You Should Know This Before Choosing a Photo For Your LinkedIn Profile

 

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Choosing the right LinkedIn photo is no easy feat: you can’t just upload your latest selfie and expect to score your dream job. The snapshot should be professional, and show prospective employers that you’re the perfect person for a role without looking too staged or cheesy. Choosing an exemplary photo just got more involved: new research suggests looking at least a “little” happy in your picture will make you appear more trustworthy to prospective employers.

So what does a “little” happy mean, as opposed to just, um, regular happy?

Through a series of experiments, researchers at New York University found that people who weren’t overtly smiling or laughing like hyenas in their pic, but rather adopting a positive, upward-curving expression (upturned eyebrows included) seemed like more reliable candidates. And on the other end, if you sport a down-turned expression, or look more hardened in your photo, you are more likely to be perceived as untrustworthy. Basically, don’t look too happy. Or deranged. I’m not sure why anyone would post a shot of themselves frowning, (no one likes an office grump!), but now you know.

One experiment involved face perception, where participants looked at different computer-generated faces on a screen and were asked who they would choose to be their financial adviser and who they would consider to most likely win a weightlifting champion. Not surprisingly, the participants chose the happier-looking faces to handle their money, and the faces with wider, more serious expressions to lift the weights.

Some bad news: you can’t really change how competent you appear in a photo, which is dependent on facial structure. That one seems unfair since LinkedIn is a very judge-a-book-by-its-cover space, but you gotta work with what you have.

Considering all of this and the stressful process of finding a job, try these sound tips when choosing the best photo for your profile: relax. Be yourself. And look like you want a damn job.

This story originally appeared on MIMIChatter.com 

MIMI Chatter is an endless stream of beauty content. We bring together the must-knows and the how-tos from your favorite sites, beauty influencers, our editors, and YOU.

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Let This Dancing Mom-and-Daughter Duo Demonstrate Why This Song is Taking Over the Internet

Need some workout inspiration? A good song can make all the difference. Enter: “Watch Me (Whip/Nae Nae)” by Silento, which is has taken over the Internet and is making everything awesome. For example, this mother-daughter dancing duo’s living room choreography is life-affirming. Seriously.

Mom Nikki Taylor, who will give birth to a son next month, told BuzzFeed that she had no idea that the dance-session she filmed with her 6-year-old daughter Jaylyn would turn into an overnight sensation. The video currently has 23 million views (and counting).

But Nikki and Jaylyn aren’t the only ones who can’t get this song out of their heads. Here’s a few more videos that will make you smile (and want to move.)

While Austynn Samarco has near-expert whips and nae-naes, her dad, Josh, takes a different approach when he joins his daughter. Watch out for his Carleton Banks inspired freestyle!

Here’s another group of dedicated girls who, like Austynn, obviously take dancing very seriously. We love the ballerina giving sass like only a queen could when she’s being carried by the rest of the dancers.

If you thought these videos couldn’t get any better, just wait. We saved the best for last:

New York choreographer Tianne King, along with her daughter Heaven, started the Heaven on Earth Dance Studio and have been making viral dancing videos since the 4-year-old could walk (or did dancing come first?). With more than 32 million views and a cameo in the official video, this may just be where Nikki and Jaylyn found their inspiration.

RELATED: This Video of a Young Couple Aging 70 Years Will Make You Cry

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The New York Times Guacamole Recipe That Sent the Internet Into a Rage

On Wednesday afternoon, the New York Times fired off an innocent tweet about guacamole.

In addition to the requisite avocado, lime juice, and cilantro, the otherwise-standard guacamole recipe—adapted from ABC Cocina, an award-winning fine-dining restaurant in NYC—adds one very untraditional ingredient: fresh English peas.

The internet did not take it well.

@nytimes please delete this

— Lindsey Adler (@Lahlahlindsey) July 1, 2015

Peas in guacamole?! We fought two world wars and invented a space program so we could have this world? WTF.

— Wil Wheaton (@wilw) July 1, 2015

How to Make Guacamole With Green Peas: 1. Mush up some avacados 2. Throw green peas in trash 3. Enjoy

— delrayser (@delrayser) July 1, 2015

The @nytimes declared war on Texas when they suggested adding green peas to guacamole. http://t.co/EDTqbzzsyE http://pic.twitter.com/FHjTvCaNj7

— Texas GOP (@TexasGOP) July 1, 2015

Others, like NPR’s Peter Sagal, were more amused than offended.

I think the peas in the guacamole are gold and white.

— Peter Sagal (@petersagal) July 1, 2015

I've been putting one single pea at the bottom of your guacamole every night & you NEVER FELT IT! Because you're common.

— Caissie St.Onge (@Caissie) July 1, 2015

Even President Obama weighed in.

respect the nyt, but not buying peas in guac. onions, garlic, hot peppers. classic. https://t.co/MEEI8QHH1V

— President Obama (@POTUS) July 1, 2015

Apparently there are a lot of guacamole purists out there.

Now that you’ve got avocados on the brain, check out our favorite (non-guac) recipes, like the avocado whip in the video below.

RELATED:

7 Delicious New Takes on Avocado Toast

The Best Way to Prep an Avocado

How to Ripen a Rock-Hard Avocado Fast

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Woman Born Without Arms Does More With Her Feet Than You Do With Your Hands

Photo: Getty Images

When you think of all that we do with our hands, it’s hard to imagine completing even the most basic day-to-day tasks without them.

But Jessica Cox, who was born without arms, isn’t letting her disability stop her from living life to the fullest. The 32-year-old wore prosthetic limbs as a child, but eventually decided that she preferred using her feet.

“There’s nothing that can substitute the tactile ability of flesh and bone—and my feet have that ability,” she recently told the Daily Mail. “Naturally people saw me not having arms as a limiting factor—but I was there to prove them wrong.”

RELATED: The Motivating Video Every Fitness Lover Needs To See

Check out four more inspiring facts about this amazing woman below.

She’s a record breaker

According to an appearance on Inside Edition, she was once afraid of flying, a fear she overcame by becoming a pilot. As the first armless woman to earn a pilot’s license, Cox was included in the Guinness Book of World Records in 2011.

She can probably beat you up

Cox has also become the first armless black belt in the American Tae Kwon Do Association, where she met her husband Patrick Chamberlain. Chamberlain recently told the Daily Mail about Cox: “She is unrelenting, positive, and unstoppable, and has opened my eyes to new possibilities since the day I met her.”

RELATED: 10 Ways to Improve Your Relationship Instantly

She’s a pretty good pianist

Currently, the Tucson, Arizona-based couple are learning to play the hit “Let It Go” from Frozen, she told the Daily Mail. Other things she uses her feet for: making her bed, using her phone, writing, applying makeup, and, of course, opening a beer bottle.

The only thing she has trouble with? Doing her hair, which hubby Chamberlain is happy to help with (#relationshipgoals).

She’s coming to a town near you

Cox now has a career as a motivational speaker and mentor for disabled children and their families, and her documentary Right Footed, which follows her inspiring story, is currently touring film festivals and showings across the country.

RELATED: How One Woman’s Pay-It-Forward Gesture May Save Six People’s Lives

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Promise From a New Weight-Loss Drug

By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter

WEDNESDAY, July 1, 2015 (HealthDay News) — The injectable drug Saxenda may be a helpful tool in the battle against excess weight and obesity, a new study suggests.

People who injected Saxenda (liraglutide) every day for a year lost an average of 18.5 pounds, compared with an average of 6 pounds for those taking a placebo, researchers found.

Saxenda “can lower weight, improve cardiovascular risk factors and improve quality of life,” said lead researcher Dr. F. Xavier Pi-Sunyer, professor of medicine at Columbia University Medical Center in New York City.

“It can also reduce the progression to type 2 diabetes from prediabetes,” he said.

In a lower-dose version called Victoza, liraglutide is approved for diabetes treatment.

For the study, funded by the maker of Saxenda, Novo Nordisk, researchers recruited more than 3,700 overweight or obese people without diabetes . Participants were assigned to daily injections of Saxenda or placebo for 56 weeks. Both groups also received lifestyle counseling. More than half had prediabetes.

Sixty-three percent of patients taking Saxenda lost at least 5 percent of their initial body weight, and one-third lost more than 10 percent of body weight, the researchers found. Among those receiving placebo, 27 percent lost 5 percent of their body weight, and one in 10 lost more than 10 percent of their body weight.

Losing 5 percent of body weight — 14 pounds for someone at 280 — can have a significant positive effect on the risk for diabetes and heart disease, Pi-Sunyer said.

In the United States, more than two-thirds of adults are overweight or obese, according to a recent study in JAMA Internal Medicine.

“This medication adds to the options physicians will have in helping overweight and obese patients lose weight and keep it off,” Pi-Sunyer said.

The study was published July 2 in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Other drugs approved for weight loss in the United States include Orlistat (Xenical), lorcaserin (Belviq), phentermine-topiramate (Qsymia) and naltrexone-bupropion (Contrave). But many users complain of side effects.

The most common side effects with Saxenda were mild or moderate nausea and diarrhea. Serious side effects occurred in 6.2 percent of patients taking Saxenda and in 5 percent of those receiving the placebo, the researchers report.

However, the drug is expensive, said Dr. Joel Zonszein, director of the clinical diabetes center at Montefiore Medical Center in New York City.

Although covered by most of the insurance plans and Medicare, “it has a high co-pay of $20 to $100, as it is not generic,” Zonszein said. “The price in the U.S. is between $1,000 and $1,800 for a three-month supply.”

Dr. Elias Siraj, director of the diabetes program at Temple University School of Medicine and Hospital in Philadelphia, said it’s important to remember that obesity is a lifestyle condition.

“We should not lose sight of the need to adjust lifestyle — diet and exercise,” he said. “Medications, too, can be helpful.”

The unanswered question about Saxenda is whether people can maintain their weight loss over time, especially when the medication is discontinued, said Siraj, co-author of an editorial accompanying the study.

Because the drug is injectable and costly, Siraj doesn’t think it’s for everybody. “But for some patients I think it is going to be a significant tool, but we have to wait for longer studies,” he said.

“We are dealing with an obesity epidemic and it hasn’t been easy to tackle obesity,” he said. “We need a lot of tools. This medication, hopefully, will be one of the tools.”

More information

The U.S. National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute has more on the health risks of obesity.

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Patients with Low-Grade Brain Tumors Living Longer

WEDNESDAY, JuLY 1, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Survival has improved for adults with low-grade brain tumors, known as gliomas, a new study finds.

Low-grade gliomas grow slowly but are deadly. Because they’re uncommon, they are not well-studied, said the researchers from the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine. The best ways to manage these tumors are also controversial. There is little consensus on whether or when to use radiation or what type of surgery or chemotherapy patients should undergo.

“An understanding of how our treatments affect the survival of low-grade glioma patients will better enable us to help these patients,” senior study author Dr. Clark Chen, vice chairman of research and academic development in neurosurgery, said in a university news release.

For the study, published July 1 in Neuro-Oncology: Clinical Practice, researchers examined data compiled in a U.S. cancer registry for the past decade.

They found the median survival of patients diagnosed with low-grade gliomas increased to 57 months in 2010, from 44 months in 1999. This is the first reported increase in survival among these patients, and more effective chemotherapies may have played a role in this positive trend, they said.

The improvement occurred despite a decline in use of radiation at time of diagnosis, the researchers pointed out.

Although previous research suggests removing low-grade gliomas is associated with longer survival, the researchers found that only about 30 percent of patients in the United States had their tumor surgically removed. The number of these operations, they noted, has not changed over the past 10 years.

“The lack of improvement in surgical resection is likely limited by the availability of technologies, such as intra-operative MRI, to allow surgeons to perform maximal surgical resection,” Dr. Bob Carter, chief of neurosurgery, said in the news release. As use of these technologies expands, new standards of care will be set for these patients, he added.

More information

The American Brain Tumor Association provides more on gliomas.

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Unapproved Ear Drops Targeted by FDA

WEDNESDAY, July 1, 2015 (HealthDay News) — The prescription drops your child is using for ear pain could be among 16 unapproved medications targeted this week by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

These drugs, prescribed and sold for years to relieve ear pain and swelling, have not been evaluated for safety, quality and effectiveness, the agency said Wednesday. The agency notified the drugs’ makers to stop marketing the drops following a few reports of local allergic reactions of the ear, eye, face, neck and mouth. The drops can also cause itching, stinging, burning and irritation of the ear, according to an FDA news release.

“If we don’t know whether these drugs have any benefits, we should not accept any possible risk of side effects,” said the FDA’s Dr. Charles Lee in the news release.

The FDA did not release the names of the companies or the medications involved, but did note that “unapproved prescription otic [ear] drug products containing the following ingredients are covered by this action: benzocaine; benzocaine and antipyrine; benzocaine, antipyrine, and zinc acetate; benzocaine, chloroxylenol, and hydrocortisone; chloroxylenol and pramoxine; and chloroxylenol, pramoxine, and hydrocortisone.

The drugs’ packaging does not disclose that the drops are not FDA-approved, Lee noted.

He said what’s most worrisome is that some of these products are prescribed for young children and infants — those most likely to develop ear infections.

“It’s very basic — drugs that are used in children should be tested in children,” Lee said. “These products haven’t been shown to be effective in anyone, and there’s no proof that they work.”

The drugs in question represent a fraction of medications prescribed to relieve symptoms of middle ear infections, outer ear infections and excess earwax. There are many FDA-approved drugs to treat these conditions, and over-the-counter products exist that can prevent swimmer’s ear and earwax buildup, the agency said.

What can you do if you think your doctor has prescribed unapproved ear drugs? Ask him or her for alternatives, the agency suggested.

Also, if you or a family member is experiencing side effects from one of these medications contact your doctor immediately.

The FDA’s action is part of its Unapproved Drugs Initiative, developed to protect individuals from medications that could be unsafe, ineffective and of poor quality.

More information

The U.S. National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders has more about ear infections.

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Menopausal Women at Lower Heart Risk Than Men of Similar Age

By Kathleen Doheny
HealthDay Reporter

WEDNESDAY, July 1, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Menopause is commonly considered a risk factor for heart disease, as the protective effect of estrogen declines. However, in a new study, researchers found that postmenopausal women had a lower risk of dying from heart attack than did men of similar ages.

“Women have lower cardiovascular disease risk than men, even after menopause,” said the study’s lead researcher, Dr. Catherine Kim, an associate professor of medicine at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. “But the advantage is seen primarily in white women compared to white men; black women have less of an advantage compared to black men.”

Although some research has suggested that natural menopause does not boost heart disease risk but surgically induced (after hysterectomy and ovary removal) menopause does, Kim did not find much difference in risk between menopause types.

Her long-term study found: White women who went through natural menopause had a 55 percent reduced risk of nonfatal heart attacks and other heart events compared to white men. White women who had surgically induced menopause had a 35 percent reduced risk. Black women who had natural menopause had a 31 percent reduced risk of nonfatal heart attacks compared to black men, while black women who had surgically induced menopause had a 19 percent reduced risk.

The study, published July 1 in the Journal of the American Heart Association, is believed to be the first to compare men and women and how menopause type affects heart disease risk, according to Kim.

Her team looked at more than 23,000 men and women, all older than 45, who were enrolled in a study between 2003 and 2007 and had no heart disease at the study start. The researchers followed them until the end of 2011.

Kim can’t fully explain the findings on postmenopausal women. “It is unknown why their risk remains low,” she said. “It is possible it is a residual effect of the estrogen, but estrogen therapy studies have shown no benefit for cardiovascular risk to date.” Nor can she explain the racial differences, she added.

She also found that the risk of heart attack does not seem to increase for women the further they are from menopause.

Dr. Gregg Fonarow, a cardiology professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, noted, “These findings suggest that other factors besides menopause status and established coronary heart disease risk factors may account for sex differences in midlife.”

Fonarow, who was not involved in the research, added, “While prior studies have suggested a rapid rise in risk in women after 50, the risk observed in this study was more gradual. Additional studies are needed to better understand what may account for the differences observed.”

All women should try to reduce risks as they can, Kim said. “Although we all grow older, we can continue to exercise, maintain a healthy weight, and ensure that our blood pressures are controlled.”

Fonarow agreed. “These findings highlight that women should focus on achieving and maintaining heart health irrespective of their age and menopausal status,” he said. “This includes regular physical activity, not smoking, and maintaining healthy blood pressure, cholesterol levels and body weight.”

More information

For more on heart attacks, visit the American Heart Association.

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Your Diet May Be Causing Your Urinary Tract Infections

Photo: Getty Images

Tough-to-treat urinary tract infections (UTI) that are resistant to antibiotics are on the rise. Now, in a new study looking at human urine published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, researchers say they’ve discovered why some people are more prone than others to the infections. Intriguingly, diet may have something to do with it.

Early on in an infection, cells produce a protein called siderocalin that blocks bacterial growth, including the growth of E. coli that often causes UTIs, says Jeffrey P. Henderson, MD, PhD, assistant professor of medicine at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and senior author of the study. (It does this by keeping iron away from the bacteria, which need it to thrive.) The researchers wanted to see how the protein worked differently in various samples of urine at restricting the growth of E. coli, so they analyzed the urine from about 50 men and women.

“We found, kind of to our surprise, that there was a really wide range between individuals and how well this protein worked, just depending on that individual’s urinary composition,” says Henderson.

Two common factors emerged in urine that had a better ability to resist bacterial growth: it had a high pH—one that’s more alkaline, in other words—and higher levels of certain metabolites formed by gut microbes. That metabolite isn’t made from human cells, Henderson says; rather, they come from the diet or are metabolized by bacterial cells from dietary sources. “It looks like this protein that’s part of your immune system is able to use metabolites in the diet as grips to hold onto iron and keep it away from pathogenic bacteria,” Henderson says. In some people, that system is set up really well, he says, but in those who get recurrent UTIs, it doesn’t seem to work as well.

Both urine pH and metabolite production may be able to be changed through diet, and doing so could potentially offer a treatment strategy in the future, he says. “It may be that we have to adjust multiple things at the same time to get the system to work well, but the appealing part is this is not an antibiotic strategy,” he says. “It may allow you to keep your normal flora while keeping bacteria out of the urinary tract.”

Physicians already know how to raise urinary pH with things like calcium supplements, and alkalizing agents are already used in the U.K. as over-the-counter UTI treatments, Henderson says. Knowing how to encourage the metabolites is trickier. The molecules come from phenolic, or aromatic, compounds, Henderson says, and robust food sources include those that we more often hear are rich in antioxidants: coffee, tea, colorful berries, red wine and dark chocolate.

And yes: cranberries, too, are known to make urinary aromatics, which may be why cranberry products are so often used as UTI remedies, Henderson says. “One thing this suggests is that maybe the reason it’s not more effective is that people need both cranberries and a higher urine pH, or they need cranberries and appropriate inhabitants of their intestine, or the right microbiome composition in their gut, for the cranberry part to work properly.”

A treatment without antibiotics would be a boon, but it’s likely a several-pronged approach and for now, more research is needed. “We still have a few more details to iron out before we know exactly how to do that.”

This article originally appeared on Time.com.

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Meet the California Woman Who Gave Birth While Lost in the Woods for Days

Giving birth is no a walk in the park that’s for sure. But going into labor, when lost alone in the woods, with little water and food, and no help, while fending off bees and mosquitos? That’s definitely the most intense birth story we’ve ever heard.

A very pregnant Amber Pangborn was driving to her parent’s house when she started to feel labor pains, and decided to instead take a remote back road that she heard was faster, she told the NBC affiliate KCRA in nearby Sacramento, California. This turned out to be a poor choice when Pangborn realized that she was not only out of gas, but also in an area without cell reception.

RELATED: 15 Factors That Affect a Woman’s Fertility

Pangborn had to give birth to her daughter, whom she named Marisa, alone in the woods. She then spent the next three days stuck, fighting off bees and mosquitos, hoping help would come while caring for her newborn and subsisting off a few apples and a little bit of water she had in the car. “I thought we were going to die,” Pangborn explained to KCRA.

By Saturday, she grew desperate, and decided to start a brush fire with hairspray and a lighter to signal for help, she said.

RELATED: What Pregnancy Does to Your Health

“The whole side of the mountain caught on fire,” Pangborn said, in an on-camera interview with KCRA. “I was looking at Marisa and was like, ‘I think Mommy just started a forest fire.’”

U.S. Forest Service spokesman Chris French told the Associated Press that a helicopter pilot responding to a fire spotted a mother and infant in drought-ridden area, and the two were whisked off to the hospital while fire crews fought the flames. The fire was still under official investigation on Tuesday.

Pangborn’s mother and new grandma Dianna Williams told the Associated Press that both mom and baby are doing “great,” though the child was born underweight and is still at the UC Davis Medical Center.

RELATED: How to Stock a Smart First Aid Kit

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