Pinakbet is a fantastic vegetable dish from the Philippines, which is indigenous to the northern parts of the country. This Filipino vegetable dish is made from mixed vegetables steamed in fish or shrimp sauce. The typical sauce used in the preperation of Pinakbet is extracted by a common ingredient used in the Philippines, known as Bagoong Terong and it is made by salting and fermenting the bonnet mouth fish.
Pinakbet – A fantsastic Filipino vegetable dish from the Philippines – Image by Joits – flickr
Filipinos love to use bitter melon along with other vegetables including eggplant, tomato, okra, string beans, chili peppers , parda, winged beans etc in cooking Pinakbet. Root crops and some beans like camote, patani, kadios are also optionally added. It is usually spiced with ginger, onions or garlic. The fantastic Filipino vegetable dish, Pinakbet is very popular in the Philippines for its mouth watering and exotic taste and for the veggie lovers around the lovely planet, Pinakbet is also an awesome feast.
In 1911, an Australian geologist discovered a fantastic wonder of Antarctica which is an amazing outflow of Iron-rich hypersaline water. This was later on named as the Blood Falls of East Antarctica. At the time of its discovery the scientists thought the red color came from algae, but it afterwards it was ascertained that the oroginal source of the blood-red colour is an underground saltwater lake that was trapped by the encroaching glacier at least 1.5 million years ago. The temperature of the water is -5 Celsius, but it’s so salty that it doesn’t freeze. It’s also rich in iron salts, which are slowly leaching the ice – these are the source of the distinctive red hue. Blood Falls is a rust glacier.
The Chemical and microbial analyses of this fantastic wonder of Antarctica both indicate that a rare subglacial ecosystem of autotrophic bacteria developed in the Blood Falls that metabolizes sulfate and ferrric ions. According to geomicrobiologist Jill Mikucki at DartmouthCollege, water samples from Blood Falls contained at least 17 different types of microbes, and almost no oxygen. An explanation may be that the microbes use sulfate as a catalyst to respire with ferric ions and metabolize the trace levels of organic matter trapped with them. Such a metabolic process had never before been observed in nature.The bacteria must have some way of recycling their energy source.
Blood Falls – Antarctica – Image by Mike Martoccia
Another supernatural and unearthly phantasm about the Blood Falls of Antarctica near some scientists is that the bacteria responsible for Blood Falls might be an Earth-bound approximation of the kind of alien life that might exist elsewhere in the solar system, like beneath the polar ice caps of Mars and Europa.
The Regent Bowerbird is endemic to Australia where it is found in the south-eastern Queensland and nthe orth-eastern New South Wales, on the eastern side of the Great Dividing Range. The natural habitat of this fanstastic Australian bird is forests, particularly rainforest and densely treed gullies. The Regent Bowerbird is scientifically known as Sericulus chrysocephalus which is actually a medium-sized, up to 25 cm long, sexually dimorphic bowerbird. The male Regent Bowerbird bird is black with a golden orange-yellow crown, mantle and black-tipped wing feathers. It has yellow bill, black feet and yellow iris. The female Regent Bowerbirdis a brown bird with whitish or fawn markings, grey bill, black feet and crown.
Regent Bowerbird – An Australian endemic – Image by WarblerLady – flickr
The male Regent Bowerbird, in common with all male bowerbirds, builds and maintains a bower at which it mates with several females. The male does not participate in nest building nor feeding the young. The bower is a small open ‘avenue type’, which means it is not attached at the top. It consists of twigs and is 15 cm – 20 cm long and 30 cm high. The actual nest, constructed by the female, is a shallow saucer of twigs and leaves, lined with leaves. It is often placed in a clump of mistletoe or a thin fork. The nest of this fantastic Australian bird may be well away from the male’s bower. Only the female incubates and cares for the young.
1- Cheetah is a fantastic cat which is a carnivorous mammal. Cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) is considered as the fastest animal on the lovely planet. Cheetah has long legs, a tall, slim build and its colors are tawny, black-spotted fur.
Cheetah is the fastest cat. Image: William Warby 2
2- The male Cheetah is referred to simply as a cheetah and the female is referred to as a she-cheetah. The sound made by Cheetahs is referred to as a growl, hiss or snarl. Cheetah mostly inhabits in the parts of Africa and the Middle East.
Fast and furious Cheetah. Image: Gary Eyring
3- The cheetah’s chest is deep and its waist is narrow. The coarse, short fur of the cheetah is tan with round black spots measuring from 2 to 3 cm (0.79 to 1.2 in) across, affording it some camouflage while hunting. There are no spots on its white underside, but the tail has spots, which merge to form four to six dark rings at the end. The tail usually ends in a bushy white tuft. The cheetah has a small head with high-set eyes.
A Cheetah couple. Image: William Warby
4- The cheetah is basically a solitary animal. At times, a male will accompany a female for a short while after mating, but most often the female is alone or with her cubs. Cheetah mothers spend a long time teaching their young how to hunt. Small live antelopes are brought back to the cubs so they can learn to chase and catch them.
Cheetah family in relaxing mood. Image: Sergio Lordao
5- Cheetahs usually prey on small antelopes such as Thomson’s gazelles and impalas, but also hunt small mammals and birds. The cheetah gets as close to the prey as possible, then in a burst of speed it tries to outrun its quarry. Once the cheetah closes in, it knocks the prey to the ground with its paw and suffocates the animal with a bite to the neck.
A busy Cheetah in his diet. Image: Shann Biglione
6- The adult cheetah weighs from 21 to 72 kg (46 to 160 lb). Its total head-and-body length is from 110 to 150 cm (43 to 59 in), while the tail can measure 60 to 84 cm (24 to 33 in) in length. Cheetahs are 66 to 94 cm (26 to 37 in) tall at the shoulder. Males tend to be slightly larger than females and have slightly bigger heads, but there is not a great variation in cheetah sizes and it is difficult to tell males and females apart by appearance alone.
Cheetah is the fastest mammal on earth. Image: Gary Eyring 1
7- The Cheetahs are listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as ‘vulnerable‘. Found mostly in open and partially open savannah, cheetahs rely on tall grasses for camouflage when hunting. They are diurnal (more active in the day) animals and hunt mostly during the late morning or early evening. Only half of the chases, which last from 20 – 60 seconds, are successful.
Indonesia is a huge archipelago of around 17,508 islands with a land area of 1,919,440 square kilometers. Apart from its various natural wonders, exotic places and massive rain forests, Kelimutu is particularly famous for its tremendous uniqueness due to its three multi-colored crater lakes. Perhaps, Kelimutu is the only fantastic volcano of Indonesiaon the lovely planet where this superb color variation exists. Kelimutu, along with its all three crater lakes have the religious sacredness near the local Indonesians, as they consider Kelimutu, the spiritual resting place of their ancestors.
Kelimutu: The amazing natural wonder of Indonesia – Image: 1ieve ( flickr )
Tiwu Ata Mbupu (Lake of Old People) is usually blue and is the westernmost of the three lakes. The other two lakes, Tiwu Nuwa Muri Koo Fai (Lake of Young Men and Maidens) and Tiwu Ata Polo (Bewitched or Enchanted Lake) are separated by a shared crater wall and are typically green or red respectively. The lake colors vary on a periodic basis. Kelimutu is also of interest to geologists because the three lakes are different colors yet are at the crest of the same volcano.
Kelimutu: Blue color water crater lake – Image: mammita ( flickr )
Kelimutu, the fantastic volcano of Indonesiaitself means “the boiling lake” and often visitors can see wreathes of steam rise from the surface of the lakes. According to the geologists, the color variation takes place due to underwater fumaroles. The whole area where the Kelimutu volcano is located, is comprised of a national park on the island of Flores and this fantastic place attracts many visitors.
