RP318 Celebrating in Color

 RP318 Celebrating in Color

Padma opened her eyes, threw off her blanket, and darted out of bed. The day that she had been looking forward to for a long time had finally arrived. It was the last full moon of the winter season. It was time to celebrate Holi, the Hindu Festival of Colors.
Padma didn't even have time to finish dressing before Sanjay beckoned to her from outside the window. In a flash, she ran downstairs and out the door. Her mother didn't even have enough time to scold her for wearing nice clothes on Holi.
Armed with water pistols and red, blue, and yellow gulal color powder, Padma and Sanjay set out. They rode their bikes through the streets searching for people to ambush. Whenever they came across someone, they would shout “Holi hai!” and shower them with water and handfuls of gulal. Eventually, they ran into a rival group of children and an all-out war broke out. When the battle was over, the warriors on both sides looked like rainbows.
They went back to Padma's apartment for lunch. Sanjay could eat with Padma's family because normal rules regarding the separation of castes aren't followed during Holi. As the two kids chewed on sweets, Padma's mom told them about where Holi came from.
Holi originated from the story of a demon king named Hiranyakashyap and his sister Holika. One day, the demon king asked his son Prahalad who the greatest god was. When Prahalad answered “Vishnu,” the Supreme god, instead of his father, the demon king became enraged and demanded that his sister Holika kill this rebellious son of his. Holika agreed, but when she tried to drag Prahalad into a pit of fire, the gods protected him and she was burnt to a crisp.
After lunch, Padma and Sanjay headed out to ambush more people with water and gulal. That night, there was a huge bonfire, and all of the locals came out to sing, dance, and enjoy a giant feast together. Later that night, back in her bed, Padma was still smiling when she finally closed her eyes. She was already looking forward to next year's Holi celebrations.

RP317 The City Lost Under the Sea

 RP317 The City Lost Under the Sea

When Plato wrote in 360 B.C. about an advanced island society named Atlantis, he probably had no idea that his words would become such a historical mystery. Even today, over 2,000 years after his dialogues were originally written, we are still trying to discover whether Atlantis is fact or fiction.
Plato described an island empire that was rich in resources and military power. He also mentioned that Atlantis was once allies with Athens, the city where Plato is thought to have been born. In the end, Atlantis betrayed Athens and launched an invasion against its former ally. Its attempt failed, and afterward the island of Atlantis suffered a series of natural catastrophes that caused it to be "swallowed by the sea."
Some people believe that there's no mystery at all. Plato was just using Atlantis as a metaphor to teach his readers a moral lesson. Their argument is supported by two important pieces of evidence. First, Plato was known to use metaphors frequently in his writing. Secondly, Plato claimed that these events occurred in 9000 B.C. Back then, Athens was probably just a handful of people sitting around campfires, if it was anything at all.
Others believe that Plato's Atlantis was actually an analogy describing the downfall of a totally different Greek island called Thera (present-day Santorini). Sometime around 1500 B.C., one of the largest volcanic eruptions in the history of human civilization occurred. It destroyed Thera and most of the Minoan civilization along with it. Supporters of this theory shrug off the 9000 B.C. date that Plato recorded; maybe he was just tired that day and added an extra zero by mistake.
Finally, there's a group of people who believe that Plato's account of Atlantis is the literal truth. For them, the ruins of this advanced island civilization are somewhere at the bottom of the sea just waiting to be discovered. What's more, finding them won't be easy. While most people who believe in Atlantis place it somewhere in or around the Mediterranean Sea, others claim that it's in the Atlantic Ocean or the North Sea off the coast of Sweden. That's quite a large area to search.

RP316 The City of Music

 RP316 The City of Music

From the performers on every street corner to the loud and lively funeral processions, it's easy to see that New Orleans has a long and important musical heritage. Of all of New Orleans's achievements, none are more important than the birth of jazz music.
The Big Easy had already established a name for itself well before jazz was invented. All the way back in 1835, African slaves were known to gather in Congo Square to dance and play music every Sunday. Their style of music slowly began to blend in with the local white musicians who were being influenced by European trends. This early mix of influences made it possible for the innovation that followed.
After the end of the Spanish-American War in 1898, New Orleans was flooded with musical instruments as military bands broke up and went home. Lots of these instruments ended up in the hands of the city's poorer black citizens. As they learned to play, they would let their passion guide them and not rely on written music. This was called improvisation. Eventually, they started to blend their own improvisation techniques with two of New Orleans's other musical traditions— ragtime and blues. The end result was the birth of jazz music, one of America's most beloved cultural achievements.
Jazz music was born in poor, working-class communities. Consequently, some of New Orleans's greatest jazz musicians, like Louis Armstrong and Jelly Roll Morton, had very difficult upbringings. As a young man, Louis Armstrong sold food he found on the street to restaurants to help support his mother. Jelly Roll Morton was thrown out of his grandmother's house after she discovered he worked as a piano player in a shady bar in New Orleans. Of course, the two of them went on to become legends.
Jazz music can also claim to have influenced several other styles that subsequently emerged from New Orleans. Fats Domino and Dr . John drew from jazz influences when they invented the rhythm-and-blues style after World War II.
What's more, both jazz and rhythm-and-blues would eventually influence the birth of rock and roll, a cultural phenomenon that is still sweeping the planet. That's a lot of heritage for just one city!

RP315 The Soft Glow of the Natural World

 RP315 The Soft Glow of the Natural World

Whether it's fireflies glowing in the night sky or an angler fish illuminating the darkest depths of the ocean, bioluminescence shows us just how clever the process of evolution can be.
The word bioluminescence comes from a combination of the Greek word for living and the Latin word for light. It's used to describe the light that certain organisms can produce via a simple chemical reaction involving luciferin, luciferase, and oxygen.
Most people assume that bioluminescence is restricted to fireflies and glowworms, but in reality several organisms can glow in the dark, including fish, whales, squids, bacteria, and even mushrooms. Bioluminescence also comes in a whole spectrum of colors, from the black dragonfish's red glow to the way Vibionaceae bacteria can make the ocean look like milk.
So what's the point of all this glowing? The answer has to do with evolution. Each species has evolved bioluminescence in order to survive in its environment.
Take fireflies for example, their bioluminescence serves a few purposes. It helps them attract things they want such as prey and potential mates. It also helps them avoid potential dangers. Predators think twice about eating fireflies because they know that the chemicals that produce bioluminescence taste awful.
Firefly bioluminescence is fairly straightforward. Other species can be a lot more complex. Mycena lucentipes, a glowing mushroom found in Brazil, is one such example. Insects are a constant threat to these mushrooms, so they rely on bioluminescence to attract animals that like to chow down on insects. This is like evolution's version of the old saying "the enemy of my enemy is my friend."
Comb jellies have also evolved a fascinating defense. If a predator takes a bite out of these bioluminescent deepwater jellyfish, their meal will continue to glow all the way into their stomach. This illuminates the predator, which can be quite dangerous in the darkness of the ocean. Consequently, predators think twice about bothering comb jellies in the future.
The process of evolution is truly amazing. It's like nature's tycoon—it identifies a gap in the market and uses innovation to fill it. What's more, if evolution can find a way to make living organisms create light like a light bulb, what can't it do?

RP314 A River of Fire in the Sky

 RP314 A River of Fire in the Sky

In northern Venezuela, where the Catatumbo River flows into Lake Maracaibo, thunder and lightning rage on up to 300 nights each year. It's an eternal thunderstorm that lights up the sky with over 20,000 flashes of lightning per night and is known to local tribes as "the river of fire in the sky."
The first mention of this extraordinary natural phenomenon is in a 1597 poem, which tells how the ships of English pirate Sir Francis Drake, who was planning to attack the area, were illuminated by the recurring flashes of lightning. As a result, Drake's surprise attack was spotted and prevented.
The lightning is so bright that it can be seen 500 km away on the Caribbean island of Aruba, leading to its alternate nickname, “The Maracaibo Lighthouse.”
Though the lightning itself is no different from that in common thunderstorms, a number of factors make the storms truly spectacular. Large amounts of natural gas in the area's atmosphere allow the lightning to recharge faster than usual, resulting in more flashes over shorter periods of time. Also, dust particles in the atmosphere often give the flashes an unusual red or orange hue, and storms can last for up to 10 hours at a time.
The prevailing theory is that the storms are caused by warm winds flowing in from the Caribbean Sea to the north, which mix with cold air blowing from the Andes mountain range to the south.
Mountains of almost 5,000 meters in height surround the lake, and this traps the hot and cold winds in a relatively small area, causing an intense concentration of conditions perfect for a thunderstorm.
The thunderstorm is also one of the greatest individual sources of natural ozone in the world. Ozone is created as the lightning rips through molecules of oxygen, rearranging them into ozone. The new ozone usually stays in the lower levels of the atmosphere, however, never actually reaching and healing the damaged ozone layer.
For those eager to see the spectacle firsthand, a warning: Tourists should be aware that this area of Venezuela is full of drug gang s and armed bandits, making a visit potentially dangerous as well as awe-inspiring.

RP313 And the Worse Actor Goes to

 RP313 And the Worse Actor Goes to...

Winning an Oscar is every actor's dream. It is considered the height of achievement for anyone involved in the movie industry. The Golden Raspberry Awards (or "the Razzies"), to the contrary, are the opposite of the Oscars and celebrate the very worst in moviemaking.
Awards are given in categories such as Worst Movie, Worse Actor, Worst Screenplay and Worse Director. It goes without saying that most actors dread hearing that they've been nominated for a Razzie.
The Razzies began in 1981 at the house of John Wilson, a Hollywood-based writer. Every year he would hold a dinner party on the night of the Oscars. He decided it would be fun to hold a fake award ceremony which celebrated the year's worst movies. That year, Can't Stop the Music won the first Gold Raspberry Award for Worse Picture. Using a broomstick and foam ball as a fake microphone, Wilson hauled his guests onstage to make some comedic speeches.
Everyone agreed that Wilson's fake awards had been so funny that they should happen every year. By 1984, the ceremony had moved from Wilson's house into a school auditorium and even managed to attract reporters from CNN.
Since then, the Razzies have gained a cult following. In order to take advantage of the surge in media presence in Hollywood, the Razzies take place the night before the Oscars. Now, the ceremony can get the attention it deserves without having to compete with the Oscars.
In 2005, actress Halle Berry turned up in person to accept her award for Worst actress. Holding her 2002 Oscar in one hand, and her Razzie in the other, she gave a hilarious speech to the crowd. Interestingly enough, in 2010, actress Sandra Bullock won an Oscar and a Razzie in the same year.
Some claim, however, that the Razzies and John Wilson are cruel by poking fun at the worst movies. Wilson has responded by saying "a banana peel on the floor, not a slap in the face," although not everyone in Hollywood agrees with him. Nevertheless, it won't stop the Razzies from making fun of the Hollywood elite any time soon.

RP312 The Animal That's Also an EnvironmentRP312 The Animal That's Also an Environment

 RP312 The Animal That's Also an Environment

It looks like a plant. It feels like a stone. But coral, which we consider a colorful setting for television programs about fish and other marine life, is actually an animal. And if we view a coral reef as a single organism, then it is by far the largest and oldest living thing on Earth.
Distant relatives of jellyfish and sea anemones, corals are invertebrates despite having a sort of skeleton. “Hard” corals’ skeletons, known as calices, are made of limestone. “Soft” corals, on the other hand, have wood-like skeletons. Only “hard” corals can form reefs. They do this by attaching themselves to rocks in shallow areas of tropical seas. A single coral can divide itself thousands of times, creating clone s which connect their calices to form a colony. This colony is in fact one animal, and can connect with other colonies to form a reef. Some reefs are believed to be over 50,000 years old!
If you've ever watched a TV show about ocean life, you probably think corals are very colorful. In fact they are clear, and get their rainbow tones from the billions of algae (plants) which attach to them. This relationship is highly beneficial to both parties. Corals get most of their food from the algae they host, but are also equipped with poisonous, hooked tentacles. These are used mostly at night, when the algae are asleep, to catch plankton and even small fish. That's right—corals are meat-eaters!
Since they must live near coastal areas, corals cover less than one percent of the ocean floor. Nevertheless, they support roughly 25 percent of all marine life. This is a problem, because reefs are rapidly falling victim to a variety of natural and man-made threats. Pollution, storms, global warming, boats, and the dumping of soil and sand into the world's oceans are all deadly to corals. Even a slight change in water temperature can cause corals to lose their algae covering, resulting in a potentially fatal condition known as bleaching.
If people cannot protect the world's oldest and largest organisms, what can we do? The time has come to start thinking about our impact on our environment—especially when that environment is itself an animal.