Asher’s Opinons on C A R S

[UPDATED] [UPDATED] [UPDATED]

You might see the title of this post and think that I have already made a blog about this, and you’d be right, but the original project I wrote about wasn’t quite finished.

About a month ago, an artist named Peg Gignoux (https://gignouxart.com/) came to our school to help us with our Perfect Planet projects. Specifically, turning our paragraphs into pysical pop-up books. We used plants to make collages and silhouettes in our book backgrounds, painted backgrounds, and put our books together so they would pop out and have a “portal effect.” Doing this project was very fun and I hope Peg Gignoux comes back to our school soon.

(For anyone wondering, this was the last part of the project)

 

 

 

Around a month ago, My school had the pleasure of seeing a play of the Monkey’s Paw from Chamber Theater Production. I thought that it was a very effective performance that got the story of the Monkey’s Paw (by W.W. Jacobs) across in a fun and expressive way.

synopsis (no spoilers)

In the Monkey’s Paw, a friend of a family has a cursed paw that gives people three wishes – which will be granted – to anyone, with some horrible cost. Although the friend hesitates to give the paw to the family, the family manage to get their hands on the paw. Will they get want they want from the paw? will the consequences be to extreme?

The play itself

Chamber theater productions did a great job at making the story “come to life.” Literally. The costumes go with the characters well and the props and background was fantastic.

In my LA class, we usually read a book in class, and then do a project about it. This project was definitely on the weirder side of things we’ve done in LA, but it was also very fun. About a month ago, we started reading an excellent book by Ellen Raskin called the Westing Game. this book is a Cozy mystery, meaning it is like a murder mystery, but without the gory details. One of the characters, Turtle Wexler is interested in gaining money in the stock market, and believes that some of the clues found in the book are the codes for companies to invest in. Our project was about doing what Turtle would’ve done, and investing in stocks and earning some money. We also got to make our own totally real Investment companies!

Before we continue, I would like to say that we never actually invested real money in our class project. 

Although it’s sometimes a better option to buy stocks while they’re down, I decided to buy all stocks that looked like they were at a steady increase in the past month. These stocks included:

1. BRK-B, Berkshire Hathaway

2. SBUX, Starbucks

3.GE, General Electric

4.LULU, Lululemon

5. PANW, Palo Alto Network

6.HD, Home Depot

Although I am not an expert in stocks, and this stategy probably isn’t the best, it has made me totally real and definently not fake 35 dollars and 60 cents as of 5/11/23, and I predict will do better in the coming months.

However, this would be hard to keep track of without a spreadsheet, so we made a spreadsheet! Although not many people use spreadsheets now, they still can be useful and fun, and are big helpers with stocks, or really anything that has to do with money. Making a formula in the spreadsheet was slightly tricky, and reminded me of coding, but it was fun and it made keeping track of our stocks easy.

In my LA class, we read this book called The Last Cuentista by Donna barba Higuera, and one of the most important things in the book was the Cuentos. Cuentos are Stories that are passed down and modified. We were told to make our own Cuento based off of a story from a parent/grandparent, and then modify them. I decided to post a story that was a little sillier than usual, so I hope you like it, and comment your thoughts.

Here’s what I came up with:

Chaquavian, a news worker interviews king Bingusi about how he plans to buy 100 tons of McNuggets for the town of New Jaundale. (and himself) But the CEO of the McNuggets corporation, Wraggogus jr, is sitting by the interview taking notes on the McNuggets the king Bingusi wants, and he faints from discovering he wasn’t verified on Twitter, and has to go to the hospital. So Chaquavian decides to take Wraggogus jr. to the hospital in his Peel Trident, and Wraggogus survives. When Chaquavian gets back, King Bingusi decides to tell him the details of the order so he can take the order instead. After sending the E-mail to the McNuggets Corporation, King Bingusi pays $1000,000. Finally, Chaquavian goes back to his job as an interviewer and Wraggogus Jr. now makes sure that he is verified.

 

I am aware that the McNuggets Corporation doesn’t exist, and that 1000,000 isn’t a number. This is just for comedy.

 

And for those of you that don’t know, this is what a Peel Trident looks like…

 

Most people say that when the jet engine came into existence, it was a revelation. That the first jets were a huge leap in technology compared to prop planes, and that jets were invented near the end of WW2 by the Germans…

…but they couldn’t be further from the truth.

First, Jet engines weren’t really german. They were invented by a British engineer, Frank Whittle in 1928. And second, this wasn’t a big revelation. The designed proved to be to slow for a normal, useful airplane and would need fixing. For example, the Heinkel He 178, the first jet-powered plane, wasn’t any faster than a normal prop plane, and it was incredibly fragile, and not suited for proper use, while using to much fuel. The German air ministry, or… uhh… Reichsluftfahrtministerium, didn’t see that much potential in the design, but the Treaty of Versailles prevented Germany from advancing prop plane technology, and didn’t state anything about jet planes. (Although Germany kind of ignored the treaty) I should also mention that the UK and USA tried to make their own designs, but they too were underpowered, and didn’t seem to be an advance in technology worth investing in compared to the prop planes of the time.

Despite all of this, it was possible that jet technology just needed some more development, and would eventually be effective, and the ME-262 proved that. Because by the 1940s, engines like the Junkers Jumo 004 were powerful enough to be effective, and propel german planes faster than the fastest prop planes. After that, jet technology, and attention started to take off (pun intended) and by the start of the Korean War,  jets were the new standard, and were finally powerful enough to be superior to prop planes. America had the P-80, Sweden had the J-21R, the Soviet union had the MiG-9 and Yak-15, England had the De Haviland Vampire, and many more.

After that, there were new advances in jet technology like afterburners, bypass systems, thrust vectoring, and ramjet technology that allowed for greater efficiency at high speed, and more power.

And now we have today, where jets are the new benchmark and have allowed planes to travel much faster, and smoother.

LA CIUDAD DE DURHAM

¡Hola! Me llamo Asher. Yo tengo 12 años y yo soy de Durham. Me gustan los carros y la limonada. Voy a hablar sobre algunos lugares en Durham.

 

Primero, en Durham tú puedes visitar el Museo de Arte Nasher. En el Museo de Arte Nasher, tú puedes ver obras de arte, aprender sobre arte, beber café, y comprar recuerdos. ¿Te gusta ver obras de arte? ¿Cuál es tu museo favorito?

 

Segundo, en Durham tú puedes visitar el estadio de béisbol de Los Toros de Durham. En el Estadio de Béisbol de Los Toros de Durham, tú puedes ver personas que juegan béisbol, comprar comida en el restaurante, comprar recuerdos en la tienda, y hablar con amigos. ¿Te gusta comprar recuerdos? ¿Cuál es tu estadio favorito?

 

Tercero, en Durham tú puedes visitar el Parque Estatal Eno River. En el Parque Estatal Eno River, tú puedes caminar, correr, no hacer nada, y ver un río. ¿Te gusta correr? ¿Te encanta correr?

 

Cuarto, en Durham Tú puedes visitar el museo de La Vida y La Ciencia. En el museo de la Vida y la Ciencia, tú puedes aprender sobre la vida y ciencias, observar vida, observar ciencias, y comprar recuerdos. ¿Te gustan las ciencias? ¿Cuál es tu museo favorito?

 

Finalmente, en Durham hay museos, edificios modernos, estadios, casas, jardines grandes, y está lleno de calles, carros y personas. En mi opinión, Durham es una ciudad moderna, turística, ruidosa, y bonita. 

 

¡Adiós!

PROLOGUE

In my art class, me and my classmates were assigned a project where we make clay mugs that we can drink out of, are fully glazed, and have a clay animal somewhere on them. The project was really fun and we went at a slow and steady pace across the span of a few weeks.

CHAPTER 1: My project

For my project, I was going to make a mug with a chipmunk hanging on the edge. The mug was also painted green for the background, like grass and trees, and the handle would be brown, for tree branches, as I was trying to have a “forest” setting because that is a Chipmunk’s habitat.

CHAPTER 2: Making A clay mug

Before I tell you the experience I had building a clay mug, I need to tell you how we made ours. First, our teacher handed us clay tubes, Second, we put a piece of wet clay on the bottom and used the tube as an outline for the bottom of the cup by cutting the bottom piece of clay around the tube, and Finally, we score/mark and put “slip” on the edge of the bottom piece and the edge of the tube. Third, we rolled a piece of wet clay until it resembled a long stick and bent in in the shape of a mug handle and scored/slipped it on the cup piece. Fourth, we shaped our animals using different pieces of wet clay and many shaping/texturing tools, and slipped/scored them on the mug. After that, our teacher took our mugs and fired them to harden the clay. Fifth, our teacher gave the now fired mugs to us and we were told to glaze them. Finally, we put gloss glaze on our mugs to make them look shiny, and we were done!

CHAPTER 3: My opinion

I really liked this project and working with clay in general. I hope we get to do something like this again soon!

 

Glossary

Glaze=A paint-like substance that is commonly used for painting clay.

Slip=A liquid-clay like substance used to attach clay.

INTRO:

The Porsche 911 is possibly the greatest and most iconic car of all time, and today I’ll be telling you how it came to be.

(and yes, it is pronounced Porsche-uh)

CHAPTER 1: Wait… we’re talking about the VW beetle?

The Porsche 911 came from the Porsche 356, and the Porsche 356 came from the original Volkswagen Beetle/type 1. So lets start in 1930s Germany with Ferdinand Porsche. When you don’t have an absolute ton of money, being in a dictatorship is hard. So the Nazi government decided to make a contract for a car that was practical, was designed for the new at the time Autobahn network, and most importantly, was cheap. Ferdinand Porsche saw this contract and wanted to build a car for it, but the company he was working for, Mercedes-Benz, wasn’t interested. So he decided to make his own car from scratch with his son, Ferry. making a city car with 1930s technology and on a low budget would prove to have many challenges. For example, a water-cooled engine wouldn’t fit in the small prototype, so a new system using air to cool the engine had to be made. When the car was finished, the handling was. terrible and was mainly compromised by it’s 1930s suspension, so a new type of suspension had to be made. Finally, the prototype was finished, and was ready to be tested, but before the testing could begin, WW2 started, and all the Volkswagen beetle’s production was cancelled to focus on the war. However, most of the Volkswagen beetle’s design was used on the Volkswagen Kubelwagen, one of the most popular cars used in WW2. But  things were about to get even worse for Volkswagen, as Americans bombed their factory from the skies above Germany, and that was the end of that.

Kind of… after WW2, a British general, Ivan Hirst, saw potential in the Beetle (and the Volkswagen bus they were also working on before WW2) and he reverted the car’s production.

CHAPTER 2: Becoming a sports car

After WW2, Ferry Porsche saw potential in the beetle’s design, and he thought it could be a good sports car with some design changes, and it would also be a cheap way to make a sports car, which was a high priority, because Germany was in shambles. So he gave the car a sportier design, changed the carburetors, and made a lot of other changes, and the Porsche 356 was made!   the Porsche 356 was a car that was powerful, (for the time) lightwweight, and good-looking. It competed in many racing events from the 24 hours of Le mans to rallies, and it was very successful and sold well. the long production run of the well-rounded Porsche 356 ended in 1965. One year after the…

CHAPTER 3: The Porsche 911

In 1963, the Porsche 911 was unveiled to the public at the Frankfurt auto show. Its idea was largely based on the 356, just more cylinders, (it used a Boxer-6 engine) more power, and more advanced technology, and once again, it was an instant hit in almost everything! It could conquer races from the grueling Paris-Dakar rally, and did well in lower classes at Le Mans. Overall, the Porsche 911 was a motorsport success, but for a long time, not a sales success. In the 80s, Porsche was doing so poorly that they had to make a new type of 911, the 928 and 944. these cars were front engined, rear-wheel-drive, used V8s and four cylinders, compared to the normal 911’s rear engined, six-cylinder engines because the designers over at Porsche decided that their Porsches weren’t selling because their design based on the Volkswagen Beetle was old and overused, so they completely reversed it. eventually, Porsche realized that a) that was absolutely ridiculous, b) they could just give their Porsches more modern features, like water-cooling,  and c) why not make a cheaper, more fun-focused speedster? Porsche actually did make a cheaper, more fun-focused roadster called the Boxster, and it quickly became one of the best-selling Porsches of all time. Porsche used the profits from the Boxster to make the also great-selling Cayenne SUV.

 

CHAPTER 4: The Future of Porsche

The Porsche 911, Cayenne, and Boxster (and it’s coupe sibling, the Cayman) continue to be best-selling models, in fact, since Porsche is the best-selling car brand in the Volkswagen group, production of Volkswagen cars are stopped to ensure that there are enough parts for the Porsches during a supply-chain issue. Porsche also is currently making the Porsche Taycan, an all-electric sedan to keep up with the Tesla Model S. It is rumored that the next Porsche 911 will be electric, but who knows what the future holds?

THE END

Last week, my grade went to the museum of natural sciences to learn about plants, animals, and social terms such as race. Here’s how it went:

Since the school was ~40 minutes from the museum, we had to take a kind of long bus ride, but it was all worth it to go into the museum because we were almost immediately greeted with a gigantic sculpture of a dinosaur. We were split into groups by advisory, and then paired up with another advisory, so the entire grade was split up into 4 groups: 2 groups going into the museum and investigating animal exhibits, and 2 groups going into the museum and looking at statues. Luckily for me, my group was one of the 2 groups that went to look at the animals, and it was pretty fun! We started out looking at a huge exhibit showing all rare stones found in North Carolina. Next, we went to another huge exhibit with fake forest animals in their habitat.  We also got to see live amphibians, fish, and a huge turtle. After that, we went across a huge bridge to another building of the museum to a see a few exhibits about the earth, planets, and weather. We also got to view a really cool exhibit about technology and 3-D printing, which had really cool objects, structures, almost fidget toys, and a cool set of kinetic drums with buttons that made drum noises that ran of of the kinetic energy from your hand. Finally, we head back down and outside of the museum for lunch.

After lunch and we went up a few levels via escalators to view an exhibit about bugs and we saw spiders, beetles, and -my favorite of the exhibit- Ghost Shrimp! Next, we viewed an important exhibit about race. The exhibit explained how race was a made-up term and it’s really just the amount of melanin in a person’s skin. Personally, I really liked the exhibit, but I wish it was in the lobby, or a more popular area that behind the cafe on the top floor, because it covers  such an important topic. After that, we went back to the 1st level to look at the dinosaur sculpture and an ocean exhibit with a combination of actual animals and sculptures. Finally, we circled back to the lobby to view some more animal sculptures.

After that, we went back on the bus back to our school. I really liked the museum and thought that the exhibits were really cool and informative.