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Daily Dose Of Interesting Information

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#42. Rev. Harry Powell.



Rev. Harry Powell is a fictional character in Davis Grubb’s 1953 novel, The Night of The Hunter. Powell is a preacher, a con artist and a serial killer! He has the words LOVE and HATE tattooed on his knuckles to depict the struggle between the two, during his sermons.
He spreads the Gospel up and down the Ohio River in the late 1920s and early 1930s. He gains the trust and confidence of wealthy widows in order to marry them and kill them for their money. Driven by his hatred to women, he thinks that he is doing God’s work on earth!

 Grubb based Rev.Harry Powell on Harry F. Powers, who lived in Quiet Dell, West Virginia. He had lured several widows and their children by way of “Lonely hearts” ads in the news paper.

 The lonely heart killer Herman Drenth was a traveling sales man in West Virginia.He is more popularly known by his last alias as Harry F.Powers. He used the matrimonial correspondence agencies to lure and ensnare lonely women and rich widows whom he robbed and murdered.

 The police estimated that he had killed 50 victims before his arrest. But he confessed to killing 5 people in his murder garage where he bound them and killed them with gas.

 Harry Powers is known severally as “The lonely hearts killer”, “The matrimonial bureau murderer”, The West Virginia Blue beard” and “The butcher of Clarksburgh”.

 He went to the gallows with out a tremor or twitch in his face and without showing any sense of guilt or remorse!

 A real villain he was, from the beginning to end!

Visalakshi Ramani


 
#43.

Variety is the spice of life. The Animal kingdom has some unusual animals. 'Unusual' may be too mild a word. Some of them are fit to be branded as 'weird' both by their appearances and by their life style. Their body structure, their agility and mobility, their skill to camouflage and merge with the background etc are astounding. Most of the animals discussed here are indeed rare and are strangers to us Indians.
 
#44. Bongo.





 Bongo is the largest and heaviest forest antelope. Both the sexes have spiraled lyre shapes horns. The bright chestnut color of the animal darkens with age. Old males are almost black in color.

 The flat sides of the body has 12 to 14 vertical white stripes. A black and white crest of hair runs along the spine.A white “V” shape appears between the eyes and large white spots on the cheeks. Large ears aid in hearing well.

 Bongos are found in the rain forests with dense undergrowth.They are found in the Lowland rain forest of West Africa and the Congo basin.

 Bongos are mostly nocturnal.They are very timid and get frightened easily. When agitated they run away and hide in a safe place! When distressed they emit a bleat. They have a limited number of vocalizations consisting of mostly grunts and snorts. Females have a weak mooing call for the young.

 Males are solitary animals.They seek females only during the mating season. Females and young bongos form nursery herds. The young bongos are vulnerable- pythons, leopards and hyenas being their main predators. Lions are predators too and hunt the adult bongos.

 The latest and the most dangerous predators are the humans living near the forests, who use snares and dogs to hunt down the bongos.

Visalakshi Ramani
 
#45. Capybara.



Capybara is a semi aquatic rodent of South America. It weighs a 100 pounds, is 4 feet long and stands 2 feet tall at the shoulders. It looks like an unusual cross between a guinea pig and hippopotamus!
Capybaras live in large groups along the river banks. They graze peacefully the lush green grass and the aquatic vegetation. They love to bask in the sunshine. At the slightest hint of a danger, they dash into the water again! Pumas and Jaguars are their worst enemies.

 Capybaras living in the colder regions of South America have long shaggy coats. The typical capybara has short pale hair which is very coarse too! It has a deep face, small ears, a tail and slightly webbed feet to suit the life in water.

 A large scent gland is right in the middle on the top of its nose. Capybaras can become good and friendly pets. Their life span is ten years. They can communicate through various clicks, squeaks and grunts. The extinct capybaras were much bigger in size than the ones existing now.

Visalakshi Ramani




 
#46. Civet.



Civet is a small, lithe, arboreal mammal; native to the tropics of Asia and Africa. It resembles a cat in its general appearance, but its muzzle is extended and pointed like the muzzle of an otter or mongoose!
The civet is 17 to 28 inches long, excluding its long tail. It weighs between 3 and 10 pounds. Both the sexes produce a strong smelling secretion from their perineal gland. It is harvested by scraping it off from the live animals.

 Fox-dung-coffee is an exotic drink prepared from the dung of civets! Called by the fascinating name “Kopi Luwak” it is prepared using the coffee cherries, that have been eaten and partially digested by the Asian Palm civets. It is harvested from its feces.

 The civet digests the flesh of the coffee cherries but passes on the beans inside. It lets the stomach enzymes go to work on the beans and add to the coffee’s prized aroma and flavor.

 Only a 1000 pounds of civet coffee is marketed every year. A pound of this can cost $600 in some parts of the world. A mere cup can cost $100 in some other parts of the world!

Visalakshi Ramani



 
#47. Tarsier.


Tarsier is a small animal with enormous eyes! Each of its eye balls is as large as its entire brain! It is the smallest primate and the only carnivorous primate existing on earth!

 Tarsier has a long hind limbs. Its feet has elongated tarsus bones and the animal derives it name from this fact.

 The length of its head and body range from 10 to 15 c.m but the hind limbs including the feet are twice as long! It has a slender tail 20 to 25 c.m long. Its fingers are elongated too. The third finger is as long as its upper arm. The claws in the second and the third toes in the hind feet are useful in personal grooming.

 It has a soft velvety fur usually in beige, orange or buff in color. Nocturnal in habits and is least active during the day time. An insectivorous, it can jump and catch the insects. It feeds on small birds, snakes, lizards and bats.

 Jumping from tree to tree it can catch even a bird in flight! When caged it gets extremely stressed and either injures itself or kills itself!

Visalakshi Ramani
 
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#48. Pangolin.





Pangolin is a scaly ant eater which resembles a “walking pine cone ” and
” a globe artichoke!” It is a mammal of the order of Pholidota. It is the only mammal with large scales covering its skin. It is found in the tropical regions of Africa and Asia. Malay “pengguling” means something that rolls up!

 It is nocturnal and uses its sense of smell to locate the insects. It spends most of the day time sleeping, curled up into a ball! Large, hard, plate-like scales mark its appearance. Now born pangolin has soft scales which harden as the animal matures. When threatened it curls up to a ball. The razor sharp scales give extra protection.

 It can emit a noxious smelling acid from the gland near the anus, like a skunk. It has short legs and sharp claws useful to dig into termite and ant hills and in climbing.The length of a pangolin varies from 30 c.m to 100 c.m, depending on the species. Females are smaller than males.

 Pangolin’s long tongue extends into its abdominal cavity. Large pangolin can extend its tongue to 16 inches length and one fourth inch thickness. It has no teeth and cannot chew food. Its tongue is coated with a sticky saliva to which all the insects get stuck.

 A coat of Armour made of pangolin scales was presented to George III in 1820, as a rare and unusual gift!

 Pangolin is eaten as a delicacy in Africa and China. Popular beliefs suggest that the scales can reduce the swellings, promote blood circulation and increase the production of milk in nursing mothers.

 Pangolin is hunted down or smuggled alive for its meat and hide, pushing it to
near-extinction!

Visalakshi Ramani




 
#49. Kinkajou.


Kinkajou, also called as the honey bear, is a rain forest mammal. It resembles a monkey and a ferret in its appearance. It is native to Central and South America. It is nocturnal and can live up to 23 years in captivity.

 The length of the body of a kinkajou is 40 to 60 c.m. Its weight is 4 to 7 pounds. It has a long tail 40 to 50 c.m in length. It has two layers of coat; a golden outer coat and a gray under coat. It has large eyes and small ears. It has short legs and 5 toes in each leg, with sharp claws.

 Ninety percent of it diet consists of ripe fruits and ten percent is made up of leaves and flowers. It simply loves figs! It may also eat ants, eggs and small vertebrates. Its long slender tongue is useful to lick nectar from the flowers. It helps greatly in pollination and in seed dispersal. In captivity it eats honey. Hence the name honey bear. In wilderness it does not eat honey.

 The manipulatory abilities of kinkajou are as good as those of the primates. The tail is used as a fifth hand while climbing. Kinkajous sleep in family units and groom one another. They are nocturnal and active from 7 P.M to midnight and for an hour before dawn. During the day time they sleep protected from the sunlight.

Visalakshi Ramani


 
Dear Dear Mr. Somanathan Iyer,
The fact that all these flowers bloom only in the desert areas, is even more awesome than the flowers themselves!
with warm regards,
V.R.
 
#50. Jerboa.


Jerboas are hopping desert rodents. They are found in the hot deserts in Asia and North America.They resemble mice in general appearance.

 They have long hind legs suitable for hopping. The long tufted tail may be of help in balancing. The short fore legs are not used in locomotion. The fore legs are used to hold food while eating. They have long, soft, silky fur.

 Some of them eat seeds and plant materials while the other eat insects. Some of them are omnivorous. “Long eared jerboas” have disproportionately large ears.

 Jerboas can hop considerable lengths, compared to their size. They need this ability to escape predators and to travel long distances in search of food.

 Jerboas have similar set of adaptations to desert lives as the hopping mice of Australia and the Kangaroo rats of North America, even though they are not related.

 Jerboas are nocturnal and shelter in burrows during the hot day time. They seem to have shelters at different depths for different purposes.

 Temporary burrows help them to escape from the predators. These are just plain tubes at a depth of 10 to 20 c.m. These are neither sealed nor concealed nor camouflaged.

 Permanent burrows deeper down are well hidden and sealed with a sand plug to keep off the heat and to retain the moisture. These may have many entrances! These are elaborate structures with nesting chambers.

 Winter burrows are further down at a depth of 40 to 70 c.m below the ground level. They serve as food chambers.

 Finally the hibernation chambers at a depth of 1.5 to 2.5 meters below ground level, ensure perfect safety while the rodents hibernate!

 “Lesser Egyptian Jerboa” lives in the most hostile deserts. It does not drink at all. The food provides it with enough moisture for its survival. It is believed to be able to hop a full 3 meters to escape the predators and can also jump in a zigzag fashion to escape the enemy!

Visalakshi Ramani


 
#51. Echidna.


Echidna is a spiny ant eater. It is an egg laying mammal. Four extant species of Echidna and the Platypus are the only surviving Monotremes or egg laying mammals.

 Echidna is named after a monster in ancient Greek mythology. It is found in Australia and New Guinea and feeds mainly on termites and ants.

 Echidna is a small mammal covered with coarse hair and spines. It resembles a hedgehog and a porcupine in appearance. Its long slender snout performs the functions of both the nose and the mouth.

 Short strong legs and large claws help in digging up the ants and termites. It has a tiny mouth and a toothless jaw and can feed only using its long sticky tongue.Tiny spines on the tongue help to capture the prey.

 Female echidna deposits its egg directly into her pouch. The egg hatches after ten days. Young echidna sucks milk from the two pores of the milk patch as monotremes do not have nipples. It remains in the pouch for 45 to 55 days.

 When it starts developing spines, the mother digs a nursery burrow and puts her baby there. She returns to suckle and nurse until it is weaned at the age of 7 months.

 Soft beaked Echidna can roll itself into a spiky ball!

Visalakshi Ramani


 
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Dear Dear friends ,
My P.C has gone crazy!
It goes to sleep every 10 seconds.
When I try to refresh the page sometimes it results in double entry.
Sorry if you fine some post/blog repeated.
At times I am not able to delete them either :(
with warm regards,
V.R.
 
#52. Komondor.


Komondor is a shaggy dog that protects sheep from predators like coyotes. In U.S.A. alone, coyotes pose a major economic threat to the sheep farmers. Every year they feed on 10% of the flock.

 Coyote population was controlled by the use of a poison called Compound 1080. But the U.S. government banned the use of this poison in 1972, as it harmed the wild life. Since then the coyote population has boomed.

 Alternate methods of controlling coyotes were expensive, ineffective and time consuming. It was then that the comical looking Komondor came into the picture.

 An ancient working breed, belonging to Hungary, Komondor has a long white coat hanging like twisted cords. It is 2 feet tall, weighs about 100 pounds and is very powerful, brave and agile.

 This dog’s fierce territorial instincts make it a perfect flock protector. This dog is devoted to its master and is extremely protective. It is used to guard the sheep and not flock them.

 Since late 1970s, Komondors have made themselves invaluable to the sheep farmers. Part of their training includes introducing the Komondor to the sheep when still young. Komondor treats the flock as its very own and protects it.

 Though a little expensive Komondors save the farmers money in the long run and also help to save the environment and the other wild lives.

 Visalakshi Ramani
 
#53. Super Rats!



After the World War II, USA tested its nuclear weapons in the island of Engebi, in the western Pacific. Plants, animals, birds and fish were either destroyed or damaged by the intense radiations but the rats there had lived on “fit as a fiddle” and seemed to have acquired longer life spans!

 Rats have an unparalleled capacity to survive and thrive. They are tough and talented in the art of surviving. They can squeeze through a hole less than half-an-inch in diameter; can climb up vertical surfaces; burrow through the soil and swim up to a mile against strong currents.

 They can jump a height of three feet (equivalent to an adult man jumping a height of 36 feet) and drop from a height of 45 feet–without any fatal consequences (equivalent to a man dropping from a height of 540 feet without any fatality).

 They can kill a prey double their size and gnaw through live electric wires without getting electrocuted. In addition to all these, they are extremely intelligent. Legends about their intelligence are abundant.

 In 1348, rats brought Plague to Europe from the ports of Black Sea. The epidemic plague named as “Black death” raged for three years and killed 25 million people–25% of the Europe’s population at that time. Over the net few years, the number of deaths more than doubled.

 Even now rats continue to spread deadly diseases like Typhus, Trichinosis, Lassa fever and Salmonella. They wreck enormous damage to property and cause fires by gnawing through live electric wires. In country side they feast on crops, chicken, duck, geese and even young lambs and pigs.

 Rats are man’s worst enemy. No matter how we eliminate the rats, they are always replaced by the next generation. A single pair of rats can produce as many as 15,000 descendants in a single year!

 The only good thing about rats is that they are valuable in testing new drugs and in medical research. Docile in captivity, rats need very little space and would eat almost anything!

 Visalakshi Ramani




 
#54. The Oddity of Okapi!


Okapi was the largest mammal to be discovered as recently as 1901! However, ancient Egyptians knew about this strange animal and had made carved images if it. Okapi looks partly like a Zebra but is more closely related to a giraffe. It was called at one time as “The African unicorn”.
An Okapi resembles a horse. It is 2.5 meters long and stands 1.5 meters tall at the shoulder. Its tail is 30 to 42 cm long and the animal weighs a massive 250 kilograms. Its long black tongue is 30 cm long and is very useful in its personal grooming, including cleaning the muzzles, ears and eyes.

 Male Okapi has dark, chestnut, velvety body while females have purplish red coats. Its horse-like face, with large flexible ears, is supported by a long neck. White horizontal stripes adorn its legs and hind quarters. It has white stocking like marks on the ankles and its face whitish gray.

 Males have short hair-covered horns, projecting backwards. Females stand 5 cm taller than males and have no horns. The long tongue is used to pluck leaves, buds and branches for food.

 Okapi has many similarities with the giraffe. Both theses animals walk in the same strange manner, by placing both the legs on the same side simultaneously–unlike the others who place one leg from each side.

 Average life span of an okapi is 30 years in captivity and much less in wilderness. Okapis are not social animals and live alone and the mother lives with her offspring. Adult Okapis meet, mate and part soon after.

 Males have larger home territories than females. They exhibit aggressive behaviors like kicking and head throwing. The dominating animal holds it head high and neck straight while the one who surrenders places its head and neck on the ground.

 Many of the plants eaten by the Okapi are poisonous to mankind. All the same they eat those plants with no apparent ill effects. Grass, fern, fungi, fruits and trees charred by lightning, clay found on river beds and streams all form part of the Okapi’s menu!

 Okapis merge very well with the places where they live and become almost invisible. This may be the reason why it had to be rediscovered in 1901. Okapis are found mainly in the tropical forests in North Eastern Zaire, at an altitude 500 to 1000 meters.

 No wonder Okapi is one of nature’s oddities–it appears to a combination of a horse, a zebra, and a giraffe-all rolled into one!

 Visalakshi Ramani


 
#55. The Silent Signals!



Elephants in random groups, separated by several miles, manage to move in perfect coordination toward the same destination. How do large groups of elephants coordinate their movements so well, with apparently no means of communication?
A male elephant always finds a female no matter how far away she is! How does he do it? These questions have been puzzling the researchers for a long time.

 In 1985, Katherine Payne, a researcher at Cornell University in New York, was watching a group of elephants in a zoo. She could feel a spasmodic throbbing in the air–similar to the one created by a distant thunder. This coincided perfectly, with the fluttering on one of the elephant’s fore head, right between its eyes!

 Payne and her colleagues started investigating this discovery with sophisticated recording equipments. As expected by them, the throbbing was created by sounds below the range of human hearing, but it could be recorded on a tape.

 Human ears can hear only 20 to 20,000 cycles per second. Frequencies below and above this range will not be audible for us. A dog whistle may appear silent to us but a dog can hear it very well and respond.

 Using this low frequency, the elephants are able to communicate through concrete walls and across several miles. This ability will be very useful to them in wilderness than in captivity.

 The audible noises made by the elephants like trumpeting, rumbling and growling would not travel very far. The sound will be absorbed by the trees, grass and shrubs. But the low frequency can travel much longer distances than the high frequencies.

 Elephants are credited with a keen sense of hearing. A trained elephant can distinguish between 27 different commands. An elephant can recognize subtle musical vibrations too.

 Now the mystery has been solved! The acute hearing ability of the elephants is the key factor that helps to coordinate the scattered groups and synchronize their activities.

Visalakshi Ramani
 
#56. Going For a Charge?



The duck billed Platypus is a strange animal. It has four legs and a furry exterior. It has a beaver’s tail, in addition to the webbed feet and a beak of a duck!
More than all these, it lays eggs like a bird but suckles its young ones like a mammal! As if all these facts are not queer enough, it has an inexplicable affinity for electric charges!

 Platypus lives on live prey—shrimps, worms, frogs, snails, tadpoles, insect larvae and tiny fish. When it dives its eyes are shut tight and the eye lids cover the ear holes also– making it virtually deaf and blind under water.

 Then how does it locate its prey? Is it by its strong sense of smell or by using its sensitive bill?

 All living things emit minute electrical charges. Whenever a fish flicks its tail, this tiny charge increases by a tinier amount.

 Apparently Platypus can recognize these tiny changes in electrical charges and use it for locating it prey.

 Interesting experiments were conducted in water tanks. The menu offered to the Platypus contained a charged flash light battery, a dead battery and shrimp.

 Ignoring the dead battery, the platypus preferred the live battery to the live fish! Weak electrical fields made the platypus look for its prey there, more often, than when the charge was put off.

 Sensors in the bills enable the platypus to detect the electrical charges. These sensors are connected to a point, directly behind its brain, which is sensitive to electrical stimulation.

 Truly the platypus gets a “real charge” when it dives deep to dine!

Visalakshi Ramani

 
The platypus is a chimera of morphology. Scientists on evolution will be certainly doing a lot of research into it!
 
dear Mr. Kahanam,

Platypus is indeed a weird animal! Its appearance, its bird and mammal combination of

characteristics and its affinity for electricity are rare among both birds and mammals.

It deserves all the attention it gets!

with warm regards,
V.R.
 
#57. Tasmanian Devil.



The Tasmanian devil is not a devil at all–as the name may suggest. It is the largest surviving carnivorous marsupial, in the Australian island state of Tasmania. Often it is simply called “The Devil”. It is the size of a small dog, but it is built stocky and muscular.
It has a large head and a tail which is about half the length of its body. The devil stores body fat in its tail. The famished and unhealthy devils often have thin tails.

 Unlike the other marsupials, it has forelegs slightly longer than its hind legs. Devils can dash at the speed of 13 km per hour, over short distances. Their fur is usually black, but irregular white patches are quite common.

 Males are usually larger than females, with an average head and body length of 25 inches, 10 inches long tail and weigh 8 kg. Females have an average head and body length of 22 inches, nine and half inches long tail, and weigh 6 kg.

 The Tasmanian devil lives for six year in the wild, but longer in captivity. The devil has long whiskers on its face and in clumps on the top of the head. These help the devil locate prey when foraging in the dark and in detecting when other devils are close during feeding.

 When agitated, the devil can emanate a strong stench, which will put a skunk to shame! Hearing is its dominant sense but it has an excellent sense of smell. Since devils hunt at night, their vision is excellent in black and white. They can detect moving objects readily, but have difficulty seeing stationary objects.

 The devil has the strongest bite among all living mammals. The power of its jaw is due to its large head. A Tasmanian devil also has a set of teeth that keeps growing throughout its life.

 Young devils can climb trees, but not when they grow larger and older. Devils can also swim. They are solitary animals and do not form packs like wolves. Devils eat small native mammals, domestic mammals, birds, fish, insects, frogs and reptiles.

 Their diet is varied, depending on the food available. They eat about one-sixth of their body weight each day. They can become gluttonous gulpers of two-fifths of their body weight, in a short span of 30 minutes, if they get an opportunity to do so!

 Tasmanian Devils devour the bones and fur in addition to the meat and internal organs of a carcass, leaving not even a trace of it! The farmers “Thank the Devils”, which prevent the spread of diseases, that might harm their livestock.

 Eating is a social event for the Tasmanian devils. When 12 or more individuals gather to eat, the sound they produce can be heard several miles away! They usually establish dominance by using 11 different vocal sounds, 20 different physical postures and vicious yawns. Adult males are the most aggressive, and scarring is quite common from fighting over meats and mates.

 The Tasmanian devil is best known as the inspiration for the Looney Tunes cartoon character The Tasmanian Devil, or “Taz”. Researchers have named a genetic-mutant mouse “The Tasmanian devil”. The mutant mouse is defective in the development of sensory-hair cells of the ear. Result is its abnormal behavior–including head-tossing and circling (more like the cartoon “Taz” than the actual Tasmanian devil).

 Visalakshi Ramani


 
#58. Boxer with Big Feet!



 Kangaroo is a “macro pod”, meaning “big feet”. Europeans regarded Kangaroo as a weird animal. It had a deer’s head, hopped like a frog and stood upright like a man! In addition, a mother Kangaroo had two heads on her body!

Kangaroo has a small head, powerful hind legs, large feet and a muscular tail for balancing itself. A Kangaroo can hop at the speed of 20 to 25 K. M per hour. It can travel a distance of 2 kilometers at the speed of 40 K.M. per hour. It can dash at 70 K.M. per hour over short distances. It need not run away from predators, but has to travel in search of food and water.

Strangely the large-footed-leaper has difficulty in walking at slow speeds. It forms a tripod using its two short forelimbs and its tail. Raising the two hind legs off the ground, it crawl-walks on the tripod. Its life span is 4 to 6 years.

Kangaroo eats grass, shrub and fungus. It is nocturnal, rests during the day and eats during the night. Its lower jaws are not joined together, giving it a wider bite. The worn out molars are replaced by new set of molars.

Female Kangaroo has a marsupim where the young joeys complete their post natal development. Born just after 31 to 36 days of gestation, the Joey is of the size of a lima bean! It crawls into the pouch and attaches itself to a teat. After 9 months, it starts leaving the pouch for short intervals. Mother feeds the baby till it is 18 months old. The milk is just right for the young one, at the various stages of its development.

Kangaroo stores elastic strain energy in the tendons of its large hind legs. It hops using this spring action of the tendon rather than the muscular force. Aborigines hunted Kangaroo for its meat, hides and bones. Kangaroo is shy by nature.

Male Kangaroos box for fun, dominance and winning a mate. A powerful kick with its hind leg can tear open the opponent’s flesh! Kangaroos are dazzled by the headlights and roar of the engines and leap in front of the moving cars. Due to the collision, the Kangaroo may get killed. Small cars get destroyed while the engines of larger cars get damaged. Kangaroo crossing signals are quite common in Australia.

Kangaroos have been featured on coins, emblems and logos. They are used as mascots and in the naming of sports teams. Kangaroos feature in films and television. Kangaroo toys and souvenirs exist all around the world.

Visalakshi Ramani
 
# 59. Man's Miraculous Mind.

The human mind has fascinated scientists from time immemorial. It is the most complex thing in God's creation.

It is combination of intelligence and emotions. It is a vast store house of information and experiences.

Thought process, the faculty of memory, our innermost fears and inexplicable phobias, our likes and dislikes, our dreams and day dreams, the E.S.P and P.S.I phenomena, escapism of the human mind, the effects of drugs and drinks and hundreds of other topics are being studied by the researching scientists.

The more they discover, the more fascinating human mind turns out to be!

We will view a few selected topics in this thread.
 
#60. Genius and Genes!

The people who have produced enduring works of art, music compositions and made significant discoveries in the fields of mathematics, Sciences and medicine are few and far between! Why? It is because Genius is a rare commodity!

 Sir Francis Galton, a pioneer in the measurement of human intelligence, wanted to discover the role played by hereditary and environment in the making of a genius. Was genius a matter of hereditary? Logically, the best families sending their children to best schools are more likely to produce the best creative brains!

 But genius does not run in families! It appears at the most unexpected and unlikely places. According to Shakespeare who came from an undistinguished family, ”Genius is not of genius born!”

 E.T Bell examined the background of 28 of the world’s greatest mathematicians in his book “Men of Mathematics”. He found very little evidence of inherited ability. Most of the mathematicians came from families which had nothing to do with mathematics.

 Fermat’s father was a leather merchant; Pascal’s father was a local judge; Bernoulli came from a family of traders; Euler’s father was a pastor; Laplace’s father was a farm laborer; Gauss was the son of a poor working class parents and Srinivasa Ramanujam came from a peasant stock.

 Obviously we can breed race horses but not geniuses. Is creativity a by product of a high I.Q? Geniuses are clever people but all clever people are not geniuses. There is very little connection between high I.Q and creativity. Many geniuses had very poor academic achievements.

 A person becomes a genius, since he thinks differently and divergently. He approaches a problem from different angles and shelves it temporarily. The incubation yields the desired results at the most unexpected moment.

 A genius has a high motivation. He does not care for money of fame, but the work itself is his reward. Very often genius deviates from the established facts. For this reason the work of a genius is ignored, ridiculed, challenged and belittled by the intellectual establishment. Only much later he and his work get accepted and acclaimed.

 Yes! Truly “Genius is not born out of genes.”

Visalakshi Ramani




 
#60. Anima and Animus.


It is nature’s law that opposite things must coexist. All human beings have both masculine and feminine energies. Similarly each individual has both the masculine and the feminine part of the Psyche.

 The feminine part of a male’s psyche is called The Anima. It is the personification of all the feminine psychological tendencies in a man’s mind.

 The masculine part of a female’s psyche is called The Animus. It is the personification of all the masculine psychological tendencies in a woman’s mind.

 Human biological and psychological development depends on this mixture of the masculine and feminine energies. Anima and Animus are shaped by relating to and associating with the parent of the opposite sex. A man’s anima is influenced by his mother and a woman’s animus by her father.

 Anima and Animus can influence a person in a positive or a negative manner. A man under the influence of positive Anima will show tenderness, patience, consideration and compassion. The negative Anima will be exhibited as vanity, meanness, moodiness and verbal attacks.

 A woman with positive Animus will exhibit assertiveness, rationality in thoughts, self control and compassionate strength. The negative Animus will exhibit in strong opinions, ruthlessness, destructive forces, brutality, obstinacy and an uncontrollable urge to make decisions on each and every issue!

 Anima and Animus are not bad in themselves but they should be developed properly. To assimilate the effect of Anima, a man must discover his true feelings. To become familiar with Animus, a woman must constantly question her opinions and ideas.

 Anima and Animus must be developed carefully – by the parents, by setting on good examples – lest their children descend to the level of being mere animals!

Visalakshi Ramani
 
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