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From an artist that can paint the future to a beat cop that can read peoples thoughts. From an indestructible girl to a man who can fly. These are the powers of heroes. Super heroes. Ordinary people who are suddenly called by the extraordinary powers within them as a total eclipse of the sun sweeps across the planet and the fate of the world hangs in the balance.

Heroes is a sophisticated drama on NBC with complex characters who struggle against the everyday problems we’ve all seen. And the task that most people will never know … a calling for each of them, by the signs that surround them, to save the world. Heroes has been described as X-Men meets … X-Men, but it’s a lot more than that. It’s one of the brilliant new breed of shows that have become the heirs to the throne that reality TV built. We’re now seeing ordinary people in even more extraordinary situations. Reality TV has always had the barrier of reality to hold it back. The new shows in the last couple of years are fictional stories, and so the only barriers ly inside the imaginations of the creators.

Check out the Heroes site on NBC. There’s some fun things like the abilities quiz to discover if you too have taken a heroic leap in human development. You can also download online comics and wallpapers for your computer or mobile device.

Whenever mentioning the show Heroes, it’s always necessary to ask “what superpower would you want?”

The power to create cool new hit tv shows like Heroes, maybe.

The Essential Guide to Caring for Everything in Your Home

It doesn’t matter how large or small your home is. It’s filled with stuff that you care about. Things you’ve gathered, things you treasure, things that bookmark your experiences and the places you’ve travelled. The MS double H is 752 pages of pure Martha Stewart how-to information. It will tell you anything and everything you want to know how to care your home and everything in it.

For years Martha Stewart and her army of experts at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia have been bringing people the best information possible on everything from cooking and crafts to style and wedding planning. With their show, magazine, books and signature products they’ve been bringing their best and they’ve been showing people how to live their best. But life and living don’t stop there. You have to protect, organize and care for the life and the home you’ve built and that’s where Martha Stewart’s Homekeeping House book comes in.

The book is an encyclopedia of easy to find practicality that will help you run any household. They’ve assembled a collection of expert information that will guide you, room by room, through your house.

You’ll learn about how to clean, polish, scrub, wax or whatever you need to do to clean any type of material or surface. You’ll find out how to keep every appliance in ship-shape condition and how to recognize when it’s time to call in the repair people. The book will help you deal with pests, leaky faucets, and everything else that might go wrong.

This is the best resource you’ll find for maintaining your home and everything in it from A to Z with class and style.

Find out more at Amazon: Martha Stewart’s Homekeeping Handbook

Damien Rice has just released his second full length album 9. He’s a great fan of eloquance and single character titles (his first album was titled simply O). O rocketed his fame forward when his song, The Blower’s Daughter, defined the musical tone of the movie Closer which starred Natalie Portman, Jude Law, Julia Roberts, and Clive Owen. His songs have been featured in a number of movies and television shows.

If there’s a problem with his new album 9, it’s his success. Damien Rice is well known for putting the art of music first. His talent is pure genius. He honed that talent by avoiding the commercialism in the music industry and by busking his way through Europe and playing coffee shop gigs around Dublin. The problem is, when you’re a gifted musician, people are gonna find out. They did. And with success comes all the politics and bad juju of the business side of things.

9 has recieved some criticism for being self indulgent and angst-ridden. It’s the kind of album that musicians make when they want to tell the record companies where to go (and it’s not a nice place). It rebels against the hype. It laughs at commercialism. It spins itself out of control and cries ‘this is not what it’s supposed to be about’. But don’t be discouraged - Damien has sprinkled some gems for the fans throughout the album.

The title track, 9 Crimes, is a classic Damien Rice ballad. It’s a duet with Lisa Hannigan, full of yearning and momentum spurred on by Vyvienne Long’s cello. If you can appreciate the four-letter chorus of Rootless Tree, you’ll love the song. And true to his experience junkie roots and the human connections he values so much, he writes about Dogs and Accidental Babies. You might not love every song on 9, but the songs that catch you, will. And they won’t let go.

Find out more at Amazon: Damien Rice - 9

Yuck!! Do you know someone with really bad body odor? Do you have to work next to them? Is it a good friend?

Bad BO is something that everyone has come across at one time or another. Usually it comes from someone you don’t know that you meet casually through other people. Most people simply cross these nose offenders off the potential friends list or the datable list and move on. But if you know and love someone who is going through a killer whiff phase in their life, then you might just have to stage an intervention!

What is BO and what causes it?

First, you have to know what you’re up against. Millions and millions of little bacteria. They exist everywhere and on everyone, and generally they’re harmless. As we reach puberty a special set of sweat glands called apocrine glands become very active. The apocrine glands are located under your arms and around the pubic region. They are larger and produce sweat that has more fatty material in it than the other type of sweat gland (eccrine glands).

The bacteria on your skin love apocrine gland sweat and they jump in and start breaking it down. It’s this interaction between the bacteria and apocrine secretions that causes BO. Bacteria love warm, moist places, so when you’re active or stressed and your body temperature goes up then the bacteria become more active too.

There are other factors that can contribute to bad body odor. Some people sweat more than others because of simple heredity or because of various medical conditions that stimulate their glands into overactivity. Drinking hot beverages, caffeinated coffee, or eating spicy foods can also make you sweat more.

How to tame BO

There are a number of things that you can do to wrestle down a serious body odor problem:

• Watch what you eat and drink. Stay away from caffeine, hot beverages, and spicy foods
• Get regular exercise. Sweating is one of the body’s ways of regulating temperature. You sweat so that as it evaporates, it helps cool you. The better physical shape you’re in, the less strenuous any activity will be and the less you’ll sweat under normal everyday circumstances.
• Use antiperspirant or deodorant. Antiperspirant is not as popular as it once was because it blocks your pores and your body needs to sweat if it’s overheated. Deodorants stop the odor by stopping the bacteria. There are also natural deodorants you can use such as mineral salt crystals or a 50/50 mixture of baking soda and cornstarch mixed with a few drops of essential oils.
• Showering regularly. And give extra attention to the problem areas by lathering up the soap thickly and letting it sit for five or ten minutes before rinsing. Sometimes a quick shower just is not enough, and the fact that the water rinses off the soap as soon as you lather it up if you don’t stay away from the shower head could contribute to BO a problem.

Staging a BO intervention

If you have to deal with a problem - someone else’s problem - then the best thing to do is to say something. It can be an embarassing problem and some tact and compassion are necessary. The easiest way to address someone with BO is with a combination of humor and seriousness. Strangers or casual acquaintances should be nowhere around. This is best handled by trusted friends or family.

The easiest angle to approach the subject is to remark on how ripe they smell and then quickly attribute this to how hard they’ve been working or how stressed they’ve been lately. Encourage them to take some time to relax and clean up a bit before they burn themselves out.

If you’re going to put a problem on the table, you better bring a solution. Your first approach might get brushed off, so come back with a stick of deodorant or something really cool like some mineral salt crystals and let them know that they’re going to need this little gift if they don’t plan to stop and smell the roses once in awhile. If you have to ratchet up the pressure, you might joke that you can’t be their friend or you’ll kick them out of the family if they don’t get it together.

If you have to break the BO news to someone that you don’t really know that well, that can be difficult. One option is to send them an anonymous email through youhavebo.com. Youhavebo requires at least 2 people to sign up and submit a notification. They will then send a fun and anonymous notification email to the odor offender, and hopefully they’ll get the message.

If your dog stinks … well you can’t really send your dog an anonymous email can you?! OC Register has some helpful tips on combatting obnoxious doggy odors.

In a previous article we defined and showed how to tweeze and shape what is called the classic brow. It’s a timeless and elegant look but it doesn’t work perfectly for everyone. Sometimes the classic brow look is better when it’s tweaked just a bit so that it fits in with the rest of your facial features.

There are some easy changes that you can make when tweezing your eyebrows and like anything to do with eyebrow artistry, they should be incorporated sparing. The most important thing is to not do anything too drastic and instead, shoot for subtle and natural looking changes. The reason, is that you don’t want your eyebrows to grab all the attention because they’ll just look silly - the real focus should be centered on your eyes. Your eyebrows are just the frame around the painting.

Common eyebrow problems

The most common problems that people have with the shape of their eyebrows have to do with just the eyebrows alone. These are best solved by following the classic brow guide as mentioned above. There are four different things that you might encounter:

1. Thick brows. This is easily identified as the stray hairs that grow in the crease area below the brow line and just above the eyelid. Thick brows make your eyes look smaller and more closed.
2. Brows that are too long. If you have stray hairs out around the outer corner of your eyebrows they can tend to make your eyes look droopy. It creates a look of sadness or melancholy and can make your eyes appear older.
3. The uni-brow. With too many stray hairs across the bridge of your nose, two brows can look like one single brow. This creates a stern or angry expression and it also makes your eyes appear close set.
4. Rounded or high brow arches. High or overly rounded eyebrow arches leave excessive space in the crease area of your eyes. It makes your eyes appear smaller, but more significantly it creates a facial expression that makes you look quizzical or stunned, just as if you raised your eyebrows after being surprised.

Fitting your eyebrows in with your facial features

To start with the classic eyebrow and then customize it just right, you need to look at your own facial features. There are six different facial features and you might encounter one, two, or even three of them. With a little tweezing in the right places, you’ll have the perfect classic brows that are custom shaped just for you:

1. High forehead. To compensate for a high forehead, tweeze out one or two extra rows at the bottom of your eyebrows to elevate the arch slightly (area A in the picture). The extra space in the crease of your eye will help balance everything out.
2. Low forehead. This is where less tweezing is better. Other than the odd stray hair, you don’t want to tweeze above the brow line, so to compensate, keep the arch low and leave in an extra row or two at the bottom of your eyebrows (area A).
3. Round face. If you arch the eyebrows slightly higher, you can create a look that gives more length to your face. Similar to having a high forehead, take out one or two extra rows at the bottom (area A). If you have a round face and a high forehead, then you might consider taking out three or four rows at the bottom of the brows.
4. Long face. As with having a low forehead, you want to keep the arch low and leave in a couple extra rows of hair at the bottom of your eyebrows (area A).
5. Close set eyes. Tweeze a couple of extra hairs at the beginning of the brow to create more space between your brows (area B).
6. Wide set eyes. Leave in a couple of extra hairs at the beginning of the brow to create less space (area B).

As you can see, sometimes a little extra tweezing is needed, and sometimes, a little less is the way to go. Either way, minimal tweezing is always better - the last thing you want to do is sit around and wait for your eyebrows to grow back after getting a little too tweeze-happy.

If you’re not one of the 60+ million people who have read the best selling novel The Da Vinci Code since it was first released by writer Dan Brown in 2003, now’s your chance to watch the movie on DVD.

It’s easy to see how this story has gained such popularity as it weaves a great mystery into history, religion, and iconic historical figures such as Leonardo Da Vinci and Sir Isaac Newton. There are knights, royal blood lines, a rampaging albino monk - everything you need to twist and turn the plot at every corner. The movie is full of symbolism and clues and leads you just far enough in the wrong direction that if you really figure out the final mystery early on, you’ll have plenty of doubts and alternate theories before everything is revealed.

The Da Vinci Code starts off with the strange murder of Jacques Sauniere, the curator of the Louvre Museum in Paris. Tom Kanks plays professor Robert Langdon, french actress Audrey Tautou is Sophie Neveu, the grandaughter of the murdered curator, and Ian Mckellen plays an old colleague of Langdon’s and an expert in the mythical history of the Priory of Sion.

Together, and with clues found in Leonardo Da Vinci’s painting The Last Supper, at the tomb of physicist Sir Isaac Newton, and other places the main characters stay one step ahead of the authorites and mysterious figures chasing them as they seek to unravel a 2000 year old mystery buried in the clues all around them.

The movie is pieced together wonderfully by director Ron Howard, and although it’s recieved some criticism for being a bit slow, that’s probably because it’s about three hours long. It’s a 2 DVD set and the second disc contains a number of small behind the scenes featurettes and a Da Vinci Game demo that you can play on your pc.

Find out more at Amazon: The Da Vinci Code

There are a ton of indie bands and artists out there with really amazing music that few people know about.

Every once in awhile, when you’re surfing the net you might come across a music clip, video or movie trailer with a really cool groove. And you might have no idea who the artist is that’s playing because they’re not being played to death on the radio or talked about every 5 minutes in the tabloids or the news.

What do you do? Easy, just Google the lyrics.

Here’s an example: There’s a lonelygirl15 video on YouTube with a cool little background soundtrack. A quick Google search for the lyrics in the song; ‘you like to watch the sunrise, will you have blue or brown eyes’ will lead you to discover the artist, Tyrone Wells. Just like that, you’ve found some great new music and your friends have probably never heard it before - they’re lucky they have you to find these little gems!

Tyrone Wells throws pop, rock, and soul together to create a truly unique sound. His songs are powerful, honest, positive and just a little confused. It’s nice to see an up-and-coming artist with such great talent and passion. There’s a list of places and dates for future gigs on his MySpace site which include a lot of shows at university and college stomping grounds.

Tyrone has fought his way through stagefright, and selling his CD’s out of the trunk of his car. He’s starting to get more recognition and easily sells out his performances at clubs like The House of Blues, The Viper Room, Troubadour and The El Rey Theatre. His hard work has paid off and he’s now signed on with Universal Republic Records.

Check him out live if you get the chance. It won’t be long before Tyrone Wells is playing bigger shows, and there’s nothing like kickin’ back and listening to a great performer in a small venue.

Finding the perfect bag is never easy. It has to be the right size; not too big and not too small. A great purse also has to have great style. It can’t be so ultra modern that you need to read a manual just to get it open. And it can’t be so retro … well, it can be retro as long as it’s not ’80s which hasn’t been in fashion since the ’80s. Whatever it looks like, it has to look great with a lot of things in your wardrobe - there just isn’t enough room in a closet for an equal number of purses and blouses.

Whether you’re looking for a new trusty shoulder companion or something special for that special evening out, you can find lots of ideas at The Purse Blog. All the newest and hottest styles are on display there, with links to where you can buy them if you spot a must-have bag. You can search through their list of ‘IT’ brands, or browse through the styles list.

Check it out - just don’t tell your credit card.

Hate parallel parking? Then buy a new Lexus LS. Toyota has developed what it calls the APGS (Advanced Parking Guidance System). It’s a new feature on the 2007 Lexus LS and it’s also available on Toyota’s second generation Prius hybrids in Japan. See the APGS in action.

This cool technology is the first available product that starts to measure up to all those sci-fi movies set in the future where our cars will just drive themselves. It’s crossing the line where simple cruise control ends and real life auto-pilot begins. It also gives us an idea about how completely computer controlled cars will evolve. The answer is … slowly and carefully. But it probably won’t be too many years before more automatic driving features start to come out.

How the APGS works is really simple

You pull the car up beside and in front of the parking space you want to get in to just as you normally would. You have to do this slowly (under 12 mph) so the sonar sensors on the car can properly map out the parked cars and the parking space in between them. Then you put the car into reverse and activate the parking button on the dashboard screen. A view from the backup camera is also shown on the screen. As you control the brake, the car steers itself and backs into the spot and then alerts once parking is complete.

There are safety features on the APGS too

• The parking space has to be large enough for the car to manouver itself properly or the system will not engage
• If you touch the steering wheel or the gas pedal while the car is parking itself, then the automated system disengages, giving you manual control
• The APGS will also shut off if the car starts travelling faster than 2.5 mph

What the future holds

A system like APGS could eventually be programmed to drive your car into an available parking stall at a multilevel parking garage. You would just drop your car off at the front gate. The garage would use wireless networking to feed your car the instructions it needs after assigning it a parking spot. When you returned to pick up your car, the garage would signal it to drive out to the front gate to meet you.

And after the smart car parkade, the technology could go a step further with the smart cars only lane on the highway, similar to the HOV lanes we have now for buses and car poolers only. Smart cars could also slow down automatically and keep their sensors alert through school and hospital zones.

However the future unfolds, there are lots of opportunities to gradually roll out better and better features as cars get smarter and there are more of them on the road.

It’s winter. The slopes are covered in snow. Your friends want to take you snowboarding for the first time. Gulp! What do you do? You could say no or tell them you have other plans, but lots of first-timers are a little intimidated before they try snowboarding. After they try it, they absolutely love it.

If you’re ready to strap on a snow board for the first time this season, you’ll need a few pointers to help make the experience a great one. So here are the 5 rules for beginning snowboarders:

1. Get your legs in shape. If you’ve done some skateboarding or surfing then you know exactly what muscles you need for balance and control and this and throwin’ it down in the snow is going to be a snap. If you haven’t done much physical activity or serious legwork for awhile then a little training before hand is going to accomplish a couple of things. First, you won’t be sore after snowboarding if you get your legs in shape first. Second, the whole experience is going to be a lot more enjoyable because you’ll have the leg and core strength on hand to balance yourself and control your board a lot easier. A week or two before you go, start training. Go jogging, cycling, or hit the stairmaster. Lunges, squats or leg presses would also be a big help, and a few situps won’t hurt either.
2. Have the right clothes. The design technology in snowboarding pants and jackets these days is excellent. The best jackets are actually two jackets in one. They have an outer shell which is waterproof and wind resistant and then an inner jacket that zips out and is all fuzzy and warm. You can wear them together or wear either one separately depending on the weather conditions. You’ll get great use out this kind of jacket on and off the slopes. Of course you need a toque to keep your noggin and your ears warm. It’s also a good idea to buy a good quality pair of boarding gloves. Good boarding gloves also have an outer shell and a warm, fuzzy inner glove. Boots are pretty standard in quality whether you’re going to purchase them or rent them - bring an extra pair of socks with you and you’ll be fine. The key is to dress in layers. You might shed one or two layers during the day, and as it gets later and the temperature drops you can add them back.
3. Learn some basics. Once you understand the basic mechanics of how to snowboard you can pick up the finer points relatively quickly. Again, if you’ve done some skateboarding or surfing this will be a cakewalk. If this kind of sport is completely new to you then there are a couple of options. If you’re going with a friend who has some experience, is patient, and has a knack for teaching then make sure they know that you’re going to need some lessons. Most ski hills offer beginner lessons and they usually take less than an hour. Sign up for the morning beginner class and you’ll be on your way. You can also buy a book on snowboarding - The Complete Snowboarder is a great one, or you can surf the net and find how-to information. Check out this page at abc-of-snowboarding for some basic tips.
4. Fuel up. Snowboarding is pretty easy when you’ve got skills and you know the mountain. For beginners it’s more of a workout. A hearty breakfast and some high energy snack bars in your pocket will go a long way. You can always stop and grab a hot meal half way through the day if there’s a chalet or pub near the slopes. If not, then you probably want to bring a lunch with a thermos of hot soup and some bottled water. Don’t worry about counting calories - the energy is going to keep you warm, and you’ll burn it all off trudging through the snow.
5. Have fun. You will be surrounded by people that know as little about snowboarding as you do. You’re going to fall down when you go down the slope. You’re going to fall down when you jump off the chairlift. You’re going to fall down when you’re just standing there doing nothing!! As long as you stay out of the way of the pros that are whizzing by and stay inbounds of the designated ski runs you’ll be fine. Talk to people. Ask questions. Snowboarders are friendly people and they’re always willing to help others out with a quick tip, some advice or maybe even a lesson.

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