Can we stop the printing of guns?

The printing of 3D firearms is becoming a very dangerous thing in America. Well the government is attempting to crack down on current illegal weapons makers, these gun manufactures are able to create and give away full 3D blueprints of firearms that people can print in their own homes. This is such as scary turn of events that the department of homeland security has issued a warning to the public, stating that it would be very hard to stop the printing of these 3d firearms. They say that because this is a printed weapon and not a real firearm, it does not require a serial number, therefore, can be distributed by anyone with a federal firearms licensee and bought by literally anyone. This is not only a scary thought, that anyone can purchase these weapons, but it is scarier that an ordinary person can download the file to any of these weapons and print them on any accessible 3d printer.

 

This event can only get worse and worse. In the past 2 months, this company has gone from printing upper receivers to the full models of firearms. What happens when we give this another 2 months? Or a year? What we will eventually see is firearms that can put more than 200 rounds through them. Sooner or later, we will see fully functional assault rifles that are able to hold more than any legal rifle today, that is fully automatic and can be bought for FREE and printed at the fraction of the cost of purchasing the same rifle. This is what we are probably going to call the ‘next stage’. These stages occur when revolutions or breakthroughs happen in a short period of time. In cases such as the world wars, we saw the heavy advancement of all military weapons and tactics. We went from bolt action rifles, swords and horses to Jet fighters, long-range bombers and nuclear weapons. This advancement is not on the scale of let’s say a nuclear weapon, but it is an advancement that should be feared even more. How easy it would be to take a printed gun everywhere, on planes, into subways, on buses; and the only current logical solution to find these weapons is a full body pat down. What it is eventually going to do is have an event, a tragic, awful event that will force the government to take action against these forms of weapons. 

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/05/23/govt-memo-warns-3d-printed-guns-may-be-impossible-to-stop/

Tornado In Oklahoma

Over the past few days, Oklahoma City suburbs were ravaged by a massive tornado. The number of dead from the beginning of the tornado has reached over 20 and the numbers have been rolling up. The massive tornado has been listed as one of the largest seen ever in the city and had a base size of several kilometers. Landing on the ground and eventually covering close to 24 miles of damage, this tornado completely decimating the area, leaving hundreds homeless, injuring over 200 and doing all of this, completely by surprise. This event that has ruined the lives of hundreds of people had started and ended in the small period of less than 40 min. This is such as short period of time, but it still managed to devastate the local population. What has hurt the community the most was the death of 9 small children in the event.

          

           This is an awful and tragic. What is worse is that we could not have seen it coming. This might be tornado season, but it is very hard to figure out when these types of things can happen. It is like trying to predict when a volcano will erupt. We can say that it is 100,000 years overdue to explode, but that does not mean that it will tomorrow. It could stay dormant for the next 100,000,000 years just because. What we all find hurtfully is that so many people had to die for a meaningless cause. These natural disasters should be avoidable, if not by public services that are provided (such as bunkers or safe houses). When you get right down to it, there was no real foreseeable way that we could have seen this coming, so all we can do not is prepare for the next one. 

http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/22/us/oklahoma-tornado/index.html

North Korea moves missiles from costal launch site

It is believed that North Korea has moved two of its medium range missiles from a critical costal launch site. Previously, the warheads could have been launched at any time but have been made unlaunchible for their preparation to move. This move has relieved some tension off the surrounding nations and seems to have been a very quick withdrawal. This action could be seen as a possible combat manuviour as they North Koreans had only first moved the missiles to the costal site on April 10^th but could also have been seen as a natural standing point. Realizing that the North Koreans are not actually stupid enough to fight the United States, only to bluff them into less oppression.

 

I feel that if this is not an act towards ending the current violence that the North Korean government has undertaken, then it is a strong act of military strategy. The standard placement of your primary weapons is key in any conflict, and this ‘withdrawal’ seems to be a step to ‘avoid’ an actual future conflict. If in fact this is a move towards peace, the sole reason the north Koreans are acting in this way is to attempt to take pressure off themselves. On the other hand, it could be a ploy; solely for the purpose of reorganizing weapons or creating a false sense of security for people outside of north Korea. Either w way, north Korea is in a very bad spot right now and it will take time to get out. 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-22429734

Craving Wi-Fi, Preferably Free and Really Fas

As more and more of the world’s transaction and wealth is run over the internet, it would be fitting for most of us to use electronic devices to aid us in our day to day routine. These devices, ie phones, tablets and laptops have become a major part of most business life and are close to being a necessity for all business workers. What flaw that many people are feeling the effect of is the lack of Wifi. Without this invisible stream of information that allows us to connect to the world wide web, your computer is little more than a small typewriter. More commonly, passengers are looking for more routes to connect to wifi well they travel on flights in and around the world. Many airlines have attempted to implement a wifi system into their planes but it is becoming increasingly difficult to have a few hundred people attempting to steam hours of video and upload massive files well traveling on an aircraft at 500 miles per hour. Never the less, several companies have implemented small amount wifi to allow passengers the chance to check email or download a small file; but this area is very unpublicized. Most airlines do not release what planes have wifi and which ones do not.  To combat this fog of uncertainty, several websites have been created to track and display what flights from dozens of different airlines, offer the amazing service of this wifi.

 

I feel that this is not only the next step for all airlines but it is probably the most important one to date. People, now more than ever are relying to Wifi to run their lives and direct all of what they do. It allows people to upload thousands of lines of text for the world to see, it allows you to stream video of people from all the way around the globe. This service is not only a necessity for most people, but completely implemented into their lives. When the first airlines can offer high speed, strong internet connection on all their planes, that will be the airline that will end up taking more and more of the market, and that is a fact. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/01/business/travelers-increasingly-demand-high-quality-wi-fi.html?hp&_r=0

Huge toxic algae bloom expected for Lake Erie

 

Over the past few weeks, our late rain season has played to a possible downfall of one of our great lakes. Due to the heavy rain that has been seen in the Lake Erie areas, fertilizers from the farmers’ fields have been washed into streams and directly into the like. Scientists believe that this extra chemical base can provide a perfect growing area for algae in the lake side areas. It is believed that this summer we will see a notable increase in the algae in the lake that will attribute to many problems for underwater life in the area. This tarp of toxic algae creates a cover over all underwater life, killing thousands of fish and other underwater residences.

We must understand that this is our fault, right? I mean, we do get it that we are the cause of so much destruction on this planet that there is no possible way we can blame anyone other than ourselves for this mess. People need to eat; government lets farmers use fertilizer to grow more food; fertilizer destroyers water source. It is not like we can blame one specific group of people for this mess. We don’t have officials going around to regulate the amount of fertilizer used by farmers and we don’t have 100% of all farmers using the legal amount of fertilizer. What we need to do is plan ahead of these events. If the long term forecast says that we are going to have heavy rain in and around Lake Erie, then ask farmers to use less fertilizer in that specific time period. If we continue to run around like we completely own the land we work on, the land we farm, the lakes we drink out of; then we are not going to survive very much longer.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2013/04/29/wdr-algae-bloom-predicted-lake-erie.html

North Korea's "Tower of doom"

North Korea has finally finished their so called “Tower of doom” A projected started in the late 80’s, but delayed in the early 90’s due to material and financial issues. Recently, the massive structure was completed but has yet to be open to the public. The estimated current cost of the building is around 2% of the nation’s GDP, or 750 million.

 

North Korea is just getting worse and worse… If it isn’t enough that they starve their citizens well paying off their military power, but they make stupid investments; such as this one towards products that will NEVER help their country. It almost seems like North Korea is trying to make the stupidest decisions before they end up going to war. That being said, this icon should help with the North Korean tourist service, if they ever end up getting tourists. And the income of the stay in this hotel should eventually pay itself off, if people in NK actually had money to spend. Overall; this was a very bad investment for North Korea in its current stance with the United Nations and with the world. 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-20178985

Boston Bombers, closing the gap

After this week’s tragic events, it should feel like a relief that we have finally found these suspected bombers. For all the families that have been changed and hurt by these men, it will be a true victory when we capture and execute these men. But until we do have both men, the hunt will continue. As of April 19^th, one of the suspected bombers has been killed by gunfire in a police shootout where a security Guard lost his life as well. Even more recently, the 2^nd bomber is suspected to be in a highly populated, but small section of Boston has been closed down to prevent the 2^nd bomber from escaping once again. This will eventually lead to one of two outcomes; the bomber dies from police and or self-inflicted wounds or he is taken into custody. With one of the two men already dead, it would not help anyone if the 2^nd bomber dies. Not only would it bring up more questions of why, but it would not give any closing to the victims of this violent attack.

 

This thing that we call a tragedy needs to be taken down a notch. Yes these men are awful people and yes they do deserve to die but this event has been scaled WAY out of proportion by the media. When you have 2.. 3 even 4 news outlets reporting on false information just to create a story, they are being more a pain then anything. Aside from false information made public by large news organizations, you have this whole topic being made into another 9/11 sob story. Everything is fine until the.. Oh geese… The Terrorists attack.. In other news,there was another massive explosion in Texas that killed some 35 people vs the 3 people that died in the Boston Marathon and I don’t seen the government going out of their way and spending all possible resources to find the cause of this explosion. So why is it that unless someone is immediately accountable to these horrific actions, that it will determine the amount of news coverage>The publicity it gets>The amount of time and energy the government will put into it.

A not so stealth message

 According to a statement from the United States Military, two B-2, nuclear capable Stealth Bombers were sent from their resting place at Whiteman Air force base to South Korea as a routine supply and training mission. This mission was targeted at the transportation of supplies to South Korea well keeping with the United States Fear Factor. The United States feel that this mission was necessary in the sense that they must display their power in a way the North Koreans will understand, rather than following the apparent new mainstream idea of just ‘telling’ your enemy you don’t like them.

 

Completely necessary. North Korea is beyond crazy if they feel that they can still launch nuclear weapons onto the United States. Not only is there no substantial evidence that suggests that they have the facilities to manufacture a nuclear weapons small enough to put on a war head, but even if they did it would not get very far. Let us review a little bit of basic US space shall we. At the current moment, North Korea is at the United States ‘top of the list’. Anything that could have or somewhat resembles a launch site for North Korea is currently under watch by the united Sates, thanks to the United States DPS satellites. So let’s say they do manage to get a nuke, and have it mounted and ready to fire. As soon as it is airborne, STSS satellites will pick up its range and trajectory, calculate it and then send that information back to the United States, I would guess in less than 60 seconds. In this time, the United States can contact one of their many missile defense programs and deal with the problem swiftly.

Let’s make this simple. For any nuclear device to have the correct trajectory to hit its target, it must circle the earth at least once. At any point in its assent, cruse or decent stages, the United States has many different means to take it out. From low land based missiles, to contacting the missile defense agency, there is no possible way that North Korea could launch an ICBM that would EVER hit the United States. What is not for sure is if The US will respond with nuclear power in the same way, but this B2 flyby could have been a warning to just that.

 http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/03/28/us-deploys-b-2-stealth-bombers-over-south-korea/?test=latestnews

‘Right to say “yes”’

‘Right to say “yes”’

On march 26^th, we will find ourselves in a situation that we have not been correctly addressing over the past few years. The subject of gay marriage is on the table.

On the 26^th, the Supreme Court will gather together and debate the reformation and hear appeals to change the state and federal same sex marriage laws. The court will then address California’s proposition 8, that was put in place to assure that even when in states where it is legal to marry the same sex, you could not be recognized on a federal level as a couple. This prevents same sex couples from having the same benefits as a heterosexual couple, thus seeming to discriminate against anyone who is in a same sex relationship. Depending on the result at the end of the day, this could be a major blow or step forward for the gay community.

 

I feel that this is completely necessary. People seem to think that just because their own personal beliefs are better than the persons next to him that they can regulate the standard of the population. It is almost stupid, how the United States can call themselves a free country with rights and laws, but still manage to discriminate against people who are exactly the same as everyone else, other than the fact that they are attracted to the same sex. How this is even a topic of debate is unbelievable and makes the US look more and more stupid. Why should a heterosexual couple have more benefits than a same sex couple? Are they any different under their skin? Have they done anything to deserve harsher treatment? Regardless of what any biblical text will say and regardless of what any beliefs are, people are people. And what just makes everything 100X worst is that we still have people with governmental power and standing in the system that feel the gay community are lesser people then “regular” couples. To put it into perspective, take this back 50-60 years. Ask a politician if he hates black people. Ask him if a black person has less right to the United States then a white person. Ask him if under the skin of both men, are the same exact copy of a human. Most would then completely brush this off, saying that these are racist comments and that they would never even think of such thing. Then tell him to look at today’s proposition 8. Ask him why gay couples have any less of a right to the United States then strait couples. It would be a sad day if this proposition stands. 

From nothing to Knives.

The TSA (Transportation Safety Administration) is considering letting passengers carry small lengths of knives on planes. Ever since 9/11, the TSA has been granted funding for the use of protecting more and more passengers. This funding has limited multiple different common day to day, household used items; This includes the limit of liquid that you can carry in a container in an airplane, the very simple ban on all forms of weapons and most commonly inconvenient, the ban of items such as nail files/clippers, bags over a specific weight and many other “dangerous” “weapons”. This idea suggested by the TSA would allow any passenger carry a knife with a blade onto a plane. With this would come several restrictions such as: It cannot be a fixed blade on the knife, the main blade has to be shorter than 2.36 inches and the knife may not have a modeled grip. This would be the first time in 12 years that such items could be carried onto planes and thus making it a possible breakthrough or downfall of all American airlines.

 

This is a very confusing subject to discuss. Every year, you hear stories of TSA agents harassing regular people over the simplest of items. You see prosecution placed on most races of people that attempt to fly, then this idea comes out. I personally believe that the TSA is attempting to make up for some of its many faults as an Administration in the past 12 years. Let’s be honest, no terrorist is going to attempt to take a fully loaded plane hostage with a nail file. They are not going to use their restricted 500ml shampoo boodle to beat people over the head with. These previous restrictions really did not do anything in the ways of preventing terrorism, and this new idea of knives on a place is no different. The length and width of the knives listed is so small that unless you feel really confident in your ability to fight off several hundred people with a blade less than 3 in’s long, you will not be planning the next terrorist attack with these little picket knives. In actual fact, most rules and restrictions by the TSA and the flight administration are completely made up, just to prevent any actual problems from coming up. The limit of liquid in a container? The weight of your bags? The way you look? These are all measures put in place to make it seem like an attack in impossible. It prevents the everyday American from bringing large amount of drinks onto a plane. It prevents him from packing extra clothing and it determines based on skill colour if he will get patted down for more weapons. So what I believe is that this will not affect airlines in any way. In fact, I believe that this is a step forward for all aviation. 

North Korea destroying a 50 year cease fire.

On March 11, North Korea is officially destroying a 50 year cease fire with South Korea. They say that this is an action that must be taken because of further actions taken against them by the United States. With the threat of long range nuclear arms being available to North Korea, the movement of US troops to South Korea should provoke them. Eventually, we could find larger US forces moving into placement close to the North Korean Border with South Korea. What is the scary part of all of this is that North Korea believes that they are in the right and that all they are doing is defending themselves, well in actually fact they are getting ready for war.

 

This is not only BAD, this is an action that needs to be reviewed as a statement of war. The leaders in North Korea believe that they are their own gods, that they can do whatever they want and that every other nation must bow before them. They feel this so much that they call actions that they take towards war, actions that are a result of the United States. But the fact is that nobody has ever stood up the United States in this way. They are deliberately testing nuclear weapons to have the ability to shoot them off. I personally feel that any more actions taken that are even a little violent; that affect the balance of life in North Korea or anywhere else in the world, we will have a problem. We have a problem right now, but we are not ready to send troops into North Korea. This action of stopping a cease fire is just another stepping stone that the North Korean leaders are taking to get ready for war with the united states. 

Deadline day for the cuts

According to the Whitehouse, this day has been known since 2011 as the day that all congress members would dread. Starting this Friday, the US government has to end up cutting close to $85 Billion dollars from their annual spending. These cuts will affect federal agencies and government officials warn that these cuts could cause Unemployment, longer lines at airports to lower quality of food inspections. Along with the capital/house, the senate is cutting down on their spending. The current democratic leaders are awaiting the exact numbers that they will end up cutting.

 

Having such an advanced knowledge of these cuts should have given the Government a heads up and a large amount of time to plan for the areas of the Country where they can cut spending from. When you get right down to it, if the United States does not cut down on major spending, they will find themselves even more in debt. They will eventually have to cut large amounts of money, not just from what politics demand, but from areas of the country and government where spending is so stupidly high, for unassay reasons. Choices like this should have been determined during the period of 2011 to 2013, if it has not already. I personally believe that if this cut succeeds, the US could find themselves on the way to recovery and to a country, less in debt. 

Pope Benedict’s last words

On the 26^th of February, 2013, Pope Benedict officially resigned in front of a crowd, tens of thousands of people large. In his final words to the nearly 1.2 billion Catholics around the world, he reviled a more personal and strong message to the public crowds then most would have expected. In his final speech, Pope Benedict make very clear statements that at times in his life at the church, “the lord seemed to sleep” This statement not only shocked the crowd listening to his final words, but brought up more questions. Following these statements the pope reminded everyone that since his time of first being pope, he had prayed every day for gods guidance and wisdom. Another interesting remark that would beg more questions surrounding the pope.

 

Everyone needs help in their lives at some point. Weather that be with small or large ordeals, we have all needed assistance from another person or object. The words that the Pope has spoken were not only true to himself, but revealing of his history with the church. The comment that “God seemed to sleep” was one that I feel is almost necessary. To say that you live a perfect live with the answer all the time would be a lie. To say that you have spherical awareness 100% of the time you are awake would be a lie. Because we are human, we can never be perfect all the time and is such, Good on the pope for saying that the path was not always clear to him.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/27/world/europe/vatican-pope/index.html?hpt=hp_t1 

Brazen Jewel Robbery at Brussels Airport Nets $50 Million in Diamonds

Brazen Jewel Robbery at Brussels Airport Nets $50 Million in Diamonds

Just after the weekend, a plane was robbed at a Brazilin international Airport. The target, over $50 Million in diamonds and precious meatless. 18 munities before the place was meant to take off, 8 men armed with Semi-automatic firearms, dressed in police uniforms and driving in homemade police cars, drove through security and right to the plane loaded with millions of dollars’ worth of diamonds. In the small gap that the plane was meant to make it from the loading station to the end of the runway for takeoff, the robbers stopped the plane, telling people that they were doing an inspection. A few minutes  later, they had loaded over $50 million dollars’ worth of diamonds into their trucks and sped away. Not only were they fast, professional and mature about the whole situation, but they were smart enough not to draw detention to themselves or even half to fire a shot.

 

Like all robbers, you have to feel that what they are doing is wrong. We are taught that it is wrong to steal even under dire circumstances. But this robbery was very interesting. The men that robbed this plane were very organized. They knew when and where the diamonds were going to be on the plane. They knew the time between takeoff and taxiing from the gate. They knew everything about how their operation was going to go down and they executed it near perfectly aside from missing several packets of diamonds. This was not only a well-planned out operation, but this was one where they knew what they wanted and they did not let anything get in their way. Yes, they were armed but they never needed to kill anyone. 9 times out of 10, when you fire of your guns in a public place, you are not only going to attract media, but security, police. The longer your shoot out goes on, the more willing people are to use more and more deadly resources to have you stopped. They knew this and they made a very clear point in not attracting attention with their firearms. I feel that this was a bad thing to do and that stealing is bad, but at some point you have to give them credit. With the low level crimes and poorly planned out robberies that are made to end with death, once and a while, it is almost nice to see nobody die and people get away with no evidence left behind. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/20/world/europe/thieves-steal-millions-in-diamonds-at-brussels-airport.html?_r=0

Oscar Pistorius will likely get off

Oscar Pistorius will likely get off 

Oscar Pistorius, or the “Blade Runner” has been accused of the murder of his girlfriend. His side of the story lists that he was at home and apparently he heard someone “broke into” his house. He quickly ran to his hidden gun location, took out his fire arm and shot the intruder. This all happened on Valentine ’s Day in a horrific turn of events. According to his statement, his girlfriend had locked herself in the bathroom when Oscar Pistorius shot inside to ‘disarm the intruder’ Once he was sure that the person inside was wounded enough that he/she could not hurt him, he proceeded to bash down the door. He states that once he saw who it was, he carried his girlfriend downstairs and called emergency services. As this was happening, he proceeded to say statements such as “she died in my arms”

 

This is a very interesting story. Not because of the victim, but because of the turn events that led to this eventual situation. It is very hard to tell what exactly happened during the shootout, but what has been made clear is that Oscar Pistorius’s girlfriend had locked herself in the bathroom when Oscar began to shoot inside. This is not only strange, but inconvenient. If the ‘intruder’ was locked in the bathroom, could Oscar not attempt to reason or talk to the intruder? Or could the intruder not say something to inform Oscar? It all seems to happen to slow for no communication not to take place. Though I am sad to say it, I tend to agree with Oscar in this matter. Unless substantial evidence is found the proves that Oscar knew who he was shooting at, or that he was the attacker, and not the apparent other way around then I do not see a clear way that a murder charge can be placed. If in fact he did murder his girlfriend, this would probably be one of the more well planned out attempts. With no witnesses and what seems to be an apparent Valentine ’s Day accident. Not only does this look more and more like self-defense and like a large accident, but it seems to be falling more and more in the favor of Oscar. But unless clear motive or evidence is found, I feel that this will brush by as just an act of self defense. 

http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2013/02/19/oscar_pistorius_will_likely_get_off_because_fear_animates_much_of_south_african_lives_kelly.html

The World reacts to North Korea Nuclear Test

The World reacts to North Korea Underground Nuclear Test

Over the past few days, North Korea was successful in its 3^rd official nuclear test. On May 12^th, the Bomb was set off, sending world geographic sensors into frenzy. After ruling out the possibility of earthquakes, officials determined that it was a nuclear grade device that produced a 4.9 shake on the rector scale. Shortly after, the North Koreans announced that they did test another underground nuclear device. This can be seen as a last attempt to frighten other nations, but has caused the opposite affect. One of their last remaining allies (China) had asked them repeatedly not to do this test. By following through with the test, it is a middle finger to china and another warning to the United States of America. The North Koreans say that they are planning on testing more long range nuclear rockets in the future.

 

Not only has North Korea completely screwed itself by preforming this last nuclear test, but it has shown that they do not care anymore about what happens to them. You cannot honestly say that North Korea is not ready for a full on war with anyone who they like. Aside from the 1.1 million official soldiers that they have, they starve the locals of their country, they reward military officers and they are not afraid to stand up to the power nations. But I feel that this might be one of the last draws for the North Koreans. This test is just one more sign that will push the United States into another conflict; and because North Korea has completely ignored the advice of the Chinese, they find themselves with no allies, the ability to launch nuclear devices and an army that can match the powerhouse that is America. Sooner or later, North Korea will launch an attack. Most likely on the USA. Or vice versa, America attacking North Korea. But one thing is for sure, that the North Koreans have proven that they ‘do not need allies’ and that they are capable of detonating high destructive devices.

 

Now, you could argue that if someone went up to America, and told them not to construct or have nuclear devices, and America would just start constructing more nuclear devices and then begin to test. But we look at this from a wordy view.  Most nations have signed an agreement to have the rights to own nuclear arms, but not to test. North Korea is on a very slippery slope, one that will eventually lead to their destruction.  Not because they have the means to destroy, but because they want to destroy. A nation does not build and test nuclear arms and conscript most of their nations to the army if they do not want war. This is a fact that the US sees and ‘hopefully’ will deal with. 

http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/12/world/north-korea-nuclear-reax

The Pope Resigned?!

The Pope Resigned?!

At age 85, we find the current Pope resigning official on February 28^th The catholic community went frantic and are rushing to find a new possible candidate for the spot. Though the current Pope believes that the sections that have been made are currently in good standing and that his replacement will be just as successful as him. Aside from the shock that many Catholics are feeling right now, this is the first time in 600 years that the Pope as stepped down from his spot. The last time a Pope had left, it was to end a civil war within his church.

 

I feel that regardless of his standing, the pope was and in in the right to step down. In the end, what he was doing was just a job. And eventually, following religion or not, he would have to stop doing his job; weather that be to resignation or to death. At the age of 85, most people would agree that any common task would be made complex and hard just because of the human body’s decaying fashion. You look at pictures of the pope and you see, he is not a very healthy and young looking person. Sometimes it would be better to resign and let a new voice be heard then to possibly suffer through several more years of extreme had work and pain. 

http://thebottomline.as.ucsb.edu/2013/02/hope-for-humanity-popes-resignation-raises-questions-over-the-validity-of-christianity-and-religion

Here’s why things cost more here than in the U.S

Here’s why things cost more here than in the U.S.

On review at the Canadian Senate, are the cost differences between the American and Canadian businesses. After inspecting several different items that travel between the United States and Canada, they came to the conclusion that Canadian consumers feel “Ripped off” because they will end up paying more for products that (For example) are made in China, move to America then pass the boarder to Canada. In Canada the Tariff is 18% well in America it is 2.9% this was originally set up to protect Canadian manufactures, but they are all gone now.

 

First of all, I completely agree with this post. Why is it that I have to pay more money in Canada then what I would have to pay for in America? Not only has the US benefited off of this gap in the system, but they exploit it. Why purchase a $50,000 car in Canada when it is $45,00 in America? Would it not be worth it to drive down the two states and purchase it there? And then you look at the Tariff percentage and you almost jump out of your seat. So then I must ask why do Canadian’s have to pay more for products?

http://www.thestar.com/business/personal_finance/2013/02/06/canadaus_price_gap_senate_report_due_today.html

GO launches new Quiet Zones on Barrie trains

This idea is to reduce the amount of noise produced inside the GO trains that move around the Barrie area. It will require passengers with headphones, cellphones or any noise making device to be keep off or have the volume turned down at specific times and in specific areas. This would also require that the devices to not bleed noise. This is in an attempt to reduce the noise during the early morning and late nights. An example, on a 90 minuet train ride at 5:00AM, if someone has a pair of headphones that are bleeding deathcore music through the car, the other people on that car will be possibly attempting to sleep or have a rest.

I actually completely agree with this new rule. I feel that disrupting people in GO trains are not only an annoyance, but a bad representation for themselves. This restriction to the noise will helpfully reduce the ever more stressful conditions of some of the passengers of the go trains as well as improve the general condition of the riding experience on a GO train. I feel though that unless this rule is heavily enforced, it will probably fail. A good way to do this would be to have a guard on every train, able to regulate the noise on each car

. 

http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2013/02/05/bulgaria_says_hezbollah_had_canadians_help_in_july_bomb_attack.html

Vancouver police seek motive in stabbing of 7 people

Early in the week, Vancouver witnessed a brutal attempt from one man to take the lives of others. This 33yearold man walked into an apartment building on Barclay Street (Vancouver) and proceeded to stab 7 different people, three men and three women are current in the hospital and on3 police officer was treated on the scene. It appears that there was no motive for this man to stab any of these people, and this confuses police more when we see that the victim’s and the stabber have no relationships or connections to one another. This seemingly ‘random’ act of violence against these seemingly random people brings a serious problem that our American Friends have been having, to our country.

This not only prompts the conversation of possible mental health but brings the more American ideals to the table. We ask the question, what if one of these 7 people had a weapon? Well we look at the 7^th victim, a police officer. Not only was he armed, but once he and his unit had showed up, the Stabber was placed under arrest [More than likely at gunpoint] so then we ask, what if one of the 6 civilians was armed? What if the first person who was stabbed had a concealed firearm? Would 6 other people have to have been injured? What if the police did not show up? This story could have been titled, “Man Stabs 20, 30,40 people” in that apartment building. But what stopped him, another weapon. So now we are not only dealing with a possible mental health problem, but a problem that Canada seems to have; the ability to defend yourself. In our laws, it is written that you have the right to use equal force to defend yourself against an attacker. So If someone comes at you with a knife, you can use a knife or less lethal weapon to defend yourself. If someone comes at you with a Gun, you can use a Gun or less lethal weapon to defend yourself. But if someone comes at you with a knife and you shoot him, you can go to court can see possible jail time? The last time I checked, people who get shot or stabbed do not carry around every type of possible weapon so that they can pick what to use when threatened. In a life or death situation, you should have the right to use any force necessary to defend yourself. This would not only save lives, but prevent future attacks from ending in more than just one person getting hurt. 

RIM changes name to BlackBerry as BB10 launches

The CEO of black Berry officially announced a new line of Blackberry phones. Such as was known as “Rim” has now changed its name officially to “BlackBerry”. They have also announced the two new BlackBerry 10.0’s The price of these two new BlackBerrys will be Upwards of $150.00 but won’t be available in Canada until February 3^rd. Along with new software, the New BlackBerry phones will have new added language features, Cameras, a blackberry world (Like the app store) and new revamped BlackBerry parts.    

This is a very good thing for everyone around the table. BlackBerry needs more products that compete with companies like Apple and Samsung. This not only relates the product with the creator. If this new BlackBerry does not go well, it will most likely be the end of BlackBerry as a major competitor in the phone market. 

The new Ontario Premier was appoint the position of Premier of Ontario rather then voted into power. She is the first Ontario Premier that is a Female that brings up questions for voters, but the secret that people all know that could be viewed as a factor in this system is that she is a lesbian. This brings up the questions on how she will use her powers in regards to topics such as equal and fair rights.

I personally believe that the sexual orientation of a Premier should have no effect on the way people will vote. But when you get right down to it, depending on how strong she feels about herself and her sexuality, there could be a strong fight ahead of her to push forwards equal rights and pay for women. As well as new bills and orders that remove current legislations that are preventing Women, and in particular gay couples and singles from being granted the same laws, rights and advantages that a strait Couple or single would have. So in actual fact, her sexuality and gender can be preserved as a positive note for the current Canadian Political system. As we move deeper into the idea of similar rights for everyone and all genders, we are going to need more people with strong beliefs to fight for these bills and orders. This is just a first step. 

Original Article:

http://www.thestar.com/news/insight/article/1320603--ontario-liberal-leadership-why-a-woman-leader-will-change-little

For Rape Victims in India, Police Are Often Part of the Problem

After investigating this article, I feel it was made very clear and I believe that the local police are more than often the problem rather than the solution in regards to the current rapes that have taken place in India. As the current system stands, Women still have very few rights in many countries below the poverty line. In these instances, we find young women being publicly raped and the police not being able to help, or siding with the assaulter. This is not only a major problem in India right now, but it is something that needs to be fixed.

As stated in the article, idea has 1.5 Million Police to protect and serve 1.2 Billion people. The population of India in regards to the way police act and go about working is a major factor. A number that brings us down even more is that 80% of the 1.5 million Police can’t investigate crimes or issue fines. This not only limits the power of the Police to take action against some of the more quiet and [in the view of the police scale of crimes] unimportant crimes. Unfortunately, we find that India along with most of the other worlds countries have buried themselves in some form of hurt that they must end up dealing with. In this case, it is the maturity, respect, honor and effectiveness of the police when dealing with events that might seem to be extremely time consuming and [in the grand scheme of things] unimportant. But what the country of India needs to come to understand is that people around the world want to be in power. If a movement, an idea gets momentum then it can be deadly for the government overseeing that country. In the past few years we have seen governments lose control, purely from the will of the people. If these problems are not fixed, these small events could become ideas that turn into movements that turn into riots, which turns into a revolution.

Original Article.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/23/world/asia/for-rape-victims-in-india-police-are-often-part-of-the-problem.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0