Geometry Task 22

Netbooks

Oceanography

Phoenix

“The Phoenix was a brave, strong and courageous beast, it would give out the brightest light when it was ablaze and heal the strongest of illnesses with its fiery breath”

“ Mum”Tim asked “How can something heal someone with fire?”

“Well sweety”  his mum continued “ Deep in the Phoenix’s body there is an essence which gives life to anyone that it wants to”

Every night his mum would tell Tim this story and every night Tim would ask more questions and his mum would answer them. But one night Tim wondered where his mom knew all these things about the Phoenix, Tim knew that the Phoenix was mythological meaning it wasn’t real...

or was it?  

“Mum” Tim said “Why do you always talk about the Phoenix?” His mum gasped she had never thought that she would have to reminisce that awful, awful experience and she refused to!

“ Im sorry Tim but you’ll just have to go to bed today without a story, mummy feels too tired to tell a story tonight”

“But mum why?”

“ I'm sleepy Tim now goodnight” and with that Tim’s mum left the room. This was the first time she had lied to Tim and had never wanted to do it again.  This creature, the Phoenix had a very deep meaning to Tim’s mum this was so deep that it was her life. This was how it had started.

“Goodbye Dez” the voice in his head said

“No come back Jasmine don’t die yet, just wait I will save you! These thoughts ran through his mind giving him the will to strive on through the harsh environments before him. Jasmine was infected with an incurable disease called Saphirixinia to save Jasmine he had to tame the Phoenix which lived on the Peak Mountain Top. This was a long distance away and with this distance a package of obstacles came that he would have to face to get to the peak. Jasmine was Dez’s close childhood friend they had  been together in the good times and the bad and they were only apart when it was time to sleep. He would do anything to save her even if it risked his life.

He prepared his equipment and set off on the next morning.  They climbed rocky mountains, ran up long distant hills and even had to make makeshift shelters to stay heated from

the frigidness of the Himalayas. There journey was not in vain because the moment they reached the peak of the mountain the Phoenix arose from its sleep. This was any natural creature’s instinct they would try to protect their territory and/or their babies.

The Phoenix was as strong as the stories had said, the Phoenix burned anything in it’s way and the bullets shot from the crew of Dez did minimal damage to its flaming body. But nonetheless Dez fought bravely against the Phoenix and in few short moments the tides turned and Dez overcame the ‘Bird on Fire’. The defeating of the bird left ashes scattered everywhere turning the mountain into a barren wasteland. The crew and Dez picked up the sizzled pieces of ash and journeyed home.

“Hello? Dad? Mum? Are you here?” Jasmine looked around confused and finally found a friendly face, the face of her old childhood friend. “Dez!” She called out

Dez woke up with a fright “Jasmine you're awake!”

“Why what happened to me?” She asked

“Well” Dez said “You died don't you remember?”

“Wait, was this about my Saphirixinia?”

“Yes but I saved you I journeyed up to Peak Mountain Top and tamed the Phoenix which gave you the breath of life”

“Thank you Dez you saved my life I owe me living to you”

“No need to thank me but if you're that not exhausted maybe you could verse me in a game of... Donkey Kong?”

“Come on then bring it on!”

Student Leader Conference

Being chosen as one of the Students Leaders from my school I was excited because I had the opportunity to meet other students and to collaborate with other students who had been chosen by their school. We were privileged to be able to attend the first ever Manaiakalani  - Student Leader Conference.

When we entered the Auditorium we were instructed to wear name tags so that we could be recognized by the other Student Leaders and their supervisors. We were escorted to our corresponding table which we shared with Point England. At first I was shy to converse with the other Student Leaders but after the Icebreaker session the tension diminished and we were soon talking freely to one another.

We were introduced to Anderson Patterson a journalist that had been around the world interviewing leading brands like Google and Mr Khan the maker of Khan Academy. He said that when he was little he was shy but he had wanted to build up his confidence and when he did he ended up being the man he was, a respected journalist. He had set up a presentation which included videos from Ted.com and Khan Academy, he talked about how you should always have backup plans and strategies to get ton your dream and gave us an inspiring speech about how you should build up your confidence.

The Tamaki College Catering Team served our morning tea and lunch which was famishing by the way and the organisation of when to eat was very good. Overall the Conference was fun, exciting, social and breathtaking. I felt equal with the other student leaders and I even got a photo of myself, the only bad thing about the Student Leader Conference was that I won’t get to do it again.

Telegraphs

The Telegraph was a way to communicate to people from a long distance without the use of Pigeon Post. Before the making of the Telegraph civilizations like the Greek and Chinese used signals using smoke or beats from a drum.

The disadvantage of this was that the weather would affect the effectiveness that these signals would work including the Semaphore. The Semaphore held a series of hilltop stations, on these stations movable hands would be situated to make signals like letters or/and numbers. The stations would also have a pair of telescopes so that they would be able to see the signals being made from other telegraphs.

And because these signals visuality were weakened by weather others methods were created so that effective long distance communication could be produced. In the 19th century electricity was introduced and many inventions had been made using this new resource, one of these inventions were the Electronic Telegraph.

The research done by Sir William Cooke, Sir Charles Wheatstone, Samuel Morse, Leonard Gale and Alfred Gale had been used to create the electronic Telegraph. Sir William Cooke and Charles Winstone created a telegraph system which used five magnetic needles which would point to panels of letters or numbers, this used an electrical current. This telegraph system was later used for railroad systems in Britain.

Samuel Morse although had created another telegraph system using a single circuit telegraph which would function when the operator key would be pressed. When the key was pressed it would send an electrical signal to a receiver. To use this telegraph all it needed was a key, a battery, wire and a line of poles between stations for the wire and receiver.

This was later called Morse Code this was named after Samuel Morse. Letters and numbers were sent using codes like dots and dashes. The codes were marked by marks on a piece of paper which would be translated into english by the telegraph operator. But when time passed the operators were able to hear the code and translate the code by hearing the clicking of the telegraph and thus a receiver was made for the telegraph which created noises which made listening to the code easier.

Pigeon Post

Pigeon Post

Pigeon post is the process of sending pigeons to transport messages to other people or parties. Pigeons were chosen for these tasks because they had the natural ability to find it’s way home when it was sent to transport a message.

Before the making of telephones and telegrams Pigeon Post was used to send messages to others. Pigeon Post was believed to be first used by the the Persians. This though was carried on through the ages by the Romans, Mughals and the Greeks. The Persians were the first to train birds these of course included pigeons. These were their means of communicating to faraway lands.

To send messages the senders placed their message or messages in a plastic capsule to protect it from weather conditions e.g. rain and is then tied to the leg of the pigeon. When a pigeon is sent it is also sent with another bird carrying the same message because one might fail to deliver their message due to predators like falcon etc. Usually the pigeons used for these jobs are Rock pigeons or Racing pigeons, these birds are called Carrier Pigeons a.k.a Homing Pigeons.

The use of homing pigeons in todays modern day life are plenty for example if there were a day when the communication technology would break down then what would we do? Then what would you do ? Pigeons maybe the only reliable natural way of communication. This is also cheaper than sending messages through mail because the only thing it costs is pigeon food is that too much to ask?