The Fate of the Penny

In the article “Waiting for Change” by Josh Sanburn, we learned about the argument about whether to keep the penny, or to go hasta la vista Abe-y (…Lincoln).

Did you know the value of the penny has been decreasing for quiet a few years?  Do you know how much it cost to make a penny in 2006?  One dollar? One cent?  Two cents?  The answer is two cents.  That is a little bit ridiculous to me.  A lot of other countries stopped using the penny.  For example, Canada has a money system like ours and they stopped using the penny on February fourth!

Jarden Zinc Products is a big zinc plant that is a few miles outside of Greenville, Tennessee.  No not the flower plant.  They are the only provider of blanks to the U.S Mint.  A blank is a metal disc that becomes a penny, and a mint, in this case, is a place where coins are made. For Jarden it is a great job. They have earned over eight hundred million dollars since 2000! The zinc industry and Jarden want to keep the penny and they are fighting for it. Jarden Zinc Products has donated one point two million dollars to Americans for Common Cents (ACC) since 2006. Their objective is to keep the penny. ACC’s executive director, Mark Weller says that there are three important reasons for keeping the penny; without it we would have to be more dependent on the nickel, charities that rely on penny drives might not be able to raise as much money and a 2012 survey showed that sixty-seven percent of Americans want to keep the penny. A lot of people said that they were afraid that they would start paying more on items.

Numerous experts do not agree with ACC. They point to tons of countries that have gotten rid of the penny without raising prices for buyers.  Charities aren’t fretting either. The Salvation Army does get a lot of penny donations, but Major George Hood is not worried.  He says, “ If pennies were to be removed from circulation the Salvation Army hopes the American public will continue to donate generously to help people in need.”

Marc Weller has a strong point about keeping the penny…the nickel.  Every nickel costs the U.S Mint ten cents! If we eliminate the penny we will use the nickel a lot! So basically we would be opening the same can of worms! Some experts have suggested getting rid of both!  Then cash deals would have to be rounded to the nearest dime.

As you can see, this is a tricky question.  I think we should keep the penny.  Penny for your thoughts?

Healthy School Lunches

In the article “Good and Plenty” by Brenda Iasevoli, we learned about the changes in some schools menus. Hmm, very swisspicious, I must continue to investigate.

In September, there were more fruits and veggies and smaller amounts of meat and grain. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) made new school lunch guidelines. The guidelines address the rising child obesity rates. Interesting. They limit the portions’ mass, calories, sodium, and fat. But there is a problem with that, high schoolers and athletes are saying that the new food has left their tummies hollow. (What I mean by that is hungry.) The restrictions on the limits on meats and grains pushed the schools to add snacks like pudding and Jell-o to meet the calorie requirements.  In December the USDA reacted by loosening up the rules. The result was that the schools can serve more meat and whole grain. But they can only do this as long as they do not go over the calorie limits. Seems fair.

Schools are using different ways to meet the new guidelines.  In some schools they have found ways to get kids to try more fruits and vegetables.  For example, a chef could come and cook different fruit and vegetable meals. They could plant veggies and fruits in the school garden and the foods they grow can be served. Students could test new foods before they go on the menu.  Another healthy change is that fries and chicken nuggets are baked now.  Pizza crusts, hot doggie buns, and the breading on chicken nuggets are made out of whole grain.

I conclude, that from TFK’s information, this change is for the bread-er.  These change is to make school lunches healthier.  Have a Gouda day! (Ah, cheese puns.)

Saving the Cheetahs

In the article “ The Race to Save Cheetahs” by Suzanne Zimbler we learned about cheetahs’ race to survive.

The cheetah, fast, cute and in peril! The cheetah may be fast but speed is not the same thing as being unbeatable. How many cheetahs do you think are left in the world, a million or one hundred million? No, only about ten thousand are left. Just think, a little over one hundred years ago there were about one hundred thousand cheetahs. So from then to now, we lost about ninety thousand cheetahs!!

Now whom can we blame, Prof. Plum, Mrs. Peacock, or hunters, poachers, and farmers? (answer: Poachers hunters, and farmers!) Poachers captured them to sell them as pets. Well that was a bad idea in the first place because people might say, “Mr. Whiskers, don’t maul mommy!” Hunters murdered them for sport. Farmers killed them to protect their farm animals.

Poaching is now illegal, but what about the farmers? Laurie Marker, the founder of the Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF) who has studied cheetahs for close to forty years had an idea. The farmers in Namibia were killing cheetahs.  (Light bulb!) For thousands of years the farmers in Turkey used dogs called Anatolian shepherds to protect their animals.  Why not continue to do that?  Marker says “we’ve stopped the killing and doubled the country’s cheetah population.”  But there is more. Farmers keep too much of their livestock in one place for a long time. That leads to overgrazing, and with no grass a ton of animals including the ones that the cheetahs eat go kaput. That means the cheetahs will starve. In Namibia, the CCF is helping the farmers by teaching them how to handle their livestock without hurting the land. Marker says the goal is for people, livestock, and cheetahs to live together in peace.

As you can see, the cheetah population has decreased, but the CCF’s cause is not hopeless and the cheetahs’ numbers are rising.

Plight of the Polar Bears

In the article “Polar Bears in Peril” by Elizabeth Winchester, I learned about the polar bears and their environmental situation.

When you hear the name polar bear, you probably think the cute white bears from up north, but have you ever thought about their environment, or the tough conditions they are facing? Where they are, the temperature falls down to -30o F! Luckily, polar bears have thick fur, huge paws, and more features that help make this environment livable for them. But large pieces of summer sea ice that they need are melting. Who can we thank for that, A: spicy food, B: Too much hot coffee, or C: Climate change? (Spoiler alert: answer C!) If the warming patterns continue, experts say the Arctic will be cleaned out of summer sea ice by 2050!! The loss of two thirds of the 20,000 polar bears will be the result.

Sea ice is forming later in the year and melting earlier, therefore the polar bears don’t have enough time to hunt and eat. The decrease in sea ice makes it harder for them to catch seals. Now the bears have to travel increased distances between ice packs and the polar bears don’t always survive the trip. Ice is getting thinner. These conditions cause polar bear mothers and cubs to be separated. Without their mom who provides their food, the cubs will die.
The less snow and ice there is far north, the warmer the planet becomes! Steven Amstrup, the chief scientist of Polar Bears International says, “The more people who see polar bears and understand their plight, the better the chance we’ll alter our warming path in time to save them,” Few people have the opportunity to see these beautiful animals in the wild, that’s when zoos save the day. Jeffery Bonner, the president of the St. Louis Zoo is working with zoos and aquariums across the country to save the polar bears from extinction. For example, The St. Louis Zoo is planning a $20 million dollar polar bear exhibit due in 2017!

As you can see, the polar bears need help and we need to aid them. I think it is important to protect bears because if bears die out, the food chain would fall apart. (Theoretically speaking.)

Hermit Crabs

Hi There! If you don’t know who I am, I’m Brady Mondry! Now right to it then! In class, we are doing a unit in science on hermit crabs and I want to spread some knowledge about them. Hermit crabs are scavengers, which means they eat dead things like dead animals or dead plants. You can find hermits in tide pools, in the ocean, on land, and almost everywhere!

Unlike other crabs, a hermit crab doesn’t molt its exoskeleton, instead it finds shells big enough to hide its tasty abdomen. When it grows too big for its old shell it has to find a new one. When it finds one it uses its claws to see the new shell’s size and potential. When it finds the perfect shell the hermit crab backs into it as quickly as possible. The new shell has too be 1/3 bigger than the last one and the opening has to be big enough for the large pincer to seal it shut.   When you find shells in tide pools you should leave them because if you don’t it will cause the hermit crabs to have trouble finding new real estate.

You would think hermit crabs would like to live in solitude, but no! They like to live in hermit crab colonies! Birds, fish, rats, and others feed on hermit crabs.

In class we have hermit crabs. A lot of them have died.  Suspicious, very suspicious.  When they die they fall out of their shells. They are more active in the dark, oh I forgot to mention they are nocturnal. Yeah, I think you figured that out on your own. Once at a beach I saw some living in conch shells. They were HUGE!

Well, au revoir!!

Brady Mondry

Mars Curiosity

In the article “Life on Mars” by Jeffrey Kluger, Dan Cray, Pasadena, Michael Scherer, and Alex Rogers, we learned about the Curiosity’s mission on Mars.

On August 6 the Curiosity space rover set wheel on Mars! That was just the tip of the iceberg on its long journey to discovery! Quite a few scientists hoped the spacecraft before the Curiosity would have found enough evidence that there could be life on Mars previously or presently. The Curiosity may make that chance even more likely. It is studying the chemistry, geology, and hopefully biology of the planet. Did you know that Mars was wet for at most a billion years and it has been around for 4.5 billion years, give or take a few. That could have been long enough to create life! The scientists are trying to find materials that interact with water. Previous rovers have studied soil but now the Curiosity is going to look for the actual chemicals!

The Curiosity has 17 powered cameras, an arm, which can pick up soil and analyze it on the rover, chemical sniffers that sample the air on Mars for carbon compounds, and long distance lasers that blasts rocks to then study their chemistry. The mission is going great so far.  Unfortunately, the funding for the missions to Mars are said to drop from $587 million in 2012 to $360.8 in 2013! That forces the U.S. to sit out of the partnership with the European Space Agency for two missions! A NASA space orbiter will be launched in 2013, besides that there are no scheduled missions till 2018 or 2020.

As you can see, Time For Kids has successfully informed us about the Curiosity’s very own Mission Mars. (This was my favorite one yet!)

The Disney Cruise

So, you want learn about the Disney Magic eh?  We had to go from Huntington Station to the NYC pier by car!  It took forever because it was raining Cats and Dogs and there was flooding.  It was a two night Disney cruise out into international waters.

Once we got on the boat we took a picture with the Captain Mickey statue. Then we went up in a cool glass elevator to find our room.  Our room was awesome. It had a regular bed, a fold out bunk bed and a T.V.!  It also had a veranda that looked out over the water.

After we found our room we had a safety drill. It was loud and annoying.  Then we went to decks 9 and 10 for the Sail Away Party. I loved it!! I got some delicious fries and a noise maker.  There was singing and dancing and all sorts of loud stuff. I got a little freaked out when the boat started to move because we were high up,  but I got over it.  Katie was the one you needed to worry about. She was FREAKED OUT for most of it. We saw the Statue of Liberty and we went under the Verrazano Bridge!

Then we went to this AWESOME show called VILLANS TONIGHT! It was about  Hades (one of my favorites) not being evil enough and asking the other Disney villains for help.  My favorite parts are when you get to see the Evil-ometer, Hot Talk and when all of the villains were chanting Hercules to make Hades mad and evil.

We went to the Animator’s Palate for dinner. Now that was cool!  At first the pictures are black and white then as the courses are served the pictures show their true colors.  My favorite was Chernabog.  I had a cheeseburger with some fries.  After dinner we went to Pirate Night.  Everybody was dancing, singing and enjoying themselves.  The Disney Cruise is the only cruise allowed to do fireworks  at sea.  They were really cool!   We stayed up really late.   My sleep could have been better.  It was my first night sleeping on a boat.

Day two was the best!  We had breakfast at a buffet.  It was O.K. not great.  But after we went to the pool!  I was not a fan of the slide. I did LOVE the Mickey pool’s hot tub.  We also went to the Goofy pool which is the family pool.  It was so crowded!

After we dried off we walked all around the tenth deck. That counts as walking around the whole ship!  I saw the crew pool and a basketball court. ( Weird right?)   You could also see rain off in the distance over the water.  After we went back to the room and showered offwe went to the Oceaneer’s Club.  It said it was for ages 3 to 10. It should be from ages 3 to 6. It was so BORING! The only thing that was age appropriate was Mario Kart Wii and even that was boring.

That night we saw the show called Disney Dreams. It was about a girl who had to believe in her dreams so she could fly.  Peter Pan helped her Believe.  It was OK, I liked the Villains better.  We had dinner at the Parrot Cay.  It wasn’t great. I had the same thing I had on the night before, it just wasn’t as good.  Then we went to the arcade.  It had my favorite arcade game Blazing Angels: Squadrons of WWII.  But it was faulty!  So I just played a different game.  I slept really well that night.

Before I knew it, the last day was here.  We went to breakfast at Lumiere’s. I had a route 35 which was a hash brown, sausage and bacon.

After breakfast we left. It was the most fun I had all summer.

Brady Mondry

Meeting a Marine

          One of my friends just came back from Boot Camp. He stopped by to say Hi in his cool uniform.  His name is John. I got to ask him some questions.

Q: Did you like it?

A: It was Awesome!

Q: What was the most stressful and tense part?

A: The first half. I had pneumonia.

Q: Was it crowded?

A: Well in my platoon there were 55 people and there were 6 platoons.

Q: Are you still in Boot Camp when you go back on Monday?

A: No. Next I’m going to Combat Training. I will be operating Machine guns and grenades.

After I questioned him he gave me and Katie exclusive Marine chocolate. It was really cool and fun to see him.  He is AWESOME! I hope he has fun.

(P.S. John if you are reading this, correct me if I’m wrong in the comments!)

Brady Mondry

Bricks4kidz: Lego Movie Making Camp

After Gold Star Camp ended I went to a weeklong Lego movie making camp. Me, my best friend Jeremy and Sam made up our team of all-stars! Making the video involves stop motion animation, a lot of sequencing of the pics and adding sound effects and music.  Our first Idea was a Lego Batman film called Flight over Gotham. We built a Batwing model and a Joker helicopter model. Then we took the pictures. There were A LOT of pictures. After that we ordered them and added sound effects and music. Our next movie was called Epic Fail. I don’t want to give away too much but it involves a person who is bad at basketball. There are a few more. You will just have to watch them.

Epic Fail

Flight Over Gotham

Martian Attacks Curiosity

I just made a new video today at home with Katie. It has a custom Lego Alien and Predator. Katie(my little sister) was the set designer and she did a great job for a first timer!

Predator Torture

By Brady Mondry

Batman Arkham Asylum

Hey guys! You know that game Batman Arkham Asyulm? It is AWESOME! It has awesome gadgets such as the line launcher, the batarangs, (There are several) explosive gel and others. So once again Batman is taking Joker back to the warm and cozy Arkham Asylum. But while being transported through the asylum Joker breaks free! But he doesn’t try to escape the madhouse, he took control of it! Joker used his time wisely. He set up plenty of henchman-like thugs, Bane, Zasz, Harley Quinn, Killer Croc, Scarecrow and Clayface. He also spent his time nosing around a doctor’s research on … Spoiler alert!  Bane’s Venom drug! He calls it Titan and guess what he’s going to do with it? Batman has to survive in there for a night. It has 5 stars in my book! I cannot wait to see what Arkham City has in store!

Game Approved