Friday, April 22, 2011

Bear with me


The grizzly bear is a subspecies of brown bear. They are normally solitary, active animals, but in coastal areas, the grizzly congregates alongside streams, lakes, rivers and ponds.


The Grizzly bears are generally larger and heavier than other bears. The average weight of Grizzly bears is generally 400 to 600 pounds for males and 250 to 350 pounds for females. They are long lived mammals and generally live to be around 25 years old.



In Spring, the Grizzly bear moves to low elevation areas, out of the snow, to feed on young, green vegetation. It includes winter-killed animals, ants, grasses and sedges, cow parsnip, and other plants. 


In Summer, the Grizzly bears continue to eat forbs, dig for roots and tubers, and excavate insects, such as ants and grubs. Common summer food are mushrooms, moths and bison calves. 


In Fall, the Grizzly bear eats berries, whitebark and limber pine nuts, insect nests, and starch tubers and roots to build up fat reserves before winter hibernation. 








Sample food chain


Grizzly bear -> salmon -> tiny shrimp -> algae 





The main cause of the Grizzly bear having their status as endangered is currently being blamed on global warming causing the loss of white bark pine nuts, which are high in calories. 


People hunt and kill them purposely to protect their land, farm and live stock. Also, there is loss of habitat. As human population increases, the piece of land where they usually live and breed shrinks to a smaller portion. 








Grizzly bears has a low reproductive rate. The female grizzly bear only gives birth when they're five to seven years old and, she breeds at three- to four-year intervals - also one of the reasons why it's endangered. 






Grizzly bears live in the Rock mountains all the way to northwestern Canada and Alaska. They prefer open country such as the Great Plains and Arctic tundra, but will also use woodlands and mountain environments. 






the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Foundation has raise more than a million dollars for grizzly bear management, research and conservation in Montana. The goal of their project is to 2 or 3 female grizzly bears per year to the Cabinet Mountains. 


We can help to conserve grizzly bears by donating to such association :-) 






Here are my sources:




http://knightofswords.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/grizzly1.jpg?w=196&h=300
http://www.bear.org/website/images/stories/images/HWB_800x600/HWB_Slide41_FS.jpg
http://weheartit.com/entry/6322928
http://www.knowswhy.com/why-are-grizzly-bears-endangered/
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_are_Grizzly_bears_an_endangered_species
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Where_is_the_grizzly_bear's_habitat
http://weheartit.com/entry/7719274
http://blog-images.microscopesblog.com/uploaded_images/Algae-768906.jpg
http://www.fws.gov/mountain-prairie/species/mammals/grizzly/grizz_foods.pdf
http://www.defenders.org/wildlife_and_habitat/wildlife/grizzly_bear.php
http://www.edu.pe.ca/southernkings/grizzly.htm
http://www.landscape-photo.net/albums/Lakes-rivers-waterfalls/normal_nature-lake-river-and-waterfalls-plitvice-croatia-11.jpg
http://allin1pedia.allin1dot.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Grizzly-Bear1.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grizzly_bear
http://weheartit.com/entry/3461349

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Twitter V.S. Facebook


What features are common between Twitter and Facebook?

Facebook - Twitter

1) Post pictures - Twit pict 
2) Tag pictures - @name callout a person to tag
3) Status update - Tweets, in twitter apps like twitterific you can add your location to your tweets or pictures too
4) Private profiles - Closed updates approved by user
5)Facebook message - Direct message
6)Comments - Reply to tweets
7) Notification and feeds - Tweets
8) See a shared link and share the link - Retweet
9) Add link to feeds - Star favorite, you can also get back to your favorite tweets later

How was they different in terms of features?



Facebook - Twitter

1) When you visit Facebook.com – you can’t easily search other users status updates
2)Facebook is growing at 1 Million users/month with increased internal users.
Twitter has an organic growth with more companies joining it and experimenting with it.
3) Facebook sticks to the more traditional social networking where you maintain your profile while Twitter relies on its micro blogging feature
4) Twitter has been used by TV shows to get feedback from their audience while Facebook gets few mentions in the media here and there
5) Facebook is very popular but mainly in young people while Twitter has skyrocketed in popularity and is even used by famous people and politicians

Beside the web, how else can we access Twitter and Facebook?



Facebook and Twitter

1) Smart phones - iPhone, Blackberry, Android
2) Gadgets - iPod touch 

Why do you think Twitter and Facebook are popular? What are the main selling points? How are they exploited by businesses?





Twitter

1) It's easy to use, no further explanation needed
2) Twitter keeps you in contact with all your 'friends' (followers/following) all the time 
3) You'll get to see what celebrities are doing without them accepting your "friend request"
4) Fast, they have million of users and yet, it doesn't lag
5) It's addictive



Facebook

1) Upload unlimited amount of photographs - add tags, comments, like, etc.
2) Interact with your friends - through games, apps, write on each other's walls
3) Send 'gifts' - virtual gifts to brighten your friend's day!
4) You'll be updated - what's going on in your friend's life? 
5) User friendly :-)

What do you personally like about them?



I personally prefer Twitter, this is because I think that Facebook is kind of "old". It's just like when we were using Friendster and Facebook was created, everyone "moved over" to Facebook. Now that Twitter is created, it is a more "improved" version of Facebook.

In Twitter, you get to interact with almost everyone from friends in school to celebrities. Twitter's 140 character message limit was patterned after SMS length for mobile phones. Therefore, messages are intended to be concise, brief and free from anything that's not important. Just like those unwanted mafia or farm friend requests ubiquitous to Facebook -.- Also, you get quick responses from everyone and you get news very quickly. TWITTER!!!!



http://ezinearticles.com/?Top-Reasons-Why-Facebook-is-So-Popular&id=1089087
http://webupon.com/social-networks/why-twitter-is-so-popular/
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090419162100AA1Zk7q
http://www.differencebetween.net/technology/internet/difference-between-twitter-and-facebook/
http://soshable.com/a-major-difference-between-twitter-and-facebook/
http://coolastory.blogspot.com/2009/03/15-similarities-between-twitter-and.html
http://www.blogbloke.com/twitter-popular/