The thermometer: by James Corrick

The Thermometer

In 1724, Gabriel Fahrenheit invented the thermometer. A thermometer is a device that measures the temperature. The thermometer contains mercury inside of a glass tube. The mercury reacts to the temperature and rises or lowers and tell the temperature. People most commonly use Fahrenheit, but a lot of other countries outside of america use Celsius.
                





The thermometer effects me because it helps we know what weather to prepare for, and what clothes to where. If there was no thermometer, I might where shorts on a snow day, or pants on a hot day, which in most cases is uncomfortable.

sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermometer#Types_of_thermometer

       

The Circular Saw


A lot of people don't realize how fortunate we are to have houses. There are many tools we us in the making of them however one of them, in my opinion is more important than some. The circular saw. You might say that you don't need a circular saw to make a house which is true but can you imagine making a house with a hand saw. Using one in woodshop is hard enough already. The circular saw was invented in 1780 and the Germans are credited for its creation. They were ( And still are) used to cut wood with a astonishing speed that helps build houses and other wooden things much faster. It is a way to cut wood very accurately as well. By simply running a piece of wood over a bladed you now have multiple pieces. INCREDIBLE!!!!! We don't only use circular saws for houses. If we didn't have them, we also wouldn't have Chicken coops, fences and logs for fire and paper. It's blade is extremely sharp and can easily cut you. That is why these days, they have a rail that protects your hands from the blade. So next time you think, " Making a house isn't that hard" think about how hard it would be without a circular saw. And also how hard it is to make a house out of gingerbread much less a full size house made of wood.

http://www.directindustry.com/prod/ceratizit/product-24084-1366309.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circular_saw
hdsupplysolutions.com

Schools

Schools are a very large part of children's lives. It takes up about 7 ½ hours of our lives everyday. But, schools have changed a lot. Here is a question from an 8th grade test in 1895:

A wagon box is 2 ft. deep, 10 feet long, and 3 ft. wide.

How many bushels of wheat will it hold?

I doubt any of you reading this will be able to answer that question. This was a math question, and it seems like it was much more focusing on practical uses than the type math we learn today. This question doesn’t even mention wheat until the end. So, since I didn’t grow up in 1895, I wouldn’t be able to apply the largeness of the box, toward how many bushels of wheat fit in it. There is no frame of reference in my life that would help me answer just that question. But, people in 1895 would probably have no idea how to answer a question like:

A car trunk is 2 ft. deep, 5 feet long, and 3 ft. wide.

How many laptops will it hold?

When I think about the difference between schools now and back then, the first thing that comes to mind is the difference in technology. At Catlin Gabel, we sit on chairs that roll around the room, even write on whiteboard tables, sit in front of a computer and have access to nearly endless amounts of information. Back then, instead of computers they had books, instead of whiteboards they had chalkboards and instead of large tables in the classroom, they had personal desks. Even though technology gives us so much more information, but now we nearly only rely on technology. Most of my classmates enjoy having so much technology, but I personally don’t enjoy working so much with a computer and would like to write on paper much more. Computers are very complicated and there's so much that I don’t understand, and can fully use. This technology wasn’t invented until not long ago, and so we just suddenly jumped to using computers over paper. Even using phones is a problem at school. In 1895 that would be absolutely out of the question. Technology helps so much and makes assignments usually much swifter. School now is much more casual, especially here at Catlin Gabel, the teachers are not strict at all, and we can even call them by their first names. 

Baroque Music Compared To Modern Day

I have been playing music for most of my life. I started playing classical piano when I was five and then switched interests into jazz piano when I was around ten years old. My interests switched yet again about a year later when I decided to start playing the trumpet. I wanted to stick generally to jazz with the trumpet, but my teacher is pushing me towards playing and trying more classical songs to improve my tone with the long, held out notes.




Even though I have been playing music for most of my life, I have been blind to the extremely strong connections between the music I played and music from the Baroque time period. While I was playing piano, I played mostly Bach and Beethoven. Now that I'm playing trumpet baroque is not as easily noticed in jazz, yet it is nearly always there if you look hard enough.

Talking book album- Stevie Wonder: https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Stevie Wonder album

In this whole album would you ever think there would be a style of music from the 1700 based in it? Even though these songs sound modern, jazzy, and new they are all mostly based off of baroque music chords, sounds, and meter.

To Float Like a Swan

Ballet is amazing.  You can let go of all your worries and soar like a swan across the stage.  I have been dancing since I was 4 and currently dance at Portland Dance  School (Portland Festival Ballet).  Before class, I watch the trainees (they are very serious about ballet and do online school so they can do ballet all day) and I am entranced as they glide across the room leaping and twirling in their pointe shoes.  Ballerinas go through excruciating pain and hard work to get where they are, but some people just think ballerinas are fragile and that ballet is not brutal enough to be a sport.  A person at my ballet studio once performed 10 shows with 4 broken toes on one foot.  This shows endurance, dedication and determination.  Sometimes when I watch ballerinas flutter and float across the stage, I think about all of the other people who danced that role.  Who were they? Where did they come from?  Was ballet what did they did for a living?  I wonder about the first time a ballet was ever premiered and how someone even choreographed everything in it.   One ballet that initially failed and is now is one of the most popular ballets is Swan Lake.  

The music of Swan Lake was composed in 1875 - 1876 by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.  Swan Lake tells the tragic story of a young princess named Odette, who was transformed into a swan by a curse casted by an evil sorceress.  On Friday, March 4, 1877, Swan lake was premiered.  The role of Odette was performed by Pelageya Karpakova (Polina Karpakova).  It was originally intended to be performed by Anna Sobeshchanskaya,  however she was removed from the performance after a governing official accused her of  receiving a few items of expensive jewelry from him, only to sell the items of jewelry for cash and marry a fellow danseur.  The premiere was not well-accepted, and there was almost unanimous criticism concerning the orchestra, the stage sets, and the dancers.  The “failure” of the production was said to be due to a few other reasons.  One issue was regarding German origins of  the Swan Lake story.   Another reason was that the ballerina that danced the role of Odette (and possibly Odile) was “not particularly convincing” and was a secondary soloist.

 During the early 1890s and late 1880s, Vsevolozhsky and Pepita were conversing with Tchaikovsky about reviving  Swan Lake.  Unfortunately, on November 6, 1893, Tchaikovsky died just when the plans for the revival of Swan Lake were about to be fulfilled.   As a result of the tragic death, Drigo had to revise the score by himself.  Two memorial concerts that were planned by Vsevolozhsky were given and yielded in honor of Tchaikovsky on February 1894.  In the production, the ballerina who danced as Odile and Odette was Pierina Legnani, the Italian virtuoso.  The revival prospect of  Swan Lake had been planned for Pierina’s 1894-1895 season benefit performance because of her amazing talent.  

Her performance during her début in Cinderella with the Imperial Ballet demonstrated her phenomenal technique.  During the grand pas, in her variation, she executed thirty-two or more fouettés en tournant (turns on one foot) which at that time that was the most ever performed.  At the beginning of  1895, on Friday January 27, the revised Swan Lake was premiered.  The premiére of  the revival was a huge success.  Today it is the revised Tchaikovsky’s score  that is used when many ballet companies perform Swan Lake.

There are so many talented ballet dancers who have come before us and future rising stars that will come after.  Many of them may have endured similar hardships and criticisms in the harsh world of ballet.  Now when I am on stage, I look out into the ocean of people in the audience and through the blinding stage lights, and wonder...

Sources:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swan_Lake

• http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mbl7rkbPTK1qmy8oho1_500.jpg

• http://warmjello.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/misty-copeland-swan-lake-103.jpg

• http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mbl7rkbPTK1qmy8oho1_500.jpg

Food Now Vs Food in the American Revolution

Food in American Revolution vs Food Now

Everyday, we might take going to the grocery store for granted. It’s only a 15 minute drive, and it has everything you would need. A seemingly endless supply of basic necessities. You can pretty much buy anything you would want. Fruits, veggies, bread, and much more. The people of the American Revolution were rationed to very little per day and per week. Imagine if you had to share molasses and other food with 99 other men, well that’s what people in the American Revolution had to endure. Many other basic needs were cut down to very little for soldiers, and for other people who weren’t on the war. It was very far from gourmet.

There certainly weren’t an McDonald's or any restaurants for that matter. Most people ate things they hunted or grew. Milk, fruits, veggies, eggs, and grains were common to trade and eat. Most people at a lot of stews of meat and vegetables. Woman spent a lot of their day cooking because they had to milk the cow, build a fire for cooking, bring water from the well, and get the meat ready to eat. There was a big meal each day that was served around 2pm.

Nowadays, there are restaurants, grocery stores, and farmers markets that you can get food without working very hard. Many women now have jobs, and don’t spend half their day cooking. You can go to grocery store and get all the things you need to cook a meal, or to make it easier you can go to a restaurant and order a dish, without doing any work; it’s prepared for you. We normally eat three meals a day with snacks in between. For most families, dinner is probably the biggest meal. Most families don't have huge gardens, I know for sure that my family doesn't really know how to garden. We have a couple strawberry plants, but that's about it.

The reason it’s easier to get food now, is because it’s more accessible. We don't have to slaughter our own food. When I was three, I certainly didn't help kill the chickens for dinner. Technology has also played a role in making it more accessible. We now have cars, planes, and boats that help food get transported from around the world into one place. In the American Revolution they didn’t have those privileges of having foods get transported from around the world, right to them.

Even in the last 100 years, things have changed dramatically. In 1900, a small child would know how to kill a chicken, and older kids would know how to grow their own food. Today, in kindergarten, I'm pretty sure most kids grew their own little pea plant or a small vegetable. Most people would agree that eating your food that you grew, was awesome; however, you probably don't want to know how your chicken, that you're eating for dinner, was killed.

In conclusion, food now has gotten much more complicated. We can go to a grocery store and get food from right here, Japan, or Morocco. Food has become more accessible and because of that, the food and dishes that you can make have changed.

Why We Text: It All Started with the Telegraph

In 1844 the telegraph was invented by a man named Samuel Morse. The telegraph was the first machine that allowed people to communicate over long distances faster than a letter. The telegraph was the machine that revolutionized modern day communication. The telegraph was an invention that allowed people to communicate quickly where messages were sent over a long wire. By 1860, telegraph wires stretch from the east coast of the United States west of the Mississippi River. It wasn’t until 1866 that a telegraph line stretched across the Atlantic Ocean, allowing people to communicate outside of the U.S. To use the telgraph, you had to understand Morse Code because all you could type into the telegraph were dashes and dots. In Morse Code, each letter was assigned a specific sequence of dashes and dots.

In 1844, almost everyone who could afford the telegraph got one and used one. Why? Because the telegraph was the “next best thing” and it was what everyone else was speding their money on. Much like the telegraph, the smart phone is “the next best thing” for 2016 so, many people have one.

Morse code is somewhat similar to texting because you have to understand the different codes (abbreviations). For example, WTF doesn’t usually mean “why the face” and lol usually means “laugh out loud” not “lots of love”. If you were to use these in a wrong way, it could completely offend someone and make them mad at you. For example, if you were to hear that someone just lost their job and you said “I’m so sorry to hear about your job. lol” or if your friends grandma had recently become sick and you said “I’m so sorry to hear about your grandma. lol” I don’t think they would necessarily be to pleased with you.

What do you think would’ve happened if a texting device was invented before the telephone?

If Alexander Graham Bell had invented texting and Steve Jobs had invented the telephone, I think that the current generation would be talking instead texting. This also relates to my “next best thing” theory which is that society follows the current trends. Also, most teenagers and adults are using social media networks like Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, etc. more than talking on the phone. Lately, everyone is so wrapped up in their cyber life that they don’t spend the time to talk to people face to face anymore. Talking through the phone was invented before texting, so now when teenagers come from school and their parents ask “How was your day? or, “what did you learn?” or “what did you eat for lunch?” they usually get a one word answer like “good” or “nothing” or “food”. I feel that if texting was invented before talking on the phone, our generation would be much more talkative because our version of technology would involve way more conversation and social skills.

Sources:

"Morse Code and the Telegraph." History. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Feb. 2016.

    <http://www.history.com/topics/inventions/telegraph>.

"Invention of the Telegraph." Library Of Congress. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Feb. 2016.

    <https://www.loc.gov/collections/samuel-morse-papers/articles-and-essays/

    invention-of-the-telegraph/>.

"Alexander Graham Bell." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 14

    Feb. 2016. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

    Alexander_Graham_Bell#First_invention>.  

Images:

"Blizzard of 1888." Business Insider. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Feb. 2016.

    <https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/

    542049756da8115a21ba15df-960-720/

telegraph-wires-many-of-which-would-have-connected-tickers-created-a-tech-y-canopy-above-downtown-manhattan.jpg>.

"Trains and Telegraphs." The Telecommunications History Group, Inc. N.p., n.d.

    Web. 14 Feb. 2016. <http://www.telcomhistory.org/vm/Images/main/science/

    telegraph1.jpg>.

I'll Pass You Shoot

A lot has changed over the years - technology, sports, music - the list goes on. A sport that has seen a lot of changes is basketball. When I step onto the court, the game I play today and the rules that I must follow look very different than in 1891 when basketball was first invented by James Naismith. I enjoy getting to play basketball and if things hadn’t changed I might not have had the chance to play considering the fact that Mr. Naismith originally invented the game for men.

Basketball had 13 original rules, some of which have stayed the same and many that have changed. When playing basketball people would shoot at fruit baskets, trying to get the ball to stay in that basket. As you know, basketball is no longer played that way, which I’m glad for. If changes hadn’t been made, every time someone made a basket the whole game would have to stop so that someone could get a ladder to get the ball out of the basket. With 8 minute quarters and all of that ladder moving, our games would take forever.

Speaking of scoring, when you get points in a game today they are all from making baskets. However, the original rules said that if a team got three fouls in a row the other team would get a point. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar had 4,657 personal fouls in his careers - that would have been 1,552 points awarded to his opponents. I imagine this would have upset his teammates and made teamwork more challenging. In a game like basketball, a lack of teamwork could spell disaster.

Teamwork is an essential element in any team sport. You must work together to accomplish your goal. No one person can score every basket, defend every shot. When I am out on the court I know that my teammates are there to help me and I trust that we will all work together to win the game. Teamwork requires that you trust your teammates and that they trust you - trust you to make smart decisions. Trust you to know when to shoot or when to pass, when to avoid fouls at all costs and when a well timed foul can help you get the win. Teamwork makes the (basketball) dream work, but failure to work as a team could very well end up costing you and your team the game.

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_basketball

http://www.kansasheritage.org/people/naismith.html

http://nbahoopsonline.com/Articles/History1.html

http://www.firstandmonday.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/james-naismith-in-lawrence.jpg

http://images.wisegeek.com/basketball.jpg

http://media-2.web.britannica.com/eb-media/76/60176-004-88C527AA.jpg

Music: Revolutions

Baroque music

Ever wonder how music has changed over the years and how its effected our society. Baroque music is a style of music composed from approximately 1600 to 1750. This era followed the Renaissance, and was followed in turn by the Classical era. The word "baroque" comes from the Portuguese word barroco, meaning deformed pearl. In the Baroque Era the most famous composers were Vivaldi, Beethoven, Bach, Handel. Their music is still quite famous. Their pieces were mostly classical. Music evolved and in the American Revolution the National Anthem was invented and composed by a man named Francis Scott Key in 1814.

Music has always been a passion of mine, I've been playing the violin since I was 5 and I took up piano during for a little bit then quit, and recently I started the viola. But what I love the most is music (what plays on the radio). I still remember my first favorite song, Taylor Swift you belong with me. Music would surround me in the car 107.5, 100.3, 95.5, and hits 1 and at home, my sister used to play the piano and would play it a lot and I would practice my violin a lot. My favorite songs used to be the most popular songs now its songs that I find while searching my favorite artists (The Weekend, J. Cole, Chris Brown, Kalin & Myles and Jeremih).

Music has brought people together for centuries and hopefully centuries more.

http://www.essential-humanities.net/western-art/music/baroque/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baroque_music
http://historyomtssg.blogspot.com/2011/01/1600-1610-opera-opens.html
    http://realbraveaudio.com/rentals/