http://www.comlsecretariat.org/Dev2Go.web?id=335780&rnd=26299

MARINE LIFE

Census Marine Life; featured in LA times…
Reporting from Woods Hole, Mass.

Discoveries of the world’s oceans, was claimed to be known in a year’s completion, but early discoveries have changed the understanding of life beneath the sea, Census say’s. There are now tracking tools to see what fish do for food and migration, for ex.) White sharks forage even farther for food, commuting between Australia and South Africa. The worlds most threatened family of birds, the gray-headed albatross, stunned researchers when they the albatrosses raced around the globe in 46 days flat!

The project to find out and name all the living creatures in the world’s oceans began in May 2000, It is now almost 10 years later and there are life forms still unseen. The Census team has been on over 400 shipboard expeditions, discovering new life. So far more they discovered more than 5,600 now species, “many from the hottest, coldest, saltiest and deepest parts of the oceans.” since may, of 2000. An old species was rediscovered a mile beneath the Northeast ocean, which had been extinct for 50 million years, a shrimp, five inch specimen, with big eyes and red spots.

Fred Grassle, director emeritus at the Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences said, “Probably the greatest diversity of life is in the deep sea.” The proof came up when marine scientists used fine-mesh sieves to trawl nearly three miles down, they caught tens of thousands of swimming snails, worms and other tiny invertebrates in almost every net. This was a spot where they thought nothing even lived there, come to find out what was lying beneath the ocean floor.
The census will be released in October 2010, and will be cataloging the smallest of organisms, bacteria and the single celled microorganisms called archaea. Archaea are believed to play a role in the carbon and nitrogen cycles, which are obviously crucial to sustaining life.
Census also went to the extremities to find out the ancient Greek text, to see if they could find documentations on man’s impact on the world’s oceans. “In Europe, they found Renaissance-era painting of fish markets with seafood that no longer exists.” In North America, “custom records and captains’ log books indicated that fishermen in the Gulf of Maine hooked 20 times more cod in 1860 than commercial fleets do today!” Obviously because man as taken our minds and capabilities too far and to no return.

Ausubel and Grassle from Woods Hole institute hatched the idea of surveying every species. Most scientist said it was a crazy idea. Ignoring the skeptics, Ausubel persuaded the a foundations to provide funding. The Government and other foundations chipped in later on.
This idea was obviously seen as a joke, What, group of scientist will be able to discover every inch of life in the on- growing sea? Well they had a plan, the scientist set three goals. First, they would build a global registry of all the marine life forms. Second, they would map where each species lives and traves to better understand their habitat and nature of that creature. Third, they would assess the relative abundance of each organism—“past, present, and future.”

Another amazing thing that Census started was that, “there are about 2,000 scientist in 80 countries that has joined in the largest collaboration in the history of ocean science. Scientist has also figured a way to “bar code a life” instead of eyeballing a species to identify it. Which, I am not sure how on earth they figured that one out but that is outstanding. “By next October, the online database will contain photos, DNA codes and websites for at least 230,000 unique species, including more than 16,000 fish,” scientist said.

This article made me realize that there are intelligent people who do care about other things rather than their selves. It opened my eyes to a new picture, of discovering things that you don’t think matter but are one of the most important studies of the world. The ocean is BIG, very big, bigger than what we have to walk on. I believe trying to find every animal there is in the ocean is truly admiring. These scientist are curious enough to explore the entire ocean all over the world! It is a broad choice to make and I endear that. The animals that have survived, throughout the human race polluting almost every inch of our planet, is a remarkable creature. Not just a remarkable creature but, is to be here hopefully longer than us. These animals were here before we were, what makes it right to make them disappear along with human kind?

I believe that I reacted the way I did because, I wish to be one of those scientist exploring new parts of the ocean and new species every day. This article was very interesting and exciting, I didn’t want to stop reading and researching this topic. The animals amaze me every time, but in order for a person to amaze me is not common. But these scientist are particularly interesting to me, for the fact that no one believed they could even get close on this project, or even have anyone follow along with their thoughts and ideas. “Ausubel and Grassle from Woods Hole institute hatched the idea of surveying every species. Most scientist said it was a crazy idea. Ignoring the skeptics, Ausubel persuaded the foundations to provide funding. The Government and other foundations chipped in later on.” Not only did they persuade other foundations, “There are about 2,000 scientist in 80 countries that has joined in the largest collaboration in the history of ocean science.” The “largest collaboration in the history of ocean science!” That should tell you enough. These examples above, not only shows but describes how in genius these two scientist are.

In conclusion, by far, from all of my blogs this is my favorite one, researching lives other than ourselves is an amazing tribute to what we owe our world in my eyes.

Toddler Survives

TODDLER SURVIVES!
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/30718479/ns/today-today_people/

In Meridian, Idaho, May 9, an 18 month old baby got a pencil lodged in his throat at a local park. It started off just a normal morning for this little boy named Auston Banks. His mother said, “We go out every morning before lunchtime and we play to let the kids run their energy out before nap time.” One second Auston and his brother were playing on the swing, said his mom, then “I turned back to talk to somebody and it wasn’t 20 seconds later I heard this high-pitched sound, not even like a scream, because his tongue was pinned down.” At first he was just laying on his back, his mom saw the pencil and just immediately thought he was just chewing on it, but in actuality it was lodged in his throat. The first challenge was to be able to make it to the hospital in time. Luckily St. Luke’s Children hospital was only 5 minutes away from the playground. But for any parent in that situation, 5 minutes seems like a life time. “I was freaking out, I was scared.”, “All of the sudden he just went limp in m arms. I had his hands pinned down so he couldn’t pull the pencil, and I put my hands on his chest. I could barely, barely feel him breathing” said, Auston’s mom. X rays showed the pencil tip was dull, and had missed his spine while pushing his carotid artery to the side. Turns out since the pencil was not previously sharpened before lodged into the toddlers mouth it saved his life. If there had been a pointed edge it would of went through the 18 months vein and would of caused severe damage and a lot of bleeding, and would of likely bled to death before he ever reached the hospital. Greatfully, doctors successfully removed the pencil from Auston’s mouth in surgery.

My first reaction to this story was that, it was a very scary and a freaky accident. I couldn’t imagine the horror that was going through Auston’s parent’s heads. The poor child being stabbed in the neck with a pencil? Owch! I couldn’t imagine that sort of pain. I would probably pass out before I even got to the hospital. This little toddler made it all the way to the hospital strong and wanting this pencil out of his throat. I almost think that toddlers and dogs have the same immune system. It almost seems as though, you know a dog barely shows any signs of discomfort or pain, Toddlers almost have this protected layer around their body. This story made me think how worried you are as a parent. If I had children I would have a video camera taped to their noggin to see what their getting into. I couldn’t imagine the thought of one of my children getting hurt and being close to death, especially at such a young age.

I believe I reacted the way that I did because naturally, I am a worry wart…..unfortunately. But the very thought of losing a child is a crash into devastation. Which I am afraid of that when I don’t even have a child of my own. It is a freaky accident and I believe Auston was a very lucky boy to be alive. I bet he will never look at a pencil the same again. And, neither will Auston’s parents and his 3 year old brother that was there right with him when it happened. “All of the sudden he just went limp in m arms. I had his hands pinned down so he couldn’t pull the pencil, and I put my hands on his chest. I could barely, barely feel him breathing” said, Auston’s mom. That sentence right there would of put me in freeze mode if that were my baby in my arms. I wouldn’t let any red light get in my way of saving my baby’s life.

In conclusion, this is a story you only have to read once, and you won’t forget a word. A freak accident is also associated with a difficulty of overcoming the tragedy, not only the wound. Holding your son in your arms one second and then the next go limp can really scare a parent.

Failed Execution

Failed Execution
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/18/us/18ohio.html?ref=us
In Ohio Cincinnati, the execution of Romell Broom, a convicted rapist-murderer, was halted when technicians were unable to inject him with lethal drugs. A federal judge ordered that the inmate be deposed for federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Ohio’s lethal injection procedure. Lethal injection as a means for punishment is not an ideal system, and is commonly regarded as cruel and unusual punishment, especially in cases where the execution is flawed. A comment from Mr. Stebbins, an assistant public defender, states that there are ‘insufficient protections built into the Ohio procedures that guarantee it will be a painless execution” and that they” don’t cover all issues like in Mr. Broom’s case.”

My first reaction was that this was a fairly unremarkable story. When it comes down to it, who really worries if a convicted killer goes through some unnecessary pain? Then I went through the rest of the article and realized that there is more to it than that. There aren’t just these nameless faceless people facing lethal injection. They are just like us, human, and they have to suffer through torture. If the point of sentencing death is to make sure they can’t continue with their actions, to just remove their life quickly and without pain, then why are we using these excruciating means?

My first reaction was also that there was something off about this article. After reading through it once more I realized that there is a lack of emotion found in these people who are trying to dispose of the lethal injection. Though they are seemingly trying to pursue a just cause in the removal of this form of execution, they act rather apathetic to the fact that Mr. Broom suffered. Instead they concentrate on the fact that his testimony is a valuable time limited resource.

I personally believe that the way they execute is cruel, and even though the convicted might be well deserving of what they get, there should be a little more humanity and compassion on the part of those executing. Adding insult to injury, they are now trying to use him to make a case against lethal injection before his own scheduled death. They are forgetting that he is in fact a human being, and thinking of him instead as a disposable subject, wanting to first drag out all of the information he can give them relative to their case before letting him die. They may be making a case against a cruel death, but it doesn’t seem like they are particularly trying to help him, but only to justify their own thoughts of lethal injection.

In conclusion, Is it necessary to use this man as a puppet?, Especially, if he will no longer be affected by the outcome by no means, is he really worth hearing a word from, then why use him? Due to his reasoning of being in Prison you think twice to whether or not you really care about the topic, but in good reasoning you draw yourself to think about humanity. The world today stands ground of no mercy, people think they are so grand and intelligent they have no idea of their own ignorance. Every evil person will soon get their punishment, but we have no say in who, what or when. My point is life is just a big crime and there is no way around it, whether you go to church or not sin is bound to be within.

Eden Memorial Park

I found this story at http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/09/11/siu.cemetery.remains/index.html. it is about the Los Angeles, California cemetery, has been accused of desecrating the remains of those buried there. The lawsuit is filed by F. Charles Sands, whose parents are buried at Eden Memorial Park, against the cemetery and its owner. The workers of the cemetery “intentionally, willfully and secretly desecrated the remains of deceased individuals,” moving them to make more room. More than 500 graves were dug up without the permission from the families. On top of removing them from their proper burial they also discarded the remains improperly, said attorney Michael Avenatti. The groundskeepers were secretly instructed to break buried concrete interment vaults with backhoes, sometimes human remains would often fall out of the broken caskets, and those body parts were either thrown away or scattered.

I was shocked when I read this story, It amazes me how selfish and crude people can be. I believe it is wrong to dig up someone’s grave and especially without permission. My thought towards the end of the story did not change, only became stronger.

I believe I acted I acted harshly, I think the groundskeepers should get a life punishment for disrespecting the deceased. They acted heartless and they, “ Intentionally, willfully and secretly desecrated the remains of deceased individuals.” That very sentence gave me the chills, you wouldn’t think human beings could be so deceiving.

Over all this story was very depressing, and I hope all the families affected by this tragedy can get through this on top!

New Holiday in Japan.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090911/ap_on_re_as/as_japan_centenarians


Japan made a national holiday to honor the elderly on September 21, said in an annual report by the Health and Welfare ministry. Japans centenarians has doubled in the past 6 years, more than 40,000 lives have spanned more than a century, the Government said Friday. For 50 years they have been accelerating rapidly, 10 years ago it was 10,000 and in 2007 it was 30,000 and it has grown 10,000 in the past two years. Also for every centenarian will receive a letter from the Prime Minister and a silver cup. Because Japans is over burdened with public pension and medical care system, and high living standards. Rules must be made, they are trying to extend retirement from 60 to 65. The question is that everyone seems to be overlooking is why do people, who live different cultures live completely different lives. Japan has the longest expectations of life 86 for women and 79 for men.

My first reaction to this article was that it was very unique to create a holiday for the elder. I don’t see a problem with doing that, If anything it should have been done years ago.

I believe I reacted this way because common courtesy is a rare identity to find in certain societies. I believe it’s a nice jesture to try and make up for our losses. It’s amazing that “Japans centenarians had doubled in the past 6 years, more than 40,000 lives have spanned more than a century.” Which that sentence alone brought me into the story which I have heard about but did not read up on till now. Doubling centenarians in the past 6 years seems remarkable.

This article opened my thoughts on not just wondering how, but to “find out” how they continue to increase their population.

Environment

Rules Guiding Fish farming in the Gulf are readied

The Rules guiding fish farming have been readied. They are establishing a national policy on fish farming in federal waters. The Federal fishery management council over the Gulf jurisdiction is establishing permit requirements and are deciding what fish can be farmed and where they can be farmed at and so forth. Jim Balsinger, administrator for fish said in the absence of federal policy for saltwater fish farms, the agency had no grounds to block the Gulf plan. Also a National aquaculture framework was an “urgent” priority and it would be issued for permits within months, but for now the Gulf guidelines have the force of law. Most fish in the U.S. is imported and half of that is farmed fish. For the fish farms it is very difficult to make a profit for it takes more to feed the fish than to produce them.
My first response to reading this article was that I sort of feel bad for the fish. But that Dr. Balsinger really cares about the heath and natural habitat of fish is an extremity to me. I’m more than glade that they are establishing a national policy, maybe fish farmers will be more intentive of how they process things.
I believe that something should of changed a long time ago, but nothing ever changes till it’s tumbling fast and is almost unstoppable. I am glad that it is now because fish farming can be cruel and dangerous not just for the fish but for consumers as well. When I read that “ A National aquaculture framework was an “urgent” priority and it would be issued for permits within months.” That right there (National) means something BIG and should be taken very seriously and with the proper cautions. There
This article explains that these problems have been going on for some time and its reached its point to change the rules for the fish farms and to make problems better for humanity as well.

Reconstruction Straight from the Dumpster!

This article caught my attention just by looking at one picture of a room with picture frames built as a ceiling. I found it in the New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/03/garden/03recycle.html?pagewanted=2&ref=garden. This is extravagant in my eyes to see someone being so creative and at the same time being so resourceful. Dan Phillips age 64, from Huntsville Texas started building low income homes out of scrap material he found in dumpsters. To Dan anything discarded and durable is potential builing material. Dan has built 14 homes in Huntsville, he is a self tought electrician, plumber, and carpenter. Dan say's "you can defy the laws of physics or building codes, but beyond that, the possibilities are endless." His faith in changing the assumptions of living day to day really changed his community, he loved building houses that are different and not the everyday "hollywood dream house". Some houses that he built, the buyer would help build as well, Dan always liked the finishing of the project to watch the buyer grow to appreciate and love what they helped to create.

In my eyes this man is set out on a mission to help himself, others, and the world, I think he does this not only because he enjoys builing things but also because it is a challenge, and a very good challenge that implies people to recycle and use trash to make a home.

To me I look up to this man, I first reacted like o that is a really cool idea, I never thought of that. Honestly I do not see the average citizen complying with this motivating design to help our lost planet. But for the people who did it, props to you. I believe I reacted this way cause sadly I don't see people reconciling to this obscure plan to help deteriorate our worlds polution, and what is the best way to do that, to put it all back in our homes.

I beleive this man has started something fantastical! It would be a blessing for people to navigate to another resource to help our very very needy planet. In order to do that we need followers!