An Age of Magic

It’s prom time soon!

Where we live the kids leaving high school for college and university have what is called a ‘formal dinner dance’ – in the USA this is called ‘The Prom’ but basically they are one and the same. My son gets to have his prom/formal in April next year and he is very much looking forward to this big event.

For now he has a girlfriend – lets hope it lasts so he has a partner to take to his dance – and already his friends at school are looking out to buy suits and prom dresses so I need to get moving on that front. My son has grown three inches this past year…should I buy now or later…? what if he grows another three inches by April…?

Popularity: 16% [?]

Why a leopard could not change his spots even if he wanted to.

Rudyard Kipling wrote that leopards got their spots to help them blend into an environment ‘full of trees and bushes and stripy, speckly, patchy-blatchy shadows’. Now scientists have proved that the author’s theory was correct and worked out why leopards have spots but other big cats are plain. Researchers at the University of Bristol investigated the flank markings of 35 species of wild cats to understand what drives the evolution of such beautiful and intriguing variation.

They captured detailed differences in the visual appearance of the cats by linking them to a mathematical model of pattern development. The theory might seem obvious but the scientists were able to prove that cats living in dense habitats in the trees and active at low light levels are the most likely to be patterned – especially with particularly irregular or complex shapes. This suggests detailed aspects of patterning evolve for camouflage over a short period of time.

The study, published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, helps to explain the rosette shaped markings on leopards and the stripes on tigers. In Kipling’s Just So story about the leopard, an Ethiopian hunter painted the cat’s spots on to help it hide in the forest. Analysis of the evolutionary history of the patterns shows they evolve and disappear quickly.

Popularity: 17% [?]

70 percent of weightloss is what you do not eat!

When we signed up for membership at our local gym we had the benefit of three free sessions with a personal trainer and these have turned out to have very positive effects on our results in the past couple of months. You tend to assume that a bit of the treadmill, a bit of the bike and some minutes on the cross-trainer will be enough to get rid of some flab but I learned that even though you exercise it is still down to what you eat as to how much weight you lose.

My PT drew up a healthy weight loss program for me and even though I have had to cut down on the carbs (bread, potato…) I can still eat pretty much what I like – but smaller portions and nothing late at night. You get told ‘diet is not enough, you have to exercise…’ – yes, but you also have to watch what ‘fuel’ you put in your tank because sometimes no amount of running will shift constant binging on sugar and toast.

Popularity: 19% [?]