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In social studies, we learned about modern slavery. We learnt different types of slavery and the history of it. The practice has caused immense suffering throughout history and is a cruel topic to cover. But we won’t learn from our mistakes if we don’t look at the past.
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There are many consequences when using drugs. If you are caught using or selling you have to pay the price by going into prison for 2 – 8+ years depending if you are a repeating offender or a big dealer. You also have to pay a fine that goes up depending on the severity of your crime.
Cocaine is a stimulant drug. Cocaine speeds up messages travelling between the brain and body. Cocaine comes from the leaves of the coca bush which is native to South America. Cocaine is a fine white powder with a bitter, numbing taste. Cocaine is often mixed, or cut with other substances like lidocaine, talcum powder or sugar before being sold on the streets.
Methamphetamine is a powerful, highly addictive stimulant that affects the central nervous system. Crystal meth is a form of drug that looks like glass fragments. It is chemically similar to amphetamine, a drug used to treat ADHD and narcolepsy, a sleep disorder. Since the high you get from meth ends rather quickly people often take multiple doses at once. The dopamine your brain produces after taking meth makes you want to get more of it making you want to come back for more. If you overdose it could easily lead you to your demise.
Consequences Of Using Drugs:
1. Next to each consequence, identify which area of well-being it relates to. Eg Taha tinana
Mental well-being.
2. Now, next to each consequence, identify if it is a short-term or long-term consequence. EG: ST ST- 0-3 months. LT- 3 months onwards)
Short-term effects of cocaine include:
3. Next to each consequence, identify if it is a positive or negative consequence. EG: N
Extreme happiness and energy – Positive
Mental alertness – Positive
Hypersensitivity to sight, sound, and touch – Positive or Negative
Irritability – Negative
Paranoia – Negative
4. Next to each consequence, identify if it is P,I OR S. Example: Consequence is Smoking- Lung disease – physical, LT, Negative, P.
Extreme happiness and energy – Personal
Mental alertness – Interpersonal
Hypersensitivity to sight, sound, and touch – Personal
Irritability – Interpersonal
Paranoia – Interpersonal
1. Next to each consequence, identify which area of well-being it relates to. Eg Taha tinana
It affects your mental well-being as you can easily get addicted. You can easily ruin your social well-being by pushing all your friends and family away to get more meth.
2. Now, next to each consequence, identify if it is a short-term or long-term consequence. EG: ST ST- 0-3 months. LT- 3 months onwards)
You can easily get addicted to meth long-term. It’s a very addictive substance so it can take you years to even forget about it. The consequences of using meth include:
3. Next to each consequence, identify if it is a positive or negative consequence. EG: N
Extreme weight loss – Positive or Negative
Addiction – Negative
Severe dental problems – Negative
Intense itching – Negative
Anxiety – Negative
Changes in brain structure and function – Negative
Confusion – Negative
Memory loss – Negative
Sleeping problems – Negative
Violet behaviour – Negative
Paranoia – Negative
Hallutionation – Negative
Impaired coordination and verbal learning – Negative
4. Next to each consequence, identify if it is P,I OR S.
Extreme weight loss – Personal
Addiction – Personal
Severe dental problems – Personal
Intense itching – Personal
Anxiety – Personal
Changes in brain structure and function – Personal
Confusion – Personal
Memory loss – Personal
Sleeping problems – Personal
Violet behaviour – Interpersonal
Paranoia – Interpersonal
Hallutionation – Personal
Impaired coordination and verbal learning – Personal
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Learning Outcome: Identify the main bones in the body.
Skeletal system: The hard internal structure (bone and cartilage) that provides a jointed frame for the body if an animal.
Artery: A blood vessel that moves blood (usually oxygenated) from the heart to another part of the body
Vein: A blood vessel that moves blood (usually deoxygenated) from the body back to the heart
Capillary: Tiny blood vessel that connects arteries to veins.
Breathing: The process of taking air into and out of the lungs.
Respiration: The process whereby some organisms obtain energy from food. Usually requiring oxygen and producing carbon dioxide
Reproduction: The production of offspring by a sexual asexual process.
Skeleton Facts:
The adult human body has 206 bones.
There are 26 bones in the human foot.
The human hand, including the wrist, contains 54 bones.
The human skeleton is called an exoskeleton.
The largest bone in the body is the femur.
The stapes in the middle ear is the smallest and lightest bone of the human skeleton.
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In science, we did a short stop-motion animation demonstrating tectonic plates with Oreos. After the stop-motion animation, we ate the Oreos and started blogging after the animation. Sadly my video broke so I won’t be able to show you my work.
Here is what we did
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In science, we have 3 natural disaster topics to choose from. I chose tsunami as I already knew some about them. Tsunami is a Japanese name for big waves. Tsunamis are huge waves that are large enough to envelop a whole city by itself.
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What are blood diamonds? Are they made with the blood of the people? No the diamonds are the regular diamonds you can find in the jewelry shop. Blood diamonds are a metaphor because once they are sold, the money from the diamonds funds the rebel group.
Over 3 million people died from blood diamonds. Workers work in inhumane conditions getting paid $0.07 per day with the warlords making huge profits. The profits then fund the rebel groups. If you don’t work and steal the diamonds you could get hunted down by the warlords and things could not end well for you. Rebel groups cut off the limbs of thousands of people and this includes children.
What makes diamonds recognized as actual diamonds? Blood diamond, also called conflict diamond defined by the UN as any diamond that is mined in areas controlled by the rebel forces. Blood diamonds mined in rebel-controlled areas are sold directly to merchants or smuggled into neighboring countries. They then merged the blood diamonds into legitimately mined diamonds making them undistinguishable. When they are sold, the sales from the diamonds are used to buy guns, the rebel’s war efforts, terrorism, warlord’s activity, and extremely violent campaigns that bring great suffering to civilians.
What are the conditions of the miners? There are a lot of human rights violations including child labour. Conditions are brutal with labor-intensive and hazardous work, low pay (as low as $0.03 per day, maybe even lower), threat of violence, and distress in nearby communities.
Miners
Many blood diamond miners face ruthless exploitation at the hands of rebels. They endure hazardous working conditions, they sometimes even confront violence or threats to ensure their continued labor in the mines and endure wages that could be as low as $0.07 or lower.
Nevertheless, some hope persists among the miners. Despite the challenges they confront daily, they hope that their labor will ultimately lead to a brighter future.
Buyers
For some buyers, diamonds hold a significant value ie. the symbols of love and commitment. These individuals prioritize the aesthetic and emotional appeal of diamonds, often without investigating the origins of the diamonds. They believe that diamonds represent limitless beauty and rarity, with little regard given to whether it was ethically mined.
On the other hand, some consumers actively seek diamonds that are certified as conflict-free, and sourced in a responsible standard. They know that if they buy a blood diamond they are funding a war that kills a lot of people. They are willing to pay a premium for diamonds with verifiable origins that are free from conflicts.
As awareness concerning blood diamonds continues to spread, some buyers are exploring alternative methods that are more ethical and sustainable. Lab-grown diamonds and other colored gemstones have gained favor among these buyers, as they provide choices that align with their values.
In conclusion, everyone has their own moral values and views on the subject. Ranging from those who cherish the symbolism of diamonds to those who see the importance in an ethical view. Some don’t even know that this phenomenon is lurking in the diamond industry. But diamonds aren’t really worth all the fighting and war. The price and values of diamonds were artificially inflated. Diamonds are actually more common than you think. Since De Beers controls 80% of the diamond industry it can easily control the price and demand of the diamonds making people think that they are super rare. Diamond is just a bunch of carbon atoms compressed for billions of years. Lab-grown diamonds are basically identical to mined diamonds.
The Kimberley Process is a commitment to remove conflict diamonds from the global supply chain. The Kimberley Process prevented 99.8% of the worldwide trade. The Kimberley Process is an international certification scheme that was established to prevent the trade of blood diamonds. The Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) was established in 2003 to address the issue. It requires participating countries to implement measures to ensure that the diamonds they export or import are not sourced from conflict zones. Key elements of the Kimberley Process include:
Certification: Diamonds must be shipped in a tamper-resistant container with a Kimberley Process certificate that guarantees the diamond is conflict-free
Import and Export Controls: Participating countries are required to establish strict controls on the import and export of rough diamonds.
Transparency and Reporting: Countries must report on their diamond trade and take measures to prevent smuggling and the use of fake certificates.
While the Kimberley Process has made huge progress in reducing the trade in conflict diamonds, there have been criticisms. Some concerns include the lack of monitoring, weak enforcement, and that it focuses only on rough diamonds, excluding cut and polished diamonds. Additionally, there have been cases where diamonds from conflict zones have entered the market through loopholes or fraudulent certificates.
Efforts are ongoing to strengthen the Kimberley Process and make it more effective in preventing the trade of blood diamonds in the future. Governments, non-governmental organizations, and the diamond industry continue to work towards improving the system and addressing its shortcomings.
Blood diamonds are cruel and inhumane. The miners work in poor conditions while the children are brainwashed to become soldiers for the rebels. Conflict and war can change people for the better and for the worse. People caught in the crossfire become miners or rebels.
The Kimberley Process is not perfect. Not everything is foolproof. Some things could slip through the crack without notice. However, the Kimberley Process prevented 99.8% of blood diamonds from going into the global market. There are still a lot of things to improve before the Kimberley Process is perfect. But as they improve the process the rebels will find other ways to sell the blood diamonds.
De Beers is the world’s leading diamond company, with expertise in diamond exploration, mining, grading, marketing, and retail. From its founding in 1888 until the start of the 21st century, De Beers controlled 80% to 85% of diamond distribution and was considered a monopoly. As of 2000, the company’s control of the world diamond supply decreased to 63%.
Reference:
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In health, we have been studying about Death, Dying, and the Afterlife. We watched Coco and learned about the Day of the Dead. We have looked at different traditions around death and learned about the ways to cope when a person dies/ways to cope with different sorts of loss like change. There are many different religious beliefs around death, and how people have dealt with death over time.
For my assessment, I decided to investigate killer diseases.
The world has experienced many killer diseases such as plagues, smallpox, and the flu. Somehow with all these deadly diseases humans still managed to survive it all. It started in Europe from around 1347 to 1351. The pandemic killed a 1/3 of Europe somehow slowing down at around 1350’s. It finally ended in 1351 in Europe but it was still rampaging throughout Africa ending in 1353.
People who caught the plague develop fever, headache, chills, weakness, and one or more swollen, painful lymph nodes (called buboes). They usually slowly turn black as the skin tissues start dying. Since they didn’t have modern medicine back in the day the fatality rate was 75%. A person usually becomes ill with bubonic plague 2 to 8 days after being infected. Now with modern medicine, the plague can easily be cured. Only if you get it treated in its early stages. If you get it treated in its later stages it’ll be too late.
The plague spread through fleas and infected rodents. The doctors at the time thought that the plague was spread by the bad air. So they wore thick leather clothing coated in wax, a hood with crystal eyepieces, and a beak filled with herbs and spices. The plague doctor also wore a beak filled with spices like cinnamon, pepper, turpentine, roast copper, and powdered viper flesh to get rid of the bad air.
About 1/3 of Europe died from this deadly plague. The plague was spread around by rats and fleas. Everyone was wrong about the bad air spreading the plague, but unintentionally the plague doctor’s thick black leather clothing coated in wax protected them from flea bites. Which was the true culprit of The Black Death.
Many other countries like the UK got the plague through ship rats, dead bodies, and infected people. The plague didn’t last too long in the UK because the cold weather slowly killed off all the fleas. It couldn’t reach America because the trip was long enough that all the rats died off before even coming near America.
If people knew what spread the plague it wouldn’t have been a big deal. People were panicking and spreading the plague to other places in Europe. Many towns shut down access to their city which lowered the chance of the plague entering.
The Spanish flu was a devastating global influenza pandemic that occurred in 1918-1919. It is said to be one of the deadliest pandemics in human history. The Spanish flu had a high mortality rate, especially among young healthy adults. Spanish flu was particularly deadly to children under age 5 and people over the age of 65.
The symptoms of the Spanish flu were similar to the flu. They would develop a fever, cough, and body aches. However, the Spanish flu is a bit different. These symptoms can also lead to severe pneumonia and respiratory failure. This contributes to its high mortality rate.
The pandemic had a huge impact on societies, economies, and healthcare systems. It quickly overwhelmed hospitals and medical resources. With many people dying, they eventually ran out of coffins to bury the dead.
The Spanish flu pandemic eventually ended somehow. But it emerged with the second wave being the deadliest. As the flu mutated people developed some level of immunity, slowing down its progress. By 1919, the pandemic had largely died out.
A more recent pandemic that we all experienced was the COVID-19 pandemic. COVID-19 (Coronavirus Disease 2019) is an infectious respiratory illness caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. It first emerged in Wuhan, China, in late 2019.
COVID-19 is believed to have originated in a seafood market in Wuhan China where live animals were also sold. The exact origin, but it is thought to have originated in bats and passed on to humans after eating them.
COVID-19 spreads when an infected person coughs, sneezes, talks, or breathes. It can also spread by touching surfaces contaminated with the virus and then touching the face.
COVID-19 has a wide range of symptoms which can vary in severity. Common symptoms include fever, cough, shortness of breath, fatigue, and loss of taste or smell kind of like a cold. Some people may have the virus but do not show symptoms. This is important because you can accidentally infect someone without even knowing. This is dangerous, especially for older people.
People who caught COVID-19 experience mild to moderate symptoms and recover without hospitalization. The virus can cause severe respiratory illness, particularly in older adults and individuals with underlying health conditions. Any young and healthy people have a very high chance of surviving the virus. But 60+ may experience the worst symptoms and may even die of the virus.
Unlike in the Middle Ages, public health organizations had a plan to control the spread of the virus. They took measures such as wearing a mask, social distancing, hygiene, lockdowns, and restrictions on public gatherings. Some countries like the United States struggled with this. Many people thought COVID-19 was a hoax until they were proven wrong by catching it. There was also huge shortages of toilet paper, sanitizer, and mask.
At around February the COVID-19 vaccine was developed and authorized for emergency use in various countries around the world. These vaccines have proven highly effective at preventing COVID-19 and reducing the severity of the disease.
With humans developing immunity to COVID-19 the virus mutated into different variants. Some of these variants have raised concerns due to their potential to spread more easily or evade immunity from previous infections and vaccinations.
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For the past few weeks, we have been learning about DNA. On Monday we were given a task to draw a dog by using DNA as the main reference. We randomly chose random pieces of DNA printed on a piece of paper. We compared the code of DNA to a reference paper with different dog traits eg. body, head shape, ears, etc. The dog me and Joshua got a small, thin, long, straight body with a flat head, medium square ears, long thin legs, green eyes, a long and bushy tail, red-brown fur, and wavy long hair.
Results:
The dog Joshua drew was Timmy and obviously, my one was Jimmy. I someone switched the head shape from flat to a long, thin head. I didn’t know how to draw a dog so I did well for my first attempt.
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Aim:
To run a Gel Electrophoresis Kit.
Research:
Theory:
DNA is a modular molecule made up of 4 smaller nucleotide units, which are abbreviated A, T, G, and C. These units connect into specific pairs, A connects with T and G connects with C. It can be connected backward like TA and CG.
Viruses:
The DNA used for this experiment is from the Lambda virus. Lambda is a virus. Viruses work by attaching themselves to a subject like a human, animal, etc. They infiltrate their subject by the eyes, nose, or mouth. They then infect a cell and reprogram their DNA into a virus factory
Restriction enzymes are specialized at cutting DNA and recognizing sequences. The restriction enzymes are used in molecular biology techniques such as DNA cloning, gene editing, and DNA sequencing.
Gel Electrophoresis uses a gel as an anticonvective medium or sieving medium during electrophoresis, the movement of a charged particle in an electric current. It’s used in the lab to practice separating charged molecules such as DNA, RNA, and proteins according to their size.
And so because the backbones of the DNA strands are negatively charged, when you put a positive electrode at the far end of the gel to the wells, they will want to move through the gel.
The Gel runs for 10 minutes, and then we look at the stripes that the DNA lengths make in the Gel.
Method:
We practiced by using the micropipette to put dots of colored water onto paper sheets. Then we did the experiment.
Results:
Conclusion:
Our predictions were wrong. If were changed the 600 to 400 and changed some of the numbers our prediction would be on point. We only made a couple of mistakes but that’s all right. It’s not about the destination it’s about the friends we made along the way. (We made no friends along the way)
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Artificial intelligence has reached a point where it can replicate human voices, and faces to perform various advanced tasks. For instance, many modern phones use facial recognition technology to unlock the device by creating face models based on users’ faces.
The show brings up an issue with facial recognition. Police in the UK used facial recognition without the people’s consent to train the AI and gather their faces to store in a database. Since there is a lack of legal structures for AI many human rights are being violated.
Facial recognition works by using technology and biometrics to identify human faces. It maps facial features from a photograph or video and then compares the information with a database of known faces to find a match. Facial recognition can help verify a person’s identity but also raises privacy concerns.
Police were experimenting with the limits of privacy with facial recognition cameras. They never said anything to the public and just put vans in the streets with cameras. When some people were warned about the camera they tried hiding their faces only to get in trouble with the police for being suspicious.
What surprises me the most is that technology has bias. In the show they said that AI applications have been shown to develop biases in everything from who gets hired, what kind of medical treatment someone receives, who goes to college, the financial credit we get, and the length of a prison term someone serves.
They would only develop these biases depending on how they were trained. Coded Bias also pointed out many flaws in facial recognition technology. Since most of the imagines fed to the AI were mostly people with light skin, the AI could only recognize them. It was only when Joy Buolamwini put on a white mask that the AI recognized her face.
Biased algorithms can make unfair choices based on stereotypes and other things regarding that person’s past. Eg. Criminal history. Bias algorithms can treat people unfairly because of their race, gender, ethnicity, or how much money they have.
Encourage diversity in the teams that design, develop, and create algorithms and technology. Diverse teams bring different perspectives and experiences to the table, which can help identify and address potential biases. You could also develop standardized methods for testing algorithms for bias. Make sure you be cautious about the data used to train algorithms. Don’t use Twitter to train your AI its a horrible idea. Microsoft figured it out the hard way.
The documentary is about artificial intelligence and the biases that can be embedded into this technology. An MIT researcher Joy Buolamwini discovered that her face was unrecognizable in many facial recognition systems. She worked to find out why these systems failed. She finally realized that the system would recognize lighter skin over darker-skinned individuals. Because the AI was trained with many different imagines of light-skinned individuals instead of darker-skinned individuals.
Task: Complete the 3 missing analysis dimensions on ’technological development’
Technological: What are the technological considerations of this event?
Machine learning AI. Machine learning uses algorithms trained by the data provided to it. Depending on what information you feed it can perform a variety of complex tasks. Since you are giving machines the ability to learn, it lets them make predictions and improve their algorithms without human contact. A common example of this is anti-virus software. They learn to filter new threats as they are recognized.
The bad thing about machine learning is that if you feed it the wrong information it can develop biases that will impact its performance. For example, Amazon used machine learning AI to hire people. Amazon’s AI was trained by observing patterns in resumes submitted to the company over a 10-year period. Most came from men so the AI taught itself that male candidates were preferable to women. It denied resumes that included the word, “women.”
Legal: What are the legal considerations of this event?
There are many good things about AI but the bad things just override the good things. AI has been used to reduce human error making the AI perform tasks more efficiently. You can use AI to help with art, ideas, coding, etc. It all depends on how the AI was trained so take in the information with a grain of salt.
The laws being broken are a basic human right that all humans should have. In the show, they questioned if they even have the right to privacy once the police put facial recognition on all the cameras in the UK. They said it would be like China’s security not giving people the right to privacy.
Cultural: What are the cultural considerations of this event?
You can share your culture online spreading it to more people. This can spread awareness of your culture getting more people to respect your culture and traditions. People may even pick up your culture and traditions.
The internet always has it’s good and bad, but sharing your culture online could also get you made fun of. If your culture is different from theirs they might flame you for having a different cultural practice compared to theirs. This also may create good and bad stereotypes of your culture.
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