Like a Skyscraper

I heard this song tonight on the radio while I was preparing some things for Thieu Nhi tomorrow.

This song is so beautiful, because I already had 9/11 in mind.

"You can take everything I have

You can break everything I am

Like I'm made of glass

Like I'm made of paper

Go on and tear me down

I will be rising from the ground

Like a skyscraper, like a skyscraper"

I stopped doing what I was doing and just sat in my chair and listened. It was the raspy voice that was full of heart and emotion that caught my attention. I didn't know who it was because I didn't know any pop stars who sang like that, except maybe Hayley Williams from Paramore, but it wasn't her voice. This type of voice fits Christian rock. But anyway a quick search on youtube found that it was Demi Lovato of Disney fame (probably in Miley's shadow). Anyway I've heard of before but never heard any of her songs before. Kudos to making a great song Demi. I'm sure you'll be making nice royalties as radio stations across the country play this song tomorrow (err today).

This song connected to me on so many levels. At the personal level it reminds me that there is a will of fire deep within us that no one can extinguish. It reminds me that hatred put towards us will not win. The ultimate victory is to rise above the hate and to love yourself and spread it. I believe this song is a great metaphor for the way our nation can rise above terrorism after ten years since 9/11. There is no victory in hate, there is only victory in love.

By the way, the victims of the war on terrorism are now triple the initial amount of 3,000 on the day of the attack. About 6,000 servicemen have died in Iraq and Afghanistan since then up until now. Let us pray for the souls of the departed, for peace and successful democracy in the two new nations, and for our soldiers to come home safely.

The answers to previous questions

If you haven't read the questions yet, scroll down!

Answers:

1) Acceleration is constant and the same on both divers, so the difference in velocity will remain the same. Remember acceleration acts linear to the velocity, but square of the distance. Just because they stay the same speed apart(0 mph and 10 mph or 20 and 30) does not mean the same for distance. The first guy will keep increasing his distance away from the second guy, until they both get to terminal velocity (which I heard is around 120 mph for human bodies). At that point the distance will remain the same.

Which is why this is bullshit: Not only does the plane fall first, it has propellers thrusting it downward -_-

2) HIV destroys your immune system and turns you into a horror movie victim: A sick little girl touching you can kill you. As Jon says it is indeed the nut tap that leaves you open for the stunner.

3) Vianney is right, molecular movement versus intermolecular forces.

The equation for free energy is G=H - TS. At T of 0 degrees Celsius, the S (entropy/random movement) will overcome the H (enthalpy/intermolecular forces)

Basically, particles will always want to be spread out, but the strong bonds must be broken first, which requires heat. That's why it takes so long to boil water in a pot.

4) Carbon has alot of geometries: tetrahedral, double bond, triple bounds etc. The fact that carbon molecules always binds to four other things (whereas oxygen usually only binds to two, and hydrogen to one) makes carbon have unlimited types of compounds.

For example, here is one of carbon's compounds. This is methane gas (CH4). This is what comes out of your butt and stinks up a room.

5) Males can lactate if they have the same hormones as a women who just gave birth: Oxytocin and prolactin. This only happens if the man is hormonally unbalanced or is under the control of mad scientists.

In their secret underground lab, threatening test victims through their cage windows:

"You vill lactate, or ve vill shoot you. You understant? Very goot."

"Wid dis male milk ve shall create de fourth Reich! Heil to the Khoas!"

6) You wouldn't believe it unless you did it yourself. The balloon goes in the same direction as the car. Helium is lighter than normal air particles. So when the car accelerates the balloon wants to go back too, but the heavier surrounding air starts to push back on the balloon so that it goes forward:

7) You need energy (ATP) to allow muscles fibers to unbind from each other. Also probably explains zombie erections (nice observation Jon)

8) I meant to ask why do people tell you to stay out of the water for 30 minutes. Even going into cold water without physical swimming will make your body go out of normal homeostasis, which is enough to switch your body from parasympathetic (rest and digest) to sympathetic (fight or flight). And indigestion doesn't feel good.

9) Vianney is correct. Melatonin absorbs harmful radiation. Some people get tanned in the sun (because they have melatonin) and others get burned (because of lack of melatonin).

10) The bald gene travels on the X chromosome, not the Y. As you know a woman is XX and a man is XY. A bald woman has to get both bald chromosomes through her mom and dad. So that's why bald women are so rare. Men only need one bad X chromosome, from his mother.

Normally a woman who has a bald father already has doomed half of her sons to being bald. But that same woman who has children with a bald man has committed an egregious sin against nature: half of her daughters will be bald. Beware of bald men Ceci! lol

11) Batteries are endothermic. Which means as you run a battery through a flashlight, the batteries will become colder. You probably don't feel it though, because it takes a long time to discharge. But the reverse holds true: recharging a battery is exothermic. Your airsoft battery will be warm after being re-charged.

Therefore it goes like this

Reactants --------> Products

Heat + more charge ---> less charge

According to the laws of equilibrium, if you take away one of the reactants the products will change into the reactants to reach equilibrium again.

So if you put your batteries in the fridge, the heat is taken away and the reaction will shift to the left towards reactants (more charge). They will have (slightly) more energy than when you bought them from the store. Hax!

12) HCG (human chorionic gonadotropin). HCG is made by the embryo/fetus. This is necessary in pregnancy because females would stop making estrogen and progesterone some time after ovulation, and that causes their period. HCG keeps hormone levels high and also prevents additional ovulation. It's similar to birth control pills. HCG tells your body to make estrogen, while birth control is estrogen. Constant high levels prevents ovulation cycles.

So if a girl never PMSes she might be either pregnant or on birth control! :-)

Bored?

Don't forget to check out Team BiA at Tac City at BiA's very own youtube channel,

http://www.youtube.com/user/EeeytProductions

Jersey's anyone?
-j.Frosty

My vision for this blog two years ago

Well let's start with the basics. Even before the blog, how was BiA created? I think Jon created an email group called Ballers/brothers in arms. We didn't decide what the B word was yet. And then we added "to cook huevos" so that it would be "biatch". I'm not sure how old we are exactly, but I know that we existed before April 2009. Because in April 2009, our An Phong doan camp had Vianney use our group name in his skit. So that's how we started.

How did the blog get started? I got the idea from my work at UCLA. There was a community blogspot for the computer lab workers who would post stories about utterly stupid users or douchebags or just people who would rage in the lab. Basically it was a way for us to vent and to entertain each other. After I left school, I missed that type of community and so I decided to start our blog in November of 2009. But we didn't really start blogging until January 2010. By February 2010 we exploded in usage because of our fun rivalry with Paper Planes. In fact, our high point was Feb 2009, with 45 posts for 28 days of February. That month was the only one to have Joe grace us with his blogging presence lol. The quantity has gone down, but the quality has gotten much better.

We all have a unique way of posting. Two years ago I thought I could bring traffic through entertainment via movie/food reviews and funny material. As time went on, I appreciate how Vianney and Vincent blogged about their emotions and beliefs, and I have heavily integrated that into my posts. I have also seen the value of Jon posting about what he did on a certain weekend. Although initially it may seem unnecessary to post about the present time, these tidbits are priceless when you read them years later. It brings back a smile when I read over the memories. I will also begin to do these summaries once in awhile. I miss Lisa's questions, which always got many comments and answers. In honor of Lisa's style, and my finishing my MCAT test, I will post a few fun science questions at the end of this post.

Anyway, the thing I wanted to say is that you don't have to be a writer or comedian to post on a blog. You just write about what you thought of today. This could be a dirty joke you heard, a crush on a celebrity or anime character (tentacle monsters anyone?), a picture of a dress that you thought was pretty, a story about politics that affected you, a funny youtube video, an experience with faith that fulfills you, or a racist/sexist joke (although we all know we aren't bias... right? lol). Whatever you want to post is good, because that fact that you wanted to post makes it a good post.

I told Jon that I've evolved from posting funny things to trying to show my personality through these posts. I'm certain that if I was to die tomorrow, my personality would be 75% captured in these posts. My views of politics, religion, morality, fighting and forgiving, humor, being a cheap basard, and yes racism (who isn't a little racist? come on) have been exposed on this site. The other 25% would be exposed through playing basketball with me: I don't like the spotlight, I can have confidence issues, as assist is worth as much as myself scoring (but insane assists are more beautiful than insane shots), and I like winning but relationships come before personal pride.

I would love to know what goes through the minds of the people in our group. As humans we are all the same: the thing that interests us most is other people. How we approach that can be different. Some people like to focus on gossip within their small network. Others like to read the newspaper and learn about whats happening in the world. I like both. This is why I read CNN and watch Jersey Shore. I hang out at the top and bottom of the TV IQ scale because that's the range that everyone needs to be at. It's all about understanding people. At the micro level and at the macro level, we need to strive to understand those that are different from us. And even if we can't agree, we need to understand why we think differently.

What better way to understand a person than through their blog? Even in a one on one conversation, you only talk about things you have in common or the issue at hand. A blog lets you see the side of a person that's under the surface. If people post about their dreams and inspirations, it helps me find out a little more about them. For example, I liked reading Nhi's posts back when she had a blog because it helped inspire my faith. I like looking at Judy's tumbler because it tells me the things that she likes, otherwise I can only guess.

The point is that my vision for the blog is to let all of us show our personality through. We're all equal yet unique, so why not let yourself shine? Our greatest asset is our variety of posters. Our downside is that only two people post consistently -_- If we all each posted only twice a month, we'd have four posts a week! (also, if you pay five cents a day, you can feed a hungry child in Africa) "oh hoh hoh yess!"

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Anyway, here are the questions I promised. I've made them fun by relating them to everyday life, and there's no math involved. Answer them in the comments, and I'll reveal the answers after a few days.

1) Two people are skydiving. One person jumps out of an airplane, and the other person jumps out a few seconds later. They are initially thirty feet apart. What happens to the distance between them as time passes?

2) How does HIV kill a person?

3) We know that water starts to melt at 32 Fahrenheit or 0 Celsius. What are the two things that compete against each other that makes water change phase from solid to liquid at this temperature?

4) Why is carbon considered the basic block of life?

5) Can males lactate?

6) A helium filled balloon is in a car. The windows are rolled up. The car accelerates quickly. What direction does the balloon go, forward or backward?

7) When a person dies, why do their muscles get stuck in a rigid position? aka rigor mortis?

8) Why is it advised for you to not go swimming until after thirty minutes of eating?

9) Why are white people more likely to get sunburned?

10) A husband is bald. A wife is not bald but had a father who was bald. What are the chances that their children will be bald?

11) Why do some people store their batteries in a refrigerator?

12) When a woman takes a pregnancy test, what "thing" in the urine tells you that you're pregnant?

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I hope you had as much fun pondering these questions as I did writing them!

Lost?

A little guide for Rowland.



Colima has it all!
-J.Frosty