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villian-i-have-done-thy-mum · 3 years

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I have something to say...

For those of you who are in high school (maybe even in middle school) you have heard of a company called College Board. I know as students, we all complain about College Board and how it's such a scam. Believe me, I’ve complained to my parents a lot about it. And every time I have ranted to them, I get the same response - “you don’t like them because everyone else doesn’t” or “you don’t like them because they give you tests”. But am I wrong to complain? Well, let's go back in time.

What is College Board exactly? It is supposed to be a non-profit organization that allows each student an opportunity to get college credit while in high school (and give the SAT but that's another issue). That non-profit organization part doesn't sit well with me. The definition of a non-profit organization is that they are a company that works to further a certain cause whether it be economical, social, educational, etc. This means that they do not have to pay taxes for the money they earn. Well, let's look at how much money College Board has earned. They earn about $840 million per YEAR according to Anjana Suresh and Amanda Lu in their article Why Everyone Hates the College Board. It is a monopoly. They make money off of kids who stress for 4 years to get a 3,4,5 on the AP tests and a good score on the SAT. My issue is that not every kid can afford these tests. Each AP exam costs about $94 and the SAT is about $56. So let's say you take 4 AP classes junior year and the 2 SATs (one paid for by your school and one out of pocket). So 4 * 94 becomes $376 plus an additional $56 which comes to a total of $432. Now let's multiply that by 1.24 million kids (that's College Board’s number on how many kids took the AP test in 2018). The product is $535,380,000 that year. That number right there is how much money College Board got that one year. Now you're thinking, these tests help you for the future, you get college credit. Well yeah, if you do good. You need a 3, 4, or 5 for it to count as college credit. Some kids aren’t even good test-takers so what’s the point. Now the issue roots back to the government. If the government paid for college education, students wouldn’t have to go through this much pressure. I asked my parents how much money they had to pay for college in India. The number, $230 max. MAX. And that's because the government paid for tuition. An average college student pays $36,880 for private colleges, $10,440 for public in-state, and $26,820 for public out of state. It is a lot of money and most of the money comes from loans and that becomes an issue students deal with in their future.

SO what is the solution? The American government to stop being so selfish with money. Fund the things that really matter such as education or healthcare. I believe there will be dramatic positive change in our country if and when that happens. But until then, we are all just going to get more depressed and anxious.

BTW this isn’t a professional essay or anything, it was intended to be my thought process and opinions…

If you made it this far, I hope you have a great rest of the year and future and I hope you know that you matter. Take a deep breath, listen to music, watch that movie you’ve been meaning to watch. Whatever makes you relax, do it. I hope you are taking care of yourself <3

-- Warmly, Zen

#college #college bullshit #we need to do better #you matter #thoughts #america #high school #sat #ap #standardized tests #tests #positivity #future #for the future #November #11 #2020

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mychemicalimagines · 6 years

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Wolves,Imprints,Babies! Oh My! (3) Paul Lahote

Summary: Melissa Black grew up knowing that the Legends are true but what happens if they happen during her generation! Is she safe? What happens when she gets imprinted on by The Hothead of the Pack

Warning: Cussing. Gifs are not mine.

Tags: @supernova1737 , @anjana-fandoms28 @hey-sunshines

Chapter 1 1.2 2 2.2

It’s been two weeks and my morning sickness is finally coming to an end. I haven’t thrown up much today which I am so happy for. I walk out of the bathroom when I hear the sounds of guys laughing. Today Sam wants everyone to patrol since a Redheaded Vampire has been seen running around on our lands. Paul is very unhappy about leaving me here but Sam says that they’re scent will mask mine and Emily’s so we will be alright. I walk down the stairs to mine and Paul’s home and go straight to the kitchen.

“Hey babe! You feeling okay?” Paul asks jumping up from his chair, walking over to me.

“I’m fine babe,” I giggle. “Are you guys getting ready to leave?”

“Yeah,” He rolls his eyes, “I don’t wanna leave you and the pup, but Sam alpha ordered me to go and you know I have to listen to that.”

“I’ll be fine babe,” I say and I stand on my tip toes and press my lips to his in a passionate kiss. I feel his lips curl up into a smile and kisses back deepening the kiss by putting his right hand on my cheek.

“Alright, time to go,” Sam says standing up from my kitchen table. Paul pulls away from the kiss and turns to Sam.

“Do i really HAVE to go-“ Sam cuts off Paul’s sentence.

“Yes, Paul.” Sam says. “Mel will be fine, our scent captures hers, no one will come here. ”

“Sam, she’s 3 months pregnant, anything can happen to her! No one is here to help if she gets hurt, Emily’s been with Leah! No one’s here!” Paul snaps a bit.

“Paul, you’re going on Patrol and that’s final!” Sam snaps back.

Paul sighs and turns around capturing my lips with his once again. He rubs my small baby bump and runs out the door. I sigh and walk to the kitchen. I’m hungry for some muffins. I wonder if we have chocolate chips.

Paul’s Point of View

We’re walking through the forest to get to Jakes house since he didn’t show up at Mel’s house. Well my house. I can’t believe the year we’ve had. I imprinted on the most beautiful girl I have ever seen, got her to be my girlfriend, now we’re having a little Pup. Life couldn’t be happ-

“Paul, you okay?” Embry asks.

“Yeah, just thinking about my pup” I answer as we get close to Jakes house.

“What if it’s twins?” Jared laughs.

“Oh then I’m giving one to you,” I say to Jared and we all start laughing. We walk out of the forest and Bella Swan runs out of Jakes out and right up to Sam and pushes him. I growl. No one touches our alpha.

“Easy!” Sam orders putting a hand out to us.

“What did you do to him?” Bella yells at us.

“Do to him? What did he tell you?” I ask stepping forward to her. Sam keeps his hand in place so I don’t get any closer.

“Nothing! He won’t tell me anything because he’s afraid of you,” she snaps.

I start laughing. Jake afraid of us? Really? He’s a wolf too! Jared and Embry start laughing along with me and Sam smirks. There’s definitely no way Jake was afraid of us. Bella gets a mad look on her face and I smirk a bit. She puts her hand back and punches me in the face.

I get furious. No one dare punches me. I start to shake.

“Paul calm down!” Sam orders. “Think of Mel and your pup! Calm down!”

I stop shaking for a minute and calm down thinking of my wonderful girlfriend and child coming to earth in 6 months.

“Oh you have a slut waiting for you?!” Bella asks smirking.

I start shaking again. No one calls my imprint a slut! I shake even harder when she continues her rant.

“I bet she’s screwing someone right now” Bella says.

“Bella back up,” Sam says seeing me get ready to phase. She backs up a few feet getting scared now that I’m violent shaking. I phase, landing right in front of her. She falls back and growl a little bit to scare her.

“Bella!” We hear Jake yell.

I look up to see Jake jumping over his railing and running toward us.

“Jake run!” Bella gets up and starts running to Jake. I snort to myself. He’ll phase in a second. I was right! Jake jumps over Bella and phases making her fall to the ground again.

*What the fuck dude!?” Jake says furiously.

*Your Leech Lover punches me in the face* I growl *And called your sister a slut* I crouch down.

*I don’t give a fuck! Don’t you dare hurt her!* He snaps his jaw at me.

*Tell her not to talk bad about my Imprint!* I jump at him and tackle him to the ground.

Melissa’s Point of View

I pull out a steaming hot pan of muffins from the oven when I hear a strange truck pull into my drive way. Human howls can be heard as I lay the pan down on the kitchen table. I laugh to myself and Jared comes running inside.

“Are you guys hungry? Like I have to ask,” I laugh as Jared sits down.

“Oh and Bella, remember what you said to Paul? Mel’s the one inside,” Embry says to Bella and walks in the door. “Hey Mel.” He says kissing my cheek grabbing a muffin. Bella walks in.

“We have a guest? Who’s this?” I look at Embry then at Bella.

“Bella Swan, who else?” Jared says smirking.

“So you must be the vampire girl.” I say smirking.

“You must be the wolf girl,” she says.

“Well my boyfriend, my brother and my best friends are all one so yeah Im the wolf girl,” I smile and I look at Jared as he grabs another muffin. “Hey save some for your brothers,” I smack his hand,” Guests first, muffin?” I ask Bella.

She nods and walks over and grabs one.

“Of course Jake would find a way around the gag order,” I say walking back into the kitchen.

“He didn’t tell me anything” Bella tries to say.

“He can’t. It’s a wolf thing. Orders from the alpha get obeyed weather we want to or not,” Embry says. “Check it out! We can hear each other’s thoughts!”

“Will you shut up!? Those are trade secrets! Damn it! This chick runs with vampires!” Jared says smacking Embrys arm. I chuckle to myself.

“You can’t really run with vampires, they’re too fast” Bella says smirking.

“Yeah well, we’re faster!” Jared says leaning forward. “Freaked our yet?”

“You’re not the first monsters I’ve met,” She says.

I turn around, “Hey!” I snap with venom on my voice, “They are not monsters”

“They’re wolves! How are they not monsters!?” Bella’s asks.

I walk over to her and glares. “Says the girl that dated a Blood Thirsty Vampire! These boys protect everyone on this reservation and get no thanks for any of it. I bet if your precious Edward bites a human he’ll get praise,” I snap.

She gets a angry and shoves me, I trip on my shoe lace and fall back smacking my head against the table with such force the table toppled over.

“Mel!” Jared shouts standing up running over to me.

Embry stands up quickly and pushes Bella back, as Sam walks in.

I sit up holding my head, Jared’s kneeling down in front of me. All I see is his mouth moving. I look over at Sam and I can see him yelling at Bella but I don’t hear anything. Oh no! I’m deaf again! I was born deaf and when I was 13 I got surgery to repair my hearing. Bella must of hit something loose in my head because I can’t hear anything anymore. I get up and I walk to Sam.

-I can’t hear- I sign to him.

-What do you mean?- He signs back.

-I can’t hear!- I sign angrily.

He turns to Bella and starts yelling again.

Paul’s Point of View

I hear Sam yelling inside of the house as Jake and I walk up laughing, when my head starts hurting.

“Don’t you dare put your hands on her again Bella. She’s pregnant! You already fucked one thing up!” Sam yells.

I run inside, “What’s going on?” I walk straight to Mel and wrap my arms around her

“Remember when Mel told you she was deaf as a child?” Sam asks.

“Yeah? She had surgery to repair it,” I say confused.

“Bella pushed her and she hit her head, I think one of the tubes came undone in her head” Sam glares viciously at Bella.

“WHAT!” I yell, “Why the fuck did you push her? She’s pregnant you dumb bitch!” I start shaking.

Mel wraps her arms around me and pushes her face into my chest, calming me down. I lift my hand up and cup the back of her head running my fingers through her ponytail.

Sam looks at Mel and starts moving his fingers in a weird way, i’m guessing sign language. Mel starts moving her fingers.

“Bella called us monsters and Mel yelled at her and Bella pushed her making her hit her head,” Sam says growling. I turn to Bella and Jake.

“Get the fuck out of my house,” I snap venomously.

Jake grabs Bella’s arm and pulls her out of the house.

“Embry, go get Sue,” I say turning to Mel.

She starts tearing up, point to her ears. I nod to her meaning I understand. Embry and Jared run out the front door.

“Sam, tell her that I’m going to get her an ice pack,” I say pressing my lips to her forehead and run to the kitchen. I search the freezer, moving all the chicken and vegetables out of the way. How much food do we need!? Well we are a bunch of wolves. Ha! Found it! I grab it, slamming the fridge door I run back to Mel. I see her moving her fingers and Sam replying.

“She said she has her old hearing aids but they haven’t been used in years.” Sam says.

Sue runs in with the boys, her being a nurse she’ll know what to do. After about ten minutes, Sue turns to me.

“Paul, tomorrow if her hearing doesn’t come back take her to the hospital. Everything else is fine. The baby is fine and the heart beat sounds wonderful.She just has a bump on the head but tomorrow she’ll need to talk about if she’ll need surgery again,” Sue sighs and hugs Mel, then leaves out the door.

“Will you guys be okay?” Sam asks, “Emily needs me to do something.”

“Yeah, Ill just text her,” I say to Sam. The boys leave and I lay on the couch with Melissa on my chest. I kiss her head and sighs.

She sniffs and tries to fall asleep. I hold my phone behind her head and I look up how to do sign language. If I can’t talk to her, I’ll find the next best thing. She’s the love of my life and I will not have someone interpret my love for her except for me.

Thanks For reading! If you want to be tagged just let me know and i will tag you! if you have any concerns or questions please message me and PLEASE leave feed back! I wanna know if you like it!!

#paul lahote #paul lahote imagine #twilight #sam uley #jacob black

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makingscipub · 6 years

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In the shadow of Frankenstein: Mapping and manipulating genes and genomes

I was starting to prepare a talk for Pint of Science in May, for “The Body” strand, which this year here in Nottingham focuses on regenerative medicine and genetic engineering. It’s entitled “GMYou”. I know, it’s a long way off, but they needed a title and so I began to muse. In the end I homed in on the topic du jour for 2018: Frankenstein.

200 years after Mary Shelly published her novel Frankenstein, or, The modern Prometheus and after at least a hundred years in which science and medicine have changed our lives largely for the better, we are still living in the shadow of Frankenstein and his creature. Have a look, for example, at this article published in Science at the beginning of this year entitled “Creating a modern monster”. This contains a picture of a Franken-man and his organs…. Is this the right way to talk about genome editing, tissue and organ engineering, bionics and so on?

In the following I’ll provide some examples of how the shadow of Frankenstein has loomed over every advance in genetic and genomics and how, in the process, we became hooked on this metaphor.

The 1910s

It all began, I believe, with Jacques Loeb, one of the forefathers of modern synthetic biology. In 1909 Scientific American subtitled an article on Jacques Loeb “The Achievements of the Scientific Frankenstein”; and on the centenary of that article an article appeared provocatively titled “Controlling life: from Jacques Loeb to regenerative medicine” (it evokes Prometheus, not Frankenstein).

The 1950s and 60s

In 1953 Crick and Watson and Franklin discovered the structure of DNA. It seems that this breakthrough did not unleash a Frankensteinian backlash. Around 1967, various scientists talked about deciphering ‘the book of life’, a metaphor that would become much more popular around the year 2000, when, yet again, Frankenstein just seemed to be waiting in the shadows. This is perhaps not surprising, as the focus was on mapping rather than manipulating life.

The 1970s and 80s

In the 1970s things progressed quite rapidly, as scientists began not only to map or read genes, genomes and DNA, but increasingly to manipulate these in the era of recombinant DNA (which also led to the creation of controversial transgenic animals, discussed in a book entitled The Frankenstein Syndrome, Rollin 1995).

Despite efforts by scientists to engage with ethics, law and the public sphere, the media and public conversations evoked Frankenstein. Around the time of the famous Asilomar conference convened by scientists to talk about recombinant DNA in 1975, “Alfred Velluccci, Mayor of Cambridge, Massachusetts, whose rantings helped to eject Walter Gilbert and his work from Harvard [said] ‘They don’t even know what’s going to come out of their experimentation,’ […] ‘It could be anything; contamination, infections, and suddenly they could crawl out of the laboratory, such as a Frankenstein’.” (see Dixon, Current Biology, 2003)

All this was picked up by academics and discussed in articles with titles such as “The Frankenstein Factor” (Willard Gaylin, New England Journal of Medicine, 1977) and “Frankenstein and recombinant DNA” (H. J. Morowitz, Hospital Practice, 1979).

At the same time, IVF was being discovered by Edwards and Steptoe, who were immediately framed, by some, as Frankensteins – by others as miracle workers. Louise Brown, the first test-tube baby, was born in 1978. The Sun surprisingly quoted Steptoe: “Mr Steptoe, who lives on the moors above Oldham, does not consider himself a medical wizard or a modern Frankenstein tampering with nature.” (12 July 1978) (see recent media analysis by Katharine Dow).

But as the social scientist Michael Mulkay wrote in his seminal 1996 article “Frankenstein and the Debate over Embryo Research”: “What could be more natural than to fill in the missing parts of the test-tube baby story along Frankensteinian lines?” (1996: 158) Debates about the Frankensteinian nature of test-tube babies and of embryo research became more heated after the publication of the Warnock report in 1978 and subsequent regulations of embryo research.

The 1990s

Skipping lots of developments, let us now look at the 1990s, a period when Frankenstein really came to life (and to regenerative medicine) and when Frankenwords become part of our ethical-social vocabulary.

At the end of the 1990s, we see a confluence of controversies: GM foods and crops, cloning, stem cells, tissue engineering, and also BSE or mad cow disease, which rattled public trust in policy makers.

GM tomatoes caused a stir in 1994 (although here in Nottingham Don Grierson had invented a variety in the 1980s), followed by many other controversial developments, especially in Europe, around GM foods and crops. As Iina Hellsten said in her review of developments around so-called ‘Frankenfood’ on the web: “The metaphor of ‘Frankenfood’ was first coined in 1992. It rapidly spread into popular use at the end of the 1990s.”

Then we had the cloning of Dolly the sheep in 1996 (in which another University of Nottingham alumnus, Ian Wilmut, had a hand). Wilmut became Victor Frankenstein to some and the science he did with many others at the Roslin Institute and Centre for Regenerative Medicine in Edinburgh became Frankenscience, a word resurrected now in the context of the cloning of two macaque monkeys in 2018 – about two decades after Dolly.

At the same time as Dolly was made public, a picture of a mouse with a human ear on its back circulated in the press in 1997, which didn’t really help promote a level-headed discussion, as it became “an icon of the grotesque“. Even more Frankensteinian speculations were fanned by maverick scientists hyping up the prospects of human cloning. And then, of course, there was also BSE and the panic it caused around food and health which undermined trust in science and policy.

In 1998 researchers first discovered how to remove stem cells from human embryos and the up to then rather tame debate about the use of adult stem cells in regenerative medicine exploded. While some framed stem cells as a ‘magic table cloth’, others evoked Frankenstein. Indeed, one of the many new Frankenwords was added to our vocabulary: Frankencells.

That was the time when Jon Turney published his inspirational book Frankenstein’s Footsteps: Science, Genetics and Popular Culture and that was also the time when I began to be interested in studying the ways in these advances were framed and ‘metaphorised’ in the media and I haven’t stopped ever since.

Howsever, in 1990 a project started to focus attention away again from manipulation onto mapping and fortuitously it was completed in 2003, 50 years after Crick and Watson and Franklin discovered the structure of DNA: The Human Genome Project. As in 1953, we didn’t see a lot of Frankensteins in the reporting on the advances made by the Human Genome Project. There was hope that we would read and map and decode the book of life and find new cures for diseases on the way.

The 2000s

This changed again when manipulation took over again from mapping, and, more importantly when ambitions to be able to ‘write’ the book of life superseded those of merely being able to ‘read’ it. This was the advent of synthetic biology; whose history reaches back to Loeb’s research that I mentioned above.

Synthetic biology positioned itself on the one hand as a green revolution, there to save the planet, but on the other hand there was talk of ‘artificial life’ and of ‘engineering’ life – topics that instantly evoked Frankenstein and, yet again, ‘Frankencells’ (Craig Venter himself used that epithet).

As has now become the custom, this topic was then also explored (and, in a sense, amplified) by social and communication scientists, for example under titles like “Playing God in Frankenstein’s Footsteps: Synthetic biology and the meaning of life” (Henk van den Belt, 2009) or “’Knight in shining armour’ or ‘Frankenstein’s creation’? The coverage of synthetic biology in German-language media” (Gschmeidler & Seiringer, 2012) or “Frankenstein 2.0.: Identifying and characterising synthetic biology engineers in science fiction films” (Meyer et al., 2013).

Now

Now we have gene or genome editing and its potential not only for better mapping and manipulating genes and genomes but also promising cures, yet again, for diseases. And sure enough Frankenstein re-emerges, not only in the press, as for example in this Financial Times piece by a renowned science writer, Anjana Ahuja, but also in a 2016 book by Jim Kozubek entitled Modern Prometheus. Synthetic biology, regenerative medicine and genome editing also feature in a 200th anniversary edition of Mary Shelley’s novel, edited for scientists and engineers working in these and other emerging science areas.

When gene editing was recently attempted for the first time within the human body, in this case the body of Brian Madeux, a comment underneath a Guardian article reporting on this advance said: “So, Madeaux [sic] becomes the first genetically modified human being or GMHB”, leaving the door wide open for the Frankenstein myth to insert itself into the debate about science and medicine and perhaps ‘the topic of GMYou’ yet again.

Conclusion

200 years after Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, genetics and genomics have made important advances, perhaps not the huge strides we hoped for yet, but still; think about the millions of people who use synthetic insulin every day, the result of recombinant DNA research; think about the millions of test-tube babies that live happy lives; and, to jump into the present, think of the children who got new ears to replace their deformed ones, grown from their own cells.

Let’s use the 200th anniversary of Shelley’s Frankenstein to leave behind the shadow of Frankenstein, created by a hundred years of clichés, and step out into the light. Let’s celebrate some of the good things that have happened in science and regenerative medicine! I think Mary would approve.

Image: Wikimedia Commons: Details from Hieronymus Bosch: Garden of Earthly Delights (1560)

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