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Share rihanna 2014.rar - 2 MB

noreply@blogger.com (alkhabiire) — Sat, 09 Aug 2014 13:34:00 +0000

Share rihanna 2014.rar - 2 MB

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noreply@blogger.com (alkhabiire) — Sun, 27 Jul 2014 06:46:00 +0000

best game: MysteryLegends

Scientists discover exact mechanism for how broccoli and crucifers fight deadly cancers

noreply@blogger.com (alkhabiire) — Thu, 19 Sep 2013 10:45:00 +0000

Scientists have been mounting evidence to support the cancer-fighting abilities associated with consuming broccoli and other members of the crucifer family for more than a decade. Past studies have shown that this super-food family directly influences the expression of more than 400 genes immediately after eating the tasty vegetables. Further research bodies have also shown that broccoli consumption can play an important role in lowering the risk of developing cardiovascular diseases, and yet to date, the precise metabolic pathway for disease prevention has largely been unknown.

A team of research scientists from Britain's Institute of Food Research have published the results of their work in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition to explain how metabolic modifications brought about by consumption of high-glucoraphanin broccoli may be behind the suggested health benefits and cancer-fighting ability of the cruciferous vegetable family. Scientists noted that this study provides the first evidence from human studies for a possible mechanism behind the suggested ability of glucosinolates, including glucoraphanin found in broccoli, to reduce the risks of chronic diseases and cancers.

Broccoli and crucifer compounds rejuvenate critical mitochondrial function to prevent chronic illnesses

Researchers fed a special cultivar of broccoli, a combination of wild and commercially available broccoli that contains high levels of glucoraphanin, to nineteen volunteers each week for three months. They compared the first group to two other groups eating the same diet, except one consumed commercially available broccoli and the third ate none of the crucifer. The team observed that those eating the glucoraphanin-rich vegetable showed signs of an improved metabolism.

The scientists determined that a compound commonly found in crucifers, known as sulforaphane, improved the chemical reactions inside mitochondria, the power source for our cellular machinery. The study found that glucoraphanin helped 'retune' metabolic processes in the cells that get disrupted as we age. Lead author, Dr. Richard Mithen commented, "We think this provides some evidence as to why people who eat diets rich in broccoli may keep in good health... mitochondria are really, really important, and when they start to go wrong it leads to many of the diseases of aging."

The nutritionists performing the study recommend eating broccoli two to three times a week. Other health-promoting members of the cruciferous vegetable family include Brussels sprouts, kale and cauliflower. Dr. Mithen concluded "We think it is significant because it shows in humans a measurable effect on our metabolism, which is central to our overall health and could explain the diverse range of beneficial effects many observational dietary studies have shown previously." It is important to note that while this study used a specially concentrated type of broccoli to produce the stated results, consumption of commercially available broccoli and crucifers have been shown to exhibit similar anti-cancer properties when eaten over a longer period of time.

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/041505_broccoli_cancer_prevention_crucifer_compounds.html#ixzz2fKmlE11R

Cinnamon levels up from common spice to 'super' health food

noreply@blogger.com (alkhabiire) — Thu, 19 Sep 2013 10:43:00 +0000

A team of scientists elevated the prized spice, cinnamon, from its culinary applications to a loftier stratum as a promising molecular weapon for combating chronic diseases. Researchers from various fields, including Kiram Panickar, Heping Cao, Bolin Qin and Richard A. Anderson, collaborated in making this significant breakthrough. The results revived ancient interest in the therapeutic benefits of common cinnamon, Cinnamomum verum or Cinnamomum zeylanicum, also known as the "true cinnamon," to modern genomic medicine. Compounds found in cinnamon revealed multiple utility in terms of enhancing the effects of insulin, its antioxidant function, efficacy against inflammation, and its neuroprotective benefits.

Cinnamon polyphenol extract (CPE) regulates a number of genes and exerts a significant influence on the metabolism of glucose. Various studies conducted on human subjects afflicted with metabolic syndrome, polycystic ovary syndrome and type 2 diabetes mellitus also showed the beneficial effects of whole cinnamon and its aqueous extract on the glucose, insulin, lipid profile and anti-oxidant status of the patients.

Experts also posited possible effects of cinnamon compounds on body composition, lean body mass and inflammatory response.

Cinnamon Extract Helps against Dyslipedemia

Patients with metabolic syndrome develop resistance to insulin action, which in turn causes dyslipedemia or abnormal level of lipids in the blood. In most cases, the problem is hyperlipedemia. Cinnamon presents a good potential in lowering lipid levels in both animal and human subjects.

Cinnamon Extract Lowers Systolic Blood Pressure

Agents that are typically employed as an intervention for insulin resistance and/or lower circulating insulin concentration in the blood also tend to lower blood pressure. Such agents include nutrients, nutritional supplements, and drugs. Research conducted on spontaneously hypertensive rats fed with sucrose-containing diet showed that elevated systolic blood pressure (SBP) is lowered when the rats were given dietary cinnamon. This presents a promising development highlighting the efficacy of cinnamon not only for sucrose-induced high SBP but also for hypertension caused by genetic factors.

Molecular Targets

Based on the aforementioned link between chronic diseases and genetic influences, research is now pursuing genomic targets for therapy. Quantitative research on polymerase chain reaction was performed to examine the effects of aqueous cinnamon extract on the expression of genes coding for the glucose transporter (GLUT) and anti-inflammatory tristetrapolin (TTP) families, components of the insulin signal transduction pathway, etc. So far, there are tell-tale signs that the medical hypotheses on selected targets are leaning towards positive results.

Age-Old Super Spice

From its basic ancient uses as treatment for toothache, anti-halitosis or bad breath, medication for the nasty common cold and digestion aid, cinnamon has gone quite a long way. Recent studies also showed that even just the smell of cinnamon or chewing cinnamon gum improves brain function from memory to visual-motor speed, recognition, and attention and focus.

In Closing: Cinnamon Now a Certified "Super" Food

It's no wonder that cinnamon is now a "super" spice being painstakingly developed through genomic medicine to neutralize stubborn chronic diseases that have plagued the modern world. There is voluminous research evidence for its medicinal value and health benefits. Cinnamon doesn't just spice up the gustatory sense. It spices up your health for a better life ahead.

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/041539_cinnamon_super_food_health_benefits.html#ixzz2fKmRoPK1

Disease prevention and other health benefits of parsley

noreply@blogger.com (alkhabiire) — Thu, 19 Sep 2013 10:41:00 +0000

Dr. Harold Gunatillake, an affiliate of the Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons, asserts that the herb, parsley, has more to offer than being a mere colorful trimming on the delectable dishes most often served in restaurants. Beyond its almost negligible size and its tasty green dynamic flavor, parsley has plenty to offer in terms of health benefits and disease prevention.

Most popular types of parsley

Two very well-known types of parsley are the curly parsley and the Italian flat leaf. The flat kind possesses a more aromatic scent and a less pungent flavor compared to the curly type. The curly type is preferred by people because of its decorative look that is great for use as garnishing. Another type of this herb, known as root or turnip-rooted parsley, is grown for its roots similar to a type of oyster plant or the weedy, biennial plant known as burdock. Root parsley is typically used in cooking within the regions of Central and Eastern Europe. It is used as a nibble or vegetable addition for stews, stocks, soups, sauces, and casserole dishes.

Nutrition rating system

According to the food rating system, a typical serving of parsley contains vitamin K or potassium, vitamin C or ascorbic acid, vitamin A, folate, iron, and zero calories. A small stem of parsley has two uncommon elements that provide exceptional heath benefits. One is a volatile oil, specifically, myristicin, while the other component is made up of flavonoids.

Prevention of illnesses and cell damage

In the course of animal researches, volatile oils have been proven to impede development of tumors specifically in the lung area. Myristicin was also proven to trigger glutathione-S-transferase, an enzyme that facilitates the attachment of the glutathione molecule to molecules that have gone through the oxidation process. The actions of volatile oils make these food components serve as neutralizers for certain types of carcinogenic substances. Luteolin, one of the flavonoids, has been proven to function as an antioxidant. It combines with very reactive molecules that carry oxygen or oxygen radicals. This combination helps in preventing cell damage. Parsley extracts were utilized in animal researches and were proven to help in improving the blood's antioxidant function.

Conclusion

In summary, apart from these flavonoids and volatile oils, Dr. Gunatillake reports this herb as one of the best sources of essential nutrients. It contains folic acid, vitamin A or the anti-infective vitamin, and vitamin C which is useful in preventing illnesses. It helps in lowering the levels of free radicals and in maintaining the healthy function of the body's immune system. Parsley may also facilitate good appetite, improve the digestive process and urine production, diminish spasms, and increase menstrual flow.

Health benefits of okra

noreply@blogger.com (alkhabiire) — Thu, 19 Sep 2013 10:38:00 +0000

Okra is available the entire year in the southern lands, but for Americans, it is only available during summer. The appearance of okra is comparable to that of a grooved pepper, and it belongs to the same genus as both cotton and hibiscus. Food experts said that the most likely origin of this vegetable is Africa, and it was transported from there to the United States about 300 years ago.

Unique Characteristics of Okra

Okra looks appealing with its tender leaves and fruit. But its most outstanding feature is the fruit's gelatinous and slimy juice that gets released and mixed into sauce or soup during cooking. That gelatinous, slimy juice is a favorite ingredient in soups and gumbos.

But if the juice is not to your liking, you can try frying it quickly along with cornmeal on a saute pan. It is important that you take advantage of this wonderful fruit for all the health benefits that it can give.

Okra Health Trend

This vegetable is packed with fiber, which is good for cholesterol management. It has been found to contain folic acid and vitamin B6 with amounts equivalent to 1/10 of the recommended daily intake for Americans.

Okra plant grows naturally in regions that have warmer climates. South China is one such region. Kantha Shelke, from the Institute of Food Technologists, said that okra was the vegetable served to Olympic athletes during the Beijing Olympics. She added, okra is also called "plant Viagra" in the US and "green panax" in Japan, due to the physiological effects it can bring. The okra fruit has been found to contain polysaccharides, food nutrients that can improve blood flow the way Viagra can.

Back here in the US, Americans are still in the adjustment period with regard to the use of okra. It is gaining popularity in some quarters but not with the mainstream American consumers. Shelke, a researcher on food trends, pointed out that okra chips are popular in vegetarian and Indian restaurants. Another vegetable researcher, Eugena Yoo of the New York City Green market, said that New Jersey foreign communities tend to favor okra over other vegetables for its purported health benefits.

The Nutrients Okra Contains

Okra contains vitamins, minerals and the antioxidants epicatechin, catechin, rutin, procyanidin B1 and B2 and quercetin. These antioxidants are capable of preventing damage to cells caused by environmental factors and stress.

Okra's physiological effects are credited to the carbohydrates that it contains. According to Shelke, its physiological effects include the following:

Anti-diabetic effect - the fiber in okra is able to slow down sugar absorption to the blood.

Lipid-control effect - The soluble fibers of okra, called pectin, are able to lower blood cholesterol by 10%.

Brain-function-improvement effect - Shelke reported that people in Southeast Asia, the Far East and the Middle East eat okra for the purpose of improving brain functions.

Conclusion

Though new in the medical arena, okra is gaining popularity fast. If anyone is suffering from diseases or needs nutritional supplementation, incorporating okra into the diet may just be one of the best steps to take.

Five restaurant mistakes you should avoid

noreply@blogger.com (alkhabiire) — Thu, 19 Sep 2013 10:36:00 +0000

A recent article published in Health Magazine revealed some common restaurant mistakes that healthy people on a diet might make unconsciously, impeding their quest for weight loss. Listed here are 5 of the most common mistakes healthy people make.

Mistakes you didn't realize you did

Most dieters believe that if they use a smaller plate they'll be eating less so they lose weight and stay healthy.

To debunk that belief, it is not about the plate; it's what one eats and how the food was cooked. One can put little amounts of food on your plate each time, but if one goes for second servings then that is not very healthy. Ask for foods that are grilled or steamed as they will make you lose weight rather than look for smaller plates.

One of the restaurant mistakes healthy people make is that they usually order salads.

What many diners fail to realize is that most chefs add butter or oil to give flavor to the dish. The best thing to do is to ask for "dry salad" instead. You can ask them to separate the serving of the dressing so you have more control.

Everybody loves steak.

When you want to eat healthy, you order lean meat, right? The tricky part is those that are served with your steak. Most restaurants serve them with side dishes cooked in butter or sauce. Most people think that this is still healthy, but they should know better. You can ask that yours be without those side dishes or you can ask for a side order of grilled lemon just so you'll have some flavor on your steak.

Looks can be deceiving.

Foods look more appetizing when served in a different way but you shouldn't let it distract you from being aware of what is served on your plate. Check out the portioning as there might be more carbohydrates or the salad has unhealthy dressing. Identifying small details like these can really go a long way.

Another common mistake made is just ordering without asking questions.

A diner may be familiar with the restaurant or the chef but it is still wiser to ask questions. You might see in the menu "grilled" or "steamed" but you will never know what other components have been added. It is therefore better to ask if there is cream, butter, or oil in the dish. It won't hurt to ask (Considering the possible consequences, it will hurt NOT to ask.). Health-conscious individuals tend to ask more about how their food was prepared to ensure that they are being served the healthiest of foods.

These restaurant mistakes healthy people make are quite common and often times overlooked. For healthier eating, it is advisable to be mindful and to be inquisitive rather than relying on whatever is readily available.

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/041444_restaurants_dietary_mistakes_food_portions.html#ixzz2fKkjd4rX

Top 10 health benefits of fiber

noreply@blogger.com (alkhabiire) — Thu, 19 Sep 2013 10:35:00 +0000

Dietary fiber provides numerous benefits to the human body. The top ten benefits include keeping the heart healthy, cancer prevention, it lowers cholesterol, prevents gallstones and kidney stones, promotes healthy skin, prevents stroke, aids in weight management, regulates bowels, increases energy, and it may affect the course of diabetes.

Check the top benefits of dietary fiber:

1) Your heart.

Studies have shown that high fiber intake, 5 servings of fruits and vegetables per day, may prevent heart disease.

2) Cancer Prevention.

Studies have shown that fiber increases how quickly food is passed through the digestive tract, which may protect against some types of cancer. Namely, colon cancer, breast cancer, ovarian cancer and uterine cancer.

3) Lowering Cholesterol.

Fiber binds with cholesterol during digestion and prevents it from being absorbed and clogging the arteries. This lowers bad cholesterol (LDL's) in the blood.

4) Gallstones and Kidney Stone Prevention.

Fiber is known to prevent large amounts of insulin from entering the bloodstream during digestion, which is a leading contributor to the creation of gallstones and kidney stones.

5) Promoting Healthy Skin.

Fiber is essential in ridding the body of toxins which directly affects the health of your skin. By ingesting roughage, such as leafy vegetables, fiber binds with cholesterol and its rough texture helps rid your intestines of toxic material that could otherwise be left behind. Toxins can affect the entire body, but is most obvious in the skin. Healthy skin is the result of good blood flow when toxins are cleared from your system.

6) Preventing Stroke.

Studies show that increasing fiber in the diet lowers the risk of stroke. According to the American Heart Association, a total of 25 grams of fiber should be consumed each day. Fiber can be found in produce (fruits and vegetables and whole grains).

7) Weight Management.

With proper nutrition, hunger can be regulated and slowed. Eating whole grains with more fruits and vegetables causes the body to feel full quickly. By introducing more fiber into the diet, hunger is regulated naturally and prevents obesity.

8) Regulates Bowels.

The carcinogens in the intestine bind to the fiber, creating bulk to the stool, which keeps waste moving properly through the digestive tract. By incorporating fiber into the daily diet, constipation may be prevented in addition to hemorrhoids. Without leaving residue as waste passes through the intestine, the flow of fiber helps to lessen the risk of colon cancer, as well as regulating bowel movements.

9) Increases Energy?

Some foods and dietary supplements tout fiber as an energy source. This is a myth. Fiber is a form of indigestable carbohydrates that derive from foods such as grains. There are no calories and fiber does not produce energy on its own.

10) Helps with Diabetes.

Fruits and vegetables help regulate blood sugar, which is the key in preventing diabetes. For people who live with the condition, fiber can alter the recommended dosage of medication (insulin).

The perfect trip: Cambodia

noreply@blogger.com (alkhabiire) — Thu, 19 Sep 2013 10:26:00 +0000

Marvel at the palaces, markets and bars of the capital, Phnom Penh, before heading north to Siem Reap for excursions to a floating village on Tonlé Sap Lake and the extravagant, inspirational temples of Angkor. From there, it is south to the untouched jungles of the Cardamom Mountains, finishing with a homestay on a rural family farm.

Phnom Penh: Best for culture
Phnom Penh is eerily quiet. A sole remork – the usually ubiquitous motorised rickshaw – rolls languorously past the Royal Palace to a deserted Tonlé Sap riverfront. Here, among the shuttered-up shops facing the palm-lined promenade, food stalls sell noodle soup and beef skewers to infrequent customers.
The peace doesn’t last. As the Khmer festival that emptied the city ends, Phnom Penhois who’d been drawn to rural family gatherings in their tens of thousands flood back to the capital and the beguiling chaos resumes. After a troubled history, which reached its nadir with the Khmer Rouge’s enforced eviction of the city in the ’70s, the ‘Pearl of Asia’ is thriving, with a flourishing café culture and a glut of world-class fusion restaurants.

Related article: Biking in Cambodia, extreme to easy

Prosperity has added an extra sheen to its cultural institutions too, many of which were built during Cambodia’s French Protectorate era, beginning in 1863. Among these is the Art Deco Psar Thmei, a pastel-yellow covered market with four wings radiating from an enormous central dome.
A few hours after dawn and the Central Market, as it is also known, is already a blur of browsing and bartering. Business is brisk at textile stalls selling traditional checked krama scarves, while elsewhere chattering shoppers weave past fruit outlets piled with lychees and crimson dragon fruit, and stalls overflowing with lotus flowers and bunches of fragrant Rumdul, Cambodia’s national flower.
Just a few blocks from the market, the National Museum is close enough to the riverfront to receive some of its welcome breeze. A group of schoolchildren in matching white polo shirts and flip-flops plays in the shade of the terracotta building’s neatly tended garden while, inside, visitors reflect upon 1,000 years of Khmer sculpture.
The adjacent Royal Palace, with its glistening spires and dragon-tail details, still dominates the city’s low-rise skyline. In a corner of one of its courtyards, a team of artists is working to restore a 1901 mural of the Reamker – Cambodia’s version of the epic Hindu poem the Ramayana.
‘When I did classical painting at university, we studied the Ramayana,’ says lead artist Roeung Sreyna, gesturing to the mural behind her, where spirits and horse-drawn chariots float over a celestial palace in the sky.
The project is slow and technical. Matching the colours takes time, as does cleaning stains and fixing damage from humidity. ‘We take one section at a time,’ she says, pointing at a three-foot-wide band. ‘Two months for each section, and we have to work slowly. If it were a normal painting, we could do it in a year, but this is our history, so we have to take care.’
Tonlé Sap: Best for lake life
In the village of Me Chrey, the streets are made of water and the wooden houses float. The village’s 500 families are among the thousands who have settled on the surface of the freshwater Tonlé Sap, Cambodia’s ‘Great Lake’, where, not surprisingly, life revolves around the water. As dawn breaks, Me Chrey is already abuzz. Toddlers paddle small aluminium tubs down the main street, fruit and vegetable sellers in bright floral clothing and conical hats navigate boats between houses, and householders check for breaches in ‘fish banks’ – submerged reed baskets where fish are kept until market day. Shouted greetings and lively chatter are punctuated by the occasional snort of a pig from a floating pen. Further out on the water, a family retrieves traps and nets laid out in wide, intricate arrangements.
It’s an itinerant existence. The floating houses, which are tied to one another, are moved by the villagers four times a year to follow migrating fish stocks. The lake’s wildly fluctuating dimensions also a play a part – in the rainy season, Tonlé Sap swells to more than 6,000 square miles, raising the floating houses by around eight metres. Dry season sees the potential spots to anchor reduced significantly.

Top 10 UK farm-stay holidays

noreply@blogger.com (alkhabiire) — Thu, 19 Sep 2013 10:23:00 +0000

Top 10 UK farm-stay holidays

Mark the turning of the seasons with a getaway down on the farm. Many offer fresh-from-the-field food, some let you (or the kids) feed the animals, and all offer a great dose of fresh air

Brackenborough Hall farm, Lincolnshire

Brackenborough Hall Farm, Lincolnshire

A moated manor house is at the heart of this biodiverse farm, but the accommodation is in three smart apartments in a converted 18th-century coach house. The lofty Granary features beamed and vaulted ceilings and inner workings of the original clock tower; and the Saddle Room and Stables makes use of old hay racks, feed troughs, mangers and herringbone stone or brick floors. The apartments sleep three to 12 people, or rent all three for a party of up to 24. Owners Paul and Flora Bennett offer complementary Lincolnshire plum bread from nearby Louth market and free guided tours of the estate – 800 acres of cattle-grazed parkland, oak woodlands and wildlife (roe deer, rabbits, barn owls and a rich variety of birds; hawthorn, sloe and blackthorn berries decorate the hedges in autumn). The manor also boasts Victorian kitchen gardens, a grass tennis court and a deserted medieval village.
• 01507 603193, brackenboroughhall.com. Self-catering from £340 a week for three or four to £655 for eight (short breaks also available)

Bre-Pen Farm, Cornwall

On a cliff, overlooking the sea at Mawgan Porth, Rod and Jill Brake's diverse north-coast farm sits on 60 acres of National Trust land. As well as farmhouse B&B, they run a tea-room (home-baked cakes and cream teas) and a farmshop (try Bre-Pen's own lamb and mint sausages, salads and seasonal vegetables and free-range eggs). At weekends, young chef Jon Harvey (ex Jamie Oliver's Fifteen Cornwall) runs the farm's bistro – £20 for three courses and bring your own wine. It's not the prettiest of farmhouses but the location – between Newquay and Padstow – is magic. Just sit in a field of sheep and gawp at the Atlantic. Take a Land Rover farm safari. You can get married here, too.
• 01637 860420, bre-penfarm.co.uk. B&B from £40 a night singles, £70 double, £99 family suite

Nettlecombe Farm, Isle of Wight

Populated with donkeys, alpacas, reindeer, goats, Buff Orpington hens, a goose called Gordon and peacock called Percy, this isn't your run-of-the-mill livestock farm – but it's set in 150 acres of peaceful South Wight countryside and it's heaven for kids. The farm's nine, family-size self-catering properties includes a stone cottage, a converted milking parlour and a farmhouse. As well as grassy play areas (furnished with a Wendy house and wooden tractor), there are three fishing lakes, access to cycle routes and some great walks (bring your own dog). Glorious views and only 10 minutes' drive from seaside Ventnor.
• 01983 730783, nettlecombefarm.co.uk. Self-catering cottages of various sizes, from £300 a week (sleeps four) or £545 (sleeps eight), low season (off-season short breaks available)

Smallicombe, Devon

Berkshires and Middle Whites – among other rare breed pigs – are the speciality of Smallicombe, a 70-acre livestock farm which has its own woodland, between Sidmouth and Lyme Regis on the Devon-Dorset border, just a few miles from the Jurassic Coast. Guests get pork sausages and the farm's own bacon for breakfast, evening meals (with home-grown vegetables), broods of piglets, plus woolly Dorset Down sheep, Ruby Devon cattle and occasional courses on pig-keeping. You can wonder around the farm and help feed the pigs or chickens. Accommodation includes adults-only grown-up suites in a wing of the farmhouse (complete with roll-top tubs and tongue and groove), a two-bedroom family room and four outhouse cottages.
• 01404 831310, smallicombe.com. Doubles from £70 per night B&B, self-catering from £195 per week for two; two-course dinner £17.95 a head, by prior arrangement

Glenkilrie, Perth

The farmhouse, like a mini baronial castle, presides over 2,500 acres of heather, grazing sheep and Limousin cows (some of Glenkilrie's beef ends up in M&S). The rooms are homely (lots of pine, primrose paint and floral prints) and the breakfast is wholesome – fresh eggs, local bacon and homemade marmalade served in a traditional family dining room. You are free to roam the farm, but according to farmer Morag Houstoun, most people come for the Highland scenery, the wildlife (you can spot deer and red squirrels from your bedroom window) and local attractions, including Glenshee Ski Cente, the Cairngorms, and the castles of Perthshire and Royal Deeside. Blairgowrie, the nearest town, is 13 miles away.
• 01250 882241,glenkilrie.co.uk. B&B from £25pp

Nannerth Farm, Powys

This is farm diversification with knobs on. In the beautiful Wye Valley, the farm offers an apartment, two cottages, a gypsy caravan, wild camping (just you and the elements – no loo, no shower, no Wi-Fi), VW camper-van hire, and a "dog stay cabin" (for canine guests). The Gallagher family still find the time to manage 200 acres of hay meadows and Welsh mountain ewes. A conservation farm, it's all organic, partly powered by green energy and rich in wildlife. Regular hands-on breaks offer weekends of animal feeding and farmhouse breakfasts. From a treehouse hide, you can also try a bit of nocturnal badger-watching.
• 01597 811121, nannerth.co.uk/nf. Self-catering from £207 per week for two, £304 for four or £389 for six; three-night autumn breaks available

Moor Court Farm, Ledbury, Herefordshire

This 15th-century house is timber-framed with rustic oak beams; the Godsall family have tended its 500 acres since the 1920s, and they still grow cereals and rear livestock. Fields of hops – a Herefordshire staple – are almost a thing of the past in this hilly Welsh border county, but there are two traditional hop kilns in the yard. Stay in a poshed-up farmhouse bedroom (one has a four-poster), dine on Moor Court beef and lamb or local game and try a spot of autumn apple-picking (the farm's own orchards grow fruit for Weston's local organic ciders).
• 01531 670408, moorcourtfarm.co.uk. B&B from £35pp sharing or £40 single; evening meal from £19 a head

Church Farm, Suffolk

There are chickens and a pony, but the mainstays of this East Anglian farm are fruit and forestry: in summer until October, raspberries and strawberries; in autumn, tons of apples and pears; in winter, Christmas trees. Paul and Ruth Williamson's flinty farmhouse offers two lovely rooms (a double and a twin) – both lushed up with goose down duvets, Egyptian cotton, antique beds and handmade soaps. For breakfast, Ruth serves fresh eggs cooked on the Aga and seasonal home-grown fruit and for afternoon tea she offers home-made cakes and scones. For dinner, there's a decent village pub – The Manger in Bradfield Combust, just down the road.
• 01284 386333, churchfarm-bandb.co.uk. Doubles from £70 B&B

Yew Tree Farm, Cumbria

Yew Tree Farm, near Coniston, Cumbria. Photograph: Alamy Set against a backdrop of craggy Lakeland fells, this 17th-century farmhouse near Coniston was owned by Beatrix Potter before she left it to the National Trust. In the 1930s, Miss Potter (the farm played a starring role in the movie) helped her tenants weather an economic downturn by suggesting they open a tearoom. She even bought the furniture. But though the furniture is still there the tearoom was recently closed. Jon Watson, today's tenant farmer, now supports his heritage meat business by letting his Grade II-listed farmhouse – all dark oak panelling, real fires, cruck-frame beams and patchwork quilts combined with rain showers and a hot tub. On the farm's 700 acres, discover sloping meadows of Swaledale and Herdwick sheep, big fluffy cows and spectacular views. In October, you can see Jon take his "tups", or mountain rams, to market in nearby Broughton-in-Furness.
• 015394 32321, yewtree-farm.com. Self-catering from £575 a week (sleeps six)

Lovesome Hill Farm, North Yorkshire

Mary and John Pearson's farm overlooks the Hambleton Hills from 165 acres of sheep-dotted fields, orchards and gardens between North Yorkshire's Moors and Dales national parks. There is one farmhouse guest room, another in a cosy cottage and four more in a converted granary – all very traditional (oak, beams, pine, upholstery). Walkers or cyclists can doss in a dorm-style bunk barn (Wainwright's coast-to-coast path skirts the southern edge of the farm). Aga-cooked breakfasts and evening meals include Lovesome's own eggs, bacon, beef and lamb, homemade breads, cakes, apple juice and jams. And you are invited to help collect eggs or join a spring lambing break.
• 01609 772311, lovesomehillfarm.co.uk Doubles from £72 B&B, bunk-barn beds from £11pp; dinner from £12.50-£25 a head

Heli-ski Kyrgyzstan's most remote regions

noreply@blogger.com (alkhabiire) — Thu, 19 Sep 2013 10:19:00 +0000

Lift lines and crowded slopes become a distant memory when you land atop the untamed, snowcapped, 4,500m-high Terskey Ala-Too range in northeastern Kyrgyzstan.

Specialising in mountain expeditions throughout Central Asia, K2 Adventures uses a private helicopter to transport daring skiers and snowboarders to the untouched terrain, limiting trips to a few small groups each year.
The area does not have typical skiing facilities, so the backcountry runs tend to stay unpacked and powdery. On a good weather day (temperatures vary from about -10C to -3C), skiers can expect to make about six trips down the mountain, descending about 800 to 1,200m depending on the route.

Related article: Horse trekking through Kyrgyzstan

“Terskey is paradise for experts, with its high altitudes and wild slopes,” said Igor Fedyaev, managing director of K2 Adventures. “It’s a real no man’s land -- a huge area with very different shapes, eternal snow-covered summits and huge glaciers.”
The normal group size is about 13 skiers or snowboarders, with a maximum of 15 allowed on any trip. K2 Adventures uses Russian Mi-8MTV1 helicopters for the route, known for their ability to take off at altitudes above 5,000m, and pilots must have at least 15 years of flying experience. On the mountain itself, skiers are always accompanied by two guides, with at least one expert in avalanche safety.
In case of bad weather, guides transport the group to Uzbekistan, either to the traditional ski resorts of Chimgan or Beldersay, to Tashkent, one of the biggest cities in Central Asia, or to Samarkand, a city with a mix of ancient mosques and monuments.
For intermediate-level skiers who still want the heli-ski experience, Fedyaev recommended Kyrgyzstan's Ala-Archa and Suusamur ranges, as the descents are more regularly traversed and they are only 150km south of the capital, Bishkek, should any accidents occur, compared to the 350km between Bishkek and the Tersky Ala-Too range to the east.
Practicalities
Email info@adventuretravel.ru to book. Trips run from January to April, and cost $3,990 per person to ski the intermediate range and $4,790 per to ski the more advanced range. Both trips are seven days long, which includes about eight hours of active helicopter time during the full trip as well as accommodation in Bishkek. Additional helicopter time can be added for $260 per person per hour.
On top of the fee, skiers and boarders must carry at least $20,000 worth of international health or accident insurance coverage, pay the $110 Kyrgyz visa fee if needed and pay for skiing and avalanche-preparedness equipment if they do not have their own.

Antigua rises from the ashes

noreply@blogger.com (alkhabiire) — Thu, 19 Sep 2013 10:18:00 +0000

It was 12 months ago that Volcán del Fuego lit up the sky above Antigua, sending grey ash to blanket the tender leaves of coffee trees growing more than 80km away. As scorching lava rolled 600m down the volcano’s slope, 33,000 people from 17 villages in the Guatemalan highlands were quickly evacuated.

Related slideshow: Step back in time in Guatemala

Belying the devastation they bring, volcanoes are bewitchingly beautiful. I was among a small group of travellers who climbed Pacaya – the other active mountain visible from Antigua – six months after it erupted in 2010, prompting President Álvaro Colom to declare a national state of emergency. Though it was calm the morning we ascended, the mountain radiated heat; a small branch dropped into a hole in the crust lit on fire before it landed. Erring on the side of caution, we stopped to admire the panorama several hundred metres short of the smouldering peak, which again resumed its sputtering in January 2013. On the charred hillside below, mangled tree branches jutted out to meet the clear blue sky. To the northwest lay Fuego’s slumbering sister, Volcán del Agua, and just beyond it, in the verdant Panchoy Valley, was Antigua, a colonial town that writer Aldous Huxley described as "one of the most romantic cities in the world".
Entering Antigua for the first time is like stepping back in time. Most power lines are buried underground, and there are no traffic signs or signals. Stucco houses with terracotta roofs dating from the 18th Century wear lion’s head knockers on their doors; each building painted its own sherbet shade of pink, yellow, orange or blue. Bougainvilleas creep over walls and succulents spill out of iron-grilled windows. Three-wheeled tuk tuks zoom down the uneven streets past the Parque Central, where brightly attired indigenous locals peddle colourful textiles, wooden wares and traditional sweets; shoe shiners loiter; and Spanish professors chat over lunch. The city’s original 16th-century design – nine streets and nine avenues organized around an elegant Spanish square – remains unchanged. Wherever you stand, you need only look up to admire one of the majestic volcanoes that surround the town, sometimes feeling precariously close.
Despite the town’s present-day beauty, Antigua has persisted through its fair share of catastrophes, from the colonial-era decimation of the indigenous population to a slew of disastrous earthquakes, the most recent of which killed 23,000 Guatemalans in 1976. The earliest-recorded tremor hit Antigua only two decades after its founding in 1543; several more in 1773 levelled it entirely, forcing the capital to move from Antigua to its current location in Guatemala City. But like a phoenix rising from the ashes, Antigua was born again in the mid-19th Century when hopeful elites pursuing coffee fortunes rebuilt the city. Since then, it has prospered – even amid a 36-year civil war that killed more than 200,000 indigenous Mayas in the late 20th Century.
Today, Antigua is the prized jewel of a country grappling with crime and corruption. As the anniversary of Del Fuego’s eruption and Pacaya’s recent rumblings remind, the nation’s larger problems are never far from this mountainous escape. Nonetheless, Antigua holds great reward for the adventurous traveller who craves historical intrigue, natural beauty and mouth-watering cuisine. Many travellers come for a day between visits to the Maya pyramids or Lake Atitlán, and are often surprised by the large number of things to do. To truly discover the best the city has to offer, start with the ghostly colonial ruins that won its designation as a Unesco World Heritage Site in 1979.
The most recognisable of these is the saffron-yellow Arco de Santa Catalina (5a Avenida Norte), the only remnant of an early 17th-century convent. The private passage within the arch was built so nuns could cross the street without being seen, and it is now a potent symbol of the city’s resilience. Most haunting are the ruins of the Iglesia y Convento de las Capuchinas (2a Calle Oriente and 2a Avenida Norte) in the city’s northeast quadrant. Built in 1726, the church housed the Capuchins, a severe order of nuns from Madrid who emphasised total abnegation. Ascent the tower to explore 18 nuns’ cells converging on a circular courtyard, and then descend into the dungeon where – rumour has it – wayward sisters were tortured.

Macau beyond the roulette wheel

noreply@blogger.com (alkhabiire) — Thu, 19 Sep 2013 10:13:00 +0000

Peer across the smoky gambling tables and the lines of slot machines in Macau’s crowded casino halls, and there is little doubt as to what the greatest attraction is for the majority of the 28 million people who visit this Special Administrative Region of China each year. Yet beyond the neon façade, Macau has much more to offer.

The Portuguese controlled Macau for almost 450 years and in that time built churches, fortresses and grand homes in the distinctive architectural style of their motherland. When Macau was returned to China in 1999, many locals expected the new rulers to gradually erase the legacy of the European colonial days. But Chinese authorities quickly realised that Macau’s unique heritage holds enormous potential to promote the region as a tourist destination. In the last decade, the Chinese have renovated many buildings in their original Portuguese style, installed typical early 20th-century Portuguese streetlights and made every effort to celebrate Macau’s colourful history.

Related article: Mini guide to Macau, China

A stroll through the historic district’s narrow cobblestone streets makes it easy to see the fusion of Chinese and Portuguese that created such a distinct Macanese culture. Shops selling fresh egg tarts that could have come straight out of a Lisbon bakery are found alongside stalls with bak kwa, wafer-thin slices of marinated dried meat; colonial European buildings are decorated with bright red Chinese lanterns; even within the Catholic churches there are paintings of the Madonna and child, both with unmistakably Asian features and dressed in flowing Chinese silk robes.
Street signs meanwhile display names in Cantonese and Portuguese, with the two versions not always sharing the same meaning; the Portuguese wanted to commemorate historical figures by naming streets and alleys in their honour, but the Chinese did not always hold them in the same high esteem.
The most prominent landmark in Macau, beyond the garish glitz of the modern casinos, is the ruin of St Paul’s Church, a 17th-century Jesuit church that was destroyed by fire in 1835. All that remains is the elaborately carved façade, which dominates the skyline of old Macau, with the long set of steps leading up to the church crowded by Chinese visitors posing for photographs using it as a backdrop.
Above the site of St Paul’s Church and overlooking the South China Sea is a stone fortress, also built by the Jesuits in the 17th Century to defend Macau from attacks. The building now houses the Museum of Macau, a comprehensive collection of artefacts from before and after the arrival of the Portuguese. There are 16th-century maps, reconstructed streets made up of typical Chinese and Portuguese houses and cultural items such as puppets that shine a light on old Macanese life.
The most striking exhibit is a recreation of a cricket fight, demonstrating how the Chinese would bet on the outcome of a battle to the death between the two insects. The crickets were even tickled with a straw stick before a fight to increase their aggression. A champion cricket was feted as a hero and would be buried in a special casket after it had fought its final battle. Perhaps this display provides the strongest hints as to the roots of Macau’s gambling culture.
For a long time the Portuguese allowed Macau to decay slowly, reluctant to invest more than necessary in this distant outpost. Yet in the run-up to the handover of Macau to the Chinese in 1999, the Portuguese government took a renewed interest, keen to ensure a lasting legacy once their time in Macau was over. Cobbled streets, for so long put together with spare rubble from the city’s crumbling buildings, were renovated with the same high quality stone used to pave the streets of central Lisbon. Old buildings were restored to their former glory. Public statues were erected to commemorate Portugal’s role in Macau’s history; the most prominent example being the Friendship Statue at the foot of St Paul’s Church, featuring a Chinese girl handing a lotus flower (a symbol of purity) to a young Portuguese man.

A magical, fire-breathing timekeeper in France

noreply@blogger.com (alkhabiire) — Thu, 19 Sep 2013 10:10:00 +0000

La Maison de la Magie, a museum in Blois dedicated to the history of magic and illusionists. (CC Moutoons)

Forget cuckoos: when the clock of a seemingly normal building in France hits 12, six golden dragon heads emerge from the windows, spewing plumes of smoke and roaring at the crowds below.

For about five minutes, the imposing heads – each measuring 7m long – cock their heads in all directions and move to eerie music and clanging bells, before slowly retreating back inside.
Home of the La Maison de la Magie, a museum in Blois dedicated to the history of magic and illusionists, the building plays tribute to clockmaker and magician Jean Eugene Robert-Houdin, one of the most influential magicians of his time. The dragon clock was added in 1998 as part of the museum’s inauguration.
Born in Blois, France, in 1805, Robert-Houdin gave rise to many modern magic tropes, such as performing in massive curtained theatres (as opposed to in sideshows) and dressing in formal tailcoats. American magician Ehrich Weiss was so fascinated by the French magician that he created the now-famous stage name Harry Houdini as tribute.
The Maison de la Magie is opens from late March until early November. Admission costs eight euros per person, but the dragon show can be seen for free when standing across from the Chateau de Blois once the residence of French kings.

Make Money With Adsense

noreply@blogger.com (alkhabiire) — Thu, 19 Sep 2013 09:52:00 +0000

Google AdSense is the Google program where you can host pay-per-click ads on your Website. When someone clicks an ad, you earn money. Simple as that.
Is it really as easy to make money with Google AdSense as many would lead you to believe? Now that I've become heavily involved with managing Google AdSense programs for my clients, I can see it's not all play and no work.
Unfortunately, a lot of people bought into the idea that there was a lot of easy money to be made and they are now finding out they aren't making nearly as much as they thought they would. Additionally, Google has a lot of prohibited practices when it comes to AdSense, and too many Webmasters are finding out they violated Google's policies after the fact - often because they never bothered to read the AdSense policies in the first place.
Webmasters must not only comply with AdSense policies, but their Websites must also comply with Google's webmaster policies.
Prerequisites for Making Money with AdSense
To make money with Google AdSense you need plenty of traffic coming in to your site or there won't be anyone to click the ads. Website promotion techniques, especially search engine optimization and article marketing will bring more traffic to your site. You also need to have content that will attract the ads with the highest Pay Per Click (PPC) rate that are relevant to that content. Then, you need to lay out your web pages so the ads blend in with your site. Studies have revealed that people who visit sites that contain ads that use colors that are not in harmony with the actual Web site tend to develop "ad blindness". Meaning no matter how much traffic comes into your site, chances are no one will click the ads because they'll be ignoring them. If no one clicks, you make nothing. Dealing with Competitors' Advertisements
If you offer products or services on your Website, the first thing you'll notice when you begin hosting PPC ads is that many of the ads are coming from your competitors. Therefore, you'll want to put ads on pages that aren't earning you any money, or do like I did and not put ads on your site until you're so busy anyway you'd rather make a few dollars off of your competitors than to continue turning business away with nothing to show for it.
Google AdSense allows you to specify up to 200 URLs for sites you want to bar from placing ads on your pages. The problem is that most times you won't know the competitors are out there until their ads appear.
Google Money Making Ad Options
Google offers three ways to make money from them:

Google AdSense for Content - A variety of size and shape ads for placing in your content are available. These can be text or image ads or both - you specify what you'll allow. Ad units are full ads. Link units are simply a strip of text links that your visitors might want to click. Google allows you to put up to 3 Ad Units and 1 Link unit on each page of your Web site, provided you follow its policies - both for AdSense and for Webmasters.
Google AdSense for Search - This places a search box on your Web site. When a user enters a term and conducts a search, a search results page opens, that hosts more pay-per-click ads. You can customize the color scheme of the search results page to harmonize with your web site.
Google Referrals - Here you make money by referring visitors to use a Google product, like AdSense, AdWords, the Google Toolbar and other Google software. Just like Google AdSense for Content and AdSense for Search, Google generates the code that you paste into the desired location on your web page. You can choose from a wide variety of buttons and text links of different colors. As an example of how Google Referrals works, if someone goes to your site and clicks the link and signs up for an AdSense account, when that person earns a $100 from Google AdSense and receives a payout from Google, you'll also receive $100 for referring them. This is a great idea to me, because you can be the world's worst Google AdSense advertiser, but if an ad dynamo happens to visit your site and uses your referral link, you can make money anyway!

Google AdSense Payments
Google will not issue an AdSense payment until your earnings exceed $100. Unfortunately, there are loads of Google AdSense Forum entries about website operators who accumulated $90 or more in click through earnings only to get banned from Google and not get paid anything at all before they ever reached $100. This may be because Google doesn't take a close look to see if you're complying with their guidelines until it comes time to pay you. So yes, there's a lot more to the story than meets the eye.
Other Programs Besides AdSense
Yahoo and MSN have similar programs, although those programs aren't as well-developed as Google AdSense and there aren't as many available advertisers to display ads on your site. The fundamentals for making money are the same: You still need plenty of traffic, you still need high-paying ads, and you still need to design your site to harmonize with the ads to get people to click.

the health effects of coffee

noreply@blogger.com (alkhabiire) — Fri, 23 Aug 2013 09:36:00 +0000

Study: Heavy coffee drinking in people under 55 linked to early death

When you make coffee with breakfast, or grab a to-go cup at a cafe before work, or raid your office's break room for a cup in the afternoon, you're probably not thinking about how scientists are studying it.

So we'll just tell you: Many studies have looked at the health effects of coffee, even though measuring the potential harms and benefits is not as easy as chugging a shot of espresso. Since a whole range of lifestyle and genetic factors influence a person's physical well-being, it's hard to know exactly if, or how, or to what extent, coffee would be good or bad for anyone's longterm health.

The latest study [PDF], published in the journal Mayo Clinic Proceedings, found an association between drinking more than 28 cups of coffee a week and an increased risk of death from all causes, in people 55 years old and younger. One cup of coffee is 8 ounces.

That doesn't prove that coffee causes death. It also seems to contradict a study in the New England Journal of Medicine last year, which found that people who drink two or more cups of coffee a day have a reduced risk of dying from particular diseases than those who consume little or no coffee.

And a May 2011 study found that men who drink six or more cups a day had a decreased risk of fatal prostate cancer.

How are we supposed to decide how much coffee to drink, when the information about its health effects is more confusing than a cafe menu written in a foreign language?

Experts say that the optimal dose of coffee varies widely, depending on the person. Different people have different tolerances for coffee.

But in general, the authors of this new study emphasized a message of moderation.

The new study

Researchers followed more than 40,000 people ages 20-87 for about 16 years.

They observed risks for heavy coffee drinkers in both men and women under 55 who drank more than four cups of coffee a day on average. In men who fit this description, the risk of death was 56% higher compared to non-coffee drinkers. In women, the risk was even greater - it doubled, compared to non-coffee drinkers.

The same association was not observed in individuals 55 and older, or in people who drank coffee in moderation.

"It appears that low doses of coffee are safe," said Carl J. Lavie, study co-author from the John Ochsner Heart and Vascular Institute in New Orleans. "We did not see anything bad happening up to about 28 cups per week."

He added, "no increase in cardiovascular mortality at any dose in men or women at any age" was seen.

Caveats

But wait! Although study authors found a connection between heavy coffee consumption and death, they did not prove that frequent java indulgence causes death. There may be other underlying factors that explain this association.

"What if people are super hyper, driven, stressed out, drinking 10 cups of coffee a day?" Lavie said. "And it's not the coffee that's killing them, it's the fact that they're stressed out that's killing them."

Lavie still suggests that heavy coffee drinkers scale back on their consumption, however.

"I think that if I find that having four or more cups of coffee per day looks like it's associated with higher mortality, even though I don't know that it's for sure due to the coffee, to me that's enough reason to me to try and keep my coffee to below four a day."

The authors did not separate decaf coffee from regular, but "most people report they drink regular," added Dr. Xuemei Sui, study co-author from the Arnold School of Public Health at the University of South Carolina.

They also did not explore what people were adding to their coffees, so they didn't separate out whether the addition of sweeteners or milk had any effect on death risk.

But what about coffee benefits

There is, on the other hand, evidence from studies on type II diabetes suggesting that coffee can be good.

According to a 2009 meta-analysis, the risk of type II diabetes goes down with each cup of coffee consumed daily. Additionally, a 2007 meta-analysis found a correlation between increased coffee consumption and lower risk of liver cancer.

Such research is still not persuasive enough to tell anyone who doesn't already drink coffee to start.

How much coffee do you drink?

"A 20 ounce cup, we would count that as two and a half cups," Lavie added.

For perspective, here are some measurements of that cup o' Joe you like to enjoy:

A short Starbucks coffee is 8 ounces. A tall is 12 ounces. A grande is 16 ounces, or two cups of coffee. Make it a venti and you've consumed 20 ounces.

Meanwhile, at Dunkin' Donuts, a small cup of coffee is 10 ounces. A medium contains 14. Order a large and you'll get ounces 20 ounces and XL, 24 ounces, or three cups of coffee.

Experts told CNN in 2012 that they would not make a public health recommendation concerning coffee because there just isn't enough solid evidence to do so.

"If you consume coffee, enjoy it," Dr. Donald Hensrud of the Mayo Clinic said. "But I wouldn't necessarily recommend taking it up if you don't like it."

A lot of people already consider it a regular part of their lives. For nearly two-thirds of Americans, the daily coffee routine is just habit.

Get out of bed. Make coffee. Start your work day.

Have more coffee. Repeat. Hope it won't kill you.

The 7 best streets to shop in Paris

noreply@blogger.com (alkhabiire) — Thu, 22 Aug 2013 11:56:00 +0000

Ooh la la! The 7 best streets to shop in Paris

By Chantal Dewolf on Aug 17, 2013 in Europe, France, Leisure Travel, Regions, Speciality Travel, Western Europe - Read 3010 times

As the pulsing fashion capital of Europe, if not the world, a Parisian shopping experience will offer everything from luxury haute couture houses to sprawling chainstores. If you’re searching for authentic French labels, or eccentric designer stores, you can take your pick of those too. Below is the definitive list of where to part with those hard-earned euros:

Rue de Rivoli

Why go

From boutique bargains to high-end marques, Rue de Rivoli delivers a great shopping experience. The street’s store directory reads like a who’s who of international brands, including Zara, H&M, Gap and Mango to name a few.There’s a huge BHV department store opposite the city’s Hotel de Ville, and numerous must-see landmarks are located just off this major street, including Museé du Louvre and the Tuilleries Garden. The old signage of the renowned La Samarataine store can still be seen, paying homage to the Paris of yesteryear. The dessert mecca, House of Angelina, can also be found on this street -boasting what may be Paris’ best hot chocolate.

What you should know

There are several tourist shops around the area near the Louvre, selling the usual trinkets and T-shirts, which can become very busy on the weekends. There is a shortage of dining choices on Rue de Rivoli itself but restaurants and cafés can be found in the close vicinity.

Boulevard Haussmann

Why go

For the Galeries Lafayette of course! The upmarket department store located on Boulevard Hausmann first opened its doors in 1895, and has since become a Parisian institute. The store comprises 10 floors, and boasts a beautiful glass dome and a central staircase in a stunning Art Noveau design. Throngs of locals and tourists alike descend on the store for Paris’ bi-annual sales (les soldes), where goods are marked up to 70% off.

What you should know

In December, the Galeries Lafayette Christmas decorations become a must-see attraction, with the highlight being the giant Christmas tree, located under the glass and steel dome.

Rue St Honoré

Why go

Rue St Honoré with its sophisticated extension, Rue Faubourg St Honoré, is one of the most upmarket shopping streets of Paris. Dedicated almost exclusively to luxury fashion design houses, from the likes of Hermes, Lanvin, Gucci, YSL and Michael Kors; it promises an immense concentration of ‘chic’ along its narrow passages. Just a few steps away is the famous square of Place Vendome with yet more of the top names in the fashion industry. For the über -trendy, there’s Colette; a lifestyle concept store which sells everything from clothing to gadgets. If you’re still not convinced on just how posh this street actually is, it’s worth noting that the home of the French president, the Élysée Palace, can also be found on Rue Faubourg St Honoré.

What you should know

Watch out for well-dressed thieves in this area! There have been numerous incidents where well-heeled tourists, oozing the scent of money, have been robbed of their bags, cameras, or credit cards on this strip.

Avenue Montaigne

Why go

The only street to rival Rue Faubourg St Honoré in terms of prominence, luxury and prestige;the Grande Dame of Parisian streets is the Avenue Montaigne. Once upon a time it was called the ‘Widows Lane’ as French widows would gather there in mourning. As I stroll along thequiet, understated street, I too, find myself mourning; my card’s spending limit, that is!
From deluxe fashion labels to celebrated jewelers, the regal list includes the likes of Chanel, Valentino, Gucci, Christian Lacroix, Fendi, Harry Winston and Bulgari. The majestic Plaza Athénée hotel is also located on this street, adding to the glitz and glamour already found in spades.

What you should know

The celebrity fly-trap of a restaurant, L’Avenue, is located on Avenue Montaigne. But be warned; some reviewers swear that the beautiful waitresses are a feast on the eyes whilst the food itself, leaves a lot to be desired.

Avenue des Champs-Élysées

Why go

Given the unambiguous honor of being the world’s most beautiful street, the ChampsÉlysées is certainly one of the most famous. Marked at its beginning by the Obelisk of Luxor (Concorde), and lined throughout by bosquets of square-trimmed trees, the avenue concludes at the Arc de Triomphe. The City of Paris tried desperately to prevent the ‘banalisation’ of the street, by attempting to prevent global chain stores from setting up shop, but nowadays the likes of Zara, H&M, Gap and Benneton can be found neighboring designer labels such as Guerlain, Hugo Boss, Lancel and Cartier. The highlight of a shopping expedition on this famed street is a visit to the flagship Louis Vuitton store at 101 Avenue des Champs-Élysées. The shop’s window décor, which changes regularly, is often a treat to view in itself. The long line of people waiting for a chance to spend hundreds of euros; is another.

What you should know

The street is exceptionally crowded, regardless of the season. The cafés along the center of the Champs-Élysées are a tourist trap, offering humdrum cuisine at exorbitant prices.

Boulevard Saint Michel

Why go

Unlike the high-end shopping streets of Paris, the Latin Quarter’s Boulevard St Michel is a typical neighborhood with a laid-back vibe. Shop the likes of Bennetton, Sinéquanone, and NafNaf, together with relatively affordable French chain stores such as Camaïeu, Jules and Etam. The street is also renowned for its bookshops – one of the largest being Gilbert Joseph, and shoppers can enjoy a break from their arduous spending in the beautiful Jardin du Luxembourg, a stone’s throw away. With La Sorbonne university located close by, the area is awash with cafés and bars catering to the young and hip.

What you should know

Boulevard St Michel connects easily with other famous streets of the Latin Quarter, including Boulevard Saint-Germain (which offers additional shopping choices) and Rue Soufflot which leads to the Pantheon.

Rue de Rennes

Why go

One of Paris’ longest shopping streets; Rue de Rennes is certainly made for pavement pounding, bags in hand – Pretty Woman style. Again, the charm of Parisian shopping is that big name designers often rub shoulders with large international chain stores; and Rue de Rennes is no exception. Add to the mix a scattering of quirky boutiques, and you have a shopper’s paradise. Located just on the other side of Jardin du Luxembourg from Boulevard St Michel, the street’s beacon is the Montparnasse tower (Paris’ tallest building).

What you should know

The city’s largest FNAC (selling all things electronic and literary) can be found on Rue de Rennes. Take care of crossing the street though, as its sheer width and double-lane traffic in both directions can pose a hazard.

Fashion Tv

noreply@blogger.com (alkhabiire) — Thu, 22 Aug 2013 11:11:00 +0000

watch.

Importance of the site in the business and how to make money from it

noreply@blogger.com (alkhabiire) — Tue, 20 Aug 2013 13:43:00 +0000

Website - Its importance for business

A website is a collection of pages representing a company, business or simply an idea on the World Wide Web (WWW) files. The information could be in the form of traditional media including text, images & sound bytes and the more recent media of video and animation.Typically, though not necessary, the first page that your website visitors will land on is the 'Home' page document. The home page is a 'master guide' which will lead into to all the other pages of your site.

The word 'site' is usually used in the context of the geographical location of a place but a website is not tied to any particular place. It is simply a virtual location in the 'cyberspace'. 'Web presence' can also be used to describe your website.

Depending on your business or idea and the time and resources you have, a website may consist of a one (typically called a 'brochure' website) or hundreds of thousands of pages. You should communicate your business requirements to your website design company, which in turn will be able to suggest the number of pages and any other functionality that will be useful for your visitors.

Websites are extensively used by corporates, big and small businesses and even individuals to provide information about their products and services and invite inquiries and hopefully orders. Multiple websites, targeting different geo-locations and languages, can also co-exist having cross-links to files on each other's sites or even share the same files.

Your Business and websites:

In today's time of internet popularity and globalization, a web page or website is a dynamic tool in the market for you to both acquire and service your clients. It enables one to make information easily available about themselves as well as the products and services they plan to offer.

Competition has never been fiercer and it has become necessary for every company and business to fight tooth and nail for every inch of that customer share. A website and a good website design combined with marketing and search engine optimization activities is playing an increasingly crucial role in helping businesses and individuals achieve their objectives. Online presence has lowered barriers to entry for smaller players and has provided an instant 'global reach at practically zero cost'. I am sure everyone has heard of the 'work from home mum' who makes thousands of dollars selling products on their ecommerce website. I can hear you say 'how is that possible'. Well, the simple answer is 'online presence' i.e. a website that allows you to sell your products or services to visitors paying through their credit card.

In my next article, I will talk about how easy it is nowadays to e-convert your interest or that hobby of what people thought was simply collecting garbage into a successful web based business. I think that is what EBay is all about 'One man's garbage is another man's antique'.

Make money from your website

For millions of people web sites are the major source of income. Thanks to the various ways to monetize a site, it is possible to make a living as a web master. However, this doesn't mean that every web master is a millionaire. Well, if you know how to monetize your web site, you might not get rich but at least chances are that under the worst possible scenario, you will be able to cover your hosting fees and the other expenses you make for your site.

Currently the most profitable ways to monetize your site are CPM ads, CPC ads, CPA ads, direct sales of ad space, and selling merchandise/goods/services. These ways are described in this article.

CPM Ads Can Bring In Cents

CPM ads are the easiest form of site monetization because they require almost no effort on your side, but they are also the least feasible because as a rule (unless you have really high traffic and your audience is well-targeted), the rates are low. Some CPM ad networks pay as low as $.05 per 1,000 uniques, which means that you need millions of visitors in order to make $100-200 a month.CPM ads (an abbreviation for Cost Per Thousand) is the oldest type of site monetization. You put banners on your site and advertisers pay you based on the number of unique impressions/page views your site has.

Popups and layer ads pay a bit more ($.5-2 per 1,000 uniques/pageviews). They could bring you a few dollars a month but many visitors find them especially irritating and this is why many web masters are not willing to put popups and/or layer ads on their sites.

There are high-paying CPM ads – for instance ads paying $2-5 per 1,000 uniques but usually the networks that run them have very high traffic and quality requirements for the sites that are eligible. As a result, it is very hard to get into these networks and take advantage of these well-paid CPM ads.

There are many CPM networks we can recommend. For sites with lots of traffic the choice better and some of the good options areAdvertising.com, TribalFusion, CasaleMedia, and ValueClick because there CPM rates are good. AdBrite, AdToll, Right Media, and BurstMedia are also good. Some of these networks are CPM-only, while others have other types of ads as well. Google also has CPM ads, so you may want to try them.

CPC Ads Are a Profitable Way to Monetize a Site

The most popular CPC network is Google Adsense and even though there are other CPC networks, the income you can make from Adsense is much higher. The reason is that Google Adsense has many advertisers and if your site is in a profitable niche, CPC can be the best way to monetize your site. Additionally, unlike some of the other CPC ad networks, Google Adsense is open to publishers from all over the world.CPC ads (an abbreviation from Cost Per Click) are different from CPM because with CPC you get paid not when visitors view ads but when they click on them. The good news is that CPC rates are much, much better and as a result, it is possible to make a decent income even with a small site with not so high traffic. The key with CPC success is to have a well-targeted site in a niche where there are a lot of advertisers.

Usually CPC ads are text ads and you publish them in blocks. However, there are also intext ads, where the keyword is underlined and when the visitor puts the mouse on it, a tooltip with CPC ads appears. Intext ads are less obtrusive but it takes much more effort for the user to notice them (and above all – to click them), which means that your chances to make money are further decreased. Kontera is one of the most popular networks for intext CPC ads.

The list of good CPC ad networks is not as long as the list of CPM or CPA ad networks but still there is a choice. For instance, Google Adsense,Yahoo! Publisher Network (YPN), BidVertiser, Chitika, and Clicksor are generally considered top choices but since many CPM ad networks pay decent rates for clicks on their CPM ads, you might want to try them as well.

CPA Ads Could Make You Rich

Affiliate programs can make you rich because there are many products with really fat commissions. For niches such as health, finance, travel, etc. affiliate programs are a real golden mine.Currently CPA (an abbreviation from Cost Per Action) is the most profitable way to monetize a site in a profitable niche. CPA, also known as “affiliate programs”, pays you a commission when your visitors perform an action. Most often this action is a purchase, but it could also be something else – i.e. download a free trial, or signup for the service of the advertiser.

However, affiliate programs require a lot of efforts on your side and still there is no guarantee that the offers you pick to promote will convert well and will make you money. Sometimes even the highest converting offers won't convert on your site and the only thing you can do is replace them with other offers, hoping that they will convert better.

There might be hundreds of CPM ad networks but for CPA they are thousands. It is practically impossible to try all of them personally and this is why we would like to recommend some of the best to start with. Amazon, eBay, ShareASale, Commission Junction, Clickbank, Max Bounty,Azoogle, Never Blue Ads, LinkShare, or PepperJam are just a few of the greatest CPA networks we can recommend.

Direct Sales of Ads

If you are not happy with the CPM rates of ad networks, or CPC and CPA don't convert well with your site, you could try to find direct advertisers. However, have in mind that such an endeavor is not necessarily bound to succeed and if your site doesn't have audience advertisers can't reach elsewhere, you will hardly be able to negotiate good prices. Still, for some sites direct sales of ad space are a viable alternative and this is why you could also try it.

Openads Ad Server and OIO Publisher Ad Platform are two of the sites where you could try your luck. AdBrite also allowa you to price your ad space. In fact, almost any major network gives you the chance to put a widget on your site to invite advertisers directly to advertise on your site.

Sell Merchandise/Goods/Services

In addition to CPA ads, where you are selling other merchants' products, you can try selling your own merchandise or products/services with your brand. This technique works well mainly for popular sites with loyal audience and is hardly the easiest way to monetize a site. You could try to sell merchandise/goods/services as a supplementary service and if you see that this monetization technique works, you can expand the business. CafePress is one of the best places where you can sell merchandise with your logo and the greatest thing is that they print on demand, which means you don't have to keep your merchandise in stock. The monetization techniques we described here can be combined. You can run CPM ads together with CPA or CPC. You can also combine multiple ads from the same type (i.e. CPM, CPC, or CPA) from different ad networks, provided that this doesn't violate the terms of these networks. There isn't a universal prescription about the best way to monetize a site. The basic rule is that you need to try and see what works for you. The fact that a given monetization technique works for somebody else doesn't mean that it will work for you, so you need to try and see for yourself.

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC LIVE

noreply@blogger.com (alkhabiire) — Tue, 20 Aug 2013 10:58:00 +0000

Watch .

tips for recovering from emotional pain

noreply@blogger.com (alkhabiire) — Sun, 18 Aug 2013 16:27:00 +0000

tips for recovering from emotional pain

When you brood over something, you're simply replaying the same thoughts without gaining new insights.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Rejection is so painful that it can even affect your thinking
Positive affirmations may be ineffective for people who have low self-esteem
Instead, try making a list of your best qualities

Editor's note: Guy Winch holds a doctorate in clinical psychology and has a private practice in Manhattan. He is the author of "Emotional First Aid: Practical Strategies for Treating Failure, Rejection, Guilt, and Other Everyday Psychological Injuries."

-- We sustain psychological injuries such as rejection and failure as we go through life just as often as we do physical injuries. But while we have access to ointments and bandages to treat cuts and sprains, we have no such tools to treat emotional pain.

In my book, I discuss the impact of seven common psychological injuries on our emotional well-being -- rejection, failure, guilt, loneliness, rumination, loss and bouts of low self-esteem -- and offer science-based treatments that ease the pain, accelerate healing and minimize long-term risks to our mental health.

Here are five questions people often ask about psychological injuries:

1. Why does getting rejected hurt so much?

Getting rejected activates the same pathways in your brain that get activated when you feel physical pain. In one study, participants who received Tylenol (acetaminophen) and were then asked to recall a painful rejection reported less emotional pain than subjects who received a sugar pill.

Rejection is so painful that it can even affect your thinking. For example, being asked to recall a painful rejection was enough for people to score significantly lower on subsequent IQ tests, tests of short-term memory and tests of decision-making.

Rejection is assumed to have developed as an early warning mechanism to alert us when we were in danger of being kicked out of our tribe, which in our caveman past would have been a death sentence. That is also why rejection makes us feel so detached and alone; it destabilizes our need to feel that we belong.

Guy Winch

2. Psychologists are advocates of getting in touch with how you feel. If thinking about your feelings is good for you, how can brooding and ruminating be bad?

Reflecting on how you felt after a painful experience often leads to the kind of understanding and insight that reduces emotional distress and allows you to move on. But when you brood over something, you're simply replaying the same thoughts, memories or worries over and over, gaining no new insights and making yourself more upset and angry.

Ruminating in such ways can be "addictive" in that stewing over such memories or thoughts makes them more distressing, which in turn makes the urge to brood over them even more compelling. These ruminative cycles not only increase your emotional distress in the moment, but over time, the stress hormones that are released into your bloodstream can put you at increased risk for cardiovascular disease.

3. Is it possible to prevent a significant failure from affecting your self-esteem?

Yes. Failure is damaging to your self-esteem because it distorts your perceptions; your goals seem out of reach, and your capacities seem unequal to the task. To prevent your self-esteem from taking a big hit, you have to overcome the feelings of helplessness that follow a significant failure.

Blaming your "lack of ability," lamenting your "bad luck" or assuming "it was not meant to be" will make you feel unnecessarily powerless. If you insist on casting blame, focus on aspects of the task that were in your control, such as your planning and execution.

Then, consider the many ways you can improve your planning, become better informed and better prepared, invest greater effort and resources along the way, and strengthen your willpower (which can be done with certain exercises). Then try again!

4. Why do people who have hurt another person's feelings still feel guilty even after they've apologized?

Guilt is usually a useful emotion, as it warns you when your actions or inactions might cause harm to another person, thus giving you an opportunity to rethink things or to atone for your wrongdoing.

As such, guilt is a great "relationship protector." But when your guilt is excessive or lingering, it can do more damage than good; it can impair your ability to focus and concentrate or even to enjoy life.

When people feel guilty after having apologized for their actions, it's usually because their apology was not strong enough to elicit true forgiveness from the person they harmed. People often leave out the most important ingredient required to make an apology effective: expressing clear empathy for what the other person felt and went through.

Once you convey that you truly "get" how the other person felt and demonstrate a clear understanding of how your actions (or inactions) affected them, they will be much more likely to convey authentic forgiveness, and your guilty feelings should ease soon thereafter.

5. Why do some daily users of positive affirmations still have low self-esteem?

Positive affirmations such as "I am worthy of true love" or "I will be a great success at work" are often ineffective for people with low self-esteem. They can even make them feel worse.

When statements fall outside the boundaries of people's established beliefs, they reject them. If someone feels unlovable, affirmations about how worthy of love they are will be rejected by their unconscious minds and only remind them of how unlovable they truly feel.

People with low self-esteem should use self-affirmations instead. Self-affirmations are statements that reinforce those qualities and attributes that you believe you already possess, such as "I would be a loyal, caring and supportive partner" or "I'm responsible and motivated, and I have a great work ethic."

Making a list of your best qualities and writing a brief essay about why a specific quality is important (and how you've expressed it in the past) is a much more effective daily habit for people whose self-esteem is low.

Days will change your life

noreply@blogger.com (alkhabiire) — Sun, 18 Aug 2013 15:49:00 +0000

What makes a great journey?

A guaranteed transporting experience, first and foremost.

But after that it all depends on how you define “journey.”

If your version is restricted to a paved surface, at least two wheels and an engine, with a clear point A and B (and let’s not forget the cupholders), this list may not be for you.

Or maybe it is -- if you’re flexible enough to allow an elevator shaft in Taipei or a flight of stairs on a remote island in the South Atlantic to also qualify.

And a reindeer sled or a pair of ice skates or a Ferrari-styled roller coaster car to constitute a fair SMT (Suggested Mode of Transport).

What makes these 49 trips (listed in no particular order) the “best” ones out there? Ruthless subjectivity and provocative resolve to hear back from you about the 500 better ones we overlooked.

Some of these journeys can (or must) be done in a matter of minutes. Others may require at least one lifetime.

All of them are moving adventures worthy of true road warrior spirit -- in the broadest sense -- and solid proof that “moving about” is humanity's greatest obsession.

What's your favorite journey? Share it in the comments section.

1. Moscow to Vladivostok, Russia

Lake Baikal -- Russia's way of saying: "Look at me."

SMT: Train

Board the Trans-Siberian Express in Moscow and rumble east into Russia’s interminable backcountry where the (relatively momentary) appearance of Lake Baikal reminds you you’re not on Jupiter.

Pull into the port of Vladivostok, 9,300 kilometers, seven days and eight time zones later. Yep, you’ve just clickety-clacked across a quarter of the earth’s circumference.

www.transsiberian.com

2. Sydney to several remote pubs, Australia

SMT: Helicopter

The world’s only helicopter pub crawl we know of departs from Sydney, soaring above the city’s famed harbor and touching down at several historic drinking holes spread across the beautiful (but curiously out-of-focus by mid-afternoon) New South Wales countryside.

www.sydneyhelicopters.com.au

3. Inca Trail, Peru

SMT: Foot

The groundwork for South America’s legendary cloud-forest, Andes-hugging, thin-air trek to Machu Picchu was laid over 500 years ago.

And the payoff at the end of your four-day, 43-kilometer hike -- gazing upon the legendary “Lost City of the Incas” with your own eyes -- remains as life-enhancing today as it was for pre-Columbian royalty.

www.incatrailperu.com

4. Cape Town to Cairo, Africa

SMT: Your wits and 10 weeks minimum

Cape-to-Cairo. It just rolls off the tongue. Launching an independent road trip the length of Africa, on the other hand -- 17,000 kilometers and 11 countries (or so), featuring Victoria Falls, Mt. Kilimanjaro, lion and Whirling Dervish encounters, etc. -- is a different story.

We can’t wait to hear about it.

5. Adelaide to Darwin, Australia

SMT: Greyhound Bus

It’s been called “the longest bus ride in the world” -- a debatable factoid you won’t bother disputing after rolling for at least 42 hours (plus a six-hour layover in Alice Springs) along the planet’s most desolate, Greyhound-friendly continental midsection.

The draw: spectacular side trip opportunities en route, from spectacular Katherine Gorge and Ayers Rock to an underground bunker hotel room in Coober Pedy. All cheaply chauffeured by a trusty Greyhound driver who has to stay awake for you.

www.greyhound.com.au

More on CNN: DMZ: Road trip to the world's most heavily armed border

6. 0 to 240 km/hr, Ferrari World Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

Please try to keep your arms, legs and internal organs inside the car.SMT: Ferrari Formula One-Styled Roller Coaster Car

Q: Does riding a roller coaster count as a “journey?”

A: On the world’s fastest one, a Grand Prix-themed beast with Ferrari-styled cars that accelerates to 240 kilometers per hour in four seconds, hits 4.8Gs and requires the use of goggles -- yes.

www.ferrariworldabudhabi.com

7. Amritsar, India to 'Shangri-La'

SMT: Royal Enfield

What’s really stopping you from touring India’s Himalayan foothills to the border of Tibet on a 500cc Royal Enfield Bullet? … Maps? A guide and team of on-call mechanics? A Royal Enfield motorcycle?

All of that’s included in TransIndus’s 15-day Trans-Himalayan Odyssey -- hairpinning through mountain passes, sweeping valleys and some of the most stunning alpine scenery you’ll ever witness astride India’s version of a Harley.

www.transindus.co.uk

8. Union Square to Fisherman’s Wharf, San Francisco

SMT: Cable car

Buy your US$5 ticket at the Market St. turntable and line up with all the other tourists. Board either the Powell-Mason or Powell-Hyde line.

Roll north past Union Square, along the edge of Chinatown, up and over Nob & Russian Hills, and down to Fisherman’s Wharf, clanging all the way.

Check it off the list. You can bike across the Golden Gate Bridge tomorrow.

www.sfcablecar.com

9. Ground floor to 89th floor, Taipei 101, Taiwan

SMT: Elevator

We love the vertigo-inducing, glass-fronted ride up Toronto’s CN Tower too. But for the sheer pleasure of blasting above the stifling masses in a steel box that “pushes the limits of people-mover technology,” according to Popular Mechanics, nothing quite matches an elevator trip up Taiwan’s Taipei 101.

No longer the world’s tallest building and fastest elevator, it remains the greatest vertical road to instant urban tranquility. One way ticket to the 89th-floor observation deck, please.

www.taipei-101.com.tw

10. C2C Trail, England

SMT: Hiking boot and walking stick (Optional: Flock of Sheep and Border Collie)

Northern England’s Coast-To-Coast Trail (a.k.a. the “C2C”) stretches 192 miles from the Irish Sea at St. Bee’s to the North Sea at Robin Hood’s Bay, rambling through England’s famed Lake District and other picturesque settings with kindly folk and pubs.

Yes, you’ll be walking across an entire country. No, it shouldn’t wreck your knees or take more than a couple of weeks.

www.wainwright.org.uk

More on CNN: 10 top road trip apps

11. South Rim to Phantom Ranch, Grand Canyon, Arizona

Four legs good -- so much better than four wheels.SMT: Mule

Hoofing down Grand Canyon National Park’s main artery, Bright Angel Trail, into the world’s most famous cleft is just easier and more sure-footed on a set of four hooves.

Book your mule at least a year in advance for the “Overnight Ride,” which includes a night at the bottom of the Grand Canyon at historic Phantom Ranch.

www.nps.gov

12. Khan Khentii, Mongolia

SMT: Yak

There’s only one place in the world to experience a Mongolian Yak Safari -- and we all know where that is.

Peregrine’s 14-day intro to Mongolia starts in Ulaanbaatar and features a three-day trek into the vast Khan Kentii wilderness with nothing but a yak-driven support vehicle, some local herdsman and your emerging ancient nomadic spirit.

www.peregrineadventures.com

13. Reykjavik to … Reykjavik, Iceland

SMT: Rental car

Iceland’s definitive 1,339-kilometer loop around the country along Route 1 (or The Ring Road) winds past remote glacial plains and weathered lava lands, over narrow wooden bridges, along steep sea-cliff-lined switchbacks, past endearing towns with unpronounceable names (Kirkjubæjarklaustur anyone?), and so on.

In the summer, you get to drive it in uninterrupted daylight.

www.visiticeland.com

14. Rideau Canal, Ottawa

SMT: Ice skates

Come winter, Canada’s most famous recreational waterway (a UNESCO World Heritage Site) turns into a skateway -- and the world’s largest ice rink.

Hardy Canadian locals commute to work this way, along a maintained section that runs for nearly eight miles through downtown Ottawa. Yes, you can rent skates at the canal, hold a black briefcase and pretend you’re doing the same.

www.ottawatourism.ca

15. Amsterdam, Netherlands to Istanbul, Turkey (or equivalent)

SMT: Anything on the ground. Nothing in the air

It really doesn’t matter how you do it, or which pair of polar European cities you start and finish from -- as long as they’re about a dozen countries apart and you don’t cave and fly anywhere.

Mile-per-mile, overlanding across Europe remains the most definitive cross-cultural voyage anywhere.

More on CNN: Cycling routes that'll take your breath away

16. Naples to Amalfi, Italy

Great roads are even better if someone else is doing the driving.

SMT: Taxi

Why deal with Italian traffic while trying to sneak breathtaking seaside views along the Amalfi Coast when you can just hop into the back of a taxi driven by an experienced local who can handle this winding, precipitous road while yelling at his wife on the phone while playing tour guide and gazing admiringly out at Capri himself?

17. Milford Track, New Zealand

SMT: Foot

“The finest walk in the world.” A few hikes around the globe have been granted this status, including New Zealand’s signature 53.5-kilometer foot path through the heart of Fiordland National Park -- which might just get the nod for its spectacular South Island imagery and trekker-friendly lodging along the 5-day route.

Guided tours can be booked through the Milford Track’s licensed operator, Ultimate Hikes.

www.ultimatehikes.co.nz

18. Deadwood to Custer State Park, South Dakota

SMT: Harley Davidson

Home to the famous annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, South Dakota’s signature rider rite of passage is the Black Hills Run (a.k.a. “the steeplechase for bikes”) -- a rolling, winding, wildly scenic journey from the former gold boomtown of Deadwood to the bison-rich fields of Custer State Park, with a pullout at Mount Rushmore.

19. Tashkent Metro, Uzbekistan

SMT: Subway train

The Moscow and Paris subways get plenty of attention. May we now acquaint you with Uzbekistan’s pin-up subterranean rapid transit system?

The Tashkent Metro is one of only two subways in Central Asia. This one’s not just nicer than Kazakhstan’s, but is one of the world’s most unsung, ornate subways -- featuring 29 uniquely-designed stations of glass, granite, marble and carved alabaster, designed by prominent artists and architects.

There’s no red, blue or green line quite like it.

20. Cabot Trail, Cape Breton Island, Canada

SMT: Car with good brakes and Gordon Lightfoot CD set

If there’s a bucket list drive in the Canadian Maritimes, it’s this 298-kilometer loop around the top of Nova Scotia’s Cape Breton Island -- featuring stunning Atlantic Coast scenery, numerous small-town seafood stops, whale sightings and superb day-trip hikes in Cape Breton Highlands National Park.

www.cabottrail.com

More on CNN: 15 literary travel quotes

21. Lapland, Sweden

And you thought they only worked one day a year.

SMT: Reindeer sled

In the Swedish Arctic, you don’t have to be Santa to get pulled by a team of reindeer through the pristine Scandinavian tundra.

Sign up for a four-day, deer sledding expedition guided by local Sámi herdsmen with Nature Travels, and it’s like Christmas came early in Lapland.

www.naturetravels.co.uk

22. Esquel to Ingeniero Jacobacci, Patagonia, Chile

SMT: Train

Calling any 1930s-era steam locomotive that maxes out at about 45 kilometers per hour on even older narrow-gauge track an express may be a stretch.

Board La Trochita (a.k.a. The Patagonian Express) and the thinking is, why would you want to go any faster through 400 kilometers of haunting scenery at the bottom of the world in an old, rattling wooden train car?

23. Grenada to Cape Vincent, Caribbean

SMT: Foot, taxi, ferry, mailboat

Grab a taxi in Grenada, board the Osprey Express for the 90-minute ferry to Carriacou. Run to the mailboat docks parked at the Government Dock in Hillsborough to get you across the border to Union island.

From there, catch an early morning ferry to Bequia and then board the Bequia Express to St. Vincent.

Who’d have thought the best inter-island road trip in the outer-Caribbean would be this easy?

www.discoversvg.com

24. Big Sur and the rest of California Highway 1

SMT: RV

California’s most magnificent patch of coast, Big Sur, winds for 93 gorgeous, perilous miles between San Simeon (Hearst Castle) and Carmel -- summoning great waves of joy, awe and car-sickness all in one movable sitting.

Getting above it all in a motor home lets you make use of over a dozen federal, state and private campgrounds hiding along the Big Sur coast and experience the rest of California’s spectacular, paved edge along Highway 1.

www.bigsurcalifornia.org

25. Athens to Marathon, Greece

SMT: Jogging shoes

More than 550 official marathon races in 69 countries on all seven continents are held annually around the world -- but the first one was run 2,500 years ago by a single Greek herald named Pheidippides who, legend has it, raced from Marathon to Athens (roughly 26 miles) in 490 BC to announce victory over Persia before dying on the spot.

Train responsibly and you’ll fare better on this hilly route that attracts thousands of bibbed heralds running from Marathonas to Athens’ Panathinaikon Stadium in the annual Athens Classic Marathon -- held every fall.

www.athensclassicmarathon.gr

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26. Turbo, Colombia to Buenos Aires, Argentina

One road, a few wheels, a million memories.

SMT: Reliable car with easily replaceable parts

If there’s an easy way to drive the length of South America, it’s along the Pan-American Highway -- a.k.a. “the world’s longest motorable road” (which, technically, begins in Alaska).

Skipping the North and Central America part should make journeying through Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile and Argentina a relative breeze. If you’re in Suriname, you made a wrong turn.

27. Calgary to Banff, Alberta

SMT: Car

The straightest shot from Calgary to Banff National Park is along the four-lane Trans-Canada Highway (Highway 1). But this is a road trip, right?

Opting for the alternate, two-lane route, Highway 1A, a picture-perfect, two-laner snaking along the quiet Bow river leads to the same pinch-me Canadian Rocky Mountain scenery at a far more enjoyable pace with some quaint small towns thrown in and a drive-by past the very spot where "Legends of the Fall" was filmed.

The moral of this story: wherever you are, don’t snub that “A” route.

28. Tijuana to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico

SMT: Reliable car with Mexican auto insurance

Driving 1,700 kilometers of Highway 1 in Mexico’s Baja Peninsula at 80 kilometers per hour from Tijuana to Cabo San Lucas will take you 21.25 hours if you don’t stop.

But you will stop. Possibly to change a tire or placate a bored 18-year-old Federale at a checkpoint in the middle of nowhere.

Or, mainly, just to marvel upon one of the wildest desert-meets-seascapes on earth. Just don’t forget that insurance.

www.discoverbajacalifornia.com

29. Oslo to Bergen, Norway

SMT: Train or mountain bike -- or both

Northern Europe’s most gorgeous mountain- and fjord-fringed terrain sits between Norway’s capital and the west coast city of Bergen. The easy way to see it: on the 290-mile-long Bergen railway.

The harder way: on mountain bike along dirt service roads following the tracks. The happy medium: On the train to the top of the pass and downhill to Bergen on a mountain bike.

www.visitnorway.com

30. Anywhere on Antarctica

SMT: Double-hulled ship, Zodiac boat and (important) foot

Reaching the huge tabular icebergs, frenzies of wild penguins and bleached, otherworldly shores of Antarctica may be the best approximation to interplanetary travel on earth -- but it ain't a real journey unless you actually set foot on the place.

The majority of cruise ship visitors admire the White Continent from a distance without ever leaving their ship.

For an up-close, intimate journey that lets you actually stand on Antarctica instead of squint at it from the Lido Deck, sign on with an IAATO-member vessel specializing in leading smaller groups and offering multiple shore excursions.

iaato.org

More on CNN: World's 10 ultimate drives

31. Masai Mara National Reserve, Kenya

Hippos, zebras and just out of sight a bunch of mesmerized tourists.

SMT: Horse

Witnessing Africa’s animals in a Land Rover is thrilling. Interacting with them on horseback -- galloping alongside zebra, giraffe and antelope -- on a riding safari with moving camps and local Masai tribesmen in the mix is a whole other deal.

Equitours’ flagship tour, traversing Kenya’s wildlife-rich Masai Mara National Reserve, features 11 days of basically playing Hemingway without the gun.

www.ridingtours.com

32. Coast to coast, Corsica, France

SMT: Renault Clio

There are many places to go for a white-knuckle test drive in a small European car, but none as simultaneously scenic, charming and full of random goat herds as Corsica.

Test your skills on the west coast’s D-81 above Piana, Cap Corse’s D-80, and the interior’s D-623 near Restonica Gorge. D = Dramatic on any of them.

Train travel on the single-track Trinighellu (“Trembler”) line is a scenic alternative, carving across the island’s mountainous center.

33. Campbell River, Vancouver Island, Canada

SMT: Snorkel and fins

Every year, thousands of salmon complete their own incredible road trip up Vancouver Island’s Campbell River, one of the Pacific Northwest’s most populated spawning grounds.

A three-hour “Snorkel with the Salmon” tour is on offer from Destiny River Adventures with their final leg floating down a not-so-lazy river with a mask and snorkel.

Best salmon run viewing is between late August and mid-September when all five native Pacific species (pink, coho, chinook, sockeye and chum) are present.

www.destinyriver.com

34. Chiang Mai Hill Country, Thailand

SMT: Elephant

Thailand’s estimated 2,000 domestic elephants have (at least officially) retired from logging duties and in the best cases found a more sustainable life in the tourism industry.

Your first job before climbing aboard one: finding a company with a humane track record.

Elephant “treks” range from short guided walks in Phuket to longer expeditions in Northern Thailand’s Hill Country -- including a three-day tromp through the Baan Na Kled Hoi jungle near Chiang Mai, interacting with Thai hill tribes and an amazing creature you can’t quite believe you’re sitting on.

www.asianelephantsafari.com

35. Chama, New Mexico to Antonito, Colorado

SMT: Narrow gauge train

Between late September and early October, the best fall-color experience on steam-powered wheels is chugging between Chama, New Mexico and Antonito, Colorado on the historic Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad.

Board at either end for a full- or half-day chug through Carson and Rio Grande National Forests, old sheep ranches and ghost towns lit up with autumn leaves.

Along the way, you’ll push beyond 10,000 feet at Cumbres Pass -- the highest pass reached by rail in the country.

cumbrestoltec.com

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36. Somewhere to wherever you end up, Dhaka, Bangladesh

And all for less than the cost of your coffee at the end of the journey.

SMT: Rickshaw

It’s the journey, not the destination. We’ve all heard that old road trip adage -- which has a special meaning while riding in the back of a brightly-adorned rickshaw in Dhaka, the unofficial “Rickshaw Capital of the World.”

Weaving through ridiculous traffic in one of 400,000 cycle-rickshaws at last count, who really cares where you’re actually going? Just savor the ride.

37. Jamestown to Halfmoon Hollow, Saint Helena, United Kingdom

SMT: Quads, glutes and calves

Napoleon, died eight years before “Jacob’s Ladder” was built on St. Helena to transport goods from Jamestown to the top of Ladder Hill.

That means climbing the vertiginous stone stairway’s 699 steps from sea level to 600 feet puts you in an elite group that even an exiled French emperor isn’t part of. Don’t forget to buy your souvenir "completion" certificate at the nearby museum.

www.sthelenatourism.com

38. Sunrise at Mt. Batur, Bali, Indonesia

SMT: Shuttle van, foot

Get picked up from your hotel in the wee hours and ascend the forested, volcanic flanks of central Bali’s, 5,633-foot Mt. Batur at pre-dawn.

Atop the crater rim at sunrise you can gaze out while your guide cooks eggs on steaming hot rocks before hustling back down the live volcano.

Contact Bali Sunrise Trekking Tours or numerous other companies offering this trip, or book your own guide independently with the Association of Mount Batur Trekking Guides.

www.balisunrisetours.com

39. Lukla to Everest Base Camp, Nepal

SMT: Feet and Lungs

Hop a quick flight from Katmandu to Lukla -- home of the world's most hair-raising landing strip. Then start walking.

At least a week is recommended for the 62-kilometer trek up to Everest Base Camp, winding through Himalayan imagery and mountain villages colored in prayer flags en route to the gates of the world's highest peak.

Before turning around, wish all those mid-May crazies luck who call this oddly crowded spot just the beginning of their upward journey.

www.hiking-trekking.com

40. Denali Highway, Alaska

SMT: Dogsled

You don’t need to be an Iditarod athlete to experience authentic dog travel in the Alaskan wilderness -- but you will need to go to mushing school.

Fairbanks-based Paws for Adventure runs half- and full-day mushing classes and dogsledding overnights for the rest of us who won’t be racing 1,150 miles from Anchorage to Nome this year.

Their signature Alaskan Range Expedition is five nights of dogsled travel up and around the Denali Highway and McClaren Glacier. Not a sound but falling snow and jingling collars.

www.pawsforadventure.com

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41. Merzouga to Erg Chebbi, Morocco

Great journeys aren't always comfortable.

SMT: Camel

Anyone drawn to the romance of camel travel probably hasn’t ridden one lately -- but is there a more primal place on earth to experience it than in the world’s largest desert?

The massive dunes of Erg Chebbi in southeastern Morocco are your portal into the Sahara from the tiny camel-trekking-serviced village of Merzouga. Yeah, you’re out there.

www.cameltrekking.com

42. Cape Town to Hermanus or further, South Africa

SMT: Car

The most relentlessly pleasant drive on the bottom of the world starts in Cape Town and skirts east along the Western Cape past charming seaside villages, vineyards, beaches and marine mammal overlooks to Hermanus -- “South Africa’s Whale Town.”

That’s the quick 120-kilometer version. Add a zero and you can continue this South African coastal odyssey all the way to Durban.

43. The Great Wall, China

SMT: Foot

China's Great Wall sees about 20,000 daily tourists in its busiest section near Beijing. But that just leaves other magnificent parts of this 21,000-kilometer, two-millennia-in-the-making, not-so-modest masonry project foot-traffic free.

For example, sign up for ICA's WildWall Extreme trek-a five-day camping trip along 40 kilometers of remote Great Wall in neighboring Hebei Province, and the world's most wondrous wall was built just for you this week.

www.mountainbikingasia.com

44. New Delhi to Agra, India

SMT: Tour bus

Define “tour bus” anyway you like, but the roads out of Delhi are so much nicer when someone else has to drive them.

A mere 200 kilometers southeast of this madness takes you to Agra and that checklist-notching date with the Taj Mahal.

45. Scotsdale to Upper Sonoran Desert, Arizona

SMT: Hummer

In Greater Phoenix, one can admire only so much saguaro and roadkill from behind the wheel of a white rented Neon.

The cure: offroading deep into the area’s rugged outback, the Sonoran Desert, at night with an ITT GEN 3 Night Vision Scope when the temperature’s dipped below 120 and the tarantulas, scorpions, wild pigs and Gila Monsters are just waking up.

www.dshummer.com

More on CNN: Asia's 10 greatest street food cities

46. Chamonix, France to Zermatt, Switzerland

Who said skiing was all downhill?

SMT: Skis and crampons

The Haute Route (High Route), Europe’s most famous backcountry ski tour, traverses 120 kilometers of glaciated terrain from Chamonix to Zermatt and has been called the “the hut-to-hut tour to end all hut-to-hut tours” and the “the lifelong dream of fanatical off-piste skiers everywhere.”

Mountain Tracks offers a nine-day, all-inclusive journey along a select route tailored to avoid over-trafficked areas.

www.mountaintracks.co.uk

47. Dingle Peninsula, Ireland

SMT: Car or foot

Even if you don't know the Dingle Peninsula yet, you already kind of do. Tucked away on Ireland's southwest coast in ultra-scenic County Kerry, it packs scores of classic Irish images.

Craggy mountains swaddled in mist. Tilted green hills matted with yellow gorse and lined with old stone walls. Sawtoothed, frothy Atlantic shorelines. An old fellow squinting at you by the side of a quaint back road in a gray tweed cap with his ten million sheep.

The Dingle Peninsula is a microcosm of the Irish coast in one ruggedly stunning package that you can loop around by car in a single day. But make it at least two-or three.

Or over a week, if you have the time and quad muscles to hoof around the peninsula on the 179-kilometer Dingle Way, one of the country's most spectacular long-distance walking trails.

www.dingle-peninsula.ie

48. Guadalajara to Amititán, Mexico

SMT: "Tequila Express” train

Most classic weekend road trips are much happier on the way there than back. The Tequila Express is one notable exception.

You can board in Guadalajara at 10:30am, roll past agave covered hillsides into the village of Amititán (a.k.a. the birthplace of tequila) where you’ll visit some of the world’s oldest tequila distilleries -- before returning in a raucous train car full of passengers loaded on tequila, conga-lining to a mariachi band. Salud!

www.tequilaexpress.com

49. Pitesti to Cartisoara, Romania

SMT: Car, motorcycle or (gasp) bicycle

A couple seasons ago, "Top Gear" host Jeremy Clarkson put South-Central European scenic mountain driving on the map by exclaiming, “This is the best road in the world,” while touring Romania's national route 7C (a.k.a. the Transfagarasan Highway) with an Aston Martin, Ferrari and a Lamborghini.

That's in spite of the potholes, crumbly hairpins and tempestuous conditions that make this secluded, serpentining 90-kilometer, former military route through gorgeous Carpathian mountainscapes (and right past Vlad the Impaler's old hilltop digs) undriveable between mid-fall and late spring.

So come in the summer.

www.exploringromania.com

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1. Moscow to Vladivostok, Russia

2. Sydney to several remote pubs, Australia

3. Inca Trail, Peru

4. Cape Town to Cairo, Africa

5. Adelaide to Darwin, Australia

6. 0 to 240 km/hr, Ferrari World Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

7. Amritsar, India to 'Shangri-La'

8. Union Square to Fisherman’s Wharf, San Francisco