Summer Reading

Summer is on its way and with it more time for leisure activities.  I hope that some students will take time to enjoy reading.  What books would you recommend to your friends and classmates? Would you reread any books in preparation for sequels?  For example, the third book of the Eragon, Eldest trilogy is due out in September.  I am planning to read these two books again so I can be ready to enjoy the third book when it is available. (I already pre-ordered my copy!)  Please post your suggestions and reasons for recommending your favourite books.

Poverty

Poverty, its killing thousands everyday. It is a big issue in our society, with people and children not being able to afford necessities such as food, clothing and shelter. As a result they go hungry, sick and uneducated. With some family’s living on two dollars per day that leaves no money for anything really, maybe a cheap snack, not even big enough for a family. The cloths they may be lucky to find would probably come from dumpsters or trash. With out money family’s cant afford to send their children to school, and as a result we end up with adults who don’t even know how to do simple tasks like reading and writing. When we entered the 21-century over 3 billion people could not even read a book, or sign their names. The percent of a child living in poverty’s death rate is 1 to 2, so roughly every one in two children die before the age of five. This is due to mostly simple things that could be easily cured or fixed with proper medical attention. The problem is these families usually can’t afford this luxury and the result can be as bad as losing their children before they even turn five.

I think that all of us could help this issue by raising money together, in our school, or outside of school. As well as donating items we no longer use, such as clothing, and new or old (in good condition) school supply’s, such as pencils, colouring books, binders, and other things like that. By doing all of these things, we could help to make the poverty issue at least just a little bit better!

P.S. I think I wrote my post on the wrong page, but this is the same one just now I think its in the write place!

Aids

Aids.  Do we really know that much about the deadly disease?  We know one thing.  It’s killing millions of people, all over the world!  Something powerful, like such a strong virus, is impossible to do anything about, right?  Wrong!  There are many things that we can do to put and end to HIV and Aids.  It’s a big problem, but I am convinced that if we work together, it is a problem that we can solve! At the end of 2007, 33 million people are living with HIV.  In 12 months, 2.5 million became infected, and 2 million people died under the iron grip of Aids.  Death.  It seems inevitable, but we can stop it!  There is one organization that I support 110%!  It was first developed in our local area!  There is a small Aids clinic in Guelph called the Masai Centre.  It is run by Dr. Anne-Marie Zajdlik, one of the most dynamic women and speakers I have ever has the privelege of hearing.  This amazing woman and doctor had the opportunity to travel to a small African city titled Tsepong.  She treated Aids patients at a small African clinic day after day, after day, after day.  She says, “Treating upwards of thirty HIV positive patients daily, most of them female, many of them children, so many gravely ill and close to death-each day bringing with it the potential of draining my soul…”  Even with such suffering all around her, Dr. Ann-Marie remained positive and said, “Being in Tsepong was truly a gift.”  Many of the treatments and medications that we have in North America are not readily available in Africa.  We can help bring these treatments to the people of Africa and stop the spread of Aids.”How does this affect me?” you ask, “How does it affect us?  There is nothing we can do about it.  Aids is a fatal disease.  There is no cure!”That may be so, but we can find the cure!  We just need the support, money and resourses.  The Masai Centre runs the Bracelet of Hope Campaign, with the help of the University of Guelph.  A number of South African women were hired to make red and white bracelets which were shipped to the University of Guelph and then sold for $5.00 each.  By buying one of these bracelets, you not only help raise money to battle Aids, but you also help support an African woman.  You help the bracelet maker survive through the poverty that they’re going through, and you help her support her family. If you say that Aids is something that can’t be fixed, think again!  Our nation can do anything we put our mind to!  Aids is not something that will just disappear in the blink of an eye, it will take a lot of work on our part!  I think that a little work is worth it!  The pain and suffering that Aids brings is something that must be finished forever!  I will sport my red and white beads with pride, for I know how much they can help!  Will you join me in the fight to end the suffering of Aids?  Either help put an end to the awful disease, or watch helplessly as it kills of millions of people, of all races!  You can help stop the pain evoked from this disease, or you can’t.  What would you do if you knew that you could help to save an innocent life.  Would you?  The choice is yours.(You can buy a red and white bracelet of hope at the Masai Centre located in Guelph.  Learn more about what we can do at http://www.masaicentre.ca)

Global Warming

Global warming… Global warming… Does any one really know what to do about it? I really don’t get it sometimes I see people litter and waste gas and then other times I see some people trying to save our world by planting trees and walking places. Sometimes I think what’s going to happen to our earth in 50 years or so. This is what my speech is all about.  I am going to tell you the horrible things that cause global warming and things we can do to help. Okay let’s get started.

The causes of global warming are pollution, pollution, and even more POLLUTION.

         

 Pollution all starts with factories, cars. Most factories give of toxic gas and a lot of it. This all goes into our atmosphere. Almost all vehicles give of gas too. They also release it into out atmosphere. All this gas in our atmosphere effect’s our breathing and oxygen levels. It also releases it and it goes to our ozone layer.

          

Our ozone layer keeps all our breathable air inside and keeps the hot sun out, but only lets enough in to keep us warm. We are making this ozone layer thinner by polluting. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want that ozone layer to go. Think about if that ozone layer goes. What do we have left? A burning earth with no water because the sun dried it up. People dying of no food or water No oxygen. No breathing.  That would be a pretty cruel world. I think. Because the ozone layer is thinner there is more heat coming through leaving us with very hot summers and melting ice caps.

          

Melting ice caps… When they melt it increases the level our water in oceans. There causing floods. Some people I’

ve talked to say that Greenland is melting and it will be almost gone in half a century. I am very worried about that because the water level would rise for sure. This causing major floods in Canada. If this happens everybody in Greenland will loose there homes and a lot will in Canada too.

          

Also when we pollution it not only goes to our ozone layer and atmosphere. It goes into our cloud and when rain comes down it is acidic rain. This is bad for all creatures that live in places with water.

         

 Sometimes the pollution gets so bad that it gets to hot outside and not enough oxygen in the air that we need to stay inside so the heat doesn’t get to us our the lack or oxygen.

          

This brings me to my solutions. Instead of driving everyday try to walk, bike, even car pooling. I know car pooling gives of gas too, but it is better then five cars on the road. If you don’t like this idea’s and you love cars then get a special car. My suggestions are electric, solar, or just get a car that runs on natural gas. Everything you do helps like cleaning up the litter on your school yard, park near you, or at your house.

          

As you can see the effects of global warming are very serious and we need you help to make a difference. So I hope my speech has inspired you to go out there and make our world a better place.

Poverty

 Poverty is a global issue that effects people all over the world.  Nearly three billion people  live on less then two dollars a day, one billion children live in poverty, approximently 400 million have no access to safe water, and 270 million have no access to health services. There are many causes for poverty , but we have to help stop it. We can  help by donating money to diffrent foundations, and even by donating clothes. There are many ways to help , and even a litte bit can help alot!

Poverty

  ( I might already have a blog on poverty on here , but i think i wrote the other one on the wrong page. So i rewrote it so this ones longer so just mark this one instead of the other one if there both on the page , (sorry!)  I have decided to write about poverty. Poverty is a big issue that is all over the world. Poverty can be caused by diffrent senarios , bad choice and decisions, and just being born into a family that is poor like a family in Africa. Although there are alot of reasons some people are poor , there are also many ways we can help. We can donate money , or clothes  by school , or online, or perticapating in a fundraiser to help stop poverty. Nearly three billion people live on less then two dollars a day, 400 million people have no access to save water, 640 million people live without a adequate shelter, and 1 billion children live in poverty

Global Issues~Darfur

      The Darfur conflict started in early 2003 and, has killed hundreds of thousands of people and, displaced more than 2 million people. Most of them escaping to larger areas where they stayed in camps for “internally displaced people,” and some family’s crossed the border into a place called Chad. This is where they lived during refugee camps, straining local resources. Attacks on civilians during the conflict have been brutal and include burning homes, killing and rapeing. Which is leaving thousands of family’s, children and, parents starving with no food or water.      I bring awareness to this because I went to a seminar at the University of Waterloo. A way that we can help with this is to donate money to this awareness to save some lives! From Johno =)

Global Warming

One of the biggest issues in the world is global warming. Global warming is a life threatening circumstance.  Unless we take steps to help the environment and prevent global warming, our way of life, and our planet are all in grave danger. Some people believe there is still hope, if each of us makes a simple decision to reduce the effects of global warming.  We would have a much better place to live.  A few ways to reduce the effects of global warming are: using florescent light bulbs, less hot water, and low flow shower head. The main objectives we can do to help this process are by using the three “R’s.”  The first is to reduce, then reuse, and recycle.           Try to recycle more and buy recycled products, you can save up to two thousand four hundred pounds of carbon dioxide each year, just by recycling half your household waste. By recycling and buying products with recycled content you also save energy, resources, and land fill space.  Also try and avoid products with a lot of packaging.  By preventing wastes from being created, this means that there is less energy wasted and fewer resources consumed.  When you purchase products with the least amount of packaging, not only do you save money, but you also help the environment.  Reducing your garbage by 10% reduces carbon dioxide emission by 1200 pounds.         I’m concerned about this issue because in one hundred years we may not even have any land on earth, it would be just a planet of water.  The worst part of global warming is we can stop this from happening but some people just don’t care to.  In my opinion, it would be hard for most people to change their bad habits concerning fossil fuel and pollution.              Global warming is warming the surface of the earth’s atmosphere.  Some evidence links global warming to solar activities, but that’s only theory.  Another theory is the green house effect.  Gasses make up there own atmosphere around our atmosphere.  This new atmosphere allows light through, but traps the heat so it can’t escape.  Human products compounds regularly released into the atmosphere in earlier years have thickened the green house wall beyond natural occurring levels, when this happens, even less heat escapes, causing temperatures to rise.        Now you know a bit about how to reduce carbon dioxide and help your environment.  Remember the three R’s to help our environment.  Paint your home a light colour in a warm climate and a dark in a cold climate.  This can save up to 5000 pounds of carbon dioxide per year. You also plant many trees.  A single tree can absorb one ton of carbon dioxide over its life time.  So spread your knowledge of how to reduce carbon dioxide to your neighbours and friends to make your life, environment better and more affordable..    

The Great Warming

Okay, the topic that I’m doing for the global issues topic is Global Warming. But, since I’m on a computer now and I don’t have to read it out loud to the class, I can write all of my thoughts. So, here I go.Global Warming is, in my eyes, one of the largest, and catastrophic event that man will ever experience on this planet. Why? This effects everyone who currently owns something on this planet. And those effects that are happening are starting now.What are the effects? Global Warming has many effects to it, some that you may not even know, which are going to be demonstrated in this post. The only effect that you’ve all heard of is the great flooding of the heat being trapped within the atmosphere, and causing the ice caps to melt. But did you know how much the water levels are going to rise? Scientists and computer models say that the total water level rise in the world by 2040 is around 8-10 meters. (Around 30 feet.) This will force two thirds of the world’s population to have to move away from the coastline, and back into the mainland. This will be the world’s largest migrations ever known by man. Just think, in our time, 4.2 billion people having to move inland. Having to co-operate with these billions of people, resources will run dry, cities will grow and take out great forests. This could cause another great depression as farms, trees, and wildlife will become wide spread.But that’s only part of it, the other part is weather. With the raise of fresh water from the melting icebergs, this creates a larger area for the water to be evaporated from, and fresh water evaporates quicker then salt. Now I didn’t look this up, but some people who know weather well know of the lake effect. What’s the Lake Effect? It’s the combination of the Jet stream of the rushing air from the Rockies and the gulf stream clashing in an endless fight, but the main power of the lake effect is where it gets it’s name, and where it is. Over the Great Lakes. The massive amount of fresh water evaporates into this concoction, magnifying any storm that happens to pass. To be more specific, by about x2-5 it’s current strength. So the oceans may become this new weather effect. Rewriting the face of meteorology. (The study of weather.)Wait, I’m not done yet. Keeping on the subject of the waterways, another effect of the changing paths of water is the change of ocean currents. (Yes, oceans have currents too.) But what will this cause? Ocean life as we know it, may be changed forever. As fresh water will send these currents into disarray. Changing weather again, but sending some species of ocean life to extinction, some we may not even know about. Also this may change the migrating habbits of all fish. Bad news for the fishermen supplying the 4.2 billion people trying to live in the mainland.This, Great Warming, will also make us more venerable to the sun’s catastrophic rays of radiation. Due to Carbon Dioxide’s riaction to O-Zone (As represented by 02) by trying to combine together to make a non-useable substance. This new substance, sadly enough, doesn’t do as good of a job at deflecting the googolplex (thats 10 to the power of 10 then to the power of 100, I am not doing that math.) of electrons constantly being hurtled at us every day. To put this into prospective, say that the Earth is one little boy. And the O-zone layer and magnetic field of the Earth are a bunch of football player’s defending the boy. This layer of defence defending the boy isn’t 100% bullet-proof. The ocational person can get threw. But as we know, and speak, this layer of protection is disappearing. As this happens, the boy slowly, yet gradually gets hit more and more by these evil people representing the radiation and electrons from the sun. And soon, he may get hit so commonly that there is no way of anything not getting damaged on his body. But in the modern age, where computers dominate, Earth becomes more of a sheet of strong glass, but the electrons and radiation people are now not touching or slapping the kid/object, there punching it. With a strong enough hit, the radiation can be shrugged off, but the real danger are the electrons. All electronic devices run on electrons, but only a certain amount of electrons, if large enough, can blow a fuse, no matter what material is blocking the outside world. These electrons are being catapulted at around half the speed of light. So anything that you try to use to defend your electronics, wont work. This chance will only happen every 30 years at every Solar Maximum. But the next one is in 2011, so after that, it will be in 2051. Possibly were we become so dependent on computers, that they completely replace every worker. And at the hight of the “Great Migration.” These electrons will destroy any electrical circuit within your household, and in the world. Including ones that supply our civilization. Imagine a world were there is no power for 5 years as they get the system working again… think of it…Well, that was almost everything I know of the topic that i could think of at this time. But now here’s one question that we are all thinking, “what can we do?” There are multiple ways to prepare:1. First and Foremost, as everyone says, use more effecent ways to get to your destination. Examples: Ride a bike, walk, take a bus, carpools, ect. Any way to clean up your output of emissions. And help in the development of cleaner fuels.2. Do NOT make a 100% computer reliant household. If you do not know why I’m saying this, look at paragraph five again.3. Find out how many zero’s are in a googolplex.4. Do not worry about the cottages around the great lakes. Their far out of reach of the floods.5. Prepare. Remember what I said years into the future. (Unless new science proves otherwise.) Learn survival skills, sports that relate to history like kayaking, snowshoeing, hiking, cross-country skiing, ect.So, this concludes the end of my long rant on this subject. If you managed to read this far, you will be well aware of the dangers of just driving a car. I hope i managed to get you all to understand the major dangers of global warming, what you can do to prevent it, and what you should do if it is imminent. Please ask questions if anything is confusing you.Stats of this rant:Total time of production: 3 hours.Total amount of words: +2000Total amount of letters: +7000Total lemonade drank: 5 letersTotal Distractions/ hour: 4Total # of hours spent onwatching documentaries +100in the past 3 or so years:Songs listened to in time: 21 (Some repeated)Thanks For Reading,Grant Conway 8-1 

Tunnels

I have started reading the book Tunnels and I only wish I would have started reading it earlier so we could have made a trailer on it. I know you can’t vote for it any more but I think I should tell you about it anyways so you might try reading it. Will was a normal boy who had no real friends and was always picked on at school. His only real relationship was with his father and there passion for digging and finding artifacts. Will finally found a friend named Chester and Will started getting Chester interested in digging too.         Then one day Will’s father went missing. Weeks later Will and Chester found a secret tunnel dug underneath Will’s house. This is were they believe Will’s father is. They end up finding a new world with real people and everything except its underground. Once there Will finds out he does not actually belong on the topsoil(what the people underground call our world)but the he was actually born and has a familly in the underground world!         That is as far as I have read and Im just dying to finish. I want to find out if Will really does belong int he Underworld. If this sounds interesting to you, you should definetly try reading the book TUNNELS!