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 […]
25 de Abril de 2019.
A agência espacial norte-americana divulgou o som de um marsquake, registado pela Insight, a sonda cuja principal missão era obter dados sobre o interior do planeta. A NASA divulgou esta quarta-feira o que acredita ser a primeira gravação de um sismo em Marte. A sonda da agência espacial norte-americana InSight mediu e registou um evento sísmico ao qual os cientistas chamaram de “marsquake”, um trocadinho entre as palavras Marte e earthquake (terramoto, em português). O sinal sísmico detectado pelo instrumento SEIS (Sísmico de Experimentação para Estruturas Interiores) foi registado a 6 de Abril, o 128º dia da sonda no planeta. Segundo a NASA, este é o primeiro sismo captado que parece ter vindo do interior do planeta, em oposição aos eventos sísmicos […]
3 de Setembro de 2019.
An Austrian author of the 21st century: Marc Elsberg If you are interested in scientific thrillers, Marc Elsberg’s books are always a brilliant choice. It doesn’t matter if you choose Blackout, Zero or Helix – they’re all interesting, exciting and teach you a lot. This is why I like his work and why I always enjoy reading any book he wrote. He was born in 1967 in Vienna, grew up in the surroundings of Baden in Lower Austria and studied Industrial Design at the University for Art in Vienna. Later on, he worked in the marketing business as a creative director while he was starting to write his first book, a satirical novel called “Saubermann”. After three more books, he […]
1 de Setembro de 2019.
A very well known writer in Finland. Kari Hotakainen started his career as a reporter and became a full-time author in 1996. He has written many novels, poetry books, children’s books, radio dramas, newspaper columns, plays, and one TV-series. He has received some literature prizes for his work, for example, the Finlandia Prize for the novel Juoksuhaudantie (Battle Trench Avenue). The same book was later made into a movie. For me, the most meaningful book written by Kari Hotakainen is Satukirja (Storybook). The book is considered for children and young adults, but I think that it suits all ages. All the stories are very imaginative and different. It is a huge possibility, that after reading one story you become addicted […]
31 de Agosto de 2019.
A Polish-British writer, most famous for Heart of Darkness (1899). Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski is known rather as Joseph Conrad which is a combination of his two names. He went to Marseilles as a seventeen-year-old boy to work as a sailor. When he returned from his voyages to the Caribbean and South America, he had troubles with his citizenship, as a resident of the Russian Empire, he was obligated to do military service. Without permission from the Russian authorities to serve on French ships, Joseph fell into debts and consequently he attempted to commit suicide. Later on, he went to Great Britain and began serving in the British merchant navy. After a few years, he received the rank of captain […]
29 de Agosto de 2019.
I’ll talk about the Belgian writer Herman Brusselmans. Why him? To reply in his own style: because this dickpick is probably the most f*cking interesting choice of them all. That’s right. I didn’t choose him because his oeuvre is close to my heart. Neither his high pitched literary style. Still, he is one of the greatest writers of Belgium. How did this come to be? Well, to start with, he is (unlike many colleagues) in front of the media. He keeps himself in the picture through talk shows and columns, where he likes to mock other celebrities and comments on certain situations. This provocative talk is also very typical for his books. The overall style elements are a Highly autobiographical […]
27 de Agosto de 2019.
The Writing Teacher Gerwin van der Werf is not a name that many non-Dutch people know nor are able to pronounce properly. Not a lot of Dutch people know him or his work either. He is not a famous writer of literature that creates complex novels with hidden themes and multiple meanings but he is one of the greatest Dutch writers. He has written four novels, Gewapende Man (2010), Wild (2011), Luchtvissers (2013) en Een Onbarmhartig Pad (2018). Apart from being a writer, he is also a music teacher at the high school I went to in the Netherlands. He is a teacher full of energy, full of empathy for his students and with a great sense of humor. He […]
25 de Agosto de 2019.
An Austro-Brazilian Roman Catholic bishop and also a writer. Erwin Kräutler was born 1939 in Koblach Austria where he grew up as the eldest of six children. In 1980 he was appointed coadjutor prelate of Xingu, the largest diocese in Brazil in terms of area. Upon the resignation of Erich Kräutler, who was his uncle, he became Prelate of Xingu in September 1981. Between 1983 and 1991 and since 2006 he served as President of the Indigenous Missionary Council of the Brazilian Catholic church. Since the 1980s he has helped secure the inclusion of indigenous peoples’ rights into the Brazilian constitution. Especially in the resistance to the Belo Monte dam project, he played an important role. In his book “Mein […]