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Your Proofness: Sarah Munir Master Storyteller: Nudrat Kamal Creativity Analysts: Jamal Khurshid, Essa Malik, Samra Aamir, Talha Ahmed Khan, Munira Abbas, Omer Asim and Umar Waqas
THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE, AUGUST 17, 2014
Hi light
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Imagine a land covered in white. All around you are towering mountains of ice, floating chunks of glacial ice, and a thick blanket of snow covers everything in sight. The sun sets and rises only once every year, which means it’s daylight for six straight months and pitch darkness for the remaining six months. The temperature is so low that the freezing 0o Celsius would seem like a toasty warm day by comparison. Icy winds blow at staggering speeds, howling in your ears like a monster from a horror story. This is Antarctica, the fifth largest continent in the world — the driest, windiest and coldest place on Earth. The harsh cold of the land makes it one of the most inhospitable areas of the world. While Antarctica doesn’t have many people living there, it is inhabited by lots of animals, birds and fish. It also has many different types of ice and by studying and analysing this ice, we can find out what the Earth’s weather was like thousands of years ago. The bottom line is that Antarctica is one of the most fascinating places that exist — one might even say it is the coolest place ever (get it?).
With 98% of its surface covered in ice, it is no wonder that Antarctica is the home of various kinds of ice and snow. This ice makes up 70% of the whole world’s fresh water supply. Basically, Antarctica is an ice and snow factory. Here are some of the different types of ice and snow found here: . Glaciers: Moving bodies of ice formed mainly of snow that has thawed, refrozen and become more crystalline and dense.
. Ice crystals: Also known as ‘diamond dust’, ice crystals are essentially crystallized water vapour, often observed suspended on currents of air, and sparkling with reflected sunlight.
. Ice sheets: Vast shields of thick continental ice that have formed through the accumulation of snow over millions of years. Ice sheets are often dome-shaped.
. Sastrugi: Wind-packed drift snow in the form of small hard ridges which resemble frozen waves.
THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE, AUGUST 17, 2014
Hi light
3 Antarctica is a desert because the snow accumulation adds up to less than two inches of rain, which is the same amount of rain in the Sahara Desert. During winters, the sea ice around Antarctica grows at the rate of 40,000 square miles a day. Antarctica’s ice is so heavy that it deforms the South Pole. In fact, its weight makes the Earth look slightly pear shaped. Antarctica holds the top spot for the lowest recorded temperature on Earth, which was -84.5°C at the Russian Vostok station in 1983. The first people to reach the South Pole were from the Norwegianled expedition of Roald Amundsen on December 14, 1911.
Do you know when you have a particularly bad day? Maybe your teacher yelled at you for talking in class or your younger sibling was being especially annoying or there was nothing good to eat at home? Well, when you have a bad day, you can make yourself feel better by telling yourself that it could have been much worse: you could have been born an emperor penguin. The life of an emperor penguin is, hands down, one of the most difficult. They live in the coldest place on Earth which, frankly, is no picnic, and they go to unimaginable lengths just to get through the winter season and make it out alive. While the emperor penguin’s home is in the sea, each year in March, when the long polar winter is about to begin, he comes out of the frigid water onto the even colder, icy lands of Antarctica to walk day and night for a week to congregate on a breeding ground far away from the water. There, they will choose a mate from among their group. Within a few weeks, every
penguin will have found a mate. In a few months, each couple will have an egg, and their one single mission in the coming months is to protect it from the everincreasing cold. As the temperature continues to drop and the long winter nights continue to cover the sky, the father penguin protects the egg by hiding it under him, while the mother penguin makes the trip back to the sea to feed and bring food for the baby which will have hatched by the time she returns. The father penguin will protect the egg for around 125 days, during which time he will have no food or water. When the eggs eventually start hatching, the fathers will have to keep their newborns safe. The mothers’ life is no less difficult. They brave the wintery storms to reach the water and then make the difficult journey back to their families. Finally, the family is reunited and after months of hardship and struggle, love conquers the harsh cold of Antarctica. What would you like to see in Hi Five? Send an email to hifive@tribune.com.pk and let us know!
THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE, AUGUST 17, 2014
Activity
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I’m the part of a bird that’s not in the sky, I can swim in the ocean and remain dry? What am I?
I have all of your knowledge but could fit in your hands. What am I?
The more you work, the more I’ll eat. You keep me full, I’ll keep you neat. What am I?
I only point in one direction, but I guide people around the world. What am I?
What is something that you always have with you but you always leave behind?
When you need me, you throw me away. But when you’re done with me, you bring me back. What am I?
What kind of room has no doors or windows?
What has a foot but no leg?
I do not eat food. But I do enjoy a light meal everyday. What am I?
Take me for a spin and I’ll make you cool, but use me when it’s cool and you’re a fool. What am I?
3. Fingerprints
10. A fan
4. A mushroom
5. A plant
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.
2. Pencil sharperner
9. A ruler
overnight of fun, food and lots of games. But when morning comes, the doors of the library remain mysteriously locked. Kyle and the other winners must solve every puzzle and figure out every clue to find the hidden escape route from the library. It will take all of Kyle’s game skills and puzzle-solving expertise to win the he biggest game of all. Join Kyle yle in Escape pe from Mr. Lemoncello’s llo’s Library ryy by Chris Grabenstein for a funny, nn , exciting adventure e inside the world’s greatest library. brary. If you brary liked Charlie and the he Chocolate Factory and the film m Night at the Museum, you will definitely enjoy this book.
1. A bird’s shadow
8. An anchor
There is nothing Kyle Keeley loves more than games and puzzles. Games of all kinds are Kyle’s forte — board games, word games and especially video games. Kyle’s hero is Luigi Lemoncello, the most notorious and creative gamemaker in the world. So when Mr. Lemoncello decides to build a new library in Kyle’s hometown, Kyle is over the moon. After all, someone who designed such fun games must surely have made the most wonderful library ever. Kyle is even more thrilled when he wins a competition in which 12 kids are selected to be the first kids in the library. These kids spend the night at the library, for an
7. A compass
Books and Movies
6. Your brain
Answers
THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE, AUGUST 17, 2014
Get your weekly dose of the unusual and funny news from across the globe!
Cat island Tashirojima is an island off the east coast of Japan, and it is completely and utterly overrun by cats. In fact, there are more cats there than people, and what could be better than that? With only 100 humans on the island, the population is mostly made up of incredibly cute stray cats — which thrive because locals believe that feeding them will bring them good wealth and fortune. The cats were originally brought to the island because they are natural predators of silkworms, and it is important to keep the silkworm population under check because the island produces silk. But now that the town is so overrun with cats, the island has become a popular tourist destination. It is prohibited to bring dogs on the island, which is understandable, given that cats and dogs rarely get along. So pack your bags and start planning a trip to Japan, because this adorable cat island is not a place to be missed. METRO.CO.UK
Alligator Champ A nine-year-old boy living in Florida, USA, had a close encounter of the dangerous kind with a massive alligator, and he lived to tell the tale. James Barney Jr. was bicycling when he decided to take a dip in a restricted area of a lake in Osceola County. But this innocent swimming session soon took a dangerous turn when an enormous alligator circled Barney and bit him several times. Witnesses told wildlife officials that the gator was nine feet long, and gator trapper Joseph Elsebough said it weighed between 400 and 500 pounds. Barney described the attack from his hospital bed where he is recovering from his injuries. He said, “It really amazed me what happened. At first, I thought someone was just playing with me, and I didn’t know what happened. I reached down to grab it, and I felt its jaw, I felt its teeth and I didn’t know what to do so I immediately reacted and hit it a couple times.” Trappers are still searching for the alligator that attacked Barney. The lake where the attack occurred has reportedly been closed off to swimmers as the search continues, and boaters have also been told to avoid the area so as to not interfere with the search effort. HUFFINGTONPOST.COM
World wide weird
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A baby zonkey
Meet Telegraph, the unique and one-of-a-kind baby zonkey that was born recently in a zoo in Crimea. Telegraph, who is the baby of its zebra mother and donkey father, has the brown head and body of his father while his legs have the characteristic black stripes of his mother. His birth has annoyed zoo officials because while cross-breeding between the two species is not unheard of, it is rare and generally frowned upon in zoos. “Such things don’t happen in civilised zoos, but can occur at private zoos or on farms,” said Anna Kachurovskaya, a zoo spokeswoman. But despite the zoo officials’ reservations, Telegraph the zonkey is a favourite of the people who visit the zoo. Staff at the zoo say he is “very popular with visitors.” They named the zonkey Telegraph after a local paper. They explained that Telegraph’s mother had been very lonely and sad for several months and was growing uncomfortable in her enclosure, so they moved her in with the other hooved animals — and she took a liking to the donkey. METRO.CO.UK
Dive of Death Hidden deep in Texas Hill Country, USA, is an enchanting creek with a mysterious and dangerous secret. The creek has a swimming hole which is, in reality, a 140-feet deep well known as Jacob’s Well. Standing over the edge of the well is like looking into a black, never-ending hole. But that doesn’t stop thrill-seekers from taking the plunge and swimming in this dangerous well, despite the fact that Jacob’s Well is one of the most dangerous places to dive on Earth, having claimed the lives of more than eight divers. Authorities have attempted to prevent divers from swimming in the well but scuba divers are eager to explore the well and the cave system with which the well is attached. The mouth of the spring is four metres wide, with the depth of the water at approximately ten metres. The spring then angles down into one of the largest underwater caves in the state of Texas. DAILYMAIL.CO.UK
THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE, AUGUST 17, 2014
6 Word origins Pulling one’s leg Playing pranks on your friends is a harmless bit of fun we all enjoy. What is even more enjoyable is letting them know that they have been pranked. “I was just kidding,” we might say. Or, “I was just pulling your leg.” But what does leg pulling have to do with pranks or joking, and how did this phrase come about? ‘Pulling your leg’ is a very popular phrase and it usually means joking, teasing or making something up. But despite being so popular, the origin of this phrase is still a mystery to etymologists (people who investigate where words came from). There are two popular theories as to how this phrase came about, but none of these theories has been proven yet. The first theory is that it came from what thieves used to do to the people they were stealing from — they used to trip people up by pulling their legs. Once they were on the ground, it was easier to rob them. Another theory is much more gruesome. It says that the phrase came about at a time when hanging people was a common form of punishment. These people had their legs pulled while they were being hanged. But this theory doesn’t seem very plausible because there is no evidence to support it, and there is also no explanation of how the meaning of the phrase went from ‘hanging’ to ‘joking’. The first recorded use of this phrase appeared in the diary of a man called James Gallatin in 1821, but it wasn’t until 1883 that this phrase began to be commonly used. An American newspaper wrote about this phrase, saying, “It is now the correct thing to say that a man who has been telling you preposterous [really unbelievable] lies has been ‘pulling your leg.’”
How to say ‘I am hungry’ in different languages Afrikaans Albanian Bosnian Croatian Danish Dutch Estonian Filipino French German Irish Italian Latin
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Ek is honger Unë jam i uritur Gladan sam Ja sam gladna Jeg er sulten Ik heb honger Ma olen näljane I am gutom J’ai faim Ich bin hungrig I am ocras Ho fame Esurio
Cool facts Goldfish can distinguish the music of one composer from another. H Cecil Booth, inventor of the first suction-powered vacuum cleaner, first experimented by covering his lips with various fabrics and taking giant gulps of dust off his floor. The only mammals that don’t have an umbilical scar, or ‘belly button,’ are the platypus and echidna. Unlike the rest of us mammalians, these two species lay eggs. 12+1 = 11+2, and ‘twelve plus one’ is an anagram of ‘eleven plus two.’ The melting temperature of bubble gum is 52 degrees Celsius. The first video uploaded to YouTube featured cofounder Jawed Karim discussing elephants at the San Diego Zoo. The cubicle did not get its name from its shape. It comes from the Latin word cubiculum, meaning bed chamber. From peaches to cherries, many fruit seeds contain cyanogenenic glycosides, which turn into cyanide gas during digestion and may give you cyanide poisoning.
THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE, AUGUST 17, 2014
7
Experiment Notable Entry for the Liberty Books Card Competition
Tehreem Zubair Winner
THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE, AUGUST 17, 2014
What to do: You will need: • A CD you don’t use • Glue
1. Take the lid off of the drinks bottle. Discard the plastic cover cap and use only the pop-up lid. Ensure the push down mechanism is down. 2. Put glue around the bottom rim of the lid and stick it to the centre of the CD over the hole. Make sure there are no holes for air to escape through. 3. Blow up a balloon, don’t let out the air. Use the hair clip to hold it in place. 4. Very carefully, place the balloon over the pop-up.
• A pop-up lid from a drinks bottle 5. Place the whole thing on a hard surface.
• Balloon • Hair clip
6. Lift the pop-up part and let go off the balloon. 7. Your Hovercraft will shoot across the surface as the air is forced out the bottom of the pop part.
What is happening? When two surfaces rub against each other, the force between them is friction. Friction can slow you down if you’re trying to move. Generally the rougher the surface the more friction there is. A layer of air can reduce this friction. Real hovercrafts use a powerful fan to pump air underneath themselves. Hovercrafts can travel over air and water as they move on top of a layer of air. Our balloon hovercraft also reduces friction by blowing air from the balloon between the CD and surface to hold them apart. This is why it shoots across the surface. SOURCE: SCIENCE-SPARKS.COM
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