Dame Anita Roddick passes away

Was quite sad when I heard that one of my idols - Dame Anita Roddick, has passed away. She was 64 and died of brain hemorrhage. She is survived by her husband Gordon, and daughters Sam and Justine.

Anita was the founder of the ethical cosmetics firm Body Shop. Besides popularising cosmetics made from natural products, she was involved in so many causes. This included ending animal testing, stopping deforestation in the rain forest, helping indigenous farmers in poor nations, ending whale hunting and lots more.

She opened her first shop in Brighton, in 1976. and as they say, the rest is history. It was taken over by French cosmetics giant L’Oréal for about $1.14 billion last year. Quite ironic considering that they have done away with animal testing.

She was made a Dame of the British Empire in 2003.

Read related news on the BBC site: Dame Anita Roddick dies aged 64 and on the New York Times: Anita Roddick, Body Shop Founder, Dies at 64

Make your blogs interactive and fun with quizzes

One of the ways to attract more visitors to your site is to make it more interactive and fun. Maybe you would like to find out what they like about your site or their opinion on a certain issues.

Quibblo allows you to create fun online quizzes, surveys and polls and then add them to your blog or sites. These are known as "Quibblets". There are some personality tests as well and those who take part can cut and paste the results of those test on their own blogs.

Go ahead and create your own Quibblet.

Kopi Luwak

In case you didn't know, the logo of Sun's Java programming language is a steaming coffee cup. In the US, Java is a slang for coffee. Java is also the name of an Island in indonesia, where it's capital city, Jakarta is situated and they do produce a lot of coffee there.

Of the coffee produced there, the most famous happens to the "Kopi Luwak" known as Civet coffee in English. It is the most expensive coffee in the world, selling for between $120 and $600 per pound.

So, what's so special about this coffee?

Well, it is extracted from the coffee berries that have been eaten by the the Asian Palm Civet (Paradoxurus hermaphroditus). The excreted partially-digested beans are then harvested and processed for sale. Read how it gets it's unique taste in New Research Explains Structure, Taste of Kopi Luwak Coffee.

Want to go for a beach holiday

Even though we are technically on an Island, it's been nearly a year since I went to a beach or seaside. I don't know why but I have always been attracted to the ocean and one of my most memorable vacations was to Redang Island off the east coast of Malaysia with a few friends. Since then, I have visited several other Islands in Malaysia and neighbouring Thailand including Pangkor, Langkawi, Penang and Phuket. These islands are among the ideal Beach Holidays listed on Dialaflight.com. This UK based company is one of the leading independent travel company offering flights, hotels and travel ideas worldwide.

I was really excited reading about the various beach resort holidays listed on the site. They have loads of useful travel information. Dialaflight.com is also a great place to look for cheap flights and holiday offers.

If you are thinking of exotic beach holidays, do visit the site.

Neo-Nazis arrested in Israel

Gang member giving the Nazi salute (ynetnews.com)

In what has got to be one of the most amazing stories to come out of Israel is one about an Israeli neo-Nazi gang that had carried out attacks on religious Jews, gays and drug addicts.

These youths had "Nazi tattoos and allegedly celebrated Adolf Hitler’s birthday". Quite unbelievable considering that they would have been killed if Hitler was alive. They belonged to immigrants from Russia who had been allowed to become Israeli citizens under its law of return.

Read the full story in the Time site: Arrest of Israeli neo-Nazi gang shocks Jewish State and on the Associated press site: Police: Israeli Neo-Nazi Ring Busted and on ynetnews.com: Olmert on neo-Nazi gang: We failed as society

Mei's wire jewelry addiction

Mei is a mother of two boys, from Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia. She blogs at "Wire Bliss: Handcrafted Wire Wrapped Jewelry".

I remember when she used to have a generic Blogger template but has now changed to a 3 column template. It definitely looks more unique. However the ads that come just before the posts were a bit too distracting. There are ads inside the post as well and having too many ads may turn off some visitors.

Her handcrafted wire jewelry are amazing. Mei calls it her addiction and they really are works of art.



Besides the end products, short tutorials showing how she made the jewelery would definitely attract more visitors to her site.

If you love jewelery, you will love Mei's blog.

My herbal garden

When I was starting my garden, I decided that I will have plants that not only look good but lot of edible ones as well.

I have drawn up a list of medicinal and aromatic plants that I want to have in my garden. So far, I have spearmint (Mentha spicata), rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis), parsley (Petroselinum crispum), lavender (Lavandula angustifolia) and basil (Ocimum basilicum).






My tomatoes are doing really well and it looks like I won't be buying any for quite sometime.


It looks like 'green fingers' does run in the family.

BTW, this is my Green Thumb Sunday post.

Join

Gardeners, Plant and Nature lovers can join in every Sunday, visit As the Garden Grows for more information.