Extraordinary House Design with Extraordinary Views of Pyrenee

Extraordinary House Design with Extraordinary Views of Pyrenee

A beacon of light in the mountains at dusk, this extraordinary house design by Architects Cadaval & Sola-Morales stands out among the primitive peaks. Perched on a steep hillside overlooking the Spanish Pyrenees, the house stone exterior is characteristic for its steeply pitched roof, which flavors the exterior and interior with its unique shape. The home’s facade is a combination of traditional "dry stone" and large expanses of slate-colored shingled roof, contrasted by a modern glass wall on the gabled side overlooking the valley below. On the mountain side, the roof boasts a row of windows that offer views of the mountaintops. Open-concept interiors feature a modern, minimalist palette that lets you focus on the home’s unusual shape and its equally extraordinary views

The secret to long life

The secret to long life? Starve yourself on alternate days to boost brain power and shed weight

Starving yourself on alternate days can make you live longer, according to scientists.

A group of Americans have said that fasting on and off can boost brain power and help to lose weight at the same time.

The National Institutes for Aging said their research was based on giving animals the bare minimum of calories required to keep them alive and results showed they lived up to twice as long.

The diet has since been tested on humans and appears to protect the heart, circulatory system and brain against age-related diseases like Alzheimer's.

'Dietery energy restriction extends lifespan and protects the brain and cardiovascular system against age-related disease,' said Mark Mattson, head of the laboratory of neurosciences at the NIA and professor of neuroscience at John Hopkins University in Baltimore.

'We have found that dietary energy restriction, particularly when administered in intermittent bouts of major caloric restriction, such as alternative day fasting, activates cellular stress response pathways in neurones,' he said to the Sunday Times.

In one set of experiments, a group of mice were only fed on alternate days while others were allowed to eat daily.

Both groups were given unlimited access to food on the days they were allowed to eat and eventually consumed the same amount of calories.

Professor Mattson said he found the mice fed on alternate days were more sensitive to insulin and needed to produce less of it.

High levels of the hormone, which is produced to control sugar levels after a meal or snack, are usually associated with lower brain power and are at a higher risk of diabetes.

The brains from both sets of rodents were then examined and Professor Mattson said he found the calorie restricted diets appeared to improve the function of brain synapses.

These are the junctions between brain cells which promote the generation of new cells and make them more resistant to stress.

Previous research has found that starving yourself for a few days can help in the fight against cancer. 

Scientists found that depriving healthy cells of the food they need sends them into a survival mode, making them highly resistant to stress and damage caused from chemotherapy.

Experts have described the behaviour similar to animals waiting out the winter by hibernating. 

Crocodile Attacks A Baby Elephant

This baby elephant was attacked by a crocodile in South Africa. It didn't take long once the cries from the baby elephant were heard for a whole herd of elephants to come to the rescue. The leader of the charge was probably the female matriarch of the herd. Under the watchful eye of its family, the baby elephant had gone to the edge of an African waterhole for a drink.This Mail Was Posted In OnlyCuteAngels Group

Unfortunately, the leafy pond was perfect camouflage for a hungry crocodile, which clamped its teeth on to the end of its surprised victim's trunk and began a tug-of-war.Or, as Kipling writes in The Elephant's Child: `And the Elephant's Child spread all his little four legs and pulled, and pulled, and pulled, and his nose kept on stretching; and the Crocodile threshed his tail like an oar, and he pulled, and pulled, and pulled, and at each pull the Elephant's Child's nose grew longer and longer – and it hurt him…

Hearing the baby's calls of distress, the herd of elephants immediately went to its rescue, scaring off the crocodile by trumpeting and stamping the ground. After the attack the herd stayed with the youngster.When the baby had recovered the herd crossed the waterhole together in safety, only yards from where the crocodile had been hiding.

 

Dancing Trees

  Dancing Trees

 If you look closely you will see that almost every single tree there is curvy and pretty unusual shaped. The first thing I was thinking about when I saw those unusual trees was bonsai. Yes, they look like they could got their weird shape via bonsai techniques but local residents do not know anything about such thing.  This phenomenal forest was also the subject of the number of scientific studies in order to reveal the reasons of such behavior of trees in this particular area.