December 24, 2011
One of the top news stories of 2011 was the devastating earthquake and subsequent tsunami in Japan. Many areaders expressed their sympathy toward the people of Sendai, and wondered how exactly such a huge, deadly wave forms.
The terrible earthquake that hit Japan in March 2011 was a magnitude 8.9. That’s one of the biggest ever recorded. The devastation caused was bad enough, but the resulting tsunami was even worse.
A tsunami used to be called a tidal wave, but that’s not a correct term. Tsunamis have nothing to do with tides - those are caused by the gravitational pull of the moon (and the sun to a lesser degree). The violent shaking of the earth underneath the ocean causes tsunamis. Tsunamis can also travel across long distances on the ocean. At sea, a tsunami wave is scarcely noticeable, but when the wave comes close to shore, it builds up and up and can by many feet high.
For readers who want to read more about earthquakes and why we seem to have had so many big ones this year, you can read my earlier blog post:
EARTHQUAKES: WHAT IS GOING ON?Photograph: The tsunami crashing into homes in Natori, Japan. Courtesy Kyodo News, via Associated Press.
For those of you receiving iPads or Nook Color/Tablets this season, Seymour Simon has many quality eBooks available for purchase, some discounted as much as 50% for the holidays. If you are adding reading material to a tablet, please consider making Seymour Simon’s exceptional nonfiction for children part of your collection. Happy holidays to all!
Posted by: Seymour Simon
December 23, 2011
It is never an easy task selecting the Top Ten stories of 2011, but your comments really helped. Every day between now and New Years’ Day will feature one of the top stories of the year. Hope you enjoy it!
When I saw a wild turkey crossing over the dirt road leading up to my house in the country the other day, I thought of Benjamin Franklin, one of the founding fathers of the United States. Why? Because when it came to choosing a symbol of the United States, Ben Franklin thought the wild turkey was a more dignified bird than the bald eagle. I’m not sure if I agree; the bald eagle is magnificent soaring in the sky and I think the turkey looked a bit pompous and stuck-up strutting across my road. But the turkey is a pretty interesting bird. It would rather walk than fly (though it can fly, at least for a minute or two). Seeing a single turkey is rare around here; I usually seem them in flocks of a dozen or more birds.
Not to be outdone by a wild turkey, a large snapping turtle came walking across the same dirt road. I stopped the car to take a picture of the snapper. When I came close, the turtle turned around to face me, snapped and hissed. "OK," I thought. "I’m just looking. Let’s part friends!" And I got back in my car and watched the snapper disappear into the undergrowth. There’s a stream just nearby the road and I guess that’s where the turtle was headed.
A snapping turtle has a large head with strong jaws. This one was quite large - I would estimate about 14-inches from its head to the tip of its armored tail. That’s about the distance from your fingertips to your elbow.
Unlike many other kinds of turtles, the snapper can’t withdraw its head into its small shell. It relies on its jaws for defense and can bite hard and clamp down. I wouldn’t try to pet a snapping turtle, and neither should you! Thinking it over, petting a wild animal is a "no, no" in every case, no matter what. Wild animals are not pets and should not be touched, for your own safety as well as theirs.
For those of you receiving iPads or Nook Color/Tablets this season, Seymour Simon has many quality eBooks available for purchase, some discounted as much as 50% for the holidays. If you are adding reading material to a tablet, please consider making Seymour Simon’s exceptional nonfiction for children part of your collection. Happy holidays to all!
Posted by: Seymour Simon
December 22, 2011
As school winds down and we head into the winter holiday, I want to share two great natural images for the Christmas season.
First, the Christmas Tree worm (Spirobranchus giganteus).These festive-looking creatures are found throughout the world’s tropical oceans. The "trees" are almost like crowns - each worm has two, and they are used for both eating and breathing. Look at them again - they are almost like a fish’s gills.
The second image comes from the Hubble Telescope, which captured this photograph of a Christmas ornament in space! It is actually a huge wave of energy from a supernova - the explosion of a star in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), a small galaxy about 160,000 light-years from Earth.
For those of you receiving iPads or Nook Color/Tablets this season, Seymour Simon has many quality eBooks available for purchase, some discounted as much as 50% for the holidays. If you are adding reading material to a tablet, please consider making Seymour Simon’s exceptional nonfiction for children part of your collection. Happy holidays to all!
Posted by: Seymour Simon
December 21, 2011
The winter solstice is this week for us in the Northern Hemisphere. The sun rises late in the morning and sets early, the day is the shortest, the night is the longest of the year. The solstice happens at the same time for all of us, everywhere on Earth, but the local time is different depending upon the time zones. For us in the North America this year, the solstice is in the morning hours of Thursday, December 22.
The sun is the source of all light and warmth for living things on Earth, our home planet. So you might think that the longest night means that every animal is sleeping and the plants are resting for the winter. But even in the snow and the dark, life goes on. Lakes and ponds may freeze over, but many water animals and plants are active beneath the ice. You can often see deer and other animal tracks on snowy fields. Snow buntings and chickadees search for seeds on snowy trees and bushes. Pines, spruces and other kinds of evergreens keep their leaves all winter long.
The sun is low in the sky all day long, shadows are long and it’s a wonderful time of year to photograph out-of-doors. The winter solstice is also a time to celebrate the return of the light. After the solstice, days get longer and the nights shorter. It’s the endless cycle of the seasons!
So many things you can do over your winter vacation from school! Here are some ideas.
- Try to catch snowflakes on a small piece of black material. Look at each snowflake closely. Use a magnifying lens is you have one. Are they all alike? Maybe you can draw what you see, or take a close-up photo?
- Look for animal tracks in the snow. Can you identify any of them?
- Which kinds of birds stay all winter long: Seed eaters or insect eaters? Why do you think that’s so? Take photos and try to identify the birds you see.
- Do you know how to identify the star constellations? Which ones are more easily seen in winter?
- Are all snows alike? Do all stick to the trees the same way?
I’d like to hear from my readers about their winter solstice explorations!
Photo: Liz Nealon
For those of you receiving iPads or Nook Color/Tablets this season, Seymour Simon has many quality eBooks available for purchase, some discounted as much as 50% for the holidays. If you are adding reading material to a tablet, please consider making Seymour Simon’s exceptional nonfiction for children part of your collection. Happy holidays to all!
Posted by: Seymour Simon
December 20, 2011
Tonight is the first night of Hanukkah, the traditional Festival of Lights, celebrated by Jewish people all over the world. Do you know that Hanukkah was once celebrated onboard the Space Shuttle Discovery by astronaut Jeff Hoffman? Click here to see video of what happens when you spin a dreidel in a low gravity environment!
Happy Hanukkah to all my Jewish readers!
For those of you receiving iPads or Nook Color/Tablets this season, Seymour Simon has many quality eBooks available for purchase, some discounted as much as 50% for the holidays. If you are adding reading material to a tablet, please consider making Seymour Simon’s exceptional nonfiction for children part of your collection. Happy holidays to all!
Posted by: Seymour Simon
December 20, 2011
The Cool Photo of the Week is a reindeer in conversation with a cat. What do you suppose they are talking about?!
For those of you receiving iPads or Nook Color/Tablets this season, Seymour Simon has many quality eBooks available for purchase, some discounted as much as 50% for the holidays. If you are adding reading material to a tablet, please consider making Seymour Simon’s exceptional nonfiction for children part of your collection. Happy holidays to all!
Posted by: Seymour Simon
December 19, 2011
As a major winter storm begins hammering parts of the High Plains in far northeast New Mexico, northwest Texas, western Oklahoma, Colorado and Kansas, we started wondering about the snowiest places. Where in the U.S. do people get the most snow every year?
According to the Weather Channel, #5 on the "snowiest list" is Lead, South Dakota. Lead is in the northern Black Hills, where powerful north winds swirl through the surrounding hills.
- Average yearly snow: 201.4 inches
- Population: 3,124
- Snowiest month: March (35 inches)
- Snowiest day ever: 52 inches (March 14, 1973)
- Record Depth: 73 inches (March 1, 1998)
#4: Truckee, California. Truckee is in the Sierra Nevada mountains, which have a long, deadly history of burying pioneers and wagon trains, as well as modern trains, in the mountain passes during huge snowstorms.
- Average yearly snow: 202.6 inches
- Population : 16,180
- Snowiest month: February (44.3 inches)
#3: Hancock, Michigan. Why do they get so much snow in Hancock? In addition to the fact that it is in the far northern part of the U.S., Hancock is also close to Lake Superior, and the cold winds pick up moisture from the lake.
- Average yearly snow: 211.7 inches
- Population: 4,634
- Snowiest month: January (65.6 inches)
- Snowiest day: 26.5 inches (January 18, 1996)
- Record depth: 73 inches (February 28, 1937)
#2: Crested Butte, Colorado. At an elevation of 8,860 feet, Crested Butte has a history of spectacular New Year’s storms!
- Average yearly snow: 215.8 inches
- Population: 1,487
- Snowiest month: January (39.5 inches)
- Snowiest day: 31 inches (January 1, 1982)
- Record depth: 120 inches (December 31, 1923)
- Average yearly snow: 326.3 inches
- Population: 3,976
- Snowiest month: December (71.9 inches)
- Snowiest day: 47.5 inches (January 16,1990)
Army of Snowmen Photo Courtesy of Nerd Approved.
For those of you receiving iPads or Nook Color/Tablets this season, Seymour Simon has many quality eBooks available for purchase, some discounted as much as 50% for the holidays. If you are adding reading material to a tablet, please consider making Seymour Simon’s exceptional nonfiction for children part of your collection. Happy holidays to all!
Posted by: Seymour Simon
December 17, 2011
I received a letter this week from a school librarian friend, Donna Smalley at Eagle Spring Elementary in Humble Texas. I still have very fond memories of all the kids I met in my visit there last year!
"Every year for the last 3 years, the library at Eagle Springs Elementary in Humble ISD hosts a food/toy drive for the animals at the Houston SPCA. The students and their families are so generous, and this year they donated over 400 pounds of food and treats for the animals!
In addition to these donations, Girl Scout Troop 9390 decided to make this effort their Community Service Project. They collected toys and food, but they did something else very special. Last Saturday, they baked over 100 homemade, fresh dog biscuit treats for the dogs. A spokesperson at the SPCA said the biscuits would be used to make friends with the new animals that come into the shelter during the holidays."
What a great story. Instead of just thinking about what they want to receive, these scouts thought about giving - and they remembered the animals. Way to go, girls!
This story also gives me a chance to remind everyone about the many animals that are given as gifts and then abandoned after the holidays. Don’t give an animal to someone unless you are certain that the family you are giving it to is willing and able to take care of it and be its family for life. An animal is not a toy, it is a living being that deserves to be cared for and loved.
For those of you receiving iPads or Nook Color/Tablets this season, Seymour Simon has many quality eBooks available for purchase, some discounted as much as 50% for the holidays. If you are adding reading material to a tablet, please consider making Seymour Simon’s exceptional nonfiction for children part of your collection. Happy holidays to all!
Posted by: Seymour Simon
December 14, 2011
A New Zealand woman arrived home yesterday and found an unexpected visitor - a baby seal, asleep on the sofa!
The fur seal pup was nicknamed "Lucky" because he managed to cross a busy road, push into the house through a cat door, and climb up some stairs to get to the couch in the living room. What a clever little pup!
The woman called animal control. Wildlife experts came and woke Lucky up from his nap and released him back into the sea.
I once discovered baby flying squirrels living in my attic, but I’ve never experienced anything as interesting as a seal on the sofa. Wouldn’t that be exciting?!
Photo: Christopher Clark/Department of Conservation Te Papa Atawhai
Posted by: Seymour Simon
December 13, 2011
Today’s Cool Photo of the week is of Avie, a tiny two-toed sloth. She is being raised at the Aviarios Sloth Sanctuary in Costa Rica, a place for baby sloths who lost their mothers to power lines or road traffic or other accidents. She is an omnivore, and eats both leaves and fruits.
Sloths spend most of their time in the rainforest canopies of Americas, sleeping up to eighteen hours a day. Perfectly adapted to living in the trees, sloths are also strong and graceful swimmers. The mother bears one infant at a time, and carries it clinging to her belly for up to a year as they move through the trees, learning the ways of the sloth.
Posted by: Seymour Simon
