Chocolate for the Mind

I have recently subscribed to and have been reading an RSS feed from Scientific American called “Mind & Brain.”  Usually, this feed publishes an average of two or three stories a day.  I enjoyed skimming the titles for interesting subjects and stories that captured my attention, such as an article on whether girls or boys were better at math.  At first, I tried reading every story, but I soon found that by reading just the excerpt, I could find the posts that really captured my attention.  The “Mind & Brain” feed has information on a variety of subjects, from the effects of drugs on the brain to studies on the way we perceive information.  I like the variety of topics discussed because I could pick out stories that seemed interesting to me.  Reading the feed was interesting because I got to learn more about the mind and how it functions.  This feed is informative and educational, but does not use too much technical jargon.  In other words, it was written for the average person to read.  I like that I can get information on a scientific subject without being a neurologist.  I will probably keep this feed because of all the interesting information I can gain by reading it.  By continuing to read “Mind & Brain,” I will be able to keep up with new developments in the science of how our brains work. 

As a new blogger and a new AP English student, I am still trying to figure out the whole blogging process. One of my biggest questions is how to make my blog interesting to read. By reading and exploring some blogs written by other students, I am beginning to learn what to do in order to make my blog pleasing to my readers.  Analyzing three student blogs, I found ways the authors made their blogs interesting to read and visit. Read the rest of this entry »

Children in underdeveloped countries are subjected to harsh conditions in their jobs.  The majority of child labor occurs in agriculture (Roggero et al., 2007).  Children are employed to remove pests from cotton plants by hand, to work in banana fields and packing plants, to plant, weed, and pick crops, and to herd cattle (Human Rights Watch, 2006).  One laborer named Jyothi Ramulla Naga is fifteen and has worked in cotton fields since she was ten.  She works ten hours a day and misses school.  Beginning in April Jyothi sows the cotton seeds.  Then, for 70 to 100 days, she dusts pollen from two-week-old male plants onto the female plants by hand.  Finally, she picks the cotton over several months.  Similarly, other children work in jobs with genetically modified vegetables such as okra, tomatoes, chilies, and eggplants (Bahree, 2008).            Agricultural work has serious health risks.  Children spend long hours in extreme heat doing manual labor.  Injuries from machetes are frequent among sugar cane harvesters.  Other children work around dangerous tools and are exposed to high levels of pesticides (Human Rights Watch, 2006).  Children’s bodies are harmed by the poisons in pesticides that are used frequently but are considered highly toxic.  Overexposure to pesticides can cause problems in the digestive, respiratory, and nervous systems.            For all their work children are paid fractions of what they deserve.  Jyothi, working in the cotton fields, earns only twenty cents an hour and works from dawn until dusk.  Farmers may pay just $38 to $76 a month to the parents of the laborers.  Minimum wage in certain Indian states is only seventeen cents per hour, but children may only get five to ten cents an hour (Bahree, 2008).