7 de Maio de 2019.
Relatório divulgado esta segunda-feira mostra um impacto das alterações climáticas sem precedentes. Será o mais triste marco na miserável história dos danos causados pela civilização moderna no mundo natural Não há boas notícias no relatório apresentado esta segunda-feira por 145 cientistas de 50 países e que foi aprovado por 130 países. As actividades humanas e, consequentemente, as alterações climáticas, estão a ter um impacto brutal e sem precedentes no meio natural. Nunca a destruição foi tanta e tão rápida. O relatório divulgado pela Plataforma Intergovernamental de Política de Ciência sobre Biodiversidade e Serviços do Ecossistema (IPBES, na sigla em inglês) refere que há hoje um milhão de espécies em risco de extinção. E, avisam os cientistas, só uma rápida e […]
6 de Maio de 2019.
Fake Christmas trees and a lack of snow. Christmas 2018 will always be a curious memory for me. Since Christmas is always associated with snow and beautifully decorated Christmas trees, this year Christmas on Madeira was quite different from what I’m used to. In Austria, the main celebration of Christmas takes place at the 24th, whereas here the people care more about the 25th. Usually, we buy a Christmas tree around the 22nd and decorate it on the 24th. Afterward, we go to church, eat some Fondue and receive presents. To be honest, nothing too special. My favorite Christmas habit is called “Christbaum loben” it if a funny thing to do and works as follows. After you served your time […]
4 de Maio de 2019.
Dados da Direcção-Geral de Estatísticas da Educação indicam que há menos cinco mil alunos nas escolas públicas do continente. Queda na natalidade e subida da emigração justificam diminuição neste ano lectivo. É a maior quebra dos últimos três anos no número de inscritos do 1.º ciclo de escolaridade (crianças entre os seis e nove anos) e basta fazer contas para se constatar que este é mais um dos efeitos dos anos da troika. Os dados agora divulgados pela Direcção-Geral de Estatísticas da Educação e Ciência ainda são provisórios, mas no essencial pouco mudarão. E o que eles dão a ver é que por comparação a 2017/2018 houve uma diminuição de cerca de cinco mil alunos nas escolas públicas do 1.º ciclo do continente. O total de inscritos neste […]
3 de Maio de 2019.
Finnish traditions are very different from many other countries! Christmas traditions in Finland Finland is the home of Santa Claus and Christmas Land. That is one reason why Christmas in Finland can be truly memorable especially for visitors. Finnish traditions are also very different from many other countries and regions in the world. They have some similarities with neighboring Scandinavian countries and some traditions are shared among other Christian households around the world. The first Sunday in December is called the First Advent and it is the start for the Finnish Christmas season. Many children – and why not adults also – use advent calendars for counting down the days until Christmas Eve. Those calendars come in many forms from […]
2 de Maio de 2019.
Análise a uma mandíbula com 160 mil anos sugere que os denisovanos (espécie humana extinta) foram os primeiros humanos a viver no tecto do mundo, como é conhecido o planalto do Tibete. É a primeira vez que se descobre o fóssil de um denisovano fora da Sibéria. Uma mandíbula com 160 mil anos encontrada numa gruta no planalto do Tibete pertencia a um denisovano, uma espécie humana já extinta. É a principal conclusão de um estudo publicado esta quinta-feira na revista científica Nature. Como é o fóssil mais antigo de um humano descoberto nesta região, isto significa que os primeiros humanos a viver no tecto do mundo foram os denisovanos. Sugere-se ainda que esta espécie humana se adaptou a grandes […]
1 de Maio de 2019.
Church services start at around six in the morning. Christmas and Advent is a very special and important time at my home. Winter is coming, the skiing season starts and it might snow a little. On the first of December, the Advent starts and every child is allowed to open the first door of their Advent calendar. Another tradition is the Advent wreath, it is a circle made of fir branches and with four candles on top. The last four Sundays before Christmas one candle is lit, and so on until Christmas day, when finally all four candles burn. Another typical thing is Rorate. These are church services which start at around six in the morning and end with breakfast […]
30 de Abril de 2019.
Para celebrar o 500.º aniversário da morte de Leonardo da Vinci, Faculdade de Belas Artes da Universidade do Porto vai promover uma “exposição única” do desenho “Rapariga lavando os pés a uma criança”, na quinta-feira. Contactado pela agência Lusa, o diretor do Museu da Faculdade de Belas Artes da Universidade do Porto (FBAUP), Luís Pinto Nunes, adiantou que a exposição de um só dia, na quinta-feira no Pavilhão de Exposições da faculdade, vai ser “única”, tendo em conta a “antiguidade” e “características” daquela que é a única obra do mestre italiano em Portugal. “Dentro de toda a obra que integra, este desenho é muito despreocupado dos que tipicamente conhecemos de Leonardo da Vinci porque revela a relação de uma mãe […]
29 de Abril de 2019.
We celebrate it a bit differently than in the rest of the country. Christmas in Poland is a very special time. But in Silesia, the region where I was born and raised and where all my family lives, we celebrate it a bit differently than in the rest of the country. The most important day is Christmas Eve on the 24th of December. At my home, the preparations start early in the morning when all of the women (me, my mother and my grandmother) start cooking dishes for the dinner, bake cakes and make makówki – my favorite Christmas sweet dish made of poppyseed, nuts, and bread. When the kids spot the first star in the sky, the whole family […]
29 de Abril de 2019.
Banca exibia pedras “para atirar a um ‘zuca’”. Reitor da Universidade de Lisboa promete processo disciplinar, mas a Faculdade de Direito afirma que qualquer acção será alvo de uma “ponderação mais cuidada”. “Grátis se for para atirar a um ‘zuca’ (que passou à frente no mestrado)”, lia-se num cartaz colado a uma caixa de madeira com pedras lá dentro. A instalação apareceu esta segunda-feira, junto a uma banca nos corredores da Faculdade de Direito da Universidade de Lisboa (FDUL). O acto foi imediatamente repudiado por alunos brasileiros da faculdade como uma demonstração de “xenofobia” e de “incitação à violência”. “É inaceitável que uma universidade centenária como a UL aceite tais tipos de acto, que propagam a discriminação entre os povos […]
26 de Abril de 2019.
The comparison with the Nordic Santa Claus was inevitable. Christmas Traditions: Olentzero Olentzero is a character from the Basque Christmas tradition. He is a mythological collier that brings Christmas gifts to homes in the Basque Country, on both sides of the Pyrenees. Olentzero is represented as a thick man, unkempt, stained with coal. His main characteristic is that he lives isolated from the society dedicated to making charcoal in the forest, enjoying eating and drinking well and every winter he goes down from the mountains to the villages. The most widespread hypothesis is that the origin of Olentzero predates the Christianization of Navarre and that the character of Olentzero must be located within the celebrations of the winter solstice. There […]
10 de Abril de 2019.
Very popular with the Austrian people. Sisi was born on Christmas Eve in 1837 as the second daughter of Duke Maximilian and Duchess Ludovika in Bavaria, Germany. In 1853 she met her cousin Emperor Franz Joseph, who was going to marry her sister Helene. Franz Joseph of Austria fell in love with Sisi immediately and decided to marry her instead of her sister. They married, when Sisi was 16 years old. The marriage did not work out: Sisi was an independent girl and totally unprepared for the strict protocol at court, an ambitious stepmother and a busy husband who struggled to fight revolutionary and separatist tendencies in the Habsburg Empire. The court society of Vienna was making fun of her, […]
8 de Abril de 2019.
She became Empress of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire. The 13/05/1717 was a day Austrian history will never forget, it was the day the one and only female Empress in the Habsburg dynasty ever was born. Even at the young age of 23, she became Empress of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire. She occupied this position for 40 years. Actually, to clarify, officially her husband Franz Stephan the First was the Emperor, but she actively ruled the empire. Franz Stephan was only in charge of the Austrian finances. Maria Theresa is most known for making education compulsory but also establishing the potato as staple which was a great service for the Austrian society. The “Mrs. Emperor”, as she was called by the Austrians, was […]
5 de Abril de 2019.
7 months in Madeira Island, with all the costs related with travel, accomodations and meals covered! What are you waiting for? SHORT DESCRIPTION OF THE PROJECT A walk through the History of Madeira is a project that intends to present the culture, history and heritage of Madeira through guided tours and other cultural activities such as exhibitions or fado concerts. Throughout the last few years, the University of Madeira Students’ Union (AAUMa) has been developing several initiatives with a heavy focus on Tourism and Culture, under the Madeiran Heritage program. These initiatives are also directly connected with its social support programmes, which help the local community of Madeira. Last year, through the contribution of everyone involved (EVS volunteers, portuguese volunteers and […]
5 de Abril de 2019.
Princess of the Netherlands, Princess of Oranje-Nassau, Duchess of Mecklenburg and Princess of Lippe-Biesterfeld. Juliana Louise Emma Marie Wilhelmina was the queen of the Netherlands between the 4th of September 1948 and 30th of April 1980 and was married to Prince Bernhard van Lippe-Biesterfeld. Together they had four daughters called Beatrix, Irene, Margriet, and Christina. In 2004 she died at the age of 94. An interesting story about Queen Juliana is that at the age of 19 she had to find her husband to secure the throne. The requirements were that the man should be Protestant, a foreigner and to be part of a Royal House that had ruled at least until 1918. The mother of Juliana, called Wilhelmina, used […]
3 de Abril de 2019.
According to a Portuguese legend, the Polish king didn’t die in Varna but he settled in Madeira. Wladyslaw Warnenczyk was King of Poland, Hungary, and Croatia until his death at the age of 20, at the Battle of Varna in 1444. He was the first-born son of Wladyslaw Jagiello who was the founder of the Jagiellonian dynasty. The battle of Varna was a decisive Ottoman victory over the crusader alliance, led by Wladyslaw Warnenczyk and John Hunyadi-voivode of Transylvania, a leading Hungarian military and political figure. The young king was killed while personally leading his own 500-strong royal Polish heavy cavalry company to directly attack the Sultan who was protected by the guard cavalry and formidable Janissary infantry. The Janissaries […]
1 de Abril de 2019.
Zygmunt moved Poland’s capital from Cracow to Warsaw “The Golden Age of Poland” occurred during the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, formally, the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the largest and most populous countries in Europe at that time. In its largest territorial extent, the Commonwealth covered almost 1 million square km and sustained a multi-ethnic population of 11 million. Religious freedom was guaranteed by the Warsaw Confederation in 1537, which made the country one of the most tolerant. Another interesting fact is that between 1573–1795, kings to the Polish throne were selected in so-called “free elections”, disrespecting the rule of dynastic succession. The first free election took place after the last monarch of Jagiellonian dynasty died […]