Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Gili Trawangan


Gili Trawangan is the largest of Lombok's Gili Islands and is the only one to rise significantly above sea level. It is 3km long and 2km wide with a population of about 700. Of the Gilis, Trawangan has the most tourist facilities; the pub Tîr na Nôg claims that Trawangan is the smallest island in the world with an Irish pub. The most crowded part of Trawangan lies on the eastern side.
On Gili Trawangan (as well as the other two Gilis), there are no motorized vehicles. The main means of transportation are bicycles (rented by locals to tourists) and
cidomo (a small horsedrawn carriage). For traveling to and from each of the Gilis, locals usually use motorized boats and speedboats.
Some of the first inhabitants of Gili Trawangan were from Sulawesi who are fishermen and farmers. Previously Gili Trawangan was covered in forest and deer lived on the island. (Source: Inhabitants of Gili Trawangan - no printed source available)
The economy of Gili Trawangan centres on tourism, as the island is too small to support any broad scale agriculture, and too remote to allow economically viable industry or commerce.


Gili Trawangan Island Hotels Lombok

Gili Trawangan is the largest Gili in Lombok. It is around 3 km long and has population of around 1000. It is an island where travelers will experience the mesmerizing beauty of nature as well as the excitements of exotic nightlife. In day time, you will love to get indulged in various activities including snorkeling off-the-shore, sunbathing, swimming, diving and many others. And if you are inexperienced in diving, you can attend here various dive schools offering a complete range of PADI courses. And at night, several restaurants, bars and parties will definitely stir up your adrenaline. Even more, an Irish pub has also bejeweled this Gili Trawangan Island. If you want to sojourn in this island, you will find various accommodation options with different ranges. Most of the Gili Trawangan Island hotels offer necessary facilities and services to the vacationers here. You will get more information on the hotels in Lombok here, in AsiaRooms. Our extensive database will help you to make a choice easily and book the hotel online.


taken from ; Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sex


An organism's sex is defined by the gametes it produces: males produce male gametes (spermatozoa, or sperm) while females produce female gametes (ova, or egg cells); individual organisms which produce both male and female gametes are termed hermaphroditic. Frequently, physical differences are associated with the different sexes of an organism; these sexual dimorphisms can reflect the different reproductive pressures the sexes experience.

Sex in animals involves the fusion of a sperm and an egg cell.
In biology, sex is a process of combining and mixing genetic traits, often resulting in the specialization of organisms into male and female types (or sexes). Sexual reproduction involves combining specialized cells (gametes) to form offspring that inherit traits from both parents. Gametes can be identical in form and function (known as isogametes), but in many cases an asymmetry has evolved such that two sex-specific types of gametes (heterogametes) exist: male gametes are small, motile, and optimized to transport their genetic information over a distance, while female gametes are large, non-motile and contain the nutrients necessary for the early development of the young organism.


Sexual reproduction

Sexual reproduction is a process where organisms form offspring that combine genetic traits from both parents. Chromosomes are passed on from one parent to another in this process. Each cell has half the chromosomes of the mother and half of the father's. Genetic traits are contained within the dioxyribonucleic acid (DNA) of chromosomes — by combining one of each type of chromosomes from each parent, an organism is formed containing a doubled set of chromosomes. This double-chromosome stage is called "diploid", while the single chromosome stage is "haploid". Diploid organisms can, in turn, form haploid cells (gametes) that randomly contain one of each of the chromosome pairs, via a process called meiosis. Meiosis also involves a stage of chromosomal crossover, in which regions of DNA are exchanged between matched types of chromosomes to form a new pair of mixed chromosomes. Crossing over and fertilization (the recombining of single sets of chromosomes to make a new diploid) result in the new organism containing a different set of genetic traits from either parent.
In many organisms the haploid stage has been reduced to just gametes specialized to recombine and form a new diploid organism; in others, the gametes are capable of undergoing cell division to produce multicellular haploid organisms. In either case, gametes may be externally similar, particularly in size (isogamy), or may have evolved an asymmetry such that the gametes are different in size and other aspects (anisogamy). By convention, the larger gamete (called an ovum, or egg cell) is considered female, while the smaller gamete (called a spermatozoon, or sperm cell) is considered male. An individual that produces exclusively large gametes is female, and one that produces exclusively small gametes is male. An individual that produces both types of gametes is a hermaphrodite; in some cases hermaphrodites are able to self-fertilize and produce offspring on their own, without a second organism.


Sex determination

The most basic sexual system is one in which all organisms are hermaphrodites, producing both male and female gametes—this is true of some animals (eg. snails) and the majority of flowering plants. In many cases, however, specialization of sex has evolved such that some organisms produce only male or only female gametes. The biological cause for an organism developing into one sex or the other is called sex determination.
In the majority of species with sex specialization organisms are either male (producing only male gametes) or female (producing only female gametes). A few exceptions exist—for example, in the roundworm C. elegans the two sexes are hermaphrodite and male (a system called androdioecy).
Sometimes an organism's development is intermediate between male and female, a condition called intersex. Sometimes intersex individuals are called "hermaphrodite" but, unlike biological hermaphrodites, intersex individuals are unusual cases and are not typically fertile in both male and female aspects.

Cannabis (drug)


Cannabis, also known as marijuana or marihuana, or ganja (from Hindi/Sanskrit: गांजा gānjā, hemp), is a psychiatric medication extracted from the plant Cannabis sativa, or more often, Cannabis sativa subsp. indica. The herbal form of the drug consists of dried mature flowers and subtending leaves of pistillate (female) plants. The resinous form, known as hashish, consists primarily of glandular trichomes collected from the same plant material. The major biologically active chemical compound in cannabis is Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol), commonly referred to as THC.
Humans have been consuming cannabis since prehistory, although in the 20th century there was a rise in its use for
recreational, religious or spiritual, and medicinal purposes. It is estimated that about four percent of the world's adult population use cannabis annually and 0.6 percent daily. The possession, use, or sale of psychoactive cannabis products became illegal in most parts of the world in the early 20th century. Since then, some countries have intensified the enforcement of cannabis prohibition while others have reduced the priority of enforcement.


Marijuana or ganja: the flowering tops of female plants, from less than 1% THC to 22% THC; the wide range is probably one of the reasons for the conflicting results from different studies.
Psychoactive potency by cannabis plant part is approximately as follows (descending order):
Trichomes
Female flowering buds
Male flowering buds
New shoots
Leaves from flower buds
Leaves in ascending order of size
Stems of leaves (
petioles) in ascending order of size
Stems in ascending order of size
Roots and seeds


Methods of consumption

Cannabis is consumed in myriad ways, most of which either involve inhaling smoke from ignited plant or administering orally.
Various devices exist for smoking, most common are implements such as
bongs, chillums and smoking pipes, joints or blunts. Local methods differ by the preparation of the cannabis plant before use, the parts of the cannabis plant which are used, and the treatment of the smoke before inhalation.
Vaporizer heats herbal cannabis to 365–410 °F (185–210 °C), which causes the active ingredients to evaporate into a gas without burning the plant material (the boiling point of THC is 392 °F (200°C) at 0.02 mmHg pressure, and somewhat higher at standard atmospheric pressure), A lower proportion of toxic chemicals are released than by smoking, although this may vary depending on the design of the vaporizer and the temperature at which it is set.
An e-cigarette has a rechargeable battery and a
heating element which vaporizes (in most brands) liquid nicotine from an insertable cartridge. If THC is loaded into the cartridge instead of nicotine, cannabis users may receive the benefits of a vaporizer at lower initial cost.
As an alternative to smoking, cannabis may be consumed orally. However, the cannabis or its extract must be sufficiently heated or
dehydrated to cause decarboxylation of its most abundant cannabinoid, tetrahydrocannabinolic acid, into psychoactive THC.
Cannabis material can be
leached in high-proof spirits (often grain alcohol) to create a “Green Dragon”. This process is often employed to make use of low-potency stems and leaves.[citation needed]
Cannabis can also be consumed as a
cannabis tea. Although THC is lipophilic and only slightly water soluble (with a solubility of 2800 mg per liter), enough THC can be dissolved to make a mildly psychoactive tea.