A Year In Review

Events.... And the Tragedies

A radar loop of Typhoon Haiyan when it struck Leyte Island. 

          Well, 2013 is withering away and many events have happened. Some were tragic, while others were all right. One of the tragedies was the death of  Nelson Mandela. He died on December 5, 2013, at the age of 95. He died from a  respiratory infection. Another tragic event that happened was the death of musician/singer/songwriter Lou Reed. Lou Reed died on October 17, 2013, at the age of 71. He had a liver transplant but died of liver disease. Two more people who died were Cory Monteith, who was on the television show "Glee",  and Paul Walker, who was in the Fast & Furious movies. But a recent event that happened recently was the Super Typhoon Haiyan. 

Source: The New York Times/ Wikipedia

Memorable Things in the Year 2013

      The year is coming to an end and 2014 is right ahead. The news event that I will remember most this year is the strike of typhoon Haiyan. As I told you before, This was a devastating event destroying the Philippines.   A top pop culture moment that  will be a memorable to me is the internet meme  "What Does the Fox Say!". A pop song that I will remember Is the song by Katy Perry "ROAR". The most memorable event in my personal life this year is when I went to India after four years. Something that 2013 taught me is the fat that I am lucky to have food, water, education, shelter, and money. When I went to India, I saw many homeless people who were living in poverty. something that I am looking forward to in the year 2014 is the new movies that will come out, and the scientific and technological advances that us humans prosper.

Thinking Matters

                My favorite scientific advancement this year was the launch of a robot to Mars. What was yours? I challenge you to have fun this new year and also to make a new year's resoution.

Dream: Do Animals Do It?

Do Animals Dream?

   

                Have you ever wondered if your pet dreams? If Flash or Fluffy were running through a field of dandelions or chewing on a humongous  bone? Do animals really dream? If you ever watched a dog sleeping,you probably thought to yourself that the dog was dreaming.As a matter of fact, scientists would agree about this matter. But how do they know? Do they talk to the dog and ask what it dreamed about ? Of course not! Scientists have more clever ways to learn what is going on inside a brain of an animal when its sleeping. Researchers from Cambridge University used studies made at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to decide that animals do dream. In fact, they concluded that animals have very complicated dreams that replay memories or events that happened while they were awake. Researchers studied rats that had been trained to run on a track. They plotted and measured the brain activity with electrodes while the rats were awake and running.  They then did the same thing while the rats slept .The researchers learned that the rats experience rapid eye movement(REM) sleep like humans. During REM sleep is when humans experience dreams. Scientists observed similar behavior in the rats they studied. After  comparing the information from when the rats were awake with the data from when they were asleep.. They concluded that the data strongly supported the view that the rats had replayed long series of waking events while they were asleep. In other words, the rats were dreaming about running on the track!

Dogs Like Humans

               We know that  animals dream what they did before, but doesn't that mean that they dream similar to us. For example, according to an article in PawNation, a dog named Roxy survived in a drainage ditch in the wettest and coldest part of the year with compound fractures on both wrists, for five and a half weeks. When fast asleep on most on most nights, Roxy would whimper and growl to unidentifiable sounds.  We humans  sometimes talk in our sleep. For instance, when I was at a sleep over a boy was turning and flipping about a movie he watched the previous night. He was muttering and yelling, which scared me a lot. I myself don't watch horror movies because I get nightmares when I sleep. So animals have the basic dreams like us. Past events that we remember us.

10 Types of Dreams 

1. Daydreams:  Occurs during the day and when you let your imagination carry away. As your mind begins to wander and you lose yourself in your imagined scenario  and fantasy
2. Lucid Dreams: Occur when you realize  you are dreaming. You become an active participant in your dream and "make "  your outcome happen.
3. False Awakening Dreams: Some thing that you think happened but was only a dream. For example, You thought you brushed your teeth and got ready in the morning, But wake up to find it was only a dream. 
4. Nightmares: A disturbing dream that causes you to wake up feeling anxious or frightened. This may be a response to a real trauma or situation.
5. Recurring Dreams: Repeat  themselves with little variation in story or theme. These dreams may be positive, but are nightmarish in content.
6. Healing Dreams: Messages that regard the dreamers health. Ancient Greeks called these types of dreams "prodromic" 
7. Prophetic Dreams: Precognitive or psychic dreams. They foretell the future.
8. Signal Dreams: Help you solve problems or make decisions in your life.
9. Epic Dreams: Are so huge,so compelling, and vivid that you can't ignore them.The details of these dreams remain with you for years, as if you just dreamt it last night.
10. Mutual Dreams: described as such when two people have the same dream.Not much study has gone into the phenomenon of mutual dreams, but there is a very strong bond that exist between these two people.

Source: www.dreammoods.com

Thinking Matters 

      We know that rats and dogs dream, but what animals don't dream? I challenge you to research this topic and comment on it.

The Rhinoceros

Endangered and Rare

            In the dense forests of tropical Africa, thousands of these creatures were alive. Now, only a few are left. I am talking  about the rhinoceros. the rhinoceros, usually called the rhino, gets its name from its horn. the word rhinoceros comes from the Greek  words rhino(nose) and ceros( horn). For hundreds of years, rhino horn has been used by people as medicine for fever and stroke. However, rhino horn is made of keratin, the same substance of what our hair and nails are made of. Just like hair and nails, a rhino horn doesn't have any healing powers. Nevertheless, the rhinos still are being killed for their horns. Rhino horn is so valuable that in some areas of the world, it can be old on the black market for three times the price of gold!

Sizes of the five species of rhino

Illegal poaching is one of the chief reasons that rhinos are so rare today. 
              There are five species of rhinos. White and black rhinos are native to eastern and southern Africa. greater one-horned rhinos can be found in northern India and southern Nepal. Sumatran and Javan can be only found in small areas of Vietnam, Malaysia, and Indonesia. Illegal poachers have destroyed the rhino populations in Asia and Africa. Indian and black rhinos have been reduced to only a few thousand animals, while white rhinos may exist in numbers in excess of  7,500.  Sumatran and Javan  are the rarest species of rhino. Scientists believe that there are 400 and fewer Sumatran rhinos and only less than 100 Javan rhinos left in the world.

Source: www. wonderopolis.org

            

Thoughts on Poaching 

                Poaching is the chief cause of the decrease of rhino population. According to Wikipedia, in the wild, adult rhinoceroses only have one natural predator, human. Although rhino's are viewed to be tough, they are easily poached. The rhino's visit to water holes daily can be easily killed while drinking. Only Nepal has avoided poaching, while poachers become more sophisticated. About 69% of rhinos are located in Nepal. To prevent poaching in some areas, the rhinos are tranquilized and have their horns taken off, being less likely to be killed.   

Top Five Rhinoceros Species 

1.

This is the white rhino. It is actually grey, not white.

2.

This is a black rhino. it looks like the white rhino, but has a wider snout.

3.

This is the Indian rhino(also known as the greater one-horned rhino). It is the largest species of rhino.

4.

This is a Javan rhino. It is one of the rarest species of rhino.

5.

This is the Sumatran rhino. it is the smallest, and one of the rarest species of rhino. 

Thinking Matters 

   What other uses does the rhino horn have other then medicine? I challenge you to research this topic and then comment on it.