Pakistan Information & News

Smoking cigar is an art, that provides a sense of contemplation, peace and appreciated pleasure. Cigar smoking as experienced a renaissance in the United States. The sale and importation of fine handmade cigars has risen more 25% annually for the past several years. It’s a wonderful, relaxing past time that can be shared with friends. Here are a few suggestions that might help the beginner. The best way to start with cigars  is to sample a variety of different cigars. This way one will gain an appreciation for construction quality and the reason it is important to enjoying a good smoke. A good smoke should be even burning and easy drawing, with flavors one enjoys.

Firm construction provides a base for the tactile sensations of holding the cigar between one’s teeth or fingers. It also provides the base for a proper draw. Draw is important because it determines how easily the cigars flavors can be enjoyed. All cigars should be properly humidified for maximum flavor reward. Either too dry or too moist makes a cigar hard to taste. Too dry provides for a hotter and perhaps spicier smoke than normal. Too moist makes the cigar’s burning qualities suffer.

One thing a new cigar smoker should do is smoke several of the more popular brand name cigars first. This will give them an understanding of how consistency can make or break a brand. It will also provide some repetition with certain cigar flavors.

Once the new smoker is acclimated to cigar quality, they should begin to explore! Cigars range in color from green (claro) to almost black (oscuro). Between these two extreams are the bulk of today’s most popular cigars with EMS (English Market Selection) or Maduro wrappers.

The difference between EMS (or natural) and maduro wrappers is quite interesting because one would generally assume that darker cigars are stronger. This assumption is natural because logically, one would parallel this to coffee or another similar experience they have already had. This is not always true. Maduro wrappers are fermented longer than natural wrappers and the basic difference is:

EMS (natural) Tan to medium brown in color. Typically shade grown under cheese cloth to provide for a very consistent and smooth appearance. The most common type of EMS wrapper is the Connecticut Shade wrapper grown in the United States, in Connecticut.

Maduro (reddish brown to almost black) Typically is not shade grown and has a rougher texture. Appearance wise, maduros usually appear drier and more rustic than there shade grown EMS counterparts. Today’s premium maduros are usually blended with Connecticut Broadleaf wrappers.

EMS wrappers are generally lighter bodied, smooth and provide a multitude of flavors for the smoker to enjoy. One will detect some sweetness among light to medium tobacco flavors. A good EMS cigar will not be too bitter or acrid. It should leave a pleasant aftertaste in one’s mouth.

Maduro wrappers are generally medium to full bodied smokes. Maduro has a flavor which can range from sweet to bitter too. Maduros when properly aged are quite smooth and do not seem stronger than their natural wrapper counterparts, but more flavorful. Again, one should expect a good maduro to not be too bitter or acrid with a pleasant aftertaste.

Either wrapper can provide a one dimensional smoking experience: a cigar which essentially has one prominent flavor throughout the experience or complex, a cigar which provides a multitude of flavors during the smoking experience. This is determined by how the cigar maker blends the wrapper, binder and filler tobaccos within the given cigar.

When storing cigars in a humidor, you can do one of two things with the cellophane wrapper. You can either leave it on or remove it. There are two schools of thought on this issue. First, leave the cellophane wrapper on so that cigars of different brands don’t share flavors. If you store many different brands in you humidor, this method may be best. Second, remove the cellophane wrapper so that the cigars can “breath” and absorb mositure. If you store only a single brand or only two or three brands, this storage method works well. The key in storing different brands is to keep them from touching. Use of cedar strips can be helpful. As long as the cigars don’t touch, don’t worry about flavor cross-over.

Popularity: 2% [?]

The history of rugs covers about the same time span as human history because people have been using rugs since the earliest days of mankind. Animal hides, in addition to being used for clothing, were used as rugs on the floor of a family’s hut or shelter. The hides were also used for sitting and sleeping surfaces and to provide warmth on a chilly night. Other types of rugs and mats were made from crudely woven reeds. Often, a good area rugs or hide was a family’s most valuable possession and Rag rugs have been made for centuries and most of the techniques are used today. The art of crocheting has also been done for centuries, but braided and woven rugs naturally have been around the longest. Historic crocheted crafts were mostly laces and doilies, until about the 18th century. Rag rugs in the olden days were made from torn rags or old clothes. So, sometime a choice of colors wasn’t available. The rugs were more of a functional floor covering and not to decorative. Although decorative tapestry style rugs were around, only the well off used them. I use new fabric cut into strips to provide you with a longer wearing rag rug and have a wide variety of color choice. The rugs are of course machine washable and can be put into the dryer until damp. Remove from dryer when damp, reshape if needed, and lay flat on floor to finish drying. Some special instructions will be given for brightly colored fabrics, and rag rugs with some different techniques. Just like all clothes can not be washed the same. They get softer with each wash! Shake out or vacuum the dirt between washings is all that is needed. In 1949, an important event in the history of rugs took place. A Russian archeologist named Sergei Rudenko discovered what is known as the “Pazyryk” carpet during the unearthing of a burial site in Siberia. This is the oldest known surviving rug. It was long frozen in ice, which preserved the carpet’s fiber, color and design. It dates back to the 5th century BC and features rich colors, striking details and a hand-knotted technique that is still in popular use. This rug was made with a knot called the Ghiordes (Turkish) knot. The rug had an average of 200 knots per square inch. This rug was a major discovery and prompted more people to become interested in the history of rugs. The cheap rugs are normally machine made. Hand made rugs will cost you high as compare to machine made.

Popularity: 1% [?]

I am listening a word fate or luck since childhood even i also use this word in my life. I believe what ever i achieve in my life is my luck while what does not goes in my favour is my fate but some times i think the luck or fate have to be develop by a person by himself. Some peoples may not agree with my belief. I have come across to another word tarrot. The tarot is a set of cards featuring 21 trump cards, the fool, and an extra face card per suit, in addition to the usual suit (face and pip) cards found in ordinary playing cards. Tarot cards are used throughout much of Europe to play Tarot card games.

Tarot reading is used in detirmining your personality too.  Charmaines has made web site http://www.tarotathome.com. This site offer you three sets of reading

(1) Past Present and Future Reading; this is a brief reading on what is happening in your life.

(2) Hearts Desire Tarot Reading; Looking for love, it might be at your door step.    

(1) The Celtic Cross Tarot Reading; this is a complete indepth reading.

This site works very simply from a shuffeled deck of 74 cards, you are asked to select a certain number of cards. Do not put too much thought into the selection process. Do not alter the selection once it has been made. On your selection, tarot specialist Charmaines will do a reading which will be unique to you only. 

Popularity: 2% [?]

You have expensive area rugs and the most important thing is taking care of this costly piece. If the rug is maintained well it can long last from one generation to another. Here are few tips to keep your rug in a good condition.

1- Do not put the rug  near the dusty or oily areas of house. Dusty area can be near the entrance of house and oily area example is kitchen.

2- To increase the life of your rug use under lay or pads under the rug.

3- Always rotate your rugs in different angles which keep the rug in even condition.

4- Always use vacume cleaner to clean the rug instead of brusher or brooms because the bristol of brush can damage the rug threads.

5- Put your rug under sun light often in order to get rid of worms like dust termite etc.

6- Store your rug in an even surface with proper folding and do not put heavy things on the rug .

7- Try to lay the rug in a free place so the each part of rug does not comes under the furniture of your house because the furniture weight may cause damage to the rug.

If you are planning to buy a rug then consider www.superiorrugs.com is a great rugs site that provides high quality rugs at low prices. You can get good discount area rugs after  comparing the prices and viewing different designs and qualities at the click of your computer.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Streets are filled with broken glass
You get buried by the past
Give me just a little taste
Lay this mess to waste
Take me home
My mind is racing take me home
My bodys achinso alone
Ill make you want to stay with me
Befriended by the enemy
One more time
And every little thing about this tells me
Nothing out there is ever gonna help me
All these words that I hear spoken just promises broken now
Looking outside from my window sill
Throw another coin in the wishing well
Youll never find what youre looking for
Fifteen miles
Your dim light shines from so far away
Your sad smile
Is all I see when I say
That every little thing about this tells me
Nothing out there is ever gonna help me
All these words that I hear spoken just promises broken now
From the hotel satellite
Dont look like youre living right
Heres a deal you cant refuse
You aint got as much to lose
Can you tell your troubles to
Someone who wont laugh at you
Its all right
And as I watch you walk away
Hope a part of you would stay
Its all right
And every little thing about this tells me
Nothing out there is ever gonna help me
All these words that I hear spoken just promises broken now

Popularity: 2% [?]

AP:
Mitt Romney’s been called many things as he runs for president, but chances are “Sticky Rice” isn’t one of them. That’s how his name might be read on some ballots, according to state Secretary William Galvin.
Galvin says the federal Justice Department is pressuring Boston election officials to translate candidates’ names into Chinese characters in precincts with prominent Chinese-speaking populations. But there’s more than a little lost in translation, according to Galvin.
Since there’s no Chinese character for “Romney,” translators have resorted to finding characters that most closely match the sound of each syllable in the name. The problem is that there are many different characters that could be used to match the sound of each syllable, and many different meanings for each character.
So Mitt Romney could be read as “Sticky Rice” or “Uncooked Rice.” Fred Thompson might be read as “Virtue Soup.” And Barack Obama could be read as “Oh Bus Horse.”…the most perplexing translation would be for Boston Mayor Thomas Menino’s name, which could be read as “Sun Moon Rainbow Farmer” or “Imbecile”…

“Imbecile” seems to ba an appropriate translation, not for just Menino, but for the entire clique of government officials who are creating this nonsensical Tower of Babel.
Popularity: unranked [?]

Read more at admin

Popularity: 1% [?]

Steyn on the protests and burning of the Union Jack because of the Rushdie knighthood:
In a typically incompetent response, Margaret Beckett, the foreign secretary, issued one of those “obviously we’re sorry if there’s been a misunderstanding” statements in which she managed to imply that Rushdie had been honored as a representative of the Muslim community. He’s not. He’s an ex-Muslim. He’s a representative of the Muslim community’s willingness to kill you for trying to leave the Muslim community. But, locked into obsolescent multicultural identity-groupthink, Mrs. Beckett instinctively saw Rushdie as a member of a quaintly exotic minority rather than as a free-born individual.
This is where we came in two decades ago. We should have learned something by now. In the Muslim world, artistic criticism can be fatal. In 1992, the poet Sadiq Abd al-Karim Milalla also found that his work was “not particularly well-received”: he was beheaded by the Saudis for suggesting Muhammad cooked up the Quran by himself. In 1998, the Algerian singer Lounès Matoub described himself as “ni Arabe ni musulman” (neither Arab nor Muslim) and shortly thereafter found himself neither alive nor well. These are not famous men. They don’t stand around on Oscar night, congratulating themselves on their “courage” for speaking out against Bush-Rove fascism. But, if we can’t do much about freedom of expression in Iran and Saudi Arabia, we could at least do our bit to stop Saudi-Iranian standards embedding themselves in the West.
So many of our problems with Iran today arise from not doing anything about our problems with Iran yesterday.

Popularity: unranked [?]

Read more at admin

Popularity: 1% [?]

Although the wave of posts on censorship following YouTube’s censure has mostly subsided, the topic is still alive and well in the blogoma. Moroccan blogger xoussef (fr/en) exclaims:
Depuis avant hier, Livejournal est tantôt accessible, tantôt censuré. Par contre, Google Earth est de nouveau libre d’accès…Pour combien de temps?!

Since before yesterday, Livejournal is sometimes accessible, sometimes censored. On the other hand, Google Earth is again freely accessible… For how long?!
As it turns out, MoTIC (fr) has created a “Top Ten” list of reasons why Maroc Telecom blocks access to Livejournal and Google Maps. The list, available in full here, includes:
Raison n°10: Maroc Telecom le fait à la demande de la MAP, parce que celle-ci pense que Google profite de sa notoriété en appelant son service Google MAPs.

Reason no. 10: Maroc Telecom does it at the request of MAP*, because the agency thinks that Google benefits from its notoriety by calling its service Google MAPs.
*MAP or Maghreb Arabe Presse is Morocco’s state-run newspaper, available online in Arabic, French, and English.
Raison n°9: Dans le cadre de la réforme de l’administration marocaine, Google Earth a été sélectionné comme nouvel outil pour les mqadems qui seront bientôt dotés d’ordinateurs portables. Il n’est pas question de laisser le public accéder largement à un outil de l’administration.

Reason no. 9: Within the framework of the Moroccan administrative reform, Google Earth was selected as the new tool for the mqadems* who will be equipped soon with portable computers. There is no question of letting the public widely reach a tool of the administration.
*A mqadem is a person whose job it is to report to authorities the goings-on of the neighborhood in which he lives, as well as advocate for such things as new gardens in the neighborhood. He can also provide a certificate upon request that [...]

Read more at Jillian York

Popularity: 1% [?]

If 2007 is the year that China’s masses rose up in stock market frenzy, then last week’s eight percent dip came as a bucket of ice cold water. Or a sign of things to come, like the guy whose broadband wasn’t working that day and went berserk when he couldn’t handle not being able to check his portfolio.
Much more common, however, are the creative ways with which the craze is being dealt, like the remix of the song ‘Die And I’ll Still Love You’ (死了都要爱) from the Taiwanese rock group Shin, resung here in a stock market version as ‘Won’t Sell Even If It Kills Me’, subtitled courtesy of dotSUB:

Popularity: unranked [?]

Read more at John Kennedy

Popularity: 1% [?]

As Francois recently observed in Du Cabiau à Kinshasa [Fr], “Music and dance probably share the podium with Jesus among the top reasons for living for a majority of the Congolese people.” For a hint of the obsessive enthusiasm with which Congolese music fans trade gossip about the star musicians and debate their merits, you only have to visit forums such as AfroMix, AfricaAmbience and CongoPage [Fr]. However, despite the massive popularity of Congolese music all over Africa, the blogosphere remains relatively quiet on the subject.
One of the exceptions to that rule is Fally ‘diCaprio’ Ipupa, who began his own blog early last year to help promote his first solo album, Droit Chemin. The album has been hugely successful, but the blog (which is in French and English) sadly hasn’t been updated since April’s announcement of a European summer tour. A look through the plentiful comments reveals that the singer is trying to sort out a problem of ‘information piracy’ - perhaps other sites cashing in on the RSS feed? In the meantime, you can see a clip of Fally dancing and singing with Ferre Gola (a singer originally with Werrason, briefly hired by Kofi Olomide, and now leading his own band) via Congo Music Connect [Fr].
Le Congo c’est là introduces readers to Joe Kizi, “a young talent of contemporary Congolese music who is from Lubumbashi. He steers between Soukous, rhumba and RnB”, and links to an interview with the singer on Radio Okapi [Fr] (the nationwide radio station sponsored by the UN and Fondation Hirondelle).
If you prefer the rhumba guitar classics of ‘la belle epoque’, top African mp3 blog Benn loxo du taccu has just featured a beautifully lilting track by African Orchestra Fiesta from an album called The Sound of Kinshasa. (Benn loxo author Matt describes it as [...]

Read more at Fred R.

Popularity: 1% [?]

mansoor:
Well? Why dont we use the ones already available to us? Zar Nageen wrote a really interesting piece on DT on the largest yet little known and even less frequented libraries in various parts of the city. While we shout about the lack of libraries & books available, i was surprised to find these libraries had well in excess of 30,000 books on average. Do check both, the article and then the libraries out. Zar Nageen writes,
Without reading books, the new generation is treading an impoverished and unenlightened path. The need to read has almost entirely disappeared with the electronic media and Internet being widely used. There are several large and richly stocked libraries in the city, but hardly any who know of them or are willing to visit.
and which libraries are these you ask?
Among the city’s largest libraries are the Karachi Theosophical Library, Liaquat Memorial Library, Khaliq Dinnah Hall, Ghalib Library and Tehmuriah Library. All of them hold a large, international collection of books.
Read complete article here.

Comments (0)
Comments on this Entry:

Popularity: unranked [?]

Read more at mansoor

Popularity: 1% [?]

British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his wife Cherie are shown naked in a large charcoal drawing by and artist named Michael Sandle.  This drawing is going to be displayed at London’s Royal Academy of Arts to be apart of their yearly summer exhibition.

The title of the drawing is “Iraq Triptych”, and shows Tony Blair and Cherie covering their genitals, which is represents biblical paintings of Adam and Eve walking out of the Garden of Eden in shame.  In the drawing, however, Blair and Cherie are not walking out of Eden, but instead are shown outside of the popular black door on 10 Downing Street along with body parts and skulls.

Sandle told reporters, “I wasn’t going to submit this year but I suddenly felt overcome with anger at the way Blair has messed up.”  He also accused Blair of vanity because he supported the US in the invasion of Iraq and said that Blair “doesn’t appear to feel a twinge of conscience about Iraq because he is so sure that he did the right thing.”

SO in response Sandle has unveiled his 4.5 m x 1.5 m drawing during Blairs last days as Prime Minister of Britain.

Popularity: 1% [?]