Ancient Origins of Halloween
Halloween's origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in). The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom and northern France, celebrated their new year on November 1. This day marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death. Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31 they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth. In addition to causing trouble and damaging crops, Celts thought that the presence of the otherworldly spirits made it easier for the Druids, or Celtic priests, to make predictions about the future. For a people entirely dependent on the volatile natural world, these prophecies were an important source of comfort and direction during the long, dark winter.

Feeling low on energy? You might be lacking the essential minerals and vitamins. Here is a selection of top 9 foods for boosting your energy and being more active to get through your busy day.

Banana
An excellent post workout recovery food item, banana is a simple carbohydrate but an instant energy source. They are also an excellent source of potassium – reduced level of potassium in the body can result in physical weakness. The sugars found in banana can be digested quickly and converted right into energy for your body.

An Earth-sized planet far beyond our Solar System has been found to have a similar mass to our planet, say researchers engaged in the hunt for other habitable worlds.

While Kepler-78b is not a hospitable place, with surface temperatures exceeding 2000 degrees, confirmation of its mass and density was hailed as a good omen for the discovery of other Earth-like planets.

Once a village money lender lost his purse. He announced a reward of a hundred rupees to the person who found it and returned it to him. A poor farmer found it. It contained one thousand rupees. The farmer was poor and needy but, at the same time, he was an honest man. He went to the money lender and returned the purse to him.

The money lender opened the purse and counted the money in it. It was one thousand rupees. Then he said to the farmer, “You are a smart fellow. You have taken your reward beforehand.”

Brooke with her younger sister, Carly.

A woman who suffered from a rare genetic condition that prevented her from ageing has died, having never developed beyond the size of a toddler.

Brooke Greenberg was aged 20 when she passed away in the US last week, but she still looked and behaved like a child.

She slept in a cot, was pushed around in a pram, and doctors estimated she had a cognitive age of between nine months and one year.

Her funeral was held on Sunday, local time, at a synagogue outside Baltimore.

Smokers are likely to get bags under their eyes and wrinkles around their lips earlier than non-smokers, according to a new study of identical twins.

Judges who didn't know which twin smoked said the smoker looked older 57 percent of the time. That pattern held when both twins were smokers but one had smoked for many years longer than the other.

"Smoking makes you look old. That's all there is to it," Dr. Elizabeth Tanzi said.

It was the coldest winter ever. Many animals died because of the cold.

The ducks, realizing the situation, decided to group together to keep warm. This way they covered and protected themselves; but the quills of each one wounded their closest companions.

After a while, they decided to distance themselves one from the other and they began to die, alone and frozen. So they had to make a choice: either accept the quills of their companions or disappear

Many hundreds of years ago in a small Italian town, a merchant had the misfortune of owing a large sum of money to the moneylender. The moneylender, who was old and ugly, fancied the merchant’s beautiful daughter so he proposed a bargain. He said he would forgo the merchant’s debt if he could marry the daughter. Both the merchant and his daughter were horrified by the proposal.

Dendrites, the branch-like projections of neurons, were once thought to be passive wiring in the brain. But now researchers at the Univ. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have shown that these dendrites do more than relay information from one neuron to the next. They actively process information, multiplying the brain's computing power.

"Suddenly, it's as if the processing power of the brain is much greater than we had originally thought," said Spencer Smith, PhD, an assistant professor in the UNC School of Medicine.

Once an old man spread rumours that his neighbour was a thief.

As a result, the young man was arrested. Days later the young man was proven innocent. After being released he sued the old man for wrongly accusing him.

In the court the old man told the Judge: “They were just comments, didn’t harm anyone.”

What, exactly, is wisdom, and where does it come from? As to the first question, I would argue this: wisdom is a belief that's not only true but that in the fact of our believing it leads us to feel and act in such a way that makes us suffer less or feel joy more. A common misconception is that wisdom is contained in words. But an exchange I witnessed years ago between a counselor, Darren, and a group of patients illustrates how wisdom really exists only in action:

When Facebook Inc. recently lifted its restriction on public posts by teenagers, some privacy scholars applauded the move as a win for parents -- offering them a chance to teach their children about digital accountability. They may be overstating the case, however. If information and communication technologies aren’t designed to help users -- especially younger ones -- guard their information, appeals to good judgment and discipline won’t go very far.

When baseball greats Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig went on tour in baseball-crazy Japan in 1934, some fans wondered why a third-string catcher named Moe Berg was included.

The answer was simple: Berg was a US spy. Speaking 15 languages—including Japanese—Moe Berg had two loves: baseball and spying.

In Tokyo, garbed in a kimono, Berg took flowers to the daughter of an American diplomat being treated in St. Luke’s Hospital–the tallest building in the Japanese capital. He never delivered the flowers. The ball-player ascended to the hospital roof and filmed key features: the harbor, military installations, railway yards, etc.

click to enlarge

The new $100 bill made its debut today, several years later than originally planned.

The bill was originally due to reach banks in 2011. But three years ago the Federal Reserve announced that a problem with the currency's new security measures was causing the bills to crease during printing, which left blank spaces on the bills.

If you are into financial investment, you’re probably very familiar with Mr. Warren Buffet (1951–present). He is the most successful investor in the world. His investment strategies are legendary and many people seek to learn after him.

Even more respectable, he pledged to give away 99% of his wealth (more than $30 billions at the time of the pledge in 2006) to non-profit foundations, mostly to Bill Gate’s Foundation.

Mr. Buffet often travels to universities to give speeches to educate and motivate students. Here is one of his speeches to teach us the value of our body, to invest in ourselves, in education for a great future.

 Time is a strange kind of puzzle, isn’t it? At least that’s how it has been for me with respect to my writing life.

Decades ago, when I made a personal commitment to pursue writing as a career, I knew I would have to learn how to set aside time to write. Otherwise, my commitment would be useless. I wouldn’t have a

Dancing improves brain function on a variety of levels. Two recent studies show how different types of practice allow dancers to achieve peak performance by blending cerebral and cognitive thought processes with muscle memory and ‘proprioception’ held in the cerebellum. Through regular aerobic training that incorporates some type of dance at least once a week anyone can maximize his or her brain function.

As I walked home one freezing day, I stumbled on a wallet someone had lost in the street. I picked it up and looked inside to find some identification so I could call the owner. But the wallet contained only three dollars and a crumpled letter that looked as if it had been in there for years.

The envelope was worn and the only thing that was legible on it was the return address. I started to open the letter, hoping to find some clue. Then I saw the dateline–1924. The letter had been written almost 60 years ago.

It was written in a beautiful feminine handwriting on powder blue stationery with a little flower in the left-hand corner. It was a “Dear John” letter that told the recipient, whose name appeared to be Michael, that the writer could not see him anymore because her mother forbade it. Even so, she wrote that she would always love him.

Maturity is many things. It is the ability to base a judgment on the big picture, the long haul.

It means being able to resist the urge for immediate gratification and opt for the course of action that will pay off later.

One of the characteristics of the young is “I want it now.”

Tom Clancy, the best-selling author of dozens of thrillers, including a famed series starring Jack Ryan, died Tuesday in Baltimore, his publisher, Putnam, has confirmed. He was 66.

Born in Baltimore, Clancy was an insurance salesman before he went on to write blockbuster espionage books, including The Hunt for Red October, Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger.

Once upon a time, a very strong woodcutter asked for a job in a timber merchant and he got it. The pay was really good and so was the work condition. For those reasons, the woodcutter was determined to do his best.

His boss gave him an axe and showed him the area where he supposed to work.

The first day, the woodcutter brought 18 trees.

“Congratulations,” the boss said. “Go on that way!”

Very motivated by the boss words, the woodcutter tried harder the next day, but he could only bring 15 trees. The third day he tried even harder, but he could only bring 10 trees. Day after day he was bringing less and less tree

In its 375 years, Harvard has only ever eliminated one entire academic program. If you had to guess, what program do you think that was and when was it killed off?

The answer: Harvard eradicated its Geography Department in the 1940s, and many universities followed suit.

Genes play a role in breast cancer risk for some; lifestyle changes cut risk for many.

Breast cancer can be a devastating disease, but most women can take active steps to reduce their risk, say some of the nation's leading breast cancer experts.

Women shouldn't blame themselves for their illness, doctors say, noting that it's usually impossible to pinpoint what caused an individual woman's breast tumor.

But about 25% of all breast cancer cases in women of all ages could be avoided by maintaining a healthy body weight and doing regular physical activity, says internist Anne McTiernan, a researcher with the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle.

"The greatest benefits for breast cancer reduction come from weight control and physical activity together," she says.