BERRY GOOD FOR YOU
New research suggests that eating berries can have good health benefits:
"Some of that is just hype, of course. Juice from the acai berry, for example, might be high in antioxidants, but there's little evidence it has the special weight-loss or other powers that are often touted in Internet ads.
Still, growing research does suggest that in addition to providing vitamins and minerals, berries contain a variety of other phytonutrients, or plant-based chemicals, that might keep us healthy in a number of ways.....
Memory. Blueberries and strawberries contain polyphenols, substances that might reduce inflammation in blood vessels in the brain. And a recent study found that a glass of blueberry juice with each meal every day for three months improved the memory of nine people who were experiencing mild memory loss. An unpublished study of 3,774 people in Chicago linked the regular consumption of strawberries to a slightly slower rate of cognitive decline in women as they got older."

Read the whole thing for a lot more info on how berries help you, plus how to choose and store them.

HEY, GOOD LOOKIN'???
Here are results from an interesting study, reported on in today's NY Times--do good looks give you a big leg up in the job interview process?  Not necessarily:
"How much do looks matter during a job search? A new study suggests that while handsome men do better while looking for work, good looks can end up hurting a woman’s chances of scoring a job interview.
The study, conducted by economists at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel, sent 5,312 résumés to more than 2,600 employers who had advertised job openings. Two applications were sent to employers, each with virtually identical résumés. The only real difference was that one of the résumés included a photograph of the applicant. Sometimes the applicant was an attractive man or woman, and sometimes the photo showed a more plain-looking man or woman...Over all, employers sought interviews with 14.5 percent of the job candidates. Notably, 19.9 percent of the male candidates who sent attractive pictures were called in for interviews, compared to 13.7 percent of the men with “plain” photos. Only 9.2 percent of the men who didn’t send a picture were called to interview....But the apparent bias in favor of job candidates with photos didn’t hold true for women. Women who didn’t send photos had a 16.6 percent callback rate, the highest response rate from prospective employers. Résumés accompanied by a photo of a “plain” woman received callback responses 13.6 percent of the time, compared with 12.8 for those accompanied by photos of attractive women."

Now there are lots of things going on in these studies, and many different things persons with Moebius Syndrome or other facial differences can learn.  And not all of them are positive things.  But from this story, one thing I take away is this:  "looks" are most certainly not always decisive in who gets hired for jobs.  Far from it.  And we should all remember that.

"Nothing diminishes anxiety faster than action." -Walter Anderson