Friday, May 28, 2010

Be active, limit intake - for losing weight!



World wide personal problem is our body weight! I see many blogs that are entirely dedicated to posting on 'Weight losing.' Books and magazines quite often carry articles on this weight losing. These indicate that there is a global problem: Obesity. Once I found myself gaining weight due to insufficient activities and high intake of excessively nutritious diet.

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Extraordinary animal, the Seahorse!



It will be funny to see a tiny horse head to move about inside a aquarium tank, isn't it? It will also be exciting to see it as a 'mermaid' of horse! It is a Seahorse (Hippocampus kuda, 'Kadal kuthirai' in Tamil). It is not a mammal; but it is actually a bony fish! It lives in sheltered shallow waters containing coral reefs and sea weeds.

Friday, May 14, 2010

An evening wonder - Night Heron!



As a little boy
I was shown some flying birds that flew past on the sky at dusk. (By doing this my sisters were clever in diverting my attention while they were on babysitting duty!). Those birds make sounds all through such flights as 'qwakgaa, qwakgaa'! I know now what is this bird, that made me curious and wondering, and also introduced me to the hobby, Bird-watching!

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Candle Bush having worthy medicines!



I found one day a plant among bushes on the wayside, becoming prominent by popping up by itself with its bright yellow heads. It had large leaves and had grown profusely within a shorter period of time. It was exactly like a robust Senna plant, as if it was from the era of Dinosaurs! I also found grannies picking up its leaves for preparing home remedies for illnesses (Granny's medical treatment, 'Paati Vaithyam' in Tamil!).

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Shroud of smell reveals the Shrew!



In the previous year, one day, I had my nose detecting some musky odor as I entered the junk room of my house. There, down on the floor some patches of oily matter were seen. That smelt musky. My sixth sense indicated me that there must be an intruder. I was right: there was a Musk Shrew (Asian House Shrew, Suncus murinus)!

Friday, April 23, 2010

Stitch Ripper makes ripping easy!



I find often labels stuck to the cloths that I wear. These labels advertise about the company or the tailor which are unwanted and unsightly marring the good appearance of the cloths. Should I bear them on me always, wherever I go wearing the cloths? I am sure that I shall be unable to remove those labels easily - with a razor blade or by using a stitching needle.

Friday, April 16, 2010

Microbes hosted by generations of Termites and Man!



Usually we think that microbes are harmful and that they
impair our health. But here is an example for their good beneficial work without which our Termite (Mastotermes darwinensis) cannot live at all! Protozoan (Trichonympha) and other Microbes live in the guts of these termites and aid in the digestion of Cellulose of plant materials by secreting out the enzyme, Cellulase - to release energy from it! (Note here the fact that humans are also weak to digest cellulose!).

Friday, April 9, 2010

Wonder magnet that attracted me!



A hitherto lifeless inanimate thing starts now to move about - this will amaze you, is it not? In childhood I too wondered this when an iron piece 'went by itself' to attach with a pocket magnet! With the magnet I used to go on testing all the objects in the house. Some coins were attracted by it while others were not. Quality ever- silver utensils were not attracted and so on ....!

Friday, April 2, 2010

Twittering about a tree, bug and a mite!



After an event in life other events follow. The question that arises within us after knowing about that prime event is: What happened next? I had informed about the unexpected cutting down of my Indian Coral Tree in one of my previous posts (Read it here). Now the tree has grown up and bloomed!

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