God, I haven't written to you in a long time. I was pretty busy lately with all the exams I have had. English, History and Math, all in one week and those are not easy at all, as you already know.
How are you? How is your new school? Have you made any new friends? Met a girl perhaps?
I want to tell you about this amazing film I have seen not long ago.
It is called "Fight Club", It was filmed about 10 years ago starring Brad Pitt and Edward Norton. It is about 2 guys that come to a conclusion that life in this modern age isn't satisfying enough so they decide to open a fight club. And the the best part of it is the endin... It has such a dramatic twist in the end that it will probably take few minutes to digest... It also contains everything; action, black humor, drama, sex and most of all this is the deepest and most interesting movie I've ever seen my whole life. The main character is called Tyler Durden, played by Brad Pitt. The most umique thing about this character is that he acts against all the normal customs in the modern society, it's difficult to verbalize, I hope you understand, I just highly and strongly recommend you to see it as fast as possible.
Anyway, Long story short, after I've seen this movie I haven't stopped thinking about it the whole week and of course, saw it again a couple of times and still keep thinking about it.
I hope I'll see you soon and don’t forget to send me a letter with your opinion about the movie; I'm looking forward to it!
Hibernation is a state of inactivity and metabolic depression in animals, characterized by lower body temperature, slower breathing, and lower metabolic rate.
Hibernating animals conserve energy, especially during winter when food is short, tapping energy reserves, body fat, at a slow rate.
It's the animal's slowed metabolic rate which leads to a drop in body temperature and not the other way around.
The first exhibit I'd like to present is the Animal Hibernation focusing on bears and their muscle tissues:
Animals that hibernate include bats, some species of ground squirrels and other rodents but the most famous considered hibernator is the bear. Many bears of northern regions are assumed to hibernate in the winter. While many bear species do go into a physiological state called hibernation or winter sleep, it is not true hibernation. In true hibernators, body temperatures drop to near ambient and heart rate slows drastically, but the animals periodically rouse themselves to urinate or defecate and to eat from stored food.
The body temperature of bears, on the other hand, drops only a few degrees from normal and heart rate slows only slightly. They normally do not wake during this "hibernation", and therefore do not eat, drink, urinate or defecate the entire period. Higher body heat and being easily roused may be adaptations, because females give birth to their cubs during this winter sleep.
It can therefore be considered a more efficient form of hibernation because they don't need to be awake through the entire period, but they are more quickly and easily awakened at the end of their hibernation. They have to stay in a den for the whole hibernation.
Bears Muscle tissue during hibernation:
One issue that has aroused curiosity between physiologists for years is how hibernating mammals, such as bears, avoid extreme muscle wasting during hibernation.
How does a mammal prevent its muscles from degrading after going for months without eating? A new study offers some clues. A group from the University of Barcelona studied hibernating bears and identified specific blood plasma components which prevent protein breakdown. The bears' metabolisms preferentially burn their stored fat and therefore preserve muscle mass that would otherwise be rapidly degraded and broken down for energy.
The researchers conducted an experiment in which they injected rats with bear plasma, and observed a 40% reduction in chemical reactions that cause animals consume muscles for energy.
The Second Exhibit- Hedgehogs Hibernation:
The triggers that cause hedgehogs to hibernate are cold and a lack of food, and males are thought to hibernate first, although they will wake up earlier than females.
Hedgehogs have two sorts of fat, brown and white - the white fat (which is about 1/3 the total body fat just before hibernation) supplies the energy during hibernation, while the brown fat supplies the energy used when the hedgehog may wake up for brief periods during the winter, and when the hedgehog comes out of hibernation in the spring.
If the hedgehog does not have sufficient fat stores, it will not survive hibernation - hedgehogs should weigh at least 700 grams (about 1 & 1/2 lbs) if they are to hibernate successfully.
Hedgehogs sleep in a nest or hibernaculum - the hedgehog brings grass and leaves to its nesting site, builds a pile and then burrows inside and turns round and round packing the leaves flat and ending up with walls up to 10cm thick. A new nest is built in this way every winter.
Unlike the previous writing assignment in which the subject was pretty easy to choose, at this one it took pretty long for me to…. The place I chose eventually is Topkapi Hotel in Anatalia, Turkey. I have been there during my summer vacation.
In one word: AMAZING! This place is huge, like 10 square miles of restaurants, residence areas, basketball, football, volleyball, tennis fields and more, I can promise that everything a normal person can imagine in a hotel is there.
When my family and I arrived we were accepted by a receptionist. He gave us 2 keys for each room (we had 1 room for me and my bro' and another room for the younger brother and our parents). The rooms were kind of average, they had air conditioning, nice beds, a single chair, a middle size TV with Israeli channels and a normal bath and toilets.
We could eat anytime we wanted, the dining room was opened 24/7. 4 meals were served every day, breakfast, launch, dinner and a midnight meal. I believe it is unnecessary to say that the food was very good. There were 2 pools, the first one was huge and the other one was tiny, I think it was for younger kids, like babies or something like that… The pool had many different water slides and sliding on them was fun.
I believe I've already mentioned it, the hotel had restaurants, 5 different types: Italian, Turkish, Mexican and I can't remember the rest cause I didn't have time to eat at all of them but I can assure you that the food was beyond excellent.
The hotel also had a private beach. I remember there was a small marine on the water in which we could sleep or rest there. We also did water skiing and it was one of the most extreme experiences I have ever had in my whole life.
To sum up, we sure had a lot of great time together, we did whole bunch of family stuff but I will probably talk about it some other time. I enjoyed very much writing it and I hope you'll enjoy reading.
When I was told to write about a close person to me the first image that appeared in my head was my adorable little brother.
Before I begin I believe I should mention that I have 2 brothers. The first one is 12 years old and the second one is 4. Obviously I am going to write about the younger one.
When I found out that my mother was pregnant with a little boy I was shocked, I was only 11 years old. Immediately after that, terrible thoughts were going through my mind such as: "Oh my god, my mom won't care about me anymore, she will forget me and my brother and be focused only at the baby". I was also worried about the upcoming presence of another man in thehouse. How it would affect my relations with my parents and my brother.
When the baby was born my parents named him "Michael" after my grandfather's name. A few days later we celebrated his circumcision in a pretty big ceremony including 150 guests.
The first months were confusing, I didn't feel any feelings for him, maybe because he was very small and had hepatitis and it was impossible to acknowledge him as a human being.
Months were passing by like an eternal fall into a bottomless pit, he was growing up very fast andit became impossible not to like him, he was so cute, so adorable that everyone in the neighborhood knew him and loved him.
A year or so passed and Mike was on his way to the kindergarten for the first time. My mom and grandma accompanied him. I was told he was very nervous and cried like hell but he managed very well later in the day. The kindergarten teachers liked him very much and always claimed that he was very intelligent and smart.
After a few months in the kindergarten almost everyone in the family could define his characteristics. He was a kind, generous, happy, loving person, very friendly and I can go on and on but then I would just repeat myself…
What do I feel about him?
I simply love this person, I accept him with his advantages and disadvantages. He is so innocent that it makes me smile. Sometimes he pisses me off and I just feel I want to him but of course I take it with a smile and laugh after that. Iam a big influence on him, he always states that whenhe grows up he wants to be as strong and smart as me and I am very flattered.
To sum up, there is no person in the world that can dislike him. He is the cutest and most charming person in the world and i hope he will keep it that way in the future.
My name is Kobi Tavdish and I am 15 and a half years old. My height is average for my age, I look like an athlete and I have brown eyes and hair. I moved to Holon four years ago from Tel-Aviv. I had studied 9 years in Teva school and moved this year to Kugel highschool.
My hobbies are very simple, I go to the gym twice a week, I love jogging in my free time, I also play basketball and love to hangout with my friends in the weekends.
As I already mentioned, I am new in Kugel highschool, I came from Teva school which is a private school, and can easily see a lot of differences between those two schools. Among many subjects I like, my favorite would be physics simply because I like math and geometry, and physics is a kind of combination between the two.
My expectations from myself this year are obvious to me; my first goal is to be a successful student in all the important subjects, I want to succeed in the "Bagrut" tests. I also want to make new friends in this school and improve my physical capabilities by working out in the gym and of course improve my nutrition habits.
