How the World Eats

Today in the news I've noticed an article about Peter Menzel and his photos. His photo reportage was published in Time Magazine. And I loved those pics and the idea. Here is a short quote from Peter Menzel's site:

"Germany's GEO magazine was the first to publish a comprehensive nutrition story based on Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluisio's most recent book, Hungry Planet: What The World Eats. Families from Australia, Chad—including a refugee family from Darfur, Sudan—China, Ecuador, Germany, Greenland, Kuwait, Okinawa, Poland, the USA, and others are featured in large portraits, each with a week's worth of food. GEO has also published the book in German. (November 2005)."

< So the story is not relly new, but the idea is simple and very impressive. Looking through the photos one can get the idea what people on the globe like and can eat.

Deep into Archives

Deep into archives there are so many hidden and preserved stories of different families, it's amazing ans also really comlicated. Few days ago I got first documents from the archives, precisely lots of photos of different documents concerning the familly of my father from the end of 18th - beginning of 19th centuries. So far, it's quite complicated without any explanations, but there you go, like a real detective I've discovered for example:

My grand grand father (from my father's side) first married being 19! One year later his wife died and he married again being 26 on my grand grand mother:)

My mothers family name is Barycheuski, there was a document dated 1802 in Polish (Polish was used on the lands of ex Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth even in Russian Empire for a while) with description of Barycheuski (or Boryczewski in Polish) family. And it's coat of arms is Tarnawa, as I wrote before!

Well, that's just the beginning! I will find out more;)

Autumn in photos

I went to the countryside this weekend, on the way I took this pic: Then these apples are in our garden: And there you go, the colours of autumn!

Fingerprints

Seriousely? Yes, I am angry with the policy of taking fingerprints (or rather finger scans) of innocent people. It is inhumilating. I remember once I told to my American friend that I am not going to the States untill they ban getting fingerprints in the airport or embassy... And now, I was forced to 'give my fingers' to leave Yerevan airport... Then, they also scanned my hand when I applied for the French visa. I guess some measures are needed, but sth is wrong here.

Quick observation of the Economist

I've spent few hours reading the Economist and finding some new and interesting facts. I was surprised to find out that an average touris to Belarus spends some 4000USD! Wow! I would agree with the Economist that:

"This may be because businessmen are the usual visitors and in more inhospitable places costs are higher."

On the other hand, I do hope that there are just 'normal' tourists who are not very rich and still eager to see my country. And then if you calculate an average, one should keep in mind that total number of tourists to Belarus each year is really modest. Just look at the numbers, it's planned that till the 2010 Minsk will be visited by 150000 organised tourists. Is it in total from 1991??? Who knows...:) It's amazing that people in Belarus according to stats travel a lot with trains. Well, on the one hand it's obvious why they prefer trains to planes, as the last ones are very (VERY) expensive. Then it's better to travel with train rather than with buses as it's safer and more convinient. BUT, how come that we are on the third place keeping in mind that Belarusians are not really mobile? Do they travel within the country???

Armenia's commercials

I found the video I saw, there you go:
plus one more:

Armenia in Belarus

Well, guys, this is the day of surprises! still refering to the Armenian promo logo I googled it and I found one more logo by Levon Gavalian, which is also very nice (maybe even nicer;). So I went to the website of the designer, . And I found out that this logo was created for armenia.by. But here is the interesting part. Although this address is .by [Belarusian domain zone], it redirects to www.tourismarmenia.ru. Next, there are only two phone numbers of two guys in Armenia and emails. So, two things surprise me: 1. the style of the website is nice and attractive; 2. I don't understant who owns it. Well, it's strange, but amazing.

Armenia

Once upon a time, I was in Armenia. Well, many countries think of the promotion. So does Armenia. I found a magasine from the last where was an article about country's logo. The best logos are the simpliest ones. And today, I was watching Euronews and sam commercial about Armenia with that new logo! It loos nice, simple and colourful. But there is one thing which disturbs me a bit, it's that logos of Slovenia, Poland, Bulgaria ... and Armenia are quite simmilar. I would rather expect something new. The website with info about Armenia is armenia.am.