Time to talk of other things ...

 The Intriguing World of Farmer Ants 🐜 and their Captive Aphids There is plenty of intrigue, nay brazen thuggery, in the garden ... if only you care to look closer.  Take the case of garden black farming ants  🐜  ... that are very active in spring. Farmer Ants extracting honeydew from Aphids (Source: Originalbuttterflyhouse) I noticed the French chard which had overwintered in my garden, and was doing quite well until the leaves were getting predated by aphids - tiny black dots on the underside guarded by garden black farming ants!! Holes in French chard leaves due to aphid infestation Aphids feed primarily on the sap from plants, essentially sucking the nutrients from leaves and stems to secrete a sugary liquid called honeydew. This honeydew secretion is very sugar-rich and is devoured by ants as a food source.  As a result, a mutualistic system (the National Geographic link below says the ants have gamed the system to favour them) has evolved wherein the farming black ants sh

Healthy Living in the Hunza Valley  Hunza Valley (Photo: Lyma) Hunza Valley in the northern pristine mountainous region of Pakistan is home to the indigenous Burusho and Wakhi people who are said to live on an average to the ripe old age of 120 years but dental studies have shown that this might be exaggerated since record keeping is mostly oral devoid of birth certificates - so let's focus not on their longevity but on their healthy lifestyle.  This is a rugged remote area, unchanged for centuries. The locals, also called Hunzakutz , have their own separate language, Burushaski which is unique with no connection to the Indo-European or Tibetan languages bordering it. The only similarity anthropologists have connected it with is with an equally isolated and unique culture – that of the Basque region of Spain.  Some researchers have called the Hunza the happiest people on Earth, with a passion and zest for life, perhaps brought on to some extent by their daily vigorous exercise a

 Get Your Cholesterol in Check -  By Knvul Sheikh, a New York Times reporter covering chronic and infectious diseases and other aspects of personal health. Credit: Molly Cook Escobar (NY Times) Introduction: High cholesterol, caused mainly by eating high-saturated-fat and high-trans foods, not exercising enough, being overweight, smoking and drinking alcohol, can cause blockage of the arteries, making it more likely to have heart problems or strokes. High cholesterol can also run genetically in some families. To get a risk assessment of cholesterol in your blood you need to take a 12-hour-fasting blood test which reveals levels of HDL, LDL and triglycerides, which combined with other factors, such as your age, blood pressure and health conditions will determine your QRISK score. Getting your cholesterol tested — and under control — is critical to preventing heart disease and other serious health problems. But figuring out when to test and what to make of the numbers can feel daunting.