Chavez lost, for now

Since I wrote several articles on Venezuela and its President Hugo Chavez I decided to have my last blog entry about them. The article that I chose was about Chavez’s defeat on his proposed changes to the Venezuelan constitution, and how people around the world took it. The changes Chavez wanted to make to the constitution were lowering the work day to six hours, and perhaps the most important one to Venezuelans was the removal of term limits so Chavez could run as many times as he wants. After the vote on Sunday that resulted in Chavez’s proposals losing, the U.S. Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns said, “…people spoke for democracy and against unlimited power.” Comments such as these make me wonder why the Bush administration feels it has to say with pride how the people of Venezuela said no to Chavez but in the other elections which Chavez was the victor they said barely anything, the truth is that the Bush administration does not like Chavez. To me Chavez represents a true form of democracy and it seems that this true form of democracy in Latin America threatens the Bush administration. I feel this way because of a documentary I watched about the coup attempt on Chavez, which shows evidence of the U.S. interfering with the internal affairs of Venezuela. I will not ignore the situation that Chavez lost, he himself said, “Venezuelan democracy is maturing ... There is no dictatorship here.” Comments made by news media like Fox in reference to Chavez being a dictator is very up surd to me when I read comments like Chavez’s. The truth is I am sort of sad about the voting results on the constitutional changes because Chavez in my opinion is a blessing to Venezuela and I would have wished he could stick around longer than the end of his term in 2013.

Police Racism

The article that was chosen for this week was about accusations about racism in the Minneapolis Police Department. Recently their have been several transfers of black officers implemented by police administration. Community leaders such as Ron Edwards gave examples of demotions of three black police officers, and another community leader, Jerry McAfee said, “All these moves smell like racism to the highest degree.” With all these accusations one should keep in mind that these are just accusations there is still room for doubt. The new police chief, Tim Dolan has only had the position for only a year so it is hard to see if his position on diversifying the Minneapolis Police Department is from a racist perspective. Taking a look at all the angles I would have to say that it is too early to cry racism for the new police chief’s transfers. I would also conclude that the transfers do look very suspicious but I would not have gone public as Ron Edwards, and Jerry McAfee did. The best thing that these two community leaders could have done was to get more evidence. A recent transfer of a detective Charlie Adams is now under reconsideration perhaps because of the racial cries. I would have urged Edwards and McAfee to have kept quiet until they had irrefutable evidence, but since they cried racism the police administration perhaps had time to correct their mistakes, if they are guilty. For now it is best to keep a watchful eye out to see if there really is any racism.

Lower Crime Rate

The article in focus this week in the Star Tribune was about how crime has decreased in Hennepin County. There has been a certain name given to Minneapolis which is not a favorable one which is murderapolis, because of much of the crime. With the news of a lower crime rate I was very pleased. The reason for this decrease in crime was due to a new taskforce according to Sheriff Rich Stanek. This taskforce arrested a total of 60 people, and confiscated 54 guns. A lot of money was also taken from criminals who sell drugs. Stanek says that there are more criminals who are growing marijuana, and he basically compares these farmers with those who are brewers of beer. What I found rather concerning was how other counties feared that criminals will head toward their areas; I mean what do these guys want to keep Hennepin County in bad shape so they could have paradise. Stanek’s new taskforce also took a new approach to gangs; as opposed to arresting individual gang members the taskforce uses past records to arrest groups. Perhaps the most surprising news from this article is what Stanek also credits the recent crime drop which is the collapse of the 35W Bridge. With no explication of this I would have to assume that the bridge was needed by crime to deliver drugs but since the bridge collapsed criminals could not adapt. Overall I am very pleased with this news because people need a society that has no crime I just hope that this recent decrease in crime will pave the way for that.

Face Value part 2

For Today’s article I wanted to continue my piece about how few Venezuelans support changes to the Constitution. I decided to continue because of another article I read from the LA Times which was not in the Star Tribune un-like my previous one was. This article from the LA Times talked about how Chavez, president of Venezuela thinks he is God now. I first just wanted to know what exactly Chavez said, and when I found out what he said in the article it was not the same as what the headline on the LA Times said. Both articles from the Star Tribune and LA Times have many things in common, most important they both jump at the opportunity to make Chavez look bad based on opposition views and/or less than credible sources like the pollsters. The headline on the LA Times article reads “SOTTO VOCE: Chavez on the Cross”, and the article begins with “Guess who thinks he’s God?” Chavez compared his situation to what Christ’s, which is far from saying that he is God. To say the truth there are many people through out history that have suffered (like Peter, one of Jesus’ first disciples), not as much as Christ though. Even if Chavez said this (because I would not be surprised if LA Times misquoted Chavez) the statement is far from saying that he is God. Another piece in this article that I found rather far from the truth is when LA Times called him a “benevolent dictator” even though Chavez was first elected by a majority of Venezuelans, was brought back after the coup attempt in April 2002 by a majority of Venezuelans, was voted to stay in power by a majority, was again voted in by a majority for a new term, and the proposed changes to the constitution was approved by a majority in congress. So is there something missing, I did not know that being voted democratically to office makes you a dictator.

Face Value

The article that was of interest to me this week was about how few Venezuelans support changes to the Constitution. This article cites two pollsters that show Chavez (current president of Venezuela) losing support from 69% and to 61% and how the opposition has gained from 21% to 29%. A recent newcomer to the opposition was Raul Baduel a former defense minister of Chavez who also helped him return to power after the April 2002 coup attempt on him but now advocates for a coup on Chavez now. Both pollsters say that Chavez’s reforms will pass because of low turnout from the opposition side. If all this information is taken at face value then it is very interesting how still a majority supports Chavez, and that Chavez is looked upon as a dictator to the minority (29%) and how many senators and congressmen in the US support any attempt in his defeat, as they also did in April 2002 according to the article “Venezuela Between Ballots and Bullets”. Although claimed by the Los Angeles times as being independent pollsters Alfredo Keller and Luis Vicente Leon have been shown to be rather anti Chavez instead of being biased. Alfredo has been quoted to say in reference to the current situation between the opposition and Chavez to the LA Times “a fight to the death…between two counter-posed ideological forces: an authoritarian socialism with a spirit of revenge against a democracy that is open to the market.” Luis is less of an anti Chavez if he is one at all compared to Alfredo, although several articles name him “opposition pollster”. The basic truth is that the Star Tribune article should not be taken at face value.

Black Holes

The article that I read was about super massive black holes. Prior to the mid 90s it has been theorized that super massive black holes (big as distance between mars and the sun) exist in the center of the Milky Way galaxy. This theory was confirmed in 1994 by the Hubble space telescope. Presently new techniques helped astronomers like Andrea Ghez take a better look at the center of our galaxy. Her results showed that several suns are revolving rather quickly around what is believed to be a black hole. The new theory presently to explain why there is a black hole at the center of our galaxy is that all galaxies have them and they are involved in the creation of galaxies. This is a very interesting article because for a long time black holes where looked as science fiction. They are very interesting perhaps because black holes can be considered one of the most mysterious things in the universe. According to this article black holes eats and spits out materials, for a while I believed that they just ate. Basically if there is an object too close to a black hole it then gets caught in its gravitational pull and goes in to the event horizon (the area around a black hole) and is never seen again. The mysterious part of all this is what exactly happens to that object when it disappears from view. According to the laws of Thermal dynamics energy can not be created or destroyed but rather changed into another form. My personal opinion is that black holes are not responsible for the creation of galaxy. I based on another law of science that states “everything tends towards disorder.” Black holes destroy, so in my view something that destroys is not responsible for creating something the opposite of disorder, but I do believe that black holes play an important role in the function of a galaxy.

105 foot dinosaur

The article that I found is about Argentinean and Brazilian scientists finding a 105 foot dinosaur in Argentina. It is one of the largest to have been discovered in the world. Since we are talking about many years, this find is quite lucky for scientists because it is nearly complete compared to other specimens. This new find is considered to be part of a titianosaur species, a group of dinosaurs whose length can be up to 131 feet long. This dinosaur is a plant eating dinosaur and is said to have lived in the cretaceous period, and the name given to is Futalognkosaurus dukei, and it means giant and chief in Mapuche. Dinosaurs have always been interesting for me, simply because they are creatures that no longer dominate the landscape. Futalognkosaurus in particular interests me because of its size. The neck alone of this dinosaur is fifty six feet long which by itself is longer than some dinosaurs like Tyrannosaurus Rex, and Spinosaurus. I do not agree with the opinion that this dinosaur is a new species, just one that is larger. Over the years I have seen animals that look the same but are larger which have been put into different categories. Take human beings for example, not everyone is remotely the same height yet they are still considered to be human beings. Futalognkosaurus to me is just a large form of a Sauropod dinosaur. With that said I still applaud scientists’ work in finding new fossils around the world, and knowing our history can help mankind in the future.

Memory

The article that interested me this week was about scientists studying genes to see why some people have good memory and other have bad memory. More specifically scientists are testing short term memory. They are wondering if by studying certain genes, it may lead to finding out the cause of memory related illness. Anna Need, a scientist believes that more than one gene controls memory, however this has yet to be proven. Just by studying genes scientists may find out new ways in helping those who have bad memory. I find this article to be quite interesting because of scientists like Anna Need trying to find out ways to improve memory in a person. Personally I feel that my own short term and long term memory can be improved, I also hope that scientists will one day find out why certain things are easier to remember and why other things are not. If genes are responsible for memory and if scientists find out that certain people have better or worse memory as a result of those genes then I also wonder if schools will change their approach in educating their students because of this study. If and when scientists find out a solution to memory problems I hope that the remedy will be natural as opposed to something synthetically made simply because I think that synthetic remedies do more harm than good. With all this said I am glad that scientists are beginning their study on memory because they are looking for the benefit of humanity, in my opinion.

Venezuela and poverty

The topic that I chose is about several Latin American countries being more stable than they were in the past. According to this Startribune article the number of people in poverty is falling rather quickly, and it’s thanks to new leadership in the area. These countries in the list are Venezuela, Brazil, and Mexico. There is a belief that the rich white community in these countries have kept down the natives of that area, with some help with the United States. According to this article the “…incomes of the poor are rising faster than those of the rich in Brazil…” With all the good things happening in some Latin American countries, the majority of them do not have leftist governments. Latin American countries are beginning to awake to a true democracy, in my opinion. With the election of new leaders such as Chavez it can be said that it is a true government of the people. The news mentions governments like Venezuela’s frequently, and I was wondering why the number of people in poverty was going down, until I read this article. One of the main things I continued to hear about Venezuela is basically bad news from news stations like CNN, NBC, and FOX. I am very pleased to hear that there is some progress, and even though it is early it’s still good news. The reason for less poverty in places like Venezuela is because they raised prices for their oil in exporting it to such countries as the United States.

Making Cells

The topic that I chose is about scientists trying to create the first synthetic cell. The article states that scientists are close in making the first man made protocell. There are certain advantages in making synthetic cells such as curing diseases, or cleaning up toxic waste. Scientists say that in three to ten years they may be successful in making their first cell. In my opinion the headline “It’s a blob! Scientists are close to creating life from scratch” is sort of misleading because the article says that scientists are using “basic chemicals from DNA” which in my opinion doesn’t seem simple, and still is a starting material. The article’s headline should be that scientists are using materials, not from scratch. To say the truth, nothing is made from scratch. I am not saying that scientists won’t be able to make cells, but I believe that they think, it is not difficult. Scientists should also be cautious in perusing experiments like this because one should think of making new things for the benefit of humanity. Scientists should also think about the ethical issues in these experiments. For the sake of argument let’s just say that scientists were able to make a cell, then what. Most likely they will continue to make some kind of man made life form. Right now we should be asking if that is ethical before that time comes. I’m not trying to put scientists in unfavorable light but I’m just saying everyone should be cautious. The article about scientists making protocells is quite interesting, but should have also put more of reality in the title.