Tuesday, May 29, 2007
No jail time for 2 men charged in taxi driver's death
On tuesday, the the two men were given conditional sentences of two years less a day to be served in the community. They have also been given the penility of Two years probation, 12 months of house arrest, 150 hours of community service, Bans from driving for four years.
Khan, was 46 years old an is an immigrant from Pakistan. During the time he was turning left in an intersection when the Mercedes-Benz driven by Ryazanov struck his vehicle, slamming it into a light pole. Khan died at the scene. Witnesses told the poliece that they saw the two men travelling at speeds of up to 130 and 140 kilometres an hour on a road with a 60 km/h speed limit. From the charges I think that they are given too lighlty to these men and I think they should at least be in jail for 1 or 2 years, pay the price of the accident and also given a monthly speed check for their cars this is because they neglected the safty rules of the streets causing death.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2007/05/29/cab-driver-case.html
blog 26 Ontario bans gift card expiry dates
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2007/05/29/giftcard-expiry.html
blog 25Pickton talked of bodies, committing suicide, jury told
Pickton talked of bodies, committing suicide, jury told
A man Accused of as a serial killer, called Robert Pickton told a friend there were several bodies on his pig farm, then suggested they both commit suicide, the woman testified Tuesday. picton’s close friend called Gina Houston was testified at Pickton's murder trial in New Westminster, B.C., after a week long break for the Crown and defence to make legal arguments without the jury. Houston, 39, told the court about her close relationship with Pickton at his Port Coquitlam farm a place where she said she used drugs and learned to butcher pigs. It's also the place where pathologists discovered the remains of women who disappeared from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. A nervous Pickton discussed committing suicide with her during a conversation while they were sitting in his car two days before he was arrested in February, 2002, Houston testified. She said Pickton told her that the two of them "had a decision to make" and that there was "only one way out." I think that rather sucide they could of told the poliec what had happened and maybe the judges would give them a better charge instead of being harsh on them.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2007/05/29/pickton.html
blog 24 Ottawa sued over Kyoto
In Ottawa the environmental group called Kyoto protocol sued Ottawa at court, they wish to be able to force the Conservative government to meet their responsibilities. Kyoto protocol challenged Ottawa in court on 2007, 5, 29. They said Canada will likely be in "flagrant breach" of it’s international obligations under the climate-change treaty.
For Christine Elwell, a spokeswoman for Kyoto, the message to Prime Minister Stephen Harper was simply "You can't just do whatever you want. You have laws. You have obligations."
A former lawyer of the Sierra Legal Defence Fund called Robert Wright, says “the group does not want to the court to impose a climate-change plan on the federal government. It just wants the Conservatives to honour the Kyoto targets to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions”. He also added, "We're not asking the court to tell the government precisely how to deal with climate change and greenhouse gases,".
For Christine Elwell responded, "We are asking the court to tell the government that whatever plan they do come up with, whatever regulations they do come out with, that they comply with the legal obligation."
Given the evidence before a Commons committee in the community today, Environment Minister John Baird told the court, they have respected the Kyoto but the target emission reduction level would be too hard or not achievable because if done so many people would be affected by that.
The government's other plan promises to reduce the green house gas emissions by 20 per cent by 2020 based on 2006 levels, with greenhouse gas emitters facing a 26 per cent reduction by 2015. As then the Kyoto protocol said that they would only agree to this act by setting 1990 as the base year for reductions and a thumbs down to 2006.
When both sides are ready to agree the government's plan was then criticized again on Monday by the Pembina Institute which are an other environmental group, they stated that “there are far too many loopholes and assumptions in the emission-reduction targets”. The courts must tell the government that it "can't cut and run," said Elwell. "You can't just do whatever you want. You're not free to decide that `I'm not going to follow our obligation."' Canada ratified the Kyoto protocol in 2002. The agreement calls for overall reductions in greenhouse gas emissions to six per cent below 1990 levels between the years 2008 and 2012. This is important because I think that the government wanted to do whatever they want and ignore the other problems such as this one. They should of watched out for their greenhouse gas emissions through out the time, and also they can’t say that it is too impossible to meet the requirements because they signed the treaty and they should of changed anything on that treaty when there are things that are hard to keep up with.
http://www.thestar.com/News/article/218923
Blog 23 Speaking in tones? Blame it on your genes
Through out the generations of human the populations may have influenced languages spoken around the world today, as researchs have proved. The studies/ research says that people who carry variants of around 2 two genes involved in development of the brain tend to speak nontonal languages such as English, while those with a different genetic profile are more likely to speak tonal languages such as Chinese.
In tonal languages, such as chinese, korean, japanese, african languages, there differences in pitch can change the meaning of vowels, consonants and syllables. These types of languages are mainly spoken in South East Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Nontonal languages, which prevail in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, use pitch only as a way of conveying emphasis or emotion. Also new discoveries from the Universities of Edinburgh says that tonal languages that sounded more like modern Chinese or Zulu were spoken by the very first human on earth. This Meaning that languages such as english and french came a while after. “The genetic profile that appears to predispose to nontonal languages evolved only about 5,800 years ago, implying that all languages were probably tonal before that”, said one of the researchers.
From what the research results came out “This does not mean that people with one set of genes cannot speak the other type of language, or that you have to be any smarter to learn one of these groups of languages rather than another,” Robert Ladd, who led the research, said. “What we have found, though, suggests that these genes might have a very small effect on individuals, and a larger effect on the populations in which they live. As the language is passed on culturally, it would then be more likely to develop along one path than the other.” After reading this I start to wonder how languages would become after a few centries later. I thought that it was an intresting find that english was not one of the language the very first human beings spoke but rather languages similar to modern chinese.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article1851794.ece
blog 22 Ants can plug anything, even potholes
The Ants also have groups that the researchers found that are specialized for road –repairing. These ant are limited in size which only contains around 50 of them, but if a situation like this happened they would simply have ants from the groups to keep plugging away until a perfect ant bridge is created. “The study offers rare quantitative evidence that extreme specialization among a sturdy few with a lot of backbone can improve the performance of a majority”, conclude Scott Powell and Nigel Franks, biologists at the University of Bristol. The researchers’ test ants were called Eciton burchellii, which is also called as army ants. The researchers simply made a road filled with holes, by doing so they could test how the ants adapt to the artificial environment and how they would react in those situations. They also did a series of measurements of the army ant’s gain in productivity, they calculated the self-sacrificing behavior of the ants "results in a clear net gain in daily prey intake for the colony". Also from the studies made by the researchers if there were only 7500 worker ants in a trail, they can create a ant bridge by doing hole-plugging duty, the foraging party can increase its daily intake of goodies by up to 26 percent, according the study, to be published in June in the British journal Animal Behaviour. This is amazing as i never knew such tiny ants can plug holes that are 7000 times their sizes and how they would sacrifice their lives for the group. It is also freaky to know that these species of ants travel in such big numbers.
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=31&art_id=nw20070529194328897C912447
blog 21 Saskatoon health region probes release of hospital cards
It is shocking that Sasatoon’s health region has their blue cards sold in some auctions for money. Recently a saskatoon man went to an auction and purchased a big box full of personal health information. The iteams came in thousands of blue plastic hospital cards with many personal/ private information, including names, adresses, health status, etc. With that box many people’s personal health information said to be protected was leacked out to some stranger.
After the auction the man then gave the box labeled as recycled, to a local saskatchewan party MLA. After that it was returned to saskatoon health region. Sask. Party MLA Don Morgan said Tuesday that “people have the right to expect that their personal health information will be protected”, but after this incidant, that right was violated. “The case raises serious questions”, he said. "Does the regional health authority have good processes and good procedures in place?" asked Morgan. "[Are] there policies that will prevent this from happening in the future?" I think that the health authority should take this more seriously as it is important to everyone. It is also a serious problem to the information security as this happened I think that many of the citizens would not want to keep their records in those hospitals etc.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/saskatchewan/story/2007/05/29/saskatoon-cards.html
20 South Korea aims for space in 2017
In south Korea the governments said on Monday that they will push the exploration of planets as early as 2017. This it because South Korea wants to join the exclusive space club. The government in south Korea have decided to spend huge amounts of money “won” around $3.8 trillion meaning for around $4 billion. That amount of money will then be used over the next 10 years to improve technologies in building satellites and rockets, said Jeong Hae-yang, an official of the Science and Technology Ministry.
The exploration is almost like “an investment for the future,” said Jeong. Also by doing so the Exploration would help resource-poor south Korea pool more resources and information about space. According to the ministry of South Korea, the ambitious project will be made public at a hearing Monday will be finalized in June. “South Korea also aims to join international space exploration programs, including the international space station, to help master core technologies in building satellites and rockets”, said Jeong. I think that it is great that South Korea is doing more explorations in space but if they want to compete they are already to far behind.
http://edition.cnn.com/2007/TECH/space/05/29/skorea.space.ap/index.html
Blog 19 Whales swim under another busy bridge
On Tuesday May 29th The two whales were once again spotted swimming near a bridge in Sacramento River, New York, California. This is a follow up news to the previous one. The Biologist now worry about the whales health from the big wound that they got from boat’s propellers and also the suffrage of the long stay in Fresh water. Antibiotics were injected by using guns and darts, and shooting them into the whales on Saturday to try to slow the damage of the wounds and also ease their pain.
Although they stayed long in the river of California they are making good progress. When they first arrived they swam around 90 miles inland, by now the mother whale and her calf are now at around 40 miles inland making a progress of around 50 miles. During the journey when they first arrived at the river there was an memorial day where all the people swarmed the two sides of the river to catch a glimpse of the whale, and the coast guards had to maintain a 500-yard safety zone around the whales. "It's still anybody's guess. The whales are going to decide what they're going to do and how they're going to do it," said Bernadette Fees, deputy director of the California Department of Fish and Game. I think that the police did well in trying to help the whales to get better and also to help them find their way back to home.
Monday, May 28, 2007
Rescuers to turn fire hoses on whales
In California a whale mother and her calf took a wrong turn a week ago entering Sacramento River and travelled 90miles inland . They have been proceeding the right way, but now for some unknown reason they have been circling around for days. The two whales have spent more than a week in the river and now the scientist have thought of a new plan of pushing them back to where their homes are. They have never used this technique of spraying water from above and below the river.
The whales have been circling a point of the river around 70 miles inland. Their destination have not changed for a few days but their wounds have gotten worse. It was cause by collision from the boats’ propellers and caused a big cut across the back. The scientist also got veterinary science at the Marin Mammal Center in Sausalito to create some antibiotics for the whales but the scientist are still working and developing the drug. The injection of the antibiotics would help the whale to recover faster from the wound. They said that the medicine would be given to the whales through dart needles.
I think the reason for them to be circling the area is that they do not want to go back with the large wound as the salt water gives them enormous pain. They stayed in the fresh water for that long is because after they realized they were not on track they went back but with the help of human they got their cuts and now are suffering. I think that if the scientist really want to help is evacuate the boats from that area or not permit any activities that involve boats as accidents might accrue again and might be fatal if the whales get any more physical damaged.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/05/25/delta.whales.ap/index.html
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Saturn's rings are dense clumps
These facts were presented by NASA along with the corporation of European and Italian Space agencies Cassini spacecraft also show that the ring’s particles are constantly colliding rather than going in an orderly form. From these results it surprises everyone. As the thought of Saturn’s rings being smooth and particles flowing in a direction constantly it is actually the opposite.
A scientist said “The rings are different from the picture we had in our minds,” said Larry Esposito of the University of Colorado at Boulder. Larry Esposito is an expert at studies using ultraviolet imaging. “We originally thought we would see a uniform cloud of particles. Instead we find particles clumped together with empty spaces in between” exclaimed Esposito. Other scientist also began to question that what the information they had gathered from before is wrong and in fact the ring might be 2 or 3 times denser that what they had thought.
Now the scientist have a new method of discovering how the rings are by the usage of light. "By studying the brightness of stars as the rings pass in front of them, we are able to map the ring structure in 3-D and learn more about the shape, spacing and orientation of clusters of particles," Colwell said in a statement.
From a journalist Lcarus said that the clumps are formed because of the gravitational attraction and the colliding of the rings particles. Also if the clumps were further from the planet Saturn, they might combine with each other or even form a moon. This didn’t happens as because the clumps of particles are so close to the gas giant/ planet, they would all be stretched apart from each other.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/space/05/24/saturn.rings.reut/index.html
Tuesday, May 8, 2007
blog 15-Doctor finds spiders in ear of boy with earache
Later during the day while the doctor examined the ear’s of the 9 year old boy. The doctor noticed that something was inside this boy’s ear. When the boy got treated with liquid spray into the ears the spiders came out. The first one came out dead but the second one came out with the second spray. When the spiders came out the boy wanted to keep them as a display. The spider were almost the size of the pencil eraser on the top of the pencil.
I thought that this was really weird and sick of course. Although it truly is amazing how spider can live inside a person’s ears. When this happened what would people do to prevent this from happening, by putting in ear plugs when they sleep? Although it is disgusting I think that the spiders would leave by them selves sooner or later because it would need food to survive. This article scares me as I really wouldn’t want insects growing in my body.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/05/07/spiderboy.ap/index.html
Friday, May 4, 2007
Blog 14-Convicted killer fears his last moments
In recent studies from a not for profit organization the scientist were shocked as there were no until 2005. Six scientists have spent 3 years of study in the drug use to execute people. They have looked over all of them and most give similar conclusions. As the amount of drugs found in the bodies and could cause immense pain and so the scientist concluded the drug protocol a failure. I think that it had been stupid for the people in the past to not conduct research before using these types of drugs and with out knowing what they are putting into human bodies. It has been cruel to the people who suffered this death with out knowing the fact “it is a quick way to die” is a lie.
Through out the time and year I cannot imagine how much fear it would be to be in a prison for more than 25 years under going the death sentence and being stopped every time. I think that it has been really cruel to him and his family as the case had not been settled and the court had always given them hope but then crushing it by the death sentence every time. As he said he would not want his families to visit him and he wants to end this quickly. It might be the best for him to let him choose to end this quickly instead undergoing the feeling of hope and hope destroyed again over and over.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/05/02/lethal.injection/index.html