Shows That Recharge Your Brain Juice

In the current age of the information boom, messages come left to right and it is hard to pick out what is useful or important to us from the chaos. In this final segment, I'm going to show you shows that revolutionized the way we see science and learning as a whole while at the same time maintain that entertaining factor. I believe that we never stop learning, instead of watching reality show and dramas all day long, here are some of the show that will make your neurons spark!

Brain Juice Feed One: Man Vs. Wild (Discovery Channel)

It follows the adventures of survival in the wilderness with Bear Grylls, an ex-British Special Air Service (SAS) armed with only a knife and flint to survive the harsh landscapes mother nature can throw at him. Using his survival training in the British SAS, he demonstrates many strategies and essential skills to survive in any given terrain in the world. Every episode will cover different regions of the world from swaps, deserted islands, deserts to dense rain forests. This is my personal favourite if you ask me due to the fact that he teaches the viewer various techniques to cross complicated terrains, ways to start fires and how to create an enclosure for you to sleep only using what is available around you. His fast paced action and jaw-dropping scenes will keep you at the edge of your seat and at the meantime teach you survival techniques should you need to use them one day. I give this a brain juice rating of 5 lemonades out of 5. (5/5)

Brain Juice Feed Two: Mythbusters (Discovery Channel)

As the name tells it, the show follows the shenanigans of two experienced special effects creators, Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman doing what they do best test myths out to find out whether if there is some truth to myths or its just a bunch of hearsay. These two use various scientific ways to replicate myths using physics, chemistry and biology to out these myths to the test. Every episode will host different myths and some myths are even submitted by the audience themselves. Their knack for excessive usage of C4 to blow stuff up at the end of every show keeps you at the edge of your seat. This show is definitely a great addition to the list as no only does it educate you about various things, it even entertains you at the same time. I totally recommend watching this show, it is a very interesting show to watch. I give this a brain juice rating of 5 lemonades out of 5. (5/5)

Brain Juice Feed Three: Mega Movers (History Channel)

 

The show is about a team of re-locators set out to do big moves of large objects such as historical buildings to massive bridges, they do their job moving these oversized items in an amazing way. Through this show you will see many different jobs they move, from old farm houses, massive bridges, radio towers and more. What is amazing about these shows is how they actually do it using precise calculations with the necessary equipment and a whole lot of nerves of steel. This will definitely make your head wonder as to how they could pull of such a move which sometimes seem almost impossible. It also showcase modern marvels of ingenuity and design associated with the process of moving the objects. If you are a big fan of largeness and numbers, this is definitely the show for you. I give this a brain juice of 4 lemonades out of 5. (4/5)

Brain Juice Feed Four: Man Made (National Geographic Channel)

A show about impressive man mades structures, following the chronicles of how its made and how is it being maintained. The thing about these structures are the sheer size of it, from dams to the biggest cruise ships in the world,  there is nothing short of what to expect in this show. It hits you with statistics of the massive use of raw material and the ways that they handle these huge objects, almost like looking at a jigsaw puzzle being constructed, it is definitely one show not to be missed. You have to see it to believe it. I give this a brain juice of 4 lemonades out of 5. (4/5)

Brain Juice Feed Five: Dirty Jobs With Mike Row / Time Warp (Discovery Channel)

I know its unfair to give you two shows on the final feed, but! these two shows are a great watch. Simply to say these shows may not have a lot of value on education, well there are educational facts to some extent, it is really worth while to be entertained by these shows. Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe is an eye opening show to see what kind of dirty jobs that the world has, which not many people would like to do, but someone has to do it. Time Warp on the other hand is an amazing show using high speed cameras to capture every single detail in slow motion. It is really amazing to see it with your own eyes and it is a testament to how far we have gone in the realm of technology. Time Warp uses these slow downed images to study the affects of collision between 2 different objects or even the different types of energy exerted on certain objects. I totally recommend these 2 great shows, I give these brain juice of 4 lemonades out of 5. (4/5)

There you have it, an amazing line up of great educational and entertaining shows to boot! Remember, we never stop learning and who says learning can be so boring? You just need to know the right television channel and you can already learn something new today! I'll see you next time and this wraps up our session of the educational series, write to us if you want to share some of your thoughts at learn_or_die@gmail.com or even leave us a comment at the bottom of the post. Thank you for reading and god bless.

Zoo! by Jared Lee

Hello there kids! What time is it? It is time to go to the Zoo! The Zoo is a very very exciting and fun place to be. We have all been watching animals on TV but at the Zoo you get to watch and even touch the real life animals.

I am sure all of you have a favourite animal. Whether it's a tiger, lion or a bear they have it all at the Zoo. Ever wondered how tall a giraffe really is? Or how big is an elephant? You can find out by just going to the Zoo.

I was there just last week! And oh boy it was fun! Watching the seals swim about, feeling the trunk of an elephant and see the king of the jungle roar. It was so fun I didn't want to go home but I was forced to, I will definitely pay the Zoo another visit soon.

There were shows by certain animals and you get to watch the Zoo keeper feed the tigers, crocodiles and lions. What's more there are so many types of birds there which you have not heard of before, you get to learn about them while you watch them.

Nothing beats the Zoo, it is the funnest place to be!

(sorry for the half assed or rather quarter assed job. jeng!)

MEMS (Final Piece) by Jared Lee

Hello there music lovers! Welcome back to the final column of MEMS, let's hope it's only the end of this column and not the end of MEMS (Malaysian English Music Scene) itself. With your support it definitely won't end, and I hope that you do.

In this final piece, as I have promised, I shall reveal the reasons why you have not heard of our talented local musicians.

First of all, where do we get our music from? Yes I know, download from the internet and buying them from a music store. But what I really mean is that where do we get to know new music? Our main source? The radio of course! You're in your car, at home or at your office and there's a radio. It is silent. You turn it on and hope that it will please your yearning ears. But does it do it's job well? Not all the time but most of the time due to individual genre preferences. The main point remains. You listen to a song on radio which you have not heard of before and you like it, the DJ tells you the artiste and the song name, after that you either buy it or download it from the net.

This is not the only reason why you have not heard of our local musicians. They don't get enough plays even on our local radio stations, so far you can only hear them on radio on Sunday evenings. And even then they only play 10 different artistes.

Another main reason why they are not known. They don't get enough paid shows to record their songs, and when that happens they can't even think of sending their songs to radio stations hoping we'll listen to it someday.

Here's a fact that not a lot of people know. Bands in Malaysia needs at least RM1000 to record just one song. And seeing that most of us don't support our musicians, organizers who handles events or create them won't hire our local musicians knowing no one is into them thus making them poorer and going into the studio to record their songs will be nothing but a dream.

There are a million more reasons out there but let us all start by supporting our local music scene. They need us and I am sure they will repay the favor by giving us songs that will please us and even the whole world one day. Wouldn't that be awesome? To hear Malaysian made music in another country? To see a Malaysian artiste nominated in the Grammys? It is quite the sight ain't it?

It's been a fun 3 columns, I hope you all had fun reading them too. Well, I have done my part.

Have you done yours?

Zoo Trip (For Kids)

by Rachelle Gan

It was a bright and sunny day as my friends and I took a trip to Zoo Negara. With over 5,000 animals at the zoo, there was much to see and learn.

The elegant giraffes were the first to greet us as we walked in. The tallest animals in the world munched on leaves and twigs as they walked about gracefully. The giraffes were so tall we had to tilt our heads right up to look up at them.

Next to the giraffes were the elephants. Such gentle creatures they were. The three of them – Siti, Sibol and Triang are pretty old so they walked around tiredly and slowly. We watched in amusement as one of them used its trunk to throw sand on its back to keep cool.

Behind us was a huge lake filled with many types of pretty lake birds, there were painted storks, swans, milky storks, pelicans and many more parading around. It was feeding time so we got to see the birds greedily eat the fresh fish fed to them.

Further on was the Savannah Walk. It had animals from the African continent like zebras, rhinos and buffalos roaming around in an open area. We bought some ice-cream from the ice-cream stand at the end of the Walk to cool down as it was really hot.

Not far from the Savannah Walk were the lions and tigers. The lions looked majestic even as they lazed around grooming themselves under the trees. Whereas, the tiger was more restless as it prowled around its compound.

After this, we went to see the bears. They were friendly and stared curiously at us as we waved to them from a distance. The Malaysian Sun Bear in particular was adorable when it took a stroll around its   compound. 

      

Then it was already late so we had to leave. All in all, the visit to Zoo Negara was fun. There are so many different types of animals there you have to see for yourself, I haven’t even written about half of them. I would definitely go again to see the animals I missed.