Wednesday, November 3, 2010

PJ1- 3 THINGS

Hey there girls (and guys),

I just wanted to share some personal information with you by telling you my likes and dislikes about my hair. Before I post that, I just want to say that my braid out lasted 5 days..(woowhooo). That's big for me because I am always playing in my hair...

3 THINGS I LOVE ABOUT MY HAIR:
1-It's Healthy
2- It's fuller
3-It's finally growing back

3 THINGS I DON'T LIKE ABOUT MY HAIR;
1-It's dryer than when it was permed
2-Summer time and straight hair doesn't mix :-(
3-How short it looks when its in it's natural state

3 THINGS I LIKE ABOUT NATURAL HAIR VS PERMED HAIR:
1- I have more options
2-I can color my hair more often
3-IT'S NATURAL!!!

3 THINGS I'VE NOTICED SINCE I'VE BEEN NATURAL
1- (I'm 90% sure about this) It grows faster
2-People are very vocal about giving me their opinion about my hair (both positive and negative comments)
3-I HAVE to have a plan for my  hair

Indian veggies, fruits remain highly toxic

Pesticides Much Higher Than European Standards

New Delhi: Rampant use of banned pesticides in fruits and vegetables continues to put at risk the life of the common man. Farmers apply pesticides such as chlordane, endrin and heptachor that can cause serious neurological problems, kidney damage and skin diseases. A study conducted by Delhi-based NGO Consumer-Voice reveals that the amount of pesticides used in eatables in India is as much as 750 times the European standards. The survey collected sample data from various wholesale and retail shops in Delhi, Bangalore and Kolkata.
    ''Out of five internationally-banned pesticides, four were found to be common in vegetables sold in the Indian markets. Banned pesticides were found in bitter gourd and spinach,'' said Sisir Ghosh, head of Consumer-Voice. The banned chemicals included chlordane, a potent central nervous system toxin, endrin, which can cause headache nausea and dizziness, and heptachor that can damage the liver and decrease fertility.
    Officials said the tests conducted on vegetables at the government-approved and NABLaccredited laboratory, Arbro Analytical Division, revealed that ladies finger contained captan, a toxic pesticide, up to 15,000 parts per billion (ppb) whereas that in the EU has only up to 20 ppb. ''Indian cauliflower can have malathion pesticide up to 150 times higher than the European standards,'' said an official. The vegetables studied included potato, tomato, snake gourd, pumpkin, cabbage, cucumber and bottle gourd, among others. ''We have informed Food Safety and Standards Authority of India
about the excessive use of pesticides in fruits and vegetables that pose serious health hazards,'' said Ghosh. He added strict monitoring from government agencies is required to check manufacture, import and use of banned pesticides. The pesticide residue limits have not been reviewed for the past 30 years, said Ghosh.
    The organization had conducted tests on fruits sold in Indian markets which again showed that 12 fruits, including bananas, apple and grapes, had high quantity of pesticides, violating both Indian and European Union standards. The chemical contents found in fruits were endosuplhan, captan, thiacloprid, parathion and DDT residues.

HC seeks govt reply after TOI report
    
Taking suo motu cognizance of the report—published recently in the Delhi edition of TOI— showing alarming levels of toxicity in vegetables and fruits in India, a concerned Delhi high court on Tuesday asked the Delhi and central government to respond. A division bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justice Manmohan converted the matter into a PIL, issued notice to both the governments and said the ''health hazard which has become quite epidemic'' as highlighted in the report ''can be curbed at the very root'' only if urgent steps are taken. The bench also appointed two lawyers, V K Rao and Saket Sikri, as 'amicus curiae' to assist the court as the ''matter requires certain study, research and assistance''. TNN


Tuesday, November 2, 2010

SLEEP HELPS WHEN IT COMES TO RECALLING MEMORIES

THE 2-MINUTE READ

A NEW STUDY by researchers at the University of York and Harvard Medical School suggests that sleep not only helps in learning a new piece of information, such as a new phone number or a new word, but also gets the brain to file it away so it is available when needed.
    The scientists found that sleep helps people to remember a newly learned word and incorporate new vocabulary into their "mental lexicon".
    During the study, researchers taught volunteers new words in the evening, followed by an immediate test. The volunteers slept overnight in the laboratory while their brain activity was recorded using an electroencephalogram, or EEG.
    A test the following morning revealed that they could remember more words than they did immediately after learning them, and they could recognise them faster demonstrating that sleep had strengthened the new memories.
    This did not occur in a control group of volunteers who were trained in the morning and re-tested in the evening, with no sleep in between.
    An examination of the sleep volunteers' brainwaves showed that deep sleep (slow-wave sleep) rather than rapid eye movement (REM) sleep or light sleep helped in strengthening the new memories.
    When the researchers examined whether the new words had been integrated with existing knowledge in the mental lexicon, they discovered the involvement of a different type of activity in the sleeping brain.
    Sleep spindles are brief but intense bursts of brain activity that reflect information transfer between different memory stores in the brain — the hippocampus deep in the brain and the neocortex, the surface of the brain.
    — ANI

Sunday, October 31, 2010

EVOO

Happy Sunday everyone,
 Just wanted to write a quick post on Extra Virgin Olive Oil.  For starters I am on day 5 of my braid out and I was 2.5 seconds from washing my hair and restyling it. It was drying out because I wasn't moisturizing it as I should have and my curls were starting to mat. I took my spray bottle off EVOO and water mix and sprayed my hair all over. I usual do this about 20 mins before I wash my hair. Immediately as I was spraying, my hair started coming back to life. After I was done I had a change of heart ! I didn't feel the need to wash my hair anymore. It was like I woke my hair up. It was rejuvenated and a little fuller. I am going to try to squeeze another day or two out before I wash my hair again.


So just to touch on the Extra Virgin Olive Oil a little, I wanted to know what was the difference between EVOO and regular Olive Oil..... The only big difference is the percentage in acidity. EVOO has 0.8% acidity and Olive Oil has 1.5% acidity. You also have Virgin Olive Oil and Pure Olive in between.
I am a big fan of EVOO. I have it in my kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, and pocketbook...
This stuff is used for an array of things. To name a few:
- cooking
- body oil (after showering/shaving)
- facial moisturizer
- hair moisturizer
- oil lamps
- medicinal use
- religious use (ex. Christians use as holy oil)

Product rating: ~Super size~