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!

    The wedding tradition of “something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue” has been around for hundreds of years. The tradition of carrying or wearing one of each item is said to bring luck and fortune to the newly married couple. Have you ever stopped to think what the saying really means? What is its origin and what does each item represent?

    The original saying dates back to the Victoria times and states, “something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue and a silver sixpence in your shoe.”

    Something old   A bride may wear or carry something old to represent her continued ties to her family and her old life. Many brides wear a piece of family jewelry as their old item. Some brides wear the wedding dress worn by their mother or grandmother. In many cases, something old may also be something borrowed.

    Something new   Wearing something new is supposed to represent success and hope in the bride's new life and in her marriage. If the bride purchased her wedding dress new, it may represent her new item, but any item that is new may be used. Something “new” is usually the easiest kind to fill.

    Something borrowed   The borrowed item should be something borrowed from a friend that is happily married. It is said that their happiness will rub off on you and bring lasting happiness to your marriage. Some brides borrow an item of clothing, a piece of jewelry, a handkerchief or perhaps a beaded(带珠子的) purse.

    Something blue Wearing something blue dates back to ancient times when a blue wedding dress was worn to represent purity, fidelity and love.

    Silver sixpence   Placing a silver sixpence in the bride's left shoe is said to be a symbol of wealth. This not only refers to financial wealth, but also a wealth of happiness and joy throughout her married life. Since most brides probably don't even know what a sixpence is, this part of the tradition is not used very often in modern times. However, if a bride would like to include it in her wedding, she can purchase a silver sixpence from many companies that sell bridal supplies such as garters(袜带) and invitations.

    In 1996 John Jones made an unusual discovery. He had just enlarged (扩大) a piece of paper money for a friend—a Confederate bank note, money issued (发行) by banks in Southern States of America during the Civil War. When he was face to face with the picture, he couldn't believe his eyes: slaves (奴隶) happily picking cotton in their master's fields.

    Jones grew up in South Carolina. He had heard painful stories of slavery from his greatgrandmother. The picture on the money did not match (匹配) the history of African American slaves that he'd heard all his life. “I had never seen that type of picture on money before,” he said.

    Jones wondered why slaves looked so happy. He started doing research.

    Searching for and finding the answers to his questions changed his life. During two years' search, Jones found more than 120 different bills. He discovered that the bills had several things in common. They showed slaves working in jobs related to farming. Many of them showed healthy and smiling slaves at work. None of the bills showed the hardships of slavery.

    Jones wanted to share what he had learned. “I wanted other people to see what I had seen,” he said. He decided to make large paintings of the pictures on the money. After three years of work, Jones had painted more than 80 slavery scenes (场景).He paired each painting with the money on which the picture appeared. “The Color of Money”—an exhibit (展览) of his work—has toured the country.

    Jones' paintings tell an important story about the South 150 years ago. He likes to repeat the saying. “The story is on the money.” In this case, the saying happens to be true.

    The ocean is filled with eight million tons of rubbish—enough to fill five carrier bags for every foot of coastline on the planet. But a new invention could deal with this problem, one port at a time.

    A pair of surfers from Perth, Australia, has invented a "floating bin" that automatically draws rubbish floating on the water into it like a vacuum (真空) cleaner. While the invention may do little to battle against five giant "garbage islands" that flow around the world's  major ocean gyres (环流), it could stop waste from leaving harbours and marinas, for example. Peter Ceglinski and Andrew Turton said their device could spell the end of polluted seas.

    The concept is simple: A bucket connects to a water pump, drawing in any floating trash inside a removable net bag. There is also an optional oil-water separator system inside the pump. It can remove oil from the seawater before spitting it back into the ocean — pollution-free — through the other side of the pump.

    The water filtration (过滤) system is much like what you'd find in a fish tank, but it has the potential to clean up an entire ocean. The seabin can run 24/7, according to its website. And, amazingly, Peter and Andrew say they have never caught a fish or sea animal in their pumps in four years of testing.

    The Seabin Project aims to improve on the traditional and sometimes expensive — harbor cleaning methods of having a person physically remove trash from the water or sending boats equipped with nets to collect it. While it's not as extensive as 21-year-old Boyan Slat's plan to clean the entire Pacific Ocean in 10 years, starting in 2020, the seabin's creators said their device is something that harbors can start using to clean our oceans now.

    They're starting "close to the source of the problem in a controlled environment," Seabin's website states. "It's a big mission, but it can be done. In fact, we're doing it right now."

    Knowing a little first aid could be life-saving if you see someone lying unconscious.

    Too often people don't do anything because they think they will kill the patient, but by learning simple rules you could make the difference between life and death.

    First, you need to find out if they're unconscious, asleep or drunk, by squeezing the skin between their neck and shoulder and shouting. If there is no response at all, you need to establish if they are dead or just unconscious—sometimes it's very difficult to tell the difference.

    Open the airway by placing one hand on their forehead and gently tilting the head back while lifting the chin.

    If there are no signs of life—no obvious pulse and their chest is not going up and down—call an ambulance and then start cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) (心脏复苏) to maintain (获得) a flow of oxygenated blood to the brain and heart.

    Do this by pushing up and down on the centre of the chest, with your hands interlocked together, constantly until an ambulance arrives.

    Push at a rate of 100 beats a minute. You can't harm them doing this and might just save a life.

    People like to post their selfies(自拍照) on social media. To know more about it, scientists at Syracuse University in New York recently did a research and came up with some surprising findings.

    People who post selfies and use editing software to make themselves look better show behavior connected to narcissism(自恋), the researchers said. Makana Chock, a professor from Syracuse University, said because social media is mostly used by people to share unimportant information about their lives, it is a good place for people to "work towards satisfying their own vanity." Those "likes" under their Facebook selfies make them feel good.

    Besides, people who post group selfies show a need for popularity and a need to belong to a group, the research found. Some people feel "peer(同伴) pressure" to post selfies and some follow the popular belief that if there is no picture of an event or experience, it did not really happen. "Anyway, it shouldn't be seen as negative. People get sense of satisfaction especially when they get likes. And it does no harm," Chock said.

    Other findings from the study include: There are no major differences on how often men and women post selfies and how often they use editing software. But men who post selfies showed more of a need to be seen as popular than women who posted selfies.

Chock said posting selfies on social media is not all that different from what people have done for many years. On trips and special events, our parents and grandparents used cameras instead of phones to take photos. They would bring back photos to show friends and family. You had no choice but to look at them. You probably commented about how nice everyone in the photos looked, especially children and the person showing the photos. They were happy to hear your comments. That was the old way of "clicking like". On social media, however, people can decide not to look at photos — even if they click "like".