Christmas Lights

Earlier in the week, I went downtown to Orchard Road, to have a look at the Christmas lights.

Orchard Road is a busy shopping belt in Singapore. Along the, roughly, 2 km road, are buildings after buildings, of shopping malls. You will find all the big brand names here. These cater mostly to the well heeled locals and tourists who can afford to spend without consideration. People like me don’t go to Orchard road for shopping.

On Christmas Eve, the street will be closed for a street party. From now till the eve, people from all corners of the island will come to take in the sights of the lights and Christmas decorations. It was still not too crowded when we were there. But, in a week or two – nearer the actual day, Orchard road will be very busy. There will be throngs of people coming to take in the Christmas lights and decorations, and to soak in the festive atmosphere.

The malls are all decked out with Christmas lights and decorations. Christmas carols play non-stop in the malls giving the atmosphere an air of festivity. Maybe that will entice shoppers to spend a bit more on gifts.

This year’s Christmas lights and decors are not as elaborate as previous years. They are simple, but are still nice.

Some Christmas decorations along Orchard Road

A mini fair

Street performances

Some night shots of the buildings in Orchard road

You can click on the picture for a better view.

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Fun Facts About Animals

Let’s take a peek into the world of animals. Here are some trivia, fun facts about animals, courtesy of Facebook pages ‘Colours of Nature’, ‘Ancestral Stories’, ‘Weird Facts’, ‘Unbelievable Facts’, ‘Today I Learned’, Science and facts, Crazy creatures, The Knowledge Factory, The study secrets etc… However, I do not know if they are true. Some of them sound really incredible.

Koalas might be nature’s chilliest romantics. These fluffy Australian marsupials spend 18 to 22 hours a day asleep, and even their love lives run on energy efficiency.

During mating season, male koalas try to attract females with deep growls that rumble through the forest and musky scent markings rubbed onto tree trunks.

It’s their version of flowers and a love song. But here’s the twist — if a female isn’t interested? He doesn’t chase. He doesn’t argue. He simply… goes back to sleep.

Scientists say this isn’t laziness — it’s strategy.

Koalas live on a diet of eucalyptus leaves, which are low in nutrients and mildly toxic. Their bodies burn energy slowly and rely on long hours of rest to digest safely and detoxify the plant’s chemicals.

So instead of wasting precious strength on unreciprocated romance, male koalas conserve it — waiting for a better chance with a receptive partner.

In other words, when love doesn’t go their way, they don’t pine… they nap.

A gentle reminder from the eucalyptus treetops: Sometimes the healthiest response to rejection is simply rest. – A Facebook post by ‘Educated Moids’

It freezes to death every winter — and then comes back to life.

The Alaskan wood frog survives something no human could endure. For months, its body becomes a sculpture of ice: Its heart stops beating. Its lungs stop moving. Its blood turns solid.

To the outside world, it looks dead — cold, still, silent. But inside, chemistry keeps a quiet promise. As temperatures drop, the frog floods its body with glucose, turning its cells into tiny biological safe rooms. This sugar acts as a natural antifreeze, preventing ice crystals from shredding organs and tissues.

The frog shuts down everything — heartbeat, brain activity, circulation — and waits, perfectly preserved beneath the frozen soil.

Then spring returns. Warmth seeps into the ground. The ice retreats. And within minutes, the impossible happens: The frog’s heart begins to beat again. Blood flows. Breath returns. Life awakens from the freeze.

Scientists call it cryoprotection — one of evolution’s most astonishing survival strategies. A reminder that endurance isn’t always strength or speed. Sometimes it is stillness, patience, and the wisdom to wait for the right season to rise again.

Fun Fact:
Up to 70% of a wood frog’s body can freeze solid — and it will still wake up perfectly healthy when spring arrives.

Even in the deepest winter, life holds its breath… and waits for the sun.

Most monkeys spend their days swinging through sunny treetops, but not this one. The owl monkey — also called the night monkey — is the only true nocturnal monkey on Earth. It stays awake all night like a tiny, moonlit gremlin with giant eyes that almost cover its whole face, built for seeing in near-total darkness.

Found in Central and South America, owl monkeys rest inside tree holes during the day and only come out when the sun goes down. They live in small, close families and move quietly through the forest, making almost no noise. No loud calls or wild chaos — just calm, careful steps in the dark.

They’re also unusual parents. In owl monkey families, the dad does most of the childcare. He carries the baby on his back while the mother focuses on feeding and recovering, making this species one of the sweetest examples of teamwork in primates.

Their huge eyes aren’t just cute — they’re powerful. Owl monkeys have lots of rod cells in their retinas, letting them catch even tiny bits of light. They don’t see colours well, but they don’t need to. Their vision is built for owning the night.

And the funniest part? Their eyes are so big they can’t even move them. Instead, they have to turn their whole head, just like an owl, to look around. That’s exactly how they got their name.

Disclaimer: Images are generated using AI for illustration purposes only.

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Interesting Fun Facts About Creatures of the Deep

There is so much about the deep that we do not know. Here are some trivia, fun facts on the creatures of the sea, courtesy of Facebook pages ‘Colours of Nature’, ‘Ancestral Stories’, ‘Weird Facts’, ‘Unbelievable Facts’, ‘Today I Learned’, Science and facts, Crazy creatures, The Knowledge Factory, The study secrets etc… However, I do not know if they are true. Some of them sound really incredible.

A leech may be tiny, but it’s a powerhouse of wild biology, packing more complexity than you’d expect into a slimy little body. With 32 brain-like ganglia coordinating its movements, 10 stomach chambers digesting every meal efficiently, and 9 pairs of reproductive organs ready to ensure the species continues, this miniature creature is nature’s overachiever. Its feeding apparatus is equally impressive: hundreds of razor-sharp teeth arranged neatly across three jaws allow it to latch onto hosts and draw blood with surgical precision.

Despite their fearsome reputation, leeches are fascinating players in ecosystems. Some species are used in medicine to improve blood circulation and help heal wounds, proving that even the creepiest creatures can serve a life-saving purpose. Observing a leech reminds us that evolution doesn’t compromise on efficiency or intricacy, no matter the size.

From its sophisticated anatomy to its ecological role, the leech is a tiny testament to nature’s ingenuity and relentless drive to survive and thrive.

Leeches are surprising animals with strange but amazing traits. A medicinal leech has 32 tiny brains, one in each body segment, and its single stomach is split into 10 stretchy chambers so it can hold blood for a long time.

These creatures have three small jaws filled with more than 300 tiny teeth. They can drink up to five times their own body weight in one meal, showing how powerful their feeding system is.

Leeches are both male and female at the same time, with nine pairs of testicles. Their saliva contains a strong chemical called hirudin that keeps blood from clotting, and doctors still use it in medicine today.

A leech bite barely hurts because it releases a natural numbing chemical first. After one good feeding, a leech might not eat again for many months, sometimes almost a year.

They don’t have lungs or a diaphragm, so they breathe only through their skin. And even though they have five pairs of eyes, they can’t see details — just light and movement around them. - A Facebook post by Patrick Barnes

Beneath the sand, a small heart-shaped clam hides one of nature’s most surprising feats of engineering. The heart cockle doesn’t just rely on sunlight—it channels it with remarkable precision.

Its shell contains tiny translucent “windows” made of tightly packed aragonite fibers. Under a macro lens, these fibers look like delicate strands of glass. But their purpose is far more profound: they act like natural fiber-optic cables, guiding sunlight deep into the clam’s tissues.

There, photosynthetic algae wait. These microscopic partners depend on light to create energy, and the cockle depends on them in return. It’s a quiet collaboration, built through millions of years of evolution.

What looks like a simple seashell on the beach is actually a living optical system—one capable of filtering, directing, and optimizing light far more elegantly than we ever imagined.

Nature, once again, did it first. - A Facebook post by 'Ocean World'

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Dinner at Dynasty Paradise

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Last Friday, I went with the ‘Motley Crew’ for dinner at the ‘Dynasty Paradise’ restaurant to celebrate two members’ in the group’s birthday. There were nine of us.

Dynasty Paradise is one of many restaurants owned by Singapore-based restaurant group ‘Paradise Group Holdings Pte Ltd” The company's restaurants serve a variety of Chinese cuisine.

To make things easier, and since all are fairly easy going when it comes to food, we decided to go for the set menu, which caters to groups of between eight to ten people.

The set has eight dishes.

We started with their ‘Signature original Xiao Long Bao’

Followed by ‘Braised four treasure broth’. We were not quite sure what the four treasure were, but the broth was nice.

This is ‘Steamed Jade sea bass with supreme soya sauce’

‘Scrambled egg white with crystal prawn’

‘Braised pork belly Shanghai style’

‘Stir-fried french bean with minced pork and preserved olive vegetable’

‘Fried rice with shrimp in XO sauce’

‘Black sesame glutinous rice ball served in ginger soup’

👉 Source

The photos of the food are individual portions.

In a typical Chinese restaurant, there would be round tables, with a ‘lazy Susan’ on the table top. This will make it easier for the diners to get at the food. But, for some reason, maybe it is to conserve space, the Dynasty Paradise we were at doesn’t have round tables.

In such a situation, it would be difficult to take one’s share of the food, and then pass the dish from one end of the table to the other. Luckily, the service staff apportioned the food for us. We all got an equal share.

And, of course, there’s the birthday cake. It was very nice. Light, and not too sweet.

We all had a great evening. The food was nice. The service was good. And the company was fabulous, as always.

You can click on the picture for a better view.

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Fun Facts About the Cosmos

There is so much out there in space that we do not know about. Here are some interesting fun facts about what is out there in space – courtesy of Facebook pages ‘Colours of Nature’, ‘Ancestral Stories’, ‘Weird Facts’, ‘Unbelievable Facts’, ‘Today I Learned’, Science and facts, Crazy creatures, The Knowledge Factory, The study secrets etc… 

After nearly a decade of mystery, Planet Nine has been confirmed — a monumental leap in modern astronomy. Hidden in the distant reaches beyond Neptune, this icy world had long been suspected from subtle gravitational clues. Now, astronomers have finally captured direct images, proving that the solar system is larger and stranger than we imagined.

Planet Nine is believed to be five to ten times heavier than Earth and follows a wildly elongated orbit that takes 10,000–20,000 years to complete a single lap around the Sun. Its remote path lies nearly 20 times farther than Neptune’s, deep within the frozen frontier known as the Kuiper Belt. For years, its gravity was the only trace — tugging mysteriously on nearby icy bodies, hinting at an unseen presence in the dark.

With this confirmation, Planet Nine becomes the first new planet discovered since 1846. Its existence reshapes our understanding of how planets form and drift through cosmic history. Astronomers now wonder: Does it have moons? Could other hidden giants be waiting beyond? One thing is certain — the solar system’s story just gained a thrilling new chapter. – A Facebook post by ‘You Won’t Believe This’

Light Travels Forever

When a beam of light escapes a star, it begins a journey with no natural endpoint. Unlike objects that slow down or lose energy as they move, light travels at a constant speed about 300,000 km per second through the vacuum of space. With no friction, no resistance, and no atmosphere to stop it, those photons continue racing outward, carrying the star’s story across the universe.

Some of the starlight we see tonight began its journey millions or even billions of years ago. It has crossed galaxies, passed dying stars, brushed past planets, and slipped through cosmic dust yet still arrives at Earth as a tiny message from the distant past. Unless it hits something that absorbs or scatters it light simply goes on, spreading thinner but never stopping.

In a way, every star leaves a trail that never ends, a glowing signature written across the darkness of space. And every time you look at the night sky you’re catching ancient light still completing its endless voyage.

Space is full of mysteries, but nothing quite compares to this cosmic emptiness. Astronomers have discovered an empty void in space so immense that if you tried to travel across it, you wouldn’t encounter anything for 752,536,988 years. Yes, nearly three-quarters of a billion years of complete, uninterrupted emptiness.

This colossal void is unlike anything we experience on Earth or even in typical space environments. While most of the universe is sprinkled with galaxies, stars, and planets, this region is almost entirely devoid of matter, making it a true cosmic desert. Scientists are calling it a “supervoid,” and its sheer scale challenges our understanding of how the universe forms and evolves.

Supervoids like this one are fascinating not only because of their size but because of what they reveal about the cosmic web—the vast, interconnected structure of matter in the universe. Galaxies, clusters, and dark matter form filaments and nodes across space, but supervoids are the enormous gaps in between, stretching millions of light-years in every direction. This particular void is so large that light itself would take hundreds of millions of years to cross it.

For astronomers and space enthusiasts, this discovery is a humbling reminder of just how vast and empty the universe can be. It also sparks mind-bending questions: Could such emptiness influence the motion of nearby galaxies? Does it hide unknown cosmic phenomena? And what does it feel like to imagine a region of space so vast that it takes nearly a billion years to traverse nothing at all?

This empty void is a striking testament to the scale, mystery, and grandeur of the cosmos, a place where human imagination struggles to keep pace. - A Facebook post by ‘Deep Universe’

The universe is full of coincidences, but few are as perfect as the alignment of the Sun and the Moon in our sky. The Sun is roughly 400 times larger than the Moon, but it is also about 400 times farther away. This remarkable balance is what makes total solar eclipses possible, a phenomenon that has fascinated humans for millennia.

During a total solar eclipse, the Moon perfectly covers the Sun, casting a shadow on Earth and revealing the Sun’s ethereal corona. This stunning cosmic coincidence is unique in our solar system. As far as scientists know, no other planet and moon combination share this exact alignment, making Earth’s eclipses truly special.

The alignment is more than just beautiful—it has had scientific and cultural significance throughout history. Ancient civilizations observed solar eclipses with awe and fear, often incorporating them into mythology and religion. Today, total eclipses continue to inspire astronomers, photographers, and skywatchers alike, offering a rare glimpse of the Sun’s outer atmosphere and reminding us of our planet’s unique place in the cosmos.

The odds of this perfect size-distance ratio are astonishing. It’s a cosmic coincidence that allows us to witness one of the most spectacular astronomical events from our vantage point on Earth. The Moon’s gradual drift away from Earth will eventually make total eclipses impossible millions of years from now, which makes every eclipse we see today even more extraordinary.

Next time you gaze up at the Sun or the Moon, remember: what looks like simple coincidence is actually a rare cosmic alignment that allows us to experience the awe-inspiring dance of shadows and light during a total solar eclipse. It’s a reminder that Earth holds wonders unlike anywhere else in the solar system.

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Witty Aphorisms

Aphorisms and quotes that are witty and humorous have an advantage. They make us smile and are therefore more easily remembered.

Take a look at today’s selection of witty aphorisms. Remember the ones you like, and go impress your friends with your wit and humour. You will be very popular. We all like a witty and humorous person.

Have a great week ahead and may your days be filled with laughter.

The great thing about democracy is that it gives every voter a chance to do something stupid. - Art Spander

You cannot plough a field by turning it over in your mind. - Unknown

The time not to become a father is eighteen years before a war. - E. B. White

It’s better to have your nose in a book, than in someone else’s business. - Adam Stanley

Some folks want their luck buttered. - Thomas Hardy

The next war will be fought with atom bombs and the one after that with spears. - Harold Urey

By the time we got our head together, the body fell apart. - Unknown

When a fool dies there is much shedding of tears in the land whither he is bound. - Abraham Miller

It doesn’t matter what temperature the room is; it’s always room-temperature. - Steven Wright

A perfect summer day is when the sun is shining, the breeze is blowing, the birds are singing, and the lawn mower is broken. - James Dent

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Fun Facts About Avians

Let’s take a peek into the world of avians. Some interesting fun facts – courtesy of Facebook pages ‘Colours of Nature’, ‘Ancestral Stories’, ‘Weird Facts’, ‘Unbelievable Facts’, ‘Today I Learned’, Science and facts, Crazy creatures, The Knowledge Factory, The study secrets etc… However, I do not know if they are true. Some of them sound really incredible.

African grey parrots are remarkable birds known for their amazing ability to mimic human speech. They can copy words and phrases so well that it often sounds like they are talking just like us. This talent isn’t just about repeating sounds; these parrots can understand the meaning behind some of the words they say. For example, if you greet them with “Hello,” they might think it’s time to say it back when they see you.

These parrots have a special intelligence that allows them to learn and remember different words and phrases over time. They pay close attention to the things happening around them and listen carefully to how people talk. This ability helps them to use words in the right situations, showing that they have some understanding of what they’re saying. Their knack for mimicry makes them fun companions, often surprising owners with their cleverness.

African grey parrots are not just pretty birds; they are true conversationalists. Having one as a pet means you get a feathered friend that can engage in discussions, adding joy and entertainment to your life. Their unique skill to talk and understand is part of what makes them so special and loved by many people. – A Facebook post by ‘Colours of Nature’

Bearded vultures are amazing birds known for their unique behaviors. They are often seen dropping bones from great heights to break them open and get to the marrow inside. They also roll in mud to give their feathers a special color. This interesting way of living has made them stand out in the animal world.

What’s even more fascinating is that these birds often go back to the same nests for many years, sometimes even centuries. This repetition allows them to create a rich history in one spot, which acts like a natural time capsule. The nests can contain remnants of old bones and other signs of their long presence, giving researchers a glimpse into the past.

The study of these nests not only tells us about the vultures themselves but also about the environments they live in. It shows how they adapt to changes and helps us understand their role in the ecosystem. These loyal birds serve as key players in their habitats, reminding us of the deep connections between wildlife and their surroundings. – A Facebook post by ‘Colours of Nature’

Meet the golden eagle, one of nature’s most majestic and formidable apex predators. Soaring across rugged mountains and vast open landscapes, this bird embodies power, precision, and unparalleled skill. With a wingspan reaching up to seven feet, it commands the skies, gliding effortlessly while scanning the ground below with eyes so sharp they can spot prey from over a mile away.

Golden eagles are perfectly adapted to their harsh environments. Their razor-sharp talons and powerful beaks allow them to capture and kill prey with astonishing efficiency, ranging from rabbits and ground squirrels to larger mammals when opportunity allows. Their flight is a combination of grace and lethal efficiency, often striking with lightning speed after careful observation.

Beyond hunting, golden eagles play a crucial role in maintaining ecosystem balance, controlling populations of small mammals and contributing to the health of their habitats. A symbol of strength, freedom, and mastery of the skies, the golden eagle reminds us how evolution crafts perfection in both form and function. – A Facebook post by ‘Patrick Barnes

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