Lightning and Thunder

This past week the rain had really came down along with lightning and thunder on some days... Ever wondered what's really going on when you see lightning and then several seconds later boom! Crackle! you hear thunder? Most people would say "It's a thunder storm!" but actually what I have found out is that lightning is the cause of thunder!! So actually it should be called a "Lightning and Thunder Storm" instead of thunder and lightning or just a thunder storm.

Now, the question what causes a so called "thunderstorm"? What's happening with all the lightning and thunder going on? What causes lightning... what causes thunder? This is good to know as future teachers... and could be used in a lesson!



Starting with... What's lightning and what causes it?

A little insight... lightning is a discharge of electricity!! A single stroke of lightning can heat the air around it to 30,000 degrees Celsius (54,000 degrees Fahrenheit)! This extreme heating causes the air to expand at an explosive rate. The expansion creates a shock wave that turns into a booming sound wave, better known as thunder. Thus the name thunderstorm.

The sky is filled with electric charge. In a calm sky, the positive and negative charges are evenly interspersed thoughout the atmosphere. Therefore, a calm sky has a neutral charge.

A little more sophisticated and detailed insight... inside a thunderstorm, electric charge is spread out differently. A thunderstorm consists of ice crystals and hailstones. The ice crystals have a positive charge, while the hailstones have a negative charge. The positively charged ice crystals are pushed to the top of the thunderstorm cloud by an updraft. Meanwhile, the heavy negatively charged hailstones are pushed to the bottom of the thunderstorm by its downdraft. Thus, the thunderstorm's positive and negative charges are separated into two levels: the positive charge at the top and the negative charge at the bottom.

During a thunderstorm, the Earth's surface has a net positive charge. Because opposites attract, the negative charge at the bottom of the thunder cloud wants to link up with the positive charge of the Earth's surface.

Once the negative charge at the bottom of the cloud gets large enough to overcome air resistance, a flow of negative charge rushes toward the earth. This is known as a "stepped leader". The positive charges of the Earth are attracted to this stepped leader, so a flow of positive charge moves up through some elevated point, such as a tree or a telephone pole, and into the air. When the stepped leader and the positive charge from the earth meet, a strong electric current carries positive charge up into the cloud. This electric current is known as the return stroke of lightning and is visible to the human eye. The above process will occur three or four times, all within a few seconds. Normally the human eye cannot distinguish between all of the return strokes. Wow! How exciting that all of this is going on!... Along with all that info there are different types (an easy to read website) of lightning, the ones we can see and cannot see.

What's thunder and what causes it?

Thunder is basically the big boom, rumble, crackle!! that you hear in the clouds! Along with following lightning... It's the extreme hot heat that lightning gives off mixing with the cold air that are in the clouds.

A little more technical info on thunder is like I mentioned before lightning bolts are extremely hot, with temperatures of 30,000 to 50,000 degrees F. That's hotter than the surface of the sun! When the bolt suddenly heats the air around it to such an extreme, the air instantly expands, sending out a vibration or shock wave we hear as an explosion of sound. This is thunder. If you are near the stroke of lightning you’ll hear thunder as one sharp crack. When lightning is far away, thunder sounds more like a low rumble as the sound waves reflect and echo off hillsides, buildings and trees. Depending on wind direction and temperature, you may hear thunder for up to fifteen or twenty miles.

So now you know what's happening when you see lightning and hear thunder.... but why is it that they don't hit at the same time? Well, of course light travels up to five times faster than sound that's why there is a delay in the sound of thunder after you see lightning hit. Even sometimes you may not see lightning taking place because it's the type of lightning that happens from cloud to cloud (if you checked out that website above you would know what I'm talking about) you'll still be able to hear the thunder (even the ones that are not that loud).

What other health benefits come with cranberries?

I know you probably heard atleast one time or another that cranberries are good for cleaning out your kidneys. Since dried cranberries (with li hing mui) is one of my favorite snacks I was wandering if they are good for anything else. So besides cleaning out your kidneys what other health benefits come along with eating cranberries?

Additional benefits...

Searching the web I have came across a website I would never have thought of... have you ever heard of the Cranberry Institute? Well, they got everything you want to know and find out about cranberries they're there!!! From research to news and just the simple information on the fruit we call cranberries.

Cranberries contain proanthocyanidins (PACs) that can prevent the adhesion of certain of bacteria, including E. coli, associated with urinary tract infections to the urinary tract wall. The anti-adhesion properties of cranberry may also inhibit the bacteria associated with gum disease and stomach ulcers.

A little history on this little fruit with a big amount of benefits...

The North American cranberry industry has a long and distinguished history. Native peoples used cranberries as food, in ceremonies and medicinally. Revolutionary War veteran Henry Hall planted the first commercial cranberry beds in Dennis Massachusetts in 1816. Today cranberries are farmed on approximately 40,000 acres (16,200 hectares) across the northern United States and Canada.

Scientific research is revealing how healthful cranberries can be. Packed with nutrients like antioxidants and other natural compounds, cranberries are a great choice for the health conscious consumer. Cranberries are available in a wide variety of forms including fresh fruit, juice, sauce, and dried. Juices and sauce are available year-round at your grocery retailer. Fresh fruit is generally available from September to December. Include more cranberries in your diet and start eating healthier today!!!

Global Warming

More and more people talk about global warming today but it seems like nobody is really doing anything about it. So my question here is what exactly is global warming and the effects it has on our earth, and what's causing it? I was curious to do my blog on global warming from my last weeks blog... I think not only does the sun and moon have an effect on the rising and dropping of our ocean's tides but I also feel global warming has an effect on our tides too.

The definition of Global Warming...

Global warming is, in simple terms, the rise in temperature of the earth's atmosphere. It can also be quite complicated in terms of where the Earth's average surface temperature has risen by about five degrees celcius since 1890 due to mainly an increase in greenhouse gasses, where carbon dioxide (CO2) is highly generated. That’s certainly a big part of global warming! Also and most definitly, the high and growing levels of CO2 in the Earth’s atmosphere got there because of what we have been doing for the past few hundred years!!! We humans are the main coprate of this environmental tragedy called global warming otherwise know as the "Green House Effect".

Some of the Effects Global Warming has on our Earth...

• Melting of polar caps in the north and south


• The widespread melting of snow and ice


• Rising sea levels


• Damages Earth's Ozone layer

This list is just to name a few but there are definitly more effects that global warming has on us.

Now, what's causing all this environmental tragedy?...

Like I mentioned earlier we are the main coprates that cause this environmental tragedy which we call global warming. I definitly feel it's due to technology and inventions of things in need for fuel and electricity (energy in general)! And a lot of it has to do with carbon dioxide. This is what I feel and briefly know but I also know there is a lot more cause to this.

The Moon and the Changing of The Tides

Ever wondered what makes our ocean's tides rise and fall? Well, from what I briefly know is that the moon has something to do with it. There is some sort of a "gravitational pull" that the moon has on the earth, I guess when it's doing it's rotations around the earth, which then makes our ocean's waters rise and fall.


Another thing I wondered about is on tide calendars there are always the different moon phases along with the times when there is low tide and high tide. There must be some relationship there I guess.







Another reason...

Why this question came to mind is that from the movie "Bruce Almighty" starring Jim Carrey, who wishes he was God and then it happens, it shows a part where he pulls the "full" moon in real close to earth. He was trying to make it romantic and all for his girlfriend. Well, what had happened when he pulled the moon in real close the next morning on the news he comes to find out it had created a tsunami in other parts of the world. Therefore, even coming from a movie, this had me thinking the moon really does have an effect on the rising and falling of the ocean's tides.


So, my question here is what are the effects that the moon has on our ocean's rising and falling tides?

First of all here is a description of what a tide is:

Tides are cyclic rising and falling of Earth's ocean surface caused by the tidal forces of the moon and the sun acting on the earth. Tides cause changes in the depth of the sea, and also produce oscillating (turning) currents known as tidal streams, making prediction of tides are important for coastal navigation. The strip of seashore that is submerged at high tide and exposed at low tide is called the intertidal zone which is an important ecological product of ocean tides.
The changing tide produced at a given location on the Earth is the result of the changing positions of the Moon and Sun relative to the Earth coupled with the effects of the rotation of the Earth and the local bathymetry (um....how do you say that, well in other words it means deep).

Now, how does the moon have an effect on the tides...

Doing some research on the internet I've come across many different websites that contained a lot of information. It pretty much comes down to the same meaning of gravity forces that pull between the earth, the moon, and the sun which causes low and high tides of the ocean. Yet I learned durning different parts of the year the tides are different, spring and neap tides which are also called lunar tides. Here is this moon tidal website that the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) created and it goes really into detailed information on how it actually can be quite "techniqually" complicated on the effects that the moon has on the ocean. There are pictures and all. You should definitly go and check it out.

WHITE TEA

Have you ever heard of white tea? Compared to green tea, what is white tea good for and where does white tea come from?


I haven't heard of white tea until Anneliese had mentioned about it from my last blog on green tea. Doing a little reasearch I have come to find that white tea is actually very popular out there compared to green tea.



Some info on white tea...





White tea is produced in a different way to all other teas. The leaves come from special varietal bushes and are not processed but are dried in the sun. Only special leaves are selected, the ideal is two leaves wrapped around a new shoot. After drying the leaves they are again selected and sorted by hand. White tea is especially potent in that it is has three times as many antioxidant polyphenols as green or black tea and has been shown to be 100% more effective in mopping up free radicals that cause skin to sag. Some of the world's top cosmetic companies are becoming very interested in white tea for skin creams and the result is that high grade white tea is becoming even more rare than before.






Where did white tea come from and how did it get its name?


Just like the popular green tea (which has been noted for its antioxidant qualities, particularly among Asian cultures, dating back centuries), white tea is derived from the Camellia sinensis plant. However, unlike most other varieties (including traditional black tea and oolong tea), the leaves of white tea are harvested before they are fully opened. Indeed, the name "white tea" is derived from the fine white hair that covers the uppermost tender buds of the plant. For this reason, white tea is sometimes referred to as the "Rolls Royce" of the tea family.

Hold on you don't wanna get blown away by those tradwinds....!!!

These past couple of days have been quite windy... the gust of the winds got up to 50mph yesterday. This made me wonder if it was some strong trade winds blowing through the islands... so it made me come to the conclusion where do these so called "trade winds" come from? And why does it seem like only Hawaii and the south pacific have these trade winds and no other place in the world?
Picture from The Honolulu Advertiser

Trade winds come from:

The prevailing wind throughout the year is the east northeasterly trade wind. Consequently, in Hawaii the geographical term, "windward" has come to mean the trade wind rather than the existing wind. Nevertheless, the trade winds do vary greatly in frequency. They are sometimes virtually absent for long periods; at other times they blow for weeks on end. Generally, however, the trade winds are more persistent in summer than in winter. They range over the open sea near Hawaii from a minimum of about 50 percent of the time in January to a maximum of more than 90 percent in July and an annual frequency of about 70 percent.

In well-exposed areas the trade winds average about 15 miles an hour and are slight stronger in summer than winter. Trade winds exceed a speed of 31 miles an hour only about 2 percent of the time. Winds from other directions exceed this speed about 3 percent of the time.

The strongest and most damaging winds are not ordinarily the trade winds, except in places affected by local terrain. The strongest winds are those that accompany winter storms, severe thunderstorms, and infrequent hurricanes. High winds are most likely between November and March and may come from almost any direction. The strongest wind of recent years was a gust of 103 miles an hour at Kilauea Point, Kauai in August 1959 during Hurricane Dot. Gusts exceeding 80 miles an hour have occasionally occurred elsewhere.

GREEN TEA

So what else is green tea good for besides having antioxidants and suppressing your appetite? I'm curious to know because I enjoy green tea either hot or cold and especially in my jamba juice, " Match Green Tea Blast"!
Also, I would like to know exactly where it originated from?






Where did green tea come from and what else is it good for?

The Chinese have known about the medicinal benefits of green tea since ancient times, using it to treat everything from headaches to depression. The Medical Center at the University of Maryland has done a lot of research on green tea and they have found it's very beneficial in helping many types of cancers and diseases.







Some other uses of green tea cause it taste yummy and smells so good:


Has anyone tried this, green tea sponge cake?! It looks good, though I never did see green tea sponge cake in real life. It also looks like it would taste really 'ono!








Green Tea Mochi Ice Cream
Can you imagine?!
Green tea shampoo!!
I wander what it would smell like?






Green tea perfume? By Elizabeth Garden...
Wonder if this would help your skin look healthier...?
But it's probably just the scent of green tea.