Casa di Giulietta: Juliet’s House in Verona

Shakespeare’s famous play “Romeo and Juliet” maybe a work of fiction, but that hasn’t stopped hundreds of thousands of romantics from making pilgrimage to Verona to see the balcony where Juliet supposedly stood while Romeo declared his love.

This so called Casa di Giulietta, or Juliet’s House, actually belonged to the dell Capello family. The house dates from the 13th century and the family coat of arms can still be seen on the wall. The house was in a state of abandon and was overgrown with creepers when the city bought it in the early 1900s, and decided to turn it into Juliet’s House taking advantage of the similarity between the names of the house’s true owner —Capello— and the Capulets in Shakespeare’s play.

Boiling Lake of Dominica

The Morne Trois Pitons National Park in the island country of Dominica, in the Caribbean, is an area of significant volcanic activity. Located within the boundaries of the park’s nearly 7,000 hectares are five volcanoes, dozens of hot springs and fumaroles and a very large and famous boiling lake.

Dominica's Boiling Lake is actually a flooded fumarole, which is an opening or a hole in the Earth’s crust. It is filled with bubbling greyish-blue water at temperatures of around 90°C. The water is heated by hot steam and gases escaping from molten lava below. The surface of the lake is usually enveloped in a cloud of vapor. The lake is around 76 meters across, making it the second-largest hot lake in the world after the Frying Pan Lake in Waimangu Valley near Rotorua, New Zealand.

How New York deals with decommissioned subway cars

New York City has developed a special way to get rid of broken-down subway cars…

Custom barges are loaded high with subway cars and carried out to the cold icy depths in the middle of the ocean.

They use construction equipment to push the subway cars over the edge, splashing into the waters…

The cars go over the edge one by one…

It may seem like a wasteful act of reckless pollution, but there is a deeper purpose behind this odd method of disposal…

Each subway car is left on the ocean floor, to be assimilated into the ecosystem.

Over time, every surface will be covered in life, creating an artificial coral reef system.

Every metal pipe, edge, ridge, and corner provides surface area for coral ecosystem.

Here’s what it looks like after 5 years…

… and here’s what it looks like after 10 years.

Russian army punishments

Did not report with weapon - issued a replacement.

Caught without bayonet.

Caught smoking on duty.

Caught using cell phone on duty.

7 Ways You Are Making Your Vegetables Less Nutritious

Do you motivate yourself to eat vegetables every day for the good of your health? That’s great! But chances are you might be  best dose of nutrients every time you eat them. You see, it’s easy for veggies to lose nutrients and vitamins if not prepared properly.

So don’t just focus on eating more veggies—try to get the most nutrients out of each meal. Here are 7 things that make veggies less nutritious and how you can avoid them.

1. Juicing

Juicing is a great way to eat more veggies effortlessly. But you’ll be missing out on fiber if you choose juicing over eating whole veggies. And as you may know, fiber controls hunger and improves digestion.

Blending your veggies is better than juicing since you’ll get all the fiber content. You can make your smoothies tastier and healthier by adding spices like turmeric or cinnamon.

2. Not washing your veggies 

Most veggies in the market are filled with chemicals from pesticides. In fact, a 2013 studyfound that a third of the produce they tested had pesticide residues. Note that toxins from pesticides can cause inflammation, diarrhea and increase risk of diseases if you’re exposed to them long-term.

Make sure you wash your veggies thoroughly before you cook them, or buy organic.

3. You only eat your veggies raw

You may think that eating raw veggies retains all the nutrients, but that’s not entirely true. Some veggies like tomatoes are more nutritious when cooked. And I may also note that raw veggies are not easy to break down and absorb once ingested.

You’re better off eating your veggies cooked most of the time. Only eat raw veggies occasionally.

4. Using the wrong salad dressing

Eating salads with fat improves absorption of nutrients, but the type of fat you use matters. Most salad dressings are unhealthy and loaded with lots of calories. Extra virgin olive oil is the best fat to add to your salads.

5. Boiling your veggies

Did you know that water absorbs vitamins from vegetables when they’re boiled? And did you further know that boiling reduces antioxidant content in foods?

If you have to boil your veggies, don’t forget to drink the water you cook with since it has nutrients. But realize that steaming, roasting and sautéing are better ways of cooking veggies without losing nutrients.

6. Overcooking

This may sound obvious, but most people still do it. Veggies shouldn’t lose color or get mushy when we cook them. Here’s how you can avoid overcooking veggies.

7. You don’t buy frozen veggies

Some studies show that frozen veggies are more nutritious than fresh ones. Reason being, fresh veggies start to lose nutrients when stored for several days, while frozen veggies contain most of the nutrients since they’re packaged immediately after harvesting.

Why You Should Rub Clove and Tea Tree Essential Oils on Your Gums and Teeth

People have used essential oils for oral health for centuries, and clinical studies are finally proving their safety and efficacy. In addition to therapeutic herbs and other healing agents, many essential oils show a very beneficial effect upon teeth and gums as well.  

 

A 2014 study published in the Journal of International Oral Health, entitled“Possible Use of Essential Oils in Dentistry,” states,

“Essential oil rinses are found to be equally effective in inhibiting plaque. A study carried out by Pizzo et al. on plaque inhibitory effect of amine fluoride/stannous fluoride and essential oils showed no significant difference in efficacy of both. As chlorhexidine causes staining of teeth on long term use, essential oils can be used as an alternative to chlorhexidine rinse. Essential oils have shown to possess antimicrobial activity against subgingival periopathogens too.” 

 

Tea Tree Oil

Did you know that human clinical trials have confirmed its antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral and antiprotozoal activity under controlled conditions showing (among other things) that tea tree oil effectively reduces bacterial load and yeast and fungal infections, as well as treats viral infections (incl. cold sores [herpes labialis]), and relieves the symptoms of gingivitis and those of denture stomatitis (inflammation of the mouth)?  Tea tree oil’s efficacy against bad breath has been explained by researchers at Switzerland’s Institute of Preventive Dentistry and Oral Microbiology at the University of Basel. There, they evaluated tea tree oil and reported that it decreases the bacterial colonies that cause halitosis, making it beneficial for oral health. 

 

Clove oil

Eugenol, the major constituent of clove oil, has been widely used for its anesthetic and analgesic action in dentistry. Eugenol exhibits pharmacological effects on almost all systems in the body. Eugenol possesses significant antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, in addition to having analgesic and local anesthetic activity.

Method

Clove and tea tree oil essential oilsRubbing these essential oils of clove and melaleuca (tea tree) on your gums or brushing teeth with them has antibacterial properties which can prevent cavities, gingivitis, bad breath, and tooth decay. Apply 2 drops of these oils 2x daily with carrier oil like coconut oil.

How to Lose 30 Pounds in a Month with Just One Tablespoon of Cumin!

People will do and try anything these days to lose weight:  

• Paleo diet
• Vegan diet
• Adkins diet
• Blood type diet

No doubt a healthy diet is important when trying to lose weight, however many expert will tell you that speeding up your metabolism is like adding fuel to a bonfire of calories. It burns them up!   

One of the best way to boost your metabolism is doing physical activity that includes cardio and strength training. Drinking coffee or tea can also boost your metabolism since it contains caffeine which is a central nervous system stimulant.

But if you’re not a fan of exercising, coffee, or tea, then you can try add some spices to your food. Combining some natural ingredient with your food can boost your metabolism and in the end help you lose some weight.  

The scientist of Medical Science University of Iran conducted a study to see how particular spices attributed to weight loss. The study involved 44 women who had problems with their weight. Those women were divided into 2 groups.

All women from both groups committed a diet plan for three months. They ate healthy foods and consumed 500 fewer daily calories than their normal intake. So for example, if they normally consumed 2,500 calories per day, they had to adjust it to 2,000 during the study.

What makes the difference was that one groups consumed 3 grams of powdered cumin every day. They added cumin to 140g of yogurt.

The other group also consumed the same amount of yogurt but no cumin added.

The result was astounding. There’s a significant amount of weight loss difference between the two groups. The group that added cumin to their yogurt lost 14 pounds more compare to the group that didn’t consume cumin.

It wasn’t only the amount of weight loss, the cumin also affected loss percentage of fat. The group that consumed cumin lost 14.64 percent fat while other group lost only 4.91 percent fat.

So how did we come up with 30 pounds of weight loss?

If you add cumin to your food throughout the day and eat healthy whole foods (preferably vegan or paleo diet) you can easily lose that much weight. Naturally, exercise helps (weight training burns more fat than cardio).

The reason why cumin is so effective to boost your metabolism is because it’s rich in filosterole. Filosterole can prevent the storage cholesterol in your body. That’s why it can help you speed up your metabolism. So if you still looking for the best way to lose weight, maybe it’s time to add cumin into your meals.