We arrived at Omar Torrijos airport via American Airlines early in the afternoon. We purchased our required tourist cards (3 balboas, as US dollars are called in Panama) at the airport, then caught a taxi for the 18 mile ride to our downtown hotel. The ride in the battered, un-airconditioned car was rather expensive (30 balboas), but the driver spoke English and was very friendly. We arrived at the hotel and checked in. While my dad was checking in I bought a guidebook in the hotel lobby and read up on the history of Panama City. The original city was founded in 1519 by Pedro Arias Davila, known as Pedrarias the Cruel, because of his eradication of all but three of the local Indian tribes during his tenure in Panama. Davila used the city as a place to store Incan gold before it was shipped to Spain. The original city was sacked and burned in 1671 by a group of buccaneers led by Henry Morgan. The city was rebuilt within a year, this time on a peninsula 18 miles away and surrounded by a strong wall. This old Spanish city is now the in the middle downtown Panama City.

Is Wal-Mart good for communities, or is Wal-Mart a wolf in sheep's clothing? With a gross annual sales of over $67 billion and more than 2,000 stores, Wal-Mart is one of the biggest corporations in the United States. Wal-Mart opens a new store once every two days in small communities and cities across the United States, however, are these stores good for these communities, or are they wrecking havok? When you look down at the fine print Wal-Mart doesn't earn it's money it steals it money from other businesses. Choking other smaller businesses by offering wider varity of products at a more competitive price. This is actually a very simple business tactic if you want to sell a lot of something cut your profit margin to beat the other competitors and you will sell more. Wal-Mart stole an average of over $10 million in an average sized Iowan Town.

The magnitude scale was invented by an ancient Greek astronomer named Hipparchus in about 150 BC He ranked the stars he could see in terms of their brightness, with 1 representing the brightest down to 6 representing the faintest. Modern astronomy has extended this system to stars brighter than Hipparchus' 1st magnitude stars and ones much, much fainter than 6. As it turns out, the eye senses brightness logarithmically, so each increase in 5 magnitudes corresponds to a decrease in brightness by a factor 100. The absolute magnitude is the magnitude the stars would have if viewed from a distance of 10 parsecs or some 32.6 light years. Obviously, Deneb is intrinsically very bright to make this list from its greater distance. Rigel, of nearly the same absolute magnitude, but closer, stands even higher in the list. Note that most of these distances are really nearby, on a cosmic scale, and that they are generally uncertain by at least 20%. All stars are variable to some extent; those which are visibly variable are marked with a "v".

Mission Plan a. Analysis of the Problem 1. History of the Problem Some scientist's have been concerned since 1896 about what might happen if there were 5.5 billion tons carbon dioxide in our atmosphere. In 1961 a British scientist did an experiment showing that the carbon in the air was absorbing some of the sun's radiation. Afterward a Swedish scientist, Suante Arrhenius, found out if the radiation of the sun was trapped in the carbon dioxide the temperature of the earth would increase by 1-2 degrees. In 1988 James Hanson, a respected scientist, told the U.S. Congress "the greenhouse effect is occurring now and it's changing global climate."(1989 Koral). After the 1900's people started making factories and started using fossil fuels like coal, oil, and aluminum. It was the industrial revolution and overpopulation of humans that was the cause of the environmental problems that we have today.

On June 24th, 1947 while searching for the remains of a downed Marine C-46 transport, lost somewhere in the Mount Ranier area, a young Idahoan businessman named Kenneth Arnold spotted something that would change his life forever. Just north of his position flying at an altitude of 9,500 feet and an unprecedented airspeed of 1,700 mph he spotted nine circular aircraft flying in formation. According to his estimate the aircraft were approximately the size of a DC-4 airliner ( Jackson 4).

The greenhouse effect occurs when gases such as methane, carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxide and CFCs trap heat in the atmosphere by acting as a pane of glass in a car. ³The glass² lets the sun light in to make heat but when the heat tries to get out the gases absorb the heat. Holding this heat in causes heat waves, droughts and climate changes which could alter our way of living. The main gases that cause the greenhouse effect are water vapor, carbon dioxide (CO2), and methane which comes mainly from animal manure. Other gases like nitrogen oxide and man made gases called chloroflurocarbons get caught in the atmosphere as well. The decay of animals and respiration are two main but natural sources of carbon dioxide.

The Roswell Incident, which enlightened our minds to the capacity of excepting all, has remained one of the most controversial issues today. In Roswell, New Mexico, 1947, a strange occurrence arises. An alien craft from outer space crashed in an open field. The issue lay still for almost thirty years, until the thought of a government cover-up arose. SocietyÆs opinions have changed over the years. Previous to the 1990Æs, people have despised the thought of sharing the universe with other intelligent life forms. Now people are interested in this mysterious phenomenon. People think it is the blame of the movies and television. By watching this, people are at a level at which they understand. Not only do these movies entertain, they inform people about the little information we obtained from the government.

"Whereas Galileo spent his last days under house arrest and was formally condemned by the Church for his scientific views, the elder Darwin was widely respected by the Anglican Church and was buried at the Westminster Abbey, an honor reserved for only the most illustrious personages of Great Britain. The reason for the two scientists' very different fortunes is simple: Galileo couldn't prove the Copernican hypothesis but Darwin was able to demonstrate the truth of his theory of evolution." In the world of Galileo proof was what was needed to succeed with a scientific hypothesis. In the world of Darwin proof was not needed for a scientific hypothesis to succeed. There were many differences in the worlds of these two great scientists that lead to the reaction to their respective scientific hypothesize. It was not their beliefs alone that led to their peer's views it was also the way each of them conducted themselves. Galileo worked his way to become a respected scientist by most of the intellectual community but he was also despised by many because of his background and because of his attitude towards others. Darwin was well respected by the intellectual community, but the difference was the way they conducted themselves when they were dealing with their hypothesizes.

"Isn't man an amazing animal? He kills wildlife--birds, kangaroos, deer, all kinds of cats, coyotes, groundhogs, mice, foxes and dingoes--by the million in order to protect his domestic animals and their feed. Then he kills domestic animals by the billion and eats them. This in turn kills man by the million, because eating all those animals leads to degenerative--and fatal--health conditions like heart disease, kidney disease, and cancer. So then man tortures and kills millions more animals to look for cures for these diseases. Elsewhere, millions of other human beings are being killed by hunger and malnutrition because food they could eat is being used to fatten domestic animals. Meanwhile, some people are dying of sad laughter at the absurdity of man, who kills so easily and so violently, and once a year sends out cards praying for "Peace on Earth." (Coats, 13)

One hundred years from now, NASA's space program will not be so far advanced that people will be able to beam around the Universe or travel through time. However, unless something goes terribly wrong with the world, it is expected to advance tremendously. New, high-tech designs for rockets will make them more environmentally safe. Rockets will also be recycled and reused. Systems retrieving parts of rockets that are today, left behind in space, will be created. Astronauts will be well on their way to exploring Mars from a hands-on perspective. Because of the overpopulated Earth, scientists may even be considering ways to alter life on Mars, so that people would be able to live there some day.