What's New November 7, 2009

Taliban in 2001
Photo Source: Public Domain

Taliban leaders and elements are being airlifted from the Pakistan-Afghanistan border as of the writing of this article. The talk is that this is a huge rescue operation conducted by other countries that are allied with them. It has been reported that unmarked helicopters have been flying in and out of the area for days now. By the time you read this we will all know if Pakistan was successful in its assault on this area. It looks like there will be nothing to attack, yet some are saying that western states are responsible for the airlift and only Taliban that are friendly to them are being rescued. Time will tell.

South Philadelphia stinks. No I am not making a social comment here, there is a smell that is driving everyone in the area crazy. The smell is so bad that crews of workers have been sent there to try and find where the smell is coming from and to eliminate it. It turned out that the smell was able to be located and was coming from a vacant building. Hazmat ventilated the building, but there was no word on what caused this terrible odor. Its nice to know that Hazmat at least found the source.

What or who is causing all those mysterious explosions in south Lebanon? The last few months have seen several explosions in the area and no explanations. The people there are getting very jumpy and who can blame them. As we all know, that is a very volatile part of the world. The United Nations has sent peace keeping forces to the area to investigate the blasts but no clues have been found. It is suspected that drones from Israel are being sent into the area to destroy Hezbollah communications.

Bernie Madoff
Photo Source: US Dept. Of Justice

We have our scam artists in this country and as we all know some of them are responsible for cheating people out of billions of dollars. I am talking about people such as Bernie Madoff. There are also scam artists in other countries such as India and one in particular who was sent to jail in Ghaziabad, India. It turned out that several judicial officials were involved and this guy was found dead in his cell. The lesson is, do not conduct scams in India that might involve high ranking officials. Ashutosh Asthana learned this lesson too late.

NASA has announced a new discovery. Our solar system is surrounded by a ribbon of hydrogen. This has truly surprised scientists who can not account for the fact. Richard Fisher, a NASA scientist stated, "We thought we knew everything about everything, and it turned out that there were unknown unknowns." Last year NASA decided to launch a probe called the Interstellar Boundary Explorer Mission or IBEX. It was supposed to take photos of the boundary at the edge of the solar system. The solar system is surrounded by a bubble and now we have found that there is a stripe across the inside of the bubble, according to Fisher. Fisher added, "We're not using the right physics. The physicists are going to have to go back and figure out what physical processes are being left out of these calculations, and my guess is that within a couple of years, we'll have a pretty good explanation."

LCROSS
Graphic Source: NASA

Here is the latest on the NASA LCROSS space craft that was sent to crash into the moon. When it hit, the expected plume was not seen. Most people thought that there would be a plume of soil and rock, but apparently there wasn't. This has led many a speculator to say that they believe in never hit and was shot down just before impact, but who would be on the moon to do that? They claim that aliens were protecting themselves and that we suspected that there was something alien at the target site and that is why we launched this mission. If that is true and I doubt it, the aliens, if they were on the moon, would have seen this thing coming for days. This would not have been a very good plan, would it?

Well as the saying goes, "better late than never". I guess we can apply this to an event that happened a few days before I wrote this article. Edgar Allan Poe was given a funeral. The funeral took place about 160 years after he was found dead. So who attended? There were famous personalities there such as the deceased Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and the deceased Alfred Hitchcock among numerous other personalities. Oh you want to know how this was possible? It turns out that actors played the parts of the attendees. It must have been very bizarre.

Its been over two months since the New Bedford Waste plant sent a toxic release into the air. The release sent some to the hospital and even today they have health related problems that most believe were from the release. One man has suffered from blurry vision ever since the event. Over 120 people were put into the hospital, many for decontamination. State and federal agents continue to investigate the event, but have not been able to figure out what caused the discharge.

A new and better device has been invented for seeing through walls. Wait, before you try and order one, it is only available to the US Army right now. It is said that this device can accurately detect and monitor heart and respiration activity of multiple subjects and uses a radar component to give it the ability to "see" through things.

Going for a cruise, but missing the Internet? That can be a thing of the past if you take Virgin America. The cruise line is now offering wireless broadband while you enjoy the pleasures of the open sea. The company has made a deal with Japan's largest telecommunications company for the service.

In another communications story, a new type of Wi-FI will be available soon and it will be far better than bluetooth. It will allow devices to connect to each other effortlessly and without a router. The range is said to be about 100 yards, which is more than sufficient for most of us. Every device will become an access point that is why routers will not be needed.