Charapay

Forgot Viagra

Forgot Viagra - this lengthy list shows there other ways to put the O in your essential organs. Recent reports have shown that sunshine Vitamin D can boost a man's testosterone by 69 per cent, encouraging sexual desire.

But just in case you haven't got the cash for a winter getaway, we've teamed up with Sexpert Susan Quilliam to come up with some other ways ...

Bedroom boosters ... these tips could help your Valentines go off with a bang

1. Sniff his post-gym armpits

A 2007 study by scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, found sniffing a compound found in male sweat can change mood, sexual arousal, physiological arousal and brain activation in heterosexual women.

2. Exercise.

Aerobic workouts not only improve blood flow to sex organs but can also boost your mood, pumping up "feel good" brain chemicals called endorphins.

3. Open your Easter Eggs early

Chocolate contains phenethylamine, a nutrient that enhances mood and is the chemical we produce in our brains when we fall in love.

4. Get a whiff of salad

The smell of cucumber is one of the best scents to boost arousal in women, according to Chicago's Smell And Taste Research Centre.

5. Take a break

Too much stress increases the stress hormone cortisol, which causes testosterone to plummet, affecting your libido.

6. Make it seedy

Pumpkin seeds, along with Brazil nuts and almonds, are rich in the amino acid arginine, boosting levels of blood to the genitals.

7. Have a sherbet or two

The pleasure hormones released after drinking moderate alcohol help to release tension and inhibitions as well as testosterone, encouraging flirtatious talk.

Too much wine, however, reduces men's sex drive and women who drink too much are more likely to have sex but less likely to enjoy it, according to research.

8. Eat well

Too much saturated fat can clog arteries and, in doing so, prevent blood flow of blood from reaching the genital region.

9. Get some garlic breath

Garlic is rich in Allicin which improves blood flow to the pelvic organs.

10. Head to a spa

Studies showed the steam rooms boost blood flow and naturally increase libido.

11. Go and see your new-mum mates

Smells associated with breastfeeding are a natural aphrodisiac, heightening sexual desire in other women, say studies.

12. Get adventurous

Recent research shows that partaking in new and challenging experiences both in and outside the bedroom with your partner can boost the brain chemical dopamine, which helps fuel sex drive.

13. Have a takeaway

Thai Green Curry and Korma in particular have some great ingredients to improve sex drive.

14. Eat oysters

Recent studies show the molluscs are rich in rare amino acids that can trigger increased levels of sex hormones.

15. Get meaty

The protein in lean, red meat naturally boosts levels of dopamine and norepinephrine, two chemicals in the brain that heighten sensitivity during sex.

16. Start the day the right way

Porridge contains organic oats which are said to boost the libido by rebalancing oestrogen and testosterone to lift sexual stamina.

17. Celebrate Christmas everyday

Turkey and other lean meats that are rich in zinc encourage blood flow and are thought to boost your libido.

18. Stand outside a Krispy Krèmes stall

It's the smell of food rather than its constituent parts that gets men in the mood, says neurologist Alan Hirsch, the founder of the Smell and Taste Treatment and Research Foundation in Chicago.

He measured the effects of aromas on penile blood flow and found that men responded best to doughnuts, pizza, popcorn and strawberries.

19. Have a kick about

Playing footie can increase testosterone levels in men- especially if they win - leading to an increased libido.

20. Grab a pair of melons

Tests have shown that Melons are packed with citrulline, a chemical that stimulates the body into relaxing blood vessels - just like Viagra.

22. Get your nose in a 99

Scientists found that men who wore a wrist patch of vanilla sent had increased libido.

23. Go holistic

About 25 percent of women receiving acupuncture in one study reported more interest in sex while many also reported more energy and clearer thinking.

24. Take a break from alcohol.

Even a week off the booze can boost your desire and your performance.

25. Take a break from penetration

Not being able to do it will mean you want to do it even more.

26. Touch and cuddle.

Spending time each day giving skin-on-skin contact boosts oxytocin levels and makes you feel not only closer to your partner but more relaxed around sex with them.

28. Fantasise more.

Thinking about sex will boost your need for it and - particularly for her - make you more likely to initiate it.

29. Switch off

For her in particular, research suggests that the more she can switch off her mind, the higher her desire will be. To get her as relaxed as possible, try massage leading into foreplay.

30. Use mindspeak

Before sex, during it - or even at intervals during the day - to tell yourself that your desire is high. Use mantras such as "I really want sex and I really enjoy it" to pre-programmed your mind to pleasure. ( thesun.co.uk )

Pope Benedict XVI condemns child abuse by priests

Benedict's comments came as he is finalizing a letter to the Irish faithful concerning Ireland's massive church sex abuse and cover-up scandal.

Irish government-ordered investigations published last year documented decades of abuse by priests as well as the church's Dickensian network of residences for troubled Irish boys and girls where physical, psychological and sexual abuse was rampant.

In addition, the investigations showed how the Dublin Archdiocese covered up the abuse.

Four bishops have announced their resignations for failing to tell police about abuse cases. But Benedict has confirmed only the departure of Bishop Donal Murray of Limerick.

In the wake of the reports, Benedict summoned all of Ireland's bishops to the Vatican for an extraordinary meeting Feb. 15-16. He plans to release a letter to Ireland's 4 million Catholics afterward.

The U.S.-based victims support group Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests called Benedict's comments Monday "meaningless and self-serving."

"How many times does the pope get to 'condemn' clergy sexual abuse while doing virtually nothing to stop it?" asked Barbara Dorris, the group's outreach director. "How many times will he try to divert attention away from the complicity of bishops and focus exclusively on the crimes of the predators?"

In his speech Monday, Benedict said children deserved to be loved and respected by all — and that they flourish best in a family. He stressed his long-standing position that a family is founded on the marriage between a man and woman — and that couples should do everything possible to avoid separation and stay together for the sake of their children.

"They want to be loved by a mother and a father who love one another; they need to live with and grow up with both parents, because the maternal and paternal figures are complementary in educating children and in building their personalities and identities," the pope said. ( Associated Press )

Irish abuse victims ask pope to replace bishops

Irish abuse victims ask pope to replace bishops – Prominent Irish victims of Catholic sexual abuse have written to Pope Benedict XVI asking him to take responsibility for the church's concealment of child molestation by forcing out bishops implicated in the decades of cover-up.

Their plea, published Tuesday, comes one week before a special Vatican summit involving the pontiff and Ireland's bishops to craft a response to mammoth abuse cover-up scandals in the Irish church.

Three bishops have already tendered their resignations after a government-authorized investigation published in November found that Dublin Archdiocese authorities habitually concealed evidence of pedophile priests from civil authorities for decades.

But the letter-writers — among them Andrew Madden, a former altar boy who in 1995 became the first Irish person to go public with a lawsuit against the church — said the pope needed to do much more than accept those three resignations. They said dozens of bishops who failed to report accounts of abuse to the police should be replaced.

And they criticized the pope and his diplomat in Ireland, Archbishop Giuseppe Leanza, for refusing to respond to letters from Irish investigations into the extent of abuse and cover-up.

"Survivors find it incomprehensible that the Vatican and your representative in Ireland, the papal nuncio, saw fit to hide behind diplomatic protocols to avoid cooperating," they wrote.

The Dublin Archdiocese report found that bishops did not begin telling police about abuse suspicions and evidence involving more than 170 priests until victims began suing them in 1995.

A second Irish government-sanctioned investigation published in May found that tens of thousands of children suffered sexual, physical and psychological abuse in Catholic-run orphanages, workhouses and residential schools until the last of them closed in the 1990s.

Just as in the Dublin Archdiocese, the investigators found, church authorities shielded those abusers because they cared more about protecting the church's reputation than the children in their care.

The signatories of Tuesday's letter included directors of One in Four, an Irish counseling service founded by abuse victims of Catholic priests, and Marie Collins, who was raped by a priest in a Dublin children's hospital in 1960. She reported the abuse in 1995 — when she discovered that the archdiocese had already known about the priest's sexual interest in children for the previous three decades but kept transferring him to new parishes regardless. ( Associated Press )

Italian Catholic scandal draws in Pope Benedict

Italian Catholic scandal draws in Pope Benedict - A scandal in Italy's Catholic Church has morphed into a tale of Vatican intrigue complete with forged documents, reports of dueling cardinals and a papal admonishment Tuesday to put the matter to rest.

The scandal erupted in August, when the newspaper Il Giornale reported that it had court documents showing the editor of the newspaper of the Italian Bishops' Conference had paid to settle charges that he harassed the wife of a man he was romantically pursuing.

The revelations were initially seen as retribution by Il Giornale, which is owned by Premier Silvio Berlusconi's brother, against the bishops' newspaper, Avvenire. The Catholic paper had harshly criticized the premier and demanded he answer questions about his purported liaisons with younger women.

II Giornale accused Avvenire editor Dino Boffo of hypocrisy, saying the journalist had been fined in a plea-bargain several years ago for making harassing calls to the man's wife.

Prosecutors say Boffo made the calls, but have denied the case involved a gay angle. Boffo acknowledged being fined in the case but said someone else had used his cell phone to make the calls. Amid the fallout, he resigned from Avvenire in September, saying he wanted to spare his family and the church further humiliation.

Three months later, Il Giornale's editor Vittorio Feltri — who had penned the initial articles — admitted the document implying Boffo is gay was falsified, and apologized in a front-page letter.

The scandal resurfaced last week when Feltri said the document in question had been given to him by an "institutional" church official whom he trusted.

Some Italian media suggested that the editor of the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, essentially the pope's mouthpiece, was involved. Others suggested the Vatican No. 2, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, was behind it.

There have been long-running reports in the Italian media of battles between Bertone and the leadership of the Italian Bishops' Conference, particularly its previous head Cardinal Camillo Ruini. Italian news reports have said Bertone sought to wrest dealings with the Italian government away from the bishops' conference and had vetoed candidates for the conference leadership who he deemed were too powerful.

Italian newspapers routinely publish unsourced stories about machinations in the Vatican. Rarely, though, do such reports elicit thorough and high-ranking denials.

On Tuesday, however, Bertone issued a statement saying that reports of Vatican involvement were false and that Pope Benedict XVI himself "deplored these unjust and insulting attacks" that were "defaming the Holy See."

L'Osservatore Romano ran the statement on its front page with a note saying Benedict had approved the text and ordered it published.

The statement — unusual in its line-by-line denial of unsourced rumors — was confirmation that the case had reached the highest echelons of power in the Vatican's Apostolic Palace, making clear that the pope had become personally involved.

"The Holy Father Benedict XVI, who has been kept constantly informed, deplores these unjust and injurious attacks, renews his complete faith in his collaborators, and prays that those who truly have the good of the Church to heart may work with all means to ensure that truth and justice triumph," the statement said.

Feltri, for his part, denied he had ever met Bertone or L'Osservatore's editor, Giovanni Maria Vian, much less obtained documents from them. (Associated Press )

Five Lessons from the Tea-Party Convention

Five Lessons from the Tea-Party Convention . Things can get awkward when protesters have to put down their placards and tackle the business of building an organization — networking online and recruiting reliable volunteers, precinct captains and even candidates. The transition is even more uncomfortable when undertaken in the glare of the national media spotlight, as the national tea-party movement attempted to do at its first convention, held in Tennessee over the weekend.

As with any protest movement, consensus proved elusive in two days of debate, but they seemed to agree on five key points:

Former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin addresses attendees at the National Tea Party Convention in Nashville, Feb. 6

1. Don't Tread on Me

The tea-party folks are innately suspicious of any institutions. "Keep the change ... I'll keep my freedom, my guns and my money!" read a T-shirt for sale in the lobby. The very term national convention might imply the existence of a leadership, but the activists proudly insist that there is none. "I'm a facilitator; we don't have leaders," one lady told TIME when asked if she heads her local tea-party chapter. "We're all equal in this movement."

In a panel discussion on "Where the Tea Party Goes from Here," Memphis tea-party organizer and convention spokesman Mark Skoda urged delegates to raise the tone of their protests and to avoid unnecessary name-calling of elected officials, including Democrats. "Do not discount the fact that they are still Americans," Skoda said. "Have to have some empathy for that without degrading their noble desire to serve."

"But, wait," a woman in the audience piped up, sounding flabbergasted. "I agree with you, Mark, but some of these guys are a lost cause." Skoda quickly agreed that, indeed, many members of Congress had to go. "Do not ever believe that you are below anybody in elected office," he added.

2. The Party in Tea Party Refers Only to Boston

"Form another party? Why would we want to do that? That's exactly what the Daily Kos wants us to do and we'd just be playing into liberal hands," said Andrew Breitbart, a conservative blogger referring to a noted liberal blog. While Breitbart's was a common view, there were plenty of contrarians. "I'm kind of split" on the issue, said Angela Montgomery, 42, a retired dietician from Johnson City, Tenn. "I see the problems but I also think that tea partiers would better represent me than Republicans right now."

When Skoda, addressing reporters, reiterated the argument against forming a new party, he hastily added, "Of course, I only speak for myself." Sarah Palin, perhaps unsurprisingly, urged the movement to work within the system. "The Republican Party would be very smart to try and absorb as much of the tea-party movement as possible," she told the crowd. "Because the tea-party movement is the future of politics."

3. We Don't Need a Leader

"The tea-party movement has no leader, and ... neither did the American Revolution," thundered talk-radio host Phil Valentine, who spoke before Palin at the gala dinner. Leaving aside poor old General Washington, if there was one thing all tea partiers could agree upon it was that no one is their leader. And that was a condition Palin was happy to encourage. "This is about the people," she said. "It isn't about any king or queen of a tea party and it's a lot more than any one charismatic guy with a teleprompter."

Bettina Bibiano, a 47-year-old filmmaker from Los Angeles, said the tea-party movement doesn't need an iconic Obama-like figure. "It's hard for us to unify behind any one person," she explained. "We're not a cult."

4. This We Believe

Small government, lower taxes, greater individual liberties, more power to the states and government strictly by the Constitution and Bill of Rights: these are the general principles all tea-party activists can agree upon, to the extent that there was much discussion about a platform.

Still, some delegates were eager to work their wedge issues. Former Colorado Representative Tom Tancredo, who ran for President in 2008 in opposition to the Bush Administration's planned immigration reforms, whipped up the crowd with talk of Obama voters failing civics tests and hinting that they probably didn't even speak English. WorldNetDaily's Joseph Farah trotted out the birther claim that Obama wasn't really born in the United States. But such grandstanding had others worried.

"That kind of rhetoric is counterproductive," said former GOP House majority leader Dick Armey, who now runs Freedom Works, a group that works with the tea-party movement. "It feeds into the hands of the left and allows [the tea party] to be portrayed as people who are angry and accusatory, inflammatory. That is not what this movement has been about. We have to keep our eye on the ball; we have to work to stop people who believe the government should control vast sections of the economy." Armey believes that Obama is bringing up the gays-in-the-military question at this moment specifically to divide the tea-party movement. "He's hoping the grass roots would jump on this and turn away from economic issues," Armey said. "And Obama would just love to change the subject, so my own view is, don't take the bait."

5. President Palin?

At one point on Saturday, some disgruntled Tennessee tea-party activists held a press conference to complain about the cost of attending the event ($549 per person), which they say excluded many supporters. But when asked whether they begrudged Sarah Palin her reported $100,000 speaking fee, they blanched. "Of course not. I love Sarah Palin, we — I think it's safe to say we — all love Sarah Palin," said one of those complaining about ticket prices that presumably helped to pay for her keynote speech. A gushing love of Palin was, in fact, a major point of consensus at the convention. And she loved them right back. "America is ready for another revolution!" she enthused as the audience popped to their feet for the first of many ovations.

Palin, who plans to attend more such events in the coming months, said her speaker's fee would be plowed back into to "the cause." And she plans on helping the movement stump for approved conservative candidates (first up on Sunday was Texas Governor Rick Perry, who is facing a primary challenge from Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison). "You don't need an office or a title to make a difference," Palin said, noting that Saturday would have been Ronald Reagan's 99th birthday. "We are now the keepers of conservative values and good works." ( time.com )

Aceh Five Years After the Tsunami

Indonesia : Aceh Five Years After the Tsunami. It is Jan. 9, 2005. I have spent two weeks in Thailand reporting on a tsunami that has transformed its famous beach resorts into corpse-strewn ruins. One night, exhausted, my clothes reeking of death, I try calling a colleague in the hard-hit Indonesian province of Aceh. I simply misdial, but the recorded message gives me chills: "The destination you have dialed..."

Indonesian workers walk at a construction site in Banda Aceh on December 4, 2009.

Aceh did exist, of course, but with 166,000 dead or missing it had borne the brunt of the Indian Ocean tsunami, triggered by a 9.15-magnitude earthquake off the Indonesian coast on Dec. 26, 2004. It was a truly international catastrophe: the tsunami struck 13 countries, killing 226,000 people of 40 nationalities.

Five years later, a first-time visitor to the worst-affected countries — Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka and Thailand — might find the wave's terrible path hard to detect, thanks to a multinational, multi-billion-dollar reconstruction effort. Across Aceh, thousands of houses were built with foreign aid in what were once wastelands. In Banda Aceh, the provincial capital, new homes surround a 2,600-ton ship pushed a mile inland by the Tsunami. It is now a tourist attraction.

When I traveled to Aceh in 2005, three weeks after the wave struck, some 3,000 bodies were still being pulled from the rubble every day. Most aid-workers and journalists saw more dead in their first few days than in a lifetime of conflicts and emergencies, yet it was the living who haunted us.

I will never forget a gaunt, dignified Acehnese woman called Lisdiana, who was combing the debris for any trace of her four-year-old nephew Azeel. She had dreamed he was still alive. "He's a very handsome boy," she told me, "with skin as white as yours." Did she find Azeel? Probably not. The missing stayed missing, the dead stayed dead.

A return to Aceh today is a heartening experience. Billions of dollars in reconstruction funds have poured into the province, and it shows. Banda Aceh, where the tsunami killed 60,000 people — a fifth of the population — is now bustling and prosperous. There is a new hospital and airport, and tourist shops selling I-love-Aceh T-shirts.

There is also peace. The tsunami helped extinguish a decades-old conflict between Indonesian government troops and separatist rebels of the Free Aceh Movement (known as GAM by its initials in Bahasa Indonesian), who laid down their weapons in 2005. Despite sporadic political violence, Aceh's war is over. One enterprising local travel agent even offers "guerrilla tours" to GAM's former jungle strongholds.

That's not to say Acenese have truly healed, or that they ever will. Syamsiah, 47, runs a food stall in Calang, a tsunami-annihilated town about 90 miles from Banda Aceh that was rebuilt by the Red Cross. She seemed unfazed by the prospect of another tsunami ("That's God's business. Why should I be afraid?") but is tormented by the loss of many of her relatives, including her parents, when the wave swept over their coastal village. Syamsiah had found only their bones. "It broke my heart," she sobbed.

While most Tsunami-hit areas have been rebuilt, "there's still more work to be done," says Patrick Fuller of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC). Top of the list: preparing for the next disaster. A regional tsunami early-warning system has been up and running since 2006.

But getting timely and accurate information to imperiled communities is problematic. Time is of the essence: Aceh, for example, sits on the northern tip of the seismologically hyperactive island of Sumatra, where an earthquake in the western city of Padang killed more than 1,000 people in September.

This month, thousands of bereaved worldwide will observe the tsunami's fifth anniversary as solemnly as its first or its 50th. The rest of us can take some solace in the fact that while the tragedy of the tsunami touched every continent, so too did the relief effort that followed. More than 100 countries took part in the tsunami response. Some $13.5 billion was pledged in aid, with an unprecedented $5.5 billion donated by the general public.

Not since the Live Aid famine-relief concerts of 1985 had the world's compassion been so galvanized. At one point, Britons were donating nearly $14,000 a minute to the main tsunami relief fund. The wave slammed into Asian and east African shores, but the whole world seemed to absorb some of its impact, some of its grief. Today we can reflect upon what our overwhelming response five years ago means as we face other global emergencies: that out of nature's darkest hour can come one of humanity's finest. ( time.com )

China finds 170 more tons of tainted milk powder

Tainted dairy has recently been found in China's largest city, Shanghai, and in the provinces of Shaanxi, Shandong, Liaoning, Guizhou, Jilin and Hebei. At least five companies are suspected of reselling tainted products that should have been destroyed, the Health Ministry said last week. The problem products uncovered in the 10-day emergency crackdown have so far been limited to the domestic market.

The campaign is set to end Wednesday, and it's not clear whether it will be extended. The country's biggest holiday, the Lunar New Year, starts this weekend, and already some offices are closing and millions of people are going on vacation.

The Health Ministry has not commented since the crackdown began, and the China Dairy Association has remained quiet as well.

"The problem is, this is a product with a shelf life of several years. It's very important that the product is not left unattended," said Dr. Peter Ben Embarek, a WHO senior scientist on food safety based in Beijing. "There's always a risk it will find a way back into the system."

The latest discovery underscores the difficulties of policing China's smaller food producers, despite a sweeping new food safety law that took effect last summer and promised stricter quality controls after the 2008 scandal, which was China's worst food safety crisis in years.

In the wake of that crisis, China punished dozens of officials, dairy executives and farmers, even executing a dairy farmer and a milk salesman. But the government didn't destroy seized products itself. Instead, it issued guidelines on how to destroy them, suggesting they be burned in large-capacity incinerators or that small amounts be buried in landfills.

In the southern city of Guangzhou, however, the local government did take over disposal after one garbage company poured tainted milk into a city river.

China's new food safety law places even more responsibility on food producers to ensure their products are safe, including introducing tough new penalties for makers of unsafe products.

On Monday, with the announcement that more products contaminated by the industrial chemical melmine had been found, it appeared the new regulations had failed again. Officials issued a recall for more than 170 tons of milk powder tainted by the industrial chemical melamine and closed two dairy companies in the northern region of Ningxia, the China Daily newspaper reported.

The report said officials have already seized 72 tons of the powder but were still looking for the rest, which had been sold by the Ningxia Tiantian Dairy Co. Ltd. to five factories in the neighboring region of Inner Mongolia and the bustling southern provinces of Guangdong and Fujian.

The report said the tainted powder should have been destroyed in the 2008 scandal, but that an unnamed company gave it to Ningxia Tiantian as a debt payment.

Zhao Shuming, secretary-general of the Ningxia Dairy Industry Association, told the China Daily that said Ningxia Tiantian appears to have been unaware the product contained melamine but should have known that the repackaging itself, which usually involves changing production and sell-by dates, was illegal.

Zhao told the paper that many small dairies, including Ningxia Tiantian, don't have the technology to even test for melamine. When watered-down milk is laced with the chemical, it appears to still be rich in protein in quality tests that measure nitrogen, found in both the melamine and protein.

"Flaws in the previous system led to the current chaos. What if companies with tainted milk also hold back their stocks for this round of checkups and reuse them later, just like what's happening now?" the newspaper quoted him as saying.

Zhao spoke more carefully Monday, telling the AP, "We have strict checks, and our client companies have strict checks, too."

Ningxia Tiantian has been shut down, and a second company, Ningxia Panda Dairy Co. Ltd., was also ordered closed because of ties to a Shanghai dairy found with tainted goods last year, the report said.

Online Chinese chat rooms were buzzing Monday over the latest tainted milk finding, with many asking "Why are these things happening again?"

But a large-scale drop in consumer confidence that happened in the 2008 scandal isn't likely this time, said Cindy Yang, a dairy analyst for the Netherlands-based Rabobank Group in Shanghai.

"These companies are quite small ones," she said Monday, adding that China's largest dairies put stricter safety measures in place after feeling the bite of bad publicity — and raised prices 20 to 30 percent to pay for the better quality.

"You can't say that because of these cases, there's no trust in the whole market," she said. ( Associated Press )

Charapay

My Blog List

Forgot Viagra

Pope Benedict XVI condemns child abuse by priests

Irish abuse victims ask pope to replace bishops

Italian Catholic scandal draws in Pope Benedict

Five Lessons from the Tea-Party Convention

Aceh Five Years After the Tsunami

China finds 170 more tons of tainted milk powder

Blogroll

The Love is Beautiful

Tips and Tricks

Michael Jackson