Are Eggs Fresh After Fourteen Years?

By Paul Rincon
"Fresh Effort to Clone Extinct Animals"
11/22/13
bbc.com/culture

       We did it again! The human race has singlehandedly managed to wipe out an entire population of mountain goats, called bucardos, in the high mountains of Spain. These majestic creatures of the Iberian Peninsula became extinct through continuous hunting and loss of habitat. Luckily, the last surviving bucardo, Celia, was captured by scientists. They extracted her DNA and froze it in liquid nitrogen in 1999. After Celia was killed by a falling tree the following year, scientists managed to inject her nuclei into a surrogate and successfully clone the bucardo. However, the baby calf died due to complications at birth. Scientists are continuously working to “de-extinct” these mountain goats by successfully cloning the bucardo a second time. This is not an easy task since these frozen cells are extremely fragile and hard to work with. If the scientists become successful, then perhaps they can extract the DNA of every species of animals and store it in a special library for safekeeping. The next time when human beings try to annihilate another magnificent creature under the name of a “sport” called hunting, perhaps a scientist can reach into that DNA library and save the face of humanity by de-extincting these wonderful creatures.

Does God Love Sinners?

   " 'He did not send me!' cried she, positively. 'I have no Heavenly Father!' " 
        (Hawthorne, Pg. 67)

When little Pearl uttered these words, it is revealed to the reader that Pearl does not believe in God. She believes that she was plucked off of a rosebush instead of God sending her to Hester. These atheistic ideals were affirmed when mother and daughter were playing in their home. Hester jokingly told Pearl that she did not belong to her and that the Heavenly Father had sent her. Pearl then adamantly refuses to believe that she has a Heavenly Father. This quote reveals to the reader another part of Pearl’s personality. It shows how Pearl suspects that she was born into sin and that committing a sin was against God’s laws. Therefore, Pearl believes that if there was a God, she would not have been born into shame. This quote is important because it is going against what the Puritan culture believed at the time. They only believed in God’s laws and that no one dared to go against them. For a three year old Pearl to say this, it shows how courageous and radical her ideas were for the time. This quote brings new revolutionary ideas that maybe there was no God and that Hester and Pearl were out casted for no good reason and if there was a God, he would not have brutally punished his followers.

Piano: Burn It or Learn It?

October 22, 2013
By: Clarissa Sebag-Montefiore
bbc.com/culture
"Why Piano-Mania Grips China's Children"

 During Chairman Mao’s Chinese cultural revolution, pianos were destroyed as despised symbols of the Western society. Today, China is experiencing a classical music revolution by bringing back the piano into the Chinese culture, once again. Forty million children are learning how to play the piano. While the European market for piano is declining, China’s demand is becoming infinite. Ironically, the dean of the International Piano Academy at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, Keng Zhou, began learning the piano during the cultural revolution on a broken and half destroyed piano. Today, the Chinese middle class has gained tremendous economic power and can afford buying brand new instruments for their children. What has changed from the time that they were destroying pianos as a sign of the bourgeoisie to today, where students spend four hours practicing piano every day? Many people in the Chinese society view the piano as a sign of culture and tremendous wealth. There are also those who were deprived of this opportunity during Mao’s China and want their children to fulfill their shattered dreams. Critics of China’s teaching methods believe that Chinese students are rote learners and leave little room for creativity. These critics hope that in the future, the Chinese children would play piano more with their heart.

How Pure Were the Puritans?

www.pbs.org/godinamerica/people/puritans.html‎

        Puritanism began in England around the 1500s. They believed that the reforms of the Church of England did not go far enough and decided to set sail towards America in the 1600s. Eventually, they settled in the Massachusetts Bay colony, freely practicing their religion. Puritans were Calvinists and believed in predestination, which is the belief that God is all powerful and knows everyone’s fate at birth. Nothing an individual could do or say would change their fate. Puritans believed that God will choose the individuals, which were called the elect, that would be saved and at that point, would undergo “conversion.” During conversion, the elect would be told by God that they were saved. They also believed that they were doing God’s work and anyone who would defy God’s laws was subject to harsh punishments. These Puritan Calvinists not only believed in individual salvation but also in the spiritual health of the community as a whole. As time passed by, Church membership began to decline because the Puritans had set their standards so high that it was not possible for many to achieve conversion. They then turned to alcohol, lying, sexual behavior, which were the common vices of that time.

Transcendentalist or a Tyrant?

                Ralph Waldo Emerson, the speaker/writer, wrote an essay on how to educate young minds. The occasion of this essay is around the 1820s till the 1830s. Emerson addresses everyone and anyone who reads his essay, but in particular educators and teachers. The purpose of this essay is to teach and inform teachers of different ways to educate and guide students to reach their full potential. He also encourages teachers to be patient and to inspire students to follow their natural abilities. Emerson informs the public that the educational system is in dire need of reformation. Education is the subject matter of his essay, however, he believes that without the cooperation of the teachers, education will be incomplete.  According to Emerson, a good educator is one who teaches for the joy of teaching and does not dictate his own point of view and. Teachers should be able to nurture and encourage all sorts of abilities. They should hearten students to speak their minds and voice their opinions without being uppity and presumptuous. In order to convey his message of reform and change, Emerson adopts a sincere and informative tone. He sounds benevolent and adapts a confident accent to make the reader feel at ease and persuade them to adapt his point of view.

Did Mirrors Lift the Dark Ages?

bbc.com
October 30, 2013
By: the BBC columnist
"Mirrors Finally Bring Winter Sun to Rjukan, Norway"

                 Imagine living in the dark six months out of the year. The people of Rjukan, Norway have always lived that way. This small town in Norway lies in a deep valley and during the six months of winter, the surrounding mountains cast a huge shadow over Rjukan. Finally, the people of Rjukan can enjoy sunshine in the middle of their town for the first time ever. This has been made possible by placing giant mirrors on top of the mountains, which are controlled by computers, to follow the Sun’s coarse throughout the day and reflect the Sun’s light over the town center. This idea of using mirrors in Rjukan is not new. Over a hundred years ago, a Norwegian engineer and industrialist, Sam Eyde, proposed this idea of using mirrors. However, the technology did not exist to fulfill Eyde’s vision. In 2005, Martin Andersen, an artist, brought this idea back to the spotlight and eventually accomplished building these computer controlled mirrors. The people of Rjukan celebrated the grand opening of these mirrors recently by gathering in the town square to bathe in the Sun, play beach volleyball, and sing “Let the Sunshine In.” The shadows have finally been lifted from over this small, picturesque town.