Here are this week's read­ing diver­sions for your per­sonal enlight­en­ment. Have a super weekend!

11 'Bad' Things We Learned May Actu­ally Be Good For You In 2011

Take a look at our round-up of 11 things we learned in 2011 that may not actu­ally be as bad for us as we thought.

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Mean­ing­ful Peace | World Pol­icy Institute

The mis­use of the word “peace” in for­eign pol­icy has often made it an empty slo­gan used for polit­i­cal pur­poses. “Peace for our time” was the jus­ti­fi­ca­tion in 1930s Europe to appease and bol­ster a wicked régime that plunged the world into the blood­i­est war in his­tory. Peace can be found in ceme­ter­ies filled with the dead, and in dun­geons crammed with polit­i­cal pris­on­ers. While peace is, in fact, the ulti­mate end, a peace prompted by fear is illu­sory; it is weak, and it is momentary.

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Con­tact Lens Health Study Reveals Gross Trends

The biggest no-nos we com­mit are show­er­ing, swim­ming and sleep­ing while our con­tact lenses are still in, and using our con­tacts longer than we should before start­ing a fresh pair, NPR reported. Other con­tact lens sins include "top­ping off" the solu­tion in the con­tact lens case instead of using fresh solu­tion each day, and never or rarely replac­ing the lens case.

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Baby Seal Enters House, Sleeps On Couch (PHOTOS)

New Zealan­der Annette Swof­fer got the sur­prise of her life when she found a baby seal in her kitchen, who later began to snooze on her couch, the New Zealand Her­ald reports.

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Jimmy Kim­mel Chal­lenge: Best 'I Gave My Child A Ter­ri­ble Present' Submissions

Jimmy Kimmel's com­pi­la­tion of kids react­ing to ter­ri­ble presents is not just hilar­i­ous. In the spirit of great com­edy, it's also the per­fect way to sum up what many par­ents already know — our chil­dren are…spoiled

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Dr. Phil McGraw: Hol­i­day Advice

Give to oth­ers. If you're feel­ing empty dur­ing the hol­i­days, the best way to get is to give. Fill up your heart by help­ing those who are less for­tu­nate. Give away that which you most need. You will be amazed at the outcome!

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Secret Santa Gifts by Zodiac Sign — MyDaily Horoscopes

Giv­ing is one of the best parts of the hol­i­day sea­son, and the tra­di­tion of pulling a recipient's name out of the hat — whether at work or in your large fam­ily — is one of the more excit­ing tra­di­tions sur­round­ing gift-giving. Thought­ful lit­tle gifts are often just as wel­come as big­ger splashes that cost an arm and a leg. Here are some sug­ges­tions for how you can make each zodiac sign happy with a sur­prise gift that doesn't break your bank

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Colds: Sep­a­rat­ing Fact From Fiction

Myth. Sorry, Mom, but dash­ing out of the house with a wet head doesn't mean you're guar­an­teed to catch a cold. "It's a great old wives' tale," says Beth Rica­nati, M.D., YouBeauty Well­ness Advi­sor and med­ical direc­tor of the Lifestyle 180 pro­gram at the Cleve­land Clinic.

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Undi­ag­nosed arthri­tis — Got Pso­ri­a­sis? 7 Key Ques­tions to Ask Your­self — Health.com

Pso­ri­atic arthri­tis, a type of arthri­tis that affects peo­ple with the skin con­di­tion pso­ri­a­sis, can attack the joints and tendons.

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A Top Dermatologist's 5 Best Anti-Aging Tips | Caring.com

You might expect a der­ma­tol­o­gist to empha­size only skin-care prod­ucts and tech­niques, but Mad­fes says that younger skin starts with the nutri­ents that reach it from inside the body. The skin is the body's largest organ, after all. So diet directly affects how you vis­i­bly age.

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Helen Lamanna is Managing Director, and co-founder of AdvisorAnalyst.com. Read more from the author/contributor here.

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