Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Wordless Wednesday

Photobucket

The Maibaum or Maypole in Laaber..
I will try to give you a bit history of Maypole in Germany hopefully tomorrow..
My days are still busy...busy..busy...might l visit you next week again!!
3 sleeps more and will be my flight to US..
Have a great evening everyone!!

Bees Learn Thievery

Even the pinhead-sized brains of insects can learn new skills from their comrades - including theft.

It seems bumblebees can discover how to "rob" flowers of nectar, scientists now reveal.

Normally bumblebees crawl into flowers to get a nectar. In return for this sweet treat, blossoms coat the insects in pollen, which contains plant sperm. When these bees rendezvous with other flowers, they serve as couriers of this pollen, helping the plants breed.

However, bees can bite through the base of a flower to suck up nectar instead, avoiding the pollen altogether. Since they get something for nothing this way - drinking nectar without helping the flowers mate - such behavior can be seen as theft. The bees may commit such an act to get nectar from blossoms they could not fit into, or just to get more nectar than possible by normal means.

Now it appears that bumblebees can quickly learn how to rob flowers if they visit blossoms that others have already burglarized. The bees could learn how to commit such theft by themselves, but this was rare. But, after one bee learned how to rob nectar by watching its comrades, the skill rapidly spread to other bees.

It was long known that bees could learn simple facts from each other - such as where food is, for instance - but the discovery that insects can learn skills from others is a first.

"It was actually first suggested in one of Darwin's journals. He saw bumblebees robbing flowers in a garden one day, and saw honeybees doing something similar afterward," said researcher Ellouise Leadbeater, a behavioral ecologist at Queen Mary, University of London. "That led us to our work."

The brains of bumblebees are a little larger than 1 cubic millimeter in size, or nearly one-millionth the size of a human brain.

"It's interesting to see what you can do with a small brain," Leadbeater told LiveScience. "But then again, it may be that you just don't need to be very clever to learn a simple technique like this."

In the future, research could see if bumblebees could teach other species of bees how to rob nectar. Other insects that could learn skills from within or outside their species might include ants, Leadbeater speculated.

Leadbeater and her colleague Lars Chittka detailed their findings online April 23 in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.


news: yahoo.com

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Joke Time!!

Problem Solving

There are four engineers traveling in a car; a mechanical engineer, a chemical engineer, an electrical engineer and a computer engineer. The car breaks down.

"Sounds to me as if the pistons have seized. We'll have to strip down the engine before we can get the car working again", says the mechanical engineer.

"Well", says the chemical engineer, "it sounded to me as if the fuel might be contaminated. I think we should clear out the fuel system."

"I thought it might be an grounding problem", says the electrical engineer, "or maybe a faulty plug lead."

They all turn to the computer engineer who has said nothing and say: "Well, what do you think?"

"Ummm, perhaps if we all get out of the car and get back in again?"

Ice Age relic at risk from warmer temps

WASHINGTON (UPI) -- U.S. conservationists said they're studying musk ox to determine how the relics of the Ice Age may be affected by climate change.

The Wildlife Conservation Society -- working with the National Park Service, U. S. Geological Survey and Alaska Fish and Game -- has equipped six musk ox with GPS collars as part of a four-year study to determine the extent to which weather, disease and predation may be driving populations, the WCS said Friday in a release.

"Musk ox are a throwback to our Pleistocene heritage and once shared the landscape with mammoths, wild horses and sabered cats," study leader Joel Berger, a professor at the University of Montana, said in a statement. "They may also help scientists understand how arctic species can or cannot adapt to climate change."


Copyright 2008 by United Press International
arcamax.com

Viruses may be linked to lung cancer

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (UPI) -- U.S. and Israeli researchers suggest viruses may have a role in the development of lung cancer.

The researchers all agree smoking is by far the most important risk factor for lung cancer, but Dr. Arash Resazadeh and colleagues from the University of Louisville, Ky., found five out of 22 non-small-cell lung cancer samples tested positive for human papilloma virus.


"We think HPV has a role as a co-carcinogen which increases the risk of cancer in a smoking population," Resasadeh said in a statement.

In another study, Samuel Ariad from Soroka Medical Center in Beer Sheva, Israel, and colleagues found more than half of the 65 patients with non-small-cell lung cancer had evidence of measles virus in tissue samples taken from their cancer.

In his study, Ariad found the "measles virus is a ubiquitous human virus that may be involved in the pathogenesis of lung cancer. Most likely, it acts in modifying the effect of other carcinogens and not as a causative factor by itself."

Both studies have been presented at the First European Lung Cancer Conference in Geneva, Switzerland, jointly organized by the European Society for Medical Oncology and the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer.


Copyright 2008 by United Press International
arcamax.com

Trivia Time!!

What makes an ale an ale?

Ales usually have a fuller flavor and body than lagers or pilsner. The length of time the malt is roasted determines the color and flavor of the ale. Pale ales have malts that are dried rather than roasted. Therefore, they have a light gold or copper color and a crisp, lighter flavor.


Which state is highest in cremations?

Hawaii has the highest percentage of cremations of all other U.S. states, with a 60.6 percent preference over burial.


Do bison roam on Catalina Island?

Off the coast of southern California, around 200 bison still roam in Catalina Island's hinterlands, descendants of a few brought there in the 1920s for a movie and left there.


How popular was Grapeade?

In 1918, Welch's developed its first jam product called "Grapelade." The initial quantity of Grapelade was purchased in its entirety by the U.S. Army. It was an immediate hit in the military lower ranks, and became a demanded product by doughboys when they returned to civilian life.


What does a porcupine do during mating season?

During the mating season, male porcupines bristle their quills at each other and chatter their teeth in rage before attacking. All porcupines at this time become very vocal: grunting, whining, chattering, even barking and mewing at each other.


source: www.arcamax.com

Monday, April 28, 2008

Party for Maria!!

We got a baby shower party for Maria today...guess also my Despedida in going to the States....5 sleeps more and it will be my flight already..will have a vacation there for two months or more maybe...not so sure..I will see what happen there!! As there will be a lot of things that will be happening and sometimes we really don't can forecast them...unless maybe you are a fortune teller???huh??

Back to the party...we got a good afternoon...Filipino party will never be successful without lot of food...aha!! Each and everyone cooked and brought their own menu!! here they are in the photos!! Thanks to Lily who organized the baby shower..Maria was very happy and I guess everybody who was there...not really that much people are there....

I am also happy to be there seeing friends like Maria, Lucil, Lily, Girlie and Emily..I just met the last two for some months and just seen them maybe 2-3 times..Maria is the first Filipina I met here in Germany..She's like a sister to me already..I am just happy that she got a family now and a forth coming baby in June!!

It's nice talking to them once again as we also seldom met and gather together....I don't know when I will be meeting them again..esp. that I am leaving some days from now!! Please visit also my Euroangel Graffiti for some photos of today's happenings!!

It was really a great day!! Bye! bye for now!! promise to go to bed early..so I can also wake-up early tomorrow to do a lot of things before I fly!!!

Take care everyone!!

food we had today..lumpia (Girlie), pakbet and beef apritada (Emily), dinuguan and menudo(me), rice brocolli, Fil. spaghetti, cakes (Lily)..Maria brought some fish again and I cooked it as Paksiw and Fish with gata and beans...yummy again!!

the tropa...Lily, Girlie, Jasmine, Emily and me..
sino ba naman ang papayat pag ganito parati ang pagkain!!! ano ba yan!!
(who's getting slim if the foods are always like these)
what do you think???

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