Canavan Disease

The very fatal Canavan Disease is a tragic genetic disorder that effects approxiamtely ninety percent of all people of the Jewish religion in Ashkenazi. Symptoms include abnormal posture with flexed arm and straight legs, nasal regurgitation, blindness, feeding problems, increasing head size, had lag and lack of head control, poor muscle tone especially in the neck, reflux with vomiting, seisures, mental retardation, swallowing dificulties, and an abnormally high amount of ear infections. There is no cure and no treatment to this disease. Personalized treatments aim to ease the symptoms. It is a very unfortuante occurance that one it 6,400 new borns are carriers of the disease. The population of Ashkenazi is most vulnerable to the disease. The cause of this disease it because of two specific mutations of the aspartoacylase gene. These mutations are mutations on codon 285 and on codon 231 on the aspartoacylase gene. This is an autosomnal recessive gene so a person would need to have the genes on both chromosomes of the 17th pair. It also means this is not a sexually linked trait. All in all, this is a disease that nobody should wish upon another.

Social studies blog: INTERNATIONAL

Is This Necessary North Korea?

North Korea announced Tuesday that it was planning on sending a missile into orbit which US and South Korea officials believe could hit parts of North America. Hilary Rodham Clinton, the U.S's secretary of state, and South Korea's Yu Myung-hwan met and urged the north not to put this test into action. They called it "provocative" and "unhelpful". Mrs. Clinton called it's government a tyranny and offered to help normalize ties and assist with economics if it abandoned it's nuclear program. Many people think that this missile is absurd and funny.

How come a country that can not even feed it's own people put so much money into a space program? I also believe that North Korea should not be allowed to put millions in potential danger. What if that missile hit the U.S.A? What if it hit Newark, New Jersey? Newark is a home to millions of gallons of oil. If a missile were to hit Newark, the entire tri-state area and then some would be blown to smithereens.  It is unnecessary for North Korea to do this, and it is also a risky move. This could put them as the most hated country in the world if it destroyed a lot of land, which could cut off the help they receive from other countries, leaving them broke, needy, and positively putrid. As a citizen of North America, I would not like my homeland in danger, and personally, would not allow it. Action must be taken on this immediately. If that missile hits North America, or the U.S.A, politics will laugh at Obama for not taking action on a deadly threat. How do you think that would make the U.S.A look. We would be an embarrassment to the the world!

Science Blog 8

NASA SATELLITE CRASHES!

Houston, we have a problem. The rocket that was carrying NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory, (OCO for short), crashed moments after taking off today, February 24, 2009. It crashed in the atlantic ocean near Antarctica due to some technical glitches earlier in the morning. The OCO's mission was to monitor carbon dioxide emissions for the next nine years, helping scientists understand the distribution of green house gas. NASA officials say that the 270 million dollar mission was an utter fail. That means NASA lost a whole lot of money, especially in this recession. The OCO was carried in a Taurus XL rocket that successfully launched at 4:55 AM this morning from Vandenberg Air Force Base. Chuck Dovale said that launch and countdown went as normal, except for a minor unrelated glitch. NASA employees began to get hints that something was wrong as soon as the rocket failed to shed the clamshell that held the OCO. With too much weight, the structure was too large to go into orbit. So, gravity then took it's toll and pulled the aircraft to earth. Since it crashed in the middle of the ocean, and nobody was aboard the aircraft, nobody got hurt.

In my opinion, there should be a way to figure out if this kind of glitch will happen. For instance, they could build an exact to scale model that will launch up higher than a toy rocket. It is not good that the craft crashed, because it adds to the pollution. I hope NASA will clean this up. If not, it goes against their mission to go green. The crash could have disturbed habitats of animals if it was elsewhere. What if it crashed in a suburban community like the ones many live in? NASA is totally responsible for this in every way and is lucky that something worse did not happen. All in all, the OCO was a mission gone bad.

Source: National Geographics

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/02/090224-nasa-satellite-crash.html

My Roller Coaster Website

Vesuvius

Science Blog 7

Colossal Coasters

Hills and thrills, spine tingling chills. This is how I describe a roller coaster. This week in science class, I have the chance to create my very own coaster. My group so far has one big drop a hill a bend and a sickening twist. This is all possible, but not without physics! There's kinetic and potential energy involved. For instance, one thing I learned is that you have the most potential energy at the top of a hill. This is probably because if the tracks didn't hold you down, you would fly right off, therefore, having the most energy. At the bottom of the hill, you will experience the most kinetic energy. Roller coasters have all the chills and thrills we want, yet we also experience some of the craziest facts of science. I liked roller coasters before, but now that I know why they're so amazing, I love them even more.

Source: http://www.glenbrook.k12.il.us/GBSSCI/PHYS/mmedia/energy/ce.html

Social Studies 2

Chromium Commotion

The Natural Resources Defense Council and the Interfaith Community Organization had some pretty serious issues with Pittsburgh. They sued the city for chromium pollution from 25 years ago. Many people with the power to do something about the pollution have ignored it for years. Not many see it as urgent as the people who live and work in the area. The lot of a demolished building is hazardous to many people's health. So finally, the NRDC and ICO decided to sue Pittsburgh on Febuary 3rd, 2009. They aren't looking for anything more than the area to be cleaned up.

What they are trying to get across is that the amount of pollution is more than legal, and something has to be done. Jersey City has been waiting 25 years for it to be cleaned up, and it hasn't. In my opinion, they deserve a clean area to live and work. People who live down the street won't want to walk outside for some fresh air on a warm summer night. Playing outside in the snow won't be pleasing when the smell is sickening. All in all, the fair thing to do in this case is have Pittsburgh clean up the mess they started.

Source: nj