
domingo, 10 de setembro de 2006
quinta-feira, 7 de setembro de 2006
Só não lê quem não quiser
Ahh... Também há catálogos dos pavilhões da antiga Exposição, ao preço da uva mijona...
Francamente... :)
quarta-feira, 6 de setembro de 2006
segunda-feira, 4 de setembro de 2006
segunda-feira, 28 de agosto de 2006
12 things about football ...
Harder to walk in than heels, so destined for the catwalk surely.
2. Shorts
Not too long, not too short, not too baggy, not too tight, not Bermudas, not hot pants, not culottes, not pedal-pushers. Shorts.
3. Acrobatic celebrations
Got a pay rise? Do a hand stand
4. Away kit
If you are hosting an event you can make your guests change the colour of their clothes.
5. Substitutions
Dinner not going well? Bring in some reserve guests and send the bores for a shower.
6. Half-time
Everyone stop what you're doing, take a break, then change ends. Works everywhere from the boardroom to the bedroom.
7. Names on shirts
No more embarrassing 'I know we've met before but ...' moments.
8. Off side rule
Useful in domestic rows. For example: 'Your point might be a good one, but you were standing too far forwards when you made it, so it doesn't count.'
9. Shin pads
As a fashion accessory. And because banging your shins really hurts.
10. The magic injury spray
He's stretchered off the pitch clutching his leg and writhing in agony, a man in a tracksuit sprays something on him and the next minute he's running around like a five-year-old on Red Bull. Where do we get our hands on that spray?
11. Mass hugging
Congratulate your colleagues on their achievements by jumping on top of them.
12. Big socks
Because as a rule everybody should pull their socks up.
15 things no man wants to hear... from a woman
2 The phrase 'I'd say it's bang-on average, if not slightly bigger'. Best to steer clear of the size issue. Like us talking about your weight, it can only lead to misunderstanding and hurt.
3 Obsessive accounts of your diet and exercise regime. Men like skinny women, true. But they dislike being exposed to the borderline eating disorders and pathological obsessiveness that produce them. And curvy and sane always beats mad and thin. Eventually.
4 The accusing phrase, 'What's wrong with the blue dress, then?' after we have said we like the red one.
5 Any details of your day at work. Although men can find the most basic things endlessly fascinating - the number of buttons on their shirts, farting - they will suddenly develop ADD when it comes to your professional life. Unless you are a porn actress. No, actually, even then...
6 Any information about things you thought about buying. We are perfectly happy to admire actual purchases, but yearning for those phantom shoes/dress/bag exasperates us.
7 Stories about other men patronising you. This will give us an irresistible urge to ruffle your hair and say in a kids-TV voice, 'Awww, did dey? Did dey do dat to oo?' I know, sometimes we're asking for trouble.
8 The word 'Fine' as a stand-alone sentence. The scariest syllable in the female vocabulary.
9 The sound of weeping. It destroys us.
10 Any details of strife you may be having with your female friends. The endless round of hurt and rapprochement that constitutes girls' friendships mystifies us. If she's that much trouble just delete her from your bloody mobile.
11 The phrase, 'Hang on, I'll just reply to this text before we order'. We want first claim on your attention, woman.
12 The phrase, 'Can you turn over, you're snoring'. Great, that's both of us awake.
13 The words 'Am I special? Am I?' Especially if you are drawing a circle around our nipple with your finger at the time.
14 Anyone else's name, in your sleep.
15 Your dreams. Unless we're in them. And in a good light, too. If not, save 'em for the shrink.
segunda-feira, 21 de agosto de 2006
Hooray for the Bidet!!!
(...)
Though Saki claims to be the first commercial establishment in these islands to install the paperless toilets so beloved of the Japanese (70% of households in Tokyo have one), it is probably a while before they will take the whole nation by storm. But could the mere fact that such a whizzy loo has been pioneered anywhere public in the UK be indicative of a wider social change? While investment in public conveniences has generally plummeted over the past decade - there are an estimated 6,000 public toilets in Britain now, compared with double that 10 years ago, and some places, even big cities such as Birmingham, now have no free public loos - there are signs that a quiet revolution is under way among the nation's cisterns and urinals.
"It's just like when mobile phones came in," says Iyako Watanabe, the Japanese-born managing director of Saki, of her futuristic loos. "For a while there were lots of refuseniks, but once you get one, there's no going back." Colin Davies, MD of Ascot Hygiene Ltd, the only UK distributor of Saki's Dutch-manufactured £400 toilet seats, agrees. "Once you've tried them, you can't live without them," he says. "Whenever we visit friends who don't have one, I can't wait to get home. It's such a joy."
Read on, 'tis British, but very good :)
terça-feira, 8 de agosto de 2006
segunda-feira, 7 de agosto de 2006
More on curry vs. Alzheimer's

quarta-feira, 2 de agosto de 2006
Mad about the soy
No one is sure about the origins of bean curd. Legend says it was invented in the second century BC by Liu An, the king of Huainan; some argue that a stone relief excavated from a tomb of the same era depicts a bean-curd workshop. The earliest written reference to bean curd, however, is in a 10th-century text, and the Liu An legend only began a few hundred years ago, during the Ming dynasty. Some scholars have suggested that bean curd was first made by nomads who migrated south and hankered after their customary cheese; others that it was developed by a rural doctor who would have been familiar with soy milk and had gypsum in his medicine chest. All that is certain is that by the Song dynasty it had become a popular food.
'Flower' bean curd and firm white bean curd are just the most basic forms of this most versatile foodstuff. In the markets of Hunan, there are stalls piled high with a dozen different varieties. There are slices of golden smoked bean curd (la gan zi or xiang gan); treacly blocks of stewed aromatic bean curd of various kinds (lu dou fu or xiang gan); deep-fried bean curd puffs (you dou fu); 'hundred-leaves' sheets of leather-thin bean curd (bai ye); waffle-like 'dried orchids' that have been cut into trellis patterns and deep-fried (lan hua gan); and 'bound chickens' (kun ji), tightly tied rolls of thin bean curd that are used by Buddhists as a chicken substitute.
There is also fermented bean curd (dou fu ru), a chilli-laced relish that can be as sublimely rich and creamy as a high blue cheese. Fermented bean curd is eaten as a relish with rice congee or noodles for breakfast, or simply nibbled at the start of a meal, to whet the appetite - just a morsel on the tip of a chopstick is enough to send your taste buds wild with umami excitement. It is also used as an occasional seasoning in Hunanese cookery. Along with soy sauce, black fermented beans and winter-sacrifice beans, fermented bean curd brings to Chinese vegetarian food some of the rich and savoury tastes that one associates with meat and poultry.
Fire Rainbow

This is a fire rainbow - The rarest of all naturally occurring atmospheric phenomena.
The picture was captured on the Idaho/Washington border. The event lasted about 1 hour.
Clouds have to be cirrus, at least 6000 metres in the air, with just the right amount of ice crystals and the sun has to hit the clouds at precisely 58 degrees.
segunda-feira, 24 de julho de 2006
domingo, 23 de julho de 2006
sábado, 22 de julho de 2006
terça-feira, 11 de julho de 2006
What I know about women ...
My kids always ask how you know when you're in love, and I tell them that you don't really have a say in it. When you fall in love you are completely helpless. And if you have to work at a relationship you're not really in love. When you meet that one person you're literally stunned. I met my wife Sheryl when I was 27, and she was 18,when she danced in my Welcome to my Nightmare show. She was the ballerina in Only Women Bleed, and she did all the parts which my daughter, who's 25 and looks identical to her, plays now. Sheryl looks like a cross between Jessica Lange and, at certain angles, Jennifer Lopez. She's a ballet teacher now, so she's very classy but a total rocker.
I was going out with a huge movie star when I met Sheryl. It was a chaotic time in my life - I had a lot of girls every night but never a girlfriend. I was dating Racquel Welch, at her prime. She was like a battleship, and then there was Sheryl - a 90-pound ballerina, and I was just in love with her, this little waif. One day I woke up and realised she was the girl I was going to marry. And there weren't any doubts in my mind. And there was never a thought that I'd still screw around. I've never cheated on her, because I'm a total romancer.
Women still throw themselves at me every day and every night, not because I'm handsome, but because I'm Alice Cooper, I'm a rock star. But the last thing I'd ever want to do is hurt her. I've learned something from women that's really important - that men are microwaves, and women are pressure cookers. Women love romance, while men love sex. And I'm sure women love sex too, but they need the stuff leading up to it... flowers, dating. Men don't get that. If guys really got it they would wait six dates before trying to get a girl into bed. It makes it more exciting for one thing. There's no mystery if you just click your fingers - there's no not being able to sleep at night, no losing your appetite. Romance is the missing element that most men don't understand. I still date my wife. We have three kids, but every once in a while I'll pick her up at her dance studio and take her to a motel.
Women are fascinating. I chose to be called Alice Cooper for shock value. Names like Black Sabbath or Death Patrol are just too obvious. Alice Cooper needed to be that thing that people couldn't figure out. It was Los Angeles, 1967, and we were five guys, who didn't mind wearing women's clothes, but were all very heterosexual. All the groupies loved the fact that we'd wear their slips with black leather pants and motorcycle boots, and all of a sudden we were this 'thing'. Glam, but rough, so the name Alice Cooper was something that was going to piss off every mother in America. They're expecting some blond folk singer, and they got us - a pre-Clockwork Orange Clockwork Orange. We were more of a gang than a band.
I'll never understand women. There's a joke - God sees this guy in San Francisco whom he really likes, and tells him: 'I'm going to give you anything you want'. So the guy says: 'I have a house in Maui. I'd like a bridge that goes from San Francisco to Maui.' So God says: 'OK, but I'm going to give you 24 hours to think about that. Tell me again tomorrow.' So he comes back the next day and the guy says: 'Forget the bridge - I want to understand women.' God says: 'Do you want that bridge four lanes, or two?' See? It's easier to build a bridge than understand women.
That's the great thing though. I've been married for 30 years and think I know everything there is to know about Sheryl but then, every once in a while, I get a surprise. It makes it interesting. Women's mystique is the greatest thing. That's why they should never bare it all - they're always sexier with something on.
sábado, 8 de julho de 2006
sexta-feira, 7 de julho de 2006
quinta-feira, 6 de julho de 2006
11 Examples of Unusual Mating Habits
1. PENGUINS
Penguins prefer to be `married', but they suffer long separations due to their migratory habits. When reunited, a pair will stand breast to breast, heads thrown back, singing loudly, with outstretched flippers trembling. Two weeks after a pair is formed, their union is consummated. The male makes his intentions known by laying his head across his partner's stomach. They go on a long trek to find privacy, but the actual process of intercourse takes only three minutes. Neither penguin will mate again that year.
The male Adele penguin must select his mate from a colony of more than a million, and he indicates his choice by rolling a stone at the female's feet. Stones are scarce at mating time because many are needed to build walls around nests. It becomes commonplace for penguins to steal them from one another. If she accepts this gift, they stand belly to belly and sing a mating song.
2. HIPPOPOTAMI
Hippos have their own form of aromatherapy. Hippos attract mates by marking territory, urinating and defecating at the same time. Then, an enamored hippo will twirl its tail like a propellor to spread this delicious slop in every direction. This attracts lovers, and a pair will begin foreplay, which consists of playing by splashing around in the water before settling down to business.
3. THE MALE UGANDA KOB
Exhaustion is the frequent fate of the male Uganda kob, an African antelope. Like many species of birds and mammals, the kob roams in a social group until the mating season, when the dominant male establishes a mating territory, or lek. But the females decide which territory they wish to enter and then pick the male they think most attractive. He then mates with all the females until he is too weak to continue (usually due to lack of food) and is replaced by another.
4. SQUID
Squid begin mating with a circling nuptial dance. Teams of squid revolve around across a `spawning bed' a 200 metres in diameter. At daybreak they begin having sex and continue all day long - they only take a break so the female can drive down and deposit eggs. When she returns to the circle, the two go at it again. As twilight falls, the pair go offshore to eat and rest. At the first sign of sunlight, they return to their spot and do it all over again. This routine can last up to two weeks, ensuring a healthy population of squid.
5. PORCUPINES
The answer to one of our oldest jokes: `How do porcupines do it?' `Veeery carefully!' is not quite true. The truth is more bizarre than dangerous. Females are only receptive for a few hours a year. As summer approaches, young females become nervous and very excited. Next, they go off their food, and stick close by the males and mope. Meanwhile the male becomes aggressive with other males, and begins a period of carefully sniffing every place the female of his choice urinates, smelling her all over. This is a tremendous aphrodisiac. While she is sulking by his side, he begins to `sing'.
When he is ready to make love, the female runs away if she's not ready. If she is in the mood, they both rear up and face each other, belly-to-belly. Then, males spray their ladies with a tremendous stream of urine, soaking their loved one from head to foot - the stream can shoot as far as 7 feet.
If they're not ready, females respond by 1) objecting verbally 2) hitting with front paws like boxers 3) trying to bite 4) shaking off the urine. When ready, they accept the bath. This routine can go on for weeks. Six months after the beginning of courtship, the female will accept any male she has been close to. The spines and quills of both go relaxed and flat, and the male enters from behind. Mating continues until the male is worn out. Every time he tries to stop, the female wants to continue. If he has given up, she chooses another partner, only now she acts out the male role. To `cool off', females engage in the same courtship series, step-by-step, in reverse order.
It is advised never to stand close to a cage that contains courting porcupines.
6. GEESE
Two male geese may form a homosexual bond and prefer each other's company to any female's. Sometimes, however, a female may interpose herself between them during such a courtship, and be quickly fertilised. They will accept her, and weeks later the happy family of three can be seen attending to its tiny newborn goslings.
7. WHITE-FRONTED PARROTS
These birds, native to Mexico and and Central America, are believed to be the only species besides humans to kiss. Before actually mating, male and female will lock their beaks and gently flick their tongues together. If kissing is satisfying for both parties, the male boldly takes the next step, by regurgitating his food for his girlfriend, to show his love. White-fronted parrots also share parenting, unlike many other species. When the female lays her one egg, both parents take turns incubating it. When the baby hatches, the couple feed and care for their offspring together.
8. GRASSHOPPERS
Why are grasshoppers so noisy? It's because they're singing to woo their partners. They have as many as 400 distinct songs, which they sing during their courtship and mating cycles. Some males have a different song for each distinct mating period - for example, there may be a flirting song, then a mating song.
9. SEAGULLS
Lesbian mating is practised by between 8% and 14% of the seagulls on the Santa Barbara islands, off the California coast. Lesbian gulls go through all the motions of mating, and they lay sterile eggs. Homosexual behaviour is also known in geese, ostriches, cichlid fish, squid, rats and monkeys.
10. RED-SIDED GARTER SNAKES
These snakes are small and poisonous, and live in Canada and the Northwestern United States. Their highly unusual mating takes place during an enormous orgy. Twenty-five thousand snakes slither together in a large den, eager to copulate. In that pile, one female may have as many as 100 males vying for her. These `nesting balls' grow as large as two feet high. Now and then a female is crushed under the heavy mound - and the males are so randy that they continue to copulate, becoming the only necrophiliac snakes!
11. LYNX SPIDERS
When a male lynx spider feels the urge, he will capture his beauty in his web and wrap her in silk. Offering her this elegant meal (the silken web) is his way of wooing. When the mood is right, the female, distracted by her feast, will allow her suitor to mount her and begin mating. Oblivious, she ignores him and enjoys her supper.
terça-feira, 4 de julho de 2006
sexta-feira, 30 de junho de 2006
quinta-feira, 29 de junho de 2006
quarta-feira, 28 de junho de 2006
Beowulf & Grendel
I'm a sucker for obscure 8th Century (or so) Old English poetry, so when I saw that Beowulf and Grendel had been made, my inner lit geek trembled with equal parts trepidation and excitement. Danes and Geats fighting an evil troll, descended from Cain, the first murderer? Oh, yeah. And there's something to be said for manly Geat warriors strutting around in dead animal capes and carrying enormous swords. But what if they messed the story of Beowulf up? What if it was as bad as the godawful 1999 sci-fi version starring Christopher Lambert? Fortunately, in the hands of Sturla Gunnarsson, Beowulf and Grendel is a masterful film that fleshes out the decidedly one-sided epic poem, bringing Grendel to life with a humanity and warmth that adds layers of meaning to the old tale.
In John C. Gardner's novel Grendel, the author told the story of Beowulf from Grendel's point of view, going heavy on the darkish philosophy and making Grendel a nihilist who had deep conversations with dragons and came to view himself as the creator of the Danes. Scribe Andrew Rai Berzins, in penning the script for Beowulf and Grendel, takes a somewhat different tack, imbuing his Grendel with a deeper level of humanity and a reason for attacking the Danes. Beowulf (Gerard Butler, so perfectly cast he could have stepped right out of the ancient manuscript) [:D :D] is still heroic, but he is a hero with a conscience. Beowulf hears of the plight of the Danes, who have been plauged with attacks by a murderous troll. Distantly related to Danish King Hrothgar (Stellan Skarsgård), and being the heroic and manly warrior that he is, Beowulf sets sail with 14 of his strongest men in his mighty longboat , intent upon quickly and heroically relieving the troll of his head.
When Beowulf and crew arrive in Daneland, however, it soon becomes apparent to Beowulf that all is not as it seems, and that he's not getting the full story from the king. King Hrothgar built a spectacular mead hall, but he and his people are unable to sleep in it or enjoy it properly, because the pesky troll keeps coming along and killing people. It's starting to demoralize King Hrothgar's people, and Hrothgar, himself once a mighty warrior, now finds himself entrenched in gloom, despair, and too much beer. Mysterious asides about the troll, Grendel, from the local witch, Selma (Sarah Polley), start to make Beowulf question just why exactly Grendel has targeted King Hrothgar's hall -- and why he only kills men, never women and children. When Beowulf realizes that Hrothgar has brought Grendel's wrath upon himself, he suddenly finds himself unsure of whether to fulfill his promise to kill the troll. Into all this chaos also comes Brendan the Celt (Eddie Marsan), a wandering priest who, when he stumbles across the situation with Grendel, decides he has been divinely called to bring faith in God to Hrothgar and his people.
This is a very complex story with a lot of characters, each with their own motivations. Hrothgar is bent under the weight of the destruction of his people, caused by an act he committed, and has evolved from proud warrior to drunken king in the space of a decade-and-a-half. Selma, the outsider who lives alone in a cave, is an 8th century feminist of sorts -- sexual, fiercely independent and proud -- and has a mysterious relationship with the troll. She can also supposedly see people's deaths, and so Beowulf hunts her out to learn both about Grendel and the predicted outcome of his quest. Grendel, although he doesn't speak the language of the Danes, is far more human than any of them would like to admit. He's taller than the Danes by a good foot or more, and he's not too pretty to look at, but what do you expect from someone whose mother was a sea hag and father was a troll? Yet, in spite of his rough exterior, Grendel's actions show him in many ways to be more intelligent, more human, than those who are trying to kill him. And Beowulf, of course, wants to be the highly sung hero, and yet when he realizes that the fault of the conflict may not lie all on Grendel's side (and does any conflict ever have only one side, after all?), he is torn between the honor of his promise to Hrothgar and doing what is morally right.
The film was beautifully shot in a remote part of Iceland, where the cast and crew endured unbelievably harsh conditions, including 160 MPH winds. I felt cold just watching the actors on-screen; the constant wind, especially, grows to serve as almost a character in and of itself. The makeup and effects harken back to pre-CGi days (remember those?); Gunnarsson wanted a CGI-free film, so designer Nick Dudman (who is no slouch, having also created the prosthetics for the Harry Potter films) had to do things the old-fashioned way -- with a lot of creativity and ingenuity. The starkly beautiful lcelandic landscape also serves to set tone, transporting us back to those long-ago days when men were warriors with monsters to slay and women were queens, drudges or whores. The hair, makeup and costume design lends a hand to setting the scene as well; Beowulf and his fellow Geats are warriors, yes, but they are vain warriors with handsome cloaks and jewelry braided into their beards. Grendal looks both fierce and human.
In addition, the acting is great. Skarsgård is perfectly cast as the moody, downtrodden king whose world has been upturned by the consequences of an act of cruelty mitigated by an act of kindness, and Butler is perfect as the intelligent, fierce warrior who revels in his heroism while nonetheless recognizing that what he does is just a job, and not a very glamorous one at that. Sigurðsson, who is apparently quite famous in is native Iceland, has perhaps the toughest job of the cast: He must bring to life and fill with humanity a character who has not one line of distinguishable dialogue. Oddly, the only weak link in the cast was Polley, who I normally like very much. In a film where everyone is speaking with accents, her decidedly Canadian voice was distracting. That's a minor quibble, though, because overall I really enjoyed the film. The adaptation of the tale adds texture to the ancient story that makes it more intriguing and meaninful, and there are some great touches of humor woven throughout to keep things from getting to heavy. Gunnarsson has made a film that would make the real Beowulf and Grendel, if they ever really existed, quite proud.
quarta-feira, 21 de junho de 2006
sexta-feira, 16 de junho de 2006
A flor do Dharma

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green: for the DIV tag
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black: the HTML tag, the root node
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sexta-feira, 9 de junho de 2006
Rex!!!

"I was kayaking Fuller Lake in the spring and my dogs followed me on the shore, desperately trying to keep an eye on me. They'd rush up in front of me on the shore and wait and just gaze as I paddled by, then run along the shore for another vantage point. I love German Shepherds. I get 92% of my self-esteem from my dogs. They think I'm a god."
quinta-feira, 8 de junho de 2006
terça-feira, 6 de junho de 2006
Em honra do Tolstoi

De quem aguardamos fotos :)
Great Escapes!
Some hamsters are like Houdini! If yours escapes here's a tip for recapture. If you aren't sure which room your hamster is in, place very small piles of food in the corner of every room and see which one disappears. Then put approximately 3cm of wood shavings and some bedding in a bucket and place it in the room.
Make steps up the outside of the bucket using books and finally put some strong smelling food, e.g. cabbage, in the bucket. Your hamster should smell the food, climb into the bucket, land softly onto the bedding, but won't be able to get out again!
Este é o Hamster de K. Akagami :)