Clinton fights for Obama

"On a chilly Florida night, former President Bill Clinton warmly embraced Senator Barack Obama as a fresh leader for a new generation of Americans and implored voters to rally behind his candidacy to return the nation to a steady course." (from the political section of the NYTimes)
Clinton says to all Democrats-"Vote for Obama! He will lead our nation beyond what has ever happened before. This man is fit to be your president and mine as well. He has what it takes. 'He’s going to be the next president unless Americans forget what this election is all about.'" I think that was a nice gesture to Obama. The crowd was--is behind him, rooting for him in the background. Obama smiles, at ease and satisfied. He has what it takes to become our leader of this nation.


Elizabeth

Efforts of campaigning showing in tv ads.

Hey! This blog talks about tv ads from both campaigns. McCain uses mostly ads that use backgrounds involving tanks, Islamic extremes, and stormy seas to show that he would be a safer choice. He never gives up on his negative campaigning. One commercial shows McCain isn't alone; It says Obama will provide a tax cut of $1,000 to middle class people if you make exactly $60,000. McCain would only give you $150. Republicans are supposed to try to lower taxes while democrats would raise them. He also argues about many other economic issues. They both argue through an endless streak of argument about what they care most about. Obama gets yet another edge with a nearly endless supply of resources compared to McCain's resources. I thought to myself when I read that, "Obama probably gathered a greater amount of resources because he had more donations etc. He probably got his donations from people who will vote (or already voted) for him. If enough people vote for him he'll win and the people who donated almost guarantee a vote for him so that's good news for Obama fans like me." Many ads get positioned for the most part in a single or group of states. For example, Florida falsely accuses McCain of high costs of Medicare. Certain places in Colorado and Pennsylvania accused McCain of supporting businesses that ship over seas. Obama used his resources to buy him a 30-minute commercial on CBS, NBC, Fox, and Univision. He spent 5 million dollars on it. My conclusion, Obama gained a slight advantage over McCain in some areas but this race could go either way.





:-) :-<> ;-) :-O B-) :-)= $:-) K:-) :-(D ):-}= &:-) :-P :-q My new hairy dude J:-{ )-[

Brazil has more than enough oil - Daniel

Bloomberg.com - Oct 24, 2008

In Brazil the Petrobras oil company has found two huge pockets of oil in the Atlantic Ocean in the Tupi region, offshore. Tupi is part of a new deepwater region known as the pre-salt that may contain as much as 50 billion barrels, according to Peter Wells, oil analyst with the UK’s Neftex Petroleum Consultants. “Petrobras has something that other oil companies don’t have: oil - lots of it and they’re going to find more,” said Ricardo Kob-ayashi, an equity fund manager with UBS Pactual in Rio de Janeiro. 

Although this may seem like good news, gasoline prices are still very high. Many people think that these new oil discoveries will not help to lower the price of gasoline and oil worldwide because of the very high demand for oil and energy in the United States and from developing countries like China and India. Some people want to drill for this oil now, but it will be very difficult and expensive because of the oil's location deep in the ocean floor. There is always a threat to marine life when they do that and I'd rather protect the animals.  I think we need to put our "energies" into hybrid cars, alternative fuels like ethanol and technology like hydrogen power.  We are going to run out of oil and gasoline one day and we need to be prepared.

:)

Jeremy: Third Presidential Debate

"Round Three: McCain summoned old-fashioned antigovernment outrage in the final debate. But this is a different year." by Joe Klein in TIME magazine, October 27th, 2008 page 29.

In the third and final presidential debate, "John McCain entered the third debate with Obama a chastened man." . The use of the word "chastened" taught me a new word and it showed me that McCain is now on the defensive. I had thought he was still on the offensive. I learned that Obama wants the government to help solve health care instead of the people sorting it out. Looking back on the campaign, this article points out mistakes.

One the main mistakes, that the author suggests is hurting McCain's reputation, is the negativity. "... McCain had consistently stoked the rage as well as with non stop negative advertising and by questioning Obama's patriotism and trying to make an Everest out of the anthill of Obama's association - passing at best - with the former terrorist William Ayers."

Another mistake was his selection of VP. It is said that McCain wanted to choose Joe Lieberman as his running mate. Instead he listened to other advisors and selected Sarah Palin. "...McCain's monumentally dreadful selection of a running mate unqualified for the presidency" is seen to undermine his Ready on Day One campaign promise.

However, the article says McCain's recent messages are soild. The CNN focus group of independent Ohioians for the third debate like messages but rated Obama much higher.

How Early Voting is Helping

Early voting has increased the number of people voting. 25% of the people in Hays County have early voted, and that is basically the whole turnout for voting in an election. People in Austin are thinking that 75-80% will be the total percentage of turnout  in some counties. Isn't that cool?                    -Ivy

Naughty Senator Alert!

Yesterday afternoon, a Republican that was running for the position of Alaska's senator was convicted before a jury for violating several ethics laws and failing to report tens of thousands of dollars in gifts and services he had received from friends. Both John McCain and Sarah Palin called for the running senator of Alaska to quit his upcoming election because of his conviction. Yet this man called Ted Stevens refused to quit even though he was convicted of this crime. What do you think about that? Should Mr. Stevens leave the election? Or should he be strong and continue to refuse? I think that because of his long political career, he should not quit the election.  

Some scientists from the University of California discovered that you can create X-rays by unrolling a roll of scotch tape. It needed to have a strong current so it only worked in a vacuum (airtight space) because of the moisture in the air. Before, scientists had discovered that unpeeling tape could produce light. The tape is technically a mini X-ray machine! Now these scientists face an even higher challenge: "there's the possibility of nuclear fusion. If the energy from the breaking adhesive could be directed away from the electrons to heavy hydrogen ions implanted in modified tape, the ions would accelerate fast enough so that when they collided, they could fuse together and give off energy — the same process that lights the sun." I also think that is quite similar to solar panels. Solar panels have electrons blasted off by the sun; nuclear fusion has the hydrogen atoms blasted off by electrons. source: nyt

Bloodhound Rocket Car Sniffs out 1000-mph Land Speed Record

    The Bloodhound rocket is faster than a magnum .357 handgun bullet. This super sonic car will travel at more than 1000 mph. The driver will be wing commander Andy Green who is a Royal Air Force fighter pilot that broke the current record of 763 mph in October 1997. I think it is extraordinary that they invented a vehicle that can go over 1000 mph. 'Paul Drayson, science minister for the UK government, which is funding an accompanying education program said: "This project is not just about bragging rights to the world speed record.  This will result in tangible scientific developments that will benefit all, for example in areas such as fuel efficiency and safety and which could be used in the cars we drive in the future." '

 - Samantha 

Article from Thu October 23, 2008 CNN.com/technology

Special Report:  Just Imagine... what life will be like in 2020?

Habitats and a Point on Negative Campaigning

Hello everybody, I would just like to remind you about animals natural habitats and how presidential policies can affect them. Now, we all know for sure one thing that will happen if McCain becomes president, all that toxic waste from those nuclear plants is going to kill quite a lot of animals. If Obama becomes president, then animal population should go up because of his nice energy plans for wind, solar and, water energy. Also, about all this negative campaigning, I think were kind of insulting John McCain too. Do you agree? If not, go look at some comments about him. 

The Early vote gets the worm.

Hello! B-) Many voters stopped napping (No offense to my mom.) and started early voting. The results start showing and Obama likes what's scribbled all over them. Ohio, Nevada, Iowa, New Mexico and North Carolina favor Obama. Florida chooses McCain, and Colorado is a tossup. The early vote is important not just for a prediction but also encouragement for other "on time voters". Many voters support the person who's winning because they're too lazy to pay attention to politics. Paul Gronke said, "“In the past, what you’ve seen is early voters tend to be older, had higher incomes and lean more Republican and that trend has held over the past elections,” “But what we are seeing now when you look at the numbers is that they are more African-American, Hispanic and the young. I look at this and I go, ‘Wow!’ This is quite different. It is a lot different from what we’ve seen before and it has to raise concerns for the G.O.P.” This auspicious moment for Obama may lead to his victory. I'm especially excited about Ohio because all republican candidates depend on it for victory. Do you want your vote to inspire others? Do you want to avoid risks such as bad weather? You can vote early and your vote will inspire instead of expiring. I hope you enjoyed my blog! :-(D ( Open big tongue smiley!)

Source: "More Democrats Casting Early Ballots, Data Show", New York Times.
Jeff Zeleny and Michael Cooper contributed reporting.
A version of this article appeared in print on October 22, 2008, on page A21 of the New York edition.

Jeremy - McCain Tries Harder

"Obama Leads, But McCain makes bid for Pennsylvania" by Elisabeth Bumiller and Jeff Zeleny in Austin American Statesman on October 22 2008 Page A1,A4

The article was about John McCain trying to win in this previously Democratic state of Pennsylvania. So far it has been working. He has been in PA for 3 weeks staying in the same place for 3 days trying to convert Democrats to Republicans. He is using lots of advisors and giving speeches. He is saying that Obama is going to "raise taxes and was too untested to handle an international crisis."

Pennsylvania has 21 electorate votes that are key to an increasingly narrow race. McCain is only behind 7 or 8 percentage points in PA. The election history in PA is for very tight races.

More Problems with Hubble!

The Hubble Space Telescope has been completely out of order for almost a month. I have talked about the problems in my earlier blogs. In my last blog I talked about the fact that scientists at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md were going to send binary streams of 0s and 1s to try and activate the back up device to get Hubble up and running. On October 15th 2008 the scientists started sending the binary commands. Key instruments including the Advanced Camera for Surveys, the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 and the Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer successfully communicated through the backup unit for a brief moment before engineers returned the Hubble to the primary unit in fear of the telescope completely shutting down. On October 16, system monitors indicated that a power supply to the Solar Blind Camera failed to reach the correct level, and another, unidentified problem may have occurred, causing sensors to put Hubble into “safe mode.”

Matt Mountain, director of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, says the latest developments are disappointing, since the team had hoped for a clean switch to the backup unit. The team is not out of ideas, though. A potential plan using a hybrid of theprimary unit and the secondary unit of the data processor may solve the problem. The Hubble team successfully tested this maneuver on a replica of Hubble that is housed in a clean room at Goddard. “This is one of the contingency cases we had thought about ahead of time,” says Art Whipple, manager of the Hubble Systems Management Office at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. “So far — touch wood — we are not out of options to get HST back on the air,” says Matt Mountain.

I hope that the hubble will be fixed as soon as possible, and that the "data processor" method will work. I do not really understand why the scientists did not leave the telescope in the "secondary unit mode". I know that the Hubble could have had major problems if they had stayed using the secondary unit, but isn't that a risk that they would have to take to get Hubble working?
For those of you who have not read my other blogs and looked at the pictures that hubble has taken, here is a link to the telescope's most amazing pics ever:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/legacygallery/gallery-9139/Hubble--The-amazing-space-photographs-universe.html

And now..... the attack of the smileys!!!! ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) :-) :-) :-) :-) ;-p ;-p

www.sciencenews.org

A " Dance Floor" for Dinosaurs

People found a place where there was hundreds, maybe thousands of dinosaur footprints! There even was places where they dragged their tails. This is odd because dinosaurs don't usually drag their tails. Also that place used to be in the tropics, but now it is a desert.It used to be part of the super continent Pangaea.I got this from the site kpho.com. 

-Ivy

Where Campaigns are Needed

Obama will most certainly win Austin, but not Texas. The burning question: Is it enough to win for the whole country? For iffy states like Ohio, it is very important for Obama to have a bunch of those yard signs up. Why spend their time dealing with Texas, when they know it is a "Republican" state? This relates to the newspaper article about campaign signs being stolen. If they are on personal property, it is theft. Even though whoever is doing it might be doing it for laughs, I don't think it's funny. In fact, neither does the law. It is illegal to do so. For those who have been stolen from in Austin, although I know you want to show your support to whomever you're voting for, know that the campaigns are where they are needed.

Go Green (Roofs) - Daniel

Green roofs begin to take root
High costs may hamper efforts on Mexico City roofs.
By Jeremy Schwartz
MEXICO CITY BUREAU
Austin American Statesman - October 20, 2008

A few good reasons to get green (garden) roofs are that they can actually lower the heat in highly populated cities and then lower energy costs. Plus they suck up a lot of that pollution that's in the air, but there is a price, literally. They cost about $10 per square foot. Regular roofs are only $2 per square foot.

"The only way (green roof technology) will be effective on a citywide scale is if it's cheaper," said Mark Simmons, an ecologist at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin. Cost is the big hold up.

In Mexico City the green roof project (or the Green Plan said Mayor Marcelo Ebrard) is taking place. Their "Green Plan" is geared to tie Chicago, the "hemispheric leader" by the year 2012.

Green roofs "are like putting little air-condition units outside," said Steven Peck, president of Green Roofs for Healthy Cities, a nonprofit industry association based in Toronto. "Get enough of them, and you can actually change the climate of the city."

Here is a link to the article...

http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/world/10/20/1020mexgreen.html

McCain vs. Obama

Today was the first day of early voting and from what the radio station said it seemed like the negative campaigning isn't really working for McCain. The polls are in favor of Obama. McCain is thinking up incredulous accusations to pose on Obama. For ex Reverend Jeremiah Wright, Obama's religious leader, who Obama had already distanced himself from, has radical ideas on black power. McCain is trying to make it seem like Obama thinks like that to, that was last month though. This month McCain is claiming that Obama is a terrorist because he is connected to, well, he knows a man named Bill Ayers. Bill Ayers, back in the day, was part of a radical group who robbed many, maybe even murdered some to prove their pledge to the "club". Now Mr. Ayers is a successful mainstream businessman in Chicago and he works on school committees. Almost everyone in that area would know him. McCain knows that but it's another thing to impose on Obama. Do you think negative campaigning works? Even if it is the truth ,which this is obviously not.

A deep tradgedy (knock on wood)

The NASA team tried to reboot Hubble on Thursday. It has failed to reboot. Last month the connection broke. The backup channel was working. But some time later something with the voltage was wrong. Kenneth reports that the computer "suffered a glitch and the science systems were shut down" but NASA is confident they can fix it. Hubble is too important to lose. It is a major source of our information about space.

source: NYT

Tecno Faces!!!

Before I start I'd like to tell Mrs. Michalski this blog is just for fun, not for a grade. My inspiration was Kiran because I loved his little smileys. That made me want a blog about them.

So here I go!

:-) (Traditional Smiley (Kiran's) ;-) (Winking Smiley) $:-) (Rich Hairdo Smiley)
:-[) (Giant Smiley) :-A (Smiley for a straight A report card) :-)= (Bearded Smiley)
0-) (Cyclops Smiley) :-<> (Fish Face) ):-}= (The Devil's Smiley) B-) (S.O.S(Smiley of Shades) K:-) (Raised Eyebrow Smiley) &:-) (Cool hat smiley)

I made 15 for you and I could make more. Smiling is key to life. It motivates us to write and shows happiness; It's more important than you might think. Too many other reasons to share. I know this blog has some nonsense but it can relate to the other blog stuff. The candidate you pick for president should make you smile. I've seen many blogs full of great news but I couldn't make a virtual smile... until now! It's important for me to know that you can too. If you look you can find a smiley for everyone! I'd love comments for additional smileys, suggestions, additional information, questions, etc. Warning! These coments may not count towards tokens

PS Mrs. Michalski Please don't delete this, I worked extremely hard on it!

My Source... Me!!! For more smileys go to my imagenary website at www.4fun.com/smileys

McCain's Attacks Greatly Hurting the Republican Party

Hey everyone! This blog talks about McCain's attacks and why they often backfire. For many weeks we've witnessed Obama, McCain, Biden, Palin and their thoughts. McCain sent the majority of attacks to the other party. It recently started changing the results but not positively. It became a major complaint about McCain. Others include picking Palin as V.P., his old age and a few more concerns. You may want to check out Ivy's blog and its comments; It may provide related information. Directly below lies my information.

If Election Day came today, approximately 53% of undecided voters would choose Obama 35% McCain.At least 6 in 10 people think McCain spends more time attacking Obama than saying what he will do. If McCain became president what would he do? You won't exactly know because McCain in my opinion spends most of his time attacking Obama and Biden, rejects Obama's rare and reasonable attacks and tries to hide how much he supports the Bush Policy. What makes this worse? None of it even works! When he actually talks about what he will do, he cares mostly about wars, doesn't care much about education,health,etc. and goes loco for nuclear plants.( I don't want to offend any republicans.) With the number of nuclear plants McCain wants has gone up from 43 to 45, a deadly meltdown will become more likely. Taxed health care will annoy many citizens. I don't want to go off-topic so back to my point about his attacks. Three out of four voters who changed their opinion of McCain recently say their opinion of him became worse.(The fourth person better of course.) Any one concern for either candidate can cost them the election and the White House. McCain needs a major comeback; That relieves me a little but anything can happen.

Article from The New York Times, "Poll Says McCain Is Hurting His Bid by Using Attacks".
Marjorie Connelly and Marina Stefan contributed reporting.
A version of this article appeared in print on October 15, 2008, on page A1 of the New York edition.

Music of the Future

In Switzerland, a team of scientists and artists are working together on new technology that can transform almost any surface into a musical instrument. The technology is called MUTE, short for Multi- Touch Everywhere. Using MUTE, a person can use a computer to translate taps on different parts of a table or a wall as different sounds.

For example, you may record and save different sounds on a computer anything from a snare drum or trumpet to clapping hands or a sneeze. Then, you program your computer to play one of these recorded sounds whenever you tap a certain spot on a table top or wall. The left side of a table might play snare drum beats, the right side a melody on a trumpet. If you tap the two sides at the same time, you’ll hear both sounds come together as a song. The system uses a camera and lasers to see where you’ve tapped on the table.

This works with motion sensitive lasers and cameras focused on different parts of the table, wall or even in the air so that when the laser is broken the message goes into the computer and plays whatever music you proggramed it to! I think that this will be the future of music. I think that people will be playing guitars, violins, pianos, drums and all of the other musical instruments on air. That is the future! :-):-)

Here is a link to what the program looks like:
http://sciencenews.org/view/access/id/37527/name/snk_music_2.jpg


http://sciencenews.org

Presidential Commercials

When I was in North Carolina, I saw some commercials by McCain and some by Obama. I liked Obama's commercials more than McCain's because McCain's was insulting Obama. Obama's was just saying how he could be a good president.  -Ivy

Brad Pitt Plays Rewarding Role in Katrina Recovery

Brad Pitt, the actor, created the Make It Right rebuilding project for replacing homes destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.  The new homes are energy-efficient and have solar panels.  They are available for people who owned property in the district.  Gloria Guy purchased one of the first homes built by the project.  " 'I thank God for Brad Pitt,' Guy said Thursday when reporters viewed the first six homes Pitt and family visited Monday and Tuesday."

I think that it is very good for the community of New Orleans.  It would be nice if someone could do this for the people whose homes were destroyed by Hurricane Ike this year. 

- Samantha

Article from CNN.com Entertainment section, October 9, 2008, copyright 2008 by the Associated Press.

Hubble Going to be Fixed!

After more than two weeks of not sending out data, the Hubble Space Telescope may be working again as soon as October 16, NASA scientists announced in a teleconference October 14. For 18 years the telescope has been working perfectly, but data abruptly stopped coming from the Hubble on September 27 because of an unknown failure, like I said in one of my earlier blogs. To get Hubble working again, early in the morning on October 15, scientists will begin to transmit a series of long binary strings of 0s and 1s, to instruct the telescope to switch its operations from the failed equipment to a backup unit.

“This unit operated flawlessly for 18 years. Unfortunately, nothing lasts forever,” said Art Whipple, lead mission systems engineer for Hubble at NASA-Goddard. Scientists are hopeful that the backup unit will get Hubble’s science data flowing to Earth again as early as October 15. A group of about 50 scientists at NASA-Goddard will remotely perform the equipment switch, which could make the whole telescope stop working or make it start again. “The team is ready to go,” Whipple said. “They are at their best when faced with something like this.”

I really hope that the switch works because the Hubble has taken some of the most amazing photographs ever. Here is a link to some of the breathtaking images taken by the Hubble: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/legacygallery/gallery-9139/Hubble--The-amazing-space-photographs-universe.html


www.sciencenews.org

Republican compliments Democrats

Recently, a Republican Senator gave compliments to three Democrats and only a quick good word to the Republicans. How could that be? Why would a man who supports the Republican party support Obama, John Kerry, and Hillary Clinton? Is it possible that he sensed the Democrats were winning and succumbed to peer pressure? My theory is that he suddenly thought Barack Obama's plans were better and so switched to supporting him. But still, isn't that weird? 

The Green Challenge

In Las Vegas there was the end of a green challenge with Jack McCornack and Sharon Westcott. They were riding together in a green and yellow convertible that they built; a race where they made it from Berkeley, California to Las Vegas, Nevada with only vegetable oil. They made it in 23 1/2 hours! One of the rules was:They weren't allowed to burn any petroleum fuel. I would have thought they couldn't have made it 600 miles with only vegetable oil. The organizer of this project (Jim Mason) didn't think so either, "I'm kind of shocked that anybody made it at all." But they did in less than 24 hours!(23.6333333...)
The Green Race

Finally They Agree

"Obama, McCain Focus on Economy" by Robert Barnes and Shailagh Murray in the Austin Statesman on October 14th 2008

This articles discusses the main thing voters will have in their mind this election which is the economy. The way the nominees have dealt with it is by making new plans for the economy to get the voters support. Obama is going to add $60 Billon of tax breaks. McCain's plan is to "renegotiate distressed mortgages to help middle class homeowners and cut taxes". Both candidates will stop "home foreclosures at some banks for 90 days, give a 2 year tax break to businesses that will supply jobs to people in need, and give permission for people to withdraw up to $10,000 without penalty for two years".

I find this article interesting because I am interested in the debate between Obama and McCain. I was surprised that they agree on something. I like the agreement items because it will give relief to small business that are creating jobs for people. It will also give relief to people who can't pay their taxes. It will also allow some people to keep their shelter while get extra money to pay of the bills.

AIG takes a vacation with bailout money - Daniel

Lawmakers steamed over ritzy AIG retreat after bailout - CNN.com Oct 8, 2008

"Average Americans are suffering economically. They're losing their jobs, their homes and their health insurance," the committee's chairman, Rep. Henry Waxman, D-California, scolded the company during a lengthy opening statement at a hearing Tuesday. "Yet less than one week after the taxpayers rescued AIG, company executives could be found wining and dining at one of the most exclusive resorts in the nation."

I think this article relates nicely to my previous post (Thumbs Down on the Bailout). The bailout is supposed to help "stimulate" the economy by helping banks and other financial companies ability to do business. These bankers got into trouble becasuse of irresponsible spending, bad loans and greed. And now, even after the bailout, they continue to do the same.

A question from my previous post was, "how will these companies learn from their mistakes?" This article makes a strong point for the argument that these companies may not use the bailout money wisely. It's like me getting into trouble all the time and never getting punished for it.

Also, where will the bailout money come from? Our taxes, most likely. Doesn't that mean that taxpayers will have to pay more in taxes? Is that a good thing?

3-way tie!

Three physicists got a Nobel Prize. two were Japanese.one was American. He worked at the university of Chicago so my dad might know him(he does physics too)!
They were looking for hidden symmetries in particles. What they found was the explanation of the asymmetry CP violation. The American gets 1/2 of the prize. I wonder why? That is unfair.
-Logan

Same-sex Marriages

In 2004, Massachusetts became the first state to allow gay marriages. On May 15, 2008, the Supreme Court of California voted 4-3 that a state law banning same-sex marriage was constituted illegal discrimination. Now gay marriage in ruled legal in Connecticut.

"Love is love. Gay marriage does not diminish or compromise or change my heterosexual marriage in any way. However, denying people who love one another the right to form a family, make a home, raise children together with all parental rights granted to both parties, leave a legacy to each other and their children, and the right to be together to comfort each other when one of them is dying - knowing that this hate and prejudice exists saddens me greatly and I believe that this does diminish our shared humanity as much as racial or any other prejudice."
Comments Paula D. CT
The Legislative Branch is trying to overrule that by making a law. I think that is wrong. It's denying the right to a good proportion of the population to Human rights. They are the values our country was founded on, why should people be denied the chance to marry the one they love? If it were legal everywhere, who would it be hurting? Maybe people with strong religious beliefs would think it against the laws of their faith. Or some people may think it's disgusting to be gay. If you think that ask yourself why do you think that, how would you answer? Is it a logical reason? Why should gay marriage be frowned down on? Who are we to judge? How awful do you think it is to discriminate against people because of who they love?

Obama winning in Ohio according to polls

Woo hoo! Barack Obama has an advantage in Ohio. As you probably know Ohio is considered a vital state. No republican president since Abraham Lincoln won without Ohio. The states have suffered from poor economy. Barack, along with his edge in solving this enjoy hearing that more than half the voters think this quality will make the most difference. McCain and his edge in fighting terrorism has less importance, only 9%. 51% of voters support Obama 45% McCain. Still, about two in 10 voters are "movable," as the authors of my source stated it. "Movable" in this case means that their opinion can and may change. This means no one will know who wins this "game". Barack made contact with 43% of the voters in Ohio, McCain 33%. Both candidates have reached out and did the best they could but Barack has an edge in this as well. McCain and his chance still could prevail but his chance gets slimmer with every word I type. (I hope I sound like a Democrat.) Thanks for reading my blog.


Article from:
Obama Leading In Ohio, Poll Finds
Edge Is 6 Points In a State Looming Large for McCain
» Links to this article
By Jon Cohen and Dan BalzWashington Post Staff Writers Tuesday, October 7, 2008; Page A01

The Electoral College

The Electoral College is the thing that gives out all the electoral votes. It signifies what party a state is voting for. It needs to end! The totally unfair thing is, it never counts the votes for individual cities!!!!!!!!! Thumbs down for the Electoral College!!!!!!!! Also, if the College counted the capitol city instead of the whole state, Texas would have gone flat out Democrat.

Jonathan.C-- All debates

For the first presidential debate, I think that nobody said anything that would make me die of shock. The bad things that were said was, John McCain said that we can create 700,000 jobs in the U.S. If we can get 45 nuclear power plants by 2030. 

As for the second presidential debate, which I was only able to watch 30 minutes of, the Democrats continued the winning streak of debates which is currently 3. What really shocked me is that when somebody asked who the next secretary of the treasury is. And John McCain didn't know! 

A note about the term "maverick"

Whether in Thursday night's vice-presidential debate, or in the endless stream of words coming from the mouths of the punditry, we've all heard the term "maverick" bandied about to describe both Senator McCain and Governor Palin.

While browsing the New York Times today, I came upon an article that gave a short history of the term and assessed whether Senator McCain was aptly described by it.

"Maverick" was the surname of a family that moved to North America sometime in the 1600s. The first Maverick to make a name for himself was a vocal opponent of indentured servitude, who encountered some trouble with the law due to his beliefs.

The common usage of maverick did not come about until the 1800s, when a member of the Maverick family moved to Texas. He was known for not branding his cattle, leading all such unbranded cattle to be called "Maverick's." (Note the possessive, not plural.)

Apparently the Maverick family, staunchly progressive liberals, are not big fans of McCain's "branding" himself a maverick. (Pun very much intended!) They argue that, by being a member of a political party, McCain is already branded, and thus cannot rightly label himself a maverick.

The article can be found at http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/05/weekinreview/05schwartz.html?_r=1&em&oref=slogin

Near Record Arctic Melting

This summer the part of the Arctic Ocean covered by sea ice was the second lowest since 1979. Because much of the ice had formed in the past winter and was relatively thin, scientists estimate that the volume of floating ice probably reached a record low. The area that the floating ice covers is at least 15% of the sea's surface which fell to 4.67 million sq km this September. "That's approximately three times the size of Alaska, but it is 9% higher than last year's record low value. It is also 34% below the average measured for September since 1979," says Walter Meier, a remote sensing analyst at the National Snow and Aice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado.

I think the fact that the percentage of ice has increased is very good and that everyone should try to keep improving these numbers. If it doesn't improve, the ice in the Arctic would melt causing the sea level to rise which could create floods all over the word.

www.sciencenews.org

Saving energy

Obama said something about saving energy in the debate, and I thought of ways to save energy. Here they are:

• turning off lights when you leave a room
• carpooling 
• turning off your computers when you aren't using them
• find other ways to get places other than cars, like bikes

-Ivy

NEVER MICROWAVE RAW MEAT!

By Marielle Bardon

New warnig highlights dangers of microwaving.
AP article in the Austin-American Statesman 10-7-08

We all use the microwave at lunch. To reheat is good, but to cook not so much. You see, in today's newspaper I learned that cooking raw meat in the microwave can leave cold spots that contain bacteria like salmonella, E. coli and listeria. If you eat the bacteria, you can get very, very sick.

At our house, we don't need to worry about these things because we hardly ever eat meat. Those of you who do eat meat, do not use your microwave for cooking raw meat. So folks, if you want to have delicious meat for dinner, either buy some that is already cooked and reheat it, or cook it yourself on a stove, grill, or oven.

Big Discounts Fail to Lure Shoppers. By Jennifer Saranow and Rachel Dodes. Wall Street Journal October 6, 2008 Page B1

Major stores were trying to use discounts to attract shoppers because they were not opening very quickly. It didn't really work because even with the discounts shoppers don't have enough money in their wallets to buy discretionary items like purses and fancy shoes. Though some stores, like Target, did not lose very many sales, some stores like JCPenneys, lost a lot more.

It seems like the financial crisis is effecting not just individuals but stores. Now the financial crisis seems even bigger to me because I used to think the crisis was limited to just some individuals. Lots of our trading comes from stores and business. If we stop are trading, we will loses more money then we have been losing. It seems to me like we are going to go into another depression like in the 1930s.

"..Big drops in sales at stores opened at least a year.... augurs poorly for the coming holiday season which some predict will be the worst for retailers since 1991."

Daniel - Thumbs down on the bailout plan

The $700bn Question? – Robert Reich, The Guardian, September 26, 2008

“Never before in the history of US capitalism has so much been asked of so many for so few.”

I think the bailout plan is a horrible idea, because taxpayers should not be asked to give so much money to bailout banks and companies that made many mistakes. How will these bankers and investors learn from these mistakes if we just give them money to cover their losses?

A Great Economics Teacher

An economics teacher named Jibladze [at LBJ High school Academy] is teaching his students about the $700,000,000,000,000 bail out plan. He is giving them a lecture on it. It is amazing that these handful of high school students understand this! They were raising their hands to contribute. I would raise my hand to ask questions. How do the banks get their Money back? He must have had to work very hard to explain this to his students. He points out,"People are dumb and believe what they want to believe; what politicians tell them." I think this is half true. People aren't quite stupid but they are stubborn; they won't usually change their mind.
the Austin economics teacher

Elizabeth---Palin vs. Biden, A Moment of History

I just finished watching the VP Debate and I think Palin's answers was much better than expected. Did you notice that when asked "Do you think the VP has a big role in the Leg. Branch?" Palin completely changed the subject. She would obfuscate when she didn't know what to say. I also think it was unprofessional when she used words like "darn," "heck," and things along those lines. But, again I have to say she delivered her lines very well, was direct, and she looked at the camera unlike Biden.
Another thing that I thought was funny was when she continually used the word"maverick". Sarah Palin , opposite from the presidential debate, called Biden Joe and Biden called her Governor Palin. She has been compared to Ronald Reagan on NBC and I thought that was somewhat peculiar.

I don't really think anybody won. Palin held her head high and Biden answered knowledgeably. But overall I really enjoyed the Debate and think it was a great experience.

I also completely agree with the moderater when she said that we all get extra credit for watching the Debate tonight! :)

Palin and Biden both wrong about gay marriage

I watched part of the debate between the candidates for vice-president tonight on PBS. It's weird that they both agreed on one thing: gay marriage. Palin said, "I don't support defining marriage as anything but between one man and one woman." Biden said " Barak Obama nor I support redefining from a civil side what constitutes marriage." I think that Biden and Palin are both wrong about gay marriage. I think that gay marriage is okay.
My aunt Carol is married to my aunt Evelyn but their marriage is not legal and I think it should be. Biden and Palin are against allowing two people of the same sex to marry. I think that everyone should be able to marry the person they love.

Hubble Suddenly Quiet

The hubble space telescope stopped transmittind data on September 27th for an unknown reason. They could use the secondary unit onbard the hubble, but if the 18 year old telescope had one wire loose the whole thing could explode, destroying millions of dollars worth of scientific equipment. "The probability of failure is pretty low … but the consequences of a failure could be very high,” Preston Burch, Hubble manager at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt told Science News in an interview on September 30. “There are concerns about blowing a fuse, having a relay stick or having a box fail.”

This problem came two weeks before the telescope was going to be upgraded. The problem will delay the mission, untill at least next Febuary!! "Our goal is to sort out reality from overly conservative fears, by first practicing switching sides on Hubble’s electrical replica on the ground at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center" Burch says. "If that exercise goes well, engineers would attempt to switch to the duplicate unit on Hubble sometime toward the end of next week"

"The relatively high operating temperature of the formatting unit may have contributed to its failure, but scientists may not know the root cause of the problem until the device is brought back to Earth" Burch says. So it will be one year before the "device is brought back to Earth" and is fixed. The images that hubble has taken are amazing and I really hope that the NASA fixes it as soon as possible. I will post a comment with some pictures that hubble has taken, so that you can see how amazing they are.

www.sciencenews.org

David, 1st presidential debate

I saw the debate and I thought that "John" could have done a whole lot better. I wish he hadn't strayed off topic and lied. I was very disappointed about how he did. I thought that Barack's strategy for the economic crises was very interesting. I thought that Jim Lerher was very good. "I have a bracelet too john." I think that both canadites rarely agreed. The whole thing was very odd.