As a girl, I remember I used to have sooo many questions that I was too ashamed to ask while I was growing up. Indeed, at 26, I’m still not sure that I know everything when it comes to my body or my period.

The vulva is still a mysterious place to me, I must admit. But, I wanted to change that, so I did some research. I talked to professionals, read many books on the topic, and I also Googled some stuff.

I discovered many unusual things that really surprised me. For example, do you know that the clit is as big as a medium zucchini?

1.There is a lot more down there, but some vulvas lack some parts

When we say vulva, we think of everything private down there, but the truth is there are many more “private parts” which we cannot see, such as the cervix.

The visible part includes the perineum, the inner and outer labia and the clit, although the clit is mostly hidden.

Fun fact: The clit is not as small as we think, but instead it is a long organ hidden inside and it can be as big as a “medium zucchini”. Also, some vulvas don’t have hymens, which is the reason for not all girls have similar sexual experiences.  

2. Vulvas look differently on the outside, but rarely on the inside

On the outside, many women have labia with different shades of brown or even purplish. Indeed, you can have different colors in different parts of the vulva. However, on the inside, all generally look the same.

There can be some variations in the length of the labia because often they’re not symmetrical. In most women, the one side is bigger.

3. It is pretty elastic

Indeed, it’s open and its sides widen whenever you put on a tampon or during intercourse. It’s true that it’s very elastic and it cannot be stretched out. This might happen only for some women during child birth, but it can be fixed with exercises afterward.

And don’t worry if you haven’t had intercourse for a long time – the vulva will never be as tight as the time before the first sexual experience. You can be sure that you won’t “revirginize”.

4. It’s full of bacteria, but it also cleans itself

Your vulva is home to good bacteria that keeps you safe and healthy. The female organ is amazing when it comes to self-cleaning. Indeed, you don’t have to wash the inside.

The discharge is the way it is cleaning itself. You just need to wash the outside. When it comes to the smell, it can be different depending on your cycle. Thus, it is stronger before your period or during intercourse. However, the smell shouldn’t become unpleasantly strong and if it does, you should see a doctor.

5. Intercourse does it good

Regular intercourse does the female private parts good because it helps you reduce the stress and anxiety. However, as good as it is to relax, too much action in a short period of time is not recommended since it might leave you with a urinary tract infection. So, be careful.

6. Your organs are bigger when you’re turned on

Laurence Orbuch, director of Gyn Laparoscopic Associates says that the clit gets a “boner” when the woman is turned on. Actually, the whole female organ gets bigger then and it can even increase double of her normal size. The reason for that is a process called tenting, which helps the sperm get to the cervix faster.

7. The clit is much more powerful than you think

Many doctors compare the clit as an equivalent to the penis. The reason lies in the nerve endings. While the male organ has around 4,000 sensory nerve endings, it is considered that the female clit has much more, or more precisely, around 8,000. It’s good to be a woman, isn’t it?

When it comes to your genitals, there is much more than girls expect. That’s why is totally okay to ask questions, do research or go see a doctor for safety and health reasons. The sooner you get to know your body, the better you will feel in it.

Image Copyright: alexkich / 123RF Stock Photo

Writing has been known to be therapeutic, and nowadays it is frequently used as a psychological tool. In most cases however the type of writing that is recommended tends to be expressive, and involves providing an outlet for your emotions and thoughts by putting them down in concrete form – such as in a journal.

Aside from expressive writing, other types of writing can provide certain psychological benefits as well. In particular writing research papers can affect your cognitive abilities and have a psychological impact on your mental health in several different ways.

Develop Cognitive Skills

In many ways writing research papers can act as a cognitive exercise of sorts, and help you to improve your mental abilities on several different fronts. Because of the demanding requirements of research papers, you will have to be focused and develop areas such as your mental discipline, logic, and critical thinking.

At first glance these areas may have little to do with psychological benefits, but in fact the opposite is true. Today cognitive skills such as the ones outlined above are a key part of therapeutic techniques such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) that is often used to treat a wide range of psychological issues.

While writing research papers is definitely not the same as CBT (which is carried out by a professional), the skills that both are based on do overlap. In short as you develop your cognitive skills by writing research papers you can apply them to improve your mental and emotional wellbeing. That said, many students decide to pay someone for paper writing and miss the opportunity to develop a required skill set.

Calm and Control a Mind

On top of helping you to develop your cognitive skills, writing research can be more directly therapeutic in helping you to calm and control your mind. The fact of the matter is that the focus required to write research papers can be used so that your mind is occupied and has no room for stray and unwanted thoughts.

Initially it may be difficult to use writing in this way, but as you write more frequently your mind will become more attuned to it. Eventually it can help you to cope with stress, negative thoughts and emotions, and a wide range of other issues.

Simply put writing research papers can act as a distraction that not only helps you to set aside any unwanted thoughts or emotions, but also gives you something to replace it with that requires your complete focus. That can interrupt the chain of these thoughts and emotions to prevent them from being repetitive, and will allow you to cope with them better.

At this point you should have a good idea of the type of psychological benefits that writing research papers can provide. As you can see it varies a bit from the benefits of expressive writing, but is no less potent in its own way. Moreover it is worth noting that there are several other benefits to writing research papers as well, in terms of mental abilities, knowledge, self-discipline, memory, and a wide range of other areas.

Little it is known about the White Walkers, about where they come from and what they want. When it comes to Game of Thrones, at the beginning the White Walkers were only mentioned as monsters that walked through the woods in the long winter nights.

Fans especially remember the big night when the White Walkers, along with their army of deads and big pale spiders, attacked the castles.

But despite the stories, the White Walkers are considered as creatures that hate humanity. That is why they kill innocent people and afterward resurrect their bodies from the dead. Their way of reproducing is by transforming innocent babies and infants into White Walkers. Thus, they have formed a large army of resurrected dead Wildings and former men of the Night’s Watch.

What are their strengths and weaknesses?

Being as they were, the White Walkers have magical powers such as great manipulation with ice and cold weather. Namely, whenever they approach, a snow storm precedes. Their weapons made out of ice can shatter any other weapon, and they have great physical strength.

But one of their greatest power is resurrection. They can raise people from the dead and add them to their armies. That is, in fact, their way of reproducing, and maintaining themselves as a species. The resurrected dead people are called whites and act as basic soldiers in the army of the Dead.

The White Walkers also have their weaknesses, such as swords made out of Valyrian steel or dragon glass carved into a weapon. Both Valyrian steel and dragon glass are hard to find and in very short supply since they are made with dragon fire.

George RR Martin describes the White Walkers as beautiful, inhuman, elegant and dangerous. They still however have the humanoid appearance. In the books, their language is described as ice crackling, and their bodies are made out of flesh and bones with ice running through their veins.

Where do they come from?

The White Walkers are mostly shown as an army travelling through the blizzards, but it is very possible that they have formed their own civilization far north. In season 4, episode 4 – it is shown how a White Walker is carrying Craster’s last son and how the Night King transforms the baby into a White Walker. This is the first appearance of the Night King.

What will happen with them?

Overall, the White Walkers look very vicious, they kill and resurrect everyone in their path. As the grande finale approaches, many fans believe that the North and the South will unite to fight against the White Walkers, probably with Jon Snow leading the army together with Daenerys Targaryen and her dragons. That would be a great happy ending for this series of books, but could it be that obvious?

George RR Martin stated several times that he doesn’t like stories with clear “good verses the evil” plot, and the good guy always winning at the end. His stories about wars, he says, are morally complex, and that the only thing worth writing about is the human heart in conflict with itself. In every character, there is a good side and a bad side, so why would it be different with the White Walkers?

This is definitely not a classic tale of good versus evil or the living versus the dead and there’s a side that we still cannot see. But, there are so little information about them and we can’t fully explore their perspective.

What we know so far

Twelve thousand years before the ruling of Robert Baratheon, the land was divided to two groups: the first men and the children of the forest. Both groups, after fighting for thousands of years for the control of the Westeros continent, signed a peaceful pact where they stated that the First Men would rule all open lands and fields, while the Children of the Forest would rule the forests. This pact lasted over hundreds of years, until the First Men converted into worshiping the gods from the forests, the same religion of the Children.

It was then when the White Walkers attacked for the first time, and they were defeated. According to the myth, the White Walkers were defeated by the Last Hero of the First Men, who had the help of the Children and their magic. The Night Watch was formed then and the White Walkers retreated to the far North, and the wall was built.

The legend says that Bran the Builder, the founder of House Stark, built the wall with the help of the Children and the Giants. The wall was made out of blocks of ice, gathered from the frozen lakes and the haunted forests. According to the legend the wall has old spells woven inside to keep the White Walkers up North, and keep Westeros safe.

However, manipulating such amount of ice would take a really long time. It is much more logical to believe that the White Walkers have built the wall, since they can handle colder temperatures. Is it possible that the White Walker and the First Men made a pact, similar like the one with the Children of the Forest? This might be true since the White Walkers weren’t destroyed and they continued to live on back in the North.

This sort of agreement was possible, according to the legend, with the help of the Night’s King – The thirteenth Lord Commander of the Nights Watch. Once the wall was built, the Nights Watch was formed with great warriors and knights who would defend the wall, should the White Walkers ever return.

The love story that changed everything

According to the legend, the thirteenth Lord Commander of the Nights Watch fell in love with a White Walker. He named her his bride and so he became the Night’s King. They both enslaved men of the Watch and performed human sacrifices for the next thirteen years. There’s also the possibility that this marriage was made for the sake of keeping the peace between the two races. Marriages between two houses were made for keeping the peace and gaining power.

Now, according the legend, the Night’s King and his bride were making sacrifices to the White Walkers. But in the show the only one we see to make any sacrifices to the White Walkers is Craster, who gave away his sons and stayed alive. Basically, if they are offered a sacrifice, the White Walkers will spare a life of an enslaved man.

Why was the pact broken?

But the White Walkers felt betrayed because the men have broken the pact – they started to live in the North and they stopped giving sacrifices. They also felt threatened by dragons, creatures that haven’t been seen for thousands of years.

Another threat for the White Walkers are John Snow, Bran Stark and Daenerys Targaryen. All of these characters have different magic powers – and each power is not found in normal human beings. Daenerys has a weird connection to the fire by her Valyrian ancestry, and Starks have earth powers with their ancestry from the First Men and potentially the White Walkers. If the Night’s King was truly a Stark, their children would be half Stark, half White Walkers. And since Jon Snow is a mixed combination of Lyanna Stark and the Mad King, he is the perfect candidate to bring the worlds of Ice and Fire together in peace. Throughout the whole book serie,s John is referred to as the negotiator for bringing together the Wildings and the Nights Watch. He succeeds most of the time, until he was killed. Would John play the same role during the long night when the White Walkers and the people of Westeros face each other?

The end will be bittersweet

As the end approaches, many theories arise, every new one more incredible than the old ones. We remain to see the ending, but one thing is sure – it will be surprising for all of us.

George RR Martin once said that the end of Game of Thrones will be bittersweet, and how bittersweet would it be if Jon Snow must save the world by killing Daenerys Targaryen?

One of the most frequent questions people pose when it comes to happiness and wealth these days is whether spending money to save time bring about happiness. According to a recent study, it does.

If we consider the amount of time, it takes us to clean the house, buy groceries and partake, many other tasks we can hire to be done by others, it will be more than clear how much time and energy is “wasted” doing these very tasks.

The National Academy of Sciences was as curious as we are in these very questions, and therefore acquired this matter more seriously to see the outcome. Hence, they took the study to another level and surveyed participants in search of the answer.

They found that investing to save time might indeed decrease stress levels to a significant amount, which in turn raises and improves our happiness.

Ashley Whillians, one of the authors of the study and assistant professor at Harvard Business School stated, “People who spent money to buy themselves time, such as by outsourcing disliked tasks, reported greater overall life satisfaction.”

The study itself was grounded on completed surveys from various countries, which made it all the more reliable, not limiting the responses to only one region. On the contrary, the same results were not received when individuals invested in material possessions.

In the first part of the study, around 4,500 individuals were surveyed in the U.S, Canada, the Netherlands and Denmark regarding their happiness and investing in hiring people to complete their tasks.

The tasks mentioned involved ordering takeout instead of cooking, hiring a house cleaner to clean their house or running any type of errand they did not have to complete themselves. The next part of the study included approximately 1,800 Americans who did the same thing, but included tasks from a wider spectrum. 

The findings were that around 28% of the first individuals who undertook the study and 50% of the ones who did the second one stated they invested in saving time. Not surprisingly, they were the ones who proved to live a happier life overall.

Perhaps the most interesting part of the study was that those investing in timesaving activities were not people of higher rank. Even individuals who led normal lives with average pay rates invested in the mentioned tasks to save time and live a more fulfilling life.

Elizabeth Dun, professor of psychology at the University of British Columbia and author of the paper stated that if we did tasks that sucked the life out of us that could be avoided, then the money is definitely worth your while. This of course, only applies to those who can afford it.

The researchers were not completely satisfied with these results, still curious if investing in completed tasks brings happiness in itself, they continues with the study.

For this reason, they decided to experiment with some Canadians to see the result. Initially they gave the partakers about $40 to spend over two weekends in a row so they can save time in menial tasks, entertainment or anything that made them happy. They then asked them how they felt after doing this once the day was over.

As expected, they felt happier and calmer due to investing in timesaving tasks that brought them pure happiness. However, they did not feel the same serene happiness when spending money on possessions in buying possessions.

Surprisingly enough, the study also proved that the wealthy did not acknowledge this effect and would rather do the tasks themselves than invest in something like this.

For this study, they examined over 800 Dutch millionaires who barely spent money on streamlined tasks. They would rather do it themselves than pay someone to do the job for them due to work principle and value.

Although they could no doubt afford such an investment, they reported not being able to accept the fact that someone will be undertaking a task they could easily do themselves.

To conclude the overall intriguing experiment, Whillians stated,  “We want to seem like we have it all together and we might be therefore resistant to spending money on timesaving purchases even when we can afford it.”

Image Copyright: ninamalyna / 123RF Stock Photo
Source: www.nytimes.com

ReGen Villages are the new solution to world’s greatest problems today, such as climate change, the rise of the world’s population, and the limited resources.

In partnership with a Danish architecture firm called Effekt, ReGen Villages will locate the first off-grid village in Almere, the Netherlands, this summer. The village will be able to produce its own water, food, and energy.

It is supposed that approximately 10 billion people will live on Earth by 2050, so these regenerative villages will be more than needed for the human population because of their ability to produce clean water, waste removal, and healthy food.

ReGen Villages

The CEO of ReGen, James Ehrlich, says that they are thinking of the issue on a global scale, and the solution is indeed regenerative housing, or in his words – the “Tesla of eco-villages.”

Because of the fact that many greenhouses will be included in these off-grid villages, people will be able to grow their own food there and recycle the waste. Moreover, in the villages will also be integrated indoor vegetable gardens along with high-tech vertical farms, and for the outdoor activities – a number of seasonal outdoor gardens are planned.

ReGen Villages

The whole system in the villages will function like a circle in which: soldier flies and livestock will be fed with the recycled resident waste; the aquaculture system will be fertilized with the fish waste, and the aquaculture system will feed the garden plants.

Finally, the outdoor gardens will be fertilized with the livestock waste.

ReGen Villages
Ehrlich predicts that these farming systems will produce 10 times more crops and using 90% less water in a course of one year.

When it comes to electricity, people will have 24/7 hot water and electrical energy using other energy sources, for instance, solar panels.

However, families would have to take the full responsibility for maintaining the integrated systems in the villages – from maintaining the solar panels and operating the greenhouses to taking care of the livestock.ReGen Villages

These are but small responsibilities for such enormous gains that these villages will provide to the families.

A hundred of pilot homes are planned to be built later this year in Almere, Netherlands. If they prove to be accepted and successfully functioning, ReGen will build many more pilot villages in countries like Germany, Denmark, China, Sweden, Norway, the UAE, and perhaps in Africa too.

What do you think of this solution?

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