Dr. Navtej Kohli Blog

McDonald’s burgers might be considered junk food, but its latest initiative to buy coffee beans grown in environmentally-friendly conditions, might prove to be the fast food giant’s first step towards going green.

The fast food chain has announced that next year onwards its 484 cafes will switch to coffee brought from South American plantations with the highest environmental standards.

In fact, from March next year, all McDonald’s coffee, that includes the filtered variety served at its drive-ins and restaurants, will bear the green frog label of the New York-based environmental organisation Rainforest Alliance.

According to McDonald’s chief operating officer, Catriona Noble, research showed that people “wanted to make a positive contribution”, and that buying a “sustainable” cup of coffee was one such way.

“Wanting to make the world a better place is no longer a niche but a mainstream one,” the Sydney Morning Herald quoted her, as saying.

McDonald’s, which makes about 5000 cups an hour and collects 20 per cent of the 1.15 billion dollars Australians spend on coffee in cafes, will be exerting pressure on other chains to stop sourcing coffee planted in land cleared of rainforests.

McDonald’s, Gloria Jeans, Starbucks and other retailers are jostling in order to make profits in the growing market for goods made ethically.

Navtej Kohli can’t take hold of his love for birds. Here is another piece of information that he wishes to share with all you bird lovers.

What would you do if you ever spot a baby bird in your backyard, who can’t fly?

Obviously, help it to nest!

But I’m sorry dear, these are certain myths that you need to work upon!

Baby birds almost never need rescuing. No matter even if they have those stubby, short tails and down showing where feathers should be. Most birds come out of the nest early and learn to fly from the ground, up.

This is the way most birds learn to fly. If a baby bird is on the ground, its eyes are open, it has feathers, and it appears plump and healthy, its parents are most likely nearby and taking care of it.

A rule of thumb: If you have to chase it to rescue it, it does not need rescuing.

Birds do not abandon their babies if you touch them. You can move them a short distance and put them in a shrub for safety - but they will probably just hop back out. If you are worried about cats, keep the cats inside until the fledglings can fly, which is usually only a matter of a few days.

When should you rescue one of your backyard wildlife? If the baby’s eyes are closed and you can’t get it back to its nest; if it’s weak or cold; if there are insects near or on the animal; if it is in obvious danger; if it has been hit by a car; or if you know a parent has been killed, then it is time to intervene.

If you have taken a wild animal away from a dog or cat, take it to a veterinarian, even if it looks OK. Wounds from a cat’s claws, especially, are hard to see but they are deadly. Do not kid yourself. That innocent looking cat, playing with the bird, has already sunk its claws into the bird.

If a bird hits your window and is stunned, put it in a cardboard box or a paper bag, with air holes punched. Keep it out of the sun in a safe place for 10 minutes to a half hour. Give it time to recover. If there are no obvious injuries, let it go. Don’t be alarmed if it doesn’t fly off right away. It is most likely afraid it will run into something again. You might have to give it a nudge.

Stress can be a killer, so keep any wildling warm and quiet. Do not handle it any more than necessary. Do not talk to it. Do not try to force water or food into its mouth. Dropping water into a bird’s mouth is dangerous. It is often aspirated (breathed) into the lungs, causing pneumonia.

Always call veterinarians before you take a wild creature to them. If the veterinarian does not treat wildlife, he or she can tell you who will.

Do not try to care for a wild bird yourself. Federal laws protect all migratory birds. All wildlings take specialized diets and care. Experts should treat them so that they can fly wild and free.

Find more on Navtej Kohli

It might occus to one that stocking the Great Lakes with things like trout and salmon would be good for the herring gull. The birds usually eat from the water, so more fish would mean better dining. But a new report published in the April journal of Ecology by the Ecological Society of America says that the addition of species such as exotic salmon and trout to the area has not been good for the birds, proving that such actions can sometimes have very unexpected outcomes.

Craig Hebert (National Wildlife Research Center in Ottawa, Canada) and his team analyzed 25 years of data on the gulls and found that throughout the Great Lakes region, the birds were in poor health in many areas. Tests of their fatty acids showed an increase in the type of transfat that mostly comes from food produced by humans.

“It seems that the birds are being forced to make a dietary shift from fish to terrestrial food, including garbage,” says Hebert.

Although no one is certain why the birds are eating more garbage, evidence points to fish stocking. When exotic salmon and trout have been added to the waters, the birds seem to be out competed for their favorite prey of smaller fish, such as alewifes.

Herring gulls, which differ from the ring necked gulls that often populate American beaches and parking lots, are by no means endangered.

But the birds have long been used as monitors of environmental conditions on the Laurentian Great Lakes. Their eggs are collected annually and analyzed for insights into how the region’s food webs are changing.

Gulls are top predators in this system. When fish are unavailable, the birds turn to land instead for their foraging. When given a choice between prey fish and garbage, the birds readily chose the fish. Thus scientists assume that they only eat garbage when the prey fish numbers are low.

Prey fish in the Lake have been declining since 1980. Although multiple factors may be at play, predation by piscivorous fish appears to be the one factor that was universally important across all five Great Lakes because of massive fish stocking. The stocking was done to create recreational activities, and to reduce populations of exotic prey fish in the hope of restoring populations of native fishes.

“The effects on other species that are more closely tied to the water, such as terns, may be more severe,” says Hebert. “Those kinds of birds can only eat fish, so their diet may be affected by this, too. They don’t have the option of eating food found on land.”

Compiled by Navtej Kohli. Also more interesting articles are available by Navtej Kohli at associated content.

Another astounding study in Medical Sciences on Navtej Kohli Blog.

Navtej Kohli certainly has a good news for all you foodies out there…

Scientists have found that adding the seasoning to hamburgers and meat may reduce chances of cancer.

J. Scott Smith, a food science professor has advised that applying rosemary seasoning to hamburgers can break up the potentially cancer-causing compounds formed when the meat is cooked.

Smith has been conducting studies into the carcinogenic compounds known as HCAs (heterocyclic amines). The presence of HCAs is a potential problem in cooked beef.

He and his colleagues looked into the commercial rosemary extracts’ effect on stopping HCAs from forming in cooked beef patties. They found that the HCAs were reduced in levels ranging from 30 to 100 percent.

Rosemary contains phenolic compounds including rosmarinic acid, carnosol and carnosic acid block the HCAs before they can form during heating.

Rosemary is among those herbs and spices with basil, mint, sage, savoury, marjoram, oregano and thyme, all rich in antioxidants.

Medical is a serious business, But Navtej Kohli is always game for tickling that funny bone…

Here comes another hysterical joke on Navtej Kohli Blog!

TRING!!  TRING!!

Recording - “Hello, Welcome to the Psychiatric Hotline.”

If you are obsessive-compulsive, please press 1 repeatedly.

If you are co-dependent, please ask someone to press 2.

If you have multiple personalities, please press 3, 4, 5 and 6.

If you are paranoid-delusional, we know who you are and what you want. Just stay on the line until we can trace the call.

If you are schizophrenic, listen carefully and a little voice will tell you which number to press.

If you are manic-depressive, it doesn’t matter which number you press. No one will answer.

Navtej Kohli founds his new interest in Golf. He shares some tips and tricks of the trade on Navtej Kohli Blog.

Golf may seem like a simple game that sees you using a club to hit a ball into a hole, but ironically it is complex sport. Largely because of the huge size of the courses compared to the tiny balls and holes.
Golf is played with golf clubs, which come in three types: wood, iron and putters. Clubs can be expensive, but a good set of clubs will help your game, as there are differences between each one that affect how far the ball goes. A one wood (a driver) will hit the ball very much further than an eight wood, for example.

Probably the most famous golfer in the world today is Tiger Woods, who was won ten major golf tournaments to date, making him one of the best golfers ever. Most people think that Jack Nicklaus is the best golfer ever, as he won more tournaments than any other, but if Tiger Woods keeps playing and winning like he is for another decade or so then he is certainly the undisputed champ.
If you want to get into golf, there are plenty of ways to learn without having to go around a full-size golf course. Many places have ‘pitch and putt’ mini-golf courses, where you can go with nothing more than a chipping club (an iron) and a putter, and play on mini-holes. Children who are not yet old enough to do this can play crazy golf, which is generally putting-only, and has fun, brightly-coloured obstacles on the course and holes which make the ball do interesting things. It’s surprising just how fun golf can be, and many kids get their start with crazy golf only to go on and play real golf as a hobby for the rest of their lives.

The most attractive male birds attract more females and as a result are most successful in terms of reproduction. This is the starting point for many studies that look for factors that influence sexual selection in birds. However, is it reasonable to assume that birds see what we see? In a study published in the latest issue of American Naturalist, Uppsala researchers show that our human vision is not an adequate instrument.

“The results mean that many studies on sexual selection may need to be re-evaluated,” says Anders Odeen, research assistant at the Department of Animal Ecology at Uppsala University, who carried out this study with his colleague Olle Håstad.

The significance of birds’ plumage, both in terms of richness of colour and particular signals, has been shown to be a major factor in birds’ choice of partner. In order to assess the colours of birds, everything from binoculars to RGB image analyses are used. However, most studies are based on the hypothesis that human colour vision can be used to assess what birds see.

“It’s a bit like a colour blind person describing the colours of clothes — it’s often quite accurate but sometimes it can go badly wrong.”

This problem has been discussed in the research arena, but so far no study has been able to show its extent. The Uppsala researchers used a mathematical model to investigate how bird and human retina work. Using the model combined with information on differences in the colour-sensitive cones of the eye, they have been able to figure out how colour contrasts are perceived. Greater colour contrast can be translated as ‘richness of colour’ or more ‘brightly coloured’.

“We show that the colours are perceived differently in over 39 percent of cases, which means that it is possible that more than one third of previous studies have been based on inaccurate information.´

The differences were partly due to the fact that human vision cannot perceive UV light, while avian vision can. There are several differences between human and avian perception of colour, which show that certain shades that can be seen clearly by birds are not perceived at all by humans. Through evolution, our colour vision has developed from a more primitive version. This means that we have gone from having two types of colour sensitive cones in our eyes to having three. Birds have four.

“Most other animal species only have two, which means that their colour vision is rudimentary. It is human colour vision that differs from the norm, so in reality it’s ridiculous to use our colour vision to assess the colours of other animals.

The results are not only significant for basic research on sexual selection. They also illustrate the risks of making certain decisions on the basis of human vision, for example, in designing and legislating on lighting systems for domestic fowl.

Compiled by Navtej Kohli
Source: sciencedaily.com

Navtej Kohli found this really interesting article on internet, written by Jon O’bergh. If you have a fetish for bird watching, then this might interest you as well…

Researchers who study birds know that the quality of the birdsong is a good indicator of fitness. Evolutionary biologist Marlene Zuk describes how disease and parasites drive the evolution of showy colors, structures and behavior. She and a colleague theorized that female birds use these features to select males who are more parasite-free, and thus species with more parasites should have evolved flashier colors and songs to distinguish the fittest males.

Indeed, their research showed that brighter bird species had more parasites, as did those that sang more musically complex songs. In another study, researchers discovered that the type of immunity exerted an influence on birdsong: the number of song bouts was higher in birds with better cell-mediated immunity (general immunity that aids wound healing) and the length of the bouts greater in birds with better humoral (i.e., antibody) immunity.

In addition to the role of birdsong in the mating ritual, many birds have unique songs that they sing under special circumstances: flight, aggression, dawn, nightfall. Recently, while walking in a park at dusk, I heard emanating from one dense tree an almost deafening cacophony like a hundred teenagers on the phone. As I passed close to the avian highrise, the twittering abruptly stopped: “Shh! My parents are listening.” Once I’d passed underneath, it started up again. Some researchers theorize that these peak activities at dusk and dawn occur because acoustic factors make these the best times for sound transmission over distance.

Birds use calls to warn other birds of predators. Domestic chickens have distinct alarm calls for aerial and ground predators, a practice observed in some mammalian species as well. Individual birds also seem to be able to identify each other through their calls: mothers and chicks, mates, members of a flock.

Many birds engage in duet calls, where the male’s call is answered antiphonally by the female in a call and response, but the significance of this is unclear. Some birds, such as starlings and mockingbirds, creatively incorporate arbitrary musical bits learned during the individual’s lifetime. In many species, although the basic song is the same for all members of the species, young birds learn some details of their songs from their fathers, which get passed down through generations.

Composers have long been interested in representing birdsong in music. One of the earliest surviving pieces is the 13th century “Sumer is icumen in,” which imitates the cuckoo. Beethoven and Mahler each imitated birdsong in a symphony, as did Bartok in the third piano concerto. Birdsong features prominently in the music of 20th century composer Olivier Messiaen. Jazz clarinetist David Rothenberg has written an informative book, Why Birds Sing: A Journey Into the Mystery of Bird Song, and recorded a CD of music based on the sounds of birds.

Navtej Kohli tells a brilliant joke about a Deaf husband who mistook his wife for deaf

A man goes to his doctor and says, “I don’t think my wife’s hearing isn’t as good as it used to be. What should I do?” The doctor replies, “Try this test to find out for sure.

When your wife is in the kitchen doing dishes, stand fifteen feet behind her and ask her a question, if she doesn’t respond keep moving closer asking the question until she hears you.”

The man goes home and sees his wife preparing dinner. He stands fifteen feet behind her and says, “What’s for dinner, honey?” He gets no response, so he moves to ten feet behind her and asks again. Still no response, so he moves to five feet. still no answer. Finally he stands directly behind her and says, “Honey, what’s for dinner?” She replies, “For the fourth time, I SAID CHICKEN!”

So, is your wife hard of hearing? Try this test

Also find Navtej Kohli on Digg | Navtej Kohli Blogspot | Navtej Kohli Info

If you’re fond of reading medical fiction, Navtej Kohli enlists some really good reads for the season.

1. Range of Motion by Elizabeth Berg
A woman’s intense belief that her husband will recover from a coma, and her ways of keeping in touch with him - and with the beauty of life - as she visits, works, and waits, comprise this emotionally satisfying story by the author of Talk Before Sleep. “Steeped in grace, with and compassion…so compelling you wish it would never end”. — Barbara Lazear

2. Bringing Out the Dead by Joe Connelly
Frank Pierce, a brash EMS medic working the streets of Hell’s Kitchen, is being destroyed by the act of saving people. Addicted to the thrill, Frank is nevertheless drowning in five year’s worth of grief and guilt. His wife has left him, he’s drinking on the job, and just a month ago he “helped to kill” an 18-year-old asthmatic girl. Now she’s become the waking nightmare of al his failures. In a narrative that moves with the fierce energy of an ambulance run, listeners follow Frank through two days and nights of excitement and dread.

3. Gravity by Tess Gerritsen
A young NASA doctor must combat a lethal microbe that is multiplying out of control - and in space.

4. The World I Made for Her by Thomas Moran
James Blatchley breathes and eats through tubes, slipping in and out of a coma. Nuala is the Irish immigrant nurse who coaxes him toward survival. The odd synergy of their relationship serves as both his link to reality and his inspiration to fantasy, in this hypnotic story by the author of The Man in the Box.

5. Operation Wandering Soul by Richard Powers
Highly imaginative and emotionally powerful, this stunning novel about childhood innocence amidst the nightmarish diseases and deterioration at the heart of modern Los Angeles was nominated for the National Book Award. ” Like the stories read to children, this intensely caring novel can help prevent the nightmare is describes”.

Visit Navtej Kohli blogspot | Navtej Kohli Info | Navtej K0hli on Yahoo