Monthly Archives: June 2017

Pandora CEO and co-founder out

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By GABRIELA SANTOS

After a rough weekend, it has been confirmed that Pandora’s CEO and co-founder Tim Westergren will be stepping down as CEO.

Techcrunch reported that Westergren became CEO of Pandora shortly after its founding for two years and stepped back into the role in 2016, stating that Pandora was “on the cusp of realizing an extraordinary vision.”

Due to the recent tumultuousness of the music industry, licensing costs have continued to be a problem for the company, which has struggled to expand outside of the U.S. companies like Spotify and Apple Music have also been putting more pressure on Pandora.

Naveen Chopra, the company’s CFO as of February, will be filling in as interim CFO while the board of directors searches for a replacement.

President Mike Herring and CMO Nick Bartle will also be leaving the company. Westergren’s will also be leaving the board of directors. He will be replaced by Jason Hirschhorn, the CEO of “digital content curation” company ReDEF Group, who worked at Myspace, Sling, and served as MTV’s Chief Digital Officer.

This has been a widely covered topic, especially considering the recent shakeup that happened at Uber. The tech industry is seeing a shift in the kinds of people they need in positions of power, perhaps in an attempt to focus on the newer generations of users.

There is a consensus among people of all levels that the future ahead is wildly unpredictable. Whoever takes over for Pandora will certainly feel that.

NYC passengers get ‘ride to remember’

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By MYLES VALENTINE

NYC passengers riding the A train Tuesday were on their way to Manhattan when the train came off its tracks, crashed into a subway wall and caught on fire around 125th Street.

Passengers reportedly said they were stuck on the train, which was quickly filling with smoke, for 20 minutes before help arrived. Some passengers had asthma and some were pregnant. Passengers took to Twitter using hashtags like #FixTheSubway to let alert New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority of the situation.

The loss of power underground halted the A, B, C, and D train service at 125th Street, causing an uproar by riders. Apparently the MTA isn’t new to screwing up with subway service because one customer had this to say: “Yet again @MTA, ‘Going Your Way’ is exactly what you DON’T do… But please, take more of our time & money.”

Passengers on the smoke filled A train were eventually evacuated and had to walk through the subway tunnels to exit. No serious injuries were reported. More information on the story should be emerging soon.

Candidates seek California House seat

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By ISAIAH TAYLOR

The state of California will soon be voting for a U.S. House of Representatives seat in the 50th district.

Politics have seen an interesting turn of events this past couple of months with the introduction of Trump as president. So far, Republicans have won all four special elections since Trump was inaugurated. What do people feel about now a new face on the campaign scene trying to win back the seat for the Democrats?

Introducing Ammar Campa-Najjar, he is just one of five Democrats hoping to get a chance to fill that seat. One of the most interesting things about Campa-Najjar is that he comes from such a diverse background. He campaigns as a Arab-Latino facing the harsh treatment from just about all other sides.

Campa-Najjar has even been quoted saying that the challenges he has faced so far under the Trump administration, that “A lot of Trump supporters are not all racist or a lot of them aren’t ignorant; they are ignored.”

With the positive outlook on most recent behavior displayed by some of these supporters, California will will have bright future ahead if this man is elected into the 50th district seat.

He also plans to implement some environmentally sustainable practices, with the use of solar framing available. He has already reached out to a company owned by Elon Musk in efforts to help us and the country find better options to the use of out fossil fuels. Campa-Najjar also hopes that he can privatize space travel and the nation could create more jobs if it could build more launch sites.

Campa-Najjar will be running for the next election, which is to be held June 5.

If you believe in a new type of change needed to happen with this country, but starting off at the state level and you live in California, it is crucial that you get out and vote for who you believe in, whether it be part of the Republican Party or the new up and coming Ammar Campa-Najjar.

One way ticket to bankruptcy

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By Myles Valentine

I could only dream of becoming a professional athlete and being able to give back to everyone who helped me along the way. As a fellow athlete I think I can speak for a majority of athletes when I say we dream of huge contracts and many luxury items. One thing we don’t dream about is bankruptcy. It doesn’t matter how much they make. Recession or no recession, many NFL,NBA, and Major League Baseball players have an appetite for losing most or all of there money.

According to Pablo Torre from Sports Illustrated there and two numbers,78 and 60. 78 percent of former NFL players have gone bankrupt or are under financial stress due to joblessness or divorce by the time they have been retired for two years. Within five years of retirement an estimated 60% of Former NBA players are broke. Numerous MLB players have suffered from the same economic crisis.

“A pro athletes money is suppose to outlive his career. Most players never get that” says Bill Duffy a veteran agent who’s clients include Steve Nash and Carmelo Anthony. Put the salary aside and the closest analogue to a pro athlete is not some white collar executive. It’s a lottery winner who’s often in his or her early twenties. For athletes, it’s not a lottery, or a game of chance. Pro athletes go broke due to a constant series of bad decisions, and seemingly no amount of cautionary tales. For example Evander Holyfield burned through his $230 million fortune on a 235-acre Utah estate, which has 109 rooms and included at least one monthly electric bill of $17,000. There was also a $550,000 loan he took out to pay for landscaping; $200,000 in back taxes, plus alimony and child support for three ex-wives and 11 children.

Taxes also have to come into consideration when trying to figure out why athletes file for bankruptcy. Every year the average football,baseball or basketball player owes about 1 million in federal taxes. In an article that MLB All-Star José Canseco wrote for vice magazine, he says ” The issue is very simple: If you’ve got friends and family, the more money you make, the more you spend on them,So let’s say you spend half your money on them and the rest on yourself and the cost of living. It may so happen that during all of that, you forget to pay your taxes.”

So when you make it to the professional level, the number one thing is money management. It is the key to success long term.

 

Antibiotic resistance poses health threat

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By NOELIA GRAHAM

The world is dependent on antibiotics, however the efficiency of antibiotics in modern medicine is quickly decaying.

As bacteria mutates and changes, antibiotic treatment will no longer be efficient in treating illnesses. This means going back to a reality where people died from common illness like sinus infections or a scrape to the knee.

Dr. Margaret Chan, director general of the World Health Organization, spoke in a conference in April about one of the greatest global crises.

“The world is heading towards a post-antibiotic era in which common infections will once again kill. If current trends continue, sophisticated interventions, like organ transplantation, joint replacements, cancer chemotherapy and care of pre-term infants, will become more difficult or even too dangerous to undertake. This may even bring the end of modern medicine as we know it.”

The problem lies with mutation of the bacteria. In some cases, when people use antibiotics to treat an infection, bacteria will mutate and become antibiotic resistant. They then will pass on their DNA to other bacteria in a process called “conjugation.”

According to statistics from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that in U.S. there are approximately 23,000 people who die every year from antibiotic-resistant infections.

With the number expected to rise health organizations around the world are looking into ways to prevent this from spreading.

One of the ways for prevention is to limit the use of antibiotics and not prescribe it as often. Another way is to track it. The CDC now have a system called the National Antimicrobial Monitoring System (NARMS).

“Surveillance for antibiotic resistant bacteria is a big part of our mission,” said Dr. Jean Patel, deputy director of the office of Antimicrobial Resistance at the CDC. “We do this to measure the burden of infection and also characterize the types of resistance we see. This helps us strategize how best to prevent resistance.”

Diseases and bacteria don’t know any borders. They aren’t concerned with politics. Prevention and treatment for antibiotic resistance is a global issue and every nations problem.

High court takes wedding cake case

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By ALEJANDRO GRANDA

The U.S. Supreme Court said it will take on the case of a Denver baker, Jack Phillips, owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop, who refused to sell a wedding to cake to gay couple David Mullins and Charlie Craig in 2012 and decide whether or not he unlawfully discriminated against them.

Lower courts believe that Phillips had violated the Colorado’s public accommodations law that prohibits refusing service to customers based on race, sex, marital status and sexual orientation.

He said he refused to sell them a wedding cake because his religious beliefs would not allow him to have anything to do with same-sex marriage, apparently including making a cake for them.

The couple then filed a complaint and the Colorado Civil Rights Commission determined in 2014 that Phillips did violate state law. Now, it is in the hands of the U.S. Supreme Court to decide whether Phillips did in fact do that.

The Washington Post does a great job reporting this news, providing support with many other cases where a business refused service to same-sex couples and finding little success in courts, ruling that public businesses must comply with state anti-discrimination laws, which will probably and hopefully be the outcome in this case as well.

Bullet aimed at pit bull kills teen

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By ALEJANDRO GRANDA

A teen, 17-year-old Armando Garcia-Muro, was fatally shot Friday morning when two deputies opened fire at a pit bull and one of the bullets bounced on the concrete, hitting him in the chest in Palmdale, Calif.

The pit bull survived the shooting, but was later euthanized.

Roberta Alcantar, the teen’s mother, said he was “a very loving person” who loved dogs and planned to go into construction after finishing high school this upcoming year.

The deputies had first been called to the Palmdale complex at about 3:45 a.m., responding to noise complains of a loud party.

Garcia-Muro helped restrain the dog in the back of his apartment complex after it first charged the group of deputies and bit one of them. But then the dog broke loose and charged again, which was when deputies shot and wounded the pit bull about 10 feet away and then chased it as it tried to run to the back of the building.

That was when they saw the boy about 30 to 40 feet away, who was hit in the chest by a bullet ricocheted off the concrete, calling it a “skip round.”

He died an hour later in the hospital

NBCNews did a great job reporting the horrible tragedy that occurred that morning, but should have mentioned when the dog had attacked.

Is there a future for nuclear energy?

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By NOELIA GRAHAM

In the 1950s, nuclear energy was all the rage, promising to supply the world all of it’s energy. With the passing of time however, nuclear energy has faded from innovative to cumbersome.

Nuclear energy is costly, dangerous, and powerful. As the world looks to cleaner sources of energy, what does this hold for the future of nuclear energy?

Several large-scale incidents have paved the way for nuclear energy way out, including the incident at Chernobyl in 1986 and more recently Fukushima’s nuclear accident in 2011.

Mostly likely as a result of the disaster in Fukushima, Germany decided to phase out nuclear power altogether by 2022.

Also, South Korea, which invested many years into its nuclear energy technology will be scaling back in their nuclear energy consumption and released a plan called the “One Less Nuclear Power Plant” initiative one year after the incident in Fukushima.

Public opinion about the reliability of nuclear energy has tanked, putting politicians and world leaders in the midst to figure out what to do next. But it’s more than just public opinion, keeping nuclear energy around has a lot to do with economics.

While nuclear energy in the United States does offer some benefits, it’s too expensive to maintain when you take into account all of the money spent in making sure it’s done safely.

“You can make it go fast, and you can make it be cheap — but not if you adhere to the standard of care that we do,” said Mark Cooper of the Institute for Energy and the Environment at Vermont Law School, referring to the United States regulatory body. “Nuclear safety always undermines nuclear economics. Inherently, it’s a technology whose time never comes.”

Yemen’s cholera crisis may worsen

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By NOELIA GRAHAM

In the midst of Yemen’s civil war, thousands are dying. Not because of airstrikes or bombs, but because of cholera.

Yemen is one of the Arab world’s poorest countries and its civil war is centered around Houthi rebel forces and those who are loyal to the government system of President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi.

According to Johannes Bruwer, worker for International Committee of the Red Cross who is currently in Yemen, “The cholera outbreak has infected more than 200,000 people across Yemen, and it appears that 500,000 could eventually become sick. More than 1,300 people have already died.”

With the knowledge of modern medicine preventing cholera should be an easy task. But in a war torn country whose sewer system stopped working on April 17, clean water is hard to come by.

“Clean water in Yemen is a luxury. Municipal workers in Sanaa have not been paid in months. And so we have no electricity, rubbish piling high in the street, and a crippled water system,” Bruwer wrote.

The cholera crisis in Yemen is centered to be the largest outbreak in modern times. With no end to the war in sight, Yemen faces is facing more than just a health crisis. Because of the economic collapse due to the war, cholera will continue to spread without the proper access to food, clean water and health care.

In a statement released by senior UN official in Yemen, Jamie McGoldrick, spoke about the lack of international response.

“The politics of the situation has overcome the humanity,” Goldrick said.

“The humanity doesn’t work anymore here. The world has turned a blind eye to what’s happening in Yemen … right now we are so under-resourced for this crisis, it’s extraordinary.”

Scientists look to colonize Mars

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By NOELIA GRAHAM

The era of interplanetary civilizations is close to becoming a reality for mankind with the scientific world looking to colonize Mars. But with the possibility of leaving comes grim predictions from scientists of Earth’s future.

Professor Stephen Hawking issued a statement last November saying that humans would need to find a new planet to populate within the next 1,000 years, however he recently revised his previous statement to say that it would have to happen in the next 100 years for the survival of the human race.

Hawking talks about his predictions in  BBC’s new science series Tomorrow’s World, where he believes that climate change, asteroid strikes, epidemics and population growth will force humans into extinction.

In a conference at the Royal Society of London, Hawking issued a statement about his predictions.

“I strongly believe we should start seeking alternative planets for possible habitation,” Hawking said. “We are running out of space on earth and we need to break through technological limitations preventing us living elsewhere in the universe.”

“I am not alone in this view and many of my colleagues will make further comments at the Starmus next month,” he said.

And the scientific community seems to be in agreement. Programs to colonize Mars are already underway. Some major companies looking into this are NASA, SpaceX and China’s space program.

According to information on NASA’s website, the goal is to send humans to the “Red Planet” by 2030.

In an official statement found on NASA’s website they go talk about past and future endeavors,

“For decades, the agency and its partners have sent orbiters, landers and rovers, dramatically increasing our knowledge about the Red Planet and paving the way for future human explorers. The Curiosity rover has gathered radiation data to help us protect future astronauts, and the upcoming Mars 2020 rover will study the availability of Martian resources, including oxygen.”

Texas’ mom arrested children die in hot car

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By NEYDJA PETITHOMME

The Parker County, Texas, Sheriff’s Office arrested Cynthia Marie Randolph, 24, for the deaths of her 2-year-old daughter and 16-month-old son, the sheriff’s office said in a news release.

According to Randolph, she left them in the car to teach her daughter a lesson.

“Throughout multiple interviews, Randolph created several variations of the events which led to the death of her children,” the release said.

On May 26, Randolph found her children fooling off around the car at 12:15 p.m. To teach them a lesson, Randolph closed the car door “to teach her daughter a ‘lesson,’ thinking ‘she could get herself and her brother out of car when ready.”

Randolph then went inside and smoked marijuana before falling asleep for two or three hours. According to authorities, Randolph purposely broke into the car window to make the deaths look like an accident.

The children “entered the vehicle on their own and had locked themselves inside,” according to the release. She claimed that she broke one of the car’s windows to try to save them, said Randolph.

This incident is very unfortunate, knowing that the mother of her children lacks the love to care for her children. The real question, though, lies in whether marijuana and sleep was logically more important than the well being of her children left unattended and uncared for prior to the time of her death.

Life is something one cannot get back. The past will no longer return, life has been lost, future doctors, lawyers, engineers or even journalists that could potentially change the world, gone due to a woman’s lack of responsibility. This is problematic of her standing and this crime should not go unnoticed.

Randolph facing a two felony charges in the deaths of her children, the sheriff’s office said.

Fitness blogger dies in freak accident

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 By GABRIELA SANTOS

A French fitness blogger has died after a whipped cream dispenser malfunctioned and exploded. The canister lodged into her thorax and killed her.

Rebecca Burger, 33, was a fitness and travel blogger on such social media sites Facebook and Instagram. She had amassed about 200,000 followers on the sites.

Burger’s family made posts for her followers on her social media sites.

They wrote: “It’s with great sadness that we announce the death of Rebecca on Sunday 18 June 2017 following an accident in the home.” It was signed “her grieving family, friends and husband.”

Her family also took to social media to warn about the kitchen utensil, the dispenser. The canister exploded and pierced her chest, causing her to have a heart attack. She was taken to the hospital but died the next day. The local prosecutor is investigating the matter.

French consumer magazine 60 Millions de Consommateurs said it had warned readers about the gas capsules in cream dispensers for years after about 60 reports of exploding siphons causing injuries ranging from broken teeth, tinnitus, multiple fractures and, in one case, the loss of an eye. The problem affected more than a dozen models produced between 2009 and 2013, the magazine said.

“Due to a fault in its conception, the siphon’s plastic cap appears much too fragile to withstand being put under pressure … as a result, the siphon could explode and injure the user and those around them,” the magazine warned.

What we’re seeing now in the news media is a response to this claim. These canisters should have all been recalled and clearly there was something forgotten in the process.

It’s unfortunate that it took someone of international popularity to die for this to be brought forward but hopefully authorities can prevent anymore senseless deaths form occurring.

Three restaurants shut down, 19 cited

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By ALEJANDRO GRANDA

Three Miami restaurants had enough roaches to be shut down for the day while eight were cited for live roaches and 11 others cited for dead ones.

Latin American Restaurant at 1590 Coral Way was closed for the day for having “seven plus live roaches found inside oven in cookline area,” “extreme amount of flies all around the kitchen area” and “slicer blade guard soiled with old food debris.” Customers also insisted on bottled water because there was an “accumulation of black/green mold-like substance” around the soda dispensing nozzles and the ice machine.

Wong’s on 12420 Biscayne Blvd., in North Miami, had two high priority violations, but one was the excess amount of roaches: “six live roaches on preparation (table) behind soy sauce box, six live roaches under preparation table, five in the reach in cooler gasket, two by hand washing sink, three on the oven door.”

Yumm Yumm 2000 Cafe Del Mar in Miami Beach, at 710 Washington Ave., #1, was the third and final location to be shut down for roaches, which could be spotted upon entering the front door: “Two live roaches observed, one by door frame at entrance of establishment, the other under soda fountain. Another live roach observed by chest freezer in back of restaurant. Another roach observed by telephone behind kitchen and one more in storage in the back of the restaurant. Another roach was observed under coffee machine.” Other violations include the handwash sink not accessible for employee use because of items stored in the sink, soiled/stained can opener blade and cutting boards, and an accumulation of black/green mold-like substance around the ice machine.

The Miami Herald does a great job reporting these nasty violations, showing readers to think twice before going to these restaurants and take caution if they decide to eat in them.

UFC fighter Tim Hague dies at 34

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By NEYDJA PETITHOMME

Dan Grummett of CTV confirmed the news that Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) fighter Tim Hague died on June 18, while also passing along a statement from the family:

“It is with incredible sadness, sorrow and heartbreak to report that Tim has passed away today. He was surrounded by family, listening to his favorite songs. We will miss him so greatly. We ask for privacy during this difficult time.”

Hague was only 34 years old when he died.

This is certainly a tragic incident. Logistically, 34 years of age, is still a baby in a world of life. Seeing a young man lose his life prematurely, makes one question UFC fighting and if it is worth a life taken away early.

Adam Braidwood earned a knockout win over Hague in Alberta, Canada, which resulted in Hague suffering a serious brain injury, according to James Lynch of Sportsnet.

Hague was then immediately transported to an Edmonton hospital, where Hague was treated throughout the weekend with no sign of improvement.

Something may have to give, either the fight inning of itself for the safety of the person, and I say person, not fighter because athletes are people first, or we find a better way to be competitive and still draw the line in safety.

Harvey jokes about Flint water crisis

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By MYLES VALENTINE

Steve Harvey has become the talk of the town once again, this time for his insensitive jokes about the Flint, Mich., water crisis.

Flint, as you probably know, has now surpassed its 1,000th day without clean water. Flint’s residents to this day still have to use bottled water for everything from drinking, to cooking, and even bathing.

After the Cleveland Cavaliers lost the NBA championship, a caller, from Flint, made a comment on Harvey’s national radio show. The caller supposedly said that the Cavaliers “didn’t deserve jack.” Harvey — a Cavaliers fan — didn’t appreciate the caller’s comments and responded by saying “That’s why y’all ain’t even got clean water.” He continued with “When was the last time you touched water and it didn’t have lead in it?” The co-hosts of the radio show gasped and followed with laughter. Harvey then ended his rant by saying “enjoy your nice brown glass of water.”

Harvey has been under fire from critics on Twitter about his insensitive comments and it is said that the city’s mayor, Karen Weaver, who has appeared on Harvey’s show to discuss the crisis in the past, wants an apology from Harvey. Harvey insists the comments were just trash talk and not malicious.

Muslim teenager’s death not hate crime

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By ISAIAH TAYLOR

A group of teenagers observing Ramadan traveled from the All Dulles Area Muslim Society mosque in Virginia to a local McDonald’s at around 3 a.m. on Sunday. As they left, the fast food restaurant on bikes or on foot, a car appeared behind them.

After getting into a verbal altercation with one of the teenagers, the driver, believed to be 22-year-old Darwin Martinez Torres, drove his car over a curb towards the group.

The teenagers continued on their way, but were later met by the same man who allegedly chased them with a baseball bat, hitting Nabra Hassanen before taking her into his car and leaving.

Police units from two counties, a helicopter, and search dogs banded together before 5 in the morning. A car was seen returning multiple times to where Nabra had been abducted, and the driver, Martinez Torres, was arrested. The 17-year-old Nabra was later found dead near the suspect’s apartment building.

Although officers in Fairfax are unsure about the motivation behind the seemingly random murder, they have stated that it was probably a road rage incident. However, Nabra Hassanen’s family believes otherwise. Her father, Mohmoud Hassanen, declared that the attack must have been due to religion, explaining that the suspect knew nothing of Nabra except that she was wearing Islamic clothing, yet still chose to target her.

Darwin Martinez Torres also has family members defending him. He is a construction worker and the father to a four-year-old son. An aunt of his stated that his whole family is confused about the charges, and see him as a nice man. Martinez Torres was also said to be at a park with his mother just hours before the kidnapping of Nabra Hassanen.

​Outraged citizens have spoken up on social media about the death, arguing that it was a hate crime and cannot be justified as road rage because the teenagers were pedestrians. The incident also came at a similar time to a terrorist attack outside of a mosque in London, injuring 10 persons. One post on social media cites four different crimes from the past weekend, with the caption, “Hate has devastating consequences.”

Uber initiative aims to improve

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By GABRIELA SANTOS

After what seems like months of crises, Uber has implemented a program called “180 Days of Change.” It announced on Tuesday that the initiative is a pledge to make improvements over the next six months.

The first of those will be giving riders the option to tip drivers. This is something Uber has been adamant about not doing since it started the ride-sharing app. The roll out of this new system will begin Tuesday in Seattle, Minneapolis and Houston and expected to expand to all U.S. cities by the end of July.

Uber co-founder and chairman, Garrett Camp, spoke out about the company’s recent scandals and its contentious relationship with drivers, on Tuesday.

“A friend recently asked me, ‘What went wrong?’ and the answer is that we had not listened well enough to those who got us here … our team and especially our drivers,” wrote Camp in a Medium post titled “Uber’s path forward.”

Along with the new tipping feature, Uber will change it’s free-cancellation policy from five minutes to two. Many drivers had complained about the policy, citing that it was too lenient on riders and causes drivers to operate at a loss.

The story has been picked up by several tech sites like The Verge and TechCrunch, all of them speaking favorably about the new proposed changes. All outlets do seem to agree that this is a clear attempt at changing the current image of Uber, which has decreased in popularity due to its recent scandals.

I believe this is a good start for Uber, and hope that its “180 Days of Change” initiative really does change things for the better. Many people depend on the app for their livelihood, it’s about time that they recognize that.

Camp said that while all companies have growing pains, Uber’s were “much more serious” because of how fast the company grew. “We must update our core values, listen better to employees and riders, and prioritize our drivers,” he wrote in the Medium post.

Planets that may sustain life identified

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By NOELIA GRAHAM

NASA’s Kepler spacecraft has been able to locate 219 new planets outside our solar system.

Out of those located, 10 have the potential for hosting life, scientists announced Monday.

Kepler, which began its journey in 2009 by orbiting the sun, was tasked to find planets by looking for stars in the Cygnus constellation that dimmed.

Dimming occurs when a planet passes over the face of a star, however, some planet candidates identified by Kepler have turned out to be stars or other phenomena.

So, in order to be considered suitable for life, they await a rigorous confirmation process, which may eliminate some of the potential candidates.

However, since its beginnings, Kepler has located “2,335 confirmed planets orbiting a star other than the Sun – more than 80 percent of the total found by all the world’s observatories combined,” according to Traci Watson, reporter for USA Today.

The spacecraft won’t be there long though. Kepler suffered a mechanical failure back in 2013 that put a stop to its planet-finding mission, but it still continues to turn in and go over data.

Monday’s announcement at the NASA briefing when Kepler’s newest batch of information was divulged will probably be its last, according to scientists.

“Yeah, it feels a bit like the end of an era but, actually, I see it as a new beginning,” Susan Thompson, of the SETI Institute, said at a NASA briefing Monday. “It’s amazing the things Kepler has found … I’m really excited to see what people are going to do with this catalog.”

With space travel at its peak, the development of “candidate” planets that hold the environment for life is an exciting prospect.

Space exploration is more than just discovering new things, it’s about explaining things back home as well.

Student returned from North Korea dies

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By ALEJANDRO GRANDA

After returning from North Korea in a comatose stte, 22-year-old Otto Warmbier died Monday.

“Surrounded by his loving family, Otto died today at 2:20 p.m.,” said his parents, Fred and Cindy Warmbier.

Doctors at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center said he had extensive brain damage that has lasted longer than year and that he was in a state unresponsive wakefulness and wasn’t aware of his surroundings.

The family did not mention the cause of death.

Warmbier was arrested in Pyongyang in January 2016 while on a tourist trip to North Korea and was charged with committing a hostile act against the government. He had tried to steal a propaganda poster from a hotel hallway wall. He was convicted and sentenced to 15 years hard labor.

It is ludicrous that North Korea arrests, then tortures someone so harshly just for stealing a poster.

NBC News has done a great job reporting what has happened along with background information to support their report.

A huge part of Antarctica is melting

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By NEYDJA PETITHOMME

According to CNN, Antarctica has been experiencing unusual weather, which causes scientists questioning the icy continent and it existence in the near future.

On the west side of the icy continent called West Antarctic Ice sheet, scientists have found a 300,000-square mile portion of its perimeter melting.

“A melt of this magnitude is relatively rare in Antarctica,” said Julien Nicolas, one of the paper’s authors at the Ohio State University Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center. “There have been about three or four events of this size in the last 40 years.”

This is problematic, if the melted slush and water refreezes it can leak into cracks and damage the inner structure of the ice.

“When it comes to the disintegration of the ice shelves, they are like corks in a bottle,” said Dr. David Bromwich, another author of the paper and a professor at the Ohio State. “They are holding back the contents of the bottle, in this case the ice sheet, and you take the cork away and everything flows out to the ocean.”

Action must to be taken, if we plan to see dramatically results in the near future, from recycling the basis of bottles, to being cautious while paying close attention to our environment.

“We don’t know the time scale of this,” he said. “There was one modeling study that showed quite dramatic changes on the scale of a few hundred years, and another scenario would be quite a slow change. But a foot of sea rise, or two feet, in the order of 100 years would be alarming.”

We live in a selfish generation, where adults, including millennials, have taken earth for granted. Eventually, if we the people, allow ourselves to continue to treat the earth as trash, it will bite us back.

Karma …

Once the ice is in the ocean, Bromwich says, it could cause sea levels to rise dramatically and rapidly.

“Rapidly,” of course, means something completely different on a geological time scale.