Everyone has heard at least one old fashion rule. Have you ever been told not to wear white after labor day, or that your jewelry metals must match?

If you’re like me, you grew up hearing these from your mom or grandma whenever you wore something they didn’t like. You thought your outfit was fine, but one of the rules probably made you rethink it. Many of you may still believe one or two of them, because you’ve heard them so many times.

Believe it or not, most of those fashion rules are completely outdated and false!

As someone who loves fashion but doesn’t believe in old-fashioned rules, I say it’s time to put some of these style myths to rest once and for all. Grandma’s fashion rules just don’t apply anymore.

Here’s the list of fashion rules you’re allowed (and encouraged) to break:

1. Never wear white after labor day.

This fashion rule is probably the most pervasive of them all. Everyone’s heard it, and surprisingly, lots of people still believe it’s true.

Newsflash: you can absolutely wear white after labor day! White clothing, coats, bags, and even shoes are 100% allowed during the winter months, and don’t let anyone tell you differently. Unless you have an extremely conservative workplace, you should embrace the idea of wearing a “winter white.” It’s a fresh, fun break from the dark shades we usually wear in winter.

InStyle magazine did a great feature on fashion rules the stars love to break. In it, Rachel Bilson sounded off on the white after labor day rule, saying “Forget the old rules. I love white all year round. It’s cooler to wear it when you aren’t supposed to.”

For another star example, check out the picture of Victoria Beckham above. She’s a world-renowned fashionista who’s known for her impeccable style! She doesn’t follow the white after labor day rule and neither should you.

2. Shoes and bags must always match.

Ugh, this rule is sooo 1950’s. I’m honestly wondering if anyone out there still believes this one.

In case you did think this myth was true, let me reassure you. It’s not! You don’t have to match your shoes to your bag – that’s so boring. You shoes and bag need to go with your outfit, but there’s no reason they need to match each other. So long as they work with your outfit, they can be any colors you want.

Let’s be realistic – can you imagine what a pain it would be to match all of your bags to all of your shoes? You’d probably have only one or two combos you could make, and even then, it probably wouldn’t all match perfectly. There are so many shades of each color!

Really, it’s all way too much of a hassle. Forget about matching and start thinking about what goes together and what goes with your outfit.

3. Never wear black with brown or navy.

This rule is one of the most pervasive old fashion rules out there, and it’s just not true at all!

Here’s the deal: black, brown, and navy are all neutrals. This means that you can wear them with pretty much anything, including each other!

I love the look of a navy blue dress with black shoes, or a black dress with light brown or nude shoes. Anything goes with these colors, and you should feel free to mix however you want.

Recently, Rihanna made a public statement about this rule:

“The idea of not wearing brown and black together seems so dated. The other day I wore a black T-shirt, black Nobody jeans, a brown leopard-print belt by Dolce & Gabbana, and brown Giuseppe Zanotti shoes, and it looked awesome. And I also love to mix prints.”

For another example of a celebrity breaking this rule, see the photo of Rachel Bilson above, mixing navy, black, AND brown. Her outfit looks adorable and fashion-forward, proving that this rule is really just a dumb myth.

4. Never wear red if you’re a redhead.

This one might have some basis in reality, but it only applies to a few people in certain situations.

It’s true that some redheads shouldn’t wear some shades of red, but it’s false that they can’t wear red at all. If you have red hair, you need to be careful to choose reds that work with your natural coloring. The wrong shade can look too intense, and can clash with your skin. It’s as simple as that.

At the end of the day, though, if you know the best colors for you, you can avoid shades of red that don’t work, and wear the ones that do. The idea that you can’t wear red at all is completely FALSE!

5. You can’t wear suede or leather in summer.

Another false one. Really, who comes up with this stuff?

I don’t know about you, but I would be LOST without my leather bag in the summer. Most of the world’s best shoes and purses are made out of leather, so it really makes no sense that we wouldn’t be able to wear them year round. Also, leather jackets are such a hot trend. It would be a shame to have to put them in the closet for 3 months!

If you’re really worried about this one, just pick lighter weight fabrics and go with lighter colors of suede & leather for the summer months. Then switch back to your regular stuff for winter.

But really… the next time someone tries to convince you this rule is true, just laugh and ask if you can borrow their most expensive designer bag for summer, since they won’t be using it. Then see what they have to say.

6. Never mix metals in your wardrobe.

This rule basically says that you should never wear gold and silver jewelry together, or god forbid, wear something that has both gold and silver on it! How boring.

Nowadays, it’s safe to forget all about it. With all the cute jewelry and metallic accessories out there, it would be a shame to only wear them with some pieces. Metallics are the new neutrals, and you can wear them with whatever you want. Don’t be afraid to layer gold, silver and bronze bangles together, or wear silver flats when you have gold earrings on. It’s totally up to you and not wrong at all!

Of course, some people have a preference for one type of jewelry over the other. For example, gold doesn’t look good on my cool-toned pale skin, so I only wear silver and white gold jewelry. It’s okay to have a preference, but don’t ever think that you can’t wear what you want because it’s not “allowed”.

7. Never wear tights with open-toed shoes.

Now that tights and peep-toe shoes are both in style, women everywhere are happily ignoring this rule.

That’s right, you can totally wear tights with open-toe shoes. Just tuck the seam of the tights under your toes, and make sure it doesn’t show. It’s a great way to get more mileage out of your wardrobe, because you can wear your peep-toe heels in winter!

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By David Damron Being that I worked in a grocery store for 7 years, I know quite a bit about impulsive purchases. In fact, I helped (sadly to say) push certain products by placing them in a certain fashion. Through said experience, I tend to know some of the best ways to counter the impulsive nature of buying things that are unnecessary. The following is a 5 point list to counter the need to buy something shoved in your face… Don’t bring the kids. You wouldn’t believe (or maybe you parents would) how much more junk parents buy for their kids that is completely impulsive. Working as a checker at a grocery store, I quickly learned that most of the time kids were with their parents, the parents would buy something else within 10 feet of the check stand. Bring exact cash. I like to use my debit card because I am able to track every penny better, but holding and letting go of cash is much tougher for me personally. So, if I am going through a tough time budgeting properly, I will bring the allotted amount of cash to the place of business and only allow that to be used. Ignore salesman. If you are at a department store and someone asks if you need help, try to ignore their push as much as possible. Sure, if you know nothing about laptops, get their advice, but even then I suggest doing your research pre-shop. Salesman could care less what you want. It’s all about what their quota or commission is. Ignore them. Create a impulse piggy bank. Make life easy on yourself. If you love to buy the fitness or gossip magazines at the newsstand, then buy a gift card from the store you purchase it for $10 and only allow that to be used for impulsive shopping. You will start to realize what of those impulsive shopping things you really want. If a celebrity is pushing it, pull back. In Michael Pollan’s new book Food Rules, he discusses the general notion that if some type of celebrity or popular figure is pushing a food product, than it probably isn’t healthy. How often do you see Paris Hilton promoting apples or Lindsay Lohan wearing affordable clothes. There’s a tendency to be highly influenced by the promotion of products. So, if it isn’t being promoted, you will probably buy the cheaper and more appropriately priced item.

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With her long glossy locks, model good looks and perfect smile, Catherine Bursnall is no doubt not a stranger to cruel “blonde” jokes.

But the 29-year-old is now having the last laugh – as she prepares to become England’s youngest mayor.

She will be working alongside her husband, Tom, who is also a local Conservative councilor. The pair have even been dubbed “Tom Cat” in reference to the nickname given to Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise.

However, Catherine reveals she has climbed the political ranks much quicker than Tom, 30, who joined the Young Conservatives at 16 and has been promoted to national chairman.

But she’s keen to point out that she believes her three-year fast-track process to mayor, for which Catherine will be inaugurated on May 25, is down to merit rather than her appearance.

“It certainly helped that I was local,” said Catherine, who was brought up in Ascot by parents Terry, 59, and Elaine, 55 – both local government officials – and moved to nearby Eton with Tom before settling in neighboring Windsor.

“I knew there were certain things people wanted, such as more police on the streets, weekly bin collections, less noise from nightclubs and better parking, because I wanted them too.

“I didn’t think I was that likely to win, but somehow on the night I got elected.”

However, Tom, a politics graduate who Catherine met when they were both students at the University of Warwick in 2001 and married at the Windsor Guildhall three years ago, is more blunt about his wife’s triumph.

“They underestimated Catherine and probably thought she was a blonde bimbo,” he told the Sunday Express.

“Our friends mock us because I’ve been more political throughout my life, whereas Catherine’s only been in politics for two years and yet now she’s in higher office than me.”

Catherine agreed: “I’ve always been the one walking behind Tom, posting the leaflets through the doors but now it’s the other way round.”

The sociology and psychology graduate does admits that some local residents have been quite cynical about her success, which has also seen her carrying out the deputy mayor role for the past two years.

“When I was elected as deputy, a few people wrote into the local paper saying I was too young and only been picked because of my looks,” she said.

“On the whole though, when people get to know me they can see that I care and want to get involved.”

The couple, who run successful recruitment business, The Talent Pool Company, and are currently renovating their Grade II-listed 18th century Georgian home, have also appeared in an online poll of the country’s best-looking councilors.

However, Catherine will be taking a break from the company following her inauguration at the Windsor Guildhall as her role as mayor is a full-time job and will see her carrying 750 civic duties over the next 12 months.

The former pupil of Carters School in Sunningdale said she is keen for her people-focused political career to continue.

“Being a mayor is a more community-based role and less political, which is what I enjoy most,” she said.

“I won’t be called Mayoress because that’s the name for a mayor’s wife. You’re meant to be Mr Mayor but a lot of women ask to be Madam Mayor. I’d rather just be called Cat.”

However, Tom adds, for him, it’s nothing new, joking: “I’ve been calling her a ‘mare’ for years!”

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A Russian MP has asked an eccentric regional leader to explain his behaviour after claiming on state television that he was visited at home by aliens in a UFO, media reported Thursday.

Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, head of the Buddhist Kalmykia region of southern Russia and president of the World Chess Federation (FIDE), announced without apparent irony on a high-profile chat show he had met the aliens in 1997.

In an equally bizarre twist, Andrei Lebedev, an MP for the nationalist Liberal Democratic Party, has now written to President Dmitry Medvedev raising fears that secret information could have been disclosed in the close encounter.

“I ask you to say if the head of Kalmykia has made an official report to the Russian presidency about his contacts with representatives of an alien civilisation,” he said, quoted by tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda and other media.

“Is there an established procedure of informing about such contacts by high ranking people who have access to secret information like Ilyumzhinov?

“And did he in the course of his seemingly innocent conversation disclose secret information?”

Ilyumzhinov had said in his comments, broadcast in late April, that the aliens appeared in a transparent tube on the balcony of his apartment in Moscow.

“I was reading my book, watching television and had almost fallen asleep. Then I felt that someone was calling.

“I would not have believed it, if I had not had three witnesses — my driver, my minister and my aide,” he said.

This is not the first time the chess-mad leader has spoken of extraterrestrial encounters. He had earlier claimed to have been shown round a UFO in 2001.

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Colombian President Alvaro Uribe called Friday for protecting the peace deal reached with M-19 guerrilla group in 1990, trying to calm the nation over a controversial court ruling.

He made the remarks after a judge sentenced retired colonel Alfonso Plazas on Wednesday 30 years in prison for the disappearance of 12 people in 1985 when the officer led government troops to retake the supreme court from the M-19 guerrilla group.

“The peace process with the M-19 was a very important step for Colombia, and this is the process we have to protect,” the president said in a statement.

More than 100 people died in the 1985 attack, including 11 supreme court justices. About twelve others went missing, allegedly killed by government troops who tried to cover up their heavy-handed tactics during the counterattack. The disappearance led to Plazas’ sentence.

Plazas’sentence stirred up controversy in the country. Leaders of the armed forces said the retired colonel should not be held responsible for the incident. But families of the victims and the judges supported the verdict. Several international organizations welcomed the ruling.

The M-19 signed a peace agreement with the government in 1990 and was later disbanded. Its members were granted amnesty. Some of them entered politics and were elected to high positions.

Uribe and other politicians fear that reviving court proceedings over the M-19 incident could put the decades-old peace deal in danger.

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Computer science (or computing science) is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation, and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems. It is frequently described as the systematic study of algorithmic processes that describe and transform information. According to Peter J. Denning, the fundamental question underlying computer science is, “What can be (efficiently) automated?” Computer science has many sub-fields; some, such as computer graphics, emphasize the computation of specific results, while others, such as computational complexity theory, study the properties of computational problems. Still others focus on the challenges in implementing computations. For example, programming language theory studies approaches to describing computations, while computer programming applies specific programming languages to solve specific computational problems, and human-computer interaction focuses on the challenges in making computers and computations useful, usable, and universally accessible to people.

The general public sometimes confuses computer science with vocational areas that deal with computers (such as information technology), or think that it relates to their own experience of computers, which typically involves activities such as gaming, web-browsing, and word-processing. However, the focus of computer science is more on understanding the properties of the programs used to implement software such as games and web-browsers, and using that understanding to create new programs or improve existing ones.

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The seal body thick circle assumes the fusiformate, the body weight 20~30 kilograms. The whole body by the short wool, the back sky grey, the abdomen young yellow, has the blue-black color spot spot. Outside a near circular, the eye is big and is round, does not have the auricle, kisses is short and is wide, the upper lip whisker is long and is coarse and stiff, assumes reads beaded. The four limbs have 5 feet, between the foot have the web, forms the finny extremity, has the front sharp claws. The latter fin extremity is big, extends backward, the tail is short and is flat. Coat color along with ageing change: The cub color is deep, Cheng Shouse is shallow

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Although the 2008 Olympics are still three years away, another special competition has already started in Beijing. This time, the competitors are not the athletes from all over the world, but the people living in Beijing. The special competition is not held in a stadium, but in every street and every corner of Beijing. I suppose some of you may have already guessed what the special competition is. Yes, it is the competition of protecting our environment and creating a green Beijing for the 2008 Olympic Games.

Someone may ask who is our rival in this competition? The modern Los Angeles, the charming Sydney, or the historic Athens? No, none of them. The real rival is ourselves. It is our bad habits of neglecting to protect environment in our daily life.

Several years ago, I was very lucky to have an opportunity to live in the United States for about two years. I not only enjoyed the beautiful environment there, but also appreciated the American people’s active way of protecting their environment. Now, whenever the environment protection is mentioned, a beautiful view of California will arise in my mind: white clouds flying across the blue sky, green grassplot sprinkled with colorful flowers and small animals playing happily among the trees.

I remember that at the beginning of my coming to America, I often went to my father’s working place, the United States Geological Survey, to have fun. Each time I found a lot of people riding bicycles to their offices. Among the cyclists, an old man with white hair attracted my attention. Curiously, I asked my father,” Why does the old man ride his bike to work every day? Doesn’t he have enough money to buy a car?” Father laughed, “No, not because of money. Actually, he is one of the greatest scientists in the world. He can afford to buy a motorcade if he likes. He is just an environmentalist and usually doesn’t drive unless going shopping, or in bad weather. In America, there are a lot of environmentalists, who actively protect their environment. For example, in Palo Alto city we are living now, there is even a bicycle-to-work day on May 19th every year to encourage people to decrease air pollution caused by cars”.

Later, I also learnt another interesting fact of environment protection there. In some states of America, in order to decrease air pollution, save energy and reduce traffic jams, state governments encourage people to take buses to work or to share a car among several people. They even set special “diamond lanes” in some main streets, which are only for the vehicles with 2 or more people.

The positive actions of American people and the effective measures the American government takes in environment protection fully won my respects and deeply affected my consciousness in environment protection.

When I was back in China, people often asked me: ” What do you think of America?” I always bolt out:” Wonderful, especially the beautiful environment.” Frankly speaking, after several years, the faces of my American teachers and friends have gradually faded away from my mind, but the blue sky, green grass and lovely animals in California often arise in my mind, and became my dream of visiting there again.

The 2008 Olympics provide us with the opportunity to publicize and practise environment protection in Beijing. Is it possible for Beijing to Is it possible for Beijing to become as beautiful as California? The answer is “yes”, but the dream needs every Beijing citizen’s full support and active moves to accomplish.

From now on, if every student who is driven to school can take bus or ride bicycle to school once a week, if every car owner goes to work in a car pool once a week, we can make a difference. If everyone can actively protect the environment in our daily life, the blue sky, green grass and lovely animals in California will appear in Beijing.

Tiny streams can combine into a vast ocean, small trees can together be an immense forest. Beijing is often described as a beautiful and aged picture. If every Beijing citizen adds a trait of green on the picture, the whole Beijing will become an ocean of green. Let us unite together to win the competition of environment protection in Beijing, and present the world a big gold medal. That is “Green Beijing, Great Olympics “

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When you get home from work, do you feel enriched, fulfilled and empowered? Or does it seem like you just finished an uphill battle on a treadmill? Imagine being paid to do what you love. You could return home feeling as though time stood still. Being \”in the zone\” virtually all day. Coming home invigorated knowing you consistently live a natural high.

If this doesn\’t describe your day, then try the simple method below to reveal your true talent. Once you identify your unique expression, you will be motivated to experience it virtually everyday. You will have a deep burning desire to feed your soul and share it with the world. When you comprehend your purpose, engage it regularly. Perhaps Albert Einstein said it best, \”Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value.\”

Your true (more…)

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Now I\’m really looking forward to some unconscious golf at Doral over the weekend, but I’m not sure what sort of spectacle it’s going to be with players like Mike Weir allegedly “going unconscious” – doesn’t sound like a lot of action there.

To be fair, the article I’ve just read from Lorne Rubenstein at Globe and Mail talks about the advice that Bob Rotella is giving Mike Weir in preparation for this weekend’s World Golf Championships. And any advice from Bob is usually good advice. You can read Lorne’s article at “Trying to ‘go unconscious’ on the course”

I talk a lot in my golf hypnosis work about the difference between the conscious and the unconscious mind in my work and I truly believe that better golf is played in the unconscious mind – by being in the zone, as it’s more commonly called.

There’s an important separation in the mind between planning a shot, a conscious process, and executing it. Have you noticed how when you hit a really good shot, you tend to think,” Wow (more…)

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