I See the "October Sky!"

In school last week, my unit watched a very good movie called "October Sky". October Sky was a very good movie with excellent examples of character ed, and it also showed us kinds of earth and physical science. I was enthralled with the movie and thought very highly of it. We were told to take notes of my school's character ed traits, CARES, (Cooperation, Assertion, Respect, Empathy, Self-Control.), and also examples 0f the sciences.
To tell you about the story, it takes place when Russia's "Sputnik" was first launched. Everyone was amazed at this, and thought it was really neat. The movie goes on in the coal mining town of Coalwood, Virginia. Homer is extremely amazed by Sputnik, so he decides to build his own rocket. After many trial and errors, Homer and his friends finally achieve their goal. Homer wins the national science fair, and after going to Minneapolis, Homer receives offers for college scholarships. Homer is from a poor family, so this is a great opportunity.
Character ed is shown in many ways. Such as when Homer reaches out to the school's nerd and asking him for help. Quentin was very greatful for this. Homer showed empathy by feeling bad for Quentin not having friends and doing something about it. Another example is between Homer and his Dad. Homer's Dad did not allow Homer to build rockets on company property, so Homer showed respect to his dad by building it somewhere else instead of breaking the rules. Homer and Quentin showed cooperation building the rocket. They did not take credit one more than another, they equally shared the attention. In the movie, Homer and his friends almost got arrested because one of their rockets supposedly started a fire. One of the teachers tried to step in and say that it couldn't be their rocket. She felt bad and showed empathy for them by trying to do something. Homer also showed self-control by not totally flipping out when his dad came out of the coal mine injured.
Science was also shown in the movie, and I learned a lot. For instance, Sputnik was very important to people in 1957. I also found out that the nozzle of a rocket directs the flow of the high gases. I also found out that alcohol is a stabele substance that evaporates quickly. I also know that the distance of a rocket can be shown with a parabola.
See how much you can learn by going to the movies?

Respons to Patriots Fan's Patau Syndrome Blog

The disease founded in 1957 by Eramus Bartholan is called Patau's Syndrome. It was founded by Eramus but ascertained by Dr. Klaus Patau. Symptoms of this disease can be a cleft lip, missing an eye, an underdeveloped brain, lung and heart problems, mental disorders, and extra fingers or toes. There is no cure, but the lung and heart problems can be fixed by doctors. One in 16,000 people suffer from this disease, but eighty-two percent die before they reach one years old. Five to ten percent make it to one year. The rest make it shortly into adulthood. Also called Tristan 13, this genetic disorder is caused by deformed cells that are deformed because of an extra copy of a parents chromosome. I think it is a very unfortuante disease and that we should all respect the perseverance of people with this disease and their family. It is something nobody should wish upon anyone and I hope that they someday find a cure so that people with this disease can live a totally normal life. Amen to all patients with Patau's Syndrome.

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

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