A Ton of Crap (134 page)

Repression from Israel
In response to Palestinian violence, Israel limited the amount of Palestinians that could enter Israel and created very strict border checks. The checkpoints became sources of violence on both sides, with attacks by Palestinians and accidental killings of Palestinians by the border control. In 2002, Israel launched an operation known as Defensive Wall, which reoccupied land in the West Bank that had been relinquished to Palestinians. Israel Defense Forces created more checkpoints, destroyed homes, and killed thousands of Palestinians in an effort to discourage suicide bombings.

EDITING STRATEGIES

Move On to the Words
The words you choose are, obviously, very important. Look through your writing thinking about the words you have used. Think of active versus passive voice, point of view (first, second, third person), and concepts like emotionalism and neutrality. Your words should be chosen in relation to the message you want to give, how you want the audience to interpret them, and who your audience is.

LOGARITHMS

Simplifying Logarithmic Expressions
Simplifying logarithmic expressions is essentially doing the reverse of expanding logarithmic expressions. Instead of breaking it down into many parts from one large part, you are given many parts and are asked to create one large logarithm.

For example, if you were asked to simplify log
₄
(
x
) + log
₄
(
y
), you would do:

log
₄
(
x
) + log
₄
(
y
) = log
₄
(
xy
)

To simplify 3log
₃
(
x
), remember to make the multiplier the exponent inside of the log. It would look like this:

log
₃
(
x
3)

No matter how complicated the problem might look, the processes are very simple.

RNA

Small Interfering RNA
Small interfering RNA, also known as siRNA, play an important role during the translation process. The small interfering RNA take part in what is known as RNA interference, or RNAi. The small interfering RNA strand (which is double-stranded) has a phosphate group and, at the end, a hydroxyl group. During translation, this hydroxyl group interferes by binding and creating the degradation of the messenger RNA at certain sequences. This prevents the creation of certain proteins based on the sequence of nucleotides and interferes with gene expression, a process that can help in defending against viruses.

ENDANGERED LANGUAGES

Chong
The Chong language, a Western Pearic language and part of the Eastern Mon-Khmer language family, is spoken in parts of Thailand and Cambodia. There are a total of 5,500 speakers of Chong (500 in Thailand and 5,000 in Cambodia). The language didn’t have a writing system until 2000, when a version of the Thai writing system was simplified and introduced. Following the introduction of the writing system, teaching materials for the language appeared for the first time. In Thailand, there are ongoing efforts to revitalize the language.

ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN CONFLICT

Hamas
Hamas (short for Harakat Al-Muqawama Al-Islamia) is a group of radical Islamic fundamentalists who mostly operate in the Gaza Strip. Hamas wishes to create an Islamic Palestinian state and destroy Israel, and uses politics and terrorism in pursuit of their goal. In the 2006 election, a majority of the seats in the legislature of Palestine were won by Hamas. Many large-scale suicide bombings and attacks on military targets have been conducted by Hamas. Hamas has not turned any of its violence toward the United States. Attacks are only aimed at Israel and its territories.

EDITING STRATEGIES

Grammar, Spelling, and Punctuation
Think back to the lessons on grammar and punctuation. Have you used your commas, semicolons, apostrophes, and colons correctly? Are you able to explain the reason you used the specific marks that you chose? Check for words that are commonly confused. These can be tricky sometimes and can go right past you without even noticing (for example, there is a big difference between the words
affect
and
effect
, and
then
and
than
). All of these might seem like very small, minute details, but they can create big distractions for the reader.

LOGARITHMS

Change-of-Base Formula
If you wish to calculate a log that doesn’t have a base of 10, you have to use what is known as the change-of-base formula. This formula states:

For example, if you wanted to convert log
₄
(9) to base 5, you would do:

Using the change-of-base formula is useful for locating plot-points of a graph that is a nonstandard log (that is, a log that does not have a base of 10).

RNA