pH !!!

a pH scale

pH is a measure of the acidity or alkalinity of a solution. Solutions with a pH less than seven are considered acidic, while those with a pH greater than seven are considered alkaline. pH 7 is considered neutral.

The "p" stands for "potenz" (this means the potential to be) and the "H" stands for Hydrogen. So you must write pH with a lower case (little) p and an upper case (capital) H.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PH
http://www.purchon.com/chemistry/ph.htm
http://www.msichicago.org/ed/learninglabs/imgs/waters_ph_chart.jpg

The clock is ticking...

The clock is ticking…

The clock strikes twelve and I gaze around, coolness seeps up through the ground.
Lightning rips through the sky, birds shriek and away they fly.
Salty tears pour down my cheeks, the sky rumbles and on it weeps.
I silently wail and feel for light, but that’s not to be found on this cold dark night.
Away from the scene my eyes tore, and there I collapse on the muddy grass floor.

Its a pretty emo poem...hehe

use inference!

i dont usually write poems so any feedback always helps (especially those regular poets like kittykat, miss candy, pim:P and spud. but all feedback is usefull!! thank you!

is the title better now?

the moral could be "make the most out of life, no matter what happens!

What do you think the moral could be?

COPYWRITE

Global Warming/tThe greenhouse effect

The Greenhouse effect.....

The greenhouse effect is the rise in temperature that the Earth experiences because certain gases in the atmosphere (water vapor, carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, and methane, for example) trap energy from the sun. Without these gases, heat would escape back into space and Earth’s average temperature would be about 60ºF colder. Because of how they warm our world, these gases are referred to as greenhouse gases
The Earth’s atmosphere is all around us. It is the air that we breathe. Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere behave much like the glass panes in a greenhouse. Sunlight enters the Earth's atmosphere, passing through the blanket of greenhouse gases. As it reaches the Earth's surface, land, water, and biosphere absorb the sunlight’s energy. Once absorbed, this energy is sent back into the atmosphere. Some of the energy passes back into space, but much of it remains trapped in the atmosphere by the greenhouse gases, causing our world to heat up. The Earth's temperature will probably continue to rise as long as we continue increasing the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

The atmosphere covers the Earth. It is a thin layer of mixed gases which make up the air we breathe. This thin layer also helps the Earth from becoming too hot or too cold.

Whenever you...
· Watch TV
· Use the Air Conditioner
· Turn on a Light
· Use a Hair Dryer
· Ride in a Car
· Play a Video Game
· Listen to a Stereo
· Wash or Dry Clothes
· Use a Dish Washer
· Microwave a Meal
... you are helping to send greenhouse gas into the air.

To perform many of these functions, you need to use electricity. Electricity comes from power plants. Most power plants use coal and oil to make electricity. Burning coal and oil produces greenhouse gases.


What might happen?
http://epa.gov/climatechange/kids/bigdeal.html



What can we do?
http://epa.gov/climatechange/kids/difference.html





The absolutely fantastic website that is where i got all of this great information from is... http://epa.gov/climatechange/kids/cc.html

Random stuf 'bout animals!

DID YOU KNOW ...

The word Elephant in latin (ele' and 'phant') means the 'Huge Arch'!

Male giraffes are called 'BULLS', female giraffes are called 'COWS' and baby giraffes are called 'CALVES'.

The name 'hippopotamus' comes from the Greek word River Horse .
Gorillas are very good at climbing trees with their long, flexible limbs, but they cannot swim.
There are 264 known species of monkey.
The word 'rhinoceros' means 'nose-horn'.
When Zebras ears are layed flat in a backwards position it means they mean business or to the other members of the group - 'you had better follow orders! ' :)

Are Zebras black with white stripes or white with black stripes?

http://library.thinkquest.org/11922/african/zebra_mountain.jpg

this is a really cool animal website; i got the info from here: http://www.animalcorner.co.uk/ -try the elephant, giraffe, Gorilla, Hippo, Lion, Panda, Rhino, quiz!

The Whole story...

Diary day one

After all the learning, careful planning, survival preparation and excitement, we finally headed off in the school bus with Mr Dyer to climb our maunga.
We drove towards Te Awamutu, across the beautiful rolling Waikato dairy land, parked up and got ourselves into our expedition teams.
With backpacks stuffed with only the most important survival gear, we wandered off across the farmland towards the verdant slopes and regenerating bush.Some of us moaned at the growing heat and the ever steepening slope.
Others reveled in the freedom from the classroom, surrounded by birds, native trees, and our ever-rambling teacher, Mr Woody.Once across the farmland, having encountered the odd inquisitive jersey cow and skittish newly shorn ewe, we clambered across the last bit of number eight wire and entered the bush zone. Even though it was shadier, the incline made it hard going.
Rewarewa and kohekohe sheltered us from the scorching sun, but our shirts were soon drenched with sweat.
We all sighed with relief when we broke into a clearing and got to sit down to rest and drink our precious cool water.Mr Woody was twittering on about fantails, wood pigeons, skylarks and various obscure invertebrates when suddenly....
A deep rumbling sound replaced the constant twittering of birds, along with the sharp surprised cries of children (and Mr woody) stumbling over the shaking ground.
I called over my group over to a strong-looking Kauri tree.
As they struggled through the screaming crowd and across the unsteady ground, I gazed out, in shock, at the unwelcome, foaming ocean roaring in.
Tsunami and die, were the two words that were unwontedly shoved into my mind. I let out a piercing scream of fear and held on to the tree for my life, as the water smashed up against base of the chain of unharmed maungas.
It finally settled.
The rumbling stopped and silence took over.
Slowly the birds started chirping again like nothing ever happened but it did.
My group reached me with a look of horror planted on their faces.
Ocean water surrounded us and we decided to make our way to a higher clearing, just to be safe.
We finally reached a green overgrown grass clearing, small, but it had to do.
After short discussion we decided to split up into groups, Annmaree and Monica went to collect water from the surrounding ocean and milk from the surviving cows, while Kelsey set up a fire and Emma and I made shelter.
We used an old tree that had fallen, to drape the two tarpaulins that we had over into a tent like shape and fastened the tarpaulins onto the tree with a rope and placed the ends onto the ground with some rocks we found.
We also used the rocks to fill in gaps that the tapeline hadn't covered.
Then, done, and just big enough to fit us all in, perfect!! Then Emma and I set out to find baby ferns for dinner!

Diary day 2

We woke up squinting at the hot sun and what seemed like a bad dream sunk back into my mind.
I stretched my stiff muscles and reluctantly sat up with a jerk, the large hypothermia blanket slipped off me.
Annmaree, Monica, Kelsey and Emma stirred and eased themselves back into reality.
We wearily got up and called a group meeting.
Annmaree and Monica surprised us with a note that was found when they went for water.
A haunting sound of a horn rung.
What is it?
Our minds were triggered with thoughts and possibilities.
Tribes. Maori. Huts. Refuge.
We divulged our emotions, the note and the horn and decided to follow the poignant sound of the horn that we heard earlier.
We briskly collected our belongings and began our hike with only a map to guide us.
We made quick progress and were all very alert.
Suddenly Annmaree stopped as she thought that this would be a good spot to camp for the night.
So we collapsed in a heap, exhausted.
As the weather looked sturdy we decided not to bother with shelter and a snack bar each did the trick.
The small chunk of the moon shone luminously as we fell in an exhausted heap and drifted off to sleep.

Diary day three

We woke up and went exploring in our weak pack, after once more studying the note which still didn't make any sense although a diagram caught my eye.
While we were exploring I noticed that Emma was gone so I looked around and saw her standing in front of an, er, pit.I stumbled over to her in confusion and a pit beside a fence lay before us. I knew that I had seen that scene before, and then I remembered......the note!
Emma is already had it and was peering at it with a look of pure confusion her face.
I twisted the note to the right as the others scrambled over to us.
The picture on the note looked exactly the same as the one that lay before us.
We snapped out of our wowed state and decided that Monica and Kelsey would climb in and investigate.
So we watched as they dug into the pits side.
Suddenly Kelsey screamed in pain and leaped away from the hole with her two right fingers dripping with deep red blood.
We hauled her out and went down to help Monica.
We carefully poked, prodded and dug with sticks and stones.
The wall finally gave way and revealed what had gashed Kelsey's fingers. We dug all of the stones glass and sharp objects out of the way leaving a decent sized tunnel before us.
We peered in, puzzled.
What now? We thought.
Monica crawled in without saying a word and I followed hesitantly. We came to thin vine that blocked our way.
Monica gave it a jerk.....nothing.
Suddenly, wasps came charging at us in a buzzing haze.
We screamed and scrambled out of the tunnel with the enemy piecing our faces.
We finally reached the light and collapsed out of the tunnel.
We are hauled out and our aching stings got treated with an unknown substance.
We lay there, lazily recovering and we watched as Emma plunged in.
She was away 15 - 20 minutes and we got worried so we all went to see if she was alright.
We found her at the end of the tunnel in a cave, leaning against the wall looking exhausted so we said nothing.
Although an old decorated stick lying beside her caught our attention. There were two crates in the cave and a sack of grain.
Box A held; a 20metre light weight rope, a 2 by 3 tarpaulin, two flares and a box of waterproof matches.Box B held; 2 cans of baked beans, spaghetti, salmon, tuna, condensed milk, corn, peaches, fruit salad and tomatoes.So we feasted that night and dreamt in the cave of our friends and family.

Diary day 4

We woke up once again to the drowsy blast of the horn.
Breakfast was good old spaghetti and we all felt surprisingly calm.
We slowly packed our gear and set off over the rocky ditch below and over to the functional looking Maori pa site.
We all steadily but slowly crossed the ditch and traveled up to a weak bridge lying before the gate. We crossed slowly and absentmindedly.
We all may have been a lot fitter but we were sweating and exhausted anyway.
We entered suspiciously.
We peered into the nearest tent and see some sort of stick.
I absentmindedly picked it up and strong feeling of power overcame me and I unstably staggered backwards, still holding the…er, staff.
Annmaree and Emma steadied me.
We were confronted, in tent two, by piles of kumara, we were all stoked and shoved it all into our packs and weighed down with every thing, went on to the next tent.
We leaned into the airy tent and in the center of the tent lay a backpack, woven with strong green flax.
We all piled into the tent and happily placed the kumara into the care of the new pack and out of our own.
As we put it all in, it seemed as if there was always room for more.
Puzzled but pleased, we put the last of the kumara in and smugly rolled out of the tent. The pack was happily plonked on my back and it was unusually but extremely light considering the amount of kumara in it.
We plodded over to the last and largest tent.
We waltzed on into a room with Maori carvings covering any sign of walls or a ceiling for that matter but the thing that caught all of our eyes was two strong, bold, Maori carvings. Annmaree aimlessly stumbled over to the strangely welcoming carvings and placed her shaken hand onto the oddly loose shape that was held possessively in the first carvings hand.She clasped her fingers around it and yanked it free.
No one questioned her.We regrouped and trotted over to the first pit and peered in suspiciously.
Suddenly I ripped myself away in agony and confusion.
It is as if my whole world was turned upside down and then................unconsciousness.
I felt a sharp tingle of pain shoot up my arm and ripple through my body.
I woke to four pairs of eyes lying on my face and Emma’s staff was placed on my arm. We got up and, after much persuasion, and carried on and examined the pit once again.We unpacked two of our ropes and Emma and Monica were lowered into deep darkness, guided with worn foot holes in the wall and a dim torch.Kelsey, Annmaree and I settled down and examined annmarees...object.We heard a sharp shout and we scuttled over to pit hole number two and saw shadows of the others as they passed the opening.Hours passed.We worried.We decided to go and find them.
After much chaos through the complicated tunnels we found Emma and Monica in a shivering heap, sobbing violently.
The tracks we left got followed backwards until it wore out, then we just followed the never-ending tunnel mindlessly.Light sparked as the end came into sight, and we switched back into reality and broke into a run.
We collapsed in the shelter of cave, finally out and free of the confined tunnel, and slept under the watchful eyes of a secretive, unknown creature.

Diary day five

I woke to the tedious echo of the horn yet again.
I looked around and then relaxed a little, admiring the way that the birds chirped enthusiastically and the sun glared down at Annmaree and I intensely.
Wait
Annmaree?
Where were the others?
I violently shook her awake and elucidated the horrific situation.
They definitely didn't go to collect food etc as we agreed not to do anything like that until everyone knows when and where we are going.
We worried,
And worried,
And worried, but we concluded our discussion of possibilities and decided to drift back to sleep, though neither of us did.
Eventually our impatient stomachs forced us up for lunch.
I wearily used my staff to boil some water for some luscious kumara, and that went down with alacrity and we flopped back, into a pile of frustration.
Why.
'Why' was the word that was constantly on our minds.
We preserved our energy for half an hour or so.
But our thoughts were disturbed by a yell of triumph.
Alex!
We united as three frustrated, tired but excited room5ians.
We spent the rest of the day reasonably laid back, recounting our adventures.
Dinner was, once again, kumara.
But as we stared silently up at the brewing night fall, something was not right though.
The sky shone brightly, yellowy.
And the moon was becoming full, but with a mysteriously unusual dark patch on it.
Sleep was summoned.

Diary day six

Silhouettes were vaguely made out through my sealed eyes.My body suddenly sensed presence and I snapped out of my doze.I immediately wondered whether this was reality or if I was still dreaming.Because before my weary eyes lay creatures I had only ever imagined.I let out a piercing scream and the others shot into awareness.I let my mind adjust to the thought that mythical creatures were standing opposite me.My instinct screamed at me that they were nice and the gleam in their eyes, somewhat familiar, convinced me to trust them. “Caitlin!” was yelled, from what seemed like miles away but was from Alex, standing at my side.I finally grasped the thread in my mind that was causing me so much confusion; some of our fellow classmates had been critically transformed into mythical creatures.
We greeted them with a hesitant wave.We responded to their beckoning by uncertainly heaving our selves on what we thought was Caitlin the Pegasus’s back.We soared past trees at an incredible velocity. We ducked and dodged everything in our path. We surveyed the astounding scene and admired everything with tremendous joy.We gradually decelerated to a smooth landing at what we recognized as pa site 1.A small wide-eyed figure jerked awake with fright then relaxed, her fear facially evaporated and was replaced with obvious relief.
The creatures left with a nod and a swoop.
‘Kate’, we murmured under our breaths as we glanced at the person sitting exhausted on the ground.
Annmaree, Alex and I plonked ourselves on the dirty ground with a thump beside kitty Kat and begun to exchange our adventures.

Diary, day 7

I woke once again to the distinctive feeling of presence.
My eyes reluctantly flickered open.
A strange tingle of power rippled through me with ease, clogging my body with deep magic.
I tried to rip away, past the boundaries, and out of that firm grip that limited every thrust, plunge and jolt that I fought to make, on I urged.
Eventually my energy drained away with the weight of fear frustration and effort.
I surrendered to my trust worthy instinct and slept, praying that this wasn’t the last time that this wasn’t the last time that I felt my face burning with fear, heard the sharp echo of footsteps, and tasted the foul layer of dust that had settled in my mouth, even if it was one of the many recent 'worst moments of my life'.

The instant my eyes felt for light, they were immediately locked in a harsh but familiar gaze.
Through my peripheral vision, I made out the weak pale figure of Alex.
Suddenly, everything started to blur and then…….I was trapped inside my head.
by now I had learnt that trying to fight does nothing and only makes the situation worse, so settled down in my stressed and depressed mind, and watched.
Words scrambled around, slowly forming some sort of script. Finally the words sharpened and became readable.

It read…
“100, 00’s of years ago lived a young boy. At birth, he was presented with an amulet, the amulet of
POWER!!
He was frustrated; all of the other had amulets of nature or animals.
Why this he thought.
One day a giant space octopus seeking food crashed into the tribes beloved Kakepuku.
Suddenly the boy was flooded with power and used it to destroy the octopus.
The octopus was buried on Kakepuku.
It started to rot, causing everything to die.
Finally it was gone, but left its body shape, 8 tunnels surrounding a cave.
Slowly the mountain reinhabited.
Then one day the sky went a bruised colour and slowly the moon, night after night built up the shadow of an eye.
Back n the octopus’s planet octopus’s worried.
Finally an octopus was sent out to search. So he sent every moon the shadow of his eye signaling his search.
He crashed on earth after a brief journey.
Soon he realized, it was too late and he seeked revenge.
He stormed up the mountain, furious only to be bombarded with phenomenal amounts of power. He tried to repel it, but failed.”

I blinked back into reality and stared into the strangely familiar girl’s face, which saved Alex and I.
‘And everyone else?’ Alex and I asked simultaneously, while blinking back tears of depression.
Her face paled.
‘Dead’

Mona Lisa Picture

Here is a picture of the painting for the Mona Lisa post below



Picture from: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/85/Mona_Lisa.jpeg

Mona Lisa

Mona Lisa, is a 16th century oil painting by Leonardo da Vinci, and is one of the most famous paintings in the world. Few works of art have been subject to as much scrutiny, study, mythologizing and parody. It is owned by the French government and hangs in the Musée du Louvre in Paris. The painting, a half-length portrait, depicts a woman whose gaze meets the viewer's with an expression often described as enigmatic.

the title

The title Mona Lisa stems from the Giorgio Vasari biography of Leonardo da Vinci, published 31 years after Leonardo's death. Mona was a common Italian contraction of madonna, meaning my lady, the equivalent of the English Madam, so the title means Madam Lisa.

interesting stuff

Leonardo da Vinci began painting the Mona Lisa in 1502 and, according to Vasari, completed it in four years. Leonardo took the painting from Italy to France in 1516 when King François I invited the painter to work at the Clos Lucé near the king's castle in Amboise. The King bought the painting for 4,000 écus and kept it at Fontainebleau, where it remained until moved by Louis XIV.

picture: http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/vinci/joconde/joconde.jpg

information:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Lisa