January 28, 2011

WHAT'S GOING ON

People rising against governments

There have been several protests in the last few days in a group of Arabic-speaking countries - Egypt, Yemen, Tunisia, and Jordan. What's causing all these protests?

It all started in Tunisia in December. People were unhappy with their government. There weren't enough jobs, food prices were shooting up, and houses were getting more unaffordable. After weeks of protesting, rioting, and fighting with the police, the people of Tunisia forced their country’s leader, President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, to step down from his role as president. He fled to Saudi Arabia on January 14. He had been in power for the last 23 years. Protests are still continuing in the country, and more people who were part of the government are stepping down. Elections are expected to be held in a few months to choose the next government.

The fact that Tunisians were able to change their government inspired people in some other countries who have been unhappy for similar reasons. Protests have been going on in Yemen. The leader of Yemen, President Ali Abdullah Salih, has been in power for 32 years. Yemen used to be two countries, which were united in 1990 to create Yemen. Salih was the leader of one of the countries that formed Yemen before 1990, and continued to be the leader of Yemen. One of the demands of the protesters is for Salih to step down.

Jordanians took to the streets and asked for some of their country's ministers to step down. Jordan's head of the country is a king. King Abdullah II bin al-Hussein has been the king since 1999, and his father was also the King of Jordan before him for 46 years.

In Egypt, there have been many riots. Some people have been killed, and hundreds of people have been arrested. Egypt’s current president, Hosni Mubarak, has been the leader for almost 30 years. One of the people's demands is for Mubarak to step down.

New clues for human migration to Asia

Humans might have moved out of Africa much earlier than we previously thought. Stone tools have been discovered in the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.) that have changed the views of scientists.

It is believed that Homo Sapiens (that's us humans) showed up on Earth around 200,000 years ago in the continent of Africa. We hung out there for many thousand years, then some of us moved on and explored other continents. Scientists used to think that humans first moved out of Africa around 60,000 years ago. They believed humans got to Asia from north-eastern Africa. Discovering these stone tools in the U.A.E. (a country in Asia) changes these views. The stone tools that have been found are about 125,000 years old, which means that humans had already left Africa more than 65,000 years earlier than previously believed. Also the tools are very similar to tools found in eastern Africa from around the same time period. A view that some scientists have formed is that humans moved out of eastern Africa about 125,000 years ago, and crossed the southern end of the Red Sea to get to Asia. It is also believed that the Red Sea had lower water levels at that time, so it would not have been difficult to cross it.

The oldest bones of the human species that we have found were in Ethiopia. The bones are of two humans who have been named Omo I and Omo II. They lived about 195,000 years ago!!

More T.rex relatives found

Some new dinosaurs related to the Tyrannosaurus rex (T. rex) have been discovered. Dinosaurs lived on Earth from about 230 million years ago to about 65 million years ago.

The T. rex, one of the better known dinosaurs, lived from around 84 to 65 million years ago. It was one of the largest meat-eating dinosaurs that ever walked on our planet. Scientists estimate that a T. rex could eat more than 200 kilograms (440 pounds) of meat in one bite. How many of you would that be? Yikes, scary!

A new ancestor of the T. rex has been identified. Eodromaeus was about the size of a dog, and lived when the dinosaurs first started roaming on Earth, which is around 230 million years ago. This dinosaur's bones were found in Argentina. Scientists believe that it walked on two legs, had a rigid tail, and sharp teeth.

Now if a dog-sized dinosaur sounds small, what about a parrot-sized dinosaur? The bones of Linhenykus monodactylus, a dinosaur that is believed to be T. rex's cousin, were found in China. Linhenykus monodactylus, like the T. rex, walked on two legs and had a tail. The one big difference is that it had one finger (the T. rex had three fingers). This dinosaur lived somewhere between 84 and 75 million years ago and is believed to have feasted on small bugs.

Scientists believe that the dinosaurs were wiped out when a giant asteroid (or comet) hit Earth in what today is called the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico about 65 million years ago. The impact generated large amounts of ash, dust, and other materials into the atmosphere, blocking out the sun for a very long time, and turning Earth into a dark and cold planet.

ALSO IN THE NEWS

The price of chocolate might be going up! The world's biggest cocoa producer is Côte d’Ivoire. In November last year, elections were held in the country to choose the next president. A man called Alassane Ouattara won the elections. President Laurent Gbagbo, the leader of Côte d’Ivoire since 2000, refused to step down. Ouattara has asked cocoa farmers not to sell cocoa to other countries. He hopes less money from the cocoa sale will force Gbagbo to step down. Since there is now a shortage of cocoa around the world, and cocoa is used to make chocolates, we can expect the price of chocolates to go up.

The 2011 Dakar Rally finished on January 16 with winners in four categories: Marc Coma from Spain in bikes, Nasser al-Attiyah from Qatar in cars, Vladimir Chagin from Russia in trucks, and Alejandro Patronelli from Argentina in quads (also known as all terrain vehicles - ATVs). The Dakar Rally is an annual long distance off-road race that takes place over two weeks. It started in 1978 and most of the races have started in Paris, France, and ended in Dakar, Senegal. In 2009, the race was moved to South America because of political instability in Africa. This year the race was held in Argentina and Chile. The Dakar Rally is quite wild - it goes over sand dunes, rocks, grass, mud, and can be quite dangerous. The race was more than 9,500 kilometers (6,000 miles) long.

The 27th Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival is going on in Harbin, China. It started on January 5 and lasts for about a month. It's one of the largest ice and snow festivals in the world. This year, it has been transformed into a land of fairy tales. There are life-sized palaces and castles (including castles of Snow White and Sleeping Beauty) carved out of ice, as well as an Egyptian Sphinx, skyscrapers, pagodas, ice slides, and lots more. The average winter temperature in Harbin is -16 degrees Celsius (about 3 degrees Fahrenheit). Brrr - that's cold!

According to the United Nations weather agency, 2010, 2005, and 1998 were the warmest years that have been recorded on our planet. The other seven years that have been among the ten warmest years are all between 1998 and 2010. The temperature last year was 0.95 degrees Fahrenheit (0.53 Celsius) higher than the average temperature for the years 1961 to 1990, an average that is often used for comparison purposes. Global temperatures have been recorded since 1850.

It was recently announced that the world's largest automaker in 2010 was Toyota. Toyota sold the most number of vehicles (8.42 million) in the world. The company has held this title since 2008, when it bumped General Motors, an American company, that had held the title for 77 years before that. General Motors wasn't far behind in the number of vehicles it sold last year - its number was 8.39 million. Toyota is a Japanese car company that sells brands such as Camry, Corolla, and Lexus.

Portugal held elections to choose its next president. The current President, Anibal Cavaco Silva, won the elections and will be the president of the country for another five years. Portugal is the home of the world's first commercial wave farm. A "wave farm" is where waves in the oceans are used to generate electricity.

Najib Mikati became the prime minister of Lebanon. The previous government of Lebanon had collapsed because many of the ministers had resigned on January 12 due to some disagreements.

SOMETHING FAMOUS

Let's meet Queen Rania al-Abdullah , Jordan's Queen. She was born in Kuwait in 1970. Her father was a medical doctor. She did her schooling in Kuwait, and moved to Egypt for her higher education. She got a degree in Business Administration, and worked for Citibank, followed by Apple (that's right, the company that makes the iPad, iPod, and iPhone) in Jordan.

She met the King of Jordan (who was a Prince at the time) in 1993 at a dinner party, and they were married within six months. Queen Rania has four children. She is a big supporter of children's education, and has spent a lot of time into improving schools in Jordan. She is quite hi-tech - she tweets, is active on Facebook, and has her own YouTube channel.

DID YOU KNOW

The size of the sea ice cover over the Arctic has been recorded by scientists since 1979. In December 2010, the Arctic sea ice cover was the lowest ice cover that has ever been recorded in December of any year.

Apple's app store had its 10 billionth download on January 22.

Earth came into existence around 4.5 billion years ago. Humans came into existence just 0.2 million years ago. If Earth was a day old, we humans arrived less than four seconds ago!

FUNNY BONE

The baby mosquito came back after its first time flying.
His mom asked him, "How do you feel?"
He replied "It was wonderful. Everyone was clapping for me!"

What can you have in your pocket when your pocket is empty?
A hole.

Q: What's the best way to talk to a Tyrannosaurus Rex?
A: Long distance!

GREEN TIP

When your family does laundry in a machine, make sure your machine is full. Don't run your laundry machine if it is half full (assuming you don't need the clothes right away).

GO FIGURE

Five of my seven neighbors are mentioned in this edition. I am also mentioned in this edition. Who am I?

What's interesting about this phrase:
A Toyota. Race fast, safe car. A Toyota.

FIGURED OUT

Puzzle from last edition: Can you list all the countries mentioned in the third story according to who saw 2011 first to last?
Solution: New Zealand, Australia, Japan, Vietnam, Spain , Brazil, United States

Puzzle from last edition: What word, when written in capital letters, is the same forwards, backwards and upside down?
Solution: NOON.

Credits: Queen Rania's facebook for Queen Rania's photo, Presidencia de la Nación Argentina for Ben Ali's image, en:user:Muntuwandi for Red Sea image, John Fleagle at Stony Brook University for Omo 1.
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