Ravens, despite their small brains, belongs to the most intelligent and the smartest of all the birds, gaining a reputation for solving ever more complicated problems invented by ever more creative scientists. These birds understand the social hierarchy of other groups simply through observation.
To give some idea of its intelligence, if the average IQ for a human being is measured at the 100 mark, then the average IQ of a raven in 138. This indicates that rather than the size of a brain, the neuronal density and the structure of the bird's brain play a very important role in terms of its intelligence.
The raven's linguistic skills are legendary, and it can understand as well as imitate human words. The bird also have an incredible memory which allows its recognition of human faces. This is bad news for the people that are not well liked by the bird, because the circumstances in which the bird will dive and attack faces are obvious.
The entire Corvidae family of birds, like crows and ravens, have been known for their intelligence long before many research was given to the subject. In addition to being one of the few family of birds capable of using tools to find food and solve problems, they have complex social structures.
Ravens are able to work out the social dynamics of other raven groups, something which only humans had shown the ability to do.
Ravens within a community squabble over their ranking in the group, as higher ranked ravens have better access to food and other resources. Males always outrank females and confrontations occur between members of the same sex. The dominant raven ensures that its social position is maintained. When a lower-ranking bird does not respond in a submissive way to a dominance call, the situation often results in confrontation and can provoke changes in the social structure. The stress that the situation brings to the community is expressed by the raven either running around or pecking at its own feathers.
Ravens are able to create a mental representation of relationship dynamics from groups they have never interacted with before, just like us when we watch television.
Being intelligent helps the raven play the politics of their social group, and gain dominance. Understanding the rank and nature of members of their group help ravens know which birds to pick on, which ones to team up with, and which ones to steer clear of during their quest for an organized dominance.
Sunday, August 21, 2016
Thursday, August 18, 2016
THE VITAL CYCLE OF THE PERIODICAL CICADA.
The cicadas are a super family, the Cicada-Idea, of insects in the Order of True Bugs (Hemipt-Era).
They are placed in the sub-Order Au-Chenor-Rhyncha, the word is from the Greek 'Auxnv' meaning 'neck, throat' and 'puyxoc' meaning 'snout,' which contains most of the familiar members of the Order of Tree Bugs. Along with them are the smaller jumping bugs such as leafhoppers, tree-hoppers, plant-hoppers, and frog-hoppers.
They produce either audible sounds or substrate vibrations as a form of communication. Such calls range from vibrations inaudible to humans, to the calls of many species of cicadas that can be heard for hundreds of meters at least.
Cicadas have prominent eyes set wide apart, short antennae, and membranous front wings. They have an exceptionally loud song, produced not by the act of rubbing together certain body parts, like most insects, a number of species of fish, snakes, and spiders, do. They produce the loud song by vibrating drum-like paired timbal membranes, located on the sides of the abdominal base, rapidly.
The timbals are regions of the external skeleton that support and protect the body that were modified to form a complex membrane with thin, membranous portions and thickened 'ribs.' These membranes vibrate rapidly, and enlarged chambers derived from the tracheae make the cicada's body serve as a resonance chamber, greatly amplifying the sound. They modulate their song by positioning their abdomens toward or away from the substrate.
Most of the cicadas has the ability to avoid observation or detection by other animals. Methods include camouflage, nocturnal behavior, subterranean life style, and mimicry. The ability involves visual, olfactory (disguising its own odor), or auditory concealment.
They typically live in trees, feeding on sap, and laying their eggs in a slit in the bark.
The periodical cicada or the 17 year locust, is native to Canada and the United States. The insect's eyes and wing veins are reddish and its dorsal thorax is black, and distinguished by broad orange stripes on its abdomen. Recurrences of enormous numbers of noisy emergent cicadas appear in these fantastic numbers every 13 or 17 years.
The periodical cicada remains underground during this cycle of time (13 /17 years) as worms feeding themselves by absorbing fluids from trees' roots and shrubs. Then they emerge from the underground in large swarms (great locusts) after they have reached their maturity level during the spring season and only for a few weeks.
During that short period of time they enjoy the sun rays, the clean air, singing in a very loud way, change their skin like chameleons since their nature belong to the cold blooded type they need to maintain their heat in order to be able to reproduce themselves forming from 400 to 600 eggs in the interior of trees' branches. After that mating period of time they die. Then the eggs mature and the worms fall to the ground finding their way to the underground just right under the trees' roots and the cycle goes all over again every 13 or 17 years.
They are placed in the sub-Order Au-Chenor-Rhyncha, the word is from the Greek 'Auxnv' meaning 'neck, throat' and 'puyxoc' meaning 'snout,' which contains most of the familiar members of the Order of Tree Bugs. Along with them are the smaller jumping bugs such as leafhoppers, tree-hoppers, plant-hoppers, and frog-hoppers.
They produce either audible sounds or substrate vibrations as a form of communication. Such calls range from vibrations inaudible to humans, to the calls of many species of cicadas that can be heard for hundreds of meters at least.
Cicadas have prominent eyes set wide apart, short antennae, and membranous front wings. They have an exceptionally loud song, produced not by the act of rubbing together certain body parts, like most insects, a number of species of fish, snakes, and spiders, do. They produce the loud song by vibrating drum-like paired timbal membranes, located on the sides of the abdominal base, rapidly.
The timbals are regions of the external skeleton that support and protect the body that were modified to form a complex membrane with thin, membranous portions and thickened 'ribs.' These membranes vibrate rapidly, and enlarged chambers derived from the tracheae make the cicada's body serve as a resonance chamber, greatly amplifying the sound. They modulate their song by positioning their abdomens toward or away from the substrate.
Most of the cicadas has the ability to avoid observation or detection by other animals. Methods include camouflage, nocturnal behavior, subterranean life style, and mimicry. The ability involves visual, olfactory (disguising its own odor), or auditory concealment.
They typically live in trees, feeding on sap, and laying their eggs in a slit in the bark.
The periodical cicada or the 17 year locust, is native to Canada and the United States. The insect's eyes and wing veins are reddish and its dorsal thorax is black, and distinguished by broad orange stripes on its abdomen. Recurrences of enormous numbers of noisy emergent cicadas appear in these fantastic numbers every 13 or 17 years.
The periodical cicada remains underground during this cycle of time (13 /17 years) as worms feeding themselves by absorbing fluids from trees' roots and shrubs. Then they emerge from the underground in large swarms (great locusts) after they have reached their maturity level during the spring season and only for a few weeks.
During that short period of time they enjoy the sun rays, the clean air, singing in a very loud way, change their skin like chameleons since their nature belong to the cold blooded type they need to maintain their heat in order to be able to reproduce themselves forming from 400 to 600 eggs in the interior of trees' branches. After that mating period of time they die. Then the eggs mature and the worms fall to the ground finding their way to the underground just right under the trees' roots and the cycle goes all over again every 13 or 17 years.
Tuesday, August 16, 2016
THE REPTILIAN MIND.
It is important for people to know the basics about the reptilian mind because it reveals the character, attitudes and reason of its disguised and manipulative behavior.
Snakes, for example, are able to smell warm-blooded animals and respond to it, as humans respond to the smell of warm and tasty food.
The reptilian has the most ancient of the brains. It has two hemispheres, and they relate functionally to the left and to the right.
The brain consists of the upper part of the spinal cord and the basal ganglia, the di-encephalon, and parts of the mid-brain -all of which sits atop the spinal column like a knob in the middle of the head.
It represents a fundamental core of the nervous system and derives from a form of mammal-like reptile that once ranged widely over the world but disappeared during the Tri-Assic period having provided the link between dinosaurs and mammals. It was the fusing of reptilian DNA to mammal DNA.
First and foremost of its described nature is the drive to establish the boundaries of its territory and the extremely potent will to dominate it. Then the assertiveness and aggressiveness of its elaborated plan for the defense of it, giving way to violent combats. If they are defeated in combat, they lose their majesty and lapse into a kind of depression and die.
The language of the reptilian mind is visual imagery. All communications transferred by the mind of a reptile are done by visual symbolic representations, each having specific meaning. Reptiles do not dream because their waking state function like dreams do to us.
The movie and television industry of today is based in the same process of reptilian communication. It stimulates the brain hormones that function when we are in dreaming-state, however, we are fully awake. Human subconscious is able to process the endless symbolisms and visual codes that now comes to our brain through the television, computers, cell phones, etc, and occupies up to 16-18 of our time per day.
Since all reptiles, insects, arachnids, amphibians, and fish are cold-blooded, they do things very differently than warm-blooded mammals.
Reptiles cannot expend energy chasing prey for hours, instead they spend a lot of time in a hunting 'sit and wait' mood or basking in the sun, because they can't regulate their own body temperature as warm-blooded mammals do.
Reptiles depend on ambient conditions to reach operational body temperatures. They have lower metabolic rates than warm-blooded type, at a given body mass, and, as a consequence, they generally rely on higher food consumption.
When cold-blooded animals emerge from shelter, many diurnal ones need to heat up in the early sunlight before they begin their daily activities. In cold climates most cannot survive at all.
Snakes, for example, are able to smell warm-blooded animals and respond to it, as humans respond to the smell of warm and tasty food.
The reptilian has the most ancient of the brains. It has two hemispheres, and they relate functionally to the left and to the right.
The brain consists of the upper part of the spinal cord and the basal ganglia, the di-encephalon, and parts of the mid-brain -all of which sits atop the spinal column like a knob in the middle of the head.
It represents a fundamental core of the nervous system and derives from a form of mammal-like reptile that once ranged widely over the world but disappeared during the Tri-Assic period having provided the link between dinosaurs and mammals. It was the fusing of reptilian DNA to mammal DNA.
First and foremost of its described nature is the drive to establish the boundaries of its territory and the extremely potent will to dominate it. Then the assertiveness and aggressiveness of its elaborated plan for the defense of it, giving way to violent combats. If they are defeated in combat, they lose their majesty and lapse into a kind of depression and die.
The language of the reptilian mind is visual imagery. All communications transferred by the mind of a reptile are done by visual symbolic representations, each having specific meaning. Reptiles do not dream because their waking state function like dreams do to us.
The movie and television industry of today is based in the same process of reptilian communication. It stimulates the brain hormones that function when we are in dreaming-state, however, we are fully awake. Human subconscious is able to process the endless symbolisms and visual codes that now comes to our brain through the television, computers, cell phones, etc, and occupies up to 16-18 of our time per day.
Since all reptiles, insects, arachnids, amphibians, and fish are cold-blooded, they do things very differently than warm-blooded mammals.
Reptiles cannot expend energy chasing prey for hours, instead they spend a lot of time in a hunting 'sit and wait' mood or basking in the sun, because they can't regulate their own body temperature as warm-blooded mammals do.
Reptiles depend on ambient conditions to reach operational body temperatures. They have lower metabolic rates than warm-blooded type, at a given body mass, and, as a consequence, they generally rely on higher food consumption.
When cold-blooded animals emerge from shelter, many diurnal ones need to heat up in the early sunlight before they begin their daily activities. In cold climates most cannot survive at all.
Friday, August 12, 2016
THE 4 GARMENTS THAT MYTHS WEAR.
The word "Myth"itself has multiple definitions. In general, myth is the traditional way in which stories of ostensibly historical events unfold part of the world view of the people or explain a practical belief or natural phenomenon. Myth is compared to a garment that covers many stories. Here are four garments that myth may take.
- Metaphysical Myths help explain the origins of existence. They tell of the world's beginning or the start of man. They mention gods and mystical beings personifications, such as night and day personified, talking animals, and living dreams. Supernatural action in many forms appear, including natural phenomena, magical arts, alchemy, witchcraft and so on.
- Cosmological Myths emphasize that all components of the universe are part of a single picture. They tell of journeys of enlightenment, of discovery and reaching final goals. They join the pieces together in a meaningful whole. They mention all-powerful entities or mysterious forces that envelop and create unity.
- Sociological Myths maintain social order by authorizing a social code for a culture to follow. They mention those individuals who stray from the straight and narrow path of social conformance and the terrible woes that befall them. They also mention tales of conquest and rebellion, of uprising and how people working together can move mountains.
- Psychological Myths provides models for personal conduct. Their heroes embody social rules, seeking always to do good. They have clear personal values that align with ideal social norms. In contrast to the good heroes, there are bad villains who have no values and embody all that is wrong.
Aristotle (384-322 BC) speaks very appreciatively about the Myths: "Lovers of stories that were in a way lovers of wisdom, since stories were composed of such wonders that make man start to philosophize. Those wonders were mainly astronomical and cosmological ones."
Aristotle describes the birth of mythology in closer detail and in connection to his discussion on "how many primal movers and movements there can be, related to the personification of a multitude of gods."
Aristotle said that 'tradition' needs to be considered in this way: "From old -and indeed extremely ancient- times there has been handed down to our later age intimations of a mythical character to the effect that the stars are gods and that the divine embraces the whole of nature." "Further details were added in the manner of myths with the sole purpose of 'persuasion of the masses' and general legislative and political expediency"
Aristotle suggests to discard the embroidered details, but to recognize that in mythical perspectives the primary substances were beings identified as gods -a claim he calls 'inspired,' pointing out also that though many other arts and doctrines may have perished through time, "these ancient cosmologies have been preserved, like holy relics, right up to the present day."
- Metaphysical Myths help explain the origins of existence. They tell of the world's beginning or the start of man. They mention gods and mystical beings personifications, such as night and day personified, talking animals, and living dreams. Supernatural action in many forms appear, including natural phenomena, magical arts, alchemy, witchcraft and so on.
- Cosmological Myths emphasize that all components of the universe are part of a single picture. They tell of journeys of enlightenment, of discovery and reaching final goals. They join the pieces together in a meaningful whole. They mention all-powerful entities or mysterious forces that envelop and create unity.
- Sociological Myths maintain social order by authorizing a social code for a culture to follow. They mention those individuals who stray from the straight and narrow path of social conformance and the terrible woes that befall them. They also mention tales of conquest and rebellion, of uprising and how people working together can move mountains.
- Psychological Myths provides models for personal conduct. Their heroes embody social rules, seeking always to do good. They have clear personal values that align with ideal social norms. In contrast to the good heroes, there are bad villains who have no values and embody all that is wrong.
Aristotle (384-322 BC) speaks very appreciatively about the Myths: "Lovers of stories that were in a way lovers of wisdom, since stories were composed of such wonders that make man start to philosophize. Those wonders were mainly astronomical and cosmological ones."
Aristotle describes the birth of mythology in closer detail and in connection to his discussion on "how many primal movers and movements there can be, related to the personification of a multitude of gods."
Aristotle said that 'tradition' needs to be considered in this way: "From old -and indeed extremely ancient- times there has been handed down to our later age intimations of a mythical character to the effect that the stars are gods and that the divine embraces the whole of nature." "Further details were added in the manner of myths with the sole purpose of 'persuasion of the masses' and general legislative and political expediency"
Aristotle suggests to discard the embroidered details, but to recognize that in mythical perspectives the primary substances were beings identified as gods -a claim he calls 'inspired,' pointing out also that though many other arts and doctrines may have perished through time, "these ancient cosmologies have been preserved, like holy relics, right up to the present day."
Thursday, August 4, 2016
THE ATLAS MOUNTAINS.
The Atlas Mountains are a mountain range in the Maghreb (Sunset), that is usually defined as much or most of the region of North West Africa, West of Egypt. The basement rock of most Africa was formed during the largest span of time in Earth's history about 4.6 billion yeas ago, and is much older than the Atlas Mountains lying on the continent The Atlas was formed during three subsequent phases of Earth's history.
The Atlas Mountains stretches around 2,500 km / 1,600 mi through Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia.
The range highest peak is Jebel Toubkal, with an elevation of 4,167 m / 13,671 ft in South Western Morocco. It separates the Mediterranean and Atlantic coastlines from the Sahara Desert.
The mountains are home to a number of plant and animal species unique in Africa. Many of them are endangered and some have already gone extinct. Examples include:
-The Barbary Macaque best known as the Old World Monkey species. The Monkey is of particular interest because males play an atypical role in rearing the young. Because of uncertain paternity, males are integral to raising all infants. Generally, Barbary Macaque of all ages and sexes contribute in the system of parenting in which individuals other than the parents act in a parental role. Males live to a maximum of 25 years while females may live up to 30 years. The monkey is yellowish- brown to grey with a lighter under side. It has a body length of around 556 mm in females and 634 mm in males and mean body weight is reported to be 1 kg. Males often have a more prominent tail. The front limbs are longer than its hind limbs. Females are smaller than the males. Their diet consists of a mixture of plants and insect prey. The can occupy a variety of habitats, such as cedar, fir, and oak forests, or grassland, scrub, rocky ridges full of vegetation. Currently in the Atlas Mountains they inhabit cedar forests. Beside humans, they are the only free-living primates in Europe. Its name refers to the Barbary Coast of North West Africa.
-The Atlas Bear was Africa's only native bear that survived into modern times. Once inhabiting the Atlas Mountains and neighboring areas, from Morocco to Libya, the animal is now thought to be extinct. The decline of the Atlas bear is attributed to the Romans. As their empire expanded into Northern Africa, they intensely hunted and captured the bears and used them as sport for many games. This went for centuries, during which time thousands of bears had been used in the arenas to fight in games against gladiators, lions, tigers, and other animals. They were cruelly treated, often starved and malnourished to increase their desperation and hence their aggression within the arena. The bear become extinct shortly after modern firearms were developed. The bear was brownish black and lacked a white mark on the muzzle, and the muzzle and claws were shorter than those of the American Black Bear, though it was stouter and thicker in body. The fur on the under parts was reddish orange and 4-5 in /100-130mm long. It was 9 ft long and weighed 450 kg/1,000lb. It fed on roots, acorns and nuts.
Where the Atlas bear actually originated is unknown. One genetic study was unable to link it to any brown bear, but it had weak but significant genetic links to the polar bear. Polar bears appeared 2.6 million years ago and the drawing of them appeared in cave paintings in Anda-Lucia, Spain, which is a very short swim to the Atlas Mountains for a polar bear.
-Barbary Leopard or North African Leopard is grouped with the African Leopard after following genetic analysis. Leopards are rare in Northern Africa. Only small populations persist in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco and Algeria in cedar forest and mountain steep in elevations of 300 to 2,500 m /980 to 8,200 ft where the climate is temperate to cold.
The Barbary lion (Panthera Leo Leo) also known as the Atlas Lion is now considered extinct in the wild. Small groups may have survived in Algeria and Morocco following the introduction of firearms and bounties for shooting them. Results of a long-term study of lions indicate that various factors such as ambient temperature, nutrition, and level of testosterone influence the color and size of lion manes.
Sub-Saharan lions kept in a cool environment usually develop bigger manes. Atlas Lions may have developed long-haired manes because of the temperatures in the Atlas Mountains that are much lower than in any other African regions, particularly in winter. The Atlas Lion was long considered one of the biggest subspecies, or even the largest of lions. The male was described as having very dark and long-haired mane that extended over the shoulder and to the belly. Head-to-tail length varied from 2.35 to 2.8 m / 7ft 9in to 9ft 2in, and females around 2.5 m / 8ft 2in. In some historic accounts the weight of the males reached 270 to 300 kb / 600 to 660 lb. Also it was described as being much superior to the black-maned lions of South Africa in bulk, strength and bravery.
-The Atlas Elephant, a separate elephant species that existed North of the Sahara until becoming extinct in Ancient Roman times. these were the famous war elephants used by Carthage in the Punic Wars, during their conflict with the Roman Republic. Carthaginian frescoes and coins minted by the power of whoever controlled North Africa at various times show small elephants, perhaps 2.5m / 8ft 2in at the shoulder, with the large ears and concave back typical of modern African elephants. It is also possible that it was more docile and plainer allowing the Punics to tame it as a war elephant. After the Romans conquered Sicily in 242 BC, they wanted to capture some specimens that had been left behind in the middle of the island by the Carthaginians, but failed in their endeavor. The elephants with which Hannibal crossed the Pyrenees and the Alps in order to invade Italy during the 2nd Punic War (218-201 BC) belonged to this group, with the exception of Hannibal's personal animal, Surus, meaning 'the Syrian' or 'One Tusker,' which became extinct shortly after Hannibal invaded Italy but before the extinction of the Atlas Elephant. The Atlas elephant was also trained and used by the Ptolemaic Dynasty of Egypt. The taming of the animal was inferior and the results in battle also inferior against the larger Indian elephants used by the Seleucid kings, after the break up of the Macedonian Empire. A surviving Ptolemaic inscription enumerates 3 types of War Elephants: the Troglodytic (Libyan), the Ethiopian, and the Indian. The Ptolemaic king prides himself with being the 1st to tame the Ethiopian elephants, a stock which could be identical to one of the two extant African species. During the reighn of Augustus, Roman circus games resulted in the killing of 3,500 elephants.
-The Atlas Urus is a extinct type of large wild cattle. It is the ancestor of domestic cattle. The species survived until the last recorded Urus that died in Poland in 1627. During the Agricultural Revolution, a wide-scale transition of many human cultures from a lifestyle of hunting and gathering to one of agriculture and settlement, there were at least two Uros domestication events. One related to the Indian subspecies, leading to Zebu cattle. The other related to the Eurasian sibspecies, leading to Taurine cattle. Other species of wild bovines were also domesticated. the oldest Uros remains have been dated to about 2 million years ago, in India. The Indian subspecies were the first to appear. The species migrated West into the Middle East (Western Asia) as well as to the East. They reached Europe about 270,000 years ago. The South Asian domestic Zebu descended from India Uros at the edge of the Thar Desert, also known as the Great Indian Desert in the North Western part of Indian subcontinent that forms a natural boundary between India and Pakistan, and is the world's 17th largest desert, and the world's 9th largest subtropical desert. The Zebu is resistant to drought. Domestic Yak, Gayal, and Banteng do not descend from Uros. The Uros was one of the largest herbivores in post-glacial Eurasia.
The size appears to have varied by region. Also the body mass appeared to have shown variability. The ones from the late-middle Pleistocene are estimated to have weighed up to 1,500 kg /3,300lb. The Uros populations in Hungary, Denmark, and germany had an average weight reaching around 700 kg / 1,500 lb. The cows were significantly shorter than their males counterparts.
Because of the massive horns, the frontal bones of Uros were elongated and broad. The horns were characterized in size, curvature and orientation. They were curved in 3 directions: Upwards and outwards at the base, Swinging forwards and inwards, the Inwards and upwards. they reached 80cm/31in in length and between 10 to 20 cm/3,9 and 7.0in in diameter. The male horns were stronger and larger that the female. the Uros were swift and fast and very aggressive when teased or hunted. they had a food selection very similar to domestic cattle.
The Atlas Mountains stretches around 2,500 km / 1,600 mi through Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia.
The range highest peak is Jebel Toubkal, with an elevation of 4,167 m / 13,671 ft in South Western Morocco. It separates the Mediterranean and Atlantic coastlines from the Sahara Desert.
The mountains are home to a number of plant and animal species unique in Africa. Many of them are endangered and some have already gone extinct. Examples include:
-The Barbary Macaque best known as the Old World Monkey species. The Monkey is of particular interest because males play an atypical role in rearing the young. Because of uncertain paternity, males are integral to raising all infants. Generally, Barbary Macaque of all ages and sexes contribute in the system of parenting in which individuals other than the parents act in a parental role. Males live to a maximum of 25 years while females may live up to 30 years. The monkey is yellowish- brown to grey with a lighter under side. It has a body length of around 556 mm in females and 634 mm in males and mean body weight is reported to be 1 kg. Males often have a more prominent tail. The front limbs are longer than its hind limbs. Females are smaller than the males. Their diet consists of a mixture of plants and insect prey. The can occupy a variety of habitats, such as cedar, fir, and oak forests, or grassland, scrub, rocky ridges full of vegetation. Currently in the Atlas Mountains they inhabit cedar forests. Beside humans, they are the only free-living primates in Europe. Its name refers to the Barbary Coast of North West Africa.
-The Atlas Bear was Africa's only native bear that survived into modern times. Once inhabiting the Atlas Mountains and neighboring areas, from Morocco to Libya, the animal is now thought to be extinct. The decline of the Atlas bear is attributed to the Romans. As their empire expanded into Northern Africa, they intensely hunted and captured the bears and used them as sport for many games. This went for centuries, during which time thousands of bears had been used in the arenas to fight in games against gladiators, lions, tigers, and other animals. They were cruelly treated, often starved and malnourished to increase their desperation and hence their aggression within the arena. The bear become extinct shortly after modern firearms were developed. The bear was brownish black and lacked a white mark on the muzzle, and the muzzle and claws were shorter than those of the American Black Bear, though it was stouter and thicker in body. The fur on the under parts was reddish orange and 4-5 in /100-130mm long. It was 9 ft long and weighed 450 kg/1,000lb. It fed on roots, acorns and nuts.
Where the Atlas bear actually originated is unknown. One genetic study was unable to link it to any brown bear, but it had weak but significant genetic links to the polar bear. Polar bears appeared 2.6 million years ago and the drawing of them appeared in cave paintings in Anda-Lucia, Spain, which is a very short swim to the Atlas Mountains for a polar bear.
-Barbary Leopard or North African Leopard is grouped with the African Leopard after following genetic analysis. Leopards are rare in Northern Africa. Only small populations persist in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco and Algeria in cedar forest and mountain steep in elevations of 300 to 2,500 m /980 to 8,200 ft where the climate is temperate to cold.
The Barbary lion (Panthera Leo Leo) also known as the Atlas Lion is now considered extinct in the wild. Small groups may have survived in Algeria and Morocco following the introduction of firearms and bounties for shooting them. Results of a long-term study of lions indicate that various factors such as ambient temperature, nutrition, and level of testosterone influence the color and size of lion manes.
Sub-Saharan lions kept in a cool environment usually develop bigger manes. Atlas Lions may have developed long-haired manes because of the temperatures in the Atlas Mountains that are much lower than in any other African regions, particularly in winter. The Atlas Lion was long considered one of the biggest subspecies, or even the largest of lions. The male was described as having very dark and long-haired mane that extended over the shoulder and to the belly. Head-to-tail length varied from 2.35 to 2.8 m / 7ft 9in to 9ft 2in, and females around 2.5 m / 8ft 2in. In some historic accounts the weight of the males reached 270 to 300 kb / 600 to 660 lb. Also it was described as being much superior to the black-maned lions of South Africa in bulk, strength and bravery.
-The Atlas Elephant, a separate elephant species that existed North of the Sahara until becoming extinct in Ancient Roman times. these were the famous war elephants used by Carthage in the Punic Wars, during their conflict with the Roman Republic. Carthaginian frescoes and coins minted by the power of whoever controlled North Africa at various times show small elephants, perhaps 2.5m / 8ft 2in at the shoulder, with the large ears and concave back typical of modern African elephants. It is also possible that it was more docile and plainer allowing the Punics to tame it as a war elephant. After the Romans conquered Sicily in 242 BC, they wanted to capture some specimens that had been left behind in the middle of the island by the Carthaginians, but failed in their endeavor. The elephants with which Hannibal crossed the Pyrenees and the Alps in order to invade Italy during the 2nd Punic War (218-201 BC) belonged to this group, with the exception of Hannibal's personal animal, Surus, meaning 'the Syrian' or 'One Tusker,' which became extinct shortly after Hannibal invaded Italy but before the extinction of the Atlas Elephant. The Atlas elephant was also trained and used by the Ptolemaic Dynasty of Egypt. The taming of the animal was inferior and the results in battle also inferior against the larger Indian elephants used by the Seleucid kings, after the break up of the Macedonian Empire. A surviving Ptolemaic inscription enumerates 3 types of War Elephants: the Troglodytic (Libyan), the Ethiopian, and the Indian. The Ptolemaic king prides himself with being the 1st to tame the Ethiopian elephants, a stock which could be identical to one of the two extant African species. During the reighn of Augustus, Roman circus games resulted in the killing of 3,500 elephants.
-The Atlas Urus is a extinct type of large wild cattle. It is the ancestor of domestic cattle. The species survived until the last recorded Urus that died in Poland in 1627. During the Agricultural Revolution, a wide-scale transition of many human cultures from a lifestyle of hunting and gathering to one of agriculture and settlement, there were at least two Uros domestication events. One related to the Indian subspecies, leading to Zebu cattle. The other related to the Eurasian sibspecies, leading to Taurine cattle. Other species of wild bovines were also domesticated. the oldest Uros remains have been dated to about 2 million years ago, in India. The Indian subspecies were the first to appear. The species migrated West into the Middle East (Western Asia) as well as to the East. They reached Europe about 270,000 years ago. The South Asian domestic Zebu descended from India Uros at the edge of the Thar Desert, also known as the Great Indian Desert in the North Western part of Indian subcontinent that forms a natural boundary between India and Pakistan, and is the world's 17th largest desert, and the world's 9th largest subtropical desert. The Zebu is resistant to drought. Domestic Yak, Gayal, and Banteng do not descend from Uros. The Uros was one of the largest herbivores in post-glacial Eurasia.
The size appears to have varied by region. Also the body mass appeared to have shown variability. The ones from the late-middle Pleistocene are estimated to have weighed up to 1,500 kg /3,300lb. The Uros populations in Hungary, Denmark, and germany had an average weight reaching around 700 kg / 1,500 lb. The cows were significantly shorter than their males counterparts.
Because of the massive horns, the frontal bones of Uros were elongated and broad. The horns were characterized in size, curvature and orientation. They were curved in 3 directions: Upwards and outwards at the base, Swinging forwards and inwards, the Inwards and upwards. they reached 80cm/31in in length and between 10 to 20 cm/3,9 and 7.0in in diameter. The male horns were stronger and larger that the female. the Uros were swift and fast and very aggressive when teased or hunted. they had a food selection very similar to domestic cattle.
THE LOTUS EATERS.
The Lotus Eaters were a race of people living on an island dominated by lotus plants. The lotus fruits and flowers were the primary food of the island and were narcotic, causing the people to sleep in peaceful apathy.
An apathetic individual has an absence of interest in or concern about emotional, social, spiritual, philosophical and/or physical life and the world, lacking a sense of purpose and meaning in their life. The challenge was irrelevant to them. It is a way to forget negative feelings.
The Lotus Tree is mentioned in Homer's Odyssey chapter IX, as bearing a fruit that caused a pleasant drowsiness, and which was said to be the only food of an island people called the Lotus Eaters. When they ate of the Lotus Tree they forgot their friends and homes and the desire to return to their native lands was lost in favor lo living in idleness.
Odysseus tells how adverse North Winds blew him and his men off course as they were rounding Cape Malea, a peninsula known for its treacherous weather, in the Southern most tip of the Peloponnesus in Greece, headed Westward for Ithaca: "I was driven by Foul Winds for a space of 9 days upon the sea, but on the 10th day we reached the Land of the Lotus-Eaters, who live on a food that comes from a kind of flower. Here we landed to take in fresh water, and our crew got their mid-day meal on the shore near the ships. When they had eaten and drunk I sent two of my company to see what manner of men the people of the place might be, and they had a third man under them. They started at once, and went about among the Lotus-Eaters, who did them no hurt, but gave them to eat of the Lotus, which was so delicious that those who ate it left off caring about home, and did not even want to go back and say what happened to them. Nevertheless, though they wept bitterly i forced them back to the ships and made them fast under the benches. Then I told the rest to go on board at once, so they took their places and smote the grey sea with their oars."
Herodotus, in the 5th century BC, was sure that the Lotus-Eaters still existed in his day in coastal Libya, the region West of the Nile. Its people were the ancestors of the modern Berbers, known in the Hellenistic period as Libyans.
The name Libya also appeared in the Hebrew language, written in the Bible as Lebahim and Lubim, indicating the ethnic population and the geographic territory as well.
Homer also names Libya, in Odyssey chapter IX. Menelaus had travelled there on his way home from Troy. It was a land of wonderful richness, where the lambs have horns as soon as they were born, where ewes lamb three times a year and no shepherd ever went short of milk, meat or cheese. Homer used the name in a geographical sense, while he also called its inhabitants "Lotus-Eaters."
In the narrative poem 'The Metamorphoses' by the Roman poet Ovid, chronicling the history of the world from its creation to the deification of Julius Caesar, mention the beautiful daughter of Neptune, the god of water and the sea. In order to flee the violent and lustful attention of the sexual impotent Pri-Apus, a rustic fertility god, protector of livestock, fruit plants, gardens and male genitalia, she invoked the assistance of the gods, who answered her prayers by turning her into a lotus tree.
Pri-Apus is described as the son of Aphrodite by Dionysus, or father or son of Hermes, or the son of Zeus or Pan, depending on the source. According to the legend, Hera cursed him with impotence, ugliness and foul-mindedness while he was still in Aphrodite's womb, in revenge for the hero Paris having the temerity to judge Aphrodite more beautiful than Hera. The other gods refused to allow him to live on Mount Olympus and threw him to Earth, leaving him on a hillside. Then he joined Pan and the satyrs as a spirit of fertility and growth, though he was perennially frustrated by his impotence.
In the Scriptures in the Book of Job, there are two lines in the chapter 40, with the Hebrew word meaning the 'Lotus Tree' which appears nowhere else in the Scriptures. The Book addresses the theme of God's justice in the face of human suffering, or more simply, 'Why do the righteous suffer?' When God finally speaks He neither explains the reason for Job's suffering nor defends His justice. The first speech focuses on his role in maintaining Order in the universe: the list of things that God does and Job cannot do demonstrates divine wisdom because Order is the Heart of Wisdom. Job confesses his lack of wisdom, meaning his lack of understanding of the workings of the cosmos and of the ability to maintain it. The second speech concerns God's role in controlling Behemoth and Leviathan, two powerful primeval cosmic forces or entities, in either case demonstrating God's wisdom and power. In the concluding part of the narrative God restores and increases his prosperity, indicating that the divine policy of retributive Justice remains unchanged.
The name Behemoth has come to be used for an extremely large and powerful entity created together with the human being. It represents the dust from which the divine body of the first man was made of.
Then the sea-monster Leviathan, representing another powerful entity that govern the cosmic mind.
God mention both to demonstrate Job the futility of questioning God, who alone has created these beings and who alone can capture them.
An apathetic individual has an absence of interest in or concern about emotional, social, spiritual, philosophical and/or physical life and the world, lacking a sense of purpose and meaning in their life. The challenge was irrelevant to them. It is a way to forget negative feelings.
The Lotus Tree is mentioned in Homer's Odyssey chapter IX, as bearing a fruit that caused a pleasant drowsiness, and which was said to be the only food of an island people called the Lotus Eaters. When they ate of the Lotus Tree they forgot their friends and homes and the desire to return to their native lands was lost in favor lo living in idleness.
Odysseus tells how adverse North Winds blew him and his men off course as they were rounding Cape Malea, a peninsula known for its treacherous weather, in the Southern most tip of the Peloponnesus in Greece, headed Westward for Ithaca: "I was driven by Foul Winds for a space of 9 days upon the sea, but on the 10th day we reached the Land of the Lotus-Eaters, who live on a food that comes from a kind of flower. Here we landed to take in fresh water, and our crew got their mid-day meal on the shore near the ships. When they had eaten and drunk I sent two of my company to see what manner of men the people of the place might be, and they had a third man under them. They started at once, and went about among the Lotus-Eaters, who did them no hurt, but gave them to eat of the Lotus, which was so delicious that those who ate it left off caring about home, and did not even want to go back and say what happened to them. Nevertheless, though they wept bitterly i forced them back to the ships and made them fast under the benches. Then I told the rest to go on board at once, so they took their places and smote the grey sea with their oars."
Herodotus, in the 5th century BC, was sure that the Lotus-Eaters still existed in his day in coastal Libya, the region West of the Nile. Its people were the ancestors of the modern Berbers, known in the Hellenistic period as Libyans.
The name Libya also appeared in the Hebrew language, written in the Bible as Lebahim and Lubim, indicating the ethnic population and the geographic territory as well.
Homer also names Libya, in Odyssey chapter IX. Menelaus had travelled there on his way home from Troy. It was a land of wonderful richness, where the lambs have horns as soon as they were born, where ewes lamb three times a year and no shepherd ever went short of milk, meat or cheese. Homer used the name in a geographical sense, while he also called its inhabitants "Lotus-Eaters."
In the narrative poem 'The Metamorphoses' by the Roman poet Ovid, chronicling the history of the world from its creation to the deification of Julius Caesar, mention the beautiful daughter of Neptune, the god of water and the sea. In order to flee the violent and lustful attention of the sexual impotent Pri-Apus, a rustic fertility god, protector of livestock, fruit plants, gardens and male genitalia, she invoked the assistance of the gods, who answered her prayers by turning her into a lotus tree.
Pri-Apus is described as the son of Aphrodite by Dionysus, or father or son of Hermes, or the son of Zeus or Pan, depending on the source. According to the legend, Hera cursed him with impotence, ugliness and foul-mindedness while he was still in Aphrodite's womb, in revenge for the hero Paris having the temerity to judge Aphrodite more beautiful than Hera. The other gods refused to allow him to live on Mount Olympus and threw him to Earth, leaving him on a hillside. Then he joined Pan and the satyrs as a spirit of fertility and growth, though he was perennially frustrated by his impotence.
In the Scriptures in the Book of Job, there are two lines in the chapter 40, with the Hebrew word meaning the 'Lotus Tree' which appears nowhere else in the Scriptures. The Book addresses the theme of God's justice in the face of human suffering, or more simply, 'Why do the righteous suffer?' When God finally speaks He neither explains the reason for Job's suffering nor defends His justice. The first speech focuses on his role in maintaining Order in the universe: the list of things that God does and Job cannot do demonstrates divine wisdom because Order is the Heart of Wisdom. Job confesses his lack of wisdom, meaning his lack of understanding of the workings of the cosmos and of the ability to maintain it. The second speech concerns God's role in controlling Behemoth and Leviathan, two powerful primeval cosmic forces or entities, in either case demonstrating God's wisdom and power. In the concluding part of the narrative God restores and increases his prosperity, indicating that the divine policy of retributive Justice remains unchanged.
The name Behemoth has come to be used for an extremely large and powerful entity created together with the human being. It represents the dust from which the divine body of the first man was made of.
Then the sea-monster Leviathan, representing another powerful entity that govern the cosmic mind.
God mention both to demonstrate Job the futility of questioning God, who alone has created these beings and who alone can capture them.
Wednesday, August 3, 2016
THE URAL AND CAUCASUS MOUNTAINS.
The Ural Mountains are a mountain range that runs from North to South through Western Russia, from the coast of the Arctic Ocean to the Ural River originating in the Southern Urals and flowing through Russia and North Western Kazakh-Stan and ending at the Caspian Sea. The Ural River (2,428km / 1,509mi) is the 3rd longest River in Europe after the Volga and the Danube and considered together with the mountain range, the Northern boundary between the continents of Europe and Asia. Its highest peak is Mount Narod-Naya, approximately 1,895m / 6,217 ft in elevation.
The Caucasus Mountains are a mountain system in the combined continental land-mass of Europe and Asia. They include the Greater Caucasus which extends from the Caucasian Natural Reserve on the North Eastern shore of the Black Sea to Mount Elbrus, then aligned West- North West to East-South East and reaching nearly to Baku on the Caspian Sea; and the Lesser Caucasus, which runs parallel to the greater range, at a distance averaging about 100 km / 62mi South. the highest peak in the Caucasus range is Mount El-Brus in the Greater Caucasus, which rises to a height of 5,642 m / 18,510 ft above the sea level.
The Caucasus Mountains formed largely as the result of a tectonic plate collision between the Arabian plate moving Northwards with respect to the Eurasian plate. As the Tethys Sea was closed (India, Pakistan, Indonesia, and the Indian Ocean now cover the area) and the Arabian plate collided with the Iranian plate and was pushed against it and with the clockwise movement of the Eurasian plate towards the Iranian plate and their final collision, the Iranian plate was pressed against the Eurasian plate. As this happened, the entire rocks that had been deposited in this basin from the Jurassic to the Miocene eras were folded to form the Greater Caucasus mountains. The entire region is regularly subjected to strong earthquakes from this activity. While the Greater Caucasus have a mainly folded sedimentary structure, the Lesser Caucasus are largely of volcanic origin.
The concepts of Europe and Asia as distinct continents date back to antiquity and their borders are geological arbitrary, with the Ural and Caucasus ranges being the main delimiters between the two.
Physiographically, Eurasia is a single continent and is connected to Africa at the Suez Canal, and sometimes is combined with Africa as the super continent Afro-Eurasia.
Eurasia has been the host of many civilizations, including those based in Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley and China. In the mid-1st millennium BC a continuous belt of civilizations stretched through the Eurasian subtropical zone from the Atlantic to the Pacific. This belt became the mainstream of world history for over two millennia.
The Caucasus Mountains are a mountain system in the combined continental land-mass of Europe and Asia. They include the Greater Caucasus which extends from the Caucasian Natural Reserve on the North Eastern shore of the Black Sea to Mount Elbrus, then aligned West- North West to East-South East and reaching nearly to Baku on the Caspian Sea; and the Lesser Caucasus, which runs parallel to the greater range, at a distance averaging about 100 km / 62mi South. the highest peak in the Caucasus range is Mount El-Brus in the Greater Caucasus, which rises to a height of 5,642 m / 18,510 ft above the sea level.
The Caucasus Mountains formed largely as the result of a tectonic plate collision between the Arabian plate moving Northwards with respect to the Eurasian plate. As the Tethys Sea was closed (India, Pakistan, Indonesia, and the Indian Ocean now cover the area) and the Arabian plate collided with the Iranian plate and was pushed against it and with the clockwise movement of the Eurasian plate towards the Iranian plate and their final collision, the Iranian plate was pressed against the Eurasian plate. As this happened, the entire rocks that had been deposited in this basin from the Jurassic to the Miocene eras were folded to form the Greater Caucasus mountains. The entire region is regularly subjected to strong earthquakes from this activity. While the Greater Caucasus have a mainly folded sedimentary structure, the Lesser Caucasus are largely of volcanic origin.
The concepts of Europe and Asia as distinct continents date back to antiquity and their borders are geological arbitrary, with the Ural and Caucasus ranges being the main delimiters between the two.
Physiographically, Eurasia is a single continent and is connected to Africa at the Suez Canal, and sometimes is combined with Africa as the super continent Afro-Eurasia.
Eurasia has been the host of many civilizations, including those based in Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley and China. In the mid-1st millennium BC a continuous belt of civilizations stretched through the Eurasian subtropical zone from the Atlantic to the Pacific. This belt became the mainstream of world history for over two millennia.
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