gObama

After an exhaustingly long campaign Barack Obama has become the first major black presidential nominee. Now that Clinton has been subdued, Obama wil have to take on John McCain, who is almost 30 years older than Obama.

Change, lets hope it comes.

Personally, I hope that Mr. Barack will come out on top. He will be the first president I vote for.

Breadsticks and Cheesecake

I can not wait until I graduate and head off to college. After going to all of the graduation parties and wishing my senior friends goodbye, I am ready for high school to be over. And yet I have another year. The next year will be fun, senior year always is, but it will be nice to move on to college and prepare for the rest of my life.

I am excited for senior year. It gives me a chance to run state in both crosscountry and track and improve my times, a chance to make more friends, and most importantly, decide where I am going to college and what I am going to devote the rest of my life to. I am one of those kind of guys that dreams of having a big family in a big house with a big yard. I want to get married, have a bunch of kids and get good job. The first step in that dream is to get my education for that high-paying job is choosing the right college. The aspect of finishing my education and also the social aspects of college have me very excited.

Meanwhile, its so sad that all my senior buddies are leaving, I have known alot of those people for a long time and I know that for some of them it may be the last time I see them. I am not going to get overly sentimental, so I will just say that I am going to miss them.

I went to the graduation parties this weekend and thoroughly enjoyed them. The Raspberry-Lemonade Cake at Kyle Schura's party earns the award for best desert while Aaron Elias's party potatoes topped off the overall list. I have had more crap food in the last few days than ever. I tried to even it out between chocolate and white cake, but chocoalte got a little sickening after a while. Patrick Cahalan's pancakes were probably the worst food, but he did have good brownies. I ate a lot of olives and strawberries. And Brueger's bagels, those were at Emily Ehlen's, one of my friends from Linn-Mar. In another year when I graduate, I have decided that I am going to have Olive Garden breadsticks, bagels, cheesecake and strawberries, for starters.

Anyways, I have a year before I need to worry about grad parties and leaving for college.

Solar Blimps

In recent weeks we have seen many natural disasters. From the storms that killed eight last night in Iowa to the Myanmar Hurricane and the China earthquake and aftershocks, we seen a lot. One of the main problems is not being prepared for the disaster, it is responding to the disaster. In China and Myanmar, and even to a greater extent the Tsunami a few years, thousands of aid workers have poured into the these regions. In Myanmar it took a while because of diplomacy and the military government. Often the entire infrastructure has been wiped out and it is very hard to set up refugee camps and coordinate efforts to rebuild.

And this is where Andrew Leinonen comes in. He has conceived a novel idea--a floating power plant. A blimp, covered with solar panels, could be flown to a disaster site, even unmanned if need be. This small airship would provide power to aid rescue workers in regions where there is no available power. This blimp could generate enough electricity for 125 shallow-water pumps, which would generate enough drinking water for 12,000 people everyday.

This airship, while not yet built is an innovative idea that could help care for thousands of refugees after a horrible disaster. With every-increasing numbers of people and seemingly more frequent natural disasters, devices like these will be needed. Nice job Mr. Leinonen, I wish I would have thought of blimps.

Information Age

Our society runs on information. A century ago, information was slow to diffuse and often the morning newspaper and word of mouth were the main media. These days, CNN can have us notified of any major event in real time, whether its a school shooting, new election results or natural disasters.

Freedom of speech in this country and others has caused an explosion in the volume of information. In a democracy, anyone can state their ideas, even if no one actualy wants to hear them (shut up Rush Limbaugh). This blog is a testament to that. While the government may be reading my blog, they cannot prevent me from writing whatever I want (legally, at least).

This blog is just one medium of many media. Now we can communicate with all of the tele's -- telegrams, telephones, television, telepathy (that would be sweet), and telescopes (with the aliens). Other information sharing media include newspapers, the all-powerful Internet, radio, cable TV, and (omg) books. Books, you say, what are those? Yes, they still make Those. Printed materials, even though they are so low tech, still make up the majority of information.

As soon as I hit Publish Post this blog will more information to the endless realm of the Internet. It will be read by less than five people, but it will be there for anyone.

Black Gold

Its Just Our Luck. Right when our age group is beginning to drive, gas prices decide to shoot up astronomically. If I had to pay for my own gas right now, I don't know how I would do it. With prices approaching four dollars a gallon, its not going to get any better. Alaska is the most expensive place to buy gas at $4.18 a gallon (isn't that were most of our non-imported gas comes from?) and Arizona is the cheapest at $3.71 a gallon. I heard that the company that makes the numbers for gas stations signs has received many new orders. Gas stations are running out of threes and fours and there are even some orders for fives. Scary.

If someone would have said that we would have four dollar gas about 10 years ago, no one would have believed you. If they would have shot up to that immediately, there most likely would have been a revolt. There was the oil embargo in the 70s that highlighted our countries need for oil, and we simply cannot live without it and are forced to pay whatever the price.

Gas prices have continually increased over the past few years, and all of a sudden I have found myself saying "When did gas get so high? Seems like it was just at $2.80" The increase is so gradual that it makes it easier on our minds but tougher on our bank accounts.

It might even be tolerable if gas prices didn't cause everything else to rise in price. Food, airline tickets, and basically every industry is affected by the high prices of gas and they pass that expense on to the consumer. I don't buy a whole lot of things myself, but soon I will head off to college and have to survive on my own income. And college kids are usually broke.

So who to blame. So many say 'blame Bush, he caused all of this!' but I think the picture is more complicated. Reserves are being drained faster and faster, chaos in Iraq and other Middle East countries has caused hostilites and oil shortages, and Chinese people are switching from bikes to cars and there are alot of Chinese people. One thing that we cannot deny is that the oil companies are raking in record profits. Exxon Mobil set the record for quaterly earnings this winter by making a profit of $11 billion. That is the highest profit for a US company ever. Exxon made $40 Billion in profit in 2007. But again that is only a part of the problem. Exxons revenue was about ten times the profit, which means that only ten percent of the price of gas goes to the gas companies. So instead of four dollars a gallon it would be $3.60.

And Its Only Going To Get Worse

Japanesian Singing Parrot

It's just one of those days. Randomly searching on the Internet, hoping for something to catch my eye and provide me with something interesting to blog about. Nothing overly interesting on the main pages, just something on Kobe Bryant and a new death toll for the China quake (btw, its up to 51,000 dead with another 30,000 missing). After being distracted by several people in the IMC, I made my way to the Most Popular section of news. That always works.

Mr. Yosuke Nakamura is not you average Japanese guy. Even though his name sounds like something you would eat at the Sushi House, Yosuke loves to share his name.

So one day Yosuke decided to escape from his cage, for little Yosuke is a bird--a parrot to be exact. After cruising the neighborhood for a while, the gray parrot ran into a problem. He was lost, and Tokyo is not a friendly city for parrots.

Fortunately, Yosuke found a police station and soon some Japanesian police people caught him. I guess Yosuke wanted a lawyer or something because he wouldn't talk to the police. I can just imagine them interrogating the parrot, attempting to force him to talk with people watching from behind a two-way mirror.

After these attempting failed, those Japanese people turned the bird over to some different Japanese People, namely a veterinarian. Yosuke immediately opened up to veterinarian.

"I am Mr. Yosuke Nakamura" said the parrot (But in Japanese)

"Oh my" says the vet (also in Japanese)

"I am Mr. Yosuke Nakamura" said the parrot

The parrot then proceeded to rattle off some vocabulary far beyond that of your average talking bird. Instead of the traditional "Yes" or "Give Me a Cracker", Yosuke decided to impress that vet and began to recite his name, his home address, down to the street number, and his social security number (okay maybe not the last part). While someone was checking the address, the parrot began to entertain the staff by singing several Japanese songs. It would be pretty sweet to have a Japanese singing parrot.

Anyways, they found the Nakamura family and Yosuke was returned to his house after the greatest adventure of his parrot life.

Man of Iron

Well, you know, I was just working out in the gym. Did about 500 reps at 200 pounds. Not bad for one days work. You should have been there.

That's what Rex Jameson was probably telling his friends. Except its not quite as good as it sounds, this robotics engineer did it with a sweet suit.

While I haven't seen the Ironman movie yet, I have seen the trailer and it looks decent. The concept is just cool to think about. Ya know, everyone would like to fly around in a powerful suit of armor that shoots things that blow up tanks. Anyways, if you are totally ignorant and do not know of the Ironman thing, let me elaborate and cure your ignorance.

So there is this guy, Tony Stark. Super rich, super smart guy that develops weapons for the military. Basically he gets caught by a terrorist organization and is held hostage until he builds a superweapon. Instead of some atomic bomb, he makes an iron suit (get it, Ironman?!) and kills some terrorists. Once he is back in his billion dollar home he makes a new suit and flies around shooting things. Yeah, you can tell I haven't actually seen the movie.

Well, back to Mr. Rex. This enterprising engineer made a similar suit under contract from the US Military. While I don't know the specifics, the suit basically detects your every movement and amplifies it almost immediately. So now instead of being the gym class looser who can't bench the bar, you can be like Hercules and throw giant things around at the hundred-headed Hydra (that is like the sweetest animated movie ever, next to Lion King).

The suit is about 150 pounds and the military hopes to use it to make a new super soldier. The main problem with it at this point is the battery life. You can't go fighting enemies with only thirty minutes of battery life. And it looks nowhere as cool as Ironman's suit.

Number 4

And He's back.

Good old Harrison Ford is going to be Indiana Jones one more time, although a little older this time. I think Ford is like 65, which is pretty old to go swinging from whips and jumping off cliffs, or whatever he will do in this next movie, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

Indiana Jones is definitely one of the classics, up there with Rambo and James Bond. My favorite movie has been the Last Crusade, the most recent installment before the new movie. Sean Connery played Indiana's father in Last Crusade, and he is another of my favorite actors. I have probably seen Last Crusade about ten times and it never gets old. Indiana is just the king of adventure. Which is why I am planning on seeing the new movie as soon as it comes out. I am trying to ignore all of the people saying that it will disappoint, won't measure up to the other three, and has way too much hype. Even if its not as good as the other three, it will still be better than 90% of other movies. I mean, just look at the picture, its classic Indiana Jones. I want to get a giant poster to put in my room, so I can worship Indiana every night before I go to bed (okay, maybe not, but I still want a poster).

This fourth Indiana Jones is going to be the first in a long line of good movies this summer, such as the new Narnia, The Dark Knight, Wanted and some others that I cannot think of.

Off on a tangent, they made a new Rambo movie, havn't seen it yet but its the same kind of thing. Some old guy coming back to act young and play hiss macho character again. While Harrison Ford probably just used some make-up and digital effects to look good, Sylvester Stallone decided to juice up as Rambo. To get those awesome mus-cles back from twenty years ago, this seventy year old actor took steroids like crazy so he could look cool while killing Asians. You gotta love his voice though.

Anyways, There's still a minor wait until The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, during which I will attempt to finish all these blogs and other school work.

9.3 is not Good

The strangest things happen in Iowa sometimes. Just a few weeks ago we had an earthquake. What? An earthquake in Iowa? I thought all we had to worry about was tornados and rabid animals. 

While our earthquake wasn't exactly San Francisco in 1906, when the whole city either collapsed or went up in flames, it was still a 5-ish on the Richter Scale. The scale is in orders of magnitude, so a 6 is ten times bigger than a 5 and a 100 times bigger than a four. Remember that quake the day after Christmas in 2004? Maybe not, you say, but that quake was the one that triggered the infamous Tsunami in Southeast Asia, killing over 200,000 people. That quake was 9.3, 10,000 times stronger than our little Iowa version and the second largest ever recorded.

I remember hearing about the Tsunami when we were vacationing in Hawaii over Christmas break. I was in the hotel room watching the TV for about an hour. I was just glad that the Tsunami didn't come and wipe away our hotel, since we were right on the beach and there was nothing between there and Indonesia to stop a massive wave. Luckily, I survived the day, and went on to enjoy my day, eventually reverting my mind to more pressing matters, such as helping my dad navigate as he drove, attempting to avoid crazy Hawaiian natives and clueless tourists.

Anyways, yet another quake has struck our small little world, killing some more Asians. Today, a 7.9 magnitude earthquake rocked (no pun intended) Central China, where only like 5 billion people live. Luckily, only 10,000 have died (thats the current death toll and it will rise). Many of the buildings in the province collapsed, including a three-story school, trapping 900 children. If that happened in my school I would freak out, and Kennedy is only one story (well I guess two in places). If you have ever seen the movie World Trade Center with Nicholas Cage, you can truly appreciate what it would feel like to be trapped in a collapsed building with little hope of rescue.

Also besides the thousands of people dead, one of the giant pandas might be injured. O my God, not the panda.

Birthdays, Death and Jewish Paratroopers

On May 8th, Israel celebrated its 60th birthday with the traditional picnics and chants of "Death to Arabs."

In 1948, the United Nations voted to create the new nation of Israel. After several million Jews were killed in the Holocaust, everyone felt sorry for them so they got a new country, displacing the Palestinians. Several wars followed between the surrounding Arab nations and Israel, including the Six Days War and many other conflicts.

Nowadays, the region is still in turmoil, and the Arabs still want to rid the Middle East of those Jews. The conflict is in no way one-sided. The Jews hate the Arabs just as much and on the independence day, violence erupted because the Jews were shouting 'Death to Arabs'. The Israeli Arabs didn't like that saying very much and responded with chants of 'Palestine'. The march soon degenerated into the violence that everyone has come to associate with the Middle East.

Also marring the festivities of Israel's 60th birthday was a wayward paratrooper. The Israeli Army Paratrooper was supposed to land on a beach as part of the festivities, but he didn't end up on the beach. This 'professional' soldier somehow managed to land in a crowd of bystanders, injuring himself and knocking the people over like bowling pins. Several of the people were seriously injured. I hope that paratrooper doesn't get a Purple Heart. I wouldn't want a man falling from the sky on top of me. That doesn't sound like the best way to spend a holiday.

Don't Be Jealous Bill

These days, everyone loves an expensive house. Many families buy houses that they can never afford and languish in mortgages for the rest of their lives. Mukesh Ambani decided to have his dream home built, but he didn't have to go into debt to buy it, even though it cost almost $2 billion.

Mr. Ambani is the world's fifth richest man and the owner of Reliance Industries, which makes petrochemicals (don't ask me what those are), started by his father. Ambani is worth around $43 billion, so this custom house was just pocket change.

This house is not yet complete, but it will be 27 stories when finished, with each floor being vastly different. The designers and engineers were ordered to make every floor out of different materials and have a different theme, It sounds like a nightmare to me, changing everything all the time. That's part of the reason its so expensive.

The first six stories are parking garages (how many cars do they have?), and then a lounge with a ballroom and seven elevators. Farther up is an outdoor garden that takes up almost the whole floor (the W shape in the picture). I am not going to go through all the features, but just imagine what you could get for 2 billion dollars.

This downtown Mumbai skyscraper is the world's first billion dollar home. Bill Gates' home only cost $60 million, but then again he doesn't have a six-floor garage. I guess Bill just doesn't have the taste that Mukesh does.

RIP Giant Pig

Apparently, pigs can actually fly.

At least Pink Floyd's giant pig can.

The giant two-story pig has been a signature Pink Floyd stage prop for almost thirty years, but I am afraid its glory days are over. This monstrous inflatable pig was tethered at a music festival in Southern California, until they got a little bit of wind. Obviously, whoever tied down that pig wasn't a boy scout because the pig easily broke free and sailed off into the night, with thousands of people watching in amazement at the flying pig.

I could just see this giant pig floating higher and higher and eventually taking out a commercial jetliner. "Hey mommy look at the giant pig" a four year old says as he gazes out the plane window. Unfortunately, for the pigs sake, he did not float higher and higher or visit some exotic island. This huge pig crash landed in the desert.

So your outside and playing with a rattlesnake (or whatever they do for fun in the desert) and suddenly a shadow comes over your head. You have no clue what it could be as if falls further towards you. Just before it hits the ground, the pig impales itself on one of those really big cactus.

Well, anyway, there was a pretty hefty reward for this oversized pork chop. The owner offered $10,000 to whoever found his favorite inflatable pig, and those desert dwellers got lucky. Two couples found shredded remains from that unfortunate swine in their driveways. At first, they had no idea what it was. I mean, how often does a giant inflatable pig crash land in your yard?

17 Minutes

Everybody loves Oprah. Everybody loves David Blaine. So what can be better than both of them at the same time? Add a giant glass bubble and a new world record and you have some quality television.

Let me just say that David Blaine is one crazy guy. You may remember about two years ago when he attempted to break two world records. He wanted to hold his breath for a record nine minutes (three times longer then I can do), so he spent a week in a glass sphere to get acclimatized to the pressure.

I don't know about you, but spending a week underwater doesn't sound like the best way to spend my time. Five hours in the pool during swim practice made me shrivel all up, and a week is like 150 hours. What would you even do? I mean, yeah there are a lot of people looking up at you in your little bubble, but what is there for entertainment in a glass bubble?

Anyways, Blaine was in the sweet little sphere for a week, setting the record for time underwater. Since he was used to the water pressure, he then attempted his world record try. But this was not the day of David Blaine. Two minutes short of the record he passed out and went into convulsions. Although I have never experienced convulsions, I don't think they would be very enjoyable. I bet David Blaine agrees.

And now Oprah. Blaine decided to try for a different record this time, this time with oxygen hyperventilation beforehand. Being the extremly popular guy he is, Blaine set up his little glass bubble up with Oprah and tried for this record. After breathing pure oxygen for 20 minutes, Blaine proceeded to impress Oprah by holding his breath for a new record of 17 minutes 2 seconds.

Dang

You da man, David Blaine

Seven Rounds of Big People

Unfortunately, the Pro Football season is over. So is the college basketball season, and from now until about August, we are doomed to watch golf and baseball, two of the most boring sports ever. this lack of sportage in any way gives rise to the hype surrounding the seemingly boring NFL Draft.

The draft was this Saturday and Sunday, with seven rounds total, and while I have not gotten desperate enough to actually sit around for hours and watch it, I do keep track of my teams picks, to see if next season will be any better.

Personally, I am a big fan of the Denver Broncos at Mile High. They finished with their first loosing record in almost a decade, so they obviously need some work. With the twelve pick in the first round they were able to snag Offensive Tackle Ryan Clady, a decent pick that strengthens the horrible offensive line. The Broncos picked a return man in the second round, another area where the Broncos haven't achieved much lately. The Broncos had six picks after that with some no-namers.

While it is exciting to see what direction your team is going, the draft is extremely boring. In the first round, there is only one pick every ten minutes, so that round alone last around three hours. The later rounds lack the big names and are generally not very interesting.

I think that being a player in the draft would be agonizing. Waiting until you are called by one of the coaches would be slow and frustrating. Every year you hear of the frustration of a few of the top players that slip way down in the draft.

Now that the draft is over, there shall be no more football until August. It will be painful, but i think I can make it.

To Infinity and Beyond

Hopes of finding ballooning Brazilian priest fade, the title said.

And since when are Brazilians ballooning, and what does that even mean?

I was innocently surfing the web when this abstract title popped up, right next to a Jello-Covered Florida Highway, Wetsuits for Penguins, Spider-infested Australian Hospitals and Penis Theft Panic in the Congo. (Feel free to click and enjoy.) Even with all of these wonderful choices of things to read, I first choice to educate myself about flying Brazilian Priests.

Apparently, Father Adelir Antonio de Carli needed to raise some money for a highway chapel to service truckers. Bypassing the traditional bake sale and car wash, this old priest took fund raising to a higher level, or should I say altitude. After filling thousands of helium balloons, this guy decided to fly about twenty miles to another town in his parish. Too bad the winds were going the other direction. The picture to your right was the last anyone ever saw of Father de Carli.

Throwing caution to the winds (America Loves Puns), this old Catholic guy set off, and was promptly swept out to sea. Soon the Brazilian Air Force, their Coast Guard were searching and the parishioners were praying. Today the search was called off, leading to the forlorn title that attracted me to this odd story.

Alas, the courageous and reckless priest is assumed dead, and all that they have found has been countless fragments of balloons, floating in the Brazilian surf. We will never forget this Ballooning Brazilian.

How 'bout it Howie?

You've picked your case from one of those beautiful models, say number 14, thats a good number. After your first few choices (they weren't bad, the $1, $500, $750,000, $10, and $25 were eliminated) Howie stops you and gets on the phone with the scary secluded banker.

"The offer is fairly high," Howie says, trying to give the show the false sense of suspense that makes it so painfully annoying.

"How bout three trillion dollars. Deal or No Deal?"

Deal

Hell Yes, Howie. Deal. Deal. Deal!

I would push that button so fast, if it meant that I would about a hundred times richer than Bill Gates (who isn't the richest person anymore)

Unfortunately. this is quite an unreal situation formulated by that President of Ours, G-dub.

Junior decided to visit that show that everyone seems to hate, but everyone still watches. Its more addicting than Wheel of Fortune, but not quite up to Trebek and his still-popular Jeopardy.

Anyways, Bush visited Howie's show this week, to seek some help for the upcoming hearings in Congress on the budget. The budget is quite high this year.

George to Howie:

"How would you like to host a three trillion dollar deal or No deal?"

How bout it Howie?

Besides seeking out Howie's advice, the Prez was there to wish luck to an Iraq war veteran, who unfortunately didn't get 3 trillion or a million, but he did get $26000 from the banker. Not bad for about 20 minutes on primetime.

Unfortunately, Howie can't solve all our problems.

Yet Another Super Tuesday?

First was that Tuesday all the way back in February. You remember the one. 22 states and American Samoa (???) voted on who they wanted to be the nominee for President. This was the day that all those CNN commentators said that one candidate would distance themselves from the other. Yeah, that didn't happen.

Next the race between Obama and Clinton shifted to Texas and Ohio. That race was about two months ago, and still we go on. Clinton won those states which didn't help her much in the delegate count, but it did make her happy.

And now the finale, possibly. Today is Pennsylvania, tomorrow the world. Except its not that easy. If Clinton wins, then she can go on for a while longer and drag this thing out more. Clinton is expected to win, so unless all of the old ladies can't get out of the house to vote because of the weather, Obama will have to continue the fight. It is almost impossible for Clinton to catch Obama in the delegate count, but a strong showing will prove that she can win big states. But she needs to win by ten or more percent. Since the expected margin of victory is Clinton over Obama by five points, Pennsylvania will not really mean anything. Its just another virtual stalemate.

And in June we will finally know who will be our democratic nominee for President in 2008. Lucky John McCain, that old guy already knows he has the hard part over with.

Hungry?

Haiti has long been the poorest country in the Western hemisphere, but recently things have gotten significantly worse. The price of rice has risen 40% in recent months and the poor no longer have anything to eat. Many Haitians have resorted to eating dirt cookies made with Crisco, dirt and water. International efforts have attempted to solve this problem. Yesterday Brazilian soldiers handed out food in slums in Haiti. While this may look good in the news, handing out a day's worth of food to a few hundred Haitians out of millions starving will serve no practical purpose.

With the rising food and oil prices across the world, authorities fear that third world countries will fall into chaos when the masses are unable to procure any food. Egypt is in the same boat. Starvation is threatening to unseat the governments.

Haiti has long been a place of chaos, poverty and political turmoil. The revolution of the 1790s by slave uprising completely destroyed the economy and infrastructure, and ever since Haiti hasn't been able to catch up. There was a military coup in the 90s, unseating President Jean-Bertrand Aristide until the US restored him to power a year later. Aristide was forced to flee in 2004 during another bloody military coup. Since then his friend Rene Preval has assumed the presidency. With the food crisis, the masses are calling for Aristide again, who is now living peacefully in South Africa.

While Africa and all of its woes are an ocean away, Haiti is close to America and therefore harder to ignore. In our school, we have helped with the ONE Campaign to reduce poverty and packaged foods for Kids Against Hunger. But to make a real dent in poverty and hunger, we need to help stabilize countries such as Haiti. Giving them food supplies will serve as a temporary measure, but we need to focus more on the long-term, which will require a more robust economy for Haiti.

^^Zim~`Bab~We;-`-!:Mu~Ga~Be?!?

Robert Mugabe has been around for awhile. While his 28 years in power are only half as long as Fidel Castro, Mugabe is in Africa, where it is a lot harder to stay in power for long. It seems like military coups and revolutions are a common-place in war-torn Sub-Saharan Africa. Unfortunately for old Mugabe, his days as leader of Zimbabwe may be over, but don't count him out yet.

Two weeks after the election, the results have been released and Mugabe is shown to have slightly fewer votes than the opposition Movement to Democratic Change (MDC.) As every president has done when he was shown to be losing, Mugabe cried 'foul' and wants a recount. Even before the results were released, Mugabe was suspected of tampering with the votes, and an election official mystriously disappeared and was later found dead.

Mugabe has dispatched troops to various parts of the country and shows no signs of relinquishing control of the pathetic country of Zimbabwe. Regional countries have long ignored Mugabe's questionable tactics, but a summit was called by the Zambian president, only to be deflated by other countries insistence that there is no crisis in Zimbabwe.

Anyway, Mugabe has been calling for a recount, which opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai vehemently opposes. Many Zimbabweans are tired of the political mess and wish for the two sides to enter discussions to end the stalemate. Mugabe, the man responsible for the liberation of Zimbabwe will not give up his power willingly and may resort to another revolution to return to power. He might as well continue the African tradition.

Rain, Rain, go Away

Well the Beijing Olympics are fast approaching, with the opening ceremonies on August 8th. Recently there has been a lot of conflict over Beijing involvement in Tibet and protests have been disrupting the torch relay in places across the globe. Beijing is very anxious to make sure the games go off without a hitch, to show the world that they can take care of business.

Anyways, I was on the Internet looking at stories about the olympics and a certain article caught my eye. The title was slightly odd, it read Operation Beijing Storm: rockets target rain. I had to click on the link because my mind was mulling over what they could possibly mean by 'rockets target rain.'

Apparently, China has a different type of agency--The Weather Modification Office. Can they do that? I haven't heard of a weather modification bureau or anything of the type in America. It seems that the Commies can do something that we can't (gasp!) Back to the rockets. Evidently there are 21 stations surrounding Beijing that will be ready to fire on a moments notice in order to prevent a downpour during the games. These rockets will fire canisters that will disperse silver iodide into approaching rain clouds. Silver iodide is very insoluble in water, and will cause water droplets to concentrate. Abra Cadabra and let there be rain. If this method doesn't force the clouds to drop their moisture elsewhere, then three planes are ready to take off and disperse catalysts that will cause it to rain.

As a side note, weather control has for some reason seemed as an utterly amazing topic to me. How can we mess with nature like that? Can we use this to our advantage? I don't know if any of you have read Michael Crighton's novel State of Fear (author of Jurrassic Park), but this explores a scenario where they manipulate weather. Ecoterrorist fire about a thousand small rockets into an approaching storm system. The rockets have microfilament wire attached to them, which create an easy pathway for electricity and therefore lightning. By dramatically increasing the lightning, the storm grows extremely powerful and causes flash floods and the like. Now I don't know how realistic this scenario is, but wouldn't that be awesome. I have always viewed the realm of weather as one thing that our technology could not influence, that we are stuck with what God throws our way. I guess that there is no end to what we can accomplish.

The Broken Power of American

Over spring break, my family and I went to California for a vacation and a few college visits. On the way back we sat in the airport from 7 PM to 12:30 AM because we had nothing to do and our flight didn't leave until after midnight. This wait was not all that painful, I had things to read and we playd cards for awhile, but it was a long time to sit in those not-so-comfortable chairs. My five-hour wait was slightly long but recently many American Airlines customers have had a much mor lengthy stay.

Beginning Tuesday and still continuing today, 2400, or nearly one third, of American flights were cancelled. The cause of this dilemma is faulty wire bundles that could cause fires (which don't work out so well on airplanes). FAA inspectors found that of seventeen planes inspected, 13 failed, although no incidents have been linked to this problem. (FAA is the Federal Aviation Administration and when they speak, airlines have to listen.) So 300 American jets were grounded, with only 60 cleared to fly so far. Inspectors and mechanics are working overtime trying to get the cancellations to stop, which have stranded a quarter of a million people so far.

Meanwhile on the ever-popular stock market, AMR corp took a huge plunge -- their stock dropped 11%, compounded their losses this year from rising fuel prices and other stuff. Our economy is not in good shape folks.

Added to these losses for American Airlines, they have had to provide countless hotel rooms and travel vouchers for all of those stranded people that can't get home after their vacation to Florida.

Supposedly the cancellations will cease on Saturday or so, but the damage has already been done, the power of American has been broken. And meanwhile, people are sitting idle in terminals across the country, twiddling their thumbs and attempted to call everyone they ever knew on their cell phone or whatever high technology gadget they might have at the time.

Attack of the Handicapped

If you were an old man, no wife, no kids, no vacation home and the promise of even less Social Security money in the future, would you take matters into your own hands? Well, one unidentified man did just that, motoring to the local bank in an electric wheelchair at the pace of about three miles an hour.

We have all seen some action movie where a criminal holds up a bank and escapes from the authorities in a fast car (or Horse for you John Wayne types). Or you could just hide in the bank for a week or two and walk out the front door like Clive Owen in The Inside Man. In that movie the robbers were dressed in painter outfits (so was everyone else for that matter) that obscured their face, and were generally big tough guys, and a few intimidating women.
(Completely ignore this paragraph if you have not seen Inside Man.)

Anyways, the man who robbed the Wachovia Bank in Palo Alto, California was not the typical testosterone-fueled gunmen. This daring criminal decided to rob the bank in a slow moving wheelchair. I can just see the bank teller leaning over to see the nice old man who seems to want to make a deposit.

"How can I help you, Sir?"
Imagine her surprise as the sixty-year old pulls out a Glock handgun and sticks it in her cute little face.

The old man had bandages on his legs, and one leg was sticking straight out, which would make it pretty hard to get close to the teller's box.

He reaches out to grab the bag of money from the cashier, but can't get close enough because of his leg. He keeps ramming it into the counter trying in vain to get his money until the nice young teller comes around the counter to give it to him. On his way out one of the wheels of his chair gets stuck on one of the people who hit the floor the minute they realized the bank was being robbed. After several attempts the man sis able to role over the body and continue outside.

Unfortunately, there is no fast, sweet-looking sports car to whisk him away, and he is resigned
to plodding along at a pathetically slow pace in his wheelchair, yet he is able to elude authorities and makes a successful escape.

Be on the lookout for a handicapped man with a bag of money and a very large pistol

(While the story is true, I obviously took a few liberties with the facts)

Serb. Serb. Croat. Bosnian?

Now the not-quite-so-entertaining research paper. The stuff that I have been reading lately has been some pretty dense material. I just read an article from the Eastern European Quarterly (that one isn't on my normal reading list) and it was interesting and informative, after you read it several times. I needed to use a highlighter extensively, but I feel that this source was very authoritative and informative. It discussed how intra-ethnic competition in nationalist political parties lead to a deviation from the moderate and toward more inter-ethnic conflict. This was the leading problem causing the long held ethnic tensions to rise during the transition from Marshal Tito's Yugoslavian Communism to democracy, which the ethnic conflicts prevented from happening. I feel that my grasp of this topic is much better than just a few days ago, but this is a very complicated political situation that has been developing for twenty years, so I need to focus my research more, so that I don't end up with a twenty page thesis paper.

As for the individual independence movements, Slovenia was peaceful because most are Slovenes in that region. Croatia and Serbia caused the most conflict, each claiming parts of Bosnia and engaging in ethnic warfare over several cities, in which there were sizable populations of both Croats and Serbs, and each group wanted to be part of their respective country. In Kosovo, the Muslims were persecuted by the Serbs, which eventually led to the independence of Kosovo and Montenegro, both provinces of Serbia. Macedonia I do not now so much about. Bosnia-Herzegovina was a separate republic created by international forces since that Croats and Serbs both wanted the territory.

Hey I have way too much information and my next object will be focusing on one specific topic, possibly how the disintegration in the 90s has caused the recent independences of Kosovo and Montenegro.

The Wrath of a Russian Zeus

Imagine you are a poor Russian peasant. A shepherd by profession you have few possessions in life. One of your few comforts in life is the traditional bottle of vodka. So one night you drink a little too much of this vodka. That night you feel the call of nature rather strongly and journey a couple dozen meters to your outhouse. You are just relieving yourself in that horrible smelling hole and then WHAM. The ground shakes like a sudden earthquake and you wonder if Zeus just shot a thunderbolt at your porta-potty. Armageddon has come, but somehow you survived in your outhouse, so you open the door to see if the world is still there.

And the world is still there, but so is a ten foot long hunk of metal sitting about 2 feet away from that small outhouse.

Boris Urmatov (now that is a Russian name) has sued the Russian space agency for the above mentioned stressful event. A 3-meter long hunk off a rocket hurtled down and nearly vaporized his outhouse. While falling debris is common is this area, it is usually much smaller and lands in designated areas. Boris's backyard is decidedly not one of these designated areas. He is suing the Russian space agency, who has a launch site not far away, for 1 million rubles, which sounds like a lot, but is only about $50,000, which is still a lot for a shepherd.

Going Postal

Ravenden Springs, Arkansas. A small town of around 130 people, one of who obviously has something wrong with him. On March 24, 65-year old Glenn Irvin Sparling drove two cars into a post office.

Yeah try and figure that one out.

I could understand once. He could have been dropping off a package for his granddaughter and forgot to put his car in reverse. You might have heard about the girl last summer who did that exact thing and drove through the plate glass window of the DOT.

Unfortunately, it isn't that simple.

After his car stopped running, Sparling fled the scene and got a red antique sports car. (Uh-oh) A deputy spotted him on the one street through town (probably) and gave chase. This short chase ended when that disturbed man drove his beautiful sports car through the same little post office, joining the other vehicle.

And that is how you can drive two cars into a post office. (do not attempt)

That poor little post office is probably leveled and all the 129 residents of Ravenden Springs that aren't in jail may not get their mail today. Luckily no low-paid postal workers were working at the time.

Mr. Sparling may have some explaining to do. The police later found out that this almost-elderly man has a history of violence against helpless post offices. My question is, Where is he getting this money to continuously run vehicles into the mail distributing centers of small communities.

And as they say, he went postal

Swastikas and AngryTibetans

This year we had a February 29, which also means that it is an election year and an Olympic year. This summer the Olympics will be held in Beijing, China, much to the dismay of all those anti-communist Americans. Currently the Olympic trials are being held in each country to determine who will represent their country and possibly win the gold.

When the Olympic logo for the 2012 London games first came out, it could only be described as eccentric. People compared it to a swastika, and it was eventually pulled because it caused seizures. Anyway back to Beijing.

The Olympic torch was lit today and began its 136 day journey, taking it across 5 continents and 85000 miles. The torch will even scale Mount Everest on the way to Beijing (for some reason beijing is extremely hard to type.) I remember reading an article about a month ago about this vertical journey. The scientists were assuring everyone that they had done tests and the Olympic torch would not sputter out in the thin air of Mount Everest.

And after the assent and descent, those torchbearers get to journey through the recent hotbead of Tibet. Recently, the Tibetans have been pushing for an end to Chinese mistreatment and the independence of Tibet. Chinese troops have cracked down on the protests, killing 99 Tibetans. The exiled Dalai Lama and other world leaders are speaking out against this violence and many want the Beijing games to be boycotted, like the 1980 summer Olympics in Moscow. French protesters amazing evaded heavy security and disrupted the lighting ceremony today in Athens.

Good night

Reincarnated Unabomber

Let me give you a scenario. Say you are staying at a hotel in a small rural town. Maybe you are there to see some distant relatives or go to the cattle auction or some other random reason to be in a small town. You decided to sleep in a little bit, since you were out partying in a barn last night. You wake up, look at the alarm clock. It is almost 10 AM, and you are barely awake and then BOOM. Now you are awake and wondering if Osama bin Laden is still alive and back for round 2 in a small Arkansas town that has nothing to terrorize. Maybe it was the Unabomber reincarnated or the Russians. Wide awake and full of conspiracy theories, you rush to your motel window praying that there will not be a mushroom cloud in the distance. Your adrenaline fueled body pulls back the curtains and immediately blinds your eyes with the bright light of morning.

And it isn't a mushroom cloud, but still a cloud. Smoke is poring up in a column at the outskirts of the city. What is there is this town that can blow up? you wonder. Although you would have no way of knowing this at the time, the nearby Cargill meat-packing plant explosion. I guess something was wrong with the meat.

The explosion occurred because of an ammonia gas leak that exploded 88000 tons of anhydrous ammonia (the stuff the can be used for fertilizer, making meth, or bombs (so what was the meatpacking plant doing with it?)) Firefighters let the blaze burnout by itself, and many of the extremely small towns residents were evacuated. Nobody wants second-hand meth gas entering their lungs.

Ma Is The Prez

Forget about Barack, Hillary, and John, Ma Ying-jeou is the new president. Of Taiwan that is.

On March 22 the incumbent president of Taiwan was defeated in an unexpected landslide, and the opposition leader is set to assume control over this little, wealthy nation. The communist revolution after World War II forced the nationalist government to flee the mainland and install of government on Taiwan that the Commies still view as a rebel province.

And now as the typical American you say, "Why should I care? I don't even care about who gets the Top Spot in our country, much less some island that sounds like a dish you can buy at the local Hyvee." ANd you should care because all the clothes you are wearing, the shoes on your feet, and half the stuff in your house was made in China. If mainland China would attempt to take over Taiwan, you can bet  that the United States won't like that, We usually have an aircraft carrier over there and we might even get into a war with China. That means no more cheap clothes and DVDs and possibly no more Wal-Mart (?!!?)

Anyways you can rest assured, a war is even less likely now that our friend Ma is in control. His party favors a positive relationship with mainland China, not independence and international recognition like the old prez. Ma has even proposed uniting with China sometime in the future, but that might be a ways off. China would love to have this little prosperous island, rich from trade with the United States, as part of their own. They achieved a financial windfall when Hong Kong was returned to them in 1999 and Taiwan would look really pretty with a red flag flying over it. In the mean time WalMart will still be there and you can go and buy your $5 DVDs and lead-poisoned children's toys.

Random Guesses

And it's here. March Madness. That time of year where everyone has their sheets out, and half the TVs in America display some game or other.

Tonight is the first night of the tournament. 16 teams will play, with eight having their season ended. Games are on all day, which causes employers to loose around two billion in productivity. If not huddled around a TV, all those secluded cubicle workers will discreetly watch the games on the internet, with one eye looking out for their boss.

What makes March Madness so interesting is that it gets so many people involved in college basketball that have never watched a game all season. Millions of brackets are filled out, with none of them being perfect. The average bracket-filler-outer will tell you all of the reasons why he picked a certain team, or how he predicted that upset from the start, but its all a joke. Very few people are qualified enough to know how two teams will match up; its just dumb luck. There are so many upsets and different scenarios that all reason is thrown out the door, and your average Joe will base his choices on who has the coolest mascot, whose name sounds cool, who might have won the tournament 30 years ago or maybe they even pay attention to the little numbers next to the name of the college.

In making my decisions, I usually stick with the Big 12, maybe a few Big Ten teams. If any Iowa teams make it, I will choose them to advance, such as Drake this year (My cyclones didn't even have a winning season this year.) Last year I got 15 of the 16 right on the first round, and then it all fell apart after that for me. My dad ended up winning the family competition because he had Ohio State in the championship game, which came true.

I was watching a few of the games tonight, and I would have to say that the most exciting game was when Belmont the 15th seed came thisclose to beating number 2 Duke. They had the lead with ten seconds left but their defense came apart and Duke scored an easy layup. Belmont then missed a shot at the other end and came out with the possession arrow in a jump ball. Duke then stole the inbounds pass and were immediately fouled, but missed the shot. Belmont then had 2 seconds for a last attempt at the win, but the long shot before the buzzer rimmed out. I really wanted to see an awesome upset but it didn't quite happen. A 2-15 upset has only happened four times in history, with one of them coming in 2004 with Iowa State : (

Etu Brute?

A blueberry muffin for anyone who can find the small country of East Timor on the map.
Any takers?

The president of this newly formed country was shot by rebel leaders on February, and is just now getting out of a hospital in Australia. The assassination attempt involved an ambush in which a rebel leader attempted to kill the president, but only severely injured him with a shot to the head. (I guess that rebel leader isn't as good as Jason Bourne) And about two seconds later that incompetent rebel leader was dead, a victim of a bodyguard's bullet. They just don't train rebel leaders like they used to.

This topic had caught my eye when the president was first shot, (an attempt on the prime minister was foiled also) so when I saw this follow-up story, I naturally was curious on how the old man pulled through. You don't hear much about assassinations. Maybe the occasional, such as JFK, the attempt on Reagan (way to take the bullet, Brady), John Lennon, MLK Jr (his name is to long to type), Julius Caesar (Etu Brute?), and Franz Ferdinand (thats three blogs in a row when he has come up). At least in real life that is. Just today I watched a movie entitled HITMAN, with some sweet pistols making the T. This guy was all-that, he had his own sweet symbol, moved like Jackie Chan and James Bond combined, and had a bar code on the back of his head (That doesn't look suspicious.) Anyway, this guy took out like tons of people like it was nothing. He assassinated the President of Russia, and then assassinated the double of the president who was pretending to be the president (its even more confusing then it sounds.) It seems like our culture thinks its cool to be an assassin, with movie after movie based on the theme. Ever played the video game Assassin's Creed? Basically, you stab as many people in the back as you can.

Meanwhile, the president of East Timor is fully recovered and will be returning to the remote part of Indonesia that is now East Timor. Six years after their independence, the rebels are still fighting. Hopefully the president can survive and bring peace to this turbulent nation.


(Like that poetic ending that sounds so cliche?)

Balkanization

For my research topic, I am planning on focusing on the slew of countries that have been created from Yugoslavia over the last forty years, the most recent, Montenegro and Kosovo coming only a year and two weeks ago, respectively. The Balkan Peninsula in Southern Europe is a region that was all lumped into one country, Yugoslavia after World War I. This region actually was the cause of WWI, because a Serbian nationalist assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

This region has long been known for its many conflicting ethnic groups. The region has steadily been divided into smaller and smaller countries as each minority wants to rule themselves. The long list now includes: Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro and Kosovo.

I found my basic information on GlobalSecurity.org which helped me develop and decide to pursue this topic
For my research I will focus on the ethnicities and the conflict between them that resulted in the continued political breakdowns. I need to find more information about the specific ethnicities in each country. I need to find more information on the ethnic cleansing of the 90s. I have a feeling that this will be too broad, and I will have to refine my research as it goes along.

a mInor event Down South

We almost had a war in South America this week.
What?

Yeah, a war. Although most of us never heard anything about it.

On March 1st, Colombian troops attacked a rebel force called the FARC and killed one of their commanders. The only problem was that this rebel force was in neighboring Ecuador, which regarded the raid as a violation of their sovereignty. Colombia reacted by accusing Ecuador of aiding the FARC, which has been trafficking drugs and kidnapping people for forty years. Venezuela backed Ecuador and soon their was a big mess.

Colombia is a right-wing, pro-United States country that has few friends in South America. Neighboring Venezuela and Ecuador are left-wing, almost to the point of being Communist. I am sure you have heard of Hugo Chavez, a dictator that has been compared to Castro, and has a very good relationship with the former ruler of Cuba.

Once this conflagration began, it only got worse. Ecuador and Venezuela ended diplomatic relations with Colombia, and began to move troops to the border. Colombia responding the same, by moving troops to their border. We were thisclose to having South America War I, and with the United States on Colombia's side, who knows how far it could have spread. We all know that wars have started for much less, such as the bullet in Franz Ferdinand's head or Helen of Troy.

Wait, but there isn't a war. Is there?

no. The leaders of the three countries agreed to meet in a summit in the Dominican Republic. The tensions were high, and accusations flew, but eventually they came to a compromise, Colombia agreeing to never again violate another's sovereignty, and the others agreed to take action against "irregular or criminal groups." Now everybody is happy, for a little while.

On a side note, Colombia delivered another blow to the FARC, when a member of the rebel group killed his commander and brought his severed hand to the authorities. With the death of two top members in less than a week the FARC is reeling from its losses.

Research topic

I was thinking that I could research the effect of gang violence on some areas, such as Detroit or Chicago. Some other ideas I am considering would be the border changes and disputes going on in the Balkan states, such as the new countries of Kosovo and Montenegro. My final topic I am considering would be the unstable situation and poverty in Haiti.

Stop Eating Your Dinner

...And in today's news a Palestinian gunmen kills eight in a Jewish seminary.

Wow, that's horrible. Now go back to eating your dinner.

If you have ever seen the movie Hotel Rwanda, you will remember the scene where the character portrayed by Don Cheadle gets upset with one of the UN cameramen. Cheadle's character thinks that because of the horrible footage of people being hacked to death with machetes, the Western powers will be forced to act. One of the UN people then explains to Cheadle that Americans watching the TV back at home will say its horrible—its intolerable—but they will go right back to eating their dinner and will not do anything about it. This attitude is shown again in the movie Blood Diamond. "TIA." DiCaprio says. "This Is Africa. No one cares about Africa." As the saying goes, 'Out of sight, out of mind.' We feel distant from these faraway conflict zones such as Sierra Leone and Rwanda, and do not feel compelled to do anything—it isn't our problem.

The same applies to the Middle East, where suicide bombers and terrorist organizations cause violence every day. The Middle East is half a world away and it will never affect us, so who cares?

In this seminary in Jerusalem, a Palestinian student walked into the library with an assault rifle and a pistol, both of which were soon spraying bullets into a group of students ready to celebrate the Jewish holiday of Purim. The gunmen killed eight and wounded nine before nearby Israeli soldiers shot him dead. Once the word got out, Palestinians everywhere went into the streets to celebrate this strike on the hated Jews. Meanwhile, Jewish crowds were shouting 'Death to Arabs.'

Can you imagine to public backlash if a violent act of that magnitude would happen in the United States. Well, it has, with Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois. Since these events have literally been on our doorstep, we have cared and taken action against it happening in the future. But those Jews and Muslims over there in the Middle East? Who cares. They are not our problem. Until we overcome this selfish attitude and began to care about our fellow humans, the violence will continue. Tomorrow there might be a revenge attack, with a few more innocents dead. Who Knows?

Super Tuesday: The Sequel

As I am sure everyone in America knows, tomorrow is another one of those primary things that will decide who can run for president. John McCain has basically secured the nomination, but these two primaries are particularly important to the democrats. Polls show Obama and Clinton dead tied in Texas and Clinton with a small lead in Ohio.

Often though it seems that these polls, conducted by sophisticated agencies are often not very accurate predictions. I mean, polls are easy when it poses a question such as "What is your favorite color?" but the lines are blurred when those pollsters delve into deep topics such as politics and if you are truly happy. The polls have been shown to be wrong in many cases, recently in New Hampshire, where Obama was predicted to have an easy victory but didn't. There are two many factors to accurately predict the public's opinion, one of them being that the public often changes its opinion. Also, sample populations commonly are not truly representative. This can be even more true in political polls, with so many undecided and whimsical voters. In Texas, many Republicans are even expected to vote against Hillary, because their nomination isn't fun any more—McCain already has it locked in.

Anyway back to tomorrow. The dead heat in Texas is shown through polls that have Obama and Hillary both at 47%, but what is less known is that these polls have a margin of error of 4%, basically making them useless tools. Obama could win by as much as 51% to Clinton's 43% and the polls would still be technically right.

On March 4th hopefully the polls will be wrong, Obama will win with enough delegates to make Hillary drop out in despair and this lengthy nomination will be over. Ideally, this would happen, but Super Tuesday only made the race closer and we might have to endure another few months of political nomination talk, which will stop in time for the next round—McCain vs TBD. I don't know about you, but I need a little break before the next round.