6 WAYS TO LOOK BETTER WITHOUT SPENDING A CENT

Source: www.bellasugar.com

Looking good doesn't have to cost a lot of money. In fact, it doesn't have to cost a thing. There are plenty of ways to look better without spending a single penny. We talked with top dermatologists, hair stylists, makeup artists, and estheticians to score their secrets for looking your best for the best price of all: free. Read their tips here.

De-puff while you sleep
Banishing puffy eyes overnight is as easy as changing the way you sleep. "Elevating your head with pillows while sleeping helps the fluids from gathering around the under-eye area," says celebrity makeup artist Tina Turnbow. Got a few cents to spare? "Cucumbers and cold chamomile tea bags are great, too," she adds.

Posture, please
Standing tall can have long-term benefits. "My mother-in-law is 93 years old and has amazing posture," says dermatologist Dr. Kathy Fields, co-creator of Proactiv skin care. "She looks at least 20 to 30 years younger because of it! It’s the cheapest tip on earth and good for your health."

Create a face-flattering ponytail
“Anyone can pull off a sleek high ponytail," says stylist Oliver Ifergan of the Oliver Ifergan Atelier in Beverly Hills. "The trick is to find the most flattering angle for your bone structure." Ifergan's easy trick: "Pull the hair back, then with your pointer and middle finger follow the cheek bone all the way back, and voila! You have the perfect ponytail position.”

Freshen up your face
It only takes a couple of minutes to perk up tired-looking skin, says Dallas esthetician Renée Rouleau. "Massage your knuckles underneath the eyes and above the cheekbones," she explains. "Do this for two minutes after cleansing and moisturizing in order to create a more active blood flow." (When blood doesn't circulate enough, skin starts looking dull.) That's why Rouleau says, "A two-minute massage will help nutrients to resurface, leaving your skin with a revitalized glow."

Avoid acne
Can't figure out why you're breaking out on your forehead? Your hair care could be to blame, says New York City dermatologist Dr. Ellen Gendler. "Sometimes the oils from the hair and products that people use in the hair can contribute to acne," she says. Rinse conditioner off the body, and keep hair styling products away from your skin. The result: a clearer complexion, without spending a penny.

Lose the sweetness
"Neither start your day nor end your day with sugar," says Bren Lee Gomez, an esthetician and makeup artist in Los Angeles. "If you start off eating or drinking something with refined sugar, you'll be sallow and dehydrated by lunch time and require even more sugar to keep going. If you eat sugar just before bedtime, you'll wake up with dehydrated skin."

Fil-Dutch 'Michael Jackson' to send Pinoy street children to school

Eleven-year-old Filipino-Dutch Kim Regasa-De Blank, dubbed Holland's "Little Michael Jackson," a finalist in “Holland’s Got Talent,” dreams of sending to school the street children of Lucena City, Quezon in the Philippines.

Kim's claim to fame was making it into the finals of “Holland's Got Talent” in 2010 where he was called by the judges as the “Mini Michael Jackson of The Netherlands.”

 

On April 28, Kim's dream of helping street children took off through his own talent show titled "Himig at Galaw" at Het Spant in Ameide, The Netherlands.

Kim's parents, Carlo and Mabel, polished the idea of raising funds for Quezon street children through the “Himig at Galaw” competition.

"It was the first time that we organized an event like this. We are more than satisfied with the turnout. We never expected to have so many visitors on our first event. Of course the more visitors, the more we can do for the street children in Lucena City," Mabel said.

 

"Hopefully, we can do this annually. The next ‘Himig at Galaw’ will of course be another exciting event with some new ideas. There are also plans to organize an event around Christmas, but this is not yet sure. We are still working on this. If plans push through, it will be more like a Christmas concert," she added.

 

Eight contestants from all over Holland joined the "Himig at Galaw" competition in two divisions: children and adults.

 

Whitney Houston songs were the winning choices for the evening.

Chayenne Hess from Loenen aan de Vecht who sang "I Have Nothing" won the kids division.

On the other hand, Cherie Mae De Los Reyes from Hengelo bagged the first prize for the adults division with her own rendition of "I Will Always Love You".

Kim's mother Mabel, a “Bagong Kampeon” finalist in her youth in the Philippines, was proud of his son's accomplishments and aspirations.

 

Kim still performs in various shows every now and then with his parents coming in full support.

 

"He is still young and the most important thing for now is completing his studies," his mother said. - JLA/VVP, GMA News

OFWs earn billions of dollars but save little

A special report on CNN said overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) may be bringing home billions of dollars in remittances each year but the challenge for many of them was how to spend the money wisely.

 

For those who need to learn how to spend their earnings the right way, the Philippine government is giving seminars on how overseas workers can have a sustainable future, CNN’s “Eye On” the Philippines said.

 

The Philippine embassy in Abu Dhabi has begun financial literacy courses where participants learn how to invest money and “stop relatives back home from spending all the cash,” the report added.

 

CNN said the government believes better money management will encourage workers to invest back home to foster economic growth so fewer Filipinos will go overseas for work.

 

“If we can guide overseas Filipinos and their families to invest, I think that will be a large source of private-public sector cooperation,” Philippine ambassador to the UAE Grace Princesa told CNN.

 

“A financial problem can destroy a family,” Rosario dela Cruz, a nurse in the UAE said. “But if the family is financially stable, I don’t think there will be a problem within the family.”

 

While there are Filipinos who still need some financial education, there are some who have successfully invested their money for good use.

 

One of them is Prudencio Garcia, a former migrant worker and now the chief executive officer (CEO) of Pampanga-based Mekeni Food Corporation which has earned its name worldwide, CNN reported. 

 

Mekeni Food’s meat products have recently reached some stores in the Middle East such as in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the report said.

 

“For us to start doing a business, we have to go out of the country wherein we can save more to start our own business someday,” Garcia said.

 

The report said Garcia left the Philippines in the early 1990s to work as an accountant in Saudi Arabia.

 

He stayed in Saudi Arabia for eight years and built savings with the money he sent back home. The money eventually helped him set up Mekeni Foods.

 

CNN’s “Eye On” has chosen the Philippines as the focus of their reports.

Running from April 30 to May 4, “Eye On” featured reports on child labor, the Philippines as the “Call Center Capital of the World,” Manny Pacquiao, and the country’s top tourist destinations.

CNN’s extensive online coverage of the Philippines can be found at www.cnn.com/eyeon. - Jon Lindley Agustin/VVP/HS, GMA News

The Cost of Technology Over The Decades [infographic]

First things first, I want to state how grateful I am to live in this century. Movies of the 80′s have been more than intriguing over the course of the past few months, but times were obviously hard back then. Cellphones weren’t nearly as mobile as they are now, cassette players reigned supreme, and I could talk until I’m blue in the face about the hair. Walkman’s and cellular phones with their twenty inch antennas set the pace for this ease of access society we live in. Price tags and all.

Paying for convience was quite a task just a few decades ago, as a cellphone was $4000+, an Atari was the same price as a Wii, and an Apple 2 ran you close to $3,000.

I’m still keeping in mind that these products were quite the advancement in their day and age, but footing the bill is not something I’d be interested in. [Via]

Pinoys a minority in Filipinotown in US

In Los Angeles, the center for cultural activity among Filipinos is an area called Historic Filipinotown, a stretch of roadway where the population of 25,000 is 60 percent Latino, 25 percent FilAm and the other 15 percent a mix of ethnicities such as African Americans and Armenians.

Dennis Arguelles, director of program development of the Search to Involve Pilipino Americans, painted this unique and potentially combustible portrait of Hi-Fi before the forum “The Power of Place: Asian American Neighborhoods, Politics & Activism Today” held April 27 at CUNY Graduate Center on Fifth Avenue. The forum was organized by the Asian American / Asian Research Institute or AAARI.

“The Filipinos were never the majority population in this area,” said Arguelles. But Latinos being predominant throughout the city of Los Angeles, he said even neighborhoods like Koreatown and Little Tokyo have a large Hispanic population, just like Hi-Fi.

“There are many areas already dedicated to L.A.’s Latino heritage,” he said. “This name Historic Filipinotown recognizes the historic significance of the neighborhood to Filipinos while also understanding that it is home to a diverse population.”

It is the center of cultural activity for the 400,000 Filipinos who live in Southern California, who converge there for events, visit the churches and institutions that continue to thrive there, he added.

Arguelles went on to describe Hi-Fi as the historical entry point for immigrant groups such as Mexicans, Italians and the Jews, which later emerged as a Filipino enclave after World War II.

The 3-mile long-1-mile wide stretch of land was officially designated “Historic Filipinotown” in 2002 by the city, and declared a national “Preserve America Community” in 2011 by First Lady Michelle Obama.

Throughout the ever-evolving downtown L.A. landscape, the Hi-Fi neighborhood has avoided being swept into the process of gentrification, said Arguelles. But in the mid-2000, the area began to transform and change appeared inevitable.

“We noticed a different type of dogs being walked in the neighborhood,” he said in jest.

Change quickly came to a halt when the economy went into a recession in 2009, with Hi-Fi managing to stay intact as the surrounding areas gave way to the demands of urbanization by allowing more buildings devoted to mixed-income housing and retail space.

Historic Filipinotown is not just a center for Filipino culture, it is home to little-known American landmarks.

There is the Occidental Studios, the oldest film studio in the country. Also in the vicinity is the house where the Christian Pentecostal Movement held its historic meetings.

The movement, which blurred the divisions between black and white worshippers, is an important sector in America’s religious history.

The dozens of FilAm organizations that advocate for Hi-Fi are more or less “on the same page” as to the future of the neighborhood, said Arguelles.

They all want to preserve the community as a historic and cultural center as well as a center for economic development and political empowerment.

“We are the largest Asian population in the city of L.A. but you wouldn’t know that if you were to look at City Hall,” said Arguelles. “People really want to change that.”

Admittedly, racial tension is inevitable in neighborhoods like Hi-Fi, he said. “We’ve seen a lot of conflict when it comes to ethnic relations partly because majority of the population is Latino.”

There’s some generational and sectarian conflict, and different layers of leaderships in the community. Fortunately, he said Filipinos and Latinos have a lot in common culturally and so the organizations “build on those shared experiences.”

As for other contentious issues, Arguelles said the two communities “deal with them on a continuing basis.” - The FilAm

Temperatures in Gulf soar above average

Source: yahoo.com

Hot weather across the Arabian Peninsula is hardly unusual. But even by Gulf standards things have been really heating up over the last few days.

Doha has just recorded its warmest day of the year so far. On Saturday 5 May the temperature touched an impressive 44.1C. This is the fifth day in succession that temperatures have topped the 40C mark.

Nighttime temperatures have also been exceptional: between 27 and 29C compared with an average of 21 to 23C.

The hot weather has not been confined to Doha. Bahrain and Saudi Arabia have also experienced temperatures well above 40C.

The region enjoys a subtropical arid climate with hot summers, temperature winters and very little rainfall.

A rise in temperatures might initially have been welcomed by many people as the winter and spring months were perceived to have been unusually cold and windy.

‘Cold’ is a relative term, of course. The coldest day experienced in Doha in March was the 18^th, when temperatures reached no higher than 18C. But the wind has also contributed to the chilly feel.

Brisk winds are a feature of winter and spring in the region with the Shamal wind bringing poor visibility, in the form of lifted dust, and a chilly feel to the weather.

The air is extremely dry out here. A temperature of 40C or more may be accompanied by a relative humidity as low as five percent. The cooling effect on the skin is considerable and people who live in more temperate climes are often amused when they hear friends or family who live in Doha complaining about the ‘cold’ weather.

The current hot spell is due to an area of high pressure and winds blowing from a south to southwesterly direction. This brings air in from the Rub’ al-Khali, also known as the Empty Quarter. The air is warmed as it feeds in from the sandy desert.

The wind direction is crucial. The waters of the Arabian Gulf are relatively cool in April with temperatures of just 20C although that increases rapidly during May and June. So any breeze from the sea can have a marked cooling effect. This has been absent in the current weather pattern.

It is expected that the hot weather will continue, with the forecast for the next five days showing Doha temperatures reaching at least 40C each day.

The oldest living thing on Earth is 6,000 tons of grass

Meet Posidonia oceanic, a type of Mediterranean seagrass that is also the longest-lived thing on Earth. What’s its secret? The usual — clean living, plenty of exercise, asexual reproduction, being 6,000 tons of grass, and not getting flattened by climate change … YET.

Researchers from the University of Western Australia have determined that patches of P. oceanic, some separated by more than nine miles, comprise what is to the best of our knowledge the oldest living thing on the planet. Analysis shows that the seagrass clusters (which are really all one organism that reproduces by cloning) are likely more than 100,000 years old, though they could be up to twice that ancient.

Prof Carlos Duarte, from the University of Western Australia, said the seagrass has been able to reach such old age because it can reproduce asexually and generate clones of itself. Organisms that can only reproduce sexually are inevitably lost at each generation, he added.

Obviously, these grass clumps have seen a lot. I get curmudgeonly about how phones didn’t used to have the internet and the internet didn’t used to have pictures, but the grasses may well have been around when the planet didn’t used to have Homo sapiens. But they’re not so resilient that they aren’t being threatened by climate change.

Prof Duarte said that while the seagrass is one of the world’s most resilient organisms, it has begun to decline due to coastal development and global warming.

“If climate change continues, the outlook for this species is very bad,” he said.