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Recently I read an article about doppelganger experiences. A doppelganger is an experience where your body feels like it is inhabiting an inanimate object and experiencing what your real body is actually experiencing. For example, one doppelganger experience is if someone is tickling a hand, and you feel like it is your real hand. In a lab, a doctor rubbed his subject's hand while simultaneously rubbing a rubber hand. The subject could only see the rubber hand. After a few minutes, the subject felt that he was experiencing the rubbing on the rubber hand, and felt like the rubber hand was part of his body. So what is happening here? The brain has to make sense of conflicting information: sensations of strokes on the real hand and the sight of a rubber hand being stroked. So the brain, in effect, decides that the eyes don’t lie: The rubber hand must be the source of the sensations, and so the brain proceeds to embody the inanimate hand. The eyes account for the majority of your...

台湾的形状跟一个烟叶差不多，长394千米，宽144米。台湾总共的面积是13974平方千米，是世界上第137大的国家。有一个山脉叫中央山脉，把台湾分成两半。台湾离中国的东南边有180千米。台湾在一个构造边界上，所以每一年有1.5万到1.8万个地震，其中有800-1000个地震被人感到。最近最大的地震是一个震级7.3级的地震，死了2，400人。台湾以前被葡萄牙人叫为 Ilha Formosa ，意思是漂亮的岛。

Today we visited the Boeing factory, where we saw the 747, 777, and 787 models under construction. The first plane we saw was the 747. According to the tour guide, the 747 is Boeing's largest commercial plane, and takes an average of 107 days to build. There is not so much demand for this plan as for other planes like the 787, so it is produced much more slowly. There is a special model called the 747 DreamLifter, which is a huge fat plane that can carry a lot of stuff. In my opinion, it looks really funny. The second and third plane we saw were the 777 and then the 787. They were both pretty cool planes, and the thing that amazed me the most was the fact that the factories churned out almost one plane every 3 days. If you know that they sell these planes for $225 million each, the revenue is HUGE! Also I liked how detailed the tour guide was, he explained how a lot of things worked in detail - for example, they needed the green covering on the planes to protect the aluminum from...

Aries Merritt, a gold winner in 2012 won a bronze this week. He is very proud of this victory because he won while he had a kidney transplant the next week. His kidneys had been functioning at 20% for a while and he was scheduled to receive a kidney from his sister. He has a disorder called collapsing FSGS. It is a very rare disease, which causes kidney failure. It has weakened his career by a lot, because he cannot eat as much protein or potassium. He has lost 6 pounds since 2012. Merritt missed his 2012 world record by .24 seconds this week, which is pretty large in the event that he was competing in, the 110 meter hurdles. He hopes that his surgery will allow him to compete in the 2016 Olympics, as he is already 30 years old and will soon be dropping out of his prime. Merritt says that he is very happy with the bronze and values it much more than his gold medal, which he earned when he was perfectly healthy and not under other stress. I wish him luck, as his case sounds really sa...

台湾是中国边上的一个小岛。 中国在西北边， 日本在东北边， 和 菲律宾在南边。 台湾岛其实只是台湾的99%。 还有很多小岛也是台湾的一个部分， 但这些岛可以忽略不计。 台湾是世界上人口密度最高的国家之一， 没平方千米有648个人。 台湾的天气挺暖和的， 跟厦门那种地方差不多热。 台湾的东北部下雨下得很多， 中部和南部大部分时间都是晒太阳。 台湾和中国有些我不了解的争端，所以中国叫PRC和台湾叫ROC。

Recently I read an article about Japanese company DeNA creating an app that allows people to stream their screens. They said that they hope this will be a system that will allow for much more intimate streaming, where friends can watch each other do whatever people like to do on their phones. Mirrative’s debut comes amid heightened interest in live-streaming as a new social-media platform. Since its launch in late March, Periscope, a game streaming service has already amassed 10 million accounts, with over 40 years of video watched per day, it said. DeNA thinks that this service should attract even more people because you can stream literally anything, not just games. Users could, for example, browse e-commerce sites to seek advice on what to buy. Similar to Periscope, followers can send comments in real-time and express appreciation to the broadcaster by tapping on their mobile screens and sending tiny stars. But while apps like Periscope and Meerkat can notify live-feeds to f...

最近在香港有一个抗议，是不想要北京有权利来否决香港的领导者。但领导这些抗议的人被警察抓住了。后来，因为很多跟他们抗议的人反对这些人被抓，说他们没做错什么，警察就是开始变得更厉害了。他们打了好几个人，然后这个让更多人来抗议，说打人是不对的。这个抗议把香港的3大动脉都堵上了，堵了79天。我觉得警察在这种情况下不应该打人，因为这些人没做错什么，就被乱打得落花流水。

Bill Bendokas is the founder of a small airline called the New England Airline. It has 7 planes, and flies passengers and their cargo to a little pear-shaped island called Block Island. On the island, there are no Asian restaurants. However, as eating Americanized Asian food has become a tradition for typical American food, there is a high demand for Asian food. People who have tried to start Chinese restaurants on the islands have all failed because the demand needs to be steady. However, business on the island is anything but steady. During the winter, many of the island's 20,000 people leave, and the people count drops to 1,000. This is because the island is a popular tourist destination, and people leave when it's winter. In the winter, restaurants close and people just eat from the grocery stores, as restaurants don't earn money. So, this pilot came up with a solution to the problem. He brings food from the mainland - sushi, noodles - you name it - in his plane. The ...

香港的一个特点是每年的馒头节日。这个节日是从4月份到5月份举行的。香港的人会用馒头做一个大塔。这是因为他们认为岛上有饿的鬼和灵。他们用馒头做着个塔就是给这些鬼吃饭的，所以不会来吃香港的人。但最近他们用的馒头不是真的馒头，是塑料的馒头 - 用真的馒头过几天肯定会臭了。这个节日有个运动是跟它很相关的。这个运动叫抢包子。人爬到那些馒头塔山面，那包子。拿的包子更高，明年的运气就更好。

On the App Store, a newly launched app has risen up to take the #3 paid app spot. It was made by a Los Angeles-based company named Rarevision. Behold, VHS Camcorder, an app that allows you to shoot grainy videos like the 80s! Fortunately, the app is a lot easier to use than the original camcorders: Open the app, hit ‘record’ and hold your finger on the screen to make it extra grainy. A zoom lens dramatically increases the cheese factor. In settings, you can adjust the resolution, frame rate and select a setting that messes up the picture when you move the camera. Everything is just like it used to be! You can also fake the on-screen date, to try to convince your friends that it really was taken in, say, 1987. The creators say that the purpose of the app was to remind people how far video has come in the last 30 years. They say that they tried to emulate what camcorders used to be like, with static noises, tape noises, and tracking distortion. There is a blur that appears...

香港是个很丰富的地方。香港的餐馆很多。每600个住在香港的人，有一个餐馆。这么说，如果四分之一住在香港的人突然想要在餐馆吃饭，应该可以全都坐下。香港有7百万人呀！香港有8000个比14层高的大厦。这差不多是纽约的两倍！在市中心，35亿港元只能买你4600平方英尺的房子。这在Seattle这种地方都可以买到十几个4600平方英尺的房子呢！香港其实不只是几个大岛。香港总共有200多个小岛。

Italian neighbors have started to socialize in less traditional ways. Recently, when a couple moved to Italy, they had no idea who their neighbors were. “All my friends back home had babies, play dates, people to talk to, and I felt so left out,” Ms. Boyers, who moved from South Africa, said on a recent afternoon. “We didn’t have family or friends connections here. We knew people occasionally, but none in our same situation.” So, they started a closed Facebook group for their street. They posted flyers that told people on their street about the group. Soon, there were 1100 people in the group on the street. Through the group, the couple learned all about their neighbors and were happier. Events could be communicated through the group, and you could also learn about many people you don't know who live right next to you. It seems like a great idea, actually. if you aren't very social, this could be an opportunity to get to know all your neighbors. As more and more people ha...

香港不算很大。香港总共差不多2，800平方千米。比起来Seattle，这是个很小的地方。Seattle的面积有15，000多平方千米。香港只有Seattle的五分之一。 香港有一些酷的地方。比如有浅水湾。浅水湾在香港岛的南部海滨，使香港最高尚的居住的地方之一，同时也是香港最受欢迎及交通最方便的地方。这个地方是个旅游人必到的著名风景区。浅水湾是香港最漂亮的海滨，最绵长的海滩，最宽阔的浅水，等等。很多人都来这里玩沙滩。这个地方好像是个很好玩的地放，下次去旅游我就想去！

Recently my family went on a camping trip on Lopez Island, one of the San Juan Islands. The highlight of the trip for me was a place called Fisherman's Bay (I think). It was a place with a lot of fruit trees and quite a few different birds. The seaside was particularly nice, but the best part was the apples. There were a bunch of apple trees, and one or two of them had really red ones. They were really crisp and sweet, and we picked a few and washed them in the ocean to eat. The worst part of the trip was probably the day we left. We left to wait for the ferry about 1 hour before the ferry was supposed to leave. When we got there, we were car #146 and the ferry could only hold 140. We were extremely disappointed that we had to wait until 2:40 for the next ferry. However, the ferry couldn't hold 140, it held more like 120 cars. Since the next ferry was going to be smaller, we worried we would have to wait until 3 o'clock for the next ferry. Luckily, we got onto the 2:40 fe...

香港在中国南端，是全球发展最为迅速的东亚地区的枢纽，地理条件优越，由香港岛，九龙半岛和新界（包括235个离岛）组成。香港拥有一个深水港，工作人口有300万。150年前，香港被形容为一个什么都没有的地方，现在已经是一个国际金融商货中心。目前，香港是全球第八大货易经济体系，也是第九大服务输出地。按照1984年签订的《中英联合声明》，1997年7月1日起，中华人名共和国恢复对香港行使主权，香港成为中国的特别行政区。 香港的很多人觉得大陆中国人很脏和不好，但这我觉得是因为香港以前被英国占领了，所以香港人觉得比大陆的人干净，有礼貌，等等。

Today was the fourth day of chess camp. It was a kind of interesting day today. In the morning, just like normal, we did a lesson. It was on the French Defense. We learned the Milner-Berry Attack, or as the coach put it, the Attack Milner-Berry. It is where you sacrifice two pawns for an attack. It is very strong, and you usually win all the material back or more. Or you get checkmate. However, not a lot of people fall for this trick. In the afternoon, we had a special lesson. The GM's wife went over one of her best games, and then the GM went over one of his best games. Both games were very interesting. There was a coach in the back recording the whole lesson, and both GM's had clip-on microphones on their shirts. It was still a great lesson, although there was a lot less noise from the students. I learned a lot more, because instead of studying our bad games, we studied two great games and saw why the moves were good. I think chess camp was a lot more interesting today, wi...

甘肃省在黄河上游，西南是青海，西边与新疆维吾尔自治区相连。甘肃有2568万人，面积是39万平方米。我在Google上做了一个计算，这就差不多是每个平方千米65个人。这一该算少的了。我在Wikipedia上查了，Seattle每个平方千米有3000人。甘肃最大的民族不是汉族而是回族。回族的人口占甘肃的60%以上。 甘肃有很多农民。这些农民主要是产粮食：小麦，谷子，玉米等等看一下这个书上的有一个照片，到处都是黄的，都是种东西的土地。

Today I have started to get a little bit bored of chess camp. Day by day, it is always the same thing. Long lecture in the morning, then a tournament game. In the afternoon, review tournament games. The most boring part is probably the lecture. Even though there is a lot of information, it is presented in boring and convoluted ways, so I can't really tell what the main line is because the GM shows bunches of variations. I still learn quite a bit, though, just by seeing all the different tactics that are possible. Each day we go over another opening into about the twentieth move, and as you can tell, there are a LOT of possibilities. The tournament game review is kind of boring. Just like the openings, we go through a lot of variations, and we go through the whole game. Each game takes around 45 minutes. Of course, we go through all of the mistakes the players made, and how to correct them. I think this is true for everyone: game review time is boring. Everybody is just staring at...

西北地区有很多山。 有一些山叫昆仑山脉。昆仑山脉西起帕米尔高原，这些山全长2500千米，最高峰是青峰，高度7187米。这是一个很高的山峰。还有一些山叫阿尔金山脉。这些山是塔里木盆地于柴达木盆地的界山，是构成青藏高原北边的山脉之一。蒙古语意为“有柏树的山”。它是一个很著名的山脉。 我觉得西北地区的山是特别多，还有很多我没讲的山和山脉在西北地区。

Today was the second day of chess camp. Just like yesterday, in the morning we had a lesson, and then we played a tournament game. The lesson was not very complicated, just some more King's Indian for White. We learned how to attack with the King's Indian Attack, and yesterday we learned how to defend with the King's Indian Defense. The game was nothing special - I exploited a queen pin to break open his kingside. Then I brought my bishop, knight, and queen in and mated him with the final move g3#. In the afternoon, just like yesterday, we did not play a tournament round. We just went over a bunch of games. It was pretty boring until we got to my game. I learned a lot of things I could improve on, and I got berated for not knowing my openings. Then we got to Lucas's game. Lucas sacrificed a queen three times, but his opponent didn't notice and kept playing Bd4 and then Bg7. It was really hilarious. I enjoyed chess camp today, especially the tournament game and th...

西北地区里有3个省和2个区，其中有峡西省，甘肃省，青海省，宁夏回族自治区和新疆维吾尔自治区。这片地区高山与盆地相间分布，明显可以感受到大陆的性荒漠气候特征。西北地区很大，但人很少，民族多。除了汉族以外，还有维吾尔，藏，回，等等民族。西北地区有差不多8.7亿人。这已经是美国的四分之一了！但对中国来讲，这只是三十一份之二。西北地区是个很疏的地方，但中国全体有很多很多人。

Today was the first day of GM Camp at Chess4Life. The camp was with GM Petar Genov, a Bulgarian chess GM with a FIDE rating of 2450. The first half of class was a long lecture, and then a tournament round. The lecture was about middlegames. I learned a lot about how to play a middlegame in general. For example, I learned a few common mistakes for certain openings - when to not push a pawn, etc. The tournament game was very eventful. I blundered a bishop, then got it back through a smart move. Then I did a skewer and was up by the exchange. I promoted to a queen and won. The afternoon was relatively uneventful. We went over games for a while (sadly, we didn't analyze mine). Everybody learned about others' mistakes, and the GM went deep into lines at different mistake points in the games. After break, we were supposed to do a tournament round, but couldn't because about 5 people left for certain reasons, and the pairings got messed up. So we played chess for a while for fun...

有一个西南地区博士最近说中国的高速铁路是地球上最高效的。这个博士的第一个理由是这个铁路的速度。他说因为铁路是光滑的，所以火车可以走得更快，能到一个小时486公里的速度。平常，火车会到一个小时380公里的速度。这个博士也说中国的火车好因为比别的国家更有效和便宜。他最后说这些火车都很舒服，和客人安全很好。我觉得这几个理由可以证明中国的铁路是世界上最好的之一。

Recently, reading on your phone has grown in popularity. As more and more people try to find time in their lives to read books, more and more people turn to their phones. In a normal adult's tightly packed life, there are only a few small moments to read for pleasure, and the easiest way to take advantage of those moments is to use your phone. One parent said that they found that they had to continually rock is baby's cradle from 3-5 a.m. to get her to go to sleep. He found that he could hold his phone with one hand while rocking the cradle with the other hand. This way, he could read books while rocking his baby's cradle. He found this to be efficient, and soon he was reading while walking on the Microsoft campus where he worked, reading at lunch, and reading whenever he had a bit of time. The parent said that if they had waited for five hours of time like they used to, they would never get to read. The normal lives of adults these days are just too packed to allow time ...

西藏自治区在1965年诞生。西藏自治区是中国第二大地区，面积多余一百万平方千米。但因为这个地方有很多山和石头，西藏的人口密度很少。西藏自治区包括喜马拉雅山岭。这是在第三个大世界板块运动造成的山岭。所以，喜马拉雅山岭是世界上最年轻的山岭。 珠峰是世界上最高的山。这个山的高度有8.8480392公里。第一个爬上去的人实在五月二十九号一九五三年爬上去的。我觉得爬上这么高的山是很难得，特别是因为爬得越高，空气越难呼吸，所以用这么多力气爬上去是很难得，也要很多训练。

Recently there have been quite a few spaceship failures. Among the many, one especially stood out to me. The first one was the failure of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that carried cargo and supplies to the ISS. There was a metal strut that broke at 2000 pounds of pressure where it should have withstood 10000. It caused a helium bottle to fall into the second-stage liquid oxygen tank. The unrestrained bottle broke free, releasing the helium inside, and the added pressure caused the oxygen tank to break apart, leading to the disintegration of the rocket. In an investigation, SpaceX showed that even though most of the struts could handle 10000 pounds, there were a few that could not. In the future, SpaceX said that it would test all the struts individually. I think that this is a sad failure, as the whole spaceship was destroyed by one tiny metal strut, a problem that could have been easily prevented. I think that in the future, the struts and components for all spaceships should be chec...

云南省因为在云岭之南而得名云南。云南省西北紧邻西藏自治区，北与四省相邻。这儿有很多民族，是15各少数民族的主要聚居地。云南有非常悠久的历史，早在170万年前，就有元谋人的足迹出现在云南。 傣族也有一个很好玩的节日。每个人会往别的人身上拨水，把大家都弄的湿湿塔塔的。还有人拿着水枪喷来喷去，看的样子特别好玩。我觉得这个节日是个很酷的节日。只要美国有一个这种节日就好了。

According to many studies, about a third of the world's internet users have downloaded ad-blockers. These people feel their privacy is being violated by the numerous companies who track peoples' information. The rise of ad-blocking software is a response to both privacy concerns and to the sheer prevalence of digital ads. Some users object to the collection of personal data, while others find ads – particularly those that follow users across devices – to be annoying and to slow down their systems. 91% of Americans think their privacy is being violated by online services that track their information, according to a Pew Research Center Survey, and around 20% have clicked "Do Not Track". This means a lot of people don't want ad companies to track them, yet ad companies will not give in, as a lot of companies that produce ads get most of their revenue from the ads. I think companies should make their ads able to be blocked, as otherwise being forced to look at t...

贵州省在中国西南地区，云贵高原的东部，简称“黔”或“贵”。它东接湖南省，北与四川省，西邻云南省，南连广西壮族自治区。贵州省人口众多，是个多民族杂居的省份，自古以来便形成了汉民族与少数民族相互交融的文化。 贵州省是个很漂亮的地方。我觉得贵州的漂亮的地方其中，天星桥瀑布最漂亮。白白的水，到处都是，在绿色的树林旁边，实在是很漂亮。这个瀑布的形状很复杂，我从来没见到过这么酷的瀑布。

Today I read an article about not sending angry e-mails. The main point the article covered was that angry e-mails make you even angrier, even if you might not know it. This is because even though angry messages make you feel better in the short term, the more you read over them, or think about them, the angrier you get. They are just more reminders of your anger at that time, how much you hated a certain thing, etc. etc. The article suggested some tips on how to control your anger better, for example, if you want to vent your anger, write the letter, but don't send it. This way, you can read it again after you calm down, and relax, and you can learn why you got angry and try not to do the same thing to other people. Also, you can just do nothing for a while. This gives you time to think, and eventually your anger will go away. Finally, you can use the centuries-old strategy of counting to 10, or 100 as Thomas Jefferson supposedly said. I think the next time I get angry, I will ...

四川人杰地灵，自古以来被誉为“天府之国”。它地处中国西南部，东邻重庆，南接云贵，西至西藏，北连甘，青，是西南，北西和华中三大地区的结合部，也是中国人口最多的省区，有52个民族在此居住。 四川省也有熊猫。四川省有几个自然保护区，里面有大熊猫，是起把抓熊猫弄得更难的作用。我觉得熊猫很可爱，有两个小黑点当眼睛。而且眼睛圈老像小孩子恳求大人的时候，大大的眼睛，的确可爱。

Today I read an article about electric skateboards. Electric skateboards are basically normal skateboards, except you don't have to push them along with your feet. They move by themselves, and you can control them from remotes. If you lose the remote, you can control it with your smartphone. There is a lot of variety to these skateboards, as some of them have larger wheels, some are more powerful, etc. Not everything about these skateboards is good, though. It would be really hard to go downhill without flipping, as it would be hard to balance while going downhill at a constant speed. Also, if you go uphill, it is likely that you will just fall backwards and also get injured. I think a conventional skateboard is much better because you have much better control over the speed and its much harder to get hurt if you instinctively jump off the conventional skateboard instead of trusting the electric skateboard to keep you on balance.

重庆市是中国很有名的一个地方。重庆原来是四川省的一部分，1997年成为中国的第4个直辖市。重庆位于中国西南部，东邻湖北，湖南两省，南靠贵州，西依四川，北接峡西，依山建造，人称“山城”，城市内主要的街道就是石阶。重庆历史悠久，在2万到3万年前就已经有了古人类生活的足迹。 2010年调查的时候，发现重庆的人口有28,846,170。这是很多人呀！按照中国的调查，重庆市中国人口最多的直辖市。

长江三峡是中国得很漂亮的一个地方。长江三峡被中国国家评价成AAAAA等旅游景点。长江的三峡部分有200公里。这里什么时候都很漂亮，春天夏天绿绿的，秋天红红的，冬天白白的。我什么时候还想去看一看，因为上次我们看的时候也很漂亮。我想看长江冬天的样子，看一看中过白白的雪盖住春天绿绿的树。 但三峡不是什么都好。长江三峡水坝把很多人住的房子和考古遗址用水埋住了。

Parts 1&2 of Letter to Mrs. V You should be able to figure out what I wrote from the two pics below. What to do after class (in order) 3 weeks, 1 inch of worksheets, not too much, right? ~75 Vocab Cards EDIT: Exactly 75 Cards       

 Cynical The first day I walked into class, I didn't see anything wrong. It was just hustle-bustle, getting things set up and doing icebreakers so everybody knew everybody else. It was on the second day that I noticed strange things. When the instructor had some spare time, it seemed that she would check their e-mail and other things on their Macs. On the third day, I noticed some more things. When our instructor finished with their business on her Macs, she started with their iPads. I decided I would delve into more detail the next day. On the fourth day, I asked them 'questions' a few times to see what she was doing on their iPads that she would deliberately hide from us, using their iPads so that the iPad was facing the wall. Whenever I got close, however, the teacher immediately closed out of her apps and flipped the cover over the iPad before I could see. The next day, I tried to look quickly at what she was doing before she could close it. To my horror, I saw Fa...

Two days ago I participated in the Best Activity Ever at CTY. It started out with the leaders saying that we would be heading to an ice cream parlor in Palo Alto. Everybody was really pumped and wanted to get moving. However, soon after the activity started, we were washing a car with scraps of rags. How did that happen? Well, they said that the car was dirty and we couldn't go to Palo Alto in a dirty car. The first thing I noticed was that the car was a 4-seater. I began to get a bit suspicious, but still went ahead with it because of the incentive of the ice cream. We were washing the car with rags 2 cm wide and around 10 cm long, and it was hard. You had to dip them in water, then drag it all over the car and rub off the dirty spots. If you didn't work hard enough, it was push-up time. The car was very dirty. It was hard work, and Peter (an RA), one of the two adults brought over a 4-pack of ginger beer and together they started sipping it. It was very hard to watch them lu...

西南地区一般指位于中国西南部的3省2区1市，包括四川省，云南省，贵州省，西藏自治区，广西壮族自治区以及重庆市。西南地区多山地，丘陵，和盆地，以亚热带山地高原气候为主。西南人口分布极不均均。汉族为主，有藏，彝，傣，白，壮，苗等少数民族。全区原有经济基础薄弱，是中国经济比较落后地区之一。但自然条件复杂，资源丰富，发展潜力大。可建成全国性的以水电为主的能源基，以机械，化工，军工为主的重工业基地，强大的林牧业基地。我觉得西南地区现在不太发达，但以后可以变得很发达，像Tokyo那种地方。这是因为西南地区做的事业是一个不能不做的事业-农业，所以他们的基础很强大。农业部做的话，大家吃什么东西呀？