Nicias

Nicias is suffering from kidney stones, and Lambus was killed in single combat. The Athenians are building a wall around the city. The people of Sycruce try to cut them off. The Athenians won a lot of battles, and have plenty of supplies. Then a general for Sycruce arrives, and loses his first battle, but utterly defeats the Athenians the second time, with the same men, same ground, and the same weapons, just using them differently! He was a good general.  Nothing is going well for anyone on the Athenian side, and Nicias wants to go home! He has kidney stones, and is in great pain.

I think that the general wanted to see how the Athenians liked to fight, and see what their weaknesses were, and the next time he played that against them.  He was very smart! I know that if you find out what your enemy likes to do, you can play on his weaknesses, and defeat him.

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A new ending for King Lear

I read Act 3 Scene 7 of king Lear today. I decided to rewrite Sn. 7, and the rest of the book, so here is some of it:

Cornwall: Hold him fast.
Servant: My lord I will not. Do not do this!
Cor. Dost thou fight thy master?

THEY FIGHT
2. Ser. I rebel! I will not do this! He picks up a sword 
Regan: I will help my lord! They shall not wound him!

2.Ser. cuts off Regan's head. 
1. Ser. stabs Cornwall through the heart.
They untie Gloucester
Gloucester: Thank you for your kindness!In gratitude for your services, I pronounce you free! No, do not thank me. We must bury these vile people. Throw them on the dung pile! WE will tell all of the vile treachery of this pair. Send runners to all the towns in king Lear's old kingdom, and get Gonril and  Albany at any cost.
He exits

 1 Ser. Help, you two! They must be thrown on the dung pile.

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Nicias

Things started to go badly for the Athenians. They won a sea battle, but at the same time lost an important land battle. They lost the town that supplies were coming from, and lost another sea battle! Many people were captured by the enemy. Two new generals came, and decided to fight. They lost that battle, and then when the men and ships came, that commander decided to fight, and they overruled Nicias, they lost that battle too, because they went too far, and the victorious part caught the fear of the fleeing part, and there was a general rout. 2000 were slain, and of the rest few had their weapons with them.


Nicias thought that the Syracusans would soon give up. He thought this because many told him that if they had just a little less food, they would give up, and that many were tired of the war. The other commanders thought that Nicias would spoil everything by over caution again, so they didn't listen.

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A Riddle: The Answer

"Long, I made a man strong; short, I made him weak. Long, I trapped a man, and made his father weep." What am I?

Hair! Sampson was strong when his hair was long, but when it was short, he was weak. Absolem's long hair got tangled in the bushes.

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The Sea Around Us

You might think that the sea is forever the same, and you would be right, about the sea as a whole. But the surface of the sea changes with the seasons.

During the winter, the surface water has been collecting cold from the air, and in the spring, the cold, heavy waters sink to the bottom, and the warmer water, full of minerals that have been collected over the winter, rises to the top. The plants that make up plankton are dependent on those minerals, just as land plants are.
  Diatoms need silica to make their shells, and also phosphorus. They must tide themselves over the winter as best they can. To do this, they are dormant, not demanding anything from the sea, that already denied them everything except the bare necessities of life.

In the autumn, a plant appears that shows its presence by glowing. This plant, Gonyaulax,  is poisonous, and the Indians knew long before the white men came that when the sea began to glow red or green or blue, the tribal leaders forbid the catching of seafood, and they even set guards out to tell strangers about the poisonous plant. The reason why you can't catch seafood while Gonyaulax is there, is because fish eat it, and mussels get it in their livers. It reacts on people, so along the Pacific coast people know not to catch seafood in summer and fall.

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