Furry pets can 'reduce allegies'

Having a furry pet at home while you're growing up could reduce your chances of developing allergies, say researchers.
The German study found having a pet dog as a child was likely to make you less sensitive to the causes of allergies like asthma, eczema and hay fever.
It's thought kids with furry pets are exposed to germs on the animal's fur early on in life, which helps their bodies learn to cope with them.The findings are from a six-year study of 9,000 children aged six and under. Joachim Heinrich, who was involved with the study, said their results clearly showed that having a dog in the home when you're a kid made you less likely to be allergic to pollen and other things.

Rain threatens butterfiles

Last summer's wet weather caused lots of problems across the UK, and it seems the heavy rain was really bad news for butterflies too.
Experts say the downpours made it hard for them to fly for food, and numbers have dropped to an all-time low.
They say butterflies are fighting for survival, and the insects need dry weather to survive.Forecasters say although we're in for another wet summer, the rain won't be as bad as it was last year.

Ta'iri the Leopard

Nice smile! Ta'iri, believed to be the first Northern Chinese Leopard in the UK, is pictured in his new home at the Wildlife Heritage Foundation in Kent, after arriving from a Paris zoo.

Tornadoes tear through America

Three powerful tornadoes have ripped through the American state of Virginia, injuring more than 200 people and destroying loads of buildings.
Thousands of homes were affected by power cuts as the storms tore through the eastern state on Monday afternoon.
The southern city of Suffolk was among the hardest hit. Cars were flipped over, roofs blown off houses and trees and power lines brought down.

Puffin problem during bird count

If your teacher has trouble keeping track of your class on school trips, imagine what it's like trying to count tens of thousands of identical puffins!
That's what animal experts are trying to do as they start counting the puffin population on the Farne Islands, off the Northumberland coast.
It's not easy. The seabirds don't like staying still, they all look really similar and some even live underground!The count happens every five years to try to keep track of their numbers.The last few surveys have seen the puffin population increase, but no-one knows what will happen this year as about 800 puffin nests were washed away last year during heavy rains. The last survey, in 2003, recorded up to 55,000 breeding pairs of puffins, which are also known as the clowns of the sky. The latest results are expected in the summer.

Huge increase in abandoned pets

The number of pets being abandoned by owners had been increase in the past few years according to animal charity, RSPCA.Staff rescued nearly 150,000 animals in 2007, including lots that had to be saved during the summer floods.But officials said the numbers also included 7,347 pets who'd just been dumped - up a whopping 1,388 from 2006. Some of the owners said they'd abandoned their animals because they couldn't look after them any more.
Some stupid excuses the owners make.
"My dog hurts my legs when she wags her tail," and "my cat doesn't match my new carpet."

Kenya: Date Set for Bt-Election

The battle for political supremacy among PNU, ODM and ODM-K will be put to the test once again on June 11 when they will face off in by-elections. The polls are in the five vacant constituencies and 52 civic.

Kenya army accused of mass torture in Mt.Elgon

Kenyan security forces have tortured more than 4,000 people in an indiscriminate offensive against rebels in the remote Mount Elgon area, local rights groups said on Sunday.

Man killed in shark attack

Dave Martin, 66 year old, was attack and killed on Friday while he was training for triathlon. He is thought to be killed by the rare great white shark.

Animal Rights II

Do you want to know where your meats come from? If 'Yes' please click this link http://themeatrix.com/, after you finish watching the short videos please come back and make a comment.Your meats usually come from sick cows or the kinds of cows that are kept in cages and was fed has drugs and bloods. Which kinds of animals would you rather eat? 1. Animals that were kept in cages. 2. Wild animals that are killed by hunters. 3. Free-range animals. For me, I would never choose to eat animals that were kept in cages, I would eat wild animals or free-range animals. The farmers who wants to make a lot of money turn their farm into a "Animals' Hell" A picture is shown on the right hand side. Why does the farmers do such terrible things? Why do they feed the baby animals blood mixed with chemicals? Farmers do this because they want to make money and it takes less money for it. Farms that are shown above can fit about one thousand pigs or cows in a place where they can only put about two hundred FREE-RANGE cows. Free-range cows are cows that are free in the farm, like a big farm with no fences in the middle. This is a picture of a free-range farm.
Do we have the rights to kill animals to eat? I think we don't but some of us needs meat from time to time, and we humans cant be 100% vegetarian because even the 100% vegetarian had eaten some meats when they were young. I believe that if we want to survive in this world, I think we need a balance of vegetable and meat, because our body still needs meat. I bet some people who says that they are 100% vegetarian eats meat when they are alone somewhere.
What do you think about hunting? Hunting usually means going after some kind of animal and killing, if you think you have the right to kill them because you feel more superior, then you must know to the animals have the right to run away and hide from you. But also when it was stone age and before people rarely ate vegetables, they hunted animals for food, almost everyday.

Country profile: Kenya

Kenya is situated on the equator on Africa's east coast, Kenya has been described as "The cradle of humanity" Paleontologists have discovered some earliest evidence of man's ancestors in the Great Rift Valley.

Kenya:White Terror

Kenyan Mau Mau veterans' groups are damaging documents on alleged human rights abuses in the 1950s.
This could lead into a huge legal action for compensation against the UK Government.

Confused emu tried to hatch ball

A male emu in America called Fren is guarding a green ball. Fren was confused because emu eggs are green! Fren made a nest with some hay to look after the ball, and won't even leave it to eat his food! Usually, emu eggs take 40 days to hatch, but it looks like poor Fren's in for a long wait.

Animal Rights I

What is a right? To me a right is something that is given to you as soon as you are born. Nobody gives rights, you don't need to earn it, BUT you can lose it! Also sometimes rights depends on your level of maturity and your responsibility. Sometimes people get confused with rights and privilege. Privilege is something that can be given or taken, and right can't be given but can be taken. When can the right be taken away from you? Right can be taken away from you when you did something bad, like killing someone. That person you killed had the right to live and if the person had the right to live then you can't kill him, but if you did you will lose your right too. If you killed someone then you will lose your right to live, but if you steal something, you might lose the right to freedom for a amount of time or forever, living in the prison, paying your right for the thing(s) you did before. How do you get privilege? How can you lose privilege? You can get privilege when you can take responsibility for the things you do, and you can lose your privilege when you do something and will not take the responsibility for it. You can also get privilege when you have certain amount/ level of maturity and responsibility.

What animals would we have right to dissect? Why? I think that we should have rights to dissect some animals that do not have the rights to live. If you have read the paragraph above then you would know how you can lose your right and privilege. Some animals which have lost their right or privilege to live might be the ones we would be able to dissect, because if you kill a animal which has right to live then you would lose your right to live, as soon as you kill it, but I think it is ok to dissect some animals like fishes because we have a special purpose. We will not be just dissecting animals for fun because then it would be cruel and you would not learn anything except dissecting is fun, but if you dissect an animal and know what you looking for, then you would learn that dissecting is fun and where the organs are, what it looks like etc.

Which animals don't we have the right to dissect? Why? We don't have the right to dissect animals that are innocent and have the right to live. If they have the right to live then we would not have the right to kill them because they have the right to live and you can't take it away because it is not a privilege, you can only kill an animals with right to live unless you are doing it for defending yourself. It is like mosquito and you. The mosquito has the right to suck your blood but you have the right to kill it because you are defending yourself. Pretend you are in wilderness, a jungle, you are running away from one hundred slimy, sluggish bird, and you have forty nine rocket launcher in your backpack and one rocket launcher in your hand. Do you have the right to kill them? I say 'Yes' because you would have to do this in order to survive in other words, you can do it because it is self-defense.

Bloom's Taxonomy of Cognitive Levels

Creating: Today i finished creating my language arts crossword puzzle.

Evaluating: Checking my mindmeister map thinking 'What can I do to get the Gates Foundation?'

Analyzing: Previous, in Science class, i searched for info that would help me with my topic, and when I found them I made groups for them.

Applying: We had some interesting experiments in Science class.

Understanding: In Math class, we had to understand a2+b2=c2.

Remembering: In Language Arts class, we had to remember things like simile etc.

Biggest goldfish

A super-sized goldfish was found in Kent. It was 2.5cm long when his owner bought him.
Now he is 38cm long and 12cm high, weighing just a little below 1kg. It is now thought to be the biggest goldfish in Britain and the second biggest in the world! The largest was 48cm long and was found in Netherlands.

Newts cause big airport problems

Newts may seem small and harmless but they are causing loads of trouble in North of England.
People started to built a hotel and a luxury pool near the Durham Tees Valley Airport, but their money ran out so they stop that construction. So a lot of newts and other things moved in. But now the people wants to start building again so they called in animal experts to get them to a temporary home. Eventually the makers decided to make a pool for them beside their hotel and making it their (newts and other things) new permanent home.

Inflatable animals come to life!

Check out the animals on the streets of New York.They were created by an artist, who inflates them with bags attached to air vents from the underground. The animals leap into life when a subway train goes past, but go flat again when it's gone.

Student Outcome

I was a active learner because I learned things like how to type faster and how to type better.