Sustainable Cities

Why are sustainable buildings so weird. I have researched this over and over again and one would think that buildings that are meant to last would be larger and a little more simpler. Is it something about the design that makes these buildings built better to last longer? I can see the greater use of trees and shrubs to promote a healthier breathing environment. Can anyone answer this question? When I think of something lasting forever I think of a strong structure without many pieces to it. I know these are all just depictions of buildings but one needs to ask.

What I also want to know is if there are already blue prints for these buildings, why are they not being built already. Sustainable designs seem to more costly at first I suppose. Building green is not the cheapest thing to do. This is where my research project came into play. Trying to find funds to help support sustainability is not the easiest thing.



It would be so amazing to attend a school like this. To be able to go to a school that was independent when it came energy uses and other such things. This does seem to look expensive and the materials that would be needed to make this school would not be easy or cheap to find.



Another example of weird looking buildings of the future.



An idea that would work, however building on water would only pollute water in the end I think. There is a lot more space available on water. One problem that would be faced would be weather, like storms and tides.

Searching for a Utopia

Planning

I am very organized when I want to be. When I am organized I typically plan for myself, and what I can guess, as my today’s day needs. But when I find Utopia, I really don’t know what to expect. If the place is perfect then why do I need to plan? Why am I anxious that I even have to plan for a perfect place? OK, I did plan to have a perfect single day, but it was only for myself. I forgot that even Utopia will have a lot of other people who have their own plans and they were also well organized. There is the difficulty. No amount of planning is helping me in search of my Utopia. It seems the more I plan the more conflicts, and when you have conflicts how do you have a perfect place. So planning to the tee won’t bring me to my Utopia.

Transportation

I drive, I walk, I take a plane, I take a train, and I simply travel. Destination sometimes know and sometimes unknown. Let me say I am looking for an ideal place and I just go there. I get there, and it is ideal but I don’t know anyone. I have to work. I have to eat. I have to make friends. I have to live there. Perhaps many more things I have to do to be in a new place, although it is ideal. How do I do it? Who do I find to make it ideal? Even when I travel to an ideal place, the only thing that is simple is getting there. Our roads make it easy and airlines make it simpler. But how do I not feel tired? How do I erase the newness? How do I begin an instant transformation? What do I do if I only find an ideal place but may not be ideal to live in? Just because I am able to make the journey doesn’t get me to my Utopia.

Technology

I am quite savvy with technology. I like to be available and I like to find people. I am mobile. I am connected. I am most times available. Here is the problem. If everyone else is doing the same thing, how can we find each other? If someone will not respond how do you deal with it? We perhaps need to invent transporters so you can be bodily transported to them, find them. Sure thing, this is not going to happen in my lifetime. So, my surrounding myself with my gadgets perhaps is no way to find Utopia. Some times it could well be I am trying to find someone who don’t want me to find them. Sometimes I may be trying finding someone who doesn’t want to be found. Sometimes I am trying to find someone who doesn’t want to respond. So, my technical abilities will not lead me to my Utopia, as an ideal place for one is no place to live.

Money

I am not referring to wealth or Lakshmi. I am simply speaking of money. It runs out, and needs to be made. I am sure we all know. If I am in Utopia I don’t need it. The trick about money is it does deliver most of the worldly needs. Place to live, car to drive, clothes to wear, food to eat, tuition to pay, families to take care of, things to buy, smoke, drink, travel, tour the world, hire others to do your work, build, destroy and what ever we can think of it buys them for you. But why do I need money in Utopia where I have peace of mind and love. How can an ideal place to exist, we must need money. It needs to be built, it needs maintenance and it needs nourishment. Then again if I am going to work to make so much money to nourish an ideal place, for god’s sake how can I be peaceful? Do I have enough days in this life to undertake such an idealistic plan? No way.

Waiting

I spent a lot of time in waiting. I just do. I don’t mind waiting. My mind is trained to wait. It doesn’t get tired of waiting. It simply waits. While I am waiting for my Utopia, my mind doesn’t think of consequences. It simply believes I am going to find it. When I fall asleep each day like I did (perhaps I did not) yesterday, it ignores the time that has elapsed. Perhaps it too knows the trivial pursuit of finding Utopia, and it is conditioned to wait. Goodness it has no memory of yesterday but it begins fresh everyday waiting, and wanting to find Utopia. If I tell it not to wait, it says why not? What other alternatives you have? As it is my mind I have no choice but listen to it. It always wins. So I add waiting as probable cause to finding Utopia.

Society

Even Utopia has rules and regulations. Our societies are full of things we made up to conform the people who live them. Generally they are good to follow, but doesn’t support idealistic life. To be ideal there will be no conformity. So, when I live in conformity how can I be in Utopia?

Myself

Hummm.

What can I say? I am a normal person. I don’t think I am very simple, but I know I am uncomplicated. I think, I write, I work, I live, I love, I play, I plan, I travel, I organize, I sometimes can be charming. I also know each of these good things I imagine doing are for myself and they may not be the same for anyone else you wish to join in Utopia with. That’s the major problem. Hey why me? Even communists failed to live in Utopia. Plato just imagined it, and Atlantis is under the sea and I can’t live there. With all the daily pondering I am having a tough time finding Utopia on earth, so why would want to be a fish?

No doubt when I go through today, I will be traveling, I will be looking, I will be waiting, and I will be wishing to find my Utopia. What is life for except to find a perfect place to live in? I am sure I will find it. But if I don’t how would I know?


This article on trying to find a utopia poses very many interesting questions and topics. I enjoyed how this spoke it gave the reader questions to ask himself or herself to see if they are truly finding the utopia that they are trying to find. In my research paper i mention many of these different aspects such as not knowing a destination or what he is about to do next. That leaves things without endings so the person can expand or do whatever they want at that point. This process of not knowing what is next takes so much stress off the normal human being in today's society. Everybody is always in a rush and thinking "Oh, I have to do this or I have to do that." The article speaks about how he can get wherever he wants via plane or car but what if he doesnt want to travel in that way because it is not his ideal way to travel which then would not be his utopia.

Did you know about human rights day?

Why is it that I have never heard of this? Why didn't anyone on campus talk about it? Or did i merely miss the memo? Why does it seem like we remember Christmas, Birthdays, and Party times but not a national day devoted to human rights? Are we that de-sensitized that we don't even know what's happening in our own world? I think it's unacceptabel that a national day of recognition goes unrecognized. It's the same attitude that caused some to believe that the holocaust never happened. If we don't give honor where it's due then we aren't helping our society, we're ignoring it.

The Environment and Bill McKibben

Sustainable Buildings

I thought that this video was really cool, not because of the buildings, but because of the Albert Einstein quote. It says "A problem cannot be solved on the same level of thinking that caused the problem." I thought that this quote just summed up everything that we have been talking about. It goes along with what Bill McKibbon said about how we need to change the way that we think if we want to change the planet. The people in the video are trying to do just that. While I do not think that the building style in the video is the way of the future, it is nice to see that someone is trying to think outside the box. We need to do more of this in every area of society so that we don't end up with a world like that of Oryx and Crake.

Sustainable City Design

This video is part of a series of videos on YouTube about sustainable city design. I believe that city design is going to be one of the keys in determining whether or not we can turn everything around. This talks about how the city has a high population density is in the center of town and along transit lines. This is very important in designing a sustainable city. What needs to happen is that we need to shorten the distance that people and things have to travel to get where they need to go. Travel and transport are two of the main contributors of carbon to the atmosphere. By designing our cities more effectively and with the environment in mind, we can make a major difference.

Thank You Sweatshops

From the clothing we wear to the toys our children play with, store shelves are stocked with goods made in sweatshops. Workers labor in unsafe conditions and are paid wages so low they must struggle to feed and shelter their families. The aisles we shop are lined with products made in factories that exploit child labor and fire and harass workers when they try to improve their lives by forming unions. This video reveals the harsh reality of how many stores that we shop at and trust, are victimizing innocent people and children. The worst part is, when we buy a new sweater or pair of tennis shoes, we do not think twice. We are not aware of the situation. We must research this issue so that before we make our next purchase, we are fully aware of the consequences.

The Sims, Nelly Furtado, and our Environment

This video is a great awareness tool to spread the message of helping our environment. It is cool and modern, utilizing popular outlets-video games and music, attracting the younger generations. Through Pop culture, the serious and important issues of pollution and global warming are reformed into something the youth can understand.
The video is simple, yet provides a big message, and a clear solution. We need to take the small steps that we can, as this will have a great impact on altering the fatal course our planet is facing. The problem is not out of our control. If every single person took these steps, recycling and not spending resources carelessly, think of what a difference it could make on our planet!
The video also seems ironic to me, and perhaps sending the message that if we can utilize technology and create video games such as the Sims and others, can we not utilize technology to help avoid global warming and ultimate destruction of our planet as we know it?
Last, I like that the video discusses England and was made there. This reminds us that this is truly a global issue that affects us all.

Sustainable Cities

This video is great. It discusses many if not all the issues that we have been talking about in class. It is almost like a mini 11th hour, but it mentions more about city growth and sustainability. I used this video as a great jumping off point for my research project on problems and solutions with sustainable cities.

SAVE WATER!

The average person in Mozambique uses only 1.3 gallons of water a day. One toilet alone uses on average 1.6 gallons when flushing. The average American family uses about 300 million gallons of water A DAY! The lawns in the US consume around 270 Billion gallons a week of water. That's enough to water 81 million acres of organic vegetables for an entire summer. Instead of watering your lawn to keep it perfectly green, you could cut back a little and use the water to give back to your family by saving money. To tell when your water needs lawn, step on it and if it doesn't spring back up when you remove your foot, it does not need water. You can also buy a low flush toilet and low flow shower heads (these shower heads can save you around 750 gallons of water per month). Drinking filtered water instead of bottled water can also help. The final thing that can really help is using drip irrigation to apply water directly to the roots, and only when it is needs. in the long run this will help save millions of gallons of water so people aren't using their own sweat to bath in.

Deforestation

This video helps everyone who watches it just how important stopping deforestation is. The little girl in the movie is a perfect reminder to help us cut down on some paper uses and make sure to use only 100% post consumer recycled paper while at work, in the classroom, and even at home. Try to print things double sided and try sharing books and magazines with friends and loved ones. Over 100 million pounds of junkmail gets produced every year.
To help the girl in the movie and anyone suffering like her, find out which organizations you can donate too to help them live long healthy lives.

Foolish Assumptions About Gas, Or Otherwise?

I was driving with my friends the other day and we had passed a gas station with unleaded prices as low as $1.75. I was ecstatic! Me being a driver for over two years, it's good to see the prices back where they were back in 2006 when I first got a car.

But then my friend piped up, "Those prices are going to shoot right back up in a few more weeks if people don't stop buying gas like crazy." And I was caught off guard like, why wouldn't people be buying gas like crazy when you can fill up your tank for less then twenty dollars? This is great! She replied with the facts. The reason they lower gas prices so low is so that people can appreciate it and lower their gas consumption, meaning driving less. I was confused for a minute or two. That didn't make the slightest bit of sense to me but later I got to thinking that maybe it's true. We probably should take advantage of this time because no matter what happens, the government can do whatever they want with the prices because of how dependent we are on it today. If they see that we can cut back, maybe they'll be nice and keep prices this way. What bothered me was the fact that I didn't know about this. So how many other California drivers don't know this? I don't keep up with politics much but I'm positive I can't be the only one.

For us to change our daily routines to cut on driving can't be an overnight thing, but I know over time we will see more electric cars on the freeway and cars with alternate fuel sources. I don't believe this tactic with lowering gas prices to try and decrease consumption is a very effective idea. There are many people that can't help but drive several miles a day to get to where they need to go. Obviously the solution right now is having more people carpool and take trains. How can we get the word out about this? How can we make this tactic more effective before the prices rise to that dreaded 4 dollars once again?

We Must All Do Our Part-Reusable Grocery Bags

Jennifer Moore
Dr. Geraldine McNenny
FFC: Imagining Utopia
7 December 2008
We Must All Do Our Part-Reusable Grocery Bags
Ok, so the environment is definitely a “big deal”, but for most of us out there, we aren’t about to forfeit our cars, our washing machines, and our ways of life in an effort to better the world we live in. To some, the decision not to make drastic changes in the way we consume, use, and dispose of everything in our life may seem so pathetic, so ignorant, and so well for lack of a better word, stupid. However, when attempting to foster change we must look not only at what must be done, but also what can be done. People are essentially driven by selfish motives. Yes, most people still want world peace, a world without hunger, and a sustainable future, but at the same time they are reluctant to change in such a way that dramatically alters their life overnight. In other words, the movement towards a sustainable future and a more eco-friendly world must occur gradually with as little altercation to everyday life as possible. Rather than radicalizing the way in which shop, drive, or operate machinery, we must instead replace old conventions of life with new ones that are easily implicated, practical, and that simplify, not complicate life. One small change that seems to be a growing trend in supermarkets across the country is the advent of canvas, reusable grocery bags. Instead of utilizing the traditional paper or plastic bags that are harmful for air and land pollution, these bags provide an opportunity for the average citizen to make a difference in the environment.
The best type of change occurs when it occurs as a result of the average person doing his or her part. As is often iterated in environmental campaigns, we all must live on this earth together and if we don’t all start caring, none of us will be left. By moving to reusable grocery bags, we can eliminate some of the worst types of air pollution caused by plastic bags and remove them from the parking lots, alleys, and sidewalks where they exist as a blot on the landscape. Of course, many would ask, “well what about biodegradable plastic?” Yet this is not the answer either. Biodegradable plastics, while they are definitely a step in the right direction, they are not an absolute solution because they still take time to decompose and part of their production can still cause air pollution. Then, there’s the question of paper bags. After all, they decompose right? Well, sort of. See the main issue with these is that cause seventy-five percent more air pollution in production and they also encourage deforestation. It seems that with the methods of production and disposal on hand right now, that reusable grocery bags are the best answer today.
In order to better the environment, we must employ the resources of every person around the globe. And, in short we must all do our part. So think about picking up twenty of those reusable bags next time you’re in the grocery store. We can all do something. Check out the impact of grocery bags on the http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9l4GoBsfwTM.

Anti-Aging on the Horizon

I was recently very surprised and shocked when I read this. A scientist by the name of Aubrey de Grey claims to have identified the seven causes of human aging, and says a "cure" could be as little as 20 years away for humans. He currently heads a project at Cambridge University that seeks to greatly slow aging on mice. Scientifically, nothing has come up against him, although his technology, known as SENS, is still quite a ways from the practical stage.

I am mostly perturbed by the questionable morals of it. To me, it is a completely unnatural technology and very much in the vein of Oryx and Crake. The line needs to drawn somewhere, and extending our lives through so dramatically (up to 1,000 years!) seems far beyond it. Yet, Grey (and others) argue that aging is just another disease and that we wouldn't be playing God ("it's unnatural for us to accept the world as we find it").

Anyway, here's an very well-done video on the subject that presents pros and cons to Grey's argument. It is in 8 parts, if you're inspired to watch it all.

Jack Johnson Sustainability Awareness

This is a great idea to educate the youth and upcoming generation about sustainability and get them excited about becoming involved active members of the community. Celebrities have the ability to draw attention to certain causes and this should be utilized to its fullest capabilities. Music is an effective, powerful way to emphasize specific issues and bring awareness that is necessary.

The Bilderberg Group

There is a secret society of the world’s most elite leaders known as the Bilderberg Group. It is a group of powerful men including individuals who may be president in years to come. They meet in secret once a year in a hotel and it is believed that they address policies and set agendas. Because of the secrecy of the Bilderberg Group, its members have gained a conspiracy theorist image. It is scary to think about conspiracy theorists and secret societies and what would happen if it were to succeed. This is a video that gives a brief history and analysis to the debate and controversies surrounding the secrecy of the conference. It emphasizes the idea of a one-world community.

GREENPEACE

As a follow up to the last post, here is a promotional video for the Greenpeace organization. As you can see, the group supports civil disobedience with a group effort. Greenpeace started with a couple of determined defenders of our oceans. Since they established the Greenpeace organization, the group has gained thousands of members and successfully: put an end to nuclear testing, started a global ban on dumping radioactive waste at sea, started an international moratorium on commercial whale hunting, made agreements from Coca-Cola and Unilever to phase out refrigerants that harm the ozone layer and cause global warming, put a ban of polluting new waste incinerators in United States and several other countries around the world, and many other major victories.

Fur Seals

A couple months ago, I joined the organization called "GREENPEACE". It is an environmental group of activists that work to make the world a better place. It lobbies for environmentally friendly legislation in Congress and strives to inform everyone about the major current issues with the environment and animal populations. Ever since I joined, I have received several e-mails updating me on such issues. The latest e-mail was both shocking and disturbing. 

It read: 

"Dear Briana,

Last year I visited a stunning fur seal rookery on the Pribilof Islands- only to learn now that dead baby fur seals are washing ashore on the beaches, most likely due to starvation. These islands in Alaska's Bering Sea are also the home to the world's most abundant food fish- Alaskan Polluck. 

The fur seals' food, pollock, is being vacuumed away by massive industrial fishing ships, and wildlife is starving as a result. Steller sea lions, are being forced to spend more energy foraging to take in fewer calories, and their birth rates and youth survival rates have declined.

For years, Greenpeace has warned that industrial fishing would destroy this fragile environment, but the fisheries managers have buckled under pressure from industry. As a Greenpeace ocean campaigner, I've personally been ridiculed and insulted for these warnings. 

I wish more than anything that I had been wrong. But now we know that the pollock population is on the brink of collapse, and along with it the survival of marine creatures that depend on pollock."

Greenpeace tries to grab the attention of every person so that they will donate and help change the problems on our planet. It is really easy to sign up with the group, and members often come to Chapman to recruit people. All you have to do is donate a minimum of 20$ a month to their cause.

Global warming at the extremes of the earth : Habitats and cultures everywhere react to climate's rapid changes

Polar Bear Listed in Endangered Species Act, but U.S. Government Limits Its ProtectionThe polar bear was officially listed as threatened under the U.S. endangered species act (ESA) on May 14, 2008. This the first creature brought under the act's protection for habitat loss that is linked to global warming. The official reason given was loss of Arctic sea ice and predictions that the ice will continue to decrease. Although global warming has been identified by most atmospheric and polar scientists as the main reason for Arctic warming and melting of sea ice, the U.S. Interior Department did not use this as a reason and clearly signaled it would not apply the law to greenhouse gas emissions.
Dirk Kempthorne, Interior Secretary, specifically said the listing would not prevent any sea ice from melting and that he would "make certain the ESA isn't abused to make global warming policies." This despite clear language in the ESA to control any activity causing harm to a listed species and requiring government agencies specifically not to jeopardize species by their actions. The wording of the listing document appears to be an attempt of the government to list the bear due to clear evidence of shrinking habitat yet not take all the steps to limit the loss. It seems analogous to President Bush's notorious "signing statements" limiting his acceptance of a Congressional law.
This could set up another court challenge by NGOs like the Center for Biological Diversity which originally brought the proposal and took the Interior Dept to court twice to get action.
"Threatened" under the ESA means a plant or animal may soon become endangered (at immediate risk of going extinct) if actions are not taken to protect it and its habitat.

Bad News for the Environment

While I was exploring the internet today, I found a startling article from the Environmental section of www.msnbc.com. Unfortunately, recent research shows that greenhouse gas emissions have actually INCREASED from the U.S. from 2006 by 1.6 percent. The article details that this year's colder winter is cause for an increase in greenhouse gasses from not only the U.S. but nations worldwide. What this means to me is that we are stuck in a vicious cycle. Because the seasons are getting harsher and more unpredictable (due to global warming and the already present greenhouse effect) the world is forced to use more energy to stay comfortable. Thus we are actually perpetuating the problem! No doubt that next year's results will follow in the same pattern as the climate shift will certainly continue. For all those interested, the article, posted yesterday, is available at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28039737/.

John Doerr: Seeking salvation and profit in greentech

TED Talks distributes some amazing presentations by world experts on various topics. John Doerr is at the forefront of green technology. This is a very compelling talk. He begins by telling a story about sitting around the kitchen table and talking about global warming when his 15-year old daughter confronts him and says, "Dad, your generation caused this problem, and you have got to fix it." This is his response.

What Will It Take?

Jenna’s post about the musical West Side Story got me thinking about what compels a person to act, what will it require to get people to take climate change seriously? I think the sad truth is that people must experience for themselves, first hand, the devastation that goes along with rapid climate change before they are moved enough to act, such as being a victim of a natural disaster or having an entire harvest wiped out. But unfortunately, the people that are harmed the most by these disasters are the people without the resources to defend themselves- lower income people. The poor are the ones that will feel the effects of climate change first and worst- subsistence farmers have already been hit extremely hard and as a result are struggling to feed themselves and are slipping into poverty. The people and countries that experience such devastation must worry about going to bed hungry; they simply don’t have the resources to worry about cleaner, more efficient energy sources. The U.S. on the other hand is the most powerful country on earth, and we have yet to make any substantial commitment to solving the environmental issues the world is facing. I think a large part of why we have yet to act is because we haven’t, as a nation, experienced hunger or thirst, the lack of housing etc. We have a safety net of wealth to fall back on and so we see no need to act. A historical analogy that could be applied to this situation is during times of war, when entire countries are ravaged and starving, the elite rulers are living comfortably and eating feasts. The undeveloped nations of the world are suffering because of the pollution we are putting out, yet we have no desire to act because we are living as comfortably as we always have. Yes, the U.S. has experienced natural disasters, but they haven’t been so devastating as to prevent people from meeting their basic needs, and yes they affected many people, but the proportion of people that have been affected is relatively small when compared to the population of the U.S. In my opinion, until the majority of the U.S. starts to feel the effects of global warming, and the negative effects start creeping up to the upper-middle class and the wealthy, people won’t be compelled to act in significant ways. A huge, and vital aspect of a Utopia, I feel, is compassion for others, the well being of the community and the people must come before immediate pleasures, and so we must find a way to alter people’s mindsets without letting it get to the point where everyone is suffering. We must compel people to act before we as a nation have let the problem get so bad that it is irreversible.

Good things always come at a price...

I found this pretty cool website while I was researching called www.greeneggsandplanet.com which is actually something very similar to this blog here. People go on there and blog about anything "green" so I advise you to check it out.

Anyways, I found a video on this site about a man who's house is completely disconnected from electricity and is powered by solar power only. We've all heard of this kind of house, but as I watched in amazement I realized this kind of house has to be way more expensive then normal. In fact the man had to receive grants in order to pay for it all.There is so much technology going into it, his whole garage wall is covered in monitors and weird boxes that come in fours. There are about 8 huge containers outside of his house which contain all the energy. Now let's all think, what if every house had all this stuff added to it? No wonder it's so hard for people to change! We are comfortable paying what we pay without all the extra work of checking monitors regularly and having our whole front yards looking like a space station.

Here is the video.



What do you think? Does going "green" ultimately mean losing "green"??

West Side Story and Real Life

The other weekend I went over to UC Irvine to watch the play West Side Story. The play, based on the Romeo and Juliet type love story, got me to really think about Utopias. I began to think about how important timing is. Many times there are very great ideas formulated and they should be accepted and yet if the timing is wrong, the great idea may fail miserably.
In West Side Story, two lovers from different conflicting backgrounds are trying to show that love does not see race and it can overcome societal obstacles. However, the world around them was not ready for this drastic change. In the end, their love proved strong but with great sacrifice. The people around them saw their determination and decided they were going to try to change as well. However, it was too late. Tony died fighting for the love that they knew was right before the society really understood the magnitude of their problems.

This made me think about the green movement. It seems that many people aren't ready for this change because they aren't willing to do what it takes. People hear the urgency of being environmentally friendly and yet they still are inconsiderate and selfish. So this makes me wonder how long will it take until people really see what is going on here. Our world is in extreme danger. We have already lost a lot with animals being extinct and global warming. What more needs to happen to strike up a action based desire for change? What more do we need to sacrifice? Will people act before it is too late?

Meditation

After learning about meditation from Sam's presentation I got very interested in the whole meditation bringing inner peace. Inner peace within an individual can solve or help many problems that the person maybe facing or troubled with. I was wondering, since meditation is when a person goes into deep thought, will it be best in that state of mind (deep meditation) to create a utopia?

I have two video's that I attached one with interviews with a meditation instructor and a monk, and another one that demonstrates and teaches you how to meditate properly. I wanted to put these up since I know that finals can be a stressful time and I thought it would be interesting if a few people tried it from and tested the claims that meditation users claim.

Interviews w/ professionals



video w/ instructions

Death Penalty Methods

My paper is going to be on personal choices and utopia. Specifically, I'm questioning whether or not society has the right to kill an individual for the good of the community. Here is a list of the current execution methods used in the world today. This list did not find a home in my paper, but should still be put out there. These are the so called "humane" ways of disposing of a human life. They do not seem very humane to me. In fact, there seems to be a certain disregard for whether or not the executions produce the desired painless death. I do not agree with the death penalty, and I do not approve of any of these methods as a "painless death".

There are eight main methods of execution in current use worldwide: ₂

	Beheading: Only two countries execute people by chopping their head off: Saudi Arabia and Iraq.
	Electric chair: (US only) Nobody knows how quickly a person dies from the electric shock, or what they experience. The ACLU describes two cases where prisoners apparently lived for 4 to 10 minutes before finally expiring.
	Firing squad: The prisoner is bound and shot through the heart by multiple marksmen. Death appears to be quick, assuming the killers don't miss. In the U.S., only Utah used this method. It was abandoned in favor of lethal injection on 2004-MAR-15, except for four convicted killers on death row who had previously chosen death by firing squad. 7 This is used in Belarus, China, Somolia, Taiwan, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, and others.
	Guillotine: A famous French invention, not used in North America. It severs the neck. Death comes very quickly.
	Hanging: if properly conducted, this is a humane method. The neck is broken and death comes quickly. However, if the free-fall distance is inadequate, the prisoner ends up slowly being strangled to death. If it is too great, the rope will tear his/her head off. This method is used in Egypt, Iran, Japan, Jordan, Pakistan, Singapore and others.
	Lethal injection: Lethal drugs are injected into the prisoner while he lays strapped down to a table. Typically, sodium pentothal is injected to make the prisoner unconscious. Then pancuronium bromide is injected. It terminates breathing and paralyzes the individual Finally, potassium chloride is injected to stop the heart. If properly conducted, the prisoner fades quickly into unconsciousness. If the dosage of drugs is too low, the person may linger for many minutes, experiencing paralysis. Executions in the U.S. are gradually shifting to this method. This technique has been challenged recently by those who feel that the prisoner may not be rendered unconscious by the drugs. Some suggest that this method can be extremely painful. After a botched execution of Angel Nieves Diaz in Florida during 2006-DEC, Florida and nine other states have placed a hold on executions. This method is used in China, Guatemala, Philippines, Thailand, and the U.S.
	Poison gas: Cyanide capsules are dropped into acid producing Hydrogen Cyanide, a deadly gas. This takes many minutes of agony before a person dies.
	Stoning: The prisoner is often buried up to her or his neck and pelted with rocks until they eventually die. The rocks are chosen so that they are large enough to cause significant injury to the victim, but are not so large that a single rock will kill the prisoner. Used in North Afghanistan and Iran, as a penalty for murder, adultery, blasphemy, and other crimes. Source: http://www.religioustolerance.org/execut3.htm#met

Ways of bringing people together

Friendship and networking: How do you bring people together?

Ancient philosphers and contemporary scientists agree: a KEY to happiness is having strong bonds with other people. As a consequence, one of my main happiness-project themes is the creation and strengthening of my relationships.

I have many separate resolutions that address this topic, and one of most effective is “Bring people together.”

Bringing people together is a nice thing to do for the people you know. Studies show that extraverts and introverts alike get a charge out of connecting with others; at the same time, because we’re all sources of information and resources for each other, bringing people together—especially if done thoughtfully—can provide them with a new source of support.

Some people are natural connectors. I’m not, so I’ve been thinking more about this resolution lately, and I’m wondering – have you found any great ways to bring people together?

For example, one great method that I’ve used is to join or start a group. Having parties is a good way, but that’s a lot of work.

One sub-category of “bringing people together” is, of course, the dreaded “networking.” But although many people’s hearts sink at the sound of the word, networking is extremely useful, and can even be fun. One of my friends has an amazing ability to bring people together who would both like each other and also be helpful to each other. I can never figure out how she does it, but it’s a wonderful gift.

This article is some of the research I found in which the Dr. speaks of ways of bringing people together and how important it is.  She brings in ways such as getting people to eat together, and from that they grow to have relationships.  It is a chain reaction, from just people eating together and speaking together they could end up knowing each other much better and maybe coming together to do something in the future.  I love the fact that this article talks about how bringing people together and creating friendships can provide them with a new source of support.  I totally agree with this comment because it does.  You have friends to fall back on if you ever have any problems or things you want to talk about.

Utopias aren't always a good thing.

Upon entering this class, I read the title of "utopia" and that reminded me a lot about Huxley's book Brave New World. I also was reminded of the movie called "The Island." I have come to realize that the idea of Utopias are very prevalent in many movies and books. However, these two stand out to me because they remind me so much of each other.
In Brave New World, the people live in a very controlled environment. Everything they think and do is predestined and controlled. From the time of their birth they are made to enjoy and dislike certain things. They believe that they live in the most perfect place ever and that leaving would not be a good idea. When a man from the outside enters the utopia he thinks it will be wonderful and easy. However, upon seeing the lifestyle and the peoples lack of social skills, he goes nuts and hangs himself in distress.
In contrast the move, "the island" is about people living in a very controlled environment, but their goal is to get out and get to the island. What these people do not know is that there is no magical place called the island. "The island" was simulated to make them look forward to leaving and therefore working to get out. These people however are not unique, they are clones of people in the "real world" and when they think they are leaving to the island, they are really being killed for their organs or what not. Also women use their clones to have their babies if they are sterile, and then upon seeing the baby the clone will think she is going to the island, but realistically will be killed. The dramatic twist happens when two of the clones escape and find themselves facing their identicals in the real world. Just because they are clones does not mean they do not feel or think...
the movie and Huxley's book are about someone either exiting or entering a utopia. this idea helps raise a very important question: Is a perfect utopia all that it seems or is it a bunch of lies used to benefit a "smarter" generation of people?

We read parts of Brave new world in class... so Here is a little video clip of scenes from the island for those of you who have not seen it.

Religion: help or hinder utopia?

Some of the presentations in class today raised a number of questions for me specifically regarding religion and its ability to help create a utopia. While I understand the point that religion has helped to unite groups of people in the past, I don't think that instituting a universal religion would lead to utopia. Perhaps the intent would be to unify the population, but wouldn't universal religion backfire? Forcing a particular set of beliefs on everyone would only serve to divide society more, causing rebellion and discontent. The result would be a number of smaller opposing groups instead of one unified population. In this way, religion acts as a disunifying factor, instead of a unifying factor.

Also, shared religion does not necessarily produce peaceful, utopian communities. The most relevant example of this today is the terrorist organization Al-Qaeda. Essentially, Al-Qaeda is an organization of people sharing the same beliefs; however, the result is not a utopian like society. They use their religious beliefs as a justification for terrorist actions in an effort to spread Islamic regime. As the council on foreign relations writes, "Al-Qaeda considers itself as the vanguard of the Islamic movement."Thus, members see their actions as a kind of "global jihad" or holy mission.

Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale is another example in which religion creates a kind of dystopia, instead of a utopian-like society. In this novel, leaders use religion to justify the creation of a society in which certain women are forced to become "baby breeding machines." The Bible is read daily and manipulated to justify their form of society. Here religion does unify the community, but the result is a disturbing, very dystopian society.

So while religion may serve to create peaceful communities in some cases, it certainly can backfire and create dystopian societies. It seems to me that religion is not an effective method of establishing a kind of utopia, but what do you think???

Vanity: The Free- Green Motivator

By: Jennifer Moore
My family doctor once advised me, “Work out to look good. People who exercise for vanity do so for life, people who exercise for health, go through exercise phases.” At first when my doctor said this to me, I wanted to jump at him and say, “But you’re a doctor! You are supposed to be concerned about health, not looks.” Then I thought, wait a minute, that is exactly what my doctor was most concerned about, health –he wanted me to exercise for results that were motivating to me personally, so that I would continue to do something healthy for myself. His plan was in short, simply genius. And, I believe, if we applied this idea to the environment, we could be simply genius as well. In other words, telling people that they are helping the earth is not going to be enough to motivate them to actually sort their trash, or to reuse their grocery bags, or to take a bike ride once in a while, or to buy organic food. We must offer incentives, and since our government is out of money, resources, funding, credit, and well a whole host of financial basics for a solid economy –why not motivate people with the one incentive that is free and universally desired, beauty?
Consumerism and materialism have become most prominent in the last hundred years, although they originated in long before that. Everywhere, something and everything is for sale, on sale, and going on sale. New editions, new models, and updated versions are offered to induce customers into buying products they “really want” and that they are subconsciously manipulated to believe will make them “look good”, but that they often do not “need”. Much of the environmental campaigns against these two trends of shopaholics are aimed at stopping the need to constantly buy and revising the idea that beauty, luxury, and vanity are everything.
But, with these two trends so prevalent in global and particularly American culture today, perhaps it is ludicrous to try and stop them. It has often been said, “if you can’t beat em’, join em’ “ and I believe that is exactly what we need to do jumpstart environmental campaigns today. Sure, in a perfect world, the need to sell health, sustainability, climate-change awareness would be nonexistent, since one would think those would be intrinsic values to citizens of the world –but chances are most people really do not care beyond the direct impact to them.
So here is what I propose. How about we sell the environmental campaigns? If we can market the organic foods and fabrics, sophisticated recycling bins, and stylish grocery bags, then we can appeal to the human sense of vanity, which is far more motivating than the sense of health and wellness –as pathetic as that may be. Nobody is embarrassed of a sinus infection, but a pimple –you might as well just stay in bed all day. Now is the time to revolutionize the green-field. We have got to start designing ecologically beneficial items that are technologically savvy, luxurious, and better than the cheaper ones we already have. Take organic fruit for instance. Many people know that it is good for the environment, but few are aware that it actually tastes better two. Of course riding your bike is a way to save gas, but it may also help you to shed a few of those post-holiday pounds.
At the bottom of this blog, I have included a link to a CBS special that discusses green-fashion. And, to my surprise and probably yours, the outfits are actually attractive. I personally would wear one of them regardless of they were earth-friendly. By offering environmentally safe alternatives that appeal to the same sense of style already in our culture, we can inspire people to go green without the expense of their precious vanity. Check it out here!
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/02/23/earlyshow/main2508464.shtml
*Just click on play video, once you enter this URL into your web browser.

Solar Chimneys- Another Viable Energy Source

After reading Alex's last post I was reminded of a physics project from high school in which the goal was to design a "Cool House", or a house that could stay cooled in the summer months and warm during the winter without the use of air conditioning or heating.  I remembered something called a solar chimney that my group included in our presentation as a means of natural air conditioning so I did a quick google search to refresh my memory as to exactly how it worked only to discover that a solar chimney isn't what i thought it was at all.  Even though I was mistaken as to what a solar chimney was, my google search was not useless.  I discovered that solar chimneys are used as a fairly cheap way to generate energy using plain, old air.  I will attempt to describe how they work even though it is described better and in more detail in the video posted below.  An area of land is covered in special plastic but with room underneath for air.  This air is heated by the sun, and follows a basic rule of air, when heated it rises.  There is a chimney with turbines which serves as the only way out for the air.  When the air is forced to escape through the chimney it turns the turbines, creating energy.  The cost to build a solar chimney is relatively cheap and air and sunshine don't cost thing, making this method of energy harnessing extremely viable and eco-friendly.