Blizzard Website

http://letitsnow120.webs.com/

Lit Poems

" Freedom Awaits"
Imprisonment
Fearful, Dreadful
Confining, Smothering, Yearning
Frightening, Daunting, Intrepid, Comforting,
Fleeing, Escaping, Awaiting
Unfettered, Prevailing
Freedom.


"Brown"
Black is the color of a young painted boy's skin
Red is streaks of harrowing whips sliced across those who have bled
Brown is coarse, fullfilling pieces
Of shredded bread.

White is the thinly draped sheet that hides a filthy,helpless Jew
Gray is the ashen smoke that swallows Himmel Street
Brown is the rubble
On which a surviving girl cries on in defeat.

Rainbow is the colorful vocabulary in which Mama's love is shown
Blue is the undulating waves that carries a lover to a book upstream;
Brown is the dirt that had once covered two energetic children
who wonder if that happiness had been a dream.

By: Cookiemonster1696

Recently, our unit went to the aquarium and encountered various marine species. There were a vast amount of exhibits that were so fun to look at. One of my favorite exhibits was the penguin exhibit. The penguins actually looked a bit odd from the first glance, but this is because they were African black footed penguins. I was told that they were able to endure the climate of New Jersey unlike the penguins in the antarctic. In addition to seeing penguins, I also saw sea turtles. They were was one that was so huge! The aquarium had many fish such as clown fish that live in anemones. These are the stringy tentacles that are home to all clown fish. The sea anemones can sting any other fish, however clown fish are the only fish that do not get stung by anemones because of the symbiotic relationship they share. In this symbiotic relationship, the clown fish benefits because the anemone provides the fish with a home, and food. Likewise, the anemone also benefits from the presence of the clown fish. So in addition to seeing fish, I also saw sting rays. The aquarium had many different types of sting rays that you had the opportunity to touch. Personally, I found that experience very enjoyable and entertaining. I saw many sharks in the shark tank that hovered above us as we walked through the tunnel and I also ended up seeing something called a shark ray. This fish dieted on mollusks and crustaceans and was also referred to as a Bowmouth Guitarfish. Although it looked like a shark and a ray, it came from a separate category known as Guitar fish. These fish could easily protect themselves against enemies with there rough ridges on the top side of there head. These were very odd looking animals, but still cool to look at. In summary, the field trip to the Camden Aquarium was quite enjoyable and I learned a lot. I loved the playful and absolutely adorable seals that swam all around and we got to see them through the glass when they went underwater. The cutest one though, was the fat one just relaxing on a rock. The aquarium is a great place to go to learn new facts about marine species, and I really don't think anyone is too old for it!

I found my information here

Science Extra Credit

After watching the live camera feed of a mother with her baby owlets and nursing them, I was so intrigued! It really is so beautiful to see nature in this new and creative way.These innovative ways of using technology to observe animals helps students and pretty much everyone anywhere learn about the habitat of an animal and the lifestyle it leads. Animals are very much like people and some find that hard to believe. However in the live camera feed provided of the mother owl and her owlets, one can really see how the mother owl cares for her babies and in the same way, humans care for their babies with just as much concern and love. This should definitely be allowed because the cameras provide insight on the lives of animals, however, we have to make sure that while doing so we do not disturb the lives of the creatures. People put these types of things up because they are just SO interesting and it really is great to share such things with the world. Some people can probably study the animals environments better with these live camera feeds, and this way no one has to disturb the animal's habitat. I looked online to find more links just like it and here are a couple.

Flamingo Cam This is a live camera feed of a flamingo in a zoo going about its daily routine. Sometime the flamingo cannot be seen because it wanders off and since this is a live camera feed there may be times u cannot see the flamingo.

Panda Cam
This live camera feed in of a panda bear that also lives in the same zoo as the flamingo. Likewise, the panda is shown going about it's daily routines. Its so cute!

I think that all three of the live camera feeds are very good links because they all are very informative while not intruding on the animal's life. I really enjoy watching these videos because I love animals and getting to see them like this is really amazing!

Current Event: "Cell Phones aren't making us dumb"

The human brain is an intricate part of our system that manages to store so much information. The brain manages to access these pieces of information at different speeds and stores the information in several different sections. Although, the stronger a memory is is based on how frequently the memory is used and how important the information is. On the other hand, computers are based on an adaptive software and is not affected by memories from the past like humans are. So, the question has arisen that will these fancy gizmos replace our memories? Bill Nye provided enlightenment on this topic and declared that it is good to have such devices to keep complicated pieces of information stored separately and this way space is freed up in in the brain. Bill Nye is basically saying that cell phones are not harmful to us and do not make us dumb, they are useful and allow us to free up space in our brains so we can store different information. I find this information to be comforting because I have heard so often that technology will be the death of us all and we need to rely on our natural abilities instead of fancy cords and buttons. It is good to know that having technology around technically makes it easier on our brains.We can successfully store information in iphones in addition to our brains without getting mixed up and going completely insane trying to remember things. Nevertheless, as humans we shouldn't doubt our brains and we should keep in mind that having technology is indeed helpful, however there are some things that even computers can't do. We must understand that "the quality of a computer memory is only as good as the instruments that are feeding it" while the subconscious aspect of the human brain makes it easier to access information. In conclusion it is imperative that we don't get caught up in the technology era and still utilize our brains, because they can store the information a computer can store just as well and whats the point of having a brain if you're not going to use it?

I found the article here

How Global Warming Relates to math

For the past few weeks I have been immersed in a research task. My, topic for this task was global warming. As i researched, I discovered just how much math and global warming were related. To begin with, scientists observe the earth each day, trying to examine the changes that global warming has inflicted upon the environment. Sea levels are observed and scientists believe that there is a 90 percent chance that sea levels will rise along the coast. In addition it is believed that the sea levels will rise around the world, rising 8.3 inches above the mean sea level because of human induced climate change. As scientists continue to make these calculations, they understand how much of a threat global warming can be to the earth. If the sea levels continue to rise, the oceans will engulf many nations in water, killing so many. Humans continue to ruin the environment with self generated gas emissions that will cause more disasters such as droughts and hurricanes. Inevitably, more people will be left homeless forcing more and more money will have to be contributed in order to pay and restore the losses. Many graphs were shown to provide people with insight on how global warming may continue to affect us, with line graphs displaying the increase of greenhouse gases and increase in sea levels. Over all, math and global warming are connected in many ways, and without math scientists would never have been able to comprehend just how much global warming was affecting us.

Class Response: Cnidarians and Sponges

In science class we have been learning about sponges and cnidarians. During this time, I learned quite a lot. To begin with, both cnidarians and sponges reproduce both asexually and sexually. Budding in how the two animals both reproduce asexually, which is when an organism duplicates itself. Sponges and cnidarians have two different cell types that allow them to trap food. Sponges have collar cells and cnidarians have stinging cells. The stinging cells paralyze a cnidarians prey, thus allowing them to eat they prey as their food source. Sponges and cnidarians aslo have two distinct body structures. Cnidarians have radial symmetry, tentacles with stinging cells and two basic body forms:vase shaped and bowl shaped Medusa. Sponges on the other hand, are like hollow bags with pores. They are invertebrate animals with spikes for defense. Based on all of this information I have gained, I ended up feeling satisfied with knowing so much about sponges and cnidarians. This was an interesting topic to learn about, and surprising to see that the 2 animals reproduce the same way. I don't think I can watch "Spongebob" again without remembering all of the facts I learned in class!

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