IT'S COLD OUTSIDE

 Image from Dover

HOLLYWOOD CINEMATOGRAPHER - VILMOS ZSIGMOND - DIES IN CALIFORNIA - FAMOUS FOR CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF A THIRD KIND

NY TIMES article VILMOS ZSIGMOND DIES AT 85 - CINEMATOGRAPHER  by Bruce Weber

EXCERPT:

Known for creating dramatic, story-propelling images in muted colors and natural light, Mr. Zsigmond (whose full name is pronounced VIL-moshe ZHIG-mund) referred to his desired imagery as “poetic realism.”

Along with other cinematographers, including his countryman Laszlo Kovacs, with whom he escaped the Soviet dominance of Hungary in 1956, he helped usher in a new era in the look of Hollywood movies, one in which light and color and whole images superseded the importance of making the star look gorgeous.

PROOF THAT CROWS MAKE TOOLS!

DISCOVERY - CROWS CAUGHT ON CAMERA BUILDING and STORING TOOLS  VIDEO LINKED

Excerpt:  Poring over the footage captured on the cameras' micro-SD cards (the cameras safely detach from the birds within a few days), the scientists witnessed two instances of the birds fashioning hook tools they would use to probe tree crevices for food....

It was clear to the researchers that these tools seemed precious to the birds.
“In one scene,” said Troscianko, ”a crow drops its tool, and then recovers it from the ground shortly afterwards, suggesting they value their tools and don’t simply discard them after a single use.”

The birds are highly attuned to disturbances in their midst, and their tropical habitat can also be a hindrance to anyone wishing to get a close look at how they earn their living. But the cameras the team employed afforded just such looks.
“By documenting their fascinating behavior with this new camera technology,” said Troscianko, “we obtained valuable insights into the importance of tools in their daily search for food.”

A NEW YEAR OF EARTH CHANGES

Saint Louis, Missouri, flooded enough to stop transportation,  The North Of England - flooded.  (Prince Charles with his long time concern for the environment is truly the perfect person to be the next King!) Tornados touching down in unprecedented numbers.  Earth changes, no doubt.  Global Warming Summit in Paris.   Is this really something we can stop now by altering our life styles so that we no longer pollute?  (I think it would take more than recycling, and shutting down factories particularly in China, but also less use of air travel...)  Al Gore was right.  Al Gore was right.

In the wee hours I woke up and turned on the radio, a station which featured psychic predictions for the future.  In the morning I wake up again, check my weather ap and see that the experts are predicting a swath of storms "NON EL NINO RELATED" that will hit my area this week.  I took down the Christmas lights that I had planned to keep on until January 6th, in advance of these storms thinking the wet weather and electricity could be dangerous.

My dog is wearing sweaters and I've taken to using a space heater in one room - the bedroom, which I'm using 90% of the time now.  The gas wall heater is too expensive to use and so old it has no thermostat and though it can eat up the humidity when it's on, most of the heat goes out the windows. The electric bill will rise, as will the gas bill, but not enough to consider the expense of double pane windows, water heater wraps, and all the rest. 

Not too long ago, during one of the hottest summers I've ever experienced, so sick of the heat, I vowed that I would not complain of the cold or the wet.  I'm actually lucky because I'm not dealing at all with freezing rain, sleet, ice or snow and even when it goes to freezing at night I can cover up my plants outside.

I'm limited in what I can do but I do it.  I have cut back my water use especially.  I recycle not only bottles and cans but give away clothes and other things that someone else can get use out of.  I generate so little garbage that my can doesn't have to go out to the street more than once a month.  I think "if everyone would do just a little more towards this effort."  But, despite their being constant warnings - and rules - and laws - about water usage in my area, I still have a neighbor who waters excessively. Everyone on the street is angry at him but so far he has not been busted by the authorities and has not gotten any fines.

Now, anticipating the rain, I'm more worried than ever that it will be excessive and that there will be flooding in my area, which was not designed to cope with too much rain at any one time.  There is a construction site down the street that is dug out and I hope any flooding will go down into the pit instead of down the street and into the yards!

CELEBRATE A NEW YEAR!

LOST TOMB OF SULEIMAN THE MAGNIFENT UNEARTHENED IN SOUTHERN HUNGARY?

DISCOVERY NEWS - ARCHEOLOGY - SULEIMAN THE MAGNIFICENT
by Rossella Lorenzi

Moslem Hungary.... Ottoman Empire...the ruler sires 1000 children...or more... (Maybe YOU have some of his DNA?)

Excerpt:

Turbék started out as a shrine over Suleiman’s burial in the 1570s and thrived as a holy town until its destruction by the Habsburg army in the 1680s.

‘For Allah’ Inscription Found on Viking Era Ring
During a dig carried out in October and November, Pap and colleagues unearthed a rectangular building with wide walls built from bricks and stones.

Covered with stone tiles, the building had a large central room, about 26 by 26 feet. A robber pit in the middle of the structure suggests it was plundered in the late 17th century.

Some decorative elements remained intact and match in style the decorations in Suleiman’s mausoleum in Istanbul.

Intact, Packed Etruscan Tomb Found

“Currently everything suggests that this building could have been Suleiman’s tomb,” the researchers wrote.

CHRISTMAS ANGELS BRING THE TREE

We all know that there are ANGELS in MANY RELIGIONS 

and that this image brings in the PAGAN Christmas Tree....

OH HOLY NIGHT : JOSH GROBAN

SAINT NICK - a ROLE MODEL OF GENEROSITY and EMPATHY and the SOULLESS SAN BERNARDINO TERRORISTS

Old Saint Nick, also known as Saint Nicklaus, and now, in the Western World as Santa Claus, was, like our present Pope Francis, who has given out sleeping bags to the homeless in Rome, Italy, personally, a person of action who role modeled generosity and empathy by bringing gifts to the poor. Some say it started with the secret gift of three gold coins to some poor children.  Today there is so much poverty around the world, it's almost impossible to imagine any immediate answer to the suffering, which includes starvation of children born to die.  I know I have it good here in the United States.

Walking my dog, I often encounter a woman who is sweet and kind and always begging.  To my amazement she walked into a corner store that mostly sells liquor and asked a customer to give her $20 so that she could buy a Christmas tree.  To my amazement this stranger gave her $10 towards her purchase.  I told her where artificial trees were being sold at a good price, but she explained she was trying to raise $40 for a real tree, and then more money for lights and decorations, because she wanted to have a REAL CHRISTMAS.  Well, one can have a REAL CHRISTMAS without a tree and lights and decorations, but I found it interesting what I was witnessing.

I don't want to loose my Christmas spirit of generosity and empathy, but I'm struggling to maintain a  Christmassy attitude because the San Bernardino terrorist attacks seem to be EVEN MORE SENSELESS than the killings in PARIS.  You see, these terrorists, whatever their religion, HAVE NO EMPATHY OR GENEROSITY OF SPIRIT. 

They do not care about ending the lives of the innocent or making children orphans.  They wish to spread fear and hatred, not love, understanding, tolerance, or kindness.  There is no love left inside them, not even (in this case) for their own six month old child.  They have not even thought about the KIND OF WORLD they are trying to create in which that child/children will have to live.  They are establishing a TERRORIST STATE and it is a state in which the violence is so extreme  (killing of babies born disabled - teaching children to chop off heads using dummies)  that I believe it is devoid of ANY SPIRITUALITY whatsoever.

It's as if they had their very souls plucked out by demons.

After listening to radio reportage for hours and reading, again, many articles that report on the terrorists in PARIS, I learned that the man who lead the group had BEEN IN HUNGARY and RECRUITED TERRORIST HELP-MATES THERE, that these men had REFUSED TO REGISTER LAWFULLY WITHIN HUNGRY.

I realized that some of the Paris and the husband-wife couple San Bernardino terrorists seem to fall into the "he/she was such a nice, quiet person," category. 

I looked at the pictures of this EVIL COUPLE that were available.  At once I saw how dead, how zombie-like and hypnotized the eyes of the male shooter were.  The female, not so much.  Today the news is that it was the female who shot first, who was radicalized first, and that various Muslim organizations are distancing themselves from terrorism - or at least these two - both here and in other countries such as Pakistan.  She was so "shy" that many people never saw her face or heard her speak, as she would not speak to men other than her husband but she was deadly.  Is this Muslim or is this mentally ill?

Why are we even still using the term "radicalized" when something more and worse is happening?

Why is there civil war in Syria, why is the whole MIDDLE EAST a HELL ON EARTH?  Why is the CRADLE OF CIVILIZATION the most barbaric part of the world?

So here I am, all ready to go to a Christmas concert at the local community college where a friend of mine is playing the trumpet, wearing a fancy purple evening jacket, and hoping that at least for a while, I can shut the terror out of my mind, reattach to my own spirit of Christmas, and continue to be generous and empathic.


C 2015  All Rights Reserved  Magyar-American BlogSpot.  Including International and Internet Rights

SANTA CLAUS SUGAR PLUMS

Confection label, showing Santa Claus on sleigh with reindeer. engraving, color.

CREATED, PUBLISHED: c1868.

MAY PROSPERITY BE YOURS!

TURKEYS - HUNGARIAN TURKEY RECIPES? STUFF WITH CHESTNUTS

 

About now if you're a Hungarian-American who is going to cook for THANKSGIVING next week, you may be purchasing a turkey and other ingredients to make your fall harvest feast.  Since Turkey - the bird - is native of the America's I don't think of the meat as very interesting to Europeans but these days you just have to be near a market that imports the whole bird.

 

I could give you a link, or many, to recipes for Chestnut Stuffing and "Hungarian Turkey" recipes but I'll let you do that yourself.  There is even a Martha Stewart recipe for free on the net which emphasizes to start with fresh.  Let's just say that combining chestnuts with bread crumbs, bacon, thyme, and parsley and butter is a good start.  Chop Chop Chop!

 

Chestnuts are the seeds of the chestnut tree.  In the fall the covering of the seeds bursts open and reveal the tender nut but they must be used within a week of harvesting them or else can be frozen for up to a month.  Like a garlic bulb or clove, they must be peeled and then cooked to soften them and you do that before you combine them with other ingredients.

 

Growing up we had Turkey one time a year, on Thanksgiving.  I liked the stuffing better than the meat, though I loved the gravy over the stuffing.  Visiting friends, I was able to sample some of the more complicated and imaginative recipes for stuffing, including the wonderful texture and crunch of chestnuts. than my parents made.

 

As I understand it, chestnut trees grow well in Hungary and have been cultivated in the Mediterranean for 3000 years.  They were common in North America and then a blight wiped them out in the early 20th century but efforts are being made to replant them.

CRYING FOR INNOCENT VICTIMS of TERRORISM - EVIL and BRAINWASHING : OPINON by MAGYAR AMERICAN

Friday night, late, a friend of mine called me with a throb in his throat.  "Did you hear about the terrorism in Paris?  I've met some of the musicians that play in that band! " He explained that they are not a heavy metal or death metal band but took the name of their band as a kind of joke.  Whatever, they do play rock and roll, which is offensive to Moslems, and the terrorists targeted people out to have a good time, if not sex, drugs, and rock and roll.

I had not heard about this latest act of terrorism by Moslem EXTREMISTS, as I'd been feeling under the cold, windy, weather and was laying in bed under a crochet blanket with my dog and reading a book, so I told him I would call him back.  Within fifteen minutes, thanks to the internet on my low budget cell phone, I was able to tell him that the band members themselves were OK.  From that point on I read at least a hundred articles from news services all over the world, especially The Daily Mail - UK, but also the New York Times, Washington Post, and many others, searching for the latest tidbit of information that would bring the whole picture into focus.

Sadly, I will tell you what the whole picture is in one word:  EVIL

And that evil is prevailing makes me feel tearful and depressed.  This morning I wanted to stay in bed under the covers and not get on with my day but I snapped out of it while taking a hot shower and then dressing and putting on makeup and perfume and leaving the house.  I put on my best appearance anyway despite feeling so down.  I knew that I could not quit living my life out of fear...

The American Holiday of Thanksgiving is less than two weeks away and is the beginning of our holiday season with Christmas and the New Year coming up fast and this is the time of year when most people make an effort to share, give generously, and be more loving and tolerant, beginning with their own family and then to strangers. 

I've already bought slices of turkey breast, stuffing bread, pineapple, onions and garlic and ginger, an acorn squash, sweet potato, zucchini, and other ingredients to make a small American feast.  But I'm planning on attending a local community celebration that I went to once years ago that happens to be put on by a local Jewish congregation and is open to everyone of any faith.  It is held outdoors rain or shine and wind and cold might keep me away, but I was looking forward to it, and thinking of asking this particular friend along.  I can easily make my personal thanksgiving meal for the following Sunday's meal.

Now that Moslem EXTREMISTS are killing the innocent outside of SYRIA (where even children have been beheaded and women have been killed for refusing to be sex slaves) well, their TERRORISM has worked.  Paris is terrified.  Certainly London is.  But let's not fool ourselves into thinking that terrorism only takes place in big cities.

I'm afraid to go to this community gathering where hundreds of people will be on Thanksgiving, especially because it is being held at a Jewish temple.  I also hesitate to take the subway.  I fear that the subway would be a great target during rush hour.  Yet I know that our HOMELAND SECURITY and other governmental agencies are doing their best to find terrorists and other criminals who mean to hurt or kill others before they can do so.  Still, I think most people I've been talking to feel a bit paranoid.

There is only one way to understand people who blow themselves up, in an effort to kill others.

THEY HAVE BRAIN WASHED and are in a CULT.

So while I cry for the innocent victims, I decided today, knowing that people from all over the world can read this blog, to talk to you about BRAIN WASHING and CULTS.

What is the difference between a  regular religion and a cult?

A cult often expects you to cut yourself off from your family and friends, which is to say, your support group, and gradually you are surrounded only by people who are indoctrinating you. They isolate you as part of their ownership of you. In a cult, your mail may be censored or kept from you.  You may be denied use of communications such as the phone or e-mail.  You may not be allowed to leave the cult, not even to go out to the doctors or shopping, alone or without permission. You may be expected to give them your money, maybe even sell your house and give them all the money from the sell, and move to live with or near others in the cult.  Without the finances to leave them, they now have more control over you.  They will put you to work, often extensive volunteer work, in exchange for bare necessities or access to the leader or permission to marry.

Women are often sexually exploited in a cult.  They have no right to own their own bodies, to decide when or with whom they will have sex with, or are brainwashed to think that having sex with other cult members or the leader doesn't count when it comes to promiscuity.  They may be forced to marry someone not of their own choosing. Their husband may rule their lives like never before, or the couple will be ordered to not have sex or not have children.

What they tell you BEFORE you give up your family, friends, job, possessions, and MOVE to be with them, and the reality may not match.  But you may, having given up so much, and being idealistic, still decide to give it a try, not knowing you can never own your life again.  (I have to wonder if some of the suicide bombers kill themselves because they see it as a way out!)

Some cults use constant teaching called programming to challenge your normal thought processes.  Some use actual hypnosis, sleep deprivation (keeping you working for days on end without proper sleep), nutritional deprivation (keeping you on a starvation diet, or making you work longer and harder for the reward of a full meal), all of these things making you more and more likely to do things their way and to submit and become part of a hierarchy that is dictated. 

When it comes to acts of violence, which you may or may not have been prone to before you joined or were recruited by the cult, your training includes desensitizing you.  (As I understand it the terrorists in Syria even train children to behead beginning with the use of dolls, which of course cannot feel pain or shed blood.)  Because you have learned to think of other people as the Other, not like you, not part of the cult group, even as the enemy, their humanity is in question.  (The Nazi's did this by comparing the Jews to vermin.)

If you try to leave the cult because you realize it is one and that you do not want to be controlled, you may not have any old friends or family left to take you in.  You may be threatened with violence yourself, or be shunned, attacked verbally, or find yourself the target of slander that makes it impossible for you to regain employment.  (This is the testimony of many an ex Scientologist.) Some cult members have found themselves in desperation and decide to make the best of their situation, and years go by before they can leave, often when the leader dies or the group breaks up.

It's best, whenever you encounter a new religion, or version of your religion, in which your personal freedoms and right to determine your own life or fit into a multicultural society, TO NEVER GET INVOLVED IN A CULT IN THE FIRST PLACE.

However, it is a known fact that some people have, though intensive deceptions, including group hypnosis, joined a cult, totally changing over their life, in as little as one long day, or weekend.  Some cults have recruiters looking for their type of person - someone a bit disgruntled with their own life or the state of the world who is idealistic and believes they can make change - but often also someone who is intelligent, educated, or who has special skills and talents - such as an ability with languages, computer programing, or in the case of terrorists, some history of military use of weaponry.

Here is Southern California, there have been and are many cults.  Some of them are storefront preacher-lead cults.  Rarely are they violent.

C 2015 All Rights Reserved  Magyar-American BlogSpot 

MY DOG (JUST KIDDING!)

I went to GOOGLE IMAGES and put in the words "public domain dogs," seeking an image of a maltese-poodle (a relatively rare and recent dog combo) and this came up.  The TAIL looks like my dog's.  As does that ready for anything attitude.  Don't know about the bones that might be human on the ground.  Listed as a WOLF and linked to Napoleon?

THE DANUBE CARRIES THE HISTORY OF EUROPE - JACQUES COUSTEAU ADVENTURE CIRCA 1990-1992

Watching

1) The Curtain Rises - the old abbeys and castles, and new dams and industry, and the timeless ECOSYSTEM of the river THAT CARRIES THE HISTORY OF EUROPE.

2) Charlemagne's Dream to link the Rhine and the Danube by a canal which now exists and creates also a passage from the North to the Black Sea.

3) The Rivers Cries Out...  The royal stag and the Carpathian bear, the Danube and it's tributaries.

4) Rivalries - nuclear and industrial pollution, fished out waters, rusted out vessels and the horrors of war.

I admit to being distracted badly while trying to watch this film, and also having a sense that the information was valuable but needed an update. But what surprised me was that it turned into a travelogue about the land - and the history - and wasn't all about what was under the water. 

As I watched I also wondered about the flooding that has occurred in recent years in Europe.  I thought about fresh water - drinking and farming water - shortages.  Earth changes and drought.