Scientists are currently working on a plan that will help re-plant trees in large areas in faster amounts of time. One scientist, Dr. Mark Hodges, had an idea to build some type of canister full of soil and little seeds and drop them out of a plane.

They decided to use a canister that was rather cheap and accessible anywhere. So they got to work on a design. After awhile they came up with a net prototype. They took a little section of net and placed the dirt and the seed and tied all corners together at the top. Then coated it with wax to hold while it was dropped. As soon as a design was found, they decided to test how it would work, if the canister didn’t land right at the bottom it could damage the seed defeating the purpose of the operation. After a couple trials they decided the canister was too erratic while dropping and they had no idea if it would land where needed. Finally one of the people working on the operation decided to tie a ribbon across the bottom and then around the top tie causing it to drop straight down.

Now they had to figure out what to use for the drop itself. To have a successful rain forest, the trees needed to be planted at least 4 feet apart. They tried a firefighter net first, used to drop emergent on fires. The net distributed the seeds perfectly, but when they decided to actually plant all the trees the canisters clumped together and wouldn’t fit through the hole in the bottom, another failure. So they tried another net, one that was used by farmers to spread hay across their fields. This time the trial was a success, all of the canisters dropped perfectly but they where still to close. But no problem Basil decided that if they go higher up into the air and drop them then they should land perfectly, and they did.

After 3 months of waiting, they returned to the area where they had planted the trees to see if it was successful. Unfortunately something had gone wrong with the plant itself. It didn’t drain water so the plant stayed wet to long or it wasn’t getting enough nutrients. But still, in a way, they had succeeded- they had built a cheap, accessible, canister, had a net to distribute them, and distributed them perfectly.

So now we just have to wait and see what the future will hold. If they can succeed with aerial planting then we can speed up the process of reversing deforestation. Plus if the trees thrive and grow into a successful rainforest then they will eventually get rid of 13% of Co2 each year, ultimately slowing down global warming.

To see more about aerial replanting visit http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/project-earth/timelines/reforestation.html for a complete timeline, description, and pictures of the operation that could eventually change the world.

Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so. ~Douglas Adams

Sodas get a bad rap because they contain high fructose corn syrup.

For some reason, “health drinks” like Vitamin Water don’t, although they contain crystalline fructose, which is pretty much the same thing. In fact, crystalline Fructose includes an even higher percentage of fructose than HFCS.
What? Is our society a sucker for drinks with pretty labels and witty text? Can just anyone put a bright, happy label on something obviously unhealthy and still get us to buy it?

Time for a wake up call!

Why High Fructose Corn Syrup is Unhealthy

• High Fructose Corn syrup can increase your risk of heart disease
• It raises blood levels of cholesterol and of triglycerides
• HFCS leads to mineral loss
• You’ll gain more weight, “Because it is metabolized by the liver, fructose does not cause the pancreas to release insulin the way it normally does. Fructose converts to fat more than any other sugar.”
• Copper deficiency, another side effect of too much High Fructose Corn Syrup, leads to “to bone fragility, anemia, defects of the connective tissue, arteries, and bone, infertility, heart arrhythmias, high cholesterol levels, heart attacks, and an inability to control blood sugar levels.”

Is it really worth all that to get your caffiene fix?

Because HFCS is cheaper then other sugars, it’s creeping into all of our foods; from ketchup to protein bars. Next time you’re at the store, double check labels to make sure what you’re buying doesn’t have High Fructose Corn Syrup, or it’s close cousin, Crystalline Fructose.

~Rika

As annoyed at the FDA for allowing HFCS to continue to be used as I am? Read about another case of High Fructose Corn Syrup and the drink that is forever on my blacklist here.

Sources:

The Double Danger of High Fructose Corn Syrup

Los Angeles Times

Mayo Clinic

Wikipedia Article

Do you have problems waking up in the morning? The product Clocky is an interesting invention out to help all those people. Studies show that if your alarm clock is right at your bedside, chances are you’ll hit the snooze button 3 or more times before you actually get up, or someone forces you to get up. Sounds familiar, right?

If you have ever heard of Clocky, the moving alarm clock, you would be amazed. It works like a regular alarm clock. You set your wake-up time as usual.

Here’s the catch: if you don’t wake up right away, or you hit the snooze button too many times, you’re going to have to get up and shut it off because it’ll be halfway across the room, thanks to it’s very own set of wheels. It purposely has a very annoying ringing sound that makes it impossible to sleep through- think of R2d2 from Star Wars.

Clocky: crushing the dreams of sleep-in type of people everywhere.

If that doesn’t stop you from getting up, it will jump off your nightstand and look for a place to hide. That means you will have to get up. That would bound to wake you up soon! Although you can shut the wheels off, that is not the point of this high-tech alarm clock, that would defeat the purpose. Just get a regular alarm clock if you want to take the easy way out of it.

It costs $50.oo, and considering all the time you waste rushing to get off to work or school, this is definitely a must if you have a problem getting up. It comes in almond, aqua, coco, raspberry, or chrome. Stylish, but practical, Clocky is a very smart invention. It does require 4 AAA batteries, however, but that shouldn’t cost you much more. Another warning, try not to put it more than 3 feet high.

Do you have Clocky? Or do you disagree with this article? I want to know because it sounds so cool! I do not have one, but that’s because I don’t have a problem getting up in the morning for some reason.

~Hope

I don’t understand “sports drinks”.

• Some people I know get sick after drinking Gatorade or Vitamin Water during workouts.
• They carry too many detrimental ingredients
• They’re expensive

Glaceau’s website has a colorful layout- clean cut and modern with pictures of athletes and a line of the popular Vitamin Water drinks in a cheerful line. Vitamin Water has been gleefully parading around with titles like “Hydrate Responsibly”- titles that in no way describe the drink. Each drink has a name beside the flavor; ‘Defense’, ‘Focus’, ‘Balance’, ‘Endurance’.

All hokey claims to helping your body aside, Vitamin Water is actually worse than soda.

Vitamin Water: Misleading Consumers Since 1996

Before I get into the issue, I’d like to point out the irony of the fact that the Coca Cola company bought Glaceau for 4.2 billion dollars. When the legendary owners of Coca Cola buy a company, their products have to be healthy, right?

Common sense here, people.

When someone takes distilled water- “soft” water stripped of vitamins not to mention that it is surrounded by controversy regarding if it’s bad for you- and then sits in a lab mixing chemicals until they have something that looks like it’s healthy on the label, (or somewhat), then what you’ve really got is an artificial substitute for water that’s worse than soda.

And what’s the culprit lurking in Coke and Pepsi cans all over the world? High fructose corn syrup. But soda doesn’t win this round for most unhealthful drink, because Vitamin Water evens the score with it’s very own crystalline fructose- which is the same thing. Talk about giving an old danger a new name.

Misleading marketing? I think so.

So to wrap everything up, I’d like to warn everyone that marketers are pushing the edge of what’s legal to get their products a good reputation with everyone. In the future something must be done, whether a new organization is put together to keep consumers informed or government action.

~Rika

Sorry I haven’t posted in awhile, been in a long blank period. So now I am back, trying to get you a new thing to help you in life every week.

Sorry is just a word without action to prove it.

In the last decade consumers have been buying granite, something that could possibly cause health risks.

Depending on several factors, your granite countertops could pose a health risk. On each side of the argument, people are debating how big of a health risk these countertops have. There’s no rock hard evidence saying that all granite causes cancer- there’s only a small risk depicted in some research done already.

Treehugger.com and solidsurfacealliance.com are both dead set against granite.

From treehugger.com

I think some people are blowing this little matter out of proportion. Has anyone done a study on the radioactivity levels of cell phones? Computers? There has to be some other part of our house besides our countertops that need to be investigated for health issues.
So when someone starts up a conversation about granite, I point out how inconsequential their worries are. We have other things we need to look at before we decide something that is completely irrational.

~Rika

Sources:

Treehugger.com

Solidsurfacealliance.com

nytimes.com

Health Physics Society.com

My percentage of articles that I’ve been writing has been dropping severely, as shown by this rough statistic by one of our very own staff members, Piratical Lord of the Guitars.

July:

• Rika- 27%
• PLOTG-73%

June

• Rika-33%
• Hope-22%
• Jennith-22%
• PLOTG-33%

May

• Hope-17%
• Calister-17%
• Jennith-8%
• Jemaine- 17%
• Rika- 25%
• Socrates-8%
• PLOTG- 8%

April

• Rika-31%
• Jemaine- 8%
• PLOTG-15%
• Calister-15%
• Socrates-15%
• Hope-15%

March

• Rika-53%
• Calister-27%
• PLOTG-7%
• Socrates-13%

February

• Rika-47%
• Jennith-20%
• Socrates-7%
• PLOTG-7%
• Hope-20%

January

• Rika- 73%
• Calister- 20%
• Ashley Lampost-7%

Averages

• Rika-42%
• PLOTG-20%
• Ashley Lampost-1%
• Pop Fiddler Princess-0%
• Socrates-6%
• Jala-0%
• Hope-9%
• Jemaine/Nero/DarkPrinceofAwesome-3%
• Calister-12%

But Rika’s percent has also been dropping!

Reason? We’re not getting lazy. We’re having trouble finding things to write about.

Exactly. With the Olympics upon us, we’re all trying NOT to write about it.

Why? Because everyone is writing about the Olympics, and two small articles are enough for us.

So the next time you people are sifting through our latest entries, know that we are not going to be covering too much of the Olympic scandals, death of Olympic families, or how the Olympics directly correlate to increasing carbon dioxide from fireworks and other wasteful habits while explaining that they’re dreaming of a time that they’ll be one with nature!

-Calister F. Wells

Telling you people what you don’t want to hear.

Or what you do. Depends on if you like the Olympics.

The opening ceremony of the Olympics was incredible- the visual effects and the atmosphere created was truly memorable and has definitely earned a place in history.

But all technological wonders of this quickly advancing countries, I noticed many other things, too. Here are some of my observations:

• It was spectacular, but I can’t help but being struck by all that waste! The money filtered into building the huge LCD screens, the stadium and all of the costumes could have been used for so much better causes!
• The announcers sounded very scripted, and one has to wonder if a government had a say in what they said.
• It’s ironic how they talk about being ‘one’ with nature as the smoke from the fireworks spiral up into the night sky to continue to pollute our world.

But overall, it’s good to see China trying to (or seeming to try, at least) to forget ethnic differences and focus on the Olympic Games. And excessive, non-environmentally friendly firework use.

~Rika

We all know this time was going to come: when even something you witness with your own eyes could be altered and changed until it was no longer the truth.

Photo editors and video editing programs are making lying in plain sight a whole lot easier- and with the growing power placed in the hands of the editors, a question of ethics is brought up. Is it right to twist what is real to turn it into something appealing to the eye or comedic.

When this argument comes up, airbrushing is brought to the table, too. Airbrushing photos in magazines to add superficial beauty to celebrities is argued to be a demeaning force in teen girl’s lives. Is it fair to give them something unrealistic that they set their standards to? With an already harsh, judging High School atmosphere and crazy hormones, adding seemingly flawless celebrities is not helping their self esteem.

Although editing videos frame by frame to alter images is expensive, it is done. Once again, questions are drawn as videos are edited in such ways that are taking things out of context.

What do you think about these questionable techniques? Should we let the media continue to lie in plain sight without consequence, or should we put in place some law that has to let the reader or viewer know if the images are altered?

~Rika

If you remember, I wrote an article a while ago about the iPhone. The price was outrageous- and I guess they listened to the public, because there’s a new iPhone! Don’t you think that sooner or later people are going to get tired of the new upgraded iPhones because then the public feels like they have to buy the new one because it’s the newest thing out? I guess kind of like High School Musical. You see it and then buy the DVD, but then there’s the “sing along version” and you then have to buy that too… sooner or later you have 4 DVD’s of the same movie. I don’t know, but I get tired of it.

The new iPhone claims that it is faster and yet half the price…how is that? This is what it features apparently from what it says on Apple.com:

“Introducing iPhone 3G. With fast 3G wireless technology, GPS mapping, support for enterprise features like Microsoft Exchange, and the new App Store, iPhone 3G puts even more features at your fingertips. And like the original iPhone, it combines three products in one — a revolutionary phone, a widescreen iPod, and a breakthrough Internet device with rich HTML email and a desktop-class web browser. iPhone 3G. It redefines what a mobile phone can do - again.”

Exactly right! Again… and again… and again… When is it going to stop? Create a great phone at a great price, and BAM! That’s how you get money.

Features that the 3g phone has that the old version does not:

• 3G Speed: “3G technology gives iPhone fast access to the Internet and email over cellular networks around the world. iPhone 3G also makes it possible to do more in more places: Surf the web, download email, get directions, and watch video — even while you’re on a call.”
• Maps with GPS: “Find your location, get directions, and see traffic — all from your phone. Maps on iPhone 3G combines GPS, Wi-Fi, and cell tower location technology with the Multi-Touch interface to create the best mobile map application ever.”
• App Store: “Tap into the App Store and you’ll find applications in every category, from games to business, education to entertainment, finance to health and fitness, productivity to social networking. These applications have been designed to take advantage of iPhone features such as Multi-Touch, the accelerometer, wireless, and GPS. And some are even free. You can download them wirelessly and start using them right away.”
• Microsoft Exchange: “What makes iPhone a great business phone? Simple. The same features that make it a revolutionary mobile device. With iPhone 2.0 software, iPhone does even more for your enterprise. It supports Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync, delivering push email, calendar, and contacts. And it gives mobile users secure access to corporate resources with Cisco IPSec VPN and wireless network services with WPA2 Enterprise and 802.1X authentication.”

That’s great that it has GPS, but can’t you just look for that on the Internet? I mean I’m not the expert on this stuff, but can’t you just go to Mapquest? I do feel it is a good idea to have Microsoft programs, then the phone could be used by people who have Microsoft documents they want to view. But why would you want to have an App Store on your phone? Wouldn’t you just use that on your normal computer?

That’s my thought on this phone.

~Hope

Rika’s Thoughts:

I do think that all these updates do get a little tiresome, but as technology gets better, Apple updates the ipod and iphone. Great article, Hope!

Every so often, a culture phenomenon comes around and unites several million people for a cause.

In the future, historians will look back on these years and note the rise in popularity in young adult novels; Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight and J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter are the two most prominent. With an increasing amount of children and young adults sitting in front of the TV all day, it is quite an accomplishment by these books to get them away from the screens and pull them into a fictional world of adventure.

All those die-hard fans of Twilight, a vampire romance novel like no other, are probably rereading Breaking Dawn, the fourth installment in this bestselling series that just came out today. I don’t blame them, because as I’m writing this I have my copy sitting on my desk.

Twilight Moms, The Twilight Guy- thousands of fan sites are devoted to this book. It’s a little ironic that the book that’s pulling people away from their computers to read it is bringing them back to read Stephenie Meyer’s website, or another site to get their daily Twilight fix.

My point? Media and literature are playing an increasingly larger role in society. Books are creating ‘fandoms’ that brings different countries and people together over breathtaking stories and relatable characters.

Are these fandoms a good thing? Can an obsession go to far? Yes, and yes. But for now, there’s no harm done in being ’sucked’ into a vampire love story.

(bad pun intended)

-Rika