What I Learnt For The Week 20: Anti-Deforestation Ai, Arachnophobia (Fear of spider), Parosmia, Maned Lioness, River Flowing Uphill

Hello Buddies! Welcome once again to another educative and exciting episode in the series of "What I Learnt For The Week".

Over the period of last week (28th May - 1st June), I made some amazing discoveries, of which I would select some random 5 to represent the lessons learnt for each day of the week.

Monday: Anti-Deforestation Ai

Just like my usual custom is; and without exception to this episode; I normally begin with lessons on emerging technology.

Illegal deforestation has been one of the challenges humankind has imposed on Mother Nature. And the effects of these acts of cruelty have been felt greatly, even in this part of the world. But how successful have we been in warding off illegal deforestation?

[Image Source: Pxhere CC0 Licensed]

It might interest you to know that deforestation is responsible for the presence of more green house gases in our atmosphere. And it has also been placed at the second position in the contributors of climatic change [ref]. And surprisingly, some of these logging down of trees are illegal; how human. So in face of this challenge, what is the feasible panacea for this? Okay; technology has found a solution for this.

A particular idea was raised to incorporate the technology of Artificial Intelligence (AI) right into the forest to monitor the forest activities. But how would this be done? There was a particular AI tool launched by Google inc sometime ago called "TensorFlow"; some group of researchers have worked to incorporated this tool in the fight against illegal deforestation.

To set up the AI anti-deforestation system, some equipments would be required. First of all, there would be need to pick up sounds from the forest, which would include the sound of chain-saw cutting down trees. Using sensors placed at strategic positions in the forest, these sounds can be picked up. The sensors would be connected wirelessly to an offsite computer system, which would also be connected to the phones and computer systems of the local guards.

But, you would agree with me that the forest is usually filled with some other kinds of noise, and this may blur off the sound of the chain-saw. This is where the application of "Machine Learning" comes in handy. The computer system would be programmed to filter off other sounds (like birds singing, monkeys chatting, etc), but would focus on the sound of chain-saw. Once the sound is detected, it would trigger the signaling system and messages would be sent in real-time to the connected phones and systems. And most importantly, the exact location would be triangulated, thus making it easier for the local guards to apprehend the perpetrators. So when you know you'd be caught when you fell a tree illegally, you would have a rethink.
Pheww! Too much talk.. I've found a video from YouTube for you to show you how this works.

The signaling system could also be in the form of old mobile phones which have been modified to save some cost, and would also be powered by special kind of solar panels. So you see, technology has a way of providing salvation to Mother Nature too.
To know more, click here.

Tuesday: Arachnophobia (Fear of spider)

In this post, @ruth-girl made some cool photography of some sexy spiders; but one particular comment drew my attention there:

These insects are looking dangerous @ruth-girl, be safe. - [you can check the post to know who said that]

So I began to think on this statement; Could this have been borne out of the fear for spiders? Maybe not. But I had to do a little research, and I discovered that the fear of spider exists really, and it is called "Arachnophobia".

[Image Source: Pxhere CC0 Licensed]

This term is derived from "Arachne" (Greek term related to spiders), and of course "phobia" which means "fear of". This phobia is not new to this generation. As a matter of precision, it has been recognized as one of the oldest phobias known to mankind. Quick tip for you before I continue: This phobia is more predominant in females than males [ref].

Causes of fear of spiders

Many factors can actually trigger this phobia, and they vary from people to people. For example; some people attach weird superstitious belief to spider web (they say it brings bad luck), and this could also be extended to the spiders themselves. I remember a funny folklore that I once heard; "that spider web is a meeting point for wizards". I was like "WTF", who believes this shit? Okay, some people actually do, and this can trigger the fear of spiders.

Also, some people's bad experiences with Arachnids could trigger this. For example; if you have been bitten by a very poisonous tarantula, or have witnessed anybody bitten, you would agree with me that the pain does not come with humour. Also, some movies have portrayed spiders as dangerous species, and this could form mental images in the mind of kids, and they can grow with this phobia. In some cases also, people pick up this phobia because people around them have the phobia (that's a kind of sympathetic phobia).

Symptoms

The symptoms arise at the sight of spiders. But in some rare cases, even the thought of spiders could trigger the symptoms, and they include;

• Irrational sweating
• Palpitation and increased heart beat rate
• Fight or flight reactions towards spiders
• Gross avoidance for spider and even creatures resembling spiders.

Do you wanna test if you're Arachnophobic? Watch this video till the end. Note: Spider Alert; Watch at your risk; and @abigail-dantes may skip the video :D

To know more, click here.

Wednesday: Parosmia

In one of the previous episodes; I talked about dysgeusia (a condition in which someone has a disruption in the normal taste sensation, and a tasty dessert could taste like shit). Having a different taste from what you taste is a really bad experience, but do you know that dysgeusia has a brother? It is called "Parosmia"; which is a condition in which someone perceives a smell quite different from what he/she is smelling.

[Image Source: Pixabay CC0 Licensed]

The nose is the organ of smell right? And you can use it to distinguish between various smells. But what if your nose perceives something, and interprets another thing for you? For example; you could smell Egusi Soup, but all you can perceive is Okro Soup, lol. Well, simply put; Parosmia is the misrepresentation or alteration of the normal sense of smell.

The example I gave earlier about your Egusi Soup smelling like Okro Soup is just on a humorous and fair note. In some cases of parosmia, an awesome fragrance could smell like shit in your nose.

Note: This should not be confused with olfactory hallucination (a condition in which someone can perceive a smell which is non-existent or not present). On a very severe case of parosmia, it can degenerate into Anosmia (a condition characterized by having no sense of smell at all), that's where the scares lie. I know someone with this condition. Her own is kindda different, because she can only perceive some certain substances, but the other substances would become odourless.

Causes of Parosmia

So many factors could be remotely queried for this, including:

• Trauma to the olfactory nerves and neurons
• Temporary parosmia can be triggered by common cold virus. From personal experience; the time I had catarrh and common cold, I discovered there was a little disruption in my overall perception of smell, maybe it's just me but has anyone experienced this too?
• Some degree of brain injury (like in the parietal lobe; which manages the 5 senses) can lead to this condition.

I'm sure I've piqued your interest, to know more about Parosmia, click here.

Thursday: Can Female Lions Grow Mane?

How do you recognise and differentiate an adult male lion from an adult female lion? I know someone would answer "by their mane". Did someone just ask what da heck is a mane? This is the dense hair that grows around the neck of male lions. But what if I tell you that the mane is not exclusively preserved for only the male lions, and there has risen an exception, would you believe me?

[Image Source: Pixabay CC0 Licensed]

A particular documentation from National Geography has revealed that a particular lioness living in the zoo has grown mane after about 17years of manelessness. Very rarely, some lionesses could be born with a certain type of genetic mutation (probably caused by disruption in fetal formation), and could lead to the birth of female lions with some traits of male characteristics (or rather, a suppressed female characteristics), which could also cause infertility of the lioness.

And yes! These maned lionesses have been reportedly sighted here in Africa in the wild. But the case that was reported by National Geography wowed scientists. The lioness (named Bridget) had lived almost her entire life as every other female lion, and she also delivered cubs. But suddenly, things changed, and manes started appearing on her.

How did that even happen? To complicate matters, analysis was done on her, and was discovered that her ovaries had a particular type of cell found in male testicles. Did it just develop or was she born with it? Then how was she able to have cubs? All these questions left scientists to wonder. But I think they've gotten closer to figuring it out. They have also queried this on a non-cancerous growth around her pituitary area, which could disrupt the hormonal process, and could lead to maning. Now you see, lionesses can also grow mane.

Quick tip for you: There is also an anomaly that causes male lions to be maneless. Yeah! They would be looking like lioness, lol.

To know more about maning in lionesses, click here.

Friday: River Flowing Uphill? [Reverse gravity?]

Last week, we looked at the inverted waterfall, which was seen to literally contravene the law of gravity (by looking at it physically), but this is not the only weird anomaly that has been seen to contravene the law of gravity. Now let's look at another one.

Rivers are meant to flow from top to bottom right? Okay putting it differently; when you roll a ball from the top of a mountain, it is meant to roll downwards right? A particular mountain known as mount Aragats possesses this weird anomaly. It has been discovered that the gravity is almost in reverse. Here's what I mean: Have you ever parked your car mid-way to the top of a mountain? What do you expect when the engines are off? The car is meant to roll downwards right? But in mount Aragats, the car would rather roll upwards.

And yes" The river in this particular mountain flows in reverse too; and according to report, it is more stressful to climb down than climbing up.

Okay; here's a video of the phenomena I found in YouTube, let's see how this place looks like.

Though scientists have had a hard time figuring out what the cause of this phenomena is, but speculation have been made. According to Dr Onik Khachatryan:

This is associated with a distortion in the earth's gravity. - Onik.K [Paraphrased from this source]

Maybe sooner than later, scientists would be able to uncover the full cause of this. Or maybe, our weird natural phenomenalist; @ruth-girl would help out too :)
To know more, click here.

This is the summary of some of the discoveries I made over the week, and until I come your way again, don't stop learning. @samminator says so. Special thanks to @mobbs

Thanks for reading

References for further reading

• Futurism/ai-deforestation
• RFCX/Rainforest-connection
• Fearof.net/arachnophobia
• Fifthsense.org/parsomia
• Nationalgeographic/maned-liones
• Nationalgeographic/rare-maned-rare-maned-lioness
• Allinnet/gravitational-anomaly-in-mount-aragats

All images are CC0 Licensed and are linked to their sources

gif by @foundation