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...

What if it was you? Your mother, sister, niece, friend, aunt, wife? Assaulted, sold, gang-raped, beaten, tortured... https://t.co/OEZ6yDF28K — Nicole M. Verhaaf (@nimavenl) June 9, 2015 As ISIS brutalizes women, a pathetic feminist silence http://t.co/cftyoVewcO pic.twitter.com/iEMiXBqCRY — New York Post (@nypost) June 8, 2015

The UK's Daily Mail writes that actress Lena Headey - who many will know as Cersei Lannister in Game of Thrones - is expecting a baby girl in about six weeks. On the website of Plan International USA , she  writes a guest blog post entitled " My Daughter " with some very inspiring words for her future daughter. As she's a famous actress known by millions around the world, her words reach a lot of people. They reached me and hopefully, through this post, they'll reach a few more people. "The ever-present abuse of social and human rights in our world keeps me consciously awake, grateful, and humble."  I got to know Lena Headey as Sarah Connor in television series Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles . She played the mother of John Connor, the young man who will one day lead the human revolution against the machines known as Terminators. Yes - that tough as nails Sarah Connor who stops at nothing to protect her son and with him, the future of humani...

I loved this quote when I read it! “Only a female could be as calculating and have the foresight that destiny requires,' the gypsy explained. 'Now fate is a man,' he went on, 'no planning, just go with the flow and see what tomorrow brings.” ― Traci Harding, The Dragon Queens

Women are special, amazing, delicate, strong, powerful, mighty, dedicated, loving, caring, compassionate, intelligent, brave, honourable, beautiful, smart, kind and yes - they are  heroic fighters too! Tomorrow is World Women's Day, a perfect opportunity to speak up about women who inspire me. " International Women's Day (8 March) is a global day celebrating the economic, political and social achievements of women past, present and future. In some places like China, Russia, Vietnam and Bulgaria, International Women's Day is a national holiday. "  Source: International Women's Day website Brave Kurdish women are battling those trying to eradicate them, theirs and their way of life: ISIS and others who think and believe as they do. This year, World Women's Day starts in Kurdistan, which means it feels very right to look to Kurdish women as women the whole world can be proud of and look up to - women who stand up for what is just and right, who fight f...

I love how easy it is to copy words, head over to Google Translate, paste the words and find a translation online without having to search through a dictionary to find the words. Having translated to and from languages I know, I understand that Google Translate is not foolproof or always right, however translations tend to make sense, especially when one understands the context of the words one wants to translate. With the recent murder of Özgecan Aslan in Turkey and my desire to learn more about what people write about that, I've been trying to translate Turkish via Google Translate. Whether I translate to Dutch or to English does not seem to matter - I am stumped by sentences that barely make sense to me. I'm used to being able to to translate Arabic and Hebrew with relative ease... I can only hope that Turkish translations will soon be as easy. I learnt some basic Turkish a very, very long time ago from friends. These days, I can still say some swearwords, count to ten and...

I spent most of today thinking, reading and working on a story. After dinner I checked the news to catch up on what's going on in the world. One dead and three wounded in a terrorist shooting in Copenhagen, Twitter practically screamed at me. It seems likely that I'll write more about that, however first I want to write about another attack, this one in Turkey. A 20-year old Turkish woman named Özgecan Aslan was buried today. According to Turkish newspaper Hurriyet Daily News she'd been missing for two days, last seen by a friend while on a bus travelling home from university. Her burned body was found Friday in a riverbed near Tarsus disctrict in Mersin province. "Three suspects have been detained for stabbing Aslan to death and later burning her remains. According to their testimonies, the woman was killed when she fought back a rape attempt by the driver of the minibus she took to go home." Assaulted, almost raped and stabbed to death. What must this po...

Jennifer Aniston is destructive to society? Oh come ON! Seriously?! Apparently she is, according to Fox News Commentator Bill O'Reilly. I've never heard of the guy, however reading this article about what he said on iVillage.com , I'm curious to see what else he comes up with! According to the article, Mr O'Reilly had a problem with remarks Aniston made while promoting her new comedy The Switch, in which she plays a single mother who gets pregnant through artificial insemination. What Jennifer said? Here goes... Earlier this week at an L.A. press conference, Aniston, 41, reportedly said, "Women are realizing it more and more, knowing that they don't have to settle with a man just to have that child....Times have changed....What is amazing is that we do have so many options these days, as opposed to our parents' days when you can't have children because you have waited too long." The Emmy-winning actress added, "The point of the movie ...