Thanksgiving & Freeman Dyson

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving at a friend’s house. We brought hors d’œuvres, and we did a huge amount. We did deviled eggs, vegetable patee, etc. The food was wonderful, but it was pretty uneventful.

Our school gives out tickets to lectures for free. Oh, and then they give you extra credit for going.  So, I went to this Freeman Dyson lecture. He talked about two main things: Nuclear weapons and biotechnology.

What he said about nuclear weapons was much better than what he said about biotech. He said that since nuclear weapons are SO useless militarily, you are actually safer getting rid of your own nuclear weapons and let you adversaries keep theirs, because the chance that they would be used is less than the chance of an accident or leak. I found this amazing. This was the same case with biological weapons, and that’s why our military does not use them.

Do you know the #1. person who has rid the world of nuclear weapons? George Bush Sr. You wouldn’t think so.

What he said about biotech was not good. He said that it would be ‘domesticated’ like computers. Computers used to be as big as a room, horrifyingly expensive, and as slow as a snail. The people building the first computer in the US thought that there would be a demand for 18 computers in the US. Then they got smaller, cheaper, and faster, and now most families can afford one or even two or three.

He thinks that is going to happen with biotech. He had no specifics except “kits” where you grow your own plants and animals.

“An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.”

Mahatma Ghandi

Al Gore and Mushrooms

I’ve gone to two lectures recently, one from Al Gore and one on mycology, or the study of  fungi. I will go into Al Gore first and then mycology.

Al Gore’s lecture was definitely very enlightening on climate change.  He said basically that we have all the necessaries to turn this around, and could probably turn around 3 more with our current resources. The only problem, he said, was political will. This made my view of climate change much more optimistic, as I have always heard that it is irreversible and that we will die by flooding, and I dare say that this was much more pessimistic than Al Gore was. Another thing was that Portland is more liberal than Al Gore. Apparently, there were protesters saying that Al Gore was not doing enough. Wow. We  really are REALLY liberal here.

Mycology. I don’t even know that much about mushrooms, and I am SURE that there was WAY more knowledge about mushrooms then I absorbed, but I will tell you as much as possible. The typical sentence was something along the lines of  ”The Ickaflora Ramaria has green stems with a white body. The spore size is 10-12 microns, and reacts with a magenta when exposed to carbon monoxide”. It was, to say in other words, a very technical speech.

Quote of the Post:

“And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.”

–John F. Kennedy

Academics So Far

Welcome to Tycho’s Blog. Today, the amazing (and somewhat bored, as we will see) Tycho tells us of Cleveland High School, the high school he attends in Portland.

So. I have some REALLY AWESOME teachers, and some teachers who are a little harder to understand.

My Geometry teacher is Mr. ——-. Let’s just say I find it a little bit of a challenge to learn from him, as he does not explain things well.

My Choir teacher is very good, though it is hard to see as he is the first choir teacher I have ever met, so I have no comparison.

Study Hall. Well, this is what happened.  I got switched out of PE because of my Osgood Schlatter’s. I had wanted to take French, but the only French available was French I, and that would be as good as Study Hall.

English is really good, though some assignments are a little strange. All in all, it is good, though we just spent more than a quarter on one book, which was depressing. It’s called Warrior’s Don’t Cry , by Melba Patillo Beals. It’s about integration into a high school in 1957. To think of it, all the book we are going to read are really depressing.l This , and Romeo & Juliet, and others I read the reviews of.

Lunch is lunch. On Wednesdays, I go to French Club, where I earn extra credit for a class (Guess which one?) I don’t even have. We play regular board games (Scrabble, Monopoly, Pictionary, etc.)  in French. It’s pretty fun.

Biology. This is the class where I learn the most. I can tell you definitively why I learn the most in this class. It’s because before, I did not know any science at all. I could tell you that a cell is what makes a living thing, and that was about it. Ignorance makes room for great learning capability. I also find it so fascinating that you can read about these nuclei, the nucleoli, and then actually find it. That’s just so cool!

World History. This is the most entertaining class. My teacher is Mr. Nims, and he is hilarious. I actually do learn a lot. We just learned about Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and we are no learning about the most complicated one yet, Hinduism.

And then Spanish. It’s a little boring as it is somewhat below my level, but that’s how the cookie crumbles (Where does that phrase come from? I don’t know about you, but I don’t just crumble cookies for no reason). I am learning some new vocabulary, and it is a nice class at the end of the day.

 

One thing I did not tell that you probably don’t care about: We are grouped into Academies. Each “Academy” has three similiar teachers who are for everyone in the Academy. For example, all the people in my academy have the same Biology teacher as I do.

 

I am going to start a tradition. After each post, I am going to write a quote that I like. So hear my all-time favorite quote:

“Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either, but right through every human heart, and through all human hearts.”

Alexander Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago

 

Daily Life

Hello. My daily life is so interesting and so boring, at the same time. It really is quite amazing. I will keep my academic life for a different post, but I will tell my general overview.

I  go to school. I have (as classes):

Geometry

Choir

Study Hall (Wasn’t my choice, it was instead of PE because of my injury)

English

LUNCH

Biology

History

Spanish 3-4

In that order.  I will tell you more about that later. Anyway, after school (at 3:15) I get on a bus to get me to a bus to get me to a train to get me to a bus to get me to fencing! It gives me time to do my homework.

Finally I get to fencing. I have Pre-comp (The slang for pre–competitive class) class and then, on Wednesdays and Fridays, I have a lesson. Then, I go to the house, sleep, and do it all over again.

Next time on Tycho’s Blog : Tycho tells us of his amazing adventures in Cleveland High School.

Tycho Toothaker

Summary of Fencing

Well, my imaginary readers, I know I have not been writing. Sorry. Basically, I have been so busy with school. Usually, I get home at 3:50, do part of my homework, then go to Skidmore Fountain to pick up the MAX which goes out to the fencing center. I get back around nine, do more homework, go to bed. So, I’ve been busy.

The first day of fencing was fine. We worked on footwork, of course. Just had to be footwork, with me and my knee coming back into fencing, the FIRST day of fencing. Boohoo, poor me.

Tycho the Whiner

First Day of School/Fencing

I had my first day at Cleveland High School AND fencing today. Whew. Well, here’s school.

First day of school was all about school policy. Come in on time, bring these materials, TURN OFF YOUR CELLPHONE. That was the biggest message sent by the teachers the first day of school. I don’t blame them. They obviously have had this problem before. Anyway, the first day was school policy.

I’ll write more later (on the weekend) but right now I am TIRED!

Tycho

Crater Lake and Coast

Hello again. So, I then we went to Crater Lake National Park. It was a volcano that blew it’s top off. The the magma chamber was empty, and there was this big mountain being supported by nothingness and it fell in on itself. Then 2 trillion gallons of water gathered in it in 700 years.

Some cool facts about Crater Lake:

You could fit the Eiffel Tower, the Washington monument, and the Statue of Liberty stacked on top of each other in the water and this international monument stacking would not touch the surface.

It is the purest lake in the world. (The most amazing thing about it is it’s blue. You just can’t capture on camera. You have to go there. But believe me, it’s REALLY BLUE)

It is the seventh deepest lake in the world.

Crater Lake was REALLY FUN. We stayed in the Park overnight. We also got to take a boat tour on the lake, and that was the best part (It’s also, incidentally, where I got all those cool facts).

The next post will be on the Coast, what we did, and the drive home.

Tycho

Life as I Know it

My life is quite boring right now. We just got back from two great trips, one to the Four Corners, and one to Crater Lake and along the coast of Oregon. Now, life has calmed down.

If you hadn’t heard, (which I bet you haven’t, as how would you have?) I went on a trip to the Four Corners for around two weeks. We DROVE. IN A CAR. WITH FIVE PEOPLE TOTAL, OH, AND DON’T FORGET THE DOG! It was weird. We had Adam (Josh’s friend), Josh, Thibaud, Mom, and me, all in the car. With Kelli. It went better than I thought it would. We were all sane at the end.

Eric and Dad got to fly. They were so lucky.

We stayed there at Grandma’s house for two weeks. We did agricultural labor, mostly. We also took horseback riding lessons. That was hard. You’ve gotta remember everything, how to get on, how to get off, all the commands, how to sit on the horse, how to stand on the horse, etc. All in all, grandma’s house was fun, but hot and sweaty too.

Thibaud flew back early, so that he could catch his flight. Then we drove back to Portland. It was not so bad this time because I had the front seat the whole way, and no one had to sit in the middle.

Next Post: Crater Lake and Coast.

Tycho The Tired

Arrival of Thibaud and Other Happenings

Hello. Yes, I know haven’t been blogging. Nothing interesting  at all has happened lately.

Ok, well, two mildly important things have happened. I got to go to the Saturday Market. That’s always fun. There’s so many stands. I had pizza for lunch. That was good.

Also, here, in Portland, July 17 through 19, there will be the Sand in the City event. It’s where they put 450 tons of sand into Pioneer Square  (it’s a big square in downtown. Look it up if you want to see it) and they have a sand sculpting competition. People make very detailed sculptures out of sand.  I can’t get them to go on my blog, but search under ‘Sand in the City’ under images. That’ll get you some of them. So I plan to go to that.

Also, Thibaud, the French kid, is coming Tuesday. We’re gonna do some stuff here and then drive down the Oregon trail to Grandma’s house with a bunch of people. Mom, Dad, Josh, Eric, Adam (Josh’s friend), Thibaud, and me. Obviously, Eric & Dad are flying as there is not that much room in the prius.

So, if any of you speak French (Which I know that at least one of  you does, and probably more),

Nous sommes ravis que Thibaud vient. C’est tres amusant quand il est ici, et il est tres bien avec mes freres.

Au revoir,

Tycho

Algebra Empowerment

So, as most of you know, I am doing algebra I over the summer. It’s… about as interesting as math can be (to me, of course.). The math is just right, I’m learnin’  a lot.

One thing weird is that algebra makes me feel like a god, and I’ll tell ya why. I can do ANYTHING I WANT to both sides of the equation. There are infinite possibilities. Multiply everything by 1,284? Sure, no problem. Now, whether I want to or not is a different matter entirely. But, really. I have infinite power. Now, I have to do it to both sides of the equation, but that is the one limit on my power.

That’s why algebra makes me feel like a god.

Tycho the God of Algebra