clipped from www.divinecaroline.com Let’s Get It On: The Best Aphrodisiacs If your inbox looks anything like mine, you have ads for things like “Passion Rx,” “Make Hr Com Lnger,” and “Horny Goat Weed Liquid.” Though there’s certainly no shortage of products on the market purporting to stimulate sexual appetite and lift libido, a true aphrodisiac—an agent that arouses sexual desire—has yet to be found. However, maybe this doesn’t matter. Although no food, drink, herb, or potion has been proven to biochemically make humans hot, it doesn’t mean there aren’t a few things that help plant the seed of sex in a flame’s brain. As Dr. Ruth once said, “the most important sex organ lies between the ears.” Below are ten things to be used—or avoided—when trying to put a partner in the mood.

clipped from www.divinecaroline.com The Science of Sex: Does the Nose Know? Most women have had the mysterious experience of being turned on by a partner’s smell. A friend of mine once told me her ex-boyfriend’s scent made her feel “safe and drawn to him,” and that his smell was so distinct and attractive that even after a sweaty workout, she found him appealing. “The more exercise, the better.” Studies have found that how a person smells gives us clues to their genetic make-up, and thus, their potential to be a compatible mate. On a subconscious level, decoding a scent gives us a powerful tool to ensure our kids will be healthy, and our orgasms will be plentiful.

clipped from www.divinecaroline.com Funeral Planning, Recession-Style During the downturn in the economy, there’s still one industry with a steady supply of paying customers and business doesn’t look to end anytime soon. That’s because those in the multi-billion dollar funeral industry survive by the simple fact that people keep kicking the can, and their relatives are usually willing to dole out the dough to send Grandma Sue off in high class. But, according to the National Funeral Directors Association, the average cost of a traditional funeral is $7,323, which doesn’t include burial costs. Burial plots and other expenditures can push the total to $10,000 or more. That’s not cheap during thick times and it can be a downright hardship during the lean times.

clipped from www.divinecaroline.com Last, Last-Minute Gifts That Don’t Seem So It’s Christmas Eve. Dinner is ready, the house is decorated, and the lights are aglow with holiday magic. You are about to relax in the recliner with some eggnog and watch A Christmas Story when you get a call from your brother. He has decided to bring his new girlfriend and he forgot to get her a present—would you mind? Or maybe you are heading out to a party and realize you forgot to get the host a gift. Maybe things have been so crazy, you forgot you have three nephews, not two. Whatever the reason, you need a gift, you need it now, and all that’s open is Walgreen’s, Bob’s Liquor, and Safeway. Take a deep breath, down the eggnog, and grab your keys. You’ve heard of last-minute gifts? Here are some last last-minute gifts that don’t seem so, well, last minute. Art Kit for Kids Activity Kit Family Movie Night Fun with Liquor Bottles

clipped from www.divinecaroline.com The 101-Year History of the Times Square Ball Drop If you had to guess at the origins of the ball dropping on New Year’s Eve, I doubt you would think it had a nautical beginning, but that’s exactly where it comes from. A time ball is a large, painted ball made from metal or wood. Situated on the top of observatories or time stations, it was dropped at a precise time so that sailors could check their marine chronometers and determine their longitude, which helped with navigation. The first ball was erected in 1829 in Portsmouth by its inventor Robert Wauchope. The first principal time ball was installed atop England’s Royal Observatory at Greenwich in 1833 and was lowered daily at 1 p.m. After radio time signals were established in 1924, the balls became obsolete. However, at the United States Naval Observatory in Washington DC, a time ball descends from a flagpole at noon each day. Interesting Ball-Dropping Facts In 1907, the first year the ball dropped, it was one second late

clipped from www.divinecaroline.com Best Career for Your Zodiac Sign Were you born to be rich? A 2008 CareerBuilder.com survey of close to 9,000 workers determined that those born under Scorpio, Leo, Taurus, and or Cancer are the most likely to earn over $100,000 per year. Sorry Capricorn and Aquarius, you folks are most likely to earn under $35,000 per year. We won’t all be rich, but we can find satisfaction in our jobs, especially if we seek out ones that are congruent with our zodiac signs.

clipped from www.divinecaroline.com Eight Commonly Misinterpreted Songs In college, I took a class called “The Author’s Intention,” which analyzed whether readers (and even the authors themselves) can ever really understand the meaning behind a piece of writing. When we read a poem or a story, we bring our own experiences into the text and that often yields vastly different interpretations. Thus, the meanings of things such as songs, which can be interpreted as poems set to music, become blurred and stretch far from what their writers might have originally intended. 1. “Born in the U.S.A.,” Bruce Springsteen 2. “Losing My Religion,” R.E.M. 3. “Every Breath You Take,” The Police 4. “Hollaback Girl,” Gwen Stefani

clipped from dmiessler.com 10 Facts Every Westerner Should Know About the Middle East Most Westerners know very little about the Middle East and the people that live there. This lack of knowledge hurts our ability to understand, and engage in intelligent discussion about, current events. Arabs are part of an ethnic group, not a religion. Not all Arabs are Muslim Islam is a religion. A Muslim (roughly pronounced MOOSE-lihm) is someone who follows the religion. Shia Muslims are similar to Roman Catholics in Christianity People from Iran are also known as Persians, and they are not Arabs. Arabs are Semites. According to the Bible, Jews and Arabs are related What’s depressing is the fact that this only took me 30 minutes to write, and you 2 minutes to read. Yet most people in the West (and especially in the United States) lack even this cursory level of knowledge about the region.:

note the conclusion in this clip -- well said and sadly true. More sad is the fact that too many people would prefer to remain uninformed than the challenge their preconceptions.

Human Hair: The Next Green Fertlizer?

clipped from dsc.discovery.com Human Hair: The Next Green Fertilizer? Jan. 15, 2009 -- Scientists are exploring an Earth-friendly way to use all that hair that piles up on salon floors – as fertilizer. "We concluded that human hair can release a sufficient amount of nutrients to support crops," said agricultural scientist Valtcho Zeliazkov of Mississippi State University in Verona. "This is a waste material with clear benefits for producers and the environment." The idea is not entirely new. In fact, hair-based fertilizer is already commercially available. A Florida-based company called SmartGrow, for one, sells hair-containing mats that gardeners place beneath or on top of their plants.

107 Year Old Bride Seeking a Mate

clipped from truemors.nowpublic.com Will Wedding Bells Ring for 107-Year-Old Bride Hopeful? The surest sign that capitalism is still in the early stages in China is that no one has started a reality show to find 107-year-old Wang Guiying a hubby. Guiying grew up watching the women in her family being abused by their husbands, which kept her on the sidelines of the wedding game and instead supported herself as a farmer until the age of 74. Lately, though, she’s been feeling like a burden on her nieces and nephews and has decided to seek out a mate at long last. The local government is getting in on the action by searching high and low through retirement homes looking for a honey for the woman who could be crowned Queen of the Cougars. You go, girl! The Viagra is wrapped and ready to be airmailed.

Bella (a dog) is there for her best friend (an elephant) during illness.

clipped from truemors.nowpublic.com Friendship Straddles Species Divide We all dream of that special someone with whom we can grow old, and the same goes for the elephants at the Elephant Sanctuary in Hohenwald, Tennessee who tend to pair up as they saunter toward the Great Pachyderm Beyond. Tarra and Bella, however, haven’t let a little thing like species — or size — stand in the way of their friendship. Tarra, an elephant, and Bella, a dog, have long been buddies, but the true test of their bond was passed when a spinal injury put Bella out of commission and Tarra stood watch — for three weeks — outside of the station where her canine friend was recuperating. Gives a whole new meaning to the phrase “Stand by me,” eh?

clipped from truemors.nowpublic.com Students Suspended for Cyberbullying Teacher on Facebook Almost thirty students at one English girls’ school are learning the lesson that posting their every thought on the internet may not be such a good idea…or are they? Members of Facebook’s The Hate Society were punished after insulting a teacher who later required counseling for the verbal attacks. “It was just a stupid game that no one took any notice of,” remarked one of the offenders, apparently ignorant of the teacher’s reaction. “We have said sorry.” The school, Grey Coat, traces its origins to 1698, and includes as part of its code of conduct that students should “avoid behaving in a way which is threatening, rude, hurtful or humiliating.”

Dead Woman Gives Birth

clipped from www.dailymail.co.uk Ice-skating star gives birth to healthy baby girl - two days AFTER dying of a brain haemorrhage Jayne Soliman with friends Holly Kirkbride,(left), and Nads Bark-Nightingale (right) who set up a Facebook page in honour of their friend An ice-skating star gave birth two days after she collapsed and died from a brain haemorrhage. Doctors managed to keep Jayne Soliman's heart beating until they had delivered her daughter Aya Jayne. Mrs Soliman, 41, had been declared brain-dead but was kept alive long enough for the child to be delivered by caesarean section on Friday afternoon. Today, friends paid tribute to the professional skater who had competed at international level.

Now that's miraculous medicine if I've ever seen it. How wonderful for her family that they didn't lose them both.

Dead Woman Gives Birth

clipped from www.dailymail.co.uk Ice-skating star gives birth to healthy baby girl - two days AFTER dying of a brain haemorrhage Jayne Soliman with friends Holly Kirkbride,(left), and Nads Bark-Nightingale (right) who set up a Facebook page in honour of their friend An ice-skating star gave birth two days after she collapsed and died from a brain haemorrhage. Doctors managed to keep Jayne Soliman's heart beating until they had delivered her daughter Aya Jayne. Mrs Soliman, 41, had been declared brain-dead but was kept alive long enough for the child to be delivered by caesarean section on Friday afternoon. Today, friends paid tribute to the professional skater who had competed at international level.

Now that's miraculous medicine if I've ever seen it. How wonderful for her family that they didn't lose them both.

Body Painting Evolved

clipped from stylecrave.com Body Painting Evolved: Emma Hack Body Art In a world where body painting is celebrated more often with testosterone than artistic appreciation, Australian artist Emma Hack stands out.  This skin illustrator, sculptor and photographer spent her early days as a hairstylist and make-up artist in Adelaide.  In its infancy, Emma Hack saw her vision come to life in unlikely places, like face paintings for children or high-fashion makeup.  It wasn’t until 1999 that Hack revealed her new form of art for the body, a stylized version of body painting that instantly won her a note of applause in the art world.