Did you know about… Attila the Hun? (NOT a research paper, but is still pretty lengthy)

You might know Attila the Hun as the aggressive, violent, and uncontrollable character in the movie “The Night at the Museum”. In real life, he really is this way. Another appearance of the Huns in popular culture is the Disney movie “Mulan”. In the original English version, they were referred to as the Huns, but in the translated Chinese version, they were actually called the Xiongnu, and that’s where it all began.

The Xiongnu were China’s nomadic enemies that lived in inner present day Mongolia. Because of their constant invasions of China, Qin Shi Huangdi built the Great Wall in 221 B.C. During the Huang Dynasty, they were defeated in 121 B.C. Internal conflicts caused them to split in 54 B.C.; part joined forces with China and the other half moved toward central Europe and became known as the Huns.

The Huns domesticated wild horses to help them haul wagons and carts and also as a means of transportation. In wars, while riding on heir horses, they would pretend to flee and the suddenly turn around and shoot volleys of arrows at the unsuspecting enemy. They were excellent archers; they could shoot at targets while moving at full speed on the horses. They also throwed lassos over the enemy to immobilize them. As an article I read said, “They did not fight for honor, but for plunder.” and this strong will of the Huns is what gave them the reputation of being the fiercest army in all of Ancient world history.

Attila was born in 406 A.D. and at a young age, he used toy swords and bows and arrows in mock battles with his friends. Roman soldiers invaded his camp when he was just 11 years old, and he was held hostage in a treaty agreement. He stayed at the Roman court of Emperor Honorius and learned much about the Romans. This, as some people might say, may have even inspired him to conquer the Romans once and for all. Emperor Honorius let him leave in peace when he requested to go home several years later.

When Attila returned home, his uncle Ruga, a former ruler of the Huns, died unexpectedly. The throne was passed down to him and his brother Bleda. One big achievement they accomplished was the signing of the Peace of Margus. The treaty was between Theodosius II, the emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire, and the Huns. The terms of the treaty included: trading rights between then Hunnic and Roman lands, the return of the fugitive Huns that had escaped in earlier battles, and an annual tribute of 700 pounds of gold to maintain the peace between them. The Roman emperor agreed to these terms and the treaty was signed. 5 years later, Theodosius II breaks the treaty and angers Attila. He fought his way through Roman cities and towns, eventually making his way to Constantinople, the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire. By that time, the Romans were so weak so Theodosius was forced to negotiate another treaty. Attila demanded the 6000 pounds of gold that they owed and to immediately return any remaining fugitives. The Romans agreed, and the second treaty was signed in 443 A.D. After the Huns returned to their settlement near the Danube River, Bleda died. Some say that it was a Hunting accident but other suggest, a more believable cause of his death, was that Attila murdered him to have the throne all by himself. Though, they did have two totally different personalities. After his brother was gone, Attila had total control over the Huns.

Attila’s death was probably caused by drinking too much wine at his wedding and drowned in his own blood. A Roman historian says that a woman stabbed his at night. Another theory was that two of his friends were bribed by one of Attila’s enemies to assassinate him. One more theory is that he was poisoned by his new bride. After an elaborate funeral, the Huns broke up and disappeared.

Ashburn is featured in Criminal Minds!!!!

Criminal Minds is a TV show that features the BAU, or the Behavioral Analysis Unit, of the FBI.

Their 2nd most recent episode, “Mosley Lane” was first aired in March 3, 2010.

The surprising thing is, Ashburn made a fictional crime appearance at the very beginning scene, which was shown as a happy family at the Winter Festival.

That was the crime scene of a kidnapping of a little girl named Aimee. The BAU finds the little girl, but it took a drastic effort and the outcome was not a perfectly happy ending.

I was shocked at the fact that such a little town like Ashburn can make an appearance on a crime TV show that has been running for 5 years straight.

Does Ashburn even have a Winter Festival? (Please answer this if you can in a comment)

It’s a great crime procedural drama because the show focuses on the criminal itself, not the crime.

I would suggest everyone who has an interest in crime shows and drama to watch it.

The whole episode can be seen on Blinkx via Megavideo.

A Million Dollar Give Away and The Prisoner’s Dilemma

Recently, I’ve been listening to a podcast called Math Factor (it’s availble for download on iTunes for free). It may sound like an educational and boring podcast, but I’ve actually found out some very interesting facts about math from it.

Two years ago, they hosted a “competition” called the Million Dollar Give Away. Basically, whoever emails them the largest number wins a million dollars. But here’s the catch: the actual amount of money you will receive is a million divided by that biggest number. For example, if you email them the number 50,000, then you’ll receive $2 because a million divided by 50,000 is two. So if you say 1,000,000, then you will get only a dollar. This contest was hosted for a week, and some very surprising results came out. They said that several people emailed them the number 1. A lot of people emailed in numbers like 200 and 5000. And some people even said 201, 205, 5005, which I thought was really clever. At the end, the amount of money that should be given out was so small, the hosts of Math Factor didn’t actually lose anything.

They also discussed a topic called “game theory”. Game theory is kinda like decision making of member in a competitive situation. The Prisoner’s Dilemma is a very simple explanation of game theory. So here’s how it goes: you have two suspects in two separate rooms. An officer is asking each of them to tell the truth about who committed the crime.

1. If both suspects rat each other out (saying that the other person committed the crime), then each of them will serve 5 years of jail.

2. If both remains silent, then each will serve 6 months in jail.

3. If prisoner A rats prisoner B out, then prisoner A will be freed and prisoner B will go to jail for 10 years.

4. The next one is the same; If prisoner B rats prisoner A out, then prisoner B will be freed and prisoner A will go to jail for 10 years.

Not knowing what the other suspect will do, what is a better choice: to have your “right to remain silent”, or to go for the possible jackpot and rat the other out?

So the question is, “To rat, or not to rat?”

Please post whatever you think of it as a comment! What would you do if you were in a (less harmful) situation like this? Why?

Inko.us How To’s: Checking Comments and INVISIBLE TEXT

I’m posting this a second time because I realized that a lot of people have not yet seen this and are wondering how to check how many comments you have written (hence the title).

The first thing is checking how many comments you’ve written. I do know that Mr. Stephens has told us how to do this, but then I found out that the comments that show up are very old and not recent.

So what you do is go to My Account (it’s at the top) > Activity > Just Me. Now you can see everything you did (your posts and comments).

Note: This posts only your 25 most recent activities on inko.us (the previous ones are “deleted”), so for those of you who are striving for a 100 on the blogging and commenting check on Jan. 22 (25 comments), then don’t forget to keep track of the ones that are “deleted”!

You can see a list of all the comments made on your posts if you go to My Blogs (it’s also at the top) > (your name) (Author) > Manage Comments. In here, you can view comments that other people made to your posts.

The second thing is how to make “invisible” text on your blog. If your blog’s background is pure black or white (or any other color that inko.us already gives you (which is unlikely)), you can just select the text and make it black or white. Otherwise, there is a solution. There are several steps:

1. Put your mouse over the color that you want your text to be in (the background color)

2. Right click and select “Save Background As” and save it

3. Open up Paint (go to Start > Programs >Accessories&Utilities (it’s at the very top) > Paint)

4. In Paint, go to File >Open, and open the background picture you just saved

5. Using the “Pick Color” tool, which is the third one on the left column of tools (it looks like a dropper), click on the color that you want your text to be in

6. On the top, go to “Colors” (it’s next to “Image” and “Help”) >”Edit Colors”

7. In the “Edit Colors” box, click on “Define Custom Colors”

8. A section should open up at the right. You can see the red, green and blue values of your color

9. Go to the website http://www.draac.com/colorconvert.html and type in the red, green, and blue values and click on “Convert to Hex” (DO NOT close this window yet!)

10. Back on inko.us, make a new post and click on the last square button (show/hide kitchen sink). Another line of buttons should pop up just beneath it

11. Click on the little downward pointing arrow on the “select text color” button (the 4th one on the 2nd row)

12. Select “more colors” and type in your hex code in the little box next to “Color:”

13. Click “apply” and start typing; the color of the text should be the same color as your background theme (you can see when you publish the post and view it on your blog)

Note: If your background is a pattern, not a solid color, then you’re stuck with visible font (unless the pattern is barely visible)

Note: The text WILL show up, though, on the main inko.us page where they show previews of the most recent post because it is not white.

You’ll only need to do this once, and memorize the hex code, so whenever you want to make invisible text, just select the text and change the color with the hex code. (If you change themes, then you’ll probably have to do this process again.)

This isn’t a lot of work, and it’s kinda cool once you do it yourself. It also makes reading blogs fun because you get to discover hidden messages.

Happy Blogging!

Yes!

SCHOOL IS CANCELED NEXT WEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It’s a miracle! Now I’m saved from 5 tests! But I think i still have to turn in the rough draft of the research paper for the social science fair on turnitin.com though.

Infinity Puzzle Answer

The puzzle is on my blog as well. Just scroll down!

The Answer: You would tell the guests to double their room number, and go to whatever that room is. For example, the resident in room 1 would move to room 2, leaving room 1 open. The resident in room 2 would go to room 4, the resident in room 3 to room 6, leaving room 3 open, and room 5 open because the resident in room 5 would be moving to room 10. In other words, whenever you double a number, it has to be even, therefore leaving every other room open, or every odd numbered room open.

To see the answer, highlight the blank section.

Please tell me what you think of this puzzle and if i should post more puzzles on inko.us!