Portmanteau

A portmanteau is a new word that is made up by combining the sounds and meanings of two or more words. The word 'portmanteau' means suitcase in the English world.

The most common portmanteau words are: brunch (breakfast+lunch, introduced by the Punch magazine in 1896), smog (smoke+fog), jeggings (jeans+leggings) and Chinglish (Chinese + English).

Here are some more portmanteau words:

• Internet (international+network)
• Oxbridge (Oxford+Cambridge)
• ginormous (gigiantic+enormous)
• cocacolonisation (coca-cola+conolisation)
• sitcom (situation+comedy)
• mozilla (as in mozilla firefox) (mosaic-killer+godzilla)
• Edexcel (educational+excellence)
• FedEx (Federal+Express)
• Microsoft (Microcomputer+software)
• Insolation (Incoming+solar+radiation)
• Beatles (beat+beetles)
• because (by+cause)
• goodbye (god+be+with+ye)

Lake Michigan

Listening to Matt Kearney's 'Closer to Love' (I don't watch Vampire Diaries!) makes me want to know more about Lake Michigan because it sounds like a nice place. Two months ago when I was too bored that I revised all states in the USA and their location, so Lake Michigan is not new to me.

Lake Michigan is one of the largest lakes in the USA, and is the 5th largest in the world in terms of surface area. Bounded by the U.S. states of Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan, the lake is joined with its neighbouring Lake Huron.  It has a cul-de-sac formation, which means water is trapped in the lake for a very long time until it flows out of the basin through the Straits of Mackinac.

   

Famous cities around the lake include Chicago and Milwaukee, and the lake has a considerable tourist value as well. But other than that, there are nothing special I can find about the lake. So yeaa.

Falklands Conflict (a.k.a. Guerra de las Malvinas) explained

Today marks the 30^th anniversary of the British-Argentina conflict over the Falkland Islands. I am fairly familiar with the name of the archipelago (that means a group of islands) as earlier this year I watched the Iron Lady in which Margaret Thatcher’s (starred Maryl Streep! One of my favourite actresses!) act on the war was mentioned. But other than that, I have no idea what actually happened.

First, is to know where exactly the islands are. It’s in the Southern Atlantic Ocean, 350-ish miles off Argentina. And as you can see from the map below, there are two main islands, named East Falkland and West Falkland. The Falklands comprise of about 300 islands.

In the 19^th century the Falkland Islands was colonised by the United Kingdom, which was fairly common because the UK at that time was quite powerful and had many colonies overseas. Then there were endless conflicts over the ownership of the islands between the UK and Argentina which I wouldn’t mention because it’s complicated. And in the world wars, the Falklands continued to be won over by the British army.

Problems emerged when the United Nations was founded in 1945, right after the end of WWII. Argentina saw its creation as an opportunity to pursue its claim of the Falklands. Negotiations between the two sides failed, so the Falklands remained under British rule.

At the beginning of the 1980s Argentina faced economic crisis, and the Argentinian government decided to invade the British-owned Falklands to regain its reputation. It started on 2^nd April (today!) 1982. At first the UN was trying to persuade Argentina to have a negotiation with Britain but she refused. Living 8000 miles away, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was determined to fight the Argentinian Special Forces. She said the 1,800 Falklanders were "of British tradition and stock. So the British sent their armies to the southern Atlantic.

The fight ended in June with British victory. Although it was brief, it was bitter (BBC) - 655 Argentine, 255 British servicemen and 3 Falkland Islanders sacrificed their lives during the war.

The result was that the Conservative party of the UK under the rule of Margaret Thatcher was much consolidated, and she herself has gained much respect as the first female British prime minister. On the other hand, Argentina gained nothing and her military government collapsed due to their defeat. Today, the Falklands are still under British rule, with English being the official language of the archipelago and inhibiting about 3000 people. But Argentina still claims the archipelago themselves. Doh.

And may I say that Thatcher’s decision to keep the Falklands under British control was quite a wise one – a massive oil reserve was discovered in 1998 near the Falklands which means that Britain’s energy security in the future may be ensured. Although not quite intended for this, well done Thatcher.

Why do we dream?

Dreams fascinate most of us. They are so random, creative, sometimes repetitive (recurring dreams). They bring us to an entirely different world, and most of the time we didn't know we were dreaming in our dreams. Here is some random information about dreaming:

• The word 'dream' is related to the West Germanic draugmus, (meaning deception, illusion, or phantom) or from the Old Norse draugr (ghost, apparition) or the Sanskrit druh (seek to harm or injure) 
• Most dreams occur during the REM (rapid eye movement) stage during our sleep, where brain activity is high
• On average, a person has at least 4-6 dreams per night. In one year you have about 1500 dreams.
• If you don't agree with the previous point and think that sometimes you didn't dream at all, that is just because you don't remember them. In fact, you forget 90% of your dream.
• The longest dream occur in the morning. It lasts about 40 minutes and we tend to remember this dream.
• Your eyes move with you when you dream. For example, in your dream you're hit by a car from the right, at that moment your eyeballs will suddenly turned right as well (that moment when you realise the car is there)
• People who become blind after birth also dream

There are two possible explanations for why we dream. The first one is the unexciting Biological explanation, which states that we dream because of the random firings of our neurons in our brain.

The second one comes from the Psychodynamic Approach, which is developed by Sigmund Freud, who believed that dreams are the "Royal Road to the Unconscious", i.e. dreams reveal the unconscious side of our mind.
Freud went on to suggest that there are two types of content in our dreams. Manifest content refers to what we dream about (basically the story of our dream) whereas latent content refers to the underlying meaning of our dream.
Freud argued that the symbols of the latent content of dreams are different to everyone. Also he said that not all dreams have this kind of underlying meaning, as he said 'Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.';So if you dream of a dog chasing after you, it might just be because you were chased by a dog recently.\

Dreams are an absolutely fascinating subject to me. More on dreams in later posts!

Solar Storm - another natural disaster we're not prepared for

Yesterday saw a wave of fear of solar storm over the Internet. Never heard of that, I did some research on it. Due to my limited knowledge in science, my explanation will be kept to a very simplistic form.

What is a solar storm?

A solar storm, a.k.a. geomagnetic storm, is a natural occurrence caused by the high-energy particles released by the Sun to the Earth. These particles are responsible for making the beautiful polar lights a.k.a. Aurora visible to us in areas of low latitudes. However these particles can also be a natural disaster as it could disrupt technology.

If you click the photo below you will be directed to a link of the BBC website where it explains the cause of the storm in more details, which I wouldn’t attempt to simplify the explanation.

How does the storm affect you?

The storm may knock out power and knock satellites out of orbit, which could destroy world communications and navigation systems, etc.  Yes, that means you can’t go to Facebook/Twitter/Tumblr, there’s no telly to watch, and you can’t text your friends. Basically you are separated from the world outside your current geographical location. The only ones you can talk to are your family or neighbours. Woohoo!

Another problem with solar storms is that your body will absorb a huge amount of radiation (X-rays) for long periods of time lead to lethal illnesses. 

Have any solar storms ever happened before?

Yes. There have been numerous solar storms in history, with the earliest recorded major storm dated back to the 18^th century.

An example of this would be the solar storm of 1989, which caused disruptions in electric grids and computer systems. In Quebec, Canada, the power cut lasted for 9 hours! Oh dear.

Given that nowadays we are so much more reliant on energy, you can imagine that a solar storm can lead to an even more catastrophic consequence.

Why are solar storms a global concern recently?

There’s something called the solar cycle in which the Sun goes high and low activity and the cycle repeats every 11 years. Given that last time was 2003, it is expected to peak in 2013 or 2014, which means we will be expecting more solar flares over the next few years..

What’s ‘good’ about the storm?

As mentioned before, these particles allow us to see the beautiful polar lights. With more intense solar storms, these Auroras can be seen in even more places such as northern USA or northern UK (now gutted that I’m living in the South).

Are any people actually preparing for the solar storm?

YES. There were many people in the world taking it seriously. In fact, there is an interesting programme on National Geographic called ‘Doomsday Preppers’ which filmed how people in the US are preparing for the long-lasting power cuts. Here is a video I *currently* find hilarious and over-reacting (this woman is NOT preparing for solar storms though, check the website to see if anyone is preparing for the storm!)

http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/national-geographic-channel/shows/doomsday-preppers/ngc-suvival-of-the-fittest/

Sounds crazy at the moment, but who knows if these people would be the ultimate survivors if the storm really struck! (Touchwood though.)

Lastly, for the solar storm that happened yesterday, here's a BBC article on it: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17295337

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Once again, the solar storm reminds me of how vulnerable human being could be. No matter how ‘developed’ or ‘civilised’ we are, we are still extremely dependent on technology which could have been easily destroyed by natural disasters. 

When compared to the nature, we are nothing.

Diet habits

About 5% of the UK population consider themselves to be vegetarian, according to the National Diet and Nutrition Survey. That's about 3 million people, with women more likely to call themselves vegetarian than men. The figure for vegans is smaller - consumer surveys suggest they make up about 1% of the UK population.

Vegetarianism - a diet  that includes only cereal products, nuts, seeds, and fruit and vegetables, and may or may not include the use of dairy products and eggs. Vegetarians do not eat meat, poultry, fish, shellfish or foods containing meat products.

Veganism - will not eat dairy products, eggs or any other food derived from animals.


Ovo vegetarianism - a type of vegetarian diet which allows the consumption of eggs


Lacto vegetarianis - a vegetarian diet which includes dairy products such as milk, cheese, yogurt, butter, cream, and kefir, but excludes eggs.

Probably the most common type in the UK are lacto-ovo vegetarians, who include eggs and dairy products in their diet. Lacto-vegetarians eat dairy products but not eggs.

Pescetarianism -  those who abstain from eating all meat and animal flesh with the exception of seafood. Pescetarians often believe that moderate consumption of fish or fish oils, which are high in Omega-3 fatty acids, is necessary for optimum health. 

**Additional information

Paleolithic diet

• a.k.a. paleo diet, the caveman diet, Stone Age diet and hunter-gatherer diet
• A modern nutritional plan based on the presumed ancient diet of wild plants and animals that various hominid species habitually consumed during the Paleolithic era—a period of about 2.5 million years duration that ended around 10,000 years ago with the development of agriculture. 
• The "contemporary" Paleolithic diet consists mainly of fish, grass-fed pasture raised meats, vegetables, fruit, roots, and nuts, and excludes grains, legumes, dairy products, salt, refined sugar, and processed oils.

Source: BBC, Wikipedia and About.com

Latin abbreviations - e.g., i.e., a.m., etc!

Have you ever wondered what do abbreviations such as e.g./i.e./a.m. stand for?

These abbreviations that we always use are actually Latin. Some of the most commonly used ones are:

• e.g. (exempli gratia) - for the sake of example; we usually read this as 'for example'
• i.e.  (id est) - 'id' means 'that' and 'est' means 'is'. Yes you're right. It means 'that is' (meaning ''which means'). Some people always confuse this with e.g., which has a totally different meaning.
• etc. (et cetera) - 'et' means 'and' and 'cetera' means 'the rest'. We know how it is used.....and we normally read this as 'exactra'
• a.m. (ante meridiem) - 'ante' means 'before' and 'meridiem' means 'midday', this is why we call 9 o'clock in the morning 9:00a.m.
• p.m.  (post meridiem) - same as the previous one, but 'post' here means 'after' apparently
• et al. (et alii) - 'et' means 'and' and 'alii' means 'others'. This is similar to etc., but this is used for a list of names. For example when I study psychology we always have to use this word as a research was done by many researchers but they will only show the leading researcher when crediting them, for example Hofling et al.
• Q.E.D. (quod erat demonstrandum) - if you have studied mathematics you probably have come across this abbreviation which means 'what was to be demonstrated'

Currently I can only think of these most common ones. If there are any other common Latin abbreviations that we always come across please feel free to comment below.

Although Latin has already been classified as a dead language, I have always been quite enthusiastic about Latin ever since I knew its existence. In fact, many of our English words indirectly come from Latin words. Here are some extra Latin phrases that I like (not abbreviations):

• Carpe diem - seize the day (watch the film 'Dead Poets Society' if you haven't)
• Cogito ergo sum - I think therefore I am
• Audere est facere - To dare is to do

So when these words/phrases have their English form, why Latin? Nothing, it just sounds cool. I used to remember more Latin words than I do now....it's just simply an enjoyment of learning something others don't.