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Rabu, 29 Februari 2012

A Rose By Any Other Name

The
human nose is a marvelous thing.
It can detect over 10,000 different smells and our sense of smell can call up powerful memories in an instant.

Room
scenting is a very personal choice. A particular scent will connect to an event, person or thing. When you smell it again, it often triggers
memory in the form of a conditioned response, for example the smell of the
ocean call up a particular seaside holiday.

Smell
can also activate the subconscious and influence your mood. Instead of reminding you of specific holiday
details, the ocean scent might make you feel content or happy. Fragrance is so
powerful it can take you from a
feeling of calmness and relaxation to a feeling of joy and stimulation.

Fragrance
categories include:

Floral
– this can be a single flower
or classic floral blends, which may have fresh, fruity, or even powdery
elements.

Citrus
Fruity –includes such
fragrances as lemon, orange, bergamot, apple and berries.

Aquatic - scents
from nature, which bring the outdoors inside all year round. Fresh clean
scents are usually inspired by fragrances taken from nature's elements, like
the rainforest and the ocean.

Nature
Greens - lively fragrances such as green tea, spring
leaves and fresh mown grass are great for living areas and hallways
because they are both revitalising and welcoming. The beauty of
nature and green culture has grown demand for green vegetable and aromatic
herb-based fragrances like thyme and new
mown hay.

Oriental - rich
scents that evoke the feeling of warmth and comfort are becoming increasingly
popular, especially in the autumn. People want to bring the scent of warm
woods and rare spices into the home with fragrances such as sandalwood, vanilla
and cloves.

Food
- foodie aromas can lend an atmosphere of nostalgia – a
fragrance such as cinnamon or ginger may rekindle happy memories of family
times spent in the kitchen and create feelings of wellbeing and reassurance.

You can also consider the season when choosing
a scent. Winter is a popular time for
the likes of apple, cinnamon and pine, while scents like pumpkin, spice and
maple leaves are popular for autumn.

We are bombarded with
artificially scented products. The chemicals often used to formulate these
fragrances can be toxic to the human body over time. It is estimated that 95% of the synthetic fragrances on the market
today are derived from petroleum by-products. These chemicals can cause irritation to the nose, eyes and throat and
are often found in artificially scented air fresheners, soaps, detergents and
cleaners, deodorants, lotions, perfumes and other more common products, so
do check labels before you buy.

There are many different types of home
fragrance units on the market. The
scented candle and pot – pourri are are among the oldest forms of scenting
homes. Candles can offer design variety but over the years accidental house
fires and soot marks have become an issue.

To
use a safer product many people have moved on to reed diffusers, which are
particularly pleasing to the eye.
Wall plugs, light bulb heated warmers and scented oils are all alternative
options.

Layering
your home fragrance will add greater depth, which can be achieved through the
use of candles, flowers and perhaps diffusers. Candles and flowers will give you a
short-burst of fragrance lasting a few days and an aroma diffuser will provide
you with a constant delicate underlying scent that can last for months, just be
sure your fragrances enhance one another and don't clash.

Lilly
Light

To add fragrance and beauty to your home Ashleigh & Burwood would like to
offer one lucky Women
Talking subscriber the chance to win a Premium Fragrance Lamp Gift Set.

Each Fragrance Lamp is
individually handcrafted, and each piece is therefore completely unique

To enter answer the following question:

Name one of the oil
fragrances

For help visit www.ashleigh-burwood.co.uk

Send your answer to competitions@womentalking.co.uk
ensuring you put the words fragrance in the subject header and also include
your Women Talking username with the
submission.

Please note this competition is only open to Women Talking subscribers and any entry
without a valid username will not be accepted.

The competition closes on March 31st and the winner will be contacted soon after.

Source: http://womentalking.co.uk/new//topics/lifestyle/rose-any-other-name/

Selasa, 17 Januari 2012

GIVING MARGARET COURT A SERVEBy Duncan Fine

January 16, 2012

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LESSON NUMBER 10: You have to teach your kids how to stand up to bullies.

Because I am the father in a normal modern Australian family, there are, of course, very strict rules about "doing what you're told".

I'm not talking about the kids. I'm not even talking about the dog.

I'm talking about me. Doing what my darling wife tells me. About everything. Every day.

Except for one area where I get to be the boss – especially with the kids. Sport.

But we had a shocking and terrible experience recently with our nine-year-old and his cricket team.

The coach (another father of a boy in the team and I'd always suspected a bit of a Bible-basher) gave my son (who bowls left-handed) a really stern lecture in front of the whole team. It went like this:

"God loves you, but you playing left-handed is just plain wrong. You have to change. Left-handed batsmen and bowlers are the reason cricket in Australia has gone so far downhill in the last few years. Play right-handed or you're off the team.”

My son burst into tears. I was absolutely stunned. We got into the car and drove home in silence. He hasn't wanted to go back to play since.

What would you do or say if you were confronted with the same sort of nonsense? Would you swear at the old fool? Or start a fight?

Whatever you think, you would surely agree that the guy must have a screw loose.

And certainly you'd agree that his bizarre ideas about being left-handed are waaaaay out of wack with what about 99.99% of the Australian population thinks.

Well I'm happy to report that this did not in fact happen.

But I'm unhappy to report that the tennis champion, Margaret Court (left, in her tennis hey day), now a Pentecostal minister has been going around to lesbian tennis players saying the same thing to them about their sexual orientation.

She even had the gall to say it to Martina Navratilova.

"Politically correct education has masterfully escorted homosexuality out from behind closed doors, into the community openly and now is aggressively demanding marriage rights that are not theirs to take," Court has said.

In response there are plans for a protest at the Australian Open (where an arena bears Court's name).

Source: http://id.she.yahoo.com/new/http://thehoopla.com.au/giving-margaret-court-serve//

Senin, 16 Januari 2012

EDITOR'S CHOICE: BEST READSBy Caroline RoesslerJanuary 16, 2012

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The best of the web, all in one place. The Hoopla's editor spends hours trawling the web so you don't have to. You're welcome.

Ricky Gervais would like to nonapologise

A timely New York Times profile of comedian Ricky Gervais in the run-up to the Golden Globes.

Of course, many thought he’d never tread those boards again after his “shock” performance last year but ratings were great so Gervais is back. Hollywood is nothing if not pragmatic.

“To many Americans, last year's Golden Globes appearance by Gervais defined how they know him: as a self-styled provocateur who's not afraid to shock and offend in the service of humor. It's an image he embraces and even lovingly cultivates.”

Anyone who’s watched his stand up work would know that. Gervais pulls no punches; even delights in being as naughty and politically incorrect as he can possibly be.

“If you're chasing after positive reviews, demographic trends or a lucrative box office, Gervais says in the story, "you've already failed." And then he adds … "if your only ambition is to get something off your chest and render it exactly as you wanted it, then you're bulletproof."

Should make for another interesting Globes.

A young woman struggles with oxy addiction and recovery

Welcome to Ladies’ Day, America’s first all-female drug court in Pinellas County, Florida.

It sounds like fun but it isn’t; this is where women who have been charged with prescription drug abuse end up in this part of the world.

This fascinating insight into America’s love affair with oxycodone comes from the Tampa Bay Times: “Prescription drug abuse kills 40 Americans every day. That’s more than a threefold increase in the last decade, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Oxycodone is the deadliest drug of all.”

“Oxy makes junkies out of people who would never buy from a street dealer. It is everyman’s high, heroin in a pill.”

Instead of punishing the women, the Pinellas County court offers them the chance to start over; one woman shares that journey with the newspaper and lets its journalists follow her around for a year. This is the result.

Imran Khan: set to play the innings of his life

For many, Imran Khan remains the playboy cricketer of his younger years. But much has happened since then and now Khan is being hailed by some as the saviour of Pakistan.

“Khan, now 59, appears on the edge of a political breakthrough,” reports this Guardian profile of the politician. “After years in the semi-wilderness, Khan – or “Imran” as he is known in Pakistan – is walking through green fields of mainstream popularity. The former cricketer tops opinion polls. For the first time, powerful and established political figures have begun defecting to his party.”

An interesting snapshot into the making of the man and the state of politics in Pakistan.

Source: http://id.she.yahoo.com/new/http://thehoopla.com.au/edschoicejan13//

Jumat, 13 Januari 2012

INSIDE THE OBAMA MARRIAGEBy

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**The reviews are in of The Obamas, an unauthorised, “explosive” book on the first couple’s relationship and how it affects the White House.**

The book was written by New York Times Washington correspondent Jodi Kantor, who covered the Obamas for the newspaper during the 2008 presidential campaign and in September, 2009, interviewed them in the Oval Office for the Times Magazine.

In Partners in love and the Presidency in the The New York Times, columnist Connie Schultz says of the book and its author:

“A meticulous reporter, Ms Kantor is attuned to the nuance of small gestures, the import of unspoken truths. She knows that every strong marriage, including the one now in the White House, has its complexities and its disappointments. Ms Kantor also – and this is a key – has a high regard for women, which is why hers is the first book about the Obama presidency to give Michelle Obama her due.”

"The Obamas is full of gossipy tidbits that fuel a narrative about their marriage and how it has shaped the presidency. Public glimpses of their intimacy portray a genuine bond forged by an ambitious man and his equally driven wife. He can be arrogant and self-absorbed, but he strives for her approval. She is his champion and critic, and a fierce guardian of their mutual mission.”

Of her elevation to first fashionista, Schultz says:

“Clothing had become her ‘compensatory pleasure’ for dutifully enduring the public demands of her husband's political career, Ms. Kantor writes. ‘If I have to go, I'm getting a new dress out of it,’ she told neighbors.”

“Now perhaps the most prominent black woman in America, she felt pressure to counter negative stereotypes by telegraphing images of elegance and self-confidence. Instead, she became America's first fashionista during tough economic times for the country.

“Her new image set off repeated bouts of apoplexy among some White House staff members, who weighed in on her choices, albeit indirectly, creating a climate of tension.”

What the book reveals is the extent of the influence the politically astute and passionate Michelle Obama has on her husband and on the administration:

"While I get plenty of good advice from a lot of people during the course of the day," Obama has said, "at the end of each day, it is Michelle – her moral voice, her moral center – that cuts through all the noise in Washington and reminds me of why I'm there in the first place."

What the book lacks, says reviewer David Remnick in State of the Union in The New Yorker, is a richer backstory on previous first ladies and presidential marriages.

“In Hidden Power (2001), a shrewd and entertaining survey of twentieth-century White House marriages, Kati Marton writes that the second-floor bedrooms and sitting rooms of the residence have known constant intrigue, intimacy, rage, and froideur.”

He fills the gap by sharing some of those insights: “Pat Nixon was surely one of the loneliest inhabitants of the White House. Richard Nixon was so flagrantly indifferent to his wife that one of his aides, Roger Ailes, wrote in a memorandum, ‘I think it is important for the President to show a little more concern for Mrs Nixon as he moves through the crowd. At one point he walked off in a different direction. Mrs Nixon wasn't looking and had to run to catch up. From time to time he should talk to her and smile at her."

“The most politically powerful of the modern First Ladies were Nancy Reagan, who controlled personnel and scheduling with the help of an astrologer, and Hillary Clinton, who, in the first year of the Clinton Administration, was given charge of the most comprehensive piece of proposed legislation in decades.”

Source: http://id.she.yahoo.com/new/http://thehoopla.com.au/stateoftheunion//