The Natalie Blog

Hi everybody!

Congratulations to Naomi, Momtahina, and Katherine who all got the last riddle right. The answer was that the wife shot a photo of her husband, the developed the photo, and then hanged it on the wall. Now, here comes the next riddle:

He who has it doesn’t tell it, he who takes it doesn’t know it, he who knows it doesn’t want it. What is it?

Hope it’s not too hard or not too easy.

Good luck!

Hi everybody!

 Congartulations to Naomi who solved the riddle and thanks to everyone who tried! Here is the answer: He said his hat was blue! This happened because it already says there were 2 blues so it was still possible for him to have either. But it was made clear he was wearing blue because if there were 2 blues and 1 white hat, 2 men would see 1 white and 1 blue, while another would see 2 blues. Then these 2 that see 1 white 1 blue would say blue because of the other one’s silence they would think that the other could see more than one blue therefore the other would take his time to wonder if there are 3 blues or 2 blues and a white. This would happen quickly. But because in this case it took long, it was clearly seen to be 3 blues. Hope it wasn’t too hard or too easy. Here comes the next riddle:

A woman shoots her husband.
Then she holds him under water for over 5 minutes.
Finally, she hangs him.
But 5 minutes later they both go out together and enjoy a wonderful dinner together.
How can this be?

Hope it’s not too hard or too easy!

Hi everybody!

I am writing chapters 6 and 7 of the book, Where The Whales Sing by Victor Kelleher. Here they are!

Chapter 6 - Journeys End

Claire suddenly saw a ……………. WHALING SHIP!!!! Thinking about nothing else but the whales, she dived into the water to warn the whales. She jumped onto the calf. The calf, thinking she was playing, surfaced. When they reached the surface, she stood on the calf as soon as the whaler shot the harpoon. And then, everything went black.

Chapter 7 - Saved

Claire awoke suddenly and wondered where she was. She saw her mother and father around her. She realized she was in the hospital. Her dad started attacking with her questions. Claire told them everything. When she had finished, her parents had disapproving looks on their faces. Finally, she went along with her parents version of the truth. But, in her heart, she knew what the truth was.

Hope you enjoyed it!

Hi everybody!

Thanks to everybody who tried to solve the previous riddle. They were Sokeina, Anand, Naomi and Nadine. But in the end, Kesaia and Lilly got the right answer! The answer was that when Carol thought she was near the equator, she filled the sink and allowed the water to drain away. When the ship had crossed the equator, the water reversed direction! Here’s the next ridddle!

The three wisest sages in the land were brought before the king to see which of them were worthy to become the king’s advisor. After passing many tests of cunning and invention, they were pitted against each other in a final battle of the wits.

Led blind-folded into a small room, the sages were seated around a small wooden table as the king described the test for them.

 “Upon each of your heads I have placed a hat. Now you are either wearing a blue hat or a white hat. All I will tell you is this- at least one of you is wearing a blue hat. There may be only one blue hat and two white hats, there may be two blue hats and one white hat, or there may be three blue hats. But you may be certain that there are not three white hats.”

“I will shortly remove your blind folds, and the test will begin. The first to correctly announce the colour of his hat shall be my advisor. Be warned however, he who guesses wrongly shall be beheaded. If not one of you answers within the hour, you will be sent home and I will seek elsewhere for wisdom.”

With that, the king uncovered the sages’ eyes and sat in the corner and waited. One sage looked around and saw that his competitors each were wearing blue hats. From the look in their eyes he could see their thoughts were the same as his, “What is the colour of my hat?”

 For what seemed like hours no one spoke. Finally he stood up and said, “The colour of the hat I am wearing is . . .”

Hope it’s not too easy or not too hard!

Hi everybody!

Congratulations to Anand and Naomi who both got it right! The answer was that you put your lock on the package and send it. Then your friend puts their own lock on the package ans sends it back. After that, you remove your lock and send the package back to your friend and then they can remove their lock and open the package! Her coomes the next riddle!

Carol is travelling by ship from south of the equator to the north.
She has a nice little second class cabin which has a bathroom, but no window.

Carol has neither compass nor other instruments.

 Yet, without leaving her room or talking with anyone, Carol knew exactly when the ship crossed the equator.

 How did she know? Hope it’s not too hard or not too easy!

 Good luck!

Hi everybody!

Our class has been reading a book called “Where The Whales Sing”. We have also been writing a small summary on each chapter of the book. Below is what I have written about the book.

Chapter 1:- Adrift

Claire had been thinking for days that she wanted whale-watching for humpback whales with her father on a boat. Finally, she got her wish. About 10 minutes on the boat, a fierce storm broke out. The boat twisted and turned and finally capsized. Her father fell overboard. Claire kept calling but the boat drifted on.

 Chapter 2:- Up from the Deep

Claire had had a lot of dreams but this one was unusual. In the dream, Claire had jumped overboard in order to go swimming. Claire had gone swimming with the dolphins. She woke up from the pain in her leg. Carelessly, she really did jump overboard. For a while, it was calm and peaceful. Then suddenly, she was confronted by a shark. Just as suddenly as the shark had come, a whale arrived and drove the shark away and pushed Claire to the surface.

Chapter 3:- Riding the whale

Claire felt the whales swimming underneath the boat. She kept on thinking about the whales until she couldn’t't stand it any longer. Claire jumped off but then suddenly she was confronted by an orca while she was with the humpbacks. They kept pushing her to towards the boat, the current and the whales.

Chapter 4:- A debt repaid

Claire jumped overboard for she had heard the humpbacks singing. She found the baby whale that she had met on her first underwater adventure. Suddenly, they ran into a pod of orca’s. The male orca recognised Claire. The orca’s saved her and put her in the boat. Somehow, she knew that she had to go where she was going.

Chapter 5:- Intruder

Claire had become very sick on her journey on the boat but had been supported by her cheery whale friends. After a while, she realized that she had been heading south and that she was way to far out to the south. She had seen ice flows and seals to confirm this. Suddenly she saw a . . . . . . . . . . . .

WHALING SHIP!

Well, there you go that’s five chapters of the book. There is two more chapters in “Where The Whales Sing”.  I won’t tell you the title or it will spoil the surprise. We haven’t read the last chapter yet but when we do I’ll put up a post on what happened in that chapter   :) 

 Bye!!!

 Hi everybody!

Congratulations to Momtahina, Nadine and Norma who all got it right! The answer was that it was the maid because there is no post on Sundays. Although there is post on Sunday’s in Australia. Here comes the next riddle: 

Suppose you want to send in the mail a valuable object to a friend. You have a box which is big enough to hold the object. The box has a locking ring which is large enough to have a lock attached and you have several locks with keys. However, your friend does not have the key to any lock that you have. You cannot send the key in an unlocked box since it may be stolen or copied. How do you send the valuable object, locked, to your friend - so it may be opened by your friend?

Hope it’s not too hard or not too easy! Good luck

  http://www.flickr.com/photos/53611153@N00/688068169

Hi everybody!

 It’s time again to announce who won the last riddle, and again, it was…… NAOMI! Oh my god, she is just fanatstic at riddles. Sorry Nadine that you didn’t get the meaning of the riddle. Anyway, time for the next riddle. Hope it’s not too hard or not too easy. Here it goes:

Two grandmothers, with their two granddaughters;
Two husbands, with their two wives;
Two fathers, with their two daughters;
Two mothers, with their two sons;
Two maidens, with their two mothers;
Two sisters, with their two brothers;
Yet only six in all lie buried here;
All born legitimate, from incest clear 

How is this possible?

Good luck! 

Hi!

This term our class is doing the subject, well, anything to do with the sea. For example, ships, creatures, shipwrecks, actual sea’s, nature under the sea and many, many more subjects to do with the sea. I have chosen the shipwreck, RMS Titanic. Here is some information on the Titanic.

RMS Titanic was an Olympic-class passenger liner owned by the White Star Line and built at the Harland and Wolff shipyard. On the night of 14 April 1912, during her maiden voyage, Titanic struck an iceberg, and sank two hours and forty minutes later in early 15 April 1912. At the time of her launching in 1912, she was the largest passenger steamship in the world.The sinking resulted in the deaths of 1,517 people, ranking it as one of the worst peacetime maritime disasters in history and by far the most infamous. The Titanic used some of the most advanced technology available at the time and was popularly believed to be “unsinkable”. It was a great shock to many that despite the advanced technology and experienced crew, the Titanic still sank with a great loss of life.

On the night of Sunday, 14 April, the temperature had dropped to near freezing and the ocean was absolutely calm. There was no moon and the sky was clear. Captain Smith, in response to iceberg warnings received via wireless over the last few days, altered the Titanic’s course slightly to the south. That Sunday at 1:45 PM, a message from the steamer Amerika warned that large icebergs lay in the Titanic’s path, but inexplicably, the warning was never relayed to the bridge. Later that evening, another report of numerous large icebergs, this time from the Mesaba, also failed to reach the bridge.At 11:40 PM while sailing south of the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, lookouts Fredrick Fleet and Reginald Lee spotted a large iceberg directly ahead of the ship. Fleet sounded the ship’s bell three times and telephoned the bridge exclaiming, “Iceberg, right ahead!” First Officer Murdoch ordered an abrupt turn to port (left) and full speed astern, which stopped and then reversed the ship’s engines. A collision was inevitable and the iceberg brushed the ship’s starboard (right) side, buckling the hull in several places and popping out rivets below the waterline over a length of 300 ft (91 m). As seawater filled the forward compartments, the watertight doors shut. However, while the ship could stay afloat with four flooded compartments, five were filling with water. The five water-filled compartments weighed down the ship so that the tops of the forward watertight bulkheads fell below the ship’s waterline, allowing water to pour into additional compartments. Captain Smith, alerted by the jolt of the impact, arrived on the bridge and ordered a full stop. Following an inspection by the ship’s officers and Thomas Andrews, and shortly after midnight on 15 April, lifeboats were ordered to be readied and a distress call sent out.The Titanic carried 20 lifeboats with a total capacity of 1,178 persons. While not enough to hold all of the passengers and crew, the Titanic carried more boats than required by the British Board of Regulations. At the time, the number of lifeboats required was determined by a ship’s gross register tonnage, rather than her human capacity.The Titanic showed no outward signs of being in imminent danger, and passengers were reluctant to leave the apparent safety of the ship to board small lifeboats. As a result, most of the boats were launched partially empty; one boat meant to hold 40 people left the Titanic with only 12 people on board. With “Women and children first” the imperative for loading lifeboats, Second Officer Lightoller, who was loading boats on the port side, allowed men to board only if oarsmen were needed, even if there was room. First Officer Murdoch, who was loading boats on the starboard side, let men on board if women were absent. As the ship’s list increased people started to become nervous, and some lifeboats began leaving fully loaded. By 2:05 AM, the entire bow was under water, and all the lifeboats, save for two, had been launched.Around 2:10 AM, the stern rose out of the water exposing the propellers, and by 2:17 the waterline had reached the boat deck. The last two lifeboats floated off the deck, one upside down, the other half filled with water. Shortly afterwards, the forward funnel collapsed, crushing part of the bridge and people in the water. On deck, people were scrambling towards the stern or jumping overboard in hopes of reaching a lifeboat. The ship’s stern slowly rose into the air, and everything not secured crashed towards the water. While the stern rose the electrical system finally failed and the lights went out. Shortly afterwards, the stress on the hull caused Titanic to break apart between the last two funnels, and the bow went completely under. The stern righted itself slightly and then rose vertically. After a few moments, at 2:20 AM, this too sank into the ocean.Of a total of 2,223 people, only 706 survived; 1,517 perished. The majority of deaths were caused by hypothermia in the 28 °F (−2 °C) water. Only two of the 18 launched lifeboats rescued people after the ship sank. Lifeboat 4 was close by and picked up five people, two of whom later died. Close to an hour later lifeboat 14 went back and rescued four people, one of whom died afterwards. Other people managed to climb onto the lifeboats that floated off the deck. There were some arguments in some of the other lifeboats about going back, but many survivors were afraid of being swamped by people trying to climb into the lifeboat or getting pulled down by the suction from the sinking Titanic, though it turned out that there had been very little suction. In the disaster, first class men were four times as likely to survive as second class men, and twice as likely to survive as third class men. Nearly every first-class woman survived, compared to 86 percent of those in second class and less than half of those in third class. As the ship fell into the depths, the two sections behaved very differently. The streamlined bow planed off approximately 2,000 feet (609 m) below the surface and slowed somewhat, landing relatively gently. The stern, however, plunged violently to the ocean floor, the hull being torn apart along the way from massive implosions caused by compression of the air still trapped inside. The stern smashed into the bottom at considerable speed, grinding the hull deep into the silt.

Well, there you go. There’s what I’ve found out. Sorry it’s so long!

Information from Wikipedia

Hi everybody!

Today (29th May 2008), we had our first debate of the year for Belmore South. It was against Campsie, (not very far from us), and the topic was that Earth Hour is a waste of time. We were saying it WASN’T a waste of time, and guess what….. WE WON!!!!

Even though we were all above the time limit we still had very good arguments and we had very good rebuttals.

In this first debate it was: 1st speaker, me; 2nd speaker, Naomi; 3rd speaker, Ramiz; and team advisor, Celia. At Belmore South we usually have 2 extra people in the debating team but we haven’t found out who those two people are yet.

Hope we do as well as we did in this debate in our upcoming debates.