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Showing posts from February, 2017

Genetic Engineering Pros and Cons

Genetic Engineering Position Paper Genetic engineering is the process of modifying an organism’s characteristics by altering the genetic material within its cells, DNA. DNA contains the genes of an organism, which determine the traits of that being. Genetic engineering takes place when genes from one organism are extracted and inserted into the DNA of another organism. The cell holding the DNA treats the foreign genetic material just as if it were its own, and creates the protein associated with the gene, therefore expressing the genes of another organism. Herb Boyer and Stanley Cohen were the first to use genetic engineering, when they transferred the DNA of a toad into a bacteria’s DNA. Ever since then, genetic engineering has been applied in different organisms, such as animals and plants. Personally, I think that genetic engineering is useful and can solve many of our problems, but some still argue that it shouldn’t be applied to use because we aren’t ready to put it to use. ...

Review of Rene Izquierdo's Concert

Recently, I attended a concert of the South Bay Guitar Society in which Rene Izquierdo performed. My review of the concert is as follows. Summary: On Saturday, I attended Rene Izquierdo’s guitar concert. Izquierdo presented several songs, about half of which were Spanish. These songs came from a variety of time periods and composers, including J. S. Bach. The performance was solely instrumental, and was not accompanied by any voice or other instrument. The duration of the concert including the intermission was about two hours. Performers: The concert had only one main singer, although there was a fifteen minute prelude by sixteen year old Francesca Boerio. Izquierdo stood out to me because of his relaxation while presenting all the songs. He did not seem to be scared of holding a conversation with the audience, and rather than being self conscious, he enjoyed playing the music. In addition, he made jokes between the songs. Izquierdo was not even afraid to present Cuban folk song...

Mock Congress Bill

The following is a bill I created for Mock Congress -------------------------------------------------------------- This Bill has been drafted by Ravit Sharma, who was assigned the role of Marco Rubio to present to the Foreign Relations Committee. AN ACT TO: ESTABLISH A MILITARY BASE AND HOUSE TROOPS IN CHINA AND TO ENSURE THAT IT IS NOT INVOLVED IN THE PRODUCTION OR STORAGE OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS. Section 1. Definitions “Military Base” shall be defined as the facilities required to maintain a minimum of 70,000 troops. “Investigator” shall be defined as the official in charge of sitting in the helicopter during an investigation and recording any suspicious areas that could hold weapons of mass destruction. “Examination” shall be defined as the act of exploring areas found to be suspicious and destroying any weapons found to be capable of mass destruction. “Mass Destruction” shall be defined as the death of greater than five-hundredths (0.05) percent of the total population ...

Analysis of "On Laziness" by Christopher Morley

“On Laziness” Analysis “On Laziness” is an essay written by Christopher Morley during the 1920s. This essay uses sufficient evidence to embody the thesis that indolence has contributed to man as a whole. He argues that laziness is not always unfavorable in the sense that it can benefit mankind by preventing undesirable events from occurring, such as World War II. In other words, the author’s purpose is to prove that laziness is beneficial, as opposed to the general consensus that it is not. Through this essay, Morley is generalizing the readers of this work of literature to anyone who is interested in the topic. Morley’s argument is that laziness is not necessarily detrimental and that it does have benefits. He uses sufficient evidence and examples to support this thesis. Although is language and diction is colloquial and somewhat comical, there are many examples of academic vocabulary, as well as satire throughout the essay. For example, he uses the word “tribulation” and “lang...

Iron Fertilization and Climate Change

Iron Fertilization and Climate Change Iron Fertilization is the process of adding iron to bodies of water such as oceans in order to increase the number of photosynthetic organisms in the ocean, primarily plankton. Plankton depend greatly not only on energy from the sun but also on iron and other nutrients from their environment. Hence, the iron deposited in the ocean results in an increase in these organisms. The increase of these autotrophs then directly affects the air through photosynthesis, lowering the levels of carbon dioxide in the air, and increasing the amounts of oxygen. Since carbon dioxide is one of the gases that contributes to the greenhouse effect, the lower levels of CO 2 would reduce global warming. Although iron fertilization is a potential solution for stopping global warming, there are other effects of iron fertilization that play a role in affecting our environment. For this reason, I am undecided on the issue of whether iron fertilization should be used to a...

Literary Analysis of The Tempest by Shakespeare

Incorporation of Elizabethan Classes into The Tempest William Shakespeare, the author of countless plays and sonnets, was born and raised in Elizabethan England. At the time a class system, which refers to the arrangement of people into categories based on rank, was prevalent. The classes in Elizabethan England ranged from the monarch, who was of the highest rank, to the laborers, who were little-respected workers. The environment in which Shakespeare was raised affected the structure and content of his plays. In The Tempest , the characters are situated by Shakespeare into a hierarchy representative of the social order in the Elizabethan Era. Around the time that The Tempest was published, residents of England were grouped into six distinct classes. These classes comprised of the monarch, nobility, gentry, merchants, yeomanry, and laborers. The monarch, being the ruler of the nation, is on top of the hierarchy; the ruler in the play is evidently King Alonso. Following the monarc...