THE WORLDS SMALLEST ANIMALS

1. World’s Smallest Dog: 12.4 cm (4.9-inch) tall
At 1.4 pounds and 4.9 inches tall, Ducky, a yappy short-coat Chihuahua from Charlton (Massachusetts, USA), holds the Guinness World Record for the world's smallest living dog (by height). Ducky succeeds Danka Kordak of Slovakia, a Chihuahua who measured 5.4 inches tall. The smallest dog ever, according to Guinness, was a dwarf Yorkshire terrier who stood 2.8 inches tall.



2. World's Smallest Snake: 10.1 cm (4-inch) long

Leptotyphlops carlae is the world's smallest species of snake, with adults averaging just under four inches in length. Found on the Caribbean island of Barbados, the species --which is as thin as a spaghetti noodle and small enough to rest comfortably on a U.S. quarter-- was discovered by Blair Hedges.


3. World’s Smallest Fish: 7.9 mm (0.3-inch) long
On January 2006, the world's smallest fish was discovered on the Indonesian island of Sumatra: a member of the carp family of fish, the Paedocypris progenetica. It is the world's smallest vertebrate or backboned animal; only 7.9 mm (0.3 inches) long.

The title, however, is contested by 6.2 mm (0.2 in) long male anglerfish Photocorynus spiniceps (not technically a fish but a intimate parasite) and the 7 mm (0.27 in) long male stout infantfish Schindleria brevipinguis.


4. World’s Smallest Horse: 43.18 cm (17-inch) tall
The little horse was born to Paul and Kay Goessling, who specialize in breeding miniature horses, but even for the breed Thumbelina is particularly small: she is thought to be a dwarf-version of the breed. At just 60 lb and 17-inch tall, the five-year-old Thumbelina is the world’s smallest horse.


5. World’s Smallest Cat: 15.5 cm (6.1-inch) high and 49 cm (19.2-inch) long
Meet Mr. Peebles. He lives in central Illinois, is two years old, weighs about three pounds and is the world's smallest cat! The cat's small stature was verified by the Guinness Book of World Records on 2004.


6. World's Smallest Hamster: 2.5 cm (0.9-inch) tall
Only slightly bigger than a 50p piece, PeeWee is the smallest hamster in the world. Weighing less than an ounce, the golden hamster stopped growing when he was three weeks old - his five brothers and sisters went on to measure between 4inches and 5inches.


7. World's Smallest Chameleon: 1.2 cm (0.5-inch) long
The Brookesia Minima is the world's smallest species of chameleon. This one is just half an inch. Found on the rainforest floor of Nosy Be Island off the north-west coast of Madagascar, females tend to be larger than males.


8. World's Smallest Lizard: 16 mm (0.6-inch) long
So small it can curl up on a dime or stretch out on a quarter, a typical adult of the species, whose scientific name is Sphaerodactylus ariasae is only about 16 millimeters long, or about three quarters of an inch, from the tip of the snout to the base of the tail. It shares the title of "smallest" with another lizard species named Sphaerodactylus parthenopion, discovered in 1965 in the British Virgin Islands.


9. World’s Smallest Cattle: 81 cm (31-inch) height
The world’s smallest cattle is a rare breed of an Indian zebu called the Vechur cow. The average height of this breed of cattle is 31 to 35 inches (81 to 91 cm). The photo below shows a 16 year old Vechur cattle as compared to a 6 year old HF cross-breed cow.


10. World's Smallest Seahorse: 16 mm (0.6-inch) long
The creature, known as Hippocampus denise, is typically just 16 millimetres long - smaller than most fingernails. Some were found to be just 13 mm long. H. denise lives in the tropical waters of the western Pacific Ocean, between 13 and 90 metres beneath the surface.


Source: http://www.oddee.com/item_96492.aspx

OUR GOD IS ALIVE

OUR LORD IS ALIVE, AFTER ALL THINGS THAT WAS DONE TO HIM BY HIS CREATION, HE STILL WENT ON FORGIVING US FOR OUR SINS, FOR GOD SO LOVE THE WORLD THAT HE GAVE HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN DON THAT WHOSOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM SHALL NOT DIE BUT HAVE EVERLASTING LIVE(JOHN 3:16). LETS REJOICE FOR THE LORD HAS RISEN AND OUR SINS HAVE BEEN FORGIVEN, GO INTO THE WORLD AND SIN NOMORE...

HAPPY EASTER TO YOU ALL.

DUNGA

HOW TO MAKE FRUIT SMOOTHIE

Fruit Smoothie is very tasty and easy to make. It is simply a perfect blend of a few fruits of choice and voilà you have a healthy drink. Fruit smoothies also blend quite well with a lot of Nigerian food. You can make several variations of fruit smoothie by simply trying out combinations of several fruits in order to identify your favorite!

Fruits

Strawberries
Oranges
Pineapple
Kiwi

Using a kitchen knife, cut off the green tops of the strawberries and cut each one into half.
· Cut the oranges into four parts, get rid of the seed using the tip of your knife and carefully slice out the inner part of the oranges.
· Cut required amount of pineapple, peel off the skin using a kitchen knife and cut the slices into small chunks
· Carefully remove the skins on the kiwi and cut into small chunks.
· Add them all into a blender if you don’t have a fruit machine and blend until it’s properly dissolved.
· It is quite normal to have bits in your blended smoothie but if you’d prefer it a bit smoother, simply grab a sieve and squeeze your blended smoothie through it. This will help remove the bits leaving you with a lot smoother fruit smoothie to enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Skm9g61xPrc


For more Nigerian Food Recipes, please visit: http://www.nigerianfoodchannel.com/

CHECK YOUR JAMB RESULT FOR FREE

The Joint Admission and Matriculation Board, Jamb has just released her JAMB UTME 2014-2015 Result for PPT candidates and you can check your result by following the steps below.

How to check JAMB 2014 PPT Result online
jamb 2014, jamb 2014 registration, jamb 2014/2015 exam, jamb 2014 exam date
The Jamb board has made adequate arrangements for the checking of the 2014 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, UTME, results.
Candidates are to check their results through this link http://www.jamb.org.ng/postregistrationefacility/VerifyResult.aspx?id=16

CHECK YOUR JAMB RESULT FOR FREE

The Joint Admission and Matriculation Board, Jamb has just released her JAMB UTME 2014-2015 Result for PPT candidates and you can check your result by following the steps below.

How to check JAMB 2014 PPT Result online
jamb 2014, jamb 2014 registration, jamb 2014/2015 exam, jamb 2014 exam date
The Jamb board has made adequate arrangements for the checking of the 2014 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, UTME, results.
Candidates are to check their results through this link http://www.jamb.org.ng/postregistrationefacility/VerifyResult.aspx?id=16

ARTICLE ON "LIGHT YEAR" AS IN ASTRONOMY

What is a Light-year?
If anyone has seen any sci-fi flicks, they must have come across this term called as a “Light Year”. This basically is a measure of distance which astronomers use. A mistake people make is to take it as a unit of time. The light year is mostly used to express distances to stars and other objects which are present in space. The closest star to sun is roughly 25,000,000,000,000 kilometers away, you can’t really describe that distance using your normal measurements of distance like a kilometer or a mile. So to measure these long distances we use a light-year.

How the “Light-year” was formed
From its keyword “Light”, we know that the speed of light is 299,792,458 m/s. Therefore the unit Light-Year is telling us how fast Light could move in a year. When calculating the Light-year, the Julian calendar is used. There are 365.25 days in a Julian year.

Let’s convert it to second:
In hours, that’s 24hrs X 365.25 = 8766 hrs
In minutes, that’s 60 minutes X 8766 hrs = 525960 minutes
In seconds, that’s 60 seconds X 525960 = 31,557,600 seconds

This means there are 31,557,600 seconds in a Julian year. So a “Light-Year” is the distance it will take light to complete that amount of seconds. For example if my bicycle travels at the speed of light, it will have to complete approximately 32 million seconds to reach a Light-Year.

Still confusing? Let’s use this illustration. We all know it takes roughly 8 minutes for light to reach the Earth from the Sun, we could say that it takes 8 light-minutes for light to reach the Earth from the Sun


In calculation, a light-year = The speed of Light X Time it will travel in a year.
That is a light year = 299,792,458 m/s X 31,557,600 sec
A light year = 9,460,730,472,580,800 m or
In terms of miles: 5,878,625,373,183 miles

Another case study is the Proxima Centauri which is the closest star to the Sun is 4.24 light years away.
Since 1 light year = 5.878 X 10¹² miles
4.24 light years = 24,925,371,582,298 miles (24.93 X 10¹² miles)
Or 4.0 X 10¹⁶ (meters)


If you have any question to ask, feel free...


light-year.com

THE ONLY INSECT WITH MECHANICAL GEARS EVER FOUND IN NATURE

The small hopping insect Issus coleoptratus uses toothed gears (magnified above with an electron microscope) to precisely synchronize the kicks of its hind legs as it jumps forward. All images courtesy of Malcom Burrows

To the best of our knowledge, the mechanical gear—evenly-sized teeth cut into two different rotating surfaces to lock them together as they turn—was invented sometime around 300 B.C.E. by Greek mechanics who lived in Alexandria. In the centuries since, the simple concept has become a keystone of modern technology, enabling all sorts of machinery and vehicles, including cars and bicycles.

As it turns out, though, a three-millimeter long hopping insect known as Issus coleoptratus beat us to this invention. Malcolm Burrows and Gregory Sutton, a pair of biologists from the University of Cambridge in the U.K., discovered that juveniles of the species have an intricate gearing system that locks their back legs together, allowing both appendages to rotate at the exact same instant, causing the tiny creatures jump forward.


The gears are located on the top segment of each of the insect’s hind legs

The finding, which was published today in Science, is believed to be the first functional gearing system ever discovered in nature. Insects from the Issus genus, which are commonly called “planthoppers,” are found throughout Europe and North Africa. Burrows and Sutton used electron microscopes and high-speed video capture to discover the existence of the gearing and figure out its exact function.

The reason for the gearing, they say, is coordination: To jump, both of the insect’s hind legs must push forward at the exact same time. Because they both swing laterally, if one were extended a fraction of a second earlier than the other, it’d push the insect off course to the right or left, instead of jumping straight forward.

The gearing is an elegant solution. The researchers’ high-speed videos showed that the creatures, who jump at speeds as high as 8.7 miles per hour, cocked their back legs in a jumping position, then pushed forward, with each moving within 30 microseconds (that’s 30 millionths of a second) of the other.

gear-jumping

The finely toothed gears in their legs allow this to happen. “In Issus, the skeleton is used to solve a complex problem that the brain and nervous system can’t,” Burrows said in a press statement.

The gears are located at the top of the insects’ hind legs (on segments known as trochantera) and include 10 to 12 tapered teeth, each about 80 micrometers wide (or 80 millionths of a meter). In all the Issus hoppers studied, the same number of teeth were present on each hind leg, and the gears locked together neatly. The teeth even have filleted curves at the base, a design incorporated into human-made mechanical gears because it reduces wear over time.

To confirm that the gears performed this function, the researchers performed a neat (albeit morbid) trick with some dead Issus. They manually cocked their legs back in a jumping position, then electrically stimulated the main jumping muscle in one leg so that the leg extended. Because it was rotationally locked by the gears, the other non-stimulated leg moved as well, and the dead insect jumped forward.

The main mystery is the fact that adults of the same insect species don’t have any gearing—as the juveniles grow up and their skin molts away, they fail to regrow these gear teeth, and the adult legs are synchronized by an alternate mechanism (a series of protrusions extend from both hind legs, and push the other leg into action).

Burrows and Sutton hypothesize that this could be explained by the fragility of the gearing: if one tooth breaks, it limits the effectiveness of the design. This isn’t such a big problem for the juveniles, who repeatedly molt and grow new gears before adulthood, but for the mature Issus, replacing the teeth would be impossible—hence the alternate arrangement.

There have been gear-like structures previously found on other animals (like the spiny turtle or the wheel bug), but they’re purely ornamental. This seems to be the first natural design that mechanically functions like our geared systems.

“We usually think of gears as something that we see in human designed machinery, but we’ve found that that is only because we didn’t look hard enough,” Sutton said. “These gears are not designed; they are evolved—representing high speed and precision machinery evolved for synchronisation in the animal world.”
https://socialreader.com/me/content/wVlBN?_p=full-frontpage[7]

CLICK HERE FOR MORE... http://newsinfok.blogspot.com/2013/09/this-insect-has-only-mechanical-gears.html

THE WORLD SMALLEST ANIMALS

1. World’s Smallest Dog: 12.4 cm (4.9-inch) tall
At 1.4 pounds and 4.9 inches tall, Ducky, a yappy short-coat Chihuahua from Charlton (Massachusetts, USA), holds the Guinness World Record for the world's smallest living dog (by height). Ducky succeeds Danka Kordak of Slovakia, a Chihuahua who measured 5.4 inches tall. The smallest dog ever, according to Guinness, was a dwarf Yorkshire terrier who stood 2.8 inches tall.



2. World's Smallest Snake: 10.1 cm (4-inch) long

Leptotyphlops carlae is the world's smallest species of snake, with adults averaging just under four inches in length. Found on the Caribbean island of Barbados, the species --which is as thin as a spaghetti noodle and small enough to rest comfortably on a U.S. quarter-- was discovered by Blair Hedges.


3. World’s Smallest Fish: 7.9 mm (0.3-inch) long
On January 2006, the world's smallest fish was discovered on the Indonesian island of Sumatra: a member of the carp family of fish, the Paedocypris progenetica. It is the world's smallest vertebrate or backboned animal; only 7.9 mm (0.3 inches) long.

The title, however, is contested by 6.2 mm (0.2 in) long male anglerfish Photocorynus spiniceps (not technically a fish but a intimate parasite) and the 7 mm (0.27 in) long male stout infantfish Schindleria brevipinguis.


4. World’s Smallest Horse: 43.18 cm (17-inch) tall
The little horse was born to Paul and Kay Goessling, who specialize in breeding miniature horses, but even for the breed Thumbelina is particularly small: she is thought to be a dwarf-version of the breed. At just 60 lb and 17-inch tall, the five-year-old Thumbelina is the world’s smallest horse.


5. World’s Smallest Cat: 15.5 cm (6.1-inch) high and 49 cm (19.2-inch) long
Meet Mr. Peebles. He lives in central Illinois, is two years old, weighs about three pounds and is the world's smallest cat! The cat's small stature was verified by the Guinness Book of World Records on 2004.


6. World's Smallest Hamster: 2.5 cm (0.9-inch) tall
Only slightly bigger than a 50p piece, PeeWee is the smallest hamster in the world. Weighing less than an ounce, the golden hamster stopped growing when he was three weeks old - his five brothers and sisters went on to measure between 4inches and 5inches.


7. World's Smallest Chameleon: 1.2 cm (0.5-inch) long
The Brookesia Minima is the world's smallest species of chameleon. This one is just half an inch. Found on the rainforest floor of Nosy Be Island off the north-west coast of Madagascar, females tend to be larger than males.


8. World's Smallest Lizard: 16 mm (0.6-inch) long
So small it can curl up on a dime or stretch out on a quarter, a typical adult of the species, whose scientific name is Sphaerodactylus ariasae is only about 16 millimeters long, or about three quarters of an inch, from the tip of the snout to the base of the tail. It shares the title of "smallest" with another lizard species named Sphaerodactylus parthenopion, discovered in 1965 in the British Virgin Islands.


9. World’s Smallest Cattle: 81 cm (31-inch) height
The world’s smallest cattle is a rare breed of an Indian zebu called the Vechur cow. The average height of this breed of cattle is 31 to 35 inches (81 to 91 cm). The photo below shows a 16 year old Vechur cattle as compared to a 6 year old HF cross-breed cow.


10. World's Smallest Seahorse: 16 mm (0.6-inch) long
The creature, known as Hippocampus denise, is typically just 16 millimetres long - smaller than most fingernails. Some were found to be just 13 mm long. H. denise lives in the tropical waters of the western Pacific Ocean, between 13 and 90 metres beneath the surface.


Source: http://www.oddee.com/item_96492.aspx

EASTER TRADITIONS FROM AROUND THE WORLD

Kids in the U.S. grow up expecting a delivery of eggs and candy from the Easter bunny each year, but it may seem odd to an outsider. Brought to this country by German immigrants in the 1700s, the practice is rooted in the belief that rabbits and eggs symbolize fertility and rebirth. While this may be the norm in America, however, other cultures have their their own, unique Easter celebrations. Whether it’s drenching one another with water in Poland or reading crime novels in Norway, check out 10 Easter traditions from around the globe and the history behind them.

Finland

Children in this Scandinavian country go begging in the streets with sooty faces and scarves around their heads, carrying broomsticks, coffeepots and bunches of willow twigs. In some parts of Western Finland, people burn bonfires on Easter Sunday, a Nordic tradition stemming from the belief that the flames ward off witches who fly around on brooms between Good Friday and Easter Sunday.

Poland

Pouring water on one another is a Polish Easter tradition called Smingus-Dyngus. On Easter Monday, boys try to drench other people with buckets of water, squirt guns or anything they can get their hands on. Legend says girls who get soaked will marry within the year. The refreshing tradition has its origins in the baptism of Polish Prince Mieszko on Easter Monday in 966 AD.

Haux, France

Don’t forget a fork if you’re in this southern French town on Easter Monday. Each year a giant omelet is served up in the town’s main square. And when we say giant, we mean giant: The omelet uses more than 4,500 eggs and feeds up to 1,000 people. The story goes, when Napoleon and his army were traveling through the south of France, they stopped in a small town and ate omelets. Napoleon liked his so much that he ordered the townspeople to gather their eggs and make a giant omelet for his army the next day.

Corfu, Greece

On the morning of Holy Saturday, the traditional “Pot Throwing” takes place on the Greek island of Corfu: People throw pots, pans and other earthenware out of their windows, smashing them on the street. Some say the custom derives from the Venetians, who on New Year’s Day used to throw out all of their old items. Others believe the throwing of the pots welcomes spring, symbolizing the new crops that will be gathered in the new pots.

Norway

Easter is such a popular time for Norwegians to read crime novels that publishers actually come out with special “Easter Thrillers” known as Paaskekrimmen. The tradition is said to have started in 1923 when a book publisher promoted its new crime novel on the front pages of newspapers. The ads resembled news so much that people didn’t know it was a publicity stunt. Photo courtesy of Trondelarius

Rome, Italy

On Good Friday the Pope commemorates the Via Crucis (Way of the Cross) at the Colosseum: A huge cross with burning torches illuminates the sky as the 14 Stations of the Cross are described in several languages. Mass is celebrated on the evening of Holy Saturday, and on Easter Sunday, thousands of visitors congregate in St. Peter’s Square to await the Pope’s blessing from the church’s balcony, known as “Urbi et Orbi” (“To the City and to the World”). Photo courtesy of Dazzi

Czech Republic and Slovakia

Traveling to these Eastern European countries over Easter? If so, you’d better watch your back! There’s an Easter Monday tradition in which men spank women with handmade whips made of willow and decorated with ribbons. According to legend, the willow is the first tree to bloom in the spring, so the branches are supposed to transfer the tree’s vitality and fertility to the women. This playful spanking is all in good fun and isn’t meant to cause pain. Photo courtesy of PinkCappachino

Verges, Spain

On Holy Thursday in the Medieval town of Verges, Spain, the traditional “dansa de la mort” or “death dance” is performed. To reenact scenes from The Passion, everyone dresses in skeleton costumes and parades through the streets. The procession ends with frightening skeletons carrying boxes of ashes. The macabre dance begins at midnight and continues for three hours into the early morning.

Washington, DC

For 130 years, the White House has hosted the Easter Egg Roll on its South Lawn. The main activity involves rolling a colored hard-boiled egg with a large serving spoon, but now the event boasts many more amusements, like musical groups, an egg hunt, sports and crafts. This year’s theme is “Ready, Set, Go!” and will promote health and wellness, featuring activities that encourage children to lead healthy and active lives.

Hungary

“Sprinkling,” a popular Hungarian Easter tradition, is observed on Easter Monday, which is also known as “Ducking Monday.” Boys playfully sprinkle perfume or perfumed water on girls. Young men used to pour buckets of water over young women's heads, but now they spray perfume, cologne or just plain water, and ask for a kiss. People used to believe that water had a cleaning, healing and fertility-inducing effect.


source http://www.womansday.com/life/easter-traditions-from-around-the-world-105074

EASTER MESSAGE FROM PRESIDENT

EASTER MESSAGE TO THE NATION FROM GOODLUCK EBELE JONATHAN, GCFR, PRESIDENT, COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF THE ARMED FORCES OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA SUNDAY, APRIL 20 2014.

Dear Compatriots,

I greet you all, especially our Christian brothers and sisters who are celebrating Easter and commemorating the resurrection of Jesus Christ today.

As we join Christians in other countries of the world in celebrating Easter this year, I urge all Nigerians to reflect on the significance of its lessons of piety, obedience to higher authorities, self sacrifice for the good of others, redemption, salvation, deliverance, renewal and the ultimate triumph of good over evil.

These lessons of Easter and other injunctions on brotherly love, peaceful co-existence, tolerance, honesty, humility, justice, equity and fairness to all without discrimination contained in the Gospels are of particular importance to us as a nation as we continue to contend with the challenges of nation-building and development.

As our Christian compatriots celebrate the Messiah’s   triumph over death and all that it connotes, let us all renew our faith and confidence in our ability as a people to overcome all obstacles, challenges and threats to national progress and well-being, including terrorism and other criminal attacks on our people in some parts of the country.

My belief in our ability to overcome all retrogressive and divisive forces in our midst and build a strong, united and prosperous nation by turning our unique diversity into a source of strength remains unshaken and we will continue to work with all interest groups and stakeholders in the country to achieve the peaceful, secure and politically stable conditions essential for rapid socio-economic development.

In spite of the evil machinations of terrorists, criminals and their collaborators, our Administration remains ardently focused on efforts to successfully execute the Federal Government’s Agenda for National Transformation and achieve sustained development.

We have already made notable advances in this regard. As a result of our efforts and those of previous administrations, the Nigeria economy is now the largest in Africa and the 26th largest in the world.

But we cannot afford to rest on our oars. Much remains to be done and we will continue to count on the patriotic support of all Nigerians as we strive to achieve more inclusive economic growth, generate more national wealth and create more employment opportunities to meet the demands of our increasingly youthful population.

I commend the leadership and delegates to the ongoing National Conference, the vast majority of who have shown a patriotic and praiseworthy commitment to national unity, peace and progress built on justice, fairness and equity for all component parts of the country.

As the Conference breaks into committees to continue its deliberations, it remains our hope and expectation that the end result will be meaningful and enduring contributions towards strengthening national unity and fulfilling our collective desire for a better and greater nation. 

Once again, I extend heartfelt commiserations to all the families who have sadly lost loved relatives in recent terrorist attacks.

Our thoughts and sympathies remain with all those who have suffered injuries from the heinous attacks. We  pray for their speedy recovery and shall keep on doing everything possible to assist them with required medical services and material support.

Our Armed Forces and security agencies will continue to do their very best to curb such attacks and restore full security to all parts of our beloved country.

But we must all become more alert and vigilant, and do all that we can to give them the fullest possible assistance, support and cooperation they require to achieve more effective protection of lives and property across the country.

We shall continue to count on your support and prayers for greater peace, harmony, progress and prosperity in Nigeria.



May God Almighty bless our dear nation and guide us, always.



Happy Easter to you all.


Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, GCFR
President,
Federal Republic of Nigeria

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JAMB RESULT

JUST LIKE LAST YEAR, THIS YEARS JAMB RESULT IS A MESS, OUT OF 1.5M PEOPLE THAT SAT FOR THE EXAM, ONLY 47% SCORED ABOVE 250. WHILE SOME RESULTS WERE WITHHELD.