theplatypus

=  = =__V__//i//v//a//  l//a// __P__//a//ntal//o//n//e//s =

= = Ello there. If you don't know me, I'm Becca, AKA The Platypus. To prevent you from being bored to death, I'm gonna tell you some things you probably don't know about me.
 * I am deathly afraid of birds, ever since I was little. Don't ask why. I just am.


 * I love typography, which is basically stylized lettering, fonts, etc., and I'm going to be learning to use Adobe Illustrator to use my typographic creations in graphic design, possibly for my dad's business.
 * Speaking of my dad's business, I once earned $25 for flipping an image in Microsoft Paint.

=**//M//Y//A//H **<3 =
 * I'm planning on starting a Bacon Club after school where all we do is eat bacon and, occasionally, other forms of pork. Then we go home. Awesome, no?
 * I have several addictions, those being laughter, sunflower seeds, and chocolate.
 * I love chocolate.
 * Chocolate is love.
 * If you ask me, I can send you a whole bunch of my favorite songs. :3
 * Drop me a line, I'd love to chat! 



= =  **__W__ild __W__eather: __B__lizzard  **  <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 80%; text-align: center;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 88%; text-align: center;">I don't know about you, but I absolutely despise the cold, so I don't know what I would do if I woke up to find myself in a blizzard. Blizzards are defined as a severe snowstorm with strong winds (over 35 MPH) and visibility of less than a quarter of a mile for a time period longer than 3 hours. In 1949, Nebraska farmers harvested a great haul, well-grown corn, wheat, and soybeans. They were quite lucky, which couldn't last. It began on November 18, sleet and wind roaring into the state at 50-70 MPH, snow falling heavily. Roads were blocked, schools closed, livestock was stranded in the fields that froze, trains stopped, travelers raced to shelter n hotels, telephone lines went dead, and the world was white fury. In the Northeast (Bloomfield and Hartington), 24 inches of snow piled up. Luckily for those in Omaha and Lincoln, the worst they received was heavy rain and some snow. 5,000 phone wires broke and 1,700 telephone poles had collapsed. Some people were stranded in the storm, between Waco and York, so some men went out into the snow to seek them out. What they found was a young girl, trapped in a car, crippled, barely able to get her breath in. The men brought her to Waco in hopes to save her. Unfortunately, this isn't the only tragic story from the vicious blizzard. The storm ceased before Christmas, lifting the spirits of all, but immediately knocking their legs out from under them when the blizzard returned, strong as ever, on January 2.The storm lasted for 3 days with winds up to 50-60 MPH, gusting snow all across the land, building up on top of what was left from the previous storm. People were stranded on farms and medical emergencies arose all over, and physicians and firefighters attempted to handle the situations. Some families burned furniture to stay warm and "refrigerated" their food (such as milk) in snow. Despite this, four people died in the January snowstorm. The last two weeks of January delivered freezing rain coupled with subzero temperatures. The last week of March brought with it 20 more inches of snow. More train derailments and flooding was left in its wake. The Big and Little Nemaha Rivers both flooded, thanks to ice jams. During the winter of 1948-1949, some parts of Nebraska received 100 inches of snow. There was even a place in Antelope County that held 30 ft snow drifts that didn't melt until June. Not only did Nebraska suffer, but so did North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming. After writing about these kind of disaster makes me so thankful that I've never experienced such a destructive (and white) blizzard. I can only hope it stays that way. <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 80%; text-align: center;"> [|Image] [|Article] [|Definition] **<span style="color: #bfbaba; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 104%; text-align: center;">__S__ocial __A__wareness __T__opic: <span style="color: #feb9fe; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 104%; text-align: center;">__P__overty ** <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 88%; text-align: center;">Have you ever been worried that you won't be able to afford your lunch today? There are some people in America that have this concern every day of their lives, and some in other countries that worry if they'll even survive the day. With not much more than a dollar or two in their pockets, some people just get by. In fact, almost half the world (roughly 3 billion people) live off of just $2.50 a day. While you sit in a classroom and stare out the window, wish that you were anywhere but there, children around the globe are caught in a disease-ridden rut, wishing they could be in that classroom next to you. If that imagery doesn't frighten you, then imagine this: 10.6 million children died in 2003...before they reached the age of 5. Let's crunch the numbers: that means approximately 29,000 children dying a day. As if this isn't enough, less than one percent of the money spent on weapons every year could have been used to put every child into a school by the year 2000 - successfully - but it didn't happen. In fact, the GDP (an acronym for Gross Domestic Product) of the 41 heavily indebted poor countries is easily less than the wealth of the seven richest people in the world. Does this not show our greed and unwillingness to help those that need it most? Instead of the world spending money on weapons and somewhat-useless actions, they could be actually stopping the horrors going on all across the globe. How horrible, you ask? 1 child dies every 3.5 seconds. This means that 17-18 children die every minute. That's 25,000 dying every day, which is equal to 9 million children dying every year. This suggests that between 2000 and 2007, 70 million children died, give or take. Why? Poverty. They are too poor to afford proper health care, education, shelter, or even food. They are vulnerable, open to disease and not getting any better any time soon. This could be for a number of reasons. Possibly it's the growing "need" (equivalent to "want" at this point) for certain foods to be grown, such as tobacco and sugar, instead of foods needed to survive. Perhaps it's the corruption within the minds of world leaders. Maybe, even, it's just unwillingness for us, America, the richest nation - and sometimes, the most greedy nation - to hand over any of our so-called "hard earned" power to any of our starving, slowly dying neighbors. Whatever the cause, we can surely do more to save the many lives destroyed in the death penalty that is poverty. [|Article] [|Image]

<span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 91.52%; text-align: center;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 104%; text-align: center;">** __B__ook __R__eview ** // <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 88%; text-align: center;">Heir Apparent //<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 88%; text-align: center;"> by Vivian Vande Velde On her fourteenth birthday, Giannine Belisario uses her Rasmussem Gaming Center certificate (courtesy of her father) for a half-hour total immersion virtual game. When playing the game, “Heir Apparent”, Nigel Rasmussem enters the game to explain the CPOC (Citizens to Protect Our Children) have entered the Gaming Center and destroyed her gaming machine. The only way to exit the game—and the only way to remain unharmed—is to complete the virtual reality trip. And every decision she makes can either be the success or death of Janine de St Jehan, the heir to the throne. //Heir Apparent//, with its fast-paced decisions and excitement, every turn of the page will be sure to keep you hooked!

<span style="color: #ebc2eb; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 95.1808%; text-align: center;"> **<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 88%; text-align: center;"> We've all heard of them, those stones in England that have been deemed impossible many times over. How could people from 4,500 years ago, give or take, have brought along these monstrous stones up the hills, walked some 20 miles, and lift the 40-ton load so it stands upright? Perhaps the biggest question here is not how, but why? Why did they go through all the trouble? Was it a worshiping place, possibly for sacrifice? Or was it a calendar, as the Mayans produced? According to an article on the New York Times website, the Stonehenge has always been a burial ground. Scientists have uncovered the dates from human cremation burials within and around the Stonehenge which suggest that around 3,000 BC up until 2,500 BC, it was being used as a sort of cemetery, until the monuments were (somehow) put up. To even further support their theory, said scientists found the head of a mace - a status symbol which told them that perhaps it was a burial ground for those important enough, such as the then-current ruling dynasty. One scientist believes the burials were for one ruling family because of the fact that there were a small amount of burials earlier on, the numbers increasing as time went by. A deer antler was discovered not far away from the site, which was possibly a tool used for digging the graves. The evidence points toward the previous result, but we can never really be sure. The Stonehenge is just another unsolved mystery. [|Article] [|Image] <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 88%; text-align: center;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 91.52%; text-align: center;">** __S__cience/__T__echnology __C__urrent __E__vent: __C__hrome by __G__oogle ** <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 88%; text-align: center;"> What browser do you use? Firefox? Maybe Internet Explorer, or even Opera? With these browsers (and so many others) on the market, it's hard to believe there could be another breed released into the cyber-world. Well, there is. Introducing Chrome, Google's browser made to compete with Internet-surfing programs such as these. In fact, you've probably heard of it - it's already surpassed Apple's Safari in terms of world-wide usage, 160million visitors per month. In fact, the percentage of Chrome users bounded from 3.9 percent to 4.6 percent. Safari trails not far behind with 4.5 percent of usage. So what's the hype about? Besides just being a browser, Chrome has "extensions". These are the features that allow the user to somewhat-customize their browser's capabilities. Unfortunately for Mac users, this feature is not yet present in Chrome for Macintosh computers, and is therefore a setback on Google's plans. If you're interested in your browser's current competitors (and who isn't!), Internet Explorer is slipping, dropping from 63.6 percent to 62.7, event with IE8 released (which individually increased in usage from 19.3 to 20.9 percent). Firefox, interestingly enough, also dropped .1 percent, from 24.7 percent to 24.6 percent. [|Article+Image]
 * <span style="color: #a5a1a1; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 91.52%; text-align: center;">__U__nsolved __M__ystery: <span style="color: #feb9fe; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 95.1808%; text-align: center;">__S__tonehenge <span style="color: #a5a1a1; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 91.52%; text-align: center;">

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 88%; text-align: center;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 91.52%; text-align: center;">** __H__ow __A__lbinism __W__orks ** <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 88%; text-align: center;"> Ever met anyone with extremely pale skin? Ever met someone with //white// skin? This may mean they have albinism, an extremely rare physical "condition" that only one in 17,000 people worldwide have albinism. But why is it that their skin and, most likely, their hair is so strikingly white? One word: melanin. Melanin is what colors our eyes, skin, and hair, and protects us from the sun's harmful rays - both our eyes and skin. Therefore, if you are born with melanin below the normal amount, your hair and skin have no color (unless you consider "white" a color here). However, this is not always the case; someone born with less melanin than his brothers and sisters with normal amounts of melanin may look just like them. That's why doctors diagnose albinism with an eye exam. Since lack of melanin results in impaired vision, if you have albinism, you'll have an unusual eye anatomy, impaired vision, and be affected greatly by the sun - no tanning for you! Albinism is not a disease you can catch, but a mutation one is born with in their DNA. This mutation may occur in three areas: the proteins needed to make melanin, the recipe for melanin, or the parts of the cell that package and distribute melanin. This is an extremely rare condition, despite the many ethnic groups albinism has been documented in. The most common form of albinism - OCA2 - is found in one in 36,000 Caucasians in the US, while it's found one in 125 Kuna Native Americans in Panama, showing that certain forms are more common in different parts of the globe.

Believe it or not, this boy has albinism. [|Image] [|Article]

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