Do You Know...Your Plants?

Do you know that a tree's roots go out the same distance as it's branches and vice versa?

Editor's note: You can tell how far the roots go by taking the longest branch of the tree and that is the longest the root underground will be.

Do you know that bamboo is the world's tallest grass, which sometimes grows to 40 metres or more?

Editor's note: Bamboo is also one of the fastest growing plants, thus making it an eco-friendly natural resources.

Do you know that bananas do not grow on trees? They grow out of a trunkless plant – an herb, to be exact.

Editor's note: The banana fruit comes out of the stem of the plant, appearing first as flowers. They grow in bunches on the plant and are picked when green so that they will be ripe by the time they reach your cereal bowl.

Do you know that oak trees do not produce acorns (simply put, seeds of the trees) until they are fifty years of age or older?

Editor's note: A full-grown oak tree expels 7,000 litres of water through its leaves in one day.

Do you know that rubber, derived from the gum of a tree, has existed since prehistoric times?

Editor's note: Fossils of rubber-producing plants found date back almost 3,000,000 years.

Do You Know...Your Animals?

Do you know that an adult lion's roar can be heard up to 5 miles away (slightly over 8 km) to warn off intruders or reunite scattered members of the pride? It can reach up to 114 decibels.

Editor's note: The decibel is a measure of how loud a sound is (via sound pressure). Compare this to the average human, whose loudest scream is only 80 decibels. Anything above 120 decibels is deafening to a human. The blue whale is the loudest animal, clocking in at 188 decibels. A jet engine comes in at 140 decibels.

Do you know that elephant tusks grow throughout its life and can weigh more than 200 pounds? Among Asian elephants, only the males have tusks. Both sexes of African elephants have tusks.

Editor's note: Tusks are elongated, continuously growing front teeth that protrude well beyond the mouth of certain mammal species. Tusks are used by humans to produce ivory, which is used to make jewelleries and artefacts. The ivory trade has been severely restricted as most often, the animals are killed in order for the tusks to be extracted.

Do you know that mockingbirds can imitate any sound, from a squeaking door to a cat meowing?

Editor's note: The novel 'To Kill A Mockingbird' by Harper Lee has become one of the most analysed and dissected books of our time.

Do you know that there is no difference in quality, nutrients or flavour between brown and white eggs? The shell colours are determined by the breed of hen that lays those eggs.

Editor's note: Brown eggs come from hens with red feathers and red ear lobes, white eggs come from hens with white feathers and white ear lobes.

Do you know that dragonflies are one of the fastest insects, flying at 80 to 100 km/h? The fastest man currently is Usain Bolt of Jamaica, whose average speed is 37 km/h.

Editor's note: Another interesting fact is that most of the dragonfly's life is spent as a larva which may last as long as five years. The adult stage, where the dragonfly is actually a winged flying insect, lasts up to only four months.

Do you know that the blood of mammals is red, the blood of insects is yellow, and the blood of crustaceans and molluscs is blue?

Editor's note: Animals categorised as crustaceans includes crabs, lobsters and shrimps while molluscs includes snails, oysters, squids and octopus.

The Top 5 iPhone Social Apps for 2011

We live, breath and sleep iPhone...and apps (social apps especially) have become the thing to have on it. Filling up your new iPhone has never been easier and these are the social apps you don't want to be without.

Facebook

Really, do we need to explain why we like Facebook? The company's iPhone app brings all the things you love or hate about Facebook to your pocket, including that constantly updating list of your friends' links, loves, lunches, locations and more.

Tweeter
Tweeting pictures via iPhone has never been simpler. Just point, shoot and share your snapshot with your entire flock of followers. As you might expect, all the other Twitter-ific things are present in the app, including the ability to DM people, @reply, post tweets, and follow breaking news.

Google
The search over the Internet is even more convenient with Google's iPhone app, which puts the web and all of your favorite Google products like Gmail and Maps at your fingertips. There is also a voice recognition app that allows users to simply announce what they're searching for. As a bonus, Google Googles has finally made it to the iPhone, allowing you to use pictures to search the web for landmarks, products and more.

Skype
Skype uses your phone's data connection to make free calls to other Skype users. Unlike FaceTime that only works on Wi-Fi networks, Skype users can video-chat with each other over a 3G connection, which can be pretty value-for-money with low-cost international calling plans and CD-quality voice transmission.

Foursquare
Foursquare can detect you at your favorite pizza place and it will load tips from other users, or alert you to other Foursquarers currently in the joint. Check in to a location often enough and you're dubbed the “mayor", an honor that sometimes comes with discounts.

The Park Where The Birds Roam Free

Now I never thought I would enjoy a visit to the Bird Park so much. I mean, my last visit there was during my primary school days, on a post-exam outing. But when I saw the programme Behind The Scene: Bird Park, I couldn’t suppress my curiosity about what goes into putting such a successful theme park together. Wouldn’t you be interested to know what goes on behind closed doors, after visitor hours?

On the 19th March, 25 students led by Ms Haslina and Ms Chia turned up bright and early for the programme. Then, in two separate groups, we began our tour, each group with a team of friendly facilitators.

The highlight of the day has to be the visit to the Lory Loft, where we had to prepare the bird feed and serve up a healthy and hearty meal to the birds. Essentially, the bird feed consisted of hot water, honey and rolled oats. Together, the recipe meets all the nutritional requirements of our feathered friends.

At the world’s largest lory flight aviary, which stand at about 9-storeys high, visitors can take in the natural habitat of the birds. We were told to stand with our arms stretched out, holding a cup of lory feed in each hand. The birds would then swoop down for their nutritious meal. As more lories came, I felt both excited and frightened. Later on, I found scratches on my arm left by the lories’ sharp claws. Still, it was a small price to pay for such a once-in-a-lifetime the adventure!

It was an unforgettable experience. We were grateful for the opportunity to get up close and personal with these feathered creatures.

Viewpoint - Boy Band Pandemonium

2012 is definitely the Year of the Boy Band. Indeed, the boy band phenomena is making a major comeback on the music scene. But the biggest wave must come from One Direction. This British-Irish boy band consists of Liam Payne, Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, Zayn Malik and Niall Horan, and is signed to Simon Cowell’s record label, Syco Records.

They found fame after finishing third in another hit reality show, The X-Factor. In fact, the group was formed after each of the band members had applied unsuccessfully as solo acts for the “boys” category of the singing contest. It was judge, Nicole Scherzinger, who suggested they form a band, and together as One Direction, they qualified for the “group” category.

With their sunny good looks, strong vocals, and undeniable stage presence, One Direction has captured the attention and hearts of millions of fans the world over. Their debut single, “What Makes You Beautiful” went straight to number one on the music charts. For now it seems, One Direction is here to stay, and the only direction they are headed is up, as they are poised to rise even beyond the superstardom of earlier boy-band sensations like Westlife and Boyzone.

Colour My World

All of us are familiar with the colours red, blue and yellow. Why not? They are primary colours in the colour spectrum and most often, the first few colours taught to us. As we got older, we were introduced to purple, pink and green (secondary colours) which slowly progressed to teal, magenta and aubergine (complex colours).

Now, let's go a step further since most Journaling Clubbers are on the verge of young adulthood. OK, lame joke, I know. Listed below are the top ten unusual colours often used in art, paintings, crafts, fashion, where ever.

Vermillion - A vivid reddish orange
The word vermilion traces to the Late Latin vermiculus, meaning kermes. Kermeses are the dried bodies of insects, of the genus Kermes (see picture below), used to produce this ancient red dye.

Verdigris green - A yellowish green
Ancient Greeks manufactured this pigment by hanging copper plates over hot vinegar in a sealed container. When copper naturally oxidizes, a verdigris green film forms on its surface. This process has also occurred naturally which you can see on the Statue of Liberty (see picture below).

Titian - A brownish orange
In the paintings of the great sixteenth-century Italian artist, Tiziano Vecellio who was often called Titian, the women often have distinctively brownish-orange hair. Such depictions as shown in the picture below inspired the colour name titian.

Bisque - A light greyish brown
Bisque is probably a shortened and altered form of biscuit, meaning earthenware or porcelain after the first firing and before glazing. This is because the biscuit (see picture below)resembles the colour and look of Anglo-French besquit or twice-cooked bread.

Puce - A dark red
Puce entered English from French, where puce translates as flea. The relationship between the flea and the colour (see picture below) is almost certain refer to the flea's hunger for blood, which is dark red.

Cattleya - A medium purple
This colour comes from a kind of orchid named for William Cattley, a patron of botany whose enthusiasm for orchids helped fuel a British craze for the flowers in the 1700s. The most common form of one of Cattley's original orchids, the cattleya labiata (see picture below), highlights the colour cattleya.

Smalt - A medium blue
The colour name comes from the blue glass (see picture below) of the same name. Smalt is created by fusing together melting potassium carbonate, silica, and cobalt oxide. The word's Germanic ancestor means ‘to melt’.

Damask - A greyish red
It may or may not have originated in Damascus but the name of the damask rose, a flower that travelled to Europe during the Middle Ages, honours that Syrian city. The hue of the blossom as shown in the picture below lives on as a colour name.

Jasper - A blackish green
The colour name jasper comes from the name of the opaque quartz stone called jasper (see picture below). The ancient Hebrew word from which jasper comes may have meant something like ‘glittering’ or ‘polish’.

Bittersweet - A deep reddish orange
The oval berries of the European bittersweet plant taste first sweetish and then bitter. But it was the American plant called false bittersweet with its orangey-coloured fruits (see picture below) that inspired the colour name bittersweet.

View Point - Vandalism or Art?

I was at Scape Park on Orchard Road on Sunday evening when I spotted a few teenagers spraying paints on the walls and dustbins. I think it was the first time I had witnessed such a blatant act of defacing public property. And in broad daylight, too.

The first thing that came to mind was how irresponsible those teenagers were. I was angered by their actions. But that night, as I pondered over the incident, I found myself strangely feeling sorry for them.

You see, this is Singapore – all pristine and squeaky clean. Everything is neat and orderly, everything in its right place, so that there is little room for creativity and expression. What these teens need is a simple graffiti wall to express their emotions through street- art.

Now if there was such a medium for repressed teens to ‘let go’ and express themselves freely, perhaps incidences of vandalism would be dramatically reduced!

Editor's note: The photo above is not the actual vandalism mentioned in this article.