Recent Reading...

A few days ago, I finished the novel Twilightby Stephanie Meyer. As you have probably heard through movie trailers and recent news, Twilight is a book about a teenage girl, Bella, falling in love with a mysterious yet irrisistible vampire named Edward. Through Stephanie's great discription, I was able to imagine the charecters perfectly and imagine Edward's captivating presence, although there were no pictures in the book. When I saw the movie this past weekend, I realized what truely amazing writer Stephanie Meyer is, I had imagined so many of the scences perfect to the movie! Twilight was the first piece of reading I have read in a long time that actually kept my attention and made me want to stay up the extra hour or two to avoid being left at a cliff hanger. I'm hoping to start the 2nd book in the Twilight Saga, New Moon sometime before winter break, as I have already read the first intense chapter of it from the back of the first book.

Current News #5

Robots that fetch: Device could help disabled at home
by Marsha Walton, CNN.com

The engineers at Georgia Tech have created a new robot designed specifically for those who need help doing every day chores - such as fetching and picking up things, opening containers, or opening doors. These Robots that have been somewhat modeled after service dogs are known as health care robots, because they are used by people with medical issues such as diabetes or arthritis. One of the main catagory of patients this robot would serve are people with ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease. One interesting thing about these robots is that they are controlled by "laser command", are voice activated, and stand about 5 feet tall. It has been announce that even in the next 10 years, these robots could be easily and commercially available for those who need there help.

Current News #4

"The Agony of Seven Days without Spending"
by Steve Almond, CNN.com

This article was somewhat like a day by day journal entry, where a man summarized his daily life in a week where he vowed to spend absolutly no money. At the begginning of his venture, he did not realized how difficult it would be to not spend anything. On his first day, after playing a game of Squash with his friend, he said "I'll buy us another [game].... Oh, wait a second...." quickly remembering he could not spend a cent. Midweek, the man realized "I spend a lot more money than I ever realized or would admit." One of the hardest things to turn down, had been to tell a child walking on the street with a sign asking for money in support for a children's homeless shelter, that he could not give any money. On the last day of his experiment, it was his wife's birthday, which he had to take the cheap way out, telling her he'd get her something later. I think this would probably be one of the hardest things to do, being that in our time we don't really realize how much money we actually spend.

Current News #3

"The 'Pregnant Man' Is Expecting Again"
by Kristen Boehm, People.com

Recently, It was announced that Thomas Beatie, the man who gave birth to a daughter last June, is pregnant again. Because Beatie had a sex change, he considers himself a man- but still is able to go through with a pregnancy because he did not go through the entire sex change precedure. His wife is not able to carry children due to a hysterectomy. In an interview on The View on thursday, Barbara Walters said she was "speachless", and for good reason. I do not still do not understand why Beatie's pregnancy comes as such a surprise, being that he still has a female reproductive system. Although I do not agree with Beatie having children, im hoping his baby will be born healthy, due this June.

Current News #2

"Wonders of ocean life counted in massive census" CNN.com

In a project expected to be finished by 2010, around 2,000 scientists will be researching a new marine census and eventually write 3 new books about it. By the time this project is done, scientists around the world will have counted a rough estimate of how many creatures are in the ocean, as well as have discovered new species. So far, researchers have discovered the Brittle starfish, who use there 5 arms to pick up food in the current. They have also found thousands of little crustations in the Gulf of Mexico, sometimes 12,000 of them in one square yard. Scientists say that there are many new and rare species in the Atlantic Ocean area between American and Europe, and that many new creatures should be discovered on deep diving trips. One interesting study is about the deep-ocean octopuses from the Antarchtic area, who as the water got colder and turned to ice, swam deeper into the ocean. Because they are in such depths, it is dark enough that these octopuses no longer have ink as a defense. It will be very interesting to hear more about this research, and to see what new species of sea creatures scientists will find in the next few years.