KITCHEN BLOG

MAD DOGS AND ENGLISHMAN

It is true  what the  song  says us  English  work during the hottest part  of the day.In Europe it  shuts during this time for a siesta.Why we do it  must be a culture thing and we soon forget  the  heavy rain that caused all the floods and  damage so enjoy it would last  forever?mad dog and englishman -noel coward

GREEN EYED DOGS

From observations made by Charles Darwin ,scientists have proven dogs suffer jealousy.Experiments revealed that  when  owners displayed affection to a stuffed dog that -barked  ,whined,wagged its tail.The following  happened exhibited jealous behavior such as snapping ,pushing owner .

Report identifies waters around Devon and Cornwall as jellyfish hotspot

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  A lion's mane jellyfish
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  A moon jellyfish
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  A compass jellyfish
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  A barrel jellyfish
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  A blue jellyfish
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  A lion's mane jellyfish
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  A moon jellyfish

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The Westcountry has been identified as a hotspot for jellyfish sightings in a new report which analyses where and when the creatures appear.

The University of Exeter study – published in the Journal of the Marine Biological Association – was based on more than 5,000 jellyfish sightings, of eight different species, sent to the Marine Conservation Society (MCS) between 2003 and 2011.

The coasts of Devon and Cornwall were identified as hotspots for both the diversity of species seen and in what numbers.

“Our survey puts jellyfish on the map in the UK. In this latest paper we show where and when these species now occur throughout UK coastal waters,” said Peter Richardson, biodiversity programme manager for the MCS.

“The last time the national picture was described was well over four decades ago, so this study provides a very timely update.”

The survey is the largest of its kind in the UK and has been attracting a growing number of sightings, with 1,133 reports last year.

Moon, compass, lion’s mane, blue and barrel jellyfish are the most common, according to the study. Other species include the mauve stinger and the Portuguese man of war and by-the-wind sailor which are close relatives of jellyfish.

More than 500 reports have already been made this year – mainly of barrel jellyfish.

Professor Brendan Godley, of the University of Exeter, said: “The remarkable number of barrel jellyfish reported from South West England this year is quite unusual, and at odds with what our report describes, previous years have seen hotspots for this species in West Welsh and Scottish waters. We’re not sure why, but the very mild winter probably meant more adults survived at depth, which will have returned to the surface in spring as waters warmed up.

“This year’s strange barrel jellyfish results highlight the importance of running the survey year in and year out to track these unusual events

and discover if they turn into trends.”

Dr Richardson said: “We still know relatively little about jellyfish, but given the economic impacts that large numbers of jellyfish can have on tourism, fishing, aquaculture and even power generation, we can’t afford to ignore them.

read more

OUCH- MY TEETH HURT

A boy in India had 232 teeth extracted after a 72 hour operation at JJ Hospital ,Mumba.This was described as a very rare and a world record.

Bats 'fly by polarised light'

Bats use the pattern of polarised light in the evening sky to get their bearings, according to a new study.

As well as having unusual echolocation skills and their own magnetic compass, bats are now the first mammals known to make use of polarised light.

Other animals with this ability include birds, anchovies and dung beetles.

To make the discovery, published in Nature Communications, zoologists placed bats in boxes with polarising windows before watching them fly home.

Light waves normally wiggle all around their direction of travel, but when they pass through special filters - or are scattered by gases in the atmosphere - they can become polarised, so that the oscillations all line up.

"We initially didn't think that the bats would use polarised light," said the paper's senior author, Dr Richard Holland from Queen's University in Belfast.

Dr Holland was one of the scientists who discovered in 2006 that bats navigate by somehow sensing the earth's magnetic field - but that in-built compass needs to be calibrated. Other experiments showed that the calibration was happening at sunset, when the bats' day begins.

"We thought that surely, the sun's disc itself would be a more likely cue," Dr Holland told the BBC. But his team recently tested how bats responded when the sun's image was shifted by mirrors, and found no difference.read more

Think penguins are cute? These bad eggs need an Antarctic

Wildlife documentaries are often criticised for being twee, crammed with adorable fluff-bundles and doe-eyed darlings. 

They make us imagine the wilds are teeming with creatures that yearn to curl up on our sofas and snuggle.

Remember March Of The Penguins, cinema’s 2005 surprise success? Narrator Morgan Freeman convinced us that they were seabird saints - moral guardians of the Antarctic.

All over America, evangelical churches ferried parishioners to the pictures in busloads, to celebrate the pious, monogamous penguins who mate for life.

So it came as a bombshell to learn in Penguin Post Office (BBC2) that Morgan got it badly wrong.

These birds are nothing less than sleazy gangsters in feather tuxedos. They’re thieving, sex-mad chick-murderers and they stink to high heaven.

At least no one is going to accuse director Andrew Graham-Brown of being twee.

His team filmed the bird’s breeding cycle over a summer on the tiny British outpost of Goudier Island, 700 miles south of Argentina, where volunteers man the planet’s most southerly gift shop and Post Office. 

Once, this was a whaling station, and the evidence is still there of hardy seamen stranded for years at a time at the end of the world - images of Liz Taylor and Marilyn Monroe in flimsy negligees are painted lovingly on the walls.

But now it’s a busy tourist stop-off. 

Cruise ships bring 18,000 visitors a year, and they send nearly 80,000 postcards from the red Royal Mail postbox. ‘It’s kinda relaxing,’ smiled the postmistress, on sabbatical from her job teaching at a U.S. school, as she franked each stamp by hand.

This would be an icy idyll, if it weren’t for the 2,000 gentoo penguins. 

The tourists thought they were cute, but after a week of living cheek by beak beside them, you’d be begging the courts for a seabird Asbo.

They steal incessantly. It would be safer to hand your house keys to a junkie than let a gentoo anywhere near your rockery.

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The penguins in Natural World are 'nothing less than sleazy gangsters in feather tuxedos'

Given half a chance, any gentoo will be having a fling with a neighbour, and they don’t care who finds out. Penguin morality would make a rabbit blush.

Domestic violence is rife. 

Husband and wife stab and peck at each other, jealously bickering about everything from their ramshackle stone nests to whose turn it is to sit on the egg. 

Chicks that stray from the nest will be viciously battered to death: penguins appear to enjoy violence.

On top of all that, the human volunteers have to spend every morning with a broom and buckets of hot water, knee-deep in rank droppings on their doorstep. 

Graham-Brown couldn’t have done a better hatchet job if he’d caught penguins dealing drugs to the cruise ship v