Oliver Burkeman Illustration: Geoff Grandfield for the Guardian For obvious reasons, it’s entirely appropriate that a book entitled The Underachiever’s Manifesto never really became a huge seller. Written by an American doctor named Ray Bennett – not the kind of doctor whom I’d necessarily want if I had a life-threatening illness – it vanished soon after its...
Rebecca Smithers, consumer affairs correspondent Traffic-light labelling allows consumers to see how much salt and fat are in products. Photograph: PA Inconsistent and confusing labels on best-selling sandwiches on the high street are making it difficult for shoppers to make meaningful comparisons and choose the healthiest options, a consumer group has warned. Retailers such...
Hundreds of skulls are stacked at a memorial for victims of genocide in Nyamata. Photograph: Saurabh Das/AP A genetic variant associated with an enhanced capacity for emotional memories is also linked to increased susceptibility to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), according to new research published yesterday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The...
Queens Park Rangers’ Joey Barton clashes with Manchester City’s Carlos Tevez during a Premier League game at the Etihad stadium. Photograph: Carl Recine/Action Images ‘Learn from Wayne Rooney.” This is what Joey Barton – the famously hot-headed footballer sent off against Manchester City for hitting out at a rival player, then two more on...
Laura Barton Sales of hand sanitisers rose 71% in 24 weeks during the 2009 swine flu outbreak. Photograph: Sarah Lee for the Guardian Bakersfield, California, is a large city about 100 miles north of Los Angeles. Founded on recovered swampland by Colonel Thomas Baker, it is today famed for oil, gas and agriculture, as...
Kathy Hurst Zoe and Andy Clark-Coates with their children. Photograph: Sam Frost for the Guardian Zoe Clark-Coates remembers the moment a scan showed that her second pregnancy, like her first, had ended. “I’ll never forget the midwife’s face as she looked at the screen. She fell completely silent and I started screaming – a...
Oliver Burkeman Illustration: Adam Howling for the Guardian This has never been a sex advice column, and it’s probably in the best interests of everyone involved if that doesn’t change now. But the world of sex-related self-help books is, of course, a vast one. And if most of them look pretty excruciating – hot-pink covers,...
David Batty Hairdresser Vidal Sassoon in Los Angeles with Ronnie, his fourth wife. Photograph: Richard Young / Rex Features Celebrity hair stylist Vidal Sassoon, who revolutionised women’s cuts in the 1960s with his sharp geometric styles, has died at his home in Los Angeles aged 84. Police were called to Sassoon’s mansion in Mulholland...
Sue Blackmore Deepak Chopra believes ‘the effect of meditation on the enzyme telomerase … has the power to slow ageing’. Photograph: Mark Peterson/Corbis Deepak Chopra is “very wealthy”. He told me so himself, leaping to his feet to defend his personal brand of spirituality, and pacing up and down in front of me. “Spiritual...
Does job insecurity make you less likely to take sick leave? | Open thread
Open thread The number of days taken off sick by working adults in the UK has fallen to four and a half. Photograph: Lewis Whyld/PA Good news for UK employers: employees are calling in sick less often. The Office of National Statistics reports that the average worker now takes just 4.5 days because of...
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