Everyone loves a hot shower, except maybe your skin and hair. As it turns out, hot water dries out skin and leaves hair dry and easily broken, Sejal Shah, MD (Doctor of Medicine) in New York City, told Women's Health. And if you dye (染)your hair, the color is likely to fade faster once the water gets steamy. To make matters worse, by making your skin lose natural oils, hot showers—above 99 degrees Fahrenheit—may bring about health problems. You may not like it, but the showers temperature that offers the greatest hair and skincare benefits is, well, cold.

Cold showers “strengthen the contractile fibers around pores(毛孔), muscles, and hairs which improves the firmness of skin,” says Carl Thornfeldt, MD with over 30 years of skin research experience. Though many people believe hot showers open and clear pores, it's actually wiser to close them. “Closing pores helps keep pollution from getting into the skin, at least temporarily,”

The benefits of cold showers are numerous, but surely we can't be expected to stand under cold water shivering every day especially in winter--not to mention that too cold (below the body's average temperature of 96.6 degrees Fahrenheit) is also bad. Fortunately, Dr. Thornfeldt recommends a happy medium. “The best solution is to take a warm, not too hot shower and then finish off with cold water for the last few seconds to still gain the rewards of the cold water,” he says.

That doesn't sound too unbearable. Considering the fact that our beloved, steamy showers may cause so much damage to skin and hair, it's best to switch to slightly warm temperatures to avoid losing natural oils and drying out, especially in winter when indoor heat is already sucking moisture(水分) out of skin. So, when the main part of an extremely comfortable warm shower is complete, finish off with a cool splash. Your hair and skin will thank you!

    Everybody in this world is different from one another. But do you know that understanding differences can help you better manage your money?

    As we grow up, we gradually develop a set of our own values or beliefs. These are influenced by society, our family, the education we receive and so on. Once this value system is set up, it's not easy to change later in life.

    Financial (金融) experts say that everyone also has their own belief of how to manage their finances. This is part of our value system and it has a great impact on the way we look after our money.

    According to our different values, experts put us in three categories. They are: the ant, the cricket and the snail.

The ant—works first

    Just like ants who work heart and soul in summer in order to store food for winter, these people don't care about enjoying the moment. They work very hard and save money they earn so that they can enjoy life when they get old and retire. The ant loves to save but they could make more out of their money if they were willing to invest(投资) in some funds and stocks with low risk.

The cricket—fun first

    The cricket wants to enjoy everything now and doesn't think too much about the future. They even borrow money when they really want something. Many young people now belong to this group. These people have little savings. When they get old, they might have problems. They should learn to save and buy insurance(保险).

The snail—lives under pressure(压力)

    The snail refers to people who make life difficult for themselves. They take big long-term loans (贷款)from the bank in order to buy things such as luxury(奢华的) houses. They are happy to take big loans even though they are not sure they can afford it. This can cause problems in the future. They should plan more carefully.

    The Internet plays a big part in human life. We use it for work and entertainment. We can find new recipes on the Interact or advice on staying healthy. We can even use it to learn a new language. We use the Internet to keep in contact with family and friends and stay in touch with issues we care about. The list goes on and on.

Well, there may be no going back to an Internet-free life. But can using the Internet too much be bad for our health? It might be, say researchers. A new study finds that heavy Internet use may be connected to high blood pressure in an unlikely group—teenagers. So, try to be a responsible guardian for your children.

    The study results show that teens who spend at least 14 hours a week online are more likely to have high blood pressure. High blood pressure makes your heart and blood vessels work too hard. Over time, this extra strain increases your risk of a heart attack or stroke. High blood pressure can also cause heart, kidney and brain diseases.

    The Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, Michigan did the study. It involved 335 young people, from 14 to 17 years old. One hundred and thirty-four of the teens were described as “heavy Internet users”. Researchers found that out of these 134 teens, 26 had high blood pressure. The researchers say the study is the first one to connect heavy web use with high blood pressure. Another research has connected that heavy Internet use with health problems including anxiety, depression and obesity.

    The lead researcher of the study is Andrea Cassidy-Bushrow. For the purpose of the study, she explains, teens considered heavy Internet users were online on average “25 hours a week”. In a statement she said, “Using the Internet is part of our daily but it shouldn't consume us.”

    Ms. Gassidy-Bushrow adds that it is important for teens to take regular breaks from their computers or smart phones and to do some kinds of physical activities. She also suggests that parents limit their children's use of the Internet to two hours a day, five days a week.

Earth's geologic ages—time periods defined by evidence in rock layers—typically last more than three million years. We're barely 11,500 years into the current age, the Holocene. But a new paper argues that we've already entered a new one—the Anthropocene, or “new man”, age.

    The name isn't brand-new. Nobel Prize winner Paul Crutzen, a co-author of the paper, coined it in 2002 to reflect the changes since the industrial revolution. The paper, however, is part of new push to formalize the Anthropocene age.

    Recent human impacts have been so great that they'll result in an obvious boundary (界限 ) in Earth's rock layer, the author's say. “We are so skilled at using energy and exploiting the environment that we are now a defining force in the geological process on the surface of the Earth,” said co-author Jan Zala, a geologist with the University of Leicester in the UK. Even so, it could take years or even decades for the International Union of Geological Science to formalize the new age.

If the concept of the Anthropocene age is to be formalized, scientists will first have to identify and define a boundary line ,or marker, that's set in stone. “The key thing is thinking about how—thousands of years in the future—geologist might come back and actually recognize in the deposit in the UK.” It's not as straightforward as you might think. The market has to be very precise, and it has to be recognized in many different parts of the world,” said Haywood, who wasn't involved in the new study.

One candidate for the market is the distinctive radioactive signature left by atom bomb tests, which began in 1945. “The fallout (沉降 ) is basically across the world,” Haywood said. In a similar way, scientists used traces of the element iridium (铱) left by shooting star strikes to help define the boundary between the Cretaceous and Tertiary periods—the time of the great dinosaur extinctions.

    The push for a formal declaration of the Anthropocene age is about more than just scientific curiosity. The move the scientists write in the last issue of the journal Environmental Science & Technology, “might be used as encouragement to slow carbon emissions and biodiversity(生物多样性)loss” or “ as evidence on protection measures” Just as Haywood said, by underlining how much we're changing the environment, the formalization would be "a very powerful statement”.

    Nezha is the subject of the latest feature, which officially opens in cinemas in China on Friday. Nezha has earned hot reviews and is ranked higher than Monkey King: Hero is Back. It is also China's first 3D animated feature film released in IMAX format.

    Since July 13, previews of the film have taken more than 140 million yuan at the box office and the film has a score of 8.8 points (out of 10) on China's largest filming rating site, Douban. It took Jokalate Yang Yu, the film's director and screenwriter, two years to improve the script (剧本) of Nezha, and the film was in production for three years. It is the most complex animated production ever made in China. Nezha has more than 1,300 special effects shots, and it took over 20 Chinese special-effects studios, employing more than 1,600 people, to realize the film's fairy tale setting, the mysterious Dragon King's palace and a fight between fire and water. One splendid scene alone took two months to complete.

    Yang made up his mind to produce an animated film on the theme of breaking the traditional styles and changing fate to the opposite. Yang chose Nezha as his vehicle, the representative of the rebellious (叛逆的) but righteous youth. However, compared with the original novel and past animated versions, the relationships between the characters are given modern meaning. In Yang's film he is fighting prejudice: Nezha is hated and feared. But Nezha believes his fate is not predetermined and that he can choose to be a devil (恶魔) or a god.

    "After watching so many domestic animated films, only Nezha and Monkey King: Hero is Back have made me fascinated," a Weibo user commented under the promotional video.

    "Epic! I finished watching Nezha in tears. The content-rich story, vivid characters, and amazing visual effects, work together to create a 110-minute roller-coaster (过山车) watching experience," a Douban user commented.

    "Bravo! Couldn't believe a domestic animated film can be created with such a well-developed story. The image of Nezha in this film has been overturned but his rebellious spirit is well-established. I'm sure Nezha is gonna go viral this summer!" reads another comment on Douban.

    I was in the seventh grade, and we had moved to New Jersey in November. By then, everyone already had had their own friends, and no one wanted to talk to a new girl. To make things worse, they put me in "Section L". I found out later that everyone called Section L "Loserville". It was sort of an open secret that it was the section for troublemakers and not-so-smart kids. When I found out, I wanted to scream. I had always been a good student and had amazing friends, and now everyone thought I was a loser!

     I did text my friends in Illinois almost every night, especially my best friend, Ana. At first my friends wanted to hear all about it. But then some stopped texting back once I said something about how miserable I was. One night when I was texting with Ana, I complained about another friend who had just done that.

     Ana's texts came really fast for the next few minutes and they surprised me. She said that she was tired of hearing about how bad everything was in New Jersey, too. She said she did not want to hurt my feelings but that I needed to stop feeling so sorry for myself all the time, I had to try to make things better.

     The next day, I thought a lot about what Ana had said. She was right!

     I wish I could say that everything changed overnight after that, but it didn't. I was still stuck in "Loserville", and some people were still mean to me, even though I tried to just stay out of their way.

     But what did change was me—I stopped feeling so sorry for myself and did something about making friends. I signed up to make sets for the school play. I met a lot of new people there, and suddenly I had friends to say hi to in the halls!

     I still miss Illinois sometimes, but life in New Jersey isn't so hard anymore. Even though I couldn't change my situation, I could change my attitude—and that made all the difference.