What is SARS?

Severe acute respiratory syndrome.  It is a highly contagious disease caused by a virus.  A person infected by SARS experiences acute respiratory distress sometimes leading to death.

The disease first made its appearance in 2003.  Within six weeks of its discovery,  it had spread to thousands of people.  Since international travel was found to be a major factor in the spread of the disease,  it caused a global scare that affected national economies.

Lighting and Thunder

When there is a strom we often see dark fast moving colud masses which make rumbling noise.  The noise is generated by the lighting when it arcs across the sky.  The electro static discharge in the atmosphere causes the lighting effect.  It is very dangerous to be outside when there is a lighting strike.

Lighting bolts are mostly drawn by objects like lamp posts which are tall and  are good conductors of electricity.  Often tall buildings are deployed with lightning arrestors that help limit the effect of the lightning strikes. The cause of initial formation of lightning is still under debate.  Lightning can also occur during volcanic eruptions in the ash clouds.  Lighting aids in formation of nitric acid that is beneficial to plant life.

The study of lightning is called fulminology, and someone who studies lightning is called a fulminologist.

Marsupials

Kangaroo is a Marsupial.  The marsupials are mostly found in Australia.  The mother Kangaroo has a pouch attached to its body where it nurses the new born.  The new born kangaroos are very small in size.  the young ones of a Kangaroo is called a Joey.  Kangaroos have extremely strong back legs.  The hind legs help it to take giant leaps.  Kangaroos are herbivorous.  They are usually very timid in nature.  They usually attack with their hind legs.

Did you Know?

The Olympic torch weighs about 3 pounds only.

The biggest bug in the world is the Goliath beetle which can weigh up to 3.5 ounces to 4.5 inches long.

 Octopus and squid are the most intelligent vertebrates.

Largest Ocean - Pacific Ocean

The pacific ocean is the largest ocean in the world.  It covers nearly 1/3 of the earth's surface.  It is also the deepest ocean on the earth.  The pacific ocean lies between Asia and Australia on the west and North and South America on the East.  Pacific ocean is rich in natural resources and marine life. 
The Pacific's deepest parts are the ocean trenches.  These trenches are long,narrow, steep and very deep holes at the bottom of the ocean.  The deepest trench is the Mariana trench.  The deepth of this trench is more than the hight of Mt.Everest.
There are many islands in the Pacific ocean like Taiwan, Indonesia, Japan and New Zealand.  Other islands have risen from the floor of the ocean.  Some of them were from the volcanoes.  The islands were built over thousands of years by the lava that comes out of the volcanoes.  The Hawaiian islands are from volcanoes.

What are Glaciers?

In high mountains there are places that are packed with ice.  These ice packs are called 'Glaciers' these resemble gaint frozen rivers.  Many thousands of years ago most of the Earth's surface was covered with moving glaciers.
It takes a very long time to make a glacier.  First, snow falls on the mountains.  It collects year after year, until there is a thick layer called a snow field.
During summer months the snow field melts and sinks into the snow below it.  There it freezes and forms a layer of ice.  This happens year after year, until most of the snow field is converted to ice.  The snowfield is now a glacier.
The snow and ice ina glacier can become very thick and heavy.  The glacier then begins to actually move under its own weight and creeps down the mountain valley.  It has now become a valley glacier.
The valley glacier moves slowly but with enormous force.  As it moves, it scrapes the slides of the mountain and tears off pieces of it.  Sometimes it tears off chunks as big as a house.  As the glacier moves down warmer regions, the water melts and becomes source of water for rivers and lakes.

Sesame

Sesame seeds have a nutty taste and a delicate, almost invisible crunch.  Depending on the variety, they can be white, yellow, black or red.  Sesame seeds are valued for their oil, which is very resistant to rancidity.  These seeds were thought to have first originated in India.  From India Sesame seeds were introduced to West Asia, Africa and Asia.  Currently, the largest commercial producers of sesame seeds are India, China and Mexico.

 

When buying sesame seeds, ensure they bear no traces of moisture, unhulled sesame seeds can be stored in an airtight container in a cool, dark, dry place.  Once the seeds are hulled, they are more prone to rancidity; so store them in a freezer.

 

Sesame seeds are a good source of copper and manganese.  They are also a good source of calcium, iron dietary fiber and monounsaturated fats.

 

Sesame seeds contain two unique substances sesamin and sesamolin.  These belong to the group of special beneficial fibers called lignans, which are said to have a cholesterol-lowering effect in humans.  Sesamin has also been found to protect the liver from oxidative damage.

Microbes under the sea.

The ocean depths are home to myriad species of microbes, mostly hard to see but including spaghetti-like bacteria that form whitish mats the size of Greece on the floor of the pacific, scientists said.

 

The survey, part of a 10-year census of marine life turned up hosts of unknown microbes, tiny zooplankton, crustaceans, worms, burrowers and larvae, some of them looking like extras in a science fiction movie and under-pinning all like in the seas. 

 

In no other realm of ocean life has the magnitude of census discovery been as extensive as in the world of microbes. Said Mitch Sogin of the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, head of the marine microbe census.  The census estimated there were a mind boggling "nonillion" individual microbial cells in the oceans, weighing as much as 240 billion African elephants, the biggest land animal.

 

Getting a better idea of microbes, the hidden majority that makes up 50-90% of biomass in the seas, will give a benchmark for understanding future shifts in the oceans, perhaps linked to climate change or pollution.

 

Among the biggest masses of life on the planet are the carpets on the seabed formed by giant multi-cellular bacteria that look like thin strands of spaghetti.  They feed on hydrogen sulphide in oxygen starved waters in a band off Peru and Chile.

 

 

 

Courtesy : Times of India, Chennai times, 20/04/2010

---

Catch the changing security environment Get it now.

MEAT LOAF - Popular U.S food

A highly versatile and popular food, especially in the U.S made from ground meat mixed with seasonings (traditionally beef, but veal, pork or lamb may be added), it gets its name and shape by being baked in a tin shaped like a loaf of bread. Onions, green peppers and spices provide the seasoning along with salt and pepper: barbeque sauce is also a popular additive. Cereals, eggs, cheese, breadcrumbs may also be included to help make it more dough-like and help in binding the meat together. Usually served as a main course with sauce or relish to accompany it; the slices can be eaten either warm or cold.

PELMENI - A russian traditional food

One of the oldest and well-known Russian traditional foods, pelmeni is also known as “Siberian dumpling” because of their supposed Siberian origin.

Pelmeni keeps well, so much so that they were known as the hunter’s preserved meal. Pelmeni are dumplings with a filling of ground beef and pork mixed with minced onion and salt. They are usually kept frozen till ready to be eaten when they are thrown into boiling, salted water and cooked till the pelmeni float to the surface.

Pelmeni can be found in any Russian supermarket’s freezer section, though many Russian families consider it a privilege to make it by hand.

About Woodpeckers

WOODPECKERS are real tree-dwellers, where they dig for insects and grubs. The loud drumming made by the beak is a male’s warning to other males, and also an invitation to a female. A hole is bored in a tree for a nest. Common in Europe are the Lesser Spotted (no larger than a sparrow), the Great Spotted and the Green Woodpeckers. The largest European species is the Black Woodpecker, as big as a crow. Largest of all is the Ivory-billed Woodpecker of Mexico, fifty centimeters long. Some gaudily coloured birds related to woodpeckers are the toucans of South America, which have enormous beaks and look top-heavy. In fact the beak is quite light, and a toucan can hold and play with a grape or an egg without damaging it.

Parrots - Popular talking birds

Parrots make popular pets, especially the talking kinds, like the African Grey Parrot. A number of smaller species, called lovebirds, keep together in pairs, even in cages. The brilliantly coloured parrots of South America, called macaws, are noisy, screaming birds. So are the white, crested cockatoos of Australia. But the little green budgerigar is aboriginal for good bird. The Kea a New Zealand parrot, was once unpopular as it used to attack sheep, tearing at their backs to eat the flesh.

TORTOISES AND TURTLES

TORTOISES AND TURTLES are unique among animals, having their whole bodies enclosed in a bony box. This is built from the rib cage which grows and joins up outside the limbs. The earliest tortoise show separate ribs but even these are already flattened as if about to join together. This peculiarity goes back even before the dinosaurs, so that chelonians (the name of the order to which tortoises and turtles belong are the oldest group of reptiles. They even have the oldest individuals on earth today- the giant tortoises which can live to a hundred and fifty years or more.

Chelonians are of three kinds-tortoises, turtles and terrapins. Tortoises are land reptiles with domed shells and stumpy legs. They move about clumsily and feed mostly on plants and fruit. The largest are the giant tortoises of the Galapagos Islands in the Pacific, and the Aldabra Islands in the Indian Ocean. They can weigh up to 550 kilograms and measure almost two meters in length. Tortoises sold in shops as pets come from the Mediterranean countries, and have been known to live up to a hundred years. Eggs are laid in the ground and left to hatch in the sun.
Turtles are sea-going chelonians, with flatter shells than tortoises and more paddle – like feet for swimming. At night the females come ashore on some lonely tropical beach where there is sand. They dig pits in which up to 150 eggs may be laid. These are covered up and the mother then returns to the sea. Later the babies hatch out, struggle to the surface, then make as fast as they can for the water. On the way many are caught by the waiting sea-birds. Because turtles are also caught for food and their eggs dug up, some are now becoming rare.

One or two countries do protect turtles by fencing off some of the beaches where they lay their eggs, later collecting the young and taking them out to sea where they will be safe to grow up. The largest turtles, up to 400 kilograms and one and a half meters long, is the Leathery Turtle. The Green Turtle is the species usually caught for making turtle soup, and the Hawksbill Turtle for its shell, called tortoiseshell. Terrapin is an American Indian name for freshwater tortoises which swim in rivers and marshes, catching fish and water animals. They spend hours basking in the sun at the waterside, but dive in at any sign of danger.

REPTILES

Reptiles are air-breathing vertebrates which have limbs (except snakes and some lizards), are cold-blooded and have horny covering of scales or horny plates. There are about 3,000 species. The four orders of modern reptiles are the crocodiles and alligators, tortoises and turtles, snakes and lizards and the Tuatara.

The last-named order means break headed, and the Tuatara, which is a Maori name, is the only survivor of it. Looking rather like a lizard with a beaked face it lives on some of the lonely islands off the coast of New Zealand. It is truly a precious living fossil, since this reptile order goes back to the time of the dinosaurs. The Tuatara seems to be slow in everything it does, even to its movements. It lives in underground burrows, often in company with a sea-bird, a species of petrel. The reptile sleeps there by night and the bird by day. The eggs have a long incubation period and it is sometimes as much as eighteen months before the young hatch out.

HYDROPHYTES

These are plants which grow in or near water and are adapted according to whether they live on the surface, or are submerged, or grow in the mud at the edge of the water.Some are a combination of all these and have several different types of leaves. Some hydrophytes (for example water lily) are anchored to the bottom by roots, and send up leaves on long stems until they reach the surface, when they unfold and spread out. The giant water lily (Victoria regia) is an extreme example of this. The flowers too come up on a long stem and open out above the water.

Some water plants are not rooted to the bottom and merely float on the surface (for example duckweed) or under the surface (for example bladderwort). Such water plants can only live in still waters but some submerged plants are anchored to the bottom by roots and produce long growth with small leaves and these are better adapted to life in running water. The leaves of most water plants have large air cavities in them to act as ‘water wings’, and some produce large bladder-like swellings for the same purpose(for example water hyacinth).

The water crowfoot is amphibious, that is it can live both in water and at the edge in the damp mud. It has surface leaves which are flat and large compared to the submerged leaves which, when living in water, are finely divided with narrow lobes. These smaller leaves disappear if the water level drops and the plants are left at the edge.

ANTIBIOTICS AND VIRUSES

Some tiny plant organisms produce substances which are capable of killing bacteria, and penicillin and streptomycin are two examples of these. The organisms producing these useful antibiotics are in fact fungi, and are cultivated by man in order to obtain large quantities for treating diseases. Viruses are organisms which are very much smaller even than bacteria and very little is known about them. They seem to be on the borderline between the living and non-living although they do have the ability to increase and spread. They cause many diseases to plants and animals and in man are thought to be responsible for such things as colds, influenza and measles. In plants they produce disorders such as wrinkling and yellowing of leaves. They seldom kill plants, but completely upset their normal way of life, and because they can ruin crops are a problem to man. Unlike a lot of bacterial and fungal diseases in plants, they cannot be killed by chemical sprays.

Tornado

Tornado is a rotating column of air which is in contact with both the surface of the earth and a cloud.  'Tornada'  in spanish means thunderstrom.  Tornados occur in many sizes and are encompassed by a cloud of dust.  They look like a thin tube between the earth and the cloud.  They are sometimes too violent and are capable of tremendous distruction.

 

They basically form from thunderstroms majorly.  when two air masses of warm, moist air and cold dry air come into contact they cause instability in the atmosphere and gives raise to Tornado.  Tornado have varying wind speeds ranging between 40 mph to 100 mph.  They stretch more than a mile on the ground.  Tornado have occured in all continents except for Antartica.  They commonly occur in south -central America, South Canada, new zealand.

 

Funnel clouds are the initial stages of the tornado.  The rotating column of air before it touches the ground is called the Funnel cloud.  Weaker tornado that occurs over water are called water spouts.

---

MSN Battles We pitch one stalwart against the other and give you the power. Who will you vote for? Share photos while you chat with Windows Live Messenger.

Brophytes

These are the mosses and liverworts. Liverworts are plants requiring damp conditions and they are often found in shade by water or near ditches, where they make green growths on the surface of the soil or on rocks. The flattish visible part of the plant is called the thallus and from its underside are produced simple root-like growths which anchor it to the ground. Most liverworts can increase by sending out branches which eventually become detached from the main plant. They can also reproduce sexually and after the fertilization of egg a stalk is produced from the upper surface of the thallus. At the top of the stalk is a capsule containing spores which when released to fall on a suitable place for growth, will produce a new generation of liverworts

Antibiotics and Viruses

Some tiny plant organisms produce substances which are capable of killing bacteria, and penicillin and streptomycin are two examples of these. The organisms producing these useful antibiotics are in fact fungi, and are cultivated by man in order to obtain large quantities for treating diseases. Viruses are organisms which are very much smaller even than bacteria and very little is known about them. They seem to be on the borderline between the living and non-living although they do have the ability to increase and spread. They cause many diseases to plants and animals and in man are thought to be responsible for such things as colds, influenza and measles. In plants they produce disorders such as wrinkling and yellowing of leaves. They seldom kill plants, but completely upset their normal way of life, and because they can ruin crops are a problem to man. Unlike a lot of bacterial and fungal diseases in plants, they cannot be killed by chemical sprays

Bacteria

Bacteria also come within the division of thallophytes that are dependent on green plants, for they are a group of minute organisms without any cholorophyll. They are parasites or saprophytes and are usually single celled often with the power of movement in the same way as chlamydomonas. They increase by straightforward division of an old cell into two new ones, or they can also form resting spores. These consist of cells which have specially tough cell walls, and in this stage the bacteria is very resistant, in some cases even to boiling water. These spores are very numerous and are present in the soil, the air and water. In fact they are present virtually everywhere unless special precautions are taken to kill them. During the resting stage they are not increasing at all but when conditions are suitable for their growth the cell wall breaks down and the bacteria become active again. Parasitic bacteria are often harmful such as anthrax in animals tetanus in man and soft roots in plants but quite a number do exist on other living organisms without doing them any harm. Saprophytic bacteria are often useful for they help in rooting down dead material. They are very active in for example a compost heap. Some are used to covert alcohol into vinegar. One group of bacteria (nitrogen fixing bacteria) are especially important as they live in swellings in the roots of plants of the legume family (peas and beans) and have the power of extracting nitrogen from the surrounding air in the soil and making it into a form that can be used by plants. This is why plants of this family, especially clover, are often grown in fields and then ploughed in to improve the soil. Other bacteria in the soil (nitrifying bacteria) can covert plant and animal remains into a form that plants can use. So by the very valuable action of these tiny life forms a continuous process is set up of turning waste and dead materials back into food for other plants. This called the nitrogen cycle.