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Showing posts from March, 2008

Survey of the Day: Sexism in Cytology?

I'm taking a poll at the bottom of the page. Please give your opinion. In biology, anything that either replicates (such as DNA) or reproduces asexually, is considered "female." For example, cells that are reproduced out of another are called "daughter" cells. Chromatids that go together are called "sister" chromatids. This goes on. After research, I've learned that the reason for this is that biologists refer to these organisms as female (though they actually in reality don't really have a gender) because women are reproducers. Or at least in the traditional sense. Anyone over the age of thirteen knows how babies are made and understands the man's part in it, but you know what I'm talking about. So the survey question: Is this sexist? (Some feminists organizations say it is, so I'm getting a feel for it).

Funny Moments of the Day

First funny story of the day: There is a gal in some of my classes, who's really super nice, but she unfortunately says things that she doesn't really think about until it comes out of her mouth. Such as, when receiving new seats in Biology, where we now sit near each other, "Hannah, I liked it when I sat over there, and you sat way over there." Today's event: We were working on our History Internal Assessments, where we have a topic for an essay that we chose ourselves. My topic is the effect of the Harrison Narcotics Act on morphine-addicted World War I veterans. I had made a flow-chart of the important cause and effect relationships, and I'd oversimplified for the purpose of my notes so that my chart read, "Harrison Narcotics Act passed->lots of people hurt in WWI->people shot full of morphine->people addicted to morphine->no morphine to addicts->LOTS OF MORPHINE ADDICTS RUNNING AROUND." A guy in the class glanced over at my no

Three Important Laws or Clauses that Surprisingly Few Peole Know About

Today's theme is three laws that I think the entire country should know about, but, as I've come to learn recently, few people do. These are laws that protect you! 1. Good Samaritan Laws These laws state that you cannot be held accountable for any ill that befalls a person when you were attempting to help them. For example, you cannot be sued for a rib you broke while performing CPR. 2. Baby Moses/ Safe Haven Laws Babies that are abandoned at a Hospital, Fire Station, Police Station or other similar place are taken into the state child protection, and the parents cannot be accused of child abandonment. Some states have variations that state they have to be into the hands of a healthcare worker, fireman/paramedic or police officer. Some say that this encourages bad decisions, and is therefore a bad law. Personally, I try to let everyone know about this law, because I'd much rather that the child goes into the state child protection than is dumped in a bus depot trashcan t

I Should Update!

I decided that I should update, if only to get the pictures of burning McMansions out of the current post. They're getting a little old, if you ask me. So? What's up with me? Not a lot. Basically, the highlights of the week are as follows: 1) My cousin, Jalayne, and her roommates decided to pay us a little visit on Monday and that was great fun. 2) It was WASL week. Since I passed the WASL last year, this means that I got to not go to school until 9:35/10:05 depending on the day. I enjoyed it immensely. 3) I've discovered how much I LOVE words. This week's best word-of-the-days? Tintinnabulate (means to ring or tinkle), tinctumutation (a change in color) and brobdingnagian (gargantuan). I already knew brobdingnagian, but that's because I've read Gulliver's Travels, and it's still an awesome word. 4) I have a sadness in my life tonight. I have math to do, a psychology IA (a replication of Stroop (1935)) to finalize, a French essay to write, and t

ELF---Why does this seem like a good idea to them?

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For those who were not aware, ELF (Earth Liberation Front) has struck again with their environmental terrorism. This time, very close to my home. They burnt some five multi-million-dollar homes very close to my hometown: in Echo Lake. So, these houses are on the Street of Dreams, which is a collection of houses built every year by corporations such as Costco, Walmart, Microsoft, etc. The houses are then auctioned off. They are HUGE houses and worth millions of dollars. In an attempt to save the environment, ELF lit five of them on fire. The damages are estimated at $7 million +. What they don't seem to understand are a few concepts: a) House-fire is bad for the environment. It threatens forests, releases CO and CO2 and that these houses aren't completely wood. Everything else that they're built of(such a petroleum based products) is going to go up in flames as well and be released into the atmosphere. b) The corporations are just going to cut down more trees and

Bienvenue Encore! Tu Peux Rentrer A l'Anglais!

Yesterday, at approximately 10:30 am, I left Inglemoor High School for the wonderful land of French camp. I've decided that I would perhaps share the top five highlights or things to tell you: 1) At French camp, you CANNOT speak English. "Ca c'est interdit!" as they say in France. If you speak English, you are sent to "La Bastille." This is the collection of those who have spoken English, and they get to clean the toilets, or in the case of the last set of "Bastilleurs" mop the cafeteria (which we called "Le Tour d'Argent." Every building was named after some famous building in French culture...usually something in Paris). When we returned to Inglemoor today, someone said, "I'm so afraid to speak English now. When I'm speaking English, I keep on thinking that someone's going to come up behind me and go, 'That's the Bastille for you!'" 2) The bread is amazing at French camp. At French camp, you eat Fre