Month: October 2018

Disney has created humanoid robots that can perform stunts in midair. Disney throughout the years has been known to incorporate animatronics into their attractions. And the animatronics at the parks are not able to move from their  original position. But their latest goal is to create the humanoid that would act as a stunt double for the “hero” animatronic figures in the park.

The project with the robots is called “Stickman”. The robot is flung in the air controlling its pose, rotation and center of mass and strike as a superhero mid flight. The robots could possibly be used in shows and attractions in Disneyland parks.

Source: Business Insider 

Leonardo Dicaprio spoke at the United Nations Climate Summit as a Messenger of Peace. Dicaprio quotes Abraham Lincoln on thinking of bold action of climate change, no one has the political will to stop.

The affect of climate change around the world has been noticed when locations in America like Florida having sea level rise flooding the streets and California having a drought.

” Our planet cannot be saved unless we leave fossil fuels in the ground where they belong.”

New York state is suing ExxonMobil in a lawsuit that claims that the oil company lied to it’s investors by hiding the real financial exposure of greenhouse gas emissions. The company provided false and misleading assurances to shareholders about climate regulations.

The lawsuit took place in the New York supreme court that has taken three years, during the years ExxonMobil had been trying to cover up an investigation on their practices. ExxonMobil claims that is a violation of their first amendments. The lawsuit isn’t about the damage that ExxonMobil has done to climate change but their role in failing to communicate to their investors about the regulations.

 

 

 

 

 

Source: Wired

This winter season won’t include the ice cold weather we are used to, instead it will be a warmer one.

According to NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center’s outlook from December through February, the prediction is due to El Niño. With about 75% of the occurring atmospheric event caused by the development of warmer ocean water off the Pacific coast of South America. The change is sea surface temperature greatly effects the seasonal weather patterns across the globe.  With El Niño prediction leading to warmer temperatures and higher levels of precipitation in certain regions of the country.

In the Midwest areas like Michigan, Wisconsin and Chicago there is expected to be less snow, rain, and sleet.

Source: Time

Space X is working on the Big Falcon Rocket. It it will be the world’s first hypersonic passenger transport vehicle to fly to the moon in 2023. One passenger will be Japanese billionaire, Yusaku Maezawa and a variety of artists. He will choose photographers, painters, musicians, etc. to join him on the mission. The artists will be responsible of creating an art piece reflecting their trip to the moon.  The mission will be a week long trip, looping passengers around the moon. But once this mission is accomplished it might be a possibility that several other people would be willing to take a chance on this method of transportation.

 

Kaitlynn McShane a senior double majoring in Graphic Design and Advertising gave her opinion if given the opportunity to travel to the moon. Kaitlynn  responded that she is afraid of going on the mission and wouldn’t travel to the moon. But if she weren’t afraid and travelled to the moon.Her art piece would be a mixture of her graphic design skills and painting skills to express the craters of the moon while creating an earthy feel. However, her thoughts on space tourism becoming popular in the future is that she thinks there is a possibility of success. Once the method of transportation becomes safe enough for several more passengers then it will become successful.

 

Next, the administrative assistant from Advanced Institutional Office, Beth Schlitter gave her thoughts on this topic. If given the option to go on this mission, Beth respond she wouldn’t go on the mission because she isn’t passionate about it. Also she is fearful of the dangers that could happen from the trip, she said “Unless you are a dare devil that wants to go on the mission”. Beth also said, “ That space tourism would become tangible for wealthier people because they don’t know what else to spend their money on.”

 

Rachel Dejong is a junior majoring in business administration with an emphasis in managerial accounting.  Rachel wouldn’t want to be apart of the trial run if given the chance to go on the rocket. She says, “Once they have established that it’s safe, then I’ll go. Also, if the tickets are sold at a reasonable price.” Rachel’s response was similar to Beth’s about space tourism becoming a popular method of luxury traveling in the future.

 

Another student’s response, Sterling Stecker is a sophomore majoring in Computer Science. Sterling is also apart of the rocket club that recently became a club on campus this fall semester. He responded, “ Yes,  I definitely would like to tour space.” Sterling also would agree that space tourism would become popular. Knowing that there are two frontiers, deep space and deep sea, and we know more about space than sea. The possibility that we know more about space than sea is because people are constantly looking up at the sky. Sterling hopes that maybe in the future, tours under deep sea become an option people can tour as well. For example like being able to tour in the Mariana Trench. The Mariana Trench is known for for being the deepest trench located in the North Pacific Ocean.

Sunday at sundown, Space X and other companies used the Vandenberg Air Force Base launch hub located in Southern California, near Los Angeles. The Air Force Base serves as a center of development and testing for missiles in the 1960’s and 1970’s.The Air Force spent several billion dollars preparing a launch site.The open ocean alongside the base is ideal for launching spacecrafts.

Falcon 9 built by Space X, was carrying an Argentine communications satellite into space. The company plans on continuing launching rockets into the California skies. There have been eleven launches so far this year from the base, five of them from Space X. Slowly throughout time, there have been a decline in launches from more than 900 in the late 1960’s  to 79 so far this decade. With two months left in 2018, Space X has already launched as many rockets as they did in 2017.

Source: New York Times 

An accident on Saturday occurred in the state of New York, killing 20 people from an SUV limo. The driver had failed to stop at an intersection in Schoharie, New York. The limo had crashed into an unoccupied SUV.  New York Governor announced that the limo had failed an inspection last month according to the New York State Department of Transportation. The driver of the limo was Scott Lisnicchia, 53, who was not properly licensed to drive the limo.

The print story I found from NBC news provides several quotes from family members of those who were in the accident. As well as going further into depth of announcing the names of adults who were in the crash. The headline on the story is ” Families of 20 people killed in limousine crash left reeling” while the video doesn’t have a big headline announcing the accident. Instead below the video there is brief summary of what happened.

On the contrary with the video, there were more pictures and clips that were taken from the accident shown. Also when watching the video, it seems like the reporter repeat the same information that the anchor had said at the beginning when she is introduced. The video also talks about previous limo accidents that have happened in the past and show clips from those accidents.

Sources: ABC news & NBC

When the Boeing 474 was first created in the 1970’s, the era of mass tourism began. Since then the airline industry has been looking to change aircrafts model with the latest machines and technology.

The first upgraded aircraft is the Airbus A220 that is expected to be used by airlines in early 2019. The Airbus is using a European airframe manufacturer allowing passengers to travel comfortably with more leg room. Jet Blue has ordered up to 60 A220’s to use in the next year. The next plane is the Embraer E2  an extension of a Brazilian Jet maker. Carrying the same number of passengers as the A22O except the craft will be used regionally.

Another aircraft that should be released in 2025 is the Boom Supersonic, should be known to be able to fly from Japan to San Francisco in less than six hours. A Japanese airline is expected to buy up to 20 of the Boom Supersonics, the airline claims the prices should be equivalent to business class prices.

Source: CN Traveler

Pastor Nelson is the director of ministry on the college campus. He was ordained a Lutheran  pastor, and on campus he is a Chaplin and Director of Ministry and Community Service. He has been a pastor at Morningside College for a year.  He took over as pastor when Cathy Martin decided to retire from campus ministries.

His office on campus is located in the basement in the Olsen Center, where he is available to students to talk about faith, talk about classes, anything the student wants to talk bout. But his favorite thing to advise to students is passing on the message of learning to love your neighbor as you would love yourself. Overall, what he wants students to understand when they visit his office to know that they were listened to and that he genuinely cares about what the student had to say to him.

On the other hand, his wife is Dr. Jessica Pleuss, a professor in the psychology department on campus. Both reside in Sioux City and have three biological children and one foster child. They have been foster parents for about a year, from his experience as a foster parent he has said it is both rewarding and frustrating in the sense of uncertainty with the number of children they will be able to have in their house.