A Legend Immortalized

For any heavy metal or rock fan, the news that became public the 16th of May, 2010 must have been terrible to hear. Ronnie James Dio died. The singer lost his battle against the stomach cancer with which he was diagnosed last November. The heavy metal legend is considered by many to be one of the most pivotal and influential of the genre, and rock in general. Ronnie James Dio played in bands such as Elf, Rainbow, Black Sabbath, Dio and Heaven and Hell. The singer died at 67 years of age, but in the words of Guns N'Roses guitarist Slash "[Dio's] music will live for eternity." Several tributes have been given to Dio following his death, but for now, his family wishes to remain undisturbed in order to cope with his death.

Hail Storm

Just recently, a hailstorm has hit part of the state of Oklahoma, but this hailstorm is extremely powerful and intense, not only resulting in baseball-sized ice projectiles, but also resulting in an unusually dense barrage of hail. A video of this amazing storm has been posted on the Internet, and people are bewildered at just how powerful this storm is. This hail storm would most certainly result in the death of anyone caught outside, and this video illustrates just that. The link posted at the end of this article will let you see this video. Though at first the hail seems moderate, the storm begins to get much worse around the 1: 20 mark, and it doesn't stop. This just demonstrates the power of nature and it is truly awe-inspiring to see. http://news.yahoo.com/video/us-15749625/hail-storm-hits-oklahoma-19917666

To Make a Star on Earth...

Scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory are attempting to create a miniature star in order to fix solve the world's energy crisis. This star would be created after 192 individual laser beams are turned on simultaniously on the same point of matter- in this case deuterium and tritium. This would create a tiny star, which would be hotter than our sun, and by capturing this energy, which would be produced during the star's 2oo trillionths of a second lifespan, the team hopes to induce the era of nuclear fusion. However, this technology has a very high chance of failure, and it would take over 20 years to commercialize, which is too late in order to stop the climate change that this world is experiencing- after all, that's the scientists goal: to help the earth in its energy crisis in an environmentally friendly fashion. There are several other attempts at soving the world's energy crisis at this moment, such as the plasma generator in France, but it seems that all of these technologies will arrive too late to curve the global climate change, and will probably arrive after the oil supply fails to meet public demand. That could be a problem.

BP with yet another attempt...

BP is now trying to insert a new section of pipe into the top of the undersea well that is spewing out hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil. After a failed attempt at trying to seal off the leak of the underwater platform with a containment dome, BP hopes that this pipe will be able to be attached to the top of the underwater well and channell the oil to surface ships. If this strategy fails, the company will try to use a "top hat", which is a smaller version of the cointainment dome that failed at stopping the leak. The company hopes that because of its smaller size, the "top hat" will not gather ice crystals which doomed its larger predecessor. If this new attempt fails at containing the leak, hundreds of gallons of oil will be added to the 210,000 gallons already afloat in the Gulf of Mexico.

The Underwater Kites

A new type of tidal turbine has been developed, and are very close to becoming commercially available. These new turbines, being described as "underwater kites", take advantage of the tidal currents, capturing energy from these currents at ten times the actual stream velocity, in order to generate over 500 kilowatts of power. The advantages of these underwater turbines is that they are "cheap" and very small, allowing for the deployment of several turbines in a given area, and their versatillity which allows them to adapt to differing depths allows them to be deployed at a myriad of differing locations around the world. This is a great and practical step in which the world is moving towards greener forms of energy.

The Oily Gulf

After the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, a desperate final attempt at stopping the ongoing oil spill of the underwater pipe is underway. A prototype chamber has been built- of which there is only one- and will be lowered down to the section of the pipe that is leaking in order to contain the still-leaking oil. After the chamber is lowered, which should take about two days, a pipe will be connected to the top of the chamber, which will absorb and direct the oil into containment vessels on the surface. As for the oil already in the ocean, the cleanup is likely to continue for a very long time, and the damage that it has had and will have on the ecosystem of that region is most likely devastating. In order to illustrate the damage that an oilspill has on the ecosystem, one can turn to the 1898 oil spill in Alaska- the area of the oilspill has yet to recover from the oilspill, both in terms of the ecosystem and of the economy of the local fishing villages.

New Cancer Treatment

After decades of intensive research and experimentation, there is finally a vaccine- even though it treats disease instead of preventing it- that uses the body's immune system to fight the tumors themselves. This is a huge milestone, because instead of having to surgically remove the tumor, the body itself can fight it off over a long period of time. This treatment is still in the experimental stage, but it has been approved by the FDA and promises to make the battle against cancer much easier to win.

NASA mishap

NASA lost a $2 million dollar telescope after an accident involving the balloon-that was supposed to lift the telescope- crashed shortly after take off. The telescope was built by Steven Boggs and his colleagues at the University of California, Berkley, and was supposed to monitor gamma waves, which are invisible to the naked eye, coming in from outer space. This telescope took approximately 3 years to build and was an experimental technology that... never got chanced to get experimented on. NASA has yet to reveal the cause of the accident.

The Threats That Stare Us In the Face...

Today I am dedicating my blogs to planet Earth- after all it is Earth Day. And to all those who don't believe in global warming, please read on. First off, I must say that I am quite happy to say that since the first Earth Day in 1970, the Earth certainly is better off in many aspects, such as pollution, etc. Since the 1970's , smog levels around the world have gone down by about 25%, even though we have more cars circulating, and lead levels in the air have also gone down- by about 90%. That being said, most of the noticable signs of polution and other things that threaten our planet have been steadily dropping. That does NOT mean that there aren't any more problems going on today- in fact, the problems that we have to tackle now are the toughest ones of all, such as global warming. Not only are they difficult to solve, but they're difficult to detect, and that poses a problem with people, as they seem to have the mentality that if you can't see it, it's not there- that's where they're wrong. Recently, with all this talk of Earth Day, it has amazed me the number of people out there that actually believe that global warming isn't real- and when I ask them ( and a lot of people respond this) why they believe this they respond that "its can't be true because it's COLD". Pardon my rudeness, but it's truly unreasonable and stupid to say this. I realize that this false conclusion that many people have is brought about by a lack of information, which is what sets me apart from most people out there- I'm informed about this problem. I have done a lot of research on the topic, having written various research papers on the topic and doing even more research on it, and I can say without a doubt that global warming is happening- in fact, over 90% of the scientific community agrees with this.
Global warming is caused by an increase in the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, such as carbon dioxide and methane, which has increased by by over 19% in the past 40 years- and guess what: the temperature has risen with it (approximately 1 degree Fahrenheit). People must realize that global warming does not only signify immediate warming, but it also drives weather to extremes, which is why it has been one of the coldest winters on record and also why this summer promises to be one of the hottest summers ever- in fact this March has been the hottest in history. Another problem with greenhouse gases is that they remain in the atmosphere for decades or centuries, and the temperature rise continues for that amount of time. That is a problem, because temperatures are going to keep on rising for a long time from today, which can be completely catastrophic to the Earth's extremely complex and fragile biosphere.
I cannot even begin to describe the way that global warming works and the effects that it will have, but rest assured, after having seen the evidence I can assure you, along with hundreds of thousands of scientists, that global warming is there. I'll write other articles explaining the process of global warming and its effects in more detail, and I challenge all the non-believers out there to read those articles- I'll guarantee you will at least change the way you think about the topic- but for now, please do not give start claiming that problems such as these are not real if you have absolutely no proof or evidence to back up your statement- you'll just make a fool out of yourself.

A Greener Way Forward

Seeing as how it is Earth Day today, I thought I should write an article about the greener steps that we can take in order to reduce our carbon footprint. One significant step to reducing our carbon footprint, and one that is slowly being adopted, is having a fuel efficient car. While most suburban communities are out battling over whose SUV dominates the street, the city dwellers are taking a different approach to things- that is they are moving towards compact cars. Europe has already adopted small vehicles into their lives. Now, after lagging much behind, Americans are finally realizing that driving around in a Hummer all day isn't very convenient. So finally, after so many years, America is creating a large number of compact, very fuel efficient cars- or fuel independent cars-, such as the electric Nissan Leaf, the Scion IQ, the Mazda 2, the Chevrolet Spark, etc. This not only would help the pollution problem and the global warming predicament that we currently find ourselves in, but it would also help reduce space problems in cities such as San Francisco. So personally, I'm very happy that finally the automobile industry in a greener direction, and I hope that other industries follow closely.

Rain of Fire

Just a few hours ago, on the 15 of April, people in lower Michigan witnessed spectacular fireballs raining down from the sky. Streaks of fire lit up the sky and were almost as bright as the sun for the few seconds that they streamed down to Earth, and sonic booms were following the display of light - needless to say many thought the world was seconds away from coming to an end. However, authorities reported that it was nothing more than a meteor shower. However, this just highlights the growing paranoia that the world has now over natural disasters and the end of the world.

World Cup Begins Ticket Sales

Today South Africa and FIFA finally opened their doors and allowed South Africans only to buy tickets for the upcoming FIFA World Cup, the single largest event in soccer. The lines were staggering, and some people had to wait so long in line, they acually died. Literally. One individual was in line for so long that he had a heart attack and died, as ridiculous as that may sound. FIFA has had worries that they wouldn't be able to sell enough tickets to the first World Cup in Africa, but that concern seems to have died down momentarilly, as over 1610 tickets were bought within the first hour of opening, and take in mind that only South Africans were able to access them- foreigners will not be able to purchase the tickets until 1600 GMT. The World Cup is promising to be the largest event in the summer, and by far the largest sporting event in all of Africa's history.

The Most Dangerous Drug

The drug scopolamine, which grows wild in the forests of Colombia, has been confirmed to alter chemical patterns in the human mind, essentially keeping the person completely aware and conscious of all the actions that one is doing, except for the fact that if exposed to the drug, one loses his free will. Yes- you literally have no free will and are at the mercy of anyone that asks you to do anything. To anyone looking at an individual under the influence of this drug, the affected would seem perfectly normal and sane, which makes it extremely hard to detect. The only noticable side effect is the total loss of recollection of any event that occured after having been exposed to the drug.

I don't know about you, but to me this not only sounds pretty amazing, but it is pretty scary. Imagine having someone or being under someone's complete control, and then not even remembering about it-that's scary. The worst part is that one could get exposed to the drug very easily, as it only takes a small amount of powder inhalation to be under its effects. So effectively, someone can walk up to you in the middle of the street, blow a tiny amount of the drug into your face, and then walk off with you and do God knows what... There have been cases in which people wake up to find that they are missing an organ and are bleeding from an open wound, or others wake up hundreds of miles from home, with no way of going back. Imagine the posibilities and dangers... its almost like something from the movies. What do you think about this drug?

Nuclear Reform

President Barack Obama has set out a plan to reduce the amount or use of nuclear weapons, in an attempt to rid the world of the nuclear threat once and for all- over an extended period of time of course.
The United States military and government, as well as the governments of other countries around the world, have agreed to this plan, because they all understand that nuclear weapons are the most direct threat to the existence of any nation. While some people argue that this is not a very smart choice and that it would make the United States weaker, the United States has more conventional weaponry than any other country in the world, and the military cannot imagine a scenario in the near future where nuclear arms would be necesarry. If anything, the existence of nuclear weaponry is higher of a threat than not having it, and with the current missile capabilities, nuclear weapons are not needed as nuclear deterrents any longer. I personally find it amazing that the world is finally doing something towards reducing nuclear weaponry, and I hope that this trend continues.

The "Immortal"

Immortality is considered by many a fantasy, but one species of animal has actually achieved "immortality"-it can literally live on forever.
The turritopsis nutricula species of jellyfish has the ability to return to its earlier stages of life unlimitedly, literally transforming its cells in a process called transidifferation. In this process, the jellyfish transforms any type of cell into any other type of cell in its body, meaning that it can regenerate any part of its body over and over and over again. Thus, it not only never ages, it can actually become "younger" or "older" than its current stage. However, because of their unlimited life span, scientists are encountering a rise in their population, and they are spreading to all oceans, whereas they were once native only to the Caribbean Sea.
I bet there are quite a number of ladies out there that would love to be able to do what this jellyfish can do!

Is cloaking becoming a reality?

A cloaking technology was recently developed by researchers at Germany's Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, in which they were able to 3-dimensionally cloak a small section of a piece of gold. Though the section that was cloaked was only a mere 0.00004 inch high and 0.0005 inch across, this is a promising start. Tolga Elgin, a researcher, stated that though the current method of cloaking, in which structures of crystals with air in between effectively bend light around them, is a very promising start, it is highly unfeasable to cloak objects that are quite large, as it requieres a vast amount of time to cloak objects. New methods would have to be developed in order to apply cloaking to larger objects quickly and efficiently. Although there were already technologies that bent lightwaves, radiowaves, etc. prior to this, this is the first 3-dimensional cloaking of any object and might be the first step towards actual cloaking devices.

Mother Nature Strikes Yet Again!

Now I know that by now, you have probably heard about the terrible earthquake in Haiti and also about the massive earthquake in Chile. These two events, just a couple of weeks apart from each other, have drawn a lot of media coverage (if you haven't heard about them... well I just don't know what to say to you), and I am pretty sure, although we shouldn't feel this way, that by now, you have grown tired of hearing about these natural disasters. Well, as the bearer of bad news, I must inform you that mother nature has, yet again, unleashed a powerful earthquake (6.4 magnitude) upon the world, in Taiwan, today at aproximately 11:30 AM. Although only 96 people were injured (much less than in Chile or Haiti), I find this to be very troubling news.
Now, I don't believe in any 2012 or end-of-the-world theories, but I am concerned with the very numerous, and quite intense (The earthquake in Chile actually shifted Earth's axis and made days shorter), earthquakes ocurring in quick succession recently. The thing about eartquakes is that, although they are terrible disasters on their own, they usually occur prior to another major catastrophe, such as a tsunami or a volcanic eruption. This is exactly why I am bothered so much by these events. Now, you might be thinking that I am crazy, but you must understand that it is very rare to have earthquakes occuring in such quick succession, and although there is a chance that these events are completely unrelated, I think that it is more reasonable, based purely on statistics, that they are tied to each other. Whether or not these earthquakes are merely the result of basic tectonic motion, occuring at random moments, or whether these are tied together remains to be seen. It could easily be that one earthquake just triggered another, and the latter triggered this one... Now this is a wild guess, and I really hope this doesn't occur, but I predict that a volcano, a massive one, somewhere around the world is going to erupt soon. (Just a quick fact: All of Yellowstone National Park, all of it, is a volcano. That makes it the largest in the world, and it was set to explode over 500 years ago. That means its overdue. Just something to think about.) What do you think about all of this? Is it coincidence, or perhaps a foreshadowing, not of some 2012 bullcrap, but of a serious, if not at least real, disaster that is going to occur?

High Earthquake Risks

Off about 50 miles from the shore of Seattle, there lies a tectonic fault which threatens to unleash an earthquake with a magnitude around that of Chile's recent 8.8 mega-earthquake. When this earthquake happens (there is a 100% certainty that it will occur), and there is an 80% chance that it will occur within the next 50 years, giant tsunamis would be created, devastating the Western Coast of the United States and Canada, as well as Japan and other countries in Eastern Asia. The last earthquake that has occured in this fault, occured in the 1700. This quake was a magnitude 9 earthquake, and it unleashed 30 to 40 foot high tsunamis across the Pacific.
The city of Seattle, as well as other Western cities, are planning to strengthen the integrity of mayor buildings and schools, in order to prevent major catastrophe, and are creating evacuation plans in order to be better prepared for the coming earthquake. Do take in mind, that with an 80% chance of this occuring, we are all very, very likely to live through this event in our lifetimes.

The "Killer" Whale

Tilikum, an orca, drowned his trainer on Wednesday, drawing much attention. Tilikum has already participated in three other human deaths, and many people are concerened about how dangerous this whale is. Tilikum was a whale that was captured from the wild in 1983. This whale was used to basically unlimited spaces, not a small tank-this might result in stress for the animal. Officials claim that high levels of stress, as well as its high hormone levels, were probably high factors in Wednesday's tragedy.
I personally think it silly that people are over-reacting to this event. Everybody knows that when you are working with a dangerous animal, there is a high risk of death or injury, especially when dealing with an orca in a confined space, such as in this tank. This risk is much higher if the animal is captured in the wild, instead of being bred in captivity. Thus, it is no surprise to me that this animal has played a role in the deaths of humans-it should have been expected. However, some people are suggesting that the animal be released into the wild, because it is so "dangerous", which is absolutely ridiculous, since an animal that has been kept in captivity for so long is unable to survive in the wild. Thus, Tilikum will remain in human captivity, and it would not surprise me if there are other "incidents" with this orca. However, people knew the risks of taking this animal from the wild, and now they have to deal with it.

The Hummer Dies

The car company called Hummer, known for the cars by the same name, is being discontinued after GM failed to sell the company to a Chinese heavy equipment maker. This company, having created only three models (H1, H2, and H3) (yeah, they're that creative!), had been experiencing great losses since Summer 2008, when gasoline prices reached over $4 a gallon. Usuallly, companies are not impacted by gasoline prices much, certainly not enough to drive them into bankruptcy, but Hummer is special in that the H3, the most fuel efficient of the three models, only averaged 16 miles per galon. That means it requires a LOT of gas. Thus, sales had been dropping gradually,until they reached a record low December 2009-only 325 Hummers were sold worldwide. After the failed attempt of selling the company to a Chinese heavy equipment maker, GM decided to shut it down. Environmentalists rejoice! Hummer is not alone however- Pontiac has been discontinued as well by GM.

Austin Plane Crash

Earlier today, Thursday the 18th, a man with a huge grudge against the IRS crashed his plane into an IRS office in Austin, Texas, committing suicide and injuring two other people. The man also burned his house down before commiting suicide. This man, his name now confirmed to be Joseph Andrew Stack, piloted his Piper Cherokee PA-28 into an IRS office with 199 employees, right next to the interstate. The aviation fuel that spilled due to the crash, caused the most damage by burning away at the building until firefighters were able to extinguish the flames approximately 75 minutes later.
Joseph Andrew Stack wrote a letter, which has now been revealed (read it at: http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2010/images/02/18/stack.letter.pdf), in which he explained, to some extent, why he committed this attrocity. The following is an excerpt from the note: "I saw it written once that the definition of insanity is repeating the same process over and over and expecting the outcome to suddenly be different," the online message says. "I am finally ready to stop this insanity. Well, Mr. Big Brother IRS man, let's try something different; take my pound of flesh and sleep well." The government states that this is an isolated incident and does not appear to be connected to terrorist activity. Though the IRS will not reveal any transactions or interactions with Stack, one has to wonder what must have driven this man to kill himself by deliberately crashing into that building. The full article is at :http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/02/18/texas.plane.crash/index.html

Palin lashes out against "Family Guy"

We all know who Sarah Palin is, and we all have a different opinions about her as a political figure, but what we might not know is that her youngest son suffers from the Down Syndrome. This is the highlight of today's blog, as a TV show, "Family Guy", supposedly portrayed Palin's son in a recent episode.
In said episode, Chris falls in love with a girl that suffers from Down Syndrome. This girl says that she is the daughter of "the former governor of Alaska". and Palin somehow saw this as an "attack" on her family (Sarah Palin was the former governor of Alaska). Take in mind that the character in "Family Guy" is a girl, while Palin's son is the one that suffers from said disease. We all know tha "Family Guy" can be offensive sometimes, and many other TV shows can be too, but I personally believe that Sarah Palin is just overreacting. "Family Guy", "South Park" and countless other shows make fun of political figures, races, countries, and specific people all the time, but it is important to know that they what they portray on television is only (at least in "Family Guy") for entertainment; It isn't meant to be an "attack" as Palin claims. I'm Mexican and I watch "Family Guy" along with other TV shows from time to time, and there are a lot of "Mexican" jokes in these shows, yet I don't complain every time I see one. I think Sarah Palin is really forgetting that the media can and will be offensive. She needs to be able to deal with these sorts of "attacks", especially if she's planning on running for president in 2012.
This is only my opinion though, and I would be intersested in hearing whether or not you all agree. Do you think that Sarah Palin is just overreacting, or has "Family Guy", and the media in general, gone "too far", as Palin claims? Do keep in mind that this is by no means the most controversial thing that "Family Guy" has ever done; However, do you think that this show is offensive or simply a good laugh?

Oil Crisis

Virgin CEO Richard Branson talked about a chilling fact: a new report that was just published predicts that demand for oil will exceed supply in a short 5 years. Many reports have warned of peak oil and the lack of such in the face of increasing demand, but so far the world has failed to react appropriately to such predictions, and only continues to use petrolium more and more every year. When demand does in fact exceed supply, horrible social, economic and political consequences will occur, such as the rapid skyrocketing of oil prices, but most importantly, a number of countries, such as China and India will be paralyzed if they cannot obtain the oil they have come to rely on. Wars could easily break out, and in short, the world could easily be thrown into a state of crisis. In your opinion, is this report accurate or exagerrated? Do you think that the countries around the world are preparing correctly for the coming oil shortage? And lastly, what do you think will happen around the world if the oil shortage does come and we are not prepared?

War on Drugs

Mexican President Felipe Calderon is scheduled to make a high-profile visit to Juarez, the most dangerous city in Mexico and currently the battleground in the drug war in Mexico, next Thursday. Since President Calderon declared the war on drugs in 2006, over 16,000 Mexicans have been killed due to drug related incidents, and the number of deaths keep rising. Drug trafficking in Mexico had been escalating in the North of the country and becoming a real concern, but violence really erupted when President Calderon declared an open war with the drug trafickers. Now, Mexico is on a full-out campaign to elimintate the drug cartels from Mexico once and for all, but the battle is only getting bloodier everyday. Progress has been made, as many drug traffickers have been caught, but in your opinion, was it right for President Calderon to declare the war on drug cartels? These organizations were and still are a very real concern to Mexican national safety, and removing them was becoming more and more imperative, and in a government that had been corrupted for so long, President Calderon was the first person to address this issue and push towards new reform, but do you think that the bloodshed that is going on is necessary or at least justified in order to imporve the country and push it towards social and governmental reform?

Where is the "Common Sense"?

A 9 year old boy, Patrick Timoney, was almost suspended earlier this week for bringing a 2-inch lego toy gun to school. The boy was called into the principal's office for bringing in this "weapon" and was severly scolded, and if the principal had had her way, suspended. Timoney's mother was outraged about this and was "in disbelief" that the school had reacted in such a ridiculous manner. After a talk with the principal, all charges were dropped for the boy, but Timoney's mother said that she was outraged and was considering sueing. I wrote this blog to highlight how irrational and sometimes ridicuolous school policy can be, and wonder why people follow such procedures sometimes. I doubt the boy was going to shoot anyone with his lego "gun". I ask: Is it right to follow rules and regulations, even if they make absolutely no sense or are completely unecessary? Would it have been justified by the principal to punish the boy, as the rules stated she should, or should she have ignored this minor "infraction"? Why is it that sometimes people follow blindly, like in "The Crucible". Truly, "where is the common sense"?

Spending

I just read an article about the spending that goes on in our government, and the biggest "budgest buster" in the Pentagon is the development of the new F-35 fighter jet program. This plane, which is currently being produced by the Lockheed Martin, was supposed to be an "economic" substitute for the current fifth-generation fighter jet, the F-22 raptor (this is the most expensive plane in the world, costing approximately $350 dollars per plane), by only costing $122 million. The government plans to buy 750 of these planes. Also, the cost of running the program has increased, however, and only threatens to get higher (298 billion dollars). I just brought this up in order for us to see what the government is really spending its money on and ask why they are doing so.