Kitten One-Pager

For the last 30 years or more, the U. S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has been experimenting with kittens to learn more about a parasite that can cause toxoplasmosis, a disease that is known to cause miscarriages and birth defects in humans, through the cats’ feces. After a few weeks of being fed meat infected with the parasite, the kittens were killed.  

This experiment was recently discovered and exposed by the White Coat Waste Project. Lawmakers are now pressuring the USDA to stop their experimentation by starting the Kittens in Traumatic Testing Ends Now Act (KITTEN Act) and threatening to slowly “‘choke off their funding if this testing continues.’” 

However, the USDA claims to use as few cats as possible and that the estimated number of 3000 cats killed is overexaggerated. They also defend their actions by saying they didn’t adopt out the cats “‘because of the risk the cats could pose to their adoptive families.’” However, research has shown that cats can be treated for the disease and are unlikely to infect humans they are handled by.  

Personally, I side with the lawmakers trying to end the experiment. The USDA should have at least tried to cure the cats before killing them. It is not acceptable to me that this experiment went on for at least 30 years before it was noticed. Clearly, the government needs to monitor its departments better than it currently is. Something this awful shouldn’t be able to slip under our noses for so long. Hopefully, the experiment will be shut down and the government will start paying attention to what its departments are doing. How many other experiments like this are happening right now? 

Read the original article by Andrew O’Riley for Fox News at http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/09/19/usda-kitten-killing-comes-under-fire-from-bipartisan-group-lawmakers.print.html.

Newly Discovered Dinosaur One-Pager

In 2008, a team of paleontologists found the fossil of a dinosaur never before found in the United States in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah. This dinosaur, the Akainacephalus johnsoni, is similar to a species previously found in North America but identical to fossils found in Asia. 

After 4 years of preparing the bones, the paleontologists spent time studying them. They found they were armored dinosaurs with spikes on their head and a club on the end of their tails. Surprisingly, these traits had only been seen in this dinosaur in fossils in Asia, and the ones in North America were lacking spiked heads.

Scientists concluded that the dinosaurs had lived on Laramidia, one of the two continents that formed North America when the sea levels fell. In theory, the dinosaurs would have crossed over Beringia from Asia to Laramidia sea levels were lower.

This fossil offers us important insight into what the world and environment were like millions of years ago. It tells us about ecosystems, sea levels, and adaptations of species. Because history often repeats itself geographically, it is important for us to know what happens to North America when sea levels rise, and this fossil tells us more about that too.

One thing I disagreed with in the article was that there were at least two immigration events. Really, I believe there only had to be one because the dinosaurs in Asia and those in North America could have been two totally different species and the Asian ones came over. Or, both species could have originally lived in North America and one species could have moved to Asia. I therefore only see the need for one immigration event.

To see the original article on CNN by Ashley Strickland, go to https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/19/us/new-armored-dinosaur-fossil/index.html .

Aleksyia Profile

Bright lights shine down, and energetic music blares. Aleksyia LeClere takes a deep breath and steps onto the runway, all eyes immediately on her. She walks slowly towards the crowd as her dress swirls around her legs. Aleksyia spends a large amount of her time modelling. Her favorite photographer, Jennifer, and her mom help her choose outfits for when she appears in magazines to publicize herself. Aleksyia’s modelling career is off to a great start, but she always leaves plenty of time for her hobbies. 

 However, there is more to Aleksyia’s life than just modelling. In addition, Aleksyia’s time is spent reading action-packed books and boating with her friends and family. 

During her downtime, Aleksyia loves to curl up with a good book. The action and suspense of mystery and crime books make them easily her favorites. She tends to enjoy anything by C. S. Lewis the most, but she thoroughly enjoyed The Book Thief by Mark Zusak.  

When she isn’t reading, Aleksyia may be found on a lake boating, tubing, or even water hoverboarding. While she enjoys participating in these activities anywhere, her favorite memories are at Okoboji where she went boating for the first time.