Porn, porn, porn, porn, porn, porn, porn, porn. Is that what the Internet is for? Well, according to some of these charming little fellows from World of Warcraft it is. The song is actually from the musical Avenue Q by Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx, but has now been lovingly combined with WOW for us to enjoy.
Rye is a grass belonging to the wheat tribe. It is closely related to wheat and barley and is chiefly used to make rye floor, rye beer, and certain alcoholic beverages. Its scientific name is Secale cereale and grows wild in central and eastern Turkey. In modern day Turkey, domesticated rye has been found in several Neolithic sites.
How rye spread from Turkey to other parts of the world remains unknown, but it is not unrealistic to assume that it was transported westwards from Turkey as a minor admixture in wheat. Pliny the Elder, a famous Roman author and naturalist, wrote that rye “is a very poor food and only serves to avert starvation“.
After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, rye became an important source of nutrients for agricultural peoples inhabiting Central and Eastern Europe. Compared to wheat, rye is more tolerant to dry and cool conditions and it can be grown in very acidic soils. It is however less tolerant to cold than barley.
Bread made from rye is still very popular in Central, Eastern and Northern Europe and is for instance used to make Nordic crisp-bread and the famous German pumpernickel bread. It is also used to produce Rye Vodka and Rye whiskey.
Henan is a Chinese province situated in the central part of the country. It is traditionally regarded as the cradle of Chinese civilization, especially the northern part of Henan which is dissected by Huang Ho, the Yellow River.
Henan cuisine can be described as similar to Jiangsu cuisine but with many cooking methods borrowed from Beijing cuisine. Just as in Jiangsu, ingredients are selected according to the four seasons. Generally speaking, the food is soft but not mushy or disintegrating.
The major staple food in Henan is rice and the most important meat is pork. Unlike many other parts of China, Henan cooks commonly serve rice with oil produced from animal fat. Noodles are popular in Henan cuisine, especially rice vermicelli noodles. In addition to this, Henan cuisine can be recognized on its extensive use of onions. Interestingly enough, pork is almost never used to make soup in Henan; soups will instead typically contain lamb or mutton.
A well known part of Henan cuisine is the Luoyang Shuixi (Luoyang “Water Table”) which consists of a rich profusion of soups. The “table” is filled with both meat and vegetable dishes, including meat from fish, poultry and livestock. The soups all have different tastes, such as salty, sweet, sour and spicy. Each course is served in a particular order in accordance to traditional customs.
Well into the 1800s, vanilla orchids were only cultivated in Mexico. Many countries tried to establish vanilla orchid plantations in their own tropical colonies but they always failed since they didn’t realise how to make the flowers form fruits.
In 1836, Belgian botanist Charles Morren realised why all the vanilla orchids grown outside Mexico refused to produce fruits. In Mexico, you can find the Melipone bee, a tiny bee endemic to this region and present nowhere else in the world. Charles Morren understood that the Melipone bee was the only insect capable of pollinating the vanilla flower. If you want vanilla orchids to bear fruit without using Melipone bees, you have to hand-pollinate every single flower.
El Greco – “The Greek” – was born in Crete in 1541. His real name was Doménicos Theotokópoulos and he usually signed his works with his full name using the Greek alphabet. He was an architect, a painter and a sculptor.
When El Greco was born, Crete was a part of the Republic of Venice and a centre for Post-Byzantine art. El Greco was trained in the tradition of Cretan icon painting, before moving to Venice.
After three years in Venice, El Greco left the city for Rome where he opened up a workshop. While living in Italy, El Greco began incorporating elements of Mannerism and of Venetian Renaissance in his works.
When El Greco was 36 years old, he moved to Madrid and then to Toledo in Spain where he would remain for the rest of his life. His best known paintings were painted in Toledo, such as El Espolio, View of Toledo and Opening of the Fifth Seal.
El Greco’s works were characterized by a dramatic and expressionistic style very unusual in 16th century Europe and he is today considered an early precursor of expressionism and cubism.
In 1614, El Greco fell ill while working on a commission for the Hospital Tavera. After no more than a month, he died on April 7. His body was buried in the Church of Santo Domingo el Antigua.
