Name: Ryan
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In an earlier entry I described the A380 aircraft, the worlds largest commercial airliner. Well, the plane is finally in the air. The aircraft took off for it's inaugural test flight today in Toulouse, France to the delight of thousands who gathered to watch.
There was about 22 tons of testing equipment on the plane according to Airbus. The flight was expected to stay near Toulouse and last about four hours.
*The animals of the world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans any more than black people were made for white, or women created for men. ~Alice Walker
* Life is life - whether in a cat, or dog or man. There is no difference there between a cat or a man. The idea of difference is a human conception for man's own advantage. ~Sri Aurobindo
*Man is the only creature that consumes without producing. He does not give milk, he does not lay eggs, he is too weak to pull the plough, he cannot run fast enough to catch rabbits. Yet he is lord of all the animals. ~George Orwell, Animal Farm
*I ask people why they have deer heads on their walls. They always say because it's such a beautiful animal. There you go. I think my mother is attractive, but I have photographs of her. ~Ellen DeGeneres
I don't know if you have ever used Ebay before, but if you haven't you might want to give it a try. Ebay is great tool to get rid of things you might have around the house that you no longer use or need.
There are a lot of upsides to using Ebay. First of all, it's a good time. It's fun to see people bidding on your items. You get to watch the bids go up and up. This leads nicely to the fact that you make money. You may not want the thing your auctioning anymore, but someone else does. There is always at least one other person looking for what your putting up for bids. Finally, it is great way to liquidate that stuff that you no longer want.
To me, it is a win-win. You get rid of your old stuff and make some money while your at it, and if I had to guess you would probably like to have a little extra cash.
I posted an entry a couple weeks ago called "Finger Chili" that reported on a woman who claimed she found a severed human finger in a bowl of chili that she purchased from a California Wendy's. I had expressed that the woman seemed suspicious and that the whole event seemed kind of "fishy." Well, it looks like that idea holds more water than I originally presumed.
The woman has decided not to sue Wendy's and the San Jose police department has labeled the claim as a hoax. They have not released many details of the case. The woman, Anna Ayala, has been arrested for attempted grand larceny in her hometown of Las Vegas, Nevada. She was charged with attempted grand larceny because of the profit losses that Wendy's has sustained over the last 31 days. Prosecutors say that Wendy's has lost about $2.5 million since the incident. She is being held in Las Vegas as of now but will extradited to San Jose for the hearing.
There is still a $100,000 reward for information leading to the "owner" of the fingertip. The police still do not know where the fingertip came from.
A study conducted by Harvard University, The University of Cambridge, and The University of Toronto reveals that China censors and filters its internet more than any other country in the world. The countries sophisticated blocking methods filter "web sites, blogs, e-mail, and online forums for sensitive political content."
The study claims that China uses "multiple, overlapping filtering methods and a mixture of hard and soft controls." Some material is blocked by simple keywords and other information is filtered and gotten rid of through legal proceedings.
The universities that participated in the study used multiple methods to conduct their research. They had volunteers inside China run programs that determined what kind of material was blocked while others outside of China posted sensitive messages to Chinese web logs. They also sent test emails through Chinese ISP's to see what was blocked and what wasn't.
Just for example, the kind of information that is blocked by Chinese filters includes "content related to Taiwanese and Tibetan independence, falun Gong, the Dalai Lama, the Tianamen Square incident, opposition political parties, and a variety of anti-communism movements."
The study was published at www.opennetinitiative.net/china.
I have a class this semester called ME 180. It’s not an amazing class or anything but it is enjoyable. In this class we use a program called Unigraphics. The class is essentially a CAD (Computer Aided Design) course. We use the program to model 3-D parts.
I have had CAD classes in high school but this one is much better. The reason for this is because the program is much more fun to use. In high school we used AutoCad. It’s a nice program for drawing but it is much more difficult to make complicated 3-Dimensional pieces.
It is kind of fun to see what you can make with the program. For example, for our final project in the class we have to draw the parts that make up a basic fishing reel. The parts seem pretty intricate, but if you are familiar with the program even a little you are able to model the parts to look nearly identical. That actually feels rewarding once you finish a piece.
Now I am not saying run out there and sign up for this class. I am saying that if you are an engineering student and you have to take it anyway, don’t look down on the class. It is easy grade and you might even enjoy it a little! Also, if you enjoy working CAD drawings or you did it in high school and thought it was alright, well then I suggest you sign up for this class.
I recently posted an entry describing the Marburg virus outbreak in Angola. The very deadly virus has now killed 193 of the 218 people known to be infected. This includes native Angolans and health care workers. The World Health Organization (WHO) has issued warnings to other neighboring South African counries saying that they should be on alert.
WHO is frantically trying to block and control the horrible virus' spread. When someone dies of the virus, teams quickly gather information on relatives and friends that the deceased may have been in contact with so they can monitor them for about three weeks. Remember, those who contract the illness usually die within one week. Once again, It is spread through contact with bodily fluids: for example, blood, urine, saliva, excrement, and vomit.
This is one time where I am thankful that I don't have to drive. Well, I am freshman so I can't drive anyway, but you know what I mean. It is nice to know I can ride my bike to class and around town and not have to fill up on gas....ever.
Gas Prices are out of this world right now. When I look around and see $2.34 or $2.45 for a gallon of gas, it amazes me.
There are up sides to this though. The environment could benefit in the long run. Maybe high gas prices will further propel the advancement of other energy sources like hydrogen for hydrogen cell vehicles. This even includes hybrids which get better fuel economy.
Environmental depletion might not open as many eyes as it should, but money always seems to open everyones eyes.
This is just something that I heard about on the news so I decided to put it in the blog.
In San Jose, California, a woman at a local Wendy's bit into a human finger while eating her chili. Medical examiners have inspected the one and a half inch finger tip and declared it to be the real deal.
The "owner" of the finger has yet to be found. They think that it is a womans finger because of the long, manicured nail. All of the workers at that Wendy's had all of their fingers in tact. Investigators believe that the finger entered into the chili at a suppliers manufacturing plant.
The lucky woman who found the finger isn't expected to be in any medical danger because the chili was cooked. She did vomit though once she spit it out and realized what it was.
I think that the woman is kind of suspicious because I heard on CNN that she has a history of lawsuits against companies, including another fast food chain. Plus, no accidents were reported at any of the Wendy's supplier plants. I think they should look a little more closely at the woman and see where she might have been able to get her hands on a finger!
Finger Chile Articles:
North Carolina resident Jeremy Jaynes was recently arrested for sending out numerous unwanted emails. He was believed to be sending out nearly ten million junk emails a day. His emails included offers for bogus products and services. With this system he was able to earn up to $750,000 a month.
His sentence is nine years in prison. He is also the first person in the United States to be sent to jail for sending out spam. A Virginia judge dealt out the sizeable sentence under a new Virginia spam law which makes it a felony to send out spam using fake addresses. Jaynes sent out the emails through an AOL server in Loudoun County, Virginia. He would forge and misrepresent email addresses and origins in order to prevent immediate tracking.
He was believed to be the "world's eighth most prolific spammer."
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