What can this frog teach us?

What can human couples possibly learn from some frogs in Peru?

Just one little thing. How to remain utterly faithful.

The secret, according to biologist Dr Jason Brown, who has for years been studying the sex life of the frog, known as the mimic poison frog, is that the small size of the pools of water in which they lay their tadpoles prevents the frogs straying.

It works like this. After mating, the female frog lays her eggs. The male frog then takes each tadpole to a tiny pool of water which gathers in leaves high up in the branches of trees. When the tadpoles become hungry, the male calls the female to come and lay a non-fertile egg in each pool for the tadpole to eat. In sum, since the tadpoles cannot survive without the care of both parents, mimic poison frogs have been forced to stick together.

Contrast the life of the mimic poison frog with their close relative, the variable poison frog. Unlike the former species, researchers show the latter species to be promiscuous, and the reason why it is less faithful is that it lays its eggs in pools of water which are on average five times larger, and thus have more nutrients, than those used by the mimic poison frogs. That means the couples do not have to play such a big part in raising their tadpoles, allowing them to sneak off and cheat on their partners.

I wonder how similar this is to the human situation. Are some human couples with accommodation five times larger than others more likely to be promiscuous? Are those who have to spend virtually all their time and effort taking care of the family and raising children forced to stick together?

There is one little catch though. Even this frog species that Dr Brown dubbed as "a truly monogamous amphibian" is not completely faithful. The DNA test Dr Brown conducted showed that of 12 families of mimic poison frogs, only 11 couples remained continually faithfully. In the twelfth family, a male frog mated with two females.

Cheeky Cheeky!

"Exclusively used by professional tennis players"

A sporting goods shop promoted three tennis racquets with the line: "Exclusively used by professional tennis players". To me this line can be translated as "Not for the mortal", meaning that the racquet is guaranteed not to be suitable for all but the few elite players who have the skills and the power to harness it. That's why for years I have been using tweener racquets which give me the shot-making options that racquets for more advanced players cannot. Unfortunately, the promise (or illusion more like) of playing like one's favourite pro has so much appeal that players, especially the novice ones, often take the bait, only to find later that the racquet does not improve their game but actually ruins it.

And don't forget that, for commercial or other obvious reasons, some racquets that professional tennis players play with are not the same as the model in the market but just paint-job versions. Two classic examples are the racquets of Ivan Lendl and Boris Becker. For Lendl, the Adidas GTX Pro Graphite that he played with in the 80s was a paint-job Kneissl White Star Pro, in the same way that his Mizuno in the 90s was a paint-job Kneissl/Adidas. For Boris Becker, the situation was even more complicated. According to the website www.80s-tennis.com:

"Becker`s personal Boris Becker Winner racquets were customised versions made with 50% graphite, whereas the serial production model as sold on the market contained merely 30% graphite. The Boris Becker Super with 50% graphite, introduced in 1986, was nothing else than a paintjob of the customised Becker Winner that Boris had played right from the beginning. But now also the public could buy a Puma Becker racquet with 50% graphite."

"In March 1990 he got contracted with Taiwanese company Estusa (until 1995)... However, Becker continued playing the Boris Becker Super, with the Estusa logo sprayed onto the strings, because he was not satisfied with the first version of the Estusa Boris Becker B ProVantech PB. It was not before 1991 that Becker finally turned to the Estusa racquet. But Becker`s longtime stringer Uli Kühnel in an interview stated that Becker in fact played the Estusa racquet for only about four months..."

Do you still think that you are buying racquets that are "exclusively used by professional tennis players"?

What's wrong with "me"?

"And as that old saying goes, it's not that I think less of myself, but that I think of myself less... And that feels like heaven to me." -Plan B, by Anne Lamott

Anne Lamott's association of thinking of oneself less with a feeling of heaven is a very wise idea. What many religions help followers achieve is a stage where they are able to detach from their selves and reach a blissful state. That is probably what heaven feels like. On the other hand, self-absorption is a source of suffering, one is enslaved by the endless desires and needs of the self.

John Robbin's book Healthy at 100 quoted a very revealing study where the researcher counted the use of the words I, me and mine in the recorded conversations of nearly six hundred men and compared this with the frequency of heart disease. The result shows that the more a man habitually talks about himself, the greater the chance that he will have a heart attack. The message of this beautifully simple but ingenious study cannot be clearer. Self-absorption brings suffering, which manifests itself as health problems.

It pays to take heed of what the researcher advises: "Listen with regard when others talk. Give your time and energy to others; let others have their way; do things for reasons other than furthering your own needs."

What have they done to deserve this?

In my blog on 23 February, I wrote about how trusting street cats may become easy prey for animal-hating cowards. A news article yesterday reported a harrowing case where a one-year-old kitten was found wandering in the street with its left front paw cut off. The poor thing may have been another victim with too much trust to humans. The fact that the kitten was, as the article said, very hostile to strangers and wanted to bite the nurse cannot be taken to mean that this was a mean cat. How friendly would you be if someone cut off your left hand and then dumped you to the street to rot?

Today, a feature article described animal abuse of a different nature. "Where in the world is the elephant worst treated? The honest and straight answer is Kerala," said Paul Zacharia, one of India's best-known writers. He was referring to the plight of the state's 700 captive elephants, the largest "domesticated" elephant population in India.

According to the article, the elephants are mainly rented out for parades and processions during festivals, for political campaigns and for promoting goods in trade fairs. Here is how the article described the hardship the elephants have to put up with:

"The animals have to endure long and noisy parades where fire crackers are set off, they must stand close to flames, travel long distances in ramshackle open vehicles and walk on tarred roads in the scorching sun for hours. They also have to endure drunk, often brutal mahouts."

Mr Zacharia said that not a day passes without the news of an elephant meeting its death in an accident or getting grievously injured or killing the mahout in sheer desperation or running amok because it simply has had enough.

Killing the mahout? Running amok? You can imagine what sort of fate would await the poor elephant when such a thing happens. The elephant will certainly be regarded as having gone mad and will be killed or brutally tortured in retaliation. And hardly anyone in the angry mob will stop and think about what has driven the elephant to behave like that in the first place.

Unpleasant surprises

"Life is full of surprises. A Nobel Prize winner, Kao is also an Alzheimer's patient."

This is what Gwen Kao Wong May-wan, the wife of the Nobel winner Charles Kao Kuen said during the naming ceremony of the Charles K. Kao Auditorium a couple of days ago.

Wong added that she hoped the award will provide an opportunity to raise awareness of the disease and it will generate support services for patients with cognitive loss and the training of their caretakers.

It is tragic that the Charles Kao who attended the ceremony is a completely different person from the scientist who won himself a Nobel Prize, due to Alzheimer's disease, which has robbed him of his memory and judgement. It is equally tragic that so many people, Kao's wife included, just focus on taking care of Alzheimer patients and seem to overlook the importance and possibility of preventing the disease. As John Robbins says in his book Healthy at 100: "Our inability to cure or effectively treat Alzheimer's makes prevention all the more important".

The big question is: Can the disease be effectively prevented? According to scientific and medical studies, the answer is a resounding 'Yes'. And the solutions are incredibly simple: Do exercise; eat well ('well' meaning a whole-foods, plant-based diet high in antioxidants). Unfortunately, far too many people, whether they are or are not aware of the full range of benefits of exercise and a healthy diet, do not take the advice. It appears that remaining dormant and eating junk or unhealthy food are a lifestyle that people are always going to prefer, even though sooner or later it brings about suffering that is completely unnecessary.

That sort of suffering is probably the surprises Kao's wife was referring to. Sadly, they are not pleasant ones.

Rouge

Golden opportunity

The news on TV today showed footage of angry Chinese citizens protesting when Toyota's president Akio Toyoda made an apology in Beijing.

The national media were comparatively more restrained. Both the China Daily website and Xinhuanet reported the incident with this one identical line under the photo of the Mr Toyoda:

"Toyota Motor Corp. President Akio Toyoda apologized to Chinese consumers for recalls in a press conference held in Beijing Monday."

This reflects a typical political strategy of the country. Publicly, the government does not want to provoke Japan by making a high profile coverage. Behind the scene, it orchestrates or at least allows the civilian protest. Let's face it, the Chinese must be jumping for joy in seeing the recent problem of the Japanese motor giant when it has always been Chinese-made automobiles getting appalling safety test reports in authoritative auto magazines in the West. The message is loud and clear. It isn't just Chinese products which are faulty or defective.

It may be just a photo and a few words, but how the image of the belittled Japanese bowing to Chinese consumers must have bloated the ego of the conceited nation.