I have *really* thick hair that outgrows a cut in less than 2 weeks but I am not ready for that salon pilgrimage just yet.

Do you have any recommendations for the type of thinning shears I should get? There seem to many types around but I just want one that would take all the bulk away. Thoughts?

I am in love with this particular chorus from Nabucco. It combines two of my favourites - a waltz rhythm and a multi-voice operatic chorus.

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PS: A bit too much make-up for the occasion but the singing is spectacular.

... in reincarnations. Bublé is really like Sinatra singing Baroque style (as someone else once said).

Missing Image ;(

Somehow, listening to Bublé makes me wish Ella Fitzgerald were still alive to sing a duet with Bublé. And while that might not be such an outlandish wish, I also wonder about how Bublé's interpretations of Whitney Houston's most famous hits might be. I wish he would try them someday.

I will be visiting the NIH/NCI campus in Bethesda in some days. But the trouble is I will be getting into the Washington, IAD airport around 10:00. I hate taxis. They freak me out. So I plan to take the metro to the campus from the airport. I am guessing it will be close to midnight when I make it to the Bethesda campus.

Do any of you have any ideas about how safe this area might be - say compared with Buffalo downtown at night? I really don't want to get into trouble. The conference is quite important and I want to get there and back without broken noses, blown head etc. Any information would be awesome! Thanks!

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PS: According to Neighbourhood Scout
- Bethesda is safer than 62% of the cities in the US.
- Annual Crimes
Violent 42
Property 800    
842 annual crimes per 1,000 residents

Chances of becoming a victim
in Bethesda 1 in 1305
in Maryland 1 in 134

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PPS: Oh well. I went ahead and looked up Buffalo as well.
Buffalo is safer than 6% of the cities in the US.
- Annual Crimes
Violent 3,804    
Property 16,555    
20,359 annual crimes per 1,000 residents

Chances of becoming a victim
in Buffalo 1 in 77
in New York 1 in 221

Man. It isn't THAT unsafe here, is it?! Do you believe this??

According to a recent study:

91 percent of Americans say that mobile phones "make them feel safer." Some 88 percent of respondents said that they have a mobile phone, so they can "connect to friends and family to arrange plans."

I use it as an excellent and versatile alarm clock. It scarcely leaves home even though the SIM card is now housed in a smartphone. I have never felt safer with a cellphone and hate talking over phones in general. And that is how some surveys are way off mark and unrepresentative [of me! me! me!].

I just spotted your more-than-perfect replacement.

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NB: Besides, RPJ really has had MI6 as well as MI5 experience. Minor details such as getting blown to bits the last time he was filmed shouldn't come in the way.

Salsa, tango, hip-hop, whatever, you all just lost out. I find this absolutely fascinating.


I am fairly confident that no one in Buffalo wants to vault over this low wall quite as much as I do.


Maybe I should start local like this bloke at Target.

Don't think I will be ever able to jump over any cart though.

I hated low ceilings - they made me feel trapped. I still do.



But I liked this song and the video was a favourite.

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PS: There. I took your suggestion. (e:Paul).
PPS: I guess that is why I like hanging out on the floor so much. It adds an extra 3 ft between me and the ceiling.
PPPS: Someday my home will have glass ceilings. Away from people who throw stones of course.

I was tired of all the sweet-ish smelling breads and tried my hand at this recipé:

Only, I forgot the whole zucchini bit, put too much bran in an already 100% whole wheat mixture, didn't make the biga properly, was too lazy to knead so adopted the no-knead 18-hour ferment technique and the dough was so wet that it was pourable.

Imagine my surprise when in spite of all my transgressions, this is what came out of the oven:



I admit it was very very soggy in the centre. But the best rescue for soggy bread is to slice it and put it in the oven at a low heat setting for around 20 minutes. The result is a super-spicy chewy bread that is excellent with hummus, red-onions and jalapeños - my favourite toppings. I think this bread might just have 110% fibre in one serving.

This whole experiment just reaffirms one thing - anyone can bake bread no matter how much they meddle with and twist the recipé.

I am really uneasy about all this rampant advertising for "Clinical Strength" antiperspirants everywhere.

First, the safety of aluminium compounds is still under question. Second, do doctors here really prescribe such high concentrations of aluminium for local use? I haven't been to a dermatologist recently - does anyone know if this is true? Doesn't medical advice usually consist of preventive approaches to body odour - such as diet change and more water intake?? And couldn't excessive sweating be a sign of other things that might be wrong - such as loss of temperature control because of obesity or excessive stress?

If this level of aluminium in a local application is indeed prescription-based, then is it really advisable to drum it up for everyone?! I won't ask if these antiperspirants have FDA approval because the scientific evidence for or against aluminium is far from conclusive. However, I am very uneasy about these deodorant companies pushing a compound which potentially might have carcinogenic (or other disease-causing) effects.

This illustrated mechanism of these "clinical strength" antiperspirants does little to win my confidence in these products. It is so creepy that they are using this graphic to promote use of these products not only in the morning but additionally at night as well.

(From )

Sweating is a key element of several homeostatic processes in the body. These antiperspirants clearly block your sweat/sebaceous glands. Blocking the secretions of any gland results in backing up of secretions and quite possibly, interferes with all these homeostatic processes. Why on earth would anyone want to intentionally invite such complications? Body odour is primarily caused by bacteria that break-up proteins into certain smelly amino acids. It seems to me that blocking the glands that produce sweat, while keeping the surface dry, would only promote a local environment more prone to infections and ill-health internally.

Aggressive marketing of these high aluminium antiperspirants looks like a classic example of the wrong and ill-advised approach to a problem that can be resolved in better ways. Instead of drinking more water, switching to plant-based proteins, avoiding a high-meat diet and wearing natural-fibre air-circulation-enhancing clothes - which will naturally reduce body odour and promote gland-health, we are busy covering up the consequences of our poor eating habits with dodgy "clinical strength" trash.