The Strangest Planet

Why isn't Pluto a planet anymore? When we ask a question of what is and isn't a planet, we are really just talking about how we define the word 'Planet'. In ancient times, humans didn't really need a definition. Astronomers know 5 star like objects, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. They didn't really move around like the other stars, they just thought it just wondered through the sky. The word planet comes from an ancient Greek word that meant 'Wonderer'. Eventually astronomers found out that Earth is a planet too, orbiting around the Sun just like the others. Thats pretty much it for the Solar System until the age of Telescopes.

The next planet to be discovered it Uranus in 1781 followed by Neptune in 1846. These planets are huge but not as huge as Jupiter and Saturn. They are just too far away for ancient astronomers to see. In 1801, an astronomer discovered another planet, or so he thought. The astronomer found a spherical object about 600 miles across in between Mars and Jupiter. The planet which is smaller than our moon is called Ceres. In this case, it was not too distant to see but just too small. The problem however is that Ceres had so called 'buddies', lots of them. The next year a slightly smaller object was discovered called Pallas and two years after that another one named Juno. Now they know about thousands of these similar rocky planets. Instead of adding thousands of planets into our Solar System, astronomers decided it makes more sense to group these objects together and named them Asteroids and thats how we have the Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter.

Now we reached to Pluto, which by far to me is the strangest planet. An astronomer discovered Pluto in 1930. But since then, its status as a planet has been called into question. First of all, Pluto's orbit is strange. You can see it on the last picture below. It is outside the Kuiper Belt and even intersecting the orbit of Neptune. Also, it turns out that Pluto is not as big as astronomers really thought. Instead, it has got a huge moon near it and thats why some people call it a binary planet or a double planet. And, just like Ceres, astronomers discovered that Pluto is not alone. Beginning in the early 1990's, they started finding other objects similar to Pluto. Some like Quaoar and Sedna are almost as big. Then in 2005, astronomers announced that they found an object named Eris, even bigger than Pluto.

So, are all these planets? Astronomers wondered the same thing. In August 2006, astronomers from all over the world met and finally decided on a formal definition of a planet. Pluto and its so called 'buddies' did not make the cut and now they are known as Dwarf Planets. So this is why Pluto is the strangest planet to me, it is the only planet in history to be knows as both a planet and a dwarf planet in the solar system.

30 Hornets vs 30, 000 Bees!!!

Would u expect to win in a fight with 30 hornets or 30, 000 honey bees? Imagine your cute honey bees happily building your hive with 30, 000 members of your family. Then, 30 giant hornets come out of nowhere, they are 2 inches long and their venom is so strong that it could kill a human being within minutes! They take the lives of dozens of people every year.

In just half an hour, those hornets can murder every member of the bee's family ripping them limb by limb. So that is 30 hornets can kill 30, 000 bees in 30 minutes! That is just sick! Now Japanese honey bees are not a bit like the normal honey bees we see everyday.

That hornet is a scout whose job is to mark the hive. So its attack force will come to murder all of the bees eating their larvae and honey. Instead of panicking, the Japanese honey bees signal their strategy by shaking their 'butt'. Yea, I know, its weird but they do so. They hold off to the last possible moment and then they attack the hornets. Each hornet is attacked by hundreds of bees. But instead of stinging the hornets, they start 'vibrating'. Now this is beyond weird. But the reason they do that is to raise their collective body temperature to 47 degrees Celcius.

Now why do they raise their temperature to 47 degrees u ask? Well, honey bees can stand the maximum temperature of 48 degrees but the hornets can only stand the maximum temperature of 45-46 degrees! One degree Celcius makes a lot of difference and those poor hornets that is surrounded by hundreds of bees is cooked alive. And with the hornet, the secret location of the hive dies with it. Here is a picture of the bees so called 'vibrating' the hornets. Thank you for reading, if you found this article is interesting, follow me for more interesting articles in the future =)

Why Carbonated Drinks are called 'Soft Drinks'

Today I found out why flavored carbonated beverages are called 'soft drinks'. *trying new font*

It turns out, soft drinks aren’t just flavored carbonated beverages. 'Soft Drink' refers to nearly all beverages that do not contain significant amounts of alcohol (hard drinks).

The term 'soft drink' though is now typically used exclusively for flavored carbonated beverages. This is actually due to advertising. Flavored carbonated beverage makers were having a hard time creating national advertisements due to the fact that what you call their product varies from place to place. For instance, in parts of the United States and Canada, flavored carbonated beverages are referred to as 'pop' in other parts 'soda' in yet other parts 'coke' and there are a variety of other names commonly used as well. Then if we go international with the advertisements, in England these drinks are called 'fizzy drinks' in Ireland sometimes just 'minerals'. Weirrrrrd...

To account for the fact that they can’t refer to their product in the generic sense on national advertisements, because of these varied terms, these manufactures have chosen the term 'soft drink' to be more or less a universal term for flavored carbonated beverages.

Interestingly, according to a study done in 2006, most carbonated 'soft' drinks actually do contain a little alcohol. In older methods of introducing the CO2 to the drink, this was resulting from natural fermentation, similar to hw most beer gets its alcohol. However, with modern methods of introducing CO2 to the drink, this is not an issue. Yet measurable amounts of alcohol remain. This is due to the fermentation of sugars in the non-sterile environment of the drink. In some types of soda-pop, additional alcohol is also introduced due to the fact that alcohol is used in the preparation of some of the flavor extracts. However, before anyone starts campaigning to make soda-pop illegal for kids due to the alcohol content, it should be noted that a typical container of yogurt of similar volume to some amount of soda-pop, will contain about 2 times the amount of alcohol over the amount in the soda-pop. In conclusion, think before you drink =)

Alcohol ----> *Drunkenness*

We all know what is alcohol. It is the chemical that makes us drunk when taken excessively. Many people do not know that actually alcohol is present in our body at all times weather we consume liquor or not. After every meal we eat, the carbohydrates, starch and sugar forms alcohol and enter the bloodstream. So, there is always about one gram of alcohol circulating in our body at all times.

So now, what happens if we take in additional alcohol? Alcohol is a narcotic, which is like a drug. It is a substance which enters nerve cells quickly and tends to paralyze them. Before this paralysis happens, alcohol stimulates the cells, it puts them in a state of excitement.

The first thing alcohol does to the system is stimulate the gastric and salivary glands to produce their juices. That is why many European people consume alcohol before having their meal to stimulate their appetite. The body absorbs the alcohol very quickly while sugar and carbon dioxide speed up the absorption. Champagne for instance contains both sugar and carbon dioxide, which is why it acts so quickly and produces such a stimulating effect.

So now, how does the alcohol effect the brain? The first effect is a feeling of stimulation as I mentioned earlier. For example, ones action and speech seem to be speeded up. The skin gets redder, blood pressure rises and the heard beats faster. As a result, breathing is quickened too. This is why people who consume alcohol tends to blush easily and have a healthier life because of the faster heartbeat is similar to activities of exercise. That does not mean it is all good for you too. Too much alcohol and you will get your liver failing and hypertension.

The other effects of alcohol to the brain is it exerts a depressing effect to the brain. Our ability to observe, think and pay attention is affected. As the higher functions of the brain are paralyzed, the power to control moods is lost. Another serious effect is that inhibitions are relaxed. In our body, there are nerve fibres called inhibitory fibres which acts as brakes in the nervous system. They are developed as the result of education and training and makes us more disciplined. Under the influence of alcohol, this inhibitory fibres are paralyed and our controls are relaxed. This makes our judgement unclear and we are ready to say or do things we would never do if our minds were normal. Therefore, alcohol has produced a state of drunkenness.

Okay, I am not saying that consuming alcohol is bad, there are many advantages of it too. If you were to consume alcohol, my advise to everyone is that consume it in a balanced ratio and do not consume too much until it causes drunkenness.

Racial Discrimination

Okay everyone, this is a very important topic and it is a sensitive topic too. I am sorry if I uncomfort anyone reading this and correct me if I am wrong.

So now, what is racial discrimination? What causes it? Is it the people or do politics play a big role? Here in Malaysia, racial discrimination happens not so much as other regions of the world such as America and Australia. That does not mean there is no such activities happening. As a student and a citizen, I have seen many stories relating to racial discrimination. Most of my friends are non-Muslims and many of them state that the Muslims of the country are racist. There are many reasons for this such as we get less opportunities in jobs and scholarships. I disagree with this statement because we cannot go out telling that other races are racist. It is not the race that is racist, it the people. For instance, if we go to Australia and some of them treat us very unfairly, we cannot put the Australians are racist because it is the minorities who are like that. There are still some of them who are not, so I advice those people who state that Muslims or other races are racist to take that back because it is the people, not the race.

To make people think out of the box, we must realize that we cant judge other races by the things we see in our everyday life. We do not know that people of our race too might be racist towards other races in other parts of the world. This world is imperfect and we must realize that. I only appreciate fairness to all people without judging people by their race and colour. If someone is racist towards others, you should just advise them not to do so because it will lead to havoc. To achieve peace, the many races must come to one unity and live together in harmony. We might not know that our people might be doing the same thing without we knowing it. We have to be fair to all so that fair will come to us all.

In conclusion, I would like to say that I wish everyone to live in a world free of racial discrimination. I respect all races and religions in every way and hope they do too.

IQ

Okay, so what is IQ? We all hear people telling geniuses have high IQ, but what exactly is IQ? The letters 'I.Q' actually means Intelligence Quotient. We can measure the height of a person but can we measure mental development? Many mental tests have been worked out for this purpose. Here is how it is done in brief.

First we find out which problems can be resolved by children of various ages. Six year olds can do certain problems while eight year olds can do others and so on... Now suppose we give a test for the six year olds to various children. A four year old and five year old can also do them. On the other hand, there maybe children of age ten or twelve who find it difficult to do them. So now we have a way to measure intelligence. If the six year olds can do just the six year old test, he is average. If a child of four or five can do this test, he is superior. If a ten year old can't even do a six year old's test, he is just plain retarded, lol...

IQ is a way of describing the results of these tests in mathematical terms. For example, a six year old child who has the mental age of six has an IQ of 100. The mental age is divided by the chronological age which is also known as the age in years [Source : Wikipedia]... Then, it is multiplied by 100 and 'TA-DAH' you got an IQ. If a five year old has a mental age of six, his IQ is 120 (six divide five, times 100). IQ between 90 and 100 are average. Those above 110 are considered superior

I have conducted an IQ test from an official IQ website. There are many sites where you can check your IQ but most of them are bust or fake. My IQ has been calculated and the results is...................................(drum rolls)...................................128 =)

The Death of Our Sun *EPIC SCREAMS*

All things must end. Thats true for humans, the Earth and also our Sun. Its not going to happen tomorrow or the day after but it will happen sometime in the future. The Sun as we all know it is just a giant ball of fuel burning in space. Its fuel consist of hydrogen and helium. One day it will run out of fuel and 'KABOOM'

The Sun have been there where we know it for about 4.6 billion years I think. The Sun is currently burning with Hydrogen in its core where intense temperatures and pressures allowed the Sun to release Helium. Helium gas is not able to be used as the fuel for the Sun because its temperature is still too low. The death of the Sun will come when the Hydrogen fuel finishes. The Sun will shrink to a smaller size where it will be hot enough to start burning the Helium and when this happens, the Sun will expand so big, it will explode. Now let me explain it in a more detail manner.

The Sun is converting 5 million tonnes of Hydrogen into Helium every second. This may sound a lot but it is enough to fuel the Sun for about another 5 billion years. When the Sun swells up because of the lack of fuel and start burning Helium, it will turn into a giant red star. Some experts say it will expand beyond the orbits of Mercury and Venus and possibly Earth. Even if the Sun does not explode or survives from being eaten up by the Sun, the intense heat from the giant red star will make it impossible to survive.

Once it has become a giant red star, the Sun is not exactly dead yet but its time is almost up. It will still have enough heat in its core to start begin the second round of fusion which burns up the Helium gas as I mentioned earlier. When helium runs out, the Sun wont have enough gravity to keep the core temperature and pressure. At this point, the Sun will slough off its outer layers into space in a huge burst, like what we learnt in school.

The dying core of the Sun will be about Earth sized and it is called a white dwarf. It will slowly cool off over billions of years eventually reaching the temperature of the Universe and it will be called the Black Dwarf. Now there you go, a guide from the Sun's birth to its death. Now everyone, live your life like there is tomorrow because we only have 5 billion years! xD!