Innehållsförteckning för October 2021 / Issue 25 från News Bites

Hello, News Biters! Welcome to issue #25. We hope you enjoyed learning about the very important work of the World Wide Fund for Nature last month. Now, more than ever, awareness is so important if we are going to help bring about the change that our planet dearly needs to recover and thrive. In this month’s issue, we are looking at some of history’s greatest secrets, many of which lay buried beneath us for years, centuries and millenniums. Throughout history, accidental discoveries have led to the most amazing finds. Join us on pages 12 and 13 and you will see what we mean. World Food Day falls on October 16 so we decided to take a novel (if not a little gross) look at some of the more wacky dishes…

The Real SB & P?! A team of scientists who were examining the sea floor off the American state of Massachusetts recently were amazed by one of the photographs taken by their robotic camera. The unusual picture showed a yellow sea sponge and a bright pink starfish side-by-side. They looked exactly like SpongeBob and his friend Patrick as we see them on our TV screens in the popular SpongeBob SquarePants cartoon. The scientists shared the image on Facebook and the picture of the real-life cartoon characters quickly spread around the world. While SpongeBob and Patrick are the best of friends in the TV show, starfish and sea sponges are deadly enemies in the wild. In fact, the real Patrick probably ate SpongeBob soon after the picture was taken! BITE-SIZE! Starfish…

In cinemas: October 2021 Rated: PG Starring: Andy Samberg as Johnny, Selena Gomez as Mavis Directed by: Derek Drymon & Jennifer Kluska Hotel Transylvania: Transformania is the fourth movie of this spooktastic franchise, and we can’t wait. This time around, the trouble begins when Professor Abraham Van Helsing (Dracula’s former nemesis) reveals his ‘Monsterfication Ray’ – a machine that turns humans into monsters, and monsters into humans. When the machine goes a little crazy, Dracula and all his monster pals end up getting changed into humans, while Johnny (the only human among them) gets turned into a monster. Now, Dracula and Johnny (who discovers he loves being a monster) must team up and race across the globe to find a fix for the mishap before it’s too late and their…

ÖTZI THE ICEMAN ‘Ötzi the Iceman’ lived between 3400 and 3100 BC, in the Copper Age. His body was discovered on 19 September 1991 by two Germans, high in the Ötzal Alps between Austria and Italy (and so he was nicknamed Ötzi!). The lower half of his body was frozen in ice. He is Europe’s oldest natural human mummy – ‘natural’ because he was mummified by the extreme cold rather than by people. There was an arrowhead in his left shoulder, so it seems likely that he died from blood loss. Ötzi was quite short and about 45 years of age. He wore a cloak of woven grass, and his coat, belt, leggings and loincloth were made of leather. His cap was bearskin and his shoes waterproof and wide, making…

CROSSWORD TIME ACROSS 2 Sarah Lee Wai-sze comes from here (4,4) 5 The largest cat in the world (5) 7 The longest-living land carnivore in the world (5) 9 Moflin is a pet with artificial__________(12) 10 The lunar home of Mr. Zoomzeman (4) 12 This month’s featured video game (4) 15 This No.7 is back playing with a football club he left 12 years ago (7) 16 Galileo __________was the first person to observe Mars through a telescope (7) 17 leutian Islands lie off the southwest coast of this country (6) 18 Maria Andrejczyk won this medal at the Olympic Games in Tokyo (6) I9 Accountant Walter Diemer invented this (6,3) DOWN 1 Chicago is the largest city in the state of__________ (8) 2 ’Our prime purpose in this life…

An Accountant People Working in the Community This month, we’re looking at someone who works with numbers every day. These people often work in offices but can also work at home. They rarely work in banks, but deal a lot with money – not always their own. They are accountants. What is an accountant? Accountants can be found in every town and community around the world. They get their name from working with people’s money (or bank) accounts. Almost everyone nowadays has a bank account. This is where a person’s money is kept safely. There are many types of banks, but they all do the same job: they keep a person’s money safe for either spending or saving. But not everyone who has a bank account needs an accountant. In…

Depending on what team you support, the news of Cristiano Ronaldo’s return to the English Premier League was either a dream come true or a living nightmare. Why? Simple! Ronaldo will take Manchester United to a whole new level of football every time he plays. He will score goals (he started with two on his debut), and he will make the team compete harder and better than they have done in a long time. So, are you on cloud nine before every Red Devils match, or are you hoping before every game that the Utd team sheet will not have CR7 listed? Sport not to be missed this month Tyson Fury v Deontay Wilder October 9 Two of the leading heavyweight boxers meet for the third time in Las Vegas.…

World Space Week Special Women in Space Did you know that October is the month in which World Space Week is held? From October 4-10, we’re invited to look beyond the skies and read, learn and wonder about the mysteries of space. And, boy, is there lots to marvel at! This year’s theme is Women in Space. Check out these trailblazing cosmonauts, astronauts and space engineers. Valentina Tereshkova Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space when she piloted the Vostok 6 spacecraft on June 16, 1963. She spent three days in space, where she completed 48 orbits of the Earth. On the occasion of her 70th birthday in 2007, Valentina offered to travel to Mars if the opportunity ever arose … even it meant a one-way journey!…

What’s on the menu? This month, in honour of World Food Day on October 16, we’re taking a look at some of the world’s weirdest foods, just to see if we can tempt you to try something different! *Warning – you may feel very hungry or very queasy after reading this feature, depending on your tastes. MENU Tuna with a Twist Tuna eyeballs are a cheap meal in Japan. They’re best served up boiled or steamed with garlic or soy sauce, and are supposed to taste a bit like squid – if you dare taste them! Crispy Legs Cambodians seem to like crispy tarantulas – a dish they started eating during a time of famine. These deep-fried snacks are now popular all over Cambodia and apparently taste like crab. We’ll…

The Great Chicago Fire OCT 8 1871 The Great Chicago Fire began in the early morning of October 8, 1871 – 150 years ago this month. The fire burned throughout that day and night and continued into the next day. The blaze spread across an area about 6km long and almost 1.5km wide, and it completely destroyed the centre of the city. Chicago was the second biggest city in the US at this time, with a population of around 300,000. By the time the fire had burned itself out, 100,000 people were homeless and around 300 people had lost their lives. The total property damage from the fire was calculated at over $200 million, which is estimated to be more than $4 billion in today’s money. How it started People…

Bentley Bacalar SCAN HERE for more amazing bacalar pics MAKER: Bentley (UK) MODEL: Bacalar YEARS: 2020-present FUEL: Petrol TRANSMISSION: Eight-speed dual clutch TOP SPEED: 322km/h HORSEPOWER: 650HP MATERIALS: The car is made from carbon fibre, apart from the bonnet and doors which are made from aluminium. 5 FAST FACTS 1. The Bacalar is a four-wheel drive car and features rear-wheel steering. At low speeds, the rear wheels steer in the opposite direction to the front wheels. This improves grip and increases turning speed. At higher speeds, both the rear and front wheels steer in the same direction to increase downforce and allow the car to travel faster. 2. British car maker Bentley made just 12 Bacalars, which sold out before anyone could see the finished product – even the new…

The Ancient Greeks lived around 3,000 to 2,000 years ago but they were astonishingly advanced in their thinking. Their achievements were extraordinary in every field, including philosophy, medicine, sculpture, architecture and mathematics. They gave us the idea of democracy, the Olympic Games, tragic and comic drama, the Hippocratic Oath for doctors, and so much more. Naturally, they also turned their keen minds to the mysteries of the universe. The word cosmos, meaning the universe, came to us from ancient Greek. So did the word astronomy itself – astron means star and nomos means law or custom. So, astronomy means ‘the law of the stars’ or ‘the custom of the stars’. BITE-SIZE! Circa or c. before a date means ‘about’ or ‘approximately’. The astronomer Hipparchos (c.190-c.120 BC) listed the stars, dividing…

Have You Tried... Cheese Rolling? The Wacky World of sport Some sports require enormous levels of skill. Think of baseball or badminton, for example. Top players need strength, speed, agility, fitness, quick hands and a sharp mind. Well, this month’s wacky sport isn’t quite on the same level. In fact, the only requirement in this sport is staying on your feet. Ladies and gentlemen, we present the sport of... Cheese Rolling! The sport of Cheese Rolling dates back to the 15th century. Competitors line up at the top of Cooper’s Hill in Gloucester, England. When a round of Double Gloucester cheese is released, the race begins To win, you have to be the first person to cross the finish line after the cheese. But take our word for it, there…

Barbie Pandemic Heroes In August 2021, Mattel announced they had produced a very special group of Barbie dolls modelled on female heroes of the COVID-19 pandemic from around the world. The dolls were meant to honour these real-life role models and to encourage young girls to study and pursue careers in the areas of STEM: Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths. Meet the real-life heroes! Amy O’Sullivan is an A&E nurse from the United States. who cared for the first COVID patient in New York – and almost died herself. Dr. Chika Stacy Oriuwa is from Canada and fights against racism in healthcare. Dr. Audrey Sue Cruz is a frontline doctor from the U.S. who also works to alleviate racial bias. In Australia, Dr. Kirby White co-founded ‘Gowns for Doctors’, which…

SCIENCE FACT OR FICTION? FACT? OR FICTION? STATEMENT: You can fold an A4 sheet of paper a maximum of 7 times! This is one of the better science facts – because if you don’t believe it, you can try it out for yourself! Paper gets thicker and stronger when it is folded. The more folds you have, the stronger the paper becomes. Most paper is around 0.1 millimetres in thickness, but every time you fold it, the thickness is doubled. If you folded it 40 times, it would be over 10,000 kilometres thick – enough to stretch into space! Although the popular science TV show Mythbusters managed to fold a super-thin piece of paper (the size of a football field) 11 times, they needed a steamroller and a forklift to…

Fantastic Feats of Engineering #25 The Golden Gate Bridge Before the Golden Gate Bridge was built, San Francisco was the biggest American city still served mostly by ferries. The bridge gets its name because it spans the Golden Gate Strait, a narrow strip of water between San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean. Joseph Strauss was one of the designers of the bridge. He was the chief engineer during construction, which began on January 5, 1933, and ended on April 19, 1937. The bridge was officially opened on May 27, 1937. Strauss had a safety net – similar to a circus trapeze net – hung under the bridge, which saved the lives of 19 workers during construction. The Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge. It hangs from two towers…

The Lion HELLLLOOO! I AM A LION – THE KING OF THE BEASTS! Apologies for roaring at you – I sometimes forget that you humans are easily frightened. King of the Beasts I am a male lion and I really am a majestic animal. My coat is light yellow, and I have a thick black mane around my neck. I measure three metres from head to tail (my tail is 82cm long) and I weigh 210kg. YEEAAH, I’M A BIG CAT! Did I mention that I’m the King of the Beasts? Prides Unlike other big cats, we are very social animals and live in groups called prides. A pride generally consists of about three males, a dozen females and their young. The members of a pride keep track of each…

Returning players, hit and miss! One of the biggest deals of the summer transfer window came on the final day when Cristiano Ronaldo sealed a sensational return to Manchester United. Twelve years after departing for Real Madrid, Ronaldo is back at Old Trafford – and he got off to a fantastic start with two goals against Newcastle. There have been a host of players who rejoined their old clubs – but those moves haven’t always gone to plan. Here are five of the most high-profile returnees. Didier Drogba Chelsea Drogba departed Stamford Bridge in 2012 after a brilliant eight-year spell that saw him become one of the club’s greatest strikers. The Ivory Coast international scored 157 goals and won 10 trophies during his first spell with Chelsea, including three Premier…