Why do we get sleep in our eyes?

It is known that our eyes fill up with gunk as we sleep, but do we know why?

Firstky, gunk ist that what accumulates in the corner of the eyes over the night, also known as sand or eye boogers.

The structure of eyes is really complicated. Closest to the eye is a layer made of mucus. It coats the cornea and attracts water, which allows the dristribution of the second layer. This layer is really important, it keeps our eyes lubricated and washes away potential infections. Finally, there is also an outer layer composed of an oily substance called meibum. 
This meibum is an oily fluid at a normal human body tempature but at just one degree cooler, it becomes a white and waxy solid, the eye gunk.

Large flakes of this solid can form during sleep for a couple of reasons. First, the body cools down a little bit at night, so the meibum turns solid. Second, sleep relaxes the muscular action of the gland ducts and due to this our eyes are coated with more meibum than usual at night.

Now that we know what the gunk is and from where it comes, why our body makes it? In first place it prevents our tears from spilling out of our eyes and dribbling down our cheeks, our daily-life would be really complicated if our eyes were constantly streaming. But meibum is not the only factor that helps prevent our eyes from drying out. Blinking is important too. The act of blinking hydrate our meibomian glands, cause a little bit of extra meibum and helps the oily meibum and water tears mix together to form and emulsion called tear film. If you spend a lot of time without blinking, the emulsion feels apart an the cornea is exposed to air, and that could be really damaging.

In addition, millions of people have "dry eyes", the disorder leads to eye fatigue, red eye, irritation and the sensation that the eyes are heavier than normal. This disorder apperead due to the excessive use of reading, driving, typing or working, which reduce the frequency of our blinks during those activities.

In conclusion, I thing that writing this post I blinked a lot more than usual because of the fear to get dry eyes, and I will also consider how important gunk is before waking up tomorrow and wipe it away.

DICIONARY:

-Flakes: escates

-Coated: recobert

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20150428-why-do-we-get-sleep-in-our-eyes

The world's most charming mailbox

This is a story about a couple and a mailbox. At first sight is doesn't seem to have anything in common, however you will be surprised.

When the couple first started dating, the man sweared to show her one day  tales of a 300-year-old whisky-cask-turned-makeshift-post-office in the Galapagos Islands, 973km off the coast of Ecuador. The empty cask had been placed on Floreana Island in 1793, when whalers and sailors frequented the remote archipelago to restock on fresh water and giant tortoise meat. Since the seamen could be on the water for years at a time, they had to devise a clever way to communicate with beloveds at home, a tradition that continues to this day. Before departing the islands, the  seamen would place letters in the cask, addressed to friends and family all over the world. In return, they would search the barrel for envelopes addressed to their future ports of call, taking those that matched their onward destinations. When they arrived in a city where a letter was addressed, they would hand-deliver the letter to the recipient.

The coulple decided to go to Galapagos, scoop up a handful of letters addressed to all corners of the world, and hand-deliver each and every one of them.

Firstly, they explored the islands before arriving to Floreana. However, they coudn't wait anymore to open the mailbox and finding piles of ancient letters, some hundred years old, still waiting to be delivered. As they finally arrived, instead of seeing a large whisky cask, they found a barrel that resembled more of a birdhouse than a mailbox.

They opened the barrel to reveal an enormous pile of postcards and began sorting through the piles of postcards. Amid all the " wish you were heres" and jokes, they managed to find a handful of cards with important messages. A few were sent to loved ones that couldn't make the trip, some were letters of admiration all addressed to countries the couple wanted to visit in the future, so they left the island with 22 postcards and left the ones written by them in the mailbox.

They travelled during three years the world and delivered all the letters in 17 countries.

In the end, the couple realised that the most important thing of this mailbox isn't seeing it and the travelling, what's been truly  important is the people and stories they encountered along the way.

DICTIONARY:

- Beloveds: estimats

- Amid: enmig de

- Encounter: trobar

http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20150409-the-worlds-most-charming-mailbox

Little William

It is clearly known that these photos are edited by photoshop, but the story behind them is quite surprising.

These pictures are taken by Alan Lawrence for his son William, who has Down syndrome. According to Lawrence, he didn't take the news about his son as well as his wife and he even thought that his son would be a burden because of his disability, however he's ashamed now for saying that because he hat it all wrong.

It all started at his birth in 2013, as a baby he soon started doing weird positions, as he wanted to fly. Therefore came the idea to make a little project, which has now conquered the social media. His dad, an art director who does photography on the side, started taking pictures of his son assuming the "flying" pose and then edited him into gorgeous backdrops or funny situations, like one in which he looks like he's soaring above a field of cows.

Family and friends loved the photos so much that Lawrence is now trying to produce a series of calendars. The family also launched a Kickstarter campaign called "Bringing Light" to raise money for a road trip so they can take more photos at scenic spots, and meet other families with children who have Down syndrome along the way. So far, they have raised more than 2.000 dollars.

Alan Lawrence said that the project is a way for him to prove to the world that even kids with Down syndrome, like his son, can live magical lives. This project is also a way for them to show how much their son blessed the family, he's not a burden and he has opened the door to so many things and to new experiences.

They hope his son's story helps encourage parents who are worried about raising a baby with Down syndrome and it actually has.

http://www.today.com/parents/dads-beautiful-flying-photos-son-down-syndrome-go-viral-t16311

The heart wants what it wants

We know it from every single movie we have seen or book we have readed, there is always the handsome and athletic boy who always dates the prettiest girls, and then they are the others, the sensitive and caring boys, who are always wondering what they are doing wrong with the girls.

Due to this, recently  some students of Hurtpury College in England did a research in regards to marriage, relationships and narcissistic men. They asked 146 women between 18 and 28 years old, and the study found out that even those who already have dated self-absorbed men, they never learned their lessons and continued to pursue these types of men.

Moreover, the more relationship experience each women had, the more she found narcissistic men attraktive.

In conclusion, it has all to do with the self-confidence and power narcissistic men exude.

Personally, I know plenty of these narcisstic boys, and the truth is that they always get the girl that they want, without doing anything. However, they are also always the boys who are more likely to cheat and think about themselves.

http://elitedaily.com/women/women-are-attracted-to-narcissistic-men/992989/

Karl Lagerfeld's cat earned 2 million last year

Karl Lagerfeld's cat, Choupette, earned over 2 million dollars last year, from two jobs. Meanwhile, top model and actress Cara Delevigne earned 2,4 million in a year after travelling around the world and attending to fashion weeks during a whole year.

These two jobs, a collaboration with cosmetics brand Shu Uemura and the photo shoot for the Vauxhall Corsa car calender, brought her all this money, but the cat has really an expensive lifestyle, so she sure will need her 2 million dollars. She's always flying First Class with, of course, her two maids in tow, has an own ¡Pad, she's always attending photo shoots for covers and has already over 54K followers on Instagram.

In my opinion, her owner is really going to far with his obsession for Choupette. According to him, he is very picky when it comes to the jobs that the cat takes on and he is even ready to marry his cat if it was legal. In addition, she hates other animals and children, she always stays with Lagerfeld and her two maids, who play with her and take care after her beautiful white hair and beauty treatments for her eyes.

To sum up. she really seems to be the centre of the world, and I'm sure that if we could see her we would understand how beautiful she is, just like the fashion designer said.

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2015/04/02/karl-lagerfeld-cat-choupette-earned-more-than-cara-delevingne_n_6990954.html?utm_hp_ref=uk-lifestyle&ir=UK%20Lifestyle

Man survives after storm leaves him lost at sea for 66 days

As I first read this story I thought that it was like a movie plot or somethings like this, but it's really an incredibly real story.

The 36-year-old american inexperienced sailor Louis Jordan set out for a fishing trip the 23th of January in South Carolina with his sailboat. He was on his way to the Gulf Stream in search of a big fish when a storm hit. According to him, he was sleeping when the boat capsized and turned around.

Unfortunetly, the storm's massive waves threw him into a wall, so he broke his collarbone. He wanted to call to get help but the communication equipment had also broken, so he prayed for help and read his bible all the way through and his own survival tactics kept him alive. He carefully rationed his food supply, drank rain water and ate raw fish for 66 days at sea.

Besides, his father reported him missing after a week, so the Coast Guard began searching but quit after 10 days because they cound't find his boat. For his luck, 200 miles off the coast of North Carolina, a German cargo ship saw him standing on his boat waving his arms and brought him to the hospital. 

Surprisingly, he was released just one day later because he was in a remarkable condition considering what he had been through.

http://elitedaily.com/news/world/man-survives-lost-sea-66-days/989163/

DICTIONARY:

Set out: sortir de viatge

Capsize: volcar

Why our brains literally love notifications

Our generation is definitely the notifications generation. We love to hear a sound that tells us that someone wants to interact with us via leaving us a comment, to like a photo, to retweet or to write on our walls.Somebody who hasn't heard about these notfications won't understand anything, but we are real professionals in this issue.

The fact is that we love these notifications because they heighten our self-worth and we know that someone is interested in our thoughts. The digital world became just like the real one, we hate beeing ignored from others. Beacause of this we find it really frustrating if we post a selfie of a funny video and nobody comments or like it, just like in the real life. The comments or likes of the notifications tells us that they are important, so that WE are important, and that is exactly what we love about the social networks.
Nevertheless, notifications don't have to be always positive, thay also can create us negative emotions but we don't mind, because a negative comment, stays a comment and says that we are not totally ignored. This fact is really shocking, we prefer to recieve a negative comment than not receaving any!

What is more surprising, it has a scientific explanation! It's all about the dopamine, a chemical associated with reward and motivaiton response in our brains, that emerges when we get a notification. These hits of dopamine recharge our addictive compulsion to social media, and we can't help but to feed into this compulsion, in fact, apparently a disorder called Internet Addiction Disorder (IAD) exists.

In conclusion, I will try to turn my push notifications off because I don't want to be addicted to it, what I have to confesss, I already am. ( a little bit).

DICTIONNARY:
emerge: sorgir

http://elitedaily.com/life/generation-notification-science-behind-notifications-obsessed/866812/

Why are we so tired at midday?

I started wondering because in the last hours in school I always become extremely tired, so much that I really have to force myself to keep my eyes open and try to listen to the teacher, but this is nearly impossible. However, after school I come home and eat lunch, but then I'm more tired than before! It's like all the energy I had in the morning disappears and I really need to sleep.

I always thought that only I had this feeling, but no. It's not only a mith, the 2:30 is the consequence if you haven't had your afternoon caffeine fix or if you're making an excuse for a boring situation you don't care to be in. Mostly, the only solution is to take caffeine!

This afternoon fatigue has many possible causes, one of them is the body's natural sleep cycle. Our body's natural sleep cycle will automatically make us want to take a nap in the afternoon, because we woke up early in the morning. Because of this, some cultures have the siesta, like we have in Spain, because they find that they're more productive and bettter able to concentrate if they take time off after lunch. So, as a matter of fact, if you take a nap after lunch, your productivity increases throughout the rest of the day,
Another causes of the fatigue is the release of sleep chemicals, melatonin. These natural chemicals tells you that it's time to sleep between 2 and 4 in the afternoon. The release has to do with a dip in our core body temperature, because right before going to sleep, the temperature drops, which is a signal for the brain to release melatonin.
Some possible for having more energy during work is to have a right diet and to move. Doctors believe that only the move of standing up from your chair, produces beneficial  health effects.  Therefore, getting up and walk around every hour and eating proteins every morning, should avoid the afternoon fatigue.

Personally, I do all of these things and still feel like death at midday. So, as I see it, the best solution is to relax a little bit after school and take a lot of caffeine!

DICTIONNARY:
Dip: Immersió

http://elitedaily.com/life/230-feeling-science-explains-get-fcking-tired-midday/933380/

#THEDRESS

Last night, the Internet became engulfed in a debate over the colour of a photographed  $77 dress. The drama about this dress is that people see it in two different colours, but it is actually white and gold or black and blue?

People all around the world, including celebraties, are wondering about the colour, the Social Media is full with it and it really started a revolution.
I saw this picture in the morning before going to school and I didn't realized what was happening, but later in school my classmates were also showing me this dress, so I realized that EVERYONE has heard about it. In the same way, some of my classmates saw it in white-gold and others blue-black, but I continued seeing it white-gold, so I started to believe that they were kidding.

However, now I know they weren't because there is actually a scientific explanation for it; it all has to do with evolution and the way in which human eyes and brains see and analyze color in daylight. Our eyes are connected to our brains via the optic nerve, which transmits the information about what we're seeing to our brains, but this information must not be always true. Naturally,  We can detect what colour we are seeing, so even if they are a lot of colours in the backround our eyes are pretty good at eliminating these and see the actual coloUr of the focal object, like the dress.

To sum up, the famous dress reveals that daylight can sometimes play tricks on our brains. This make sense, because the colour we see in the picture depends on the time of the day and how light it is in the moment we are seeing it . Due to the fact the photo was taken under bright light, some people brain's get confused and they see it white and gold when it's actually blue and black.

DICTIONNARY:
Engulfed: embolicat

http://elitedaily.com/life/culture/science-why-the-dress-different-colors/950044/

Why we may fall ill when we're on holiday

In this research, Claudia Hammond wanted to find out why people fall ill in their holidays, and a possible reason for it could be that the most of them before going on holiday rush to get everything done related with the work so they can run-up to their holiday. This affliction is so common that it even has a name, leisure sickness.

The dutch psychologist Vingerhoets who gave a name to this illness, asked more than 1.800 people to find out if they have suffered a leisure sickness, but the results were surprising. Only a 3% of people said they did, but even this little number, it is a reason for him to look for a physiological explanation.

Firstly, the logical explanation for the illness we get as soon as we stop working, is that the stress hormones that help us cope with work deadlines get out of balance, and leave us open to infection. Secondly, the other less logical reason is that we are so busy during work that we don't notice that we are becoming ill until we have the chance to relax.

Another pshycologist interested in this topic, James Pennebaker, also did a study observing ill students watching a film and he found out, that the more interesting the movie was the less they coughed, and in the boring scenes  they seemed to notice their sore throats and cough a lot. So, the phsycologist came to the conclusion that the less that's going around a person, the worse their symptoms are.

Finally, another logical explanation is the cabin fever. Travelling is always tiring, particulary by plane. In a plane, the recycled air is often blamed  for his rate of infection plus the sitting in an endclosed space and the humidity can often cause an infection.

To sum up, I agree the most with the last explanation because I also became ill more than once after travelling to Germany by plane but I also see the point of the first one, because after school, holidays are the first time that the body can finally relax and calm down, so in my opinion, the leisure sickness must be a mix of all factors.

DICTIONARY:

- Run-up: anarse'n ràpid

-Affliction: aflicció

-Cope: fer front a 

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20150216-the-truth-about-holiday-illnesses

Paralyzed girl walks in New York Fashion Week

The 19 years old girl, Megan Silcott has suffered for nearly the past two years from a rare neurological disorder also called "Kissing disease". I'ts really common among teenagers and it normally disappears after a few weeks with a sore throat, nausea and fatigue, but not in her case because it ended up manifesting into the illness ADEM, wich paralyze you from the waist down.

Megan Silcott, noticed her illness in one of the worst ways. One morning after a party night she wantet to get up and go to shower but she couldn't move. Before this morning,  she has been a healthy athelete and her biggest dream was to become a model, but this dream seemed nearly impossible due to her doctors who told her that the chances for her to walk again were very little, but the teenager never thought about giving up, so she did the best that she could and started to attend a therapy during two years, and as it seems, with success.

The famous designer Nina Perdomo heard about her story and wanted to make her dream become real so she invited Megan to participate in her runaway with the aid of a walker and this was only the beggining of her carreer as a model.

In conclusion, this story is really impressful and it shows again that anything can be possible if you truly want it and work for it.

DICTIONARY;
-Sore throat: mal de coll
-Aid: ajuda

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2015/02/20/paralyzed-maryland-girl-18-walks-in-new-york-fashion-week/

How three people can make a baby

A lot of people said that 2015 would be a year full of surprises and changes and they really meant it so. In 2015 children in de U.K may be born with the DNA of three different people, so they will have one father and two mothers. This idea seems crazy and dangerous for the consequences but it has a nice background because it could save a lot of lifes. 

The procedure would allow women who carry genes with deseases to have their own biological children without passing down the risk and it is an easy process;  the nucleus is taken from a mother's egg and is inserted into the donor egg with the mitochondria. The resulting egg is then fertilized with the father's sperm and a healthy baby can be born.

For now it seems that it has success because the British Parliament voted to pass a bill authorizing this technique and if the House of Lords also votes in favor it probably could become legal by October. 

In my opinion, this method would be a big chance for a lot of families who can't have a baby, but I also think that it also takes a huge risk because the third mother could always want to  require claims for her child. 

http://news.yahoo.com/three-people-baby-185550160--politics.html

Baby's body found buried on Maroubra beach in Sydney

The Australian police was called yesterday because two boys, aged six and seven, discovered a body of a child while digging in the sand at Maroubra Beach.
The body was buried under 30 cm of sand and they could not immediately tell the gender of the baby because the body was badly decomposed.




This comes just one week after they found a baby in a drain in Sydney. Fortunately the baby was alive after being in the stormwater drain for five days, without eating and drinking water, so it's a miracle that the baby survived. The mother of the baby was found after the tragic discover and she has been charged with attempted murder,  the case is expected to be heard in court on 12 december.
Unfortunately the baby found at the beach hadn't so much luck and didn't survived, so we hope that they will find the mother and that she will become a fair punishment.

The police consider that it was an tragic event and that it's really  unusual because something like this doesn't happens everyday and it affects everyone involved, so the New South Wales Police Minister Stuart Ayres is thinking seriously about what they could do to help families that are desperate and in crisis.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-30271698

Dictionary:
Digging: to remove the sand.
Drain: a channel carrying off surplus liquid, especially rainwater.

Is Angelina Jolie ready to quit?

The famous actress Angelina Jolie shoked her fans last Wednesday as she confessed in an interview with DuJour magazine that she would be ready to give up perfoming for directing.

As a mother of six children no one could blame her that she is actually thinking about it. Plus, she recently married  Brad Pitt, so we could say that the family is finally perfect and we can all understand  that she wants to dedicate more time with her kids and her husband.

Brad Pitt said that he gives himself about three years more perfoming but Angelina admited that she never has felt confortable as an actress and that she has never loved being in front of the camera, which is very difficult to believe. 

Because of this, her statement that she is happier directing movies is even more incredible. She also has been planning her first film for many years, which she finally personally wrote and directed: By the sea. It will appear in the cinemas next year.

To direct the movie was really heavy and not easy for her, but the challenge was a really good think because now she knows what she really would love to do.

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/11/20/showbiz/celebrity-news-gossip/angelina-jolie-quit-acting/index.html?hpt=en_bn1

The taboo of menstruating in India

In India, there is generally a silence around the issue of women's health - especially around menstruation, for the indians women are impure, filthy, sick and even cursed during their period.They are not allowed to go to the kitchen, to enter the temple or even to sit with the others, they can't take a bath and are anaemic, in conclusion, they are completely excluded from the rest of the society.
A recent study found out that 75% of women living in cities still buy their pads wrapped in a brown bag or newspaper because of the shame associated with menstruation.
Normally, to dry the pieces of cloth full of blood is the most difficult challenge. They have to slip the stained clothes under others without any men noticing them and they can not put them out in the open under the sun to dry completely, because men would see it.
The result is that they never get properly dry, leaving a horrible stench. The unhygienic cloth is used over and over again and they cause a serious threat to health.
It has even reached the point that the girls skip the school during their period because they feel angry, dirty and they are embarassed because during biology classes the boys laugh when the teacher explains the process of menstruation.
To break it, they try to end the silence around the issue with organisations like Goonj. Goonj is one of the several groups that are educating people about menstruation and the myths about it. The organisation is also making cheap sanitary towels for those 70% of Indian women who don't have access to safe and hygienic pads.
Personally, I think that it is a huge problem that still today exist people that think in that way. The fundation of these organisations are an important step to change the mentality, but most importantly, they should start to talk about it without feeling embarassed.

Dictionary:
-Filthy: brut
-Cursed: maleït
-Stench: pudor

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-29727875

Can you cheat your way to fitness?

Specialists recommend to spend at least 150 minutes doing physical activity during the week to reduce the risk of heart disease, cancer and obesity, but this is easier as it sounds.
The typical excuse is that we don't have time to go to the gym because we have to work, clean the house or care about the kids. We even avoid the simplest activities like taking the car instead of walking, taking the lift instead the stairs and emailing friends instead of going to them and talk to them personally.
But the lack of time isn't an excuse anymore, Michael Mosley has proved that some activities we do in our daily routine can help to reach the 150 minutes we should spend on physical activities in a week. These chores are that simple and daily that we don't see them as a "sport".
To find it out, they recruited eight volunteers and asked them to do a range of indoor and outdoor activities. They started with the four typical household chores: ironing, vacuuming, dusting and mopping. After a few weeks they came to the conclusion that these are moderate-intensity activities, but still the volunteers were burning three times more energy than just sitting.
After this, they tried more intensitive chores like washing the car, cleaning the windows, planting plants plus mowing the lawn.
Just by combining these simple activities with walking or dancing, the minimum of 150 minutes is reached. So, this experiment demonstrates that it is really simple to do physical activities, and that the typical "I don't have time to go to the gym" excuse isn't anymore valid.

Dictionary:
-Chore: tasca rutinària
-Vacuuming: passar l'aspiradora
-Mopping: Fregar

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-29795577

You are who you friend: why you will go far as your friends go

This news article demonstrate that the influence of our closest friends will decide our future, and how far we will go with our decisions.
Friends are very important in our lives because they bring a sense of warmth that make us think that they always will support and protect us. This feeling provokes that we never feel alone and because of this they are even more valuable. Of course, they are different types of friends, and we have to be able to pick out the best of them, the ones who fits in our personality. Naturally, they can not be perfect, but neither are we, so we have to accept them because life without friends doesn't make any sense.

The article affirms that each of our closest friends has habits and disciplines that we will invariably pick up, regardless if they are positive or not and that it would be impossible to accomplish any goal without our friend's influences, who motivate us to accomplish them plus respect the decision we make.
It's important to remember that we always should avoid a negative friend group atmosphere, because they could push us in a wrong way and they could jeopardize our growth as an individual.
In my opinion, all this is completely true. Sometimes I catch myself doing the same habits than my friends, like laughing in the same way or saying the same things because I spend a long time with them. It is also true that some friends I had until now pushed me in wrong ways and they also have avoided that I accepted some important chances that could have changed my life in a better way, but it is what it is and I can't go back and change this kind of friends for the ones I have now, wich I think are the best ones.

Dictionary:
Provoke: provocar
Invariably: invariablement
Jeopardize: posar en perill


http://elitedaily.com/life/culture/friend-will-go-far-friends-go/804156/

Starbucks lifts tattoo ban for workers, gives pay increase and a snack

Over the past months the employees of Starbucks drawn attention to themselves. The reason for this is the dissatisfaction with their working contitions, and that's why they are currently fighting for an improvement.
It all began in June with the employee Kristie Williams, who started a petition to change the tattoo policy, wich garnered 25,000 signatures. The company did not mind and in July, they threatened a young girl working in their shop in Michigan to fire her if she doesn't remove the heart tattooo on her hand.
The case of the employee in Michigan was just one of the few who has found his way into the media, so the coffeechain was forced to change their working conditions to avoid a bad image. Starbucks announced Thursday that they would change their dress policy and that they also would allow to show of the "tasteful" tattoos of the employees, as long as they don't are on the employee's neck or face. But they didn't announce only good news, they also added other dress code restrictions. These restrictions forbade to wear watches, bracelets or rings with stones, but they can at least wear their wedding rings.
In addition, they pay increases to baristas and supervisors, annual salary reviews for all employees, and the workers also get one free pastry per shift.
In my opinion, Starbucks is one of the most unjust companies that exist, and I would never work voluntarily for them, even if they change a few work conditions or not. All employees should be free to wear what they want and they should not be a disadvantage to find a job.

Dictionary:
-Garner: obtain.
-Forbade: verb to forbid, to prohibit.
-Pastry: a sweet baked food made of dough.

http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2014/10/17/starbucks-lifts-barista-tattoo-ban-updates-dress-code-and-increases-pay/