Interesting facts about hummingbirds

There are more than 325 hummingbird species in the world. Even though all birds are interesting and curious, these birds have peculiar customs and habits. Only eight species are living in United States. First, these birds can not walk or jump. Their feet have limited use. Their feet are smaller than usual because the evolved it to lose weight in order to be more efficient when they are flying. Indeed, a hummingbird weigh can be as low as 3 grams. This evolution have developed their pectoral muscles. Almost 25-30% of their weight is in this zone. They can reach up to 60 miles per hour when they are flying. Moreover, their eggs are the smallest ones of all birds. While these birds have many small characteristics, they can flap their wings between 50 and 200 flaps per second. In fact, their name comes from the characteristic hum made by their wings.  This speed is produced for their eating habits and they have a fast metabolisms. These amazing birds' heart rates is more than 1,200 beats per minute. However, because they are so small, they have to fight against many predators. Dragonflies, praying mantis, spider's webs, frogs, and  thistles are some of their greatest dangers.

Sources: Onekind.org, birding.about.com, en.wikipedia.org

Should the Authorities Be Able to Access Your iPhone?

Syed Rizwan Farook who was responsible for killing 14 people in San Bernardino, CA left his iPhone 5C at the crime scene. The F.B.I cannot access this cellphone because his iPhone password is encrypted and the iPhone was designed to keep people’s information private.

This incident has opened the debate between the F.B.I and Apple administrators about the phone’s accessibility to one’s privacy. The F.B.I argument was that homes, cars and computers should not have unbreakable locks. In addition, they pointed out that computers and cellphones should not use passwords to keep the information secret forever. The F.B.I asked Apple to write a software program that would allow the government to have access to Farook’s cellphone. On the other hand, Apple argued that people keep their life events electronically, so it is not ethical that government has access to peoples’ private information.

Timothy Cook, chief executive of Apple, said that he was going to fight against this demand because unencrypting iPhones creates a dangerous precedent. Mr. Cook maintained that he understands the urgency of the FBI access. However, the worry is that once the FBI has access to Farook’s information everyone’s privacy will be in danger because nobody can guarantee that this accessibility is not going to be used again.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/18/us/politics/whether-phones-should-lock-out-the-fbi.html?_r=0

The People Who Drink Human Blood