Lifestyle

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“LIBYA,” exclaimed all and sundry. “Why would you want to go to Libya?” It’s there. And now it’s here. All over the TV. Now, I don’t watch the news in that casual doing-five-things-at-the-one-time way.See Gaddafi on top of a large building, rallying support in the heart of Tripoli? That building also houses the National Museum. Move slightly to the left, in under the arch and you’re in the Medina. Straight ahead, turn right, down an alley and there’s the ironmongers’ souk. Duck your head, mind the pots and pans. In one of those shops, a young man stood patiently while this tourist tried to decide which Hand of Fatima to buy, to ward off the evil eye.Mr Byzanty, who looks as if his people could have sailed from Byzantium, has a jewellery shop on the other side of the main thoroughfare. Farther in, there’s the shop where my limited knowledge of Arabic enabled a (limited) discussion on the colours of …

DOCUMENTARIES have been made drawing parallels between pilgrims bathing in the Ganges river in Varanasi, India, and swimming in Dublin’s Forty Foot. But I wouldn’t dare mention those pretentious theories to the down-to-earth swimmers of Byrnes’s Cove, Kilkee. You know what you have to do but you just don’t talk about it. Jump in. Get molecularly rearranged.  Say “lovely”.

FOR more than a decade, Blue McDonnell has been working with homeless children in Los Angeles, something she probably didn’t expect to be doing when she was growing up in Ennis.On a visit to Ennis last week, she told The Clare Champion about her long association with School on Wheels, a group that offers tuition to homeless children throughout Southern California.“I was volunteering with them for seven years and I’ve been working for them for about three and a half. There’s 1.6 million homeless children in the States and 200,000 in Southern California. We cover a wide range, we go through seven different counties and we reach an average of about 7,500 a year,” she says.The rate of homelessness there is absolutely colossal by Irish standards. While she attributes some of it to a weak economy, there are other factors. “It’s a cultural thing as well, families don’t have the same sense of intactness that they have in other countries. …

THE Smithsonian Institute is a must-see venue for visitors to the United States. Its range of exhibits can be gauged from its aeronautical display. This includes the Wright Brothers’ aeroplane, Lindbergh’s Spirit of St Louis and the Lunar Module which carried Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to the surface of the moon. It consists of 19 museums and galleries, a zoo, nine research centres, has 137 million objects and attracts over 30 million visitors each year. The institute had a very unusual beginning. It was founded on the bequest of an individual who had never been in the country, the bequest was the subject of two years of legal battles in the London courts and there then followed years of debate in Congress on what to do with the money or even whether to accept it or not. James Smithson was born James Macie, in 1765, the illegitimate son of Hugh Smithson and Elizabeth Hungerford Macie. When his father died, …

TYPE 2 diabetes mellitus is a metabolic disorder with carbohydrate intolerance as the carnal feature. It accounts for about 95% of all cases of diabetes in the United States and Canada and is a growing public health concern. Diabetes is the leading cause of end-stage renal disease, blindness in individuals aged 20 to 74 years and non-traumatic limb amputations. The major causes of mortality in diabetes are cardiovascular and the diagnosis of diabetes confers a two to four-fold increase in cardiovascular risk. The etiology in type 2 diabetes is multi-factorial. Insulin resistance can be identified in most individuals with type 2 diabetes and hypoglycaemia develops when insulin secretion by pancreatic beta cells is inadequate to meet the metabolic demand. Insulin resistance is thought to remain relatively stable in adulthood in the absence of weight gain.On the other hand, insulin deficiency typically follows a period of hyperinsulinemia, which compensates for insulin resistance. Declining insulin responds to a carbohydrate stimulus, which can …

CLARE people will have a chance to catch a sneak preview of the 32 Rose of Tralee contestants next week when they visit the Cliffs of Moher as part of the annual Rose Tour.The Rose of Tralee International Festival will support the campaign that could see the Cliffs of Moher included as one of the New 7 Wonders of Nature when this year’s Roses visit the famous Clare landmark on Thursday, August 18 as part of their tour of Ireland.Communications manager for the Rose of Tralee, John Drummey said, “We are delighted to play our part in the global vote to determine the New 7 Wonders of Nature and to ensure that the Cliffs of Moher are included in the final list. “The Rose Tour of Ireland offers the perfect opportunity to showcase the Rose of Tralee as more than a five-day festival. It also is a very important event on the Irish tourism calendar, as the media coverage that …

STUNNING 21-year-old Esther Woods from Ennis will represent Clare this year in the illustrious Miss Ireland Pageant, which takes place in Ballsbridge, Dublin this weekend.The young student is hoping to be crowned Miss Ireland 2011 at the selection ceremony on Saturday night.Organisers promise the ceremony will be one of the most impressive social events of the year, with celebrity hosts Sinéad Desmond from TV3’s Ireland AM and Q102’s Ray Shah.The choreographed show will feature aerial acrobatics, fashion showcases and an eclectic mix of music and entertainment. The winner of Miss Ireland 2011 will receive a modelling contract and a host of prizes including jewellery, gowns, a professional photo shoot and beauty and hair products. Miss Ireland 2011 will also get the use of a new car for the year of her reign.Heats have been running all over the country to find contestants from each county to take part in the forthcoming competition. Esther wowed judges and was chosen to represent …