DANGER

There I was hanging over the edge of the cliff with my life flashing before my eyes I had been fighting my way through this compound all day for what? Just to end up hanging off the side of a cliff with men coming to push me off and make sure I’m gone for good.  Maybe I shouldn’t have become a spy.

            My whole life I have lived on the edge stretching from my home land of America all the way to Korea. I can’t recall the last time that I have been able to sit back and relax without having to watch my back the whole time. I finally came back to my senses and was able to pull myself up. I managed to take out three of the men than someone came up behind me and knocked me out.

            I woke up but something felt different I was being hanged by my feet upside-down and I must have been out for hours because when I was able to get a glimpse out of the window I noticed it was dark out now. I have no idea how I am going to be able to get out of this mess……

Inhumanity Kills

Authors Note: this is a piece to explain the theme of in humanity in the lottery.

Have you ever thought about a world where an idea of controlling population somewhat by stoning someone to death each year and even the children have to participate. In the story The Lottery By Shirley Jackson there are a few good themes but the most important theme would be inhumanity. This story is a perfect example of inhumanity for many reasons but the worst part of it is that they have a lottery that gives the winner a death sentence in which case they stone the person.

                The reason this story really represents inhumanity is because they even have the small children stone the winner to death. I know this because in the story it even says “Bobby Martian had already stuffed his pocket full of stones”. This bad because that basically teaches the kids that it is okay to kill people and that it isn’t even a big deal.

                So even though the world isn’t in a population crisis they still do what they can to help keep it down by killing people off but too make it worse it is in there tradition. Some people may say it isn’t a big deal but next time consider that even the kids can be stoned and they also have  to participate in the stoning.

 A crack in a mirror everybody thinks that I am dark and depressing but I am really not. Just because I am misunderstood and mistreated doesn’t mean I fit the stereo type.

            In all of my years I have always been misunderstood just because I have cracks doesn’t mean that I am trying to be scary I am far from that but since nobody understands me I cannot explain myself. So nobody knows that I am a nice and caring person. That is a perfect example that just because you are tough on the outside you can still be soft.

            Mirror Mirror on the wall everybody believes I am the scariest of them all

Among the Imposters Cause and Effect

         Authors note: this is a short writing piece explaining a cause and effect for Among the Imposters

            In a post apocalyptic world humankind is struggling to live because there is a massive plague that almost takes them out. With this struggle rules begin to be put in place and third children start to become illegal. Since they didn’t follow the rules and kept having kids they started to crack down and kill them. Now the third children’s only options are hiding or death.

            As a cause the population police decided that they needed more land so they forced some people to sell their land so they could make more houses. It only took them a little while until construction workers started to question them. But they were able to luckily trick them and tell them that they didn’t have air conditioning so they kept the drapes down to keep the house cool.

            The effect was that because the works got close to finding out their secret they made Luke stay up in the attic and he can’t go into his actual house anymore so he thought it was bad that he wasn’t able to go outside now he can’t even walk around his own home. So now he’s stuck up in an attic and the only way he can basically see other life is by looking out of the two vents that are in the attic.

            So even though some people today think that our world is really bad that is basically nothing compared to this.

Among the Hidden Conflict/ Resolution

Authors Note: this is a five paragraph essay explaining conflict and resolution for Among the Hidden

Have you ever thought that someday the world could go into massive plague which causes third children to be illegal? In the book Among the Hidden by Margaret Peterson Haddix there are many different conflicts but there is one main conflict that threatens many peoples’ lives.

Although some people think that our world right now is messed up they would think twice about that if they saw how bad this world is, in this book there is a major plague which almost takes out the whole population and there only way to stop it was to make third children illegal and not allow pets. This rule was a drawback but not the worst thing that could happen.

The main conflict was the fact that people didn’t take this law seriously. So even though they knew about the law they kept having kids because the population police didn’t act on it. So even though they are trying to control the population it isn’t really working and since it isn’t working they are just ending up running lower and lower on food. Because food is starting to become so scarce they decide to become more serious and start killing off third children and the people who are harboring them.

The only solution for the third children is to hide. Now for some this is easy for other it is hard. For example kids on a farm can easily hide like Luke. But somebody in the city would have a harder time being hidden. Sadly these kids have to stay in hiding basically their whole lives but its either this or death

In a poverty stricken world where there is plague and overpopulation many children have to adapt by hiding otherwise they will be killed. Although people today think that the world is bad right now that is nothing compared to what it is like in this world.

The Misunderstandings of Stem Cell Research

By: Ross Thomson

Have you ever thought about the concept of using stem cells to help us treat disease that right now are hard to treat?  Although stem cell research is a controversial topic  it is something that would be able to save many lives but there are some drawbacks that many people are on the fence about.

           When it come to stem cells there are many different types of stem cells. But there are two main kinds of cells which are embryonic stem cells, and there are also adult stem cells. First I am going to explain what embryonic cells are. Embryonic stem cells are produced from embryos that are developed from fertilized eggs. This fertilization is done in a in vitro fertilization clinic. Once they are fertilized they are donated with informed consent to a research clinic. Due to all of the controversy they come from a clinic not from a woman (What are embryonic stem cells?). Also with embryonic stem cells they are more compatible with what kind of cells they can be used for but with adult stem cells it’s a whole different story.  Adult stem cells are found in some parts of the human but not all parts. Adult stem cells can only make cells for the part that they are from so they can’t help with any part of the body (Stem cells 101).

Although many people are against stem cells there are many ways that stem cells could really help us. We would be able to treat many things that are hard to treat right now. The most important possible use of stem cells is the production of cells and tissues that may be used for cell based therapies. Present day we use donated organs to replace failed organs. Also we don’t have enough donated organs to be able to supply the demand for it. The good thing about stem cells is that they are a renewable supply that can treat a wide amount of injuries and bad diseases like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s (Stem Cell Information).  We also can use stem cells to test out new drugs, which is a really big advantage because then we don’t have to use people as guinea pigs which can cause serious injuries or death for them. Human stem cells can be used for testing new drugs. With this, new medications can be tested in a safer way. These tests are already being done on cancer cells to test new anti tumor drugs. With the testing of new drugs using pluripotent stem cells they would be able to test many different fields of drugs. But the downside is that the conditions of the type would have to be identical so that the tests are accurate between different types of drugs. But so far we are not able to purposely do that.

When it comes to stem cells they are very controversial because of all of the facts that go into it. One of the biggest reasons that stem cell research is held back is because of something called the dickey~wicker amendment which first came into effect in 1996. What this law basically states is that they cannot put tax dollars into something that is done in a private facility that causes embryos to be knowingly subject to risk or injury. This amendment stops them because of the way that they are extracted (Stem Cells). Many people are against this because they say that life begins right when the embryo starts to develop. Yet others argue that when they are still in that stage they cannot even stay alive on their own so they technically aren’t alive yet.

As you can tell there is much controversy on this topic although it has its drawbacks it also has very many perks that could involve saving lives. But it is your decision on what you think on this topic some are for it some are against it you decide

Poem to Song

Authors Note: This is a 5 paragraph essay kind of breaking down two poems.

Have you ever read the poem “Big Yellow Taxi” by Joni Mitchell or “Field Below” by Regina Spektor? These are two different stories that haven different themes but yet the same message.

 These are both very good poems that are both about them missing nature. Big Yellow Taxi is about the writer’s home being turned from a area of nature to a city and she doesn’t like it and it is also kind of going against what the country is doing to help grow plants but kills a lot of other nature which in her opinion would not be the best option.

 Field Below is about nature basically being gone and how she is basically emotionally scarred from it and would like to at least see nature one more time. When  she describes the nature her mood is almost like she is homesick and that she just needs it around for at least a few days.

            Both of these poems are very interesting and the authors have stronger feelings about the meaning of this poem. With the emotions put into this poem it makes it very interesting but it also makes you think what could happen in the future could we end up with barely any nature?

            These two poems share many similarities but yet are so different  and as long as you give them a chance you will probably find them to be very interesting