Bring Out Your Inner Scientist

Scientists working in a laboratory

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You can bring out your inner scientist with all the scientific products that you can find using Canada 411. From a high powered microscope to a beginning science set, you can find all the things you need to bring out your inner scientist by using Canada 411. There are many companies that sell scientific products and they range from inexpensive to more expensive products that can be used by professionals and would-be scientists alike.

Science can be fun with all the types of experiments you can do. Science is also an interesting subject that children can really get into. No matter what type of inner scientist is out there, one thing is for sure: there are many kinds of science products out there, and to help find them you can use Canada 411. There are many beginning science sets and science based toys that young children can use in order to discover the wonderful world of science. Science can be fun to learn and there are many science products to make learning about science enjoyable.

Canada 411 will help you to find any store that sells scientific products. This is important if you are looking for more advanced science products which can get pricey. Comparison-shopping is important when buying any type of product and this is the case for scientific products as well – especially when purchasing quality microscopes. There are so many products out there to help you find your inner scientist – why not let Canada 411 help you out?

Filed Under: Astronomy, Climate Tagged With: , ,

Theatre Education: Advanced Improv Games

If your students are chomping at the bit to learn more improvisation games, advance them with these challenging games.

1.) Freeze!
Form a circle. Take two volunteers and bring them forth. Ask the class for suggestions for a scene location and occupation. They’ll call out everything from a post office to the moon. Whatever combinations you receive will be the setting for the improv scene. If they say astronauts at the post office, then your two volunteers will be astronauts at the post office. Instruct the rest of the class to let the scene play out a little until they see an opportunity to jump in by clapping their hands and saying “Freeze!” Both actors in the center will freeze. The student who clapped can then choose an actor to replace by tapping them on the shoulder. The new student must begin the scene in the exact same physical position the previous actor was in, but they must come up with a brand new scene. The other actor must follow the new student’s lead until another student claps. Continue the game until everyone has had a turn to jump in.

2.) Props.
Collect some random items in a box (an old hat, a dustpan, a spatula, a banana, etc.). Have your students get in a circle. Take two volunteers and have them come up, select an item, and build an improv scene around those two items. The prop usage doesn’t have to be literal; a person can use a banana as a telephone, for example. If you don’t have the time or resources to gather a box of random items, have each person remove one accessory from their person, like a sock, hat, earring or glove. Once the scene has progressed, find a natural way to end the scene and call forth two more actors. Continue the game until everyone has had a turn.

Filed Under: Climate, Education Tagged With: , , ,

Floods in Pakistan

The world is fast becoming a place for natural disasters on a large scale. Nothing is small anymore. The recent floods in Pakistan have so moved the UN Secretary General Ban ki-Moon that he said, I will never forget the destruction and suffering I have witnessed today. In the past, I have witnessed many natural disasters around the world, but nothing like this.”

Pakistan stands forlorn. More than 25 percent of the country has been devastated. Millions of people have lost their homes. At last count, 1,600 people have died. At least 100,000 acres of crops have been destroyed.

It is a matter of days before water-borne diseases raise their head and spread throughout the land. Millions of children stand to risk these diseases more than the adults. Sanitation will add to the woes. Food distribution will be an arduous task.

If the readers are not very impressed by these figures, nobody can blame them. The disasters have been happening like clockwork around the world. Even so, the number of people affected by floods in Pakistan is more than the total number of victims combined in the tsunami of 2005 in India, Indonesia and Sri Lanka, the Haiti earthquake of January, 2010 and Kashmir earthquake of 2005.

The rains have been keeping up relentlessly, hampering the flood relief work. Helicopters are ready to help the remotest part of the country that is also the hardest hit, the Northwest Pakistan. The weather is playing spoilsport here too. Southern part is home to very poor peasants and is under flood too. Rescue of these people have been going on for days on end but there is still work to do. As far as possible, people are being moved out of flood hit areas.

The government has been open about its inability to cope with a disaster on such a massive scale. The Prime Minister Gilani who had visited the Sindh province, which is one of the very hard hit, reiterated his call for international aid. He has been searingly honest and said, We appeal to the world to help us”

Filed Under: Climate, Education, Science Tagged With: ,

Women and Climate Change

Women are amazing creatures. They, more often than not, have to bear the brunt of many things they have no discernible connection with, but find a way to get out of the bad situations. Women are not particularly guilty of bringing this on. In fact, they could just be the onlookers to what men are doing to destroy the established climate cycle.

Developed societies may not even be acutely aware of it but the life of a poor woman in most countries in Africa, Latin America and Asia is an everyday struggle. They have no access to what is taken for granted in the western world. Their cooking fuel mainly consists of wood, kerosene and dried cow dung cakes. It is they who have to take care of the children, cook meal, wash the clothes etc. The natural resources are fast depleting as a result of climate change and these hapless women are forced to foray farther and farther to get hold of these natural resources mentioned and in addition, water. With hardly any tree growing in the arid conditions and the ones in existence fast disappearing, cut down for fuel, the women are left clueless where to get the fuel from to cook.

The already dry areas of Northern Africa have been witnessing even lesser rainfall year after year and it is a hard choice between drinking and using the water for sanitary purposes. It is not uncommon, and in some cases, quite a normal daily routine, for womenfolk to trek kilometer after kilometer to get just a pot of water. They could easily be spending a whole day just to fetch this potful of water.

The irony is that some other parts are inundated with water resulting in the women there hardly able to cope with flood situations, their dwellings sometimes becoming unfit to live. Farming becomes impossible when there is paucity of water. On the other hand, flood destroys the crops and the result is the same: scarcity of food.
Climate change, then, affects women in very drastic ways from which there does not seem to be an escape.

Filed Under: Advancements, Climate, Education, Science Tagged With: ,

The Globe: Warming up and Cooling Down?

The world does not know any more whether the Earth is cooling down or heating up. Some people believe in global warming. But it is a fact that in many parts of the world, unexpectedly cold temperatures prevail. When November 2009 saw the U.S. warmer than in many previous years, no one would have thought that the temperatures would plunge and December it would be the coldest in a century. This contradiction has left everybody baffled. Snowing in the sun shine state of Florida is fodder to global cooling propagators.

The Daily mail, London, gleefully endorses the global cooling theory, citing many instances of unusual weather patterns. It even suggests that a œmini ice age is upon us. Britain went through a cold patch that was more intense in 30 years. Cuba saw more than 20 hospital patients die of extreme cold weather. At the same time, the southern hemisphere has been witnessing extreme heat conditions. For example, Melbourne, Australia has been melting away.

That idea that the worlds climate change will not be abrupt is not discerned by many. A gradual warming will not shock anyone. This is the reason scientists are cautious about not saying unequivocally, how the whether would be in the near future while they proudly predict the conditions that may prevail 50 years or so from now.

The Nobel Prize winning report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has been found to be erroneous with glaciologists and others blaming each other for the error. The contention that the Himalayan glaciers would dry up in 50 years was an exaggeration. Further intrigue has been added with accusations of bribery and usurpation of money flying about. Environmentalists, like Al Gore, are looking more and more to be hypocrites “ telling everyone else to preserve energy while they fly around in their leer jets.

It is clear that nothing can be said conclusively, regarding the planets weather, because the Earth’s temperature has fluctuated for millions of years. Tens of millions of years ago, for instance, there used to be a super continent. Mother Nature never rests.

Filed Under: Advancements, Climate, Education, Science Tagged With: , ,

The Globe: Keeping Alive the Climate Change Theory

Controversy after controversy has been plaguing the climate change theory. One such controversy concerns The IPCC and its report about the Himalayan glaciers drying up. It concluded that about 40% of the people who rely on the glaciers for water will find life miserable. The report won the Nobel Prize and now it is found that the report was erroneous. The head of the panel, Dr. Rajendra Pachouri, has refused to accept responsibility and resign. Not unlike Barnie Frank and his Fannie Mae debacle. Dr. Pachouri pointed fingers at the Co-Chairs Dr. Martin Parry and Dr. Osvaldo Canziani who are no longer with the IPCC.

Syed Hannain, a scientist is appalled that obvious mistakes, like the area covered by the glaciers should have been there at all. When the glaciers actually cover 33,000 square kilometers, the reports mentions an area in excess of 100,000 sq km. Such glaring mistakes undermine the entire report. Considering the huge amounts of money involved in these matters, is it this cash which allows scientists to earn a steady income which compels them to not question fundamental flaws faster?

The administrators and politicians in governments are to blame too. With a lot of taxes being collected because of environmental regulations and concerns, entire economies are being damaged for perhaps fruitless science. Admitting this error would be a loss of income for these folks.

All this when there are an umpteen amount of other issues that need urgent attention, some are environmentally related. Issues like the unrelenting cutting down of vast jungles all over the world. Whales and fish being hunted and fished to the brink which is causing irreparable harm to the oceans.

The problem here is that these actions require spending money. If we squander vast sums for joke science, this will negate other vital pursuits. It will also cause widespread distrust between the citizens of this world. Sustaining the myth of climate change, on the other hand, will help the government coffers shine with piles of gold. Of course no one is really supposed to talk about this while entire industries are gutted.

Filed Under: Climate, Education, Science Tagged With: , ,

Israel’s Smart moves in water optimization

Israel is situated bang in the middle of a desert but a glorious agricultural tradition has been in place for thousands of years. The land available for agriculture is meager. The population of Israel always has been self-sufficient in food which speaks something about the farming culture in that country. The earliest farmers built terraces, clearing the stones and trapping all the water without letting any water escape. The water thus collected was directed to low level fields. Though technology has brought about a sea of change now, the basic premise remains the same.

Israel receives very little rainfall. In a country that is classified as 60% arid, the rains measuring 28 inches at maximum is inadequate. But Israel makes the best of a bleak situation and agriculture thrives. Rain falls for only five months, starting from November and ending in April. The water supply to the crop has been reduced to 740mcm, from 900mcm. Nevertheless, that has not stopped the agriculture yield from growing. New sewage treatment plants have been commissioned which will enhance the water supply to 500mcm from the present 270mcm.

Agricultural yield has increased seven times in the last quarter of century. However, the water fed to the crops has hardly increased. This feat has been made possible by an innovative method of drip irrigation which is being implemented all over the world now. Water is directed at the roots of the plants rather than the general area where the plant is.

Israeli scientists have gone even further and introduced yet another bold step. Drip emitters which have a flow rate of 200cc/h can save up to 70% water while the yield remains the same. Computer controlled irrigation system is also in force.

Reservoirs and canals which are in existence in the north of the country were all joined in a network and the water has been brought through the many pumping stations to water the semi-arid southern part of the country. Within the limitations of the land that is available, the arid land estimated at 192,000 ha. has been transformed. Israel has reason to rejoice.

Filed Under: Advancements, Climate, Education, Science Tagged With: , ,

Ozone Depletion

The sun is a benevolent ruler but a punishing tyrant. It gives us light, heat, and generally looks after man’s welfare. But when man is reckless and does not care about ozone depletion, the sun’s ultraviolet rays push through the holes in the ozone layer causing us to suffer.

The top layer of the Earth’s atmosphere is the ozone. Its job is to absorb the UV-B rays. Where the ozone is thin, these rays pass through the atmosphere and reach the Earth unhindered. An abundance of ozone near the earth causes a greenhouse effect and global warming is one of the results of this happening. It was discovered in the 80s that Antarctica had a hole in the ozone layer. It is now known that the melting of polar icecaps in Antarctica is the direct result of the layer of ozone missing above it.

Chlorofluorocarbons (CFC) are mainly responsible for the greenhouse effect. All air conditioning systems use CFC and to urge the air conditioning industry to stop producing it will fall on deaf ears. Plastic foam manufacturers use it as well. So does the food container industry. These assorted industries have to stop their practices if CFC production were to seize.

Many countries have been trying hard to curb CFC production. Thirty countries that participated in the Montreal Protocol signed an agreement to reduce CFC usage. The U.S. and a dozen European countries in 2000 resolved to ban the use of CFC but how far they have been able to implement this resolve is anybody’s guess. The CFC released into the atmosphere will not go beyond the stratosphere and it will promote a greenhouse effect. Plants and also humans will be affected in an adverse way by it.

Even 1% of ozone loss can let 2% more of the UV-B rays from the sun reach the earth and these rays can increase the causes of skin cancer. A dark prediction is that some 60 million Americans will possibly be afflicted by skin cancer if the ozone depletion continues at the present clip, possibly killing 1 million people.

Filed Under: Climate, Education, Science Tagged With: , , ,