Science Friday 2

http://miami.cbslocal.com/2017/02/22/nasa-to-reveal-new-findings-about-exoplanets/

NASA has recently discovered 7 new Earth-sized planets located outside of our solar system, in the "habitable zone" (a region with planets that could potentially sustain life). These planets were discovered by means of the Spitzer Space Telescope, an infrared space telescope floating around in space since it was launched in 2003. This recent discovery is a new record for number of planets in the "habitable zone". Furthermore, all 7 planets are likely to have liquid water, an important condition to sustain life as we know it. These planets are located around 40 lightyears from Earth, in the constellation Aquarius. Following up on the Spitzer discovery, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has initiated the screening of 4/7 planets, including the 3 within the habitable zone. Questions I have are:

1. "If the planets are 40 lightyears away, how did the Spitzer Telescope manage to detect that system from said 40 lightyears?"
2. Could there be any form of life on any of the 7 planets?

Wax Museum

Hi, my name is John F. Kennedy and I was the 35th president of the United States. I was born on May 29th, 1927. I had 5 sisters and 3 brothers. My oldest brother, Joe, was better than me at everything so I decided to be his opposite, when he did something good, I did something bad. I made a club called the Mucker's club. They played pranks and jokes on people.

After I graduated high school I decided not to be like my brother and go to Harvard. So instead, I went to Princeton. Princeton didn't feel right, so I went to Harvard. In Harvard, I tried playing a sport. I tried football, but I hurt my back after I got tackled. I was in the school hospital until I was fine again. I did swimming and I liked it, I liked it so much I did it even when I was sick, little did I know that my swimming would one day save a man's life.

In 1939, the Japanese bombed Pear Harbor and war broke out. Joe and I were determined to help fight back. Joe immediately got in, but due to my poor health, I failed. But! I was determined and finally got in. In 1943, I was given command of a Pt-109 boat. It is used to find Japanese destroyers. I was patrolling 5 months later when suddenly my boat was torn in half, by a Japanese destroyer! I told my crew to abandon ship and swim to the nearest island. One man was so badly burnt that he couldn't swim! So I carried him on my back and swam away. After I was rescued I found out Joe had died in a plane crash. His father always wanted Joe to be president, but with him gone I was next. I said yes and started on the campaign trail. At fist, no one thought I could win the election, because I stuttered and paused in my speeches. But gradually I won support.

Many years passed. I went from 23 years old to 42 years old. The first debate in history was held on TV and I won with 49.7% of the vote. I was president for only 3 years. One of my mistakes was called the bay of pigs invasion. Cuba had missiles that could reach America and I sent in an elite squad of soldiers. They were captured. Then, I talked it out with Russia and stopped what is now called the Cuban missile crisis.

Then one day, years later, I was in Texas showing the Texans that I was a good man since most of the Texans voted for Nixon. Then the first shot rang out, followed by another and another. I was the youngest president and will always be remembered by Americans everywhere.

Feelings

There are those times when I can be quite angry and not realize what I could cause in that state, such as when I had broken a wall. So I thought I'd write it down. 

Top 3 things that make me angry: 

1. People who don't listen to me when I ask them something reasonable. 

2. People who blame me for something that I didn't intend to do. 

3. Having a lot of things to do. 

Usually, I get very desperate, my body starts shaking, and then I hit my head on the table, or with my hand. The consequences of my actions are that people start trying to avoid me, my tantrum didn't help at all, and my head hurts. 

Some solutions I have are to write down whatever is making me angry, then verify it and try to come up with some solutions to the situation. Though some things I have done in the past to relieve my anger include drawing a picture or perhaps playing with legos. 

Born A Crime

                   Born A Crime is a book by Trevor Noah, that guy in the daily show on Comedy Central (I recommend you check it out.) So anyways, Born A Crime takes place in South Africa, where it revolves around his mother. She was black but then married a white man from Switzerland. His mother eventually gave birth to a 1/2 white, 1/2 black boy who happens to be Trevor. During those times in the 1980s, it was thought very weird for people of different races to have married, so Trevor's parents weren't allowed to be together. Not that they couldn't be seen in the same place at the same time, but more next to each other. Trevor, at those times was very oblivious to what was being done and kept saying "Daddy!" in public, almost blowing their cover. Furthermore, they had to live in different houses, seeing each other in secret.

          I'm not going to explain the whole book, just some of the funniest, important, or most interesting parts.


               So it was just Trevor and his mother for the next few years, every Sunday, they would attend church for the whole day. It was extremely exhausting, and their car would break down every so often. One day, they were running late, and their car just would not go. Trevor, seeking an opportunity to get out of church, suggested they just stay home, but his mother claimed it was Satan's influence. Therefore, they walked. On the way, they ran into someone who offered them a ride in his car, but was approached by furious minibus drivers who demanded they ride with them. Wanting them to spare the car driver, Trevor's mother agreed. However, the minibus driver had intended to kidnap them and they had to jump out, Trevor, his mother, and Andrew (his baby brother, who is born later).

     

          Another part that was something I really enjoyed was the advantages being colored was. At one point, Trevor ran into another colored kid named Teddy, who turned out to be his only friend in the neighborhood. Their house was an extremely long walk away, but without any affordable or reliable form of transport at the time, walking was the only option. Prior to his encounter with Teddy, Trevor often took walks around his neighborhood, discovering secret shortcuts, or other ways to get around. After befriending Teddy, both boys tended to steal alcohol-filled candies from the mall when it started closing, however one night, a guard caught them and the chase was on! Trevor managed to escape, however, Teddy was arrested and expelled. Later on, Trevor was called to the principal's office to be asked some questions, but when they reviewed the security camera's footage, he looked like a white kid! Given how he was mixed race, and the camera being unable to mix black and white at the same time, he was let off.

          And finally, being the most ridiculous part of them all, was when Trevor started playing Dj music for parties and had a group of dancers following him. Though one of the guys was named Hitler (quite ****ing literally) and things went well until they performed at a school. Once Hitler started dancing, the other guys started shouting stuff like "Go Hitler!" until the teacher pulled Trevor aside and started grilling him about doing such stuff. Trevor regarded her disgust as an insult towards Hitler's dance moves (which makes him look like he's having sex), when in reality she thought they were worshipping Hitler. Turns out, it was a Jewish school!

                        Overall, I thought this book was quite funny, yet unbelievable, did Trevor Noah, the host of the Daily show really have this kind of a childhood?

My Trip to Arizona

I don't remember all the details, as we spent much of the time on a road trip, 

Perhaps you all are wondering, what did I do last week, during thanksgiving break? I spent it all (along with one school day) in Arizona. Starting on Tuesday, me, Kyle, mom, and Ron took the airline Southwest to Las Vegas to begin with. Coming about 2 hours early, Kyle and I spent that time playing video games. However, just before we left, Kyle started playing Pokemon Go on my account, I saw a Staryu (Pokemon) but Kyle did not catch it and instead went on his account.  Finally, we made it in Las Vegas around 11 PM and went straight to bed in a hotel. The next day, we went to Vicki's diner for breakfast and set out for Flagstaff, Arizona. The trip there took about 4-5 hours and we used the Tablet and iPad to kill time. Eventually, we ran into a town that had a lot of donkeys (apparently also called burros).  Later on, we continued our road trip and after we made it to Flagstaff, we ate at an Indian restaurant near the hotel we would soon be staying at, which afterwards we watched some TV. The next day was when we started doing some fun stuff. That day, we went out to visit the Grand Canyon, one of Arizona's notable landmarks. I have seen pictures of the canyon, and yet it was so much bigger than what I could remember.

On the 3rd day, we headed to Utah and out to the Colorado river that is near the Grand Canyon. The overall trip was surprisingly shorter than I expected, taking just one hour. Instead of a hotel, this time we stayed in an apartment that was more convenient. For dinner, we had Nemo's Fish and chips, a restaurant that was nearby. Later on, we went and ate at another diner for breakfast, then took a tour bus to a desert and toured a cave, and that evening, we stayed at an inn which had a hallway bathroom, and our room was downstairs. So on our last day in Utah, we visited Zion national park and on that same day, finally returned to Las Vegas. Maybe it was because we spent barely a day there, or I simply forgot, but it was so much windier than what I experienced on our first day of vacation. During those last three days, we went to Chinese restaurants for brunch, either time we had a smoothie for, um, I'll just call it dessert. In Vegas, we visited buffets for dinner, endured the harsh winds, and everywhere we went, there were casinos, because IT'S LAS VEGAS! The biggest highlight of our quality time in Las Vegas, Nevada were two things: The first being a wax museum which had replicas of celebrities such as Will Smith, Elvis Presley, you get the deal. The other thing I really enjoyed was a real live performance by the blue men, which was something I've seen a lot on Youtube and enjoyed. So the way that blue men concert worked was that they play some music, then call out some random person in the audience to join them in random things. What we saw was them bringing a woman onto the stage, and trying to eat with her. At that moment, they did something really ridiculous: They put a jello (possibly fake) onto a section of the table, then it launched across into the crowd! What's funnier is that they tried doing the same thing with a flowerpot!

Thus concludes my vacation in Arizona, Las Vegas, and Utah. My, that's a whole lot of states to have traveled to in one week!

Packing List

Common:

1.  7 t-shirts
2.  7 pairs of underwear 
3.  3 pairs of pants 
4.  7 pairs of socks
5. Toothbrush 
6. Sunscreen
7. Comb
8. Sunglasses
9. Hat
10. Pencils 
11. Notebooks 

Things for me: 

1. 10 pairs of contacts
2. Glasses 
3. Phone  
4.  Kindle (optional)  
5.  Books (optional)
6. Cerave
7. Back brace   

Things for Kyle:

1. Contacts
2. Camera 
3. 3 shorts

The Terrorist's Son

             Another book finished! Yesterday, I finished a book called "The Terrorist's Son", an autobiography by Z Ebrahim. This story is about a boy whose Egyptian father, El-Sayyid Nossair was convicted of killing Jewish rabbi Meir Kahane in the 1980s in the very beginning. Afterwards, the story goes on to what happened before the shooting for several chapters, introducing Z's mother, a Catholic in the process. It occurs to me that Z has a father who believes in Islam, and a mother who was Catholic until she married. Anyways, back to the present. Nossair murdered Kahane, then was shot in the neck in the process by a postal officer, but survived. Afterwards, he was put under some    sort of house arrest because it wasn't confirmed whether he was behind the death of the rabbi.


               However, Nossair planned the first attack on the World Trade Center in 1993, therefore sentencing him to life in prison. Due to this, Z's mother broke up and still went through abuse for many years, notably from their stepfather Ahmed, who did unthinkable acts of cruelty. Life then got much better years later, starting with Ahmed's abuse becoming ineffective, then Z and his brother got jobs, meeting new people and all, then finally, Ahmed was no longer their stepfather. After reading this book, I can remember two things: You always have a choice, and 6 very inspiring words; "I am so sick of hating people", regardless of race, religion, gender, treat everyone equally.  Along with that, the part where Z's family went through a lot of abuse, I was reminded strongly of "The Red Scarf Girl", where Ji-Li also was teased for her grandfather being a landlord.