AoW #6
In response to: Japan’s Nuclear Crisis Widens
Japan’s Nuclear Crisis Widens
A recent article from Los Angeles Times reports that the situation in japan is getting a lot worse than it was before. People thought this situation was already controlled but apparently, it is intensifying. Authorities are bringing water from the sea to cool off the reactors. Using sea water was a drastic emergency measure people had to use because the cooler was not functioning correctly. All the world is wondering what will happen with this crisis and how will it affect Japan’s economy, which is the third largest in the whole world. Because of this tragedy, 1,598 were killed, and 1,720 people are missing. Fortunately, Japan has received help from many countries. As it says in the article, “An international rescue effort gathered force, with teams arriving from China, New Zealand, Germany and the United States, among other nations. Eighty-eight governments and six international institutions have offered assistance with recovery efforts, the Japanese Foreign Ministry announced. Even Bangladesh offered to help — an unaccustomed reversal for Japan, one of the world’s biggest donors of foreign aid.”
While reading this article, I began to wonder about what preventions does Colombia need to take is something like this happen and also if Colombia is prepared for such situations. To learn more, I investigated about how buildings have to be built so that we are safe from this disasters and what kind of places have this type of construction. I was surprised to learn that Colombia would not be prepared for these tragedies because we are an undeveloped country and few of our buildings and structures are constructed to be earthquake proof. We have not taken enough safety procedures to prevent natural disasters which can happen in any second. Shinkawa states “I ran away after learning that the tsunami was coming, but I turned back to pick up something at home, when I was washed away. I was rescued while I was hanging [on] to the roof from my house.” Shinkawa’s point is that he was not ready for what happened and that luckily there were authorities that were. But if something like this happens to our country, I am not sure that we will know how to act.
My research activity does not change my initial conclusions as stated in paragraph two. I still think that this is truly a tragedy and we will not be prepared for something like this because as I said before, we are a developing country and we are missing a lot to be as advanced as a country as Japan or the United States. After a month or two after the tsunami and the earthquake occurred in Japan, they had already reconstructed all the cities and solved all of the problems except for the nuclear crisis. This situation can be compared with the earthquake at Haiti. Japan and Haiti are very different since Haiti is a developing country and Japan a developed one. We can notice this by the way they contrast when reacting to the disaster. I think that if this happens in Colombia we would handle the situation in between of how it was handled in Japan and Haiti.
While the problem of the nuclear crisis cannot be solved very easily, we must continue to help them in any way we can in order to help them get over what is happening right know. My hope is that one day we can learn how to be strong as the people in Japan were and be ready for something like this to happen in any second.
Word Count 594
AoW#7
In response to: On the Left Hand, There Are No Easy Answers
On the Left Hand, There Are No Easy Answers
A recent article from the New York Times reports that during the last decades, people have been judged just for the fact of being left handed. They were accused of many crimes and were required to learn how to be right handed. Now at days, this situation, which 10% of kids are born with, is still a mystery. Some scientists think that the asymmetry on a human being is linked to the asymmetry in the brain, but the question still remains, what causes this to happen? As Dr. Francks said, “is not at all understood; we’re really at the very beginning of understanding what makes the brain asymmetrical and what goes wrong, we don’t even understand that process in the normal case.”
I’ve always believed that left handed people are exactly the same as people that are right handed but the only difference is that they feel more comfortable using their left hand for writing and holding things. Its is the same as some people who prefer learning by watching examples or others that prefer copying from the board. Everyone is different in their own way, and left handed people are a great percent that are different from the majority, but if the majority of the people were left handed, will the right handed be discriminated? Also, many people assume that this is a genetic problem and that many people are left handed because their parents were. I think this might be true because it is very likely that this happens. It is like some people who have twins because this gene runs in their family.
While reading this article,I got interested in knowing what scientists think about this to understand what is the problems answer toward this question. Also what is the common knowledge about this condition? To learn more, I researched an organization called ICHED (http://www.iched.org/cms/scripts/page.php?site_id=iched&item_id=research_lefthandedness) that is a research to find out what is different about the people who are right handed or left handed. I was surprised to learn that it is assumed that this is a genetic trait and that is is also because these people have a different brain asymmetry. In fact Dr. Daniel Geschwind, a professor of human genetics, neurology and psychiatry at U.C.L.A. School of Medicine states, “Handedness has a genetic basis, but like other complex traits it is complex,” he said. “It’s not a single gene that leads to it. There’s a strong environmental component, too. It’s a very tricky problem.” Basically, Dr. Daniel is saying that it is not a sure thing but it is believed that people are left handed because of their genes as the research said.
My research activity does change my initial conclusions as stated in paragraph two because I first thought that it was just because they were more comfortable but the truth is that it is something that is different in their brains which makes them prefer their left hand. And this brain asymmetry is inherited by their family and one or many genes.
On the Left Hand There Are No Easy Answers
Word count: 509
AoW# 8
In response to: Kids who skip school are tracked by GPS
Kids who skip school are tracked by GPS
A recent article by Eric Carpenter reports that many kids have been missing school very frequently and have many unexcused absences. Because this might lead some students to join gangs, to be delinquents, and do criminal acts, then police is doing an intervention. Students with more than 4 unexcused absences have to carry a handheld GPS device, about the size of a cell phone, so that the police can track down to ensure that they are attending to class. 5 times a day, the students are required to enter a code that reveals their location. Also each day they receive a call to remind them to go to school and 3 times a week an adult coach will call him or her at least three times a week to see how he or she are doing and help them find effective ways to make sure they get to class on time. This device doesn’t benefit these kids at all because the GPS costs $300-$400 each. Overall, the six-week program costs about $8 per day for each student, or $18,000. The police does this tracking because kids who skip school are more likely to join gangs.
Conventional wisdom has it that this would help kids attend to school every day and to get higher grades, and of course better attendance. I also think this way, and I am very sure it will be like this because these children have no other choice. They have to agree to this program or they can’t attend to the same high school they were attending. I think this decision and program are very extreme. As Raphael Garcia said, “I feel like they come at us too hard, and making kids carry around something that tracks them seems extreme.” I agree with this worried parent whose 6th grader has six unexcused absences. They must be feeling as they are criminals and are going against the law if they are tracked by the police.
While reading this article, I got interested to know what happened if kids didn’t attend to class and to find out why didn’t they attach the GPS to the children so that they won’t lose them and don’t have to insert the code. This also got me thinking about why they had to enter a code if they are always carrying these devices with them. To learn more, I investigated about this Anaheim company and I found an interview with an expert which answered all of my doubts and much more. The website where I found this was: http://www.ocregister.com/news/students-288732-class-don.html. I was surprised to find out that if they skip school while they are tracked by the GPS, the police will communicate with the attendance offices at the schools, who will follow protocols. Sometimes that means sending out a police officer to check on the student and make sure they get to class. That is a little bit too exaggerated as is all of their procedure. In fact, Garcia complains that, “This makes us seem like common criminals.” In other words, Garcia believes that If a kid is carrying a device that is tracked by the authorities, it makes them feel as if they are doing something against the law and maybe be bullied in school.
I still think that this is a very drastic and extreme thing to do for some innocent kid who missed 4 days of school because as I have said before, they would think they are criminals and, yes, they will realize that what they have done is wrong, but there are other options to solve this problem in high schools.
Kids who skip school are tracked by GPS
Word Count: 610
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