Enter the world of biotechnology

Spinach power
Molecular biologists are using spinach to make vaccines against anthrax, influenza, even plague. The scientists achieved this by tricking the vegetable into producing harmless bits and pieces of common human pathogens that cause flu and plague. When these chopped-up deactivated pathogens are injected into mammals, the animals acquire immunity.

Snake venom helps in heart treatment
Indian health scientists looking for cheap medicines for heart ailments say chemical compounds in snake venom could be of help. Research by scientist shows that limited use of the non-protein compounds found in the venom of snakes such as king cobra could help patients with irregular heartbeats. There are trials carried out on rats and guinea pigs, which have given encouraging results.

Why there is no ‘heart cancer’?
Any cell in the body has the potential to become malignant, thus cancer can, in fact, affect the heart. Cancer arises from mutations in the DNA of a ce3ll. Usually a cancerous cell undergoes several mutations before it becomes a deadly, invasive cancer. Most of these mutations occur when the cell is dividing and replicating its DNA. The only way for a cell to propagate a mutation is to divide and pass those mutations on to its daughter cells. With regard to the heart cells, however, they just go right on pumping and doing their job and don’t replicate to make new heart cells unless there has been some injury. With so little chance for mutations to occur and get passed on to daughter cells.
In cancers that are most common-breast , colon and skin among others. Most of the cells in these tissues are replacing themselves all the time. Breast tissue is constantly affected by hormones and is always growing and shrinking. The lining of the colon is continually sloughing off and being replaced. The same is true of the skin. In addition, skin and colon cells are constantly being exposed to things that induce mutations- ultraviolet rays for the skin and carcinogens in food for the colon. As a result, the likelihood of mutations on to daughter cells during cell division. This is why these types of cancer are common. The heart , in contract, doesn’t get exposed to many carcinogens, just those in the blood. That , combined with the fact that the heart cells do not often replicate, is why you don’t see much cancer of the heart muscle. Indeed, accordingly to cancer statistics, it does not appear to occur at any measurable rate.

Bacteria in yogurt can battle AIDS
“Friendly bacteria” found in yoghurt has been genetically modified by researchers in the US to produce a drug that blocks HIV infection. This technique could provide a cheaper and more effective way of delivering drugs to fight the spread of AIDS.

Healing with colours
Colour therapy is a holistic and non-invasive therapy , a growing area in alternative medicine. It aims to balance and enhance our body’s energy centers (chakras) by using seven colours of light spectrum, which can help to stimulate our body’s own healing process. Each of the seven colours resonates with one of the main chakras.
The main colours that effect us are the rainbow hues of the spectrum – red, magenta, orange, yellow, green , turquoise, indigo and violet. The first four are the thought to bethe most stimulating colours, the last four are more comforting and soothing.
RED: stimulating and warming. Good for treating low pressure agoraphobia (fear of being in places where help might not be available, typically fear of crowds, bridges or being outside one, cold and paralysis.
Majenta: protective colour that treats ailments related to the head. Migraine ,nausea, shock,stroke and tiredness can all benefit.
Orange: stimulate the digestive system. Good for treating reduced appetite, gallstones, liver problems, constipation, indigestion and muscle stiffness.
Green: treats the heart and lungs. Good for bronchitis, emphysema, heart burn, heart diseases, emotional fatigue.
Pale blue: anti inflammatory. Treats the skin and boosts the immune system used for eczema, dermatitis, fever, haemorrhoids and stings says. The daily mail, Uk
Indigo: works on the throat, also anti inflammatory. Used for asthma, burns, cramps, laryngitis, sinusitis, tonsillitis and anxiety attacks.
Violet : helps to rebalance hormonal system and treat nervous disorders. Good for menopause, neuralgia, varicose veins, tinnitus ( continuous ringing in the ears and noises in the head).

Leonid Afremov

Leonid Afremov

Leonid Afremov (born 1955) is a Belarusian painter. His paintings are often vividly-coloured landscapes, cityscapes and figures, and are typically painted using a palette knife and oil paint.

Afremov graduated from Vitebsk Art School, which was founded by Chagall in 1921 and has had many notable patrons including Kazimir Malevich and Wassily Kandinsky. After discovering that only communist propaganda posters would sell in the Soviet Union, Afremov moved to Israel in 1990. Within two weeks, he had found a job in an advertising agency painting billboards, but on the eve of an exhibition, his studio was broken into and vandalised.^[1] After having his art gallery vandalized by orthodox Jews, Leonid moved to United States.

He currently resides in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico.

Selected exhibitions

• 1977 Students’ Anniversary, Vitebsk
• 1990 Soviet Artists’ Union, Vitebsk
• 1989 Judaica Paintings, Moscow
• 1991 Amaliya Arbel Art Gallery, Rishon Lezion, Israel
• 1992 Judaica Paintings, Ramat Gan Museum
• 1994 Judaica Paintings, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv
• 1997 Anniversary Exhibition, Ashdod Museum
• 1994 Lapid Art Gallery, Ashdod
• 1995 Dilon Art Gallery, Jaffa
• 1998 Opera House Art Gallery, Tel Aviv
• 1999 Ofir Art Gallery, Ramat Aviv, Tel Aviv

 

About Mehely

Hungarian meadow viper

Hungarian meadow viper (Vipera ursinii rakosiensis Méhely, 1893) is an inhabitant of steppe remnants. Recent populations occur on grasslands formed by a mosaic of drying marsh-meadows and sandy pastures, where the relatively diverse features of terrain and grass cover provides high prey-abundance and several different microclimatic options. Vipers spend winter hibernated in rodent burrows of local elevations. During spring as mating season starts males moves significantly more, this time is the most likely to see one of them. Young vipers are born late summer, early September, depending on the number of sunny days. On average 6-14 viper is born, with 12-16 cm length and weighing only 2 g. They become fertile at their third-fourth year. According to our measurements the biggest male was 47,1 cm in length, while the biggest female was 59,8 cm. Young individuals feed mainly on Orthopterans (locusts, grasshoppers, crickets), while adults consume lizards, young birds and rodents. The venom of Hungarian meadow viper is not lethal for humans, its bite – although due to the species’ cautiousness and rareness nowadays it is very infrequent – causes quickly disappearing, bee-sting-like symptoms. (Despite this, in case of being bitten we suggest to visit a doctor!) The cautiousness of this small snake is not accidental as, especially newborns are on the menu of several other species. The so called predators are storks, herons, harriers, roller, pheasant or even the strictly protected great bustard. Wild boar, badger or red fox can even dig them from their burrow.

Distribution

Former distribution is described by Lajos Méhely in 1912 on the pages of Természettudományi Közlöny: “In our country it occurs on the surroundings of Budapest, on Rákos, on Angyalföld, on Rákoskeresztúr, on Pusztaszentmihály and on Babád-puszta, furthermore on Örkény, on pusztas of Bugacz and Tázlár next to Kecskemét, on Szénafüvek of Kolozsvár, sporadically on flatland of Vasmegye and around Fertõ,and like last summer it was observed in numbers on Hanság in Mosonmegye. Outside our country it is spread mainly in Vienna basin, on the plains between forest of Vienna and river Lajta and it is very common in the surroundings of Laxenburg.”

Vipera ursinii species group

Hungarian meadow viper (Vipera ursinii rakosiensis Méhely, 1893) is a small, steppe-form member of the so called Vipera ursinii species group. It was described as subspecies according to morphologic and biochemical data. First the French or Italian meadow viper (Vipera ursinii ursinii Bonaparte, 1835) was described, that occurs in Abruzzi Mountains of Italy and on Mont-Ventoux and Montagne de Lure in South-France. The Hungarian meadow viper is the closest related to this mountain subspecies according to morphology. Other mountain subspecies is the Carst viper (Vipera ursinii macrops Méhely, 1911), wich occurs in Dinari-mountains and the Greek meadow viper (Vipera ursinii graeca Nilson & Andrén, 1988) from Pindos-mountains. The Moldavian meadow viper (Vipera ursinii moldavica Nilson, Andrén et Joger, 1988) has an interesting distribution as some populations occur in plains of Danube-delta, with higro-halophyl vegetation, while others on steppe habitats in the surrounding hills of Iasi. Most probably those specimens from Bulgaria that were previously described as Hungarian meadow vipers are Moldavian meadow vipers. Some other recently emerged species, previously listed as subspecies, has to be mentioned here. The Steppe viper (Vipera renardi Christoph, 1861), which has a distribution from the Black-sea to the Tien-San, occurring on plains and mountain habitats as well. Some other mountain-species: the Anatolian steppe viper (Vipera anatolica Eiselt & Baran, 1970), Armenian steppe viper (Vipera eriwanensis Reuss, 1933), Iranian steppe viper (Vipera ebneri Knoeppfler & Sochurek, 1955) and Caucasian meadow viper (Vipera lotievi Nilson, Tuniyev, Höggren et Andrén, 1995). All of these species or subspecies are declining on its distribution, forming small, isolated populations, which are vulnerable to anthropogenic effects.

Brief history

The story of Hungarian meadow viper (Vipera ursinii rakosiensis Méhely, 1893) had started in 1892, and today, after 112 years we have to evaluate the fact that this small “aristocrat” – as Lajos Méhely described the viper – will disappear from our fauna. On the 28th April 1892, Ottó Hermann hold a presentation about the distribution of Pelias berus or the Common Adder at the Zoological Subdivision of the Royal Society of Hungarian Natural Sciences, and he presented two specimens of vipers caught by his dog close to the rill called Rákos.

The two specimens have aroused Lajos Méhely’s interest, one of the greatest zoologists of his time, and he found that those two vipers differ from the Common Adder, so he categorized them as Vipera berus var. rakosiensis. He published his revelations on the 29th May 1893 and a few months later Boulanger, a herpetologist of British Museum, has expressed his opinion that the vipers described by Méhely were rather Vipera ursinii described earlier by Bonaparte in 1835. After a hard discussion, Méhely has eventually accepted Boulanger’s opinion. As he wrote later; “The Vipera rakosiensis have to give way to the priority of Vipera ursinii, although it is his merit that the never appreciated V. ursinii have revived, or more likely, was born due to the Hungarian meadow viper”. The author here points out to the fact that Bonaparte, while describing Pelias (Vipera) berus, mentioned one specimen from Gran-Sasso that had differed from the others, and he suggested that in case it would turn out to be a member of a new species, than it should be named Pelias (Vipera) ursinii.

Despite this Méhely hardly accepted that the Hungarian meadow viper, which inhabited the plains, is the same species described by Bonaparte from the mountains, and he emphasised this until his death. In a wy he was right. Although Hungarian meadow viper is still not an individual species, scientists described it as a distinct subspecies in the ’60s.

Love Pets

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Home remedies for tanning

A tan can make you look disastrous when you plan to wear a lovely dress that hugs your curves. The only way to remove the tan from your skin is to wait patiently for the tan itself to fade.……….Here are some home remedies where you can make the tan fade away and your skin light.

1. Mix together 5 tablespoons of rosewater and 1 tablespoon of lemon juice. Apply this mixture to the affected area before you go to bed. Wash it off the next morning. This helps to get rid of the suntan.

2. Make a paste of saffron powder/turmeric powder and lemon juice helping the suntan to become lighter.

3. A tablespoon of gram flour mixed well with a little milk and few drops of lemon juice. Let it be on your face for about 15 minutes and then wash off.

4. Apply the juice of tomato with a little lemon juice. Wash it off after 20 minutes with cold water. This will help to remove the suntan. Continue this treatment for at least 15 days.

5. Raw potato is also very affective to remove suntan. Rub slices of raw potato to our skin which helps to also improve your skin tone.

Don Henrie

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Don Henrie the “The Vampire Don”…..officially known as…..and claims himself to be the immortal vampire in today’s world

This is for my Grandfather

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My father

Well father is someone……A saint, the statesman, the philosopher, the guide, indeed the world itself………..The other name of father is love……….The greatest gift had ever come from God::::::::I call him Baba………My father didn’t tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it………….There are three stages of a man’s life:  He believes in Santa Claus, he doesn’t believe in Santa Claus, he is Santa Claus…..and that is what a father issssss……Any man can be a father but it takes someone special to be a dad…….Blessed indeed is the man who hears many gentle voices call him father…..It’s my father…….The love of a father is one of nature’s greatest masterpieces.

Blessed to be a Father

God gave you the strength of a mountain

The calmness of the sea

The warmth of the sun

The generous soul of nature

The majesty of the tree

The comforting arm of night

The wisdom of life

The joy and freshness of the morning

The patience in eternity

The power to fight back

And a soul to love and give a family to live with

God combined all

And created the divine soul

And completed all his masterpieces

And named him “Father”

But he created father and we made him dad

Who taught us Life lessons

And we picked up everything

Written in his heart

Without him

We wouldn’t have been the one

We are today

We grow up with his values

And we die with those values

But leave behind a small reply

We love you dad

By Meheli

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It’s all about loving your father

 

 

Aquatic Life

This gallery contains 38 photos.

Wildlife

This gallery contains 105 photos.

Poem

New Year Recipe

Hey buddy,

This new year I am going to change the world the way I want it to be. To make it a better place we just require a delicious recipe which can reunite all hearts. Here it goes:

Ingredients: 2 cups of unity and integrity, 5 tbsp of love, 3 tbsp of understanding, 2 tbsp of cooperation and 1 tsp of prayer and sacrifice.

Method:

Mix unity, integrity and love in a bowl,  Add understanding and cooperation after 5 mins and mix the ingredients in the bowl till it forms peace, Don’t fry anything .Last of all garnish the mixture with prayer and Give a tsp of mixture to everyone and in dessert provide with 1 tsp of sacrifice so that everyone can sacrifice anything to keep this world united.