THE PROBLEM

I’ve recently found myself checking the following websites an unhealthy amount.

THE IDEA

Every time you open a new tab to check out one of the following websites, stop. Get up from your computer and do the exercise associated with the site you were going to visit. After you complete the exercise, you can reward yourself by going to the website.

1. I already have a girlfriend and/or boyfriend, why would I bother working out?

Endorphins! They’re like free drugs.

2. Can I do this at work?

Yes!

3. Can I substitute different websites?

Absolutely.

First impressions count. Many closet curlies are married to a flat iron because they think men prefer the smooth, straight look over curls or kinks. And when you can maneuver your mane in either direction, you have the option of changing your visual impression when meeting someone new.

But should you? And would it really make a difference?

To find out, I embarked on an unscientific social experiment. Newly single in New York City, I joined a popular online dating service and posted two profiles. They were identical in every way—except one. The first profile included a picture of my hair flat-ironed straight. For the other, my hair was naturally curly. After one month showcasing the straight profile and the next month curly, more than twice as many men responded to the straight look.

More Details:

• The straight profile was viewed 1,606 times for the month, while the curly one received 1,063 views during the month it was posted
• The flat-ironed look 181 emails, compared with 60 for the curly profile
• On the flirtatious side, the stick-straight profile received 120 winks, while curly locks caught winks from 60 men
• In about 10 percent of the dates, hair made a difference, while confidence was the driving factor in the remainder of the connections

But this experiment is far from over. There’s a twist. On my dates, the plan was to find out what they really think when I show up as the opposite of what they expect. If they reach out to my straight profile, I would meet them as a curly, and vice versa. Would my hairstyle really affect their attraction? It was an adventure that was full of surprises. My one rule: I vowed to only date men I was truly interested in.

Whether you play it straight or crank up the curls, first impressions do count. But I’ve learned it’s also what you bring to the surface that really shines through.

More than 347,000 breast augmentations were performed in the United States in 2008, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. That’s a surprising 12 percent drop from 2007 – a sag most plastic surgeons attribute to the deflating economy.

Still, that’s a lot of excess boobage.

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Only two weeks ago I wrote that Facebook was dominating the internet(and Twitter) based on the latest Hitwise statistics. Two weeks later Compete is showing a similar trend with Facebook growing 3 percent domestically over the past month while Twitter drops by around 2 percent. As I mentioned last month though, direct traffic to the Twitter.com site may not be a good indicator of activity on the site.

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