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What A First Few Days To This Week!
Asteroid That Is Passing Near Earth This has been a very strange week. I'm talking about the week of November 7, 2011 when this article was written. First of all, a heavenly object was heading this way that was said to be the size of a school bus and we were told that it was going to pass between the Earth and the Moon. The last time an event like this took place, we were never notified in advance, so it is nice to see that those in charge were a little more thoughtful this time. Some people are very worried about this event. While most realize that an object this size cannot destroy the earth, some think that it could destroy the moon. The truth of the matter is that if it hit the moon, it would probably just create another crater. I believe what made this time different than the last time, was that we had tracked this asteroid for quite a while, while the last one sort of snuck up on us. The problem is that we don't have enough telescopes trained on every possible area of space, so it is impossible for us to know where every single heavenly body might be. A couple of years ago it was said that we could actively watch about 10% of the area where meteors or asteroids might come from. This figure has probably improved, but not by that much.
Joe Frazier Receiving An Award One of the greatest boxers that ever lived, died this week. I am sure you old-timers know who I am talking about, it is Joe Frazier. Joe Frazier would have been the reigning heavyweight champ for many years if he had not come up against Mohammed Ali. His nickname was Smoking Joe, and it was a name richly deserved for this man never gave up from the minute he stepped in the ring to the last second of the last round. Fraser beat many famous opponents on his way to becoming heavyweight champion in 1970. He then went on to beat Mohamed Ali in a fight called fight of the century in 71. He had two more fights with Ali, but this time he lost both. He retired in 1976, but in 1981 he decided to make a comeback for one fight, then retired for the last time. Liver cancer was one opponent he couldn't beat. Fraser will always be remembered as one of the greatest heavyweights of all time. He is in the International Boxing Hall of Fame and the World Boxing Hall of Fame.
Herman Cain This week will also be remembered for the women that came out against Herman Cain, a Republican contender for the nomination for president. So far four women have accused him of sexual harassment. One has appeared on television with an attorney and another has decided to talk about what allegedly happened to her 14 years ago. Mr. Cain has come on television and denied every charge, but is extremely hard for him to defend himself against this constant barrage of accusations and the smart money is saying that within a week or two he will no longer be a candidate. Mr. Cain says that he will never give up his candidacy. By the time you read this it is conceivable that he will no longer be in the race. For you sports fans out there, the National Basketball Association is saying that if there is no settlement between owners and players by the end of this week, they may cancel the rest of the season. To tell you the truth this is something that I cannot understand, since the players were offered 50% of all profits and turned that down. Here is a question, is it fair for owners to expect to make 50% of the profits from their team? Somehow I just don't think that is unreasonable, after all they lay out all the money and take all the risks. What happens if the owner doesn't fill the stadium every night, or if he can't get profitable radio and TV contracts. Do the players give back some money? Of course not. The owner might not even get enough commercials on TV if he, or she has a losing team, or companies may not pay as much for commercials for a particular team that is losing. Now I believe that 50% is fair, but I can't speak for anyone else.
Andy Rooney Another thing that happened this week was that the famous newscaster Andy Rooney died. Rooney got into broadcasting at an extremely late age. He was 60 years old before his first broadcast, and yet he lasted until he was 92 years old. Rooney had a very unusual style. While most newscasters rely mainly on video and pictures, he relied on what he had to say and it seemed that people loved it. Most times it was just Rooney sitting at a desk or sitting in a chair without any visual aids available. He will always be remembered for his no-nonsense news and his likable delivery. When the president appeared in Denver, he had been presented with petitions with over 10,000 names on them. What made these petitions particularly interesting is the fact that they requested that the president disclose whether or not the White House had proof that aliens existed. It took a while for an answer, but it came out this week and I hate to disappoint everybody by telling them what that answer was, but I'll do it anyway. Phil Larson, part of the White House Office of Science and Technology, wrote that the U.S. Government has no evidence that life exists outside Earth, or that an extraterrestrial presence has contacted any member of the human race. Well the European Community has another country to worry about. Besides Greece being in danger of failing, the European Union now feels that Italy is also a candidate for failure in the economic community. Silvio Berlusconi is perhaps the most colorful of European leaders. He has weathered many a rumor storm about his love life, but he cannot seem to weather the storm about his financial ability. He tendered his resignation this week, but he intends not to act upon it until some of the financial bills that he has before the Italian parliament have time to pass. According to some experts this could take another month or more and they claim that even then we may not have seen the last of him. As you can see this has been some week. I usually don't give weekly updates, but so much happened of interest that I thought I would bring some of these things to the forefront. The funny part of all this is that the week is only three days old right now and who knows what may happen in the next four days? |
