Angel sifuentes - Week 7 journal lyrics

9/23 The name of Jay-Z's first book is Decoded, a curious title given that among the work of celebrated rappers his lyrics might need perhaps the least decoding. Unlike the Wu-Tang Clan, for instance, whose arcane allusions, slang neologisms, and synthetic philosophies have spawned two books and counting, Jay-Z is decidedly plain spoken and confessional. His most powerful lyrics—and there have been many since his 1996 debut, Reasonable Doubt—reveal anxiety, uncertainty, and an uncanny awareness of human frailty to go along with the expected bluster and bravado of the rap idiom. 9/24 Fouchier flu fight Influenza expert Ron Fouchier protested on 26 September against a Dutch court's decision to uphold government oversight of his research, calling the court's arguments “weak”. Fouchier, of the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, has sparked controversy by creating mammalian-transmissible strains of the H5N1 avian flu virus. On 20 September, he lost his case to exempt such research from export control laws, which are aimed at restricting biological weapons. The regulations require researchers to obtain export permits before disseminating ‘dual-use' materials and information that could have both legitimate and malicious uses. 9/25 defence contest The US Department of Defense is taking heat from genome scientists after announcing last week the winners of a US$1-million software competition. Participants submitted algorithms designed to quickly identify pathogens from DNA sequencing data. Several researchers have criticized the contest as being poorly run, citing changes made to the scoring system during the competition. The solution by the winning team, from Germany and Singapore, will be used to address biological threats to the US military, the agency says. 9/26 Poaching pushback The Clinton Global Initiative in New York launched on 26 September a US$80-million effort to clamp down on elephant poaching in Africa. The programme brings together several conservation groups and African nations to increase law enforcement at 50 sites across Africa, and to detect and prosecute smugglers. Elephant poaching has surged in recent years, driven particularly by ivory demand in Asia. Officials in Zimbabwe reported last week that more than 80 elephants had been k**ed with cyanide in a national park. 9/27 Owing to uncertainty over wind-energy policies in the United States and China, the number of new wind-power installations will drop by 25% worldwide this year. For the first time, solar energy will overtake wind energy in new installations (see chart). The forecast comes from an*lysts at Bloomberg New Energy Finance, who add that the number of solar installations is increasing in Japan and China because of financial incentives, but dwindling in western Europe, where subsidies are being cut.