Roberto Cavalli Women's Collection Fall/Winter 2008-2009

I love Roberto Cavalli’s work! Don’t you? I think he knows what women like and what women want.

Designer Roberto Cavalli and his wife Eva Cavalli

Italian designer Roberto Cavalli showcased his “Natalie Wood-Inspired” Fall/Winter 08/09 collection during Milan Fashion Week on Wednesday.



























Taken From : http://www.popcrunch.com

Roberto Cavalli Fall Winter 2008 2009 Backstage





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Armani launches Men's Collection Spring/Summer 2009

Models wear creations as part of the Emporio Armani men’s Spring/Summer 2009 fashion collection. Giorgio Armani presented his second line Emporio collection at the show.
















































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Tea's Benefits for Health

In General
A flurry of discoveries about tea's health benefits, plus renewed appreciation of its ancient heritage, has pushed tea to the fore. Its antioxidants appear to lower cholesterol levels, improve cardiovascular health and help guard against some cancers. And some experts believe its flavenoids may inhibit the growth of plaque on teeth.

Studies have linked a wide range of health benefits to green tea including lowering the risk of certain cancers and heart disease as well as weight loss and protection against Alzheimers. One way to measure the strength of an antioxidant is by its Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity or ORAC value. The ORAC value is a measure of the capacity of the product to subdue free radicals that damage cells. Green tea has a very high ORAC value, outranking blueberries and more than two times as powerful as pomegranates.

Tea's active ingredients are caffeine in combination with the tannin that gives it its pungency and much of its aroma and flavor (which essential oils also enhance). The New York Academy of Medicine held a symposium on "Pharmacological and Physiological Effects of Tea" in 1955 and found that, for reasons they could not explain, tea, unlike coffee, does not cause nervousness, insomnia, or stomach irritation when drunk in quantity. The scientists' tests showed a cup of tea gives both an immediate and a delayed lift without secondary depressing effects later on. They agreed tea is a good agent for relieving fatigue and aids clearness of thought and digestion alike.

The Tea Cure
For years, studies in China and Japan have shown that the folklore about tea does contain some truth -- it does promote longer life. Japanese smokers have only half the lung cancer rate as American smokers. In areas of Japan where the most tea is drunk, the rate of stomach cancer is the lowest. In a study of 6,000 Japanese women, those who drank 5 cups or more of green tea per day cut their risk of strokes by 50 percent. "Drinking tea with meals in Japan and China," says a cancer researcher at the University of British Columbia, "is thought to be a major reason for low cancer rates in these countries."

Long-term consumption of black tea -- the kind that most Americans and Europeans drink -- and of other foods such as apples containing chemicals called flavonoids was associated with a much lower risk of stroke in a study of 552 Dutch men. Flavonoids are natural vitaminlike compounds. They make blood cells called platelets less prone to clotting, and act as antioxidants, countering the artery-damaging potential of highly reactive free radical chemicals.
In the study, men with a high flavonoid intake had a 73 percent lower risk of stroke during 15 years of follow-up, compared with men with a low intake of flavonoids. The men in the study got about 70 percent of their flavonoids from drinking black tea.

Men who drank more than 4.7 cups of tea a day had a 69 percent reduced risk of stroke compared with men who drank less than 2.6 cups a day, said the researchers of the National Institute of Public Health and Environmental Protection in Bilthoven, the Netherlands.

Tea also helps prevent tooth decay in several ways. It contains a solid dose of fluoride and works better than the antibiotic tetracycline. According to researchers at the Tokyo Dental College, it fights the kinds of bacteria in the mouth that cause gum disease and the eventual loss of the teeth. It also kills the greatest cavity-causing bacteria in the mouth, Streptococcus mutans.

In addition, researchers in Australia announced that a cup of tea could be the next weapon in the fight against skin cancer. A study by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization revealed that mice made to sip black tea suffered 54 percent fewer cancers than those that drank water. Both sets of test animals were exposed to levels of ultraviolet rays that an average Australian receives.

Earlier studies on black tea have shown that it can be effective against some forms of cancer and may even prevent heart and liver disease. Properties in green and black tea called antioxidants are thought to be active agents against skin cancer. In the past 10 to 15 years, a growing body of research has shown that foods and vitamins with a strong anti-oxidant effect may reduce the risk of many diseases, including cancer and aging.
Human trials using black tea as a preventative against skin cancer began in Australia in 1997.

Pu-Erh Tea

Pu-erh tea (pronounced "POO-air"), from Yunnan province in China, has long been considered a special delicacy and an indispensable part of daily health care. Many give this remarkable tea credit for restoring and maintaining good health. Generations of Chinese have drunk this tea after rich meals to "cut the grease." In the 1970's Chinese doctors in Kunming reported clinical experiments in which drinking pu-erh was shown to lower cholesterol levels in the blood stream. French researchers at St. Antoine Hospital in Paris duplicated these results and found that three cups of pu-erh a day for a month brought lipids down 25 percent in 20 hyperlipidemia patients, while those on other teas showed no change. These tests showed pu-erh performed at least as well as clofibrate, the most advanced medicine for the purpose, without the drug's side effects. It has since been shown to help reduce body weight by increasing the metabolism. Many report that drinking it after meals relieves any overstuffed feelings and aids digestion. The Chinese claim that pu-erh also can lower blood alcohol after drinking, prevent dysentery, and stimulate secretions from the spleen and other organs.



Iced Teas

Iced tea works as well as hot tea in bestowing health benefits. An American invention and very rare in the rest of the world, 80 percent of the tea drunk in America is iced. Keemun is one of Holy Mountain's teas that works well over ice.

Herbal Teas

Research has shown that green tea may contain cancer-fighting agents, and certain herbal teas claim to combat or soothe many maladies.
Herbal teas, called tisanes, technically are not teas at all, but infusions of various herbs, flowers and spices instead of Camellia sinensis leaves. Many herbal teas use catchy names and packaging to enhance their appeal. Among them are: Allergy Season Tea by The Yogi Tea Co., Herbal Throat Tea by Celestial Seasonings, Steady Stomach by Herbal Comfort, and PMS Tea by Traditional Medicinals. As with anything, herbal teas should be consumed in moderation.

Source : http://www.holymtn.com

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George Clooney , Sexiest Man Alive

Spotlight By: Michael Dance
MichaelDance@TheCinemaSource.com

George Clooney is the classic man's man, a liberal activist, and one of the select few in Hollywood's true elite. So it's nice when he takes some time off from all that and actually makes a movie. This month he's out with Ocean's Thirteen, the third (and supposedly final) installment of the hit starpowered franchise.



Actually, Clooney keeps quite busy with films. "I've been working nonstop. I just wrapped a film on Friday, Friday night in North Carolina, that I wrote and directed and all of that, and acted in, so I'm pretty whipped." (He's referring to the upcoming 1920s football drama Leatherheads, which co-stars John Krasinski and Renee Zellweger.)

Late last year he starred in Steven Soderbergh's The Good German, a black-and-white post-World War II drama that evoked strong memories of Casablanca. He and Soderbergh, who has also directed all three Ocean's movies, often team up on projects. One imagines, however, that there could hardly be fewer similarities between The Good German and Ocean's Thirteen.

For one thing, he didn't get asked too many questions about gambling on the press junkets for that last one. Surprisingly, he says he's not into it that much. "I'm not a big poker player, these guys [his castmates] love the poker. I'm not a big gambler; I gamble in other ways in Vegas (laughs). I love casinos, but I go in, play a little bit for a minute, then get sort of worn out on it."

And don't even talk to him about Blackjack: "I had never won in my life."

At this point his co-star Matt Damon jumps in: "That's true. During Ocean's 11, I watched him lose, I helped finance him to lose, 25 straight blackjack hands in a row. Which I think was a record. And it happened. I saw it happen. I would never have believed it unless I saw it happen."

Clooney adds: "It got to the point where even the dealer was laughing at me."

The camaraderie on set is one of the things that effortlessly comes across with these guys in interviews. And during the periods of time when they weren't on massive losing streaks in a casino, the bond was still there. Over the course of the three films, many of the stars have gotten married, and had kids.

"I have a different perspective than the rest of them," says the still-single Clooney. "Because I get to watch all these guys grow up, becoming dads, having kids, and it's fun to watch them grow."

Even though this flick may be the last we see of Danny Ocean and his gang, one gets the impression that shooting the film was, though enjoyagble, also business as usual.

"The funniest thing about movies is, you're really excited to start them, you like doing them, and you're also really happy

when they're finished. Because you sort of need to move on at some point," he says. "This is a great group of guys, and we felt that this was probably it...[but] it wasn't hard when we wrapped it."












































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