We need 4 hugs a day for survival. We need 8 hugs a day for maintenance. We need 12 hugs a day for growth
—Virginia Satir, family therapist

Hugging is healthy. It helps the body's immune system, keeps you healthier; cures depression, reduces stress, induces sleep. It's invigorating and rejuvenating, has no unpleasant side effects, and hugging is nothing less than a miracle drug.

Hugging significantly increases your body's production of endorphins.Hugging is all natural. It's organic, naturally sweet, no pesticides, no preservatives, no artificial ingredients, and 100% wholesome. Hugging is practically perfect: no moving parts,no batteries to wear out, no periodic checkups, low energy consumption, high-energy yield, inflation-proof, non-fattening, no monthly payments, no insurance requirements, theft-proof, nontaxable, nonpolluting, and, of course,fully returnable.

There are several types of hugs:

1. The A-frame hug - this involves only the heads touching of each person. It is more formal in nature and generally used on new acquaintances or in a business setting.

2. The Heart-Centered hug - it is considered to be the highest form of hugging. This involves full body contact by both parties. This form of hugging acknowledges each other from deep within. It is usually reserved for very close friends and family.

3. The Self hug - this involves you hugging yourself. This hug allows you to show yourself love and compassion. It gives you a sense of self- worth.

Young Arab women wait in an upmarket medical clinic for an operation that will not only change their lives, but quite possibly save it. Yet the operation is a matter of choice and not necessity. It costs about 2,000 euros (£1,700) and carries very little risk.

Sonia wants to remain anonymous for fear of reprisal. She is a slender young brunette studying at art college in Paris.

Although born in France, Arab culture and traditions are central to Sonia's life. Life was strict growing up under the watchful eyes of a large traditional Arab family.

Now more and more of them are undergoing surgery to re-connect their hymens and hide any sign of past sexual activity. They want to ensure that blood is spilled on their wedding night sheets.

The social pressure is so great that some women have even taken their own lives.

With Chinese manufacturers leading the way, there are now non-surgical options on the market as well. One website sells artificial hymens for just £20 (23 euros). The Chinese hymen is made of elastic and filled with fake blood. Once inserted in the vagina, the woman can simulate virginity, the company claims.

It may be the 21st Century but the issue of virginity in Arab culture can still be a matter of life and death, especially for women like Sonia and Nada.

And while hymen repair may be a quick fix, it can't reconcile centuries of ingrained tradition with the attitudes of modern society.

1. The Rubik's Cube - The Rubik's Cube is a 3-D mechanical puzzle. In a classic Rubik's Cube, each of the six faces is covered by nine stickers, among six solid colours (traditionally white, red, blue, orange, green, and yellow). For the puzzle to be solved, each face must be a solid colour.

2. Sudoku - number-placement puzzle. The objective is to fill a 9×9 grid with digits so that each column, each row, and each of the nine 3×3 sub-grids that compose the grid contains all of the digits from 1 to 9. Japanese people are smart, isn’t it?

3. Fifteen puzzle - who did not play fifteen in childhood? The game is very simple – you should place 15 tiles in order (1 to 15) by making sliding moves and using one empty space.


4. Crossword puzzle – his majesty crossword. It’s a word puzzle, nowadays known in different variations. The goal is to fill the white squares with letters, forming words or phrases, by solving clues which lead to the answers.


5. Sokoban – warehouse keeper in translation, is a puzzle, where the player pushes boxes around a maze, viewed from above, and tries to put them in designated locations.Only one box may be pushed at a time, and boxes cannot be pulled.

6. Nonograms – also known as Paint by Numbers or Griddlers. It’s a picture logic puzzle in which cells in a grid have to be colored or left blank according to numbers given at the side of the grid to reveal a hidden picture.



7. Maze – Maze solving is the act of finding a route through the maze from the start to finish, technically the maze is distinguished from the labyrinth.




8. Jigsaw puzzle – is a tiling puzzle that requires the assembly of numerous small, often oddly shaped, interlocking and tessellating pieces. Jigsaw puzzles typically come in 300-piece, 500-piece, 750-piece, and 1,000-piece sizes, however the largest commercial puzzle has 24,000 pieces and spans 428 cm by 157 cm!


9. Tower of Hanoi – Towers of Hanoi is a mathematical puzzle. It consists of three rods, and a number of disks of different sizes which can slide onto any rod. The objective of the puzzle is to move the entire stack to another rod, obeying the following rules: Only one disk may be moved at a time; each move consists of taking the upper disk from one of the rods and sliding it onto another rod, on top of the other disks that may already be present on that rod; no disk may be placed on top of a smaller disk.

10. Spot the difference – very famous puzzle, where two images are shown, and the player has to find differences between them. Usually, the image on the left side is original, but the image on the right side contains some differences.

This is ‘prada marfa’, an unusual building located in the desert near Marfa, Texas on an otherwise desolate stretch of highway 90. Behind the glass a selection of shoes and bags.

Did you know that in some elementary schools, after Halloween and Christmas, Earth Day is the third largest celebrated holiday? Or how about that it is now observed in 175 countries and is the largest secular modern day holiday in the world? For more fun facts and to learn how much energy you save when you recycle one aluminum can, read more.

. Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to watch a TV for three hours - it's equivalent to half a gallon of gasoline.

. Earth Day is a relatively new holiday and was first celebrated on April 22 in 1970. More than 20 million Americans participated in this first Earth Day celebration

. Earth Day was founded by a senator of Wisconsin and the day is credited for creating the environmentalism movement.

. April 22 is the first official day of Spring in the Northern hemisphere and of Fall in the Southern hemisphere and was chosen to be Earth Day for this reason.

. Never underestimate the importance of recycling: if every newspaper was recycled, we could save about 250,000,000 trees each year. Unfortunately only 27% of all American newspapers are recycled.

. More than 20,000,000 Hershey's Kisses are wrapped each day, using 133 square miles of tinfoil. All that foil is recyclable, but not many people realize it.

. Only 11% of the earth's surface is used to grow food.

. The world's first national park was started in 1872 at Yellowstone National Park in the US.

. The first major international conference on environmental issues was held in Sweden in 1972 and was sponsored by the United Nations.

. The first wildlife refuge was formed on Pelican Island Florida in 1903.

. The patron Saint of ecologists is St. Francis and the first proclamation of Earth Day was made by the mayor of San Francisco in 1970.

. A highlight of the annual Earth Day ceremony at the United Nations is the ringing of the Peace Bell that was given to the UN by Japan. It is made from coins given by school children to further peace on our planet.

Happy Earth Day!