Super Bowl Outage

During the excitement and rush of 3rd quarter, the escalators and credit card machines spontaneously shut down, the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans had a power surge, resulting in a loss of power in the Superdome. At least half, if not more, of the lights shut off after Beyonce's electrifying half-time performance. Her show was almost epileptic to those who don't even have epilepsy, and the over-usage of lights made many believe it caused a power surge (dang it Beyonce, this is why we can't have nice things) resulting in a power outage. The outage lasted for a total of 34 minutes before the maintenance room switched back on the power in the 3rd quarter. The 73,000-seat dome went out with 13:22 remaining in the third quarter on Sunday night. 

According to a report by Sports Illustrated, the outage was due to an "abnormality" in the power supply system that set off an automatic shutdown, which forced backup systems to start up." To go more into detail, the power company, SMG and Entergy New Orleans, power supplier to the Super Bowl, released a statement saying "A piece of equipment that is designed to monitor electrical load sensed an abnormality in the system," the statement said. "Once the issue was detected, the sensing equipment operated as designed and opened a breaker, causing power to be partially cut to the Superdome in order to isolate the issue. "

The worst part for New Orleans is that the outage may have affected their chances for holding future Super Bowls at the Superdome. New Orleans was looking forward to hosting its first Super Bowl since 2002 and was eager to show off how the city has rebuilt since Hurricane Katrina.

However, just like any other unexpected event, people responded with conspiracies. Possible theories include:

•       The 49'ers cut the power when they were getting trampled in the first half.
•       49'ers coach Jim Harbaugh cut the power when losing.
•       Beyonce's performance caused a power surge.
•       A booker who bet in Las Vegas was at the Superdome and cut the power when he realized  he wasn't going to win his bet.
•       Terrorism (obviously ruled out by the FBI).

Still many fans didn't care, yet a few fans were scared. "I started thinking it was a terrorist attack. I was a little nervous!" said Doug Cook, a Ravens fan. The football fans in the dome passed the time by refilling their beers, doing the waves, and being humorous. Pictures and tweets bombarded Twitter including some tweets saying "They didn't pay the light bill," or "Maybe this is Sean Payton calling in for the outage, Bountygate, part two."

After 34 minutes, the power returned, and with it, so did the 49'ers encouragement. Scoring 2 touchdowns in 2 minutes and almost going for a 3rd, many people were stunned, and many 49'ers fans betting with their Ravens friends became happy. While screams heard 'round Baltimore continued with a few minutes left, Kaepernick decided to throw the ball three times instead of rushing. Kaepernick, with an average rushing yardage of 8 yards, didn't rush when there were 5 more yards to go, and alas, no touchdown, giving the Ravens the win, 34-31.

Year of the Phablet?

That's right. A phablet. I'm sure many of you haven't heard of it. It's also called a phonelet, a tweener, or super smartphone. It's a combination of a phone and a tablet, and people say this will make both obsolete. Tablets and smartphones are relatively new, and yet they're already obsolescent. How can this be?

 The first ever phablet was the Dell Streak, but wasn't acknowledged until 2010. The Samsung came out with the Samsung Galaxy Note, a surprising success. Companies that produce phones and tablets like Apple or Samsung believe this will be a cooperate-smashing success. 2013 will be the year of the phablet, no doubt. Others believe its pointless due to the fact that it's too small to fit in your pocket, like a smartphone, or too small to be a tablet, like an iPad. Companies who are looking into making these phablets say that the screen size could be up to 5 in. or more.

However ridiculous or astounding these may turn out to be, they may actually have a good room for marketing. According to a Barclays study and report, "The market for phablets will quadruple in value to $135 billion dollars. Shipments of gadgets that are 5 inches or bigger in screen size will surge by nearly nine-fold to $228 million dollars during the same period, though estimates vary because no one can agree on where smartphones stop and where phablets begin."

There's no way that phablets can take over the dominated world run by smartphones, right? Or, if they end up actually taking over the world, there's no way it can happen soon, right? Wrong. In a Yahoo! poll of 5,000 people, more than half of the people voted for the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 than the recent iPhone 5. It's hard to deny that phablets have already started their domination.

Are you in love with the phablet? Are you in love with your hard earned money? Well, you'll have to make a decision. A good phablet runs for just over $300. Some good ones are under $300. Bad for consumers, great for companies. Samsung's fourth quarter profit was a whopping $8.1 billion dollars. How? It sold 500 cell phones, tablets, and phablets every minute. Samsung and its phones and phablets are starting to dominate the market. The iPhone 5 from Apple Inc. was the only phone released from Apple, with the usual features and just a bigger screen. meanwhile, Samsung was having tons of fun bombarding the market with 37 variants of phones or phablets. 

Samung's other bestseller, The Samsung Galaxy S3, is also considered to be a phablet by some. When the iPhone 4S was released against Samsung's Galaxy S3, the fourth quarter market shows that the Galaxy S3 won that battle. The Samsung S series is expected to revamped the S3 to be released during the first quarter.

So is this really the Year of the Phablet? Are we going to be dominated by larger screens? The market for phablets is starting to grow as all the other phone companies rush to produce their own phablets to try to increase their profit.

Black Hole Discovered

Exciting news from the world of astronomy. This Wednesday evening, a new black hole was discovered by a team of scientists at the University of Texas's MacDonald Observatory. The galaxy the black hole has been discovered in has been dubbed NGC 1277, and the shear mass of this black hole is astounding. The black hole, scientists discovered, is about 17 billion times the size of the sun, and makes up about 14 percent of its host galaxy's mass, compared with the 0.1 percent a normal black hole would represent. But the black hole wasn't just discovered. Remco van den Bosch, the study's lead author, says that he and his team of scientists took a year to double-check and submit their research paper before releasing it to the public on Wednesday. The size of it is no laughing matter either. A comparison of the size of the galaxy and a revolution of Earth around the Sun can be found here at: 

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/images/black-hole-most-massive-ill.jpg 

The location of the supermassive black hole is 220 million light-years away in the constellation Perseus, so we won't have to worry about getting sucked away in a black hole. According to Karl Gebhardt of the University of Texas, the galaxy is almost all black hole. 

Previously, the galaxy NGC 4486B was found to have the most massive black hole at 11 percent of its mass.

Now, more about the galaxy. NGC 1277 is a lenticular galaxy, giving it the same spiral as the Milky Way’s spiral but without the tail on the end. Gebhardt and his team of scientists estimate that "the stars located in the galaxy would be moving 10 times faster (218 miles a second) than in other comparable galaxies due to the immense size of the black hole, and that near the event horizon — the edge of the black hole where nothing can escape its pull — some stars could be ripped apart." The youngest stars in the galaxy are 8 billion years old. That's twice the age of our own Sun.

Sounds serious. But wait. There's more.


A “Massive Galaxy Survey” is being conducted, and the survey includes 700 nearby galaxies with masses that weigh in on the extreme. Even though there are around 100 galaxies still left to go, they observed NGC 1277 and “five other compact galaxies,” all of which could also have “over-massive” black holes. So instead of dealing with one, there could potentially be five.

Scientists are trying to find the biggest black hole in the entire universe. So far, this one appears to be the winner, considering the closet competitor is in the galaxy NGC 1186B. The black hole located there takes up 11% of the central mass.

Now, you may be thinking, "How is this all possible?" Scientists at the University of Texas use an astronomical instrument called the Hobby-Eberly Telescope, which measures the amount of light coming from the galaxies they're measuring.

We're safe. For now.

If you'd like more information on the black holes that the MacDonald Observatory in the University of Texas has documented a list at http://blackholes.stardate.org.

Hurricane Sandy's Wrath and Aftermath Report

Hurricane Sandy blew through New England this week, causing billions in damage in all of New England. The states affected include New England to Ohio and West Virginia. The storm surge in New York City broke records with a 14 foot storm surge and caused more damage in NYC than Hurrican Katrina did in 2004. The hurricane caused millions without power over the course of Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Connecticut had 615,000 power outages total. NYC had a number so far in the millions, it wasn't officially mesured. The entire Lower side of Manhattan was shut down from power, and the subway system is forecasted to be closed for 2 weeks do to water in the system. A fire broke out in a section of NYC due to the storm's wrath. burning down housing complexes and buildings. Also in NYC, a crane snapped on top of a 43 foot tall skyscraper and dangled high above the New York streets. Thousands of people had helped out everyone including the hardworking owner of Uncle Paul's Pizza, who made 1,000 pizzas with his 4 other workers over the course of 32 hours. They delivered to people without power, and also had in-store pickup. Sandy's wrath in New Jersey destroyed the famed Jersey Shore boardwalk. The boardwalk lost a total of 50 feet of its wooden stretch. Included on that stretch was a roller coaster, which is now lost at sea. Hurricane Sandy also combined with a blizzard in West Virgina, which ended up with the worst weather in West Virginia in years. Massachuttes, Maine, and many other states also have tons of power outages. There's a reason this storm was dubbed "The Perfect Storm".

Video Game Review - Canvas Rider

One day in class when everyone had finished working, I saw some friends of mine playing this game, Canvas Rider on Google Chrome. To me, it looked interesting enough, so surely, I gave it a whirl. Little did I know, in just a day, I would become so addicted to a simple little computer game.

This online game has its own website, called www.canvasrider.com. The purpose of this game is to complete tracks, made by others on the website. If you make an account, you can try to beat other member’s high score. The cost is free to make a membership for this addicting game, and you can save your times and like others tracks. You can view other's replay to see how they managed to beat the track if you're stuck on a particular level. I'm really surprised with how simple the game is. The game is created using nothing but JavaScript and HTML5 to make an exciting and challenging game. Yes, the game is challenging at first, but after a while you do get the hang of it. The controls are the Up arrow to move forward, the left and right arrows to balance, and the down arrow to break. Enter is to restart from the latest checkpoint, and the F key is for full screen. There are little dots that the creator can include, and if you ride into them, specific things will happen. Red means you'll blow up and blue is a checkpoint. Yellow are coins.

Now, this game may seem so simple, but don't underestimate its addictive qualities. This game may have you hooked for hours! There are over thousands of tracks, some are very easy, and some are not so easy, created by other players that will have you playing this game for hours on end.

Camp Jewell

Are you looking for something to do this Columbus Day weekend? Well just around the corner is Colebrook, CT, home of Camp Jewell. Camp Jewell is open year-round, but however, Columbus Day weekend is a popular weekend to go. Camp Jewell is a branch of the YMCA of the Greater Hartford area. The campsite offers 540 acres of fun. There are tons of activities to do here, including horseback riding, swimming, archery, mountain boarding, rock climbing, kayaking, pottery, guitar, high ropes, hiking, fishing, soccer and many more! There's even a giant slide featuring an 80-foot drop and a whole arena dubbed The Thunder Dome dedicated to wiffleball and holds up to 600 people! Farther in to the woods are high ropes and low ropes courses, and that includes a zipline from the top of the forest trees. According to the Camp Jewell website, http://yghcj.peashootermanager.com/index.cfm, "In the winter, guests often enjoy cross-country skiing over our extensive network of trails, snowshoeing around the lake or simply taking a walk outside...followed by hot chocolate in the dining hall! Many children and 
adults alike get their first cross-country skiing experience at Camp Jewell. Guests may also ice-skate on one of our two ice rinks. Our winter guests enjoy quaint horse-drawn wagon rides through the beautiful forest, complete with hot chocolate!  Many guests like to warm up on a cold day with a lightning fast trip down camp's snow tubing hill!  Camp has it's own snow-making system, insuring a longer tubing season." There are 29 cabins (heated in the winter) fitting between 26 to 86 guests! The floor plan address is: http://yghcj.peashootermanager.com/library/files/Main%20Camp%20Cabin%20Layouts.pdf 
And a map of everything that Camp Jewell has to offer and its locations can be found here at this address: http://campjewell.org/library/files/Camp%20Map%20for%20Website_2010.pdf There is also an overnight summer camp, where you will spend the night, every night, for 2 weeks. Their sports arenas and fields are spread along the bottom, and offer many sporting activities, plus a few I bet you've never heard of! On a clear night you can see the outer rings of The Milky Way before you head off to bed for a night of sleep and tomorrow begin a new day of fun! To contact Camp Jewell, please call
1-888-412-CAMP (2267) or e-mail the campsite at camp.jewell@ghymca.org for any questions, comments, or concerns regarding the staff, or any other questions you may have to offer about the activities and programs during your stay at Camp Jewell.

Coventry, Connecticut's 300th Anniversary Parade!

Those of you looking for plans next weekend can look forward to Coventry, Connecticut's 300th Anniversary Parade! The parade will be on September 29th, a Saturday at 10 A.M. According to http://connecticut.mommypoppins.com, "the parade will feature 4 divisions from the 1700s, 1800s, 1900s and 2000s and Beyond, as well as an Escort Division." http://tolland.patch.com/ includes the lineup for this year's parade.

The 1700s Division is sponsored by Sabrina Pools and includes:

• Daughters of the American Revolution
• 54^th Regiment of Foot, 1777
• Nathan Hale Homestead
• Nathan Hale Ancient Fifes and Drum
• 2^nd Continental Light Dragoons
• 1^st Congregational Church of Coventry
• St. Patrick’s Pipe Band

Bidwell Tavern sponsors the 1800s Division and includes:

• 1880s high-wheel Bicycle
• Coventry Historical Society
• Vintage vehicle from Coventry Volunteer Fire Department
• Museum of CT Glass
• CT Valley Field Music
• CT Republican Town Committee
• Coventry Cemetery Commission
• Coventry Grange #75
• Song-A-Day Music Center
• Connecticut Blues Senior Ancient Fife & Drum

Fuss & O’Neill Design Build Services, Inc will sponsor the 1900s Division and includes:

• Miss Connecticut USA
• Vintage vehicle from North Coventry Volunteer Fire
Department
• Haggerty’s Fire Department
• CT Chapter of the 1^st Calvary
• Coventry High School Teachers
• Coventry Democratic Town Committee
• Knights of Columbus/St. Mary’s Church
• Ticket to Ride - Beatles Tribute Band
• American Fuel Oil, Inc.
• Girl Scouts of Coventry
• Vintage cars and tractors
• Coventry Waterski Club
• Shriners Motor Patrol
• Coventry Agricultural Committee
• Vintage Vehicle from Columbia Fire Department
• East Side Ramblers Dixieland Band

The 2000 and Beyond Division is sponsored by Coventry Thrift & Gift Shop and includes:

• Coventry Scholarship Foundation
• Booth and Dimock Library
• Coventry Cub Scout Pack 65
• Coventry High School Band
• Segway from Coventry Police Department
• Channel 3 Kids Camp
• Shriners False Alarmers
• Coventry Football Association
• Coventry 300^th Committee
• Smart Car from Kennedy Exchange
• ATV from Capitol Region Police Chiefs Association

There will be the Coventry High School Band, floats, entertainment, floats, music, and even a military flyover with jets! There will also be the Nathan Hale Fife and Drum Corps, vintage cars, the previously mentioned marching band, and even Miss Connecticut, Marie Lynn Piscitelli! If the place is overcrowded, fear not: there will be free parking at the Coventry High School on the corner of Rt. 31 and 275, and a shuttle will run from 9 A.M to 1 P.M. According to http://tolland.patch.com/, the parade starts at GHR Intermediate School on 227 Cross Street, Coventry CT 06238,  and continues down Lake Street to Rt. 31, then heading south to the end point at Bradbury Lane. The cost is free, and more information can be obtained by calling (860) 742-6324. Coventry, CT's official page, http://www.coventryct.org/, says that if you're hungry, you can "stop by First Congregational Church of Coventry (the address is 1171 Main St, Coventry, CT 06238) between 7:30-10 AM for a pancake breakfast, or the Bidwell Tavern (the address is 1260 Main St, Coventry CT, 06238) for coffee and donuts before the parade. There will also be a chicken BBQ at the church immediately following the parade." The rain date for this extravagant parade will be Sunday September 30th at 2 PM.