Infamous Iraqi prison is now humane

          A prison once known as Abu Gharib was the site where tens of thousands of Iraqis were thrown into jail tortured, abused and executed without a trial. That was however the time when Saddam Hussein ruled. Now it is called the Baghdad Central Prison. The new jail has water fountains, a freshly planted garden and a gym. Prisoners were tortured in the prison first by Saddam Hussein then by U.S. troops. Because of the scandal by U.S. troops General Janis Karpinski was demoted to the rank of sergeant. Though there was trouble in the past, the Iraqi government is going to great lengths to change the image that the prison has. There will be a tour for journalists sometime in the near future. CNN was already told that rooms have been renewed and renovated. I believe that this is a great improvement in the Iraqi justice system. Now that Saddam Hussein is gone places of torture like Abu Gharib will no longer exist.

Information was found here

Making a roller coaster

       My Science class was learning about physics and Newtons laws so we did a little project. The project was to create a roller coaster for a website you would make about the roller coaster. The class was first separated into groups, each one would make their own roller coaster. You needed to collect Omega money, a currency used to buy the supplies needed for the roller coaster in order to create it successfully. After the roller coaster was built you needed to test it make sure it worked by dropping a marble at the top and watch it as it rolls down. If the marble can't get down adjustments need to be made to the coaster. After the roller coaster is finished each individual student needed to make a website for the roller coaster. The website must include information on the rates and services, testimonials, and the way physics make the roller coaster work. The student was also allowed to add extras to their website such as music. I think that this project was very fun. My favorite part was making the roller coaster. I felt that the project was a good way to get away from normal classroom exercises. Although my roller coaster wasn't very good it was also fun to create a website for it. I hope their will be more projects like this in the future.

Ancient whales gave birth on land.

          After analyzing the fossil of a pregnant whale found in the Pakistani dessert scientists believe primitive whales gave birth on land. Paleontologists were initially stunned at the mixture of adult and fetal bones. The fetus in the mother had fully grown teeth which shows that it would have been ready to fend for itself shortly. The head position of the fetus gave a lot of information. Land mammals are born head first while marine mammals are born tale first. It was a lot safer for animals and dinosaurs to be born on land in prehistoric times because newborns risk drowning, getting lost and being eaten by a predator which the seas where full of. Though you would still have to hide on land it is a lot safer. Paleontologists know that the first whale ancestor was a furry quadrupedal omnivore 50 million years ago and evolved into a fully marine animal 45 million years ago. 

 I believe that this is a new insight into the history of ancient marine animals. I believe that this is a revolutionary find and that it will help scientists better understand evolutionary processes. I also believe that if the evolution of one species is understood then the evolution of all its nearby relative could be understood as well. If more fossils of the same sort were to be discovered more information would be provided to how whales evolved to marine animals. This may be one of the most important fossils ever found.

N.J. school report card results show high failure rates for middle schoolers

Middle school this year who took a much harder state test this year students saw their test scores fall dramatically. Above 40% of 5th and 6th graders failed the language arts section of the test and almost a quarter of them failed the math section. 7th graders who were thought to have taken a much harder test than previous years had lower numbers of failures. The large failure rate for 5th and 6th graders is linked to last years "cut scores" scores a student needs to prove his academic level. If the cut score had not been lowered it would be likely that the grades for 6th and 7th graders would have increased while the grades for 5th graders would have declined slightly. Education commissioner Lucille Davy has stated "the change in scores is part of a conscious effort to identify middle school students who may need a little more help preparing for high school. I believe that it is each individual district's responsibility to prepare middle school students for high school not the state's. I also believe the test may not accurately tell you whether or not additional help is needed. One example of this is when a student guesses the answers correct on the test, since most of a state test is multiple choice this is probable.

Information was found here.