That part sounds a little scary when I read what this country was no more than 20 years ago. In 1970s the Khmer Rouge had started to take over the country part by part. Khmer Rouge was a communist party established in 1950s and later supported by People's Republic of China. Their leader was an infamous PolPot. In 1960s Cambodia was sucked into Vietnam conflict with US and because of it communists from Vietnam were pushed into Cambodia. That lead to brutal war on Cambodian territory and ended in 1975 when Khmer Rouge began revolution. This was a start of one of the most bloody revolutions ever in the world. Money was abolished. People were forced to move away from cities because of a threat of starvation. But this was done cruelly and brutally with tortures and executions. Thousands of people who speak foreign languages or wore spectacles (!) were marked as parasites and systematically killed. It is estimated that something around 2 million people were killed during 4 years of Khmer Rouge between 1975 and 1979. In 1978 Vietnam overthrown Khmer Rouge. Following years can be characterized as chaos, famine and guerilla war led by Khmer Rouge and financed by China and Thailand.
In 1991 both sides met in Paris and this led to a peace treaty and elections in 1993. Constitution was adopted, and Norodom Sihanouk became king once again after 20 years. After that situation has changed, but Vietnam had some power in Cambodia nonetheless because of second prime minister being in their hands. The sad part is that there seems to be no chance for a trial of people responsible for above mentioned tragic events. Pol Pot is dead since 1998.
But, of course, Cambodia isn't just the history. Nowadays more and more people move to cities and parties that seem less radical become popular. This doesn't seem to change in days. There are elections, but there's only one party that controls military, police and judiciary. Corruption is also a huge problem. Despite this depressing diagnosis, life is improving for many Cambodians. Economy raises despite the government. Tourism and regional investors are the ones to thank for that.
I really don't know much about Cambodia in terms of very interesting things to see. But there's one thing that looks and sounds more than great. Angkor Wat or Angkor temples in general are what seems to be a must-see place. If it's not the biggest it is surely one of the biggest religious buildings in the world. It was built about 800 years ago. In that time Angkor was a city with about million inhabitants. It was a capital city of empire stretching from Burma to Vietnam.
It's the end of this journey and I hope that you didn't get bored much.
1. Would you be so kind and recommend me some interesting places in Cambodia? 2. Do you know any stories about Cambodia?
Hi everyone, in the last part of my presentation I would like to tell you about keeping dangerous exotic animals at home. I suppose that many of you know at least several dangerous reptiles and know that some of them can be venomous and their venom can kill even a huge animal. Do you remember the case of 73 years old woman from Wrocław, who found two-meters anaconda in her toilet? The/That Snake had traveled into the sewer pipes before the old woman found him.
This picture present two-meters anaconda from the woman’s toilet.
Fortunately, this story had a happy end. The snake didn’t do anything bad to the woman, and the woman to the snake. She kept her head, called the police and they took the unusual visitor to the zoo. Police still doesn’t know whether snake escaped from someone home or someone threw him out.
This movie present that an anaconda best hunts by natgeotv.com
On this page you can read about venomous snake which bit a woman in the USA.
We can find a similar story on the Internet. Some woman had a python molurus (it’s a snake that usually achieves five-meters). She didn’t hold it in any container. The snake was crawling around the house, warming up on the window sills and sleeping convoluted in the owner’s bed. After a few months the snake stopped eating and the woman took him to the vet. The vet said that everything is ok and the snake is healthy. Two nights later woman woke up at night and saw that the snake lies next to her - it looked like a stick. The scared woman took the snake to the vet again and told him what happened at night. This time the vet recognize that it is typical for a snake which wants to eat a big victim. In this case it would be the owner and its strange behavior was associated with it. It was sleeping straight, and not convoluted as usual, because it wanted to know if it is long enough. It was also preparing his stomach for taking in a huge piece of food.
I have no idea how much truth is in this story but I heard it and I think that it’s possible.
This movie present how long can be a python molurus
Not only snakes can be dangerous. One of my friend has got nine spiders (five of them are venomous), two snakes and seven piranhas. One of the venomous spiders bit him when he was fedding it. This day he wasn’t alone at home and only that saved his life. His adventure with the spider was not the only one dangerous moment, sometimes he gets bitten by his piranhas;).
Questions: 1.) What do you think about keeping venomous animals at home? 2.) Have you heard any other dangerous story with exotic animals? 3.) What do you think about keeping huge snakes? 4.) Go to this webpage(http://www.toptenz.net/10-dangerous-exotic-pets.php). Do you agree with this list?
Last time I told you a little about first part of the journey that I'm planning to take next year. Now it's the time to use a plane from Thailand to Vietnam and check what's interesting there.
Maybe it's a thing that I should be ashamed of, but nonetheless I'll tell you this. For me, Vietnam was like in all those movies showing Vietnam War. I knew that this probably isn't true nowadays, but I wasn't aware of the fact that it's such a developed country now. With the end of Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union, Vietnam attracted many foreign investors. It's a situation little like in Poland where there was a rapid economical and social change because of sudden opening to the world. The two biggest cities have totally above 13 million residents. Vietnam is 13th most populated country and probably moving up. What's astounding is that 65% of population is below the age of 30. Those young people move to big cities leaving their plains to elders
What's interesting, is that Vietnam is one big governmental paradox in which communist government mixes with capitalist economy. There's only one party and organisations that aren't connected with it, aren't permitted to take part in elections. Press and TV is controlled by government by licenses. That's more or less like in China, where communism seems like just the long-lasting word that means just one party with all the power thanks to huge amounts of money pumped by big companies. Moreover, US Department of State has desribed Vietnam as a place of seroious abuses of human rights. This doesn't seem to change rapidly and it's really hard to tell what's there ahead of them.
But that's not everything that Vietnam is. Geography is what makes it such a great place. Especially the coastline seems like it was designed for tourism. It's 3400 long with sweeping beaches, towering cliffs, marvelous dunes and countless uninhabited islands along its length. Most part of the country is covered with hills or mountains. What's especially interesting for me, is the karst formation which generally creates underground rivers, caves and all other things that may be formed by erosion. What's sad is that environmental awareness in Vietnam is very low and more and more wildlife is declining. Deforestration is probably the biggest problem connected with nature. It is estimated that there's less than half of forests that were there 50 years ago.
Maybe it's not a thing that many people think about when going somewhere, but I'm much into national cuisines everytime I go somewhere. Vietnam is not an exception. What seems great is the culture of eating that may be described in one of the proverbs which is 'learn to eat before learning to speak.' There are plenty of things in Vietnamese dish, but as the land gives rice and the sea brings fish, they both form the bedrock of local menu. Rice is a basis of wine, noodles, wrappers and probably everything you can imagine. It's not surprising that Vietnam competes with Thailand for being the biggest rice producer in the world. It's also not so hard to imagine that such a long coastline brings a great variety of fish and similar things.
For me, Vietnam seems interesting because of all those things described above. This paradox of capitalised communism combined with astonishing geographical and cultural environment makes me interested in visiting Vietnam.
Thanks for your patience ;)
1. Did you know that Vietnam is such a communist country nowadays?
2. Do you know of any interesting places there?
3. Do you wish to see a country that offers above-mentioned things?
As I mentioned in the first presentation in this part I would like to share with you what fascinates me in these small dragons;). It’s started when my first gecko molted. At the beginning my gecko was yellow with gray stripes and after molt, the stripes changed into black spots.
This picture presents my gecko before first molt.
And this picture presents my gecko after first molt.
At the beginning I thought that my gecko is sick and has some kind of rash. Immediately I sat at the computer and searched something about these spots at the Internet. After reading a few pages about leopard gecko and their illnesses I found the answers;). Theses spots are normal for that type of lizard. Geckos are the only lizards that come in different coats. Most of young geckos are identical and have yellow “skin” with black or gray stripes, which after few molts change to spots or completely disappear. Chance to obtain interesting coat colors is what makes so many people interested in these lizards. Breeders from around the world compete with each other in getting newer and newer coats, with different qualities of coloration and they give them various names, sometimes strange. Thanks to many years of selection individuals for breeding they created such surprising leopard gecko breeds such as: hybino, carrottail, carrothead or midnight. The most amazing breeds are: raptor, aptor and amazing Diablo Blanco which have different skin and eye color and pattern.
This picture presents young Hybino which as adult looks like this:
Carrothead
Carrottail
Midnight
Raptor
Aptor
Diablo blanco
As you can see in the above pictures top, leopard geckos have many amazing colors. You can take a look at other interesting pictures of cool gecko in the videos released by one of the largest Polish breeders who has over a thousand different leopards.
And on the colleague’s website who have very rare and colorful geckos http://www.ultimategeckos.com/collection Gecko’s genes are responsible for their colours. Breeders combine only those leopard which have different features and as a result they get new ones with other characteristics. Unusual genetics of these animals allow for the mixing of genes responsible for the color and pattern coloration.
Scientists have proved that the temperature of eggs incubation is responsible for their color. Eggs that were incubated at low temperature give gecko with darker coloration while eggs which have been in higher temperature give geckos with brighter color.
These lizards can change their color themselves and it depends on what they are doing at the moment. When the gecko is curious or visited a foreign area – it becomes brighter, and when its concerned or has a bad health condition – it becomes darker. This is because geckos have special cells in the skin which expand or shrink at the order of their nervous system. To understand the inheritance characteristics of color and crosses geckos we would need to recall the basic concepts of genetics. But I will not describe it because it’s a topic for a long book ;) However, I encourage you to read a simple description which can be found at this site: http://gekonlamparci.com/index.php?page=genetyka I also encourage you to review this website http://www.leopardgecko.yoyo.pl/odmiany.html where you can find most of gecko types and information how they were obtained. Lots of interesting pictures of amazing geckos can be found on this wiki page http://www.leopardgeckowiki.com/index.php?title=Category:Morphs As a curiosity I would like to tell you that leopard geckos have different traits and it depends on which type they are. For example white & yellow are more quiet and trusting while ‘enigmas’ are nervous and timid. At the end I would like to show you a funny behavior of these lizards. Scared Gecko:
Yawning gecko:
The reason I became interested in these lizards is the possibility to obtain various types of color and character.
I spent lots of time on reading and writing about it. Based on my notes and results of genetic calculation I complement my geckos and at this moment I have seven different geckos. My interest in these reptiles makes my friends thinks I'm crazy;). But I feel like a child again, one who explores the world around;)
Questions:
1.) On this picture you can see my geckos baby . Pleas propose my how can I call them;)? 2.)Please visit one of the webpage with different gecko morph, choose the prettiest one and write why do you like it? 3.)What do You think about experimentation with gecko genetics? Do you believe that they may end with something badly? 4.)What do You think about keeping large numbers of geckos by one breeder? 5.)Did you like gecko's funny behavior? 6.)Many times I heard that Diablo Blanco geckos can look scared. Pleas tell me what do You think about this morph.
Hello all again ;)! This time, I would like to present you my new hobby. Though the plans and dreams were already there for a long time, just about a year ago I decided to take care of it. Well, maybe not completely decided, because the decision was made for me but it doesn’t matter. Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you leopard gecko;)
About Gecko Eublepharis macularius is the Latin name of this species of lizards and it means ‘Spotted with real eyelids’. The term ‘spotted’ comes from the coloring of geckos which live in the wild.
This picture presents leopard gecko in the wild.
The last part of the original Latin name tells us that this lizard sleeps with closed eyes and it’s unique.
This picture presents sleeping leopard gecko.
Eublepharis gecko inhabits deserts and semi-arid mountainous areas of minor and central Asia. Many times I have heard that ‘geckos are slippery’, sometimes it looks like they are, but in reality their body is covered with tiny scales which aren’t slippery. We can distinguish lots of color varieties, but many young leopards look almost the same. With age their coloration changes. This happens when the geckos grow while their skin doesn’t grow with them. Then they need to shed the old one. Under the old skin is already a new one, more colorful and intense, with slightly new patterns. During molting, gecko rubs on rough surfaces. Geckos eat their old skin after dumping to obtain proteins and vitamins that are needed for their growth. Some believe that they do it in order to remove the traces of their presence.
These movies show leopard gecko during the skin change known as molting.
Leopard geckos are typically small lizards. Hatchlings tend to measure from 6.5 to 8.4 cm in length and weighing about 3 grams while the adult geckos are about 20 to 27.5 cm in length and weigh from around 45 to 65 grams. The biggest one has more then 35 cm and weighs over 250gram (which is more than three times more than normal one). Before buying leopard gecko you should know that theses lizards live up to 20-25 years ;). Quite a lot :D.
This picture presents ‘Super Gian’ leopard.
Many of my friends ask me about geckos and they want to know if geckos are dangerous? I tell them that these lizards aren’t dangerous, they are calm. Leopard Geckos are animals that have quite temperament but they aren’t dangerous. They can be nervous and aggressive only when disturbed. In these situations they usually escape or change they posture. Leopards look very funny when taking postures ;), whole its body is raised and in its eyes we can see irritation.
This movies present afraid leopard who tries to escape.
This picture presents funny posture of scared gecko.
Sometimes geckos open their snout and make strange noises. (As You can see in the picture on the top of presenation)
This movies present screaming leopard gecko
As I pointed earlier leopard geckos are calm and I’m sure that they can not do anything bad to people. But we can do something bad to them. When geckos are in danger - they can drop their tail.
This picture present leopard gecko without a tail
Picture of gecko tail after dropping
Tail dropping is a normal defense mechanism that helps the reptile escape. When the lizard, drops its tail, the tail continues to wriggle and flop around (as seen in the videos below) to distract the predator, giving the gecko enough time to find safety place.
On this video we can see leopard gecko who just dropped its tail.
There is no need to worry when gecko lose its tail. After a week tail will grow back and after about forty days leopard tail regenerates completely.
Leopard gecko tail after 7 day’s
Leopard gecko tail after 31 day’s
Geckos are herd animals and they don’t like to live alone, therefore in breeding and in the wild they live in a harem, consisting of one male and several females. Keeping a male with one female may lead to death of a female and keeping male with male it’s not a good idea because then only the strongest will survive. These animals have strong territorial instinct which can be easily observed. Leopard geckos are ectothermic. They absorb warmth and energy from the sunlight during the day which accelerates the process of digestion. At night when it gets colder they are more active and then they hunt. The incubation of young leopard is really interesting phenomenon. After about 4-5 weeks from copulation the female lays first two eggs. Only one copulation gives females possibility to lay from eight to twelve eggs. In captivity we need to move the eggs into a special incubator where will be in constant temperature. It should be done because if we leave eggs in the terrarium the chances of hatching are zero. We must be cautious with eggs because even a small twist can make the embryo die. After about two weeks we can shine a flashlight on the eggs to check if they are fertilized. If we can see the embryo we know that everything is ok.
This pictures show embryo of gecko
I just found a great movie. You must see it!! Leopard gecko embryo moving.
Time of the egg incubation depends on the temperature at which they are held. It’s between 35-40 days (in 32,5 C degrees ) and 60-70 days (in 26-27C degrees). As you can see low temperature makes that incubation longer while high temperature makes that incubation faster. The process of gecko baby getting out takes up to 2 hours. As you can see in the videos below, this is amazing, isn’t it?
This films presents leopard gecko hatching.
In the following sections I would like to present something more about their uniqueness;)
Questions: 1.) Have you ever heard about geckos? 2.) What do You thing about lizards? 3.) Do you also think that lizards are slimy? If yes, why? 4.) What do You thing about movie with gecko embryo and hatching? 5.) Please, tell me did I make you interested in geckos enough? Maybe you would like to have one? 6.) What do You thing about keeping lizards at home?
Tuesday, 16 November 2010
I'd like to welcome all of you. It's really a pleasure to see so many people interested in what others think even if that's just for marks only;) What I'd like to tell you about is my dream journey to Southern Asia. So let's get straight to the point.
First of all, there are three countries -- Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia -- to visit. First sketch is placed below, but that's just to show the main idea, not exact places. We'll be traveling by ourselves. There will be no guide, no tourist group, hotels etc. There will be only us and our backpacks. This gives us a possibility of doing everything in our own pace, or at least I imagine it like that.
First place is Thailand which I'd like to discuss a little today. Like probably everyone knows, Thailand is located in Southern Asia. It is bordered by Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia and Burma, when speaking of countries. But there are also Gulf of Thailand and Andaman Sea there. Probably most of you don't know that Thailand is a monarchy with a king that reigns starting from 1946. That's pretty awesome.
What's more interesting, at least for me, is the different climate there. Tropical climate and monsoons are two most common examples of those differences. It's hard to imagine that for half of the year it rains there nearly every day and all that water evaporates a moment after and all that becomes humidity. It's probably the worse part of the year for visitors. Although it may be interesting, the other part of the year seems a better choice. During that part monsoon comes from northeast and brings dry and hot air, so that temperature is around 40 C. When I see pictures or read about southern tropical rainforests with commonness of orchids, colourful parrots flying everywhere, elephants and 13% of area being parts of national parks, it makes me want to live there.
But there's more. There's culture that has so much to do with Buddhism which can be seen at every turn. Thai culture has been influenced by many migrations throughout the ages, but there's something exceptional about it. Siginificant part of the art is connected with Buddhism which is the most influential religion (or maybe a philosophical and ethical system) there. Buddha can be seen all over there like crosses in Poland. What's interesting is that monks hold many public offices and they have free public transport. Furthermore, most male kids become monks for at least three months and their family earns great merit thanks to this. I'm not sure if that's not just a shallow ritual nowadays, but it's difficult to find out without going there.
Last, but not least is food. I can't even imagine how great it can be to go to the marketplace where everything is different from European food. Moreover, those places can be located on boats on which a cook cooks your food. It's so different from what I've seen in my entire life, that it makes happy to even think about it.
Of course, that's not all. There are plenty of things that seem great but I don't want to bore you more:)
Even though the global warming is in big part caused by nature as well as its considered a natural process, everyone of us can use simple tips to contribute to lowering global CO2 emissions. Here is a list of things in my opinion everyone of us can do: 1. Replace a regular incandescent light bulb with a compact fluorescent light bulb (cfl) 2.Choose energy efficient appliances when making new purchases 3.Unplug electronics when they are not in use, because they still take up energy. 4.Buy recycled paper products and recycle as much of your waste as possible. 5.Bring your own reusable canvas grocery bags when grocery shopping. 6.Cover your pots while cooking 7.Choose products that come with little packaging and buy refills when you can 8.Buy locally grown and produced foods 9.Keep your car tuned up 10.Plant a tree Below interesting picture showing further how global warming can be prevented
Here is an interesting quiz about “Man's Destruction of the Environment”
To sum up, should we believe that the global warming is a fact. Though I think that everybody can judge themselves. I think, in case of the global warming problem would be real, we should take care of our planet in every way we can.
Q
1. Explain witch activities we should start or stop practicing to help preventing global warming. 2. Which one do you think has a bigger impact on earth’s changing temperature, human or nature?
One thing that causes global warming is electrical pollution. Electricity causes pollution in many ways. In most cases, fossil fuels are burned to create electricity. Fossil fuels are fuels formed by natural resources. Some examples of fossil fuels are oil and petroleum. Many pollutants (chemicals that pollute the air, water, and land) are sent into the air when fossil fuels are burned. CO2 and other of this chemicals are greenhouse gasses.
Apart from man-made causes of global warming, one could ask aren’t temperature changes a natural process?
The average global temperature and concentrations of carbon dioxide (one of the major greenhouse gases) have fluctuated on a cycle of hundreds of thousands of years as the Earth's position relative to the sun has varied. As a result, ice ages have come and gone.
However, for thousands of years now, emissions of GHGs (Greenhouse Gasses) to the atmosphere have been balanced out by GHGs that are naturally absorbed.As a result, GHG concentrations and temperature have been fairly stable. Occasionally, other factors briefly influence global temperatures.Volcanic eruptions, for example, emit particles that temporarily cool the Earth's surface.But these have no lasting effect beyond a few years. Now, humans have increased the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by more than a third since the industrial revolution. Changes this large have historically taken thousands of years, but now are happening over the course of decades.
(Chaitén Volcano eruption)
Therefore causes of global warming can be classified into man-made and naturally caused. The changes in climate do not go by without having a serious impact on the life on earth.
One of the most serious effects of Global Warming that people have to be aware of the effects on the health of individuals. The rise in temperature due to Global Warming is known to be supportive to various viral diseases like the west Nile virus and malaria.
High temperature also causes the concentration of ozone in the lower atmosphere. Ozone is known to be a harmful pollutant that causes respiratory problems such as damaging lung tissues and therefore cause complications for people with asthma.
Apart from health hazards brought from increased temperatures there are also economical and social areas affected by global warming. For an instance may cause a decline in agriculture due to the role of carbon dioxide in photosynthesis. Carbon Dioxide prevents photorespiration and therefore is the cause of the damage of many crops.
Also Global Warming results in a rise in the sea levels. Therefore, this will result in an increase of the costs of the coastal defense. This is also dangerous, because the most important trade ports are always at the coast of any area for trade reasons.
Changes in temperature and precipitation patterns have also global effects on extreme weather events: They increase the frequency, duration, and intensity of floods, droughts, heat waves, and tornadoes.
(New Orleans after hurricane Katrina)
Global warming has a number of effects on the nature and atmosphere. Effects of global warming, like a decreased snow level, increased temperature and other weather changes will have a affect not only on humans but also entire ecosystems. These ecosystems will change and cause many traditional inhabitants to leave their inhabitants. This may cause extinction of species.
Here is the short youtube clip that shows the direct effect of global warming on polar bears:
