Saturday, 6 April 2013

Cat-eyed Chinese Boy With Night Vision Superpower

Night vision! What an awesome superpower. Almost all of us must have wished for such an amazing power when we were kids, but we eventually grew out of it and realized that only superheroes have nigh vision… and of course cats. Well, cats are no longer the only beings in “town” who can see in the dark. A young Chinese boy named Nong Youhui was born with blue eyes (a rare color for the Chinese people), but that’s not the strangest thing about him. Nong is able to see in the dark, just like cats do. Also, just like a Siamese cat, his eyes flash neon green when they’re illuminated in the dark. Rumors and speculations have it that the child is either The Starchild, or a human with hybrid alien DNA pretty spooky, wouldn’t you agree? His weird eyes enable the boy to be able to read and write down the answers to some questions, in a pitch black room. The scientists are now interested to find out if his DNA is has indeed mutated genes, and if not, how is it possible for him to have a special layer of cells in his eyes, called the tapetum lucidum, which exists only at cats and other nocturnal animals.

Friday, 5 April 2013

Dolphins Help Save Dog from Drowning

Dolphins Help Save Dog from Drowning!
On Marco Island, Florida a group of dolphins came to the aid of a lost Dog that had fallen into a canal and couldn't get out. The dolphins made so much noise, it attracted the attention of people living nearby, who then rescued the dog. The Dog was believed to have spent 15 hours in the canal water before he was pulled out by fire personnel and reunited with his owner. One of the people whose attention was captured by the noisy, demonstrative dolphins said, "They were really putting up a ruckus, almost beaching themselves on the sandbar over there. If it wasn't for the dolphin, I would have never seen thedog.” (Source: ABC7news) He said also if the dolphins hadn't persisted enough to get their attention, they dog would have died in the canal. The dog had fallen over the edge of a concrete wall down into the water far enough that it had no chance of getting back up by itself. The dog was exhausted
from being in the cold water for hours, and most likely suffering from hypothermia. Dolphins have been known to sometimes help stranded or injured people as well. In 2007, a pod of dolphins formed a ring
around a surfer who was injured and bleeding after being bitten by a Great White shark. The surfer survived because they prevented further bites. No one knows exactly why dolphins have intervened in
such emergency situations, and helped save the lives of other species. Suffice to say they are capable of empathy and heroic actions.

Goliath Tigerfish

Grows like goliath, hunts like a tiger and swims like a fish. The Goliath Tigerfish lurks the waters of the Congo River system and several other lakes in southern Africa. This fish is remarkably adept at swimming and killing due in part to an air-filled sac in its body that allows it to detect vibrations from animals in the water. Those razorsharp spikes in its mouth may also help the cause. Growing up to 5 feet and length and weighing in at over 150 pounds, the Goliath Tigerfish makes a piranha look like a guppy in comparison to this ferocious beast. Locals say it’s the only fish that doesn’t fear the crocodile, and will even devour some of the smaller ones! In rare instances, it’s also been known to attack humans. *Gulp*  As if 32 teeth the size of a Great White Shark’s weren’t scary enough, this fish has incredible eyesight in murky water and can sense low-frequency vibrations emitted by prey. It has been observed going after 60 pound catfish and literally slicing them in half.
While piranhas have a fearsome reputation and can be dangerous, piranha attacks on humans are very rare. Piranha will happily scavenge on a mortally wounded animal, though there are few if any confirmed reports of humans being killed by them. (Dogs and bees kill more people than piranha do.)
A relative of the piranha, the Megapiranha, grew to 3-feet-long (1 meter), or four times the size of today's piranhas. Scientists aren't sure why the fish-beast had seven teeth arranged in a zig-zag row, while today's piranhas sport six teeth. Fortunately the mega creature is not much of a threat, having died out several million years ago.


Friday, 25 January 2013

The caves homes of Guyaju, China

The Ancient Cliff House (Guyaju), 'the biggest maze of China', was a considerable discovery relating to the study of ancient Chinese people who inhabited this north part of the country. Therefore, no precise record of it has ever been found yet, so nobody exactly knows its origins. Almost 92 KM (about 57 miles) from Beijing, the house was hewn from the craggy cliffs overlooking Zhangshanying Town, Yanqing County. The fascinating house complex has more than 110 stone rooms, and is the largest cliff residence ever discovered in China.
More importantly on each side of the precipitous cliffs, adjacent stone houses, rectangular and square, large and small, were built. These homes vary in sizes, from over 20 square meters to 3-4 square meters. A number of houses are interlinked perpendicularly, while some are interconnected horizontally. Few have a single room, while some have 2 to 3 connecting rooms. Stone steps, and stone ladders are used to connect the storeys of a complete cliff house. Stone lamp-stands, stone hearths, closets, and mangers in the caves, the windows and gates all remain as traces of their strange ancient inhabitants. Moreover; few houses were built with kangs, a kind of bed which can be heated from below on cold days.
The most enthralling one is a two-storey stone house, with six finely engraved stone pillars propping it up. Within the house, there is a wing enclosing a small room with a stone table, stone stools, and a broad stone bed. This shrewdly constructed stone room is at the highest spot of the cliff house, and is considered to be the residence of a chief of the day. Standing on its upper floor, tourists can view a superb panorama of the nearby areas. The miraculous ancient cliff house is waiting for you to throw off her veil to the world.

Wednesday, 12 December 2012

In Japan they have square watermelons

In Japan they have square watermelons they get square watermelons by growing them inside of square glass cases. That way they can fit easily into a refrigerator, and you can stack things on them. Square watermelons are expensive though (10,000 yen or about $82). Compare that to regular round watermelons which cost about $15-20 in Japan.

Wednesday, 5 December 2012

Heroic Mother

During an early morning response to a house fire in Santa Rosa de Temuco, Chile, firefighters witnessed the incredible. A mother dog risked her life to save her puppies from the fire surrounding the burning house, which started because of a car bomb. The mother dog, Amanda, raced back and forth between the houses; putting her ten day old puppies in the safest Place she could find a fire truck. She didn’t stop racing back into the fire until all of her puppies were safely away from the fire. The firemen on scene could not accept as true their eyes. Most people have never seen a dog this smart or this brave! After rescuing all of her puppies from the blaze, Amanda sat down next to them, protecting them with her body. Onlookers called an emergency veterinary service and she and her puppies were rushed to the hospital. Aside from one puppy being treated for serious burns, the whole family is alive and well – many thanks to the bravery of Amanda, the heroic mother.

Seven Year Genius Who Performed Surgery


Akrit Jaiswal, 7 years old genius who performed a surgery on the hands of a burnt victim and qualified for admission in a medical university in India. Doctors at local hospitals took notice and started allowing him to observe surgeries when he was 6 years old. Motivated by what he saw, Akrit Jaiswal, read everything he could on the topic. When he was seven years old, an impoverished family unable to pay for regular healthcare heard about his astonishing abilities, and asked if he would operate on their daughter. The surgery was successful and was widely celebrated. Akrit Jaiswal, look forward to to someday continue his studies at the Imperial College London. With an IQ of 146 he is considered as the smartest person of his age in India.

Tuesday, 4 December 2012

Active Lave Flows touching the Ocean


Starting at Kalapana, Hawaii I walked for two hours right to the place on the coast where lively lava flows were touching the ocean. I was besieged about the scene: Hot air touching my face as I stood at the edge of the cliff, steam drifted away by the strong wind, thunders in my ears as the waves crushed on the melted stones and water fought with fire. I stood and noticed the lava flows started to glow as it became darker. I wanted to articulate what happened there. All four elements water, air, fire, and earth came together at that point to show how they are playing the game. Location: about 6 miles southwest of Kalapana on Big Island, Hawaii (USA).

Beautiful Pink Handfish That Don’t Swim But Walk


Fishes are bizarre enough as they are, but what about fishes with hands? Totally Weird! The pink handfish, as it is named, is a part of the handfish family, and is last seen in 1999. It is now one of the newly named species of the handfishes, among 9 others. This very strange fish doesn’t swim, and that give explanation why it’s to be found at the bottom of the ocean. It uses its “hands” that are supposed to be fins, to walk around. Tasmania, an Australian island, is the place where the nine fishes have been found, to be entirely precise, around the city of Hobart. It is perhaps the place to be for a handfish, because all the 14 species of this kind are found nearby southeastern Australia. The little pink beautiful creature is only 4 inch large and the scientists don’t know that much about its behavior because it has been poorly studied.

Glowing Blue Waves Lights on the Sea water in Maldives


Pinpricks of lighting on the coast seem to mirror stars above in a picture taken on Vaadhoo Island in the Maldives. The biological light, or bioluminescence, in the waves is the product of marine microbes called phytoplankton and now scientists considers they know how several of these life-forms generate their brilliant blue glow. A variety of species of phytoplankton are recognized to bioluminesce, and their lights can be seen in oceans all around the world, said by Woodland Hasting a marine biologist and bioluminescence expert.
I have been across the Atlantic and Pacific, and never seen a mark that wasn’t bioluminescent or a night that bioluminescence couldn’t be seen.  The most familiar type of marine bioluminescence is created by phytoplankton recognized as dinoflagellates. A new study co-authored by Hastings has for the first time identified a special channel in the dinoflagellate cell membrane that responds to electrical signals offering a potential mechanism for how the algae create their exclusive illumination.
The newly found channel had just the right properties required to trigger the flash. If you replaced the dinoflagellate channel with the corresponding cell channel from humans or mice or snails, so it could not do the right job. The dinoflagellates float, movement in the surrounding water propels electrical impulses around a proton-filled compartment inside the microorganisms. The electrical pulses unlock the voltage-sensitive proton channels, triggering a series of chemical reactions, which eventually activate a protein called luciferase that produces the neon blue light.