~ All About VOLCANOES ~

• Volcanoes are like giant safety valves that release the pressure that builds up inside the Earth
• They are Earth's natural way of cooling off
• Over half of the world's volcanoes arise in a belt around the Pacific Ocean called the 'Ring of Fire'. Indonesia has the most volcanoes
• Mount Vesuvius Italy is said to be the world's most dangerous volcano because of the population of three million people living nearby
• The most famous eruption of Mount Vesuvius happened in AD 79 that destroyed the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum and killed 10,000 to 25,000 people. Due to the volcanic ash, the bodies of the town residents were well preserved, found just as they fell
• According to the Smithsonian Institute, 1,415 volcanoes have erupted in the past 10,000 years, with the most active being Mount Etna and Mount Stromboli in Italy, and the volcanoes of Hawaii
• There are around 25 major volcanic eruptions on land every year and thousands of minor ones, many of which take place under the sea. Active volcanoes are those that may erupt at any time. Dormant(sleeping) volcanoes have not erupted for centuries but may still do so. Extinct volcanoes are no longer likely to erupt
• Entire ecosystems can be altered by a volcano eruption. In some cases, eruptions have been beneficial. In areas with imbalanced ecosystems, volcanoes have helped restore balance and give them a chance to start anew
• Without volcanoes, we would not have Hawaii! Volcanoes erupting from the bottom of the ocean are able to create new islands. In 1963, an undersea volcano created one of Earth's newest islands, Surtsey Island, off the coast of Iceland
• Volcanoes have been erupting since shortly after Earth was formed. They are still erupting today. Some eruptions are quiet. Others are violently explosive.
• Lava is extremey hot. Temperatures can reach between 650 and 1600 degrees Celsius (that is, between 1202 and 2912 degrees Fahrenheit).
• On the main island of Hawaii, an active volcano is taller than Mt. Everest if you measure from the ocean floor
• During volcanic eruptions, lightning storms are common. The name "volcano" has its origin from the name of Vulcan, a god of fire in Roman mythology
• In Africa, Mount Ol Doinyo Lengai erupts black lava, which turns white when it cools - an unusual phenomenon
• The 1883 eruption of Krakatau in Indonesia is thought to have released 200 megatons of energy, the equivalent of 15,000 nuclear bombs. Even though the island was uninhabited, the eruption killed 36,000 people from burning ash showers and huge tsunamis. It generated the loudest sound historically reported.

~ CITIES IN DANGER ~

'Our crazy weather patterns are not a coincidence. As the ozone things temperature rise, experts are scrambling to analyse what effects are taking place and what is being done. Find out what is going on around the world and how they are adapting to the change':

1) A SALTY AFFAIR

Effect: In a Bangladesh village, water levels from the Bay of Bengal is rising and making its way into water supplies, polluting the once clear freshwater rivers with tiny white crystals. As a result paddy farms in the village are suffering, producing poor quality rice that does not sell.

Solution: Unable to put up with poor rice sales, farmers are making use of the salty water by turning to shrimp farming instead. However, shrimp farming requires less labour hence contributing to unemployment.

2) GOING UNDERWATER

Effect: With sea levels rising as much as 59cm by 2100, most parts of the Maldives that are merely 0.9m above sea level, are expected to be fully submerged by water within 25 years. Already, a few islands have been evacuated.

Solution: Homeless islanders have relocated to a rectangular artificial island named Hulhumale atop an underwater reef. So far, it also includes an airport and tiny Club Med. By its completion in 2020, about 150,000 people will set up homes there as their tiny country sinks. In the long run however, the government is looking to buy land in Sri Lanka, India and Australia.

3) DESERT ON THE LOOSE

Effect: In 2007, UN reported that one third of the Earth's population would fall victim to desertification - the spreading of sand. With the Sahara expanding 48km annually, large areas have been overtaken by sand. In Iran, a sand storm buried 124 villages while in Kazakhstan, more than 80 per cent of their cropland have been affected.

Solution: Currently, there are proposals to build a 6000km wall out of solidified sand across the Sahara. Other preventative measures include planting trees to form a green belt ala the Great Wall of China.

~ EARTH: POPULATION ZERO ( LIFE AFTER PEOPLE ) ~

If the earth's population of 6.7 ( and counting) dissapeared all at once fine day, nature is whera the party would be at. With our plundering, pillaging, over-consuming and over-developing ways, the most dominant species on Earth is also the most demanding of its resources. So if we all vanished into thin air, leaving nature well and truly alone, it would eventually reclaim the planet and return to its glory days of green. But these flora and fauna would first have to deal with the mess we leave behind. There are some of the things scientists predict would happen to Earth once humans are no longer habitants:

• With no one to turn on the light, artificial light would no longer blaze the night sky. Light pollution will no longer taint the atmosphere
• Power stations would not be fuelled, and with no power, nothing runs - factories, machines, water pumps, sewage treatment plants, etc. Wind turbines and solar power plants that also produce power will eventually die out with no one to maintain them
• Without water pumps, subways and streets would flood. In colder climates, freezing and thawing would split cements
• In the absence of pollution, weeds and creepers would consume cities
• No more pollutants from cars and factories. Some pollutants already in the atmosphere will wash out in weeks. Some, such as chlorofluorocarbons, dioxines and pesticide DDT, take longer to break down. Our biggest headache, carbon dioxide, will eventually be absorbed by the ocean to its full capacity in about a thousand years. But 15 per cent of CO2 will remain in the atmosphere, influencing the climate for more than 1000 years after humans stop emitting it
• Lightning will set paper-filled offices on fire after lightning rods have rusted away. The concrete ruins of these structures, however, will remain for thousands of years, just like the ruins of ancient civilizations that we've discovered in our time
• Steel bank vaults could last for eons with our paper money and gold bars in it. Certain common plastic might remain intact for hundreds of thousands of years and may not break down until microbes evolved the ability to consume them.
• Nuclear waste currently in long-term storage will last thousands of years without supervision, by which time its radioactivity would have dropped drastically. Active reactors, however, might leak, catch fire and melt down, releasing huge amounts of radiation. But as witnessed around Chernobyl, where nature quickly bounced back, the effects of radiation might not be so dreadful
• Some ecosystems may never return to the way they were before humans interfered, because they have become locked into a new state
• Domesticated, artificially selected and inbred animals and plants will evolve back to the way their feral ancestors were through random breeding. No more cute little poodles running around
• Most endangered species will rebound once they get their habitat back. But some on the brink of extinction won't survive without human protection as they lack the genetic diversity and the ecological critical mass they need to recover
• The rat population, though not endangered, would dissapear as it would be deprived of human garbage. Cockroaches will too. as they thrive in warm buildings
• Fish populations will gradually recover from drastic overfishing. Corals and other bottom-dwelling organisms on deep water reefs will gradually regrow
• After a few million years, almost every trace of our present dominance would vanish completely

~ How to Make a Mummy ~

STEP 1

=> The body is placed on a flat surface and is cut at the abdomen. The lungs, liver, intestines and stomach are removed to be mummified separately. The heart, believed to contain the person's essence and intelligence, is left in the body.

STEP 2

=> The brain, believed to have no purpose except to accelerate the decomposition process, is removed by first breaking the thin bone that separates the crnial and nasal cavities. A hooked rod is inserted and used to stir the brain tissue until it liquefies so that it can be drained out through the nose.

STEP 3

=> The cranial cavity is then swabbed with linen and hot resin is used to seal it.

STEP 4

=> The body is washed inside and out with water and palm wine, and packed with the internal organs in a special salt called natron for 40 days to dry out the body.

STEP 5

=> The body and organs are wrapped in linen strips ans sealed with resin. Amulets to protect the body are placed in the wrappings. The mummified body is now ready for burial. The entire process takes 70 days.