UNEDITED SAMPLE LITERARY ARTICLE
By Karez Amparo MartinIV-Michael Faraday
I know that all of you are familiar with the story about the ant and the grasshopper. This story may look shallow to others, but for me, it is something that makes me understand the real meaning of true friendship. The true friend that I am talking about is the ant because even though the grasshopper has disregarded the ant before, when the grasshopper was in the time of need, the ant still helped him. The ant did not care even if the grasshopper did not really deserve any helping hand because of its selfishness. I think that the hardest task ever laid in our world is finding the right people to stick around with.
I also believe that true friends cannot only be found during fun times but also when times come that you are already on the edge of breaking down. With the world we are all living in, it is really a big to challenge to look for them. Because they are like gems, everybody wants to have them but the hardest part of having them is finding them first. There are circumstances when people find it impossible to stumble on true and loyal friends. But then, they should all try to stop and think that God would never be cruel and self-centered to not grant us the feeling of having someone to consider as our buddies.
Well, in my case, I can proudly say that I have my very own bunch of buddies. They are the people that I love to hang around with. They are the people that I trust the most. They are the people that make me laugh most of the time. They are the ones that I tell most of my secrets. They are also one of the reasons why I can haughtily tell the world that I am pretty contented with the life I am living.
It may sound mushy to some but I believe friends are something to be cherished and treasured that is why I am making a big deal on having true and honest friends. So I just hope that you are also lucky enough to have your very own set of true friends, similar to the gems that God has given me.
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Find a Release
Open your eyes. What do you see? Do you see the crowds of people walking around? Look at their faces. Curious looks, snobs, anger, expressionless looks, looks of concentration. Did you notice the person that was smiling at you? Look again. Did you see the trees waving at you in greeting?
Concentrate now on your hearing. What do you hear? Traffic? Discussions on the latest gossip? People on cellular phones who are trying to compete with the noise? Cursing and swearing? Or the radio or television of your neighbors? But do you hear the songs of the praises the birds sing for you? Or the lullaby the insects orchestrate for you in the night?
Now smell the air. Exhausts? Odors you feel repulsive? Smell again. Concentrate this time. You will find the fragrance of the perfect blossom.
Focus your senses to your skin. Feel the heat? The humidity? But did you not also notice the breeze that is gently trying to cool you down? Feel the frost of the winter, biting through all your insulation. Again feel the warmth that the sun is wrapping around you in a warm embrace. And the warmth that is already within your heart’s content.
There is always comfort around us if we only know where to focus our senses. There are indeed too much distractions in this society, but if we concentrate on the right places, we will definitely find a release.
People Under Construction
I have been to this place several times, which perhaps I may call the site of buildings, infrastructures, and skyscrapers- the Ayala Center. I have been going there back and forth, I have been passing it day by day. But one thing I notice about this place is that, it was never finished. After the building of a structure, another structure is being built. Revisions all over. Repairs from side to corners. Renovations here and there. Constructions everywhere. Until now, it is still an ongoing project. A project under a continuous construction.
This place is like us. People have also renovations and constructions too. Structures that need to be built. And wreckages that need to be repaired and revised. Like this place, we change through time. We change for our betterment. We cannot say that we are already finished. Because we are continuously improving. And He is not done with us yet. He is the chief engineer and we are his drafts, his drafts that in time would be his masterpieces. He has carefully planned every measure, every detail for us to be built perfectly as he wanted. Then He is cautiously place the bricks of our souls within the areas of goodness and with awareness put the cement of our being within the perimeter of success. And when the time comes that damages are starting to appear and defects are already seen, He is still the chief maintenance to repair and adjust our shortcomings.
Think of us like these buildings, every cracked floor is our worsen character, every scratched wallpaper is our broken personality, every crashed window is our disappearing values and every rusted roof is our sinned souls. And like these buildings, we must be sorry for the inconveniences we caused during the time that we are still developing. We are having flaws because of the mistakes we had committed, have committed, have been committing and will be committing. But our Lord, He is always there to revamp and fix us. Put back together all the pieces that have been shattered, no matter how much would it take or how long, as long as we do not let go. He hasn’t done with us yet. And we are continuously changing, renovating and improving through time. Just do not commit any misdoings and mistakes against Him because they might be the start of a damage that can never be repaired. They might be the reason for all the pain, hurt, sufferings and failure. So don’t say that you are already done, we have a lot to learn and experience. We are still an ongoing project. We are still under construction.
The Science of Parasites
How do parasites and hosts live in scientific harmony?
We tend to think of parasites as evolutionary cheats, surreptitiously taking advantage of their hosts’ hard work while they sit back and enjoy an easy life. Take the common cuckoo for example, which, seemingly too lazy to rear its own young, lays its egg in another bird’s nest. When you look more closely it nonetheless turns out that, more than just a bunch of shameless blaggers, many parasites are just as assiduous and diligent as the hosts they exploit.
The cowbird for instance operates in a similar way to the cuckoo, but its deceit goes one step further. Young cowbirds grow up with an attentive ear in order to mimic the song of their foster parents, an impressive feat when you consider that the species parasitises over 200 different species.
And life is certainly no beach when you’re a parasitic worm larva less than half a millimetre in length living on a murky lake bottom. Especially when, to reproduce, you face the Herculean task of making your way into a bird’s bloodstream. Luckily this worm, known as an eye fluke, carries more than a few tricks up its sleeve.
The fluke first hitches a ride with a fish before pondering its next move. Tracking down and infecting a fish is essentially a matter of possessing a nifty sense of smell and good swimming skills, but how do you make the leap from a fish to a bird? You could remain optimistic and wait for your fishy host to fall prey to a gull. But research suggests that these worms are far from being the helpless victims of fate one might expect.
Instead, they appear to be doing everything possible in order to send their hosts swimming straight into the beaks of predators. Once they have wormed their way into a rainbow trout’s bloodstream, the fluke larvae lodge themselves in their host’s eye, causing a cataract to form. The trout is then left to fumble around blindly, vulnerable to birds in search of their next meal. And while this already seems like a step towards success for the worm, its manipulating schemes don’t end here.
Rainbow trout are known to adapt their skin colour to blend in with their surroundings, with the amount of light entering their eyes determining how dark they become. When a parasite-induced cataract clouds their vision, the fish are seemingly fooled into thinking they are in a dark environment, and adjust their skin tone accordingly.
A parasitized trout consequently stands out like a sore thumb in light environments, making it an easy target for birds, and thereby allowing the fluke to complete its life cycle as it passes into the bird’s bloodstream.
A leopard may not be able to change its spots but it seems that a parasitic worm can change a trout’s skin colour. And the eye fluke isn’t alone in its deceitful ways.
You might think that a parasitic fungus would be content with simply draining nutrients from its dungfly host’s bloodstream. The E. muscae fungus however continues to take advantage of its hostage even after its death, causing one biologist to nickname it an ‘enslaver’.
Healthy dungflies prefer to sit on low grasses close to the ground. But once parasitic infection has left a dungfly it on its last legs, instead it begins a perilous ascent to the top of a plant, where it dies at the top on the downwind side. From this high vantage point the infecting fungus releases its spores into the air and they are carried widely by the wind and towards their next victims.
Exactly how the fungus manages to control the behaviour of its host like this remains a mystery, but scientists think that it releases specific neurologically active biochemicals that can affect the hapless dungfly’s nervous system.
But sneaky as these parasites may be, their victims are always fighting back. As hosts wake up to the parasites’ dastardly ploys, they evolve to develop strategies of their own to avoid being made a fool of in future.
From generation to generation, bird species that commonly fall prey to the cuckoo’s tricks have become increasingly adept at spotting intruders' eggs amongst their own precious offspring. In response the cuckoo has evolved eggs that more closely resemble those of their victim. This battle of wit is known as an evolutionary arms race, with both sides genetically jostling to gain the upper hand. And whilst in many instances the cuckoo seems to be on top right now, the tables may well turn in future.
For the time being, it remains remarkable that the cuckoo continues to thrive on such an outrageous fib right under its victims’ beaks. So what the cuckoo lacks in chick rearing skills, it has undeniably made up for in sheer audacity!
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