Blog Widget by LinkWithin
Does Anyone Read BLOGS<Click Here
Snippets

Thursday, March 31, 2011

Too short, too long and definitely too tight: Holly Valance::Mikhail Gorbachev's 80th birthday party

She has a billionaire boyfriend so it’s safe to say that money is no object when it comes to picking up a party frock.

So it seemed strange that Holly Valance,27, stepped out in an unflattering ensemble which just failed to cross the fashion mark attending Mikhail Gorbachev’s 80th birthday bash.

Odd look: Holly Valance failed to find the most flattering outfit for the big bash and the shorter side of her dress rose dangerously high

Odd look: Holly Valance failed to find the most flattering outfit for the big bash and the shorter side of her dress rose dangerously high

The former Soviet leader celebrated by hosting a glitzy charity gala at the Royal Albert Hall last night attended with a whole host of celebrity VIPs.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1371959/Holly-Valance-doesnt-look-happy-unflattering-outfit-Gorbachevs-birthday-bash.html#ixzz1ICeEd7CP

Enhanced by Zemanta

Sharon helps Mikhail Gorbachev celebrates his 80th with a glitzy benefit in London

 

31 MARCH 2011

He is said to have "changed the world" and has even won a Nobel Peace Prize.
But even Mikhail Gorbachev is not immune to the charms of A-list beauties, and he looked delighted at the chance to plant a kiss on Sharon Stone's cheek.

null

The screen siren was co-host of the glitzy charity gala in honour of the last Soviet leader's 80th birthday at the Royal Albert Hall, along with Kevin Spacey.
And black-tie was the theme of the night, showbiz beauties such as Katherine Jenkins and Goldie Hawn dressed to the nines in designer gowns.
Fifty-three-year-old Sharon was radiant in a blush pink floor-length Christian Dior gown.

Enhanced by Zemanta

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

The bitter blocker: Scientists develop chemical that kills 'metallic aftertaste' of sweetener in diet pop drinks

 

Diet drinks could become a sweeter prospect after scientists created a compound to banish the bitter aftertaste of sugar substitutes. 

Low-calorie artificial sweeteners used in popular fizzy drinks are often criticised for leaving a metallic flavour in the mouth.

But the ‘bitter blocker’, which is tasteless in itself, prevents tart tastes being sensed by the tongue.

Diet taste: Low calorie sugar substitutes currently used in popular fizzy drinks are often criticised for the 'metallic flavour' they leave

Diet taste: Low calorie sugar substitutes currently used in popular fizzy drinks are often criticised for the 'metallic flavour' they leave

It raises the prospect of diet drinks that delight the tastebuds – and even cough mixture and medicines that are easier to swallow.

In taste tests the compound, known as GIV3616, made drinks, yoghurts, sweets and cough medicines all seem more enjoyable.

Just a sprinkling of GIV3616 among a million particles of food takes away the bitter taste of the artificial sweeteners commonly used in low-calorie drinks, the American Chemical Society’s annual conference heard.

Ioana Ungureanu, of the research team that developed the compound at the Givaudan Flavors Corporation in Cincinnati, Ohio, said: ‘A lot of people are very sensitive to bitter taste in medicines, calorie-free sweeteners and foods.

‘Blocking these flavours, which we call off-notes, could help consumers eat healthier and more varied diets.

‘It could encourage them to switch to low-calorie soft drinks and help children and seniors swallow bitter-tasting medicines.’

The bitter blocker is expected to be of most use to the 25 per cent of the population labelled ‘super-tasters’ because their genetic make-up makes bitter foods taste particularly sharp.

The compound is expected to go on sale in the U.S. this summer, with the first products to contain it likely to include diet drinks.

The conference heard that the food and drug industries traditionally relied on salt, fat and sugar to hide unpleasant flavours, but health concerns have shifted the focus to compounds that change how the tongue senses tastes.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1371248/GIV3616-chemical-kills-metallic-aftertaste-sweetner-diet-pop.html#ixzz1I6Kvggdu

Why half of women say weight worries are affecting their libidos

Not tonight, dear, I'm feeling too fat:

By Diana Appleyard

According to a survey, more than half of women say that, regardless of their dress size, their physical relationships suffer because they feel ‘too fat’ to have a fulfilling sex life. Self-delusion or just painful reality? Here, four women, ranging from size 8 to 14, tell DIANA APPLEYARD how their self‑image affects their love lives.

Body conscious: Following a new survey, Heidi MacGuire, Ali Ines, Paula Rosdol and Jemima Slade have all revealed how their self-image affects their love lives

Body conscious: Following a new survey, Heidi MacGuire, Ali Ines, Paula Rosdol and Jemima Slade have all revealed how their self-image affects their love lives

Paula Rosdol

Paula Rosdol, 52, is 10st 7lb and a size 14. She is a dating advice coach for older women. She is married to Paul, 62, a financier, and the couple live in Wimbledon, South-west London. Paul has three children from a previous marriage. She says:

Your average man will look in the mirror naked, pull in his paunch, pat his chest and say: ‘What a catch I am!’ But when a woman looks in the mirror — when I look in the mirror — all I see are my pudgy bits, the parts of my body I want to change.

It doesn’t matter how many times a man tells me that he doesn’t mind my imperfections, that he loves my curves, I still feel inhibited in the bedroom.

And I know I’m far from alone. I can’t tell you how many women have said to me: ‘I feel so inhibited sexually because my body isn’t perfect.’

Just like them, I feel a huge pressure to look a certain way; that I can only enjoy sex if I look like a total goddess.

I know I should be losing myself in the heat of the moment but, instead, I’m lying on my back, desperately trying to hold in my tummy — as if it actually matters.

I married for the first time at 26, to a corporate manager, and we were together for 12 years. 

'Feeling comfortable with your body has little to do with other people’s comments, it’s much more about the way you perceive yourself.

At that age, my body was probably the best it’s ever been, with a flat stomach, slim thighs and high breasts — but even back then I was terribly body-conscious during sex, and it was already affecting my love life.

I found it impossible to relax when he laid his hands on my tummy — all I could think about was trying to make it feel flatter and firmer.

After my marriage ended, and before I met Paul, there were plenty of occasions when I missed out on what could have been a much more exciting love life simply because I thought that, at a size 14, I was too curvaceous for the men who showed an interest in me.

What’s strange is that no man has ever made a single negative comment about my size and shape. But I suspect I speak for many women when I say that feeling comfortable with your body has little to do with other people’s comments, it’s much more about the way you perceive yourself.

I have to admit that I can’t help feeling a little sad when I think back to all the fun I could have had, and yet my physical inhibitions have meant that I have felt unable to let go.

Sex is so important to men, and I can’t help feeling envious that they don’t seem to struggle with the same issues of self-esteem that we women do.

Paul has done a lot to help me feel better about my appearance, never tiring of telling me how fantastic I look, despite my protestations to the  contrary.

But even though I have fewer sexual inhibitions than I did, it’s still a constant battle not to torment myself for not being a perfect size ten.

Paula Rosdol, Ali Ines, Jemima Slade, Heidi Maguire

Ali Ines, 43, is a size 12, weighs 9st 5lb, and is married to Ralph, 41, an actor. The couple have two children — Luc, 12, and Rebecca, eight. Ali works in beauty PR, and the family live in Wimbledon. She says:

I have recently gone up from a size 10 to a 12 as a result of a thyroid problem. I know that a size 12 is by no means ‘big’, but it’s all relative — and when you have spent the past 20 years as a size 8-10, it feels enormous.

Needless to say, my husband has barely noticed the increase in my weight — and if he has, he certainly doesn’t care — but it has impacted hugely on the way I feel about myself.

I don’t feel confident walking around in my underwear any more and I find myself whipping my clothes off at the end of the day and slipping into bed as fast as I can so that I’m naked as briefly possible.

In my head I think: 'If only I could lose half a stone, then every part of my life, from my work to my sex life, would be perfect.'

My husband thinks I’m so silly. He doesn’t give a hoot what size I am. Every time I demand that he inspect my rolls of fat, he wraps his arms around me and says: ‘I love you just the way you are.’

Yet while I know he loves me, there’s a part of me that always thinks he’d prefer me to be slimmer. He is naturally extremely tactile and affectionate, and I just wish I were perfect for him — I so want to be.

As if a thyroid problem weren’t enough to cope with, I’m now developing a ‘middle-aged spread’, which is doing nothing to boost my confidence.

I find myself looking back to when I was younger, when I’d think nothing of walking around in a bikini or slinky underwear — I knew I looked great.

There’s no question that my heyday was when I was in my 20s. At that time, I had total confidence in my body. Admittedly, I’d always wanted bigger boobs, but that never held me back. I had an inner confidence that made me feel really sexy.

Today, two decades on, I really miss that confidence, that certainty that I was desirable, that lack of inhibition about sex.

In my head I think: ‘If only I could lose half a stone, then every part of my life, from my work to my sex life, would be perfect.’

And I know I’m far from alone in thinking that. It doesn’t matter how old you are, it’s only when you feel desirable that you can enjoy sex to the full.

Paula Rosdol

Jemima Slade, 39, runs a beauty salon, and has an 11-year-old daughter, Lily. A size 8, weighing 9st, Jemima, who is single, lives in North-west London. She says:

When people look at me, they most probably think I have a great figure and nothing to worry about, and yet I am riddled with sexual insecurities about my body.

I am only a dress size 8, but before I had my daughter I had a lot more sexual confidence because I had a washboard stomach that made me the envy of my friends.

Now it’s a very different story: my tummy is all soft and makes me feel nothing like the ‘hot babe’ I thought I was before. When I was in my 20s, I had men chatting me up all the time and I loved it. What’s funny is that I still have men hitting on me, but my reaction to their advances is very different.

I’m flattered by the attention, but my enjoyment extends only so far — when a man gets close to me and puts his arms around me, I can’t help drawing in my tummy and pulling away. I just can’t bear for anyone to touch it, let alone see it. I have an anxiety about my body that I never had before.

Since the birth of my daughter 11 years ago, I have done everything I can, from diet to exercise, to get rid of my jelly-belly. But nothing works, and it’s really affecting my confidence.

Opening up: All four women say that they been hit by confidence issues as their weight changed due to pregnancy or other reasons

Opening up: All four women say that they been hit by confidence issues as their weight changed due to pregnancy or other reasons

On more than one occasion, I’ve been dating someone I really like. But as soon as things become intimate, I go cold on the relationship, because I am terrified of getting undressed in front of him.

The fact that every man I’ve ever been out with seems to think that I have a fantastic body doesn’t make any difference to the way I feel.

I am naturally a very confident, outgoing person, very successful in my career, with a lovely daughter, lots of friends and a great life — and yet I beat myself up constantly about not being perfect.

It drives my mum mad. She can’t understand why I won’t just accept myself as I am.

But how can any woman really enjoy sex when they’re too busy panicking about their own imperfections? Since I separated from my daughter’s father, I have had two long-term relationships, and both were seriously affected by my lack of self-esteem about my body.

I really miss having a fantastic physical relationship. I miss being able to lose myself in the moment, that feeling of being utterly lost in a man’s arms.

It’s so stupid to think of all the passion that I, and others like me, might have lost simply because of ill-founded insecurities that men don’t give a fig about.

Paula Rosdol

Heidi Maguire, 39, lives in Richmond with her husband John, 47, who runs a golf club. Heidi is a size 12 and weighs 10st 7lb. She runs a jewellery business, and has an 18-month-old son, Angus. She says:

When I was pregnant with my son, my weight ballooned by 3st. I went from a size 10 to a size 14 and it made me utterly miserable.
My husband said he didn’t care, but I was convinced that he was just trying to make me feel better.

I was so unhappy, so obsessed about my weight, that I embarked on every diet available, from Atkins to WeightWatchers.

All the time, John was saying: ‘Look, you are fine as you are,’ but I wouldn’t listen.

Eventually, I discovered a product called Formoline, which stops you digesting some of the fat content of what you eat, and I am now back down to a size 12. 

'I am desperate to rediscover the sense of self-confidence you feel when you aren’t obsessing about your weight or panicking about being plump'

As a result, my body confidence has started to pick up and I’ve noticed a discernible difference in my physical relationship with my husband.

I can’t pretend that things are back to the way they were, but they’re certainly improving, and my hope is that as my weight continues to drop, so I will continue to regain my confidence in the bedroom.

I am desperate to rediscover the sense of self-confidence you feel when you aren’t obsessing about your weight or panicking about being plump.

The truth is that when I am wobbly, I do not feel womanly, despite John reiterating, time and again, how much he loves my curves.

Like me, he is delighted that I have lost the weight, not because he prefers my body now, but because he can see the huge impact that losing weight has had on my self-confidence.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1371362/Sex-drive-Half-women-say-weight-worries-affect-libido.html#ixzz1I5TBy9Yu

Enhanced by Zemanta

Poonam Pandey says she'll go nude if India wins World Cup

poonam-pandey-2apoonam-pandey-4apoonam-pandey-1a

The much-awaited World Cup finals just got spicier. A model and a cricket fan Poonam Pandey is ready to go full monty in front of the stadium crowd if Dhoni's boys manage to lift the World Cup, reports spicezee.com.
The hottie, who is one of the most downloaded model on the Internet,

says she's doing it to motivate the Indian team.
The hot model says she would not mind stripping for Indian team in their dressing room.
The celeb went on to add that if the BCCI permits, she is also ready to go nude in front of the stadium crowd. Poonam clarifies that she's not doing all Poonam Pandeythis for publicity, but only to motivate the Indian team to do better.
She also has a fan page on Facebook to cheer the Indian team.
Poonam is not the first model to make such claim. Earlier models Larissa Riquelme of Paraguay and Luciana Salazar of Argentina had vowed to go nude if their football teams win the FIFA World Cup.

Enhanced by Zemanta

Monday, March 21, 2011

World's biggest source of junk emails shut down

Waste: Chances are, you received one of the 200billion daily spam emails generated by the Rustock botnet

Waste: Chances are, you received one of the 200billion daily spam emails generated by the Rustock botnet

The world's biggest source of spam e-mails has been shut down after Microsoft helped U.S. authorities seize internet servers controlling almost a million computers.

The Rustock botnet, a collection of infected machines independently sending messages, had sent 200billion junk emails a day – half the global total.

The servers were rented from American internet hosting firms who were allegedly unaware of their role in Rustock.

And these ‘command and control’ servers would issue instructions to infected home and business PCs worldwide that are operated by Microsoft’s Windows software.

Microsoft were granted permission by a court to seize equipment and 'decapitate' the botnet after arguing that their trademarks had been infringed in some of the e-mails.

It is unknown who the criminals behind the spamming business are. They were named only as 'John Does 1-11' in the lawsuit.

Richard Boscovich, a senior attorney in Microsoft Digital Crimes Unit, said the raids effectively severed the link between the million or so drone computers in Rustock and the servers that control them.

He Rustock was a tough nut to crack because of the way it was organised.

The swift seizure of servers should have denied Rustock's controllers any chance of simply shifting it to fresh machines, he said.

The raids were carried out on Last Wednesday and so far no Rustock spam has been sent.

But, in other cases of breached command and control systems, infected computers have sought out websites where they can download new instructions.

The hard drives gathered in the raid would be be analysed so investigators can learn more about the way it ran and who was behind it.

Microsoft said it would also work authorities to identify and clean up PCs that were unwitting participants in the Rustock botnet.

Tricky: Many spam emails involve apparent deals but are actually cons

Tricky: Many spam emails involve apparent deals but are actually cons

Disrupting the command and control infrastructure of a botnet is very difficult to do.

It requires the co-ordination of security groups, domain name registrars and internet service providers that can potentially be located across the globe, said Paul Wood, a security researcher at Symantec.cloud.

Previous attempts to take down botnets have enjoyed mixed success.

When security firm FireEye disabled the Mega-D botnet's command and control infrastructure in early November 2009, its owners were able to resume their activities within a month.

‘Many of these botnets are run as businesses, so they have back-up plans in place,’ said Mr Wood.

‘The botnet controllers can use legitimate websites - such as headlines from news sites - to identify where the new instructions can be found.’

Despite the success, the spread of botnets looks set to continue, as cyber crooks grow increasingly sophisticated in their ability to infect machines.

‘The malware used embeds itself deep in the operating system, making it difficult to identify,’ said Mr Wood.

Enhanced by Zemanta

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

How Facebook is turning women into stalkers: A third of online victims are now men

 

Women are finding it increasingly difficult to move on once a relationship has ended because Facebook invites them to stalk their former lovers via the internet.

Experts have likened the habit of following ex-boyfriends on the web to the lure of online gambling.

According to the first British study into cyber-stalking, around 35 per cent of victims are now men, with virtually all their cases perpetrated by women.

Easy to follow: In cases of cyberstalking, around 35 per cent of the victims are men, with virtually all the cases perpetrated by women

Easy to follow: In cases of cyberstalking, around 35 per cent of the victims are men, with virtually all the cases perpetrated by women

Offline, just 8 per cent of harassment victims are male, with female stalkers a rarity.

Dr Emma Short, a psychologist at the University of Bedfordshire, has had hundreds of responses to an online survey as part of her research with the Network for Surviving Stalking.

Her findings reveal women leave unwanted messages for their ex-partners on their Facebook pages, send inappropriate emails and set up fake accounts to lure them into communicating with them.

‘Facebook makes stalking more acceptable and removes the aspect of physical fear,’ she said.

‘Women who would not be able to overpower men physically can have a go at them online.’

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1365529/How-Facebook-turning-women-stalkers-A-online-victims-men.html#ixzz1GgcTeN8y

Enhanced by Zemanta