This is Halloween!!

Halloween

Halloween is nowadays known as a night (typically 31st of October), when children wear scary costumes such as witches, zombies, ghosts and vampires.
They go from house to house, knock on the doors, with the message “trick or treat”.
This comes from a threat to ask for candy, “give me a treat, or I will play a trick on you”.
This holiday is celebrated in various countries all over the world: Canada, New Zealand, U.K., Japan, Bahamas, United States, Australia, Scandinavia and many Latin American coutries where its known as “Noche de las Brujas”(night of the witches).
Originally, Halloween has its roots from Christian Missionaries, and the Day was called “All Hallows Eve”, which was the night before the Holiday of “All Saints holy day”.
This day was used by the Christian Missionaries to convert Pagan people into christianity.


Jack O' Lantern
During Halloween, it is very popular to decorate your frontyard with a carved pumpkin, which you personalize with a face and put a light inside it.This pumpkin is known as
Jack-O’-Lantern, which has its origin in an old Irish legend. Old Jack was a stingy man and when he died he couldn’t enter heaven because of all his bad actions. So, he carved a turnip and put a burning coal into it, making a kind of lantern to use to find a place to rest in the darkness. Since this time, Irish children carved turnips to scare away witches.
But, when Irish people moved to America, instead of turnips, the children carved pumpkins and put a candle inside to remember the story of bad old Jack and the lantern.

E.J.L

Woodstock 40th Anniversary

40 years ago, more specifically from August 15 to August 18, in 1969, it was held at a farm near the town of Bethel, New York, a music festival which put together almost 500 million of students, artists, workers and people - very high on LSD - celebrating love, peace and music. In spite of it, just 200 were arrested and only 2 of them died.
At first, tickets were sold for US$ 18, around 186,000 people bought it. But on the day of the event, fences were destroyed and it became a free festival.
Under rain and mud, the crowd watched concerts of artist such as Joe Cocker, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Santana, Sly & the Family Stone and The Who. Many bands are no longer on the road or its members have already died, but they surely wrote their names in the history of the music.

Photographed by chance, the couple above became worldwide famous. 40 years later, asked to summarize the festival Nick says, “The main message of Woodstock was: Look, we are young, and this is what we do. We get together and become stronger to protest against what was happening at that moment, and also enjoy and have fun. We help each other, and after we went away in peace".

One of the shows at Woodstock:


F.

INTO THE WILD

This time, we have chosen to write about a famous park founded in 1973 . The name of the park is ‘Ibitipoca’, which actually means cleft in the mountain range. It is located
in the city of Lima Duarte near Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais.
The first inhabitants in the area were the Aracis Indians. They lived in the caves on the mountains, where travelers also settled down when they were passing through the state.
The forest reserve includes several natural attractions like the natural pools, look-out points, waterfalls, caves, ‘beaches’ and mountain peaks, which attract almost two thousand tourists a week.
The fauna and flora have a lot of diversity. There are more than 800 plant species that include bromelias, orchids, lichens, albertina and ferns. Ibitipoca Park has not only
plants, but also a wide variety of animals like the maned wolf, vinaceous-mountain lion, biscutate swift, masked titi monkey, breasted parrot, black howler monkey, silvery monkey, coati.
Some wonderful places to visit are: the 'Caminho das Águas', which has a variety of attractions such as ‘Cachoeira dos Macacos’; ‘Prainha’, with clear, cold water from ‘Rio do Salto’; ‘Lago dos Espelhos’, with water that reflects the sunshine; ‘Ponte de Pedra’, a particular landscape - a huge tunnel that was dug by the force of water; ‘Janela do Céu’, a drop of 20 meters from ‘Rio Vermelho’.
We absolutely recommend this park, because it is a must-see if you are in Minas Gerais. Beautiful, immune and idyllic nature, it will be an unforgettable experience for your inner adventurer.

E.J.L.

Changes...

For the first time in years, the Olympic Games will be held in a developing country in South America – Brazil. Consequently, we will have to spend about 25 billion in the infrastructure needed for the games. Besides that, a great deal of problems like public transportion, violence, lack of rooms in hotels and many others will have to be solved in seven years.

People should remember that the 2014 Soccer World Cup will also take place here, causing expenditures that could triple in a few more millions or billions depending on the situation of Brazilian stadiums.

Many Brazilians think seven years is enough time to make all necessary changes to host games of this level. On the other hand, many critiques concerning the Brazilian Olympic bid are very relevant: lack of a consistent public policy directed to sports in the country, and the need for profound structural changes in Brazilian sport organization.

We just hope the changes to come are better than the 'portuglish' translations on the signs :D

R.

Recycle... Reuse... Reduce...

Nowadays, the concern around nature destruction is growing. For this reason, designers start to think better of the relationship between the fashion industry and the environment. This new trend is called Eco-fashion and usually encompasses clothes made from raw, organic materials such as cotton grown without pesticides, fibers made from bamboo and other exotic plants, reused cloth or materials made from recycled items, for instance, plastic bottles.
These clothing lines show that the planet doesn’t have to suffer with fashion in any way and, not only the designers but also the consumers realized that this alternative can create beautiful vestments with natural resources and zero waste.

E.J.L

Aminoacid found in comet reinforces the theory of extraterrestrial life

It has been proven the existence of the aminoacid glycine in the samples of the Wild-2 comet, collected by the spacecraft StarDust. This aminoacid is used by livings to produce proteins that have important functions in their bodies, from the structure of the hair to the production of enzymes.

Part of the elements to make life exist is formed in space and arrives on planets when comets fall on them. The impact zone would get warm, which is necessary to keep microorganisms alive.

Therefore, that means we might be partially aliens.

G.

Let´s cook!

Our first post is about a typical Greek dish. We chose it because it is practical to cook and really mouthwatering. Although its Greek origin, this dish is reminiscent of Italian food because the south of Italy is located near Greece, thus it causes similarity of many dishes.
In many regions of Greece, pastitsio is called macaronia tou fournou. Pastitsio takes its name from the Italian pasticcio, also known as lasagna al forno in some regions of Italy.
You should prepare this recipe because it is really tasty.

Ingredients:
• ½ kg penne
• ½ kg ground beef
• 1 teacup broth
• 2 spoons olive oil
• 1 big onion
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 4 tomatoes
• 1 spoon tomato sauce
• ½ cup Parmesan cheese

White Sauce:
• 4 spoons butter
• 5 spoons flour
• 500ml milk
• ½ teacup natural yogurt
• ½ cup Parmesan cheese
• Salt and pepper

For the Instructions on how to prepare the PASTITSIO, watch
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bSOSOLDUZE

E.J.L