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Well, I have a lot of things that I'm thankful for. I'm thankful for the universe (so that everyone can exist), my parents for making me exist and caring for me, thankful that I live in a nice place where I have housing and food to eat, and plants producing oxygen so we can breathe. . . Those are just the basics, there are a lot more things that I'm thankful for, like scientists and researchers trying to make the world a better place, environmentalists trying to keep our world safe, K12 OHVA for giving me an education, and all the amazing people trying to do things for the greater good. I am also thankful for things that don't directly relate to my well being and survival, that just correlate for entertainment. Besides all that, one of the things that I'm most thankful for is life itself! I look forward to all the adventures and epic journeys that it will throw at me!
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* 21,000 die of hunger everyday.
7,665,000 people die of hunger every year. 1,250,000 of them are children. The sad thing is, WE CAN STOP THIS! But for some reason, we just... choose not to, and don't push for our governments to stop wasting money on weapons and focus on helping the people wasting away from starvation. EVERY SINGLE DAY IN AMERICA ALONE... approximately one Rose Bowl Football Stadium is filled with perfectly good food! We could feed SO MANY PEOPLE with that! Personally, I think that a law should be put to make it illegal to throw away perfectly good food. If food is spoiled, that is ok. You can't feed someone harmful food and expect them to get better. If people distributed that football stadium sized heap of food (mind you, that is from America alone, every. Single. Day.) we could curb world hunger! There is a catch, though. We have to persuade the governments to create such laws to stop the disposal of good food and push them to stop using funds on weaponry to kill and use it rather on things to give life, such as transporting medicine, food, etc. If we stop the weaponry issue, that will also stop hunger a little bit in itself. A lot of poverty and hunger is caused by conflicts! People wouldn't be able to work and learn normally in conditions where every second they are fearing for their lives. Stopping war and stopping constant funds FOR war will help with lowering poverty. Using the war funds to fund more peaceful and humanitarian cause would be much better for humanity. Another catch, corrupt leaders and weapon manufacturers don't want this. They want to keep wars going for power and money. If we can stop or persuade them, maybe we could take those daily Rose Bowl-sized heaps of food and feed people wasting away with it! We need to stand up, to inform, and to take action! We can't stop people from doing bad things without doing anything. We can't make people do good things without doing anything. We need to take action, or hunger and poverty will keep rising! Animal Intelligence Research Paper (By: Iris Johnson)
Creative Corvids Why Bird Brain Should be a Compliment! “Birdbrain! Birdbrain!” Someone shouts the insult to you as you walk down the street. At first, you feel annoyed and upset, that person is literally calling you stupid, right? Not really. Stop and consider the corvid family. Corvids are birds including Crows, Ravens, Magpies, and even Bluejays. They are famed for being intelligent birds, showing problem-solving abilities, even using mirrors for their benefit. Some corvids, like magpies, can mimic sounds like parrots and learn human words and phrases. Corvids have been observed playing and experimenting. They have shown to have emotional attachments to the people who raise them. Of course, we cannot speculate an animal is smart or daft just from a few tricks. A dog could sit, stay, and roll, but the same mutt could also be terrified of a yellow rubber duck. How intelligent are corvids, really? Researchers and spectators have witnessed the New Caledonian crow poking grubs in holes with twigs, forcing the grubs to bite onto the twig so it can pull it out. Others take strips of serrated leaves to hook insects out of their holes. They have been observed even making the tools, taking twigs and carefully pulling out and bending certain parts to make a sharp and functional hook to yank the grub out! Not even chimpanzees have been observed (yet) making such intricate tools. Such tool craftsmanship must take up a powerful brain! Mirror, mirror, on the wall! Who is the most intelligent bird of them all? The crow, maybe! Speaking of mirrors, New Caledonian Crows have again been observed being smarty pants! Scientists have placed four crows in front of mirrors. At first, the crows started to freak out at the weirdo copying their every move, but when they went behind the mirror they realized that it wasn't another crow- it was their reflection! Once the researchers noticed this, they put a treat inside a box. The crows could only see the treat if they saw it in the mirror- and all of them did indeed realize that the treat was not inside the mirror, but where the mirror reflected! This is not only self-recognition but tool use as well! Another amazing feat from the New Caledonian Crows. Besides New Caledonian Crows, crows and ravens in NYC have proven to pass down information to their chicks and recognizing human faces. Researchers tried to see if crows could recognize human faces. One person put on a mask and spooked the crows. He kept doing this until the crows all scolded and screeched whenever they saw him. This did not work with other people who haven't harassed the crows, and when the masked person hides and takes off the mask and returns, the crows react as normal. No scolding, no negative response, just the usual neutral but still wary reaction. Year after year, when someone passes by wearing the mask, the crows go haywire! This kept on going for years, proving that crows tell each other and their chickies about information and can recognize and remember the faces of humans. A lot of people abhor magpies for their screechy screams, but besides squawking, magpies, not unlike parrots, can mimic human speech! If trained as a little chick, Magpies can pick up words and phrases in a human language! Their talking skills aren't as spiffy as a parrot, and most can't learn tons and tons of words, but it still is amazing! A specific magpie named George has learned many words. She can say things from “What does a duck say, quack quack?” to “Come here!” She says the words fluently and fast, one phrase after another. Magpies must have good memory and vocal skills to be able to remember and repeat things like those! Corvids are an absolutely amazing family of birds! From their speedy chatters to facial recognition, and their use of mirrors and sticks as tools is simply amazing! I think it's pretty fair to say that they are one of the most intelligent family of birds. So, next time, be proud when someone calls you a bird brain, and take a pause to marvel at your local smart-alecks, the corvids! Sources: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPl-AYGOXEM https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/not-bad-science/crows-take-a-look-in-the-mirror/ http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-crows-hooked-tools-20180122-story.html https://io9.gizmodo.com/the-mysterious-tool-making-culture-shared-by-crows-and-1460350033 Many of you reading this may have experienced bullying or are still going through it. Many of you have threatened to tell on a meanie and have been called a 'tattler' 'tattletale' or 'snitch'. Seems like a bad thing, right? Not a bit! There's a major difference between Tattling and Telling. When you tattle, you make a lie or fake report about someone, blaming them for something you did / or something nobody did at all. It's like when somebody drops a jug of milk in a cafeteria, and some bully goes saying that the person threw a tantrum about the food, breaking the milk in a hissy fit. Bah! That is a shameful thing for someone to do, villainizing someone's honest mistake and making them get punished for it. Telling on someone is different, it's when you stand up for yourself or others by telling to authorities, like a teacher or parent. Bullies often try to convince you that you're tattling and snitching, but that isn't true. You aren't saying an innocent person is bad just for a laugh, you're standing up by reporting something mean! It isn't a cowardly move, it's a brave one! A 'cowardly' move would be abiding by the chokes, spits, and burbles of 'HUEEH, ITS A TATTLETALE!' Stand up! Be brave! Show that you aren't the coward they say you are for telling. Thank you for reading this, happy Anti Bullying Month! =^w^= |
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I'm Iris, a kid who has lots of reflections and views on life as I experience it. I love to read topics about the world around us, other people's ideas and opinions, and just about anything that I'm curious about and interested in. Archives
December 2019
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