Ice Cream Equated with Better Fertility?

Researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health have found that women who eat a lot of high-fat dairy foods -- like whole milk, cream cheese and yes, even ice cream -- may have better fertility than women who eat the low-fat versions of these products.

USA. Their data, published in the the journal Human Reproduction, showed that women who consumed five or more servings per week of low-fat dairy foods had a greater risk of developing anovulatory infertility, a type of infertility caused by dysfunctional ovaries. At the same time, women who ate high-fat dairy products had a lower risk of this condition. But don't run out and raid your local ice cream parlor just yet. Some doctors are skeptical about the implications of the research. "The quality of the study and the way it was done really limits the recommendations we can take from it," said Dr. Jamie Grifo, program director of the New York University Fertility Center, in Manhattan.

Grifo is concerned about the results of the study because, in it, researchers asked more than 18,000 women who had a good chance of becoming pregnant to recall the foods they'd eaten over the course of a year. "I get very concerned about the accuracy of data when memory is concerned," he said. From this study, the researchers concluded that there is probably a substance in dairy products that has an affect on fertility, but Dr. Lee Shulman, professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Northwestern University, in Evanston, Illinois, isn't so convinced. "There are too many factors that can affect ovulation." Shulman said it's important to take a look at what's in dairy products and continue further study, but at this stage "it's too hard to make a blanket statement". Grifo believes that women who are trying to become pregnant should strive for a balanced diet that includes some fat, but eating too much high-fat food and gaining too much weight brings on its own set of risks and should be avoided. "You need fat at this stage, "he said, "but the type of fat you eat is important. Avoid sugar and trans fats, and eat healthfully and normally".

The Most Dangerous Drugs?

Alcohol, Heroin and Crack - in That Order

USA. How often does life really imitate art? Let's imagine that a writer has been commissioned to develop a comedic screenplay about the deeply serious business of how to classify and control drugs. The plot is likely to feature that staple slapstick character “the mad scientist,” and since Hollywood tends to choose Britons to portray its eccentrics and villains, the writer makes the scientist a British professor. What's a good name for a nutty professor? Why not Professor Nutt? The problem with this scenario, as the writer discovers, is that there's a real Professor Nutt, a campaigning British scientist who avers in a new study, Drug Harms in the U.K., that if you're looking for the most dangerous drug of all, you have to start with alcohol, which is more harmful even than heroin and crack cocaine.

American Sex Lives

As Healthland reported on Monday, a new study showed that baby boomers in America may be having a lot of sex, but they're doing it a lot less responsibly than teenagers

USA. The study went on to reveal a lot more about American sexuality than that. For the National Survey of Sexual Health and Behavior (NSSHB) - which examined everything from condom use to homosexual behavior to orgasm rates - researchers from Indiana University surveyed a random, cross-sectional and population-based sample of 14-to-94-year-olds across the United States. It was the most comprehensive survey of its kind in nearly two decades and the first to include teenagers. "People are often curious about others' sex lives," said Debby Herbenick, associate director of Indiana University's Center for Sexual Health Promotion and a study author, in a statement. "Our data provide answers to these common sex questions and demonstrate how sex has changed in the nearly 20 years since the last study of its kind".

Pregnancy Do's and Don'ts

Pregnant? 

USA. Probably everyone has an opinion about what you should and should not be doing. So it might be hard to ditch that extra cup of coffee after lunch or give up the European vacation you were so looking forward to, but studies suggest caution is in order (especially considering that the first nine months of a person's life can shape the rest of it).

Cradle of World’s Glorious Past 

A routine excavation has uncovered ancient walls surrounding the Great Sphinx of Giza, Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities announced

Egypt. The walls were likely built to protect the Sphinx from blowing sand, said Zahi Hawass, who is overseeing the excavation as head of the council. During routine digging, researchers found two segments of mud wall on the Giza Plateau, where the pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx stand. Both walls stand just under 3 feet (1 meter). One runs north-south and is 282 feet (86 meters) long, while the other runs east-west and is 151 feet (46 meters) long.

The walls are part of a larger enclosure previously found north of the Sphinx, according to Hawass. As told in ancient Egyptian texts, King Thutmose IV once went on a hunting trip near the Sphinx. After the trip, he dreamt that the Sphinx wanted him to clear the sand surrounding its body. According to Thutmose, the Sphinx promised that if he restored the statue, he'd become king of Egypt. So Thutmose had the sand cleared and built a wall to preserve the Sphinx. Until now, researchers thought the wall was only built on the northern side of the Sphinx. The new finding disproves that theory.

The researchers also found a third wall to the east of the temple of King Khafre, the builder of the second-largest pyramid in Giza and the likely builder of the Sphinx. According to Hawass, the wall may be part of the settlement that grew up around King Khafre's pyramid after the monarch's death around 2532 B.C. In this village, priests and officials oversaw the mortuary cult of the dead king. Khafre's mortuary cult remained strong until the end of Egypt's Old Kingdom around 2143 to 2134 B.C. After that, initial excavations suggest the village was abandoned, said Essam Shehab, the supervisor of the Khafre's valley temple excavation. Excavations continue on the Thutmose IV enclosure wall, according to the SCA. The archeologists are keeping an eye out for other secrets still hidden in the sand.

10 shots of espresso is

...porn in a cup

USA. A Brooklyn coffee shop is offering customers a coffee with 10 shots of espresso in a single serving that is banned to those aged over 40 and has been given the nickname "porn in a cup". The official name of the beverage is "Dieci," the Italian for "10." It went on sale at The Pulp & The Bean in the Crown Heights neighbourhood on Tuesday. Shop owner Tony Fisher, 37, said sales were brisk in part because "nobody's ever had the chutzpah to do anything like this before". "This is for the person who wants to experience the limits of where coffee and espresso can go," he said of the drink, which weighs 20 ounces.

Toilet in the palace Shirvanshahs?

Tourists will have to stock up on gas masks before the tour

Azerbaijan. Baku-Inner city. With this one title each Bakunian is a sense of pride. This unique historical ensemble, located right in the center of Baku, without exaggeration be called the heart of the city. It is in this place, on a hill near the sea sprang ancient Baku. The town grew, and in the XII century, it was surrounded by perimeter walls. Therefore, 'Inner city' is often also called a fortress. Over the dilapidated walls, numerous unique monuments: the palace complex Shirvanshahs the tomb, Divankhana Mosque, "Maiden Tower" ("Maiden Tower"), mosques and minarets, the remnants of caravanserai, baths. Complex Inner-Shahar received the status of historical and architectural reserve in 1977.

In December 2000, Inner Shahar, together with the Maiden Tower and the Palace Complex Shirvanshahs included in the UNESCO list of World Cultural Heritage by UNESCO.

Unfortunately, we often do not appreciate what we have. Although some of our officials, speaking on television, loud and excitedly talk about how much attention is paid to protecting the reserve, the real picture is far from ideal. In this case, it will focus on the palace of Shirvan, which is the heart of Inner Shahar.

The trouble is that some of our citizens or severe kidney problems, or whether they are avid fans of beer. Naturally, after copious drink beer, I want to, pardon the expression, to urinate. And it is quite understandable. But it is unclear why some people with the stubbornness of the famous four-legged creatures prefer to urinate and defecate away from home or public toilets, and in the doorways of houses, elevators, and so on. What is this obsession to barbarism? Ask what the relationship between the palace Shirvanshahs and incivility of some "conscious" citizens? The most direct.

The fact that some vandals (aka them and not name), which are far from the notions of culture, historic sites, staged a latrine or anywhere else, but ... in the heart of Inner Shahar - Palace of Shirvan.

"Almighty" the toilet is in one of the niche recently remodeled baths. This attitude to the most famous historical monuments of Baku is anger, bitterness and resentment.Moreover, in the adjoining alcove arranged a real garbage dump, which "attract" tourists and residents of the capital empty bottles of Coca-Cola and Fanta.

Here and go to residents and visitors to our city and get acquainted with the sights Shirvanshah Palace, not forgetting to pinch their noses. And if it goes on, the tourists will have to stock up on gas masks before the tour, as not everyone can make that stench that exudes a "miraculous" toilet. And the foreigners at the sight of such a pattern develops a negative image of the entire Azerbaijani people, which similarly applies to the unique monument of history. And it's not just foreigners. A similar picture can not warp, because allowing such a disgrace, we are thus spit on their own history. As mentioned Vereshchagin, "for power offensively."

Well, with "conscious" citizens somehow we define it, but where are watching The Office of the State Historical-Architectural Reserve the old city which is obliged not only to prevent such an outrage, but does not allow such a situation?

For clarification of the situation we were yesterday, appealed to the above-mentioned control. In an interview with a reporter Vesti.Az press service head of this structure Rahib Azeri said that he was not aware of ugliness. "Thank you for the signal. But if the picture is the place to be, I immediately contact the head of the department and put it in the famous "- he said.


A day later, R. Azeri said that appropriate measures are taken, and in all the niches in the palace baths Shirvanshahs have guided cleanliness and order. Well, it is nice that the Office of the State Historical-Architectural Reserve acted quickly. A good example for other government agencies, some of which the solution of certain problems lay up to the Greek Kalends.

Sheriff is young lady


My people are out there going door to door, looking for criminals, and (in homes) where there are none, trying to teach values to the families


Mexico. In one of the most violent communities along Mexico's drug-ridden border, a new police chief has stepped up to the plate: a 20-year-old woman who has not yet finished her criminology degree. Marisol Valles Garcia was sworn in Wednesday and hopes to bring order to a  township of 8,500 in the border state of Chihuahua, which used to a quiet farming community before two rival gangs began fighting for control of its single highway, a lucrative drug trafficking route along the Texas border.

Garcia is up against drug gangs notorious for killing public officials and terrorizing its citizens. "My people are out there going door to door, looking for criminals, and (in homes) where there are none, trying to teach values to the families," she said in her first official appearance on Wednesday. "The project is ... simple, based on values, principles and crime prevention in contacts house-by-house." Garcia, who has two bodyguards, will not carry any weapons and wants to hire more women in addition to the three already on her staff of 13 officers. She also wants these officers to be unarmed in order to assume a non-violent role. Although Garcia claims she welcomed her new role, there are many people who are not as enthused about having a woman - especially a non-violent one - at the helm of the war on drugs. Miguel Sarre, a professor who specializes in Mexican law enforcement at the Autonomous Technological Institute of Mexico hopes her decision "is not a reckless act on her part...a municipal police force cannot protect itself against such powerful forces." Other citizens who claim the lawlessness cannot get much worse are willing to give her new approach a shot.