Liberals narrow gap to 6 points in campaign’s ‘first possible shift’

This article talks about how Liberals have narrowed the gap in the poles for the election coming up soon. The reason for this is that, according to the poles, the NDP lost support while the Liberals gained support. Support for Michael Ignatieff’s team jumped from 28.7 percent to 32.7 percent, while NDP support dropped to 15.9 per cent from 19.6 per cent. Bloc Quebecois is staying steady at 8.7 percent while Green Party support went from 4.1 percent to 3.7percent. Also, 21.7 percent of Canadians that were surveyed say that haven't decided which party they're going to vote for yet. “Most of the Liberal gains were in the Prairies, co-incidental with the tour of Michael Ignatieff and his announcement of his election platform."“This suggests that voters are becoming increasingly focused on the platforms and ideas proposed by the federal parties,” Says Mr. Nanos, the person taking the poles.

I think the fact that people are switching their support from NDP to Liberal is very interesting. To me, the campaign is really only between the Conservatives and the Liberals so the fact that they're pretty close in the poles should make the actual election pretty close. I don't really have an opinion of who should win, considering I can't vote, but I'm sure that which ever party wins will probably do a good job of running the government.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ottawa-notebook/liberals-narrow-gap-to-6-points-in-campaigns-first-possible-shift/article1964548/

Election set for May

This article is about how Harper's Conservative government has lost the confidence of the other political parties and how there is going to be a federal election on May 2. Harper finally lost the confidence of the House of Commons on Friday and asked the Governor General David Johnston to dissolve parliament for a general election. Harper believes that most Canadians won't be happy about have an election simply because he doesn't think they want one. This is going to be Canada's fourth election in seven years. All of the other parties believe that it is time for a change because Harper's government isn't doing things in the best interest of Canadian citizens. Liberal leader, Michael Ignatieff, has said that some of the members of the Conservative party have been accused of electoral fraud and stealing money from their clients in their past careers. "Mr. Harper has demonstrated that his Conservatives have really no interest in working with other parties."

I believe that it is a good thing that there is going to be a federal election. The reason for this is that it gives Canada as a country a chance to decide once again who they want to run their country. I don't really have that much of an opinion on which party should win, but the fact is a lot of people want change so an election won't hurt. Everyone knows that the election is pretty much Liberal vs. Conservatives so I guess we'll see what happens in May.

http://thesudburystar.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3045056

NASA spacecraft Messenger now circling Mercury

This article talks about how NASA has a spacecraft called Messenger orbiting Mercury. Messenger successfully veered into pinpoint orbit Thursday night after a 6 1/2 year trip and 7.9 billion kilometers. Mercury is the fifth planet in our solar system that NASA has orbited. NASA has said that positioning Messenger was very tricky because of the gravitational pull of the sun. Everyone at NASA is very happy that Messenger is in place and now it can do it's job. Messenger will begin to take pictures and scan of Mercury in NASA's attempt to understand how it works. Mercury is the closest planet to the sun in our solar system and because of that Mercury has a very extreme climate. The surface of Mercury reaches up to 800 degrees, but in some craters that don't receive any light it is colder than 300 degrees below zero.

I think that the fact that NASA will be able to learn a lot more about how Mercury works is really great. We will have a grater understanding of our solar system after Messenger has collected data on Mercury. Maybe NASA will find life forms on Mercury that could help us understand our solar system more. Although it would be cool if Mercury had life forms on it I think that it is very unlikely. No life form could live in the conditions on Mercury because it's either way to hot or way to cold. Overall though, the fact that NASA is collecting data on Mercury is quite amazing.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/science/nasa-spacecraft-messenger-now-circling-mercury/article1946951/

Toronto doctors try Microsoft's Kinect in OR

This article talks about how some doctors at Sunnybrook Hospital are using the Xbox 360 Kinect to save time and prevent contamination in the operating room. Basically, a team at Sunnybrook Hospital has started using the Xbox 360 Kinect, a hands-free gaming console equipped with a motion sensor, to virtually manipulate hey medical images during surgery. The doctors use hand gestures to zoom in and out of the images that they need to see during surgeries without leaving the operating table. Surgeons typically have to leave the sterile field around the patient when they want to pull up images such as MRI or CT scans on a nearby computer. They then have to go through a meticulous cleanup before returning to the area to make sure they don't bring in any bacteria that could harm the patient. This whole process can waste a lot of time. Because Kinect is hands-free, surgeons can stay in the sterile area by the patient and control what happens on the Kinect and bring up images that they need to see to continue with the surgery that they are performing.

The fact that the Xbox 360 Kinect, a gaming console, is innovating the way surgeries are done is truly amazing. I don't own a Kinect, but I do have an Xbox 360 and I have tried the Kinect. Basically it's a camera that sees in 3-D and it scans your body movements and you control with hand and body gestures. In the article it mentions that the doctors at Sunnybrook Hospital that have used the Kinect during surgeries say that is made everything a lot easier and faster. So far the Kinect has only been used at Sunnybrook but I'm sure that if it continues to work successfully and save time during surgeries that Kinect will soon be seen in Hospitals all over Ontario and in time all across North America.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/gadgets-and-gear/gadgets/toronto-doctors-try-microsofts-kinect-in-or/article1947107/

France fines Google over Street View privacy breaches

This article talks about how France has fined Google due to the fact that Google collected personal data from Wi-Fi networks while they were going through France with their Street View cameras. What happened was that when Google went through France with their Street View technology the technology collected data from unencrypted Wi-Fi networks, which means that Google has gathered information from many French Citizens including things like: e-mails, web browsing histories, online banking details, and even passwords. This incident, which people have been calling "Wi-Spy," was caused by an engineer's careless error as well as a lack of controls to ensure that necessary procedures to protect privacy were followed. Google has two months to appeal the fine, but Google has said that they will do their best to delete all of the information that they collected "by accident".

I think that it isn't right that Google has collected personal information from people without their consent because, in a way, it's stealing. Google isn't literally stealing the information from people, but they are copying it and storing it. I think that this situation can be compared to someone cheating on a test. Google is, in a way, sneaking around the classroom and looking at everyones answers. Although Google has claimed that it was a mistake, there is no way of being sure. It's possible that Google collected peoples e-mail addresses to send them messages advertising Google products such as Android phones. This is just an example of something that Google could do with the information that they have gathered but there are endless possibilities. Maybe Google truly gathered all of that data by accident.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/tech-news/france-fines-google-over-street-view-privacy-breaches/article1949730/

Internet Usage

This article talks about how Canadians have been crowned the most active users of the internet in the world, according to a new global report. According to a report done by ComScore, Canadians spend an average of 43.5 hours online every month. This almost twice the global average of 23.1 hours per month. In second place, America had 35.3 hours spent on the internet per month. Canada saw a two percent increase in internet users and they think it's due to the fact that more people over the age of 55 are starting to use the internet.

I don't find this surprising at all. The reason for this is that I live in an environment where everyone uses the internet everyday. Since everyone at St. Andrew's has a laptop and there is wireless internet throughout the school, these stats don't surprise me at all. I probably spend more than the Canadian average of hours, 43.5, on the internet per month. I'd say, on average, I probably spend 2 hours on the internet every day and in a month that would be around 60 hours. This is why I don't find the fact that Canada has the highest average of hours spent on the internet per month surprising at all.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2011/03/09/canadians-internet-most-active.html

Mercury's Health Effects

This article talks about the health issues with mercury and how the UN and Canada are trying to ban mercury in household items. Back in ancient Egypt doctors believed that mercury helped cure syphilis, but nowadays we know that this isn't true. Canada stopped producing mercury in 1975 and now, in 2011, Ottawa has proposed that Canada should ban the import and sale of most mercury products, starting in 2012. The proposal would outlaw mercury in thermometers, thermostats, and batteries. This wouldn't be a big deal because their are other alternative materials for all of these products. This proposal would also limit the amount of mercury in products that require the metal. The last thing that the article talks about is how there are three different form of mercury and how they are all toxic to humans. Some side effects of prolonged exposure to mercury are loss of coordination, memory loss, weakness, illness, and in some cases death.

I believe that mercury should be banned. According to the article, there are alternative materials we could use to replace mercury in household objects. Why take unnecessary risks by using mercury, which is poisonous, when you could just use something else that isn't poisonous. When you look at some of the side effects of prolonged exposure to mercury which include: memory loss, illness, and even death, using mercury when you don't really have to just seems stupid. This is why I believe that the Canadian government should do what ever it takes to ban mercury all together.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2011/03/01/tech-mercury-in-depth.html

Water trapped inside rocks for billions of years

This article talks about how scientists have found water trapped in rocks that is over a billion years old. These rocks were found 3 kilometers underground in an African gold mine. Also, water wasn't the only thing they found in the rocks. They also found small living organisms called microbes. These microscopic organisms are said to be similar to organisms living at the bottom of the oceans. The oldest thing that they found in the African gold mine was dissolved neon gas. By looking at the composition of the neon gas, scientists have said that it is 2-2.7 billion years old. This means that that neon gas has been on earth for half of the earths life, because the earth has only existed for 4.5 billion years.

The fact that they have found water, neon gas, and microbes 3 kilometers underground is really interesting. I think that these discoveries are really cool but not that helpful because there isn't much you can discover using what they found. The only thing that they should really do with what they found is study the microbes because they're actually alive. Who knows maybe these microbes are some of the earliest lifeforms to exist on earth as we know it.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2011/02/25/science-water-rocks-sherwood-lollar.html