Vibhan

**__ GMO for the Future __** Do you know what a GMO is? A GMO (genetically modified organism) is a creature that has been modified using genes to suit our needs. A GM plant can be modified to produce more food in a shorter amount of time or be resistant to bugs. The human population is growing very rapidly and we need to feed everyone. Imagine a world where no one is hungry and no one is dying of malnutrition. GMO is the solution to this problem. GMO is a sustainable food source that is not only safe to use but is also saving millions of lives.

GMO is a sustainable source of food that we can use in the future. If we use GM plants and animals then we could provide more food to the rising population. For example the GM papaya is now made to resist the ring spot virus, which in the past used to destroy most of the papayas planted in Hawaii. GM corn is resistant to herbicide so there’s no need to till the soil, which produces green house gases. GM squash and zucchini are resistant to insect viruses so less pesticide is used. GM bacteria are used to create insulin that is used to control the glucose in a diabetic patient’s blood. GM can not only provide us food it also saves lives.

GMO is also a very safe food source. In the 20 years, GMO has been around there have been no proven diseases caused by it. People against GMO say that it is not natural and we are playing god. But in our circumstances we have to do something or else our race will die out. No GM product until, it now has been proven to have bad effects but there have been some claims about GMO causing diseases. When researched properly they found out it wasn’t related to GMO at all. Looking at the information we have we can conclude that GMO is a safe and reliable source of food that will help us feed our rapidly growing population.

GMO is saving millions of lives from hunger and diabetes. As mentioned earlier it is used to produce insulin that helps maintain the glucose in a diabetic patient. Aside from diseases like diabetes we have the hunger problem. Since we cant level down whole forests to produce more food we need plants that produce more in a smaller amount of time and space. GMO can save millions of people suffering from malnutrition. Many children around the world are getting vitamin-A deficiency; a deficiency is when you don’t have enough of something. When kids don’t have enough vitamin A they loose their eyesight. An estimated 250,000 to 500,000 vitamin A-deficient children become blind every year, half of them die within 12 months of losing their sight. The solution? GM rice also called “golden rice” rich in vitamin A. GMO is saving millions of lives already if we keep researching we could eventually eliminate the problem of hunger from the world.

GMO can save all those people dying everyday because they don’t have enough food to survive. The human race is growing and we need to find new ways to feed ourselves. Food shortages are one of the main reasons why animals go extinct. GMO can produce enough for all of us. GMO is the key to our survival. **__ Korea __** On my trip to Korea I had a lot of fun. I saw new things and learned more about Korea. I saw many palaces and museums and learned about Korea’s rich history. Seoul itself looked like a good place to live in, very modernized and hi-tech. For example the subway is very well linked so we didn’t have to use taxis (except once when it was very late at night and the subway was closed). The people over there are really nice, if we ask someone for directions even if they don’t know they try their best to help. They either search one their phones or ask someone else. A few times they even asked us to follow them even though they were going the other way. I also thought that the food was very good. I tried sushi, which I didn’t really like but the other food was good. We went to this fish market were we saw octopus, squid, sea cucumber, crab, lobster and loads of other stuff. Then we ate lunch there. The sushi we ate had so much wasabi. I didn’t like it at all. I liked the Korean snacks the most. We ate this pasta like things made of rice in a hot sauce. It was really tasty and I would definitely recommend it. One night we found this Indian restaurant that had really good naan. When we were ordering we asked for four naans but the waiter said they are really big so for now order two if you want more than you can order later. But they were so good we ended up eating seven. Even though we ate so much we didn’t gain any wait because we walked 15 km everyday. We had to walk a lot because we needed to fit everything in four days. By the time we came back to the hotel I was very tired and my legs were aching. We figured out that we should come back to the hotel after lunch for an hour or two because otherwise it gets really tiring. We did some shopping and found out that some things are cheaper then shanghai and others are not. We also bought a pair of shoes for my dad, two pairs for my sister and one for me. Mostly we just looked at the shops and didn’t buy anything. We went to a museum on the second day. It was really big so we couldn’t finish the whole thing. We had rented two mp3 players to listen to the information so we were going even slower. I learned a lot from the museum. I learned about the tribes that lived in Korea and about their culture, religion, technology, etc. I found out that ancient Koreans traded with the Chinese and the Japanese. I also learned that in Ancient Korea jade was more valuable than gold. One night we had gone to see the beginning of the stream and on top of the table were paper statues with lights in them. It was a very pretty sight to look at. We even went to the Olympic park were the Olympics happened. We saw the stadiums and an Olympic museum. We had rented a Quadra cycle so that we could roam around the place faster. I thought the Quadra cycle was really fun. On the third night we had to wait in line for an hour to take the cable car to the top of the mountain to see the Seoul tower. But when we reached there the tower was closed so we took some pictures from the pavilion and had to go back. Over all I thought that the trip was very good and I had a lot of fun even though we had to stuff so much un four days. I would recommend going there for longer so you can fully enjoy Seoul.

**__Freak The Mighty Project__**
Dear Diary, Freak had told me to write a book just before he passed away, I am doing that right now but I also decided to write a diary. It has been very lonely without Kevin he was my only friend. It’s like I lost a part of me. But in some ways I have also changed, Kevin changed me forever. I feel as if I have lost my brain but I have gained knowledge. I keep thinking about the thing Loretta said to me “Nothing is a drag kid”. That line really struck a cord, I feel as if I should do something but I don’t know what to do.

Dear Diary, I always thought I was brainless; a total goon till Freak came along. But now that I’m writing the book I’m thinking what had Kevin actually done. He hadn’t made me study till I fell asleep (which would probably be in 10 minutes). He hadn’t stuffed me full of information and yet I have become smarter. Why is that?

Dear Diary, I keep thinking of that question and I think I have finally come to a conclusion. He had faith in me. He believed in me. He believed that I could do it and I guess sometimes that’s all you need. I’m very grateful for Kevin believing in me. And I will always remember him. **__ My first Dive __** The autumn of 2013 we went to Indonesia, there we saw many interesting places but the thing that I liked the most was diving. It was my dad’s idea and the first time he mentioned it I thought he was joking. But when he told me he was serious I was literally dancing with joy. The first thing we did to prepare for the course was studying the online SSI (Scuba Schools International) guide. It was really long and I asked my dad if we really had to do it however he said if I wanted to dive I had to do it. So every day after I finished my homework. I would study. I couldn’t wait to go!

Finally the day came when we were to go. We started our trip by visiting Bali, Yogyakarta, Borobudur and various other places. There we saw many historic monuments and other wonderful places. After that we went to MT Bromo. We had to wake up really early in the morning to go there (3:00 am!). It is an active volcano where you can climb to the top. We looked into the crater and saw trails of smoke rising. It was really dusty because of the volcanic ash but I had a lot of fun. Then we went to Gili where we were to do diving.

Gili Trawangan is a really small island you can walk around in about an hour; on the island there are no motorized transports (excluding boats). We stayed at the Gili Divers hotel. The first thing we did after checking in is fill these forms asking if you were healthy enough to dive. We roamed around the neighborhood to get a feel of the place while we waited for our instructor. When we came back the instructor introduced herself, as Emmy and she was from Sweden and then we were introduced to the whole team. We were 6 of us, the two brothers Gustav and (I forgot the other) from Sweden. Jan and Dan, the brother from Brazil. And of course there is my dad and me (from India). First we learned about underwater pressure. We learned that as you go lower the pressure increases and the volume decreases; this is Boyle’s law. We learned that when you swim up too fast your lungs could explode. This happens because of the expanding air in your lungs. You can also get many kinds of decompression sicknesses when the nitrogen bubbles in your body don’t get released by normal breathing and get stuck in your body. The bubbles can get stuck in many places like under your skin, your lungs, your heart, your backbone, etc. In different parts of your body it effects differently. Like if it goes under your skin you just get a rash but if it goes to your heart it may be fatal. Another problem with nitrogen bubbles are that if they go up to your brain you get a nice feeling as if you were drunk. It slows down your brain and you can’t multitask. This is called nitrogen narcosis. Since this happens in deeper waters it is really dangerous because you may make a mistake and die.

We learned all this from the videos we saw and the lessons Emmy gave. We also learned most of this from the online training. On the first day we also learned how to use the equipment. First we had to find equipment that would fit us. I got a size small wetsuit. And 42 sized flippers/fins. I got 3 kg’s to put on my weight belt (my dad got 6). We also got masks and snorkels. My BCD size was XS. All of us got the same sized tanks. Emmy then showed us how to assemble the equipment and then we had to do it. Emmy had divided us into three groups; team Sweden, team Brazil and team India. The team members could help each other assemble the equipment. We repeated this a couple of times before we got into the pool. First she said we had to swim 7 laps around the pool (the pool was very small around 30 feet). Then we had to stay alive in the deep end (20 feet) for 10 minutes. My dad and some of the others couldn’t do it. Then we wore all our gear and went into the pool again, where we did all the exercise like clearing the mask, emergency ascend, cramp removal, etc. We also did buoyancy control and tried to achieve neutral buoyancy underwater.

The next day we woke up early in the morning had breakfast and went on our first dive. As I was a junior diver an additional instructor (Clare) came with us. We went on a boat to the dive site. When we had to get into the water Emmy showed us how to do it. She said we had to roll backwards into the water. I was really nervous and scared. When my team was supposed to go I didn’t go exactly at the same time as them. I hesitated for a few seconds and believe it or not I actually fell backwards (I guess the tank was to heavy). When I fell the first thing I felt was the cold. It wasn’t freezing but it was still cold. I could Breathe properly and see. Since my BCD was fully inflated I was on the surface instantly and started swimming to my team. Then Emmy said on the count of three we would go down. This time I didn’t hesitate and in we went into the alien world of the deep. On the first dive the current was very low (comparing to the second dive) and we saw puffer fish, trumpet fish, silver drummers, oriental sweetlips and many more fishes. I tried to touch some of them but they were too fast. My dive buddy was Dad. We found out maintaining neutral buoyancy is really hard and it was hard to control your movement. We learned that we had to use our lungs to move up and down. The first dive was really fun. I think it was one of the best dives. It was one of the best because there was no currents and also because it was the first dive. I felt really relieved after the first dive because in the lessons they talk about all the things that could go wrong but after that I realized that if you follow the instructor and don’t make careless mistakes its not that risky. I also noticed that as you go lower the color fades so, by 5 meters red was gone. I also felt weightless and relaxed. It was a really nice experience.

After lunch and went for the second dive. On the second dive we went to a different site. The second dive was rough. There was a lot of current. I had to hold on to a rope (attached to the ground for this purpose) when we were doing the exercises. We did the regulator and mask exercises. This dive was not that fun (it was really fun but compared to the others it was not that good). We did not see many fishes either. It was really hard to do exercises and we had to hold on to the rope really tight! We were really tired that day.

The next day we had to take our tests. To become certified divers you need to have four logged dives and pass the test. In the test we were allowed to help each other. It was not that hard because we had prepared well. After that we went to our third dive. This time we saw a lot of fish and had fun. After this dive my dad was really tired and didn’t want to do the last one. But Clare convinced him that he should do the last one because he had already come so far. So, my dad agreed.

On our first three dives we went with Clare but the last one we went with Emmy. Another guy also came with us. I don’t know his name but he was training to be an instructor. On the last dive the current was low. We used dive computers that tell you everything you need to know except how much air you have. We saw two turtles (this is rare) and did the rest of the exercises. We also did buoyancy control. On this dive we saw a fish that looked exactly like Nemo. But this was a false clown anemone fish. After this dive we printed our diving cards. I was really happy. All of us were happy. We took some pictures and we went back to our rooms. The next day we left. I was a bit sad that we won’t be diving for a long time but I was happy that I had finished the course and had become a certified diver

**__ Change __** Yesterday I hated to have a bath like a cat hates water,

But I loved teasing my sister because she was shorter.

I used to get mad as a bull when people ignored me,

But I felt content when I was with my family.

I was great at playing tennis,

But I was not so good at playing video games.

I used to cry when people teased me,

But I used to laugh when my mom tickled me. Today I hate to do homework,

But I love the whale shark.

I get mad when my sister takes my book,

But I feel content while playing on my MacBook.

I am great at cycling,

But not so good at running.

I cry when I fall,

But laugh when someone cracks a joke. Tomorrow I will hate waking up,

But love video games.

I will get mad when my boss yells at me,

But feel content when my children become successful.

I will be great at working,

But not so good at cooking.

I will cry when I am at my parent’s funeral,

But laugh when I remember them.

__ Almost the truth __

I am an astronaut floating in space, I am an athlete running a race. I am a frog croaking in a lake, I am an owl eating a snake. I am a worker making vans, I am a tribal protecting my clan. If you actually believed in this verse, I think you should call a nurse.

__** Home **__ Big Safe

Big Cozy Cozy Cozy Safe

W W

a a

r r

m m

Home Sweet Home

__Blue__ Blue is the ocean, As far as the eye can see Blue is the sky, Endless and free Blue is my pen, Used to create Blue are the m&m’s, That someone ate

__ Acrostic __ Expanded bodies Large ears Eager eyes Playful smiles Huge tusks Amazing trunks Nifty tails Terrestrial legs

media type="custom" key="23699056" align="center"