danielle2

Global Warming

Global Warming IS Happening Points:

   Evidence can be seen throughout the world.  Glaciers are melting in South America and Africa, among other places.  The poles are being hit hard.  The levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere directly correspond with the temperature of earth. 

Global Warming Is OVER-HYPED Points:

Climates have changed before.  Ice ages ended without human activity, and the temperatures definitely changed greatly then.  Within the last two thousand years, warmer climate changes had occured BEFORE the Industrial Revolution.  Since the rise of 1 degree, Earth's living standards and life expectancies improved and increased.  Hardly a premonition for  an apocolyptic fate, eh?

Opinions:

I think it's nice to finally hear a different side of Global Warming.  All I have ever been exposed to at school is the "Heck yes it's happening and we're all going to DIIIIIIIIIE!" theory, and I'm one of those people who like to learn both sides before I have a real opinion.  Call me crazy.

Alright, so now, knowing what I know, I'm going to make a hard-core statement.

I believe that the climate is changing, but that it's not necessarily Global Warming.  It's kind of an oxymoron at first impression, but let me explain.

I think the world is getting warmer, yeah, but I believe it's natural, and that we can't really do anything to stop it.  It's going to happen, and I bet something good will come out of it.  Something.  So far, so good, right?

And, yes, I know that Earth's CO2 production is crazy outrageous, and we should monitor and very strictly cut down on it.  But I don't necessarily believe that it's causing global warming.  A volcano emits more CO2 into the atmosphere than we do.  And we can't help that.  But pollution is bad, and it should be stopped, even if it's not necessary for the world to quit flip-flopping temperatures. 

And that's where I stand on things.

Today during second and third hour a speaker from the Creative Center of Omaha was in the art room.

Know about it?

Yeah I guess not too many people did.  Any hobbidy who...

 So, I do believe his name was Jeremy, and he showed a rather entertaining few clips about the local college.

Sara would beg to differ on that 'entertaining' note. But I love her anyway...

So, anyway, I figured I'd do an Individual Blog about it.  Because, as we all know by now, that's how I roll.

The Creative Center is located in Omaha, as I'm hoping you've realized by now.  It's a college whose main focus is Graphic Design.  Killer.  Many of the students have won awards, and according to the speaker, about 30 are won per year.  The Hall Of Fame there is a shiny corridor indeed.

 Speaking of shiny, brand spankin' new Macs are included in the enrollment fees.  Along with such awesome packages as Photoshop CS3 (a pacakge I recently downloaded by the way) and Flash, an animation program.  I don't know about you guys, but I find navigating Macs EXTREMELY difficult after all these years with a Windows PC. 

One of the main focuses of the school is getting the idea from in the ol' noggin onto paper.  A fine purpose indeed.  But one of the things that was mentioned quite frequently by the speaker, was that Graphic Design is everywhere.  On the street corner, on billboards, on the shoes you wear.  It was crazy. 

 Needless to say, I requested more information about the college, because it sounded pretty awesome, and I'd like to keep my options open.  I guess if you really want to find out more about the school, I'd talk to Mr. Renkly (eh hem... the art teacher) or visit the website.  Here:  http://www.thecreativecenter.com

* FYI:  All art in this blog is from the Student Art Gallery on the website *cough* ... Check it out... *cough*

With our new unit of Global Warming, I can pretty much guarantee that eventually the topic of alternative energy resources is going to come up.  Last year, for science, the group of Luke, Adam, and I covered Nuclear Energy.  May I just start off by saying that nuclear energy is not the way to go, even if it means not relying on the Middle East and Venezuela for oil.  Now, let me explain why.

Thermal Pollution.

Ironically, we talked about this in science this year.  Or at least we did in Fah, I don't know about Tucker.  ANYWAY... In the cooling towers of a nuclear plant, water is used to cool the ____.  After the water is nice and hot, it's usually dumped back into streams, lakes, rivers, the like.  No, the water is not ‘dirty' or ‘contaminated'.  But it's still pollution.  Why?  Because that water raises the temperature in the body of water by several degrees.  No big deal, right?  Wrong.  Even only a few degrees difference makes a huge impact on plant life in the ecosystem.  Perhaps... killing off a few subspecies?  And then what?  The food chain may start with the plants, and no plants no small fish, no small fish, no big fish... What ends up happening?  Poof.  No more lil' fishies.  And that, my friends, is why it's pollution.

High Risk.

Anyway remember Chernobyl?  Well, probably not, because it was a while ago.  But there was a huge accident over in a nuclear plant over in the Soviet Union, I do believe, and it caused cancer and also birth defect.  It's easy for some chemicals to become unstable, and let's face it, we're human.  Mistakes happen.  But if it happened once, who's to say it won't happen again?  There are high risks for the people who work at nuclear power plants as well, because let's face it, they're exposed to those chemicals.  Ah dang.

Terrorist Opportunity.

I think I remember Mr. Bruns saying there was an attack suspected to occur at a nucler power plant in... Illinois? ... I think so.  So anyway,  it's giving terrorists an opportunity.  Why suicide attack an airport when you could bomb a nuclear power plant, not kill yourself, and kill nearly four times as many people as you could've at the air port?  Yeah.  Silli question.  I know.  And really, it's kind of a balanced equation.  Either depend on the Middle East for oil and have "minor" (I use that term lightly, of course) or have nuclear power plants and have huge, ghastly attacks on those that kill more people.  Mmmhmm... Not cool.

So, basically, what I'm trying to say is that there are more con's when it comes to Nuclear Energy than pro's. The United States needs a more reliable and renewable energy source, but nuclear is not the answer.  It's pretty much the only energy source no one voted for in Science last year.  And if they did vote for it, chances are they were joking around.  Or... they didn't pay attention.  May I suggest ethanol, hydropower, or windpower.  All of them are easily replaceable resources that America has plenty of. And aside from the initial cost, are very cheap (and better)  alternatives.  Thank ya!

-Danielle

Alrighty, here's my summarization of the article about The Millennium Development Goals Report 2007.

- sub-Saharan Africa is not really on the way to accomplish the goals that have been set

- there is still extreme poverty

- however, things are getting better over there

- there is a higher education rate

- things have improved for women, though they're still sub-par

- child mortality rates have dropped from 185 per 1,000 live births in 1990 to 166 per 1,000 in 2005.  I assume from the article that it is a goal to have less children being born in developing countries, so that more children can have a stable environment.

- measles cases and deaths have dropped 75% since 1999, so that's good news.

- The number of people who died from AIDS increased, as well as people suffering from advanced HIV.  :(

- A low amount of people had access to sanitary water.

- crime rates are dropping, most governments are becoming more democratic, and the economy of the general region is becoming stronger

- The fees for education and medical assisstance are no longer existant in some countries

- Malaria rates have dropped thanks to such programs as Red Cross and Unicef

Eh hem... some of the goals (direct C.A.P.):

    So, my feelings about this report.  Well, there's always that feeling that Africa needs to step aboard the developed country train, but at the same time there was a twinge of guilt.  I mean, it's going to take a while for some of these goals to be accomplished, and that there really should be more done to help.  It's not an overnight fix, and it may take some time before everything gets fixed.

It's always depressing to hear about countries worse off than us.  It's a shame to hear how many people don't have access to clean water and sanitation facilities.  This report sort of echoes the People Bomb movie, making me feel all guilty and whatnot.  But it's nice to know that things aren't completely loss over in Africa.  I mean, even though things aren't perfect yet, they're working for it.  And I respect and encourage that.  AIDS... wow.  A lot of deaths.  I'd really like to know how this disease started, and why there's been such an... outbreak.  I mean, this is like the Black Death of the new millenium.  Or at least, so far...  I sense a new blog entry coming on. 

There's a website out there that I bet none of you have heard of.  Which is a shame, because I assure you, it's simply awesome.  deviantART.com is one of my favorite websites of all time.  And I think it's about time it got a bit more attention around HCHS.

Well, let's say you want a drawing of a cat for an Art project or something.   You search for 'drawing of cat' on google and wind up with a million and one hits and NONE OF THEM were what you were looking for.  Either they look like poo on a hot afternoon, or they don't have a white background, or some lame reason like that.  That's where deviantART comes in.  It's a community for artists, writers, web designers, and magical unicorns.  There are currently over 45 MILLION deviations and more than 3 MILLION deviants (one of which is me). 

Lol... Above Image By Me.  

I use the website a lot.  For resources, and admittedly a little bit of nerdy roleplaying every now and again on the forums.  I've uploaded almost 20 deviations (which isn't much... considering some of my friends on there have over 500) and have only about 77 pageviews as of today.  But whatever!  Care to visit me?

http://www.daniellehernandez.deviantart.com

I'm gonna have to warn you that a lot of my drawings on there are for a super nerdy petsite.  Don't go hating.  I can admit to being a computer geek.  CAN YOU!?

Most of the images I've used in my previous blog entries have been from deviantART.  And even the ones I'm using now.

Bored?  Search for Emo Barbie.  Guaranteed to amuse and induce laughter.

So, anyway, check out the website.  It's awesome, and it rocks my nerdy socks.  If you're an aspiring artist, it's a haven.  Tell me what you think of my gallery there if you really feel like it.  And if you care to see some of the REALLY nerdy webpages I've made for that, let me know, and I'll give you a few links.