blog 13

1. I am studying/trying to learn about Stem Cell research
2. I am studying/trying to learn about stem cell research because I want to find out how we could use stem cells to treat diseases and cure conditions. Right now stem cell reaserch is in its infancy but It could possibly be the cure for many potential diseases.
3. I am doing this in order to find out if stem cell reaserch/treatment is the best possible treatment and cure for Parkinson's disease.

Blog 12 Revision

Original:

There are many potential health bennifits to embryonic stem cell reaserch. One example of this is Parkinson’s disease. Parkinson’s is a nervous system disorder that leads to: tremors, difficulty walking, and a major decrease in coordination. It is caused by the disintegration of nervous tissue in the brain leading to decreased overall function of the brain. (ncbi) Parkinson’s destroys the nerves in your brain that produce dopamine which helps you send signals between different parts of the brain. With these parts of the brain gone, cretin parts cannot send messages to the other parts causing you to lose control of your muscles.(ncbi) However since embryonic stem cells are indeterminate, if they are introduced to the damaged part of the brain, they could possibly regenerate the lost brain tissues and restore the normal functioning of the individual. This procedure however has not been sufficiently tested because of the small amount of stem cells available and the harsh restrictions on research, and lack of funding in many states. The government only very recently allocated funds to help aid in stem cell research but the money only goes to places that do research on adult stem cells which are not as effective as embryonic stem cells because they are already somewhat specialized and cannot produce the same amount of tissues. They could also possibly produce a cure for paralysis. When someone has a spinal cord injury that causes them to be paralyzed the damage to the spine does not heal on its own because nerves take an almost indefinite time to heal on their own. However if we introduce embryonic stem cells the damaged area then we could grow new nerves, reconnecting the broken spinal cord and restoring movement to the paralyzed part of the body. (ncbi)

Revised :

There are many potential health benefits to embryonic stem cell research. One example of this is Parkinson’s disease. Parkinson’s is a nervous system disorder that leads to: tremors, difficulty walking, and a major decrease in coordination. It is caused by the disintegration of nervous tissue in the brain, leading to decreased overall function of the brain (ncbi). Parkinson’s destroys the nerves in your brain that produce dopamine, which helps you send signals between different parts of the brain. With these parts of the brain gone, cretin parts cannot send messages to other parts of the brain, causing you to lose control of your muscles (ncbi). However, since embryonic stem cells are indeterminate, if they are introduced to the damaged part of the brain they could possibly regenerate the lost brain tissues, and restore the normal functions of the individual. However, this procedure has not been sufficiently tested because of the small amount of stem cells available, the harsh restrictions on research, and lack of funding in many states.

Stem Cell Research

The article Stem Cell research does too much good to be evil by Janet Rowley is an opinion article in the U.S News. She is arguing for increased funding and ability to do research on embryonic stem cells. Reaserches are currently able to use Pluripotent stem cells for research. This however is not as effective as embryonic stem cells because they can only produce a few types of tissues. However if we can derive these cells from patients with illnesses such as muscular dystrophy, Parkinson's, and juvenile diabetes, they could be used for research to try and better understand these conditions. Embryonic stem cells however, have the most potential for curing these currently un-curable conditions. Rowley is very in favor of stem cell research and supports it whole heatedly. she uses many examples to support her point. She states that there are currently many fertilized embryos at fertility clinics that cant be used and will be simply thrown away. Why couldn't we use those embryos to do some good, they are still perfectly suitable for research and will serve a much greater purpose that way than being thrown out. She also uses the example about how there are strict restrictions in the industry itself to make sure that everything is done ethically and correctly, and this would continue to happen with the new research. I agree with her. I believe that we should increase our stem cell research and use stem cells from aborted fetuses and the embryos from fertility clinics to do some good. Just discarding them doesn't do anyone any good and we have a real chance to make a difference to cure some of these conditions.

The author sets up the paper very well. The thesis and stance of the paper is clearly stated in the introduction and I did not feel like she was contradicting her self at any point in this paper. She lays out her main points very well and I did not feel lost at any point in the paper. She gives the reader suficant background information to understand the article and very clearly states her points. I thought this was a very good article. I like d how the author made very good points and she never wavered on the point she was trying to make. She also mixed her ethos in very well with her opinions. She uses the example of the value of human life and refutes it because the stem cells that would be used to do this research would come from embryos that will be discarded and would die anyway. It is stuff like that that I want to include in my paper. I want to find a good mix of ethos and facts. I also want to make sure that I am always supporting my point even when bringing up opposing views. This was a very good piece and I hope to use some of it in my paper.

Blog entry 10

Powell, Corey. "Black Cloud." New York Times 26 June 2006: F7. ProQuest Historical Newspapers. Web. 28 Oct. 2011.

The Article Black cloud is about the dangers of coal mining, and the dangers of burning coal. It gives examples of coal mine accidents, such as an accident that happened in Kentucky that killed five miners. He goes on to give similar examples of other mine accidents and tells about how the fines that are put on mines for these types of accidents are very low. He gives an example of a mine accident where a mine flooded and only nine of the workers survived, the company was only fined 14,000 dollars and received about 500,000 dollars from the state to help rescue the miners that were trapped inside. He also goes on to talk about Coals impact on the environment such as global warming and pollution. He advocates for awareness and a shift away from coal to other types of power such as wind and solar. I agree with him that coal can be very dangerous but I still think it is a huge part of our economy and something that we can't transition away from in the near future. Coal mining is a huge job creator and provides much of our nations energy. I think that we need to make the process safer for the miners but we can not transition away from coal right away. Rimer, Sara.

"College Panel Urges Shift Away From SATs." New York Times 22 Sept. 2008: A14. ProQuest Historical Newspapers. Web. 28 Oct. 2011.

The article College Panel Urges Shift Away From SATs talks about how a panel of college admissions officers led by William Fitzsimmons, the dean of admissions and financial aid ad Harvard, are advocating for college to stop relying so heavily on ACT, and SAT scores of high school students. They say that the current tests show difference in scores based on social class, race, and the level of education achieved by someones parents. They also say that students are spending a large amount of time trying to "Game the SATs" and this is causing disparities in the scores. They advise focusing on the grades of a student an the courses they are taking in high school to determine entrance into a university. I however disagree with this view. I think that the standardized test is a good measure of a students ability. If they base there admissions solely on grades then there could be some major differences that are not accounted for. First of all how could they account for individual teachers. Someone could have a much easier teacher than someone else in the same class, the student in the harder class would actually learn more and be more and be more prepared for college than the student in an easy class but their grades would not reflect that. Also the standardized test is fair, it is the same test for every person and does not deviate in difficulty

Douthat, Ross. "Abortion Politics Didn't Doom the G.O.P." New York Times 7 Dec. 2008: WK10. Web. 28 Oct. 2011.

The article Abortion Politics Didn't Doom the G.O.P. talks about how may people view the republicans loss as having to do with abortion when that is actually not the case. Douthat says that the pro-lifers are actually more uncompromising than you might think. He states that our perception might be mislead by the media because they only show the extreme of an issue, they show people protesting outside an abortion clinic when that is only a very small percentage of pro-life supporters and a very small minority of them. He gives examples of how the pro life campaign is starting to trend towards changing peoples views on abortion rather than changing the laws. He also says how they are willing to compromise and are adapting the pro life movement to the 21st century. I believe that abortion should only be used in the case of rape. If it was not your choice to have sex then you should not have to go through the challenges and pains of a pregnancy, but if it was your choice to have sex you should be prepared to deal with the consequences of your actions, whatever they may be.

A toothbrush is something that we all have, but have you ever stopped to compare them. The Oral-B 3D White Advanced Vivid Toothbrush looks like a toothbrush that you could take to space. It had a very large handle with various grips for your fingers and thumbs. the handle looks big and sturdy and has many things used to grip the brush so it wont fall out of your hands when you brush your teeth. It has a slender neck so it can fit easily in between your teeth so that you can get the whole way to the back of your mouth. the last part of this brush is the bristles. The bristles of this brush are grouped into many cylinders on the brush so that they can easily fit in between your teeth and clean your gums. Overall this brush is very ascetically pleasing it has a nice color scheme, good lines, and a colorful appealing head with colored bristles. It is in the higher end of non electric toothbrushes and is made by crest so It is a name everyone knows. The name suggests that that it is a very good toothbrush they use words such as vivid and and advanced to describe their space age product.

The second toothbrush I will be looking at will be the pre-pasted TB-43 with Dentifrice by Venture six. I'm sure that you can see that this toothbrush looks very different than the Oral-B brush. this brush is a solid color with no added grip. It does however have raised pieces of plastic where the thumb goes for added grip. these brushes are much more colorful however and that serves its purpose because these brushes were built for children. Both brushes have a slender neck and a head that contains the bristles but the bristles of the two brushes are very different. The bristles of the TB-43 are very standard compared to the oral b brush. How ever they are pre-pasted. which means that all you need to do it put water on them and brush. The top bristles are colored to make them more appealing to children. These brushes are also disposable so they do not need to be as nice or as long lasting as the oral b brush that can be used for a long time before it has to be replaced. these brushes are also much cheaper than the oral b brush which costs three dollars while the pre-paste brush costs only 18 cents each. Both of these brushes serve the same purpose and are interchangeable but they are very different especially in their design and appearance.

For my evaluation I would like to evaluate the movie "The Soloist." This is a drama that is set in los Angeles in the late 1990's about a down on his luck journalist who finds an unlikely story in a homeless man who is an extremely talented Musician. The movie starts out with the journalist just trying to write a story but it develops into much more than that The movie follows them through their trying friendship and gives us insight not only into the soloist (Nathaniel Ayers) but also into the journalist (Steve Lopez) This movies is about much more than journalism or music. It is about tragedy and friendship and finding hope in something that looks hopeless. This movie is acutely based on a true story and in my opinion is a drama. This film is worthy of evaluation because it can show us a lot about ourselves and what is possible if we try and make a difference. It also shows us how big of a difference one person can make in the life of another. I think that this movie is classified as a drama. It deals with the development of the characters and the issues that they are facing, It lets those things shape the story and move the plot forward. Other items I would compare it too would be movies like "Pay It Forward", and "The Shawshank Redemption." These movies are in the same category as the soloist and display many of the similar traits that make them all dramas. There are many criteria used to evaluate dramas but the ones I will use are:

• Well developed and compelling characters,
• a climactic emotional story,
• a good plot,
• the believe ability of the story,
• how well made the actual movie is.

The characters need to be well developed because in a drama the story is focused around the characters and what they are like and if you cant connect with them or feel for them the movie loses its power. There needs to be a climactic and emotional story because if there is no emotion or conflict the movie will not be classified as a drama. You need to feel something when watching a drama you need to care about the characters and how everything will turn out or it is not worth watching. The plot also needs to be good because the events that make up the story need to be relevant and fit together very well or the movie does not make sense. If the movie is not believable then you will not feel attached to the characters or find the movie very interesting in the terms of a drama. It also needs to be will made. A movie can have all of the four things mentioned above but if it is not made or put together well theatricality then the movie will not be any good. In my opinion if a drama has all five criteria listed above then it fits the genera and is very well done.

Redesign

Overall my blog is not very appealing. It is fairly easy to read because of the simple color scheme but sometimes the text gets highlighted and I can’t read the quotes. At times the white text can be distracting and difficult to read. There is also a lot of white space that can distract readers from the text. The blog is not inappropriate but its design does not focus on the English class or academics it focus on Frisbee which does not make scene with the props of the blog. If I was writing about sports or Frisbee it would make sense but it does not work very well with the purpose of the blog.

I think that it does represent me well as a student and as a writer. It is very simple and not flashy. In my writing I try to be descriptive but it is difficult for me to make long showy descriptions and have descriptive flowery writing. I think that the theme represents me well as a person also. It is a Frisbee player and since I play Frisbee I think it represents me well. It is not very focused though and the design is a little confusing. I only uploaded one picture and it looped it and copied it down the page. It was very distracting and took away from the overall look of the blog. It also showed all the posts on the main page which made it very long and hard to navigate. I also did not title my posts so it was hard to figure out what they were about.

To improve my blog the first thing I tried to do was making it more professional. I started with the theme. I changed my theme from plain black and white with a distracting picture behind it. I used a picture template from the blogger website and put my pictures on the side rather than the background. I also chose new pictures and tried to change the theme of my blog and make it more visually appealing. I used a picture of hiking and then one of the Arizona desert. They are related and work very well with the background which is a blurry mountain scene. It looks really cool and makes the blog look more professional and represents me more as a writer and student because it is still simple but it is more polished and descriptive. Another thing I did was added a news feed at the top this was inspired by the Yahoo home page which shows you news and alerts on the homepage. I also fixed all of my blog posts. They did not have titles and all of them were on the home page which made them very confusing. I gave all the blogs titles and limited it to only the most recent blog on the main page which makes it much less confusing. Another blog that inspired my layout was a blog called “The Good, the Bad, and the Outdoors the layout was very simple but it was very appealing and easy to follow and I tried to incorporate that into my blog.

Budget Cuts

1) Its late and the only light on in the small one story ranch house with its cracking paint and sagging porch is the kitchen. A Husband and wife sit across the round wood table that was made a long time ago and needs to get replaced. There are two calculators sitting in front of each of them and papers and receipts scatted all over the table and a trash can filled with crumpled paper and rejected ideas. The looks on their faces are worried, and their brows are creased in concentration. They have been there all night and they will probably be there a lot longer with the amount of paper left on the table. They talk quiet almost in a wisper. They do not want to wake their eight year old son up who is sleeping in the next room.

"What are we going to do" the wife says to the husband

" I don't know, it will all be ok"

" I'm so sorry"

" Its not your fault, there's nothing you could have done"

This is the reality for many Penn state employ's layd off due to the recent budget cuts.

2) " Every one on campus is very careful on extraneous spending now, we are trying to be very careful with our money" -Office worker West wing

"I disapprove of the cut, I don't think that education is a good place to be taking money from" -office worker west wing

"They should cut the budgets for clubs that not a lot of people are interested in" -Freshman east halls

3) PSU has seen a $68 million decrease in state funding (Megan Rogers Collegian Staff Writer)

After the budget cuts were passed PSU raised tuition 4.9 percent for in state students and 3.5 percent for out of state students (July 15 2011, The Associated Press)

The budget cut could have been far worse. it was brought down to 19 percent from 52 percent. (July 15 2011, The Associated Press)

Penn State got rid of the Counseling Psychology Doctoral program because of budget cuts (Penn state college of education)

4) While researching I came across a very interesting opinion article It asked Penn state students how they think that Penn state should cover the proposed budget cuts. This was very interesting and I plan on asking similar questions to faculty and staff and a few students. I think it should be investigated more because it is an interesting side of the issue to see how people think it should be fixed.

I also want to go into more detail about if the people feel that the budget cuts were necessary and if they approve or disapprove of them. I think that would add an interesting view to my paper.

Number 1 party school

The issue of the piece is how being a number one party school effects the people Living and working in State College. There are a few reasons they want to investigate the issues. Gram Spanier said that the number one issue at Penn State is alcohol, not money or academics. Another issue is that the residence of state college are being affected by the Drunkenness of Penn State students. In the intro of the piece They sit on the porch of Sarah Koenig. In only thirty five they see people waking down the street, people littering in her neighbors yard, pulling out a street sign, and multiple people peeing in her yard. I think that the intended audience is middle aged people and possibly Penn State alumni. This was a talk show radio broadcast. The only people I know who listen to talk radio are adults and I don't think the message that they are putting out would be very effective on current Penn State students, most of which like the number one ranking and like the drinking. Ira Glass used a lot of evidence and interviewed many people on all sides of the issue. He interviewed a twenty one year old who was tailgating in a parking garage because Penn State canceled tailgating that weekend because of a huge snowstorm. He says that the drinking at tailgates is a big part of Penn state drinking. Families drink together and when everyone around you is drinking it makes it feel like its ok even if you are not twenty one. He also interviewed an alumni who told them that drinking is just part of the culture and that is part of the reason they sell 110,000 football tickets every Saturday. They also interviewed a freshman outside of east halls and and road the "drunk bus." They said that they were on their second loop because they missed their stop and that they were having a great time. They also interviewed local businesses and most of them are doing great because they gear their businesses to college students. Mclanahans has been very successful but they are still dependent on the university and on if the football wins that weekend. They also interviewed Officer Haines. He is a police officer who has been working in state college for years and he says that most of the crime in State College is due to drunkenness and that the crime is also dependent on how the football team does. The conclusion is that Penn State needs to do something about the drinking and atmosphere of Penn State. They included many interviews of various different people in all aspects of State College life they also used police and hospital reports. They used stories like in the beginning when they sat on the porch and watched the drunk people do what they do. they also used stories from the police and bar owners. Overall I enjoyed the report. It gave a very balanced look on the issue and got points of view from all over state college. I think it ran a little long though and they could of done without some of the lengthy explanations and examples

Inspired

The book Bird By Bird taught me a lot about writing. one thing that particularly inspired me and changed the way that I wrote was the examples she used for writing in detail. Back in high school I was never very good at being descriptive in my writing. It was hard for me to put what I was seeing or a scene on paper and make it feel right. When Anne Lamott talked about looking through a one inch picture frame and describing everything you can see and then moving the frame until you have the whole scene really helped me. I used it in my narrative and it worked very well for me. I could describe the scenes and get everything I wanted down on paper. The part about school lunches helped me with description. The way she could describe school lunches and make it flow so well it was a very good frame work for me writing my narrative, and setting scenes. I also like the part of the story from pages 154-157; she tells a story about a young writer who went to a writing conference and had his work evaluated by Lamott and others in a small group. One women really tore into him and Lamott tried to give him advice and said to just write it again and see where he got from there. This helped me because a lot of times when I write I think that my peice is bad and I just want to throw it away and start over but this helped me just reevaluate my work and work through it instead of scraping it and starting over. I really liked the poem at the end of the section it went

"Above me, wind does its best

to blow leaves off

the aspen tree a month too soon.

No use wind. All you succeed

in doing is making music, the noise

of failure growing beautiful"

I like this poem a lot it helped me realize the more I work at something the better that the end product will be and the failing and shitty first drafts are just a part of the process and they help me make a good final product.

The other part that helped me was the chapter"Someone to Read Your Drafts." I never used to show my writing to anyone or have anyone edit it for two reasons: I thought it was bad, and I didn't want people to see what I wrote. but after reading "Bird by Bird" I realized that other people are a very useful tool for improving my writing and seeing how my paper can improve. It also brings up things I didn't think of on my own. When we were doing the peer reviewing it showed me interesting places to use dialogue and a place to cut out extra things that were confusing and took away from the point of the story. Bird by bird really helped me with being descriptive and editing my work. It was a very good book that I will reference in the future when I need some writing advice.

Meltdown

In the article "Meltdown" by Wells Tower He is telling us the story about the trip he took with his father and brother to Iceland and Greenland. He is also telling about a personal story and a promise him and his father made to each other that for every year that he was still alive and fighting cancer they would take a trip. His father ended up beating his cancer and they take a trip together every year. There are many sources of tension in this story. It starts out with the tension of Wells wanting to leave the bar that they were in because he was concerned for his father who had a bone marrow transplant just two months before. The tension quickly shifts in the next paragraph when wells takes us back eight years and tells us about his fathers cancer and how the doctors only gave him three months to live. This is when he introduces the context of the story. When the doctors gave his father only three month to live they made a pact that every twelve months that his father was still alive they would take a trip to celebrate. There is also tension between Wells and his brother. Wells describes their not to fond childhood to set the stage for how the first part of the trip would go. The tension started when Wells brother did not get to go to the breakfast he wanted because Wells and his father had already had the trip all planned out. He started by "passive resistance" as Wells called it by staying in the car everywhere they stopped to do something or explore. The tension culminated in a fist fight between the two sons that embarrassed their father. After the fight they were back to normal and they all visited the sites together. The story ends with Wells and his father in the same bar that they started in having a good time and dancing with two local women. They finally found some peace in their stresses trip. This article was written for outdoor magazine so the intended audience is hikers and travelers. this is supported by the end of the article where Wells describes their exact route through the two countries and the expected amounts of money needed for flights and lodging throughout the journey. This is relevant because it serves as both a travel journal and also a story that can relate to everyone, a story about overcoming obstacles and making the best out of situations that are less than ideal. I really liked how in his story how he started at the end and then went back in time and made his way to a final conclusion which was right where he started. I hope to use this in my narrative. His transitions were also very good he gave breaks in between time changes to give the reader time to catch their breath before the next scene, he also makes it very clear what time period he is in like when he said in his first transition "eight and a half years ago..."

School Lunches

I can still remember the first day of sixth grade, walking down the white and brown checkered hallway that had the little black spots in the tile that the janitors could never get off no matter how many times they cleaned the cold tile floor. I walked slow almost too slow as I was passed by almost everyone in my lunch. I was going so slow because I had been dreading this moment for weeks ever since every one of my friends that I talked to before school started confirmed my greatest fear, not one of my friends were in my lunch. There were three different lunch periods and I was stunned that they had all been placed in second or third lunch. I played this moment over in my head at least a thousand times since I had got to school. I would walk into the lunch line get my slice of cheese pizza blue carton of two percent milk with the word search on the side and my bag of carrots and celery with the red twisty tie just like the ones we used at home to keep the bread from going bad. I would get my lunch give the lunch lady my check for thirty dollars and she would look at me and say have a good day but she wouldn't mean it because I was not going to have a good day I was going to take my maroon tray with the grey lion on it and wander the cafeteria until I found the one empty table in the corner and I would sit down and look out at everyone eating lunch with their friends from elementary school and I would eat alone and then sit and watch everyone enjoy the best period of the day while I was miserable. Walking through the cafeteria after getting my lunch was the worst feeling I had ever experienced I was walking so slow deliberately putting my feet in the middle of each tile and I was just hoping the other kids weren't looking at me but I was sure that they were. It felt like there was a whole colony of butterflies in my stomach, and not just little ones those big ones I used to see on the discovery channel covering entire trees in Mexico. I got halfway through the cafeteria when I heard the greatest five words of my life, "are you gunna sit down or what." I can still remember exactly how those words sounded, they sounded light and airy like a leaf floating past your face in a cool breeze. I looked and wondered who would ever want to ask me to sit with them and then the butterflies got worse because to my right was the cutest girl I had ever seen, she had light brown hair and beautiful brown eyes that I can still see today. We ate our lunch and talked all period and it turned out to be one of the best lunches I ever had. She told me I was funny and I said that I liked her eyes and I asked her to eat lunch with me tomorrow. That two seconds before she answered seemed like an eternity but I was so relieved when she said yes that the butterflies in my stomach all but went away. we ate lunch with each other for the rest of the year and we made other friends but no matter where we sat or who we sat with we always ate together. She turned out to be one of my best friends all throughout middle and high school, and to this day I still love school lunches.

Me as a writer

In the past I have not been a particularly good writer. I believe that my weaknesses are Spelling and grammar, and style. One major problem I have is writing papers almost like they are lists they do not flow very well and sometimes sound choppy and disconnected. Also I am very bad at spelling and grammar and that has hurt me in the past. These are the two things that I want to most improve in this semester. I feel like the spelling and grammar will come with practice as I write and revise more papers and work more on English in general. I was never particularly good at English in high school so I did not put as much time into it as I should have. one of the things that inspires me to be a better writer is not necessarily a book or song it is a quote it goes "To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift" This is a quote from the runner Steve Prefontaine. I think the reason I like it so much is because it is so simple it is not long or flashy but it speaks volumes the simplicity and the clarity of his words speak to me and I feel like that quote has impacted my writing a lot. I think that two good writing habits that I have is that I write very clearly and concisely and the fact that since I am so bad at grammar and spelling I do a lot of editing and improving on my rough draft before I turn it in. This helps me correct more than my grammatical errors it also helps me improve on the content and style which still needs a lot more work. My clear and concise writing also helps me to keep from rambling and keeps a liner progression to my writing. I feel that this course will help me with my spelling and grammar just by the papers and reading and it will also help me with style because of the papers and reading "bird by bird." another piece of writing that has influenced me was the "Dissoi Logoi," It is a text that no one knows who wrote it or exactly when it was written. It is an incredibly interesting piece of writing and the style is very interesting. It was originaly written in Greek so the style is very classical and different from what we read today. It also flows very well and is easy to read despite some of the things that get lost in translations or changed so they do not sound the same. I hope to become a better writer so my pieces can flow like that text does. and become easier to read. I am looking forward to this class and becoming a better writer and a better reader. I started bird by bird and it is very interesting so far and I am excited to analyze and read that. I am very excited to take this course it seems very interesting and I need to become a better writer.