Food Inc. Reflection

Food inc. told an amazing story of the food industry and showed the public some things that nobody ever saw before about the food industry. The food industry is so illusive to the public and never wants to show anybody what their really doing and that’s why Food Inc. is so different and a one of a kind movie. The footage they show of the chicken houses especially and the chicken pickup shows how the food industries treat the food you eat. The soy beans that Monsanto made make a huge problem for people that have regular soy beans. Since Monsanto has the power to sue anybody that has traces of Monsanto soy beans they control the entire soy bean industry. Humans have destroyed the natural ways of farming when they farm on industrial scales. Animals that are grown on industrial scales are bigger and fatter but they can only walk for a couple seconds because they are so large that their bones can’t keep up with the rapid growth of the fat. Even though natural farming is much better than industrial farming and healthier than industrial farming, the only thing people want is faster, bigger, and cheaper. Even though we would have healthier food it’s just not fast enough to keep up with the fast food demand. This appears most obvious with cows and the beef industry. Beef is the most mass produced meat just because of the fast food industry. Cows are fed corn because there is so much even though cows are not made to eat corn. This is followed by Tyson making holes in the cows because they can’t digest the skin of the corn so they have to stick plastic tubes into the cows’ stomachs so they can pull out all the non-digestible food. Food Inc. was a really great movie and I think is a movie that had to be made to inform the public about all this. Even though they were not able to interview any companies they still showed a lot of footage of how everything is run and how everything is done.  So, overall this was really fun to watch and a great movie that I think everybody needs to watch.

New Glowing Squid Species found

November 17, 2010

By: National Geographic

Recently a large new squid species was found living near undersea mountains in the southern Indian Ocean. The large, unnamed species is about 70cm in length which is considered to be big besides that other squid can reach 65 feet. It is thought that the species uses bio-luminescence to attract prey which is thought to be small fish and crustaceans. This particular squid species is one of 79 other squid species found on a research cruise that began in 2009. In the expedition they sampled one fifth of the world's squid species. Most of these were species already known, but some are thought to be newly discovered."We think we have more than one new species of squid," Rogers said. "This just happens to be the biggest and most glamorous one." Roger said about the species of squid. 

          The new squid is an amazing discovery and that they actually found 79 species of squid is also amazing. Finding 79 new species of squid is a huge amount, and that we didn’t even know about these species is so strange to know. Hopefully this won’t become a large moneymaking scheme (like the glowfish) and people start fishing them to sell them. If this were to happen it would likely lead to extinction of the species. It probably wouldn’t fit in your average fishbowl so I think that they’re safe from that. 

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/01/101116-large-new-glowing-glamorous-giant-squid-science-species/

What is a living thing KWL

K: All living things have cells, have to reproduce, they have to have food and water, and need to adapt/evolve.

W: What all animals evolved from, why animals leave their habitats, why animals evolve

L: 

Tiny, New, Pea-Sized Frog Is Old World's Smallest

Tiny, New, Pea-Sized Frog Is Old World's Smallest

Web

August 25, 2010

By: Science Daily

Did you know that there around 100 species of amphibians that seemed to disappear 50-100 years ago? Well that’s what scientists assumed until they found a tiny little frog at the side of a road on a road leading up to Gunung Serapi Mountain. The discovery was made by Drs. Indraneil Das and Alexander Haas of the Institute of Biodiversity and Environmental Conservation at the University Malaysia Sarawak. The frogs were believed to be extinct for over 100 years. They are the smallest amphibian in the world and only grow to about 10.6 to 12.8 mm. They have been nicknamed the mini frog because of their small size. The frogs were named a pitcher plant they depend on to live, Nepenthes ampullaria. The frogs lay their eggs on the side of the plant and then the tadpoles are born into the plant and live in the liquid accumulated inside the plant.  Due to the recent discovery of this amphibian that has thought to have been extinct for over 100 years IUCN has launched a search for other species that are thought to be extinct in over twenty countries.

            The discovery of new amphibians that are thought to be extinct can change the whole world thought of animal’s adaptation and evolution and could prove that creatures may not have gone extinct but merely adapted or evolved in a way that humans don’t realize they’re there. Animals that are thought to have been extinct because of climate change and pollution might help in researching how animals adapt and evolve. Animals could just change where they live and go live where nobody would ever expects to look and then the few that didn’t adapt to their surroundings will die and humans will think the animal species are extinct. This new discovery could lead to the finding of many species that are thought to be extinct being found again and therefore giving people a new perspective on adaptation and survival.

                        This article really caught my attention because the title has two key facts about the article that caught my attention; Pea sized frogs, old worlds smallest. These two things really make you stop and think about the smallest frogs you ever seen and once you realized how small a pea is you go on in and look at it. This article has a link at the end to the website of the project to find these new species of frogs. I think that this effort to find all these unique old species of frogs that might have been extinct so many years ago is amazing and hope that they find most of these although it is very unlikely.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/08/100825094915.htm

Survival Reflection

              Many of the things about survival the video showed was new and some of the survival techniques are very strange. There are lots of different animals that have different survival techniques that are very strange. One frog would freeze over winter and then in spring the ice would melt and the frog would be fine. The hummingbird has a long beak to help it get nectar from flowers and its wings flap so fast that it can fly back and forth. The snapping turtle has a tongue that looks like a worm so when a fish came by trying to eat it the turtle would eat the fish. Sloths move so slow that algae grows on them and helps them camouflage. Greenback turtles lay their eggs at night in the sand and the eggs hatch during the day. All the baby turtles have to reach the sea but only 1 in a thousand survive to reach the ocean because of birds. All these animals have adapted to the environment and may not have always been like that. This is because of evolution and adaptation. Animals adapt depending on the environment, if it gets colder than animals will adapt and learn how to survive in that climate or if it gets hotter than they will adapt and learn how to survive in that climate.

Science Goals

1, Get good grades by being a good student.
2, Complete all homework
3, Complete all projects