Life Style

    The microwave is a college staple, always there to help you make the essentials: easy mac, mug cakes, and ramen. It helps you make your meals quickly and efficiently, but are you maximizing your microwave’s potential? These life hacks will help you realize all the things your microwave can do and help you cook your food more efficiently. 1. Soften your ice cream Microwave your ice cream (with the lid off) in ten-second intervals until the desired consistency is reached. 2. Soften brown sugar If you ever need to use brown sugar in a recipe, such as for these snickerdoodles, add brown sugar to a bowl with one teaspoon of water and cover with a paper towel. Microwave it in 30-second intervals, stirring the sugar in between. 3. Toast nuts, coconuts, or bread crumbs Evenly spre...

    Frequent travellers know flights will typically be cheaper when booked further in advance, but there are certain days of the year which will always cost more than others. It is useful to know when the seasons change, as the price difference between a few days can mean savings of hundreds of pounds per person. Some periods are fixed, particularly those around the Christmas holidays, but most change each year, tying in with events such as the Easter and Bank Holidays, along with school half-terms and summer holidays. Flight Centre UK analysed airfare data to calculate the 10 worst dates to travel in 2016: 1. 12 February: A popular date for skiers, prices are reaching the peak price-point for half term school holidays. 2. 24 March: As the Thursday before the Easter long weeke...

    Great British Bake Off winner Nadiya Hussain has opened up about her arranged marriage - and revealed she has no interest in choosing partners for her own children. The star baker appeared on Loose Women where she gushed about her other half Abdal, who she married on the second day of meeting. Nadia, who transformed from stay-at-home mum to culinary and cultural icon after appearing on last year's series, told the panel: "I spoke to my husband for about six months, never met him. "We were introduced by our fathers and the first day we met was the day we got engaged. The second day we met was the day we got married." Turning to a screen to look at a picture of her handsome hubby, Nadiya grinned: "Yeah, he's alright." She continued: "I did see a couple of pictures but that w...

    The mother of all Internet mysteries may have been solved. After an Indianapolis teen posted a selfie with her twin and her mother that has web surfers wondering, “Which one is the mom?” she suggests in a video that her parent is on the far left. Kaylan Mahomes uploaded the original Jan. 28 pic of the three ladies in a car to Twitter with the caption, “Mom, twin and me,” but the fresh-faced women look identical. Yet she commented below a video of the identical trio on Feb. 1 that, "lol my mom is on the left!" And this lady looks very similar to the woman wearing the blazer on the far left in the hotly contested first photo. The puzzling pic has been retweeted more than 19,000 times and counting, and received more than 31,000 likes — similar to how “the dress” took social m...

Dr Fahmida Khatun: After experiencing many ups and downs over the last four plus decades, the economy of Bangladesh has trans-formed into a promising one on many accounts. This is evident not only through higher economic growth, but also through less volatile economic growth. Despite being a least developed country, the volatility of long-term economic growth in Bangladesh has been lower than many developing countries. Also, notwithstanding various shocks such as the global financial crisis of 2007-08, domestic political uncertainty and frequent weather variability, the country has been able to hold on to its growth momentum during the last decade. The impetus of higher economic growth in Bangladesh has come from various enablers, including domestic regulatory policies and global linkages....

    Woman running on a beach Want to know exactly what clean living can do for you? Researchers are getting more and more specific about the rewards you can reap from your healthy lifestyle. These 5 habits that will tack on quality years. 1. Run for your life A study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology suggests that women who jog live 5 years and 7 months longer than those who don’t. And you don't need to do marathons: New research published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology suggests that people who jog 2 to 3 times a week—for a total of 1 to 2.4 hours over 7 days—live longer than those who don’t jog. The casual runners also outlive people who run more. With jogging, moderation seems to be best, says study author James O’Keefe, MD, an associate...

    Declaring that the Zika virus is "spreading explosively," the World Health Organization announced it will hold an emergency meeting of independent experts Monday to decide if the outbreak should be declared an international health emergency. At a special meeting yesterday in Geneva, WHO Director-General Dr Margaret Chan said the virus — which has been linked to birth defects and neurological problems — was becoming much more of a threat. One WHO scientist said the Americas could see up to 4 million cases of Zika in the next year. Chan said although there was no definitive proof that the Zika virus was responsible for a spike in the number of babies being born with abnormally small heads in Brazil, "the level of alarm is extremely high." She also noted a possible relationsh...

    Your parents knew what was up when they told you to eat your broccoli. This verdant vegetable is a powerhouse of nutrients. It is reputed to benefit the cardiovascular system, immune system and to have anti-inflammatory and even cancer-preventing properties. It is also a fat-free vegetable. Here are the top 5 health benefits of broccoli: 1. Cancer prevention: Consumption of broccoli may prevent cancer. Broccoli is a cruciferous vegetable, and all vegetables in this group may be protective against some stomach and intestinal cancers. 2. Cholesterol reduction: Broccoli can help lower cholesterol because the soluble fiber in the vegetable binds with the cholesterol in the blood. This binding makes the cholesterol easier to excrete, and consequently lessens cholesterol levels ...

    Families debts have jumped by an alarming £4,000 on average in the space of six months, a report has found. Aviva's Family Finances report found that typical household debt has surged by 42% since summer 2015 to reach the highest levels seen for two and-a-half years. Excluding mortgage borrowing, average family debt now stands at £13,520 - marking a leap of £4,000 from the average debt of £9,520 in summer 2015. The latest report, covering winter 2015, fuelled concerns that many families' finances are finely balanced and the continued availability of cheap credit is leading to households racking up debts on credit cards, overdrafts and personal loans which could become problematic as and when interest rates start to rise. The latest figure recorded by Aviva is the highest si...

    Bringing a person into the world, teaching them wrong from right, and equipping them with the skills to live a happy life make parenting an extremely challenging and daunting job. It’s no wonder, then, that mothers and fathers can obsess over the minute details of their parenting skills, while simultaneously trying to care for a child’s basic needs. A thread on the question and answer website Quora laid bare the fear surrounding this issue, as one user asked: “What is the most psychologically damaging thing you can say to a child?” Members of the website advised each what not to tell children: drawing from their own experiences and anecdotal evidence. One woman wrote that her mother was sometimes “like a volcano” when she became angry, and that her verbal attacks started w...