Going the Wrong Direction

Over the last year there have been billions of new oil and natural gas reservoirs found and exploited. This number is so high because of new technologies that allow drilling through previously impenetrable material. This new drilling, while beneficial to the companies is extremely expensive and time consuming to produce. While gas is still the current source of fuel for the world, maybe it would be better if we let technology move on, and let us run out of oil.
Oil companies control much of the economy, similar to pectordictatorship, and because of this, when they got nervous about the declining resources, ignoring the fact that they made a record sum of money last year, they forced many scientists to help them make new ways to further abuse our earth. Humanity in the whole has never stayed still for so long, we are always developing new ways and new technologies for making life easier or more enjoyable. So, why are we staying hopelessly dependant on oil for so long. We have stopped making progress, while some might see the new drills as progress, why not pass oil by? It is a fuel from the past and must be treated as such, use all that new innovative ideas and time that was wasted on the drills and put it towards the research to find a clean alternative energy sources. It would be better for humanity.
Right now, people are not very motivated to find other source of production. What if the oil was suddenly running out, we could see the end in the future? I think as we could see the end of oil looming upon us, we would get our asses in gear and put a renewed, huge effort into fining a new way to keep our world moving. If all of a sudden there was no gas for cars, no plastics being made, nothing that was run or produced though nonrenewable resources, it seems that most new inventions would have the same theme; get back what we lost. there would be new products everyday replacing what we had on oil. It would defiantly be a make or brake situation, the government would have to still have a supply of gas to create these new source of power, but it could be done. It would give America a new chance to show how we come together in times of crisis and lead the world.

Population Scare

According to Thomas L. Friedman in Hot, Flat and Crowded, we have some terrifying increases in population ahead of us. He provides us numbers for the increase in people for the next few years, personally i find this extremely disturbing. In 2007 United Nations Population Division reported that in "the world population will likely increase by 2.5 billion over the next 43 years, passing from the current 6.7 billion to 9.2 billion." Friedman goes on to explain that most of this population increase is not, in industrialized and developed countries, but in the developing countries whose population will raise from 5.4 billion in 2007, to 7.9 billion in 2050. But in developed countries the population will remain basically the same. In fact, if not for migration from developing countries the population would have decreased! While seeing these numbers on a page might not be enough to scare you, living though these next few years will not be a pleasant experience for humanity. The huge population in this world causes many problems, the biggest of which are exhaustion of fossil fuels and global warming. It is said that if everyone in China started driving our gas supply would last only 6 months. As horrible as this sounds, not everyone in China will drive all at once, second, it could be an opportunity. An opportunity to get our asses in gear and lead the world towards completely renewable fuels. Global warming is not such an easy problem to figure. It has many causes, and just as many effects, all of which I'm sure, humanity would rather avoid. While its true that termites produce the most methane that goes into the atmosphere (yes, more than cows), our pollution spews CO2 that binds to oxygen and breaks down ozone while creating a blanket of insulation. So the ozone cannot deflect the suns rays and this new blanket keeps them from bouncing back into space. Not only does this create higher temperatures, it creates violent changes in weather patterns, for instance Hurricane Katrina. It kills fish and polar bears, and is flooding sea level villages.

Obama after the Children!

Many parents were against their children watching the president speak. They refused to sign the waver, or kept their kids from school. They believe Obama is trying to brain wash their children into socialists. The fear of his influence in their children's lives seems unfounded and paranoid. The speak he gave was merely a pep talk, showing the importance of education and the necessity of working hard. Personal responsibility was a key point in his speech, something I'm sure even the parents that refused to let their children watch, teach. Another fact I'm sure the parents didn't know was that Obama was not the first precedent to talk to students. He was in fact, the third, Regan and Bush Senior also traveled to school and spoke to an audience of students. There was no outrage then, and there shouldn't be now. Obama is merely trying to connect to the children of the nation he leads and motivate them to succeed for themselves and the future of the nation.

Once again, I have failed to find a way to post a video, but I shall provide the needed links so that the videos may be found without hassle. Without adue:
Video Segment 1:



Video Segment 2:



These videos are about the recent death of millions of honey bees all over the world. And while that seemingly has no connection to the history course this blogg was created for, it very definitely relates to the economy and current world technology. The death of bees, though it has had little effect on the general population so far, if continued, will increase the price of most all foods. The bees will be in higher demand, being shipped off all over the country, less crops will be getting pollinated, meaning a rise in most food that rely on bees (most foods have air pollinated ingredient). Imagine, honey being a luxury! Only the rich will be able to afford it! This also is relevant because the of the scientists main theory, the pesticides. As said in the videos, it is a chemical that is not strong enough to harm us, but causes confusion and immune system failure for insects, the exact things that scientist are finding in the abandoned colones. These pesticides are a product of new technology, made easier because of the "flat" part of "Hot, Flat and Crowed" and the demand of a world of consumers forcing farmers to mass produce in monocrop farms.

Who wares the pants!

In Sudan women cannot wear pants lawfully. There are multiple accounts of women, being arrested and confined, or whipped 40 times merely for wearing pants. I doubt, personally, i have ever met a woman that has always word dresses or a skirt. Everyone wares pants, and in most cases, they are much more modest than the alternative. Skirts are short and revealing, even long ones fly with the wind and expose skin. Pants, if they are not sagging, show nothing. I know not why they are forbidden to wear pants, it says nothing specifically about it in the Koran other than women must be modest. The belief that women should be modest is something that i agree with, it is believed that all people should cover themselves, people don't want to see that. Stealing a quote from my summer camp: "Modest is hottest".

Frog in Pepsi?!

A few days ago a gutted and decomposing frog was found in a can of Pepsi soda. The offending can was sent to the FDA for testing but beyond the results and a basic check of the nearest bottling plant, nothing has been done. I find myself worried over Pepsi's response to this disgusting find. Absolutely nothing. The have refused to comment further than saying that it is almost impossible in their facility, obviously its a tad more possible then they thought. A representative was kind on the phone until she learned that they had been reported to the FDA, her facade fell rapidly. After that, the company has made no move to do anything but quiet down this situation. I believe this shows where the companies priorities are, certainly not with the people. They are a business, a cold money-making machine. It matters not how the frog got in, although it should be ended before another such incident, but that it did, somewhere during the companies possession of the product. If one has every seen the movie The Cooperation they will note that corporations are modeled after psychopaths, this is once such time as safety and happiness of the consumer is ignored in pursuit of money. Personally, i will not be partaking of Pepsi any longer.

Amy DeNegri took pictures of the can in question right after her husband gagged on its contents.