What is that mysterious spiral in the sky?

A UFO? Many people seem to assume that anything weird that appears in the sky could be linked to UFO's, but hey you never know! This bizarre story was breaking news on Yahoo! this morning, where they were unsure as to what this mysterious spiral could be. I was at work and we were watching the video clips about it and it was extremely weird but cool at the same time! They had ruled out the link to meteors, which was my first guess as well, but then I thought how would that create a spiral? Anything is possible at this point, right?

After a few hours, I logged back on Yahoo! to check my email, and there was an updated story about this occurrence. It turns out that it as a missile failure from Russia. Another failure was not something to be so surprised about, since this has occurred already,but of course people went crazy about the possibility of a UFO. One day it could happen, so it's good to stay alert!!!

I want to share the video with everyone and then the rest of the story about the missile failure just so everyone has the clear idea of what really went on with this mysterious spiral! Here is the video:



Crazy!!! Ok, so here is the full story about what happened!

From Yahoo!

MOSCOW (AFP) – Russia's new nuclear-capable missile suffered another failed test launch, the defence ministry said Thursday, solving the mystery of a spectacular plume of white light that appeared over Norway.

The Bulava missile was test-fired from the submarine Dmitry Donskoi in the White Sea early Wednesday but failed at the third stage, the defence ministry said in a statement.

The pre-dawn morning launch coincided with the appearance of an extraordinary light over northern Norway that captivated observers.

Images of the light that appeared in the sky above the Norwegian city of Tromso and elsewhere prompted explanations ranging from a meteor, northern lights, a failed missile or even a UFO.

Describing the latest failure of the Bulava as a major embarrassment for the military, leading Russian defence analyst Pavel Felgenhauer said the images were consistent with a missile failure.

"Such lights and clouds appear from time to time when a missile fails in the upper layers of the atmosphere and have been reported before," he told AFP.

"At least this failed test made some nice fireworks for the Norwegians," he joked.

The White Sea, which is the usual site for such missile tests by Russian submarines, lies close to Norway's own Arctic region.

This was the 12th test launch of the Bulava and the seventh time the firing has ended in failure, the Interfax news agency said.

The submarine-launched missile is central to Russia's plan to revamp its ageing weapons arsenal but is beset by development problems.

"The first two stages of the rocket worked but in the final and third stage there was a technical failure," the defence ministry said in a statement.

The statement said the problem was with the engine in the third stage, while in past launches the first stage had been faulty.

The problems with the Bulava have become an agonising issue for the defence ministry, which has ploughed a large proportion of its procurement budget into ensuring the missile becomes the key element of its rocket forces.

The previous failure in July forced the resignation of Yury Solomonov, the director of the Moscow Institute of Thermal Technology which is responsible for developing the missile.

Felgenhauer said that it had dealt a serious blow to Russia's bid to maintain a credible nuclear deterrent.

"By the year 2030, Russia could lose its position as a global nuclear power if the problems are not solved. And it could be that these missiles will never fly properly.

"The Russian defence industry has disintegrated to such an extent that it simply cannot make such a complicated system work. Technology and expertise have been lost," he said.

The problems are also a major political embarrassment, coming as Russia negotiates with the United States the parameters of a new arms reduction treaty to replace the 1991 START accord.

The treaty expired on December 5, and despite intense negotiations the two sides have yet to agree the text of a new deal.

In a separate development, a successful test-firing took place of Russia's intercontinental surface-to-surface ballistic missile Topol RS-12M, news agencies quoted a statement from the strategic rocket forces as saying.

The missile -- introduced to the rocket forces before the fall of the Soviet Union -- was fired from the southern Russian region of Astrakhan and hit its target at a testing range in neighbouring Kazakhstan.

The Bulava, which can be equipped with up to 10 individually targeted nuclear warheads, has a maximum range of 8,000 kilometres (5,000 miles).

It is the sea-based version of the Topol-M, Russia's new surface-to-surface intercontinental missile, and designed to be launched from Moscow's newest Borei class of submarines.

Defence analysts say that a further headache for the military is that the new submarines are designed to be compatible with Bulava and if the new missile fails to work the vessels will be virtually useless.

So what is everyone thoughts about this?! It is definitely wild!!

Besides that, finals week! I want to wish everyone the best of luck and then it's finally time to relax! Tomorrow I go to Jingle Ball, so be expecting some photos over the weekend!! I am really excited! I'm sure its going to be packed, and good thing its going to be like 25 tomorrow! BRRRRR! I am going to freeze! Well GOOD LUCK! and keep warm!!!

Happy Monday!

The snow has arrived and it definitely feels a lot like winter now, not to mention the fact that my neighborhood looks like a winter wonderland! It's so pretty when it first falls, but then of course the snow plows come and kick up the dirt and it just looks ugly! I was able to snap some pictures though to share as I promised!

As for today, I really got myself into the Christmas spirit and decorated at work. I put up our tree, made some really cool 3D snowflakes, and put some decorations on the windows! It gave me something to do and it was definitely a lot of fun!

Here is what the snowflakes came out to look like. I just made this one with Christmas colors to switch it up, but the ones at work are white.



Anyways, I got a little head start today on finding out some information for the books I will need next quarter! I like to shop around to find good prices since books cost an arm and a leg now a days. I simply emailed the bookstore and asked for the ISBN #'s of the books I need for my courses, and someone got back to me! (Thanks to Jason at the GMT campus bookstore!) I compared some prices so I have an idea where I want to order books from. I also went on to see how much I can sell my books back for. Of course you can never get back what you paid, but the little bit you can, definitely helps! So after next week, vacation begins, which is why I'm looking into books now, so during vacation, I can get school off my mind and enjoy my freedom!

Jingle Ball is on Friday, so to the city I will be going! I am really looking forward to this, I just hope my randomly picked seats are good ones! *Crossing my fingers on this one* I also heard that the first 200 people that get there and have a 16 oz. coke bottle with them, will be entered into a ZVIP lounge and will be able to meet the stars! How cool would that be! And yes, I will totally be buying a bottle of coke on Friday and getting my butt there!

I hope everyone enjoys their week! Remember, just one more week! Push through it!

Computer is back up and running!

Finally back on track! Computer problems are solved and now I am working with Windows 7! So far I am totally loving it!



Today was quite interesting! Lots and lots of snow in my area! My mom and I started to put up our Christmas lights, but couldn't really do much since everything was snow covered in no time! I will have to put pictures up of this winter wonderland tomorrow. It's so pretty when the snow first falls and then it just gets ugly from all the dirt and such. My area was only expecting 1-3 inches of snow, but we got way more than that. It's heavy snow too so the snow blower has to put up a fight.

As for some school talk, we are approaching week 11. My macroeconomics teacher actually just assigned two last assignments, which is a scary thought, but also a good one, because that means vacation is well on it's way! It's been another successful quarter so no complaining over here!

I did find something interesting that I wanted to bring up in my blog tonight and that is the FTC and what they are doing to make consumers aware of products and services that could actually do harm. My discussion board this week in advertising was to visit the FTC website (www.ftc.gov) and give a brief summary of a current consumer issue. There are many there and lots of interesting ones that I came across. For my post, I chose this:

FTC Charges Marketers with Making Baseless Weight-Loss Claims Despite Order to Stop
I found this article in regards to two weight loss programs, Relacore and Akävar 20/50, that make claims that people can still eat what they want by following these plans and still lose weight, as well as making claims that if it wasn't true, they wouldn't have printed it on their products. These programs have violated the 2006 FTC order, barring them from making health or weight-loss claims without a reasonable basis. Due to this, the Commission is seeking to stop the defendants from making such claims and make them pay civil penalties for these actions.

These companies know that people will believe these claims so of course they go out and make it a point to purchase these programs. It's very wrong to do, so I am happy that the FTC is acting and making they pay civil penalties for making unreasonable claims.

http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2009/11/basicresearch.shtm

Many of us have seen these types of weight loss products making such claims, but marketers know there is a great amount of people who will fall for it. I am glad that the FTC is making them pay back money for making such claims. It's kind of a no brainer, but there are people out there who will believe everything they see and hear without any questions. Other students in my class chose ones about credit card scams, ID theft, and free trials. The trial scams are very interesting. I'm sure everyone has heard of the Acai Berry detox that all you pay is 99 cents and they will send you a trial of the product. Well it turns out that when you give over all your information, they enroll you in their monthly program which is placed somewhere in their long agreement which can easily be over passed since no body ever wants to read those big long rules. It's in the fine print, so when you get that bill and try to fight it, they just come back at you saying that you should have read the agreement. I actually was watching Rachel Ray and she had this on her show telling everyone to go on and try it. Well I went on and I didn't finish filling out the information, so I had these people calling my house looking for my other information, so my mom saved my butt and said I was only 16 and shouldn't even be trying to get my hands on that stuff.

After that, they stopped calling, but it's such a big scam and so unfair. It just comes to show that people need to be more careful with the products or services they get involved with.

Does anyone have any stories about weight loss programs, or free trials that ended up enrolling you in their monthly programs?

These types of things are happening to people everyday, so my advice is just to be on the lookout for these types of scammers. They are EVERYWHERE!

Stay warm and enjoy the rest of your weekend! I will be sure to post some snow pictures and Christmas light pictures! :)

December has arrived!

Yes, very hard to believe but here we are! The last few days of the decade, and then 2010 begins a whole new decade! I can't believe how fast this year has gone, so it's almost time for a yearly wrap up! Of course, as like every other year, it has it's ups and downs, but each year we clear the plate and start over once again. I am definitely looking forward to starting fresh once again!

So yesterday I ended up doing most of my Christmas shopping so that I can finish up and prepare for the big day! I did wrap most of the things today just to get them over and done with. Tomorrow or Friday I will be going for my tree, which is even more exciting! I will post pictures of that as well once I get it up!

I am pretty excited! Next Friday I go to Z100's Jingle Ball concert! I can't wait!! So there is lots to look forward to.

I am also looking forward to the end of this quarter, not that it's been awful, but its time to just relax and enjoy the holidays for as long as possible! I know 2 weeks is definitely not much, but it will just be so enjoyable.

Once again I am back to using my laptop since my computer decided it didn't want to work anymore and give me a pretty nasty virus. On the better side of this story, I now get to put Windows 7 on my computer! My brother kept telling me, let's put it on, but I refused until I finished my advertising project, which I still need to post the picture to show everyone! Once I get all my stuff back on my computer and familiar with Windows 7, it will be up for show! I think viruses find me, because honestly, I don't go on any weird sites, so I really don't get it. It's pretty funny too because the other day I had just said to my brother that my computer hasn't given me any problems and actually knocked on wood, but clearly that didn't help. Next time I'll be knocking on my head.

I hope everyone is off to having a great week! I will keep everyone posted with my computer success!!!

Thanksgiving and Baby Shower=SUCCESS!

As we wind down for the weekend, and get ready for a case of the Mondays, I figured I would just wrap up these past exciting couple of days! First and foremost, I hope everyone had an enjoyable Thanksgiving, and ate as much as they possibly could! It might be time to start those diets though! Let's hope not!!!

I had a great Thanksgiving. I ended up staying home with my family, cooking and just relaxing. Of course, EATING as well! After that, I was not crazy and did not go Black Friday shopping,which I am kind of glad I didn't. I heard it was a nightmare out there!! Instead, my best friend came up for a visit from North Carolina for Thanksgiving and for her baby shower, which was a complete success as well! It was so nice to see her and to share that special day with her. Here are some pictures! There are a lot with her opening presents, so I will just put a few up!! We had the shower at Ruppert's on Rt. 23! I have been there several times for parties and the people are great there, so if you are looking for a get together place, Ruppert's is definitely a great pick!

Other than that, my weekend was very enjoyable! It's always nice to see people you haven't seen in a while. It's been a long night for me. My brother and I put together his new desk so I am finding winding down for the night, but wanted to pop on for a few! Again, I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and now it's time to kick off WEEK 10!!! 2 more to go!! Enjoy!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Yes, I know, I'm a little early, but hey do you really expect me to be on here tomorrow, when all that delicious food will be right before my eyes?! I think not! So here I am, just a few hours early to wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving!!!



Let's try not to eat so much though, before our clothes become a little tighter than we want!



So as we wind down for this week and enjoy our holiday, I can do a little updating in regards to my advertising project! I finally got my advertisement ideas together, but I am not going to show everyone exactly what I have just yet! So you will all just have to wait to see!

I received an email today from my professor, and she was telling me about an assignment she assigned to her students, which was to Google themselves. It turns out, one of her students was somebody I had interviewed a while back and had mentioned that my blog showed up on Google with their name. I thought that was pretty cool. I remember my friends telling me about Bing.com and if you go online there and "Bing" your name, your photo will show up (if you have a facebook or myspace account-typically those photos comes up). I actually was tempted and did it just to see if it was true, and yes there I was! Amazing what you can find on the internet...we are all somehow famous in the small ways!

So for this weekend, my best friend will be visiting from North Carolina, and since she is expecting a little girl in February, it's baby shower weekend! I am very excited to see her and to throw her this baby shower as well! I will have to post some pictures of course!!

Well again, HAPPY THANKSGIVING and make sure you gives thanks to everyone who has effected you in such wonderful ways!

One of those days....

Today was a lazy day for me. It's not that I didn't want to do anything, but I just was in a blah mood, which many of us have from time to time. I didn't completely do nothing, so let's not think I was totally lazy, but I didn't leave my house. Today actually flew right on by, so I feel like I wasted a day away, but not really at all.

So here we are in Week 9! Woo Hoo! We made it this far, now just a little bit more to go. I already was assigned my final project in my advertising class, which I will explain what I am doing for that in a little bit. My other classes have been pretty good. It's just a matter now of keeping my grades up and finishing yet another quarter here at Berkeley. It feels strange to think that next quarter will my my 6th on here and that means I'll be halfway done with my college education. That just totally creeps me out but excites me all at the same time.

As for my advertising project, we were asked to select a product of our choice and develop a print advertisement. For my print advertisement, I chose to use a magazine. The product I chose was Ben and Jerry's Low Fat Frozen Yogurt. With that product in mind, I had to think about which magazine that this product would really be appealing in. I decided to choose SELF magazine, which is dedicated to fitness, nutrition, health, and beauty. It was then important for me to research the nutritional facts about frozen yogurt, which have calories between 140-220 per serving which is about 1/2 cup. This was perfect. So now what I need to do, is explain my approach to advertise this, research the demographics of the magazine, which includes women, ages 27-37. I also have a budget of $5 million dollars so I need plan wisely how I will advertise in this magazine each month for the year 2010. The general rate for a full page color advertisement in SELF magazine is $166,773. I will need to work with the numbers, but I'm sure I will figure it all out. Once I put together my advertisement, I will be sure to share it with everyone.

For now, I am going to start some homework before the big holiday on Thursday this way I do not have to cram everything in over the weekend! I will keep everyone up to date with my progress on the project and will be sharing it all as soon as I finish it! Have a great week!