Call for Latin American Science News Service

Latin American science editor of the Chilean newspaper El  Mecurio Nicolas Luco claims to need a science news service to distribute information throught Latin America. Delegates also gave the thumbs up to this science crew because more priority should be received by to Latin American local language media. This meeting was a primary proposal at the Third meeting of Science Journalism. The meeting took place in Curacavi, Chile last week. Discussed at the meeting was the proposition of the creating of a fellowship system for journalists to exceed the communications of science and technology at the post graduate level. A suggestion made by an anonymous attendant at the meeting was to publicly  fund all research projects which should be required to conclude on a summary of results is easily  comprehendable. Claudio Wernili, execuitive director of the Millennium Scientific Initiative stated that he was pleased with the recent event. He he approved the suggested recommendations for establishing an improvement for science journalism in the region.

Math is...

To me math is a complicated subject. With all the adding and subtracting and dividing and multiplying you never know what's gonna come next. Although math is a challenging thing to accomplish it helps you in the long run. When you're out buying a car and need some money you get a loan. So you use the P.R.T method. The P.R.T method is then you get the price then you find the rate of intrest and then you find the time of how long you are going to pay each month. So as you can see math can help you in a variety of ways.

Harvesting Solar Power from Space

Soon we will have solar power conducted from space right to us. How cool will that be? But to build the satelitte that will give us the solar energy will cost about $4 billion dollars. Now I know that this will benifit mankind but isn't it a little ridiculous to pay that much money for 1 satelitte. Anyway it'll be up and running in 2030 and if that built solar powered cars we wouldn't need any gas! Then everybody would stop complaining and saying stuff like: " Why do we have to pay so much for some gas that will be gone in about a week or 2."

'Fusion Man' Soars Above Swiss Alps

Recently in Bex, Switzerland a man by the name of Yves Rossy somehow discovered out the way to fly without using planes. He used some type of fuel to propel the wings and soar over the Alps.

Yves is also now the first man to fly with jet powered wings. If that's not an amazing accomplishment I don't know what is. I hope he sells them so people can buy them and then they are used as a means of transportation, not for fighting the war in Iraq. At least I hope so. Anyway he can fly at speeds of 186 mph and maybe even faster if he improves on this awesome piece of technology. He also just needs his body to move around in the air so I'm assuming that the wings are lightweight. I never thought this kind of accomplishment would be possible and I bet that Yves is now one rich man.

Extra Credit Wheather Poem: Plaint of a Southern Storm

Oh, big brother "Low" in the wild wooly West,
How goes it with you? I am doing my best
To serve jealous Zeus with ginger and zest. 

But sad is our lot, now that the wireless is here;
They're "on to our curves," be it stormy or clear,
Oh, Jupiter Pluvius, shed a large tear! 

In the good days of old when the world was all free,
We dash's thousands of innocents into the sea;
But now with the wireless such things can not be. 

I passed the Bahamas; the Gulf Stream I crossed,
You come from Saskatchewan, whitened with frost,
We joined hands together - e'en so we are lost. 

For what can we do when man's voice is so strong,
And his eyes see so far, and his ears are so long?
We clumsy old storms can but blunder along.

We twist or we turn, we diminish or grow,
We back or go forward, we rain or we blow;
But they know what we're up to each time, even so.

For the Captain he goes to the speaking tube near,
And whistles for "Wireless" to lend him his ear;
"Say, boy, watch that tropical storm, will you? Hear?"

"Ay, ay, sir,"says Bill and five minutes to ten
He tunes up for Arlington, listens - and then
He writes it down thus in his tight little den -

"Advisory storm warning issued to-night,
With signals from Tampa to Nantucket Light,
Disturbance increasing - storm not at its height;

"Moving swiftly from Florida north by northeast,
Is a dangerous storm and the winds have increast,
And shipping is warned to be cautious at least."

So Billy reported it all to the "cap;"
"Oh, ho," says the Captain, I don't give a rap
For a storm I can watch clear across the whole map!

"I'm going to bunk now," says Captain to Mate,
"Just steer a bit west, and run a bit late;
We can make for Bar Harbor, and there we can wait."

And the tale of this ship's not unique - "believe me,"
It happens aboard scores of ships on the sea
That are fitted with wireless - to foil you and me.

And so it goes on, every night, every day;
The vessels just scamper clear out of our way -
Can't even get near them - it's useless, I say.

For what can we do when man's voice is so strong,
And his eyes see so far, and his ears are so long?
Alas! We poor storms can but blunder along.

We twist or we turn, we diminish or grow,
We back or go forward, we rain or we blow;
But they know what we're up to each time, even so.

John C. Trautwine is the author of this poem(Plaint of a Southern Storm) and is using the technique of personification to give the storm clouds life. It also has something to to with the "Wireless" telling the direction of the storm clouds, and when it is coming. In the beginning of the poem it also might have something to do with the types of winds we are learning about in class. Now as for the "Wireless" part it either means the T.V. or the radio. My guess is the television hence the lines:

"For the Captain he goes to the speaking tube near,

And whistles for "Wireless" to lend him his ear;

"Say, boy, watch that tropical storm, will you? Hear?"

"Ay, ay, sir,"says Bill and five minutes to ten

He tunes up for Arlington, listens - and then
He writes it down thus in his tight little den -

"Advisory storm warning issued to-night,
With signals from Tampa to Nantucket Light,
Disturbance increasing - storm not at its height;

"Moving swiftly from Florida north by northeast,
Is a dangerous storm and the winds have increast,
And shipping is warned to be cautious at least." Although the poem also said something about winds blowing from Northeast i can assume the the winds they could be talking about are prevailing westerlies which are located at 40 degrees - 60 degrees which also have very strong winds.

Technology

I think that electronics have had the greatest impact on society. For example now we have things like high-definition televisions and computer monitors, software and video games that are able to be played smoothly and be viewed in 1080i or 1080p. Without these things we would not be able to go further into that and make graphics on T.V. and videogames, computer software and monitors more advanced than they already are. Then now that things are so much more advanced people will want to buy them then more money can go into researching . That's why i think electronics have advanced the most and made the biggest impact on society.

3 CEOs Made $460 Million - House Panel (EC Math blog #3)

Three chief executives with ties to the mortgage crisis were paid $460 million over the course of five years according to a congressiona repord given Thursday. The next day The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is set to examine CEO pay in light of huge decreases in the financial sector stemming form the mortgage crisis. The panel chaired by Rep. Henry Waxman will hear testimony from Charles Prince a former CEO of Citigroup Inc., Stanley O'Neal another former CEO of Merrill Lynch and Co. and Angelo Mozilo Chief executive of Counrtywide Financial Corp. the nation's biggest mortgage lender. The committee recently questioned each company about executive pay. Committee staffers checked company email, board minutes anf federal regulatory fillings according to a 23 paged memo made public Thursday. The memo states that all three companies combined lost a total of more than $20 billion dollars in the last quarters of last year (2007).

Oil Settles Above $105 on Weak Dollar (EC Math blog #2)

Oil futures have risen to another record close on Thursday.
The national average price for gas rose 0.7 cents over night to 3.185 according to the AAA and the Oil Price information service. Gas prices are expected to rise above last May's record of 3.277 a gallon. April gas futures inched up by 0.1 cent to settle at 9.742 per 1,000 cubic feet. Diesel prices jumped to 1.4 cents overnight to a new record national average of 3.71 a gallon

Home Equity Slips below 50% (EC Math blog #1)

For the first time on record since 1945 Americans' percentage of their equity in their homes has dropped below 50%. The percentage of home equity percentage was 49.6% in the second quarter of 2007. In the fourth quarter it fell to 47.9%. Even though house prices jumped earlier this decade because of a surge in cash-out refinances, home equity loans and lines of credit and an increase in 100% or more home financing home equity has steadily decreased. Economists assume that home equity will drop even further as declining home prices eat into the value of most Americans' single largest asset.

Ancient Frog Big as Bowling Ball

Washington- February 18, 2008

A frog fossil the size of a bowling ball was discovered to have lived among the dinosaurs. Beelzebuffo or the devil toad was the name given to this ancient amphibian. The frog weighs 10 lbs. and 16 oz.. The bones were discovered in Madagascar. The devil frog is a close relative to the normal frogs who reside in South America. Dr. Krause began finding fragments of bones off the coast of africa in 1933. They dated back approxamitely 70 million years ago during the Cretaceous period. The Goliath frog of West Africa is only 7 lbs. As a result Dr. Krause assumed that Beelzebuffos are not related to African frogs. Al though it is (Beelzrbuzzo) related to the South American horned frogs known as Ceratohprys.

Article found at: http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/science/02/18/frog.fossil.ap/index.html

E.C Website Post

Sponsor: The KGM Group

URL: www.sciencemaster.com

Summary: This site is about the physicial, technology, earth, space sciences

Positive aspects: The site features many fun facts about science

Negative aspects: This site might only be used when in the 6th grade or lower

Reccomendation?: No

"Green Funerals" feature biodegradeable coffins

PORTLAND, Oregon

Cynthia Beal is seeking to be an Oregon cherry tree after she dies. Beal has everything she
needs to make it happen - a body, a burial site and a boidegradeable coffin. Beal the owner of The Natural Burial Co says "It is composting at its best.". The N.B.C sells a variety of eco friendly burial products when it opens later on in january. One of the products is a ecopod: a kayak-shaped coffin made out of news paper.

Biodegradeable coffins require no formaldehyde embalming, cement vaults, chemical lawn treatments or laminated caskets. The coffins are apart of a larger trend toward "natural" burials.

"Green" cemetaries have been hosted in California, Texas, South Carolina and New York. Eco friendly burials have become very popular in Britain for quite a long time.

Some funerals feature caskets with custom paint jobs and urns with the logo of a favorite team. This market is potentially huge and generate an estimated $11 billion in revenue.

The Green Burial Council is working on certification programs to verify the commitment and quality of providers who claim they are going natural.