The Express Tribune hi five - July 1

e n u b i tr THE

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Vampires are everywhere!

PAGE 2 Make your very own wind chime!

PAGE 4 The world just gets weirder and weirder PAGE 5 Snow in the Sahara desert?

You must be joking!

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THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE, JULY 1, 2012

Hi Light

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beware the vampire As bats flap through the musty castle, a coffin lid creaks open and a white hand appears. The lid slides off and a caped figure rises — Dracula is on the prowl! Beware of Count Dracula, he has been dead for centuries yet he walks the earth. That’s because he is a vampire!

He hides from the light of day and emerges at night to search for his next victim. The Count’s castle in Transylvania is a dark and mysterious place, where visitors are always welcome ... to a fate worse than death!

Of course, vampires do not really exist and are merely scary characters in books and movies. People have been dreaming up these horrible monsters for centuries. Vampire-like creatures date back thousands of years and pop up in dozens of different cultures. British writer, Bram Stoker, created the Dracula myth for his 1897 horror novel Dracula. Many historians believe that Bram’s Dracula was inspired by a 15th century Romanian ruler named Vlad Tepes.

Vlad ruled Wallachia (now a part of Romania in southeastern Europe) more than 600 years ago and is believed to have been very, very cruel.

Vlad wasn’t a vampire at all but because he was cruel, people used to call him “Dracul” or “Dracula” which means both “devil” and “dragon”. Other authors reinterpreted Dracula in a number of plays, movies and books and thus the vampire was born.

According to the books and movies, vampires were once normal humans who, after being bitten by a vampire, became monsters. Vampires crave the blood of the living for whom they hunt during the night.

Vampires can take the form of a vampire bat, a real animal that feeds on blood. In real life, vampire bats don’t usually kill their prey, and they pose little threat to humans. In fact, they are small harmless animals.

Vampires can live forever but they do have a few weaknesses. One of the ways to find out if

someone is a vampire is by looking at them through a mirror, since vampires don’t cast a reflection. They can be also be destroyed by a stake through the heart, fire and direct sunlight. Garlic, a traditional vampire repellent, has been used as a form of protection for over 2,000 years. Ancient Egyptians believed garlic was a gift from God, Roman soldiers thought it gave them courage, sailors believed it protected them from shipwreck, and German miners believed it protected them from evil spirits when they went underground. Scientists now know that the oil in garlic, allicin, is a highly effective antibiotic and helps cure many diseases.

In eastern European folklore, you could ward off a vampire by scattering seeds on the ground, either on top of the vampire’s grave or outside your house. Vampires were said to be obsessive creatures, and they were compelled to count all the seeds. If you hid a nail in the seeds, it would prick the vampire midway through the count. The vampire would then drop the seeds and have to start all over again. Maybe that’s why Dracula is called the Count!

While vampires may not exist, many of their abilities and features have been taken from real and mystical creatures from across the world.

The ancient Greeks believed in the Lamia, a demoness with the head and torso of a woman and the lower body of a snake.

Vampire-like figures also have a long history in Asia. Indian stories tell of a number of nightmarish characters, including the rakshasa, gargoyle-like shape-shifters and vetala, demons who would take possession of dead bodies. In Chinese folklore, corpses could sometimes rise from the grave and walk again. One particularly vicious sort, known as the Kuang-shi (or Chiang-shi), could fly and take different forms. The Kuang-shi were covered in white fur,

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THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE, JULY 1, 2012

Hi Light

3 had glowing red eyes and bit into their prey with sharp fangs.

Certain regions in the Balkans even believed that fruit, such as pumpkins or watermelons, would become vampires if they were left out longer than 10 days. Vampire pumpkins or watermelons generally were not feared because they do not have teeth.

A drop of blood on a fruit’s skin was thought to be a sign that it was about to turn into a vampire.

All these creatures have one thing in common; they don’t look like the vampires you see on television. In fact, vampires were once thought to be small, scary creatures. They didn’t even look human but when the film Dracula came out in 1931, the Count was portrayed as a sophisticated gentleman. Soon the look became popular and all vampires after that copied it. That is why all the vampires in movies, television shows and cartoons now dress in black and have a cape. Did you know that the most popular vampire in children’s fiction in recent years has been Bunnicula, a cute little rabbit that is a vegetarian vampire!

So now you know that vampires don’t exist, but what if they did? While there is no scientific evidence of actual vampires, there are

a number of real medical conditions that might result in vampire-like behaviour or appearance.

A rare disease called porphyria (also called the “vampire” or “Dracula” disease) causes vampirelike symptoms, such as an extreme sensitivity to sunlight and sometimes hairiness.

Catalepsy, a peculiar physical condition, makes a person freeze up. Their muscles become rigid, so that the body is very stiff, and the heart rate and respiration slow down. Someone suffering from acute catalepsy could very well be mistaken for a corpse. Today, doctors have the knowledge and tools to accurately determine whether or not someone is alive, but in the past, people would decide based only on appearance. Since a cataleptic episode can last many hours, even days, people would assume that the person is dead and bury them. When the person came to, he or she might have been able to dig themselves out and return home, probably scaring everyone!

So now you know all there is to know about vampires. They don’t exist but it’s better to be safe than sorry, so the next time your mother tells you to finish your veggies, ask for an extra helping of garlic!

THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE, JULY 1, 2012

Activity Corner

4 Wind Chime

Supplies needed: • Coloured string • Coat hanger • Things to hang on your wind chime like old silverware, soda cans, old CDs, nuts and bolts, and anything else you can find that you think would make a neat noise and is pretty small

Method: 1. To start, arrange your objects on the table and think which ones you want to hang on your wind chime.

2. For example, you could make a wind chime using silverware, a potato peeler, rings, nuts and bolts, a cookie cutter, an old CD and a few soda cans. (Make sure the soda cans are rinsed out before using them.)

3. You can even paint your soda cans so they really stand out.

4. When the cans are dry, tie a piece of string to the tab on top of each can.

5. Now tie a piece of string onto the other objects you want to hang on your wind chime. Make the strings different lengths.

6. Arrange your items on the hanger. The heavier items should be towards the middle so it’s balanced.

7. Now hang your wind chime outside to see how it sounds.

Make any changes that you think might work better.

8. Experiment until your wind chime sounds just the way you want. Enjoy!

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

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

THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE, JULY 1, 2012

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

World wide weird

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Sight beyond sight While she can’t see through walls or shoot heat rays like Superman, this unidentified woman has the ability to see much greater colour depth than almost everyone else in the world.

She has been found with ‘superhuman’ sight enabling her to see 99 million more colours than the rest of us.

She can see an unimaginable range and depth of hues and is the first so-called ‘tetrachromat’ to be discovered in Britain. Gabriele Jordan, a neuroscientist at Newcastle University, says the condition only affects women — and there may be others. “Unfortunately, she cannot describe how her colour vision compares with ours any more than we can tell a colour-blind person what red looks like to us,” she said.

Vision is based on eye cells known as cones — but tetrachromats have four types instead of three. “Tetrachromats may never need to draw on their full capacity,” said Jordan. “They may be trapped in a world tailored to creatures with lesser powers,” she added.

SOURCE: WEB.ORANGE.CO.UK

Leonardo da veggie Here’s Leonardo da Vinci’s famous master-peas Mona Lisa — made entirely out of vegetables.

Artist Alon Zaid used cabbage, brinjal and broccoli to capture her enigmatic smile.

The 60-year-old also made fruit and vegetable versions of other famous paintings — Rene Magritte’s The Son Of Man, The Birth Of Venus by Sandro Botticelli and Dora Maar Seated by Pablo Picasso.

Alon bought the vegetables from his local greengrocer then spent five hours piecing together each artwork. He said: “We fitted the texture of the foods to the work.” Well … it clearly seems to be working. SOURCE: THESUN.CO.UK

A step too fart?

Recycled paradise

Did he rob a bank? Did he break a signal? Did he kidnap someone? No, this US pensioner has been arrested for threatening to shoot a neighbour for breaking wind outside his home.

Daniel Collins Junior, 72, of Teaneck, New Jersey, is accused of pointing a silver revolver at his 47-year-old neighbour.

Police say the confrontation came in the lobby of their apartment building after the neighbour ‘farted’ as he walked by Collins’ door.

Detective Lt Andrew McGurr said Collins told the man: “I’m going to put a hole in your head.”

Collins told detectives he heard the un-neighbourly act from inside his apartment, reports the Bergen Record.

The neighbour called the police, who found a revolver under the front passenger seat of Collins’ vehicle.

Collins was charged with aggravated assault, unlawful possession of a firearm, possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose and terroristic threats.

Life can be a never-ending vacation if you can hop onto this island and embark on your dream holiday.

Making this a possibility is an Austrian firm that has come up with, what it hopes is, the next big thing for the mega-rich: a man-made, floating “island” with a list price of 5.2 million euros (Rs615.1 million).

Measuring 20 by 37 metres, the “Orsos Island” has no engine but can be anchored anywhere its owners choose and then towed to another location to the other side of the world if they so wish, inventor Gabor Orsos said.

“The interest has been massive from all over the world, from Australia, China and the United States. We have already had the first pre-orders and we have some potential buyers coming from Australia next week,” the entrepreneur said.

The island is environmentally friendly and fully self-sufficient, with solar panels and wind generators providing power. It can sleep 12 people plus crew and offers 1,000 square metres of living space.

The only problem is that no islands’ have been produced yet and that once manufacturing starts it will initially be in land-locked Slovakia.

But Orsos expects the first finished products to be ready in 18 months and for the ‘islands’ to be transported down the Danube river into the Black Sea — and then to wherever the customer wants. SOURCE: AFP

SOURCE: WEB.ORANGE.CO.UK

THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE, JULY 1, 2012

Did you know?

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s n i g i r O Word Costs an arm and a leg You have probably come across the phrase, “it costs an arm and a leg”. Have you wondered what it means?

Well, before the invention of the camera, the only way to have k then, a picture of yourself was by getting it painted. Many believe that back portrait painters used to charge more for larger paintings and a head and shoulders painting were the cheapest option, followed in price by one which included arms and finally the top of the range ‘legs and all’ portrait. This is a myth. Painters certainly did charge more for large pictures, but there’s no evidence to suggest they did so by limb count. In any case the phrase is much more recent than the painting origin would suggest. ‘Arm and leg’ are used as examples of items that no one would consider selling other than at an enormous price, thus the phrase it ‘costs an arm and a leg’.

Crazy laws!

In Alabama, bear wrestling matches are prohibited.

In Alaska, even though it is legal to hunt a bear, it is illegal to wake a bear and take a picture for photo opportunities.

In Arizona, a man can legally beat his wife, but not more than once a month.

In California, a city ordinance states that a $500 fine will be given to anyone who detonates a nuclear device within city limits.

Cool facts Sea otters hold hands when they sleep so they don’t drift away from each other.

A small child could swim through the veins of a blue whale.

The placement of the eyes of a donkey enables them to see all four of their legs at all times.

At birth, a panda is smaller than a mouse and weighs about four ounces.

Pirates wore earrings because they believed it improved their eyesight.

In Connecticut, a pickle is not officially a pickle unless it bounces

Los Angeles full name is “El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Angeles de Porciuncula.”

In Florida, it is considered an offense to shower naked.

It snowed in the Sahara desert for 30 minutes on the 18th February 1979.

A DC federal judge has ruled that begging is a form of free speech protected by the Constitution.

The first alarm clock could only ring at 4am.

THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE, JULY 1, 2012

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Fun & games

Want to be hi five’s artist of the week?

Send your drawing with your name and age to: hifive@tribune. com.pk

THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE, JULY 1, 2012

Help the vampire find its way back to its coffin!

SOURCE:PRINTACTIVITIES.COM

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