Giant Lizard

Check out this awesome picture that I took of a lizard in the Sydney Blue Mountains. The resemblance to a crocodile is quite interesting. Click the picture to enlarge.

A Look into Animal Gigantism

The Komodo dragon is the largest living species of lizard. They grow to more than 3 metres long and can weigh up to 165 kilograms. The dragon has a forked tongue that is 40 centimetres long.

These flightless "dragons" are effective predators and have enough speed and strength to take down deer, wild pigs and water buffaloes. They don't need to capture live prey directly, since they have a venomous bite that severely decreases blood clotting. Their saliva contains bacteria that can kill wounded victims in a few days.

Komodo Dragons can live for 50 years. They display relatively tame behaviour within a short period of time in captivity and are also capable of recognising individual humans.

Their unusual size is attributed to "island gigantism", where the size of animals isolated on an island increases dramatically in comparison to their mainland relatives. The explanation for this is that large mammalian carnivores are often absent on islands, due to their large range requirements and/or difficulties in over-water dispersal.

In their absence, the ecological niches for large predators may be occupied by birds, or reptiles in this case, which can then grow to larger-than-normal size.

As such, these giant animals are closely related to their smaller counterparts. With the arrival of humans, many giant island endemics have become extinct.

Some other examples of island gigantism include giant rats, giant ducks, giant rabbits, dodos (closely related to pigeons and doves), giant tortoises, Haast's Eagle (largest known eagle which attacks at speeds of 80 km/h), elephant birds (largest known bird, growing up to 2.7 metres tall and weighing about 450 kg) and King Kong. (Okay, you got me, the last one was fictional.)

The cousin of island gigantism is the better known "island dwarfism". But who likes things that are tiny?

Another natural phenomenon is "deep sea gigantism", where deep-sea-dwelling animals to display a larger size than their shallow-water counterparts. This is probably due to better nutrients in the deeper water.

Examples include Japanese spider crabs (up to 3.7 metres across from the tip of one outstretched claw to another and weighing 18 kg), the seven-arm octopus (largest octopus, 4 metres long and 75 kg), giant oarfish (world's longest bony fish, reaching up to 12 metres long and weighing 270 kg), the colossal squid (larger than the giant squid, largest known invertebrate, 12-14m in length, weighs up to 495 kg).

Bibliography

Huey, Raymond B. "Komodo dragon." World Book Student. World Book, 2010. Web. 16 Jan. 2010.

Clarke, Simon James. "Elephant bird." World Book Student. World Book, 2010. Web. 16 Jan. 2010.

"Komodo dragon." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online School Edition. Encyclopædia Britannica,
2010. Web. 16 Jan. 2010.

"Aepyornis (Elephant Bird)." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online School Edition. Encyclopædia Britannica,
2010. Web. 16 Jan. 2010.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Komodo_dragon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Island_gigantism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep-sea_gigantism

Take that advertisements!

Do you hate websites that have animated advertisements? They are highly distracting and are often irrelevant to the actual content of the website. One example of a website I have recently gone to is CliffsNotes (free English notes about literature books), which is jam-packed with both animated and non-animated image advertisements.

I have found a neat (and free) add-on to Mozilla Firefox that blocks off the majority of animated advertisements. If you don't use Firefox already, I highly recommend you give it a try. Although it used to be much better than Internet Explorer, Microsoft have improved IE a lot recently. But there are still some very small things that you will find more convenient when you compare Firefox to IE.

Anyway, the add-on to Firefox I was talking about is called Flashblock. As its name suggests, it blocks parts of websites that use flash. Where the flash object used to be, an 'F' symbol appears, which you can click on to run the Flash program if you feel like it.

Click here to download Flashblock.

This wonderful add-on, coupled with unchecking Tools --> Options --> Content --> Load Images Automatically, easily took care of all the image advertisements on CliffsNotes. Of course, you will want to turn the latter option on again when you visit other websites, otherwise images won't load.

You'll be surprised at the number of advertisements that Flashblock will block during normal browsing (e.g. YouTube, Hotmail, etc.).

Top 5 Free Software Picks for 2010

See my new article on the top software picks.

In short, the suggestions are:

1. Malwarebytes Anti-Malware

2. Vuze

3. TeamViewer

4. RoboForm

5. TuneUp Utilities 2010

Click here to see the full article "Top 5 Free Software Picks for 2010".

The Feeling of Immortality

In my rather random research, I have found two animals that are "biologically immortal". They technically just keep regenerating and never actually "die".

According to Wikipedia: "The Hydrozoan species Turritopsis nutricula is capable of cycling from a mature adult stage to an immature polyp stage and back again. This means that there may be no natural limit to its life span. However, no single specimen has been observed for any extended period, and it is impossible to estimate the age of a specimen. Theoretically, this cycle can repeat indefinitely, rendering it biologically immortal until its nerve center is removed from the rest of the body."

However, Wikipedia is often inaccurate (not wrong, just inaccurate). I could find no information on this animal in the paid subscription websites Britannica Online Encyclopedia or World Book Student.

The Wikipedia article on Turritopsis nutricula also mentions the predatory species Hydra, another kind of cnidarian that is claimed to be immortal.

Now, I found an article on this creature on both Britannica Online Encyclopedia and World Book Student!

Britannica Online Encyclopedia mentions that Hydra is "a genus of invertebrate freshwater animals of the class Hydrozoa (phylum Cnidaria)." It is an "organism [that] consists of a thin, usually translucent tube that measures up to about 30 millimetres (1.2 inches) long but is capable of great contraction... All Hydra species feed on other small invertebrate animals such as crustaceans." However, it makes no mention of the species being supposedly "biologically immortal".

Nevertheless, I found positive evidence on the World Book Student website. L. Muscatine, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus of Biology, University of California, Los Angeles states: "Hydras can regenerate (regrow) parts of their bodies. It is estimated that in a period of several weeks a hydra replaces all the cells in its body. The hydra, therefore, never grows old."

I think this constitutes sufficient evidence to prove that this Hydra animal is biologically (but not physically if it gets eaten) immortal.

Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_long-living_organisms

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turritopsis_nutricula

"Hydra." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2009. Encyclopædia Britannica Online School Edition. 7 Nov. 2009 .

Muscatine, L. "Hydra." World Book Student. World Book, 2009. Web. 7 Nov. 2009.

Interesting Facts About Chicken

Despite the picture, I haven't had KFC chicken in a year or two. Nevertheless, I have discovered some interesting facts about the animal that our favourite food comes from.

Did you know?

Chickens can live from five to eleven years, depending on the breed. The oldest chicken lived 16 years. However, chickens that are raised for their meat are typically slaughtered in 6 to 14 weeks.

In the wild, they often scratch at the soil to search for seeds, insects and even larger animals such as lizards or young mice.

Lighter chickens are generally capable of flying for short distances, such as over fences or into trees (where they would naturally roost). Chickens will sometimes fly to explore their surroundings, but usually do so only to flee perceived danger.

The meat of chicken is also called "chicken". (I bet you didn't know that one!)

Chickens can make good companion animals and can be tamed by hand feeding. Chickens are generally low-maintenance. The major challenge is protecting the birds from predators such as dogs, raccoons and foxes.

Chickens have been known to live after beheading. Mike the Headless Chicken or Miracle Mike was an extraordinary case in which a chicken lived 18 months after its beheading. It's authenticity was established by the University of Utah.

Some groups which advocate for more humane treatment of chickens claim that they are intelligent. Dr. Chris Evans of Macquarie University claims that their range of 20 calls, problem solving skills, use of representational signaling, and the ability to recognize each other by facial features demonstrate the intelligence of chickens.

Hens lay eggs without the need for fertilization by a rooster. However, these eggs do not contain offspring.

Sources: Wikipedia, Guinness Book of World Records

See below for a morally-correct article.

Wrestling - The misunderstood sport

It's well known that wrestling is fixed - results of matches and storylines are predetermined. But wrestling is seen in a negative light and is misunderstood. Professional wrestling is the performance, management, and marketing of a form of entertainment based on elements of Greco-Roman wrestling, mixed martial arts, and theatre. Just to make a couple of points clear:

1. Wrestling is an entertainment sport done by professionally-trained performers. Why I enjoy wrestling: watching people fight and unleash moves on each other for entertainment is fun to watch. Wrestling moves look and sound cool: Twist of Fate, Swanton Bomb, Go to Sleep, Starship Pain, etc.

2. There's very little blood in wrestling (unless it's by accident).

3. Wrestlers are professionally trained so that their moves won't injure other wrestlers.

How come wrestling is often non-competitive or "fixed"? It is because of the huge physical strain on wrestlers that it cannot be a normal competitive sport such as tennis. I'm sure a normal human being can't wrestle four days a week, it's simply too tiring. In addition, Rey Mysterio notes that "injuries can happen at any time".

See above for an article about chickens.