Synopsis of the Ericaceae Plants

The Ericaceae plants, also known as the heath family, are part of the order Ericales, the subclass Dilleniidae, the class Magnoliopsida, the division Magnoliophyta, the superdivision Spermatophyta, the subkingdom Tracheobrionta, and the kingdom Plantae. This family has been around for many millennia, and so its origins are hard to trace. They may have arisen in North America or Eurasia, or perhaps even on the Pangean continent of Laurasia (the Americas and Eurasia combined). In the modern world, Ericaceae species can be found anywhere with a temperate climate in either hemisphere. They are most diverse in southern Africa and western China.

Morphologically, the Ericaceae are a diverse group. They do have a few distinguishing and unifying characteristics. All flowers have a fused corona, and most leaves are simple and alternate with a dark green color and a leathery texture. Many have evergreen leaves, and most are woody shrubs while a few are trees or herbs. Beyond this, the family is very diverse. The flowers, while mostly being bell- or urn-shaped, come in a vast array of shapes and sizes. The leaves may also come in a wide range of shapes and sizes depending on the climate a particular species grows in. Some of the Ericaceae are epiphytes, meaning they grow on other plants. Some don't have chlorophyll, but instead rely on other photosynthetic pigments. This family's members come in quite a wide variety of forms.

The Ericaceae family is a family of moderate size with 100 genera and approximately 3000 species. Three of the most well known genera are Rhododendron, Phyllodoce, and Vaccinium. Rhododendrons and azaleas are ornamental shrubs included in the Rhododendron genus. Heathers belong to the genus Phyllodoce. The Vaccinium genus contains berry-bearing plants such as gooseberry, cranberry, and blueberry.

Let's take some time to talk about Vaccinium cyanococcus, the blueberry. The specific epithet “cyanococcus” literally translates into “blue sphere,” an apt name for these small blue fruits. America is by far the leading exporter of blueberries. Until recently, our exports surpassed those of all other countries combined. Within the U.S., Maine is responsible for growing 25% of our blueberry crop.

Blueberry cultivation and use has been part of American life since long before the Europeans settled this continent. The Native Americans called them “star berries” and believed that they were one of The Great Spirit's greatest gifts to mankind. Culinarily, they ate them raw and used them to flavor and preserve meats. They also used them medicinally to treat coughs and other minor ailments.

Blueberries remain popular today. They are eaten fresh, dried, frozen, preserved, or cooked into a variety of delectable dishes. Plus, they're incredibly healthy. Like all fruits, they are low in calories and fat, and high in vitamins. In addition, blueberries have one of the highest concentrations of antioxidants in any food. They also reduce indigestion and constipation, help prevent some types of cancer, and slow down the loss of memory, vision, and motor skills due to old age. There is so much good-for-you packed into such a tiny, delicious snack. Vaccinium cyanococcus is quite an impressive species out of the Ericaceae plants.



References

• “Blueberry.” agriculturalproductsindia.com. Agro Products, 2008. Web. November 9, 2009.
• “Classification for Kingdom Plantae Down to Family Ericaceae.” Plants Database. United States Department of Agriculture, n.d. Web. November 9, 2009.
• Drotleff, Laura. “Blueberries For Better Health.” American Fruit Grower v. 126 no. 10 November/December 2006 p. 48-49. OmniFile FT Mega (Wilson). Web. November 9, 2009.
• “Ericaceae.” Academic.reed.edu. Reed College, n.d. Web. November 9, 2009.
• Friis, Ib; Balslev, Henrik. Plant Diversity and Complexity Patterns: Local, Regional, and Global Dimensions. Denmark: Special-Trykkeriet Viborg, 2005. Print.
• Raloff, Janet. “Berry good protection for aging brains.” Science News v. 156 no. 12, 18 September 1999, p. 180-181. Readers' Guide Full Text (Wilson). Web. November 9, 2009.
• Rose, Melody. “Blueberries: History, Culture, and Uses.” Davesgarden.com. Dave's Garden, n.d. Web. November 9, 2009.
• Rowland, L. J. “Vaccinium spp. Blueberry./ edited by Litz, R. E.; [electronic resource].” 2005. Purdue University Catalog. Web. November 9, 2009.
• “U.S. Blueberry Industry.”United States Department of Agriculture: Economics, Statistics, and Market Information System. Economic Research Service U.S. Department of Agriculture, n.d. Web. November 9, 2009.

An Unorthodox Bedtime Story

A few years ago, a friend of mine asked me to text her a bedtime story. The story you will find below became my standard bedtime story (for some reason several other people asked me to text them bedtime stories in the months that followed). Last winter I turned it into an art project, and the pictures accompanying each paragraph are photos of that project. Enjoy!




Once upon a time in a cottage at the edge on a forest there lived a little girl along with her father, mother, and baby brother. The little girl liked to walk in the field of wildflowers near her house.









The little girl was frolicking merrily among the flowers one pleasant morning when a fearsome dragon swooped down and carried her off to its lair in the formidable mountains beyond the forest.








She had not been in the dragon's cave for long when a knight on horseback came galloping up the stony trail. He vanquished the dragon, but when he learned that the little girl was not of noble blood he rode off in search of other damsels in distress and left the little girl behind.






Back at the cottage, the little girl's father had seen the dragon carry his precious daughter away. He wasted no time in finding out where the dragon lived and immediately began his trek up the treacherous mountains. After a time, he found the lair of the deceased dragon.






Both the father and the little girl were overjoyed to see one another. The father swept the little girl into his arms and carried her down through the mountains and the forest. They arrived back at the cottage just in time for a delicious supper of homemade soup before bedtime.



the end.

The Importance of Extension Work in Slowing the Spread of Glyphosate Resistance

All crop farmers face the problem of weeds, and they generally take whatever course of action is cheapest and most effective in controlling weeds. While this may be the most economical solution in the short run, overuse of the herbicide glyphosate (commonly known as Round-Up) is giving rise to glyphosate-resistant weeds. One of the main foci of Dr. Bill Johnson’s work is to educate the public about the threat of increasing glyphosate resistance in hopes that by addressing the consumers of the herbicide he can reduce its use.

A farmer’s dependence on glyphosate varies from crop to crop, but up to 95% of farmers use this herbicide as their primary means of controlling weeds in soy fields (Johnson). In order to fight this problem, scientists must not only discover alternative methods of weed control, but also educate farm-owners about the importance of implementing these methods. In Facts About Glyphosate-Resistant Weeds, one of the publications from an extension group he has written for, the common man is presented with all sorts of useful information. He finds easily understood information about resistant weeds ranging from the number of resistant species to why resistance has developed. Warnings against counter-productive ways of combating resistance, such as increasing the number or concentration of glyphosate applications, are provided. Suggestions are given for effective alternative or companion weed control methods including mixing other herbicides with glyphosate or planting groundcover control crops (Boerboom). This and other publications from extension workers across the country inform glyphosate users about resistance and how to fight it.

By directly addressing the people with the power to reduce glyphosate use, Johnson and others hope to see the rise of more diverse methods of weed management and a decrease in the spread of glyphosate resistance. Studies show that many farmers are aware of glyphosate resistance, but not all of these farmers change their practices to reflect this knowledge (Johnson et al.). Johnson attributes this to the fact that today glyphosate is still largely effective and far less expensive and labor-intensive than the alternatives. Once farmers are convinced that action must be taken now if we want to be able to continue using this herbicide, dependence on glyphosate will decrease and the spread of resistance will be slowed. Glyphosate will remain a useful tool in the agricultural industry, but we will no longer be devastated if it loses effectiveness. Farmers may have to pay more in the short-term to control weeds, but in the long run they will have greater success with managing weeds and thereby increase their profit.

Resistance to glyphosate is spreading at an alarming rate. Research is being done on methods of weed control that will supplement or replace glyphosate, but the research is not very useful unless farmers are knowledgeable about how important it is to combat this problem and the methods of doing so. The work of Johnson and others strives to make research easily accessible to farmers and thus reduce glyphosate dependence. It may take time to convince growers of this, but it will be worth it in the long run to preserve the effectiveness of glyphosate even though it means combining this herbicide with other more expensive weed management methods.


Bibliography

• Boerboom, Chris, and Michael Owen. “Facts About Glysophate-Resistant Weeds.” The Glyphosate, Weeds, and Crops Series. GWC-1. Purdue Extension Knowledge To Go. December 2006. Web. 14 October 2009.
• Johnson, William G. Personal Interview. 24 September 2009.
• Johnson, William G., et al. “University Weed Scientists Report on Grower Awareness and Perceptions on Weed Resistance to Glyphosate in Roundup Ready® Crops.” Benchmark Study: Glyphosate Resistance Management. 2009 - Report #5. Web. 14 October 2009.

Sir Cephelebrum Man and His Mighty Brain

For psychology class, we had to write a children's story explaining the functions of various parts of the brain. For my project, I created a super-hero. I can't stand my character. He was kind of fun to create at times, but he's like something my little brother would invent and love. I can't just change the entire personality of a character if it wants to be the way it is. Without further ado, here's my brain book.

Sir Cephelebrum Man and His Mighty Brain

Greetings, friends! My name is Sir Cephelebrum Man. I have learned that any real super-hero needs to use every part of his brain, from the cerebral cortex to the medulla. Allow me to introduce the parts of my brain and explain how they help me in my super-heroism.

My cerebral cortex is the outside layer of my cerebrum, the largest part of my brain. It is split into two halves called hemispheres. The corpus callosum is a bundle of neuron (nerve cell) fibers that connects the two hemispheres and lets them share information.

My cerebral cortex is divided into sections called lobes. Each lobe is responsible for different kinds of activities. The four types of lobes are the temporal lobes, occipital lobes, parietal lobes, and frontal lobes. The lobes come in pairs, one for each hemisphere.

My temporal lobes are found at the bottom the cerebral cortex around my ears. These lobes help me process information from my ears. Without them, I wouldn’t be able to hear calls for help. If I don’t know when the citizens of my fair city need my help, how can I be a hero?

My occipital lobes are at the back of my head. They let me process information from my eyes. Without them, I wouldn’t be able to see sinister villains, damsels in distress, stranded kittens, raging forest fires, or any other matters in need of my heroic attention.

In front of my occipital lobes are my parietal lobes. These lobes allow me to feel. Without them, I wouldn’t be able to feel whether I was walking on firm ground or flying through the air. Plus, I wouldn’t know when my admiring fans were timidly tapping my shoulder to ask for autographs.

My frontal lobes are at the front of my cerebral cortex. They let me move and make decisions. Without them, I couldn’t rush to the aid of helpless civilians or decide which superhero suit to wear each day. What on earth would I do without my frontal lobes?

Without the help of my thalamus, my cerebral cortex would have no information to work with. My thalamus sends messages from my eyes, ears, hands, and other body parts to my cerebral cortex so that I can see, hear, and feel. It also sends messages to my cerebellum and medulla, who we will meet later on.

My cerebral cortex isn’t the only part of the brain that helps me out when I save the day. I also rely on my limbic system. My limbic system is responsible for important things like emotions, memory, and hunger. My hippocampus, hypothalamus, and amygdala make up my limbic system.

My hippocampus helps me process memories. If it were damaged, I wouldn’t be able to remember who my enemies and allies are. Just think of the chaos that could cause! I also wouldn’t be able to remember my countless heroic deeds or the directions to my favorite pizza parlor.

My hypothalamus tells me when I need to eat and drink, and it keeps my body temperature stable. If I forgot to eat or drink, I would be too tired to accomplish my daring deeds. If my body couldn’t keep a healthy temperature, I would have a hard time travelling to the ends of the earth to fulfill me heroic duties.

Without my amygdala, Mondays would be unbearable. It has a lot of influence over my emotions, especially anger. On Monday mornings, it’s hard to muster the enthusiasm to fight evildoers if I don’t feel any righteous anger. I turn my anger into something productive, and it helps me save the world.

Outside of my cerebral cortex and my limbic system, I have additional helpful brain parts. My reticular formation keeps me awake. Imagine what would happen if I fell asleep while I was flying to save a woman from a burning building! Surely we would both perish in the flames!

My cerebellum is responsible for my impeccable balance and coordination. It allows me to scamper across power lines in pursuit of ne’er-do-wells in addition to helping me fasten my cape to my shoulders while I rush to save the day.

My medulla and my brain stem work hand in hand. Both of them take care of my body’s vital functions so I don’t have to. My medulla controls my heart rate and breathing rate, and my brain stem takes care of digestion and other tasks. If I had to think about all these things, I would never have time to leave my lair and fight evil.

My pons helps out my reticular formation, my medulla, and my frontal lobes. It helps keep me awake, regulate my breathing, and control voluntary movement. When my other brain parts are overloaded by the stress of controlling a superhero, my pons is there to lend a hand.

All of these brain parts combine forces to allow me to become the super hero that I am. Guess what? Your brain has each of these parts too! You, too, could one day become a super hero or super heroine. I look forward to seeing you working for the good of awesome!

Saving Mystic Village

I was looking through my bookshelf today and I found a story I wrote back in fourth grade. It was called "Saving Mystic Village." Here it is, exactly as it was written, all errors and ambiguities included. The influence of C.S Lewis is clear, and I laugh to see that I was already an advocate for the environment at that age (although I have found poems from as early as second grade about saving the earth).

Saving Mystic Village

Cindy and Joe, two kids who are 10 and 12. Cindy is 12, has brown hair, brown eyes, is tall, and skinny. Joe is 10, has brownish blonde hair, blue eyes, is the normal height for his age, and is skinny. Their story started when they were going upstairs to see what was in the attic. When they reached the attic, they found themselves in a very strange forest.

The forest smelled of the ground, but had many other strange and wonderful smells. The plants in the forest were like none they had ever seen. One kind of plant was as tall as a two story house, had a navy blue bloom with sharp looking gold stamens sticking out of the middle, a turquoise stem, two turquoise diamond shaped leaves that were as big as bathtubs at the bottom, and two "spiraling" leaves that were a pearly light green ascending from the bottom of the plant and ending one third from the top. Another plant was four foot tall, had an orange trunk, sharp gold leaves on top with silver spirals on stems shooting out of them, and brown vine like leaves hanging over the sides. The last of the three main plants in the forest grew on the ground everywhere except for on the paths that wound throughout the forest. It was forest green with cube flowers that were green, blue, and purple marbled together.

As the two kids took in all of this, it stared to rain, so they quickly crawled under one of the trees, and sat against the trunk as they discussed their surroundings.

"This place is definitely not the attic." Stated Joe

"How long did it take you to figure that out?" asked Cindy sarcastically.

"A few minutes." Answered Joe.

Cindy sighed. She never expected Joe to answer those questions, but he always did anyway.

"So how do you like our new attic?" Questioned Cindy.

"I told you! It's not the attic!" exclaimed Joe, "I think it's some kind of magical forest like in the book I just read."

"Come on, Joe! You can't be serious." said Cindy.

"I'm serious!" exclaimed Joe.

"O.K., O.K. Maybe we are in some magical forest," admitted Cindy. "But what forest are we in?" questioned Cindy.

Joe couldn't answer that question so he just sat quietly. Then, Cindy, noticing how uncomfortable the shrubs they were sitting in were, suggested they walk along the path in the drizzle and see what they could find.

After about 10 minutes, the rain stopped and Cindy and Joe saw a strange creature coming towards them. It had two furry gold legs with three sharp light green claws on each foot, a tall yellow body with black spots, a magenta-purple-blue-green stomach, orange spikes down his back and tail, red ears, an olive green nose, reddish-brown thick unkempt hair, and two light green horns that curved outward from each other.

"What do you think it is, Cindy?" inquired Joe.

"I have no idea," responded an astounded Cindy.

As the "animal" got closer it was carrying what might have been a picnic basket on earth. It was a brownish-green color and seemed a lot like a bag because it was sagging with the weight of whatever was in it and had a brown napkin folded neatly over the top. When "it" reached the kids it began to speak to them.

"Hello humans, My tolone (we are a type of animal that live in this forest) friends and I have been waiting for you for four quams!" the strange creature exclaimed.

"What are quams?" asked Joe curiously.

"In your language, days." answered the tolone.

"Oh." Joe said as if the answer to his question was obvious.

"Excuse me, but will you mind telling us who you are, where we are, and why we're here?" Cindy asked.

"Of course. My name is Lizar and any minute now my sister Momecton will be here. We are now in the Mystic Village Territory of the Great Clafondon Forest. Which is where my village is and where you will be staying for the nest week or less (but don't worry about the time, each of our days only equal ten minutes, but it will feel like days have passed). Now for your last question. You are here because the vain Kind Duffler of Clafondon has a problem with all the tolones in the forest. We don't know what it is, but it must be pretty serious, because he is destroying these plants, which our lives depend upon. So we brought you here to help us." explained Lizar.

"So we're here to help you." summarized Cindy.

"Yes." agreed Lizar.

Just then, another Tolone (that looked like Lizar, except that it had lighter features) appeared on one of the paths.

"Hey Momecton!" shouted Lizar. "We've been waiting for you. Come enjoy the picnic lunch I've prepared with our human helpers who have just arrived!"

"Sure, I'd love to!" answered Momecton.

Then Lizar started to pull things out of the picnic bag, but first he put a blanket of weird colors that no human had ever seen on the ground. The food looked like some of the food on Earth, but it tasted much better and soon all four were full.

After lunch, they started off to Mystic Village. Along the way, they discussed ways they might defeat King Duffer.

"Do you know of any weak spots the king has?" asked Joe.

"Yes," answered Momecton. "He greatly cares for his possessions."

"Is there anything you can offer him as a bribe?" Joe inquired.

"Yes. We Tolones are very fine miners." Lizar answered.

"Could you spare some gems?" asked Cindy.

"Sure," replied Lizar.

As they finished their walk, they finished their plan. When they finally reached Mystic Village,

The sun was setting. So Momecton quickly found a family that would let them stay with them until they returned home. Meanwhile, Lizar told the village about the plan and they started to work on it right away. The next morning after a very good breakfast, Cindy and Joe found that a fairly sized pile of gems had been formed. They were very happy and after lunch, their two companions and themselves set out for King Duffer's castle with two wagonloads of jewels.

When they reached the King's castle, they were immediately lead to his throne room. There, they told the King why they were there, and after a little thought, refused. A sad group of four and their two wagons entered the village later that evening and told them that their plan had not worked.

By the next morning, a new plan was formed. The creatures of Mystic Village and of the forest (who wanted to) would form a large army and try to attack. In two days the army was formed and a week later, they left an expectant forest and went to the castle.

Then after three days of anxious waiting, the army returned to the village, and the news of their success traveled quickly through the forest. Shortly after the army returned a huge party was thrown in honor of Lizar, Momecton, Cindy, Joe, and the army. That night, news was passed that the King's army had retreated to another kingdom, and the King had gone with them. So, at the party a new King was chosen and he moved into the castle.

Later, around midnight, Lizar and Momecton awakened Joe and Cindy.

"Are you ready to go home?" asked Lizar.

"Yes." The kids both yawned.

"Then let's go." Momecton whispered, "Remember to be quiet, the whole village is sleeping."

They went to the end of the forest where the kids had come into the forest.

"There's a door behind the moss on that rock over there. It will be open. Go through the tunnel and enter the first door you see. It should be your attic. Good-bye my friends." explained Momecton.

"Good-bye." Said Lizar.

Our two heroes found the door with ease and followed the directions to their attic and found that the clock on the wall read ten minutes after they had left. Later they both promised never to tell anyone about their adventure in Mystic Village.

THE END

from the whole a part

i am from farmers and mechanics and boilermakers
loss of hearing and digits
carrot tops and ginger kids and little reds

i am from tea parties and tree climbing
nail polish and grass stains
barbies and legos
flower fairies and star wars

i am from michigan ice cream and indiana pizza
tchaikovsky and rich mullins
john dog and ria kitty
lewis and jacques and tolkein
our father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name and you are my sunshine my only sunshine

i am quietly shouting my independence
identifying with those before
facing my future unafraid




In every year of high school thus far, one of the first english class assignments has been some sort of creative writing piece describing ourselves. This year we were to write poems about how our past has influenced who we are now. Mine opened up this post. I explained it and shared it with my english class, and so now I share it with and explain it to you, my readers. I believe there are four of you now. Hurrah!

The most obvious thing about my poem is probably the rejection of capital letters and punctuation. I really don't like capital letters all that much, and I generally skimp on punctuation in my poems, so Ms. Miller said I could just omit both altogether. She said it reminded her of e.e. cummings, so I decided to take after another one of his stylistic techniques. The title is purposefully ambiguous, especially when heard rather than seen. It says that I'm both a part of the whole and apart from the whole. While I love being a part of my family, I also seek to be something apart from them.

In the first stanza I talk about my parents and other older relatives. The first two parts of the first line are just as they appear (the farmer and mechanic parts), but the third (the boilermaker part) is not. Purdue's mascot is the boilermaker, and a lot of my family members have gone there. On my dad's side, my dad, his brother, both his parents, and his dad's dad all went there. On my mom's side, my mom, her dad, his brother (I think), and several of her first, second, and third cousins went to Purdue. If I go there as I'm planning to, I'll be the fourth generation there in a direct line on my dad's side and the third generation in a direct line on my mom's side. The second line refers to the fact that members of my dad's side of the family are prone to hearing loss and many members of my mom's side of the family are missing fingers or toes from various accidents. The third line is a reference to the fact that I've got red-heads sprinkled all over both sides of my family (including my parents, who both used to have red hair). That would explain why myself and four of my six other siblings have undeniably red hair.

The entire second stanza not only tells about things that I enjoyed as a younger child, but it also shows that I had a wide range of interests. While I liked girly things, I also loved getting dirty and doing some tom-boy-ish things. The third stanza is about memories and old traditions. Whenever we visited my mom's parents in Michigan, we used to go to the same ice cream parlor. They had all sorts of fun flavors. My mom's grandparents live in Indiana, and whenever we visit them we eat Pizza King pizza (it's delicious). For several years, my mom, my sisters, and I used to go see the Cincinnati Ballet's performance of the Nutcracker every winter. That tradition kindled within me a love for Tchaikovsky's music that continues to this day. My dad has several Rich Mullins tapes that we used to listen to on road trips. I can probably sing every single song by now. John Dog was the name of the dog that my older brother got for his fifth birthday. He died just two winters ago at the age of thirteen. We all miss him. Ria Kitty is a stuffed cat I got in Washington, D.C. when I was five. I had lost my Ria Baby and Oatmeal Bear on the subway, so I got Ria Kitty. C.S. Lewis, Brian Jacques, and J.R.R. Tolkein were three authors whose works I read often as I grew up. The last line of the third stanza got chopped in half, but it's still meant to be one line. The first half refers to a family tradition established longer ago than I can remember. Every night we all say the Lord's Prayer together. The second half is a line from a song that my dad and I sang every night when I was little. It had within it a line that we argued about every night as part of the tradition.

The final stanza is just some stuff about appreciating where I've come from, yet wanting to be something a little different that those before me. I pretty much already explained that part when I explained the title.

New Art

I'm just going to comment on the ones that I didn't have pictures of last time. Most of them are the bi-weekly sketchbook assignments I did last year, which accounts for the over-whelming dominance of graphite as my medium. I can inconspicuously carry around all sorts of pencils, making it easy to work on my assignments in spare moments during class.

I believe I did this the summer between ninth and tenth grade based off of my second grade yearbook picture. It definitely has its issues, but I'm very proud of it considering when I drew it.

In the last batch of art pictures, I displayed the ink drawing I made from this graphite drawing. I think this one turned out better, but the medium of ink is much more interesting than the medium of graphite. I prefer to work in graphite - it's a much more familiar medium - but I like the way the ink drawing stands out a bit more.

I wrote a bit about the complexity of this project while I was working on it, but I never showed the finished product. My copy of the collage is virtually dead on, except for the fact that it's about two shades lighter. I wanted to fix that, but the more I worked into the paper, the more it started coming apart. It wasn't very good paper.

Here's a closer view of the collage...

...and here's a closer view of my colored pencil drawing. I think my favorite part of the collage is the bee-homes and my favorite part of the drawing is the fir bonsai in the lower left-hand corner.

This was my second-to-last project from this past year. I just now realized that I should've had Ronda take a picture of my final project. I wonder where I put it. Back to the point, this is my piece of social-political art. I did not like having to do social political art, but I didn't have a choice. I chose Christian persecution as my issue. The words were painstakingly hand-written headlines and scriptures relating to persecution. Contrary to the common assumption, the red streaks aren't supposed to symbolize the fires of hell. I just used red because it was an attention-grabbing and violent color.






Here is my second sketchbook assignment of the year. I stayed up until 3:30 am the day before it was due. It was after that that I decided to simplify my sketchbook assignments. This is somewhat based off of reality, but I took some artistic license. The gerbera daisies were actually red, the little pink flowers (I can't remember what kind they were) were actually yellow, and the pot was actually terra cotta. Plus, I was getting pretty tired by the time I started and the pink flowers and their leaves, so most of that part is completely made up. I was done caring way too much about how close to reality it was. The important thing is that the daisies are beautiful and the attract the eye.

This may have been my final assignment. I don't remember for sure and I don't feel like checking. Although I completely finished it in one evening, it's one of my most realistic pieces. I can see how much I learned over the year. Especially in regards to speed. I still draw at a snail's pace, but I've moved from the speed of a comatose snail to the speed of a robust snail.

For our sketchbook assignments, we were given a list of possible topics and were to choose a new one every two weeks. I liked to take the topic and twist it in a slightly unexpected way. The topic for this one was "mirrors". That can be a fun subject all by itself, but mirrors reflecting into one another is even more fun.

And this is just a close-up of a grasshopper. My teacher commented that it looked incomplete. It is incomplete. I decided at 1:30 AM the day before it was due that it looked good enough and that I'd probably get at least a B as it was, so I just left it unfinished. That decision took an awful lot of will-power. I have a major issue with leaving things unfinished.





I kind of rushed through this one, so it's less realistic than many of the others. Yet I can't be dissatisfied with it. It has such a fascinating perspective. I'll admit, this is one of the few assignments that I did based on a picture from the internet, but I did tweak it a bit to make it mine. I normally work from life, from pictures that I take myself, or from my head.

This is the inside of a water bottle. My teacher complained that there wasn't enough contrast. In my head, I replied that it's hard to push the darks when you're drawing a clear plastic bottle, but I decided I should just keep my thoughts to myself. I'm content with it even if it's not even close to the best I can do. I'm learning to appreciate the reduced stress I experience when I let things go and realize that I don't have to make everything perfect.

This is my shoe. I should have sprayed a sealer on it, but I didn't so now it's covered in smudges. I paid particular detail to texture on this assignment. The shoelaces are actually shaded using nothing but minute cross-hatching, and I tried to show the difference in reflection between the parts that were unpainted and painted canvas.

This picture is completely from my head and was done the day it was due during my other classes. It could use some work on contrast (more so than the rest of my work). I do like how the cup turned out.

English Research Paper: Spring Is Silent No More

Rachel Carson, the woman who would become a writer and scientist of legendary proportions, was born in Springdale, Pennsylvania on May 27, 1907(Graham 4). Even as a child, she loved exploring nature and enjoyed its beauty (4). This passion stayed with her all her life. When she went to college, she planned on studying to become a writer (another passion she had had since her childhood), but her plans changed when she took a biology class in her sophomore year of college, and she switched to a biology major (4). After a few teaching jobs, she applied for and received a job with the United States Bureau of Fisheries (5). However, her interest in writing never left her. On the contrary, “‘It dawned on me,’ she wrote, ‘that by becoming a biologist I had given myself something to write about’” (Kort 36). In 1941 she published the first of her three books about marine biology: Under the Sea Wind (36). This was followed by The Sea around Us in 1951 and The Edge of the Sea in 1955 (36). These books were written with a poetic beauty and simplicity that appealed to the public and won her a spot in their hearts. Her next book was not so passive and sweet. Troubling findings regarding the world’s new “miracle chemical” – DDT – began to crop up in the 1950s. Her growing concern eventually led her to start another book; this time she would be attacking a new and seemingly promising industry of chemical pesticides to defend the unpopular position that something could be going dreadfully amiss in mankind’s plot to control nature (Graham 15, 19). This book, Silent Spring, became the spark that ignited controversy and activism that continues to this day.

Few will question the fact that Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring has had a tremendous effect on American environmentalism – in fact many credit her with the catalysis of the environmental movement. One source eloquently states that “Silent Spring played in the history of the environmental movement the same role that Uncle Tom’s Cabin played in the abolitionist movement,” and later testifies that the existence of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) “may be said without question to be the extended shadow of Rachel Carson” (Lewis). Yet do people realize just how impressive her imprint on society was and how it continues to this day? Through a look at the impact of her book on the nation’s environmental policy and an investigation of public reaction to the book, this paper seeks to give the reader an idea of the magnitude of her contributions.

It would be absurd to say that Carson’s book was the sole factor that brought about the various laws pertaining to environmental protection in the decade following her book’s release, but with the explosion of new policies concerning the environment following the book’s entry into American affairs, its effect can’t be ignored. On the state level, over forty bills were introduced to limit pesticide use by the end of the same year in which Silent Spring was published (Graham 72). The federal government was slower to respond, but bit by bit over the decade following the book’s publication several landmark laws had been passed.

The most direct impact of Carson’s book was the movement towards a ban on DDT (dichloro-diphenyl-trichloro-ethane), a highly potent and widely abused chlorinated hydrocarbon that was considered a cure-all for battling the likes of gypsy moths (Carson 156), fire ants (161), elm bark beetles (105), and other pests. The use of this chemical was more lambasted than any other in Carson’s book, and, as will be discussed later, was defended more ardently than any other pesticide attacked by her work. This chemical is classified as an endocrine disruptor (Hosansky 59) and could lead to liver damage and cancer, temporary nervous system damage, and reduced reproductive success (“DDT”). Carson gives many accounts of the damage that this chemical caused to birds (Carson 103-127) and fish (129-152) in particular chapters of her book dedicated to these two types of animals. Not only did animals and possibly humans suffer from the over-use of DDT, but the chemical was beginning to lose its effect on the intended targets; insects were becoming resistant to DDT. By 1970, 150 species of insects had become resistant to DDT (Graham 15). In 1971, partially due, no doubt, to pressure from an anti-DDT movement that gained impetus after Carson’s book was published (Hosansky 59), the EPA began to enact policies that would move the country towards an end to use of DDT (59). In 1972 William D. Ruckelshaus, administrator of the EPA, declared a ban on DDT (59) after three years of government research brought him to the conclusion “that the continued massive use of DDT posed unacceptable risks to the environment and potential harm to human health,” (“DDT”). Carson’s blunt criticism of the unnecessary use of DDT had won a victory.

The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969 was passed in 1970 (Hosansky 83):
The purposes of this act [were]: To declare a national policy which [would] encourage productive and enjoyable harmony between man and his environment; to promote efforts which will prevent or eliminate damage to the environment and biosphere and stimulate the health and welfare of man; to enrich the understanding of the ecological systems and natural resources important to the Nation; and to establish a Council on Environmental Quality (NEPA of 1969). Because of this act’s revolutionary implications, Gaylord Nelson, a senator from Wisconsin considered NEPA to be “‘the most important piece of environmental legislation in our history’” (Lewis). The most important provision of this act was that it required Environmental Impact Statements to be presented to this Council on Environmental Quality for critical review whenever a federal agency planned a project that could have major implications for the environment (Lewis). Up until that point, it was deemed completely unnecessary that federal plans for insecticidal action be reviewed by any other authority (Carson). The fact that Carson directly pointed out this lack of federal regulation is good reason to suspect that the existence of this law can be at least partially attributed to her influence.

Eight years after the publication of Silent Spring a pre-existing piece of legislation, the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), was amended. This amendment shifted control of enforcement to the newly formed EPA and tweaked the focus of the act “from the control of pesticides for reasonably safe use in agricultural production to control of pesticides for reduction of unreasonable risks to man and the environment,” (FIFRA). Two major instances of unreasonably drastic responses to pest “epidemics” were outlined in Silent Spring. The first was the way that the Midwest dealt with the Japanese beetle which “at the peak of its depredations never justified the nightmare excesses of some of these Midwestern programs” (Carson 99). Pellets and dustings of aldrin, a chlorinated hydrocarbon many times more lethal than DDT, were showered in heavy doses over many suburban areas in hopes of controlling this foreign “menace” despite the fact that renowned naturalist from Michigan, Walter P. Nickell, testified that the beetle had been present in minimal numbers according to his observations(Carson 87). The fire ant extermination efforts in the south were also overdone, in Carson’s opinion (162). While it does appear that she understates the nuisance that the ants caused, it seems clear that they weren’t exactly a serious threat to life, limb, or dollar. The government’s program ended up costing them $3.50 per acre in toxic, widespread insecticide use while it could have cost them $0.23 per acre by using a more direct chemical with greater efficiency than the aerial downpour of chemicals (172). Had these plots for extermination been scrutinized, they would likely have been deemed “unreasonable risks to man and the environment” and would never have happened. Who knows how many similarly unfruitful and unnecessary applications of poisons were prevented by the amendment of this act?

The Federal Environmental Pesticide Control Act (an addition to the previously mentioned FIFRA) was made in 1972 (Federal Pesticide). This act placed strict regulations on the registration of pesticides and required that each be classified as general or restricted use chemicals. If the poison was considered for restricted use only, only certified persons were permitted to use it (Federal Pesticide). Such requirements would help keep the more dangerous pesticides out of the hands of the common consumer, something that Carson addresses (Carson 174).

The Clean Water Act of 1972 dealt with the issue of industrial discharge of chemicals into waterways (Summary of CWA). According to this decree it became unlawful for industrial or municipal facilities to empty pollutants into a navigable body of water without a permit (Summary of CWA). This law also set standards for acceptable pollutant levels in surface waters. In waterways exposed to high concentrations of insecticides, whether from accidental run-off from farmlands, aerial dustings, or any number of other sources, the fish mortality rate was truly alarming. In some coastal streams inadvertently treated with DDT, the salmon mortality rate reached nearly 100% (Carson 138). A tale of river contamination near Austin, TX, tells of a massive fish kill that was observed ranging over 200 miles of river from the source of the pollutants that were found in high concentrations in the carcasses of the fish (144-146).These stories are not by any means unique and isolated occurrences, although they are more drastic than many of the others. It was clear that something had to be done to prevent further pollution of the waterways that housed the fish and other aquatic wildlife that so many people valued for economic and recreational reasons. The Clean Water Act essayed to do that very thing and succeeded in putting an end to many of the horrors described in Silent Spring.

Judging solely by the fact that more than 500,000 hard-cover copies of Silent Spring were sold (Kort 37), it can be inferred that the book became popular and was widely read. It was an eye-opener to the public. While some of Carson’s strong statements such as “a few minutes’ research in any supermarket is enough to alarm the most stout-hearted customer” (Carson 174) or “when the public protests … it is fed little tranquilizing pills of half-truth” (13) caused some to panic, others turned these warnings into productive endeavors. She had intended to spur the common consumer into becoming more aware of what exactly was being sold to them in hopes that they would pressure the chemical companies to make changes, not in an effort to cause pandemonium. As was mentioned earlier, a public movement against the use of DDT was bolstered by Silent Spring (Hosansky 59), and the book was said to have “crystallized public anxiety about environmental degradation” (83). Most histories of the environmental movement give a tribute to the impact of Carson’s book on the development and rise in popularity of the movement. Schools have been named after her, stamps have been made commemorating her, and other honors have been bestowed upon her memory. Last year marked what would have been the woman’s 100th birthday, and celebrations both national and local were held in honor of her work (Larson).

However, not all remember Carson with fondness. Because of the attack against the wanton use of DDT in Silent Spring, most countries stopped using it as a tool against the spread of malaria. While Carson herself only advocated the reconsideration of the widespread use of DDT in the Americas, her followers often took the radical route of working towards a total ban of the chemical. Many critics therefore blame her for the deaths caused by malaria in third-world countries (primarily in sub-Saharan Africa). It is true that the chemical could have been – and could very well still be – a valuable weapon against malaria, but its effectiveness would have been quickly reduced had the trend of mass application been continued. As early as 1949, three years after successful control using DDT, mosquitoes from the race that serves as a vector for the malarial protozoan were to be seen in treated areas (Carson 269). This indicated that a few of the mosquitoes had a natural resistance to the chemical and were therefore able to reproduce and create additional resistant mosquitoes. By 1970, more than 150 pest species had become resistant to DDT (Graham 15). Based on this, it is logical to assume that if pesticides had been applied in such massive proportions as they were in the era of the publication of Silent Spring, DDT would no longer be effective against malaria-carrying mosquitoes. Carson’s adherents were probably too hasty in their efforts to wipe out the chemical before they considered its benefits, but a reduction in its use was necessary.

As a powerful writer and a respected scientist, Rachel Carson possessed the key skills needed to bring issues of chemical overdose to the attention of the public and the government. Evidence suggests that her book accomplished that very thing, whatever anyone may say about her over-zealous fans.


Works Cited

Carson, Rachel. Silent Spring. Cambridge, MA: The Riverside Press, 1962.

“DDT.” U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. 15 January 2008. U.S. EPA.20 April 2008. <http://www.epa.gov/pbt/pubs/ddt.htm>

“FIFRA Statutes, Regulations, and Enforcement”U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. 31 October 2007. US EPA.20 April 2008. <http://www.epa.gov/Compliance/civil/fifra/fifraenfstatreq.html>

Graham, Frank. Since Silent Spring. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 1970.

Hosansky, David. The Environment A to Z.Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly Inc., 2001.

Kort, Carol. A to Z of American Women Writers. New York City, NY: Facts on File Inc., 2000.

Larson, Christina. “Party Smashers.” Washington Monthly. October 2007.MAS Ultra – School Edition. EBSCOhost.Finneytown HS Library, Cincinnati, OH. 20 April 2008

Lewis, Jack. “The Birth of EPA.” U.S Environmental Protection Agency. November 1985. U.S. EPA. 3 April 2008. <http://www.epa.gov/history/topics/epa/15c.htm>

“The National Environmental Protection Act of 1969, as amended”Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America.1 January 1970.

“Summary of Clean Water Act.” U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.6 March 2008. U.S. EPA. 20 April 2008.

Toth, Stephen J. “Federal Pesticide Laws and Regulations” March 1996.20 April 2008.

My Artwork

Last week, I re-decorated my walls in artwork. After a few hours of hammering my task was complete. And now I give you pictures of the 20 pieces of art on my walls. I apologize for the poor lighting in some of the pictures, but my room doesn't get much natural light after 9 AM and my lamps emit a very yellowish light that isn't much good for this sort of thing. I have presented them in the order in which they were created.

This is one of the few with a title. I call it Orange Pangea. It was made either during the summer before ninth grade or the summer before eighth grade. Technically, it's made out of trash, but as an artist I can do pretty much anything I want in the name of art. I peeled an orange, tore the peel into little pieces, pressed them for a few weeks, and then glued the pieces onto a cardboard square painted with interesting watercolor effects. The green sepals at the top were painted on with acrylics.

This was my first real project of my high school career. Really, it's more of an exercise in the use of line, but I like how it turned out. The assignment was to trace the outlines of a picture given to us by the teacher and fill it in with various types of line using Sharpies. It's hard to see all the detail in this photo, but it's interesting close up.

This was called The Lip Dude by my classmates, and the name stuck. For this we had to pick a 9x12 picture from the teacher's stack and draw it double the size using a grid for guidelines. The medium was ebony pencil.

This was also done my freshman year. The assignment was to demonstrate understanding of perspective in some way using colored pencil. The only evidence of actual technical one-point perspective in mine is the alternating black and white rectangular planes and the block letters on either side of the tree, so this wasn't exactly what the teacher had in mind, but she liked how I changed it to be more unique. I could have gotten away with murder in that class if it was artistically and originally done. It's hard to see it in this picture, but I'm really proud of how the sun turned out.

This was simply a study in color theory using tempera paints. We could divide our matboard however we wanted as long as we had four equal sized pieces: one in a monochromatic color scheme, one in a complementary color scheme, one in cool colors, and one in warm colors. I didn't like how choppy the other students' looked, so I went an extra step and tried to unify the four parts - thus the greyscale, dark, light, and black-and-white strips across the painting. At one point I named it, but I've forgotten its name. It had something to do with lava lamps, I believe.

This little fellow was my first experience with linoleum printing. I have mixed feeling about this medium. I love the carving process, but I don't like the texture of the finished product. It really aggravates me for some reason. It's kind of gritty and just... weird and aggravating.

This is the actual linoleum print that made the armadillo. I painted it with acrylics. It's mounted on plywood to make the printing process easier, but it likes to fall off of the wall due to its thickness.

This was the final project of my freshman year: an imitation of a painting using acrylic paints. I chose one of van Gogh's early pieces. I have no idea what it's called. It ended up looking very similar considering that I was only fourteen, but I was pressed for time so I had to let some things slide.

This is from last year. It's simply a negative space drawing of a fake palm with the negative space shaded in with pastel. If you were to look at the original, you would observe a speckled appearance to the pastel. This is how I learned that you really need to use aerosol hair spray - not spray hair gel - as a fixative. The top right corner of the picture is actually what I made up in my mind the night before the assignment was due. My teacher said time was up and put the tree back in the closet, but I wasn't done, so I had to use my imagination for the rest. It shows.

There's not much to talk about here. We took five pieces of watercolor paper and painted each a different shade of one color and then ripped them up to use as mosaic pieces to make a self-portrait. This one has a name too. It's called Mosaic Me.

This is called I hate you Ms. Althoff because I put hours upon hours of work into this beautiful landscape but I can't do anything with it but look at it because you had us using copyrighted images. Actually, pretty much everything I did my freshman year along with this piece from my sophomore year can't be entered in most contests because the picture we were working from were all copyrighted images. Thanks Ms. Althoff. This is a 9x12 colored pencil landscape made from a 1.5x2 snippet from another picture. The background is my favorite part color-wise, but it's all black in this photo.

This is my hand drawn with four different objects, each shaded a different way. There's the whelk shaded with inks using the hatching technique, the doorknob drawn in ink with a weighted contour line, the skateboard axle in normal pencil, and the pencil sharpener stippled with ink.

This is a white skull wearing a light tan hat against a white box, all shaded with various ink strokes. I had some serious issues bringing the darks into my composition because of the reality of the still life, but I may go come back to it and pretend it was a dark hat. It will work nicely as a portfolio piece if I take AP Portfolio next year. This was actually done based on a fully shaded graphite drawing of the same thing, but I gave that to my mom because she wanted to hang it, but I'm not sure where it is now.

This medium is one of my favorites: scratchboard. I find it to be extremely easy and fast, and it can also be used to do interesting things with movement, expression, and the like. After I finished this, I realized the eye was lacking eyelashes, but my teacher told me to forget about it since it was just an extra credit assignment and we had to move on. The "actual" project I turned in for that unit was a scratchboard of an orange daylily. I have no pictures of it because it is currently on display in the office of a company that sponsors a contest I entered it in.

For this, we used white colored pencil on black paper and drew a still life of shiny objects. I came in countless hours after school to work on mine, and I'm proud of the results. It could definitely be lighter. I tend to have this issue a lot. If the paper starts out white, the end result is a project that's too light; if the the paper starts dark, the end result is too dark; you'll see later that if the paper starts grey, the end result is too grey.

This was my first homework assignment this year. As advanced drawing and painting students, we get biweekly homework projects. At the beginning of the semester we get a sheet of topics such as close-up of an insect, potted plant, or self-portrait in harsh lighting (that's what this one is). Every two weeks we turn in our sketchbooks with a fully developed piece on one of those topics. Graphite is the most common medium, but I've used colored pencils and torn paper before, and one guy used markers once. My teachers chose this as one of the pieces from my school to be entered into a student exhibition at a local college during the winter.

This is a contour line drawing of some shoes that we did at the beginning of this year as an exercise. My table-mates and I decided that the fringe on the boot was satanic fringe straight from the pits of hell. It liked to move when we weren't watching it. At one point, we all decided that we were just going to put the fringe wherever we wanted instead of drawing strictly from the actual shoe, much to the amusement of the other art teacher.

This project is how I got tendonitis in my wrist, which I neglected for weeks until the swelling caused some carpal tunnel and the pain became so excruciating that I cried when I moved my wrist. If I'm forced to tears because of physical pain, something is drastically wrong. If I were smarter, I probably should have done something before it got to that point, but I have inherited from my grandpa the philosophy that if I ignore pain long enough it will go away. We shaded the paper entirely grey first (I used the blending stump improperly and with far too much pressure during this stage, which is how I hurt myself) and then made it darker and lighter to form the still life. The glare in the corner kind of messes up the overall effect, but it was a boring corner so you're not missing much action. I definitely used a full range of values, but it would not have hurt to have more extreme lights and darks.

This is the most recent full project that I have at home. My teacher has one on display and one in storage for our spring art show, and I have one in progress at school and one that was due in January, but I turned it in incomplete to be graded and now I can work on it for however long I like. This was a really fun, non-objective project. At first I flipped out because we weren't allowed to plan it in advance (I did to some extent anyway), we had to work with it as we went. I ended up really loving the fact that I didn't have a specific end goal. It's really hard to explain without showing the steps, so I won't do so at this time. Maybe I will later.

Over-Achievment in Art Strikes Back!

So I've finally decided that my world would be a happier place if I just decided not to make everything I ever do a complex masterpiece. But it's a little too late for the two art projects I have to work on over "break". I'll enjoy working on them, and they'll look pretty good by the time I'm done, but that time is a lot sooner than I'd like it to be considering how precise I'm being.

First, we have the photorealism project that was originally supposed to be due the day before Thanksgiving break, but we kept on getting extensions so now it's not due until the second day back from winter "break". This one is the least of my worries time-wise, but it will still be a hassle to get done. Here's the current progress:

The picture on the right is a photo montage I made with an obscene amount of detail (which is hard to see in the picture, I'm not the world's most accomplished photographer). It it now my job to reproduce it in colored pencil onto the paper on the left. I've already made some good progress, and I've done most of the sky which will probably be the hardest part.

Here's a close-up of the bee-homes. I've got to make them a little more orangey, but other than that, they're pretty much done. It's one of my favorite parts of the composition.

And here we have the two skies compared. The colored pencil one needs to me darker before it's done, but I'm happy with how it's coming along.

Now for a preview of my current project. Sometimes I debate whether or not there's any chance of it being done by the end of the quarter, but that's depressing so I normally switch thoughts quite quickly. For the project, we choose an artist whose style we want to imitate, and then we paint a self-portrait on a 24" x 30" canvas. The artist I chose had two main styles: using tiny dots of primary color to cover the entire canvas and produce the visual effect of other colors, and the use of small squares (normally about a quarter inch by a quarter inch) of mixed color to produce a mosaic-like final effect. I chose the latter style because it's slightly less time-consuming, but let's take a look at what I've managed to accomplish in about 9-11 hours:

This is all I've gotten done. The canvas is about twice as wide as the wave, and there's still about 8-12 inches above it too, so I don't really have much accomplished.

As you can probably see, this is a portion of the painting. The squares are about three-quarters the size of the real ones. You can see the little dots of white between the squares that I need to fill in. On the other parts of the canvas, I'm underglazing it with a watered down coat of paint so I don't have to worry about the white specks.

Let's play find the artist! The paint on my hand has worn off to some degree, but while I was painting earlier it served as a test palette, so it was entirely covered in tiny squares the colors of the waves. One of my friends suggested that we cover my arm in the squares, hold it up to the canvas, and have people try to find the arm. He called his game find the artist.