"AFLOAT IN THE OCEAN, EXPANDING ISLANDS OF TRASH"

Caroline Yerkes November 11, 2009
Block Odd C Mr. Ippolito

Hoshaw, Lindsey. “Afloat in the Ocean, Expanding Islands of Trash” New York Times (Online) 11 Nov 2009. 10 Nov 2009.
1,000 miles northeast of Hawaii, there is patch of the Pacific Ocean where trash is all that can be seen. Things like bottle caps, toothbrushes, Popsicle sticks and very small of pieces of plastic fill the Pacific garbage patch, a place where the trash that inhabits it doubles every 10 years. This place is believed to be about twice the size of Texas! Scientists state that the patch is just one of five that could be around the world’s oceans. Plastic is most common in the patch because it can float, making its way and over time, breaking down. But once it does break down, the sections look like confetti. Millions and even more of these plastic pieces are floating in the world’s oceans. Charles Moore found the Pacific garbage patch by accident 12 years ago. He came upon it when he was coming back from a sailing race in Hawaii. Many scientists believe there is a garbage patch off the coast of Japan and another in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Jeffery Ernst says, the patch was “just a reminder that there’s nowhere that isn’t affected by humanity.”
At first, I chose this article at a glance. However, after reading it I realized that it is very important that our society learns how much we affect the environment around use. Especially we should know how our waste affects the eco-systems of many other animals. Also, I do care about our environment. <3
I thought this article was very boring to read. The topic was interesting, but there were way to many articles and it was too complex for someone who just wants to know a little about the topic. I thought the writing was very easy to understand and for the most part I enjoyed reading this article.

A Dream Interpretation: Tuneups for Brains

Last month, a paper was published by a man named Dr. J. Allan Hobson, a psychiatrist and sleep researcher at Harvard. He believes dreaming that occurs when there is rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep is physiological. The brain is preparing the body with sights, sounds, and emotions of waking. Dr. Hobson is arguing that dreaming is a parallel state of consciousness. Dr. Rodolfo Llinas, neurologist and physiologist at New York University disagrees with this statement. He proposed that the act of dreaming is consciousness itself, but without senses. Then, when people are awake the brain fills in the sight, touch and hearing for that dream. All the ideas about dreaming are partly based on the findings about REM sleep. Evidence has been found that REM activity helps the brain make connections, particularly in visual areas. This article goes on to talk about different studies that have been done to try to obtain a better understanding of dreams.
Learning more about dreams is important because it helps scientists learn more about the way the brain works. This article showed the different theories about why humans dream. It explained that studies have done, but scientists still do not have a definite purpose of why the brain has dreams.
I think that this article has a lot of detail and is very interesting. Some parts of it were confusing because the explanations of each theory could have been written in a more understandable way. In this article they could have also done a better job of explaining what REM is. I would have enjoyed learning more about other proposals of why humans dream. Overall, I was pleased with the amount of information that I was able to learn from this article.
Carey, Benedict. "A Dream Interpretation: Tuneups for the Brain." New York Times 9 Nov. 2009. Web. 11 Nov. 2009.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/10/health/10mind.html?ref=science

Current Events Review 11/11/09

"Pigs Prove to Be Smart, if Not Vain" 

       When we think of pigs, smart, intelligent, or brilliant are not words that first come to mind. But, in the current issue of Animal Behaviour, researchers introduced evidence that domestic pigs have a keen sense of learning. This is shown in a recent “mirror self-recognition” test that pigs can understand how mirrors work and will use this to reflect images which could help them see their surroundings better. Ultimately, making them find their food much easier. Other researchers have also found that pigs are able to remember where food stores are cached and how big each stash is compared to the rest. They are slow to forget, and are very clever. Researchers have found that pigs are among the quickest animals to demonstrate a new routine, jump hoops, bow and stand, spin and make word like sounds. Last week, an international team of biologists released the first sequence of the pig genome which was the complete set of genetic instructions for making the Duroc breed of Sus scrofus. What researchers found from this is that the pig genome compares much alike to the human genome.

         Pigs have been known as farm animals in a stable for up to 8,000 years. But, these new studies can affect humanity. From this information, pigs have been looked at differently. Not just the lazy, dirty, farm animal, but an animal having many physiological and behavioral parallels that compare favorable to humans. “I look at the pig as a great animal model for human lifestyle diseases”, said Dr. Schook. Researchers are now aware that the pig may not just be a domesticated animal, but could possibly be back in the wild holding their own.

         This article, “Pigs Prove to Be Smart, if Not Vain” was written very well. It was long and had a lot of detail. It also kept the reader interested by keeping it amusing. One thing that would attract the reader is that we are able to see a well-known animal in a new light. This concept was explained very thoroughly. Overall, I thought this article was interesting, and entertaining.

 

Angier, Nancy. ""Pigs Prove to Be Smart, if Not Vain"." New York Times Nov. 2009. Web. 11 Nov. 2009. .

By Amanda Austi 

Mt. Kilimanjaro Ice Cap Continues Rapid Retreat

Bhanoo, Sindya. “Mt. Kilimanjaro Ice Cap Continues Rapid Retreat.” New York Times. November 3, 2009. <http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/03/world/africa/03melt.html?_r=2&ref=science&pagewanted=print>

Mount Kilimanjaro is a famous mountain in Tanzania, Africa. Its ice cap has decreased 26% in nine years, since 2000. Last records show that 85% of the ice cap that was present in 1912 has vanished, or melted. Douglas R. Hardy proved that both sides of the mountain, horizontally are declining at the same rate. Some hypothesis for why this is happening are human activity on the mountain, r climatological influences. Lonnie Thompson extracted deep cylinders of ice from the glaciers and found that they were full of elongated bubbles. This proves that this ice had melted and refroze in recent years. But surface melting has not occurred in 11,700 years. An explanation for this is the decline in moisture level. Not only is this happening in Mt. Kilimanjaro but the similar signs are happening with ice in other places in Africa, South America, Indonesia, and the Himalayas. Nepal Katmandu’s cabinet is meeting on Mount Everest to announce the threat of global warming, which may be the explanation for the ice caps to be melting.

This topic really highlights the fact of global warming. People in the world today are really guilty of harming the environment. I felt like I should present this topic as current events because it seemed like the environment really comes second to humans. When we act we do not respect our environment and it effects us in a very negative way.

This article was nicely written, but needed more evidence. Bhanoo could have put more examples in this article and made it longer. I liked how it was very easy to understand. It was not easy to write about because it was cut down so much already.

"What happens when good robots go 'bad'?."

Cyrus Adamiyatt 11/5/09

Chemistry 9

Robots used in our lives our considered luxuries, and beneficial, but some robots are a bridge for hackers intruding on your lives. At a recent international conference on ubiquitous computing a handful of potentially harmful scenarios were imagined. These robots are very tricky because they look like toys or appliances. They can be used for different purposes however. A robot is really a little computer that sometimes has a web-cam. These have the ability to hear, see, and sometimes handle things. This article attempted to make people aware of the flaws these robots have. They may be all fun and games and useful until a hacker uses your robot. By hacking into your robot he can possibly hear and see what goes on in your household. These robots could be used for robot spying and even vandalism.

This article applies to my humanity and my life for a number of reasons. Eventually the majority of the population will invest in robots to do their chores and other useful things. This industry grows everyday and over 4 million robotic units have been sold worldwide since 2002. This means that there is a possibility that those robots could be hacked into and used to commit crime against the owner.

I thought that this was a very well written article. It was long, but the writer kept the reader engaged by keeping it very interesting. One thing that was great was it affects humanity and many people can relate to the article. I also thought it was well written in that it showed substantial research had been done to write this article in a correct matter. Overall I thought that the writer did a great job.

Mapes, Diane. "What happens when good robots go 'bad'?." msnbc.msn.com MSNBC, 5 Nov. 2009. Web. 5 Nov. 2009 .

Falklands Wolf First Appeared in North America, Researchers Say

The Falklands Wolf has baffled scientists including Charles Darwin for more that 100 years. It was a land mammal native to the Falkland Islands about 300 miles off the coast of Argentina, but in 1876 it was hunted to extinction. Scientist could not determine what other animal it evolved from and how it got to the islands. It was originally thought that ancient people took them to the islands but the first wolfs emerged 70,000 years ago, much before man could build boats. But scientists at the University of California obtain samples of DNA of the Falkland Wolf from museums and discovered that they evolved from other wolfs native to North America. This suggests that the wolf migrated from North America and found their way onto the islands either by ice burgs or vegetation.

This article tells the true story of the Falkland Wolf and how it migrated from North America to the Falkland Islands. This discovery shows us how the Falkland Wolf evolved and gives us more information on all of its relatives including the Maned Wolf, which drove the Falkland Wolf out of North America because of competition for food. This new data on wolfs and how they evolve, migrate, and compete for food can tell us much about wolfs.

This was a very good article that gave a perfect amount of information and explained everything to make it easy to comprehend. It was very interesting to read and never lost the reader with boring facts. It cut right to the chase and explained all of the information in a perfect manor.

“Falklands Wolf First Appeared in North America, Researchers Say”

by Henry Fountain

-Brewster Warble

Thirsty Plant Dries Out Yemen

Deep in the Sands of Yemen, there is a rare plant that is only grown and found in the Middle East called Qat. But despite how rare it is, it uses up a lot of soil and is sucking Yemen dry from water, which is causing a major drought in the Native areas of Northern Yemen. Even though they know that this plant is very harmful to the environment, and is causing a massive drought, the government does not supply these villages with other sources of food. This is mainly because of the journeys they need to take in order to reach these villages, and because of the lack of good weather that is needed to enrich and fertilize the soil for the growing season. The U.N is launching an International Food Program that is to help aid the people that inherit these villages who are currently being affected by this crisis. However, this is very Ironic in the fact that many people are using this plant as a last resort despite the fact that it is also one of the causes of what making it impossible to grow crops in their current location.

Worth, Robert F. “Thirsty Plant Dries Out Yemen.” New York Times 31 Oct. 2009, A6.