In pictures: From edible to incredible

In pictures: From edible to incredible

<!– document.write(‘ YOUR PICTURE GALLERY IS NOW LOADING… ‘) //–> YOUR PICTURE GALLERY IS NOW LOADING… Incredibly, everything you see in this image can be found in the kitchen. Photographer Carl Warner has painstakingly captured all kinds of food in a series of still lifes. He says his ‘Foodscapes’ were partly inspired by healthy eating campaigns. But they have not persuaded his own children to take up the five-a-day pledge. The Forest of Dean or the Forest of Greens? The road is paved with cumin, peas hang from broccoli trees and cauliflower clouds adorn the sky with bread for mountains. Edible ingredients in this Italian-inspired rural scene include a lasagne cart, fields of pasta, a pine nut wall, mozzarella clouds, trees of peppers and chillies and a parmesan village. To give a realistic three-dimensional feel to the photographs, each still life is composed on a table measuring 8ft by 4ft. The foreground is only about 2ft across. Each scene is photographed in separate layers to prevent the food from wilting. “I like the way smaller aspects of nature resembled larger ones,” says Carl Warner. A winter landscape for carnivores – Parma ham and breadsticks are fashioned into a sled which is pulled across a snow-covered road made from a selection of cold meats. The red sky at night in this landscape is actually made from salmon. The beautiful pea-green boat wouldn’t be out of place in Edward Lear’s nonsense poem, ‘The Owl and The Pussycat’. Back 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Next

Australians vote on word of 2007

Australians vote on word of 2007

Are these Sydney beachgoers running the risk of tanorexia?

Are you suffering from password fatigue? Ever considered manscaping? Do you know any tanorexics? These phrases and more are contenders in an online vote organised by Australia’s Macquarie Dictionary to select the Word of the Year 2007.

Seventeen categories contain a total of 85 words from which voters can choose.

Options include globesity – the problem of rising obesity around the globe – and floordrobe – the use of the floor as a substitute wardrobe.

Some words appear to be unique to Australia.

Salad dodger is included as a term for an overweight person, while a surfer under the age of 10 can now be called a microgrom.

AUSSIE WORDS 2007 Password fatigue: Frustration caused by having too many passwords and failing to remember them Manscaping: Male grooming procedures involving the removal of body hair Tanorexia: An obsessive desire to have tanned skin Credit card tart: Someone who transfers loans to a new card when the interest-free period of the first card expires Your comments: Word of 2007

But many of the new words seem to reflect global developments and trends.

Chindia is used as a noun to refer to China and India as a collective unit, in terms of economic power and strategic importance.

There are also five new words related to carbon emissions and how to deal with them, reflecting growing concern about climate change.

Several of the new words relate to advances in technology.

Pod slurping is described as the practice of downloading large quantities of data to an MP3 player or memory stick from a computer.

Griefers, meanwhile, are players who deliberately sabotage online computer games instead of abiding by the rules.

Other words represent new definitions for old concepts.

Kippers are adult children who fail to leave home – a contraction of Kids In Parents’ Pockets Eroding Retirement Savings.

Man flu, meanwhile, refers to a minor cold contracted by a man who then proceeds to exaggerate the symptoms, the dictionary said.

Voting closes on 31 January and Australia’s Word of the Year 2007 will be announced in the first week of February.

No flight of fantasy – scientists develop instructions to make a magic carpet

No flight of fantasy – scientists develop instructions to make a magic carpet

Perfectly timed for pantomime season, a team of scientists has come up with instructions for how to make a flying carpet. The magical device may owe more to Walt Disney than to The Arabian Nights , but it is not pure fantasy, according to Lakshminarayanan Mahadevan of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and his co-workers.

The researchers have studied the aerodynamics of a flexible, rippling sheet moving through a fluid, and find that it should be possible to make one that will stay aloft in air.

Pure fantasy? A team of US scientists has come up with instructions for how to make a flying carpet

No such carpet is going to ferry people around, though.

The researchers say that to stay afloat in air, a sheet measuring about 10 centimetres long and 0.1 millimetres thick would need to vibrate at about 10 hertz with an amplitude of about 0.25 millimetres.

Making a heavier carpet “fly” is not forbidden by the laws of physics.

But the researchers say that their “computations and scaling laws suggest it will remain in the magical, mystical and virtual realm”, as the engine driving the necessary vibrations would need to be so powerful.

The key to a magic carpet is to create uplift by making ripples that push against fluids such as air or water.

If it is close to a horizontal surface, like a piece of foil settling down onto the floor, such rippling movements create a high pressure in the gap between the sheet and the floor.

“As waves propagate along a flexible foil, they generate a fluid flow that leads to a pressure that lifts the foil, roughly balancing its weight,” Mahadevan explains.

But as well as lifting it, the ripples can drive the foil forward — a trait required by any respectable magic carpet.

“If the waves propagate from one edge,” says Mahadevan, “this causes the foil to tilt ever so slightly and then move in one direction towards the edge that is slightly higher. Fluid is then squeezed from this end to the other, causing the sheet to progress like a submarine ray.”

To travel at speed, the carpet would have to undulate in big ripples, comparable to the size of the carpet. This would make the ride very bumpy.

“If you want a smooth ride, you can generate a lot of small ripples,” says Mahadevan. “But you’ll be slower.”

“It’s cute, it’s charming,” says physicist Tom Witten at the University of Chicago in Illinois, who is intrigued that the researchers thought to study such an unusual engineering feat.

Dog Intelligence

Dog Intelligence

Dog intelligence is the ability of a dog to learn, think, and solve problems. Dog trainers, owners, and researchers have as much difficulty agreeing on a method for testing canine intelligence, as they do for human intelligence.

There are three types of dog intelligence:

• Adaptive Intelligence (learning and problem-solving ability). This is specific to the individual animal and is measured by canine IQ tests.
• Instinctive Intelligence. This is specific to the individual animal and is measured by canine IQ tests.
• Working/Obedience Intelligence. This is breed dependent.

Recent research has demonstrated that dogs read human gestures more readily than both chimpanzees and wolves. Even kennel-reared dogs outperformed hand-reared wolves, suggesting the capacity is not a product of experience around people. Part of dogs’ specialization is making the most of their human-rich environment. Another study suggests that dogs gauge their play solicitations to other dogs based on whether the potential playmate is attending or not.

Dogs are pack animals. They understand social structure and obligations, and are capable of interacting with other members of the pack. Adult canines train their young by “correcting” them when they behave in an unacceptable manner (such as biting too hard or eating out of turn) and reward them for acceptable behavior, by playing with them, feeding them, or cleaning them.

They are also den animals. This means that they can easily learn behavior related to keeping the den clean (such as housebreaking) and relaxing in an enclosed area (such as a crate during travel or for training).

Some breeds have been selectively bred for hundreds or thousands of years for the quality of learning quickly. That quality has been downplayed for other breeds in favor of other characteristics like the ability to track or hunt game, or to fight other animals. The capacity to learn basic obedience, however, and complicated behavior is inherent in all dogs. Owners must simply be more patient with some breeds than with others.

Nonetheless, inherited behavior is not necessarily an indicator of intelligence. For example, a sheep herding breed, like a Border Collie, would be expected to learn how to herd sheep very quickly and might even perform the job with little training. The same breed, however, would be a challenge to train how to point and retrieve game. A Pointer often points to game instinctively and naturally retrieves game without damaging it, but most likely could not be taught to herd sheep.

Intelligent dogs are inadvertently taught many unwanted behaviors. Increasing the activity level in a household, and increasing the number of people that are present in it, increases the likelihood that chance associations will be learned. For the intelligent dog this means that there is a greater opportunity to learn things that will be useful in adapting to everyday life, but also provides a greater opportunity for the dog to learn “odd” or annoying associations.

Intelligence is a complex subject. A breed of dog that does not learn very quickly may have other talents.

It is important to remember that intelligence should not be judged only by the willingness to follow obedience commands. The willingness or ability to be obedience trained may reflect a desire to please or a dependence upon humans, as well as intelligence. Many long time livestock guardian breed owners believe that working breeds such as the Great Pyrenees or the Kuvasz are not easily trained because they do not see the point of such commands as “sit” or “down”. Hounds may also suffer from this type of ranking; several rank in the bottom tier of this list (such as Beagles, Bloodhounds, and Basset Hounds). These dogs are bred to have more of a “pack” mentality with other dogs and less reliance on a master’s direct commands. While they truly may not have the same kind of intelligence as a Border Collie, they were not bred to learn and obey commands quickly, but to think for themselves while trailing game.

The Intelligence Ranking

• Border Collies
• Poodle
• German Shepherd
• Golden Retriever
• Doberman Pincher
• Shetland Sheepdog
• Labrador Retriever
• Papillon
• Rottwieler
• Australian Cattle Dog
• Pembrook Welsh Corgi
• Miniature Schnauzer

The less intelligent are:

• Borzoi
• Chow Chow
• Bull dog
• Basenji
• Afghan Hound

Save the Koalas

Save the koalas

KOALA

Phascolarctos cinereus

MAMMAL

Order Marsupial

Habitat

Eucalyptus (gum tree) forests and woodlands.

Niche

Strictly arboreal, living in and feeding on the leaves of eucalyptus trees. Caecum of gut is greatly enlarged (about 6 ft. long) and houses a large bacterial colony that aids in leaf digestion. Usually comes to ground only to change trees. Preyed upon at those times by foxes and dingos. Young hunted by large birds of prey.

Appearance

Koalas have soft, thick, grey or brown fur on their backs. The fur on the stomach is white. Koalas that live in the south have thicker fur than those in the north because of the cold winters, whereas the koalas in the northern part of the country live in warm to hot weather most of the year so have thinner fur. A koala has a large, hairless noses and round ears. Koalas don’t have tails. Adult koalas measure between 64 to 76 centimetres in length and weigh between 7 and 14 kilograms.

Koalas have strong, sharp claws and long toes to help them climb. The front paws have two thumbs to help them grip branches strongly. The second and third toes on the back legs are joined together to form a grooming claw.

Although mostly silent, koalas communicate with each other using a range of noises ranging from one that sounds like a loud snore, and a burping sound, to a loud bellow.

Life History

Mating occurs Nov-Feb in the south, Sep-Jan further north. Gestation about 35 days; single young weigh about 1/5 oz and are about 3/4 in long. Newborn crawls from cloaca to pouch and attaches to a nipple to complete its development. Leaves pouch .first at about 5.5 months, permanently at about 8 months. Young joey then clings to mother’s back or stomach, sticking head into pouch to feed. During weaning, joey eats partially-digested eucalyptus that emerges from mother’s cloaca, thus receiving bacteria needed for digestion as well as food. Life span 12+ yrs (wild) 16+ yrs (captivity).

Diet

Koalas eat the leaves and young shoots of some kinds of eucalyptus (say you-kul-ip-tus) trees. In Australia there are over 600 species, or kinds, of eucalypts, but koalas only eat about 20 species. Within a particular area, there will be only three or four species of those eucalypts that will be regularly browsed (eaten) by koalas. A variety of other species, including some non-eucalypts, are eaten by koalas occasionally or used for just sitting or sleeping in. Different species of eucalypts grow in different parts of Australia, so a koala in Victoria has a very different diet from one in Queensland.

Life Cycle

Breeding season is generally from August to February. During this time the males will be heard bellowing as they compete for females. At this time the young from the previous year are ready to leave their mothers and become independent. Usually a female has one young each year, but may not breed in some years.

About 35 days after mating, a tiny baby called a joey is born. It is about 2 cm long, weighs less than 1 gram and is pink, hairless, blind and without ears. Amazingly, this tiny creature travels up its mother’s belly and finds the entrance to the pouch. Inside the pouch, it attaches itself to a teat that immediately swells inside its mouth so that the joey cannot let go and lose the teat. The female is able to tighten muscles at the opening of the pouch to prevent the baby falling out.

The female carries her baby in the pouch for 6 or 7 months after it is born. The baby, called a joey, feeds on its mother’s milk inside the pouch. Between 22 and 30 weeks of age, its mother starts feeding the joey a substance called pap formed from pre-digested food and her droppings. This is important, because it trains the joey to be able to eat eucalyptus, which is poisonous to most mammals. After it leaves the pouch, the baby travels around on its mother’s back, but continues to drink milk until a year old. Generally this is when a young one leaves its mother, but if she does not breed then the young one stays longer.

General characteristics

They aren’t even related to bears. The reason the koala is called a koala bear is because the koala looks like a teddy bear. The koala is related to the kangaroo. The koala’s nickname is a Native Bear. The koala is a mammal. They are warm-blooded. The koala’s young is called a cub. The koala’s young are born alive. Koalas drink milk from the mother. The koala breaths oxygen from air. The koala might look all cuddly but the koala has very sharp teeth and very sharp claws.

Koalas live for 20 or more years. The koala can run as fast as a rabbit. The koalas sleep for up to 19 hours. The koala’s territory is getting smaller because people are cutting down trees and making farms on them. Koalas can only live in one place in the world. The koala only eats Eucalyptus leaves and it eats so many leaves, it smells like the leaves. The koala hops from tree to tree and climbs the trees to get the leaves. The koala will eat 2.5 pounds of food a day. It uses its claws to get the branches and get the leaves. The koala used to be endangered because people would kill the koala for its fur. But now its against the law to kill the koala. Over 2 million koalas were killed between1908 and 1927. Occasionally koalas are taken by Goannas, Eagles, and Owls. Humans are koala’s worst enemies. Dingoes will kill the koala. Now there are 2,000 to 8.000 koalas in the wild. The koala does not have very many enemies.

Danger of extinction

Loss of koala habitat is the major threat facing koalas today. Since white settlement of Australia, roughly 80% of the koala’s habitat has been destroyed and of what remains, most occurs on privately owned land and almost none is protected.

Koalas face additional threats such as road death, dog attack, disease and bushfire. From a national population of around 100,000 koalas, roughly 4000 are killed by dogs and cars each year. In the 1920s approximately 3 million koalas were shot for their fur. Today the koala is a protected species but its habitat is not protected.

The koala is arguably now on the brink of disaster in many parts of its remaining geographic range. Regardless of recent public debates over population estimates, there is little disagreement over the dramatic extent of habitat clearing, degradation and fragmentation, nor about the fact that numbers have declined to a fraction of the millions that existed at the time of legalised hunting for the fur trade, which continued until as recently as the 1920’s.

The only way to save koalas is to save their habitat, the eucalyptus forests where they live, and which they must have to survive. This is what the Australian Koala Foundation is trying to achieve.

Now a disease called chlamydia (say clu-mid-ee-u), which makes koalas blind and makes the females unable to have babies, is harming these animals. Many koalas die because of the disease. Conservation organisations in Australia and around the world are working hard to help save the koalas.

Felices Fiestas para todas las criaturas del mundo!

Sinpiel.org ¿Cuántas vidas para un abrigo?

Sinpiel.org – Campaña en contra del uso de pieles de animales

Cada año mueren millones de animales solo para abastecer la cruel industria de las pieles. Zorros, visones, chinchillas, castores, lobos, mapaches… víctimas todos de la moda y la ignorancia de las personas, que parecen no saber que sus abrigos de pieles significaron el asesinato de 20 zorros, 40 conejos… o de 120 chinchillas!

Es por ello que AnimaNaturalis ideó una impactante protesta en el año 2005, en el que varias decenas de activistas por los derechos de los animales se desnudaron en plena calle simulando ser los cadáveres sin vida del número de zorros que se requieren para hacer un solo abrigo.

La protesta tuvo gran éxito mediático, apareciendo en numerosos medios de comunicación de más de 10 países. Nuestro objetivo era representar con veinte activistas desnudos, tumbados en el suelo, el número de zorros que se necesitan para un abrigo de pieles.

Desde entonces cada año hemos repetido la experiencia, con el objetivo de alcanzar un número mayor cada vez, y así en el 2006 fuimos 70 activistas simulando ser los visones que se matan para hacer un abrigo, y en el 2007 conseguimos ser hasta 120 personas de todas las edades, sexo, colores y nacionalidades, para mostrar a la sociedad el número de chinchillas que se requieren para confeccionar un único abrigo.

La repercusión fue inmejorable, apareciendo la noticia en cientos de diarios de toda España, consiguiendo portadas en El periódico, el Diario ADN, etc,. y del resto del mundo. Más de 20 canales de radio y televisión nos concedieron entrevistas, que nos dieron la oportunidad perfecta para hablar acerca del sufrimiento de los animales y lo que pasa en las granjas peleteras.

Este próximo enero de 2008 queremos superarnos y alzar aún más fuerte la voz de los animales: queremos reunir 200 activistas que se desnuden para simbolizar la gran cantidad de animales que mueren cada segundo en manos de las industrias peleteras.

Tu participación es muy importante. Ayúdanos a mostrar que hay cada vez más gente dispuesta a defender a los animales.

¡Apúntate ya!

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Originally uploaded by rit de la playa

Adoption between different dolphin species

Every day dolphins played in the rushing waters near the coral reef off Rangiroa Atoll in French Polynesia. It wasn’t until Roland Seltre carefully checked his photos that he realised he’d actually witnessed some unique behaviour.

You wouldn’t want to swim over the sharp corals in these dangerous currents, but it’s a different matter for dolphins. Two females are even followed by tiny babies, who also join in the gameWe watch and photograph them for half an hour; it’s nothing unusual – bottlenose dolphins are the most common inshore cetaceans. The natural show comes to an end when the wave size starts to drop and the dolphins disappear.

But back home in France, as we sort through the slides, a different story emerges. It’s difficult to tell dolphin species apart without proper training and binoculars, but it’s clear that while one of the females has a baby with the typical cute, short, rounded nose of a bottlenose, the other is being followed by the young of another species.

Mother bottlenose with baby spinner
It’s particularly obvious in one shot: mother – bottlenose – and, right by her side, baby – spinner dolphin. None of its features hint at a hybrid. It looks like an adoption, but a single sighting isn’t sufficient proof. The baby could have been lost and simply joined the pod for a while before moving on. Yet there definitely seemed to be a close bond between the adult and young.

Unfortunately, Rangiroa is thousands of kilometres from anywhere (not exactly the end of the world, but quite close), and I couldn’t just nip across from France to check my data. I had to wait three years to have my theory confirmed.

In 1996, Bertrand Loyer filmed the same pod of dolphins playing the waves in the same pass, chasing a silver-tipped shark. There in the group was a fully grown spinner dolphin. We learned from local diver Yves Lefèvre that, for all these years, a spinner had indeed been seen within the group.

Adopted or kidnapped
When I first saw the young dolphin in 1993, its small size suggested that it was still suckling. It must have been adopted, or even kidnapped, by the bottlenose mother, who had probably lost her own calf.

The event is particularly extraordinary as it’s not a straight adoption within the same species but between a bottlenose and a spinner dolphin. To my knowledge, it is the first time this event has been reported in cetaceans.

From an original article in the February 1999 issue of BBC Wildlife Magazine – Strange relations.

Hindu gods get summons from court

The gods have many temples in their name Pic: Vivek

A judge in India has summoned two Hindu gods, Ram and Hanuman, to help resolve a property dispute. Judge Sunil Kumar Singh in the eastern state of Jharkhand has issued adverts in newspapers asking the gods to “appear before the court personally”.

The gods have been asked to appear before the court on Tuesday, after the judge said that letters addressed to them had gone unanswered.

Ram and Hanuman are among the most popular Indian Hindu gods.

Judge Singh presides in a “fast track” court – designed to resolve disputes quickly – in the city of Dhanbad.

The dispute is now 20 years old and revolves around the ownership of a 1.4 acre plot of land housing two temples.

You failed to appear in the court despite notices sent by a peon and post Judge Sunil Kumar Singh in letter to Lord Ram and Hanuman

The deities of Ram and Hanuman, the monkey god, are worshipped at the two temples on the land.

Temple priest Manmohan Pathak claims the land belongs to him. Locals say it belongs to the two deities.

The two sides first went to court in 1987.

A few years ago, the dispute was settled in favour of the locals. Then Mr Pathak challenged the verdict in a fast track court.

Gift

Judge Singh sent out two notices to the deities, but they were returned as the addresses were found to be “incomplete”.

Local say the temple belongs to the gods Pic: Mahadeo Sen

This prompted him to put out adverts in local newspapers summoning the gods.

“You failed to appear in court despite notices sent by a peon and later through registered post. You are herby directed to appear before the court personally”, Judge Singh’s notice said.

The two Hindu gods have been summoned as the defence claimed that they were owners of the disputed land.

“Since the land has been donated to the gods, it is necessary to make them a party to the case,” local lawyer Bijan Rawani said.

Mr Pathak said the land was given to his grandfather by a former local king.