The Express Tribune hi five - April 26

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Your Proofness: Dilaira Dubash Master Storyteller: Hurmat Majid Creativity Analysts: Jamal Khurshid, Essa Malik, Talha Ahmed Khan, Omer Asim, Mohsin Alam, Aamir Khan, Eesha Azam, Maryam Rashid, Hira Fareed and Umar Waqas

Discovering How to Train Your Dragon PAGE 2-3

The invention of crayons PAGE 4

Saving the world PAGE 6

Paperclip magnet maze PAGE 8

THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE, APRIL 26, 2015

Hi light

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Did you know that the How to Train Your Dragon cartoons are actually based on a series of books written by Cressida Cowell? All the books have “How to” titles except the sixth, which is called A Hero’s Guide To Deadly Dragons.

The series currently comprises 11 books with the 12th How to Fight a Dragon’s Fury, to be released in September this year.

The books revolve around Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, the son of Stoick the Vast, leader of the Hairy Hooligans. Hiccup was first introduced in a novel that was written in the year 2000, three years prior to the first book in the series. The book was called Hiccup: The Viking Who Was Seasick. The series deals with various parts of training to become a real Viking leader. The story begins when Hiccup tries to train a dragon he captures in a very non-Viking manner. Later in the series Hiccup and his first dragon Toothless have many great adventures together. Often we see Hiccup and his sidekick Fishlegs get in trouble only to discover their strengths and beat their odds. On the other hand, Alvin the main villain of the series often finds himself in trouble because of the duo and their dragons. The series tells the tale of the value of friendship and teaches us to look for our own strengths.

Stoick the Vast is Hiccup’s father and leader of the Hairy Hooligans. Unlike his son, he is incredibly strong and fat but rather unintelligent. However, he was originally portrayed as tall and skinny in the book Hiccup: The Seasick Viking. He owns three dragons called Newtsbreath, Bullheart and Hookfang. Newtsbreath appears in the first two books, Hookfang is only in the first book, while Bullheart appears in Book 9, but he may have more appearances.

Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III is unusual for a Viking not only physically, being very thin with red hair, but also intellectually as he thinks before he acts and is abnormally clever. He is one of the only people ever to understand and be able to speak Dragonese, the language of the dragons. He is a good left-handed sword fighter and owns two dragons: hunting dragon Toothless and flying dragon Windwalker. In the 11th book, he is bitten by one of the witch’s Vampire Spydragons twice, causing him to lose use of his left side.

Fishlegs is Hiccup’s best friend. He is allergic to carni-dragons like Monstrous Nightmares.

He has a squint, asthma and is seen as a wimp but he has shown himself to be quite cunning when he needs to be. He also has Berserk tendencies, meaning that in the midst of battle he is overcome by bloodlust and becomes extremely dangerous. His dragon is a Basic Brown named Horrorcow. The dragon was washed on the shore of Berk when he was a baby and has no parents, he was taken care of by a caretaker dragon. Now Fishlegs is the master of a Deadly Shadow, a three-headed dragon that can shoot flames and lighting and can camouflage itself.

Snotlout or “Snotface Snotlout”, is Hiccup’s much despised cousin. He bullies and bosses others around, especially Hiccup whom he addresses as useless. He is top class at ‘bashyball’, ‘advanced rudery’ and ‘everything else’. His dragon is a brilliant scarlet Monstrous Nightmare named Fireworm, which because of her breed should technically belong to Hiccup (as son of the chief) according to ancient Viking law. He becomes chief of the Hooligan Tribe at the end of Book 9. However, the dragon gets killed in an attack at the end of Book 11 in an attempt to help Hiccup become king. Later, Hiccup silently forgives Snotlout for the years of rivalry between them.

Alvin the Treacherous is Hiccup’s arch enemy. He used to be chief of the Outcasts but was taken down. Although he is a fantastic sword fighter, he is frequently losing parts of his body such as all of his hair, a hand, a foot, a nose and an eye. He is also covered in warts, and so his face is swollen, causing him to wear an iron mask to hide it. His various evil plots have included using the Hooligans to steal Grimbeard the Ghastly’s treasure, using the Romans to burgle all the dragons in the Archipelago, and controlling the deadly Exterminator dragons.

THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE, APRIL 26, 2015

Hi light

Madguts the Murderous is the chief of the Murderous tribe. A vicious, frightening, vile smelling man covered in skull tattoos and with “Hate” on both his knuckles, he is considered one of the scariest men in the archipelago. He also never speaks (though he spoke to Mogadon the Meathead in the fifth book). He has a stealth dragon stolen from him by Bertha and intends to kill her, and later tries to kill Stoick and Bertha. Both times he is stopped by Hiccup. Camicazi supposedly burgles from him regularly.

Toothless is Hiccup’s hunting dragon. He appears to be a green and red Common or Garden Dragon, although Fishlegs spread a false story that he is the near extinct, more vicious relative of the Monstrous Nightmare breed called the Toothless Daydream and possibly the offspring of the mighty dragon ruler King Daggerfangs. He is one of the King’s Lost Things. In Book 11, it is revealed he is a young Seadragonus Giganticus Maximus.

Horrorcow is Fishlegs’ dragon of the Basic Brown species. She is named ‘Horror’ for effect and ‘Cow’ because she is not dangerous and sleeps a lot. Fishlegs suspects she is a vegetarian. She is three times the size of Toothless and is his best dragon friend. When she climbed down from Fishleg’s head during Book 9, she isn’t mentioned again.

What would you like to see in Hi Five? Send an email to hifive@tribune.com.pk and let us know!

Norbert the Nutjob is the chief of the Hysterical tribe, and Hiccup’s second arch-enemy. Norbert’s father, Bigjob, once went to America and retrieved a potato, but Hiccup took it to cure Fishlegs of Vorpentitis. Norbert later died at the hands of a Leviathorgon dragon on his own expedition to America. As his name suggests, he is insane and uses his giant axe — one gold side and one black side — to decide everything.

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THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE, APRIL 26, 2015

4 Q: What do you get when you cross a potato with an elephant?

A: Mashed potatoes!

Q: What do you call a cat crossed with a fish?

A: A catfish.

Q: What do you get when you cross a burger with a computer?

A: A big Mac!

Fun Facts about French Fries French Fries are not called that in France. They are known as ‘frites’, ‘patates frites’ or ‘pommes frites’ in French. These names are also used in many non-French areas.

Belgians claim to have invented “frites”. There is an ongoing disagreement between Belgium and France over its true origin.

Some also believe that the fry may have first been introduced in Spain via Colombia.

The earliest known reference to French fries in English literature is in A Tale of Two Cities. Charles Dickens refers to “Husky chips of potato, fried with some reluctant drops of oil”.

Thomas Jefferson gets the credit for introducing French fries to America when he served them at a White House dinner in 1802 after reportedly requesting, “potatoes, fried in the French manner”.

When you eat French fries, you are also getting some potassium, a nutrient present in potatoes. The energy you require throughout the day can be obtained from potassium.

Q: What do you get if you cross cat with an elephant?

A: A flat cat.

Q: What do you call a sleeping dinosaur?

A: A dino-snore!

Antoine-Augustin Parmentier is considered the godfather of French fries. He was the man responsible for starting the cultivation of potato crops in France. During his time the French thought potatoes caused skin diseases and thus avoided eating them. Not only did Parmentier introduce the vegetable to France, he also introduced the dish to them.

America celebrates ‘National French Fry Day’ on July 13.

Did you know?

The invention of crayons Europe was the birthplace of the ‘modern’ crayon, a man-made cylinder that resembled contemporary sticks. The first such crayons are thought to have consisted of a mixture of charcoal and oil. Later, powdered pigments of various hues replaced the charcoal. It was subsequently discovered that substituting wax for the oil in the mixture made the resulting sticks sturdier and easier to handle.

In America, however, the story of crayons started in 1864, when Joseph W Binney founded the Peekskill Chemical Company in Peekskill, New York. This company was responsible for products in the black and red colour range, such as lampblack, charcoal and a paint containing red iron oxide which is still often used as a base coat for iron fences.

Around 1885, Joseph’s son, Edwin Binney, and nephew, C Harold Smith, formed the partnership of Binney & Smith.

The cousins expanded the company’s product line to include shoe polish and printing ink. In 1900, the company purchased a stone mill in Easton, Pennsylvania, and began producing slate pencils for schools. This started Binney’s and Smith’s research into non-toxic and colourful drawing mediums for kids. They had already invented a new wax crayon used to mark crates and barrels, however, it was loaded with carbon black and was too toxic for children. They were confident that the pigment and wax mixing techniques they had developed could be adapted for a variety of safe colours.

In 1903, a new brand of crayons with superior working qualities was introduced — Crayola Crayons.

Crayola crayons were the first non toxic crayons ever made for children. The brand’s first box of eight Crayola crayons made its debut in 1903. The crayons were sold for a nickel and the colours were black, brown, blue, red, purple, orange, yellow and green. The word Crayola was created by Alice Stead Binney, Edwin Binney’s wife, who took the French words for chalk ‘craie’ and oily ‘oleaginous’ and combined them.

Today, there over 100 different types of crayons being made by Crayola including crayons that sparkle with glitter, glow in the dark, smell like flowers, change colours, and wash off walls and other surfaces and materials.

THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE, APRIL 26, 2015

World wide weird

Get your weekly dose of the unusual and funny news from across the globe!

Google searching for Loch Ness Monster Google has joined the search for the Loch Ness Monster by taking its Street View cameras across the famous Scottish loch. It sent teams to take pictures both above and below the waterline to help armchair Nessie hunters explore the area. Google said the development was to mark the anniversary of the release of the Surgeon’s Photograph — a 1934 hoax image claiming to show the monster in the misty waters of the lake. A post on Google’s official blog said: “Sail across the freshwater lake and take in its haunting beauty, made darker still by the peat particles found in its waters. Let the Loch unlock the spirit of your imagination, where the rippling water, tricks of the light, and drifting logs bring the legend of Nessie to life.”

It took Google a week to take the photographs, with a diver being used to take the Street View Trekker camera under the waterline, before attaching it to a boat for the above-water shots. Loch Ness is the largest Scottish loch by water volume, containing more fresh water than all the lakes of England and Wales combined. Google says there are more searches for Loch Ness than the likes of Buckingham Palace in their search engine. TIME.COM

Star Wars Jet Japanese airline All Nippon Airways has unveiled plans to dress one of its planes up as the beloved robot in a tribute to the Star Wars movie franchise.

In just a few months, one of the airline’s Boeing 787s will take to the skies decorated with R2-D2’s famous blue and white stripes.

It will also bear the droid’s signature data ports as well as the classic Star Wars logo.

The design is part of the airline’s five-year Star Wars Project, which it hopes will “connect Japan to the global market”.

The jet is scheduled to begin international flights this autumn, just months ahead of the December release of Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens.

NEWS.SKY.COM

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Duck rescued On April 19th at about 7:18pm, St Tammany Fire District #1 responded to a call of a duck trapped in a fireplace at a home in the Eagle Lake subdivision in Slidell, Louisiana. When firefighters arrived, they discovered a large duck with its head poking out of the bottom of the chimney. Part of the fireplace had to be dismantled in order to reach the duck, and it took just over two hours to safely remove him — or her. A Fire District #1 spokesman said the unit responds to several public service calls such as these each year.

He said firefighters “are always eager to help and enjoy giving back to the community.” FOX8LIVE.COM

Beware: Zebra Crossing Three zebras were spotted running through the streets of Brussels in bizarre scenes caught on camera. The trio had escaped from a ranch in near Vilvoorde before making their way to the city at some speed. Student Ludovic Bytebier was in a building when he filmed twozebras running on the road while a third chose the pavement. They were on the loose for around an hour before being cornered and captured. Two police crews and one traffic team from Vilvoorde as well as reinforcements from Brussels were needed to seize the zebras. Local media reported four zebras initially escaped the ranch, with one immediately captured.

However, the police were unable to confirm this. NEWS.SKY.COM

Greed is a Curse

By Zahra Bari In a bushy, green and lively jungle there lived a group of five friends: Chucky the bird, Cyndy the deer, Cast the rabbit, Mony the snake and Beast the lion. Beast was the king of the jungle, but unlike other wicked and ghastly rulers he was kind hearted and polite. He ruled the jungle wisely and was always nice to his friends.

Mony the snake, on the other hand, was a bit greedy and selfish.

One day the five friends were very bored. They had nothing to do except lazily by their favourie tree. Cyndy cuddenly came up with an idea to cure their boredom and quell their laziness. “Lets all go to the lake and fish!” she said. And so they went racing to the lake, all laziness forgotten. The lake was beautiful with lily pads and water lilies. Many exotic flowers dotted the banks of the lake, making it look like a sight out of heaven.

They settled at the right bank and Cyndy took out some snacks to eat. Mony immediately strolled towards the lake to fish. She was greedy and wanted all the big fish for herself. After a little while Mony caught something hi b but she h exclaimed, “Its huge, help me bring it out!” All her friends rushed to help her and with great effort they pulled a big trunk out of the lake.

Beast used his sharp claws to unlock the lid and inside they found a great bar of gold.

At once Mony snatched it and told them all it was only hers, because she was the one that found it. Beast tried to reason with her and he explained how they would all be able to do many great things for the jungle and make it a better place by using the gold. However, there was no reasoning with her. Mony was adamant, that the gold was hers. She took the bar and slithered away.

Once she had left, the four friends hatched a plan to teach Mony a lesson, because her greed had gone too far this time. So the friends set up a net and camoflouged it with leaves. When Mony slithered into the net it trapped her and hung her high up in a tree. They then boxed her up and shipped her off to the desert to live alone. Back in the jungle the friends recovered the gold and used it to make their habitat a beautiful place.

THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE, APRIL 26, 2015

Reading corner

6 Directions:

Materials:

• 4 Popsicle sticks • Liquid glue • Craft paper • Drawings to display

• Cut a small “Y” out of the craft paper • Place three popsicle sticks in an “A” formation.

• Stick the middle bar to the other two, firmly. It may be a good idea to use a hot glue gun, but be careful.

• Now use the “Y” you cut out of craft paper and stick it behind the meeting point at the top of the “A” • Then stick the remaining popsicle stick to the third end of the “Y” as shown in the picture.

• This has helped you create support to prop your easel up.

• Wait for everything to dry before you prop the easel up.

• Be careful that the drawings you display on it are not too heavy or else it may collapse.

SOURCE: EDUCATION.COM

Saving the world Captain Planet and the Planeteers Seeing the Earth in its profound environmental peril, Gaia, goddess of the Earth, summons five kids from around the world to become the Planeteers, an opposing force to fight back and educate others in the need to be environmentally responsible. To accomplish that task, each kid is given a magic ring that each has a power of earth, wind, water, fire and heart. When the threat they face is too big for them to face, they can combine and amplify their powers to create Captain Planet, who has the power to stop catastrophic environmental disasters himself, while the Planeteers contribute with the things anyone can and should do to help.

2012 Dr. Adrian Helmsley, part of a worldwide geophysical team investigating the effect on the earth of radiation from unprecedented solar storms, learns that the earth’s core is heating up. He warns U.S. President Thomas Wilson that the crust of the earth is becoming unstable and that without proper preparations for saving a fraction of the world’s population, the entire race is doomed. Meanwhile, writer Jackson Curtis stumbles on the same information. While the world’s leaders race to build arks to escape the impending catastrophe, Curtis struggles to find a way to save his family.

Meanwhile, volcanic eruptions and earthquakes of unprecedented strength wreak havoc around the world.

The Avengers S.H.I.E.L.D. has located the mysterious Tesseract device and the army’s super soldier Captain America. The Tesseract is actually a gateway to an entirely new world called Asguard. A mysterious being known as Loki arrives on earth and immediately assumes that he can rule all human beings. But that rubs S.H.I.E.L.D. director Nick Fury the wrong way. As Loki escapes with the Tesseract, Nick Fury believes this is an act of war against Earth.

His only hope is to assemble an actual team of superheroes. Dr. Bruce Banner, who turns into an enormous green rage monster known as the Hulk, Tony Stark and his venerable Iron Man armor, Captain America, the Stark Enterprises-created super soldier, Thor, the god of thunder, protector of Earth and his home planet of Asguard, and Loki’s brother and master assassins Hawkeye and Natasha Romanoff. Together they will become a team to take on an attack that will test their strength and reputation for greatness.

Do you have a favourite book or movie you would like us to review? Write to us at hifive@tribune.com.pk and tell us all about it.

THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE, APRIL 26, 2015

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Artwork

Ahtisham Iqbal

Saadi Muneer

Mehak Khan

Bisma Siddiqui Winner

Mujtuba Subhana Winner

THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE, APRIL 26, 2015

Ingredients: Watermelon Apple Lemon juice Water Ice Mint leaves

You will need:

2 large slices 1, sliced 3 tbsp 1/2 glass 4 cubes for garnish

• Paperclips • Cardboard • Thick marker • Magnet

What to do: •

Draw a maze on the cardboard with the marker.

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Place the paperclip on the starting point, on top of the cardboard.

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Place the magnet under the cardboard, corresponding with the paperclip.

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Direct the paperclip through the maze using the bond between the magnet and the paperclip.

Method:

•

Blend the lemon juice, watermelon and apple with water.

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Pop the ice cubes into a tall glass.

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Pour the mixture into the glass.

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Sprinkle the mint leaves over the drink.

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Your refreshing apple and watermelon slush is now ready.

Remember kids, always get permission from your parents before you start.

It’s always a good idea to have a helper nearby.

What is happening: Magnets pull on magnetic materials, such as iron, nickel, cobalt and steel.

They also have the unique ability to pull magnetic materials towards themselves passing through non-magnetic materials, such as the cardboard. When the cardboard is between the paperclip and the magnet, the magnetic rays pass through it to pull the paperclip towards itself. This is what allows you to guide the paperclip through the maze with the help of the magnet.

SOURCE: LOVEMYSCIENCE.COM