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:

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. ;)   

Bydgoszcz

 

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.

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.



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. 

 

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.



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.

  

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.



Don't forget to watch them!

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.

 

   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.



“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. :)

Photo od the day

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? ;)

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.