Happy Hallowee'n!

Halloween or Hallowe'en  a contraction of "All Hallows' Evening"), also known as Allhalloween, All Hallows' Eve, or All Saints' Eve, is a yearly celebration observed in a number of countrieson 31 October, the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Hallows' Day. It initiates the triduum of Allhallowtide,the time in the liturgical year dedicated to remembering the dead, including saints (hallows), martyrs, and all the faithful departed believers. Within Allhallowtide, the traditional focus of All Hallows' Eve revolves around the theme of using "humor and ridicule to confront the power of death."

According to many scholars, All Hallows' Eve is a Christianized feast initially influenced by Celtic harvest festivals, with possible pagan roots, particularly the Gaelic Samhain. Other scholars maintain that it originated independently of Samhain and has solely Christian roots.

Typical festive Halloween activities include trick-or-treating (or the related "guising"), attending costume parties,decorating, carving pumpkins into jack-o'-lanterns, lighting bonfires, apple bobbing, visiting haunted house attractions, playing pranks, telling scary stories and watching horror films. In many parts of the world, the Christian religious observances of All Hallows' Eve, including attending church services and lighting candles on the graves of the dead, remain popular, although in other locations, these solemn customs are less pronounced in favor of a more commercialized and secularized celebration. Because many Western Christian denominations encourage, although most no longer require, abstinence from meat on All Hallows' Eve, the tradition of eating certain vegetarian foods for this vigil day developed, including the consumption of apples, colcannon, cider, potato pancakes, and soul cakes.

in Wikipedia

ORDER OF ADJECTIVES

links for EXERCISES

http://a4esl.org/q/h/vm/adjorder.html

http://www.esolcourses.com/content/exercises/grammar/adjectives/adjectiveorder/adjective-order-quiz-1.html

http://www.englishexercises.org/makeagame/viewgame.asp?id=6877

http://www.learnenglishfeelgood.com/esl_adjectiveorder4.html

http://web2.uvcs.uvic.ca/elc/studyzone/410/grammar/adjord1.htm

http://www.usingenglish.com/quizzes/139.html

http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/adjectives-order_quiz.htm

New app lets owners play with their pet from anywhere

A new device has been developed that lets owners watch and play with their pets on the go

Don't miss your pet anymore!

The remote controlled device is called the PetCube and allows owners to watch and play with their pet, wherever they are.

It has a camera, speaker and a laser built in, which can be controlled at the touch of a finger on a smartphone or tablet.

The designer hopes the device will help to keep pets active while they're at home.

It doesn't come cheap though, priced at $179 (about £105).

From CBBC newsround

Monster shark 'kept whales in check'

Why are whales so big? A new study's think it has discovered the answer.

Researchers think the biggest ever shark known to science, - the 14-18m-long predator, called Megalodon, died out over 2.6 million years ago.

That meant smaller sharks didn't get eaten - so were allowed to grow to gigantic sizes.

The Megalodon looked like a super-sized Great White and was probably the size of a lorry.

Scientists think it could bite down with a force of between 10.8 to 18.2 tonnes.

The shark's jaw had a massive bite force, despite being composed of cartilage, not bone

The largest teeth measure about 17cm (almost 7in).

The three largest teeth come from Megalodon; the rest are from modern shark species

The 50 tonne shark fed on smaller marine mammals such as small 'baleen whales.'

This shows the relative size of the Megalodon compared to humans

Researchers from the Florida Museum of Natural History in Gainesville and the University of Zurich in Switzerland have been baffled for years about when it was wiped out.

They now say the date falls between the Pliocene and Pleistocene times - particular periods of history.

That was when the small baleen whales began to grow to their current hefty sizes.

The baleen whales filter tiny animals out of the water through comb-like structures in their mouths.

This group now includes the biggest animal alive today - the blue whale. It's proper name is Balaenoptera musculus, and grows to more than 30m long.

Blue Whale in sea

Megalodon fossils have been found in Europe, Africa and both North and South America.

Most Megalodon fossils date from the middle Miocene (15.9-11.6 million years ago) to the Pliocene (5.3-2.6 million years ago). But some fossils could come from the Pleistocene (2.6 million years ago - 10,000 years ago).

From CBBC newsround

Student creates virtual world in Minecraft

A student from America has created a virtual world in the video game Minecraft.

Duncan Parcells, who's 19-years-old, spent five hours every week building it and has named it Titan City.

It's constructed out of 4.5 million Minecraft building blocks and contains 96 buildings.

Altogether, it took him two years to complete and he says New York was his inspiration for the city. (CBBC newsround)
He used 4,5 billion blocks!

Parcells, who goes by the moniker ColonialPuppet on Xbox Live, said he built the creation on the console simply because at the time all he had was the Xbox 360 version of the game. He’s planning to move it to the PC soon however and expand his creation.
Answering questions about Titan City on a thread on Reddit, Parcells said that the buildings all “have at least some floors” but that most are without soft furnishings. “Interior work will begin once the Xbox map is filled,” he added.

One comment said what at least some of us were thinking: “Wow this is simultaneously the most impressive gaming feat I have ever seen as well as the most depressing,” but Parnells was keen to reassure his audience: “Hey man don't worry I have a life other than this […] I have a lot of friends and I go outside regularly."

(From http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/titan-city-a-handbuilt-minecraft-metropolis-that-took-two-years-and-45-billion-blocks-9801648.html

Sugary drinks warning signs change habits of US teens

Signs warning shoppers how much exercise they need to do to burn off calories in sugary drinks can encourage healthier choices, US research suggests.

Some teenage shoppers were influenced by the signs and chose healthier drinks

A study of teenagers' purchasing habits found they bought fewer sugary drinks and more water when the signs were up.

The most effective sign said it took five miles to walk off the 250 calories in a sugary drink.

Public Health England said the study showed simple health messages worked.

Study leader Dr Sara Bleich, associate professor at the Bloomberg School, John Hopkins University, said people do not understand calorie content on its own on a label.

"What our research found is that when you explain calories in an easily understandable way such as how many miles of walking is needed to burn them off, you can encourage behaviour change."

For six weeks, the brightly coloured signs were displayed in corner shops in neighbourhoods in Baltimore, in full view of young customers buying sugary drinks.

Four different signs were used in the shops. Two translated the calories in the drinks into the amount of exercise needed to burn off those calories.

One sign said it would take 50 minutes of running to work off the 250 calories - or 16 teaspoons of sugar - contained in a 590ml bottle of fizzy drink, sports drink or fruit juice.

The remaining signs listed the sugar content of the drink and the calories contained in the drink.

Sugary drinks, such as fruit juices and fizzy drinks, can contain up to nine teaspoons of sugar in one can

A can of fizzy drink, which is 330ml in size in the UK, contains around nine teaspoons of sugar.

To find out the impact of the signs, the researchers - writing in the American Journal of Public Health - interviewed children aged between 12 and 18 years old leaving the shop.

Out of the 35% of those interviewed who said they saw the signs, 59% said they believed the sign and 40% said their behaviour had changed as a consequence.

Before the signs were put up, 98% of drinks bought in the shops were sugary ones. After six weeks, this was reduced to 89%.

During the time the signs were on view, sales of larger bottles of fizzy drinks went down from 54% to 37% of all purchases.

The percentage of teenagers who chose to buy no drink at all in the shops increased from 27% to 33%.

This change in behaviour continued for several weeks after the "exercise" signs were taken down, the study adds.

In total, more than 3,000 drinks purchases were observed by the research team.

Dr Bleich said the findings could help in the fight against obesity,

READ MORE

Possessive determiners or Possessive adjectives

Click on the links to do some exercises

• http://www.englishexercises.org/makeagame/viewgame.asp?id=4965

• http://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/exercises/pronouns/possessive_determiners.htm

• http://www.myenglishpages.com/site_php_files/grammar-exercise-possessive-adjectives.php

• http://www.language-workshee.com/support-files/elementarysubjectpronounsandpossessiveadjectivesexercises.pdf ( WORKSHEET)

Countries and nationalities

Malala Yousafzai wins Nobel Peace Prize 2014

Pakistani schoolgirl campaigner Malala Yousafzai has won the Nobel Peace Prize, one of the world's most respected awards.

She has been recognised for her hard work promoting the right for girls to have an education.

The prize judges said about Malala: "Through her heroic struggle she has become a leading spokesperson for girls' rights to education."

Malala won it jointly with Indian child rights activist Kailash Satyarthi.

Indian child rights activist Kailash Satyarthi is sharing the Nobel Peace Prize with Malala

Malala, 17, is the youngest person to ever get the Nobel Peace Prize.

She was attacked by the Taliban, an extremist group, in Pakistan two years ago for her campaign work.

Malala was seriously injured in the attack, but she was flown to the UK for treatment and has recovered well.

She now goes to school in Birmingham and continues her campaigning.

What is the Nobel Peace Prize?

What have Albert Einstein, Nelson Mandela and Barack Obama got in common? They've all won a Nobel Prize.

They're given out every year to people or organisations who have achieved amazing things in different areas.

The Nobel Peace Prize is probably the most famous, but there are others, including ones for medicine, science and economics.

The Nobel Prize is named after Alfred Nobel, the Swedish inventor of dynamite.

All this week, the winners are being announced. Ricky's been finding out why they're such a big deal.

From CBBC newsround

Eiffel Tower gets glass floor in refurbishment project

A vertigo-inducing glass floor has been installed at the Eiffel Tower, France's most visited tourist attraction

For those scared of heights, the Eiffel Tower's new floor may be something of a challenge.

Visitors will be able to look down on Paris through a glass floor as part of a refurbishment of the tower.

Visitors to the Eiffel Tower in Paris will now be able to look down through a vertigo-inducing glass floor that forms part of a €30 million (£24m) refit of France’s most visited tourist attraction.

The transparent floor will be on the first level of the tower, at 57m, where operators hope that visitors will linger before heading to the highest viewing platform at 276 metres above the ground. Traditionally, tourists to the Eiffel Tower spend little time here before moving on to catch the better views from the two higher levels.

“We wanted people to realise how the building is anchored with its four pillars in the ground”, Alain Moatti, the architect in charge of the renovation, told le Journal du Dimanche, the French Sunday newspaper.

The refit of the half-hectare first floor, which began in May 2012 and was unveiled to the public today, also includes shops, restaurants and a museum telling the story of the 125-year-old construction. The tower’s eco-friendliness has also improved, with the installation of four solar panels that will provide about half of the tower’s hot water requirements. Some of the toilets will also be operated using rain water.

                                    A tourist captures the view (Photo: Reuters)

About seven million people visit the Eiffel Tower each year – 85 per cent of them foreigners – making it the world’s busiest paid-for tourist attraction. The tower’s management also hopes that the renovation will attract more Parisians to the “Dame en Fer” (The Iron Lady), as it is sometimes referred to in French.

The tower opened in 1889 and was named after Gustave Eiffel, whose company engineered the project. At 324m in height, it was the world’s tallest building for 41 years until the Chrysler building was built in New York in 1930.

From CBBC newsround and The Telegraph

Students build electric sofa to travel around campus

A team of engineering students from the University of New South Wales in Australia has created a robotic sofa to travel around campus.

It can move in any direction and is controlled manually using an Xbox gamepad.

Movement can also be pre-programmed by the students.

Watch the interview with Stephanie McArthur, one of the students behind the project.

From CBBC Newsround