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Where to Buy Concert Tickets

March 20, 2011 by Leave a Comment

It is important to do your research before buying concert tickets. While concert ticket sales as a whole are down from past years, that doesn’t mean the seats you desire are readily available. The most popular concerts are still filling up, especially the best seats down front. There are many after market ticket agencies out there looking to sell you concert tickets for mark-ups of up to hundred of dollars. Do yourself a favor and make sure your due diligence is done before you go purchasing tickets at a serious price hike. Here are the places to go for concert tickets.

1.) Ticketmaster- Unfortunately, this company i still getting the majority of tickets to the majority of concerts out there so you best learn their system if you want good seats at an affordable price. Most concerts will go on sale at 10am and often on a Saturday morning. What you’ll want to do is settle in at your computer a few minutes before ticket go on sale. Have all your account information set up so you don’t waste valuable time filling it in after you claim your tickets. If you aren’t able to complete these forms in time then the tickets you claimed are returned to the general public. Refresh your page right as the tickets go on sale and once inside the ticket area, make you you are choosing the right pair before committing.

2.) eBay- eBay is a fair second choice if you missed out with Ticketmaster. However, do not pay $399 for some buy it now auction. The tickets are most likely overpriced. Instead, look for no reserve auctions where you can grab tickets for a reasonable price.

It’s easy to overpay for tickets if you know what you’re doing. Follow this tips for successful ticket buying.

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Steroids In Major League Baseball

February 16, 2011 by Leave a Comment

By now, most people know that baseball players were taking more than vitamins during from at least the 1980′s until about 2002. As the 1970′s turned into the early 1980′s, the prototypical baseball player was still lean, usually sporting a mustache for facial hair. As the decade went on, baseball players started to resemble professional wrestlers will large bloated biceps and tree trunk like legs. The homeruns started flying out of ball fields reaching distances never before accomplished in baseball history. Players like Joe Canseco and Mark McGwire were ushering in a new brand of baseball. An artificial era of sorts that resulting in feats challenging the all-time records in baseball history.

In 1998, Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa engaged in a homerun chase for the ages. The giant sluggers chased each other all summer trading homer for homer. It seemed the entire country was swept up in the magic of the chase and it as partly responsibl for revitalizing baseball after a lockout had turned many fans away. However, the old saying if its too good to be true then it probably is held true in hindsight. Both players were accused of taking steroids and the entire race is held as somewhat of a farce.

Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens were the final nail in the coffin for MLB steroid use. Regarded as two of the greatest players in the history of the game, both men have been accused of taking steroids for at least a portion of their career. The allegations damaged the credibility of the game and each player is due to stand trial on perjury charges. The worst part for these players is it is very likely they played a majority of their hall of fame careers while not on steroids. However, their decision to conclude their careers with performance enhancing drugs has likely tarnished their legacies forever.

It is likely that none of these players will enter the hall of fame as a result of their steroid use and the bias against users by baseball writers.

Filed Under: Chemistry, General Tagged With: , ,

Education Is the Key to Preventing the Spread of HIV

December 6, 2010 by Leave a Comment
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I know that it’s the holiday season and most people would prefer to think about what types of gifts to buy their loved ones, but it is important to remember that the world’s biggest issues don’t disappear just because we want to focus on having a good time. I recently learned that there are about 2.1 million children in the world with HIV. Most of them get the disease directly from their mothers, either during labor, delivery, pregnancy or even breastfeeding.

The problem is most pressing in East Africa, where the first cases of pediatric HIV were discovered. The thing that disturbs me most about the high number children with HIV is how easy it is for people to avoid the disease all together. Unfortunately, a lot of people still don’t understand what this disease is or how it is spread.

For instance, some men in East Africa believe that they can cure themselves of HIV by having intercourse with a virgin. That’s an astoundingly destructive belief with no basis in reality. The result of such damaging beliefs, though, is that more and more young women in Africa get HIV, which they then pass on to their children.

Good HIV education needs to focus on some serious topics that should concern all of us. First off, we have to stop listening to authority figures claiming that condoms are bad. Such a position puts innocent people in jeopardy every day. Second, we have to get rid of the ridiculous belief that only homosexual people get HIV. Right now, heterosexual black women are at the greatest risk of getting HIV, so stereotyping homosexuals is not going to do anything but put people in harm’s way.

(Oh, and for the record, I’d like some new Dereon jeans this year for Christmas. OK? Thanks!)

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Tactitle Information May Be Easier for Blind People to Learn

November 18, 2010 by Leave a Comment

If you’ve ever known anyone with some type of disability, whether it was hearing loss, blindness, or another sensory disability, you may have noticed the way the body compensates. For example, a person who can’t see may have improved hearing over those who can both see and hear. According to a study in the Journal of Neuroscience, blindness may improve a person’s ability to understand and process tactile information.

Dr. Daniel Goldreich with McMaster University led the research team to specifically evaluate whether a person with a sensory disability would be able to process the tactile sense faster. One of the challenges to performing such a study is the brain’s ability to register sensations, such as touch or sight. The brain is capable of doing this within a fraction of a second in most individuals.

According to the study results, the team was able to confirm that the body will compensate for blindness with an increased sense of touch. To test this, the team studied 89 people with sight and 57 people with blindness of some type. The blind group had members of varying sight levels.

One of the areas for the study revolved around the concept of masking, which is where the body may miss or misunderstand a sensation when it comes back to back on another one. Participants were asked to detect a tap on their index finger and discern the intensity of the tap. If a longer tap immediately followed a small tap, the first sensation masked the second one more often in the individuals with sight than with the individuals who had vision impairment.

The people who performed the best throughout the study were the 22 participants who had complete vision loss since birth. Their tactile sense even surpassed those who had lost their eye sight later in life. As a result of the study, Goldreich’s team hypothesizes that multiple senses can delay the brain’s ability to process back-to-back sensations.

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Quantum AetherDynamics Institute Releases Linus Pauling Periodic Table

November 15, 2010 by Leave a Comment
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In October 2010, the Quantum AetherDynamic Institute debuted two periodic tables based on research from David Thomson, a science author. The tables combine equations that quantify the nuclear and electron structures of atoms. You can find them under the names of the Pauling Spheron Periodic Table and the Vajra Periodic Table.

Thomson based his work on previous research, and he gives credit to Fernando Dufour for creating a 3D model of the electron periodic table. Thomson took this model and divided it into two structures to focus the table on an atom’s electron structure. When he did this, Thomson noticed the design was similar to the ancient Vajra symbol, which is part of the Buddhist tantra.

The Pauling Spheron Periodic Table credits Linus Pauling, who identified a spheron as early as 1970s. While people often mistake this term to mean spherical in shape, this is not how Pauling used it. Spheron refers to the idea that an atom’s nucleus may contain clusters. These clusters can occur when smaller elements nest inside larger ones. For example, uranium may have a cluster of helium inside its nucleus.

Clustering, or the spheron structure of an element, determines what a nucleus might release as it decays. In the case of uranium, the stable nucleus of the helium element would release as the outer shell of uranium decayed. The more closely certain elements bond, the more likely they are to cluster together. One can consider the bonding properties of oxygen and helium to understand this better.

Because Pauling’s idea varies radically from a traditional periodic table, Thomson created an updated model that takes into consideration the spheron of elements, which he calls spin geometry. The Pauling table also utilizes the “magic numbers” for each nucleus, as determined by Pauling.

The periodic tables are available in wall charts for teachers wanting to display them in classrooms.

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How to Lead a Healthier Lifestyle

October 18, 2010 by Leave a Comment
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The word healthy can intimidate you even if you have a free prescription discount card. In addition to a proper healthcare plan, you can use several disease prevention methods. There are simple steps that you can take to be healthier and add this aspect into your family’s life. This can be a big adjustment at first, but it can also turn into a habit that will positively affect your health.

Find exercise that you enjoy. This could be a video game designed around keeping the players active. You can also go on walks or just use a trampoline. Exercise doesn’t have to be something that you dread. You can get the whole family into an exercise routine to promote good health.

Get all of the vitamins that you need. This is part of a balanced diet and can help prevent disease. Really examine the foods that you regularly eat to find out about the vitamins that you might be lacking. You can get a lot of these items by eating more fruits and vegetables or taking supplements.

Set goals to eliminate habits. This could be to stop smoking or lose weight. Really analyze what has stopped your success in the past and develop a plan to break through it. You can lose weight at a steady pace instead of trying to lose drastic amounts at once.

Change the way that you cook. Your kids might whine about this at first but you can still eat a lot of the foods that your family loves. Just substitute lower fat cheeses or use honey instead of sugar. Experiment with vegetable dishes beyond a basic salad to make meal time interesting. Get your kids to help with planning meals. You can even start a vegetable garden to teach your kids about eating healthy.

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Christmas is Coming

September 25, 2010 by Leave a Comment

It”an amazing phenomenon really. You know, the one that happens down the isle of your local department store mid-August. The one that occurs as soon as the school supplies are swept away. We’re not even referring to the Halloween haunts that eerily drape the forbidden shelves of the candy isle. It’s the dawning of the silver bells and mistletoe. The red and green mayhem that consumes our thoughts and our pocketbook come early September. Christmas is coming!

And with that realization comes the panic and pressure to purchase the most original, creative, and cost effective gimmicks on the market for our dear ones. This Christmas season, some of the top selling toys for children include an Art table, Leapster Game System, Metal Detector, Barrel of Crafts, Money Savvy Piggy Bank, Quirkle (a board game), and a good old-fashioned Science Kit.

The stand out here on this list is that of the Science Kit. Science kits can fit the age and interest level of all children. Whether boy or girl, you can get hands-on science experience with kits for rocks and minerals, nature exploration, crystal growing, microchemistry, and even perfume making.

A science kit is actually the gift that keeps on giving. Not only does your child get the excitement of opening the package that is so meticulously wrapped in ribbons and bows, but they also get to experience new excitement each time they create with their kit. Whether they watch the intricate life cycle of a butterfly in a Butterfly Garden kit, extract DNA from fruit with a ScienceWiz DNA kit, or explore the fascinating diversity of bacteria with a Bacteria Experiment Kit, children will want to interact with their science kit daily.

So go ahead, meet the bell ringers and ostentatious gift displays head on. Face Christmas and enjoy it. This year, give your children the gift of science. They’re sure to enjoy into the New Year, and so will you.

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The Science of Candy

September 22, 2010 by Leave a Comment
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Take a moment if you will and indulge yourself. Close your eyes and think back to the time of childhood when you could walk into the nearest candy store and ogle at the walls draped in candy buttons. When everything in life was made better with one lick of a gigantic, multi-colored lollipop, and when a dime could actually buy you ten pieces of candy confection.

As you were gazing into glass of the candy counter, what was the first thing that came to your mind? Bliss. Euphoria. Happy-happy thoughts. Surely, it was not science! Can you imagine? But that’s exactly what candy is.

Candy is chemistry, transforming matter from one state to another.

Most candy starts out as sugar, AKA sucrose. Sucrose is a molecule made up of 12 atoms of carbon, 22 atoms of hydrogen, and 11 atoms of oxygen. When you add water to sugar, the sugar crystals dissolve and the sugar becomes a solution. When you make a batch of candy, you melt water, sugar and other ingredients at high temperatures.

There are different stages at which candy starts to form. The soft-ball stage means that when the sugar syrup is dropped into cold water, it will form a soft flexible ball. Soft-ball stage makes candies such as fudge, fondant and pralines.

The “firm-ball stage” occurs when candy is heated to a temperature between 245 and 250 degrees Fahrenheit. When you drop a little syrup in cold water, it will form a firm-ball. The most popular “firm-ball stage” candy is caramel.

The “hard-ball stage is reached between 250 to 265 degrees Fahrenheit. At this point there is little water and a high concentration of sugar in the syrup. When the syrup is dropped into water it will form a hard ball. This candy includes many favorites, such as gummies, taffies, and rock candy.

In addition there is soft-crack and hart-crack stages. These are the hardest of candies; which include toffee, lollipops and hard candies.

Whatever the stage, candy is good. And you can bet you may never think of it in the same way again.

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A Nobel Honor

September 16, 2010 by Leave a Comment

Originating in Sweden, Nobel Prizes are international awards in recognition of scientific and cultural achievements.

Alfred Nobel, a chemist, engineer, and inventor, established the awards in 1859. In 1901 prizes in Literature, Peace, Chemistry Physics and Medicine were first awarded.

The process in which recipients are chosen is intricate and lengthy.

Nominations are sent by the Nobel Committee to about 3000 individuals. These are mostly individuals who are working in a field relevant to the five areas of prizes. Through a tedious process, the nominees are narrowed down to about 300.

The selection committee then narrows the list even further and submits a list of preliminary candidates to the prize-awarding institutions. At that point, the institutions meet to choose the winner or winners in each field by a majority vote.

The recipient is then announced and is awarded a sum of money, a diploma, and a gold medal.

The entire selection process takes over one year to complete.

Since the beginning of the awards, only four people have been known to receive two Nobel Prizes.

Maria Sklodwaska-Curie was the first to receive two Prizes.

She first won the award in Physics in 1903 for her discovery of radioactivity.  Later, in 1911, she received the award in Chemistry for her segregation of pure radium.

John Bardeen was the two-time winner of the Noble Prize in Physics. His first win came in 1956 for his invention of a transistor, and the second in 1972 for his “theory of superconductivity.”

In 1958, Frederick Sanger received the first of his Nobel Prizes in Chemistry for “determining the structure of the insulin molecule.” Later in 1980 his recognition was for the invention of how to determine base sequences in DNA.

Linus Pauling was among this elite group of individuals. In 1954, Pauling received the Chemistry Award for his research on the chemical bond. He again won in 1962 for his anti-nuclear activism, where he received the Peace Prize. The achievement of this second award made him the only winner of two unshared prizes.

What a “Nobel Honor” honor it is to have your name and accomplishments recognized by group of colleagues and peers.

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