Gabrielle Bonheur "Coco" Chanel (19 August 1883 – 10 January 1971)[1] was a pioneering French fashion designer whose modernist philosophy, menswear-inspired fashions, and pursuit of expensive simplicity made her an important figure in 20th-century fashion. Her influence on haute couture was such that she was the only person in the field to be named on TIME Magazine's 100 most influential people of the 20th century.[2]
In 1925, Vera Bate Lombardi, reputedly the illegitimate daughter of Adolphus Cambridge, 1st Marquess of Cambridge and Duke of Teck,[5] became Chanel's muse and public relations liasion to a number of European royal families. Lombardi had the highest connections possible to build the House of Chanel. Chanel established the English look based upon Lombardi's persona and Lombardi introduced Chanel to her uncle the Duke of Westminster, her cousin the Duke of Windsor, and many other aristocratic families for Chanel's creative, romantic, financial, social, and political rise to power.[6]
In 1939, at the beginning of World War II, the designer closed her shops. She believed that it was not a time for fashion. She took up residence in the Hôtel Ritz Paris and for more than 30 years, Chanel made this hotel her home, even during the Nazi occupation of Paris. During that time she was criticized for having an affair with Hans Gunther von Dincklage, a German officer and Nazi spy who arranged for her to remain in the hotel.[2] She also maintained an apartment above her couture house at 31, rue Cambon and built Villa La Pausa in Roquebrune on the French Riviera.
After 4 years of professional separation, in 1943, Chanel sought collaboration with Lombardi in Rome to access Lombardi's relative Sir Winston Churchill in the Walter Schellenberg Nazi plot "Operation Modellhut" under the guise of requesting Lombardi return to work for the House of Chanel in Paris.[7][6] When Vera refused to comply with Chanel's request to come to Paris, she was arrested as an English spy and thrown into a Roman prison by the Gestapo. The true motives of Chanel's invitation to Lombardi, which later became purposely diverted by Chanel in a trip to the Ritz Hotel in Madrid, Spain, was that Chanel wanted Lombardi to contact Churchill in order for him to see Chanel. Chanel was later arrested for war crimes, but prevented from being taken to trial through the British Royal family's intervention.[6]
In 1945, she moved to Switzerland, eventually returning to Paris in 1954, the year she also returned to the fashion world. Her new collection did not have much success with the Parisians because of her relationship with the Nazi spy; however, it was much applauded by the Americans, who were to become her most popular buyers.
[edit] Death
Chanel died in Paris on 10 January 1971, aged 87, in her private suite at the Hôtel Ritz, and she was buried in Lausanne, Switzerland. Her tombstone is carved with stone lion heads representing her birth sign, Leo.[8]
martes, 9 de diciembre de 2008
Alberta
Alberta has been a tourist destination from the early days of the twentieth century, with attractions including outdoor locales for skiing, hiking and camping, shopping locales such as West Edmonton Mall,Calgary Stampede, outdoor festivals, professional athletic events, international sporting competitions such as the Commonwealth Games and Olympic Games, as well as more eclectic attractions. There are also natural attractions like Elk Island National Park, Wood Buffalo National Park, and the Columbia Icefield.
According to Alberta Economic Development, Edmonton and Calgary both host over four million visitors annually. Banff, Jasper and the Rocky Mountains are visited by about three million people per year.[29]
Lake Louise in the Canadian Rockies
Alberta's Rocky Mountains include well known tourist destinations Banff National Park and Jasper National Park. The two mountain parks are connected by the scenic Icefields Parkway. Banff is located 128 km west of Calgary on Highway 1, and Jasper is located 366 km west of Edmonton on Yellowhead Highway. Five of Canada's fourteen UNESCO World heritage sites are located within the province: Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks, Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park, Wood Buffalo National Park, Dinosaur Provincial Park and Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump.
About 1.2 million people pass through the gates of Calgary's world-famous Stampede,[30] a celebration of Canada's own Wild West and the cattle ranching industry. About 800,000 people enjoy Edmonton's Capital Ex (formerly Klondike Days).[31] Edmonton was the gateway to the only all-Canadian route to the Yukon gold fields, and the only route which did not require gold-seekers to travel the exhausting and dangerous Chilkoot Pass.
Another tourist destination that draws more than 650,000 visitors each year is the Drumheller Valley, located northeast of Calgary. Drumheller, "Dinosaur Capital of The World", offers the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology. Drumheller also had a rich mining history being one of Western Canada's largest coal producers during the war years. The Canadian Badlands has much to offer in the way of attractions, cultural events, celebrations, accommodations and service.
Located in east-central Alberta is Alberta Prairie Railway Excursions, a popular tourist attraction operated out of Stettler. It boasts one of the few operable steam trains in the world, offering trips through the rolling prairie scenery. Alberta Prairie Railway Excursions caters to tens of thousands of visitors every year.
Alberta is an important destination for tourists who love to ski and hike; Alberta boasts several world-class ski resorts such as Sunshine Village, Lake Louise, Marmot Basin, Norquay and Nakiska. Hunters and fishermen from around the world are able to take home impressive trophies and tall tales from their experiences in Alberta's wilderness.
According to Alberta Economic Development, Edmonton and Calgary both host over four million visitors annually. Banff, Jasper and the Rocky Mountains are visited by about three million people per year.[29]
Lake Louise in the Canadian Rockies
Alberta's Rocky Mountains include well known tourist destinations Banff National Park and Jasper National Park. The two mountain parks are connected by the scenic Icefields Parkway. Banff is located 128 km west of Calgary on Highway 1, and Jasper is located 366 km west of Edmonton on Yellowhead Highway. Five of Canada's fourteen UNESCO World heritage sites are located within the province: Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks, Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park, Wood Buffalo National Park, Dinosaur Provincial Park and Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump.
About 1.2 million people pass through the gates of Calgary's world-famous Stampede,[30] a celebration of Canada's own Wild West and the cattle ranching industry. About 800,000 people enjoy Edmonton's Capital Ex (formerly Klondike Days).[31] Edmonton was the gateway to the only all-Canadian route to the Yukon gold fields, and the only route which did not require gold-seekers to travel the exhausting and dangerous Chilkoot Pass.
Another tourist destination that draws more than 650,000 visitors each year is the Drumheller Valley, located northeast of Calgary. Drumheller, "Dinosaur Capital of The World", offers the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology. Drumheller also had a rich mining history being one of Western Canada's largest coal producers during the war years. The Canadian Badlands has much to offer in the way of attractions, cultural events, celebrations, accommodations and service.
Located in east-central Alberta is Alberta Prairie Railway Excursions, a popular tourist attraction operated out of Stettler. It boasts one of the few operable steam trains in the world, offering trips through the rolling prairie scenery. Alberta Prairie Railway Excursions caters to tens of thousands of visitors every year.
Alberta is an important destination for tourists who love to ski and hike; Alberta boasts several world-class ski resorts such as Sunshine Village, Lake Louise, Marmot Basin, Norquay and Nakiska. Hunters and fishermen from around the world are able to take home impressive trophies and tall tales from their experiences in Alberta's wilderness.
Viriato
Viriathus (known as Viriato in Portuguese and Spanish) (? - 139 BC) was the most important leader of the Lusitanian people that resisted Roman expansion into the regions of Western Iberia (as the Romans would call it), where the Roman province of Lusitania would be established (in the areas comprising Portugal, south of the Douro river, and Extremadura in Spain). Viriathus led the Lusitanians to several victories over the Romans between 147 BC and 139 BC before he was betrayed to the Romans and killed. Of him, Theodor Mommsen said "It seemed as if, in that thoroughly prosaic age, one of the Homeric heroes had reappeared."
Death
Knowing that the Lusitanian resistance was largely due to Viriathus' leadership, Quintus Servilius Caepio bribed Audax, Ditalcus and Minurus,who had been sent by Viriathus as an embassy to establish peace (Appian[41]). These ambassadors returned to their camp and killed Viriathus while he was sleeping. Eutropius claims that when Viriathus' assassins asked Q. Servilius Caepio for their payment he answered that "it was never pleasing to the Romans, that a general should be killed by his own soldiers."[42], or in another version more common in today Portugal, "Rome does not pay traitors who kill their chief". Quintus Servilius Caepio was refused his Triumph by the Senate.
After the death of Viriathus, the Lusitanians kept fighting under the leadership of Tantalus (Greek: Τάνταλος).
Laenas would finally give the Lusitanians the land they originally had asked for before the massacre. Nevertheless total pacification of Lusitania was only achieved under Augustus. Under Roman rule, Lusitania and its people gradually acquired Roman culture and language.
Viriathus stands as the most successful leader in Iberia that ever opposed the Roman conquest. During the course of his campaigns he was only defeated in battle against the Romans once, and from a military standpoint can be said to have been one of the most successful generals to ever have opposed Rome's expansion anywhere in the world. Ultimately even the Romans recognized that it was more prudent to use treachery rather than open confrontation to defeat the Lusitanian uprising. Some fifty years later, the renegade Roman general, Quintus Sertorius, at the head of another insurrection in Iberia, would meet a similar fate.
[edit] Legacy
Viriathus became a long time symbol of Portuguese Nationality and Independence, being evocated and celebrated by artists and politicians throughout the centuries. Diogo Freitas do Amaral has recently written a play based on his life and death.
Death
Knowing that the Lusitanian resistance was largely due to Viriathus' leadership, Quintus Servilius Caepio bribed Audax, Ditalcus and Minurus,who had been sent by Viriathus as an embassy to establish peace (Appian[41]). These ambassadors returned to their camp and killed Viriathus while he was sleeping. Eutropius claims that when Viriathus' assassins asked Q. Servilius Caepio for their payment he answered that "it was never pleasing to the Romans, that a general should be killed by his own soldiers."[42], or in another version more common in today Portugal, "Rome does not pay traitors who kill their chief". Quintus Servilius Caepio was refused his Triumph by the Senate.
After the death of Viriathus, the Lusitanians kept fighting under the leadership of Tantalus (Greek: Τάνταλος).
Laenas would finally give the Lusitanians the land they originally had asked for before the massacre. Nevertheless total pacification of Lusitania was only achieved under Augustus. Under Roman rule, Lusitania and its people gradually acquired Roman culture and language.
Viriathus stands as the most successful leader in Iberia that ever opposed the Roman conquest. During the course of his campaigns he was only defeated in battle against the Romans once, and from a military standpoint can be said to have been one of the most successful generals to ever have opposed Rome's expansion anywhere in the world. Ultimately even the Romans recognized that it was more prudent to use treachery rather than open confrontation to defeat the Lusitanian uprising. Some fifty years later, the renegade Roman general, Quintus Sertorius, at the head of another insurrection in Iberia, would meet a similar fate.
[edit] Legacy
Viriathus became a long time symbol of Portuguese Nationality and Independence, being evocated and celebrated by artists and politicians throughout the centuries. Diogo Freitas do Amaral has recently written a play based on his life and death.
The Great Depression
The Great Depression was a worldwide economic downturn starting in most places in 1929 and ending at different times in the 1930s or early 1940s for different countries. It was the largest and most important economic depression in modern history, and is used in the 21st century as an example of how far the world's economy can fall. The Great Depression originated in the United States; historians most often use as a starting date the stock market crash on October 29, 1929, known as Black Tuesday. The end of the depression in the U.S is associated with the onset of the war economy of World War II, beginning around 1939.[1]
The depression had devastating effects in the developed and developing worlds. International trade was deeply affected, as were personal incomes, tax revenues, prices, and profits. Cities all around the world were hit hard, especially those dependent on heavy industry. Construction was virtually halted in many countries. Farming and rural areas suffered as crop prices fell by roughly 60 percent.[2] [3][4] Facing plummeting demand with few alternate sources of jobs, areas dependent on primary sector industries such as farming, mining and logging suffered the most.[5] However, even shortly after the Wall Street Crash of 1929, optimism persisted; John D. Rockefeller said that "These are days when many are discouraged. In the 93 years of my life, depressions have come and gone. Prosperity has always returned and will again."[6]
The Great Depression ended at different times in different countries; for subsequent history see Home front during World War II. The majority of countries set up relief programs, and most underwent some sort of political upheaval, pushing them to the left or right. In some states, the desperate citizens turned toward nationalist demagogues - the most infamous being Adolf Hitler - setting the stage for World War II in 1939.
Facts and figures
Effects of depression in the United States[34]:
13 million people became unemployed.
Industrial production fell by nearly 45% between the years 1929 and 1932.
Home-building dropped by 80% between the years 1929 and 1932.
From the years 1929 to 1932, about 5000 banks went out of business.
The depression had devastating effects in the developed and developing worlds. International trade was deeply affected, as were personal incomes, tax revenues, prices, and profits. Cities all around the world were hit hard, especially those dependent on heavy industry. Construction was virtually halted in many countries. Farming and rural areas suffered as crop prices fell by roughly 60 percent.[2] [3][4] Facing plummeting demand with few alternate sources of jobs, areas dependent on primary sector industries such as farming, mining and logging suffered the most.[5] However, even shortly after the Wall Street Crash of 1929, optimism persisted; John D. Rockefeller said that "These are days when many are discouraged. In the 93 years of my life, depressions have come and gone. Prosperity has always returned and will again."[6]
The Great Depression ended at different times in different countries; for subsequent history see Home front during World War II. The majority of countries set up relief programs, and most underwent some sort of political upheaval, pushing them to the left or right. In some states, the desperate citizens turned toward nationalist demagogues - the most infamous being Adolf Hitler - setting the stage for World War II in 1939.
Facts and figures
Effects of depression in the United States[34]:
13 million people became unemployed.
Industrial production fell by nearly 45% between the years 1929 and 1932.
Home-building dropped by 80% between the years 1929 and 1932.
From the years 1929 to 1932, about 5000 banks went out of business.
Types of Venezuelan Cacao
Criollo: It is located in the South of Lake Maracaibo and in the foothills of the Venezuelan Andes. The King of Cacao, criollo is considered to have the finest flavor and aroma. In Pre-Columbian times criollo, traveled north to Central America and the Caribbean. The Spaniards who knew a good cacao when they saw one took it across the world as far as Asia. Today, criollo is in danger of extinction and of being replaced by high yielding, disease resistant forastero. Criollo pods are usually deeply ridged, warty, and with pointed ends. When the criollo beans are cut open, the cotyledons range from pure white to shades of pink. When properly fermented, the criollo beans dry to a tan color and exude a distinct chocolate aroma. Venezuelan criollo are highly appreciated by chocolate connoisseurs for their lack of bitterness and astringency, and their pure, lingering chocolate taste.
Forastero: It is located in Western and Central Amazonia. The Cacao Forastero is a sturdy, disease-resistant Amazonian cacao. When cut open the cotyledons have a deep purple color. This pigment is given by substances that impart a bitter, acid, and astringent flavor to the forastero beans. Today, forastero is the cacao of choice in the large commercial plantations of Africa, Asia, and Brazil.
Trinitario: It is Born in the island of Trinidad from the crossing between Forastero and criollo cacao. Since the eighteenth century, trinitarios grow in Eastern Venezuela and sell at a premium at the world cacao market.
Forastero: It is located in Western and Central Amazonia. The Cacao Forastero is a sturdy, disease-resistant Amazonian cacao. When cut open the cotyledons have a deep purple color. This pigment is given by substances that impart a bitter, acid, and astringent flavor to the forastero beans. Today, forastero is the cacao of choice in the large commercial plantations of Africa, Asia, and Brazil.
Trinitario: It is Born in the island of Trinidad from the crossing between Forastero and criollo cacao. Since the eighteenth century, trinitarios grow in Eastern Venezuela and sell at a premium at the world cacao market.
Stage fright
Stage fright or performance anxiety is the anxiety, fear, or persistent phobia which may be aroused in an individual by the requirement to perform in front of an audience, whether actually or potentially (for example, when performing before a camera). In the context of public speaking, this fear is termed glossophobia, one of the most common of phobias. Such anxiety may precede or accompany participation in any activity involving public self-presentation.
Performance anxiety may often be observed among such public performers as athletes and musicians. Here it is manifested as a fear of "underperforming" (whether in the estimation of the viewing public or that of later critical reaction).
Quite often stage fright arises in a mere anticipation of a performance, often a long time ahead. It has numerous manifestations: fluttering or pounding heart, tremor in the hands and legs, diarrhea, facial nerve tics, dry mouth.
Stage fright may be observed in people of all experience and background, from beginners to professionals. Some musicians use beta blockers to avoid stage fright during auditions, and performances.[1] In other cases, performers use alcoholic beverages to ease their stage fright. There have been many cases in which this habit has led to alcoholism.
[edit] Causes and solutions
Anxiety causes negative effects of the performance quality in many different situations: examinations, job interviews, athletic performance, and sex.
In the 1980s, Barrell, Medeiros, Barrell and Price conducted an experiment on performance anxiety, employing the methods self-observing, self-reporting and self-discovering[2]. This way, five causal elements were found to be present in the experience of performance anxiety:
(1) I perceive or imagine the presence of significant others who are able to judge me.
One possible solution to performance anxiety could be that of reducing the significance of the other person(s). While experiencing performance anxiety, we often invest the others with imagined power, especially in their ability to affect us through their evaluation of our performance. Ways to reduce this imagined power is to increase the sense of one’s own power, to perceive the vulnerability of others and to accept oneself.
(2) I consider the possibility of my visible failure at a task.
Another possible solution to performance anxiety would be to eliminate the imagination of negative possibilities. A negative outcome is always possible, but that does not justify worrying about it before it occurs. Focusing one’s attention on the present, rather than the future, is much more productive. A way to do this is monitoring our own performance.
(3) I feel a need to do well to avoid failure.
A third solution to performance anxiety is holding the performance in perspective by seeing its outcome as insignificant in relation to the totality of one’s life. By realizing that nothing catastrophic is likely to occur, the need to avoid failure may decrease and switch to a more positive goal. An example of a positive goal would be to provide others with pleasure. Furthermore, it is helpful to focus on the process, the moment-to-moment experience, rather than the results of a performance. Additionally, it is important to concentrate on the enjoyable aspect of the process.
(4) I feel uncertain as to whether I will do well.
Uncertainty plays a major role in experiencing anxiety. It could be helpful to keep in mind that one cannot control other’s reactions or judgments, but only one’s own performance.
(5) I focus on my own behavior and appearance.
An important component of performance anxiety is an acute awareness of one’s own behavior and/or appearance. When experiencing performance anxiety, one focuses one’s attention on the visible appearance of the performance. A possible way of reducing performance anxiety would be to increase one’s awareness of others, without considering them as judges.
In summary, optimal strategies of coping with performance anxiety include “focusing on process rather than results, the moment of experience rather than the future, positive approach goals rather than negative avoidance goals, and self-acceptance rather than self doubt”[2].
Performance anxiety may often be observed among such public performers as athletes and musicians. Here it is manifested as a fear of "underperforming" (whether in the estimation of the viewing public or that of later critical reaction).
Quite often stage fright arises in a mere anticipation of a performance, often a long time ahead. It has numerous manifestations: fluttering or pounding heart, tremor in the hands and legs, diarrhea, facial nerve tics, dry mouth.
Stage fright may be observed in people of all experience and background, from beginners to professionals. Some musicians use beta blockers to avoid stage fright during auditions, and performances.[1] In other cases, performers use alcoholic beverages to ease their stage fright. There have been many cases in which this habit has led to alcoholism.
[edit] Causes and solutions
Anxiety causes negative effects of the performance quality in many different situations: examinations, job interviews, athletic performance, and sex.
In the 1980s, Barrell, Medeiros, Barrell and Price conducted an experiment on performance anxiety, employing the methods self-observing, self-reporting and self-discovering[2]. This way, five causal elements were found to be present in the experience of performance anxiety:
(1) I perceive or imagine the presence of significant others who are able to judge me.
One possible solution to performance anxiety could be that of reducing the significance of the other person(s). While experiencing performance anxiety, we often invest the others with imagined power, especially in their ability to affect us through their evaluation of our performance. Ways to reduce this imagined power is to increase the sense of one’s own power, to perceive the vulnerability of others and to accept oneself.
(2) I consider the possibility of my visible failure at a task.
Another possible solution to performance anxiety would be to eliminate the imagination of negative possibilities. A negative outcome is always possible, but that does not justify worrying about it before it occurs. Focusing one’s attention on the present, rather than the future, is much more productive. A way to do this is monitoring our own performance.
(3) I feel a need to do well to avoid failure.
A third solution to performance anxiety is holding the performance in perspective by seeing its outcome as insignificant in relation to the totality of one’s life. By realizing that nothing catastrophic is likely to occur, the need to avoid failure may decrease and switch to a more positive goal. An example of a positive goal would be to provide others with pleasure. Furthermore, it is helpful to focus on the process, the moment-to-moment experience, rather than the results of a performance. Additionally, it is important to concentrate on the enjoyable aspect of the process.
(4) I feel uncertain as to whether I will do well.
Uncertainty plays a major role in experiencing anxiety. It could be helpful to keep in mind that one cannot control other’s reactions or judgments, but only one’s own performance.
(5) I focus on my own behavior and appearance.
An important component of performance anxiety is an acute awareness of one’s own behavior and/or appearance. When experiencing performance anxiety, one focuses one’s attention on the visible appearance of the performance. A possible way of reducing performance anxiety would be to increase one’s awareness of others, without considering them as judges.
In summary, optimal strategies of coping with performance anxiety include “focusing on process rather than results, the moment of experience rather than the future, positive approach goals rather than negative avoidance goals, and self-acceptance rather than self doubt”[2].
Poltergeist
For other uses, see Poltergeist (disambiguation).
Poltergeist (help·info) (from German poltern, meaning to rumble or make noise, and Geist, meaning "ghost", "spirit", or "embodiment") denotes a demonic spirit or ghost that manifests itself by moving and influencing objects.
Hypotheses
Historically, several different hypotheses have been put forward to explain the poltergeist phenomenon.
[edit] Caused by physical forces
Poltergeists are ghosts that make noises or move objects through the air. Some scientists and skeptics propose that all poltergeist activity that they can't trace to fraud has a physical explanation such as static electricity, electromagnetic fields, ultra-, and infrasound and/or ionized air. In some cases, such as the Rosenheim poltergeist case, the physicist F. Karger from the Max-Planck-Institut für Plasmaphysik and G. Zicha from the Technical University of Munich found none of these effects present and psi proponents claim that no evidence of fraud was ever found, even after a sustained investigation from the police force and CID, though criminologist Herbert Schäfer quotes an unnamed detective watching the agent pushing a lamp when she thought nobody was looking. However, whether this is true or not, police officers did sign statements that they had witnessed the phenomena. Other aspects of the case were hard to explain: The time service was rung hundreds of times, with a frequency impossible with the mechanical dialing phones of 1967. The municipal authority disconnected the office from the mains supply and hooked it up to a dedicated generator hoping to stabilize the current. But surges in current and voltage still occurred with no detectable cause according to Zicha and Karger. Others think poltergeist phenomena could be caused by more mundane phenomena, such as unusual air currents, air vibrations such as in acoustic levitation, or tremors caused by underground streams.[citation needed]
John Hutchinson has claimed that he has created poltergeist effects in his laboratory. Also worth noting is that scientist David Turner proposes that poltergeists and ball lightning may be linked phenomena. [1] Some scientists go as far as calling them pseudo-psychic phenomena and claim that under some circumstances they are caused by obscure physical effects.[2] Parapsychologists William G. Roll and Dean Radin, physicist Hal Puthoff and head of electrical engineering at Duke University who specializes in electromagnetic field phenomena, claim that poltergeist phenomena [the movement of objects at least] could be caused by anomalies in the zero-point field, [3] this is outlined in the above article and in Roll's book Unleashed and mention is made of it in a chapter of Dean Radin's book Entangled Minds. The basic theory is that poltergeist movements are repulsive versions of the casimir effect that can put pressures on objects. Thus, anomalies in this field could conceivably move objects. This theory has also been mentioned in the current book on paranormal phenomena Science by Marie D. Jones.[4]
The theory is not complete, however, because it accounts for the movement of objects but not for the strange voices, seeming personality, and strange electrical effects displayed in some cases.
See also:
Hutchinson effect
[edit] Self-delusion and hoaxes
Skeptics think that the phenomena are hoaxes perpetrated by the agent. Indeed, some poltergeist agents have been caught by investigators in the act of throwing objects. A few of them later confessed to faking.[citation needed]
Skeptics maintain that parapsychologists are especially easy to fool when they think that many occurrences are real and discount the hoax hypothesis from the outset. Even after witnessing first hand an agent throwing objects, psi-believing parapsychologists rationalize the fact away by assuming that the agents are only cheating when caught cheating, and when you do not catch them, the phenomenon is genuine. One reason given is that the agents often fake phenomena when the investigation coincides with a period of time where there appears to be little or no 'genuine' phenomena occurring. Another stated reason is that some of the phenomena witnessed would be hard to fake, even for magicians when under the watch of many people, let alone untrained children and non-magicians.[citation needed]
The current consensus among most scientists is a mixture of the self-delusion and hoax hypotheses and a bit of the caused-by-scientifically-explained-forces hypothesis [tremors, abnormal air currents etc ].
See also:
Mischievous fairies
Undead
The Ju-on curse
[edit] Famous poltergeist infestations
Although poltergeist stories date back to the first century, most evidence to support the existence of poltergeists is anecdotal, which is hardly surprising as the nature of the phenomenon is unpredictable and sporadic. Indeed, many of the stories below have several versions and/or inconsistencies; however there are a few that do not, for example, the Miami poltergeist has event records signed by all witnesses as to the way things happened. These witnesses include police officers, a skeptical magician, and workers at the warehouse. The Rosenheim case is another, with multiple witnesses and unexplained electric and telephonic phenomena.
An "evil spirit" threw stones and made the walls shake in a small farmhouse. This was the first recorded poltergeist case. (circa 858)
Drummer of Tedworth (1661).
[edit] Lithobolia (1698)
A pamphlet printed in London in 1698 by Mr. Ricard Chamberlain provides an account of a poltergeist-type haunting that had occurred some years before. Two copies of the pamphlet exist in the British Museum called: "Lithobolia, or stone throwing Devil. Being an Exact and True account (by way of Journal) of the various actions of infernal Spirits or (Devils Incarnate) Witches or both: and the great Disturbance and Amazement they gave to George Walton's family at a place called Great Island in the province of New Hampshire in New England, chiefly in throwing about (by an Invisible hand) Stones, Bricks, and Brick-Bats of all sizes, with several other things, as Hammers, Mauls, Iron-Crows, Spits, and other Utensils, as came into their Hellish minds, and this for space of a quarter of a year....", some cases, these types of spirits share aspects with elves and goblins.
The "Wizard", Livingston, West Virginia (1797).
The Bell Witch (1817).
The Haunting of The Fox sisters (1848) - arguably one of the most famous, because it started the Spiritualism movement.
Hopfgarten near Weimar (1921).
Eleonore Zugun - The Romanian 'Poltergeist Girl' (1926).
The Borley Rectory phenomena (1929).
The Epworth Rectory
[edit] Borley Rectory (1937)
William Roll, Hans Bender, and Harry Price are perhaps three of the most famous poltergeist investigators in the annals of parapsychology. Harry Price investigated Borley Rectory which is often called "the most haunted house in England."
[edit] Rosenheim (1967)
Dr. Friedbert Karger was one of two physicists from the Max Planck Institute who helped to investigate perhaps the most validated poltergeist case in recorded history. Annemarie Schneider, a 19-year-old secretary in a law firm in Rosenheim (a small town in southern Germany) was seemingly the unwitting cause of much chaos in the firm, including disruption of electricity and telephone lines, the rotation of a picture, swinging lamps which were captured on video (which was one of the first times any poltergeist activity has been captured on film), and strange sounds that sounded electrical in origin were recorded. Fraud was not proven despite intensive investigation by the physicists, journalists, and the police. The effects moved with the young woman when she changed jobs until they finally faded out.
In the Rosenheim case of 1967 [5], The Rosenheim Poltergeist (1967). [3] (German and most extensive). [4] [5] Friedbert Karger's whole perspective on physics changed after investigating the events. "These experiments were really a challenge to physics," Karger says today. "What we saw in the Rosenheim case could be 100 per cent shown not to be explainable by known physics." [6]. The phenomena were witnessed by Hans Bender, the police force, the CID, reporters, and the physicists. The claims were aired in a documentary in 1975 in a series called "Leap in the Dark."
Poltergeist (help·info) (from German poltern, meaning to rumble or make noise, and Geist, meaning "ghost", "spirit", or "embodiment") denotes a demonic spirit or ghost that manifests itself by moving and influencing objects.
Hypotheses
Historically, several different hypotheses have been put forward to explain the poltergeist phenomenon.
[edit] Caused by physical forces
Poltergeists are ghosts that make noises or move objects through the air. Some scientists and skeptics propose that all poltergeist activity that they can't trace to fraud has a physical explanation such as static electricity, electromagnetic fields, ultra-, and infrasound and/or ionized air. In some cases, such as the Rosenheim poltergeist case, the physicist F. Karger from the Max-Planck-Institut für Plasmaphysik and G. Zicha from the Technical University of Munich found none of these effects present and psi proponents claim that no evidence of fraud was ever found, even after a sustained investigation from the police force and CID, though criminologist Herbert Schäfer quotes an unnamed detective watching the agent pushing a lamp when she thought nobody was looking. However, whether this is true or not, police officers did sign statements that they had witnessed the phenomena. Other aspects of the case were hard to explain: The time service was rung hundreds of times, with a frequency impossible with the mechanical dialing phones of 1967. The municipal authority disconnected the office from the mains supply and hooked it up to a dedicated generator hoping to stabilize the current. But surges in current and voltage still occurred with no detectable cause according to Zicha and Karger. Others think poltergeist phenomena could be caused by more mundane phenomena, such as unusual air currents, air vibrations such as in acoustic levitation, or tremors caused by underground streams.[citation needed]
John Hutchinson has claimed that he has created poltergeist effects in his laboratory. Also worth noting is that scientist David Turner proposes that poltergeists and ball lightning may be linked phenomena. [1] Some scientists go as far as calling them pseudo-psychic phenomena and claim that under some circumstances they are caused by obscure physical effects.[2] Parapsychologists William G. Roll and Dean Radin, physicist Hal Puthoff and head of electrical engineering at Duke University who specializes in electromagnetic field phenomena, claim that poltergeist phenomena [the movement of objects at least] could be caused by anomalies in the zero-point field, [3] this is outlined in the above article and in Roll's book Unleashed and mention is made of it in a chapter of Dean Radin's book Entangled Minds. The basic theory is that poltergeist movements are repulsive versions of the casimir effect that can put pressures on objects. Thus, anomalies in this field could conceivably move objects. This theory has also been mentioned in the current book on paranormal phenomena Science by Marie D. Jones.[4]
The theory is not complete, however, because it accounts for the movement of objects but not for the strange voices, seeming personality, and strange electrical effects displayed in some cases.
See also:
Hutchinson effect
[edit] Self-delusion and hoaxes
Skeptics think that the phenomena are hoaxes perpetrated by the agent. Indeed, some poltergeist agents have been caught by investigators in the act of throwing objects. A few of them later confessed to faking.[citation needed]
Skeptics maintain that parapsychologists are especially easy to fool when they think that many occurrences are real and discount the hoax hypothesis from the outset. Even after witnessing first hand an agent throwing objects, psi-believing parapsychologists rationalize the fact away by assuming that the agents are only cheating when caught cheating, and when you do not catch them, the phenomenon is genuine. One reason given is that the agents often fake phenomena when the investigation coincides with a period of time where there appears to be little or no 'genuine' phenomena occurring. Another stated reason is that some of the phenomena witnessed would be hard to fake, even for magicians when under the watch of many people, let alone untrained children and non-magicians.[citation needed]
The current consensus among most scientists is a mixture of the self-delusion and hoax hypotheses and a bit of the caused-by-scientifically-explained-forces hypothesis [tremors, abnormal air currents etc ].
See also:
Mischievous fairies
Undead
The Ju-on curse
[edit] Famous poltergeist infestations
Although poltergeist stories date back to the first century, most evidence to support the existence of poltergeists is anecdotal, which is hardly surprising as the nature of the phenomenon is unpredictable and sporadic. Indeed, many of the stories below have several versions and/or inconsistencies; however there are a few that do not, for example, the Miami poltergeist has event records signed by all witnesses as to the way things happened. These witnesses include police officers, a skeptical magician, and workers at the warehouse. The Rosenheim case is another, with multiple witnesses and unexplained electric and telephonic phenomena.
An "evil spirit" threw stones and made the walls shake in a small farmhouse. This was the first recorded poltergeist case. (circa 858)
Drummer of Tedworth (1661).
[edit] Lithobolia (1698)
A pamphlet printed in London in 1698 by Mr. Ricard Chamberlain provides an account of a poltergeist-type haunting that had occurred some years before. Two copies of the pamphlet exist in the British Museum called: "Lithobolia, or stone throwing Devil. Being an Exact and True account (by way of Journal) of the various actions of infernal Spirits or (Devils Incarnate) Witches or both: and the great Disturbance and Amazement they gave to George Walton's family at a place called Great Island in the province of New Hampshire in New England, chiefly in throwing about (by an Invisible hand) Stones, Bricks, and Brick-Bats of all sizes, with several other things, as Hammers, Mauls, Iron-Crows, Spits, and other Utensils, as came into their Hellish minds, and this for space of a quarter of a year....", some cases, these types of spirits share aspects with elves and goblins.
The "Wizard", Livingston, West Virginia (1797).
The Bell Witch (1817).
The Haunting of The Fox sisters (1848) - arguably one of the most famous, because it started the Spiritualism movement.
Hopfgarten near Weimar (1921).
Eleonore Zugun - The Romanian 'Poltergeist Girl' (1926).
The Borley Rectory phenomena (1929).
The Epworth Rectory
[edit] Borley Rectory (1937)
William Roll, Hans Bender, and Harry Price are perhaps three of the most famous poltergeist investigators in the annals of parapsychology. Harry Price investigated Borley Rectory which is often called "the most haunted house in England."
[edit] Rosenheim (1967)
Dr. Friedbert Karger was one of two physicists from the Max Planck Institute who helped to investigate perhaps the most validated poltergeist case in recorded history. Annemarie Schneider, a 19-year-old secretary in a law firm in Rosenheim (a small town in southern Germany) was seemingly the unwitting cause of much chaos in the firm, including disruption of electricity and telephone lines, the rotation of a picture, swinging lamps which were captured on video (which was one of the first times any poltergeist activity has been captured on film), and strange sounds that sounded electrical in origin were recorded. Fraud was not proven despite intensive investigation by the physicists, journalists, and the police. The effects moved with the young woman when she changed jobs until they finally faded out.
In the Rosenheim case of 1967 [5], The Rosenheim Poltergeist (1967). [3] (German and most extensive). [4] [5] Friedbert Karger's whole perspective on physics changed after investigating the events. "These experiments were really a challenge to physics," Karger says today. "What we saw in the Rosenheim case could be 100 per cent shown not to be explainable by known physics." [6]. The phenomena were witnessed by Hans Bender, the police force, the CID, reporters, and the physicists. The claims were aired in a documentary in 1975 in a series called "Leap in the Dark."
viernes, 5 de diciembre de 2008
Venezuela ,Arepa and Hallaca
Venezuela (pronounced /ˌvɛnəˈzweɪlə/, Spanish pronunciation: [beneˈswela]), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela (Spanish: República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America.
The country comprises a continental mainland and numerous islands located off the Venezuelan coastline in the Caribbean Sea. The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela possesses borders with Guyana to the east, Brazil to the south, and Colombia to the west. Trinidad and Tobago, Grenada, St. Lucia, Barbados, Curaçao, Bonaire, Aruba, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and the Leeward Antilles lie just north, off the Venezuelan coast. Falling within the tropics, Venezuela sits close to the equator, in the Northern Hemisphere.
A former Spanish colony, which has been an independent republic since 1821, Venezuela holds territorial disputes with Guyana, largely concerning the Essequibo area, and with Colombia concerning the Gulf of Venezuela. In 1895, after the dispute over the Guyana border flared up, it was submitted to a neutral commission, which in 1899 decided it mostly in Guyana's favour.[3] Today, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela is known widely for its petroleum industry, the environmental diversity of its territory, and its natural features. Venezuela is considered to be among the world's 17 most biodiverse countries.[4]
Venezuela is among the most urbanized countries in Latin America;[5][6] the vast majority of Venezuelans live in the cities of the north, especially in the capital Caracas which is also the largest city. Other major cities include Maracaibo, Valencia, Maracay, Barquisimeto and Ciudad Guayana. Venezuela is also home to a diversity of wildlife in a variety of protected habitats.
There are two ways to make the dough: the original, highly laborious method requires the maize grains to be soaked, then they are peeled and ground, this is done by pounding the grains in a larger mortar (pilón) to remove the pericarp and the seed germ, only the cotyledons of the maize seed are used to make the dough, this product (mortared maize or "maíz pilado") was normally sold as dry grain which were then boiled and ground into the dough.
The second, easier, and most popular method today is to buy pre-cooked corn in a dry flour form, specially prepared for making arepa and many other maize based dough dishes (hallacas, bollos, tamales, empanadas, chicha, etc.). The most popular brand name of corn flour in Venezuela is Harina P.A.N., and in Colombia is Areparina; it's usually made from white corn but there are yellow corn varieties available. This product was invented in the 1950s by Dr. Caballero Mejias, a Venezuelan engineer who used the profits from his patent to finance a Technical Schools system. The precooked form was widely industrialized from there.The flour is mixed with water and salt (some people add oil, eggs and/or milk). After being molded by hand, or in a special mold, into a patty, the dough is fried, grilled or baked. This production of maize is unusual for not using the nixtamalization or alkali cooking process to remove the pericarp. Arepa flour is lower in nutritive value than nixtamal with protein value reduced by 50% though protein digestion may be higher.[citation needed]
hallaca
Popular myth has it that, in colonial times, it was common practice for plantation owners to donate leftover Christmas food scraps, such as bits of pork and beef, to their slaves, who would wrap them in cornmeal and plantain leaves for subsequent preparation and cooking, which could take anywhere from 2 to 3 hours.
An alternate theory notes the similarity between the hallaca (also known as "hayaca") and the Spanish empanada gallega (Galician pastry), emphasizing that the fillings are almost identical. Hallacas would then be empanadas gallegas using corn flour rather than wheat flour, and plantain leaf rather than expensive iron casts not readily available in the new world in colonial times.
However, the most likely origin of the maize body and plantain envelope of the hallaca is the Mesoamerican tamale. This version appears likely because tamale-derived dishes, under various names, spread throughout Spain's American colonies, as far south as Argentina, in the decades following the conquest. To this day, some people in western Venezuela (primarily in Zulia, Falcón and Lara states) use the terms "tamar" and "tamare" to refer to what is basically a bollo — the closest version of the tamale in Venezuela — with a simple meat filling.hallaca
Noted Venezuelan lexicographer Ángel Rosenblat finds the word "hayaca" in use in a Maracaibo document dated 1538, but argues it most likely referred, at that point, to a bundle of raw corn. According to Adolfo Ernst, the word "hallaca" evolved from the indigenous tonge 'Guarani' and derives from the verm "ayua" or "ayuar", which means to mix or to blend. It is presumed that the term “ayuaca” (mixed things), evolved into “ayaca”, and finally to “hayaca” or “hallaca”, both considered valid by Angel Rosenblat. In its contemporary sense, the earliest use of the word dates to a 1781 document by Italian missionary P. Gilii.
The hallaca is the staple Venezuelan Christmas dinner dish and its preparation is practically limited to that time of the year. It is still prepared in a similar fashion to colonial times with some modern refinements. The hallaca is also considered one of the most representative icons of Venezuelan multicultural heritage, as its preparation includes European ingredients (such as raisins, nuts and olives), indigenous ingredients (corn meal colored with annatto seeds and onions), and African ingredients (smoked plantain leaves used for wrapping).
[edit] Preparation
The traditional hallaca is made by extending a plantain leaf, greasing it with a spoonful of annatto-colored cooking oil and spreading on it a round portion of corn dough (roughly 30 cm), which is then sprinkled with various fillings. While no two families make hallacas in quite the same way, the most common fillings include a mix of stewed (or rare) meats (pork, poultry, beef, lard, crisp or pork rind), raisins and pitted green olives. Pepper filled olives are becoming more popular nowadays. People in the Llanos (savannah) add boiled eggs and pieces of red pepper. Others might add nuts and almonds.
The filled dough is then skillfully wrapped in an oblong fashion and tied with string in a typical square mesh before its cooking in boiling water. Afterwards, it is picked from the pail with a fork, unwrapped and served on its own plantain leaves with chicken salad, pan de jamón (ham filled bread) or plain bread. In the Andean region, the filling is cooked with the rest of the hallaca, while in the rest of the country it is usually cooked beforehand.
The ideal hallaca has a silky golden-reddish glow. In taste, it aims to balance the saltiness of the meats and olives with the sweetness of the raisins and of the dough itself.
After making a number of hallacas, the remaining portion of ingredients is occasionally mixed together in order to obtain a uniform dough. The dough undergoes the same hallaca wrap and cooking preparation, although typically smaller in size and much fewer in number. The result is the bollo, which may be offered as a lighter option to the hallaca at breakfast, lunch, or dinner.
After cooking, hallacas can be frozen for several weeks with no change in flavor. It is common for families to eat hallacas as late as May or June of the next year.
Ingredients differ from region to region and from family to family. It is not uncommon to find hallacas with chickpeas, tomato, bell pepper, pickled vegetables, and garlic. Potatoes are included in the Andean variation. Also, some of the traditional ingredients may be substituted by local variants such as fish and lobster (East Coast) and plantain dough (Maracaibo).
[edit] Culture
Hallaca-making requires many hours of intense work, so hallacas are typically made all in one go, in large enough quantities to last the entire holiday season (from a few dozen to several hundred). Hallaca making is a logistical feat and an economic stretch for many. The most important Venezuelan newspapers usually carry stories in their Economics sections at the beginning of December noting the rise in the cost of making hallacas.
Hallaca-making reunites family members at Christmas time. It is a job joyfully done by whole families together, marking the start of the Christmas festivities. However, the most important part of “hallaca-preparation” is that it represents one of the strongest Christmas family traditions in Venezuela, comparable perhaps to Thanksgiving in United States, as it is embraced by all cultures, religions, and social strata.
The hallaca making party is matriarchal, with grandmothers and/or mothers in the lead roles. Traditional music and drinks contribute to the festive atmosphere, and maternal power is unimpeded. Scenes of mothers scolding children for stealing bits of fillings from the table and men complaining of being left to clean leaves and to do last minute shoppings are integral parts of Venezuelan Christmas tradition.
It is customary between families, neighbors and friends to share several hallacas as a way to evaluate the skills of the other party in their making. It is also customary to offer them to all visitors. Foreigners in Venezuela in December are often struck by how often they are offered hallacas.
Friendly rivalry over whose hallacas are the best is part of the Venezuelan Christmas culture, leading to the popular saying la mejor hallaca es la que hace mi mamá - the best hallaca is the one my mother makes - an expression of familism. This expression was immortalized in a Christmas song by Venezuelan pop singer Raquel Castaño.
The country comprises a continental mainland and numerous islands located off the Venezuelan coastline in the Caribbean Sea. The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela possesses borders with Guyana to the east, Brazil to the south, and Colombia to the west. Trinidad and Tobago, Grenada, St. Lucia, Barbados, Curaçao, Bonaire, Aruba, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and the Leeward Antilles lie just north, off the Venezuelan coast. Falling within the tropics, Venezuela sits close to the equator, in the Northern Hemisphere.
A former Spanish colony, which has been an independent republic since 1821, Venezuela holds territorial disputes with Guyana, largely concerning the Essequibo area, and with Colombia concerning the Gulf of Venezuela. In 1895, after the dispute over the Guyana border flared up, it was submitted to a neutral commission, which in 1899 decided it mostly in Guyana's favour.[3] Today, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela is known widely for its petroleum industry, the environmental diversity of its territory, and its natural features. Venezuela is considered to be among the world's 17 most biodiverse countries.[4]
Venezuela is among the most urbanized countries in Latin America;[5][6] the vast majority of Venezuelans live in the cities of the north, especially in the capital Caracas which is also the largest city. Other major cities include Maracaibo, Valencia, Maracay, Barquisimeto and Ciudad Guayana. Venezuela is also home to a diversity of wildlife in a variety of protected habitats.
There are two ways to make the dough: the original, highly laborious method requires the maize grains to be soaked, then they are peeled and ground, this is done by pounding the grains in a larger mortar (pilón) to remove the pericarp and the seed germ, only the cotyledons of the maize seed are used to make the dough, this product (mortared maize or "maíz pilado") was normally sold as dry grain which were then boiled and ground into the dough.
The second, easier, and most popular method today is to buy pre-cooked corn in a dry flour form, specially prepared for making arepa and many other maize based dough dishes (hallacas, bollos, tamales, empanadas, chicha, etc.). The most popular brand name of corn flour in Venezuela is Harina P.A.N., and in Colombia is Areparina; it's usually made from white corn but there are yellow corn varieties available. This product was invented in the 1950s by Dr. Caballero Mejias, a Venezuelan engineer who used the profits from his patent to finance a Technical Schools system. The precooked form was widely industrialized from there.The flour is mixed with water and salt (some people add oil, eggs and/or milk). After being molded by hand, or in a special mold, into a patty, the dough is fried, grilled or baked. This production of maize is unusual for not using the nixtamalization or alkali cooking process to remove the pericarp. Arepa flour is lower in nutritive value than nixtamal with protein value reduced by 50% though protein digestion may be higher.[citation needed]
hallaca
Popular myth has it that, in colonial times, it was common practice for plantation owners to donate leftover Christmas food scraps, such as bits of pork and beef, to their slaves, who would wrap them in cornmeal and plantain leaves for subsequent preparation and cooking, which could take anywhere from 2 to 3 hours.
An alternate theory notes the similarity between the hallaca (also known as "hayaca") and the Spanish empanada gallega (Galician pastry), emphasizing that the fillings are almost identical. Hallacas would then be empanadas gallegas using corn flour rather than wheat flour, and plantain leaf rather than expensive iron casts not readily available in the new world in colonial times.
However, the most likely origin of the maize body and plantain envelope of the hallaca is the Mesoamerican tamale. This version appears likely because tamale-derived dishes, under various names, spread throughout Spain's American colonies, as far south as Argentina, in the decades following the conquest. To this day, some people in western Venezuela (primarily in Zulia, Falcón and Lara states) use the terms "tamar" and "tamare" to refer to what is basically a bollo — the closest version of the tamale in Venezuela — with a simple meat filling.hallaca
Noted Venezuelan lexicographer Ángel Rosenblat finds the word "hayaca" in use in a Maracaibo document dated 1538, but argues it most likely referred, at that point, to a bundle of raw corn. According to Adolfo Ernst, the word "hallaca" evolved from the indigenous tonge 'Guarani' and derives from the verm "ayua" or "ayuar", which means to mix or to blend. It is presumed that the term “ayuaca” (mixed things), evolved into “ayaca”, and finally to “hayaca” or “hallaca”, both considered valid by Angel Rosenblat. In its contemporary sense, the earliest use of the word dates to a 1781 document by Italian missionary P. Gilii.
The hallaca is the staple Venezuelan Christmas dinner dish and its preparation is practically limited to that time of the year. It is still prepared in a similar fashion to colonial times with some modern refinements. The hallaca is also considered one of the most representative icons of Venezuelan multicultural heritage, as its preparation includes European ingredients (such as raisins, nuts and olives), indigenous ingredients (corn meal colored with annatto seeds and onions), and African ingredients (smoked plantain leaves used for wrapping).
[edit] Preparation
The traditional hallaca is made by extending a plantain leaf, greasing it with a spoonful of annatto-colored cooking oil and spreading on it a round portion of corn dough (roughly 30 cm), which is then sprinkled with various fillings. While no two families make hallacas in quite the same way, the most common fillings include a mix of stewed (or rare) meats (pork, poultry, beef, lard, crisp or pork rind), raisins and pitted green olives. Pepper filled olives are becoming more popular nowadays. People in the Llanos (savannah) add boiled eggs and pieces of red pepper. Others might add nuts and almonds.
The filled dough is then skillfully wrapped in an oblong fashion and tied with string in a typical square mesh before its cooking in boiling water. Afterwards, it is picked from the pail with a fork, unwrapped and served on its own plantain leaves with chicken salad, pan de jamón (ham filled bread) or plain bread. In the Andean region, the filling is cooked with the rest of the hallaca, while in the rest of the country it is usually cooked beforehand.
The ideal hallaca has a silky golden-reddish glow. In taste, it aims to balance the saltiness of the meats and olives with the sweetness of the raisins and of the dough itself.
After making a number of hallacas, the remaining portion of ingredients is occasionally mixed together in order to obtain a uniform dough. The dough undergoes the same hallaca wrap and cooking preparation, although typically smaller in size and much fewer in number. The result is the bollo, which may be offered as a lighter option to the hallaca at breakfast, lunch, or dinner.
After cooking, hallacas can be frozen for several weeks with no change in flavor. It is common for families to eat hallacas as late as May or June of the next year.
Ingredients differ from region to region and from family to family. It is not uncommon to find hallacas with chickpeas, tomato, bell pepper, pickled vegetables, and garlic. Potatoes are included in the Andean variation. Also, some of the traditional ingredients may be substituted by local variants such as fish and lobster (East Coast) and plantain dough (Maracaibo).
[edit] Culture
Hallaca-making requires many hours of intense work, so hallacas are typically made all in one go, in large enough quantities to last the entire holiday season (from a few dozen to several hundred). Hallaca making is a logistical feat and an economic stretch for many. The most important Venezuelan newspapers usually carry stories in their Economics sections at the beginning of December noting the rise in the cost of making hallacas.
Hallaca-making reunites family members at Christmas time. It is a job joyfully done by whole families together, marking the start of the Christmas festivities. However, the most important part of “hallaca-preparation” is that it represents one of the strongest Christmas family traditions in Venezuela, comparable perhaps to Thanksgiving in United States, as it is embraced by all cultures, religions, and social strata.
The hallaca making party is matriarchal, with grandmothers and/or mothers in the lead roles. Traditional music and drinks contribute to the festive atmosphere, and maternal power is unimpeded. Scenes of mothers scolding children for stealing bits of fillings from the table and men complaining of being left to clean leaves and to do last minute shoppings are integral parts of Venezuelan Christmas tradition.
It is customary between families, neighbors and friends to share several hallacas as a way to evaluate the skills of the other party in their making. It is also customary to offer them to all visitors. Foreigners in Venezuela in December are often struck by how often they are offered hallacas.
Friendly rivalry over whose hallacas are the best is part of the Venezuelan Christmas culture, leading to the popular saying la mejor hallaca es la que hace mi mamá - the best hallaca is the one my mother makes - an expression of familism. This expression was immortalized in a Christmas song by Venezuelan pop singer Raquel Castaño.
Naruto
Naruto (NARUTO—ナルト—, Naruto? romanized as NARUTO in Japan) is an ongoing Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Masashi Kishimoto with an anime adaptation. The plot tells the story of Naruto Uzumaki, a loud, hyperactive, unpredictable, adolescent ninja who constantly searches for recognition and aspires to become a Hokage, the ninja in his village that is acknowledged as the leader and the strongest of all. The series is based on a one-shot that Kishimoto first authored in the August 1997 issue of Akamaru Jump.
The manga was first published by Shueisha in 1999 in the 43rd issue of Japan's Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine and it is still being released with forty-four volumes. The manga would be later adapted into an anime produced by Studio Pierrot and Aniplex. It premiered across Japan on the terrestrial TV Tokyo network and the anime satellite television network Animax on October 3, 2002. The first series lasted nine seasons, while Naruto: Shippūden, a sequel of the series, began its first on February 15, 2007 and is still airing. Apart from anime series, Studio Pierrot has developed five movies for the series and several original video animations (OVAs). Other pieces of merchanidise include light novels, video games and trading cards developed by several companies.
Viz Media has licensed the manga and anime for North American production. Viz has been publishing the series in their Shonen Jump magazine, and has also been releasing the volumes with some of them within campaigns. The Naruto anime debuted in the United States on Cartoon Network's Toonami programming block on September 10, 2005, and in Canada on YTV's Bionix on September 16, 2005. Naruto began showing in the United Kingdom on Jetix on July 22, 2006. It began showing on Toasted TV on January 12, 2007, in Australia, which features the Manga Entertainment TV version and the German-language. Naruto: Shippūden has also been announced to premier in 2009 in the United States.
Serialized in Viz's Shonen Jump magazine, Naruto has become one of the company's best-selling manga series. As of volume 36, the manga has sold over 71 million copies in Japan. The English adaptation of the series have also appeared in the USA Today Booklist several times and volume 11 won the Quil Award in 2006. Reviewers from the series have praised the balance between fights and comedy scenes, as well as the characters' personalities. However, some of them have also noted the series to have stereotypical shōnen concepts, which appear in several series.
Naruto Uzumaki is a young boy who has the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox sealed within him. Twelve years before the start of the series, the fox attacked the ninja village Konohagakure, slaughtering many people. As such, the leader of Konohagakure – the Fourth Hokage – sacrificed his own life to seal the demon inside Naruto when he was a newborn. Konohagakure, however, regarded Naruto as if he were the demon fox itself and mistreated him throughout most of his childhood. A decree made by the Third Hokage forbade anyone mention the attack of the demon fox to anyone although Naruto soon realized about this. Years later, Naruto graduated from the Ninja Academy by using his Shadow Clone Technique, a technique from a forbidden scroll that he was tricked into stealing, to save his teacher, Iruka Umino, from the renegade ninja Mizuki. That encounter gave Naruto two insights: that he was the container of the demon fox, and that there was someone besides the Third Hokage who actually cared for and acknowledged him.
The main story follows Naruto and his friends' personal growth and development as ninja, and emphasizes their interactions with each other and the influence of their backgrounds on their personalities. Naruto finds two friends and comrades in Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno, two fellow young ninja who are assigned with him to form a three-person team under an experienced sensei named Kakashi Hatake. Naruto also confides in other characters that he meets throughout the series as well. They learn new abilities, get to know each other and other villagers better, and experience a coming-of-age journey as Naruto dreams of becoming the Hokage of Konohagakure.
At first, emphasis is placed on Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura, who are the members of Team 7. Later, Orochimaru, a criminal at the top of Konoha's most wanted list, attacks Konoha killing the Third Hokage as an act of revenge. He also desires to acquire Sasuke Uchiha due to his powerful genetic heritage. Believing Orochimaru will be able to give him the strength needed to kill his brother Itachi, who destroyed all his clan, he goes to him. Naruto does not give up on Sasuke, leaving Konoha for two-and-a-half years of training to prepare himself for the next time he meets Sasuke. After the training period, a mysterious organization called Akatsuki attempts to capture the nine powerful tailed beasts including the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox that is sealed inside of Naruto. Several ninjas from Konoha, including Team 7, fight against the Akatsuki members as well as Team 7 search for their teammate Sasuke. Sasuke, however, betrays Orochimaru and faces Itachi to take revenge. Although Itachi dies, Sasuke is told by the Akatsuki member Madara Uchiha that Itachi was orderred by Konoha's leadership to destroy his clan. Saddened with the revelation, Sasuke joins forces with Akatsuki to destroy Konoha.
The manga was first published by Shueisha in 1999 in the 43rd issue of Japan's Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine and it is still being released with forty-four volumes. The manga would be later adapted into an anime produced by Studio Pierrot and Aniplex. It premiered across Japan on the terrestrial TV Tokyo network and the anime satellite television network Animax on October 3, 2002. The first series lasted nine seasons, while Naruto: Shippūden, a sequel of the series, began its first on February 15, 2007 and is still airing. Apart from anime series, Studio Pierrot has developed five movies for the series and several original video animations (OVAs). Other pieces of merchanidise include light novels, video games and trading cards developed by several companies.
Viz Media has licensed the manga and anime for North American production. Viz has been publishing the series in their Shonen Jump magazine, and has also been releasing the volumes with some of them within campaigns. The Naruto anime debuted in the United States on Cartoon Network's Toonami programming block on September 10, 2005, and in Canada on YTV's Bionix on September 16, 2005. Naruto began showing in the United Kingdom on Jetix on July 22, 2006. It began showing on Toasted TV on January 12, 2007, in Australia, which features the Manga Entertainment TV version and the German-language. Naruto: Shippūden has also been announced to premier in 2009 in the United States.
Serialized in Viz's Shonen Jump magazine, Naruto has become one of the company's best-selling manga series. As of volume 36, the manga has sold over 71 million copies in Japan. The English adaptation of the series have also appeared in the USA Today Booklist several times and volume 11 won the Quil Award in 2006. Reviewers from the series have praised the balance between fights and comedy scenes, as well as the characters' personalities. However, some of them have also noted the series to have stereotypical shōnen concepts, which appear in several series.
Naruto Uzumaki is a young boy who has the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox sealed within him. Twelve years before the start of the series, the fox attacked the ninja village Konohagakure, slaughtering many people. As such, the leader of Konohagakure – the Fourth Hokage – sacrificed his own life to seal the demon inside Naruto when he was a newborn. Konohagakure, however, regarded Naruto as if he were the demon fox itself and mistreated him throughout most of his childhood. A decree made by the Third Hokage forbade anyone mention the attack of the demon fox to anyone although Naruto soon realized about this. Years later, Naruto graduated from the Ninja Academy by using his Shadow Clone Technique, a technique from a forbidden scroll that he was tricked into stealing, to save his teacher, Iruka Umino, from the renegade ninja Mizuki. That encounter gave Naruto two insights: that he was the container of the demon fox, and that there was someone besides the Third Hokage who actually cared for and acknowledged him.
The main story follows Naruto and his friends' personal growth and development as ninja, and emphasizes their interactions with each other and the influence of their backgrounds on their personalities. Naruto finds two friends and comrades in Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno, two fellow young ninja who are assigned with him to form a three-person team under an experienced sensei named Kakashi Hatake. Naruto also confides in other characters that he meets throughout the series as well. They learn new abilities, get to know each other and other villagers better, and experience a coming-of-age journey as Naruto dreams of becoming the Hokage of Konohagakure.
At first, emphasis is placed on Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura, who are the members of Team 7. Later, Orochimaru, a criminal at the top of Konoha's most wanted list, attacks Konoha killing the Third Hokage as an act of revenge. He also desires to acquire Sasuke Uchiha due to his powerful genetic heritage. Believing Orochimaru will be able to give him the strength needed to kill his brother Itachi, who destroyed all his clan, he goes to him. Naruto does not give up on Sasuke, leaving Konoha for two-and-a-half years of training to prepare himself for the next time he meets Sasuke. After the training period, a mysterious organization called Akatsuki attempts to capture the nine powerful tailed beasts including the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox that is sealed inside of Naruto. Several ninjas from Konoha, including Team 7, fight against the Akatsuki members as well as Team 7 search for their teammate Sasuke. Sasuke, however, betrays Orochimaru and faces Itachi to take revenge. Although Itachi dies, Sasuke is told by the Akatsuki member Madara Uchiha that Itachi was orderred by Konoha's leadership to destroy his clan. Saddened with the revelation, Sasuke joins forces with Akatsuki to destroy Konoha.
Greece
Greece [ɡɹiːs] (help·info) (Greek: Ελλάδα, transliterated: Elláda [e̞ˈlaða] (info), historically Ἑλλάς, Hellás, IPA: [e̞ˈlas]), officially the Hellenic Republic (Ελληνική Δημοκρατία, Ellīnikī́ Dīmokratía, [e̞liniˈkʲi ðimo̞kɾaˈtia]),[4] is a country in southeastern Europe, situated on the southern end of the Balkan Peninsula. It has borders with Albania, Bulgaria and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (F.Y.R.O.M.) to the north, and Turkey to the east. The Aegean Sea lies to the east and south of mainland Greece, while the Ionian Sea lies to the west. Both parts of the Eastern Mediterranean basin feature a vast number of islands.
Greece lies at the juncture of Europe, Asia and Africa. It is heir to the heritages of ancient Greece, the Roman and Byzantine Empires,[5] and nearly four centuries of Ottoman rule.[6] Greece is the birthplace of democracy,[7] Western philosophy,[8] the Olympic Games, Western literature and historiography, political science, major scientific and mathematical principles, and Western drama,[9] including both tragedy and comedy.
Greece is a developed country, a member of the European Union since 1981,[10] a member of the Economic and Monetary Union of the European Union since 2001, NATO since 1952,[11] the OECD since 1961,[12] the WEU since 1995 and ESA since 2005.[13] Athens is the capital; Thessaloniki, Patras, Heraklion, Larissa, Volos, Ioannina, Kavala, Rhodes and Serres are some of the country's other major cities.
The culture of Greece has evolved over thousands of years, with its beginnings in the Mycenaean and Minoan Civilizations, continuing most notably into Classical Greece, the Hellenistic Period, through the influence of the Roman Empire and its Greek Eastern successor the Byzantine Empire. The Ottoman Empire too had a significant influence on Greek culture, but the Greek war of independence is credited with revitalizing Greece and giving birth to a single entity of its multi-faceted culture throughout the ages.
Greek cuisine is often cited as an example of the healthy Mediterranean diet. Greek cuisine incorporates fresh ingredients into a variety of local dishes such as moussaka, stifado, Greek Salad, spanakopita and the world famous Souvlaki. Throughout Greece people often enjoy eating from small dishes such as meze with various dips such as tzatziki, grilled octopus and small fish, feta cheese, dolmades (rice, currants and pine kernels wrapped in vine leaves), various pulses, olives and cheese. Olive oil is added to almost every dish. Sweet desserts such as galaktoboureko, and drinks such as ouzo, metaxa and a variety of wines including retsina. Greek cuisine differs widely from different parts of the mainland and from island to island.
Greece is today relatively homogeneous in linguistic terms, with a large majority of the native population using Greek as their first or only language. The Muslim minority in Thrace, which amounts to approximately 0.95% of the total population, consists of speakers of Turkish, Bulgarian (Pomak) and Romani. Romani is also spoken by Christian Roma in other parts of the country.
Further minority languages have traditionally been spoken by regional population groups in various parts of the country. Their use has decreased radically in the course of the 20th century through assimilation with the Greek-speaking majority. This goes for the Arvanites, an Albanian-speaking group mostly located in the rural areas around the capital Athens, and for the Aromanians and Moglenites, also known as Vlachs, whose language is closely related to Romanian and who used to live scattered across several areas of mountaneous central Greece. Members of these groups ethnically identfiy as Greeks[57] and are today all at least bilingual in Greek. In many areas their traditional languages are today only maintained by the older generations and are on the verge of extinction.
Near the northern Greek borders there are also some Slavic-speaking groups, whose members identify ethnically as Greeks in their majority. Their dialects can be linguistically classified as forms of either Macedonian (locally called Slavomacedonian or simply Slavic), or Bulgarian (distinguished as Pomak in the case of the Bulgarophone Muslims of Thrace.[58]
The Jewish community in Greece traditionally spoke Ladino (Judeo-Spanish), today maintained only by a small group of a few thousand speakers.
Among the Greek-speaking population, speakers of the distinctive Pontic dialect came to Greece from Asia Minor after the Pontic Greek Genocide and constitute a sizable group.
Greece lies at the juncture of Europe, Asia and Africa. It is heir to the heritages of ancient Greece, the Roman and Byzantine Empires,[5] and nearly four centuries of Ottoman rule.[6] Greece is the birthplace of democracy,[7] Western philosophy,[8] the Olympic Games, Western literature and historiography, political science, major scientific and mathematical principles, and Western drama,[9] including both tragedy and comedy.
Greece is a developed country, a member of the European Union since 1981,[10] a member of the Economic and Monetary Union of the European Union since 2001, NATO since 1952,[11] the OECD since 1961,[12] the WEU since 1995 and ESA since 2005.[13] Athens is the capital; Thessaloniki, Patras, Heraklion, Larissa, Volos, Ioannina, Kavala, Rhodes and Serres are some of the country's other major cities.
The culture of Greece has evolved over thousands of years, with its beginnings in the Mycenaean and Minoan Civilizations, continuing most notably into Classical Greece, the Hellenistic Period, through the influence of the Roman Empire and its Greek Eastern successor the Byzantine Empire. The Ottoman Empire too had a significant influence on Greek culture, but the Greek war of independence is credited with revitalizing Greece and giving birth to a single entity of its multi-faceted culture throughout the ages.
Greek cuisine is often cited as an example of the healthy Mediterranean diet. Greek cuisine incorporates fresh ingredients into a variety of local dishes such as moussaka, stifado, Greek Salad, spanakopita and the world famous Souvlaki. Throughout Greece people often enjoy eating from small dishes such as meze with various dips such as tzatziki, grilled octopus and small fish, feta cheese, dolmades (rice, currants and pine kernels wrapped in vine leaves), various pulses, olives and cheese. Olive oil is added to almost every dish. Sweet desserts such as galaktoboureko, and drinks such as ouzo, metaxa and a variety of wines including retsina. Greek cuisine differs widely from different parts of the mainland and from island to island.
Greece is today relatively homogeneous in linguistic terms, with a large majority of the native population using Greek as their first or only language. The Muslim minority in Thrace, which amounts to approximately 0.95% of the total population, consists of speakers of Turkish, Bulgarian (Pomak) and Romani. Romani is also spoken by Christian Roma in other parts of the country.
Further minority languages have traditionally been spoken by regional population groups in various parts of the country. Their use has decreased radically in the course of the 20th century through assimilation with the Greek-speaking majority. This goes for the Arvanites, an Albanian-speaking group mostly located in the rural areas around the capital Athens, and for the Aromanians and Moglenites, also known as Vlachs, whose language is closely related to Romanian and who used to live scattered across several areas of mountaneous central Greece. Members of these groups ethnically identfiy as Greeks[57] and are today all at least bilingual in Greek. In many areas their traditional languages are today only maintained by the older generations and are on the verge of extinction.
Near the northern Greek borders there are also some Slavic-speaking groups, whose members identify ethnically as Greeks in their majority. Their dialects can be linguistically classified as forms of either Macedonian (locally called Slavomacedonian or simply Slavic), or Bulgarian (distinguished as Pomak in the case of the Bulgarophone Muslims of Thrace.[58]
The Jewish community in Greece traditionally spoke Ladino (Judeo-Spanish), today maintained only by a small group of a few thousand speakers.
Among the Greek-speaking population, speakers of the distinctive Pontic dialect came to Greece from Asia Minor after the Pontic Greek Genocide and constitute a sizable group.
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