PLN 25

The article “Motorcycle Airbags” by Cynthia Wood talks about the day when Kenji Takeuchi viewed a motorcycle accident and thought how helpful it would be if motorcyclist had airbags with their bikes. His first idea was to add airbags to the chest on the jacket and on the upper back, but when he put his product on the market it was rejected by most companies because they weren’t convinced it wouldn’t save motorcyclists. Kenji Takeuchi then focused on how bikers usually fell off of motorcycles in crashes and made his system with pull cord attached to the bike’s frame so airbags would inflate if the motorcyclist is separated from the bike. This system sold very well internationally and Takeuchi flooded with calls from people who had been saved by this invention. To this day though, the biker airbag is not sold in the US because of complications to bring his invention in compliance with U.S. standards. If and when Takeuchi’s safety invention does come into compliance it will be a huge hit. This matters to me because if I ever get a motorcycle I would order an airbag jacket from Japan and know that it could save my life. This matters to the world because Takeuchi’s invention has saved many motorcyclists lives.

PLN 24

The article "The Falkirk Wheel" by Alan Bellows introduces the idea of using a pulley system instead of using locks to get a boat from one water height to another. This wheel uses gravity to lower boats from the bridge to the river below. There are two arms on the wheel which are both filled with water and can hold four, 20 yard long boats at a time. The two wheels are very energy efficient using mostly gravity and as a result they only use 1.5 kilowatts per hour. This matters to me because this is a great idea and will inspire future creativity. This matters to the world and education because it should inspire other countries to try to integrate this idea into other countries.

PLN 23

The article "Germany's Pleasure Dome" by Allan Bellows evaluates a dome in Germany that stands 350 feet tall, and encloses 194 million cubic feet of space. Inside this dome is an imitation beach environment with water, a large beach and palm trees. The air temperature is always between 77 and 82 degrees. The combination of heat and water, forms condensation on the inside of the roof and when there is enough condensation it actually rains creating quite an intricate atmosphere inside the dome. The windows allow UV light rays through, mixed with the water and oxygen, let plants grow. This matters to me because if I am ever in Germany and want to go to the beach, I can go to the dome because they let everybody in. This matters to education and the world because this German experiment has furthered our knowledge of growing plants indoors if something happens to our atmosphere that doesn't allow plants to grow.

PLN 22

The article “Flying Rams” by Greg Bjerg reviews the wartime invention of a specially armored plane designed to crash into and destroy enemy planes without damaging our planes. These planes were tested during WWII. The idea was that it was easier to fly into another plane and destroy it rather than use bullets and missiles. This tactic was also a lot “stealthier” because it could fly above the enemy plane and take it down before the enemy saw it. This invention failed because the pilot couldn’t eject if anything went wrong while flying. This matters to me because I would be interested in helping engineers perfect this design to help make our military better. This matters to the world and education because this experience can help us learn from our mistakes.

PLN 21

The article, “Dream Car: The Ariel Atom 2” by Alan Bellows reviews the performance of the Ariel Atom 2 car, which is like a supercharged go-cart. This little car has about 600 horse power per ton and weighs around .6 tons. The car manufacturer believes that, “if the car doesn’t need it, it hasn’t got it”, meaning that the car doesn’t have a windshield, doors, a roof, windows, but it does have seatbelts. This car can also go from 0 to 60 in 2.9 seconds, if you can shift fast enough. It is a British made car and straight out of the box it costs around $36,000 (£20,000). It is not street legal in the United States without the “road pack”, which adds tail lights, head lights, blinkers, windshield and wipers. This matters to me because when I’m older I would like to try to buy one of these cars. This matters to the world and education because we can learn how to better engineer cars to have better gas mileage and better all around physics.

PLN 19

The article “Free fall from near space” by Daniel Lew reviews the story of Joseph Kittinger and his amazing free falls from near space. He first started out in the aviation by joining the Air Force and became an experimental pilot. While with the Air Force he flew high altitude balloons as high as 102,000 feet, which is almost out of the atmosphere. While piloting these hot air balloons he would take measurements and when he finished he would have his co-pilot float the balloon back down to Earth while he jumped and parachuted to the ground. He would free fall for about 55,000 feet until he pulled his ripcord and landed. Joseph Kittinger broke many aerial records and free-fall records. He helped the United States discover many things about the atmosphere, while exploring ways people could live in space. As a test pilot, he flew at 632 mph to test the gravitational stress on the human body. This is important to me because Joseph Kittinger showed me that preconceived ideas of human limits are often wrong. This matters to education because it proves there are no limits to the capabilities of man. This matters to the world because Joseph Kittinger provided valuable insights as to the unlimited capabilities of mankind.

PLN 20

Don't, Don't, Don't vs. Do, Do, Do by Will Richardson describes how the author made a presentation at a school to help teachers with their teaching methods. When he read the packet the school provides their students, it described what students couldn’t do with the computers at the school. As he read it, he thought that if he were a student at the school he would “beg” not to use the computers, because you could barely do anything with them according to the packet. The author’s position is the student packet shouldn't talk about what you can't do, but what you can do on the computers. A positive message will inspire students to think of what they can do rather than what they can’t do. For example you can publish your work on websites and you can edit your papers to make them better and help students learn. The author pointed out to the school they should try to encourage rather then discourage. Some say “use the carrot not the stick”. Inspiring people by pointing out what is possible and emphasizing the positive side of things will produce better results, instead of having students think what they can’t do. Students will think of how much they can accomplish and how to improve their computer skills. This matters to education because it can teach us how to better educate students today. This matters to the world because all people need to learn to lead in a more positive way to produce better results. This matters to me because to become a successful leader I must learn to lead in a positive way.

PLN 18

The article “Barnstorming” Marisa Brooks is about WWII and how there were a huge number of planes left over. The government took these planes and sold them to the people for as little as $200 when it cost $5000 to make them. They sold the planes to anyone that they wanted because pilot’s license weren’t required back then for people to be able to fly a plane. This is when the flying circuses started. People could fly without being licensed began flying circus entertainment businesses. This matters to me because I learned that flying circuses were real and not some story out of a movie. This matters to the world because it shows the origins of the flying circus and why many people became interested in flying. This matters to education because we can learn how to be safer in flying because there were a few accidents here and there.

PLN 17

The article "The truth about truth serums" by Alan Bellows talks about what truth serums are made of and why they are and aren't reliable. Truth serums are only concentrated doses of alcohol, which makes you a little slower with worse judgment. They were used by the FBI, CIA, KGB and the DOD. They were used mostly during the cold war and people were tempted to bring them back after 9/11. In "truth" though, they don't work, because when you inject someone with truth serum they could say anything they want. This matters to me because now I know the "truth" about truth serum. This matters to education because now that we know that what we use now is relatively ineffective that we can refine it to make it better, and that is also why it matters to the world.

PLN 16

The article "The Relics of Mu" by Jason Bellows talks about what the ancient city of Atlantis is to the Chinese. It is Mu, and they think that the people that were the people of Mu could fly and drank a magic drink that stopped aging. A man by the name of Kihachiro Aratake was diving off of the coast of China and found underwater ruins that could have been related to Mu. There the divers found stairs and walls but no tools or doorways. This matters to the world because we could learn a lot from these people and how they lived. This matters to education because we could learn better schooling methods and improved architecture. This matters to me because it would be interesting to see where these buildings came from and why they are underwater today.