The Wisdom of China

Some of the best proverbs and inspiration passed down through generations. It is worth reading and giving some thought to the incredible wisdom.

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1.    A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

2.    An invisible, red thread connects those who are destined to one day meet regardless of time, place or circumstance. The thread may stretch or tangle, but it will never break.

3.    One who points out your flaws is not necessarily your enemy; the one who always compliments you is not necessarily your friend.

4.    The temptation to give in is always strongest just before victory.

5.    The goal of life is to die young, but as late as possible.

6.    Times past cannot be called back again.

7.    Do not be afraid of going slowly. Only be afraid of standing still.

8.    Experience is like a comb which nature gives us only after we have lost all our hair.

9.    Don’t speak unless you can improve on the silence.

10. A strong person will overcome an obstacle; a wise person will traverse the whole path.

11. A small cottage wherein laughter lives is worth more than a palace full of tears.

12. Always safeguard peace and quiet. When the time is right, the flowers will bloom.

13. Even idiots have a their own foolish form of happiness.

14. If you trip and fall, this doesn’t necessarily mean that you are going in the wrong direction.

15. If you wait by the river long enough, the bodies of your enemies will float by.

16. Always look on the bright side of things. If you can’t comprehend this, polish that which has dulled until it begins to shine.

17. Whatever happens always happens on time.

18. The wind does not help anyone who is not sailing anywhere.

19. Don’t be afraid that you do not know something. Be afraid of not learning about it.

20. A good teacher opens the door for you, but you must enter the room by yourself.

21. The wind howls, but the mountain remains.

22. If you tell me something, I’ll believe you. If you repeat it, I’ll begin to doubt what you said. When you start to insist, I realise you are lying.

23. If you are truly talented, don’t fear a spell of bad luck.

24. There’s no such thing as a friend who doesn’t have any flaws. But if you try to look for all their flaws, you will remain with no friends.

25. A person who doesn’t know how to have a good rest is not capable of doing good work.

26. One who has the best intentions always knows how to blush.

27. Unhappiness enters a door that is already open.

28. What took one hundred years to create can be destroyed in one hour.

29. Sleeping on the same pillow doesn’t mean having the same dreams.

30. It’s better be a person for a day than to be a shadow for a 1,000 days.

31. The great rivers flow quietly; a wise man doesn’t raise his voice.

32. He who returns from a journey is not the same person who first left.

33. The greatest battle is the one that did not happen.

34. If you cannot handle small things then all your grander schemes will come to nothing.

35. The man who moved the mountain was the one who began carrying away the smallest stones.

36. There are no hopeless situations, only incorrect solutions.

37. Once you’ve made a mistake, the only thing you can do is laugh at it.

38. The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.

 Source - Buddha inspiration

The long struggle to understand species: from pre-Darwin to the present day

How many species of humans have existed? It all depends on the concept of species that’s being employed. In some approaches, there was – and still is – only one. In others, there are as many as 17 species of Homo.

This is because taxonomy, the process involved with the discovery and classifying of species, has been contentious since time immemorial.

Even pre-scientific “ethno-taxonomists” had what ethnobiologist Brent Berlin has called a “largely unconscious appreciation of the natural [biological] affinities among groupings of plants and animals … quite independently of [their] actual or potential usefulness or symbolic significance in human society”.

Our Afrocentric experience with plants and animals supports this. The Akamba people from Kenya partition species relatively broadly. Nzoka are snakes; nyunyi are birds and nyeki are grass-like plants. In Malawi the Tumbuka, Chewa and Lhonwe independently recognise the same “species”. They partition these more finely than the Akamba do, down to the equivalent of biological genera. In South Africa, the same is true of northern Sesotho speakers for both trees and birds.

The bottom line is that all humans have an innate interest and ability in naming biologically meaningful entities. Taxonomy, then, vies for the title of world’s “oldest profession”.

 

A wax figure of Charles Darwin, whose theories about species have influenced science for centuries. Jose Manuel Ribeiro/Reuters

Typological and Darwinian species

Before Charles Darwin, nearly all scientists believed that life on earth, including humans, was created by God thousands of years earlier and had remained unchanged over time.

Working on this premise during the 1700s the “father of taxonomy”, Carolus Linnaeus, used morphology –overall internal/external physical form – to describe species. Linnaeus named us Homo sapiens in 1758. Today, the Linnaean system of classification remains the basis for naming all life forms.
Then came 1859 and Darwin’s On the Origin of Species. In it, Darwin demolished the notions that life on earth was created only a few thousand years earlier and that species are immutable. However, he took no clear position on what constitutes a species:

There is no infallible criterion by which to distinguish species and well-marked varieties … The opinion of naturalists having sound judgement and wide experiences seems the only guide to follow.

In short, Darwinian species are artificial constructs partitioning an evolutionary continuum. We, like most neo-Darwinian evolutionary biologists of the 20th and 21st centuries, disagree.

But Darwin’s thinking, based on the premise of “descent with modification”, laid the foundations for an evolutionary concept of species that allows their placement in phylogenies or evolutionary genealogical trees.

Limitations and alternatives

Pre- and Darwinian species concepts have limitations. Some pre-Darwinian taxonomists – and even the man himself – maintained that interbreeding between anatomically distinct, “good” species only warrants their rank as subspecies or races.

“Proto-ecologists”, meanwhile, suggested that anatomically similar populations which differ in ecology and behaviour form valid “cryptic” species.

To deal with these concerns, taxonomists in the early 20th century adopted the reproduction-based Biological Species Concept. These are real, self-defining, protected gene pools, irrespective of anatomical distinctiveness. They are separated by intrinsic pre-mating – such as male and female displays – and/or post-mating reproductive “isolating mechanisms”. These include embryonic death and offspring sterility.

Not all modern taxonomists were satisfied with this concept. Since 1950, 26 rival concepts of species have emerged.

Based on our own lived experience in Africa, we prefer a novel approach called the Consilience Species Concept (CSC) to deal with the issue of what constitutes a species.

A different approach

The Consilience Species Concept incorporates useful features from other concepts. A CSC-species is a group of populations that can be identified using a suite of heritable, complementary, arguably independent characteristics. These include qualitative anatomical, behavioural, ecological, physiological and molecular genetic features. All of these features show consilient, multifaceted variation.

The term consilience – a “jumping together” of knowledge – was coined by philosopher William Whewell. To put it simply: if it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck; water rolls off its back, it has webbed feet and a flattened bill, it’s a duck.

In the CSC approach, then, academic, conservation and citizen scientists should consider evidence from a range of independent sources. They should then delineate species on the basis of consilient relationship and not on ability to interbreed (or not) or some arbitrary amount of difference in anatomy or DNA composition.

The CSC is superior to its competitors because, by design, it prevents the recognition of huge numbers of trivial entities. It doesn’t ignore evolutionarily significant ones because they interbreed. It can also be applied consistently to both sexual and asexually reproducing “species”.

Afrocentric science

What is particularly compelling about the CSC concept is that it constitutes novel, Afrocentric science. It both challenges and assimilates Eurocentric ideas.

The Eurocentric Darwinian and reproductive-isolation-based Biological Species Concepts for species and subspecies just don’t deal adequately with species as whole, functionally interconnected entities. The CSC has its philosophical roots in the African sourced “holism”, which was elucidated by the South African statesman and philosopher Jan Smuts in the 1920s. In short, it argues, “The whole is more than the sum of its parts”. This is, as we’ve shown, very true in the complex world of taxonomy.
Potiphar M. Kaliba, the director of Museums of Malawi and a PhD graduate from the University of Cape Town, was also among the co-authors of this article.


Tim Crowe, Emeritus Professor, University of Cape Town; Muthama Muasya, Associate Professor and Head of Department, Biological Sciences, University of Cape Town, and Tshifhiwa G. Mandiwana-Neudani, Senior Lecturer in Biological Systematics, University of Limpopo
This article was originally published on The Conversation.

Health Check: why do my gums bleed and should I be worried?

Bleeding gums are very common but that doesn’t mean you should ignore them. They’re usually a sign of gum (periodontal) disease.
If treated in its early stages, periodontal disease can be easily reversed. But more advanced and severe forms of the disease can result in tooth loss, require complex long-term treatment and are associated with a higher risk of diabetes and other chronic diseases.
Most people will experience some degree of periodontal disease in their lives. Australian oral health surveys indicate that, at any one time, one in four adults have moderate to severe periodontal disease. The prevalence of periodontal disease increases with age, with more than half of Australians over the age of 65 having moderate to severe forms.
In its milder form, periodontal disease is known as gingivitis. Gingivitis occurs when plaque builds up along the gum line where the gum attaches to the tooth. If not removed, the bacteria that make up the plaque provoke an inflammatory reaction in the gum tissue.
The first sign of unhealthy gums is bleeding during or after brushing your teeth. Gingivitis typically results in reddened gums that appear swollen, shiny and smooth. Healthy gums, on the other hand, are coral pink and slightly stippled like orange peel.

Forget salt water, toothpaste is a better option. Glenn/Flickr, CC BY-NC-SA

In cases of gingivitis, gum health can be restored by removing plaque with thorough daily brushing and regular flossing. Toothpaste acts as a gentle abrasive, assisting in plaque removal. It is important to use a fluoride toothpaste to help prevent that other common form of oral disease, tooth decay.
While some people promote the use of salt water on a toothbrush to help remove plaque, the evidence firmly shows toothpaste is effective at removing plaque and, when it contains fluoride, at reducing tooth decay.
When brushing your teeth, be sure to brush gently along the gum line where the tooth meets the gum tissue. If bleeding persists, a dentist or hygienist may need to remove plaque that home cleaning can’t reach.
Gingivitis can progress to chronic periodontitis, particularly if you’re not brushing and flossing regularly. Chronic periodontitis occurs when persistent inflammation causes the alveolar bone (which forms the tooth socket that supports the tooth) to break down.
This also causes gums to recede. This is where the term “long in the tooth” comes from – as more of the tooth becomes visible, it appears as though it is lengthening. Without an adequate supporting bone, teeth become loose. At this point the condition often becomes painful.
Chronic periodontitis is currently treated with an intensive cleaning regime and, in some cases, gum surgery.
Unfortunately, once the pathogenic bacteria become established they are very difficult to remove. People with chronic periodontitis often require regular and ongoing professional dental treatment to prevent the disease from progressing.
Our colleagues at the University of Melbourne Oral Health CRC are developing a treatment for periodontitis by targeting one of its key pathogens, Porphyromonas gingivalis. Progress has already been made, with the latest findings looking very promising.
While inflammation arising from the presence of plaque is by far the most common cause of bleeding gums, it can be symptomatic of other conditions including diabetes, some blood disorders and – although now uncommon – scurvy.
Some misconceptions about bleeding gums and tooth loss do persist. For instance, it is still occasionally said that “a tooth is lost for every baby”.

Pregnancy doesn’t cause gum disease. Anchiy/Shutterstock

This certainly need not be true. While the hormonal changes caused by pregnancy will make gums more susceptible to the effects of plaque (and therefore be more likely to bleed), pregnancy per se will not cause periodontal disease or tooth loss arising from it.
There is also a commonly held view that bleeding gums are a part of everyday life and to be expected. This is also not the case. Bleeding gums are usually a sign of disease.
The good news is that most periodontal disease is preventable through sound oral hygiene measures, coupled with regular dental check-ups. Your dental health professional can give you advice on how to brush and floss most effectively.

Mike Morgan, Professor, Colgate Chair of Population Oral Health, Melbourne Dental School & Program Leader, Oral Health CRC, University of Melbourne and Stuart Dashper, Associate Professor & Principal Research Fellow, Oral Health CRC, University of Melbourne
This article was originally published on The Conversation.

Some fun a few marriage jokes

After 15 years of marriage, a wife asked her husband to describe her. He looked at her slowly and without blinking an eye, said: ABCDEFGHIJK. 
“What does that mean?”she asked. 
“Adorable, Beautiful, Cute, Delightful, Elegant, Fashionable, Gorgeous and Hot”he replied. 
Smiling, she asked: What about IJK? 
He replied: I’m Just Kidding! 

The best way to get most husbands to do something is to suggest that perhaps they’re too old to do it. 

Husband asks: Do you know the meaning of WIFE? It means? 
Without Information Fighting Everytime! 
WIFE says: No darling , it means :- 
With Idiot For Ever 

I love being married. It’s so great to find that one special person you want to annoy for the rest of your life. 

A little girl asked her mother, “Mommy, how much does it cost to get married?” 
The Mother replied, “I don’t know son, I’m still paying.” 

These bizarre creatures defy what we think we know about plants and animals

You might have played the game called “animal, vegetable, mineral”. One player thinks of an object or organism and the other players ask questions to try to guess what it is – starting with this simple classification. But nature isn’t this simple. There are dozens of groups of living species that are neither plants nor animals.
We tend to think of plants as organisms that stand still and use photosynthesis to produce energy from sunlight and make their own organic molecules from the soil. And we see animals as creatures that move and feed on other organisms to obtain the energy and molecules they need.

But many organisms challenge those descriptions. The Venus flytrap, despite being a plant, feeds on other organisms – and some of its parts move faster than its unfortunate animal prey. Many groups of animals do not move and live attached to a surface for most of their life, including sponges, corals, mussels and barnacles to name a few.
It’s still relatively easy to say whether these creatures are plants or animals. But there are other organisms whose nature is more mystifying. Here are a few of the most intriguing creatures who defy our simple categories.

Hungry sea anemones

Pick a flower, lose a finger. Shutterstock

Sea anemones are technically animals, but they look so much like plants that they are named after a group of flowers. Even Aristotle, the ancient Greek who produced one of the world’s first systems for categorising life, was puzzled by them. He classified anemones as “zoophytes”, organisms bearing traits of both groups.
The truth is that they are animals because they can (very slowly) move and feed on other unsuspecting organisms that get trapped in their tentacles. In fact, sea anemones belong to a group of animals called cnidarians, which also includes jellyfish. Interestingly, there are even components of their nervous system that are the same as humans’, although their anatomy is very different.

To make things even more confusing, there is a cnidarian called the “Venus flytrap sea anemone” that completely looks the part. It is a brilliant example of convergent evolution, where unrelated organisms independently evolve similar adaptations (for example, the wings of birds and bats). In this case, it is an animal that looks like a plant that imitates a carnivorous plant that feeds like an animal.

Leafy sea slugs

Elysia chlorotica. Karen N. Pelletreau/Wikimedia, CC BY

Chlorophyll is the green pigment in plant cells that enables photosynthesis to happen, and is one of the defining traits of plants. But some animals use a very clever trick: they steal those solar-powered factories and use them to their benefit, a process aptly named kleptoplasty.
The gorgeous sea slug Elysia chlorotica was once described as “a leaf that crawls”. They can borrow chloroplasts from its algal snacks, sucking them with a structure that pretty much looks like a straw, pushing the concept of veganism to the limit. These sea slugs have specialised cells that can keep those chloroplasts for months. What’s more, they also use the stolen chlorophyll for camouflage. The blue dragon slug, Pteraeolidia ianthina, can go a step further. Instead of keeping chloroplasts from is food, is able to enslave whole algal cells.
Creatures that are not animals or plants are often informally called protists. Many in this category are in the habit of robbing plastids from algae or subjugating other single-celled organisms. These include dinoflagellates, ciliates and foraminiferans. In this way, all these organisms are able to use an animal-like behaviour (eating other organisms) to acquire plant-like traits (photosynthesis), getting a higher return from their sunbathing sessions than their peers.

Algae forests

Kelp forest. Shutterstock

Algae are mostly aquatic organisms that we often think of as single-celled lifeforms that appear as a kind of growth or slime on top of bodies of water in a range of colours. But there are also multicellular types of algae that look far more like plants – even though they often don’t have roots or leaves as we traditionally think about them. Even though they have evolved separately, algae are like plants in that they don’t move and can photosynthesise.
If you have been to a beach, you most likely have run or swam into the sea lettuce Ulva, which despite its name is not a vegetable but a green alga. Nori seaweed is commonly used in Japanese cuisine to wrap delicious bits of sushi and rice – and red dulse is a snack in Ireland and Iceland that some claim tastes like bacon when fried. But in spite of their plantlike appearances and animal-like tastes, nori and dulse are scrumptious red algae.
Another example is kelp, which forms astonishing massive underwater forests – some specimens reach the impressive length of 80 metres – and is also a key ingredient in many Asian meals. Despite its size, kelp belongs to the brown algae, and is unrelated to plants.

Town-sized mushrooms

Armillaria. Shutterstock

Mushrooms are often treated like vegetables but fungi (which includes yeast and mould) are actually closer to animals than plants, and form an entirely separate kingdom. Like plants, they do not move, but they also don’t perform photosynthesis. Instead their source of molecules and energy are other organisms. But instead of “hunting” them like animals, they either grow on top of them (soil, trees, human feet) or on top of decaying dead organisms (dead bark, dead animals, your bread). Due to their close evolutionary relationship to animals, eating a portabello mushroom in a bun is much closer to eating a hamburger than other veggie substitutes.
What’s more, they can grow much bigger than any plant (or animal, for that matter), with the individual heads all part of one giant organism spread out underground. The humungous honey fungus, Armillaria, is allegedly able to cover up to nine square kilometres of forest, weigh up to 35,000 tons and live up to 2,400 years. These fungi are agents of a major forest pest, the “white rot” root disease, which slowly kills numerous trees.
Nature is diverse, beautiful and complicated, always defying simple definitions. Human perception can be easily deceived by the intricacy of live beings. But none of this complexity impedes us from making delicious food out of almost every organism we encounter.

Jordi Paps, Lecturer, School of Biological Sciences, University of EssexRead the original article.

We are a natural part of the creation

"When fear-based thinking dominates a society the innate wisdom and compassion of artists, poets, teachers, musicians, women, children, elders and animals is often treated as inferior and unimportant.. Jesus understood this, as did the Buddha, Lao Tsu, Gandhi, Helen Keller, Albert Einstein, Mother Theresa, the Dalai Lama, John Lennon, Martin Luther King, Jr. and countless others down through the ages..."

 "Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakens."

~Carl Jung~

"Let silence take you to the core of life." ~Rumi

“We grow up to believe
that we are supposed to
somehow "become"
who we are meant to be
through the trial-by-fire
that is life here
on planet Earth.

Reality is…
there's no "becoming".
It's actually all an "un-becoming",
only to reunite with
who you were born to be
in the first place
before society
told you otherwise.”

~ Jennifer Sodini

"We are a natural part of the creation, we were put here on the sacred mother Earth to serve a purpose. And somewhere in the history of people we’re forgetting what the purpose is. The purpose is to honor the earth, to protect the earth, to live in balance with the Earth.
And we will never free ourselves until we address the issue of how we live in balance with the Earth. Because I don’t care who it is, any child who turns on their mother is living in a terrible, terrible confusion. The Earth is our mother, we must take care of the Earth. “
~John Trudell