Wednesday 28 August 2013

Amazing facts about animals

It’s mind-blowing to think about the multitude of animals that exist in this world. From the tiny snail to the great blue whale, each animal possesses a unique quality that makes it stand out from the rest. Even if you’re a zoology expert, you might be surprised by some of these amazing facts about animals. Prepare to be astounded by the resilience, physical abilities, and sheer brilliance of these magnificent creatures.

Kangaroos use their tails for balance, so if you lift a kangaroo’s tail off the ground, it can’t hop.

Cows have best friends.


A snail can sleep for 3 years.

Sea otters hold each other’s paws when they sleep so they don’t drift apart.


Millions of trees grow every year thanks to squirrel’s forgetting where they put their nuts.


Gentoo penguins propose to their lifemates with a pebble.


Male pups will intentionally let female pups “win” when they play-fight so they can get to know them better.


 Elephants show remarkable empathy, even to other species.


Dolphins have names for one other.


Beware of an ant uprising! There are one million ants for every human in the world. These resilient creatures also never sleep and do not have lungs.

Oysters can change gender depending on which is best for mating. Talk about successful adaptation.


Bats always turn left when leaving a cave.

A bee must visit 4,000 flowers in order to make one tablespoon of honey.


Most elephants weigh less than the tongue of a blue whale.

Rats laugh.


There’s an animal called the quokka and it’s the happiest animal in the world.

Monday 26 August 2013

„Bird Milk”

We all remember this delicious dessert which our grandmothers used to prepare from time to time.
Preparation is not as complicated as it sounds, and no, birds are not involved. I'm telling these because, I remember when I was a child, I always teased my grandmother asking her if there are any birds in milk.  
Actually its name comes from the egg whites foam floating on the vanilla milk custard, giving the suggestion of white birds floating on a milk lake, or floating islands.
Birds Milk is a classic french recipe, very easy to make and is always a favorite for the entire family.


Ingredients:

4 eggs

150 g sugar

1200 ml milk

1 vanilla powder

Preparation:

Separate the egg yolks from egg white.


Using a mixer make a hard foam of egg whites.
Add 50 g of sugar to the foam and mix well.


Put 700 ml milk in a pot and heat it.
When the milk boils, using a spoon, put the egg white foam in the milk (they will look like dumplings).
Leave it for a minute, then boil the other side.


When the egg white foam is boiled, take them out from the milk and place them in a strainer/colander.
Put the egg yolks, 100 g of sugar and vanilla powder in a bowl and stir until they are well blended.


Add 500 ml milk to this content; stir again until is well blended.
Filter the milk in which you boiled the egg white foam.
Put the filtered milk into another pot and boil again at low heat.
Add the egg yolk diluted with milk into the boiling milk and stir continuously.
Boil until you get a creamy content (about 10 minutes).


When it's ready, pour the content in a bowl and let it cool down.
Then place the boiled egg white foam on surface of the cream.


Reap the harvest of your work! :)

Saturday 24 August 2013

Marilyn Monroe - The greatest sex symbol ever

Norma Jeane Mortenson, or as we all know her – Marilyn Monroe was an American actress, model, and singer, who became a major sex symbol, starring in a number of commercially successful motion pictures during the 1950s and early 1960s.


After spending much of her childhood in foster homes, Monroe began a career as a model, which led to a film contract in 1946 with Twentieth Century-Fox.


Monroe had three marriages, all of which ended in divorce. The first was to James Dougherty, the second to Joe DiMaggio, and lastly to Arthur Miller.



It is claimed she was briefly married to writer Robert "Bob" Slatzer. She is alleged to have had affairs with both John and Robert Kennedy (Monroe was in love with President Kennedy and wanted to marry him; but when the married president ended their affair, Monroe became depressed, and turned to Robert Kennedy, who reportedly visited Monroe in Los Angeles the day that she died).


Marlon Brando, in his autobiography Songs My Mother Taught Me, claimed that he had had a relationship with her, and that they remained friends until her death. She also suffered two miscarriages and an ectopic pregnancy during her three marriages.


The final years of Monroe's life were marked by illness, personal problems, and a reputation for unreliability and being difficult to work with. 


The circumstances of her death, from an overdose of barbiturates, have been the subject of conjecture. Though officially classified as a "probable suicide", the possibility of an accidental overdose, as well as of homicide, have not been ruled out. Many theories, including murder, circulated about the circumstances of her death and the timeline after the body was found. Some conspiracy theories involved John and Robert Kennedy, while other theories suggested CIA or Mafia complicity. It was reported that President Kennedy was the last person Monroe called.

Thursday 15 August 2013

Keep your health – chemicals to avoid

Food has been delicious for a very long time but over the last 30 years the obesity rate for our country has more than tripled. We can’t seem to stop stuffing our mouths with too much food. Why? What is the difference between the food we ate 30 years ago and the food we eat today?



People beat themselves up and hate their bodies because they don’t have the “willpower” to stop compulsive overeating, binge eating or food addiction when the very foods that we eat are being filled with addictive toxic chemicals that were never meant for human consumption.


It’s time to wisen up about who we give our precious consumers money to, and demand healthier choices at our grocery stores.


There are chemicals that we need to eliminate, moderate and seriously phase out of our diets for permanent weight loss, more energy and miraculous healing of sicknesses:

High Fructose Corn Syrup
Monosodium Glutamate (MSG)

Nitrite and Nitrate

Olestra

Potassium Bromate

Sulfites

It’s time to wake up to the fact that we are literally killing ourselves with our food choices. If you want to be free from obesity and you want to lose weight, you should ask God Almighty for the strength to avoid harmful chemicals that make you ill, the knowledge to cook fresh natural foods in a tasty way, and the wisdom to overcome the spiritual barriers that keep you from staying consistent with healthy habits like daily exercise. It is always a good idea to seek help and support when you have a tough challenge such as this in your life.


Monday 12 August 2013

Elemental truths about Brazil

Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil is the largest country in both South America and the Latin American region. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population.


The word "Brazil" comes from brazilwood, a tree that once grew plentifully along the Brazilian coast.
The official language of Brazil is Portuguese, which almost all of the population speaks and is virtually the only language used in newspapers, radio, television, and for business and administrative purposes.


Religion in Brazil was formed from the meeting of the Catholic Church with the religious traditions of African slaves and indigenous peoples. Today Brazil has got the 2nd highest Christian population in the world.


The world’s best and most delicious coffee is produced in Brazil.


Brazil has the biggest rainforest in the world, the Amazon forest.


Scientists have estimated that there may be up to four million species of plants and animals in Brazil.


Brazil has won the soccer world cup five times.


Brazil has one of the New 7 Wonders of the World, the Christ Redeemer statue, located in Rio De Janeiro.


The Carnival in Rio de Janeiro is a world famous festival held before Lent every year and considered the biggest carnival in the world with two million people per day on the streets. The first festivals of Rio date back to 1823.

Friday 9 August 2013

The history of tattoo art

Tattooing has been practised for centuries in many cultures, particularly in Asia, and spread throughout the world.


The modern revival of tattooing stems from the voyage of Captain James Cook in the late 1700s.


Cook's Science Officer and Expedition Botanist, Sir Joseph Banks, returned to England with a tattoo. Banks was a highly regarded member of the English aristocracy and had acquired his position with Cook by supporting the expedition with ten thousand pounds, a great amount at that time. In turn, Cook brought back with him a tattooed Raiatean man, Omai, whom he presented to King George and the English Court.


 Many of Cook's men, ordinary seamen and sailors, came back with tattoos, a tradition that would soon become associated with men of the sea in the public's mind and the press of the day.


As many tattoos were stimulated by Polynesian and Japanese examples, amateur tattoo artists were in great demand in port cities all over the world, especially by European and American sailors. The first documented professional tattoo artist in the USA was Martin Hildebrandt, a German immigrant who arrived in Boston, Massachusetts in 1846.


Between 1861 and 1865, he tattooed soldiers on both sides in the American Civil War. The first documented professional tattooist in Britain was established in Liverpool in the 1870s. Tattooing was an expensive and painful process, and by the 1870s had become a mark of wealth for the crowned heads of Europe.


 Since the 1970s, tattoos have become a mainstream part of global and Western fashion, common among both sexes, all economic classes, and age groups from the later teen years to middle age. For many young Americans, the tattoo has taken on a decidedly different meaning than for previous generations.


 The tattoo has "undergone dramatic redefinition" and has shifted from a form of deviance to an acceptable form of expression. In 2010, 25% of Australians under the age of 30 had tattoos.


The Government of Meiji Japan had outlawed tattoos in the 19th century, a prohibition that stood for 70 years before being repealed in 1948. As of June 6, 2012 all new tattoos are forbidden for employees of the city of Osaka. Existing tattoos are required to be covered with proper clothing. The regulations were added to Osaka's ethical codes, and employees with tattoos were encouraged to have them removed. This was done because the strong connection of tattoos with the yakuza, or Japanese organized crime, after an Osaka official in February 2012 threatened a schoolchild by showing his tattoo.


Current cultural understandings of tattoos in Europe and North America have been greatly influenced by long-standing stereotypes based on deviant social groups in the 19th and 20th centuries. Particularly in North America tattoos have been associated with stereotypes,folklore, and racism. Not until the 1960s and 1970s did people associate tattoos with such societal outcasts as bikers and prisoners.


 Today, in the United States many prisoners and criminal gangs use distinctive tattoos to indicate facts about their criminal behavior, prison sentences, and organizational affiliation. A teardrop tattoo, for example, can be symbolic of murder, or each tear represents the death of a friend.


At the same time, members of the U.S. military have an equally well-established and longstanding history of tattooing to indicate military units, battles, kills, etc., an association which remains widespread among older Americans.


 Tattooing is also common in the British Armed Forces. A study conducted in 2004 among 500 adults between ages 18 and 50 found an explicit link between tattooing and criminality. 72 percent of respondents with face, neck, hands, or fingers tattoos have spent more than three days in jail, compared to 6 percent of the non-tattooed population.