This is it fans. The last blog of the semester for Biology and Human Concerns. I admit I have been a bad blogger at times throughout the semester, but I also feel that I have kept my audience entertained. I was a bit sporadic about when to blog and the blogs never did come at the same time every week. For that, I would like to apologize but I would also like to say it has taught me a few things. For one, I need to learn how to stick to a game plan and follow it through until the end. I am going to keep the blog up even though my time with Biology and Human Concerns is coming to an end. I enjoy writing blogs and I feel as if it is a good way to relief oneself from the stresses of the world. For this last blog, I am going to discuss my favorite blogs. Going back to the first blog, I did not really know where was I was going with it but it got me somewhere. In that blog, I talked about how everything has an effect and the effect only gets worse as it moves through its cycle. I expanded on this a little bit more in the blog about bio-accumulation and DDT, which happens to be my favorite blog. To remind you guys, DDT is an organic chemical compound that is dangerous to our health and the health of whatever it touches. On the bright side, it is effective is controlling malaria but unfortunately it was banned in the United States. Rachel Carson is responsible for helping ban DDT and shedding light on its dangerous effects. Another blog that I enjoyed writing was the blog post about venom and poison. I really enjoyed this blog because I did not know that there really was a difference. I honestly thought that venom was just more potent than poison and only snakes had venom. Turns out though that venom and poison do not differ much on potency because they both are really potent. The actually difference is the way in which the toxin is delivered or received. Normally, venom is injected through a bite and poison is through touch or ingestion. With this blog, I also looked at the most venomous animals in Kentucky. The timber rattlesnake is the largest venomous snake in Kentucky and it is common in the woods. Luckily, this snake is non-aggressive so it will not harm anyone unless it is provoked. Another blog that I enjoyed writing was the blog about ants. When I spent time watching ants, I was fascinated by their hard work and strength. The amount of strength that ants have is insane. If humans had the same proportion of strength that ants have to their body then humans would be able to pick up cars and carry them. Imagine what sports would look like if humans had this amount of strength. To end, In enjoyed every last one of my blogs and I am going to miss having to post each week. I will probably post once a month and depending on if I have something funny or interesting to say I will post immediately. Bye guys...

Hello lads and gents. This week I am on time and this is a special week. It is a special week because this week, you guys, my fans, are getting two blogs instead of one. One reason, I am doing this is because of the extra credit for having ten blogs for the course and, secondly, I need that extra credit because I have failed two of the three quizzes we have taken. Well, enough of that and on to the blog. For this blog, I  am going to ramble on threats to biodiversity in Kentucky. Habitat loss is one of the largest threats to biodiversity. Invasive species and global warming are factors that effect habitat loss. Both are really important and global warming may be the only factor that we may be able to monitor. Invasive species became a factor when the Europeans came over from Europe. But global warming is a factor that can be controlled and monitored because we actually have the opportunity to change it. Greenhouse gases are one of the main sources of global warming. They work by trapping heat in the atmosphere and over time, the air thickens and the climate becomes warmer. The climate change produced from greenhouse gases is not entirely significant but as the concentration of greenhouse gases increases in the atmosphere the more severe the climate may change. Also, there are different greenhouse gases and each may stay in the atmosphere longer or may be stronger in thickening the air. Each of the gases has an effect and the only way to resolve their effect is to reduce their emission. Some possible ways to reduce greenhouses gases are wind and solar polar. Basically, in order to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases we must improve our energy usage and production in all ways. Wind and solar polar are only some examples of ways to reduce emissions and natural gas and nuclear power are other examples. I will not get into that stuff because I do not want to bore you guys with advanced reactor technologies and higher level science stuff so take care! Hope you enjoyed the blog and I will probably post the second blog on Thursday or Friday and check out the picture of gas emissions. 

Hello ladies and gentleman. I am really sorry about posting the blog late this week. I completely forgot about the blog because I was caught up in another class. This past Thursday a friend of mine and I had to lead a discussion in Ancient Chinese Thought and the preparation took up most of my week. Luckily, my friend and I did very well. On the bright side, I have a great idea for today's blog and it begins with the butterfly effect. The butterfly effect is a theory that states that small changes or conditions can result to have a larger difference in a larger state. For example, small winds in the Pacific Ocean accumulating to cause massive waves near the shore. This relates to bioaccumulation, which is the accumulation of toxic substances throughout the food web. Simply put, pesticides are sprayed onto weeds, inadvertently hitting flowers, pollinators transfer the chemicals when they pollinate, pollinators are ate by insectivores and the concentration of chemical substances increases as it goes up the food chain. Now, the food chain ends with us, humans, which means that humans should get the highest concentration of the chemical substance. Over our lives, theses concentrations build up in our bodies and cause illness and side effects. DDT is an example of an organic compound that is able to bioaccumulate. During World War II, DDT was used to prevent soldiers from contracting malaria. After the war, DDT was sold as the best man known insect removal pesticide. DDT was pushed by Chemical Manufacturing Corporations because it was making millions and people believed that it was harmless. Until, Rachel Carson began noticing the abuse of chemical substances on the environment. In her book, Silent Spring, Carson argues against the over abuse of chemical substances because it is beginning to have effects on nature. Carson focused on the effects of DDT and received hateful criticism for it; however, it did not stop her because when her book was published it shed light on DDT. Carson died soon after her book was published but her work helped in banning DDT in the United States. Thanks to Rachel Carson, we do not have to worry about the hazards of DDT. Well, that is the end of this blog folks. Hope you enjoyed it. Also, look at the hilarious yet disturbing picture of a man spraying DDT.

What's up? It is the time of the week where you sit down, relax and read my blog. Last week, I blogged about ants. I hope you guys enjoyed that blog because I had a great time writing it. For today's blog I am going to talk about venomous animals. We recently brought up the difference between venom and poison in class because we were learning about reptiles. But for my folks out there who do not know the difference, it is basically the form of receiving the toxin. Venom is injected through fangs or teeth and poison is delivered through touch or digestion. Venom sounds like it hurts more because the person has to be either bitten or stung. Some examples of venomous animals that I highly recommend staying away from are the king cobra, death stalker scorpion, stonefish and the Brazilian wandering spider. These venomous animals are not common in Kentucky so guys and girls thank god. I know I will thank god from keeping these venomous monsters out of Kentucky. However, there are venomous animals in Kentucky. These animals are either snakes or spiders. It is more common to find spiders around suburban areas but the snakes are found near the woods. For my fans out there who enjoy hiking or the woods, watch out for the timber rattlesnake. It is possible the largest venomous snake in Kentucky but, luckily, it is nonaggressive. Thus, do not be any idiot and try to start a fight with the timber rattlesnake because you will lose. Some venomous snakes stake out around the water. The western cottonmouth and western pigmy rattlesnake can be found near water. For the guys and girls who enjoy swimming in rivers or lakes, be cautious of these snakes. Now, the venomous spiders in Kentucky are the brown recluse and the black widow. Most people can identify these spiders because they possess specific characteristics. They are common around homes so be careful when digging through your garage or attic. Finally, stay safe and cautious of these devils.

Wassup ladies and gentlemen. This is the first blog since fall break ended. I have plenty of ideas for blogs for the rest of the semester and I hope you enjoy this blog. Since fall break ended, I have had lots of new adventures with nature. I had a lot of tests before the break so since I had free time I took the initiative to learn about insects. Insects belong in the phylum Arthropoda, which basically means arthropods. Arthropods are invertebrate animals that have segmented bodies, exoskeletons and jointed appendages. Over the break, I did what I mentioned in the last blog and I did some exploration around Lexington's community. At first I started off my exploration of Lexington at Transy. I went to flowers beds, trees, and practically any area that may occupy insects. I tried to see what type of insects live where and what roles they perform in their habitat. It was fairly easy task but it required a lot of patient study. I stared at a tree for twenty minutes watching ants and squirrels go about their lives. The ants interested me more because they are insects but, more importantly, because they are strong. Ants are capable of carrying fifty times their body weight. This is possibly equivalent to Superman. When you think of it ants carry objects like scrapes of leaves so the ants must relatively weight nothing. Next, ants belong to a colony and squirrels live independently. The ants all worked together to perform a job which made me think of relationships. If humans could corporate and work together like the ants who knows if problems would exist. At times, I argue with people over the dumbest things and I cannot seem to corporate well with others to complete simple tasks. The ants all worked in unity and coherence and it amazed me how they could work together so easily. Lastly, the ants never stopped working. It was virtually impossible to follow the same ant over so it was difficult to measure if it was tired, but the ants never stopped working. If humans had their endurance and strength then humans would literally be close to being superman. This made me think about the biology of ants and how their designed to do so much. Finally, it had me thinking like an evil scientist. I made me want to study the genes of ants to see what it actually is that makes them what they are and incorporate that into humans.

Hello, this is the last blog before fall break. In the last blog I left off by saying that identifying trees gets more difficult throughout the year. I have already found this to be true because trees are losing their leaves or the leaves are changing color. Another thing we took our first exam today in lab and, well, I think I did well. I prepared myself to my best ability and went in to lab with a positive and focused mind. However, I left the exam thinking that it was a bit harder than I imagined, which left me heavily stressed on whether I did good or bad. As I walked back to my dorm, I looked all around me,examining the trees, flowers, grass and nature in general. It made me feel better and happier and then all of a sudden the stress of my test performance vanished. I had never thought that nature had the ability to relieve anxiety or stress or in any way help a person feel better. This led me to hypothesize that nature can work wonders on the mind of a person. Nature can allow a person to forget the past, present and can allow a person to stop worrying about the future. Even before I thought about taking Biology and Human Concerns, I had heard that nature is the best remedy for allowing the mind to be free. This idea has stuck with me for a long time but I have never tested it out, so as fall break rolls around I am going to use my time wisely and up close with nature. I hope to allow nature to cleanse my mind so that I can resume the semester with an open mind and strong mind because classes are only going to get tougher. Well, that is it ladies and gentlemen. Not so much of a BHC blog, but I hope you take my advice and allow nature to strengthen your mind so you can kick ass in the remainder of the semester.

How is it going ladies and gentlemen? This is the third blog of the semester and I hope you are enjoying them because I enjoy keeping my fans updated on class. Biology and Human Concerns is going well and I am learning a lot. The latest thing I have learned was identifying trees. To begin, you start off with a dichotomous key, which is a key that asks broad questions about a subject until it narrows down to a simple answer. For instance. the first question you may ask when identifying a tree is whether or not it is a conifer or deciduous. After you answer that, you may ask if it is a simple or compound leaf and then whether it has alternate or opposite leaf arrangements. These are some of the steps that you may take when identifying a tree. but it may get much more complicated then that. Some trees have fruits or nuts, which makes those trees harder to identify. Another thing that makes tree identification difficult is the season of the year. The season will change the color of the leaves and this may confuse amateur tree identifiers. Since I just learned how to identify I do not have experience identifying tree throughout the year. I can identify most of the trees around Transy's campus without hesitation but when the winter comes around I may have difficulty. Well, I hope you guys enjoyed this blog.