My favorite looks for the Golden Globes 2011

My favorite looks of the Golden Globes this year. Hailee Steinfeld is absolutely stunning. It's a perfect look for the 14 year old who stars in True Grit.

My other favorites would be Olivia Wilde, Eva Longeria and Claire Danes.

I haven't ever thought much about Claire Danes, but her entire look here is beautiful! Her makeup, jewelery, hair, and dress are perfect.

Enhance Memory with the Right Foods - Scientific American

Found an interesting article over at Scientific American:

Your Brain on Blueberries: Enhance Memory with the Right Foods

Chemical compounds common to berries, tofu, tea and other foods can shore up memory and boost brainpower

Emerging research suggests that compounds in blueberries known as flavonoids may improve memory, learning and general cognitive function, including reasoning skills, decision making, verbal comprehension and numerical ability. In addition, studies comparing dietary habits with cognitive function in adults hint that consuming flavonoids may help slow the decline in mental facility that is often seen with aging and might even provide protection against disorders such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

Researchers once assumed that flavonoids worked in the brain as they do in the body—as antioxidants that protect cells from damage caused by ubiquitous unstable molecules known as free radicals. Now, however, new research demonstrates that the power of flavonoids to bolster cognition results mainly from interactions between flavonoids and proteins integral to brain-cell structure and function.

To date, scientists have identified more than 6,000 different flavonoids, which come in a variety of types. These compounds are widely distributed in fruits and vegetables, cereal grains, cocoa, soy foods, tea and wine. Thus, overdosing on blueberries alone is not necessary to keep your mind in good shape.

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Memorable Diets
As powerful antioxidants, flavonoids protect us from the cellular damage caused by free radicals, which are formed by our bodies during metabolism, and are also spawned by pollution, cigarette smoke and radiation. As a result, researchers have for decades investigated the potential of these compounds for boosting immunity, staving off cancer and reducing excess inflammation; flavonoids also appear to help regulate blood flow and blood pressure.

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Brain-Cell Snacks
How might flavonoids influence cognition? By examining brain tissue from rats that ingested flavonoid-containing foods, researchers have shown within the past decade that some classes of flavonoids cross into the brain from the blood. Once in the brain, the compounds could influence cognition by acting as antioxidants, but recently scientists have questioned this theory. Data suggest that flavonoids are present in the brain in much smaller quantities than other antioxidants, such as vitamin C. Thus, compounds other than flavonoids are likely to be doing the bulk of free-radical scavenging there. Instead scientists have found that flavonoids change the chemistry of neurons in other ways.

Joseph and his colleagues discovered early on that four-month-old juvenile mice fed blueberry-enriched chow for eight months displayed higher levels of enzymes called kinases in their brain cells than did those who ate the standard chow. ­Although scientists do not know how flavonoids might spur kinase production, many types of kinases are essential to learning and memory; thus the additional enzyme could help boost cognition.

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Soy isoflavones may improve memory by acting like weak estrogens, binding to and stimulating estrogen receptors on neurons. Exciting these receptors is known to trigger changes in both neuronal shape and chemistry in the hippocampus, a structure involved in memory and whose function most likely diminishes with age. These changes may facilitate communication between neurons and thereby improve memory. Some flavonoids may even spur the growth of new nerve cells in the hippocampus.

Flavonoids may even defend neurons from damage and death and so combat neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Animal and cell culture data suggest that flavonoids may ameliorate the effects of neurotoxins such as glutamate—a neurotransmitter that at high concentrations damages neurons—by preventing these toxins from binding to their receptors on neurons. Flavonoids also may oppose the action of enzymes called secretases that are involved in the destruction of nerve cells and that may be elevated in neurodegenerative disorders.

The science does not yet reveal which flavonoid-containing foods have the greatest potential for enhancing learning and memory. But eating flavonoid-rich foods is probably better than taking supplements. Processing may destroy or reduce the actual flavonoid content of supplements, and intact fruits and vegetables are likely to contain the amounts and combinations of these compounds that are most beneficial to the brain. Following the current USDA dietary guidelines—which call for eating two cups of fruit and two and a half cups of vegetables every day—will ensure that you get a generous variety of these health-bestowing compounds. Indeed, taking such advice just might help you remember.

What does this mean? They give the bottom line:

* Compounds in blueberries known as flavonoids may improve memory, learning and general cognitive function—and could slow age-related decline in mental function.

* Scientists have identified more than 6,000 different flavonoids. These chemicals are widely distributed in fruits and vegetables, cereal grains, cocoa, soy foods, tea and wine.

* Researchers now believe flavonoids affect cognition by interacting with proteins that are integral to brain-cell structure and function.

Want to know what flavonoids are? Check out myhealthguardian.com

Animated Conan O’Brien Joins The Justice League on ‘Young Justice’

This hilarious story is over at screenrant.com:

Young Justice premiered last Friday on Cartoon Network after an hour-long preview in November. But something seems to have gone amiss with next week’s episode: the last son of Krypton has been replaced with… Coco?

A month ago, Conan O’Brien did a segment on DC Comics’ animation department at Warner Bros. Studios. In between poking fun at some less-than-intimidating classic DC characters like Space Ranger and Captain Boomerang, Conan and DC legend Bruce Timm designed a new superhero fashioned after O’Brien himself. After Timm’s initial sketch and some coloring, “The Flaming C” was ready for action. A non-traditional superhero, Coco’s alter-ego sports such accessories as a blackberry belt clip, loafers, an oven mitt and fishnet stockings.

To the delight of both O’Brien and late-night audiences, DC Animation decided to send a special present to the Conan show: an exclusive clip of Young Justice‘s second episode, featuring none other than The Flaming C. Those who watched the sneak peek will recognize the final scene: after defeating Cadmus’ minions, Superboy, Robin, Aqualad and Kid Flash must face the music as the Justice League arrives on the scene for clean-up.

In the altered clip, we see The Flaming C take Superman’s part and Batman’s voice, chastising the sidekicks for their brash actions. The new vigilante takes center stage among slightly more established heroes like Batman, Aquaman, Green Lantern and The Flash.

I haven't been watching Conan much, but every time I catch a video like this I'm reminded how funny he really is.

'The Fighter' Trailer

I wouldn't put it here if I didn't think it would be good:

Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress I bet.

Can You Build a Better Brain? - Newsweek

Interesting article: Can You Build a Better Brain? - Newsweek
A sample of the findings:

The holy grail of brain training is something that does transfer, and here there are three good candidates. The first is physical exercise. Simple aerobic exercise, such as walking 45 minutes a day three times a week, improves episodic memory and executive-control functions by about 20 percent, finds Art Kramer of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His studies have mostly been done in older adults, so it’s possible the results apply only to people whose brain physiology has begun to deteriorate—except that that happens starting in our 20s. Exercise gooses the creation of new neurons in the region of the hippocampus that files away experiences and new knowledge. It also stimulates the production of neuron fertilizers such as BDNF, as well as of the neurotransmitters that carry brain signals, and of gray matter in the prefrontal cortex. Exercise stimulates the production of new synapses, the connections that constitute functional circuits and whose capacity and efficiency underlie superior intelligence. Kramer finds that a year of exercise can give a 70-year-old the connectivity of a 30-year-old, improving memory, planning, dealing with ambiguity, and multitasking. “You can think of fitness training as changing the molecular and cellular building blocks that underlie many cognitive skills,” he says. “It thus provides more generalizable benefits than specifically training memory or decision making.”

The second form of overall mental training is meditation, which can increase the thickness of regions that control attention and process sensory signals from the outside world. In a program that neuroscientist Amishi Jha of the University of Miami calls mindfulness-based mind-fitness training, participants build concentration by focusing on one object, such as a particular body sensation. The training, she says, has shown success in enhancing mental agility and attention “by changing brain structure and function so that brain processes are more efficient,” the quality associated with higher intelligence.

Finally, some videogames might improve general mental agility. Stern has trained older adults to play a complex computer-based action game called Space Fortress, which requires players to shoot missiles and destroy the fortress while protecting their spaceship against missiles and mines. “It requires motor control, visual search, working memory, long-term memory, and decision making,” he says. It also requires that elixir of neuroplasticity: attention, specifically the ability to control and switch attention among different tasks. “People get better on tests of memory, motor speed, visual-spatial skills, and tasks requiring cognitive flexibility,” says Stern. Kramer, too, finds that the strategy-heavy videogame Rise of Nations improves executive-control functions such as task switching, working memory, visual short-term memory, and reasoning in older adults.

How to Become Super!

This had to be shared. Can you name all of the movies?
How to Become Super!

Found this surfing the web

Matt Damon on The Early Show talks True Grit, fitting in, and working with the best directors of our time

Matt Damon on The Early Show with Harry Smith

'Cowboys and Aliens' Trailer

This movie struck me as new and original. Sure there are plenty of movies with cowboys and plenty with aliens, but both? Haha.

With Jon Favreau directing and not just one rich executive producer, but three (Brian Grazer, Ron Howard AND Steven Spielburg), I think this movie has plenty of money behind it, and a good contender for highest grossing film of next year with that summer release date.

Starring Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, and Olivia Wilde

Filmography 2010 (270 movies in 6 minutes!)

This is brilliant I have to say and very fun to watch!

The list of movies is over at filmography2010.blogspot.com

Golden Globe Nominations 2011

Best Motion Picture, Drama
* Black Swan
* The Fighter
* Inception
* The King's Speech
* The Social Network

Best Motion Picture, Comedy or Musical
* Alice in Wonderland
* Burlesque
* The Kids Are All Right
* Red
* The Tourist

Best Director
* Darren Aronofsky, Black Swan
* David Fincher, The Social Network
* Tom Hooper, The King's Speech
* Christopher Nolan, Inception
* David O. Russell, The Fighter

Best Screenplay
* Simon Beaufoy and Danny Boyle, 127 Hours
* Christopher Nolan, Inception
* Stuart Blumberg and Lisa Cholodenko, The Kids Are All Right
* David Seidler, The King's Speech
* Aaron Sorkin, The Social Network

Best Actor, Drama
* Jesse Eisenberg, The Social Network
* Colin Firth, The King's Speech
* James Franco, 127 Hours
* Ryan Gosling, Blue Valentine
* Mark Wahlberg, The Fighter

Best Actor, Comedy or Musical
* Johnny Depp, Alice and Wonderland
* Johnny Depp, The Tourist
* Paul Giamatti, Barney's Version
* Jake Gyllenhaal, Love and Other Drugs
* Kevin Spacey, Casino Jack

Best Actress, Drama
* Halle Berry, Frankie and Alice
* Nicole Kidman, Rabbit Hole
* Jennifer Lawrence, Winter's Bone
* Natalie Portman, Black Swan
* Michelle Williams, Blue Valentine

Best Actress, Comedy or Musical
* Annette Bening, The Kids Are All Right
* Anne Hathaway, Love and Other Drugs
* Angelina Jolie, The Tourist
* Julianne Moore, The Kids Are All Right
* Emma Stone, Easy A

Best Supporting Actor
* Christian Bale, The Fighter
* Michael Douglas, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps
* Andrew Garfield, The Social Network
* Jeremy Renner, The Town
* Geoffrey Rush, The King's Speech

Best Supporting Actress
* Amy Adams, The Fighter
* Helena Bonham Carter, The King's Speech
* Mila Kunis, Black Swan
* Melissa Leo, The Fighter
* Jacki Weaver, Animal Kingdom

Best Animated Film
* Despicable Me (read our review here)
* How to Train Your Dragon (read our review here)
* The Illusionist
* Tangled
* Toy Story 3

Best Foreign Language Film
* Biutiful
* The Concert
* The Edge
* I Am Love
* In A Better World

Best Original Score
* Alexandre Desplat, The King's Speech
* Danny Elfman, Alice in Wonderland
* A. R. Rahman, 127 Hours
* Trent Resnor and Atticus Ross, The Social Network
* Hans Zimmer, Inception

Best Original Song
* "Bound to You", Burlesque
* "Coming Home", Country Strong
* "I See The Light", Tangled
* "There's a Place For Us", The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

Found these over at getthebigpicture.net