Yahoo!7 Answers Blog Australia

February 22nd marks World Thinking Day for Girl Guides and Girl Scouts across the globe!

What is Thinking Day?

The founder of the world Boy Scouting movement, Lord Robert Baden-Powell, and his wife Olave who was instrumental in the formation of the the Girl Guides, shared the same birthday – February 22nd.

It was first celebrated in 1926 at the 4th Girl Guide and Girl Scout International Conference held at Girl Scouts of the USA’s Camp Edith Macy; after attendees decided there should be a special day for girls around the world, regardless of which organisation they were in, where they could think of each other and give thanks to their sisters in guiding/scouting.

At the 7th World Conference in Poland in 1932, the World Association’s Thinking Day Fund was established. This is a voluntary contribution by members of Girl Scouts and Girl Guides across the world to help offer guiding and scouting opportunities to young girls and women.

World Thinking Day 2010

The theme for World Thinking Day 2010 is – ‘together we can end extreme poverty and hunger’.

Girls across the world are raising awareness and funds to improve the lives of poorest people of the world.

Five countries, one from each of the world regions, have been chosen this year. These are being highlighted for the difference Girl Guiding/ Scouting makes and the way the organisations challenge poverty in these countries:

1. Haiti
2. Zimbabwe
3. Sudan
4. Georgia
5. Maldives

• In what ways can you raise raise awareness about extreme poverty and hunger?

Girl Guiding and Girl Scouting – Guides are known as Girl Scouts in some countries, such as the United States – will work with young girls and women to develop the skills and the confidence to overcome poverty.

Guides and Scouts in Australia

Whilst Thinking Day is celebrated by the Girl Guides and Girl Scouts, the Scouts also commemorate February 22nd with Founders Day.

Many of us would either have been in Brownies or Cubs, Guides or Scouts, Venturers or Ranger Guides, Rovers or Rangers. Or at least known someone at school or in our lives who was involved in them. I myself was a brownie from the age of 7, transitioning to guides until I was 15, when I switched over to the Scouts and became a Venturer. All my siblings were involved in both Guiding and Scouting, my Mum even used to send us to school in our uniforms on “mufty days” (casual days)! It was very much a part of our lives well into adulthood.

Both organisations are still going strong with the Girl Guides celebrating 100 years of operations this year. Long gone are the traditional stereotypes associated with being a Guide or Scout, where all you did was tie knots or sew aprons. Girls in both organisations are active and outgoing, with a vast array of activities – both indoor and outdoor.

If you have a child or young adult ranging from 4 to 25 and are looking for a safe and great social opportunity for them, I’d highly recommend contacting either Scouts Australia or Girl Guides Australia. The main difference between the two is that Scouts is for both males and females, whilst Guides are just for females. Both websites have information for the state organisations and can assist you with contacting your local unit.

• Girl Guides Australia – http://www.guidesaus.org.au/
• Girl Guides New Zealand – http://www.girlguidingnz.org.nz/
• Scouts Australia – http://www.scouts.com.au/
• Scouts New Zealand – http://www.scouts.org.nz/

2010 is the Year of the Girl Guide in Australia! Even if you are over 25, there are other ways to get involved, check out the Girl Guides Australia site. Why not get out there?

Kate
Community Manager

When visiting Answers, there are three main ways to engage with the members of the community: you can ask a question, answer a question, or vote.

By now, you’ve figured out that asking a question costs you points, and answering a question awards you points. But did you know that you can also earn a point by voting on an answer?

How do I earn (or lose) points on Yahoo!7 Answers?

• Get a best answer: earn 10 points
• Get a “thumbs up” on your best answer: earn 1 point (max 50)
• Answer a question: earn 2 points
• Choose a best answer for your question: earn 3 points
• Vote for an answer: earn 1 point
• Vote for no best answer: 0 points
• Ask a question: spend 5 points
• No Best Answer was selected by voters on your question: 5 points returned
• Log into Yahoo!7 Answers: 1 point per day
• Violate the community guidelines: lose 10 points
• Delete an answer: lose 2 points

More details on points and levels can be found here.

How can I get to the next level on Answers?

When participating on the site, two tips will help you move from level to level in no time—they are:

• Provide Best Answers—be sure your answers are quality, don’t violate the Community Guidelines and answer the question!
• Search for your question before you ask it: while your question may seem unique, you may be shocked just how many people before you have come to Answers to ask “Why is the sky blue?” – Save your 5 points and use the Advanced Search feature to check the site for similar questions before asking your own.
• Use the “Sort” feature to find questions with the fewest answers- by filtering by the fewest answers you’re naturally “upping your odds” of earning a “Best Answer” as you’ll have fewer other answers to compete against, and, may be providing someone with the perfect answer!

With these tips under your belt, you’ll be at level 7 in no time! Happy answering!

Photo by woodleywonderworks.

It’s time for our inaugural Five on Friday!

To start us off, this week’s questions were sourced by the rest of the team here at Yahoo!7. What we’d really like to see though, is all of you submitting questions either here on the blog or by sending us an email at y_answrs_team_au@yahoo.com.au with a subject of “Five on Friday”!

1. Why do some areas of the world have safer drinking water than other areas? asked by Natalia.
2. My chocolate chip cookie batter is too soft! What do I do? asked by Tydodtyp R.
3. What would you do if your husband is not ambitious and play video games all the time? asked by Gangman.
4. Is 150 sit ups per day enough to burn off blubber? asked by Beau Maker.
5. How do I get my sheets feeling crisp when I wash them? asked by Miss_vanshe.

This weeks are all open questions, so if you have a good answer that might help one of the people above, be sure to answer their questions!

Have a great weekend!

Kate
Community Manager

Photo by House Of Sims’

Welcome to our new and hopefully regular blog segment!

What is Five on Friday?

Well it’s where we feature 5 questions from the week. They can be resolved and we feature the best answer as well,  they could be really great open questions that need some good  answers or they can be questions where you need the community’s help to decide on the best answer.

What sort of questions do we want?

Well, we are pretty open to the sorts of questions we feature here. We’d obviously love to see our Australian users get involved, but if you are from somewhere else in the world and found a really awesome question in your travels across Answers, don’t be shy! The only thing we ask is that they be clean, worthy of sharing and don’t contravene the Yahoo!7 Terms of Service or our Community Guidelines. Feel free to submit as many as you want!

How do they get chosen?

Well, on Friday morning, the Answers team will sort through all the submissions from that week and decide upon the best 5 to feature.

How do we submit questions?

Submit your questions by sending us an email at y_answrs_team_au@yahoo.com.au with a subject of “Five on Friday”!

Believe it or not, it’s already been a year since we introduced the new Yahoo!7 Answers blog to the community. As we strive to enhance your experience on Answers, we wanted to improve the ways we communicate and expand the ways we engage with you.

Remember that you can access the blog from the Related Links on the lower left-hand side of the Answers homepage, or you can bookmark it on your browser.

And don’t forget, you can follow us on our Yahoo!7 Answers Twitter account, and if you prefer using RSS to keep up to date, you only need to click subscribe and add us to your RSS reader.

We hope you’ve found the Blog to be helpful and entertaining. We’ve received a lot of comments over the last year which we always welcome. It’s a great way to learn more about what you like, what you don’t, what you think about Answers and what you think about many topics we cover. Keep them coming – we love hearing what you have to say!

We have a couple of questions for you to give us a better idea of what you want on the blog:

1) Do you remember your favourite blogpost? What was it?

2) If you could see anything on the Answers Blog -what would it be? More celebrities, more competitions, more about the product, more about other Yahoo!7 products, any new blog features you’d like to see? Use your imagination and let us know!

Caitlin
Community Manager

Last week another Tuesday night passed and still the Oz Lotto jackpot hasn’t gone off. It’s a bit disappointing for all of us who spent our hard earned cash on a ticket. On the bright site, at least we had another week to dream about what we’d do with a cold, hard $90 million.

Last week I went to the launch of the Embraer Phenom 300, an Executive Jet that has never before been sold in Australia. If things go my way, this time next week I will have the winning Oz Lotto ticket in my hot little hands and I’ll be able to think about more extravagant purchases, like private jets. Imagine that, being able to fly 9 of your closest friends to Melbourne for an impromptu shopping spree or up the coast for some winter sun. And for only US$7.9million (AU$9.9m), you’d have plenty of change from your $90m for a couple of luxury cars to drive you to the airport.

What else would I buy? Well obviously I’d be calling the real estate agent to talk about my dream home. It would have to be overlooking the water with plenty of balconies and there would be a big fireplace for those cold winter nights where all you want to do is cuddle up with a hot milo and a book. And of course plenty of spare bedrooms for friends to stay when we throw those fabulous dinner parties and serve vintage Grange and Henschke until the wee hours of the morning.

Of course the altruistic side of me remembers that if I won, there would also be a fair amount of money going to charity. However the indulgent part of me wants to endlessly dream. I can just seem myself seeing the hippos and giraffes on a safari in Africa, enjoying a romantic night in a Michelin star restaurant overlooking Paris and splashing out on a boat cruise around the Caribbean with all of my friends and family.

How about you? What would you splurge on if you won $90 million?

Caitlin
Community Manager

Pictr 30D

Seeing this question today really made me laugh: Have you ever been in deep thought and had some random guy say, “smile it can’t be that bad”?

This has happened to me many times, and I’ve always wondered why would someone make a deliberate effort to make me smile? Do people really hate seeing others with a look of contemplation? Do they think being told to smile by a random stranger is really going to improve my mood? Or are they just a compassionate person who really is concerned.

Even if it is the latter, I’ve always found it patronising and rather annoying. To give someone a boost, I always think it’s better to give them something they didn’t expect, like open a door for them or even just flash them your own pearly whites. Much better than reaching out and tugging someone’s mouth into a smile as poor Neo had to put up with!

It made me think about other little things in life that get on my nerves. You know, those pet peeves that almost seem insignificant when they’re said out loud but when you’re having a bad day, boy do they grate on your nerves.

One of mine is the inappropriate use of mobile phones. I hate being out with friends who have a new love in their life and insist on texting or talking to them all night. Why hang out with me when you’ve obviously got someone more important to talk to? I also hate seeing people using their phone when they’re driving. Not only is it illegal, they are distracted from driving properly (I almost got run over by someone on their phone this morning when I was attempting to walk across the crossing).

The other thing that really gets my goat is the office kitchen. At every company I’ve worked at, the office kitchen has been a cesspit of dirty dishes, smelly fridges and food everywhere. I’ve never been able to understand it – we’re all adults, our mothers aren’t there to clean up after us and there’s a dishwasher right there! But still, no one manages to open it up and put their dishes in it. Do people live like that at home? Ew I hope not.

Aah I feel better now that’s all off my chest! So what are your silly little pet peeves?

Caitlin
Community Manager

It’s humpday, it’s cold outside and it feels like ages since we’ve had a long weekend. I know, I know, we shouldn’t still be upset about missing out on an ANZAC Day long weekend but it really does feel like a long time since there’s been a chance for a Monday sleep in. Unfortunately we’ve still got a few weeks until the June Queen’s Birthday Holiday (although WA gets their long weekend a week before the rest of us).

So for the mid May humpday blues, here are some pick me ups!

Q: What’s the most uplifting and happy song to you?

A: Love Inc. Your A Superstar
Taking the Long Way – Dixie Chicks
Garth Brooks – Standing outside the fire
Sheryl Crow – if it makes you happy
Alanis Morisette – Ironic
Alicia Keys – No One
Amy McDonald – Mr. Rock n Roll
Cher – Just Like Jesse James
Letters to Cleo – I want you to want More

Q: What are some happy movies that make you smile?

A: I loved “Ever After” with Drew Barrymore
and “Never been Kissed” also with Drew.
I also liked “The Wedding Date” with Debra Messing & Dermot Mulroney.
And I liked “Enchanted” even though I’m a grown up! LOL
I hope these help! More

Q: What things do your kids do that makes you smile?

A: Well the random I love yous are the best by far.. or the goofy pictures he draws me to hang at my desk at work… But the most recent smiles I get from him, is how well he does with his new sister. Every night he has to tell her he loves her and kiss her (which usually wakes her up lol, but I have to deal with it haha) When she was 2 weeks old she had a stuffy nose and started screeming, my son ran into my room (it was about 3am) he jumped on my bed and asked what was wrong, I said I don’t know as I hadn’t figured it out yet, and said would you like me to sing her a lullaby? He sang to her as I calmed her and he didn’t go back to sleep until he knew she was ok. More

Q: What is the funniest joke you have ever heard?

A: A bus carrying only ugly people crashes into an oncoming truck, and everyone inside dies. They then get to meet their maker and because of the grief they have experienced; he decides to grant them one wish each, before they enter Paradise.
They’re all lined up, and God asks the first one what the wish is. “I want to be gorgeous,” and so God snaps His fingers, and it is done.
The second one in line hears this and says “I want to be gorgeous too.” Another snap of His fingers and the wish is granted.
This goes on for a while with each one asking to be gorgeous but when God is halfway down the line the last guy in the line starts laughing.
When there are only ten people left, this guy is rolling on the floor, laughing his head off. Finally, God reaches this last guy and asks him what his wish will be. The guy eventually calms down and says: “Make ‘em all ugly again”. More

Last month, 2008 Miss Universe Australia Laura Dundovic asked the community What are your tips for feeling great on the inside and looking good on the outside? She got some great responses, but one of our favourites was:

Nothing beats, the “smile”. Smiling helps keep yyou feeling good, but makes you look better on the outside too. A warning though, it is contagious. Smiling will eventually pass onto others making others feel good too. haha… As a bus ticket once told me, “If you see someone without a smile, give them one of yours”

If you want to see Laura’s tips, check out the video below.

How about you? How do you get over the humpday blues?

Caitlin
Community Manager

I really don’t envy them. Thousands of year 12 students across the country are currently gearing up for their final exams. All 13 years of study seem to resolve around these final exams, and the stress isn’t pleasant.

Remember the feeling of leaving school? Suddenly at the age of 15, you’re forced to make seemingly huge decisions about your future by deciding on the subjects you want to study in senior school. Teachers tell you those subjects determine the marks you get and the career you eventually pursue. All your future seems wrapped up in one small decision.

When you get to year 12, the pressure is definitely on. School becomes serious, teachers start talking about study plans and your friends are discussing the best way to cram to get maximum results. Parents suddenly restrict your social hours and give you funny looks every time you sit down in front of the TV: “Don’t you have an essay due tomorrow?”

Finally it’s exam time. You know that the marks you get in the forthcoming examinations are the product of 13 years of education. Your class mates look like pale shells of themselves as they clutch notes and glance nervously at each other before entering the exam room. It seems that your entire future is riding on three hours of pencil scribbling, head scratching and nervous sweats.

Except that it’s not. Anyone who has been through final exams knows that it pales into insignificance as soon as you’ve started your next phase in life. At uni, TAFE or in the workplace, no one cares what score you got. Even if you don’t get into your chosen course, there are so many alternative ways of doing what you want to do that you should never feel like the path is closed.

The most important thing about the final exams is the rite of passage it symbolises and the skills it teaches. You learn about working towards a goal, about how to prepare for a huge life challenge and you join in the camaraderie of finality with your fellow students. As many say – it’s the journey, not the destination that counts.

Good luck, and enjoy those exultant post exam celebrations!

Caitlin
Community Manager

Can this butterfly really cause a cyclone?

“Well isn’t that just Murphy’s Law?”You hear people say this just after something has gone wrong… the idea is that if something can go wrong, it will. Like if you drop a slice of toast – it will always end up with the butter side on the carpet. Especially if you have just had new carpet laid.

But who was Murphy? Why is this funny little saying named after him?

There aren’t many who have theories and the like named after them like the proverbial Murphy. Another example is Pythagoras – but his ideas have a lot more mathematical weight to them than the fanciful sayings of Murphy’s Law. Also based in mathematics is the Chaos Theory, or Butterfly Effect, as it is also known – the idea that a small change like a butterfly flapping its wings in the Amazon can lead to a chain of events that causes a cyclone in Africa.

One theory that has never really been effectively proven, although many have tried, is that each person on the planet is linked to everyone else by no more than six other people. This means that Johnny Depp and I are practically friends. Woohoo! I’ll have to do a little experimenting of my own on that one!

And finally one of my favourite theories is that of Catch 22 – from the book of the same title. The idea from the book, which is set during the Second World War, is that you can only get discharged from the Army if you’re insane, but if you try telling people you’re insane they’ll know you’re completely sane because you’re just trying to think of a way to get out of the Army! So Catch 22 means you’re damned if you do and you’re damned if you don’t – which is the story of my life sometimes!

Let us know if you can think of any other fun theories!

Clea

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