Thursday, April 21, 2005

Tribute to the blue-tongued monster


The Blue-tongued Skink (also called the blue tongue lizard) is an Australian lizard . It spends its days eating and sunning itself. At night it rests, sheltered in fallen logs or leaf litter. It is a relatively shy animal, but can put up a bold front when cornered; when threatened, it puffs up its body, sticks out its long, blue tongue, and hisses. The Blue-tongued Skink has a life span of up to 20 years.

Anatomy: Blue-tongued Skinks have a long, bright blue tongue, tiny legs, and a short tail which can break off and regrow. This skink grows up to 23.5 inches (60 cm) long.

Diet : Blue-tongued Skinks are omnivores (they eat meat and plants). They eat small animals (like insects, worms, and snails) and flowers, fruits and berries.

Habitat: Blue-tongued Skinks are native to Australia . They live in a variety of habitats, including grasslands , forests, rainforests , and deserts . They are now found all over the world as pets.

Reproduction: Blue-tongued Skink give birth to 6 to 12 live young. Newborns are about 4 inches (10 cm) long and weigh about 0.5 ounce (14 grams).

Classification: Class Reptilia (reptiles ), Order Squamata (lizards and snakes ), Family Scincidae (skinks), Genus Tiliqua , Species scincoides.

Adapted from: http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects
/reptiles/lizard/Bluetonguedskink.shtml

Monday, April 04, 2005

Fear the fantastic

TOP FEARS:
1)Spiders
2)Fear of people or social situations
3)Fear of flying
4)Fear of open spaces
5)Claustrophobia
6)Vomiting
7)Heights
8)Cancer
9)Lightning
10)Death
(http://hub.lcp.linst.ac.uk/archive/gmd2002/
keythemes/phobia/topten.html)

TOP FEARS AMONG CHILDREN
1)Losing parents
2)Going blind
3)Academic attainment
4)Wetting in class
5)Parental rows
6)Caught stealing
7)Suspected of lying
8)Losing a friend
9)Being sent to bed
10)Having an operation
11)Getting lost
12)Ridiculed in class
13)New school
14)Scary dreams
15)No parties/dates
16)Picked last in team
17)School report
18)Losing in games
19)Going to dentist
20)New baby
[http://www.motherhood.com.sg/articles/growingpains/
20000807/0087125832/0087125832_1.asp]

Personally my major fears would be:
1) Dieing alone
2) Getting Paralyzed, or some slow irreversible disease
3) Going blind
4) Not achieving anything of worth in life
5) Drowning

6) Breaking my teeth

Friday, April 01, 2005

Twins?

I have two friends who insist they are brothers. The thing is they look nothing alike. So the other day I was sitting in the bus, and I began wondering how I might disprove their claim. The first thought which came to mind was asking them what year they were born in. If they both said they were both born in 1987, it would mean they were twins, and that would be too blatant a lie.

Then I realized that, that wasn't all true. Being born in the same year and being siblings didn’t necessarily mean they were twins. For e.g.: Janine could have been born on the 1st on January, and 9 months later her baby brother Christopher. So actually siblings could be born in the same year without being twins.