Mocking Jsy by Suzzane Collins

For my independent reading book for my English class I decided to read Mocking Jay by Suzanne Collins. This book is the sequel to Catching Fire from the 3 book series of the Hunger Games. I talked about the novel Catching Fire a wild back on my blog. As you may have read on my blog about Catching Fire this book takes place in the post-apocalyptic nation of Panem, which used to be North America, also Panem is ruled by the Capitol and is surrounded by other 12 districts that provide for it. So as you may read in my post on Catching Fire in this book is about a girl Katniss that in the first book was chosen to fight to the death against 25 other kids between ages of 12 to 18. Since she had gone in the first book and survived with her lover pita, which wasn’t meant to happen because only one survives. This was much like the gladiators in Rome. The leaders of this horrible game took this as defiance, which was not good. She then is chosen again to fight in the next hunger games, because since the leaders took this as defiance the only way to try to kill her was to put her in the games. They did this by saying that all the winners of the past Hunger Games where chosen to participate again.

The 75^th Hunger Games take place and in the middle of the games a ship comes and takes some of the competitors which include Katniss. This ship happens to be from district 13 which was assumed to be destroyed. Since Katniss is rescued Katniss is convinced to become "the Mockingjay": a symbol of the rebellion against the ruling Capitol. As part of a deal, she demands that the leader of District 13, President Coin, grant immunity to all of the victors of the Hunger Games including Peeta. She also demands the right to kill President Snow, the leader of the Capitol, herself. But then when Peeta is rescued he was brainwashed by the Capitol and tries to kill Katniss when he sees her. Then slowly the rebellions take over the districts and plan to attack the Capitol. Well if you want to see what happens at the end you have to read the book. I highly recommend the trilogy and the book.

Inuke Boom!

For one of my last blogs this year I wanted to talk about the Inuke Boom. The inuke boom is the largest iPod dock speaker in the world. It weighs about 700 pounds or 320 kg. This one of the loudest speakers in the world, plus you can just put your iPod to it and it plays, but also you can do it wireless, you can plug in your phone or any other device. It is an 8-foot wide, 4-foot-tall, 700-pound iPod and iPhone dock that pumps out 10,000 watts of power. The price of this amazing large speaker is $30,000, but who would buy a $30,000 speaker? Well as I have read online the Vice President of the company Behringer Mark Wilder said “Probably someone with a sizable amount of property and wants to throw a party and wants something more elegant than a normal speaker system."  It is said that the Inuke has the power to break glass. The best part about this speaker I think is that you can just plug in your iPod in the dock and play your music without any trouble. But as said before this isn’t any speaker this a speaker for people who want everything or in other words they are rich.  And also it is not a complicated system you just plug in your iPod and play it, so if you want to throw a big party and don’t want to hire a dj and other types of speaker, you can have the Inuke.

Euro Cup 2012

For my blog entry today I wanted to talk about the Euro cup 2012, well because I like soccer, but also since it is nearby and it is one of my last blogs I would like to talk about it. For people who don’t know the Euro cup is an international cup that is played every 4 years, but also only teams from Europe are allowed to play. The Euro cup has 16 teams playing. It started in 1960 and it is governed by Union of European Football Associations or in other words UEFA, and it is a competion between men’s national soccer team across Europe. To qualify for the Euro cup, after the World cup the UEFA holds a sitting and they pick out teams in which they would put in random order into groups and after they would play each other away and at home, until they have all played each other. The first two teams at the top of the groups get to go to the Euro cup.

For this year’s Euro cup there are 16 teams playing which include: Poland, Greece, Russia, Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Ireland, Croatia, Ukraine, Sweden, France, and England. But also it will be held in Poland and Ukraine.  But also I forgot to mention that the teams hosting the Euro cup qualify automatically.  The tournament starts on June 8^th and finishes on July 1^st. the team that won the last Euro cup was Spain, and has 2 cups. 

The Zboard: Motorized Skateboard

For today’s board I will be talking about the Zboard, a motorized skateboard. The Zboard is not new to the motorized world because there are already are motorized skateboards. The great two advantages that this board has that the others don’t are that you don’t burn tire soles when riding the skateboard because it has a new wheels. Also another advantage that it has would be that it provides up to 400 watts of motor power and it includes two foot pads that are connected to a micro-controller on the motor. All you have to do is lean forward to put pressure on its front foot pad for taking off. Put you weight on the rear foot pad and the board brakes. If you are headed downhill, the board will automatically reduce your speed and the ZBoard can be stopped even if you are on a hill. This makes the Skate board really safe; this is because the people who ride the other type of skateboards always have bruises from falls.

So far the Zboard has two versions for sale, which one is the Zboard classic which provides you up to 5 miles of running in a single charge. The other version is the Zboard Pro which gives you a 10 mile distance in a single charge. The Zboard Classic sells for about $599 and promises a top speed of 15 mph, while the Pro ($849), which comes equipped with lithium-ion batteries, can go up to 17 mph. The Zboard is not a skateboard for tricks it is for traveling. But you can also pre order it for 100$ less on both versions. Although Pro Skateboarders argue that motorization will take the fun out of skateboarding, but also you can’t do many tricks because of the motor, yet it is a great invention and fun to ride.

The Dyson Fan

For today’s blog I will be talking about the Dyson fans, this is a fan without blades; this is not a brand new invention. But it is worth mentioning because a fan without blades is a pretty cool invention. Also the Dyson Company makes heaters and fans that have no blades. A way that this helps is that it has no blades so you have no fast-spinning blades chopping the air and making noise. Also I bet you kids like to put their fingers inside a fan; well you will have no more problems. Another great part of this fan is that it is easy to clean, as you may know fans with blades after a while get a lot of dust in the blades making it really hard to use when dirty and to clean. But since it has no blades it is really fast to clean the fan, to clean a Dyson fan, simply wipe with a cloth.  The Dyson fan also allows you to precisely adjust airflow, it would not be like other fans that only have 4 settings, and this has a lot more making more comfortable for the user. Another useful part of this invention is that the Dyson table fans axis on their own center of gravity making it really easy to move instead like other fans. As well they aren’t top-heavy like some other fans, and stay put without clamping. The Dyson fans have different models, making them range in price from 300$ to 450$. They come in big and small sizes. The Dyson fan works in four stages which are really simple. These are Air is drawn in – Air is accelerated – Air is brought – Air is let out, through little openings around the circular fan.

The Jetlev Flyer

For this blog I will be talking about an amazing cool new invention and gadget called the Jetlev Flyer . The Jetlev is a water jet pack that uses water propulsion to boost you in the air and into the water. The Jetlev-Flyer was invented by a Chinese Canadian inventor Raymond Li. The jet pack was developed over the last ten years, and allows its user to be propelled by water up to 30 ft and as fast as 22 mph. This jetpack is divided into two parts which is the place where you seat and manipulate de jet pack, and the machine itself, which sucks water to propel the pilot. The jet pack has a fiberglass backpack that is extremely lightweight and  it sucks up water through a hose and sends it to the engine, which then propels the person in the air. By separating the engine and the jetpack, Raymond Li was able to get the participant to be boosted even further. The "pilot" of the jetpack also has controls that they can utilize to manipulate how much thrust they get and the direction that they want to go. The power is like what a firefighter feels when he is pointing a water jet. The jetpack itself measures 38.25"H x 35"W x 21.25-24.25"L (97 cm H x 89 cm W x 54-62 cm L) and weighs around 30 lbs (14 kg) when dry, while the tethered boat unit measures 127 in (323 cm) long and 48 in (121 cm) wide at its widest point. The jet pack has a built in backrest out of fiberglass so that the user can lay back comfterbly,then it has glued a thick layer of rubber foam to the front so it wouldn’t sink when he takes off and lands, it has a harnest so that you dont fall of your seat. the creator also added a seat with the backrest and the harnest.  The Jetlev- Flyer cost about 100,000 Euros or $130,000 dollars, and it is sold all around Europe and Middle East.

The Turanor

A great new technological invention that helps the world would be Planet Solar boat. This is a yacht that has solar panels all above that yacht so that it can absorb energy from the sun. Then makes it into its own energy and it maintains itself. This is a great improvement in boating because boats and ship produce a lot of methane gases that cause global warming. The name of the boat is the Turanor, and it was built by Knierim Yacht Club in Kiel, in Germany, it is a multi-hulled vessel carrying a large array of solar photovoltaic (PV) panels. The Turanor is also the world’s largest solar boat. The boat is nearly 102 feet long, almost 50 feet wide and standing 24-1/2 feet high (31 meters by 15 meters by 7.5 meters). It can run on its stored energy in the absence of sunlight for around three days at 7.5 knots, the speed of an average oil tanker. At slower speeds it could run for up to 15 days, according to its makers.

 The yacht is sailed by two sailors the plan for the four sailors in the yacht is go around the world only using sustainable energy from the boat. The 34,000-mile journey will take the vessel across the Atlantic, the Panama Canal, the Pacific, the Indian Ocean and the Suez Canal to the Mediterranean over a scheduled 160 days. The Turanor is also the world’s largest solar boat. The challenge of this sale around the world is to chase the sun, so that they can have energy.