You can grow your intelligence

A lot of people think that some people are smart and some aren’t that smart. But did you know that your intelligence doesn’t define you, nor is it impossible to change.

Neuroscientists have discovered that the brain works a lot like a muscle, actually. The more you train it, the stronger and better it gets. In the cerebral cortex, a part of the brain, there are tiny nerve cells called neurons. These neurons connect in different ways and form our thoughts and memories. A brain that doesn’t get a lot of exercise, has fewer neurons connections than a brain that does. Brain exercise can be anything from problem solving to any sensory input (for example, in a study where neuroscientists checked for neuroconnections in animal that lived in an empty cage, compared to animals with company and thus more sensory input, it was found that the latter had significantly more neuron connections.). This is what is called having a “growth mindset”, realising that your intelligence can expand.

But one has to be aware that just challenging your brain isn’t enough. It is vital to keep challenging yourself and keep pushing, otherwise the neuron connections will fade away and you will eventually lose your intelligence, just like it is with muscle power. Hence the catchphrase “Use it or you lose it”.

Sometimes when you’re having trouble solving a problem, it is valuable to remember that giving up won’t make anything easier. It is important to challenge yourself and use your brain, only then will you get better. Always when facing a challenge you have to have the word “yet” in mind. Instead of thinking “I can’t do this”, think “I can’t do this yet”. With th help of “yet”, you realise that what you’re trying isn’t impossible, you just haven’t mastered it yet!

   And if you see everybody but you succeed, it is important to know that you shouldn’t compare your work to others, but instead to your older work. “Being good lies not in outperforming your fellow men, being good consists in outperforming your former self.”

Now you know how your brain works and you know what wonderful things it can do. So now it is your turn. Go out there and do great things!

Letter from Australia

Dear mother and father,                                                            December 23, 1986

Right now I’m sitting in my hotel room in a small town called Walkabout Creek, and I’m taking the time to write you this letter. Tomorrow it’s off on the roads again, so I won’t be able to write more.

How are you guys? And how is Mary? I’m really sorry I couldn’t be at home to be with her. Tell her I miss her a lot, and that daddy is going to come home in a few weeks. 

My Australia-across trip is going very well! As I said, I’m in Walkabout Creek, a small town in the Northern Territories. The last couple of days I’ve been hitchhiking with road train drivers, who, contrary to rumors, are actually very nice and social people. They might not smell very good or be that clean, but heck, I didn’t expect this adventure to be super hygienic. They’re good people anyway.

   I started out in Perth, and my goal is to get to Sydney to watch the firework show on New Year’s Eve. I’ve heard a lot about the show, only good things of course. It’s supposed to be the most spectacular show in the whole of Australia. I will tell you more about it when I get home.

The road train driver that drove me here told me that Walkabout Creek is just a small, boring dump in the Australian outback, and it’s true, Walkabout Creek is pretty small, but boy, was he mistaken about the people here. Everyone I’ve met today was really nice. Also, the entire town was on hype this day, something about Sue Charlton, a young and attractive American reporter being in town to write about Mick Dundee, a local guy who had an accident with a crocodile while out fishing.

   While sitting peacefully in the pub with my beer, I suddenly heard a loud thump from behind. When I looked, I saw a guy in a hat laying on a table, knocked out. A guy called Nugget told me that this man had called Mick a poacher, which of course is illegal.

Tomorrow I’m heading further east, a trucker I met in the bar told me I can hitch a ride with him. I wish you all the best, and I’ll see you soon again. This letter will probably arrive just around New Year, so I wish you best of luck for the new year. Miss you! I will see you again soon.

Love,
David

My Practical Experience Week

by Ian Holmer

Last week our classs had practical experience week, where you get to try woking at a real job and see how everything works. I chose to work at the Humanities Lab at Lund University, or “Humlabbet” for short. I chose to work there because my sister did the same thing two years back, so we had connections to the people who worked there. Also, my dad knows the guy who is in charge of everything there. It was very fun working there, my task was setting up and using the eyetrackers. Eyetrackers are machines that tracks IR reflections of the eye, and thus telling us where the eye is looking.

   During the entire week there were some technical difficulties, a missing monitor here, and a failure in the tracking sensors there,  so the week was full of problem solving, which was fun and intresting, since I got to connect different electrical cables to different adapters, while simultaneously watching a monitor too see my progress in getting the video information back on the screen.  When I succeeded, I secured everything with duct tape, which worked almost flawlessly for the rest of the week.

   I think this would be an excellent summerjob, since the work days aren’t too long, and the job doesn’t require heavy lifting or anything physically demanding. Also, the job isn’t ties to a specific schedule, since you only work when you have test persons available to perform the experiment. This means that you can have a relaxing summer, because you don’t have to stress with the time.

   One drawback with this job is that you sometimes don’t have anything to do, except killing time. But of course, if you’re the supervisor or are actually employed, you have to look at the actual tracking data and make sence out of it, and then do a lot of paperwork and analyses, and lastly a conclusive report. 

   I would certainly work there again if I got the chance. Overall it was a great experience, and my supervisor was very happy with my contribution and help.

Wordlist from the Aboriginous film

persecution - förföljelse, hets

recompense - ersättning, gottgöring

pejorative - nedsättande, nedvärderande 

subsequent - följande

encroachment - intrång, angrepp

suffrage - rösträtt

domestic - inhemsk, inrikes

persist - leva kvar, fortsätta

UK Travel Guide

Sources:

Stonehenge:

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

https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ales_stenar

http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/stonehenge/

Buckingham Palace:

https://www.royalcollection.org.uk/visit/the-state-rooms-buckingham-palace

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

Image sources:

Wikimedia Commons

The Royal Collection Trust

Fakebook #4

Hello, Boris here again.

So I thought I would talk a little about what’s in at the moment, what music, what clothes and so on. Let’s start with music. Until recently, I thought Rachmaninov was the most popular music, but now I know better. There is a song called Gangnam Style, and I have heard that every cool club is playing it, and that all the teenagers like it. It was published on Youtube about three years ago and it still lives on. Another great song is called Friday, and is sung by Rebecca Black.
I believe the cool kids nowadays still wear jeans and old checkered shirts, and have big mullets like back in the day. Two days ago I did the Habanero Challenge for my Youtube channel, and it already has 301 views! I can’t believe I’m actually famous now!

Well, I was told today by Igor, my boss, that if I wanted to keep my job as the a Russian assassin, I’m going to have to stop blogging. So I’m officially stating that this is the last blog post from me, Boris Bocharov. I have had a great time on here. Good bye.

Disclaimer: Boris Bocharov is fictional. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. Also, this blog post was full of sarcasm. If you didn’t notice, you might want to have your brain looked at by a doctor.

Fakebook #3

Hello my friends, I am back.

Last week I was on a mission in North Korea. Something about somebody called Kim John Moon or something. When I got back to Russia, my boss Igor suddenly wanted to celebrate my accomplished mission, so he threw a very big party for the entire third department of the GRU. All the guys working there had been wanting to take this John-guy out for several years, but they never succeeded. For me there were no problems at all.

It was a very nice party, with very good food. There were lots of different dishes, such as kalduny, coulibiac and bliny. And of course caviar. Mmm, caviar, lots of expensive beluga caviar. And what did we drink? High percentage vodka of course.

We listened to classic Russian music, mostly Rachmaninov and Tchaikovsky, and danced and enjoyed the time until dawn came. Then everybody had to go back to work again. Overall, it was a nice party. It’s actually the only party I have been to. Otherwise I spend my time on better things, like rickrolling* innocent people, but this time Igor talked me into it.

Well, that’s it, have a good one. Bye.

Disclaimer: Boris Bocharov and all the other persons mentioned are fictional. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. Kind of.

*Definition of rickrolling

Fakebook #2

Hello my friends, it’s Boris again.

I must say I’m getting kind of stuck at this internet thing. Yesterday I had no one to kill and that is why I sat at my computer all day watching kittens on a homepage called Youtube or something.

I don’t have a lot of friends, since I’m a professional killer. The only friend I can really trust is my companion. His code name is Semper and we have worked together for 15 years. Semper knows many different languages and accents, which is convenient while on the run from the pol… *cough*  while traveling.
In my free time I usually train hard to improve my shooting accuracy, which is quite impossible, considering that I’m the best assassin in the world. I like to travel a lot as well, and when I’m on assignment somewhere and the target is already dead, I resort to sightseeing the last couple of hours I’m still in the country. That of course only apply to cases when I haven’t been spotted, and when I don’t have to run. It’s a rare occasion, but it has happened before.

That’s enough about my spare time, until next time. And remember;

I am watching you...

Disclaimer: Boris Bocharov is fictional. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, or actual events, is purely coincidental.

Fakebook #1

Hello my friends, my name is Boris Bocharov.

I was born in the Soviet Union in 1976, while it still existed. Now I am a spy for the Russian government, but nobody is supposed to know that. That means I will probably have to kill everybody reading this. I was born into a family of spies and killers, but both my parents are dead. My father was killed on a mission in Bulgaria, and my mother was assassinated on assignment in London. My codename is Red Wolf. Now that you know that, I am certain I must kill you. Don’t take it personally. My weapon of choice for silent deaths is my Kalashnikov, otherwise I take my RPG. And remember; I am watching you...

Disclaimer: Boris Bocharov is fictional. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, or actual events, is purely coincidental. Also, don’t use an AK47 in an assassination. It’s just stupid.

Holly's Heroes, ep. 1 - summary

The first episode is about Holly McKenzie, a 14 year old girl from New Zealand, who moves to Woolich, Australia. She is very interested in basketball, and having played  a lot of basketball in New Zealand, she goes to the tryouts of the local team called the Rams, in order to get to play basketball in Australia as well. After getting humiliated by the team members and the coach, who don’t give her a chance to show them what she can do, and tell her she isn’t good enough to make the team, she has to form her own team, which she later calls the Outlaws.

Mount Perception - Log book, week 20

• I played the game called Decorate, but since I already have played that game once, sadly I didn’t find any news words.

• I retold a news story from BBC News, and here are four words to that: 

casualties - offer

authorities - myndigheter

storm surge - stormvåg

flash floods - störtflod

• I played a game called Spelloween, but I didn’t find any words.

Mount Perception - Log book, week 18

I did the following activities:

• I retold a news story from News in Levels, and here are the words to that: 

resident - boende

initial - inledande

intermittent - återkommande

issue - h. utfärda

spokesman - talesman

• I also played the game Big Words (Scotland), here are the words to that:

garment - plagg

entrée - förrätt

leek - purjolök

rosehip - nypon

lettuce - sallad

cauliflower - blomkål

• I did the Lyricstraining with the song A Spoonful of Sugar sung by Julie Andrews on the advanced level. Here are five words:

spree - h. utflykt

lark - lärka

American robin - vandringstrast

intent - avsikt

delightful - behaglig

• I did a personality test called 16personalities, and the result was ”debater”.

      Here are my words:

initiate - h. sätta igång

tidy - prydlig

harsh - h. sträng

implement - h. verkställa

envious - avundsjuk

Mount Perception - Log book, week 17

I did the following activities:

•   I did the Lyricstraining with the song Undo by Sanna Nielsen, on the expert level. There were no difficult words, so here are just five random words:

undo - upphäva

rumble - buller/dunder

noise - ljud

trouble - trubbel

silent - tyst

• I did another song on Lyricstraining, Boulevard of Broken Dreams by Green Day, on the expert level again. Here are a few words:

shallow - h. svag

vital - livsviktig

boulevard - lång, bred stadsgata

beating heart - hjärta som slår

divide - skilja

• I also played the game Big Words (USA), here are the words to that:

anthem - nationalsång

preachers - predikant

governor - guvernör

liberty - frihet
inexcusably - oförlåtligt

• I retold a news story from News in Levels. The text was pretty short, so I only found two hard words, here they are: 

chimp - schimpans

drone - drönare

Mount Perception - Log book, week 16

I did the following activities:

•   I did the exercise about furniture on ur.se. These are the words I chose to write down:

chandelier - kristallkrona

striped - randig

blinds - persienner

ceiling - innertak

armchair - fåtölj

floral - blommig

•   I did the Lyricstraining with the song Roar by Katy Perry on the intermediate level once, and on the advanced level twice, since the lyrics are clear and easy to hear. I only found four supposedly difficult words:

roar - ryta

politely - artigt

sting - sticka

rock the boat - orsaka problem

• I did another two songs on Lyricstraining, Happy by Pharrell Williams, and Happy Xmas by John Lennon. I didn’t find any words to Happy, I mean, have you heard the song? To Happy Xmas, I found one phrase that could be useful:

near and the dear - nära och kära

Postcard to a friend

Hi there!

I’m in Fränninge, a small village in southern Sweden, celebrating midsummer with my grandparents and family. We just had breakfast, waffles with cream, strawberries and sugar topping. Yummy! Oh, and did you know that midsummer also is called St. John's Day in other parts of the world? I actually just found out about it. Anyways, the weather is awesome, it hasn’t rained since a week back, and I don’t see a single cloud on the bright blue sky. Tonight we are going to dance around the maypole, which by the way is called ”midsommarstång” in Swedish. Next week we will take our flight back to Jacksonville.

See ya!

English reading, One - nil, chpt. 1-3

Encyclopedia Brown - retelling

Audio and voice recording >>

Leroy ”Encyclopedia” Brown

Leroy ”Encyclopedia” Brown is a 10 year old boy and the son of Mr Brown, the police chief in Idaville. They call him Encyclopedia because he is very smart and his brain is filled with more facts than a reference book. He lives at 13 Rover Avenue, in a red brick house.

The first story is about a tiger salamander which gets stolen from the Idaville Aquarium just two days after arriving there. The story obviously ends with Encyclopedia cracking the case.

One of the suspects, Sam Maine, who was hired just two weeks ago as a cleaner, said that she had 19 years of experience with salamanders and other lizards.

But Encyclopedia knew the fact that salamanders are amphipians, not lizards, which means Sam Maines must have been lying.

Engelska - Letter to the editor

No to zoos!!

I think holding animals captive in a zoo is completely wrong and inhuman!

Animals are taken away from their natural habitat to get stared at through a cage net by people who pay.

Then they spend their entire life in a cage, getting food without having to hunt. When the animals at last get too old, they are simply released back into the wilderness, without knowing how to survive.

Yanking animals out of the ecosystem actually causes more dead animals in the area,

let´s say Animal 1 is the food of Animal 2, so when Animal 1 is captured for the zoo, Animal 2 starves to its death.

A solution to this problem would be safaris.They are a much better idea than zoos, because people who want to watch rare animals can do jut that, and not only that, but also in their natural habitat.

Ian Holmer, 13, Lund