Yahoo! UK & Ireland Answers blog

- A native stork (Ciconia maguari)

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

In the second of two posts, we’ll learn 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 [fictional Elvin 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

“Music is also very important in my life; I have a soundtrack for everything. Far from being an expert, I like photographing wildlife. You can see some of my pictures below:

-Lamprotornis-purpureus, by Calimecita

- Tiger, by Calimecita

Phrynops-hilarii, 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 kneecap but no elbow cap?

Know someone who’s “wow-ed” 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_team_uk@yahoo.co.uk

My Yahoo! is your personal page when you access our sites with your username and password. You can personalise this page to display the modules you decide, with the news of your country or region, your favorite sport, groups or any other service from Yahoo! or the Internet. Of course, Yahoo! Answers is also available on My Yahoo!.

To add Answers to My Yahoo! page go to http://uk.my.yahoo.com/ and sign in.

You will see a page like this:

To personalise your modules, the options and the pages, you need to click on the buttons on top of the page:

To add content, click Add content. You will be able to select from the options you will be offered, and add RSS modules using the URL.

For example, if you want to add the Answers module, you can search for it or type http://uk.answers.yahoo.com on the option “RSS by URL.” Then click Add.

To make your page look unique, change the colors or the style, click Change appearance.

If you want to modify any other setting, click Change options.

You can drag and drop the modules to make the page look exactly the way you want (for example, you can have the most interesting information on top).

Remember that if you have your Answers module on My Yahoo! you will be up to date with everything that’s going on in the community.

And remember: you can also add the blog to My Yahoo! to keep track of the latest posts!

Thanks for your considerable participation and the passion you’ve demonstrated in your questions.

Due to unexpected last-minute events, we were unable to get Christian Bale’s answer to your questions and would like to apologise.

Because we don’t like to let you down, we’d like to share the full interview of co-stars Maggie Gyllenhaal and Aaron Eckhart with you. See what they have to say about the Dark Knight right here:

And icing on the cake, why not become Batman for a day?
We’re sure that at some time you have all dreamt of being a super hero too. To celebrate the movie release in cinema, we’re giving you a chance to be Batman for a day and make Gotham City yours.Good luck to all!

- Carpincho (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris), by Calimecita

To follow on our “Featured User” blog posts , we’re delighted this week to highlight an amazing member of our community, Cecilia, a.k.a Calimecita.

Cecila/Calmecita was born in Argentina and although she’s always lived there, her Welsh and Scottish ancestors triggered her interest for the English language she learnt as a child. Yahoo! Answers has been a great practice field for her!

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?

“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 neighbours 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.”

- The skeleton of a sea lion and the corresponding taxidermised specimen by Calimecita

- Dorado (Salminus maxillosus), large predator of the Paraná river system, 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!”

- Tuco-tuco by Calimecita

“I study the digging specialisations 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 look at her interests and hobbies and learn more about 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 “wow-ed” 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_team_uk@yahoo.co.uk

Hi, everyone:

Thank you for all the great questions you sent in for Christian Bale to answer — what a fantastic response we’ve had from fans of both Batman and Christian Bale!

The Answers team is currently combing through all your comments and email to select the best question to be put to the Caped Crusader — er, to Christian Bale. So be sure to check back here for any updates and to view the video of him answering the selected question.

Good luck to everyone, and thanks again for your participation.