New Website!!!!

savethegreatswamp.webs.com
on The Great Swamp of NJ

Black Holes

This video may do a better job at explaining black holes than I do. I watched the entire video with my brother and it is actually quite interesting even though it seems long.

Earlier today, when I was having an analytical conversation with my father, I started pondering the topic of black holes. There was a recent article on Yahoo titled "Baby photos from the ultimate edge — a black hole." According to this article, a nearby star exploded into a supernova in 1979, and scientists now believe that a black hole is developing due to the fact that debris and gassy remnants left behind from the exploded star, are being sucked out of sight. This article also says that in the past 30 years, this black hole has devoured about as much as the Earth's mass! This really took me by surprise. According to the entire universe and space, this is probably a very small ratio. However, in my eyes this would be a little baby eating an entire Thanksgiving meal by himself. This black hole is said to be 50 million light years away from the earth and is five times the size of our sun. The star that gave birth to this black hole was about 20 times larger than our sun! This greedy black hole is gorging up as much as it can, and leaving scientists to believe that discovery is most probably a black hole.

This article intrigued and i wanted to learn some more research on black hole. To start with, what are black wholes? This was the first question I had to ask myself.

Information on black holes is very confined however there are several theories on what black holes are. We believe that black holes are created when a red super giant star collapses. Black holes are colossal areas of compiled mass with an unyielding gravitational force which prevent anything around it from passing. Unfortunately, there is not much proven information on black holes and it is a conundrum that is taking the best of my curiosity.

I was very provoked by how vague the information available on black holes was. I will add to this post as I continue exploring the obscurity behind black holes.

Websites I used

http://www.space.com/blackholes/

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101115/ap_on_sc/us_sci_baby_black_hole_3

Baby owl regurgitating an Owl Pellet

I found this video on youtube and you can clearly see the owl pellet. Sorry about all the extra noises that are heard in the background, but the quality of the video is awsome!

The Sun: Pros & Cons

(This blog post is based on the article
Catch 22: "People Who Aviod the Sun Lack Vitamin D" by Christopher Wanjek.
http://www.livescience.com/health/sun-exposure-vitamin-d-deficiency-101018.htmlcience.com/health/sun-exposure-vitamin-d-deficiency-101018.html)

In a recent study, doctors advised patients, who were inclined to developing skin cancer, to stay out of the sun and put sun-screen on whenever they were exposed to the sun. As a result, this group had drastically lower levels of vitamin D than another controlled group in the study. This shows that avoiding and being overprotective from the sun, results in lower levels of vitamin D. This could result in illnesses like bone fractures, heart disease, and other forms of cancers. On the other hand, unsafe exposure to the sun can also cause skin cancer.
Now this can be a perplexing situation. If you have fair skin, then you should avoid too much exposure to the sun. However, if you are going to turn away from the sun, then you have to make sure you are recieving a healthy amount of vitamin D in your diet or through supplementation. This can become a convoluted situation because there are not many foods which provide vitamin D. According to livescience.com, "no one is can determine the precise dividing line between healthy and dangerous sun exposure."

Foods that provide a source of vitamin D

Hidden Ecology in the Holiday House

Some may wonder how a book like "The Thief of Always," connects to ecology. As we all know, every little thing in this world is somehow connected to science, and if we carefully look for clues in the text, we may find simple imstances that connect to ecology.

In "The Thief of Always," Harvey is a young boy who is bored of his life. February seems to be a lifeless and insipid month with a never ending mass of dark, dismal skies. Harvey is desperate to go to a place of excitement where the sun is always shining and everyday is exhilarating. This all changes when Rictus, a minion from the Holiday House, comes to Harvey's rescue. Harvey is taken to the Holiday House, a rapturous house filled with surprises, mysteries, and illusions. This unprecentented house has all four seasons in a period of which we infer is twenty-four hours.

The seasons that take place at the holiday house all connect to ecology as well as all the foods that the boys are devouring delightfuly.

In the morning, when Harvey wakes up, buds are sprouting on the trees and the aroma of sweet flowers tickle Harvey's sences. By high noon, the sun is high in the sky and the heat is overwhelming. By supper, the withered leaves have fallen and you can feel the scrunch underneath your feet. As Harvey prepares for his bed, he is pleasantly welcomed by winter. A soft blanket of snow covers the Holiday House as Harvey drifts into a deep, dreamless sleep.

Obviously, we all know that this isn't known to be possible in real life. However, the changes in seasons and Harvey's interactions with his enviornment does relate to ecology.

Ecology is "the branch of biology dealing with the relations and interactions between organisms and their enviornment, including other organisms"(http://www.dictionary.com/). In this book, we see how Harvey reacts, adapts, and changes according to his enviornment. The seasons cause him to change his clothing and eat different types of food. For instance, at night, when it's winter, Harvey and Wendell bundle up in warm clothes and eat hot foods. Where as during lunch, Mrs. Griffin, the cook, probably fed them something refreshing which kept them cool from the hot summer sun. This is how humans adapt to their enviornment. When Harvey and Wendell eat meat and vegetables, they are also part of the global foodweb. In addition, all the characters, such as Rictus and Jive, have roles and jobs that they are obliged to do for Mr. Hood. This is like the Nich of an organism in the eco-system. Lastly, the aberrent fish in the mysterious lake is a population of kids. Population is also another term which connects to ecology. Population is the number of organisms in an area. In this case, it is the population of fish in the lake.

Who knew that our lit. book could connect to ecology in so many ways!!! :)

Symbiotic Relation

Symbiosis a a close relation between to organisms which is beneficial to atleast one of the organisms. The three different types of symbiotic relations are mutualism, commensalism, and parasitism. Mutualism is a relation in which both species benefit. Commensalism is when only one of the species benefits however, the other organism is neither harmed nor helped. Lastly, parasitism is when an organism lives in or on an other sprganism and the other organism is harmed.
The picture on the right is some poison ivy I found on a tree, in my backyard. (Remember, "Raggy rope, Don't be a dope!"). Poison ivy is an example of a mutualistic relationship. For example, poison ivy is a defense mechanism for a plant or tree because it drives away predators. In turn, the poison ivy feeds on the tree and recieves nutrients.

Biotic Limiting Factor

The picture above is a biotic limiting factor found in my community. I will comment to the name of this plant once I find out. This plant is a living factor because during the summer, there are flowers which are pollinated by bees and other insects. The leaves are also eaten by other animals such as deer. In addition, the plant is home to populations of insects, bugs, and worms in the soil. Plants also needs several abiotic factors to survive. For instanse it needs, oxygen, water, sunlight, a proper temperature, and soil. These are the only five natural abiotic factors that exsist in this entire world.

Toby The Tonado!!!

NEW WEBSITE!!!!!!

Visit our new tornado website!!!! Here is the link!!!
http://tornado4me.webs.com
It's all about tornadoes!!! Still in process of making so we might add other storms!

Lit. Poems

(The two poems I chose are the character poem and the diamante poem. I just wrote the color poem for fun.)

"Words or No Words"

Words

Strong, powerful

Daring, soothing, sharing

Deep, risky, safe, empty

Boring, relieving, hoping

Hollow, quiet

Silence

"Colors of Liesel's Life"

Death is a black,

Where as, silence is clear;

Out of the basements,

All the hearts are filled with fear.

The Champagn is yellow,

And the bread is stale brown;

The Jews are starving with hunger

While the mayor eats more than the town.

The sky was light blue,

The clouds were puffy white;

Death came to take Liesel

She enjoyed her last night

"One Tough Tree"

Liesel Meminger

Strong, kind, and troubled

Who loves to cuddle with a book

Who needs to know that Max is alive

Who shares her words

Who fears the death of her loved ones

Who'd like to see Rudy kiss her

Who dreams of the world being a safe place for everyone

Who ends up leaving with the tallest and strongest tree in the jungle

A recent article on Causes of Global Climate Change says that our CO2 emission, greenhouse gases, has increases and that is what is causing the climate change. According to the article, several people believe that the climate change and increase in greenhouse gases is a natural cycle. Not everyone believes it is due to anthropogenic ways

(not sure if I used the term correctly). Still, scientists are syaing there is no harming in cleaning the planet. I agree with the article that the increase in green house gases is due to human ways. The Greenhouse effect has always been taking place but it has rapidly increased during the last 50 years.

We have definetly increased our greenhouse emissions in the past fifty years. For instance, factories started, people started using cars, their was more trash to burn, etc. Therefore, I believe that the Greenhouse effect is natural and needed, but we have increased it way too much, and that is not natural!

Article: https://www.sheddingalight.org/articles/what-causes-climate-change/?utm_source=Google&utm_medium=CPC&utm_term=greenhouse_effect&utm_campaign=Adwords&gclid=CNr5386nkaECFYtd5Qodoiy7rg

The Collapsing Can!

Today in class, some of us did the collapsing can lab. It was a whole lot of fun! For this expirament, we needed an empty amuminum soft-drink can, a 2- or 3-liter (2- or 3-quart) saucepan, and a pair of kitchen tongs. There was a sauce pan filled with cold water on the lab table. First, we put a little water into an empty soft-drink can. We heated the can with the water on the hot pan. When the water boiled, vapor seeped through the opening in the can. We let the water boil for a while. Then, one of us took the tongs and quickly put the can upside down in the water. All of a sudden the can was crushed. The crushing of the can made me emit a frightening shriek. After the lab, I was left to wonder, why did this happen? I looked through my notes and discussed with other people and came to this concusion. I knew this lab was all about air pressure, so that gave me a start to my conclusion. When we heated the can with boiling water and placed it upsidedown into the cold water, there was a drastic change in temperature. The water vapor left the can and into the cool water because there is more room and less energy. The outside air pressure was then strong enough to crush the can because there was nothing inside the can. This lab relates to the Charles and Boyles law which we learned in chemistry.
Boyles Law: -When the pressure of a gas increases at a constant temperature, the volume of the gas decreases. -When the preasure is decreased the volume increases.
Charles Law: -When the temperature of a gas increases at a constant pressure, it's volume increases. -When the temperature of gas decreases the volume decreases
(from my notebook-class notes)
When the can was suddenly put into cold water it volume decreased because of the pressure around it.

This Collapsing Can lab was a lot of fun and I would mind doing it over, and over, and over, and over, and over AGAIN!!!

Vicious Volcanoes

Volcanoes are mountains which have an opening, or rupture, which allows magma and other gases to escape out from within the earth. Volcanoes form when the plates that make up the earth's crust move. The friction between the plates create enough energy to melt the rock anc form a volcano. A volcano eruption occurs when magma, from the earth's mantle pushes its way out of the opening in the earths crust. When the magma is thin, it creates a lava flow which is not a huge explosing. However, when the lava is thick, pressure builds up inside the volcanoeo and erupts in a forceful and violent way. This can be extremely destructive. The earth's largest volcano is Moana Loa, down in Hawaii. If this volcanoe is measured from the ocean floor, it is larger than Mount Everest. The volcano, Mauna Loa, is actually what inspired me to post this blog. Over spring break, my family and I went down to Hawaii for vacation. There, we went to see volcanoes and I saw Mauna Loa from a distance. This inspired me to learn about how volcanoes work. I'll post some pictures I took of Mauna Loa. We didn't see it erupt,but could see smake rising, and we also saw a little but of lava on the surface. Wealso saw several guysers near by. Geysers are springs which erupt extremelt hot water. The volcanic heat boils the water underneath and the presure causes the geyser to explode. ( If you've ever seen a kettle explode under pressure, it's probably similar :-) All in all volcanoes are very interesing and I still have a lot to learn. As I learn more, I will continue to add to this post.

Links I Used:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volcano
http://www.weatherwizkids.com/weather-volcano.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qq7u1lw7038

Wonder Webs!!!

Ustream.tv, a website established on March 7th, 2007, allows peope from all around the world to interact and communicate with one and other. People can watch live streams, vote in different polls, chat, rate, and much, much more!
Co-founders: Brad Hunstable, Johnny Ham, & Dr. Gyula Feher

Justin.tv is a website, similar to youtube, which also enables you to watch live streaming videos, and users above the age of 18 can broadcast their own videos. Again, this may be a fun website to rome around on just to kill tme.

Facebook: Chat with your friends and family and stay in touch no matter where you are in the entire world!!!

Twitter: Allows you to create conversations, read messages, and reply with your tweets!


This is the first time I've heard of Justin.tv, but just by adventuring the website I feel like it is safer and more appropriate for children to use. Youtube sometimes takes you completely off topic of your search. In my opinion, I found Justin.tv a safer website, but then again, you never know.


Have you ever been really bored and don't know what to do? Well chances are, you probably jumped on your computer and went on to a site like Ustream.tv or facebook. So many websites similar to these have been posted on the web by people all around the world. Ustream, for instance, was founded by Brad Hunstable, Johnny Ham, and Dr. Gyula Feher. These three men had worked on a internet project earlier in 2003. Soon they wanted to be able to communicate with their friends who were in the army. Therefor, these three men startes Ustramer.tv which was available to the public in 2007. Facebook was created by four computer science stundents, Mark Zuckerberg, Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes, down in Hardvard Univercity. Now it is the most used social network world-wide. However, are these websites good for you? Do they teach you anything? Should they even be allowed? These websites are a great way to kill time and connect with close friends that you don't see often, but most of us are taking a larger advantage of these sites. For instance, we come home from school after talking to our friends the entire day and then many people go on the computer and start chatting with the same freinds! It sounds ridiculous, but it is most definetely true! That is why sever countries such as China, Syria, Vietnam, and Iran have banned facebook to prevent employes from wasting time using these addicting services. These websites are privledges, but they should not be overused, which they are. Overusing them would only cause negative effects like your grade dropping or employes being fired!

SAFETY?

You also have to remember that if you are not cautious of who you are interacting with on these websites, then these websites could possibly be very harmful. Never talk to strangers, post private information, or pictures of yourself for the whole world to see.

As long as you keep yourself safe and use the privledge sagely these websites are a BLAST!!!

SOME MORE SITES!!!

http://www.facebook.com/

http://www.myspace.com/

http://www.ustream.tv/

http://twitter.com/

http://www.justin.tv/

http://www.friendster.com/

http://www.hi5.com/

http://www.bebo.com/

WOULDN'T TRUST THEM ALL IF I WERE U!!!

Links I used:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ustream

http://www.similarsites.com/sites-like/ustream.com

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rlz=1T4ACAW_enUS312US312&defl=en&q=define:twitter&ei=g3e2S-q1OsHflgfDsLmCAQ&sa=X&oi=glossary_definition&ct=title&ved=0CAsQkAE

http://www.similarsites.com/sites-like/facebook.com

Want to learn more?

http://larry50.wordpress.com/2007/11/16/websites-like-facebook/

http://www.videojug.com/film/how-to-stay-safe-on-facebook

http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7042.pdf

Global Warming - Math

Global warming does not neccesarily have to only relate to social studies or science. In fact, global warming is largely based on math aswell. Mathamatical skills are required to analyze what will happen in the future. Scientists need to create line graphs and scatter plots for co2 emittions, population, pollution, climate changes and more over an extended period of time. They could then fit these points to a line and create a linear equation. Extrapolation can be used to predict the effects in the future. You would also need math to calculate personal carbon emmitions or carbon emmitions in your community. The results relate to science and social studies, but the results are found by mathamatics. Statistics, calculating weather (F-C or vice-versa), calculating the rise of sea level, calculation the use of fossil fuels, and creating tables all relate to math. Almost any thing we do can relate to math!!!

GLOBAL WARMING

Global Warming is a major issue in the world right now. We humans are messing with the Earth's balance and eco-systems. Global warming is causing extrame climate changes in the climate and weather.

GREENhouse Gases

Global warming is caused by the greenhouse gas emitions. "The Earth stays warm because of something called the 'green house effect.' This is the natural process in which gases in Earth's atmosphere, known as greenhouse gases, trap heat from just like the glass walls of a green house do."(Unwin 8) Eventhough we need greenhouse gases for the earth to stay warm, if there is too much more heat will be trapped in the earth atmosphere.

Greenhouse gases- volcanic eruptions, forest fires, fossil fuels like coal, oil, gasoline etc.

When grazing cows cut the cheese, they realese methane which is also a green house gas.

Impacts

Flooding: Because of the warm temperature, ice in the poles is melting. This will cause a rise in sea level. The rise in sea level will cause a major flooding. Not only would a flooding wipe out animals and human beings, reperations would cost billions of dollars.

Dramatic Rise In Precipition: The hot weather makes more evaporate causing more drouts, however, the hot weather will also soak up lots of moisture at the the same time.

Polar Bears: The melting ice is removing hunting ground from poloar bears. Also, many polar bears have drowned for thi reason.

Coral Reefs: The rise in ocean temperature is causing a massive coral bleaching. This is majorly effectiong the ecosystems. Coral reefs are living organisms which also sustain a large number of other fish. Coral Reefs are shelter for thousands of marine species and also helps us in fishing. In addition, they provide natural protection from storm surges.

MANY MORE..........................

Hence..........Global Warming must be stopped!!!