GREGOR MENDEL

TODAY WE CELEBRATE THE 189TH BIRTHDAY OF THIS GREAT SCIENTIST. FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO DO NOT KNOW ABOUT HIM, I HAVE INSERTED THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION:

Gregor Mendel, who is known as the "father of modern genetics", was inspired by both his professors at the University of Olomouc (i.e. Friedrich Franz & Johann Karl Nestler) and his colleagues at the monastery (i.e. Franz Diebl) to study variation in plants, and he conducted his study in the monastery's two hectare experimental garden, which was originally planted by the abbot Napp in 1830. Between 1856 and 1863 Mendel cultivated and tested some 29,000 pea plants (i.e., Pisum sativum). This study showed that one in four pea plants had purebred recessive alleles, two out of four were hybrid and one out of four were purebred dominant. His experiments led him to make two generalizations, the Law of Segregation and the Law of Independent Assortment, which later became known as Mendel's Laws of Inheritance.
Mendel did read his paper, Versuche über Pflanzenhybriden (Experiments on Plant Hybridization), at two meetings of the Natural History Society of Brünn in Moravia in 1865. It was received favorably and generated reports in several local newspapers. When Mendel's paper was published in 1866 in Verhandlungen des naturforschenden Vereins Brünn, it was seen as essentially about hybridization rather than inheritance and had little impact and was cited about three times over the next thirty-five years. (Notably, Charles Darwin was unaware of Mendel's paper, according to Jacob Bronowski's The Ascent of Man.) His paper was criticized at the time, but is now considered a seminal work.

After Mendel completed his work with peas, he turned to experimenting with honeybees, in order to extend his work to animals. He produced a hybrid strain (so vicious they were destroyed), but failed to generate a clear picture of their heredity because of the difficulties in controlling mating behaviours of queen bees. He also described novel plant species, and these are denoted with the botanical author abbreviation "Mendel".
After he was elevated as abbot in 1868, his scientific work largely ended, as Mendel became consumed with his increased administrative responsibilities, especially a dispute with the civil government over their attempt to impose special taxes on religious institutions. At first Mendel's work was rejected, and it was not widely accepted until after he died. At that time most biologists held the idea of blending inheritance, and Charles Darwin's efforts to explain inheritance through a theory of pangenesis were unsuccessful. Mendel's ideas were rediscovered in the early twentieth century, and in the 1930s and 1940s the modern synthesis combined Mendelian genetics with Darwin's theory of natural selection.
Mendel died on January 6, 1884, at age 61, in Brno, Moravia, Austria-Hungary (now Czech Republic), from chronic nephritis. Czech composer Leoš Janáček played the organ at his funeral. After his death, the succeeding abbot burned all papers in Mendel's collection, to mark an end to the disputes over taxation.

TO SUCCESS

CONGRATULATION TO THE GRADUATES OF CJC ACE 2010.
IT IS WITH GREAT PLEASURE THAT I POST THAT ALL THREE SPEECHES GIVEN AT THIS YEARS CJC GRADUATION WERE GIVEN BY STUDENTS OF THE EVENING DIVISION WHOM I HAD THE PLEASURE OF ACCEPTING INTO THE INSTITUTION BACK WHEN I WAS DIRECTOR AND TEACHER THERE.

I HAVE MOVED ON BUT I LEAVE MY MARK ON YOUR HEARTS AS YOU HAVE DONE ON MINE.

VALEDICTORIAN... JOSEPH ERMOFF
SALUTORIAN.......... LORENA SEDASSIE
VOTE OF THANKS.. SUSIE HENDERSON

AS I CLOSE A CHAPTER- I TAKE YOU IN MY HEART

Dearest Students of CCC ACE AND CJC ACE,
As I close a chapter in my life, I look back at the many things we have done together. We have laughed, we have joked, we have worked and most importantly we have loved.

All I want to say to you today, is that you have been the world to me. You have each filled a space in my heart and in my soul. All my tomorrows will have meaning because you have shared my todays.I may have been many things: a mother, a friend, a teacher, a dramatist, a comedian, a director and a mentor.

God has been good. He has taken me to places and I have seen many great things come from my sincerity and my kindness. I thank you for sharing my life, my joys and my sorrows. I now invite you to share my tomorrows.As I fade into the twilight, I take with me your life, your friendship, your joys and your sorrows. Even though we will be apart, I take you in my heart. Study and be all that you can be. Smile and remember: you are the ruler of your destiny. NO ONE CAN TAKE THAT AWAY FROM YOU. You have the power to make things happen. Take my love with you and let it grow. Take my friendship and let it shine.

Many will try to tarnish and darken my name and many have been the reason of this separation from the best thing that had ever happened to me - my opportunity of sharing your lives. To them we say: YOU CAN´T STOP THIS! LA LUCHA SIGUE!

My house is open at all times for you and you families. Come see me sometimes.

Love always,
Ms. B

SWINE FLU FACTS

Swine flu concerns spread
ATLANTA (UPI) -- Health officials worldwide Monday worked to contain what they said appears to be a spreading outbreak of swine flu from Mexico, the presumed epicenter. In Mexico City, one of every five residents wore masks to protect themselves against the virus, CNN reported. As many as 103 deaths in Mexico had been blamed on swine flu, the country's health minister said. However, only 18 of the deaths were confirmed by lab tests to be from swine flu and reported as such to the World Health Organization. The United States stepped up preparations for a possible epidemic after health officials confirmed 20 cases. Canada announced its first cases of the virus Sunday. Although the current cases of U.S. swine flu are mild, the public should prepare for additional cases and possible fatalities, a health official said. "We don't have great information yet," said Dr. Anne Schuchat, interim deputy director for science and public health at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta. "There have been no deaths in the United States so far -- I do fear that we will have deaths here." Swine flu is a contagious respiratory disease that affects pigs and is caused by a type-A influenza virus, CNN said. The current strain is a new variation of an H1N1 virus, which is a mix of human and animal versions. When the flu spreads person-to-person, instead of from animals to humans, it can mutate, making it harder to treat or fend because people have no natural immunity. The WHO has called the outbreak a "public health emergency of international concern" and is trying to determine how easily the communicable disease can spread from person to person.
Copyright 2009 by United Press International

HAPPY CHILDREN'S DAY 2009

Happy Children's Day to all the men and women in the Evening Programme. I hope your day is filled with all the joy, peace and happiness you deserve.

May will bring for you a new beginning and an end. Sit back and take it all in with a whiff of fresh air. REMEMBER, YOU must WORK HARD AND play hard so that I can be proud of you.

My love always,
Ms B