Valentine’s aphrodisiacs

Romantic Valentine’s dinners are often laden with aphrodisiacs. But it’s
not all about chocolates and oysters. Here are ten of the strangest
foods believed to get pulses racing.

Porridge oats

 Brits eat 47 million gallons of porridge each winter, and according
to some, it could raise pulses in the bedroom. Experts have found that
oats (avena sativa) help to free locked testosterone in the body,
rebalancing levels of the hormone and increasing sex drive.

Durian fruit
This prickly fruit grows in South and East Asia. When cut the smell of its flesh has been compared to rotten onions or even manure. Despite this, it is believed to increase sex drive. According to one Indonesian proverb, "the durian fruit falls and the sarongs come up". But there may be some scientific fact behind this. A study at Bharathiar University in India found that the fruit contains oestrogen, claiming that it could increase fertility. Durian fruit can be bought at UK Chinese supermarkets, and is made into candy, biscuits or cooked with coconut milk and spices.

Snake’s blood
In Vietnam and Thailand, fresh snake’s blood is considered a sexual tonic. The snake’s heart can be swallowed at the same time, and often the green bile from the gallbladder is also added to the drink. Eating snake for medicinal reasons has roots in ancient China, and it is thought that its reputation as an aphrodisiac is linked more to the belief that the drinker absorbs the snake’s physical power rather than through scientific fact.


Goji berries

These small, pointed berries contain more vitamin C than oranges and
more iron than steak. In ancient China and Tibet they were considered a
health food, and modern research confirms this. A 2008 study by Amagase
and Nance found that after drinking goji juice for 14 days, people
reported a greater sense of wellbeing, less stress and reduced
tiredness. A 2006 study at China’s Wuhan University credits the berries
with increasing sexual performance and sperm quality - but so far only
with rats.

Licorice
The Karma Sutra refers to the erotic power of
licorice, recommending potions made from it for “sexual vigour”. But it
has been found to stir emotions in modern times. A study by Chicago’s
Smell and Taste Research Foundation found that when people sniffed
licorice, they experienced raised blood flow to the genitals. Licorice
was mingled with scents including doughnuts and cola and accounted for
three of the top ten blood-pumping smells in the study.

Unagi or eel
Eel has been eaten in Japan for the last 1,300 years. Thought to stimulate passions, it is traditionally eaten on the hottest day of the year. Its sexual benefits seem to be linked only to the eel’s long, phallic shape. Despite a lack of research into unagi’s aphrodisiac effects, the Japanese eat thousands of tons of it each year.



Sea cucumber
The Chinese name for sea cucumber is 'sea
ginseng', a reference to its reputed aphrodisiac benefits. Sea cucumbers
are mostly eaten in Asia, and in 2006 it was estimated by SEAFDEC that
the export market in the Philippines was worth around £3m. Research is
currently ongoing into sea cucumber’s nutritional benefits, but the
belief that it stirs the passions is probably due to its phallic-shaped
appearance and behaviour - it stiffens and squirts out liquid when under
threat.

Mucuna pruriens
The beans of this leafy vine are eaten in
Nigeria where they are cooked in soups or ground into flour. They are
also reputed to boost sex drive. Research at India’s Manipal University
found that rats administered with mucuna showed increased sexual
activity. It has also been claimed that mucuna could be used as a
treatment to help prevent premature ejaculation.


Fugu or pufferfish
The Japanese devour around 10,000 tons of
fugu each year, even though parts of the fish contain poison which, if
consumed, can be fatal. Although fugu is believed to be an aphrodisiac,
the heightened emotions could be down to adrenalin in this game of
culinary roulette. Some have questioned whether it’s the poison tingling
in the cheeks that gets pulses racing, which led Yutaka Sasaki, a sushi
chef of 30 years, to tell the New York Times, "if you're eating fugu
and your lips feel numb, you're well on your way to being dead".

Goat’s meat
Not an unusual meat in itself, goat is popular in
diets around the world. But goat’s meat is believed by some cultures to
be an aphrodisiac. Mannish Water is a spicy Jamaican stew containing
goat’s head and feet and has been served to grooms on their wedding day
to ignite passions. Although there are no studies into the benefits of
eating goat, it is a good source of iron and zinc - vital for a healthy
reproductive system.

Quick-fix boob job lotion comes to the UK

Women who want a fuller bust may not have to resort to going under the knife, as a new lotion, which claims to increase breasts by half a cup size, hits UK department stores.…


Women who want a fuller bust may not have to resort to going under the knife, as a new lotion, which claims to increase breasts by half a cup size, hits UK department stores.

The £125 firming lotion, called ‘boob job’ will go on sale in upmarket chain John Lewis and is already expected to sell out quickly to women desperate for a plunging cleavage.



According to the formula makers Rodial, the fast-acting gel will plump up breasts by one inch when applied daily for eight weeks by giving an instant lifting and firming effect.

Derived from Asian root extract, the lotion works by blocking fat cells, encouraging the fatty tissue to increase at the point of contact, which Rodial claims gives women 'plumper, and more youthful breasts.'

Self-confessed Rodial lovers include curvaceous stars like Kelly Brook, Scarlett Johansson and Eva Mendes.

A Rodial spokeswoman said: “This really will revolutionise thousands of women’s lives. We wanted to offer every woman a fast and safe alternative to expensive and painful breast enlargement surgery. Every year thousands take the plunge and have surgery to achieve the cleavage they always wanted. But Rodial Boob Job offers a larger cup size without the need for surgery.”

Hollywood Film Star Tony Curtis dies at 85

Hollywood star Tony Curtis has died of a cardiac arrest at his US home in Nevada aged 85.




The Oscar-nominated actor, who starred in Some Like it Hot opposite Marilyn Monroe, passed away peacefully in bed, a family spokesman said.



The star received an Oscar nod in 1959 for The Defiant Ones, in which he starred with Sidney Poitier.




His career spanned six decades and he made more than 120 films including Trapeze, Spartacus and
The Vikings.


Clark County coroner Mike Murphy told the Associated Press that the actor died at 2125 local time on Wednesday.



Born Bernard Schwartz on 3 June 1925 in New York, the actor served in World War II before taking on the name Tony Curtis when he began his film career in 1949.



'A fine actor'



He began his career as a heart-throb, but became a respected actor after starring in more substantial roles, starting in 1957 with harrowing showbusiness tale Sweet Smell of Success.

Tony Curtis Jerry Lewis - Boeing Boeing (1965)

He went on to appear in The Defiant Ones as an escaped racist convict handcuffed to a black escapee.





Tony Curtis was married to actress Janet Leigh, with whom he had actress daughter Jamie Lee Curtis But he became best known for his role in Billy Wilder's acclaimed comedy Some Like It Hot, where he donned women's clothing.



After his star faded in the late 1960s, Curtis shifted to lesser roles and fell into drug and alcohol addiction.



In the 1970s he turned to television, starring in a number of TV series including The Persuaders! opposite Sir Roger Moore, and Michael Mann's Vegas.

Tony Curtis and Sir Roger Moore are The Persuaders

Sir Roger led the tributes to the actor, calling him "a fine actor".



"We had a lot of laughs together for about 15 months, working together every day. He was great fun to work with, a great sense of humour and wonderful ad libs. We had the best of times."



'Wonderfully indiscreet'



Sir Michael Parkinson, who interviewed Curtis several times, said his performance in Some Like It Hot would live forever.



"Some Like It Hot is one of the greatest comedies of all time," he said.



"Billy Wilder, did not suffer fools so for Tony Curtis to work with him and make that film shows just how good he was. He was an extraordinary man.



"Hollywood tried to make him into a sex symbol in the 1950s and 1960s but he was his own man. He was a great chatshow guest and was wonderfully indiscreet but he was very bright and did not take himself too seriously," he added.



After recovering from addiction in the early 1980s, he later became a painter whose canvasses sold for as much as $20,000 (£12,600).



The actor was married six times, including to Psycho star Janet Leigh, with whom he had two children including daughter and actress Jamie Lee Curtis.



He is survived by his wife, Jill Vandenberg Curtis, and six children

Tony Curtis Interview

Batmobile for £100,000 ( $149,999 )

The original Batmobile from the 1960s TV series starring Adam West is still the ultimate screen car for an entire generation of caped crusader fans. Now anybody with a spare $149,999 (£95,000) can buy one.

American company Fiberglass Freaks is producing officially licensed, road-legal 1966 Batmobiles. And yes, the flamethrower works.



Each car takes six months to build and features an array of working gadgets, including a red flashing beacon, a radar screen called 'Detect-a-scope', a retractable, gold-coloured 'Batbeam' and a dashboard DVD player.

The flamethrower in the original Batmobile was the result of the car's turbine engine, but the replica uses a propane tank - mounted in the boot - to create the same effect.




The astonishing car is the brainchild of Fiberglass Freaks founder Mark Racop. He decided he wanted to build a Batmobile at two years old.

"I fell in love the show, fell in love with the action, the color, the music - everything. But the best feature was the Batmobile, speeding out of the Batcave," he said.



The Lincoln Futura on which the Batmobile is based was never actually put into production, but after finding a body shell on eBay in 2004, Racop had the basis of his replica.

The chassis and running gear come from a Lincoln Town Car, onto which a fibreglass body is placed. The licence from D.C. Comics limits the company to making just eight per year, which renders it one of the world's most exclusive production cars.



Racop says that buyers are generally in their forties and fifties and fans of the original show - some drive their cars every day. "Wealth seems to breed that eccentricity. This was their childhood dream car, just as it was for me," he commented.

Mark Nichol

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Marina Bay Sands Infinity pool

Marina Bay Sands Infinity pool 55 STOREYS above ground opens
in Singapore

If you fancy a dip in this pool, you'll need a head for heights -

it's 55 storeys up. But swimming to the edge won't be quite as

risky as it looks. While the water in the infinity pool seems to end

in a sheer drop, it actually spills into a catchment area

where it is pumped back into the main pool. At three times the

length of an Olympic pool and 650ft up, it is the largest outdoor

pool in the world at that height.

It features in the impressive, boat-shaped 'SkyPark' perched atop

the three towers that make up the world's most expensive hotel,

the £4billion Marina Bay Sands development in Singapore .

Don't look down: A guest swims in the infinity pool of the Skypark that tops the Marina Bay Sands hotel towers - 55 storeys over the city of Singapore yesterday

To infinity... and beyond! The pool stretches 150 metres, three times the length of an Olympic swimming pool

The view over the side: An artist's impression shows the Skypark that tops the Marina Bay Sands hotel towers, including the infinity pool

 
The hotel, which has 2,560 rooms costing from £350 a night, was officially opened yesterday with a concert by Diana Ross.

The Emirates Palace Hotel in Abu Dhabi , estimated to have cost £2billion when it opened in 2004, was previously the world's most expensive hotel.

But with its indoor canal, opulent art, casino, outdoor plaza, convention centre, theatre, crystal pavilion and museum shaped like a lotus flower, the Marina Bay Sands has taken its crown.



The infinity pool on the roof is in the 'SkyPark' which spans the three towers of the hotel.


The platform itself is longer than the Eiffel tower laid down and is one of the largest of its kind in the world.


Infinity pools give the effect that the water extends to the horizon. In reality, the water spills over the edge into a catchment below, and is then pumped back into the pool. The pools have two circulation systems. The first functions like that of a regular pool, filtering and heating the water in the main pool. The second filters the water in the catch basin and returns it to the upper pool.
 

The resort from across the bay. The three towers were based on a deck of cards, according to designer Moshe Safdie

A skydiver parachutes pass the Singapore Flyer and Marina Bay Sands casino resort as part of the venue's opening celebrations yesterday

Extreme: Left, relay teams scale one of the towers in a race commemorating the opening yesterday. Right, a newly-wed couple enjoy a canal ride inside the resort's shopping centre

TheMarina Sands resort was designed by architect Moshe Safdie who based it on a deck of cards.Inside shoppers can ride along an indoor canal in Sampan boats styled on traditional Chinese vessels from the 17th century.

The owners have also commissioned five well-known artists to create works of art to 'integrate' with the buildings. Among these is a 40m-long Antony Gormley sculpture made from 16,100 steel rods. The whole thing weighs 14.8 tons and it took 60 people to assemble it in the hotel.

Artist Chongbin Zheng created Rising Forest which is 83 three metre high pots with trees in them. The pots were so big the artist had to build a customised kiln the size of a small building to make them in.Last night, the world's most expensive hotel was given a launch party befitting it.

Singing legend Diana Ross performed for 2,500 VIPs in the resort's Grand Ballroom and pop singer Kelly Rowland headlined an outdoor concert.
 

Money-maker: Left, the entrance to the casino, which costs nearly £50 to get in and is attracting 25,000 visitors each day. Right, a man looks through a steel web art structure in one of the towers

 

Just enjoying the sun: Models pose in the pool for journalists at the grand opening yesterday

The opening celebrations also featured a death-defying relay. Seven teams of three participants each scaled the three towers before sprinting across the 340-metre long Sands SkyPark, where the infinity pool is located, to the finish line. The resort will employ 10,000 people directly and generate up to £48m each year.
 
Entrance to the casino alone is nearly £50 a day - but an average of 25,000 people have visited the casino daily since its initial phased opening two months ago.
 
Thomas Arasi, president and chief executive officer of the resort, said he expects to attract an astonishing 70,000 visitors a day once it is fully open.It was due to open in 2009, but was delayed thanks to labour and material shortages, and funding problems due to the global financial crisis.

Marina Bay Sands Infinity pool



light-show-marina-bay-sands-singapore-laser



Marina Bay Sands Hotel - Interior View



Marina Bay Sands (Grand Opening Day)





Marina Bay Sands Infinity pool 55 STOREYS above ground opens in Singapore

Bid To Find Madeleine Using Social Networking

Social networkers are being urged to get involved in a new online campaign to find Madeleine McCann by spreading a video appeal around the world.



The missing girl's parents hope the film will eventually reach whoever is close to those responsible for her disappearance and convince them to come forward.

Police have also released new age-enhanced pictures of Madeleine as part of the fresh appeal for information.

And the officers behind the campaign say it will have a serious impact on anyone who may have been involved in the youngster's disappearance.

The 60-second film can be viewed on the website of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (Ceop).

The video is available in seven languages and shows two images of Madeleine based on how she might look today, aged six.

Jim Gamble from London-based Ceop told Sky News: "We want to emotionally engage people.

"We want them to understand the real emotion, the stickiness of all of this for people so that they link to it and connect with it.

"Then we want this viral message that we have launched on the internet to reach out through the public to one individual.

"To say to the person that's close to the individual who did this: 'We know you're keeping a secret. You've kept that secret for too long.

"Two and a half years on you need to reflect on why you're keeping it. Turn that negative thing into a positive and do the right thing and come forward'."

Madeleine's father Gerry told Sky News he and wife Kate have never lost hope they will find their daughter alive, after she went missing in Portugal on May 3, 2007.

He said the news that Jaycee Dugard had been reunited with her parents 18 years after her abduction in America at the age of 11 had given them "a lift".

"There was a change in the general perception of the public who maybe thought that Madeleine would never be found or that she may be dead."

Mr McCann said there has been a surge in people saying that perhaps Madeleine too can be found alive.

The couple said they try to block thoughts of how and where their daughter may be being held.

Kate McCann said: "I'm her mum, I think it would be impossible on occasion to not think about how she's being kept."

Mr McCann said the most common question the pair get asked, after how they are, is what people can do to help.

"Today we are asking people, this is a way of helping. Let's rattle the cage of the people who took her. Let's really get that person wrestling with their conscience.

"It's not too late for that person to do the right thing."

Of the new images of how his daughter may look now aged six, Mr McCann said: "That's not how we remember her," adding, "she is not a four-year-old girl anymore."


www.findmadeleine.com
www.youtube.com/ceop

Bringing Down The Warehouse

Oops... How to destroy five million roubles of vodka and cognac in just five seconds, by warehouse forklift driver

Bringing Down The Warehouse @ Yahoo! Video

Leah Ignagni: The Other Steve McNair Mistress

According to Nashville, Tenn., police, Leah Ignagni was dating the late NFL star Steve McNair at the time of his July 4 murder at the hands of lover Sahel Kazemi.

The other other woman recalled seeing a woman in a black Cadillac Escalade parked outside his condo 2-3 weeks before his murder. It is not clear who owns it.

However, Leah Ignagni also said the woman followed her and that she later saw the Escalade circling her block or parked outside her apartment 1-2 weeks later.

A 2007 black Escalade was co-registered to Sahel Kazemi and Steve McNair.

This backs up earlier case details that stated Kazemi was suspicious of McNair being involved with someone else. McNair was also married and had children.

Steve McNair mistresses Leah Ignagni, left, and Sahel Kazemi.

Leah Ignagni told police that McNair visited her around 4 a.m. on July 2, just a couple of hours after Kazemi's DUI arrest, and then the former Tennessee Titans star spent the night at Ignagni's apartment before leaving early July 3.

If this is to be believed, Steve McNair went to Leah Ignagni's house after he got Sahel Kazemi out of jail, which may have been the catalyst for her murdering McNair then turning the gun on herself in the grisly murder-suicide.

Another theory was that McNair was about to break things off with Kazemi, who wanted to marry McNair, who was unwilling to end his marriage to wife Mechelle.

As for Leah Ignagni, she's still living in Nashville, just a footnote in a cautionary tale and one of the most tragic stories in a year full of them.

Steve McNair's Girlfriend Sahel Kazemi DUI Video

This is said to be the incident that set of a chain of events resulting in the murder suicide that left NFL star Steve McNair dead.

Leah Ignagni: The Other Steve McNair Mistress

Funny Commercials

A compilation of commercials from around the world. Some are a bit racy and contain adult matter. It's my first "Million View Video". Thanks for watching. There is a part 2, but WMG muted the audio.

ladybug infestation video

If you’ve seen ladybugs crawling all over the place today, you’re not alone.

The little crawlers -- also called Multicolored Asian Lady Beetle -- are out in force because the Nor’easter forced them, like the rest of us, indoors, according to the state entomologist.

Then, the suns came, and the bugs came out, looking for a place to winter. Miami, anyone?

In the meantime, they are apparently popping up everywhere, especially light-colored houses, the entomologist said. Not that Google and Twitter are scientific tools, but people from all over are posting about swarms and infestations of the bugs, so it seems Connecticut is not the only ladybug-central Tuesday.