The family that could not sleep!

The book that i am reading is called the family that could not sleep by D.T. Max. It's mainly about a family that had somthing in theier DNA that could not let their body rest or sleep.A medical mystery.I chose this book because it caught my eye and also i didnt want to just read a book with just facts.I wanted somthing with a story but also with facts.I am on about page 5 and am already into it. It has a full and very catchy plot. I can see that i am going to enjoy it. Well here ya go!

An American Plague

I am reading a book called " An American Plague The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of1793." In this book I learned so mant things. One thing I learned is that Philadelphia itself had an increasing number of cats that were dropping dead every day, attracting, one Phledelphian complain, An amazing number of flies and other insects including mosquitos were everywhere, though their high-pitched whirring was particularly loud near rain barrels, gutters, and open sewers.


By: Kristina

Mid-reading Entry

So. I learned SO much from reading this book. I feel like a scholar...well not really but whatever.

Ch.1- Cow pox is cured by cowpox pus.

Ch.2-Maggots clean wounds by eating the dead flesh. But there are different types of maggots. One type eats dead flesh, another eats both dead and alive flesh, another eats living flesh. They look really similar.

Ch.3- Honey and sugar heals wounds and burns.

Ch. 4- Bath water cures constipation, colic, gout, ingertility, and paralysis. It's also very good for elders.

Ch.5- Clay was full in calcium (food supplement) nutrition. From too much bloodloss you can die.

Finally

The Hot Zone
by: Richard Preston
This book is about a virus that came from the Central African rain forest and
then suddenly appeared in Washington D.C. Then in less than 3 days 90 percent of the victims are dead. Soon there comes the swat team to the resuce with a bunch of scientist to save what is left of Washington D.C.
I chose this book because i heard from Mr G that this book was a real thriller and i personally like thrillers. Also it looks like the book is going to have lots of suspense.
I expect this book to be fun to read and really cool.

Pre-Reading-Phineas Gage!!!!

heyy guys..i was finally able to log on thanks to Senor Gatton..well im reading a book called Phineas Gage by John Fleischman. It's about a guy who gets a pole shot threw his head. Gross?I KNOW!!! Well, the books talks about the life of Phineas after this horrible accident. I chose this book because i was interested in knowing how his life was after this incedent and because I am also interested in the brain. What I expect from this book is to learn exactly how it affected him. I don't expect it to be boring. I expect to be surprised and learn a lot of new things about the brain.

BAD astronmoy

I am reading bad Astronomy by Philip Plait. This book is all about astronomy. But unlike most astronomy books; this book focuses on clearing up misinterpretations of science. It explains how advertisments like "lightyears ahead" don't make sense... and it explains why.

I chose this book because I am interested in astronomy. I love reading about space, stars, planets and galexies, ect. I find it the most interesting science that there is. I expect it to be really interesting, and I'm sure I'll love correcting people when they talk about or use "bad astronomy" in thier everyday language =].

I expect it to be difficult, though because of all the scientific words I will endure. But I guess I'll just have to get a dictionary and find out what the long, difficult words mean. But I don't expect it to be too hard seeing as it's meant to teach regularly educated people about science, not just super-smart people with PHDs.

I hope i find it interesting instead of falling asleep reading it. If it's dull I will be very dissapointed. I've started reading it, I've been through a few chapters and sofar it's not exactly thrilling and some chapters I find a bit dull... But I'm sticking through, hoping that Philip Plait will soon write about my favorite subject (black holes!) if not I'll just reasearch it on my own.


-Sydney

Do You Believe in Magic?

"Do you believe in magic?"
By Benedict Carey
New York Times
Main Topic: Magic (e.g. illusions and magic tricks; mind tricks and magical powers)

While reading this article I did find a new vocabulary word. The word "Buoys" which defined in the dictonary means; [v] To keep afloat or aloft: a glider buoyed by air currents. To maintain at a high level; support.
Throughout this article I learned a lot about magic and illusions and how we procieve things. That when we see a magic trick we are very impressed with what we see before we can put logic to the situation and think about how the trick was approached. The article states , "The brain, moreover, has evolved to make snap judgments about causation, and will leap to conclusions well before logic can be applied. In an experiment presented last fall at the Society for Neuroscience meeting, Ben Parris of the University of Exeter in England presented magnetic resonance imaging scans taken from the brains of people watching magic tricks. In one, the magician performed a simple sleight of hand: he placed a coin in his palm, closed his fingers over it, then opened his hand to reveal that the coin was gone."
Usally people are so ammused that they do not actully relize that its just a magic trick and they're creating an illusion by thinking that the pennie (for example) just dissapeared into thin air. We are exposed to our own thoughts usally which cause illusions. This article also states when people think they have magic powers they're usally helpless. They engage in all these magical rituals which are irrational and pointless. My take on this is that people have their own opions about magical powers and whether they have them or not. I do agree with the article and how it tells us about illusions and how we creat them while watching magic trick. I do believe there needs to be logic applied or else you are believing a magic trick before actully really thinking about it and putting logic into what you have seen.

THE HOT ZONE [pre-reading blog]

Title: The Hot Zone
Author: Richard Preston

I am reading a book called THE HOT ZONE. I decided to change books because the other one didn't interest me much. When Mr. Gatton showed me this book I was instantly intrigued but it is suppose to quite gruesome so to say that I'm a little scared would be the biggest under statement ever.

The book is about viruses. It's about an infectious and fatal virus from the central African rain forest. It somehow spreads to the suburbs in Washington D.C. There is no cure for the virus. In a few days 90% of victims are dead. Then, a secret military SWAT team of soldiers and scientists kind of collaborate to try and stop the outbreak. This book shows you that the truth is scarier than fiction.

I chose this book because I like that it's a story instead of just pages and pages of research and information. I think I will learn more because of this and will not want to put the book down. My expectations of this book are very high but I hope I can get through the stomach turning parts. =]

I'll update you when i begin to read.

ily all.

Pre-Reading "An Inconvenient Truth"

Summary:
We all know that are climate problem seems to be happening slowly, but it's actually occurring very fast and, it is a HUGE emergency.The Chinese expression of the word crisis has two parts.The first is messaging Danger. The second is a chance for Opportunity. Before making change we have to be reminded that this is a major crisis. Why do are leaders ignore this desperate call for change? Is it because it's easier to ignore it? Maybe, but we all know that the problem doesn't disappear because it's not visual.

Why I Selected this book:
I am interested in learning a lot about globe warming because, I believe that it's biggest problem in the world. Way bigger then immigration or terrorism. It's really shocking how it's happening. Look at it this way , it barley even snow this year, and even when it did it it was didn't last at all.That's why I picked this book, I wanted to know how I can help.

My Expectations:
I think I'm going to learn way more then what i can do to help global warming but, the history before and, how it started. Maybe Al Gore's take on the issue. I am expecting too be an expert on global warming when I am finished with the book and, to pass on the importance of it.

By: Gisella

My 1st Entry!!!!!

The book I am reading is PHINEAS GAGE and it is by John Fleischman. Anyway this book is about this guy named Phineas who had a hole in his head. He was a railroad contruction foreman. While he was blasting rock in vermont in 1848, a 13 pund rod was shot though his brain. Amazingly, he survived another eleven years and became one of the biggest cases in brain science ever. But after the accident Phineas was changed and what happened to his brain will tell you a lot about how your brain works. I chose this book because brains seem pretty interesting and Mr. Gatton said it was good so I thought I would give it a shot! I expect that this book will be very good and exciting and afterwards I'll probably know a lot more about brains and will be extremely terrified of 13 pund rods!!!!

INTRO to the book ( the book makes it sound scary)

Apperently i am about to embark on a spectacualr journey through time. Corny i know, but for some reason i think the book THE BIG BANG is going to be somewhat interesting. Not to mention t got wonderful reviews which i really couldn't care less about but still. The book (as you can tell) is obviously about the BIG BANG!!!! dun dun dun (scary music plays). The big bang; a common topic in the "science world". (i created that world by myself if you must know). The big bang I PRESUME ( BIG WORD) had many different ideas on how it came to be. Well, I hope to read in THIS book what those different i deas are. I think the ook will contain probably everything about the Big Bang there is to know considering the book is FAT ( it probably could loose a couple pounds for my sake just so i don't have to read as much. but NO that would be too kind). I am beginning to ramble and my parental units are calling me so i must depart from this OH SO INTERESTING project and tend to their everlasting need haha.
OVER AND OUT ( i feel like a plane captain) hehe

Midpoint Entry

I am readin the book "Phineas Gage" the book is by John Fleischman. The book is about a man in 1848 who worked as a construction foreman. He became famouse for having had a thirteen-pound iron rod shot through is head, and making a hole right through is head but not killing him. Phineas Gage lived with the hole in his head for eleven years. Yet the accident change Phineas forever. He was no longer the Phineas that his friends, family and co-workers knew. The story teaches you what happened in Phineas's brain, what made him a diffrent man and how it all relates to where the rode hit and how the brain functions.

So far i have laerned what doctors in the 1800's knew about the brain and what they came up with. I have found out about the two groups of people and their ideas on how the brain functions. Both of the groups plan to use Phineas as a way to prove their point. He had becaome the talk of all the doctors. I have also been introduced to a few terms that are used for the brain as well as alot of its functions. It explains the brain alot.

I have chosen a quote from the book. I have chosen this specific quote because I think it shows how important our brain is in our life and how we don't even relize all that it does for us. Here is the quote it is from page 27, 2nd paragraph "The brain stem keeps many of our automatic functions going, like your breathing and heartbeat. The neck flap covers your cerebellum, which corrdinates movement. Without your cerebellum, you couldn't walk upright, touch your finger to your nose or turn this page. Without your brain stem, you couldn't breath. without your cerebral cortex, you couldn't be human.

Pre-Reading Entry

I am reading the book "Phineas Gage" by John Fleischiman. The book is suppose to be about a man in 1848 who worked as a construction foreman. He became famouse for having had a thirteen-pound iron rod shot through is head, and making a hole right through is head but not killing him. Phineas Gage lived with the hole in his head for eleven years. Yet the accident change Phineas forever. He was no longer the Phineas that his friends, family and co-workers knew. The story teaches you what happened in Phineas's brain, what made him a diffrent man and how it all relates to where the rode hit and how the brain functions.
I chose this book because i thought the story of Phineas was a very intresting one. I also would like to understand the brain alittle bit more and i want to understand why this guy didn't die, because i thought he would have. I expect to learn alot about the brain fuctions and alot about the case of Phineas Gage. I have very expectations that this book is going to be very intresting!

Pre-Reading: Great MythConceptions

Ever heard of procrastination? That's what I've been doing. Procrastinating. I've been putting this book off for way too long, so now I have to do it.
The book I chose to read is entitled Great MythConceptions-The Science Behind the Myths. It is by Dr. Karl Kruszelnicki and is filled with true short stories about different investigations that were made about great misconceptions. Some of thee misconceptions include a desk being cleaner than a toilet, lead not really being in a pencil, and the ratio of cat years to human years.
This book seems that it will be, at the very least, amusing. From flipping through the book, I can tell it will be pretty amusing to. I'm looking forward to reading it.

My 1st Blog Post

(Note: Image link broken, removed by moderator)

This is my first blog posting and my post is about the article "A Real World AIDS Vaccine?" from http://www.nytimes.com/. This article was written by Tina Rosenberg and published January 14, 2007.

Now we all know that an AIDS vaccine would be great, fantastic, and just jolly. No, we have not found a vaccine for AIDS and we may never. I don't think that this "tool" will relief us of the "Age of AIDS". The tool that is the subject of this article is circumcision. Apparently, tribes in Africa that practice circumcising men and boys had a lower AIDS rates as did Africa Muslim nations (who practice circumcision), while Christian settlements (who don't) had a higher rate. This tool has long been suspected by scientists, and their thoughts were confirmed. Basically, men are better protected from the AIDS infection when they are circumcised.

I think that this article was nicely written and that it got straight to the point, which I always admire when a writer does that. I would recommend this article to learn more on this particular topic. It is nice to hear of some relief, however small, on such a terrible infection.

Pre-Reading Entry: "Collapse"

"Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fall or Suceed", by Jared Diamond, the acclaimed author of "Guns, Germs and Steel", is, like his previous book, a book combining geology and history to reach conclusions, often ones that are rarely if ever considered, about the world we live in.

But, unlike "Guns, Germs and Steel", which focused on the rise of civilization (touching on evolution and using the principles which undermine it to analyze later developments in history), Collapse focuses on the fall of it. Because I find the reasons why empires fall, species become extinct and civilization disintegrates, I am very excited to read this book. I greatly enjoyed "Guns, Germs and Steel", and was impressed by its skillfull melding of science and history, and so anticipate pleasant similarities in "Collapse".

The first paragraph of the blurb of "Collapse" reads:

"What is more haunting than the specter of a civilization's collapse the abandoned temples of Angkor Wat, the Maya cities overgrown by jungle, or the somber vigil of Easter Island's statues? Who hasn't looked at such ruins and wondered, could the same thing happen to us?"

The book is 525 pages not counting index and bibliography, which I think is a good length for a book, especially one on so heavy a topic. On the cover of the edition I have there is a beautiful black and white photograph of the ruins of Mayan temples which I believe sets the tone of the book quite well.

I am very excited to read this book and look forward ti sharing my thoughts about it with everyone here.

(By the way, does anyone think it would be a good idea to label our posts with our username and whether the entry is a pre-, mid- or post-reading entry? I'm going to do so for now, but will delete them if our administrator thinks it neccesary.)

Blog Rules

To My Dear Students

I must now begin enforcing some of the rules we discussed in class regarding blog postings.

• From this point on, only legitimate, science-related postings will be accepted.
• All the fun postings from our first day have been archived to November 2006 to keep the clutter in one place. If you want to comment on someone's fun post go to the November archives.
• All entries must use the standard font and normal size and black text. An occasional colored word for emphasis can be used, but I will edit any abuse of color.
• Use proper spelling, punctuation, grammar. etc., to the best of your ability. Use the spell checker.
• Do not use chat room abbreviations (FCOL).
• DO NOT USE ALL CAPS! (It's not nice to shout.)
• Feel free to complain about these rules in the comment section below.

Pre-reading Entry

The book i am reading is the Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales by Oliver Sacks.

The back of the book says "Oliver Sacks' The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat tells the stories of individuals afflicted with fantastic perceptual and intellectual aberrations: patients who have lost their memories and with them the greater part of their parts; who are no longer able to recognize people and common objects; who are stricken with violent tics and grimaces or who shout involuntary obscenities; whose limbs have become alien; who have been dismissed as retarded yet are gifted with uncanny artistic or mathematical talents."
I chose this book because from the title and the description the book looked like it was interesting. And i hope that it is interesting and that it isn't dull because then i will be disapointed....

Blog Problems

The problem some of you have had with posting are not your fault - it is a bug that "BLOGGER" is working now to fix:

UPDATE: This problem has been fixed. You should be able to post now. (1/5/07 )

• Blogger Status
  
  Friday, January 05, 2007
  
  New Blogger is currently experiencing issues with:
  
  --team blogs: non-admin team members are seeing errors when trying to post
  
  Thanks for your patience - we'll have these fixed asap.
  
  Posted by Eric at 09:21 PST

In the future you can check this site to see if the problem you are having is with the website:

Blogger Status

I Know What Book I'm Going To Read

So today I was looking at the sheet mr. gatton gave us and i was like hmmm I think I'm going to read the book that is only 86 pages! haha! But yes it looks very interesting too! It's about like some guy who got a metal bar in his head but lived like 11 years after or something. I hear its pretty grusome though. EEKKKK! haha! Well at least I have a book! YAY! See you guys tomorrow!

Pre-Reading Heading [Stiff]

Okay so i am reading a book called "Stiff" by Mary Roach. This book is an distrubing but often hilarious exploration of the strange lives of our bodies examination. For thousand years, cadavers have been involved in science's boldest strides and weirdest undertaking. In this fascinating book, Mary Roach visits the good deeds of cadavers over the centuries and tells the exciting story of our bodies when we are no longer with them. I chose this because it looked interesting when i skimmed through it. Kristina wanted this book too but i got it before her.....(Sorry Kristina...luv u!).....anyway i always wanted to learn about dead bodies. Most importantly what happens to our bodies when our spirit leaves it. By reading this book i wish to learn more about dead bodies and what interest do these researchers and scientists have in dead bodies. I expect some parts to be boring and some to be interesting. So far at chapter 3 the book is moving along fine.

Origins of Humans

Field Guide to Human Origins
I expected a little more story oriented, but aside from that the first chapter seemed fine, (Although apparently the author seems to think he's hilarious.) a lot of information, good facts, and I expect to get a good view of the Human of evolution from this book.

truly nobody's, Devil's Advocate

CrazyCatlady's Blogger project info

Hi everyone! I am starting my project on this wonderful day of January 3rd 2007! I am reading Great Myth- Conceptions a book by DR. Karl Kruszelnicki. I am planning on writing 10 entrys on the book's articles. And afterlooking the choices I have to read, I am thinking of these: Did Albert Einstein flunk school?, Do so called truth serums really work?, and many others. Interested? Well you can always read my blog entries and feel welcome to comment. See ya later!

CCL7

I have my book!

Ok. So this book I found. It's called "Honey, Mud, Maggots, and Other Medical Marvels"
-The Science Behind Folk Remedies and Old Wives' Tales.
The book is by Robert and Miche(accent mark)le Root-Bernstein.
This book is basically about old cures and medicines that may seem crazy and/or gross to us now and back then. But they might have been proven to work.
I thought that this book would be really interesting. I mean come on, maggots?!? As a cure?!?
Well, anyways, thanks for reading my post. And comment back! If you want to of course...
Kalina

Revised Assignment

Check the original post outlining the reading blog assignment and make a note of the changes - book length has been reduced to 50-100 pages, number of articles reduced to 10.

Written component remains unchanged. If you already started a much larger book and wish to continue you will be awarded extra credit proportional to the number of pages - every 100 pages = an extra credit if additional blog entries are posted.