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ONE JUSTICE 2009
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Friday, October 9, 20097:56 AM
and the weekend approaches..
Hello. It's me, again. So apparently, the enrichment consent forms are due on monday. For those that have not handed in, please bring by monday! The list is with Rachel, so yes. Also, if you haven't contributed to the class fund, as what Mrs. Seah had said, can pass it to Nathania. Well, it's the weekends again, BUT, without homework :D So, just spend the time relaxing or reading. Then again, the results are coming one after another. Since tests are over, shall just post some news. 1) NASA prepares to 'bomb' the moon to search for water NASA is preparing a violent return to the moon Friday as part of a mission to send a satellite and a rocket booster crashing into the planet's surface to look for water. Conspiracy theories aside -- a 'do not bomb the moon' website is already campaigning against the move -- there is no actual bomb, but the US space agency's LCROSS satellite and heavier Centaur upper-stage rocket will still leave huge impact sites where NASA hopes to find evidence of water or ice. At 1130GMT, the rocket and four minutes later the spacecraft will separately race into the moon at 9,000 kilometres per hour to kick up approximately 10km of lunar dirt from the Cabeus crater floor near the planet's south pole. The flash that will follow the impact will last about 30 seconds. A camera mounted on the 891kg Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) will beam live footage back to Earth. The carnage is also the first preparatory mission of the Constellation programme that aims to bring Americans back to the moon by 2020. "We don't anticipate anything about presence or absence of water immediately. It's going to take us some time," cautioned Anthony Colaprete, project scientist and principal investigator for the LCROSS mission, which has a 79-million-US-dollar budget. Colaprete projected it would take several days for analysts to evaluate the data and several weeks to determine whether and how much hydrogen-bearing compounds were found. For those hoping to catch a bare-eyed glimpse of the impact, the scientist had sad news. "It's not going to be a grand spectacle that you can go outside in your back yard and see with your bare eyes or even a good binoculars. It's going to be too faint," said Colaprete. More powerful telescopes around the world and also the Hubble Space Telescope will nevertheless get a good view as they focus on the giant cloud of debris. NASA scientists will be looking at what spews out after 350 tonnes of debris are ejected from the cold, dark Cabeus crater, staking its hopes on water in the form of ice. The crater is 100km across and between 2.5km to 4km deep. "We're hunting for how water ice was stored and trapped in these permanently shadowed areas over billions of years and we want to find out how much there is," explained Peter Schultz, a professor of geological sciences at Brown University who helped design the mission. The mission comes just two weeks after India hailed the discovery of water on the Moon with its Chandrayaan-1 satellite mission in partnership with NASA. Scientists had previously theorized that, except for the possibility of ice at the bottom of craters, the moon was totally dry. Finding water on Earth's satellite would be a major breakthrough in space exploration and pave the way toward future lunar bases for drinking water or fuel, or even man living on another planet. "This could be the place that we could go to mine water for a permanent lunar base," said Schultz. "It tells us something about how water was delivered to the moon and other planets in a sort of cosmic rain, meaning impacts from comets over eons." But much uncertainty surrounds NASA's future dealings with the moon, as key review panel appointed by President Barack Obama's administration said existing budgets bar a return to the cold planet before 2020. 2) Beauty queen Ris Low remains positive about life despite bad publicity Former Miss Singapore World Ris Low has clarified comments in media reports where she said stealing credit cards was fun. Speaking to Channel NewsAsia in an exclusive interview, Ms Low said her actions were the result of her bipolar disorder. The beauty queen gave up her crown last month after it was revealed that she was convicted of credit card fraud. She said she has learnt a lot from the saga and that despite the bad publicity, she remains positive in life. She said: "I don't mean that stealing credit cards was fun. But the thrill that I felt - the feeling that I got from stealing credit cards was there. That was what I was trying to explain. But it's not that I am encouraging young people to steal credit cards or anything like this. "When you have bipolar, you're always out to seek adventure, to seek something new, something fun and something that's out of the world that nobody can do. Something that is totally out the world and you have such a hot passion for." Ris also reiterated that she did not cheat in her exams. She said: "That's one thing I want to correct. It was just pieces of paper and irrelevant notes found inside my pencil box. And I was about to hand in the paper when they were found. This is something that I want to say to everybody, that I didn't have the intention to cheat." When asked how she felt that people did not believe her side of the story, Ris said: "What I'm saying is the truth. It's up to you to believe it or not. I don't have the time or that much energy to explain to you what I have to say and what I have to deal with. I have enough things on my hands already. So, it's fine if you don't believe me." So how does Ris handle her urge to steal? She said: "I don't think I have the urge to steal anymore because now I am more of a shopaholic. So I overspend. I tend to spend my mom's money like nobody's business." Despite the bad publicity, the 19-year-old remains positive in life and when asked what she plans to do in future, she said: "If I can, I would like to open up a cake shop.......And another one of my dreams is to be a nurse where I can help everybody and give back to society." Ris added that even if she were given a second chance, she would not want to change anything. "Everything that has happened to me has made me grow up, made me tougher, made me stronger, which is why I am standing here right now and standing tall, head high up. I think that's what's most important." 3) 'Extraordinary' Obama wins Nobel Peace Prize US President Barack Obama sensationally won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday just nine months into his term, prompting world leaders to urge him to use the accolade to step up efforts for global peace. The jury hailed Obama's "extraordinary" efforts in international diplomacy and to hasten nuclear disarmament, but criticism surged quickly over how the award could be given so soon. The US leader, 48, said he was "humbled" by the distinction. "Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future," the Nobel jury said in making the stunning announcement. A gasp went through the Nobel Institute in Oslo as Obama's name was read out. The committee attached "special importance to Obama's vision and work for a world without nuclear weapons" and said he had created "a new climate in international politics". Obama took office on January 20 and has sought to restore US standing after widespread criticism over the war in Iraq and the world superpower's attitude to efforts to control global warming. The first African American president has brought the Israeli and Palestinian leaders together for a meeting, approved new diplomatic engagement with Iran, Myanmar and North Korea and signalled a new willingness to attack growing environmental problems. Obama went to Cairo to make a major speech on relations with the Muslim world, badly tarnished by President George W Bush's order to invade Iraq. At the United Nations, he has launched an initiative to reduce the number of nuclear weapons. The US president was awoken at 6:00 am at the White House by his spokesman to be told of the award. An administration official quoted Obama as saying he felt "humbled". Obama was honoured "for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples," the head of the Norwegian Nobel Committee Thorbjoern Jagland said, adding that it was "a unanimous decision". The jury said: "Dialogue and negotiations are preferred as instruments for resolving even the most difficult international conflicts. The vision of a world free from nuclear arms has powerfully stimulated disarmament and arms control negotiations," it said. "Thanks to Obama's initiative, the US is now playing a more constructive role in meeting the great climatic changes the world is confronting." The committee said it was seeking to encourage Obama's ideals rather than recognise concrete results. Speaking to AFP, Jagland said: "It was unavoidable to give the prize to the man who has improved the international climate and emphasised negotiations and dialogue." "Before he took office the situation was so dangerous. Step by step he has given the message to the world that he wants to negotiate on all conflicts, strengthen the United Nations and work for a world without any nuclear arms." German Chancellor Angela Merkel welcomed the award, calling it an "incentive to the president and to us all" to do more for peace. The Nelson Mandela Foundation agreed. "We trust that this award will strengthen his commitment, as the leader of the most powerful nation in the world, to continue promoting peace and the eradication of poverty," it said. The UN said it hoped the prize would encourage Obama to commit to an international treaty on global warming, and the head of the Arab League, Amr Mussa, said he hoped it would "help intensify efforts to reach peace in the Middle East and contain negative efforts opposed to peace". A spokesman for Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Tehran hoped it would give Obama "the incentive to walk in the path of bringing justice to the world order". UN's nuclear watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei, another past Peace Prize winner, said Obama had "transformed the way we look at ourselves and the world we live in and rekindled hope for a world at peace with itself". "President Obama has provided outstanding leadership on moving towards a world free of nuclear weapons," he said. But Poland's anti-communist leader Lech Walesa, who won the 1983 Nobel Peace Prize, said it was too early to reward Obama now. "Who, Obama? So fast? Too fast - he hasn't had the time to do anything yet," Walesa told reporters in Warsaw. "For the time being Obama's just making proposals. But sometimes the Nobel committee awards the prize to encourage responsible action." In Afghanistan, Taliban militia spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid condemned the prize, saying, "We have seen no change in his strategy for peace. He has done nothing for peace in Afghanistan." Asked whether it was too early to give Obama the prize, Jagland replied: "If you look at the history of the Peace Prize, we have on many occasions given it to try to enhance what many personalities were trying to do." "The decision to go to Afghanistan had a unanimous UN mandate. The conflict in Afghanistan concerns us all. This is not only the responsibility of Barack Obama but hopefully this improved international climate could help resolve the conflict," he said. Obama is the third US president in office to win the award, after Theodore Roosevelt in 1906 and Woodrow Wilson in 1919. Former US president Jimmy Carter won the prize in 2002. The gold medal, diploma and a cheque for 10 million Swedish kronor (1.42 million dollars, 980,000 euros) will be presented in Oslo on December 10, the anniversary of the death in 1896 of the prize creator, Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel. 4) Shower heads can spray dangerous bacteria Shower heads can deliver a face full of dangerous pathogens, according to a study published Monday which found them to be ideal breeding grounds for bacteria. US researchers analyzed 50 shower heads from nine different cities and found 30 per cent harbored significant levels of a pathogen linked to lung disease called mycobacterium avium. While the pathogen is common in municipal water systems, the levels found clinging to shower heads in slimy "biofilms" were more than 100 times higher than the "background" levels in the water. "If you are getting a face full of water when you first turn your shower on, that means you are probably getting a particularly high load of Mycobacterium avium, which may not be too healthy," said lead author Norman Pace, a microbiologist at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Pace's team began studying shower heads after research at the National Jewish Hospital in Denver found that recent increases in pulmonary infections from so-called "non-tuberculosis" mycobacteria species like M. avium may be linked to people taking more showers and fewer baths. That's because water spurting from shower heads can distribute pathogen-filled droplets that are easily inhaled into the deepest parts of the lungs. "There have been some precedents for concern regarding pathogens and shower heads," said Pace. "But until this study we did not know just how much concern." Immune-compromised people like pregnant women, the elderly and those fighting off other diseases are most at risk of developing pulmonary disease caused by M. avium. The symptoms include tiredness, a persistent, dry cough, shortness of breath, weakness and "generally feeling bad," Pace said. The researchers sampled shower heads in public facilities, houses and apartment buildings in New York, Illinois, Colorado, Tennessee and North Dakota. They found lower levels of pathogens in smaller towns and cities which used well water rather than municipal water. They also found that metal shower heads harbored far fewer pathogens than plastic shower heads. The results do not indicate that people should switch from showers to baths, said co-author Laura Baumgartner, also of the University of Colorado. "Is it dangerous? Getting out of bed is dangerous," she said in a telephone interview. "Everywhere you go there are microbes." Switching to a metal shower head, especially one with a filter than can be changed regularly, can help reduce the buildup of pathogens. Stepping outside the room for a minute after turning the shower on can also reduce the likelihood of inhaling pathogens that get pushed out of the shower head with the first burst of water, she said. "For the average person, you shouldn't not be worried at all." The study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. http://www.channelnewsasia.com/ Okay, enjoy the weekends. God Bless, Dorcas ;D |
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