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Warding off Birds at the Airport

You may have heard of the flock of birds that flew into US Airways Flight 1549, forcing the pilot to make an emergency landing in the Hudson River. Steve Osmek's job at Seattle Tacoma International Airport is to prevent a disaster like this from happening again. The airport has been trying to do this since the 1970s. They have many methods of to prevent birds from landing at the airport and ward them off. To prevent the birds from landing in the first place, they try to cover up the environments that attract the birds. To make them go away, on the other hand, they fire explosive shells in the air pistols of shotguns. He also has a laser that when shined at a bird, supposedly mimics a predator stalking it and forces it to take flight. Finally, he has a radar to help him spot birds with greater ease. I think that this is a very effective way to ward off birds and prevent them from causing harm. I also think that it is great that other airports are also getting radars to help them deal with their "bird problem". All in all, I think that these are great ways to prevent an accident like US Airways Flight 1549 from occurring again.

Source: http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/science/02/11/seattle.bird.radar/index.html#cnnSTCText

North Korean Missles Now Capable of Hitting the U.S.

According to the South Korean Defense Ministry, North Korea has recently spent a great deal of money improving it's land and sea forces, as well its weapons. The is no word yet on why they are doing this, but because they have recently thrown out their peace agreements with South Korea, they appear to be preparing for an oncoming war. One weapon they decided to improve is the medium-range ballistic missile. It is now capable of flying about 1,900 miles which may put U.S. bases in Guam in their range. They also improved their long-range missile, the Taepodong-2, which is believed to have a range of 4,200 miles, which puts even Hawaii and Alaska at risk. I think that this is a very serious issue that needs to be dealt with immediately. These missiles should be unarmed right now with no questions asked. I can't believe anyone let their weapons advance this far in the first place.\

Source:http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/02/23/northkorea.missiles/index.html

Small Earthquake Hits Denville

On Monday, a earthquake with a magnitude of 3.0 hit Denville, New Jersey. One Resident thought a tree had fallen or a neighboring building had exploded. According to seismologist Won-Young Kim the earthquake was very small and it was unlikely the event would cause any serious injuries. I think that the residents are unlucky, because they were hit by and earthquake, yet still fortunate that it was very small and not very damaging. Also, I think people should be more prepared, as Kim said that it was not unusual for earthquakes to occur in that region. All in all, I think that people should still feel lucky that the earthquake was weak and be more prepared if it occurs again.

Sources:
http://www.news12.com/NJ/topstories/article?id=225148
http://www.news12.com/NJ/topstories/article?id=225182

Saving Rice

Thirteen years ago, David Mackill discovered Sub1, the gene that made a type of Indian rice water-resistant. Recently in Davis, California, he and his team successfully introduced the gene to other types of rice. Farmers found the "new" rice to be both high-yielding and good-tasting. These scientists were trying to find a way to make rice, which die after being flooded for just three days, more water-resistant. This is because floods end up destroying 4 million tons of rice every year. By making the rice more water-resistant, more rice will survive and less people will face food shortages. I think that this is very cool. But I also think that water does not result for all of the crop losses, and many other things, such as bugs and droughts, also contribute to crop loss and people should work on preventing that too.

Source:http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/science/01/29/waterproof.rice/index.html

Obama's Inauguration

On January 20th, President Barrack Obama (then Senator Obama) was sworn into office as the 44th President of the United States. He is the first ever African American President. 1.5 million people from all over the country watched from the National Mall, and from televisions all over the globe.

The first article described what Obama did on January 20th, such as giving his speech, signing his first documents, and watching the inauguration parade. The article also mentioned several quotes that Obama made during his speech, a quote from Oprah Winfrey, as well as quotes made by several foreign leaders such as Prime Minister Kevin Rudd who said that Obama was "the hope of our time". The article seems to show a very positive attitude on Obama's Inauguration, showing how happy people were to see a new, promising leader in office.

The second article also gave quotes from Obama's speech, but also mentioned the conditions that Obama has run into. His ratings are very high, and the agreement that billions of dollars would be spent in an attempt to save the economy have given him many assets to complete the goals he has planned for his presidency. He has also inherited the badly damaged economy that he must now fix. It states that, " [Obama's] solution to today's recession and financial-market dysfunction lies precisely in having the government open its checkbook to provide stimulus measured in the hundreds of billions of dollars.The underlying fear, though, is that government now will swing too far, becoming not the solution Mr. Obama wants it to be, but the problem that Mr. Reagan warned it could be." His solution to the crisis could make it better, or in many ways could make it much worse by increasing our country's debt.

I believe that it is great that the United States has finally gotten an African American President. I think that his plans will definitely help our country get back up on its feet and even beyond what it was before this economic crisis. In conclusion, I think that Barrack Obama is exactly what our country needs to become great again.

Sources:
First article:http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/01/20/obama.inauguration/index.html
Second article:http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123249771780200427.html

Super Fast Healing?

Recently a team of researchers from the Imperial College London discovered a way to release a lot of certain stem cells which could help heal injuries faster. They were trying to release endothelial progenitor cells into the body of a rat by injecting proteins but ended up also releasing mesenchymal stem cells, which help endothelial progenitor cells repair tissue. I think that this is a great step forward and could really help people recover faster from injuries. However, I also believe that they should test this very carefully before testing it on humans because so far it has only been tested on rats. All in all, I believe that this is a very important discovery.

Hyperlink:http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/science/01/09/imperial.stem.cells/index.html