Chemistry Experiment-Acids&Bases-Tumeric PH Indicators

So, for chemistry today we did experiments. We made PH Indicators.
...
...
Oh, so your wondering 'What in the world in PH?'. Right? Oh yeah, I'm right. Well, Wikipedia defines it as:
In chemistry, pH is a measure of the acidity or basicity of an aqueous solution
Well, if you can understand that, good for you. Its basically that measure of acidity or basicity in something that is able to dissolve in water. Cool right?
...
If you said no!, I have a feeling you will change your mind after this experiment.
And if you said yes!, good for you.


Parental supervision may be required = turmeric stains :\

List of Ingredients:
A nice old pair of clothes
One handy adult - Optional ^^
Vinegar - Our Acid
Ammonia - Our Base
Lemon Juice - Another Acid - Optional
Turmeric, Red Cabbage Juice, or Beet Juice - warning: stains
Isopropyl alcohol (rubbing alcohol) - Our neutral
Windex (not much) - Another Base - Optional
Lots of strips of paper towel - Around 6 - 7 - About an inch wide
Two small bowls - You use a very little of the ingredients 


Pour some rubbing alcohol and tumeric/reb cabbage juice/beet juice and stir for a few seconds. The alcohol will dissolve the tumeric. You will get a orangey-yellow liquid.
In the other bowl, pour vinegar.

Now, pick up those paper strips. Pinch the paper towel and dip it into the 1st bowl. If it done correctly (its pretty hard not to) the paper will change color. That means that the PH level has changed.

Tumeric: Bright Yellow
Red Cabbage: Purpleish Blue
Beet Juice: Redish color  

So that's it.





Not.


Now, open the container of ammonia, do not pour it into anything. Now pick up your orangish yellow/purpleish blue/redish color paper and hold it above the opening. You don't have to dunk it in, since ammonia is such a powerful base, the fumes will do the trick. I don't know what color beet juice or red cabbage will turn because I used tumeric. It turns a wonderful deep blood red. The change in color means that the PH level has changed. Anyway, now your going to be using the second bowl which should  be filled with vinegar. Vinegar is our acid, which will neutralize the base. Dunk the colored paper into the vinegar, and watch. The paper will turn into the color it turned when you dunk it in the first bowl!

You can experient in different ways. For example, you can use the Windex™, sprits it one a paper which has been dunked in the first bowl, and if you dunked your last paper into the acid, its okay. Once the paper dries, you can do it again. It will do the same thing as the ammonia. Lemon is another acid that you can use.

But whatever you do, never ever ever put bleach and ammonia together. The combination produces corrosive substances in your airways that cause your lungs to fill with fluid, it is called cholrine gas (read BAD).

And most importantly: Have fun ^^


This experiement is from the Happy Scientist
http://thehappyscientist.com/science-video/making-turmeric-paper *

He explains it much better than I do.

*needs flash

Reckless ~ Book Report

WARNING- This is a book report not a reveiw. There might be spoilers!

Reckless

By Cornelia Funke

                                    
Original Language: German

Publisher: Little, Brown, and Company

Publication Date: September, 2010

ISBN: 978-0-316-05609-0

Page Count: 394

Series: Book 1 of 1; unknown if series



Genre: Romance, Dark Fantasy



Reckless is about a young man named Jacob Reckless, who travels through a mirror into a land he discovered when he was younger. Goyl, fairies and all sorts of other fantasy creatures inhabit this land. Jacob's main mission throughout the book is to save his brother from being transformed into the jade goyl and reuniting with the girl he loves that he hadn't seen in years.

Reckless is in third person. The protagonist is Jacob Reckless. Other main characters include Will Reckless, Clara, and Celeste (almost always called Fox). This book has a really dark air to it. Almost the entire book makes you think that the pages are black.

The book starts off with twelve-year old Jacob who woke up at night and walked to his father’s abandoned office. A piece of paper fell out of a book on airplanes onto the ground. On it were sketches, but nothing meant anything to him other than the few words that were on the flip side. THE MIRROR WILL ONLY OPEN FOR HE WHO CANNOT SEE HIMSELF. He turned around and was met by his own distorted reflection. He closed his eyes and tried to find a lock or latch. It took him a minute before he understood. He covered his reflection head and found he was not in his father’s office anymore. Suddenly the cobwebs fell on him with a hoarse growl. It was animal like, but looked like an older man. He was smaller than Jacob. When Jacob reached for his neck the creature bit him. Before the creature could get him, Jacob pressed his hands over his scared reflection face. Jacob decided that Mirrorland was his secret.

Next Chapters takes place 12 years from then.

Will has found Mirrorland and has been scratched by a Goyl, a humanoid creature with rock for skin.. The Dark Fairy has put a curse on the Goyl injured. All scratched by the Goyl will slowly become Goyls themselves. Will has been and now the green lines are starting to show. The Jade Goyl, Will might become it, will make the King Goyl invincible. Clara comes through the mirror to. Clara is Will’s girlfriend. Will’s Goyl disease was almost incurable. Only the Dark Fairy can help him and it will be hard to get to her.

First they went to the child eating Witch’s House (the one from Hansel and Gretel) because in her garden grow the only berries that could cure Will. They couldn’t find them. In the forest, the Tailor (who makes clothes from human skin) attacks.

Next they went to the Red Fairy, the Dark Fairy’s sister, to find out how to kill her sister. Fox, Jacob’s friend, and Clara become friends. They find a dwarf named Evenaugh Valiant. They need him to get to the Fair Realm. Once they get there, the Red Fairy tells Jacob to put Will to sleep as to slow the process. Then she told him how to stop her enough to get her to tell them the cure. Jacob gives Will the plant to make him sleep and shortly after that Will is taken by the Goyls. The Dark Fairy told them about the Jade Goyl or Will. Jacob, Clara, and Fox go to the Goyl City to rescue Will.

Clara and Fox have to stay outside the city when Evenaugh and Jacob sneak in. They get captured along with the girls. Evenaugh gets them out and they go the Empress’s palace because the Goyl king is going to be married to a human girl as a peace offering. Will by that time has already turned full Goyl. Jacob then turns the Dark Fairy into a tree because he used the Fairy’s true name. She pleads for help. Jacob asks her to turn Will back human but she says she can’t. Will remembers Clara and Jacob so everything works out except for the fact that using the Fairy’s true name numbered his days alive.



I thought this book was okay. It was very fast and it feels like you missed a book. It got better in the end though. Another book is sure to come. This book didn’t seem to be written by Funke, but that may be due to her new translator. Not as good as the other Funke books but still enjoyable.

Monkey See, Monkey Do

Plant seeds aren't always easy to get too.The Tufted Capuchin monkeys of the Amazon Basin have an amazing adaptation. These monkeys have learned to use stones tools to get to their food.

The nut palms seeds have a hard layer of fiber-like layer much like the coconut. This is to keep unwanted animals out. But the Tufted Capuchins have a solution to this. First they look for the ripest seed. They need the ripest seeds because after they strip the fibrous layer, they let the seeds bask in the sun for up to one week. 

Once the seeds are dry, the Capuchin brings the nut(s) to his 'anvil' which is a flat rock. These usually have lots of pock marks from previous smashings. On the 'anvil' is heavy rock or the 'hammer'. He lifts the 'hammer' and brings it down on the nut. The monkey does this a few times till the nut breaks and he can eat the oily seed.

The young monkeys (who would be toddlers in human years) imitate the adult monkeys, which is similar to what human children do. This is how the monkeys learn, but this is not accidents. The monkey's rocks sometimes fall off the 'anvil and fingers are sure to be squashed. It can take up to 8 years to master the art of nut breaking.

*********************************************************************************

Other tools the Capuchins use include containers to hold water, sticks (e.g to dig nuts, to dip for syrup, to catch ants, to reach food) using sponges to absorb juice, using stones as hammer and chisel to penetrate a barrier and using stones as hammers and and  to crack nuts.
While some of these tasks are relatively simple by cognitive standards (e.g. using a stick to catch ants), others, like cracking nuts with 'hammers'  and 'anvils' are only exceeded in complexity by chimpanzee.

But, even though the Capuchin monkeys had to adapt to make these tools it does not imply that they understand cause and affect. It merely means that the monkeys are only able to learn from successful efforts but not from failures. It also means that they can not/ do not refine or improve much.

This is one example of the amazing and unique adaptations of life.



SOURCES:
Life Episode : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABqRg_RbQlM
http://zoologicalwildlifefoundation.com/animals/mammals/primates/new-world-monkeys/tufted-capuchin/
http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Cebus_apella.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tufted_capuchin

The Japanese Red Bug: Motherhood can kill, literally

Most animals and insects do not care for their young, but this insect does. The Japanese Red Bug cares for her young until they are old enough to get the food by themselves. They eat the fallen fruit from only one rare type of tree. The Schoepfia jasminodora produce a fleshy fruit called a drupe. These are only available for two weeks, so by the time the fruit are ripe, the little bugs are there.

      The newly hatched,  little bugs like only the most perfect ripe fruit and the job of finding them could take hours. But that's not the only trouble, stealing fruit from another Red Bug can be more effective than spending time looking for them. When the parent loses the fruit and don't get one fast enough, they could be coming home to an empty burrow. The lucky parent who comes back to double the baby bugs, will be forced to satiate their hunger. That is not an easy task though. Sometimes, the mother will be worked to death by the time the bugs leave the burrow. The bugs last meal at home would be her carcass.

The Amazing Waterfall Toad





Gave up on drawing it

In the rainforest at the borders of Brazil and Venezulea lives the Waterfall Toad. This toad is 1 inch long or about the size of a postage stamp. Unlike many toads and frogs,  the Waterfall Toad has not developed the ability to hop. So, how does it get away from hungry snakes? This little fellow is an expert skydiver. Once the snake comes close to the leaf which the toad is on, the Waterfall Toad falls off the leaf. The Waterfall Toad bounces of leaves until it finds a suitable vine to catch. It's strong hands grab on to the vine and it pulls itself up (which looks alot like pull ups).

This is one example of the amazing and unique adaptations of life.

LINK TO THE LIFE VIDEO* - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTD7DRTMu5o

*Couldn't find actual one, this will work-VERY GOOD SHOW, A MUST WATCH

Arizona Saguaro Flowers

The flowers on the cactus in Arizona have evolved to only bloom at night, for one night. The bloom of the flowers is timed almost exactly for the time of the arrival of it's nocturnal pollinators, the bats. At night the bats come for the nectar, and along the way the pollen catches onto the fur of the bat. As the bats go from flower to flower, the plants get pollinated.   Before the sun rises, one of the bathes of flowers die. The next night, the second batch will bloom and die. This goes on for 3 weeks and by the end a single cactus will have 200 or more flowers pollinated. Under the flower grow fruit, the animals like tortoises, birds, and and ants love them because of the fruits sugary, juicy red flesh. The seeds survive in the stomach and in the feces of these organisms. the seed have their own special fertiliser.After the first rain, the seeds begin to germinate.  

There are Seven Days in a Week... Wait, Why Seven?

Ever wonder why there are seven days in a week? Why not 8 or 4 or even 16?
Well, apparently the earliest known use of the seven day calendar was by the Hindus. They may have adopted a seven day week as early as the 1st century BCE! Other cultures adopted the seven-day week at different times.

The seven-day week is approximately a quarter of a lunation, lunation is the mean time for one lunar phase cycle, so it has been thought that this is the astronomical origin for the seven-day week. But there were several problems in this theory. The seven-day week is actually only 23.7% of a lunation, which means that a continuous cycle of seven-day week rapidly loses synchronisation with the lunation. In addition, a lunation is only the mean time for the lunar phase cycle, with each individual phase varying in length. Therefore, it is not immediately apparent why the seven-day week was selected by ancient cultures, rather than a six-day or a twelve-day week, or a week that divided the lunation more accurately using a factor of these number systems, such as a five-day or ten-day week.

Under Joseph Stalin's rule in 1929, the USSR  discontinued the seven-day week for a five day week, then later a six-day week. While the days were still named according to the seven-day week, the work schedules were rotated in five- and six-day periods. The seven-day week was reintroduced on 27 June 1940.

Even though at one point Russia and a few other countries, France to name one, used a week different from the seven day week stucture, by now, most if not all, countries have adopted the seven day week because of our global economy. 

Cool right! Oh and here is a cool thing I found on the internet. http://www.sherv.net/flip.html Look what I did!  


¡¡noʎ op os puɐ sǝlnɹ ɹǝƃƃolq

Hope you can figure out what it says!

*Next post to be made - Caterina Sforza

To be expected

These are some of the posts you can expect to read in the future:

*Caterina Sforza Post (In Progress)
Seven Days in a Week (Completed)
*Cesare Borgia
*Lorenzo de' Medici
*Rodrigo Borgia/ Pope Alexander VI
*Forli's History
Joseph Stalin

.....And More

*I'm really in to Italy. All these people and places are from/in Italy.

This list is subject to change.

Alexander the Great

I am soo happy because I finally got a laptop which I am writing on right now. Now to the real post.


In 356 B.C.E Alexander III, or the Great, was born to Olympias and Philip II of Macedonia and in 336 B.C.E, 20 years later, Philip was assassinated by his bodyguard at his daughter’s wedding. Alexander acted ruthlessly following his father’s assassination, killing all who opposed his rule.


Two years later in 334 B.C.E Alexander proved his bravery when he took his army across the Hellespont to liberate the Greek cities under Persian rule in Asia Minor. This plan was previously announced by his father, but the astounding campaign of his conquest was entirely his own ambitions. Alexander claimed descent in his father’s side from the Greek hero Hercules (Heracles) and from his mother, descent from the hero of the Trojan War Achilles. Later in Egypt his claims were raised a notch higher, when a priest at Alexander saw himself as spreading Greek desert shrine of Ammon hailed him the “son of Zeus”.

Alexander’s army served him loyally. His elite cavalry, the Companions, were a tight-knit group with whom Alexander fought, ate, and drank with like equals. On the battle field Alexander led from the front, something that wasn’t done. He could be supremely reckless of his own safety, yet he was also thoroughly professional in organizing and motivating his cavalry and infantry in battle.

Alexander saw himself as spreading Greek civilization by the sword. He founded Greek cities; the most famous is Alexandria in Egypt. He sought to Hellenize - to make Greek – the Persians whom he conquered. In 330 B.C.E Alexander established himself successor to the Persia throne. His adoption of the mantle of the Persian Empire created troubles for his Macedonian followers. The Persian traditions were not known of to Macedonians. They were also jealous when new Persian followers found favor with Alexander. Discontent came to a series of mutinies which Alexander violently suppressed.

Alexander was both ruthless and powerful. He killed in cold blood. In 323 B.C.E at the age of 33 he moved to Babylon, where in June he fell ill and died of fever (or possibly poison) leaving no clear successor.

Thanksgiving Letter!

In honor of Thanksgiving (a little early) I wrote a a letter to a human from a turkey's point of view.

 

Dear Humans,
        I am writing this to you on behalf of all the turkeys in the US.
Everyone loves Thanksgiving except turkeys. We turkeys aren't so fond of it. We like pumpkin pie, stuffing, bread, soup, and cranberry jelly, but not the main course. Ever since the pilgrims thought my great great great great great great grandfather Goblet was tasty, turkeys hated Thanksgiving. Halloween, Christmas, Easter, they're all fine but Thanksgiving, we'll pass.
How would you like it if you go to sleep with your brother then he is gone the next day! I have one more thing to say :

 

                                                     Eat Ham!

                                                                                                              The Honorable

                                                                                                    Turquay Tuttleflap


Hope you enjoyed it. Here are some turkey fun facts.

• 
  Turkeys can adapt to a wide variety of habitats. However, most turkeys are found in forests with grassy areas.
  
  
• The best time to see a turkey is on a warm clear day or in a light rain.

• Turkeys have heart attacks. When the Air Force was conducting test runs and breaking the sound barrier, fields of turkeys would drop dead. 

• Turkeys spend the night in trees. They fly to their trees around sunset.

• Turkeys fly to the ground at first light and feed until mid-morning. Feeding resumes in mid-afternoon.

• Gobbling starts before sunrise and can continue through most of the morning.

• A wild turkey has excellent vision and hearing. Their field of vision is about 270 degrees. This is the main reason they continue to escape some hunters.

• A spooked turkey can run at speeds up to 20 miles per hour. They can also burst into flight approaching speeds between 50-55 mph in a matter of seconds.

• Benjamin Franklin wanted the national bird to be a turkey.

And last but not least.....

Sea Turtles



Loggerhead Sea Turtle



Green Sea Turtle Coming Up For Air

 



Green Turtle



Today I'm doing a post on sea turtles because yesterday I watched a show about sea turtles and how that they are endangered. I felt that I needed to show every one about the sea turtle.



Sea turtles inhabit all of the worlds oceans except for the Arctic. There is the Leatherback Sea Turtle, the Flatback Sea Turtle, the Ridley Sea Turtle, the Green Sea Turtle, the Loggerhead Sea Turtle,  and the Hawksbill Sea Turtle. They belong to the superfamily Chelonioidea.

 It takes decades for sea turtles to get ready to reproduce. After they mate, the female sea turtle returns to land to nest, which they do at night. Some sea turtles nest at the place where they hatched. This can take place every two to four years once matured. They make from one to eight nests per season.

The female gets on to the beach by hauling herself up using her hind flippers. Once she finds a suitable nesting spot, she digs a circular hole about 40 to 50 centimetres deep. Then she lays the nest with a clutch of soft-shelled eggs one by one until she deposited 50-200 eggs. The Hawksbill Sea Turtle has been reported to lay 250 eggs. Then she piles the sand back on the hole. After that she smooths the sand back till it almost undetected visibly. After she is done, which may take 3o to 6o minutes, she drags herself back to the ocean, leaving the eggs alone.

The temperature can determine which gender the hatchlings will be.  Lighter sands maintain higher temperatures, which decreases incubation time and results in more female hatchlings.

Green Turtle Hatchling

Incubation takes two or so months. The eggs in one nest hatch together over a very short period of time. When ready, hatchlings tear their shells apart with their nose and dig through the sand. Again, this usually takes place at night, when predators such as seagulls cannot fly. But out of a thousand hatchlings, only one survives till adulthood.

The hatchlings then go on to the ocean, where predators await them.  In 1987, Carr discovered that the young of Green Turtles and the Loggerhead Turtles spent a great deal of their young lives in floating sargassum beds, where there are thick mats of unanchored seaweed. When they grow up the cycle is repeated.

  

Every species of sea turtle is either endangered or threatened. Beach development is area which threatens sea turtles. Since many turtles return to the same beach each time to nest, development can disrupt the cycle. There has been a movement to protect these areas, in some cases by special police. In some areas, such as the east coast of Florida, conservationists dig up turtle eggs and relocate them to fenced nurseries to protect them from beach traffic.

That's it for now!
Annaxandria

France's Industries

I'm writing a post on France's economy because I'm doing French class. So here it goes.

The economy of France is the fifth largest in the world behind the United States, China, Japan, and Germany. It is the second biggest economy in Europe, just behind Germany.  France entered the 2oo8-2oo9 recession, but left it earlier than most countries.

France's leading industrial sectors are telecommunications, aerospace and defense, ship building, pharmaceutical, construction, and automobile productions. France's main exports include machinery and transportation equipment, aircraft, plastics, chemical, pharmaceutical products, iron and steel, beverages, and electronics. France's export partners are Germany, Spain, Italy, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Belgium. Imports include machinery and equipment, vehicles, crude oil, aircraft, plastics, and chemicals. Import partners are Germany, Spain, Italy, United States, United Kingdom, Netherlands, and Belgium.


France is the leading agricultural producers in the European Union (EU). The European Union consists of a number of countries in Europe, including Italy, Greece, Germany, and Spain. France's agricultural land accounts for 1/3 of all land in the EU.

France is the 4th largest weapon supplier in the world. France exports great quantities of weaponry to the United Arab Emirates, Brazil, Greece, India, Pakistan, Taiwan, Singapore and many others.

Tourism is a big industry in France. France is ranked as the first tourist destination in the world. Some of the places that are very famous include the Eiffel  Tower, the Louvre Museum, Palace of Versailles,  Musée d'Orsay, Arc de Triomphe, Centre Pompidou, Mont-Saint-Michel, Château de Chambord, Sainte-Chapelle, Château du Haut-Kœnigsbourg, Puy de Dôme, Musée Picasso, and Carcassonne.


That's it for now.
Annaxandria

Halloween's History

Hi,here is a post on the history of Halloween.

The roots of Halloween can be traced back to a Celtic festival. Ancient Celts believed that on Samhain, or Halloween, the border between the Otherworld, the realm of the dead, and ours was thinner. Releasing spirits, both harmless and harmful, into this world. The Celts honored their ancestors and warded of harmful spirits. This was probably how costumes and masks came. The Celts probably used costumes and masks to pretend they were harmful spirits, protecting them self.
Samhain was also the time for preparing for the winter. The Celts slaughtered the livestock and had bonfires. They through the bones of the slaughtered livestock into the bonfires. Sometimes they made two bonfires and walked with their livestock between them to cleanse them selves.
That's it for now. My source was wikipeadia. Here a link!

Annaxandria

Pictures!

A few days ago I went outside to take some picture with my dad's special camera lens and his camera called DX300 Nikon. The lens is called a macro lens. and it makes small things appear bigger. Here are some of the pictures my mom and I took.

The first picture is a Red Admiral butterfly that my mom took. The butterfly is bigger in the picture than it really is. The second pictures is a dragonfly. If you look closely you could see little hairs on its body. I took that picture. It's pretty good isn't it. The third one is a picture of something which I have no information on other than it was in my backyard. I think I took but I don't know. Then the last one is a toad. I think it is very interesting. Isn't this camera lens awesome!

Just in case you think I didn't do these, I DID. Thank you for taking the time to look.

Bill Gates, the Entrepreneur

Today I am going to do a post on the great Bill Gates. I think he is a real  good person to look up to. Here is his story.

Bill Gates the Entrepreneur


Bill Gates Growing Up

William H. Gates was born on October 28th, 1955 in Seattle to Bill Gates II and Mary Gates. Bill was one of the smartest boys in elementary school so at age eight he decided to read the entire World Book Encyclopedia, and made it to letter P before he stopped. Gates got into many arguments with everyone, including his parents. They wondered if something was wrong with Gates. Young Gates was sent to a child psychiatrist. The psychiatrist quickly figured out that nothing was wrong with him. He was just a strong-willed, very smart boy who loved to compete. After sixth grade was finished, Gates’ parents took him out of public school and enrolled him in a private school with high academic standards. Sending him there turned out to be the best move his parents could do. In 1968, the school became one of the first schools to have computer time for the students there. Computers in 1968 were bulky and expensive; the school couldn’t afford to buy one. So they rented it from a company called General Electric. The school could only manage to rent it for a few hours a week. Gates and his friends, Paul Allen and Kent Evans, were more than happy with that. They all spent as much time as they could at the computer. Sometimes they forgot about going to class.


:A Computer is a machine. It is also called hardware since the compute in solid. Like any machine, it can’t do anything without programs. Programs are instructions, or software since programs aren’t solid.:

Six months after the school made the computer available to the students, another company called Computer Center Corporation provided computer time at a lower priced and on a better machine. Gates and his friends were delighted. Their explorations and experiments with this new computer caused it to crash several times, they even managed to change some file to make it look like they weren’t spending so much time there. Someone noticed the changed files and they were banned for several depressing weeks. In 1968 Gates, Allen, and Kent formed their own company, the Lakeside Programmers Group; taking the name after their school. They found a customer right away, Computer Center Corporation, or as Gates called it “C-Cubed”. “C-Cubed” hired the Lakeside Programmers Group to fix its problems. The computers the Computer Center Corporation made were crashing too often. In exchange for fixing the problem, the boys were given unlimited computer time. When Computer Center Corporation went out of business in 1970, the Lakeside Programmers Group had to look for another employer. They found their first paying job. A company called Information Sciences Inc. hired them to create a payroll program. Now the Lakeside Programmers Group was a real business. Then Kent Evans died in a mountain climbing accident. Gates was so sad he said quote “For two weeks, I couldn’t do anything” Then the two them went back to work. Kent’s death might have made them work harder. Allen, who was a year older than Gates, went to college in Pullman, Washington, but the friends stayed close. They formed a new company called Traf-O-Data and began working summers on computer programming jobs. They earned $20,000 while still in school. One summer job was with a military company called TWR. The job was to find ways to crash its systems which was fun for the two eager, young programmers. During that job, did Gates and Allen come up with the idea to start a software company, but it would have to wait till Gates finished college.

Bill Gates’ College Years

In 1973, Gates left his home town of Seattle to attend Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts and just like he did in elementary school and in high school, Gates quickly lost interest in what he was supposed to study. Instead he spent as much time as he could in the computer lab. Sometimes he could be there until late night and would fall asleep in class the next day. Allen had found a job near Harvard. That summer Gates got one there too. They continued to talk about their soon-to-be software company. If they did start a company, Gates would need to quit college. In the 1975 issue of a popular electronic magazine, Paul Allen saw an ad for the Altair 8800. The cover page read “Project Breakthrough! World’s First Microcomputer Kit to Rival Commercial Models”. The Altair wasn’t very fast or powerful, but it was the very first personal computer. Other companies would surely begin making their own personal computer brands. Gates and Allen knew this was a better time than any to start their software company. Gates called MITS, the company who created the Altair 8800. HE told them he knew they had no software for the Altair 8800. He lied and said that Gates and Allen had created a new form of BASIC. The BASIC stands for Beginner’s All Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code. It’s a language of numbers, no words, a code used in programming computers. But Bill and Paul hadn’t created a BASIC for the Altair. They didn’t even own an Altair! Gates did his best to make a use able BASIC, while Paul tried to make the school’s computer act like an Altair so Gates could test his BASIC program. The Basic worked! February 1975, MITS bought Gates and Allen’s BASIC program. Then in June, Gates finally dropped out of college, and started their software company.

Microsoft

Gates and Allen wanted to call their company something that would make people think of microcomputers and software. Around December of 1975, they came up with “Micro-soft”. “Micro” for microcomputers, personal computers like the Altair 8800, and the “soft” for software. Ultimately, they condensed it to Microsoft. A year later Gates and Allen decided where they would put their brand new company. In Albuquerque, New Mexico, this was where MITS had also set up its headquarters. The added advantage was the low living cost. Also Gates loved to race his car out in the open desert. They started up Microsoft right at the nick of time. There were many new computer companies sprouting up. All Microsoft needed was a software and Gates spent long days and nights designing the software. Sometimes he even spent 18 hours at the office. Some nights he didn’t even bother going home and slept curled under his desk. He was having fun, and Microsoft was making money. But it was too much work even for Gates. Microsoft hired their first workers. They were eager young people that didn’t mind working long and hard. In 1977 Gates and Allen had a little trouble with MITS over the BASIC program. MITS had agreed to license it out to other companies. That meant renting it out so both Microsoft and MITS would make profit every time the BASIC was used. But, Microsoft didn’t think MITS was doing a good job getting the program to other companies. A judge ruled in Microsoft’s favor, so Gates could freely market his own BASIC. Other companies wanted it, and money started coming into Microsoft on a regular basis. New computer companies started over the next few years. Many failed just as quickly as they started, and some became successful, like Radio Shack and Commodore. The most successful was Apple Computer. This company was co founded by two young men named Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. In 1987 Apple made a successful new computer called Apple II. MITS and the Altair were soon out of date. Gates knew the computer rush was only in the US, so in 1987 he made Microsoft’s first international deal, opening a Microsoft partner office in Tokyo, Japan. By December that year, Microsoft had so much business that it had out grown the space in Albuquerque and Gates moved too Bellevue, Washington. As personal computer became more advanced and powerful during 1979, Microsoft created a more powerful version of BASIC for the computers. Gates also made a European deal, a partner office in Belgium. But Gates knew Microsoft had to keep making new products and finding new markets to sell them in. In 1980, a company called IBM entered the personal computer field. IBM wanted a new operating system for their new computers. Gates told them that he had what they wanted. Gates knew a small business that had invented a good new computer operating system they called Q-DOS. The name DOS meant (Computer) Disk Operating System. The company didn’t know IBM wanted their product. So Gates bought it for $50,000 and renamed it MS-DOS. Gates only let IBM license the product. Since Gates hadn’t sold it to IBM, he could license it to other companies as well. Gates earned his first million. His MS-DOS was going to be the most popular program in computing – with the exception of Apple computers. Gates decided Apple should use his company’s software as well. Gates and Jobs met in 1981. By this point, both young men were very wealthy. Jobs wanted Microsoft to devise programs for his Macintosh, nicknamed the Mac. To win Gates over Jobs had a Mac delivered to Microsoft’s offices before the Macintosh was available to the public. Gates and Jobs agreed that Microsoft would design programs for the Mac. With the MS-DOS program, the user had to type long lines of letters and symbols. To open programs on the Mac, the user used a gooey, after GUI- graphic user interface. The main part of the gooey is the screen, which allowed the user to point and click to open a program or file. The pointing and clicking was done by using a mouse. Apple didn’t invent the mouse or the gooey. The mouse and the gooey were invented by Xerox Corporation. Suddenly there was a major change in Microsoft’s ownership and Gates’ personal life. Paul Allen was diagnosed with cancer but he made a full recovery. However he no longer wanted all the stress of business. So Allen left Microsoft in 1983. Allen donates a great deal to charity. In November 1983, Microsoft announced a new product: Microsoft Windows. This was a new form of operating system, using icons on the screen rather than the MS-DOS method of typing in commands. Microsoft Windows used a mouse. The Mac also used icons and a mouse. Lawyers at Apple threatened to sue. They accused Microsoft of stealing their ideas. Gates countered that Apple had already borrowed the idea of the mouse, and possibly the idea of icon from Xerox. Besides, Microsoft had legally agreed that Microsoft would write software for Apple. Gates licensed the right to keep his Windows program looking like that of the Mac. Microsoft did make software for the Mac. Now Windows could advance at the same time he was designing software for his rival. Microsoft celebrated its tenth anniversary in 1985. In ten years the company had grown 1,000 employees. That year Microsoft products earned more than $140 million. But, Microsoft Windows was doing poorly. Most software programs were still being written for the MS-DOS or the Mac. There were only a few software programs that would work with the Windows. Meanwhile, Microsoft’s programmers were busy creating the first version of Microsoft Works for the Mac. This was a combination of software programs, including one for word processing and several for business. Microsoft was rapidly outgrowing the office in Bellevue and in 1986 Microsoft moved to Redmond, Washington, about 15 miles from Seattle. This headquarters was made up of 4 buildings. That year Gates opened a Microsoft branch in Mexico. Now he had branches in Mexico, Europe, and Asia. That was also the year in which Bill Gates became a billionaire and he was only 31! Gates decided, now that he had so much money, to be like his father and give money to charity. With Paul Allen he gave over two million to his school for a new science and mathematics building. In 1987, Gates met a young woman named Melinda French and they started dating. The next step for Gates was to get Microsoft Windows upgraded. The new version was called Windows 2.0. It was better than the first, but still wasn’t very successful. Microsoft continued to make money. By 1987, it was #1 seller of computer software. The Corporate Campus soon wasn’t big enough! It expanded from 4 to 8 buildings. Today there are 49 building in a 29 acre park that even has its own basketball court and a baseball field. IBM was still a problem for Microsoft and Gates. IMB insisted than OS/2, not Windows, would be its main computer operating system. The arguments were too much for Gates to handle. In 1989 he broke off all Microsoft deals with IBM. Meanwhile Gates issued a newer version of Windows called Windows 3.0. It still wasn’t very popular. Gates launched a gigantic advertising campaign. It was largest advertising campaign in Microsoft’s history. It cost over $10 million. People started to really notice Windows. The Federal Trade Commission also noticed them. This branch of the United States government looks out for any breaking of business laws. One of those laws is the Anti-Trust Law; it means no one company can unfairly dominate its rivals. This was the first time that Microsoft and Gates were question by the Federal Trade Commission. The Federal Trade Commission ruled that Gates and Microsoft were doing nothing wrong. In 1992 the final papers were signature marking the break between Microsoft and IBM. Everyone at Microsoft was nervous. Gates seemed to be gambling the company on the newest version of Windows, Microsoft Windows 3.1. They were wrong, people paid attention to the ad and they wanted it. It was installed in 70 million programs in 1992. Software companies began writing programs for Microsoft Windows. Microsoft was still writing its own programs. Microsoft Encarta, which first appeared in 1993, was the first encyclopedia designed for the computer. Gates had another victory in 1993. The last law suit filed by Apple Computer against Microsoft was settled and Microsoft and Microsoft won. By 1994, Microsoft Windows 3.1 was operating system on 90% of the computers people bought. But Gates knew it could be better. He scheduled a new version, Windows 94, for 1994, but the program was too big and complicated to be ready that year. In 1994 Gates’ mother died because of cancer. There was joy in this year too. Gates and Melinda French, who had been dating for 6 years, were married January in 1994. Microsoft 95 finally appeared in 1995. It was a best-seller. Windows 95 sold more than a million copied in the first 4 days. By October 1995 there were about 7 million copies of the program around the world. In 1996 Bill and Melinda Gates became parents. They named their baby girl Jennifer. He loved being a daddy. Gates saw Internet as a source of profit and learning. So Microsoft made its own Internet browser. Microsoft’s rival, Netscape, has its own browser called the Netscape Navigator. A lawsuit was filed in 1996. The owners claimed that Microsoft included Microsoft Explorer with every copy of Windows. They also claimed that Microsoft wanted to force Netscape out of business. Eventually Netscape lost. Meanwhile, Microsoft and NBC news teamed up to create MSNBC, a 24/7 new network on the Internet. Microsoft also bought WebTV networks, their televisions. Microsoft’s website was also expanded. Apple’s Steve Jobs wasn’t doing as well as Gates. His company had made a series of bad choices, such as the Newton, which was a handheld computer which didn’t do very well. Jobs were fired from his own company. Jobs and Apple saw Gates as an enemy. But when Jobs was hired back in 1997, the only way for Apple to exist was to allow Gates to buy a part of Apple.




Bill Gates the Philanthropist

By 1998, Gates was the wealthiest man in the world. He is now retired lives in Seattle on Lake Washington. In 1999 he had a son named Rory John. Bill Gates is a philanthropist and has given over $6 billion dollars to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the William H. Gates Foundation.




Source: Bill Gates, the Computer King by Josepha Sherman.

A Book Review - Mama's Babies

Rating: 4 1/2 out of 5*

Mama's Babies is a chilling fictional story of a "baby farmer" who, for money, takes in unwanted, or inconvenient children. The appearence of a new baby is often preceeded by the dissapearance of an older child, usually a toddler. This story is based on true events in the mid nineteenth century. Mama's Babies is told in first person by a girl named Sarah who, along with many other children, lives with a woman whom she calls Mama.
         
Sarah, the eldest child, cannot be a regular kid because she must take care of the rest of the kids in the family. Sarah friendship with the train station master's nephew unravels the story.

Mama's Babies was an exellent story written by Gary Crew. Mama's Babies has many sad and horrific parts, so I think this book is best to be read aloud by an adult. This book also has some old fashioned words and terminology. My mother has read this book to me, and because of the facts I just gave you, I'm glad she did.

I really enjoy reading this book (well listening to it). I would recommend it to mature pre-teen and young adults.

*Ratings:

1- I really HATED it

2- I didn't like it

3- I liked it

4- I really liked it

5- I LOVED it