SUPERBOWL XLIII

The Physics Of Football
Yesterday February 1, 2009 SUPERBOWL 43 took place. This great American past-time is full of Newton's Laws of Motion. For example throwing the ball is an example of Sir Isaac Newton's first law. This law states that an object in motion will remain at constant velocity unless acted upon by an unbalanced force. This law also states that an object at rest stays at rest unless acted upon by an outside force. When the football is thrown it eventually stops because the friction of the air stops it.The friction of the air is called resistance. When the football rests it will stay where it is. Throwing a football is also an example of Newton's second law. This law shows the relationship between force, acceleration, and mass. The amount of force the football player will put into throwing the ball will equal is mass multiplied by its acceleration. Or, the acceleration of the football is equal to its mass divided by the force. Newton's third law is demonstrated when football player's tackle. As one is running down the field the opposing team will attempt to tackle. This action of them tackling causes an opposite action of the other player falling down. Football is full of physics!

And I am very happy to say the Steelers won!

Special thanks to D.R.

Indian Ocean to see Solar Eclipse

Monday, January 26 will bring about an interesting, and sight to people in the Indian Ocean. There will be an annular solar eclipse. An annular solar eclipse is when the moon is positioned between the sun and the earth. However, in an annular solar eclipse the moon does not completely cover the sun, as it does in a total solar eclipse. Rather, you will see a "ring of fire" around the moon. The is depicted in the image to the left.

Fred Espanek, a veteran of eclipse watcher from NASA says that," the total eclipse track will run from west to east on Monday from 0606 GMT to 0952 GMT." Those individuals in Africa, Madagascar, Australia, Southeast India, Southeast Asia and Indonesia, are lucky enough to witness the rare annular eclipse. The last annular eclipse occurred on February 7, 2007. The next annular eclipse will take place on January 15, 2010. One more eclipse for the year will be on July 22. This will be a total solar eclipse.

source: Yahoo! News
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090123/sc_afp/spaceastronomyeclipseasiaafrica;_ylt=AjBqTLELXXuC.AyqJcFhzXaHgsgF

The Inauguration of Barack Obama, The 44th President

Yesterday, January 20th, 2009 history was made. Barack Obama the first ever African American president was inaugurated in Washington D.C., the Capitol. This post will compare two articles of different sources that have been written and published about the inauguration of Barack Obama, the now-president who has made a remarkable change to history. These articles have been taken from both the Yahoo! News and CNN websites.

The first article of Yahoo! News is entitled "Obama inauguration: Hits and Misses." From the title of the article one can tell that it was written to discuss the successful and weaker points of President Obama's inauguration. This article says that President Obama's speech was a "hit" or a stronger point of the whole inauguration. The article states, "Obama's speech was both pragmatic and hopeful. He acknowledged the nation's grim economic problems, but assured the crowd he would quickly get to work" This basically means that President Obama's speech showed that he is well aware of the nation's problems and that he would begin his work as soon as he could start.

However, the article also states that one of his misses was called "first timers." What they mean by this is that he showed a little bit of nervousness when it came to swearing in, as many witnessed in Washington D.C. or watching at home on the television. President Barack Obama had another hit with the huge crowds that attended this historic inauguration. Generally, this article is honest and to the point. The main gist is that though there may have been a few mistakes President Obama had a successful and great inauguration.

The second article taken from CNN.com is titled "CNN's political team analyzes Obama's inaugural address" Of course with this title being extremely straightforward it can be understood that the political analysts from CNN analyze President Barack Obama's inaugural speech. This article focuses mainly on the speech rather than the other parts of the inauguration of the forty-fourth president of the United States of America.

Gloria Borger says that "The problems that were here yesterday and today are still going to be here tomorrow." Later in her quote she says that the Obama administration says that they are going to take all the problems at once because "they understand this is their moment." John King says that if you read it you will find that it is "a pretty bold agena, an ambitious agenda." He askes the question at the end of his quote, "Can Barack Obama get Washington to do more than one thing at once?" Jeffery Toobin quotes: "I thought this was an extraordinary event; I didn't think this was an extraordinary speech."
As all the other CNN analysts prior to Toobin in this article, he says that there were a lot of topics presented. He found no theme in Obama's speech. A word that has been prevalent in this article so far is "rhetoric". Toobin says that there was "no rhetoric, no phrase that stuck in my mind." Roland Martin, however believes that President Obama's speech does not matter as far as he is concerned. He says that he is the first African American president ever, who has attracted a mass of supporters at the National Mall. It is for this reason that Martin believes that nothing can take away from this day; that the speech is "irrelevant." Hilary Rosen believes that President Obama has come across so strongly especially when he says that he will not change this country; that we will, and he will be our leader.

Generally, with a few exceptions CNN's political team has geared toward the more negative side in their reviews of President Barack Obama's inaugural speech. One mutual point that several of CNN's political analysts agree on is that there was no "lofty rhetoric." As I mentioned previously Toobin said that there was no phrase that stuck in his mind. Yahoo! News's article believed the inaugural speech to be a hit and that he assured Americans that he would begin his work quickly and efficiently.

The sources for this blog post are as follows
Yahoo! News:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/20090120/pl_ynews/ynews_pl220_5

CNN.com
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/01/20/analysts.reaction/

LG to make Wristwatch Phone

LG Electronics is creating a wristwatch phone with which you can make video calls--similarly to AT&T's Video Share feature. Although many other manufacturers have already made wristwatch phones none can make video calls, as the LG model does. The phone can make a two hour call on a single charge. No pricing has been announced yet, though similar wristwatch phones cost $250 to $300. The phone is not in the United States yet, though it would run on the AT&T network, so this would be possible.

Source: MSNBC News: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28543953/

SMART!

In Science class we have been frequently using the SMART Board.The Smart Board is an interactive white board.It enables you to display the screen of a computer using a projector. Then , you must align the SMART Board with the computer screen. You must do this because the SMART Board is basically a touch screen monitor. The SMART Board has been used to view slide shows, play educational games, view text documents, and demonstrate proper use of certain computer programs. The SMART Board has been a very useful tool in learning science in a fun yet effective way. SMART technologies have come out with plenty of educational and corporate solutions. One of SMART technologies' education resources is SMART Learning Marketplace. This is a collection of several--several meaning millions--learning resources. These resources include images, text documents, and more, all of which are professionally developed. As mentioned, SMART had also come out with corporate solutions, one of which is called Sympodium Interactive Pen Display. This allows you to write over slides with digital ink, save notes, access the Internet and project your work onto a larger screen.

source: http://smarttech.com

And the Blox Went Boom!

Recently in science class, we played a game called Boom Blox on Wii, using the Smart Board.To play Boom Blox, you must think if ways to "kill two birds with one stone." In other words you must formulate a decision about how to knock all the Blox over in as little tries as possible. In different games you can play Chem Blox (cause chemical reactions to knock over blox), Bomb Blox (use bomb blox to remove the Blox), and more. Boom Blox is a great game that really helps build good problem solving skills. It forces you to think about chain reactions. There are plenty of other games and software that will really help kids learn. JumpStart Study Helpers Spelling Bee Software enables children to import their spelling vocabulary as it helps them study. Hooked on Phonics and Zizzle make toys for children that help with their phonics skills. With a world of technology out there, learning is as fun and simple as saying "Boom Blox!"

TrueCall: Stay Safe!

Source: http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/hughes/34813 (YAHOO! tech)

Former telemarketers Steve Smith and John Price have created TrueCall. TrueCall is a device that can block callers who try to steal your financial information, perhaps those who commit fraud. When you receive a call TrueCall decides whether it is a good call or a bad call. If it decides that a caller is a bad call they put it on hold and the machine asks them for their name and the call is then forwarded to the user's phone. Once the call is forwarded to the user's phone they are given the option to either take or reject the call. You can add numbers of those who you know to your "Star" list and TrueCall will not scan this call. Instead it rings normally just as it would with your phone without TrueCall would. Numbers on your "zap" list will not go through at all. TrueCall simply blocks these calls. As for now, TrueCall is only available in the United Kingdom. But soon enough TrueCall will be available in the United States!
I feel that TrueCall is a great way to save those who are unaware of fraud from giving out their personal and financial information. However, I am unsure of whether or not it would block a good number accidentally and have you miss an important call. Nevertheless, this is what the "Star" list is what this is for.