Safari Magazine | June 2012 Issue | Views And Reviews

Approaching the World Environment Day, this moth and we expect some important stuff related to the world environment will be in the magazines of this month. We are keen to see what lies there in the latest issue of the Science and Knowledge magazine – Safari.

Awake while asleep: we are talking about hypnotism. Well, we are not posting this information to the wrong blog. There is the photo of a baby tiger, showing just his(or her) face, looking in trans. The slogan below that “Curious phenomenon of animal hypnotism” tells us that there is an interesting article about the same in the issue. BTW: the look and feel of the color page makes us think that it is a wildlife magazine.

The inside cover page has the image “MegaPixel”, in high resolution. It reminded me the movie Avatar. So green, so fascinating, tree branches like a bridge. Yeah, the title of the image is “the living bridge”. You should not miss, seeing the image, which is not a work of fiction or imagination. It is the image of roots of a rubber tree which actually connects two villages in India and serves as a bridge.

Climbing a coconut tree is an art and one need special skills sharpened with experience to get expertise in the same. We may find it not much important but there are places for which the coconuts are the lifeline of the economy. For example take states like Kerala and others from South of India. Coconut water is good for acidity and stones. Coconut’s inside can be eaten. It can also be used to create chutneys. They are used in rituals and other holy stuff. The oil from coconut is considered good for hairs. In short it supports the economy in multi-fold way. So the people who owns a large amount of coconut tree hires people having good skills in climbing the same, so the coconuts can be taken. Finding such people gets tougher day by day. As people loves to do a job in the city instead, and considered the work to climb coconut tree to get coconut from there as labor and work beyond the standard. In this situation, the Coconut Development Board of India conducts a special program in southern state named “Changathikoottam” means friends of the coconut tree. The program is intended to implant in-dept knowledge of coconut tree to the trainees. Even a certificate is given at the end of the course. The program also not getting as many trainees needed anyway, since a few years. As an alternative coconut-picking macaque monkeys are en route to replace tree climbers in South India! read a small 1.5 page article in this issue about the same.

Mango is considered as the king of fruits and currently the season of the same is running. A natural ripen mango is a delight to eat (or drink its juice), there are no two thoughts about the same. However there are artificial ways to get it ripen. For example, the usage of Ethylene spray is considered as fast an safe way for the same. There is a small article about the same in For your information segment.

Are we (human beings) the only species who got the remarkably working brain with knowledge and logic to process the same? Well, read a small segment about Chimpanzee who found using tools and intelligence to make a meal of termites.

The under-water world have its own beauties. It is considered as an unforgettable experience to visit the same. And yeah it is dangerous too. Have you ever wondered that which place is the deepest point? The Challenger Deep is considered as the deepest point. On March 26, 2012, the famous movie director from Hollywood who is a nature lover too, James Cameron successfully dived down to the bottom of the deepest ocean in a submersible. An article exploring some lesser known facts about this record breaking feat (and of course the informative stuff about the challenger deep) is a good reading material with aid of pictures. Don’t miss the article by Harshal Pushkarna.

Samarth Vyas brought us an article about Sperm Whale. Human voice can be heard up to 180 meters, the voice of Canary Islanders (who talks in whistle language) can be heard upto 8 Kilometers! It actually sperm whales who hold the record of being the loudest animal! Read fascinating facts in the article, and there might be several points when you will think, aha, I didn’t know that!

Conquering heights challenges us and that make us to progress. The largest mountain of the world Mount Everest (named after George Everest) attracts a lot of mountaineers. A lot of them succeed to climb till the top of the same! However when it is asked who conquered it first, we must say, well, Tenzing and Hillary of course. Is it true? Were they the first ones or Irvine-Mallory? Read informative article by Harshal Pushkarna to get answers.

Do you know that a hailstorm in china lasted for around 2 hours and have killed around 200 people in China? What is a hailstorm and how is it formed? Why hailstorms occurs in summer? Which one was the most destructive hailstorm in India. The answers are there to be noted in your fact books. Give it a shot.

A well written, equipped with photos, an article about Animal Hypnotism is spread over six pages. Actually it is about several animals who pretend to be dead?! Its the logical action by them. If you know or not, most animals like Tiger, Lion (who lives on the meat of other animals) likes to eat fresh meat. If they don’t know when the animal was killed, they avoid eating it for the safety of their own health. As over the time, the meat started being infected and sometimes even turned to be poisonous. By knowing the fact, some animals, when found no other way pretend to be dead, so the killer animal avoid it and move ahead. And in a remarkable amount of case, they succeed in their intentions as well!

The Q&A Fact Finder section brings the answers to the following questions…

• How does a cruise missile differ from other types of missiles?
• Since the process of evolution continues, will men grow bigger heads in future?
• In view of the rising cost of aviation turbine fuel/ATF, is there a possibility of lighter-than-air giant airships making a comeback?
• How does a warship’s sonar detect the presence and exact position of an underwater enemy submarine?
• Is it true that during warm weather it is a bad idea to fill car’s petrol tank at the end of the day?
• Are there stars which are not part of any galaxy? If so, are they outcast or just born in the empty space?
• Sometimes a sudden blinding flare appears in the night sky and vanishes within a few seconds, What causes it?
• What makes us thirsty, more so in summer? Is it dry mouth or dehydrated body tissue that signals thirst?

This month’s super quiz section focuses on the top ten trains of the world. You will love the pictures for almost each of them.

And last, but not the least, is the article starts from back cover, brings all about rocket engines! Rather than explaining we insist to read it.

Final Verdict: Of course go for it. This 52 page magazines brings knowledge and as we know, knowledge is the power. A much much better alternative of reading/watching/doing useless stuff. Before the summer vacations are over, why not to get armed with the information?!