Roads you would never want to drive on
Pia Bautista 4 days ago 65748
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Think the road that leads to your city, town or village is bad? Once you see these seven most dangerous roads in the world, you would thank God for the one you have!
Roads you would never want to drive on
Most of these roads are located in the mountain areas, such as Tibet. Surely tourists have a hard time resisting the views those roads offer, but the beauty is killing, indeed! Some of these paths claim over 300 lives per year and do it all the time.
Most of the dangers are hidden in massive landslides, gravel and stones falling down on the cars and people. On some roads, humans are a significant threat. Careless driving leads to the majority of accidents and deaths.
Roads you would never want to drive on
If you are smart, you would never take the risks of traveling on those roads, but some people in this world have no option. The most dangerous roads in the world lead to their home villages or towns. They are forced to travel back and forth on them regularly and put their lives at risk.
Watch the video and see the amazing sites on our globe, where traveling is as dangerous as it gets.
These roads are treacherous, and we can only rejoice in not having to take the risks daily going back home!
About Visit Guangxi - China
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This Turmeric-Carrot-Black Pepper Soup Fights Inflammation, Alzheimer’s Disease and Cancer
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Curcumin, a bioactive ingredient in turmeric, exhibits over 150 potentially therapeutic activities, including anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial activity, and anti-cancer properties that have been intensely studied.
What Makes Curcumin Such Potent Medicine?
Researchers have found a number of different mechanisms of action for curcumin, and part of the answer as to why curcumin appears to be such potent medicine is because it can:
Modulate about 700 of your genes
Positively modulate more than 160 different physiological pathways3
Make your cells’ membranes more orderly4
Affect signaling molecules.5 For example, curcumin has been shown to directly interact with:
Inflammatory molecules Cell survival proteins Histone
Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV1) integrase and protease DNA and RNA Various carrier proteins and metal ions
As a result of these (and potentially other) effects, curcumin has the ability to benefit your health in a variety of ways, and prevent a number of different diseases. According to a study published in the Natural Product Reports6 in 2011, curcumin can be therapeutic for:
Lung and liver diseases Neurological diseases Metabolic diseases
Autoimmune disorders Cardiovascular diseases Inflammatory diseases7
More specifically, studies8,9 that now number in the hundreds have shown that curcumin and other bioactive compounds in turmeric can:
Support healthy cholesterol levels Prevent low-density lipoprotein oxidation Inhibit platelet aggregation
Suppress thrombosis and myocardial infarction Suppress symptoms associated with type 2 diabetes Suppress symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis
Suppress symptoms of multiple sclerosis Protect against radiation-induced damage and heavy metal toxicity Inhibit HIV replication
Reduce systemic inflammation in obese individuals10 Enhance wound healing Protect against liver damage11
Increase bile secretion Protect against cataracts Protect against pulmonary toxicity and fibrosis
Turmeric May Help Combat Alzheimer’s Disease and Other Inflammatory Conditions
Curcumin is capable of crossing your blood-brain barrier, which is one factor that has led researchers to investigate its potential as a neuroprotective agent for neurological disorders such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease.12,13
The potent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties of curcumin suggests it may also promote brain health in general. In the case of Alzheimer’s, recent animal research14 has discovered another bioactive ingredient in turmeric, besides curcumin, that adds to its neuroprotective effects.
This compound, called aromatic turmerone, help endogenous neutral stem cells (NSC) to grow, and these stem cells play an important role brain repair and regeneration activities. According to lead author Adele Rueger:15
“While several substances have been described to promote stem cell proliferation in the brain, fewer drugs additionally promote the differentiation of stem cells into neurons, which constitutes a major goal in regenerative medicine. Our findings on aromatic turmerone take us one step closer to achieving this goal.”
Curcumin may also be helpful. Previous research has shown that curcumin helps inhibit the accumulation of destructive beta-amyloids in the brain of Alzheimer’s patients, as well as break up existing plaques associated with the disease. People with Alzheimer’s tend to have higher levels of inflammation in their brains, and curcumin is perhaps best known for its potent anti-inflammatory properties. It can inhibit both the activity and the inflammatory metabolic byproducts of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX2) and 5-lipooxygenase (5-LOX) enzymes, as well as other enzymes and hormones that modulate inflammation.
Another common condition that can benefit from curcumin’s anti-inflammatory activity is osteoarthritis. Research16 published in 2011 found that patients who added 200 mg of curcumin a day to their treatment plan had reduced pain and increased mobility compared to the control group. Earlier research17 also found that a turmeric extract blocked inflammatory pathways, effectively preventing the launch of a protein that triggers swelling and pain.
Curcumin Appears to Be Universally Useful for All Cancers
Among the most exciting benefits of turmeric is its potent anti-cancer activity.18,19 Curcumin actually has the most evidence-based literature20 supporting its use against cancer of any other nutrient, including vitamin D! As noted by Dr. William LaValley—one of the leading natural medicine cancer physicians whom I’ve previously interviewed on this topic—curcumin is unique in that it appears to be universally useful for just about every type of cancer. This is odd, considering the fact that cancer consists of a wide variety of different molecular pathologies. One reason for this universal anti-cancer proclivity is curcumin’s ability to affect multiple molecular targets, via multiple pathways.
Once it gets into a cell, it affects more than 100 different molecular pathways. And, as explained by Dr. LaValley, whether the curcumin molecule causes an increase in activity of a particular molecular target, or decrease/inhibition of activity, studies repeatedly show that the end result is a potent anti-cancer activity. Moreover, curcumin is non-toxic, and does not adversely affect healthy cells, suggesting it selectively targets cancer cells—all of which are clear benefits in cancer treatment. Research has even shown that it works synergistically with certain chemotherapy drugs, enhancing the elimination of cancer cells.
[Health benefits via Dr. Mercola]
Moroccan Carrot Soup
Ingredients
2 tablespoons butter
1 cup chopped organic yellow onion
1 pound large organic carrots, cut in ½- inch dice (about 2 ⅔ cups)
2 1/2 cups low-sodium organic chicken stock or vegetable stock
2 minced garlic cloves (or more to taste)
2 teaspoons turmeric
1 1/2 teaspoons cumin seeds
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/8 teaspoon allspice
Salt and fresh cracked black pepper (to taste)
1/2 cup sour cream, crème fraishe, or plain yogurt, optional for garnish
Preparation
Melt butter in a large sauce pan over medium-high heat. Add onion; saute for 2 minutes. Mix in carrots and broth. Bring to boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer until carrots are very tender, about 20 minutes.
Stir cumin seeds in a small skillet over medium-high heat until fragrant, about 4 – 5 minutes. Finely grind in a spice mill.
Remove soup from heat. Puree in batches in a blender until smooth. Return to sauce pan. Whisk in honey, lemon juice and allspice. Season with salt and pepper.
Ladle soup into bowl. Sprinkle with toasted cumin, or mix cumin and sour cream in a small bowl and dollop on top. Serve.
Source
http://www.foodista.com/blog/2012/03/29/must-try-spicy-moroccan-carrot-soup
A quick note from our founder-
Over the past year, my friend Dave at PaleoHacks has been working on a secret cookbook with world-renowned Le Cordon Bleu chef Peter Servold.
Well, today this new this new incredible Paleo Cookbook is finally available to be shipped right to your door for FREE
That’s right — as a special launch promotion, we’re offering our brand new Paleo fat loss cookbook to you for free (Chef Pete lost 60 lbs using these recipes!) — All you have to do is just cover a small shipping cost (international shipping is a bit more).
Get your FREE copy of Paleo Eats Here. (Grab this today, because we only ordered a small batch of these cookbooks for this freebie promotion, and they will sell out FAST!)
–> Get The Free Cookbook
Science Newsfrom research organizations
Rice crops that can save farmers money and cut pollution
New study identifies rice crops that are more efficient at using nitrogen
Date:
July 29, 2016
Source:
University of Toronto
Summary:
A new study has identified 'superstar' varieties of rice that can reduce fertilizer loss and cut down on environmental pollution in the process, report scientists.
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U of T Scarborough Professor Herbert Kronzucker has helped identify "superstar" varieties of rice that can reduce fertilizer loss and cut down on environmental pollution in the process.
Credit: Ken Jones
A new U of T Scarborough study has identified "superstar" varieties of rice that can reduce fertilizer loss and cut down on environmental pollution in the process.
The study, authored by U of T Scarborough Professor Herbert Kronzucker in collaboration with a team at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, looked at 19 varieties of rice to see which ones were more efficient at using nitrogen.
"We have this bucolic idea of agriculture -- animals grazing or vast fields of majestic crops -- but the global reality is it's one of the biggest drivers of environmental pollution and climate change," says Kronzucker.
Nitrogen, when applied as fertilizer, is taken up inefficiently by most crops. In tropical rice fields, as much as 50 to 70 per cent can be lost. The problem is that nitrogen negatively impacts water quality by contaminating nearby watersheds or leaching into ground water. It's also a significant source of gases such as ammonia and nitrogen oxide, which are not only harmful to aquatic life but also a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions.
While nitrogen is one of three main nutrients required for crops to grow, it also costs the most to produce, adds Kronzucker.
"Anything we can do to reduce demand for nitrogen, both environmentally and for farmers in the developing world struggling to pay for it, is a significant contribution."
Kronzucker's study for the first time identifies a novel class of chemicals produced and released by the roots of rice crops that directly influence the metabolism of soil microbes. They found that key microbial reactions that lead to an inefficiency in nitrogen capture can be significantly reduced in certain varieties of rice plants through the action of those specific chemicals released from root cells.
One of the main reasons crops waste so much fertilizer is that they were bred that way. In the past fertilizers were relatively inexpensive to produce because fossil fuels were abundant and cheap. As a result, plant geneticists bred crops that responded to high fertilizer use regardless of how efficient they were at using nitrogen.
"These inefficiencies used to be of little interest, but now, with fluctuating fuel prices and growing concerns over climate change, it's a much bigger issue," says Kronzucker, who is the Director of the Canadian Centre for World Hunger Research at U of T Scarborough.
There are more than 120,000 varieties of rice stored at the germplasm bank at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in the Philippines, but Kronzucker's team only focused on varieties that met important criteria. For one they concentrated only on Japonica (the rice used in sushi) and Indica, the world's most popular rice type commonly grown in China, India and Southeast Asia. The varieties also had to be currently grown by farmers, have a high yield potential, be disease and pest-resistant, grow to the right size and have strong enough roots to withstand monsoon-force winds.
"They had to be proven in the field as viable options. It's not practical if a rice farmer isn't going to touch it," adds Kronzucker.
Going forward the hope is for this study to inform rice-growing strategies throughout Asia. One option could be to provide farmers with government incentives like tax credits, to switch to a more nitrogen-friendly variety. Another outcome could be better breeding programs where even better species of crops can be produced.
"There's no reason a crop can't result in less pollution while also saving farmers money; the two aren't incompatible," says Kronzucker. "If we can produce more responsible plants that don't waste fertilizer needlessly, everyone wins."
Story Source:
The above post is reprinted from materials provided by University of Toronto. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
Journal Reference:
Li Sun, Yufang Lu, Fangwei Yu, Herbert J. Kronzucker, Weiming Shi. Biological nitrification inhibition by rice root exudates and its relationship with nitrogen-use efficiency. New Phytologist, 2016; DOI: 10.1111/nph.14057
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University of Toronto. "Rice crops that can save farmers money and cut pollution: New study identifies rice crops that are more efficient at using nitrogen." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 29 July 2016. .
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Get Glowing Skin with These Nutrient-Rich Foods
By Jennifer Gruenemay, ACE-Certified, Special to Lifescript
Published January 19, 2016 A dull, dry complexion is a blinking neon sign that you’re not eating right. Put your best face forward with a better diet.
Face Food #1: Avocados
This creamy fruit is abundant in essential oils and B-complex vitamins that nourish your skin.
Niacin (vitamin B3) soothes irritated and red, blotchy skin. One avocado has 3.8 mg of niacin – 27% of what you need every day.
Blend half an avocado with yogurt and frozen berries to make a creamy, nutty-flavored morning smoothie.
Or try this Avocado Ice Cream recipe. Face Food #2: Mangoes
Mangoes have more than 80% of your daily requirement for vitamin A, which is why they’re such a great food for skin. Vitamin A maintains and repairs skin cells; too little of it can cause a dry, flaky complexion.
As an antioxidant, vitamin A also fights free radical damage that can prematurely age the skin.
And with fewer than 70 calories per serving, this succulent fruit is the perfect pick for your figure as well as your face.
Check out this Mango-Chile Chutney.
Face Food #3: Almonds
Almonds are great for your complexion because they contain vitamin E. The rich oils in vitamin E moisturize dry skin and antioxidants protect against skin damage and premature aging.
Reach for a handful of these Spiced Spanish Almonds. Face Food #4: Cottage Cheese
Dairy is good for your bones and face. But it’s the selenium in cottage cheese — not the calcium — that makes us wild for the creamy curds.
Selenium, an essential mineral, teams up with vitamin E to fight cell-damaging free radicals. Plus, it protects against skin cancer and fights dandruff.
Get your cottage cheese in this Baked Mac & Cheese.
Face Food #5: Acerola Cherries
Just one Acerola cherry supplies 100% of your daily allowance for vitamin C, which is great news for your skin.
As an antioxidant, vitamin C fights skin damage and wrinkles. It also plays a central role in the production of collagen, the structural protein in skin.
Use Acerola Cherries in these Chocolate-Cherry Cupcakes.
Face Food #6: Oysters
Whether they’re an aphrodisiac or not, oysters are a love fest for skin. They fight pimples because they’re rich in the mineral zinc, which limits the production of sebum, an oily secretion that contributes to acne.
The mineral also works with vitamin C to help boost elastin, the skin's elastic protein.
Make this Cioppino with oysters.
Face Food #7: Baked Potatoes
Eat one baked potato (with the skin) to get 75% of your daily dose of copper. This essential mineral works with vitamin C and zinc to produce the elastin fibers that support skin structure.
Too little copper in your diet can reduce your skin’s ability to heal and cause it to become less supple and dull.
Get your copper in these Loaded Twice-Baked Potatoes. Published January 19, 2016
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Face Food #8: Mushrooms
The fungus is rich in riboflavin, a B vitamin that’s vital to your skin. Riboflavin, aka vitamin B2, is involved in tissue maintenance and repair. It also improves blemishes caused by rosacea.
In fact, this vitamin is so important for skin repair that the body uses large amounts after sustaining a burn or wound and following surgery.
Try these Garlic-Rosemary Mushrooms.
Face Food #9: Flaxseed Oil
Fish is the best source of omega-3 fatty acids, which hydrate the skin, dilute sebum and unclog pores.
But if you're not a fan of fish, flaxseed oil is the best plant source of omega-3s. Just one teaspoon of flaxseed oil per day provides 2.5 grams of omega 3s.
Check out this Orange-Miso Sauce with flaxseed oil. Face Food #10: Wheat Germ
Don’t let the “germ” scare you – it’s actually just the embryo within a grain of wheat, and it’s nutritious. Wheat germ is a good source of biotin, a B vitamin that's crucial to skin health.
A mild biotin deficiency can cause dermatitis, a condition characterized by itchy, scaly skin.
Sprinkle wheat germ on yogurt for a tasty way to get more biotin in your diet. Or try these Apricot-Wheat Germ Muffins.
Slather It On!
Some of these 10 foods make for nourishing facial masks, too. Try this avocado mask to instantly moisturize your skin:
1. Mash one whole avocado.
2. Add 1 teaspoon flaxseed oil and 1 teaspoon honey.
3. Mix together until smooth and creamy. Avocado Face Mask, continued…
4. Apply to face and let sit for 15 to 20 minutes.
5. Rinse clean with warm water.
In addition to eating these skin-boosting foods, be sure to drink plenty of water and exercise daily to flush out toxins.
Remember, too, that smoking cigarettes damages healthy skin and makes it more prone to wrinkles and dullness.
Finally, always wear sunscreen — especially on your face — whether it’s sunny or cloudy. Buy a face moisturizer that contains at least SPF15, or wear a hat with a wide brim to shade your face.
Are You a Health Food Nut?
Test your knowledge on healthy fare — from garlic to green tea — with this health food quiz.
Connect with Us
Get more healthy food for thought – check out our posts on Health Bistro and Lifescript TV videos on YouTube. Plus, join the fun and conversation on Google+, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. 
The Internet Isn’t Making Us Dumber — It’s Making Us More ‘Meta-Ignorant’
By William Poundstone
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Photo: Jedrzej Kaminski / EyeEm / Getty Images
At five-foot-six and 270 pounds, the bank robber was impossible to miss. On April 19, 1995, he hit two Pittsburgh banks in broad daylight. Security cameras picked up good images of his face — he wore no mask — and showed him holding a gun to the teller. Police made sure the footage was broadcast on the local eleven o’clock news. A tip came in within minutes, and just after midnight, the police were knocking on the suspect’s door in McKeesport. Identified as McArthur Wheeler, he was incredulous. “But I wore the juice,” he said.
Wheeler told police he rubbed lemon juice on his face to make it invisible to security cameras. Detectives concluded he was not delusional, not on drugs — just incredibly mistaken.
Wheeler knew that lemon juice is used as an invisible ink. Logically, then, lemon juice would make his face invisible to cameras. He tested this out before the heists, putting juice on his face and snapping a selfie with a Polaroid camera. There was no face in the photo! (Police never figured that out. Most likely Wheeler was no more competent as a photographer than he was as a bank robber.) Wheeler reported one problem with his scheme: The lemon juice stung his eyes so badly that he could barely see.
Wheeler went to jail and into the annals of the world’s dumbest criminals. It was such a feature, in the 1996 World Almanac, that brought Wheeler’s story to the attention of David Dunning, a Cornell psychology professor. He saw in this tale of dim-witted woe something universal. Those most lacking in knowledge and skills are least able to appreciate that lack. This observation would eventually become known as the Dunning-Kruger effect.
Dunning and a graduate student, Justin Kruger, embarked on series of experiments testing this premise. They quizzed undergraduate psychology students on grammar, logic, and jokes, then asked the students to estimate their scores and also estimate how well they did relative to others (on a percentile basis). The students who scored lowest had greatly exaggerated notions of how well they did. Dunning had expected that, but not the magnitude of the effect. His first reaction to the results was “Wow.” Those who scored near the bottom estimated that their skills were superior to two-thirds of the other students.
Later research went far beyond the university. For one experiment, Dunning and Kruger recruited gun hobbyists at a trapshooting and skeet-shooting competition. Volunteers took a ten-question gun safety and knowledge quiz adapted from one published by the National Rifle Association. Again, the gun owners who knew the least about firearm safety wildly overestimated their knowledge.
Like most rules, this one has exceptions. “One need not look far,” Dunning and Kruger wrote, “to find individuals with an impressive understanding of the strategies and techniques of basketball, for instance, yet who could not ‘dunk’ to save their lives. (These people are called coaches.)” But of course coaches understand their own physical limitations. Similarly, “most people have no trouble identifying their inability to translate Slovenian proverbs, reconstruct a V-8 engine, or diagnose acute disseminated encephalomyelitis.”
The Dunning-Kruger effect requires a minimal degree of knowledge and experience in the area about which you are ignorant (and ignorant of your ignorance). Drivers, as a group, are subject to the effect — bad drivers usually think they’re good drivers — but those who have never learned how to drive are exempt.
Since Dunning and Kruger first published their results in the 1999 paper “Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One’s Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments,” the effect named for them has become a meme. It strikes a universal chord: As Dunning put it, the overconfident airhead “is someone we’ve all met.” Actor John Cleese concisely explains the Dunning-Kruger effect in a much-shared YouTube video: “If you’re very, very stupid, how can you possibly realize that you’re very, very stupid? You’d have to be relatively intelligent to realize how stupid you are … And this explains not just Hollywood but almost the entirety of Fox News.” But the 1999 paper makes clear the authors’ opinion that the first place to look for a Dunning-Kruger ignoramus is in the mirror.
***
There is now an active field of research into how the internet is changing what we learn and remember. In a 2011 experiment helmed by Daniel Wegner of Harvard, volunteers were presented with a list of 40 trivia facts — short, pithy statements such as “An ostrich’s eye is bigger than its brain.” Each person was instructed to type all 40 statements into a computer. Half the volunteers were told to remember the facts. The other half weren’t. Also, half were informed that their work would be stored on the computer. The other half were told that it would be erased immediately after the task’s completion.
The volunteers were later given a quiz on the facts they’d typed. Those instructed to remember the information scored no better than those who hadn’t been told to do so. But those who believed that their work would be erased scored much better compared to those who believed it would be saved. This was true whether they were trying to remember the facts or not.
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The conscious mind exercises little choice in remembering and forgetting. Nobody decides to forget a client’s name or to remember forever the lyrics of a detested pop tune. It just happens.
The Harvard experiment’s results are consistent with a pragmatic system of memory. It is impossible to remember everything. The brain must constantly be doing triage on memories, without conscious intervention. And apparently it recognizes that there is less need to stock our minds with information that can be readily retrieved. (It may be a very long time before you need to know how big an ostrich’s eyeball is.) So facts are more often forgotten when people believe the facts will be archived. This phenomenon has earned a name — the Google effect — describing the automatic forgetting of information that can be found online.
If you take the Google effect to the point of absurdity, selfies would cause amnesia. But a 2013 study conducted by Linda Henkel of Fairfield University pointed in that direction. Henkel noticed that visitors to art museums are obsessed with taking cell-phone shots of artworks and often are less interested in looking at the art itself. So she performed an experiment at Fairfield University’s Bellarmine Museum of Art. Undergraduates took a docent tour in which they were directed to view specific artworks. Some were instructed to photograph the art, and others were simply told to take note of it. The next day both groups were quizzed on their knowledge of the artworks. The visitors who snapped pictures were less able to identify works and to recall visual details.
Our unconscious curators of memory must be aware of how quickly and easily any needed fact can be called up. This implies that our broadband networks have created a new regime of learning and memory, one in which facts are less likely to be retained and are more quickly forgotten. In a few years, we’ll probably all be wearing devices that shoot a 24-7 video stream of our lives. Will social media make amnesiacs of us all?
Uploaded keystrokes are just one of many ways we have of storing information outside our brains. Long before our virtual social networks, we shared memory, knowledge, and expertise among our real social networks. I’m not a foodie, but I have friends who can recommend interesting new restaurants. I don’t know doctors, but I have a general practitioner who can recommend a specialist. We get by in the world, not by knowing everything but by knowing people.
Distributed memory can counteract misinformation — to a degree, anyway. Surveys have shown that most people think antibiotics will fight viruses. Wrong. But as Dan M. Kahan of Yale points out, it hardly matters. “Most people” are not going to self-prescribe azithromycin. The important thing is to know that it’s a good idea to go to a doctor when we’re sick and to follow that doctor’s instructions.
The Google effect is another adaptation to distributed memory. The cloud is a friend who happens to know everything. It’s always available, provides the answer in seconds, and never gets upset with dumb questions. It’s little wonder we depend on it to the point of absurdity. Economist Seth Stephens-Davidowitz noted that the third-most-common Google search containing the phrase “my penis” is “How big is my penis?” You’d think a ruler would have a better answer.
***
Most — more than 50 percent — of millennials can’t name anyone who shot a U.S. president or discovered a planet; they don’t know the ancient city celebrated for its hanging gardens, the one destroyed by Mount Vesuvius, or the emperor said to have fiddled while Rome burned; and most millennials can’t name the single word uttered by the raven in Edgar Allan Poe’s poem.
The conventional reaction to such reports is a blend of shock and amusement. It’s terrible how little young people/ordinary citizens know — right? It’s worth asking how we know it’s so terrible and whether it’s terrible at all.
Ignorance can be rational. Economist Anthony Downs made that claim in the 1950s. He meant that there are many situations in which the effort needed to acquire knowledge outweighs the advantage of having it. Maybe you got your diploma and a high-paying job without ever learning about that poem with the raven in it. Why learn it now?
The contemporary world regards knowledge with ambivalence. We admire learning and retain the view that it is a desirable end in itself. But our more entitled side sees learning as a means to an end — to social advancement, wealth, power, something. We are suspicious of education that lacks an ulterior motive; we click on listicles entitled “8 College Degrees With the Worst Return on Investment.”
Ours is the golden age of rational — and rationalized — ignorance. Information is being produced, devalued, and made obsolete at a prodigious rate. Every day the culture changes beneath our feet. It is harder than ever to keep up or even to be sure that keeping up matters anymore. We are left speculating about how important it is to stay current on the Middle East, contemporary novels, local politics, wearable technology, and college basketball. A friend recently wondered aloud whether it was okay to not know anything about Game of Thrones. The observation that you can look up any needed bit of information dodges the issue. You can’t Google a point of view.
The poorly informed don’t necessarily know less. They just know different things. A gamer who spends all his free time playing video games will have an encyclopedic understanding of those games. He is ill-informed only by arbitrary standards of what’s important. Not everyone agrees that there is a fixed set of facts that all should know. But absent such a set, the concept of being well-informed becomes a hopelessly relative one.
Today’s mediascape does not provide much guidance. It encourages us to create personal, solipsistic filters over information, making it unprecedentedly easy to gorge on news of favorite celebrities, TV shows, teams, political ideologies, and tech toys. This leaves less time and attention for everything else. The great risk isn’t that the internet is making us less informed or even misinformed. It’s that it may be making us meta-ignorant — less cognizant of what we don’t know.
Adapted from Head in the Cloud: Why Knowing Things Still Matters When Facts Are So Easy to Look Up by William Poundstone. Copyright © 2016 by William Poundstone.
TAGS:EXCERPTINTERNETLEARNING
WHO YOU ARE?
You are beautiful. You are Smart. You are Funny. You are Kind.You are Unique.You are Worthy of Love and Affection.
You are Never too Much and You are Always Enough.You are Precious, a Diamond, a Rose, a Pearl.You are the most Stunning God’s Creation.You are Worth more than you can ever imagine.Your Worth Surpasses All Earthly Things.
The reality is that you deserve someone who would give up their Life for you because you are Powerful and Strong and Capable
Find that woman in you and set her FREE!
“THIS IS WHO YOU ARE”
What is Being Woman all about?
Being Woman specializes in creating “Goddess” with oozing self confidence.
Wear it, Sex it out, Flaunt it, and Celebrate it!
This is what Being Woman is all about.
Be fabulous, be you!
What do we aim at?
We believe that the world needs more from women and to make this come true the world needs a powerful movement to empower them. Being Woman is one such movement that aims at bringing ‘The Pink Revolution; globally.
We, along with the world, take pride in calling ourselves as the ‘Pioneers of the Pink Revolution’, globally!
The Powerhouse Team
At Being Woman, we believe that it is the people who matter the most. We are not just a group of three ambitious friends but a complete family of 50+ members from different corners of the world who act as the ultimate ambassadors to this massive and ambitious movement.
The Growth Story
Being Woman was found in mid 2012 by three friends, brought up in India and Pakistan with a desire to win hearts across the globe. Just like a few water droplets make up a glass full of water, in the same way it all started with a closed group of few females on Facebook. Growing gradually, the numbers increased over 15,000 women with due course of time.
To spread the awareness further and give it a global reach, in October 2015 along with the group, the founders decided to promote the page on Facebook. Within a span of 4 months, fans count crossed 3 lakhs, growing every single day.
The way ahead
‘The stronger, the better’. Do join the force to strengthen this mass movement further!
LIKE us on Facebook!
Follow us on Twitter!
Lets the pictures speak on Instagram!
They say the best camera is the one you have with you, and more often than not while travelling, that’s your smartphone. A smartphone camera is as simple as it gets: one camera with a fixed focal length. While they’ve put great cameras in phones these days, they also have their limitations, so you might find shooting on them a challenge you’ll enjoy.
Here are a few travel photography tips for beginners that have helped me get more from my smartphone.
1. Find your focus
You may find that you have to redo the shot you wanted to take multiple times, especially when you’re shooting a planned action (eg: a shot of someone jumping, fireworks going off, a splash of water). Finding a point to focus on, and locking focus beforehand solves that issue. Instead of having to search for the focus and shooting the picture at the moment, the photo happens instantly and the results are beautiful.
Audi photography tips
2. Blur it out
Given the small sensors on phones, getting a shallow depth of field is hard but not impossible. Keep your subject at the minimum focusing distance of your phone, so when you focus on it you’ll see that nice blur that will separate your subject from the background.
smartphone photography
Alternately, if you have something very close to your phone and focus on a subject in the background, you’ll add the blur to the foreground, as you can see here.
mobilephone photography
3. Where the bigger cameras can’t go
One of the bigger advantages with a smartphone is that it can fit in very tight spaces, where you wouldn’t usually be able to put your bigger cameras. So make use of the advantage that the size provides to see some very interesting perspectives. This was shot through a rolled up metal framework where my camera just wouldn’t have fit.
mobilephone photography advantage
4. Approaching people
Some people tend to get conscious around big cameras, and that’s where smartphones come in handy. It usually goes unnoticed and you end up getting some rather candid shots.
taking candid photography with mobilephone
5. Go Manual
The point of shooting on the phone is to obviously keep it simple, but when you have extra options, you might as well take advantage! A lot of newer smartphones let you control the shutter speed or ISO manually (though most phones have fixed apertures). By using these options you can sometimes take images that would previously have been possible only with a more advanced compact camera.
These images were made by keeping the shutter open for longer than the auto option would allow, thereby capturing trails of light. To keep the phone steady for the first image I held it up against the airplane window, which did the trick. For the second image I also had a little tripod that I used with the phone to keep it steady for the 10 second exposure.
night photography mobilephone night time smartphone photography
6. Image processing.
Some of the more advanced smartphones also shoot RAW images and let you take advantage of the dynamic range of the sensor. Previously you had to move them to your computer to process them, but now there are mobile photography apps to do this on the phone! I for one was glad when the apps that I used on my computers were also available on mobile. The following image was processed on Adobe Photoshop Express.
AudiPhotography
Here is another example. You can see how flat the raw image looks. A few tweaks to the contrast, clarity, vibrance, and also a little de-noising, creates a much more appealing image.
AudiPhotography
About the Author: Auditya Venkatesh
Auditya Venkatesh
Auditya Venkatesh, is one of India’s leading travel photographers and is based in Bangalore, India. Popularly known as Audi, he turned his passion for travel and photography into a profession and runs Audi Photography.
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Here it is! The classic cookie recipe for the sweet, lightly spiced delights you seek. PS: If you want to add a surprise to your oatmeal cookies, choose the chocolate or raisin stir-ins, suggested below. Oatmeal Cookies
Ingredients
3/4
cup butter, softened
1
cup packed brown sugar
1/2
cup granulated sugar
1
teaspoon baking powder
1/4
teaspoon baking soda
1/2
teaspoon ground cinnamon (optional)
1/4
teaspoon ground cloves (optional)
2
eggs
1
teaspoon vanilla
1 3/4
cups all-purpose flour
2
cups rolled oats
Directions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. In a large mixing bowl, beat butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add brown sugar, granulated sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and, if desired, cinnamon and cloves. Beat until combined, scraping side of bowl occasionally. Beat in eggs and vanilla until combined. Beat in as much of the flour as you can with the mixer. Using a wooden spoon, stir in any remaining flour. Stir in rolled oats.
Drop dough by rounded teaspoons 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until edges are golden. Let stand on cookie sheets for 1 minute. Transfer to wire racks and let cool. Makes about 48 cookies.
From the Test Kitchen
OATMEAL-RAISIN COOKIES:
Prepare as directed, except after stirring in oats, stir in 1 cup raisins or snipped dried tart cherries and, if desired, 1/2 cup chopped nuts.
OATMEAL-CHIP COOKIES:
Prepare as directed, except after stirring in oats, stir in 1 cup semisweet chocolate, butterscotch-flavored, or peanut butter-flavored pieces and 1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans.
OVERSIZE OATMEAL COOKIES:
Prepare as directed, except use a 1/4-cup measure or scoop to drop mounds of dough 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheets. Press into a 3-inch circle. Bake in the 375 degrees F oven for 8 to 10 minutes or until edges are golden. Let stand on cookie sheets for 1 minute. Transfer to wire racks and let cool. Makes about 10 cookies.
Nutrition Facts (Oatmeal Cookies)
Per serving: 84 kcal cal., 4 g fat (2 g sat. fat, 17 mg chol., 51 mg sodium, 12 g carb., 0 g fiber, 1 g pro. Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet
Related Categories
Chocolate Desserts
Cookies
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Oatmeal Cookies
SAY GOODBYE TO YOUR KIDNEY STONES WITH ONLY HALF A CUP OF THIS DRINK
July 2, 2016healthylife
kidney
According to the latest statistics, the experts say that more than 26 million Americans have kidney disease and 1 in 3 American adults is currently at risk for developing the disease. This is really shocking, right? The medical experts warn that in the United States only, kidney disease kills more people than breast or prostate cancer.
What are kidney stones? Kidney stones are small, hard deposits that form inside your kidneys, and they can cause serious problems for your kidneys. The kidney stones are made of mineral and acid salts. These are the most common risk factors and causes: eating too much meat and not enough veggies or inadequate fluid intake and dehydration. You should know that kidney stones form when your urine contains more crystal-forming substances — such as calcium, oxalate and uric acid — than the fluid in your urine can dilute
First, you should know that the standard medical treatment for kidney stones is potassium citrate. A recent study has found that lemons have a unique “ability” – they are loaded with natural citrate. Doctors and medical experts have discovered that lemon juice can be an effective preventative therapy for people who are prone to frequent kidney stones. The experts call this – the Lemonade Therapy.
How does citric acid protect against kidney stones?
And now, you probably ask yourself – how this works – well, the citric acid inhibits stone formation and breaks up small stones that are beginning to form. The more citric acid in your urine, the more protected you are against forming new kidney stones. The citric acid makes urine less favorable for the formation of stones. It breaks the small stones and prevents them from becoming bigger stone, by coating them and preventing other material from attaching and building onto the stones.
As we said, lemons and limes are loaded with citric acid. The pharmaceutical form of citric acid, also known as potassium citrate, is extremely effective treating kidney stones. But, this can be very expensive and you’ll need at least 12 tablets daily.
In this article we will show you how to make this homemade recipe that will help you get rid of kidney stones and will significantly improve kidney function. This homemade recipe is very simple and easy to make. You just have to follow the simple instructions.
Boost Your Kidney Health with Only Half a Cup of This Drink
Here’s what you need to do – you just have to consume half-cup (4 ounces) of pure lemon juice per day or 32 ounces of prepared lemonade. This will provide about the same amount of citric acid as the pharmacological therapy. You just have to mix 2 oz. of lemon juice with 6 oz. of water and drink it twice a day – once in the morning and once in the evening – to reach the goal of 4 oz. lemon juice per day. Thanks for reading and don’t forget to share.
source:Healthy Life Land
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Cover A Piece of Butter With A Glass… Why? You’ll Use This Trick For The Rest Of Your Life!
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They say breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and rightly so! It kicks off our metabolism and gives us the energy we need to start the day off with a bang. But I must admit, sometimes, when I have to wake up early in the morning, the last thing I want to do is make a complicated breakfast. I want to grab something delicious and go. Now butter is one of my favorite breakfast ingredients. While it’s not the healthiest of the bunch, it’s actually healthier than many people think. Butter is rich in fat-soluble vitamins and it also contains a lot of healthy saturated fats, which raises your HDL (the good stuff) cholesterol and changes the LDL from small (bad!) to benign Large LDL. And hey, it goes without saying that even a little dab of butter can make even the most boring meals that much yummier!
But what happens when you grab the butter out of the fridge and it’s so cold that it’s pretty much like a solid brick that you can’t even cut through? How annoying! In these situations, I begin contemplating skipping the butter altogether. But then I come to my senses and I begin sawing away with a serrated knife, which may not necessarily be the safest solution. So what to do? I guess you could leave the butter out on the counter and wait for it to soften but could there be a better way? You bet!
In the video below, you’ll learn a very cool 30-second tip that will fix this problem for you forever. All you’ll need is a glass and some hot water. And just like that, your life just got that much easier!
Share this with your friends and family by clicking the button below.
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Cover A Piece of Butter With A Glass… Why? You’ll Use This Trick For The Rest Of Your Life!
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They say breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and rightly so! It kicks off our metabolism and gives us the energy we need to start the day off with a bang. But I must admit, sometimes, when I have to wake up early in the morning, the last thing I want to do is make a complicated breakfast. I want to grab something delicious and go. Now butter is one of my favorite breakfast ingredients. While it’s not the healthiest of the bunch, it’s actually healthier than many people think. Butter is rich in fat-soluble vitamins and it also contains a lot of healthy saturated fats, which raises your HDL (the good stuff) cholesterol and changes the LDL from small (bad!) to benign Large LDL. And hey, it goes without saying that even a little dab of butter can make even the most boring meals that much yummier!
But what happens when you grab the butter out of the fridge and it’s so cold that it’s pretty much like a solid brick that you can’t even cut through? How annoying! In these situations, I begin contemplating skipping the butter altogether. But then I come to my senses and I begin sawing away with a serrated knife, which may not necessarily be the safest solution. So what to do? I guess you could leave the butter out on the counter and wait for it to soften but could there be a better way? You bet!
In the video below, you’ll learn a very cool 30-second tip that will fix this problem for you forever. All you’ll need is a glass and some hot water. And just like that, your life just got that much easier!
Read more at http://www.metaspoon.com/cover-butter-with-glass/#QgMRKMYvKIYQ1C3R.99
How Prolonged Exposure to Sweet, Blessed Silence Benefits the Brain
By Melissa Dahl
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Photo: May Xiong/Getty Images
I write this to the soundtrack of a literal chainsaw; there are men at work outside my window attempting to – well, I’m not exactly sure what they’re attempting to do. Cut down a tree? Cut down branches of a tree? Whatever it is they’re doing, they are making an awful lot of noise as they do it.
Much has been written about “noise pollution,” a phrase coined in the 1960s, when scientists discovered that everyday exposure to the loudness of highways and airports was linked with a variety of health concerns: heart disease, sleep problems, high blood pressure, and, least surprisingly, hearing loss. And, as Maggie Koerth-Baker reminds in FiveThirtyEight this week, sounds can become so intense that they can even cause much more immediate damage, strong enough to tear a hole in your eardrums or even bowl you right over.
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So: Excessive noisiness is bad. Its opposite — silence — has largely been understood for what it is not; it is not noise. It is the absence of sound. If too much exposure to loud sounds is bad for us, lack of sound means a lack of that physical harm caused by noise pollution. Silence is neutral. But as science writer Daniel A. Gross writes in a feature included in a recent Nautilus series on noise, some recent research is suggesting that prolonged and repeated exposure to silence may result in improved health, just like prolonged and repeated exposure to noisiness can result in poorer health.
What’s especially fascinating about the scientific study of silence is how much of it came about by accident. For many of the researchers Gross interviews for his piece (which, by the way, was republished by Nautilus this week, but originally posted in 2014), findings about the benefits of quiet came as a surprise — several of them initially set out to study the neuroscience of sound, or of music in particular. One mouse study led by Imke Kirste, a biologist at Duke University, found that “even though all the sounds had short-term neurological effects, not one of them had a lasting impact,” Gross writes. “Yet to her great surprise, Kirste found that two hours of silence per day prompted cell development in the hippocampus, the brain region related to the formation of memory involving the senses.”
This was, of course, a study in mice; mice, in case you haven’t heard, are not people. It’s early days in this line of research, in other words, but some scientists are hopeful that these findings may lead the way to some potential treatments for people with disorders associated with a slowing of cell growth in the hippocampus, like dementia or depression. But so far, at least, the neuroscience of silence seems to be suggesting this: To the brain, quiet is much more than what it isn’t.
NAUTILUS FIVETHIRTYEIGHT
TAGS:SHHHNEUROSCIENCESILENCE
“Because it works” is not a good enough answer. Here’s why.
BY MATTHEW SHERRINGTON
ON JULY 4, 2016 AT 2:00 PM
CATEGORY : LATEST POSTS
RESPONSES : 4 COMMENTS
success-and-failure-signWhat is success in fundraising? And what is failure? That might seem a ridiculously simple and binary question with a ridiculously simple and binary answer: it’s what works, and what does not.
And yet it isn’t that simple, is it? It all depends on what you’re measuring. Where you start. What your target is and what it might take to reach it. How you compare with others.
The trauma that’s hit fundraising in the UK over the last year has raised a lot more questions, many of which don’t have easy answers but still have a bearing on what success looks like. If you aren’t from the UK, don’t be complacent. This is something where we’re just ahead of you, which could easily jump borders. Our Brexit won’t protect you.
“What works”, taken out the immediate metrics of response rates, average gifts, net income and ROIs, now has to answer “for whom”? Because it’s clear that a lot of fundraising activity has got a lot of people rather disenchanted with charities, and once they realised they weren’t alone in feeling that, they’ve been vocal about it.
The media has been awash with stories confirming their negative experiences of excessive mail, intrusive phone calls, and irritating face-to-face fundraising. Trust has fallen quite dramatically. Just last week, the UK Charity Commission issued a report showing trust in charities has fallen 15%, from a score of 6.7 out of 10 in 2014, to 5.7 out of 10 this year.
Fundraising isn’t working for donors, or the wider public. Ah, but we’re still getting good results, comes the reply. Who cares? It’s working for beneficiaries, for whom we raise the money, isn’t it? But at what cost, I’d ask? Do the ends justify the means? Is there longer-term and wider damage? It’s hard to say, because we enter territory without too many metrics (though initiatives like the Commission on the Donor Experience are working on that). We enter questions around ethics and values, and have to think about public perception and the risk of brand damage. We have to use judgement, as well as raw evidence. I’ve written here before on this question as it relates to the representation of those we serve. Some speculative wishful thinking is in order until we know more about the full impact we’re having.
There’s a commercial example in the UK right now. Tesco, the largest supermarket in the UK, has been selling a lot of its fresh food – meat, fruit and vegetables – under fictional farm brands. Essentially, these take advantage of the whole ‘buy local’ idea, with people imagining they get better quality and support local farmers at the same time, Even though much of the produce comes from as far and wide around the world as it ever did. Tesco says it works, that it’s making a difference to their bottom line. But is that ok, when it’s pretending to be something it’s not? Doesn’t that just eat further away at credibility, authenticity, and trust?
Our fundraising faces similar challenges. What’s really got the UK fundraising sector thinking is the question of the cumulative impact of fundraising on individuals. As single charities, we all make our own rational decisions. Everything ‘works’ in our own little world of metrics. We look after ‘our’ supporters with a view on how often it might be reasonable to contact them. But we forget that generous people support a lot of charities, and that adds up to a lot of contact.
What we’re dealing here is an example of ‘the tragedy of the commons – that economic theory that explains how the rational decision-making of everyone in a community, can lead to the destruction of the common resource. (For example, pastoralists all increasing their herds of goats, leading to overgrazing of fragile land, and ecological disaster). Sixteen years ago, the UK fundraising sector set up a regulatory body to manage face to face fundraising, managing and allocating street sites in conjunction with local authorities, specifically to avoid a gold rush that would lead to the end for everyone. It really hasn’t done a bad job.
And now we are faced with whether we have been doing this with everything else. Is our fundraising activity sustainable? Is it ‘working’ for the sector at large? Is it working for our future, in terms of public trust, supporter relationships, and longer-term income?
Copy Copy CopyAll of this provoked a great debate recently about innovation and best practice: Joe Jenkins asked whether our sector’s culture of sharing and copying was contributing to the homogenisation of fundraising, a reduction to the lowest common denominator. Claire Axelrad responded, arguing that sharing and copying spread best practice that raised more money. A cry of “it works”? Maybe. I’ve complained on SOFII (“it won’t work here”) about fundraisers’ reluctance to learn and copy. Copying is the greatest form of flattery, and the quickest way to innovation success (as laid out in Mark Earl’s fun book, “Copy, Copy, Copy”, but the trick of course, is to adapt what you see and learn to work for you, and do it differently, as Derek Humphries nicely summed up (“Don’t cut and paste”). I think we’d all agree with that.
Joe’s is an important challenge, to think about how we forge new paths to keep things fresh and not destroy our ‘commons’ before their time. Claire’s is an important argument too. Not all charities have the resources to test and innovate, and rely on watching those that do, and copying what they hear is best practice. “What works”. It’s all part of our fundraising ecology.
Oxfam water pack outerWhich reminds me of my biggest direct mail failure, which I’m happy to share. At Oxfam we had a very successful direct mail pack for new supporter recruitment. It had been working for ten years, beating every new idea we tested against it. Determined to crack it, we put our agency on the case, with two creative teams and a whirl through their innovation hothouse. We deconstructed all we knew made a difference to results – engagement devices that were relevant to the brand story, and tactile, the latest on format design. We spent more time on it than on any other creative development. Whatever. God knows how we ended up with this. It bombed, as common sense should have told us it would. (We did beat that pack in the end).
Does my challenge that “because it works’ is no longer a good enough answer, change the importance of testing, learning and improving? No, of course not. It’s just that the question “what works?” has got a whole lot bigger, and we’ve all got to pay attention to that. It’s not just about the numbers. Public trust is our lifeblood, more than the money, for without it, the money won’t follow. Public trust is our common good, and that’s what we all have to look after. Including you.
As the Lorax said: “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better, it’s not.
6 COMMON TRAITS AMONG PEOPLE WHO LIVE PEACEFUL LIVES THAT MIGHT SURPRISE YOU
ANDREW MARTINJULY 3, 2016
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1. Let Go Of The Ego And Just Be Yourself
“Take time to be an impartial observer of life particularly when an ending is causing despair.” Lao Tzu
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We don’t need to be anything or anyone. We need to impress no one. As a society we have become concerned with having the latest fashions, how we look and impressing others. What for? Who cares? We are trying to fulfil other people’s expectations of us. That doesn’t really make any sense. It just drives us to distraction, always trying to prove ourselves to others. Even when we succeed at creating the right look, social status, image or whatever it is we are trying to achieve, most people don’t notice. So why bother? Our preoccupation with our exterior persona has diverted us from our true self. Once we have let go of our ego state we feel a freedom a freedom that allows us to truly experience life to its fullest without the weight of expectation holding us back.
2. Learn From Masters
“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” Albert Einstein
By studying great teachers and mentors we can develop wisdom from what others are willing to share. If you seek to learn, grow and become wise then you need to associate with wise and knowledgeable people. If you wish to learn any craft or art then a good place to start is to watch what others are doing. Modelling is the process of observing parts of our own and other people’s behaviour in order to reproduce it and improve our functioning and outcomes. We can reduce the amount of time it takes to learn a new trade, skill or anything you wish to replicate. The great thing about modelling is it is all about leverage. You gain access to someone else’s knowledge base and experience that may have taken them a lifetime to compile, develop and learn. That’s why books, reading and watching educational programs can be great teachers. These may be no substitute for experience, however we can be valuable assets to help speed up the learning process. A single book may contain twenty or thirty years of condensed wisdom, yet you may be able to read the book in two or three days. That’s what I am talking about, leverage. If you have taken on board the information contained in the book then you have effectively gained new ideas, skills, wisdom and knowledge in a fraction of the time. Thirst for knowledge enhances one’s capability and brings forth new ideas, reasoning and creativity. So seek out great teachers and masters and study what they have learned and the wisdom they share. Be prepared to explore the mysteries of the universe and set yourself free.
3. Bring Awareness To Your Life
“The unaware life is not worth living.” -Socrates
Today there are growing trends toward living a holistic, sustainable lifestyle with a focus on quality of life, not quantity. We are moving into a period where we will see an ever increasing focus on personal development and contribution to society. People have been living like this for many decades, yet for the majority, it continues to be a challenge to balance work with lifestyle. The meaning of life is elusive, with the wealth of the 21st century providing humanity with many distractions. Technological advancements provide entertainment and lifestyle opportunities that only decades before did not exist. Practice being in the moment and experiencing the sensations, feelings and emotions every moment has to offer. Our potential is limitless, we just have to be aware that our life is a function of our habits and manage these accordingly.
4. Realize That We All Experience Conditioning Of Some Kind
“The only source of knowledge is experience” Albert Einstein
Be aware of how we are influenced by various communications, past experiences, situations and emotions. Modern society and many of the individuals within it have lent themselves to being conditioned. Life and its great mysteries can be glossed over. Many of us end up confused, isolated and questioning. Engaged in trivial activities or hedonistic pursuits we try to distract ourselves from the deeper meaning of life. We are conditioned to see things as right or wrong, black or white, up or down. The teachings of the spiritual masters tell us that everything is perfect. Let’s enjoy the moment, life and everything we encounter. Look for the serenity, beauty and diversity in everything we do, see and experience. It is like the Zen story where the man walks into the butcher and says “I want the best meat you have”. The butcher replies: “It is all the best”. Do you constantly seek the best this or that or are you content with what you have? Why do we want to compete, be stronger, faster, more successful or whatever it may be? Who told us this was right? Once we step back and see how our conditioned states impact our lives we can start to let go, we can then move toward a place that is free, free from prejudice, hatred and violence toward a place of love, compassion and understanding.
5. Understand You Create Your Own Experiences
“Experience is not what happens to a man. It is what a man does with what happens to him.” Aldous Leonard Huxley
Allowing ourselves to observe experiences allows us to make more informed and educated decisions. Observation is an important element in the development of our evolution. Much of today’s society revolves around ‘doing’ rather than ‘being’ and observing. Take notice of your experiences. Too often we overlook, turn away, and do not learn from our experiences. Rarely do we take a long hard look at our experiences and learn from them. We walk right back into the same old patterns and bad habits. Only by observing as the great masters do, can we learn and understand that our experiences are neither good nor bad. It is how we perceive them and what we learn from these experiences that make a difference. We must ask ourselves, what did I learn from that experience and what can I take away from it? Why did this happen to me? What impact did my actions have on others and the environment? The choices we make and how we interpret interactions creates our experience of life. It is the choices we make that determine what kind of life we live. Do we want to live a life of misery or happiness? Our thoughts control how we react to others and our environment. By understanding we are in charge, we control our destiny can we move from a world of separation to one of connectedness, love and compassion.
6. How Do You Live Your Life – Through Fear Or Love?
“Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.” Buddha
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Delicious food like this is now somewhat hard to come by.
These are strange times indeed for the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca. The region known for its varied and interesting cuisine is currently a little short on food.
RECIPES FROM OAXACA
Sandwich of the Week: Rodeo Goat’s Chaca Oaxaca
Mole Negro de Oaxaca
Oaxacan Negroni
Oaxacan-Style Peanuts with Chile and Garlic
The Mexican government will begin to airlift food to the state, cut off from the rest of the country by protesters. The protesters, who are composed of a radical teachers union and groups supporting them, are allowing private vehicles to pass through, but are stopping commercial trucks. They are protesting education reforms enacted by the government, which has refused to repeal those reforms.
Two flights a day will run to the Pacific coast of Oaxaca by the government. In addition, more food will come from neighboring Guerrero and Veracruz by truck.
25 Best Restaurants in Mexico (Slideshow)
It is interesting that Oaxaca is the subject of these food airlifts. The region is sometimes referred to as a capital of world cuisine, thanks to its diverse, interesting flavors. The diversity comes from the region’s incredible biodiversity; the mountain ranges running through the province dissect it into multiple microclimates, while the Pacific Ocean and Gulf of Mexico also influence the climate of the areas by the coast. It’s one of the best food-lover destinations for honeymooners, and it’s easy to see why. However, you might want to put a hold on that dream trip with the protests going on.
