Pros & Cons of Blogging

Greeting fellow bloggers!

Today I’m going to write about what I liked and disliked about blogging-

I, personally, really liked blogging – I think it is a very good creational exercise – everybody got to write about something of their interest, which is always fun. I like the fact that the project was very liberal, and I also liked that we got to practice writing in a non-formal manner – which is always useful in the future. I mean, when we’re older, we’re not going to only have to write essays – we need to know how to both write formally (which we covered in class with in-class essays and several other projects), but we also need to know how to write informal emails, notes, and whatnot – blog-writing gives us the experience. I also think it is a great opportunity since it’s not like anything we’ve ever done before – it’s something new and original.

The only flaw I see to blogging is finding a topic to write about – but once you find one that fits your interests, it’s great.

I loved blogging and I think it’s a great project which a vast majority of kids are going to like since everybody can make of it something they enjoy. 

Paper Cuts

Paper cuts – I hate them! They always occur unexpectedly, and they produce a lot of pain. I’ve always wondered – how can something so flexible, skinny, and seemingly harmless, be so dangerous and hurtful.

The primary reason why paper cuts are so painful lies in where they generally occur - fingers/fingertips. Our hands and fingers have many more nerve fibers per square millimeter than most of the rest of our body – this makes cuts in general which occur in hands and fingers more painful than in other parts of our body.

However, paper cuts seem to sore much more than other cuts; they can even be more painful than other cuts that occur on fingers. This is because the edges of paper are very dull and flexible compared to knives and sharp objects – this causes paper, when it cuts through your flesh, to do a lot more microscopic damage as it rips through your skin. You could imagine it as a very dull knife with which you are trying to cut a piece of steak with – you will have to saw the steak more harshly with a dull knife than with a sharp knife. When you finally cut a piece of meat with the dull knife, the cut you’ve made will be a lot more mutilated than a cut done with a sharp knife. When paper cuts through your flesh, a similar thing occurs, which can be greatly noticed at a microscopic view.

Also, the fact that paper cuts are very shallow affect the duration of the wound – this is due to the cut usually not creating, if any, much blood. This causes the wound itself to remain open since the platelets, which are found in the blood, are the ones that cause the wound to close by clotting on the opening. This leaves the nerve cells open to the air and various irritants, causing these wounds to remain open much longer than more significant cuts.

Hope you found it interesting learning about the reasons to why paper cuts are so painful J

Izzie

Wrinkly Fingers in Water

I went swimming this week; as I came out of the water and noticed my wrinkly fingers, I wondered why. Since I’ve been very young, I’ve always questioned myself this; however, I’ve never been determined enough to find out the answer. Well, not until this time – I came home with one sole goal in mind: figure out why fingers become wrinkly in water. This blog is proof that I did search for it J.

Here it goes –

We all have an oily substance that protects our skin – water washes away this oily substance. When this happens, a type of dead cells on your outer layer of skin will start to swell up the water. However, the inner layer of skin will remain the same, and so will the connections between the two layers. Therefore, when the outer skin swells up, the places where it is connected to the inner layer will remain closely bonded whilst the places which are not connected are free to swell.  

You may be wondering – why do skin cells on fingers and toes swell, and not skin cells all over the body? Cells do swell and absorb water all over the skin layer of our body, just that they aren’t as visible. The reason is that fingers and toes contain a thicker layer of both the inner and outer layers of skin – which, noticeably, cause the skin to swell up more due to more cells absorbing the water.

Hope you enjoyed my mini lesson of the week J -  

Izzie

DNA Altering

Greetings fellow bloggers! J

I found an article on a new discovery which I thought was very unusual, pointless and somewhat funny – therefore, I decided to tell you about it. It has to do with science and genetics – which is perfect since I’m currently learning genetics and DNA in science class. Here it goes –

It is 50 years since the discovery of DNA - a co-discoverer recently suggested that stupidity is a genetic disease, proposing the idea that it should be cured, saying that low intelligence is an inherited disorder and that it should be fixed. James Watson, the biologist who suggested these ideas, states: “If you are really stupid, I would call that a disease," he continues onto claiming, "The lower 10 per cent who really have difficulty, even in elementary school, what's the cause of it? A lot of people would like to say, 'Well, poverty, things like that.' It probably isn't. So I'd like to get rid of that, to help the lower 10 per cent."

Many people thought him crazy – especially when he suggested the following: "People say it would be terrible if we made all girls pretty. I think it would be great."

Thus, this idea isn’t taken very seriously. The ethics of changing the identity of a person, even if this person does carry the ‘disorder’ of being stupid, is into question by scholars around the world.

I think this man has serious problems – and I completely disagree with what he is planning of doing. I believe that we are all born with an identity which makes each one of us special and unique – if you are less good in math, so what? That’s who you are; and most probably, you are much better in something else. Each person has their own qualities which define them as a person – plus, I don’t believe actual ‘stupidity’ exists. If it does, than every one of us is stupid in something – I admit that I’m terrible at speeches and I don’t paint as well as I wish I would. But that is me – does that mean I’m artistically demented? I don’t think so… and I would never even consider of changing my DNA for this.   

This is it for today – J  

Izzie   

Reason for Rainbows

My home is located at the lowermost of a huge mountain – the past few weeks, the weather’s been rather gloomy, raining most of the time. However, this morning, when I woke up, I saw a big rainbow starting near my house, and ending somewhere hidden at the back of the mountain. I was fascinated by the colours; but, I had forgotten how rainbows were made – I recalled something about crystals and reflections, but I couldn’t remember the entire explanation. Hence, I decided to search for the answer, and write an entry explaining the process.

Rainbows are formed after rain has poured through the sky, and many water droplets remain in the air. Sunlight is able to enter the water droplet, which causes the light to bend. As light reflects off from the inside of the droplet, it exits back out to your eyes. As the light is bended inside the water droplets, it is broken down into seven colours. An entire rainbow is many water droplets and the sunlight working together to make seven wonderful colours in the following order – red, orange, yellow, green, light blue, dark blue, purple.

Picture from climate.met.psu.edu

There are two types of rainbows: primary rainbows and secondary rainbows. Primary rainbows are the most common – they are the rainbows you usually see in the sky after it rains. A secondary rainbow is the second, fainter, and higher up rainbow you sometimes see; they are caused due to the light being reflected twice within a raindrop. These rainbows are very rare.

To finish off – here is a youtube link of a man finding a double rainbow and crying over the intensity of it. The video is hilarious – especially considering that this was not a joke, the man did cry.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQSNhk5ICTI

Hope you enjoyed this mini lesson on rainbows! J

Izzie 

Unusual Facts About Animals

Greetings fellow bloggers!

These past few days I’ve realized that it’s been a LONG time since I’ve last gone to the zoo. I can’t even remember when was the last time I’ve seen elephants, giraffes, monkeys, hippopotamus, (and the list goes on and on). I’ve almost forgotten how they look in real life – I still remember their general shape and look, I’ve just forgotten little details which make each animal special and unique, such as their height, the feel of their skin, and all these minor but meaningful features. I remember how much I loved going to see these animals, and how curious I used to become, carefully observing every movement the strange creatures in front of me made. In honor of these great memories, I decided to write an entry regarding unusual facts about different kinds of animals.

While searching for facts, I reached a website with the following url: http://www.talladam.com. The creator of this site is called Adam Whitehead; he is a wonderful artist/illustrator who creates pictures which are based on facts regarding many themes. From his large collection, I’ve chosen a few of my favorites images (about animals) which I will add to this blog post. However, the credit is all his.

Penguins are the only birds that can 

                                SWIM 

                                      but can't 

                                              FLY 

Cows produce more milk when

                                    LISTENING 

                                      to 

                                              MUSIC

Elephants are the ONLY mammals that 

          cannot 

                 JuMp

A duck's quack doesn't

                       echo

                           (echo)

                                (echo)

                                     (echo) 

                                           ...

The ONLY animal that can get a suntan is the....... PIG

Sheep can 

         RECOGNIZE

                   other sheep from 

                             PHOTOS             

There you have it - the funnest and most unknown info about animals. 

Hope you enjoyed! :) 

Izzie

Useless Products to Promote - Slippers

Hello fellow bloggers!

While watching commercials on TV, I’ve realized that there are SO many useless products out there which people desperately try to promote. Sometimes I wonder who would even buy them. Some are so pointless, and seem to be so plainly stupid. There’s where the idea for this entry surged up. This entry will be about one of the products that annoy me the most – tacky and pointless slippers.

Cockroach squatting slippers – what a ridiculous product! Who would walk around in slippers which have actual handles in case one sees a cockroach? If you notice on the small picture on the top right corner, there actually is a version of these slippers with a handle which looks awfully long. Wouldn’t people fall over by hitting a table or something when walking around? I find it extremely uncomfortable and disturbing, and I also believe that they could’ve done a better job in choosing a better material or nicer colors –

 hemmy.net

Ok so – USB heated slippers. Firstly, by what I read on the product description at myownspunk.com , the wire is extremely short. The slippers are also stuck together as one. I imagine it would be incredibly hard to move with these on – you would have a hard time plunging for something around the computer. Plus, it takes two USB slots (one for every slipper) which means you would be left with barely any left. You wouldn’t be able to move around with these slippers.  

myownspunk.com

Magnetic slippers – this I find super annoying since when you walk, your slippers might come together and cause you to fall. I find it extremely useless – I’m not that sure for what precisely these slippers could be used, but inventorspot.com states that magnets are placed so that when you put them away in your closet, they look straight. I don’t know what is the point of having slippers which look good on your closet? Aren’t slippers made for you to walk and feel comfortable in? I think this invention is useless because it forgot the point of slippers – plus, I believe it is very ugly.

Inventorspot.com

Someone extremely lazy must’ve invented these slippers – just look at them! Dust mop slippers – pick up dirt and dust as you are walking around. Their slogan is Dust While You Walk – I don’t know why but they simply don’t convince me – apart from the awful presentation, I don’t think it must work that well.

socialmarketplace.com.edu

Lighted slippers – who knows, maybe it will save you from falling when you need a glass of water in the middle of the night. What concerns me is the height of the light – it seems to be extremely low to actually illuminate the way. And I also don’t think the light is very potent. It also seems as if the slippers are very uncomfortable seeing that they have a block of plastic underneath so that the light can be stored there. 

damncoolpics.blogspot.com

These are it for today – useless and rather failed slipper inventions. Hope you enjoyed!

Izzie