T2B32

This is the final tale of Portia's Caskets and the most confusing.

D. THE MYSTERY: WHAT WENT WRONG?
70. The fourth and final tale is the most baffling of all, and it illustrates a logical principle of basic importance. The suitor of the last story passed all three tests and happily claimed Portia III as his bride. They had many children, great-grandchildren, etc. Several generations later a descendant was born in America who looked so much like the ancestral portraits that she was named Portia Nth-henceforth to be referred to as "Portia." When this Portia grew to young womanhood she was both clever and beautiful-just like all the other Portias. In addition, she was highly vivacious and a bit on the mischievous side. She also decided to select her hus­ band by the casket method (which was somewhat of an anomaly in modern New York, but let that pass). The test she used appeared simple enough; she had only two caskets, silver and gold, in one of which was Portia's portrait. The lids bore the following inscriptions:

Gold
THE PORTRAIT IS NOT IN HERE

Silver
EXACTLY ONE OF THESE TWO STATEMENTS IS TRUE

Which casket would you choose? Well, the suitor reasoned as follows. If the statement on the silver casket is true, then it is the case that exactly one of the two statements is true. This means that the statement on the gold casket must be false. On the other hand, suppose the statement on the silver casket is false. Then it is not the case that exactly one of the statements is true; this means that the statements are either both true or both false. They can't both be true (under the assumption that the second is false), hence they are both false. Therefore again, the statement on the gold casket is false. So regardless of whether the statement on the silver casket is true or false, the statement on the gold casket must be false. Therefore the portrait must be in the gold casket. So the suitor triumphantly exclaimed, "The portrait must be in the gold casket" and opened the lid. To his utter horror the gold casket was empty! The suitor was stunned and claimed that Portia had deceived him. "I don't stoop to deceptions," laughed Portia, and with a haughty, trium­ phant, and disdainful air opened the silver casket. Sure enough, the portrait was there. Now, what on earth went wrong with the suitor's reasoning?
"Well, well!" said Portia, evidently enjoying the situation enormously, "so your reason didn't do you much good, did it? However, you seem like a very attractive young man, so I think I'll give you another chance. I really shouldn't do this, but I will! In fact, I'll forget the last test and give you a simpler one in which your chances of winning me will be two out of three rather than one out of two. It resembles one of the tests given by my ancestor Portia III. Now surely you should be able to pass this one!" So saying, she led the suitor into another room in which there were three caskets-gold, silver, and lead. Portia explained that one of them contained a dagger and the other two were empty. To win her, the suitor merely need choose one of the empty ones. The inscriptions on the caskets read as follows:

Gold
THE DAGGER IS IN THIS CASKET

Silver
THIS CASKET IS EMPTY

Lead
AT MOST ONE OF THESE THREE STATEMENTS IS TRUE

(Compare this problem with the first test of Portia III! Doesn't it seem to be exactly the same problem?)

Well, the suitor reasoned very carefully this time as follows: Suppose statement (3) is true. Then both other state;nents must be false-in particular (2) is false, so the dagger is then in the silver casket. On the other hand, if (3) is false, then there must be at least two true statements present, hence (1) must be one of them, so in this case the dagger is in the gold casket. In either case the lead casket is empty. So the suitor chose the lead casket, opened the lid, and to his horror, there was the dagger! Laughingly, Portia opened the other two caskets and they were empty! I'm sure the reader will be happy to hear that Portia married her suitor anyhow. (She had decided this long before the tests, and merely used the tests to tease him a little). But this still leaves unanswered the question: What was wrong with the suitor's reasoning?


This puzzle is so good, I'm going to post the answer tomorrow. Also, I'm going to try to work my head around the whole solution again, because I didn't really get it the first time.

T2B31

Third Tale Third Puzzle

69c. The Third Test
If the suitor passed these two tests, he was led into another room containing a gold, silver, and lead casket. Again, each casket was fashioned by either Cellini or Bellini. Now in this test, the suitor's chances were one out of three (if he guessed blindly); Portia used a portrait of herself, and the portrait was in one of the caskets. To pass the test, the suitor had to (1) select the casket containing the portrait; (2) tell the maker of each casket. The three inscriptions read:

Gold
THE PORTRAIT IS NOT IN HERE

Silver
THE PORTRAIT IS NOT IN HERE

Lead
AT LEAST TWO OF THESE CASKETS WERE FASHIONED BY CELLINI

What is the solution?

The Answer:
We first show that the lead casket must be a Bellini. Sup­ pose it were a Cellini. Then the statement is false, which means that there must be at least two Bellinis, which must be silver and gold. This is impossible, since the portrait can't be in both the silver and gold caskets. Thus the lead casket is really a Bellini. Hence the statement on it is true, so there are at least two Cellinis. This means that the gold and silver are both Cellinis. Hence the statements on both of them are false, so the portrait is neither in the gold nor the silver caskets. Therefore the portrait is in the lead casket. Also, we have proved that the lead casket is a Bellini and the other two are Cellinis, which answers the second question.

T2B30

Third Tale Second Puzzle:

69b .. The Second Test. In this test, the suitor's chances (if he guessed blindly) were one out of two. Portia used only two caskets, gold and silver, and one of them contained her portrait (no dagger was used in this test). Again each casket was fashioned either by Cellini or Bellini. The caskets read:
Gold
THE PORTRAIT IS NOT IN HERE

Silver
EXACTLY ONE OF THESE TWO CASKETS WAS FASHIONED BY BELLINI

Which casket should the suitor choose in order to find the portrait?

Answer:
If the silver casket is a Bellini, then the statement is true, in which case the gold casket is a Cellini. Suppose the silver casket is a Cellini. Then it is not the case that exactly one of the caskets is a Bellini. This means that the gold is a Cellini (for if it were a Bellini, then it would be the case that exactly one is a Bellini!) Thus, whether the silver is Bellini or Cellini, the gold is surely a Cellini. Therefore the statement on the gold casket is false, so the portrait is in the gold casket.

T2B29

C. INTRODUCING BELLINI AND CELLINI
The suitor of the last tale passed both tests and happily claimed Portia II as his bride. They lived happily ever after and had a lovely daughter Portia III-henceforth to be called "Portia." When she grew up to young womanhood, she was born smart and beautiful-just like her mommy and grandmommy. She also decided to choose her husband by the casket method. The suitor had to pass three tests in order to win her! The tests were quite ingenious. She went back to her grandmother's idea of having only one state­ ment inscribed on each casket rather than two. But she introduced the following new wrinkle: She explained to the suitor that each casket was fashioned by one of two famous Florentine craftsmen-Cellini or Bellini. Whenever Cellini fashioned a casket, he always put a false inscription on it, whereas Bellini put only true inscriptions on his caskets.

69a. The First Test. In this unusual test the suitor (if he guessed blindly) would have a two out of three rather than a one out of three chance. Instead of using a portrait, Portia used a dagger which was placed in one of the three caskets; the other two caskets were empty. If the suitor could avoid the casket with the dagger, then he could take the next test. The inscrip­ tions on the caskets were as follows:
Gold
THE DAGGER IS IN THIS CASKET

Silver
THIS CASKET IS EMPTY

Lead
AT MOST ONE OF THESE THREE CASKETS WAS FASHIONED BY BELLINI

The Answer:
Suppose the lead casket had been fashioned by Bellini. Then the statement would be true, hence the other caskets must have been fashioned by Cellini. This means that the other statements are both false-in particular the state­ ment on the silver casket is false, so the dagger is in the silver casket. Thus, if the lead casket is the work of Bellini, then the silver casket contains the dagger. Now, suppose the lead casket had been fashioned by Cellini. Then the statement is false, so at least two caskets were fashioned by Bellini. This means that both the gold and silver caskets are Bellini caskets (since the lead one is assumed Cellini). Then the statements on both the gold and silver are true. In particular, the one on the gold is true. So in this case, the dagger lies in the gold casket. In neither case can the dagger be in the lead casket, so the. suitor should choose the lead casket.

T2B28

Second Tale Puzzle B:
If the suitor passed the first test, he was taken into another room in which there were three more caskets. Again each casket had two sentences inscribed on the lid. Portia ex­ plained that on one of the lids, both statements were true; on another, both statements were false; and on the third, one statement was true and one was false.
Gold
(1) THE PORTRAIT IS NOT IN THIS CASKET
(2) IT IS IN THE SILVER CASKET

Silver
(1) THE PORTRAIT IS NOT IN THE GOLD CASKET
(2) IT IS IN THE LEAD CASKET

Lead
(1) THE PORTRAIT IS NOT IN THIS CASKET
(2) IT IS IN THE GOLD CASKET

Which casket contains the portrait?

Answer:
If the portrait is in the gold casket, then the gold and silver casket lids each contain two false statements. If it is in the silver casket, then the silver and lead caskets each contain one true and one false statement. Therefore the portrait is in the lead casket (and the silver casket lid contains both true statements; the lead, both false; and the gold, one true and one false).

T2B27

Portia and her husband did, as a matter of fact, live happily ever after. They had a daughter Portia II-henceforth to be called "Portia." When the young Portia grew to young womanhood, she was both clever and beautiful, just like her mommy. She also decided to select her husband by the casket method. The suitor had to pass two tests in order to win her.

Second Tale, First Puzzle:

In this test each lid contained two statements, and Portia explained that no lid contained more than one false statement.

Which casket contains the portrait? 

The Answer:

We can immediately rule out the lead casket, for if the portrait were there, then both statements on the lead casket would be false. So the portrait is in the gold or the silver casket. Now, the first statements on the gold and silver caskets agree, so they are both true or both false. If they are both false, the second statements are both true­ but they cannot be both true since they are contradictory. Therefore the first statements are both true, so the portrait cannot b e in the gold casket. This proves that the portrait is in the silver casket. 

T2B26

Second Puzzle:
Portia's suitor chose correctly, so they married and lived quite happily-at least for a while. Then, one day, Portia had the following thoughts: "Though my husband showed some intelligence in choosing the right casket, the problem wasn't really that difficult. Surely, I could have made the p r o b l e m h a r d e r a n d g o t t e n a r e a l ly c l e v e r h u s b a n d . " S o s h e forthwith divorced her husband and decided to get a clev­ erer one.
This time she had the following inscriptions put on the caskets:

Gold
THE PORTRAIT IS NOT IN THE SILVER CASKET

Silver
THE PORTRAIT IS NOT IN THIS CASKET

Lead
THE PORTRAIT IS IN THIS CASKET

Portia explained to the suitor that at least one of the three statements was true and that at least one of them was false.
Which casket contains the portrait?
Epilogue _________________
As fate would have it, the first suitor turned out to be Portia's ex-husband. He was really quite hright enough to figure out this problem too. So they were remarried. The husband took Portia home, turned her over his knee, gave her a good sound spanking, and Portia never had any foolish ideas again.

The Answer:

If the portrait were in the lead casket, then all three state­ ments would be true, which is contrary to what is given. If the portrait were in the silver casket, then all three state­ ments would be false, which is again contrary to what is given. Therefore the portrait must be in the gold casket (and we have the first two statements true and the third one false, which is consistent with what is given). 

T2B25

One of Raymond Smullyan's most famous puzzles includes Portia's Caskets. This set of riddles starts out fairly easy, and gets to the final and most difficult one.

I think that the last puzzle only keeps its difficulty if you do the entire series, so I'll start posting a puzzle a day until I get to the final one.

First Puzzle:

The statements on the gold and lead caskets say the opposite, hence one of them must be true. Since at most one of the three statements is true, then the statement on the silver casket is false, so the portrait is actually in the silver casket.
This problem could be alternatively solved by the fol­ lowing method: If the portrait were in the gold casket, we would have two true statements (namely on the gold and lead caskets), which is contrary to what is given. If the portrait were in the lead casket, we would again have two true statements (this time on the lead and silver caskets). Therefore the portrait must be in the silver casket.
Both methods are correct, and this illustrates the fact that in many problems there can be several correct ways of arriving at the same conclusion.

First Answer:

In Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice Portia had three caskets-gold, silver, and lead-inside one of which was Portia's portrait. The suitor was to choose one of the caskets, and if he was lucky enough (or wise enough) to choose the one with the portrait, then he could claim Portia as his bride. On the lid of each casket was an inscription to help the suitor choose wisely.
Now, suppose Portia wished to choose her husband not on the basis of virtue, but simply on the basis of in­ telligence. She had the following inscriptions put on the caskets.

Gold
THE PORTRAIT IS IN THIS CASKET

Silver
THE PORTRAIT IS NOT IN THIS CASKET

Lead
THE PORTRAIT IS NOT IN THE GOLD CASKET

Portia explained to the suitor that of the three statements, at most one was true.

Which casket should the suitor choose? 

Tomorrow, puzzle number 2...

T2B24

3. The Joke Was on Me
A fellow graduate student of mine at the University of Chicago had two brothers, aged six and eight. I was a frequent visitor to their house and often did tricks for the children. One day 1 came and said, "1 have a trick in which I could turn you both into lions." To my surprise, one of them said, "Okay, turn us into lions." 1 replied, "Well, uh, really, uh, I shouldn't do that, because there is no way 1 could tum you back again." The little one said, "I don't care; 1 want you to tum us into lions anyway." 1 replied, "No, really, there's no way1 can tum you back." The older one shouted, "I want you to turn us into lions!" The little one then asked, "How do you tum us into lions?" I replied, "By saying the magic words." One ofthem asked, "What are the magic words?" 1 replied, "If I told you the magic words, I would be saying them, and so you would tum into lions." They thought about this for a while, and then one of them asked, " Aren't there any magic words which would bring us back?" 1 replied: "Yes, there are, but the trouble is this. If I said the first magic words, then not only you two but every­ body in the world-including myself-would tum into a lion. And lions can't talk, so there would be no one left to say the other magic words to bring us back." The older one then said, "Write them down!" The little one said, "But I can't read!" I replied, "No, no, writing them down is out of the question; even if they were written down rather than said, everyone in the world would still turn into a lion." They said, "Oh."
About a week later I met the eight-year-old, and he said, " Smullyan, there' s something I've been wanting to ask you; something which has been puzzling me." I replied, "Yes?" He said. "How did you ever learn the magic words?" 

This is another one of Smullyan's riddles, and I wanted to point this one out because if you think about it several times, you realize that you don't really know what magic words he's talking about, the ones to turn people into lions or the one to turn them back.

Anyway. Cool puzzle.

T2B23

This is a story from http://weblog.raganwald.com/2008/05/few-easy-ones-from-raymond-smullyan.html:

Dr. Tarr is a psychologist with the Department of Health. Her job is to inspect asylums to determine whether they are in compliance with the law. Asylums have Doctors and Patients. In a compliant asylum, all the doctors are sane and all the patients are insane. Clearly, an asylum with an insane doctor or a sane patient is Not A Good Thing.

Sane persons are correct in all of their beliefs. Insane persons are incorrect in all of their beliefs. Both sane and insane persons are scrupulously honest: they always state what they believe to be the case. Unfortunately, the asylums are very modern and do not use identifying devices such as uniforms, ID tags, or other devices to show which persons are doctors and which are patients. Nor is it possible to know whether a person is sane or insane by any means other than questioning them.

One day, after inspecting a number of asylums, Dr. Tarr was having a drink and cigar with her good friend Professor Feather. The professor found her work interesting and asked her to recount some of her findings.

“Well,” said Dr. Tarr, “at the first asylum I visited, I met an inhabitant who made a single statement. I immediately took steps to have them released.”

“Wait,” interjected the professor, “so you’re saying this person was not an insane patient?”

“Of course,” replied Dr. Tarr.

Professor Feather thought for a moment, then asked “How is that possible? This sounds like the old Liar and Truth Teller puzzle. This person either told the truth or they lied. But there are four possibilities for any person in an asylum: Sane Doctor, Insane Patient, Insane Doctor, or Sane Patient.

“Even if you knew whether they were lying or telling the truth, that would only narrow the matter down to two possibilities. For example, if they told a truth such as ‘two plus two equals four’, you would know that they were Sane. But how would you know that they were a Patient, not a Doctor?”

Dr. Tarr replied with a chuckle “I agree that I could not have deduced what to do based on an inhabitant saying ‘two plus two equals four’. But in this case, the patient was quite intelligent and thought of a single statement which could establish the fact that only a Sane Patient could make that statement.

“I’m sure if you think about it, you could construct such a statement. Name a statement which could only be uttered by a Sane Patient.”

…

Dr. Tarr and Professor Feather shared a chuckle over that one. Then the professor took a more serious tone. “But have you ever had to remove a Doctor from an asylum?”

“Yes,” said Dr. Tarr sadly, “it has happened. Doctors do go insane once in a while. Recently I had just such a case. As it happened, I was visiting an asylum for the very first time and the first inhabitant I met made a single statement. I immediately had the inhabitant transferred to a special institution for former Doctors.”

“Don’t say it!” exclaimed the professor, “I want to work it out for myself…”

…

“Another time,” continued Dr. Tarr, “I was visiting an asylum which had been placed on probation for irregularities such as Insane Doctors and Sane Patients. I asked an inhabitant ‘Are you a patient’, and she said ‘yes’.”

“What did you do next?” asked Professor Feather. “Did you need to do any more investigating?”

…

“I’m glad you worked that out. Another asylum was on probation and I decided to ask the very same question of the first inhabitant I met. This time, when I asked ‘Are you a patient,’ he replied ‘I believe so…’.” Do you think I knew enough to close the asylum?

Professor Feather thought about this one for a very long time.



I did not find the answers to these, but I think they are put in an interesting format with a storylike sequence (I think many of Smullyan's puzzles are like this, they are based off the same basic problem, each one a more complex variation of the same problem, for a certain section/theme of problems). I think these are quite hard, although in the webpage, the author says that he put "easy" in the title to encourage people to try these puzzles.

T2B22

I find Raymond Smullyan's introduction to logic interesting. In the first part of his book, he puts forth this thought:

My introduction to logic was at the age of six. It happened this way: On April 1, 1925, I was sick in bed with grippe, or flu, or something. In the morning my brother Emile (ten years my senior) came into my bedroom and said: "Well, Raymond, today is April Fool's Day, and I will fool you as youhaveneverbeenfooledbefore!" Iwaitedalldaylongfor him to fool me, but he didn't. Late that night, my mother asked me, "Why don't you go to sleep?" I replied, "I'm waiting for Emile to fool me." My mother turned to Emile and said, "Emile, will you please fool the child!" Emile then turned to me, and the following dialogue ensued:

Emile | So, you expected me to fool you, didn't you?

Raymond | Yes.

Emile | But I didn't, did I?

Raymond | No.

Emile | But you expected me to, didn't you? 

Raymond | Yes.

Emile | So I fooled you, didn't I!

Well, I recall lying in bed long after the lights were turned out wondering whether or not I had really been fooled. On the one hand, if I wasn't fooled, then I did not get what I expected, hence I was fooled. (This was Emile's argument.) But with equal reason it can be said that if I was fooled, then I did get what I expected, so then, in what sense was I fooled. So, was I fooled or wasn't I?

I shall not answer this puzzle now; we shall return to it in one form or another several times in the course of this book. It embodies a subtle principle which shall be one of our major themes. 

I thought the last paragraph was an EXCELLENT point. Also, the way he says it sounds smart :P. Never thought of saying it that way.

T2B21

I've realized that I am really bad at knights and knaves puzzles. 

I don't really like to use the strategy of assuming different situations, I start more from the facts I know, then I use those to figure out the rest of the puzzle. I think it's harder to try a lot of different solutions, but I do know a lot of people who like to do so. 

T2B20

I wonder if a cable pattern can be woven into a hat using a hat loom...?

T2B19

Death. Note. Is. So. Good. I. Love. This. Series.

The whole idea of justice is so DEEP, it's so much more than can be told with just words...

Beautiful.

Deathnote is now officially my favourite manga.

T2B18

This is a really weird riddle: A New York city hairdresser recently said that he would rather cut the hair of three Canadians than that of one New Yorker. Why?

Answer: He would earn three times as much money.

T2B17

Did you know that if you boil an egg first, it'll spin longer?

This was in a riddle, but technically, it's not a riddle, it's trivia, therefore, I am not presenting it as a riddle.

I actually didn't know this before, but it's quite interesting.

Here is the scientific explanation from Planet Science: 

Hard-boiled eggs are solid inside. In the raw egg, the liquid inside the egg slides about and stops the egg from spinning as fast.

When you stop the hard-boiled egg, it stops quickly. When you stop the raw egg, it keeps turning a little bit. You have only stopped the shell, not the liquid inside. The liquid is still moving, which causes the shell to keep turning.

Hard-boiled eggs will spin on their end if you spin them fast enough. The egg saves energy by spinning on its end and making a smaller circle.

T2B16

This excerpt is part of Raymond Smullyan's "What is the Name of this Book?" logic puzzle books. This is not actually a puzzle, it's a joke about mathematicians and physicists: 

2 1 1 . And What About You? _______
Are you of the mathematician or physicist type? Well, there is the following delightful test to tell whether you are a mathematician or physicist.
You are in a country cabin in which there is an unlighted stove, a box of matches, a faucet with cold running water, and an empty pot. How would you get a pot of hot water? Doubtless you will answer, "I would fill the pot with cold water, light the stove, and then put the pot on until the water gets hot," To this I reply: "Good; so far, mathematicians and physicists are in complete agreement. Now, the next problem separates the cases."
In this problem, you are in a country cabin in which there is an unlighted stove, a box of matches, a faucet with cold running water, and a pot filled with cold water. How would you get a pot of hot water? Most people reply, "1 would light the stove and put the pot of cold water on it." I reply: "Then you are a physicist! The mathematician would pour out the water, reducing the case to the preceding prob­ lem, which has already been solved."
We could go a step further and consider the case of a pot of cold water already on a lighted stove. How do we get hot water? The physicist just waits for the water to get hot; the mathematician turns off the stove, dumps out the water, reducing the case to the first problem (or he mightjust turn off the stove, reducing the case to the second problem) . A still more dramatic variation goes as follows: A house is on fire. We have available a hydrant and a dis­ connected hose. How does one put out the fire? Obviously, by first connecting the hose to the hydrant and then squirt­ ing the building. Now, suppose you have a hydrant, a disconnected hose and a house not on fire. How do you put out the fire? The mathematician first sets fire to the house, reducing the problem to the preceding case. 

T2B15

The Elegance of the Hedgehog, by Muriel Barbery.

Beautiful, beautiful book.

Deep.

Philosophical.

Like I said: Beautiful.

I'm only about 3/4 of the way through, and I borrowed it in like Term 1 for English IRP, but it is such a deep books about a hidden concierge and a super intelligent 12 year old girl (who by the way, has decided to suicide on her 13th birthday because she thinks the world is pointless). It's kind of mature subject matter at times, but it is SO. DANG. DEEP. It is just so... complex, it's just awesome.

T2B14

Toy Story 3

Dependence: The actors and director relying upon each other to produce the film as a cohesive whole, I think. Also, they must each do their job as well as they can to make an impressive end.

Independence: I guess that would be the thing where the director (I think it was the director) had to sketch out new characters/toys, I think, or something of that sort, and was waiting to show it to his peers, he was doing it independently (well, maybe he might not have been, considering someone else might have told him to do so, but it seemed independent).

Interdependence: I really liked the Day vs. Night short, because I thought it was interesting how Day and Night always wanted to impress the other with their scenes that happen within them. It always seems like the other person has it better, like the saying, "The grass is greener on the other side." But when they combined to become twilight and become the same, it united them. And they later turned to the other side, which I guess gave them what they wanted....

I really liked the black-and-white sketchy short, where they had a bonding thing to not shave/get a haircut, etc., because I thought that was really interesting and a bit crazy, but I didn't find that it had to do with my dependence/independence/interdependence thoughts.

T2B13

Dependence: Doctor to give me prescription for KCl

Independence: Me asking Ms. Smedley for a note for KCl and doing research and asking the pharmacy and doing all of that stuff before asking the doctor to give me a prescription for KCl

Interdependence: French skit practice time in class today? Like if one person gets distracted by accident (that would be me) the other people depend on this person to get back on track, and this person needs to depend on the other people to bring this person back on track?

T2B12

Dependence: Borrowing beakers from the science lab for science fair. I needed to depend on Ms. Smedley to help me get beakers/sign me out.

Independence: Quote from Ms. Greskiw: "You don't teach a child independence by telling them what to do." We were talking about independence and being prepared, etc. in English today, and that came up.

Interdependence: For this I have absolutely no idea, unless you count French skits, where you have to depend on your partner and they have to depend on you...

T2B11

Dependence: Relying on mother to help with conversions for science

Independence: Figuring out math problems by myself

Interdependence: Relying on Sasha to a. do the assignment, and b. give the paper to me, and also she said I should write down the information on the assignment (science)

T2B10

Dependence: the state of relying on or needing someone or something for aid, support, or the like.

Independence: freedom from the control, influence, support, aid, or the like, of others.

Interdependence: mutually reliant on each other.

For example, today I was dependent on my mother for a ride. I was independent in getting to class. I was interdependent with Erica for editing English essays--she to edit mine, myself to edit hers.

It's really fascinating to stop and think about how much we rely on outside factors. If I am biking home today, I rely on the weather not to rain or snow. If I want to do research today, I have to rely on my Wi-fi working. If I want a note for science, I have to rely on the person giving me the note.

Well, okay, those examples may not exactly be dependence. But anyway, it's sometimes depressing to think about how little we are in control every day. Whether we like it or not, we can't be completely independent. This was a really big concept in MACC, and it was that autonomy is not complete independence, it's knowing when to be independent and when to be dependent--knowing when you can do something by yourself, and asking for help when you need it. Although, I suppose, that is a form of independence in itself.

T2B9

Learning Outcome of completing math linear relations worksheet: To learn and review linear equations, and to provide questions and/or challenging puzzles to deepen your understanding of linear relations, even when given some crazy figures

I understand it pretty well, although they take some time for me to solve, so I'm going to use this opportunity to put in additional questions and ask my parents for help if I need it.

Also, math is fun. :)

T2B8

Learning Outcome of the keyboarding fingers assignment: To learn which fingers type which keys and/or to review it

I realize it is not to regard as an art project, or as a spare-time activity, it's to help you learn/review the keyboarding fingers for when we do them in class. Therefore, I did put effort into it, but I did not overdo it.

T2B7

Learning outcome of field/track day: to have good sportsmanship and learn how to have fun without having to win

Well, then, I TOTALLY fulfilled this learning outcome, because our team came in dead last, but it didn't bother me at all!

Okay, maybe it did a little, but I had fun and I was getting a little sleepy by the end because both my events were really early but still, it was fun. Especially watching the wheelbarrow relay.

T2B6

Learning Outcome of Math Self-Assessment: To think about how we are doing and if we need to improve or continue what we are doing now

Um... that's pretty much all I have to say.

T2B5

I didn't get this at first...

One day Kerry celebrated her birthday. Two days later her older twin brother, Terry, celebrated his birthday. How come?

At the time she went into labor, the mother of the twins was travelling by boat. The older twin, Terry, was born first early on March 1st. The boat then crossed the International Date line (or any time zone line) and Kerry, the younger twin, was born on February the 28th. In a leap year the younger twin celebrates her birthday two days before her older brother. 

This was on the website so I guess I have to acknowledge this: "This puzzle was submitted to Games Magazine's 'How Come' competition in 1992 by Judy Dean. It won."

T2B4

This riddle is from the BrainDen forum, and there aren't even answers yet... But I haven't solved it myself, so I'll keep thinking about this. It's an interesting problem, but kind of vague...

Two bottle of pills must be taken to keep you alive. The two must be taken at the same time.  Forgetting a pill, taking one and not the other, or taking two of the same one will result in your death.  You open the two bottles and pour them both into your hand without thinking.  Three pills fall out on your hand.  Unfortunately the two pills look, feel, and weigh exactly the same.  How do you ensure that you don't take the wrong pill?  

Assume that these pills are super expensive and cannot be discarded.  So throwing the pills away and just picking one pill each is not a viable option.

T2B3

The answer, is that it contains no E's even though E is the most popular letter of the English language!

I stared at this one for AGES and I couldn't figure it out.

Also...

I've found a new riddle website! :)

Brainden.com is a really nice one, because the answer and riddles are corresponding, and it's neater so it's easy to find your way around.

I found this one on the Logic Puzzles page and it is kind of old but fun:

An Arab sheikh tells his two sons to race their camels to a distant city to see who will inherit his fortune. The one whose camel is slower wins. After wandering aimlessly for days, the brothers ask a wise man for guidance. Upon receiving the advice, they jump on the camels and race to the city as fast as they can.
What did the wise man say to them?

It's not too hard. The answer is that the wise man told them to switch camels.

T2B2

This is a really famous riddle, but it is so good but soooo hard (to me at least) so I'll post the answer tomorrow.

This is a most unusual paragraph - and so is its companion paragraph that follows. This writing may annoy you until you find out why it is so unusual, for you won't find a solution instantly. But don't go into a tailspin about it, for it isn't that difficult. But you will admit that it is most unusual. This writing looks so ordinary that you might think that nothing is worng with it. And, in fact, nothing is wrong with it. But it is unusual, and you must ask why. If you study and think about it, you may find out why, but you must do it without any coaching of any kind. No doubt if you work at it for long, it will dawn on you...who knows? So start to study it now, and try your skill at finding out what is so unusual about this writing. If you can do it in half an hour, you may claim an approach to wisdom, but if you can't do it in half an hour...find our solution.

T2B1

(This is so dang smart)

Word play: 

What is it that you ought to keep after you have given it to someone else?

Answer: A promise.

SO. DANG. SMART.

T1B74, 75, 76

I've forgotten to blog the past few days; I think I've forgotten so many things I know have this ridiculously long list of stuff to do from days ago.

Anyway, I learned that today, it is REALLY IMPORTANT to keep your old things. For example, I had a set of books that I thought I'd never read again, but I ended up needing to refer to it for a detail on our Socials project. I usually never throw anything away, but sometimes I will lose things, so this reminds me of how important it is to store my old work carefully so I can always access it later.

T171, 72, 73

(as me) I forgot to blog for the last three days.

(as mum) I think it's really enlightening that the students these days are learning about homelessness. It really teaches you to, for example, not waste food, be grateful for what you have. If you have old clothing, clean it and donate it, because it's getting really cold out there, there was expected snow today.  Also, I saw a short lecture on this today, and it was about money--we should donate to charity now, and help people while we can, because in a few years, maybe we won't have money to donate. Often rich people forget about other situations, he said, and forget to donate. Poor people, however, can remember situations, but may not be able to donate. Therefore, if you are able to donate, donate now, because you may not have it in a few years, and you may end up on the streets. I thought that he had a good point. It's like that saying that often, we don't appreciate something... until it's gone. We are lucky--think of the poor people in the Philippines.

T2B69 and 70

I forgot to blog yesterday.

I learned that sometimes, working with a bad topic but producing a good article might be better than scrambling to find or understand a good topic, but making a bad article. You aren't evaluated on how amazingly smart the topic is, you're evaluated on how well your article is written. If it's written terribly, even a amazingly smart topic will sound dumb.

T1B68

A riddle: 

How many times can you subtract the number 5 from 25?

It's really clever (and evil) wordplay.

The answer is once, because after that you would be subtracting 5 from 20.

It's like the riddle about candy: How many pieces of candy can I eat on an empty stomach? One, because after that your stomach's no longer empty!

T1B67

I woke up this morning, and the first thing I did was to pick my sister up from church. We had lunch at a taiwanese noodle restaurant. After that, we went to Richmond Centre, where we bumped into Michelle. At Richmond Centre, we went to a Wind service provider store, to get my sister's SIM card changed, then to the Apple Shop.

And then I went home and worked on my Socials group project and Science Multi-Genre Project.

T1B66

(as Cindy) I totally forgot to blog yesterday, I played piano from about 8 to 10, so I totally forgot to check my email for an email from Bryan after that... so it is totally my fault that I didn't blog yesterday. 

(as Bryan) In the morning, when I woke up, I set up my new iPhone 5s. I thought the fingerprint login was pretty cool. I chose to do my transit project with my parents today, and we went to Burnaby to Metrotown from our house. We wanted to see the 1:10 showing of Gravity, but we missed it, so we just went shopping. We had lunch at a Japanese ramen restaurant. We went home after that, and I played a bit of Injustice: Gods Among Us on my phone.

T1B65

Today in French class, Ishmam and I did a skit, where I wore a tutu and headband and pretended to be a girl. I think that it was very entertaining to the class, especially when I put on the tutu, and everyone started laughing their heads off. I think we chose our names well, and the pretend kissing bit at the end added humor, and our script wasn't too badly rehearsed either. (In French culture, girls greet each other by kissing on the cheeks, which is why we chose to do it, as an expression of realistic French conversation).

*Empathy Blog #5--Partner--Bryan

T1B64

During science, Ms. Smedley read us an interesting story about the Fraser River and its pollution. We had a model river in a fish tank, and we poured a variety of things into it to create a representation of pollution (according to the story) as the city grew. In English, we learned of a new contest, the A&E, where you write an essay about people who have changed the world in 2013 (one person).

T1B63

My Day 2 schedule starts with PE in the morning.

PE was fun--we finally got to play a full court game! The rules were change, with 6 players playing, and only one person within the key who could score.

Math was as usual; in this lesson particularly, we practiced multiplying and dividing powers/exponents. 

We were supposed to present out skit during French, but unfortunately we didn't get to. We rewatched the Mission Possible video another 2 times (we'd watched it two times last class as well) although this time we were completing the worksheet as well. It was not very interesting.

In Film, we finally got to start filming our scary movie! Yay!

T1B62

Today, we had our Socials World Map Exam. I found that it was quite easy. In science, we learned about living organisms/animals in various ecosystems and we also watched a video on that. In English, we went over the questions for Chapter 1 on Death Note. After school, I walked to Alliance Français and the class went as usual.

T2B61

Today is the first day of the empathy blogs.

Using email is not a very effective way of communication, because if someone doesn't have access to a computer, THEN WHAT?

I didn't call Bryan today because I didn't think I needed to, and we'd already said last week that we'd just chat online and then write our separate blog posts. But then, when I sent an email to Bryan, I think he was offline, and he hasn't replied back yet. I have to go play piano now, so I can't really wait any longer, but I'll come back and check after, but I NEVER want to do this again. I probably should call, because people sometimes aren't able to make it to a computer, because of some emergency ("GAAAHH, NO WIFI!" for example, that ALWAYS happens to me).

*EDIT*

Due to bad communication, Bryan actually did write mine and his blog and it was late, so he didn't send me his debrief. It is posted on his blog right now.

T1B60

Last night the garage was too smoky for me to sleep in, so I slept in the entrance hall, just beside the garage (well, the garage door, anyway). It was colder there because heat rises and our heat was turned off. The ground was really cold at first, but it heated up and it got better after a while. I tried not to roll around too much, but I'm not sure what I did when I slept, although I did know that I woke up three times and each time I was exactly where I was supposed to be. I really wanted to move around but every time I tried to whatever part of my body touched the floor, it froze, so I had to stay in that one position the whole time. In the morning, when I decided it was late enough (like 8ish), I just gave up and went back upstairs.

And also I caught a cold.

I think that homeless people would have a really hard time if they caught a cold. They (mostly) don't have warm chicken soup, emphasis on warm, because among other things, the steam is supposed to help clear your nose. Also, it feels really bad to be outside in cold weather if you have a cold, even though I know you can't catch a cold by being cold. Although I suppose it would be harder for homeless people to catch a cold, if they aren't in contact and aren't inside for most of the winter/flu season... Nevertheless, cold weather just makes it harder to get better if you (by the slightest chance) get infected.

I think that the most important thing for us to knit would be hats. In the wintertime, you lose heat from the top of your head most, because you wear heavy clothes, but you often neglect or don't have a hat. Most homeless people might not think of having a hat, which means that they will be losing heat more from their head. If we knit hats, then more places are protected, which means that the homeless people will be able to keep warm better.

T1B58 and T1B59

Either my computer needs a good bash on the side of the head or I do.

I forgot to publish this yesterday, so here it is:

I forgot to post yesterday, even though I had the whole post written out in my head.

Well anyway, yesterday I was thinking about how I'm always posting about the previous day's experience, so I realized I needed to catch up one day.

The day before yesterday, I slept on the carpet in my room, but my mother told me I would freeze if I slept in clothes that I wore, so I basically lay down on the carpet and she piled mounds and mounds of clothing on me.

It worked better than tying up the sleeves of my parka.

Then, yesterday, I didn't move to a different place because I was thinking about the Weeping Angels Doctor Who episode Mr. Sale showed us on Wednesday, and after a while I just got scared and went upstairs to sleep. Today I have not slept yet, but I can PLAN how I will sleep (Ha! so I can catch up!) I will TRY to sleep in the garage, but I need to air it out today because there are exhaust fumes in it and that will clog up my throat, but undoubtedly I will get scared again or cold or something and go upstairs again.

I've actually been taking it better than usual this time, normally I would end up pulling at least a week of all-nighters because I was scared to go to sleep. Heh. Heh. I was tired these few days so it didn't work. A few of my FRIENDS, however, were tired and sore because they were scared to go to sleep and the ground was hard. Obviously, that meant I got to gloat that for once I wasn't the most scared one. I get to say, HA, IN YOUR FACE, but obviously in a nice way, although I do have enough EBA deposits (I hope) that I get to tease my friends. :)

For food, my mother didn't want to cook, and I would have cooked except my mother was scared of my food not being edible, so we ate out. But I begged my aunt for money so she paid. (last night)

Two nights ago, I still ate canned soup because I was thinking (and so were some of my friends who were spectators to the homelessness project) that a. I would not know where food banks were and b. it would not be really right to take food from people who did need them, as Mr. Olson said. I think it would take a reasonably long time for donated food to actually reach homeless people, so I once again ate canned food (cold, because homeless people generally don't have the means to cook food... I think...)

My mom won't let me sleep with the windows open, not because I'll catch a cold, but because in my room, the window is right above my head, and if its open, it means I'll have cold air blasting my head all the time, which means in the morning I'll wake up with a headache.

Which obviously is bad for academic reasons, so my mom won't let me sleep with the window open.

This is a really long blog post but I have something else to say...

I really feel sorry for the homeless people in winter. Because they have to carry all their clothes around, and wear all they have when it gets cold during winter nights, and also they don't have hot food either, unless they go to a church or a homeless shelter. Even if they get food from the food bank, they have no way of cooking it, which means they must eat it cold. Often in the winter, I find that if you are really cold, entering into a hot building, putting on an extra layer of clothes, even drinking hot water from a thermos right after coming back from the snowy outside, really warms you up. However, homeless people don't have any of that, which means it's really hard for them to warm up. Often in the winter, I used to hate sleeping, because I wanted to read, but now, as I'm getting older, sometimes I am just so exhausted the only thing I want to do is flop on to my warm cushy bed and sleep it all away. Homeless people must feel like that every day, pulled out, tired, yet they don't have a warm cushy bed to collapse into. It must feel like one long grind of sticking it out, trying to beat the cold, waiting for something better to happen and constantly telling themselves, "It'll be over soon. Just stick out this one last day. Survive through the night, the day, the night, the day, waiting for..." What? What are they waiting for? For someone to help them? For a day when they will have a warm cushy bed again? This is why we must help homeless people. For them, their home is the streets. For them, the cold is warm. For them, we must create better situations, because no one deserves to be pushed all the time, pressured all the time. Everyone deserves a break in life. It's up to us to give that to homeless people.

At the beginning of the project, I felt like, what am I going to do? How am I going to get through this week? It was to tell myself that there was a reward at the end. All I had to do was stick it out until Sunday, and everything would go back to normal. But homeless people don't have that. They don't have the Sunday in their lives, the day where everything would go back to normal and they wouldn't have to be strung so tight. It's like the weekdays--when I feel overwhelmed with homework, I say, only x more days until the weekend. Keep going. But for homeless people, THERE IS NO WEEKEND. They have to keep going, day after day, suffering hardships just to STAY ALIVE. Do we want that life? What will happen if the day comes where we lose everything we have and we have to become homeless? Will we feel resentment toward those that walk by, day after day, and yet do nothing to help? Those who have thousands of dollars in income every year, and yet cringe to spare a penny on those who truly need it? Will it take that for us to realize what homeless people feel, how selfish we were when we had what the homeless need? Or can we take action now, to create a better society?

T1B57

I didn't have time to go to the food bank yesterday, so I made a mock food bank and ate canned food.

Last night it was really warm in the sleeping bag, and I only slept in my pajamas.

The no hygiene thing really bugged me last night, and then I realized how it must be for homeless people. It feels really weird not to brush your teeth at night, especially because I ate candy yesterday, so then I thought what homeless people must feel like because they won't have access to a sink and a place to brush their teeth (most of the time). I did brush my teeth/wash my face/etc. in the morning, though, because I have school... so I can't have no hygiene for four days straight... so I'm doing everything hygiene-related in the morning...

T1B56

OOHHHH... For some reason I typed this post up yesterday but I forgot to publish it.

DANG.

Okay, well, here's the post, just underneath... which is why T1B56 was written yesterday and published today...

I lied when I said my house has good insulation.

I found out yesterday that if you don't have a blanket, no amount of insulation will actually do you any good.

I mean, if there's no heat in the house, there will be no heat to be preserved! Light gives you heat, and so does body heat, if you're moving, if there's heat, etc. So when there's no heat to circulate, guess what? You get cold!

T1B55

Since we haven't officially started the project yet, there's not really much to blog about, and I don't think there will be until tomorrow. I was thinking about how I'm going to sleep tonight, and it's really very simple.

Obviously, I'm going to have to take off the pillow, blankets, etc. After that I'm going to put on my big heavy white parka (on top of a hoodie) and tie the arms shut. Why? Because if I tie them shut, they'll preserve heat. If I tuck my arms inside the body of the parka, I'll remain warm.

Simple.

And then I'll wake up in the morning, take off the parka, and I won't catch a cold.

T1B54

I don't really get Night 5 & 6 (for the homelessness project). By begging, are we supposed to beg food or beg money to beg money to get food? Or does that mean go to a shelter for food? What counts as "begging"?

And do we have to take photos to record?

T1B53

Apparently the saying, "a riddle wrapped up in a mystery inside an enigma" is by Winston Churchill.

The usage in speech was, "I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma: but perhaps there is a key. That key is Russian national interest."

I was going to search for "a riddle" but then I found this cool phrase so I searched it, and it told me that it was a quote... by Churchill! So I'm putting it on my blog because I think it's interesting and it's an interesting coincidence as well.

T1B52

BLEEEUUUGGGHHH THERE'S NOTHING TO BLOG ABOUT

Okay riddle from dailybrainteaser.blogspot.ca:

Sherlock breaks into a crime scene. The victim is the owner who is slumped dead on a chair and have a bullet hole in his head. A gun lies on the floor and a cassette recorder is found on the table. On pressing the play button, Sherlock hears the message 'I have committed sins in my life and now I offer my soul to the great lord....following a gunshot. 

Sherlock smiles Of-course its a murder. 

Why did he think so?

SOO GOOD although this was pretty obvious to me. 

(Answer: [although I got that he couldn't stop the tape]: How can a dead person rewind back the tape himself ?)

Although LOOPHOLE ALERT! Duh, maybe he didn't die immediately, maybe he died AFTER rewinding the tape. Although I don't know if it's possible for him not to die immediately after a bullet to the head...

I've used although like.... 3 times in this blog post....

T1B51

I realized that to be productive its better to finish one thing, all together, instead of jumping back and forth between different things. If you do one thing and then go do another before the first one is finished, then when you go back to the first one you've lost your train of thought and then you have to spend more time re-doing it. It's like this with piano, like I'll start something that I don't really want to, then I'll go to an easier one, then I'll feel guilty and go back, and I'll have to rethink the whole song again, and then I'll get bored again, and so on and so forth. I sometimes take a really long time to play piano because I'm not focused, and I'll play a song like 6 times separately but not count them, and then I'll have to go back and play it 6 more times because my teacher wanted me to play that song 6 times. It gets really annoying/frustrating at times. But if I do one song/book at a time, I get done really quickly because then I can COUNT the times I play instead of doubling my workload.

It's like this sometimes with homework too, like for the short story for English, sometimes I write a bit then I get off track in my writing, so I save the thing as one draft, do something else, and then I'll go back to English and start all over again because I didn't like my first draft. I'm trying out a few different ideas, and I will go with the one I like most, but skipping around sometimes helps in English, and sometimes doesn't (obviously this draft of the same idea is NOT A GOOD TIME).

Grrr. Well, at least if I get the little-r homework done I'll be all HA, IN YOUR FACE to whoever doubts my work (mwahahahaha) and I'll have motivation for my harder homework. :)

T1B50

I'm posting a quote from one of my favourite series today.

"When they ran up to him, Percy said, "Hey," like they were just meeting for lunch or something. "You're alive!" Frank marveled. Percy frowned. "That fall? That was nothing. I feel twice that far from the St. Louis Arch." "You did what?""

-Percy, Frank, and Hazel, The Son of Neptune

There's a funnier one somewhere but I can't find it... I'll try and post it tomorrow :) (because I am really that boring and I must force upon you quotes from my favourite books MWAHAHAHAHA)

T1B48 and B49

A riddle that has fascinated me for a long, long time:

A town has 2 barbershops (and ONLY 2 barbershops), one on the west side, and one on the east. The one on the east end is incredibly messy, and the barber has terrible hair. The one on the west side has a clean and shiny shop, and the barber has neat hair. Now if you were visiting this town and wanted a haircut, which barber should you go to and why?

This is reverse psychology: you should go to the one on the east side. "Why?" you might ask. "His shop is messy, and he himself has terrible hair!"

Well, since the town has only 2 barbershops, that means that one barber has to cut the hair of the other, because obviously you can't cut your own hair. That means that the person with the neater hair had his hair cut by the other barber, and the barber with the messy hair (the east one) had to get his hair cut by the west barber. That means that the east barber has better cutting skills, judging by the hair he cut for the west barber. His shop is messy because many people come to get their hair cut by him. The west barber, on the other hand, has nice hair (cut by the east barber) and cut the east barber's hair for him, which is terrible, and his shop is clean because no one ever comes in it.

I know there are a lot of loopholes in this riddle, such as the fact that not everyone gets their hair cut by a barber and many mothers do excellent hair, and also that a shop can be cleaned, etc. BUT I DIDN'T MAKE UP THIS RIDDLE! :)

It's an excellent riddle, though, this is one of my favourites.

T1B47

Random fact from I don't know where: Apples keep you more awake and caffeine in the morning.

Good to know. My mother needs at least 1 cup of coffee a day to stay awake. Although I don't like regular coffee, and I don't drink it to stay alert, I like ice coffee because I like coffee and I like sweet stuff. Regular coffee smells nicer but tastes not as good :D.

People say you shouldn't drink coffee because it stunts your growth, so I'll just wait until I'm like 20 and be like, HA, I'm not growing anymore so I can drink coffee.

T1B46

Because Venus rotates very slowly on its axis (taking 243 days to make a complete rotation), a day on Venus is longer than its year.

From http://facts.randomhistory.com

Wouldn't it be cool to live on Venus? You'd be all, YEP, THIS DAY IS DEFINITELY LONG ENOUGH FOR ME. :D I GOT LOTS OF TIME... LOTS OF TIME... LOTS OF TIME...

T1B45

39. If you have 3 quarters, 4 dimes, and 4 pennies, you have $1.19. You also have the largest amount of money in coins without being able to make change for a dollar. 

The closest you can go is 99¢ with 3 quarters, 2 dimes, and 4 pennies. :P

T1B44

184. There is a McDonalds in Sedona, Arizona that has turquoise M (arches). They chose turquoise because the thought the yellow would clash with the landscape. It is the only turquoise McDonald's arch in the world. 

I like turquoise. I wish ALL the McDonalds in the world had turquoise arches! It would look so much prettier than the yellow ones! It would be like an M-shaped sea of perfect harmony! (I just made that one up :P)

Anyway, I am thinking about the Park-a-Park, and I forgot to mention this from like a week ago...

My PE class passes by the Park-a-Park sometimes, like we did for the two big runs, and I noticed that since most of the time it's rainy now, it was actually pretty much deserted (also it was during class time) but I think that they actually added, like, stairs and something else to it, I can't quite put my finger on what. It's actually really pretty, the seats and pots and things are really neat. I think that the Park-a-Park might do better in a public space, like outside the VPL Central Branch, because there is a general air of calmness and that you could actually observe there. Also, the people flow is better; I for one don't go outside to eat lunch or at lunchtime, so I don't think many people would see it at the school. I think, however, that during events like Clubs Day, where the big garage doors from the cafeteria are open, that would be more noticeable.

T1B43

66. Studies show that if a cat falls off the seventh floor of a building, it has about thirty percent less chance of surviving than a cat that falls off the twentieth floor. It supposedly takes about eight floors for the cat to realise what is occurring, relax and correct itself. 

Cats are supposed to be able to always landon their feet, but I totally didn't know that it takes 8 floors for them to realize that!

T1B42

I'm getting a bit tired of salmon facts... (I wander really easily)... so let's do a random fact! (Notice how I like random everything?)

# 45 on a really cool random facts page I found on goodreads:

45. On average, people swallow 1.5 liters of urine when swimming in a public pool. 

I'm never going swimming again.

T1B41

When we were at the salmon run my dad and I both wondered why there were so many obstacles for the fish to cross. There was a mini waterfall at every other bend, and at the other ones there were bigger waterfalls. My dad said it might have been because they only wanted the stronger salmon to make it all the way, so the next generation of salmon were also strong. I think he was right, although I don't know if salmon genes get passed on in their offspring. 

Okay, I've just searched it up. Yes, they DO get passed on. Apparently in Norwegian rivers, the farmed salmon have been escaping and spawning with the wild salmon that could cause weakened salmon populations. There can be all sorts of problems caused by farmed salmon interbreeding with wild salmon such as less genetic variety, etc.

I don't really understand it all.

Also, this article was published I don't know when, so it could be pretty old.

It's still totally relevant and interesting though, because I think that by producing such a complicated course for salmon to swim through, they may be encouraging not just strength, but also they kill a LOT of salmon throughout this process, because if they are tired and can't swim anymore, they just dwindle there and the people at the farm just throw them away when they're dead. Which is really sad, and seems like it could have a negative effect somehow on salmon population/traits.

T1B40

My dad was wondering why some of the salmon we saw were so vividly red. I thought it was because of spawning.

HAHA! I WAS RIGHT!

Apparently, salmon turn pink during spawning season to indicate to their potential mates that they are of the same species and ready to spawn.

I actually totally didn't know that, I guessed randomly because a lot of species change when it is mating season. 

Also, salmon turn whitish when they die, which is kind of sad, but I saw a whole bunch of dead salmon at the sides of the rivers, and this one person who I think worked there was just picking them out and I was like HOW IS THAT FAIR, that so many salmon die and the strong ones get to spawn and everybody else just stays all sad and lonely and might possibly die because they jumped over the wrong side of the river, ran out of air, and didn't have enough oxygen to make it back.

POOR SALMON THAT DON'T MAKE IT ALL THE WAY...

And I might also mention that during my entire time at watching, I didn't see one single salmon (okay I saw one) make it all the way up to the biggest and last waterfall. :( I saw a whole bunch thrashing when they started slipping and some of the slipped and some of them didn't. During the very first bit when I think the salmon are tested first, there are 5 barriers in a row, and I saw some of the salmon leaping those successfully. I caught a few good pictures of them leaping like ACTUALLY IN MIDAIR, like you see on those salmon watching brochures, except mine are kind of blurry and aren't as bright and attractive looking.

T1B39

I saw the salmon run today at Weaver Creek, and that place a bit underneath it though I don't know what that bit was called, and it was so dang far away. The salmon were selected by people who worked in the place, and a ratio of about 3 males to 2 females is consistent. Only the salmon allowed passage into their facilities spawned there, others were either put back in the holding tank or released to spawn naturally. We watched the salmon climbing up the winding thing that mildly resembled a shallow curving river, and there were dying salmon all along the way, too tired to continue swimming, but there were many that did make it to the final mini waterfall. I'll post more on the trip later, because my brain is just BURSTING with facts, but I'll try to keep this short and sweet so it doesn't get boring (although I personally really like the salmon life cycle now that I've learned a little about it).

T1B37 & B38

ITS OUT ITS OUT ITS OUT!!!

AND I GOT IT I GOT IT I GOT IT!!!

FOUR DAYS LATER BUT I GOT IT!!!

THE HOUSE OF HADES!!!

CELEBRATION~

T1B35 and B36

I forgot to blog yesterday.

Riddle of the day from Riddle.com:

Something very extraordinary happened on the 6th of May, 1978, at 12:34 am. What was it?

The answer:

At that moment, the time and day could be written as 12:34, 5/6/78.

It's easy, but its fun :).

T1B34

OH MY GOD THE HOUSE OF HADES IS OUT TODAY THE HOUSE OF HADES IS OUT TODAY THE HOUSE OF HADES IS OUT TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

~HAPPY DAY ~HAPPY DAY ~HAPPY DAY

I've been waiting since LAST October for the House of Hades to come out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

*EXCITEMENT*

I JUST LOVE THE HEROES OF OLYMPUS SERIES!!!!!!

THEY ARE MY ABSOLUTE FAVOURITE BOOKS, RIGHT UP THERE WITH HARRY POTTER!!!

PLUS THEY ARE MYTHOLOGY BOOKS!!!!!

ALL OF RICK RIORDAN'S MYTHOLOGY BOOKS ARE AMAZING!!!!!!!

PLUS I LOVE GREEK AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY!!!!

AND EGYPTIAN!!!!!

AND NORSE, ONCE RICK RIORDAN STARTS WRITING ABOUT THOSE TOO!!!!!!

AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D

Sorry. Rant of excitement over.

T1B33

Awesome riddle I found on Yahoo Answers (not mine): There are people trapped on an island with no mirrors or anything to see their own reflections. They have no way to communicate with eachother except they can all understand the leader who rarely speaks. 100 of them have brown eyes, 100 have blue eyes, and the leader has green eyes. In order to escape the island, a person has to figure out his own eye color (This person cannot use communication or reflection to do it) and leaves the island that night. Everyone knows everybody else's eye color but don't know their own (for all they know, there could be 99 people with brown eyes and 101 with blue). Keep in mind, they all think alike and are perfect logicians. One day, the leader says "I can see someone with brown eyes". How many people leave the island? (Hint: on what night did they leave the island?) 

It's math.

The answer? Here it is: 100 brown eyed people leave on the hundredth night. Think of it logically. If there was 1 brown eyed, 1 blue eyed, and 1 green eyed with the same question, the brown eyed person would immediately leave on the first night because he knows he is the only possibility. If there was 2 brown and 2 blue, they would wait one night, and then one brown eyed guy would realize that the other one didnt leave and realize he has brown eyes because thats the only reason the other guy didnt leave. So two leave on the second night. If there was 3 and 3, they would leave on the third night. This can go on up until 100. 

I just found this and I thought it was really interesting, so I posted it.