Robert Nurse Public Feed
Blog #3
PART 3
1. What is the status of your issue at the legislature? Is this a "good" year?
My bill is the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act. On November 30, 2010, my bill passed the senate with a vote of 73 yes, 25 no. Before the Food Safety Modernization Act the legislation were trying to set in motion major improvements to the security and safety of our nation’s food supply.
2. Who is essential to the outcome?
The sponsor of the bill Sen. Richard Durbin [D-IL] currently is the stakeholder to whether or not this bill will get pressed on. Each year, illness from unhealthy food strikes 48 million Americans, hospitalizing and killing thousands. Because of this most of congress have supported this bill. If this bill were to pass foods that are consumed everyday in the United States would be check thoroughly before being distributed to the stores.
3. Who else is working on this? Can you coordinate?
There are many organizations working on this bill they include: Consumers Union, Citizens for Health, and the US Chamber of Commerce. These organizations plan on helping the bill pass by supporting it however they can. I could call a few of them and set up phone interviews.
4. Who can you influence?
Since the Secretary of Health and Human Services are going to be required to create a food tracing system that would streamline the process of finding the source of contamination, should an outbreak occur. Influencing many corporations is going to be easier. If there were another outbreak of contaminated food it will be easier for those corporations to get their products back, which in the end means less people will get sick and sue.
5. What is the time frame?
Since this is a fairly new bill there are no deadlines at the present moment. The latest actions that have taken place were in March.
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=s111-510&tab=summary
http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-s510/money
http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2011/01/fda-food-safety-modernization-act-out-of-the-box
http://eatocracy.cnn.com/2010/11/30/s-510-the-fda-food-safety-modernization-act-the-basics/
Quarter 2 Benchmark + Reflection
Click this for my benchmark.
During the 2nd quarter we were told to find 12 identified laws, cases, or offices involving the 3 branches of the US government. Finding 12 identified laws, cases, or offices was rather easy, but took a considerable amount of time. Since we focused on the 3 branches of the government during the 2nd quarter I decided to use some laws, cases, and offices we talked about. To find information on some of the other branches of government I went to their main sites to find more resources.
When I was young I always thought getting older would be easy. But, as I got older I came to the realization of the true world. Upon researching the three branches of the government my eye have opened even wider. I know more about out government and how they will affect me when I become a legal adult.
Bureaucracy Reflection
Process:
For our process Graham and I split up the work accordingly. We both picked what we were going to do and set up a timeline on when we were going to get it done. Graham and i both researched how to register your car, we compared information, and decided to use his. From here i decided I'd do the LucidChart and he would do the paper forms.
The LucidChart was kind of easy. Since all the car registration data was easy to understand making the lucidchart was quite easy.
Registering your car doesn't seem as complicated as people make it out to be. But, upon doing this project when it comes to registering a car I know what to expect.
We did well but we can alway improve.
Car Registration Rob and Graham
http://www.lucidchart.com/documents/view/4d07be86-c19c-4c33-8639-52000af90ae1
Voting Day Interview
Leon Werts
1. Why did you decide to come out and vote? “I wanted to vote for someone who has the same beliefs as me. “
3. Do you vote every election day? “I registered to vote resently, but the last election I voted was for the Presidential Elections.”
5. Where have you heard the most campaign ads? “I watch TV a lot so, I’ve seen them mostly on television.”
7. Are you always sure of who you are going to vote for when you enter the voting booth? “Yes, I am.”
10. Did you learn about voting in school? “No.”
Stem Cell Enhancement Act of 2005
My benchmark was done in keynote. My bill is the Stem Cell Enhancement Act of 2005. You can find it here.
Sexual Reproduction Vs. Asexual Reproduction
Asexual reproduction is a form of reproduction, which only involves one parent. Plants for example use asexual reproduction or in their case vegetative reproduction. Vegetative reproduction is when parts of the old plant fall off and develop into new plants. The new plants will grow very close to each other and to the parent. This will cause a struggle for soil, nutrients and light, and will consequently cause the plants to be less healthy. During asexual reproduction there is no chance of an evolution occurring, the offspring would almost always be of the same species and would be identical to the parents, so diseases are also passed down directly from the parents to the offspring.
Sexual reproduction is reproduction involving the union or fusion of a male and a female gamete. During sexual reproduction is that there is a large chance of an evolution-taking place. The new species will be able to adapt to environmental conditions, and the new character that is formed with the mixed gametes of the parents so there is a chance that the parent’s diseases would not be received by the offspring.
Sexual reproduction is important when talking about evolution because it also facilitates the increase in fitness under natural selection, leading to the 'best' combinations of genes. Sex can impede the increase in the fitness of the population the how it can remain the dominant form of reproduction across all manner of species. Sex at its foundation of merging of genes from different individuals creates genetically unique genes. If the goal is to maximize fitness by finding a particularly good combination of genes, asexual reproduction - which increases a population's numbers at a much faster rate than sexual reproduction works pretty well.
University of Iowa. "Value of Sexual Reproduction Versus Asexual Reproduction." ScienceDaily, 25 January 2010. Web. 15 November 2010. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100121161238.html
Ridley, Matt. "The Advantages of Sex." 4 December 1993, Print. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/sex/advantage/index.html
