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Last Minute Blogging?

Greetings! Well Im guessing that everyone will be reading this late at n ight as it comes down to the wire when we all have to turn in our blog posts on Tuesday! I was a moron and never posted anything during the semester because I suck like that but I applaude those of you who were good students and kept up with it. I regret not posting because i am just now reading the interesting comments flying around the site. Good luck to all that are posting late into the night like myself! Procrastinating catches everyone...am I wrong?

HGH used in healthy Adults

For you last minute bloggers like myself, here is some more fodder:

HGH is human growth hormone and has been around since the 1920's. It is derived from human cadaver glands and only a few drops at a time. That is, until a biotech company successfully cloned insulin and then began marketing a GE, genetically engineered, version. It was used for 30 years for children and adults with deficient growth with little or no side effects and is now being marketed to adults without growth deficiencies to counter the effects of aging.

We have been talking a lot about genetically modified crops and fertilizers. Would you consider using a genetically modified product HGH to increase your youthfulness and longevity? Why or why not?

Ukranian Election

The previous primeminister of the Ukraine was re-elected in last month's election. Claims are being made that the election was rigged in his favor. Could this be the reason motivating his recent poisoning that permanently scarred his face? Check out the article listing the proposed ways that the election was rigged at:

http://slate.msn.com/id/2110858/

Bush and baseball

This is an article desribing Bush's opinion about illegal drugs used in baseball and what action the sport should take. Aparently, he included this in his January address. He feels that the teams should impose stricter penalties for players that use illegal performance enhancing drugs and that their use by professional sports players undermines 'the efforts of parents and coaches to send the right message' to their youthful players and children. Do you think this is something that Bush as president should include in his presidential address? For those unaware, he was part owner in a team, the Texas Rangers.
Read it yourself at:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/12/09/MNGFFA91PF1.DTL&type=printable

Abe Lincoln and John Kerry

The Star Tribune reported on December 13 something very interesting. Republican Abe Lincoln carried nearly exactly the same states in the 1860 election as Democrat John Kerry did in 2004. It is very interesting that there has been a complete opposite shift in politics since the first Republican president.

gm foods

GM foods, if the U.S. actually took the time to introduce them around the globe, could effectively fight world hunger. To me, its not really a question of whether or not its moral, since I believe that over time it will have to happen. I mean, if you considered what the world would be like if no one ever persued something that was immoral (a science), I think we're better off just letting it happen. The only qualm I have about it is the ability to control these different crop types from cross-pollination, and making sure pests don' t somehow develop immunities to the different effects of hybrid plants.

GMOs: What's your take?

GMOs are very contriversial. They have been introduced in recent years and used in many different applications. GMOs are designed to modify organisms to have all desirable traits. In agricultue, they have been used to modify almost all crops in one way or another. They are used to resist pests, increase yields, etc. Many people believe GMOs are the answer to world hunger. Others believe GMOs are bad because they believe it is like playing God. At any rate, I think there needs to be lots more research before we use them in huge quantities.

Five most recent pings

Check out the 'Five most recent Ping's section and note the post regarding the pro-life guy who is politically pro-choice. I thought it was well-stated. What do you think?

Is Hell exothermic?

I received this email and I thought is was very funny and interesting. Just in case a question like this appears on the chem final (I'm sure it won't though), you'll have an idea on how to respond.

Subject: Is Hell exothermic?
The following is supposedly an actual question given on a University of Washington chemistry mid-term. The answer by one student was so "profound" that the professor shared it with colleagues, via the Internet, which is, of course, why we now have the pleasure of enjoying it as well.

Bonus Question: Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat) or endothermic (absorbs heat)?

Most of the students wrote proofs of their beliefs using Boyle's Law (gas cools when it expands and heats when it is compressed) or some variant. One student, however, wrote the following:

First, we need to know how the mass of Hell is changing in time. So we need to know the rate at which souls are moving into Hell and the rate at which they are leaving. I think that we can safely assume that once a soul gets to Hell, it will not leave. Therefore, no souls are leaving.

As for how many souls are entering Hell, let's look at the different Religions that exist in the world today. Most of these religions state that if you are not a member of their religion, you will go to Hell. Since there is more than one of these religions and since people do not belong to more than one religion, we can project that all souls go to Hell.

With birth and death rates as they are, we can expect the number of souls in Hell to increase exponentially. Now, we look at the rate of change of the volume in Hell because Boyle's Law states that in order for the temperature and pressure in Hell to stay the same, the volume of Hell has to expand proportionately as souls are added.

This gives two possibilities:

1. If Hell is expanding at a slower rate than the rate at which souls enter Hell, then the temperature and pressure in Hell will increase until all Hell breaks loose.

2. If Hell is expanding at a rate faster than the increase of souls in Hell, then the temperature and pressure will drop until Hell freezes over.

So which is it?

If we accept the postulate given to me by Teresa during my freshman year
that, "it will be a cold day in Hell before I sleep with you,� and take into account the fact that I slept with her last night, then number 2 must be true, and thus I am sure that Hell is exothermic and has already frozen over. The corollary of this theory is that since Hell has frozen over, it follows that it is not accepting any more souls and is therefore, extinct...leaving only Heaven thereby proving the existence of a divine being which explains why, last night, Teresa kept shouting "Oh my God."

THIS STUDENT RECEIVED THE ONLY "A"

Hallie O'Connor

No Sleep = More Pounds

I was just lookin through CNN.com and found this article that I thought looked pretty interesting. Apparently, two different studies found that lack of sleep is directly related to weight gain.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/HEALTH/diet.fitness/12/06/sleep.weight.gain.reut/index.html

theres the link if you want to check out the whole article.

Some interesting articles

This guy has a very interesting theory on life, the universe, and everything. Creation, but it is based mainly on science and physics rather than religion.
Click here

Here is the home page, tons of stuff on this site.
Click here

***DISCLAIMER***
"The site begins with a scientific feasibility analysis of the creation of life using molecular biology and physics followed by a probabilities analysis of a superior being existing based on a scientific analysis of the Torah or first five books of the Bible which promises to be controversial and interesting. I intend to be honest and frank and will, therefore, step on some toes. You have been warned. If you don't like the site, don't read it. Every thing contained in this site is the personal opinion of Carl Cantrell. This site WILL cause you to think. Be warned: I enjoy using dry humor to make points and keep the text interesting."
-Carl Cantrell, author of site

If you are easily offended by having your ideas challenged, it is probably not a good idea for you to read these links. This guy can be a bit... um... unconventional in some of his more political arguments.

You have been fairly warned in advance, so don't blame me for any offenses.

But I do encourage others to check out the site, as it will get some serious thought flowing and maybe some heated discussion.

god and America

Check out this blog. In fact until the 1940's there was no mention of God in the Pledge of allegience or on our money. There are even those that state that the founding fathers intended it that way.

http://www.plasticbag.org/archives/2002/06/america_one_godless_nation.shtml

dont read if you are obsessed with bush

ok so i have to write a blog, but i have nothing interesting to write about so i'll write a joke i heard the other day....
So this guy named jack comes out of the grocery store to see a cop writing parking tickets. He walks up to the cop and tries to talk him out of the ticket, the cop looks up at the man and continues to write the ticket so jack starts screaming swear words at the cop. The cop gets pissed off and writes another ticket. Jack grabs the cop and shakes him while still calling him names so the cop writes Anoher ticket. This goes on for about 15 minutes until the cop finally throws all the tickets on the car, gets into his own car and drives away. Then a stranger walked up to jack and asked him why he did that, jack starts laughing and repplied " i dont care my car is parked on the other side of the lot, but this one had a vote bush sticker on it so i thought i would have a little fun"...... u know its funny guys, just laugh

JFK Video Game

Has anybody seen that new video game that you can download from the Internet that you can go and assianate JFK. I didn't know anything about it, but today when I was in class this one girl brought up the subject on it and it turned out to be a very interesting discussion. It's weird because some guys over in Scotland decided to make a game of it and you can get it off the internet. To me, i personally don't like that because that was a time in history when our people lost a great president and to make a game out of it just isn't very fun.

Are we Americans "way too busy"

In a recent study, it was shown that the average American has approxamately 30 to 40 hours a week in extra activites scheduled. My first thoughts were that if our activities counted as jobs, we would all be rich. I strongly disagree with this statement because even with school and all my activities I don't feel overly busy. I feel like my time is well occupied and that I really don't find myself with a lot of downtime. Is this good that I am "busy" by someone else's standards but yet don't feel busy through experience? What are your guy's thoughts about this.