Current Event

Topic: Pencil Pusher
Article Title: Ten Awesome Inventions You'll Never Hear About

Article Source: How Stuff Works
Summary: The pencil pusher is basically a device that takes in paper, and creates a pencil out of it. It looks much like a three-whole puncher, and is relatively small. This is a new form of recycling. 

Reaction: When I saw this, I thought that it was really cool, because its an easy way to recycle your paper without having to go and bag it up and take it to a recycling place. I think its a great idea, but I don't think it is going to become very popular. I think that if a well known celebrity sponsored it, then it would become known. Either way, I would use it.
6. World Impact: I think this would greatly affect the world and me both. If we can take a stand with recycling then less forests would be cut down. This could save habitats and communities within those forests if this invention catches on. The only way that could happen though, is if everyone uses them. It wont make a difference if only a few people use this, it has to be a majority of people, and every little bit helps.

Current Event: Talking Glove

1. Topic: Talking Glove



2. Article Title: Stroke victim 'talks' again with help of speaking glove


3. Article Source: The Telegraph

 

4. Summary: Bill Broad (73), has suffered a stroke in 2010, and was left unable to speak. This forced him to spell out words on an alphabet chart. Fortunately, scientists have invented a new glove that can detect that the patient is trying to say through hand gestures.



5. Reaction: I think this tool is cool and helpful because I'm sure it's fustrating for the person unable to speak, and for the person who cant understand the person trying to speak. This will allow family members, friends, and coworkers to know and understand your feelings and point of views. Hopefully, the invention of this will help to create communicators for people with diseases and disorders like cerebal pasly.




6. World Impact: This could help people around the world who cant work because they can no longer communicate. If the can design a more advance glove to be able to work with, then many people could still have jobs. I think this could impact the world in a positive way, and be a help to companies and economies, if it becomes popular enough. I think they will be rather expensive at first, but if they become popular, they might become a more affordable price. I hope if any of my friend or family members becomes unable to speak, they will have this invention to express and comunicate with the people they care about.

Scams and Schemes!

Scheming is terrible, and can happen to anybody. Sadly, it isn't a very uncommon thing to get scammed or have your identity stolen. Identify theft is when your private information is stolen and used for criminal activity. Being scammed can RUIN your credit, and take years or even decades to fix. Scamming is when someone tries or succeeds in tricking you, usually with intentions of stealing money or personal information. It is imperative that you aren't vulnerable when having lots of private information. People can also access your information by phishing, or false advertisement.

Some ways you can avoid getting scammed or schemed is to never leave receipts laying around, to shred important information when you're done with it, and to be cautious of who may be watching you put in your pin and/or password. If you keep track of your receipts and shred unneeded things, you are making it almost impossible to get your information. But anyone can view your password or pin if they're standing close enough. Be cautious of your surroundings. I will definitely use these tips in the future.

We didn't have a 2.0 tool this week. Over all, I think its safe to say this week has been a little dramatic. Hopefully, though, next week will be better and more civil.

Weekly Blog

Okay, well this was supose to be for Friday, but we didnt have access to a computer so I'm doing it today. These past few days have been hectic, but we are FINALLY in our building! It is soooo pretty and I love the whole design.

 Our digital literacy component this week was about when companies track your online activity for advertising purposes. When youre online, companies track your searches online to see what ads you might be attracted to. They are basically getting you to buy stuff based on your preferences and likes.

 Tracking is what companies do to find out whatyou like and search.  A target is when companies tailor content to you based on the info they collected. A person's demography is common categories such as gender, age, race, etc. Cookies are what companies use sometimes to access your passwords and other information.

Some benefits to computer trackingr is that it saves time, its efficent, it limits your search results, and its personalized to your interests. Some risks, however, is that it can be a trap for a virus if you click on it, it can give you results based on stereotypes, the ad you click on might not be a real website, and it limits search results.

Our 2.0 tool this week was Mixbook. I liked this website because you can make your own book. I was familir with this website, so I didnt have any problems trying to do what I wanted. One positive thing about Mixbook was that it allows you to make a book even if you dont want to publish and buy the book. One disadvantage to the website is that you cnt personally customize things to the fullest extent. You are given layouts and backgrounds but you cant create your own.



http://heraffiliate.com/2012/09/mix-book-affiliate-program-photo-book-affiliate-program/

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My week has been overall, a good week. Ive been having a good day, and hopefully it stays that way!

Naked Mole Rat's Resistance to Cancer

Topic: Naked Mole Rat's Resistance to Cancer


 Article Title: How Underground Rodent Wards Off Cancer: Second Mole Rat Species Has Different Mechanism for Resisting Cancer


Article Source: ScienceDaily.


Summary: Scientist have discovered that Blind Mole Rats and Naked Mole Rats use a certain process to keep cancers and tumors away. The researches took some of the cells and put them in a culture dish. The cells multiplied 15 to 20 times, then died rapidly. Not only did the cancerous cells die, the adjacent cells died aswell, which prevents tumors.

Reaction: I think that this is really cool, because it can help us to create the growing steps to getting rid of cancer. If scientists can manipulate cells into reacting the same way the mole rats' cells do, then we can easily prevent cancers. They have more research to do, but its a start.


World Impact: This could impact the world greatly. If scientist can change the cell patterns of humans, so many more people can live a long life. I dont know how expensive this would be, because it seems like alot would have to be done in order to change cell traits. This discovery, however, would we great for my family because both sides of my family have cancer bad. I am glad I can use this as a cure if and when I do get cancer.

                                    http://images.sciencedaily.com/2012/11/121105200058-large.jpg

Wonderpants!

 Topic: A type of pants that can stop bed sores.

 Article Title:  'Wonderpants' which give wearer electric shock could stop bedsores

 Article Source:  The Telegraph

Summary: Wonderpants are pants that prevent bed sores. They are actually more like underwear , and they send electrical shock throughout your body. This could keep up to a half a million patients who develop life threatening bed sores yearly.

Reaction: I think this is really smart, because when your bedridden, you cant get up, and most people cant even tend to the sores themselves. This kind of touches my heart because my moms friend's wife has been in the hospital for around 10 years, and she has bed sores really bad. This invention could have made her heal faster. This is great. Hopefully it is affordable.

World Impact: I don't really know how well this will impact the world, but I would think it would impact it greatly because it will affect the U.S greatly. This could help the richer countries, but I dont think it could help the more poor countries.  Everything hasnt been decided about it yet, but hopefully, it can benefit everyone.

Weekly Blog~

This week has been... interesting. I have lost some friends, gained some friends, and dyed my hair! We move into the new building next week, which is incredibly awesome considering it was suppose to be finished a loooong time ago. Also, to make things even better, my birthday is in 5 days! I love Octobers.

This week we learned about staying real online, and ways to stay safe when meeting people online. Representing yourself is how you show yourself to others. It creates somewhat of a 'label' for you. Someone's persona is the way they act in front of others. Some people try to have a different persona when they create avatars, which is basically a graphic image to represent yourself online. A lot of people choose to stay anonymous online, which is when you have a hidden identity. Some people act more freely online, and aren't very inhibited, which is when someone is careful or restrained in actions or impulses.

In Digital Driver's License, we learned about how someone can hide behind a computer screen and live a whole other world when online. Some people live through their video games because of the restrictions they have in reality. For example, a warrior in a video game might actually be a paralyzed teenager. Some people keep there online lives somewhat the same to their everyday life because they like whatever aspect of their life that they keep. Some people just like to play video games.

This digital literacy component helped me a lot to figure out who I am in the online world. I like to make my avatars look as close to me as possible, because I don't want to be anyone else. I'm not much of a gamer, but I used to be. 

This week, our 2.0 web tool was Glogster, which is a website where you can present information through a 'poster like' template. Personally, I really liked this website because there were so many different themes and colors to choose from. I could make my poster exactly how I envisioned it would look like. I love when I can think about how I'm going to do something, and not have to change it because I'm not given the resources I need.

One negative thing about Glogster, is that it took a while to load some of the pictures I wanted to use. There wasn't anything else that I didn't like about Glogster. Some positive things about Glogster is that it was easy to use and simple to work productively around. I didn't have any problems with any customizing I wanted to do. If I had to rate Glogster, I'd give it 4.5 out of 5 stars.

https://teachershelper.wikispaces.com/file/view/glogster.gif/58000334/glogster.gif

Overall, I didn't have anything extraordinary happen to me this week, but it was still a good week nonetheless. I have so much to look forward to next week! Halloween and my birthday is Wednesday (yes, Halloween), My mom's is Thursday (yes, All Saint's Day), AND we move into the LSB building Thursday! I am SOOO excited! Next week should be great! Ciao. ~

Leukemia Treatment

Topic: Blasts of electrically charged gas could possibly cure Leukemia.



Article Title: Leukemia could be treated with blasts of plasma

Article Source: The Telegraph

Summary: Scientists have just recently discovered that the cancerous cells can be killed off with a type of matter called cold plasma. Researchers hope it will be possible that patients' blood can pass through plasma streams to destroy the cancer cells. The treatment will somewhat be like a kidney dialysis, whereas the blood flows through a machine to be cleaned.

Reaction: Personally, I think this is amazing. Last year, the Leukemia Awareness group came around to all of the schools and it really touched my heart. At the time, I was working on a huge Kidney Dialysis project, and I just thought, "Why can't they get rid of cancer like they get rid of toxins?" But I was told by MANY teachers and other adults that that's not how things worked. Well, APPARENTLY they were wrong, because now they have proven it. I hate it when people don't listen to me.

World Impact: This discovery will impact the word greatly because Leukemia is the most common childhood malignancy for one out of three cancers in children. So many lives will be saved, and it wont be nearly as exhausting as chemo is. I am extremely happy, because my entire family is very likely to get cancer before our forties. The only setbacks are that the treatment isn't entirely thought out yet, and it may be more expensive than the regular cancer treatments .

Weekly Blog and Cyber bullying.

This week was very interesting! I learned a lot of new things that have affected my way of thinking in my everyday life. Our digital literacy this week was about cyber bullying, or bullying in general. Bullying IS NOT acceptable. There is no point in doing it, and it hurts people. We learned about what a bystander is and why we should be an upstander instead. 

When bullying occurs, the Target (example 5) is the person being degraded. The Offender is the jerk bullying people. A Bystander is someone who has witnessed the bullying occur, but hasn't done anything to stop it. However, an Upstander is someone who witnesses a victim being bullied, and stands up for them. Bullying can gradually change over time. It can Escalate, which means to get more severe, or it can Deescalate or decrease in intensity.

If you're in a situation where you or someone you know is being bullied, there are a few things you can do. If you are the target, you can stand up for yourself (and hope you don't get your face pounded), block or delete them, and if it still doesn't stop, collect the evidence and take it to authorities. PERSONALLY, I don't like to snitch. I handle my business. If the person is fifty times my size, then I get my goons to handle my business for me. THUG LYFE.

If you're or someone you know is an upstander, you can go to the authorities (I'm not about that life), stand up for the person, or be a support system for the victim. Like I said, I have goons. So if you need help, my goons have your back. All of these tips can help you during an escalating situation.

The 2.0 website we learned about this week was WeVideo. I liked this website, because you got to do more with it than the typical Animoto. One thing I liked about it was that you could use a lot of different features and animations. One thing I wasn't very fond of was that it was difficult for me to figure out what all the buttons meant at first. I caught on shortly after I started, though.

So, Yeah my week has been pretty fun! I got a new puppy, my birthday is even closer, and I'm comfy in my sweatpants. Life's pretty good. :)

Fire Extinguishing Robots.

Topic: A robot that can burn out mega fires.

Article Title: A robot to extinguish fires too dangerous for humans to tackle

Article Source: The Indian Express.

Summary: A company in the US has recently produced a robot that can fight fires. This robot is called The Thermite remote controlled fire fighter. The company believes that it is the one and only robot created to save lives by taking humans out of the danger of disaster control.
 

Reaction:  I think the discovery is wonderful! People don't have to risk their lives anymore. The robot can be controlled from over a quarter mile away, and it can spray approximately 600 gallons a minute. This might affect me sometime in the future because you never know when a fire might start. I am glad that if a fire started and I was involved, that someone wouldn't have to risk dying to save me. I know that the robot wont be used by every single fire department around the corner, but I think it would be a useful tool.
 

World Impact: This could impact the world greatly, because it hasnt ever been thought of before.  Now that we have something to show, other countries and companies could use this idea to maybe even make a better one. Ideas like these are always useful because when lives could be saved in a harmful situation, its always good. I feel that this could also reduce the amount of burning forestation in the 'fire seasons'. This could increase the animal populations and tree populations as well.

This week's Blog.

This week has been mediocre. It wasn't bad, but nothing was excellent about it. I learned a lot of new things this week, in all subjects. One of our terms was sexting, which is basically sending or receiving revealing pictures via text, email, IM, etc. Reciprocating is giving revealing pictures in return for one you received. Self disclosure is when you reveal private and/or personal information.

The 2.0 tool we used this week was MakeBeliefsComix. We used this website to describe situations in which we would use our digital literacy. One positive thing about the website is that there are a lot of creative characters, and one negative thing is that they didn't have some things I needed. For example, I needed a table in one comic strip, but there wasn't one.

My first comic strip was about how asking for explicit pictures is crossing the line.

My second comic strip was about how the traditional way to start a relationship was to go on romantic dates and do nice things for each other.

Our digital literacy component was about how sexting is bad to do, and how it can ruin your life. Nowadays, employers require your social network passwords, and they do background checks. If anything bad comes up, your out of luck. Some healthy alternatives of building relationships online is to go on dates, meet through friends, and respect boundaries. These things are vital for maintaining or creating a healthy online relationship.

                                                   DDL Website Logo. There's no date.

We used Digital Driver's License for some of the digital literacy, and Over the line, for some of it. This affected my knowledge of the social networks, and I know realize that at the moment, anyone can view my profile. They can see my name, birthday, and my home high school. I need to change that when I get home!

I am glad teachers are talking about sexting and other bad things, because a lot of the people who send and receive the pictures don't even realize what they are doing. Sexting is bad, and more and more people do it everyday. People commit suicide because they get teased for their circulating explicit pictures. Its terrible, and it needs to stop.

So, there you have it. My week went by slower than usual, but I still managed to pull through. And luckily, today we have clubs!

This week went by fast.

This week has been okay. Nothing exciting really happened, but overall it was decent. I hate missing days of school because  once I'm behind, its so hard to get back on track. Hopefully I'm back to the ball my Monday.

This week we learned about A. S. P. E. C. T., which is our terms for the week. The A stands for authority, which suggests that you look for who the author is when finding an article. The S stands for sources. This helps you to figure out if they have their sources cited. P stands for purpose. Find out what the purpose of the article is. E stands for evenness. Decide if the article is even and informational enough. C stands for coverage. Does it provide you with everything you need to know? And finally, T stands for timeliness. Is the article up to date with your topic?

 http://www.clark.edu/Library/iris/evaluate/evaluate_intro/images/6ws.gif

We learned about A. S. P. E. C. T. from the Iris Evaluating Information Website.This was our digital literacy component. It helps us decide whether an article is trust worthy when we need information. This website was very helpful, because I learned a lot of valuable tips that I would have overlooked if I hadn't read this. I hope I can put those tips to use soon, because I love righting Pro Con articles. I am a master in debating.

This week, we got to learn about MindMeister, which is a website that allows you to put your information into a map. This was our 2.0 tool. I liked this a lot, because it shows the relationships between ideas, which is hard to explain when your just talking about something. Doing this map reminded me of when we had to make rough draft maps in writing class, in the fourth grade.

Create your own mind maps at MindMeister. One positive thing about using this website was that it was easy to comprehend, and it was fun to creative my vision of what I wanted my map to look like. One negative thing that I thought about the website is that I couldn't figure out how to write on the bubbles with the pictures it them. Over all, I would highly recommend the website to a friend.

 My week could have gone better, but at least I know next week will be better, because it's that much closer to my birthday than today is!

Anonymous Hackers.

Topic: Anonymous Hackers.

  Article Title: Anonymous And The War Over The Internet 

 Article Source: HuffingtonPost 

 Summary:

Anonymous is a group of hackers attacking major companies to make a statement. They wear masks to hide their identities. Participants are basically defending their rights and jobs in America. There are thousands participating in the activities, but there are no real members.

Reaction: When I found out about this, I was shocked. I had no clue about a lot of things I have recently figured out. I am not scared about the matter; I am more scared about the revolts and dangerous mobs that have formed. The participants in Anonymous have joined with the members of Occupy Wall Street to try to get what they think they deserve. This doesn't particularly affect me, it just affects the sites and apps I use.

World Impact: This impacts the world a lot, because many of the companies they have been hacking are used worldwide. They hack into websites servers and pull embarrassing pictures and information about the people they are targeting. They are angry because of how the economy has been in the past several years. A lot of the participants are people who had a hard time with jobs and money growing up. They blame their financial troubles on the governmental troubles.

Thank GOD IT'S FRIDAY!!! Weekly Blog. :)

This week has been great! New friends, amazing weather, and everyday I am closer and closer to my birthday! This week in Publications, we learned about a reputation, and some things that may affect it. A reputation is how people may see you based on the thing you've done or what they've been told. We also learned what a tag was, what it is to persist, and what context is, even though I already had an idea of what they were.

This week, we learned to edit pictures. The websites I used were PicZap and Picartia. One positive thing about editing pictures is that you can express yourself and be creative through your work. One negative thing is that it kept trowing errors about my picture, so I had to change it multiple times. I was already familiar with editing pictures, because I have an Instagram account. I love editing pictures, so this assignment was fun. I picked my original photo from FlickrCC

 http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4096/4909496385_0042d07e9f_m.jpg

The photo above was my original picture. We had to edit the picture, after we picked one.

 http://s7.faceinhole.com/NR/12/9/21/79fd37dc9159161e73.jpg

This is the negative picture. ^^^^

 http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-86ERsMnyDVo/UFyGF4zcKrI/AAAAAAAAAFE/z2SOMJ2kZSE/s1600/43fc7179-b525-505c7f3adc65.jpg

We also had to make a positive picture (above).  I chose this, because I thought it looked cool. I'm not very good at being creative, I guess. I enjoyed this classwork a lot!

For digital literacy this week, we did the Digital License. I enjoy the digital license activities, because they show us videos and help us to explain the do's and don'ts of computer etiquette.
 This new information helped me a lot, because I used to type in all caps sometimes. The lessons also helped me to understand how someone might feel if I posted a picture of them that they might not like.

My week has been really good when it comes to the days in general. I'm not doing so good with my grades, though. I am a big procrastinator when it comes to studying, and it's starting to reflect in my work. Hopefully I can get my grades up to A's before the period ends!

Ebola Breakout

 Topic: The disease, Ebola, spreading to the United States major cities.

Article Title: Ebola Outbreak Could Spread To Major Towns Soon, WHO Warns

 Article Source: Huffington Post

 Summary: In the past couple weeks, the Ebola virus killed 36 citizens in The Republic of the Congo. It also killed 16 in the neighboring country, Uganda. This virus has no cure, and is spreading to the United States' major cities. There are now 65 probable cases, and 108 people under suspected surveillance.

                                                           



                    
http://i.huffpost.com/gen/746476/thumbs/r-EBOLA-large570.jpg

 Reaction: When I first found out, I was terrified. Ebola has been my nightmare since I was 7. I could have any other disease in the world, just not Ebola. It is a terrible disease, and I wouldn't wish it upon even the cruelest people. Ebola is when your organs get shut down, one by one, and then they liquify. You bleed out of every hole in your body. Once the virus is contracted, you have about 48 hours to live. I couldn't imagine enduring that pain.

 World Impact: This could end up as a world wide spread epidemic. Ebola spreads fast, and a lot of people travel through planes.The disease can be spread through the air, or touch. I suggest everyone keeps hand sanitizer at all times, because it may save your life in the long run. Already 2 million dollars have been put into trying to find a cure, and trying to stop the virus from spreading. However, nothing has stopped the deaths. Ebola kills 90% of all victims, and it is one of the top ten most deadly diseases. This is one disease I definitely don't want to catch!

Weekly Blog.

Well, this week has been pretty fun. I know almost all of the kids in my graduating class, and I'm starting to get comfortable around them. It seems like everyone is getting more and more social every week. I'm so glad we are all becoming great friends.

This week we learned more about the parts of a complex sentence, which is really exciting for me because I understand it so well! My favorite parts of the whole lesson are when I got to help other people who didn't understand. I love sharing my catchy ways of learning, because it could help someone when they need it the most. I also love diagramming the sentences!

We also learned about Animoto, which is an awesome website that allows you to put information into a slide show with music. I really enjoyed it, because I got to pick which format and what music to use. I really got to show my creativeness through my slide show and pictures. It even shows you how long your presentation is as you add slides and pictures to it! I love Animoto.

http://www.istockalypse.com/Istanbul/img/sponsor_animoto_lg.gif

                                                                     

One positive thing I really liked about Animoto, is that there were many formats that you could use. You could even customize your own format. The themes were all linked to the music for each format, and the color schemes were so creative. One negative thing about Animoto, is that I couldn't figure out how to show one slide for a longer period of time than another slide. They were all shown at the same time lapse.

I saw on Schoology that the class learned how to edit your work, but I'm not sure how to do it because I was out of Friday. I will review it in class on Monday, when I have free time. Hopefully I already know how to do most of it.

Like I said before, I haven't gotten a chance to look at the lesson, but it would help to change any mistakes that you might have previously made in your work. You can also go back and retype your work to make it sound better or more intelligent. There are a lot of things you can fix by editing your work.

Overall, my week has been very good. I got to go the beach, I met some new people, and I FINALLY understanding my lessons in every class. I'd say it's been a pretty amazing week! I hope every one's week has been exciting and fun filled, and that this upcoming week is going to be even better!

New Monkeys Found in Africa

1. Topic: African Monkeys

• What is the topic of your article? New Monkeys found in Africa.

2. Article Title:  New Monkey Species Found

• What is the title of your article? New African Monkey Species Identified

  
  

3. Article Source: . Science Daily.


4. Summary: Researchers have identified a new species of monkey, called the Lesula. The first Lesula ever spotted was in 2007. After some genetic research, scientists concluded that the Lesula is a new species.



5. Reaction: I think that its cool that we're discovering new species everyday, because we are also losing species everyday. I feel that this could be bad for the monkeys though, because there's probably already poachers trying to sell them for their value. This particular event doesn’t really affect us, in the United States, but I’m sure it affects the people who live where the monkeys were discovered. I think the monkeys should be put under a protection program, because scientists don’t even know how many are in existence. Hopefully the species of monkeys won’t have the misfortune of dying out, like some species do.

6. World Impact: This discovery doesn’t really impact the world. It could be a new addition to the zoos around the world, but other than that, there is no real impact. If this discovery becomes well known, it could be a hazard to the species. Hopefully scientists can find out the population size, and how they came about, before poachers start to hunt them. I don’t see this is a world impact, because new species are found every year. It is, however, a big leap for the species of monkeys, because it is only the second type of monkeys found in the last 28 years.

It was a short week!

   This week has actually gone by pretty fast. I am starting to get use to the whole transition process. It’s been sort of hectic, though. Trying to keep up with homework, and doctor’s appointments, and keeping in touch with everyone takes up a lot of time! I'm glad I get to see all of my friends, though.

This week, we've learned a lot about phrases, clauses, subjects, and predicates. I learned most of it last year, but it’s good to review. I learned that a subject is what the sentence is about. The predicate is what the subject did, or what happened to the subject. That is just some of the things we learned.

One of these things I learned about this week was Google Reader. It helps me see and view the blogs that I like, without being on a million different websites. I find Google Reader very useful if you like to follow or subscribe to a lot of blogs, but I have never really been a fan of blogging. This is still so new to me, but I’m slowly getting used to this. I like writing with a pen and paper way more than typing on a computer. I guess this generation is just too technical for me!

The Google Reader Buttons available at http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/64/Google_Reader_logo.png Wednesday, February 01, 2012 9:15:25 AM
           
 One positive thing about Google Reader is that it makes it a lot easier to view your favorite blogs. A negative thing about Google Reader is that it was confusing to me and seemed complicated. Maybe it seemed complicated to me because I’m not much of a blogger, but either way I don’t think it will be something I use on the regular basis.

 A couple days ago, I learned about email etiquette. Half of the stuff in the power point was completely new to me! I’m glad I found out about spam emails and viruses, because I probably would have been one of the dumb few to actually OPEN the email. I love how much this class applies to my everyday life, unlike science or geometry. When will I ever need to know the rock cycle while checking my email? Classes like that make me wonder why we even learn the stuff.

This week has probably been the best one so far, and I hope next week is better than this one. Hopefully we’ll be in our building within the next couple weeks!