RR

                The book Blue Bloods by De La Cruz tells the story of teenage vampires. The characters are tested by forbidden love, and bonds between people. I think that one major theme in the book is the rules of some societies, especially with marriages.

              One way this is apparent is the love between Schuyler, or Sky and Jack. In the vampire world twins are bond together in internal love, the only one they can love is that other person. Jack is bound to Mimi, but chooses Sky other her. I think this really exhibits how love is supposed to work in other cultures. For example arranged marriages, where people don't have a say in who they love. I think that this is really unfair and love is something that people feel, not what others decide for them.

            The consequences of not following their cultures rules also show up in the book. Sky and Jack are going to be killed because they are in love. They must run away, fighting off constant attackers. I think this is very much like cross marriages between different cultures. Recently I was in Israel and we talked to an Arab woman about the marriage of a Jew and an Arab. She said if an Arab man was to marry a Jewish woman they most likely would have to leave their families, and if a Arab woman wanted to marry a Jewish man was really unthinkable because there was a chance she could be murdered. I think this really connects back to the book. I think it is trying to say that people shouldn't be stuck on marrying and loving people just like them, and if we break these bonds we will be able to get along better.

            I think that a hidden message in the book is that people should love who they want, and not let the rules of their society restrict them. I think its also saying that cultures should become less isolated and friendly so they can work together. I think that in Israel, if there was more marriage between Jews and Arabs the whole nation could get along much better.

Poetry

Sonnet:

A Road to Water

The sun creeps across the golden pink sky
It beats down upon the dusty dirt trail
We trudge along as time passed slowly by
Are water dwindling our food getting stale

Up the mountain we go towards the high top
A water bottle I hold in my hand
I take a long sip and drink the last drop
With out water we can not even stand

My eyes light up I see far away
A river that is sitting, bubbling
There is a shady tree where we can stay
We sit and relax no longer troubling

From the tree drops an orange which is sweet
I fall asleep after eating my treat

Poem:

Gone

there is a room

a room full of candles

where names bounce across the walls

in the dark, but yet light from the glow of the flames

there are trees, thousands of trees

that stand in a garden

the trees of the saviors

the brave 

the righteous

there is a hole dark and empty 

like the imprint of an astroid

gashing into the ground 

ridged

breath takingly

horrific

there are books

books and books and books

they line the walls 

floor to ceiling

seemingly going on forever

surrounding

they all represent the names

the names 

and names 

and names

11,000,000 people

6,000,000 jews

1,500,000 children

250,000 righteous 

gone

NF RR

                         This article The Joy of Fungal Sex: Penicillin Mold Can Reproduce Sexually, Which Could Lead to Better Antibiotics by Marissa Fessenden talks about how penicillin which was thought to only reproduce asexually can now reproduce sexually. Scientists think that these new variations can lead to break throughs with antibiotics. The purpose of penicillin is to kill any bacterias that tries to live where the fungi grows. Scientists have though for a very long time that penicillin reproduces asexually even after many years of study, but knew studies show it reproduces it can also reproduce sexually.

                       One thing I find really interesting in the article is "Paul Dyer, a fungal biologist at the University of Nottingham in England, suspected that P. chrysogenum would reproduce sexually if given the right encouragement"(Fessenden 1).You would think that if people thought this could be true they would have tested it sooner. "After five weeks in the dark, the fungi produced special structures called cleistothecia and ascospores, which only occur after sexual reproduction. Genetic analysis confirmed that genes had been sexually recombined"(Fessenden 1).  After extensive studies the scientist  found that penicillin still had genes needed for mating. Therefore, it could sexually reproduce. A study also showed that a gene that controls the fungi’s sexual reproduction controls the amount of penicillin it creates. This means that the penicillin which are having sex are creating more penicillin. The same scientist who made the discovery about penicillin also discovered that aspergillus fumigatus also sexually reproduces. 

I think that its really interesting that scientists can be studying something so closely for so long and not realize that it can sexually reproduce. I think that there studies would be able to show something as simple as that. This really shows the complicated side of science, there are so many details about things its hard to figure them all out. I think scientists have did an amazing job with this and I hope it leads to break throughs in antibiotics.

 Works Cited

Fessenden, Marissa. "The Joy of Fungal Sex: Penicillin Mold Can Reproduce Sexually, Which Could    Lead to Better Antibiotics: Scientific American." The Joy of Fungal Sex: Penicillin Mold Can    Reproduce Sexually, Which Could Lead to Better Antibiotics: Scientific American. N.p., 8 Feb. 2013. Web. 13 Feb. 2013. <http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=the-joy-of-fungal-sex>.

Non fiction RR

                   "Learning to Love Grains, Potatoes was Key to the Evolution of Dogs" is a non-fiction article by David Brown from The Washington Post. This article talks about the evolution of wolfs to dogs. One of the key factors where dogs and wolfs differ, is that dogs can easily digest starches wolfs can't. Scientists say that without this ability, dogs could not be our companions because they would want to eat us. The article also talks about statistics of when bonding of humans and dogs began, and the start of the agricultural era. This has shows the importance of a diet on a species.

                  I think that it's really interesting is that both humans and dogs developed liking  for agriculture around the same time. One example is "'I think it is a striking case of co-evolution,' said Erik Axelsson, a geneticist at Uppsala University. 'The fact that we shared a similar environment in the last 10,000 years caused a similar adaptation'"(Brown 1). This is really interesting. Maybe this is why humans and dogs are so close, because were evolving around the same time. You don't really think about changes that other animals went through during the periods where the humans evolved, and its intriguing to see the link between the two species. I wonder if you investigated the connections with other organisms the evolutions would have similar changes.

               Another point that was really interesting was the different theories of why dogs adapted grains. One of these is "dogs evolved from wolves who found a new food source in refuse on the outskirts of human settlements. Eventually they came to tolerate human contact and were brought into the household to be guards, workers and companions"(Brown 1). I think that this seems like a likely story, but we never can be sure. Thats one of the intellectual aspects of science, it requires a lot of careful thinking through, but a lot of things are based on estimations, math, and hypothesizes. For example another theory is "wolves were captured by hunter-gatherers, who tamed, bred and eventually settled down with them"(Brown 1). This too seems like something that could have happened. I can see from these examples that the writer is not very opinionated, instead he's stating the possibilities, therefor he is no stressing something that might not be true. I think that its important in science with certain things to not mix your opinions with the facts.

                 This article really taught me a lot about how starch played a role in the evolution of dogs, and how that there is no clear proof of how this came to be. This article really has made me interested in how people and animals have co-evolved, this hasn't been something I have really thought about before. I would be really interested into learning more about this, and this article has made me more aware to the roles of simple things like a starch in an animals evolution.

Works Cited

Brown, David. "Learning to Love Grains, Potatoes Was Key to the Evolution of Dogs."The                                  Washington Post. N.p., 23 Jan. 2013. Web. 30 Jan. 2013. <http://www.democraticunderground.com/11617843>.