The Graduate Union Calendar 2017

Was the moon landing faked?

Do goldfish only have a three second memory?

2017 CALENDAR IN EVERY BELIEF THERE IS A LIE

Welcome to the

2017

Graduate Union Calendar This calendar celebrates our gullibility.

It focuses on some of our greatest old wives tales, myths and legends, as well as those facts we take for granted as true.

As each new month arrives we hope that you enjoy learning about each topic, and that we shed light on some long held beliefs of your own.

Members, please go to the page after December for a host of vouchers to be cut out and used to experience the benefits of The Graduate Union.

From all of us here at The Graduate Union, we hope that 2017 is an excellent year for you.

is a membership association, a residential college and a meeting place for graduates of all universities, ages, life stages, disciplines and countries.

ยง

ยง

The Graduate Union

2016

2017

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JANUARY

THE EARTH IS FLAT The Reality The notion of a flat earth is both ancient history and modern intellectual travesty.

The concept is relatively simple: from the observable environment it can be difficult to determine the spherical nature of the earth. Given gravity would not be understood until the 17th century, any concept that the world was round would assume people would fall off at some point. Ergo, the world is surely flat. In the history of human knowledge the theory was short-lived, and understandably so because early Greek philosophers such as Pythagoras, Plato and Aristotle all commented on various observances as to our planet’s spherical nature.

The first practical endeavour to prove the earth is round has been noted as the 1519 circumnavigation of the globe by Ferdinand Magellan, a Spanish explorer. Magellan never finished his journey, being fatally wounded in the Philippines, though his second-in-command took charge and completed the full circumnavigation winning the minds of the educated everywhere as to the sphere theory.

Having been such an early step in our modern understanding of the world, one would expect that this proven and simple explanation for many natural occurrences would be uncontested, yet, a contemporary group of deniers of both a spherical earth and modern scientific approaches has once again begun promulgating the flat earth theory.

December 2016 S M T W T F S 1 2 3

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18 19 20 21 22 23 24

25 26 27 28 29 30 31

Sun

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JANUARY Tue

Wed

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February 2017 S M T W T F S 1 2 3 4

5 6 7 8 9 10 11

12 13 14 15 16 17 18

19 20 21 22 23 24 25

26 27 28

Fri

Sat

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Academic Summer Term (8 weeks) Begins

New Year’s Day

8 9 10 11 12 13 14 The Graduate Union re-opens

15 16 17 18 19 20 21

22 23 24 25 26 27 28 Graduate House is Closed Australia Day - Public Holiday

29 30 31 Graduate House Scholarship and Bursaries Open for Applications until 10th April

Resident Committee Meeting 1

Chinese New Year Year of the Rooster

FEBRUARY

CARROTS IMPROVE VISION The Reality The year is 1940, World War II is ravaging Europe and British air pilots are successfully making night raids on front lines everywhere. In doing so they baffled the public. How do British pilots see at night?

How were they so constantly successful? Around the same time a rumour begins that the UK Ministry of Food has been feeding pilots carrots in excess to improve their night vision (in part to keep secret Britain’s new radar technology which was helping fighters find German aircraft at night). Both by the rumour’s fantastical nature or by the desperation for fun stories amidst of a dark war, the British public adopted it with vigour, and the myth that carrots improve eyesight began.

But just as in every belief there is a lie, some lies have an element of truth. Carrots contain an amount of beta-carotene which our bodies use to make vitamin A, essential to the conversion of light that enters the eye into a signal that can be transmitted to the brain. Such signal transmission allows us to see better in conditions of low light. In some countries beta-carotene accounts for a lot of vitamin A consumption, but in western nations it only accounts for about 30%.

But how much beta-carotene is actually in carrots? Not a great deal. Even then, there have been recent studies that show that beta-carotene may not convert vitamin A efficiently at all. While the research continues to alter the academic position on the issue, all that is safe to say is that there is not yet any conclusive evidence to show that carrots affect eyesight quite as much as has been claimed.

January 2017 S M T W T F S

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8 9 10 11 12 13 14

15 16 17 18 19 20 21

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29 30 31

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FEBRUARY Tue

Wed

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March 2017 S M T W T F S 1 2 3 4

5 6 7 8 9 10 11

12 13 14 15 16 17 18

19 20 21 22 23 24 25

26 27 28 29 30 31

Fri

Sat

1 2 3 4 Monthly Luncheon Bridge Night

Sustainable Living Festival Begins

GU Council Meeting 1

5 6 7 8 9 10 11 World Interfaith Harmony Week Begins

Bridge Night

World Interfaith Harmony Week Ends

GU Building and Facilities Committee Meeting 1

12 13 14 15 16 17 18 Women’s Forum

Special Morning Breakfast Italian Conversation Dinner Valentine's Day

Bridge Night

GU Membership and Marketing Committee Meeting 1

White Night Melbourne

19 20 21 22 23 24 25 World Day of Social Justice

Student Orientation Week Begins

26 27 28 Sustainable Living Festival Ends

Residents’ Meet and Greet Police Safety Discussion Semester 1 (12 weeks) Begins

Academic Summer Term Ends

Bridge Night

Student Orientation Week Ends

MARCH

WE USE 10% OF OUR BRAIN The Reality There is no scientific evidence that we only use 10% of our brain. In fact, most parts of our brains are active almost all the time. We use 15% of our brain just to sleep. The brain is an amazing organ and neuroscientists are still trying to fully understand how the brain functions.

Different brain areas function both separately and together to allow us to coordinate complex tasks, so at any moment we could be using 10% or 100% of our brain, depending on what we are doing.

Our brain uses a whopping 20% of our energy, so it stands to reason that we must use our brains more than 10% for our body to give 20% of our energy.

The 10% myth may have begun in the early 1900’s when the neurosurgeon Karl Lashley removed portions of the brains of rats who were trained to navigate around a maze. He found that he could damage areas of the cerebral cortex and the rats were still able to perform the task correctly, as well as behave normally. The greater the area of damage, the more impaired the rats were at the task.

However, these deficits could be recovered through additional maze training and time.

The myth has by no means disappeared, with Professor Samuel Norman (Morgan Freeman) quoting the 10% brain usage in the 2014 movie Transcendence where Lucy (Scarlett Johansen) consumes a massive amount of chemicals to cause her brain to exert unimaginable power.

February 2017 S M T W T F S 1 2 3 4

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April 2017

MARCH Tue

Wed

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30 1

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

16 17 18 19 20 21 22

23 24 25 26 27 28 29

Thu

Fri

Sat

1 2 3 4 Monthly Luncheon Bridge Night

World Wildlife Day

5 6 7 8 9 10 11 GU Governance and Nominations Committee Meeting 1

Welcome BBQ includes Residents' Meet and Greet

Bridge Night

12 13 14 15 16 17 18 Graduate House is Closed Labour Day - Public Holiday

Special Morning Breakfast

Women’s Forum

Festival of Colours

Italian Conversation Dinner

Bridge Night

College Table 1

GU Finance and Audit Committee Meeting 1

St Patrick's Day

19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Bridge Night International Day of Happiness

World Poetry Day

World Water Day

WOW Melbourne – Women of the World Festival Ends

WOW Melbourne – Women of the World Festival Begins

Earth Hour 8.30pm to 9.30pm

26 27 28 29 30 31 Bridge Night

Italian Conversation Dinner

Melbourne Comedy Festival Begins

Melbourne Food and Wine Festival Begins

APRIL

GOLDFISH HAVE A THREE SECOND MEMORY The Reality Goldfish are not as forgetful as they were once thought. There have been many studies to prove that they can be trained to perform tasks and retain the information for months or even years later. Goldfish have been taught to push objects level, play fetch and soccer, navigate a maze or return to a particular location when they hear music a year later. Many hope this could open up opportunities for teaching fish to escape from trawl fishing nets or (the opposite) cageless fish farming. Another study found that goldfish can recognise their owner’s face or a favourite person, like the one that feeds them, by becoming more active, whereas they will often hide if they see a stranger’s face. They have the same IQ as a bird or many mammals, so some argue that it is cruel to keep them in small tanks or bowls.

Goldfish, like people, need space and it takes about 13.5 litres of water for every 2.5cm of goldfish length to provide a decent environment. Changing or moving the items inside their tank to create a more challenging environment will help make the goldfish more active, happier and extend their life span.

March 2017

APRIL

S M T W T F S 1 2 3 4

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May 2017

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21 22 23 24 25 26 27

28 29 30 31

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Fri

Sat

30 1

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Monthly Luncheon Italian Conversation Dinner

Daylight Savings Ends

Bridge Night

Graduate Union Influenza and Vaccination Day

GU Council Meeting 2

Resident Committee Meeting 2

9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Melbourne Food and Wine Festival Ends

Graduate House Scholarship and Bursaries Applications Close

Graduate House is Closed Special Morning Breakfast

Good Friday - Public Holiday

Bridge Night

16 17 18 19 20 21 22 Graduate House is Closed Easter Sunday

Easter Monday - Public Holiday

Women’s Forum Italian Conversation Dinner

Bridge Night

GU Buildings and Facilities Committee Meeting 2

College Table 2

International Mother Earth Day

23 24 25 26 27 28 29 Melbourne Comedy Festival Ends

GU Nomination for National Student Leadership Forum Opens for Applications

Graduate House is Closed ANZAC Day - Public Holiday

Bridge Night

Investment for your Future Seminar 1

MAY

THERE IS A DARK SIDE OF THE MOON The Reality The baby boomers among us will remember Pink Floyd's 1973 album called the Dark Side of the Moon, but is there literally a dark side of the Moon? Well yes, at least as far as the Earth is concerned. It may help to refer to it by its other name, the Far Side. You see the moon always faces the earth at the same angle.

If the same side (hemisphere) of the moon always faces us, then it stands to reason the other side is always facing away.

The phrase “the dark side of the moon” once was used to describe something mysterious and unknown but photos have been taken of the far side of the moon by many space ships from many countries since the first in 1959 by the USSR’s Luna 3 spacecraft.

Perhaps this will help: Full moon: earth views the moon fully illuminated by the sun, the far side is totally dark.

New moon: earth views the near side of the moon as always but because the sun’s illumination is on the opposite side of the moon to the earth, what we call the dark side (or more accurately, the far side) will actually be the side basking in Sunlight – its just that we will never see it.

Why does the Earth see the same face of the moon as it rotates? The moon rotates once in almost exactly the same length of time it takes to orbit around the earth. The technical name for this spin-orbit lock is "tidal locking" – but that will have to be covered in a future calendar.

April 2017

MAY

S M T W T F S

30 1

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

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23 24 25 26 27 28 29

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June 2017

Tue

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S M T W T F S 1 2 3

4 5 6 7 8 9 10

11 12 13 14 15 16 17

18 19 20 21 22 23 24

25 26 27 28 29 30

Thu

Fri

1 2 3 4 5 6 Monthly Luncheon

Bridge Night Melbourne Knowledge Week Begins

Italian Conversation Dinner

GU Membership and Marketing Committee Meeting 2

7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Melbourne Knowledge Week Ends

GU Governance and Nominations Committee Meeting 2

Special Morning Breakfast

Residents’ Meet and Greet

Bridge Night

14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Italian Conversation Dinner Mother’s Day

International Day of Families

GU Finance and Audit Committee Meeting 2

Women’s Forum Bridge Night

College Table 3

21 22 23 24 25 26 27 Bridge Night

28 29 30 31 Semester 1 Ends

Winter Recess (8 weeks) Begins

Bridge Night

GU Annual General Meeting and Dinner

Sat

JUNE

THE MOON LANDING WAS FAKED The Reality The moon landing happened over 50 years ago. Today, about 20% of Americans believe that the U.S. Apollo never landed on the moon. They believe it was all staged and faked to win the space race, which seems a bit unlikely given hundreds of people without a single exception would have needed to keep their mouths shut that the landing was all staged.

Some of the arguments that the landing was faked were that the American Flag was blowing in the wind, but there is no wind on the moon; that no stars were visible, and that the astronauts’ feet left marks but the landing craft didn’t. NASA has offered answers for all such claims and has rock and particle samples that they claim could not have formed under earth conditions. They also note that the moon landing was scrutinised by the media from lift-off to landing back on earth. Perhaps the only thing that would convince the conspirators is a charter flight to the moon to see for themselves, so it might be a long, long time before everyone accepts one of the human race’s greatest technical achievements.

May 2017

JUNE

S M T W T F S 1 2 3 4 5 6

7 8 9 10 11 12 13

14 15 16 17 18 19 20

21 22 23 24 25 26 27

28 29 30 31

Sun

Mon

July 2017

Tue

Wed

S M T W T F S

30 31 1

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

16 17 18 19 20 21 22

23 24 25 26 27 28 29

Thu

Fri

1 2 3 Resident Committee Meeting 3

Melbourne International Jazz Festival Begins

4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Monthly Luncheon World Environment Day

Italian Conversation Dinner

Bridge Night

Examination Period Begins

GU Council Meeting 3

11 12 13 14 15 16 17 Graduate House is Closed Melbourne International Jazz Festival Ends

Queen's Birthday - Public Holiday

GU Nomination for National Student Leadership Forum Applications Close

Women’s Forum Special Morning Breakfast

Bridge Night

18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Italian Conversation Dinner World Refuge Day

Bridge Night

GU Buildings and Facilities Committee Meeting 3

Examination Period Ends

25 26 27 28 29 30 Bridge Night

Investment for your Future Seminar 2

International Day of Friendship

Sat

JULY

THE SAHARA IS THE LARGEST DESERT IN THE WORLD The Reality Outside of the polar areas, the Sahara in North Africa is the largest desert: 9.1 million square km.

More interesting is that each of the two polar areas is larger than the Sahara.

Antarctic Desert (Southern Hemisphere) has a total size of 13.8 million square kilometres.

The Arctic Desert (Northern Hemisphere) is 13.7 million square kilometres in area. Each one is nearly twice the size of Australia. The point here is that hot deserts with sand and dunes are not the only type of desert. They can be cold too. The term desert is simply an area that has no or very little rainfall or snow.

Antarctica gets less than 50 millimeters (2 inches) a year of precipitation, mostly as snow and it is the coldest, driest, windiest and most hostile environment in the world and the highest elevation of all the continents. There are presently 135 permanent residents in this desert with 1,000 to 5,000 people at research stations visiting throughout the year. The temperature goes down to a chilly -63°C in the coldest part of the year, though the temperature has reached -89.2°C. This southern desert is covered by a permanent ice sheet that contains 90% of the Earth’s fresh water. The 2% of the continent that isn’t covered by ice is along the coasts, and that’s where all the life is. Rainfall (or snowfall) in this region of Antarctica is less than 20 millimetres per year.

June 2017

JULY

S M T W T F S 1 2 3

4 5 6 7 8 9 10

11 12 13 14 15 16 17

18 19 20 21 22 23 24

25 26 27 28 29 30

Sun

Mon

August 2017

Tue

Wed

S M T W T F S 1 2 3 4 5

6 7 8 9 10 11 12

13 14 15 16 17 18 19

20 21 22 23 24 25 26

29 30 31

Thu

Fri

30 31 1

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 NO Monthly Luncheon Italian Conversation Dinner

Bridge Night

Final Release Date for Results

9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Women’s Forum Bridge Night

Special Morning Breakfast World Population Day

GU Membership and Marketing Committee Meeting 3

16 17 18 19 20 21 22 Italian Conversation Dinner

Bridge Night

Christmas in July

Student Orientation Begins

Student Orientation Ends

23 24 25 26 27 28 29 Semester 2 (12 weeks) Begins

Bridge Night

Sat

AUGUST

FEED A FEVER STARVE A COLD The Reality Whether it has been mistranslated from “feeding a cold would stave off a fever” or just an old wives’ tale from the nineteenth century, it is clear that a cold and fever were considered to be two different types of illnesses, and needed to be remedied differently.

A cold caused low temperatures and needed to be fueled up by eating.

Colds usually last for 7 – 10 days so you are inclined to eat.

A fever was believed to cause high temperatures and needed cooling down, so refraining from eating. Fevers usually last only a few days with not much of an appetite, so refraining from eating is not difficult.

So maybe the myth is more about what people tend to do when suffering these ‘diseases’ rather than what will actually cure them. In fact, starving is never a good idea. Eating fewer or no calories makes it more difficult for your body to fight the infection and recover. Be guided by your appetite during an illness with plenty of rest and keep your body well-hydrated with water, juice and hot liquids to replace lost electrolytes.

July 2017 S M T W T F S

30 31 1

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

16 17 18 19 20 21 22

23 24 25 26 27 28 29

Sun

Mon

AUGUST Tue

Wed

Thu

September 2017 S M T W T F S 1 2

3 4 5 6 7 8 9

10 11 12 13 14 15 16

17 18 19 20 21 22 23

24 25 26 27 28 29 30

Fri

Sat

1 2 3 4 5 Monthly Luncheon Italian Conversation Dinner

Bridge Night

6 7 8 9 10 11 12 GU Governance and Nominations Committee Meeting 3

Special Morning Breakfast

Bridge Night

International Youth Day

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 Italian Conversation Dinner GU Finance and Audit Committee Meeting 3

Women’s Forum Bridge Night

College Table 4

World Humanitarian Day

20 21 22 23 24 25 26 Donor Thank You Day Graduate House and

'give a flower, get a smile'

The University of Melbourne Open Day

Melbourne Writers Festival Begins

Bridge Night

27 28 29 30 31 Italian Conversation Dinner Residents’ Meet and Greet

Bridge Night Melbourne Day

Investment for your Future Seminar 3

SEPTEMBER

SHARKS OFTEN ATTACK PEOPLE The Reality It can be said it is more dangerous to get into a car than to swim in the ocean. In Australia, there was a total of 1,205 deaths on the road in 2015, and 2 deaths from sharks in the same year.

The media have played a big part in generating a negative belief about sharks. The film Jaws and horror fiction have helped make “man eating monsters" more plausible and subsequently led to shark hunts aimed to find the ‘killer’.

There are 480 shark species. The Great White, Tiger and Bull Sharks are responsible for most fatal unprovoked attacks on humans. While the Oceanic Whitetip is regarded as responsible for most deaths in deep sea, there are no statistics recorded. There are horrific accounts of hundreds of sailors jumping sinking ships in WWII, only to be eaten

by Whitetips.

Sharks live in the ocean, and it is worth remembering that we are choosing to enter their domain, and that they have no choice to go elsewhere. Some general rules include not swimming at dawn, dusk or at night and definitely not near anyone fishing.

Some entrepreneurs are developing protective suits that appear to repel sharks but for the time being, if you are still worried about sharks, you might bear in mind that no one has ever died from a shark attack while sitting on the beach above the water line.

August 2017 S M T W T F S 1 2 3 4 5

6 7 8 9 10 11 12

13 14 15 16 17 18 19

20 21 22 23 24 25 26

27 28 29 30 31

Sun

Mon

SEPTEMBER Tue

Wed

Thu

October 2017 S M T W T F S

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

8 9 10 11 12 13 14

15 16 17 18 19 20 21

22 23 24 25 26 27 28

29 30 31

Fri

Sat

1 2 Graduate House Ball 'Roaring 20s

3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Monthly Luncheon

Melbourne Writers Festival Ends

Italian Conversation Dinner

Bridge Night

Father’s Day

International Day of Charity

GU Council Meeting 4

Residents' Meet and Greet Resident Committee Meeting 4

International Literacy Day

10 11 12 13 14 15 16 College Table 5 World Suicide Prevention Day

Special Morning Breakfast

International Day of Democracy

Bridge Night

17 18 19 20 21 22 23 Women’s Forum Bridge Night

International Day of Peace

Royal Melbourne Show Begins

24 25 26 27 28 29 30 Bridge Night

World Heart Day

OCTOBER

YOU WOULD SINK IN LAVA The Reality In short, 'No', you would not sink into lava. Contrary to pretty much every movie you may have seen where someone falls into lava, lava does not behave like water.

So while the Wicked Witch of the West may well have been able to swim in lava but melted in water, it’s the other way round for us.

Lava is very dense, about three times more dense than us. Humans are mostly made up of water, so we would float on lava: Water has a density of 1000 kg/m3 and a viscosity of 0.00089 Pa.s.

Lava has a density of 3100 kg/m3 and a viscosity of 100-1000 Pa.s.

This means we would have a better chance of outrunning the slow moving lava which has a flow rate similar to peanut butter, but if it did catch us we sure wouldn’t be swimming our way to safety. There is also the radiant heat and toxic gases from lava that might kill you before you hit the surface. Basaltic lava has a temperature of ~1,100°C to 1,200°C. Considering this, sinking into lava is the least of your worries.

September 2017

OCTOBER

S M T W T F S 1 2

3 4 5 6 7 8 9

10 11 12 13 14 15 16

17 18 19 20 21 22 23

24 25 26 27 28 29 30

Sun

Mon

Tue

Wed

Thu

November 2017 S M T W T F S 1 2 3 4

5 6 7 8 9 10 11

12 13 14 15 16 17 18

19 20 21 22 23 24 25

26 27 28 29 30

Fri

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 International Day of Older People

Monthly Luncheon

Daylight Saving Begins

Royal Melbourne Show Ends

Bridge Night

GU Buildings and Facilities Committee Meeting 4

8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Special Morning Breakfast Italian Conversation Dinner World Mental Health Day

Bridge Night

15 16 17 18 19 20 21 Bridge Night

World Food Day

International Day for the Eradication of Poverty

GU Membership and Marketing Committee Meeting 4

College Table 6

22 23 24 25 26 27 28 Semester 2 End

Examination Period (6 weeks) Begins

Women's Forum Italian Conversation Dinner

29 30 31 Residents' Meet and Greet Halloween

Bridge Night

Investment for your Future Seminar 4

Sat

NOVEMBER

A HIGH FLYING COIN IS DEADLY The Reality Another classic urban myth with a little bit of truth. Have you ever been told that if a coin fell off a tall building it could kill someone? Or go right through their skull or hit the pavement and smash the concrete?

Coins are not aerodynamic so they are slowed down when they fall. Coins actually flutter and tumble as they fall because of their shape and light weight. The terminal velocity of a coin is about 40 km/h and because they are lightweight (the Australian dollar coin weighs 9 grams) the resultant momentum (velocity x mass) is insufficient to penetrate the skull. In other words, if a coin did hit your head it may hurt but is extremely unlikely to kill you.

On the other hand, if a big nut or bolt weighing 50 grams were to hit you on the head without a hard hat it would have a high probability of being fatal because the terminal velocity of a bolt is about 400 km/h. With a velocity roughly 10 times higher and a mass roughly 5 times greater than a coin, the force when the momentum is brought to a rapid stop on hitting the skull would be 50 times greater for the bolt than the coin.

So here is the essence of this myth. Construction workers taking a snack break might agree it is indeed smart to wear hard hats on building sites - but they should fear the nut far more than the dough.

October 2017 S M T W T F S

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

8 9 10 11 12 13 14

15 16 17 18 19 20 21

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29 30 31

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NOVEMBER Tue

Wed

Thu

December 2017 S M T W T F S

31 1 2

3 4 5 6 7 8 9

10 11 12 13 14 15 16

17 18 19 20 21 22 23

24 25 26 27 28 29 30

Fri

Sat

1 2 3 4 Bridge Night

5 6 7 8 9 10 11 International Week of Science and Peace Begins

Graduate House is Closed

Monthly Luncheon

Melbourne Cup Day

Bridge Night

Remembrance Day Residents' Meet and Greet

International Week of Science and Peace Ends

12 13 14 15 16 17 18 GU Governance and Nominations Committee Meeting 4

Special Morning Breakfast

Women’s Forum

Italian Conversation Dinner

Bridge Night

Examination Period Ends

19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Variety and the United Nations Universal Children’s Day

GU Finance and Audit Committee Meeting 4

Bridge Night

26 27 28 29 30 Bridge Night GU Council Meeting 5

International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women

DECEMBER

CELERY HAS NEGATIVE CALORIES The Reality The term negative calories refer to food that takes more calories to process than it delivers.

Something for nothing or free food mentality. If such food exists it would mean the more you eat the slimmer you get. No wonder it’s a popular concept. This term has been used by dietitians, diabetic educators and big business. So can they all be wrong?

Negative calories is not true of celery, regardless of its low calories, high fibre and high water content, it still contains more calories than it takes the body to consume it. A medium sized stick of celery provides about 6 calories. Your body will burn about 1 calorie eating and digesting it. Chances are your body will absorb some of those 5 extra calories, not to mention, the cream cheese or peanut butter you put on the celery before eating it – but lets stick to the celery alone. The plus side of celery is its high fibre and water content will keep you feeling full for longer causing you to eat less.

The only real way to lose weight is to ensure that the calories that you eat do not exceed the calories that you burn. It is extremely unlikely that this will be achieved on a lasting basis by reducing calory intake alone. The same can be said of fitness alone. However, regular exercise and thoughtful food selection can indeed win the day.

There appears to be little scientific support for the existence of any food that uses more energy in its consumption than it provides, but celery would be one of those that gets closest to it, so it may well play a part in a great overall sustainable weight management plan. So we can safely say, no amount of celery (or any other food) will make you thin on it's own, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t a great ally in the war against obesity.

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31 1 2 Graduate House Reopens 8th January, 2018

Chairperson’s Cocktail Party

New Year’s Eve

Final Release Date for Results

3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Italian Conversation Dinner

International Volunteer Day for Economic and Social Development

NO Monthly Luncheon

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(BUT VERIFIED)

BELIEFS AND MYTHS CHEESE GIVES YOU WEIRD DREAMS

There has been only one small study of 100 male and 100 female participants on dreams and cheese conducted by the British Cheese Board in 2005. The participants were given 20 grams of cheese half an hour before they went to bed for the simple reason they wanted to know if their product was having a bad or unexpected effect on their customers. The result of the study found that 85% of females reported having super-crazy, vivid dreams from eating Stilton. Red Leicester was more likely to give you nostalgic dreams. Cheddar tends to be dreams about celebrities and Cheshire appears to be for those who want a dreamless night.

DRINKING HOT TEA COOLS YOU DOWN

The idea of drinking hot drinks to cool you down on a hot day can seem like a bizarre concept. Hot drinks activate sweat and this is a key mechanism our body uses to cool us down. The sweat then needs to evaporate to have a cooling effect. (The same principles used to develop the Coolguardie safe.) However, if it is too humid or you are exercising very hard and your sweat drips to the ground, the evaporating effect is lost and you are better off drinking cool drinks.

DOGS CAN DETECT CANCER

Yes they can. Dogs have an amazing 25 times more smelling receptors than humans, boosting their smelling ability by 100,000 times. We look after their food, shelter and protection so therefore it is in the dog’s interest to look after us. Cancerous cells release different metabolic waste products than healthy cells. Dogs can smell these differences at very early stages. They can be trained to sniff out a variety of cancer on human skin, urine and on the patient’s breath, just as they can be trained to sniff out bombs, drugs, missing persons and other illnesses.

MILK BEFORE TEA

How a cup of tea is prepared is very important to some people. There have been millions of debates over whether the milk goes into the cup first or the boiling water.

Over 13 years ago, scientist tried to end the arguments. They found that if the milk went in over the boiling water the milk heated unevenly, causing the milk to denature. This affected the taste and contributed to the formation of skin on top of the tea. There are many variables to making a cup of tea. One, for example, is whether or not the tea bag remains in the cup when milk is poured in. Perhaps, whether you put the milk in first or not is entirely up to you.

AN ELEPHANT NEVER FORGETS

Elephants are smart and intelligent, similar to dolphins. Their sight may not be great but they have great memories. For an elephant’s survival it need to remember locations of food and water and faces of other elephants. An elephant can recognise and keep track of 30 in their family unit. Recognising when there is a stranger in the group is very important as the newcomer may harm their calves or impact negatively on the herd’s safety. Elephants can recognise their reflection in a mirror and can also remember human faces.

DINOSAURS AND MAMMALS COEXISTED

The first mammals were tiny mouse size creatures and evolved from Therapsids (a mammal-like reptile) at the end of the Triassic Period. Being tiny they could maintain a low profile, be hard-to-see, hunt at night and scurry up trees or dig burrows to keep out of the way of predators. The characteristics that define these mammals were: milk-producing mammary glands, hair or fur, warm-blooded, shape of their skull and neck bones, and two small bones in the inner ear. Both mammals and dinosaurs coexisted throughout the Mesozoic Era. Once the dinosaurs disappeared the mammals evolved into large animals.

NOTES

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