Thursday, February 17, 2011

How to dive

Oxygen toxicity, like most other potential dangers in scuba diving, is easy to avoid – simply understand the risks and dive within the limits of your training!

Many people think of the earth as two separate worlds; the ground and the air. But ninety- five percent of the ocean floors remain unexplored. There is another world underwater, and the most intimate way to explore it is by scuba diving. “Scuba” stands for self- contained underwater breathing apparatus. In this post I will teach the basics of how to Scuba dive. It starts with the pre-dive.

-         2 days before the dive, start eating bananas. Bananas are high in potassium and will help prevent the bends, a diving condition caused by surfacing too quickly and putting nitrogen bubbles in the bloodstream. The only cure for the bends is to go to a decompression chamber.
-         Then you get on the boat, and you have to put your gear in place. You put your gear bag under the bench with your assigned dive tanks. You may have as few as one tank or as much as three.
-         Then, as the boat gets underway, you have to set up your gear for the dive itself.
-         First, take the strap off of your fist tank. Then, put your buoyancy compensator, or B.C. vest, around the tank, strapping it in tight enough that it holds the tank while you shake it. It should be low enough so you don’t hit your head while looking up underwater. Then you put on your “octopus”, the regulator system. Make sure your compass is facing down and turn on the air all the way and then tighten it ½ turn. Last, put in your weights for your personal weight and set up the rest of your gear; mask, fins, gloves, snorkel, mask, and notepad.
-         Get in your gear.
-         You have to walk backwards in fins because of their size, so when you have to get in the water, walk backwards to the launch rack and turn around. Then you can do your entry.
-         There are many different entry positions, but the most popular are the Nestea plunge and big stride. I won’t go into much detail but whatever you do, hold your mask down or it will come off.
-         When you get in the water, get buoyant and swim back a few yards. Wait for your dive partner, when they’re in go down.
-         After the dive, go up and break down your gear. The most important step is to dry off your air nozzle on your regulator. The rest is easy.
-         Repeat for however many dives needed.

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Noiseless Society

“If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.”
 Henry David Thoreau puts it best. If one person likes one type of music, he should not be forced to listen to any other music than that which he likes. And everyone has their own music type that adapts to a learning style; visual, kinetic,  or auditory. 


Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Noiseless Society

Music: made to inspire, soothe, and excite. The faster the music, the more exciting it is. Music stimulates the brain, improving cognition and pumping adrenaline. Music has been proved to help with learning and influence growth. Children who listen to Mozart ad Bach grow up to be statistically more intelligent than those who listen other types of music as children, or no music at all. School settings don't allow listening to music independently. I think that this is wrong. Yes, it is true that classic music is the best for young children. But if they grew up listening to something different, then listening to classic music will make them close their minds to it. And not everyone likes the same music. The only solution is to allow the independent listening of music during note- taking. i wanted to do this topic for many reasons, but mostly because i see good things coming from the subject. That, and its good to talk about something other than guns every now and then. Each type of music influences people differently. Rock and heavy metal unleash the carnal side, allowing the listener to let out anger. country brings out the sensual side, showing emotion. Rap promotes creativity and opens the mind. Classic shows maturity and class. Each person has their own select genre of music that they choose to claim as their own. this shows in the school.each person is subconsciously in their own clique. Music is the great uniter, yet it is forbade in school. Why? Why deny our youth the help and inspiration it so desperately needs? Now, when economic setbacks cut down schools funding and our schooling systems are slowly failing, a FREE jump start is just what we need right now.