore, MD. To help you make sense of these and other health head-scratchers, we consulted our experts and sifted through the research. Here, the new bottom line on a few "health" foods.

1. Potatoes
This starchy veggie has a bad rap among dieters, but that’s because people tend to consume it in the form of greasy french fries, chips, and buttery mashed potatoes, says Melissa Joy Dobbins, RD, of NorthShore University HealthSystem in Evanston, IL. "When prepared the right way, potatoes are a nutritious food," she says. One medium potato, for instance, delivers five grams of fiber and nearly 20 percent of your daily quota for heart-healthy potassium.

Bottom line: Skip the fried versions and opt for baked or boiled potatoes. For an even healthier option, choose vitamin A-rich sweet potatoes or purple potatoes, which can help lower blood pressure.

Ten Healthy Ways to Splurge

2. Cheese
Hold the cheese? There’s no need if you eat it in moderation. A one-ounce serving delivers 20 percent of all the bone-building calcium that you need in a day, as well as plenty of protein and phosphorus. "The problem is that many people eat much more than one serving in one sitting," explains Sharon Richter, RD, a dietitian in New York City. And at 100 to 125 calories per ounce, that can add up.

Learn how to keep cheese, eggs, and beer in your diet after the break.