Fishvoice

Black athletes spotlighted..!

Whether or not they wanted the role, African American athletes become symbols of the advancement of their race. The dramatic expansion of televised sports put athletes increasingly in the public eye. Heavyweight boxing champ Cassius Clay shocked the world when he announced that he had converted to the Black Muslim religion and changed his name to Muhammad Ali.
In 1962, Jackie Robinson became the first African American elected to the Baseball Hall-of-Fame. In 1967, Charles Sifford became the first African American to win a Professional Golf Association (PGA) tour event, the Hartford Open.

In 1968, Arthur Ashe became the first African American man to win a major tennis title. Pro basketball was dominated by the rivalry og two outspoken young black men: Wilt Chamberlain, who broke almost every NBA record, and Bill Russell, a dedicated team player.

In 1966, Russell became the first black head coach of a professional team. In 1970, another black, Curt Flood, fought against what he called the ‘slavery’ of baseball’s player contracts. He took baseball’s owners to court, challenging their right to control a player for the life of his career.

For many, change was not coming fast enough. Russell, for example, remained the only African American to head a team for nearly a decade. The slow pace of racial progress prompted the birth of the radical Black Power movement. In the 1968 Mexico City Olympics,

U.S.

sprinting medalists Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised their fists in the Black Power salute while ‘The Star Spangled Banner’ was played for them. This offended many Americans but inspired many others.

Women, too, demanded equal rights. Tennis star Billie Jean King, a champion of women’s rights on and off the court, almost single-handedly established women’s sports as a profitable business. In 1967 Kathrine Switzer became the first woman to run officially in the Boston Marathon. However, officials hadn’t known that they issued a number to a woman when they accepted K.V. Switzer. When Kathy Whitworth became president of the LPGA in 1970, she greatly increased the sponsorship and the size of championship purses on the women’s tour. Her aim: to get women’s prizes on a par with those on the men’s tour.

The fuel cycle meets the life cycle.

When plants and animals absorb radioactivity, it stays stored in their cells. So although radioactivity in a stream of water may be very slight, plants in the stream may be more radioactive than the surrounding water. They have absorbed a little radioactivity every day and stored it in their cells. When fish and animals eat these plants, they take in this radiation and store it in their own cells, where it can build up to dangerous levels. It is the alpha particles, beta particles, and gamma rays emitted by radioactive atoms that enter and damage living cells. Alpha particles are made up of protons and neutrons and are too weak to penetrate, or go into, human skin. They can be stopped by a sheet of paper. But they are not harmless to living things. If alpha particles are breathed in or come in through food, they can hurt lungs and other body organs and do the kind of damage that leads to cancer.

Beta particles are electrons. They can go through the skin but are stopped inside the body. They damage and kill cell, as can gamma rays.

Gamma rays are electromagnetic waves that can go right through our bodies and keep on going. In fact, they can go through concrete up to six and one-half feet (two meters) thick. It takes very thick walls to protect living things from gamma rays. If they hit reproductive cells (sperm or egg cells), they can cause birth defects. Now there are strict laws and guidelines for using all radioactive materials.

Special shields are used to protect people who get and give x-rays, and the number of x-rays allowed per year for a person is limited. Animals and people can’t breathe radiation out, sweat it out, or get rid of radioactivity in any way once it is in their system except by letting it age or decay.

Radioactivity ‘lives’ for many thousands of years. But it can hurt life much more quickly.

Nuclear energy seems economical in day-to-day operation. However, until a way is found to safely dispose of the radioactive waste, its total cost is hard to measure. If the money needed for safe transportation of nuclear waste and the creation of permanent storage is added to the cost, it may be quite expensive. Health problems related to increased environmental radiation might also raise the price people pay for nuclear energy.

For now, nuclear energy is one source of energy we use to meet some of our energy needs, while we try to find ways to harness energy without dangerously polluting our planet.

Watch the video here ...

When you’re hungry, you’ll eat anything, >> he ate ants

In June 1995, Captain Scott O’Grady was flying a patrol over

Bosnia

for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) as part of an effort by the major Western powers and the United Nations to stem years of bloodshed in

Bosnia

. His radar showed that a surface-to-air missile was seconds from destroying his plane. After he bailed out, he pulled his parachute cord too quickly. O’Grady drifted slowly over a clear sky at twenty thousand feet, in full view of hostile Serbian soldiers.

Upon landing, he scrambled into a clump of nearby bushes and began six agonizing days of life on the run.

“Most of the time, my face was in the dirt, just praying that no one would see me,” O’Grady said. He described himself as “a scared little bunny rabbit, trying to hide, trying to survive… I ate grass. When you’re hungry, you’ll eat anything.” ”Anything” included ants.

“They scamper really quickly and it’s hard to get them,” he laughed.
After finishing the water in his survival kit, he prayed for rain, and “God delivered.” He then relied on tricks from his survival training: collecting dew in plastic packets and squeezing rainwater from sponge and from his wool socks.

O’Grady was finally able to move into a clearing and send off a signal from his radio that led to helicopter rescue. After sending up flare to guide the helicopters, O’Grady loaded his gun and made a frantic dash, forgetting his training for the first time.

“The one thing they tell you is never run at a helicopter with a loaded gun, ”he said with a grin.

Watch the video here ...