Mammoth Skeleton Found

An almost complete skeleton of a Columbian mammoth was discovered on February 20th in Los Angeles while workers were digging for an underground parking garage near La Brea Tar Pits. Researchers from the Page Museum nearby named it "Zed." Zed died in its 40's about 4o,ooo years ago. It supposedly became stuck in a tar pit along a river bed and died of exhaustion or starvation. His skeleton remained intact because soon after he died he was washed away by a flood, and then covered by enough sediment to keep predators from eating the carcass. This discovery is going to double the size of the museum's collection. "He's really big compared to the mammoths we've recovered from La Brea before," said laboratory supervisor Shelley Cox.

I think that uncovering such a complete skeleton sounds awesome! I would love to see it! For more information visit http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090220/sc_nm/us_mammoth;_ylt=AqbBDTQ3aix7eLvYiXfEbV8PLBIF

Gaza Reconstruction

This article is about the reconstruction of Gaza, which will likely top $900 million. Hillary Clinton will also be leaving soon to go there. Organizations such as the United Nations are trying to help. Reconciliation talks are going to start in Egypt on Wednesday between Hamas and Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement. Abbas said, " This (new unity) government must have the acceptance and recognition of all parties."

I think it's good that people are reaching out to help Gaza. I'm excitied that Hillary Clinton will be traveling to the Middle East soon. Hopefully she can make things change. For more information go to http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090224/ap_on_re_mi_ea/israel_us;_ylt=Alqs5lnMPfH5hjeMxiCxH5VvaA8F

My Roller Coaster Website

The Leaning Tower of Terror

Roller Coasters

In class, we are building roller coasters. Some of this has to do with kinetic and potential energy. Kinetic energy is the energy of motion. Potential energy is the energy of position. Roller coasters also deal with Newton's laws of motion. His first law states that an object at rest will remain at rest and an object in motion will remain in motion at constant velocity unless acted upon by an unbalanced force. Newton's second law explains how force, mass, and acceleration are related. The third law states that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Some new facts I learned from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newton%27s_laws_of_motion were that Newton gave credit to Galileo for his first law. I also learned that another name for his third law is law of reciprocal actions, and that inertia was described in the third century BC by the Chinese philosopher Mo Tzu.

I think that building roller coasters is fun and educational at the same time. It is also challenging because it's tricky when the marble doesn't make it through. I think that energy and Newton's laws apply a lot to what we're doing.

Minor Earthquake in Morris County

Scientists reported an earthquake in Morris County, NJ on Monday night. Fortunately it was minor; just a 3.0 magnitude one. Lauren Roman, a victim of the earthquake, said, "It just started like vibrating, the whole house was vibrating." Seismologists say that tremors like this one occur about once every five years. One seismologist, Leonardo Seeber, said that, "There might be aftershocks in the next several days." Thankfully, nobody was hurt.

I was kind of shocked to hear about this earthquake, especially since we don't get many around here. We were pretty lucky to not experience it. I was surprised to learn that the largest quake ever in our area was a 5.0 in 1884. I'm just glad that nobody got hurt. To learn more go to http://www.wpix.com/landing/?blockID=203648&feedID=1404