ASK!

Kids ASK! about Anything & Everything

Different sources provide various answers to this question. Depending on the source of information, there are 189, 191, 192, 193, 194 or 195 independent countries in the world today. As of April 26, 2009, the United Nations has 192 members. The United States’ State Department recognizes 194 independent countries around the world and states that Taiwan is part of China. According to About.com, the best answer to this question is that there are 195 countries in the world (including Taiwan). [Editor: There is no right or wrong answer to this question and you may find different answers quoted in different books and websites. I will leave it to you to decide if your best answer is 192, 194 or 195.] 

References:
1) Rosenberg, Matt (2009, March 25). Capitals of Every Independent Country. Retrieved April 26, 2009, from About.com: Geography Web site: http://geography.about.com/od/countryinformation/
a/capitals.htm
2) Rosenberg, Matt (2009, March 25). The Number of Countries in the World. Retrieved April 26, 2009, from About.com: Geography Web site: http://geography.about.com/cs/countries/a/
numbercountries.htm
3) How Many Countries In The World?. Retrieved April 26, 2009, from WorldAtlas.com Web site: http://www.worldatlas.com/nations.htm

If you want to read more about the different countries, you can refer to these books at our libraries:

The most stupendous atlas of the whole wide world by the Brainwaves ; written by Simon Adams.
Call No.: J 910 ADA

Children’s world atlas / consultant, David Green ; written by Simon Adams, Mary Atkinson, Sarah Phillips.
Call No.: JR 912 ADA

Our world : a country-by-country guide by Millie Miller.
Call No.: JR 910 MIL

For the availability of the above book titles, please check the library catalogue.

All book covers were extracted from www.barnesandnoble.com and www.amazon.com.

Originally answered by Koh Chee Boon
Librarian
Children’s Services.

Found this post interesting? What do you think? Post your comments.
If you have a different question, please email to ask@nlb.gov.sg instead of sending a comment.

Just when the world is still reeling from the effects of the subprime crisis, the H1N1 flu (aka swine flu) descents upon us swiftly without any warning. So what is this Swine flu about? How does this affect human beings all over the world? Are we coming to yet another SARS period? Will this be a final nail in the coffin for the world economy? Will there be deaths in Singapore caused by this virus?

Here are some authorative information and resources:
Ministry of Health, Singapore
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (based in United States)
World Health Organisation

The best defence is often the most easily overlooked. It has been reported amongst health organizations and professionals in that the first line of defence against such virus is first of all our individual basic hygiene e.g. proper washing of hands before eating, covering of nose when sneezing etc. Let’s all do our individual roles in observing good hygiene practices and I’m sure we can overcome this disease together. One SARS outbreak is bad enough, I dread to think of the repercussions should history repeats itself again…

** All websites last accessed 29 Apr 2009

If you have any enquiries or comments, please drop us an email at ask@nlb.gov.sg and we will reply within 3 working days.

Posted by Mr Justin Tan
Librarian
Adult & Young People’s Services

Won’t it be nice if Monday was called something else? Then we would not suffer from the Monday blues!
Well, according to the The World Book Encyclopedia, Monday is is derived from the ancient Anglo-Saxon and Germanic word for the Moon, known as “monandaeg”. Therefore, Monday means ‘the day of the moon’.

The moon, like the sun, was an object of wonder in the days of old, and was worshiped and hence Monday was named after the moon as a form of reverence. This practice was prevalent in most European countries as most other Western and Southern European languages use their own derivative of the word, “moon”, as a root for “Monday”. For example, the Latin word for moon is “luna” and from that comes the French word “Lundi”.

An interesting explanation why we have Monday blues is because Monday was the usual day for washing and a blue dye was frequently used to keep clothes from yellowing. Therefore, in olden times, having the blues on Monday means washing the laundry on Monday! But now, having the blues on Monday is just associated with feeling depressed because Monday is the first workday of the week.

Now, if only we start work later in the week, Monday would not be so disliked by most working people!

Originally answered by
Ms Marhama Mohamed
Librarian
Public Library Services

This month, I came across an interesting question posed by a civic conscious Singaporean who asked why EMAS vehicles cannot help to clear road obstructions. To read about why he thinks EMAS vehicles should help to clear road obstructions, you can refer to his blog: http://chantc.blogspot.com/

Well, for those who are still feeling confused, EMAS stands for Expressway Monitoring Advisory Systems and what it does is to “detect accidents, vehicle breakdown and other incidents promptly, ensuring fast response to restore normal traffic flow”.

It is a brilliant system to ensure order and efficiency on the roads by responding quickly to motorists who need help, via EMAS tow trucks. Unfortunately this system does not clear road obstructions such as fallen tree branches.

This is because the domain of the EMAS is to deal solely with vehicles. I guess they could help to clear traffic obstructions such as tree branches but what constitutes “obstruction” is really ambiguous, and pretty soon EMAS will have to clear other fallen objects as well.

The clearing of tree branches and fallen trees will come under the domain of National Parks Board. This is because according to experts, the clearing of trees require a specialized skill as the fallen tree, has to be cut in a particular way, or else the tree will “spring back”.

Posted by:
Chen Wanying
Children’s Librarian

ASK! about eResources

World eBook Library is the world’s largest eBook provider. It has a collection of over 500000 eBooks and eDocuments that include children’s classics like Wizard of Oz, Alice in Wonderland and Tales of Peter Rabbit.

Here’s a guide on how to use World eBook Library:

ebook.pdf

Please feel free to download it, but do note that the materials and their copyrights belong to NLB, and the downloads are for personal use only. Drop us an email at ask@nlb.gov.sg for further enquiries on the Guide.

Please also visit NLB eResources webpage to access other eDatabases as well as eBooks, eJournals, eNewspapers and eMagazines.

Posted by Rosjihanah Mon
Associate Librarian, Children’s Services

[Edit] We’ve reviewed this answer and found that there may be no substantial evidence to this view.

Please see our new post: Should fruit only be consumed on an empty stomach?

We have heard of the saying “An apple a day keeps the doctor away”. Fruits are essential in a healthy diet because they are rich in vitamins and fibre. However, to reap the maximum benefits from the fruits that we eat, we should ask ourselves this question.

Is it best to eat them before, during or after a meal?

In our culture, we often eat fruits as desserts at the end of a meal. Did you know that this could actually cause digestion problems?

Some experts are recommending that fruits should be eaten on an empty stomach, at least twenty minutes before eating a proper meal. The explanation behind this is fairly simple.
Fruits contain simple sugars that are easily digested and take less than half an hour to digest. Other food which contain starch, protein and fats take a longer time to be digested and will stay in our stomachs for a longer period of time.

So, if we eat fruits after our meals, the fruits will be mixed together with what we have previously eaten. This causes the fruits to ferment and even rot as they wait to be digested together with other food. Thus, all the nutrition will go down the drain (figuratively speaking) and the fruits that we ate were eaten in vain!

So the next time that we pick up a fruit to eat, remember the simple guidelines and together, we can keep the doctors away.

Sources:

http://www.globalhealthandfitness.com/how%20to%20eat%20fruit.htm

http://www.fredericpatenaude.com/fruit-article.html

http://www.snopes.com/food/warnings/fruit.asp

(last accessed 19 April 2008)

1) Fruits by Robin Nelson
Call Number: JP English 641.3 NEL

2) The world’s healthiest foods : essential guide for the healthiest way of eating by George Mateljan
Call Number: English 641.3 MAT

3) Eat, drink, and be healthy : the Harvard Medical School guide to healthy eating by Walter C. Willett with Patrick J.
Call Number: English 613.2 WIL -[HEA]

To check the availabilities and locations, please use our online catalogue at http://catalogue.nlb.gov.sg/

Posted by Rosjihanah Mon
Associate Librarian, Children’s Services

For the teenage girls who love Cecily Von Ziegesar’s popular series ‘Gossip girls’, the good news is that this series has been made into a TV series! It is now currently into season 2 in the United States, and Singtel’s mio TV is offering the series on demand. So now, you can get your fix of Serena, Nate, Blair and the whole upper east side elite group..

Some of you might have started out watching the tv series first, and not know that it was adapted from the book series… you can find out more here: http://www.gossipgirl.net/ 
For all the scoop and latest episodes of the TV series, go to: http://www.cwtv.com/shows/gossip-girl

I’m a huge fan of the tv series, but have not read the books yet. However, from what I understand, as are all adapted screenplays, there are differences between onscreen and offscreen. Find out what they are here:

http://www.watch-gossip-girl.com/news/gossip-girl-book-vs-tv-series.html

Find out straight from the horses’ mouth! Gossip Girl’s producer and writer explains why the characters are tweaked for the small screen: http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20153937,00.html

The library has a well-stocked collection of the gossip girl series, under the call number Y VON

To check the availabilities and locations, please use our online catalog at http://catalog.nlb.gov.sg/ 

 XOXO,

 Yen Yen Toh, Librarian, Adult and Young People’s Services

Found this question interesting? What do you think? Post your comments.
If you have a different question, please email to ask@nlb.gov.sg instead of sending a comment

Kids ASK! about Anything & Everything

[Editor: I used to make water balloons as a child and together with friends, we’d surprise the one celebrating their birthday by throwing the 'water bombs' at them from a higher level. Of course this would end up with lots of screams, excessive dodging and soaked clothes but it was so much fun! Our parents would give disapproving looks when they hear about our birthday water bomb attack but relent a bit when they see us cleaning up afterwards and playing at a place without passersby. This question reminded me of why we used balloons to get our birthday friends wet instead of just pouring from small containers.]

There are 3 phases of matter: the solid, liquid and gaseous state. Water is in the liquid phase.
The forces of attraction between the molecules of a liquid are not as strong as that in a solid.
This results in a comparatively weak spatial order within liquid. One example to illustrate this point would be the fluid quality of liquids and how it does not have a defined shape.

Therefore when you pour a cup of water out from a high-rise building, the water that is already low in spatial order encounters air resistance which deforms the shape of the water from the cup and breaks it into smaller droplets.

Reference:
liquid. (2009). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved April 14, 2009, from Encyclopædia Britannica Online: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/343026/liquid

Chaplin, Martin (2008/12/13). Water Structure and Science. Retrieved 04/14/2009, from http://www.lsbu.ac.uk/water/index2.html

Nemitz, Vernon (08/2000). Why does rain fall in drops rather than a stream like from the bath faucet?. MadSci Network , Retrieved 04/14/2009, from http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/2000-08/967037205.Ph.r.html

If you miss playing with water creatively and want to discover more cool characteristics of water, here are books that you can check out at our library.

Image retrieved from www.amazon.com

Just add water : science projects you can sink, squirt, splash, sail/ [from the editors of The new book of popular science].
Publisher: New York : Children’s Press/Scholastic, c2008
Call No.: J English 546 JUS

Experiment on water by Haryani Luqman
Publisher: Selangor Darul Ehsan, [Malaysia] : Anggun Publications, 2007
Call No.: J English 553.7078 HAR

All websites are last accessed on 14 April 2009. Please refer to the terms and conditions on the homepages for use.
For the availability of the above book titles, please check the library catalogue.

Originally Answered by Ms Lim Yan Hong
Librarian, Children’s Services

Posted by Ms Sharifah
Associate Librarian, Children’s Services

I came across this question posed by a reader in one of her blog entries http://sillyivyq.blogspot.com and she was mystified as to why Singapore do not allow live pigs (excluding guinea pigs!) to be kept as pets. A very valid question, granted that pigs were a common sight in Singapore in the 1960s and 70s.

Well Ivy, Singapore does not allow live pigs to be kept as pets, not only because of hygiene and land space problems but also due to the following reasons.

1)Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority of Singapore(AVA)only allows certain types of animals to be sold in pet shops and kept as pets such as (dogs, rabbits, cats, hamsters etc).

2) Also live pigs were once the cause of the Japanese Encephalitis outbreak, where victims were infected by being in close contact with pigs. Besides, in recent times, a strain of the Ebola virus was found in pigs in the Philippines. Therefore, the risk of contracting such diseases from livestock like pigs could be a reason why Singapore does not allow live pigs to be kept as pets.

For more information, you can check out these books at the library:

1) Potbellied pig behavior and training by Priscilla Valentine.
Call number:English 636.485 VAL

2) Pigs by Gail Gibbons
Call Number:JPEnglish 636.4 GIB

3)Pigs by Jules Older
Call Number:JEnglish 636.4 OLD

Posted by:
Chen Wanying
Children’s Librarian

ASK! about Science & Technology 

A person will not necessarily die because he is burnt. In a burning room rather, the combustion depletes the oxygen supply and creates gases harmful to the lungs. The temperature, which can reach as high as 316 degree celsius at eye level, can melt your clothes and burn your lungs. One is likely to pass out due to suffocation and lung damage. People have died in their beds even before the fire had reached their door due to the posionous fumes.

Generally, it takes just thirty seconds for a small flame to raze out of control. In minutes, a house will be filled with smoke. After another few more minutes, the fire would have engulfed most of the house. In just five minutes, a burning room can reach the flashover point, the temperature at which anything flammable will combust on their own.

Information Sources:
1. Willett, Edward, Fires and wildfires: a practical survival guide, New York, N.Y. : Rosen Pub. Group, 2006. (Call No.: Y 363.37 WIL)
2. Thompson, Lisa, Battling blazes : have you got what it takes to be a firefighter?, Minneapolis, Minn. : Compass Point Books, 2008. (Call No.: Y 363.37023 THO)

Posted by Ang Mei Jun,

Associate Librarian, Adult & Young People’s Services

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If you have a different question, please email to ask@nlb.gov.sg instead of sending a comment.