Post 5 - The FINA world aquatics championships

My last post is the FINA world championships. The event was first held in 1973 and is now held every two years. The first one was held in Belgrade ,Yugoslavia. And this year it will be held in Shanghai ,China on the 16th July-31st July, which will be the 14th. FINA is the World Championships for aquatic sports: diving, swimming, open water swimming, synchronized swimming and water polo, contested in a 50 m pool. So far in the United States are in the lead with 434 medals ,followed by Germany 262 and China 169.

Post 4- San Alfronso del Mar, world's largest pool

The world's largest and deepest pool is San Alfonso del Mar, in Algarrobo, Chile. Algarrobo is a Chilean city and commune in San Antonie Province, Valparaíso Region. It has a population of 8,601 people.

The pool is 1000 meters wide and up to 35 meters in depth and holds 250 million tonnes of seawater. It took 5 years to build and cost nearly 1 billion.

Since the pollution levels in the ocean could cause all sorts of cancer, mental retardation, birth defects and seriously shorten life expectancy, the Chileans had to come up with a solution that would make swimming safer but just as enjoyable. So they created a computer-controlled filtration system that permanently draws fresh seawater directly from the ocean while pumping out used water. This way, tourists can swim in a clean environment where they can see the bottom even in the deep end, all without polluting the ocean.

The sun warms the water to 26c, nine degrees warmer than the adjoining sea.

Among the activities in San Alfonso del Mar you will find: sailing, kayaking, scuba diving and of course, swimming.

Post 3- Speedo

Speedo International Ltd. is a manufacturer and distributor of swimwear and swim-related accessories. Founded in Australia in 1914, which has a population of 22 million.

The headquarters of speedo is in London. Speedo International Ltd. is a manufacturer and distributor of swimwear and swim-related accessories.

February 14, 2008 Following three years of research that included input from NASA, tests on more than 100 different fabrics and suit designs and body scans of more than 400 elite swimmers, Speedo has launched its most hydro-dynamically advanced - and fastest - swimsuit to date. The Speedo LZR Racer is made from a unique lightweight, water repellent and fast-drying fabric that has been developed to reduce drag and help hold the swimmer’s body in a more streamlined shape. Speedo says the suit has been independently tested as the "world's fastest", a claim that translates to up to 5% more efficiency for swimmers and hopefully, at least for Michael Phelps and other elite athletes donning the suit in Beijing later in the year, more gold medals.

The LZR racer's unique design also provides swimmers with up to 5% more efficiency, in terms of their oxygen intake, enabling them to swim stronger for longer.

The specially engineered, highly flexible fabric called LZR Pulse is ultrasonically welded so as to appear seamless. It incorporates low drag "LZR" panels designed to create a corset-like effect that supports the swimmer in the optimum body position in the water and helps them hold it for longer.

In 2008 there was a controversy when speedo announced their new simsuit the LZR racer. Many olympic swimmers wore it to the Bejing 2008 olympics and it sparked controversy as 38 world records were broken by swimmers wearing it.

My Reflection

This is my reflection on TY. It has been undoubtedly my most eventful year yet. This year I have become a lot closer to some of my friends. TY has given me an opportunity to try out different subjects I haven't done before such as Art, Music and Technology. I really enjoyed doing these subjects because they are different to what I studied for the Junior Cert. Despite all the projects we were assigned through out the year I can say that I have now mastered the production of projects. The projects have helped a lot with my computer skills and made me more confident to present it in front of a class. There are, of course, a lot of highlight of TY such as , Mini company, where my group, The Just Desserts, won the Judges Award in the Enterprise Board Competition. I don't think I can ever forget the look on our faces when our names were called up to the stage to receive our trophy and €100. Mini company certainly has opened my mind for running my own business in the future and also has thought me a lesson to always research and not everyone is truthful! Another memorable moment of TY for me was Carlingford, which was one of the first and longest trip we went on. It was great staying over night with my friends and the activities were fantastic. Nothing beats water recreation! Some of the activities we did included archery, canoeing, climbing and pier jumping!

I found careers really helpful aswell because of the subject choices and career interests. This gave an idea of what career I'd like in the future.

Work experience was one of the reasons why I picked to do TY and I have not regretted it.I went to Twin Oaks Bakery, NUI Maynooth and Dublin Dental Hospital. The places I went to definitely showed what the working world is like, and also what jobs I would like and not want. It was very beneficial and recommend it to students applying for TY .

Overall TY is a year to remember for the random things we did such as swim a mile, percussion workshop, scifest, english workshop, retreat and a lot more.

Post 2 ( Michael Phelps)

Michael Phelps was born June 30th 1985 in Baltimore ,Maryland.

He is an american swimmer thats has won 16 olympic medals, six golds and two bronze at Athens 2004 and eight gold at Beijing in 2008, becoming the most successful athlete at the Olympic Games editions.

Phelp's international titles and record breaking performances has earned him the World Swimmer of the Year Award six times and the American Swimmer of the Year award eight times.

He has won a total of fifty-nine medals in major international competition, fifty gold, seven silver, and two bronze spanning the Olympics, the World, and the Pan Pacific Championships. His unprecedented Olympic success in 2008 earned Phelps Sports Illustrated magazine's Sportsman of the Year award.

Phelps currrently holds seven world records in the 200m butterfly, 400m individual medley, 4x100m medley relay, 200m individual medley, 100m butterfly , 4x100m fresstyle relay and 200m freestyle.

After the 2008 Beijing Olympics Michael started the Michael Phelps Foundation which focuses on growing the sport of swimming and promoting healthier lifestyles. He is regularly tested to ensure that his system is clean from performance henancing drugs , being a participant of the US Anti-Doping Agency 's "Project Believe" programme, after the controversy that he was using performance enhancing during the 2008 olympics as the media thought his feats were 'too good to be true' but he passed all the tests.

Geography Project- Swimming( Post1 )

My hobby is swimming. I will include five countries, starting in Greece , then USA, followed by London and Chile and finally China in my map.
Swimming has been recorded since prehistoric times; the earliest recording of swimming dates back to Stone Age paintings from around 7,000 years ago. Swimming was derived from the necessity to survive immersion in water that is to deep to stand in.
It became an official olympic sport in 1896, in Athens,Greece but it was a man only competition. For events were contested for swimming, 100m,500m,1200 m freestyle and 100m for sailors. The first gold medal was won my Alfred Hajos from Hungary in the 100m freestyle and 1200m event. The 500m event was won by Austrian Paul Neumann.
In 1912 swimming olympic was opened to women in Stockholm.

In 1583, Nikcolaus wymann, german professor of languages,wrote the first swimming book , 'The swimmer dialogue on the art of swimming'.

My Sister's Keeper

The book that I am going to review is My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult.

It is about a family the Fitzgerald , how they deal with a very sick child in the family. It is an uplifting, emotional , sad and a powerful story.Sara Fitzgerald a mother of three and an ex lawyer is a very hardworking and loving mother. But her daughter, Kate was diagnosed with acute promyelocytic leukemia at the age of two. They rush to the hospital where they learn that Kate suffers from APL,a subgroup of myleoid leukemia and the percentage of survival is 20-30%. Kate needs stem cells and bone marrow but noone in the family is a match for her, so Sara has no choice but to persuade her husband Brian to try for a perfectly engineered baby that would be the exact DNA match to Kate, as she is in desperate need for bone marrow in order to survive.Throughout the years Kate manage to stay alive because of her concieved sister, Anna. Anna has a very close bond and is a loving sister to Kate. From the day she was born when the doctors took the blood from Anna umbilical cord she has not question why she has to go to the hospital or refused whenever Kate needs her bone marrow. Then at the age of thirteen Anna realises that she does not want to donate a kidney to her sister anymore after the countless surgeries that she has undergone. So she seeks a solicitor, Campbell Alexander to file a lawsuit for medical emancipation. He agrees to help Anna. When Sara finds out she is furious with Anna and demands her to drop it, but Anna is determined for the medical emancipation. Sara has no choice but to represent herself and her husband in the lawsuit. Brian who is a firefighter but also has a passion for astrology understand how Anna is feeling. Meanwhile Kate is back in hospital again in need for a kidney transplant. Dr Chance said that she will need one soon or else she will die too, he also says that Kate is too weak for the operation and the stress of it could also kill her. Despite that Sara still wants Anna to donate the kidney to her sister. Ignored for most of his life because of her sister's illness is Jesse who is a delinquent and spends most of his time setting buildings on fire. In the novel we understand why he is ignored and near the end Brian discovers that he is setting fires to buildings but forgives him. Since Anna is not old enough to help make decisions a guardian ad litem is assigned for her by Judge DeSalvo. In the novel we see that her guardian ad litem ,Julia , had a romance relationship with Campbell Alexander during their high school years. But Julia was heartbroken when Campbell left her without an explanation. There are some heated moments and loving moments between the two throughout the book. While in hospital Kate meets a guy , Taylor who is two years older than her and has AML. They soon get to know each other very well and ends up going to the hospital's dance together. Tragically Taylor dies and Kate is left heartborken.

During the trial it is that revealed that Kate persuaded Anna to sue for emancipation because she believes that she will not survive the operation. Judge DeSalvo rules in favor of Anna and grants Campbell medical power of attorney. After the trial Campbell drives Anna home but their car is hit my an oncoming truck. The incident leaves Anna with brain damage and Campbell suffers from an arm injury. The doctors informs them that the machine keeping Anna alive may aswel be switched off and they should consider organ donation. Campbell, being the medical power of attorney for Anna says Anna would want her kidney donated to her sister. Kate survives the operation and goes into remission. Most of Anna's organs are used for transplant in the future.

Jesse, whom has been involved in so many crimes changes and graduates from police academy.

For six years Kate stays in remission and Campbell marry his love, Julia.

Anna dies for her sisters life.

Personal Opinion:

Every now and again I read a book that really gets to me, one that touches me deep to the core and leaves me thinking still thinking about the book long after reading it and really breakout your emotions, well my sister's keeper is definitely one of them. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and have to say it is one of my favorite. I still feel joy and love for the family even though it ends with a sad ending. It really is an uplifting and emotional novel and i would recommend it to anyone.

Swim a mile

The friday before the easter holidays we went to The National Aquatic Centre for the Ian Daly Swim A Mile with a Smile challenge. It was great. There were groups of 2, 4 or 6 that swam a mile or people that just wanted to do it on their own. I was surprised that a managed to swim a mile on my own. We all recieved a t-shirt and those who swam on their own also got a hat. Afterwards they opened the slides for us! It was fun :) For lunch we were allowed to go to Blanchardstown for a few hours. One of the best days of TY :D

Music night and liffey champion

Last night was the schools anual music night. The Ty's sang Mama Says by Dionne Bromfield . We spent most of the time after christams practising this song.The song is very catchy especially the chorus and we also added in some choreography with it. We were the third act after the interval. Everyone wore all black. I thought it went really good but it felt like it went really fast! We also got our photos taken for the liffey Champion yesterday. It was for the girls who won awards for mini company, Maragaret Alyward Drama, Briery Gap Drama, the rugby blitz and the blog award.

Judges Award!

Last monday we went to the osprey hotel for the TY mini company competition. There were four groups from wolstans that went , The Just Desserts, Baby Cakes, Knot a problem and Utensilise. We went into the hall to set up and there were 18 mini companies in total all from Kildare. We were judged three times by different judges; finance, innnovation and presentation. The interviews went on for two hours. The last hour was the award ceremony. The Just Desserts won 'The Judges Award'! I'm so proud of my group and I, all that hard work has paid off! We received a trophy and €100. Also from St Wolstans Knot a problem got runner up! 'Poppies' from Clane received the presentation award. Mini company was a great experience and it gave me an idea of how it would be like to run a business!

Yeats and bog bodies museum and national art gallery!

today we went to the Yeats and bog bodies museum and the national art gallery. It was good we left about half 9 and amina and emnet were separated for the first two tours yeats and the bog bodies. Emnet went to the bog bodies first. We learnt about the bronze age and what people used to wear as jewelery such as gold torcs. Then the tour guide guided us to see real bog bodies .It was pretty gruesome, one man had his head chopped off and all that remains is the middle part of his body. It was remarkable to be able to still see his fingernails and his hands in such detail. Another was believe to have been hit several times in the head by a hammer and you could still see his hair and beard! It was really interesting. Then Emnet and Amina swapped over and we went to the Yeats museum. Although literature is does not excite me i found it quite interesting to learn about Yeats life and the amount of women that he was in love with.
After that we were given a hour to go for lunch. I went to McDonalds with my friends then we walked around since it was such a lovely day. I couldn't believe how warm it was! After lunch we walked to the National Arts museum where we were taken around by a guide to look at the different paintings by artists such as Jack Yeats. The paintings were very good.

Eileen

Work Experience 7th-11th march

I went to NUI maynooth for three days and two days in Dublin Dental Hospital for my work experience.
NUI Maynooth was great. I went with Jessica and another girl from Lucan. We were given different jobs to do everyday day mostly work to be done in the labs. In the mornings we set up the apparatus for the First Year students eperiments. This included putting down handouts on the benches, filling up bottles of chemicals that were required that day, cleaning surfaces and unlocking cabinets. One of the days we were given glass tubes to melt over a bunsen burner and stretched into long pieces of thin glass for an experiment. We all burnt our fingers :( We also watched the lab professors demonstrate experiments such as adding glucose to potassium which causes it to turn in to flames. Another day I was shown where the labs got nitrogen from and what they use it for. Overall I had a great experience and I consider doing chemistry next year.
The last two days I spent was in Dublin Dental Hospital. It was a different experience as I had to get the bus to town up and back on my own where else my mother usually drives. It was not hard to find my way to the place. I was given a dental gown ,a mask and goggles, that must be worn all the time as we were dealing with patients . Most of the time I observed the dental students work on their patients,some were doing fillings, crowns , pulling out a tooth ,tacking out stitches and examining infected gums. I was also taken down to the x- ray rooms to see how x-rays were done on patients. From my experience I think that this might be the career path for me but I learnt that this is a very hard working job as you start at 9 and finish at 5.


Eileen <3

Mini company competition!

Yesterday all mini companies went to clane GAA for the county enterprise board competition. We were given til 10 oclock to set up our stands. There were a lot of mini companies from clane, lexlip and wolstans. Our group, 'The Just Desserts' was one of the first one to be judge. It went better than i thought , the judge was friendly and he asked us general questions about our company and the progress. I walked around the hall to look at other mini companies.
Today we found out who got through to the county finals. Seven groups were picked and four of them are from wolstans,The Just Desserts, Baby Cakes , Knot a problem and Spoover!
The final is on 14th of March in the Osprey hotel. Looking forward to it :)


Eileen <3

Midterm :)

My midterm was great! I went to the cinema and watched 'I am Number Four'. It was a good movie.

Waris Dirie Storyboard

This is the storyboard that Mia and I made for 'The Desert Flower' movie.

Picture 1: Waris is recovering from the circumcision.

Picture 2: She runs away from home to avoid her arranged marriage.

Picture 3: She moves to London to become a maid.

Picture 4: Waris becomes a supermodel.

Picture 5: She recovers from her operation.

Picture 6: Waris becomes an ambassador for the UN campaign.

Croke Park GAA museum

Yesterday was Valentines day , all TY's went to Croke park GAA museum. we set off at 12 and came back at 4. First the tour guide took us to a room where we were seated and we watched a 20 minutes movie about the GAA . After he took us around. We went into the lounge room where the players go to during half time and to the player's changing rooms. The tour guide also took us into Croke park where we walked up the steps to the very top, it was scary :/ . Afterwards we were allowed to wander aroung the museum by ourselves and we also got food. I got a cookie it was yummy :P It was a good day and it was also my first time being in Croke Park!

Eileen <3

Desert Flower

In geography we read 'Desert Flower' recently. Its by a model called Waris Dirie from Somalia.
before reading it i had no idea what the book was about.
Summary: Desert Flower is Waris' nickname. The book is about her life, she was born in Somalia. When she was 13 her father arranged her to marry an old man in return for a camel. Waris was afraid and did not want to get married because she was so young and the man was about 60 year old. She ran away from home. She didnt know where to go except to her aunt's house. There she took an opportunity to go to London and work in her uncle's house as a maid. Eventually Waris is discovered by a photographer and she becomes a supermodel. She later becomes an ambassador for UN for FGM.
She highlights female genital mutilation and how awful it is, how young girls/babies have to be circumcised in their culture but the is no reason why. She is outraged that girls have to go through this and I think that it should be banned too. Overall this is an excellent book and I would recommend it to people my age :)


Eileen<3

Subject Choice

Im worried about what subjects I am going to pick for leaving cert. Its a difficult decision :/ so far i definetly want to chemistry and biology because i want to study medicine in Trinity and two science is needed. But for the third subject I am a bit unsure whether to do accounting or home economics . Last tuesday we each had a meeting with the guidance counsellor Ms Hughs for 10 minutes. I put down chemistry biology and accounting and economics as my fourth. Hope i dont change my mind!

Eileen <3

Home ec

Today in home ec Clara and I are making chimichanga! :) I hope they turn out right.Last week we made churros they turned out better than i expected but we added a little too much salt :L so its more salty than sweet. We decided to dip them into lots of sugar and chocolate. Next week we are going to make nachos! I cant wait :P This is all part of the home ec project that we are currently doing. We have to make a powerpoint as well as three dishes from a country of our chioce and we picked Mexico because of the delicious food and culture!


Eileen

Blog

Today we did an experiment in science to test different metals using the colour of flames to recognise them. Yesterday we switched teachers so we have ms o'callaghan for chemistry now. I hope i really get a grip of leaving cert chemistry this year so ill be prepared for the next two years. Chemistry is a hard subject but I enjoy doing it especially the experiments.
Also the decommissing of the prefects was on yesterday. I hope to apply for prefect next year !


Eileen

young scientist 2011

Last Friday all tys and 2nd years went to the young scientist. I went to look at my friends stand, their project got through. I thought the young scientist this year was good and some of the projects were really interesting. There were also a lot of freebies and competitions such as pens, t-shirts, bouncy balls, frisbees and hats. I entered the census competition which was to guess how many people are currently in Ireland. Niamh ,sarah and I also tried out the xbox kinect. I also looked at experiments such as tablets that you buy online look identical to tablets that you buy in pharmacies but they are different , the online tablet was tested to contain a poisonous substance. It was a great day