Earth Day

Earth Day comes around every year and pretty much goes by unnoticed by me. I remember one year in elementary school while I was in girl scouts, I planted flowers at the fire station. That is about the only thing I have ever done in honor of Earth Day. It's sad for me to know that a day a year is honored to this day and that is the only thing I have done to notice it. I genuinely care about the well-being of the Earth and i like to think that I am an earth friendly person. I am always telling my household to recycle. Whenever I see paper or a recycle product on the top of the garbage can, I immediately take it out and put it in the recycling can. Everyone in the world should be doing some type of action for the Earth, whether its picking up a piece of garbage or conserving the amount of gas or energy you use for that day. Everyone can contribute to this cause in some way and if they did a difference could be made. But I know that things like this dont tend to work out in this world. People forget or just don't care. They might think that I am only going to be here 50 more years and then who cares what happens after that because I will be gone. Although Earth Day has already passed for this year that doesnt mean I can't and others can't still do something nice for our planet. Our everyday life provides us with ample amounts of oppurtunity to give something back to the world that provides so much for us. There are so many little things we can change about our own lives that will eventually have an impact on the Earth. This websites gives examples of actions you can take to help the Earth. The least we can do, is dedicate one day a year to giving back to it when we should be doing so much more.

Chewing gum, good or bad?

I am the person who you will rarely see without a piece of gum in her mouth. I am constantly chewing gum and I have always wondered how it effects my health. So I did some research online to try and figure out if there are some postives to chewing gum. One article I read, said that chewing gum can actually be good for you. Chewing gum can calm your nerves and loosen up a tight jaw. When you clench your jaw it grinds your teeth, making your teeth hurt. People who clench their jaw should try chewing gum because it can help relieve their jaw. Gum can also help you if your on a diet. When your craving something to eat, you can just pop a piece of gum into your mouth and it will delay your appetite. Chewing gum can keep your breath fresh and your mouth feeling better.

Although, chewing gum is known as a nasty habit. It can be offensive to some people or in certain situations. One of my biggest pet peeves is when people chomp on their gum loudly. It is annoying to everyone around them and disrespectful. Also, many people will dispose of their gum anywhere, like on the sidewalk or the floor. No one wants gum stuck to the bottom of their shoes, so I am always sure to dispose of it in the garbage.

I thought their would be many more negatives to chewing gum, but most of the negatives are things you control.

Dolphins and Sea Lions used for protection

Puget Sounds will soon have dolphins and sea lions protecting and patrolling it's submarines from terrorist attacks. The U.S. Navy is training them and this method is already being used in other parts of the world. Supposedly, dolphins and sea lions are more capable of detecting a lone diver than the most advanced technology. Dolphins can outswim any human and the sea lions have good directional hearing. So while this seems like a good idea at first, many people are apposed to it for various reasons.

Washington State animal lovers and environmentalists are worried that the dolphins will suffer in the cold waters of the Puget Sound and that the local environment will suffer from the loss of these animals. Public hearings are being held in Seattle and in towns along the Puget Sound to decide whether or not this should be allowed. Although, the dolphins could really contribute a lot to this area, protesters say that dolphins just don't belong in the northern Pacific waters. The dolphins are accostumed to waters that are 10 degrees warmer than the waters in the Puget Sound. The navy argues back that the dolphins in the cold water of Alaska and Norway have suffered no ill effects.

Although it would be really cool to have dolphins protecting and patrolling against terrorists, dolphins are not made to do this for us. Its not in there natural state. By doing this who knows how far we will go in the future with using animals for the common good of humans.

Which water bottles to stay away from

Last summer, I used a water bottle with the recycle number 7. I carried it around with me almost everywhere I went without knowing that the plastic could be leaking harmful substances into my water. One day, my friend told me that I should get a different water bottle because of the recycle number on it. I never thought much of it and just didn't really care. But then one night my family was talking about it over dinner and I thought to myself that I really should get a new one. I started to look in my cabinet for another water bottle and every single one had the recycle number 7 on the bottom. So I just continued to use the one I had because I was too lazy to go out and get a new one at the time.

Recently, I found an article talking about the recycling numbers on water bottles. It talked about the what the numbers meant and which ones are safe to use. Most of the colorful, hard plastic water bottles are made out of polycarbonate plastics, which have the recycling number 7. But there is an alternate you can use: #2 HDPE(high density polyethylene) water bottles that can come in the same colors, sizes, and shapes. So next summer, I am going be sure to get a water bottle with the #2 to prevent myself from getting chemicals in my body.

Gay Teens

It's so sad to hear of gay teens that have been rejected by their family and friends. How can a parent, who's just found out their child was gay, abandon them. They have built up such a strong bond and then everything changes after they say that one little word. The worse part is that the child can't control the fact that he's gay and no matter how badly he wants to be straight he can't change himself. If my parents were to ever do that me, I would never want to speak to them again. It would be hurtful to know that they would give up our whole relationship because I just said something out loud.

There's also scientific research that says familial rejection of gay teens can lead to mental health problems later. So parents are just loading more on the teenager. They already have to deal with the fact that they are gay and don't have their families support, but then you have to add on the fact that they are more likely to have mental health problems. Life is hard enough for a gay teenagers and parents don't need to be making their lives any harder.

The Buzz About Twilight

I remember over the summer when one of my friends was obsessed with reading Twilight by Stephenie Meyer and now it seems as though everyone is obsessed with it. I decided that I should start reading it myself to see what all the buzz was about. I was expecting it to be one of the best books i had ever read with the way everyone is in love with it. I was kind of disappointed after I read the first one because I was expecting it to be mind blowing. I am not saying that the book wasn't good because it was, it just wasn't the best book I have ever read.

In my opinon, the whole Twilight series is overrated. Although the books are good, I find that I like them just as much as I liked the Clique series when I was younger or the Gossip Girl series. I look at them as just another teen book obsession. I am just kind of confused as to why twilight caused so much more commotion than these other series, when it seems as though they both offer the same type of reading material.

Eye Color Explained

People think that know they know about the inheritance of their eye color. Brown eyes are dominant and blue eyes are recessive, but Rick Sturm suggests that something else is going on. Rick Sturm says, "There is no single gene for eye color, but the biggest effect is the OCA2 gene." The OCA2 gene controls the amount of melanin pigment produced in the body. The gene is about 74 percent of the total variation in people's eye color. This gene has also been linked to three nucleotide polymorphisms(SNPs) which Sturm found after gene-typing 3000 people. This theory suggests a new look beyond the brown/dominant and blue/recessive. David Duffy,one of Sturm's colleagues gives an example of why there is more to eye color, "For example, among individuals carrying the SNP sequence “TGT” at all three locations on both copies of the gene, 62 percent were blue-eyed.” Also found was that when people were tested who only carried one "TGT" copy, only 21 percent of them had blue eyes. When people with didn't carry any copy of a "TGT", only 7.5 percent of them had blue eyes.

Its strange to know that scientists are still elaborating on theories everyone thought were very concrete. Every day scientists are coming up with more and more discoveries and I predict that soon we will find out that we were totally wrong on a theory. Just like we once thought the world was flat, but later found out we were wrong.