Good Ol' American Innovation

America is deep in the heart of a recession at the moment, and times like these are when the creative American population begins to show why America is such a great country. There are various profitable business opportunities available in this country and this newest line of dry cleaners from Tide shows exactly that. Andrew Martin, a writer for the New York Times, explains in his article "Smelling an Opportunity" that:

 Where other dry cleaning entrepreneurs have tried to come up with clever business models for dry cleaning, P.& G.’s primary innovation is in the brand name itself: Tide Dry Cleaners, named after its best-selling laundry detergent.

These new dry cleaning locations offer fast service, the refreshing scent of Tide, and an environmentally friendly alternative.  In this new era of instant gratification and the now, places like this that you can get in and out quickly are becoming increasingly popular. The American population, and the world population at large, has become obsessed with obtaining goods and services as quickly as possible, and places that can provide fast goods and services are sure to become popular and profitable. This is the reason why these Tide dry cleaners are becoming popular and why Netflix, IM, Facebook, and other things have become popular and things like e-mail have lost their luster.

China's Future Projections Part 2

As well as issues with government, China also faces other issues with its future, such as inflation, debt, and asset bubbles. Even though a majority of Americans are afraid that China will overtake the U.S., if it hasn't already, China may not be the insurmountable world leader that many believe it to be due to its governmental issues which I covered in the previous post, and other economic issues.
Before I begin talking about how China is unstable economically, I would like to point out that the skepticism of China's future success does not come from a single source. My previous post was based on a video on PBS, and this post is based on an article by David Barboza, entitled "As China Rolls Ahead, Fear Follows," in the December 12, 2010 issue of the New York Times. The two separate sources that cover China's possible future instability signifies that people from more than one perspective are seeing China as less of a train headed for instant success and more as a train that will face some obstacles that might hinder it or even cause it to crash.

A growing number of economists now worry that China — the world’s fastest growing economy and a pillar of strength during the global financial crisis — could be stalled next year by soaring inflation, mounting government debt and asset bubbles.

While China's possible issues with their economy may be a good sign for the United States, it can also be bad news for the U.S. because our economy is dependent China's economy, so if their economy begins to fail, then ours will fall into an even deeper hole. Hopefully within the next week or so America finds some sort of solution and we can be out of debt to China and will no longer be in a recession. The End.

China's Future Projections Part 1

As many people know, China is a growing exponentially and is expected to continue to grow into a position as the world's leading country. China has an advantage over the U.S. because China's economy is expanding while that of the U.S. is in a recession and because the U.S. is in huge debt to China. Despite these facts and despite many peoples expectations of China rising up to become the great world power, there are a few, enormous obstacles that stand in the way of China growing to become the world power everyone expects it to be. In this post I will cover one of the biggest obstacles that China faces: an unstable and oppressive government.





China lacks the stable political foundation that is necessary for a country of its size and power to succeed. While China may be prospering right now, one misstep from the government could spark a revolution in China, or could further fuel a revolution that already has its roots. In addition, two years from now, there will be a shift in power in China that could lead to some significant changes for the country and for the world. China's overall future is shaky due to its unstable government, and there are more problems that the upcoming power faces.

Mental Health Break

This kid really likes basketball:

BART: Better After Reading This

You know those useless BART tickets that you have lying around with a few cents on them? Well, BART, in addition to being a less environmentally destructive mode of transportation, is also beneficial to our community and its inhabitants. In the article titled "Tiny Tickets: BART’s Best-Kept Secret?" in the Mission Local and also in the San Francisco Chronicle, J.J. Barrow explains that:

While most BART riders don’t know that their 10- or 30-cent tickets, forgotten in purses and drawers, can be turned into charity donations, a few nonprofits do.

If you're itching to help your community, but you can't find the time or the money to help, then turning in these old, unwanted BART tickets is the perfect option. BART began this project of donating the money on these leftover BART tickets to charities, in 2001. This program is called "Tiny Tickets," and it has lost some popularity as of late as charities have dropped out due to tough economic times, yet there are still around fifty charities that participate in this program now. In the seven years in between 2002 and 2009, charities have made around $260,000. Imagine how much more that sum would be if all people who rode BART knew about Tiny Tickets. Unfortunately, due to issues with money, charities and BART are no longer able to advertise this program so it is up to us to spread the word about Tiny Tickets in order to improve our community with this simple program.

The Call for Education Reform

The founder of Microsoft and possibly the world's most famous billionaire, plans to push for an overhaul of America's current education system, on November 19, 2010. Bill Gates is actively contributes to various non-profit organizations with support and donations, and encourages the youth of America to live better lives. According to the article entitled "Gates Urges School Budget Overhauls" by Sam Dillon of the New York Times, tomorrow, Gates is planning on making a speech directed to all the superintendents of the fifty states of the U.S. to transform the current educational budgets for public schools into a new system that would be spent better and would better benefit the youth of America. Gates wants to:

end teacher pay increases based on seniority and on master’s degrees, which he says are unrelated to teachers’ ability to raise student achievement. He also urges an end to efforts to reduce class sizes. Instead, he suggests rewarding the most effective teachers with higher pay for taking on larger classes or teaching in needy schools. 

While I believe that the better a teacher is and the more qualified he/she is for his/her job, the more he/she should get paid, I do agree with Gates that we do, in fact, need an overhaul of the current public education budget because, in the tremendous majority of public school districts in America, kids are not being educated the best they can be educated and many schools are not using their money in order to best suit the education of their students. Even though education falls mostly under the jurisdiction of state governments, President Obama should back Gates up and should also push superintendents to reform their budgets. I also agree with Gates in the respect that class sizes should be cut down because the lower the student to teacher ratio is, the better, because teachers are not as swamped with dealing with more students than they can handle, and the students will also feel more comfortable to approach the teachers, who will have more time to deal with the fewer students that they have.

Mental Health Break

Another Reason to Vote in Favor of Prop 19

In anticipation of the legalization of marijuana, which will be made possible by the passage of Prop 19, some are beginning to purchase internet domain names in case marijuana goes web. In her New York Times Article titled "Marijuana Web Names Snapped Up, in Case of Legalization," Malia Wollan describes that: 

Mr. Faler, a former police officer who once worked the narcotics beat, has registered more than 1,000 marijuana-related Internet domain names, including oddities like icecreammarijuana.com and marijuanapastry.com. And he is not the only one banking on the drug’s online future. He is part of an Internet land grab for marijuana domains by so-called domainers who hope to sell their holdings at a profit, betting that more lenient marijuana laws will eventually drive more people to the Web for their supplies, whether they are seeking seeds, bongs, recipes or drug-laced dog treats.

Among the benefits that can come with the passing of Prop 19, which include diluting the influence of drug cartels and creating an economic boost for the state of California through taxes on marijuana, another benefit is providing a select few the opportunity get rich quick by purchasing internet domain names that marijuana product vendors might buy in the future, if Prop 19 passes. While this does not provide a significant economic boost, it gives some smart Californians the opportunity to get rich quick if Prop 19 and similar laws go into effect. These domain names are cheap now because they are useless due to the fact that Prop 19 still might not pass, but when marijuana laws become much more lenient, these domain names will be very desirable to online vendors, and the people who purchased the domain names will make a fortune.

Dubai, the Newest Adopter of the American Lifestyle

Dubai, one of the United Arab Emirates, has recently become a popular tourist location, with its numerous luxurious hotels and newly acquired American lifestyle. Liz Alderman, columnist for the New York Times, in her article entitled "Dubai Faces Environmental Problems After Growth," explains that:

In the last year, tourists have swum amid raw sewage in Dubai’s slice of the Persian Gulf. The purifying of seawater to feed taps and fountains is raising salinity levels. And despite sitting on vast oil reserves, the region is running out of energy sources to support its rich lifestyle. 

Dubai is the perfect example of the lavish American lifestyle spreading to other places, and promoting greater waste, environmental damage and use of crucial, decreasing resources. Everyone wants to live like the Americans, and while this does bode well for immigration, when people transform the lifestyles of their country into American lifestyles, waste tends to vastly increase and the greenhouse effect increases and produces a more widespread and harsher global worming. As people in various places around the globe become wealthier as the world becomes flatter, to use one of Thomas Friedman's terms, more and more people will be able to support and live the lavish, expensive and wasteful lifestyle. While this does provide great support for the world economy, it is an issue today and for the future because the American lifestyle is incredibly wasteful and is one of the things that Friedman pushes us Americans to move away from because of its significant contribution to global warming and other detrimental environmental and economic effects.

Mental Health Break

Number 2 on this countdown is the best dunk of all time.

Whitman Exhibits Less Than Sportsman-like Behavior

Today, on October 26, the competing gubernatorial candidates Meg Whitman and Jerry Brown met face-to-face most likely for the last time until the governor election. The candidates met in Long Beach, California along with current governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger for Maria Shriver's annual Women's Conference. Carla Marinucci, author of the San Francisco Chronicle article titled "Meg Whitman says she won't abandon negative ads," describes that:

Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman drew a chorus of boos from the capacity crowd at a major women's gathering here Tuesday after going on the attack against her Democratic opponent Jerry Brown and refusing to withdraw her negative television ads, as Brown said he would, for the rest of the campaign.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/10/26/MNTH1G2C1A.DTL&tsp=1#ixzz13X2b9iJ3

Even though most of the crowd was comprised of women, the crowd was not happy with Whitman because, while Brown agreed to stop the vicious and destructive advertisements on his end, Whitman did not want to retract these advertisements because she felt that she needed to protect her image with her destructive ads. Jerry Brown's willingness to retract his destructive ads displayed a sense of admirable integrity that all political candidates should possess. Whitman's unwillingness to retract the advertisements displayed insecurity on her part and showed that she really does have something to hide and she wants to make sure that she is on the attack so that others, especially Brown, don't attack her and reveal whatever she is attempting to hide or feels insecure about.

Yet Another Natural Disaster

Indonesia has became one of the most recent victims of a terrible natural disaster. The article in the San Francisco Chronicle entitled "Indonesia hit by deadly tsunami, volcanic eruption" by Slamet Riyadi explains that:

The eruption of Mount Merapi on Tuesday killed at least 25 people, forced thousands to flee down its slopes and spewed burning ash and smoke high into the air on the island of Java.
Meanwhile, off the coast of Sumatra, about 800 miles (1,300 kilometers) west of the volcano, rescuers battled rough seas to reach the remote Mentawai islands, where a 10-foot (three-meter) tsunami triggered by an earthquake Monday night swept away hundreds of homes, killing at least 113 villagers, said Mujiharto of the Health Ministry's crisis center. Up to 500 others are missing.

Numerous Indonesians are either missing, dead, or injured. Combined from the two disasters, at least 138 people have been killed. Those who were not injured or killed had to evacuate their homes because of the volcanic eruption. It seems as though more and more natural disasters are occurring, and this cannot be a coincidence. I believe that global warming, creating harsher and more extreme weather is a huge contributing factor to the number of natural disasters that is occurring in the world. While movies that depict end-of-the-world scenarios, like 2012 may be somewhat far-fetched, unrealistic and exaggerated, they do have some grounds in science and simply exaggerate the truth of what may happen to us if we continue on our path of global warming.

Sarah Palin, Desperate for Attention

"I'd rather be doing this than be in some stuffy, old, political office." I see Sarah Palin's new show on TLC simply as a cry for attention. As obvious from the quote from the preview, she is a little bitter about the last presidential elections because if she wasn't, then why would she even run for president if she doesn't enjoy the job? I find this new series to be quite ridiculous, in part because political leaders should not be involved with entertainment, other than in short, isolated instances. Political leaders should be 99% professional and 1% entertainers because nobody wants a leader whom they can't take seriously because they are so involved in providing thrills for viewers, rather than creating a solid base for the country or state they govern. In order for one to maintain a professional appearance, one must keep entertainment aside, because otherwise, they are seen merely as people who don't want to be forgotten and are desperate for attention. The bottom line is that entertainment and politics should not be mixed.

Google Will Soon Take Over the World

Google, the company that every American knows who knows what a computer is, was founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin in January 1996. Google had humble beginnings as merely a search engine, but today, it is a common name and has dipped its fingers into many different fields and is controlled by visionaries who know exactly what they must do in order to keep expanding their company. It has dipped its fingers into the field of cell phones, has several different apps on Apple's famous App Store, and now has many more capabilities than just those of a search engine, among other things. The company continues to defy people's predictions and is expanding endlessly. Claire Cain Miller explains in her article titled "Google’s Income Rises 32%, Topping Forecast" in October 14, 2010 issue of The New York Times that Google is still dipping its fingers into even more fields. 

This month, Google introduced Google TV, which lets people access the Web on their television screens. Though it does not yet include advertising, it could eventually help Google get some of the $50 billion television advertising market, Mr. Gillis said.

Google has already become quite the economic behemoth, and is continuously growing, due to rich ideas such as Google TV and others. At the rate that Google is growing right now, it won't be very long until Google takes over the world, or just finds a creative way to control people around the globe.

Californians and Their Pot

Prop 19 on the California ballot is a controversial proposition. Prop 19, if passed, will legalize private marijuana growth (in an area of no more than 25 square feet) and use for those 21 years of age and older. There are many expected downfalls to Prop 19, yet there are just as many expected benefits, one of the most significant of which being a decrease in the influence of the Mexican drug traffickers and a shrinking of the size of the Mexican drug cartels. This expected benefit apparently does not hold according the the San Francisco Chronicle article of October 12, 2010, entitled "Study: Legalizing pot won't hinder Mexican cartels" by Martha Mendoza.

Californians, who make up one-seventh of the U.S. marijuana market, already are farming marijuana at a much higher rate than in neighboring states and tend to buy domestic rather than smuggled marijuana, the study found.

The study found that the majority of Californians either farm their own marijuana or prefer to buy domestic marijuana, which supposedly shows that Mexican drug cartels have little influence in California. I found this study to be questionable because if, as the study says, most Californians don't buy the products of Mexican drug cartels, then it doesn't make sense why people so strongly believe that these cartels have power and are making such a hullabaloo regarding the influence of Mexican drug cartels. I believe that despite the results of this study, the Mexican drug cartels do have some noticeable power as a result of California operations and passing Prop 19 will make it difficult for drug cartels to remain as influential as they were and are now and I agree with Stephen Downing, former Los Angeles chief of police, who says:

It's ridiculous to claim that ending prohibition won't have a big financial impact on these violent criminals' bottom lines

The Tea Party is Gaining Ground?

America's newly formed political party, the Tea Party, aimed toward establishing laws that are radically conservative in their nature. Despite the fact that it is led by a few less than intellectual people, the Tea Party is gaining ground and support in the country much to the surprise of many. The Tea Party formed because certain high-standing and vocal Republicans were not pleased with the road that the Republican party was currently on and felt that the Republican party was too politically centralized and was therefore in need of more radical policies in order to fulfill the position that, in their opinion, all true Republicans should hold. The New York Times article entitled "Tea Party Set to Win Enough Races for Wide Influence" by Kate Zernike from October 14, 2010 explains how the Tea Party is currently getting enough support from Americans to have a noticable influence on American politics:

33 Tea Party-backed candidates are in tossup races or running in House districts that are solidly or leaning Republican, and 8 stand a good or better chance of winning Senate seats. While the numbers are relatively small, they could exert outsize influence, putting pressure on Republican leaders to carry out promises to significantly cut spending and taxes, to repeal health care legislation and financial regulations passed this year, and to phase out Social Security and Medicare in favor of personal savings accounts.

Although the Tea Party is very new, the party and its members are determined on expanding and exterting their political influence. In the House and Senate, according to theis article, the Tea Paarty is beginning to emerge, and even though elections have yet to come, there is a good chance that we might see a number of Tea Party members inflitrating the House and Senate. As the article says, the number of people in the Tea Party who are prospectives for open spots in the House and Senate is not large enough to cause significant change, but these prospectives still consider themselves as Republicans, just more radical Republicans, and might be able to sway the opinions the other, less radical Republicans, and be able to push for the policies that they see fit for a better America. In my opinion, the Tea Party will have its run for the next few years, but will eventually die out, just like all other minority parties because of a lack of supporters and radical policies.

My Political Lean

     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: 8
You are a social moderate. You think the progressive movement is overall well meaning, but sometimes it goes too far. On issues like abortion and affirmative action, you see the negatives of both extremes on the issue. You probably value religion, but at the same time you think it should still stay separate from the government

Capitalist Purist/Social Capitalist score: 11
You're a Social Capitalist, you think that, left to its own, Capitalism leaves a lot of people behind. You think that Health Care should be free to all, that the minimum wage should be raised, and that the government should provide jobs to all that are capable of having them. You likely hated the Bush tax cuts, and believe that the middle class has gotten poorer, and the rich have gotten richer over the past several years. The far extreme of social capitalism is socialism.

Libertarian/Authoritarian score: 4
You're a Moderate. You think that we all have certain inalienable rights that must be protected, but that sometimes laws need to be made to protect the majority's lives or quality of lives. You might think that the 2nd amendment isn't necessary anymore because letting everyone a gun is extremely dangerous to the community. You might also be against illegal drug use or public pornography because of its possible harmful effects to society.

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 Democrat

Currently, after 69450 submissions, the average Conservative/Progressive score is 5.98, the average Capitalist Purist/Social Capitalist score is 6.72, the average Libertarian/Authoritarian score is 5.51, and the average Pacifist/Militarist score is 4.58


1. Are our gun control laws too strict? - 28% said yes, 72% said no
2. Should gay marriage be legalized? - 64% said yes, 36% said no
3. Should we consider invading Iran? - 24% said yes, 76% said no
4. Should intelligent design be taught in public schools alongside evolution? - 50% said yes, 50% said no
5. Does the US need a system of universal health care? - 60% said yes, 40% said no
6. Should marijuana be legalized? - 57% said yes, 43% said no
7. Should we repeal [or substantially change] the Patriot Act? - 58% said yes, 42% said no
8. Does the US have a right to stop countries we do not trust from getting weapons? - 51% said yes, 49% said no
9. Should we end (or reduce the use of) the death penalty? - 40% said yes, 60% said no
10. Should there be a higher minimum wage? - 67% said yes, 33% said no
11. Does affirmative action do more harm than good? - 64% said yes, 36% said no
12. Is the United States spending too much money on defense? - 55% said yes, 45% said no
13. Should embryonic stem cell research be funded by the government? - 59% said yes, 41% said no
14. Should flag burning be legal? - 44% said yes, 56% said no
15. Should all people (rich and poor) pay fewer taxes? - 60% said yes, 40% said no
16. Should the US begin withdrawing from Iraq? - 77% said yes, 23% said no
17. Is it sometimes justified to wiretap US citizens without a warrant? - 34% said yes, 66% said no
18. Should the government be involved in reducing the amount of violence/pornography in tv/movies/games/etc? - 25% said yes, 75% said no
19. Should the United States only start a war if there is an imminent threat of being attacked ourselves? - 76% said yes, 24% said no
20. Should stopping illegal immigration be one of our top priorities? - 56% said yes, 44% said no
21. Is outsourcing of American jobs justified if it allows for cheaper goods? - 29% said yes, 71% said no
22. Are all abortions unethical? [with the exception of risk to mother's health] - 38% said yes, 62% said no
23. Should social security be privatized? - 55% said yes, 45% said no
24. Should the United States ever go to war even if the UN is against it? - 52% said yes, 48% said no

Mental Health Break

Humans at the earliest stage of development are always funny:

The U.S. Now Pressuring China--Oh, How the Tables Have Turned

While China has been and still is in complete control over the United States ever since our economy plummeted and we started to move jobs offshore and borrow money from China, the new, rising world superpower, President Obama is taking a bold step by turning the tables on China, now making them feel the pressure that the U.S. does. In the September 23, 2010 issue of the New York Times, David E. Sanger explains in his article, "With Warning, Obama Presses China on Currency," that Obama is now taking a position confidence and power, even though America may have even tougher times ahead, and may be headed for more trouble as a result of the failing economy.

 President Obama increased pressure on China to immediately revalue its currency on Thursday, devoting most of a two-hour meeting with China’s prime minister to the issue and sending the message, according to one of his top aides, that if “the Chinese don’t take actions, we have other means of protecting U.S. interests.”

Obama is turning up the heat for China, who has basically sat back and watched the U.S. lose most of its money to them, and his threat demonstrates exactly the type of leadership and confidence that needs to be exhibited by every single American. Obama, with this risky move, is really becoming a leader now, and he is coming into position, whereas, at this same time last year, he was solely trying to please the world. Obama's bold, confident and almost arrogant attitude is an attempt to boost U.S. morale and comes at a time when the U.S. and its people truly do need a significant morale boost. I admire this move that Obama has made because it demonstrates to China, and the rest of the world, that, although the U.S. is in a recession of considerable size, we are still one of the world's superpowers, and that until we finally return as influential as we were in the 90's and previous, we will continuously keep fighting. It will be very interesting to examine China's response to this issue, because they will either see this as an act of showy arrogance by an extremely weakened country, or they will take us seriously because, in spite of everything, the U.S. remains an influential and significant power in the world.

Drugs and Crime in the Recession

In the September 23, 2010 issue of the New York Times, columnist Abby Goodnough explains the increase in specific illegal activities. Goodnough's article, "A Wave of Addiction and Crime, with the Medicine Cabinet to Blame," describes the new crime wave as a result of increased drug consumption, and explains the proposed buy-back day for prescription and over the counter drugs.

In 17 states, deaths from drugs — both prescription and illegal — now exceed those from motor vehicle accidents, with opiate painkillers playing a leading role. The number of people seeking treatment for painkiller addiction jumped 400 percent from 1998 to 2008, according to the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. And from rural New England to the densely populated South, law enforcement officials are combating a sharp rise in crime tied to prescription drugs.

Both of these rises in illegal activity, crime and drug consumption, can be partially traced back to the feeling of cornering and hopelessness that the recession brings to many people of the lower classes. There is a direct correlation between the bad economy and the increase in people looking to use drugs because, for the most part, drugs are and have been a means for people to escape the world, forget about their problems, and feel better. I find it quite surprising that deaths from drugs is quickly approaching deaths from motor vehicle accidents because motor vehicles are abundant and are used by the majority of adults, which means that the use of drugs may also be used by a large majority of the entire population of the United States. While the buy-back day for handguns may have been successful, I have a feeling that the buy-back day for drugs will not be as successful because drugs allow people to fully escape many of their problems during their "high," whereas handguns improve security, or sense of sense of security, just one of the many problems that people are dealing with.

The Recession is Over?

According to the most recent episode of the television show, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, the seemingly endless recession that has been troubling people of the United States and abroad, ended June 2009.
The Recession Is Over
www.thedailyshow.com
To be honest, I would say that I trust the theories of the economists who have been researching and documenting the history of this dreaded recession, especially since they have only as of late  discovered that the recession had presumably ended approximately a year and three months ago.. In spite of this, I remain somewhat skeptical of this somewhat random and startling conclusion that these economists have drawn recently. What I interpret that the economists meant by "July 2009 was the end of the recession" is that in July 2009, the economy of the U.S. stopped contracting at a dangerous rate. However, I believe, and I suspect countless other American citizens, that the official end of a recession does not merely come when the economy stops contracting, but that it comes when the economy returns to a more normal, stable state. Overall, in my opinion, I see that this conclusion is surprising and startling for many Americans because of a simple confusion of definition.

Time to Play the Catch-up Game

While trying to improve nations abroad, the United States has lost its sense of self and we no longer excel in the world of technological advancements. We have fallen behind in the world, and part of it comes from, as Thomas Friedman would say, our flattening of the world, which in turn comes from outsourcing jobs and other things of the sort. Another part of it comes as a result of our focus on improving countries in the world by developing them in our own image. Since the U.S. has been ahead of all other countries for so long, we have developed an arrogance and we felt as if the position atop of the world would remain ours forever, yet, countries on the rise, like China and India are quite obviously proving us wrong. People are just now beginning to realize that we have fallen behind and we must instill some of the technological improvements that we are missing but that other world superpowers already have. Kate Galbrath, a writer for the New York Times, also suggests that although we have fallen behind a bit technologically, we are on a path to catching up to other countries in her article, "U.S. Plays Catch-Up on High-Speed Rail"

high-speed rail routes, including the recently opened line between Guangzhou and Wuhan, which covers 1,070 kilometers at the world’s fastest average speed.
Soon, perhaps, the United States, with the world’s largest economy will also clamber on board. So far, the United States — in spite of or perhaps because of its vast size — has virtually no fast trains capable of moving swiftly enough over a long distance to compete with airplanes...President Barack Obama has declared high-speed rail to be a priority. He is interested, he has said, in “innovations that change the way we travel in America” through the creation of cleaner, energy-saving options.

It is reassuring to know that our President is aware that our country has fallen behind in many aspects, and is vigorously pursuing options, such as high-speed rail, to bring us back to a point of stability and dominance. President Obama and Friedman both share the knowledge that if we are to clamber back to the point of economic stability and dominance our country was once at, we must first level ourselves technologically with the rest of the world, and we must focus on domestic affairs, rather than work to develop countries in our image, then get frustrated that they are "beating us." We must take the matter of our country's welfare into our own hands, instead of letting other countries control us (CHINA) because we are exceedingly indebted to them.

The Biggest Threat to Humanity in Effect, Right Before Our Eyes

The South of the United States is and always has been an interesting section of America inhabited by interesting people ever since the country's creation. But this new and very interesting event in the southern state of Kentucky does not have anything to do with politics. It deals with the increasingly troubling problem that will eventually consume the entire human population, called global warming. The San Francisco Chronicle explains the bizarre occurrence that happened in a Kentucky farm.

A Hardin County farmer said that some ears among his feed corn rows popped on the stalk in a phenomenon that agricultural experts believe is associated with irregular rainfall and high heat.

To point out the obvious, this "phenomenon" is considered irregular because it has occurred very few times, if at all, and most of these occurrences have most likely occurred recently. What has also occurred in recent years is a vast increase in the carbon dioxide levels in the earth's atmosphere, a contributor to what Thomas Friedman, terms the "enhanced greenhouse effect." The "enhanced greenhouse effect" has brought global warming to effect, and the results of global warming are beginning to become visible in the short-term, which is very dangerous because until lately, the effects of global warming have slowly but surely crept up on us and represent our impending doom. Scientists believe that the popping of corn on the ears is because of "irregular rainfall and high heat," which essentially means that global warming is starting to have immediate consequences on our lives in numerous aspects. Left untreated, global warming will cause events like the popping of corn on the ear to become much more common, among countless other events that will be more harmful than this. Therefore, we, as Americans and as inhabitants of planet Earth, must begin to look toward a what Friedman calls a "Code Green."

Here is the link for the article from the SF Chronicle: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2010/09/07/national/a130906D07.DTL

The World on Jenny Craig

Thomas Friedman is not just crazy. Numerous other intelligible people around the world are starting to realize the adverse effects of our style of life. If we, as Americans, are to continue with this same rate of consumption of resources and destruction of our environment, the livelihood of our species will be at stake. We, as a society, are learning that we need to change our style of living far too slowly. We will be facing tremendous consequences, as we already somewhat are, if we are to continue on this path. Our resources, food in particular, will not be sufficient to sustain our world's human population within a few, short years at the rate it is growing now. Friedman pointed this out in his book, Hot, Flat, and Crowded, and Mark Bittman, a columnist for the New York Times, also points out, in his article entitled "Seeing a Time (Soon) When We’ll All Be Dieting." In the article, Bittman outlines Julian Cribb's new book called The Coming Famine--The Global Food Crisis and What We Can Do to Avoid It. Bittman explains that: 

Much of “The Coming Famine” builds an argument that we’ve jumped off a cliff and that global chaos — a tidal wave of people fleeing their own countries for wherever they can find food — is all but guaranteed. The rest of the book concentrates on catching an outcropping of rock with a finger and scrambling back up. The writing is neither personality-filled nor especially fluid, but the sheer number of terrifying facts makes the book gripping.

Like Friedman, Julian Cribb also argues that the world is on a fairly dangerous road at the moment, and it will take a lot of human energy and effort to break away from this path. Although Friedman does not put it as boldly as people will be fighting for scraps and remnants of food, Friedman does agree with Cribb's argument. The world is headed toward an incredible food shortage as a result of the exponentially increasing population, and the over-consumption of and waste of food by wealthier people. Friedman puts it in simply as the world is getting crowded, which suggests that there will not only not be enough food, but there will not be enough other non-renewable resources or land to sustain human life.
Also like Friedman, Cribb knows that the human race will stand up in the face of adversity and find a solution to this monumental issue:

Mr. Cribb is not hopeless; he predicts that we’ll eventually “unlock new insights capable of making profound gains in food production and sustainability on a par with those of the Green Revolution.”

Cribb also shares the idea of a "Green Revolution" with Friedman, which Friedman calls "Code Green," in his book. This "Code Green" or "Green Revolution" is what the world is waiting on and is the answer to nearly all of the environmental issues we face. We are on the verge of a revolution and the people at the forefront of the revolution are the people of the new generation, Generation We.

Here is the link for the New York Times article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/25/books/25book.html?ref=earth

The Rate of Crowding in America Decreasing?

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/02/us/02immig.html?_r=1&ref=us

The New York Times article entitled Number of Illegal Immigrants in U.S. Fell, Study Says, by Julia Preston explains an astonishing figure. 

The number of illegal immigrants in the United States, after peaking at 12 million in 2007, fell to about 11.1 million in 2009, the first clear decline in two decades, according to a report published Wednesday by the Pew Hispanic Center.
The reduction came primarily from decreases among illegal immigrants from Latin American countries other than Mexico, the report found.

This implies two things. First, America's status as one of the world's superpowers and greatest countries is declining because people of foreign countries, especially those of Latin America, are finding that America is less of a desirable place to live and work due to the failing economy, among other factors. This fact confirms Thomas Friedman's concern that America is losing its place in the world because it is becoming, as he states it in his book, hot, flat, and crowded. While the world's population may be increasing rapidly, America's population, or at least the population of its illegal immigrants from Latin America, is decreasing. The fact that the number of immigrants from Latin America has declined may also suggest that people from Latin America are beginning to realize that America is becoming overcrowded.

Obama Pitches in to "Code Green"

The article in the New York Times entitled New Stickers Will Go Beyond M.P.G. in Rating Cars explains that, on August 30, President Obama took a small step in the direction of a "greener" America by initiating an improvement on the stickers on new cars. These new car stickers, adopted around 30 years ago, presently describe the city/highway miles per gallon consumption of new cars, the features that come with the cars, and other bits of information which relate to the technical aspects of the car. Obama plans to choose one of two new forms of stickers that the safety agency and the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) have put together recently. Jim Motavalli, the author of the article, states that

The Obama administration proposed on Monday two alternatives to the window stickers in new vehicles, including one that would assign letter grades for fuel economy and greenhouse gas emissions...The second possible window sticker would also contain information about fuel economy and emissions, but would not assign a letter grade. Both stickers offer estimates of annual fuel costs.

In his book, Hot, Flat, and Crowded, Thomas Friedman calls for a "Code Green" in America, meaning that American leaders should begin to make the public fully aware of the harsh consequences that will come as a result of our mindless emission of greenhouse gases through industrial factories, cars, and other such things. "Code Green" is not only a goal that American leaders must strive to accomplish, but it significantly involves the American public. By beginning the process of installing these improved new car stickers, Obama has taken a step in making the public realize their own, personal contribution to global warming. In addition to this, by including the annual savings earned with the purchase of some cars, people will now realize the long-term effects and benefits of driving more fuel-efficient cars. This part of it is a monumental step because as humans, and especially as Americans, we tend to think in the short-term, without realizing what negative effects our seemingly harmless actions may cost.

Here is the link to the New York Times article: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/31/business/31auto.html?_r=1&ref=politics