Yahoo! Answers

A native tinamou (Rhynchotus rufescens), by Calimecita

Last week, we introduced you to our Answers biologist, Calimecita. We learned about her amazing job and what she likes about it.

In the second of two posts, we’ll discover more about Cecilia and her passion for Answers.

“My interests include reading and intermittently collecting stamps and coins, among others. Although I enjoy almost anything, I’m a Tolkien fan. In fact my nickname, Calimecita, derives from the 177px[fictional Elvish language] Quenya word Calima, meaning bright, clear — I picked it because my second name is Clara. I am also an avid reader of fiction in general and fantasy literature in particular.

“I also love my pets, of course! These days I only keep cats, dogs and gerbils, but I’ve had more interesting pets in the past, including a capybara, all sorts of other rodents, axolotls, and a small gecko.

Anónima, my calico girl, by Calimecita

Sunny, my gerbil, by Calimecita

Lamprotornis-purpureus, by Calimecita

Tiger, by Calimecita

Phrynops-hilarii (side-necked turtle), by Calimecita

“Above all, I enjoy learning all kinds of new stuff — either by reading, watching documentaries, or my own research — and sharing what I’ve learned with others. Everybody who knows me knows that I have a knack for finding that piece of information that nobody else has, so in “real life,” I’m often answering questions and solving problems, just like in Yahoo! Answers!

“What I enjoy the most here are the challenge, the fun, and the people.
“When I first started, it was mostly about answering questions and sharing what I knew. I like the challenging questions, especially when there’s an animal to identify or some obscure data to find. I especially love the difficult zoology questions, those that demand a bit of “detective work” in order to answer. In addition, I spend a lot of time in the Yahoo! Answers category, helping new users. Finally, I visit other areas such as Languages to help with Spanish-English translations or Music.

“But the social aspect is very important, too. Ever since I started, I’ve been very much part of the community, and I like how that feels. I’ve been able to participate in the development of the whole Yahoo! Answers concept, and now I’m sort of addicted to the interaction.

“Thanks to Yahoo! Answers, I’ve met people from all over the world, greatly improved my English, and learned a lot. What more could I ask for? Ah yes, I keep hoping that one of these days, my Yahoo! Answers friends will come to visit Argentina.”

Five of her Best Answers:

• What is the Oscillatoria?
• How do you tell a shark’s age?
• How do you tell a male and female gecko apart?
• Has the snake evolved at all?
• Why do people have kneecaps but not elbow caps?

Know someone who’s “wow-ed” you on Answers? Think somebody deserves to be celebrated as the next Featured User on the Answers Blog? We want to hear from you!

Leave a comment below with a link to the user’s profile or best answer, or email the Answers team at: y_answrs_editors@yahoo.com

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Photo by Incase Designs

If you’ve been watching the coverage of the Beijing Olympics, you may already know what swimmer Michael Phelps is eating (12,000 carb-heavy calories a day!) to keep in top racing condition. You may be staying up late at night to find out if he has earned yet another gold medal. But what many people are really burning to know about Phelps is: What the heck is he listening to before each race?

We’ve all noticed that Phelps typically shows up at the Water Cube wearing a Speedo LZR Racer, maybe a tracksuit, and always his MP3 player earbuds. So what’s the musical mojo that gets him pumped up for his next gold-medal win?

The Answers community has been able to dig up a few clues through a little detective work, but nothing conclusive. It appears from the Q&A on his own website that he was listening to Young Jeezy at the World Championships. In Athens four years ago, it was “‘Till I Collapse” by Eminem. Clearly he favors rap or hip-hop, but what exactly is the magical mix that makes Michael move?

We may never know for sure, but whatever he listens to, it’s certainly doing wonders for him–that, and the countless hours of practice, dedication, and focus, of course.

Do you use music for inspiration and motivation? What songs or musical artists get you going?

Update: Hey, everyone – we lost some comments due to a corrupt file (we had to restore from an earlier backup). We apologize if your comment is missing – we had over 300! Thanks for your participation.

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My Yahoo! (http://my.yahoo.com) is your personal starting page that you access with your username and password. You can personalize this page to display the modules you frequently use, the news of your country or region, your favorite sports, the groups you belong to, or any other service from Yahoo! or elsewhere on the Web (including Yahoo! Answers, of course!).

To add Answers to your My Yahoo! page, visit http://my.yahoo.com and sign in.

You will see a page like this:

To personalize your page, click any of these buttons at the top of the page:

• Clicking Add Content lets you select from a list of content modules and RSS feeds.

To add an Answers module:

• Type “Yahoo! Answers” in the search box.
• Click the yellow button.
• In the search results, click the module(s) you wish to add.

To add an Answers RSS feed:

• Click “Add RSS Feed”.
• Type “http://answers.yahoo.com” in the box.
• Click the “Add” button.

• Clicking Change Appearance allows you to change the colors and style of your page.

• Clicking More Options lets you fine-tune your settings.

You can drag and drop the modules to place them exactly where you want (for example, you move the most interesting content to the top of your page).

Adding an Answers module on your My Yahoo! page will keep you up-to-date on everything that’s going on in the community. You can also add the Answers blog to My Yahoo! to keep track of the latest posts.

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Carpincho (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris), by Calimecita

To continue our Featured User blog posts, we’re delighted this week to highlight an amazing member of our community, Cecilia, aka Calimecita.

Cecilia/Calimecita was born in Argentina, and although she’s always lived there, her Welsh and Scottish ancestors triggered her interest in the English language she learned as a child. Yahoo! Answers has been a great place to practice her English skills. In this series of posts, she’ll tell you about her country, her remarkable job as a mammalogist and of course her passion for Yahoo! Answers!

Ready to enter Cali-world?

Mar del Plata, by Calimecita

“The small town where I live–City Bell–is near La Plata, one of the major Argentine cities. City Bell is a peaceful suburban place, with detached houses and large gardens, where everyone keeps pets and people still greet their neighbors when they pass each other on the street.

“I work at the Natural History Museum of La Plata, a neoclassical building with impressive collections, especially those of fossils, archaeological materials, and mammals. “The museum building has several structural problems, from plumbing to security to electricity, and it’s too crowded for comfort, but I still love the place.

Sea Lion by Calimecita

“I’m a biologist. Specifically I’m a mammalogist, so I study mammals. I’m currently in the last stages of my doctoral thesis thanks to a scholarship from the local university, so hopefully next year I’ll be Doctor Cali!

“I study the digging specializations of the tuco-tucos, a family of subterranean rodents that are native to South America. They’re small stocky things that look a lot like the pocket gophers from the US and the Old World mole rats, because they’re convergent, which means they occupy similar adaptive niches and have several common features that evolved in response to similar selective pressures.

“Basically, what I do is compare them with other species to gather data about their morphological similarities and differences. This, together with other sources of information including fossils, helps to understand their evolutionary history.

“There’s no fixed routine at work; sometimes I’m reading and writing, analyzing the data, etc. To obtain my data, I examine and measure their bones and muscles, which are quite different from ours. Tuco-tucos are specialized diggers, and they have very strong forelimbs with long claws and powerful muscles. If we had arms like that, we’d all look like super-super-heroes and we’d be able to dig our own homes!“Workwise, I also teach in the Vertebrates course at the local Faculty where I am a graduate teaching assistant, and a basic Ecology course.”

In the next post we’ll look at her interests and hobbies, and learn what she likes the most on Yahoo! Answers.

Five of her great Answers:

• What is a zoologist?
• Do all mammals have hair?
• Do you think science will ever bring back the Woolly Mammoth from extinction?
• Do elephants have toenails?
• What is the difference between a moth and butterfly?

Know someone who’s wowed you on Answers? Think somebody deserves to be celebrated as next Featured User on the Answers Blog? We want to hear from you!Leave a comment below with a link to the user’s profile or best answer or email the Answers team y_answrs_editors@yahoo.com

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Photo by Sailing Footprints Real to Reel
It’s 5:00 and you’re headed home. Very likely, in traffic. And if you’re like me, you’re thinking about what you want for dinner. But you really don’t want to go out to eat again – it’s not healthy, it’s expensive, and homemade food is so much tastier. But… you’re tired. You’ve had a long day, and likely so has your partner. It looks like another night of take-out pizza, burgers, or tacos.

So how can you make more homemade meals and minimize inconvenience? Lists and routines. It sounds simple, but my mother taught me that it takes a month of repeating a specific behavior to ease it into “routine” status.

I’ll admit it seems simplistic, but it’s true. The lists help, and when I started living on my own, the lists saved me. I start by writing down my basics on a grocery list. My staples are milk, eggs, yogurt, bread, bananas, tomatoes, rice, and oatmeal. When you make your list of staples, think about the things you eat all of the time, and those foods that supplement other meals. That’s the beginning of the list.

When I’m planning meals, which I generally do once a week before grocery shopping, I consider the weather, seasonality of ingredients, my cravings, favorites, and recipes from a couple of cookbooks. While you’ve got the cookbooks in front of you, add the ingredients to your list, considering any items you might already have in the fridge. We stick Post-Its to the fridge listing what ingredients we have.

We usually do most of our cooking prep on Sunday afternoons, meaning, we throw together 3-4 meals and stick them in the freezer. It’s not a glamorous Sunday afternoon, but two hours in the kitchen usually means terrific meals later in the week. Also, it’s surprisingly fun having your partner as your chef (or sous-chef)!

How do you balance busy schedules and home-cooked meals?

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