Kissing bugs

 SS Misri

There are many species of cone nose bugs or kissing bugs .They received their name because they usually bite people near their mouth during the night when they are asleep. Kissing bugs are blood suckers like mosquitoes and ticks. They usually feed just after sunset. They are attracted to the light in our houses, the odours that we exhale, skin odours and to the warmth of our bodies. Kissing bugs that enter a house will feed on household pets as well as humans. The disease transmitting organism, an insect is a bug that carries the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi which causes the disease known as Chagas disease.

The disease is curable if treatment is initiated soon after infection. Some chronically infected people develop heart, digestive, neurological problems. Vector control is the most useful method to prevent Chagas disease. The disease, also known as trypanosomiasis, is a potentially life-threatening illness caused by the protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi. The disease is transmitted to humans by contact with faeces of triatomine bugs, known as 'kissing bugs'.

Chagas disease is named after Carlos Justiniano Chagas, a Brazilian doctor who discovered the disease in 1909. About 6 million to 7 million people were estimated to be infected worldwide, mostly in Latin America some years back.

Signs and symptoms

Chagas disease presents itself in 2 phases. The initial, acute phase lasts for about 2 months after infection. During the acute phase, a high number of parasites circulate in the blood but in most cases symptoms are absent or mild. In some people bitten by a kissing bug, typical first visible signs can be a skin lesion or a purplish swelling of the lids of one eye, and they can present fever, headache, enlarged lymph glands, and muscle pain, difficulty in breathing, swelling and abdominal or chest pain.

During the chronic phase, the parasites are hidden mainly in the heart and digestive muscles. Some patients suffer from cardiac disorders and some suffer from enlargement of the oesophagus or colon.

Transmission

T. cruzi parasites are mainly transmitted by contact with faeces/urine of infected blood-sucking kissing bugs. These bugs, vectors that carry the parasites, typically live in the cracks of poorly-constructed homes in rural or housing areas. Normally they hide during the day and become active at night when they feed on human blood. They usually bite an exposed area of skin such as the face, and the bug defecates close to the bite. The parasites enter the body when the person automatically smears the bug faeces into the bite, the eyes, the mouth, or into any skin break. It is also be transmitted by consumption of food contaminated with T. cruzi through, for example, contact with infected triatomine bug faeces, blood transfusion from infected donors, passage from an infected mother to her newborn during pregnancy or childbirth, organ transplants using organs from infected donors, and laboratory accidents.

There is no vaccine for Chagas disease. Vector control is the most effective method of prevention. Originally, more than 9000 years ago, T. cruzi only affected wild animals. It later spread to domestic animals and people.

 Prevention and control

Spraying of houses and surrounding areas with insecticides, house improvements to prevent vector infestation, personal preventive measures such as bed nets, good hygiene practices in food preparation, transportation, storage and consumption, screening of blood donors, and receivers, and screening of newborns and other children of infected mothers to provide early diagnosis and treatment.

Improving Hand writing Tips For Kids

 SS Misri

A good handwriting is an asset for a child. Every school going child spends up to 50% of his day on writing.  This means that if you find writing difficult or if what you write is messy, you might be at a disadvantage. There are some tips for such students to help them improve.

A comfortable grip zone can help a child to improve handwriting skills.

Just as learning to play a piano or ride a bike, handwriting takes practice.

Some key things to learn are:

Practice often, but for small amounts of time.

Start with simple tasks like birthday cards and signing artwork.

Train the fingers to be more flexible with other activities such as cutting and tearing paper, coloring large surfaces with finger paints, stringing beads, kneading or modeling clay.

  

To be as neat as you can

To write as quickly as possible but still making sure what you write is legible.

The child should take care with size and spacing of letters.

The type of pen or pencil used while writing can have a real impact on the work.

Hold your pen using the forceful tripod grip nature has given to you i.e. holding the pen with the thumb, index finger and middle finger. This will help you control the movement of the pen by applying the correct amount of force, speed and accuracy.

Don’t hold pen too tightly as this can lead to pain.

Minibeasts

Sham S. Misri

Animals have not to be big to be beastly. There are many small animals, particularly insects that are killers. Some of them such as ants are predators that hunt to eat. Others, such as locusts, cause destruction that affects humans. 

Ants

Ants are found almost everywhere, except in water. Most ants are harmless to humans, but army ants and driver ants turn tropical forests and woodlands into battlefields. The stings of army ants contain chemicals that dissolve flesh. Once their prey has turned to liquid, the ants can begin to drink it. Millions of army ants live in a single group, or colony. They hunt together, swarming through leaf litter and attacking anything in their way. 

Driver ants have large jaws that can slice easily through food. They hunt in large numbers and swarm through forests hunting for prey. Driver ants can kill large animals, such as cows, by biting them to death. They have also been known to bite to strip a chicken down to its skeleton in less than a day.

Deadly plagues of locusts have been written about for thousands of years. When they search for food, they travel in swarms of millions, eating all the plants they encounter. This can leave humans without any food. 

Killer Bees

Killer bees fiercely protect their hive by swarming around it. They will attack anything that approaches the nest. 

Killer bees are new type of bees that was created by a scientist. He was hoping to breed bees that made lots of honey, but the bees proved to be extremely aggressive. Killer bees swarm in large numbers and huge groups, when one bee stings, the others quickly join in. One sting is not deadly, but lots of bee stings can kill    a human. It is thought that about 1000 people have been killed by these mini beasts.

"Killer bees", are a hybrid of the Western honey bee species, (Apis mellifera), with various European honey bees such as the Italian bee.

The Wonderful Bottlenose Dolphins

SS Misri

The bottlenose dolphins are the most popular of all dolphins. It can be found in tropical and temperate coastal waters. They are grey in color. Bottlenose dolphins, weigh between 150 and 650 kg and its length can range between 2-4 meters. They usually live in groups called ‘PODS’ and feed on small fishes. The bottlenose dolphin is a gentle, friendly mammal. However, like all predators it has an aggressive side too.

When a bottlenose dolphin is trying to leap out of water, or snaps its jaws, or flaps its tail on the surface of water, it conveys these gestures as a message to other dolphins. Dolphins communicate through whistles and squeaks. They also use body language such as butting heads with one another.  The bottleneck dolphin gets its name from its most distinguishing feature –an elongated snout. However, this long snout is not its nose! Like the whales, for the dolphins too, the functional nose is a blowhole on the top of its head.

Joshua Bell

SS Misri

Joshua Bell was born in Indiana, United States on December 9, 1967. His mother was a therapist and his father a psychologist, Professor Emeritus of Indiana University. His father is of Scottish descent, and his mother is Jewish (his maternal grandfather was born in Israel and his maternal grandmother was from Minsk). Bell told The Jewish Journal, "I identify myself as being Jewish"
Bell began taking violin lessons at the age of four after his mother discovered that her son had taken rubber bands from around the house and stretched them across the handles of his dresser drawer to pluck out music he had heard her play on the piano. His parents got a violin for their then five-year-old son and started giving him lessons. A bright student, Bell took to the instrument playing video games and excelling at sports, namely tennis and bowling, even placing in a national tennis tournament at the age of ten.
Bell studied the violin at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music and graduated in 1984, only two years after his graduation he received the Indiana Governor's Arts Award.
"A man sat at a metro station in Washington DC and started to play the violin; it was a cold January morning. He played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time, since it was rush hour, it was calculated that 1,100 people went through the station, most of them on their way to work. Three minutes went by, and a middle aged man noticed there was musician playing. He slowed his pace, and stopped for a few seconds, and then hurried up to meet his schedule. A minute later, the violinist received his first dollar tip: a woman threw the money in the till and without stopping, and continued to walk. A few minutes later, someone leaned against the wall to listen to him, but the man looked at his watch and started to walk again. Clearly he was late for work. The one who paid the most attention was a 3 year old boy. His mother tagged him along, hurried, but the kid stopped to look at the violinist. Finally, the mother pushed hard, and the child continued to walk, turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. All the parents, without exception, forced them to move on. In the 45 minutes the musician played, only 6 people stopped and stayed for a while. About 20 gave him money, but continued to walk their normal pace. He collected $32. When he finished playing and silence took over, no one noticed it. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition. No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the most talented musicians in the world. He had just played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, on a violin worth $3.5 million dollars. Two days before his playing in the subway, Joshua Bell sold out at a theatre in Boston where the seats averaged $100. This is a real story. Joshua Bell playing in disguise in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste, and priorities of people. The outlines were: in a commonplace environment at an inappropriate hour: Do we see beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize the talent in an unexpected context? One of the possible conclusions from this experience could be: If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world playing the best music ever written, how many other things are we missing?"

Source:

 Robinson, George (October 12, 2006). "Violinist Joshua Bell walks in the footsteps of masters". Retrieved October 13, 2006.

Joshua Bell to return home for benefit performance. Indiana University Media Relations. Retrieved January 28, 2007. 

When people jeered at Columbus!

SS Misri

Christopher Columbus discovered America on the 12th of October, 1492. He had spent eighteen years in planning for that wonderful first voyage which he made across the Atlantic Ocean. The thoughts and hopes of the best part of his life had been given to it. He had talked and argued with sailors and scholars and princes and kings, saying, "I know that, by sailing west across the great ocean, one may at last reach lands that have never been visited by Europeans." But he had been laughed at as a foolish dreamer, and few people had any faith in his projects.

At last, however, the king and queen of Spain gave him ships with which to make the trial voyage. He crossed the ocean and discovered strange lands, inhabited by a people unlike any that had been known before. He believed that these lands were a part of India.

When he returned home with the news of his discovery there was great rejoicing, and he was hailed as the hero who had given a new world to Spain. Crowds of people lined the streets through which he passed, and all were anxious to do him honor. The king and queen welcomed him to their palace and listened with pleasure to the story of his voyage. Never had so great respect been shown to any common man.

But there were some who were jealous of the discoverer, and as ready to find fault as others were to praise. "Who is this Columbus?" they asked, "and what has he done? Is he not a pauper pilot from Italy? And could not any other seaman sail across the ocean just as he has done?"

One day Columbus was at a dinner which a Spanish gentleman had given in his honor, and several of these persons were present. They were proud, self-important fellows, and they very soon began to try to make Columbus uncomfortable.

"You have discovered strange lands beyond the sea," they said. "But what of that? We do not see why there should be so much said about it. Anybody can sail across the ocean; and anybody can coast along the islands on the other side, just as you have done. It is the simplest thing in the world."

Columbus made no answer; but after a while he took an egg from a dish and said to the company, "Who among you, gentlemen, can make this egg stand on end?"

One by one those at the table tried the experiment. When the egg had gone entirely around and none had succeeded, all said that it could not be done.

Then Columbus took the egg and struck its small end gently upon the table so as to break the shell a little. After that there was no trouble in making it stand upright.

"Gentlemen," said he, "what is easier than to do this which you said was impossible? It is the simplest thing in the world. Anybody can do it—after he has been shown how."