Call of the Wild

Today, I read "Call of the Wild", by Jack London. This book is a timeless classic about Buck, who is a St. Bernard/Sheepdog mix. 

The book starts out with Buck living in a home as a pet. At the end of the book, he is living with wolves, and is called "Ghost Dog" by local Indians. The story between these points is a very interesting one.

Over the course of the book, Buck is owned by many different masters, each very different. Buck changes along with them. At the beginning of the book, Buck is a pet of Judge Millers: he isn't used to hardships, or having to fight someone for his food. He is then stolen by one of Judge Miller's workers, in order to pay off a gambling debt. He is taken to a kind of dog trainer. The moment he arrives at the trainers house, he is beaten unconcious. He learns that the "man with the big club" is not one to be defied. Buck is eventually bought by Perrault. Perrault takes Buck to the North to be a sled dog. Here Buck becomes hardend: he learns how to fight in the manner of wolves, and how to bury himself in the snow for warmth. Buck quickly learns the ropes, and is soon know as one of the best sled dogs in the North.

After a sled run with Perrault, Buck is sold yet again. This time he is bought by Hal and Charles. They are two Southern men who want to try their luck at mining. Buck is chosen as their lead sled dog. Unfortunately, Hal and Charles had no idea of where to even begin. They are totally and utterly inexpeirienced at sled driving, and at mining in general. At first, they pack the sled so heavy that the dogs cannot move it. Hal then begins to whip the dogs, calling the, lazy brutes. That more or less sets the tone for the whole trip. 7 dogs died on the trip, all shot by Hal for refusing to pull the sled. Eventually, when they pull into a mining camp, John Thorton saw Hal beating Buck brutally. Thorton knocks Hal down, and threatens to kill him if he hits Buck again. Hal, in a rage, storms off, and readies the sled to continue. He doesn't listen to other driver's advice, and pushes on to Dawson, his intended destination. Not 50 yards down the trail, the sled, humans, and all of the dogs fall through the ice, and drown. Just what the drivers warned him of.

This event marks a turning point in Buck's life. He becomes Thorton's best freind, following him everywhere. Buck recovers from his mistreatment at the hands of Hal, and is quickly back into top shape. He is utterly happy, and is devoted to Thorton, protecting him from anyone who would do him harm. He lives with Thorton for a very long portion of his life. After a while, Thorton decides to go on a quest for gold, looking for a fabled mine. Buck, of course acompanys him. Along the way, however, Buck becomes restless. He begins going out into the woods, often gone for weeks at a time.  Buck begins hunting his own food, and becomes more and more wild. Buck has brought down a black bear, a baby moose, and even a full grown bull moose. Buck spends more and more time away from camp, but he always returns to his master. One trip, though, he returns  to find his master and his friends dead. They were attacked by Indians. Buck quickly avenges his master, killing two Indians, and scaring off the rest. Buck soon gains a reputation with the local tribes, and is know as "Ghost Dog". With no place else to go, Buck joins the wolf pack, and remains wild for the rest of his days.

I recommend this book to everyone, with it being very interesting and enjoyable. It also gives you a unique insight to the primitive law that drives animals: Kill or be killed.

Spectroscope

Today for science I made a spectroscope.......

and it was WAY COOL! I have never seen anything like this. I built it out of cardboard and a magnifying glass, but it was amazing. I pointed it at my desk lamp, looked through the lens, and I could see a neat pattern of different light colors. (green, red, yellow, purple were the main colors). If I pointed the spectroscope at different light sorces, (my window, a light bulb, a "energy efficient" light bulb) the colors changed.  Not the actual colors but the spacing of them, and their thickness. For example, sunlight has the largest spacing between the colors. My desk lamp, however, has almost no spacing. How this works is very complicated.

As Wikipedia explaines it, 

"When a material is heated to incandescence it emits light that is characteristic of the atomic makeup of the material. Particular light frequencies give rise to sharply defined bands on the scale which can be thought of as fingerprints. For example, the element sodium has a very characteristic double yellow band known as the Sodium D-lines at 588.9950 and 589.5924 nanometers, the color of which will be familiar to anyone who has seen a low pressure sodium vapor lamp."

Of course, my first reaction is "What the #$!&*?"

However, This is what I think Wikipedia means.

The spectroscope breaks up the light into different colors. Kind of like the RGB in a picture. (for you non-geeks, each pixel in a picture has a certain value of Red, Green, and Blue. mixed together, these create the final color.) Depending on the light sorce, these colors are split apart, which create the black spaces between them. (These are called Fraunhofer lines, after the man who discovered them.) Based on this combination of colors, thicknesses, and spaces, scientists can determine some part of the chemical makeup of the light source, as well whether or not it is moving.

Below, you can see some pictures I have taken of the bars.

My brother sam is dead: liturature update

The book that I just started reading is called "My Brother Sam is Dead". It is about the Revolutionary War, and the very beginnings of how it started. Right now, the main charecter is a boy (Tim) who's father is a loyalist to Dngland. However, Tim's brother, Sam, is a Patriot, and is part of the Minutemen. I am only a few pages into it, but it has started out well. The main conflict so far is "Father", and Sam fighting. Tim's Father wants to remain loyal to England, but Sam wants to fight for fredom. Because the book is written in the first person, you have unique insight into the thoughts of Tim, and allows you a interesting view of the Revolutionary War. I will post again when I am farther into the book.

Scientist Study:Microscope

I am back to my study of scientists, after 3 weeks of learning about spies. Today, I learned about early microscopes. Although the true inventor of microscopes is unclear, Ernst Abbe is credited with making the microscope a feasible tool in science. Although Ernst is credited with making the microscope more advanced, Galileo Galilei actually discovered the properties of a inverted telescope with a lens on the end. In this way, he made a kind of rudimentary microscope. Like the telescope that Galileo invented, however, his microscope was just an early version, or a prototype. Ernst Abbe changed the microscope into a powerful tool that unlocked worlds that no one had ever seen before. In 1886, Ernst created formulas that allowed him to calculate the best type of glass to use, and how the lenses should be positioned on combined.

Today, I built a microscope of my own, based on the model made by Galileo. You can see some pictures of it below.

You can see the lens that I taped onto the edge here. To make this microscope, I took my telescope, (Which I wrote about earleir) flipped it upside-down, and taped this lens onto the end. Sorry that I couldn't get any pictures of it in action, but I couldn't get the camera to take a picture through the lens. However, I was able to look at induvidual ink dots in a letter, and look at a picture up close.

Johnny Logan: Shawnees Spy

As you might have guessed from the title, I am currently reading "Lohnny Logan: Shawnees Spy".

The book is about Spemica Lawba, who is a Shawnees boy. He is captured by a American general during a raid, and given the name Johnny Logan. The general is very kind to Johnny, and adopts him as his son. After several years of living with the general, Johnny goes back to his Indian village as the result of a prisoner exchange between whites and Indians .Johnny is torn between his adoptive white family, and his Indian family. He knows that the white culture is more advanced than the Indian one, but his family believe that there is no way the Indians and whites can live together in harmony. I have only just started to read the book, so I will post again soon.

The Smiling Rebel

I just finished reading "The Smiling Rebel", by Harnett Kane. That is the book I talked about in earlier posts. (In case you didn't read them, it is about the life of Belle Boyd, who is a Confederate spy during the Civil War.) The book, although it was a novel, contained many facts about Belle's life. All the while, though, it keeps the amazing story of Belle Boyd interesting. The book summarizes her life  and provides information while keeping the feel of a fictional novel.It is very well written, and very engaging. I recommend this book to anyone that likes historical fiction. 

Literature-Update

Belle Boyd
The book that I am currently reading for liturature is call "Belle Boyd". Belle Boyd is a confederate spy during the civil war."Belle Boyd" is a novel based on her life when she was spying for the Confederacy. Belle, although being a woman afforded her some privaliges, was still arrested 3 times, and held in some of the worst Union prisons. She was credited with major South victories, and passed along hundreds of stolen Union documents to the South. Belle, because of her bravery in sirvice of the south, was awarded the rank of Captain, and given an honerary aides-de-camp position. When I finish the book, I will upload another post.

Obama's Election Night Speech

Book Review

I just finished reading "The Extraordinary Adventures of Alfred Kropp."

While the title is a bit windy, the book itself was very good. The premise, is that a misfit teenage boy, Alfred Kropp, gets thrown in the midst of a age-old war that he unwittingly started. Along the way, he meets knights descended from Bedivere, who, as you may know, was one of King Arther's

Knights of the Round Table. Although the plot might sound like a rehash, the story is very entertaining, and is very well written. I recommend this book to anyone who like sci-fi/fantasy books. It was a easy read, and a must for King Arther fans.

More on Spies

I am partway through a unit study on spies. I have studied spies who date from the time of Sun Tzu, in 500 BC, to the latest modern spy planes that can fly at many times the speed of sound. The use of technology has greatly changed, too. Ancient spies used nothing but their eyes and memory on a mission; now, a night vision camera with a 16x zoom is considered outdated. My opinion is that while the skills required to be a spy have greatly changed, they are no less numerous. For example, while skill with a sword is no longer needed in the profession, an extensive knowledge of programming languages and how to install phone bugs are mandatory in the 21st century.

Despite the new technology available, some jobs just cannot be performed by a human being. More and more jobs are being handed over to robots and drones, who are expendable, unlike human lives. Spy planes and surveillance cameras are being put into extensive use throughout the world. Great Britain alone, for example, has over 4,000,000 cameras. With a population of 51,092,000, that is one camera for every 12 citizens. Spy planes are used for spying and surveillance, as well. They are capable of flying so high that they are impossible to target with missiles, and can take hi-rez pictures of the earth below them. Whatever the age or method, spying has changed the world, for better or for worse, and has shaped much of our culture and society.

Spies

I am starting a unit study on spies.

I will be learning about the gadgets that they use, famous spies in history, and the wars that they were used in. I just read a book that talked about two spies durning world war II. They operated in the Manhatten Project, (the code name for the US atomic research project) posing as US scientists. Actually, they were soviet spies. When they were found out, they were executed for their trouble. A set of twin of electric chairs was built just for them.

I will post again when i know more.

Johannes Kepler

I finished reading my book on Johannes Kepler, who was a scientist called "The Father of Modern Astronomy". Kepler was born in Weil der Stadt, a city located in the German principality of Wurttemberg, on December 27, 1571. His family life was far from perfect. Kepler called his grandfather "Remarkably arrogant, short-tempered and obstinate. His mother was "small tin swarthy, gossiping, quarrelsome, and of a bad disposition. Wis father, who was "vicious, inflexible, quarrelsome, and doomed to a bad end," left the family to become a mercenary in Italy. 

Despite all of his family problems, he was one of the most renowned astronomers ever. He was credited to a great number of achievement, some of which are listed below. He was, not surprisingly, the man who made "Kepler's Three Laws of Planetary Motion". He wrote a good number of books, too. Some examples of these are Cosmological Mystery, New Astronomy,  a letter under the title of Conversation with the Starry Messenger, Observer's Report on Jupiter's Four Wandering Satelites, Dioptrice, Art of Measurement, World Harmony, and, The Rudolphine Tables.  He totally dismantled Aristotle's ideas, which had been is use for 2000 years. He proved that the planet's had elliptical orbits, not circular as it was thought at the time.

Astronomy was not his only his only strong suit, though. He was also interested in his field of optics.He wrote "Dioptrice", which was a book explaining the properties of light, and how a telescope worked. Telescopes were a rather controversial invention at that time. Or, more accurately, the people who made them made suspicious claims to being the sole inventor. Galileo Galilei, another prominent astronomer, is not the one who actually invented the telescope, despite popular belief. Leonardo DaVinci invented a weakly magnifying telescope about 100 years before. Kepler, when he was able to briefly borrow a telescope, could confirm Galileo's discovery's, and was able to collect incredibly accurate data.

Today, I built a telescope of my own, out of cardboard and some basic lenses. Here are some pictures of it. The telescope works by using a lens to focus available light. The lens is curved, so this bends the object, making it look bigger. This make the object larger and brighter. The one downside to early telescopes that the image is upside-down. This rarely matters ion astronomy, as planets are round, and look mostly the same either way. 

A picture of the telescope extended.

A picture I tried to take through the lens.

Book Review.

Another Book Review.
I just finished reading "Rhiannon", by Vicki Grove.
It takes place in England/France, (Francia, at that time), and is a fun read.
The main character is, somewhat obviously, Rhiannon, a girl who lives as a nurse in a village hospice care facility of sorts, with her mother and grandmother. They are the founders and sole caretakers of the place. The plot involves Rhia and her friends, as they try to discover the murderer of a mysterious stranger.  Their movite is that the scapegoat that the crime is eing pinned on is one of Rhia's friends and former patients. I really enjoyed this book, as it was much more cheerful than "the House of the Scorpions", which I have reviewed in this blog as well.
Overall, "Rhiannon" is a fun read, with a good plot and action.

Update

This is an update of what I am doing in school.

As I have said in earlier posts, I am doing an ancient scientist study.

I am reading "Johannes Kepler, Discovering the Laws of Celestial Motion", by William J. Boerst. 

I will be putting a summery of it up soon.

Largest Camera Obscura ever

The worlds largest pinhole camera, or camera obscura, was contructed with a abandoned F-18 hanger. Artists used 1.5 MILES of black gorrilla tape and 40 gallons of black spray paint to make tha hanger light-tight. the goal was to make a black and white picture of the Marine Corps air station with the San Juaquin hills in the background.  A huge piece of muslin cloth was made light sensitive by coating it with 80 litres of gelatin silver hilade. The resulting finished print was nearly 108 ft (33 m) wide and 85 ft  high and was exhibited for the first time at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, on September 6, 2007. Quite a bit bigger than mine.

Book Review

I was just reading The House of Scorpions, by Nancy Farmer.

The scoop: NO GOOD!

The plot is very odd, involving a a main character who is a clone of a man who will live forever because of brain implants. This doesn't even include eejits, who are people with brain implants to dull their intelligence and free will. Did I mention that the entire story evolves around opium drug fields? This book is seemingly creepy for creepy's sake, and gets weirder by the chapter.

If this sounds entertaining to you, then have fun, but I don't recommend this book to anyone.

Camera Obscura

I did another science experiment today, making a Camera Obscura. It turned out really well, as you can see from the pictures below. I made it with cardboard, a lens, and tracing paper. It was really easy to make, and was lots of fun. It projects a upside-down image of what you point it at onto sheet of tracing paper attached to the back. This is more important than it sounds, as it actually proved a very important theory in the field of optics. Most classical scholars believed that the eye emitted "vision rays" that struck the object being observed. However, the camera obscura proved that light actually reflected off of a object, as the camera focused light through it's lens and shone it on a piece of paper. This theory was origionally concieved by the scientist Abu Ali al-Hasan Ibn al-Haitham, who was the scientist who I have talked about in earlier posts.

Scientists

I just started a scientist study today, with lenses. The lesson was to figure out the best distance to hold the glass so the focal point was the brightest. I had fun burning holes in a newpaper.

I learned about Abu Aku ak-Hasan Ibn al-Haitham today, and how he introduced the scientific method.

Sounds like a pretty important guy.

Ancient Scientist Study

just an update of what I have been doing in school.

I am currently reading Scientists of the Ancient World for science. I just read the Pythagoras chapter. Apparently this guy was captured when he was fleeing from his pursuers when he refused to cross a bean field. Sounds like a bit of a nut, but a genius.

I'll update this post soon.

Hello!

Hello!

Just leting you know that I am creating this blog today!

I should be posting some fun stuff about computers and tech stuff, and some stuff for school like book reviews, summaries of what I am doing for science, and stuff like that. 

Thanks!