iPad: Feminine product or the next big thing?

After the success of the ipod, and the iPhone, Apple has created a new product called the iPad. Let's not get this confused with the iPad spoof of a feminine product created by Apple that was played on an Mad TV comedy television show.



The actual product that was made by Apple, is a tablet computer the size of a notebook. Like the iPhone, the company expects that the iPad tablet will be at its best in its third generation. "Popular complaints included the lack of a camera, multi-tasking capabilities, a USB port, and support for videos made with Adobe Flash software."

I guess we'll all have to wait and see how big of a product this will be. It's not like this is the first personal computer ever, there are other products out there, that people like and are satisfied with. Do we really need every single item that Apple puts into the consumer market??

The Age of Our Universe

The Hubble Space Telescope, 600 miullion years after the Big Bang, has taken the "most complete picture of the early univers so far, showing galaxies with stars that are already hundreds of millions of years old." The reason for these younger galaxies being the color blue, is because the don't have the high heavy metal content that mature galaxies have.

Here is a website for some other pictures that the Hubble Space Telescope has taken (link)

Mind Break 1/26-1/29

This is a great little video to pick up your smile, have fun, enjoy, and make sure you have the sound on to hear the cat running into the trashcan

community service blog 1

I have three ideas for my community service

Tutoring

math tutoring

working at a childrens center

through the senior community service trips

I do not know which one(s) I will be doing, but i have a feeling that they will end up being about education

"Double Atomic bomb survivor dies in Japan"

"Tsutomu Yamaguchi, the only person officially recognized as a survivor of both the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings at the end of World War II, has died at age 93." How does this happen you wonder?

Yamaguchi was sent on a business trip to Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, where he "suffered serious burns to his upper body and spent the night in the city." After the bombing, and his business trip was over, he made his way back home to the city of Nagasaki, where the United States dropped a second atomic bomb, just three days after the first. Luckily on August 15, 1945, Japan surrendered, stopping any more atomic bombs from occuring on its homeland.

After the war, Yamaguchi worked as a translator for American forces in Nagasaki and later as a junior high school teacher. Here are some things that Yamaguchi has done in effect to the bombings that he was in:

"Yamaguchi gave talks about his experiences as an atomic bomb survivor and often expressed his hope that such weapons would be abolished.
He spoke at the United Nations in 2006, wrote books and songs about his experiences, and appeared in a documentary about survivors of both attacks."

"Netflix to delay delivery of Warner's latest DVDs"

This is for anybody who has Netflix

San Francisco's Netflix Inc. has decided to delay the sending of Warner Bros. new movies so that "[Netflix] can gain rights to show its subscribers more movies over the Internet... Netflix hopes to reach similar deals with other major movie studios later this year, using the Warner Bros. agreement announced Wednesday as a template." Another reason why Netflix has decided to delay the releases of new Warner Bros. movies, is so that the studio has a chance to raise their sales of the DVD's, which is "the movie industry's biggest source of profits."

here are some pros and cons that Ted Sarandos, Netflix's chief content officer states in the article.

Pros:"[it] will be good for the entertainment ecosystem",and "[it gives a] chance to boost the sales of DVDs, the movie industry's biggest source of profit

Cons: "Newly released DVDs account for about 30 percent of Netflix's shipments," this means that Netflix will be losing about 30 percent of its shipments.

Although Netflix has decided to prolong sending the new releases, Blockbuster "which has been losing ground to Netflix in recent years, intends to continue renting DVDs as soon as they are released". And why doesn't Warner Bros. ask Blockbuster to delay like Netflix? Warner Bros. "studios get a cut of revenue under their agreements with Blockbuster".

El Dorado dreamers have been proven right

(El Dorado also known as City of Z.) For those who haven't heard or seen the animated movie El Dorado, it was "an ancient empire of citadels and treasure hidden deep in the Amazon Jungle." The famous empire has also been known for its riches and its 'golden king'.

As many explorers have searched for this famous city, most have gotten lost in the vast Amazon jungle, and were never to be seen again.

"Now, however, the doomed dreamers have been proven right: there was a great civilisation. New satellite imagery and fly-overs have revealed [in an area spanning 155 miles] more than 200 huge geometric earthworks carved in the upper Amazon basin near Brazil's border with Bolivia. [These] circles, squares and other geometric shapes form a network of avenues, ditches and enclosures built long before Christopher Columbus set foot in the new world. Some date to as early as 200 AD, others to 1283. Scientists... believe there may be another 2,000 structures beneath the jungle canopy. [Many of these structures] have been revealed by the clearance of forest for agriculture... Many scientists saw the jungle as too harsh to sustain anything but small nomadic tribes. Now it seems the conquistadors who spoke of 'cities that glistened in white' were telling the truth. They, however, probably also introduced the diseases that wiped out the native people, leaving the jungle to claim – and hide – all trace of their civilisation."

Watching the movie growing up always gave me hope that El Dorado really was out there. Now that there is scientific proof that the city was real, my inner child is happy to know that believing can lead to truth.

1:5 released from Guantanamo join militant groups?

Detainees released from the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay have gotten into trouble. "One in five detainees released from the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay has joined or is suspected of joining militant groups like al Qaeda". On what terms have they been released? Are these terms not strict enough to weed out those who are most likely to join "militant groups like al Qaeda?" As the Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell says "the vetting process for releasing detainees was an 'inexact science,' adding: 'You know, we are making subjective calls based upon judgment, intelligence. And so there is no foolproof answer in this realm. That's what makes this so difficult.'"

Anybody happen to hear about the two attempts to blow up a U.S. passenger plane over Christmas break? If you did you probably didn't know this.

"Former Guantanamo detainees... are believed to be behind a failed plot to blow up a U.S. passenger jet on Christmas Day."

As a result of the belief stated above, President Obama chose to "suspend the transfer of additional Guantanamo detainees to Yemen, citing the deteriorating security situation in the country." Of course delaying the release of detainees will not stop Obama's task of closing down the Guantanamo Bay prison. "are 198 detainees left at Guantanamo,... [including] roughly 91 Yemenis." And what is the reason for Obama having to close the prison? Here's the main reason: "detainees were denied due process for years and for harsh interrogations conducted there."