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Your Proofness: Sarah Munir Master Storyteller: Hurmat Majid Creativity Analysts: Jamal Khurshid, Essa Malik, Talha Ahmed Khan, Omer Asim, Mohsin Alam, Aamir Khan, Eesha Azam, Mariam Rashid, Hira Fareed and Umar Waqas
THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE, FEBRUARY 22, 2015
Hi light
2 With the Oscars being aired worldwide tonight, you must be curious to find out more about the award cermony. The Academy Awards or The Oscars (officially renamed in 2013) is the oldest entertainment award ceremony in America honouring cinematic achievements. The first Academy Awards presentation was held on May 16, 1929, at a private dinner at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel with an audience of about 270 people. Fifteen statuettes were awarded that year in a 15-minute ceremony followed by a celebratory dinner. The awards ceremony was first broadcasted in 1953 and is now seen live in more than 200 countries. For the first six ceremonies, the eligibility period spanned two calendar years but since 1835 the awards honour cinematic accomplishments of the previous year. Up until 2014 a total of 2,947 awards have been presented.
In 1928, MGM’s art director Cedric Gibbons, one of the original Academy members, supervised the design of the award trophy by printing the design on a scroll. His idea was to have a knight gripping a sword while standing on a film reel. Then George Stanley, a renowned sculptor, created Gibbons’ design in clay and Sachin Smith cast the statuette in 92.5 per cent tin and 7.5 percent copper and then gold-plated it. The original Oscar mold was cast in 1928 at the C W Shumway & Sons Foundry in Batavia, Illinois. An Oscar stands 13½ inches tall and weighs about eight½ pounds. The film reel features five spokes, signifying the five original branches of the Academy: actors, directors, producers, technicians and writers. Due to a metal shortage during World War II, the award were made of painted plaster for three years. Following the war, the Academy invited recipients to redeem the plaster figures for goldplated metal ones.
The origin of the name ‘Oscar’ is disputed. One biography of Bette Davis claims that she named the Oscar after her first husband, band leader Harmon Oscar Nelson. Walt Disney is also quoted as thanking the Academy for his ‘Oscar’ as early as 1932. Another claimed that the Academy’s executive secretary, Margaret Herrick, first saw the award in 1931 and made reference to the statuette reminding her of her ‘Uncle Oscar’. Columnist Sidney Skolsky is another person who claims that he came up with the name ‘Oscar’ for the statuette. Since 1950, the statuettes have been legally encumbered by the requirement that neither winners nor their heirs may sell the statuette without first offering to sell it back to the Academy for US$1. If a winner refuses to agree to this stipulation, then the Academy keeps the statuette. While the Oscar is owned by the recipient, it is essentially not on the open market. Academy Awards not protected by this agreement have been sold in public auctions and private deals for six-figure sums.
Achievements in up to 25 regular categories will be honoured in tonight’s ceremony, the 87th Oscar presentation at the Dolby Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center. However, the Academy won’t know how many statuettes it will hand out until the envelopes are opened on Oscar Night. Although the number of categories is known in advance, the possibility of ties and multiple recipients sharing the prize in some categories makes it impossible to predict the exact number of statuettes.
THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE, FEBRUARY 22, 2015
Hi light
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What would you like to see in Hi Five? Send an email to hifive@tribune.com.pk and let us know!
THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE, FEBRUARY 22, 2015
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Fun Facts about Tastebuds
Q. Why can’t Cinderella play soccer? A. Because she’s always running away from the ball.
Q. When is a baby good at basketball? A. When it’s dribbling!
You can’t see your taste buds. Those bumps you see on your tongue when you look at it in the mirror aren’t taste buds. They are called ‘fungiform papillae’ and each has an average of six taste buds buried inside its surface tissue. Specialised taste receptors inside the taste buds allow us to distinguish sweet, salty, sour and bitter and a possible fifth taste called ‘umami’, which has a savoury element. You don’t just have taste buds on your tongue, they’re spread everywhere, from the roof of your mouth to your throat and stomach.
Q. What runs but never moves? A. A fence.
Not everyone has the same amount of taste buds. The average adult has between 2,000 and 10,000 taste buds. People who have more than 10,000 of them are considered to be ‘supertasters’ because they taste things more intensely.
Q. How do you start a firefly race? A. Ready, set, glow!
Taste and flavour are not the same thing. Taste is what your taste buds pick up: sweet, salty, sour, bitter. Flavor is a combination of taste plus smell, specifically ‘retronasal olfaction’, which is how your brain registers scent when you eat something. It is the scent message from eating that combines with taste to create flavour.
Q. Which animal is the best cricket player? A. The bat.
Taste buds go through a life cycle where they grow from basal cells into taste cells and then die and are sloughed away. Their normal life cycle is anywhere from 10 days to two weeks. However, burning your tongue on hot foods can also kill taste buds, but they grow back, which is why the ability to taste doesn’t diminish with age.
Did you know? The story of Scrabble Did you know Scrabble was invented by an architect? In 1933, Alfred Mosher Butts created an early version of the game. To determine how many tiles there should be and how many points each letter should be worth, he calculated letter frequency on the front page of the local newspaper. So, for example, Q is a letter that occurs least often in English text, so it appear on only one tile and that tile should be worth 10 points. The game wasn’t always called Scrabble. Butts named his game ‘Lexico’, then changed the name to ‘Criss-Cross Words’. His friend and eventual business partner, James Brunot, came up with the name ‘Scrabble’ in the late 1930s. Initially no game manufacturer was interested in making the game, so Butts made the games himself in his garage with Brunot’s help. Around 1957, the president of Macy’s saw the game being played and placed a huge order that Brunot and Butts couldn’t create alone. Butts had to sell it to Selchow and Righter. The game is now manufactured by Hasbro. Scrabble has not changed much since its creation but people have come up with crazy variations of their own, including ‘Clabbers’ in which palyers are only required to form anagrams of acceptable words. But the original game of Scrabble, however, is still widely popular throughout the world.
THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE, FEBRUARY 22, 2015
Get your weekly dose of unusual and funny news from across the globe!
Selfless cancer patient Selfless Huang Yuanfeng, 45, was one of the few people to make his way out of the isolated place he grew up in to seek his fortune. But, 20 years later, he returned to his beloved hometown and is now spending his money helping residents instead of ‘wasting it’ on trying to rid his body of cancer. After his daughter learned of her father’s determination she dropped out of university for a year in order to look after him. Yuanfeng says he had the choice of either wasting his money on attempting a cure that pretty much everybody agreed wouldn’t work, or spending the money on something really useful. And what could be more useful than “a road that would give my fellow villagers the opportunities that I had.” Yuanfeng, who grew up in the remote village of Xiaojiangtun in southern China, spent two decades living and working in the nearby city of Guilin, which is one of the most visited tourist destinations in the country because of its spectacular scenery. After discussing his condition with doctors, he realised the chances of survival were slim and decided to spend his money helping others. He says life was difficult there because of the mountains and fast flowing rivers, but when his road is finished it will be possible to drive there and because of the spectacular scenery there will be an influx of tourists. When the project is finished Yuanfeng will have spent all his savings but he claims it would be totally worth his efforts. MIRROR.CO.UK
Britain’s penguin turns 37 Pat was born in Paignton Zoo in 1978 and is thought to be the second-oldest penguin in Europe. The great-grandmother was moved recently, to Living Coasts in Torquay where she now spends her days chilling with Eddie, another penguin, who was hatched at the zoo in 2001. Pat celebrated her 37th birthday by tucking into a flower-shaped sprat cake and a blue gelatin cake filled with even more sprats. Chris Dunn, a penguin keeper at Living Coasts, says Pat has a very distinctive stance with her flippers sticking out. She can be seen by her burrow or down at the public feeds. She is a very sweet penguin, quite happy to approach keepers for fish, and once she has decided she has had enough she will head back to her burrow holding a sprat in her beak. At the moment she is freshly molted. She is a very healthy and happy-looking bird, hopefully she has many more years to come. EXPRESS.CO.UK
World wide weird
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The toughest natural material on earth The teeth of the limpets, tiny aquatic lumps, are so insanely tough they could be copied to make the cars, boats and planes of the future. Researchers at the University of Portsmouth examined the mechanics of limpet teeth by pulling them apart all the way down to the level of the atom. Spider silk was previously considered to be the toughest natural material. It was because of its super-strength and potential applications in everything from bullet-proof vests to computer electronics, but the limpet teeth exhibit a strength that is potentially higher. Researchers working on the project find the teeth fascinating and hope to find ways to copy the genetic structure of the material. This would help them create a material imitating the properties of limpet teeth which could be a breakthrough in modern science. METRO.CO.UK
The real professor Snape Michael Snape, a 46-year-old historian from Clitheroe, Lancashire, has just been hired by Durham University. Although he is not a professor yet, when he takes up his position on September 1st he will be prepared for some sniggers from students more familiar with the nefarious magical teacher from JK Rowling’s Harry Potter novels. In case there are any readers who don’t know, Rowling’s professor Snape is the potions master at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and a recurring enemy of the orphaned hero. Professor Michael Snape is not a potions master, nor is he proficient at leglimens, or a Death Eater. He is a keen swimmer and military re-enactor. The shocking bit is that Snape has never actually read Harry Potter, although his children and spouse have mentioned the character to him a lot. He says the books look boring and long. As for the films he says he has seen glimpses of two. He says he wasn’t even curious about the franchise although he wishes he had all the money Alan Rickman must have earned from the movies. The only streak of interest he had in the character was to know if he would turn out to be good or evil. TELEGRAPH.CO.UK
THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE, FEBRUARY 22, 2015
Reading corner
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Looks can be Deceiving by Ayesha Ahmed It was a sunny day but there was a breeze and light, fluffy clouds. Everyone at the railway station was waiting for ple were w the train to arrive. The station was bustling with people, there was a constant buzz of chatter all around. People eagerly waiting for guests to arrive while, others were saying goodbye. Among the crowd, there was a group of ing friends, four boys, who were heading out on vacation. They were standing around waiting for their train, making plans for all their great adventures. Careless and young as they were, the boys kept making fun passers by; commenting on their appearances dressing. n As the train’s arrival was announced, the group of friends welcomed the train as it entered the station. They ran n to get their reserved seats before anyone could board the train. The empty seats were soon filled and the train whistled, ready to move. An old man with a young boy aged around 15 years came running to catch the train. They boarded the train and it started to move. They had their seats adjacent to the group of boys. The young boy was so surprised to see everything. As soon as they sat down, he glued himself to the window. As the train started to move, he exclaimed, “Dad, look the people and shops are all moving backwards!” n, His father smiled and nodded his head. As the train started moving fast, the young boy smile and spoke again, J “Dad the trees are running backwards, what colour are they dad?” His father said, “Yes dear, they are green.” Just ling i apples like a kid, he was watching everything with great enthusiasm and happiness. A fruit seller on the train was selling h the apple tastes so sweet, sweet and oranges. The young boy asked his dad, “I want to eat apples.” His father bought him an apple. He said, “Oh, what colour is this dad, I love it.” Soon the friends started to notice the boy’s excitement and found it strange. Bound by their habit, they started making fun of the boy. “He must be crazy”, one said. Another said, “Why isn’t the father stopping him?” This went on until they got too loud. One boy from the group made fun of him and shouted, “His son is mad I think.” The father of the young boy turned to them and very calmly replied, “My son was born blind. It’s just been a few days since his operation. He is seeing colour for the first time and the things that appear normal to us excite him.” There was a long silence, the friends were stunned and then they came and sat in front of the little boy and apologised to him for their rude behavior. The boys vowed never to judge others. They started to enjoy the boy’s excited remarks and started to tell him more about everything he saw.
Magazine Review Uran Tashtaree Have you been looking for a way to improve your Urdu or simply enjoy reading short stories in Urdu? If yes, the magazine Uran Tashtaree (Flying Saucer) will surely interest you. The magazine is published by the Children’s Literature Festival and edited by Arma Alam. It’s a bi-monthly magazine, with a larger chunk dedicated to Urdu and a few stories in English. The great thing about the magazine is that it showcases one story in a regional language in each issue, giving children the chance to read in their native language as well. While kids notoriously run away from dry textbook matter, the easy-to-read magazine can help readers read and enjoy Urdu. It provides its readers with 60 pages of entertaiment and information. With informative and easy to understand features, such as Achi Baat (good things) and Kitaab ki Baat, (about books) stories and poems, the readers have a lot of variety. Sections like Aap ki Kahani and Aap k Khatoot give the reader a chance to become a part of the storytelling while polishing their writing skills. Each issue showcases at least three features from its readers. Uran Tashtaree gives homage to our literary stalwarts while promoting modern day authors. The magazine is available at all leading book stores and you can also subscribe to it at www.childrensliteraturefestival.com
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, FEBRUARY 22, 2015
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Artwork
Mayam Talal
Mahnaz Mir Winner
Notable Entries for the Liberty Books Cards
Competition Theme: Reading time Sarah Mirza Mumtaz Mir
THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE, FEBRUARY 22, 2015
Materials: • Balloon • Coloured paper • Scissors • White glue
• Paint brush • Tall container (to balance the balloon)
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Ingredients: Strawberries Vanilla ice cream Lime fizzy drink
4 to 5 1 scoop 125 ml
Method: •
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Carefully chop the strawberries and blend them with a little water. Make sure to use just enough water to make a chunky paste. Pour the paste into the bottom of a glass and put it in the freezer for half an hour.
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After the paste has had time to chill, pour some of the fizzy drink over it.
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Top the glass up with a scoop of ice cream.
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Garnish with chopped strawberries and your strawberry float is ready .
Directions: •
Cut up the coloured paper into tiny pieces (check the two-hole punch in your house for readymade confetti).
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Inflate the balloon and balance it over the container so that both your hands are free to work on the balloon.
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Use the paint brush to cover half of the balloon with white glue.
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Now cover the glue completely with confetti and let it dry. Then put on another coat of glue and repeat the process.
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Let it dry overnight. The next morning lift the balloon off the container and pop it.
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Voila! Your confetti bowl 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. SOURCE: GOODSHOMEDESIGN.COM