Μπάμπα Γιάγκα-Baba Yaga

Μπάμπα Γιάγκα-Baba Yaga

  11:45 μ.μ.    WaspGR

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Λαϊκές παραδόσεις

Στα ρωσικά παραμύθια, η Μπάμπα Γιαγκά εμφανίζεται σαν μάγισσα που πετάει στον αέρα μέσα σε ένα γουδί, χρησιμοποιώντας το γουδοχέρι για τιμόνι, ενώ σβήνει τα ίχνη πίσω της με μια σκούπα από ασημένια σημύδα. Μένει σε μια ξυλοκαλύβα που στέκεται σε πόδι μιας κότας κι η κλειδαρότρυπα στην πόρτα της εισόδου είναι ένα κρανίο με στόμα γεμάτο κοφτερά δόντια. Ο φράχτης γύρω από το σπίτι είναι φτιαγμένος από ανθρώπινα οστά και κρανία. Σύμφωνα με ένα θρύλο, η καλύβα περιστρέφεται στο πόδι και το είσοδος της καλύβας δεν εμφανίζεται μέχρι να ειπωθεί η μαγική φράση: Γύρνα την πλάτη σου στο δάσος και στρέψου σε εμένα.Η Μπάμπα Γιαγκά εμφανίζεται στις ιστορίες και σαν καλός και σαν κακός χαρακτήρας. Κάποιες φορές βοηθάει τους ανθρώπους στις διάφορες αποστολές τους, ενώ άλλες φορές απάγει παιδιά και απειλεί να τα φάει. Θεωρείται επικίνδυνο να ζητήσει κανείς τη βοήθειά της: χρειάζεται κατάλληλη προετοιμασία, αλλά και αγνό πνεύμα.Σύμφωνα με κάποιους μύθους, η Μπάμπα Γιαγκά γερνάει κατά ένα χρόνο κάθε φορά που της κάνουν μια ερώτηση, γι' αυτό και συχνά απεικονίζεται σαν κακάσχημη γριά μάγισσα, ενοχλημένη από τις πολυάριθμες ερωτήσεις των ανθρώπων. Ο μόνος τρόπος για να γλιτώσει τα γηρατειά είναι η παρασκευή ενός αφεψήματος από γαλάζια τριαντάφυλλα: οι ήρωες που της τα προσφέρουν σαν δώρο κερδίζουν το δικαίωμα να κάνουν ευχές.

In Slavic folklore, Baba Yaga is a supernatural being (or one of a trio of sisters of the same name) who appears as a deformed and/or ferocious-looking woman. Baba Yaga flies around in a mortar, wields a pestle, and dwells deep in the forest in a hut usually described as standing on chicken legs (or sometimes a single chicken leg).[1] Baba Yaga may help or hinder those that encounter or seek her out. She sometimes plays a maternal role, and also has associations with forest wildlife. According to Vladimir Propp's folktale morphology, Baba Yaga commonly appears as either a donor or villain, or may be altogether ambiguous.

Andreas Johns identifies Baba Yaga as "one of the most memorable and distinctive figures in Slavic European folklore," and observes that she is "enigmatic" and often exhibits "striking ambiguity."Johns summarizes Baba Yaga as "a many-faceted figure, capable of inspiring researchers to see her as a Cloud, Moon, Death, Winter, Snake, Bird, Pelican or Earth Goddess, totemic matriarchal ancestress, female initiator, phallic mother, or archetypal image"

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Harvey Washington Wiley-Χάρβεϊ Ουάσιγκτον

Harvey Washington Wiley-Χάρβεϊ Ουάσιγκτον

  10:58 μ.μ.    WaspGR

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Χάρβεϊ Ουάσιγκτον

Ο άνθρωπος που άλλαξε τον τρόπο που τρώμε. Ο Χάρβεϊ χημικός στο επάγγελμα ήταν από τους πρώτους επιστήμονες που αντέδρασαν όταν η βιομηχανία του φαγητού χρησιμοποίησε επικίνδυνα χημικά στην κονσερβοποίηση του φαγητού. Την εποχή εκείνη οι βιομηχανίες χρησιμοποιούσαν χημικά όπως η φορμόλη καθώς και αλλά επικίνδυνα χημικά για να κάνουν το φαγητό να φαίνεται φρέσκο αντί για αλλοιωμένο. Ο Χάρβεϊ αντέδρασε και προσπάθησε να περάσει τις ανησυχίες του στην βιομηχανία του φαγητού ή οποία τον αγνόησε. Τότε ο Χάρβεϊ ξεκίνησε ένα επικίνδυνο πείραμα. Διάλεξε 12 υγιείς άντρες και για τους επομένους μήνες τάιζε τους ανθρώπους αυτούς με δηλητηριασμένο φαγητό με τα συγκεκριμένα χημικά. Όταν συγκέντρωσε αρκετά στοιχειά απευθύνθηκε στην κυβέρνηση. Αρχικά οι ισχυρισμοί του απορριφτήκαν, όταν όμως πήγε στ ΜΜΕ τότε όλα άλλαξαν. Ο Χάρβεϊείναι ο υπεύθυνος που σήμερα μπορούμε να δούμε σε κάθε συσκευασία τα συστατικά των τροφίμων. Ο αγώνας του για καθαρό φαγητό άλλαξε και νομοθέτησε το πλαίσιο με το οποίο συσκευάζονται τα τρόφιμα.

Harvey W. Wiley

FDA Consumer magazine
The Centennial Edition / January-February 2006

Pioneer Consumer Activist

When Americans think of consumer advocates, the names Ralph Nader or Esther Peterson or Eliot Spitzer may jump to mind. But Harvey W. Wiley, M.D., was the original--first at the Food and Drug Administration, where he became known as the "Father of the Pure Food and Drugs Act" and then at Good Housekeeping magazine.

In the 1880s, when Wiley began his 50-year crusade for pure foods, America's marketplace was flooded with poor, often harmful products. With almost no government controls, unscrupulous manufacturers tampered with products, substituting cheap ingredients for those represented on labels: Honey was diluted with glucose syrup; olive oil was made with cottonseed; and "soothing syrups" given to babies were laced with morphine. The country was ready for reform … and for Wiley.

Born in a log cabin in 1844 on a frontier farm in Indiana, Wiley spent his early years helping plant and harvest the crops. His father, the local schoolteacher, saw to it that his children had a basic education--these were the days before free public schools--and Wiley was able to go on to college, eventually taking a medical degree at Indiana Medical College and a science degree at Harvard. By his late 30s, he was a professor of chemistry at Purdue University.

FDA History Office
Harvey W. Wiley, M.D.

Then, in 1883, he was persuaded to give up academic life and move to Washington, D.C., as chief chemist in what is now the Department of Agriculture. His main task was to support the new agricultural industries, but he was also able to continue his private passion, developing tests for food purity.

All through the 1880s and 1890s, pure-food bills were introduced into Congress--largely through his work--and all were killed. Powerful lobbies had established themselves. To bring his cause to the public, and with a budget of $5,000, Wiley organized in 1902 a volunteer group of healthy young men, called the Poison Squad, who tested the effects of chemicals and adulterated foods on themselves. Women banded together, notably in the Federated Women's Clubs, for political clout. Major canners became supporters of the legislation and voluntarily abandoned the use of questionable chemicals. Finally, the battle was won on June 30, 1906, when President Theodore Roosevelt signed the Pure Food and Drugs Act, largely written by Wiley, who was then appointed to oversee its administration.

The battle had been won--but not the war. Wiley had many adversaries in Congress and in the food and patent-medicine industries, and in 1912 he left his government post. A headline of the day read: WOMEN WEEP AS WATCHDOG OF THE KITCHEN QUITS AFTER 29 YEARS.

Before he left the government, Wiley had been sought to set up and direct the Bureau of Foods, Sanitation, and Health for Good Housekeeping. The magazine, begun in 1885, had already created the Good Housekeeping Institute laboratories to ensure the reliability of its editorial pages. Once Wiley was on staff, with his own chemistry laboratories in Washington, D.C., where he could monitor government activities, he continued his fight for pure foods from the pages of the magazine.

In his 19 years as director of the bureau at Good Housekeeping, he led the fight for tougher government inspection of meat; for pure butter unadulterated with water; and for whole wheat flour, which growers were mixing with other grains. The bureau analyzed food products and published the findings; its "Tested and Approved" seal became the coveted symbol of responsible industry, and the Good Housekeeping Seal remains the pre-eminent consumer emblem today.

In 1914, Wiley and Anne Lewis Pierce wrote a groundbreaking Good Housekeeping exposé on obesity cures, called "Swindled Getting Slim." The article described ways diet hucksters sold products, ranging from misleading to downright fraudulent, without getting caught by government regulators. In 1921, Wiley's crusading articles contributed to the passage of the Maternity Bill, which allocated Federal funds for improved infant care--and led to a reduction of the appalling infant mortality rate.

Remarkably prescient, Wiley in 1927 expressed his suspicion that the use of any form of tobacco might be harmful and that it might promote cancer. Because of mounting evidence confirming Wiley's early warnings, Good Housekeeping stopped accepting cigarette ads in 1952, 12 years before the U.S. Surgeon General issued a report detailing the health hazards of smoking.

In his last years, he fought and won the battle to keep refined sugar pure and unadulterated. When he died in 1930, at age 86, Harvey Wiley was given a patriot's funeral at Arlington Cemetery.

The legacy of Wiley lives on at Good Housekeeping and at the Good Housekeeping Institute. In recent years, the magazine and the institute have exposed nutritional supplements that did not have as much of their active ingredient as indicated on their labels, snack foods that had more fat and calories than claimed, and misleading serving sizes on food packaging. Good Housekeeping Institute staffers remain vigilant about determining which products may receive the Good Housekeeping Seal, and the magazine's Consumer Services department vigorously investigates questions it receives concerning seal products purchased by the public.

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Οι πυραμίδες τις Αιγύπτου-The pyramids of Egypt.

Οι πυραμίδες τις Αιγύπτου-The pyramids of Egypt.

  8:58 μ.μ.    WaspGR

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Οι πυραμίδες τις Αιγύπτου. (3D)

Από της μεγαλιθικές κατασκευές της αρχαιότητας, οι πυραμίδες της Αιγύπτου έχουν σπουδαία θέση στην παγκόσμια ιστορία. Ο λόγος είναι ότι είναι ένα από τα επτά θαύματα του κόσμου που παραμένει ακόμα όρθιο. Ο τρόπος κατασκευής τους, έχει φέρει πολλές διαφωνίες και μπερδεύει ακόμα και σήμερα τους ειδικούς. Πολλές θεωρίες υπάρχουν και κάποιες από αυτές περιλαμβάνουν εξωγήινες παρεμβάσεις. Όλα αυτά φαίνεται ότι σύντομα θα τελειώσουν. Ο λόγος είναι ότι από τα τελευταία χρόνια οι θεωρίες ενός αρχιτέκτονα κερδίζουν όλο και περισσότερο έδαφος. Κι αυτό επειδή εξηγούν σχεδόν όλες τις τεχνικές που χρειάζεται για να φτιάξεις μια πυραμίδα. Το έργο του είναι αξιοσημείωτο και το παράλογο είναι ότι ο Γάλλος αρχιτέκτονας Jean Pierre Houdin διατύπωσε την θεωρία χωρίς να πλησιάσει τις πυραμίδες.

The pyramids of Egypt.

From the megalithic structures of antiquity, the pyramids of Egypt have a great place in world history. The reason is that it is one of the seven wonders of the ancient world still standing. Their construction, has brought many disagreements and confuses even today experts. Many theories exist and some of them involve alien interventions. All this seems it will soon run out. The reason is that in recent years the theories of an architect increasingly gaining ground. Because it explains almost all the techniques you need to build a pyramid. His work is notable and the absurd is that French architect Jean Pierre Houdin put forward the theory without power to reach the pyramids.

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Μια μπλε χλωμή τελεία-Pale Blue Dot

Μια μπλε χλωμή τελεία-Pale Blue Dot

  2:43 μ.μ.    WaspGR

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Ο άνθρωπος γεννήθηκε για να είναι εξερευνητής η γη μπορεί να είναι το σπίτι του αλλά είναι και μια ¨φυλακή¨ ταυτόχρονα. Ο σπουδαίος λόγος του Carl Sagan θα σας κάνει να δείτε τον πλανήτη μας με άλλο μάτι.

The man was born to be an Explorer, the Earth may be his home but is also a "jail" at the same time. The great Carl Sagan's speech will make you see the world in a different light.

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