Henry Ramsager's Blog
Posted by Henry Ramsager
Coffee plantations in Brazil and other Latin American countries might have reason to fear a decline in coffee consumption among pregnant women.
A new study in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology has revealed that even moderate coffee drinkingin early pregnancy raises the possibility of miscarriage.
Coffee drinkers who consume more than 200 mg of caffeine a day, or just over two cups, doubled the risk of miscarriage compared to abstainers.
Posted by Henry Ramsager
Tezcatlipoca, or "Smoking Mirror," was the god of the darkness, ancestral memory and time. He was also the Lord of the North and represented change through conflict.
Along with the god Quetzalcoatl, he created the world. While doing so, he sacrificed his foot as bait for the earth-monster Cipactli.
Tezcatlipoca usually appears black with yellow stripes across his face, and often assumes the shape of a jaguar.
Tezcatlipoca has the ability to tempt humans into self-destruction. However, when he assumes the form of a turkey he can also cleanse mortals of contamination and remove their guilt.
Posted by Henry Ramsager
Art thieves in Sao Paulo made off with paintings during a Thursday night don't-mind-if-I-do raid at Sao Paulo Museum of Art.
The art world is now mourning the loss of Pablo Picasso's Portrait of Suzanne Bloch as well as the Coffee Worker, a famed painting by Brazilian Candido Portinari.
The thieves were in and out in just 180 second-hand ticks of the clock. Museum officials have admitted that there were no alarms and no movement sensors in the galleries, all of which smacks suspiciously of an inside job.
Security cameras -- without infrared capability of course -- produced only unclear images of the raid.
To complete this Keystone Cops picture, it has now surfaced that none of the museum's paintings were insured, which has come as something of a monocle-popping-out shock to the more sensible and conservative outside art world.
The value of the 1904 Portrait of Suzanne Bloch is estimated to be about $50,000,000. As for the 1939 Coffee Worker (or O Lavrador de Cafe in Portuguese), its value is said to be around 5,000,000 big ones.
Would-be art thieves, take note. The Sao Paulo Museum of Art still has paintings by Renoir, Van Gogh and Modigliani that, apparently, are ripe for the picking.
Posted by Henry Ramsager
The Venezuelan citizenry has spoken. They have narrowly rejected their ambitious president's grand scheme to reform the constitution. A "yes" vote would have given President Hugo Chavez the right to run for president for the rest of his natural life.
The vote was 51% to 49% against the Chavez' proposals.
Meanwhile in Washington, long-time arch-enemy rival George Bush can hardly contain his glee that Chavez' days are numbered.
The bad news for Mr Bush? Chavez won't be leaving office until 2013, when his term expires. This will be long after Bush has left the scene and rode off into the sunset of his dude ranch in Texas.
Posted by Henry Ramsager
Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca was--no reliable confirmation exists-- born around 1490 and died about 1557.
In the year 1527 Cabeza de Vaca sailed on a Spanish ship to Florida, which then included part of Mexico, as part of an ill-fated expedition to conquer it. He ended up leaving Florida to sail to Texas on a raft. After a harrowing journey by raft, he and a few survivors then made their way overland from Texas to Mexico City after spending time being both rescued and enslaved by Indians.
Cabeza de Vaca later explored the Paraguay River in South America and became a governor. He was the first European to see Texas and was also among the first to see the American buffalo.
