Women and Lifestyle

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Archive for March, 2009

Treated Diamonds

Mar 27

Posted by Admin in jewelry | No Comments

Why Treated Diamonds Exist
For centuries, people have always tried to improve objects that are a result of nature.  We’ve cross bred plants and even animals to produce new species, and we prune and shape trees and bushes to make them more pleasing to the eye or to create fancy borders around our yards and in front of our homes.  When it comes to diamonds, many become treated diamonds by the jeweler, in order to improve their appearance.

Treated diamonds can have improved clarity, improved color and even be completely coated to improve it’s overall appearance. On the positive side, treated diamonds can help people with limited budgets have the ability to purchase a gorgeous looking diamond.

Clarity Improved Diamonds
In order to improve the clarity of diamonds, sometimes tiny cracks in the diamond are filled with molten glass.  This can cause the diamond to move up a grade in the GIA grading system, and it does not affect the overall weight of the diamond.  The process was invented by Israeli diamond cutter, Zvi Yehuda in 1982.  Since this invention, some companies have begun a new process that fills the cracks with bromine instead of the molten glass, however, bromine will sometimes discolor the diamond under certain lighting conditions.  It’s always best to ask what method the diamond has been treated with when considering treated diamonds, so that you are not surprised when you view the diamond in light outside the jeweler’s.

Colored Diamonds
There are a few different types of color treated diamonds.  Colored diamonds are actually painted in order to take away a yellowish tinge, and make the diamonds appear more white and transparent.  Some are colored darker, in order to permanently alter a diamond to a different color by using electron bombardment.  Others become treated diamonds by way of laser drills.  In the 1970′s people began using lasers to drill miniscule holes into the diamonds to reach dark colored spots.  Once they reach the dark colored areas within the diamonds, they are able to bleach them with acid so that they are not as noticeable.  Sometimes they finish  the laser treated diamonds by then filling the tiny holes with molten glass.

Coated Diamonds
Coated treated diamonds are much like a colored diamond, except for the entire diamond gets a coating of a substance that is designed to make the diamond appear brighter and more translucent to the naked eye.  In fact, the coating is so good on most treated diamonds that it can go undetected unless an experienced gemologist studies the diamond for it’s value.

Treated diamonds are often very beautiful, and can be more affordable than diamonds that are not treated.  If you decide to purchase a treated diamond, just be sure you inform the jeweler when you bring your diamond in for cleaning, as they may need to use different chemicals to clean it and maintain it’s treatment.

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The Dark History of Sunglasses

Mar 22

Posted by Admin in glasses | 1 Comment

Sunglasses have a dark history, but a brilliant future.  The history of sunglasses can be traced back to Roman Emperor Nero who watched the gladiator competitions through polished light emerald green gems held up to his eyes.

The invention of sunglasses was somewhere between 1268 and 1289.  A visual historical recording of early sunglasses is a painting done by Tommaso da Modena in 1352.  The person in the painting was wearing sunglasses.  This was the first painting of a subject in sunglasses and many more were to follow as it became a fashionable symbol of distinction or honor.

Around the twelfth century and before 1430, sunglasses were worn by Judges in the Courts of China.  The smoky quartz, flat-glassed panes were not used as protection from the sun.  They were used to conceal any expression in their eyes to keep from giving away the outcome of their decisions.  Prescription sunglasses were developed in Italy in 1430 and were later used by the Chinese Judges.

By the 1600′s people began to realize the benefits of prescription glasses as helping the elderly to see better and the motto “A Blessing to the Aged” came into being in 1629.  It was the motto of an English eyeglasses manufacturer, Spectacle Makers Company.

In the mid 18th Century, James Ayscough developed blue and green corrective lenses which began the use of sunglasses for correcting optical impairments.

The development of glasses and sunglasses continued through the years.  Problems in keeping eyeglasses on the face or propped on the nose led to experiments.  Glasses frames had been made from leather, bones and metal and were propped on the nose.  Sidepieces began as silk strips of ribbon that looped around the ears.  Instead of loops, the Chinese added ceramic weights to the ends of the ribbons.  Solid sidepieces were finally invented by Edward Scarlett in 1730.  Benjamen Franklin’s invention of bifocal lenses followed in 1780.

By the 20th Century, sunglasses were used to protect the eyes from the sun.  In 1929 Sam Foster began selling his protective sunglasses at Woolworth stores on the boardwalk at the beaches in Atlantic City and New Jersey.  His Foster Grants were the first mass-produced sunglasses and they began the trend of sunglasses for fashion.

In the 1930′s the Army Air Corps asked Bausch & Lomb to develop sunglasses that would efficiently reduce high-altitude sun glare for pilots.  Bausch & Lomb came up with sunglasses that had a dark green tint that absorbed light through the yellow spectrum.

Edward H. Land had invented the Polaroid filter and by 1936 he was using it in the making of sunglasses and soon, sunglasses became “cool.”  Movies stars began wearing sunglasses as a statement and to hide behind.  Aviator glasses became popular with the movie stars and the general public in 1937 after Ray Ban developed the anti-glare sunglasses using polarization.  The longer lens was created to give more protection to pilots’ eyes from the light reflecting off their control panels.

By the 1970′s Hollywood stars and fashion designers made a huge impact on the sunglasses market.  Clothing designers and stars put their names on glasses and sunglasses and everyone had to have them.

In 2007, stars are still hiding behind their oversized designer sunglasses, making fashion statements and protecting their eyes from the harmful effects of the Ultra Violet (UV) rays of the sun.  With modern technology and improvements, sunglasses continue to evolve.  We have gone from holding green gems up to our eyes to watch Gladiator sports to Oakley’s 2004 sunglasses with digital audio players built in.  What’s next?

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Easy ways to optimize fluid intake and improve performance -2

Mar 19

Posted by Admin in health | 1 Comment

This is second series of Easy ways to optimize fluid intake and improve performance from other blog.

Pre-loading
The key point remains, however , that competitive athletes find it extremely difficult to replace fluid at an adequate rate during intense exercise. This leads to the second option-that of pre loading. Most authorities extol the virtues of drinking prior to exercise, and steering clear of diuretic drinks, such a coffee, tea, alcohol, etc. the body is very clever piece of machinery that, in normal conditions, maintains a natural balance. Thus purely drinking extra water prior to exercise merely increases the rate of urine output.

One major benefit of pre-event hydration, is that having some fluid in the gastric system appears to facilities absorption.  The virtues of carbo-loading as a means of boosting energy stores prior to an event have been fairly well documented. A similar but less well known technique is available for boosting hydration level.

In the late 1980s the University of New Mexico undertook a number of studies to show that is was possible to increase the body’s ability to hold fluid with the ingestion of glycerol. The benefits of this are clear. By increasing the total body water prior to exercise, the effect of sweat loss during exercise are maintained, the core body temperature is stabilized for longer, as is the balance of electrolytes. All of this allows performance level to be maintained for longer periods. The New Mexico Study showed a reduced urine volume of approximately 50% in exercise lsting 2,5 to 4,5 hours-the typical finishing times in marathon. They also proved a 60% increase in retained water and lower core temperatures. The latter was associated with higher rates of sweat loss. Similar results have been seen of American college of sports medicine and the john stuart research labs in Illinois.

Out of that research there has been a move to put glycerol onto the market for sportspeople. Maximuscle have developed maxerol. This is a pharmaceutical quality glycerol designed to simplify the fluid and carbohydrate loading procedures. It mixes easily with water or your favourite carbohydrate drink to ensure easy absorption.

To some extent the benefits of fluid loading have been with us since the adoption of carbo-loading protocols. When storing extra carbohydrate (stored as glycogen) in the muscle it is necessary to increase the amount of water absorbed. Each gram of glycogen, requires 3 grams, (ml) of fluid to be stored. This effect explains the increase in weight that athlete detect in the final days of carbo-loading prior to an event. Thus a 65kg runner, who takes about 600grams of carbohydrate a day to ensure a full energy store, will experience an increase In weight of about 1-1,5 kg over normal levels. This comes from water bound into the glycogen. The difference with glycerol is that the fluid is pulled into the spaces between the cells, thus packing even more fluid into the body. For this reason there is less of the bloating effect associated with carbo-loading. There will however still be an increase in weight.

Carb and glycerol
Although there seems to have been little published on the combined effect, there is reason to believe that the combination of carbo and glycerol loading will provide the highest gains.

Whereas carbo loading commences between 7 and 3 days prior to the event, glycerol loading is undertaken in the hours before the event. Thus when combined with a suitable carbohydrate drink, it offers the opportunity to do a final top up of the energy stores. The glycerol loading protocol varies from athlete to athlete, but using the following will provide a good starting point for developing your own preference.

Mix a 20% solution of glycerol and water, for carbohydrate drink. This mean that you will mix 20ml,(grams), of glycerol with 100ml of fluid. In all you will need between 500 and 800ml of solution.
-    2,5 hours prior to the event drink 5ml of the maxerol solution for every kilogram of body weight. So a 60kg athlete needs 300ml, a 70 kg runner needs 350ml, etc.
-    With two hours to go, drink 5ml of water (or carbohydrate drink) per kilogram of body weight. For 60 kg athlete that’s 300ml of water.
-    A further 15 minutes later, (1¾ hours before the event), repeat with another 5 ml of water per kilogram of body weight.
-    With 90 minutes before the start, go back to the maxerol solution and drink 1 ml per kilogram of body weight. (another 60ml of glycerol/water for the 60kg athlete).
-    As the last hour approach drink another 5 ml of water per kilogram of body weight. (another 300ml for the 60kg athlete).

In all, the 60kg athlete will have taken 1,26 litre of fluid in the 90 minutes of loading. If carried out with a 10% carbohydrate solution this will also have added just over another 100gram of glycogen to the energy stores.
Whilst this is primarily a pre-event procedure, it is possible to use maxerol in longer event. In such cases, try taking the 1 ml of the 20% solution per kilogram of body weight every 30 minutes. This continued use during an event has been evolved more by experience rather than research and may require adjustment as you gain confidence in it. This intake is of course, in addition to your normal event drinking protocol.

by norrie Williamson

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Are you a Traveler?

Mar 15

Posted by Admin in travel | No Comments

I’m making an assumption that at want point in your life you’ve been a tourist. You’ve carried a map, a camera, maybe even had a tour guide. You’ve traveled to different destinations, relaxed on remote beaches, climbed stairs in buildings you see on television. You’ve done all of these things but some how when you get arrive home, all your left with is a short memory, and a few photographs.

Vacations are nice every once in a while, but it doesn’t make sense to me why we will travel thousands of miles to sit in hotel rooms and watch movies, or lie on a pool deck and catch some rays. These are all things that we can do where we are from, I want you to think about being a traveler not a tourist. You want to soak in as much of the new country and culture that you can rather than bring as much of your culture to them. It’s really quite simple. In one step you need to forget about your way of live, and adopt theirs.

It’s simple things like the mindset that we have when we go abroad, and what we bring. Don’t bring all of the things that we depend on in America. Bring what it is that you are going to need to survive and stay healthy during your visit. The more comforts you have, the more you will depend on them, and the less you will step out to become the traveler you ought to be!

Put yourself out there. Locals are always interested to interact with foreigners, and it’s best to take advantage of this. Meet people that you can share life with while you are in their country. Immerse into their culture and be open to new idea’s. A lot of times we are closed to new idea’s and we miss out on opportunities for better things to come along. Be open, willing and accepting.

If you want to be changed, and to experience you need to leave the tourist at home. Bring out the inner traveler in you and see the world in the way that it was meant to be seen.

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Understanding the High Cost of Organic Clothing

Mar 12

Posted by Admin in clothing, lifestyle | No Comments

Many people interested in “going organic” and purchasing only organic clothing become dismayed when they see that the price is generally somewhat higher than other types of clothing.  Some even wonder if it’s some sort of conspiracy and believe that those who produce this type of clothing must be raking in the money.The truth is that there are many factors that go into the making of organic clothing that automatically runs up the price.The first of these is that many makers of organic clothing don’t make the millions of copies of an outfit that manufacturers of conventional clothing often do. Many organic companies are small family-run stores that struggle to have enough inventory for customers.

Another factor involves organic cotton.  This type of cotton is more expensive to grow and yields less cotton per hectare than conventional cotton.  Organic crops must still deal with weeds and pests, often using more expensive natural herbicides and pesticides.  This makes fabrics made from organic cotton overall more expensive. Organic cotton is more expensive to harvest than regular cotton.  The conventional cotton companies use chemical additives
in order to facilitate harvesting by the harvester machines.  While chemical defoliation improves harvesting, it adds to
the chemicals left in the cotton garments people wear.  Organic cotton harvesting relies on no chemicals resulting in a
somewhat lower yield.

Finally, many organic fabrics are more expensive to manufacture.  The lower harvest yields increases the costs of cleaning and preparing the raw cotton.  In addition, because organic cotton processing is done in factories that produce regular cotton, all of the machines, cotton gins, weaving and knitting machines must be thoroughly cleaned before the organic cotton can be processed.  This adds to the cost.  Sadly, labor costs are less in conventional clothing manufacturing, which often relies on cheap labor or, in some instances,  child labor, to manufacture.  This type of practice would generally be considered unacceptable for manufacturers of organic clothing.  One exception is the silk industry, which relies on millions of hand loom operators in India to make the organic silk products.

An example of how conventional fabric manufacturers have a leg up on organic clothing manufacturers is a company, which makes cotton tank tops for Wal-Mart that pays a total of thirteen cents per hour in sweatshops in Nicaragua and other developing companies.  Organic clothing manufacturers would consider this unethical and can’t keep up with those kinds of  labor costs.  Organic clothing is more expensive to ship, distribute and provide to retailers and customers.  This is because the market size is so much smaller than the big retail stores and the per garment cost to ship is greater.  In addition, organic clothing stores must pay more for advertising and marketing of their products.  The customer base is less dense and more advertising must be done to reach an appropriate audience.
The economics of organic clothing sales are such that growers, manufacturers and retailers lack the buying power of the bigger superstores and retailers.  The production of organic clothing is still a very small part of clothing manufacturing so that everything from harvesting to packaging becomes a bigger process. For those who love organic clothing, however, the cost may be worth it. The environment is helped by the purchase of organic clothing and the clothing itself carries less of a health risk than conventional garments.

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