7fah: My entries

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Blog #8

I put in how much my family drives, how much we recycle, electric usage, gas usage, and fuel bills and came up with a whopping number of – 49,710 pounds - only over 8210 from average.

Our biggest emitter is our transportation with my dad going back and forth to Omaha three days a week for his job. He works from home two days to cut down on emissions and cost. The average mileage for my dad’s car is about 360 miles a week. My mom works at the middle school so that is close.

We do have an older house but we are working to update it with new insulation and windows. Most of these improvements are to cut heating and cooling cost. My parents keep the thermostat turned way down in the winter – my mom likes it cool – 55 degrees at night. The thermostat is one of those programmable kind so the thermostat adjusts during the day when everyone is at work and school. We recycle newspapers, glass, plastic, cans, and clothes. My mother refuses to buy those florescent light bulbs though because she hates the quality of light they let off.

Current mood:

Bored

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Global Warming an Urban Myth?

Inhofe’s article was different from the usual stuff I hear about global warming. Usually all I hear is global warming….RUN….WE’RE DOOMED….our coasts are going to flood! So it was nice to hear a contradicting view. Inhofe talks about the ‘hockey stick’ and how it’s been refuted. The article talks about scientist who are skeptical and how it’s not a consensus. It talks about how Kyoto is not worth it because it damages the economy and only creates a very small drop in temperature. It talks about how the media has flip-flopped on whether we are experiencing global warming. They have just over hyped the situation.

Here is what I think on the subject. Global warming is happening but the problem is I don’t believe it is manmade. I believe the earth goes in cycles cooling and warming. Who can say what the proper temperature is for the earth? Experts cannot accurately predict what the weather will be for 7 days in advance in our area, how can I expect them to be able to predict 50 years in the future for the entire globe. I am still waiting for the hurricanes and the seas rising that Al Gore predicted. I have done the math and since the film was made in 2005 there should be 6 to 12 inches of sea level rise. Where is it Gore? Where’s my big hurricanes?

Sunday, March 9, 2008

Blog #6

I won the game!

I figured it out after two of my people died but I couldn't prevent the death of another two because of a glitch in the game. I had trouble after getting back to the rock. I would get to the home rock and try to hide but I would miss it and they would catch up to me and the truck would get stuck on top of me. I preferred using the little fast dudes over the big adults because the little guys could out ran the trucks.

In the town, it was pretty easy getting the water and throwing it on the field to make the crop grow. When the town got invaded and some of the huts were destroyed, I found it pretty easy to rebuild, also. The most difficult part was figuring out how to play because there were so few instructions. One difficult part of the game itself was trying to forge for water.

Current mood:

Happy

Friday, February 29, 2008

Blog #5

Greene County, GA wants to have classrooms and schools where boys and girls are entirely separate. They say they are doing this because of years of bad test scores, high dropout rates, and lots of teen pregnancies. The superintendent doesn’t think there is any other way to go and said that there is research pointing to boys and girls learning differently. He believes this will raise test scores and increase the graduation rate. He also basically said boys and girls are a distraction for one another. Some parents and teachers want the change and others are mad about it because they weren’t asked about what they thought. Even some experts say the district has gone too far because the segregation includes all of the elementary through high school grades.

In what world are boys and girls, or men and women, separated like that? What is that teaching them? Sure we can be a distraction to each other but I think we need to learn to adjust. An all boy school would stink! But beyond the fact that I would hate it, I’m not sure where they are getting research to prove that test scores are improved when kids are separated. And aren’t there some other things they need to be looking at in the school to get scores up? What about the quality of teachers at the school? It sounds like it could be a poor school – what kind of resources do they have? What about a change in curriculum? It seems like a radical plan to jump to segregation throughout the whole school district. I think it would be good to have a charter school that was segregated. Send kids there that their parents thought it was a good plan. Test the water before sinking the entire navy

Current mood:

Big-Smiley

Monday, February 18, 2008

Blog #4

I got 39 out of 192 member states.

I feel that these results are a little off because I had to spell the countries and I'm not a very good speller. Some of the countries I know and tried to type didn't count because the computer couldn't recognize them. On the other hand, I wouldn't have done as well on this quiz if I wasn't in Mr. Bruns CWI's class. It would be interesting to take this quiz at the end of the semester after all our map tests and see if I do any better.

Current mood:

Big-Smiley

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