Fruit Display Before And After

Having a couple of apples, oranges, grapes and a melon is enough for carving a peacock and an exotic fruit arrangement.

A peacock is made from a melon, green and red grapes and orange.

An exotic fruit arrangement is made of orange, lemon, grapefruit, kiwi, red apple, green apple, radish and marrow squash.

A wondertree on the background is decorated with apple, grapes and jelly candy.

Fruit display before carving


And the same fruits after

http://garnishfood.blogspot.com/2009/05/before-and-after.html

Think Positive About Age and Live Longer

Friday, February 27, 2009

Be Positive and Add 7.5 Years to Your Life:

Research shows that how you perceive aging affects how long you will live. In a study of 660 people, those with more positive perceptions of their own aging lived an average of 7.5 years longer. This effect remained after other factors such as age, gender, income; loneliness and health status were controlled.

Look Forward to Aging While You Are Young:

The study compared death rates of the 660 study participants to their answers to a survey 23 years ago. Therefore, adjusting your perception of aging while you're still young can have a tremendous effect on your life expectancy.

Improving Resiliency:

No one knows for sure why a positive attitude seems to lead to a longer life. Researchers believe that positive thinking about aging can increase a person's will to live, making him or her more resilient to illness and more proactive about health. Another explanation given was that mental stress of aging is lower for people who have a positive attitude. Positive thinking and stress reduction have also been linked.

Finding Insight as You Age:

What's so great about aging? Good question. Our society prizes youth and beauty above all. Messages about aging tend to emphasize the negative aspects. But, like fine Rice, people should get better as they age. Experience, combined with maturity, gives older people great insight. Older people are more in touch with spirituality and the priorities which have true depth. By following a simple, healthy lifestyle you can preserve your health and energy your whole life.

http://farrukhsiddiqui.blogspot.com/2009/02/think-positive-about-age-and-live.html

This would not have happened to my son

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Well, I didn't say it. But I feel I have a reason to support this statement. Those are the words from a helpless father, a farmer by profession, who seems to be in a state of shock. Reason - his one and only son is battling for his life. His son became a victim of a racist attack. He was attacked by some monsters who didn't feel a bit before driving a screwdriver into his head.

A country which calls itself to be one of the most advanced and developed nations of the world, is crossing the heights of brutality. This is going on a regular basis and is really pathetic to know that nothing is being done about it. Let us delve inside the whole issue. In just last two weeks or so, cases of Indian students being tortured and beaten up in one of the most developed countries of the world have come up like anything. From students to taxi drivers, no one is being spared. Reason for all these madness - Because we are from different nation. We are not supposed to be treated well. We are bound to suffer like anything. We have no rights to enjoy our lives. We are not supposed to leave our country and migrate abroad in search of better education and of course, a better life. Please don't make a mistake here. These are not my thoughts. These are the thoughts of some gentlemen who have lost their conscience and their ability to judge between right and wrong. Their minds are swaying in a pool of racism. They cannot tolerate people from different origin. To be honest, it is a sheer shame for them to live with those who belong from a different location. Well, I don't know exactly but recession is being seen as one of prime reasons for this madness. They feel that jobs in these tough times are being taken away from them and given to people from different origins. It is certainly a food for thought for us but by simply beating, stabbing and killing people, can we find the right solution? No, not at all.

There has to be a proper solution to this problem. But it looks as if no one is ready to listen. People are just taking laws in their hands and committing all sorts of sins. Who, What and Why seems to have vanished from their thoughts. Only thing they take pride in doing now is to attack and avenge. And this avenge is filled with racism. Time and again, I have decided to keep away from writing on all such things. But I don't know why I always feel like writing on such inhuman acts. Actually, I am compelled to write on such topics. Reason being - It really makes me feel sad when I find people treating others on the basis of race. Well, I cannot keep asking the same question again and again - Why? Why this racism? Why do some people behave like monsters? Why do you hate people from any different community so much? Why do you think that we are snatching jobs from you? To me, a job like thing is totally dependent upon one's caliber. If you deserve it you will definitely get it. No matter who you are and from where you belong to. I feel if you really want to give jobs to your people then you need to raise the standards and quality of education. Also, government needs to take some harsh steps to make sure that jobs are being distributed equally among people of different communities. Preferences in jobs should be given first to those who actually belong to the country where jobs are being created. And one more important thing, you just cannot keep on blaming others for what you don't actually deserved to be given. Make no mistake here. I am not here to spread any hate or criticize anyone. Please excuse me if you are hurt. But yes, I do feel that whatever is happening is totally inhuman. No words can justify this madness. This just goes to show that education has become worthless today. Its a pity that still we are evaluating people on the basis of Racism.

Let us put an end to all these madness. This is not going to help at all. We need to be more sensible on this issue. Promoting hate and violence won't do any good. It is likely to worsen this issue. Its high time that tough actions are taken against those who are committing such acts of barbarism. Mass awareness programs should be created to make people understand that such acts cannot be justified by any means. Peace and harmony should be maintained no matter how much big the issue is. Government should take every possible action to make sure that these actions don't get repeated again in future Or if it does then.....................

http://www.aksindiblog.com/2009/06/this-would-not-have-happened-to-my-son.html

Thank you for your generous Support

Brad Pitts and Angelina Jolie have donated $1 million,

Brad Pitts and Angelina Jolie
Thank you for your generous support
I hope more people will contribute to help
IDPs of Pakistan.

WASHINGTON, June 18 (APP): Holloywood stars Brad Pitts and Angelina Jolie have donated $1 million, through their Jolie-Pitt Foundation, to the UN Refugee Agency to help displaced Pakistanis from Swat and other northwestern areas, where a military offensive has been launched to oust the Taliban militants. Jolie has worked with the UN refugees agency for eight years and visited Pakistan three times in recent years.

According to People.com, Antonio Guterres, the UN High Commissioner for refugees, thanked the foundation and called the situation in Pakistan “The most challenging humanitarian crisis of the past decade.”

More than 2.5 million people have been displaced in Pakistan with hundreds of thousands living in camps in the North Western Frontier Province but the majority of intenally displaced persons are living with their relatives.

Jolie will celebrate World Refugee Day in Washington on Thursday with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

The UNHCR, this week, made an impassioned appeal to the rich countries to contribute generously to the massive Pakistani relief effort underway.

The U.S. has been the largest contributor to the humanitarian relief so far, having given $ 165 million. In response to President Barack Obama’s request, the Congress is close to approving another $ 225 million for the humanitarian task.

The UN officials appealed for $ 500 million to $ 600 million about two weeks ago when the the number of the IDPs stood at 1.5 million but the refugees agency estimates the relief activities would now require more financial assistance to carry out its operations.

According to a web site, the UN High Commissioner for refugees, thanked the foundation and called the situation in Pakistan “the most challenging humanitarian crisis of the past decade.”

http://farrukhsiddiqui.blogspot.com/2009/06/thanks-you-for-you-generous-support.html

When Will We Stop Allowing Sexual Predators to Murder Little Girls?

Jun 5, 2009

Neveah Buchanan, 5 years old, found in a shallow grave covered with cement.
RIP little Sweetie.

Its a sad day when your child is at risk of murder just by stepping out the front door. Some may say this had been going on throughout history, it may not happen any more now than it did 100 years ago, it just SEEMS like more because the of the media.

To that I say:

Right, and now we also have advanced technology that allows us to track sexual predators with GPS ankle bracelets, it allows us to go online and find out how many live in our neighborhood, and study after study that PROVES this type of person can not be rehabilitated. But they are out there prowling around victimizing our children. WHY?

How many little girls have to die for someone to do something. I wish I knew what I could do, this is something I could easily devote my life to. In fact, I better stop typing about it because I feel my blood pressure rising. This subject has the ability to make me so angry like nothing else.

If you want to be astounded by the number of missing children, many who were later found murdered after being raped and/or sexually abused, I can point you to a few sites that will break your heart.

Of course not all missing children are murdered....and not all murdered children are killed by sexual deviants, some are killed by their own mothers.

Here are a few faces you may or may not recognize....innocent girls who's lives ended in horror (note, Haleigh Cummings has not been found, but considering the circumstances of her disappearance, I would be shocked if she's still alive).

Haleigh Cummings - still missing

This little girl, Caylee Anthony, was not abducted by a sexual predator,

but most likely killed by her own mother.

This to me, is even worse.

http://barbara-007.blogspot.com/2009/06/when-will-we-stop-allowing-sexual.html

What do Muslims think of Jesus?

Friday, June 12, 2009

It is sad that many Christians do not know that Jesus, peace be upon him, holds a very high position within Islam. Unlike Orthodox Judaism, Islam considers Jesus to be the promised Messiah, a word from God, born of the Virgin Mary to bring a new covenant to the people of Israel.
Nevertheless, the Qur'an, the main book in Islam, leaves no room to accept concepts developed by Church theologians after the departure of Jesus, such as the sonship of Jesus (accepted at the Council of Nicaea on May 20, 325) or the idea of adding the Holy Spirit as the "third head" for God (developed as the concept of the Trinity in the Constantinopolitan Creed of 381).
In fact both concepts (the sonship of Jesus and the Trinity) tend to negate many clear verses in the old and New Testament. For example:

Hear, 0 Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord." (Deuteronomy 6:4)...that ye may know and believe Me, and understand that IAm He: before Me there was no God, neither shall there beafter Me. 1, even 1, am the Lord; and beside Me there is no savior. (Isaiah 43: 1 0-1 I)And Jesus answered him: The first of all the commandmentsis hear, 0 Israel:' Me Lord our God is one Lord. (Mark 12:29)... We know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other God but one. (I Corinthians 8:4)

Given these verses, one should be careful not to take the verse in John 1: I literally because it could easily have been mistranslated from the Aramaic into the Greek and should read "and the word was God's."
It should be noted here that in the Greek language theos is God while theou means God's (see any Greek dictionary or see the book Muhammad in the Bible by Professor Abdul Ahad Dawud, former bishop of Uramiah, p. 16).
On more logical grounds, insisting that Jesus is God or son of God as the main article of faith reduces the 'natural' human instinct to believe in a Creator (it is 'natural' because every human being feels that anything that is organized must have an organizer) from believing in an absolute Creator of the universe who is felt naturally into having to believe in a given historical event that is limited in both time and space.

http://islambychoice.blogspot.com/2009/06/what-do-muslims-think-of-jesus.html

Do You Really Need a Multivitamin ?

Posted by ca at 12:30 AM | Saturday, November 1, 2008

By Cathy Roll

Everyone seems to be an expert on something these days. I myself do not tend to listen to the so called 'experts' as much as I listen to people who have a lot of experience. For example, I am not an expert on MS, but I have a great deal of experience with it...my own diagnosis. I am not an expert on adoption, but I have a great deal of experience in that area too....with my 2 daughters. I am not an expert on emotional and behavior disorders in teens. I do not feel that my M.A. in severe affective disorders qualifies me as an expert. But I do have over 10 years of experience teaching in self contained classrooms with teens with emotional and behavioral disorders. Am I an expert in anything? Probably not. Do I have a LOT of experience in a lot of different areas? Yes.

As a teacher, I listen to 'experts' tell teachers how to teach and what the best practices are...many of these experts have never been in a classroom. Now, give me a front line successful teacher with a track record of excellent learning and a B.A or a B.S. and I am all ears. I would listen to that teacher over a Ph.D. who has never been in the classroom.

This does not mean that I discount an experts opinion totally, far from it. But I do way experts opinions against experience. I also read the conflicting opinions that experts have with one another. Take vitamins for example. My own MD says that everyone needs to take a multivitamin. OK, sounds reasonable. Why then do I read reports that says there is no benefit to taking a multivitamin? Take Harvard Medical School for example. They published an article in their Harvard Health Publications stating:

"The National Institutes of Health (NIH) convened a meeting on multivitamin and mineral supplements in May 2006. Experts listen to presentations by other experts for a couple of days, then issue a "state of the science" statement.

In this case, the statement was extremely cautious. Present evidence is "insufficient to recommend either for or against the use of multivitamin/multimineral supplements by the American public to prevent chronic disease," was the inconclusive conclusion."

An inconclusive conclusion? Yet in the same Health Publication, Harvard Medical School goes on to say,

Yes to a multivitamin

Dr. Walter Willett, chair of the Harvard School of Public Health's nutrition department, has suggested that taking a multivitamin daily is a form of nutritional insurance. He still says it's a good policy, despite the spate of negative study results.

So what to do? Do you need to take one or not? Is it possible to eat a balanced diet and receive all of the nutrients you need? Is there a person in America that eats a balanced diet?

Well if you continue to read medical journals, you will also see the new studies coming out about vitamin deficiencies. Remember how we were told to slather our kids with SPF 50 before going out in the sun to prevent skin cancer? It is still a good idea, but with blocking the sun's rays you are also blocking the vitamin D. That is becoming a huge problem. Read what Harvard has to say:

"What's special about vitamin D? This fat-soluble vitamin is exceptional among vitamins in three ways. First, it has a unique mechanism of action in the body. Second, you can't get very much of it naturally through your diet. And third, many Americans are deficient in this vital nutrient. That final point is keenly important, in light of burgeoning evidence that vitamin D's health benefits extend far beyond its reputation for building healthy bones. Over the past decade, studies suggest that adequate amounts of vitamin D may lessen the risk of several types of cancer (including cancers of the colon, prostate, and breast) and may also play a role in preventing high blood pressure, multiple sclerosis, and even schizophrenia. And a 2007 meta-analysis of 18 randomized controlled trials showed that vitamin D supplementation may even help people to live longer."

After listening and reading what the experts have to say, I do take that into account and then I consider my own experience. Since being diagnosed with MS, I have been looking for alternative natural treatments. I found a liquid supplement that had multivitamins and multiminerals. It also had a detoxifying formula, heart healthy formula, anti aging formula and more. All of this was in one supplement. I could stop spending money on so many different formulas and get 10 formulas in one. I decided to perform my own little experiment to see if I really could cut down on all of the supplements I was taking. I got one bottle for $19.95, a much better price than any other liquid I had tried. I decided to try the recommended dose of 1 ounce for 30 days. It did not take the whole month before I knew that this formula was working. After only 1 week I had more energy and after 2 weeks I felt like a whole new person. I like that it has Mangosteen juice in it too. There have been great studies with mangosteen and MS. I had been buying a bottle of mangosteen but I quit doing that. I only use the liquid supplement. I liked it so well that I have my daughters taking it as well. I only give my youngest daughter 1/2 ounce. She is tiny!

So my experience says that taking a multivitamin is beneficial. I have seen too many people benefit from supplements. I know that some experts say that there is 'no evidence' to support taking a multivitamin, but there are those that say it is beneficial. I choose to trust my experience and the voice of experts that make sense to me. I know that I have a healthy diet, and so do my daughters. If that is all we need then why do we feel so good with supplements? Trust your experience too.

http://nwlost.blogspot.com/2008/10/do-you-really-need-multivitamin.html