PLN 5

The article “The Mechanical Battery” talks about a flywheel which is basically a cylinder on a spit. When a flywheel is spun, the gathered kinetic energy from the spinning will create energy that can be stored or used. The flywheel has been used in the past but hasn’t been used to its full potential. In Switzerland there was a bus with a flywheel engine which weighed around three tons. The bus could stop and the battery would take 30 seconds to 3 minutes to charge and could go about 3 to 6 miles at 30 to 40 miles per hour. But since the motor weighed so much and the friction of the motor was so great that the bus would have to stop regularly to keep moving. Today NASA is using the flywheel in space because there wouldn’t be any friction. While using two flywheels in an orbiting shuttle, we are able to steer the shuttle. If both are moving at the same speed then the shuttle will go straight but if one slows down and the other stays the same, then you can turn. The great thing about the flywheel is that it is 85%-95% more efficient then any other motor on the planet right now. If we figure out a way to use a flywheel in a car, then we could be very green very fast because the flywheel doesn’t have any emissions. The flywheel sounds like a great motor but I think that we should take the motor part off keep the arm and cook something on it.

PLN 4

On Dr. Warschauer's blog, he has the question posted: Lots of people think that computers are a waste of money, and that students should be learning important skills like writing and reading rather than wasting time on computers. Do you agree that computers in the classroom are a waste of time and money? Why or why not? In my opinion, computers are not a waste of time and money because they improve productivity. Prior to the mass use of personal computers there was the typewriter. Typewriters required you to completely retype your document after you had edited it and typed it for the first time. Computers enable us to type, edit, email and print documents without having to retype the document two or more times. This makes us more productive. If you are working on a project for school you can save the document on a thumb drive and take it with you anywhere to be used on any computer. You can also email the document to another person in your group and combine the documents. The productivity rate since computers were introduced has skyrocketed. We are now able to do research, copy and site our research in our papers without leaving the computer. Lastly, online shopping is available for everything that we can purchase in stores and have it shipped to us. Now there is no need to use your own gas when you can use someone else’s. Those are some of the reasons that I think computers are not a waste of time and money.

PLN 3

The article “Apple unveils iPad, bets on new device class” by Gabriel Madway and Alexei Oreskovic talks about the new unveiling of the Apple “iPad”. In an online survey before the meeting, 37 % of more than 1,000 people said that they would pay $500-$699 for the iPad. Nearly 30% said that they weren’t interested, and the other 20% said that they would pay $700-$899. This new device claims to be the new bridge between the smart phone and the laptop. What they are never really clear about in the article is if the iPad is also a phone, because if it is, then that would be a very large phone. The screen is over 9 inches which would require some very deep pockets in both meanings of the phrase. The iPad is almost the exact same as the iPhone, both can run movies, and music while playing games. The difference is the iPad comes loaded with Microsoft Office. It has a touch keypad which is separate from the actual iPad itself. It also comes with a SD card port and USB port. The iPad can display books like Amazon’s Kindle and with the iBook store; users will be able to find over 4,000 titles. The iPad price will be $499 with 16 gigabytes of storage and if you add an extra $130, you can add on the wireless internet package. Following the introduction of the iPad, Apple shares rose 5.5%. AT&T will be partnering with Apple again, which makes me think that the iPad is a phone, and if it is, hopefully it has speaker phone. It should have a speaker phone or Bluetooth on it because; I wouldn’t want to be holding a 9+ inch “phone” up to my ear. I think that the iPad has real potential but I will be in the group of the uninterested because I have an iTouch which is the same thing as the iPhone without the actual phone part. Not to be negative, but I don’t think this has been one of Apples best ideas.

PLN 2

The article “GOP Congressional Report Accuses ACORN of Political corruption, Widespread Fraud” by FoxNews.com talks about when ACORN was accused of corruption after it was found out that they had been receiving $53 billion since 1994 and have been marked as a tax-exempt business which means that when they receive money they don’t have to pay taxes on it because of religious of other reasons. But what ACORN did with that money is they lent it to Obama and his personal campaign while he was running for president. When you are marked as a tax exempt business you aren’t allowed by law to have a public political opinion about anything because you are for the people and by the people. So when they gave the money to the Obama campaign, they were breaking the law. I think that someone should have said something about that besides Fox News because this is a vital issue if one of our large aid type businesses goes political and promotes one party then it will only be covered by the other side. Also if only the people that watch Fox News are going to hear the truth and the people watching the other networks that are going to reinvent the truth to keep the people oblivious. Which goes with the quote “Ignorance is bliss” meaning that keeping the people dumb will keep them happy. Now by taking away the factor of the people that lent the money I probably would be typing this article on something else.

PLN 28

The article "Raiders of the Lost Lake" by Alan Bellows talks about a Russian drilling company in Antarctica that found, but did not disturb, an underwater lake the size of Lake Ontario in Michigan. The lake is underneath 2 miles of glaciers and hasn’t seen sunlight for about 500,000 years or more. If the drill were to breach the ice above the lake 60 gallons of kerosene would fall into the lake and contaminate it beyond repair. The kerosene was to keep the water from refreezing around the drill. The Russians were drilling there to take ice samples because they heard that Antarctica was once a very tropical are with palm trees and all that beachy stuff. Once Australia and South America moved away, they took the warm currents with them and deprived the beaches so that they eventually froze and formed the Antarctica that we know and love. When other scientist heard of the discovery of the underground lake they had a field day and made a pact with the Russians that no military force would be used to take control of Lake Vostok. Scientist had devised a plan to send a drill down that would make a whole that would refreeze after the drill was through. Once it reached the lake the drill would open and send out a camera that would take pictures of all of the creatures down there. Another reason that we don’t want the Russians to keep drilling is because once they reach the lake, all the pressure of the air and water will make an explosion that might send all the water from the lake and the kerosene out into the open air and expose all of the other lakes. This could be a massive learning experience for the science community but what they find may not be community appropriate, as in it might scare every one in the public. The things that could scare them would be the microorganisms in the water, though small could be dangerous or helpful to the community.

PLN 29

The article "A Large Hearted Gentlemen" by Jason Bellows talks about Jim Corbett and his uncanny knack to track large cats in the Indonesian jungle and not to kill them but to track and document them in their natural habitat. The only time Corbett would shoot an animal was when everyone was screaming about the man eating tigers and panthers. He would kill them and learn that they were hunting humans because they were either old or had injuries so they couldn’t hunt regular game. One of the man eaters that Corbett killed was a panther in the Indonesian jungle. He found one of the animals favorite trails and set a goat in the trail, hid in a mango tree and waited for the animal to come. On the 11th day that Corbett was in the tree the animal came, Corbett turned on his light and shot the animal. When he got out of the tree to examine the animal he saw that it had porcupine wounds in its leg that had been there for many years. As most little spikes like that dissolve, porcupine needles don’t, so when the needles go in they don’t come out without some one doing something about it. With the porcupine needles in the cat’s leg, the muscles started to rot and the bone was wearing thin, that’s why the cat hunted humans instead of regular game. I think the lesson from this story is that you shouldn’t make false presumptions when you don’t know the real answer or don’t judge a book by it’s cover.

PLN 27

The article "Gimli Glider" by Alan Bellows talks about how The Gimli Glider, which is a Boeing 747 jumbo jet, got its name. In one particular flight history was made. While the passengers were loading and before the plane took off, the ground crew told the pilots that the gas tank gauges weren’t working but, everything else was okay. The flight started at 5:48 eastern time in Montreal, Canada. They made a stop, to check the fuel, in Ottawa and then didn’t think that they would need to make another stop until they reached Winnipeg, Canada. When they were about 80 miles away from Winnipeg they heard loud noises coming from the left side of the plane, this followed a warning where all the lights to the fuel tank were flashing. At first they didn’t know what had happened but then they felt the plane pulled to the left and they determined that the left engine was out. They called Air Traffic Control Tower in Winnipeg, told them what had happened and were told that they could land at either Gimli or Winnipeg airport. They chose to land at Winnipeg because there was emergency equipment present. About 15 minutes later the pilots called Air Traffic Control back telling them they had now lost both engines, would land at Gimli because it was closer and asked them to send emergency personnel. Gimli airport was decommissioned and closed but not destroyed so there was still a runway but that was used for racing. At the time that the emergency occurred there was a race going on, where a lot of people were gathered. Since both plane engines out and the races activities were loud no one heard the plane trying to land. Luckily someone saw the plane and told everyone to get out of there. The pilots had released an emergency engine that used the wind to power itself and they were able to get the landing gear down except for the front landing gear which was just hanging down there. The plane was able to land safely and no one was killed or badly hurt. Due to the lack of front landing gear, the inflatable slides in the back of the plane were pretty steep so some people got bruised and cut a little bit. The emergency personnel were almost to the crash site when they ran out of gas “which almost ripped a whole in the space-irony continuum.” (Quoted from DamnInteresting.com) The plane was able to get back in the air a little later and the fuel tanks when searched were found bone dry. The same 747 still flies to this day in Canada. This would have been one flight I would not like to have taken again.

PLN 26

The article “Doctor Watson’s Phobia Factory” by Alan Bellows is about how some ethically challenged, over enthusiastic researchers who are willing to conduct research studies that can have life long effects on humans if they are the test subjects. One physiologist like the one described above, John B. Watson, who was experimenting with a baby, which is probably one the most unethical things of all. What he did was use a hammer to hit a metal rod while the baby was holding a furry little animal, and wondered if this would scare the baby enough so that it wouldn’t go near that kind of animal again. The doctor’s thoughts were correct in that when the rod was struck while the baby was holding the animal it would get as far away as possible and maybe start crying. They scientist would give the baby an animal without hitting the rod and the baby would still react the same way. Then they put a rabbit in the baby’s lap and let it sit there for a while and the baby got enough courage built up and started touching the rabbit. After a short time of the baby getting comfortable with rabbit the metal rod was struck and the baby turned away immediately and started crying. The scientist gave the baby one month “off”, they let him go home and not be around animals of hammers. Then brought him back to the lab were they tested the baby again but the month were the baby was gone did nothing for its fear. Soon after Watson finished the experiment and published his discoveries and he was ridiculed because of his unethical experiment and he was also asked to leave were he worked at Johns Hopkins because of his extra marital affairs. In the end Watson lost his job, wife and he couldn’t teach or experiment anymore. This man Watson must have been very curious in the psychological boundaries of science because he went to the extent to mentally upset a baby for the rest of his life. He also based his experiment off the experiment of Pavlov’s notorious dogs had been conditioned to salivate at the sound of a bell. The fear might have been reversible if he tried to do some thing but he didn’t have enough time because he needed to get his information published before anyone else. No one knows what happened to the baby and if the fear of animals followed him into adult hood or not because of the unethical experiment. Also, why would the mother or father of the baby let some one do something like this?

PLN 21

In the article "In Soviet Russia, Lake Contaminates You" talked about when the United States dropped the A-Bomb on Nagasaki and Hiroshima, Russia saw that and was amazed because of the destruction of the bomb. So the Russians decided to start trying to make an A-Bomb of their very own to “blow” anyone away in a war situation. When Russia started making their plutonium for the bomb they made a secret facility in the mountains and started dumping the toxic waste into a river than ran almost all the way through the continent. People closest to the river would look at the river and sometimes see a type of discoloration and kind of gloss that isn’t usually there. They were worried because that was the cities drinking water. Mind you the year was around 1945 and Russia wasn’t very up to date technologically wise so they didn’t have clean water. When the organization found out about the contaminated water they tried to clean it up a little bit but it continued. When the people started complaining to the government about how they were coughing up blood and other symptoms of radiation poisoning they organization started to do something about it. What they did was run the radioactive water through 80,000 gallon tanks to cool them off and settle the harmful chemicals in them. What happened was the chemicals would sink to the bottom and pack together and form a TNT like substance and then the less harmful water would pass through into a giant 10 foot deep by 20 acres across lake that wasn’t connected to anything else. After a little while the symptoms had started to die down a little and then when some new plutonium water hit the TNT like substance and exploded and spread about 5 miles. The government had to evacuate the cities close enough to the area that they saw the explosion and felt the acid rain. The group continued to use the containers for running the water through because they couldn’t think of anything else to clean the water with. Soon they figured out that the lake was leaking through the ground and leaking into the drinking water and getting more people sick. They had to close the plant after going public with it and cementing over the lake, which didn’t really do much because the cement just pushed the contaminated water back and down into the dirt. Now in the current day the Russian government had to put signs around a 10 mile radius that tells people to roll up there windows and don’t stop for anything. Also the government had to evacuate the area because of the contamination. That’s why when you do something you need to be prepared.

PLN 25

In the article "The Wrath of a Killdozer" by Jason Bellows talks about a man that had to shut down his muffler shop and everyone that he was trying to get him to back him up on his case didn't back him up. The people that were trying to get his property but he went to court about it. He wasn't going to win because his building wasn’t hooked up to the public sewer system so the county fined him $2500. While he was working with the county on this case he said he would fix the plumbing issue and everything would be all fine and dandy. He didn’t receive his way and thought that the people that were moving in, which had a cement business, were bribing the mayor and the public to side with them because if you weren’t Marvin Heemeyer best friend you were his worst enemy. So he obviously hated everyone that sided against him and made a list of who he was going to kill because he didn’t get his way. Before he had lost the property he bought a bull dozer to attach his facility to the sewer system but they said no. Before he had to give the property to the cement business he sold it to a trash business and had 6 months to leave. Before he left he still had the bull dozer and thought, why don’t I go on a crazy killing spree rampage before I leave! So he built a 30 ton shell for the bull dozer made of steel plates together and between them was concrete. He packed it full of food supplies and an air tank to help the ventilation and made gun ports in the side of the screaming metal deathtrap. Once he set the shell on top there was no turning back or getting out. He had destroyed a good part of the town when he was plowing through a building and hit a small basement and got stuck and after about 10 minutes of trying to get out he committed suicide. It took the police 12 hours to crack the shell and when they did they saw that he was dead and he, oddly enough, was the only casualty because the police used reverse 911 to call everyone to tell them to get out or they would die and so they did and Marvin Heemeyer was the only casualty of this whole ordeal, which took place in the state of Colorado in Granby. This guy was a total nut case and didn’t have any grounds to go on a psychopathic rampage in a screaming metal deathtrap. He got evicted, so what, he had at least 3 other muffler shops around town he could have gone to work at but instead he had to go on a rampage that cost about 7 million dollars. In the end, do you think this rampage was worth his life?