Monday, March 28, 2011

Season Sports

We are a couple days from the so desired opening day of the Major League Baseball. It's crazy how people are so anxious for this coming season. Fantasy line-ups, new strategies and lots of things that come before this great day for those who love Baseball.

The pre-season at the warm south has shown what each team has to offer. Lots of new players have shown their qualities and some old dogs keep showing they rule this game.

Its very curious to me how sports here are played just for couple months. The reason for this is obvious, and this makes every single sport gain even more attention. Football lovers can now watch some basketball or some baseball too. Back home we just play all year long, and basically thats what happens all over the world. 

Edgar Renteria Edgar Renteria #16 of the San Francisco Giants poses during photo day at Scottsdale Stadium on February 23, 2009 in Scottsdale, Arizona.  (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Edgar RenteriaFor example, soccer is played almost the 11 months per year, whether it is on Europe, South America or Africa. Any way I think that this idea of selecting which sport plays on which month also helps advertising to focus even further. Since companies have only one or two sports to sponsor, they can use more time to be as efficient as possible with their messages to the customer and providing outstanding jobs.

For this season I hope another Colombian makes a great performance like Edgar Renteria did last year, not only winning the World Series with the Giants, but being the World Series MVP. 



Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Positive or Negative Negotiation?

This idea has created lots of controversy. Some critics say that this alliance will create a great coverage taking away those old problems of loosing bar signal all the time. Also their spectrum will increase massively making internet faster, more applications and better devices. Also another thing that was said by the pro side was that prices will decrease. Now that they have a greater capital and become more efficient they will start cutting down some prices.

The wireless world has been shocked by the proposal of AT&T. They want to keep expanding and their new target is T-Mobile, the price, 39 billion dollars. One if their eternal rivals has now become the best opportunity to increase their spectrum.


On the other hand, some people are afraid of a monopoly from AT&T. This monopoly could skyrocket prices since they will keep on growing and control the whole wireless industry. After buying T-Mobile they could keep on buying smaller companies looking for personal benefits. Another negative aspect was that the customer services. The New York Times says it will not increase. "Bigger is not Better". These two companies are the top worst of customer satisfaction....

I hope this negotiation brings lots of benefits to everyone. I'm currently a user of iWireless which is an affiliate of T-Mobile. I hope that the benefits are also seen be their affiliates.





http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1YUa0I71sk&feature=player_embedded

http://blogs.computerworld.com/18000/at_t_buys_t_mobile_usa_monopoly_merger_mania?ue

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

A Valuable Lesson


After the massive destruction of the tsunami in Japan last Sunday,  the wave of bad luck keeps covering Japan. They are fasing a huge dilemma concerning the nuclear plant of Fukushima Dai-Ichi.

An explosion at the power station destroyed a building housing the reactor, this created a radiation leak. The reactor's cooling system was damaged in the earthquake, but when water was poured on the superheated metal container of the fuel rods, it produced hydrogen which then interacted with the oxygen outside the reactor, causing an explosion. Luckily, the explosion seems not to have damaged the reactor, but only the building surrounding it.
We have a very important nuclear plant near our current location. The nuclear power plant at Palo, IA should really take on account all this problems that could happen from a possible meltdown. Having this type of plant requires lots of responsibilities with the community. The plant at Palo should take note of this unfortunate disaster and learn from these mistakes.  



Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Bad Weather for Lent



This Ash Wednesday comes with severe weather conditions. Iowa is going to face some snow storms and windy conditions. The temperature has dropped quite a bit also. It's sad that this significant day for us Catholics faces these severe conditions. This weather could create some difficulties when meeting with some family members or going to Church for mass and getting the ash.
 
But definitely the worst part of this severe weather condition is going to be suffered by the Mardi Gras celebrations. Severe thunderstorms and tornadoes hit near New Orleans overnight, putting a damper on Mardi Gras just in time for the solemnity of Lent. There are more than 10,000 power outages in New Orleans.
Other states are being affected by the weather too, like Mississippi, Alabama and Florida.
Farther north, the Midwest can expect more rain and snow, adding to between six and 12 inches of snow around the Great Lakes.

Hope this weather changes soon....

Monday, February 28, 2011

The Big Winner of the Oscars

This last weekend was celebrated the 83th edition of the Oscars. The British film “The King’s Speech” was the King of the night nominated to twelve academy awards and winning four of them including Best Lead actor (Colin Firth), Best Film, Best Director (Tom Hooper) and best original Screenplay (David Seidler).
Firth plays King George VI, who, to overcome his stutter, is introduced to Lionel Logue, an unorthodox speech therapist played by Geoffrey Rush. The two men become friends as they work together, and after his brother abdicates, the new king relies on Logue to help him make a radio broadcast at the beginning of World War II.
One of the most amazing things of this film is that it has just been in Australia on December 23, 2010 and The United Kingdom on January 7, 2011. This historical film seemed to gain a lot of popularity and amazed with its scenes, characters, script and plot. It seems that they only needed these two places to become the most awarded movie of the night. After them came “Social Network” which has the favorite to get all of its nominations. Although they shined at the Golden Globe, this was not their night.   




Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Young Athletes On The Command

Trevor Bayne became the youngest driver to win the Daytona 500. This historic race gives great stories after every single edition. Now we have the youngest winner with just 20 years old. Bayne was born in Knoxville, Tennessee in February 1991. He currently resides in Mooresville, North Carolina.

Bayne has placed a new record not only in NASCAR’s history but in the world of sports. Young athletes breaking amazing records for their age has become into a new tendency in every sport around the world. Nowadays athletes are becoming professional in their respective sport younger and younger. For example, the latest Formula One world Champion Sebastian Vettel is just 23 years old. Other sports such as Soccer, Basketball and Volleyball have tons of records of youngsters of even 16 years old.

These events make us aware of the new tendency of younger champions. This is also why famous brands like Nike or Adidas and also the respective professional teams are searching and developing young athletes. Massive profits for longer time. Just look Lebron James’s Nike story.      

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

"Kill Switch" Internet Bill against terrorist attacks

A new internet bill has been proposed to give the government control over the internet. This "Kill Switch" bill has brought up because of the recent situation Egypt experienced. The Egyptian government turned off their internet to prevent communications through this media.


This has created a huge debate in the U.S because people don't agree with the fact that the government is going to increase, even more their power and control. But in the other hand this could save millions of life’s and also millions of dollars. If the "Kill Switch" prevents a terrorist attack without a doubt people will feel pleased and protected.

"This is all about control, an attempt to control every aspect of our existence," says Christopher Feudo, a cyber security expert who is chairman of Security Fusion Solutions. "I consider it an attack on our personal right of free speech. Look what recently occurred in Egypt."

How good would it be to include this bill? Could the Cyberspace become into National Asset legislation? I personally think that if this becomes official it is not going to be as easy as in Egypt. Over there they had to deal with a couple internet providers, here there are hundreds of them