The Express Tribune hi five - May 27

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Wow your friends with some magic tricks PAGE 3 Want to send a secret message?

Use some invisible ink!

PAGE 4 A man with a truly ‘magnetic’ personality PAGE 5 If you were planning to take your pet lion to the cinema in Baltimore, you’re out of luck!

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A Magical Tale

THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE, MAY 27, 2012

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Don’t you just love magic? Criss Angel, David Blaine, David Copperfield, Penn & Teller, Siegfried & Roy are all great magicians. They can make cards levitate, read minds, make people disappear and even fly but have they ever used their magic to stop a war? Read on about the adventures of Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin, the father of modern magic.

Jean was the son of a watchmaker and had always dreamed of following in his father’s footsteps. In the mid-1820s, young Jean saved up to buy a copy of a two-volume set of books on clock-making but when he got home from the bookstore, he discovered that the clerk had accidently given him two books about magic. Jean kept the books and soon sought out magical performers who could teach him about magic.

Jean also started combining his knowledge of clockwork with magic and began creating clockwork automata (robots!) that were really popular with the public. But it was when he introduced his new magic act, “Second Sight”, that he became really famous. In the act, Jean would hold an object in his hand, and his son would describe it while blindfolded.

Jean’s other famous tricks include “The Ethereal Suspension” where he made his son levitate above the stage and “The Fantastic Orange Tree” where he borrowed a ring and reproduced it from a tree that blossomed oranges, tied to the centre of a handkerchief and pulled aloft by fluttering butterflies; and many others. Several of these illusions were even reproduced in the 2006 film The Illusionist!

Jean continued his magic career until he retired in 1854 at the ripe old age of 48. But his greatest act was yet to come! In 1856, there was an uprising in French Algeria led by magicians. Napoleon III ordered Jean to go to Algeria and show the people that French magic was stronger and that the tribes should not revolt.

At first, Jean would hold performances in which he recreated the effects of

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local magicians, demonstrating that they were just tricks and not really miracles as they claimed. He produced some coins from his empty hand and then a cannon ball from his empty top hat. He then brandished an empty bowl which then was miraculously filled and refilled with sweetmeats. Eventually tiring of this, he followed the sweetmeats with a magical stream of boiling coffee that was passed around to the assembled people.

But the locals were unimpressed, so Jean had to raise the stakes. He brought out a chest, set it in the middle of the stage and invited a child to lift it up to demonstrate how light it was. Next he chanted some words and then said that he had just stolen all the strength from the crowd. To prove this, he invited the strongest warriors to try and lift the chest, but they were unable to pick it up. How did he do it? Well, the night before, Jean had hid a strong electromagnet under the stage and when the men bent to pick the chest, Jean switched on the magnet.

After his performance, Jean became quite famous and travelled across the desert putting on shows wherever enough people would gather. For several weeks, Jean trekked across the sands until he finally discovered where the main force of the rebellion had gathered. As Jean approached the town, he was challenged to a duel – not with magic but with guns! So the next day Jean stood unarmed at one end of town, while the rebel leader stood at the other. The rebel shot first, a shot rang out. From the other end of the street Jean staggered a step or two, looked up and smiled and then spat the bullet from his mouth. How did he do it? Well, Jean had replaced the rebel’s bullet with a fake one and placed the real one in his mouth. When the bullet was fired, Jean pretended to be hurt and then revealed the bullet in his mouth!

After witnessing the power of French magic, the rebels surrendered on the spot and Jean returned home where he was rewarded for his services by the French government.

Quite a tale!

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Hi light

Magic’s grand-daddy

THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE, MAY 27, 2012

Hi light

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Phantom Coin What You Need: Two large coins

Instructions:

1.Hold two large coins together between your index fingers.

2.Rub the coins up and down quickly, and watch what happens.

It looks like a third coin magically appears between the other two!

Wow your friends

Mind Reading What You Need:

An accomplice (a friend who knows the secret) Chewing gum

Instructions:

1.Tell your friends that you can read the mind of your accomplice.

2.Ask someone to whisper a number from 1 to 10 in your accomplice’s ear.

3.Put your hands on your accomplice’s cheeks. (Act like you are reading his mind) 4.Your accomplice should chew their gum the same number of times as the number that was whispered in their ear.

5.You will amazingly know what number was whispered in your accomplice’s ear!

Colour Card Trick What You Need: A deck of cards A friend

Instructions:

1.Separate the cards into black and red.

Put one half (let’s say the black half) on top.

Don’t let anyone see you do this!

2.Have your friend choose 1 card from the top. You can do this by fanning out the top few cards and asking him to choose one.

Obviously the card will be black.

3.Then tell them to put his card near the bottom of the pack without letting you see it.

Again, you can fan out the bottom few cards to give him a choice.

4.Split the deck somewhere in the middle, and place the bottom half on the top to “shuffle” the cards. It is ok if the split is not exactly in the middle.

5.Look through the deck to find your friend’s card. The card they chose will be the only black one amongst the reds! A simple trick, but if done well it’ll look like magic!

Betcha Can’t Tie a Knot!

What You Need:

A two-foot long piece of rope or string

Instructions:

1.Bet your friend they can’t tie a knot in a rope without letting go of either end.

2.After your friend is done trying, cross your arms in front of your chest and grab an end of the rope in each hand.

3.Unfold your arms and there will be a knot in the rope!

THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE, MAY 27, 2012

Activity Corner

4 Invisible Ink Making invisible ink is a lot of fun — you can pretend you are a secret agent as you keep all your secret codes and messages hidden from others.

s e i l p p Su : d e d e ne • Half a lemon • Water • Spoon • Bowl • Cotton bud • White paper • Lamp or other light bulb

How to make it:

Step 1

Squeeze some lemon juice into a bowl and add a few drops of water.

Mix the water and lemon juice with the spoon.

Step 3

Dip the cotton bud into the mixture and write a message onto the white paper.

Wait for the juice to dry so it becomes completely invisible.

Step 5

Step 2

Step 4

When you are ready to read your secret message or show it to someone else, heat the paper by holding it close to a light bulb.

What’s happening?

Lemon juice is an organic substance that oxidises and turns brown when heated. Diluting the lemon juice in water makes it very hard to notice when you apply it to paper, no one will be aware of its presence until it is heated and the secret message is revealed.

Remember kids, light bulbs can be extremely hot so ask a parent to help out.

Always get permission from your parents before you start. It’s always a good idea to have a helper nearby.

THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE, MAY 27, 2012

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

Double O Bird ird

Going for a spin

A new flock of spies have been deployed in Turkey – they chirp and peck and maintain a bird’s eye view of their activities. A migratoryy bird has caused alarm in a village in n south-eastern Turkey after locals mistook it for an Israeli spy. Villagers’ rs’ suspicions were aroused when the bird, a common European bee-eater, er, was found dead in a field with a metal ring around its leg stamped “Israel”.

They called the police after deciding ing its nostrils were unusually large and may have carried a microchip fitted by Israeli intelligence ffor spying. It was taken to government experts for examination and declared safe. SOURCE: BBC.CO.UK

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A seemingly routine trip to the laundromat turned into an urgent ordeal after a couple’s child became stuck inside an active washing machine. The man in the video was presumably playing with the child when n he placed him inside the machine. However, when the e door locked, the automatic cycle began with the tot trapped inside. The panicked couple then started bangging and pulling on the door without success as the child ld continued to spin inside the machine, according to surrveillance video posted on YouTube. Out of options, the e man urgently ran to the back of the laundromat to gett the attention of a worker, who rushed to the scene and d unplugged the washer. When the door finally unlatched, ed, the worker pulled the child out of the machine. Despite e being trapped for more than a minute, the child managed to escape the machine with only minor bruises. SOURCE: HUFFINGTONPOST.COM

Queen Bean

Moustachio

Magneto

You really need to zoom in this time to see the Queen as a sculptor hass created what at is believed to o be the world’s d’s smallest porrtrait of the Q Queen - on a 2 2mm coffee bean. The ff b h miniature i i masterpiece of the Queen’s head is so small it is invisible to the naked eye and can only be seen using a magnifying glass. The amazing sculpture was made to mark Her Majesty’s Diamond Jubilee. British micro-sculptor Willard Wigan created the commemorative tribute by slowing his heartbeat and working between beats to avoid hand tremors. He used tiny homemade tools and painted with a hair plucked from a housefly’s back to carve the microscopic figures. It took four painstaking weeks to finish but Wigan, who has been honoured by the Queen with an MBE for his services to art, said he enjoyed the challenge.

Want to be the next mustachioed sensation? Learn from the professional, Ram Singh Chauhan of India, who has the world’ss longest mustache, 14 feet, according to o the Guinness Book of World Records.

Chauhan had received before entering the world i d attention tt ti llong b f t i th ld record books. According to the London Telegraph, his famous facial hair was featured in the 1983 James Bond film “Octopussy” and he has made cameos in several Bollywood films.

Currently, the 54-year-old has offered some grooming tips to the BBC for anyone interested in sporting unusually long facial hair.

For starters, he says start growing your facial hair at an early age because in later years the growth will be slower. His second major tip is to regularly groom your facial hair. Chauhan tells the BBC he uses coconut oil on his mustache and enlists help in the maintenance process. “I massage it and oil it regularly and I wash it every 10 days which takes a long time,” he said. “My wife helps me,” he adds

SOURCE: WEB.ORANGE.CO.UK

SOURCE: NEWS.YAHOO.COM

Are you always taking off your watch and then losing it?

Or what about your iPod? You put it in one pocket, forget it’s t’s there, and then somemehow manage to let it fall out while roaming ng about town. Well, if these are the kinds of things that worry you, you can rest assured.

There is now a perfectt option ti available il bl tto you.

Dave Hurban, a tattoo artist and piercer from New Jersey, has gone to some pretty extreme lengths to keep his iPod Nano stuck to his wrist. Making use of his tradecraft, David pierced his wrist and then surgically implanted four magnets beneath the skin in order to attach devices, like his iPod, to his flesh.

He’ll never have to worry about a clip, or a wrist or armband again.

Like the Marvel superhero Magneto, David has got a lot of magnetic attraction now. Apparently the magnets are strong enough to keep the iPad Nano in place during a run in the park, or for a workout in the local gym. The face of the device can display a watch when not being used for music, so in effect, David has designed a kind of “strapless watch.” SOURCE: THEFW.COM

THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE, MAY 27, 2012

Did you know?

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s n i g i r O d r Wo ABRACADABRA One of the few words entirely without meaning, these days it’s just a joking magician’s chant with no force behind it, like ‘hocus-pocus’ and other ‘magical’ phrases. But it is extremely ancient and originally was thought to be a powerful word with mystical ystical powers. What we know for sure is that it was first recorded corded in a Latin medical poem in the second century AD. Another source says the word does have a meaning and that it comes from the Hebrew ‘abreg ad habra’ meaning ‘strike dead with thy lightning’. Fans of the Harry Potter books will know the killing curse, Avada Kedavra, in which JK Rowling seems to have combined abracadabra with the Latin ‘cadaver’, meaning ‘a dead body’.

Crazy laws!

Cool facts

In Portugal, it’s against the law to pee in the ocean.

During your lifetime, you will produce enough saliva to fill two swimming pools.

In Italy, anyone considered “obese” is forbidden from wearing polyester.

An eagle can kill a young deer and fly away with it.

In Montana, it’s illegal to tear a phone book in half.

Polar bears can eat as many as 86 penguins in a single sitting.

In Michigan, it is illegal to chain an alligator to a fire hydrant.

In Victoria, Australia after mid day on Sunday, it’s illegal to wear pink hot pants.

In Kentucky, carrying ice cream cones in your pocket is illegal.

In Illinois, giving a lit cigar to a pet is illegal.

If you consistently fart for six years and nine months, enough gas is produced to create the energy of an atomic bomb!

The top six foods that make you fart are beans, corn, bell peppers, cauliflower, cabbage and milk!

In Miami, Florida, imitating animals is illegal.

A toaster uses almost half as much energy as a full-sized oven.

In Baltimore, Maryland, taking a lion to the cinema is illegal.

Nearly three per cent of the ice in Antarctic glaciers is penguin urine.

In Texas, if you are going to commit a crime, you legally have to give 24 hours notice to the police.

You cannot snore and dream at the same time.

THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE, MAY 27, 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, MAY 27, 2012

Find your way through the maze

SOURCE: BLACKDOG4KIDS.COM