another part of my research paper

hopefully someone can give me some feed back!



Fact: in some areas of the Pacific Ocean there is more plastic than there is plankton, tiny animals and plants that are a vital key in marine ecosystems and food chains. In recent years the oceans have suffered more and more from human activities. Some of the foreign things polluting the waters are sewage, marine debris, heavy metals, and oil. Seventy percent of all the oceans’ pollution comes from land based sources . In other words humans are ruining the thing that gave us life the time to change that is now. The sea is being used as a wastebasket for different types of human pollutants and though the affect has been devastating for our oceans, there are plenty of ways to stop the damage.
Sewage is a very harmful component in ocean pollution. Everyone flushes the toilet everyday and what is being flushed is called sewage, sewage is an organic material and biodegradable that is why animal waste is used as a fertilizer. But human waste often contains toxic chemicals, heavy metals, harmful bacteria, and viruses. Sewage enters the ocean either intentionally or unintentionally, it can go through pipes into rivers or directly into the ocean or if the capacity of a system is exceeded then it gets washed into the ocean untreated (also known as raw). Sewage is harmful for two main reasons; the first is that when it enters the ocean little organisms feed on it and it depletes the oxygen supply in the water of that area, off setting the delicate balance of that specific eco system, the other way it pollutes is that the nutrient rich waste may cause a bloom of phytoplankton causing them to clog the gills of fish and to kill the other plants in the area. There is no way to clean up sewage once it enters the ocean the damage is done but a some places are actually drying the sludge and burning it to create electricity, this shows promising ways of disposal and alternative energy sources for the future.
Marine debris is one of the most serious and pressing forms of pollution. Marine debris can be a number of things including undetonated bombs, abandoned off shore oil rigs, out dated rocket engines, drums of toxic chemicals and radioactive waste, sunken ships, automobiles, beverage cans and bottles, pieces of wood, and almost any other item imaginable; but it mainly breaks up into metal, glass, and plastic. The debris enters the ocean in a number of ways: intentional dumping from ships, accidental dumping from ships and garbage barges on their ways to offshore landfills, as part of sewage, by being swept in be the wind or storms, from polluted rivers or streams, and in runoff from beaches littered with trash. Not all marine debris is harmful some is actually helpful, for example ships have been sunken to form “artificial reefs” where the marine life has adapted and made it their home; but plastic debris however, often floats, making it dangerous to marine birds and mammals who either eat it or become entangled in it, the plastic resin pellets look like fish eggs and are also eaten by the marine creatures. When the animals ingest the plastic if they do not choke right away then it becomes caught in the intestine causing malnutrition. The plastic can also cause buoyancy that makes it impossible for the animals to escape from predators. Thousands of people from all over the world participate in beach clean ups every year but this is not enough the only way to stop this tragedy from further devastating our oceans is by stopping it at the source, properly disposing of plastics, and the further advancements on photodegradable plastics which are plastics that biodegrade when exposure to sunlight is prolonged. Not only does this sound promising for healthier oceans but as a way to help the planet overall.

topic description

for my blog post this week im going to use the rough draft of my topic description for my reasearch paper. I think it will help me if I do the rough drafts here and then turn in a final edited draft to see if mr. sutherland or anyone else for that matter will help me proof read, because i honestly have no idea what to do and a fresh sewt of eyes would really be helpful.

My topic is the destruction of marine habitats and ecosystems. I picked this topic because it is something I have always been passionate about ever since I was a little girl the ocean has always fascinated me, I always saw it as clean and untouchable but as I got older I stared to realize that things were changing on the news I heard about oil spills and the beaches I went to were closed and absolutely covered in garbage. What was once a dear childhood memory is now something I cannot recognize.
What I have learned so far is that there are so many different types of pollution and they include but are not limited to sewage, marine debris, toxic chemicals, heavy metals, oil, and radioactive materials. In the case of sewage it pollutes by being dumped into the sea with other harmful things and when it decomposes the bacteria that eat it use up oxygen that would otherwise have been used by fish and plant life. The types of marine debris are undetonated bombs, abandoned off shore oil rigs, out dated rocket engines, drums of toxic chemicals and radio active waste, sunken ships, automobiles, cans, bottles, pieces of wood, plastic materials, and plenty of other items. There are two types of plastic debris in the ocean manufactured and raw. Raw plastic comes in resin pellets that can be melted down and made into a number of materials. They are transported in bulk. Because they are very lightweight, they are easily blown away by wind. As many as 34,000 pellets per square kilometer can be found in some areas of the Pacific Ocean. When toxic chemicals are dumped into the ocean they are absorbed by plankton and usually the plankton die but if they do survive and are eaten the fish becomes contaminated and mutated and possibly infertile. The toxic heavy metals that have been found in the ocean are lead, mercury, cadmium, and copper. If an area is infected with heavy metals the marine life in that area can all be compromised. What we call oil pollution is actually petroleum. Since oil is lighter than water it initially floats to the surface and absorbs sunlight, smothering plankton, then it coats seabirds and other marine life but the oil breaks down the protective shield that the birds developed to make themselves water proof causing them to sink and drown and when ingested by the birds it causes intestinal problems and liver failure. When radioactive materials enter the ocean they generally affect larger animals more and can cause somatic effects (direct) and genetic effects.
What I would like to focus on is the different types of pollution in each ocean putting a larger emphasis on oil spills and marine debris. I would also like to include the effects that humans directly have on marine animals including but not limited to the effects that ambient noise has on whales, shark fining, and whaling.

lit circle letter #1: cannery row

for the first part of my lit circle letter i will just talk about what the book is like and what i think of it so far, for the second part i think i will do some character analysis.
well so far I'm not finding the book very interesting because i fail to see any type of plot beginning to form, another reason i think I'm finding it hard to read is that the characters are not likable i really do not care what happens to them, also the dialogue is hard to follow because of all the old time slang things. i think this is less of a book and more like a series of vignettes like the house on mango street. i think this because there really seems to be no plot or central conflict and because the characters don't seem to be very well connected they just all live in the same area. all the same i have started reading it and that mean i have to finish. its sort of funny they time Mr. Sutherland says make sure you pic an interesting book is the one time i don't.
for my character analysis i will start with Mack.

"Mack said reprovingly to Hughie, "Just because he doesn't run no dame naked through the streets in the daytime, you think docs celebrate."
" whats celebrate?" Eddie asked.
"that's when you cant get no dame," said Mack.

Now to me what this excerpt shows is that Mack is uneducated when he thinks celebrate and celibate are the same thing and usually when someone is celibate it means they choose not to have sex not that they cant. but i think this also shows that mack is caring and sticks up for the people how are good to him even if the people who are doing the attacking are his friends. this also shows that Mack and his crew do not really respect women but in this book and time setting i suppose no one really does.

"that Doc is a hell of a nice fella" Mack said "he'll give you a quarter anytime. when i cut myself he put a new bandage on every day. A hell of a nice fella."... "i Have been wondering for a long time" he said "what could we do for him- something nice. Something he'd like."

i think this shows that Mack obviously thinks highly of doc and that he would probly think highly of anyone who would give him mone and that shiws he is brock and has probly asked doc for many quarters. this also shows that Mack likes to repay people for kindness- that he takes care of things, his friends for one and most likely his enemys.

autobiography: part one

My name is Stephanie Elizabeth Harlyn Keel-Moore and this is my song.
I was born August 6th 1994, in Walnut Creek, California, at Kaiser Hospital. My mom carried home a 5 pound 7ounce 14 inch long baby to Concord, California where we lived for about a year. While we lived there we had a pet iguana she was 4 and a half feet long we also had an over protective cat who would sleep in my crib with me.
When I was 8 months old I got up to walk and never sat down and when I was 12 months old I started to talk and never shut up. Ever since then I’ve been the kind of girl who speaks her mind without thinking of who’s listening and the kind of girl who climbs a tree without wondering how she will get down.
My mom and I moved back to alameda when I was two to be with me dad and Brother Devin. Two is also the age I started gymnastics and ballet so guess you could say that is also the age I learned what it’s like to have a passion for something. Another thing that happened when I was two I, two words potty trained.
When I was three is when I first started pre-school I still remember my first day I went in happy and excited but when my mom started to leave I was bawling. But after snack time I started to feel right at home and that’s when I made my first best friend Arianna.
The summer of 1998 was the summer where I learned to swim and do cartwheels which are now in my opinion are my most used summer skills.
Also during the year I got my first pet that a could call my own (even though mom mostly took care of him) and he was none other than a 12 cent feeder fish from pet which I named Fido.
Five years of age I traded nap time for uniforms and started kindergarten at peter pan academy a private school on bay farm. And then I discovered not only to find that it’s hard to sit still but even harder to do it without falling asleep. The news on Fido: he’s still alive and has doubled in size. he has also made the first killing meaning I thought he would like a friend to keep him company little did I know he only wanted a friend to eat.
Grade school a horrific time for any child but not only was I faced with the traumas of first grade that year my dad also tried to teach me how to ride a bike (and failed) that was also the year where my mom, Devin, and I drove to 42 American states and Canada in search of the world’s largest ball of string as my mom calls it “it was our search for string and everything in between”
Fido update: still alive and now triple his original size and weight. He has killed again to but for the last time that was when I finally came to terms that Fido did not want a friend.

monthly reveiw: Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

 
For the first part of my review I will be doing a character analysis of all the main characters in the book. The second will be a question for discussion from the back of the book. The second question has to do with a woman's worth and power weather they were really as worthless as the men in ancient china said. 

       

         For my character analysis i will start with the main character Lily. Lily: Lily is the main character and her best and worst quality is her need for love, first, her need for love from her mother which she tried to attain through going through the foot binding process quietly unlike the third sister who screamed and ran. but this did not earn her mothers love so then she decided she would be very quiet and obedient so she could  marry into a good family but even that did not make her mother love her, she tries to convince herself that she is just showing "mother love" like the nu shu character for mother love is pain then love but later in the book we find that she was not showing mother love at all but was really jealous of her daughters perfectly arched feet and therefore ability to marry into a good family. but as Lily tries to gain her mothers love it only brings her sadness and pain, then her need for love from Snow Flower which results lily wasting the last eight years she could have had with her laotong on petty jealousy and fear of rejection.

         Next is snow flower. Snow Flower: Snow flower is a girl from Tongkou who was originally from a very high social standing but when the emperors changed her family fell out of favor her father took to opium and her high standing was over but her aunt in hopes of making her a more favorable bride searched for a laotong for her. Snow Flowers dominant characteristic is that she is constantly trying to please her loved ones first her family by being out standing in her study of nushu a secret women’s language and embroidery and by learning to behave like the ideal chinese woman but even that cannot save her from being married into a butchers home, then by trying to please Lily by listening to her and following her advise on making her husband happy even if it means breaking a taboo. but when she feels to much pressure from lily to be the perfect wife she sends Lily a message seemingly ending their friendship and that shows a lot about her character in that she would rather leave her laotong than further disappoint her. 

         Next is Madam Wang: Madame Wang, the matchmaker, is a foot-bound woman and yet she does business with men, this makes her different than the other women in the story because some might view her as a woman of status and superiority but others might view her as Lily's father had and call her a necessary evil. he is also snow flowers aunt and we know that she dearly loves snow flower because of all the things she does to get her into a better marriage. Including risking business opportunities by recommending a girl from a broken household but in the end her efforts seem to be in vain since she ends up marrying a butcher and in their country which is mostly Buddhist this is considered the most unclean profession.

        the final character is actually my favorite character Beautiful Moon: Lily’s cousin is Beautiful moon. Her fate was directly tied to Lily’s they were both going to move to Tongkou and marry in to the Lee family which is the highest ranking family in the region but on one hot summer day while the girls are embroidering their dowry's outside beautiful moon is stung by a bee and dies. but before this she was a charming girl and someone who was very charismatic it was as if a light followed her around and when she died it weighed heavily on everyone especially aunt who only had one child.

   

        The next question is a question for discussion from the book. "In the story, we are told again and again that women are weak and worthless. But were they really? In what ways did Lily and Snow Flower show their strength and value?"

    I'm sure i would not be alone in saying no women are and were not weak and worthless both in modern western civilization and ancient china. snow flower and Lily proved their strength and value in numerous ways the first being that they bore children and not only children they had multiple sons and in that time a woman was considered worthless until she had a son now this is just one way that lily and snow flower individually proved their worth in ancient chinese society. A way they both showed strength is through the fact that they both had bound feet and that showed amazing strength to have all of your toes broken and circulation to you feet stopped while the growth of you feet are being retarded. but the thing that shows they have even more strength that imaginable is that they survived the Taiping rebellion in the mountains for months on bound feet walking across small ledges and with limited food in the snow. but in my opinion the thing that shows they have strength and value most is that they found was to endure the constant oppression of the men in their lives and they did it through creative and inspiring ways like the simple and elegant creation of nu shu women's secret writing so they could express the sorrows of losing a child and the joys of motherhood to one and other and another amazing creation of coping is the creation of lao tongs (old sames) and sworn sisterhoods, a lao tong is your perfect match with birthday number of siblings and other factors and you stay with your lao tong for life she is your one and only best friend that you may share everything with but a sworn sisterhood is a group of girl friends who you she things with only until marriage and in death when they come to see you to the after life. but it is these bonds that make me think it is impossible for women to be worthless if you can ban together for such an intimate relationship.   

 

lit circle letter #3: snow flower and the secret fan

Lily: Lily is the main character and her best and worst quality is her need for love, first, her need for love from her mother which only brings her sadness and pain, then her need for love from Snow Flower which results lily wasting the last eight years she could have had with her laotong on petty jealousy and fear of rejection.
Snow Flower: Snow flower is a girl from Tongkou who was originally from a very high social standing but when the emperors changed her family fell out of favor her father took to opium and her high standing was over but her aunt in hopes of making her a more favorable bride searched for a laotong for her. One of Snow Flowers characteristics is that she is constantly trying to please her loved ones first her family by being out standing in her study of nushu a secret women’s language and embroidery, then Lily by listening and following her advise on making her husband happy even if it means breaking a taboo.
Madam Wang: she is the match maker and also snow flowers aunt and we know that she dearly loves snow flower because of all the things she does to get her into a better marriage. Including risking business opportunities by recommending a girl from a broken household but in the end her efforts seem to be in vain since she ends up marrying a butcher and in their country which is mostly Buddhist this is considered the most unclean profession.
Beautiful Moon: Lily’s cousin is Beautiful moon. Her fate was directly tied to Lily’s they were both going to move to Tongkou and marry in to the Lee family which is the highest ranking family in the region but on one hot summer day while the girls are embroidering outside beautiful moon is stung by a bee and dies.

lit circle letter 1-2

the story starts with Lily as an old woman reminiscing on her past. It then jumps to seven year old Lily in her “milk years” it is then the diviner who over saw the binding of young girls feet called the match maker to look at them because she had high arches which meant that she could have “perfect golden lily’s” it was then madam Wang determined that Lilly was an eligible match for a laotong relationship with Snow Flower. Lily’s foot binding began and her third sister died from infection on the same day her grandmother also died from old age. Soon a fan came for Lilly from Snow Flower and on this fan they would record all significant events for the rest of their lives. Snow flower and Lilly met for the first time when they went to the temple of gupo to pray for sons. After this snow flower stayed with Lily’s family on and off Lilly’s family wondered why Lilly never went to snow flowers and the match maker said that it was because they were of a much lower social standing but soon word traveled of Snow Flowers families misfortune and lily’s mother and father found out but decided not to tell Lilly as to not spoil her views of her new friend. Much time passed and the girls went into their “hair pinning days” they are fifteen including beautiful moon. It was the catching cool breezes festival when all the women returned to their natal homes while the men went to work in the fields Lilly’s father and uncle told the girls that they could go outside and finish their dowry’s when Beautiful Moon is stung by a bee and dies. The time had come for Lilly’s wedding ceremony’s but when Lilly is about to leave snow flower gives her an envelope with a letter saying that she was sorry for not telling her about her family’s situation and that she hopes that Lilly will still want to be laotong. After Lilly returns to her natal family her and her mother get into a large argument resulting in her and her mother barely saying another word to each other for the rest of her mother’s life which is cut short due to an outbreak of typhoid. Lilly and Snow Flower both become pregnant with their first sons and move into their husband’s houses fulltime. Lilly has another son and a daughter, Snow Flower has a daughter at the same time as Lilly but after that she has multiple miscarriages but finally she bears another healthy son and he soon becomes his father’s favorite child. Then Lilly’s husband goes on the road to make his way in the salt business. Soon after came an outbreak of typhoid many people died including Lilly’s mother in law lady Lu and the headman making Lilly and her husband the highest ranking people of the highest ranking house in Tongkou. Lilly’s husband returns home successful in the salt business. Lilly soon goes to visit Snow Flower but while there the taiping rebellion broke into their region so Lilly with Snow Flowers family flee to the mountains with the rest of Jintian. While in the mountains Snow Flower becomes increasingly depressed and soon her second son dies. Her husband is engulfed in grief and begins to beat Snow Flower. Lilly does not know what to say to her so she keeps quiet.