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Thursday, June 5, 2008

Jaipur, India - The Boiling Moon & Sapphire Writes (Poems)

The Boiling Moon
(April, 1998)

It was a still night, in Jaipur. No clocks ticking,

it is close to two in the morning. The sound of crickets,

dogs guarding, sleepers snoring, sleeping on cots

by the streets outside the hotel: half naked

light blankets over their lower bodies and heads;

dogs nearby, itching, lightly barking, no one wakes,

a hundred people under the boiling moon,

they have no sense of time, just bull snorts,

and dogs barking, of course. I'm the only one

babbling to myself in this empty night, watching

tranquil sleepers-breath in and breath out.

-I walk by them, three dogs corner me,

they look hungry, stained somehow,

with bitter mouths, saliva dribbling, their eyes

starving to attack, yet they hold back.

I'm sweating, my teeth grinding, and my belly's tight;

the old Hindu by the hotel, the guard, he hears

the excitement in the dark, he's coming, running

I have rocks in my hands, and so does he.

Crash! Crash! I throw, and he throws, its

sufficient to scare the dogs off. ((I have pain in my

kidney.) We, we finish up, at a Hindu shrine,

I'm thanking God, for his immortality

(had it not been, that he was on hand,

I'm not sure what then.)(I'm thankful for

The old Hindu Guard...! That he was alarmed.))

I'm not sure what the old Hindu man was saying,

but was doing what was doing, bowing, praying

and praising...!

#2287 ((1:59 AM)(2-27-2008)) Mark Twain once said in so many words: India was a most beautiful place, it is like a circus. I agree it is most beautiful, during the day, try the late hours of night 2:30 AM (or is it the wee hours of the morning), in any case, it is a different world then. In Agra, in the late night, cows and folks sleep on the streets, as they do in Jaipur, as in Delhi, women and children eat out of garbage piles by the hotels. Thus, things are not so beautiful, unless you hide inside the hotel, or go with the flow, on the tourist bus.

Sapphire
writes:

"...What's happening to the world?

Why are people being so

mean and ungrateful?"

Perhaps Sapphire, they

have a hole in their hearts

where God is suppose to be.

Or possibly the world was

always like this, and we were

too blind to see (that I don't

want to believe). Whatever,

when we were young, or at

least me, the world you

talk about, seemed more

pleasant, less surreal;

now all I can say,

Sapphire is, welcome,

to the reptile

family).

#2305 3-3-2008 Sapphire, was is a person whom asked
me a question by writing a comment to me in July, 2007,
I believe the date is correct, and this is my response.

See Dennis' web site: http://dennissiluk.tripod.com

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General Facts About Snakes

In the previous section I covered the history of snakes, how they got to be what they are now. But what are they? How do they live their lives, where do they live? This is what I'll address in this section.

Snakes have a long, narrow body. Their internal organs are made to fit their long and narrow body type. Snakes have only one functioning lung, so it's vital that their environment is clean and not polluted.

An interesting fact to know; to find out how many "vertabreas" the snake has, you can count the number of belly scales. Usually there will be a new scale for each vertebrea. It's jaw is evolved so that the snake can swallow prey many times its size. The bottom part of the jaw is not locked together, as it is in most other animals, but it can be separated into two parts. This way its mouth can open up, swallow the prey, and then pull its jaw together again. When the snake does this, it looks like it's yawning, opening the mouth up wide and shutting it again.

Their vision is just awesome, they don't see like we do; rather they see heat and movements. They also don't hear anything but very low frequencies, so talking to a snake will not work. You can shout you lungs out, the snake cannot hear you. It does however feel the vibration, so stomping your feet in the ground will definitely get its attention. If you ever seen a cobra hypnotized by someone playing a flute, you can be sure that the person is stomping his foot in the ground or similar, as the snake would not hear the flute.

The males have two reproductive organs, the hemipenes. During mating only one will actually carry sperm. With young snakes you can sex the snakes by "popping" them. That means that to check for a male you pop out the hemipenes by applying pressure to the bottom of the tail. If done wrong this can hurt the snake and make it infertile, so you should always have someone show you how to do it before attempting. This cannot be done with other then very young snakes. The males are usually a little wider around the vent area before the tail narrows down quickly (because of the hemipenes inside), while in the females the tail narrows down more evenly. But this can be very difficult to see with the naked eye, so the best way to sex a snake is by "probing". Proping is where you stick a probe into the snake's vent and see how far in it goes before you meet resistance. In males the hemipenes makes the probe go in further then in the female.

When it comes to birth, snakes are not good parents. The fathers are completely absent, he impregnates the female and leaves. The female then either lays her eggs, or has live babies. Pythons and corn snakes lay eggs, while boas have live babies. Some snakes lay ontop of the eggs till they hatch, actually regulating the temperature for them, while others such as the corn snake just lays them and leaves. A pregnant snake is said to be "gravid". After the babies are born or hatched they are on their own. This might be natures way of regulating the snake population, because a snake can have very many babies! However, without any help from the parents most don't make it. For these it really is survival of the fittest, but also alot of luck!

Skin and Shedding

Snake skin is scaly, but not slimy which is a very common misconception. Snakes are NOT worms!

Their skin is built up by scales, which help the snake's movement by gripping the surface. As new cells grow under the snake's skin, the new cells push the old cells up, creating a transparent skin. When the snake grows and the top layer of skin is being pushed even further, the snake goes through a process of shedding.

The shedding has several phases; first the skin becomes rough and the snake's belly usually turns pinkish. Then its eyes reach the "opaque" stage, its eyes turns blue and the snake is basically blind for a few days. This is because the snake is shedding the layer over its eyes. Then the snake starts looking normal again, and it's very hard to see that it's shedding. Next thing is to rub its skin against the surface, rocks etc, to push off the skin from head to tail. It looks like a sock thats pulled off, ending up inside out. The snake's skin is supposed to come off in one piece. Young snakes shed often; every month or two. When they get older their grow rate decreases, and they shed more rarely. Although they do most of their growing in the first couple of years, snakes never stop growing. Adult snakes shed a couple of times a year. Shedding is also very important in getting rid of parasites.Habitat

Snakes can now be found throughout the world, the only place there are no snakes is in the arctic region. They are such adaptable creatures, there just isn't any comparison to their success. They live in deserts, cities, oceans, lakes, forests, mountains, savannas, rain forests etc. The list could go on and on. Snakes are everywhere.

Snakes in cooler areas usually go into a sort of hibernation during the wintertime, called brumation. Unlike hibernation where pretty much everything shuts down and wakes up again in spring, brumation is what you could call "do nothing". All the body functions are intact and the snake even moves around a little bit. However, it mostly lays there and waits for spring. Usually the snake chooses a place underground, so that it can stay as warm as possible during winter. Almost every snake that lives in an area with cool temperatures during winter brumates, otherwise it would not survive.

There are many places where snakes that are not native to the area have been introduced, and now they are thriving. In many cases this proves a real challenge to the natural ecosystem, as the new snakes push other species out, or the simple fact that humans do not want them there. This is why people who have snakes, cannot just go to the park and drop them off! I cannot stress this enough, just watch what's happened in the Everglades in Florida. Now there are anacondas and reticulated pythons breeding in an area where they do not belong, because careless owners who were faced with snakes they couldn't handle or didn't want let them loose. These kinds of actions can have fatal consequences.

Diet

All snakes are carnivorous, but the diet varies greatly depending on habitat and size. Most eat rodents; mice, rats, rabbits, gerbils etc. Others eat fish, eggs, lizards and even other snakes. The very big species can eat pretty much everything from hippos to crocs.

Snakes are amazing in terms of patience, they can lay in one spot for days, just waiting for a prey to pass by. If a prey comes by, the snake will use its attack method, whether it is constriction or venom, to kill it.

Snakes cannot taste anything, and does not chew. There is more about how snakes are able to swallow a prey many times its size in the anatomy section, but basically its bottom jaw gets separated in two while eating, and muscle movements help the snake swallow. The teeth are pointed towards the back of its mouth, so when a prey is bitten it's almost impossible for it to escape. The more the prey tries to push itself out, the better grip the snake gets. It's so clever, and so simple. Anyone who has ever been bitten by a snake, knows that trying to pull the finger out of it's mouth rarely works. To get your finger loose, you actually have to push it further into the mouth to get loose from the grip, and then open the mouth and your free.

If the prey poses no threat, such as a pinkie mouse, the snake will usually not bother to waste energy killing it, but rather swallows it alive.

After the snake has eaten it's time for it to digest its food. This is very important and the snake cannot be bothered during this process. This process usually takes around 48 hours, and if the snake feels threatened, the prey is too big, or the weather isn't warm enough it will regurgitate (throw up). Regurgitation is a serious thing for all snakes, their systems basically gets turned upside down. The best thing to do after a regurge is to wait at least ten days before trying to feed again. How often a snake eats varies from specie to specie. Very often the males (sometimes females) fast around breeding season no matter if they actually breed or not. Snakes might also not eat if they are shedding.

Physics - Magnetism and How it Works

Since our beginnings, mankind has always known about magnets and knew that, based on their position, magnets can either attract or repel one another and that they attract objects made out of iron. However, beforehand, no one could explain why it was like this or could not think how to make practical use out of them.

Today however, we know that there are magnetic areas of microscopic size in many substances. If they are oriented identically, they become magnetic, creating around themselves a magnetic field. If we place such an object in close proximity to another magnetic object, they either attract or repel one another, depending on whether the respective magnetic fields are identically or oppositely oriented.

Magnetic fields are not in any major way influenced by their surroundings and, contrary to sound, work in a vacuum. Furthermore, the magnetic material within them can neither be removed nor changed.

A compass using a magnetic needle was the first and, for a long time, the only practical use of magnets. The Chinese apparently discovered the magnet several thousand years ago, the Europeans only until a few hundred years ago. A compass needle is a small magnet which easily rotates and which orients itself according to the magnetic field of the earth, in a north/south direction. Besides the position of the stars, compasses were for a long time the only navigational aid used by sailors.

The magnetic field of the earth is created by the convection (flow) of molten iron in the earth's core. The geographical and magnetic poles are not exactly the same and the magnetic north pole is close to the earth's geographic south pole.

At present, mostly only electromagnets are used in technical practice because they are more effective and their strength and orientation can be easily regulated.

An electromagnet is composed of an electrical conductor wound around a core, usually made of iron. If a current passes through this winding (electrical coil), a magnetic field is created relating to the iron core and electromagnetic fields are located on its ends. If the size of the current or its direction changes, the strength of the magnetic field changes as well, or its polarity is reversed. As soon as a current stops passing through the coil, the magnetic effect ceases.

Electric motors, electric relays and loud speakers all operate on this principle.

Artificially created magnetic fields are also used for storing data. Cassettes, diskettes and hard drives all store information magnetically. In these case, however, it is important that the information stored on them remain protected even once the electrical current is disconnected, in order that its data do not get erased. This is accomplished by using several protective layers made from special materials.

Magnetism
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When Is the Best Time to Start Setting Up a Garden Pond?

Garden ponds are stunning water features that can add a lot of excitement to a yard or garden. There are a lot of considerations to make when installing a garden pond on your property, and it is important to put a lot of research into your pond development and creation, otherwise you may make a fatal mistake that destroys the quality of your pond, or the fish or plant life that depend on it to thrive.

One of the most important considerations to make when setting a garden pond up on your property is when the best time is during the year. The best time of the year for you to build a garden pond is in November, or in other words during the end of the fall and the beginning of the winter. While this may seem like an odd time to create a pond that will be dedicated to fish and plant life, there are some very specific reasons for why this is.

By setting your pond up at the end of the fall or in the beginning of the winter, you are giving your pond ample time to settle down before the spring time comes. Fish depend on certain healthy bacteria and algae that need to grow before the water is ready for them.

By setting the plant life up in your pond during this period of time, you are giving it ample time to begin growing and flourishing before the animal life begins to thrive there. When you introduce animal life to your pond in the spring time, like fish or fowl, your pond will already be well established.

Keeping true to the point mentioned just above, if you build your pond in the spring and immediately introduce animal life, you will find the animals are not getting what they need from the pond. If the pond is not properly set up, fish life will not flourish there. If there are no thriving natural elements, wild animals will not visit your pond.

When it comes to setting up a garden pond, there should be no doubt that the most ideal time to set things up is during the end of the fall, in about November. This way, by the time winter becomes spring, the pond will be well established and prepared to accept animal life of many varieties. You will find your natural garden pond attracting birds, amphibians and reptiles. If you implement fish life in your pond, they will thrive better because the water will have "set up" with the right healthy bacteria, algae and other important elements.

You should know by now that there are certain times where it is beneficial to implement a garden pond on your property, and certain times where it is simply better for you to wait. If you want your garden pond to thrive, this is absolutely the best way to achieve it. The animals that thrive on your garden pond will certainly be thankful that you waited.

Derek Rogers is a freelance writer who represents a number of UK businesses. For garden ponds, he recommends Seapets, one of the UK's leading suppliers of pond supplies.

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Ferret Disease And Illness

Some people look at me like Im crazy when I say I love my ferret, but I do, and they can think what they want. My little guy brings me hours of enjoyment and sunshine to my gray days. The last thing in the world I want is for him to get sick, yet its a fact of life and in order to offer the best care (and quality of life), you have to keep an eye on whats going on in their ferret worlds.

FERRET CARE NOTE: If you suspect your ferret is sick, take him to the veterinarian as soon as possible. Do not try to treat him at home.

What Im going to discuss below isnt fun, Id much rather be writing about their fun, frolicking ways, but to ensure those lovable characteristics continue, keep an eye on your ferrets health. Like most medical problems, if you catch them early, your veterinarian will have the best chance at a successful remedy.

FERRET FACTS:

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Sub-Phylum: Vertibrata

Class: Mamalia

Sub-Class: Eutheria

Order: Carnivora

Family: Mustelidae

Sub-Family: Mustelinae

Genus: Mustela

Species: Mustela Putorius Furo

Ferrets are susceptible to multiple diseases, and depending on their lineage, they could adrenal gland disease, pancreatic tumors, lymphosarcoma or heart disease. And heres something I only found out recently, ferrets can catch a human cold. No one likes a cold, but with bed rest and some TLC (tender loving care) youll soon be good as new, not so with your ferret. Ferrets have weak immune systems and if they were to catch your cold; it could prove fatal. If youre sick, refrain from handling your ferret till youre better.

Ask yourself this question, Do you like extremes of heat and cold? No..., well neither does your ferret; they have a low tolerance to extremes of heat or cold, so keep them in an area where temperatures stay consistent. Im sure its common sense that you MUST keep fresh water available at all times, the little fellas can easily become dehydrated which can lead to a score of ferret medical problems.

FERRET FACT; Ferrets do not tolerate temperatures above 85 degrees well and may become lethargic.

Recently we had some friends over and grilled some big juicy steaks. So what you say... I didnt invite you? Sorry about that, I only mention steaks to remind you that ferrets need a high protein diet and snack pretty much constantly throughout the day. That coupled with an active (to say it mildly) digestive system, and you need to keep their food bowl food, and litter box clean and free from waste.

Do you like to give your ferret treats? Dont worry, Im guilty too, but do it in moderation and NEVER give them chocolate or sugary treats, keeping it to meat, grains and small bits of fruit will help them lead a disease free life. Oh... and before I forget, milk... does a body right does NOT apply to ferrets, they are lactose intolerant.

While we may not be able to prevent disease in our ferret friends, we can provide them a loving, safe and clean environment, ensuring a healthy, fun and frolicking life.

Lee Dobbins write for ePet Pet Center where you can learn more about caring for all different types of pets including pet ferrets.

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