Moose Vs. Car

Today in Newfoundland and Labrador a lawyer is blaming the provicnical government for the dramatic increase in accidents occurring with moose on the roads.

Nearly 700 moose are hit annually in Newfoundland and Labrador. A full grown moose can grow and weigh up to 750kg or 1 653 lbs. This is an incredibly big animal held up four small legs making it a deadly animal to hit on the road.

There is roughly 1 moose per kilometer squared throughout Canada meaning that there are a lot but not as much as many other animals. People drive as if there drive will be free of obstacles, in many parts of Canada this is not true, drivers must drive cautiously and protectively. Often it is not the drivers fault for just regular accidents but other drivers around driving poorly.

The lawyer is blaming the provincial government of Newfoundland and Labrador for the increase in moose accidents. In my opinion this accusation is unrealistic and crazy if it was up to the provincial government to prevent these accidents what are they supposed to to kill moose? No, it is the driver on the roads responsibility to put their seatbelts on and to be safe and protective drivers on the road. Although the moose is a big animal it is still is an animal and not a human. Animals get stunned when they are in the headlights of a massive car meaning that they will stop the driver has to swerve and dodge this animal it is not the animals fault. When you think about it humans as a species have taken away millions and millions of acres of land that these massive animals used to inhabit and it is not there problem for wandering where their "old home" used to be.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2011/01/11/f-moose-newfoundland-lawsuit-numbers.html#socialcomments

Arizona Congresswomen Still in Critical Conditon.

On Saturday January 8th a US congresswomen named Gabrielle Giffords was at a Tuscon supermarket when she and 19 shot. Of those 19 six were killed including a nine year old girl and a federal judge. Giffords was shot in the head, she was rushed to hospital immediately after she was shot. The doctors treating her have stabilized her she is in critical but stable condition. A slight change in the swelling of her brain could mean death, and as of right now there has been no change. Her primary physician Dr. Michael LeMole says that her body is responding to simple commands. The doctors at her side have left her in a medically induced coma.

To pay respects to those lost in the shooting president Barack Obama and his wife led a national moment of silence.

The man that is accused in the shooting on the weekend will be in court today (Monday). The name of the man is Jared Lee Loughner, 22. Loughner is charged with one count of assassination, two counts of killing an employee of the federal government and two counts of attempting to kill a federal employee.

I believe that a shooting like this is unacceptable. It is important for the people of the USA to stand together and to remember those who were killed. The USA should be on full alert to fix this and bring the man to justice. It is amazing that Loughner has already been taken into custody. Another amazing part of this story is that Giffords has been stabilized after being shot in the head. Scientists say that if she was shot in the right side of the head it would have meant instant death. With today's technology we have been able to bring back a life from a near death situation. This doesn't mean that she is out of the woods yet but it is progress. It is very bad that people in America are still killing other people it is unacceptable and not neccecary.

http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2011/01/10/arizona-shooting-court-appearance.html

UK: No Need to Stop North Sea Deep Water Drilling

The U.K. states that after this B.P. disaster in the Gulf of Mexico they have no need to stop drilling. The U.K. law enforcement feels as if they have the proper rules regulations, and have taken the correct safety precautions to avoid another spill. If there were to be an "accident" in the North Sea the repercussions of the spill would be catastrophic and it would be even harder to clean up the spill than in the Gulf of Mexico due to the swift currents that sweep through the North Sea. Many environmental groups approached the British government and urged them not to continue to deep sea drill. Tim Yeo, a conservative party law maker, said that stopping deep sea drilling would "undermine the U.K.'s energy security and isn't neccecary. In 1988 there was an catastrophic explosion on one of the many oil rigs in the North Sea causing a huge spill. After this incident security and safety precautions were strictly tightened.

I believe that continuing the North Sea drilling is extremely un-neccecary and un-safe. After the B.P. spill I believe that all deep sea drilling facilities should be inspected carefully to make sure that there will never ever be another spill. I think that another oil spill would absolutely destroy many already fragile ecosystems of the deep sea. After the incident in the gulf many B.P. said that it was just a malfunction... a malfunction that cost many fish and birds alike their lives, habitats, and ecosystems. The U.K. should take this B.P. spill as a simple reminder of what would happen to the water and many people, fish, and birds that use and habitate the water. To conclude i believe that the U.K. deep sea oil drilling should stop to keep the ecosystems of the water alive and thriving.

http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/SciTech/20110106/north-sea-deepwater-drilling-110106/

Ontario Lottery and Gaming Helping Gambling Addicts

Ontario casinos and slot machines are starting to bring in facial recognition software into all casinos so that they can help gambling addicts stay out of trouble. This new project has been checked by the Ontario Information and Privacy Commissioner to say that it is safe. Most casinos in Ontario should be putting their first biometric scanner in early 2011. The first slot machines that will have the scanner will be the slot machines at the Woodbine race tracks. The cameras will link with a system and notify and alert the staff of the area that there is someone who as been registered as a gambling addict. The cameras will use biometric scanning to read the persons face, then people that have been registered it will relay the info into a system that matches the files of the pictures then if someone who has been noted as an addict will be flagged. Although many people like the idea of the scanners they don't like a picture of them being taken, OLG has guaranteed that this information will be safe and will not be used for any other purpose. The picture will be taken if it matches it will be kept but if it was not matched it will automatically erase. Even if the data is stolen there is no personal data recorded just biometric figure of your face which is useless.

I believe that this is a great way to help people out, I believe that it will also evolve so that it will not only detect if the person is an addicted gambler i believe that it will soon have an up link with the police to notify if any criminals are in the buildings. Sure many people don't like being "biometric scanned" but it is to help people out not to steal your biometric data and pictures, generally if things are passed by the privacy commissioner it is generally safe and will not invade your privacy, and if you don't like it don't go, an easy alternative to the scanners. I believe that if these scanners are as effective as they said they are that every store, business, house etc. will be installing it is just an easy way to keep you safe. I also believe that this would be a great tool for airports to have, imagine if every time you went into an airport you would be scanned if a threat entered the airport you would be safe. I believe that these biometric scanners provide yet another safety precaution to aid gambling addicts and to make people feel safer.

http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2010/11/25/tech-facial-biometrics-ontario-lottery-gaming-casinos-slots.html

North Korea Shells South Korean Island

On Tuesday November 24th 2010 North Korea shelled a small island that is part of South Korea. There were 2 South Korean marines that died and 15 other troops were injured, there were three civilian injuries. South Korea has issued a warning to the North about the un-neccecary shelling. Due to this warning all military troops are on high alert for South Korea. The island that was shelled is called Yeonpyeng. Many believe that this shelling was the after effect of a small skirmish between the two countries. South Korea was performing military drills close to the border, Seoul refused to leave and began to fire shells into water close to the North Korea shores. North Korea retaliated and sent artillery fire to the South. The American government is trying to convince the Chinese government to try to convince the North Korean government to stop and prevent any more damage that is already done. The U.S. is also sending military training troops to aid South Korea. The South Korean Government is calling these acts "inhumane atrocities" and the United States government is calling it an "outrageous, unprovoked attack". Many people don't understand the purpose of this attack, innocent people are being killed for no reason at all.

I believe that this is outrageous, in today's society there should never ever be random shelling, we can now be civilized enough to call a meeting and talk it over to fix whatever is making North Korea angry. In today's society it is not acceptable to just bomb another country for no apparent reason, that screams retaliation and casualties. I believe that as a last resort, if this becomes much more than just shelling, violence should be used, at no other time should it be used. If this "shelling"escalates to a full on war this will be a problem and everyone will be on South Korea's side because everyone is now civilized enough not to go around and bomb people for no apparent reason. I believe that the Americans are making a very smart point to try to use the pull of China to talk to North Korea and to make sure that this doesn't escalate into anything much more than it already is.

http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2010/11/24/korea-artillery-attack.html

U.S. Airforce Warns Troops about New Facebook Feature

The commanders and generals of the U.S. army sent out a warning, letting all troops know that they should be careful when using the new Facebook feature that locates where the account is being used from. This poses a major security threat to the troops. If the troops were to access this "locate tool" they could post were they currently were therefore posing an easy way for enemy troops to locate and attack the U.S. troops with ease. One of the major threats are those caused from Blackberry's or iPhones in which location services can be used via a network connection all the time using location services on either of these devices. The reason they feel this is threatening is because the enemy could easily locate where the main base station's are located, it is also much more of a threat because of the increasing popularity of Blackberry's and iPhones. On most of the programs you actually have to activate the service and list different locations. A main security issue is those people that activate the program un-aware that there security settings are at "everybody" meaning that there full profile is un-protected and available for all to see.

I believe that this warning sent out is extremely right, you would never want the enemy to know your position, it would make you look like sitting ducks. I personally do not use this location feature on facebook, I feel that its not right i do not want people to know where i am all the time, when I want to let people know where i am i just tell them, I don't need them snooping through my profile to see where i wrote my last post. I believe that soldiers should all have this off in the first place, it would risk the lives of all the other soldiers in his or her area. Another good point is that Facebook automatically sets it to off meaning that the people using it have to make a conscious decision whether to let the whole world know where they are. Although this may be cool, and it could be a sense of pride to say that the solider is writing from Afghanistan, it is a safety hazard and for that reason I agree with the commanders and believe that location services on social networking sites should be turned off at all times.

http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/SciTech/20101118/air-force-facebook-warning-101118/

Airport Body Scanners are They Safe?

Last January the Canadian government said that full screen body scanners would be installed in almost every Canadian airport. The scanners are used to further test and see what people are hiding. For people that are subjected to this further scan have two options either they can receive the full screen body scan which scans and casts a full screen 3D portrait of the persons naked body or they can receive a full pat down from officers on guard. The reason that these are in place is because last year during Christmas on a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit a bomber tried to set off a bomb, his attempt was unsuccessful but Canadian and American security measures are being bumped up to prevent security threats like these. Many people have concerns about the scanner and the pat-down, many people are worried about being scanned due to radiation and many people do not like the pat-down because they feel it is invading. The radiation has been tested and it is much less than what you would receive on your average chest xray meaning that you would have to enter the body scanner alot of times in order to receive the same amount of radiation you do in a chest x-ray. Another worry people have is that the image of their body might be saved or brodcasted, the manufactures of the body scanner guarantee that after the scan is done and viewed it cannot be re-viewed.

In my opinion there are two different views you could have you could look at this and say it is an invasion of privacy and that the pat-down is and should be considered sexual assault or you can look at it the way I look at it. I look at the body scanner and feel more secure I feel that when i am flying I am one hundred percent sure that there will be no threats of any kind. I believe that airport security isn't there to be perverted and look at your body when you go through the scanner I believe that it is an extra safety precaution preventing any civilian casualties and plane crashes. Sure there is a safety precaution of whether these things are safe but it is proven that you would have to use the body scanners over 100 times to receive the same amount of radiation you would for a single flight across Canada and it would take you over 100 flights across Canada to receive the same amount of radiation as a chest scan. For these reasons I believe that body scanners are good for airports and should be installed.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2010/01/05/security-canada-us-airport.html