August 31, 2007
August 30, 2007
Car Accidents
August 29, 2007
August 28, 2007
Burried Army
August 27, 2007
August 26, 2007
Green Tea
25 Reasons Why You Should Start Drinking Green Tea Now
Green tea has increasingly become a very popular drink worldwide because of its immensely powerful health benefits.It is extraordinarily amazing what green tea can do for your health.And if you're not drinking 3 to 4 cups of green tea today, you're definitely NOT doing your health a big favor.Here Are The 25 Reasons Why
You Should Start Drinking Green Tea Right Now:
1. Green Tea and CancerGreen tea helps reduce the risk of cancer. The antioxidant in green tea is 100 times more effective than vitamin C and 25 times better than vitamin E. This helps your body at protecting cells from damage believed to be linked to cancer.
2. Green Tea and Heart DiseaseGreen tea helps prevent heart disease and stroke by lowering the level of cholesterol. Even after the heart attack, it prevents cell deaths and speeds up the recovery of heart cells.
3. Green Tea and Anti-AgingGreen tea contains antioxidant known as polyphenols which fight against free radicals. What this means it helps you fight against aging and promotes longevity.
4. Green Tea and Weight LossGreen tea helps with your body weight loss. Green tea burns fat and boosts your metabolism rate naturally. It can help you burn up to 70 calories in just one day. That translates to 7 pounds in one year.
5. Green Tea and SkinAntioxidant in green tea protects the skin from the harmful effects of free radicals, which cause wrinkling and skin aging. Green tea also helps fight against skin cancer.
6. Green Tea and ArthritisGreen tea can help prevent and reduce the risk of rheumatoid arthritis. Green tea has benefit for your health as it protects the cartilage by blocking the enzyme that destroys cartilage.
7. Green Tea and BonesThe very key to this is high fluoride content found in green tea. It helps keep your bones strong. If you drink green tea every day, this will help you preserve your bone density.
8. Green Tea and CholesterolGreen tea can help lower cholesterol level. It also improves the ratio of good cholesterol to bad cholesterol, by reducing bad cholesterol level.
9. Green Tea and ObesityGreen tea prevents obesity by stopping the movement of glucose in fat cells. If you are on a healthy diet, exercise regularly and drink green tea, it is unlikely you'll be obese.
10. Green Tea and DiabetesGreen tea improves lipid and glucose metabolisms, prevents sharp increases in blood sugar level, and balances your metabolism rate.
11. Green Tea and Alzheimer'sGreen tea helps boost your memory. And although there's no cure for Alzheimer's, it helps slow the process of reduced acetylcholine in the brain, which leads to Alzheimer's.
12. Green Tea and Parkinson'sAntioxidants in green tea helps prevent against cell damage in the brain, which could cause Parkinson's. People drinking green tea also are less likely to progress with Parkinson's.
13. Green Tea and Liver DiseaseGreen tea helps prevent transplant failure in people with liver failure. Researches showed that green tea destroys harmful free radicals in fatty livers.
14. Green Tea and High Blood PressureGreen tea helps prevent high blood pressure. Drinking green tea helps keep your blood pressure down by repressing angiotensin, which leads to high blood pressure.
15. Green Tea and Food PoisoningCatechin found in green tea can kill bacteria which causes food poisoning and kills the toxins produced by those bacteria.
16. Green Tea and Blood SugarBlood sugar tends to increase with age, but polyphenols and polysaccharides in green tea help lower your blood sugar level.
17. Green Tea and ImmunityPolyphenols and flavenoids found in green tea help boost your immune system, making your health stronger in fighting against infections.
18. Green Tea and Cold and FluGreen tea prevents you from getting a cold or flu. Vitamin C in green tea helps you treat the flu and the common cold.
19. Green Tea and AsthmaTheophylline in green tea relaxes the muscles which support the bronchial tubes, reducing the severity of asthma.
20. Green Tea and Ear InfectionGreen tea helps with ear infection problem. For natural ear cleaning, soak a cotton ball in green tea and clean the infected ear.
21. Green Tea and HerpesGreen tea increases the effectiveness of topical interferon treatment of herpes. First green tea compress is applied, and then let the skin dry before the interferon treatment.
22. Green Tea and Tooth DecayGreen tea destroys bacteria and viruses that cause many dental diseases.It also slows the growth of bacteria which leads to bad breath.
23. Green Tea and StressL-theanine, which is a kind of amino acids in green tea, can help relieve stress and anxiety.
24. Green Tea and AllergiesEGCG found in green tea relieves allergies. So, if you have allergies, you should really consider drinking green tea.
25. Green Tea and HIVScientists in Japan have found that EGCG (Epigallocatechin Gallate) in green tea can stop HIV from binding to healthy immune cells.
What this means is that green tea can help stop the HIV virus from spreading.
August 25, 2007
August 24, 2007
Mothers Sacrifice
My mom only had one eye. I hated her... she was such an embarrassment. My mom ran a small shop at a flea market. She collected little weeds and such to sell... anything for the money we needed she was such an embarrassment. There was this one day during elementary school.I remember that it was field day, and my mom came. I was so embarrassed.How could she do this to me? I threw her a hateful look and ran out. The next day at school..."Your mom only has one eye?!" and they taunted me.
I wished that my mom would just disappear from this world so I said to my mom, "Mom, why don't you have the other eye?! You're only going to make me a laughingstock. Why don't you just die?" My mom did not respond. I guess I felt a little bad, but at the same time, it felt good to think that I had said what I'd wanted to say all this time.
Maybe it was because my mom hadn't punished me, but I didn't think that I had hurt her feelings very badly.
That night...I woke up, and went to the kitchen to get a glass of water. My mom was crying there, so quietly, as if she was afraid that she might wake me. I took a look at her, and then turned away. Because of the thing I had said to her earlier, there was something pinching at me in the corner of my heart. Even so, I hated my mother who was crying out of her one eye. So I told myself that I would grow up and become successful, because I hated my one-eyed mom and our desperate poverty.
Then I studied really hard. I left my mother and came to Seoul and studied, and got accepted in the Seoul University with all the confidence I had. Then, I got married. I bought a house of my own. Then I had kids, too. Now I'm living happily as a successful man. I like it here because it's a place that doesn't remind me of my mom.
This happiness was getting bigger and bigger, when someone unexpected came to see me "What?! Who's this?!" ...It was my mother...Still with her one eye. It felt as if the whole sky was falling apart on me. My little girl ran away, scared of my mom's eye.
And I asked her, "Who are you? I don't know you!!!" as if I tried to make that real. I screamed at her "How dare you come to my house and scare my daughter! GET OUT OF HERE! NOW!!!" And to this, my mother quietly answered, "oh, I'm so sorry. I may have gotten the wrong address," and she disappeared. Thank good ness... she doesn't recognize me. I was quite relieved. I told myself that I wasn't going to care, or think about this for the rest of my life.
Then a wave of relief came upon me...one day, a letter regarding a school reunion came to my house. I lied to my wife saying that I was going on a business trip. After the reunion, I went down to the old shack, that I used to call a house...just out of curiosity there, I found my mother fallen on the cold ground. But I did not shed a single tear. She had a piece of paper in her hand.... it was a letter to me.
She wrote:My son...I think my life has been long enough now. And... I won't visit Seoul anymore... but would it be too much to ask if I wanted you to come visit me once in a while? I miss you so much. And I was so glad when I heard you were coming for the reunion. But I decided not to go to the school.... For you... I'm sorry that I only have one eye, and I was an embarrassment for you.
You see, when you were very little, you got into an accident, and lost your eye. As a mother, I couldn't stand watching you having to grow up with only one eye... so I gave you mine...I was so proud of my son that was seeing a whole new world for me, in my place, with that eye. I was never upset at you for anything you did. The couple times that you were angry with me. I thought to myself, 'it's because he loves me.' I miss the times when you were still young around me.
I miss you so much. I love you. You mean the world to me.My world shattered!!!
Then I cried for the person who lived for me... My Mother
August 23, 2007
Cactus Apartments
Dutch Architects create beautiful apartment complex that looks like a Cactus
Urban Cactus is a housing project on the harbor in Rotterdam
There are 98 residential units on 19 floors, using the pattern of outdoor spaces to determine the overall appearance of the project. Form follows function which leaves ample room from the interior living spaces for much greenery.
The whole effect creates a building which appears to be living and growing with its inhabitants - A waterfront cactus.
The slightly irregular pattern alternates these outdoor spaces to create more sunlight than a typical stacked composition and a beautiful design that has originality and adds vitality to citylife.