مقالات بها 600-800 كلمة

Residential houses have come a long way in reducing their energy footprint. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, homes built after 2000, consume only 2% more energy than older homes, despite being 30% larger. While that is certainly encouraging, advocates of the Passive House movement believe that there is a lot more that can and needs to be done - not just to reduce energy costs, but also, to help reverse global warming....

Visitors to the 30th anniversary of the Technology, Entertainment & Design (TED) Conference in Vancouver, Canada, encountered an unusual sight - A giant public art display, suspended between the 24-story Fairmont Waterfront Hotel tower and the West Building of the Vancouver Convention Centre, where the conference was being held. Called 'Skies Painted With Unnumbered Sparks' it was a delicately flowing 'jelly-fish' like piece of art that sported subtle colors, almost blending in, with the city's beautiful blue skies - at least during the day!...

A group of sixth-grade math students from Oak Grove Lutheran School are making headlines for achieving something quite extraordinary - Generating better portfolio investment returns than students from some of the country's most prestigious universities....

Want to be a superhero? Then you may want to pick up some skills from the segmented microscopic Tardigrades (slow steppers). Popularly known as water bears or moss piglets because of their slow gait, these tiny creatures can survive anything - From boiling to sub-zero temperatures, radiation, and even the vacuum of outer space. It is no wonder that this virtually indestructible animal has had the scientific community buzzing with excitement, for years....

When the 239 passengers and 12 crew members boarded Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370 from Kuala Lumpur at 12.41 am on March 8th, they probably had one thought in mind - To go to their respective homes or hotels and catch up on some well deserved rest when the flight landed in Beijing, at 6.30 am....

When Gustave Eiffel designed the Eiffel Tower for the 1889 Exposition Universelle held to celebrate the 100th year anniversary of the French Revolution, he had never envisioned it to last more than 20 years. But the tower, which turned 125 on Monday, March 31st, has not only outlived all expectations, but also, become the most enduring symbol of France, one that is visited by almost 7 million visitors a year....

Though giant pandas may appear perfectly happy chewing bamboo, scientists recently discovered that just like the rest of us, they would rather have something a tad sweeter. This 'surprising' fact was disclosed to the world on March 26th, in the online scientific journal PLOS One by Danielle R. Reed, a behavioral geneticist at Philadelphia's Monell Chemical Senses Center....

Online gaming has made the world much more exciting almost everywhere except in the classroom. While we now have access to computers and even tablets that feature all kinds of educational games, teachers still use old-fashioned incentives to encourage students. Sure you can get some extra credit by spending copious amounts of time doing challenging problems, but it's not fun and more importantly, cannot be achieved by students that find the subject challenging....

Tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day, which means that you better have some green on you, or be prepared to suffer through painful pinches all day long! That of course is only one of the fun traditions of this Irish holiday. Others include extensive searches for lucky four-leaf clovers and leprechauns that lead to pots of gold. So who is St. Patrick whose death anniversary is celebrated with such abandon, and how did all these fun traditions start? Read on . . ....

What could be better than licking an ice cream cone? How about composing music while enjoying the sweet treat? And we don't mean sweet melodies emanating from a smart player nearby, but ones that can be custom composed by the way the treat is licked....

Hosting an Olympics is never cheap. However, no country has ever spent as much as Russia did on the recently held Winter Games in Sochi. It is estimated that between the new infrastructure, which includes the event venues, hotels, highways and a new train system, and the hosting, entertainment and security costs, the country spent about $51 billion USD - making the XXII Winter Games, the most expensive, in Olympics history....

For most of us, building a snowman or even an igloo is hard enough. So you can only imagine the effort, skill, and patience, it takes to build not just giant sculptures, but also, towering castles and beautifully chiseled buildings using just ice and snow - That is exactly what happens annually, in the city of Harbin in Northeast China....

If you happened to watch the opening ceremony of the Sochi Winter Olympic Games you may have noticed an unusual sight - A single athlete representing Mexico. It was not because other contestants from the country had decided to skip the parade, but because Prince Hubertus Von Hohenlohe, is Mexico's sole representative at the Games....

For all of you that are rooting for team USA at this year's Sochi Olympics, Sunday, February 16th is the day to watch history in the making. That's because it may be the first time since 1936, that the country's bobsleigh two-man team, may finally strike gold!...

With yet another storm unleashing its fury on the Eastern, Midwestern and even Southern regions of the United States, residents are really feeling the wrath of winter this year, and probably thinking that nobody in the world has it as bad as they do. Turns out, such is not the case. The people of Yakutsk in Russia have been enduring even worse weather for centuries, and have actually gotten to like it!...

This year's Winter Olympics is the longest in the 90-year history of the games. That's because the International Olympics Committee decided to add a record, twelve new events across eight disciplines - ranging from ski half-pipe to snowboard parallel slalom and even a Luge - team rally competition. Does that mean that future Winter Olympics will be as long? Not necessarily. Here are a few sports that made a grand debut and even lasted a few games, before being scrapped in favor of more exciting and popular sports!...

While smog is a problem in many of the world's urban cities, few have it as bad as China. Most of last year, the air around Beijing was so polluted that on certain days it went beyond what was once considered the worst possible level. The residents of Harbin, in northeast China, have not had it easy either. On days when the haze is really bad, residents are unable to even see across streets and airplanes have a hard time landing....

On the third Monday of January each year, Americans celebrate the life and achievements of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. - the civil rights activist who is often credited for singly-handedly spearheading the nation's civil rights movement....

This holiday season, while most people were cuddled up in front of a fireplace, a few were striving to achieve what no human had been able to do - Peddle across the Antarctica! The three-way race between Britain's Maria Leijerstam, Spain's Juan Mendez and America's Daniel Burton began in mid-December from the Novo Russian airbase in Queen Maud Land, Eastern Antarctica....

Sweden's ICEHOTEL is known for many things - Its 'out of this world' location, gorgeous architecture and even freezing comfort. But the one thing it is not, is longevity! The hotel located in the village of Jukkasjärvi has to be rebuilt from scratch every year because it is carved entirely from ice blocks that melt when the summer comes along. The great part about that is, each rendition gets increasingly better!...

Today is Friday the 13th, the second and last one that we will have to encounter in 2013! While to most of us it signifies the start of another carefree weekend, there are some people that consider today to be extremely unlucky. As you probably know, the number 13 has a bad reputation to begin with. This is the reason many office and residential towers often skip the 13th floor altogether. However, when that date falls on a Friday, the fear factor seems to escalate to a whole new level....

Saturday, December 7th, marked the 72nd Anniversary of the 1941 bombing of Pearl Harbor on the island of Oahu. The surprise attack was conducted on the Hawaiian naval base by Japan's Imperial army to try stop the United States from interfering with the country's attempt to expand its wealth and influence, by conquering neighboring Southeast Asian countries. Fearing that the US Pacific Naval Base would foil their plans, the Japanese decided to try cripple its entire fleet....

On Thursday, December 5th, 2013, the world suffered the loss of one of the most extraordinary and incredible humans to have ever lived on this planet - Nelson Mandela. The 95-year-old former South African President and anti-apartheid leader who died at his Johannesburg home, had been suffering from a recurring lung infection for many years....

While above-ground active volcanoes in the Antarctica are nothing new, finding one that is buried deep inside its thick ice layer is certainly a first. The exciting discovery was revealed in the November issue of Nature Geoscience by researchers from the Washington University in St. Louis, who stumbled upon the frozen continent's well-kept secret, accidentally....