The Express Tribune hi five - December 27

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ventions year of in e h T : 5 1 20 -3 PAGES 2 che Paper ma 4 PAGE nimation 2016 in a PAGE 6 le pies Mini app PAGE 8

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

THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE, DECEMBER 27, 2015

Hi-light Hi light

2 The year 2015 has been great especially in terms of technology and inventions, even if we still do not have the dehydrated pizza that Back to the Future II predicted. The year has brought us closer to virtual reality Microsoft’s HoloLense visor, made our life easier with devices like Nima that sniffs out gluten in food or TZOA that detects pollution. With the year finally coming to an end, let’s take a look at some of the best inventions for 2015.

An estimated 663 million people globally do not have access to clean drinking water, in part because filtration is complicated and expensive.

The Drinkable Book is neither, thanks to a special treatment developed with a team of scientists over several years. Its pages double as water filters, killing over 99% of harmful bacteria during trials in Bangladesh, Ghana and South Africa. Though research is still needed to determine whether the system can filter all contaminants, including viruses, the makers are optimistic. They say they are talking to partners who could help fund more testing and, eventually, large-scale production.

Part segway, part skateboard, the self-balancing scooter (generally known as a hoverboard,) is easily the year’s most viral product, drawing fans like Justin Bieber, Jimmy Fallon and Kendall Jenner. Once someone hops on, the device uses a pair of electric gyroscopes to balance automatically, allowing users to speed forward, backward and around by slightly shifting their body weight. The device allows users to perform all kinds of fun stunts, ranging from hallway races to motorised dance routines. Maxx Yellin, co-founder of one of more than 20 companies making versions of the device, sees larger implications. “It could evolve as a new form of transportation for cities and colleges,” Yellin says, even though British authorities recently caused a stir by outlawing their use on public sidewalks and streets.

But convenience comes at a cost: price for the scooter ranges from $350 to $1,700, depending on the brand and its features.

Rather than repeating catchphrases, as ‘talking’ toys have done for generations, this dinosaur uses IBM’s Watson technology to engage with kids aged 5 to 9 in a meaningful way. In addition to answering plainlanguage queries like “How far away is the moon?”, the Wi-Fi-enabled figurine talks back and learns from kids’ responses — helping them hone their math skills, for example, by asking harder questions once they nail, “what is 2+2?” and “can you count to 10?” The trick is to make learning a fun experience.

THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE, DECEMBER 27, 2015

3 “When people think of pasta, they almost always think, I ate way too much and now I feel like crap,” says Brian Rudolph, the creator of the product. Not so with his brand, which is made from chickpeas instead of wheat. That simple switch — in a recipe perfected over 10 months of trial and error — has yielded a healthy twist on the al dente dinner. Banza, shorthand for garbanzo pasta, has double the protein and four times the fiber of traditional pasta, and far fewer carbs. Banza launched in two U.S. stores last year but now it’s sold in 1,700 stores. Now Rudolph and his brother Scott plan to reinvent products like pizza and cereal. “People want to eat better,” he says. “We see Banza as a true replacement, a more filling version of the food people love.”

An estimated 70% of adults want to play an instrument on a regular basis, but only 5% actually do, partly because it’s tough to choose just one to master. That’s not an issue with the Artiphon, which can mimic dozens of instruments — not just how they sound but also how they’re played. It can be strummed like a guitar or tapped like a piano or it can mix and match inputs, allowing users to bang banjo chords as if they were drumming.

“We’re trying to pave a different path toward musical creativity,” says Artiphon co-founder, Jacob Gordon.

SOURCE: TIME.COM

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

Hi-light

If you’re stuck somewhere with unbearable noise, you essentially have two options: plug your ears or leave. But what if you could isolate the most grating sound and mute it? Or just lower the volume, much as you would on a TV? That’s the promise of the Here Active Listening system, a groundbreaking set of earbuds from New York– based Doppler Labs. Unlike hearing aids, which amplify or decrease all noises at once, Here’s processor syncs with a smartphone app, so users can handpick which frequencies they want to filter. That means you could stand on a subway platform and have a normal conversation as a train screeches by, or even tune out a crying baby on a plane.

“It’s augmented audio reality,” says Doppler Labs CEO Noah Kraft, who initially developed Here for musicians and concertgoers before pivoting to a general audience.

THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE, DECEMBER 27, 2015

Trivia

4

Q: How did the Vikings send secret messages?

A: By norse code.

Q: What do you call cheese that is not yours?

A: Nacho cheese.

Fun facts about lightning At this very moment there are about 1800 thunderstorms.

Every year, the Earth experiences an average of 25 million lightning strikes during some 100,000 thunderstorms. That’s more than a hundred lightning bolts per second.

An average instance of lightning lasts about a quarter of a second and consists of three to four strikes.

You can hear thunder from about 12 miles from the starting point.

Q: What kind of lighting did Noah use for the ark?

A: Floodlights.

Lightning bolts travel at speeds of up to 60,000 miles per second.

The average length of a single lightning bolt is two to three miles.

A single lightning bolt travels through twisted paths in the air that can be as wide as one of your fingers or between six and ten miles.

Q: What did they do at the Boston tea party?

A: I don’t know, I wasn’t invited.

Q: What’s purple and 5,000 miles long?

A: The grape wall of China.

The temperature of a typical lightning bolt can reach 50,000o F — that is five times greater than the Sun’s surface temperature.

The energy contained in a single lightning strike can power a 100 watt light bulb for 90 days.

Did you know?

Paper Mache Despite the French sounding name, paper mache was not made in France until the mid 17th Century. However, they were the first country in Europe to do so.

Paper mache actually originates from China; the inventors of paper itself. They used paper mache to make helmets of all things, which they toughened by many layers of lacquer. Examples have been found dating back to the Han Dynasty.

From China, the interest in paper mache spread to Japan and Persia, where it was used in mask making and festival activities. Eventually it spread across the world. Large imports of paper mache objects swamped European markets. This in turn led France to start making its own wares and England followed suit in the 1670s. There was only a half-hearted interest until the late 1700s and into the 1800s, when it became widely used. Paper Mache is believed to have got its name from French workers in London paper mache shops. Whether this is actually true or not we shall probably never know. The manufacturers didn’t seem to mind this idea being put about — possibly because it gave them the chance to hide their true methods and recipes, some of which little is known about even today.

In 1740 the manufacturer John Baskerville, well known for his fine quality books and typefounding, began to imitate the lacquered pieces from Japan. This is how the term ‘japanning’ came about. His business was very successful and later his assistant Henry Clay, invented a way to produce paper mache so strong that it was equally as durable as wood. He did this by gluing specially prepared paper under heat to form tough, heat resistant panels.

Henry Clay had taken out a patent on his invention, but when this ran out small companies mushroomed, producing just about everything from paper mache. They were mostly concentrated in the Birmginham and Wolverhampton areas. It is from these companies that we get the beautifully decorated black enameled pieces that are so treasured today.

An Englishman — a Northamtonshire Quaker, who was a leading expert in the art of japanning, introduced paper mache into America. His name was William Allgood and he started up the Litchfield Manufacturing Company. He met with great success in his venture and the company became well known for its fabulously decorated clock cases.

Paper mache lived on in America more as a craft form rather than a manufacturing material. Women started to make useful and decorative household objects. In the 1960’s a bit more paper mache interest was injected by a New York artist called Gemma, who while working with her husband in Mexico managed to stir up a lot of interest amongst Mexican artists who were inspired by her work and later even taught by her. This is despite Mexico’s long history of using paper mache for festivals and traditions, which are still going on today.

SOURCE: PAPIERMACHE.CO.UK

THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE, DECEMBER 27, 2015

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

Proof is in the roast Jayne Winteringham has Christmas dinner every day and thinks her repetitive diet and consistent calorie intake stops her weight from fluctuating. The sixty year old has had a bonkers 5,475 roasts and tucks into a turkey with spuds and the full trimmings every day. She said whatever the weather, a roast is always on the menu — with accompanying Christmas candles. That means since 2000 she has had a barmy 82,125 sprouts. And she cannot imagine herself getting sick of the daily feasts, which she started tucking into when her children left home. Jayne, from Bristol, said, “I have a Christmas dinner every day. I love roasts. I’m always eating them, all year round. Friends probably think I’m bonkers, but a roast is a balanced meal — meat and three veg. I never put on weight. It’s probably the roasts that are keeping me in shape, as I always have the same calories.” MIRROR.CO.UK

Grinch looks down The grumpy character, who famously stole Christmas in books by Dr Seuss, seemed to be looking down his nose at the festivities below.

The image was captured by Graeme Whipps, a 52-year-old meteorologist, on a recent visit to see the Northern Lights in Iceland. Fatherof-two Graeme, from Inverurie, northern Scotland, said, “I’d had a disappointing evening as it was a cloudy sky. But I woke at around 3:00am to look out of my hotel window and see a beautiful green night sky. The photograph also has the Milky Way running horizontally through the shot. The cluster of the stars to the top left is the Pleiades, or the Seven Sisters as they are more commonly known. A smudged star in the bottom left of the image is the Andromeda Galaxy. Graeme said, “You can see the more unusual shapes in the Aurora as the night draws to an end, but I’ve never seen anything like this before.” EXPRESS.CO.UK

World wide weird

5

The mystery of Mona Lisa

French scientist Pacal Cotte has said Leonardo’s most celebrated work was painted over another similar portrait. He spent 10 years analysing the artwork and used a multispectral imaging camera to make the discovery, which has led to a digital recreation of the original being made. The scientist said the woman painted underneath does not appear to be Lisa Gherardini, a Florentine silk merchant’s wife — the woman widely believed to have inspired the painting. One acclaimed art historian has claimed the original artwork is of Pacifica Brandano. Mr Cotte said, “The results shatter many myths and alter our vision of Leonardo’s masterpiece forever. When I finished the reconstruction of Lisa Gherardini, I was in front of the portrait and she is totally different to Mona Lisa today.”

Mr Cote used his own layer amplification method on the masterpiece. It works by “projecting a series of intense lights” onto the painting, Mr Cotte said. A camera then takes measurements of the lights’ reflections and from those measurements, Mr Cotte said he is able to reconstruct what has happened between the layers of paint. EXPRESS.CO.UK

A rat’s tale A monster rat — that was a metre long with its tail — has been captured in the grounds of a university. The images of the giant rodent , which weighed as much as 10kg, sparked a social media frenzy. Some expressed fears it was part of a new breed of super rat others even suggested it was a genetically modified Frankenstein rat. The coypu, otherwise known as a river rat or nutria, was spotted scurrying through corridors and along rooftops at Wenzhou Medical University in China. Staff eventually caught the creature, which has thumb-sized front teeth and powerful claws, by throwing several fishing nets over it.

It was later put in a cardboard box and handed over to wildlife experts to be released in a remote location. Lecturers said they believe the creature may be an escaped pet. River rat babies sell for about £93 — on some trading sites. MIRROR.CO.UK

Our kind deed

By Musa Salahuddin One time my family and I family went to perform Hajj in the City of Makkah. The Holy Kaaba is usually packed with people from all over the globe to perform the holy pilgrimage. When we were on our way out of the Masjid, we saw an old lady looking worried. We asked her the reason. She told us that she and her nephew came from Qatar for the sacred pilgrimage. But due to the overwhelming rush of people, she lost track of her nephew. She said that her money, mobile phone and credit card were in her nephew’s pocket. After listening to her story we took out our sheets, sat down and invited her to have dinner with us before trying to locate her nephew. After dinner, my father called the lady’s nephew from his cell phone and settled a meeting point with him. The nephew eventually made his way through the mass of people and finally the lady was reunited with him.

The old lady was extremely grateful and thanked us over and over again. They went off in their direction while we returned back to our hotel. They say never give up a chance to do good. A simple, random act of kindness may mean the world to someone else.

Share your short stories with us.

Email them to hifive@tribune.com.pk

THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE, DECEMBER 27, 2015

Reading corner

6 1. The United Nations declared 2015 to be the International Year of Light and the International Year of Soils. The Year of Light commemorates the centenary of Einstein’s formulation of the theory of general relativity which predicted that light is deflected by gravity.

2. The year commemorated the 800th anniversary of King John issuing the Magna Carta at Runnymede in 1215.

3. It was the 600th anniversary of England’s defeat of the French at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415.

4. The 200th anniversary of Wellington’s defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo was also commemorated this year.

5. In 1815, Humphrey Davy invented the miner’s lamp — 200 years ago.

6. Isaac Asimov’s story Runaround, in which he set out the three laws of robotics, is set in 2015.

7. English footballer Stanley Matthews, actors Norman Wisdom and Ingrid Bergman and Orson Welles, and singer Frank Sinatra were all born 100 years ago.

8. This is also the bicentenary of the opening of the world’s first commercial cheese factory, in Switzerland in 1815.

9. In Back to the Future II Marty Mc Fly flies into the future to the year 2015.

2016 in animation The year 2016 may as well be dubbed as the year of animated films. Here’s a look at a few of the many great animated movies coming out next year.

Kung Fu Panda 3 January 2016 Continuing his “legendary adventures of awesomeness”, Po must face two hugely epic, but different threats: one supernatural and the other a little closer to his home.

Norm of the North January 2016 With help from his furry sidekicks, a polar bear travels to New York to stop a maniacal developer from building luxury condominiums in the Arctic.

Zootopia February 2016 In the animal city of Zootopia, a fast-talking fox and a self-righteous rabbit are forced to team up and discover even inherent enemies can become best friends.

Finding Dory June 2016 The friendly-but-forgetful blue tang fish reunites with her loved ones, and everyone learns a few things about the true meaning of family along the way.

Ice Age: Collision Course July 2016 Scrat’s epic pursuit of his elusive acorn catapults him outside of Earth, where he accidentally sets off a series of cosmic events that transform and threaten the planet.

The Secret Life of Pets July 2016 Max’s life as a favourite pet is turned upside down, when his owner brings home a sloppy mongrel named Duke. They have to put their quarrels behind when they find out that an adorable white bunny named Snowball is up to something sinister.

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, DECEMBER 27, 2015

Activity corner

Mind Game

Help Mike and Sully transport Boo back to our world by finding all the words listed below in the puzzle MONSTER RAWR BOO MIKE WAZOWSKI

SULLY CELIA ROZ FUNGUS MANAGER

BILE FLINT SCREAM SCARE CHILD

7

THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE, DECEMBER 27, 2015

Materials: Ingredients: Apples 2 large Flour 6 tbsp Sugar 3/4 cup Cinnamon 1-1/2 tbsp Chilled butter 2 tbsp, cut into 12 equal pieces Pie crust 1 box Melted butter for basting

• Three rectangular pieces of mirror or mirrored cardboard cut to the same size (about 15 cm long and 4 cm wide) • Tape • Tracing paper • Plastic kitchen film • Scissors • Sequins, confetti or coloured paper

Directions: • Tape the mirrors together along the long sides to form a triangular tube with the mirrored surfaces on the inside. It’s easiest if you leave a two millimetre gap between each mirror.

• Cover one end of the tube with tracing paper. Secure this with tape.

• Place the confetti, sequins or very small pieces of coloured paper onto the outside of the paper.

• Stick a piece of clear plastic film on the very outside over the small coloured pieces to ensure they will not escape.

Method: • Set oven to 400o F • Mix together the sugar, cinnamon and flour in a small bowl.

• Peel and slice the apples.

• Coat the apples with the sugar mixture.

• Unroll the pie crust and cut 12 circles with a jar lid.

• Line the muffin pan with the cut out circles.

• Fill with the prepared apples, making sure that the apples do not touch the sides of the pan.

• Lay a piece of butter on each pie and cover with the cut out shapes.

• Brush with melted butter and bake for 18-22 minutes.

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

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

• Point the kaleidoscope down at a bright light source. While looking through the viewing hole, rotate the kaleidoscope so confetti or sequins move about. You will see beautiful shapes that constantly change.

• You can experiment with different coloured cellophane filters or increase the number of mirrors used to build the tube.

What is happening: A kaleidoscope is made from mirrors placed at angles to each other.

The viewer looks in one end and light enters the other end. This light is reflected again and again by the mirrors. Light bounces off a surface at exactly the same angle at which it hits the surface. As the tube is rotated, the tumbling coloured objects present the viewer with varying colours and patterns. These show up as symmetrical patterns due to the reflections in the mirrors. When the mirrors are set at 60 degree angles, it creates six sets of reflected images.