Science Article

  Merry Christmas! So this is just a homework assignment that I did a little while ago, and I didn't really want to write anything. It's almost 2012! Hopefully the world wont end.        

        Sometimes when I would go to babysit a specific family, the 3 year old would always scream and cry for half an hour until after his mom was gone, and if I made any mention of his mother; he would start up again. This is what you call separation anxiety.

          Scientists have been researching separation anxiety, and have come to find that sometimes the reason for it is a double copy of a gene called GTF2I. They took mice, and made it so they either developed a double copy of the gene, a normal copy of the gene, or make it so they are missing the gene. They separated the baby mice from their mothers, and then listened for the squeak that they make that calls for their mothers (something a kin to a puppy when you take it away from its mother). The mice with a double copy of the gene squeaked twice as much as the ones with a normal copy, and the mouse without the gene squeaked noticeably less. This isn’t the reason for most children’s separation anxiety, but is a big portion of the cause.

          This article struck home for me. Like I said in the introduction of this essay, when I babysit for this one family, the child was always fussy. It is really interesting to find out why he was so attached, and why some other kids I would babysit wouldn’t be. I don’t know if mice are the same as children. I would like it if they would do another experiment on if age affects it, because the kid that I would baby sit got considerately better over time, but still had a little bit of trouble when his mom would leave.

I looked up percentage of separation anxiety in children and got this interesting information: “About 4 percent of children and young adolescents suffer from separation anxiety disorder (DSM-IV). Among those who seek treatment, separation anxiety disorder is equally distributed between boys and girls. In survey samples, the disorder is more common in girls (DSM-IV). The disorder may be over diagnosed in children and teenagers who live in dangerous neighborhoods and have reasonable fears of leaving home.” (http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/library/mentalhealth/chapter3/sec6.html). Even though it may not be the biggest concern out there right now, I still think it is good that they are looking in on it.

          I don’t think that there is a cure, or that it is even a problem. So if you have a kid with separation anxiety, just let them know you love them, and hopefully you’ll get through it!

My Talk for Church

I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and I am giving a talk in my sacrament meeting this Sunday. Here it is:

                There is a kid in my school that is Jewish. This person likes zombies and makes unusual comments in school. Everybody has him labeled as the “Jewish Kid”, which doesn’t really make sense because his…uniqueness has nothing to do with his religion. Until I looked further into my favorite Article of Faith (the eleventh), I played along and joked about the “Jewish Kid”.

                The eleventh Article of Faith states: “We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let me worship how, where, or what they may.” To me, this basically means that we believe in what we believe in because we WANT to, and because we think that it is right, and we should not judge people or look down on them for what they believe is right. In Micah 4:5 it says “For all people will walk in the name of his god, and we will walk in the name of the Lord our God forever and ever”. Alma 21: 22 says “And he also declared unto them that they might have the liberty of worshiping the Lord their God according to their desires, in whatsoever place they were in…”

                As I have thought more on the whole “Jewish Kid” thing, I feel bad. It’s pretty much going against what I believe in. To redeem myself, I am never going to call him the “Jewish Kid” but instead call him by his real name. I want to have more respect for the people around me, and for what they believe in. In D&C 134 it says “We believe it just to preach the gospel to the nations of the earth and warn the righteous to save themselves from the corruption of the world; but we do not believe it right to interfere with the bondservants, neither preach the gospel to, nor baptize them contrary to the will and wish of their masters, nor to meddle with or influence them in the least to cause them to be dissatisfied with their situations in this life, thereby jeopardizing the lives of men. Such interference we believe to be unlawful and unjust, and dangerous to the peace of every government allowing human beings to be held in servitude.”

                We learn simple lessons as kids such as, “Treat others how you want to be treated” and “If you can’t say anything nice, then don’t say anything at all.”  Those are good ways to live the 11^th Article of Faith. Since we do not want to be discriminated against because we are Latter Day Saints, we shouldn’t discriminate against people of other religions. If you are respectful, then you will be respected.

                I know that THIS is the true church. I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God, and I love my Heavenly Father. I’m grateful for the opportunity I had to speak today. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

My Sister's Keeper

“Darkness, you know, is relative." is a line from the book "My Sister's Keeper" by Jodi Picoult. It is one of the best books that I have ever read. It's just the kind that I like; dramatic, inspirational, and realistic fiction.

        Almost all teenagers are allegedly invinsible. Not Kate Fitzgerald. She has had a rare form of leukimia since she was two years old and has skimmed the very lips of death on a constant basis. In hopes of curing Kate, her parents make a "designer baby" to match to Kate's blood because Jesse (Kate's brother) nor Sara or Brian (Kate's parents) were a match. This baby is Anna. Short for Andromeda. Her father named her that because it was a constellation story line that meant "princess". Throughout Kate's life, Anna is her life saver. Anna is constantly "under the blade" as you would say, giving blood stems, bone marrow, and much other things vital to Kate's survival, if even the smallest health problem occured. When Anna is 13, and Kate is 16, Anna decides that she has had enough, and files a law suit to make any more medical decisions made for her, placed in her hands. Particularly for the most recent; a kidney transplant. The transplant could save Kate's life. Although it would make it so Anna's would be less so. Anna loves to play hockey, and it would make it so she wouldn't be able to play. But it isn't the reason why she filed the lawsuit. In court, it comes to the surface that Kate asked Anna to kill her. Anna instead deciedes to file this suit. Anna ends up winning, but to everybodys dismay, a tragic accident takes place that ends up changing everyones lives for good. The come to realize, you can never take someone for granted.

        The setting of "My Sister's Keeper" takes action in many different places, but mainly in court. This book was very insightful, to me at least. Lines such as "In the English language there are orphans and widows, but there is no word for the parent who loses a child" touch me because I never thought of it before. I loved how this book doesn't do chapters, but instead focuses on each character one at a time to show their point of view. Although it was a little confusing because of the time changes, it was like being able to read minds; and I liked that. I would recommend this book to everyone (especially people of the gender FEMALE) because it is a book that gives you sadness, madness, and happiness all at the same time which sums up for a interesting book that you don't want to put down. It is exceptionally magnetizing because you can't decide how you feel about it. At some parts it's like when you watch the

OH, and a comma essay....

For biology we have to do a science project. I think that science projects are not the most fun thing in the world, and I would rather spend my time on something different, but when I have to do them, I will. It was tedious, but it was easy because of my choice of experiment. Anyway, for my project I took white grape juice and colored it four different colors; red, orange, yellow, and green. I was testing to see if the color of the juice affected people’s perception of the flavor. The day that I started my experiment, I asked my mom to bring me the juices to my friend’s house, I pleaded very nicely, and she did so. I asked each of my friends to taste the juices and tell me what they thought they tasted like. Many of them said “I have tasted this before!” Nevertheless, nobody guessed correctly. My friend Makell came very close though! She said, “White grape, white grape, white grape, and grape.” When I finished I was very happy! In the end, with help from my mom, I learned something!

Surgery

The end of this week was so crazy. Thursday I went to school, and then went home like an hour later due to the weather. After I got home, I went to my orthodontist to get my braces. I got purple.  My teeth were way sore, but that’s all normal. But here will be the main part of my blog this week: My surgery yesterday.

                My mouth is (well, I guess WAS now…) pretty messed up. The two canines on the right side of my mouth never fell out. In the x-rays it showed that the grown up teeth were full grown, and wouldn’t push anymore. My baby teeth roots were still in full contact. The canine on the bottom had just grown up, and the baby tooth was still in full contact. The canine on the top was a different story. It had deflected off the canine and somehow got stuck up in the pallet and the root was all twisted in the bone of my pallet. The procedure goes like so…

                I don’t know why it is called a surgery because I didn’t get anesthesia, I just got numbed. They were suppose to give me three shots in the top of my mouth (two in the roof, one in the gum) and two in the bottom (on either side of the tooth). They ended up giving me 4 in my roof and one in my gum on the top. The tooth was further up in then they expected, and I kept feeling the laser (which hurts really, really bad).  They took the laser and burned away a big hole… (I can’t really see it, but it feels like it’s a little smaller than a dime) in the roof of my mouth in order to expose the tooth. Like I said before, it was farther in the bone and farther back then they had expected, so they had to go farther. The taste and smell of burning flesh in your mouth is abhorrent. I have thought about how you would explain it, but you really can’t. It’s nauseating. It smells almost sweet. But not in a good way, it’s possibly like caramel burning in a microwave on some rotten cow or something.  You might just have to try it out to understand. After they laser half your mouth out, they then take out your tooth, making the hole even bigger and longer. That’s kind of all they did on the top of my mouth, and on the bottom they just took out the tooth. I cannot EAT ANYTHING. It hurts way bad. My teeth don’t hurt at all, because when you get the procedure done, they put the laser light on all your gums, so then they are less sore with the braces, but, the holes in my mouth are really arduous to live with. I will have this thing for 2 weeks, and after that time period, they are going to drag my teeth to where they are suppose to be, I am way scared!!!

CALI

So this weekend I went to California, it was pretty dang fun. It started out with a 5 hour drive on Tuesday to St. George to my cousins house. They are very interesting! Right when we got there, we were beckoned back into the boy’s room, only to find that the pet snake had gotten out. While we were half-heartedly looking for the baby snake which had gone missing, I over came my fear of big snakes, because they also had a huge snake! (No worries, they were both King Snakes, which aren’t venomous, but prefer to strangle their pray to death). *Quick Verity: I don’t know if you knew, but king snakes eat rattlesnakes.* I held the big snake. Yes, I did. And I’m very proud to say I have no fear of holding them now, well, as long as they don’t have venom, and don’t bite, and for picture sake of course.  Along with the two snakes, they have two dogs, two birds, and two fish. They also have 5 kids, are homeschooled, and live a sugar free diet! It is really a vibrant life! I was homeschooled until third grade, until my mom got struck with a pretty nasty virus of Giardia, which made her hair fall out and made her really sick.  Ok, so after we ate a French toast breakfast, we embarked on another journey of 6 hours to California. The first day at Disney Land we walked a total of 15 miles (I know this because my mom wears a pedometer called a “FItBIt”.) On Thanksgiving, we walked 13 miles, and had an exceptionally eventful day. We went on the “Pirates of the Caribbean” in hopes to hear a little “Yo ho yo ho a pirates life for me”, but ended up getting stuck on the ride for an hour, listening to that song over and over. I swear, if I ever hear another blimp of that song, I will kill somebody. That song…. is tattooed… into my…. brain. We then had ribs and corn bread and corn and chocolate milk and chicken for dinner. It was really good, and also really expensive. Another day at Disney Land the next day. On Saturday we went to the Gun Show, we are really good friends with the owners of the show, (we actually went with them to two days of Disney Land). We got sunglasses and a Bob Marley bracelet for me. When we were done with that, just my family went to the ocean and looked at tide pools, which are actually way cool! I held like everything in there. Later that night, we went to “The Old Spaghetti Factory” and ate dinner with the two families we had been hanging out with before. We had to wait an hour for a place even to sit, but the time passed by because there was a balloon making guy who made all sorts of creations, and was free. Today was the worst day. We left to hotel at 7:45 this morning, and didn’t get back home until 8:45 tonight, and we only stopped three times! An hour and a half into the drive, my little sister puked up her brains all over in the car… And  I was sitting right next to her when her stomach exploded. I did all that I could to get away from it. But she managed to splatter some right on my favorite jacket. I almost threw up myself. Other than that, all went well, and I’m very ecstatic to be home!

What Drove the Sugar Trade?

What Drove the Sugar Trade?

            Today, sugar is an alleged necessity. We have a colossal amount of sugar in our diets every day. We put sugar on our already sugary cereals, in our lunches there is usually a “treat” of a rice crispy treat or brownie, and yes, chocolate milk has sugar. Some soda for a snack, a few kit kats, hot chocolate to keep us warm, sugared yams and cake for dinner.  We consider a day without sugar, a day not done. (At least I do). But little do we know that a while back, you couldn’t buy a candy bar, or let alone a bag of sugar at the store. What drove the sugar trade? I do believe that what drove the sugar trade consists of the following: Land and climate, consumer demand, and complementary goods.

            In order for sugar to grow to its full goodness, it is ideal to have 68-90’ F, 80-90 inches of rain each year, and volcanic or alluvial soil that is sandy/silt/clay. Two Caribbean Islands fit the deal pretty well. Jamaica’s temperature is primarily 68-86 F., has a clay/silt/sand mix, and has generally 77 inches per year.  The temperature in the Barbados ranges from 72-86 F., has clay/sand mix, and has about 60 inches of rain each year (Doc 2). The British own both of those islands (Doc 1). The way that the islands could get money would be to sell the sugar, but even better! They could trade it for things that they needed! But first, people would want it.

            Everyone has somewhat of a sweet tooth. Who doesn’t love a little sugar every now and then? Since we have it at the tips of our tongues, we take it for granted. But in 1846, sugar was limited. So much so, that children would lick the bottom of the barrels that it was transported in (Doc 3). In Britain alone from 1700-1770 the sugar jumped from 4.6 pounds per capita per year to 16.2 pounds per capita per year.  The more that was imported, the more the consumption rocketed (Doc 5). How are they eating all this sugar?

            Sugar goes good with everything. Correct me if I’m wrong. Did you know that chocolate is bitter on its own? That alone would have a huge impact in trade. Chocolate is delectable. A list of all of the things that sugar goes well with would be forever stretching. One thing that sugar goes great with (at least I hear it goes great with, I never have had any) is tea. Tea is and has been the most popular nonalcoholic beverage in the UK (Doc 4). Everything tastes awe-inspiring with sugar in it. So much better than when it is plain. So, That’s why I think that complementary goods drove the sugar trade.

            In finale, I would just like to say that these are the reasons that drove the sugar trade. They all add on to each other, there had to be land to grow the sugar on, people had to want to purchase it, and they had to have a reason to obtain it.