News Bits number 4

Another news morsel-filled post today! Starting off with the passing of a legend.

The King of Blues

Last night at 9:40 PDT we lost not only a legendary guitar player but a hard working man. A man who's career spanned nearly seven decades and was a mentor to other greats suck as Otis Rush, Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, Buddy Guy and even Jimi Hendrix.

B.B. King, born Riley B. King on September 16, 1925, was the man known as the King of Blues. The 15-time Grammy winner performed well into his 80's and at one point played 342 times in one year. His playing inspired millions and he will be missed.

Amtrak Catastrophy

I'm sure you have heard of the train wreck that was bound for New York from D.C. The crash caused the death of several people and injured hundreds more.

The investigation has revealed the Amtrak engineer was traveling far above the indicated speed limit before and during the turn that resulted in the derailment of the train. The posted speed limit was 70 mph before the turn and 50 mph for the turn, he was going 106 mph.

His negligence cost lives and now he is claiming he has "no recollection" of the incident. He did not give a statement and lawyered up right away. I'm not sure what's to come but to me it seems he certainly has something to hide and is trying exhaustively to shirk responsibility.Time will tell.

One Hot Fish

 I end this news bits with a new discovery scientists announced. As you may or may not remember from 7th grade biology class fish are cold blooded, well not the opah! That's right, this is as of right now the only warm blooded fish in existence, to the best of our knowledge of course.

Warm blooded creatures, such as birds and mammals, are endothermic (or capable or dependable on internal generation of heat) while cold blooded creatures such as fish or reptiles and amphibians need an out side source of heat to maintain their body temperature. Well this new guy, the opah, has blood vessels in his gills that maintain his body temperature, giving him a massive advantage over his prey in the depths where he lives.

 Seeing as this is a newly discovered species scientists think they might be able to divide the opah into several different species taking into account the genetic variations in different populations around the world. It's always exiting when the scientific community make a discovery such as this, it makes me want to shout Opa!