Sunday, December 30, 2012
Sense of Sight
Hey
there! Have you ever wondered why we could see with our eyes? Let’s learn a
little something about our sense of sight today!
Our eye
is where the photoreceptors are.
They are the receptors which can detect light. When light is produced, the information
collected by the photoreceptor will be converted into images and sent to the
brain for the next process.
There are
3 layers to the wall of our eyes. The innermost layer is called Retina. There
are 2 very important types of cell at the Retina, known as Rod cell and Cone cell. These
two types of cell will be the agent that sends nerve impulses to our brains of
the information collected.
The Rod cells are like
a person who’s in charge of writing down information as records. However, these
cells only “write” in black and white, there for the information they produce
will not show other colours. These Rod cells are very sensitive to light and
shadow. If a strong light was introduced on them, they would temporarily
disintegrate, causing a blurry vision. Try and imagine this, when we enter a
dark room we could see nothing. But after a few moments, we could slowly see
the space and objects. This is because the Rod cells are taking time to adjust
themselves so that we could receive more light under a low light condition. But
the process consumes Vitamin A, which is why it is important for us to have a
balanced diet. This is why people who are lacking of Vitamin A could not see
properly at night, and this is called the night-blindness.
On the
other hand, the Cone cells are like artists who bring in the colours. Cone
cells help us to differentiate colours from what we see. People with
colour-blindness could not differentiate colours because of the lacking of Cone
cells.
Well,
that’s all for today. The sense of sight is one of the very important senses we
have. We must remember to protect our eyes
well.
Shared
by,
Words.
Translated
by,
Happy.
*Remark:
You can
find Vitamin A from food like seafood, dairy products, eggs, carrots, melons,
oranges, or yellow and green vegetables.
Labels: p. learning treasure box
Sunday, March 25, 2012
Tang Yuan (Glutinous rice ball)
‘Tang Yuan’(Glutinous rice ball) is a product of glutinous rice. It is said that since Dynasty Tang, farmers who specialized in the cotton plantation would make these glutinous rice into round balls resembling to cotton balls. They would later have them placed on the lawn. The next day would be the namely ‘Winter Solstice’, where families would undergo their ritual practice by burning incenses for a better harvest each year. The glutinous rice would then be given to the children and they would eat them. Some may choose to have these glutinous rice balls served in soup for everyone. As time went by, they name these glutinous rice balls after the name ‘Tang Yuan’. Until present, Tang Yuan has been improved with different filling, colors and tenderness. It has become the best sought after tradition food during the Winter Solstice.
The Winter Solstice festival is also called ‘Yuan Xiao’ (元宵). There’s another version of its origin, as a result of ceasing the revolution of China, Yuan Shi Kai (袁世凯) had become the president of China. He wanted to restore and make himself the emperor of China but was worried about the objection of people. In Chinese context, both ‘元’ and ‘袁’ are homonyms as ‘yuan’; both ‘宵’ and ‘消’ (to destroy) are homonyms as ‘xiao’. So when you put the words together, ‘元宵’ (Yuan Xiao) would sound the same as ‘袁消’ (Yuan Xiao), which in the end would appear as 袁世凯被消灭 (Yuan Shi Kai to be destroyed). Out of such worry, the president demanded that ‘Yuan Xiao’ to be called as Tang Yuan (汤圆) since the year of 1913.
Having Tang Yuan (glutinous rice balls) is one of the traditions for Winter Solstice in Jiangnan (a geographic area in China). It is a must-have food during this festival celebration. The term ‘Yuan’ (圆) has its homonym in Chinese of being united (团圆) which is pronounced as ‘Tuan Yuan’. Therefore by having Tang Yuan, it possesses an intrinsic value of being together. There’s also a saying that having Tang Yuan signifies that we are one year older than before. Tang Yuan can be made as means to honour our ancestor, improve family ties and friendship. Back then, the people in Shanghai were persistent about having Tang Yuan because they believe that it is a symbolic sign of being united and auspicious.
Tang Yuan are usually prepared before dawn so that family members could get to enjoy them right when they’re awake. In Chao Shan (潮汕 – a southeastern province in China), there’s this liturgy called ‘the maturity of age’ saying that one would get a year older. Children look forward to have Tang Yuan during the night before dawn that they tend to be awake in the wee hours longing for the dawn. Due to anxiety, children often find themselves waiting forever for the dawn because the immensity of waiting is driven by their anticipation to have Tang Yuan. So naturally, the night before Winter Solstice usually felt relatively longer because of this rationale.
During Winter Solstice, there are some who live in Chao Shan that would make Tang Yuan to worship their god, namely the ‘Commander of the public’ (司令公) or their ancestor. The act of tidying the grave of their ancestor has a term called ‘The paper of Winter’. For deceases who passed away not more than 3 years, the act of paying tribute to them is termed as ‘The Spring Paper’, the latter passage would be continued in the name of ‘Paper for passing the Winter’. If someone passed away for less than 3 years, his/her offspring would have to carry out the cleaning ritual called ‘Paper for passing the Spring’. Meanwhile, family members get to have fun and replenish their body and mind at the advantage of the weather in mountain because there is ample sunlight and hardly a downpour during the Winter.
Postscript:
It is said by many that we should have Tang Yuan every year on the 22nd December of each year, which is the Winter Solstice festival. I have loved to have Tang Yuan ever since I was little because I enjoy the process of making them. My family and I are fond of making and eating them. We would usually prepare 3 to 4 plates of these rice balls and have them served as desserts after having the reunion dinner.
Yesterday, I’d come across to an article on the newspaper saying that having Tang Yuan brings harm to our health. As we know, Tang Yuan are made of glutinous rice which isn’t easily digested. Over-consuming of these glutinous rice balls could damage our stomach. Especially for those who have difficulties in chewing, swallowing and digesting. Therefore, elders are advised to not over consume and be vigilant when comes to masticating Tang Yuan.
We all know that many choose to buy ready-made Tang Yuan don’t we? Despite being convenient and tasty, there is this use of animal(pork) fats in the making of these Tang Yuan that contributes to a higher tendency of conceiving high cholesterol in the blood. Other than that, the content of groundnuts and sesame flakes that made up the filling have a high content of phosphorus that would be unfavorable to those who have problems in kidneys because they overwork the them. Ready-made Tang Yuan are often high in carbohydrate and rich in fats, we could have the option of not having Tang Yuan with fillings. With that, we could choose to have more with just the glutinous ingredient whilst lessening the burden to the body.
After reading this article, we should be more vigilant toward our health and the consumption of food. Being the JD PICs, we are to educate our children about the importance of these aside from just teaching them how to make Tang Yuan. President Daisaku Ikeda is very concerned about us, he hopes that everyone would be healthy. Let’s not make Sensei worry about us.
After all, in the end his speeches, Sensei would often say ‘Let us healthily embrace the challenges’, or ‘I pray for the wellbeing and the happiness of our kosen-rufu comrades’!
Shared by Friendship,
Translated by SkyChin.
Labels: p. learning treasure box
Sunday, March 18, 2012
Digestive System
Hi children, do we not have our breakfast, lunch and dinner everyday? Do you know how do we benefit from these into nutrients? In this post, we’ll learn about how we digest food into nutrients. Human digestive system consists of few stages, from the intake of food, digestion, absorption to excrement. The purpose of munching the food we take is to ease the digestive process.
When food is masticated, despite the transformation into smaller pieces, the nutrients are yet to be absorbed. Our saliva facilitate this process, where it serves as an agent to help the absorption of nutrients before the food traverses to the stomach. Therefore, saliva is the front end of our digestive system.
As food traverses into the stomach through esophagus, the food is to be digested through various types of enzymes. There is this good companion of the stomach, termed as the Liver. Liver is the biggest digestive gland in our body, it is a multi-functional organ. Aside from being a digestive organ, it helps to temporary store nutrients attained from the food we take. It helps to remove the toxins in our food and convert them into urea that will eventually leave the body. Moreover, liver is one of the important factors in the generation of blood cells.
After the cleansing process from the stomach, the nutrients attained are to be absorbed by the small intestine. Nutrients are to be categorized for their types and sent to their respective destination. Food will traverse through the small intestine to the rectum.
As food reaches the rectum, nutrients left are mostly absorbed. The substances left are mostly indigestible. The remnants are to be called “feaces”. Feaces usually stink because of the existence of bacteria. Lastly, the peristalsis action would push the ‘feaces’ out of the body through the rectum and anus, this process is termed as “excrement”.
At times we would experience some peculiar sound “gooluuoooo” from the bowel because there is air traversing in our bended intestine. Partly because it is originated from the mixture of air and food during our consumption of food or the by-products of digestive process.
We often say consuming vegetables is good because they are rich in fibres. But do you know that we may not be able to digest fibres from the plant? However, but it is often helpful to ease the peristalsis process of our intestine.
Shared by,
Kok Hou.
Translated by,
SkyChin.
Labels: p. learning treasure box
Sunday, March 11, 2012
Shooting Star
Shooting Stars
Other than the Sun, eight planets, satellite, dwarf planet of the Solar System, there are lots of other particles and dust in the outer space. Some of these particles are known as meteoroid, a rock particle in the Solar System. They may pass by Earth, and when they do, they’d probably be affected by Earth’s gravity. When this happens, they could pierce through the atmosphere and enter the surface of the Earth. When meteoroids pierced through the atmosphere, a great frictional force will ignite it into fire, leaving a trail of light behind it which will then form meteor, or colloquially known as shooting star. They travel approximately at the speed of 11-72km per second at about 80-120km above the sky. Meteors that appear brighter than the usual ones are called fireball. When several meteors appear at the same time or minutes after/before another, it is then known as a phenomena called meteor shower. Meteoroids that are larger than a green bean could easily be seen with a naked eye as they ignite into meteors.
Fireball
Fireballs may appear brighter, like a fire dragon with some ‘hissing’ sound.
Some of the fireballs are so bright that they’re even visible during daytime! Fireballs could appear much brighter because of its size. Having insufficient time to burn out, these fireballs could burst into fire with a high frictional force. Sometimes, they could even travel in an ‘S’ shaped track. As a fireball burn out, it leaves track behind from its left-over debris which is known as meteoric dust. Meteoric dust could persist up in the atmosphere for up to several months!
Meteor Shower
A meteor shower is a celestial event in which a number of meteors are observed to radiate from one point in the night sky. Meteor Shower is often associated with a parent comet. Because meteor shower particles are all travelling in parallel paths, and at the same velocity, they will all appear to an observer below to radiate away from a single point in the sky.
Intense or unusual meteor showers are known as meteor outbursts and meteor storms, which may produce greater than 1,000 meteors an hour! This would appear like fireworks during festival events.
Postscript:
From a tiny dust that ignites into a ball of light, a meteor seems to be telling a story of life. Each of them travels in a different velocity, which represented our pace which is uniquely different. Why do I say so?
From a baby who starts learning to talk, crawl, and stand, we grow through challenges, failure, and numerous trials. When we’re finally adults who work in the society, we learn to communicate and construct relationship with people. These are all the lessons we learn from life. However, our pace in life very much depends on our will. When we possess a strong will, we’re able of overcoming challenges and achieve growth in no time.
No matter if we’re strong or weak, our final aim is to become the very ‘source of light’ aren’t we? But before we could reach that, everyone has to go through their own lessons. The speed we travel is not the most important thing here, but the number of lessons we’ve taken. If we’re meteoroids from the space, we must undergo challenge to experience the great frictional force in order to ignite ourselves. To continuously take up a challenge to brighten our light, is a practice of Human Revolution. No one could ever become a great person in a single night. Achievement comes with great effort.
On our journey, failure isn’t a problem, but giving up is. Please remember not to give up your challenge, never stop training and improving yourself to enhance your brightness! Please always be prepared to give your best effort for your growth.
When we vigorously strive towards our aim with a strong faith towards the Mystic law, we’ll sure be able to improve ourselves and becoming the next shining star!
Shared by,
Friendship.
Labels: p. learning treasure box
The Eight Planets
The Eight Planets
“Nine planets of the Solar System” used to be known to include Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. Do you know that Pluto has a relatively smaller size compared to the rest of the planets? This is why it’s been re-categorized as a dwarf planet on 24th August 2006. Since then, it was taken out from the nine planets, leaving eight of them. Now remember, now there’s only eight planets surrounding the Sun.
Let’s hop on to a journey of discovery！
Mercury
Diameter: 4,880 km
Distance from the sun: 57,910,000 km
*nearest to the sun, smallest planet among 8 of them
According to the Roman mythology, Mercury represents the god of business, travel, and theft, which also known as Hermes, the messenger of God in the Greek mythology. Mercury has been spotted since 3000 B.C. by the Sumerians. The Greeks gave it two names, by day it is called Apollo, and by night it’s Hermes. Isn’t it fascinating?
Mercury has a thin layer of exosphere that contains hydrogen and helium atoms came from the solar wind. It has a rocky surface that provides flat land at some areas. Some are made up during a volcano’s eruption and some are probably particles from a comet. It has a small magnetic field with an intensity of 1% of Earth’s magnetic field. No natural satellites were found around Mercury. Mercury can be seen with a naked eye, but due to its distance towards the Sun, it is quite hard to notice its existence.
Venus
Diameter: 12,103.6 km
Distance from Sun: 108,200,000 km
*The second planet of Solar System. Among the planets, Venus has an orbital track closest to the shape of a circle. The sixth largest planet.
Venus (Aphrodite in Greek), is known as the Greek Goddess of love and beauty. Perhaps it was because Venus is the brightest planet among all that the people had granted it such a name.
It has an extraordinarily slow rotation, with an orbital period of 224.7 days. It reaches its maximum brightness shortly after sunset or shortly before sunrise. This is why Venus is also called as the Morning Star or the Evening Star.
There are mountains and caves on its surface. It has an atmosphere that contains mainly of carbon dioxide and sulphuric acid. Due to its thick atmosphere, we could hardly see the true appearance of Venus. These gases caused a greenhouse effect to the planet, rendering all water to evaporate as the temperature rises about 400 degrees Celsius. This is why Venus’ surface is hotter than Mercury even though it’s not as close to Sun as Mercury does.
Earth
Diameter: 12,756.3 km
Distance from Sun: 149,600,000 km
*The fifth largest planet.
Earth is the only planet not being given names from Greek or Roman mythology. The word ‘earth’ originated from Old English and Germanic language. According to the Roman mythology, goddess of Earth is known as Tellus, which means fertile land. (Gaia, Mother of All in Greek)
Earth is known as one of the planets in the 16th century, during the Copernican era. Earth is also known as the only planet in the Solar System that contains water. Do you know that the Moon is a natural satellite of the Earth?
The world map was completed during the 20th century. With the help of technology, we’re able of capturing images of the Earth from the space. These provided aid of weather forecasting. 75% of the Earth is water!
Mars
Diameter: 6,794 km
Distance from Sun: 227,940,000 km
＊7th largest planet.
It was named after the Roman god of war, Mars (Ares in Greek). It is often called as the Red Planet as the iron oxide’s given its surface a reddish appearance. The name of the third month, ‘March’ originated from Mars as well.
Men had long discovered Mars in the pre-historical era. It is said to be the best place for life (other than Earth) in the Solar System. Due to its oval shaped orbital track, the difference in the changes of temperature could reach as high as 30 degrees Celsius. This very much affected Mars’ weather. The average temperature of Mars is 55℃, -133℃ during Winter and 27℃ during Summer. Mars may appear to be smaller than Earth, but its total surface area is approximately the total surface area of Earth’s land.
There are many mountains on the surface of Mars. Some tracks on its surface pointed that there could be river that once existed. Long ago, there was clean water on the surface of Mars, and there could even probably be lakes and sea. However, this all seemed to have past for about 4 billion years!
In the beginning, Mars looks similar to Earth. Most of its carbon dioxide has been derived into carbon stones. However, Mars does not possess a carbon cycle that returns the carbon to the atmosphere that causes any greenhouse effect. Thus, even if Mars was pulled to the Earth’s position, it will still be cooler than the Earth.
Diameter: 142,984 km
Distance from Sun: 778,330,000 km
＊Fifth planet from Sun. The largest planet!
Jupiter (known as Zeus for the Greeks) is the Father of Gods and men. It is the fourth brightest object is the sky (among the Sun, Moon, and Venus).
Jupiter is primarily composed of hydrogen with a quarter of its mass being helium. Surrounding the planet is a faint planetary ring system and a powerful magnetosphere. There are at least 64 Moons surrounding the Jupiter, including the four large moons called Galilean moons that were first discovered by Galileo Galilei in 1610. The largest of these moons is known as Ganymede which has a diameter greater than that of planet Mercury.
Diameter: 120,536 km
Distance from Sun: 1,429,400,000 km
*6th planet from Sun. 2nd largest planet.
In the Roman mythology, Saturn is named after a Roman god of agriculture. According to Greek mythology, the god of agriculture is named Cronus, which happens to be the child of Uranus and Gaia. He is the father of Zeus. The name of the last day of the week, ‘Saturday’ originated from Saturn too! Isn’t is strange?
Saturn has a bright ring system that consists of nine continuous main rings and three discontinuous arcs, composed mostly of ice particles with a smaller amount of rocky debris and dust.
Saturn is 95 times more massive than Earth, but its density is just 1/8 the average density of Earth. There are 62 known moons orbiting around Saturn and only 53 of them are officially named. Titan, is Saturn’s largest moon and the second largest moon in the Solar System which is larger than the planet Mercury. It’s the only moon in the Solar System to retain a substantial atmosphere.
Saturn’s interior is probably composed of a core of iron, nickel and rock (silicon and oxygen compound).
Diameter: 51,118 km
Distance from Sun: 2,870,990,000 km
＊7th planet from Sun. 3rd largest planet in the Solar System.
Uranus is the God of the Universe in the Greek mythology. He is the father of Cronus and grandfather of Zeus.
Uranus was very first discovered William Herschel on 13th March 1781 by the use of a telescope. Though it was visible to naked eyes, but it was never considered as a planet due to its dimness and slow orbit.
Uranus has an axial tilt of 97.77 degrees, so its axis of rotation is approximately parallel with the plane of the Solar System. This gives it seasonal changes completely unlike those of the other major planets.
Uranus is similar in composition to Neptune, and both are of different chemical composition than other large gas giants like Jupiter and Saturn. Astronomers sometimes place them in a separate category known as ‘ice giants’. Uranus has 11 levels of ring systems but they appear very dimly. It has numerous moons and a few large ones known as Titania and Oberon.
Neptune
Diameter: 49,532 km
Distance from Sun: 4,504,000,000 km
＊8th planet from Sun. 4th largest planet in Solar System.
According to Roman mythology, Neptune represents the God of Sea (Poseidon in Greek).
Like Uranus, Neptune contains all sort of ‘ice’ and contains about 15% of helium and hydrogen stones. Its atmosphere is made up of helium, hydrogen, and a small amount of Methane.
Neptune has its own ring system as well. However, its ring system is fragmented and faint. It is the only planet in the Solar System that orbits in a different direction.
Postscript:
I’m sure you’re learned a lot today! Did you realize that each planet of the Solar System is uniquely different? Some has ring systems, some has a lot of moons, and some of them have caves and mountains. We might find their properties existing on Earth, but there are things they have that Earth doesn’t as well.
This shows that everyone’s different, special and precious. You’re the person no one could ever replace. We should not compare ourselves to other people, because we have our strengths and so do other people. Plus, no one’s perfect. Only then, we’re able of training ourselves and improving ourselves to be a better person! Isn’t it? Other than that, everyone of us have our very own character and personality. Only YOU can express all your potential, and this is your utmost mission!
Ikeda Sensei once said “We’re the ones to make decisions in our life. You are the leading role of this drama of life. We’re all very precious. When we stray far away from ourselves, we might not achieve happiness because we’re our own priceless treasure. There is a potential in you that could change the world. Life is for us to fully express our true personality, to blossom our unique flowers. It may not be easy in reality, but we must become a great ‘leading role’ that creates a beautiful life with action and a pure heart. Life is not for others but US to judge and value!”
Shared by,
Friendship.
Labels: p. learning treasure box
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