The Leonid Meteor Shower

The Leonid Meteor Shower is an annual event that returns every mid-November. The shower is caused by material left behind the comet Tempel-Tuttle when it passes near Earth's orbit during its regular trip through the solar system. This year the Leonid Meteor shower will be best seen through November 18th  and 15-20 meteors per hour may be seen. I am fascinated by this meteor shower, and how it radiates like a constellation. According to the article on the Leonid meteor shower, on Yahoo! news, in order to get the best few of this shower is to get as far away from city lights as possible. Find a dark place, lay out a blanket and enjoy the view!

Cholera in Haiti

As if Haiti has not been through enough, this past year has been a nightmare. In January, Haiti experienced a 7.0 magnitude earthquake which devasted this already impoverished nation and claimed the lives of 230,000 people. This loss of life does not include the millions left homeless living in tent cities, with little to no medical care, lack of clean drinking water and lack of sanitary conditions. In the past couple of weeks there has been an outbreak of cholera, which as of today has claimed the lives of over 1,000 people and over 16,000 have sought medical treatment. Cholera is an intestinal infection caused by bacteria transmitted through contaminated water or food, the source of contamination is usually feces of infected people. Cholera causes diarrhea, vomiting, severe dehydration; can kill quickly, but is easily treated by rehydration and antibiotics. Protests and attacks have been occuring in Haiti mainly against peacekeepers and foreigners who have been blamed for this outbreak.

Global Adventures

As the weather starts to get cold outside I am already thinking about my next vacation. As I was browsing through Yahoo! Travel, I found an article on Choose your own adventure which describes adventurous vacations unlike the traditional going down to the shore vacations. Some of the most interesting to me was the Scuba Diving in Belize, which includes night diving, the Blue Hole which is a 400ft deep sinkhole surrounded by the Lighthouse Reef and white sanded beaches.
Scuba Diving in Belize

Another adventure that caught my eye was Exploring Egypt, where there is an 11-day Egypt Unveiled Trip, which includes visits to the pyramids, tours of pharaoh tombs, and  4 day cruise on the Nile river which takes you to less visited locations such as Dendera, Edfu, and Kom Ombo.

Whichever vacation I decide to do I will be sure to look for something challenging, new and especially exciting. 

Election Day 2010

It's election day and the question on many peoples mind..."did you vote today?". I never really saw the importance of voting during an election when we weren't picking a new president, but this election has changed my view. Between the republicans trying to regain control, democrats holding on for dear life and the tea partiest? trying to shake everything up, it seems like all we talk about is this election. I wonder how much will really change if the republicans regain the majority or is this just another talk to win and when they get in nothing is accomplished. I also wonder how much can the tea party do if they are faced with opposition by potentially both parties. But what I think about most is how do Americans think 2 years is enough to fix years of damage done to our economy. I don't necessarily agree with all that has been done, but I do know that our economy will not recover overnight (or 2 years for that matter) and that it takes time and we while we may not all agree on certain policies we do agree that something's got to give and our nation must get better. So with that I ask you, Did you vote today? I did.

Chernobyl

Last night in class the professor discussed the disaster of chernobyl. I was very intrigued by this disaster that I had never heard of and decided to look up more information on it. It is considered the worst nuclear plant disaster in history. The disaster occured on April 26, 1986 at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant located in the Ukraine. Four hundred times more radioactive material was released then by the atomic bombing at Hiroshima. The Soviet Union did not initially publish disclose the accident, rather it was a nuclear power plant in Sweden that disclosed the accident after several of their workers had radioactive particles on their clothes. the disaster at Chernobyl affected hundreds in the months after the disaster and caused the evacuations of hundreds of thousands and many towns nearby. In recent studies it is estimated that so far 4,000 children and adololescents exposed have been diagnosed with thyroid cancer.

Chernobyl_radiation_map_1996

Tsunami in Indonesia

Indonesia Tsunami Kills 113

Mount Merapi

The picture above shows an Indonesian rescue team prepares to evacuate earthquake victims in Padang, West Sumatra on October 26.

The latest earthquake in Indonesia was caused due to the volcanic eruption of Indonesia's most unstable volcano's, Mount Merapi. So far 113 have died and thousands more are unaccounted for. This country is prone to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions because it lies above several fault lines.

Globalization and latin america

This article discusses how multinational businesses have been able to infiltrate Plaza's located not only in Puerto Rico but also throughout all of latin America. Plaza is the central location market of small towns locaed in latin America. The plaza is where locals go to for church,city hall, gatherings as well as small businesses. The article uses the plaza de ponce as a prime example of how globalization has effected latin American towns, and although locals give some resistance eventually change does come. The plaza de ponce came about the late 1700's and in the late 1860 consisted of a church, several residences and businesses. The article uses annual property tax records found in the ponce municipal to illustrate the changes in businesses from 1898 to 2000. The plaza began in 1907 with 2 international businesses located adjacent to the plaza. by 2000 there where 7 multinational businesses ( burger king, Mcdonalds,Church"s, taco makers, citibanks and baker's shoes)