Sunday, December 5, 2010

Nutrition of Avocado...!!!

Avocados are a surprisingly complete food, with fourteen minerals to stimulate growth, including iron and copper for your blood. The sodium and potassium in avocados keeps your body chemically balanced, and their low sugar content and absence of starch make them an ideal fruit for diabetics or hypoglycemics (choose small slices throughout the day to keep your sugar balanced). Vitamins in avocados include A, several B-complex, C, and E, as well as phosphorus and magnesium. They’re also a great source of antioxidants like vitamins E and C.
Because of their density, avocados, like bananas, are filling. But they are also a perfectly digestible slow-burning fuel, making them ideal for replenishing nutrients for athletes. They’re a great source of fruit oil and digestible fats, and they make excellent and healthy dips for raw vegetables. When blended with fruit, they make particularly nutritious baby food.
Avocados are also called alligator pears because of their shape and the color of their skin. The four hundred varieties of avocado are found throughout Mexico and South America. After planting an avocado tree, you’ll have to wait two to three years for it to bear fruit, but it’s worth the wait.
Picking and preparing avocadoes
A perfect avocado is hard to choose in the store; because they go so quickly through ripeness into over ripeness, you’re better off picking slightly unripe ones and letting them ripen on the counter with your bananas. Ideal avocados to purchase are dark green and hard, and they brown slightly and become slightly soft to thumb pressure as they ripen. Remove the flesh by cutting the fruit in half lengthwise. If you twist it open from here, the large pit easily comes out of one side, and all you have to do is twist it out of the other side with a knife.
Replace butter with avocado spread, or use avocado dip and raw vegetables to replace your chips and ranch dressing.

Sunday, November 28, 2010

Interesting Facts about Tiger...!!!

Here are some interesting facts about tigers:
1. Tigers are the largest naturally occurring specie of cats.
2. Of tiger subspecies, the Siberian Tiger is the biggest cat that can weigh well up to eight hundred pounds.
3. Tigers are very beautiful and their striped coat makes for ideal camouflage.
4. A tiger's stripes are like fingerprints - no two are alike. In fact the stripes' pattern is often used to identify individual tigers in the wild.
5. In India paw prints or pug marks are often used by local wildlife officials to identify individual tigers. However, this technique is now deemed to be flawed since an individual tiger may leave several different types of paw prints depending on its speed and terrain.
6. Tigers are largely solitary cats and are most active between dusk and dawn.
7. Tigers are largely muscular and rely on stealth and power to bring down a prey rather than speed. Like other big cats most tiger ambushes are unsuccessful.
8. Tigers are perhaps the most notorious big cat for man-eating. In fact the single greatest man-eater is history is believed to be the Champawat Tigress who killed over four hundred thirty people in India decades ago until she was finally killed by the great Jim Corbett.
9. Tigers are highly ferocious and unlike the laid back male lion, it's never wise to turn your back to a tiger even in captivity. Even seasoned zoo keepers report tigers assume a stalking position and prepare to strike when they turn their back to them in the cage.
10. Tigers have suffered greatly at the hand of humans for their beauty and majestic appeal - they have been hunted nearly to extinction in most of their former territories - the largest pool is now in India where recent reports suggest there may be as few as fifteen hundred of the Bengal tigers remaining.
11. An adult male tiger in the wild requires around one hundred and fifty kilograms of meat a month.
12. If Chinese traditional medicine makers were to stop using animal parts - tigers, rhinos and many other endangered animals would benefit greatly.
13. One of the best places for watching tigers in the wild is the Bandhavgarh National Park in Madhya Pradesh in central India.

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Interesting Facts about Penguin...!!!

Birds Who Can't Fly
Penguins are birds who are no longer able to fly, but are great swimmers and divers instead. Their wings have morphed into flippers and their torpedo-shapes body allows them to swim under water at high speeds. This also causes them to waddle on land.
Devoted Parents
Little baby penguins have two devoted parents. Unlike many other species, especially other birds, the fathers are very involved in the process of hatching the egg and taking care of the baby penguins. Mom and Dad will take turns warming the egg and searching for food.
All It Takes Is A Little Body Heat
In the cold climate that penguins live it, keeping the egg warm is an essential task for penguin parents. In some penguin species, the dads will balance the egg on their feed, covering it with their belly flap to keep the egg warm. When it gets very cold, all the dads huddle together to keep themselves and their eggs warm.
The Special Penguin Gland
Since penguins spend a good bit of their live in the ocean, they are constantly swallowing sea water. A special gland behind their beak helps them filter out the salt from the water. They also eat snow as a source of fresh water.
Sleeping At Sea
Living on the ice can be quite dangerous, with natural predators lurking around each corner. Because of this many penguin species don't go back on the ice or dry land to sleep. Instead they take little naps in the water instead.
Huddle To Keep Warm
When male penguins stay on land to take care of the egg, they will huddle together to stay warm. Penguins rotate from the outside to the warmer inside of the huddle. This allows them to keep their body temperature high enough to incubate the egg until the baby penguin is born.
Using Sign Language
Penguins use a sign language of sorts to communicate with each other. They will wave their flippers and move their heads to "talk" to other penguins in the group.
Now that both you and your child know a little more about these interesting birds, have some fun making one of these cute penguin crafts.

Friday, November 26, 2010

Paul the Octopus



Paul the Octopus

Paul the Octopus  was a common octopus from Weymouth, England, who lived in a tank at a commercial attraction, the Sea Life Centre in Oberhausen, Germany Paul became internationally famous after his feeding behavior was used to correctly predict the winner of each of Germany's seven matches in the 2010 World Cup, as well as the outcome of the final match.

The prediction process was designed so that Paul was presented with two boxes containing food in the form of a mussel, each box marked on the outside with the flag of a national football team in an upcoming match. His choice of which mussel to eat first was interpreted as indicating his prediction of a win for the country whose flag was on that box. His selections were correct in four of Germany's six Euro 2008 matches, and in all seven of their matches in the 2010 World Cup. He also correctly selected a win for Spain against the Netherlands in the World Cup Final on 11 July by eating the mussel in the box with the Spanish flag on it.These predictions were 100% (8/8) correct for the 2010 World Cup and 86% (12/14) correct overall. The keeper at the aquarium states that Paul was not the same octopus that predicted the results for the 2008 UEFA European Football Championships Paul was retired after the 2010 FIFA World Cup and died soon after.



Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Blue Dart Frogs with Poison...!!!

    Poison dart frog is the common name of a group of frogs in the family Dendrobatidae which are native to Central and South America. Unlike most frogs, these species are active during the day and often exhibit brightly-colored bodies. Although all wild dendrobatids are at least somewhat toxic, levels of toxicity vary considerably from one species to the next and from one population to another. 
    Many species are critically endangered. These amphibians are often called “dart frogs” due to indigenous Amerindians’ use of their toxic secretions to poison the tips of blowdarts. In fact, of over 175 species, only three have been documented as being used for this purpose, and none come from the Dendrobates genus, which is most characterized by the brilliant color and complex patterns of its members.

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Best Tips for Diet...!!

1.Healthy fats are the best way to prevent any health complications. Saturated fats and Trans fats are better avoided. Butter, clarified butter, margarine and hydrogenated fats are some of them. Plant oils, such as sunflower, safflower, olive, groundnut and soya bean oil prove beneficial
2.Fish oil also helps, as they provide the necessary omega 3 fatty acids.
3.Plants in their natural form contribute to phyto nutrients, antioxidants, minerals and vitamins. Fresh fruits and raw vegetables are preferred in the raw or slightly cooked form. The pH levels are balanced. 
4.Adequate amount of water helps in keeping the body hydrated. Eight to ten glasses of water are recommended on a daily basis. Fruit juices and clear soups also provide water. Carbonated beverages or fizzy drinks are completely abstained form as they result in 'empty calories'. No other nutrients are acquired through these beverages. 
5. Eating often helps to a considerable extent, provided, the meal size is small. Five or six meals are preferred instead of three large meals. It is also advisable to have three meals with three snacks.
6.Drastic reduction of calories is not recommended, as it might backfire and result in overeating. Skipping breakfast is not ideal. Feasting or fasting is hazardous to health.
7.Eating amnesia or forgetting what you have eaten is common, especially while eating in front of the television. Our stomach is equal to the size of our fist. Does it mean we are overeating to a very great degree? Avoid eating from the wrapper or packet or container as we have no idea about our food intake.
8.Feeling of satiety pops in much after you have finished eating, which means that the chances of over eating are highly present. At the end of the meal, you should feel fine. You should not feel tired, over stuffed or bloated and ready to burst. Reasonable portion sizes prove helpful in understanding your stomach's signal.

World Tallest Man...!!!

Impact of Climate change...!!!

Climate change will make monsoons unpredictable; as a result, rain-fed wheat cultivation in South Asia will suffer in a big way and the total cereal production will go down.

Industrial development is important for economic growth, employment generation and improvement in the quality of life.

However, industrial activities without proper precautionary measures for environmental protection are known to cause pollution and associated problems. If ecological and environmental criteria are forsaken, "industrialise and perish" will be the nature's retort.

Now, there is a global consensus about the threat posed by the climate change. The disagreement is only, on how to go about altering human activities that unleash greenhouse gases, fuelling global warming.

The recent report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is the latest scientific assessment of the impact of global warming on human, animal and plant life. The culprit is greenhouse gases, notably carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide. These are accumulating to unprecedented levels in the atmosphere as a result of profligate burning of fossil fuels, industrial processes, farming activities and changing land use.

The greenhouse gases act like a blanket around the earth, trapping too much of the heat that would otherwise have escaped into space.

The IPCC is a body of 2500 scientists that brings out reports, considered the last word on the Science of Climate Change. "Warming of the Climate System is unequivocal", says the IPCC in its latest report, pointing to the increased global, air and ocean temperatures, widespread melting of snow, and ice and rising sea levels.

If the introduction of these greenhouse gases continued to soar, global temperature could rise up by 2.40C to 6.40 C by the end of the century, with far-reaching consequences for the climate, warned the IPCC. The report has given fresh impetus to finding solutions to the global warming problem.
The summit meeting of the Group of Eight Industrialised countries (G8) to be held in June in Germany is expected to launch new initiatives for collective action by both rich nations and fast growing developing countries to combat climate change.

The report provides hope that concerted action can make a real difference in the next quarter century. The panel is convinced that greenhouse gases in the atmosphere can be pegged at relatively safe levels, with measures that will not affect GDP growth.
It is little surprise that the panel found that owing to human activity, gas emissions, primarily CO2 , rose by 70 per cent between 1970 and 2004. What is of great interest to policymakers is the actionable part of the report, which addresses emissions by sectors such as energy producers, transport, buildings, land use, agriculture, and forestry.
Much of that challenge lies in implementing carbon capture and storage technologies in the energy supply sector, which in the past three and half decades has been responsible for a 145 per cent increase in gas emissions.