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POPSDIY soap – cleaning up your act Half way recipes (in which you take a pure form of soap and spruce it up) can be easy to do at home. You can use Castille soap to make several varieties of body wash. Here is one recipe: Vanilla Almond Soap 1/3 cup whole almonds 1 4-ounce bar Castille soap 1/4 cup distilled water 1 tablespoon almond oil 1/8 teaspoon vanilla essential oil Grind the almonds in a food processor or coffee grinder. Using a cheese grater or a knife, shred the bar of Castille soap. Boil the water and add the shredded soap, stirring until you get a nice gooey texture. Reduce to a simmer and then add in the almond grinds, oil and vanilla. You can spoon the soap into molds (ice cubes can make little gift soaps) and let it sit for around five hours until it hardens.
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POPSCarrie Prejean Goes Down. Literally! Of course, all of this should have little effect on her career. If anything it will add fuel to it with the way Americans are infatuated with hypocrites and fallen angels. Vivid Entertainment Group, which specializes in adult films, made an offer of a million dollars to Prejean back in May to make a movie for them. Seems she might be a natural. This could only raise her value in the porn market. Practice makes perfect. I'm curious as to how all the rightwing Prejean backers will spin this and find a way to blame this on everyone but Prejean. I might even turn on Fox News to check it out. With Prejean's looks and attitude, she may end up with her own show over there since credibility isn't a factor in Fox's hiring practices. And for those of you who don’t remember who actually won the Miss California Pageant, her name is Tami Ferrell from Malibu. How soon we forget those with actual morals.
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POPSRandom Thoughts One good turn gets most of the blankets. There are two kinds of pedestrians -- the quick and the dead. If quitters never win, and winners never cheat, then who is the fool who said "Quit while you're ahead"? Marriage is the triumph of imagination over intelligence. Second marriage is the triumph of hope over experience. I used to be indecisive. Now I'm not sure. What happens if you get scared half to death twice? Multitasking: Screwing up several things at once. Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity.
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POPSRat-Eating Pitcher Plant Discovered in Philippines "Sir David, 83, said: "I was contacted by the team shortly after the discovery and they asked if they could name it after me. I was delighted and told them, 'Thank you very much'. "I'm absolutely flattered. This is a remarkable species the largest of its kind. I'm told it can catch rats then eat them with its digestive enzymes. It's certainly capable of that."" Telegraph.co.uk
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POPSRat Eating Plant POOLE, England, Aug. 17 (UPI) -- British scientists said they have discovered a plant in the Philippines that feeds by luring and consuming rats. Botanists Stewart McPherson and Alastair Robinson said the plant, dubbed Nepenthes attenboroughii after legendary wildlife broadcaster Sir David Attenborough, consumes "whole rats" by luring them into its mouth and dissolving them with acid-like enzymes. "The plant produces spectacular traps which catch not only insects, but also rodents," McPherson told The Sun in an exclusive interview. "It is remarkable that it remained undiscovered until the 21st century." McPherson and Robinson said their team found the plant on Mount Victoria after hearing accounts of the shrub's eating habits from missionaries. "My team and I named it in honor of Sir David whose work has inspired generations toward a better understanding of the beauty and diversity of the natural world," McPherson said.
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POPSThe beauty and terror of science A good history of science unreels like the practice of science itself. It wends through a world of experiments until a new reality arises. But the more layered story of that journey is that science is not just a process but is the men and women performing it. In his radiant new book, "The Age of Wonder," Holmes treats us to the amazing lives of the pioneering sailors and balloonists, astronomers and chemists of the Romantic era. Making good on the book's subtitle, he takes us on a dazzling tour of their chaotic British observatories and fatal explorations in African jungles, showing us "how the Romantic generation discovered the beauty and terror of science."
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POPSNatural African beauty - the Miss Authentica contest
From the slideshow captions: "African women, don't lighten your skin. It's a gift from God." These lyrics are a line from a song specially commissioned for a beauty competition with a difference in Ivory Coast. Only women with natural, untreated skin - confirmed by skin experts - can enter the competition which goes by the name, Miss Authentica. The organisers hope to encourage women to stop using dangerous skin-bleaching products…and instead celebrate the beauty of their natural skin. Skin-bleaching is big business in much of Africa. Proof of this are the many posters of smiling, fair-skinned women holding up the latest pots and tubes of skin-whitening creams that adorn the continent's cities…75% of women in Ivory Coast use skin-whitening creams of some sort. Many continue to use the bleaching products despite being aware of the dangers. One of the most common ingredients is hydroquinone, which has been banned in some countries because of claims that it is carcinogenic.
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POPSHave you found your soul place? Richard Ford, Pulitzer Prize winning author, was born and raised in Jackson, MS. His wife’s job as a city planner took them to many cities but when they moved to New Orleans, Ford said he had “an instantaneous recognition.”Even now, living in Maine, he considers New Orleans home. Often we are inspired to build monuments on these sacred grounds: pyramids, cities, stone circles, churches, mosques. Whatever caused our ancestors to pilgrimage to these spots, it is still drawing us as well. Perhaps the earthy taste of freshly squeezed olive oil, never before experienced, causes you to feel as one with the rocky landscape of a Greek island. No matter the reason, we are inexplicably attracted to locations and feel a connection that we cannot readily explain. In their special issue on Sacred Places, U.S. News and World Report states that that these spots are “as varied as the human sense of the sacred and as various as the world’s spiritual traditions.”
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POPSApplication of aromatherapy in the bathroom – the natural way This is a unique way of creating a natural and reasonable fragrance in your bathroom. Make your bathroom heaven like with mystic and aromatic smells of natural plants. Eucalyptus, lavender and mint will really work wonders in this regard. Cure your cold with natural decongestant properties of the eucalyptus plant.
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POPSNatural Stone Pathway Natural stones is a wonderful and practical option if you are thinking of paving the pathway of your homes. The beauty and durability as well the the naturality of natural stones add color and uniqueness in every homes, building, and establishments.