Take a Bike Outta Grime!!!

I recently read that the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) has officially determined that Co2 is a pollutant. I thought that was a known fact, but I assume that maybe they think it'll be easier to make it more known if they say it. They are currently on the impossible job of regulation Co2, which I have no idea how to change except if everyone started riding bikes. The past few days I've been thinking about it and so I decided to list all the pros of riding a bike to get around instead of a car.

1. Riding your bike not only gets you around town but it gets you in shape.

"Your strength, stamina, aerobic fitness and general muscle function will all be improved. Cycling is a low impact activity and one of the safest ways to exercise without risk of over-exertion or strain to muscles and joints. Regular physical activity also facilitates other healthy behaviour and could help you reduce weight or even give up smoking". To read more on the benefits of riding a bike click here.

2. Riding your bike is obviously cost efficient. Gas prices in my area are from 2.83$ to 3.09$ dollars a gallon. Unfortunately I can't find any statistics to see how much you'd save a year, but I'm sure you could do the math. Plus, who's really going to argue the point that you don't save money riding a bike.

3. It saves the environment.

• SUV's release up to forty-seven percent more car pollution than the average-sized car.
• The amount of car pollution that is released from cars is much more than the amount of pollution released by a nuclear power plant.
• Ozone pollution is primarily due to the pollution that is released by cars. Seventy-two percent of nitrogen oxides and fifty-two percent of hydrocarbons, which is a component of smog, are released by cars.
• The Journal of Epidemiology and Public Health published a study that suggested that most childhood cancers are caused by air pollution, which can be caused by cars and more.
• There are 752 cars for every 1,000 people in the United States.
• In China, the number of cars that are driven has doubled every five years for the past thirty years.
• Thirty-thousand people in the United States each year die from conditions that are caused or exacerbated by car pollution.
• Half of the people in the United States live in areas that fail to meet federal air quality standards at least several days a year.
• Eighty million people live in areas that are continually not living up to these standards.
• SUV's release 28-gallons of carbon dioxide into the air for every gallon of gasoline that is used.
• Car pollution has numerous effects, both physically and environmentally, like acid rain, smog, lung cancer, and respiratory problems to read more click here.
  

4. You can get a bad ass looking fixie. Aesthetically pleasing, environmentally friendly, economically progressive, and good for the environment. Whats not to like

Summery of a Frontline Video

Im loving this comic so much because this is basically a summery of a front line news special that we watch in class. Why cant economists have the same opinion on anything?

South Korea Goes into Afghanistan

(SEOUL, South Korea) — South Korea says it plans to send up to 350 troops to Afghanistan next year to protect its civilian aid workers.

South Korea currently has no deployment in Afghanistan, after withdrawing some 200 troops in 2007. The pullout, though previously planned, followed a hostage standoff in which the Taliban killed two South Koreans after demanding Seoul immediately withdraw its troops.

The Defense Ministry says the Cabinet approved a new plan Tuesday to send troops to protect aid workers, and that it will be sent to the National Assembly this week. Opposition parties are against the proposal, but the ruling party has enough seats to guarantee passage.

The troops will be deployed from July 1, 2010, to Dec. 31, 2012, to Parwan province.

I have really mixed feelings right now on how this is gonna turn out. Theres to much to speculate on and not enough information to back up any claims but I do have a few ideas on what might happen. I think that this will improve relations between South Korea and America. I think that the Korean soldiers will be attacked by Taliban much faster because they'll assume that since they scared them off once that they can do it again. Not alot to say but its an interesting addition to that messed up situation

This article written by James P Ruban, a Newsweek columnist kind of pisses me off. He writes a different side of a blog I just posted. He criticizes Obama for being realistic. He thinks that what the president says and doesn’t say affects other countries. I can’t argue that this isn’t true. The president is an international force of influence. However I feel that a Obama is a reform president. He could say a bunch of crap making his speech more about poetry and less about execution of information between the public and the oval office. It seems like whatever Obama does he cant seem to not get hated upon by online columnists. Give the guy a break. To read the rest of this article click here

Viva Iran

"The Green Movement belongs to the youth," says Mohsen Makhmalbaf, an exiled filmmaker who claims to speak for the opposition. "When the revolution took place, Iran's population was 30 million; now it's 70 million and most are young. They want freedom. They want to fall in love. They want the opposition. They want a normal life. " Anti-regime activities are often not coordinated; many initiatives emerge from small groups or individuals — "ordinary people who invite others to go to the streets, little people with charisma, like artists or writers who invite people to go to the streets," Makhmalbaf says.

The youth is getting tired of oppression in Iran. The population in Iran has gone up from thirty million to seventy million and the youth control and lead this revolution within the state. Its terrible that Iran has to go through such internal turmoil but I really admire revolutions. Not the fighting or the bloodshed but how people join together over one purpose and how they over come. Iran is no way near from breaking free from its religious and political restraints that’s has left it paralyzed into joining the modern world on cultural changes. I believe that with support from outside countries and the slow change in politics in Iran plus the international watch on them , that they will be forced by mounting pressure to change their ways.

to read more click here

Anti-Muslim Europe

We all know of the racist tension in America. Racial controversy between whites and blacks, hispanic americans, asian americans, there isn't a rock unturned when it comes to racism in America. A group that has been targeted by the public but by the government in the past eight years is Muslim Americans. Due to the religions association with small but extreme groups of terrorists any one in a turban or a head scarf gets strange looks. However no laws, official laws, have been put into place in America, Europe however is a different story. France has passed a law making in illegal to wear head scarfs in public schools. Sweden banned the building of minaretes in the alpine country. I didn't know Europe would be like that for some reason I assumed that they were more open to racial and religious issues. I guess I'm ignorant to ignorance. To read more about this subject click right here

Co2 Regulation

For those who don't know or those who are in deep denial, we have a serious problem with the emission of toxic gasses to our environment. Theres no denying it now, we need to find some way of controlling our carbon foot print. Realistically, I doubt that we can make it not exist, we will always be polluting but i know that there is a way of regulating this before it gets out of our control. Obama has kicked the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) into gear on finding ways to regulate our pollution. The president Lisa Jackson has officially named Co2 as a pollutant not that anyone didn't know. My one question is how can we effectivly stop our Co2 emission? to read more on this go to TIME

Hes not Winston Churchill

I'm never really sure when a politician is lying about something. Weather it is their opinion on gay rights, health care plans, or the war. Thats why I'm not surprised that Obama is putting more troops into Afghanistan. Obama for some reason was the new Jesus, he was the first black president, he is a nobel peace prize winner, hes also a great basketball player but it doesn't make him able to stick to his word when it comes to everything he said. He said hed quit smoking but instead he just banned flavored cigarettes that attract kids. Obama as Fareed Zakaria said is a realist.

His newsweek article said "

This first year of his presidency has been a window into Barack Obama's world view. Most presidents, once they get hold of the bully pulpit, cannot resist the temptation to become Winston Churchill. They gravitate to grand rhetoric about freedom and tyranny, and embrace the moral drama of their role as leaders of the free world. Even the elder Bush, a pragmatist if there ever was one, lapsed into dreamy language about "a new world order" once he stood in front of the United Nations. Not Obama. He has been cool and calculating, whether dealing with Russia, Iran, Iraq, or Afghanistan. A great orator, he has, in this arena, kept his eloquence in check. Obama is a realist, by temperament, learning, and instinct. More than any president since Richard Nixon, he has focused on defining American interests carefully, providing the resources to achieve them, and keeping his eyes on the prize.

I really like this take on Obama because it doesn't put him down for his inability to stop the war. Zakaria's opinion is similar to mine, we'd prefer someone who is realistic and direct in their plans. So many politicians promise things that they can't possibly make happen. And I know that thats the nature of politics but still its pretty disappointing when your lied to by your countries leader. I'd prefer a realistic approach then one construed by fiction

Suicide and Children

Its always a tragedy when someone dies but when someone takes their own life it effects so many people. In this article it follows a woman who's mother killed herself and her journey of discovery and recovery. This woman being a psychologist herself she self examines herself to discover how to help children through a parents suicide. You can't really tell a child how to deal with a suicide because there is really no good way to deal with it, its that lack of communication between an adult and a child that leads to a child's depression. Children automatically feel like they are to be blamed when a parent commits suicide. Its a very sad but interesting article.

Katrina Children Still Suffering

Its kinda weird how I totally forgot about Katrina, just because it effected so many people one of those people being a really good friend of mine. Obviously my friend is safe in California now but so many are still there especially the ones bellow the poverty line. In this article it just gives the statistics of how the children who went through Katrina are still in need of help. Obama was scheduled to visit for only one day and took a bashing in the press. I guess its what he does during the next three years that really matters. I'm just so surprised that they still haven't gotten the necessary help from the government.

Oaksterdam

In Oakland, California many medical marijuana dispensaries have been set up. This is not something very new but what is new is that Oakland is the only place where a school to grow marijuana has been functioning. Not that i have anything against marijuana in fact I think it should be legalized due to the financial benefits but right now I think its completely illegal to have a school teaching people how to grow and illegal substance. It doesn't make sense why its illegal but if its going to be illegal then don't have all these weird laws and degrees of punishment for the selling and purchasing of marijuana. Our state needs to pick a side.

Three Year College

I found this article pretty interesting to me just because I'm a senior in high school and i still don't really understand the way colleges work. The article is actually really cool because it says that we can save time and money buy reforming the college education scheme by making it three years. A year less of school and not losing tens of thousands sounds like a great deal. Our student loans won't be as much so we won't be in such heavy debt when we graduate. Its a dope article, people who don't like the education system right now should check it out.

Prime Sinister

So when I was in Italy I had heard about Silvio Berlusconi in the Italian news and when I watched BBC which was the only english speaking channel that I had in my hotel and I only heard bad things about this guy. He basically the comic book version of a corrupt politician, he been caught with prostitutes, changing laws to suit him, bullying politicians who oppose him. I don't know how he can still be in power but I'm glad that America doesn't have such an obviously corrupt person in power.

Cluster Headache Cure???

I found this article on accident when I was on newsweek.com looking for something to blog about but it was relevant to a movie we watched in my psychology class. The movie was based on a guy who had cluster headaches, which are super intense and painful headaches that can draw you to suicide. There hasn't been any real cures for these headaches and some of the medication is in fact dangerous to your body. In this article however, one person who suffers from cluster headaches found that LSD or the chemical in it, psilocybin, can stop cluster headaches. Its an interesting article, read it.

Drug Court Reform

Before January, Judge Wendell P. Gardner Jr. had never been hugged by a defendant. But he had to get into a different mindset when he took over as the District of Columbia's adult-drug-court judge at the beginning of the year. Now, each month when nonviolent drug offenders "graduate" from the five to 18 months of judge-supervised treatment, he steps off the bench and interacts with the users he helps keep out of jail. For the George H.W. Bush appointee, drug courts are not about politics, they are about treatment and results. "You get a sense you're really helping someone," he says.

Personally I support rehab over jail idea because I know a lot of people who are ex users who are in the NA and AA and they really aren't the type of people who need to be in jail. It seems like theres more justice in that system because non-violent drug abusers aren't dangerous they just have drug problems, they aren't a danger to society or those around them. The statistics show that going to jail does not keep you sober and you have a higher chance of sobriety in rehab.

Pro Gay Rights Evangelicist

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) Americans are a diverse, extraordinary, resilient, and passionate group of forgiving men and women. I wouldn't be standing beside them demanding full and equal treatment under the law and speaking out against the harm caused by religion-based bigotry at the National Equality March in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 11 if I thought they were not created in God's image the same as myself, same as my family, as we all are—we are all God's children.

These are the words of Brent Childers, an evangelicist, who is for gay rights. Hes basically one of a kind. In his article he talks about how he changed from a bigot to an open minded individual. Its really uplifting to see that people can change and for once someone has seen that the bible has positive values that have been used in politics on both sides.

Cartoon time!

I don't disagree with this cartoon but at the same time I don't agree which seems to be my opinion in everything politics. I don't think that America can handle that big of a change with such an unstable economy and the war going on. However it seems that on capital its a war and all they seem to is prevent each other from completing their goals.

Steven Colbert Is Not Serious

The thing about this video is its completely true. I know that its a huge mockery of hard core republicans but I have family members who believe hes being serious. I personally think that the Colbert Report is funnier than the Daily Show just because of Stevens ridiculous behavior.

Senator Sanders and Michael Moore

This video is really enlightening and it applies to my studies in econ and gov as well so I found it particularly interesting. I knew the parts about the "cowboy capitalism" and health care because I don't think we'll ever stop hearing about health care. Senator Sanders made some really good points about college which I vaguely knew about, but now am better informed. I don't want to say that I think he's a creditable source just because Michael Moore is asking him questions but that is what turned me on to the video in the first place

Jerk

So I read the newsweek interview with Richard Dawkins, who for those who don't know him, hes a evolutionary biologist and the author of "The God Delusion". What I got from this interview was that this guy is a jerk. He tells people that their opinions are stupid and ignorant. He was being quite rude to his interviewer. I just hate guys like Richard Dawkins, really grinds my gears!

The Olympics Will Not Be Held In Chicago

Chicago was turned down in the first round of voting which probably made President Obama pretty mad because that was his home town. I think that he just wanted the Olympics to be in Chicago so it would boost Chicagos wealth through the tourism that the Olympics bring.

here is the article

Germany's New Foreign Minister

Guido Westerwelle is Germany's new foreign minister and just happens to be openly gay. People think that its a big step for Germany mainly due to the Holocaust and what happened to the gays at that time. Personally I don't think its not fair that people are holding everyone in the country for what happened seventy years ago under a totalitarian government. There are worries for the foreign minister when he goes to anti-homophobic countries like Iran where they deny that there are any gays within the country. I'm seriously getting sick of the gay rights debate. Why do people even care people have been gay as long as people have been straight. Its not something that should affect his political views, except for the view on gay rights obviously.

Al Qaeda in America

In the past nine years support of Al Qaeda has gone up a lot since the Iraq war and the invasion of Afghanistan. The real worry is the growing support and new recruits in America. The FBI stopped a potential terrorist by the name of Najibullah Zazi who was going to blow up the Boston Bridge. I know we can't stop terrorism completely but how can we slow down the flow of support towards Al Qaeda? I think that if we were to pull our troops out it would give Al Qaeda the thrill of victory and they would come back to power again so its pointless to just leave. I think we need to do something for the Afghan community and the country that will get them to be on our good side because I don't know how much longer we as a country can be in this war.

Here the article

People Are Messed Up

So this guy in Virginia with the last name of Stevens, has been taken to court because he was caught with videos of him setting up fights with bull dogs and pigs and trying to sell them. The issue of videos and images of animal cruelty should be outlawed like child pornography was brought up to the supreme court but they turned it down because the distribution of the videos will not harm the animals. I think that you shouldn't be able to sell that kind of trash because we shouldn't support it. If we let animal abuse become a market it will make animal abuse happen more frequently

interesting article right here

China Beat Us To It

Tom Freidman thought we had the upper hand in green technology. He begged us to get ahead of the other countries by making advances in clean non pollutant technology. But apparently China got this message as well. I can't say that I'm sad that they're going green, if they do world pollution might decrease. I just wish that we had made these advances a few years ago because we've had so many warnings and yet we've made little movement towards that direction. If it becomes an international trend within the next few years as developing countries and the US compete then the world will become a safer place for the future

AIDS Vaccine!

An AIDS vaccine is in the making which makes me really happy and raises questions at the same time. This has been the longest AIDS vaccine trial but i wonder where other trials have failed? When will this be perfected to release to the public? I worry that this might become to expensive for lower wages to afford. But if this does come out to the public this will be a break through in medicine and hopefully will help us defeat other major fatal diseases such as cancer.

Its a must read

Obamas Ban on Flavored Tobacco

Obama plans to ban flavored tobacco products and personally i think its ridiculous because he is a smoker himself. He claims that it appeals to first time smokers because some flavored tobacco is fruit and candy flavored that might attract children but I really doubt that. Smoking is a personal choice and if they want fruit or candy they'll just go eat some. Why would they go out and smoke a cigarette because of the flavor, the dangers of smoking are very public so that should scare children away by itself.

Heres and article about the ban

"Popularity is like blood pressure," he says. "Sometimes it's high and sometimes it's low. What you need is to keep it under control."

The Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is doing a good job in his country. He has a real inspirational story and is extremely popular in Brazil so popular in fact that they want him to change the constitution so he could take a third term as president. From what I've read hes very intelligent and humble. Hes someone I think we'll see a lot more of as the year progresses because hes planning to get a million jobs for the Brazilians. Hes someone we could use a little advice from in this time in our economy.

Heres the article
The title of the blog was a quote from Luiz himself i thought it was a great analogy and quite funny aswell

cartoon time

this is kinda sad...

Edward Kennedy

This is a picture from Edward Kennedy's funeral.

India Gay Sex Laws

this is little bit of old news but im not sure if anyone new about it. apparently being gay in india was straight up against the law which is rediculous but the law was originally put in place druing the british colonial times.

Is Iran returning to normal?

first id like to say that this article is written by Fareed Zakaria, writes for newsweek, he has really interesting articles and writes well. i really like his work so i suggest reading his articles. this article is about how America cant really intervene in iran right now due to the change in power.

What is happening in Iran? On the surface, the country has returned to
normalcy. Demonstrations have become infrequent, and have been quickly
dispersed. But underneath the calm, there is intense activity and the beginnings
of a political opposition. In the past week, Mir Hossein Mousavi, the candidate
who officially lost last month's presidential election, has announced his
intention to create a "large-scale social movement" to oppose the government and
press for a more open political system. Mohammad Khatami, the reformist former
president, has called for a referendum on the government. Another powerful
former president, Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, has criticized the regime's
handling of the election and post-election "crisis." All three have demanded the
release of politicians and journalists imprisoned over the past month and held
without charges. (Those prisoners include Maziar Bahari, NEWSWEEK's Tehran
correspondent, a Canadian citizen, and an internationally recognized documentary
filmmaker.) These are not dissidents in the wilderness. Between them, the three
men have been at the pinnacle of power for most of the Islamic Republic's
existence.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/208656

study of children and race

if you have psyc with McAlister you will know they did a study on adults and it showed how we have been raised racist but here is a study with children from a young age. this study supports the video we watched in psyc.

At the Children's Research Lab at the University of Texas, a database is
kept on thousands of families in the Austin area who have volunteered to be
available for scholarly research. In 2006 Birgitte Vittrup recruited from the
database about a hundred families, all of whom were Caucasian with a child 5 to
7 years old.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/214989

The Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) is making more moves to become independent of japanese-american relations but America has nothing to fear. Its an interesting article because it shows Americas dependency on territorial additude.

For half a century, the United States and Japan have been pals across the
Pacific. Whenever officials from both countries meet, they almost always hail
the U.S.-Japan alliance as "the cornerstone" of America's foreign policy in Asia
and boast how it is "one of the most important bilateral relationships in the
world." But the ouster this week of the party that has governed Japan since
1955—and the arrival of a group that occasionally badmouths America's role in
the region—has frightened people that the happy days have come to an end. They
should relax.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/214810

wow this is sorta cool because i know geologists and they say to stay out of the feild but i guess you mix anything with oil you get money

http://curiouscapitalist.blogs.time.com/2009/08/31/the-financial-crisis-as-moneymaker/#more-6735

link to this story above

In Saturday's FT, Martin Sandbu tells the amazing tale of Farouk al-Kasim, the Iraqi geologist
who has been more responsible than anyone else for Norway's success as an oil
power.
[H]e and his Norwegian wife, Solfrid, had decided that their youngest
son, born with cerebral palsy, could only receive the care he needed there. But
it meant turning their backs on a world of comforts. Al-Kasim's successful
career had afforded them the prosperous lifestyle of Basra's upper-middle class.
Now they would live with Solfrid's family until he could find work, though he
had little hope of finding a job as rewarding as the one he had left behind. He
was not aware that oil exploration was under way on the Norwegian continental
shelf, and even if he had known, it wouldn't have been much cause for hope:
after five years of searching, still no oil had been found.
This was in 1968.
Once in Oslo, Al-Kasim paid a visit to the Ministry of Industry, just to see if
anyone there knew of any oil-company work in Norway. Before long he was
part of the inner circle of Norwegian government officials mapping out the
country's future as a major oil exporter. His most important early contribution,
as Sandbu tells it, was in persuading his Norwegian colleagues that the country
actually had a future as an oil exporter. All the early wells drilled had come
up empty, but Al-Kasim's analysis of the results convinced him that a big strike
was in the offing. It came in December 1969, with the discovery of the gigantic
undersea oil and gas field known as Ecofisk.

Basque terrorist? When did this start happening? Am i the only one who know who the Basques are?

this article is really long so heres the link ; http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1919110,00.html

"Experience has shown it's foolish to ever consider a terrorist group
definitively beaten. Still, it must be getting hard for officials in Spain and
France not to strut a tiny bit following the recent blows they've dealt the
separatist Basque organization Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA). In the past week
alone, authorities have unearthed 13 ETA weapons caches in France, and arrested
three alleged members suspected of staging two recent bombings in Spain.
Nevertheless, officials describe the group as just as dangerous as ever. "

The 13 French raids across southern France turned up no less than 48.5 lbs (22 kg) of PETN explosives, guns and ammunition, fuses, detonators, and a total of 352 lbs (160 kg) of ammonium nitrate, which can be used to make bombs. The PETN explosives matched those used in the July 29 ETA bombing of a police barracks in Burgos in northern Spain that injured around 40 people. Investigators say they believe materials in the caches can also be traced to the ETA car bomb that exploded on July 30 on the tourist-packed island of Majorca, killing two Spanish police officers.
The French raids — executed on information provided by Spain — came in the wake of the Aug. 19 arrest of three suspected ETA members at an Alpine ski resort. Aitzol Etxaburu Arteche, 30, Andoni Sarasola, 36, and Alberto Machain Beraza, 28, are now being held as French investigators assemble a case against them for belonging to an outlawed organization and suspected involvement in terrorist activity. Not only have these police coups struck a staggering blow to ETA's potential to carry out attacks, they also represent a symbolic slap in the face coming as they do less than a month after the organization marked its 50th anniversary of armed struggle for an independent Basque homeland with the bombings in Burgos and Majorca.

Today, 172 suspected or convicted ETA members are serving time in French prisons, 157 of them Spanish nationals. In Spain itself, there are close to 750 currently in jail. Increased coordination between Paris and Madrid, meanwhile, made things so hot for ETA that its networks started searching for other places to plot strikes. "They tried Portugal, they even tested Morocco, but authorities in those countries saw the results of our cooperation and slammed the door on ETA before it could set up shop," the French official says. "We're all sharing information on ETA and moving to smoke it out. Times are very hard for the organization."
Perhaps, but as Interior Minister Hortefeux noted on Wednesday, each time authorities deal a blow to ETA they also uncover further proof that whatever is left of the organization is still busy preparing more of the attacks that have killed around 800 people over the years. Meanwhile, officials say that with the group now under unprecedented pressure, the only — usually young — people willing to enter ETA these days are almost all driven by an extremism that knows no fear of failure.