I want a raft made of plastic bottles!

...not to mention that sometimes I get seasick. Two men constructed a raft out of 15,000 plastic bottles and made a cabin out of the fuselage of an airplane. They did it as part of the Algalita Marine Research Foundation project called JUNK to raise the awareness of debris and pollution in the ocean. In particular they wanted to emphasize how plastic including plastic bottles, which are usually a one time use, have added to a dramatic amount in the ocean. The men sailed from the shore of California across the Pacific to Hawaii. They had estimated that it would take about 6 weeks and took a limited amount of foods. However in the first 2 weeks they had difficultly in taking off and had to land to repair some of the bottles that got filled with water. In total it took 3 months as they survived off of fish and peanut butter. Again they emphasized how plastic bottles should be banned and covered the idea that recycle is one thing but prevention of making more waste is better.

Disturbia

Its fun listening to that song by Rihanna. Well speaking of stuff that is weird...scientists in Calinfornia observed the reactions flies had when a fly swatter came at them. They believe that the flies have some time of "quick-fire" instinct in which allow them to form an "escape plan" when they identify the swatter. Depending on the position they are physically in when the swatter is aimed at them they can identify a place they will escape to reposition themselves for take-off. So it seems that the fly can outsmart us. I just thought they were small and fast to move before we actually tried to hit our target. However to be more successful in hitting the fly just aim at the predicted direction the fly will move to once they see the fly. Thats right its easier to get them in the air than when they are stationary.

End of the week...

As the school week comes to an end we prepare for labor day week! However I still have to work! I will just be spending some of that time to review stuff for next week. Anyways I was reading an article about how scientists were able to change the function of one cell well into another cell with a different function. It changed pancreatic cells into ones that secrete insulin. This would then be extremely helpful in preventing or helping curing diabetes. The test was used on living mice who are the using testing subjects. Now the next step would be to lengthen the time studying to see the after effects. This always scares me...not to loose hope...but I would just want to be sure that it would really be helping to just temporarily fixing the problem but in then end the aftermath would be worse. Remember Vioxx and Phen-Phen not to forget Thalidomide...ahh...but there has been so many other medicines that helped people survive one more day...

whats your dream home?

Today I visited Proyecto Azteca in San Juan, TX. This is a non-profit organization that helps low income familes in the Valley build a home and finance it. It is tied in with LUPE La Union Del Pueblo Entero started by Cesar Chavez and the Union of Farm Workers. I was very excited that a group of residents here on campus will be able to participate in helping some families do work on their homes. Usually these families live in colonias and don't have proper water and electricity running through their homes.

another day

Classes were better today..we reviewed info for bio writing. We spoke about what an rss feed was. We also spoke about how we are all idiots! or at least that we aren't perfect and can look pretty stupid sometimes so we don't have to feel pretty bad about ourselves. Another issue we discussed was how scientists can be poor writers. Maybe its because their heads are so full of knowledge that its hard to express themselves through emotions and then through writing. A lot of times when I read peer reviewed articles the abstract is easy to understand (which I supppose is part of the goal in writing an abstract). However once you go further into the article information it is not explained into detail as much because the sentence stated is usually referred and cited to another resource with the background information. It becomes even more difficult when they talk about the certain tests and procedures conducted of which you have never heard of and its not mentioned (in detail) the relevance it has on the results. Justing know what the test looks for when conducted and other pertinant information helps out in knowing why the results are even more inportnant! Oh well...that is enough thinking for today...hopefully to some extent my thoughts were written out clearly. ciao!

First of the Day....

The beginning of this week seemed to last forever. Although several classes were canceled and cut short I am ready for a break! Working the late shift tonight so it seemed worthy of my time to write something....read an article earlier about studies conducted by CNN showed that organic foods were not more nutricious than non-organic foods. However you could compare the number of toxins or nonnutrional info and say that organic foods would be "safer" than non-organic foods. Either way I love eating the organic cheetos-like puffs they taste delicious!