Wikileaks Controversy

This week, there has been much controversy over the Wiki based website Wikileaks, a wiki which publishes online documents that are otherwise unavailable to the general public. This week they published more than 250,000 confidential documents from American embassies around the globe and the U.S. State Department. These documents, spanning from over the last three years include details of backroom U.S. Diplomacy and criticism of foreign leaders. Many people are probably wondering, how could a website such as "Wikileaks.org" could obtain such valuable secret data. It is uncertain, but the main suspect is PFC Bradley Manning, an army intelligence analyst who has previously released sensitive data having to do with the Iraq War.


-MSNBC
-Wikileaks

Huge Energy Bubbles

Something huge is happening in the center of our Milky Way, and scientists have no clue as to what it is. Two newly discovered gamma ray and X-ray energy bubbles together span a distance of more than 50,000 light years. They contain energy equivalent to 100,000 supernova explosions. “They’re big,” said Doug Finkbeiner, leader of the team at Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics who discovered the balls. The source of energy of these cosmic balloons is unknown, but a possible theory is that they are fueled by star births and deaths at the center of the galaxy. Another theory is that they are a giant "burp" from a black hole known to live in the center of the galaxy. “And we think we know a lot about our own galaxy,” Dr. Spergel said, mentioning that the bubbles are roughly the size of our entire galaxy, and that they were previously undetected. It really just goes to show how little we know about our universe. Nobody on Earth understands exactly just what these balloons are, and in all honesty, the only reason it matters to us is because we are afraid of the implications it has for our little planet. Could this be the coming of the end of our world as we know it? Probably not. This reporter says: the galaxy has got some pretty big balls.

Sources:

-NY Times
-Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

Prop 19 Defeated

This Tuesday, California voters rejected Proposition 19, a measure that would legalize, regulate and tax marijuana for adults at least 21 years of age in the state. It's a very controversial subject, but the events of this election surprised me. I honestly thought prop 19 was going to pass, it seemed to me like that was actually the wisest choice for the people to select. If prop 19 had passed, it would have made it much more difficult for minors to get their hands on the herb. The penalties under prop 19 specifically for offering or selling marijuana to minors were harsher than the current prohibition laws restricting it from minors, or otherwise. This wasn't the only initiative in California to legalize marijuana. In fact, in November 1972, proposition 19 was to "Removal Of Penalty For Personal Use of Marijuana", but it failed too. I just hope it doesn't take another 40 years for California to attempt to legalize this plant which has so many uses and benefits.

Sources:

- The New York Times
- Ballotpedia