Awwwwe :)

Wellp.

Today is the lasssst dayyyy offff schooool!

haha wohooo
So,
I found the funniest blogs to be the ones where people would choose their own Romeo and Juliet. Especially with Matthew Mcconahaugh (sp?)
Those were great. Then i thought the most informative was the ones that talked about real life problems and the best, i couldn't pick.
See, their wasn't one particular one with each catagory. Every single blog was amazing!

So anyways, that is that.

This SUMMMMMMMMMMMER!
It will be amazing. For me, it consists of dance, and lifeguarding!
Im a few weeks im going to Hawaii for a competition! I am soooo EXCITED!
YAYUH!
What about everyone else?


bye for now :].

SHIPWRECK AT THE BOTTOM OF THE WORLD

This is my final blog post. This probably won't be my last blog post, but this is my finals blog. I decided to do mine on the Antartic survival story of the 29 men on board the Endurance. I read a book called Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World by Jennifer Armstrong. The book is really good, I'd recommend it to anyone who likes survival stories. Their ship, the Endurance, was crushed in the ice pack around Antartica, and they spent a year and a half floating around on the ice trying to get to safety. Amazingly, all of them survived.

Ernest Shackleton was the leader of the expedition. Their mission was to be the first people to cross Antartica. A few years earlier the South Pole was reached, but no one had gone across the continent. So in 1914, Shackleton set out on the expedition stopping on the island of South Georgia first.

That year the ice pack was really bad. The Endurance inched its way closer to the continent, but on January 19, 1915, the ship became stuck in the ice. They were forced to wait out the winter on the ice. But during the winter, (which is during our summer) storms came and on October 27, 1915, the Endurance was crushed by the ice. The men were forced to abandon the ship with their lifeboats and necessary equipment. On November 21, 1915, they watched from a few miles a way, they watched their ship sink into the water. They were now alone on the ice, and the only way of surviving would be to launch their lifeboats and try to find a nearby island and await rescue. For about the next six months, they man-hauled their boats across the ice. They lived off seals that they shot. On April 9, they launched their boats from the edge of the ice pack and reached the uninhabited Elephant Island a few days later. No one had ever landed on the island before.

Shackleton made a decision. He decided that he and five other men would make the dangerous 800 mile voyage in one of the lifeboats back to South Georgia while the rest of the men waited on the island for rescue. The voyage was extremely dangerous, if it failed, they would never be found. After surviving fierce storms and a monster wave, they reached South Georgia on May 1oth, 1916. They landed on the opposite end of the harbor, and had to trek across the mountains that were named "the Southern Alps." The mountains on the island had never been explored before.

A few months later the rest of them were picked up on the island. Most people had given them up for dead. Against tremendous odds, they all made it back. Shackleton was an incredible leader, and without him, it might have ended disastrously.

Their ship, the Endurance, when it was stuck in the ice pack.

Ernest Henry Shackleton

This is a link to a story of the voyage, with pictures from the photographer, Frank Hurley, who used a Kodak camera to document the voyage.

Genetic Engineering

One of the books I read this semester was Double Helix. This book was about genetic diseases and genetic engineering. It was a very good book and I would suggest it to anyone even if they aren’t interested in genetics.

Genetic engineering (GE) or genetic modification (GM) is essentially these three things. Adding traits from another organism to produce a certain trait or protein, rearrange or take out DNA to eliminate genetic diseases, or turn on DNA that is already present but inactive.

The definition given by Merriam-Webster's Medical Desk Dictionary for genetic engineering is: Function: noun: the group of applied techniques of genetics and biotechnology used to cut up and join together genetic material and especially DNA from one or more species of organism and to introduce the result into an organism in order to change one or more of its characteristics —genetically engineered adjective —genetic engineer noun

Some organizations such as Green Peace and Union of Concerned Scientists oppose genetic engineering. The reasons for this is that corn that might be genetically engineered to produce some kind of medical ingredient night pollinate corn of the main food supply and contaminate it. This however would not hurt the corn pollinated just the corn planted from the seeds.

Then there are people who don’t know what they are talking about and are idiots for lack of a better word. These people are un educated on the subject and think they know what they are talking about. To the educated world we all see them for what they are (clueless), but when they start preaching to uneducated people we get into trouble. Look at this web site. Here is a preview of it. "Genetic engineering is the altering of a plant (or organism) by sewing part of another plant onto it----thus changing the first plant’s DNA, or gene blueprint" , "What are you gonna do when you’ve been eating the same brand of carrots for five weeks and your right ear overnight swells twice the size of your other ear" , "if I cross a redwood tree with a sunflower, I might get a reddish, wooden, five-hundred-foot-tall sunflower.", "Think of the potential if we crossed DNA from Michael Jackson to that of a trout. You’d get a small, weird, lighter-skinned opportunistic fish that jumps around a lot"These people give the others that are against it a bad name and it ends up making both of them look stupid. One sewing plants together in hope of combining DNA doesn’t work. Two I highly doubt you right ear will become larger than the other from eating GE carrots. The carrot is exactly the same as any other carrot except a gene might be turned on that makes it store more nutrients. Third the redwood sunflower thing just wouldn’t work, and even if it was possible, which it is not, why would you want to make a Michael Jackson fish.

Ok, now that I got that out of my system I think im better.

We also have the people for GE. This has done many good things for us. Some examples are that we inserted the human insulin gene into bacteria, this allows us to harvest pure human insulin for diabetics. It has also improved the food production industry. Now we can GE corn to make it sweeter, produce more kernels, and grow in a shorter time.

Before you make up your mind on how you feel about stuff like this please educate your self. I also think we should have better trust in our scientists. They studied this stuff and do it for a living. How would you like some guy or bum of the street telling you to do your job and what the consequence of your work might be. Just think about it.

If you actualy took time to read this thank you, I would like to hear what you have to say.

♥Twins♥

These are a my twin sisters Samantha and Savannah. My mom is also a twin. Twins are basically two children being born at the same time. Twins have a kind of relationship like no other. There is always someone that will understand you. They have a very good bond because they were both in the womb together.

Sometimes twins have a special connection between the two. When my mom was pregnant she did not have morning sickness but my Aunt Jan did and she wasn't even pregnant weird! There are a lot more weird connections between twins.

Identical twins are twins derived from a single egg and at the end when they are born look exactly alike. Fraternal twins are derived from two separate fertilized ova these are twins that do not look alike for example my sisters. Conjoined twins are twins that are joined together by the body. Most of the time when this happens you can resolve this problem by surgery and sometimes it is to complicated to do because it could cause fatal results.

Sometimes I really want to be a twin because im the only one who is not a twin in the little house family. Also because it feels like they always have that one person that is like them. But that is ok because I have my best friend Brianna me and her have know each other for a little over three years and never once fighted for any reason at all.

Readers this is my blog for the final but hopefully during the summer I will blog to keep you updated and you can do it to. Please comment me and tell me if you know any twins or weird sibling stories? Have a great summer and keep in contact♥

angels and demons

have you ever thought about your religion? Ever really looked deep into it? some of you may have, some of you may not of yet. the book i am currently reading is about Christianity and science. many people might not agree with my beliefs, but they are mine so please respect them. I'm not posting this blog to start a major controversy in our class. so, with that said if you offended by what you are about to read please don't take it out on me. thank you.




my book is Angels and Demons by Dan Brown, it is the prequel of the Da Vinci code. The reason i started reading this book is because of my beliefs, I am agnostic. i don't consider it a religion because i don't follow one god, one book, or one belief.


to me it is very confusing, so i am sure it will be hard for you to understand, but I'll do my best to explain. I have many different beliefs, and i think I'm going to share them with you. I believe in god, but i also believe in Evolution. I believe that you can be reincarnated, and that you can go to heaven. yes, i know i am contradicting myself, but i can't help it. part of me just thinks it is impossible to know if there is anyone or anything else out there. (if you are wondering what an agnostic is this website can explain it a little.) Angels and Demons really helps me understand why i feel this way.


Some people do not know how to accept the beliefs of others, but i always have. that is another reason why it has been so hard for me to live here, because in California everyone is fine with hearing other opinions, but here in the bible belt of America...its much different. i never tell someone that their beliefs are wrong, or that they need to follow another religion. Angels and Demons is about how scientists are trying to reveal to the world about afterlife, and the catholic/christian religion, but the church will not allow it.


i don't want you guys to think i am an atheist, because there is a GREAT difference between atheist and agnostics. to me an atheist believes that god does not exist, and they don't want to believe in one. My beliefs as an agnostic is that there might be a god, but there might not be. i also believe in more than one religion. i don't want to get to far into this subject, since it is a very sensitive one, but i just can't get it off my mind. most people inherit their beliefs and opinions, but as a have grown up i decided for myself what i believe in. i like it that way, and i also find it perfectly fine if you choose to follow in your parents foot steps. i wish it could all just be explained to me, but the world as we know it is still a mystery.



if for some reason you are upset with my post I'm sorry, but this is who i am and i can not change for anyone.




p.s here are some more websites if you would like to check them out, they are about agnostics and such... one, two(this site is my FAVORITE it tells you how every person is agnostic),and three.
note that these websites are peoples opinion not facts about agnostics.




=)

ASSISTED SUICIDE

This is Dr. Jack Kevorkian, nicknamed "Dr. Death", for the practice of Euthanasia.

Euthanasia is also called 'mercy killing' and it's the act of putting to death painlessly or allowing to die, as by withholding extreme medical measures, a person or animal suffering from an incurable disease. Right now, it's illegal to practice Assisted Suicide, and Kevorkian was put in jail for 10-25 year sentence, only serving 8. This site here tells about what he promised to do/not do now that he's out of prison.

The book that I just got done reading is called Impulse, by Ellen Hopkins. It's about three kids who all try to commit suicide, and fail, and end up getting sent to a place, kind of like a rehabilitation center. It helps them cope with the reasons that they were trying to kill themselves. They also all meet each other, and bond in many different ways. Reading that book really made my perspective of suicide change.

The other night, I saw Kevorkian on the news for when he was released, and I made some of my own opinions on the topic of mercy killing.

(I don't know if this will be counted as another kind of final blog post, because this is a lot of opinion, but I have some strong opinions about this topic that I'd like to share)

I think that there should be certain terms to decide who can and cannot be euthanized. If you're diagnosed with a terminal illness, such as cancer, or is in an un-wakeable state, such a being in a coma, I think that whoever is the one who is ill, should have the choice of being euthanized because it is their own life. A lot of people think that it should be the family's decision, but if the person who is ill is an adult, they have the right to make their own decisions. So I personally think that if the person with the terminal illness is 18 or older, then they have the right to make up their own life about ending their life, or living with the terminal illness that they've been diagnosed with.

Another thing with this topic that comes up is the fact that animals are euthanized to make room in humane societies to make room for more incoming animals. How is that fair at all compared to euthanizing humans? Animals don't get to decide if they want to be killed or not, so what gives the veterinarians the right to kill them themselves? At least with euthanizing humans, they can decide for themselves about wanting to be killed or not. Giving them that choice it can generally make their lives easier because they don't have to live with the terminal illness anymore. I think that's a good thing to look forward to.

Here's an article talking about an interview with Dr. Death himself, and some of his views on euthanasia. What are yours?

Okay, I think I'm done now (:

And Mrs. James: If at all possible, can this be counted for my final blog, and not my other one? Haha, thank you (:

Music on your blog!

Go to the Deadliest Catch blog and you can get music on youre blog.