Climate Change

On Feb. 2, 2007, the United Nations scientific panel studying climate change declared that the evidence of a warming trend is "unequivocal," and that human activity has "very likely" been the driving force in that change over the last 50 years. The last report by the group, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, in 2001, had found that humanity had "likely" played a role.

The addition of that single word "very" did more than reflect mounting scientific evidence that the release of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases from smokestacks, tailpipes and burning forests has played a central role in raising the average surface temperature of the earth by more than 1 degree Fahrenheit since 1900. It also added new momentum to a debate that now seems centered less over whether humans are warming the planet, but instead over what to do about it. In recent months, business groups have banded together to make unprecedented calls for federal regulation of greenhouse gases. The subject had a red-carpet moment when former Vice President Al Gore's documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth," was awarded an Oscar; and the Supreme Court made its first global warming-related decision, ruling 5 to 4 that the Environmental Protection Agency had not justified its position that it was not authorized to regulate carbon dioxide.

The greenhouse effect has been part of the earth's workings since its earliest days. Gases like carbon dioxide and methane allow sunlight to reach the earth, but prevent some of the resulting heat from radiating back out into space. Without the greenhouse effect, the planet would never have warmed enough to allow life to form. But as ever larger amounts of carbon dioxide have been released along with the development of industrial economies, the atmosphere has grown warmer at an accelerating rate: Since 1970, temperatures have gone up at nearly three times the average for the 20th century.

The latest report from the climate panel predicted that the global climate is likely to rise between 3.5 and 8 degrees Fahrenheit if the carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere reaches twice the level of 1750. By 2100, sea levels are likely to rise between 7 to 23 inches, it said, and the changes now underway will continue for centuries to come.

Foreigners Report on Taiwanese Food

The foreigner dude from the movie travels around the world eating some disgusting shit. His name is Andrew and he actually enjoys what he eats. The first, and only food that he could not bare, he found in Taiwan. He tried the stinky tofu, but could not stand to continue to consume this wretched food product. After this initial taste of Taiwan Culture, he traveled to a night market and eats chicken butt, oyster omelet, coffin bread, grilled shrimp, roosters’ crown, unlaid chicken eggs, chicken head, and chicken uterus. His reaction to all of these ‘unique’ food products was the same, good. He ate all of them, and enjoyed all of them. The chicken uterus was the mans favorite, but not mine. After the night market, he traveled to a small town south of Taipei, Tea Town. In this town, Andrew was shown the process in which their tea was made. Then he tasted the towns favorite, which he liked. After he looked at, sniffed, and tasted the tea, he he goes to a special restaurant whose food is all made with tea leaves and tea oils. There, he enjoyed many dishes with tea products in the recipe. After eating a bunch of food and drinking a lot of tea, he travels to a new aboriginal town, Hot Spring Town. In this town, he goes to a nice hot spring and soaks in its relaxing waters. Then he goes to a restaurant with all aboriginal foods. He gets help from a woman ordering his meal, and receives three dishes. He gets deep fried bee’s, bamboo salad, and two-week old raw fermented pork. He said that he really enjoyed the bee’s, because normally insects have a gooey, chewy inside, but these were crunchy all the way through. He also like the salad. Andrew was a little scared to try the aboriginal meat, but tried anyway, because to experience another culture, you must be willing to try their food. He said that the two-week old raw fermented pork tasted just like thin cut beef with lemon juice sprinkled on top. The aboriginal meat was the last thing that Andrew ate in Taiwan before returning home.
P.S.- Somewhere in the middle up there, Andrew went to Taipei 101 and ate a lot of good looking food. He ate Korean, Japanese, and Taiwanese food there. And on his way out, he stopped at the grocery section where a woman offered him pigeon eggs. I forget if he liked them or not, but whatever.

“If you see something that looks good, eat it”
- Andrew

Drought, Disease, Social Turmoil, Foreign Invasion

The Mayan civilization was a very prosperous one. Their population was in the millions, and they had invented so many ‘life simplifying’ tools. The Mayans were around for almost 4000 years, and in that time, much was done. By the end of their time, they were facing a serious drought, new diseases, social turmoil, and foreign invasions. They were a strong civilization, but when all four of those terrible thing occurred at once, they didn’t stand a chance. The Mayan civilization faced its fall in the 1400’s.
Drought was a major problem that had a big affect on the fall of the Mayans. Droughts are a natural disaster when it does not rain, for months, even years. The drought during this time lasted for nearly 10 years, and the Mayans were getting weaker and weaker. At least they had the river water, but that would not last forever with no rain to fill them. The Mayans had huge, underground, marble caverns which were used as wells to store water. Now these wells were behemoth. With the drought, the Mayan people were getting weaker. It was always a difficult to find a drink, and lots died from thirst. The drought also brought something fierce on the people.
Disease was a problem as well. Though disease was always there, the drought made the people more effectible. Since the people bodies were getting weaker, they could not always fight off the deadly diseases. Disease was a cause of death all across the Mayan kingdom. Diseases such as Small Pox were a big surprise to the people of the Mayan civilization. Most of the diseases being spread around were lethal, although, some took a while to kill you. The Mayan people faced great loss due to sickness and disease, especially at this time, when all else was going wrong as well.
The Mayan civilization had social turmoil. The people were arguing and fighting. With this going on, nothing was getting done, or getting done right. Some members of the government opposed the others. Everything was falling down around them. Also, the Mayan leader, trying to please the Gods to end the drought, started sacrifices his own people. Send warriors out to capture entire villages, and bring them back to the main city to be killed in frond off the people. Many Mayans were killed this way, and by the hand of another Mayan. They were performing human sacrifices to end a drought same save the peoples lives, but, to do so, they killed many people.
With the Revolution, Disease, and Drought, the Spaniards were able to come in and conquer, wipe out, the entire civilization in 10 years. The Spanish came with maybe 1000 soldiers, well armed with steel weapons, and they killed over 1 million Mayan. This is because of the other factors of how their civilization fell. The Spanish came at the worst possible time, while the Mayans were at their weakest. They stood no chance against the foreign invaders.
The Mayan civilization was over long before it was gone. The drought and disease made the people weak and unable to defend, or fend, for themselves. Social turmoil meant that the Society was in extreme confusion and disorder. The Mayan people were as good as dead before they actually were. Then, when the Spanish came, they were just finished. If the Mayans only problem was the invasion of the Spanish, there would be millions more of them alive today. But that was not the case. Many died from the thirst and disease before the Spaniards arrived. Social turmoil can be overcome and fixed. They had no control over the drought or diseases. That is how I believe their collapse came to be.

Importance of Drawing a Sketch to a Scientific Method and Why do I always neglect it?

Drawing a sketch is important when working on a scientific experiment. This is because when you have a sketch of your plans, you are more likely to be successful in your experiment. The sketch helps you to organize your thoughts, however, sometimes it is better to just make it up as you go. For example, during SMASH day on March 4, we were instructed to build the tallest tower possible out of clay and toothpicks. All of the other groups had 'plans' on how they would build theirs, but my team did not. We had some conversation going throughout the experiment, and tried multiple structures before we found what we wanted. The sketch would have been helpful for the timed part of the experiment, but we probably would not have had the same design and come in first place. Yeah, we won. That is why, sometimes, it is okay to not have a set plan, but to 'just do it'.
If you are performing a science experiment, I would recommend that you have a plan. Just don't be afraid to make changes if it is not working as you had wished. So, to wrap this all up, I would recommend having a flexible plan.

Jaguar Paw: A New Beginning

It was a cold morning, a wet morning, and all was still. The only noise was the whistle of the wind. Jaguar Paw and his family were laying together, asleep, under a tree. Only Jaguar Paw was awake. He was sitting there thinking of the odd white men from the ships. They were dressed is very strange clothing. He tried to put them out of his mind, but they fascinated him. He heard a rustle in the forest and grabbed his spear. His sudden movements awoke his wife who had Rabbits Run on her lap sleeping like his baby brother. There was another rustle and Jaguar Paw stood up to investigate it. They had not gone far from the coast, but were planning on moving further today. He held his spear ready to attack when he heard the noise again, a little bit closer this time. Jaguar Paw woke up Rabbits Foot and told his wife to take the two kids away from the noise and hide somewhere. Then He walked closer to the noise and saw a movement. He did not know what it was, but he was well prepared to kill it. Then a mans voice broke through the trees. He was speaking some weird language the Jaguar Paw did not understand. The mans voice made Jaguar Paw jump. Both men were walking towards each other now. They did not know what the other was thinking, and were both a little scared. The white man put his hand up and waved it to say hello. Then he put down his weapons. Jaguar Paw was curious as to why the man would do this. Did he mean them no ham? Was he a good man? What should I do? Those are the questions that went through Jaguar Paws head at that moment. He was not sure if he should also lay down his weapons. So he decided not to put it down, but to hold it by his side like a walking stick. The white man seemed to be okay with this and walked forward to about three feet in front of Jaguar Paw. Then Jaguar Paw raised his and and waved at the man. They were both a little more relaxed now, but then Jaguar Paw hear another sound, this time behind him. He as not positive what to make of this. Were there more white men? Did they have weapons? What is about to happen? Then the white man said something else in his strange language. Shortly after, seven white men with shiny weapons stepped out from the trees, fully surrounding Jaguar Paw. He did not know what to do, so he he picked his spear back up. His wife and eldest son were not far away, close enough to see what was happening. His wife had a tear in her eye. Then one of the white men, from his right side, moved forward and took a swing at him. He was trying to knock him unconscious, but Jaguar Paw ducked and with one smooth movement, speared the man in the gut. The other men reacted to this and two more moved forward toward Jaguar Paw. He saw them coming and got ready. He rolled to the side just in time to not get cut by the one mans shiny sword. Jaguar Paw was on his feet in not even a second. The white man was still hunched over after chopping the ground, so Jaguar Paw kicked him in the stomach, punched him in the face, and then he was laying next to the dead white man. Jaguar Paw saw the reaction of one man in front of him and knew that another attacker was coming up from behind. Jaguar Paw turned around and saw a fat white man with not weapon charging straight at him. He put his arm out and stepped to the side. The fat man was running too fast and was too fat to change directions. So, he ran straight into Jaguar Paws stiff arm and flipped mid-air before landing on his ass and falling backwards laying on the ground. There were still five men around him, including the original white man who had now picked his weapon back up. Jaguar Paw stuck out with his spear at one of the men’s legs, and with all of his steel armor, the man could not move. He dropped to his knees and tried to stop the bleeding. That left four, and two of them were behind him before he noticed. Jaguar Paw felt the mans hand on his back, turned his spear around under his arm, and speared the man through his throat and up into his mouth. Jaguar Paw was then him in the back of the head, probably by a rock one of the men picked up. He fell on his stomach and lay motionless until the three men approached him. They spoke between each other, probably to decide what should become of this man. Jaguar Paw. A group of five Mayan men were running through the forest when they saw what was happening. They stood there for a second or two to see exactly what was happening. Jaguar Paw lifted his head and saw them. He looked at them, and as if he used his eyes to ask them to help him, they came running to his aid. The five of them killed two of the white men, and the first white man ran, back toward the ships. Were these the men Jaguar Paw was fascinated by? The other Mayan men helped Jaguar Paw up to catch his breath. Then they got to talking and the men told Jaguar Paw that they are starting a new tribe. Their wives and children were back at the temporary camp until they could move farther away from the white men and start over for real. During this conversation, they invited Jaguar Paw to join them. He called out his wife and kids, so they came over to meet the men. Jaguar Paws wife agreed to the invitation, and they set out into the jungle to meet their new tribal family. Jaguar Paw and the other men picked up the white mens shiny weapons and took them with them. They didn’t know what they were made of, but they knew the escaped white man would report to the ship and they would send more people after them. When they arrived at the mens’ camp, they were welcomed with open arms. They quickly got acquainted with the people and started packing up to move further towards their new home. Away from the white men, and away from the sacrificial Mayans.
They were walking through the jungle for days. The men would go out and hunt for the food, while the women stayed with the children. After about a week, they came upon a small camp that was being lived in. They waited their to meet the people that lived there. After a couple of hours they saw people walking towards the camp with a large boar, dead, being pulled behind them. When they got a little closer Jaguar Paw and his family recognized them. They were the children from their old village that were left for dead after the attack and capture of the adults. They were still alive and obviously doing well. Everyone spent the night there around a camp fire as the children told stories of their lives alone, everything they faced and overcame. The next morning, all of them set out to find a new home. After about a month of walking they got to a new land, a strange land. They were out of the jungles and into deserts. They walked through the desert for a while until they made it out, now this was a long time later. Days. Weeks. But when they got out, they saw something beautiful. There was a large mountain and rivers and lakes and strange piney trees. They were in America, somewhere in either Arizona or Utah.
After about a year, they were completely aware of their surroundings, and had made friends with the local native indians. The native people taught them what crops to grow and when to grow them throughout the year. They taught Jaguar Paw and the others about the wild life in these parts. Jaguar Paws people also learned the language of the native people, and eventually began to not use their own language. They were one with the rockies. They killed what they needed, and used what they killed. They were no longer Mayan people, they were Native Americans.
Jaguar Paw and the others had found themselves a new home, and escaped from the freaky white people. Little did they know that the white men would eventually land in North America thinking it was India. But, forget about that, they were happy now.