good guide.com guides us

Our class discussion was one of the important discussion about our health. After we talked about good guide.com,i went back to my room and searched for the items i usually buy from campus canter main store(outtakes). My list was NOS energy drink, pop tarts by kellogg's and Doritos. When i searched for pop tarts, i found out that it has amounts of sugar and poor ratings for general nutrition and quality and safety. But Doritos was low at everything like sugars, sodium,cholesterol. NOS didn't show any results when i searched. I think this website is going to help people who are suffering from obesity because they can look at every single items that they eating and see how unhealthy it is. I just added this site to my favorites.

Friends of the environment?

Over the break, I was searching for a new laptop; one that would be compatible to my school needs, but also last me through out my future schooling years. As I was doing my research, I realized that the environment has become a huge topic in our industries. Because the goal of our new future is to "go green", I realized that many companies are now advertising their products based upon how environmentally friendly they are. For example, I found it interesting that when searching on Apple's website, the new Mac Book Pro computers are environmentally friendly because they have smaller yet "bigger" battery size. (bigger meaning life span). The smallest pro has a battery life of 7 hours, and as each inch is added, the more hours that are added respectively. Mac is advertising their computers as more environmentally friendly because they reserve energy and don't need to be plugged in for even half the amount of times as windows, although I believe yes it does reserve our energy supply, but how much energy is actually needed to make these small compact batteries? Also, the computer itself may reserve energy and be "environmentally friendly" but how about the company and industry itself? When speaking to my uncle who worked for IBM, he stated that the only real way we can be environmentally friendly is if we return the computer back to the company itself when it is not being used and we are done with it so that it can be recycled. Therefore, to go green is up to the people and the community itself, and the industries are made of up our "people" and our "community". This goes to show that it is important that each of us take steps to help the community and not only what's in the best interest for us. This also can relate back to my topic, air, because I believe that it all comes back to the air we, plants, animals, and other specimen breath. If our air is healthy, then only can it give back a positive outlook for our environment.

Giving up texting

I gave up texting 4 one of our assignment. In the beginning i thought it was gonna be hard. I always wanted to try how my life would be without texting people. I thought i couldn't last a day without texting my friends. But surprisingly, I lasted five days. I am proud of myself doing that. I am sure there are a lot of people who can't pass a day without text messaging people. We have tradition in our religion where we are supposed to five up somethign as lent during easter. I never done it before. And i am actually thinking about giving up next time.I see this class, bio-230 not only useful during college life but also after class too. I learned so many new things in this class.

old cell phones???

Today, while we were closing the residential halls, I was in the Quad office looking around. I found a recycling bin for old cell phones and ink cartilages. I got into a conversation with one of my fellow student staff member about recycling, and whether it helps us or not. I was explaining to her about how the electronics that we recycle, don't really get recycled in the United, but instead in a small village in China. So, as we were talking I started to think whether it is a good thing that we recycle or not? I know it's a good thing, but at the expense of what? I personally don't want to be responsible for young children in China, whether they work in this factory or not being exposed to lead. I came back and I searched the web for more information. I came across this video by Thomas Ricker ( http://www.engadget.com/2008/11/10/video-chinas-toxic-wastelands-of-consumer-electronics-revealed/) covered by CBS. I was shocked that the US alone, 130,000 computers are thrown out everyday and 100 million cell phones a year. In this article he explains that China meets the needs of US citizens and provides us with the electronics that we desire, but this is what we give them back in return. We send them the same electronics back after they are used so the people living there can be exposed to these toxic fumes, while we rest nicely in our homes breathing in clean air. This relates back to saving ourselves, or shopping our way to safety. We are doing it at the expense of someone else. I reccomend everyone watching these two videos, there are just full of information. The second video shows a camera team, that actually got to Guiyu, which is one of the towns that is affected by this toxic waste. This video gives us a first hand view of life of the citizens there and children playing in these junks. So, next time you just decide to throw out a computer or a cell phone, it might go throw your head that it might end up in one of these towns.

Humans Responsible for Bird Strikes!!

Speaking of air, lets think for a moment about human’s impact on birds in the sky and vice versa. According to bird watchers, aviation experts, and other it seems that bird impacts with planes has been increasing. Unfortunately, this phenomenon has not come to the public’s attention until recently with US Airways flight 1549 that got crashed into the Hudson thanks to flying geese.

Plane crashes with birds have been documented since the beginning of aviation, and the first fatal accident occurred as early as 1912. However, with more and more passengers wanting to fly (talk about Jevons Paradox gone wild), business and tourism travel skyrocketing even in the wake of the 9/11 attacks there are ever more planes flying in the sky. According to the FAA since 2000 there have been over 486 cases involving planes hitting birds. 166 of those involved emergency landings, and 66 in aborted take-offs. In 1990 there was one strike per 10,000 flights, in 2007 there are three.

Of course, this whole thing is not the birds’ fault. Its humans. Aviation pundits say that it’s the conservation movements’ fault, since now that the birds have safe areas to breed in their numbers rise. But really the problem is much deeper than that. Human expansion patterns usually result in the destruction of forested land and the creation of suburban sprawl. Guess what happens? Well, the smaller birds like songbirds, meadowlarks, and bobtails that live in the forests generally stay away from planes and do not fly high. They stick to the forests. But when the forests are cut down and replaced with suburbia, new species replaces them- species like gulls, geese, pigeons, and turkey vultures. These species adapt to suburbia, (vultures eat roadkill, pigeons eat garbage), and worse yet they have no problem settling next to airports to nest. The vast majority of plane-bird strikes occur with these so called “big birds”. No, they are not yellow.

At airports like New York’s JFK and laguardia, this problem is especially pronounced since the airports are next the ocean, at a nexus of “big bird” migratory flight paths. Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge is only a few miles from JFK airport. Officials have come up with interesting ways to make sure the birds don’t meet the planes. They use falcons and dogs to practice “bird control”; they allow red-tailed hawks to nest near runways, since these hawks chase other birds away and run away from planes. But ultimately, there is no stopping the flocks of geese and vultures from staying around these airports. Perhaps if we kept the land around the area wooded in its natural state, we wouldn’t have to deal with flocks of kamikaze meat. Unfortunately, on Long Island at least the suburbanization is so profound that it is highly unlikely any major changes can be made. But this should be a lesson for other airports and the aviation industry in general: don’t have suburban sprawl next to your airports- rather, keep the place wooded. Not only it may help a bit with recycling carbon (considering major airports, probably not much), but the forests will also prevent major catastrophes from occurring because of the existence of bird flocks.


References:

Bird Strikes. New York Times Authors Blog.
http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/16/dont-blame-mother-nature-for-the-crash/

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/16/nyregion/16strike.html?_r=1

Green In the Media

I was recently watching old episodes of a television series, 30 Rock, that plays on NBC. I was watching and then recognized somebody,Al Gore as a guest star,who played a janitor. This show is a comedy, but it was from NBC's green week and Al Gore's cameo speech actually spoke a similar message to our class I believe. He proclaims working together and collective political action as the solution for our current climate crisis. I found it very interesting that he was on this show and that he sent a great message mixed with some good humor. He also speaks of encouraging us to go to our lawmakers and speak with our representatives to change laws. We need to restrict our pollution and begin to change everything we do towards new energy resources. I really think that media can continue to provide us with little insights like Al Gore did on the 30 Rock episode. On this link you can view this clip of Al Gore here.
In my opinion solar panels are the way to go. I had taken Consequences of Global Climate Change here with professor George Robinson and he showed us a map in class of Arizona with a tiny red square over a small portion of the desert. He explained that if this small red space was covered with solar panels that it cause generate enough electricity for our whole country. I no longer can find this map on ERES unfortunately. I understand that the tiny dot is probably thousands of square miles of solar panels. But if we developed solar panel plants all over the south in the U.S. we could accomplish this goal. I understand we're talking about billions of dollars. But the government should start to build these plants with the huge government budget. This would decrease our dependence on foreign oil imports and would give us practically no reason to be over in the middle east wasting our money on wars. Use the money for a beneficial cause!

Source:http://current.com/items/91511336_al-gore-on-30-rock.htm (NBC's 30 Rock)

Are the Oceans Absorbing Emissions Like They Used To?

Over the past century or two we have relied on the ocean as a carbon sink for all of the emissions we are putting into the air. The ocean has absorbed CO2 and has padded our emissions. Throughout the 1950s the oceans seemed to keep pace increasing its absorption of our CO2 to keep our levels relatively steady. But since the 1980s the oceans have noticeably decreased in their ability to absorb. A main problem seen is that the more CO2 added to the oceans the more acidic they become, making them less able to absorb CO2. This slight increase in the acidity of the oceans have caused the rate of CO2 absorption to slow by 10% from 2000-2007 alone! At this rate the oceans will be fully saturated and unable to take up any CO2. Imagine the day when our oceans can no longer take any CO2. Our climate change will accelerate at a dramatic pace. The pace at which our glaciers are melting, the oceans rising will accelerate. We will likely have increased storms and storm surges causing our beaches to erode. All of the effects we speak of now for global warming will increase at an exponential rate, and this will become extremely dangerous. We must begin to curb our carbon emissions now so that we do not have to see the effects that could come from our pollution. We need to begin to use renewable, clean energy sources that promise our earth a more sustainable future. We need to start driving battery powered cars. We cannot continue to emit carbon as we now do. We are hurting our environment and our world and if we do not stop soon, it will hurt us back.

Source:http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/19/science/earth/19oceans.html?_r=1&ref=earth

Using condoms the answer?

After reading the email about condoms I was intrigued to find out more information on it. Because I agreed, it first must be proven that population does effect climate change. I found an article online which stated “A larger global population means a larger demand for everything--most urgently, energy. And although Earth's resources have apparently stretched, the mounting climate problem suggests that the consequences of overconsumption (namely of coal and other fossil fuels that produce heat-trapping greenhouse gases) may still be inevitable.” The website for this is http://www.thebulletin.org/web-edition/roundtables/population-and-climate-change.

Michelle Obama

First I looked at what this TED stood for and what is the main purpose of it. TED ,Technology, Entertainment and Design, is a non profit organization that spreads ideas about technology, entertainment, and design. They usually don't cover stories that have any link to politics, but Michelle Obama is the exception. Her talk about education is something that is definitely worth spreading since it related to education. In this video she seemed very passionate about this topic and because of her background she encourges young women to reach higher education. Whe nshe talked about her family and what her parents said to her, it reminded me of my family and the words that she used are the exact words my father used with all his children. He always says "I know how it is not to have an office job, you guys are lucky to be in this country where education is valued, with your education you can do whatever you want to do". Both of my siblings and I took that to our hearts and are working hard to achieve our goals and make him proud. She talks about the importance of women's role in a family. My mother is also a stay at home mother like the first lady's mother. Everyday after school, my mother used to have food waiting on the table and then after we were finished, she made sure we started on our homework right away. In my opinion parents need to make sure their children do homework on time and make sure everything is well at school. This speech by Michelle Obama was very inspirational.

Drinking Seawater...?

It’s hard to believe that water is becoming more and more scarce but that’s simply the truth. After learning that freshwater accumulates only 2.5 percent of the total amount of water on earth you start to wonder, well what about the seawater? Seawater accumulates for the other 97.5 percent of water on the earth. Now this made me think, well how can we turn this into fresh water? Reverse osmosis is known to be the most common method of desalination. “It works by using pressure to force a solution through a membrane, retaining the solute on one side and allowing the pure solvent to pass to the other side” (Wikipedia). Well that seems to be the answer then huh? Wrong, the problems with reverse osmosis are that it does not produce nearly the amount of water as it does waste water. A lot of water needs to be used in order for the process of reverse osmosis to be successful and the outcome is minor. Household reverse osmosis units average about 10 percent of water recovery throughout the process while more industrial systems produce about 50 percent of freshwater. Once this water is wasted it is hard to recover especially for household systems. With this massive water waste there will be an increase in septic system waste which now creates another problem. Areas that use the process of reverse osmosis are those that are scarce in freshwater whether in the ground or on the surface. They use it in order to desalinate seawater or brackish water in order to obtain their freshwater. Other problems that arise with reverse osmosis is the fact that it takes much energy to process the water. With this said it costs a lot more than typical methods of obtaining freshwater. So here is some sort of solution we have so far to obtain freshwater but the question that arises is what else can we do next?
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_osmosis#Desalination

Cigarette Butts Everywhere

You see it every day whether driving in your car on the way to school or leaving the galleria entrance, people flicking cigarette butts. Now I understand smoking is a habit many people do but cant the butts be controlled somehow. Walking down the street you see cigarette butts everywhere especially near the curbs and gutters. Cigarette butts, snack wrappers and take-out food and beverage containers are the most commonly littered items. Why is this so common? Is it really that hard for people to put their cigarette butts in the ashtrays of their cars or the ashtrays businesses spend money on to put outside the entrance of a building? This litter problem has got to stop. Each discarded cigarette butt takes 12 years to break down (About.com/ Litter Trashes Everything). Now I asked my friend why he did that one day when I saw him toss a cigarette butt. He simply replied “what, its biodegradable”. This might just be it. Maybe people are not educated enough to notice it’s harmful. Just because a product is made out of paper and tobacco and cotton as a filter does not mean it is biodegradable. Meanwhile while that cigarette butt just sits there it is releasing toxic elements such as cadmium, lead and arsenic into soil and waterways. Maybe we could have commercials or signs or some sort of advertisement to tell these people it is not okay to discard their butts on the lawn. Now for the snack wrappers and take-out food and beverage containers this is just pure carelessness. These people are just too lazy to actually throw their trash away from their cars in a trash can like everyone else. Littering these sorts of things is just plain selfishness and carelessness and those people should be punished to the full extent of the law.

Wasting Water

The lecture on Earths water was very informative. I had no idea that with all the water on Earth, such a small amount could be used as drinking water. It is a very scary thought that one day we will be in the situation with water that we are currently in with energy. The difference is that we cannot survive without water. It is ridiculous how much water is simply made dirty and wasted. Its not just flushing the toilet, its running the dishwasher, using the washing machine, taking unnecessarily long showers. I live with 5 roommates and in my house alone I watch an incredible amount of water be wasted. It is wasted running the water while brushing teeth, blasting the faucet while doing dishes, putting 1 pair of jeans in the wash. I thing the water issue is another situation where every little bit can help. If everyone was a little more conscious of their usage we could save so much. We are going to be very sorry for our wastefulness. I also like that the issue of water bottles was brought up. I cannot understand why people still buy bottled water. I find tap water to taste exactly the same. I also think water bottles are a huge waste of money and are unnecessary waste. I spent $9 on one of those metal twist top water bottles. It has paid for itself over and over again. Not only is it economical but it keeps water nice and cold. I encourage everyone to buy one.

Michelle Obama

After watching Michelle Obama's plea for education I have gained a new found respect for her. I found that she is very easy to relate to. She brings up some very important issues about the direction of our world. She is mainly focusing on women but I think her speech applies to all young people. She talks about the world as it is and the world as it should be and says that education is the key to changing the world to what it should be. I had never thought of education in this way. It has opened my mind to some new ideas. Our parents generation came from a different set of ideals than us. Education was not as necessary or encouraged. I have always taken my college education for granted and not always tried as hard as I should as I'm sure many of my fellow students have. I also think that the style of education is changing. I am really enjoying the way this class is conducted. I like that all of our ideas are considered and the open discussions are very interesting. After watching this speech I think I will be more mindful of how much my future is really in my hands. I think our generation has the ability to make a very big impact. I think the reason for this is that we will be much more educated than the generations before us. We all know that the world as it is is a messed up place. Not everyone is looking out for the best interests of the world as a whole. I think little by little, one by one we can get closer to what the world should be.

Shake Us Off

“Our world civilization and its global economy are based on beliefs incompatible with enduring habitation of the earth: that everything has been put on earth for our use, that resources not used to meet our needs are wasted and that resources are unlimited” (Carl McDaniel and John Gowdy). I especially like this quote because it relates to what a friend of mine once said. She said “the human race is like flees living on a dog and one day the earth is just going to shake us all off”. This, what I guess you could call a theory, means a lot to me because it is a great metaphor. As we all now know about the importance of living sustainable we have to all realize that it must happen now. One day the earth will shake us all off and before that how bad are the living conditions actually going to be? Would we want to live in a world that’s highly polluted, where living conditions are fatally poor and where we would not even be able to enjoy our own environment? Of course not but we all know which direction, as of right now, we are heading in. This exam we are preparing for is a great way to introduce what it’s like to not have all of these things we take for granted on a daily bases. Living without some of these things is a great exercise in preparing us for what we must and should be dealing with more often.

Massive "eco-tower" in Shanghai

Interesting news- a giant tower being planned in Shanghai, China, is considered to be the latest “green building” scheme to be planned for the People’s Republic. Known as the ‘Pearl River Tower’, it is planned to soar 71 stories into the grey polluted skies of Shanghai harbor. According to the building’s architects, it will be “the most advanced in the world” of its kind.

Firstly, its shape is a curve facing prevailing winds, like a giant sail. According to its American architects, its design should increase wind speeds and direct them into slots in the building. Wind turbines will be located inside the building behind those slots, generating economically viable wind power. The architects claim that the building may generate as much energy as it uses. The cooling system, instead of using energy and space guzzling air ducts, uses a cool water system. The water flows through the building in ducts through concrete beams, saving not only energy but large amounts of space as well. The extra space will be used for turbines and offices. Other features include a wide-spaced double glazed wall that channels hot air upwards, and solar photovoltaics in the front of the building to collect solar energy. Finally, automatic control systems around the building make sure that power isn’t wasted by shutting down systems wasting energy.

Thinking about all that, that is a pretty impressive building. But of course, the costs are ridiculously high, so its unlikely that this can be reproduced on a mass-scale right now.

According to Amy Englehart, director of SOM’s East Asia office, this building, “could only have been commissioned in China”. This statement is unfortunately, an important reminder to the West that China is rapidly catching up to western standards and even surpassing them in some ways. While in the US “green buildings” can constitute any big box store than conserves a little more energy than its counterparts, true “green skyscrapers” are now being built in China’s coastal cities. US green construction companies often focus on redevelopment and refitting of old buildings rather than on designing entirely new buildings based on the concept of sustainability. Of course, for China it is easier to find the funds necessary for developing entirely new green infrastructure, since their economy has been in a “growth” phase in the last two decades. But for the US, wouldn’t it pay off to place the funds down now for new eco-buildings which will repay itself many times later? SOM, the Pearl Tower’s contractor company, has already expressed their belief that the extra investments in the Tower will start making money in five years’ time.

While sustainable cities can be achieved by refitting older buildings in the downtowns, preserving history and culture while saving energy and costs, China is pioneering the newer, more direct approach. By clearing out older buildings entirely, China is starting with a “tabula rasa” from which to construct sustainable cities. The effectiveness of this strategy will become more apparent after a decade of work, however. Another important point is that the Pearl River Tower is, the exception rather than the norm in China. For the moment, the Tower is one of the few green buildings being constructed in China. It can only be hoped that the Chinese government will encourage more eco-friendly buildings with the successful completion of the Pearl River Tower. The US should also bear this in mind. We should start putting money to similar projects, not only just to catch up with China but because it the long run it should pay off.

1. www.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8317211.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8317211.stm
10/28/2009

Interdependence II

I definitely have to agree with the post on Interdependence. We see how groups must become interdependent as they grow larger, regardless whether we are talking about apes or humans. The groups became larger for self-defense and for reproduction purposes, as having more females to help with the young helped the group overall. We became more interdependent as specialization increased.
i would say that it is an economic term as well as a biology term. you could say ants in an anthill are interdependent on each other, each being specialized for some function. Some are soldiers, some are foragers, some take care of the queen and some repair the nest. Human society has evolved to be a similar interdependent society, although we are many times more complex. In fact, it is likely that globalization will increase the rate at which we are interdependent on one another. Every global region is starting to become more "oriented" towards a particular economic outlet. For example, India in IT tech, China in manufacturing, south america in food production, etc. Specialization is no longer happening only on a personal or regional (intercity) scale, but now on a global scale. Although, some politicians say that this model does "put all the eggs in one basket", and are trying to create more mixed economies in their countries.

Cutting Down on Air Pollution Has Other Impacts

In Pennsylvania a coal-fired power plant is owned by a company, Allegheny Energy, and was for years seen responsible for letting way too much air pollution out of its smoke stacks. Five states, including New York had sued the company on allegations that its pollution is causing respiratory disease and acid rain throughout the region. So three years ago in an attempt to silence complainers the energy company installed scrubbers which are devices that spray water through the smoke being emitted through the smoke stacks. The devices saved the air 150,000 tons of air pollution a year. The problem with this great cut in air pollution came at a cost to the local water supply. The company had to dispose of this waste water it was producing from the new scrubbers. The company decides to irresponsibly dumb all of this waste water into the nearby Monongahela River. Now that the company has cleaned up its act with air pollution, it is simply switching to poisoning the nearby people with water pollution now. This river provides 350,000 people with drinking water, and is now polluted with poison. The government is now limiting emissions of power plants into the air but according to this New York Times article only about 1 in 43 power plants nationwide are restricted on how much waste they can dump into the nearby waterways. In order for these power plants to continue to run, scientists must work together with environmentalists to find a responsible way to dispose of all of this water produced by these scrubbers that does not include dumping into nearby water systems. There must be a way to chemically clean out all of the toxic chemicals in this water before it is dumped. Even better, how about we invest our time and money into renewable energy plants, so that this is not even a problem. Coal and Oil fueled power plants pose nothing but health risks and environmental problems.
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/13/us/13water.html?ref=earth

Interdependence

I wanted to talk a little about interdependence economically before we get into it during class. You know how some people talk about specializing in one specific thing and then others talk about not putting all your eggs in one basket, well which is it? Interdependence has to do with being dependent on others for some needs. We obviously can’t solely produce everything we need, so in order to fix this we need interdependence. The good thing about interdependence is it allows us to sample things from all parts of the county, state, country and even world. Going back to the specialization interdependence allows us to proceed in doing what were good at. For one instance a farmer growing corn. It would not be a smart idea for a farmer to try and grow rice when the part of the world he lives in doesn’t produce rice very well. That way the farmer could specialize in growing corn, sell it and buy the amount of rice he would consume. Interdependence expands our markets and allows us to import as well as export. But there are also some things bad about interdependence. Sometimes interdependence creates too much of a dependence, kind of like putting all your eggs in one basket. With being dependent on some things it holds us back from allowing us to specialize in certain things. Interdependence is more of an economic term than a biology term but for what we discuss it allows us to see the root of the matter.

Immigration and the Workforce

After working in kitchens cooking peoples food in restaurants for 5 years I have come across many illegal immigrants. Working with these illegal immigrants allowed me to experience their point of view on how they live. First of all just because someone is “Mexican” that does not mean they are a good worker. Illegal immigrants does not mean “hard worker”. Many of these illegal immigrants work just as hard as the average American, they just seem to have the worst jobs. Particularly that is true but most of these illegal immigrants cannot speak English fluently, that’s why they’re not getting the best jobs. In order to be able to perform a job you have to be fit for the job. That’s also the reason why many of these illegal immigrants are the dishwashers simply because it is a job that needs to be done and does not require much skills or even knowledge. It’s a funny concept because this is what actually makes up America. I couldn’t even begin to tell you how many illegal immigrants are working in New York City illegally. This does not mean that these illegal immigrants took our jobs it simply defines American jobs.

Michelle Obama’s Plea for Education

After watching Michelle Obama’s Plea for Education at http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/lang/eng/michelle_obama.html I gained more respect for our First Lady of the United States. Although I may not be the biggest Obama enthusiast my passion for how Michelle feels about education is dead on. Sometimes people don’t realize how much a speech like this can have an affect on people. Fortunately I had the opportunity to see Colin Powell speak here at SUNY Albany this fall. After hearing such influential words from such a high end person, personally my beliefs were stimulated and I was encouraged and more motivated just by hearing him speak. I think it was great how Michelle spoke about her past and gave a little history about herself as well as her family. Most of us in this world were not born with everything and to hear how far a person has made it with having nothing, personally is very touching. It is very important for Michelle as well as speakers similar to her (like Colin Powell) to continue these speeches in order to encourage those listeners. Education is too important to fail to appreciate and seeing these people make a difference is really great.

why we need grandmothers

Grandmother's are always part of family. Some think after they get old, they are good for noting and just throw them in the nursing homes or other places so they can get rid of them. From where i came from,India, we always respect them and my parents always take care of them too. Even after my parents moved to US, my mom calls my grandma everyday and make sure she's doing good. I know in my extended family, if one family has a new born baby, they call their parents and try to bring them to US. I don't know if they doing it because they love them or because they don't want to pay for the baby sitters. Another topic that was interesting to me was when we talked about our neighbors. To me, from my own experience, neighbors in India are part of your family too. I had so many friends in India and most of them were my neighbors. My parents always let me hang out with them till late. They were never worried about me after knowing that i am at my neighbor's place. But here, they always get worried if they don't see me at house. I guess it is just the culture.

Immigration

What we talked in class about immigrants is absolutely right. Without immigrants US wouldn't be the fastest developed country in the world. If we look around, the nurses and doctors in every hospitals are Asians. Obama banned migration of nurses from India to work in US till 2010. Next to my house there are a lot of Hispanic people who just stand there and wait for someone to ask them to work. They are more than happy to do it because they are illegal immigrants. They know those are the only kind of jobs they can get and they are okay with it. When i used to work in a store, most of my co-workers were illegal aliens. I always wonder how they gonna live rest of their lives just by working there. But if we think about it, because of them our country grew faster. Who else is gonna do those kind of jobs but illegal aliens.

Bipedalism

Yesterday's lecture was the most interesting lecture to me so far because i like hearing about animals and the discussion we had yesterday was knowledgeable too. I found it interesting every time we talk about grooming the first animal comes to our mind are monkey's. I have seen monkey's grooming each other when i was in India. Pretty much what we talked about in class yesterday, i learned from different classes like ant 110,ant 211 and ant 319. In ant 110,we learn about Bipedalism and brain development. There are disadvantages of being Bipedal too. For example predators can see the prey easily if they are bipedal. I always thought that having a bigger brain is good but after knowing that it requires more energy proved me wrong.

Moral justification

This topic hits home to me, and when we were talking about this during class yesterday the only thing I could thing of was the year 1984, even though I wasn't born, it stil had a huge impact on me and my family. From June 3rd to June 6th 1984, the Indian soliders, under the command of Indira Ghandi, marched into the Golden temple (a holy place for Sikhs) in Punjab to remove the Sikhs from Punjab. This military operation led to the deaths of innocent men women and children that were at this holy place for a pilgrimage. Operation Bluestar, as this was called, was included in the Top 10 Political Disgraces by India Today magazine (Wikipedia).
Several months after this destruction,"Indira Gandhi was assassinated in the garden of her residence in Delhi. Two of the Indian prime minister's security guards, both Sikhs, shot her as she walked towards an early morning interview with Peter Ustinov, who was filming a British television documentary".(http://networkedblogs.com/p17716462) In this Article, you can see the people that are destroying the shops and factories of Sikhs, don't think they are doing anything wrong. Also in this article Rajiv Gandhi, Indira's son, explained the riots after the death of this mother as "When a great tree falls, the earth shakes,".
The body guards that killed Indira Gandhi justified their actions because she gave the order to kill men Sikhs inside their holy land. Also Rajiv Gandhi justified the riots after the death of this mother as something that had to happen because they Sikhs killed the Indian Prime minister. Both sides are morally justified, and both parties and happy with their actions.

Do you know where your children are?

During our class discussion yesterday, everything that we talked about somehow I could relate it to when I was in India and how the points that were being made in class were something that I witnessed there. One thing that stood out was the point about why we need grandmothers? We discussed in class that we need our elderly to be around even after their reproductive age to pass on their wisdom, to help with the young children so the parents can provide food, etc. When I was in India I was living with my extended family, and the mothers would leave their children at home with the grandmothers and go to the shops to buy groceries, and also the grandmothers helped them with new remedies for a minor sickness and also with recipes. Another thing that was on the slide was that we need to have siblings and also neighbors. I found it odd that the word neighbors was up there also. I was thinking about my neighbors and how I barely know any of them. But, when I thought about my experience in India, it made sense. I saw children as young as 2 years old, roaming the streets during the day, and going to the nearest house to have food when they are hungry or if they need anything. These kids didn't go back home every time they needed something, and I always used to ask them where they lived, and they said on the other side of the town. I was kind of angry at their parents, because these children were allowed to go out of the house without any adult supervision, and I always had to be watched by my parents in the U.S. even if I was playing in my driveway. I realized that it was a cultural difference and that whenever a new baby is born in the town, the whole town knows about it, and everyone knows about each and every child on the streets. It's kind of like the saying it takes a whole village to raise a child.

You’re a feminist and you don’t even know it

First, I have to insist that I try to dismantle the stereotype of the feminist, as a bra burning, man hating, and butch-dyke! Feminists, men and women, through the centuries have tried to abolish social, class and sex discrimination. Therefore, you’re a feminist if you believe that racism is wrong and should be abolished, if you think discrimination based on sex and class should be dismantled, and you’re a feminist if you think you should have a voice in economic and political outcomes, and you don’t. Now that you know, you’re a feminist it’s important to lay down a common ground in which we can build.
“The defined norm is a standard of ’rightness’ against which all others are judged, backed by institutional power, economic power, and both institutional and individual violence”(The Common Elements of Oppression, Q Diamond) Currently the defined norms are white, able-bodied young, Christian males and any deviation from this is considered the “other”. In addition, any deviation from the norm, lack institutional power and therefore are oppressed. Oppression constitutes many elements like economic power, privileges, violence and the threat of violence, invisibility, distortion of events, stereotyping, internalized oppression, isolation, assimilation and tokenism.
There are countless connections to Feminism and our class, People and Resources; unfortunately, no one person has blatantly made those connections. For example, one connection would refer to Andrew Szasz’s book Shopping Our Way to Safety. He makes clear-cut statements about only affluent people being able to purge their lifestyles of toxicities. People of middle and lower incomes cannot do such; therefore, they suffer more, from toxic exposure, cancer, etc. Furthermore, lower-income people, predominantly people of color, do not have a voice to fight these wrongs, in the political arena. I’m speculating when I state, that if white affluent families started to rally against the toxicities in bottle water, more people would listen (probably white men) but the same would not happen for families of color. There is evidence to support this.
I have read several articles and novels and watched a documentary, pertaining to Environmental Racism and Environmental Justice. What I took from it is that many people of color and low-income families suffer unspeakable horrors when they have no choice but to live near nuclear waste facilities and industrial complexes that are known to emit toxins in the environmental surroundings, which now include humans as neighboring inhabitants. These facilities do not exist in white-affluent-neighborhoods but in towns and communities, where the majorities are people of color. For example “Cancer Alley” which runs along the Mississippi in the river areas of Louisiana. Several studies show that cancer is more prevalent there then in any area of the U.S. and if you get an opportunity to watch a documentary on it, it’s well worth the eye opening experience. People, children and adults, suffer horribly and die so frequently from cancer, that a group of children, on the documentary, were playing with dolls, and took off Barbie’s leg. When asked about it they said Barbie lost her leg to cancer and she’s at her funeral!
Another serious connection is when, as a class, we discuss population issues and possible solutions to controlling it. No one really asks who will suffer more, who will be inflicted the most and who will be told to stop reproducing? Historically, marginalized women have been blamed for over reproduction and have been made to suffer for it. Articles I’ve read expose the fight for reproductive freedom and explore racism and the dilemmas around limiting population growth. Some of the articles are Racism, Birth Control and Reproductive Rights (Davis) and In Search of a Community, Three Tales of Pregnancy Loss (Layne) they pertain to marginalized women who were forced to stop reproducing without consent. One story includes a woman bringing her two teenage daughters to receive birth control, and due to a lack of informed consent, the mother signed away her daughters’ reproductive ability and they ended up having hysterectomies. Other stories tell of women of color, specifically Hispanic women, being subjected to experimental birth control, leading to in-fertilization and death. The stories seem outrageous but they’re all true.
There are too many accounts of oppression to address here, they are endless, but when we discuss solutions it’s so important to keep in the forefront of our minds and ask ourselves “who will benefit the greatest and who will suffer the most and why?”

Human Evolution Introduction

Today's lecture was rather interesting because it correlated with the topics of my Human Growth and Development class (AANT 319). I believe that we can relate to primates in a similiar manner as to how they "groom" or nurture one another. In ant319 we discussed primate traits and the implications of humans. Those discussed were: Large brain for body size for mammals, long lifespan, invasive placention, live in social group, excellent vision-eyes forward, first digits opposable (can grasp), fingernails (homologous with claws), clavicle. This was just interesting to me because the features that are given to us help us in our nutrition in the sense that us as humans with fingers, can grasp onto food. Lions have the strength and power to be predators to survive and so on. This related to air because in development class we also spoke about how our surroundings, including our environment can have a vast effect on our health. In some countries, such as India or china, people are more petite because of the diet they are offered, where starch is a primary part of the diet; vs the US where we are more obese due to our "fast food diets". I believe the air has much to do with this. In the air we can find pollution and depending on where we come from, and how readily the sun and clean environement is to us, will have an effect on the crops we grow, and more or less what can be grown. It concludes back to how all animals or living things for that matter adapt to our surroundings and we learn to cope with what's around us and advance with it.

Innovation Requires Reward It Seems

In order for people to want something, it most likely will give them a direct benefit, right away. The problem with energy innovation and the development of clean technologies is that people are not motivated. Although most educated people know that clean energy technologies are necessary for the future of our planet, nobody seems overly motivated to do anything about it. This little problem can be solved by our government. They must begin to give rewards to companies or inventors who can come up with new energy technologies. According to Christine Parthemore, a researcher on energy and environmental security issues, she believes increasing the demand for new energy sources by both the government and citizens would stimulate economic growth and create many new jobs. According to her article, "By the U.S. government’s own calculations, producing 20 percent of the nation’s energy with wind power by 2030 could directly create at least 150,000 new jobs." Imagine the potential for new jobs if we can push that 20 percent to 50 or 75 percent. We must push that percentage to 100! Oil fields will begin to run dry soon pushing the prices of gasoline higher and higher at which point it would be more beneficial for the government and us as citizens to demand a change to sustainable energy resources. Parthemore goes on to state in her article that the Pentagon is currently hosting a competition for which it is offering a prize. 169 teams entered ranging from large companies to small companies to two brothers trying to invent in their garage. The leveraging of the U.S. government to demand new technologies clearly will have a great impact on changing our future.

Source:http://www.ajc.com/services/content/printedition/2008/11/05/parthemoreed.html

It goes hand in hand

In class someone mentioned the upper class eliminates safe water and food from the lower class and they believe the upper class feels as though they have a sense of entitlement to push others out of safety.  But we fail to realize that the upper class provide for the lower class also.  Some one mentioned that we have the option to boycott buying bottle water and things of that nature but fail to realize the impact that would have on people.  Without the upper and middle class there would be no jobs for the lower class.  Though this idea that it eliminates safe water and food from the lower class it also adds job and income to the lower class.  Many people who work in these factories that bottle and import the water are people who probably couldn't afford to buy bottle water on a daily basis especially those such as Smart water and fiji water.  If in fact the consumers of this product were in fact to boycott these companies, maybe for environmental reason it would hurt many economically because there would be less jobs available especially in the factory. Though it would hurt the people on top, it wouldn't hurt them as much as those on the bottom.  Again the question is can i buy my way to safety to save my self?  And the answer is usually at the cost of other people and our environment, but it is also at the benefit of other people.  Though we as Americans especially live a "luxurious" life and it is costly to our environment, we fail to realize how much these luxuries add to not only our economy but to individuals incomes.

Give thanks, recycle!

With thanksgiving right around the corner, all Americans should be thankful for what they are fortunate enough to have; and realize that the everyday luxuries we take for granted are having devastating impacts on the health of our planet and our own personal health. It is crucial that we spread awareness of the impact that our everyday actions have on this planet, and hopefully convince people to decrease their energy consumption. Little things that individuals can keep in mind will add up if enough people are persuaded. Unplugging electronics when not in use will save wasted electricity, and reusing and recycling bottles are some small things that every American can participate in. Personally I’ve taken the initiative in my suite to make sure all plastics are recycled and power strips are unplugged at nighttime.
The American lifestyle has evolved into one of mass consumption. Its blatantly obvious just by walking around a town. Advertisements tell us that we aren’t happy because we aren’t eating a cheeseburger or taco or because our iphones don’t have the latest 3g network so we need a new one. Bottled water is a luxury that so many Americans enjoy, we spend 10 billion dollars a year on it. I personally find this number outrageous. If everyone bought a brita water filter and their own water bottle, the amount of energy saved would be enormous. Not only would we be saving energy but cutting down on polluting our planet as well. Some companies have started giving incentives for employees who bring in their reusable water bottle or show other ways to cut back on energy consumption which I find to be a great idea. I think that more incentives should be given on the local level to expand on these ideas.
The amount of plastic bottles wasted and not recycled from my suite alone this semester is probably enough to start its own landfill; I would not be surprised if this was the case for many other suites on campus. Recycling is a sure way to decrease energy consumption and pollution, but we need people to realize the importance of doing so. One possible ideas for campuses across the country is to see who’s students can recycle the most plastic. Turning it into a competition may increase awareness and participation, and some sort of reward would give the school a sense of accomplishment. Recycling isn’t fun and it takes some conscious effort to sort trash, so people typically wont do it on their own.
So on this thanksgiving, give thanks by recycling!

Paradox-Veteran's Day

According to Jevons it is in regards to coal consumption and efficiency improvements in steam engines, believing that economical use of fuel is equal to diminished consumption, and in fact it is the opposite.In conservation, energy economics and green marketing it refers to the behavioral or other systematic responses to the introduction of new technologies, or other measures taken to reduce resource use.  These responses tend to offset the beneficial effects of the new technology or other measures taken.  The rebound effect is generally expressed as a ratio of the lost benefit compared to the expected environmental benefit when holding consumption constant.  In Jevons paradox the actual resource savings are negative, the rebound effect is higher than 100%, this is also known as ‘back-fire’. An example is when the computer was invented there was a belief there would be less use of paper but in fact the use of using paper to print increased drastically.  Also an increase in battery storage technology and efficiency improvements in production leads to an explosion of digital technologies increasing the demand for more energy and resources.

 What would happen if consumers stop spending so much?  There is a great emphasis on consumer spending because it is important to keep the economy going and also it controls the supply and demand of products.  Consumer spending is necessary to preserve the economic cycle.  There will soon be an economy based on debt peonage, with a great surplus and a lack of incoming.  There can be a complete collapse which also affects our technological advances, and resulting in the US losing its title as a powerhouse country.

 In Adam Curtis documentary Century of the self  he mentions the concept “sea of selves”.  I believe by this he means now people are so competitive and concerned with themselves and only helping themselves that they forget what it means to be a community.  Especially in the corporate world where people continuously step on others toes to get to the top they often forget everyone else or their concerns, and never realize they may need those people once they get to the top.  It’s as though we have conformed to this lifestyle of zombies in suits and we never realize they people around us, or those “below” us.

F.G. Bailey mentions there are 5 aspects of the human life and they include tactical, moral, silly, civic, and divine.  As for civic he believes this is what brings people together, and what we are suppose to do as our existence on this earth.  It is what makes us all the same, but yet and still different.  The divine is the higher power, and the belief that our actions affect not only us and our lifestyles, but those that surround us and everyone else.  It sets our responsibility for our actions at a higher level.  Not only do we have to answer to ourselves but to a higher power.  But these are both needed to keep stability and control in a society.

This essay was rather interestingly true and because of it truth it also frightens and saddens me.  When mentioning the “sea of selves” concept it scares me that the society we live in is very self-centered and we all live in this box as to where we believe life to be.  The sense of family and community has lost its meaning and we have become a society of soldiers where we take orders from machines and believe that we are supposed to live luxuriously at the cost of the “little people”.  We’ve lost this sense of responsibility as a country, as America and continue to blame others and make others suffer the consequences.  Because corporate America is such an important aspect to us Americans, we never realize what we’ve become, people on wall street look like a sea of blue suits and zombies, and though we are all for self there lacks individualism.  It makes me question what have we turned into? And what has made us that way?  We are more concerned with the tactical and moral aspect of life rather than the civic and divine.  And I believe it starts from childhood when we are taught that we are wrong for being different, or just the idea of being wrong continues to separate us, but from what? Our level of intelligence? And whose to say what makes things right and wrong, because they are far from the normal.  We have simply become selfish zombies.

 Veterans day is a day we celebrate those who have served our country.  I believe this article was presented to us on Veteran’s day because of the idea of war and where war stem’s from.  War is based upon the fear of losing power and status, and the idea of “self-interest”.  We no longer look to our neighboring countries for help and assistance but rather fear that they may be ahead of us, or become more powerful.  Also with the economic aspect and the need of the consumer market.  Because war is very expensive to a country we need people to continue to buy so we don’t fall into a greater debt especially in time of warfare when the economy usually falls into a slum.  Hence, why many stores during veteran’s day conduct major sales to encourage people to continue to buy. And as for the soldier they are fighting for us all not for themselves.  They’ve lost the sense of just self and understand their responsibility as a person and the power they hold and how it affects not only them, but the country as a whole.

Jevons’ Paradox

The Spector of Jevons’ Paradox is an essay in which explains how one should save themselves. It states that it should not be done by stopping everythin you’re doing but by doing the same things but with less energy efficient products. This is explained through whats cailed the Rebound Effect. He states that It is a confusion of ideas to suppose that economical use of fuel is equivalent to diminished consumption. Two examples of this are gas and fuel. With this said there is much emphasis on consumer spending. He states that “The vast bureaucracy of institutional, governmental and corporate paper pushers
will become an unaffordable luxury. The risk of systemic collapse is very real for a
complex social system predicated on abundant energy. In this light, the drive for
improvements in resource efficiencies can be seen as a critical objective for state security
and preservation of the system of production. In an economic system that requires the
constant externalization of its true operating costs to sustain itself, every measurable
increase in resource efficiency will serve to perpetuate this "desires-based" economy.” Because there is a demand to increase the quality of life this makes us spend more and keep on spending. If we were to stop spending, then our “quality” of life would decrease. Javons’ Paradox also talks about the sea of "selves" and how our steadfast refusal to surrender illusions of freedom for the sake of collective survival and well-being are conditioning us to fail. This makes us feel that we would have to go back to civilizations before to even come close to saving ourselves.
Jevons’ Paradox states that there are five aspects of the human tactical, moral, silly, civic and divine. These are aspects which govern the dynamics within social groupings. Bailey's analyzes the Civic and Devine which he feels these are the center of social life, its reason to be. He states “The civic alludes to the set of rights, obligations and responsibilities that bind the collective to the individual and vice versa. The divine alludes to the notion of something greater than one's self and that the activities of the collective are significant in relation to the world.”
I liked the essay because it helps explain the pros and cons of saving ones self. While many people think it’s either one way or no way he explains that doing the same things but with less energy efficient is the right way to do it. This is somewhat a tribute to Veteran’s Day because it shows how they are fighting for us and for the “oil” we need to maintain our spending habits and maintain our quality of life.

Growth, Economy, and its Effects

The rebound effect can be defined as "the behavioral or other systemic responses to the introduction of new technologies, or other measures taken to reduce resource use". The Jevon's paradox states that when technology advances, it increases the efficiency of a certain resource that is used, wich leads to an increase in the consumption rate of that resource. One example that helps us simply understand Jevon's paradox; lets say a woman decides to find an alternative to getting to work because gas prices have risen. She decides to car pool and charge people. She ends up spending a total of $20 in gas now that she has found a way to be efficient versus $100 when she commuted a week. She decided that because this was so convienent then she wasn't going to go back, even if gas prices fell because she enjoyed the company of the other people, she felt that her alternative was better for the environment, and last but not least she saved money so she could have more to spend on her wants versus her needs. This goes to show that in result, even though the woman has reduced her fuel cost by more than 50%, she has more money to buy things of her wants with higher gas prices then she did with the low gas prices. Someone who believed in this paradox would then ask why she is conserving the gas because they would think the conservation in gas would lead to a increase in the amount of consumption.To conserve oil would only lead to other spending on products that she wanted that just might be made from oil that she is trying to conserve, therefore you don't save anything at all
Another example of this would be "Household appliances provide the best example that efficiency gains really do stick. Take refrigerators (which can use as much as 14 percent of a household's total energy). Until the late 1970s, the average size of our refrigerators increased steadily and then began leveling off. But, during the same period, the energy those refrigerators used started to decline rapidly. Today's Energy Star refrigerators are 40 percent more efficient than those sold even seven years ago. After all, there is a maximum size to the refrigerator you can easily put in a kitchen and a limit to the number of refrigerators you need in your house. In short, improvements in efficiency have greatly outpaced our need for more and larger storage spaces."
This leads into the why there is so much emphasis on consumer spending. Consumer spending runs the economy, and is the biggest part of the big picture of our economy, therefore it is very crucial. Without it, the values of businesses would decrease, especially small businesses would suffer. If nothing is being bought the economy would be put on old and would stop industrializing and there would be an excess of inventory due to production decreasing; as well as the stock market would go down and crash.
The sea of selves just states how we fear the harms that the economy can give to us, finacially and health wise although we don'd tend to do much to care. We care about ourselves and isolate ourselves and feel that we are "saving" ourselves, but in reality it is making things worse because other important aspects are being ignored.
Bailey's notion of the civic and the divine, according to Jevon, is "Bailey's analysis, any successful and dynamic community, organization or collective human endeavor must place the elements of the civic and the divine at the center of its social life, its reason to be. These are the social aspects of our personalities. The civic alludes to the set of rights, obligations and responsibilities that bind the collective to the individual and vice versa. The divine alludes to the notion of something greater than one's self and that the activities of the collective are significant in relation to the world."
I really thought this essay by Jeff Dardozzi was interesting because it had many good view points. It showed me that it really depends on the situation and brought up good and bad points about how we behave as both consumers and conservers as well as producers.
This was due by Veteran's Day because it shows us that the veterans are fighting for our rights, and for us..and goes with the whole aspect of society and whether they're concerns are within oneself or the actual economy.

jevor's paradox

The jevor's paradox states that when we try to improve efficiency's, such as gas mileage or heating costs, we we decrease the demand for energy resources and increase the consumption of that resource. Word processing and highway improvements are the examples of these paradox. Before the invention of computers and printers, people used papers to have a type written document but after the invention of printers noone uses it no more. Same thing with highways too. Increase in the improvement of highways leads to an increase of traffic congestion and housing development. There was so much emphasis on consumer spending is because if the consumers don's spend a lot of money, there wouldn't be enough for the rebound. Sea of selves means that people use to care about the society before and nobody cares cares about it. Everybody cares about themselves now. Bailey's nation of civic and divine states that civic sets the responsibilities , rights and obligations a person needs to follow while divine sets the notion of something greater than yourself but about others too. i think jeff dardozzi's essay was good in a way that he explains everything people can understand how society changed from the past. The reason why it is due on veteran's day is because veteran's forget about themselves and fight for their nations. So just like that in the article its says that we need to shop around not just thinking about ourselves but about our society too.

Jevon's Paradox... Vetern's day Sales

According to Jevons’s paradox, when we increase the efficiency of the use of a resource, we decrease the demand for that resource, but in the long run the lower demand reduces price. This lowering in price then causes an increase in demand, and is this resource is energy then it is referred to Rebound effect. One example that I found was: “Let’s magically double the average fuel economy of America’s cars and trucks. Gasoline demand would drop immediately by 50%. This would affect the supply-demand equilibrium of gasoline, reducing its price significantly. However, with dramatically lower gas prices, many people would choose to drive more than they had in the past—this is the “rebound,” where some of the energy savings provided by gains in efficiency are negated by the corresponding effect on energy prices. Clearly, a 50% drop in gas prices won’t result in the average American doubling their driving, as would be required to completely negate the efficiency gains in this scenario.” http://www.theoildrum.com/node/2499
Another example I found in the article by jeff dardozzi’s Jevon’s,paradox on ERes. " improvements in efficiencies, such as with gas mileage or heating costs, invariably that savings has two effects. First, it decreases demand for an energy resource, which reduces the price of the resource. This then reveals a new layer of demand that, in turn, increases consumption of that resource.

There is so much emphasis on consumer spending because without the consumers there wouldn’t be a rebound effect. If consumers stop spending so much, then the decrease in price would result in the loss of the company producing the good or providing the service.

Sea of selves is what our society has become as described by filmmaker Adam Curtis.

This sea of selves means that everyone has become so selfish and that the corporate

world has become the survival of the fittest. The government and the corporate world

isn't thinking about the citizens and finding ways to help be a better nation. They

are looking ways to make themselves better off.



Bailey's nation of the civic and divine are the social aspects of our personalities. The civic alludes to

the set of rights, obligations and responsibilities that bind the

collective to the individual and vice versa. The divine alludes to the

notion of something greater than one's self and that the activities of the

collective are significant in relation to the world. jeff dardozzi’s

Jevon’s paradox on ERes. Jeff Dardozzi did a good job explaining the history of the paradox and how it effects the world today is so many different ways.

He mentions the topic of social norms, consumer demand and other nations that are on the rise of this demand.



Why this assignment due on Veteran's day?

I thought about it and read some blogs, I agree with with S. Soehl, and that it is ironic that the American public doesn't really understand the meaning of Vetern's day. 

And to them it is only another holiday that there is a sale and they can spend their money and purchase the good that they need.