PLN 26

The book The Men Who Stare at Goats, by Jon Ronson, that was rescently made into a movie, matters today because it gives an insight into the secret workings of the American military from the 1970's to the present. The story is about a reporter, Jon Ronson, who travels the country researching a former U.S. military program to create super soldiers. These soldiers were hand selected from the ranks of the U.S. Special Forces. They were trained by many people who where masters, gurus and scientists involved with the new age movement. The goal of these "Jedi warriors" was to reach a state of ultimate tranquility, a state of mind where levitation, walking through walls, bending metal, and psychic spying can be achieved. The most powerful of these Jedi, were said to be able to stare at a goat and stop or burst its heart, just by using their minds; thus the title of the book is The Men Who Stare at Goats. The whole story is about Jon interviewing people involved with "goat lab" in an attempt to find out if it really existed, and if the U.S. military had really achieved supernatural powers. This book, is not a fiction book, it is based on a true story. That is why this book matters in the world today. If the U.S. military really did have psychic spies, then they would be able to find where Bin Laden is, they would be able to spy on people right here in America, violating our amendment rights. Obviously this is a very scary topic because "nobody would want to mess with an army that could do that."(walk through walls and kill things with their minds). According to the book the ideas came from Vietnam veterans, who did not want future soldiers to have to go through the same perils they did, so they devised the First Earth Battalion, or a unit of super soldiers. If these soldiers really did exist, they did not accomplish their goals, because if they had, they would still be around today. If this unit had existed, it was not very practical, because in the accounts told in the book, it took at the least two days for a Jedi to stare the goat to death, in that amount of time on the battle field, they would be dead. This story is still shrouded in mystery, and I personally want to believe that the army really did achieve these powers, because that would be really cool. If they did have people capable of the supernatural, I am willing to bet that we would never know the truth about it, unless we were there. So now I ask you, what do you think happened? Most likely, we will never know.

PLN 25

I recently saw a video form the World Science Festival featuring Bobby McFerrin. This video matters because the things that Bobby can get the audience to do, baffles the scientists. Bobby uses the pentatonic scale, which is the black keys on a piano, to get the crowd to sing with him. Bobby gives the crowd the first two notes, and then when he jumps to the third, the crowd follows with out him having the pitch given to them. Bobby then uses the whole scale to get the crowd to sing a song with him, which amazes the neuron scientists behind him. They can not understand how the crowd can sing a note that they are not given. Bobby explains that no matter where he is and no matter who is in the crowd, it always works the same way. That is the power of music; the human mind understands it and can follow without question. Unlike counting from one to ten, where not only do you have to know the numbers but what order they go in, music is very simple. Music is away to bring cultures together, like in my PLN 23, about the Tunak Tunak Tun video, everyone understands that it is music, even if we do not understand what the worlds in the song mean. I think it is really cool that music comes naturally to the human brain, because it means that no matter how different our views may be we are all connected by sound.

PLN 24

What matters today is a tower being built in India, called the Burj Dubai Tower, because it is going to be the tallest tower in the world, when completed. Construction stated on September 21, 2004, and the tower will officially open on January 4, 2010. When completed this tower will stand at 819 meters, or about 2768 feet, and will have used enough rebar to reach 1/4 of the way around the world. This tower shows exactly how far the world has come. First, the Wright brothers recorded the first powered flight, then there was the atomic bomb, then we landed on the moon, and now there is a tower 819 meters high. This tower is just another step towards the future; eventually someone will build a taller tower, or walk on Mars. In the mean time though, this tower will be able to hold lots of businesses, boosting India's economy. It will also inspire kids to believe that one day they could build something like it. Personally, I want to meet the guy who engineered it, because he has to be one of the greatest engineers of our day. To build a tower that size, not only would you need somewhere to put it, but it needs to be stable. You have to calculate wind speed to keep it from falling over and it needs to have an effective way to get from top to bottom (when completed the building will have the fastest elevators in the world). The building also would need to have allot of power, and be able to hold up all of the people within it (including the highest restaurants in the world). I would hate to be Babu Sassi. Babu is known as the man on top of the world because he operates the crane at the top of the Burj tower. Not only does he work, but he lives in the crane cab, because it would take to long to climb all the way up and down every day. So until the job is done the young man will be up there, making more than 30,ooo dirhams ($8,168) a month, compared to the 800 dirhams of the average worker. Obviously this tower represents how far the world has come and how far we will be able to go in the future.

PLN 23

I recently saw a video called "Tunak Tunak Tun" on Youtube, by one of the biggest pop stars in India, Daler Mehndi. This video is important, because it shows that America is taking some interest in other countries cultures. This video is a perfect example of the Indian culture, and the fact that it has 12,154,971 views, on Youtube is a great thing. I believe that every one should take the time to learn at least something about another person’s culture. Practicing this would expand world peace, because we would know more about each other, which would cause conflicts to become less escalated. Schools are already doing this; most colleges require at least a year and a half of foreign language class. By learning other languages, we learn more about the culture, which will lead to better understanding. I personally think this video is not only entertaining, but gives us insight to part of the Indian culture. I would recommend watching it several times, and studying the dance, the sound and the colors, because every time I watch it I notice something new. By noticing theses things we will understand the culture better. Thus I believe that this video is important, because it shows that people are taking more interest in each others culture, which will eventually lead to people understanding each other a littler bit better.

PLN 22

What matters in the article "Put forth our best writing selves" by Douglas Hesse, is the fact that the new versions of comunication, texting, twitter and email, could end up deminishing the writing ability of people today.

PLN 21

The article "iPhone App Translates Baby's Crys" by Ki Mae Heussner, Ned Potter and Liam Berkowitz, is extremely important. It is about the new application for the iPhone, that was released last week, by Barcelona-based Biloop Technologic which can supposedly use "sound analysis technology" to tell the emotion being expressed by babies. This new app. can supposedly identify the five emotional states of hunger, fatigue, annoyance, stress or boredom, making it easier for parents to give their babies what they want. If this works, it will make new parents lives way easier. They wouldn't have to continually guess at what their child is begging for. It will also bring more relief to the general public, because there will be less babies crying in restaurant, stores, or on a really long flight. This will also reduce shaken baby syndrome, where in an attempt to stop the crying, a sitter or other person shakes the baby and severely injures it. With this new technology babies will be calmed and less will be shaken and injured. This technology can also be used in other ways, such as in espionage to identify voices. Voice recognition security systems to make things safer, or in translating from one language to another by helping to understand the emotion and message the person is trying to convey. So in general, if this technology really does work, it will make everyones’ lives better.

PLN 20

What matters in the article "Giant Crack in Africa Will Create a New Ocean" co-written by the LifeScience staff, is that there could be a new ocean. The article states that according to scientists, what is happening in the desert of Ethiopia, is also what happens on the bottom of the ocean. Therefore, they have determined that the 35-mile rift through the desert will create a new sea. According to the article, it is the African and Arabian tectonic plates spreading apart that is causing the crack through the Afar desert. The crack began in 2005 and is causing great excitement in the scientific world. The scientists that wrote the article say that this is what is theorized to be happening on the bottom of the ocean, but seeing as they do not have the technology to reach the bottom of the ocean, they are very excited to use this new site as a "unique and superb ocean-ridge laboratory." Doing this will break a lot of new ground in the world of oceanography. There is also another subject, brought up by the rift, which has the religious world excited. Scientists say that this is also "splitting the Red Sea." They claim that volcanic activity under the Red Sea is causing it to split, and alarmingly fast. According to the article, there is also a rift like this under the Red Sea, and volcanic activity under the surface is filling the rift with hardened lava, or magma rock. This is raising the rift and splitting the sea into two bodies of water, but then more shifting of the tectonic plates lowers the rift again, back to one body of water. The scientists say that this is an extremely fast process and could happen and be over with in a span of just three days. This is affecting the religious world because it has proven that maybe there were other factors at play when Moses split the sea and saved the Jews. This is obviously something to watch closely, because if one of these rifts showed up under a city or poisonous gas was released from within the Earth, who knows what the consequences would be. Anyway you look at it, this new rift, whether it creates an ocean or not, will cause some great new discoveries.