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A Kaleidoscope Of Colours, Shapes And Patterns

Spectacular and innovative in design, the Flower Dome replicates the cool-dry climate of Mediterranean regions like South Africa, California and parts of Spain and Italy. Home to a collection of plants from deserts all over the world, it showcases the adaptations of plants to arid environments...

Lightning Strikes, Not Once, But Many Times

Unlike light, lightning does not travel in a straight line. Instead, it has many branches. These other branches flashed at the same time as the main strike. The branches are actually the step leaders that were connected to the leader that made it to its target...

Are You My Dinner Tonight?

A T-Rex has 24-26 teeth on its upper jaw and 24 more on its lower jaw. Juveniles have small, sharp blade-shaped teeth to cut flesh, whereas adults have huge, blunt, rounded teeth for crushing bones. Is the T-Rex a bone-crushing scavenger?

Lightning Strikes, Not Once, But Many Times

10:16 PM  , , , ,  

Singapore
June 2013

Merlion Wayfarer was awaken by the bouts of thunder this morning. They came frequently, at a low rumble through the night. Frustrated, she opened the curtains.

This is what she saw...

She was curious - Unlike light, lightning does not travel in a straight line. Instead, it has many branches...

These other branches flashed at the same time as the main strike. Next you notice that the main strike flickers or dims a few more times in a single split second. The branches are actually the step leaders that were connected to the leader that made it to its target.


When the first strike occurs, current flows to neutralize the charge separation. This requires that the current associated with the energy in the other step leaders also flows to the ground. The electrons in the other step leaders, being free to move, flow through the leader to the strike path. So when the strike occurs, the other step leaders are providing current and exhibiting the same heat flash characteristics of the actual strike path. After the original stroke occurs, it is usually followed by a series of secondary strikes. These strikes follow only the path of the main strike; the other step leaders do not participate in this discharge.


It is very possible that the main strike is followed by 30 to 40 secondary strikes. Depending on the time delay between the strikes, it may look like one long-duration main strike, or a main strike followed by other flashes along the path of the main strike. The secondary strike can occur while the flash from the main stroke is still visible. Obviously, this may seem that the main-stroke flash lasted longer than it actually did. Similarly, the secondary strikes may occur after the flash from the main strike ends, making it appear that the main strike is flickering.



More photos are available on Merlion Wayfarer Goes Green's Picasa at :
Natural Phenomena

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World Environment Day - The Cove On Okto

5:05 AM  , , ,  

(This article is part of Merlion Wayfarer's series on Animal Welfare.)

Tonight Merlion Wayfarer will be watching The Cove.

(Source : Wikipedia)

The Cove is a 2009  film that analyzes and questions Japan's dolphin hunting culture. Told from an ocean conservationist's point of view, and filmed secretly using underwater microphones and high-definition cameras disguised as rocks, the film is a call to action to halt mass dolphin kills, change Japanese fishing practices, and to inform and educate the public about the risks, and increasing hazards, of mercury poisoning from dolphin meat. 

(Source : The Cove Movie)

The Cove highlights the fact that the number of dolphins killed in the Taiji dolphin drive hunting is several times greater than the number of whales killed in the Antarctic, and claims that 23,000 dolphins and porpoises are killed in Japan every year by the country's whaling industry. The migrating dolphins are herded into a cove where they are netted and killed by means of spears and knives over the side of small fishing boats. Dolphin hunting as practiced in Japan is unnecessary and cruel.

(Source : The Cove Movie)

It was the Academy Award Winner for Best Documentary in 2009. 

To mark World Environment Day, The Cove will shown on MediaCorp's Okto tonight at 2200 hours.
  
(Source : WotWots)


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Project ADORE - Rehoming Strays In HDB Flats

4:50 AM  , ,  

(This article is part of Merlion Wayfarer's series on Animal Welfare.)

Every year, thousands of dogs are abandoned or impounded in Singapore. Figures from AVA state 4,050 dogs and 6,131 cats in 2004 and 1,772 dogs and 2,681 cats in 2009 (Straits Times, 26 October 2010). Despite the rapid decline in numbers, the majority of them them are put down due to a lack of space and resources to care for them. Even if they are in good health.

Mr Ricky Yeo, President of Action for Singapore Dogs (ASD), said: "It's very common to see dogs just left out in the streets... If you go to outlying areas with low human traffic, such as Lim Chu Kang, you'll find many domesticated dogs." He receives about three calls daily from pet owners who want to give up their pets. Most cite reasons such as a lack of time and resources, or a change in lifestyle, for wanting to do so.

Thus, it is most heartwarming when the media covers a positive story for these abandoned pets.

Project ADORE (ADOption and REhoming) is a pilot programme run jointly by Housing Development Board (HDB), ASD, and SPCA (Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals), which allows smaller-sized mongrels to be rehomed in public flats.

To ensure that the dogs are not a nuisance to other residents, the Ministry of National Development and animal welfare groups have drawn up guidelines for owners. They must make sure the dogs go for basic obedience training, and must agree to abide by certain rules. 

Acting Manpower Minister and Senior Minister of State for National Development Tan Chuan-Jin, gave an update on the project in his Facebook post. As of April 2013, twenty-one dogs have been successfully adopted and rehomed. Mr Tan said it has been a year since the project was launched and that SPCA and ASD will extend the project for another year.

More Information...
(Source : Pets For Life)

Sources


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