Fencing Pt. 2: Sabre Rules

Disclaimer:

This post is about the rules for sabre fencing; not how sabre fencing is really great (although it is).

     As a follow-up to my last entry, I am writing to day about the rules for sabre fencing, which is the style of fencing I participate in. As you know from the previous post, in sabre fencing, unlike épée and foil, the fencer is allowed to slash, as well as poke. Also, the target area is everything from the waist up.

Here, two sabreurs are show fencing with wireless transmission of hit signals

     Before I go into how to score a point, I will explain how the electrical scoring devices work. To connect themselves to the scoring boxes, each fencer has a cord to plug into a socket connecting to the box. This cord splits off, with one cord going up the fencer's arm, into his/her sword, and the other one clipping on to the fencer's lamé (conductive jacket). In order to make the fencer's helmet conductive too, a cord clips on to the collar of the lamé with one side, and to the mask with the other side. This way, if a sword hit the other fencer's conductive area, a current can go from one box, up the fencer's sword, through the other fencer's lamé, and into the box at the other side.

     When a fencer's sword touches his/her opponent's target area, both boxes display a color, either red of green, depending on which player hits their opponent. If there is one light, it's easy to see who got the point. If Fencer A hits Fencer B less than (approximately) 120 milliseconds after Fencer A was hit, the box would display both red and green lights. If this happens, the judge must decide who had priority, also known as right-of-way. At the beginning of a match, nobody has priority. There are a number of ways to lose priority, as listed below:

• If Fencer A stands still (or moves backward) when the match begins, and Fencer B moves forward, Fencer B has gained priority. 
• If Fencer A moves forward, but pulls his/her blade backward before both fencers hit, Fencer B has gained priority. 
• If Fencer A misses their first attack, or the Fencer B blocks Fencer A's first attack, Fencer B has gained priority. 
• If Fencer A makes blade contact with Fencer B, Fencer A has gained priority.

     These same mistakes can give Fencer A priority once Fencer B has it. I apologize for any mistakes I might have made, and you can tell me I messed up in the comments. Thanks for reading!

Fencing Overview

     My favorite sport (currently) is fencing. Three days a week I go to a practice at a local fencing place.      I enjoy fencing because it requires strategy and planning, and is fast-paced and exiting.There are three styles of fencing, and for each there is a different sword, and different rules. The three forms are épée, foil, and sabre. Of the three, I fence sabre.

     In épée, each fencer is allowed to poke (only poke, no slashing) his/her opponent with their sword. The fencer can be poked anywhere on there body. The sword that is used in épée has a guard similar to a flat circle with an edge that extends downward.

     In foil, like épée, the fencer is only allowed to poke. For foil, the target area is just the torso, no arms, legs, of head. The sword used in foil has a small, circular guard.

     In sabre, the fencer can poke and slash. The area that can be hit is the torso, arms, and head. The sabre guard is a large, some-what convex circle, with a side piece connecting the end of the handle to the top of the handle (think pirate sword).

Khan Academy Badges

     Khan Academy, (--> Here! <--) a website providing over 4,000 videos on a wide range of educational topics, has integrated a badge system into the Khan Academy experience. The badges are used to motivate students to complete activities. The badges are organized by difficulty, as you can see below. There are Meteorite badges (the easiest), the Moon, Earth, Sun, and (the hardest) Black hole badges. Challenge Patches are awarded for certain activities, such as "Achieve Proficiency in all skills in addition and subtraction."
     

    
     

     To get a badge, the user must first make an account. To make an account go to the top left corner of the home screen, and click the "Log in." You should get to a screen like the one on the right.You can use a Google or Facebook account, or make a Khan Academy account by clicking "Sign up," right below the log in button. 

     

     One thing I like about the badges is the range of awarded skills. Other websites have tried this, but it usually ends up with "Complete 10 activities," and then, "Complete 20 activities". Khan Academy has a wide range of badges, such as "Pause a tutorial and tinker with the code,"  "Ask a question that earns 10+ votes," and "Stay a member of Khan Academy for 1 year." Khan Academy also has the standard badges like "Achieve proficiency in any 50 skills," and "Watch one hour of video on a single topic."One thing I dislike about their system is that accessing the possible badges is very counter-intuitive. You have to go to your profile, scroll down to recently completed activities, then click on one of the badges you've earned. That then brings you to the badge gallery. I feel that compared to other websites, Khan Academy has done a good job motivating kid to learn.  

Walking with Cavemen Movie

     As part of the evolution unit I am doing at home, I watched a video called Walking With Cavemen. This video tracks human evolution from  Australopithecus afarensis, an early upright primate, all the way through four of five species of hominids, to the current model (us) Homo sapiens sapiens. This movie said that Australopithecus afarensis, evolved into (as well as a few other not-so-successful hominids) Homo habilis, who was an omnivore with the ability to use basic tools. In turn, Homo habilis evolved into Homo ergaster, who mastered basic hunting and begun to have longer relationships. Some of the H. ergaster  moved into Asia and became Homo erectus, who were hunter-gatherers. Next, the movie showed Homo heidelbergensis, who were smarter, but according to the movie did not have much of an imagination for abstract ideas. H. heidelbergensis then became Homo sapiens neanderthalensis, or Neanderthals, as well as early Homo sapiens sapiens. Finally, the movie showed that the Neanderthals went extinct, leaving us on the planet as the solitary species of humans. Sorry I haven't posted in a while, thanks for reading! 

Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith

   
      Because my current schooling program doesn't do much history work, my mother and I are doing some work on history at home. My mom is a history teacher, so she has experience teaching kids this subject. We are starting with a history/science unit on evolution. A few days back, I finished a book called Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith by Deborah Heiligman. This book is about Charles Darwin's personal life and his theories' relations to his family and life. I thought this book was okay, because I thought it would be more about the science behind his theories and other scientist related arguments. It did contain some of this information, but the book was mainly about Darwin's wife, kids, and other family/friends. This book did talk about the religious community's problems with it, because his wife was a strong Christan. Overall, I were to rate this book from 1 to 10, I would give it a solid 7, but I may have just expected more science from it then what the author was trying to deliver. Thanks for reading!

Limericks

Recently I've been writing in rhyme,
A,A,B,B,A every time,
I like limericks a lot,
They're more fun than I thought,
Syllable count?  Nine, nine, six, six, nine;

(Here are some news-story related limericks I wrote. They may be a little out of date; I wrote them a little bit ago.)

(Pope Story)
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/12/world/europe/pope-benedict-xvi-says-he-will-retire.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

(Rodman Story)
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/02/world/asia/way-to-reach-kim-jong-un-follow-the-ball.html?ref=dennisrodman

Pope Benedict XVI has retired,
For years, popes have merely expired,
Now he'll study and pray,
Day after day,
Soon a new pope will have to be hired.

Dennis Rodman went to the Far East,
To the country that likes us the least,
He tried to make amends,
Kim and he are best friends,
He's decided that Jong-un is no beast.

Chrysler Building Lego Mosiac

     I am working on a very challenging project that I came up with myself, and am working on by myself. All though it may seem simple at first, my project is very hard. I am trying to make a two-dimensional mosaic made of Lego bricks. I am going to accomplish this goal by pixelating an image, then writing a computer program that tells me the sequence of legos I need to reproduce this image, as well as the total number of each color. The first step was to find an image. I found a black-and-white photo of the chrysler building that looked nice. Then, I used a image manipulation program  called GIMP to pixilate the photo. After that, I needed to check the pixels witha programming language, so I started writing he code to figure out which legos I need. After I am done with the program, I will run it, then order the legos I need. Once they arrive, I will be able to build the mosaic and finish! This project is probably one of the longest-taking and hardest things I have attempted. Thanks for reading!