Continue reading »]]> Over the weekend a flaming fireball, otherwise known as a meteor shook parts of Northern California and Nevada. This meteor shook these parts of the country because it even caused a sonic boom.

Normally meteors that enter the earth’s atmosphere like that show up over the ocean or the desert – the uninhabited parts of our earth. But this one showed up over a highly populated area and in fact left bits and pieces on the ground.

Robert Ward, who is an avid meteorites collector, found a piece of this flaming fireball and scientists say that it is “one of the more primitive types of space rock out (in space).” This dates back to the early formation of the solar system – about 4-5 billion years ago. It is also one of the rarest types because it contains amino acids and organic compounds.

Meteor Description

Experts guess that this meteor was most likely about the size of a minivan and weighted about 154,300 pounds when it entered into the earth’s atmosphere.

This rock entered the atmosphere with so much friction and speed that “it doesn’t even burn up, it vaporizes.” As this rock entered the atmosphere, it exploded with a boom and about one-third the explosive power of an atomic bomb which released enough energy equivalent to a “5-kiloton explosion – the Hiroshima bomb was 15 kilotons” to give you some sort of gauge.

NASA scientists stated that “there are millions of objects of that size (that enter the earth’s atmosphere) that we don’t know about. They are too small to image unless they’re right on top of you.”

Scientist Hopes

There have already been two small pieces of this meteorite found and scientists hope that more will be found. They think that if they can get to them before it rains they will be lucky because the rain will degrade them. Let’s hope for a dry spell until more pieces are found.

Continue reading »]]> Summer is coming and you all know what that means… hotter temperatures and, more often than not, increased gasoline prices.

Every time I go to put gas in my car I cringe a little because the price meter always goes up way faster that the gas amount numbers do. The final price is always something to grumble about as well, but that’s just the way it is. Gas is just expensive.

How would you feel if you found out that the expensive gasoline that you are putting into your car is less energy efficient as the temperature raises? Not only are you paying more for your gas, but it doesn’t work as well? Yikes! In one study, in 2007 consumers paid an extra $1.5 billion dollars for gas because of the decreased fuel efficiency.

Gas pumps do not have the ability to control temperature, but there is technology that can regulate the pump of hot gas. Gas stations can put meters on their gas pumps that can make sure that the right amount of gasoline is pumped according to the temperature. Over 90% of gas stations in Canada use this technology.

The Good News

Can any good news make you feel better after what you just found out? Maybe. Even though you are probably paying more for gasoline when it gets hot, you make up for it when it is cold. Gasoline is actually more energy efficient when in is cold. If you live in a place that has both hot and cold temperatures, your gas spending will likely even out over the course of the entire year.

If this fuel efficiency thing still bothers you, there are things that you can do to help a little. Try filling up at night when the temperatures are cooler and always park your car in the shade, a garage, or other place where it can stay cool.

Continue reading »]]> Summer is coming and that is good news for the real estate market. You have heard of selling your house before, but have you ever heard about anyone trying to sell an entire town before? That is exactly when is happening in the small town of Bupford Wyoming.

Bupford, Wyoming has a grand total of one, you hear me, one. This one lucky inhabitant is named Don Simmons. Don has been the mayor and wan in charge of running the town’s post office.

This town hasn’t always been so small. Back in the mid 1800’s there were more than 2,000 residents living in Bupford. After the railroad through this town stopped being used, the population slowly got smaller and smaller.

Don Simmons has lived in Bupford since 1980 when he moved there with his wife and son. Since then his wife passed away and his son moved, leaving him the only resident left in the town.

Don says that “he is alone but not lonely” because there are plenty of visitors and tourists that com through the town. His town actually has a full service trading post, a 24-hour ATM, and a 24 hour gas pump.

All of the visitors and the few businesses that he takes care of have kept him busy in America’s smallest town, but he is ready for a change. The 10-acre town is up for bid with the bids starting at $100,000.

There is potential to make this town grow however. This town comes with a convenience store, a house, post office boxes, a school house, and the lease to the cell tower and gas station.

There is actually interest from at least 300 people representing about 72 countries. Who knew that such a small town could bring such a big crowd?

Continue reading »]]> Most Americans could probably admit to having eaten ground beef at some point in their life. There is news coming out that the ground beef that we have all eaten and loved, may not be pure ground beef at all. The label says “ground beef,” and there are no other ingredients listed on the ingredient list. This may not be the case for some products.

Some ground beef companies sell ground beef with other ingredients added to it, most likely to save money. Some critics have named this filler “pink slime.” Pink slime is made from low cost low cost material.

It is essentially the left-overs fatty bits from other cuts of meat. These fatty bits are mixed together and compressed into blocks. These blocks are then exposed to “a puff of ammonium hydroxide gas” to kill any bacteria. The name “pink slime” was created because of the appearance of the meat substance.

Some consumers are angry because this ingredient is not listed on the product label. Consumers think that they are buying pure ground beef, when in fact, they are buying part ground beef and part filler “slime.”

Supporters of the pink slime say that this product has been added to meat for years. People have never complained before and nobody has seen any negative effects from it being in their meat. This ingredient does, in fact come from other meat product. It’s not a chemical or anything like that.

Some school districts may have unknowingly been buying beef containing the pink slime. This has angered concerned parents. What is more frustrating for those parents, is that last year McDonald’s decided to stop using meat product that contained the pink slime. If this pink slime isn’t good enough for McDonald’s to use, it shouldn’t be good enough for our children to eat at school.

Is pink slime something that you should be worried about? You decide…

Continue reading »]]> There are eight planets in our solar system (nine if you count the planet Pluto, but that isn’t really a planet.) Only one of the planets in our solar system is capable of sustaining life that we know of.

Earth’s atmosphere has plenty of oxygen for us to survive. We can thank all of the plants on the Earth’s surface for that. But can Oxygen exist without the presence of plants?

One of NASA’s spacecraft’s that is circulating Saturn detected a small layer of oxygen on one of Saturn’s moons named Dione. It is one of Saturn’s smaller moons. It is very icy and cold there. It is about 698 miles wide and orbits Saturn once every 2.7 days. It is also about the same distance from Saturn as our moon is from our planet.

There is not nearly enough oxygen Dione to support human life, but this is an amazing discovery.
The reason why this is such an amazing discovery is that there is no life on Dione that could be responsible for the oxygen.

On Earth, plants are a definite and constant source of oxygen. On Dione, Scientists believe that oxygen molecules from the moon’s ice supply are being released because solar photons or energetic particles from space are bombarding the ice. Other natural geological processes are not being ruled out. Scientists are still looking for other reasons to explain the presence of oxygen there.

This isn’t the first detection of an atmosphere with oxygen in it. There are other moons and planets with traces of oxygen, but non that would readily support life. We may not be living in space anytime soon, but who knows what this information will help us figure out about the great expanse.

Continue reading »]]> iphones have been the craze for the last several years for one simple reason: apps! Anyone–who knows anything about apps–knows how useful, random, fun, or weird they can be. The current best-selling apps on iTunes’ top charts are Draw Something, Bejeweled, and Evi.

Draw Something is an interactive drawing game with other people. Our favorite puzzle game, Bejeweled, has been around for years and won’t be going away any time soon. If sci-fi movies haven’t made your paranoid about artificial intelligence, try Evi. She’s a personalize AI that will help you find all sorts of information.

Sounds cool, right? They are. That’s why they are some of the best-selling apps on iTunes right now.

“Cool” apps aren’t the only ones gaining popularity. You’ve probably heard of some weird apps in your time, but have you heard of these:

Date Check

When was the last time you went on a blind date? Thanks to Facebook, you don’t ever have to be surprised again. If you want even more information, Date Check will give you the low-down on just about everybody.

All the app requires is an email, phone number, or address. After that Date Check will give you the name, criminal record, horoscope, and living situation of the person in question. If you pay a little extra, you can find out how much money someone makes and what they like to do.

An app like Date Check could be helpful, but we’re more inclined to think that it is excessively creepy and stalker-ish.

Captain’s Log

Are you obsessed with Star Trek? If you have this app on your phone, the answer to that question is really obvious. The app allows you to take notes or record videos. You can record logs in audio, visual, or written form and upload them to your favorite social network. Captain’s Log also gives you the ability to assume the identity of any Star Wars race be it Klingon, Romulan, or Enterprise.

Captain’s Log also allows you to find other “trekkies” in your area and access their recorded logs. You thought watching Star Trek made you a nerd, but this app will bring your nerdiness to a whole new level.

Scanner911

If Star Trek isn’t your thing, maybe listening to police scanners is. Scanner911 is an app that allows you to tune in to police, fire, and EMT police scanners from around the world. It could turn out to be really boring; especially since the police usually talk in code. But don’t worry! Scanner911 has a glossary of codes to help you get the 411.

If you are unable to listen to Scanner911 every minute of every day, the app will take care of that too. You can go back and listen to old transmissions and read up on the past reports.


These apps may seem harmless, but that still doesn’t make them a good idea. And actually, we’re not so sure that the Date Check app is harmless. These and hundreds of other apps will probably never make it to iTunes Top Charts, but every once in a while, a really good app comes along and allows you to once again unlock your iPhone or smartphone’s amazing potential.

Don’t have an iphone and wish you did so you could take advantage of some of these apps? Now you can take advantage of iphone jailbreak software without the risk of damaging or destroying your phone in the process of unlocking its potential.

Continue reading »]]> You’ve heard of stealing cars, jewelry, shoes and even cell phones. You may have even heard of stealing wives, rocks from National Parks and towels from hotels, but chances are, you’ve probably never heard of stealing a glacier…

As silly as it seems, an arrest has been made in connection to what police believe may be a glacier theft in the Patagonia region. The arrest was made after police received a tip about the stolen ice and set up a road block to check cars outside of the capital city of Santiago, Chile where the truck was stopped and the arrest made.

Why would anyone want to steal part of a glacier you ask? Well, to sell the pieces as designer ice cubes for cocktails in the capital city of Santiago, obviously! And to think, the government has been blaming it on global warming!

The thief was caught in January with a refrigerated truck full of the illicit ice with an estimated worth up to £3,900 or $6,100. The man is being held under suspicion of stealing up to 5 tons (11,453 lbs) of ice from the Jorge Montt glacier in the Bernardo O’Higgins national park.

This glacier has been retreating by a half mile a year, making it one of the world’s fastest shrinking glaciers. This shrinkage was previously believed to be a product of global warming, but even skeptics of the global warming theory hadn’t considered theft as a possible conclusion.

The man will be charged with theft and prosecutors are considering seeking additional charges in connection with the national monuments act, making this case all the more serious.

Park rangers commented that the glacier can only be reached by water after a four hour trip down a long, dusty dirt road.

The ice will now go to good use as it is being used to irrigate crops in a drought stricken part of Chile.

Continue reading »]]> The coming year of the dragon and Chinese New Year is set to be celebrated with a 137 ft ice dragon near Beijing in the Longqing Gorge Ice Lantern Festival. This year there are 300 ice works on display, including the dragon, properly named Take Off 2012, a lit city and lanterns carved from ice.

First held in 1963, this years festival began on January 5 and is set to last for an entire month, drawing hundreds of thousands of visitors from all parts of China. This festival celebrates some of the largest man made ice structures in the world.

The city of ice was created by stacking ice blocks to create buildings, often with lights frozen in the cubes to create the atmosphere shown here. The city created represents a typical Chinese town and the buildings found in it. Snow machines are used during construction to stop the over 10 million pounds of snow and ice from melting.

Ice sculptors use picks and chisels and say that they find it a pleasure to create such works of art and plan on doing so for as long as time will allow. The ice used in this festival is unusually clear, creating an interesting lighting effect, because of its location in the river which allows it to freeze slower than normal while the water runs underneath.

Construction of this ice festival takes months to finish, some sculptures taking up to 5 days and multiple workers to complete. After construction has ended, sub-zero temperatures must be maintained in order to keep the ice sculptures in tip top shape.

Additional sculptures include animals from other years, ice mazes and a slide. The creators of this year’s ice festival say that the theme centers around prosperity and harmony because of the financial crises running rampant in many parts of the world.

Continue reading »]]> As a parent you probably worry about your child choking on or getting a hand or appendage stuck in a toy. You may worry about a sharp object or other issues with children’s toys that could cause accident harm or injury. However, I doubt you do much worrying about your children being exposed to toxic chemicals found in their toys.

According to a study done conducted by the Environmental Health Strategy Center in Maine, your children’s toys may contain the toxic chemical BPA. Thousands of toys were tested and reports indicate that literally hundreds were found to include this toxic chemical that may affect brain development, reproductive organs and behavior with long term exposure. Among the “infected” toys are 650 popular toy brands such as Playmobil, Gerber, LeapFrog, Chicco and SpyNet.

Gerber, Enfamil and Similac were also sited in the study as companies that may have included BPA in the containers that they use to distribute baby food and formula. These three companies have promised to stop using this product in the linings of their containers.

Legislation

Today, Tuesday December 13 Michigan senator Rebekah Warren plans on introducing a bill that will give Michigan families better access to information about their children’s toys.

This bill, appropriately named “The Safe Children’s Act” will require the state to compile a list of chemicals found in all types of children’s products that could be harmful to the children’s health. It would also require toy companies to complete a similar list of any toxic ingredients found in their products.

Even though companies have said they will stop the usage of these harmful chemicals, other chemicals, such as lead are found in toys and parents should always be aware of what their child may be sucking on. We encourage you to take a look at the entire report found at www.healthystuff.org

Continue reading »]]> Everyone loves a great deal and when Black Friday, the busiest shopping day of the year, dawns, the throngs of crazed couponers and deal grabbers are poised and ready. Mass mayhem almost always ensues. This year, the craziness started early. Wal-Mart locations started their deals on Thursday night at 10pm and other stores joined in. As always, the madness started when the sales began. In the past we have heard stories of hitting, screaming, throwing, and right-out meanness, but this year’s tales of woe top them all. Has the deal hunting drama perhaps crossed the line this time?

Crazed or Conniving?

Imagine standing in a crowd of people, waiting for your chance to grab a 50% off Xbox. Not a bad deal right? Now imagine reaching for the coveted game system and getting pepper sprayed by a charmer who feels that you might be trying to get the one she has already claimed. Now multiply that by 20. This is what happened at a Wal-Mart in L.A.

Witnesses say, the lady, who felt that the grip on her 50% off Xbox was being threatened pepper-sprayed about 20 people to ensure that she got the deal she was looking for and then proceeded to the check-out stand to make her purchase.

Grandpa Body Slammed By Police

Story number two, gets a little bit crazier. A grandfather and grandson, after picking up some game purchases are surrounded by a group of kids grabbing at games.

A fight breaks out and the grandfather, wanting to get his grandson out of harm’s way, tucks a game into his waistband for a minute to lift his grandson and remove him from the crowd when he is body slammed and knocked to the floor by police, shattering his face.

His grandson, left unprotected was then trampled by the crowd as police proceeded to try to handcuff the grandfather.

Deals or Disaster?

Adding to the tales of mayhem is an attempted robbery and shooting outside another southern California Wal-Mart, a passed out 61-year old man who was ignored and walked over by shoppers in a Target (he later passed away), and a “pepper spray puff” by police men trying to control a crowd in North Carolina.

This leads us to the question. Have Americans gone too far? Is that deal really worth someone’s life? Black Friday has turned dark indeed.