środa, 25 maja 2016

Picture of stars over a dead tree in Dead Vlei, Namibia

The skies are in constant movement over the stillness of Dead Vlei in Namibia. Dead Vlei, meaning “dead marsh,” is a clay pan studded with the remnants of trees that died hundreds of years ago. The star trails are a fitting backdrop to a landscape that looks otherworldly even in the light of day.

I have never before heard about this place and I must say - it's quite interesting, isn't it?


wtorek, 24 maja 2016

To rescue or not

Today, when I was coming back home from the university, I saw a baby bird (I have no idea which species was it) which was sitting under the stairs near my block of flats. He was squeaking in a way that everybody would be concerned if everything is ok with him. I had no idea what to do, I even thought of taking him with me and give him some food and water but I decided to look for some information on the internet and I found an article which said that really, we shouldn't try to be a hero. It might seem like a baby bird needs our help but the truth is that his mother is definitely near him, looking for some food and if we take her baby with us, well, it's bad. Of course there are some cases in which a bird, a cat or any other animal won't survive without our help, so we should be careful in distinguishing both of this situations. 

poniedziałek, 9 maja 2016

Booze with rare animals

Sometimes wheat and grapes won’t suffice. Some drinkers in Southeast Asia prefer their alcohol distilled with animal parts, a tradition stemming from the supposed curative powers the creatures provide.
Chinese media report that a liquor manufacturer in Guangdong Province hoped to capitalize on the custom by selling bottles of alcohol stuffed with parts of rare species such as the common water monitor lizard, crow pheasant, and Tokay gecko, which is considered vulnerable.
Snake wine, made by drowning a live snake in alcohol, can also be found in Southeast Asian countries (on occasion, the snake awakens from a drunken sleep to bite the person drinking the wine), as can wine steeped with the bones of tigers. Neither of these have proven medicinal value.
It’s illegal in China to hunt, kill, and trade protected animals. Last January police busted the man and confiscated 24 bottles of the alcohol. He’s been fined 50,000 yuan ($7,690) and sentenced to nearly 11 years in prison.
Awful, I would never taste it!

czwartek, 28 kwietnia 2016

Sambal sauce

Yesterday I had a craving for a pizza, I really had to eat it. I ordered my favourite one with a lot of cheese and salami and for the first time I ate it with sambal sauce instead of garlic. I have to admit, really, that it was the best spicy sauce that I've ever eaten! I checked a recipe immediately and I want to share it with you:

Ingredients

1/4 cup seeded dried hot red chilies
1/2 cup minced red bell pepper
1/3 cup minced onion
3 tablespoons minced garlic
2 tablespoons minced dried shrimp (or 1 teaspoon anchovy paste)
1/4 cup minced seeded fresh hot red chilies
2 teaspoons salad oil
3 tablespoons liquid tamarind concentrate (or lime juice)
1/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt

Preparation

1. Soak dried chilies in 1/4 cup hot water until soft, about 10 minutes. Whirl mixture in blender until smooth.
2. In a 10-inch frying pan over medium-high heat, stir bell pepper, onion, garlic, dried shrimp, and fresh chilies in salad oil until vegetables are limp, about 3 minutes.
3. Stir in dried chili mixture, tamarind concentrate, brown sugar, and salt; cook 2 to 3 more minutes.

As you can see, it's really spicy but I definitely recommend it to those who like it as much as me. ;)

poniedziałek, 18 kwietnia 2016

a gator-eat-gator world


It's a gator-eat-gator world - at least in Florida, where a large American alligator was videotaped this week chowing down on a smaller member of its own species. The grisly encounter was recorded by Alex Figueroa at Circle B Bar Reserve in Lakeland on April 13. The larger gator was 11 to 12 feet (3.3 to 3.7 meters) long, Figueroa estimated. Although he has never seen such cannibalistic behavior in person, it is not unheard of in alligators, says Christopher Brochu, a professor at the University of Iowa who studies crocodilians."Gators are very opportunistic and will eat whatever they can find; anything that can fit down their throat is food," says Brochu. This includes other gators, alive or dead.


I know it's awful, sorry! While watching it what came to my mind was - "I wonder when people will start to eat eatch other? Maybe they have already been doing it." :D

czwartek, 14 kwietnia 2016

Prairie Dog

Few weeks ago I watched a polish TV program called "Rozmowy w Toku". The topic was "Strange Pets" and one of the participants came with a prairie dog! I'm definitely in love with this little creatures and to be honest, I didn't know that they are allowed to be kept at home in Poland.
I watched a videoe with a prairie dog and I have to admit that his behaviour is very similar to the behaviour of a ferret which I actually have.


wtorek, 5 kwietnia 2016

Vinted

Do you know what is vinted? 

It is a peer-to-peer marketplace to sell, buy and swap clothes. It allows members to communicate directly and has the features of a social networking service. As of December 2015, it had 11 million members, mostly between the ages of 14 and 25, on its free iOS and Android apps. It also reported a total of 22.3 million listings in December 2015.The company defines its mission to be “making second hand clothing the first choice worldwide”

How it works?

To sell on Vinted, members take a picture of an item, write a description and set a price. The item is then put into Vinted’s feed. The app has messaging features for buyers and sellers to communicate about purchases. Buyers pay inside the app and Vinted holds their money until the item is received.

Do you use this site? Make some purchases there or just exchange your clothes with other users? Well, I'm a big fan of vinted, because I can get there very very cheap and fashion clothes, which are sometimes new. I recommend this site to every woman who loves clothes just like me and don't want to spend so much money on them. 

poniedziałek, 4 kwietnia 2016

Mexican tortilla

Today I would like to share with you the recipe that I found few days ago and which I absolutely love!

MEXICAN TORTILLA




Ingredients


For the mince:

  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 2 large onions, chopped
  • 500g beef mince
  • 1 mild red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
  • 1 red pepper, deseeded and diced
  • 2 garlic cloves, crushed
  • 1 tablespoon ground cumin
  • 1 tablespoons ground coriander
  • 2 tablespoon tomato purée
  • 1–2 tblespoons mango chutney
  • 2 x 400g tins chopped tomatoes
  • 1 small bunch fresh coriander, chopped
  • salt pepper

To assemble:

  • 3 large tortilla wraps
  • 250g  mascarpone
  • 100g mozzarella
  • 100g cheddar

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 160C.
  2. Pour the oil into a large ovenproof frying pan over a medium heat, add the onions and fry for 3 minutes. Turn up the heat, add the mince and fry until brown, breaking the meat up with a wooden spoon and stirring occasionally.
  3. Add the chilli, red pepper, garlic and spices and fry for 5 minutes or until all the moisture has evaporated and the mixture is quite dry. Stir in the tomato purée, mango chutney, tinned tomatoes and salt and black pepper. Cover with a lid, bring to the boil and transfer to the oven to simmer for an hour.
  4. Remove from the oven and stir in half the coriander. Increase the oven temperature to 200C.
  5. Spread a third of the cooked mince beef mixture over the bottom of the ovenproof dish and lay one tortilla wrap on top. Spread a third of the mascarpone (see tip) over the tortilla and sprinkle with a third of each of the mozzarella and Cheddar cheeses. Repeat twice more so you have 3 layers.
  6. Bake in the oven for about 25 minutes until golden-brown and bubbling. Set aside for 5 minutes before serving and garnish with the remaining coriander.
I love mexican kitchen and I recomment to all of you to try to do this dish. It might seem like it's not really simple but it's also not so difficult to prepare. 

Enjoy your meal!

niedziela, 27 marca 2016

Easter!

Today is Easter day, which I actually love because of the... food. Ham, sausage, eggs, salads - for such things it's worth living. :) I also really like spending time with my family. It's always funny and every year I 'get to know them again'. Anyway, I hope that I won't put on weight too much, just a little bit would be ok. :)

So... HAPPY EASTER FOR EVERYONE!

poniedziałek, 14 marca 2016

Is it possible?

Few days ago I heard a story about a penguin which swims 2000 miles every year just to see the man who saved his life. I was really moved while reading it and I believe you will feel the same:

In 2011, a Brazilian man found a Magellanic penguin dripping with oil and starving by his home on an island near Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. After cleaning him up and feeding him back to strength, an inseparable friendship was born.
When Joao Pereira de Souza, 71, let the penguin back into the sea, he thought their paths had strayed for good. However, to his surprise, the penguin returned to the island a few months later and followed him back to his home.
Every year since, the penguin spends eight months of the year on the Brazilian island with his new companion, only returning to the Patagonian coast in southern Chile and Brazil to breed in spring. It’s reported by the Wall Street Journal that this journey is around 3,200 kilometers (2,000 miles).
De Souza, a retired bricklayer, has named his new pal JinJing.
“I love the penguin like it’s my own child and I believe the penguin loves me,” de Souza told Globo TV. “No one else is allowed to touch him. He pecks them if they do. He lays on my lap, lets me give him showers, allows me to feed him sardines and to pick him up.”
According to the IUCN Red List, the Magellanic penguin (Spheniscus magellanicus) is categorized as near threatened species. While it’s not unheard of for the penguins to migrate up to Brazil, there are few reports of individuals heading as far north as Rio de Janeiro in normal circumstances.
Mario Castro, a local fisherman, told the Wall Street Journal: “The funniest thing is, the penguin might stay here for a week, then it will walk down to the beach and leaves. It spends 10, 12 or 15 days, then comes back to the same house,”

Speaking to The Independent, biologist Joao Paulo Krajewski, who interviewed de Souza for Globo TV, said: “I have never seen anything like this before. I think the penguin believes Joao is part of his family and probably a penguin as well. When he sees him he wags his tail like a dog and honks with delight.”

It's just unbelievable and at the same time beautiful. I would never thought that a penguin could be so emotional and devoted. Animals are better creatures than we, people, would ever be. ;)

środa, 9 marca 2016

A day off

Today I didn't go to the university because I was so tired, that I couldn't get up... ;) Instead I did the laundry, studied and read the article from nationalgeographic.com
Check it:

"A Switzerland-based computer programmer and amateur cyclist had the ride of his life
Friday, when he was joined on the road by a sprinting wild ostrich
In the GoPro video he made of the encounter, "you can hear me laughing from my bike," says Oleksiy Mishchenko, who lives in Zurich and works for Google. "I thought I was going to fall off."
Mishchenko was spending a week's vacation in South Africa to cycle in the Cape Argus
Tour. On Friday, he and some friends rode out to the Cape of Good Hope, at the southern
tip of Africa. The road was deserted.
Out of the corner of his eye, Mishchenko saw a pair of ostriches at the side of the road,
one male (with darker colored feathers) and one female (with lighter feathers). Suddenly,
the male jumped onto the road. He ran after Mishchenko's friends, while the cyclist filmed
the "race" from behind.
Mishchenko says the cyclists were pedaling downhill and were going about 30 miles (50
kilometers) an hour. The big bird had no trouble keeping up, since they have been clocked
over 40 miles (70 kilometers) an hour.
"It didn't cross my mind that it could be a threat," says Mishchenko. "The guy seemed
totally cool. I don't think he was scared, because he didn't try to change directions or
escape."
Eventually, the ostrich peeled off.  
The cyclists finished their trip to the cape. On the way back, they saw the ostrich standing
near the side of the road. Mishchenko adds that there is an ostrich farm in the area,
although he says the footage was made inside the boundaries of the Table Mountain
National Park. (See an ostrich vs. a jackal vs. a vulture.)
"I have never seen anything like this before," says biologist Craig Packer, a National
Geographic explorer and professor at the University of Minnesota who studies African
wildlife.  
"I've never seen people on bicycles near ostriches before," adds Packer, who has made
close-up pictures of the birds through his "Serengeti Selfie" project. "We don't know what
was going on in that bird's mind."
Since the animal's face isn't very visible in the video, it's especially difficult to try to guess
its thoughts. It doesn't look like it was acting aggressively, since it wasn't lunging at the
bikers, Packer says. It's possible it was confusing the cyclists with female ostriches, or
perhaps it was simply "caught in traffic" along the road. Sometimes animals do end up
going along with the flow of vehicles or people for a while, unsure of a safe place to make
an exit, a bit like a teenage driver.
"Maybe he was trying to show off to his girlfriend," suggests Mishchenko.
That's possible, says Packer, although the birds normally try to impress mates by
intermittently flapping their wings and making a booming noise, neither of which is seen
in the video.
"It's so puzzling what is going on," says Packer.
Ostriches remain relatively plentiful across much of Africa, although they
are usually wary of people."


wtorek, 8 marca 2016

I'm still resting

A new semester has just started and... I'm still resting. ;) I can't force myself to learn especially after so many exams. But that's ok as long as I don't get any bad marks.


When you don't want to learn, just don't.

niedziela, 17 stycznia 2016

Session

Here comes the worst month of the year. Learning, learning, learning and nothing more, especially if you have 6 exams and even more tests. Unfortunately, nothing can be done and the only thing which we can do is to blame ourselves that we're studying at the university. ;)

And sth with my favourite animal that made me feel a little bit better on this Sunday morning:


sobota, 16 stycznia 2016

Lost City?


Picture of valley in the Mosquitia jungle hosting remains of an ancient lost city
I've found some interesting information about the lost city and I've decided to share it with you!
In Honduras (it is a country in central America), about a year ago, scientists found mysterious artifacts but the new expedition has confirmed that some civilization must had been living there for some time.

'For a century, explorers and prospectors in Honduras told tales of the white ramparts of a lost city glimpsed above jungle foliage. Indigenous stories speak of a “white house” where Indians took refuge from Spanish conquistadores. 
While the notion of a fabulous White City or a “Lost City of the Monkey God” buried in the jungle remains the stuff of legend, Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez paid a visit Tuesday to a real and recently discovered lost city—complete with earthen pyramids, plazas, and a cache of stone artifacts—to participate in the excavation of the first artifact from the cache.
Archaeologists announced the discovery of the ancient community in the remote Mosquitia region in eastern Honduras last March. The stone objects, including an effigy of a “were-jaguar,” were left untouched under military protection until a second expedition could be mounted to return to conduct a carefully managed excavation. The archaeological team, led by Christopher Fisher of Colorado State University and supported by the Honduran government and a grant from the National
Geographic Society, will spend a month recovering the artifacts. 
“We’re hoping to find out what culture was here,” says Virgilio Paredes, Director of the Honduran Institute for Anthropology and History, who is accompanying President Hernandez to the site.
At the end of the month, says Paredes, the team of investigators will begin developing a “strategic plan” to widen their search. The site visited by the initial expedition last March is just one of three in the region revealed by an aerial survey in 2012 using an imaging technique called lidar. In fact, the archaeologists believe that La Mosquitia harbors not one, but many “lost cities,” which taken together represent something far more important—a lost civilization.'

I believe that there are many places like this one which we just haven't yet discovered. The Earth is so big and we are so small, so it must have some secrets hidden. ;)   

piątek, 15 stycznia 2016

Bydgoszcz


Widok z mostu Sulimy-Kamińskiego w Bydg zmierzch panorama1.jpg 
Today sth about my wonderful city - Bydgoszcz. Many people still think that it's quite a horrible city but it's not true. Recently Bydgoszcz has hugely changed. New investments are being built like modern blocks of flats, shopping centers, entertainment places. I can honestly say that it's one of not many cities in Poland which has made such a huge progress in a short time. I also have my friends, family there and that's mostly why I love my city. I'm definitely proud of Bydgoszcz and I don't want to live anywhere else in the future.

niedziela, 10 stycznia 2016

Five films to watch in 2016

Sth about the cinema. I picked the most exciting films coming up in the new year.

A Bigger Splash
A Bowie-ish rock goddess (Tilda Swinton) and her devoted boyfriend (Matthias Schoenaerts) are on holiday when two uninvited guests turn up at their Italian villa: the rock star’s party-animal ex (Ralph Fiennes) and his sulky, seductive daughter (Dakota Johnson). Depending on how you look at it, the holiday is either well and truly over, or just getting underway. Inspired by Jacques Deray’s La Piscine (1969), Luca Guadagnino’s A Bigger Splash is an erotic drama which becomes an edgy thriller, but it’s always scenic, sun-baked, and hilarious: Fiennes’s wild dance moves are worth the ticket price.

A Bigger Splash

Hail, Caesar!
Ethan and Joel Coen’s period comedy could well be 2016’s most sumptuous treat, an ice cream sundae of a film comprising the Coens’ favourite ingredients: a kidnapping (The Big Lebowski), the Golden Age of Hollywood (Barton Fink) and George Clooney being a buffoon (O Brother Where Art Thou?). Josh Brolin stars as a studio executive who steps in when Clooney’s matinee idol is spirited away from the set of an ancient Roman epic. The lip-smacking cast includes Scarlett Johansson as an Esther Williams-alike bathing beauty, Channing Tatum doing some Gene Kelly moves, and the stars of A Bigger Splash, Ralph Fiennes and Tilda Swinton. 

Hail, Caesar!  

The Witch 
The Witch is 2016’s answer to It Follows: an independent horror film which had festival audiences raving about its cleverness and style as well as its nerve-jangling scariness. The winner of the Best First Feature Award at October’s London Film Festival, Robert Eggers’ directorial debut tells the relentlessly creepy tale of a Puritan family which is exiled from a New England settlement in the 1630s. Forced to build a homestead at the edge of an isolated forest, the family seems to be beset by black magic, but the parents’ own religious zeal is just as menacing. Eggers worked as a production designer before becoming a writer-director and, as outlandish as The Witch is, it looks as authentic as any big-budget period drama.

The Witch

Julieta  
Pedro Almodóvar’s last film was 2013’s toe-curlingly unfunny I’m So Excited, so it’s a relief to report that his new one – his twentieth – marks his return to ‘the cinema of women’. With any luck, we can expect a bruising, emotionally charged comedy-drama in the vein of Volver and All About My Mother. Almodóvar told the Financial Times that his original title was Silencio, because “that’s the principal element that drives the worst things that happen to the main female protagonist”, but he renamed it to avoid confusion with Martin Scorsese’s forthcoming Silence. Emma Suárez and Adriana Ugarte play older and younger incarnations of the same heroine.

 Julieta  

High-Rise 
Ben Wheatley’s surreal black comedy opens with a shot of Tom Hiddleston on his tower-block balcony, barbecuing a dog, and proceedings get more chaotic and disturbing from there. Adapted from JG Ballard’s 1975 satirical novel, High-Rise is set in a forbidding skyscraper which houses the chain-smoking poor on the lower storeys, the decadent rich on the upper ones, and the building’s lordly architect (Jeremy Irons) in the penthouse. Also featuring Sienna Miller, Luke Evans and Elisabeth Moss, it’s an unusually starry and expensive enterprise for Wheatley, who shot his first films (Down Terrace, Kill List) on a shoestring, but he’s still as anarchic as ever.

High-Rise

Don't forget to watch them!

sobota, 9 stycznia 2016

The Fast and the Furless: Explaining Newly Recognized Dog Breeds

"The American Kennel Club's latest members, the sloughi and the American hairless terrier, have some intriguing histories.

Picture of a Sloughi dog 

   The sloughi is an ancient breed that originated in North Africa.

Meet the fast and the furless new members of the American Kennel Club: the greyhound-like sloughi and the American hairless terrier. 
The two new additions, which bring the AKC's total breed list to 189, have some quirky characteristics—and couldn't be more different. As its name suggests, the American hairless terrier is typically bald as a result of a recessive gene found in rat terriers. (Also see "New Clues on How and When Wolves Became Dogs.") 
In the early 1970s, breeders in the U.S. began selecting for that gene, eventually giving rise to a new breed of hairless canine that resembles a Dalmation mixed with a chupacabra. The American hairless terrier’s skin, which can be spotted or solid gray, is smooth to the touch. The animals are especially popular with people who suffer from allergies.

Picture of an American Hairless Terrier

“Except there’s a twist,” says Gina DiNardo, vice president of the American Kennel Club. “Some American hairless terriers do have hair.” Because the hairless gene is recessive, all it takes is one dominant hair gene to make the dogs produce a wiry coat, she says. 
  
Born to Run
In contrast to the newly distinct American hairless terrier, the sloughi (pronounced SLOO-ghee) is a breed that’s likely been around for thousands of years. 
“There are paintings found in North Africa dating around 7,000 years ago with pictures of dogs that look very much like sloughis,” says DiNardo. 
While the smooth-coated, short-haired sloughi’s genetics may be ancient, the breed was only introduced to the U.S. as recently as 1973.  Like greyhounds and whippets, sloughis were bred to chase prey over long distances. (If they were on a football team, they’d be wide receivers.)  It’s for this reason DiNardo recommends not taking them off of the leash unless you’re in a fenced area.
“Those traits that have been bred for thousands of years are still in that dog,” she says, “so if it sees something little running, it’s going to go chasing right after it.”

Waiting in the Wings
Unfortunately for the newbies, the breeds won’t officially be allowed to enter the renowned Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show until 2017.
However, when the breeds do become eligible to compete for Best in Show, they may have to watch out for the newest canine on the block. In July 2016, the AKC plans to formally recognize a small-to-medium-size Hungarian sheepdog called the pumi. 
And unlike its American hairless cousin, this pup’s got plenty of hair to parade before the judges."

As usual, I've just finished reading the newest articles on nationalgeographic.com and I've decided to put this article on my blog. My conclusion is: dog's history is quite long and interesting, almost like ours. And what about dogs from the photos? Hmm... I prefer those less extravagant. :)

środa, 6 stycznia 2016

Photo od the day

Picture of a winding road in Morocco

While reading National Geographic (I do it quite often), I found a photo of the “road of a thousand kasbahs” taken from a roadside cafe in Morocco. The route zigzags through Morocco’s Dadès Gorge, presenting travelers with this hypnotizing look at its sharp turns. It's amazing but also quite bizarre. Driving there must be really... extreme? ;)

wtorek, 5 stycznia 2016

Garlic soup!

Few days ago I found a recipe for garlic soup. I decided to do it and from that time it is my favourite soup! ;) Generally I love garlic so it wasn't a big surprise for me that it would taste great. It's easy, cheap and I recommend everyone to do it. Garlic fans - you'll love it!

Ingredients:
  • 26 garlic cloves (unpeeled)

  • 2 tablespoons olive oil

  • 2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter

  • 2 1/4 cups sliced onions

  • 1 1/2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme

  • 18 garlic cloves, peeled

  • 3 1/2 cups chicken stock or canned low-salt chicken broth

  • 1/2 cup whipping cream

  • 1/2 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese (about 2 ounces)

  • 4 lemon wedges  

Preparation: 

Preheat oven to 180°C. Place 26 garlic cloves in small glass baking dish. Add 2 tablespoons olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper; toss to coat. Cover baking dish tightly with foil and bake until garlic is golden brown and tender, about 45 minutes. Cool. Squeeze garlic between fingertips to release cloves. Transfer cloves to small bowl.  
Melt butter in heavy large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onions and thyme and cook until onions are translucent, about 6 minutes. Add roasted garlic and 18 raw garlic cloves and cook 3 minutes. Add chicken stock; cover and simmer until garlic is very tender, about 20 minutes. Working in batches, purée soup in blender until smooth. Return soup to saucepan; add cream and bring to simmer. Season with salt and pepper. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate. Rewarm over medium heat, stirring occasionally.)  
Divide grated cheese among 4 bowls and ladle soup over. Squeeze juice of 1 lemon wedge into each bowl and serve.   

https://paulinescookbook.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/img_5390.jpg