Article #3 Proposal: Stopping Global Warming

For my third article I want to write about the concept of stopping global warming. It is true that some people don't believe in global warming at all, but for this paper I am going to take the side of the people who do believe that global warming exists. I am going to write about the things that we as individuals can do to stop global warming down to the littlest steps like turning your television off when you leave the room. If you know any people who I could contact for this paper it would greatly help. I could talk to some of my professors seeing as I am an environmental studies student and my professors would know alot about this topic. I don't think I would talk to anyone who doesn't believe in global warming seeing as they probably wouldn't help much with my article!
A possible lede could be..
Although the concept of global warming is constantly being questioned, it is true that we as humans can treat our mother earth alot better than we do. There are little things that we can do individually to help prevent our earth from being polluted, depleted and increasing in temperature. Who knows what could happen if the temperature of the earth does warm and our ice caps melt. Storms are becoming stronger, droughts are lasting longer and air quality is causing illness in many countries.

What is Mermaid Syndrome?

 Sirenomelia, also known as mermaid syndrome is a condition where a new born child's legs are fused together at birth. The child may have 2 feet that stick out to the sides resembling flippers, or no feet at all. Sometimes the legs and feet are completely boneless. Unfortunately children with this syndrome usually die close to birth. Along with the deformation of the legs and feet, other abnormalities occur that affect the kidney, bladder, genitals, rectum and the lungs.

      There is no known cause of Sirenomelia, but people usually relate it to poor prenatal care.The loss of nutrients is thought to be one of the possible causes for the fusing of the legs. The loss of nutrition and blood flow causes the lower limbs to fail to form as separated limbs. The kidneys possibly don't form at all or are malformed and the large intestines ends up in the abdominal cavity. The anus is "imperforate" and the internal and external genitalia are absent or malformed.

    Sadly, the condition can be detected by sonogram and if detected the recommended treatment is termination of pregnancy. Symptoms that people can look for with this condition is the absence of kidneys or malformed malfunctioning kidneys, blind ending colon and imperforate anus, small absent,fused or poorly formed pelvic bones, poorly formed genitalia, the fusion of lower limbs, and finally death from underdeveloped and and immature lungs.
       Babies that are born alive with functioning kidneys can survive longer than usual with surgery. Operations to correct the body and reconstruct the urinary and gastrointestinal outlet tracts are almost always needed with this condition.

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/40931000/gif/_40931775_mermaid_416.gif

Why do we yawn?

Q. Why do we yawn ?

     A. It is a common fact that people yawn when they are either a. suffering from fatigue, b. bored or c. when they see other people doing it, but it has never been proven that a yawn is caused by any of those three factors. A yawn is an involuntary respiratory reflex. The action of yawning is controlled by the spine and nerve cells and its use is to regulate the carbon dioxide and oxygen in your blood stream. Scientists belief that fatigue or boredom could  trigger yawning because during these moments the amount of oxygen being taken is low and little is actually making its way into your lungs. A yawn is used to allow large amounts of oxygen to enter your body causing an increase of alertness, heart rate and amount of oxygen to the brain. 
   This is where things get confusing. If yawns are the bodies way of allowing more oxygen to enter than why do fetus's as young as 14 weeks yawn ? Scientist then suggest that yawning could be another way for a person to stretch. Like stretching, yawning causes an increase in heart rate, it flex's muscles and joints and increases your blood pressure.
  So we can yawn for two different reasons all together because a. we need oxygen, or b. we're just stretching trying to wake ourselves up. Both theories make complete sense, we just need to figure out which one is the right one.

Stephen Hawking is making his Comeback : Summary Blog

        The lede pulls me in to read the article " Stephen Hawking is making his Comeback". "The crowd turns to watch the frail physicist being wheeled at a good clip down the center aisle. He is wearing a charcoal gray suit and an open-neck white shirt; his head slumps toward his right shoulder; his hands are folded neatly in his lap. The music segues to The Blue Danube Waltz as he rolls up a ramp to the stage." I believe that part of the lede is the part that reals the reader in. The author writes very descriptively and makes the reader feel as if they are sitting in the audience themselves. I would give the lede a grade of 20%.
     I belive the author asked and answered all the right questions. He went into great detail about everything. He talks about Stephen Hawkins personal life along with his professional accomplishments. I believe the style of writing is good. Better than anything that I could write! It gets alittle confusing because it goes into such detail, but it also is a good thing because it shows that the author really knew what he as talking about and that he did alot of research.

       “Because he couldn’t write equations and stare at them and do long calculations by hand, he developed a 

         approach to thinking about things where he could manipulate shapes in his head in order to get insights that other 

         people couldn’t get. I think it is very likely true that he has done greater work as a result of this handicap than he 

         would have done other­wise, and I think he believes that as well.”

 The author does a great job of explaining facts about Stephen, and he writes compassionately about the person who alot of people would've called our Modern Day Einstein. I would grade the writing ability, organization and the questions that he asked and answered with a 20% for both.

The author does a good job writing scientifically. He goes into great detail but I don't personally think that he makes the science easier to understand. But I also believe if someone wasn't interested in science and the origin of the universe that they wouldn't  be reading this article in the first place. I would grade the explanation of the science in the article with at 18%.

  

How does bug repellent work?

Q. How does bug repellent work?

A. Mosquitoes, like other insects feed off of the blood of humans and other animals. The blood helps them to develop their eggs. When a bug bites a human, the insect releases their saliva into the skin and causes an allergic reaction in most people. Most of the time it is a female mosquito that attacks. This is the reason why when you get bit by a mosquito that the area of the bite gets red and itchy. Sometimes even swelling can occur. Not only does this it irritate many people but some insects can be the carriers of the West Nile virus. This is the reason for the handy-dandy "bug spray" Bug spray, also known as insect repellent is made of oils that prevent insects from landing, or even wanting to come near the area that the oil is present in. Insect repellent masks the scent of humans while releasing a scent that is unattractive to the insects. Some repellents contain an ingredient that causes the insect's sensors to malfunction which confuses the insect so that it can't sting or land on the skin. The oil and spray contain DEET, and only work for a short period of time. All of these ingredients are natural coming from plants, including lemon eucalyptus, and an oil called Citronella. The repellent oil can also be made into a spray, stick, or lotion.  Insect repellents are composed of a number of chemical composites.

     Some of the active ingredients in the repellents are KBR 3023, and CDC 2008. Synthetic repellents last longer, synthetic repellents have a high concentration of active ingredients. The best way to make these repellents work is to keep applying and keep applying.  All you have to do is to shake the bottle and apply to your skin!