Fresh Apricots

Fresh apricots are high in minerals and rich in beta carotene and are one of the most healing fruits you can eat. They are one of the best sources for organic iron, copper, and cobalt making them very beneficial for anemia, digestive disorders, and reproductive health. They are also incredible for keeping the heart strong and healthy as well as being a powerful weight-loss agent. Apricot’s high concentration of beta carotene makes them an excellent food for disease prevention, especially lung, skin, and stomach illnesses. Fresh apricots are abundant at this time of year in farmers markets and supermarkets. Let them ripen fully before eating and you will enjoy a delicious taste sensation that will keep you smiling and active throughout your day.

Lychees

Lychee are a superfruit that are revered around the world for their delicious flavor and their numerous health promoting properties. Lychee are a rich source of vitamin C and B-complex which help to boost the immune system, protect against inflammation, and aid the body in metabolizing carbohydrates, proteins, and fats. Lychee contain a compound called oligonol which has powerful anti-viral properties and are highly beneficial for those suffering with colds, flu, fever, swollen glands, or sore throat. Lychees have the reputation of being able to help the most stubborn of coughs and provide significant respiratory relief from congestion and chronic coughs. Lychee also contains flavonoids which can help to prevent the growth of cancer cells as well as reduce the size of tumors. Lychees are packed with antioxidants that are known to help reduce weight, improve circulation, and protect the body from aging and disease. Lychee also contain unique compounds that help to eliminate candida. Lychee are a good source of copper, iron, zinc, selenium, and potassium which can help to nourish the blood and increase energy levels. Lychee have a rough raspberry colored skin that can be easily peeled off to expose the juicy grape like fruit inside. Inside the juicy flesh is a shiny brown seed that should be discarded. The fruit is sweet and refreshing and is thoroughly enjoyed by children and adults alike. Fresh lychees are often found in the supermarket between July-October, but the fruit can also be found anytime of the year in the form of juices, jams, jellies, and sorbet. Dried or frozen lychee can also be found in speciality markets while healing lychee fruit extract can be found in capsule, tincture, tea, and liquid form online or at your local health food store.

Rose Hips

 

 Rose hips from the rugosa rose plant are an exceptional healing fruit that grow abundantly in the wild and in home gardens. They are packed with Vitamin C, E, & K and are used to help prevent and treat infections such as bladder, kidney, respiratory, and sinus infections as well as colds and flus. Rose hips aid in reducing inflammation associated with auto-immune conditions such as arthritis and fibromyalgia. They also ease the digestive tract, provide a laxative effect on the colon, and help to prevent fluid retention and bloating. Rose hips have also been to known to prevent dizziness and the effects of vertigo. Rose hips have an affinity for women’s reproductive health aiding in regulating menstrual flow, easing uterine cramps, and preventing breast disorders. They help to purify and nourish the blood and lymphatic system which aids in preventing stress related illnesses. They are wonderful for strengthening the circulatory, respiratory, and digestive system. Rose hips also support the thymus gland which is a specialized organ that helps your immune system to function optimally. If you happen to be fortunate enough to have a rugosa rose plant growing near where you live, wait until the rose hips are soft to the touch before harvesting. They can be eaten fresh or dried for later use. Avoid the seeds by eating around the center or straining through a sieve. Dried cut and sifted rose hips are readily available in health foods stores in bulk. Rose hip tea is a delicious way to incorporate this healing fruit into your daily routine. Use 1 tsp dried rose hips per 1 cup of water and steep for 10 minutes.

11 Surprising Health Benefits of Sleeping

Sleep makes you feel better, but its importance goes way beyond just boosting your mood or banishing under-eye circles. Adequate sleep is a key part of a healthy lifestyle, and can benefit your heart, weight, mind, and more. 


"Sleep used to be kind of ignored, like parking our car in a garage and picking it up in the morning," says David Rapoport, M.D., director of the NYU Sleep Disorders Program.


Not anymore. Here are some health benefits researchers have discovered about a good night's sleep.
Improve Memory
Your mind is surprisingly busy while you snooze. During sleep you can strengthen memories or "practice" skills learned while you were awake (it's a process called consolidation).
"If you are trying to learn something, whether it's physical or mental, you learn it to a certain point with practice," says Dr. Rapoport, who is an associate professor at NYU Langone Medical Center. "But something happens while you sleep that makes you learn it better."
Live Longer?
Too much or too little sleep is associated with a shorter lifespan -- although it's not clear if it's a cause or effect. (Illnesses may affect sleep patterns too.)
In a 2010 study of women ages 50 to 79, more deaths occurred in women who got less than five hours or more than six and a half hours of sleep per night.
 Curb Inflammation

Inflammation is linked to heart disease, stroke, diabetes, arthritis, and premature aging. Research indicates that people who get less sleep -- six or fewer hours a night -- have higher blood levels of inflammatory proteins than those who get more.
A 2010 study found that C-reactive protein, which is associated with heart attack risk, was higher in people who got six or fewer hours of sleep a night.
People who have sleep apnea or insomnia can have an improvement in blood pressure and inflammation with treatment of the sleep disorders, Dr. Rapoport says.

 Spur Creativity

Get a good night's sleep before getting out the easel and paintbrushes or the pen and paper.
In addition to consolidating memories, or making them stronger, your brain appears to reorganize and restructure them, which may result in more creativity as well.
Researchers at Harvard University and Boston College found that people seem to strengthen the emotional components of a memory during sleep, which may help spur the creative process.

 Be A Winner

If you're an athlete, there may be one simple way to improve your performance: sleep.
A Stanford University study found that college football players who tried to sleep at least 10 hours a night for seven to eight weeks improved their average sprint time and had less daytime fatigue and more stamina.
The results of this study reflect previous findings seen in tennis players and swimmers.

 Improve Your Grades

Children between the ages of 10 and 16 who have sleep disordered breathing, which includes snoring, sleep apnea, and other types of interrupted breathing during sleep, are more likely to have problems with attention and learning, according to a 2010 study in the journal Sleep. This could lead to "significant functional impairment at school," the study authors wrote.
In another study, college students who didn't get enough sleep had worse grades than those who did.
"If you're trying to meet a deadline, you're willing to sacrifice sleep," Dr. Rapoport says, "but it's severe and reoccurring sleep deprivation that clearly impairs learning."

 Sharpen Attention

A lack of sleep can result in ADHD-like symptoms in kids, Dr. Rapoport says.
"Kids don't react the same way to sleep deprivation as adults do," he adds. "Whereas adults get sleepy, kids tend to get hyperactive."
A 2009 study in the journal Pediatrics found that children ages seven and eight who got less than about eight hours of sleep a night were more likely to be hyperactive, inattentive, and impulsive.
"We diagnose and measure sleep by measuring electrical changes in the brain," Dr. Rapoport says. "So not surprisingly how we sleep affects the brain."

 Have A Healthy Weight

If you are thinking about going on a diet, you might want to plan an earlier bedtime too.
Researchers at the University of Chicago found that dieters who were well rested lost more fat -- 56 percent of their weight loss -- than those who were sleep deprived, who lost more muscle mass. (They shed similar amounts of total weight regardless of sleep.)
Dieters in the study also felt more hungry when they got less sleep.
"Sleep and metabolism are controlled by the same sectors of the brain," Dr. Rapoport says. "When you are sleepy, certain hormones go up in your blood, and those same hormones drive appetite."

 Lower Stress

 When it comes to our health stress and sleep are nearly one and the same -- and both can affect cardiovascular health."Sleep can definitely reduce levels of stress, and with that people can have better control of their blood pressure," Dr. Jean says. "It's also believed that sleep effects cholesterol levels, which plays a significant role in heart disease."

 Avoid Accidents

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported in 2009 that being tired accounted for the highest number of fatal single-car run-off-the-road crashes due to the driver's performance -- even more than alcohol! "Sleepiness is grossly underrated as a problem by most people, but the cost to society is enormous," Dr. Rapoport says. "Sleeplessness affects reaction time and decision making."
Insufficient sleep for just one night can be as detrimental to your driving ability as having an alcoholic drink.

 Steer Clear Of Depression 

Sleeping well means more to our overall well-being than simply avoiding irritability.
"A lack of sleep can contribute to depression," Dr. Jean says. "A good night's sleep can really help a moody person decrease their anxiety. You get more emotional stability with good sleep."
If you think the long hours put in during the week are the cause of your anxiety or impatience, Dr. Rapoport warns that sleep cannot necessarily be made up during the weekend.
"If you sleep more on the weekends, you simply aren't sleeping enough in the week," he says. "It's all about finding a balance.

Vanilla Beans Culinary uses & Nutrition Facts

Pleasantly fragrant rich vanilla beans are the pods or fruits obtained from a tropical climbing orchid. Mayans used them to flavor chocolate drink centuries before Spanish first set their foot in Mexico in 1520. This highly prized bean is native to tropical rain forest of Central America and only recently spread to other tropical-regions by Spanish explorers.
Botanically the plant is a perennial herbaceous climbing vine belonging to the family of Orchidaceae, in the genus: vanilla. Scientific name:Vanilla planifolia.
Culinary uses

Real vanilla is a pleasantly aromatic and very expensive spice only after saffron. In general, natural vanilla extract is made by finely chopping the beans and infusing them by dripping alcohol on the pieces.

Alternatively, the beans are bruised and infused in milk or cream for making ice-cream and sweet puddings.

Here are some serving tips:

Vanilla ice-cream on top of muffin! Photo courtesy: shimelle	Vanilla beans ice cream with blackberries and raspberries. Photo: kimberlykv

• One of the finest flavoring bases, used exclusively in sweet cookery, vanilla is added to cakes, biscuits, desserts and puddings.
  
• It is also used in confectionary to make chocolates, ice-creams, custards, chocolate drinks, etc

Vanilla beans in a vine Vanilla planifolia.  Note for ready to harvest deep green colored mature beans.	Processed vanilla beans. The beans turn dark and appear shriveled. Photo courtesy: acfou

The vanilla plant has unique growth characteristics. It requires supporting tree or pole to grow in height. A matured vine bears deep trumpet-shaped flowers. The flowers open only for one day and are naturally pollinated either by the Melipona bee or long beaked humming birds. However, in cultivation, they are hand-pollinated and now grown commercially in Madagascar, Indonesia, India, Puerto Rica and West Indies.
There exist three main cultivars of vanilla. Among them, Vanilla planifolia is the most sought-after bean worldwide. The other species include Vanilla pompona and Vanilla tahitiensis (grown in Polynesian islands), although the vanillin content of these species is inferior to Vanilla planifolia.
Unripe vanilla pods are harvested when they are 5-8 inches long and turn light yellow. They are then blanched briefly in boiling water, sweated and dried under sun over a period of weeks until they turn dark-brown and wrinkled. White crystalline efflorescence which is vanillin, the main essence of vanilla, appears inside in some of the superior quality pods.

Health benefits of vanilla

• Vanilla beans are one of the expensive non-pungent spices especially used as flavoring agent in a wide array of sweet-drinks and confectionaries.
  
• Vanilla extract composed of simple and complex sugars, essential oils, vitamins and minerals.
  
• The chief chemical component in the beans is vanillin. They also include numerous traces of other constituents such as eugenol, caproic acid, phenoles, phenol ether, alcohols, carbonyl compounds, acids, ester, lactones, aliphatic and aromatic carbohydrates and vitispiranes.
  
• Ancient Mayans believed that vanilla drink was supposed to have aphrodisiac qualities. No modern research study, however, establishes its role in the treatment of sexual dysfunctions.
  
• Its extract contains small amounts of B-complex groups of vitamins such as niacin, pantothenic acid, thiamin, riboflavin and vitamin B-6. These vitamins help in enzyme synthesis, nervous system function and regulating body metabolism.
  
• This spice also contains small traces of minerals such as calcium, magnesium, potassium, manganese, iron and zinc. Potassium is an important component of cell and body fluids that helps control heart rate and blood pressure. Manganese and copper are used by the body as co-factors for the antioxidant enzyme, superoxide dismutase. Iron is essential for red blood cell production and as a co-factor for cytochrome-oxidases enzymes.
  

UNIQUE Facts

I recently found something strange in the internet in which it tells about a 46 year pregnancy and when I watched it, I was disgusted actually, but what you think is up to you.

Believe It Or Not! But This Woman Becomes Pregnant For 46 Years! OMG! So The Child Is A Mummy?

by Mr. BlueStone on August 30, 2014This shocking documentary examines remarkable pregnancy. In 1955, in a small village outside Casablanca, Zahra Aboutalib went into labour. Forty-eight hours later, the baby was still unborn so Zahra was rushed to hospital. However, after watching a young woman die in agony on the operating table, she turned and fled in panic, convinced she would suffer the same fate.
Days of excruciating pain followed, then the pains suddenly stopped. Zahra believed in the local myth of the ‘sleeping baby’, so put the pregnancy out of her mind, believing the baby would be born at a later date.
This never happened, and many decades passed – during which time Zahra adopted three children and became a grandmother. Aged 75, the agonizing pains returned, but several doctors couldn’t explain them. Then Dr Taibi Quazzani, who felt that Zahra’s swollen stomach indicated an ovarian tumor, sent her for scans.

Latest ABS-CBN News

An airport police officer and a sniffer dog patrol the NAIA Terminal 3 in Pasay City on Monday. Airport security was heightened after three people were arrested after a vehicle was found at the parking lot of the terminal which contained improvised explosive devices.

Photo by Erik De Castro, Reuters

 

 

Gilas Pilipinas center, Andray Blatche, soars over four Argentinian players in their group B match at the 2014 FIBA World Cup of Basketball in Sevilla, Spain on Monday. The Philippines lost another close match with an 85-81 squeaker to world number three Argentina. 

Photo by Pierre-Philippe Marcou, AFP

Weather Forecasting

Weather forecasting is the application of science and technology to predict the state of the atmosphere for a given location. Human beings have attempted to predict the weather informally for millennia, and formally since the nineteenth century. Weather forecasts are made by collecting quantitative data about the current state of the atmosphere on a given place and using scientific understanding of atmospheric processes to project how the atmosphere will evolve on that place.
Once an all-human endeavor based mainly upon changes in barometric pressure, current weather conditions, and sky condition, weather forecasting now relies on computer-based models that take many atmospheric factors into account. Human input is still required to pick the best possible forecast model to base the forecast upon, which involves pattern recognition skills, teleconnections, knowledge of model performance, and knowledge of model biases. The chaotic nature of the atmosphere, the massive computational power required to solve the equations that describe the atmosphere, error involved in measuring the initial conditions, and an incomplete understanding of atmospheric processes mean that forecasts become less accurate as the difference in current time and the time for which the forecast is being made (the range of the forecast) increases. The use of ensembles and model consensus help narrow the error and pick the most likely outcome.
There are a variety of end uses to weather forecasts. Weather warnings are important forecasts because they are used to protect life and property. Forecasts based on temperature and precipitation are important to agriculture, and therefore to traders within commodity markets. Temperature forecasts are used by utility companies to estimate demand over coming days. On an everyday basis, people use weather forecasts to determine what to wear on a given day. Since outdoor activities are severely curtailed by heavy rain, snow and the wind chill, forecasts can be used to plan activities around these events, and to plan ahead and survive them.

My Make Believes:Intramurals...........Experience

        
            Intramural was organized to promote competition,wellness,and allow students an opportunity to be active.It encourages students to speak up about their desires that may affect their behaviors such as self-confidence,self discipline and believing in her/himself.
             Last August 28 & 29,the day of our intramural,we had lots of fun with my fellow friends because we watched the activities done like dances,intermission numbers,sports like basketball,volleyball and others at the same time we cheered and support our representatives of our year.What amazed me most were the beautiful ladies and handsome gentlemen competing each other on the pageant.I feel very happy because our candidate bring home the bacon, he won the title for Mr. CIT 2014 and receive awards that made our batch mates proud of him.After the competition,I enjoyed taking pictures and collected images.My favorite part of that day was eating snacks together with my classmates.For me,days of intramural were considered to be memorable because I experience the different activities of being one of the CIT students.
             Even if I didn't participate in any of the activities in our intramural program at least I enjoyed it.It doesn't matter if your a star athlete or if you just want to get some friends together for fun;intramural sports has a division of play for you!

CIT ACQUAINTANCE PARTY:15th of August,2014

 

 This was one of our photo shot during our department Turn Over Ceremony & Acquaintance Party held @ Hotel Ariana & Restaurant with the theme"Over sideways and under on a magic carpet ride."-Aladdin