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Volume I, Issue 15 >> January 16, 2014 >> Subscribe www.childfriendlynews.com >> Email [email protected]

What to look forWard to in 2014

The New Year is upon us! In this very first issue of 2014, let’s take a quick peek at the big events we

can look forward to in the next 12 months.

Cfn ChriStMaS StorY ContESt laSt datE ExtEndEd to

JanuarY 24, 2014.

Be A Republic Day Reporter

FinD the DetAils on pAge 8

Cfn-riVo kidS ContESt

General ElectionsAll of India will go to the polls to elect a new government in New Delhi in the summer of 2014. The elections will be a closely fought contest. Few people expect the Congress political party, which runs the country now, to win. All eyes are on Narendra Modi, the candidate of the BJP, the second biggest political party in the country. The one thing going against Modi is that he has a reputa-tion for treating people of the Muslim religion unfairly.You should also closely watch the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and its leader Arvind Kejriwal. After a spectacular start in Delhi, where the party now runs the government, the AAP is planning to take part in the General Elections. With the AAP, the Indian voter finally has a choice to vote for a party that doesn’t seem corrupt and is made up of ordinary people who want to make a difference.

Mangalyaan to reach Mars‘Mangalyaan’, the un-manned space craft that India launched in Novem-ber 2013 is expected to reach the Red Planet in Septem-ber 2014. It will then start orbiting (circling) Mars. Mangalyaan will conduct several experiments while in orbit and one of the most awaited of these will be the search for methane gas in the Martian atmosphere, a sign that there could be life on Mars.

PolitiCS

SCiEnCE

SPortS tEChnologY

Football World CupThe 20th FIFA World Cup will be played in Brazil during June-July 2014. This interna-tional men’s football tournament is the most watched event in TV worldwide. The national teams of 32 countries will fight it out at the World Cup. The defending champion is the Spanish team. India, sadly, failed to qualify.

Asian GamesThe 17th Asian Games will be held in the South Korean city of Incheon in the period September-October 2014. Interestingly, New Delhi was also in the running to host the Asian Games but Incheon was chosen.

The big trend of 2014 will be technology you can actu-ally wear. This could be in the form of watches that display email and double up as phones. Or gadgets like the Nike Fuel Band, which is worn on the wrist and keeps track of all your phys-ical activity (walking, run-ning, playing sports or even dancing), thus helping you keep fit.

Send in your entries soon…

The Harbour Seals - Barame, Vichuon, and Chumuro – are the mascots of the Asian Games.

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features CHILD FRIENDLY NEWSJanuary 16, 2014 www.childfriendlynews.com

But as they say about sharks, it’s not the ones you see that you have to worry about, it’s the ones you don’t see.

— David Blaine

The Sun is in the middle of an 11 year storm cycle and last week the Earth

felt the impact of a solar storm that hit its atmosphere. Airlines and satellite-based GPS services were most affected, with airlines avoiding flight routes over Polar Regions as the impact of the storm is felt more strongly at the North and South Poles. But people living in the southern

part of the United States (US) were in for a treat as the solar storms also ‘pushed down’ the Northern Lights spectacle.The Northern Lights are a natural light display usually only seen in the night sky in areas close to the North Pole. The display is caused by tiny energy-filled particles emitted by the Sun. The on-going solar storms pushed the spectacle further

south and last week, lucky people in the states of Colorado, Kansas and Missouri in the US

were able to witness this rare spectacle.

Dinosaur fossils have been unearthed in the desert of Saudi Arabia. These fossils, which are remains of animals that lived millions of years ago, are a rare find as scientists have

been able to identify the kind of dinosaurs they belonged to.Two main kinds of dinos – a plant eating Sauropod and a Theropod, which is a 6-metre-long bipedal meat-eater distantly related to Tyrannosaurus rex – appeared to have lived in the region more than 70 million years ago. Teeth and bones from these animals have been discovered.Dinosaur remains from the Arabian region are rare as much of the area was under water during the Age of the Dinosaurs. It actually formed the north-west coast of the African continent.

dinos in the desert

a long life

a ‘light’ trEat

Charged-up roadsElectric cars and buses are seen as solutions for bringing

down pollution emitted by petrol and diesel vehicles. But the difficulty with electric vehicles is the frequent charging of

batteries that is required. Charging stations have to be available at regular intervals, else a vehicle may ‘die out’ mid-journey.South Korea has come up with an interesting idea to solve this problem – roads that charge vehicles as they drive over them! The technology is right now being tried out on public buses in the South Korean city of Gumi.

How does this work? Electric lines installed at points under the road create an electromagnetic field, and this electric power is transferred to a device attached to the bottom of a bus as the vehicle goes over the lines. The bus then uses this electricity to operate. The interesting part of this technology is that moving vehicles can be charged on the go. No more re-charging halts!

Great white sharks can live up to the age of 70, almost as long as humans, scientists have found out. Previously, sharks were believed to have an age span of 25-30 years. So, it was quite a shock when

new research tools showed that these marine giants actually lived much longer.The longer age span of these sharks can make it more difficult to protect them. When species live longer, it takes many years before they are ready to re-produce. So, if the sharks are killed early-on, they are unlikely to give birth. This could then slowly reduce the number of sharks in the world.

A Sauropod

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featuresCHILD FRIENDLY NEWSJanuary 16, 2014 www.childfriendlynews.com

Study nature, love nature, stay close to nature. It will never fail you.

— Frank Lloyd Wright

Think you’re the sort of person who is more into books and stories, not math and numbers? Think again. For here is a book the combines the two.In Mathematwist – Number Tales from Around the World, T.V.Padma has brought together

folktales and anecdotes from many countries. The tales will have your brain racing to find mathematical solutions to solve the challenges that the story’s heroes and heroines come up against. Each story also ends with a simple explanation of the math concept used in the story.Dig into the book and you will find yourself doing multiplication with Caesar, dividing animals with a crafty Jew and probability with a clever college student.

Cost: Rs. 250

Available at: www.tulikabooks.com

T h e B o o k N o o k

C r e a t i v e S c i e n c e

Moving with nature

Inventor Jay Harmon grew up on the beaches of Australia where he would spend many hours try to spear fish. He

would try holding on to seaweeds for balance but they would simply come uprooted in his hand. Yet, on their own the plants were capable of surviving winds and strong storms. After studying them, Harmon figured out that the seaweed got its stability by moving in a spiral fashion. He soon started noticing that many natural things –such as sea-shells and water in a whirlpool – all moved in the same spiral fashion.

Using the knowledgeHarmon has invented many products based on that discovery. One of these is a propeller that mimics the spiral design

of a Nautilus shell. Although the propeller was originally designed for boats, Harmon’s company used the design in small motors called ‘Lily Impellers’ that are used to keep water in motion in large storage tanks. Water utilities that store and distribute water to homes and offices prefer to keep the stored water gently moving and mixing as still water attracts the growth of pests on the surface.As Harmon had guessed, the Nautilus design was extremely efficient – so much that a tiny device six inches high could mix

millions of litres of water using a tiny amount of energy. The efficient spiral design has since inspired other

products. Harmon has created a similar design for a wind turbine that harvests wind energy to create electricity. The design is helping the turbine to produce more electricity.

Magic SpiralThe spiral design found in nature is extremely efficient as it reduces the amount of friction (opposing energy) that every moving object encounters. When there is less

friction, less energy is needed to make the same movement. That’s why it’s easier to zip down a smooth slide or skate across slippery ice.When a design uses less energy but gets the job done, it is environment-friendly as fewer amounts of fossil fuels (such as coal and oil) will need to be burnt to produce that energy. Less fuel equals more natural resources that are saved and less pollution that is caused. A green design is indeed a winning design!

MatheMatwist – NuMber tales froM arouNd the world by t.V.PadMa

How the impeller works

Special reportCFN

CHILD FRIENDLY NEWSJanuary 16, 2014 www.childfriendlynews.com

Time flies. It’s up to you to be the navigator.— Robert Orben4

Moving out of africa

the great traders the invention of the Compass

Turn by TurnThe STory of navigaTion

All humans on Earth have common ancestors – a small group people who lived in Africa more than 100,000 years ago. These ancient people gradually moved out of Africa

by following the river Nile to the Mediterranean. From there one group headed west to populate Europe while another headed east into Arabia and then found its way to India and South Asia. How did these ancient people manage such long journeys? There is no evidence that these people ever used any tools for finding their way. Instead it is likely that they navigated by following natural landmarks like rivers and mountains.These people then learnt to make simple rafts for sailing across water. Initially, they probably sailed close to the shore to make sure they didn’t get lost. Then, more than 10,000 years ago, the Minoans of Crete, an island in the Mediterranean that now belongs to Greece, learnt how to use the position of stars to navigate.

Among the greatest of ancient navigators were the Phoenicians who lived along the Mediterranean Sea in what is now known as Lebanon. They were great traders

who bought and sold goods along the countries that rimmed (bordered) the Mediterranean Sea in North Africa and Europe. They made use of a very interesting tool called the sounding weight. The tool, which was shaped like a bell, was lowered into the sea to find out how deep the waters were. Depending on the depth, sailors could estimate how far they were from the shore. Expert sailors could even identify exactly where the ship was in the Mediterranean by looking at the grains of sand that the tool brought up from the ocean floor.

The compass is a tool in use even today for find-ing one’s direction. The tool was invented in China around 2000 years ago.The compass uses the Earth’s magnetic field to point to the North. Its greatest ad-

vantage is that it can be used even when sun and stars are not visible in the sky to help with navigation.

(Phot

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: Wiki

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Stars were useful to navigate by during the night, but what about during the day? The Sun was used but what could one do on a cloudy day? The Vikings, another group of expert sailors from Northern Europe used pieces of crystal such as this Icelandic Spar, a kind of medieval sun-stone, to locate the sun in the sky when hidden from view.

Over 4000 years ago, Indians were begin-ning to build their own navigation sys-tems. Mauryan king Chandragupta Maurya had a whole govern-ment department that supervised (took care of) waterways and overseas travel.

Sounding weights

5Special reportCFN

Conscience is a man’s compass.— Vincent Van Gogh

CHILD FRIENDLY NEWSJanuary 16, 2014

www.childfriendlynews.com

the coming of Maps

radar

age of Exploration

The earliest maps were probably made thousands of years ago but the oldest map of the world

to survive dates back to 600 BC (about 2600 years ago). It was made in ancient Babylon, which is now in Persia. As you can see, the map, where the world is in-dicated by the circle, is not very detailed. It was not until the middle ages 500-600 years ago that the first accurate maps of the world were produced. The first scientific map of the world is believed to have been created by Portuguese cartogra-pher (map-maker) named Diogo Ribeiro. It was among the ear-liest maps to show the coastline of North America accurately.

For several hundred years af-ter this, printed maps and position of stars in the night

sky continued to be the principal navigational aids for ships. The next big jump in navigation came only after 1930. Radar (short for Radio Detection And Ranging), which uses radio waves, was invented during the Second World War to detect enemy ships and aircraft.This is how radar works: radio waves sent out by a transmit-ter typically bounce back when they encounter an object and return to a receiver. By examining the ‘bounced’ signal, radar operators can make out what kind of object the wave encoun-tered, its size and distance from the transmitter.Ships and aircraft to this day use radar to navigate and to avoid bumping into each other.

The arrival of accurate maps in the middle ages was the result of extensive explorations undertaken by explorers such as Ferdinand Magellan (who was the first to sail around the world), Vasco da Gama and

Christopher Columbus.

Radio waves were the fore-runners of a different wire-less communication system that is used widely now. We are speaking of GPS, which is short for Global Posi-

tioning System and is a network of satellites that constantly circle earth. Using four or more satellites, a GPS receiver on Earth can pinpoint its own location. They work with maps to help people find their way around.GPS systems are used in ships, cars and many vehicle tracking systems. They are also built into smartphones which have therefore be-coming mapping devices.

in come the Satellites

The desire to explore the world has been one of our biggest ambitions (goals) for thousands of years. Except of course, the scale of this ambition has changed. Our ancestors set off on long journeys seeking new river valleys that could

house small settlements (a group of homes). Now, our modern ex-plorers have set their sights on Mars and are planning outposts on the red planet.In this edition of the Special Report we re-trace the story of naviga-tion and understand how tools, ancient and modern, have shaped our journeys - from river valleys to the red planet.

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Cold winds from the Arctic caused temperatures to fall to dangerously low levels in

the United States at the beginning of the year. The extreme cold was caused by a weather phenom-enon (event) called a ‘Polar Vortex.’Cities such as Chicago experienced weather as low as -26°C – that’s as cold as it gets in Antarctica in win-ter. The coldest place in the United States was the town of Embarrass in Minnesota State which record-ed -37°C. In many cases, tempera-tures outside were even colder than a freezer! It was so cold that even the Niagara Falls froze!

news CHILD FRIENDLY NEWSJanuary 16, 2014 www.childfriendlynews.com

Did you know? It was so cold in Chi-cago that the city zoo’s polar bear had to be moved to an indoor enclo-sure

The Big Chill

Dinosaur footprints in Rajasthan

Night Bus

An international team of scientists has discovered a set of dinosaur footprints near Jaisalmer in Rajasthan. The foot-prints are said to belong to the Pterosaurs or the flying dino-

saur, which lived on Earth millions of years ago. The footprints were found on rocks that date back to the Jurassic period.

It has been very cold in Northern India as well with tempera-tures falling to 6-7°C at night in cities like Delhi. It is a hard time for homeless people who can no longer sleep out in the open.

Since it’s hard to build night shelters for the homeless overnight, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in Delhi has come with a novel (creative) idea of converting old buses into night shelters. The buses are being fitted out with blankets and mattresses so that the homeless can get a break from the cold.

india’s sky-‘rocket’ing successTwo weeks ago, India’s

space agency ISRO suc-cessfully tested a new

satellite launch vehicle called the GSLV D-5. Satellite launch vehicles are the machines that place satellites into orbit around Earth. The GSLV D-5 is special as it is capable of carrying a satel-

lite that weighs more than two tonnes (2000 kilos). On the 5th of January, the GSLV D-5 placed a heavy communication satellite into perfect orbit around Earth.The GSLV D-5 is able to carry such heavy loads as it uses cryogenic technology – which involves the use of gases like

hydrogen and oxygen in their liquid form at very low tem-peratures. Only five countries in the world – the U.S., Russia, France, Japan and China - have mastered this difficult technol-ogy. With the successful testing of GSLV D-5, India has joined this exclusive group.

To demonstrate how cold it was, a meteorologist (a person who studies weath-er) tossed a pan of boiling water into the air. The water didn’t even reach the ground – it im-mediately froze into snow!

The frozen Niagara Falls

What the Pterosaurs might have looked like

7S

outh African player Jacques Kallis has announced his retirement from test cricket. He went out in fine style in the second test match against the visiting Indians, scoring a century in his final test.

Kallis will now focus on One Day Internationals (ODIs) and hopes to help South Africa win its first ever Cricket World Cup in 2015. Kallis was one of the best all-rounders of test cricket. Not only was he a fantastic batsman with 13,289 runs in test cricket (only Sachin Tendulkar and Ricky Ponting have more runs than him), he also took 292 test wickets.

CFN

newsCHILD FRIENDLY NEWSJanuary 16, 2014www.childfriendlynews.com

It’s hard to see anyone maintain-ing such discipline, efficiency, focus and fitness for close to two decades — Rob Steen on Jacques Kallis

JaCques Kallis ReTiRes

No flag at Olympics

India’s newest aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya has finally reached home. The ship set sail from Russia

(where it was fitted out for the Indian Navy) in November and has now reached its new home – a naval base in Karwar on the Karnataka coast. An aircraft car-rier is a massive ship that is designed to allow fighter planes and helicopters to take off and land on its deck.INS Vikramaditya is a floating city – in ad-dition to aircrafts that will be parked on its massive deck, the ship will be home to over 1500 people. It is as long as three football fields placed together.

Indian athletes will not be able to compete as part of the Indian team in the Winter Olympics that will be held between Febru-ary 6 and 23 at the Russian city of Sochi. That’s because the In-

ternational Olympic Committee (IOC) has refused to recognize the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) unless the IOA elects a new group of leaders.The IOC is unhappy with the IOA’s current leaders as many of them were accused of wrong-doing during the Commonwealth Games of 2010. The IOC has demanded that new elections be held to select new leaders for the IOA. As these are not going to be held before the start of the Winter Games, Indian athletes won’t be able to compete under the Indian flag. Instead, they will be treated as ‘in-dependent athletes.’ Any medals they win will not belong to India. What a shame!

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Shiva Keshavan will be one of the Indian ‘independent competitors at Sochi. He will compete in the ‘luge’ event. The luge is a kind of sled that travels fast over smooth ice. Luge racing is all about staying on track and completing the circuit in the shortest possible time.

indians arrive in new ZealandThe Indian team arrived in New Zealand earlier this week. They will play 5 ODIs and 2 tests against the Kiwis (another name for the New Zealanders).

Coming home

oWliE’S fun PagE8 CFN

CHILD FRIENDLY NEWSJanuary 16, 2014 www.childfriendlynews.com

Child Friendly News or CFN is an age appropriate newspaper for children in the age group 7-13. The newspaper comes out every fortnight. Every issue is written using language that young readers can understand on their own interspersed with pictures and imagery. Quick explanations of difficult words and terms and boxed elements that explain concepts accompany every article — this is to help build

vocabulary as well as context understanding. Special reports take up one topic in depth while regular columns on everyday technology concepts keep children up-to-date with the world around them.A subscription costs Rs.500 for the year. Child Friendly News is published from C5/7 FF Vasant Vihar, New Delhi 110057. Pub-lished, printed, edited and owned by Anita Mani. Printed by Printworks, F-25, Okhla Industrial Area, Ph I, New Delhi 110020 [RNI registration number: DELENG/2013/50870]

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naVigation ninJa CFN RIVO KIDS CONTEST

top reads for kids and Young adults

UNSCRAMBLE THE WORDS

Sudoku tiME

Can you identify these tools of navigation? If you get even 3 out of 4 correct, consider yourself a navigation ninja!

Answers1. Sextant, an instrument for navigation using stars 2. A compass, that tells directions3. A Route Plotter used for planning a route 4. A Spyglass used for viewing distant objects

Re-arrange thealphabets tofind the word

1. SSCoaMP

2. eTruo

3. aaDrr

4. SgP

Clue: All clues are linked to navigation

Answers1. Compass2. Route3. Radar4. GPS

1. Demon Dentist by David Walliams

2. National Geographic Kids Almanac: 2014

3. The Secret of the Fairies: Thea Stilton by Geronimo Stilton

4. Wonder by RJ Palacio

5. Asterix and the Picts by Jean-Yves Ferry

6. The Mahabharata by SamhitaArni

7. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Hard Luck by Jeff Kinney

8. Thick as Thieves: Tales of Friendship by Ruskin Bond

9. The Wombles by Elisabeth Beresford

10. Match: Annual 2014

To know more about these books and to buy them, check outwww.toptenbooksoftheweek.com

Try your hand at this Sudoku. Remember that numbers 1 to 6 can appear only once in each of the six rectangles. They can also appear only once in each row and column of the overall square.

Answer

1

3

2

4