The idea of fair play

The manager of the British football club Manchester united has a new challenge in replacing Cristiano Ronaldo who will play for Real Madrid next season. Ronaldo repeatedly confirmed last year that he wanted to leave United. Everyone involved in the operation thought it was too early to leave last year, but this year the deal has finally come through. Last year, Ronaldo began to talk openly about his “dream” to join Real Madrid; he even tried to force a transfer. His agent Jorge Mendes worked out a deal last year ensuring the salary of 9 million euro’s a year. The historic transfer of 94 million euro’s is very “puzzling” according to Platini, president of the UEFA, because the football industry has to deal with the worst financial crises ever. Besides Ronaldo, Madrid also signed Kaka for a respectable price of 68 million euro’s. Madrid spent over 200 million euro’s this year.

The amount of money which is paid of Manchester’s striker Ronaldo is absolutely outrageous. This transfer has nothing to do with fair play, it is business in its most evil form. The major clubs are growing and the smaller clubs are getting smaller. Whenever a player has got the potential to become a world class player, a major club as Madrid chucks his money around and buys all the chances of winning any prizes. The European champions league also contributes to enlarging differences between clubs. Any football club who qualifies to play in the Champion League receives millions of euros. The salaries of the players should also be reduced. They can’t even spend the money they earn. On top of that, the better they are, the more multimillion sponsor contracts they have. The UEFA should determine the salaries for football players.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/jun/11/cristiano-ronaldo-manchester-united-real-madrid-transfer

Mayday mayday

The data of the French aircraft may not be found. Last week an Air France plane crashed into the Atlantic Ocean between Brazil and Senegal. The French will send a merchant vessel carrying two small submarines who will investigate the crash hoping to find the black box. The catastrophe is the worst in the French Aviation history. Head of the officials, Paul Arslanian, is not optimistic in finding the black box because of the terrain under the sea. Although it is hard to say what the causes are, I think it may have helped if the plane took an alternative route around the thunderstorm. The location of the crash made it very difficult to rescue any passengers in time. It is important that they find the black box.

“Without [the recorders] it will be very difficult to reach established fact, but we can reach a possible explanation”. Paul-Louis Arslanian,French investigation head

Flying is considered to be the safest way to travel but when it goes wrong it is usually disastrous. I have flown many times but I am always a little scared. If something goes wrong most of the people usually die. This crash could have been prevented if the airplane did not fly through the heavy storms. However, it is still difficult to determine the causes without the black box. The only thing we can do is speculate and feel sorry for the families who are left behind. Another factor which made it hard to save any survivors is the location of the crash. The fastest way to get there is to send helicopters but it still takes too much time. It must horrible to spend your last hours in the ocean.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8080669.stm

Brown is going down

After the resignation of Blears Britain’s PM Gordon Brown is more under attack than ever before. Blears is not the only one who handed in their letter of resignation. The opposition David Cameron claims that the government is collapsing before their eyes and wants to call for an immediate general election. However, Mr. Brown rejects and says that his MP’s have been under a lot of pressure since the revelation about their expenses. Brown plans to clean out the expenses system and wants to bring order to the chaos. The media is building up the pressure as we speak. Several newspapers criticise Brown’s leadership, there are two ways of removing the prime minister. Brown can hand in his resignation or his party nominates a challenger. The challenger needs enough support in order to take over his work. This has failed twice so far. If Brown is going to quit is going to do it himself.
I believe that stability is exactly what Britain needs in these financial crises. When the MP’s are all resigning, it does not give the civilian much fate. Furthermore, I believe it is outrageous that something like the expenses situation can happen in Britain. If the government wants to create stability, it is essential to look at a possible solution. The more attention the problem gets the bigger it becomes. I also believe that Brown does not get the support he deserves from his political party. In fact, he is one lonely man at the top. There is no team spirit among the government. Britain needs a prime minister with strong leadership qualities who will be able to guide Britain through the heavy storms.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/8080777.stm

Meteor showers

Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta have published work pledging for a new theory on how life came into existence on planet earth. The team investigated meteor rocks from around the world and heated them up (using a new technique pyrolysis-FTIR). The meteors produced many gases including carbon dioxide 6% and water 12%. Carbon dioxide causes global warming that led to liquid oceans. About four billion years ago the earth and other planets were struck by the late heavy bombardment (LHB), meteorites have therefore furnished the earth. The explanation of carbon dioxide making the earth warmer and water making the earth fertile is very acceptable. They were also able to calculate the estimated amount of water the meteors brought to earth. The gases would start to work and merge immediately. The gravitation of the earth made sure that these gases did not blew to Mars by the solar wind of the sun.
I believe this is a very interesting topic. The theory sounds very realistic to me because we can find a lot of meteors around the earth. It is always good to look at a certain topic using different points of view. The technology develops fast which leads to new theories. The world should start an international funding organization to support these kind of researches. Maybe we can learn a lot from these chemical reactions so that we can create oxygen or water in the future. Perhaps we should also be able to reduce global warming in the end. The more we know, the more we can save. The world is something very unique and by investigating the birth of the earth we made figure out how life started.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8079796.stm

Go deep!

Nereus is the deepest diving vessel in the world. Scientists have developed a new type of robot, Nereus, which allows diving to 10902 meters. The Robot is equipped with the ability to switch into free swimming mode and it marks the starting point of a new era of ocean exploration. Kaiko which was its predecessor had to rely on a cable that was connected to the ship. The cable provided power to the ship causing a lot of troubel. Neureus does not need a cable anymore and is unmanned. The pilots can steer the robot from their vessel which is placed on the surface. The Marinas Trench (Pacific Ocean) is considered to be the lowest point of the earth so far and the chance of finding unknown organisms is very realistic. Finding unknown organisms can tell us a lot about life. The vessel can bring us new answers.

I am very curious how the organisms look and what type of ecosystem they will find. It can be extremely interesting to study the ecosystem because they live without oxygen and sun. Not such a long time ago, we thought life was only possible when there is sunlight, this proves the contrary. If we discover a new ecosystem we will discover a lot of new organisms. It is good to discover what the organisms need to survive, what are the basics for an organism? Charles Darwin says that life started in the ocean so maybe we can find one of the first organisms of the earth. It is very good that the ship is unmanned because I don’t think humans would survive. The pilots must have a special education for this kind of work. As we go deeper and deeper the more we discover. I think that there is still a lot of the earth we don’t know.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8080324.stm

When shit hits the fan

The growing tension between north and South Korea has increased once more. The alert level of US and South Korean troops has risen in response to threats from Pyongyang. North Korea will attack any US or South Korean ship that will try to intercept with their vessels. The North Korean leader’s anger was sparked by the decision of South Korea to join a US led initiative to stop, check and inspect any vessels that is suspicious of carrying weapons of mass destruction. Nevertheless, they also claim no longer be bound by the armistice record. In spite of all the efforts that have been taken to increase stability in the region North Korea keeps on threatening. All threats have to be taken seriously because the country has got Nuclear power which makes the situation much scarier than ever before. If a war breaks out, the consequences will be devastating. I hope that the international community is strong enough to form a stable alliance in order to dismantle North Korea by building up the pressure as a team. Economic sanctions might help to steer into the right direction.
Why can’t they all just get along?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/northkorea/5397767/South-Korea-and-US-troops-raise-alert-level-over-North-Korean-threat.html

Let's go nuclear!

Nuclear airplanes may sound like a concept but it may well be the next generation aircrafts. Fossil fuels are running out as we speak, which makes flying much more expensive. By the year of 2045 all of the fossil fuels will be gone. The future planes might use nuclear energy but do not use carbon emission so they do not contribute to the global warming effect. The US even tested nuclear airplane during the cold war but the temperature of the engine eventually got to high. Professor Poll expects that the planes will fly by the year 2050. Nuclear energy has a bad name but it may help human kind in the future as a good alternative energy source. There is also a small chance that nuclear reactors will be placed in unmanned planes. The military is very interested in these kinds of developments.

The idea of flying in a “nuke plane” frightens me a little bit. I believe that plane crashes will be disastrous but perhaps they find a way of ionising the nuclear reactor. It will be much easier for terrorist to find a nuclear bomb, they only have hijack a plane. May be we will have to do it because we do not have another choice. On the other hand, the population of the earth is increasing and we are only consuming. The earth as its limit and we do not care much about the environment. Money is still priority number one. There may be a time when we run out of recourses, maybe the technology can save us a little longer. However, for the future nuclear planes is a good solution but also very dangerous. What do you think about nuclear energy? The Chernobyl plant exploded and it is still harmful for human beings. Nowadays it is able to book an excursion to the area.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article5024190.ece