At the west end of the National Mall in Washington, D.C., the Lincoln Memorial stands in tribute to President Abraham Lincoln. It’s not only a reminder of one of our history’s greatest figures, but a place of celebration, education and demonstration. In times of trouble and of peace, the National Mall has served as America’s symbolic front yard and the eyes of Lincoln’s statue have kept watch over our unfolding history. Photo by Yu Sheng (http://ift.tt/18oFfjl).
Beauty doesn’t have to be expensive. In fact, with the right food, you can boost your skin’s natural glow without having to rely on creams, serums, and lotions. And because these natural foods don’t contain the chemicals and preservatives most skin care products have, they are also a lot safer.
For healthy, glowing skin, you can try adding more of these foods to your daily meal plans.
Tomatoes have lycopene which is a natural antioxidant. It helps fight free radical damage and protects your skin against the sun’s harmful UV rays.
Aside from these benefits, adding tomatoes to your diet can also boost your skin’s collagen production. Collagen is what gives your skin its structure to make it taut, supple and youthful looking.
How to benefit from it:
You can eat tomatoes raw or add them to your salads. You can also puree it and apply as a mask on your skin.
Another potent source of antioxidants is green tea. It contains catechins that can tame inflammation and help your skin heal and repair itself after severe sun exposure.
You can use regular bags of green tea for your skin but research suggests that you can get more potent antioxidant benefits when you brew loose tea leaves. You just have to be careful in choosing your brand or source as green tea, like any botanical products, may contain lead.
How to benefit from it:
You can use it to create delicious and refreshing recipes from desserts to smoothies. You can even use it as a face mask.
See Also: 7 Easy Steps To Aging Skin Repair
Grapefruits contain a high amount of vitamin C. In fact, just one grapefruit can give you around 38.4 mg of the vitamin to boost your skin’s collagen production for skin cell growth and renewal.
Grapefruit also has a high water content that can keep your skin hydrated. When your skin is hydrated, it’s more resistant to damages caused by exposure to pollution.
How to benefit from it:
Take a half grapefruit and sprinkle sugar on its surface. Use the grapefruit to scrub away the dry and rough areas of your skin, such as your knees and elbows,
Avocados naturally have vitamin E which is one of the secrets to youthful skin. Vitamin E can help reverse the damages brought about by aging, including sagginess and wrinkles.
Avocados also contain a high amount of oleic acid which can address your dry and irritated skin. This fatty acid is essential in keeping your skin’s outer layer moisturized.
How to benefit from it:
Take a half ripe avocado and mash it. Add a few drops of aloe vera gel and apply the mixture liberally on your face.
When it comes to anti-aging, alpha lipoic acid is one of the best antioxidants you can give your skin. Broccoli has enough ALAs to reduce your fine lines, dark undereye circles and puffiness.
It also has beta-carotene that’s not only good for your skin but your eyes and mucous membranes as well. Broccoli is even potent enough to be used as a sunscreen when applied topically on your skin.
How to benefit from it:
You can add broccoli to your soups, salads, and pasta. It also makes a good face mask.
Eating oats every day can help reduce the number of bacteria in your gut. It can also lower your blood glucose levels.
Both of these properties can help you avoid breakouts or get rid of your existing acne. When used topically, oats can relieve itchiness and inflammation while providing your skin moisture.
How to benefit from it:
Oats are great to use as face scrubs by adding a small amount of water. You can also use it as a face mask by mixing it with honey, yogurt, and milk.
Munching on almonds is a good way to boost your skin’s natural glow. They are rich in monounsaturated fats that can regulate your skin’s oil production and moisture.
Almonds can repair damaged skin cells from the inside and hasten fresh skin cell production. These properties allow you to have an improved skin texture and tone.
How to benefit from it:
Take a few almonds and soak them in warm water for a couple of hours. After letting them soften up a bit, use a mortar and pestle to grind the almonds into a fine powder.
Once they are fine enough, you can add a few tablespoon of yogurt, just enough to turn the powder into a paste. Use the mixture as a face scrub and wash right after.
If you want to boost your iron levels, then eating spinach is one of the things you should do. Iron is the protein part of your hemoglobin which carries oxygen to your cells.
When you increase your cell’s oxygen supply, you can get that rosy and glowing look.
Spinach is also a great source of vitamin K which can address dark undereye circles and inflamed skin. If you’re struggling with late night sleep, adding this vegetable to your diet can make your skin clearer and less puffy.
How to benefit from it:
You can boil your spinach and add it to your salad. Another way to reap its benefits is to use it for your smoothie recipe.
See Also: 6 Vitamin-Packed Smoothie Recipes for Glowing Skin
If you are suffering from acne, eating a pomegranate a day should help. It has a special component that makes it extra effective against acne. Anthocyanins, the antioxidant that gives pomegranate its color, have a strong anti-inflammatory property that can address your skin breakouts.
It can also increase your insulin sensitivity and decrease your body’s stress hormones.
How to benefit from it:
Aside from eating pomegranates, you can use a blender to make a paste. After getting the right texture, apply the paste on your skin and use it as a scrub.
You can also add raw honey to the mixture. Massage well and rinse after you’re done.
Dark chocolates are not as bad as you think they are. In fact, with its flavanol content, it can minimize your skin’s roughness.
Eating dark chocolate can help you get glowing skin even if you’re in a stressful situation. This chocolate can actually lower your stress hormones before they show on your skin.
How to benefit from it:
You can melt your dark chocolate and add a few drops of honey. Apply it on your face as a mask and let it sit for a couple of minutes.
Wash it off with water and pat dry your skin.
When you eat these vitamin and mineral-rich foods, you not only feed your skin, you are feeding your other organs and entire body too. Avoid processed food and stress, and live more healthily with nature’s bounty.
The post 10 Best Skin Foods For Healthy Glowing Skin appeared first on Dumb Little Man.
From the architect. In a seemingly infinite territory and mostly occupied by pines and oaks, the implantation of the house marks a space and an intention. A space of pause, serenity and breathing, surrounded and protected by the green patch that filters the light and the eyesight, purifies the air and the soul and stimulates the corporal senses of who let himself be seduced by the elements of nature. An intention of materializing a perennial refuge that transforms and adapts itself to the site’s conditions and to the family that inhabits it.
The house does not begin in the physical limits of its walls, but rather at the outer limit of the green patch that surrounds it, assuming it as imaginary walls that make up a larger house, a habitat. This green patch, or better, this forest, is assumed as the intermediate and transition space between the outside (of what exists beyond itself) and the interior (housing).
The concrete volume construction sets up and gives shape to a boundary defined by employing courtyards that are outlined by the interior spaces of the house. It is the empty space trimmed and subtracted from the built volume. This design favours the organization and the hierarchy of the spaces inherent to the house, and also increases the contact perimeter with the forest, which promotes the creation of scenarios where the fusion of inhabitants and nature happens, where the visual, touching, hearing and olfactory experience is encouraged in a way to provide a sense of comfort and well-being to those who live there.
One of the best ways to create a beautiful contrast between modern contemporary styles and artistic aesthetics when it comes to home design and decor is to incorporate and embrace unique shapes, surfaces, and textures to create stunning visual combinations. This often looks very modern in a way that people don’t find homey, but depending on the combinations of materials you choose, modern shapes can certainly be made to look..
The post Archiplanstudio Designs a Three-Level Apartment in Milan appeared first on HomeDSGN.
New York City – New York – USA (by paul)
What makes a city different from a town? What is the distinction between these two seemingly similar collections of buildings and streets? Why can we trace towns back to the Stone Age, while the first city remains a mystery? Although a village and a city can be considered similar, the city has a unique and innovative element that makes it stand out: the citizens and civitas.
While villages were merely an efficient urban system for groups of people that live together, the foundation of a city entails the institution of a very concrete idea of society, of a commitment between individuals to organize the world based on shared criteria.
The civitas is precisely this idea of social order, the accumulation of traditions, laws, principles and beliefs that gave rise to the civil community. Urbs is the urban model especially dedicated to institutionalizing this idea of society. Be aware that we’re not talking about streets or houses here, but of the moment of the establishment, that is, of the foundation of the city. As Fustel de Coulanges would say, while the civitas is a time-honored inheritance accumulated over centuries, the urbs is founded in one day. Filling it with streets, houses, and shops as a consequence.
As Hermann Minkowski puts it in “Vers une cosmologie. Fragments philosophiques” (Paris, 1967, p.149), “in the beginning, the environment was a shifting ocean. It is evolution. The human personality detaches from that evolution and affirms itself because of that. The person does it what he can, that is, by modeling the environment in his image, according to both individual and general characteristics. “
In this sense, the city is not a housing complex but a cosmogonic device, which explains the origin of order -cosmos- in disorder -chaos-. The political institutions – polis – are guarantee the operation of this device and of the laws that it governs. Therefore, its existence affects the founding city form just as much as the civitas or the urbs. Aristotle already identified this circumstance in the 4th century BC and presented the act of founding a city as a practice that is bound and subject to the political regime. De Coulanges would probably propose a debate on whether the Polis is a later, more complex element, and not as essential.
With respect to fortified places, they aren’t equally suited for all regimes. The acropolis, for example, is useful to an oligarchical or monarchical regime; For democratic regimes an open plain is best, and neither of those for an aristocracy, but rather several fortifications – Aristotle, Politics, II, 8, 1.
Joseph Rykwert proposed in the 1960s that all these political and symbolic foundations share certain common elements. From the Euphrates Valley to Etruria, Greece, Rome, China, India, sub-Saharan Africa, Indigenous North America and Pre-Columbian Latin America, every foundation has represented a cosmic order and has possessed an institutional and religious center, key areas, a boundary, gates and a labyrinth. This article does not have illustrations, but the sketch I would’ve liked to have shown you is the same that you are already drawing in your head. Center, streets, boundary, gates and labyrinth. That’s it. Now the only difference between your mental picture and a true urban foundation is the unconditional acceptance that these elements build the order of the universe on earth.
So far we’ve been talking about history, history in the sense that these rites and institutions feel like they’re far removed from the diffused and scattered metropolises that the majority of us live in today. If you are lucky enough to live in a small town, you are still connected to the net of networks, to the liquid marsh of data and vectors that govern the world. It seems that with the exception of some specific places like historical city centers in Europe or Bolivar Square(s) in the Americas, the contemporary city is more a system of aggregated elements than a cosmic gesture guaranteeing order. This is true, of course … only if you ignore the other half of today’s urban production: fictional cities.
Literature, theater, film and video games are arts plagued by cities. From the Old Testament to A Song of Ice and Fire (1996-), works of fiction are often developed in urban contexts, cities that by their very nature do not possess the Deleuzian complexity of modern cities. Each of the cities in the work of George R. R. Martin represents a political position and a specific way of facing the world. It’s not a coincidence that it’s one of those “books with a map”, a genre that could be considered founded by Utopia in 1516.
The opening credits of the series of HBO Game of Thrones (GoT) are a great success in this sense. In the absence of a physical cartography like the one accompanying the book, GoT’s opens with the map itself, the land. Through an abstract and stylized infographic, the spectator goes through the main cities of each episode one by one.
King’s Landing sits on a cliff crowned by the great royal palace, the lower you live on it, the lower you are on the social ladder: a tribute to Aristotle. The center of Winterfell is outside the stronghold and is shaped like a tree, as it is a city that honors the ancient gods. The Wall is not the “city wall” but the “city gate”, one that decides what’s within the social order and what is left out, the “wild”. Pentos is a city “on the other side” and its existence is based on its confrontation with King’s Landing. It is the opposite shore, the refuge of the “other” personified by the last vestiges of the house Targaryen and its allies the Dothrakis.
All these cities are urbs characterized to house singular civitas, imagined but linked to our own history. Their foundational elements are powerful, basic but revealing. Their forms institutionalize very clear political orders that the viewer can read from the very first scene. The classic practice of founding cities as messages of order survives today in these fictional cities. For many centuries to come, Rome lives on.
A trench was dug
down to the solid rock,
fruits of the earth were thrown into the bottom of it,
and with them earth fetched from the neighbouring soil.
The trench was filled up with mould,
and on the top was set an altar,
and a fire was duly lit,
on a new hearth.
Ovidio, Fasti, IV, 819.
💙 Eclipse track on 500px by hsinkui ho, TAIWAN☀ Canon EOS-1D… http://ift.tt/2bgyBa0
This article, originally titled “DC’s Museum Of African American History Is The City’s Greenest,” was originally published on Lance Hosey’s Huffington Post blog. It is part of a four-part series about the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.
Fifteen years ago, when I worked on the design of a high-performance museum, the concept was considered so unusual that the media questioned the very idea. The US Green Building Council (USGBC) had only very recently introduced its Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system, so much of the public wasn’t familiar with the concept. Over the following decade, it became more and more popular in every building type, including museums. A watershed year was 2008. The Water + Life Museums in Hemet, CA, became the first LEED Platinum museum, quickly followed by the California Academy of Science, which has been called “the world’s greenest museum.” The same year, the Grand Rapids Art Museum became the first LEED-certified art museum. By 2016, International Museum Day could highlight ten LEED-certified museums in the US alone.
Now the Smithsonian has completed its first LEED Gold project, the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC). (The Silver-rated National Museum of the American Indian [NMAI] was the first Smithsonian project to become a certified green building, although it wasn’t designed to this standard and didn’t achieve it until seven years after opening in 2004.) By many measures, the NMAAHC is easily the greenest museum in Washington.
But the bar isn’t very high, unfortunately. Last year, the Smithsonian completed its renovation of the Renwick Gallery, but it’s not clear from public records when or if LEED certification will be completed—although reportedly the building systems originally were designed to be very efficient. Earlier this year, the Smithsonian also reopened the historic Arts & Industries Building after a 12-year closure and an extensive renovation, but it didn’t pursue LEED, I’m told. The National Gallery also reopened the iconic East Building after a three-year refurbishment. No LEED. The Newseum opened in 2008. No LEED. Washington is said to be “in a class of its own when it comes to high quality museums,” but an article last year highlighting “must-see green museums” around the world included none in DC. What’s the problem?
At the time it opened, the Newseum’s director told the press that it didn’t get LEED certification “for reasons of cost.” This is a common misperception. In a 2008 survey of over 700 construction professionals, 80% cited “higher first costs” as the biggest obstacle to green building. Yet, even a dozen years ago the average surcharge for LEED projects was only 2%, and the additional investment typically yielded operational savings worth ten times that much, according to a widely cited report back then. By 2007, studies showed that LEED need not cost more at all, and now green building actually can cost less than conventional construction. The LEED-Platinum 1225 Connecticut Avenue, here in DC, cost about 5% below market rate construction in 2009 and sold for the highest price per square foot ever paid for an office building in the city.
Regardless, the fact that so few museums in DC are exemplars of sustainability makes the NMAAHC all the more remarkable. Its systems include “low-impact” materials, a nearly 100-kW solar array to produce energy on site, and efficient infrastructure connected to surrounding buildings to avoid redundancy. But the most impressive aspects of the building are how the basic design gestures conserve resources and enhance the visitor experience. The bronze-color metal tracery enveloping the façade is carefully calibrated to avoid undue heat gain while bathing the interior in soft light and allowing views in every direction. This lowers energy needs while improving occupant comfort (although the decision not to extend the screening to the ground floor results in occasionally heavy glare and uncomfortable temperatures when the sun is low, as I experienced one morning this winter). The latticework has another appeal that has been overlooked by reviewers and possibly by the designers themselves. As I documented in my book, The Shape of Green: Aesthetics, Ecology, and Design (2012), research shows that people generally crave the image of irregular tree-like patterns mimicking natural fractals—so much so that the pattern can lower stress by as much as 60 percent, just by being in our field of vision. The Japanese practice of forest bathing (Shinrin-yoku)—spending time immersed in wooded settings—can lower blood pressure, heart rate, and concentrations of stress hormones. Could the interior of the NMAAHC, like an artificial forest, have a similar effect?
This research relates to the biophilia hypothesis, which suggests that people have an innate desire to connect with nature and other forms of life. An associated idea is the theory of “prospect/refuge,” which suggests that we seek out places that help us feel sheltered while allowing an uninterrupted view of our surroundings. A veranda or porch is a commonplace example. The main entrance to the NMAAHC is designed to act as a gigantic porch, inspired by traditions in African and African American vernacular building, as I pointed out in an earlier article. The prospect/refuge effect of this space is about as palpable as any I’ve ever witnessed. Additionally, the deep shade combined with a reflecting pool creates a cool microclimate intended to provide more comfort during the hot, humid summer months.
Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture / Adjaye Associates
See more of the building here.
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Washington has been called the “epicenter of green building,” not just because the USGBC is located here. A decade ago, DC became the first major American city to require green building certifications for both public and private new construction. Annually for several years, the District has built the most LEED-certified square footage per capita of any state or district—nearly five times the next best location. My research for the AIA Committee on the Environment (COTE), published earlier this year, found that DC also has the largest number per capita of projects that have won a COTE Top Ten Award, considered the premier program celebrating sustainable design. So the city boasts an impressive track record for green. With the NMAAHC now, we have significantly raised the bar for museums in the city, and Washington could be well on its way to establishing itself as the national leader in sustainable design by any measure.
This article is part of a four-part series by Lance Hosey on the NMAAHC. Click the following links to read about how the museum reveals the complicated political history of Washington, DC, how the museum is an act of both celebration and political resistance for the African-American community, and what the museum reveals about architectural criticism.
Great fun happens when camping outdoors. This is what comes to mind for people especially the kids when camping is being planned. Are there any other things we can think of when it comes to camping?
Yes, there is! You forgot one other benefit that camping outdoors has on people. That is, camping is a health booster for everybody.
Here are some healthy tips we can benefit from camping out in the open.
Spending your time in the midst of trees and shrubbery, you take in fresh air, and that is more oxygen for you. Just breathing in the smell of nature can bring you happiness, releasing serotonin from the excess oxygen that you have.
Other health benefits we can derive from fresh air is that your digestion is improved, blood pressure gets normalized, and it gives you an extra boost for your immune system. Most of all, when you’re outdoors, you breathe in air with very minimal pollutants.
Camping with families and friends is a great experience that will make bonds stronger. Socializing can give you longer years on this earth and prevent you from having dementia or also referred to as “mental decay.”
In most cases, people who have been working all their life make their lives so monotonous. But taking a break, relaxing, and camping provides vigor to the central nervous system due to a positive reaction of excitement. Similar to the reaction to food, this sends messages to the brain and activates all our nerves and system making us alert and lively again.
See Also: Five Clever Tips for Stress-Free Family Camping
When campers get together, more often than not, a lot of talk and discussions can happen around the campfire. They can talk about anything and everything. This eases out the melatonin levels in your brain.
Melatonin is a chemical that helps us sleep but it can also make us lazy and tired sometimes. It encourages depression in the long run. Having fun camping and chatting with your loved ones and friends help you avoid mood swings and feelings of depression.
Stress-free activities like camping unburden your mind from all the worries that you have. Emotionally, it makes it impossible for you to get angry or annoyed when you’re busy with something you enjoy.
Physical activities are at its highest while camping You burn a lot of calories compared to just sitting in the office. In addition, your cardiovascular system also gets a workout when you go hiking, biking or swimming.
When you go camping, you are exposed to more sunlight than you’ll ever get in the office or in school. The more sunlight the body is exposed to, the more serotonin it gets. Serotonin is also called the happy hormone so soak up that sunshine!
With lots of activities during the daytime, sleep comes so quickly. You won’t even notice that it’s time for bed. This is expected after spending the whole day doing physical activities. A good night’s sleep benefits your body in many ways. It can minimize inflammation, make you alert, and boost your cardiovascular system just to name a few.
If you are camping beside a river teeming with fish, cooking newly caught fish is giving your body protein and strength. Food cooked outdoors are free of any preservatives or chemical ingredients because it is cooked fresh. Can you imagine the smell of grilled fish and the delectable juicy fish meat right about now?
See Also: 8 camping hacks that’ll turn you into a super-camper (and impress the girls)
Camping is as much a healing activity as it is a fun activity. Consider leaving your laptop and gadgets at home. Instead, detach your mind and body from the humdrum of city life and meditate. Serene peace, tranquility, and meditation are the excellent benefits you can get from camping outdoors, an experience you will always remember.
The post Camping Outdoors: A Perfect Health Booster appeared first on Dumb Little Man.
Are you a nature enthusiasts with years of camping under your belt but you’ve been looking for a way to enjoy the relaxing outdoors without living rough? Some people build woodland shelters that give them a little more coverage when they need to escape but some of these structures are beyond rustic. In recent years, designers have been taking shelters like these as an opportunity to get creative in minimalist..
Sig Nordal 