Collective Endeavor!

Sophie's Individual Endeavor

My Individual Endeavor is also viewable on youtube, in three parts. Please watch and share! I'd love to hear your feedback.

Thanks for watching!

Peter's Individual Endeavor

Peter's (hilarious) mockumentary is up on youtube in four parts. Here they are:

And a link to the Last Episode

Enjoy!

Collective Endeavor Coming Soon

Hey everyone, sorry the blog has been quiet for so long, things have been pretty crazy in The Independent Project. Anyway, we are just finishing up our collective endeavor now and will be putting it up on the blog soon so check back for it!

Wilson's Response To Einsteins Dreams

A concept within arms length

yet one which no hand can fully grasp.

It's easy to accept

but hard to understand.

It can act in our favor

or against it

No one is able to control it,

but everyone uses it.

Sometimes it flies

and sometimes it crawls

Many people live by it

others don't let it control them

Most games are limited by it

All lives are

Time

Annalena's Response to Einstein's Dreams

“You’re insufferable.” It was sweet the way he said it with his eyes diverted. Although I was livid, it never would have occurred to me to direct it at him. Instead I shook my fist at the clock that keeps me spiraling into forced niceties and aggressive driving. I cursed the whole planet for it’s insistence on circling the sun, driving me maddeningly forward without a chance to catch my breath. I’ve become greedy in my oxygen consumption and have a horrible tendency to suck all the air out of a room. Inadvertently, I suffocate everything I get close to. I can’t get myself to apologize to him though. It’s not my fault that I have been spun into this web of calendar appointments, it’s just the way I’ve been taught to live. Work hard. Work harder. Get somewhere. Be sure to make change and money at the same time.  After all, we live in America. The land of the free. There is salt on my lips and I realize I’ve started to cry. I look up at him and see he is terrified. Never in our two years have I cried. In fact I thought I had forgotten how by this time.
            Rewind to a scene in childhood. I have fallen of my bike and badly skinned my knee. Mother approaches slowly with her seventh margarita of the afternoon in hand. She gazes at me through heavy eyes that are not warm, but they are familiar and I am glad to have her here with me. “Stop crying.”
            And so I have. Now I turn to meet his eyes, but my neck has frozen into a cinder block so I just stare at my palms and tell him he can leave. He doesn’t even bother to collect his things, he just bolts. For a moment I consider feigning sick and wiping clear today’s many lists of to-dos. I could watch a movie, or hell, maybe even some television. I could eat chocolate and drink wine right out the bottle, after all there is no other living thing with whom I need to share the air with in this apartment. There is not even a potted plant to speak of, growing silently on a window sill.
            I entertain these ideas as I go to the mirror to fix my make up which has gotten a bit smudged. I think about how nice it would be as I strip off his favorite dress and put on a fitted navy skirt suit. I have blisters on my feet, but the heals are slipped on anyway. I dismiss my fleeting desire to wallow in my irreversible humanness, as my feet carry me back out into the throngs of people that all want something out of life. I wont admit to feeling alone in their midst. I wont admit to feeling lonely ever. At my core there burns ambition, on my surface there is performance. The two push back at each other, and I am left with an icy feeling just under the skin.    

Sophie's Response to Einstein's Dreams

foot beats

when we walk when we fall

doesn’t matter among them all

amidst the patter of all those feet

we lose our sense of that beat

that’s in the heart

and keeps the time and the art

of living a life

in which strife

is met with hope and moving

through without losing

sight of how time and love

are not brought down by a dove

“oh god above” they may say

“for what sin is this pain the price to pay”

no man in the sky

provides a reason why

meaning is not here

so you have no reason to fear

if you listen to your beating heart

love will lead as you start

to spend your time as is best

then the rest

independent of your choice

will become your voice

what is heard is the sound

of your meaning found

and the lub dub-ing

that is directing

the most important guide

is kept inside

not learned in school

it’s still a tool

we cannot forget

for then our life is a game of roulette

when you can’t call the shots

whose are your thoughts

let the beating

do the leading

and you can be proud

of not being lost in the crowd

Sophie on Sleep Deprivation of Teenagers

Sophie on Barefoot Running

I spent some time looking at the validity of barefoot running. I've been running barefoot for a while and love, but I've met a lot of skeptics. This study added a lot of proof to what I thought was true and helped me find out some new things. The first runner is me, and the second is my brother, Tom.

Sandy on Particle Physics...

Let's learn some particle physics! This presentation is based on the god particle, or Higgs boson, and how scientists at CERN are working at finding this very elusive elementary particle. Pause the video to read!

-Sandy

Annalena on Electricity

ELECTRIC LOW DOWN

Conductors: allows electricity to flow through it (Copper)

Insulators: do not (plastic/glass)

Electric current: flow of electrons (negatively charged)

For a circuit: a power supply (Battery) and something that needs the power (lamp) and something to carry the current (Copper wire)

Electrons flow out of the negative side of a battery and travel along the conducting material, they are attracted to the positive end of the battery.

Vampire energy: sends more than 87 billion pounds of heat-trapping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year.

Energy goes to the lights and things that stay on after the appliance has been turned “off”

Chargers/toasters/washing machines/etc. left in the wall also expend energy even if there’s no light visible

One of the most common ways to produce electricity is through the burning of fossil fuels (coal, oil, and natural gas).  When fossil fuels are burned, they release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, which leads to acid rain and global warming.

We refer to a lot of things as “energy"= fuels for cars/production/and electricity!

In the United States, the most common way to make electricity is by burning coal, which is also the dirtiest fossil fuel that releases the most carbon dioxide

Naturally occurring electricity! : Lightning and static

CONCLUSION: UNPLUG IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Getting To Know: Sergio

Getting To Know: Jake