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Friday 13 February 2009

WHAT IS LACTOSE INTOLERANCE?


Lactose is a sugar found only in dairy products; it is the principal sugar in cow's milk. The enzyme lactase is required for humans to digest lactose. When the walls of a person's small intestine do not produce normal amounts of lactase, that person is said to have a lactose intolerance.

Symptoms of lactose intolerance, which occur after a person drinks a certain amount of milk, include abdominal cramping, bloating, diarrhea, and excessive gas. Most people develop some degree of lactose intolerance as they grow older.

People with lactose intolerance need not eliminate milk totally from their diets. They may simply decrease their consumption of milk. At the same time, they can increase their consumption of other dairy products—such as cheese and yogurt—that contain less lactose than milk. Another option is to add a commercial lactose preparation to milk. These preparations convert...

BIGGEST BIRD EVER- can't soar high!


Biggest Bird Ever

T-Rex sized, in fact:

Researchers in China have unearthed the bones of a gigantic bird-like dinosaur, dwarfing anything else in its category.

Alive, the beast is thought to have been 8 metres long, 3.5 metres high at the hip and 1,400 kilograms in weight รข€” 35 times as heavy as its next largest family members and 300 times the size of smaller ones such as Caudiperyx. It has been classified as a new species and genus: Gigantoraptor erlianensis.

The evolution of bird-like features had long been thought to be accompanied by a decrease in size, meaning the smaller the species, the more bird-like it is likely to be and vice versa. The new discovery shows that isn't necessarily true.

Gigantoraptor had long arms, bird-like legs, a toothless jaw, and probably a beak. There are no clear signs as to whether it was feathered. However, judging from its close affinity to other dinosaurs known to have been feathered, Xing Xu of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing speculates that it was.

I'm guessing this bad boy didn't fly. And maybe that's just as well...
dinobird.jpg

Thursday 12 February 2009

SMALLVILLE (Supermans' lowly village) - where in the world is that?



This article is about the fictional town in which Clark Kent lives. For the article about the television show itself, see Smallville (TV series).

Smallville is a small rural town in Lowell County, Kansas, USA. It was founded in 1831 by Ezra Small. Clark Kent has lived in Smallville all his life since being adopted into the home of Jonathan and Martha Kent. Smallville is located within driving distance of Metropolis (in Abyss Chloe Sullivan mentions that it was "something like" a two hour commute. Whether this was one way travel time or round trip wasn't made clear), 425 miles from Hub City, and near Granville. The current population is 45,001. [1] The local newspaper is the Smallville Ledger. The local radio station is called KROC. A fertilizer production branch of LuthorCorp is located in Smallville, known as LuthorCorp Fertilizer Plant Number Three.

Smallville was proud of its status as the Creamed Corn Capital of the World until 1989 when it became the Meteor Capital of the World. Life is centered on Main Street, as it has been for two hundred years. Generation after generation has used the same bank, gas station, and library. There are many family-owned farms and acres of cornfields. The town borders Morley Reservoir.

When the meteor shower of 1989 occured, it caused all sorts of mutations and destruction to the town and its citizens. It was where the ship bearing the infant Kal-El landed after its journey through space from Krypton. The Kents adopted him, and Clark attended school in Smallville, graduating from Smallville High School in 2005.

Smallville itself changed dramatically in the years following the first meteor shower. It was dubbed "America's Weirdest Town" by a national news magazine, and it seemed that strange, unexplainable things were always taking place in the quiet hamlet that seemed so normal on the surface. Bizarre occurrences-- such as a 150-pound tomato, a golden retriever that gave birth to a two-headed puppy, and the miraculous recovery of a critically ill woman given no chance to survive by her doctors -- became increasingly common in Smallville.

Another meteor shower struck Smallville in 2005 and a widespread blackout originated from the town in 2006. The blackout was called Dark Thursday and affected the entire planet of Earth.

Smallville has played host to the Lowell County fair and holds an annual Harvest Festival with a pageant in which they crown a local girl Miss Sweet Corn.