On Tuesday, March 2, 2010, 62 year old Andreau Yankton walked into the Publix on Orange and Michigan in Orlando, Florida.  Andeau proceeded to the checkout counter and shot Anicia Yankton, his 34 year old wife at point blank range in the head.  Anicia eventually died from her gun shot wound in the hospital the next morning.  Police officers tried to apprehend Yankton in the parking lot of the grocery store before he turned the gun on himself and died instantly.

   This isn’t the first Andreau Yankton family problem.  His ex-wives had filed injunctions against him.  An injunction is a court order basically saying that you can’t do something ever again.  Also, he had a child with Anicia that is now five years old and in the Philippines.

   This is a very scary event in my opinion.  My father works at a Publix and I’m just glad this didn’t happen at the Publix he is at.  Plus, it’s scary that this could even go on in this day and age.  There are ways to get out of a marriage and Andreau chose the wrong way.  

 To read more about this, click here.

by Sam H.

On February 27th, a massive 8.8 magnitude earthquake struck Chile off the shore of Maule. Since then, several aftershocks (each with a magnitude of around 5.5) have hit Chile as well.  Though this is extremely tragic, more bad news has come: the earthquake has impacted the duration of the day on Earth, by shortening it (oh no)!

Scientist from NASA said on Monday that the earthquake in Chile shifted the Earth from its axis about 3 inches from its normal location and therefore shortening the days by 0.00000126 seconds!  This change occurred because the Earth’s mass was shifted.  Think of the Earth as a spinning top: because the Earth is not a perfect sphere, sudden changes in mass can shift where the actual ‘top” is. The result, is a change in speed from the Earth’s original rotation.  In this case, the speed of rotation increased, so now we have shorter days.

Scientists believe that this wasn’t the first time the axis of the Earth has been altered or shifted.  The Sumatran earthquake in 2004, which set off a deadly tsunami, was a 9.1 on the Richter scale and may have moved the axis 2.76 inches and made the days shorter by 6.8 microseconds (a millionth of a second). 

However this isn’t the end, the Earth can also increase the length of its days.  The moon recedes from Earth at a rate of 3.8 centimeters per year, increasing the length of days (we’re saved)!

[source]

by Billy F.