Yahoo Planning Lots of Layoffs

In response to slower than expected growth, Yahoo Incorporated is planning on firing between 600-700 workers this holiday season. The official announcement is expected soon, and the first layoffs could come as soon as this week, according to a person who wishes to remain anonymous.

The layoffs represent about 5% of the total workforce of 14,100 employees, and will be the fourth large layoff event in the past three years.

The two most recent shake-ups occurred under the watch of Yahoo’s current CEO Carol Bartz. Ms. Bartz is a veteran of the Silicon Valley world who has been onboard at Yahoo for the past two years.

The newest trimming of the workforce is most probably going to be concentrated in the U.S. products group. This group has already been having tune-up ever since Bartz hired Blake Irving, a former exec at Microsoft, to run the division about half a year ago.

New Study Shows Benefits of Active Lifestyles

exerciseA new study shows that people who begin an active lifestyle at a young age, and keep it up into their middle years, can greatly lessen mid-life weight gain and other health issues. People generally focus on exercise as a way to eliminate excess weight, as opposed to a way to prevent it. The results of the study show that this may be a mistake. Dr. Arlene L. Hankinson, the lead researcher explained that “it’s not so much about achieving some dramatically high activity level. It’s about maintaining a level of daily physical activity over time.”

Generally, health experts suggest that adults get a minimum of 30 minutes of medium-intensity exercise (such as brisk walking), five days a week. Many people claim that they are too busy for a daily visit at a gym, to which Hankinson says “it should be about finding an activity that you actually like and can maintain. But you should also look into the choices you make in your daily life. Do you walk to the store, take the stairs instead of the elevator, park your car further away so you have to walk more…?”

How Much TV does your child watch?

TVTV is a ubiquitous part of modern living for everyone – including your average toddler. The amount of TV even our smallest children watch may surprise you. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF):

· two-thirds of infants and toddlers watch a screen an average of 2 hours a day

· kids under age 6 watch an average of about 2 hours of screen media a day, primarily TV and videos or DVDs

· kids and teens 8 to 18 years spend nearly 4 hours a day in front of a TV screen and almost 2 additional hours on the computer (outside of schoolwork) and playing video games

How much should they be watching? And how can you transform their screen time into a learning experience? More on that in future postings.

Memory for Faces, Best After Age 30

New research has discovered the talent for remembering faces peaks late, between the ages of 30 to 34. According to a report which will appear in the newest edition of the journal Cognition, the skill of recognizing unfamiliar faces is best done at a somewhat later age than most other cognitive skills.

Most experts believe that word skills, memory and other intellectual functions achieve peak performance in the early 20s of a person’s life. This the moment of full maturity, but before brain cell death begins to take its toll. Consistent with this belief is the fact that when tested for the ability to remember names and upside down faces, (a task which demands remembering of general visual patterns) people seem to do best at ages 23 or 24, according to Laura Germine of Harvard University, the leader of a team of psychology graduate students there.

But in a surprise result, the brain seems to need an additional ten years to get really good at face recognition, to being the best that it can be.
“Specialized face-processing in the brain may require an extended period of visual tuning during early adulthood to help individuals learn and recognize lots of different faces,” Germine says.

Four Basic Skin Care Tips

skinMost good skin care can be broken down into a four-step regimen which, if followed, will give you a strong likelihood of maintaining healthy skin. These four steps are:

1. Cleansing – never use soap on your face. On the other hand, you don’t need to spend a lot of money either. The drugstore will provide you with the right cleanser, a creamy one for dry skin or a clear one for oily skin. Never over-clean your face.

2. Exfoliation will make a big difference so don’t skip this step. Once a week, make use of a good facial scrub or micro-dermabrasion kit.

3. Moisturize – everyone should moisturize, even people with oily skin (unless you have acne). But do be careful not to over-moisturize as this can clog pores.

4. Apply sunscreen. Yes, that’s right, sunscreen is just as important as a moisturizer for healthy, young-looking skin, as sun damage is the number one cause of wrinkles. Use sunscreen from a young age, even on cloudy days. Your best bet is to buy two moisturizers, one for night, and one for day with UV protection.