Hungarians love to celebrate and be jolly, but according to a recent study (asking 37,000 adults) carried out by opinion search company GfK Hungaria Piackutato Intezete, the majority of Hungarians prefer to stay at home. The study showed that less Hungarians are willing to turn time towards expanding the horizons in the area of entertainment, culture and arts.

The study was quick to touch on the fact that Hungarians have less dispensable income for such activities. They tend to stay at home and play video games (60%) and do gardening.

Office clerk Janos Szabo, 52, told Budapest Report that he had not been to a movie theatre or a play theatre for almost 15 years. “Prices are so expensive and our salaries have not followed the inflation of the forint,” he complained. Taxi driver Zoltan Toth, 47, says that about 20-25 years ago elderly people would flag a cab to go to the opera, coffee shop or even a museum. “Nowadays I have absolutely no elderly pensioners who want to go for a social fun ride for a few blocks in Budapest. I now exclusively have corporate clients who are working on contract with my company,” he said.

Only about 10% of Hungarians claimed to be theatre-goers, while only 7%claim to attend museums and art exhibitions in 2011

The GfK study reveals that 90% of those answering the survey said they prefer to stay at home and listen to music on the radio or simply watch television. About 70% (mostly men) prefer to read newspapers and 60% (mostly women) prefer to read magazines and books. Hungarians are allegedly also eating more at home, more than 60% in the survey said they have a passion for cooking at home instead of eating out at restaurants (only about 30% of Hungarians eat out at restaurants compared to about above 70% in Italy and Spain).

The survey however also revealed that less Hungarians are receiving party guests in their own homes, most likely because partying is an expensive past-time. Only about 40% said they invite friends and colleagues to party or dine with them (compare this to nearly 70% in Italy).

According to Hungarian media several thousands of the world’s skyscrapers, including those in Japan that resisted the monstrous 9.0 earthquake, employ safety systems invented by a Hungarian. Sandor Tarics (born September 23, 1913) created the technology in the 70s, which works the same way as the shock absorbers in your car’s suspension. The building will sway drastically like the ones in Japan, but will not collapse.

Tarics is a former Hungarian water polo player who competed in the 1936 Summer Olympics. Born in Budapest, he was part of the Hungarian team which won the gold medal. He played two matches, and scored two goals. He went on to establish and grow a successful architecture and engineering practice in San Francisco, California. He now lives in Belevedere, California and is a member of the Belvedere Tennis Club.

Archeologists claim that the Dead Sea Scrolls are perhaps one of the most precious finds of the 20th Century. Experts claim that the scrolls were originally written some time between 250 BC and 70 AD and some 900 of these scrolls were found in more than 10 caves. The scrolls are also known as the Qumran (sometimes also spelled Kumran) Scrolls, as they were found near the place called Qumran, in Jordan. The scrolls reportedly include the Psalms, Phylactery, The Community Rule, Calendrical Document, Some Torah Precepts, Enoch Hanokh, Hosea Commentary Pesher Hosheas Prayer for King Jonathan Tefillah, Leviticus, Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice, Damascus Document and The War Rule.

The greatest manuscript find of the last century is said to signify the abundance of literary artifacts from the Second Temple Period Jewry, shedding light into Judaism and Christianity. The scroll library contains books or works in a large number of copies, alongside tens of thousands of scroll fragments. The scrolls were reportedly written in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek.

Hungary has lost another one of its most talented Magyar sons this year with the passing away of the late Tony Curtis (age 85) on Sept 29, 2010. Bernard Swartz, alias Tony Curtis (also known as James Curtis and Anthony Curtis in the begining of his career, launched in 1949) was born to Jewish Hungarian immigrants (from Mateszalka, NE Hungary) in New York’s Bronx district on June 3, 1925.

His tailor father Emanuel and housekeepinng mother Helen raised Bernard and his two brothers (Julius and Robert) the Hungarian Jewish way and he allegedly only learned to speak English at the age of six, because the Jewish Hungarian community was so isolated. The actor visited Hungary on multiple occassions and even helped the Hungarian Government promote tourism in Hungary with his “some like it hot” ad where he promotes Budapest spas and Hungarian health tourism. Curtis’ was also instrumental in supporting the Jewish faith and culture in Budapest, sources said. The actor had allegedly been bedsticken for quite some time, they added. Reportedly his energy had left him rather rapidly since his first cardiac surgery in 1994. Reports said that he had died in his Las vegas home of heart failure on Wednesday night (28 Sept 2010). Curtis won several awards and was nominated for several that he didn’t win, including an Oscars. Sources said that during his 60-year acting career he had appeared in several silverscreen movies and uncountable television sitcoms.

The Spartacus screen star was reportedly a tough athlete and even enlisted in the Marines in 1942. He was perhaps most notorius for breaking women’s hearts in Hollywood and had reportedly had romantic encounters with the likes of Marilyn Monroe, Natalie Wood and Janet Leigh.

Hungarians are reportedly celebrating the 50th anniversary of one of their favorite cartoons. The Flinstones animated sitcom series had allegedly brought Hungarian dubbing to its peak, when expert linguists, poets and comedians swept the audience off their feet by dubbing the Bedrock scenes in excellent lip-sync – in verse (almost like Dr. Seuss).

All Magyar school children, who otherwise never showed any interest in poetry and literature, reportedly benefited immensely from the legendary synchronized series – reciting long and short extracts from the Flintstones’ verse. The main character Fred was called “Fredi” and his best friend Barney was called “Beni” and the Flintstones was actually titled Fredi-Beni.

It seems the whole world is celebrating the Flintstones. Even search engine google.com has placed a picture of the Flintstones onto its masthead instead of their veri creative multi-colored google logo. The Flintones came to the scene exactly 50 years ago on Sept 30, 1960 and despite the prehistoric story board, its seems they have been commercially immortalized in Hungary and the world over, where every year toy shops sell Flintstone memorabilia, games, electronic gadgets, etc, like hot-cakes.

Part of the cave beneath castle hill was actually transformed into a hospital and hideout for soldiers during wartimes. The cave network is rarely seen by foreign visitors, but the UN has marked it part of the World Heritage Sites. The city is also specked with some 120 natural springs, many of which have been utilized to build thermal spas on the surface.

When the Budapest City Council and Central Government planned its new underground railway lines it has exorbitant difficulties planning the route as geologists believed that the route could cause irreversible damages of the cave system. The population has long known about the caves but nobody would have believed that a major discovery in 2008 would reveal that it is probably the world’s biggest underground cave network yet known to man.

Their findings allegedly showed how the 1987-A supernova explodes and send its matter in all directions at an estimated speed of some 100-million kph.

They were said to have estimated that it takes the dying supernova’s matter at least 10 years before the gases and dust form a ring around the core.

Thee initiative is bto try raise a more healthier younger generation as obesity-related heart failure is currently one of the highest modern day killers in the British Isles. Statistics allegedly show that one out of three Brits are likely to suffer some form of heart attack in their lives.

Scientists reportedly said that pregnant mothers who gain at least 25 kg body weight in excess fat, will have newborn babies that are already fatter than they should be. Research showed that such newborns could weigh at least 150grammes more than they should if their mothers had only gained only maximum 10kg during their pregnancy. The majority of obese pregnant mothers are said to have children born exceeding 4kg.

The diaries allegedly claim that Mussolini wanted to avoid Italy entering World War Two by all means, contrary to his absurd decision to join Hitler’s Third Reich against the Allied powers. The memoirs are due to hit bookstands in August 2010.

Mussolini allegedly wrote in black ink into diaries that he confiscated from the International Red Cross supplies to Italy. It is believed that his original texts are clearly readable even more than 70 years after they had been written.

The camera will send four 1,600 x 1,200 pixels high resolution color images each minute. The action will start filming the afternoon panorama on Mars as soon as the space module’s protection screen cover is opened just minutes before the expected rough landing. NASA’s all-new recording camera-equipped Mars rover has been nick-named ‘ Curiosity ’ and plans call for the gadget to be launched on a rocket some time in 2011.

Many people contributed to the cause of the 1956 Hungarian revolution where outnumbered schoolboys (even as young as 12 and 14) and university students took up arms against the mighty Soviet Red army tanks that rolled into Budapest.

It all started on October 23 and was over by November 4, leaving hundreds and thousands of people dead and at least 200,000 refugees to Western Europe escaping from the expected retaliation that eventually took place in the aftermath of the revolution. Nobody though that Nigerian Literature Nobel laureate (1986) Akinwande Oluwole “Wole” Soyinka (76), who was a 22-year-old student at Leeds University at the time, had joined a group of Nigerians who had planned to infiltrate Hungary and join their Hungarian counterparts to help liberate the goulash nation from the Soviet oppressors.

In a recent radio interview he expressed his views and how he too was also persecuted and jailed in his homeland for his political beliefs. At 76 he still regrets that he did not join the short-lived 1956 Hungarian Revolution, as he believes it was symbolically the war of justice and freedom against tyranny.

The central State Medical Authority has promised that there will be far less mosquitoes in August to plague residents, who are buying up all kinds of insect repelling creams and devices.

Laszlo Tajti, research biologist says that by the beginning of August there should have been a considerable decrease in the number of blood-suckers in and around the capital city and the Lake Balaton region. Authorities are continuously spraying the mosquito larva infected waters and swamps where possible in an attempt to exterminate the bugs.

The female mosquito requires blood when it lays eggs and July August is the main season for larva development. In Hungary authorities reportedly use a special biological chemical that stops the cycle and prevents the larva from developing into adult mosquitoes.

Rabbit farmers are also relieved to hear the news as mosquitoes are one of the biggest threats that cause the spread of Myxamatosis infection among rabbits, sometimes forcing farmers to decimate their stock, especially their highly prized breeding stock.

Hungary has a newborn male baby jaguar, that was recently born at the Zoo in Szeged (SE Hungary). The zoo says that the baby’s mother is reportedly incapable of fending for her baby as she lacks the natural instincts due to being born and raised in captivity.

The baby has been separated from its mother after two days and is now being raised by the zoos personnel, who bottle feed it on a rotation basis. Plans are to transfer the newcomer to another zoo after weaning. The baby’s parents were brought to the zoo in three years ago.

Jaguar births are relatively scarce in European zoos and Hungarian scientists reportedly say they are researching how captivity effects the development of newborn jaguars.

“Bibliotheque Pascal” was awarded the best film by the CICAE international federation of art cinemas and the pan-European movie website Cineuropa. “The Necromancer” and “Hier” won prizes from the independent motion picture distributor Cinelink.

The Sarajevo festival is considered the Balkan region’s most prestigious festival with some 200 productions. American actor Morgan Freeman was the guest of honor.

Archaeologist have reportedly discovered relics, which they believe may have once belonged to the Biblical character John the Baptist. The historic discovery is reportedly an urn that was allegedly found on a Black Sea island off the coast of the Southern Bulgarian town of Sozopol, which dates back to the Bronze age.

For a long time it was one of the most prominent centres of early Christianity. The urn is said to have the inscription “ John the Baptist “, and allegedly contains some of his bones. In the New Testament, John the Baptist was the last to prophecy the coming of the Messiah, Jesus the Christ.

Ironically he lost his head after King Herod’s step daughter Salome, asked for it, heeding to her mother’s request. John had revealed in public that her mother had been sleeping with the king. As the king had already made his promise to Salome that she could ask for anything she wanted on her birthday, he gave her John’s head. Many new age sects, who claim to follow the Bible, don’t celebrate birthdays because of this act.

Photo by Dr. Tibor Milibak

Photo by Dr. Tibor Milibak

Named after the world-famous Hungarian composer, the Bela Bartok International Choir Competition was held for the 24th time in Debrecen, finishing with German victory on Sunday.

Participants from 14 countries around the globe, including China and Venezuela, competed in five categories with finals held between the Peking Philharmonic Choir, the Debrecen Grammar School Choir, the Swedish Svanholm Singers and the German Consono Choir, who also gained admission to the European Grand Prix for Choral Singing in 2011, to be held in Tolosa, Spain.

Photo by Dr. Tibor Milibak

Just recently an Englishman called Zachariah Evans was browsing around on the internet on Google Earth and found God. Well, actually the Son of God, on an agricultural field.

You would say that Google has accidentally revealed the face of Jesus Christ in Hungary to the world, but theologians would rather say that God has revealed the face of Jesus Christ in Hungary to the world.

However nobody can give an authentic answer as to why Hungary was chosen, but it is believed that it is the fruit of the weekly Budapest Intercession Prayer Meeting, according to a member of the Pestlorinc (a district of Budapest) Agape Church, one of the fastest growing inter-denominational churches in Hungary.

The discoverer of the Google Earth image is believed to live in Southampton, UK.

Budapest is the concept used on the cover of American author Frank E. Peretti’s fiction novel ‘This Present Darkness’, with over 2-mil copies in print. The first print edition in Hungarian (translated by Tibor Lukacs) has been sold out for quite some time in Hungary, now also a collectible.

The cover picture depicts the statue of Archangel Gabriel holding the Apostolic Cross in his left hand and the crown of Hungary’s king Stephen in his right, surrounded by a cluster of demonic figures. The front of the fast-moving, riveting thriller was originally designed for the Illinios-based Tyndale House Publishers by Jacqueline Noe using a photo by Ryuichi Sato.

This original statue stands on the 30-metre column in the centre of Budapest’s Heroes’ Square (Hosok tere). The popular square and its surrounds is also acclaimed by film makers. Michael Jackson also used Heroes’ square in his music video in the lead song of his album History.