Wetlands in England

Many years ago I used to live in Somerset near Glastonbury Tor.  This is an area steeped in Arthurian legends, indeed legend has it that a chalice of Christ's blood was hidden in Chalice Well .  The area has many wetlands.  The name Somerset comes from summer settlement as the area was uninhabitable in the winter time. The area was drained by monks hundreds of years ago and became extremely fertile farm land. This is the home of the Sweet Track, nearby is the Glastonbury Lake Village.  This was an iron age village that now looks like small bumps on an otherwise flat field.  I have seen a canoe, a spade handle, and some bread (probably stale) from that village.

This was such a wonderful area of England that I used to practise my navigation using a compass and a map.  It was here that I came across footpaths across fields, only there was no field.  A field sized hole was all that was visible.  The peat had been excavated and sold.  What took 10,000 years to build was suddenly gone.  This rape of the farmland will affect the area for hundreds of generations from now.

There is an American Indian saying that you borrow the land from your children, you do not inherit it from your ancestors.  Rather than despoiling the land, make it better.  I do not entirely subscribe to the organic farming theory.  However spraying some pesticides on food crops is not really such a good idea.

Mystery person.

Who is this mystery person ? I will provide a substantial cash reward to anybody who can identify the mystery person.
This was taken at Wetland Park.

Mangrove swamps

Here is a photo of mangrove swamps at Wetland Park.  This is a habitat for many species.  Something like 80% of fish species spend some part of their life in the mangroves.  The mangroves are tolerant of brackish water (that is part salt water and part fresh water).  This is a place where mudskippers live amongst the fiddler crabs.  Every tide brings in more materials from the sea (hopefully not crude oil) which the numerous species can feed upon.  This attracts hungry birds as well.  There is a food web here.  The crabs will eat the dead fish, the birds will eat the crabs, the birds of prey will feed on the birds and the fish.   So it is all inter-related. 

Leeches

I have just had some dental work done.  I needed an injection and it did not hurt too much at all.  It made me wonder about leeches.  These are nasty little critters who feed on warm blooded creatures such as birds and mammals (that means you).  The only redeeming feature about these guys is they do not hurt when they bite you.  They do this by injecting a local anesthetic first.  They then inject an anticoagulant into you so that your blood does not coagulate.  Then they bite you and drink their fill and then drop off.  So for millions of years these guys have been doing this and getting away with it.  I wonder if doctors could use the same techniques when giving an injecting.  Inject a small local anesthetic first and then the needle.  I have had personal experience of leeches in Indonesia, Thailand and Laos.  They do not hurt, however they leave a bleeding wound which can become infected.  To remove leeches you can use tobacco (it is bad for leeches as well as people), salt, Tiger Balm, or a hot cigarette.  Do not pull them off as they might leave their mouth parts in you and then you will get an infection. 

This is a small leech.  If you have not met one of these then you have not visited damp rain forest areas.  They are a bit gruesome to put it mildly.  The last time I met leeches my reaction was to get my camera to take a picture.  The leeches were about the size of my thumb.  I then removed them and, being a vegetarian and an animal lover, sent them back to Hell where they belong.

Medical leeches have been used for many centuries and are still being used.  It is easy for surgeons to do organ transplants and such like.  Pumping in the blood is easy, taking it out is harder, this is where leeches are used.  So mankind has put men on the moon, yet cannot make a painless injection.  Something that leeches have been doing since mammals and birds (which are related to the dinosaurs) have roamed the Earth.

Wetland Park

Here is a picture of the stream at Wetland Park.

Wetland Park

Here is a picture of Wetland Park in Tin Shui Wai.  This is a place well worth visiting.  I thought it was a really enjoyable place to visit.

Your own domain name.

This may be the place to get your own domain name for more or less the right kind of price. This is from Google Apps and 10USD a year does not sound too bad to me.

Wetland Park

On Sunday 16 May 2010 I saw butterflies, birds, mudskippers, crabs, fish, dragonflies, and lots of flowers and plants at Wetland Park. Mudskippers live with the fiddler crabs in the mangrove swamps. This is a peculiar area where the sea tries to colonize the land and vice versa. Most fish spend part of their lives in such swamps. Mangrove swamps are particularly vulnerable to development. Then what do we eat ? There was an excellent exhibition there. It was excellent value, I got a 6 month ticket for 25 kwai as I am still a student. I will post some pictures when I can. I guest most people would prefer Ocean Park. Shame on them !

There are 3 types of places where there is great biodiversity, those places are coral reefs, rainforests, and wetlands. Probably most threatened are the wetlands as these are often close to habitation and are therefore prime real estate, once they are drained. This is a real shame as they are homes for many animals and plants. They can also perform a role in waste water disposal. These constructed wetlands can do a fine job at purifying all the waste water we produce. This is a bit like working with nature rather than against it.

The tiger who came to tea

Here is a nice story I found, just right for younger children. ">The Tiger Who Came to Tea.

Test your reaction speed !

Try your skill with the BBC Sheep Dash !

Mr. Bean !

Enjoy !

Mr. Bean is very English and very popular with students. There is very little English, but you can ask the students what is happening !

Article in The Times

This is an article regarding blogging that I found in The Times. Another article about using mobile phones in the classroom can be read here. The Times is a well established British newspaper.

Wetland Park

The last assignment is due tomorrow, so some of us may have time on our hands. Does anybody fancy a trip to Wetland Park to have a look at the birds and bugs and whatever else is there to be seen ?
It might make a nice change from looking at a computer screen all day long.
Robbie has suggested Sunday morning 16 May 2010 to go there. Sounds good to me !

Pupils interviewing teachers for jobs and promotion

From The Times
April 3, 2010
Pupils interviewing teachers for jobs and promotion

This is an article in The Times. The idea is that students should decide if a teacher is good, presumably by the amount of candy they give out.

"One teacher found out that her pupils had been asked to fill out a questionnaire on her performance only because they were so excited about receiving chocolate cake as a reward they could not keep quiet."

"One teacher applying for an internal promotion told the union that a student on her interview panel told her afterwards he was going to grade her low, because she recently gave him a detention."

This is happening in Hong Kong in a way. If the parents do not like the teacher they complain and the teacher has to find a new job. This used to happen often in Taiwan.

This is a bit like asking a patient if they liked the doctor's medicine. If it tastes bad, well that doctor had better find a new job.

I wonder what they will think of next.

Do you need comics ?

If you need to find comics there is always http://news.yahoo.com/comics.