nanonews

Oprah Winfrey has a lot to answer for. Not only is she a leader of people and an icon for the world, she is responsible for introducing the majority of the world to the wonders of acai and the benefits of acai supplements. It was her feature on the book The Perricone Promise, written by Dr. Nicholas Perricone, that led to the world realizing acai for what it really was: the number one super food. Acai is not the only fruit mentioned in this wonderfully researched and excellently written book, but it does top the list in certain key areas of nutritional fulfillment.

Oprah’s expose of the book naturally led to a lot of interest in it and the fruits it covered. Acai products like juices, purees and particularly acai berry supplements enjoyed a fairly permanent — and deserved — boost in sales. NBC even covered acai and the benefits of acai supplements, telling us that it was able to deliver a massive amount of energy to anyone lucky enough to be able to enjoy it.

And in the past you would have to be lucky to enjoy it: acai cannot be transported outside the immediate area in which it is grown because of the speed with which it degrades. Lately products like acai berry supplements have made the dream of worldwide delivery of acai a reality.

I love to smoke Salvia. I do not try and hide this fact from anyone because I am not embarrassed by it. I am not afraid of the legal repercussions because I am completely within the law. I do not fear the medical problems relating to Salvia because there have been none proved or observed. In short, I am a Salvia smoker and proud of it.

It will come as no surprise, then, that I am absolutely thrilled to hear of the potential good that might come out of some pioneering Salvia research. This research has identified that Salvia might just be able to help researchers pinpoint exactly what happens in the brain when it is affected by a degenerative mental illness like Alzheimer’s.

It goes without saying that I am pleased for those that this development could help. I am also really pleased that this revelation might just sway the opinion of those people who think Salvia to be the devil’s own hallucinogen of choice.

To ban Salvia is to take away another of our civil liberties. Pure and simple. To do this simply because it provides an easy political target seems unfair. It also sets a worrying precedent that doesn’t stop anywhere sensible.

The acai berry is a funny thing. It’s rarely seen outside of Brazil because of the rate at which it deteriorates after it is harvested, yet a lot of places in the world have seen an exponential rise in the requirement for acai diet foods. The only way to get acai berries to those interested in an acai diet is to make them into some kind of acai pulp or — as is becoming more popular day by day — make the berries into a delicious acai juice.

The acai diet is popular with good reason. The anti oxidants and anti inflammatories in the acai berry are not only great for keeping you fit and healthy, they can also reduce the signs of aging and — perhaps most significantly — combat major diseases like cancer, diabetes and even Alzheimer’s.

Praise for the acai berry has been long and loud. From renowned industry specialists like Nicholas Perricone to Oprah, all have something good to say about the acai berry and about an acai diet. An acai diet may not be the be all and end all of staying fit and healthy, but surely it makes the whole process dramatically easier for those who chose the acai diet.

If, like many people interested in fitness, diet and health, you have tried acai juice, then you will know just how good for you it can be. Unfortunately there are huge number of very similar products on the market offering acai juice in vary forms and coloured bottles. Fortunately the companyies who own these products have made our choice a lot easier: Amazon Thunder leads the pack on quality and price, while Monavie shows the rest of the market just how business should not be conducted.

Ignoring the FDA investigations into Monavie’s parent company, let’s look at the acai juice itself.

Actually, calling Monavie acai juice is a little misleading. More accurate is ‘fruit juice with added powdered acai’. That’s right, all the Monavie products use a freeze-dried powder which they claim to have invented themselves. Invented or not, this is not fresh acai by any stretch of the imagination.

Other ingredients in the top of the range Monavie juice — Monavie Pulse juice — includes lots of fruits, including Concord grapes, pineapple, prickly pear, elderberry, bilberry, cherry and aronia all in a ‘reconstituted fruit blend’. All very tasty, I’m sure.

The problem with Monavie — apart from the fact that it is much more expensive than any other acai juice on the market — is that it is just trying to be something that it is not.

Recently I started to use the acai berry as an addition to my normal diet. I managed to get some acai juice from a local distributor and have taken the acai juice to work with me everyday since. It’s tasty and nutritious and apparently it’s going to make me fit and healthy.

I started looking for ways to get acai juice after I saw some really interesting reports about it on Oprah. I love Oprah and as she told me the acai juice would do me the world of good I had no choice but to believe her! The acai juice that I buy is delicious and nutritious. It does actually feel like it’s doing me a world of good. Apparently it is the anti-oxidants in the acai juice that do the most good, but there is loads of other juicy goodness in there as well.

Some of the residents in the areas that harvest the acai fruit rely on the berry in a big way. I’m talking about it making up almost half of their diet and providing all of their income. If I’m feeling this much better just from drinking acai juice imagine what it must be doing to them! Amazing!

Stacy Williams reckons that the best part of running your own home based business is the lifestyle that it can bring. There is a danger that you will be unable to separate home and work life, she continues, but if you’re disciplined then you shouldn’t have any problems.

Stacy and husband Mark run their home based business from their own house. Their home based business deals with search engine optimization of clients’ websites. Both work from the house, and both really do seem to appreciate the advantages that this gives, and the benefits that it provides them.

Despite working from how the Williams’ home based business employs six part time staff. How do they manage this? With a variety of exciting and advanced tools that enable the team to meet virtually. The six members of staff, like Stacy and Mark, enjoy flexible hours and work on their own terms. It is this flexibility that allows them to hire the best staff and get the best from them: Stacy tells me that many of the staff are mothers with young children that need taking to and collecting from work, making a 9-5 difficult if not impossible.

A home based business might not be for everyone, but it certainly is for Mark and Stacy.

Dealio is a rather aggressive and very nasty piece of adware that infects your computer when you are least expecting it; unfortunately some people offering useful software decide that it will be better packaged with adware such as Dealio.

Ares Destiny is one such piece of useful software tainted by the color of this nasty disease.

And I didn’t realize until too late.

The first thing that you will likely notice about Ares Destiny is that the website is clean and professional looking; the next thing will be that it is entirely free of cost; the third that the download process works quickly and the fourth that the installation process is surprisingly painless. So far so good, you may be thinking.

And indeed that is what I thought. Even to the point where I was downloading and sharing music with others all over the world. I’d seen other versions of Ares around but Ares Destiny was the first one I’d notice that was free. I’d even started to recommend Ares Destiny to some of my friends.

Oh dear: what a mistake. It was only after a while that I noticed the popups ads appearing all over my computer. It was a little while after that that I tied these popups to Dealio which in turn I managed to tie to Ares Destiny. This is definitely no longer on my recommended software list.

In a study of three traditional Caboclo populations in the Amazon region of Brazil, acai palm was described as the most important plant species because the acai fruit makes up such a major component of diet (up to 42% of the total food intake by weight) and is economically valuable in the region (Murrieta et al., 1999). The juice and pulp of acai fruits (Euterpe oleracea) are frequently used in various juice blends, smoothies, sodas, and other beverages. In northern Brazil, açaí is traditionally served in gourds called “cuias” with tapioca and sometimes sugar. Acai has become a fad in southern Brazil where it is consumed cold as açaí na tigela (”açaí in the bowl”), mostly mixed with granola - a fad where acai is considered as an energizer. Acai is also widely consumed in Brazil as an ice cream flavor or juice. As acai deteriorates rapidly after harvest, its raw material is generally only available outside the immediate growing region as acai juice or acai fruit pulp that has been frozen, dried acai, or freeze-dried. However, several companies now manufacture acai juices, other health drinks, and sorbets made from acai berries, often in combination with other fruits.

Lose Weight with Acai Berry
Acai can be a great weight loss aid. The berry’s incredibly high levels of essential fatty acids, fiber, phytosterols and amino acids work together to help your body burn fat more efficiently, process food more quickly and shed the unwanted pounds that you’d like to lose.

Antioxidants
Acai berries have far more antioxidants than any other fruit – three times as much as blueberries, which is second. Besides that, the nutrients in acai berry help many other diseases, from diabetes to arthritis to blood clotting. Here are some of the ways adding Acai Berry to your diet may help you:

Boosts energy levels
Improves digestive function
Provides many important vitamins
Minimizes inflammation
Is an extremely powerful antioxidant
Acai has high levels of fiber
Cleanses and detoxifies the body
Strengthens the immune system
Fights cancerous cells
Helps maintain healthy heart function
Prevents atherosclerosis
Promotes healthier and younger-looking skin
Helps alleviate diabetes
Slows down the aging process
Improves circulation
Improves mental clarity/focus
Enhances sexual desire and performance
Contains several important minerals
Normalizes and regulates cholesterol levels
Promotes sound sleep
Enhances visual acuity

Fatty Acids
Did you know Acai Berries are the only fruit to contain appreciable amounts of fatty acids? Don’t be fooled by the terminology though, some fatty acids are good. Our bodies need essential fatty acids to maintain proper health. We are unable to produce Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids. It just so happens that these fatty acids are plentiful in Acai berries. Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids help increase your metabolism. The are also very effective at inhibiting hunger. Both of which helps you to lose weight more quickly. In providing these Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids, the Acai berry can help you shed those extra pounds.

Fiber
Acai contains a generous amount of fiber, which helps your digestive tract to move food through your body. In this way, excess food is eliminated rather than absorbed and turned into fat. Similar to the fatty acids mentioned above, fiber also helps to satiate hunger.

Amino Acids
The Acai berry is rich with amino acids, which are widely known as the building blocks of protein. Your muscles need these amino acids in order to operate properly, and to regenerate from resistance training trauma or other exercise stress. Since the fatty acids in Acai increase your metabolism and the amino acids build your muscles, we can say that the nutrients in Acai berries help your body burn fat and energy more efficiently, causing you to lose weight.

Phytosterols
These building blocks of cell membranes help fortify your digestive tract, moving waste materials out and absorbing nutrients more efficiently. Acai berries are an excellent source of Phytosterols.

Disease Fighting and other Health Benefits
Published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, a study showed that extracts from acai berries triggered a self-destruct response in up to 86 percent of leukemia cells tested.

Acai berries are already considered one of the richest fruit sources of antioxidants,” said Stephen Talcott, an assistant professor with UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences. “This study was an important step toward learning what people may gain from using beverages, dietary supplements or other products made with the berries.

Why Use Acai ?
I personally enjoy the Acai Berry because of it’s antioxidant properties. In this day and age of phytoestrogens, chemicals, pesticides, and other nasty environmental toxins, we can’t get enough antioxidants. Others swear by it as a weight loss aid and energy booster. Less proven, but also important, are the disease fighting properties that are being subscribed to the wonder berry. Whatever your reason for interest in trying Acai Berry products, below are the 2 most common forms that you will find outside of Brazil.

Acai Berry Supplements
Supplements are the most convenient way to get your Acai Berry. But beware – there are some unscrupulous sellers who push garbage and dissappear tomorrow. In particular, stay far away from the “Free Trial” offers. They say you only need to pay some nominal amount for shipping, like $3.95. But they get your credit card number, then keep shipping you more product at exhorbitant amounts like $89. They hide the fact you signed up for a subscription, and make it very hard to contact someone to cancel. A huge rip-off. So, which should you try? The best we can recommend right now is Acai Pure. This is a 100% acai berry product is not gummed up with fillers or additives. It is not loaded with accessory supplements for marketing purposes. AcaiPure includes only the highest grade Acai powder available anywhere on the planet, and is America’s #1 anti-oxidant cleansing formula! You can find numerous polls around the web that rank Acai Pure higher than most other acai berry products. Acai Pure is always ranked in the top 3 and is often rated #1.

Acai Juice or Drinks
You can get acai juice products from various MLM companies like Monavie. You can also go to your local health food store, GNC, Vitamin World, etc… and get an acai juice product. Unfortunately, these Acai berry juice supplements are notoriously full of sugar or are diluted with other fruit juices so much that they are not even worth taking for the health benefits. The only one I have been able to find that is 100% Acai, with no water or other fruit juices mixed in is Amazon Thunder.

You know it’s not diluted as soon as you open the bottle and try to pour it out. I say “try” because its sometimes like pouring ketchup. It’s closer to a paste than a juice. This tells your right away you’ve got nothing but mashed acai berries. I must say, I found the taste a little strange at first, but am now totally addicted to it! I believe this is by far the most concentrated, undiluted, and intact form of Acai and the best way to get all the nutritional benefits from this wonder berry. The only problem is the convenience factor is not as great as a supplement form.

Having just tried its hand at developing a digital music player, Microsoft is working on something new: digital furniture.

The company plans to unveil a touch screen computer today called Microsoft Surface, featuring a 30-inch screen embedded in an acrylic tabletop. The device’s electronic guts are hidden in the low-slung table’s thick pedestal.

At first glance, Surface is reminiscent of an old-fashioned arcade game table around which patrons played Pac-Man. But there is no joystick here, and no mouse or keyboard either. The device is controlled by touching the tabletop display.

Microsoft says this touch screen computer will allow people to “interact with digital content the same way they have interacted with everyday items such as photos, paintbrushes and music their entire life: with hands, with gestures and by putting real-world objects on the surface.”

For example, when a digital camera with Wi-Fi capabilities is placed on the display, the table recognizes the camera and, at a touch of the screen, downloads its photos and video clips. The digital pictures can be sorted and sized by “handling” them as if they were physical prints.

The device uses cameras under the display to detect touches, and unlike traditional touch screens it can handle multiple touches at the same time, said Jeff Gattis, the director of product management for Surface.

Similarly, Surface can read bar codes and identification tags embedded in objects like hotel chain membership cards.

Microsoft hopes this touch screen computer will someday be common in homes, but its first uses will be commercial. By the end of this year, Surface will appear in hotels, restaurants, retail stores and public entertainment sites, where it will serve as an information kiosk and handle things like basic customer service. Steven A. Ballmer, Microsoft’s chief executive, was scheduled to unveil the product today at The Wall Street Journal’s “D: All Things Digital” conference in Carlsbad, Calif.

“With Surface, we are creating more intuitive ways for people to interact with technology,” Mr. Ballmer said in a statement. “We see this as a multibillion-dollar category, and we envision a time when touch screen computers will be pervasive, from tabletops and counters to the hallway mirror.”

Microsoft also named several partners that will be among the first companies to use Surface, including Harrah’s Entertainment, Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide and T-Mobile USA. The device’s cost was not disclosed.

Phishing, online fraud, identity theft, viruses, hackers. It makes for really sad reading, doesn’t it? It makes me suspicious of everything online, and certainly I have a huge conceptual problem with downloading anything, even when I’m assured that it is safe.

I did stumble across a nice little site yesterday, and it has helped to ease my concerns somewhat. More importantly for the purposes of this article, it managed to drag me into the 21st century and into the world of music filesharing. What happened? Well the site managed to convince me to download Ares Vista.

Actually it was my daughter that had started me on this trail. She assured me that my favorite Nine Inch Nails tracks could in fact be downloaded for free with Ares Vista. Download Ares Vista, she assured me, and all would be well. This is how I found OfficialAres.com

I’ve got to say that the blatant impartiality and honesty of the site really got me thinking: maybe everything in the e-universe isn’t so bad after all. If, like me, you’re looking to download Ares Vista then a peek at their reviews won’t go amiss: very well written and clearly impartial. They tell it like it is! Reading these helped me choose the right software to go for and helped my unexpected success in getting a to a stage where I could download Ares Vista with confidence.