Beautiful World of Birds

Peacock has magnificent feathers.

Since 2018 was announced as “Year of Bird” by world known organizations such as National Geographic, National Audubon Society, BirdLife International, and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, we are here going to share the same spirits to know more about the bird’s world. There are plenty of articles about birds in this blog but mostly written in Malay. Today we will see another special characters about this wonderful creature.

Birds are known for their colourful plumage, beautiful sounds and the most important ability to fly. Even though not all birds share the same capabilities as some of them have dull colouration nor the ability to flies. Birds same as any other species in the world plays important roles in the ecosystem and most of them are threaten to extinction.

Pigeon can adapt to live among human.

Flightless bird have ability to protect itself.

There are around 9,800 to 10,500 species of birds (well the numbers are varies caused by the classification of taxonomic viewpoint), but still showing large numbers of species. From that numbers only some of them can survive in modern day world to live among human such as pigeons, crows, house sparrow, starling, robin, falcon and few others. Unfortunately living in their unnatural habitats, most of these birds are considered as pest rather than how beautiful they are supposed to be.

In this short article we are going to see how beautiful the birds can be. Since the birds has the ability to fly, some bird plumage are totally to attract mates rather than to avoid predators. These are true mostly for birds of paradise that lives millions of years isolated from predators. While some other lost their ability to fly such as kiwi, dodo, kakapo, penguins, ostrich, emu, and cassowary. Most of the flightless birds already extinct.

The most elaborate feathers in peacock.

Perhaps we all know the most elaborate plumage of peacock where the length of their tail’s feathers exceed their body’s length. The peacock also have iridescent colours of blue, green and mixture of yellow and brown. Peacock had inspired human in many ways, and their plumage been used for decorations in sacred rituals.

Scarlet Macaw have the brightest colours in parrot's family.

Then they are family of parrots. Another stunning colourful birds - mostly found in tropical forest. Not just their colourful feathers are so stunning, their beak shapes also make it looks cuter. Parrots of the tropics has more colourful plumage with iridescent colours. Here in the tropics their colours still blend in perfectly to the dense of forest canopy.

Flamingo live in large group.

Different with flamingo with shades of pink colours. Their colours actually come from their food source. They are born with white feathers, as their parents feed them – the parent’s colours will turn pales while theirs chicks will change to pink.

Greater Bird of Paradise showing their beautiful plumage.

The distribution of Birds of Paradise in Papua New Guinea.

As we mentioned above, far-far away in the East at Papua New Guinea there are groups of birds known as birds of paradise with different characters. These groups of birds not only have beautiful plumage, but most of them have special ways to attract mates - all species have their own unique courtship dance. Here in this island, these birds can concentrate their energy to attract mates than thinking about to avoid predators.

Since there are thousands of birds and most of them have colourful plumage, here are small examples that you can start with. The more we know about these beautiful creatures the more we understand how to help them to survive in the wild or perhaps in the urban areas too.

Fungal Infection, Prevention and Cure

Take action on fungal infections - they are treatable.

Fungus can be found almost everywhere and to get fungal infection are as common as catching cold. Fungal infections can caused serious problems from the infection itself and also lost of confident to be in public. By understanding more about fungal infections, we can prevent it and cure it faster.

As many other infections, the best way to prevent fungal infection is by taking the prevention steps. Fungal spores can be transmitted from one to another from direct contact, sharing clothes with infected people, staying at the wet or damp places, sweating too much, low immunity and taking medications. These are the things that we need to prevent in order to avoid fungal infections at the first place.

Dehumidifier will remove himidity from the air.

First improve your surroundings to avoid spreading of fungus spores. Don’t spend too long in wet or damp areas such as toilet or sharing areas such as changing room or public bath. Sharing clothes also should be prevented especially if you know the person already infected by fungus. Also check your pet if there’s any sign of fungal infection – as pet also one of the common spreader for fungal infections.

Improve the air circulation in your room. Use dehumidifier to avoid damp air and UV air cleaner to kills bacteria and fungus spores. Always wearing clean and dry clothes. Change your socks often or let your feet expose to the air to make sure its stay dry. Don’t forget to eat healthy foods and exercises to stay healthy – to keep you immune system at its best.

Prevention also can be taken by using anti-fungal soaps one or twice a week. There are soaps or shower creams that available on the market. By using the soaps, it will leave your skin to be unsuitable place for fungus to grow.

Athlete's foot is common infection.

Damp areas such as armpit and genital areas can be easily infected.

Ringworm can be easily identified from the circular shape.

Even if you are infected already, don’t be scared! There are lots of anti-fungal creams that can cure the infections. Get treatment as soon as possible to avoid spreading. If no improvement, get professional help to prevent infection getting serious.

Even though some home remedies such as garlic, coconut oil, and also tea tree oil work to treat fungal infections, try not to stay with it for too long if there’s no improvement within 2 weeks. Learn how to identify fungal infections such as athlete’s foot, yeast infection (usually in genital areas and nail), jock itch, and ringworm - so you can find cure as soon as get infected.

Anti fungal soap can be use as prevention step.

Tea tree one of the known for its anti fungal properties.

Anti-fungal cream, works best at early stage.

Fungal infection need to be treated as it can spread into larger areas or infected others. What you need to know about fungal infections is that they are preventable and treatable. So be positive and take action to avoid serious problems.

Knowing More About Fungus

Mushroom is one of small group in fungus family.

Not many of us know more about fungus than the tasty edible mushrooms. Not only some mushrooms are tasty but some of them too are so expensive such as truffle and matsutake. Anyway fungus or fungi family consist of millions species includes microorganism such as yeast and moulds. They also play important roles in decomposing organic materials in nature. As we know so far, fungus contributes in many fields such as pharmaceuticals, foods & beverages and in the future it will contribute as materials.

No one really understand the world of fungi but those studying it seriously and they are called mycologist. Mycology is the branch of biology specifically to study the world of fungi in details. This branch of study start in the early of 17^th century after the invention of microscope even though fungal spores was observed earlier by Giambattista della Porta in 1588. In fact human already used fungus millennial years ago to prepare their food and beverages.

The diversity of mushrooms with distinct features.

The veiled lady mushroom.

The study of fungi not only to recognize their species but also to know their potential that can bring beneficial usage to humankind and nature. The knowledge of mushroom cultivation for example had generate billions of incomes all over the world. Not to mention the discoveries of penicillin that saves millions of human life. Fungus not only important for human. In fact they are more important to nature in recycling the organic materials to make sure that the nutrients will be back into the soils. Plants also requires fungi through mycorrhizal symbiosis in order to allow plants to take inorganic compounds such as nitrate and phosphate.

Since fungus are everywhere with its microscopic spores, they are related to any form of life’s on earth. Both for beneficial purposes or parasitic forms. Fungi also known for its parasitic characteristics and causes lots of damages to crops. While they also causes many fungal diseases to animals and human too. Perhaps the scariest of all are zombie fungi that also known as cordyceps – but they also used as traditional medicine.

Ophiocordyceps sinensis - used as part of traditional medicine in China.

Yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) the unicellular fungus under microscope.

Stilton cheese veined with Penicillium roqueforti - another type of fungus.

The future of fungi will be more on materials designs. With more research develops to identify the potentials of fungi to replace the harmful plastics. Maybe it can’t take all functions of plastics but only some of it. Anyway, the most important thing they are biodegradable materials that will enrich the soils instead of damaging it.

We are going to see more articles in details about fungus in the future. Hopefully this article already create an interest for us to know more about it.

Are You Thinking About To Buy New Drone?

Drone - which one is the right one?

Drones are getting popular and will be as important as any other gadgets such as smartphones. Even though the price of drone is getting cheaper, what we need to understand about this gadget is - can they do the jobs that we are planning to do with it?

In order to answer this question we need at first to figure out few other important questions so we can make the right decision.

• What are the required tasks that we need to drone for?
• How good is the quality the drone that we need (tough, light works, all weathers) and also the pictures quality?
• The size of the drone – especially for transportation or workability.
• How much we can spend for the drone that we are going to buy?

There are many other important questions we can ask before we decide which drone is suitable, especially when you are seriously need to use the good quality drones. Buying the wrong products will cost you lots of money when you need to buy a new one. Or over spend on something that you never need also not a good decision to make.

As they are so many drones out there, all we need to know is how to read the specification correctly. Understanding the key elements that important for your requirements. Good judgements will help you to make good use of your drones at the same time values for your investment.

Here are some of good drones in different classes that you can get in the market today.

Best Overall: DJI Mavic Pro.

Runner-Up, Best Overall: Best Camera: DJI Phantom 4.

Best Budget: Syma X5SC.

Best for Beginners: Syma X5C.

Best Flight Time: Yuneec TYPHOON H RTF Drone Bundle.

Best Mini: Hubsan H107C+ HD.

Best for Intermediates: Yuneec Q500 4K Typhoon.

Best for Professionals: DJI Inspire 2.0.

Those are few examples of drones from different classes. You can find many other available drones in the market that suite your needs.