2010 is now the warmest year in the past 130

NASA reports that 2005 is now not the record breaker, it is now this year. When natural forces plays along with human forces, drastic changes occur. This year is a prime example. NY Times article quotes;

Some of the year’s most striking warming was again seen in the Arctic. Canada’s Hudson Bay, for instance, is typically half-covered by ice by the end of November. By Nov. 30, however, only 17 percent of the bay was iced over. The lack of sea ice appeared to be playing a major role in warming the atmosphere in the region, scientists said.

The year was also marked by extreme weather events, from a record-breaking heat wave in Russia in July to catastrophic floods in Pakistan. At least 17 nations, many in Asia, set all-time single-day heat records. Abnormally high sea temperatures were also blamed for a global bleaching of coral reefs.

Personally, I am not a firm believer in global warming/global climate change, but I can't argue something is going awry. My idea is that nature is the biggest explanation, however, these events could be frightening to anybody.

Amazon extends free shipping

The free shipping cutoff for Christmas was pushed back for people who procrastinated for shopping. This is a great move because this will cause people top make decisions faster and maybe buy more stuff.

The new holiday-season deadline to qualify for Amazon's popular "Super Saver Shipping" option is Dec. 17, according to a revised timetable announced Friday. The previous cutoff date under the program had been Dec. 16.
The free-shipping offer applies to all Amazon purchases of at least $25.
The extension is aimed at boosting Amazon's sales during the pivotal holiday shopping season.

I want to see how the market reacts to this. Amazon looks like it is consistently going up by this diagram, and the addition of the Christmas season makes Amazon more promising.

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is...

Julian Assange is now being prosecuted by the United States in retaliation from the embarrassing cables released over the past year.

Assange has been remanded in custody in Britain after a European arrest warrant was issued by Sweden, which wants to question Assange about allegations made by two women of sexual crimes. He has denied the allegations.
"I came to Sweden as a refugee publisher involved with an extraordinary publishing fight with the Pentagon, where people were being detained and there is an attempt to prosecute me for espionage," Assange said in an interview in the documentary, aired on Swedish public television.

If you don't know who Mr. Assange is, well he is basically the main man in the creation of the website Wikileaks (founded in 2006) that has "leaked" multiple harmful documents on governments and other political figures. Wikileaks is self proclaimed that they are present to report the truth to the people. Check these sites out for more info: Wikipedia Wikileaks

And no, Wikipedia and Wikileaks have no known correlation to each other other than their names.

Here is a picture of Assange earlier this year, who just so happened to be in a family's vacation photos.

Steve Jobs - CEO of the decade

Many of us know about Apple and why it is so great. The marketing schemes and revolutionary products are state of the art and are of the highest quality. But there is a story behind this that I did not know about before. Here is an excerpt from an article about how Steve Jobs got apple to where it is today.

After pulling his own company back from the brink of bankruptcy before the decade started, he almost single-handedly went on to save the recording industry with the iPod and iTunes. He revolutionized handheld devices and touch-screen technology with the iPhone. And he may well usher in a post-PC era of computing with his latest gadget, the iPad.

No wonder Apple's stock is above 300 dollars, 43 times what it was a decade ago. People see this company as one that will continue to reign over the tech industry and give the example for success. In the long run, it looks reassuring that their stock will climb even higher.

Mental Health Break

Awesome skateboard maneuvers in San Fran

Ireland's Pickle

Ireland is following in the American footsteps of harmful spending mistakes. They closely resemble our own problem with banks and home foreclosures. CNN reports:

Irish banks, like others around the world, loaned money to people who in some cases couldn't pay it back. Cheap loans created extra demand for housing and as prices surged the construction industry raced to build more.

 Just as the economy of America is getting back on it's feet, Ireland falls over on itself. The hangover of reckless funds is settling in resembling our recent fall in 08. Ireland is not asking for outside aid though, while America received China's aid. I feel as if history is just repeating itself. It appears that countries around the world need to enact reforms to their spending habits and to revive from their economic slumps. This is easier said than done, but I believe we can learn from our past and move onto more pressing problems.

Balance the Budget

The NYTimes has a game you can play, balance the budget!

One potential aspect of balancing the budget is basically to cut military spending. This could potentially save around 262 billion by 2030. This is a very strict cut most people would most likely agree with, along with myself. Though, I do believe some cuts can and should be made. Here is a quote from Wired about the relationship between the deficit and military.

 Whether Washington politicians will actually cut defense is uncertain, even with the giant federal deficit and weak economy. The incoming chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Rep. Buck McKeon, said on Monday that defense cuts were a “red line” for him. And the Pentagon leadership is focused on spending its cash more wisely, not necessarily spending less of it. Adams noted that the military wasn’t immune to cuts during the deficit-slashing attempts that defined the late 80s and most of the 1990s. But that was before the U.S. got attacked on its own soil and launched two wars with murky endpoints.

If we start pulling out more troops, we will eventually be able to save more than 100 billion. Military is a major investment that we need to have until there is world peace, which will most likely never happen in our lifetimes. However, where we are almost 14 trillion dollars in debt, so saving money is a high priority. Who knows what will happen though, we can only try to make a difference and watch.

Mental Health Break

Full hour long concert brought to you by Radiohead.

LimeWire, Finally Shut Down...

After a four year long legal battle with a federal judge in New York, LimeWire, a file trading database, is forced to disable it's software. The company has most commonly been used for illegally sharing music, with billions of dollars in losses for the music industry. Sharing music illegally is common knowledge amongst teenagers and young adults. It is hard to find someone who has not used an illegal service for free music. Here is an excerpt from the New York Times article that reported on what happened on Tuesday:

 Although LimeWire, the file-sharing service that allows users to swap music that is a major descendant of Napster, is on the verge of vanishing in its current form, the company will continue negotiations with the major music companies about a licensing deal to offer music legally for sale with a subscription service.

LimeWire will no longer allow illegal downloading and follow the path of fellow companies such as Napster. Clearly, this path of legality is the righteous one. The losses the music industry has had are astronomical in size. However, the weight put on the company for the money lost seems exorbitant because it is mostly the fault of internet users who took absolute advantage of the database. If LimeWire did not exist, there would, and are, hundreds of other ways to get illegal music on the internet. I am not sure how this legal hit will affect the company in the long run, but in the short run they are surely going to go through some rough times.

Mental Health Break

Toilet Paper Is Now Greener Than Ever Thought Possable

MSNBC reports that there is a new green breakthrough that might catch on. Toilet paper is not being marketed without the brown cardboard roll inside of it. Though on a small scale, this will most likely save the use of much paper which does not need to be used.



If you think about it, the roll inside toilet paper is completely unnecessary. So what if the paper does not come off the roll as neatly? It is all going to be used in the same fashion. On a serious note, this minor breakthrough is just one step towards cleaning up our act and living our lives with the most efficiency.

Here is a video about our plastic waste from VBSTV, an independent internet news site. Even if you do not believe in global climate change / global warming, this is a problem that no one can deny.

Africa: The Common Misperceptions

In the past few years I have, as well as many others I know, thought of Africa as a backwards country. Personally, I receive this idea most likely by viewing discovery channel or the history channel specials on Africa. These shows need interesting subject matter so they focus on primitive African tribes or the vast ranges of land inhabited by wild animals. Thomas Friedman's book Hot, Flat, and Crowded talks about the problem of Americans being "as dumb as we wanna be". Many people in America do not know much about Africa and just take the one visual of the country displayed in media as a main source. This makes people generalize about Africa. This is an excerpt from an article by CNN correspondent Robyn Curnow.

     It was Chris Karanja, who is corporate communications manager from Kenya Airways. He phoned to point out that one of the recent interviewees on Marketplace Africa misrepresented the airline industry in Africa. The guest said that you couldn’t fly across Africa from west to east or east to west and that if you wanted to travel across Africa you would have to fly to Europe and back.
     Now, this was a real problem some time ago but he says Kenya Airways now operates many flights across the continent. Besides his commercial interest in pointing out the guest’s error, he also stressed that it made Africa seem backward.
     Now, the perception that Africa is 'backward' is something that irritates and worries many businesspeople on the continent, particularly those working for world-class companies or in highly developed industries.

The common misconceptions of Africa are definitely not helping them. The African marketplace is not one to look down upon. Africa may one day pull itself out of negative perceptions and dampen the worries of industries invested in the country. This picture is proof that Africa is now more modern than ever before.

Johannesburg Skyline

White House Scramble

As election day closes in (8 days until election) the white house is becoming increasingly panicky. Obama has been going around the country to endorse candidates and promote his party. Newsweek reports:

Despite the White House’s repeated insistence that it is in control, the president's public schedule suggests an administration in panic mode. Late last week Obama did a campaign blitz through five states—Oregon, Washington, California, Nevada, and Minnesota—to endorse candidates and appear at fundraisers.

The administration is trying to motivate voters more than ever, relaying that the democrats will continue to have control. the republicans on the other hand continue to appear serious and enthusiastic.

Current polling shows the GOP poised to pick up as many as 80 new seats in the House of Representatives (it would need only 39 to win control of the chamber) and up to eight Senate seats.

The amount of urgency the administration has appears serious and capable of continuing the current trend of control. We will just have to wait and see as the number of days until election day decreases even more.

Mental Health Break

The recession hit millions hard in 2008, but it also hit rich people. Some say they feel left out and forgotten. People must not forget about the rich.

"It's just not fair," said the 49-year-old real estate developer and grandson of oil baron Duncan Chandler. "Everyone is worrying about an uncertain future and coming together to express their outrage, and I don't get to be a part of it."
Staring out at the ornate garden where workers were installing a large marble fountain, Chandler sighed and added, "It's like I don't even exist."

Read more about this catastrophe at The Onion.

Lagalizing Pot a Good Stimulus Bill?

Over 60,000 arrests related to marijuana? Not only would the legalization of pot help our destroyed economy, but it would save money by saving time and space. The decriminalization of marijuana would simply be a great push for the state of California.
The legalization reminds me of the prohibition, where all alcohols were illegal by federal law. Well, after legalized again, there was a decrease in underground markets and crime. In addition, the legalization of alcohol also increased taxes contributed to the U.S. government. I have no doubt that the legalization or decriminalization of pot would follow on the same path as prohibition in the early twentieth century.

Wal-Mart doing some good.

Wal-mart, a massive supermarket chain with over 2 million employees that rivals some countries, is going to double the percentage of local produce. The "local" refers to any produce grown in the state, this is quite general, but it would help smaller economies and farmers. The NY Times article by Stephanie Clifford says:

Wal-Mart Stores announced a program on Thursday that focuses on sustainable agriculture among its suppliers as it tries to reduce its overall environmental impact.
The program is intended to put more locally grown food in Wal-Mart stores in the United States, invest in training and infrastructure for small and medium-size farmers, particularly in emerging markets, and begin to measure how efficiently large suppliers grow and get their produce into stores.

  This program would help local economies and reduce pollution from transportation. This new plan, which should be enacted by 2015, will be a significant step towards a greener America.

U.S trade deficit is not really looking up...

New York Times reports that the trade deficit between the U.S. and China is still widening. The capitalistic nature of America is pushing American business to outsource and to buy products from China because of the lower prices of labor.

"The trade deficit grew to $46.3 billion, up from a revised $42.6 billion in July and exceeding forecasts for a gap of around $44 billion. The deficit with China accounted for $28 billion of the August shortfall, up from $25.9 billion the month before.
The widening gap with China comes amid rising concerns in Washington about China’s trade dominance and its effect on the global economic recovery. The Obama administration and some lawmakers are pressing China to allow its currency to appreciate more quickly, hoping it will temper Chinese exports by making them more expensive"

The article continues with:

“The only way this works in reducing the U.S. trade deficit is if U.S. consumers shift their consumption of Chinese goods to U.S.-produced goods,” said Dan Greenhaus, the chief economic strategist for Miller Tabak & Company. “You need to increase the appeal of U.S.-based goods.”

Even the thought of making U.S. based goods more appealing is difficult to conjure. Looking around my house, I bet three fourths have a label saying "made in China". Simply, American goods are more expensive in general and may by worse than their Chinese counterparts. One classic example is the automobile industry where Ford is having a horrible time while companies like Toyota are thriving in relation. The better reliability and price do drive home the unfortunate idea that America is not the best at everything.

Political Philosophy

The Quiz

The following are your scores. They are based on a gradual range of 0 to 12. For instance, a Conservative/Progressive score of 3 and 0 will both yield a result of social conservative, yet 0 would be an extreme conservative and 3 a moderate conservative

Conservative/Progressive score: 3
You are a social conservative. You believe in traditional values, and care first and foremost about your country, your family, and your religion. You dislike the agenda of the left because you see them as trying to destroy these things.

Capitalist Purist/Social Capitalist score: 5
You are a Moderate Capitalist. You support an economy that is by and large a free market, but has public programs to help people who can't help themselves or need a little help. Pretty much you believe in the American economy how it currently is.

Libertarian/Authoritarian score: 3
You are libertarian. You think that the government is making way too many unnecessary laws that are taking away our innate rights. You believe that the government's job is primarily to protect people from harming other people, but after that they should mind their own business, and if we give the government too much power in controlling our lives, it can lead to fascism.

Pacifist/Militarist score: 2
You're a Pacifist. You are angered that the United States thinks it should dominate the world through its military force. You think that the only time war is necessary is when we are in direct danger of being attacked. You also believe the US spends way too much of its money on defense, as we can practically cut it in half and still easily defend ourselves, and use that money to fix all our economic problems.

Overall, you would most likely fit into the category of Republican

Washington Spends Sloppily

Senator George Lemieux from Florida has a point here. He says that government spending is a problem, which is inefficiency. Tax payers money does go and should go necessary programs such as Medicare and Social Security, but a large sum is wasted in an unclear fashion. If taxes were raised after the recession and government spending was more efficient, wouldn't a grand sum of capital be available for paying off America's crippling amount of debt?

For love and/or Money

The Census Bureau reports that there is a sharp rise in unmarried opposite sex couples living together. As the economy has rendered more than 10 percent of Americans unemployed, saving money by housing with a boyfriend or girlfriend is becoming more popular. Fox News reports:

'It would be odd to say this year was emotionally different, so it's more likely practical considerations that are behind the increase in cohabitation,' said Rose Kreider, a family demographer at the Census Bureau who reviewed the numbers.

Her analysis, published Thursday in a 19-page census working paper previewing the 2010 data, shows that newly formed unmarried couples living together were more likely to have one partner unemployed, who was often male. They also typically lived in the South where poverty was more widespread and sometimes in larger households, such as with parents or other couples.

The economic downturn in recent years has affected many aspects of life for different people. The multiple statistics that the Census has provided exemplify how much life has changed. It is now much more practical to move in with a girlfriend or boyfriend to save money when more and more individuals are unemployed or have lost their old homes to foreclosure. Until the recession starts to significantly look up, America should expect more unmarried couples living together. Though, one may be able to look at the recession in a positive light because couples are closer to each other than ever before.

China Blocks Earth Exports

A Chinese fisherman collided with two Japanese fishing boats while in mixed territory. The Chinese fisherman was taken by Japanese. As a result of this recent altercation between China and Japan, China has chosen to stop exporting crucial minerals to Japan until the man is returned.

HONG KONG — Sharply raising the stakes in a dispute over Japan’s detention of a Chinese fishing trawler captain, the Chinese government has placed a trade embargo on all exports to Japan of a crucial category of minerals used in products like hybrid cars, wind turbines and guided missile.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Wen Jiabao personally called for Japan’s release of the captain, who was detained after his vessel collided with two Japanese coast guard vessels about 40 minutes apart as he tried to fish in waters controlled by Japan but long claimed by China. Mr. Wen threatened unspecified further actions if Japan did not comply.

This article also brings up this frightening statistic:

China mines 93 percent of the world’s rare earth minerals, and more than 99 percent of the world’s supply of some of the most prized rare earths, which sell for several hundred dollars a pound.

Japan requires China's earth exports, as Japan itself does not have many natural resources.  As a result of this dead stop in supply, earth metal prices are soaring up. The world is hesitant to dig into their own supplies of natural minerals because of the high cost of separating the wanted deposits from the unwanted and the dangers of releasing harmful chemicals into the environment. As a result, China now dominates the earth market which allows it to have almost complete control over supply and cost. China's monopoly of rare earth minerals is surely a subject that countries should stress more of.

Quran Burning

Tom Friedman, in Hot, Flat, and Crowded, says that one of America's greatest problems is that the public has a tendency to act as "dumb as we wanna be." I tend to agree with this idea, as many Americans are ignorant and lack knowledge about  foreigners. Friedman reports in the opening of his book that America is closing up it's borders mainly because of this ignorance which causes America to be portrayed negatively throughout the world. This stereotype of Americans does accurately describe the recent story of Terry Jones, a pastor in a small town in Florida. Terry Jones plans to hold a ceremony on 9-11 to burn the Muslim Qoran, the equivalent of the Bible for Christians. This next excerpt is about how the ceremony would be a strong statement saying America is not tolerant of Muslims and other faiths. The Associated Press reads:

Pakistan's ambassador to the United States is calling on conservative radio and television host Glenn Beck to denounce the planned burning of the Quran to show that Americans are tolerant of other faiths.
"I think it would help if Mr. Glenn Beck came out against it, and said that people of faith do not burn the books of people of other faith," Husain Haqqani told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
Beck earlier this week wrote in an Internet blog posting that burning the Quran is like burning the flag or the Bible — something people can do in the United States, but shouldn't.
"Our good Muslim friends and neighbors will be saddened," he wrote. "It makes the battle that they face inside their own communities even harder."

Terry Jones is a prime example of "dumb as we wanna be" as said by Thomas Friedman. It is wise to have some sort of influential voice (Glenn Beck) raise awareness against this pastor so that to prevent any further tainting of America's perceptions. I completely agree that Koran burning is a heinous action against Muslims. This 9-11 ceremony would not only portray America as intolerant or evil, but also put Americans in more danger by Muslim extremists... and rightfully so.

2050

Britain's population will be the biggest of European nations by the year 2050. This prediction, along with other predictions of population growth in the rest of the world, all point to the next few decades as the deadline to make drastic changes in environment and population growth.

Nowadays financial markets are more than ever concerned with making it as far as day’s end; what’ll happen in 2050 tends to worry them about as much as what happened in 1850. These forecasts barely rate a shrug.

People need to think more than ever before about growth in economics, population, and pollution in the environment. Thomas Friedman says in Hot, Flat, and Crowded:

Our young people are so much more idealistic than we deserve them to be, and our broader public, though beaten down at times, is eager to be enlisted - enlisted to repair our infrastructure, enlisted to help others.

If what Friedman says is true about the new generation, it will be a great burden off the back of the world. Fixing the degrading Earth is more of a necessity than ever before.

Are electric cars the future?

New York Times Green blog reports how in the next few decades there may be massive improvements in electric car batteries. As it is, it takes hours to replenish the energy, but if improvements are continually made recharging could take place in minutes. What caught my attention was this excerpt:

In the end, Mr. Wilcke said, breakthroughs in batteries and electric cars may happen elsewhere.
“What we do in the U.S. doesn’t matter,” he said. “What matters is what China does. The Chinese government has a goal that 50 percent of all new cars sold in China by 2020 will be battery-powered. That is what will change the game.”

One of the biggest players in pollution  is China, so it is obvious that if they change their energy habits, the environment would take a step forwards towards the better. In Hot, Flat, and Crowded, Tom Friedman talks about how China and India are now consuming more energy than ever.

That (combination of population growth and greater wealth) is what's new about the forces propelling the Energy-Climate Era: They are demand -driven, as so many more people suddenly are, can, or will be living a middle-class lifestyle.

As more and more people come from the rural areas in China searching for the middle-class life, it is important that energy efficient energy is pushed forward in time for any more population booms. If the new electric car batteries are developed sooner than later they will be just in time for upcoming generations.

Oil Embargo

There is a bounty of tension between what should be done about energy, namely nonrenewable energy such as gasoline and coal. Americans are in the deepest rut of this problem as a result of heavily relying on middle eastern countries for oil. This excerpt from Tom Friedman's book Hot, Flat, and Crowded beautifully depicts how far behind America is from being an energy independent country:

I can think of no better example of America's lack of sustained focus to take on a big challenge than the way we have dealt with our energy crises. In the wake of the 1973-74 Arab oil embargo, the Europeans and Japanese responded by raising gasoline taxes and, in Japan's case particularly, by launching a huge drive towards energy efficiency. France invested especially heavily in nuclear energy as a state project, with the result that today France gets 78 percent of its energy from nuclear plants and much of the waste is reprocessed and turned into energy again. Even Brazil, a developing country, launched a national program to produce ethanol from sugarcane to make itself less dependent on imported oil. Today, between Brazil's domestic oil production and its ethanol industry, it doesn't need to import crude oil.

New York Times produced this article:

An explosion on April 20, 2010 aboard the Deepwater Horizon, a drilling rig working one mile below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico, led to the accidental release of nearly five million barrels of oil, the world's largest spill by far. BP, the rig's operator, failed repeatedly to plug the leak but the catastrophe did not lead to widespread efforts to reduce oil use.
It did, however, lead to a wave of new regulation and legislation that promises to fundamentally remake an industry that has operated hand-in-glove with its government overseers for decades.  Some in the the industry feared that the BP accident would be a turning point for oil exploration the way the Three Mile Island nuclear plant accident in 1979 contributed to a virtual 30-year moratorium on nuclear plant construction.

From these two articles it is easy to see how far behind we are in the world when it comes to independence from oil and abundance of clean energy. The recent BP oil spill is similar to the Three Mile Island incident thirty years ago. The nuclear accident caused anti-nuclear energy sentiment causing a ban on construction. Looking back, however, the idea of stopping the production of clean energy sounds, well, dumb. The relationship between the BP spill and the Three Mile Island breakdown could show some positive movement in the future. The best outcome would be to reduce our usage of oil and to start catching up to countries such as France and Brazil. Both countries' energy standards are something to look up to.

Spare The Air Day(s)

The fourth Spare the Air Day of the season was called for Thursday as hot, stagnant air remained in the Bay Area.

After going most of the summer without a Spare the Air day, the Bay Area is having its third in less than two weeks.
With ozone levels in the air expected to approach unhealthy levels today, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District declared a Spare the Air day for the region.
The agency encourages people on Spare the Air days to take bikes, public transit or carpools instead of driving solo, to cook indoors rather than barbecue, and to avoid using aerosol sprays and gas-powered gardening equipment.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/09/01/BA4A1F6ETS.DTL&type=science#ixzz0yKxo4lwW

 San Fransisco promotes another Spare the Air Day today. The aspirations of this tradition seems to be a great idea just before the traveling weekend coming up, especially as drivers start to ravage the roads. It is reported that this weekend traveling is going up 11% so people can head to cooler areas.

The travel organization projects that 3.5 million Californians will drive to their destinations over the three-day weekend. Roughly 315,000 will fly, and 170,000 will use a train, bus or boat.

 The negative aspects are inevitable this weekend, so it is fortunate that the Bay Area is promoting green thinking. As Thomas Friedman says in the introduction of Hot, Flat, and Crowded, it is becoming increasingly important to diminish the threat of global warming. Save the Air Day is one idea that will hopefully contribute to the end of our unhealthy reliance on energy.

Air Can?

Thomas L. Friedman's Hot, Flat, and Crowded explains the necessity for a better environment. Friedman argues that the world has a problem and we need to make changes, fast. This Hong Kong infomercial about fresh air in a can demonstrates the need for improvement in the air.

The New York Times reported:

HONG KONG — ‘‘Do your feeble breathing skills let you down? Does standing up tire you out?’’ The answer: Buy a breath or two of ‘‘Fresh Air’’ — the ‘‘revolutionary new product’’ that lets you experience breathing ‘‘like the rest of the world does.’’

The product's main focus:

‘‘Fresh Air’’ is the new campaign tool of Hong Kong’s Clean Air Network, a nongovernmental group that promotes awareness of, you guessed it, the wretched air quality in this city of seven million.

Although this product might seem like a joke, it does raise awareness of the bad air quality of major cities and the need to reduce pollution. Tom Friedman stresses a move to Code Green, influencing innovation in energy efficiency and clean power. The world faces this problem, and this Hong Kong campaign is a force than can help propel improvement in the atmosphere.

Post # 1

Good stuff is coming.