What you need to know this instant for markdowns. Great list of your favorite shop’s discounts!!

But scientists are still struggling to find a physiological cause Rachel Carlyle If the car in front suddenly stops at a green light, don’t sound the horn right away. Instead, peer through the windows and check for children’s car seats. If they’re present, the driver may deserve sympathy, not anger — her momentary lapse may be the result of “nappy brain”, the mental fog that seems intent on ruining mothers’ best efforts at super-efficiency. But while blaming a foggy brain on pregnancy may be justified — an Australian study last year that found that a pregnant woman’s memory was comparable to that of a 60-year-old — should we still be looking for excuses when our children are well into primary school? Scientists have been investigating the existence of so-called mummy brain for 20 years, but there are still no clear answers. Forget stratospherically high achievers such as Kim Clijsters who, last weekend, won the US Open tennis title less than 18 months after giving birth to her daughter. According to Dr Catherine Loveday, a neuroscientist at the University of Westminster, there is roughly the same number of studies reporting cognitive decline in mothers as there are suggesting no effect. She began researching the topic after she had her sons, now aged 2 and 7, because she wondered what was happening to her own brain. “I had moments of complete amnesia, when I forgot whether something had happened or not. I was desperate to know if I was imagining it,” she says. “On balance, given the scientific evidence, there is probably some temporary impairment, which has been noted to be worse in older mothers and those with higher educational achievements. It is weighted towards a specific deficit in memory.” So what could be happening in the brain? Some believe that the problem is cultural: women are expecting a decline in their memory so will find evidence for it. A ten-year research project among 2,500 women in Australia, which ended this year, could find no evidence for mummy brain. Professor Helen Christensen, the lead researcher, concluded that mothers were suffering normal lapses, but attributing them to motherhood. Others believe that sleep deprivation is the cause; the primary caregiver is estimated to lose 700 hours of sleep in a baby’s first year. “If you are tired, you are much less likely to engage properly with a task — which means your brain is not processing it effectively, and you will find it more difficult to retrieve as a memory later on,” Robin Morris, Professor of Neuropsychology at the Institute of Psychiatry, says. There is also the problem of concentration. “When you have a child, there are constantly new things to learn, which take up a lot of brain space,” Loveday says. “We have a limited amount of attentional capacity and we are focused elsewhere.” Those who have investigated the physiology of the brain have discovered that having children, in some cases, actually sharpens the brain. Professor Craig Kinsley, of the University of Richmond, Virginia, has been researching the female brain for 13 years and found in experiments that mother rats (which have a similar brain profile to humans) have better spatial skills than non-mothers and can navigate a maze to find food much faster. The more offspring they had, the faster they found the food. They were also braver, better at multi-tasking, had sharper senses, and were less prone to anxiety and stress. He believes that the problem is down to changes in the hard-wiring of the female brain during pregnancy when new neurons and pathways are created at a dizzying rate. “We have evidence that these beneficial changes are long-lasting and, in some respects, permanent,” he says. But if our brains are so sharp, why can’t we remember the phone number that we committed to memory only 20 minutes ago? “The evolution of our brains over 10,000 years has prepared us to focus on the infant,” Kinsley says. “It has not prepared us to have the memory for running a business or thinking with numbers.” Katherine Ellison, who wrote The Mommy Brain (Perseus, £8.99), says that women should be positive: “Telling ourselves that we have mummy brain becomes a selffulfilling prophecy.” Avoiding ‘nappy brain’ Get organised: use lists, write down dates in a diary. Delegate: get your partner to take on some of the domestic chores that women seem to end up doing by default. Admit that you are finding it difficult to remember things: people will forgive the odd memory lapse. Laugh off the worst embarrassments. Do not take on too much: avoid returning to work immediately or organising big projects such as a house refurb or academic thesis.

Goop on AmoliaMae Blog

Spicy Miso Sauce
Serves: makes about a cup of sauce

INGREGDIENTS:

1 tablespoon grapeseed or vegetable oil 

 1 large garlic clove, minced

1/2 teaspoon Chinese five-spice powder

1/2 cup red miso

 1/2 cup real Vermont maple syrup

2 tablespoons brown rice vinegar

hot pepper sesame oil to taste

PREPARATION

Heat the oil in a large frying pan over high heat. Drain the burdock and add it to the pan. Cook, stirring constantly, for 5 minutes. Adjust the heat so that it’s high enough for the burdock to sizzle, but not so high that it scorches. Add a bit of oil, if necessary, to keep the burdock from sticking. After 5 minutes of stir-frying, add the carrot and enough dashi or water to come half way up the vegetables (about 2/3 cup, depending on the size of your pan).

Bring the mixture to a boil, stir in the soy, mirin and agave, cover with a drop lid (a lid that’s slightly smaller than the pan so that it sits directly on top of the vegetables), and turn the heat to low and cook for 15 minutes. Remove the lid, turn the heat to high and cook until the vegetables are glazed, about 2 minutes. Put the kinpira on a plate and squeeze over the grated ginger—essentially you are ‘seasoning’ the kinpira with the ginger juice. Sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds and serve warm or at room temperature.

 Time: about 5 minutes

MILAN (Reuters) – Giorgio Armani sees profits falling again this year, emerging as one of the few fashion houses to give an outlook for 2009.The Italian company, which has been hit by the global luxury spending slump, also said in its 2008 annual report it planned to open shops in Tokyo, Dubai and Berlin among other places this year.

 ”The first few months of 2009 have not been easy and the forecast for the rest of the year sees a further profit reduction in 2009 versus 2008,” Armani, the 75-year-old chairman and founder of the brand, wrote in the report.

Armani, widely regarded as the doyen of Italian fashion, is known for his classically elegant lines and muted colors in clothes.

The company’s net profit fall to 128.1 million euros ($184.3 million) last year from 218.7 million euros the year before, the report showed.

“The economic crisis has only slowed down, rather than interrupted the Armani Group’s growth,” the designer said.

France’s Hermes, the maker of 10,000-euro handbags, stands out along Armani as one of a handful of luxury companies giving a forecast for this year.

Hermes expects sales to remain flat at constant exchange rates, with a slight drop in operating margin.

Armani’s earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) fell 14 percent to 303.2 million euros last year. Revenues edged up 1.5 percent to 1.62 billion euros, boosted by a strong rise in China.

(Reporting by Marie-Louise Gumuchian; Editing by Richard Chang)
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