Coletânea com a participação de músicos curitibanos nos Festivais da Canção da UFPR. Estes festivais foram significativos para a formação de bandas como Zaius, Nefelibatas e A Cúpula.

Seleção
1-Vicious (Marcelo Brum Lemos)-1995
2-Paz (zaius)-1997
3-Em ser e tempo (zaius)-1997
4-O caminho a pedra (zaius)-1997
5-Ar (Marcelo Brum Lemos)-1998
6-Metafísica (A Cúpula)-1998
7-BandeirA II (Nefelibatas)-1999
8-Dança Louca (Nefelibatas)-1999
9-Qualquer (João Cândido Martins)-2000

Para download:
http://www.mediafire.com/?d1nkzozwmgm

A fost odată ca niciodată, într-o ţară îndepărtată, într-o căsuţă părăsită, o familie de gândăcei: Mama-gândăcel, fetiţa-gândăcel şi Gândăcuţ, băieţelul cel mai mic. Aceştia trăiau într-o coajă de nucă dintr-un coşuleţ spânzurat de grinda casei celei vechi. Îşi făcuseră un loc tare comod, cald, în care se simţeau bine, iar gândăceii cei mici obişnuiau să se joaca pe blăniţa roşcată a unei veveriţe prăfuite care veghea deasupra coşuleţului cu nuci. Tatăl-gândăcel lipsea de multă vreme – cei doi gândăcei mai mici nici nu îşi putea aminti de el altfel decât din poveştile mamei. Aceasta le spunea adesea poveşti seara – despre ţări frumoase, despre zăpadă, steluţe. Însă copiilor cel mai mult le plăceau poveştile despre vechea lor căsuţă, din vremea în care ea era încă locuită. Iar mama le spunea că aceasta a fost cândva o fabrică de nectar – un suc dulce şi bun care le plăcea tare mult copiilor de oameni. Însă, ajungând să vorbească despre fabrică, mama gândăcel, în funcţie de cum se simţea, fie spunea lucruri frumoase şi vesele, fie foarte triste şi misterioase, pe care copiii nu le înţelegeau. Aşa, bunăoară, le spunea uneori că e o mare pacoste nectarul acesta pentru familia gândăceilor, că e adeăvarat că, pe vremea când oamenii făceau acolo nectar, în căsuţa lor era mereu cald şi că era o plăcere să îi priveşti pe oameni muncind, dar că pasiunile prea mari sunt distrugătoare şi că e mai bine acum… lucru pe care cei doi gândăcei mici nu reuşeau să le înţeleagă.

Timpul a trecut, iar cei doi gândăcei au crescut frumoşi tare. Gândăcuţ se făcuse puternic, avea ochişori mari, rotunzi, verzi, iar aripioarele lui minunate şi diafane răsfrângeau razele soarelui în mii de culori. La un moment dat, în timp ce se bălăcea Gândăcuţ într-un strop de rouă pe frunza unui nuc bătrân, a văzut prin frunziş o sclipire de smarald care l-a furat cu totul. Ţopăind cu grijă să nu sperie acea strălucire, Gândăcuţ s-a îndreptat într-acolo şi a găsit o mică minune: un alt gândăcel frumos, frumos. Subţirică la mijloc, cu ochi mari, catifelaţi şi rotunzi, care au clipit cu teamă atunci când el s-a apropiat de ea, dar care, în acelaşi timp, l-au învăluit într-o căldură mai mare chiar şi decât razele soarelui din amiezile de vară…

A luat-o cu el pe micuţa Gândăcică, despre care a aflat că o cheamă Boncuţa, şi a dus-o cu el acasă. A prezentat-o mamei lui, care tare mult s-a bucurat pentru că surioara lui tocmai se căsătorise şi plecase la o altă căsuţă, iar ea se simţea bătrână şi îşi dorea ajutor în căsuţa de alună. Astfel, Boncuţa şi-a intrat deplin în rolul de stăpână a căsuţei de nuci, iar zilele lor împreună s-au transformat în nesfârşite minuni. De dimineaţa până seara deretica prin căsuţă, avea grijă de mama lui Gândăcuţ, care, într-adevăr, era tot mai bolnavă şi nu mai putea nici zbura bine. Însă cel mai mult îi plăceau serile, când se întorcea Gândăcuţ de afară şi când începeau să se joace. Zburau prin toată căsuţa, se luau la întrecere, ieşeau în via de afară şi se bucurau, toamna, de dulceaţa strugurilor. Iar seara se aşezau pe câte o frunză de copac mare, iar Boncuţa privea la lună prin aripioara lui Gândăcuţ, minunându-se de frumuseţea culorilor pe care le vedea proiectându-se pe lună.

Aşa au trecut ani de zile. Mama lui Gândăcuţ a murit, iar cei doi au rămas singurei în casa cea veche. Iarna, seara, când se aşezau în pătuţ, cuibărindu-se unul în braţele celuilalt şi acoperindu-se cu aripioareşe diafane, obişnuiau să îşi imagineze cum zburdă oiţe în jurul lor, dar oiţe mici-mici, mai mici decât ei. Şi, împreună, le dădeau nume până adormeau, acesta fiind cel mai drag joc al lor.

Cât timp Gândăcuţ era afară, Boncuţa încerca să facă din căsuţa lor un loc cât mai frumos, pe care îl primenea în fiecare zi. Astfel, într-o dimineaţa de vară, aceasta s-a trezit mai devreme şi a făcut o salbă de picături de rouă, pe care le-a atârnat în jurul căsuţei. Nici nu vă puteţi închipui ce încântat a fost şi Gândăcuţ când a văzut frumuseţea sclipirii acelei salbe pe casa lui.

Într-o zi, prin pădurea din jurul casei cu coşuleţul de nuci, se plimbau nişte oameni, a căror atenţie a fost atrasă de sclipirea salbei de rouă. Aceştia au pornit într-acolo şi au găsit căsuţa. Deşi Boncuţa a observat vânzoleala, nu avea cum să ştie că vreme de multe săptămâni au vuit toate ziarele din oraşele cele mari despre redescoperirea fabricii de nectar. Au început procese la tribunal, moşternitorii au vrut să o primească din nou şi să o pună în funcţiune. Ceea ce au şi reuşit, fără să ştie că acest lucru va schimba pentru totdeauna destinul celor doi fericiţi gândăcei.

Nu mică le-a fost acestora mirarea, când au văzut că încep să vină oamenii la ei în casă, că fac măsurători şi zgomot mare în fiecare zi, până când Gândăcuţ, văzând jgheaburile mari şi amintindu-şi de poveştile mamei sale, şi-a dat seama că vor să repună în funcţiune vechea fabrică de nectar. Câtă fericire şi încântare şi mândrie pe el, să poată trăi ce au trăit moşii şi strămoşii lui! Sufletul Boncuţei era, însă, îndoit. Pe de o parte, se bucura când vedea că oamenii au grijă de casă şi o fac frumoasă, pe de altă parte nu putea uita vorbele mamei lui Gândăcuţ, când spunea că fabrica aceasta e o mare pacoste.

Totuşi, în ciuda schimbărilor, viaţa celor doi a continuat netulburată. Doar că acum urmăreau şi activităţile oamenilor şi aşteptau să fie pusă în funcţiune fabrica. Iar în ziua în care s-a întâmplat aceasta, cei doi au fost atât de fericiţi, încât ore întregi au tot botezat oiţe, fără să poată adormi. Încă de a doua zi, curiozitatea lui Gândăcuţ despre cum se face nectarul era tot mai mare şi tot mai multe ore îşi petrecea privind la naşterea minunatului suc cu reflexe de foc. Până când, într-o zi, a vrut să guste şi el o picătură – doar o picătură – din licoarea fermecată. Şi a făcut acest lucru, nevăzut de nimeni, neştiind ce fericire şi ce durere îi va aduce. Astfel, Gândăcuţ şi-a strâns aripioarele în jurul trupuşorului firav şi s-a aplecat asupra vasului mare, sorbind o picătură – care i-a transformat viaţa! În aceeaşi clipă s-a îndrăgostit de licoarea aceea dulce şi bună, iar de atunci, seara, când se aşeza lângă Boncuţa, o lăsa mai mult pe ea să dea nume oiţelor, căci mintea lui era mereu furată de amintirea licorii magice.

Boncuţa simţea tot mai mult schimbarea petrecută în Gândăcuţ, însă era obişnuită să aibă încredere în el, astfel încât nu i-a spus nimic, ci a ascuns amărăciunea în adâncul sufletului ei. A observat că trec zile multe fără ca ei să se mai uite la lună, că uneori Gândăcuţ vine târziu de la jgheabul de nectar şi nu îi mai arde să zboare prin casă…

Până când, într-o zi, Gândăcuţ a rămas nepermis de mult la jgheab. Boncuţa l-a tot căutat, însă nu l-a putut găsi. Şi stătea amărâtă tare în căsuţă, sperând să se întoarcă degrabă. Dar el a continuat să întârzie, iar ea, îngrijorată, a plecat în căutarea lui. Şi a zburat, micuţa, pe lângă becuri şi prin toate locurile unde ştia că l-ar putea găsi. Când voia să renunţe la căutare, a auzit un glas stins, mic, care o striga. Abia reuşind să îşi dea seama de unde vine, Boncuţa s-a năpustit asupra unor păhărele în care se topea zahărul. Şi nu mică i-a fost disperarea când l-a văzut acolo pe Gândăcuţ, cu aripioarele cristalizate, de zahăr, privind la ea cu ochişorii mari.

-         Gândăcuţ, dragul meu, e târziu. Vino acasă! Ce faci acolo?

-         Nu mai pot veni acasă, Boncuţo! Vreau să mă transform şi eu în nectar. Uite,

aripioarele deja îmi sunt zahăr şi de aici mă voi scurge, încet, în marea de nectar. Vreau să aduc şi eu cuiva bucurie mare, când mă va bea. Însă eram trist tare că nu am apucat să îţi spun. Aş vrea să te rog ceva…

Cu lacrimi mari în ochi, Boncuţa s-a apropiat de el, să audă mai bine ce îi spune, căci şi glasul i se transforma încet în cristale de zahăr.

- Boncuţo, vreau să te rog ceva… De-acum, seara, să botezi şi cu numele meu o oiţă. Să-i spui Gândăcuţ-Nectaruţ. Aşa vei ştii că sunt cu tine mereu…

Iar ea, tocmai când voia să îi răspundă, a văzut cum se deschide fundul paharului, iar cristalul de zahăr Gândăcuţ cade în vâltoarea dulce a nectarului…

I’ve been a bit concerned about the state of Thomas and Papergirl’s marriage of late.  They’ve not been wanting to try for a baby, he’s been rolling wishes to speak to Sherry Bunch, and she’s been rolling wishes to befriend her male acquaintances.  So I sent them for a romantic break in France.

Of course, I got them doing some skilling, learning and exploring, too.  There are new grape varieties in France.  We discovered three and Thomas harvested some for us to plant at home.  They also act as bait for the French fish, and ingredients for nectar.

Thomas had a go at making nectar with grapes, lime and apples.  The game told us it was disgusting, which might be a fair point.  You can purchase a billion different varieties of nectar at the store onsite, which makes me think the nectar skill and LTW might be very difficult indeed.

Papergirl was sent rummaging to see if she could build up her journalistic skills writing some stories on her French buddies.  She could rummage, but never enough to dig up any dirt (or indeed find anything exciting).

She spent a lot of time buttering up the locals to improve her charisma.  She can talk about her adventures and discuss the local gossip with them.  She can’t interview them, sadly.  On the phone, you can talk to friends in France, or long-distance friends (back home) and when you get home you can also call your long-distance holiday friends, and I’ve heard you can invite them over.  It’s now my ambition to gain spouses from these destinations for future Dayes.

Here, Papergirl is learning songs.  She learned two songs from the shopkeeper.  When she sang one, ‘Je T’aime’ back to him, they got a negative moodlet because he was in a relationship.  Ha.  I didn’t notice her gaining any music skill from the songs though.

In the bedroom she taught the songs to Thomas and he sang the love song back to her.  I spammed their romantic interactions but they had no try for baby option come up, and I thought maybe it just couldn’t happen in France, so I sent them to sleep.

The next day I sent Papergirl off to visit the sights and talk to more locals, while I got Thomas to read his fishing books then carry out his main mission here, to catch the unique fish.

He didn’t seem too impressed with frogs.

Snails were perhaps a little more impressive, given their size.  You can also catch crawfish in France (and some more normal fish).  Fishing here can all  be done in the same place and seems fairly straightforward, but in China I think it’ll be more of a challenge given the number of fishing books and fishing spots for that place.

Papergirl enjoyed whizzing around on the motorbike.  I also sent the two of them for a romantic meal at the cafe in France but she couldn’t eat grilled salmon, so she still hasn’t eaten her favourite meal (Thomas has had key lime pie now, hurrah).

Fortunately, this is not Thomas displaying his sexytime moves.  We bought a camera and Papergirl can ask people to pose.  She didn’t take a picture, but I’m considering letting Eddie Kidd do one of the photography based LTWs so he’ll inherit it on his child birthday (assuming children can use cameras).

After a lot of faffing about (and some obligatory bathroom flirting), they finally succumbed.

Another baby is on the way – and only a few hours before they had to come home.

Evel has started cooking up some of the fancy new WA recipes.  Here she’s seen cooking felafel.  She’s so skillful, she doesn’t even need to look at what she’s doing.  A very cute thing (that will probably become annoying) was that she sang the song she learned in China while she was cooking.  Aw.

Now here’s something exciting.  Look at the bottom option Thomas has here.  It says ‘fertilise garden with best fertiliser’.  Now that seems a very useful new interaction indeed and a much less timewastey one than having to do all the fertilizing manually.  Oh, and we learned more about that darn omni at the science facility.  You can only feed or harvest it at certain times of the day.  Iiiinteresting.

I’m not entirely sure I approve of pregnant women driving around Sunset Valley on mopeds without helmets on.

I sent Papergirl out to do some interviews and reviews to make the best use of her pregnancy… only… nowhere was available to review?  Whaaat??  I hope this is merely the Sim nanny state enforcing new restrictions on pregnant sims and not some patch/WA glitch that has stopped journos doing journalistic things, or I will NOT BE IMPRESSED.

Cos, yeah, she can’t interview, either.  She went to the library to read Totally Preggers and build charisma.  I got her to give a flirty introduction to some townie because I thought it might be better for charisma (I wasn’t going to have her take the flirting anywhere other than that).  Only Abe chose that moment to enter the library and he wasn’t best impressed with his daughter-in-law’s behaviour.  He wasn’t even impressed when she told him a fifth grandchild was on the way, and last time I saw him, he had a wish to have five grandchildren, so you think he’d be over the moon.  Maybe being the living dead has given him a bit of a sense of humour bypass.

His oldest granchildren both aged up.  I was all ready to get Piranha out looking for a spouse to turn into a purple ghost (I like the idea of favourite colour ghosties)… when I realised I had chosen her traits so far and would have to roll her YA trait.  She rolled… whatever and she did NOT roll Gold-digger.  No biggie, I had enough LTH to buy her a change, but reroll as much as I liked, Gold-digger would not come up.

So now she’s just after swimming in cash, which will be a doddle, and is back out looking for the mythical trilobite beetle.  She can have a few more bug hunts overseas, top out a part-time career and (pleeeeease) find that darn bug, and then I’ll let her live her life and make room for Gen 4.

Evel is much better behaved than her cousin.  I chose workaholic for her and she’s (of course) going to be a Five Star Chef.  Next time I play I’ll get a better picture of her – she aged up just as I was about to go out and I didn’t have time to get a good shot.

And finally…. I let Papergirl read Totally Preggers but nothing else and she didn’t go to the spa or have a back massage.  She was mostly happy throughout.  I chose one of this baby’s traits.  Koi Daye likes black and key-lime pie, so should be easy to please.  She rolled clumsy and I chose friendly.  I’m hoping she will test out super-popular via the medium of tag.

Join us next week when we should hopefully have a house full of old people and ghost children, we should discover what colour Koi’s hair will be and we’ll find out if Papergirl can ever conduct an interview or review again!

Você sabia que existem no Brasil mais de 5.000 direferentes espécies de abelhas?

As 20 mil espécies de abelhas que estima-se existir no globo, são essenciais para a reprodução sexual das plantas. Durante suas visitas às flores, as abelhas transferem o pólen de uma flor para outra, promovendo o que chamamos de polinização cruzada, ou seja neste momento ocorre a troca de gametas entre as plantas. Uma boa polinização garante a variabilidade genética dos vegetais e a formação de bons frutos. Deste modo, as abelhas também são importantes para as plantas cultivadas que dependem de agentes polinizadores. Portanto, as abelhas são indiretamente responsáveis pela produção de alimentos: frutas, legumes e grãos.

fonte: http://eco.ib.usp.br/beelab/solitarias.htm

Eu acho lindo este relacionamento entre as flores e as abelhas. As abelhas ganham o néctar, as flores ganham a polinização e nós o mel e o própolis. Tudo bem, tudo bem… a gente rouba da pobre abelha seu árduo trabalho. Mas a relação entre as abelhas e as flores continua sendo linda.

(PALAT. ANT. BOOK V – 170)
Nothing is sweeter than Love; and every other joy
is second to it: even the honey I spit out of my mouth.
Thus Nossis says: and who didn’t love Kypris,
doesn’t know what sort of roses her flowers are.

(PALAT. ANT. BOOK VI – 275)
With pleasure Aphrodite received the lovable offering
of the small bonnet which wound the head of Samyta:
It’s really of exquisite workmanship and it gently smells of the nectar
with which the goddess sprinkles the handsome Adonis.

(PALAT. ANT. BOOK IX – 332)
Arrived in front of the temple we gaze at this statue of Aphrodite
embellished by a dress embroidered with gold.
Polyarchis offered it, having made out a large fortune
from the beauty of her own body.

(PALAT. ANT. BOOK IX – 605)
In the temple of the blonde Aphrodite Kallò dedicated this picture
painted with a portrait exactly alike her.
What a tidy attitude! And which grace pervades her!
Hail! Of all your life nothing could be blamed.

– More here.

by Mary Ellen Ryall

Why are we doing this? Does the butterfly not have enough challenges on Earth without sending it into space?

This reminds me of the poor monkeys who were sent into space by the Russians when I was a young woman. According to Wikipedia, “The Soviet/Russian space program in the Bion program satellites used only rhesus species. The first Soviet monkeys, Abrek and Bion, flew on Bion 6. They were aloft from December 14, 1983 – December 20, 1983.”

Now it is monarch caterpillars. Just look at the poor things. I don’t believe they even know what is happening to them. The experiment appears to promote monarch biology in the classroom and also studies the life cycle of the butterfly in outer space and affect of loss of gravity and weightlessness at the same time.

Butterflies are free. We build habitat for the monarch butterfly and sell milkweed seed (their host plant) so they might live. Happy Tonics is building a floral corridor across the USA so the butterfly will have abundant host and nectar sources along its migration route. We have a Monarch Butterfly Habitat in Shell Lake, Wisconsin. If you go outside surely you will see that they live in a natural world. They fly, but not in outer space.

The amazing Marina Fini stopped by for a little Counter Culture Collective madness last night. We just got a new sound system – apparently built by the same two hands that work the guitar in Creedence – so the tunes were bumping, the nectar was flowing, the trees were blowin’ in the wind and these photos are just a few of what she captured. Also – say hi to CCC’s newest member, TwirlyGirl!

Gisteren een geweldige Brora & Clynelish tasting gehad, maar met amper twee uur slaap wil de kop vandaag niet echt mee, dat verslagje volgt dus morgen of overmorgen. In de plaats daarvan mijn bevindingen van Our Angel, die ik vorige week (nog eens) gedronken heb. The Drunken Angel en The Mad(eira) Angel hebben we al gehad. Telkens ging het om vaten van Cooley, de Ierse distilleerderij achter o.a. Connemara en Tyrconnell, gebotteld door The Nectar. Ook deze ‘Our Angel’ is een Cooley, maar een bijzondere want geselecteerd door de deelnemers van de Cooley Masterclass op het Spirits in the Sky festival te Leuven, editie 2008. Zij kregen een aantal cask samples te proeven en deze won het pleit, wat me na proeven niet verbaasde.

 
Cooley ‘Our Angel’ 9y 1999, 46%, Daily Dram – Ireland – 87/100
Zoete maar vooral fruitige whisky. Perzik, ananas, (sappige) peer, crème de banane, honing, bloemen. Zeer fris en vooral erg lekker, zowel op de neus als in de smaak. Ideaal op een zomers terrasje, maar eigenlijk evengoed op eender welke andere plek want dit is een pure genietwhisky. Wel oppassen want hij kapt erg makkelijk binnen.

Mary Beth: Winter is coming, I think, and even though the weather continues to be unusually warm for this time of year, I’ve been getting the bees ready.

So, what about the bees? Every time I tell someone that Ray and I are moving back to Colorado (Ch, Ch, Changes), I hear this question. I’ll say, “We’re leaving.” and then, wait for it, wait for it…a look of dismay and “What about the bees?!” Of course it’s logical, but I’ve been a little surprised and amused that the fate of my bees worries them. On the other hand it’s nice that my friends and readers have become so engrossed in this story that one of their first thoughts is for the bees.

So here is the answer.

Out of the three hives that I ended up with after the swarm season, the Top Bar Hive is the only one that survived.

The Hippie Shack

For some reason the other two lost their queens after they swarmed (read about it here and here) and I ended up shaking out the remaining bees in front of the TBH in hopes that they would be accepted into the hive. Losing the Blue and Green hives made me very sad — I was surprised by how much I’ve come to love my bees.

As for the Hippie Shack (named in honor of the laid-back nature of these bees), I checked it recently and it didn’t have as much honey as I thought it should. I think the hive was being robbed. I put an entrance reducer in to make the the hole smaller to give the guard bees less area to defend. Now, even with the warm weather prolonging the season, I’m worried that they won’t have time to store enough food to make it through the winter.

Since Ray and I decided to leave after the holidays, I’ve been trying to figure out how to leave the bees with enough food. I researched fondant ‘bee candy’ and it seemed like a good solution, so I made a frame to hold it and placed that in the hive.

This small frame holds 5 pounds of sugar fondant!

Another good thing about the bee candy is it won’t cause the moisture problems inside the hive that the sugar syrup did in the early spring. I placed the fondant between the false back and the last comb hoping it wouldn’t attract any more robber bees.

I hope the warm weather will last long enough to let them build up their supplies. Every day they’ve been coming in with a lot of pollen, which is a very good thing.

Dandelions and the last of the aster are blooming, so I think this is where they are getting the bright orange pollen.

Another sign that the bees are preparing for winter is each day a few more drones have been getting kicked out of the hive. I watched this play out one day — those girls are ruthless!

Poor drone!

One poor male was pulled by his leg and tossed out like yesterday’s paper. It’s a cruel, cruel world my friends, but there is not enough to go around in winter for lazy freeloaders.

I moved the hive from it’s original spot so it will get maximum sun exposure all winter. This should allow the bees to break cluster on sunny winter days.

I also wrapped the hive to give it a little more insulation and to keep the wind out. Now it’s up to the bees. Other than a few more feedings before we leave for Colorado, my girls are on their own until March.

You may wonder why I haven’t given the hive away. I did consider moving the hive to my friend’s property, but I was afraid if I moved it up the steep, bumpy road to my friend’s house, a comb or two might break off ruining any chance of the bees’ survival. So I decided to leave them where they are on my family’s property. I’ll fly back east in the spring for a visit and check on the bees and I’ve arranged for my beekeeper friends to check on them now and then. Fortunately the TBH needs little maintenance and the bees will take care of themselves.

Becoming a beekeeper has been a wonderful journey. Learning about honeybees opened up new worlds for me, not just the world of honeybees in my garden, but the important roles of all pollinators and how critical every last one of them is. It’s led me to examine the negative impact we’ve all had on our environment. I’ve been reading about the decline of the honeybee from Colony Collapse Disorder — just one of many examples of our carelessness towards our environment. But the good thing is it’s made me more aware of what I’ve been doing.

So, with that new-found awareness, I try to do my part to help by adding native plants to the existing flower gardens. And I’ve decided that I will delay mowing the outer fields until after the first frost to allow time for the last of the butterflies to emerge from their cocoons and to let the wildflowers reseed themselves for next year.

Of course, at the center of it all is the honeybee, the incredible little powerhouse.  If you have not yet read any books on honeybees, you should. Some of the things you learn will astound you.

It’s been a great year even with the loss of two hives and no honey to harvest. And next spring I will have a hive in Colorado with even more challenges — bears, skunks and who knows what else, but I have a plan!

Mango Jamaican & Lime!
From the fertile hills of Jamaica, the Rasta Group company brings us a recipe to beautifully groom locks and twists.

This sponsor wanted the models of America’s Next Natural Model to picture how well their blend of ancient ingredients work and enhance any type of hair that you want to have twisted or locked.

Visit http://going-natural.com to see how well the models pictured Rasta Group wishes.

The Score
After the Sula NYC challenge there is a new top three. With this new top three, the competition is far from over. Stay tuned. Keep voting and commenting. The models need you. Your vote is worth 1 point and your comment 3 points.

“Liming” with Jamaican Mango and Lime!
Jamaican Mango and Lime was the first natural hair product line I used when I made the big chop six years ago. Their entire product line can be found at most beauty supply outlets, including your local Sally Beauty Supply store. I was so delighted to be given the opportunity to review the newest additions to their line. I decided to try “Cactus Gro” to sooth my itchy scalp and twist things up with the “Locking Firm Wax”.
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Jamaican Mango and Lime

With more than 23% of African Americans (including myself) with natural hair, a recipe from the fertile hills of Jamaica was developed with mango and lime ingredients specifically designed to start and maintain healthy and well groomed locs and twist. Of these products my favorite is the Jamaican Mango and Lime Locking Firm Wax.

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Jamaican Mango and Lime Products

In our gift baskets are 3 Jamaican Mango and Lime products by Rasta Locks and Twists. The Cactus Leave in Moisturizer, Locking Firm Wax and Cactus Gro. I don’t have locks so I didn’t use the wax. I did try the other 2 products, so here is what happened.

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Natural Food for Natural Hair
When I received my box for America’s Next Natural Model competition, I was excited to try the Jamaican Mango & Lime products because my sister, who has locs, informed me that she used the Leave in Moisturizer from the Cactus line and that she loved the product.

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Get it twisted

Mangos nectar in my hands with a twist of lime for my two strands

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Lovely Locks with Jamaican Mango & Lime

Deeply inhale the sweet aroma of mango, and lime in your hair…
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Jamaican Mango & Lime: Bringing Jamaica Home with you

I’m not new to Jamaican Mango & Lime products, my mother and I have trusted both the Locking wax and gel for twists and twists outs since I went natural two years ago.

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Wha Gwan Star?
Wha gwan, star?  I grew up on stories told by my Jamaican grandfather and Southern grandmother.  Just as I grew up on their wise tales, my locs have grown up on Jamaican Mango & Lime products.
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Integrated pharma company Nectar Lifesciences Limited will invest Rs 600 crore to set up a drug facility in Punjab.

The new plant will mark the company’s diversification into different therapeutic spaces such as oncology, cardiovascular, anti-diabetics and anti- HIV segment.

The company also plans to increase sales three-fold in the next five years to about Rs 4,000 crore.

“The new facility coming up in Punjab with an investment of Rs 600 crore will mark the company’s diversification into non-cephalosporin (therapeutic segment), aimed to cater to changing markets,” Nectar Lifesciences Limited CEO and Whole Time Director Dinesh Dua told PTI here.

The decision of foraying into therapeutic segment will allow the antibiotic drug maker to cater to the growing global markets in the field of oncology, cardiovascular, anti-diabetics and anti-HIV, which is pegged at $150 billion at present, he said.

To be spread over 148 acres of land at Lalru in Punjab, the new facility, which will be company’s 12th, is expected to be ready by 2011. “It will manufacture Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) and formulations for the identified segments of oncology, cardiovascular, anti—diabetics and anti— HIV. The total production capacity of this plan is expected to be 1,000 MT per annum,” he said.

To fund the proposed diversification business plan, the company would use a mixture of debt, internal accruals and private equity placements. “We will raise Rs 200 crore through private equity mode while Rs 100 crore from internal accruals and Rs 300 crore from debts,” he said.

In the current Cephalosporin segment, the company’s core area, Nectar Lifesciences has now made up its mind to focus on regulated markers like the US and Europe.

“We will be filling our New Drug Applications as well as Drug Master Files for entering the lucrative markets of the US and Europe. Japan is another market which will also like to capture,” he said.

At present, the company has a footprint in over 50 countries comprising semi—regulated markets like Latin America, Korea and Turkey.

The company is also holding negotiations with some of leading global pharma companies for supplying its antibiotic molecules to achieve higher growth trajectory.

Mary Beth: Is there anything more amazing than a butterfly, especially a monarch? From its very beginning as a tiny larva, to the chrysalis, to the magnificent winged creature migrating thousands of miles to begin the cycle anew, there isn’t a moment of its life cycle that isn’t breathtakingly beautiful.

Swamp Milkweed grows wild on the back slope of my garden and for the past three years I’ve been encouraging it to expand. It provides food for my honeybees and for the monarch butterflies that call Block Island home. Both of them love it and, although it threatens to take over the back half of my garden, I’ll keep letting it seed itself because it is a valuable food source for these pollinators (monarchs are second only to bees in that category) and a critical link in the life cycle of the monarch.

Milkweed blossoms in early July

So I provide food and water for the butterflies, and they give back endless hours of fascination and joy — there’s nothing that lifts my heart more than company of the monarchs as I work in my garden.

In a good butterfly year, the elm trees that separate the garden from the rest of the property will be draped in monarchs, though we haven’t seen this phenomenon for some years now. Wondering why they always come back to that spot, I did a little research and found out that some scientists have speculated that the monarchs might leave a scent on the trees that attracts the next generation.

All summer I watched for signs of the monarchs. First there were the little larvae.

Then they fattened up and became plump caterpillars hungrily munching great chunks of milkweed. (Honestly, between watching the bees and the butterflies, it’s amazing I got any work done.)

Hungry caterpillars

Soon milkweed city grew quiet and I started to search for the chrysalis. And I searched and searched. I’d almost given up on that mid-September day when I was sitting in the garden eating grapes. Suddenly a small green capsule caught my eye.

The chrysalis was hard to spot

I kept a close watch on the chrysalis for the next couple of weeks.

Almost ready to hatch

Gradually it turned dark and I could more clearly see the butterfly folded up inside. I knew it would hatch very soon, so I made sure I always had my camera with me at all times so I wouldn’t miss the big event.

The next day the sky opened up. As it had all summer, it rained buckets.  Suddenly, in between downpours, the sun burst through the clouds. I grabbed my camera and ran for the garden. Surely the butterfly wouldn’t hatch in this foul weather.

Minus its inhabitant, but still beautiful

The female monarch — newly hatched and drying her wings

A magnificent creature — her wing webbing is thicker and she lacks the black spot on each of her hind wings that mark the male butterfly

I missed the hatching, but got beautiful pictures of the minutes-old butterfly. This gorgeous creature, the fourth and longest-lived generation of this season’s monarchs, is on her way to Mexico now. She’ll spend the winter there, reproduce, and finally die.

Soon she'll be off on her long journey

Vaya con Dios little butterfly. Send your babies back to my garden!

P.S. See our Resources page for links to lots of monarch butterfly information, including how you can make your garden more monarch-friendly.

So just under a week away from 140 Character Conference London. Which I am thoroughly looking forward to.

Joining me on the brand panel at around 12PMish will be Rachel Fellows, Corp. Comms director at Kelloggs – you can find her on twitter @KelloggsUK. I also have the privaledge of welcoming Mike Matherson (@mikemath), CEO of Cake Group to the stage and Mauricio Samayoa from wearesocial to join the panel aswell.

For those of you who haven’t yet signed up to come along you can get a 50% discount with my “friend of speaker” code, click here to use it.

Thank you to all of you who contributed your suggestions, in particular @jangles and @brynmorgan.

As a result check out:

@nectar

@jamesoncultfilm

@magnersuk

@innocentdrinks

@britishairways

@virgintrains

@guitarherouk

@doritosuk

and

@waterstones – all as a good starting point!

If you have any questions for the panel don’t forget to DM me or submit a comment here!

And finally for those who missed it check out http://london.140conf.com/schedule for the full line up!

I love Wine! I also love Coffee! My love affair with wine began in 2005 when I met my wife, Kimberly. I’ve been a coffee lover since I was in my early 20’s

why drinknectar.com

I’ve always enjoyed exploring my passions. I believe there are other people passionate about similar subjects. My desire is for drinknectar to bring those people together. Specifically, to provide people in my community with an interactive social experience that can assist in making educated decisions when it comes to their wine and coffee drinking experiences.

what will you see at drinknectar.com

drinknectar will take to the streets of Spokane, WA (and elsewhere during my travels) for on location reviews of Spokane wine bars, coffee shops, local wineries and more (we may even explore the occasional pub or local brewery). Armed with my flipcam we’ll even get the ‘on the street’ taste test of wine and coffee. My goal is to expand the awareness of the great places serving nectar and help people explore tastes that they may have never considered. By no means do I consider myself an expert. I am a fan, like you, with a passion.

I’ll try to post daily, but not all posts will be reviews. Currently I’m setting up my first round of nectarviews, so stay tuned.

In the meantime, follow me on twitter @nectarwine or look for the facebook fan page drinknectar (all one word).

Drinking tonight: Lodi, CA Seven Deadly Zins Zinfindel – YOU?

QOTD: Where do you buy your wine?

drinknectar.com    <drink.happy>

Butterfly

Butterflies are gaily colored insects we often see on summer days.  They flutter from flower to flower drinking the sweet liquid called nectar.

Butterflies have no chewing mouth parts.  They cannot bite or chew.

Instead of the usual insect mouth, the butterfly has a long, slender tube which is used to suck up nectar and other liquids the way you sip through a soda straw.

When the butterfly is not eating, the long tube curls up like a watch spring under the insect’s head.

A butterfly’s taste buds are on the soles of its feet.  When it alights on a flower, the sweet taste causes the insect to uncoil its sucking tube.

When butterflies go from one flower to another for the sweet nectar, they also pick up some pollen on the hairs of their legs and bodies.

A little of this pollen brushes off as they visit each new flower.  It helps the flowers’ seeds and fruit to grow.

Visual source:  projectseven  

O Junior´s  é uma daquelas lanchonetes típicas americanas, que a gente cresceu vendo nos filmes. Eles mesmos se denominam “Most fabulous cheesecake and desserts”. Quanto às desserts não sei se são tão gostosas quanto são bonitas, mas o cheesecake é mesmo amazing. E, of course, biiiiig. São quatro unidades em NYC mas, se você tiver tempo, vá à do Brooklin. Além de provar as delícias de lá (os lanches e saladas também são ótimos) você ainda tem um gostinho de um ambiente típico de um dos bairros mais famosos do mundo. O lugar é muito procurado para aniversários e confraternizações (quem viu Sex and the City, o filme?). Só não espere dos garçons a agilidade moderna. Acho que ali o tempo parou…

Na 5th Ave, altura da 33 rd, tem um lugar 24 horas que é um ótimo quebra-galho do tipo BB (bom e barato). No self service tem comida chinesa, salada e sopas. Tem ainda sanduíches, pizzas, pães e bolos.

Já perto do Met tem um ótimo restaurante, pra quem estiver disposto a gastar um pouco mais: o Néctar, na Madison Ave com a 82nd. Pratos ótimos, lugar tranquilo, bom atendimento. Vale caminhar pelo bairro, que é sofisticado e tem várias lojas descoladas.

Is it just me who finds filling up with petrol one of the most mundane necessities in life?  I literally leave it until my range reads ‘2′ miles remaining.  And even then do I despise pulling into the nearest BP Connect.  However, once in there, I truly believe they should start giving out prizes for stopping the petrol pump bang on a score.  Either that or make it an Olympic sport. £20.01.  Fuck it!  Seriously, I guarantee I’m not the only one.  We’ve all been there.  We start caressing the trigger, treating it with kid gloves as we reach the higher 90s.  £19.95, £19.96, £19.97, £19.98, £19,99… £20.01!  CUNT!  Bollocks pump!  Don’t wind me up.  In no way did I squeeze that last little squeeze harder than I’ve been doing for the past few seconds.  I swear it’s rigged.  There’s a mercenary little minion behind the counter, watching me precariously trying to stop the indicator on the exact amount of money my wallet holds.  There is, trust me.  And he has other ideas.  He knows full well that my wallet consists of one crisp £20 note, no coins, so he makes sure it stops on £20.01.  It’s a card jobby now, cunt!  You might as well throw in a Twix now, too.  Still, not one to be defeated, I say to myself £20.50 and go again.  It’s a vicious circle.

On the bright side though, I’ve now accumulated enough air miles to fly around the world… twice.  I wouldn’t mind but I usually only go in for a tenner!  My Nectar card probably has more points than Tom Riall.

Adult female Bagheera kiplingi eats Beltian body harvested from ant-acacia Photo/R.L. Curry

For ages, ants have had a monopoly on the coveted acacia, protecting the plant from would-be predators in exchange for shelter and food, or so they thought. Skulking in the background, and recently discovered, is an unlikely competitor of the ant — a spider. And this is no ordinary arachnid. The Bagheera kiplingi also happens to be a vegetarian, and is the first of its kind known to science.

“This is really the first spider known to specifically ‘hunt’ plants,” said Christopher Meehan of Villanova University. “It is also the first known to go after plants as a primary food source.”

The veggie-loving tendency of this jumping spider was first discovered in Central America back in 2001 by Eric Olson of Brandeis University. Since then he has teamed up with Meehan, who independently observed the jumping spider in 2007, to learn more about this unusual creature and the extent to which it likes plants. Not only is Bagheera kiplingi the only predominant vegetarian of 40,000 known spider species with plants making up more than 90 percent of its diet, but it’s showing scientists a complex side of arachnid biology and behavior that indicates the spider’s diet is just the beginning of this animal’s surprising life history.

Adult female Bagheera kiplingi defends her nest against acacia-ant worker. Photo/R.L. Curry

Ants are aggressive defenders of the acacia plant making life difficult for outsiders who attempt to encroach on their turf. After all, they want those yummy beltian bodies all to themselves. So how is the jumping spider managing to exploit the acacia for both food and shelter?

Science is still trying to figure that out, but preliminary research shows the spiders take advantage of the invertebrate equivalent of run-down real estate, setting up residence in less-than-desirable regions of the acacia. But their ingenuity doesn’t stop there. Bagheera kiplingi are outsmarting their ant foes, said Meehan, exploiting their intelligence and agility to get around the ants. “Individuals employ diverse, situation-specific strategies to evade ants, and the ants simply cannot catch them,” he said.

As if to add insult to co-evolution, the ants may not even know when spiders are in their midst. Bagheera kiplingi literally dupes the ant by baring young that look like carbon-copies of the ants, and Meehan has reason to suspect that the spiders actually wear a sort of insect perfume that makes them smell like their would-be attackers.

More research is forthcoming, including a look at the possibility that spider dad’s help raise the babies, a virtually unheard of behavior in spider biology. In the meantime, I hear Meehan and Olson’s methods included high-definition video of these smarty-pant vegetarian spiders. Now that would be some footage to see.

Meehan and Olson’s study is available in the October 12 issue of Current Biology.

Just got a note from Fulltilt.com regarding the Poker Million tournament. This is a UK tournament and FT are running satellites for it now – the thing that caught my eye is that the satellites are practically free if you play any poker at all online with Fulltilt. Fulltilt have a pionts’s system a bit like nectar or something like that which you earn every time you play and you only need 200 to enter the satellite and 5000 to skip that and go straight to the qualification final!

If your successful in this process you get a seat on the televised (Skysports) Poker million final worth $100,000 and the prize pool for the final is $1.5million!!!

Definitely going to be trying my luck in this one….let me know how you get on if you enter

Para maiores informações, acesse:
http://www.ventofriochuva.tk/