Addicted Brittoni

A woman has revealed that she is addicted to eating make-up - despite the fact that the chemicals in the products are seriously damaging her heart.

Brittoni, 22, from Toldeo, Ohio, reveals that she loves eating eyeshadow and consumes around 15 to 20 compacts a day.

She has been secretly hooked on cosmetics since she was about nine years old when she got hold of her mother's make-up, and explained that she likes the idea of cosmetics making her beautiful from the inside out.

Addicted to eating make-up: Brittoni, 22, from Toledo, Ohio has been snacking on eyeshadow since she was nine years old - despite the risk to her health

Expensive habit: Brittoni admits to consuming around 15-20 eyeshadow compacts per day

'It's like a craving of your favorite candy bar,' she said. 'I prefer  the gray, white and brown colors, they taste cleaner than dark colors.' 

Brittoni shops for her make-up at drugstores, and tests each compact before she commits to a purchase.

'When I come into the store, I have to taste to make sure I bought the right one,' she says. 'If it's not the right kind, nobody seen me lick it? I will put it back.

My Strange Addiction: Woman addicted to eating make-upMade-up concept: Brittoni says that she likes the idea of cosmetics making her beautiful from the inside out

The lick test: Brittoni shops for her make-up at drugstores, and tastes a compact before she buys

'I don't want to get stuck with something I'm not going to eat or wear.'

But the habit has already had serious implications. Brittoni developed heart disease at the age of 12, something her doctor believes could have been caused by chemicals in the products she has been eating.

The show charts Brittoni confessing her addiction to her family and fiance Josh. Once her family became aware of her problem, they urged her to seek medical attention.

Undercover addiction: Until recently, Brittoni had kept her habit a secret. When her family found out, they were horrified and urged her to seek medical help

Reality check: Arsenic, cadmium, lead and nickel are common ingredients in the cosmetics she has been eating and could kill her, Dr Jack Siebenaler warns her

Arsenic, cadmium, lead and nickel are common ingredients in the cosmetics she has been eating and could kill her, Dr Jack Siebenaler warns her.

Following several tests, he tells her that she is putting herself at risk of cancer and further heart problems.

This, it seems, is the reality check she needs to try to quit. 

Imagination on CD's

Making Collage of Old Cd's is very easy. All you need is some old Cd's not in use and those pics that you want to paste. Cut the pictures in to perfect round and paste it safely on Cd's. Now Join the Cd's With gum with each other. Use satin ribbon for hanging the collage by attaching on the top most CD.

Other Imaginative Works On CD's

Painted Floral Village- Zalipie Poland

Rarest of the Rare. In Zalipie VIllage of Poland. North of Tarnow, where Dunajec and Vistula rivers meet, resides one of the most interesting ethnographic micro-regions in Poland with the village of Zalipie at its center. 

People not only decorate there home but there neighborhood as well. Tradition of decorating the whole village continues from long time back. People decorate walls, windows, Circles on road, Market, garden and animal area by making beautiful images of flowers. Some thing Unique and really beautiful.

Its fame has resulted from a region specific tradition that involves the painting of cottages. This custom of decorating both the exterior and the interior of houses originated at the end of the 19th century when old-fashioned furnaces were replaced with new furnaces with chimneys. 

In order to cover blackened walls, women and girls tried to brighten the interior of their dwellings by decorating the walls with brightly colored spots made of lime. 

Later these round spots were shaped into simple flowers and finally they evolved into the detailed flower bouquets still visible today.

A Little France In Canada

The ambience is French but the city is in Canada. That’s Quebec for you. With its unwinding roads, stone buildings reminiscent of Europe a few centuries back, and somewhat laid-back ambience, the city seems removed from the hustle and bustle of modern North America.

Three hours by road from Montreal, a look at the quaint city and you fall in love with it. The old grey

buildings standing as if sentinels to the past, geranium baskets on the window-sills of houses, pavements with restaurants of varying sizes with their cheerful awnings and people relaxing with food and wine harks back to past times. Quebec’s citizens are zealous about their heritage and make sure that it retains its unique aura.

Le Château Frontenac is a hotel built between 1893 and 1924 and named after Louis de Baude, Comte de Frontenac, a 17th-century governor. It is major landmark of the city Photos by the writer

Quebec is the only province in Canada to have French as its official language. Most of the people, especially of the older generation, prefer it to English as their mother tongue. The region was a French colony for more than two centuries, between the arrival of Jacques Cartier in 1534 and to the surrender to the English in 1760.

Le Château Frontenac is a hotel built between 1893 and 1924 and named after Louis de Baude, Comte de Frontenac, a 17th-century governor.

Quebec flourished as a port city in the early 19th century. Boatmen transported timber down the St Lawrence river and St Charles river for loading ships bound for Britain. Today, the promenade along the St Lawrence river is a beautiful walkway. White cruise boats wait for tourists to board, the ushers sometimes dress in 18th century clothes to establish authenticity. After all, Quebec wants to showcase that an old-world aura can survive despite the invasion of modern age.

FACT FILE

How to get there: Connected by air from major cities. Also, by train and bus/car from Montreal.

Where to stay: Hotels to suit all budgets from luxury to youth hostels. Day trips from Montreal are also popular.

What to do: Explore the old town, discover the charms of old France, take a cruise on river St Laurence.

What to eat: French cuisine, duck roast, poutine, accompanied by good wine.

What to buy: Wine, cheese, maple syrup, art objects.

You have a choice of taking the steep and winding street called Côte de la Montagne and Escalier Casse-Cou (Breakneck Stairs) to reach the upper layer, or the funicular from Terrasse Dufferin.

The promenade near the waterfront is a beautiful walk with shop fronts, restaurants, cobble-stoned lanes. The Musée de la Civilisation is the most popular museum in Quebec. The many sections within it give glimpses of the province’s growth and displays ethnic artefacts as well as those from the French heritage.

A Cobbled Lane In Old Town

Walking up the stone stairs from the St Laurence promenade — wear sensible shoes, leads to the most exciting part of the town. It is dominated by a huge castle-like building, very European in structure. Belying speculations that it is a palace, it turns out to be a hotel built between 1893 and 1924 and named Le Château Frontenac after Louis de Baude, Comte de Frontenac, a 17th-century governor of this New France, as it was called then, on the Atlantic Ocean. It is majestic nonetheless and is a landmark of the city.

A huge courtyard lies in front of it, obviously fashioned like a European town square. On one side of the courtyard is the Place Royale dominated by the church of Notre-Dame-des-Victoires built in 1688. It is a good idea to visit the Place-Royale Information Centre (closed between October and April) to get an idea of the layout and history of the place.

A walk on the boardwalk around the Le Château Frontenac is a must after alighting from the funicular. It gives a magnificent view of the St Laurence river.

From there come down to the Champlain Petit district. A walk down the narrow, winding street with cobble stones puts you back in another era. The ambience has been preserved to retain the character of the place. It’s a shopper’s paradise too (prices are marked without tax) with boutiques laden with handicrafts, knitted garments in local designs, toys, hand-made jewellery, etc. At some corners, a musician strums a guitar or plays a harmonica. Explore the lovely alley rue de Trésor for pretty paintings done by local artists and souvenirs to take back home as mementoes.

If all this walking makes you hungry, restaurants are aplenty. The culinary base here is obviously French with lots of cheese but it also shows influences of other communities as well. Some of the famous local dishes are: shepherd’s pie, poutine (French fries topped with cheese curd and covered by brown gravy), sugar pie, pouding chômeur (a sponge cake with a maple syrup sauce), tourtière (a meat pie), cretons (a pork spread with onions and spices), etc.

Apparently there is also a tradition called ‘’sugar shack’’ (cabane à sucre), a family culinary tradition of eating maple products to the rhythms of Québec folklore. But then you have to go in summer and also have a good local family as hosts. There is even a chocolate museum here with outlet full of designer chocolates.

Grapes more drunk than eaten

Grape is not used much for fresh consumption as is the case with other common fruits. Only 27 per cent grape berries are eaten fresh in the world. Around 71 per cent of the total grape production is used for making wines and other alcoholic liquors like cognac or brandy. only 2 per cent grapes are made into raisins.

World Heritage Site- Manas National Park, Assam

IT was heartening news for wildlife buffs and conservation brigades, besides the forest and wildlife staff of the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) of Assam, that the Unesco World Heritage Committee (WHC) has decided to restore the World Heritage Site tag on picturesque Manas National Park in Assam in its last conference held in Paris in June this year.

The national park acquires its name from the magnificent Manas river that originates in Bhutan Himalayas and eternally gurgles through the sanctuary.

Located at about five-hour-drive from Guwahati, the sprawling landscape of the Manas National Park attracted hordes of tourists, both domestic and tourists during the winter months. An elephant ride inside in the serene atmosphere in the park is a lifetime experience. Tourists are delighted to see peacocks crisscrossing their way while the deer would watch you from a safe distance.

The uniqueness and grandeur of the Manas National Park had provided enough reasons to Unesco to bracket the core area of the wildlife sanctuary as a World Heritage Site in 1985.

Manas National Park is unique because it is the only wildlife protection area in the country which has got five different conservation statuses — tiger reserve, world heritage site, biosphere reserve, national park and an elephant reserve. Manas is arguably the only wildlife habitat which harbours more than 20 Schedule I species as listed in the Wildlife Protection Act of India.

Among the five Natural World Heritage Sites in India, Manas fulfils maximum three criteria for the coveted tag compared to other four World Heritage Sites that fulfil only two criteria each. The rest three Natural World Heritage Sites in India as enlisted by the Unesco include Kaziranga National Park, Sundarban National Park, Keoladeo National Park and Nandadevi and Valley of Flowers National Park (Nandadevi Biosphere Reserve).

The great Indian hornbill in all its glory at the park

The great Indian hornbill in all its glory at the park Photos: Bihuti P Lahkar

Unfortunately, a phase of extreme turmoil was let loose on this virtual paradise on earth by the Bodo militants, who converted it to their sanctuary because of its proximity to the Bhutan Himalayas, then a base of insurgents. As a result, Park’s treasure trove of wide range of flora and fauna were subjected to mindless destruction during turbulence in the Bodo-dominated areas in the late 1980s and 1990s.

The situation inside the wildlife protection area turned so bad that Unesco was forced to mark Manas as a Heritage Site ‘in danger’ in 1992. The basic reasons given were political instability, loss of natural heritage and decline in the protection, damage in infrastructure and management of the park.

Once normalcy was restored in the area in the wake of signing of the Bodoland Peace Accord between the Bodo Liberation Tiger (BLT) and the Government of India in February 2003, the park authorities could once again focus on restoring Manas to its past glory.

The Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) has now gone on an overdrive to rejuvenate the park. The BTC administration, along with the forest and wildlife officials, worked on a war footing in the Manas Reconstruction Programme. Manas has witnessed a turnaround in its fate in less than a decade.

Rhinos have been reintroduced in Manas through translocation under the Rhino Vision 2020 Project. Elephant and wild buffalo populations have attained stability. Population of the hispid hare, pigmy hog and Bengal Florican has added to the uniqueness of the wildlife protection area. The presence of lesser-known rare species like the white-winged duck and Manipur bush quail has also been re-established here. There have been renewed efforts to conserve the endangered tiger in the Manas landscape that has been nurturing a tiger reserve since 1973.

Prominent green brigades that played key roles in helping Manas regain its lost glory included the WWF, International Rhino Foundation (IRF), ATREE, the WWT, the WTI and Ecosystem-India and Aaranyak.

BTC’s executive member in charge of forest and tourism Khampa Borgoyari said, "With the restoration of the World Heritage status by Unesco, we are now looking forward to greater cooperation with the management of the Royal Manas National Park across the India-Bhutan border. A strategy is being worked out for facilitating eco-tourism in and around Manas."

"That Manas National Park has risen from the worst phase to the present stature and regained its Word Heritage Site status speaks volumes of how concerted efforts involving government authorities, NGOs, local communities can work wonder for the conservation of wildlife habitats," said Dr Bibhab Talukdar, a noted wildlife biologist and secretary general of Aaranyak.

A report of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) also noted that Manas has made good progress and there was some evidence that wildlife population was beginning to recover. An IUCN-Unesco mission had visited the park early this year.