Paw Prints: August 2014 Reissue / Issue 5b

paw prints

KGV’s FIRST STUDENT NEWSPAPER

ISSUE 5

AUG 2014 REISSUE

LRC, field opening

walk down memory lane and farewell to class of 2014

Peel Block viewed from the south of the school, looking northwards at Lion’s Rock c. 1967

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paw prints ISSUE 5b

•

August 2014 reissue

• originally issued for june 2014

LRC opening

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field opening

so long, kgv tribute to yr 13s 12 The Holographic Principle 15 Stationery written by Matthew Choy

written by Jon Lau

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16 Spring Movie Reviews

written by Natalie Mead and Molly Taylor

On the cover

William, Belinda & Clara Wing of the Fung Learning Resource Centre June 2014 3

Consolidated learning space for all

by Jon Lau, Alexander Li, Aaryam Srivastava, Kessandra Ng

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After over two years of visionary work, another part of the KGV Master Redevelopment Plan can now begin to welcome its students. The Fung Learning Resource Centre, abbreviated to the LRC, officially opened on the 11th of June. Located on the first floor of the Peel Block, it attracted over 100 guests on the opening evening, with many revisiting the school for the first time in many decades.

And tradition - our heritage, in fact, is at the heart of another section of the LRC. The Archive Centre, under the clock tower, exhibits a variety of items from our rich history. At the corner are two antique mannequins, dressed in the uniform of ages long past. Facing it on the other side of the room is the old principal’s desk, on which a scale model of the campus lies.

With two wings, the LRC is divided into a Senior School section and a Middle School section, separated by the cafe, affectionately named Leo’s. The fact that the name of this cafe, designed as an improvement over the current diner on the 1st floor of the Performing Arts Block, comes from the Latin equivalent of ‘lion’, reflecting our school’s long lasting tradition.

It doesn’t take too much effort to notice the well made replica of the old Peel Block classroom doors. In fact, the school has salvaged the metal fittings - the hinges, handlebars and the windows - from what used to be the first floor mathematics rooms of the Peel Block.

Treading southwards, the study pods, and a large, partially walled enclosure comes into view. The study pods, in particular, have been contoured to the suggestions and imaginations of students, and have been decorated by reflective art from IB students. Just beyond the study pods is the aforementioned white reading enclosure. The furniture inside perhaps brings to mind a kindergarten, or something else akin to a lighthearted atmosphere: there are hexagonally shaped seats, along with several hydraulically powered adjusting desks.

Past the modern, stylish checkout desks, past the hanging artwork and the display televisions, past the brand new bookshelves filled with books and magazines - the glass-

walled, revamped, much loved Reading Centre appears.

Inside, maroon and beige coloured sofas are arranged logically, while shelves of the best selling books and recommended titles surround the reading area. One interesting change: the seating seems to be considerably firmer than the older couch cushions.

Then, finally, beyond the double locked doors at the end of the LRC, is the technological pièce de rÊsistance: a media production studio with professional grade equipment. From the strikingly silent audio recording room, to the multitude of electronic controls in the sealed of control room, it seems that whoever has the privilege to use the studio will be in for a treat.

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Two down - more to go?

by Aaryam Srivastava, Kessandra Ng

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fter months of planning and research (and noisy construction), our newly refurbished field was finally completed on the 29th of April, open for all to see. Through the help of the school’s generous sponsors, namely the HK Rugby Football Union, the HK Cricket Association, Educational Services Ltd., the ESF and the KGV PTSA, we were able to build a better field. The main purpose of this project was to ensure a safe and practical learning environment for students in the field of sports and athletics, encouraging physical activity with better facilities. A wide range of sports are again being enjoyed on the new field, including rugby, hockey, football and basketball on the specialised basketball/netball courts.

Besides providing advantageous opportunities to the students, the field renovation played a key part in helping KGV to receive and creating more connections with others in the outside community. We are always striving to expand our prestigious reputation as a school and to share our knowledge with the community, making our school thrive and grow along with its students - you!

Developments such as this one, help us achieve this goal by becoming well known as a renowned sport field throughout Hong Kong.

Top: Front view of the school shot from the school field Bottom: Left: The school rugby team playing against Hong Kong Sevens’ players Centre: Students of Nightingale house participating in the ‘bleep test’ Right: The ribbon cutting ceremony by Mr Wickins accompanied with ESF Chairman sbs jp Mr Carlson Tong

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So long, KGV: It’s been a good one!

by James Heritage, edited by Alexander Li, Bonnie Qu

Well, it has finally arrived. That time I have been dreading and optimistically waiting for, the end of the road, my seven years at KGV had come and gone. No doubt I will miss so many things as I move onto greener pastures, and hopefully I will be missed by some people too. This school has changed a lot over these past seven years, both physically and systematically, and so, as my leaving present to you (this and a vandalised SSC), I present the four biggest changes to KGV from 2007–2014 (in my opinion at least).

of the year, to mark the end of horizontal tutoring. It might be too early to say but, on the whole vertical tutoring has worked out well for me (even the limbo year in N05M was good) and I could not have asked for better tutors.

1. AN to SC Many of you will know that the new Science Block is less than one year old, but may not know or remember its predecessor, the AN rooms. Yes, what is now a lecture theatre and a five storey Science Block used to be just four smallish language rooms stacked 2 by 2, with two sitting areas and a driveway in the leftover space. Out of the seeds sown by previous generations, we have built something truly wonderful.

4. On-site catering These last seven years have seen many changes to the food offered in KGV; from Cafe Concepts to Sodexo and the locations to get food. Many of you will have heard of how Cafe Concepts were, so here’s the short version. Their food was cheap (HK$ 16–20-ish), there were large portions and was not that healthy.

It was good and when the change to a healthy food program

by Sodexo was initiated, there was much backlash (which was largely warranted, but it has got better over the years so there’s that). Also, there used to be three food outlets (a third one in the SSC, which was replaced with locker space), but then again there is now dedicated space for seating both indoors and out.

2. Horizontal to Vertical Yes, 2010/11 was the year that tutoring went from horizontal to vertical. At first reactions were largely negative and there was much moaning to be had and melodramatic goodbyes at the end

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3. Three schools to two Along with the switch to vertical tutoring, KGV also went from three “school” to two (junior school and its yellow ties were ditched).

Left: Piazza, now partially replaced by the Science Block. Remaining area awaiting further renovation. June 2011.

Right: Top: Old canteen, now demolished and replaced by the Performing Arts Block. June 2011.

Middle: Guilford Lecture Theatre, ground floor of the Science Block. September 2013.

Bottom: Exterior of the Banyan Tree Canteen located on the ground and first floor of the Performing Arts Block. September 2013.

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A Walk Down Memory Lane (tribute to Year 13s)

by Samanwita Sen

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he turns around and cocks her head to the side.

She musters one last glance as her eyes frantically search for what was once hers, and is never to be cradled by her again.

Somewhere beyond her, she envisages someone of dares and youth emerge from a cluster of buds. Her ruby eyes permeated the horizon and her mouth shrieked in glee as the shades of blue, auburn, white, colours beyond her still youthful imagination could fathom, stretched out against the horizon. Her excitement echoed along the swaying of the buds, dancing alongside the gallant wind. Her heart soared miles upon miles beyond its cage, yearning to grasp the wonders that reigned with such beauty to be shared.

Bracing herself, the youth broke into a run, laughing as the gushing wind brushed its rippling kisses against her smooth skin.

Somewhere beyond her, a youth bold and determined was racing against the wind as a plain white cotton dress wrapped itself around her. She was much taller now, however, her delicate skin was still left unscathed. The path was now dotted with the lush bloom of flowers and swirls of fragrance emulating from their curious faces. The wind had swept her into a duet, a luxury she simply could not resist, and even looking from afar could tell that the glint of the swaying girl was irrevocable.

However, the still innocuous girl was entering diminishing light. Yet, she continued to gallop, her steps light and jolly, and she; oblivious and naïve to the unraveling path awaiting her.

Droplets latched themselves onto windows and clung onto the flowers escorting the path, making barely a sound, not even a hum could be heard from their glistening bodies. The youth continued, happily accepting their peculiar company for its beguiling touch.

But she soon realized that company was disguised to reveal the complete opposite. Its once gentle touch now showered her in sharp slashes of bitter cold, despite the now elongated dress draping her body.

She was now surrounded by drooping flowers, annoyed puddles and darkened grass smothered with gloom. The feeling of dread she had not anticipated had already crept upon her and was now silently stripping away at her once frivolous self, replacing it with solitude.

Somewhere beyond her, she saw a young girl, who appeared to have abandoned her youth. But the young lady watching knew differently. She knew that

young girl, though seemingly desperate, was unwilling to disperse of her childhood so easily. After all, although only a flicker of flame still glowed inside her, it was a most daring flame and could not so easily be extinguished.

The young lady smiled at the young lady’s next encounter.

The teenager rid of her stooped posture, and stomped through that prevailing rain as it could not erase her of her determined demeanor, nor could it tamper with her path. And for once, after what seemed ages, having hundreds of clouds already passed by, she looked up.

Arranged in front of her very eyes, at her very grasp, were rows upon rows of majestic trees, spreading their branches out to the heavens and intertwining together in a tight grasp to form shade for the young lady. They reflected the glint of hope that she was once so familiar with. The young girl was so tempted to lift her now elegant feather white dress, but experience taught her better. Instead, she raised her chin, lifted her dress, and sauntered her way into the entanglement of trees.

In the distance, the path vanished into an unknown darkness, broken only by the first streams of sunlight after the torrential rain. Her heart pounded, and for a moment, she considered turning back and deserting the path, but then; escaping her rapture, she took a deep breath and turned around.

Her dress was now streaked with black at the bottom and flowed like a blooming dandelion around her. Her eyes, once innocent and oblivious, were weathered down and held a knowing gaze. Her features were now refined and her pose was well composed and elegant. She glanced, frantically at first, to relive her youth one more time from the eye of a viewer. Her path has entwined with many others, some that had crushed her heart and some that had made it whole, and was guaranteed to promise many more encounters, but it was destined to be hers alone from the very beginning.

A smile spread across her face as her heart filled with warmth as she understood that this path was going to be another one of tears and laughter and discoveries and wonder. The new path she was about to step foot on would be frightening, but at the same time exhilarating.

And it coaxed her to think that embarking on this path would be alright, just merely another adventure to breath in and enjoy.

She gave a gentle wave, turned around, and vanished into the darkness.

Clockwise, from top left: Peel Block, 1936; School front view, c.1946–48; School front view, c. 1960s; Sports Day winners, c. 1970s; 2013–14 Graduate Students, 2014; School aerial view, 2014; Peel Block south quadrangle, 2011; KGV school field, Peel Block and New Block, 1977; south side view of Peel Block, c. 1950s

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Centre: North view of Peel Block, c. 1950s–60s

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The Holographic Principle

by Matthew Choy, edited by Alexander Li

Welcome back to the Science Column.

Today’s article is a continuation of last issue’s article.

We shall be discussing black holes, but today’s main theme is to introduce the Holographic Principle.

This article was inspired by the book The Black Hole War written by Leonard Susskind of Stanford University.

Thirty years ago, a war of 2 fundamental theories erupted. Physicist of all nations fought this war. It was the Black Hole War. Now, the Black Hole War is resolved, but the result of the war created a principle so strange, it defies all our common sense.

The Holographic Principle - This principle states that everything is a hologram.

Yes, Everything.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I shall prove today that everything and everyone is a hologram.

Before I start, I would like to reiterate what a black hole is. I like to use the Analogy by the Canadian physicist Bill Unrue. Let’s represent the universe as an infinite lake. In a lake, there is a rule. The rule states one may not swim faster than the speed of sound. In the lake, there is a drain hole. In the bottom of that drain hole, there are rocks that destroys anything that it comes in contact with. When approached, like all drain holes, the velocity becomes faster. Imagine a line is drawn around the drain hole. The line is the distance where the water is flowing at the speed of sound. If the cute tadpole (let’s call her Marie) crosses this place (aka the point of no return), she is stuck, as she cannot go faster than the speed of sound. She does not know that she is going to... die. I must emphasize that it is harmless to pass through this line, a fact important for later reference. Marie is calling for her friend Maxwell (her tadpole BFF), but her sound waves cannot go past the point of no return, as it will be violating the rule. She is completely cut off from the world. Poor Maxwell will think dear little Marie has disappeared from the world. Ahhhhhhh… REALITY CHECK! This is the black hole analogy. We are tadpoles, and the maximum speed we can travel is the speed of sound.

To escape the dilemma, i.e. the point of no return, you have to travel faster than the speed of light. But, let’s be honest, we’re never going to achieve that right now, maybe some point in the future, but definitely not NOW. My point is, this is the fundamental law one of today’s article, and that, is just the beginning…

Now, let’s venture onto our second fundamental law. All of Marie’s body parts are strayed all over the black hole. Not just normal bits, but something we’d call “information bits,” as information comes in bits, further elaboration will follow later in the article.

A sentence provides information. Let’s take this

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example - “Ms. Payne is awesome”. The meaning does not provide any information, only the symbol does.

It takes a certain number of letters to express it. So you can say (with counting the spaces) this message is a 19 bit long message in English letters. Letters are not the only form of information. A computer byte is a bit. These “Bits of information are indestructible” This is the ultimate law of thermodynamics and the second fundamental principle of today. For example, this 19 bit message can never be destroyed. If I erase it from my lap-tops you can never destroy it. You are just ejecting the bit into the environment by heat.

That is will we need to cool our laptops. This heat adds entropy - remember it?

However, if we think deeply about this ultimate law, a funny paradox arises. Bits are never erased, but to Maxwell, Marie’s bits are completely gone from the world through the sinkhole, or black hole. What’s even worst is that the Black Hole evaporates (Remember Hawking Radiation!) Let’s say you put Marie into locker in KGV, and lock the key in the locker. After that, you throw the locker into a black hole. The black hole than evaporates due to Hawking Radiation.

Where are Marie’s bits?

This was the Black Hole War of 1976, when Hawking proposed the idea of Hawking Radiation. He boldly said that all bits inside the black hole are eventually radiated as useless radiation through Hawking Radiation. What in the universe happened? This conflict took up to 25 years to resolve. And spoiler alert, the answer is that information is never loss.

Marie cannot violate the first fundamental law (exceeding light speed) to escape the black hole.

But her bits are loss, and she violates the second fundamental law.

To solve this paradox, here is an analogy of what entropy is! We went through what entropy is, but I would also like to reiterate this concept.

Let’s create an imaginary hot water tub. We want to know (for no apparent reason) all the information possible describing this hot water tub. We can easily measure the volume and the temperature, but is that is all the information we can get?

NO. There is a lot more information. For example, the momentum and position of each molecules, is information. This information is extremely inaccessible. Either because there are too many, or too small or quantum mechanics does not allow us to know the momentum and position.

That was funny! (Quantum mechanics is a story for later!)

Entropy is just this hidden information. That is all entropy has. What was remarkable and unimaginable is that “Black Holes have entropy”. This was said by the young physicist Jacob Bekenstein at 1972. Think again, this is no surprise. That is what Black holes are!

Black holes swallow up matter and tadpoles, and keep their information hidden.

However, Bekenstein said you can count it. What is the maximum number of bits you can hide in a Black Hole?

I am not going to show the calculations. But this is how Bekenstein calculated the hidden bits of the Black Hole. Let’s continue with the bathtub analogy. If you want to count how many atoms can the bath tub hold, you just have to keep dropping the atoms until you filled up a certain point. Then count how many atoms you dropped. It is obvious that the number of atoms is proportionate to the volume. (DUH!) If the volume increased by two, you can put twice as many atoms.

What Bekenstein asked how many atoms it takes to make a tiny baby black hole into a big black hole. Let’s start with a black hole as big as a dust mote. To start the experiment, let’s drop a bit of information to it.

Information can also be an elementary particle, for example, a photon, an electron, etc. Let’s drop photon because tadpoles like photons. We will keep on dropping photos until a black hole is in a size we like.

We must also count the number of photons we drop.

Bekenstein found something very weird. We expected that the number of bits is proportionate to the volume.

However, what Bekenstein found is that the number of hidden bits of information in a black hole is equal to the AREA of the event horizon and is measured in Planck unit. [A Planck unit is exceptionally tiny.

Around a thousand-trillion-trillion-trillion-trilliontrillion Planck area, (a Planck unit squared) can fit on the surface of one tiny proton.] This means the each bit will jam itself around the event horizon similar if you tried to pack as many coins as you can around a hula-hoop. This is what Bekenstein calculated using advance quantum mechanics.

What is that hidden information? Well, we can represent it with basic String Theory! (Um… it sounds like advance physics. No, it’s not!)In basic string theory, the simplest strings are elementary particles.

They are portrayed like tiny nice geometrical circles.

Like this → o (Except a zillion times smaller!) Admit it, they are CUTE! As you put more energy into it, you smash other particles with the string. As a result, when you add energy, it vibrates crazily, and become a bigger, ugly, uncontrollable demented rubber band, with zillions of curves and bends. Not so cute now...

If you add enough energy, you get huge big tangle of string. This string is full of energy. And if the string is energetic enough, it will have a massive number of

turns, and the information of all the hidden turns is entropy. If you collect enough string with high energy, and squish them all up with gravity, it becomes a black hole. Therefore, a black hole will look like a sphere with strings curling around it. This picture is so important to get I found a picture for you (see Image 1).

Image 1 Sphere with strings

These little strings represent the entropy. Remember, they are in a constant state of vibrational motion, because of the energy it stores. Motion and energy equals to heat, therefore the surface of a black hole is a hot soup of bits of information. If someone lowers a thermometer as close as possible near the horizon (remember, if it’s at the point of no return, you cannot read the results) the temperature will be millionbillion-billion-billion degrees!

Now we have a conflict. If you remember, I said the event horizon is a harmless point of no return. Marie sailed through the horizon happily, and will only be destroyed at the intense gravity of the sing clarity.

On the other hand, I have also proposed that the event horizon is a hot soup of bits, and Marie will be thermalized where she is super-heated and become elementary particles. In this case, she is radiated back out as photons. Both ways, she is doomed. More specifically, Marie is thermalized and radiated back out with the Hawking Radiation.

The answer to this conflict - BOTH are true. (Say what?)

Maxwell, outside the black hole will see Marie thermalized and radiate back out saying, “Poor Marie, although she ate all my ketchup, she was still a wonderful tadpole.” He cannot hear Marie, who in her own frame of reference, is sailing calmly in the Horizon screaming, “I’m okay, and it’s not me who ate all your Ketchup, it was that Feynman tadpole!”

But this is not a problem. There is no contradiction.

Maxwell will never know that Marie is safe, as she is unreachable, and Marie also sees no contradiction.

Let’s continue. What if just before Marie falls before the horizon, right on the layer of the hot bit soup, Maxwell takes a look at her. If Maxwell wants to see whether Marie has been thermalized or not, he must shine photons on her and receive the reflected photons.

But in order to “see” Marie in such extreme conditions, the energy of the photons Maxwell emits must be so high it thermalized Marie! This is a great definition of trolling. This is the way quantum mechanics work.

As theoretical physicist Leonard Susskind said “If you want to prove something does not happen

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[in quantum mechanics] by experimenting on it, the experiment will make it happen”.

In the end, Maxwell comes to the conclusion Marie is radiated back out. There is no contradiction.

In conclusion to this baffling situation, there are two very different representation of the same reality. One of them is a 3 dimensional reality of Marie falling down the black hole. She is 3 dimensional, she sees herself, and nothing happens to her.

The other is a 2 dimensional reality of a thin surface of an extremely hot bit soup that scrambles her bits then radiates her out.

This is possible. A painting is a representation of a 3 dimensional image in a 2 dimensional form, a trick of the eye. It is not 3 dimensional. You cannot find out if Mona Lisa has a bald patch at the back of her head.

The 3rd dimensional information is just absent.

You can represent the Mona Lisa in pixels. But what if I want to represent a 3 dimensional object, let’s say the Guilford Lecture Theatre? Well first, I shall represent the GLT with voxels (the 3rd dimensional version of pixels). I can divide the GLT into individual voxels as big as an atom. Let’s assume all atoms are the same size (Which they are not) I can represent the GLT by saying yes or no whether each voxel there is an atom.

You now can represent the world, or even the universe with the voxels, as a 3 dimensional array of information.

Is it possible that our world, or rather the surface of the black hole can be described in 2 dimensional terms and 3 dimensional terms. Voxels instead of Pixels.

It is possible to represent a 3 dimensional object in a 2 dimensional plane, but with a grave cost. You have to scramble the information horribly. An example is a hologram (we are getting there!).

Holograms are a piece of terribly scrambled film which looks like this (See Image 2).

But if you know the rule to convert back into a 3 dimensional image, it can be clear image. The rule of this hologram is to shine the light on the hologram.

Image 2 Hologram

This is how it would like.

But unlike Mona Lisa, you can find out whether he is bald on the back. You can just take a look. It does not contain what is inside the clown, but if you make a hologram from a MRI scan, you can code it into a very detailed hologram. But remember, you cannot know what the hologram represents if you do not have the rule, you can never know. We can conclude that …

THE BLACK HOLE HORIZON IS A SCRAMBLED HOLOGRAM OF EVERYTHING INSIDE.

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To recap, Maxwell reality of Marie thermalizing is a scrambled 2 dimensional representation of Marie inside the black hole, while Marie is in a 3 dimensional representation of the world. There is a lot of sharp mathematical proves for this theory.

The surface of the black hole is a very scrambled version of reality, and Marie is the image produced by the rule.(Which is not shining a torch, but rather a mathematical rule, a mathematical reconstruction.)

With this rule we can prove any finite region of the universe can be represented as a hologram.

Take some region of space, a space as big as the GLT and put some information - put anything. Put your pen, put a message put your school bus, and put KGV. It does not matter, it is information. The question is what is the maximum number of bits that you can squeeze in that region of space?

Let’s squeeze the region of interest, the GLT and squeeze it into a black hole. (Remember, the last article said anything can be a black hole as long as you compressed it enough!)

The maximum amount of information you can put inside this black hole is proportionate to the area of the walls of the GLT. This is as if the walls of the GLT is divided into pixels and described as a 2 dimensional representations.

This is just like a hologram. A scrambled 2 dimensional representation of a 3 dimensional reality.

THEREFORE, YOU CAN DESCRIBE ANY REGION OF SPACE AS A HOLOGRAM. THAT IS THE HOLOGRAPHIC PRINCIPLE! There are other kinds of horizons in the universe which contribute to this principle.

Let’s take 1 final analogy of the tadpole pond. This has to do how the universe is expanding in an accelerated rate. If the lake is being pumped with water by a uniform collection of pipe, the lake will spread. The lake spread in a specific manner. The further part you are, the faster you are separating. This is Hubble’s law.

One day, Maxwell wanted to say “Hi!” to Marie.

But Marie is at a distance where the speed she is dragged along is at the speed of sound, due to the expansion of the lake. Sounds familiar? Marie then cannot communicate with Bob anymore.

She had passed a point of no return. With this, we create another horizon in the universe.

This analogy is the universe. The universe is expanding.

Space is being “pumped” into the universe, and causing things to separate. Everyone and everything has their own private horizon - the region of space around them. If we are separated far enough in which the rate of expansion is faster than the speed of light, anything outside our horizon is out of this world.

Therefore, with the same logic, everywhere and everyone is a hologram.

Stationery

by Jon Lau

A good set of tools is a workman’s best friend. That’s why every student deserves a veritable treasure chest of gems and jewels, protectively carried around in his or her bag. What’s that? You mean you don’t have a treasure chest on you?

I’m referring to your pencil case.

Yep. That little fabric pouch, zippered by that colourful strip of plastic, decorated by some probably outdated, cherry pattern; yep, that’s what I’m referring to. The thing is, that happy, useful pencilcase doesn’t get the attention it deserves. Think about it yourself. When was the last time you gave it its long overdue redecoration? When was the last time you swapped out its pens, highlighters, whiteout, erasers, and all manner of jetsam for some better alternatives? When was the last time you even looked at it, apart from those times where you absolutely needed it?

How much is your stationery worth? Think about it in the context of school work.

A better pen can make the difference between legibility and a total mess. A reliable eraser can enable you to redraw that hyperbola more accurately. The thing is, anyone can do better with the right stationery.

Let’s start with the pencil case. An ideal pencil case should be just about the correct size. You shouldn’t have reams of empty space, nor should it be packed full to the brim. Your pencil case can be either rigid or flexible; as long as it serves its purpose of keeping your stationery together safely, your pencil case should be fine.

Then, there is the ubiquitous pen. Examinations (and most teachers) usually require writing in black or blue ink. Thus, it would be utter folly to not have a writing instrument in these colours. Your pen should also be comfortable; style is secondary in importance. You do not want to your pen to be awash with a

Congratulations to:

waterfall of sweat and piercing deep into the dermis of your hand halfway through your final assessment. Other important aspects of your pen are the ink flow and the balance. Spend some quality time testing and playing with pens the next time you shop for them. You won’t regret it.

Similarly, pencils should be carefully chosen as well, and necessary accessories procured for them. Keep a couple of these in your pencil case, to prevent breakage. There are various soft grips and caps designed especially for pencils on the market. If you feel that your pencils are inadequate, you could perhaps they need to be fitted with these accessories.

You would not go wrong if you included plenty of highlighters.

When working with hard copies of text, multiple coloured highlighters will give you greater flexibility, enhancing your productivity and final product. These need not be exquisite; as they are mostly secondary tools, you can skimp on quality and price.

And then there are rulers. A standard, 30cm long ruler kept in your bag, and a secondary, half-size ruler in your pencil case should be sufficient. Again, you need not expend much time, effort and money on this.

If space permits, include rarely used, but useful tools such as glue sticks, a roll of tape, whiteout (otherwise known as Tippex), pencil sharpeners and marker pens. These can all prove valuable to both yourself, and others around you.

Of course, all of this is in the wider context of the gear you carry every day. When you have the time, spare a thought to all of the stuff you carry with you on your adventures.

Nathaniel Chan, C09M Nathaniel Chan in Year 9 Crozier won a major showjumping event at Beas River. He was the youngest in the class competing against adults (and professional riders). His prize was an $18000 Longines watch.

– Mr D Grady

Want to be recognised?! Send an email to paynec1@kgv.hk to let us know and you’ll be on the next issue!

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SPRING MOVIE REVIEWS by natalie mead, molly taylor

CAPTAIN AMERICA 2 IMDb: ★★★★★★★★★

8.2/10

Captain America 2 follows the story of Steve Rogers, (a former American soldier who was preserved in ice for many years). The second sequel to the franchise follows Rogers as he adapts to 21st Century life and fights old friends and foes emerging from the past.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier is a contender for the best Marvel film produced. The storyline perfectly overlaps with Steve Rogers past and leaves clues for his future. The plot is action-pact with

roller-coasters of empathy, joyfulness and excitement packed into one film. The various emotions present and tasks each character is set out to complete is ingeniously scripted and portrayed, as to keep the mystique and identity of not only Steve Rogers but the Winter Soldier reserved for what’s to come.

Captain America 2 is said to be ‘cinematic genius’, implying the CGI aspects and writing all contrasting and supporting each aspect of the film leaving you eagerly wanting more of the screenplay.

OTHER BLOCKBUSTERS THE BOOK THIEF IMDb: ★★★★★★★★ 7.6/10

THE AMAZING SPIDERMAN 2

IMDb: ★★★★★★★★ 7.5/10 Set in Nazi Occupied Germany in World War II. An orphan named Liesel Meminger confronts death whilst her younger brother dies in her arms.

Liesel is sent to live with the Hubermans, where her journey of book thievery, learning with her father and being accepted begins. Though events take a drastic turn when a Jewish fistfighter joins the mix, where the Jew is sheltered in Liesel’s basement. Liesel learns to keep a life or death secret and the importance of love and words.

The plot of the story is very much relatable to Zusak’s book in the sense that Liesel is accurately portrayed as the timid, quite introverted girl at the beginning of the novel.The film wonderfully moves with the emotions of Liesel’s sadness of the past and anxiety for the future. Director Brian Percival managed to make ‘The Book Thief’ humorous, sad yet happy for Liesel and other personality-filled characters who enter her life spontaneously. This storyline is intriguing to read and watch! A definite ‘must-see’ movie for everyone of different preferences.

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Following on from the first Amazing Spiderman movie, this sequel is an action packed thriller with notes of humor, betrayal and romance.

Peter Parker continues to save the people of New York City however when a problem arises and a new enemy is formed called Electro, this task doesn’t seem that easy anymore. Parker battles his electrical enemy whilst trying to find true love and the truth about his parents. The movie reaches a climax on the blacked out streets of New York as Spiderman saves the day but at great cost.

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Credits: Writers and editors: Matthew Choy Jon Lau Alexander Li Natalie Mead Kessandra Ng Samanwita Sen Aaryam Srivastava Molly Taylor Bonnie Qu

Design and Layout: Alexander Li Jon Lau Kessandra Ng Aaryam Srivastava Lawrence Zheng

King George V School June 2014

Supervisor: Ms Payne Special Thanks: Ms Carlile

for photography