900th Time Lighter Then The Mother

Newly born panda is about the size of an I-pod and weighs about 4 ounces which grows to about 1.5 meters long and can attain the weight of upto 135 kg.

Baby panda born without hairs and was white in color and doesn’t looks like cute and cuddly, black and white animal which we all adore. Baby pandas are extremely sensitive and open their eyes after 45 days. Mother panda take tremendous care of their babies as young babies need to be nursed for atleast 12 times a day but still young pandas has high infant mortality rate. The mortality rate is high because of illnesses and predators like leopards, wild dogs and eagles. At birth, pandas have white skin. Cubs have panda fur coloration within one month after birth.

The white skin of baby panda changes into gray within 2 weeks where eventually black hair grows. The cub starts to craw at the age of 75 to 90 days as he starts playing with the mother panda. Cubs start to eat bamboo at 5 months and are weaned at 6 months. The cub weighs 35 kilograms (80 pounds) at one year and lives with its mother until 18 months. Panda reach sexually maturity when they are 4.5 to 6.5 years old. This tiny panda has a potential to attain the height of about 1.5 meters and gain weight upto 75 to 135 kg. The physical change pandas undergo during their 18 to 25 years of life is exceptional and is considered really weird in mammals. Only kangaroos can match this extraordinary change in body in world of mammals.

[Source: CHINAUNIQUE, BEARLIFE]

Japan’s Weirdest Export

One of the most advanced nations of the world still has some touch of medieval times as Japan is the world’s largest frog’s leg exporter.

The land of the Samurais’ is filled with a glooming history. The country which is known as the “Land of the Rising Sun” has changed tremendously after the Second World War. Japan has turned itself into a hub of modern technology and does not only export high-tech electronic products but is also the world’s largest exporter of frog’s legs!

It may sound bizarre but it is true, as frog legs are used in French and Cantonese cuisines. Every year 40 million dollars worth of frog legs are traded internationally with most countries participating in it. The top importers of frog’s legs are France, Belgium and USA. According to a report, the World consumes at least 3.2 billion frogs every year.

Over the years, the frog industry in Japan had increased significantly because of the increase in the international demand for the amphibian but that does not prevent it from the keen eyes of conservationists who are demanding that this onslaught of frogs should be stopped or else some species of frogs can go extinct. David Bickford of the National University of Singapore and his colleagues have called for a regulation to stop this overexploitation of frogs.

Whether this industry will come to a halt at some point or not, only time will tell. Upon noticing the Annual Exports Report of Japan, you would not help but crack a laugh, as in the list of high-tech electronics, luxury cars, and plenty of other astounding products, there is an unusual column of frog’s legs.

[Source: NEWSCIENTIST, WIKIPEDIA]

Our Eyes Are Always The Same Size From Birth

From the day we are born to the death, the size of our ear and nose keeps on increasing while the mass of eyes remains unchanged.

According to scientists our eyes remain the same in size throughout our life but our ears and nose keep gaining bits of mass as we grow older. This may sound a little disturbing because most of us want the exact opposite. We’re coveted to have bigger eyes but they never change size, and fairly smaller noses and ears but they disappoint us by growing throughout our lives.
Normally our nose grows slowly until about age 15 to 17 in women and about age 17 to 19 in men, says Rohrich, a specialist in the field. After these respective ages our noses keep on growing but at a very slow rate. And the growth of our noses is always downward because of the pull of gravity and the gradual breakdown of proteins, collagen and elastin in your skin, especially in the nasal tip.

It is a very important part of our body which lets us smell more than 10,000 scents. As for the ears, they get bigger by 0.22mm per year on average and the reason is almost the same as for the nose. The cartilage in the ears also keeps growing and gravity helps the enlargement too. As far as the eyes are concerned, they grow on average only by 7mm till you reach puberty. That is 40% growth in the size from the original. The eyes stop growing after puberty and if the eyes keep on growing, there’s always a risk of myopia or short-sightedness. So if you think about it, it’s to our advantage that our eyes don’t grow after puberty.

[Source: DOCTOROZ]

Vending Machine For Live Food

China has built a vending machine which dispenses real living crabs in a little plastic container at 30% less rate than usual.

One of the first vending machines was built by Hero of Alexandria, an engineer and mathematician. His machine works by accepting coins and dispensing holy water but later vending machines are used for dispensing canned food, beverages, monetary change etc. You may have heard of a vending machine which dispenses bananas in Japan but the guys in china came up with apparently more bizarre idea. They have built a vending machine which dispenses live crabs in a plastic container and they claim that the crabs are absolutely fresh. The science behind this odd vending machine is that the temperature inside the vending machine was kept at 5 degrees Celsius.

The temperature knocks the Shanghai hairy crabs in hibernation so that when the machine doles out a crab it wakes up from hibernation because of the change in temperature. The crab from the vending machine costs 30% less than the usual price because of the reduction in the cost of shop personnel. One of the sign on these vending machines indicates that if the crab is dead on arrival, we’ll give you three free crabs. The price ranges from 1.5 dollars to 7 dollars depending upon the size of the crab. This weird idea was headed by Shi Tuanjie Shi from the Twin Lakes Crab Co. and they are considering trying their machines in Japan too. These vending machines have been inaugurated at several underground stations in Nanjing and the company claims that they are selling hundreds of crabs by the day.

[Source: DAILYMAIL, GIZMODO]

Cute Looking Chick Thieves

When a Mother Penguin loses her chick, she’ll often try to steal from other female penguins living in the vicinity.

Penguins are cute and cuddly birds that live in the southern part of our globe, many of them in Antarctica. They are categorized as birds but they cannot fly. In fact, they are two legged and walk upright. There are many astonishing habits of penguins that are recorded and observed by zoologists, but perhaps the most amazing trait of female penguins is that they sometimes try to steal the chicks of other female penguins if they’ve lost theirs. Attempting to steal the chick is normally met with failure as other female penguins stay pretty close to their offspring and are aware of the possible dangers that surround their chicks.

Getting their hands on other chicks isn’t much of a feat for these fellers, as penguins tend to live and interact in large colonies. The fact mentioned above, was fortunately recorded on camera in a famous documentary called “March of Penguins” which showed a female penguin losing her eggs during a blizzard, who then tries to lessen her grief by stealing a chick from another penguin! An even more astounding scene was when the robbed mother cried in despair, other penguins prevented the affected mother from losing her chick as they defended the theft.

That particular zoologist and the world were overcome with amazement as this unprecedented nature of the penguin’s community was unfolded. Previously, such levels of cooperation were seen in bees, monkeys and ants, but to see such a traumatizing behaviour among these adorable species is just tremendous
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Breakup; It’s Not Just Psychological

A new study suggests the psychological hurt of a break up is just as real as a physical injury.

Just by reading the topic, it may seem odd because the setback a person has to face from a break-up is psychological whereas the damage caused by injury is physical. It wasn’t until quite recently that the logic behind this study is clearly unveiled.

The study took place in the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) where the conductors of the study used an MRI to monitor brain activity of participants while they played a simulating social rejection. According to scientists, there are two areas of the brain that respond to physical pain. These parts become active when a person is struck by social or romantic pain, such as being deceived or dumped by someone he/she loves. It was also discovered that the brain deals with both physical and mental pains in almost the same way which is to release a natural painkiller.

The scientists collected OPRM1, a pain gene, from the 122 participants and then check how they reacted in different scenarios. Their research also showed that different people have different levels of sensitivity towards social rejection.

We may use it as a metaphor that being rejected by a loved one is like being penetrated with a knife but in fact, the anguish of rejection can be just as painful.

Dr Geoff MacDonald, who is the head of the research team, concluded that it is not a coincidence that different people around the World use different physical metaphors to describe the pain of social rejection.

[Source: LOVEPANKY, TELEGRAPH]

Bill Gates – The World’s Best Philanthropist

Microsoft’s founder Bill Gates has given away $28 billion since 2007 and has saved approximately 6 million lives.

He is known as the founder of Microsoft, the world’s richest man, former CEO of Microsoft and plenty of other things. But one thing about his personality that’s missed many times is his interest and struggle for the welfare of humanity.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has donated 28 billion dollars in charitable works since 2007 which makes up 48% of Bill Gates’ net worth. The foundation works by bringing vaccines and improved healthcare facilities across the world especially in third world countries where such facilities and vaccines aren’t available. Funding such expensive projects is very difficult, even for some developed countries as they are too preoccupied in their own matters. This is why Bill Gates decided to take a stand and is still currently doing so.

Children across the world have given vaccines of potentially fatal diseases such as yellow fever, pneumonia, polio, whooping cough, HIB bacteria, measles and many more, saving at least six million lives over the past year and still counting. Bill Gates is not only donating his money to philanthropic causes but is also encouraging other fellow Americans to do the same. To do this he and his wife Melinda gates have created a foundation called the “Giving Pledge Foundation”.

Bill Gates also works and collaborates with international organizations such as United Nations, World Bank, UNICEF etc to provide cheap medicines to the third-world countries. The result of this effort forces the pharmaceutical companies to lower the cost of vaccines. Bill Gates has spent over 200 million dollars only for malarial vaccines so that they can be provided to third world countries.

Bill has joined the elite group of philanthropists which includes legendry donators such as Warren Buffett, Donna and Philip Berber and many more.

[Source: FRUGALDAD]