2008 YEAR of THE FROG

Bagi seorang muslim, tidak perlu ada Year of the Frog, karena Islam melarang membunuh hewan tersebut.
Sebagaimana dalam hadist berikut:

» Dari Ibnu Abbas beliau berkata, Sesungguhnya Nabi melarang membunuh empat hewan yaitu semut, lebah, burung Hud-Hud dan burung Shurad. (Riwayat Ahmad dengan sanad yang shahih)

» Dari Abdurrahman bin Utsman bahwasanya seorang tabib bertanya kepada Nabi tentang katak yang dijadikan obat, lalu beliau melarang membunuhnya. (Riwayat Ahmad, Abu Daud, Ibnu Majah)

Amphibians as indicators of environmental health and their contribution to humanity
Amphibians profoundly enhance our lives and our world in countless ways. They provide vital biomedicines, including compounds that are being refined for analgesics, antibiotics, stimulants for heart attack victims, and treatments for diverse diseases including depression, stroke, seizures, Alzheimer’s, and cancer. The Australian red-eyed treefrog (Litoria chloris) and relatives give us a compound capable of preventing HIV infection, the cause of AIDS.

Amphibians’ thin skins help them drink and breathe, but also make them susceptible to environmental contaminants, particularly agricultural, industrial, and pharmaceutical chemicals. For example, atrazine is the most widely used herbicide in the US with an estimated 61 to 73 million pounds used per year during the 1990s. Scientific studies have found that atrazine may cause a variety of cancers and act as an endocrine disruptor, mimicking the feminizing hormone estrogen and harming human and animal reproductive and hormone systems. Atrazine is generally applied in spring and can accumulate in amphibian breeding pools. Laboratory studies have shown that atrazine can chemically sterilize tadpoles at levels well below the EPA maximum allowable level for drinking water. Although lawsuits brought against the EPA by the Natural Resources Defense Council date back to 1999, the EPA announced on October 31 2003 that it had negotiated a deal with industry that would not require any new restrictions on atrazine use.

Other organochlorine pollutants (e.g., DDT, PCBs, dioxins) can also act as endocrine disruptors, inducing similar feminizing effects in amphibians. It has been demonstrated that these responses are occurring in nature, but it is yet unclear what long-term effect they will have on wild populations.

Amphibians have been likened to canaries in the coal mine: just as miners used sensitive canaries to warn them of toxic gases in the mines, amphibians might be warning us of unsafe environmental conditions that could eventually seriously impact our health. Could we be similarly affected by these widespread endocrine disruptors, or are we already? Atrazine, for example, has been detected in more than 1 million Americans’ drinking water at levels higher than EPA’s drinking water standard. Some human studies suggest that the average sperm count of adult men in certain populations is significantly decreased, as much as 50% of what it was two generations ago. Are we also suffering the same feminizing effects of agrochemicals, industrial waste, and other estrogen-mimics that we see affecting amphibians so drastically?

Amphibians are also vital components of their ecosystems. In the 1970s, it was discovered that the northern redback salamander (Plethodon cinereus) was possibly the most abundant vertebrate in eastern US forests, exceeding the biomass of all the bird or mammal species combined. Amphibians feed primarily on insects and other invertebrates. It was estimated that a single population of ~1,000 cricket frogs (Acris crepitans) could consume almost five million invertebrates in one year Clearly they serve as significant predators of small invertebrates, as abundant prey for larger predators, and as a vital link in the food web between the two. In areas of the world where amphibians have declined, there has been an increase in invertebrate pests that damage crops and that carry human diseases.

Amphibians have also played a vital role in human culture. While in some cultures frogs and toads have been despised and regarded as evil, other cultures have embraced them as life-giving keepers of the rains or agents of fertility and good luck. Some simply use them for food. Amphibians have been both cherished and persecuted by different cultures as characters in fantasy stories, ingredients in folk medicine, and as spiritual beings.

Association of Zoos and Aquariums mengkampanyekan tahun 2008 sebagi Year of the Frog.

Sekilas Kado

Lagi semangat mencari info seputar kado.  Salah satu yang paling menarik ketemu di Global Action Network.

Berikut copy-pastenya.

Sheep

Despite the stereotypes, sheep are very intelligent social animals with good memories. They remember the sheep and humans they’ve met and form lasting friendships with their flock mates.

History

At one time all sheep were wild. They were domesticated by humans some time around 10,000 BC in Southwestern Asia when humans decided to start using their fleece and meat. There are still 4 types of wild sheep roaming the earth today: the Urial in South-West Asia, the Argali in Central Asia, the Mouflon in the central islands of the Mediterranean, and the Bighorn in the Rocky Mountains of North America. Domestic sheep are descended from the Mouflon and one other unidentified ancestor. Selective breeding has led to over forty different types of domestic sheep.

Sense and Sensibility

Scientists are beginning to realize that sheep have pretty good memories. Keith Kendrick, a neuro-scientist at the Babraham Institute near Cambridge, thinks that the sheep’s brain recognizes a face in the same way a human’s does. In a study that Kendrick led, a sheep was able to correctly identify a human face on a screen 50 times in 50 chances. The sheep that participated in the study could also remember the faces of up to 50 of their sheep friends, even when they hadn’t seen them for years.

Rather than stand around dumbly, sheep have been known to collectively tackle the obstacles they encounter as a group. Sheep in the Yorkshire moors of England taught themselves to roll over 3-metre metal cattle grids in order to raid the gardens of villagers. The animals had also learned to jump 1.5m fences and squeeze through 8 inch gaps.

The herd stays together and co-operates for protection. First, one sheep will venture away from the group. A second sheep follows then signals to the rest of the herd that it is safe to follow, too. The sheep that act as adventurers and signalers tend to do so throughout their lives.

Sheep have feelings and use various sounds to communicate different emotions and messages amongst themselves. Mark Feinstein, a cognitive science professor and expert in bioacoustics at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, thinks that sheep express stress by altering the tone of their vocalizations, or the overall quality of sounds instead of changing the pitch or loudness of their calls. Even a human can easily tell when a sheep is in pain or sick from the tone of the noises it makes.

Sheep seem to form individual friendships with each other, grazing or hanging out with the same pal consistently. Researchers believe that, like humans, sheep actually think about their sheep friends and acquaintances even when those sheep are not around. They also become upset when their sheep friends are missing from the flock.

A Feast Fit for Sheep

Sheep eat grass, clover, and various weeds, with weeds tending to be their first choice. Sheep will spend around seven hours a day grazing, mostly in the hours around dawn and sunset. The amount of grazing land that it takes to feed a sheep depends on the quality of the soil, the amount of rainfall that it receives, and the management of the pasture. In dry climates, an acre of pasture or rangeland cannot feed as many sheep, and they will usually have to travel greater distances for food and water. When fresh food isn’t available, domestic sheep are fed stored hay or silage.

Like their relatives goats, cows, and camels, sheep are ruminants, meaning that they digest their food in two steps. First they eat their raw plant food and then regurgitate the semi-digested form called cud, which they chew and re-swallow. They have four stomach chambers to help with their complicated digestion.

Did you know?

• Without any human interference, sheep grow just enough wool to protect themselves from temperature extremes. Fleece doesn’t only protect the sheep from cold; it also provides effective insulation from heat!
• Rams are male sheep, ewes are female sheep, and lambs are baby sheep.
• Ewes have a definite opinion on what makes a ram’s face attractive.
• Farmers have reported that sheep who’ve changed hands will often find their way back to the flock they originally came from if they get lost.
• Ewes usually give birth to twin lambs.
• Selective breeding has caused sheep to develop more wool and less hair, and their wool colour to change from browns to more uniform whites and blacks.
• Sheep can live anywhere from 11 to 16 years.
• Sheep can see much more than humans. They have a 270˚ radius of view, almost 3/4 of a circle. Humans only see 170˚ at best. This makes sheep very difficult to sneak up on or surprise.
• Sheep would rather walk up-hill than down.

What makes sheep and goats different?

• Goats are lively animals and very curious. What we call a plain old goat is a domesticated subspecies of the wild goat. Along with sheep, cows, and antelopes, goats belong to the bovine family. Just like deer, a female goat is called a doe while the males are called bucks. They are also known as nannies and billies respectively. Young goats are called kids.
• Goats have straight hair, which is different than sheep’s wool. The buck also has a beard, a tuft of hair that hangs down under his chin.
• Goats are happy living in herds with other goats or by themselves. Sheep always stay in groups.
• Sheep are more likely to overeat than goats if they have access to more food than they need. They often fall prey to enterotoxemia or “overeating” disease.
• Sheep are grazers, while goats are browsers. That means sheep eat grasses and other plants all the way down to the ground. Goats, on the other hand, nibble here and there, sampling a variety of bushes and leaves.
• It is widely believed that goats will eat everything left in their path. This misconception probably stems from the fact that they tend to chew on a lot of things without actually eating them. Goats prefer to eat shrubs and weeds.
• Among the best climbers in the world, goats will climb trees if the angle and the bark allow them to get a footing. They’ve even been known to get onto roofs by climbing neighbouring trees. They almost never fall or slip, and can even jump from rock to rock. Sheep, on the other hand, are much less sure-footed and can easily fall and get stuck upside down.
• Sheep are more resilient in the face of bad weather than goats.
• Both sheep and goats will always run away from danger, but they will try to defend themselves if they end up cornered. By stamping a front foot to the ground, a sheep or goat warns his attacker that he is about to charge.

Pekan Bicara Banyak, Banyak Bicara

Pekan ini bisa dibilang pekan penuh warna. Banyak mengenal orang baru dengan beragam karakter.
Mulai dari yang nyambung jika diajak bicara, sampai yang tidak nyambung – meskipun sudah mengobral kata-kata hingga berbusa… hehehe sorry terlalu hiperbolik ya.

Tapi ada bagusnya sesekali bicara dengan orang yang tidak nyambung. Paling tidak kita jadi tahu, jika koleksi kosakata perlu ditambah, dan tentu saja stok kesabaran juga perlu ditambah.

Ada yang unik, ternyata kosakata dan kesabaran tidak hanya perlu untuk menghadapi orang-orang yang tidak “klik” dengan kita. Dengan orang yang “terlalu” nyambung pun perlu memperkaya kosakata. Untuk apa? Paling nggak untuk mencetak skor. Skor dalam rangka apa? Dalam rangka mematikan jawaban lawan bicara yang terlalu nyambung tadi. Hehehe…

Ganti cerita…..

Komunitas  seputar per-kado-an ternyata menarik juga untuk diikuti. Ya lumayan untuk menyegarkan otak yang terbiasa face to face dengan benda mati.

Kado, binatang yang selalu ingin saya miliki. Waks… sudah gak suka pinguin nie? Penguin saya suka, tapi gak mungkin dimiliki.  Selama ini punya kado cuma beberapa hari, habis gitu selamat tinggal. Duh… pengen bener punya kado yang bisa dirawat dan diajak becanda, juga buat cari nafkah. Emmmbeeeek…