Medal Update - Day 14

The following is a list of the medals won on day 14 of the games, the country the athletes represent, and the names of the athletes:

Women's BMX
Gold - Anne-Caroline Chausson - France
Silver - Laetitia le Corguille - France
Bronze - Jill Kintner - United States

Men's BMX
Gold - Maris Strombergs - Latvia
Silver - Mike Day - United States
Bronze - Donny Robinson - United States

Men's Beach Volleyball
Gold - Todd Rogers, Philip Dalhausser - United States
Silver - Marcio Araujo, Fabio Magalhaes - Brazil
Bronze - Ricardo Santos, Emanuel Rego - Brazil

EARTH IS GONNA BLOW UP!

By Jerry Xiao

I was recently reading a article on Livescience.com (click title of post) and there was a section saying the top 10 natural disasters the United States could face. Sure the Pacific coast sunami and New York City Hurricane are interesting, but what really tickled my fancies was the number 1 disaster. It read:

Total Destruction of Earth
Okay, so nobody is spending too much time worrying about what to do if the planet is annihilated, but at least one person has seriously pondered whether and when it could happen. From being sucked into a black hole to being blown up by an antimatter reaction, there are scientifically plausible risks of an event that would render this whole list moot.

Now I was so interested by this revelation that I dove deeper into the article (by clicking "learn more" next to it). The list continued by telling readers how this may happen. Please enjoy the following ideas.

Total Existence Failure

Gobbled Up By Stranglets

Sucked Into A Microscopic Black Hole

Blown Up By Matter/Antimatter Reaction

Destroyed By Vacuum Energy Detonation

Sucked Into A GIANT Black Hole

Meticulously And Systematically Deconstructed

Pulverized By Impact With Blunt Instrument (Sounds like a murder scene)

Eaten By von Neumann Machines

Hurled Into The Sun

Okay most of those would need equipment that would not be found anywhere, like the "hurled into the sun" item. LiveScience says that you would need "Earthmoving equipment." Now where would we find that? Or maybe the murder scene one. They say you need "a big heavy rock, something with a bit of a swing to it... perhaps Mars." Thus proving that science CAN be fun! On the message boards below, the following comment seems perfect for the scene, courtesy of eliar. He writes "This really puts the Deathstar from Starwars in perspective --- ie Not possible lol" Right on Eliar. Right on.

News Of The Day

By: Jerry Xiao

Every other day I'm going to be writing about the most weird, akward, exciting, interesting, funny, stupid, or embarrassing news on the web on that day. Most of my titles will be coming from Yahoo! and the occasional Google. I will include a summary and a link to the original article if available. Here goes.


BREAKING NEWS!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080822/ap_on_el_pr/mccain_houses;_ylt=AtfYkebQA68bJueP.dWS4TWs0NUE
Senator and Presidential Nominee John McCain has no idea how many houses he owns! When asked how many houses he owns, McCain told interviewers that "I think — I'll have my staff get to you. It's condominiums where — I'll have them get to you." Obama is using this to portray McCain as a Rich and out-of-touch person. McCain later said he had 4 houses, however property records reviewed by AP show that McCain and his wife own at least 8 houses - one ranch and two condominiums in Arizona, three condos in California, and another in Arlington, Virginia.

http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/beijing/gymnastics/news;_ylt=AsmwJ_74kwq_fH4e.tyIZt6VTZd4?slug=ap-gym-underagechinese&prov=ap&type=lgns
The Internation Olympic Committee is finally investigating the age of Chinese Gymnasts He Kexin, Jiang Yuyuan, and Yang Yalin. Together, the three girls have won six medals, including two golds. Age falsification has been a big problem, since the FIG has set up these minimums in regards to the young girl's health. Several articles released by state run Xinhua News Agency state that all three girls may be as young as 14. The last time a chinese gymnast was investigated was Yang Yun, who won two bronze medals in Sydney for the 2000 games. She later came clean and said that she was 14 when she competed in the 2000 games. The minimum age of 16 was set by the FIG in 1997.

Medal Update - Day 13 (Cont'd)

The following is a list of the medals won overnight, the country the athletes represent, and the names of the athletes:

Women's 200 Meters
Gold - Veronica Campbell-Brown - Jamaica
Silver - Allyson Felix - United States
Bronze - Kerron Stewart - Jamaica

Women's Featherweight (49-57 kg)
Gold - Sujeong Lim - South Korea
Silver - Azize Tanrikulu - Turkey
Bronze - Martina Zubcic - Croatia
Bronze - Diana Lopez - United States

Women's 10-Meter Platform
Gold - Ruolin Chen - China
Silver - Emilie Heymans - Canada
Bronze - Xin Wang - China

Men's Featherweight (58-68 kg)
Gold - Taejin Son - South Korea
Silver - Mark Lopez - United States
Bronze - Servet Tazegul - Turkey
Bronze - Yu-Chi Sung - Taipei

Men's Triple Jump
Gold - Nelson Evora - Portugal
Silver - Phillips Idowu - Great Britain
Bronze - Leevan Sands - Bahamas

Men's 400-Meters
Gold - LaShawn Merritt - United States
Silver - Jeremy Wariner - United States
Bronze - David Neville - United States

Men's 110-Meter Hurdles
Gold - Dayron Robles - Cuba
Silver - David Payne - United States
Bronze - David Oliver- United States

Individual Jumping (Equestrian)
Gold - Eric Lamaze - Canada
Silver - Rolf-Goran Bengtsson - Sweden
Bronze - Beezie Madden - United States

Medal Update - Day 13 (Cont'd)

The following is a list of the medals won overnight, the country the athletes represent, and the names of the athletes:

Women's Beach Volleyball
Gold - Kerri Walsh, Misty May-Treanor - United States
Silver - Jia Tian, Jie Wang - China
Bronze - Chen Xue, Xi Zhang - China

Tornado - Multihull
Gold - Anton Paz, Fernando Echavarri - Spain
Silver - Darren Bundock, Glenn Ashby - Australia
Bronze - Santiago Lange, Carlos Espinola - Argentina

Men's Star - Keelboat
Gold - Andrew Simpson, Iain Percy - Great Britain
Silver - Bruno Prada, Robert Scheidt - Brazil
Bronze - Fredrik Loof, Anders Ekstrom - Sweden

Men's Freestyle 96-120 kg
Gold - Artur Taymazov - Uzbekistan
Silver - Bakhtiyar Akhmedov - Russia
Bronze - David Musulbes - Slovakia
Bronze - Marid Mutalimov - Kazakhstan

Men's Freestyle 84-96 kg
Gold - Shirvani Muradov - Russia
Silver - Taimuraz Tigiyev - Kazakhstan
Bronze - Khetag Gazyumov - Azerbaijan
Bronze - George Gogshelidze - Georgia

Men's Freestyle 74-84 kg
Gold - Revazi Mindorashvili - Georgia
Silver - Yusup Abdusalomov - Tajikistan
Bronze - Taras Danko - Ukraine
Bronze - Georgy Ketoev - Russia

Women's Javelin Throw
Gold - Barbora Spotakova - Czech Republic
Silver - Maria Abakumova - Russia
Bronze - Christina Obergfoll - Germany

Whoa That's BIG

A new species of fish has been identified by scientists using genetic data. Before, the species, scientifically known as Epinephelus itajara, consisted of both the Atlantic and Pacific ocean species. However, scientists have now distinguished that the two fish are very distinct in genes, and therefore, are not of the same species. The Goliath Grouper, as it is called, can grow up to 6 feet in length and weigh more than 1,000 lbs. Though both the Atlantic and Pacific ocean fish are called Goliath Grouper, the one living in the Pacific is scientifically called Epinephelus quinquefasciatus, versus the one living in the Atlantic, scientifically called Epinephelus itajara. The Atlantic variety is already listed as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, or the IUCN.

These fish go back 3.5 million years ago, when they were once the same species. However, with central America dividing the two oceans, each fish adapted to its changes and started changing. The grouper lives in the Eastern Pacific Ocean, and eats octopuses and crabs. It has five rows of teeth in its bottom jaw, allowing it to swallow its prey whole. Due to the scarcity of the fish, Epinephelus quinquefasciatus may also be critically endangered.

Featured Artist - Smosh

Today's featured artist is Smosh, a pair of 20 year olds who make short comedies. They are currently the most subscribed people on youtube of all time, in front of Nigahiga and Universalmusicgroup. Their best videos are probably the Smosh Food Battle of 2006, 2007, and 2008. Their website is http://smosh.com/.



More smosh videos are in the video unit at the bottom of the page.