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CUÁNTAS PATAS!!!

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Op-Ed Post: How do we really feel?

By 8th-Grade Blogger Jackie Pretorius

My dad needed an evil ploy to get us to learn some Spanish. He thought to himself what is the most awesomest thing in the whole wide world–so awesome in fact that his children wouldn’t mind speaking in a whole different language? Thus, Cuántas patas (how many paws) was born. Out of the blue, our dad will quiz us by asking cuántas patas? The thing that annoyed me most was that the answer was always cuatro (four). Cats have four paws, and that doesn’t change! It’s like that didn’t matter though. He would pretend we are in some sort of a gameshow and would be so enthusiastic whenever we got the answer right.

One Easter day we were doing our normal thing, finding eggs, and stuff. Usually we would have to complete a URL code that leads us to a video showcasing where we were going to travel next. In order to find the missing characters in the URL, we’d have to do a fun activity. I think you know where this is going. One by one he’d pick up our cats and shout cuántas patas in the most animated way possible, and when we answered “cuatro,” he would celebrate. I’d come to find this extremely annoying while Max (my brother) has embraced it and joined our dad’s side in trying to irritate me.

Also one of my games in Scratch (a simple kids block coding language), was having to take care of a cat by playing four different mini games. In one of these mini games, I made it so that the cat you were taking care of would quiz you with various questions about how many ears, eyes, and of course paws does a cat have in Spanish and later English. Best of all I showed it to our dad, and you can’t imagine how much he enjoyed it. A little inside joke he made has turned into so much more. Although I still find the cuántas patas game annoying, I’ve come to like it as it has brought us so many memories. And, now, you can embrace it and see how ridiculous but yet so wholesome cuántas patas came to be.

My Scratch game.

Pushing Our Brains to the LIMITS

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By Luke Langlois

Editor James landed on “Philosophy” as his weekly Theme. James says philosophy makes him see the world “more clearly.” Luke asks, “Does it make it more clear? or more cloudy?” This is Luke’s response to the subject of Philosophy.

Over the years, humanity has risen to the occasion time and time again to push limits. Whether it be physical limits, technological limits, scientific limits, or academic limits, we always find a way to take it further. But, before we make many of these leaps, we have to push the boundaries of our thoughts. And, then, we have to push the boundaries of the definition of boundaries. How would I know that “I am” if Descartes never said “I think, therefore I am.” I would not! That is why philosophy, the study of knowledge, thinking, morals, values, etc, is critical to our humanity. Where would we be without forward thinking? With that being said, the following is a list of questions that probably will not push our society forward, but they should provoke some thinking.

  1. Is free will a reality or a mere illusion?
  2. If freedom is just being able to “do whatever you want,” are animals more “free” than humans?
  3. Referring to the quote of Descartes (“I think, therefore I am”), if an AI were able to “think,” would it be considered sentient?  
  4. Are there extraterrestrials out there? Are they simply avoiding us?
  5. If extraterrestrials were to visit our planet, what should our response be? What would we actually end up doing?
  6. Are we living in a simulation? Are the “others” in our lives engineered to answer this question to keep us naive?
  7. Do other people see color in the same way that we see color?  Is our blue someone else’s red?
  8. On the same note, how would you describe a color?
  9. Is time real? Is there truly a past, present, and future?
  10. We often deal with deadlines. Our life revolves around beginnings and ends. But, does time have a beginning and end?  
  11. Perhaps there is no physical embodiment of Santa Claus, but the tales of his existence provide children with a lifelong holiday spirit. Does this make him “real” in a sense?
  12. Would you end the life of ten people, unknown to you, for ten million dollars?
  13. Similarly, would you end the life of ten to save your best friend?
  14. You are the leader of your nation and your largest city has just been struck with a nuclear weapon. How do you respond?
  15. Is anything truly experienced objectively?
  16. You have two options: you can go back in history and prevent every major war that has occurred. Or, you can stay in your current life and let history play itself out. What do you do?
  17. With the snap of your fingers, you can eliminate half the life in the universe. After this, resources are plentiful. Do you do it?

So, there are some questions. Some of them are obviously a bit more serious than others, but none of them have an easy answer. Or do they? Human brains have achieved incredible feats over the years, but there are some questions that simply elude the capability of our thoughts. Perhaps YOU can provide us with answers and be the next great philosopher.  

Editor: James Zheng