Salvador Allende

Salvador Allende was one of the guys who tried to improve his country by helping the common people but ended up being murdered. He was one of the "good" guys in the history of the common people of Chile. He took back much of the foreign owned business and made them Chilean. He only tried to help out the poor people of his country but the United States did not like him taking back all the foreign owned business. So they motivated people to revolt against him. And of course there were always those Chilean people who always hated Allende and wanted to remove him from power. Hatred towards Allende reached its pinnacle and he was murdered. Allende was one of those Latin American leaders who did not give in to the master power, U.S.A., and so he died. Thats a lesson, defy United States interests and die. Unless you another one of those master powers such as Russia or Japan.

Batista

Batista was my favorite Latin American leader that we read about. I like his nickname, "the Man." He has an interesting history, from dealing with gang members to leaving his people to rot in their extreme poverty. Heres a website where I found some of my research: http://www.historyofcuba.com/history/funfacts/batist.htm. I used this website to answer the question of how Batista dealt with his enemies. Batista was known for being the ventroliquist in many puppet governments. He did make very rich friends. Such as investors from America who had businesses in Cuba. Batista was a popular man in his younger years because he served in the army and protected his country. He participated in his own revolt to remove a bad leader. He was a hero amongst his people. In his later years, Batista became real harsh with his people. He killed many of them to maintain control over them. I think most Latin American leaders were a bit intinmidated by the United States so they made allies with them. By letting them make businesses on their lands or letting them build naval bases there. That way, they would be on the United States good side. Even if they're people suffered.

Physical Properties of water: Ice

In our group I did not do my topic on ice but I was fascinated by Jesse's information on it. So I did some research on it because Anne sais we would have a quiz on all the presentations. Anyways I did more extensive research on that and found the the differences in densities between ice and water. One way to see this is to place ice on top a glass of water. The ice will float meaning ice must be denser than water. Most solids would penetrate the surface because they are denser than water and sink to the bottom. Water has a strong surface tension making it difficult for objects to penetrate its surface. I always thought ice was denser than water. I wonder why a solid such as ice is denser than a liquid such as water. Here is a good website that has 4 explanations for why ice floats on water. http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/phy00/phy00136.htm. According to this website matter that displaces a liquids surface has to rise equal to the matter that was displaced. So that would explain why a solid placed on a liquid makes the liquid rise.

Revise and Edit Script

Today I had to revise the script since it is due on Monday. I added some citations and came upon new information. Some new information included the health concerns of the Tijuana River. Apparently the Tijuana River is very polluted one can get diseases such as cholera, hepatitis A, and malaria. Sounds severe. http://www.american.edu/ted/TIJUANA.HTM. The source is probably reliable since the format is proffessional. The Tijuana River is definately in worse condition than the San Diego River. But I wonder why? Could it be because there is no one to guard the river from pollution, in Tijuana? I cannot make any assumptions because I am not that well informaed about this. Also, I could not find any information on how one can get malaria from just getting near the river? I always thought you get that from mosquitos not from just physical contact with the water. If anyone knows the answer to that question feel free to answer.

Article on Latin America

US border build-up worries Mexico by James Hider is an article about the fortification of the United States-Mexico Border. The author was somewhat biased stating that "the move as a show of force by Mexico's much more powerful neighbour, just six weeks before presidential elections in Mexico." The author gave evidence to oppose the fortification of the border but also stated that Mexico does not do enough to support its people so they leave it for United States. There was an interetsting quote by a man named Julio Hernandez Lopez who believed that the reason for the United States to foritfy its border right before the Mexican Presendential election. He said that the United States was trying to send a message to Mexican voters how risky it would be to vote for a president who does not understand the power of white people. Could the United States really be trying to show off its power? This is another possible example of the United States getting involved in Latin American politics. The author gave statistics that explained how the fortification of the border only increase the deaths of immigrants and makes people trying to corss the border more desperate. Being desperate, they will do anything to cross the border even hire people to transport them across the broder. Mexico had a muted response because during Bush's live speech about the border, Mexico did not bother to broadcast his speech over their soap operas. I believe a simple wall will not stop people from trying to improve their lives. They will only get more desperate and hire traffickers to cross them across the border. Here is the link to the article Spencer: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4987784.stm.

The Meniscus

http://www.chem.purdue.edu/gchelp/liquids/tension.html. There is a great flash animation plus description on surface tension. The author of this website explains how the meniscus is formed. It is really interesting how mercury, the only liquid with stronger surface tension than water, forms an upward parabola instead of a downward parabola formed by water. Because the attraction between unlike molecules in water is stronger than the attraction between same molocules in water, they cling on to the glass tube. The meniscus can only occur when the water is placed in a narrow tube. A wider tube will have to much gravity and the water will have to much to lift so it it will be too much to lift.

Surface Area

http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/physics/SurfaceTension.html. This is a complicated website that explains the physics of how hydrogen bonding reduces surface area. Do you know why warm water is better to clean with than cold water. You will have to wait for our presentation to find out. Anyways, I never knew how useful this stuff is because you can apply this information to you everyday life. From chemistry I can know what is better. Another thing I learned in physics is that everything in nature wants to be stable in other words nature is lazy and wants to exert very little or no force at all. So everything in nature tries to arrange itself to exert a net force of 0. That is an example of nature trying to maintain balance.