Biggest Rivers in the World

Rivers are always a fantastic feature of Nature. Some of Earth's rivers are really big and actually pass through several different countries. I'll make a quick list with the World's biggest rivers.

Amazon River (world biggest river)

• Length (km): 6,937.08
• Length (miles): 4,300
• Drainage area (km²): 6,915,000
• Average discharge (m³/s): 219,000
• Outflow: Atlantic Ocean
• Countries in the drainage basin: Brazil, Peru, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela, Guyana

Nile River (world second biggest river)

• Length (km): 6,650
• Length (miles): 4,132
• Drainage area (km²): 3,349,000
• Average discharge (m³/s): 5,100
• Outflow: Mediterranean Sea
• Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan, Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi, Egypt, Democratic Republic of the Congo

Yangtze River (world third biggest river)

• Length (km): 6,300
• Length (miles): 3,917
• Drainage area (km²): 1,800,000
• Average discharge (m³/s): 31,900
• Outflow: East China Sea
• Countries in the drainage basin: China

Mississippi – Missouri River (world forth biggest river)

• Length (km): 6,275
• Length (miles): 4,300
• Drainage area (km²): 2,980,000
• Average discharge (m³/s): 16,200
• Outflow: Gulf of Mexico
• Countries in the drainage basin: United States (98.5%), Canada (1.5%)

Yenisei – Angara – Selenga River (world fifth biggest river)

• Length (km): 5,539
• Length (miles): 4,300
• Drainage area (km²): 2,580,000
• Average discharge (m³/s): 19,600
• Outflow: Kara Sea
• Countries in the drainage basin: Russia, Mongolia

The Vice Guide to Liberia, Travel to LIberia Documentary

VBS travels to West Africa to rummage through the messy remains of a country ravaged by 14 years of civil war. Despite the United Nation’s eventual intervention, most of Liberia’s young people continue to live in abject poverty, surrounded by filth, drug addiction, and teenage prostitution. The former child soldiers who were forced into war have been left to fend for themselves, the murderous warlords who once led them in cannibalistic rampages have taken up as so-called community leaders, and new militias are lying in wait for the opportunity to reclaim their country from a government they rightly mistrust.

The Vice Guide to Liberia



http://www.vbs.tv/watch/the-vice-guide-to-travel/the-vice-guide-to-liberia

Marc Chagall, I and the Village 1911 Oil on Canvas

Marc Chagall, French, born in Belarus. 1887-1985

I and the Village. 1911
Oil on Canvas, 192.1 x 151.4 cm
Mrs. Simon Guggenheim Foundation



Painted the year after Chagall came to Paris, I and the Village evokes his memories of his native village, peasants and animals lived side by side, in a mutual dependence here signified by the line from peasant to caw, connecting their eyes.

The peasant's flowering sprig, symbolically a tree of life, is the reward of their partnership. For Hasids, animals were also humanity's link to the universe, and the painting's large circular forms suggest the orbiting sun, moon (in eclipse at the lower left), and earth.

The geometries of I and the Village are inspired by the broken planes of Cubism, but Chagall's is a personalized version. As a boy he had loved geometry: "Lines, angles, triangles, square, he would later recall", "carried me far away to enchanting horizons." Conversely, in Paris he used a disjunctive geometric structure to carry him back home.

Where Cubism was mainly an art of urban avant-garde society, I and the Village is nostalgic and magical, a rural fairy tale: objects jumble together, scale shifts abruptly, and a woman and two houses, at the painting's top, stand upside-down.

"For the Cubists," Chagall said, "a painting was a surface covered with forms in a certain order. For me a painting is a surface covered with representation of things... in which logic and illustration have no importance."

http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?object_id=78984

Russian Parallel Cinema Part 2 of 3

This is the second part of the Movie Russian Parallel Cinema made for VBS.TV. Vice’s Shane Smith travels from Moscow to Saint Petersburg for some crazy shootings along with the Russian artist / Necro-Realist film director Yevgeni Yufit.



http://www.vbs.tv/watch/the-vice-guide-to-film--2/russian-parallel-cinema-part-2-of-3--7

Russian Parallel Cinema Part 1 of 3

For 60 years, Russian film was dominated by the state-approved imagery of Socialist Realism: stark scenes of the proletariat; working, farming and soldiering. Making movies outside this milieu meant risking life and limb at the hands of the KGB. When the Soviet Union collapsed, and that threat diminished, Russian filmmakers released six decades of pent-up creative energy. The films that emerged were an insane mish-mash of booze, violence, surrealism, and insanity. Thus Parallel Cinema was born.



To learn more about this bizarre and wonderful school of film-making, Vice’s Shane Smith travels to Moscow to interview the motley cast of characters that founded Russian Parallel Cinema. We meet Gleb and Igor Aleinikov, two of Parallel Cinema’s most prolific creators; Oleg Kulik, who spent a year as a dog; Andre Silvestrov and Pavel Liabazov, founders of Alcho-Cinema; and notorious “Necro-Realist” Yevgeni Yufit.

Learn about this truly unique filmic tradition that, given Russian’s present volatility, may not exist for much longer.

http://www.vbs.tv/watch/the-vice-guide-to-film--2/russian-parallel-cinema-part-1-of-3

Travel to Germany - Weekend in Berlin

I just came back from a fantastic weekend in Berlin capital of Germany. This was my second time there. Sumner 2002 I got to spend a whole week in Berlin to make photos for this travel catalog of a Portuguese tour operator.



Photo by Iñaki Lasa Rodríguez on http://www.panoramio.com/photo/472901

Cheap flights to Berlin are easy to find but I decided to go on the high season so I payed €87.99 for the outbound ticket and payed €107.99 for the return ticket. Usually prices are cheap to fly to Berlin. A total of €197.98 using EasyJet company.

http://www.easyjet.com/ | (Easy Jet Official Website here: Easy Jet)

EasyJet is a British airline company with its headquarters at London Luton Airport in England. EasyJet serves 500 routes between 117 destinations in 27 countries throughout Europe and the north of Africa.

Berlin is a fantastic city to make photos and to spend a couple of days enjoying monuments, its night life and several concerts as there's always something happening in the city worth seeing.



Photo by Iñaki Lasa Rodríguez on http://www.panoramio.com/photo/472642

Berlin Landmarks and Berlin Monuments

• Berliner Dom
• Reichstag (Parliament Building)
• Gendarmenmarkt
• Victory Column (Siegessaule)
• Kaiser Wilhelm Gedächtniskirche
• Neue Synagogue-Centrum Judaicum
• Olympiastadion
• Soviet War Memorials
• Checkpoint Charlie
• Topography of Terror

Youth Hostel in Berlin, Cheap Hotel Berlin

I stayed on this nice youth hostel in Berlin which is a former nunnery with a unique atmosphere. It was full as Berlin got to have tons of tourist during the high season of April 2010. Rooms are clean, practical and I had a nice window view to the patio and surrounding building and trees.

I stayed on a 4 beds room and payed €17 per night. Toilets and showers are just outside the door. I had this crazy Japanese dancing hip hop no my room until 2am.

Berlin Hostel Contact Information

Hostel Address: Stresemanstraße 66, Berlin 10963, Germany
Phone Number: +49 (0)30 - 32 66 29 55

http://www.three-little-pigs.com/ (Three Little Pigs Youth Hostel Official Website here: Youth Hostel Berlin)

Other websites with Berlin information and photos

• Photos of Berlin
• Berlin Information and Travel Guide
  
• Map of Berlin
• Berlin on Wikipedia

Importance of Vitamins, Why Vitamins?

Vitamins help the body turn food into energy and tissues, creating a regular and normal healthy system function giving us health. The importance of vitamins is a key factor to have a prosper, happy and health life, so you shouldn't neglect this issue. Because our body doesn't store most vitamins, we must consume them regularly to avoid deficiency.

With few exceptions, the body is not able to synthesize or manufacture vitamins so basically we need to consume them externally, from food or beverages in order to have a healthy life.

Vitamins are important and vital to a normal body function as they are absolutely necessary for our growth, general-well being and vitality both physical and mentally.

There are 13 vitamins total: vitamin A; the vitamin B complex, which includes thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, vitamin B6, folic acid, vitamin B12 pantothenic acid, and biotin; and vitamins C, D, E, and K.

Fat-Soluble Vitamins are: Vitamin A, Vitamin D, Vitamin E, Vitamin K and Beta carotene.

Water-Soluble Vitamins are: Vitamin C, Thiamin (vitamin B1), Riboflavin (vitamin B2), Niacin (vitamin B3), Vitamin B6, Vitamin B12 an Folic acid (folate).

For the most part, vitamins are obtained with food, but a few are obtained by other means. For example, microorganisms in the intestine—commonly known as "gut flora", produce vitamin K and biotin, while one form of vitamin D is synthesized in the skin with the help of the natural ultraviolet wavelength of sunlight.

Humans can produce some vitamins from precursors they consume. Examples include vitamin A, produced from beta carotene, and niacin, from the amino acid tryptophan.

Quick Strawberry & Banana Vegan Milk Shake

Finding solutions to have tasty things to eat and drink is always on my mind. This morning I prepared a vegan milk shake using water and a bit of oat flakes. This created some sort of milk.

Oat flakes mixed with water are a good alternative to normal milk, and gives this nice smooth beverage that can be used in many recipes, or just being used as regular normal milk alternative.

Quick Strawberry & Banana Vegan Milk Shake

So I added 2 bananas, 10 strawberries, water, oat flakes and blended for 1 minute. That was it. Perfect, fresh and tasty. Enjoy.

World Cup 2010 in South Africa

2010 FIFA World Cup will be held in South Africa. The FIFA World Cup is the premier international football tournament that runs every 4 years. 2010 tournament is the 19th version and is scheduled to take place between 11 June and 11 July 2010 in South Africa.

http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/ (Official FIFA World Cup website).

A very interesting fact about this 2010 tournament is that it's held in an African country for the first time ever. Other African countries competing for the World Cup were Morocco and Egypt.



Host cities and Venues of World Cup 2010

32 teams will play during 1 month playoffs taking place in 10 different venues in 9 different host cities: Johannesburg (2 venues: Soccer City and Ellis Park Stadium), Durban (Moses Mabhida Stadium), Cape Town (Cape Town Stadium), Pretoria (Loftus Versfeld Stadium), Port Elizabeth (Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium), Bloemfontein (Free State Stadium), Polokwane (Peter Mokaba Stadium), Nelspruit (Mbombela Stadium) and Rustenburg (Royal Bafokeng Stadium).

2010 World Cup Qualifying Teams

Teams from AFC (4)

• Australia
• Japan
• Korea DPR
• Korea Republic

Teams from CAF (6)

• Algeria
• Cameroon
• Ivory Coast
• Ghana
• Nigeria
• South Africa (host country)

Teams from CONCACAF (3)

• Honduras
• Mexico
• United States

Teams from CONMEBOL (5)

• Argentina
• Brazil
• Chile
• Paraguay
• Uruguay

Teams from OFC (1)

• New Zealand

Teams from UEFA (13)

• Denmark
• England
• France
• Germany
• Greece
• Italy
• Netherlands
• Portugal
• Serbia
• Slovakia
• Slovenia
• Spain
• Switzerland

Video FIFA World Cup 2010 - K'naan & David Bisbal

My Name in Arabic, How to Write Names in Arabic

I found this page on my friend's website, about how to write names in Arabic language. You can ask for your name to be written just go to "Ask Your Name" page and write a comment with you name).

Arabic calligraphy and alphabet are beautiful and it's always interesting to know how your name looks like written in Arabic. Give it a try.

http://www.joaoleitao.com/names-arabic/ (English Version of the website).

My name in arabic should be like this:



http://www.joaoleitao.com/nomes-arabe/andre/ (Portuguese Version of the website).

Insane Skateboarding Skills Video

A nice video of having fun while skating. Nice soundtrack and great images. This guy makes incredible s moves on a professional and probably non-reachable level. wow. Enjoy.

Insane Skateboarding Skills

Travel to Morocco - 10 days vacations in Morocco

On March/April 2010 I went 10 days to Morocco. On an amazing trip I spend a great time exploring the south part of this fantastic country.

After my travels in South America and Far East Asia, I decided to travel Africa for the first time. 2 years ago I was almost decided to travel to South Africa but I ended canceling that trip due to a short time notice photography work in Lisbon.

Morocco went up on my expectations. I was expecting to find something less interesting although what I found was a country ready to receive tourist, still, not missing all its charisma and traditional culture.



Photo by Carlo Tancredi on http://www.flickr.com/photos/carlotancredi/4272487482/in/pool-moroccan

Step 1 - Fly Cheap to Morocco

I got a cheap ticket from Lisbon to Madrid and from Madrid to Marrakesh. I used both Vueling airlines (from the airplane from Lisbon to Madrid ) and EasyJet airlines (from the airplane from Madrid to Marrakesh). The total cost round-trip ticket costed me 180 Euros. Not bad to flight from Europe to Africa, although Portugal is not that far from Spain and Spain not that far from Morocco.

If someone is flying from the United States, I advise to to get a cheaper, affordable ticket either to Portugal or Spain, from where you can easily get a cheaper ticket to Morocco. Also, in south Spain you can get cheap ticket to Morocco on a 35 minutes ferry-boat crossing from Tarifa city to Tangier city in Morocco.

Cheap Airlines to Morocco, Cheap Ticket to Morocco

• http://www.vueling.com
• http://www.easyjet.com

Step 2 - How to Move in Morocco, Transportation in Morocco

I only used local transportation. For several times I got a shared taxi and other times I got cheap local buses, and, I bought a ATV tour from a company in Ouarzazate.

From Marrakech to Sahara Desert I got a long ride bus, yes it took a while but I got to sleep the whole time since it was a night bus. I had someone from the desert hotel I booked online to pick me up. My bus went from Marrakech to Rissani where I got there in the morning.

Local shared taxis from Ouarzazate to Marrakesh run almost every hour and you can get one at Ouarzazate's Bus Terminal. I was luck to stay in a hotel just 5 minutes walk away from it. The shared taxi costs 120 Dirhams although you can get the whole taxi for 600 Dirhams and fit up to 7 people inside.

There are also CTM Buses from Ouarzazate to Marrakesh at 8am, 11am, 12pm, 16pm and the price costs 80 Dirhams. The trip takes 5 hours to cross the High Atlas Mountains and 200km road trip.

Step 3 - Where to sleep in Morocco, Hotels in Morocco

Hotel in Marrakech - I started to get a cheap hotel in Marrakech. Without any kind of booking I searched for a cheap hotel in Riad Zitoun Lkdim street and found a very nice one called Hotel Medina. A double room costs 100 dirhams (10 Euros). Bathrooms are outside of the rooms and showers also. So after this I decided to stay in hotel with rooms with private bathrooms. A bit more expensive but I get full privacy and ultimate cleanness all for myself.

Hotel in Ouarzazate - I stayed 2 days in this nice cozy and well decorated hotel in Ouarzazate called Dar Rita. This is a small house converted into a nice guest house. The owner is a foreign girl that moved to Morocco a couple of years ago. Impressive service and great value for the money. I payed 500 Dirhams for a single room, breakfast and incredible diner included. This hotel is located on a quiet traditional district of Ouarzazate, near the river and surrounded by old houses like a little village type. Perfect for hiking lovers. I walk several hours in the river bank up to the cinema studios and had great fun (take water with you).

http://www.darrita.com/

Hotel in Sahara Desert - I stayed in this friendly hotel right on the dunes, swimming pool . Many people go for Sun set camel trekking in the dunes. I stayed on a cozy well decorated room and could enjoy the swimming pool as the weather was hot already in the beginning of April. I payed 25 Euros for a single room, breakfast and diner included. Every night there's live music with drums from Sahara.

http://www.aubergedusud.com/



Photo by The eclectic Oneironaut's at http://www.flickr.com/photos/theecclecticoneironaut/2959334508/

Xgames Asia - Shangai China 27th to 30th May 2010

Xgames Asia in Shangai, China are almost there. This extreme games competition promisses to be one of the most spectacular of the year.

http://www.kiaxgamesasia.com/

As the KIA X GAMES ASIA moves into it's eleventh year, near 200 top action sports athletes throughout the Asia Pacific region will once again compete for prize money and medals in three sport categories, with Moto X performance as well.

KIA X GAMES ASIA
Date: May 27th- 30th , 2010
Time: 11am-6pm
Venue: KIC Jiangwan Sports Centre
No. 346 Guohe Toad Shanghai China

Competition Arena

• Vert Ramp - Aggressive In-Line Vert, Skateboard Vert and BMX Freestyle Vert
• Street Course - Aggressive In-Line Street, Skateboard Street and BMX Freestyle Street
• Mini Mega Ramp - Skateboard Mini Mega and BMX Freestyle Mini Mega

Xgames Asia 2006 - Promo Video

Vegan Video by Dan Piraro

Very cool video with a cartoon explanation to vegetarianism. Dan Piraro masterfully made this nice video. It's a talking pig that explains why eating meat is bad for you.

Daniel Charles Piraro is a surrealist painter, illustrator and cartoonist best-known for his award-winning syndicated cartoon panel Bizarro.



In 2002, Piraro became a vegan. His activism is visible in Bizarro, often incorporating vegan and animal cruelty themes into his cartoons. Piraro has also incorporated an entire section devoted to veganism on his website, detailing his reasons for becoming a vegan and other vegan-related information.

http://www.bizarro.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Piraro

Vegan Video by Dan Piraro

Portuguese Art, Sebastião Resende

For a couple of years I've been following this Portuguese artist that creates in several different medias. Sebastião Resende expresses himself in sculpture, painting and photography.

I found out about Sebastião Resende on a gallery exhibition somewhere in the city of Porto in northern Portugal a couple of years ago while visiting a friend of mine which is an artist and was studding at the local Fine Arts University.

Among many things, Sebastião Resende's way of art also reflects its passage and studies in Japan while younger and his art show deep though and clean shapes.

Sebastião Resende now comes up with a new website where we can have an idea of what his works is all about. The website is clean and soft, very appealing to slowly discover Sebastião Resende's art.

http://www.sebastiaoresende.com/

Selected Tasty Vegan Recipes

Surfing across the internet we can find hundreds of high quality blogs with thousands of tasty vegan recipes. I made a small selection of the best recipes and food ideas I found interesting and tasty last week.

Oyster Mushroom and Yves Pepperoni Pizza
Recipe from Comfort Food Vegan blog, Ontario - Canada by Anardana.

http://comfortfoodvegan.blogspot.com/2010/03/oyster-mushroom-and-yves-pepperoni.html



Spicy Tofu Noodle Salad
Recipe from American Vegan Kitchen, Virginia - United States, by Robin Robertson.

http://veganplanet.blogspot.com/2010/03/american-vegan-kitchen-spicy-tofu.html



Avocado Wasabi Salad
Recipe from VeganYumYum, Boston - United States, by Lolo.

http://veganyumyum.com/2010/01/avocado-wasabi-salad/

Food not Bombs - Cook for Peace

(...)Food Not Bombs shares free vegan and vegetarian meals with the hungry in over 1,000 cities around the world every week to protest war, poverty and the destruction of the environment.

With over a billion people going hungry each day how can we spend another dollar on war?(...)



(...)Food Not Bombs is one of the fastest growing revolutionary movements and is gaining momentum throughout the world. There are hundreds of autonomous chapters sharing free vegetarian food with hungry people and protesting war and poverty. Food Not Bombs is not a charity.

This energetic grassroots movement is active throughout the Americas, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Australia. Food Not Bombs is organizing for peace and an end to the occupations of Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine. For nearly 30 years the movement has worked to end hunger and has supported actions to stop the globalization of the economy, restrictions to the movements of people, end exploitation and the destruction of the earth. (...)



Food Not Bombs
P.O. Box 424, Arroyo Seco, NM 87514 USA
575-776-3880, 1-800-884-1136

Email: menu@foodnotbombs.net
Website: www.foodnotbombs.net

Travel to Peru - 10 days vacations in Peru

Last summer I went to south America and traveled 10 days in Peru. I intended to cross borders to other nearby countries but ended up visiting more destinations in Peru as time was short I decided to stay and enjoy this amazing country.



Machu Pichu photo above is from [togr] from Norway on http://www.flickr.com/photos/togr/206159732/

Peru Travel Guide - Lonely Planet

I advise you to buy lonely planet book, this is an awesome travel guide book to Peru, marking all the best hiking trails, cheap accommodation in peru, transportation tips, and much more.

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/peru

(...) Nobody knows Peru like Lonely Planet, and our unbeatable 7th edition gives you the key to its legendary past and exciting present. Watch the sun rise over Machu Picchu, shop at colorful crafts markets, puzzle over the mysterious Nazca Lines and sample sublime ceviche. We'll take you there - and beyond. (...)

Lonely Planet Peru

Peru best travel destinations

Arequipa - Colca Valley, Chiclayo, Cuzco - Machu Picchu - Inca Trail, Huaraz & the Cordilleras, Iquitos - Amazon River, Lima, Nazca - Nazca Lines, Paracas, Puno and Lake Titicaca, Trujillo.



Know more about peru in websites like:

http://www.alltravelperu.com/
http://www.go2peru.com/

Map of South America

If you need a map of south America go to http://www.joaoleitao.com/viagens/2008/05/06/mapa-da-america-do-sul-mapas-america-do-sul/

Native Peruvian Music

Music in Peru is very attached to a fascinating past and local folklore blends with amazing ancient music with pure sounds achieving mystical and deep vibes.

Vegan POWER - A Start up

Going vegan is a deep internal change. Your mind and your body turn one. Your spirit purifies and flies. Your breath purity, no harm, no guilt, no crime.

http://www.goveg.com/

Animals on today's factory farms have no legal protection from cruelty that would be illegal if it were inflicted on dogs or cats: neglect, mutilation, genetic manipulation, and drug regimens that cause chronic pain and crippling, transport through all weather extremes, and gruesome and violent slaughter. Yet farmed animals are no less intelligent or capable of feeling pain than are the dogs and cats we cherish as companions.

Eating well, the importance of food

Eating well is important. You have to find balance within yourself and what you eat. You have to find what better suits your needs, proteins, vitamins and minerals, also depending on what you spend and what are your daily energy loss.

Being vegan means being able to improve, discover and find out new solutions to eat better, but still eat whatever you feel like. My friend João has a great start up website with videos to teach how to cook stuff. Homemade non commercial videos.

http://www.joaoleitao.com/receitas/

GO VEGAN



Vegan no leather shoes for skaters

Being a skater and being a vegan, it means that I have to find shoes that suits my philosophy, several brand offer great choice, emerica has annual skate shoes collections for vegans. nice!



http://emericaskate.com/news/2008/06/25/vegans-rejoice-fall-2008/