Sri Lanka News Updates with Discussions

With two new movies Broken Embraces, her fourth film with director Pedro Almodovar, and Rob Marshall`s big-name musical extravaganza, Nine Penelope Cruz is mining both the Spanish roots that made her an actress and the hard-won Hollywood breakthrough that made her an international star. The author taps into the fierce passions of the Oscar-winning enchantress, whether for her directors, her leading men (including current flame Javier Bardem), or the cinema itself.

Cruz is poised to become a new member of the tiny firmament of actresses who began their careers in a language other than English and went on to become truly international stars: the Marlene Dietrichs, Greta Garbos, Ingrid Bergmans, Sophia Lorens, Anouk Aimees, Catherine Deneuves, Jeanne Moreaus, and Liv Ullmanns. Like some of those actresses, Cruz isn`t cookie-cutter pretty she even has a bit of a schnoz but her unusual features come together in a memorable aria of real beauty. As Woody Allen says, `I don`t like to look at Penelope directly. It is too overwhelming.`

Pumpkins are believed to have originated in North America. Seeds from related plants have been found in Mexico dating back to 7000 to 5500 B.C. References to pumpkins date back many centuries.

The name pumpkin originated from the Greek word for `large melon` which is `pepon.` `Pepon` was changed by the French into `pompon.` The English changed `pompon` to `Pumpion.` American colonists changed `pumpion` into `pumpkin.`

The common pumpkin is a very popular traditional Halloween and Thanksgiving staple. It was originally first associated with the harvest season.

`...and the sun`s brightness fade, and the winds would sigh humanely, and the clouds rain tears, and the woods shed their leaves and put on mourning in midsummer, if any man should ever for a just cause grieve. Shall I not have intelligence with the earth? Am I not partly leaves and vegetable mould myself?`

- Henry David Thoreau

Autumn, unique, bold and distinctive amongst seasons. It is, for me, a wonderful time of year, and though it is a time when the world dies back and things become sparse and bare at the same time it encompasses that last glorious flush of life, moving like tiny little hands giving thanks to God. The spreading leaves of an umbrella tree with lobes and veins so proud and filled with the warm blood of summer, gracefully falling with color so red and beautiful like roses. After a long hot season when they often fall just before the rains, they all entangle and away the wind takes them blow by blow on a cloudless day.

One Art
by Elizabeth Bishop
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The art of losing isn`t hard to master
so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster.

Lose something every day. Accept the fluster
of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The art of losing isn`t hard to master.

Then practice losing farther, losing faster:
places, and names, and where it was you meant
to travel. None of these will bring disaster.

I lost my mother`s watch. And look! my last, or

This morning I finished reading Alain de Botton`s thoroughly enjoyable book, The Architecture of Happiness. I`ve realised that I`ve become a big fan of De Botton`s clear, thoughtful writing after loving The Art of Travel and now finding this book as good, if not better. He has a nice way of simplifying complex ideas and making clear the relationship between philosophy and ordinary, every day life.

Our consciousness is inextricable from our environment. Colors, angles, textures, and lights all conspire to sway our moods and shape our experiences molding our conscious and unconscious minds according to the prevailing social norms and cultural trends of the time. We can feel this every time we walk into a room, a very subtle but noticeable reaction to our surroundings perhaps a sense of calm and spaciousness, or of creativity and energetic vibrancy, or of anxiety and claustrophobia. You can feel this right now as you read this, your immediate habitat inescapably affecting the sound, feel, and meaning of every word. There is no simple mathematical equation to make sense of the connection between consciousness and environment, as the same surroundings can elicit entirely different reactions from psyche to psyche, culture to culture. Adding to the complexity, we often surprise ourselves by naturally surrounding ourselves with environs that dramatically contrast our interior states:

Ecuador is probably the country with the highest number of species of orchids in the World in a given area. With 214 genus and around 3259 species (According to Dodson & Escobar, in `Native Ecuadorean Orchids`, vol 1), it is so rich that we can find orchids almost everywhere we go in the country.
In popular literature, orchids have always been seen as symbols of love, seeming to represent the qualities of love and seduction, and have also attracted the interest of scent makers over many centuries. There can hardly be another plant that is a changeable and adaptable as the orchid which belongs to one of the youngest families of plants in the botanical classification system

Ricky Berens Splits Swimsuit, Bares Butt At World Championships
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US Swimmer and Beijing relay gold medalist Ricky Berens tore the back of his swimsuit in a qualifying heat of the 4x100m relay freestyle on Sunday during the World Swimming Championships in Rome. Shortly before stepping up to the starting block, the University of Texas senior leaned down to stretch and his suit tore.
`I kind of freaked out for just a second,` Berens said. `I felt like [the hole] was almost down to my knees. I felt like I was putting on a pretty good show.`

Whether you favour silky smalls, bolder holder bras or sexy suspenders, woman have always had a close relationship with their underwear.
From the pointy bras of the 1950s to the high-tech control pants of today, women`s lingerie has gone through dramatic changes over the years and a stunning new exhibition charts the rise and fall of cleavage through the ages.

Hosted by the Fashion and Textile Museum in London, Undercover - The Evolution Of Underwear explores the relationship between fashion, women, their bodies, and how they show off or disguise their assets.

Bolgoda, presumed to be the largest natural lake in Sri Lanka, covers almost two thirds of the Kalutara district, extending from Anguruwatota to Piliyandala. It is also the largest fresh water lake in Sri Lanka. The lake`s depth is said to range from 20-50 feet.


History
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During the Dutch period of Sri Lanka`s history,(1624 - 1798) Bolgoda Lake was extensively used to transport people and goods from the upper stream of Kalu Ganga, particularly, from Ratnapura District. It was utilized as a very popular and convenient mode of transport of logs from the Sinharaja forest, in the upper reaches of the river to the many timber mills in Moratuwa.

They are beautiful in their peace, they are wise in their silence.
They will stand after we are dust. They teach us, and we tend them.

Some see Nature all ridicule and deformity, and some scarce see Nature at all.
But to the eyes of the man of imagination, Nature is Imagination itself

Life itself is like the sea

We never know what waters we may sail.

So seize the moment, live one day at a time.

Hold on to love and keep the faith.

Sun and wind and beat of sea,

Great lands stretching endlessly...

Where be bonds to bind the free?

All the world was made for me!

Penina, An Up Country Girl
Product of Saint Paul`s Milagiriya
A True Sri Lankan
A Mother and A Wife

She has been modeling since teens for Ungero, John Louie, Scherre Guy Laroche, Pierre Cardin, Yves Saint Laurent, Channel, Christian Dior and Lagerfield.

(These pic. were taken last year)

http://lakdiva.com/island/i980614/leisure.htm#Perine%20scales%20great%20heights

I wanted to capture the four seasons in Harlem.
These were taken during the winter.
http://www.lankanewspapers.com/news/2009/1/38018_space.html

There is nothing quite as pleasant as a walk in springtime hours, these were taken around 7am, when the park was quiet.

Easter lilies
Bright and fair
Sprinkled with love
And planted with care.

Green grass, so tender
Like a carpet rolled out
Covers the lawns
And stretches about.

The air smells so fresh
With the fragrance of flowers

Female employees from Russia`s nuclear energy industry are competing for the Miss Atom 2009 title this month. The event`s sponsors hope the beauty pageant will help dispel the industry`s negative image.

Imagine, if you will, a bikini clad beauty queen strutting out of lake, with giant cooling towers belonging to a nuclear power facility dominating the background. Odd perhaps? Not, apparently, in Russia. There, women working in the country`s nuclear industry compete for the annual title of Miss Atom.

Lotuses are perhaps the most spectacular plants in aquatic environments. The Chinese say that, once having seen the growing lotus, you never forget it. The lotus flowers have color from red, pink, pale yellow to creamy white. A separate, long, tubular stalk supports each flower and each large round leaf.

The sacred Lotus, Nelumbo nucifera, is an extreme important spiritual symbol in Eastern religions. It represents purity, divine wisdom, and the individual`s progress from the lowest to the highest state of consciousness.