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Navigating the Glimpse of an Extraordinary Paradise

The spreading of more than 7,100 glitter-like islands from the middle palm of the Pacific Ocean are still coping our mind and observative eyesight. A nation built by the splash of the ocean waves; born with the sprinkles of sunlight and lived by the graceful dance of the wind, gave life to its people, to the animals in the forests and plants from its wide plains. Several mountains, rivers, hills, virgin forests, beaches and typical volcanoes are found in this beautiful landmark. We can also find friendly citizens who are ready to take care of you if you plan to visit this place. Bonded with democracy, this country which is also known as the 'Pearl of the Orient Seas' named Philippines.

Philippines is compose of three groups of islands: the island Luzon which is the biggest; Mindanao, the second; and the smallest Visayas. Manila is the center of the country. There are so many scenic spots scattered all-over the archipelago and one these sceneries is the famous Banaue Rice Terraces which is the eight wonders of the world. The Mayon Volcano known for its perfect cone shape and white sand beaches especially Boracay still proving that Philippines is one of the most popular treasures ever existed in the history of Planet Earth.

The Job of a Computer Programmer

Computer programmers write, test, and maintain the detailed instructions, called programs, that computers follow to perform their functions. Programmers also conceive, design, and test logical structures for solving problems by computer. With the help of other computer specialists, they figure out which instructions to use to make computers do specific tasks. Many technical innovations in programming—advanced computing technologies and sophisticated new languages and programming tools, for example—have redefined the role of a programmer and elevated much of the programming work done today.

Job titles and descriptions may vary, depending on the organization, but computer programmers are individuals whose main job function is programming. Programmers usually write programs according to the specifications given by computer software engineers and systems analysts. (Sections on computer software engineers and on computer systems analysts appear elsewhere in the Handbook.) After engineers and analysts design software—describing how it will work—the programmer converts that design into a logical series of instructions that the computer can follow. The programmer codes these instructions in a conventional programming language such as COBOL; an artificial intelligence language such as Prolog; or one of the more advanced object-oriented languages, such as Java, C++, or ACTOR.

Different programming languages are used depending on the purpose of the program. Programmers generally know more than one programming language, and because many languages are similar, they often can learn new languages relatively easily. In practice, programmers often are referred to by the language they know, such as Java programmers, or by the type of function they perform or environment in which they work—for example, database programmers, mainframe programmers, or Web programmers.

Programmers also update, repair, modify, and expand existing programs. Some, especially those working on large projects that involve many programmers, use computer-assisted software engineering (CASE) tools to automate much of the coding process. These tools enable a programmer to concentrate on writing the unique parts of a program. Programmers working on smaller projects often use “programmer environments,” applications that increase productivity by combining compiling, code walk through, code generation, test data generation, and debugging functions. Programmers also use libraries of basic code that can be modified or customized for a specific application. This approach yields more reliable and consistent programs and increases programmers’ productivity by eliminating some routine steps.

Programs vary widely depending on the type of information they will access or generate. For example, the instructions involved in updating financial records are very different from those required to simulate flight for pilot training. Simple programs can be written in a few hours, but some programs draw data from many existing systems or use complex mathematical formulas. These programs may take more than a year to create. In most cases, several programmers work together as a team under a senior programmer’s supervision.

Programmers test a program by running it to ensure that the instructions are correct and that the program produces the desired outcome. If errors do occur, the programmer must make the appropriate change and recheck the program until it produces the correct results. This process is called testing and debugging. Programmers may continue to fix problems for as long as a program is used.

Programmers working on a mainframe, a large centralized computer, may prepare instructions for a computer operator who will run the program. (A section on computer operators appears elsewhere in the Handbook.) Programmers also may contribute to the instruction manual for a program.

Programmers in software development companies may work directly with experts from various fields to create specialized software—either programs designed for specific clients or packaged software for general use—ranging from games and educational software to programs for desktop publishing and financial planning. Programming of packaged software constitutes one of the most rapidly growing segments of the computer services industry.

Increasingly, advanced software platforms are bridging the gap between computer programmers and computer users. New platforms, such as spreadsheet, accounting, and enterprise resource planning applications, have created demand for computer specialists who have first-hand knowledge of a user-base. These workers use such platforms to develop programs that meet the specific needs of this base. Computer programmers often are responsible for creating the software platform, and then fine-tuning the final program after it has been made.

Computer programmers often are grouped into two broad types—applications programmers and systems programmers. Applications programmers write programs to handle a specific job, such as a program to track inventory within an organization. They also may revise existing packaged software or customize generic applications purchased from vendors. Systems programmers, in contrast, write programs to maintain and control computer systems software for operating systems, networked systems, and database systems. These workers make changes in the instructions that determine how the network, workstations, and central processing unit of a system handle the various jobs they have been given, and how they communicate with peripheral equipment such as terminals, printers, and disk drives. Because of their knowledge of the entire computer system, systems programmers often help applications programmers determine the source of problems that may occur with their programs.

What is Computer Programming?

Computer programming (often shortened to programming or coding) is the process of writing, testing, debugging/troubleshooting, and maintaining the source code of computer programs. This source code is written in a programming language. The code may be a modification of an existing source or something completely new. The purpose of programming is to create a program that exhibits a certain desired behavior (customization). The process of writing source codes requires expertise in many different subjects, including knowledge of the application domain, specialized algorithms and formal logic.

Which is Which???

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The Rafflesia arnoldii.

The flower with the world's largest bloom is the Rafflesia arnoldii. This rare flower is found in the rainforests of Indonesia. It can grow to be 3 feet across and weigh up to 15 pounds! It is a parasitic plant, with no visible leaves, roots, or stem. It attaches itself to a host plant to obtain water and nutrients. When in bloom, the Rafflesia emits a repulsive odor, similar to that of rotting meat. This odor attracts insects that pollinate the plant.

Another enormous flower found in Indonesia is the Amorphophallus titanum, or Titan arum. It is also known as the "corpse flower" for its unpleasant odor. Like the Rafflesia, the Titan emits the smell of rotting flesh to attract pollinators. Technically, the Titan arum is not a single flower. It is a cluster of many tiny flowers, called an inflorescence. The Titan arum has the largest unbranched inflorescence of all flowering plants. The plant can reach heights of 7 to 12 feet and weigh as much as 170 pounds!

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World's Largest Flower Mystery Solved

The world's largest flower, called Rafflesia, can have a diameter up to one meter and can weigh up to 10 kilograms. It also smells like rotting flesh. Discovery News tells us that its genetic roots have been uncovered and that this plant that smells so bad is related to delicate flowers such as poinsettias or violets.

The flower, which is one of 20 species collectively called Rafflesia, is related to poinsettias, violets, passionflowers, and other members of the order Malpighiales, according to a paper published in the current Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

Researchers also have some intriguing theories as to why Rafflesia smells so awful, why its flowers bloom only once a year and live for five to seven days, why the plant is a parasite, and why it likes to attract flies that normally go for mounds of dead flesh.

Before going further, here is a photo showing a man surrounding a rafflesia (Credit: Bruce Coleman Collection, photo by Allain Compost).

How did the researchers proceed?

Rafflesia is a parasitic plant that lacks roots, stems, and leaves. Usually botanists trace plant orders using chloroplast DNA, but since Rafflesia does not have chloroplast genes, Todd Barkman, assistant professor of biological sciences at Western Michigan University, and his team instead analyzed the Rafflesia's mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), which corresponds to chloroplast DNA.

The mtDNA studies revealed that the large, stinky flower is related to more normal-sized, pleasantly fragrant posies. Despite its enormity, Rafflesia does resemble passionflowers, according to Barkman. Both have their stamens and pistils fused together in a central column, and both produce a corona, or crown, in the shape of a ring.

Rafflesia did not begin its life as a parasite, but likely evolved this lifestyle in Southeast Asia as it began to depend upon a variety of grape, Tetrastigma. Now Rafflesia lives inside of the grape plant and only reveals itself once a year when it produces the smelly blooms.

"By human standards, the large, lumpy, mottled, stinky flowers could be interpreted as mimicking rotting flesh," Barkman told Discovery News. "The fact that flies are highly attracted to the flowers suggests that they think the flowers look and smell like rotting flesh too!"

For more information about the rafflesia, you can look at this definition on Wikipedia and at this Rafflesia gallery.

Finally, here is the abstract of the paper published by PNAS, "Mitochondrial DNA sequences reveal the photosynthetic relatives of Rafflesia, the world�s largest flower."

All parasites are thought to have evolved from free-living ancestors. However, the ancestral conditions facilitating the shift to parasitism are unclear, particularly in plants because the phylogenetic position of many parasites is unknown. This is especially true for Rafflesia, an endophytic holoparasite that produces the largest flowers in the world and has defied confident phylogenetic placement since its discovery >180 years ago. Here we present results of a phylogenetic analysis of 95 species of seed plants designed to infer the position of Rafflesia in an evolutionary context using the mitochondrial gene matR (1,806 aligned base pairs). Overall, the estimated phylogenetic tree is highly congruent with independent analyses and provides a strongly supported placement of Rafflesia with the order Malpighiales, which includes poinsettias, violets, and passionflowers.

The Large Squid

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The Colossal Squid

BREAKING NEWS - February, 2007. Scientists have known about the existence of a species of squid that is reported to be significantly larger than the giant squid, but had not seen or collected a complete specimen of the Colossal squid, named Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni. This species of squid was first identified in 1925 after two arms were recovered from a sperm whale's stomach. In 2003 a virtually intact specimen of this never-before-seen squid had been brought up in Antarctic waters from an estimated depth of 2,000 to 2,200 meters. And recently, in February of 2007 a live colossal squid was brought to the surface in Antarctic waters by a New Zealand fishing boat. This time video was taken and the squid was captured for scientific study. This enormous squid, which was determined to be a male of the species, was 10 meters (32.8 feet), and weighed 1,089 pounds, making it the largest squid (the largest invertebrate) ever captured. What was even more astonishing is that, from what scientists know about squid species in general, there is great sexual dimorphism in squids, with females being significantly larger than the males. If that holds true for the Colossal squid, this male specimen that was captured could very well be dwarfed by a much larger female of the species.

Colossal squid are known to inhabit the abyssal depths of the ocean primarily in the Southern Ocean that circumnavigates Antarctica. Evidence of their existence has been obtained from the stomachs of the largest predatory carnivore in the sea - the mighty sperm whale. Many Sperm whales carry scars on their backs believed to be caused by the hooks of Colossal Squid. One of the significant morphological differences between the giant squid and the colossal squid is the existence of swiveling hooks on each of the sucker discs in the clubs at the ends of the colossal squids' feeding tentacles. The giant squid merely have a circular, serrated row of 'teeth' inside each of their sucker discs. Either way, both of these species of squid make for formidable and terrifying predators of the deep.

Colossal Squid are a major prey item for Antarctic sperm whales feeding in the Southern Ocean; 14% of the squid beaks found in the stomachs of these sperm whales are those of the Colossal Squid, which indicates that Colossal Squid make up 77% of the prey consumed by these whales.

Not only are the Colossal squid the largest invertebrates in the world, they have the largest eyes of any living on earth - even bigger than the blue whale. Much of the evidence of these squids that has been gathered from the stomachs of sperm whales have been the enormous beaks of the colossal squid.

The Oldest National Park in the World

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Yellowstone National Park

Yellowstone National Park, set aside as a national park on March 1, 1872, is located mostly in the U.S. state of Wyoming, though it also extends into Montana and Idaho. The park was the first of its kind, and is known for its wildlife and geothermal features, especially Old Faithful Geyser, one of the most popular areas in the park.

Aboriginal Americans have lived in the Yellowstone region for at least 11,000 years. The region was bypassed during the Lewis and Clark Expedition in the early 1800s. Aside from visits by mountain men during the early to mid-1800s, organized exploration did not begin until the late 1860s. The U.S. Army was commissioned to oversee the park just after its establishment. In 1917, administration of the park was transferred to the National Park Service, which had been created the previous year. Hundreds of structures have been built and are protected for their architectural and historical significance, and researchers have examined more than 1,000 archaeological sites.

Largest Snake in the World

The Secret Life of an Anaconda

Anacondas in the wild spend most of their time hanging out in rivers hunting for their food. They are solitary creatures that are somewhat shy and not many of them are easily seen. They are very well camouflaged in the swamps and bogs in which they thrive. There are some historical reports of early European explorers of the South American jungles seeing giant anacondas up to 100 feet long and some of the native peoples of the South American jungle have reported seeing anacondas up to 50 feet long. No one has caught and measured an anaconda anywhere near that size. It is important to note that when a dead anaconda's hide or skin is laid out it can be stretched very easily, expanding to much longer lengths than the snake exhibited when alive. Reports of outsize anacondas that cannot be verified are usually due to distortions in perception, or a snake skin being disproportionately stretched and inaccurately measured. People are generally really bad at estimating length, especially for larger snakes. In fact, the larger the snake, the larger the margin of error.

Largest Butterfly and Moth in the World

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Queen Alexandra's Birdwing

Queen Alexandra's Birdwing is the largest butterfly in the world, with a wingspan up to 1 foot (30 cm). This tropical butterfly is from the rainforest in northern Papua New Guinea. The caterpillars eat the pipevine plant, which contains poison; this makes the butterfly toxic to predators, which will get sick if they eat it. So they quickly learn to leave these huge butterflies alone.

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Atlas Moth

The Atlas Moth is found throughout the jungles of Southeast Asia, and particularly in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and Malaysia. The Atlas Moth adult has a wingspan of 1 foot (30 cm). This moth is so big, it is often mistaken for a small bird when it is flying! The Atlas Moth's cocoon looks like a piece of fruit hanging from a tree. The moth uses the markings on its back, which resemble a snake, to scare away predators. The Atlas does all its eating as a larva; the adult moth has no mouth, and cannot eat.

Info' you need to know

Blue Whales are True Giants

Imagine if you were sailing the ocean for the first time, venturing into a place you'd never seen before, and you look over the side of your boat into the water and see the creature in the photo at left. Imagine that you know almost nothing about what lives in the sea, or what to expect from any creatures you might see. This strange creature swimming near the surface is longer than the ship you are sailing on. You might be a little scared, especially having never seen it before and not knowing what it is capable of. You might even be worrying about whether this creature eats humans. The sheer size of it makes you wonder if it can capsize your ship in pursuit of a meal. But you have nothing to fear for this enormous animal is merely a whale.

For many, many years ancient sailors had rare encounters with these with these gigantic ocean mammals and were terrified by their overwhelming size and powerful tails. You can understand a little of the fear and trepidation they might have felt upon seeing these huge, mysterious creatures for the first time. Today we know them to be virtually harmless to humans and that they have quite a bit in common with us – they, too are warm-blooded mammals that must breathe air. They are highly social animals with complex languages and intelligence. Most importantly, they are not monsters at all, but gentle giants we’ve come to respect, admire and protect.

A picture taken during the Christmas Party of our school: Agoo Computer College/Phil.






During the parlor games of Christmas party.