ASK!

Lookit me! I’m cute and fluffy!

This adorably fluffy creature is the Quokka (Setonix brachyurus), a small, cat-sized marsupial from the macropod family. Read more »

If you have been following the US elections, you’ll probably have heard that to win the presidential election, the next president will need to win at least 270 Electoral College votes (Obama won with 303). But what exactly does this mean? Read more »

Photo by Daniel Hollister, Creative Commons Attribution License. Taken from http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2012/10/top-10-reasons-it-sucks-to-be-a-zombie-2/

Braaaaaaaaaains…..

You’ve seen them on TV in drama shows like The Walking Dead. They’ve taken over the silver screen with movies like 24 Days Later, Resident Evil and Zombieland. Zombie parades have invaded cities all over the world including New York, Stockholm and Sydney. With Halloween looming, chances are there’ll be an undead or two lurking around the corner, ready to swarm the unwitting public and claim more likeminded victims.

So what exactly is a zombie apocalypse and why has it taken such a firm hold on popular consciousness? Read more »

The moon appears biggest and brightest when the moon is closest to earth. It is also called the supermoon or perigee moon. This year, the supermoon took place around 5 and 6 May 2012.

Mid-Autumn Festival falls on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month. It is at the full moon phase of the moon cycle so you will see a full moon but not a supermoon unless the supermoon takes place on same day as the Mid-Autumn Festival.

Sources:

SCOB – Science Centre OBservatory: Reflections on a Supermoon
http://scobbers.blogspot.sg/2012/05/reflections-on-supermoon.html (Last accessed on 18 Sept 2012)

Astronomical treats » Stir-fried Science
http://blog.science.edu.sg/index.php/2012/06/astronomical-treats/(Last accessed on 18 Sept 2012)

Perigee “Super Moon” On May 5-6 – NASA Science
http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2012/02may_supermoon/(Last accessed on 18 Sept 2012)

ScienceCasts: The Super Moon of May 2012
http://youtu.be/kOplwuMTyS4 (Last accessed on 18 Sept 2012)

The blue silhouette of a small bird perched in mid-flight is Twitter’s signature image, and one of the Internet’s most ubiquitous icons.

While most people would recognise the Twitter bird, few realise that it actually does have a name. The bird is affectionately named “Larry”, in honour of former NBA basketballer Larry Bird, of Celtics fame.

The human Larry is now the general manager of the Indiana Pacers.

Source: sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nba-ball-dont-lie/twitter-logo-named-larry-bird-005145351.html [Last accessed July 2012]

Image taken from www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/09/23/practika-a-free-icon-set/

The Public Library is on Twitter and we’d love to connect with you! For library news at your fingertips, follow us now!

Follow us @PublicLibrarySg

As the Hong Kong Observatory explains in an article on its website, during sunrise or sunset, “the sun shines from a low angle. Sun rays have to go through a thick atmosphere, resulting in scattering by water vapour, water droplets, dust particles etc. in the air. Light with shorter wavelength, e.g. cyan, blue or purple, is scattered away, leaving red, orange and yellow, turning the sky reddish.”

This explains why the sky looks red during dawn or dusk.

An article by the Library of Congress further explains that:

“The colors we see in the sky are due to the rays of sunlight being split into colors of the spectrum as they pass through the atmosphere and ricochet off the water vapor and particles in the atmosphere. The amounts of water vapor and dust particles in the atmosphere are good indicators of weather conditions. They also determine which colors we will see in the sky.

Sources:
1. www.hko.gov.hk/education/edu01met/wxphe/ele_redskye.htm
2. www.loc.gov/rr/scitech/mysteries/weather-sailor.html
3. www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-14087734

Last accessed date: 05 Jan 2012

Books
Weather proverbs : how 600 proverbs, sayings, and poems accurately explain our weather
Author: Freier, G. D. (George D.)
Call No.: English 551.631 FRE

Understand the weather
Author : Inness, Peter (Peter M.)
Call No.: English 551.5 INN

The weather handbook
Author : Watts, Alan, 1925-
Call No.: English 551.63 WAT

posted by: Norbishah

A mummy is a preserved dead body. Mummification was very important to the ancient Egyptians. They believed that dead people continued living in another world, and they thought that the spirit needed the body in order to enjoy the next world.

Where does the word “mummy” come from?

When Arabs saw mummies for the first time, they assumed the sticky, black substance that was used to preserve the dead was bitumen. The Arabic word for bitumen is ‘mummiya’, and from this we get the word ‘mummy’.

Did you know?: The Egyptians didn’t only mummify humans. Archaeologists have discovered mummies of animals and birds!

Reference :

1.http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/egyptians/mummies_01.shtml
2.http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/ancient/afterlife-ancient-egypt.html

3.Mummies : truth and rumors by Heather L. Montgomery
Call No.: J English 393 MON

4.The story of mummies by Penny Clarke
Call No.: J English 393 CLA

5. Mummies and pyramids by Sam Taplin
Call No.: J English 393 TAP

Author of the Beautiful series, Margaret Stohl will be coming to the libraries! Brought to you exclusively by NLB and MPH, Margaret will be sharing about her Beautiful series and her inspirations. Audience will also get to interact with Margaret during the Q&A and book signing session. Don’t miss this rare opportunity to meet Margaret in the flesh!

Stohl’s Beautiful Creatures Novels have been translated into 28 languages and 37 countries, and optioned for film by Warner Brothers.

Beautiful Creatures was an ALA William C. Morris YA Debut Award finalist in 2010, as well as a SCIBA award finalist, a NYPL Book for the Teen Age, and a YALSA Teen Top Ten Pick. Beautiful Creatures was named the #1 Teen Pick from Amazon in 2009, and the #5 Editors Pick, Overall.

A graduate of Amherst College, where she won the Knox Prize for English Literature, Margaret earned a MA in English from Stanford University, and completed classwork for a PhD in American Studies from Yale University. Margaret was a teaching assistant in Romantic Poetry at Stanford, and in Film Studies at Yale. She attended the Creative Writing Program of the University of East Anglia, Norwich, where she was mentored by the Scottish poet George MacBeth.

Vatican City, at 0.2 square miles is the world’s smallest state! The Vatican has a population of 770, none of whom are permanent residents. Another unique thing about the smallest country in the world is that it has no permanent citizens. Citizenship of the Vatican City is conferred upon those who work at the Vatican (as well as their spouses and children) and is revoked when they stop working there.

The tiny country which surrounds St. Peter’s Basilica is the spiritual center for the world’s Roman Catholics (over 1 billion strong). Also known as the Holy See, Vatican City is surrounded by Rome, Italy. It is the the home of the Pope and the governing body of the Roman Catholic Church.

The country’s economy is also unique: it is the only non-commercial economy in the world. Instead, the Vatican City is supported financially by contributions of Catholics worldwide, the sale of postage stamps and publications, and tourism.

Lastly, as an ecclesiastical paradise, the Vatican City has no taxes.

To find out more, do refer to the following websites:
1. http://geography.about.com/cs/countries/a/smallcountries.htm (Last accessed 10th Nov 2011).

2. http://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/countries_by_area.htm (Last accessed 10th Nov 2011).

Posted by Norbishah