This water bridge/canal now crosses over the River Elbe in a small city near Berlin called Magdeburg. The project was completed to aid in the transport of passengers and freight between East and West Germany, as part of the reuinification effort between the two regions. One question though: Did the bridge’s design consider the additional weight of ship and barge traffic, or just the weight of the water?

Google is appealing to the ever-growing trend in eco-tourism and environmental consciousness in the United States by joining the Earth Day Network to create entirely "green" trip itineraries for anyone who inquires. With growing concern over the United States' contribution to Global Warming and Climate Change, an entire low-carbon tourism industry is developing. Google is known for starting trends. We'll see how long this one lasts.

June 15, 2006: Today President Bush designates the Western Hawaiian Islands, a marine area near the size of California, as a national monument. This is the president’s second use of the National Antiquities Act; the first being the designation of the African Burial Ground in Lower Manhattan. The area west of Hawaii now protected will be completely off-limits to any commercial activity. It is about 140,000 square-miles in area and contains over 7,000 species of marine wildlife. This is the largest use of the National Antiquities Act in United States history, since it was created nearly 100 years ago.

READ THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK: Uncle Sam is peering over your shoulder! You’ve been warned:

I asked my dad about World Trade 7 and its collapse. He was working on search and recovery at the base of the building (the North Tower’s debris pile was at 7’s lobby). World Trade 7 held a civilian evacuation before any collapses at WTC occured (as did the Millenium Hotel, the World Financial Center, the Deutsch Bank Building, and the other auxillary buildings of the World Trade Center Complex). Smoke was heavy, he said, as fires from the north tower ignited fuel tanks near 7’s basement. The basement was inaccessible from the outside, so the fires continually burned until the structure’s collapse (and then continued on for days, under the rubble). About a 1/2 hour before the building came down, a structural engineering team advised search and rescue to evacuate; the building was deemed structurally unsound and under risk of collapse. Sure enough, the structure collapsed 1/2 an hour later. A team of engineers was on site within an hour of the first plane hitting the WTC. This is why Mayor Rudy Guiliani’s command headquarters was moved from Vessey Street prior to collapse, and how he survived. The engineers predicted a collapse and advised the mayor’s team to evacuate. They also advised search and rescue for months during the cleanup as debris shifted and as other collapses occured. During the 12-hour shift that my father was at ground zero, he said he witnessed near 6 collapses of auxillary structures and of remnants of other buildings at the site.

A poll recently released by 911truth.org stated that near half of Americans believe there was a federal coverup (or conspiracy) after 9/11; of course this is biased information. The polls make complete sense, considering the education of the American public on the subject. Many people didn’t know World Trade 7 collapsed (or even existed) because media coverage was extremely low (by the time it collapsed only search and rescue and military personell were allowed below canal street). If you search, there are only a few actual videos of the structure collapsing, and they’re from a fairly long distance. Many also don’t know that the northwestern corner of the north tower of the WTC collapsed 40 minutes after the structure’s initial collapse. The “spire” as they call it was shrouded by smoke for its lifespan and then slowly fell into the pile, no doubt killing search and rescue members as it came down.Many Americans also don’t realize that when the planes struck the buildings, enflamed jet fuel poured down the elevator shafts, severely buring and disfiguring many people waiting for elevators in the lobby. The first responders at the WTC worked for minutes extinguishing these initial fires before they even attempted climbing the stairwells. One conspiracy video asks why debris was thrown up to 70 meters from the WTC as it collapsed, and why didn’t the debris simply fall straight down. The answer: because the World Trade Center Towers 1 and 2 did not collapse straight down. The upper floors (above the jet impacts) severely leaned toward the jet entrance wound before collapse. When the structure began coming down the entire upper section of the tower is seen leaning over and twisting (staying intact all the while) on its way down. A Marriot Hotel was located on the West Side Highway and was completely destroyed during the towers’ collapse.

There are countless things that the American public does not know; things that are very clear and not open for debate or conspiracy. But, no less, the American public loves a conspiracy: the DaVinci code is my exhibit as the story is based in fiction and based on an actual document hoax in the mid-1950s by a deranged man who planted forged documents (called “the secret papers” – how very original) in the Paris public library (he was quoted many times believing he was King of France). Alot of Americans are taking this story as fact and are travelling to Europe to see places of interest in the story. I rest my case. Americans are mostly unintelligent and do not understand the pure logistics and mechanics of the collapse of the World Trade Center on 9/11/01. The event was almost too simple to explain, and frankly, Americans want more. They want to know that their husbands, wives, and children died because of something more complex. It’s a sad but simple story. I realize, since most of you are semi-intelligent (since we go to a University in the top 30), you love debate and “intellectual stimulation.” Knowing most of the facts of 9/11, I can say there is no debate here. There is a debate in the politics of the matter. There’s a debate in the response to the event. There is debate in the construction of the buildings, since the 1970s was an economic disaster and the structures were erected cheaply and quickly. There is no debate, however, in the event itself and the mechanics of the “disaster.” Please, if any of you have questions, ask me. I have an eye-witness living in my house. Also, take me off the “9/11: AMERICAN CONSPIRACY!” email list. I can’t afford to be stressed out. Thanks.

Sincerely,

Jared T. Rodriguez

While in Washington, D.C. three weeks ago, an interesting opportunity approached me. General Motors was giving test drives of their HydroGen prototype vehicle, which runs on compressed hydrogen gas. The fuel cell powered auto is a bit smaller than the average sedan, comparable in size to a Prius, but higher off the ground with more headroom and larger windows. There are no mechanical components of the vehicle besides the front and rear axles. There is no drive shaft. There is no shifting assembly. The stearing wheel is not physically connected to the front wheels, lacking tie-rods and a pitman arm. Everything in the vehicle is controlled electronically. There are "forward," "reverse," and "park" buttons located on the center console between the two front bucket seats. The "gas" and "brake" are still in the form of pedals on the floor, however.

The car's pickup can be compared to a typical 4-cylinder campact car. It can easily keep up with city traffic (as I drove it quickly around the National Mall and through Washington's central downtown). The hydrogen car successfully functions like a normal combustion engine car on the highway (although I didn't test highway driving); it can easily reach 100 miles per hour. The HydroGen is a sleak addition to the future of motoring in the United States. Its technology can compete with today's internal combustion vehicles and release absolute zero emissions into the environment. The exhaust pipe releases entirely pure water vapor; the water visibly drips from the pipe. GM is successfully promoting hydrogen technology by continually driving the vehicles in downtown D.C. Tourists and government officials alike point and gawk at the HydroGen, asking enthusiastically, "When will this be on the market?!?" The GM specialist in the passenger seat replies with a smile, "Not for ten years, at least."

The debate for nuclear power in the United States has been an ever-inflamed issue since the Three Mile Island incident in 1979 at the plant's Unit 2 reactor. Since then, no new nuclear power generating stations have been built in the U.S. leaving us behind countries like France, who produce close to 90% of their power from nuclear energy. The American public has been pumped with anti-nuclear stigma for thirty years and is extremely reluctant in accepting nuclear technology of any type. The public idea of nuclear power associates a mushroom cloud to the technology. The idea can't be farther from the truth. The only "explosion" (if you even can call it that) that can occur is a steam flash event, or the effect of a steam-pipe leak within the reactor containment dome. The superheated steam rapidly expands once hitting ambient air temperatures within the reactor dome. The dome is specifically designed to contain this swift air expansion. The dome has near five-foot-thick, concrete walls reinforced with steel rods that form a woven steel grid. These steel woven "baskets" build on top of one another within the poured concrete. The result is a containment dome that can withstand never-before-seen tsunamis, earthquakes, hurricanes, nuclear blasts, and specifically, direct impacts of military aircraft or missiles.

The incident at Three Mile Island was, in fact, a success in containing a reactor meltdown. The events at Chernobyl in Ukraine are completely different in that the reactors at the Soviet generating station were not contained in a reinforced dome, but in a conventional, industrial building. The lack of safety measures directly led to this "disaster," where 56 people (mostly firefighters responding to the reactor's fires) died from radiation exposure. Not one human being has ever died from nuclear power generation in the United States of America.

When considering the effects of power generation from coal or oil firing (asthma, respiratory failure, heart disease, mercury and lead poisoning, acid rain, strip mining, middle east relations, global warming, etc.) nuclear power seems like the "million dollar answer," as our Seabrook tour guide exclaimed when speaking about the country's energy issues. One pellet of unreactive Uranium, which is about 3/4 of an inch in length and 1/2 an inch in diameter, contains the same amount of energy potential as a train load of coal. The benefits of nuclear energy are obvious. When will the people of this country, after experiencing thirty years of safe nuclear power generation, wake up to this potential?

“3,186

Number of prostitution arrests in the city [New York] last fiscal year. In the same period, however, only 1,922 arrests were logged for patronizing prostitutes, which seems to indicate that the market is a tad oversaturated with hookers.”

The above was happily borrowed from The Village Voice’s website…

Media outcry has recently revealed a darker side of Hillary Clinton. During her husband’s run as governor of Arkansas, Senator Clinton worked on the WalMart Board of Directors. During President Clinton’s run for the White House in 1992, a chief donator to the campaign was Mr. Sam Walton. With the White House is her eyes, Hillary Clinton is stearing clear of mentioning her ties to WalMart due to a recent Democratic campaign against WalMart’s employee benefits programs (they are non-existent). The liberal news media is currently up in arms over the ordeal. The question is: Why didn’t everyone already know this? She worked on the board between 1986 and 1992, up until her hubby won the White House seat. Is Hillary going to take John Kerry’s place as a severely disgruntled flip-flop? The Village Voice recently deconstructed “Wal-Mart’s First Lady.” It’s funny though, that WalMart is currently selling a book on their website interestingly called “Can She Be Stopped?: Hillary Clinton Will Be the Next President of the United States Unless…” I see a fair amount of backstabbing in the near future…

Walmart has begun its systematic takeover of the blogosphere. In retaliation for current government and public attacks against the company, Walmart is beginning to hire current employees and embedded bloggers to do their dirty-work; they are feeding Walmart propaganda into the blog world. Recently, a state-legislated bill was announced that would force Walmart to increase spending on employee health insurance. Walmart currently encourages employees to seek public health benefits and welfare programs, instead of using the company’s programs. Brian Pickrell, a paid Walmart crony and frequent blogger, was posting in spades pro-Walmart messages attacking the bill: “All across the country, newspaper editorial boards — no great friends of business — are ripping the bills…” The New York Times ran the article this morning, giving an inside look into the invasion of the blog world:

Several sentences in Mr. Pickrell’s Jan. 20 posting — and others from different days — are identical to those written by an employee at one of Wal-Mart’s public relations firms and distributed by e-mail to bloggers.

Under assault as never before, Wal-Mart is increasingly looking beyond the mainstream media and working directly with bloggers, feeding them exclusive nuggets of news, suggesting topics for postings and even inviting them to visit its corporate headquarters.

Walmart is using mudslinging in blogs to tarnish the name of rival stores, such as Target, and stamp down competition. The company seems to be moving closer and closer to a national monopoly. Walmart is responsible for the slow shutdown of the world renown fish markets of Hong Kong, when it spent millions on research and development to imitate those markets inside its Chinese store locations. The Chinese street markets took a major economic hit when Walmart made its debut there. In highly capitalistic environments, Walmart is similar to bacteria at optimal growing conditions.

Are we going to sit here and let Walmart invade our territory? The money hungry corporation has already invaded our towns, closed our family-run stores, and has paved over countless acres of our farmland and historic sites. When will Walmart face reparation? Or, will this leech of a company continue to grow until it has consumed America and has its hands in our politics (it may already be embedded in the government) and private lives?

For the record, semanticparanoia.com will continue to refuse participation in any Walmart media infiltration.

The artist, Jenny Holzer, has installed an intriguing piece of artwork in the lobby of the recently completed 7 World Trade Center building (destroyed on 9/11). The piece stands 14 feet tall and 65 feet long, scrolling everything from Langston Hughes to prose by Walt Whitman. It takes around 8 hours for the entire text segment to complete its journey across the wall of words. The wall of words is visible in the lobby from blocks away, as the white lettering is five feet high. Ms. Holzer, working with Larry Silverstein (the chief developer of the World Trade Center complex) and his wife, Klara Silverstein, spent more than a year debated the content of the text, agreeing to remove any 9/11-related content. Silverstein reiterated, “down here [in Lower Manhattan]… we need positive stuff.” This seems to be the trend of new designs and artworks appearing in the area; light, airy and joyous structures and artwork are rising from the ashes, making Lower Manhattan a forward looking and exciting place once again. The New York Times ran the article this morning.