Lit Circle Part 2 post12-13-07

This is my second lit circle response to the book Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. For out 3rd liturature circle meeting, my group had to read to page 200. It was a pretty graffic section about making love. This section explains one of the main themes that my group came up with is Love. One quote that we thought really relates to the them is,

Spitritual love from the waist up and physical love from the waist down.

(Marquez, 199)This quote is important to the story because it shows the reader what love in that time really is. It also clears up why Florintino Ariza constantly is craving to make love with every women he sees.

I have been surprisingly enjoying this book. If I wasn't doing liturature circles though, I don't think I would enjoy this book so much. The book is a bit disturbing and there are times when you just want to put it down but the lit circles make the book interesting. We talk and laugh about it so that we can make it more of a joke because we are disturbed by the content. It has been getting better but then again because it is so disturbing, i think that we just want to get it over with and finish the book.

A big question that i have is why did we need those first 20 pages of the book about
Jeramiah de Saint Amour?
I think that it was not important to have Jeramiah de Saint Amour because it just confusses the reader to believe he is a main character but he never comes back after Fermina puts the letter in her drawer. It might be there to introduce the characters but it doesn't really work that well.

Love in the Time of Cholera Reponse 12-9-07

Love in the Time of Cholera (LITTOC) by:Gabriel Garcia Marquez is a very interesting book. In Spencers class, we have been split up into liturature circles to read different books. I am with 4 other kids reading LITTOC and for our second liturature circle meeting on friday, we had to read to page 120. The book started with Fermina Daza and Dr. Urbino at an old age all the way up to when he dies. This is the begining of a interesting story. As i am reading i have been predicting on what is going to come next and sometime i am right like my group thought after the first meeting that Femina will have an arranged marriage to someone beside Florentino Ariza (her young lover that she ends at the end of the second long chapter). I have had some confusing parts like in the very beginning of the book the author makes a big deal about a character that commits suicide and we don't here anything about him ever again. i dont think that that part was necessary to the book and it was about 20 pages. When i was reading about Florentino and all the letters he wrote Fermina Daza was so sweet that i could just picture how he looked when they discribed him and i got really attached to his charater which seems very sweet! In our liturature circle on friday, we kind of drifted away from the book but not really because we were talking about long distant relationships (Florentino and Fermina's relationship was long distant)and how they are very difficult to keep alive so they dont usually work. I didn't expect Fermina to end the relationship becuase write before it said how much she loved him until she saw him again btu it was not like she never had seen him. i thought it would be because her father made an arranged marriage like he was talking about. i think that the liturature circles have helped me understand the book a lot more and i am enjoying it more than if i was stuck struggling to understand it myself.i can't wait to find out what happens next!

study study study 10-10-07

Today, in class we were doing math in math/chemistry and taking notes in Spencers class for our quiz on Friday! Tomorrow, i have a presentation on pH that i am really confident about because i have done a lot of research on it and i can allaberate on each slide because unlike in spencers class that we wrote everything we were going to say on the powerpoint presentation on the slides, we made it condenced and easy to understand! Good night!!!

pH powerpoint 10-9-07

Today in class, Kerstin, Coco, and I worked really hard on our powerpoint for our pH research that we are presenting on thursday. We all used the websites that we posted on our previous blogs and for the work cited page we turned in yesterday. We each contributed to the powerpoint and we all had good information on our blog. I am just glad that we were able to work on that the two hours so now we just need to present it and of course keep researching. I found more information today in class but it is all on the school computer and on our powerpoint (also on school comp.)

In spencers class we were watching powerpoints and taking notes on them because we are having a quiz on thursday. It was kinda interesting but my hand really started to hurt and my finger started to turn purple. I know how hard everyone worked in the class though and i know my group was really productive. It was just hard to give the ppt yesterday because we didn't really know what spencer wanted us to do but know we know for future ppt presentations.

pH reseash con. 10-8-07

THe first website (on the blog before)was about acid, bases, and pH. It is a really cool website because it gives valuable information and equations that will be able to help me with the water project for Annes class. It also has this really cool animation about proton exchange. It is simple but you understand what it means by moving protons. It also shows a diagrom of what the Neutral Solution: [H3O+] = [OH-] is and also Acid Solution: [H3O+] > [OH-]. Check out the website.

1.http://web.jjay.cuny.edu/~acarpi/NSC/7-ph.htm

The second website is another good website about pH. It talks about the moles and how you can figure out pH of water by the consintration of H plus moles/liters. They have a diagram which is a pure water and the numbers for pure water.

2. http://users.rcn.com/jkimball.ma.ultranet/BiologyPages/P/pH.html

this next website is formated like a ppt or a flash with information. It has moving parts which shows a scale where you can see the numbers move. It talks a little about the Power of Hydrogen but it is also interesting to actually see diagrams when you are learning about something.

3.http://www.johnkyrk.com/pH.html

The next website is by Roger McFadden. It talks in details about ACIDS, BASES AND SALTS, SIMPLIFYING A FORMULA, A GOOD WARNING SIGN, SEVERAL METHODS FOR MEASURING pH, IMPORTANCE OF pH IN OUR LIVES,and NEVER IGNORE pH VALUES. This website is from the Coastwide Laboratories so i feel that it is really trustworthy.

4.http://www.coastwidelabs.com/Technical%20Articles/ph__the_power_of_hydrogen.htm

pH research 10-8-07

THe first website i found was

http://web.jjay.cuny.edu/~acarpi/NSC/7-ph.htm

ill tell you more about it later!!! got to go to class!!!

Pictures 10-5-07

This blog is just going to be websites that i got my pictures from for the Guatemala project. If you would like to check them out, click on the websites below.

http://web.mit.edu/urbanupgrading/upgrading/graphics/Maps/Guatemala.gif

http://www.deguate.com/infocentros/personajes/presidentes/images/jorge_3.jpg

http://www.worldmayor.com/manifestos05_pics/guatemala_arzu.jpg

http://www.travelingguys.com/archives/peopleofixil.jpg

http://media3.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/photo/2006/02/23/PH2006022302542.jpg

http://site.voila.fr/hl-inside/livresfichiers/montesquieu.jpg

http://images.worldcupblog.org/ira/Mexican_Flag.jpg

Research 10-5-07

I finally got my blog up and running again. It wasn't working on the 3rd or 4th. Here are more good websites for the Guatemala Project.

The first one is from the US government which has facts about Guatemala and i am using it for their history and when they became independent. It has great info on other aspects about Guatemala. Check it out on 1 of my websites below.

The next three are pictures of Pedro de Alvarado.



1.http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/2045.htm

2. http://www.cuscatla.com/conquista1a.gif

3. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2d/Pedro_de_Alvarado.jpg/435px-Pedro_de_Alvarado.jpg

4.http://www.thepirateking.com/images/bios_pedro_de_alvarado2.jpg

Guatemala Research 10-2-07

I am looking for research for my mini-project that we are going to be working on during school tomorrow and friday, thursday we are on a field trip, my partner is Jessica. I am looking for different websites that will give me the history and how the government changed over time.

The first website that i found was the CIA world factbook. It gave some information about the 3 different branches: Judicial branch, Legislative branch, and Executive branch. It also says information on the that is important like, there independence is 15 September 1821 (from Spain). Check it out if you want to know more information.

The second website i found has different links to different topics about Guatemala. I read the history section of it. I thought it was cool that it did talked about the history all the way back to the mayans. It didn't give to much info on the Mayans but it still spoke about it. It didnt talk about when Guatemala became free from spain but it did say; "The country then slid into a state of almost perpetual civil war between a series of right-wing military governments and various leftist guerrilla movements: a major figure during this period was the former general Efrain Rios Montt, a self-styled evangelist who as army chief of staff and (briefly) president during the 1970s and 80s presided over a vicious counter-insurgency campaign whose savagery was exceptional even by the standards of the era and the region." (iexplore, history). It also has great pictures that we can add into our ppt.

Number 2 on this website gives information on when Spain came and concoured Guatemala. "2. The second important period in the history of Guatemala is marked by the arrival of Pedro de Alvarado, conqueror of Guatemala, in 1524." (giorgio, history). It is a short but to the point website.


1. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/gt.html

2. http://www.iexplore.com/dmap/Guatemala/History

3. http://www.world66.com/centralamericathecaribbean/guatemala/history

pH research 10-2-07

This is are really cool website. It has some interesting information that will be a great help for our water project. It explained the different pHs (with other numbers) and a few equations. I think this is a valuble trustworth website. What i thought was really cool was their little animation in the beginning. It had very good information and it draws the reader in. I thought it was cool that you can move the center piece back and forth and see how the numbers change when there is more acid or the other direction Alkali. Alkali is (from dictionary.com's deffinition) "any of various other more or less active bases, as calcium hydroxide." I thought it was interesting that when it was on 7, which is when it is completly nutural the number is 0.0000001 and when the number was 7.0 the hydrogen ion concentration is 0.00000095.

The website is:

http://www.purchon.com/chemistry/ph.htm

Beyond the Boarder 10-1-07

Today in school my group worked to make sure the script is ready to be turned in tomorrow as the second draft. We have been working on it for a while so we had it pretty much done. I called Dr. Weisses office today and scheduled our interview with him for Wednesday. We also did a read through of our script for the first time to see how long it is. The documentary is supposed to be between 5-7 minutes, but ours is 10. We decided that it is better to have more than too little. We have finished all the script and now we just need to do filmming and editting. toDAY was very productive because we didnt feel stressed to be finished with something. I will keep doing more research but i am glad that i am in this group.

Beyond the Boarders Project 9- 27-07

On Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday,I was working really hard on the storyboard. On Tuseday, Coco and I were working on the script. We already turned in our first draft of the script but we are working on extending it. On wednesday night i was working really hard on completing the storyboard so we wouldn't have to worry about it today because it is due tomorrow. We had time in class today to work on our story boards and our script. Kerstin and Coco were working on the script while i was working on our storyboard. I did a detailed page of sixteen different pictures and text for our storyboard and because coco was going to work on the script tonight to find a way to finish off the script, she took home the storyboards to finish as our script is almost final. The only thing that will really change our video will be how our interview with our expert source, Dr. Weiss, a nutritionist, and what he has to say. I knew that during the interview we would have it come in and out of pictures but because we dont know what he is going to say we decided to finish the storyboard afterward. Coco contacted Dr. Weiss today and this is what she wrote on her blog about the conversations she had:

"I also called Dr. Weiss (Our expert source) and asked for his schedule of when a good time would be for the interview. Unfortunately, he had some family issues and won't know for sure his schedule until next week. So everything besides that seems to be going smoothly and I think that our partnership is working out very well."

(if you would like to look at her blog it is http://www.coletteconover.blogspot.com/)

I believe that I am in a very hard working group because we try really hard to get things down and when we have the time to work on something in class we are always on task. I know that last week was difficult for my group because i was not in class on Thursday or friday but i feel that we have more stuff down than most other groups even with that miner set back. I am really enjoying this project and i cant wait to start filming next week!!!

Comment for Coco's Blog 9-24-07

This website is about natural pesticides. It didn't have much information but i thought this sentence was interesting. "Cutting-edge research is now under way to discern how natural fungicides and herbicides affect transcription fingerprints." Comment on my blog and tell me what you think. I think that maybe someday we can use the different chemicals that we use in natural herbiciede pesticides and others in a different way.

the website is:
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3741/is_6_53/ai_n14702617

Another comment on Kerstin's Blog 9-24-07

This website is about synthetic herbicides. What i found interesting was the commonly asked question," How dangerous is an herbicide?" This is a very hard question to answer like the website said. Each herbicide is different and can be dangerous in its own way. There are so many different kinds of herbicides that the question is not a yes or no answer. "In truth, there is too little known about how the human body functions to determine long-term effects. In general, though, manufacturers and experienced applicators agree that exposure to herbicides should be minimized. Exposure while handling concentrates is one of the greatest dangers of dealing with an herbicide. If contact results in a skin rash or eye irritation, this is an indication of general toxicity. And it's known that this type of exposure can affect the tissues of the lung, liver, or kidney." I found this interesting because it talks about the human body and it is a good piece of information that can help my group with our "60 minutes" style interview.

http://www.nifatrees.org/herbicides.htm

More comments on Kerstin's Blog

I really like this website more than the other websites that i have found off of other blogs. This website is not very long but it gets right to the point. It has a little introduction but then it list specific foods that are better organic (foods that are perishable). It gives yo a reason why organic is better for your body. Another thing i really like about this website is that it talks about with out pesticides we can help the envorinment. This is a really important wensite because it can help many people get healther just by buying organic foods. This will be good, like Kerstin said, for our interview with Dr. Weiss.

http://www.gelsons.com/services/nutrition/2003/September-2003.asp

Comment on Kerstin's post 9-24-07

I agree with what Kerstin said on how there are a lot of restricted pesticides. This website is a list of the different pesticides, herbicide... that are restricted by the federal government. On the website is says the Active Ingredient, Trade Name, Pesticide Type, Restricted Formulations and Use Patterns. What i found interesting was that most of the restricted chemicals were used for herbicides and Insecticide. This comes back to my topic for the beyond the borders project. I find it very interesting how many different chemicals were once used and are now banded.

http://entweb.clemson.edu/pesticid/Document/FedRUP.htm

Pesticide Facts 9-18-07

This is a website that says differnt facts about pesticide and the effects on the human body. Two of the main things that happens to people are cancer and birth defects. Check out this website for more information!

http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/environment/RATE/pestfact.html

The Carcinogenic Potency Project 9-18-07

this is The Carcinogenic Potency Project website. It has to do with cancer and so you can ckeck it out if you are doing anything on herbisides or pesticides.

http://potency.berkeley.edu/cpdb.html

The Mexica/Aztecs 9-11-07

I know this is late notice but this website looks like a good website for information that you couldnt find before. I know the Aztec project is due tomorrow but in this website there are information that goes with the topics: History,Economy and Society, Religion, and writing.

I hope this can help!

http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/CIVAMRCA/AZTECS.HTM

Ancient Civilization- Aztecs 9-7-07

I really liked this website. It was pretty much a summary of what happened. It was interesting how everyone had to go to school. It didnt matter on the gender, it was manditory to go when you are 15. Also the legal drinking age is 60, and if you drink earlier you were killed as the punishment. It was really easy for me to understand this website because it wasn't very long but it gave some good information. I am not sure if it is a really reliable source though. It doesnt say an author but it is part of ProjectShum.

http://www.projectshum.org/Ancient/aztec.html

Non-Synthetic Herbicides 9-6-07

This website gives information on organic herbicides. Herbicides, either synthetic or organic are used to get ride of weeds that are disruppting the growth of plants. It also gives information on pesticides, to protect the plants from bugs. Depending on your state, it has to allow minimum risk herbicides. I said depending on your state because this was written in Florida. It gives another website which is also good to look at, it is th OMRI (The Organic Materials Review Institute). It is the product list.

http://www.omri.org/crops_generic.pdf

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/HS247

NYCAP- Health Effects of Pesticides 9-5-07

This website is really good for my good to make sure our video is unbias. We can see if we can either get a tape of the speech so that as we show pictures so we will show the audience that there is an alternative way of going. A lot of pesticides are bad for you because they are toxic. This is a list from the website to show what pesticides do to the human boday that are bad.

"insecticides reported to have reproductive and endocrine-disrupting effects

b-HCH
lindane
carbaryl
malathion
chlordane
methomyl
dicofol
methoxychlor
dieldrin
mirex
DDT
oxychlordane
endosulfan
parathion
heptachlor
synthetic pyrethroids
toxaphene
possible effects of endocrine disrupters include ...
infertility
endometriosis
breast cancer
low sperm count
testicular cancer
prostate enlargement
altered fetal and child development
learning disorders "

(adapted from a speech presented by NYCAP Executive Director James Moore at the Structural Integrated Pest Management Training Conference on July 11, 1996.)

http://www.crisny.org/not-for-profit/nycap/heps.htm

Synthetic Pesticides 9-5-07

THis is a very reliable website. It is from the UCSD webside. It was really interesting to find out information about DDT which is now banned. It was really bad for you and it increased preturn births and was bad for the enviornment. It was also making certian animals including the bald eagle die. "There are many classes of synthetic pesticides. The main classes consist of organochlorines, organophosphates, carbamates, and pyrethroids. Exposure to pesticides can cause acute (short term) or chronic (long term) effects on animals and humans, especially in the reproductive, endocrine, and central nervous systems." (Thuringiensis,website)

http://www.bt.ucsd.edu/synthetic_pesticide.html

Synthetic v. Natural Pesticides 9-4-07

For my project I am researching Synthetic Pesticides and the effects of it on the human body. While i was doing my research i can across this new york times article called Synthetic v. Natural Pesticides By John Tierney. One think that i found really interesting were the high percentages of chemical intake that humans have. Pesticides is a minuscule to cancer. Also, if i can get in contact with Dr. Ames of Dr. Gold, they might be good for an interview.

http://tierneylab.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/06/06/synthetic-v-natural-pesticides/#more-93

Aztec Research 9-3-07

I found this website and I would like to share it with everyone who is doing the Aztec part of the Indigenous Peoples Mini-Project - Aztecs. It has so good information and links like Aztec Culture, Aztec Calender and much more. It was interesting for me to find out about the Aztec Calender and how they have twenty days in the Aztec Month. If you are looking for books, you can scroll down the page and it gives a bibliography of books on the Aztecs.
The Aztecs were very into religion. They worshiped hundreds of Gods and Godesses. In 1325, the Aztecs foundthe town of TENOCHTITLAN (modern-day Mexico City). Aztecs were from north Mexico.

Glenn Welker. http://www.indians.org/welker/aztec.htm