“Laughter is an instant vacation”

Original Article

In New York, it’s very hard to find a parking spot, and recently, the first robotic car parking system opened in Chinatown in New York. It’s been pretty successful in a lot of the other places in the world, but not in the United States. In fact, it has been very destructive. In New Jersey, the garage has been known to drop unoccupied cars up to 6 stories! In the beginning of last year, there was a problem that wasn’t repaired for 26 hours, with the cars trapped inside.

But still, the makers of the Chinatown garage are very confident that this time, it would work. They estimated that the garage will fit 67 cars that would only usually fit 24. There isn’t a humanoid robot that goes inside your car and drives it. Instead, the driver stops on a pallet and gets out of the car. Then the pallet is lowered into the inner parts of the garage, and maneuvers it to an empty parking spot. The spots are computer controlled, it’s kind of like an elevator but it can also move sideways.

Inside the garage, there are no humans, but there are attendants to accept cash and explain how this robot works.

Even though these accidents have occurred, the maker assure people that “It is a complete virtual impossibility that damage can occur.”

There are laser and radar sensors to detect if the car fits onto the pallet, then it scans for movement to determine whether the people in the car have left the car or not. When the car is parked on the pallet and ready to go, the driver is told to exit the car and leave the bay, and a door closes behind them before starting to maneuver the car into the garage.

When the driver returns to leave, the underground system retrieves the car, sometimes moving things around but it all works out.

hey, tell me if you see anything wrong, okay??!!

STEP ONE

The Aztecs originally lived in Atzlan, which is now north west mexico.  A legend said that they decided to relocate because their god, Huitzilopochtli commanded them to go on a journey until they found an swampy island in the middle of Lake Texcoco, with an eagle holding a snake in its beak and perched on a cactus, growing from a rock or cave surrounded by water which was where they should settle. They also left because they were looking for a new home.
They were driven around until their god told them to go build their own. They were very wild people, so they did not fit in so they got driven around from place to place. When they reached their destination, they were to thank their god for his idea with human sacrifices. Another reason why was because they were forced to live on the worst lands in the valley, because they were so wild and nasty. Before they were driven out, they adopted some cultural patterns of that place, and that’s how they are now, a mix of cultures.
STEP TWO
They lived on islands, made by plants and mud. Trees’ roots were anchored into the ground to hold the soil together.

PROS:
They found ways to live, and used their resources and land effectively and efficiently.

CONS:
Their city was hard to build because they had to use materials that weren’t very sturdy, also the land was marshy, muddy, and stake infested land.
Picture:
The eagle with snake in beak and claw, which the Aztecs had to search for to live there, and they found it in the swampy lake, which is the next picture.
STEP THREE
They worshipped the sun god and Huitzilopochtli. Pyramids were built for sacrificing. The priests were a big part of sacrificing. The Aztecs believed that the gods needed to be fed human hearts so that the sun would be able to rise everyday. In the battles, they had to take prisoners for sacrificing. The priests would then take their hearts out of their bodies and while it was still beating, they would throw the bodies down the steps of the temples.
STEP FOUR

Slaves:
The parents who were poor sold their children as slaves, but usually only for a while. The slaves could buy their freedom back if they had the money.  Slaves that attempted to escape and reached the royal palace successfully were given freedom instantly.

Commoners:
This was most of the population, the people who traded and farmed. They were not necessarily cash crops though, more like they grow the crops and keep it. These people got a piece of land for their entire life. They did not own this land, they just used it.

Nobility:
The highest rank of the Aztecs.

STEP FIVE

Aztecs spoke Nahuatl, but other than that they used writing to communicate, such as glyphs and pictographs/pictograms. These were not actually words like the alphabet, instead the pictures that they drew all had symbolic meanings.
Each of these pictures have a symbolic meaning to them, so when you put a whole bunch of pictures together they become a story.

STEP SIX

The Aztecs made terraces to grow their crops, which is to keep their crops from flooding. They also used the slash and burn method to clear parts of the forest. They made artificial islands made by weaving giant reed mats and covering them with mudded plants, so that the crops could be grown even in the swamp, and the roots of the plants were anchored to the ground.

The Aztecs mainly grew corn, chili peppers, squash, tomatoes, and beans. They traded and exported goods in other parts of the Aztec empire. The Aztecs did not have currency like us, but instead they traded goods for other goods, such as cacao beans.

STEP 7

From the Spanish’s point of view, all they wanted to do was to defeat the Southern American countries to find gold to send back to Spain. Cortes thought that the defeat was fair even though his army was more advanced in weapons. Cuitláhuac was the leader of the Aztecs, and while he led, they became stronger. One day, the Spanish attempted to escape at night to be on the safe side, but they were caught and the Aztecs trapped them in and they fought a long battle. After the Spaniards got driven out, the Spanish had basically lost everything they had to start with, from soldiers and horses, to gold.

STEP8

The Aztecs think that La Malinche is a traitor being an alter-ego of Cortes as he conquered Mexico, even though she saved thousands of Indians by persuading Cortes to negotiate and talk rather than murder.
She was the daughter of a noble Aztec family. When the father died, the mother remarried to a chief and had a son. They decided that the son that they gave birth to, should rule instead of her, so they turned their daughter over to passing traders when she was young, and claimed that she was dead. She ended up as a slave of the military chief of Tabasco. She already leaned Mayan language that was used in Yucatan, and she could understand the language used by Aztecs by the time Cortes arrived. She had no say in joining Cortes, rather she was offered to Cortes by her master, along with 19 other young women. A Spanish priest was Cortes’ translator for Mayan dialects, but the priest could not translate with Indian tribes. So Cortes used Marina to translate from what the Aztec’s said, to Mayan dialect, then the priest translated that to Spanish. But when Cortes talked to the Aztecs, this lengthy process was reversed.
She cared very much for Mexicans and was very obedient to Cortes. In one of the letters, he said “After God we owe this conquest of New Spain to Doña Marina.”, which showed how much he needed her for this conquest. At the end of the conquest, Cortes arranged to have Marina married to a Castilian knight, Don Juan Xamarillo.
Marina had a pretty bad reputation on the Aztecs, but a very good reputation on the Spanish, but this may have shown some people that women are also useful for important things.

Firefighter cancer risk ‘higher’ original article

Firefighters & Topic Researched in the UK and the USA.

My summary:

Firefighters have a much higher cancer risk than most people can imagine, they risk their lives to save other peoples’. Rates of testicular cancer were 100% higher and prostate cancer 28% higher for firefighters, and their analysis of 32 US and European studies stated. The US researchers looked at studies of 110,000 firefighters, which compared cancer rates of other people. The researchers also discovered a 50% increase in non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and multiple myeloma.The researchers say that is because firefighters are exposed to many compounds designated as carcinogens, or cancer-causing agents, by the International Agency for Research on Cancer - including benzene, chloroform, soot, styrene and formaldehyde. Researchers are still trying to find a solution to this problem.