ACCEPTED!
Ha! This will be my last blog entry on this blog. About 4 hours ago, I got the acceptance email I've been waiting for from Ross University School of Medicine. I applied for their January 2009 class. The January class was full and I'm bumped to May -- but I'm in! It's been a long time coming. I'll probably edit this post in the future to tell more of the details, but this is the last entry.

Mari kongsi bersama...
Weh korang... Aku ada tanya pendapat orang yg berpengalaman pasal pilihan nk isi kat borang UPU tu... Aku tau korang malas nk jenguk blog aku... Tapi nak buat camne, aku dah post kat blog aku... So rajen2 la jenguk ye... Korang klik je kat sini! Sekian, Sharing is caring...=) By; iKHMAR da sharp shooter =p

Skin Layers
What are the two layers of the skin and how do they differ?

Smallest exoplanet known discovered and move over T-Rex
Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. You may notice that this and future entries are shorter than usual; career, family and book deal commitments have forced me to cut back some of my projects. Now, here's today's news:
g Abodes - With observations from the COROT telescope, astronomers have identified the smallest exoplanet known. The planet is less that twice the size of Earth, orbits a sun-like star and is solid enough to walk on. This important discovery widens the scope for astronomers searching for habitable, Earth-like planets around distant stars. See article.
g Life - Move over T-Rex, “Titanoboa” slithered to comparable — maybe even greater — lengths. See article.
g Intelligence - Orphaned infant chimpanzees that received attentive, nurturing care from human surrogate mothers were found to be more intellectually advanced than the average human baby when both groups were compared at the age of nine months, according to a new study published in the latest issue of Developmental Psychobiology. See article. This find courtesy of the blog A Different Train of Thought.

Get your SF book manuscript edited

Bird Count Progress
As you can see in the list to the right, my Great Bird Count of February is off to a slow start.


I have limited my list to birds seen or heard from the windows or deck of the apartment, so I am at a disadvantage to the other participants. I have had plenty of mourning doves and house finches at the feeder, but not much else. Today I added a glaucous-winged gull and a robin flock to the list and I am hoping for some raptor and waterfowl flyovers.


It is a nice sunny day and birds are probably singing, but their songs are being drowned out by leafblowers and carpet-cleaning vans. Ah, the perks of apartment life. Oh well, at least I have a job and I'm not being foreclosed upon.

Homework Due Thursday/Friday
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dgtcq9z6_128gvddxt2q

طاقة؟ طاقة

هل أكتسب الطاقة من الذين حولي؟ أم أني أوزعها عليهم؟

هل أؤثر فيهم أم يؤثرون علي أم ترى يؤثرون في؟!

و ما هي تلك الطاقة؟

و هل هي سلبية أم إيجابية؟

و كيف تنتقل من شخص لأخر؟

تلك هي الحياة و كل ما فيها.

و سيستغرقني الزمن يوم إنهاء سردها.

very sad news
My grandmother passed away this morning. She recently had surgery to remove a cancerous growth in her lung. The surgery was, of course, supposed to go smoothly but there were complications and it sounds like then she was ready to check out. I wasn't ready for this. I wanted her to be at our wedding in April. My grandpa died 10 months ago on their anniversary.

Jon is traveling this week for work and will probably miss the funeral. I don't know when it will be yet but probably sometime this weekend so I'll have to figure out how to get there and back. So, don't expect much blogging from me this week. I probably haven't read your blog and generally have no idea what's going on in the blogosphere.

The Winners of the "Sketching the Sky" Competition
In April 2008, Southern Skywatch was 10 years old, so I ran a competition "Sketching the Sky", for the best sketches adults and kids could do to celebrate the 10 anniversary of my website. After a fair bit of delay (because I'm slack, and life and family issues got in the way), I have finally put up a site with the winning sketches.

So go to the Competition Winners Website, and gaze upon the fine artwork there.

Chapter 21.1
Ecology - The study of organisms continually interacting with one another, as well as with their surroundings.

What comprises ecology?
1)Habitat - The place where an organism lives is its habitat.
eg. The pennant coralfish live in outer reef slopes.


2)Population - A group of organisms of the same species living in a particular habitat makes up a population
eg. There isn't a single pennant coralfish living around the coral reefs, there are countless number of pennant coralfish living there, thus forming a population.



3)Community - All the populations of different organisms living an interacting with one another in a particular habitat makes up a community.
eg. The pennant coralfish isn't the only organisms found in the reefs, there are other plants and animals found among the reefs, they live, interact and rely on each other, thus making up a coral reef community.



4)Ecosystem - A community and its physical/abiotic environment together makes up a ecosystem, a self-containing unit.
eg. The ecosystem of the coral reefs is made up of all the organisms in the coral reef community and all the physical factors that make up its abiotic environment.

5)Biosphere - the global sum of all ecosystems consisting of all living beings and their relationships including their interactions with the non-living environment.

How are they linked?
Populations -> Communities -> Ecosystem -> Biosphere