Long before the cat made its entry as a domestic animal the ferret was a popular member of the family, even in the time of the Egyptians. It kept the house clear from mice, rats, snakes, frogs and other small predators. Why the cat took its place and the ferret was used to hunt is still unknown. The albino form with its white to off-white fur and red eyes is the original form.

We only have one earth. So we have to be as careful as possible with it. Everybody, adults and children, can help to keep our planet as healthy as possible: less waste, less pollution, less consumption… Also at your home you can help to keep the earth healthy. Join us with the monthly ideas on our Super Green Calendar and make a better world.

There are about 350 different species and sub-species of the Sea Lavender, defined by botanists and one only can be found here on the island of Lobos, more specific in a small lagoon. The “Oval leaf Sea Lavender” is only 12 cm high and has scoop-like leaves with tiny lilac-coloured flowers. The plant lives in mangroves with seawater-moist sandy soil.

Till now our understanding of the material world and our body, as we see and experience it, was based on a “belief”. Namely the belief about “Materialism”, that stipulates that “Reality” is what we experience through our senses.

Of course, our sound mind tells us that this can’t be true. From where I stand I can experience that the world is flat, which isn’t. I experience that I stay on stable ground, which isn’t as I move at a speed of several thousands of miles per hour around the sun. My senses tell me that the sun rises in the East and moves across the sky, which isn’t, as we know now.

In previous editions, we have treated several “established truths” and we have tried to show you that these truths are in fact our individual interpretations of the environment in which we live and think and that these interpretations can have a significant influence on ourselves and on the quality of our life.

The milestone for the concept of cybernetics started with a series of legendary meetings in New York, known as “the Macy Conference”. These meetings – and especially the first one, in 1946 – were extraordinary, stimulating and joined an exceptional group of highly creative people who collided against each other during intensive interdisciplinary dialogues about new ideas and ways of thinking. The participants divided themselves into two main groups. The first one was formed around the original cybernetics and included mathematicians, engineers and neuroscientists. The second group was formed around human scientists who were led by Gregory Bateson and Margaret Mead.

This fascinating creature with enigmatic dark eyes and curved wings flies around all the time and even sleeps in the air. From all birds on earth the Swift is the one that is most perfectly adapted to airspace .For a bird of this size its longevity is amazing: the oldest known has just come of age – 21 years.

We all know that light – the visible part of the electromagnetic spectrum – is crucial and indispensable to life; it is generated by the sun and supplies our earth with plenty of energy. The rest of the electromagnetic spectrum reaches our planet in the form of radio waves, heat, UV, X- and gamma-rays. All living organisms receive, collect and transform these waves in one or the other form.

But what about emission of light by living organisms? And I do not mean the glow worms, -flies or other luminescent creatures like from the deep sea. I mean the emission of minute amounts of light by common cells like the ones that you have in your body or from the vegetables in your garden.

Is there anybody who knows how life on Earth started? Most probably no, but many pieces of the puzzle already fell into place and give us a good picture how life could have started.

Earth had been created at the time when our solar system was born, some 4.600 millions of years ago. Initially our planet was a ball of fire and molten mass but slowly she cooled down and a crust was formed. According to modern science, life started about 3.500 million years ago. It is clear that the Earth was very different at that time with no sign of life and no oxygen in the atmosphere.

In order to be able to generate the complex molecules to create life, some basic conditions had to be fulfilled like no presence of pure oxygen (due to its flammability no flames can sustain and no organism can breed below 15% oxygen content and will suffocate whereas everything will burn by auto-combustion above 25%) and no obstacles to absorb the radiations coming from space.

I took several attempts to find out how long the typical Canarian dog race Podenco Canario has been living on the island, but unfortunately I didn’t get a lot smarter.

The International Dog Federation (FCI) describes its origin as Ancient Egyptian. Most probably the Phoenicians, Greeks, Cartago’s and the Egyptians had brought them to the Canaries. The race would be about 7000 years old. As the rabbits (their prey) have been imported about only 500 years ago, after the Spanish Conquest, what was the purpose of bringing them here before?

Who really is interested in butterflies will certainly have noticed them on the island as they are abundant here at this time of the year. The official name is “Danaus Plexippus”.

Their original habitat was South-America, but they spread out all over the world, most probably through merchant ships. The remarkable coloured wings with black stripes and borders, dotted with white points reflect, on a couple of inches wingspan, an astonishing work of art. The body also has the same pattern: black with white spots.