Tell Me Why?

Some nouns have the same form in the singular and the plural and the word “fish” is such an example. As such, fish is the usual plural word for fish whereby the plural form is the same as the singular. However, strictly speaking, fish is more correctly used to refer or describe an individual fish or the plural of a single species of fish (multiple individuals of the same species). The term “fishes” on the other hand, is used to refer or describe the plural of different species of fish (more than one species of fish).

So, fish can be used in a singular form when describing one fish, as well as, in a plural form only when describing two or more fish of the same species.
Examples:

• A fish is a cold blooded vertebrate animal that lives in water. (singular)

• Salmon is a fish. (singular)

• I swam with a school of 200 fish. (plural)

• Fish are cold-blooded vertebrate animal that live in the water. (plural)

• I caught six fish in the river yesterday. (plural)

While fishes is always plural and is used when describing more than one species of fish.
Examples:

• There are a lot fishes in the sea. (plural)

• Ichthyology is the study of fishes. (plural)

Hence, if you are speaking or writing about one or more than one fish of the same species (one type of fish) you then use the word "fish" and likewise, if you are speaking or writing about more than one species of fish (different types of fish) then you use the word "fishes".

Labels: English, Language

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This is a foreign policy strategy created and executed by the US after WWII founding it's first key purpose in the Truman Doctrine of 1947. President Harry Truman warned of the evils of communism that threatened the democratic freedom of its people which like the US, the Soviet Union wanted a world modeled on their own country’s society and values. Even though the Soviet claimed they provided all citizens with economic and social rights, the US saw communism as a slave state that control the private life and thoughts of its citizens. A threat that violated both democratic rights and civil liberties of its citizens and therefore required the continued efforts of America to make sure that it did not spread to the United States and other nations that have not yet moved politically towards Soviet Union communism. As such, this Policy of Containment stated that the US would try to stop (contain) the spread of Communism by creating strategic alliances or support to help weak countries to resist Soviet advances.

This is a containment strategy plan that the U.S. used in the Cold War to prevent communism country, the Soviet Union from spreading Communism by providing either military support, economic and/or technical assistance to noncommunist countries. Its aimed by so doing was to contain the domino effect of the growing influence and power of the Soviet Union over other noncommunist country's political system from moving towards communism within its existing limits. Thus, blocking the expansion of the USSR and communism. It was originally devised by US diplomat and historian George F. Kennan, best known as "the father of containment". His writings inspired the Truman Doctrine and the U.S. foreign policy of containment during the Truman Administration.

Labels: American History, History

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The world's deepest point in the oceans is the Challenger Deep which is found within the Marianas Trench. The Marianas Trench is a depression (deep cracks) in the floor of the western Pacific Ocean. Marianas Trench is formed (as other ocean trenches) as a result of the oceanic plate being pushed against a continental plate whereby causing the oceanic plate to pushed downward making deep fissure. Its location is east of the Mariana Islands and is 1,554 miles long and averages 44 miles wide (see diagrams below). The Marianas Trench depth is 36,200 feet (11,033 m or 11.03 km).

[click to enlarge images]


Marianas Trench is far (miles) beyond the reaches of sunlight where it can no longer penetrate the ocean. The seas' pressures at this depth is unimaginable. It is 8 tons per square inch or 16,000 pounds on every square inch. At this depth it also has very cold temperatures along with darkness. Imagine an underwater depth that is higher than the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France which is 1,052 ft (321m) or the Empire State building in New York, US which is 1,472 ft (449). It could take 5.4 Empire State Buildings in order to reach the bottom of the deepest ocean - the Mariana Trench. Better yet, the world's highest mountain, Mount Everest (29,141 feet), would be covered by over 1.25 miles of water.

Beneath this ocean surface at such a depth, lies an alien dark cold world with its own life where very eerie looking fishes and other life form can be found. It was once thought to be a lifeless place when it was discovered by the British survey ship Challenger II in 1951 (where it got its name). This belief of the deepest point on Earth being lifeless was however proven wrong in 1960 when Jacques Piccard and Navy Lt. Donald Walsh descended in the U.S. Navy Trieste, a bathyscaphe ("bathy" = deep & "scaphe" = ship), to the bottom of the Mariana Trench - Challenger Deep. The first and still the only manned vessel to go to its bottom. They provided the measurement for the depth of the Mariana Trench. Unmanned vessels have also recorded its measurement although they do not go as far as the Trieste.

Related Articles:
-From the Did You Know? site:
Why is the Sea Salty?
What happens to marine life when a lake or pond is frozen?
How Do Fish Breathe?
Collective Nouns for Fish - What Group of Fish are Called

Labels: Geography, Physical Geography, Science

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A Blog (originally called a weblog) is a web site which can be personal or corporate in nature where frequent updated publication of content (series of articles or posts) is presented in a reverse chronological order (journal style). The most recent post is found at the top of the page. Each individual entry (articles or posts) is always time-stamped and dated and the older entries are archived, generating a static address for each individual entry that can be found and read weeks, months or years afterwards. There is also a section ( in some blogs) that have a list showing the previous (recent) post for the first 4 or more entries which are listed (in hyperlinks), according to their title in each respective article.

Blogs being accessible through the World Wide Web (internet) facilitate readers to comment and/or have a discussion thread on each individual entry posted. Thereby, allowing the author to have a voice on the web and connect with others of similar interest. Although blogs are accessible online, some blogs can be either public or private in nature. If it is public, then anyone can visit and read/view it over the internet. A private blog on the other hand, is password protected and can only be accessed and viewed by the owner/s and people with the password. Blogs can be set up and maintained by almost anyone with internet access where the author can edit, organize and publish as often as he/she wishes, using a content management system - i.e. a web-based publication system. A blog can have one or more authors. The author of a blog is often called a blogger.

Blogs usually consist of a collection of multiple links that are directed to other websites and blogs forming an interconnected community with other bloggers (blog owners). These links are usually directed to: Blog friends, posts on another blog that supports the blog owners point of view/interest/discussion etc., blogs that visitors/readers will find interesting, blogs that are interesting and regularly visited by the blog owner, posting comments on each others' blogs and so on. This social network (interconnected communities) of blogs is called the blogosphere.

Blog is the shortened term for weblog but occasionally spelled web log. Blog is however widely used because "web log" or "weblog" can also mean a server's log files. Therefore "blog" being an alternative name for web log seems less likely to cause any confusion.

A typical blog content is primarily textual in nature but may use a combination of text, images, embedded video (e.g. from Youtube.com and Googlevideo.com) and hypertext links which are linked to other blogs or websites relating to that article being published. There are other types of blogs that focus on; audio which are called podcasting, photographs which are called photoblog and videos which are called vlog. There are also mobile blogs which are called Moblogs.

Blogs, being dynamic in nature (unlike static Web pages) sometime provide information to the world faster than traditional media, depending on the type and purpose of the blog (e.g. a news blog). The reason for such swiftness generally has to do with the fact that blogs don’t need the procedure of traditional media of going through a publisher and/or editor to be reviewed and approved before publication. To no surprise blogs are even used by professional and amateur journalists alike to publish breaking headlines news.

A blog can be of a personal or corporate nature. Some major corporations’ web sites contain blogs which can be public or private. These corporate blogs allow an employee to post their thoughts, ideas, company news, talk about coming plans or events for the company and so forth - a kind of a public relation venue to interact, promote and receive feedback with clients and prospective clients in an interactive format. Personal blogs cover a variety of topics such as; day-to-day experiences, poems, prose, complaints, illicit thoughts, philosophical reflections, personal reflections or opinions, mini-essays, commentaries on social or political issues, topics related to ones work and/or expertise, news articles of other sites that are of interest to the user, news about a company/event/person/idea, a personal online diary (similar in content to what is found in a traditional diary book or journal), photos, poetry, hobbies, education, food, project updates, literary work (fiction) etc. Blogs are also increasingly been used in conjunction with traditional online news media e.g. cable news channel and online newspaper sites.

The content and purpose of blogs varies greatly and as such, there are different varieties of blogs that are categorized based on its content topic. As a result of this, blogs can fall into categories such as; Art and Culture, Literature, Comics, Books/Movie Review, Computers, Education, Entertainment, Health & Medicine, Music, Religion and Spirituality, Science & Technology, Gaming, Gadgets & Electronics, Pets, Nature, Politics and Food just to name a few.

Most blogs also use a content distribution tool to syndicate their content giving the author the ability to widely distribute their writings to readers who can subscribe using RSS feed (Really Simple Syndication). This then allows readers (subscribers) to keep up-to-date with the latest headlines (posts) from all blogs or websites having the RSS feed icon without visiting each individual blog or site, using a RSS feed reader (e.g. My Yahoo). The Mozilla Firefox browser shows when an RSS feed icon is presented on a blog webpage which is indicated by a small orange square with ripple waves. This icon can also be found on some blog site at the left or right column or the at the bottom of a blog which is accompanied by feed buttons to subscribe.

Related Articles:
From my other site
The Definition and Purpose of a Blog: What is a Blog?
The History of Blog - Blog Evolution

Labels: Blog, Internet

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