Organics

Going Organic!

Have you ever been to your local farmers market? If yes, than you are eating and buying organic food! When you eat these organic foods, they come from organic farms. An organic farm is a farm that does not use any nasty chemicals or makes and bad changes to the food you are going to eat. You will see that there is a big difference between organic farms and GMO farms. Want to know what a GMO really is? Well, a GMO stands for Genetically Modified Organisms. This is any plant or animals that some people change or put gross chemicals into to make them "better". But, these chemicals are not good for you, the animals, or the plants!

Figure 1

To Spray, or Not to Spray

Big farms that like to change their foods, also like to spray their foods. They spray their foods with herbicides and pesticides. Herbicides and pesticides are chemicals used to make sure no bugs go on your food, and no little plants get mixed in with your fruits and veggies. While it sounds like a great idea, it isn't very healthy for you! The big bosses in charge of these GMO farms know this too. So when they get their workers to go out and spray these plants, they usually make them wear masks! They know that if they do not wear masks, they will breathe in bad and smelly chemicals and hurt their bodies. These chemicals can really damage your body, and they can have many side effects when ingested or breathed in (1).But when it comes to organic farms, they do things a little bit differently. Organic farmers pride themselves on not using any type of chemicals, and only what the Earth gives them (figure 1). These nice and friendly farmers believe you do not have to use these bad chemicals to make food taste super yummy. You will find out that the fruits your mom gets at the super market do not look like the ones she may get at a organic farm...

Farming Brought to You

Figure 2

Instead of those huge strawberries you get at the big grocery stores, you can sometimes see that organic strawberries are smaller (Figure 2). There is usually a huge difference in how these look. Just like with the strawberries, you can typically see in other fruits and veggies! But when it comes to the meat you are buying, this can be a little bit trickier. To make this process of buying organic food easier, try using a game! The easiest way is to play eye spy. By searching for the logo USDA ORGANIC (figure 3) you can search through foods till you find those yummy (and healthy) snacks! Anything with this label is approved by the standards set for organic foods(2)!

 Farm VS. Farm

       

Figure 3

When it comes to organic and non organic farms, they are so different! At organic farms, you will never find an unhappy animal or plant. All animals are fed super healthy foods, with no chemicals in them! This is the same for plants! Not only do animals get to roam around big fields, but are cared for by really nice people and live a good life. When it comes to the plants, you will never see a pesticide or herbicide in sight! For big GMO farms, animals do not get the same treatment as the ones at organic farms do. Most of these animals never even see the light of day. They are stuffed into big rooms with hundreds of the same animals. Most of these animals are even taken from their parents as soon as they are born! They are fed food that is not good for them too, which is all full of GMOs (3). This food can sometimes even make them sick! If the animal has an infection or is sick before you eat them, than that means the meat you are eating might be infected! If something is infected, it can get you infected too. That can make you sick, or cause funny stuff to happen in your body. This means you are not only putting into your body gross chemicals from the veggies, but gross sicknesses too!

What can YOU do About it?

Some things you can do to make sure you and your friends are eating healthy is spread the word! Let people know what they should and shouldn't be eating, and where and how to get it! Stores such as Whole Foods and your local farmers markets are great places to look for organic foods. Listed below are some links to videos to help you understand more about organics!

Now U Know - Organic vs GMO

GMO vs Organic

References

(1)"Pesticides and Herbicides." Pesticides and Herbicides. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Aug. 2016.

(2) "Organic Standards." Organic Trade Association. N.p., n.d. Web.

(3) "Concerns about Industrialized Dairy Operations - GMO Inside." GMO Inside. N.p., 23 Oct. 2014. Web. 02 Aug. 2016.

methamphetamine

                                  Methamphetamine

What is meth?

Meth is an illegal stimulant drug. Stimulant drugs cause activity in the mind and body. Meth causes many things to happen in your body. It can cause your blood pressure to go up as well as your heart rate to quicken. It also can cause damage to small vessels in your brain which can lead to a stroke. A stroke is when the blood supply can not get to certain  parts of your brain. It also has an effect on your mind. Meth can cause delusions, aggression, anxiety and insomnia. Delusions means to see or hear things that are not real. Insomnia is not being able to sleep. You can die from meth by taking to much.

 What does crank look like?

Don't mistake the picture above for blue pop rocks. Meth can come in many different forms and colors. Rock and powder form are most common. The colors range from a dull brown to orange.

How is meth made?

To start out meth is man made in hidden laboratories because it is illegal. The chemicals in meth start out with amphetamine and can also include acetone which is found in nail polish. Lithium which is found in batteries is also common to find in meth. Do you really want chemicals that are found in nail polish and batteries in your body?

 How is speed used? 

Speed can be injected, snorted, smoked or taken orally. The impact or high hits you quicker if you smoke or inject it which is why they are the preferred methods of use. Anyone can get wrapped up in using meth if they make the wrong decision just once, even you. College students, truck drivers, moms and dads are all offenders.

Legal Dangers?

 If you are found using meth it is a misdemeanor. If you're found distributing meth it is a felony. Either way you can get jail time. 

Fast Facts:

• A pharmacologist in Japan developed meth 
• It started in 1919
• It was given to pilots in world war 2 but was found to make them aggressive.
• The first meth outbreak started in Japan and spread to Guam.
• It was regulated in the controlled substance act in the '70's 
• In the 1900's and 2000's congress passes the Comprehensive Methamphetamine Control Act which regulates the buying and selling of chemicals that could be used to make meth. 
• Meth is used widely by men who have sex with other men 
• HIV is doubled by homosexual men who use meth opposed to those who don't.
• An estimated 12 million people ages 12 and older have used meth.

  References

A brief history of Methamphetamine - Alcohol and Drug ... (n.d.). Retrieved July 27, 2016, from

http://healthvermont.gov/adap/meth/brief_history.aspx

Hittner, J. B. (2016). Meta-analysis of the association between methamphetamine use and

high-risk sexual behavior among heterosexuals.Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 30(2),

147-157

National Drug Intelligence Center [U.S], 2003

Pennsylvania Meth Offenses | Criminal Lawyer | Hughes Firm. (n.d.). Retrieved July 27, 2016,

From http://www.philadelphiacriminallawyers.pro/pennsylvania-methamphetamine-offenses

Real Life Stories – Effects of Methamphetamine Drug Abuse. (n.d.). Retrieved July 27, 2016,                        

from http://www.drugfreeworld.org/real-life-stories/crystal-meth.html

Damn you Autocorrect

         Ducking Autocorrect

Figure 1

Every teenager has either had a bad experience with autocorrect or seen memes of it on the internet. These mistakes can be funny or detrimental depending on the context. So why do we have autocorrect? Autocorrect started as early as the 1960's because no one has perfect grammar. However even the most complex programs aren't enough to master the complexity of the human language. 

Who Made It?

Figure 2

Not one person came up with the idea of autocorrect just as not one person came up with the idea for a vehicle that can fly. However there are pioneers of autocorrect such as Dean Hachamovitch who is the closet thing to the true creator of autocorrect (Gideon, 2014). It all started when he got angry at making the same mistakes over and over again like saying "teh" instead of "the". He realized that he could put in code into Microsoft word to correct "teh" to "the" after a the space is hit. He went on to put in many more common misspellings into a misspelled words dictionary which scans every word that is typed. If the the word matches then it is changed to the right word. This type of thinking is still used today and users of most autocorrect software can actually add their own common misspellings. So if you say "haga" instead of "haha" on your smartphone like I do, You can add "haga" to your dictionary and make it change to "haha". However, some people use this for mischievous reasons as seen in figure 2 when a teenager changed the word "no" to say different things on his parent's phones. 

Evolution of Autocorrect

Through the years, Autocorrect software has made significant improvements. This doesn't just mean that people added more common word misspellings. Autocorrect software is now smart enough to learn the users common spelling errors, use key placement to better correct words, find grammatical errors, and even change suggestions based on memory. Apple is now improving there autocorrect software with this memory system which is called LSTM (long short-term memory). This learns from what you type in the past and applies it to what you are typing at the moment. So if you have been talking about camping for the past few days. You can expect to see "camp" come up as a suggestion after you type "I want to c". The grammatical side of autocorrect is also very useful for things like catching the right use of "there", "their", and "they're" which people seem to misuse all the time anyways. However, grammar corrector software finds mistakes about 50% of the time which isn't bad... or is it?

Figure 3

Learning

Almost all of us have found ourselves in the situation where you're writing an essay (physically) and you have to change a whole sentence to avoid misspelling a word (figure 3). The claim for many is that Autocorrect software interferes with out ability to memorize or retain spellings of words. It is thought that autocorrect leads to it's users become lazy with spelling therefore not making them care about how to spell believe because autocorrect will fix it for them. Many of us are guilty of this. I know for a fact that I have trouble spelling simple words like "believe" or "Interested". However, some people believe that autocorrect is beneficial to learning because It repeatedly tells the user the correct way to spell a word.

                           Privacy 

As I discussed earlier, LSTM has been rising in the autocorrect industry. This concept works by basically monitoring everything you do to know that you might be talking about that big camping trip this weekend. This could be misused to market camping gear to you instead of just suggesting more camping related items than usual. Who knows how autocorrect will respect privacy in the future. It might soon even gain access to our microphones to hear what we are talking about.

References

Apple. (2016, June). WWDC 2016 Keynote [Video File].

            Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5jXg_NNiCA.

Gideon, L. (2014, July 22). The fasinating… fascinating history of autocorrect. Wired.

            Retrieved from http://www.wired.com/

Ocean Pollution

Ocean Pollution in our oceans 

Have you ever wondered why our oceans aren't as clear blue like we see in pictures? Well this is caused by Ocean Pollution. Ocean Pollution is contamination in the water from harmful chemicals and pesticides. There are many ways that this occurs as well as multiple ways this problem can be solved.

Causes 

Most pollution in the ocean is caused from oil spills and dumping of waste. Oil spills have occurred many times throughout the years and have taken a huge toll on marine life in the ocean. Another resource of pollution re industries who use synthetic materials such as plastic and inorganic pesticides. These materials have a greater punishment that some people could imagine.

Effects 

Not only are these materials toxic, but they also increase chance of cancers, physical birth defects and mental retardation. Humans unknowingly used to drink contaminated water which led to various diseases such as cholera and typhoid. 10 percent of 100 million tons of plastic ends up in the sea each year. The debris accumulates in the water and is consumed by marine mammals, fish and birds who mistake it as food. More than a million seabirds and mammals die each year due to the ingestion of plastic.

Ways to decrease Pollution 

We can all decrease pollution just by simply picking up our trash. Using a reusable bag at the grocery store can generously impact our oceans. Larger scale solutions for ocean pollution would be to have stronger regulations on industries dumping their waste into the sea. Not putting items such as medicines and insecticides dow our drain, sink and toilet. By doing these things we can help to decrease pollution in our oceans.





References 

Bernard, M. (2010, June).

      Retrieved from http://greenliving.lovetoknow.com/Ocean_Pollution_Causes

Ferrara, A. History.

      Retrieved from http://www.pollutionissues.com/Fo-Hi/History.html

Water and Air Pollution. (2009).

      Retrieved from http://www.history.com/topics/water-and-air-pollution