Life Goes On

This is Love 007

Religious Thought 117

Every good fortune, Wives, friends, houses, lands, All these gifts and riches ... They are a dream, A juggling act, A traveling show! A few days, and they are gone.

- Ashtavakra Gita 10:2

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Don't cling to your own understanding. Even if you do understand something, you should ask yourself if there might be something you have not fully resolved, or if there may be some higher meaning yet.

- Dogen

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Ukiyo-e 005

This is Love 006

Animal Poisons with Amazingly Specific Purposes

The primal ballet of life and death is as present in nature now as it was millions of years ago. Every day, tiny wars are fought on billions of battlegrounds all across the earth as each species uses its own special adaptations to ensure its survival until the next sunrise. Sometimes individuals die, but each act of death strengthens the species as a whole, leaving only the strongest to carry on those unique survival traits to the ensuing generation. 



And sometimes those traits take on bizarrely specific forms, as is the case with these ten naturally occurring neurotoxins. A neurotoxin is a chemical that affects the nervous tissue—a lethal natural weapon that would violate every Geneva Convention of the animal kingdom—which is often created as a defensive or predatory mechanism. Beautiful in many ways, these neurotoxins have nevertheless adapted to one amazingly specific purpose — besides causing a horrifying and painful death, that is.

Each neurotoxin, having a rather obscure scientific name, will be listed instead by one of its notable effects.

10

Burst Lungs

Found in the Sydney Funnel Web Spider





Most neurotoxins work mainly by shutting down the nervous system in some way – but atracotoxin does the opposite. It hyper-stimulates the nervous system to the point of overload. As the toxin works its way through a victim’s body, it elevates blood pressure, eventually causing the millions of air sacs in the lungs to burst (pulmonary edema), a condition which causes you to effectively drown on dry land. 



And here’s the crazy part: Atracotoxin is harmless to just about every type of mammal, but it’s deadly in primates. Out of all the potential animals against which this spider would have to defend itself, it developed a neurotoxin that is specifically aimed towards one. Us. Well, also monkeys – but mostly us.



This specific neurotoxin is found in the Sydney funnel web spider, which has only been sighted in one city on earth: Sydney, Australia. It’s considered the most dangerous spider in the world because its venom (which is actually a cocktail of chemicals and neurotoxins) can kill a human in only 15 minutes. Fortunately we have an anti-venom, and there haven’t been any funnel web spider related deaths for about 30 years – but it’s yet another decent argument for changing Australia’s name to “That place where you’ll probably die.”



Animated Images 146

Nature's Anger

Pyramids Around the World

ठीक है !!

माँ अपने 5 वर्षीय बेटे से बोली - बेटा उठो स्कुल मे देर
हो रही है!!
बेटा: ठीक है माँ !!
माँ: चलो ड्रेस पहन लो !!
बेटा: ठीक है !!
माँ: चलो बेटा, नाश्ता कर लो!! बेटा: ठीक है !!
माँ: जल्दी करो बेटा स्कुल बस आ गई !!
बेटा: ठीक है !!
माँ: उफ्फ क्या बेटा अपना नाक तो साफ करो !!
बेटा: ठीक है !!
माँ: (बेटे को बस मे बेठाने के बाद) बाय बेटा स्कुल मे ''मेडम'' को होमवर्क जरुर दिखा देना !!
बेटा: ठीक है !

तभी एक पियक्कड राह गुजरता बोला
''चिन्ता मत करो भाभी जी आपका बेटा एक दिन भारत का प्रधानमंत्री बनेगा, मैने इसके लक्षण देख लिए!