Nimavenl - Nicole's Random Ramblings

What if Disney princesses were historically accurate? What would their lives have been like, what time period might they have lived in and what might they have worn? Those faces and dresses we know so well from Disney movies, are they really what real-life Snow Whites or Jasmines would have looked like? Probably not, as this Buzzfeed article explains. Going by clues from the Disney movies about the (possible) era and location the movies are set in, the article examines what several of Disney's more famous princesses really would have worn and looked like. One example: Source: If Disney Princesses Were Historically Accurate | Buzzfeed Snow White from Snow White and the Seven  Dwarfs - c. mid- to late 1500s Germany   CONTEXT CLUES: • Opens with a storybook that is reminiscent of early printing press manuscripts. • The dwarfs’ home is decorated with carved wooden furniture and instruments,  which, along with the mountainsand forest, is typical of the Bl...

There was a terrorist attack on the office of satirical paper Charlie Hebdo last Wednesday which killed twelve people, the murder of an unarmed policewoman last Thursday and the hostage-taking at a kosher deli resulting in four deaths on Friday. It's been a week of being glued to the television and laptop, a week of checking websites and social media feeds for information, answers and others' opinions about what is going on in our world. Predictably, there are those who loudly scream that Islam is evil or that all Muslims are evil. Please, give me a break. Extremism is what's dangerous, and thinking that your way being superior to another's way allows you to kill them when you disagree about something as insignificant as a satirical drawing. I had never heard of Charlie Hebdo before Wednesday, had never seen a single one of their cartoons. Even though I live in western Europe, even though I started learning French in primary school, even though I've been to Fran...

Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali My rating: 5 of 5 stars What a book. What a story. What a journey. What a woman. I once wrote that I hoped that reading this book would help me meet the real Ayaan Hirsi Ali, not just the woman I read about in the media and saw on television. The book did not disappoint and I would recommend it to anyone and everyone. WOW! View all my reviews

Source: Stuff.co.nz According to an 03 July 2013 article on New Zealand website Stuff.co.nz, Pittsburgh (USA) artist Nickolay Lamm has re-created Barbie in the image of today's 19-year old American woman. New Barbie is shorter and stockier than Original Barbie (as the screencap on the right shows) and has an actual figure - finally! I'd have liked to see New Barbie look more natural than Original Barbie with regards to hair and skin colour, however we can't have everything all at once. New Barbie as created by Mr. Lamm looks natural to me - she looks like women I see on the street and around me, not like one of those plastic fantastic airbrushed types we see in magazines these days. Well done Mr. Lamm and thank you for adding some realism to our lives!

Met minder dan 2% van de stemmen nog te tellen kunnen we met zekerheid zeggen dat de VVD en de PvdA de grootste partijen zijn. Alhoewel ik het op een aantal punten eens ben met Geert Wilders en de PVV ben ik toch blij om te zien dat de steun van Nederland voor de PVV minder lijkt te worden. Bedankt Nederland, ik heb wat vertrouwen in ons landje terug!

Can´t help but think that somehow this is very, very true! Found it here , although by the looks of it they got it somewhere else as well...

The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon My rating: 4 of 5 stars I enjoyed this book but did find it a little hard to read at times. I found the story very interesting, and was fascinated with the descriptions of how a Jewish state could have been, had it not been for the country of Israel. Definitely a good read, and worth the time it took me to finish the book. View all my reviews

Seven Blessings by Ruchama King Feuerman My rating: 4 of 5 stars Interesting read, and a respectful glimpse into a fascinating world. I enjoyed this book, found it easy to get through, enjoyed the variety of the stories, and feel that it will help me gain a better insight into the world of the Orthodox in Me'a Shearim. View all my reviews

The Other Side of Israel: My Journey Across the Jewish/Arab Divide by Susan Nathan My rating: 5 of 5 stars I picked up this book as it looked like it would be very interesting to read. Insider-stories such as this one usually give an account of life-on-the-ground that is not always portrayed in the mainstream media, and I was interested in this new viewpoint. My fascination with the Middle-East has a lot to do with its religious history, and a lot to do with its people. This means *all* people, which is why this book appealed to me. The writer, Susan Nathan is a Jew and a former ardent Zionist who  moved to Israel in 1999. She writes (p.39), "The object of my desire was to make aliya, the Hebrew word for 'ascent', an idea that in returning to Israel a Jew is fulfilling a divinely ordained mission." She then realised that there was a large non-Jewish population living inside Israel - mostly Palestinian Arabs who had lost their homes and lands yet gained citizenship ...