Motivational speaker Zig Ziglar, who wrote more than 30 books and focused on positivity and leading a balanced life, died Wednesday in Texas. He was 86.

Ziglar, who had been suffering from pneumonia, died at a hospital in the Dallas suburb of Plano, said his personal assistant, Jay Hellwig.

Durian is a little known fruit from Asia that has an extremely pungent smell and an amazingly sweet taste. The smell of the durian fruit is so bad that many hotels in the areas where durian grows will not allow their guests to have the fruit in their rooms. But those who brave the smell are quickly won over by its beautiful taste and amazing health benefits.

Unlike most fruits the durian is left to fall from the tree as this is a sign that it is ripe to eat. People in the local villages of South East Asia, where

If you look old, you might be at higher risk of heart trouble.

People with several visible signs of aging such as hair loss and fatty deposits around the eyes have a higher risk of developing heart problems than those of the same age who look younger, according to a study presented Tuesday.

"The visible signs of aging reflect physiologic or biological age, not chronological age, and are independent of chronological age," Anne Tybjaerg-Hansen, senior author of the study and professor at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, said in a statement.

The Devil's Interval, is evil in the ear of the beholder?

It started when Ozzy Osbourne gave Geezer Butler a cryptic book of black magic. Butler had been dabbling in the occult, and moving away from the Catholicism that was so dear to him. But that night something happened. Butler had a vision of a demonic presence in his room, and when he got up to retrieve the book it was gone. That was enough to scare him straight back to his beloved Catholicism. In response to Butler’s experience Osbourne wrote the lyrics to the song that started it all, “Black Sabbath”: “What is this that stands before me? / Figure in black which points at me …” The rest is heavy metal history. Although Geezer Butler ceased dabbling in the occult, he remained fascinated by it, and as the chief lyricist in Black Sabbath, he depicted Satan in numerous songs including “N.I.B.,” “War Pigs,” and “Lord of this World.”

For more than a decade, studies have shown that some cancer patients benefit from taking aspirin, but who exactly might benefit remained unclear.  Now a new study appears to have found a specific patient population that may live longer by taking this drug: Colon cancer patients.

After reviewing data from 964 colorectal cancer patients, researchers at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston found when patients whose tumors had a mutated form of the PIK3CA gene took aspirin after being diagnosed, they lived significantly longer than patients without the mutation.

First of all, change how you think. Never change who you are, never change how you learn, change how you think. Things are changing!

Prepare to write your list of everything you want to do today. Never do anything. Just prepare to do what you want to do. The Boy Scouts motto is "Be Prepared!"

Attitude is one of the most important ingredients in determining success or lack thereof for all people. Successful people have one thing in common - an expectant attitude of success.

Most people begin each morning in neutral and react to events of the day. You can be one of the successful people in life by starting each day with a positive attitude, a gratitude for the opportunities you have, and an expectancy of the best for yourself.

Star Wars was in a black hole.

The beloved original franchise had ended with Return of the Jedi in 1983, and as the kids of that generation grew up, leaving their toys to gather dust in the attic or garage, no one was giving much thought to what was next.

Star Wars was over. Nostalgia had yet to kick in. Then, suddenly, three more stories appeared.

That was 1991, when sci-fi author Timothy Zahn popularized the so-called “Expanded Universe” with The Thrawn Trilogy – a series of novels about Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and Princess Leia that was set five years after the end of Jedi. As the books rose on The New York Times best-seller list, Star Wars climbed back to the top of the pop-culture mountain.

Bond is not only back but he is threatening to claim an Aston Martin full of records as the 23rd James Bond instalment Skyfall continues to dominate box offices worldwide prior to its release in North America on Friday.

Only 10 days old in box-office terms, Skyfall has already taken an impressive $287 million from cinemas despite only being released in mostly European and Asian territories. This includes $US157 million ($A152 million) over the past weekend alone, continuing the trend of Skyfall outperforming Quantum of Solace and Casino Royale in most markets for the equivalent period.

I certainly don’t profess to know the exact formula for turning your kids into healthy eaters.

But it seems to me, there is one very important strategy for increasing the chances that your child will grow into a healthy eater, and it’s all about getting your focus right.

Lance Armstrong lost his 7 Tour de France titles. Is he still a hero?

Unless you've been under a rock lately, you've no doubt heard that Lance Armstrong, the “greatest cyclist who ever lived”, had his seven Tour de France titles stripped from the record book.

He's not just an accomplished athlete – he is the epitome of a survivor. He not only survived testicular cancer, but the cancer that had spread to his brain and lungs, as well. It wasn't until after these life threatening events that he became the champion cyclist we know today.

Six year old Brandon decided one Saturday morning to fix his parents pancakes. He found a big bowl and spoon, pulled a chair to the counter, opened the cupboard and pulled out the heavy flour canister, spilling it on the floor. He scooped some of the flour into the bowl with his hands, mixed in most of a cup of milk and added some sugar, leaving a floury trail on the floor which by now had a few tracks left by his kitten.

I am your constant companion.

I am your greatest helper or heaviest burden.

I will push you onward or drag you down to failure.

I am completely at your command.

Half the things you do might just as well be turned over to me and I will be able to do them quickly and correctly.

Google seems to be preparing a major rethink of Google Wallet, its mobile-payment tool.

Instead of relying on a narrow list of smartphones and an unpopular wireless technology to make payments at retail outlets, Google is coming out with its own plastic card, according to Android Police, a specialty news site.

I have long been fascinated by Angela Merkel — a woman who has risen to power in a conservative country where most women still find it hard to get to the top; an East German who seemed untrammeled by the mediocrity, the torpor and the generally loathsome atmosphere of mistrust that permeated that drab Communist state. I spent many years covering the Soviet bloc, relishing the great friendship and conversation you could enjoy behind closed doors. I am also married

For someone who doesn't play the fantasy card game "Magic: The Gathering," watching a round and trying to understand what is going on is difficult.

The pace is fast. There are cards and dice. A round can be over before you know it.

The game has recently taken the local spotlight for a very dark reason: Sean Dugas, 30, one of the area's most active players, was killed, according to police, by two Magic players who robbed him for his collection of cards.