Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Terrorism
Terrorism is a threat to our lives. Unfortunately, there are terrorists around the world, including Singapore. It is the use of violence to with the intention of intimidating societies or government. I am afraid of terrorism. I don't wish my life is endangered by terrorism. As long as there is terrorism, our lives are endangered. However, cos of Sg's security, I, as a foreign student don't feel the impact from the terrorism and this is the sign that the government in singapore had done an excellent job in keeping security. I hope that the government can keep up th their good work. I hope that something can be done too, so that there will be better security and we will not live in fear everyday. Also, we should be more vigilant.
Monday, April 6, 2009
Reflective summary
Now , i felt that after doing this project , I can feel that every single life in the earth need each other in order to survive .
Plants needs animals and humans to reproduce and make food , Animals and Humans depends on it for their food .
Yet , Humans doesn’t appreciate it and destroyed them for their own purpose .
The activities done by humans has reduced the habitat of some animals , even caused some of the species became extinct .Plants were gathered to make decorations .It also causes climate change .
Still , there are some ways to save the habitat of the animals and prevent the climate change from further improvement .
The first way is use less paper , so the trees cut down would be reduced which would reduce the greenhouse effect .
We can breed some animals that are nearly extinct intensively so that their population would not disappear from the earth .
Using recycle bag instead of plastic bag which took more than million of year to be decomposed .
Recycle paper so they can be used again and again .
The greenhouse effect could be reduced by using environmental friendly fuels such as biodiesel .
By all means , we must try as hard as we can to save the earth from destruction caused by those problems .
Plants needs animals and humans to reproduce and make food , Animals and Humans depends on it for their food .
Yet , Humans doesn’t appreciate it and destroyed them for their own purpose .
The activities done by humans has reduced the habitat of some animals , even caused some of the species became extinct .Plants were gathered to make decorations .It also causes climate change .
Still , there are some ways to save the habitat of the animals and prevent the climate change from further improvement .
The first way is use less paper , so the trees cut down would be reduced which would reduce the greenhouse effect .
We can breed some animals that are nearly extinct intensively so that their population would not disappear from the earth .
Using recycle bag instead of plastic bag which took more than million of year to be decomposed .
Recycle paper so they can be used again and again .
The greenhouse effect could be reduced by using environmental friendly fuels such as biodiesel .
By all means , we must try as hard as we can to save the earth from destruction caused by those problems .
Reflective journal 5
The dugong (Dugong dugon) is a large marine mammal which, together with the manatees, is one of four living species of the order Sirenia. It is the only living representative of the once-diverse family Dugongidae; its closest modern relative, Steller's Sea Cow (Hydrodamalis gigas), was hunted to extinction in the 18th century. It is also the only sirenian in its range, which spans the waters of at least 37 countries throughout the Indo-Pacific, though the majority of dugongs live in the northern waters of Australia between Shark Bay and Moreton Bay.In addition, the dugong is the only strictly-marine herbivorous mammal, as all species of manatee utilize fresh water to some degree.
Like all modern sirenians, the dugong has a fusiform body with no dorsal fin or hindlimbs, instead possessing paddle-like forelimbs used to maneuver itself. It is easily distinguished from the manatees by its fluked, dolphin-like tail, but also possesses a unique skull and teeth. The dugong is heavily dependent on seagrasses for subsistence and is thus restricted to the coastal habitats where they grow, with the largest dugong concentrations typically occurring in wide, shallow, protected areas such as bays, mangrove channels and the lee sides of large inshore islands. Its snout is sharply downturned, an adaptation for grazing and uprooting benthic seagrasses.
The dugong has been hunted for thousands of years, often for its meat and oil ,although dugong hunting also has great cultural significance throughout its range. The dugong's current distribution is reduced and disjunct, and many populations are close to extinction.The IUCN lists the dugong as a species vulnerable to extinction, while the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species limits or bans the trade of derived products based on the population involved. Despite being legally protected in many countries throughout their range, the main causes of population decline remain anthropogenic, and include hunting, habitat degradation, and fishing-related fatalities. With its long lifespan of 70 years or more, and slow rate of reproduction, the dugong is especially vulnerable to these types of exploitation. In addition, dugongs are threatened by storms, parasites, and their natural predators, sharks, killer whales, and crocodiles.
Like all modern sirenians, the dugong has a fusiform body with no dorsal fin or hindlimbs, instead possessing paddle-like forelimbs used to maneuver itself. It is easily distinguished from the manatees by its fluked, dolphin-like tail, but also possesses a unique skull and teeth. The dugong is heavily dependent on seagrasses for subsistence and is thus restricted to the coastal habitats where they grow, with the largest dugong concentrations typically occurring in wide, shallow, protected areas such as bays, mangrove channels and the lee sides of large inshore islands. Its snout is sharply downturned, an adaptation for grazing and uprooting benthic seagrasses.
The dugong has been hunted for thousands of years, often for its meat and oil ,although dugong hunting also has great cultural significance throughout its range. The dugong's current distribution is reduced and disjunct, and many populations are close to extinction.The IUCN lists the dugong as a species vulnerable to extinction, while the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species limits or bans the trade of derived products based on the population involved. Despite being legally protected in many countries throughout their range, the main causes of population decline remain anthropogenic, and include hunting, habitat degradation, and fishing-related fatalities. With its long lifespan of 70 years or more, and slow rate of reproduction, the dugong is especially vulnerable to these types of exploitation. In addition, dugongs are threatened by storms, parasites, and their natural predators, sharks, killer whales, and crocodiles.
Reflective journal 4
The orangutans are a species of great apes. Known for their intelligence, they live in trees and they are the largest living arboreal animal. They have longer arms than other great apes, and their hair is reddish-brown, instead of the brown or purple hair typical of other great apes. Native to Indonesia and Malaysia, they are currently found only in rainforests on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra, though fossils have been found in Java, the Thai-Malay Peninsula, Vietnam and China. They are the only surviving species in the genus Pongo and the subfamily Ponginae (which also includes the extinct genera Gigantopithecus and Sivapithecus).
Etymology
The word orangutan (also written orang-utan, orang utan and orangutang) is derived from the Malay words meaning "Dolphin of the jungle", Orang Hutan is the common term in these two national languages, although local peoples may also refer to them by local languages. Maias and mawas are also used in Malay, but it is unclear if those words refer only to orangutans, or to all apes in general.
The word was first attested in English in 1691 in the form orang-outang, and variants with -ng instead of -n as in the Malay original are found in many languages. This spelling (and pronunciation) has remained in use in English up to the present, but has come to be regarded as incorrect .
The name of the genus, Pongo, comes from a 16th century account by Andrew Battell, an English sailor held prisoner by the Portuguese in Angola, which describes two anthropoid "monsters" named Pongo and Engeco. It is now believed that he was describing gorillas, but in the late 18th century it was believed that all great apes were orangutans; hence Lacépède's use of Pongo for the genus.
Ecology and appearance
Adult female orangutan
Orangutans are the most arboreal of the great apes, spending nearly all of their time in the trees. Every night they fashion nests, in which they sleep, from branches and foliage. They are more solitary than the other apes, with males and females generally coming together only to mate. Mothers stay with their babies until the offspring reach an age of six or seven years. There is significant sexual dimorphism between females and males: females can grow to around 4 ft 2 in or 127 centimetres and weigh around 100 lbs or 45 kg, while flanged adult males can reach 5 ft 9 in or 175 centimetres in height and weigh over 260 lbs or 118 kg.The arms of orangutans are twice as long as their legs. Much of the arm's length has to do with the length of the radius and the ulna rather than the humerus. Their fingers and toes are curved, allowing them to better grip onto branches. Orangutans have less restriction in the movements of their legs than humans and other primates, due to the lack of a hip joint ligament which keeps the femur held into the pelvis. Unlike gorillas and chimpanzees, orangutans are not true knuckle-walkers, and walk on the ground by shuffling on their palms with their fingers curved inwards.
Flanged adult male
Diet
Fruit makes up 65% of the orangutan diet. Fruits with sugary or fatty pulp are favored. Lowland Dipterocarp forests are preferred by orangutans because of their high fruit abundance, the same forests that provide excellent timber for the logging industry and good soil conditions for palm oil plantations. The fruit of fig trees are also commonly eaten since it is easy to both harvest and digest. Bornean orangutans are recorded to consume at least 317 different food items and include: young leaves, shoots, seeds and bark. Insects, honey and bird eggs are also included.Orangutans are highly opportunistic foragers with the composition of their diet varying markedly from month to month.Bark as a source of nourishment is only consumed as a last resort in times of food scarcity, fruits always being the preferred choice.
Orangutans are thought to be the sole fruit disperser for some plant species including the climber species Strychnos ignatii which contains the toxic alkaloid strychnine. It does not appear to have any effect on orangutans except for excessive saliva production.
Geophagy, the practice of eating soil or rock, has been observed in orangutans. There are three main reasons for this dietary behavior; for the addition of minerals nutrients to their diet; for the ingestion of clay minerals that can absorb toxic substances; or to treat a disorder such as diarrhea.
Orangutans use plants of the genus Commelina as an anti-inflammatory balm.
Etymology
The word orangutan (also written orang-utan, orang utan and orangutang) is derived from the Malay words meaning "Dolphin of the jungle", Orang Hutan is the common term in these two national languages, although local peoples may also refer to them by local languages. Maias and mawas are also used in Malay, but it is unclear if those words refer only to orangutans, or to all apes in general.
The word was first attested in English in 1691 in the form orang-outang, and variants with -ng instead of -n as in the Malay original are found in many languages. This spelling (and pronunciation) has remained in use in English up to the present, but has come to be regarded as incorrect .
The name of the genus, Pongo, comes from a 16th century account by Andrew Battell, an English sailor held prisoner by the Portuguese in Angola, which describes two anthropoid "monsters" named Pongo and Engeco. It is now believed that he was describing gorillas, but in the late 18th century it was believed that all great apes were orangutans; hence Lacépède's use of Pongo for the genus.
Ecology and appearance
Adult female orangutan
Orangutans are the most arboreal of the great apes, spending nearly all of their time in the trees. Every night they fashion nests, in which they sleep, from branches and foliage. They are more solitary than the other apes, with males and females generally coming together only to mate. Mothers stay with their babies until the offspring reach an age of six or seven years. There is significant sexual dimorphism between females and males: females can grow to around 4 ft 2 in or 127 centimetres and weigh around 100 lbs or 45 kg, while flanged adult males can reach 5 ft 9 in or 175 centimetres in height and weigh over 260 lbs or 118 kg.The arms of orangutans are twice as long as their legs. Much of the arm's length has to do with the length of the radius and the ulna rather than the humerus. Their fingers and toes are curved, allowing them to better grip onto branches. Orangutans have less restriction in the movements of their legs than humans and other primates, due to the lack of a hip joint ligament which keeps the femur held into the pelvis. Unlike gorillas and chimpanzees, orangutans are not true knuckle-walkers, and walk on the ground by shuffling on their palms with their fingers curved inwards.
Flanged adult male
Diet
Fruit makes up 65% of the orangutan diet. Fruits with sugary or fatty pulp are favored. Lowland Dipterocarp forests are preferred by orangutans because of their high fruit abundance, the same forests that provide excellent timber for the logging industry and good soil conditions for palm oil plantations. The fruit of fig trees are also commonly eaten since it is easy to both harvest and digest. Bornean orangutans are recorded to consume at least 317 different food items and include: young leaves, shoots, seeds and bark. Insects, honey and bird eggs are also included.Orangutans are highly opportunistic foragers with the composition of their diet varying markedly from month to month.Bark as a source of nourishment is only consumed as a last resort in times of food scarcity, fruits always being the preferred choice.
Orangutans are thought to be the sole fruit disperser for some plant species including the climber species Strychnos ignatii which contains the toxic alkaloid strychnine. It does not appear to have any effect on orangutans except for excessive saliva production.
Geophagy, the practice of eating soil or rock, has been observed in orangutans. There are three main reasons for this dietary behavior; for the addition of minerals nutrients to their diet; for the ingestion of clay minerals that can absorb toxic substances; or to treat a disorder such as diarrhea.
Orangutans use plants of the genus Commelina as an anti-inflammatory balm.
Reflecitve journal 3
On average, the Leopard Cat is as large as a Domestic Cat, but there are considerable regional differences: in Indonesia the average size is 45 cm (18 in), plus 20 cm (8 in) tail, while it is 60 cm/40 cm (24/16 in) in the Amur region. The shoulder height is 41 cm (16 in) and the weight is 4.5-6.8 kg (10-15 lbs), similar in size to a Domestic Cat. The fur color is also variable: it is yellow in the southern populations, but silver-grey in the northern ones. The chest and the lower part of the head are white. The Leopard Cat bears black markings that may be spotted or rosetted, depending on the subspecies. It has litters of 2 to 4 kittens and the gestation period can vary from 65 to 70 days
Distribution
The Leopard Cat has the widest geographic distribution of all felines. It can be found in forest areas throughout Indonesia, Philippines, Borneo, Malaysia, Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, China and Taiwan. The Leopard Cat also can be found in Korea, India, Pakistan and Soviet Far East. Their range of habitat is varied, and includes tropical forest, scrubland, pine forest, second-growth woodland, semi-desert, and agricultural regions, especially near water sources, and may be found at heights up to 3000 m.
Habitat and behavior
The Leopard Cat can climb trees skillfully. It is also able to swim, but will seldom do so. This cat is nocturnal, and during the day it spends its time in dens that may be hollow trees, cavities under roots, or caves. It spends time out during the day in areas where there are no humans. The Leopard Cat is solitary, except during breeding season. There is no fixed breeding period in the southern part of its range; in the colder northern parts it tends to breed around March or April, when the weather is nice enough to support newborn kittens. The estrus period lasts for 5-9 days. After a gestation period of 9-10 weeks (60-70 Days), two to three kittens are born in a den, where they remain until they are a month old. The eyes open at ten days old, and start to eat solid food at 23 days. If the kittens do not survive, the mother can come into heat again and have another litter that year.
Diet
An alert Leopard Cat
Leopard Cats are carnivorous, and feed on variety of small prey, including mammals, lizards, amphibians, birds, and insects. In Northern region, the subspecies of Leopard Cat also eat hares. The diet is often supplemented with grass, eggs, poultry, and aquatic prey.
Distribution
The Leopard Cat has the widest geographic distribution of all felines. It can be found in forest areas throughout Indonesia, Philippines, Borneo, Malaysia, Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, China and Taiwan. The Leopard Cat also can be found in Korea, India, Pakistan and Soviet Far East. Their range of habitat is varied, and includes tropical forest, scrubland, pine forest, second-growth woodland, semi-desert, and agricultural regions, especially near water sources, and may be found at heights up to 3000 m.
Habitat and behavior
The Leopard Cat can climb trees skillfully. It is also able to swim, but will seldom do so. This cat is nocturnal, and during the day it spends its time in dens that may be hollow trees, cavities under roots, or caves. It spends time out during the day in areas where there are no humans. The Leopard Cat is solitary, except during breeding season. There is no fixed breeding period in the southern part of its range; in the colder northern parts it tends to breed around March or April, when the weather is nice enough to support newborn kittens. The estrus period lasts for 5-9 days. After a gestation period of 9-10 weeks (60-70 Days), two to three kittens are born in a den, where they remain until they are a month old. The eyes open at ten days old, and start to eat solid food at 23 days. If the kittens do not survive, the mother can come into heat again and have another litter that year.
Diet
An alert Leopard Cat
Leopard Cats are carnivorous, and feed on variety of small prey, including mammals, lizards, amphibians, birds, and insects. In Northern region, the subspecies of Leopard Cat also eat hares. The diet is often supplemented with grass, eggs, poultry, and aquatic prey.
Reflective journal 2
My thinking way change as I learn more about Biodiversity in this project .
First , I doesn’t even care about Biodiversity or how to conserve it .
However , the more I learnt about it , I know that if the biodiversity has a large part on our lives .
For example , If one species of animal or plant disappeared or is extinct from the world ,
The food chain will also be affected .
As result , I learnt that we must conserve the Biodiversity .
First , I doesn’t even care about Biodiversity or how to conserve it .
However , the more I learnt about it , I know that if the biodiversity has a large part on our lives .
For example , If one species of animal or plant disappeared or is extinct from the world ,
The food chain will also be affected .
As result , I learnt that we must conserve the Biodiversity .
Reflective journal 1
I learnt that biodiversity is very important towards our life .
Biodiversity is a range of life forms within a geographical region including plants and animals .From the biggest till the smallest .
Biodiversity is a portmanteau word which means it’s a word which formed from 2 different words .
Its formed by the word biology and diversity Biologists most often define "biological diversity" or "biodiversity" as the "totality of genes, species, and ecosystems of a region". An advantage of this definition is that it seems to describe most circumstances and present a unified view of the traditional three levels at which biological variety has been identified:
The current textbook definition of "biodiversity" is "variation of life at all levels of biological organization” .
Biodiversity is a broad concept, so a variety of objective measures have been created in order to empiricallyy measure biodiversity. Each measure of biodiversity relates to a particular use of the data.
For practical conservationists, this measure should quantify a value that is broadly shared among locally affected people. For others, a more economically defensible definition should allow the ensuring of continued possibilities for both adaptation and future use by people, assuring environmental sustainability.
As a consequence, biologists argue that this measure is likely to be associated with the variety of genes. Since it cannot always be said which genes are more likely to prove beneficial, the best choice for conservation is to assure the persistence of as many genes as possible. For ecologists, this latter approach is sometimes considered too restrictive, as it prohibits ecological succession .
This is what I learnt from my reading and research .
Biodiversity is a range of life forms within a geographical region including plants and animals .From the biggest till the smallest .
Biodiversity is a portmanteau word which means it’s a word which formed from 2 different words .
Its formed by the word biology and diversity Biologists most often define "biological diversity" or "biodiversity" as the "totality of genes, species, and ecosystems of a region". An advantage of this definition is that it seems to describe most circumstances and present a unified view of the traditional three levels at which biological variety has been identified:
The current textbook definition of "biodiversity" is "variation of life at all levels of biological organization” .
Biodiversity is a broad concept, so a variety of objective measures have been created in order to empiricallyy measure biodiversity. Each measure of biodiversity relates to a particular use of the data.
For practical conservationists, this measure should quantify a value that is broadly shared among locally affected people. For others, a more economically defensible definition should allow the ensuring of continued possibilities for both adaptation and future use by people, assuring environmental sustainability.
As a consequence, biologists argue that this measure is likely to be associated with the variety of genes. Since it cannot always be said which genes are more likely to prove beneficial, the best choice for conservation is to assure the persistence of as many genes as possible. For ecologists, this latter approach is sometimes considered too restrictive, as it prohibits ecological succession .
This is what I learnt from my reading and research .
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