What's New March 1, 2010
These articles are written about 3 weeks in advance.
Maybach If someone is rich, it certainly is no business of mine what they spend their money on. Having said that I just couldn't help but comment on the birthday gift that P Puff Diddy gave his son for his 16th birthday, it was a Maybach. Just in case you have never heard of a Maybach, it is one of the most expensive cars made. Daimler AG is the parent company. A Maybach can cost anywhere from $344,000 to $677,000, depending on the model. Just what a 16 year old needs. As I said, it is none of my business what a rich person spends his money on, but there have been quite a few children of the rich that have been given fast cars at a young age that have either hurt themselves, or killed themselves trying to drive these things at top speed. These cars usually have well over 500 hp and some over 600 hp. There is an awful temptation there for a teenage boy to “see what the car can do.” Well it is happening again. Another community thinks that it has a chupacabra in its midst. A chupacabra is an animal that is yet to be proven to exist, but there seems to be a lot of evidence that would favor it. Its name means goat sucker. It got this name because it is believed to suck the blood from livestock. It is thought to roam the rural areas of Mexico and Texas. The town of Runaway Bay, Texas is now reporting that it has one of these animals roaming the town. A carcass of a strange animal was found by a maintenance man on a gulf course and it was brought to a biologist. At the time of the writing of this article, no answer had come back on the identity of the animal. Could it be a chupacabra? According to many people, these animals seem to be increasing their range, so it is possible. The Russian company Enegia, which is a leader in the production of spacecraft, has proposed a new 20 ton orbiting satellite with a nuclear reactor on board It is said to have a life span of 10 to 15 years. Satellites with nuclear reactors on board, that are circling the earth, always make many of us nervous and this one is no exception. That is not the entire story however. This satellite is prepared for war, since it will have secret offensive capabilities. The Russians had stated that they wanted to keep space an arms free zone. They claim that this has changed, because several nations are developing space based weapons. No one is sure yet what type of offensive weapons it will carry, or how they will work. Some think that the satellite might be able to attack ground forces, but others think that the satellite will only be able to knock out other satellites. Russia has put their anti-satellite program in high gear recently. There is a man in Siberia that is claiming to be the Messiah. His name is Vissarion and he has a growing following of about 10,000 people. The same religion decided about two years ago, that the end of the world was coming and locked themselves in a bunker. The Russian government is worried about different cults and is said to be passing a law that would limit missionary activity. This has worried many people in the country that are afraid that this law will abuse legitimate religious institutions.
Yuri Gagarin Investigators in Russia now say that they have solved the mysterious death of Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space. There have long been rumors that Gagarin was not the first man in space, but the first to come back alive. Anyway here is what investigators have said about his death. They say that he was flying a Mig-15 fighter plane, while he was on a training mission in 1968 and realized that there was an air vent open to the cockpit. The cockpit was supposed to be sealed. They say when he realized this, he dove his plane from about 13,000 feet to 6,500 feet, because he had been instructed to do this. The investigators said that he and his trainer blacked out because of the dive and the plane crashed into the ocean, killing those on board. The trainer that was killed with Gagarin was Vladimir Seryogin. The facts surrounding the death of Gagarin have been kept secret up to now and even in 2005 Russia refused a request to open up records on the crash. It is possible to breathe at 13,000, but can be uncomfortable if you are not used to it, yet there is no reason to panic piloting a plane if you hit that altitude and the cabin is not pressurized. You can merely descend slowly until you are more at ease. There was absolutely no reason for a steep dive from that height. What really happened?
Ribbon In Space A mysterious ribbon of particles has been detected at the edge of our solar system by NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer known as IBEX. So what could this be? The latest theory by scientists is that it might be formed by atoms reflected back into the solar system by the Milky Way's magnetic field. In other words, they are not sure. No one knew this existed a few months ago. The explanation could turn out to be correct, but so could several others. If the scientists are correct, this will mark the first time that we can get a rough estimate of the magnetic field of the local portion of the galaxy's magnetic field. This is the same boundary region that shields us from much of the cosmic rays that bombard space. Interstellar space contains huge amounts of radiation and if we ever plan on traveling through it, we will need very powerful shielding. Since we are talking about space, scientists are now thinking that this might be the year that they solve the mystery of a star that has been appearing and disappearing for over 200 years. The star is Epsilon Aurigae. Every 27 years it disappears, only to return. It is believed that a large object is responsible and that the star gets eclipsed by this object. There are two theories on why this happens. The second one is that two stars eclipse it at once. NASA believes that the single star theory is correct and that Epsilon Aurigae has lost a lot of its mass and is a dying star and thus easier to eclipse. There is a new theory out about why so many diseases are attacking us. That theory states that evolution is progressing faster. The field of evolutionary medicine started in the 80s and is going strong. The Journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences contains a presentation on the evolution-medicine link that was given in 2009 by many different scientists. |
