ONLY YOU CAN HELP!

Fiti amabil!

ANUNT IMPORTNAT!

Salut,


The Vampir Metrou is a 700 strong online community of like-minded vampiri. You and your friends are the life-blood of this brotherhood. We together can make it grow and prosper. I say "we" because it is our obligation as members to do what is best for the body at whole. How do we help, you may ask. By posting regulary, not just here but everywhere. Any Site that you belong to, any Blog, message group, posting community both Vampiric and non-vampiric. The more posts the more attention gained.Self Promotion is our greatest hope. Where you are elsewhere reguardless whether or not its an online gaming community or a recipie swap site you can mention the name Vampir Metrou in each of your posts. The more our name is typed in these blogs and communities, the more hits we will get on major search engines. Just over a year ago, the Metrou had a page and a half of Google hits, now we are down to half a page. We do however, have a page and a quarter on Yahoo search which are the first 12 entries under our name. Please give some thought to this, and Happy postingCiao,

Transilvanian hunting lodge

There is only one count in Miclosoara, a remote Transylvanian village of 512 souls in the wilds of the Carpathian Mountains - and it isn’t Dracula.
Meet Count Tibor Kalnoky, a dashing 40-year-old entrepreneur descended from a noble family which settled in these misty lands in the 13th century and lived there until communism forced them to flee.
The count, a former veterinarian who grew up in France and Germany, moved back to the ancestral home after communism ended in 1989.
In the past few years, he has created one of Romania’s most successful tourist ventures out of his ancestral hunting manor - and has counted Britain’s Prince Charles among his guests.
His manor, which opened in 2001, lies deep in southern Transylvania, a region where myth and reality have become intertwined.But you will hardly hear a word here about Dracula, the Romanian warlord Vlad the Impaler upon whom the character was loosely based, or the novels of Bram Stoker. Instead, Count Kalnoky lures guests with the old world of Transylvanian customs.
Many visitors come to feast on tasty fare of pork or chicken stew, mashed potato tinged pink by paprika pepper and home-baked cakes served by women in traditional costume.
Dinner is washed down with red Romanian wine and guests are warmed by a roaring log fire in the wine cellar before snuggling into decades-old goose eiderdowns in rooms decorated faithfully in the style of the Szeklers.


Szekler farm workers plough the fields with sturdy horses and draw water from wells and store corn in their barns; cows and horses amble down the streets.
Take a hike in the hills and you may come across bears and wolves. Bird lovers can look out for eagles, black storks and woodpeckers.
You can also travel in a horse and cart for a mountain picnic, cycle to nearby Transylvanian towns or visit the Kalnoky family hunting lodge.
Just north of Miclosoara, there is the cave where the legendary Pied Piper is said to have lured the hapless children of Hamelin.
When visitors return to the manor at sundown for dinner they are serenaded by Szekler music in the soft green drawing room, with antique furniture and dark wooden floors. It’s low-key and relaxing.
The Kalnoky property was seized when the communists came to power, and it took him eight years to get the lands returned after the Soviet collapse. Count Kalnoky is modest about his success and the rave reviews he has received in the past few years for his manor and smaller guest houses, which can host a maximum of 20 people.
“It’s all very unpretentious,” he says, sipping caraway brandy that is on tap at every moment for the guests.
“My view of Romania was skewed until I got here,” said Alison Sarson, a British police officer at the end of a three-day visit. “More people should come and see how pleasant it is. The horses and carts are lovely.”
Prince Charles was the most famous guest among the thousands of diplomats, business people and regular tourists who visit the estate.
On the bookshelf in the rooms where the prince spent a night earlier this year are tomes on Transylvanian mushrooms, birdwatching and lighter reads by Catherine Cookson.
A painted cupboard called a teka in the wall in every room keeps mineral water and beer cool for guests.
Charles himself is restoring houses in the Saxon part of Transylvania, at Viscri, a UNESCO World Heritage site.

CLIMATE CHANGE

In a Lowell, Mass., cemetery on Memorial Day 1868, a photograph captured mourners in heavy winter clothing gathered under leafless trees near the graves of two brothers killed in the Civil War

At the same spot on Memorial Day 2005, cemetery visitors wore light spring clothes. The trees were in full flower.
These photographs are a close-to-home reminder of the effects of global warming, said Boston University biology professor Richard Primack and BU graduate student Abraham Miller-Rushing at a Feb. 21 Soap Box event, “Global Warming: Up Close and Local,” at the MIT Museum. [link]

WITCHCRAFT MURDERERS

Two elderly women accused of practising witchcraft in Papua New Guinea were tortured and murdered by a group of men who dragged their bodies to a riverbank and burnt them, police say.

A manhunt is under way for the offenders following Monday’s killings near the banks of the Bumbu River in the port city of Lae, regional police chief Giossi Labi said.
He described the actions of the killers from one of the city’s squatter settlements as “animalistic and inhuman”.
“This is a city and one would think people would be more civilised,” he told PNG’s Post-Courier newspaper.
Police were hunting the killers, who would be charged with first degree murder, he said.
The two women from PNG’s Eastern Highlands Province were accused of using sorcery to cause the death of a young man, community leader Nelson Zatura said.

The WOK works well! lol

Ingenuity at it's finest - My brother sent me a link to this item out of New Zealand where an UHF (I love that movie!) television station found a way to broadcast in the face of a financial mountain.
$10 wok keeps TV station on air - 22 Feb 2007 - National News - New Zealand Herald.
Why pay $20,000 for a commercial link to run your television station when a $10 kitchen wok from the Warehouse is just as effective?
This is exactly how North Otago's newest television station 45 South is transmitting its signal from its studio to the top of Cape Wanbrow, in a bid to keep costs down.
They can transmit up to 20km. How cool is that?!
It certainly qualifies for an oddity.
Update:
Apparently you can do this with your Wifi too: USB adaptors & DIY antenna = "Poor Man's WiFi"
Oh and check out the Directional WIFI Range Extender using a steame

NASA makes mistakes too!

Endeavor or Endeavour?

Oops - Seems someone at NASA forgot how to spell the Shuttle Endeavour's name. They rolled-out a banner for the big roll-out of the shuttle but forgot the "u" in the name.
They spelled it Endeavor, which is a correct spelling of the word, but the spelling with the "u" is also correct and that's the way this shuttle was named.
The folk who made the banner probably spell checked it. And if they spelled it with a "u" their spell checker might have said that's incorrect just like mine is telling me right now. The "u" version of the word is typically a British spelling.

BOOK REVIEW

MESSIAH: A Novel by Andrei Codrescu (Simon & Schuster , February 1999)
A brilliantly conceived tale of messianic longing, set as Armageddon rages across the globe at the turn of the millennium.


Click here to order this book from Amazon.com


The angels above are reproductions by Traian Alexandra Filip, a young Romanian painter who, despondent over the tragedy of his country and uneasy in exile, committed suicide a few years after emigrating to the United States. His work, including his dark, illuminated final visions, is represented by Turner Carroll Gallery.725 Canyon Road, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA 87501505.986.9800


ADVANCE PRAISE FOR MESSIAH: A NOVEL

From Kirkus Reviews, December 15, 1998:
Counting down to 2000a.d. may be a bit less tense, thanks to this enjoyably goofy melodrama from NPR commentator, essayist, and novelist (The Blood Countess,1995). In alternating chapters, Codrescu recounts the adventures of two unlikely heroines who, together, may save the planet from annihilation. There's Felicity LeJeune, who's on a personal crusade against the evangelist who talked her senile grandmother out of pocketing her lottery winnings. Felicity's attempts to shake down the oily Reverend Mullen are aided in surreptitious ways by her old friend and surrogate father, Major Notz (a figure straight out of Dr. Strangelove). Meanwhile, at a Jerusalem hospice, teenaged Andrea Isbik, another beauty but of indistinct ethnic origin, seduces her protector nuns as well as a polygot group of religious leaders uneasily awaiting the millennium and heads for the Big Easy just as the 1900s breathe their last. The several plots in which each gets enmeshed defy summary, but they embrace such charming oddities as the search for the fabled "Language Crystal" (whereby the globe's scattered millions might communicate), the Internet as a venue for the transmigration of souls, "leather jacketed, pierced people... [called] neotribals" who are seeking a messiah, and the Israeli version of TV's Wheel of Fortune. prominent among this manic story's many characters are a meddlesome angel named Zack, a macho cop obsessed with Felicity, and the "incarnated" spirits of Nikolai Tesla and Roman poet Ovid. Great Minds, nefarious villains, and the crucial figures of Felicity and Andrea ("Together, they were a new being") eventually meet up in the new Jerusalem: New Orleans, during Mardi Graas. And, well, why not? Overstuffed and gratingly whimsical but often very funny (reminiscent of Southern and Hoffenberg's Candy, Gore Vidal's wilder fantasies, and perhaps Edward Whittemoore's Jerusalem Quartet). On the other hand, if you'll believe that Vanna White may be "an emanation . . . of the Divine One," this is the novel for you.-- ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All Rights Reserved.

ROMANII IN SPATIU

PART II, THIS GAME IS TOO FUNNY!


THE BEST QUOTE IVE SEEN ABOUT THIS GAME IS:

"HUNGARY HAS A SPACE PROGRAM?" LOL



PLOT:

It is the year 1988 and our saga begins when Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu sets out to conquer the United States of America. Only ten years later, he is proclaimed emperor over the whole known world, and since history remembers only the strongest, Romanians become the chosen people to inherit the land. One hundred years of oppression pass under Romanian dominion over the Earth, but prospects are bleak since there are none left to fight against. Hope is restored once the new emperor, Traian Basescu, promises to conquer the galaxy within the next thirty years. War and suffering are all over the news as the army is massed into space. The intergalactic war rages on as Romanians quickly subdue every alien race they encounter, but now the threat comes from within. Remnants of the former republic of Hungary have formed a new nation on a recently-conquered planet, claiming independence and a chance to live freely. Several squadrons were ordered to destroy the separatists, yet failed to achieve victory. This is where the player comes in, as a pilot in the romanian armada”

Games gone crazy or not? lol

DESTROY ALL HUNGARIANS, LOL

Romanians In Space isn't just, well, Romanians in space. It apparently encourages players to carry out a war against ethnic Hungarians. According to game site GameSetWatch, the title's



slogan is



"Follow your destiny. Kill any non-Romanian alien prick in cold blood."


The story starts in 1988, when commie dictator Nicolae Ceausescu conquers America and becomes emperor of the Earth ten years later. (That's how it works, you know.) The Romanians dominate the planet and look to making the entire galaxy theirs. Unfortunately, "alien pricks" hinder these grand plans. This was all in good fun says the game's creator:
Out of ten missions, only one is against the ethnic Hungarians. Everything was a joke and it was meant to be a joke that mocks all the problems between Romanians and ethnic Hungarians.
The game's official site follows up that with these updates:
There seems to be a huge controversy regarding our soon-to-be-released game. We are in a FICTIONAL game, containing FICTIONAL storylines. Please leave your petty nationalism out of an otherwise fun game. We appreciate your views and issues on the matter, but please, let politicians handle them, not video games.... It seems the controversy is getting out of hand and some people are making themselves look stupid.

SAVE ROMANIAN BEARS

SING THIS PETITION:



Brown Bear Conservation in Romania

CARPATHIAN BEARS

Romania's bears at bay


Bears are now a common sight in many villages Romania's brown bears are increasingly descending from the country's Carpathian Mountains and raiding local towns in an effort to find food. The bears are known to trek up to 20km (12.5 miles) a night in their search for food, and are regularly seen rummaging through litter bins and skips in the quiet suburbs of foothill settlements. They are now drawing crowds on warm evenings, and remote villages in particular are visited regularly by wild animals. "Suddenly I heard a great noise - a bear was trying to break into a stable where the sheep were closed in for the night," one villager told BBC World Service's The Carnivore Trail programme. "I shouted to my husband, 'Gheorghie, wake up! A bear is attacking the sheep'." In this case, the bear was chased off by villagers awoken by the noise.

Endangered species

Brown bears, being scavengers and omnivores, are quite able to live off the food that Romanians throw out. But there are increasing fears that they will soon become extinct in this part of the world. Romania is one of the very few countries in Europe that permits limited bear hunting. Earlier this month, a number of people - including French President Jacques Chirac and actress Bridgette Bardot - wrote a letter to Romania's Prime Minister Adrian Nastase to voice their concerns about the fate of the bear. Bears will travel many miles a night to find food
Their letter was partially in response to the government's decision to allow the shooting of 300 bears this year. Hunting-tourism has become big business in Romania's Carpathian Mountains, the last place in Europe, apart from Russia, where many large carnivores - bears, wolves and lynxes - can be found. Laszlo Szeley-Szabo, the president of the Carpathian animal protection group the Aves Foundation, has also sent a report to Mr Nastase which detailed evidence that the bear population was down from the official figure of 6,300 to 2,500. "Romania's kill figures for the trophy-hunter market are way above a sustainable cull," the Aves Foundation report argued. "They endanger the species." The report goes on to say that official figures relied on evidence from local farmers' sightings, and argued that different witnesses may be seeing the same bear at different points along its journey into the foothills. The European Union last year responded to the Aves Foundation's concerns by pointing out that member states "have to ensure a favourable conservation status of natural habitats and species of wild fauna and flora of Community interest". Gunther Verheugen, the EU commissioner supervising EU membership applications, has said that if Romania joined the EU - as it hopes - EU laws would prohibit the bear hunting.

Poacher threat

The Romanian government, however, says that its figures are accurate. It also says that "foraging hungry bears are now causing serious damage to the livestock of people living in the small mountain villages of the Carpathians". One Carpathian shepherd told The Carnivore Trail that bears did sometimes take sheep, and that unless he could prove they had done so he would have to cover the cost of their loss himself. However, he added that last year only a "handful" had been killed by bears. Romanian rubbish provides a tasty take-away But even were bear hunting to be banned in the future, the bears would still face another ongoing threat - poachers. A number of poachers currently roam the mountains hunting the large carnivores, and their kills are not included in the quota. Some who have killed bears say that they were attacked and acted in self-defence, but studies of bear behaviour - which have shown they are wary of humans - indicate this may be unlikely. "A man was recently attacked by a bear in the forest - but there is something fishy about the whole story," one shepherd said. "He refuses to explain what happened, or where it was. He may have been a poacher. Bears are afraid of humans. They don't attack unless they're provoked."


Courtesy of British Broadcasting Corporation © 2002-2005 Archive from Saturday, 3 July, 2004, 08:37 GMT 09:37 UK

BINE ATI VENIT!

Salut,

For the new readers of my blog, I welcome you.



This blog is not about me, my chat, or the politics of the Vampir Metrou group. The blog is actually about what interests my members and of course it wreaks of Romanian overtones. The entries other than Romanian historical ones come from suggestions from my readers.


So, read, think, and enjoy. Have an idea for a post, just let me know.

Once again, welcome.

MEDIEVAL WAREFARE

Warfare was a way of life in Medieval Europe. The nobility held their power by virtue of their status as professional soldiers. Many commoner soldiers were also professionals, usually led by nobles. And all who wished to maintain their safety and security had to be ready for a fight. It was, without too much exaggeration, a population in arms.

For example Sieges themselves were largely a matter of engineering work, with a little knightly combat thrown in to keep the warriors from getting bored. It was not uncommon for an impromptu tournament, or series of duels, to be arranged between the knights on both sides, just to enliven what was otherwise a very tedious process. The English had an advantage in sieges for most of the war because their yeomen were more effective at siege warfare. In addition to being able to sweep defenders from castle walls with their accurate and long range archery, the yeomen were also more skilled at the more mundane aspects of siege work. Being well paid mercenaries, the yeomen went about the digging and building that comprised most siege work in more professional manner than their French counterparts

Siege Towers

Siege Tower

Attackers sometimes built a siege tower to scale castle walls. Soldiers lay in wait inside the structure as others wheeled it to the castle. Once there, the soldiers lowered a drawbridge at the top of the tower onto the castle wall. Some towers were almost 100 feet high, and in the siege of Kenilworth Castle, fully 200 archers and 11 catapults were crowded into a single tower. Siege towers were difficult and time-consuming to build, however, and castle defenders could burn them down with fire arrows or firepots (launched pots filled with flaming liquids such as tar). Sometimes castle knights launched surprise raids on a tower to destroy it during construction. To protect their siege engine, attackers draped it with rawhides of mules or oxen.

EQUAL TIME- SORTA II, ROMANIAN MALE MODELS

Okay Obtuse, here it is.

This post goes out to Obtusetongue who had this little complaint about some of my posts. lol

Obtusetongue [3:51 A.M.]: You mean the one Romanian pic of a male model doesn't exactly spare you the title of sexist when you have about two handfuls of the two female models?










ROMANIAN MALE MODELS:



Andre Birleanu

Andri (no last mane given)

and one more of Sorin.

Enjoy!

Equal time for equal whatever lol




So, now that we got that out of the way, now back to normal posts. Although its really late right now, so I'll post tomorrow.

EQUAL TIME- SORTA

More Romanian models,

The following are pics of Romanian models. Their names appear if you click the pic.

Anca Berintan

Catrinel Menghia

Elena Baguci

Lilly Ruiz


Because of space limitations, the next post will have the guys.

Andre Birleanu

Andri

and one more of Sorin.


Enjoy!

SLAVES

Slaves


Bosnians, Serbs, and Croats, were used as slaves throught the Holy Roman Empire. The word Slave comes from Slav, Slavs or Slavic. Christians felt having a "slave" was fine, but only a non Christians one. So large groups of Slavs from both the east and the north of the empire were brought back after battles to be their servants. Slavs at that time had been overrun by the Ottomans -Muslims from the east. The new Islamic Slavs were the best choice for slavery because Slavs were thought to be Unholy, unlike their German, Romanian, and Western European counterparts. Interesting to note: The Romanian term for Slave is, SCLAV also from the Latin SCLAVO. Sclavo, the name the Romans gave to the Illyrians (Bosnians/Albanians) immediate neighbours of the Greeks and Romans.

After the fall of Dacia (Romania) the former Dacian territories of Thrace, present day Eastern Europe were handed over to Rome. "Sclavoniae", the Latin for slaves that came from Serbia has been located in many post-Dacian Latin texts. The Dacian Kingdom (Romania) stretched from the Danube delta in the east, as far west as parts of Germany. As far north as Finland and to the south engulfed all of Bulgaria into parts of Northern Greece. So yes, this means before the Roman Empire came along that Hungary, Serbia, Kosovo, Albania, Austria, Czech Rep, Poland, Slovacia, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, Moldova, the Ukraine, Macedonia, Bulgaria and parts of Northern Greece were ROMANIAN occupide and ruled.

A silly email

I got this silly email a few minutes ago from a student of mine. Its only a pic, but i had a chuckle.

Airline humor

OKAY, NOW THAT IVE FLUSHED MY HARDDRIVE!

Okay, I just dumped all those pics from my last four posts before someone at school sees me. People around here are always sneaking around.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the posts.

ROMANIAN MALE MODEL, SORIN

And for the ladies....................... This post dedicated to MoOoNsChArMs aka. Winky lol.

Sticking to the theme sex sells: And yes, only one pic! go look him up yourself.

I know very little about this guy except this.

Sorin Mihalache models for Envy Models. He is 26 and hails from Transilvania Romania.

He speaks: Romanian, English, Italian, and Sundanese. If you want more information on him, google him but i don't want to lol.

Romanian Supermodel Alina Puscau

Alina was born and raised in Bucuresti, Romania, along side one sister and one brother. Her mother, a carpet weaver. Her father, an electrician. As a young girl she had always dreamed of becoming a model. Her realization of that dream came at 17, when she became the winner of Elite Model Look in 1998.She recalls her first modeling job fondly, shooting for Italian Vogue Homme. Since then, Alina has worked with many of the industries most renown photographers, including Bruce Weber, Patrick Demarchelier, Gilles Bensimon, Walter Chin, Antoine Verglas, Russell James and Marc Baptiste. She has appeared in top fashion magazines such as Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, Cosmopolitan and Glamour. Look for her next on the cover and inside pages of German GQ, photographed by Gavin Bond.Alina has worked with Ralph Lauren, in print and on the runway, starred in an advertising campaign for Arden B., and appeared in Victoria's Secret 2003 Television Swimsuit Issue Special.Aside to modeling, acting is another talent that Alina is cultivating. She was last seen featured in the independent film, Shallom Hall, and is researching her next role.

Alina Vacariu A&F Model

Alina Vacariu is an actress and model. Among other work, she was Romania's Model of the Year in 1998. She has traveled the world, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, South America posing in skimpy lingerie and bare-to-there bathing suits. She's also worked the runways of the world's hottest designers and steamed up the Abercrombie & Fitchcatalog.

Miss Playboy Romania 2006

Roxana Ungureanu

Okay, Im shameless! In an attempt to drive up interest for my group via my blog, I have this little pic post.

Roxana Ungureanu was selected as Miss Playboy 2006 for the Romanian issue.

Enjoy.

PS. It was not easy to find picture of her with her clothes on lol.