Chef

My podcast is an interview with a chef and they discuss the education and science involved in this career.
http://omegapride.podomatic.com/player/web/2009-12-11T09_06_19-08_00

Turkeys On Turkey Day

Thanksgiving is one of the best holidays ever, and the food is probably one of the reasons why it is so loved. Turkey on Thanksgiving has been a tradition for many for centuries, however "the odds are 99-to-1 your holiday spread won't include a traditional gobbler but rather it's mass produced cousin" after reading this sentence in The Sunday Star-Ledger newspaper I was shocked! According to the article, It is very unlikely to find a pure bred turkey now a days. Instead we find ourselves eating "a white feathered bird that's been bred to grow breasts so plump it has lost the ability to fly." However, New Jersey and many other states happen to be raising heritage turkeys even after they were almost near extinction. Now that farmers have started to raise these birds, more people are buying them and tasting the succulent taste of a nicely bred heritage turkey. This connects to science because farmers need to know about genetics in order to produce more heritage turkeys. They would probably need to know about dominant factors in a turkey and how the offspring would turn out to be. I chose this article because it appealed to me and seemed interesting how heritage turkeys were being bred again, and all this time I had thought that all turkeys were the same! My opinion on this situation is that I am very pleased that more heritage turkeys are being raised, and its always a good thing traditional meals on holidays like Thanksgiving. In addition I hope that the rate of heritage turkeys for the 100 farms that possess these turkeys goes up and that they will spread to other farms so that more natural heritage birds can keep being bred, and they won't face extinction.

I found this article in The Sunday Star Ledger Newspaper.

Extra Credit: Quote

The quote "in science the credit goes to the man who convinces the world not to the man whom the idea first occurred" means exactly what it says. In science, there are so many assumptions made and ideas that pop into one's head at any given time, however you cannot be positive about hypothesis until that hypothesis is proven. For example, Nicolas Copernicus was the first who came up with the theory that the the Earth was in motion and that the Earth revolved around the sun, not the other way around. However, Nicolas did not have the tools to prove his theory and everyone in his time thought that he was insane. However, Galileo Galilei managed to prove to the world that Copernicus's theory was correct with plenty more theories and fancy math jazz. And to this day, people recognize that name for being the one that proved the Earth was definitely in motion.So in the end, it all comes down to whether or whether not one can prove his or her hypothesis, and then that person will be recognized for their outstanding achievements.

Ecosystems Collapsing

Who: The Apex predators and Mesopredator's.

What: The decline of apex predators( large predators that don't have predator's therefore they are at the top of the food chain ex: sharks, lions, wolves.) is causing a huge uproar in the ecosystems. Mesopredators ( or the medium sized predators such as skunks, snakes and cats) are increasing dramatically in their given ecosystem, therefore "causing major economic and ecological disruptions."

When: Present day

Where: North America, parts of Sub-Saharan Africa.

Why: The food chain is un-balanced now, due to the fact that the apex predators have been decimated. Apex predators such as wolves, lions and sharks are decreasing as a result of fishing and hunting. .Because of this, mesopredator population has increased dramatically/ This could be very severe and and could have intense ecological consequences.

My opinion: Based upon the information given in this article, I believe the balance of the ecosystem has plummeted dramatically. It is my belief that problems like these always lead back to humans. They disrupt the lifestyles of animals quite often. However, if humans were to cut back on fishing so much and hunting so much then maybe that would give a chance to the animals to catch up and set the balance of our world right. In addition, humans should know the facts. They should know that by killing apex predators whether it be to protect their livestock from wolves, or just fishing for sharks, we are causing our own down fall by losing crops and plant damage. Its becoming even more hard to stop the prevention of mesopredators release because of the increasing loss of apex predators. Humans need to understand the circle of life better and comprehend how much we ruin the balance of all of animal's ecosystems. Inevitably, we will be in trouble too, when all of the commotion in the animal's ecosystem effects us dramatically. In the circle of life we are all connected and we can't ruin that balance by making ridiculous mistakes such as over fishing and hunting so much. To read the article click here
I also got "circle of life" stuff from the lion king (:

Flamingo's Iconic stance

Flamingos are astonishing and beautiful birds that happen to be very unique. They have he most unusual stance that you may not find in other exotic birds. They have a one-legged stance that has had many people baffled including Matthew Anderson of university of Philadelphia who has conjured two very intelligent theories that may explain this peculiar behavior of these magnificent birds. His first theory was that the stance of the flamingo is dictated by the fatigue felt. Therefore the one legged stance reduces muscle fatigue. In addition, standing on one leg prevents both legs from stiffening and or causing exhaustion, therefore, if a predator were to come the flamingo would be able to escape swiftly and quickly without much hesitation. This theory was evaluated by timing how long it took the flamingo to to begin moving in a unipedal or bipedal resting position. If the flamingo took their first couple steps in the unipedal position the theory would be considered correct. However the flamingo did not do so, therefore the theory was ruled out. The second theory was based upon thermoregualtion, the maintenance of body temperature. Both the legs can cause significant heat loss in birds, with one leg close to the body the bird would conserve their heat. To test this theory, the examination of the weather conditions played a significant part. If the weather conditions in which the flamingo was resting was warm they would stand on two feet. If the climate was colder they would stand on one leg. It was seen that the majority of the birds stood on one foot during the cold climate. So according to Matthew Anderson, the theory of thermoregulation plays a huge part in the one-legged stance of flamingos. In addition "it doesn't rule out other benefits of the posture, such as minimizing contact with parasites and fungi that might be present in the water they are wading in" as stated in the article where all this information was found. My opinion on this matter is simply that flamingos are fascinating creatures, and their iconic stance has had many befuddled. I believe that thermoregulation plays a crucial part in the reason why they stand in such a way, in addition to posture and exhaustion. I mean with legs like that wouldn't you wanna relax one of them by standing on one leg? I sure would. This article was found here.

October Sky: Connections To Science And C.A.R.E.S

In the movie October Sky, science and admirable actions were displayed. Homer was a teenager living in West Virgina and was inspired by the fist Russian rocket called the Sputnik. The Sputnik was the world's fist orbiting space ship that helped identify the upper atmosphere's density as the pressurized nitrogen allowed us to detect meteoroids. In addition to helping the world discover the wonders of outer space, the Sputnik provided Homer with inspiration to create his own rocket to submit in the National Science Fair. Along with an unlikely helper, Quintin, Homer displayed cooperation by building the rocket with a person he would normally not be seen with. In addition respect was shown when a teacher supported the work they did. Homer was determined to follow his dreams although his father had no faith in him and did not support him, thus his self-control was displayed whenever his father would tell him he had no chance in succeeding in the National Science Fair. However, when his father was working in the coal mines he had gotten a serious injury. In order to ensure his family's well-being, Homer had to step up and take his father's job in the coal mines. As the movie progressed the viewers were enlightened about the atmosphere of the coal mines. Coal was used as fuel generation, and also for steel manufacturing. Although coal mining provides us with these things, it is very harmful. Gas poisoning is a hazard in coal mining and so is suffocation and gas explosions. Al in all, the movie October Sky displayed instances of character education numerous times varying from the relationships between the characters and the conflicts that arose time after time displaying the self-control in some characters and respect in others. Science played a huge role in the movie from the history of the coal mines, to the launching of the Sputnik.

Tay Sachs Disease

I read recently about the cruel disease called tay sachs disease. This disease is caused by lipid storage disorder and is then built up in the tissues and nerve cells in the brain. The people effected by this disease are infants in the north-eastern countries. The devastating fact is that infants effected with the disease do not live past the age of 4 or 5 years old. The people most likely to be effected with this disease are people of Eastern Europe and Askhenazi Jewish decent. The terrible symptoms of this disease can be mental and psychical deterioration, paralysis, blindness, and more painful experiences. The tragedy is that there is no treatment for this disease and it will continue to harass people. I am frustrated and devastated to learn that there is no cure to such a horrific disease. It bothers me deeply that some people must wake up in the morning and have to deal with such a disease and be put through so much pain and suffering, and I hope that soon the victims of this disease are put out of their misery and presented with a cure and treatment for his disease.

Information on Tay Sachs disease found here

Genetic Disorder: Sickle Cell Anemia

The disease sickle cell anemia was discovered and explained in 1904. The symptoms of this disease restricts blood flow to an organ which can cause ishemia pain. It can also cause organ damage. The signs of this disease can be fever, chest pain, difficulty breathing and pulmonary infiltrate. However,the treatments for this disease can be hydration and analgesics. The people affected with disease can be both male and female and are expected to live from 42-48 years of age. This disease can affect the world population with 1 in 5,000 chances. The population that is most vulnerable to this disease are the African Americans and 1 in 500 blacks are affected, in addition one in 36,00 Hispanic children have sickle cell anemia. The molecular level for this disease is that copies found in this disease is only one copy of the genes, or mutation. In order to develop more treatments they need to understand how the sickle cell anemia effects the bones, so a medicine can be created and therefore stop the disease from destroying bone marrow.My opinion on this horrendous disease is that it is unfair and cruel for people to undergo such a painful disease, however I hope that there will be more cures for this disease that are much less painful.

Click here to see the information about sickle cell Anemia.

Science:Dreams...Another Realm?

Who:People

What:Dreams, don't mean as much as we think. In fact, less than we think.

When: Present day

Where: all over the world, where everyone dreams and tries to discover the meaning of what they are dreaming.

Why: Some people believe that dreams maybe a another realm of unconsciousness, and after they dream they try to find out the meaning of the dream by making up silly, irrational assumptions about why we had a certain dream.

My opinion on this matter is that humans do in fact make silly choices and tend to think too hard about dreams, and read far too into them. In the article it states that dreams are merely a complex "interaction of proteins and neurons" so clearly dreams are much less meaningful than we tend to think. The last paragraph in the article talks about how people see a good dream and think that it is meaningful to their life and when they see a bad dream about themselves they find it to be less meaningful to their life. You see, dreams are basically just "uncontrolled cellular activity." To read the article click here

Social Studies Current Events: Recession Affecting The Buisness Owners

The recession is affecting everyone and putting some to tears as they realize that they have to close down their business because of the lack of costumers. In this article, a few restaurant owner's opinions and views are described, telling how the atmosphere in their business has instantly changed because of the recession. Because of the recession, the owner of Pierre's tells that he had to make quite a lot of sacrifices in order to save his business. The sacrifices included reducing hours and staff because of the lack of costumers. People are now trying to eat more at home and less out because they want to save their money. Because of this decision by many, small business owners like Pierre Hageboutros and larger business owners Theo Zervos of Theo’s Family Restaurant are losing so much business and are in a quandary as to what to do. My opinion on this matter is quite simple, we cant really do anything about this matter until our economy is stable again, and people are a bit less worried about eating out to save money. It's a shame that local business owners have to undergo such pain of losing costumers and reducing the number of hours and staff due to this horrid recession. I hope that everything in our economy will soon be stable. click over here to see the article

My Roller Coaster Website

Dino Dan

New Biofuels, Renewable energy!!

Who: This applies to basically the whole world

What: New types of renewable biofuels made out of crops like corn, sugar cane.

When: this all happening now, as our world is showing tremendous development in research in making our world better.

Where: the article states numerous locations where research is being done by a handful of different scientists.

Why: this is being done so that we can find alternative furl for our cars in order to create a healthy environment and slow down the process of extreme global warming, which is doing alot of damage to the world. Once the gases reach the air, it's like the world is being poisoned by extreme chemicals.

My opinion on this matter is that I feel that the world is developing so much and it is all due to the efforts of the intelligent scientists around the world. Because of their brilliant ideas to form a better world we are being presented with ideas such as making renewable energy our of sugar cane, and corn. Of course, not everything is perfect, because there is an issue with making renewable energy out of food crop. It is that there is always a chance that we will run out of the food supplies. Right now we are running into difficulties, but soon there will be an invention that will work and make our world into a better place to live and breath without having to breath in too much of the filthy air full of hazardous chemicals, just floating around.

http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1872110_1872133_1872143-1,00.html

Social Studies: International

This article is about the strike that happened in London, England. This strikers were Britishers protesting that only British people should be allowed to work for British jobs. The British citizens think that it is unfair for foreigners to get the contractors job at the company, Total, so therefore they protested that the company, Total, is discriminating. They believe that since they are British citizens it is their right to be offered the job as a contractor and given a fair chance. Total denies this accusation, saying that they are giving an equal opportunity to all of the workers. Basically, the article talks about how the matter was rather a big deal and had reached the point that it was taken into Parliament's hands, and they are investigating whether any laws were broken in the process of bidding, or hiring foreigners. My opinion on this matter is that it isn't okay for the company to discriminate their own citizens and maybe it was right for the British citizens to protest.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/BUSINESS/02/04/uk.strike/index.html

Science: Class Response

Three Facts :

1.) Electromagnetic Spectrum is the complete range of electromagnetic waves placed in order of increasing frequency.

2.) Radio waves are the electromagnetic waves with longer wavelengths and lowest frequencies.

3.)Infrared Rays are electromagnetic waves with wavelengths shorter than those of radio waves.

4.) Visible light is electromagnetic waves you can see.


My opinion on this is that it's fun to learn about the electromagnetic spectrum. I didn't remember a lot about the spectrum, and it was a nice brush up on it. I also learned that an example of infrared rays is a heat lamp because it gives off infrared rays. An example of a radio wave is not only a radio is when a broadcast station sends out radio waves, and we can hear it on our radio or television. Below are websites about this topic:

http://science.hq.nasa.gov/kids/imagers/ems/index.html

http://www.physics4kids.com/files/light_visible.html

Social Studies: Inauguration Of Obama

A brief summary of this topic: The topic being shown in my blog is about President Barack Obama's inauguration. I have found two articles including different pieces of information concerning the historical event. This year thousands and I all around the world are going to be able to witness how our nation has evolved, forming extreme togetherness. Below, I am going to show the two articles I read.

Article #1: In this article the brief summary is the journalist is describing the how the first lady and our President are very excited about finally reaching their destination: The dream of the first African American president of our nation. In the article I found the first paragraph appealing it says, ""At Last" may have been just what President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle were thinking Tuesday night as they glided through their first inaugural dance to the Etta James classic." I found this quote appealing because it shows how long the Obama's had waited for the moment to come where they could transform the nation into a more developed one. My overall thoughts about this article is that it was interesting to read about the excitement that went on after Obama was officially inaugurated, and this article also shows me how much his family means to President Obama.

Article #2: This article is describing the actual inauguration. The inauguration was extremely exciting and a heartwarming situation, after all, this was history in the making. To stand and watch an African American man take oath to lead our nation was simply emotional and, to some, unbelievable! In fact in the article it states, " In his speech, Mr.Obama acknowledged that the changes his presidency represented describing himself as a 'man whose father less than sixty years ago might not have been served in a restaurant.' But although the crowd and the podium around his were full of elated African Americans, Mr. Obama, the first black to become president, did not dwell on this in his speech." It is so shocking to know that our nation was once a nation full of prejudice people, yet it is very comforting to know that our nation has come a long way. So long that it is now being led by an African American.

My overall thoughts on this topic is that I am exceptionally inspired by this movement in history, and although we cannot ignore what had occurred in the past it is soothing to know that we can get passed the prejudice and racism and form a nation where everyone is known to be equal. I wonder how these four years will be like, and what will happen. I also wonder if our new President will carry our nation out the financial crises. I predict that his four years of presidency will change America forever.

Class Response: Waves

Three facts I have learned in class:

1.) A transverse wave is a wave that move the medium at the right direction in which the waves travel.

2.) A longitudinal wave is a wave that moves the medium parallel to the direction in which the wave travels

3.) The high point of a wave is called a crest, the low part is called a trough.

4.) A medium is the material through which a wave can travel through.

My opinion on the subject of waves is that it is interesting to learn about. I didn't know that a wave that needs a medium to travel through is called a mechanical wave. Examples of a medium could be water, air or any type of solids like a rope. I didn't know that light from the sun can carry energy through an empty space. The opposite of a mechanical wave is a electromagnetic wave which doesn't need a medium to travel through. Below is one website that includes the definition and plenty examples of waves, crest, and troughs.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/education/bitesize/standard/physics/waves/wave_definitions_rev3.shtml