Slithering in at 48 feet long and weighing an estimated one-and-a-half tons, the largest snake the world has ever seen is being brought back to life. Sixty million years ago, in the mysterious era after the mass extinction of the dinosaurs, scientists believe that a colossal snake related to modern boa constrictors ruled a lost world. With exclusive access to what one scientist called “a once-in-a-lifetime discovery,” Smithsonian Channel(TM) will tell the extraordinary true story in TITANOBOA: MONSTER SNAKE, a two-hour special premiering Sunday, April 1 at 8 p.m. ET/PT.

The startling discovery of Titanoboa was made by a team of scientists working in one of the world’s largest open-pit coal mines at Cerrejon in La Guajira, Colombia. It is a snake that dwarfs the largest anaconda found today, and it has the size and character to challenge T-Rex in the public’s imagination.

The story behind this significant scientific revelation began in 2002, when a Colombian student visiting the coal mine made an intriguing discovery: a fossilized leaf that hinted at an ancient rainforest from the Paleocene epoch. Over the following decade, collecting expeditions led by the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and the Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida opened a unique window into perhaps the first rainforest on Earth. Fossil finds included giant turtles and crocodiles, as well as the first known bean plants and some of the earliest banana, avocado and chocolate plants. But their most spectacular discovery was the fossilized vertebrae of a previously undiscovered species of snake, one so large it defied imagination.

Together with their research teams, Jonathan Bloch of the Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida and Carlos Jaramillo of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, joined forces with one of the world’s foremost experts in ancient snakes, Jason Head of the University of Nebraska, to unlock the mysteries of this ancient time and discover exactly how Titanoboa appeared, lived and hunted. The fossilized remains revealed that, after the extinction of the dinosaurs, the tropics were warmer than today and witnessed the birth of the South American rainforest, in which huge creatures battled it out to become the planet’s top predators. Dominating this era was Titanoboa, the undisputed largest snake in the history of the world.

Most of the fossil record of ancient snakes is comprised of vertebrae like the one that launched the Titanoboa investigation. Snake skulls are almost never found as they are extremely fragile and usually disintegrate – making it almost impossible to create a full and accurate picture of these extinct creatures. But during the filming of TITANOBOA: MONSTER SNAKE, the scientists managed to uncover not just one, but fragments of three skulls, allowing them to derive for the first time what this ancient giant looked like.

A scientifically accurate, life-sized replica of Titanoboa appears in the film and will go on display for the first time at the National Museum of Natural History beginning March 30, 2012. The exhibition will travel to museums across the country beginning in fall 2013. Titanoboa: Monster Snake is a collaboration between the Florida Museum of Natural History at the University of Florida in Gainesville, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Tropical Research Institute, and is circulated by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service.

The two-hour special explores how this monster snake would have lived by visiting its living cousins, boa constrictors and anacondas, in the Florida Everglades and the Venezuelan Grasslands. The scientists’ research yields some intriguing and terrifying insights, including the climate in which it lived and size of the snake. All of these clues come together to paint a picture of Titanoboa’s world, which is brought back to life in stunning CGI. Here we see how the colossal snake ruled as an ancient apex predator among a land of tropical mega-beasts.

TITANOBOA: MONSTER SNAKE follows the scientific sleuths back to the mine, into the labs, and on an expedition to understand modern giant constrictors. It creates a picture of the then largest predator on the planet – a creature that until now has only populated fiction and nightmares, but can finally be displayed as a marvel of nature

Toyota Technician Training Advances A Career in the Automotive Field

If you already work in the automotive field but are looking to advance your career and are interested in becoming a technician at Toyota, you may want to consider attending Centennial College’s Toyota technician training. This training is designed for those who already have an employer but want to partake in an apprenticeship that will give them the credentials to become automotive service technicians, service writers and advisors, service and parts managers, trainers and professors or automotive manufacturer specialists

Interested parties must have completed at minimum an Ontario Secondary School Diploma or a General Educational Development (GED) or equivalent. In addition, they should be employed by a Toyota dealership. Candidates may apply directly to Centennial College, with successful applicants obtaining an employer and registering as a MAP apprentice with the Apprenticeship Branch of the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities. Students may apply to a maximum of three programs at Centennial College. As with any college program, there are a limited spots within this Toyota technician training. When space permits, additional applicants who may not be employed by Toyota are selected through an interview process.

The Toyota Technician training is officially known as Automotive Service Technician Toyota MAP 32 apprenticeship. It is designed in a format that sees students alternate, for 64 weeks, between time with their employer and in-school sessions. In-school training covers eight weeks more material in greater depth than the traditional apprenticeship curriculum.

Because students spend the in-school part of Toyota Technician training at Ashtonbee Campus, which is the largest transportation training centre in the province, they are exposed to an environment that mimics a real-life workshop. This campus includes tools and Toyota vehicles that have been donated to the program on which students get to practice.

Among the specific tasks students master during school sessions of their Toyota Technician training are: diagnosing problems using Toyota diagnostic equipment and performing repairs and preventive maintenance on engines, transmissions, electrical systems, brakes and tires. They also become comfortable with conducting vehicle inspections. All aspects of vehicle technology are embodied in the program. The five specific courses technician students complete on campus are: Drive Train Systems, Electrical/Electronic & Fuels, Engine Systems, Work Practices and Procedures and Suspension/Steering and Brake Systems.

Once they rotate to sessions with their employer, students will be able to apply what they have learned in school to the real word. The practical and theoretical knowledge they obtained will serve them well as they learn to deal with customers and network with technicians employed by Toyota who know what the company is looking for in its employees.

Apprentices of the Toyota technician training are currently eligible for up to $4,000 in various grants and tax incentives. While they are in school, students of this Toyota Technician training may be eligible for Employment Insurance (EI) and while they are with their employers, they are fully compensated.

An Overview of Forex Trading, Market hours, Rates, Liquidity and Spread

Since Forex market is open for 24 hours, investors can make the transactions any time they want. In the forex market, investors can take good positions responding quickly to the changing economic conditions. Unlike stock markets, forex market is decentralized. Hence, the investors or account holders can trade currencies from anywhere.

Spot rate and Cross rates:

The spot rate refers to the market price of a currency, measured in terms of another, on a particular day. The most traded or liquid currencies are termed as MAJORS. The Majors consists on the US dollar (USD), the Euro (EUR), the British pound (GBP), the Swiss franc (CHF), the Canadian Dollar (CAD), the Australian Dollar (AUD) and the Japanese yen (JPY).

Quote and Spread:

Before making the transaction, the investors ask their concerned dealers for a quote. The quote represents the buying and selling price of a currency, e.g. the quote for Euro 1.2043 – 1.2048. The difference between the selling and buying prices is called as Spread.

Advantages of Forex trading:

During the recent years, the average daily turnover of the forex market has been growing rapidly because more and more people are taking advantage of this unique. Resultantly, the market has been well established. To increase your chances of making money in the forex market, you need to use a dynamic trading platform. Following are the advantages of forex trading:

•    24-hour Trading: Since the forex market is open for 24 hours, participants get to trade currencies whenever they want. Hence, the investors can respond to latest developments in the global economy and take a position accordingly in real quick time.
•    Increase in Leverage: The forex market offers great leverage. Leverage refers to the amount an account holder can trade currencies against the deposited money in the account. For example, to trade $200,000 of currency, with a margin of 1%, an investor will only have to deposit $2,000 into the account. In other words, leveraged trading is the margin. Taking the margin as1%, if you have $1000 in your margin account, you can trade currency up to $100,000. If you anticipate the movements in Forex prices, you can earn greater profits through higher gearing.

•    Lower Transaction Costs: Unlike stock markets, low commissions and transaction fees are charged in the forex market.

Liquidity:

Forex market is considered as the most liquid market in the world. In the forex market, investors can easily sell their holdings because there is always a large number of brokers and dealers who buy currencies. As a matter of fact, the liquidity for major currencies is very high. Following are the advantages of liquidity in forex trading:

•    It ensures the price stability of the currencies
•    The investors can easily take a position responding to changing economic conditions
•    The investors receive a fair market price of the currencies
•    The investors or account holders are less vulnerable to liquidity risk.

Participants of Forex market:

Participants of the forex market are commercial banks, central or national banks, currency stock exchanges, government and private commercial companies (such as foreign trade firms, investment funds), insurance and pension funds, individual investors and the broker companies. The large commercial banks are the most significant participant of the forex market. After large commercial banks, the brokerage houses are the most active participants in the market.
Structure of the forex market:

The structure of the forex market refers to its broad framework that consists on three tiers namely the interbank market, large retail banks and funds and retail foreign exchange firms. The structure of the forex market will help you understand how foreign exchange transactions go through. The breakdown of each tier and the interaction between them is mentioned below:
•    Interbank Market: The Interbank market comprises on the largest banks and central banks. The large commercial banks and the central bank trade currencies via a system known as EBS. EBS can simply be defined as the software application. It provides the interbank participants of the forex market with bank’s resources helping them understand the supply and demand. Depending upon the supply and demand conditions, the participants can develop fair prices to trade with each other.

•    Retail Banks: Retail banks allow the customers to exchange currencies. When people exchange currencies, the retail banks move the currency around from one branch to another. The retail banks earn profit with the help of spread, a different price for buying than for selling. In case the retail banks need a particular currency, they approach to the tier above them which is the interbank market.

•    Retail Forex Brokers: The retail foreign exchange brokers allow the individual traders to open accounts with them to trade currencies in the forex market. Generally, the retail forex brokers have good relations with interbanks and retail banks because they need to take prices from them. How does retail forex trader offer prices to retail traders? In simple words, they take prices from the interbanks banks retail banks, add a markup and offer the new prices to the retailer traders.

For more details Please visit The Best Forex Broker, Download Forex Metatrader 4 orIslamic Forex

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Minimize Electricity Bill by LED Lighting

After the hit of economic crisis,every individual looking for ways that can help them reduce the costs of actually running a home. Without exception of the every business we are talking right now, irrespective of the size and or industry has one major issue- how to make money.They all need to reduce their monthly bills and expenditures without taking measures such as making redundancies and foreclosures. Many are finding their profits by following these money saving steps for not to damage their business reputation.One way that all the above can be achieved is through the use of LED lighting. Because this lighting requires less energy and last for long time.

In fact because of its abilities Californian government banned the usage of incandescent bulbs after adapting LED lighting.So let us see what factors made the California to take such a decision.

These LED light bulbs are not quite similar to all bulbs.The presence of halogen gas is the main element for their long life span.The interaction between the halogen and tungsten gives such different characteristics that no other bulb has.The reason incandescent lamps run out of life is the burning out of the thin tungsten filament.But in the LED lamps the presence of halogen prevents this.

LED light can withstand higher temperatures; where as incandescent bulbs can burst.They are cool to the touch and do not contain any mercury or other hazardous substances.

Because of their directional output,they have unique design features that can be exploited by clever designs.LED lights are more rugged and damage-resistant than compact fluorescent s and incandescent bulbs.LED lights can be installed under counters, in hallways, and in staircases; concentrated arrays can be used for room lighting. Waterproof, outdoor fixtures are also available.Some manufacturers consider applications such as gardens, walkways, and decorative fixtures outside garage doors to be the most cost-efficient.

LUKING OPTO-ELECTRONICS TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD was founded in the year 2000 in China,specialized in 3D V-CUTTING light panels (LGP), LED lighting ,LED panel light,LED perdent lighting,LED Light Bulbs. LED ceiling lighting and saving.These LED light bulbs are not quite similar to all bulbs.