Awaken Your Inner Gaia

The Rise of the Pheonix

In 1999, the Mars Polar Lander failed to land on Mars. But this year Nasa decided to try again with the Pheonix Spacecraft. The engineers had a strict budget and had to use recycled space parts. When Mars and Earth once again aligned perfectly for a launch, the Pheonix was sent and Nasa ground their teeth for a successful mission.

The Phoenix was reborn from the ashes of failed missions, and on May 25th 2008 landed on Mars, ready to go.

Since then, Pheonix sent back to us tons of awesome stuff.

1) On 6/27/08 Pheonix scraped Icy soil, subsurface soil, and surface soil in one scoop. Imagine how that reveals how the planet is structured, and the density of the planet.

2) On 6/25/08 Pheonix performed it’s first wet experiment on martian soil, sending TONS of chemistry data back to earth.

3) The Pheonix begins digging in what scientists call “Wonderland” on it’s 22nd Martian day, aka 6/17/08.

I’ll keep you posted on the rest of Pheonix’s wonders in Wonderland!

Tasmanian Tiger is back

It's been 70 years since its extinction; 2 years since they almost abandoned the project, but now the Tasmanian Tiger is back!

Scientists harbored the DNA inside mice, the first time that extinct DNA has lived inside a different host and has been revived successfully. This brings to question, what else could scientists do with DNA? Could Jurassic Park become a reality?

This new discovery could also help scientists isolate Neanderthals' DNA and bring scientists one step closer to the "missing link" that could once and for all, prove evolution as a fact.

How to be one with the gas pump

Listen up guys, I'm with you about the whole "OMG! It costs $80 to fill my tank--for a week!!!"

But I do have something else a little different to say. Chill out and forget about it! Seriously! The drama is annoying.

So what if Oil recently spiked up there to about $139 a barrel, and many speculate that by the end of the summer gas will be $5 a gallon at the pump. Europe has been paying way over that for gas for many years now, with tax, and with a road tax based on the size of their car.

But one must realize that there is nothing one single person can do in a situation like this. So chill out and forget about it. Its hard to do, I know, but there are ways to ease into a zen way to drive that will help keep cash in your wallet.

1) Try your hardest to drive under or around 60 mph. Your fuel economy goes up substantially after 60 mph, and again after 80 mph.
So think of it like this, every 5 mph you add after 60 mph,is _exactly like paying $0.20 more for gas. (link: http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/driveHabits.shtml)

In the seventies, during the last oil crisis, speed limits were lowered to be 55 mph on the highways, and it would be worth it to repeat it. At least I think so.

2) Don't fill up your tank when its empty, fill up at half a tank! It's healthier for your car, and helps one reminisce on when gas was $2.90 a gallon. Oh those sweet good old days...

3) Don't accelerate or brake too hard. It's safer, and burns less fuel!

I honestly think its a waste of time to trade your Camry in for a Vespa at this moment. So calm down and enjoy the summer dude!

Further Reading and Helpful Sites:
Global Gas Prices
We thought we had it bad...
Rense
Msnbc
NPR
CNN
Gas Buddy

Mother's Against Paco

So I was reading this article and learned…

Argentina has become the dumping ground for South America’s low-quality, cheapo, cocaine or paco. In the five years that paco starting showing up on the streets, 15,000 people have become seriously addicted, and some have died!

Bilma Acuña’s son Pablo Eche sold everything he owned to get his fix, as well as committing violent robberies. He destroyed his house, sold the land, and lived on the streets cold and alone until his Grandma took him in. “The majority of the kids are using it here,” said Acuña. “My son saw what was happening with the kids in the streets that were using paco, and he always said he wouldn’t get caught up in that. But he did.”

She, as well as a group of other concerned Mothers have organized the only defense against the dangerous drug, which is nothing more than a highly addictive, smokable, cocaine residue, which is pretty much the left over crack of left over crack,that has killed thousands.

What is their answer to combating this noxious narcotic?

Recently, Acuña led a walk through the streets with about 18 other women. They pointed out the residences of current paco dealers. This area of town hadn’t been visited by the police in seven years. The Argentine Government has yet to produce a plan the tackle the addiction.
So Argentine citizens, led by the Mothers, are taking control of the situation. Acuña handles dozens of calls a week from people wanting to help their friends and family with the addiction. She refers them to clinics and urges others to join the force.

It’s unfortunate that there really isn’t anything many people could do in a situation like this one. But I think that if these Mothers could brew up a storm, the Argentine government may finally pay attention to the thousands of people becoming addicted and hardcore smash into those drug dealer’s pads and confiscate all the drugs in the facility.

I want an adventure

I have decided what would solve all of my problems for the rest of my life – forever.
Well…maybe not forever, but this is something I really, really, really want to do.
I believe it will change my life forever. What is it, you may ask?

The Peace Corps. Yup. Next big thing in my life. After high school, of course. And after college. It makes sense. I have always wanted to travel and I have always wanted to help people. (I do this already at Team Gaia.) So why not combine both? Haven’t any of you ever thought of it?

I bet you’re wondering how I got this into my head. My interest grew when I had to interview a teacher about her Peace Corps adventure, and I knew from that moment on that I want, want, want to be a part of this amazing organization. My teacher travelled mainly to Czechoslovakia.


And she really believes it was the best experience she’s had in her entire life. As a teacher, she taught people English after the fall of communism, considering no one cared to learn Russian anymore. She also taught a deaf Russian woman English and some American Sign Language so that she could teach the deaf children English. Oddly enough, she also met her husband there, and recently returned to show her husband’s family their two gorgeous children. She said that now, they don’t even need the English program she taught in, and they finally got their first McDonald’s.

She went on to tell me something else that I really agree with – America can no longer be so isolated from the world. If we do, imagine the horrible isolated beliefe that may occur! Americans would be elitist pigs and so big headed and arrogant with good ol’ American Pride that we could…I don’t know, be blind sided by an attack or have all the other countries hate us (as if they dont already do…). I want to be apart of this anti-meatheadedness. I want world peace. I want people to stop dying of AIDS in Africa. I want to help feed the starving children of the world.

Now that I know what I want to do and why, how do I get into the Peace Corps?

1. Become at least 18. And be a citizen of the United States. OK that one is almost complete -easy.
2. Having a four-year college degree by the time you’re ready to leave for the Peace Corps will help your chances of acceptance. Well, considering I plan on getting a professional degree, that should work out.
3. Work/Volunteer experience. I do that already – Team Gaia again. We have youth dialogue meetings where we discuss and try to solve local issues...like my group is about prejudice, and we are going to have a booth at a local fair thing called World of Nations to spread awareness!
4. It’s always good to know another language. I know Arabic. Hell-yeah! Thank you heritage!

OK so they offer an online quiz to see if you qualify – so I just filled it out to see if I fit the bill and, guess what? I do!

So, I hope you all wish me great luck on the voyage called Preparation, and more on the journey called Peace Corps.

Exxon Ain't Screwing Nothing

With gas prices rising and lowering and rising again, we're often riding a veritable rollercoaster just to search for the cheapest gas station, and it seems to be a daily routine. Recently, Exxon smashed up the record for the largest annual profit ($40.6 billion) as well as the record for the largest quarterly profit ($11.7 billion). Almost every news station wrote articles about these record breaking figures, and many people commented against the great amount of money that Exxon made.
ONSLOW1066 wrote, "Dont buy gas from these big greedy companies. That's the only way to hurt them.",and Fredefam commented, "The goverment continues to let the oil companies screw the American public."

But I agree with graber4543, one of the only sane people in the comment feed, who wrote, "They are only making a 10% profit. Just do the math. $40.6 billion on an annual sales of $404.5 billion = 10%. Almost all successful companies make a profit of 10%. Any company that makes less is headed down the drain. Retail stores operate on a 40% mark up. Contractors bid a job at cost plus 10%. They are not out of line."

I agree because this is just a business at work. Breaking records like this shouldn't make people "not" want to buy Exxon fuel, but rather the high in the sky numbers just show that this is a good company doing what they can to stay afloat in hard times. They earned their money morally, and shouldn't be castrated because of it!

In fact, this even makes me want to buy fuel for my VW from a successful, dependable business like Exxon. This my friends, is not a rip off.

What you should be doing is complaining to the Prez and asking the candidates in 2008 to pay more attention to finding and utilizing new, renewable energy sources instead of yelling about EXXON's banner year. I mean the price of oil per barrel just keeps going up for all sorts of reasons beyond our control. So of course we are going to pay for it at the pumps. Let's take back control! If you're gonna say something then say something constructive and talk about wind, geo-thermal, solar, hydro, all are a means of energy that would end our dependence on a dying fossil fuel. I mean, dude we are at peak oil(http://www.hubbertpeak.com/ ). We are at the MAXIMUM and the only way we can really save ourselves is to use less. We need to use alternative fuels and unconventional sources. Unfortunately, this method won't support the gas companies at alllll.

And if that doesn't convince you, check out this video on youtube!

On The Road

I drive a lot. A LOT.
I drive perhaps four hours out of my day, whether I’m going across town to school, or simply running errands. Even though there are demanding gas prices and then on top of that the building mileage counting down the days until my next 15 dollar oil change, the thing that bothers me the most about driving is the bad habits of the other drivers. Mainly, littering. It’s absolutely disgusting.

I see people throw out bags of McDonald’s and little pieces of paper with spit swabs of Juicy Fruit. The biggest offense at nighttime is the flaming cigarette butt darting like fireworks out the window.

In Florida, we have our “Adopt a Highway” system, where groups of people or businesses take care of a highway or stretch of road. These people have pride in their state, unlike those that don’t care at all and simply trash whatever they want, wherever they want – the world is their trash can. There are no consequences for them, nothing matters to these litterbugs, but them. Freakin’ slobs!

Several years ago I went to MOSH (Museum of Science and History in downtown Jacksonville) and learned that when litter is thrown in the road, small animals can smell it and think its food, then check it out. Then a fast moving vehicle on its way to Disneyworld slams into the creature, spreading it like animal jam across the road. The guts and juices from the small creature attract larger animals, like a raccoon or an opossum. Then a car hits them. Their sumptuous aroma and succulent scraps of delicious, tender meat attracts a predator like the peregrine falcon, an endangered species. The falcon approaches, sniffs, and devours. Then a car hits it. A never-ending cycle of death that no one thinks about on a daily basis.

There are many reasons why littering ruins our Earth, but this one reason changed my mind for good years ago. So think about what you’re doing when you are about to pitch your cigarette or half eaten burger and fries out of your car window, and please, don’t litter! You’ll save a small creature, an opussum and a falcon while you’re at it.