Antimatter Spacecraft

I read this article: http://science.howstuffworks.com/antimatter2.htm
Antimatter is like normal matter, except that the charges of the particles of antimatter are reversed, so that an electron is positive instead of negative, etc. Upon contact with normal matter, 100% of the mass of the collision is converted into energy, which makes it an extremely powerful potential energy source. However, extremely high energy particle collisions are needed to produce it, so you need giant accelerators, called atom smashers, to produce it. We can only make extremely small amounts of antimatter, so the amount needed to produce a significant amount of energy would cost trillions of dollars. However, there are plans to build reactors to specifically produce antimatter, which would lower the cost for the same amount to a few thousand dollars.
NASA researchers have produced plans for a spacecraft powered by antimatter. It would take 11 months to reach Mars with current technology, however, this spacecraft could make the journey in 1 month, making travel tto Mars practical for the first time. This spacecraft would focus the energy from a matter-antimatter reaction out of a nozzle to produce thrust. I would say that this spacecraft will be possible within a few decades, or possibly less.

Beauty

One of the most beautiful things that i can think of is the night sky. I have always been fascinated with space and astronomy, and i really enjoy the times i get to look at the night sky through our telescope. It is amazing to me that when we look at an object that is 1,000,000 light years away, it is like looking 1,000,000 years into the past. I have always wondered what is out there, and if there are other intelligent beings like us. I wonder if we will ever be able to travel among the stars like in science fiction. Its hard to fathom the distance between the stars. The closest star to the sun is Alpha Centauri, which is 4.5 light-years away from the earth. This means that it takes light (which travels at 300,000 km per second) from this star 4.5 years to reach the earth. The nearest galaxy, the Andromeda Galaxy, is 1,000,000 light years away, which is an unimaginably far distance. Even our own galaxy, the Milky Way, has been estimated to be 100,000 light-years across. We would need a serious revolution in technology just to think about crossing these distances. But i think that it's possible someday. I believe that the stars will continue to amaze me all of my life!
                                      -Andrew

Preparing for hunting!

     My dad, my brother, and I spent this weekend at our grandparents' house preparing for deer hunting two weeks from now. This will be my first time deer hunting, so I am very excited. My grandparents live near Dalbo, Minnesota, a small town near Cambridge. They own many acres of woods and my grandpa is a very experienced deer hunter, so it will be the perfect place for my first hunt. We tried out the rifles we will be hunting with on pumpkins. The pumpkins didn't stand a chance against the 30/40 Krag, which is the rifle I will be using. It is a very old rifle, probably used in the Spanish-American War of 1898. It is still in fairly good condition though, and it works very well. In addition to trying out the rifles, we set up blinds, or camouflaged shelters to shoot from. We set up two blinds at different locations where deer usually pass through. They are simple blinds, made from camo fabric with zippered windows and doors in them. We spent time with my grandparents and went to see a movie. We had a great time and I can't wait to hunt!

Airsoft

Today I played airsoft as a youth group activity for my church. I had a lot of fun. Airsoft is a combat simulation game of sorts where you have a gun that shoots 6mm diameter plastic bbs. Often times these guns look like real guns (M16s, Ak-47s, etc...). For a nice gun you can spend in upwards of $300. There are usually two or more teams in the game, and the object of the game is to get the other players out by shooting them with your mock firearm, which can hurt quite a bit. It leaves welts (or worse), and I still have scars of two welts my brother gave me earlier this summer. You usually wear these scars with pride when you're an airsoft player. The game requires a lot of strategy, most of it borrowed from real ground warfare. You have to figure out how to flank your enemies and lay down ambushes and similar strategic moves. This is the part I'm really trying to improve on now, since tactics can usually win the day. The development of good tactics takes the most time for the developing airsofter. Its a really fun hobby and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys action activities.
                                                              
                                                                     -Andrew

Freedom

Freedom is very important to this country. It is our primary founding value, and it is what defines us as a country. One of our most important freedoms is the right to bear arms. I believe that this right has been significantly infringed in the past decade. There are way to many permits and licensing restricitions that our gowernment has put on firearms. The Bill of Rights explicitly states that the government shall put no such restrictions on citizens' right to bear arms. Gun restricitions are supposedly ment to keep guns out of the hands or crimminals, but I believe they do nothing but keep them out of the hands of law abiding citizens who deserve to have them. Crimminals, by nature, are those who disobey the rules and regulations that the government lays down, so would it be logical to assume that since you lay down a restriction on certain firearms, that crimminals will stop aquiring such weapons? No. Such laws are pointless and illogical and don't really help that much. That's just one of the many things that I believe are wrong and don't make sense that the liberals are pushing and trying to make part of the law of the United States. I don't always disagree with liberals though, I think they have some really good ideas. Well, that's just my two cents on the issue.

Wormhole travel possible?

I've always been interested in science fiction and the many technologies it portrays. One of these is the ability to travel between the stars, via a warp drive or wormholes. It can be helpful to think of space as a two dimensional sheet (which it is not, space is three-dimensional so any curvature would be in the 4th dimension, which people can't visualize) with a small amount of curvature (many physicist believe that space is curved). This would suggest that the universe curves back in on itself and is closed. If you were to punch a hole through space, which is what a wormhole would be and is what some think black holes are, you could travel to an opposite side of the universe without having to travel the long, curved way around the outside. This could make travel to distant stars instantaneous. However, the problem is that we don't know how to generate black holes at will, and even if we could, we don't how to keep them stable enough to travel through. Physicists have suggested that if you aim enough high-powered laser beams at a single point in space, you could create a black hole. You might be able to keep this black hole stable by using negative energy, a form of energy that has a repulsive gravitational effect that would counteract the intense gravitational pull of a black hole. Considering all the advances that have been made in science, I would say that travel through space via wormholes wouldn't be impossible 300-400 years from now.
                                                              
                                                                         - Andrew

Justice/Fairness

     I personally believe that justice is very important and that a nation needs a good legal system to succeed and last a long time. I dislike our nation's legal system, and I believe that there are many changes to be made and improvements to be had. For one, in many cases, it seems like the defendant has too many rights. I understand the aim of this is to make for a fair trial, but there comes a point when it is obvious that the defendant is guilty, and prolonging the trial only makes for a a waste of time and lots and lots of money. The second complaint i have against the legal system is that lawsuits are so commonly misused. A woman sued McDonald's for not having a warning on the cup that said hot on it, because she had spilled the coffee on herself and was burned. She won the suit, and as a result received around $37 million. These types of cases show that there are many people who lack common sense and look for an easy way to make a quick buck, and don't want to work for a living. These people are commonly referred to as losers. There need to be regulations on the parameters of a lawsuit, in order to keep ridiculous cases such as these out of the system. My third and final complaint is that many punishments seem inadequate to a great many people. Some people who have been convicted of involuntary manslaughter because of a DWI have received only 5 years in prison! 5 years for killing someone! I think that this should warrant the death penalty, and that anyone accused of killing someone intentionally or as the result of plain stupidity should receive the death penalty. That's just my own opinion.

                                             -Andrew

Be Factual

     In my opinion, being factual is the most important aspect of being a journalist. After all, journalism is basically writing to get the facts about an event out to people. I don't care if my newspaper articles aren't fun to read, I just want the facts. (Worth would definitely disagree with me and will probably post a comment stating such.) I don't really read the newspaper anyways, and when I do read, I don't read because I think it's going to be fun. I just want to fins out how the event really happened. Also, when i read magazine articles, I just read for the facts. You could be a very captivating writer and have a way with words, but if you make up things that are totally false and try to pass it off as a news story, you would have not only failed at journalism, you could also get in very big trouble for libel, and end up being sued, which is not very fun. These things considered, i think it's safe to say being factual is the most important aspect of being a journalist.

                                            -Andrew

Noise/Silence

     Sound is one of the most amazing  properties of the world we live in. It brings so much depth and clarity to our existence. One of my own favorite things about sound is the music that it can make. I love listening to music, and whenever we have work time in a class you can probably find me listening to one of my favorite songs on my iPod Touch. There is something about the rythmn of the music and the total cancellation of the outside noise that helps me stay focused and concentrate on my schoolwork. Surprisingly, one of my favorite genres of music is metal. This is really surprising to some people because I don't look anything like a metalhead. I think the heavy and complex riffs incorporated into the style never get old and are fun to listen to. All these things considered, being deaf would be extremely hard for me. I would miss sound a lot.
        
                                                -Andrew