Did you know what happened today? Mr. Tortoise came to our town in search of a wife.
Mr. Tortoise is native of Mbagaja village. He is known all over our town for his cunning and slothful character. To some people, he is famous; to others, he is notorious. He has done many marvellous things with his cleverness.He has even cleverly won the first prize in a marathon race in which Mr.Dog, Mr.Hare and others participated.
Mr.Tortoise has been coming to the stream in our village to fetch some water. We did not know he was wooing a beautiful girl who also goes there to fetch water too.
Mr. Tortoise arrived in our village with some of his people. They went straight to the house of chief Oringaoko, just trailing chief Oringaoko's daughter who was coming from the stream. People stretched their neck to see Mr.Tortoise passing. He's a short, haggard-looking man.
After exchanging greetings with Mr.Oringaoko, Mr.Tortoise said: "Sir, I came to announce to you that I would like to marry your daughter. She has agreed to my proposal but said I must seek your consent"
Mr. Oringa does not like this sluggish man as son-in-law. So he thought of a way to refuse, a way to express his disapproval. "Yes," he said,"You may marry my daughter but on two conditions only."
"What are they?" proudly asked Mr.Tortoise. He was confident of fulfilling any condition Mr.Oringa may give. "After all," he whispered to his companions, "I'm a 'wise' man not for nothing."
"You'll bring me a basket of water, filled to the brim, and a long bundle of dust neatly tied up with a strong string,"Mr. Oringa said, puffing out smoke from his snuff. He felt sure of the efficacy of his demands.
"Hun! This man's got me," said Tortoise. Turning to his companions and other people who had gathered to look at him, he added,"How on earth can one tie up a bundle of dust? Have you ever heard such a thing, people?"
Mr.Oringa glared at him.
Mr.Tortoise thought for a while.
"Okay! okay!," he said, "I'll bring you three baskets of water and three bundles of dust well tied up if you'll make the string for me from the smoke of your tobacco pipe."
Oringa and Tortoise stood gazing at each other. They refused to compromise.
In the end, Mr.Tortoise had no choice but to return home without a wife. "No problem," he said to his people, "I'll find myself a wife yet. After all, there are plenty of more fish in the sea."
Where two tortoises transact, there's usually no profit.
* * * * *
At home, Mr. Tort continued his routine living. After a week, he heard that the king of the lizards had announced that he will marry his two nubile daughters to any man who could tell him their names. Grown up in the royal palace, the two girls' names were unknown to outsiders. Many a man had attempted and were still attempting to tell the names.
The Tortoise thought for a while. Then he travelled to the land of the red-necked lizards to survey the king's palace. There, he observed that the king's children often came out to play in the shade of a mango tree by the palace wall.
"Were there fruits on the tree, I'd pluck and pledge it to them and ask them to tell me their names," he said to himself.
He went to the market and bought two partially ripe mangoes. Early every morning he would crawl up the mango tree, sit in the branches and watched the king's children. On the third day, the two marriage-able sisters came out together to play under the mango tree. When one of them pranced to a side of the shade, Mr.Tort threw one ripe mango at her. "Karanda! Karanda! Come and see!," she called to her sister as she moved to pick the fruit. Immediately, Mr.Tort threw the other fruit at the other girl. Kirindi! Kirindi! Here is another! This one is for me!" the girl shouted.
That night, Mr. Tort went, in his best clothes, to the gate guard and said: "I have come to tell the king the names of his nubile daughters". ...
The guard took him to the palace chief of staff. "This stranger had come to marry the king's daughters," he stated.
The palace staff chief introduced Mr. Tort to the king.
Because Mr. Tort did not understand the language of the lizards, the palace chief had to serve as an interpreter...
After all, thinking that it was his chief of staff who stated his children's names, the king said: "I am happy. I shall give my daughters in marriage to my most honourable Chief of Staff. He's the only one who found out and told me my daughters' names."
He wedded the girls to his chief of staff.
Mr. Tort went home, disappointed, angry...He began to think how to retrieve his rightful prize from the chief of palace staff...
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
FUNDAMENTS OF ANIMAL ORGANICITY
How wonderfully the cell functions! The cell is the "elementary individual living matter", the fundamental functional unit.
But inside the cell, there are many fundamental sub-units. In fact, the cell is hosting more than a billion distinct, differentiated, biotic molecules. Most of these are constructed o amino acids, which themselves are segregated and assembled according to the ribo-nucleic language of the cell. The information for the aliveness of the cell are embedded in the nucleic acid molecules. Nucleic acids are the foundational animate molecules. They are in the nucleus of the cell.
There are hundreds of kinds of amino acids in nature; such as Valine, Tyrosine, Lysine, Phenylalanine et cetera. About twenty kinds are used in building the proteins of the body. In coupling amino acids into proteinacious organelles, tissues, organs et sequentia, te cell's nucleus uses a form of language. Like written technical or cultural language, alphabets are involved. But unlike any written or spoken language, instead of dozens or scores of letters, (ribo)nucleic alphabets consist of just four letters.DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) uses Adenine, Cytosine, Guanine and Thymine.
Similar is RNA (ribonucleic acid): Adenine, Cytosine, Guanine and Uracil. Each of these is a sub-molecule of these two categories of ribonucleic acids. Microscopically, DNA looks rather like a slightly twisted chain. There are several variants of RNA.
Proteins are the most diversified of life's molecules. The protein catalogue includes Anti-bodies (immunoglobulins); Enzymes (such as maltase, lactase, stepsin...); Hormones (such as thyroxin, testosterone, progesterone, oxytocin, insulin, adrenalin...); Messengers; Transporters; Cleaners (ubiquitins); Waste processors (proteasomes); Energy chambers (mitochondria); Structural proteins (membranes, hyalin bodies, ligaments, skeleton...) etc.
to make a specific protein, a section of the DNA is unzipped;the genetic information (specified configuration of the nucleic alphabets: adenine, cytosine, thymine guanine, uracil) is made into a type of RNA. A mobile chamber in the cell, Ribosomes, binds unto the RNA and "reads" the information it is bearing. Another RNA variant brings "raw materials" from the digested stuff that has been assimilated into the blood stream to the ribosomes. the ribosomes links the different types of amino acid molecules into protein compounds, according to the information available. A protein molecule maybe made up of more than three hundred amino-acid molecules.
There are more than a hundred thousand different kinds of protein, all composed from the about twenty kinds of amino acid, use-able in the human body.
ENZYMES
Enzymes are organic catalysts. They quicken changes in the chemistry and structure of other molecules, such as food. In fact, without enzymes, some foods usually digested in a couple of hours would take fifty years to digest.
Some enzymes disintegrate molecules; some others unite molecules: to form new molecules. An enzyme molecule can work on thousands of other molecules at same time.
ANTIBODIES
Antibodies are substances that work at destroying, "dis-arming", or blockading substances foreign or unwelcome to the body. Sometime, they destroy even familiar substances taken or mistaken for the foreign and the undesirable. Antibodies are antibiotic.
HORMONES
Hormones are executive-messengers molecules. They travel through the blood and lymph to the intended sites of action. They inhibit, impede, or stimulate activities at other parts of the body. Examples: growth, sleepiness, alertness,...
Newly minted proteins are coded to what they will be or where they will work.
Activities need energy to be carried out. The cell gets its energy from some types of molecules, mainly carbohydrates and lipids. This is done in the intra-cellular chambers called mitochondria. In prolonged absence of, or insufficiency of carbohydrates and lipids, the body purposedly de-aminates its proteins and consumes them for energy. A starving person emaciates.
But inside the cell, there are many fundamental sub-units. In fact, the cell is hosting more than a billion distinct, differentiated, biotic molecules. Most of these are constructed o amino acids, which themselves are segregated and assembled according to the ribo-nucleic language of the cell. The information for the aliveness of the cell are embedded in the nucleic acid molecules. Nucleic acids are the foundational animate molecules. They are in the nucleus of the cell.
There are hundreds of kinds of amino acids in nature; such as Valine, Tyrosine, Lysine, Phenylalanine et cetera. About twenty kinds are used in building the proteins of the body. In coupling amino acids into proteinacious organelles, tissues, organs et sequentia, te cell's nucleus uses a form of language. Like written technical or cultural language, alphabets are involved. But unlike any written or spoken language, instead of dozens or scores of letters, (ribo)nucleic alphabets consist of just four letters.DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) uses Adenine, Cytosine, Guanine and Thymine.
Similar is RNA (ribonucleic acid): Adenine, Cytosine, Guanine and Uracil. Each of these is a sub-molecule of these two categories of ribonucleic acids. Microscopically, DNA looks rather like a slightly twisted chain. There are several variants of RNA.
Proteins are the most diversified of life's molecules. The protein catalogue includes Anti-bodies (immunoglobulins); Enzymes (such as maltase, lactase, stepsin...); Hormones (such as thyroxin, testosterone, progesterone, oxytocin, insulin, adrenalin...); Messengers; Transporters; Cleaners (ubiquitins); Waste processors (proteasomes); Energy chambers (mitochondria); Structural proteins (membranes, hyalin bodies, ligaments, skeleton...) etc.
to make a specific protein, a section of the DNA is unzipped;the genetic information (specified configuration of the nucleic alphabets: adenine, cytosine, thymine guanine, uracil) is made into a type of RNA. A mobile chamber in the cell, Ribosomes, binds unto the RNA and "reads" the information it is bearing. Another RNA variant brings "raw materials" from the digested stuff that has been assimilated into the blood stream to the ribosomes. the ribosomes links the different types of amino acid molecules into protein compounds, according to the information available. A protein molecule maybe made up of more than three hundred amino-acid molecules.
There are more than a hundred thousand different kinds of protein, all composed from the about twenty kinds of amino acid, use-able in the human body.
ENZYMES
Enzymes are organic catalysts. They quicken changes in the chemistry and structure of other molecules, such as food. In fact, without enzymes, some foods usually digested in a couple of hours would take fifty years to digest.
Some enzymes disintegrate molecules; some others unite molecules: to form new molecules. An enzyme molecule can work on thousands of other molecules at same time.
ANTIBODIES
Antibodies are substances that work at destroying, "dis-arming", or blockading substances foreign or unwelcome to the body. Sometime, they destroy even familiar substances taken or mistaken for the foreign and the undesirable. Antibodies are antibiotic.
HORMONES
Hormones are executive-messengers molecules. They travel through the blood and lymph to the intended sites of action. They inhibit, impede, or stimulate activities at other parts of the body. Examples: growth, sleepiness, alertness,...
Newly minted proteins are coded to what they will be or where they will work.
Activities need energy to be carried out. The cell gets its energy from some types of molecules, mainly carbohydrates and lipids. This is done in the intra-cellular chambers called mitochondria. In prolonged absence of, or insufficiency of carbohydrates and lipids, the body purposedly de-aminates its proteins and consumes them for energy. A starving person emaciates.
Monday, December 1, 2008
GENETIC MISHAP
The function of a protein depends largely on its shape. Proteins fold and refold into complex structures.
During protein minting and folding, mistakes do sometimes occur. the genetic message is mis-presented or mis-read. Or toxins may cause a disfigurement of the message of an already correctly configured protein. The result is the minting of aberrant molecules which constitute genotoxins or prion. Some of these is caused by the kind of raw materials available from digestion, assimilation and inhalation. Examples: the presence of certain radioactive molecules and hydrocarbons causes a "shift" in the message presented from the DNA.
At times, the "mistake" is from the deficiency of the right materials rather than the presence of the wrong ones. The ribosomes copies the mistakes; and more infectious materials are synthesized.
If a cell containing mis-configured genome gets involved in meiosis (the kind of cell division that produces reproductive germs), the micro-deformities are copied and embedded in the new genome.When a reproductive cell with such genome participates in reproductive fertilization, the genome of the embryo so produced is partly disordered or diseased. This is manifested in the individual as congenital presence of certain allergies (substance intolerance) and such diseases as hemophilia, hyper-anaemia (sickle-cell sickness), phenylketonuria (phenylalanine intolerance), et cetera. These may be completely indiscernible in physique.
Genotypic mistakes manifests visibly in phenotypic defficiencies (undeveloped or underdeveloped body parts) and redundancies (extra limbs). Some gene-based diseases are peculiar to cannibals. One example is the disease kuru.
Some gene-rooted diseases are results of limited gene pool; that's, reproduction through incestuous relationship; where closely related individuals are the only available procreative mates.
There is, probably, purpose in the diversity of races and ethnicities.
During protein minting and folding, mistakes do sometimes occur. the genetic message is mis-presented or mis-read. Or toxins may cause a disfigurement of the message of an already correctly configured protein. The result is the minting of aberrant molecules which constitute genotoxins or prion. Some of these is caused by the kind of raw materials available from digestion, assimilation and inhalation. Examples: the presence of certain radioactive molecules and hydrocarbons causes a "shift" in the message presented from the DNA.
At times, the "mistake" is from the deficiency of the right materials rather than the presence of the wrong ones. The ribosomes copies the mistakes; and more infectious materials are synthesized.
If a cell containing mis-configured genome gets involved in meiosis (the kind of cell division that produces reproductive germs), the micro-deformities are copied and embedded in the new genome.When a reproductive cell with such genome participates in reproductive fertilization, the genome of the embryo so produced is partly disordered or diseased. This is manifested in the individual as congenital presence of certain allergies (substance intolerance) and such diseases as hemophilia, hyper-anaemia (sickle-cell sickness), phenylketonuria (phenylalanine intolerance), et cetera. These may be completely indiscernible in physique.
Genotypic mistakes manifests visibly in phenotypic defficiencies (undeveloped or underdeveloped body parts) and redundancies (extra limbs). Some gene-based diseases are peculiar to cannibals. One example is the disease kuru.
Some gene-rooted diseases are results of limited gene pool; that's, reproduction through incestuous relationship; where closely related individuals are the only available procreative mates.
There is, probably, purpose in the diversity of races and ethnicities.
Population Control: Nature's Harmless Way
At the time of creation, the most compelling responsibility given to the first couple was to multiply and then to manage their environment well. It would appear that the Creator-in-Chief did not have place for birth reduction. But he has place for birth control. We know this from the working of many things he set in the medium of nature; and from instructions received through his special messangers.
The Supreme One forbids murder in any form (manslaughter, euthanasia et seq.), excepting in the elimination of criminal souls whose presence is a deliberate danger to other people. Yet the supreme one could not be supremely loving if he wills humankind to go on multiplying and become uncomfortably populous. This would surely counter effect the endeavour to preserve or conserve the environment.
In attempts to have their way, by ignorance or by rejection of the original way, man has devised ways of curbing his population. These ways often cut across the lines drawn by the Creator, and the natural functioning of the reproductive body.The result is that "solutions" or results are themselves problems. They produce individual side effects and general environmental effects.
Most of the materials that control birth abortively, (and some that do so non-abortively) are pollutants, micro-pollutants. They deviate the natural normality of the body, thereby, dis-easing the user, even after the initial intention (pregnancy elimination) had been achieved.
With the careful study of human reproductive physiology by people through the ages, systematized by John Billings and colleagues, the Creator's programmes of birth control, which forbids murder and at the same time disallows excessive population, were rediscovered.
Billings Method of Birth control is essentially a careful co-operation with nature; working alongside natural physiologic cycles of changes in human reproductive system in achieving or avoiding pregnancy. Unlike most other methods, it has no side effects; adds nothing to, and subtracts nothing from, what there is already materially. It promotes some awareness that would otherwise be away from awareness. Nature always says the words of Socrates: "Man, know yourself."
BM of birth control joyfully gives the woman the opportunity or "project" to be a student (a scientist) of her body, especially her reproductive physiology.
The Billings method of birth control in family (named after Mr. and Mrs. John and Lynn Billings) depends on the understanding of ovulation mucus. Ovulation is the releasing of the woman's mature reproductive seed (ovum) from her egg sac into her fallopian tube, through which it enters the womb (uterus). Conception depends on ovulation.
A woman is intermittently fertile from menarche to menopause due from the intermittency of ovulation. To achieve or avoid conception, a woman (and her man) must recognize the"feelings" indicative of optimum and minimum fertility; and also those of non-fertility, during an ovulation cycle. According to Dr. Leonie McSweeney, in the book Love and Life, there are several "feelings" the normal woman perceives in the course of each ovulation cycle:
1. Menstrual stuff (menses)
2. Sticky, pappy mucus
3. Slippery and stretchy mucus (jellylike); translucent, sometimes clear
4. Dry(nothing)ness
These are indicative of different measures of "conceivability". Sexual intercourse, even genital contact without penetration, during the slippery-stretchy phase usually results in conception. In the dryness phase, it does not.
Nature in its multi-dimensional wealth and wisdom, varies this periodicity woman by woman, and from time to time, in same woman in different circumstancs (breast-feeding, ill-health, agitated or depressed mood...). So it is not an acute routine. Each cycle is unique.
A couple who want to control when and where they enact pregnancy, need to keep a faithful record of these things. They must chart the "feelings" daily throughout their reproductive age.
Often, what other astute intellectual and professional endeavours fail to do, is simply achieved through BM. childless couples have become parents by procreation; husbands-and-wives have planned and established their families orderly. Whatever promotes love and harmony promotes fidelity.
The BM co-ordinates the minds, bodies and spirituality of the procreative partners, so that the sexual act is not just a mere act, but a living of life in love, passion, harmony and faith, with respect for life and for the LifeGiver.
The Supreme One forbids murder in any form (manslaughter, euthanasia et seq.), excepting in the elimination of criminal souls whose presence is a deliberate danger to other people. Yet the supreme one could not be supremely loving if he wills humankind to go on multiplying and become uncomfortably populous. This would surely counter effect the endeavour to preserve or conserve the environment.
In attempts to have their way, by ignorance or by rejection of the original way, man has devised ways of curbing his population. These ways often cut across the lines drawn by the Creator, and the natural functioning of the reproductive body.The result is that "solutions" or results are themselves problems. They produce individual side effects and general environmental effects.
Most of the materials that control birth abortively, (and some that do so non-abortively) are pollutants, micro-pollutants. They deviate the natural normality of the body, thereby, dis-easing the user, even after the initial intention (pregnancy elimination) had been achieved.
With the careful study of human reproductive physiology by people through the ages, systematized by John Billings and colleagues, the Creator's programmes of birth control, which forbids murder and at the same time disallows excessive population, were rediscovered.
Billings Method of Birth control is essentially a careful co-operation with nature; working alongside natural physiologic cycles of changes in human reproductive system in achieving or avoiding pregnancy. Unlike most other methods, it has no side effects; adds nothing to, and subtracts nothing from, what there is already materially. It promotes some awareness that would otherwise be away from awareness. Nature always says the words of Socrates: "Man, know yourself."
BM of birth control joyfully gives the woman the opportunity or "project" to be a student (a scientist) of her body, especially her reproductive physiology.
The Billings method of birth control in family (named after Mr. and Mrs. John and Lynn Billings) depends on the understanding of ovulation mucus. Ovulation is the releasing of the woman's mature reproductive seed (ovum) from her egg sac into her fallopian tube, through which it enters the womb (uterus). Conception depends on ovulation.
A woman is intermittently fertile from menarche to menopause due from the intermittency of ovulation. To achieve or avoid conception, a woman (and her man) must recognize the"feelings" indicative of optimum and minimum fertility; and also those of non-fertility, during an ovulation cycle. According to Dr. Leonie McSweeney, in the book Love and Life, there are several "feelings" the normal woman perceives in the course of each ovulation cycle:
1. Menstrual stuff (menses)
2. Sticky, pappy mucus
3. Slippery and stretchy mucus (jellylike); translucent, sometimes clear
4. Dry(nothing)ness
These are indicative of different measures of "conceivability". Sexual intercourse, even genital contact without penetration, during the slippery-stretchy phase usually results in conception. In the dryness phase, it does not.
Nature in its multi-dimensional wealth and wisdom, varies this periodicity woman by woman, and from time to time, in same woman in different circumstancs (breast-feeding, ill-health, agitated or depressed mood...). So it is not an acute routine. Each cycle is unique.
A couple who want to control when and where they enact pregnancy, need to keep a faithful record of these things. They must chart the "feelings" daily throughout their reproductive age.
Often, what other astute intellectual and professional endeavours fail to do, is simply achieved through BM. childless couples have become parents by procreation; husbands-and-wives have planned and established their families orderly. Whatever promotes love and harmony promotes fidelity.
The BM co-ordinates the minds, bodies and spirituality of the procreative partners, so that the sexual act is not just a mere act, but a living of life in love, passion, harmony and faith, with respect for life and for the LifeGiver.
JOS on FIRE
Once more, megalitres of human blood was being poured away in libation to the demon that is Nigerian politics.
The elections of the chairpersons of Local Government Areas (LGA's) in Plateau State, central region of Nigeria, was declared won, all, by People's Democratic Party (PDP), on November 27, 2008. Opposition parties,especially All Nigerian People's Party (ANPP),promptly organized a protest.The protest degenerated into a heavy bloodshed.
Like almost everything Niegrian, the protest became a supremacy contest between religio-cultural, ethno-political fanatics. This time as in several others, the contest was genocidal.
On November 28, 153 people were confirmed dead. Dozens of church and mosque buildings, residential and business houses, and many vehicles were blazed down.
By afternoon Sunday, November 30, the numbers of death-sealed human casualties were approaching 400 in Jos, the capital.
For nearly a year, there were an avalanche of recentful comments about PDP's mis-governance of Nigeria. Instead of governing, PDP has been oppressing Nigerians.
The havoc reekers must have pre-armed themselves in advance of the election. The promptness of their actions, and the rapidity of employment of weapons of high sophistication bespeaks of this. The election merely served as a spark medium through which fire was put in the dry tinder. And there were unconfirmed reports that more than 1000 heaily-armed mercenary warriors were arrested by soldiers on November 29, on their way into the city of Jos.
Meanwhile, a dusk-to-dawn curfew was imposed and being extended from Jos to other parts of Plateau. And a shoot-
The elections of the chairpersons of Local Government Areas (LGA's) in Plateau State, central region of Nigeria, was declared won, all, by People's Democratic Party (PDP), on November 27, 2008. Opposition parties,especially All Nigerian People's Party (ANPP),promptly organized a protest.The protest degenerated into a heavy bloodshed.
Like almost everything Niegrian, the protest became a supremacy contest between religio-cultural, ethno-political fanatics. This time as in several others, the contest was genocidal.
On November 28, 153 people were confirmed dead. Dozens of church and mosque buildings, residential and business houses, and many vehicles were blazed down.
By afternoon Sunday, November 30, the numbers of death-sealed human casualties were approaching 400 in Jos, the capital.
For nearly a year, there were an avalanche of recentful comments about PDP's mis-governance of Nigeria. Instead of governing, PDP has been oppressing Nigerians.
The havoc reekers must have pre-armed themselves in advance of the election. The promptness of their actions, and the rapidity of employment of weapons of high sophistication bespeaks of this. The election merely served as a spark medium through which fire was put in the dry tinder. And there were unconfirmed reports that more than 1000 heaily-armed mercenary warriors were arrested by soldiers on November 29, on their way into the city of Jos.
Meanwhile, a dusk-to-dawn curfew was imposed and being extended from Jos to other parts of Plateau. And a shoot-
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