By Rose
There in the center,
Devours stars and planets,
Silent and violent.
Starless void, big, black,
Darkest than the darkest space,
Warps time and whirls space.
Tears you into shreds,
Into atoms you can’t see
Then swallows you whole.
Antiparticles
By Rose
Twirling, twirling round and round,
until our brethren can be found.
Then we obliterate,
then we annihilate,
each other.
Day and Night
By Rose
My friend,
do understand,
we shall never meet,
nor shall ever greet,
excet in this manner.
Across the big, wide, world,
as it spins and twirls.
So close, yet so far,
at daybreak’s first hour.
Never the same place,
in the greatest race.
Round and round we run,
along with the sun.
On an endless track.
Never tiring, never lagging,
never slowing, never flagging,
til’ the death, of the light of life.
Blue Rings
by Rose Liu
Chapter 1
Florida
In the hotel room Liam unpacked his stuff, someone had gone through his stuff! And his blueberries were missing! Just then, Poochy, Liam’s dachshund showed up, with a blueberry stained mouth.
“Poochy?!” Liam said in frustration, but he could not stay mad at his pet for long. Because he was starving, he, with Poochy, and S’more tagging along, went to the kitchen. As Liam reached towards the fridge for an ice pop, S’more began to bark. His dad was already in the huge dining room, talking to someone.
“Grrrrr…” S’more growled fiercely at a diplomat from India walking by, and grabbed hold of his pant leg. S’more was never aggressive unless she sensed danger, but what was wrong with the diplomat? Liam was getting worried. He grabbed S’more’s collar, but S’more tugged and tugged until she had ripped out the diplomat’s pocket, then, dropping the pocket, she barked and chased the diplomat around. Eventually, the diplomat, screaming and hollering, scrambled up someone’s car and sat there yelling. S’more placed two paws on the car, growled, and then began to prowl around the car.
Meanwhile, Liam took the pocket, and locked himself in the bathroom. He dumped the contents on the floor. What was S’more going nuts about? The diplomat’s pocket had a wallet with a driver’s license, a credit card, and some money. Liam set that aside, he was NOT a thief. There was also a pencil stub, and some scraps of paper. Liam looked at the scraps, they all had figures on them. These figures, Liam wrote down. The last thing in the pocket was a package that said vinyl erasers. Liam opened the package anyway, just to check. IT WASN’T VINYL ERASERS!!!! Liam gasped it was OPIUM! He grabbed the package, stuffed everything else back in, and stuffed the pocket in his pocket. He then went to the diplomat, and said,
“Sir, I believe this is your pocket.” S’more sniffed the pocket, then allowed Liam to pass the pocket to the diplomat. The diplomat checked the pocket, then asked,
“Did you take anything out of my pocket?”
“No sir.” Liam responded. He left the diplomat, still sitting on top of the car.
Blue Rings
By Rose Liu
Prologue: Sirens
Wouh! Wouh! For the fourth night in a row, sirens were wailing again. Liam yawned and stretched as he peeked out the window. Washington DC was aglow with what seemed like thousands and thousands of street lights. Liam stroked S’more, his family’s border collie/scotch collie mix. Why were the sirens continually going off? Honestly, he much preferred the hoot of the owl and the chirp of the cricket on his family’s ranch in Blue River, Montana. He wished he were back in Montana snowboarding, instead of being stuck in a place like DC, even if he got gourmet meals every day. Tomorrow afternoon, he will be in Florida, with his family. His dad, the President, was going there to meet with someone who Liam didn’t really know, or care about. Liam didn’t even know their name. Liam sighed, he checked his suitcase for the hundredth time and went back to bed.
Would YOU Like an Octopus Teacher?
By Rose Liu
After watching My Octopus Teacher, a documentary about nature and octopi, I wanted to know more. I wanted to know, how are these intelligent creatures going to evolve to survive climate change and pollution? How were they going to adapt and change?
I made a list of things I wanted to know and came up with my research question (AKA thesis): How do octopi evolve to withstand climate change and pollution? I was able to come up with an answer: Octopi can evolve to withstand climate change and pollution, adapting quickly to environmental changes by shortening their lifespans, and evolving to use mimicry and pollution as tools to help evade predators.
I used the internet to help me find websites with information on octopi. All in all, it was mostly successful, although I did discover that to use the internet, I must be extremely specific to get relevant answers.
First, I found out about the different species of octopi, where they live, what they eat, how they avoid predators etc.
Next, I discovered that even though climate change and pollution is desaturating the oxygen levels in the water, the octopi have only sped up their life cycle and taking advantage of the fact that their competitors and predators are starting to be rooted out.
I have also discovered that the level of an octopus’ intelligence is staggeringly high. Everywhere I look there are stories of octopi taking apart tanks, or plugging their outflow pipe, or sneaking off to plunder fish from a neighboring tank. Because they have 8 arms, that they have also developed uniquely complex motor skills.
Throughout this search, I found out that climate change was the least concern to octopi. They can easily adapt to their new surroundings and use pollution to their advantage. I also discovered the degree of their intelligence, as well as how humanlike they seem to be.
WHICH CONCLUSION DO YOU LIKE BETTER?
Conclusion 1 (extension):
I think this research will certainly open new questions, and new investigations about pollution and nonhuman intelligence, as well as new robotic inventions. Many believe that the octopus is an alien, who knows… someday we might discover our octopi counterparts in some other planet.
Conclusion 2 (summary):
Throughout this search, I found out that climate change was the least concern to octopi, they can easily adapt to their new surroundings, and use pollution to their advantage. I also discovered the degree of their intelligence, as well as how humanlike they seem to be.
URLs from my research:
4/21
Blue Ringed Octopus:
Size:4-6 cm
Weight: 10-100 gram
Diet: Shrimp, fish, hermit crabs.
Predators: Humans, eels, birds, and whales
Poison: The Blue Ringed Octopus is the only poisonous octopus. It is poisonous due to a chemical they can inject called tetrodotoxin. Tetrodotoxin is one of the most poisonous chemicals animals produce.
Distinguishing markings: Even when they are camouflaged, you can faintly see the blueish rings which signify its poison. When it flashes its rings at you, it means it will bite.
Habitat: Tropics
4/23
Giant Pacific Octopus:
Size: 30ft arm span.
Weight: 300lb.
Diet: Shrimp, lobster, birds and small sharks.
Predators: Sharks and humans.
Habitat: Pacific Ocean
4/27
“With higher temperatures due to climate change, octopuses are changing the way they behave and develop in ways that often times hinder their survival. Birth rates, population size, and energy distribution are all affected drastically with slight changes in temperatures.”
4/29
“Researchers saw a significant drop in retinal activity in four species of marine larvae (two crabs, an octopus and a squid) when the animals were exposed to reduced-oxygen environments for as little as 30 minutes.” Warming deoxygenation could make octopi lose their vision.
Source: https://www.livescience.com/65495-low-oxygen-blinds-octopuses.html
4/30
“They are not believed to be under threat, but they are sensitive to pollutants. Scientists are still discovering new species of octopuses.”
Source: https://www.nwf.org/Educational-Resources/Wildlife-Guide/Invertebrates/Octopuses
5/5
“A clever octopus made headlines earlier this year after it swiftly disassembled part of its tank at the Santa Monica Pier Aquarium in California. But out in the open ocean its relative, the veined octopus (Amphioctopus marginatus), has upped the cephalopod intelligence quotient by using coconut shells as tools.”
5/7
“What was keeping scientists from accepting the existence of consciousness outside of our own family tree? Simple brain anatomy. Older models of brain activity lodged complex, conscious experiences—like musing about a piece of music or reminiscing about a piece of cake—in our highly evolved cortex. But, as the authors of the new declaration noted, many nerve networks involved in “attentiveness, sleep and decision making appear to have arisen in evolution as early as invertebrate radiation, being evident in insects and cephalopod mollusks (e.g. octopus).””
5/11
“To cope with the exceptional computational complexity that is involved in the control of its hyper-redundant arms, the octopus has adopted unique motor control strategies in which the central brain activates rather autonomous motor programs in the elaborated peripheral nervous system of the arms.”
Source: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982215002663
5/14
“When scared, octopuses will shoot a dark liquid, sometimes called ink, at the thing that scared them. This will temporarily blind and confuse a potential attacker, giving the octopus time to swim away. The ink can also dull the attacker’s smelling and tasting abilities, according to the Smithsonian article.
Octopuses can also change color to hide and match their surroundings. They can turn blue, gray, pink, brown or green. The mimic octopus can also flex its body to resemble more dangerous animals, such as eels and lionfish, according to the World Animal Foundation.”
Source: https://www.livescience.com/55478-octopus-facts.html
5/17
“Here are some of the more notable species the mimic octopus imitates:
Lionfish: By spreading out its arms and propelling itself through the water column, the mimic octopus resembles the brown and white striped lionfish. Since lionfish are known for their very sharp and highly venomous spines, this deters other animals from attempting to prey on the octopus.
Sole (flatfish): The mimic octopus can hurriedly glide over the ocean floor by pulling its arms flush against its’ body and flattening out to resemble a sole. This particular flatfish is poisonous, so imitating the fish’s leaf-life shape helps keep predators at bay.
Sea snake: If threatened, the mimic octopus will pull six of its arms into its burrow, leaving two arms resting on the sandy bottom. The undulating, black and white banded arms look remarkably like an extremely venomous sea snake, encouraging would-be predators to scatter.”
“Scientists suggest that the mimic octopus may choose which animal to impersonate based on which predator is hovering nearby. For example, when bullied by territorial damselfish, an octopus was seen “transforming” into a sea snake, a well-known predator of damselfish.”
5/18
“Cephalopods are often called ‘weeds of the sea’,” she said, because their “rapid growth, short lifespans and flexible development” let them adapt to environmental changes more quickly than other marine animals.”
“Overfishing and warming oceans may benefit octopuses, squid and cuttlefish. Cephalopods are voracious predators, for which overfishing depletes competition and removes predators. Warmer waters are believed to accelerate cephalopod life cycles, so long as food remains available, and the temperatures do not rise too far.” Source: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/may/23/octopuses-squid-cuttlefish-warming-oceans-climate-change
Cheetah’s Cabin- Chapter 4
Chapter four
As the photographer puzzled all this out, Sandstorm suddenly had an idea. He would have a cabin party. He went to the cabin phone and called 583-984-6478. “hello?” Said a voice. Wrong number thought Sandstorm and quickly hung up. Then, he called 690-794-9999 “hello?” Said another voice. This time, Sandstorm quickly thought of all the human talk he knew so far and said hurriedly, “Great Expectations by Charles Dickens.”
“What?” Asked the person.
He repeated, “Great Expectations by Charles Dickens.”
“What about it?”
“Great Expectations by Charles Dickens.”
“Haven’t read it.”
“Great Expectations by Charles Dickens.”
“What?”
“Great Expectations by Charles Dickens.”
“Geez, what are you trying to say?”
“Great Expectations by Charles Dickens.”
“Is that the only thing you know how to say?”
“Great Expectations by Charles Dickens.”
“Go away whack-o!”
“Great Expectations by Charles Dickens.”
“I said go away, whack-o!!”
“Great Expectations by Charles Dickens.”
“Shut up! I’m going to hang up on you!”
“Great Expectations by Charles Dickens.”
The person hung up. Sandstorm sighed, “I really messed that up. I must remember that some people must not like Great Expectations, although I like it very much! I must also remember to say other things like mentioning the Great Cabin Party.” Sandstorm then took out the photographer’s typewriter, and after messing with it for a little wrote the following script:
Me: Hello
Not me: Hello
Me: Have you read Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Not me: no/yes
Me: Please come to my cabin party. It is in a cabin called bullseye cabin. In the party there will be food and games and books. Come now. This is my first cabin party.
Not me: ok
Me: Thank you, see you at the party!
Now that the script was all worked out, Sandstorm picked up the phone again and called 890-688-9754
“Hullo?” said a voice.
Sandstorm hurriedly said, “Great Expectations by Charles Dickens” This time because he was all in a hurry and not said hullo first and now the script was failing.
But the person said, “I haven’t read that.”
And sandstorm quickly said, “Please come to my cabin party. It is in a cabin called bullseye cabin. In the party there will be food and games and books. Come now. This is my first cabin party.
“Daddy? Why are you having a cabin party?” asked the person for this was one of the photographer’s children.
And as Sandstorm had nothing else to say, he said, “Thank you, see you at the party!”
“But Daddy, you never have cabin parties!”
“Great Expectations by Charles Dickens.”
“Daddy, I know you like that book, but why do you keep saying that?”
Now, Sandstorm was throwing out random words that he knew, “December 16.”
“What do you mean Daddy?”
“Marsh, river, pork-pie.”
“Daddy! Don’t trick me!”
“Pip”
“oh”
“Great Expectations by Charles Dickens.”
“Daddy!”
“Cheetah”
The Photographer’s child just then thought and said, “Daddy, you know how much it costs to get a trip to Africa. But there’s just a chance that I can get there. The cargo ship Perseverance leaves today in just a little while. They will stop at the cape of good hope and I can get off! Daddy, how fun I would be to sneak away and see Africa!” Then the phone hung up, but this time Sandstorm was satisfied that he thought this person would at least come to his party. He decided to have his party on 23 or 24.
Cheetah’s Cabin – Chapter four
By Rose
Chapter four
As the photographer puzzled all this out, Sandstorm suddenly had an idea. He would have a cabin party. He went to the cabin phone and called 583-984-6478. “hello?” Said a voice. Wrong number thought Sandstorm and quickly hung up. Then, he called 690-794-9999 “hello?” Said another voice. This time, Sandstorm quickly thought of all the human talk he knew so far and said hurriedly, “Great Expectations by Charles Dickens.”
“What?” Asked the person.
He repeated, “Great Expectations by Charles Dickens.”
“What about it?”
“Great Expectations by Charles Dickens.”
“Haven’t read it.”
“Great Expectations by Charles Dickens.”
“What?”
“Great Expectations by Charles Dickens.”
“Geez, what are you trying to say?”
“Great Expectations by Charles Dickens.”
“Is that the only thing you know how to say?”
“Great Expectations by Charles Dickens.”
“Go away whack-o!”
“Great Expectations by Charles Dickens.”
“I said go away, whack-o!!”
“Great Expectations by Charles Dickens.”
“Shut up! I’m going to hang up on you!”
“Great Expectations by Charles Dickens.”
The person hung up. Sandstorm sighed, “I really messed that up. I must remember that some people must not like Great Expectations, although I like it very much! I must also remember to say other things like mentioning the Great Cabin Party.” Sandstorm then took out the photographer’s typewriter, and after messing with it for a little wrote the following script:
Me: Hello
Not me: Hello
Me: Have you read Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Not me: no/yes
Me: Please come to my cabin party. It is in a cabin called bullseye cabin. In the party there will be food and games and books. Come now. This is my first cabin party.
Not me: ok
Me: Thank you, see you at the party!
Now that the script was all worked out, Sandstorm picked up the phone again and called 890-688-9754
“Hullo?” said a voice.
Sandstorm hurriedly said, “Great Expectations by Charles Dickens” This time because he was all in a hurry and not said hullo first and now the script was failing.
But the person said, “I haven’t read that.”
And sandstorm quickly said, “Please come to my cabin party. It is in a cabin called bullseye cabin. In the party there will be food and games and books. Come now. This is my first cabin party.
“Daddy? Why are you having a cabin party?” asked the person for this was one of the photographer’s children.
And as Sandstorm had nothing else to say, he said, “Thank you, see you at the party!”
“But Daddy, you never have cabin parties!”
“Great Expectations by Charles Dickens.”
“Daddy, I know you like that book, but why do you keep saying that?”
Now, Sandstorm was throwing out random words that he knew, “December 16.”
“What do you mean Daddy?”
“Marsh, river, pork-pie.”
“Daddy! Don’t trick me!”
“Pip”
“oh”
“Great Expectations by Charles Dickens.”
“Daddy!”
“Cheetah”
The Photographer’s child just then thought and said, “Daddy, you know how much it costs to get a trip to Africa. But there’s just a chance that I can get there. The cargo ship Perseverance leaves today in just a little while. They will stop at the cape of good hope and I can get off! Daddy, how fun I would be to sneak away and see Africa!
Cheetah’s Cabin- Chapter 3
By Rose
The photographer finally saw a light ahead, “the lamp! How fortunate!” he mused, then continued to walk towards it. In a few minutes, he had reached the cabin, dragging the sled along. He pushed the door open, and the door, suddenly something caught his eye, something golden brown with black spots, a cheetah! And it was curled up by his fireplace, doing what? It was looking most unnatural, flicking with its paw and looking at the thing he was flicking. There was no way to enter the cabin without getting noticed and even if he did, the photographer doubted he could do anything helpful. He snapped a picture and then ducked out of sight as the cheetah looked around, then satisfied, went back to looking at whatever it was looking at.
“Great, there’s a cheetah in the cabin and a snowstorm outside the cabin, what should I do?” The photographer wondered how he had gotten himself in such a scrape, when he remembered his extra disaster shelter, so he headed in that direction, unwilling to risk a cheetah, although he wasn’t sure the snowstorm was more dangerous, or was it? He puzzled this over and he unlocked and opened a small round wooden door, and climbed in. Inside, he carefully removed all of his winter clothes and hung them up in the closet, then went to the study and looked at the picture of the cheetah in the cabin. Wait! He saw something sticking out that did not look like a cheetah, it was a corner of Great Expectations! He had read the book enough to tell it apart from the rest of the books. But what was it doing here? It was supposed to be in his room, on his bed where he left it with the other books! Could the cheetah read? Or was it just a coincidence. Probably just a coincidence, the photographer assured himself, but he was rattled.
“Reading cheetahs, what’s next? Flying pigs? Then? Purple cows that make chocolate milk? Octopus astronauts?” He was hoping that was not going to happen although, unbeknownst to him, some pigs were attending flying school right now, some cows were turning purple, and an octopus had just launched himself into orbit.
Visiting Austria with LEGOs
This is a video I made to introduce Austria as a tourist destination with LEGOs, The LEGOs will be visiting some popular Austrian locations and the video will talk about each of them.