Current Event - May

Libya's rebels say dying for freedom is worth it

Link: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/05/15/eveningnews/main20063077.shtml?tag=cbsnewsLeadStoriesAreaMain;cbsnewsLeadStoriesPrimary

Who: Ayman Berghthy says he is willing to die for the country of Libya. He has changed his main goal from

being a successful businnessman to being a freedom fighter for Libya.

What: Rebels against ruler Qaddafi claim full power over the city of Misrata. Since Quddafi is trying to shut the country down, Ayman and other fighters are fighting for the freedom of Libya.

When: This story took place on Sunday, May 15. Libyans have been trying to defend the country of Libya "since the first drop of blood" caused by Qaddafi.

Where: The major victory of the Libyan rebels takes place in Misrata, Libya. So far, the rebels declare that they have no plans to advance on Tripoli, Libya, which is the capital of the country.

Why: Rebels are making the decision to die for the freedom of Libya because they are sick and tired of the terror that Qaddafi has given to the country. The fighters have an intent to put the fight to an end and get back to the lives that the fight has put on hold.

How: The people of Libya are boosting the morale of the freedom fighters and giving hope to their beloved country.

I can connect this article to "Los Ninos Heros" of the Mexican/US War. The spanish phrase means "heroic children." In this historic war, six Mexican cadets died for the freedom of the country of Mexico.

Current Event-May 17

Current Event - May 17th.

Mississippi flood may be "large-scale disaster"

News link: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/05/07/national/main20060801.shtml

Who's involved? Mississippi is suffering major floods that can change the environment and the inhabitants. These colossal floods will impact people of the society because some believe that their city will be underwater in the future. This is life changing because many won't have a shelter to live in. Now, residents and officials are preparing for the worst.

What is occurring? Floods are roaring through the state of Mississippi. These flood disasters are capable of breaking world records of historic flood levels. Basically, the Mississippi basin is overflowing. This is mainly being caused by the overflow of the valuable Mississippi River.

When did this occur? This article informs readers of what is to come on the day of May 7. Also, floods in Mississippi are still continuing today and are still devastating lives.

Where did this occur? This article is based in the whole of Mississippi. Also, it talks about people trying to aid the situation in Memphis, Tenessee.

Why are the floods occuring? The floods are occuring because powerful rain is forcing the Mississippi River's basin over its limits. Therefore, the water is being forced into tight areas(tributaries) and throughout the state.

How are people trying to help the situation? People around Memphis, Tenessee are constructing a buffer, filling sandbags, and raising to a higher ground. They are aiding the problematic floods to the best of their abilities.

Bruce, the talking rock!(Science)

http://blabberize.com/view/id/481774
This is Bruce!
He talks about rocks.
He is a rock star.

"Soaring Straws" Lab

          Imagine you were an arrow. If you tried to soar through the air on your own, you would no be successful. This is because gravity is pushing you down. Now, imagine an Native American hunter holding a bow, with you pulled back against the "bendy" string. Let's say the Native American hunter has two chances to shoot an animal. When the hunter seeks the perfect opportunity, he launches the "bendy" string back a short stretch and releases. Now, you are flying, but you did not quite reach the target. In his second chance, he pulls the "bendy" string at a long stretch, and releases. BULL'S EYE!!!!! This time the arrow flew a farther distance and was aimed at the right target. How did the Native American hunter's first trial differ from the second trial? The answer is the Elastic Potential Energy was stronger in the second trial than in the first, which impacted a farther fly of the arrow. Elastic Potential Energy is the amount of stretch of an object. In comparison, the Elastic Potential Energy of our "Soaring Straws" lab is the amount of stretch of the rubber band. In this case, the rubber band played the role of the manipulated variable, because its stretch was manipulated and changed. On the other hand, the gravitational potential energy is the height of which gravity is forcing an object to fall. Similarly, the lab suggests that the gravitational potential energy is the maximum height of the rocket  in air. This is the responding variable because it is the reaction to the elastic measurement. We experienced a rocket launch, a take-off, and the power of gravity, The potential energy of the rocket turned to kinetic energy just as it was release from the "toilet roll" launcher. I've analyzed an intruiging relationship between the Elastic Potential Energy and Gravitational Potential Energy. I have observed that the more the stretch of the rubber band(EPE), the more the gravitational potential energy of the rocket. For example, when I was in the process of launching the rocket, I stretched the rubber band

1 cm back and the experiment resulted with an average GPE of 8.6 milijoules. In contrast, in the second trial, I stretched the rubber band 2 cm and the result was an average GPE of 19 milijoules.After these trials, I clearly was able to see a major difference and I realized the concept that the more the EPE, the more the GPE.

          Even though our lab was very chronological, towards the end, our hypothesis was mistaken. Knowing that the rocket went to an average of .55 meters high with a 1 cm stretch in the 1st trial, and an average  of 1.21 meters high at a 2 cm stretch, we believed that the 3 cm stretch of the rocket would prove more in the third trial. However, we predicted wrong, and a unique error occurred. Unexpectedly, the average of the height of the rocket of the third trial was 1.12 meters high. This surprised us because the average third trial height was less than the average second trial height. This impacted the gravitational potential energy of the third trial. In contrast to the first two trials, the GPE of the third trial was 17.6 millijoules. This data is proven in the graph. Some possible reasons why the third trial did not turn out as expected are maybe the thick rubber band was having a weak reaction to the 3 cm stretch that we pulled on it. Another possible reason is that my partner or I did not hold the rocket properly. Subsequently, maybe the rocket, after being released hit the inside of the "toilet roll" launcher. Next time, we can enhance the lab in various ways. For starters, we can use a different "less-stretchy" object to be used as the manipulated variable. Also,some input I can give is that the project will work more efficiently outside. This is because many times rockets were flying across the room, hitting other students, hitting the ceiling, and getting stuck on top of the ceiling lights. All these distractions can lead to inaccurate measurements. All in all, this lab was fascinating and educational.

The World's Hardest Shot! Yes!Yes!Yes!

From Behind a Toyota Van, in the middle of the street, and an awkward bounce of the top of the backboard,

SWISH!

President Hosni Mubarak Finally Resigns

This major obstacle to Egyptian "Democracy" has finally concluded his evolution to dictating the "Pyramid Land." After 29 years as a tyran, the 82 year old believes that it is time to change the Egyptian government. For the last long 18 day battle of "Pro Mubaraks" and "Anti - Mubaraks", it has been deadly, unsafe, social, geopolitical towards other countries, and has had a gigantic economic influence on outside countries because of their useful source of Oil which is used for trade.
For more information, go to http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2011/02/egypt_president_mubarak_resign.html

The Imaginary Fish Lab

          When simulating alleles in a fish population, many alters occur over time.  The purpose of this scientific project was to show how an offspring is developed by the mating of a male and a female. Basically, it is formed by the combination of a male's sperm and the female's eggs. In this scenario, each allele symbolizes the color of the fish. It just so happens that a green colored (allele) is dominant over all other alleles which include red alleles, and yellow alleles. Interesting, both red alleles and yellow alleles are incompletely dominant  to eachother and produce a third  blending phenotype of orange. At the start of the lab, there was 24 alleles in the gene pool. 1/3 of the alleles were green, 1/3 were red, and 1/3 were yellow. To start off with, we had to make a first generation of imaginary fish. To do this, we had to take out 12 pairs of genes(toothpicks) from a genepool(plastic cup)(randomly) with our eyes closed and set them side by side. We used Direct Observation and counted the members of the population one by one. The gene pairs resulted into various fish colors. The group of investigators determined that approximately 58% of the population was green, 17% was red, 8% was yellow, and 17% was orange due to incomplete dominance combinations. Therefore, there was 7 green fish, 2 red fish, 1 yellow fish, and 2 orange fish. In the lush, green territory where the fish live, there are also many vicious predators in their surroundings. This area is home to lots of seaweed and algae. The fish can camaflouge themselves well and can adapt to the environment. However, unfortunately the yellow fish are visible targets and all of them failed to survive. Due to these extreme impacts, there was a dramatic drop in the fish population for the second generation. In this time period of fish, data suggests that there is now 11 fish in the pond. The aqua environment consists of about 63% green fish, 9% red fish, 18%, and 9% orange fish. These percents sum up to be 99% and not a full 100%, but this is an estimate using a scientific calculator. Hence, seven fish are green, 1 fish is red, 2 fish are yellow, and 1 fish is orange. Suddenly, because of their lack of strength, the yellow fish were once again eaten by predators. In the third generation, it is analyzed that there are 9 fish in all. 56% are green fish, 33% are red fish, 11% are yellow fish, and 0% are orange fish. In other words, there are 5 green fish, 3 red fish, 1 yellow fish, and 0 orange fish. This set of data proves that an orange offspring wasn't processed in the 3rd generation. Finally, the yellow fish are once again eaten by the predators and all of the yellow's have died out. All in all, the 1st through 3rd generations of the multiplicity of fish has been very intense and has been influenced by many external wild creatures. This is has lead to a large decrease in population size.

          In the 4th generation of fish, there is a total of 8 fish which include of 6 green fish and 2 red fish. This is 75% green fish, and 25% red fish. Abruptly, there is an environmental disaster in the living space of the fish. Harmful factory waste is poored into the body of water and kills seaweed and algae. The remaining fish are able to expose themselves to the attack, however the green fish are viewed easily and are eaten by predators. Sadly, in the end, there were only 2 red fish survivors. Interestingly, in the whole project, 20 alleles from the fish population has disappeared entirely and there evolution has come to an end. The recent disaster was massive and without this, the green fish population would've been living on for many more generations. The predators were biotic limiting factors because they were living features of the ecosystem that limited the population size of the fish. The red fish were the only survivors. An example of natural selection is that the the final 2 red fish had traits that enabled them to adapt to the environmental pressure of the "factory waste disaster" and the predators. This stream environment which was used by the fish was expressed as very deadly and unsafe. Ecology explains that an ecosystem is a space where a community of organisms live, interact, and have reactions. Some interactions include Parasatism, Commensalism, and Mutualism. These interactions are part of Symbiosis which simply means there is a relationship in which two different organisms live in close association with each other. One way to change how the lab went would be to make it impossible for any fish to be alive. Then, everyone in Omega would be pondering and examining how to keep a fish alive. You could make it impossible and trick everyone that there is a way to get atleast one survivor so you could get their brains thinking. On the other hand, you could make all the yellow fish go through resurrection at the end of the experiment, and that would surprise everyone that the yellow fish came back alive. The genotype for the final 2 red alleles are (rr) and it won't be capable of reproducing to make a green. This is because the traits of the alleles are homozygous, and it is recessive to Green(which is represented as a dominant (G)). Also, because there are no more yellow fish, it is not possible to create an orange fish. If yellow fish were alive, the red fish and the yellow fish would be incompletely dominant to eachother and they would be capable of blending to make an orange fish. Below are possible combinations of alleles which were demonstrated through the generations in this case.

GG=Green

Gr=Green

Gy=Green

rr=Red

yy=Yellow

ry=Orange

          Overall, the lab went really well and was very interesting. It taught me a lot about the traits of genetic creatures such as a fish. It was fun to do it as a partner activity and I look forward to doing another project like this again.