Strange Animals with weird faces

Our planet is full of strange creatures. And sometimes it’s a bit weird to see creatures that you don’t usually see. They may seem normal, well actually, they are normal, but for us they look cute and funny and others are look really disgusting or maybe unbelievable creature.

                                                                       Axolotl

No wonder, the Axolotl is the best-known neotenic mole salamanders belonging to the Tiger Salamander Complex.  Axolotls have the ability to regenerate most of their body parts, ease of breeding, and large embryos.  They are commonly kept as pets in some countries like U.S, Japan, and etc.

                                                       Sun  Bear

Well, as I looked at the picture I thought it’s a dog but it’s not, it’s a Sunbear. The Sun Bear is a bear found primarily in the tropical rainforest of Southeast Asia. Sun Bear is known as the smallest member of the bear family with a height of approximately 4 feet . It is often called a “dog bear” because of its appearance or small stature.

                                                              Star-Nosed mole

Star-nosed mole is a small North American Mole that lives in wet lowland areas and eats small vertebrates, aquatic insects, worms and mollusks.  It is covered in thick blackish brown water-repellent fur and has large scaled feet and a long thick tail. The mole’s distinctive feature is a pink, fleshy tentacle at the end of the snout. These are used to identify foods by touching it through its tentacles.

                                                         Aye-Aye

                                                  

The Aye-aye is the world’s largest nocturnal primate and is characterized by its unique method of finding food; it taps on trees to find grubs, then gnaw holes in the wood and inserts its elongated middle finger to pull the grubs out. Aye-Aye has rodent-like teeth with a long, thin middle finger.

                                                                         Alphaca

                                           

The Alphaca is a domesticated species of South American camelid developed from wild Alpacas. It resembles a sheep in appearance, but is larger and has a long erect neck as well as coming in many colors, whereas sheep are generally bred to be white and black.

                                                   Dumbo Octopus

                                            

Dumbo Octopus is a benthic creature living at extreme depths. It is originally named “Grimpoteuthis”  and are sometimes nicknamed Dumbo Octopus from the ear-like fins protruding from the top of their heads, resembling the ears of Walt Disney’s flying elephant.

                                                         BlobFish

                                           

Well, it looks like an alien or those seen in cartoons and movies, but it is a fish. The blobfish is a fish that inhabits the deep waters off the coast of Australia and Tasmania. Due to inaccessibility of its habitat, it’s rarely seen by humans. The flesh of blobfish is primarily a gelatinous mass with a density slightly less than water. It swallows any edible matter that floats in front of it.

                                                                          Shoe Bill

                                                                   

This looks like one of the characters in Angry birds game. The Shoebill, also known as Whalehead is a very large bird related to storks. It derives its name from its massive shoe-shaped bill.

                                                                       Angler  Fish

                                                

You can see this fish at the animated movie “Finding Nemo”.  Yes, the huge, traumatizingly ugly spiny fish with the glowing “fishing rod” lure you saw in Finding Nemo. Anglers live in the lonely, lightless bottom of the sea.

Rubiks Cube - A mind twisting puzzle

“Come on Let’s Twist Again” – Rubiks Cube
Got bored? Want some mind twisting puzzle? Why not try some Rubiks Cube. Well, it may look very simple, this colored square thing that has many face but do you know that it is considered as the world's best-selling toy and it's known as an International game. A standard ‘3x3x3’ Rubik’s Cube has 6 colored sides, 21 pieces and 54 outer surfaces. This means there are more than 43 quintillion possible configurations, or 43,252,003,274,489,856,000 to be exact. But there is only one solution. The World Cube Association has organized many competitions and kept the official world record since 2003. But more than that, Rubiks cube was first used as a teaching tool to help students understand 3D Objects way back in the mid 1970's. Ernő Rubik who is a Hungarian architect, inventor and professor invented the cube to show his classes how 3D objects move and to teach structural design problems like "How could the blocks move independently without falling apart?" Back then he didn't realize he had just created the bestselling puzzle game in history. The first time he twisted the cube for a few times he notice that it is even harder to twist the blocks back in order and it took him a whole month to figure out a right solution. Originally, it is called "Magic Cube" in 1975 but then it was renamed after its inventor "Rubiks Cube" in 1980. But nowadays, people (including me) see the Rubiks Cube as a game, pastime. Many variations of the original cube were created, for example the V-Cube 7 or the "Pocket Cube". Different competitions are held worldwide and the world record was set by an Australian , who was able to solve the cube in 5.66 seconds. Other alternative challenges these days have been held including blind-folded solving, underwater solving, solving the cube with the feet, solving the cube using just one hand and the fewest moves solving.
At first, it was really difficult for me to solve it, most people solve the cube layer by layer. This is a simple way for the human mind to approach the problem, but it is useless for speed cubing. No matter how good you are, you will use more than 100 moves. Solving it does not require any attention to orienting those faces correctly. Normally, I focus on the center faces of each color and follow some patterns. In Rubik's cubers' parlance, a memorised sequence of moves which has a desired effect on the cube is called an algorithm that means a list of well-defined instructions for performing a task from a given initial state, through well-defined successive states, to a desired end-state. Each method of solving the Rubik's Cube employs its own set of algorithms, together with descriptions of what effect the algorithm has, and when it can be used to bring the cube closer to being solved. The basic problem with the layer method is a big one, and it's obvious once you realize it. When you have completed the first layer, you can donothing without breaking it up. So you break it, do something useful, and then restore it. Break it, do something, restore it. Again and again. But the good thing is you will do something useful all the time which will make you busy.

Puzzlewood - A truly Magical place

                      

A magical place that exist in the planet, that could be, the Puzzlewood. Well, basically Puzzlewood is an ancient woodland site in the Forest of Dean in England which is now a tourist attraction. It includes ancient trees and a confusing maze of paths. This place is so magical that you would think there are elves, wizards and hobbits there. When it comes to geology Puzzlewood is full of scowles which has developed over million years ago. These are deep irregular quarry-like features to amorphous hollow shallows. Then humans from the Iron Age and Roman periods mined the iron from the revealed rock faces. Puzzlewood is also a home to a wide variety of trees namely Oak, Beech, Ash, Lime and Yew can all be found in the wood. After Romans left, the area was abandoned, and nature took over, with moss and trees growing throughout. Way back in the early 19th century, the owner laid down a mile of pathways which meandered through the trees and gullies to open up this ancient forest, for the amusement of his friends and children. Then later on, in the early 20th century, Puzzlewood has been opened to the public with an honesty or donation box at the gate for the benefit of the Local church. Since then, it has attracted thousands of visitors each year. Nearby is the Site of Scientific Interest of Old Bow and Old Ham Miines which is home to protected colonies of Greater horseshoe Bat (Rhinolophus ferrumequinum) and the Lesser Horseshoe Bat (Rhinolophonus hipposideros). They can often be seen hunting at dusk.

Puzzlewood has inspired many writers to be a part of their idea and has this woodland has been very popular for magical sceneries in filming

J.R.R Tolkien has used this woodland as an inspiration for the fabled-forest of Middle Earth such as the Old Forest, Mirkwood, Fangorn or Lothlorien contained within the Lord of the Rings. Tolkien is the only one who called it “Middle Earth”.

J.K Rowling was also been influenced this woodland in her idea of The Forbidden Forest in Harry Potter Books.

 Puzzlewood has also been used as a filming location for the episodes of BBC TV Show Merlin, “The Labyrinth of Gedref” and “The Nightmare Begins”. Some of the chase scenes towards the end of the episode seem to have been filmed in the areas of Puzzlewood that are made for public. But I guess that much of the rest of the episode like where Merlin sets a fire, and the actual location of the Druids’ camp or village is nearby. There is more woodland in that area than tourist generally get to see,though I am sure we are seeing lots of the most interesting and accessible sites.

You can also see Puzzlewood in the filming of “Jack The Giant Killer”. This is the first time that the ancient woodland and scowles have been used for an International film which is scheduled for release on March 2013

Some scenes in Dr. Who - Flesh and Stone show the Puzzlewood as the ‘oxygen factory’ of the space ship Byzantium during nine rainy nights in July ’09 where the woodland looks really fantastic