Thursday, May 13, 2010

PLN 31

I just read the article by the Associated Press, “Newton's apple tree bound for gravity-free orbit,” A piece of the Newton’s apple tree is being taken up into space on the Atlantis shuttle. An astronaut took this piece of the tree into space as an ironic joke but it is now turning into a major experiment. The astronaut just thought it would be funny to have a piece of the tree that helped discover gravity, in a zero gravity environment. But it has led scientist to begin testing what happens to plants in outer space. The thinking is that if plants can still grow without gravity, then it might make it possible to have colonies in space. Obviously the plant would have to be provided with necessary water and light, but otherwise hope is good for the survival of the zero gravity photosynthesizes. This matters to the world because we could be transported to large space stations, or even bases on another planet to live there. This effects education because of all the opportunities it will present. This will create jobs as well as new information and new engineering that needs to be figured out. With space farms, longer periods of time could be spent in orbit with out having restock flights. I think this is just amazing. In my US history class we are talking about all the decades up to the 2000’s and how technology has changed so rapidly in the last 10 to 20 years. Now colonization in outer space is a possibility? Wow!

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

PLN 30

No charges against man with rifle at Summit County High School,” from the Denver Post, tells of a man who picked up his daughter from school with an unloaded .22 caliber rifle in the trunk of his car. This is scary to me because I wouldn’t feel safe if people had weapons in their car at school. Someone saw the rifle in the trunk and reported it. After investigating the issue the Summit County Sheriff’s Office is droping charges due to the fact that it was and accident and he had no hostile intentions. I don’t think this is worthy of jail time or anything like that but I think he should at least be fined. Having a weapon on school ground should be a big deal. I believe that this ruling just shows that it is okay to have weapons and threaten the safety of the students and teachers. This issue should be a bigger deal than the police made it even though there weren’t any cruel intentions. No one should have weapons on school property, accidentally or on purpose.

Sunday, May 2, 2010

PLN 29

The article, 2txt? Or Nt 2txt by Garrison Keillor talks about how young men have lost social skills because of texting and e-mail. Keilor also states that girls have somehow maintained their personal relationship abilities through these tough technological times. This is because even though girls text as much as boys they also do a lot more talking, all girls do. In spite of that, I disagree with Mr. Keillor, I personally still have the ability to talk to people interact. In my own experiences I have found that I am still very capable of holding conversations with adults or even people my age. I text everyday, for the majority of the day, and yet I believe my social skills are fine. I can talk to my teachers, friends, girls, adults and anybody else you can think of without having much of a problem. The case might not be the same for other guys my age, but I know that I have no problem, and my friends don’t seem to have much of a problem either. Thus I am forced to disagree with Mr. Keillor, and say that I am just as capable as any girl, of maintaining good people skills while texting constantly.