Pyrothechnics

Pyrotechnicians make fireworks and have very exiting jobs. Listen for more.http://omegapride.podOmatic.com/entry/2009-12-11T11_24_30-08_00

Is Doomsday Coming? Perhaps, but Not in 2012.

Will the world end. Eventually. However, this will not happen in 2012. Many calenders might end but that doesn't mean anything. Even scientist from N.A.S.A. agree that nothing will happen. However, everyone still has a little bit of fear inside of them. When the whole intergalactic alignment thing happens, it is nothing special. You see, every December this happens. Also, people say that the Mayans did not really care about this date very much. They just happened to end their calender. Also, nothing else will happen. No flying planets or sun rays. So, it does not look like any dooms-day prophesies will happen any time soon!http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/17/science/17essay.html?ref=science

Smart Fish

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/20/science/20creature.html?pagewanted=2&ref=science

When you think about fish, you usually think about a couple of animals with fins in a bowl. However, fish are a lot smarter than you think. This is displayed in the article that I read this week. You see, in fishbowls, most fish are actually able to identify what to do when they want food and how to choose friend from enemy. How exiting!

First of all, the study of these fish was done by scientist. The goal was to see how fish adapted based on where they came from. The fishes that did better where the one that came from coral reefs. This is a very important discovery!

From this information I have learned many interesting facts. First I learned that fish were smart and reacted to things like a dog. Also I learned that coral reef fish are smarter that regular fish. Now I might want to even buy a fish!

Robots, Decisions, and Ethics

This is a response to an article on:

http://www.livescience.com/technology/090916-moral-robot-ethics.html

Robots are said to be the future. They are also said to be the next big thing. However, in the article "Can Robots Make Ethical Decisions?" it seems like without overcoming one problem the future will not be like the way it is said to be. You see, if robots can't make the right ethical decisions, what will be the point of having them around? This is a question that is asked in many movies and asked by many modern philosophers.

The point is that people are making robots to do things for them. However, the robots will only do what they are programed to do. They really are not smart at all because they can not make decisions of its own. Since, making ethical decisions is all based on making the right decisions of your own, than robots will not be able to cooperate and perhaps save lives. If robots can't do that than we might have a huge problem. Personally, I think that robots should only be programmed for war and life saving operations. War for the loss of human casualties and life saving operations because the robots should only have to follow one command:

save anyone that you can find.

Robots are cool and all. But are they really that great? If you ask me "I think that if humans are smart enough to invent robots, shouldn't they be smart enough to invent the answers to most problems?"

October Sky

In the movie October Sky, Science is shown in many ways with the rockets. For example, when the boys build the rockets they learn they must use gasoline. This is scientific because they have to find a flammable liquid for a rocket. Also they have to inquire math in their solution for building a rocket. The people in the movie October Sky also use Character Education traits one of these traits is cooperation. They use cooperation when they work together to build the rockets and find out that they did not start the wildfire. All and all, the movie October Sky is very good and I recommend that you watch it.

Response

My response was on a lot of stuff 08's blog. The article that they did was on down syndrome. Down syndrome is a genetic disorder that affects a baby. The affect is not having good learning skills and being mentally challanged. See, when a baby is born with down syndrome it means that there is an extra copy of the chromozone 21. Also the chances of surviving are not very high when a baby with down syndrome is born. There is only a 75% chance of a baby surviving and if it survives there is a 85% chance that it will live to age one and a 50% chance that it will live to age 50 or above. Also, down syndrome mainly happens if a women in their forties or higher gets pregnant. All and all, down syndrome can be a devestating genetic disorder that usually involves death. I think that people with down syndrome should not be treated badly because of learning defects. This was fromhttp://alotofstuff08.blogspot.com/.

Duchene Muscular Dystrophy

Duchene Muscular Dystrophy is a genetic disorder that affects the way that people move and use their motor skills. (Motor skills are movements like jumping.) Discovered in 1861, this genetic disorder only affects males and causes death anywhere from males early teens to mid 30's. Also, there are no known cures for this genetic disorder, but recent stem cell research is showing that a cure may be possible. Symptoms for Duchene Muscular Dystrophy are awkward manners of walking, frequent falls, difficulty with motor skills, fatigue, and muscle weakness. Even though most people have never heard of it, Duchene Muscular Dystrophy actually affects 1/3500 people. Lastly, at the molecular level, the gene is absent and the stem cell is missing. Hopefully, with stem cell research scientist can find a cure to this genetic mutation and stop it from affecting anyone else. I feel bad about this genetic disorder because it might take away the fun of playing sports and people die from it.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duchenne_Muscular_Dystrophy