The Roving Gambollers

Which is Which?

Rabbits and hares were once regarded as rodents. But today they are placed in a separate order of their own, largely because of differences in their teeth. They have a second pair of tiny teeth behind their front teeth, which rodents do not have.

Rabbits

When a rabbit is born, its skin does not have hair yet, and its eyes are temporarily closed.

Hares

A hare is born with fur and with its eyes open. Their hind feet and ears, in particular, are longer than those of rabbits.

Hares are larger than rabbits. Rabbits and hares might well be called the "flop-ears" and "pop-eyes" of the animal world. They are timid creatures, always hunted, so they need an early warning system to allow them to get out of the way quickly. Their huge ears twitch and turn to pick up the slightest sound from any direction. Their large, bulging eyes can watch all round, even behind their backs.

The young of hares are called leverets while baby rabbits are called bunnies.

Samphires

Beyond the sweep of the tide, where the plant life of the sea ends, the land's plant life begins, often at the foot of a tall cliff. There, among jumbled rocks, constantly washed by spray, grows samphire.

It has roots that anchor the plant in cracks in the rocks. Samphire has fleshy, bluish-green stems, and clusters of tiny, whitish flowers.

Golden samphire is quite different plant. But it still has the same kind of thick, fleshy, very narrow leaves. Like ordinary samphire, it grows, among spray-splashed rocks and also in the salt marshes along the coasts. Its tightly packed, golden flower-heads are 1 inch across, and gleam in the sunshine. Each flower is made up of many flowers in one.

Golden samphire is a long-stemmed plant that belongs to the daisy family.

The Greatest Mind Ever

Do you know who was buried here?

Portsmouth, New Hampshire

Please click here

Links:

http://www.uhedu/engines/epi969.htm

http://www.prometheussociety.org/articles/Outsiders.html

http://www.sidis.net/Sperling.htm

The Aging Brain

Muddle in the Middle
The Aging Brain
by Katharine Dunn

Neuroscientists have long used damaged brains as a way to understand normal brain functions. But doing the opposite also works. A group of researchers at Harvard recently looked at the effects of aging on healthy people’s brains and found that as we get older, communication between different brain regions breaks down. This discovery could eventually help scientists better characterize and detect neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s, which affects more than 5 million Americans.


The younger brain, below, shows more synchronized activity than the older brain, above.

Until recently, most scientists looking at the aging brain focused on individual regions, especially those in the frontal lobe, which may shrink or lose activity even in the absence of disease, says Jessica Andrews-Hanna, a doctoral student in psychology at Harvard’s Center for Brain Science and the lead author on the group’s paper (published last December in the journal Neuron). Though other investigators had hypothesized that disconnections might occur in the ebb and flow of signals between regions, it wasn’t easy to measure this until the introduction in the early 1990s of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a scanning technique that measures blood flow.

Read more... here

Spelling Test

Could You Out-Spell an Eigth-Grader?

You want to try?

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Florida Wildfires

Florida governor declares emergensy in burn areas


Wildfires in Malabar, Daytona force hundreds to evacuate

Michael R. Brown / AP

A blaze snakes dangerously close to a business as firefighters create a back fire to stop the oncoming flames in Malabar, Fla., on Monday.

updated 3:35 p.m. PT, Mon., May. 12, 2008

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - Florida Governor Charlie Crist declared a state of emergency as several wildfires burned along the state’s central Atlantic coast on Monday.

Dry, windy weather fueled the fires. At least three homes have been destroyed and hundreds of residents of Daytona Beach have been ordered to leave the area.

The largest fire roared across 3,000 acres in Brevard County, where one home was destroyed and 60 others threatened, forestry officials said.

Read complete news here

"Fish" of Mind

Have you ever thought of keeping live fish at home? No, not the usual little goldfish turning tight circles in a bowl little larger than a jam jar - I mean starting an aquarium.

An aquarium is a glass or plastic tank built to hold fish, other water animals, and water plants.

You will have to spend a bit of time on it to begin with, and even some money, but you will find it worthwhile. See some of the popular and colorful pet fish below.

Killifish

Zebrasoma flavescens

Zebrasoma veliferum

Zebrasoma xanthurum

Zebrasoma desjardini

Photos:

http://www.flickr.com/

http://rafa.biotopy.pl/

http://www.solodvds.com/

http://www.aquahobby.com/

http://www.waterlifefiji.com/